“I AM NO FRIEND TO MYSTERY & STATE SECRETS”: SCARCE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF WASHINGTON’S OFFICIAL LETTERS, 1795, PUBLISHED THE SAME YEAR AS THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

WASHINGTON, George. Official Letters to the Honorable American Congress. Written, during the War between the United Colonies and Great Britain, By His Excellency, George Washington. London: Cadell Junior and Davies, et al., 1795. Two volumes bound as one. Thick octavo, mid-19th-century half brown morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, raised bands, red morocco spine label, marbled boards and endpapers.

First English edition, printed the same year as the first edition (printed in Boston), Washington’s letters to the Second Continental Congress at Philadelphia.

Dating from June 24, 1775, nine days after Washington's unanimous appointment to the top military post, through December 1778, Washington's Official Letters reveals his efforts to comply with the wishes of Congress while constantly at pains to secure adequate provisions and pay for his poorly trained and often disaffected troops. This scarce volume contains the General's warm acknowledgement of the signing of the Declaration of Independence ("I caused 'The Declaration' to be proclaimed before all the army under my immediate command"), correspondence from the grueling winter bivouac at Valley Forge, and a report of his Christmas victory at the Battle of Trenton. "Washington was consulted by Jefferson as to the publication of these papers, and the latter was in constant correspondence with Carey during their preparation. On July 3, 1792, Jefferson gave Carey formal permission to use the State Papers." Carey was adamant that as much as possible should be revealed to the public, and on this subject, Jefferson wrote in 1796, "The whole of the M.S.S. examined I passed by myself, and the doubtful passages referred to the President & passed by him, were proper for publication [for although] there were passages which might on publication create uneasiness in the minds of some, & were therefore referred by me to the President, yet I concurred fully in the opinion he pronounced that as these things were true they ought to be known. [T]o render history what it ought to be the whole truth should be known. I am no friend to mystery & state secrets. [T]hey serve generally only to conceal the errors & rogueries of those who govern" (Sowerby 492). When Jefferson received his copy of the Official Letters in April 1795, it was a presentation copy of the first English edition, sent to him from London by John Carey. The first English edition would remain the only copy of the Official Letters in Jefferson's library. The initial 1795 "American edition appears not to have been copyrighted," a factor like to have influenced Carey's opposition to bibliographic assertions when he wrote James Monroe in 1805 and asserted "that the London edition was the first and that the American booksellers 'printed two or three cheap rival editions" (Sowerby 492). Preceded several months by the Boston edition. Bound here in one volume is the two-volume first English edition, with additional title page in each volume as issued: "American State Papers"; errata at end of advertisement (I:viii). Without extremely scarce frontispiece, "seldom found with the work" (Sabin 101731). The letters cover the period from June 24, 1775 to Dec. 31, 1778. "Other volumes, to include the later correspondence of Washington, were projected by the editor, John Carey, but no more were published" (ESTC N491151). Sabin 101733. ESTC T33141. Evans 29737. Howes W142. Stevens 2270.

Text generally fresh with light scattered foxing, lightest staining to title pages. A near-fine record of the Revolutionary War, handsomely bound.