s, conveying a mournful piece of
intelligence: "Your friend and second, the patriot and noble Greene,
is no more. Universal grief reigns here." Greene died on the 18th of
June, at his estate of Mulberry Grove, on Savannah River, presented to
him by the State of Georgia. His last illness was brief; caused by a
stroke of the sun; he was but forty-four years of age. The news of his
death struck heavily on Washington's heart, to whom, in the most
arduous trials of the Revolution, he had been a second self. He had
taken Washington as his model, and possessed naturally many of his
great qualities. Like him, he was sound in judgment; persevering in
the midst of discouragements; calm and self-possessed in time of
danger; heedful of the safety of others; heedless of his own. Like
him, he was modest and unpretending, and like him he had a perfect
command of temper.

Other deaths pressed upon Washington's sensibility about the same
time. That of General McDougall, who had served his country faithfully
through the war, and since with equal fidelity in Congress. That, too,
of Colonel Tench Tilghman, for a long time one of Washington's
aides-de-camp, and "who left," writes he, "as fair a reputation as
ever belonged to a human character." "Thus," adds he, "some of the
pillars of the Revolution fall. Others are mouldering by insensible
degrees. May our country never want props to support the glorious
fabric!"

CHAPTER LXIX.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.--WASHINGTON ELECTED PRESIDENT.

From his quiet retreat of Mount Vernon, Washington, though ostensibly
withdrawn from public affairs, was watching with intense solicitude
the working together of the several parts in the great political
confederacy; anxious to know whether the thirteen distinct States,
under the present organization, could form a sufficiently efficient
general government. He was daily becoming more and more doubtful of
the solidity of the fabric he had assisted to raise. The form of
confederation which had bound the States together and met the public
exigencies during the Revolution, when there was a pressure of
external danger, was daily proving more and more incompetent to the
purposes of a national government. Congress had devised a system of
credit to provide for the national expenditure and the extinction of
the national debts, which amounted to something more than forty
millions of dollars. The system experienced neglect from some States
and opposition