Sketches of Getu Washington's Private Character, ix. 



all these traits of character, they are nevertheless useful ; 

 and contribute to forming a correct estimate, and just opinion. 



If I have taken an occasion, and place, deemed not necessa- 

 rily to require it, to say what (chiefly) I personally know ; 

 and have had peculiar opportunities of understanding iVom 

 the most respectable sources ; and to pay my humble tri- 

 bute to his memory (when patronage and power are gone ; 

 •^and w^hen the influence of his name does not conti- 

 nue, every where, to operate as it merits) it must not 

 be ascribed to any vain presumption in me, that I can add 

 to his character or fame, I have yielded to the irresistible 

 impulses (unpremeditatedly excited in my search for this 

 specimen of his writing) of a long and sincere affection and 

 veneration ; which will never cease, while life and recollec- 

 tion remain. 



What he alludes to in his note (as it respects the com^ 

 mittee of Congress) was his great plan of engrafting the 

 subject of AGRICULTURE, into a national system of educa- 

 tion ; and placing the cultivators of the soil, and their in- 

 struction and excitements to improvement in their art, un- 

 der national patronage. He was anxiously solicitous in this 

 patriotic endeavour. It was not imputable to him that it 

 failed. Had he been fortunate enough to accomplish it, no 

 action of his life would have deserved more celebrity, and 

 public gratitude. 



Richard Peters. 



New Tear^s Day^ 1811. 



ti 



