Most of Washington's correspondence during the Revolution was written by
his aides. Pickering said,--


"As to the public letters bearing his signature, it is certain that he
could not have maintained so extensive a correspondence with his own pen,
even if he had possessed the ability and promptness of Hamilton.
That he would, sometimes with propriety, observe upon, correct, and add to
any draught submitted for his examination and signature, I have no doubt.
And yet I doubt whether many, if any, of the letters ... are his own
draught.... I have even reason to believe that not only the _composition_,
the _clothing of the ideas_, but the _ideas themselves_, originated
generally with the writers; that Hamilton and Harrison, in particular,
were scarcely in any degree his amanuenses. I remember, when at
head-quarters one day, at Valley Forge, Colonel Harrison came down
from the General's chamber, with his brows knit, and thus accosted me, 'I
wish to the Lord the General would give me the heads or some idea, of what
he would have me write.'"


[Illustration: CORRECTED LETTER OF WASHINGTON SHOWING LATER CHANGES.]


After the Revolution, a visitor at Mount Vernon said, "It's astonishing
the packet of letters that daily comes for him from all parts of the
world, which employ him most of the morning to answer." A secretary was
employed, but not so much to do the actual writing as the copying and
filing, and at this time Washington complained "that my numerous
correspondencies are daily becoming irksome to me." Yet there can be