Virginia, urging its importance to the
State, and predicting that New York would lose no time in forming
communication by water with the western lakes. The governor laid the
letter before the State legislature, and Washington was induced to go
to Richmond to give the measure his personal support.]

In a letter to Richard Henry Lee, recently chosen President of
Congress, he urged it upon his attention; suggesting that the western
waters should be explored, their navigable capabilities ascertained,
and that a complete map should be made of the country. In the latter
part of December he was at Annapolis, at the request of the Assembly
of Virginia, to arrange matters with the Assembly of Maryland
respecting it. Through his indefatigable exertions two companies were
formed under the patronage of the governments of these States, for
opening the navigation of the Potomac and James Rivers, and he was
appointed president of both. By a unanimous vote of the Assembly of
Virginia, fifty shares in the Potomac, and one hundred in the James
River Company, were appropriated for his benefit.

Washington was exceedingly embarrassed by the appropriation. To
decline so noble and unequivocal a testimonial of the good opinion and
good will of his countrymen might be construed into disrespect, yet he
wished to be perfectly free to exercise his judgment and express his
opinions in the matter, without being liable to the least suspicion of
interested motives. While, however, he declined to receive the
proffered shares for his own benefit, he intimated a disposition to
receive them in trust, to be applied to the use of some object or
institution of a public nature. His wishes were complied with, and the
shares were ultimately appropriated by him to institutions devoted to
public education. Yet, though the love for his country would thus
interfere with his love for his home, the dream of rural retirement at
Mount Vernon still went on.

At the opening of the year (1785) the entries in his diary show him
diligently employed in preparations to improve his groves and
shrubbery. On the 10th of January he notes that the white thorn is
full in berry. On the 20th he begins to clear the pine groves of
undergrowth. In February he transplants ivy under the walls of the
garden to which it still clings. In March he is planting hemlock
trees, that most beautiful species of American evergreen, numbers of
which had been brought hither from Occoquan. In April