in mute and solemn procession, with dejected countenances, testifying feelings of delicious melancholy, which no language can describe.  Having entered the barge, he turned to the company; and waving his hat, bade them a silent adieu.  They paid him the same affectionate compliment, and after the barge had left them, returned in the same solemn manner to the place where they had assembled.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Marshall, IV, 561.]

Marshall’s description, simple but not commonplace, reminds one of Ville-Hardouin’s pictures, so terse, so rich in color, of the Barons of France in the Fifth Crusade.  The account once read, you can never forget that majestic, silent figure of Washington being rowed across to Paulus Hook with no sound but the dignified rhythm of the oars.  Not a cheer, not a word!

His reception by Congress took place on Tuesday, the twenty-third of December, at twelve o’clock.  Again I borrow from Chief Justice Marshall’s account: 

When the hour arrived for performing a ceremony so well calculated to recall to the mind the various interesting scenes which had passed since the commission now to be returned was granted, the gallery was crowded with spectators, and many respectable persons, among whom were the legislative and executive characters of the state, several general officers, and the consul general of France, were admitted on the floor of Congress.

The representatives of the sovereignty of the union remained seated and covered.  The spectators were standing and uncovered.  The General was introduced by the secretary and conducted to a chair.  After a decent interval, silence was commanded, and a short pause ensued.  The President (General Mifflin) then informed him that “the United States in Congress assembled were prepared to receive his communications.”  With a native dignity improved by the solemnity of the occasion, the General rose and delivered the following address: 

    “Mr. President: 

“The great events on which my resignation depended, having at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress, and on presenting myself before them, to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country.

“Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States, of becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with diffidence; a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task, which, however, was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the union, and the patronage of heaven.

“The successful termination of the war has verified the most sanguine expectations; and my gratitude for the interposition of Providence,