1From George Washington to Annis Boudinot Stockton, 2 September 1783 (Washington Papers)
You apply to me, My dear Madam, for absolution as tho’ I was your father Confessor; and as tho’ you had committed a crime, great in itself, yet of the venial class—You have reason good—for I find myself strangely disposed to be a very indulgent ghostly adviser on this occasion and, notwithstanding "you are the most offending Soul alive" (that is if it is a crime to write elegant Poetry) yet if...