q. ♦ . v. • .0'
'^^^\\
.<2^'
-cv*^
« ■■-
jp-nji.
• ^
•^^
*
*
.....%
1-
%.^^
4' ^^-i^-. ^/oC-^K^^-.-S
r- ^-^.A
•^^
*^o< :j
^^
^^0^
'^y^' "^^
W^
& c*.
:,>.
^'' ^^-^^^ .
.0-
C° A
<i^-
^x. '•Trr-' <;y
o^ • « -
\.-J^'/V /.'J^^^^o .**\.':^L%\. c°'
*°-ni..
**
(^tar^t Waalimgtnn
AT
Mount Vernon on the Potomac
James Hosmer Penniman, Litt. D.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
AT
Mount Vernon on the Potomac
TO GIVE A CLEARER IDEA OF THE CHARACTER
OF WASHINGTON IS TO SET A HIGHER
STANDARD FOR AMERICAN
PATRIOTISM
f^tjTB^rno-:^ fio^vne^ '/iv,^;^5,^
PUBLISHED BY THE
MOUNT VERNON LADIES* ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION,
MOUNT VERNON, FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA.
t.3 12-
copyright:
James H. Penniman
1921
@)CU622539
TO THE REGENTS
OF THE
Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union,
MISS ANN PAMELA CUNNINGHAM
MRS. LILY M. BERGHMAN
MRS. JUSTINE VAN RENSSELAER TOWNSEND
MISS HARRIET CLAYTON COMEGYS
George Washington
AT
Mount Vernon on the Potomac
James Hosmer Penniman, Litt.D.
On the Potomac, a few miles below the city of
Washington, has been standing for nearly two centuries
a mansion which is a shrine of humanity, for Mount
Vernon is more than a national memorial. Vessels
from all parts of the world dip their colors and toll
their bells as they pass the place, and distinguished
pilgrims of many races lay wreaths at the tomb of
him who devoted all he was and all he had to making
freedom secure for mankind.
George Washington, Mount Vernon, Potomac;
what other three names can be found so closely asso-
ciated and of such euphony and historic importance!
There is no exaggeration in saying that Mount Vernon
is the most famous home in the world. Nowhere else
do we get so close to such an illustrious man. The
mansions in which Washington lived as President, in
New York and Philadelphia, have long ago been torn
down, for there was no Ann Pamela Cunningham to
protect them. At Cambridge, Harlem, Newburgh,
Morristown and Valley Forge we are fortunate in having
his headquarters still preserved, but in these places
he was General Washington, Commander-in-Chief. It
is at Mount Vernon alone that Washington comes down
from his heroic pedestal and reveals himself to us in
the majestic simplicity of the Virginia farmer, the
Cincinnatus of the West. Soldiers of both sides remem-
bered only that they were Americans as they stood at
the tomb of the great American during that fratricidal
war which would have caused him so much grief. Sec-
tional feeling has no place at the home of this Virginian,
who became the first American in every sense of the
word first. The expression "First in war, first in peace,
and first in the hearts of his countrymen," falls glibly
enough from our lips, but at Mount Vernon one should
ponder on these words and consider in how many ways
this great man was first. "First in war," he was always
the central figure during the eight years of the Revolu-
tion, but even before he was Commander-in-Chief he
was first in war, as well as the first American, when he
made what is considered the most eloquent speech in
our history: "I will raise a thousand men at my own
expense and march at their head to the relief of Boston."
March Virginians to the relief of Boston! Show me
if you can an earlier expression of more practical Amer-
icanism. How did he know that he could get those
men.'* Because he was assured of the devotion and
patriotism of his neighbors, to many of whom he was
always the widow Washington's boy "George." How
Washington's heart warmed to those riflemen at Cam-
bridge when they told him they were from the right
bank of the Potomac! At Mount Vernon, where Wash-
ington was pre-eminently "First in Peace," the old
weather-vane which surmounts his mansion is appro-
priately the dove bearing the olive branch.
Washington was not common clay, nor is Mount
Vernon common earth. He could not have been such
a patriot if he had not loved the place so much, because
affection for the actual ground and wood and stone
of the home is the most natural foundation of love of
country.
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, incor-
porated in 1856, is the oldest patriotic organization of
6
women in the United States. Until Mount Vernon
came into its possession the estate had had no other
owners but Washingtons. The far-seeing founder of
the Association, Ann Pamela Cunningham, who held
the office of Regent for twenty years, wrote in 1874:
"Ladies, the home of Washington is in your charge;
see to it that you keep it the home of Washington.
Let no irreverent hand change it; no vandal hands
desecrate it with the fingers of progress! Those who
go to the home in which he lived and died, wish to
see in what he lived and died! Let one spot in this
grand country of ours be saved from change! Upon
you rests this duty. When the Centennial comes,
bringing with it its thousands from the ends of the
earth, to whom the home of Washington will be the
place of places in our country, let them see that, though
we slay our forests, remove our dead, pull down our
churches, remove from home to home till the hearth-
stone seems to have no resting-place in America — let
them see that we do know how to care for the home
of our Hero!"
Wisely directed energy, unselfish devotion, and
reverent patriotism—these conspicuous qualities of Wash-
ington have been manifested in an eminent degree by
the Ladies of Mount Vernon in making permanent for
us his hallowed shrine. Long continued and loving
care is everywhere evident, but the extent of the work
has been carefully concealed. Nothing is offensively
new, and this is remarkable, because it has been neces-
sary to do 80 much. When the ladies acquired the
property the estate was run down and the mansion was
nearly empty. Edward Everett said in 1858: "No one
who has visited the venerable spot — who has looked
upon the weather-beaten building and its uninviting
approaches, upon the falling columns and corroded
pavement of the portico, the ruinous offices, the un-
floored summer-house; the conservatory, of which a
portion remains as it was left by the fire of 1832; the
'spot where once a garden smiled.
And still where many a garden flower grows wild,'
the ground relapsing into the roughness of nature; and,
above all, the raw incompleteness, the irreverent ex-
posure, and the premature and untidy decay that reign
about the tomb — but must bid God-speed to the efforts
of these noble women and their worthy sisters in every
part of the land, who have determined that this public
scandal, this burning shame, shall cease." The mansion
and its surrounding buildings were uninhabitable. The
roof of the portico had to be held up by temporary
props throughout its entire length. The barn had not
been roofed since the time of Washington, the roads
were impassable, and the whole estate was a chaotic
ruin. The two rules of the Mount Vernon Ladies were:
no debts and do thoroughly whatever is to be done;
and, so carefully were these observed, that in 1890 the
Secretary of the Association was able to refer to "the
little band of women who have quietly worked through
all these years, and who have learned that woman's
lesson is to 'sit and wait.' As we have 'waited' we have
seen our beloved Mount Vernon grow in grace and
beauty slowly but surely — here a nail and there a brick,
to-day a bit of pavement, to-morrow a road, now a
fence, again a roof — until now! Now, every ruin is
gone, every building restored."
Reassembling the original furniture and relics is,
to my mind, the most wonderful of all the things that
the Ladies of Mount Vernon have done. They have
made the mansion a museum of priceless treasures, and
it is the duty of patriotic Americans to see to it that
everything that used to be at Mount Vernon is returned
8
there. A further idea of the extraordinary work of the
ladies may be formed from the following instances of
it: To prevent landslides, which caused anxiety even
in Washington's time, the hill has been tunnelled and
twenty thousand gallons of water a day are drawn off.
Washington remarked that the Mount Vernon land
has "an understratum of hard clay impervious to water,
which, penetrating that far and unable to descend lower,
sweeps off the upper soil." Washington was anxious
about the possibility of fire at Mount Vernon, and that
his fears were not without cause is shown by an entry
in his diary, January 5, 1788: "About 8 o'clock in the
evening we were alarmed, and the house a good deal
endangered by the soot of one of the chimneys taking
fire and burning furiously, discharging great flakes of
fire on the roof; but, happily, by having aid at hand and
proper exertion no damage ensued." He wrote his
overseer: "I beg you will make my people (about the
Mansion house) be careful of the fire; for it is no un-
common thing for them to be running from one house
to another in cold, windy nights with sparks of fire
flying and dropping as they go along, without paying
the least attention to the consequences." The Ladies
of Mount Vernon have taken every precaution to make
the mansion as secure from fire as a wooden structure
can be. The buildings are warmed by the hot water
system, and the mains come from a remote underground
boiler-room. Mr. Edison himself directed the low
voltage lights. Chemical and steam fire engines are
ready for instant use, and guards maintain a constant
vigil. Powerful electric pumps supply water from an
artesian well and there is sanitary drainage. The
marsh of twelve acres, malaria from which made it
necessary for the Washingtons to consume much Pe-
ruvian bark, has been made a meadow fifled with clover,
and the river has been excluded and the shores protected
9
from erosion by a sea wall. In order to get bricks
mellowed by age for the haha wall, they were brought
from the ruins of another old mansion. Flagstones
have been imported from the quarries of Lord Lonsdale,
at St. Bees Head, near White Haven, England, whence
Washington obtained the original stones, and an extra
supply was secured to provide for future needs.
Well might the Ladies of Mount Vernon adopt
Washington's motto, Exitus acta probat, for the result
has proved the excellence of their deeds. I have visited
many of the show places of the world, and I do not
know another where good taste has been so combined
with business efficiency. There is abundant elegance
and refinement, but the predominant impression is that
everything is intended to serve a useful purpose and
is adequate for the work. Mount Vernon does not
look, as so many old places do, as if it had outUved its
usefulness, and in fact its usefulness will always be of
the highest order. Without the noble deeds which
were planned here the beautiful buildings of our national
capital would never have existed, and those who see
the work of our government going on at Washington
will always find patriotic inspiration in visiting the
home of the man who, more than any other, set these
mighty forces at work.
When one's mind has become steeped in cosmopoli-
tan ideas by a protracted stay in Europe, there is
nothing which will restore him to wholesome American-
ism more thoroughly than a few hours at Mount Vernon.
Nowhere can Emerson's tumultuous privacy of storm
be employed to better advantage, for on a stormy day
visitors are few and you may examine the relics at your
leisure. You will get closer to George Washington and
to the old life of the place when you are almost alone,
but you do not know Mount Vernon until you have
10
seen it in rain and in sunshine, in winter and in summer,
in the morning and with the lengthening shadows of
the afternoon. The mansion is kept in such perfect
condition that it gives no indication of having endured
the storms of so many years. Yet you are surrounded
by the atmosphere of the eighteenth century, that age
of silk stockings, lace cuffs, powdered hair and stately
manners, so that one almost expects to see Lady Wash-
ington drive up with her coach and four. Life at Mount
Vernon, though simple, was in the grand style; and
the mansion, too, is simple, but with an air of elegance
to a certain extent its own, for it is not entirely derived
from its association with its illustrious proprietor. The
seclusion of Mount Vernon imparts distinction. You
cannot take it at unawares; you must approach it as
you would some stately personage. The mansion is
unique in situation as well as in design. There is no
more eligible site in the whole course of the beautiful
Potomac, and I have never seen a building which re-
sembled it. Exquisite in itself merely as a beautiful
old villa, it is superb in what one can think into it if
he has the creative imagination to restore the past.
Though rich in memories, they are all noble; there
is no skeleton in the closet and no ghost. Listen to
what the old house has to tell you, for it is silently elo-
quent. As you walk through these rooms you are
turning the pages of history. No other private resi-
dence in the world is so permeated with the annals of
a great nation, and its associations are all the result of
the life work of one great man. In the importance of
the deliberations and of the anxious thought given here
to the most vital interests of our country and of man-
kind. Mount Vernon ranks with Carpenters and In-
dependence Halls. Here the ablest men came to confer
with Washington. In the library he drafted historic
11
documents and wrote hundreds of letters of the utmost
importance to our country. It adds interest to the
reading of a letter of Washington to be able to picture
him as he wrote it in his library. When you read
his letters you get close to the man himself, as if you
grasped that mighty hand and looked into those brave,
blue eyes.
At Mount Vernon was good Hving, in all the senses of
the words. There were good thoughts, good compan-
ions, good books and good dinners. Stevenson might
have been describing Mount Vernon when he wrote —
"Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall,
A bin of wine, a spice of wit,
A house with lawns inclosing it,
A living river by the door."
Though the Great House was remote from the main
road, far within his own domains, Washington wrote,
"Captain Johnson comes past my door in his ship." So
Washington Hved in a house by the side of the road to the
Old World, and he was a friend to man.
The tranquil river, bending in great curves and like
a long mirror reflecting the light for miles, gave the same
dignity and grace to the landscape when he gazed lov-
ingly upon it from the shade of his own vine and fig-
tree, but the glory of the historic past now radiates from
the stream, as if it was proud of its association with
Washington. He was famihar with the varied sections
whence came every drop that flows past his home, for
in his mind he could follow the river beyond its Great
Falls and Harpers Ferry all the way to its source, and in
his youth he made many surveys along its beautiful
tributary, the Shenandoah. The problems of the utihza-
tion of the Potomac occupied much of the time and
thought of his later years. On its banks he was born and
died. It flows past the beautiful city which bears his
12
name, and circles his sky-piercing monument, which over-
looks so many miles of its course. The waves of the
Potomac kiss the shores of his home and murmur their
perpetual requiem about his tomb.
