72 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



est and most interesting attitude. The portrait was painted 

 at Philadelphia from the living original, during his first 



Presidency, in 1792 At Fredericsburg, where 



he spent his early youth, and where I passed some weeks 

 in 1836 with my son and Mr. Eli Whitney, they related 

 many anecdotes of his childhood and youth, but none that 

 were marked by sin or folly. Here, also, is the house in 

 which his mother lived and died ; and we saw at the Rev. 

 Mr. McGuire's, in the possession of his lady, the silk velvet 

 coat which Washington wore at the ceremony of his first 

 inauguration as President, at New York, in 1790. A 

 small triangular piece had been cut out of the skirt and 

 carried away as a relic. It was done by Le Vasseur, the 

 private secretary of Lafayette, during a visit of that 

 friend of Washington in 1824, the ready scissors of Le 

 Vasseur being slyly drawn from his pocket for the purpose. 

 The theft was not discovered until the party were gone, 

 and it was not difficult to pardon it. This is the coat that 

 is painted in Stuart's picture, which exhibits Washington 

 in a civil capacity, in the evening of life, in a totally differ 

 ent costume and association of circumstances from those of 

 the military era ; and the expression .of his face is altered 

 by a recent set of artificial teeth, pressing the lips unduly 

 outwards. We may presume that the art of making and set 

 ting artificial teeth was then in its infancy in this country, 

 and even in Europe. These circumstances will account 

 for the difference between the portraits by Trumbull and 

 Stuart. Both, we believe, were excellent likenesses at the 

 time they were painted. 



The Battle ^Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775. 



The late Dr. John C. Warren, the eminent surgeon, of 

 Boston, had at his house an interesting portrait of his 

 uncle, and a large historical picture, showing General 

 Warren on horseback, guiding the provincials to the battle 

 ground in Lexington, where some of them were already 

 engaged with the British troops. I saw these pictures at 



