Beschreibung:

PICKERING, TIMOTHY. Autograph letter signed ("T. Pickering") to Col. Robert Troup of New York; Salem, Massachusetts, 28 February 1828 "Evening," 3 full pages, folio, page 4 with address panel, postmarks and recipient's docket, small repair at central fold . HAMILTON AND WASHINGTON A remarkably rich, thoughtful letter in which the aged patriot considers Hamilton, Washington, and other great statesmen he had known. He thanks Troup for details of the Conway Cabal plot against Washington, comments on Hopkinson's abandoned attempt to write a life of Hamilton, and his own plans to undertake such a biography, but fears that "to do full Justice to Mr. Hamilton's character...talents like Hamilton's own should be employed. But where are they to be found?" He speculates as to why Rufus King did not take up the task. "Perhaps no man so competent to perform it, was more intimately acquainted with Hamilton...and he had years of leisure....Why did not King prevent the fatal duel [with Burr]? A faithful friend, professing, as King did, Hamilton's entire confidence, would have interposed with effect. He left New York on the morning when he knew the meeting was to take place...." Pickering goes on to confess that he has "repeatedly contemplated one of the delicate subjects which you mention - The Farewell Address [of Washington]: and I have been inclined to think the real truth might ne divulged, in a manner not to afford any just cause of displeasure to the admirers of Washington; although his nephew [Bushrod] the Judge, no doubt, would prefer a perfect silence on the subject. Hamilton himself...explicitly testified to the eminent services Washington had rendered to his country. But why should more of excellence than pertained to his character, be ascribed to him? His moral qualities were highly distinguished...." Washington, Pickering maintains, was "aloof from all selfish considerations, his sole aim, in all his public acts, was the public good. Will the sage advice in his Farewell Address, be less wise, when known to be the offspring of a vastly superior mind [Hamilton's]?" Pickering adduces a long passage from the Earl of Chesterfield in explanation of Washington's character, then asks, rhetorically, "Is the truth never to be told? Must history, in all instances, be what it is in the many -- a species of romance?" Pickering then considers the character of John Adams and the risk of a quarrel with John Quincy Adams if certain facts regarding the father's relationship with Hamilton are published, and returns to ponder the complexities of Rufus King's career and character, requesting from his correspondent details on "Mr. King's aberrations, in the Convention of your State, about your constitution," and contrasts Hamilton's unwavering principles with King's pragmatic political motives. Provenance : Joseph M. Roebling (sale, lot 139).