We must visit Mount Vernon to know the real
Washington, and, to know him as we ought, we should
visit it many times and read and re-read his works, for
the more we know of Washington the more we appre-
ciate his home. There have been thousands of books
written about Washington, but the best will always be
those he wrote himself, and these are the ones which are
read the least. We should hear less about the hatchet
and the cherry-tree and other myths, and we should be
better Americans if we read as much as we can of what
Washington himself has written; for, in so doing, we not
only become acquainted with the first American, but we
also learn how our country was made a nation. How
little the average visitor knows of the life of Washington
is evidenced by the frequent request at Mount Vernon
to be shown the room in which he was born. Few re-
member that Washington, as his father had done before
him, saw the light at Wakefield, on the Potomac, fifty miles
below Mount Vernon. Nine out of ten of the hundreds
of biographers, including Sparks and Irving, state that
soon after the birth of George his family removed to an
estate opposite Fredericksburg; but the Vestry Book of
Pohick Church states: November 18, 1735, Augustine
Washington, the father of George, was sworn in as ves-
tryman and attended meetings August 18, 1736, August
13, 1737, and October 3, 1737, after which his name does
not appear. It is thus clear that at this time the family
resided at Hunting Creek, as Mount Vernon was then
called. Augustine Washington was marked absent from
vestry meetings held October 11, 1736, and April 12,
1737. I am able to explain his absence by something
13
\\
which has not hitherto been noted, which throws much
light on this important period about which we have
known so Httle. In the Boston Athenaeum is a book
called "A Complete View of the British Customs." It
contains a list of the several ports and creeks of Great
Britain, the lawful keys, wharfs, etc., and fees payable.
On the fly-leaf is written "Augustine Washington his
Book bought ye 4th of May 1737 of ye Booksellers under
ye Royal Exchange. Cost 7 Shillings." If this book
could talk it would doubtless tell us that George Wash-
ington's father commanded and owned a ship in which he
carried the productions of Mount Vernon to England,
and in a previous voyage he probably brought back the
bricks for the barn, the only existing building which
dates from this period. Excellent bricks were made in
Virginia, and a few years later we shall see that sixteen
thousand of them were baked for the underpinning of
Mount Vernon. That the tobacco ships came back
ballasted with brick and stone shows that the colonists
were too poor to import much from the mother country.
The house occupied by Augustine Washington and his
family was burned in 1739. The fact that there is a
well in the cellar of the present mansion leads me to be-
lieve that the original house occupied the same site, for
the well must have been intended for use in case of an
attack by Indians. By a deed recorded in October, 1740,
Augustine Washington conveyed to his son Lawrence
the 2500 acres of land at Hunting Creek, which was later
called Mount Vernon. In August, 1740, Lawrence Wash-
ington embarked to join Admiral Vernon in the West
Indies. He did not return until the spring of 1743, and
on the 19th of July was married to Anne Fairfax. It is
difficult to understand how Lawrence could have given
attention to the building of the original central part of
the mansion at this time, and it seems more reasonable to
attribute its construction to the loving care of Augustine
14
for his son, who was to be married as soon as his military
service was over, and to suppose that Augustine alluded
to these facts when he had cut on the corner stone the
initials L. W. with the heart and the military axes.
Augustine died April 28, 1743. His will was executed
April 11th, and was presented for probate by Lawrence
May 6th following. It begins: "I Augustine Washington
of the County of King George — Gentleman being sick
and weak but of perfect and disposing sence and mem-
ory;" and the first provision gives Lawrence "the land at
Hunting Creek with the water mill adjoining and all the
Slaves, Cattle and Stocks and all the Household Furna-
ture whatsoever now in and upon or which have been
commonly possessed by my said son." The words "which
have been commonly possessed by my said son" should
be carefully pondered over, as they seem to throw light
on this important but obscure period in the history of
the mansion.
When Lawrence called his estate Mount Vernon
he not only showed his affection for his old chief, Ad-
miral Vernon, but also that loyalty to England which
caused the people of Alexandria to name their streets
King, Prince, Duke, Royal, Queen, Princess, Duchess.
The construction of the Great House went on at in-
tervals during most of George Washington's life, nor
did he consider it finished when he died. Augustine,
Lawrence and George were probably its only architects.
George was always fond of drawing plans and would
have been as good an architect as he was surveyor.
You may restore the house to its condition in Lawrence's
time by, in your imagination, removing the portico,
the colonnades, the third story, the banquet hall, the
library, and replacing with a few cabins all the out-
buildings except the barn. The mansion will be left
about one-third of its present size, with two stories and a
garret with gable roof and dormer windows. There
15
were four rooms on each floor, a small porch at the front
door and chimneys at each end built inside. Lawrence
died at Mount Vernon, July 26, 1752, aged thirty-four.
That what is now called the old tomb was constructed
about this time is made clear by the first provision in
his will — "that a proper vault for Interment be made
on my home plantation wherein my remains together
with my three children may be decently placed, and
to serve for my wife and such other of the family as
may desire it." The four children of Lawrence, all of
whom died young, were doubtless born at Mount Ver-
non, and three of them are buried there.
The death of Lawrence changed the life of George,
for Lawrence had been a second father to him, and
had done much to give him that education which is
derived from association with good men and good books.
Lawrence kept him at Mount Vernon when it was
possible, and in his latter days endeared himself to
George by his resignation and by his patient endurance
of suffering. "My loving brother George Washington"
was left one of his executors, and at the death of Law-
rence's daughter and only surviving child. Baby Sarah,
which occurred in September at the age of one year,
George inherited Mount Vernon, subject to a life interest
in favor of the widow of Lawrence. George had to
pay her fifteen thousand pounds of tobacco yearly.
This was about all the estate at that time produced.
The annuity might be paid in money at the rate of 12
shillings 6 pence per hundred weight, and would thus
amount to £93 15s. The widow of Lawrence died in 1761.
In October, 1754, George Washington resigned
his military command of the Virginia forces and retired
to Mount Vernon, where he remained till he set out
with General Brad dock, who had arrived with a strong
force from England. Two men-of-war, the Nightingale
16
and the Seahorse, escorted his sixteen transports. We
do not know whether Washington mounted his horse
and rode down the river to see the British ships come
up, or whether he had the patience to wait till one
after another they appeared round the point; but we
may be sure that the officers gathered in little groups
on the decks to gaze on the mansion of the Virginia
colonel who the year before had fired that shot which
Thackeray says wakened "a war which was to last
for sixty years and which was to cover his own country
and pass into Europe, to cost France her American
colonies, to sever ours from us, and create the great
Western Republic; to rage over the Old World when
extinguished in the New; and, of all the myriads engaged
in the vast contest, to leave the prize of the greatest
fame with him who struck the first blow!" April 2,
1755, Washington wrote Captian Orme, one of Brad-
dock's officers, at Alexandria: "The arrival of a good
deal of company (among whom is my mother, alarmed
at the report of my intentions to attend your fortunes)
prevents me the pleasure of waiting upon you today."
Washington first saw British regulars at Alexandria
at this time, and, as he accompanied the expedition,
made observations of them collectively and individually,
which were of great value in our Revolution.
Braddock left Alexandria April 20th. Washington
wrote his mother from Camp at Will's Creek, June 7th:
"I hope you will spendthechief part of your time at Mount
Vernon, as you have proposed to do; where, I am
certain, everything will be ordered as much for your
satisfaction as possible, in the situation we are in there."
Braddock's defeat, July 9th, near Fort Duquesne, now
Pittsburg, by the French and Indians, is one of the
most disastrous in history. Washington returned to
Mount Vernon, July 26th, where he remained in a
17
weak and feeble condition. August 14th he was com-
missioned commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces,
and he was for four years busy on the frontier, return-
ing to Mount Vernon from time to time. In 1756,
Washington wrote from Winchester asking for leave of
absence to attend a meeting of executors of the estate
of Lawrence in September at Alexandria, *as I am very
deeply interested, not only as executor and heir of
part of his estate, but also in a very important dispute
subsisting between Colonel Lee, who married the widow,
and my brothers and self, concerning a devise in the
will, which brings the whole personal estate in question."
In September, 1757, Washington came to Mount Vernon
to the funeral of William Fairfax, of Belvoir, the father
of Anne. In November, Washington returned to Mount
Vernon in bad health and was attended by his physician,
Charles Green, who was also rector of Pohick Church.
March 4, 1758, Washington writes from Mount Vernon
that he has been under the care of several physicians,
and intends to set out for Williamsburg to consult the
best doctors there. He returned to his command about
the first of April. When Washington's approaching
marriage made it necessary to enlarge his mansion,
John Patterson writes him June 17, 1758, that he will
take the roof oflF the house as soon as the carpenters
get the laths to shingle on. July 13th, Patterson writes:
"The Great House was rais** six days ago; sixteen
thousand bricks have been burnt for the underpinning."
July 14th, Colonel John Carlyle writes Washington that
his house is now uncovered. August 13th, Patterson
reports that the outside of the house is finished. Hum-
phrey Knight writes Washington, August 24th, "The
great house goes on as brisk as possible. The painter
has been painting 3 days. Our carpenter is now getting
laths to sheath ye great house." The repairs included
new weather boards, closets, floors and a stairway to
18
the attic. It is not necessary to go into the extensive
alterations and additions which were made at various
times later, as they have been fully described by other
writers.
In December, 1758, Washington resigned his com-
mission, and he did not take up the sword again until, in
June, 1775, he was chosen commander-in-chief of the
American armies. In January, 1759, he was married to
Mrs. Martha Custis and stayed at his bride's estate,
White House, in New Kent on the Pamunky, until the
close of the session of the House of Burgesses in May,
when the couple came to live at Mount Vernon. Both
the White House and Mrs. Washington's other residence,
the Six Chimney House in Williamsburg, were finer man-
sions than Mount Vernon was at that time, but she cheer-
fully made her home in the remote and humble dweUing
of Colonel Washington. You may see at Mount Vernon
a pincushion made of her wedding gown — white brocaded
satin, threaded with silver. Washington wrote, 20
September, 1759, from Mount Vernon: "I am now, I
believe, fixed at this seat with an agreeable Consort for
Life, and hope to find more happiness in retirement than
I ever experienced amidst a wide and bustling world."
This is the earUest expression of a thought which runs
through his writings during the rest of his life, his enjoy-
ment in the peaceful retirement of Mount Vernon; but, in
view of his strenuous experiences when General and
President, Washington must have smiled if he recalled
how little he knew at twenty-seven about the "wide and
bustling world."
For sixteen years before the Revolution Washington
led the kind of life he always wished. His earliest daily
record at .Mount Vernon begins January 1, 1760, and
states that on his return from visiting his plantations he
found Mrs. Washington broke out with the measles.
"January 2d Mrs. Barnes who came to visit Mrs. Wash-
19
ington yesterday returned home in my chariot, the
weather being too bad to travel in an open carriage —
which, together with Mrs. Washington's indisposition
confined me to the House and gave me an opportunity
of posting my books and putting them in good order.
January 3d the weather continuing bad and ye same
causes subsisting I confined myself to the house . . .
several of the Family were taken with the
measles . . . Hauled the sein and got some fish, but
was near being disappointed of my boat by means of an
oyster man who had lain at my landing and plagued me a
good deal by his disorderly behavior." I wish I could
give the whole diary. Read it if you would have an
idea of life at old Mount Vernon.
All his life Washington was an outdoor man. He
was conceded to be the best horseman in Virginia. Be-
fore the Revolution he rode a hunting two or three times
a week with neighbors and guests, and the mellow baying
of the long-eared hounds, the distant horn and the view
halloo, resounded from field and wood as the hunt swept
on. When after foxes, sometimes the hounds would
start a deer. Bears were seen near Mount Vernon as
late as 1772. In November, 1785, Thomas Hunter saw
thousands of ducks within gun shot and also wild geese
and turkeys. The wild turkeys sometimes weighed
thirty or forty pounds. Before the Revolution we find
Washington ordering for himself "a pair of crimson
velvet breeches, a pair of double campaigners (boots),
a gentleman's hunting cap covered with black velvet to
fit a pretty large head, cushioned round or stuffed to
make it sit easy thereon, a silk band and handsome sil-
ver buckle to it, one best whole hunting whip, pretty
stout and strong, caped with silver and my name en-
graved thereon. A riding frock of a handsome drab
coloured broad cloth with plain double gilt buttons, a
riding waistcoat of superior scarlet cloth and gold lace
20
with buttons like those of the coat. A large and loud
hunting horn, laped and secured in the strongest man-
ner.'* Washington went to many horse races, and tells
us that on one occasion he went to a boat race on the
Potomac. He records that he made a fishing trip on his
schooner that lasted for several days. At night he slept
on the boat or at the house of friends on the shore. Wash-
ington and his neighbors on the Potomac had barges
manned by negroes in uniform. Among his orders from
England were "a whale boat, long narrow sharp at both
ends, and one dozen neat and light 18 feet oars for a
hght whale boat, the blades scooped and painted." Mr.
Digges was a wealthy planter, whose estate, Warburton,
could be seen across the Potomac in Maryland. At a
signal his barge and that of Washington would meet in
the middle of the river and transfer passengers. Wash-
ington had also a ferry boat in which carriages and horses
were "put over" the Potomac. In 1785 Mrs. Macaulay
Graham, an English authoress, came to America with
her husband for the sole purpose of seeing Washington.
Her history of England in eight volumes is forgotten, but
the ten days they spent at Mount Vernon Washington
has commemorated in his diary. He says: "At seven
o'clock on the morning of June 14th I accompanied them
to Mr. Digges's to which place I had her carriage and
horses put over." When Captain John Smith came up
the Potomac in 1608 it was so full of fish that he states
that he killed them with his sword. In Washington's
time hundreds of shad and thousands of herring were
taken at Mount Vernon by means of seines drawn in by
a windlass turned by horses.
