Chapter XLI (1)

GLOOMY ASPECT OF AFFAIRS--WASHINGTON'S HOPEFULNESS--THE FRENCH
DIRECTORY ALARMED--NEW MISSION TO FRANCE--OPPOSITION TO
IT--WASHINGTON'S VIEWS--ENVOYS DEPART FOR FRANCE--NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
AT THE HEAD OF FRENCH AFFAIRS--RESULT OF THE MISSION--WASHINGTON AT
HOME--CORRESPONDENCE WITH YOUNG CUSTIS--MARRIAGE OF NELLY
CUSTIS--PREPARATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS--WASHINGTON MAKES HIS
WILL--LETTER TO LAWRENCE LEWIS--PLAN FOR MANAGING HIS
ESTATES--WASHINGTON'S LATEST CORRESPONDENCE.

At the opening of the year 1799, the political firmament was dark with the portentous clouds of war. Washington yet viewed them with calmness, for he fully believed that they would pass by and leave his country unscathed by the lightning and the hail. Already they had begun to break, and let the sunlight through. But these promises were discerned by few, while they were clear and full to the mental eye of the commander-in-chief and other sagacious men. They perceived that the military preparations made so vigorously by the United States had already begun to produce an effect upon the belligerent feelings of the French Directory. The appointment of Washington to the chief command of the American armies had filled the boastful leaders in France with alarm; and the wily Talleyrand, with a sagacity possessed by few of his compeers, had already turned his thoughts toward reconciliation, and made indirect exertions to induce the United States to offer amicable overtures. He at length wrote to the French secretary of legation at the Hague, intimating that any minister plenipotentiary which the American government might be pleased to send to France, to negotiate for the settlement of existing difficulties between the two countries, would undoubtedly be received with all due respect. A copy of this letter was immediately communicated by the secretary to William Vans Murray, the United States minister at the Hague, who transmitted it to his government.

Mr. Murray's despatch gave President Adams much joy. He had been greatly perplexed by the belligerent attitude assumed by the United States and France toward each other. He now perceived an open door of escape from the whole difficulty; and, apparently without considering the impropriety, under the circumstances, of making any overtures to the French republic, he laid the whole matter before the senate on the eighteenth of February, at the same time nominating Mr. Murray to be minister plenipotentiary to that republic. The president pledged himself that Mr. Murray should not enter France without having first received direct and unequivocal assurances from Talleyrand that he should be received as full minister, and be treated with by an officer of equal grade.

This nomination took the country by surprise. Much as Washington desired peace, he was unwilling to obtain it by a sacrifice of national dignity. To Timothy Pickering he wrote on the third of March, saying: "The unexpectedness of the event communicated in your letter of the twenty-first ultimo did, as you may suppose, surprise me not a little. But far, very far indeed, was this surprise short of what I experienced the next day, when, by a very intelligent gentleman, immediately from Philadelphia, I was informed that there had been no _direct_ overture from the government of France to that of the United States for a negotiation; on the contrary, that M. Talleyrand was playing the same loose and round-about game he had attempted the year before with our envoys, and which, as in that case, might mean anything or nothing, as would subserve his purposes best.

"Had we approached the ante-chamber of this gentleman when he opened the door to us," he continued, "and there waited for a formal invitation into the interior, the governments would have met upon equal ground, and we might have advanced or receded according to circumstances, without commitment. In plain words, had we said to M. Talleyrand, through the channel of his communication, 'We still are, as we always have been, ready to settle by fair negotiation all differences between the two nations upon open, just, and honorable terms, and it rests with the Directory (after the indignities with which _our_ attempts to effect this have been treated), if they are equally sincere, to come forward in an unequivocal manner, and prove it by their acts'--such conduct would have shown a dignified willingness on our part to negotiate, and would have proved their sincerity on the other. Under my present view of the subject, this would have been the course I should have pursued, keeping equally in view the horrors of war and the dignity of the government."

