To George Washington from John Carey, 1 October 1796
From John Carey
London Octob. 1. 1796.
Sir,
I have the honor of transmitting to Your Excellency a copy of the Critical Review, containing remarks on a publication which bears your name, as mentioned in a letter of Sept. 9, which I took the liberty of addressing to Your Excellency, by the brig Diana, Potts.1 At the same time I beg leave to assure Your Excellency, that, had I then known from what source the letters were derived, I should not have thought it worth while to trouble Your Excely on the subject. To the politeness of the American minister, Mr King, I am indebted for my knowledge of the origin of the fabrication, which of course rendered it necessary to make many alterations from the manuscript inclosed in the letter above mentioned.2
I conclude, Sir, by requesting that Your Excellency will indulgently pardon my presumption in addressing you at all on the occasion; and believe me to be, with sentiments of heart-felt respect, Your Excellency’s very sincere well-wisher, and most obedient humble servant,
John Carey.
P.S. A report, circulated here, of Your Excellency’s declared intention to retire from public life about this time,3 induced me to take the precaution observable in this as well as the former packet (of Sept. 9), lest a successor, or any one else, should think himself entitled to inspect the contents, as being addressed to the “President of the United States.”4 Another copy of the Review, with a duplicate of these lines, is forwarded by the Fame, Harris, bound for New-York.5
ALS, DLC:GW. GW acknowledged receipt of this letter when he wrote Carey on 30 December.
1. No letter from Carey to GW of 9 Sept. has been found, but see his letter to GW of 8 Sept., in which he mentions his publication in The Critical Review.
The brig Diana, Capt. Charles Potts, arrived in Philadelphia from London on 27 Oct. (see Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser, 28 Oct. 1796).
Carey transmitted the September 1796 issue of The Critical Review; or, Annals of Literature, which contained his critique of the Epistles Domestic, Confidential, and Official, from General Washington … (New York, 1796), a volume of seven forged letters attributed to GW and designed to discredit him. The forgeries first had appeared in print in the 1777 London pamphlet Letters from General Washington. … (see Carey to GW, 8 Sept.; Richard Henry Lee to GW, 2 Jan. 1778, and n.3, in 13:120–22; and GW to Benjamin Walker, 12 Jan. 1797, and notes 3 and 4 to that document).
In his written critique, Carey accused the publisher of The Epistles of seeking “to blacken, at all events, and vilify the character of general Washington, and to render his person and his government unpopular with the citizens of the United States” (The Critical Review, 2d. ser., 18 [Sept.-Dec. 1796], 88). GW’s copy of the 1796 issue of The Critical Review, found in his library at the time of his death, contains the following inscription, in GW’s writing, on the cover: “From Mr. Jno. Carey, London” (, 61).
2. Rufus King, the U.S. minister to Great Britain, may have verbally discussed the forgeries with Carey since no correspondence between the two men on that matter has been identified. Carey transmitted a manuscript version of his critique with his letter to GW of 8 September. The published version that appeared in The Critical Review was significantly modified (see Carey to GW, 8 Sept., and notes 1 and 3 to that document).
3. The Morning Chronicle (London) for 1 July 1796 had printed a report announcing that “it was the intention of George Washington, President of the United States of America, to retire from the duties and the fatigues of that arduous and important station, and to carry with him, into that honourable retirement … the approbation of Honest Men in every Country.” The report erroneously stated GW’s intention to leave office in November 1796. GW’s Farewell Address, published on 19 Sept. and announcing his decision not to seek another term as president, circulated in British newspapers by early November (see Lloyd’s Evening Post [London], 9–11 Nov. 1796).
4. In his letter to GW of 8 Sept., Carey had added a “Nota Bene” that indicated the private nature of the missive, and directed that it be opened only by GW (see the source note to that document).
5. The Fame, Capt. Benjamin Harris, arrived in New York from London by 18 Nov. (see Daily Advertiser [New York], that date).
No duplicate of this document or of the September 1796 issue of The Critical Review has been found.