"To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State.

66

'Philadelphia, 3 March, 1797. "DEAR SIR,-At the conclusion of my public employments, I have thought it expedient to notice the publication of certain forged letters, which first appeared in the year 1777, and were obtruded upon the public as mine. They are said by the editor to have been found in a small portmanteau, that I had left in the care of my mulatto servant, named Billy, who, it is pretended, was taken prisoner at Fort Lee, in 1776. The period, when these letters were first printed, will be recollected, and what were the impressions they were intended to produce on the public mind. It was then supposed to be of some consequence to strike at the integrity of the motives of the American Commander-in-chief, and to paint his inclinations as at variance with his professions and his duty. Another crisis in the affairs of America having occurred, the same weapon has been resorted to, to wound my character and deceive the people.

"The letters in question have the dates, addresses, and signatures here following.

"New York, June 12th, 1776. To Mr. Lund Washington, at Mount Vernon, Fairfax County, Virginia.

666 G. W.'

"To John Parke Custis, Esq., at the Hon. Benedict Calvert's, Esquire, Mount Airy, Maryland, June 18th, 1776. GEO. WASHINGTON.'

"New York, July 8th, 1776. To Mr. Lund Washington, at Mount Vernon, Fairfax County, Virginia.

666

"' G. W.' "New York, July 15th, 1776. To Mr. Lund Washington. G. W.' "New York, July 16th, 1776. To Mr. Lund Washington. G. W.' "New York, July 22d, 1776. To Mr. Lund Washington.

"June 24th, 1776. To Mrs. Washington.

G. W.'

G. W.'

"At the time, when these letters first appeared, it was notorious to the army immediately under my com

mand, and particularly to the gentlemen attached to my person, that my mulatto man Billy had never been one moment in the power of the enemy. It is also a fact, that no part of my baggage, nor any of my attendants, were captured during the whole course of the war. These well-known facts made it unnecessary, during the war, to call the public attention to the forgery, by any express declaration of mine; and a firm reliance on my fellowcitizens, and the abundant proofs, which they gave of their confidence in me, rendered it alike unnecessary to take any formal notice of the revival of the imposition during my civil administration. But, as I cannot know how soon a more serious event may succeed to that, which will this day take place, I have thought it a duty, that I owed to myself, to my country, and to truth, now to detail the circumstances above recited; and to add my solemn declaration, that the letters herein described are a base forgery, and that I never saw or heard of them until they appeared in print.

"The present letter I commit to your care, and desire that it may be deposited in the office of the department of State, as a testimony of the truth to the present generation and to posterity. Accept, I pray you, the sincere esteem and affectionate regard of, dear sir, &c."

On the 4th of March, 1797, John Adams was inaugurated, having been elected President of the United States. In his Address, Mr. Adams, after alluding to the administration of the preceding eight years, thus expressed his feelings towards his predecessor :

"A citizen, who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired with the same virtues, and animated with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty, to independence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity.

"In that retirement which is his voluntary choice, may he long live to enjoy the delicious recollection of his ser

vices, the gratitude of mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of his country,

which is opening from year to year. His name may be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he lives a bulwark, against all open or secret enemies of his country's peace."

CHAPTER XXV.

Washington's final Retirement from Public Life.

SOON after this, Washington retired to his residence at Mount Vernon. As he withdrew from the cares of office, he was followed, as ever before, with the love and gratitude of his countrymen. He had now completed his glory, and had added to the fame of a military conqueror, in the cause of liberty, the greater and more difficult distinction, of a most profound statesman. The imaginations of men could conceive of nothing that could enhance his reputation, and the people of America felt, with one heart, and acknowledged, with one voice, that the measure of his public services had been filled to overflowing, and that he had done all that could be asked of a patriot, hero, and ruler. As they parted from him for this, as it proved, last time, they raised one wide-spread universal prayer to Heaven, that the remainder of his days might be spent in rest and peace. The sentiment which pervaded the country, at that moment, was the same which an old soldier was heard to utter, overpowered by the excitement of the occasion, when he had beheld Washington's first inauguration, as President of the United States. "I have beheld him when commanding the American armies I saw him at the conclusion of the war, returning to the bosom of his family in his rural habitation, and now I behold him in the chair of the Presidency. I have not another wish, but that he may die, as he has lived, the BELOVED OF HIS COUNTRY,"

;

That wish was gratified. To his dying hour he continued to increase his claims to the love and veneration of all mankind.