The disposition throughout the country to avoid war if possible, had great influence upon the president and the senate; but, before the latter made a decision on the nomination of Mr. Murray, the whole subject was seriously considered. It was finally concluded to associate two others with Murray. The president accordingly nominated Oliver Wolcott and Patrick Henry. These nominations were immediately confirmed by the unanimous vote of the senate. The latter gentleman declined the commission, on account of his advanced age and increasing debilities, but with the assurance that "nothing short of absolute necessity" could induce him to withhold what little aid he could give "an administration whose abilities, patriotism, and virtue, deserved the gratitude and reverence of all their fellow citizens." Governor William R. Davie, of North Carolina, was appointed in Henry's place; and Mr. Murray, still at the Hague, was instructed to apprize Talleyrand of the appointments, but to inform him that the envoys would not embark until the Directory should give assurances that they would be received with courtesy due to their rank, and treated with on terms of perfect equality. He was also instructed not to have any further informal communications with agents of the French republic.

It was October before the president received assurances of the proper reception of the envoys, and they did not leave for France until November. Meanwhile, although war between the two nations had not been formally declared, it actually existed upon the ocean. Hostile collisions had taken place between vessels belonging to the two governments; and upward of three hundred private American vessels had been armed for self-defence.

From the beginning, some of the best friends of Mr. Adams had deprecated the new mission to France. The nominations had been made by the president without consulting his cabinet; and both Pickering, the secretary of state, and M'Henry, the secretary of war, lamented the occurrence, not only because it was undignified, but because it was likely to complicate the already perplexing relations with the French. They remonstrated, but the president refused to listen. Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, and other supporters of the administration, were equally opposed to the measure, but the president paid little heed to their opinions. This produced a feud between the president and his cabinet, which made Washington uneasy, for the times were too ominous of mischief to the government to make such feud otherwise than perilous in a degree to the commonwealth. "I have, some time past," wrote Washington to Pickering late in November, just after the departure of the envoys, "viewed the political concerns of the United States with an anxious and painful eye. They appear to me to be moving by hasty strides to a crisis; but in what it will result, that Being, who sees, foresees, and directs all things, alone can tell. The vessel is afloat, or very nearly so, and, considering myself as a passenger only, I shall trust to the mariners (whose duty it is to watch) to steer it into safe port."

Fortunately for all parties concerned, when the American envoys reached France, a change in the French government had taken place. Napoleon Bonaparte was at the head of the civil and military affairs of the nation, with the title of First Consul. The weak Directory had yielded to the increasing powers of that wonderful man, and his energy and audacity had rescued France from impending anarchy and ruin. He promptly received the United States embassadors; and, several months afterward, he concluded a treaty with them, and gave them such assurances of friendship, that, on their return home, the provisional army was disbanded. The commander-in-chief, meanwhile, had been laid in the grave. Washington did not live to see the clouds break and disperse according to the prophecies of his faith.

We have anticipated events, in order that a glimpse might be given of the conclusion of the difficulties with France. Let us now turn back to the beginning of 1799, and consider Washington personally during that last year of his life. To his family it opened with joy, and closed in sorrow.

At the beginning of the year, there were preparations in progress at Mount Vernon for an event which gave pleasure to Washington--the marriage of Lawrence Lewis, his favorite nephew, with Nelly Custis, his adopted daughter, of whose mutual attachment we have already spoken. At the same time, Washington was much perplexed concerning Nelly's brother George, who was then a youth of eighteen, talented but wayward. He had been in college for a few years, first at Princeton and then at Annapolis; and now, on account of his unwillingness to return to the latter place, he had been for some time pursuing his studies at home, under the eye of his foster father, but with indifferent success. The correspondence between them, for several years, to which allusion has already been made, reveals the anxiety with which Washington watched the development of his foster-son--sometimes hoping, sometimes almost despairing, yet always kind, though firm.[130]