Washington described Mount Vernon as follows:
"No estate in the United States is more pleasantly
situated. In a high and healthy country, in a latitude
between the extremes of heat and cold, on one of the
finest rivers in the world, a river well stocked with
21
various kinds of fish at all seasons of the year,
and in the spring with shad, herring, bass, carp,
sturgeon, etc., in great abundance. The borders
of the estate are washed by more than ten miles
of tidewater; several valuable fisheries appertain to it.
The whole shore, in fact, is one vast fishery." The
estate was divided into Mansion House Farm, River
Farm, Union Farm, Muddy Hole Farm, Dogue Run
Farm. The trolley line crosses the River Farm before
reaching Hunting Creek. There are some thirty build-
ings at Mount Vernon, among which are the kitchen,
connected with the mansion by an arcade, servants'
quarters, butler's house, gardener's house, store house,
smoke house, wash house, stable, coach house, barns,
salt house, carpenter shop, spinning house, where sixteen
wheels were kept going, green house, spring house, milk
house, and an ice house which in mild winters was filled
with snow . It was built when ice houses were curiosities,
for nearly every one hung butter and milk down the well
or kept them in a spring house.
In his will Washington describes himself as "George
Washington of Mount Vernon, a. citizen of the United
States." I will not comment on this important state-
ment further than to suggest that it offers food for
thought by what it omits, no less than by what it includes.
Washington was never really happy away from Mount
Vernon. After the Revolution he wrote: "Agriculture
has ever been the most favorite amusement of my life."
In 1785 a visitor to Mount Vernon stated that Washing-
ton's greatest pride was to be thought the first farmer in
America. That combination of accurate knowledge of
human nature and untiring industry which made him a
great commander made him also a great farmer. He was
master of the art of turning his circumstances to the best
account. At Mount Vernon there was no want, because
there was no waste when the master was there. Though
22
he was a liberal contributor to churches, schools and pri-
vate charities, Washington was economical both of time
and money. He kept in books, in his own writing, lists ol'
all articles ordered and copies of the receipts for them.
He kept daybooks, ledgers and letter books and drew up
contracts, leases and deeds with minute legal knowledge.
Before the Revolution he employed no secretary, and the
mass of his correspondence and other writing added con-
siderably to his many tasks. He was always accurately
informed with regard to the production of each field, the
market value of his crops, the physical condition of work-
ers and of live stock and the daily amount of work done
by each. In farming and in landscape gardening the
element of time is an important factor. Washington
planned his work ahead for as much as three years. He
was an expert judge of the quality of land. He rested
old fields, sowed clover, timothy and other grasses for
hay and for enriching the soil, and rotated his crops in the
most scientific manner of his time. He made roads, cleared
and fenced fields, stopped washouts and drained bogs
and dug ditches. He wrote his overseer: "Whenever you
have leisure to do it, it would be serviceable by way of
stopping the progress of that gully at the mouth of the
lane, at Mansion house — and indeed all others — to drive
stakes across and retain the trash that is swept down with
the torrent. They also serve to break the force of the
water; and by degrees, with other assistance, fill them up.
The gullies I mean, without these obstructions, the de-
scending water from very heavy rains sweep all before
it." "To introduce system, and a regular course of
crops; to introduce grass where, and when proper; to
make meadows and hedges, to recover my fields from
the exhausted, and gullied state in which many of them
are; to improve my stock, and to get into a way of es-
tablishing large dairies, and turning that stock to profit-
able uses and to make much hay which will always be in
23
demand, and command a good price; are much more
desirable objects with me than to push the best of my
fields, out of their regular course with a view to increase
the next or any other year's crops of grain. I know full
well that by picking and culling the fields I should be able
for a year or two to make larger crops of grain; but I
know also that by so doing I shall in a few years make
nothing and find my land ruined." ** Immediate profit
is not so much an object with me as the restoration of
worn out and gullied fields; bringing them in condition to
bear grass, reclaiming and laying swamps to meadovr,
making live fences and ornamenting the grounds about
the Mansion House." "I shall begrudge no reasonable ex-
pense that will contribute to the improvement and neat-
ness of my farms; for nothing pleases me better than to
see them in good order, and everything trim, handsome
and thriving about them."
During the most trying times of the war he
wrote Lund Washington, who was his overseer and
whose home was at Hayfield four miles northwest
of Mount Vernon, a long weekly letter. These letters
have never been published, but the letters written
to his overseers when he was President add greatly to
our knowledge of the character of Washington and of his
methods of doing business. "You must be governed by
circumstances and your own view of the case; with this
caution, not to undertake in this, or in anything else,
more than you can accomplish well, recollecting always,
that a thing but half done is never done ; and well done,
is, in a manner done for ever." "To correct the abuses
which have crept into all parts of my business — to ar-
range it properly, and to reduce things to system; will
require, I am sensible, a good deal of time and your ut-
most exertions; of the last from the character you bear,
I entertain no doubt; the other, I am wiUing to allow,
because I had rather you should probe things to the bot-
24
torn, whatever time it may require to do it, than to de-
cide hastily upon the first view of them, as to establish
good rules, and a regular system, is the life and the soul
of every kind of business." Washington writes his over-
seer that nothing is more interesting to him than hedging.
On the way back to Philadelphia from Mount Vernon in
October, 1795, he says he observed all the hedges about
Christiana, and from there to Wilmington. "I agree to
your taking up the young Cedars along the Creek side,
and transplanting them in the lane as you propose; and
am glad to find you managed the Cedar berries in the
manner you have mentioned ; they certainly will make a
good hedge ; and are a tree of quick growth. " "No hedge,
alone, will, I am persuaded, do for an outer inclosure,
where two or four footed hogs find it convenient to open a
passage." "There is nothing which has relation to my
farms, not even the crops of grain, that I am so solici-
tous about as getting my fields enclosed with live fences."
In 1789, Tobias Lear wrote that there were employed
at Mount Vernon more than two hundred and fifty
hands. The farms were not under the direction of over-
seers at that time, but were superintended by the General
himself, who never failed visiting each of them every day
unless the weather was absolutely stormy. Twenty-
four plows were kept going at all times in the year when
it was profitable for a plow to stir; "we have this spring
already (March 30) put into the ground 600 bushels of
oats, we have in wheat upwards of 700 acres, as much
more prepared for corn, barley, potatoes, peas, beans,
etc., near 500 acres in grass and shall sow this summer 150
acres of turnips. We have 140 horses, 112 cows, 235
working oxen, steers and heifers and 500 sheep — this is
farming to some purpose — we carry on all the trades
which are necessary for the support of those farms within
ourselves — the seat and its offices resemble a little village,
we have carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, blacksmiths, a
25
taylor and a shoemaker all of whom are as constantly
employed in their several occupations as they are in the
largest cities — but notwithstanding all this appearance
of income, we are obliged to live at so great an expense
that it brings in no profit — almost the whole of the pro-
duce is consumed within ourselves — the negroes are not
treated as blacks in general, they are clothed and fed as
well as any laboring people whatever and they are not
subject to the lash of a domineering overseer."
The trades carried on included carpentering, black-
smithing, wagon-making, coopering, shipbuilding, brick -
making, masonry, tanning, shoemaking, harness-
making, milling, distilling, tailoring, spinning, weaving
and knitting. Washington had his own quarry and
made Hme by burning oyster shells brought in boats
from Alexandria. Timber for joists, rafters and boards
was hewn by hand, and the carpenters, when they had
time in bad weather, made houses which were taken
in parts to Alexandria and put up there. Washington
records that two hundred days were spent in building
a schooner, and smaller boats were also built. Before
the Revolution tools, paints and many other requisites
for the constant improvements and repairs were ordered
from England. Charcoal was made for the blacksmith
shop, and Peter, the colored blacksmith, helped in the
construction of plows. Harrows, rakes, wheels for
carts and spinning-wheels and other utensils were also
made. Washington went to great pains to procure or
to make from the best patterns, not infrequently in
accordance with his own original ideas, the best ma-
chinery and tools. One of the first pumps in America
was placed at Mount Vernon when the old oaken bucket,
raised by a rope and windlass or by a long-balanced
pole, was in general use elsewhere. In his diaries,
Washington tells us of riding to his mill, helping in the
construction of a plow, hauling the seine, posting his
26
books on rainy days and carefully preparing the orders
from England. When he was at home he personally
supervised all work and often assisted with his own
hands. Washington rose early and did what would
be a day's work for most people before breakfast. The
full round of his plantations was about ten miles, and
in summer he often rode it before breakfast, while in
winter he would rise at four, light his fire and write by
candlelight; only by this means was he able to keep
his accounts posted and to attend to his letters. When
the General arrived late for breakfast after a ride around
hia farms, Mrs. Washington would join him and cheer
him at the table. He breakfasted at seven in summer
and eight in winter on fish, bacon, ham, eggs, corncakes,
butter, honey, coff'ee or tea. Dinner was at three, later
there was tea, and at nine the General retired. A visitor
states: "The dinner was very good, a small roasted pig,
boiled leg of lamb, roasted fowles, beef, peas, lettuce,
qucumbers, artichokes, puddings, tarts, etc." In 1768,
Washington wrote in his diary: "Would any one believe
that with a hundred and one cows, actually reported at
a late enumeration of the cattle, I should still be obliged
to buy butter for my family?" He devoted much atten-
tion to improving the breeds of sheep, hogs, cattle,
dogs, horses and especially of mules. For breeding
mules the King of Spain sent a jackass called Royal
Gift, and Lafayette obtained another from Malta.
Lafayette also sent hounds, Chinese pheasants and
French partridges. June 25, 1786, Washington wrote:
"Mr. Ogle of Maryland has been so obliging as to present
to me six fawns from his park of English deer at Bellair.
Of the forest deer of this country I have also procured
six, two bucks and four does. With these, and tolerable
care, I should soon have a full stock for my small pad-
dock." In December, 1794, Washington wrote his
overseer: "The gardener complains of the injury which
27
the shrubs (even in the yard) sustain from the deer.
I am at a loss therefore in determining whether to give
up the shrubs or the deer. Is there no way of frighten-
ing them from these haunts?"
In 1788, Gouverneur Morris offered a couple of Chi-
nese pigs, "and in company with the pigs shall be sent a
pair of Chinese geese, which are really the foolishest
geese I ever beheld ; for they choose all times for setting
but in the spring, and one of them is now (November)
actually engaged in that business." Washington ac-
cepted these "exotic animals" with thanks.
Washington made Mount Vernon the first station
of experimental agriculture in America, for there, aided
by information which he received from frequent corre-
spondence with learned agriculturahsts in Europe, he
conducted numerous elaborate experiments on the nature
of soils, fertilizers, seeds and the breeding of stock.
My friend, Mr. John C. Fitzpatrick, of the Manu-
script Division of the Library of Congress, calls my
attention to the fact that, in the minuteness and com-
pleteness of his records of the weather at Mount Vernon,
Washington anticipated by many years the United
States Weather Bureau. He noted in his diaries the
state of the moon, the clouds, the direction of the
wind, and the amount of rain, snow, frost and drought.
January 8, 1785, is the first record of the temperature,
and probably before that date he did not have a ther-
mometer. From then on he recorded the temperature
morning, noon and night, and when he was away, Mrs.
Washington entered it for him. The highest record
is 88°, and when the mercury went below 10° it retired
into the ball, after which the cold could only be guessed
at. Washington's thermometer is one of the interesting
Mount Vernon relics.
It is extraordinary how much Washington, who
was the busiest man in America, did for his estate in
28
a lifetime, during large portions of which he was absent
in the service of his country. With the art of a skill-
ful landscape gardener, he improved the natural beau-
ties of the place. He writes General Knox that, in the
course of the conversation at Boston, he "was most in-
terested by something which was said respecting the
composition for a pubhc walk," and it has been sug-
gested that perhaps the Lovers' Walk of Boston Com-
mon was anticipated at Mount Vernon. On each side
of the east lawn a grove of locusts extended to the
river. Trees and shrubs were carefully trimmed to
make a frame to the view of the Potomac, and care was
taken to keep vistas open in every direction. The level
lawn on the west front, with the wide serpentine walk
shaded by weeping willows, the oval grass plot, the flower
garden on one side and the kitchen garden on the other,
are all laid out according to a plan drawn by Wash-
ington himself and still unchanged. He paid great
attention to his lawns, and the first order sent to
England after his marriage includes "a large assortment
of grass seed." Carefully trimmed box borders outhne
the paths today exactly as in Washington's time, their
dark green making the flower beds flame like stained-
glass windows. Roses named by Washington for his
mother and for Nelly Custis still bloom, together with
yellow, damask, tea, and guilder roses. Old-fash-
ioned flowers and plants are cherished — iris, sweet-
wifliams, spice pinks, ivy, honeysuckle, lilacs and jas-
mine. Mrs. Washington's active interest in the garden
is indicated by this extract from a letter of her husband :
"I have too, Mrs. Washington's particular thanks to
offer you for the flower roots and seeds."
