Washington is venerated not so much for his military genius and success in bringing the war to a triumphant conclusion, as for his patriotism and disinterestedness, since such moral worth as his is much rarer and more extraordinary than military fame.  Fortunately, his devotion to the ultimate welfare of the country, universally conceded, was supreme wisdom on his part, not only for the land he loved but for himself, and has given him a name which is above every other name in the history of modern times.  He was tested, and he turned from the temptation with abhorrence.  He might, and he might not, have succeeded in retaining supreme power,—­the culmination of human ambition; but he neither sought nor desired it.  It was reward enough for him to have the consciousness of virtue, and enjoy the gratitude of his countrymen.

Washington at last persuaded Congress to do justice to the officers and men who had sacrificed so much for their country’s independence; in spite of the probability of peace, he was tireless in continuing preparations for effective war.  He was of great service to Congress in arranging for the disbandment of the army after the preliminary treaty of peace in March, 1783, and guided by wise counsel the earlier legislation affecting civil matters in the States and on the frontiers.  The general army was disbanded November 3; on November 25 the British evacuated New York and the American authorities took possession; on December 4 Washington bade farewell to his assembled officers, and on the 23d he resigned his commission to Congress,—­a patriotic and memorable scene.  And then he turned to the placidities of domestic life in his home at Mount Vernon.

But this life and this home, so dear to his heart, it was not long permitted him to enjoy.  On the formation and adoption of the Federal Constitution, in 1789, he was unanimously chosen to be the first president of the United States.

In a preceding lecture I have already presented the brilliant constellation of statesmen who assembled at Philadelphia to construct the fabric of American liberties.  Washington was one of them, but this great work was not even largely his.  On June 8, 1783, he had addressed a letter to the governors of all the States, concerning the essential elements of the well-being of the United States, which showed the early, careful, and sound thought he had given to the matter of what he termed “an indissoluable union of the States under one Federal head.”  But he was not a great talker, or a great writer, or a pre-eminently great political genius.  He was a general and administrator rather than an original constructive statesman whose work involved a profound knowledge of law and history.  No one man could have done that work; it was the result of the collected wisdom and experience of the nation,—­of the deliberations of the foremost intellects from the different States,—­such men as Hamilton, Madison, Wilson, Rutledge, Dickinson, Ellsworth, and others.  Jefferson and Adams were absent on diplomatic missions.  Franklin was old and gouty.  Even Washington did little more than preside over the convention; but he stimulated its members, with imposing dignity and the constant exercise of his pre-eminent personal influence, to union and conciliation.