The Years of Peace

Washington returned to Mount Vernon on Christmas Eve, 1783, and busied himself with the care of his estates.  He had never ceased to be the agriculturist; through all his campaigns he had kept himself informed of the course of rural affairs at Mount Vernon.  By means of maps on which every field was laid down and numbered, he was enabled to give directions for their several cultivation, and to receive accounts of their several crops.  No hurry of affairs prevented a correspondence with his agent, and he exacted weekly reports.  He now read much on agriculture and gardening, and corresponded with the celebrated Arthur Young, from whom he obtained seeds of all kinds, improved ploughs, plans for laying out farmyards, and advice on various parts of rural economy.

His active day at Mount Vernon began some time before dawn.  Much of his correspondence was despatched before breakfast, which took place at half-past seven.  After breakfast he mounted his horse and rode off to various parts of his estate; dined at half-past two; if there was no company he would write until dark; and in the evening he read, or amused himself with a game of whist.

The adoption of the Federal Constitution opened another epoch in the life of Washington.  Before the official forms of an election could be carried into operation, a unanimous sentiment throughout the Union pronounced him the nation’s choice to fill the presidential chair.  The election took place, and Washington was chosen President for a term of four years from March 4, 1788.  An entry in his diary, on March 16, says—­“I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity; and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for New York with the best disposition to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations.”

The weight and influence of his name and character were deemed all essential to complete his work; to set the new government in motion, and conduct it through its first perils and trials.  He undertook the task, firm in the resolve in all things to act as his conscience told him was “right as it respected his God, his country, and himself.”  For he knew no divided fidelity, no separate obligation; his most sacred duty to himself was his highest duty to his country and his God.

His death took place on December 14, 1799, at Mount Vernon.

The character of Washington may want some of the poetical elements which dazzle and delight the multitude, but it possessed fewer inequalities and a rarer union of virtues than perhaps ever fell to the lot of one man.  Prudence, firmness, sagacity, moderation, an overruling judgement, an immovable justice, courage that never faltered, patience that never wearied, truth that disdained all artifice, magnanimity without alloy.

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