Letters

8 Short Facts About George Washington #7

Perhaps nothing has been as valuable to historians as the personal letters of our major historical figures. Historians have learned so much thanks to the preservation of personal correspondence. Consider the importance of the letters exchanged between John Adams and his wife Abagail and the letters between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They are among the most important historic artifacts of the period leading up to and immediately following the founding of our nation. It is a shame that we do not have a similar historical record for George Washington.

It is believed that Washington expressed his personal opinions in their fullest form in the letters to his wife Martha. For this reason, they were destroyed following his death. Imagine what we could have learned from those letters.

Source - His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis