The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-11-26
Origin of n Famous Expression.

The reviewer OF Mr.. McMastcr's Sec
ond volume, in the last NiaI noticed
his error in attributing TO Judge Mar
shall, instead of Col. Henry Lee, the
authorship of the well-known sentence
concerning Washington: "First in
war, first in peace, and first in the
hearts of his countrymen. The cor
rect reading of this familiar quotation
is in doubt. Marshall, in his Life of
Washington Nol. ", p. Z6O. prints
the proceedings of the house OF repre-
sentativcs and the resolutions read on
the death of Washington, in which the
sentence first appeared. The last
clause there rcads-''and first in the
hearts of his fellow citizens Col
Lee, week later used the sentence in
his GRAFTON before congress. and makes
it end with 'countrymen" instead of
'.fellow citizens" The "Annals of
Congress- Q799-1s01, page 20D re-
ports the resolutions read in the house,
and ends the sentence with Country
men," the "Aunals," however, was
not contemporaneous publication,
having been made up more than twen-
ty years later, by Gales and Seaton,
from such materials rs they could find.
Its wording of the resolutions is so I'M
like that given by Marshall and other
contemporaries that they must have
been reported from memory. wash
ingtoniana, published at Baltimore in
1900, is a compilation, made up soon af-
ter the death of Washington, of public
resolutions, testimonials OF respect,
and orations. The resolutions read in
the house there appear in precisely the
words quoted by Marshall, except that
the sentence under consideration ends
neither with 'fellow-citizens" nor
''countrymen," but with country"
(page 11O. Two pages later, the
same resolutions are given as adopted
in the senate, and the sentence again
ends with country" Gen. Robert
E. Lee, of the confederate army. was
the son of Col Henry Lee; and in the
life of his father, 1868 (prefxed to the
reprint of Col. Lees "Memors OF the
Revolutionary War in the Southern
Department'D quotes, on page 81, the
sentence, and ends it as Marshall gave
it, with 'fellow-ciizens. This state
ment might be regarded is authori-
tative as to the reading, if Gen. Lee on
the next page had not spoiled the in-
ference by saying: But there is a
line-a single line--in the works of
Lee which would hand him over TO I'M
mortality, though he had never writ
ten another: First in war, first in
peace, and first in the hearts of his
countrymen' will last while language
lasts. The question is unanswered
''In what form will it last?' We VEN
ture to express the opinion that Col.
Lee used, on different occasions, both
forms; and hence either form is cor
rect. He was an ardent federalist aud
devoted military and personal friend
of Washington during and subsequent
to the war. His grief at the death of
this dearest friend first took form in
his own personal loss; and then, as u
Virginian, in the loss his state had sus-
tanned. While in this frame of mind
he wrote the resolution read in con-
gress, ending with "his fcliow-citi-
zens"-which to him meant Virgin
ians." Having later been appointed
by congress to deliver an Grafton on
Washington, as an expression of the
grief of the nation, he again used the
sentence, and gave it broader mean
ing by changing ''his fellow-citizens'
to ''his countrYmen. The Dial.