We will present a copy of a letter, in the author’s possession, written by General Washington to his business agent, Lund Washington, who had charge of Mount Vernon. This letter was written from Cambridge, Mass., shortly after the General had taken command of the army. It is dated August 20th, 1775. The greater part is devoted to detailed directions in regard to the management of the estate and has no bearing on our subject. But the letter is of so much interest that it is reproduced as a whole. It was Washington’s custom, as a very methodical man, to preserve a copy of all his letters, especially of those relating to business, and it is very unlikely that no draft was preserved by him of this particular letter to Lund Washington, as well as other letters which are known to exist in private hands. Mr. Sparks had the private papers of Washington in his possession for years, for the purpose of writing the former’s life and of editing his correspondence. Both of these things he did and the latter were published in twelve volumes. This letter, however, does not appear in Sparks’ work, who states in a foot-note that very few of the letters to Lund Washington existed. If this statement is true, it is possible that Washington did not preserve a copy of this particular letter; but the circumstance is a very remarkable one and not at all in keeping with his custom in regard to all his other business letters. If Washington did indeed fail to preserve copies of these letters it was also a very unfortunate circumstance, for he always wrote to Lund Washington, without reserve, upon the people and events of his day. That his habit in this regard was well known needs no stronger confirmation than the fact that the “Spurious Letters of Washington,” as they are called—which were first published as original drafts of letters said to have been found in part of Washington’s baggage and claimed to have been captured by the British—were all addressed to Lund Washington. The letter here presented shows that Washington did not always write in so guarded a manner as the Sparks version of his correspondence would lead us to believe. With this and other evidence we cannot escape the conclusion, either that Mr. Sparks was, notwithstanding his unique opportunities, very unfairly dealt with by Fate, in the scope and completeness of the correspondence entrusted to his care, or that he himself suppressed those letters which were not to his own individual taste. Washington wrote as follows: Camp at Cambridge, _Aug 20 1775_ _Dear Lund_,