No other hving things bring us so close to Washington
as some of the trees of Mount Vernon, for they were
planted by him, and on them his eyes have rested with
long and loving gaze. Like Cicero's dihgent farmer, he
29
cared for them, knowing that he himself would never reap
the benefit. To see his trees and plants rising from the
earth and flourishing filled Washington's mind with
thoughts which he said it was easier to imagine than
to express. The degree of civilization of a nation, as
well as of an individual, is shown by the care and culture
of its trees, and those who have neglected and destroyed
them have been punished by penalites which, though
slow, have been sure. Washington studied as well as he
could the economic value of forests and the ornamental
properties of trees, but the technical aspects of forestry,
such as reforestration, the relation of forests to mois-
ture and rain fall, water supply, climate and public
health were not so well understood in his time as they
are now. The following books on trees were in Wash-
ington's library: "The Orchardist: or a System of close
Pruning and Medication," by Thomas Bucknall; a
pamphlet by John Robinson, Surveyor-General of
Woods and Forests, London, 1794, "On the state of
waste lands and common fields of Great Britain" ; "The
American Grove," Humphry Marshall, Philadelphia,
1785; an alphabetical catalogue of trees and shrubs of the
United States, with description of their appearance,
manner of growth and hints of their uses in medicine,
dyes and domestic economy. Professor Sargent informs
me that this is the first book on botany written by an
American. In 1917, Professor Sargent thought that
there were fifty-seven trees which had been planted by
Washington. In his book, the study of which adds
interest to the visit to Mount Vernon, Professor Sargent
says: "Three yellow poplars were undoubtedly planted
under Washington's personal direction. ' ' Seven buckeye-
trees grown from seeds, gathered by him in what is
now West Virginia, have red, pink, and flesh-colored
flowers on different individuals. Trees with flowers of
these colors exist at Mount Vernon alone. The mag-
30
nolia planted by Washington is the most famous tree
at Mount Vernon. Three hemlocks planted by him
still remain. Three box trees probably planted by him
are among the handsomest and most interesting trees.
Washington wished to have perfect specimens of
every tree that would grow at Mount Vernon. He per-
sonally superintended the selection of the most beautiful
from the neighboring woods, and watched them with care
until it was clear that the transplanting was successful.
He arranged them symmetrically, and mingled forest
trees, flowering shrubs and evergreens so as to produce
the most agreeable effect. Washington writes, January
27, 178.5: "Went to Belvoir and viewed the ruined build-
ings of that place. In doing this I passed along the side
of Dogue Creek and the river to the White House in
search of elm and other trees for my shrubberies and
found none of the former but discovered one fringe
tree and a few crab trees in the first field beyond my
line — and in returning home, which I did to dinner, I
found several young holly trees." The next day he
says: "Rode today to my plantations in the Neck —
partly with a view to search for trees for which purpose
I passed through the woods and in the first drain beyond
the bars in my lower pasture, I discovered in tracing it
upwards, many small and thriving plants of the mag-
nolia and about and within the fence not far distant,
some young maple trees and the red berry of the swamp.
I also along the Branch within Col. Mason's field came
across a mere nursery of young crab trees of all sizes
and handsome and thriving, and along the same branch
on the outer side of the fence I discovered several young
holly trees. But whether from the real scarcity or
difficulty of distinguishing I could find none of the fringe
tree." Exotic plants were cultivated with care by
Washington. Amariah Frost wrote, 1797: "We viewed
the gardens and walks, which are very elegant, abound-
31
ing with many curiosities, fig-trees, raisins, limes,
oranges, large English mulberries, artichokes, etc."
In what he called his Botanical Garden between the
flower-garden and the spinner's house, Washington car-
ried on much of his investigation. The nurseries,
gardens and greenhouse were filled with choice collec-
tions of rare plants, fruit trees, vegetables and flowers.
To do this was not easy at a time when means of com-
munication and transportation were almost primitive,
but admirers in all parts of the world knew that the best
way to please the most distinguished man in the world
was to send him a choice plant or animal for his estate.
Washington's favorite Bible quotation about the shade
of his own vine and fig-tree was not entirely a figure
of speech, for fig-trees were trained on the warm side
of the north garden wall, and he paid much attention to
the cultivation of grapes. They are frequently men-
tioned. We read, for instance, that the French minister,
Luzerne, sent vines, diff'erent kinds "of the most valu-
able eating grapes in France." It is not in accordance
with his character that the story by which Washington
is most widely known represents him as wantonly de-
stroying a cherry-tree. In later years he wrote: "It
is always in one's power to cut a tree down, but time
only can place them where one would have them."
All Washington's life he was acting in accordance with
the sentiment which later was expressed by Sir Walter
Scott, who did for Abbotsford what Washington did for
Mount Vernon — "When ye hae naithing else to do,
ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing,
when ye're sleeping." The passages in Washington's
letters and diaries, in which he speaks of his trees, would
make a book of considerable size. For years his diaries
show that in February and March he was employed in
setting out and grafting fruit trees; for instance, March
21, 1763, "Grafted 10 cherrys, viz., 12 Bullock Hearts
32
(a large black May Cherry), 18 very fine May Cherry,
10 Coronation. Also grafted 12 Magnum Bonum Plums.
Also planted 4 Nuts of the Mediterranean Pine.
Note: the cherrys and plums came from Col. Mason's,
the nuts from Mr. Green's." He mentions grafting or
planting Spanish Pears, Butter Pears, Black Pear
of Worcester, Bergamy Pears, New Town Pippins from
Col. Mason, who had them from Mr. President Blair,
and grapes from Mr. Digges. Washington set out
lilac, sassafras, dogwood, aspen, mulberry, maple, black
gum, poplar, locust, yellow willow, pines, juniper, ever-
greens, spruce, peach-trees, hemlocks, weeping willow
and magnolia. He was extremely fond of nuts and
planted many nut trees. Three pecans planted by
him before the Revolution were given him by Jefferson
and have not yet attained middle age. The diary states
September 15, 1763: "Planted in 11 holes on the west
side of the Garden 22 English walnuts," and he also
speaks of planting shellbarks, filberts and twenty-five
Mississippi nuts, somewhat like the pignut, but larger,
thinner shelled and fuller of meat. Washington wrote
from Philadelphia to his overseer, 22d Feb., 1794: "I
have shipped three bushels of Clover seed; two bushels
of honey locust seed; and a keg of scaley bark hiccory
nuts; — the two last are in one Cask: . . . Tell the
Gardener he must plant the hiccory nuts in drills; — as
the Illinois nuts herewith sent, must also be: — and they
may be put near together in the drills, as they will be
transplanted when they get to a proper size." The
Illinois nuts were pecans. The diary shows that all the
spring of 1785 Washington was busy grafting and plant-
ing trees. January 19th, "Employed till dinner in laying
out my Serpentine Road and Shrubberies adjoining.
February 22nd — Removed two pretty large and full
grown lilacs to the No. Garden gate— one on each side
taking up as much dirt with the roots as could be well
33
obtained — I also removed from the woods and old fields,
several young trees of the Sassafras, Dogwood and Red-
bud, to the Shrubbery on the No. side the grass plot.
February 28th — Planted all the Mulberry trees, Maple
trees and Black gums in my Serpentine walks — and the
Poplars on the right walk." March 23, 1786, he says
he planted between 17,000 and 18,000 seeds of the
honey locust. In 1794, 5000 plants of the white thorn
were sent to him by Mr. Lear from London. Washing-
ton was indebted to trees for his mansion. The frame-
work is of oak, the sheathing North Carolina pine and
the shingles cypress. The last time he left the house,
which was the afternoon of the day before he died, he
walked out through the snow to mark some trees to
be cut down between the mansion and the river. His
last letter was to his manager about the care of Mount
Vernon. At his death he left written plans for the
rotation of crops up to the end of 1803.
In a letter to his neighbor, George Mason, wTitten
in 1769, Washington speaks of those "who live genteely
and hospitably on clear estates," and this is an exact
description in eight words of the life at Mount Vernon.
Though Washington said "we Hve in a state of peaceful
tranquiUity," Mount Vernon was by no means quiet.
The original brass knocker hangs on the central door,
but I doubt if it was ever used, for long before reaching
the door the arrival of company was announced by the
barking of the dogs. Martha Washington writes that
when she had gone on a visit and left her small son at
home, every time the dogs barked she thought it was a
messenger for her. If a day passed without company
at Mount Vernon Washington mentioned it in his
diary. It has been figured out that in two months in
1768 Washington had company to dinner or to spend
the night on twenty-nine days, and dined away or
visited on seven. People whose very names their host
34
did not know were entertained there. Mount Vernon
stands back a mile from the road to Colchester. Though
the house can be seen from a considerable distance,
people did not arrive there by accident. In 1787
Washington wrote: 'My house may be compared to a
well resorted tavern, as scarcely any strangers who
are going from north to south, or from south to north,
do not spend a day or two at it." "Those who resort
here are strangers and people of the first distinction."
Washington had so many letters to write and so much
company that he was deprived of exercise. Persons
who had been connected with the army wished certifi-
cates in order to prove claims against the government:
these made it necessary to spend much time consulting
his records. For more than two years after the war
he had no secretary. If David Humphries, Yale, 1771,
who was later one of his secretaries and who did much
literary work at Mount Vernon, had only given us an
exact account of the daily life there, he would have
earned lasting gratitude. Instead of which he produced
a poem in the stilted manner of the period, beginning:
"By broad Potowmack's azure tide,
Where Vernon's Mount, in sylvan pride
Displays its beauties far,
Great Washington, to peaceful shades,
Where no unhallow'd wish invades,
Retir'd from fields of war."
Though he lived simply and kept early hours, George
Washington always paid great attention to the manner
of doing things, and the grand air which he learned in
his youth from Lord Fairfax he always retained. Dis-
tinguished guests were lighted to their rooms by the
General himself. The broad piazza overlooking the
river was the usual meeting place when the weather
permitted. The amount of entertaining which the
Washingtons expected to do may be inferred from the
35
fact that six carving knives and forks are in the first
order from England after their marriage. They were
both of them particular about their clothes, china,
furniture and equipages. When at Mount Vernon Mrs.
Washington dressed plainly. When she drove to Alex-
andria or Annapolis or Williamsburg with her coach
and four, with the negro postillions and coachman in
white and scarlet, she dressed as was fitting. In Decem-
ber, 1755, Washington ordered from London two complete
livery suits for servants. "I would have you choose
the livery by our arms, only as the Field of the Arms
is white; I think the cloaths had better not be quite so,
but nearly like the Inclosed. The Trimmings and
Facings of Scarlet and a scarlet waistcoat. If Livery
Lace is not quite disusd I should be glad to have these
cloaths Lacd, as I like that taste best, also two Silver
Lacd Hatts to the above Livery's." August 10, 1764,
he ordered "A Livery suit to be made of worsted
shagg of the Inclosed colour and fineness lined with red
shalloon and made as follows: The coat and Breeches
alike with a plain white washed button — the button
holes worked with mohair of the same colour. A collar
of red shagg to the coat with a narrow lace like Inclosed
round it — a narrow cuff of the same colour of the coat
turned up to the bent of the arm and lacd round at
that part — the waistcoat made of red shagg (worsted
shagg also) and lacd with the same lace as that upon
the collar and sleeves." No doubt it was that the white
flowers of the dogwood and the red of the redwood
might reproduce his colors that, March 1, 1795, Wash-
ington planted "A circle of Dogwood with a Red bud
in the middle close to the old cherry tree near the south
garden house."
Washington paid his debts promptly, and no man
was more liberal to the poor or more ready to give
his time and money to the public service. When he
36
took command of the Army in 1775 he wrote Lund
Washington, who had charge of his affairs at Mount
Vernon: "Let the hospitahty of the house, with respect
to the poor, be kept up. Let no one go hungry away.
If any of this kind of people should be in want of corn,
supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage
them in idleness; and I have no objection to your giving
my money in charity, to the amount of forty or fifty
pounds a year, when you think it well bestowed. What
I mean by having no objection is, that it is my desire
that it should be done." "I wish that my horses and
stock of every kind should be fed with judicious plenty
and economy, but without the least profusion or waste."
One of the overseers wrote: " I had orders from
General Washington to fill a cornhouse every year, for
the sole use of the poor in my neighborhood, to whom
it was a most seasonable and precious relief, saving
numbers of poor women and children from extreme
want, and blessing them with plenty ... He
owned several fishing stations on the Potomac, at which
excellent herring were caught, and which, when salted,
proved an important article of food to the poor. For
their accommodation he appropriated a station — one of
the best he had — and furnished it with all the necessary
apparatus for taking herring. Here the honest poor
might fish free of expense, at any time, by only an ap-
plication to the overseer; and if at any time unequal to
the labor of hauling the seine, assistance was rendered
by order of the General." In 1794, Washington gave
his overseer definite instructions with regard to the
entertainment of visitors at Mount Vernon. There
were, he said, three classes of persons to whom should be
given: "First, my particular and intimate acquaintance,
in case business should call them there, such for in-
stance as Doctor Craik, — 2ndly some of the most respect-
able foreigners who may, perchance, be in Alexandria or
37
the federal city ; and be either brought down, or intro-
duced by letter from some of my particular acquaintance
as before mentioned; or thirdly, to persotis of some
distinction (such as members of Congress & etc) who
may be travelling through the Country from North to
South, or from south to North ... I have no
objection to any sober or orderly person's gratifying
their curiosity in viewing the buildings, Gardens &ct
about Mount Vernon; but it is only to such persons as
I have described, that I ought to be run to any expense on
account of these visits of curiosity, beyond common
civility and hospitahty, — No gentleman who has a
proper respect for his own character (except relations
and intimates) would use the house in my absence for
the sake of conveniency (as it is far removed from the
pubHc roads) unless invited to do so by me or some
friend; — nor do I suppose any of this description would
go there without a personal or written introduction."
