attribute of the strongest minds, of leaving the past to take care of itself.  He never fretted over what could not be undone, nor dallied among pleasant memories while aught still remained to do.  He wrote to Congress in words of quiet congratulation, through which pierced the devout and solemn sense of the great deed accomplished, and then, while the salvos of artillery were still booming in his ears, and the shouts of victory were still rising about him, he set himself, after his fashion, to care for the future and provide for the immediate completion of his work.

He wrote to De Grasse, urging him to join in an immediate movement against Charleston, such as he had already suggested, and he presented in the strongest terms the opportunities now offered for the sudden and complete ending of the struggle.  But the French admiral was by no means imbued with the tireless and determined spirit of Washington.  He had had his fill even of victory, and was so eager to get back to the West Indies, where he was to fall a victim to Rodney, that he would not even transport troops to Wilmington.  Thus deprived of the force which alone made comprehensive and extended movements possible, Washington returned, as he had done so often before, to making the best of cramped circumstances and straitened means.  He sent all the troops he could spare to Greene, to help him in wresting the southern States from the enemy, the work to which he had in vain summoned De Grasse.  This done, he prepared to go north.  On his way he was stopped at Eltham by the illness and death of his wife’s son, John Custis, a blow which he felt severely, and which saddened the great victory he had just achieved.  Still the business of the State could not wait on private grief.  He left the house of mourning, and, pausing for an instant only at Mount Vernon, hastened on to Philadelphia.  At the very moment of victory, and while honorable members were shaking each other’s hands and congratulating each other that the war was now really over, the commander-in-chief had fallen again to writing them letters in the old strain, and was once more urging them to keep up the army, while he himself gave his personal attention to securing a naval force for the ensuing year, through the medium of Lafayette.  Nothing was ever finished with Washington until it was really complete throughout, and he had as little time for rejoicing as he had for despondency or despair, while a British force still remained in the country.  He probably felt that this was as untoward a time as he had ever met in a pretty large experience of unsuitable occasions, for offering sound advice, but he was not deterred thereby from doing it.  This time, however, he was destined to an agreeable disappointment, for on his arrival at Philadelphia he found an excellent spirit prevailing in Congress.  That body was acting cheerfully on his advice, it had filled the departments of the government, and set on foot such measures as it could to keep up the army.  So Washington remained for some time at Philadelphia, helping and counseling Congress in its work, and writing to the States vigorous letters, demanding pay and clothing for the soldiers, ever uppermost in his thoughts.