Nelly Custis was married at Mount Vernon on Friday, the twenty-second of February, 1799, Washington's birthday. It was a bright and beautiful day. "The early spring flowers were budding in the hedges, and the blue-bird, making its way cautiously northward, gave a few joyous notes in the garden that morning. The occasion was one of great hilarity at Mount Vernon, for the bride was beloved by all; and Major Lewis, the bridegroom, had ever been near to the heart of his uncle, since the death of his mother, who so much resembled her illustrious brother, that when, in sport, she would place a chapeau on her head, and throw a military cloak over her shoulders, she might easily have been mistaken for the chief."[131]

It was the wish of Nelly that her foster-father should wear, on that occasion, the splendidly-embroidered uniform which the board of general officers had adopted as the costume of the commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States, but he could not be persuaded to wear a suit bedizened with tinsel. He preferred the plain old continental blue and buff, and the modest, black-ribbon cockade. Magnificent white plumes, which General Pinckney had presented to him, he gave to the bride; and to the Reverend Thomas Davis, rector of Christ church, Alexandria, who performed the marriage ceremony, he presented an elegant copy of Mrs. Macaulay's History of England, in eight octavo volumes, saying, when he handed them to him: "These, sir, were written by a remarkable lady, who visited America many years ago; and here is also her treatise on the _Immutability of Moral Truth_, which she sent me just before her death. Read it, and return it to me."

With characteristic modesty, Washington made no allusion to the fact that Mrs. Macaulay (Catharine Macaulay Graham) crossed the Atlantic, in the spring of 1785, for no other purpose, as she avowed, than to see the great leader of the American armies, whom she revered as a second Moses.[132]

During the spring, Washington made preparations for changes and improvements in his estate. He appeared at times to feel that the end of his earthly pilgrimage was near. In a letter written to Mr. M'Henry in March, after alluding to the inconvenience of leaving home, on public business, on account of the demands upon his attention by his private affairs, he said: "This is not all, nor the worst; for, being the executor, the administrator, and trustee, for others' estates, my greatest anxiety is to leave all these concerns in such a clear and distinct form, that no reproach may attach itself to me when I shall have taken my departure for the land of spirits."

In April, he surveyed with his own hands, and made a chart of some lands belonging to him near Alexandria, which he bequeathed to the late Mr. Custis. "To complete this," he wrote, "employed nearly three days."[133]

In July, he wrote and executed his last will and testament. It was written entirely by himself; and at the bottom of each page of the manuscript he signed his name in full--GEORGE WASHINGTON.[134]

In September, Lawrence Lewis, who, with his wife, was still residing at Mount Vernon, applied to Washington for a portion of his estate. Lewis was then on a visit with his friends at Fredericksburg, and Washington wrote to him as follows:--

"MOUNT VERNON, _20th September, 1799._

"DEAR SIR: From the moment Mrs. Washington and myself adopted the
two youngest children of the late Mr. Custis, it became my
intention (if they survived me, and conducted themselves to my
satisfaction) to consider them in my will when I was about to make
a distribution of my property. This determination has undergone no
diminution, but is strengthened by the connection one of them has
formed with my family.

"The expense at which I live, and the unproductiveness of my
estate, will not allow me to lessen my income while I remain in my
present situation. On the contrary, were it not for occasional
supplies of money in payment for lands sold within the last four or
five years, to the amount of upward of fifty thousand dollars, I
should not be able to support the former without involving myself
in debt and difficulties.

"But as it has been understood, from expressions occasionally
dropped from Nelly Custis, now your wife, that it is the wish of
you both to settle in this neighborhood, contiguous to her
friends, and as it would be inexpedient as well as expensive for
you to make a purchase of land, when a measure which is in
contemplation would place you on more eligible ground, I shall
inform you that, in the will which I have made, which I have by me,
and have no disposition to alter, that the part of my Mount Vernon
tract which lies north of the public road leading from the Gum
spring to Colchester, containing about two thousand acres, with the
Dogue-river farm, mill, and distillery, I have left you. Gray's
heights is bequeathed to you and her jointly, if you incline to
build on it; and few better sites for a house than Gray's hill and
that range, are to be found in this country or elsewhere.

