The day finally came when his work was finished, and he could be, as he phrased it, “translated into a private citizen.”  Marshall describes the scene as follows:  “At noon, the principal officers of the army assembled at Frances’ tavern; soon after which, their beloved commander entered the room.  His emotions were too strong to be concealed.  Filling a glass, he turned to them and said, ’With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you; I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy, as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.’  Having drunk, he added, ’I cannot come to each of you to take my leave; but shall be obliged to you, if each of you will come and take me by the hand.’  General Knox, being nearest, turned to him.  Incapable of utterance, Washington grasped his hand, and embraced him.  In the same affectionate manner he took leave of each succeeding officer.  In every eye was the tear of dignified sensibility, and not a word was articulated to interrupt the majestic silence, and the tenderness of the scene.  Leaving the room, he passed through the corps of light infantry, and walked to Whitehall, where a barge waited to convey him to Powles-hook.  The whole company followed in mute and solemn procession, with dejected countenance ...  Having entered the barge, he turned to the company, and, waving his hat, bade them a silent adieu.”

XII

CITIZEN AND OFFICE-HOLDER

Washington became a government servant before he became a voter, by receiving in 1749, or when he was seventeen years of age, the appointment of official surveyor of Culpepper County, the salary of which, according to Boucher, was about fifty pounds Virginia currency a year.  The office was certainly not a very fat berth, for it required the holder to live in a frontier county, to travel at times, as Washington in his journal noted, over “ye worst Road that ever was trod by Man or Beast,” to sometimes lie on straw, which once “catch’d a Fire,” and we “was luckily Preserved by one of our Mens waking,” sometimes under a tent, which occasionally “was Carried quite of[f] with ye Wind and” we “was obliged to Lie ye Latter part of ye night without covering,” and at other times driven from under the tent by smoke.  Indeed, one period of surveying Washington described to a friend by writing,—­

“[Since] October Last I have not sleep’d above three Nights or four in a bed but after Walking a good deal all the Day lay down before the fire upon a Little Hay Straw Fodder or bearskin which-ever is to be had with Man Wife and Children like a Parcel of Dogs or Catts & happy’s he that gets the Birth nearest the fire there’s nothing would make it pass of tolerably but a good Reward a Dubbleloon is my constant gain every Day that the Weather will permit my going out and some time Six Pistoles the coldness of the Weather will not allow my making a long stay as the Lodging is rather too cold for the time of Year.  I have never had my Cloths of but lay and sleep in them like a Negro except the few Nights I have lay’n in Frederick Town.”