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their language, - how much more ardently should americans desire to possess the likeness of Washington, whose discriminating knowledge, and actual control of Character, and indomitable energy, were devoted to fix & perpetuate something greater than language - the Independence and Union of a mighty nation:

The investigations to ascertain some veritable likiness of Shakespere have been perseveringly made when non one living could promounce on its authenticity, Wish our Washington the case is fortunately otherwise, Whilst He was living, the likeness of no mortal being excited a more wide - spread & lively interest; and it was taken by many, & the most distinguished artists - leaving no doubt for whom they were intended - all representing the same acknowledge Individual, at different ages and under various aspects.

The lapse of time has greatly lessened the number of those who had the opportunity of looking on the living form of Washington - and in a little time there will be no one left to say he had ever beheld him.. I am one of the few who now claim that advantage, possess=ing the privelege of expressing my original impressions, and authorized to compare them with others, concerning the personal appearance of Washington, and the various Representations which have been intended as Portraits of him...Having know him for many years, & painted him from the life, I am required to furnish my testimony, with the title which has been accorded to me as "the Historian of the Portraiture of Washington".

Washington was six feet one inch in height - in his boots, six feet two - His weight about two hundred & twenty pounds - his complexion was florid - Eyes of the deepest blue - and hair a dark brown. My Fathers first - Portrait of him and his whole = lengths, executed during the Revolutionary Contest, always represent him with short neck & broad, slopping shoulders - His limbs rather sinewy than muscular, & slightly corpulent; His figure erect easy and majestic. "On taking command of the Army at Cambridge" says Irving - "Welcomed by she shouts of the Multitude & the thundering of Cannon - his personal appearance, notwithstanding the dust of travel, (for he performed the long journey from Mount Veron on horseback), was calculated to captivate the public eye,as he rode through the camp, amidst a throng of Officers, he was the admiration of the Soldiery, and of a curious throng collected from the surrounding county; and happy was the Counts man that could get a full view of him."

Mrs. John Adams, then writing to her husband, said - "Dignity, ease complacency - the gentleman & the Soldier, look agreeably bended in him" - and she quoted Drydens lines as applicable to him,

"Mark his majestic fabric: He's a Temple Sacred by birth, and built by hands divine: His soul's the Deity that edges there - Nor is the Pile unworthy of the God!"