The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-06-03

abouts, with q verbal message often
quoted, though not quite authentic:
From the oldest General in the
world to the greatest" The Neao
dersey Journal of Aug. 2, 1850, mentions
picture with this sentence inscribed
under lt-showing how ancient is the
legend, and that it was current in the
lifetime Of both Frederick and Wash
lngton. The latter valued this sword
highly, and wore it on state occasions,
as when he received the Senate at his
Philadelphia house in 1901; and it ap-
pears in Vanderlyn's portrait of him ut
Washington, and I think In the full
length by Stuart. It is q crossword
with straight, pointed blade and a hilt
and chain Of polished steel, dotted with
steel beatls-a very peculiar weapon in
its appearance and not likely to be for
gotten by one who ever saw it. When
John Brown attacked Harper's Ferry he
sent his Lieutenant, Cook, to arrest Col.
Washington, free his slaves and capture
this sword, which it is supposed he
meant to wear in token of his succession
to the place of Washington as the Amer
lean liDerator. A pistol given by La
tayette to Washington was also captured
at the same time and carried away by
John Browns son Owen, who restored it
to Col. Washington by the hand of Thad-
deus Hyatt in 1860. The sword was
taken from Brown after his capture By
Gen. Lee and restored to Col. Washing
ton, who sent it, with other memorials
OF his great-uncle, to the Patent Office
at Washington, where they remained
during the civil war. Under the last
Tweed administration the New York
Legislature april 26, 1871 voted to pay
| $50, 600 for all these memorials, and this
was done in 1873.
None of them have quite the romantic
interest of this sword, worn by Freder.
ick, by Washington and by John Brown,
and proving in their hands to he the
modern Excalibar, by which deeds of
proves more wonderful than those ia
bled of King Arthur we're actually DONE
But here, too, is the original draft of
Washington's farewell address Qong sup.
posed to be lost, or never to have ex-
lsted), nineteen manuscript pages, all in
Washington's handwriting, with erasures
and interlineations, but complete pa
per by itself, before Hamilton ever saw
it, in May, 1892 (before which date it
had been composed, sent to James Madi-
son, and rewritten), at time when
Washington expected to be President
but four years. 1t was afterward ex-
banded TO twice the size of this draft,
with Hamilton's aid, and finally published
in Philadelphia, Sept. 10, 1895. Sparks
never saw this Albany draft, nor could
Horace Binney and j. C. Hamilton find
it among the Washington papers which
Bushrod Washington made over to Con.
gress many years ago. 1t was, in fact
among the private papers bequeathed by
Bushrod to George Custis Washington
and by him to his son, Col. Lewis. l be-
lieve it has never been printed; nor has
another very curious paper Eere, in
Washington's handwriting, containing
his opinion of the character of TWEEN.
ty-three general officers, living in
1899, and possible candidates for
high rank in the United States
army. Among them were Wayne, Put
nam, B. Lincoln, Steuben, Moultrie,
Pinckney, Morgan, Henry Lee Gath
er of Gen. Robert Leg, Wilkin.
son, Otto Williams, etc. The COM
ments on each General are just, but
sometimes severe-of Putnam, Washing.
ton says, for instance, that he is nowhere
conspicuous out of his own State--ot
Moultrie's temperance he expresses some
doubt, etc. This paper would be so
agreeable to Mr.. Bancroft that l can
hardly doubt he has seen it-nor can
there be any sufficient reason now against
its publication. In consequence of the
deliberations following this paper Wayne
was appointed General of the army in
1902, with Putnam and Ohio Williams
First Brigadiers, and John Brooks and
James Wilkinson Second Brigadiers.
In the same cabinet are the surveying
implements of Washington and map Of
his early surveys, before the time of
Braddock and while he was working un-
der the patronage of Lord Fairfax and
Northern Virginia. The instruments
were made by Pittenhouse, the Philadel
phia inventor. Here also is Washing
tons silver watch-seal, lost by him on
the field of Braddock's defeat, and found
eighty-seven years after; also a gold
seal which replaced it and was worn by
Washington during and after the Revo-
luton. This, too, was lost for some
years, and, like the silver one, plowed
up in a field and restored to Col. Lewis
Washington, who in 1857 was the owner
of both, as well as the Frederick sword
and the Lafayette pistol. There can be
no doubt of the genuiness of these relics,
and New York was fortunate to get
them, even at great price.-Albany Let
ter in a New York Paper.