Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by

CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO.,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

THE TROW & SMITH BOOK MANUFACTURING COMPANY, 46, 48, 50 Greene Street, N. Y,

PREFACE.

THE author of this work, from a well-founded diffidence of his abilities, was induced to undertake this work by a desire to do justice to his Father against the aspersions of Mr. Jefferson, and more recently of Martin Van Buren, in his Inquiry into the origin of Political parties of the United States. He had the good fortune to enjoy the society of His Father's cotemporaries, officers of the war of the Revolution-members of the Government of the United States—Rufus King, Gouverneur Morris, Col. Pickering, George Cabot, Oliver Wolcott, H. G. Otis, and those members of the Bar of New York who were his associates, Kent, Harrison, the Ogdens, Hoffman, Riggs, and others—and to learn from them incidents connected with his conduct in the important situations in which he was called to act. The work has been extended far beyond the original purposes of the author by recollections which are assumed to have some public interest.