to Push the War 426

XXIII.

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Conference with Lafayette--Negotiations for War--Sir Henry
Clinton--Treaty of Peace--What America Won, and England
Lost--Washington Parting with his Soldiers--Meets Congress at
Annapolis--Retires to Mount Vernon--Improvement of his Mansion
and Plantations--Encourages Education--Refuses Gift of
$40,000--Generosity to the Poor--A Pleasing Incident--Meeting
Payne again--His Industry--In Convention to Form
Constitution--Elected President--Reluctance to Accept--Journey
to New York--Ovation at Trenton--At New York--His Cabinet--Style
of Living--Grooming Horses--His Sickness--Tour through New
England--Example of Punctuality--Too Late for Dinner--The Pair
of Horses--Presidential Mansion--The Injured Debtor--Urged for
Second Presidential Term--Elected--Fruits of it--Tour South, and
Punctuality--Amount of his Work--Thoroughness--Civil Service
Reform--Lafayette in Exile--Washington's Maxims--Offered a Third
Term--Farewell Address--Retirement--His Opposition to
Slavery--Emancipation of them--The Result 440

XXIV.

DEATH AND FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

Exposure and Cold--Ignores Wise Suggestions--Severe
Attack--Rawlins bleeds him--Believes his End is Near, and
Resignation--His Will--The Physicians arrive--All Remedies
fail--His Last Request--Death--Mrs. Washington's Words--What
Custis says of her--Sad Tidings spread--Action of Congress--The
Senate's Letter to President Adams--The Funeral at Mount
Vernon--Sorrow Universal--What Irving says--Eulogy by Fisher
Ames--Lord Brougham's Estimate--Everett's Final Conclusion, and
Father of His Country 484

XXV.

Eulogy by General Henry Lee 491

LIFE OF WASHINGTON

I

ANCESTORS AND BIRTH.

More than two hundred years ago, when America was chiefly inhabited by
Indians two brothers, in England, John and Lawrence Washington, resolved
to remove hither. As they were not poor, doomed to eke out a miserable
existence from a reluctant soil, it is supposed that _politics_ was the
immediate cause of their removal. It was during the reign of Cromwell,
and he made it hot for his enemies. In 1655 a general insurrection was
attempted, and the vengeance of Cromwell desce