on the consummation of this union, Colonel WASHINGTON and his lady, equal in years, suavity, and virtue, settled at Mount Ver non. IN this scene of domestic felicity, he commenced planter and farmer, and managed his agricultural concerns so discreetly and prosperously, that he has been held forth as an example deserving universal imitation.Colonel WASHINGTON was one of the greatest landholders in North America: his estate at Mount Vernon was computed, in 1787, to consist of nine thousand acres, under his own management and cultivation; he had likewise various large tracts of land in other parts of the state; his annual receipt from his estates, amounted, in 1776, to four thousand pounds sterling, and it was then believed would have sold for upwards of one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling, which is equal to more than 666,000 dollars. What his revenue was recently we do not know, but their can be little presumption in supposing that it was much increased, under his prudential guidance and practical economy. He allotted a part of the Saturday, in each week, to receive the reports of his overseers, which were registered progressively, to enable him to compare the labour with the produce of each particular part; and, it is affirmed, that this weekly retrospect, was duly considered by this great man, during the stormy movements of the revolutionary war, and his presidency of the United States. He has raised, in one year, seven, thousand bushels of wheat, and ten thousand bushels of Indian corn, on his Mount Vernon estate in a succeeding year he raised two hundred lambs, sowed twenty seven bushels of flax-seed, and planted seven hundred bushels of potatoes; at the same time his domestics manufactured linen and woollen cloth enough for his numerous household, which amounted to nearly a thousand persons with him, regularity and industry was the order of each day, and the consequent reflection made them all happy. THOUGH agriculture was pursued by him with such undeviating attention, he used it rather as the means of his pleasure than the end of his wishes; which concentrated in the labour to improve the well being of his fel low citizens, and to effect this he desisted from planting tobacco, to employ himself in the introduction and fostering such articles of vegetation, as might ultimately tend to a national advantage.-The first passion of his heart was the love of his country, and the tone of that high and inspiriting impulse was never broken: it was equally visible and predominant in the senate and the field; it was mingled in the energies of his occupation, and it pervaded the vision in his dream. THE excellence and usefulness of General WASHINGTON, was always apparent, and his seeming more brilliant and dignified at one period than another, did not arise from any alteration of his principle, but the splendor of the service. From the year 1759, to the year 1774, he was a member of assembly, a magistrate of the county in which he resided, and a judge of the court, and in each capacity he was as able, as assiduous, and as incorrupt, as in any of his more exalted offi ces. He was elected a delegate to the first congress in 1774, and to that which associated in the ensuing year. ON the 15th of June, 1775, he had the supreme honour to be unanimously appointed, by this immortal assembly of sages and patriots, commander in chief of all the forces. raised, or to be raised, for the resistance of oppression and the maintenance of their colonial privileges. He accepted the appointment with gratitude and apprehension; the manner with which he tinctured his zeal for the public good, with doubts of his own personal sufficiency, was illustrative of human greatness the disinterested tenor of his reply to the president on his nomination, was equally endearing as his modesty, and should be held in eternal admiration. IT was a circumstance very fortunate for the existence of human liberty, that this nomination, by the council of the states, should be unattended with the customary emotions of personal envy, and commonly approved by the people: he had become proverbial for his honour, moderation and bravery,and was conspicuous for his caution: and with these powerful recommendations in his behalf, he was not only invested with confidence, but followed with joy. GENERAL WASHINGTON arrived at the camp at Cambridge, on July 2d, 1776, and 1775 took the command of the American army: he was saluted on his arrival with every mark of satisfaction; the troops expressed their exultation on beholding their leader, who began the necessary work of organization and discipline; without which, an army degenerates into a mob, and is rather an incumbrance than a bulwark. IT is not precisely within our province, nor is it in our capability to pursue him through the mazes of the different actions in which he was engaged, nor to detail those "hair breadth 'scapes" with which his progress was chequered; there were times when the destruction of his band of heroes seemed inevitable, and the most sanguine lover of his country began to despond-but the singular penetration of General WASHINGTON enabled him to elude the imminent dangers, and disconcert the operations of the ablest generals of Britain: yet, notwithstanding these instances of preservation, he felt much uneasiness and mortification from the smallness of his force, contending against a host of veterans, perfect in dis |