patriarchal dispensation of an older time. She never wearied of following Mrs. Washington upon her round of duties, marking with deep interest the attention given by her hostess to domestic affairs and her care in training and directing her servants. A dream of Arcadian simplicity and happiness it seemed to one accustomed to the artificial life of the French court, a dream soon to be broken by the official communication brought to Mount Vernon, in April, 1789, by Mr. Charles Thompson, the venerable Secretary of Congress.

IX

LIFE IN NEW YORK

THE acceptance of the honors and duties of the chief executive office in the new Republic necessitated for Washington the relinquishing of much that was dear to him. The active, useful life of a country gentleman was especially suited to his tastes, with its experiments in farming or in rearing stock, its days spent in the saddle, superintending the work of fencing and ditching or the laying out of roads, varied by an occasional dinner with a neighbor or by the entertaining of guests at home, and we can well believe that he spoke from his heart when he wrote confidentially to General Knox in April, 1789:

"My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit, who is going to the place of his execution; so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities, and inclination, which are necessary to manage the helm."

To Mrs. Washington leaving Mount Vernon at this time meant the severing of many cherished family ties. The two younger grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis and her brother George Washington, accompanied her to New York, but her elder granddaughters, Martha and Elizabeth, who were in the habit of spending weeks with her at Mount Vernon, remained with their mother at Abingdon. In a letter written to a congenial friend, Mrs. Washington gives full expression to her sentiments upon foregoing the tranquil joys of her home for the pleasures, fatigues, and excitements of public life:

"I little thought when the war was finished that any Circumstances could possibly happen which would call the General into public life again. I had anticipated that, from that Moment, we should be suffered to grow old together, in solitude and tranquillity. That was the first and dearest wish of my heart. I will not, however, contemplate with too much regret disappointments that were inevitable; though his feelings and my own were in perfect unison with respect to our predilections for private life, yet I Cannot blame him for having acted according to his ideas of duty in obeying the voice of his Country. It is owing to the Kindness of our numerous friends, in all quarters, that my new and unwished for situation is not, indeed, a burden to me. When I was

much younger I should probably have enjoyed the innocent gayeties of life as much as most persons of my age; but I had long since placed all the prospects of my future worldly happiness in the still enjoyments of the fireside at Mount Vernon."

Mrs. Washington did not accompany her husband upon his journey to the capital, which was really a triumphal progress, but set forth some weeks later under the care of his nephew, Robert Lewis, and several other gentlemen. Before leaving home, the General had asked his mother to lend her carriage to his wife during his absence. The reply to this request is characteristic of Mary Washington, as are all of her sayings that have come down to us. A very careful woman she evidently was, neither openhanded nor impulsive. "My grandmother was very well disposed to lend the carriage," wrote Robert Lewis, "but on condition that it should be returned when no further use to my aunt."

1

1 In reply to a charge, made more than once, that Washington was not generous to his mother, it may be well to state that this coach, for which he paid £40, was one of his gifts to her, made at a time when he evidently did not abound in coaches himself, as his mother's carriage was to serve Mrs. Washington until his own could be returned from New York for her use. From his diary we learn also that Washington was constantly supplying his mother with money, even when he was himself experiencing the want of it for the first time,

Young Lewis has left, in his diary, a fresh boyish account of this journey. Of the departure from Mount Vernon he says, under date of May 16th:

"After an early dinner and making all necessary arrangements in which we were greatly retarded it brought us to 3 o'clock in the afternoon when we left Mt. V. The servants of the house and a number of the field negroes made their appearance to take leave of their mistress, -numbers of these poor wretches seemed most affected, my aunt equally so. We travelled together as far as Alexandria and left my aunt at her request to proceed to Doct' Stuarts. Thornton and myself put in at Mr. B—. W—. " 1

Another affecting parting scene the next morning is described by the writer, such as he "never again wishes to be witness to- leaving the family in tears-the children a-bawling- & everything in the most lamentable situation."

The travellers then proceeded to Georgetown, where a pair of fresh horses, proving baulky and managing to break "the swingle

and was obliged to borrow £10,000 from Captain Richard Conway, for his own expenses before setting out for the capital.

1 Judge Bushrod Washington, then practising law in Alexandria.