in the federal capital. Some of the physicians
fled like cowards from the field of battle, while others remained and
assumed the two-fold functions of physicians and nurses, during those
dark days of the autumn of 1793. Among the latter was the eminent Doctor
Rush, whose courage and philanthropy are matters of history.[61]

The progress of the disease in Philadelphia was watched by the
president at Mount Vernon with great solicitude, as the autumn wore
away, for it was near the time for the assembling of a new Congress, and
public affairs demanded their earliest and most serious attention.
September passed away, and much of October had gone, before the fever
abated. Meanwhile, he proposed to call the Congress together at
Germantown, or some other place near Philadelphia, at a safe distance
from the pestilence. He had some doubt concerning his power to change
the place of meeting, or to call them together at all, and asked the
opinion of Mr. Randolph, the attorney-general. That gentleman expressed
his belief that the president had not the power, and suggested the
propriety of the Congress assembling at some place within the limits of
Philadelphia, and then adjourning to some more remote and safe position.
In the event of their not so assembling at the proper time, the
"extraordinary occasion" contemplated by the constitution would occur,
and the president then, clearly, had the right to call them together at
the most suitable place. He also asked the opinions of other members of
his cabinet on the subject; but the abatement of the disease rendered
any change unnecessary.

At the close of October Washington set out for Philadelphia with his
family, and there, on the second of December, the new Congress
assembled.

FOOTNOTES:

[58] In a letter to Richard Henry Lee, written at Mount Vernon a few
weeks later, Washington said: "On fair ground it would be difficult to
assign reasons for the conduct of those [the republican party] who are
arraigning, and, so far as they are able, constantly embarrassing, the
measures of government with respect to its pacific disposition towards
the belligerent powers in the convulsive dispute which agitates them.
But their motives are too obvious to those who have the means of
information, and have viewed the different grounds which they have
taken, to mistake their object. It is not the cause of France, nor I
believe of liberty, which they regard; for, could they involve this
country in