They also misjudge him who say that he ought to have composed a great
historical work for posterity--a task which Jefferson, Madison, and John
Quincy Adams, with every possible motive urging them to its performance,
declined to undertake. In this respect, Mr. Tazewell acted with his
usual good sense; not that he did not write on particular topics of our
history, as, for instance, the difference between the original and
recent surveys, a subject which he has illustrated with a skill in
mathematics, with a beauty of argumentation, and with a minuteness of
historical research wholly unexpected, and altogether admirable; and so
with some other topics. But he acted well in not undertaking the history
of Virginia. To write that history worthily would require a residence of
some years abroad. Of the materials necessary for such a work not a
twentieth part exists in Virginia, or in the United States. Such a work,
and Mr. Tazewell well knew its scope, could not be performed by him in
that retirement to enjoy which he had relinquished wealth and fame.
There is another view of a more personal kind.
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