sibility of its position and action, but not
oppressed by it. There was ever about the man something which
impressed the observer with a conviction that he was exactly and
fully equal to what he had to do. He was never hurried; never
negligent; but seemed ever prepared for the occasion, be it what it
might. If I could express his character in one word, it would be
appropriateness. In his study, in his parlor, at a _levee_, before
Congress, at the head of the army, he seemed ever to be just what
the situation required him to be. He possessed, in a degree never
equalled by any human being I ever saw, the strongest, most
ever-present sense of propriety. It never forsook him, and deeply
and involuntarily impressed itself upon every beholder. His address
was of moderate length. The topics I have, of course, forgotten;
indeed, I was not of an age to appreciate them: but the air, the
manner, the tones, have never left my mental vision, and even now
seem to vibrate on my ear.

"A scene like this, once beheld, though in earliest youth, is never
to be forgotten. It must be now fifty years ago, but I could this
moment sit down and sketch the chamber, the assembly, and _the_ man.

"Having closed the reading, he laid down the scroll, and, after a
brief pause, retired, as he had entered; when the manuscript was
handed, for a second reading, to Mr. Beckley, then clerk of the
house, whose gentlemanly manner, clear and silver voice, and sharp
articulation, I shall ever associate with the scene. When shall we
again behold such a Congress and such a president?"

To make the picture of the personal appearance of Washington more
complete, the following, from _Sullivan's Familiar Letters_, is added:

"The following are recollections of Washington, derived from
repeated opportunities of seeing him during the last three years of
his public life. He was over six feet in stature; of strong, bony,
muscular frame, without fullness of covering, well formed and
straight. He was a man of most extraordinary physical strength. In
his own house, his action was calm, deliberate, and dignified,
without pretension to gracefulness or peculiar manner, but merely
natural, and such as one would think it should be in such a man. His
habitual motions had been formed before he took command of the