When he retired from office he apparently cut off his subscriptions to papers, for a few months later he inquired, “what is the character of Porcupine’s Gazette?  I had thought when I left Philadelphia, of ordering it to be sent to me; then again, I thought it best not to do it; and altho’ I should like to see both his and Bache’s, the latter may, under all circumstances, be the best decision; I mean not subscribing to either of them.”  This decision to have no more to do with papers did not last, for on the night he was seized with his last illness Lear describes how “in the evening the papers having come from the post office, he sat in the room with Mrs. Washington and myself, reading them, till about nine o’clock when Mrs. Washington went up into Mrs. Lewis’s room, who was confined, and left the General and myself reading the papers.  He was very cheerful; and, when he met with anything which he thought diverting or interesting, he would read it aloud as well as his hoarseness would permit.  He desired me to read to him the debates of the Virginia Assembly, on the election of a Senator and Governor; which I did—­and, on hearing Mr. Madison’s observations respecting Mr. Monroe, he appeared much affected, and spoke with some degree of asperity on the subject, which I endeavored to moderate, as I always did on such occasions.”

IX

FRIENDS

The frequently repeated statement that Washington was a man without friends is not the least curious of the myths that have obtained general credence.  That it should be asserted only goes to show how absolutely his private life has been neglected in the study of his public career.

In his will Washington left tokens of remembrance “to the acquaintances and friends of my juvenile years, Lawrence Washington and Robert Washington of Chotanck,” the latter presumably the “dear Robin” of his earliest letter, and these two very distant kinsmen, whom he had come to know while staying at Wakefield, are the earliest friends of whom any record exists.  Contemporary with them was a “Dear Richard,” whose letters gave Washington “unspeakable pleasure, as I am convinced I am still in the memory of so worthy a friend,—­a friendship I shall ever be proud of increasing.”

Next in time came his intimacy with the Fairfaxes and Carlyles, which began with Washington’s visits to his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon.  About four miles from that place, at Belvoir, lived the Fairfaxes; and their kinspeople, the Carlyles, lived at Alexandria.  Lawrence Washington had married Ann Fairfax, and through his influence his brother George was taken into the employment of Lord Fairfax, half as clerk and half as surveyor of his great tract of land, “the northern neck,” which he had obtained by marriage with a daughter of Lord Culpeper, who in turn had obtained it from the “Merrie Monarch” by means so disreputable that they are best left unstated.  From that time till his death Washington corresponded with several of the family and was a constant visitor at Belvoir, as the Fairfaxes were at Mount Vernon.