While there is every reason to believe that the country could not have spared Washington any earlier, from the head of the government of the Union, there was a general acquiescence in his retirement at last, arising from a confident belief that, under his wise and beneficent influence, the country had grown into a state of solidity and firmness, which would enable it to dispense with his services, and allow him to return to the retirement, for which, it was known, his heart longed, and which he had earned a right to enjoy. This opinion was well founded. The ligaments of the Union had then become so closely inserted and interlaced, as time has shown, that neither domestic dissension nor foreign war could sever it. The perils of the coast were passed; the ship of state was fairly out with an open sea before her; the tempest that had threatened to destroy her, at the very commencement of her voyage, was abating, and she safely dismissed to his home the only pilot who could have weathered the

storm.

Some time before the conclusion of his Presidency, he published a Farewell Address to his countrymen, to which allusion is made in his letter of December 23d, 1796, to the Governor of Maryland, inserted on page 253 of this volume. This document is justly regarded as a precious memorial of his patriotism, and as an invaluable directory to patriots, citizens, and statesmen. It will be found in the Appendix to this work.

The residue of Washington's life will be illustrated by the following passages from his correspondence:

Writing to Mr. McHenry, Secretary of War, from Mount Vernon, April 3, 1797, he thus describes his return home, and his situation there.

"We got home without accident, and found the roads dryer and better, than I ever found them at that season of the year. The attentions we met with, on our journey, were very flattering, and, to some, whose minds are differently formed from mine, would have been highly rel

ished; but I avoided, in every instance, where I had any previous knowledge of the intention, and could by earnest entreaties prevail, all parade and escorts. Mrs. Washington took a violent cold in Philadelphia, which hangs upon her still; but it is not as bad as it has been.*

"I find myself in the situation nearly of a new beginner; for, although I have not houses to build, (except one, which I must erect for the accommodation and security of my military, civil, and private, papers, which are voluminous, and may be interesting,) yet I have scarcely any thing else about me, that does not require considerable repairs. In a word, I am already surrounded by joiners, masons, and painters; and, such is my anxiety to get out of their hands, that I have scarcely a room to put a friend into, or to sit in, myself, without the music of hammers, or the odoriferous scent of paint.” To another correspondent he writes:

To

"For myself, having turned aside from the broad walks of political, into the narrow paths of private, life, I shall leave it with those whose duty it is, to consider subjects of this sort, and, as every good citizen ought to do, conform to whatsoever the ruling powers shall decide. make and sell a little flour, annually, to repair houses, (going fast to ruin,) to build one, for the security of my papers of a public nature, and to amuse myself in agricultural and rural pursuits, will constitute employment for the few years I have to remain on this terrestrial globe. If also, I could, now and then, meet the friends I esteem, it would fill the measure, and add zest to my enjoyments;

"The following extract is from a Baltimore paper, dated March 13th.— Last evening arrived in this city, on his way to Mount Vernon, the illustrious object of veneration and gratitude, GEORGE WASHINGTON. His Excellency was accompanied by his lady and Miss Custis, and by the son of the unfortunate Lafayette and his preceptor. At a distance from the city, he was met by a crowd of citizens, on horse and foot, who thronged the road to greet him, and by a detachment from Captain Hollingsworth's troop, who escorted him in through as great a concourse of people as Baltimore ever witnessed. On alighting at the Fountain Inn, the General was saluted with reiterated and thundering huzzas from the spectators. His Excellency, with the companions of his journey, leaves town we understand this morning.'