Seven years were spent in preparing the first edition, published in 1804-07. The work was based chiefly on Washington's own diaries and letters and secret archives and it told not simply the epic story of this great life but the truth about the birth of our nation. Marshall later spent fifteen years revising the first edition, verifying to the last detail every chapter, page and paragraph of his monumental work. The first edition, published by C.P. Wayne of Philadelphia, was an achievement in beautiful printing and bookmaking and still stands out today as such. The present publishers have followed the format of the original edition but have used the revised text which Marshall spent so many years in perfecting. Washington's personality lives on in John Marshall's great biography. He still has the power to raise up men to greatness as he did during his lifetime. The precepts, the principles and the shining example of this foremost of self-educated, self-made Americans have the power to uplift and start toward new heights of achievement, all who come in contact with him. The work is now reissued in the hope that it may give his countrymen of the present day the benefit of the counsel, the guidance and the inspiration that has proven so valuable in the past. February 22nd, 1926. PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR A desire to know intimately those illustrious personages, who have performed a conspicuous part on the great theatre of the world, is, perhaps, implanted in every human bosom. We delight to follow them through the various critical and perilous situations in which they have been placed, to view them in the extremes of adverse and prosperous fortune, to trace their progress through all the difficulties they have surmounted, and to contemplate their whole conduct, at a time when, the power and the pomp of office having disappeared, it may be presented to us in the simple garb of truth. If among those exalted characters which are produced in every age, none can have a fairer claim to the attention and recollection of mankind than those under whose auspices great empires have been founded, or political institutions deserving to be permanent, established; a faithful representation of the various important events connected with the life of the favourite son of America, cannot be unworthy of the general regard. Among his own countrymen it will unquestionably excite the deepest interest.