Washington's abihty to express a proposition clearly
and to refuse a request gracefully is exemplified in the
following letter — which he wrote October 30, 1787:
"My fixed determination is, that no person whatever
shall hunt upon my grounds or waters — To grant leave
to one, and refuse another, would not only be drawing
a line of discrimination which would be offensive, but
would subject one to great inconvenience — for my strict
and positive orders to all my people are if they hear a
gun fired upon my land to go immediately in pursuit
of it. Permission therefore to anyone would keep them
either always in pursuit — or make them inattentive to
my orders under the supposition of its belonging to a
licensed person by which means I should be obtruded
upon by others who to my cost I find had other objects
in view. Besides, as I have not lost my relish for this
sport when I can find time to indulge myself in it, and
Gentlemen who come to the House are pleased with it,
38
it is my wish not to have the game within my jurisdic-
tion disturbed. For these reasons I beg you will not
take my refusal amiss, because I would give the same
to my brother if he lived off my land."
It is entirely owing to the efforts of the Mount
Vernon Ladies' Association that when you cross the
threshold of the mansion, you step into the home life
of the Washingtons. George and Martha made their
house a beautiful home, filled with handsome furniture
of a period when furniture was noted for its substantial
elegance. They were both of them particular about the
appointments of the table, and Washington goes with
minute care into details of wine-glasses, finger-bowls,
decanters, butter-boats, tureens and other dishes. It
is possible here to mention but a few of the priceless
relics of Washington with which the Ladies of Mount
Vernon have filled the mansion. I am especially inter-
ested in the tools with which Washington worked. His
surveyor's tripod is in the library. At sixteen he was
earning his Hving by surveying, and he worked at it in
later years, sometimes making surveys of Hunting
Creek and other streams on the ice. As late as April
21, 1785, he records that he went to Abingdon in his
barge, "Took my instruments with intent to survey the
land I hold by purchase on four mile run three miles
above Alexandria," but the surveying ended abruptly,
because Billy Lee, who was carrying the chain, fell and
broke his knee pan, so that he had to be carried to
Abingdon on a sled, as he could neither walk, stand, nor
ride. A book might be written about the inkstand
from which Washington dipped so many historic lines.
In the hall are the swords with which he directed his
troops. In leaving them to his nephews he tells them
not to unsheath them for the purpose of shedding blood,
except for self-defense or in defense of their country and
its rights, and in the latter case to keep them unsheathed,
39
and to prefer falling with them in their hands to the
relinquishment thereof. Washington's spy-glasses are
poor things compared with modern binoculars, but he
was the best observer in either army, and always wished
to do his reconnoitering with his own eyes. He strained
his eyes, so that he had to use spectacles, and remarked
that he had not only grown old but blind in the service.
You will see the implements with which he worked,
but you will look in vain for pictures of Washington
crossing the Delaware, or of Cornwallis surrendering at
Yorktown; for, as the poet Prior said of William of Orange,
the monuments of Washington's actions are to be seen
everywhere except in his own house. I do not under-
stand the flute in the music room, for Washington wrote
Francis Hopkinson that he could n<'iiher sing one of
his songs nor raise a single note on any instrument. In
his earliest account-book there is an entry when Wash-
ington was sixteen "to cash pd ye -Musick Master for
my Entrance 3/9." An artist has painted the old
Washington at Mount Vernon playing the flute, and
another well-known painting represents the Washingtons
entertaining Lafayette on the piazza, the party being
seated in the best parlor chairs. Mrs. Washington was
too careful a housekeeper to take her parlor chairs out
even for Lafayette, and thirty windsor chairs were pro-
vided for the porch. The large number of chairs indi-
cates that the Washingtons had to be prepared to re-
ceive many friends. A better subject fbr a painter,
and one which has never been used, is furnished by
Elkanah Watson, who, in January, 1785, spent at Mount
Vernon what he calls "two of the richest days of my
life." He says: "I found him (Washington) kind and
benignant in the domestic circle, revered and beloved
by all around him; agreeably social, without ostenta-
tion; delighting in anecdote and adventures, without
assumption; his domestic arrangements harmonious
40
and systematic. His servants seemed to watch his
eye, and to anticipate his every wish; hence a look was
equivalent to a command. His servant, Billy, the
faithful companion of his military career, was always at
his side, smiling content, animated and beamed on every
countenance in his presence." Watson had a severe
cough, and he says, some time after he had retired, "the
door of my room was gently opened and on drawing my
bed-curtains, to my utter astonishment, I beheld Wash-
ington himself, standing at my bed-side with a bowl of
hot tea in his hand." What a picture: the General with
his old military cloak thrown over his broad shoulders,
a candle in one hand and the bowl of tea in the other,
and the astonished face of Watson peering out between
the bed curtains! I wonder how Washington got that
tea in those days when water froze in the kettle at night
and they had to light the fire with a flint. Watson says
that Washington talked about little else for two days
but the navigation of the Potomac.
In the hall hangs the original deed of 1674 by
which John Washington, the emigrant, great grand-
father of George, derived from Lord Culpepper his
title to Mount Vernon. If you are fond of puzzles
try to read it. The Houdon bust, which Stuart called
the only representation of Washington better than
his own portraits, was made at Mount Vernon. It
is by no means the least of the debts America owes
to France. Houdon, the most celebrated sculptor
of that time, came from France at the request of
the General Assembly of Virginia in order to model
Washington from life. With his three assistants he
arrived from Alexandria by water at eleven o'clock
at night. He remained about three weeks, and made a
cast of the face, head and shoulders and took minute
measurements of the body. Amid so much that is
vague and legendary, the Houdon statute stands forth
41
clear in its artistic and historic accuracy. No work of
art exists that is more authentic. "From its inception
to its completion it is historically marked by a chrono-
logical record of facts, resolutions, correspondence and
inscriptions which will preserve its identity and char-
acter through all time ; and what is most rare, its per-
fect similitude to the original is established by facts and
opinions as convincing as human testimony can fur-
nish." Lafayette said that it is a "fac-simile of Wash-
ington's Person."
Other representations of Washington had been
executed at Mount Vernon before the arrival of
Houdon. In May, 1772, Charles Willson Peale painted
Washington in the blue and red uniform of a colonel of
Virginia militia, and he made also miniatures of Mrs.
Washington and her two children. Peale returned in
January, 1774, and painted the portrait of John Parke
Custis. Peale says in his diary that, as he was leaving,
Colonel Washington gave him a cup and saucer to take
to his wife as a souvenir. April 28, 1784, Robert Edge
Pine came and remained three weeks, painting Wash-
ington and the two grandchildren, George Washington
Custis and Nelly Custis.
The Key of the Bastille sent to Washington by
Lafayette gives an international emphasis to Wash-
ington's efforts for freedom. The fourteenth of July,
1789, the day of the destruction of that fortress,
where for four hundred years Frenchmen had been
imprisoned without a trial, is to the French what the
Fourth of July is to us.
At Mount Vernon the cultivation of no part of
Washington's nature was neglected. He found abundant
exercise for his body in hard work on his farms, in the
long rides which it was necessary for him to take, in
hunting with his horses and hounds, and he was a stately
and graceful dancer. Books, letters, pondering on im-
42
portant matters and converse with intellectual neigh-
bors like George Alason and Lord Fairfax, exercised his
mind. He found uplift for his soul in reading his Bible,
in communion with his good wife, who was a woman of
eminent piety, and in the church services at Pohick and
Alexandria. On Sundays, when the Washingtons were
stormbound, he read the Bible and sermons to his family
with distinct and precise enunciation. There is a book
entirely in his writing of prayers for the mornings and
evenings of different days of the week, which he care-
fully compiled from sentences in the Book of Common
Prayer, and there is a pocket note-book in which Wash-
ington has entered Bible references. With the exception
of an interlined note, all the entries in the family Bible
are in his writing. In 1794 he wrote Charles Thompson
that he had finished reading the first part of his trans-
lation of the Septuagint. Washington often quotes the
Scriptures, his favorite reference being to the verse in
Micah about reposing under his own vine and fig-tree.
He expresses a wish that the swords might be turned to
plough shares, the spears into pruning-hooks, and as the
Scripture expresses it, "the nations learn war no more."
He regrets that Noah allowed the tobacco worms to get
into the ark, and in my "Washington as Man of Letters"
I have given other quotations showing that Washington
was very familiar with the Bible. His nephew, Bobert
Lewis, said that he had accidentally witnessed Wash-
ington's private devotions in his library both morning
and evening, and had seen him kneeUng with an open
Bible before him, and that this was his daily habit.
Washington went to his library at four in the morning,
and, after his devotions, spent the time till breakfast in
writing and study. He also spent an hour in his library
before retiring at night, and he wrote: "It is my inten-
tion to retire (and unless prevented by very particular
company, I always do retire) either to bed or to my study
43
soon after candlelight." The library was rich in books
of devotion, and Mrs. Washington is known to have
been a great reader of them. That the General read
them also is shown by his letters. In 1789, acknowledg-
ing a sermon on the text "But ye shall die like men,"
Washington not only says that he has read the sermon ,
but also that he approves the doctrine inculcated.
August 14, 1797, Washington wrote the Reverend Zacha-
riah Lewis, thanking him for the sermons he had sent, und
saying that the doctrine in them is sound and does credit
to the author. Nelly Custis wrote Jared Sparks with
regard to Washington: "He attended the church at
Alexandria when the weather and roads permitted, a
ride of ten miles. In New York and Philadelphia he
never omitted attendance at church in the morning,
unless detained by indisposition. The afternoon was
spent in his own room at home; the evening with his
family, and without company. Sometimes an old and
intimate friend called to see us for an hour or two; but
visiting and visitors were prohibited for that day. No
one in church attended to the services with more re-
verential respect. My grandmother, who was eminently
pious, never deviated from her early habits. She always
knelt. The General, as was then the custom, stood
during the devotional parts of the service." Bishop
White states that Washington's manner at church was
always serious and attentive. A foreign house guest at
Mount Vernon observed that on Sabbath evening there
was no secular music and not even a game of chess.
Throughout his campaigns Washington was always care-
ful about religious services. William Fairfax wrote him
in 1754 that he had no doubt that his having public
prayers in camp would have great influence with the
Indians. Washington read the funeral service over
General Braddock, and as a young officer frequently
read prayers and the Scriptures to his men. During the
44
French and Indian War Colonel Temple "more than
once found him on his knees at his devotions." In his
diary Washington records: "Williamsburg June 1, 1774,
went to church and fasted all day." Unless a clergyman
was present Washington always asked a blessing at his
table. We. have seen how particular Augustine Wash-
ington was in his attendance on vestry meetings. The
Pohick vestry book shows that his son was equally
scrupulous. From 1763 to 1774 George Washington
attended twenty-three of the thirty-one meetings of
Pohick vestry, once he was sick in bed, twice he was in
attendance on the House of Burgesses, and three times
he is known to have been out of the county, and the
other two times he was probably out of county. Rev.
Charles Green, who was rector of Pohick, 1738-65, was
also the family physician and a valued friend. His suc-
cessor, Rev. Lee Massey, wrote: "I never knew so con-
stant an attendant in church as Washington, and his
behavior in the house of God was ever so deeply rev-
erential that it produced the happiest effect on my con-
gregation and greatly assisted me in my pulpit labors.
No company ever withheld him from church. I have
often been at Mount Vernon on Sabbath morning, when
his breakfast table was filled with guests ; but to him they
furnished no pretext for neglecting his God and losing
the satisfaction of setting a good example. For, in-
stead of staying at home out of false complaisance to
them, he used constantly to invite them to accompany
him." It has been objected that Washington's diary
shows that in 1760 he went to Pohick church but sixteen
times, but services were not held at Pohick every Sun-
day. Doubtless there were Sundays when bad roads and
inclement weather made it impossible to get there, and
there were other Sundays when Washington was away
from home. It is even possible that he may have been
to church and omitted to enter the fact in his diary.
45
There are numerous records of Washington's attending
church when away from home. Jared Sparks, who
studied Washington's manuscripts as no other person
has been able to do, states: "After a long and minute
examination of the writings of Washington, public and
private, in print and in manuscript, I can affirm that
I have never seen a single hint or expression from which
it could be inferred that he had any doubt of the Christ-
ian revelation, or that he thought with indifference
or unconcern of that subject. On the contrary, whenever
he approaches it, and indeed whenever he alludes in
any manner to religion, it is done with seriousness and
reverence." "If a man, who spoke, wrote, and acted
as a Christian through a long life, who gave numerous
proofs of his believing himself to be such, and who was
never known to say, write or do a thing contrary to his
professions, if such a man is not to be ranked among the
beUevers of Christianity, it would be impossible to estab-
lish the point by any train of reasoning."
When in 1773 Mrs. Washington's onl> daughter,
beautiful Patsy Custis, was fatally stricken, Washington
knelt by her side and prayed fervently for her recovery.
His diary states, June 19th: "At home all day — about
five o'clock poor Patsy Custis died suddenly." The next
day Washington wrote: "She expired in less than two
minutes without uttering a word or groan or scarce a
sigh, the sweet innocent girl entered into a more happy
and peaceful abode than she has met with in the afflicted
path she has hitherto trod. It is an easier matter to
conceive than to describe the distress of this family
at the loss of dear Patsy Custis. This sudden and un-
expected blow, I need scarce add has almost reduced my
poor wife to the lowest ebb of misery ; which is increased
by the absence of her son who is a student in King's
College, New York." Patsy was laid to rest in the old
tomb on the twentieth. The diary states the nineteenth
46
was very warm and clear, with a south wind. The day of
the funeral it was still very warm, with thunder and
appearances of rain, but none fell at Mount Vernon.
The custom of placing the tomb near the mansion caused
the departed to continue in a peculiar and intimate
manner members of the household, and the proximity of
the mortal remains of loved ones like Patsy Custis and
Lawrence Washington kept the eternal verities constantly
before the thoughtful mind.
