, notifying
to the people throughout the United States the recommendation
contained in the third resolution."

These resolutions passed both houses unanimously, and those which
would admit of immediate execution were carried into effect. The whole
nation appeared in mourning. The funeral procession was grand and
solemn, and the eloquent oration, which was delivered on the occasion
by General Lee, was heard with profound attention and with deep
interest.

Throughout the United States, similar marks of affliction were
exhibited. In every part of the continent funeral orations were
delivered, and the best talents of the nation were devoted to an
expression of the nation's grief.

To the letter of the President which transmitted to Mrs. Washington
the resolutions of congress, and of which his secretary was the
bearer, that lady answered, "Taught by the great example which I have
so long had before me, never to oppose my private wishes to the public
will, I must consent to the request made by congress which you have
had the goodness to transmit to me;--and in doing this, I need not, I
can not say what a sacrifice of individual feeling I make to a sense
of public duty."

The monument, however, has not been erected. That the great events of
the political as well as military life of General Washington should be
commemorated, could not be pleasing to those who had condemned, and
who continued to condemn, the whole course of his administration. This
resolution, although it passed unanimously, had many enemies. That
party which had long constituted the opposition, and which, though the
minority for the moment, nearly divided the house of representatives,
declared its preference for the equestrian statue which had been voted
by congress at the close of the war. The division between a statue and
a monument was so nearly equal, that the session passed away without
an appropriation for either. The public feelings soon subsided, and
those who possessed the ascendancy over the public sentiment employed
their influence to draw odium on the men who favoured a monument; to
represent that measure as a part of a general system to waste the
public money; and to impress the idea that the only proper monument to
the memory of a meritorious citizen, was that which the people would
erect in their affections.

[Illustration: Resting-Place of George and Martha Washington at Mount
Vernon

_Dying December 14, 1799, the body of Washington Was