take me by the hand.”  One by one they approached, and Washington grasped the hand of each man and embraced him.  His eyes were full of tears, and he could not trust himself to speak.  In silence he bade each and all farewell, and then, accompanied by his officers, walked to Whitehall Ferry.  Entering his barge, the word was given, and as the oars struck the water he stood up and lifted his hat.  In solemn silence his officers returned the salute, and watched the noble and gracious figure of their beloved chief until the boat disappeared from sight behind the point of the Battery.

At Philadelphia he stopped a few days and adjusted his accounts, which he had in characteristic fashion kept himself in the neatest and most methodical way.  He had drawn no pay, and had expended considerable sums from his private fortune, which he had omitted to charge to the government.  The gross amount of his expenses was about 15,000 pounds sterling, including secret service and other incidental outlays.  In these days of wild money-hunting, there is something worth pondering in this simple business settlement between a great general and his government, at the close of eight years of war.  This done, he started again on his journey.  From Philadelphia he proceeded to Annapolis, greeted with addresses and hailed with shouts at every town and village on his route, and having reached his destination, he addressed a letter to Congress on December 20, asking when it would be agreeable to them to receive him.  The 23d was appointed, and on that day, at noon, he appeared before Congress.

The following year a French orator and “maitre avocat,” in an oration delivered at Toulouse upon the American Revolution, described this scene in these words:  “On the day when Washington resigned his commission in the hall of Congress, a crown decked with jewels was placed upon the Book of the Constitutions.  Suddenly Washington seizes it, breaks it, and flings the pieces to the assembled people.  How small ambitious Caesar seems beside the hero of America.”  It is worth while to recall this contemporary French description, because its theatrical and dramatic untruth gives such point by contrast to the plain and dignified reality.  The scene was the hall of Congress.  The members representing the sovereign power were seated and covered, while all the space about was filled by the governor and state officers of Maryland, by military officers, and by the ladies and gentlemen of the neighborhood, who stood in respectful silence with uncovered heads.  Washington was introduced by the Secretary of Congress, and took a chair which had been assigned to him.  There was a brief pause, and then the president said that “the United States in Congress assembled were prepared to receive his communication.”  Washington rose, and replied as follows:—­

“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 of 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.