Washington could not have been the man he was
without the inspiration of his deeply pious nature. No
one was more fully convinced than he that without
righteousness no nation can be exalted, and this funda-
mental truth pervades his voluminous writings. There
is no sentiment more sincere or more frequent than his
confidence in God and gratitude for His mercies. In
1755, after his campaign with Braddock, Washington
writes: "By all the powerful dispensations of Provi-
dence, I have been protected beyond all human prob-
ability or expectation ; for I had four bullets through my
coat and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt
although death was levelling my companions on every
side of me." In 1789 he wrote: "When I contemplate
the interposition of Providence, as it was manifested in
guiding us through the Revolution, in preparing us for
the reception of a General Government, and in conciliat-
ing the good will of the people of America towards one
another, after its adoption, I feel myself oppressed and
almost overwhelmed, with a sense of the Divine Munifi-
cence." "I am sure there never was a people, who had
more reason to acknowledge a divine interposition in
their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should
be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency,
which was so often manifested during our Revolution
or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that
God, who is alone able to protect them."
47
Little has been written about the conferences which
some of the most important men of those critical times
held at Mount Vernon. George Mason, who drafted the
first Constitution of Virginia, lived at Gunston Hall, a
few miles down the river. Among Washington's papers
are the Fairfax Resolves, in the writing of Mason, adopted
by a committee of which Washington was chairman,
July 18, 1774. There were twenty-four of these resolu-
tions, forming one of the most important documents in
our early history. They may be summed up in the
statement — we will religiously maintain and inviolably
adhere to such measures as shall be concerted by the
general Congress for the preservation of our lives,
liberties and fortunes. Jefferson drafted the Declaration
of Independence, but the essential ideas of that great
document may be found in the Fairfax resolves, with
which Jefferson as a Virginia statesman was perfectly
familiar. There can be little doubt that Washington
and Mason did a large part of the work on these resolu-
tions at Mount Vernon. Two weeks later these resolves
were in effect adopted by the Virginia Convention, where
Washington represented Fairfax County, and they formed
the basis of Virginia's instructions to her delegates to
the first Continental Congress. Before that Congress
Washington enters in his diary: "August 30 — Colo.
Pendleton, Mr. Henry, Colo. Mason, and Mr. Thos.
Triplet, came in the evening and stayed all night.
31. All the above gentlemen dined here; after which with
Colo. Pendleton and Mr. Henry, I set out on my journey
to Philadelphia.'' Horatio Gates, Henry Lee and others
had an important conference at Mount Vernon, May 3,
1775, and the next day Washington set out for the
Second Congress at Philadelphia. Historians have paid
little attention to the Mount Vernon Convention held
in March, 1785. At this time our country was in greater
peril than during the war, because the pressure from
48
without, which held the states together, being removed,
they were in danger of falHng apart, so that Washington
wrote: "what astonishing changes a few years are capable
of producing. I am told that even respectable characters
speak of a monarchical form of government without
horror. From thinking proceeds speaking; thence to
acting is often but a step. But how irrevocable and
tremendous." Commissioners had been appointed by
Maryland and Virginia to settle the navigatibn and
jurisdiction of the Chesapeake and Potomac. Among the
delegates were Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Samuel
Chase and George Mason. The commission recom-
mended a uniformity of duties, currency and commercial
regulations, and, in consequence of this, Virginia sent
out an invitation to all the states which resulted in the
convention which framed our Constitution. A pleasant
instance of neighborly courtesy is described when
Washington recorded in his diary that he sent Mr. Mason
home from the convention in his carriage, "by the return
of which he sent me some young shoots of the Persian
jessamine and Guelder rose."
Washington took great pains to secure the most
exact information on subjects which interested him.
All his life he was buying books. His library of more
than a thousand volumes, mostly on agriculture, govern-
ment and military affairs was a large one for that time.
An interesting date is Friday, June 16, 1786, when Wash-
ington records: "Began about 10 o'clock to put up the book
press in my study." Washington had at Mount Vernon
more than two hundred folio volumes of his documents,
and these formed only a part of his manuscripts. His
diary speaks of entire days spent in writing. In 1797,
he states that he intends to erect a building at Mount
Vernon for the security of his papers. How restful it
was for him to turn aside from weighty and perplexing
matters of state and the selfish designs of politicians, and
49
to write: "I have a high opinion of beans." "Of all the
improving and ameliorating crops, none in my opinion
is equal to potatoes." It was in his library that Wash-
ington made those painstaking studies of republican
forms of government, the notes of which still exist
in his writing. He made good use of them when he
presided at the Constitutional Convention, which con-
vened in 1787. We form a better idea of his sacrifices
for our country as we picture him before the convention,
going around Mount Vernon for ten days with his arm
in a sHng because of rheumatism. Few Americans under-
stand that if we had had no Washington we should not
have had our Constitution; not only because of his
powerful agency in framing it and his great influence
in securing its adoption, but because the certainty that
Washington would be first President made the people
sure that the provisions of the Constitution would be
interpreted with wisdom and executed with justice.
Not until Washington was elected was the chief power
in America vested in a single person, and in Washington
the highest power was entrusted to the most worthy,
which is the greatest assurance of good government.
Respect for Washington among the nations of Europe
gave dignity to our new government.
In 1791 Major L'Enfant,who had served as engineer
in the American army, spent some time with Washing-
ton at Mount Vernon, and in consultation with the Presi-
dent drew up the plans of the Federal City, which was
afterwards called Washington. In September, 1798,
Washington laid the corner stone of the capitol. There
is no doubt that nothing but the extreme conscientious-
ness of Washington, and his reluctance to use his in-
fluence for his own advantage, is responsible for locating
the Federal City so far away from Mount Vernon.
It was from Mount Vernon, May 20, 1792, that
Washington wrote Madison concerning matters which
50
he says he had been revolving in his mind with thoughtful
anxiety. He asked Madison to turn his thoughts to a
valedictory address, and to say, among other things:
"That we are all the children of the same country, a
country great and rich in itself — capable and promising
to be as prosperous and as happy as any the annals of
history have ever brought to our view — that our interest,
however diversified in local and smaller matters, is the
same in all the great and essential concerns of the nation.
That the extent of our country — the diversity of our
climate and soil — and the various productions of the
States consequent of both, are such as to make one part
not only convenient, but perhaps indispensably neces-
sary to the other part; and may render the whole (at
no distant period) one of the most independent in the
world. That the established government being the work
of our own hands, with the seeds of amendment engrafted
in the Constitution may by wisdom, good dispositions,
and mutual allowances; aided by experience, bring it as
near to perfection as any human institution ever approxi-
mated; and therefore, the only strife among us ought to
be, who should be foremost in facilitating and finally
accomplishing such great and desirable objects; by giv-
ing every possible support and cement to the Union."
Here we have the idea of the Farewell Address carefully
thought out by Washington at Mount Vernon more than
four years before the address was published. Washing-
ton was at Mount Vernon from June 20 to August 17,
1796, and made the final draft of his Farewell Address,
which was made public in September. Lossing wrote:
"Of all the associations which cluster around Mount
Vernon, none should be dearer to the heart of freedom
and good order than that connected with Washington's
Farewell Address." And Daniel Webster said: "Whenever
his Farewell Address to his country shall be forgotten,
and its admonitions rejected by the people of America,
51
from that time it will become a farewell address to all
the bright hopes of human liberty on earth."
While the sweet influences of Mount Vernon are sink-
ing into our souls, let us not forget the gracious lady who
inspired and comforted her husband throughout so many
anxious years. Martha Washington preferred to re-
main in the background, so that her services to our
country have never been understood and appreciated.
She always encouraged the General to patriotic effort
at the sacrifice of that domestic life to which both were
devoted. At the very beginning of the Revolution she
wrote: "My mind is made up; my heart is in the cause."
For that cause, which was our cause, the Washingtons
placed at stake their lives and all their earthly possessions.
Late in August, 1774, Patrick Henry and Edmund Pendle-
ton spent the night at Mount Vernon, before setting out
with Washington for Philadelphia to attend the first
Continental Congress. Mr. Pendleton has left a charm-
ing description of their hostess at this critical period:
"I was much pleased with Mrs. Washington and her
spirit. She seemed ready to make any sacrifice, and was
cheerful, though I know she felt anxious. She talked like
a Spartan mother to her son on going to battle. 'I hope
you will all stand firm. I know George will,' she said.
The dear little woman was busy from morning until night
with domestic duties, but she gave us much time in con-
versation and aff'ording us entertainment. When we
set off in the morning, she stood in the door and cheered
us with the good words, 'God be with you, gentlemen.' "
Martha Washington little thought, when she said good-
bye to her husband in May, 1775, that it would be more
than six years before he returned to Mount Vernon, and
that when she saw him next he would be five hundred
miles away from home, at the head of the American army.
Till she went to Cambridge she had never been farther
52
north than Alexandria. She travelled in state in the
family coach, attended by liveried servants and accom-
panied by her son and his wife. She filled her difficult
position at Headquarters in the Longfellow house with
tact and courtesy, for she was equal to every situation in
which her husband's exalted station placed her. The
uniform testimony of those who knew Martha Washing-
ton is that she combined, in an extraordinary degree, dig-
nity and affability. You will reaUze her delicacy of feeling
and elevation of character when you read this exquisite
letter which Martha Washington wrote in 1773 to the
girl bride of her only son :
My dear Nelly: God took from Me a Daughter
when June Roses were blooming. He has now given me
another daughter about her Age when Winter winds are
blowing, to warm my Heart again. I am as Happy as
One so Afflicted and so Blest can be. Pray receive my
Benediction and a wish that you may long live the
Loving Wife of my Happy Son, and a Loving Daughter of
Your Affectionate Mother,
M. Washington.
It is to be regretted that no letter from Mrs. Wash-
ing to her husband has been preserved, and that there
are only three letters that he wrote her. Here is one
that is little known. It was written as the newly ap-
pointed general was setting out to take command of the
American army, and was found in Mrs. Washington's
writing desk after her death.
Philadelphia, June 23d.
My Dearest: As 1 am within a few minutes of
leaving this city, I could not think of departing from it
without dropping you a line; especially as I do not know
whether it may be in my power to write again till I get
to the camp at Boston. I go fully trusting in that Pro-
53
vidence, which has been more bountiful to me than I
deserve, and in full confidence of a happy meeting with
you some time in the fall.
I have not time to add more as I am surrounded with
company to take leave of me. I retain an unalterable
affection for you, which neither time or distance can
change. My best love to Jack and Nelly, and regards to
the rest of the Family, concludes me with the utmost
truth and sincerity.
Your entire,
G. Washington.
On his appointment to command of the army, Wash-
ington wrote his half-brother, John Augustine: "I shall
hope that my friends will visit and endeavor to keep up
the spirits of my wife as much as they can, for my de-
parture will, I know, be a cutting stroke upon her; and
on this account I have many disagreeable sensations."
The General also wrote Jack Custis that he thought it
absolutely necessary for the peace and satisfaction of his
mother that he and his wife should live at Mount Vernon
during his own absence.
Mrs. Washington described herself as being "a
kind of walking perambulator" during the war. She
spent every winter with the General at headquarters,
and said that she heard the first and last guns every
season, and "marched home when the campaign was
about to open." Lord Dunmore came up the Poto-
mac to capture her, but the Virginia militia assem-
bled in such numbers that he did not dare to attempt it.
When her friends advised her to move back into the
interior of the country, she said : "No. I will not desert my
post." Valuables and important papers were kept in
trunks, so that they could be moved at a moment's no-
tice. In those times, when there were no telegraphs and
telephones, what anxious days Martha Washington must
54
have spent when important operations were in progress!
For instance, when the British army was landing at the
head of Elk, about to fight a battle which they expected
would destroy her husband's army. Late in August,
1777, while reconnoitering before the battle of the Bran-
dywine, Washington spent the night near the Head of
Elk. This was the nearest that he came to Mount Ver-
non during the war until, as he enters in his diary in 1781 :
"Sunday September 9th. I reached my own Seat at
Mount Vernon (distance 120 miles from Head of Elk)
where I staid till the 12th." The 10th, Washington wrote
Lafayette: "We are thus far on our way to you. The
Count de Rochambeau has just arrived. General
Chastellux will be here and we propose, after resting
to-morrow to be at Fredericksburg on the night of the
12th." It is safe to say that no more welcome visitor
ever has been or will be received at Mount Vernon, for
Rochambeau was in command of the army of France, and
they were on their way to Yorktown. About this time,
however, Mount Vernon had other visitors of distinc-
tion. As far as I know, this letter has never been pub-
lished. It tells of a hurried visit paid to Mount Vernon
by Generals Greene and Steuben during the Southern
Campaign, and was written to Washington by General
Greene.
Mount Vernon, November IMh, 1780.
Sir: I arrived here yesterday about noon, and met with a
kind and hospitable reception by Mrs. Washington and
all the family. Mrs. Washington, Mr. and Mrs. Custis
(who are here) and Mr. Lund Washington and his Lady
are all well.
We set out this morning for Richmond, and it is
now so early that I am obliged to write by candlehght.
Nothing but the absolute necessity of my being with my
command as soon as possible should induce me to make
my stay so short at your Excellency's seat, where there
55
is everything that nature and art can afford to render my
stay happy and agreeable. Mount Vernon is one of the
most pleasant places I ever saw; and I don't wonder
that you languish so often to return to the pleasures of
domestic life. Nothing but the glory of being Com-
mander in Chief, and the happiness of being universally
admired could compensate a person for such a sacrifice
as you make. Baron Steuben is delighted with the place,
and charmed with the reception we met with. Mrs. Wash-
ington sets out for camp about the middle of this week.
