"I have not been able to find, among Washington's papers the
letter and poem addressed to him. They have doubtless been
lost. From the circumstance of her invoking the muse in his
praise, and from the tenor of some of her printed pieces,
particularly one addressed to King George seven years
before, in which she compliments him on the repeal of the
Stamp Act, it may be inferred, that she was a Whig in
politics after the American way of thinking; and it might be
curious to see in what manner she would eulogize liberty and
the rights of man, while herself, nominally at least, in
bondage."[352]

Gen. Washington, in a letter to Joseph Reed, bearing date of the 10th
of February, 1776, from Cambridge, refers to the letter and poem as
follows:--

"I recollect nothing else worth giving you the trouble of,
unless you can be amused by reading a letter and poem
addressed to me by Miss Phillis Wheatley. In searching over
a parcel of papers the other day, in order to destroy such
as were useless, I brought it to light again. At first, with
a view of doing justice to her poetical genius, I had a
great mind to publish the poem; but not knowing whether it
might not be considered rather as a mark of my own vanity,
than as a compliment to her, I laid it aside,[353] till I
came across it again in the manner just mentioned."[354]

This gives the world an "inside" view of the brave old general's
opinion of the poem and poetess, but the "outside" view, as expressed
to Phil's, is worthy of reproduction at this point.

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,