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Secretary, is to be seated, with an aid on each side standing, and the Secretary is to resume his place.

4. After a proper time for the arrangement of spectators, silence is to be ordered by the Secretary if necessary, and the President is to address the General in the following words :- Sir,-The United States in Congress assembled are prepared to receive your communications.' Whereupon the General is to arise and address Congress; after which he is to deliver his commission and a copy of his address to the President.

"5. The General having resumed his place, the President is to deliver the answer of Congress, which the General is to receive standing.

66 6. The President having finished, the Secretary is to deliver the General a copy of the answer, and the General is then to take his leave. When the General rises to make his address, and also when he retires, he is to bow to Congress, which they are to return by uncovering without bowing."

Washington appeared accordingly, and addressed the Congress as follows:

"MR. PRESIDENT,-The great events, on which my resignation depended, having at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress, and of presenting myself before them, to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country.

"Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with diffidence; a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task, which, however, was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the Union, and the patronage of Heaven.

"The successful termination of the war has verified the most sanguine expectations; and my gratitude for the

interposition of Providence, and the assistance I have received from my countrymen, increases with every review of the momentous contest.

"While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I should do injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge, in this place, the peculiar services and distinguished merits of the gentlemen, who have been attached to my person during the war. It was impossible that the choice of confidential officers to compose my family should have been more fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend in particular those, who have continued in service to the present moment, as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of Congress.

"I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life, by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of them to his holy keeping.

"Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action; and, bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life."

The President returned the following answer :

"SIR,-The United States, in Congress assembled, receive with emotions too affecting for utterance, the solemn resignation of the authorities under which you have led their troops with success through a perilous and a doubtful war. Called upon by your country to defend its invaded rights, you accepted the sacred charge, before it had formed alliances, and whilst it was without funds or a government to support you. You have conducted the great military contest with wisdom and fortitude, invariably regarding the rights of the civil power through all disasters and changes. You have, by the love and confidence of your-fellow citizens, enabled them to display their martial genius, and transmit their fame to posterity. You have persevered, till these United States, aided by

a magnanimous King and nation, have been enabled under a just Providence to close the war in freedom, safety, and independence; on which happy event we sincerely join you in congratulations.

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Having defended the standard of liberty in this new world, having taught a lesson useful to those who inflict, and to those who feel oppression, you retire from the great theatre of action with the blessings of your fellowcitizens; but the glory of your virtues will not terminate with your military command, it will continue to animate remotest ages.

"We feel with you our obligations to the army in general, and will particularly charge ourselves with the interests of those confidential officers, who have attended your person to this affecting moment.

"We join you in commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, beseeching Him to dispose the hearts and minds of its citizens to improve the opportunity afforded them of becoming a happy and respectable nation. And for you we address to Him our earnest prayers, that a life so beloved may be fostered with all his care, that your days may be happy as they have been illustrious, and that He will finally give you that reward, which this world cannot give.”

The next morning he left Annapolis, and reached Mount Vernon the same day, having been absent from it eight years and a half, with the exception of two short occasional visits while going to and returning from Yorktown.

In tracing the steps of General Washington through the trials and vicissitudes of the Revolutionary War, to the retirement into which he passed, on its successful termination, I feel that every reader, of sensibility and reflection, will be able to appreciate the happiness and the glory, which followed him to the grateful shades, and delightful repose, of Mount Vernon. Language is quite incompetent to express them. They surpassed all that history has described, or poetry delineated. As a conqueror, his achievements were complete; as a patriot, he had formed all that his country had demanded, and all that

per

nis own heart could wish; and as an aspirant for an honorable fame, he had won a renown such as has no parallel in the military and political annals of the world. His country was free, his conscience was clear, and a bright immortality of glory was secured to his name. Instead

of attempting to describe the felicity of his lot, it is enough for us to rejoice that he was worthy of it; and in the silent musings of our own minds to imagine him as, in the midst of domestic felicity, and of all that his beloved home afforded, he rested from his labors, and experienced the blessings which Heaven had bestowed upon him and his country.

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CHAPTER XXI.

Washington in Retirement, from 1783 to 1787.

"To Governor Clinton.

"Mount Vernon, 28 December, 1783. "MY DEAR SIR,-After as prosperous a journey as could be expected at this late season of the year, I arrived at my seat the day before Christmas, having previously divested myself of my official character. I am now a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, where I should be happy to see you, if your public business would ever permit, and where, in the mean time, I shall fondly cherish the remembrance of all your former friendship. Although I scarcely need tell you, how much I have been satisfied with every instance of your public conduct, yet I could not suffer Colonel Walker (whose merits are too well known to you to need a recommendation of him from me, if any thing should cast up favorable to his wishes) to depart for New York, without giving your Excellency one more testimony of the obligations I consider myself under for the spirited and able assistance, which I have often derived from the State under your administration.

I feel myself eased of

"The scene is at last closed. a load of public care. I hope to spend the remainder of my days in cultivating the affections of good men, and in the practice of the domestic virtues. Permit me still to consider you in the number of my friends, and to wish you every felicity.

"Mrs. Washington joins me in presenting the compliments of the season, with our best respects, to Mrs. Clinton and the family. I have the honor to be, &c."

"To Jonathan Trumbull, Junior.

"Mount Vernon, 5 January, 1784. "DEAR TRUMBULL,-Your obliging letter of the 15th of November did not reach me until some days after we had taken possession of the city of New York. The scene, that followed, of festivity, congratulation, addresses, and resignation, must be my apology for not replying to it sooner.

"I sincerely thank you for the copy of the address of Governor Trumbull to the General Assembly and freemen of your State. The sentiments contained in it are such, as would do honor to a patriot of any age or nation; at least they are too coincident with my own, not to meet with my warmest approbation. Be so good as to present my most cordial respects to the Governor, and let him know, that it is my wish, that the mutual friendship and esteem, which have been planted and fostered in the tumult. of public life, may not wither and die in the serenity of retirement. Tell him, that we should rather amuse our evening hours of life in cultivating the tender plants, and bringing them to perfection, before they are transplanted to a happier clime."

"To the Marquis de Lafayette.

"Mount Vernon, 1 February, 1784. "At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on the banks of the 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

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