In March, 1781, Lafayette, who was carrying on
operations in Virginia which resulted in the penning up
of Cornwallis at Yorktown, came to Mount Vernon, but
he was not entertained there by the General until he
returned to America in 1784. Mrs. General Knox visited
Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon in October, 1781,
while the siege of Yorktown was in progress.
Her active interest in the sick and wounded made
Lady Washington, as the soldiers liked to call her, be-
loved by the army. Her only surviving child, John
Parke Custis, earned the Gold Service Star when he died
near Yorktown of a fever contracted at the siege. Refer-
ring to his death, Washington wrote Lafayette from
Mount Vernon, where he had returned for a week in
November: "This unexpected and affecting event threw
Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Custis, who were both
present, in such deep distress, that the circumstance of it,
and a duty I owed the deceased in assisting at his funeral
rites, prevented my reaching this place till the 13th."
During this stay of a week at his home, Washington
devoted much time to catching up with the arrears of
his correspondence.
Washington resigned his commission at Annapolis,
December 23, 1783, and, once more a private citizen,
reached Mount Vernon with Mrs. Washington on
56
Christmas eve. Relatives and friends had gathered
to welcome them, and the servants made the night
gay with bonfires, fiddling and dancing. February
1, 1784, Washington wrote Lafayette: "At length, my
dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on the
banks of Potomac, and under the shadow of my own vine
and my own fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp and
the busy scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with
those tranquil enjoyments, of which the soldier, who is
ever in pursuit of fame, the statesman, whose watchful
days and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes
to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the ruin of
other countries, as if this globe was insufficient for us all,
and the courtier, who is always watching the counte-
nance of his prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile
can have very little conception."
They were so fast locked in snow and ice after Christ-
mas that it was not until February 11th Washington
was able to go to Fredericksburg to visit his mother; he re-
turned the 19th. April 12th Luzerne, the French minister,
who was spending several days at Mount Vernon, wrote
of Washington: "He dresses in a gray coat like a Virginia
farmer, and nothing about him recalls the recollection of
the important part which he has played, except the
great number of foreigners who come to see him."
Lafayette arrived in New York from France August
4, 1784, and reached Mount Vernon August 17th,
where he remained twelve days. November 14th Wash-
ington went to Richmond, met Lafayette there, and the
Marquis returned to Mount Vernon for a second visit of
a week. November 29th Washington and Lafayette
went to Annapolis, where he bade a final farewell to the
Marquis.
The years from 1784 to 1789 Washington called his
furlough. Brissot de Warville, who visited Mount
Vernon in 1788, wrote: "Everything has an air of sim-
57
plicity in his house, his table is good, but not ostentatious,
and no deviation is seen from regularity and domestic
economy. Mrs. Washington superintends the whole,
and joins to the qualities of an excellent housewife that
simple dignity which ought to characterize a woman
whose husband has acted the greatest part on the theatre
of human affairs; while she possesses that amenity, and
manifests that attention to strangers, which renders
hospitahty so charming." Thomas Lee Shippen wrote
from Mount Vernon: "Mrs. Washington is the very
essence of kindness. Her soul seems to overflow with
it like the most abundant fountain and her happiness is
in exact proportion to the number of objects upon which
she can dispense her benefits."
More than half of the forty-six years of Washing-
ton's ownership of Mount Vernon was spent in the pub-
lic service. In 1798, near the end of his life, he wrote:
"Twenty -five years have passed away since I have con-
sidered myself a permanent resident beneath my own
roof at Mount Vernon." During the Revolution Wash-
ington was always looking forward to the time when he
could return to his beloved home. He wrote his wife:
"I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with
you at home than I have the most distant prospect of
finding abroad if my stay were to be seven times seven
years." When it became probable that he would be
chosen first President of the United States, he wrote
John Armstrong, April 25, 1788:
"I well remember the observation you made in
your letter to me of last year, 'that my domestic retire-
ment must suff'er an interruption.' This took place,
notwithstanding it was utterly repugnant to my feelings,
my interests, and my wishes. I sacrificed every private
consideration, and personal enjoyment, to the earnest
and pressing solicitations of those, who saw and knew the
alarming situation of our public concerns, and had no
58
other end in view but to promote the interests of their
country; conceiving that under those circumstances, and
at so critical a moment, an absolute refusal to act might
on my part be construed as a total disregard of my coun-
try, if imputed to no worse motives. I am so wedded
to a state of retirement, and find the occupations of a
rural life so congenial with my feelings that to be drawn
into public at my advanced age would be a sacrifice,
that would admit of no compensation." When he was
leaving to be inaugurated at New York, Washington
wrote, April 16, 1789: "I bade adieu to Mount Vernon,
to private life, and to domestic felicity." That Mrs.
Washington shared her husband's regret at leaving
Mount Vernon is clear from the following letter written
in December, 1789: "I little thought when the war was
finished that any circumstances could possibly happen
which would call the General into public life again. I
had anticipated that, from that moment, we should be
suffered to grow old together, in solitude and tranquility.
That was the first and dearest wish of my heart. I will
not, however, contemplate with too much regret disap-
pointments that were inevitable; though his feelings and
my own were in perfect unison with respect to our pre-
delictions for private life, yet I cannot blame him for
having acted according to his ideas of duty in obeying
the voice of his country. It is owing to the kindness of
our numerous friends, in all quarters, that my new and
unwished for situation is not, indeed, a burden to me.
When I was much younger I should probably have en-
joyed the innocent gayeties of life as much as most per-
sons of my age; but I had long since placed all the pros-
pects of my future worldly happiness in the still enjoy-
ments of the fireside at Mount Vernon." This is, I believe,
the only letter in which the wife of a newly-elected Presi-
dent expresses her regret at her husband's election.
During his eight years as President in New York
59
and Philadelphia, Washington made such visits to
Mount Vernon as official duties permitted, and he al-
ways thought: "I had rather be at Mount Vernon
with a friend or two about me, than to be attended
at the seat of Government by the officers of state
and representatives of every power in Europe." On
their return to Mount Vernon after the Presidency,
Mrs. Washington wrote Mrs. Knox: "We are so
penurious with our enjoyment that we are loath to
share it with any one but dear friends, yet almost every
day some stranger claims a portion of it, and we cannot
refuse. The twihght is gathering around our lives. I
am again fairly settled down to the pleasant duties of an
old-fashioned Virginia housekeeper, steady as a clock,
busy as a bee, and cheerful as a cricket." She wrote Mrs.
Samuel Powel, of Philadelphia, that she hoped for a visit
"when all things will be blooming here in the spring
except the withering proprietors of the mansion."
Washington lived but two years and nine months
after he retired from the Presidency, March 4, 1797. He
wrote General Knox: "The remainder of my life, which in
the course of nature, cannot be long, will be occupied
in rural amusements; and though I shall seclude myself
as much as possible from the noisy and bustling crowd,
none would more than myself be regaled by the company
of those I esteem at Mount Vernon; more than twenty
miles from which, after I arrive there, it is not likely that
I shall ever be." Washington wrote in October 1797:
"An eight years absence from home (excepting short oc-
casional visits) had so deranged my private affairs; had
so despoiled my buildings; and in a word had thrown
my domestic concerns into such disorder; as at no
period of my life have I been more engaged than in the
last six months to recover and put them in some tolerable
train again." September 28, 1799, he wrote Lawrence
Lewis: "It is my wish to place my estate in this county on
60
a new establishment, thereby bringing it into so narrow a
compass as not only to supersede the necessity of a man-
ager, but to make the management of what I retain in
my own hands a healthy and agreeable amusement to
look after myself, if I should not be again called to the
public service of the country." Who does not sympa-
thize with Washington when he writes McHenry: "Al-
though I have not houses to build (except one, which I
must erect for the accommodation and security of my
Mihtary, Civil and private Papers, which are volumi-
nous and may be interesting) yet I have not one, or
scarcely anything else about me that does not require
considerable repairs. In a word, I am already sur-
surrounded by joiners, masons, painters, etc., etc., and
such is my anxiety to get out of their hands, that I have
scarcely a room to put a friend into, or to sit in myself,
without the music of hammers, or the odoriferous smell
of paint." The collection of Washington's manuscripts
is the largest in the world in the handwriting of one man,
and in 1827 Jared Sparks, with the permission of Judge
Bushrod Washington, who then owned the estate, spent
many weeks at Mount Vernon going over the enormous
mass of them which were then there.
No man loved his home more than Washington, and
yet no man was so ready to leave it at his country's call.
I consider his accepting the command of the army in
1798 the most patriotic act of all his patriotic life. His
fame was bright and secure; he was comfortably es-
tablished at Mount Vernon, where the infirmities of age
were creeping upon him; he had everything to lose and
nothing to gain; no man would be shrewder than Wash-
ington in understanding this; yet he was ready to sacri-
fice reputation and comfort, because he thought that he
might serve his country. He wrote: "As my whole
life has been dedicated to my country in one shape or
another, for the poor remains of it, it is not an object to
61
contend for ease and quiet, when all that is valuable is at
stake, further than to be satisfied that the sacrifice I
should make of these is acceptable and desired by my
country."
Washington would have been touched by the im-
portant part which school children have borne in the
restoration of Mount Vernon. He took an affectionate
interest in the bringing up of youth, and there was no
philanthropy for which he opened his purse more freely
than education. Though God left him childless in order
that he might be the Father of his Country, fondness for
children was a charming characteristic, and the beautiful
children and grandchildren of Mrs. Washington added
joy to their life at Mount Vernon. Mrs. Fitzhugh, Wash-
ington's niece, who, as a child, was a frequent visitor to
Mount Vernon, said that often, when at their games in the
drawing room at night — perhaps romping, dancing and
noisy — they would see the General watching their move-
ments at some side door, enjoying their sport ; and if at
any time his presence seemed to check them, he would
beg them not to mind him, but go on just as before, en-
couraging them in every possible way to continue their
amusements to their hearts' content. John Parke Gustis,
Mrs. Washington's son, left four children, the two young-
est of whom the General adopted. When in 1824 Lafay-
ette last visited America, he told G. W. P. Gustis that
he has seen him first on the portico at Mount Vernon
in 1784. "A very little gentleman, with a feather in his
hat, holding fast to one finger of the good general's re-
markable hand, which (so large that hand!) was all, my
dear sir, you could well do at that time." Nelly, the
sister of George Washington Parke Gustis, used to stand
on tiptoe to hold the button of the General's coat while
she charmed him with her girlish confidences. Nelly
Gustis was married to Lawrence Lewis at Mount Vernon
on Washington's last birthday. At the wedding the
62
General wore his old continental uniform of blue and
buff, and this was probably the last time he had it on.
The first child of Nelly Custis was born a few days before
Washington's death at Mount Vernon. Both Nelly
Custis and her daughter rest at Mount Vernon. When,
at the age of seventy-four, Nelly Custis died, her sister
wrote: "I do not think in all our long intercourse she ever
uttered a word to me that was not the most perfect kind-
ness." Her character had been formed by Martha
Washington, and the excellence of her teaching may be
judged from the following verses which Nellie wrote on
the death of her daughter :
TO THE MEMORY OF MY AGNES.
"Why, then, do you grieve for me mother?" she cried.
As I painted the joys of the blest;
"Why, then, do you grieve, dearest child?" I replied,
"Thou wilt go to a haven of rest."
For thee, my lost Angel, ev'n death had no sting.
And no terrors, the cold, silent grave;
Tho' thy Maker recalled thee, in life's early Spring,
He resumed but the blessing He gave.
Thy end was so peaceful, so pure was thy life.
Could a wish now restore thee again,
'Twere a sin to expose thee to perils and strife.
To a world of temptation and pain.
I cannot forget, tho' I do not repine.
That those eyes are now shrouded in death;
Which bent with the fondest affection on mine,
Till my darling resigned her last breath.
To adore thy Creator in spirit and truth.
Submissive to bow to His will.
To the close of thy life from thy earliest youth.
Thou didst then those duties fulfill.
To thy favorite beech do I often repair.
And I kiss on its bark thy dear name;
To meet thee in heaven is ever my prayer.
And my last sigh shall murmur the same.
63
In spite of the fact that his mother was vigorous to
an advanced age, Washington wrote: "I am of a short-
lived family and cannot expect to remain very long upon
the earth." A few days before his death he pointed out
to his nephew, Major Lewis, the spot where he intended
to build the new family vault, saying: "This change I
shall make the first of all for I may require it before the
rest." The last entries in his diary are as follows:
December 12, 1799, "Morning cloudy, wind at N. E.
and Mer. 33. A large circle round the moon last night.
About one o'clock it began to snow, soon after to hail and
then turned to a settled cold rain. Mer. 28 at night.
13, Morning snowing and about 3 inches deep, wind
at NE. and Mer. at 30 continued snowing till 1 o'clock
and about 4 it became perfectly clear, wind in the same
place but not hard. Mer. 28 at night." These are no
doubt the last words Washington wrote. The passing
of this great soul has been described by Tobias Lear, who
says that, although Washington himself had been in the
saddle in the storm most of Thursday the twelfth, on the
evening of which he was stricken with his last illness, he
considered the weather too bad to send his servant to the
postoflice. "Between 2 and 3 o'clock on Saturday
morning he awoke Mrs. Washington and told her he was
very unwell and had an ague. She would have got up to
call a servant; but he would not permit her lest she should
take cold." He lay nearly four hours in a chill in a cold
bedroom before anything was done or a fire lighted.
