From George Washington to James Ewing, 26 February 1799
To James Ewing
Mount Vernon 26th Feby 1799
Sir
The Columbian Alphabet which you were so polite as to send me, came safe, and for which I pray you to accept my thanks. It is curious, and if it could be introduced, might be useful for the purposes proposed; but it will be a work of time, it is to be feared, before it shall be adopted, generally.1 I am Sir Your most Obedt Hble Servant
Go: Washington
ALS (letterpress copy), NN: Washington Papers; LB, in hand of Albin Rawlins, owned (1976) by Miss Penissa Wills and Mr. L.J. Wills, Halesowen, England.
James Ewing (1744–1824), the U.S. commissioner of loans in New Jersey from 1786 to 1789, applied to GWin 1790 and 1791 for office under the new government without success. See Ewing to GW, 15 Jan. 1790, and note.
1. Ewing gave The Columbian Alphabet, his 28–page pamphlet published in Trenton in 1798, this descriptive subtitle: Being an Attempt to New Model the English Alphabet, in Such Manner as to Mark Every Simple Sound by an Appropriate Character, Thereby Rendering the Spelling and Pronunciation More Determinate and Correct, and the Art of Reading and Writing More Easily Attainable. When Ewing sent a copy to GW he inscribed the flyleaf: “To George Washington to whose name no titles are any Addition this attempt to call the attention of his Countrymen to a very important improvement in their Language, is respectfully presented by his Very humble Servant THE AUTHOR” ( 77–78).