To George Washington from John Brown Cutting, 22 February 1792
From John Brown Cutting
46 Walnut Street [Philadelphia] 22 Feb. [17]92.
Sir
I take the liberty to inclose to You a few stanzas which several persons, eminent in polite literature—and who have moreover the honor of a more intimate acquaintance with you than myself—affirm to be neither inelegant unjust nor unworthy of the subject on the occasion.1
I rejoice in this opportunity of testifying the fervency of that attachment and patriotic homage with which I am, your very respectful and most obedt sert2
John Brown Cutting
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. John Brown Cutting’s enclosed poem has not been found. Another sixtieth-birthday tribute, “Stanzas on the Presidents Birth-Day February 22d 1792” is in Elizabeth Willing Powel’s writing:
No Peerage we covet, no Sceptres desire
Nor Gow-Gaws that garnish a Throne;
Yet Liberty loves on her own native Lyre
To celebrate Sons of her own
And always with Rapture, his Virtues she sings
And exults on the Morn of his birth
Who Shakes every Throne of despotical Kings
And gives a new Lesson to Earth
O widely deffuse it, ye Winds, so ye blow,
O waft it ye Waves, that they fan,
For the choicest of Gifts that the Gods can bestow
Is the blessing of Freedom to Man
O Washington, hail whom the Breath of pure Fame
With Praises more sweet shall perfume,
Than ever embalm’d or exalted a Name
I[n] Macedon, Athens, or Rome
For Freedom say what did that Foe of the Greek
Alexander, that Hero admired
Let the Foes, or the Friend whom he massacred, speak
Or the beautiful City he fir’d
Did Athens, did Sparta, one Hero produce
T’extinguish their Feuds by his Mind
Or prove to the Free the pre-eminent use
Of Union to them and Mankind
Oh no! if wise Greece but one Patriot adept,
One Leader like ours had enjoyed
No Lover of Science or Freedom had wept
For Science or Freedom destroy’d
(ViMtvL: Powel Collection).
2. GW responded to Cutting this day: “I beg you to receive the expression of my sensibility for the flattering compliment your poetic genious hath presented” (LB, DLC:GW).