When on his death bed, Washington said to Mr. Lear:
"I am afraid I shall fatigue you too much; it is a
debt we must pay to each other, and I hope when you
want aid of this kind, you will find it." He motioned to
his attendant, Christopher, who had been standing, to
take a seat by his bedside. Washington's patience,
fortitude and resignation never forsook him for a moment.
He said: "I am not afraid to die, and therefore can bear
64
the worst." The clock which was in the death chamber
marked the hour 10.20 P.M., when December 14, 1799,
the doctor cut the weights. On the chair by the bedside
lay the open Bible from which Mrs. Washington had
been reading aloud. When Mrs. Washington was told
that her husband was dead, she said: *'Tis well, all is
now over; I shall soon follow him; I have no more trials
to pass through." Henry Lee expressed, in a few beauti-
ful words, Washington's devotion to his wife when he
said in his celebrated oration: "To the dear object of
his affections exemplary tender." The attic chamber
with its sloping roof, which Mrs. Washington occupied
for two years and a half after her husband's death, and
where she died, had no fireplace, but from its window
she could look out on the tomb. Consider how she was
overwhelmed by its majestic presence at all hours and
at all seasons; how the white radiance of eternity poured
upon it as she saw it covered with snow by moonlight.
George Washington has written beautiful words of
appreciationof the departed —such, for instance, as have
been placed on the base of the statue of Franklin in
Philadelphia. If he had composed an epitaph for Martha
Washington, he might have expressed himself as Sir
Thomas Lucy did, for these words that Sir Thomas wrote
of his wife are exactly applicable to Lady Washington:
"All the time of her life a true and faithful servant
of her good God; never detected of any crime or vice; in
religion most sound ; in love to her husband most faith-
ful and true; in friendship most constant; to what in
trust was committed to her most secret; in wisdom ex-
celling; in governing her house and bringing up of youth
in the fear of God that did converse with her most rare
and singular. A great maintainer of hospitality; mis-
liked of none, unless of the envious. When all is spoken
that can be said, a woman so furnished and garnished
65
with virtue as not to be bettered, and hardly to be
equalled of any. As she lived most virtuously, so she
died most godly. Set down by him that best did know
what hath been written to be true."
The true American at the tomb of Washington will
ponder on the glorious heritage he has left us and con-
sider his own obligation to pass on that heritage unim-
paired. He will be thrilled by the awful presence of the
things that are unseen and eternal. Here rests the dust
of the noblest man who ever lived, and he was great
because he consecrated all his magnificent powers of
body, mind and soul to the utmost performance of his
duty. No surer proof of the Divine guidance of America
could be required than this — in her times of direst need
God has never failed to give our country a man equal
to the emergency, and of all these God-given men the
first will always be George Washington. He needs no
stately sepulchre, for he is enshrined in our hearts and
his monument is our Country.
66
THE REGENTS AND VICE-REGENTS OF THE
MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF
THE UNION SINCE ITS ORGANIZATION
MISS ANN PAMELA CUNNINGHAM
Regent, 1853-1873
Resigned 1873; died May 1, 1875
Vice-Regents Appointed
1858
1. Mrs. Anna Cora Ogden Ritchie, resigned 1866 Virginia
2. Mrs. Alice H. Dickinson, resigned 1859 North Carolina
3. Mrs. Philoclea Edgeworth Eve, died 1889 Georgia
4. Mrs. Octavia Walton LeVert, died 1877 Alabama
5. Mrs. Catherine A. MacWillie, died 1872 Mississippi
6. Mrs. Margaretta S. Morse, resigned 1872 Louisiana
7. Mrs. Mary Rutledge Fogg, died 1872 Tennessee
8. Mrs. Elizabeth M. Walton, resigned 1858 Missouri
9. Miss Mary Norris Hamilton, resigned 1866 New York
10. Mrs. Louisa Ingersoll Greenough, resigned 1865, Massachusetts
11. Mrs. Abba Isabella Little, resigned 1866 Maine
12. Mrs. Catherine WilHs Murat, died 1867 Florida
13. Mrs. Mary Bootes Goodrich, resigned 1864 Connecticut
14. Miss Phebe Ann Ogden, died 1867 New Jersey
15. Mrs. Alice Key Pendleton, resigned 1863, died 1865 Ohio
16. Mrs. Abby Wheaton Chace, died 1892 Rhode Island
17. Mrs. Jane Maria Van Antwerp, died Iowa
18. Mrs. Margaret Ann Comegys, died 1888 Delaware
19. Mrs. Hannah Blake Farnsworth, died 1879 Michigan
20. Mrs. Sarah King Hale, resigned 1861 New Hampshire
21. Mrs. Martha Mitchell, died 1902 Wisconsin
22. Mrs. Rosa Vertner Johnson Jeffries, died 1894 Kentucky
Mrs. Janet M, E. Riggs, Acting Vice-Regent,
District of Columbia
1859
23. Mrs. Elizabeth Willard Barry, died 1883 Illinois
24. Mrs. Sarah J. Sibley, died 1869 Minnesota
25. Mrs. Mary Pepperell Jarvis Cutts, resigned 1878 Vermont
26. Miss Lily Lytle Macalester, died 1891 Pennsylvania
67
27. Mrs. Magdalen G. Blanding, resigned 1884 California
28. Mrs. Harriet B. Fitch, died 1880 Indiana
29. Mrs. Sarah H. Johnson, died 1866 Arkansas
30. Mrs. Letitia Harper Walker, died 1908 North Carolina
1860
31. Mrs. Ann Lucas Hunt, died 1878 Missouri
32. Mrs. Mary Chestnut, died 1867 North Carolina
1866
33. Mrs. Margaret J. M. Sweat, died 1908 Maine
34. Miss Emily L. Harper, died 1891 Maryland
35. Mrs. Lucy H. Pickens, died August, 1899 South Carohna
36. Mrs. M. E. Hickman, resigned 1874 Nevada
37. Mrs. M. A. Stearns, resigned 1873 New Hampshire
38. Mrs. Emily R. M. Hewson, resigned 1872 Ohio
39. Miss EUa Hutchins, resigned 1872 Texas
1867
40. Mrs. Janet M. C. Riggs, resigned 1868. . District of Columbia
41. Mrs. Maria Brooks, resigned 1876 New York
42. Mrs. Matilda W. Emory, resigned 1873, District of Columbia
1868
43. Mrs. Nancy Wade Halsted, died 1891 New Jersey
44. Mrs. Nannie C. Yulee, died 1884 Florida
1870
45. Mrs. Susan E. Johnson Hudson, died 1913 Connecticut
46. Mrs. Ella Bassett Washington, died 1898 West Virginia
1872
47. Mrs. Betsey C. Mason, died 1873 Virginia
48. Mrs. A. P. Dillon, resigned 1873, died 1898 Iowa
49. Mrs. C. L. Scott, resigned 1878 Arkansas
1873
50. Mrs, William Balfour, resigned 1875 Mississippi
51. Mrs. Mary T. Barnes, died 1912 District of Columbia
52. Mrs. David Urquehart, resigned 1876 Louisiana
53. Miss M. E. Maverick, resigned 1873 Texas
This was the last appointment of Miss Cunningham, First Regent.
68
MRS. LILY M. BERGHMAN
(Made Acting Regent, 1873, and Regent, June, 1874)
Second Regent
Died 1891
Vice-Regents Appointed
1874
54. Mrs. Emma Read Ball, died 1918 Virginia
55. Mrs. Aaron V. Brown, died 1889 Tennessee
1875
56. Mrs. Lily L. Broadwell, died 1889 Ohio
57. Mrs. John P. Jones, resigned 1876 Nevada
1876
58. Mrs. Jennie Meeker Ward, died 1910 Kansas
59. Mrs. Justine Van Rensselaer Townsend, died 1912. New York
1878
60. Mrs. J. Gregory Smith, resigned 1884 Vermont
1879
61. Miss Alice M. Longfellow Massachusetts
62. Mrs. Robert Campbell, died 1882 Missouri
1880
63. Mrs. Ida A. Richardson, died 1910 Louisiana
1882
64. Mrs. Ella S. Harbert, died 1884 Alabama
1885
65. Mrs. Elizabeth B. Adams Rathbone, resigned 1918.. .Michigan
66. Mrs. Mary T. Leiter, died 1913 Illinois
67. Mrs. Janet Dekay King, died 1896 Vermont
68. Mrs. Elizabeth Woodward, died 1897 Kentucky
1888
69. Miss Harriet Clayton Comegys Delaware
70. Mrs. Fannie Gilchrist Baker, died 1901 Florida
69
1889
71. Mrs. Alice Hill, died 1908 Colorado
72. Mrs. Rebecca B. Flandrau, died 1912 Minnesota
73. Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, resigned 1918 California
1890
74. Mrs. A. R. Winer, died 1906 New Hampshire
1891
75; Mrs. Georgia Page Wilder, died 1914 Georgia
This was the last nomination of Mrs. Lily Macalester Laughton,)
Second Regent (Madame Berghman), who died
November 4, 1891.
MRS. JUSTINE VAN RENSSELAER TOWNSEND
Third Regent
(Elected Temporary Regent, December, 1891, and Regent, June, 1892.)
Resigned May, 1909; died April, 1912
Vice-Regents Appointed
1893
76. Mrs. George R.Goldsborough,resigned 1904, died 1906, Maryland
77. Mrs. J. Dundas Lippincott, died 1894 Pennsylvania
78. Miss Mary Lloyd Pendleton, resigned 1897 Ohio
79. Mrs. Philip Schuyler, resigned 1894 New York
80. Mrs. Christine Blair Graham, died 1915 Missouri
81. Mrs. Francis S. Conover, died 1914 New Jersey
82. Mrs. Mary Polk Yeatman Webb, died 1917 Tennessee
1894
83. Miss Leila Herbert, died 1897 ; Alabama
1895
84. Mrs. Robert H. Clarkson, resigned 1900, died 1902 . . Nebraska
85. Mrs. William Ames, died 1904 Rhode Island
86. Miss Amy Townsend, died 1920 New York
1896
87. Mrs. Charles Custis Harrison Pennsylvania
88. Mrs. Thomas S. Maxey Texas
70
1897
89. Mrs. James E. Campbell, resigned 1902 Ohio
1900
90. Mrs. Robert D. Johnston Alabama
91. Mrs. C. F. Manderson, died 1916 Nebraska
92. Mrs. Eugene Van Rensselaer West Virginia
1901
93. Mrs. John Julius Pringle South Carolina
94. Mrs. William F. Barret (died December 4, 1920) . . Kentucky
95. Mrs. Charles Denby, died December 26, 1906 Indiana
1905
96. Mrs. Henry W. Rogers Maryland
1907
97. Mrs. Francis Jones Ricks, resigned 1914 Mississippi
98. Mrs. Lewis Irwin, died 1915 Ohio
99. Mrs. J. Carter Brown Rhode Island
100. Miss Mary F. Failing Oregon
101. Mrs. Eliza F. Leary Washington
1909
102. Mrs. A. B. Andrews, died 1915 North Carolina
This was the last nomination of Mrs. Justine Van Rensselaer
Townsend, Third Regent.
MISS HARRIET CLAYTON COMEGYS
Fourth Regent
Elected May, 1909
Vice-Regents Appointed
1911
Mrs. James Gore King Richards Maine
Miss Mary Evarts Vermont
Mrs. Antoine Lentilhon Foster Delaware
1912
Miss Annie Ragan King Louisiana
Miss Jane A. Riggs District of Columbia
71
1913
Mrs. Horace Mann Towner Iowa
Mrs. Thomas P. Denham Florida
1914
Miss Harriet L. Huntress New Hampshire
Mrs. Charles EUiot Fm-ness Minnesota
Mrs. Benjamin D. Walcott Indiana
Mrs. Lucien M. Hanks Wisconsin
1915
Miss Annie Burr Jennings Connecticut
Mrs. Willard Hall Bradford New Jersey
1916
Mrs. Charles Nagel Missouri
Mrs. George A. Carpenter Illinois
Miss Mary Govan Billups Mississippi
Mrs. John V. Abrahams, resigned 1921 Kansas
1919
Mrs. William Ewen Shipp North Carolina
Mrs. Horton Pope Colorado
Mrs. Charles J. Livingood Ohio
Mrs. Jefferson Randolph Anderson Georgia
Mrs. Celsus Price Perrie Arkansas
1920
Mrs. Horace Van Deventer Tennessee
Mrs. Charles S. Wheeler Cahfornia
1921
Mrs. William Ruffin Coxe Virginia
1 84
72
'/ .'>^-v. •
^o-r^ :^ii.^«^: .Ho^ ►^i^^'mi^- .0
* ^K
<^^'o.o* ^
^">
%o«
\/;^M'.%.o*''-'
-^■^
.*^°^ V
:.L% "^^
<> *'..•• .0
.* ^^" ^^
.♦^•.. <v
<^^ *'
^^-n^.
,^o^ .
t • «
.•JL*« "*
c° y-J^ . °o .,4* .'J^ % *■<>
^^O^
.♦ *^'
S °c '.
*- •.'!*^.T'' -•?-*' <^-
*,^*'' :
^^•V.
lO .'••- ^>
9^. .,* ■ /i^aeii'. 'V .**' ,vv/k- ■ ■i^.. ..<{. ' /<;*«»^'' '•*
•>^^^^-
♦ o
O^ 'o . » ♦ A
^>°-n*..
^^ %
** .^^
^^<^^
. . r-^^ V
^^ *
^-,..<^'^* .-M^'. V>* :a^\ v./ /^s^f^".
VVER'rBOOKBlNtftfWftL ^^yi^S ^^^\. .«„^, ^
Gfantville, PA '• jP-^*- 'J^^^' ^°^ -t