- The Writings of George Washington.
- 1775.
- Answer to an Address of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. 1
- To James Warren, President of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts.
- To the President of Congress. 1
- To Richard Henry Lee, In Congress.
- To Governor Trumbull. 1
- To the President of Congress.
- To General Thomas. 2
- To John Augustine Washington.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To General Court of Massachusetts Bay.
- To Deputy Governor Cooke, of Rhode Island.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Lewis Morris. 1
- To J. Palmer.
- To the President of the Council of Massachusetts Bay.
- To the Provincial Congress of New York.
- To a Committee of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay.
- To Lieutenant-general Gage.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To Deputy-governor Cooke.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Lieutenant-general Gage.
- To J. Palmer.
- To Sir William Howe. 2
- To Richard Henry Lee.
- To Caesar Rodney and Thomas Mckean. 1
- To the President of Congress.
- To Brigadier-general Wooster. 2
- To the Inhabitants of the Island of Bermuda. 2
- To the Major and Brigadier Generals.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To John Augustine Washington.
- To Colonel Benedict Arnold. Instructions.
- To Colonel Benedict Arnold.
- To the Inhabitants of Canada. 1
- To Thomas Everhard, Virginia.
- To Deputy Governor Cooke.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major Christopher French. 1
- To Brigadier-general Joseph Spencer.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Captain Daniel Morgan.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To the General Officers.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Robert Carter Nicholas, Virginia.
- To the President of Congress.
- To John Augustine Washington.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Committee of Falmouth, Casco Bay.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the General Court of Massachusetts.
- To Josiah Quincy. 1
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Brigadier-general John Sullivan. Instructions.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed, Philadelphia.
- To Colonel William Woodford. 2
- To the President of Congress.
- To William Palfrey, Portsmouth. 3
- To Henry Knox. Instructions.
- To Major-general Artemas Ward.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To Aaron Willard. Instructions.
- To Lund Washington, Mount Vernon. 1
- To Richard Henry Lee.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Governor Cooke.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Colonel Benedict Arnold.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress. 1
- To Joseph Reed.
- To His Excellency General Howe.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To Richard Henry Lee.
- To the General Court of Massachusetts.
- To the President of Congress.
- 1776.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To Governor Cooke.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To Major-general Charles Lee. 1 Instructions.
- To the Council of Massachusetts Bay.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Colonel Benedict Arnold.
- To James Warren, Speaker Etc.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To the General Court of Massachusetts Bay.
- To Matthew Thornton. 1
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the New England Governments.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To Major-general Lee.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Colonel Benedict Arnold.
- To Commodore John Manly.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Lee.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To the General Court of Massachusetts.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Lee.
- To Miss Phillis Wheatley.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Commanding Officer At New York.
- To the President of Congress.
- Proclamation On the Evacuation of Boston.
- To the General Court of Massachusetts Bay.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed.
- To Colonel Thomas Mifflin, Quartermaster-general. Instructions.
- Answer to an Address From the General Assembly of Massachusetts.
- To Major-general Putnam. Instructions.
- To John Augustine Washington.
TO MISS PHILLIS WHEATLEY.
Cambridge, 28 February, 1776.
Miss Phillis,
Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach my hands, till the middle of December. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of important occurrences, continually interposing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming but not real neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant lines you enclosed; and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents; in honor of which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have published the poem, had I not been apprehensive, that, while I only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it place in the public prints.
If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near head-quarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. I am, with great respect, your obedient humble servant.
Phillis Wheatley was born in Africa, and brought to Boston in a slave-ship, in the year 1761, then between seven and eight years of age. She was purchased by Mr. Wheatley, but she soon discovered qualities so interesting and peculiar, that she was treated more as an inmate of the family, than as a slave. She made an extraordinary progress in acquiring the English language, and, without any advantage from schools, learned reading and writing, and manifested the greatest eagerness for gleaning knowledge. Her taste inclined to poetry; she read and relished the best authors, and soon began to compose verses. Meantime the attention of the community was turned to so singular a phenomenon, and she was visited and noticed by people of the first character. Her correspondence was sought, and it extended to persons of distinction even in England, among whom may be named the Countess of Huntingdon, Whitefield, and the Earl of Dartmouth. In 1773, when she was nineteen years of age, a volume of her poems was published in London, some of which had been written five or six years. This volume is dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon, and in the preface are the names of the Governor of Massachusetts, and several other eminent gentlemen, bearing testimony to their belief of her having been the genuine writer of the poems. She was married, in 1778, to Mr. John Peters, a man of her own color, whom tradition reports to have been little qualified for conferring happiness on so gifted a companion. She died at Boston, December 5th, 1784, aged thirty-one years.
The followingLetterandVerses,were written by the famousPhillis Wheatley,the African Poetess, and presented to his Excellency Gen.Washington.
Sir,
I have taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, together with the fame of your virtues, excite sensations not easy to suppress. Your generosity, therefore, I presume, will pardon the attempt. . . Wishing your Excellency all possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in. I am,
Your Excellency’s most obedient humble servant
Phillis Wheatley.Providence,Oct. 26, 1775. His Excellency Gen. Washington.- Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
- Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
- While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
- She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
- See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
- And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
- See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
- Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!
- The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair.
- Olive and laurel binds her golden hair:
- Wherever shines this native of the skies,
- Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.
- Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates
- How pour her armies through a thousand gates;
- As when Eolus haven’s fair face deforms,
- Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
- Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
- The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
- Or thick as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
- Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
- In bright array they seek the work of war,
- Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
- Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
- Enough thou know’st them in the field of fight,
- Thee first in place and honours,—we demand
- The grace and glory of thy martial land.
- Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
- Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!
- One century scarce performed its destin’d round,
- When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
- And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
- The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
- Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
- For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
- Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
- While round increase the rising hills of dead.
- Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
- Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
- Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
- Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
- A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
- With gold unfading, Washington! be thine.
(From the Pennsylvania Magazine, for April, 1776, page 193.)
The
Evening Post and General Advertiser in October, 1779, published proposals for printing by subscription a volume of poems and letters by Phillis Peters, and this ode to Washington was to be included. The volume was never issued.
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