[Pharmboy]

Sparks says in the introduction: "The importance attached to this correspondence by himself may be understood from the fact, that, many years after the letters were written, he revised the first drafts, and caused them to be carefully recorded in volumes".

And your point is?? That a statesman--indeed, a man more than a mere statesman--would want to revise the diaries and letters from a fevered youth is proof of...of...precisely what? Bad judgement? Perhaps...but knowing a bit about the character of the man, I would say that he may have acted in that way to spare others' sensibilities. To assume that he was acting selfishly seems to me intemperate.

General Washington was not a perfect person, although he came closer to the ideal than any other Earthly man that I know of, and this book will not change that opinion.

Your Humble and Obdt. Svt.,
P____y

[Gondring]

Where does that statement make any value judgement? It merely infers that GW thought they were important.