nt, which, both as springing from the liberty which he has
been so instrumental in establishing, and as encouraged by his
patronage, will be durable monuments of his glory, may be made
monuments also of the gratitude of his country."

This mark of his countrymen's appreciation, was, of course, gratifying
to Washington, but again, true to his convictions and his vows, he
declined to receive the donation for his own benefit; but, as a matter
of expediency, he offered to accept the shares, provided the legislature
would allow him to appropriate them to the use of some object of a
public nature. The assembly cheerfully acceded to his proposition. As
the encouragement of education was a subject in which he felt deeply
interested, he made over the shares of the James River Company to an
institution in Rockbridge county, called _Liberty Hall Academy_, and
those of the Potomac Company he bequeathed in perpetuity for the
endowment of a university in the District of Columbia, under the
auspices of the general government. _Liberty Hall_ afterward became the
flourishing _Washington College_, but the national university has never
been established.

Other examples of Washington's interest in educational institutions, are
on record. He cheerfully accepted the chancellorship of William and Mary
college at Williamsburg; during many years he gave two hundred and fifty
dollars annually for the instruction of poor children in Alexandria; and
by his will he left four thousand dollars, the net income of which was
to be used for the same object. "Other examples," says Sparks, after
enumerating these and other benevolent acts of the great and good man,
"might be cited; and from his cautious habit of concealing from the
world his deeds of charity, it may be presumed many others are unknown,
in which his heart and his hand were open to the relief of indigent
merit."

We have observed that Washington's dreams of repose at Mount Vernon were
not realized. Visitors from the old and the new world constantly
increased, and among them came that champion of liberty, Catharine
Macaulay Graham, whose pen had done noble service in the cause of human
rights. She came with her husband, and professed to have crossed the
Atlantic for the sole purpose of testifying, in person, her respect and
admiration for the character and deeds of Washington. "A visit from a
lady so celebrated in the literary world," he wrote to Knox, "can not
but be very f