"You may also have what is properly Dogue-run farm, the mill, and
distillery, on a just and equitable rent; as also the lands
belonging thereto, on a reasonable hire, either next year, or the
year following--it being necessary, in my opinion, that a young man
should have objects of employment. Idleness is disreputable under
any circumstances; productive of no good, even when unaccompanied
by vicious habits; and you might commence building as soon as you
please, during the progress of which Mount Vernon might be made
your home.

"You may conceive that building before you have an absolute title
to the land is hazardous. To obviate this, I shall only remark that
it is not likely any occurrence will happen, or any change take
place, that would alter my present intention (if the conduct of
yourself and wife is such as to merit a continuance of it); but be
this as it may, that you may proceed on sure ground with respect to
the buildings, I will agree--and this letter shall be an evidence
of it--that if hereafter I should find cause to make any other
disposition of the property _here_ mentioned, I will pay the actual
cost of such buildings to you or yours.

"Although I have not the most distant idea that any event will
happen that could effect a change in my present determination, nor
any suspicions that you or Nelly could conduct yourselves in such a
manner as to incur my serious displeasure, yet, at the same time
that I am inclined to do justice to others, it behooves me to take
care of myself, by keeping the staff in my own hands.

"That you may have a more perfect idea of the landed property I
have bequeathed to you and Nelly in my will, I transmit a plan of
it, every part of which is correctly laid down and accurately
measured, showing the number of fields, lots, meadows, &c., with
the contents and relative situation of each; all of which, except
the mill and swamp, which has never been considered as a part of
Dogue-run farm, and is retained merely for the purpose of putting
it into a better state of improvement, you may have on the terms
before-mentioned.

"With every kind wish for you and Nelly, in which your aunt, who is
still much indisposed, unites,

"I remain your affectionate uncle,

"GEO. WASHINGTON."

Little did any of the parties concerned then suppose that in less than three months the hand that penned this letter would be paralyzed by death; and that the Will, so lately written by that hand, would so soon call for executors.

During the autumn, Washington digested a complete system of management for his estate for several succeeding years, in which were tables designating the rotation of crops. The document occupied thirty folio pages, all written in his clear and peculiar style. It was completed only four days before his death, and was accompanied by a letter to James Anderson, the manager of his farms, dated on the same day (December 10th), in which he gave him some special directions, as if the master was about to depart on a journey. This appears the more singular, as Washington expected to reside at home, and exercise a personal supervision of the whole. In his letter to Anderson, Washington remarked:--

"Economy in all things is as commendable in the manager as it is
beneficial and desirable to the employer; and, on a farm, it shows
itself in nothing more evidently or more essentially than in not
suffering any provender to be wasted, but, on the contrary, in
taking care that every atom of it be used to the best advantage;
and likewise in not permitting the ploughs, harness, and other
implements of husbandry, and the gears belonging to them, to be
unnecessarily exposed, trodden under foot, run over by carts, and
abused in other respects. More good is derived from attending to
the minutiæ of a farm than strikes people at first view; and
examining the farmyard fences, and looking into the fields to see
that nothing is there but what is allowed to be there, is
oftentimes the means of producing more good, or at least of
avoiding more evil, than can be accomplished by riding from one
working-party or overseer to another. I have mentioned these
things, not only because they have occurred to me, but because,
although apparently trifles, they prove far otherwise in the
result."

During the year, Washington had conducted the preparations of the provisional army for the field almost wholly through the medium of letters. These were numerous and sometimes voluminous, and exhibit his constant watchfulness and care. One of his later letters to the secretary of war was in reference to a plan of Hamilton's for _hutting_ the troops then in the field; and the last letter which, it is believed, he ever wrote--having been penned on the day when he was attacked by fatal disease--was to General Hamilton, on a topic of public interest. Hamilton had communicated to the secretary of war his views concerning the establishment of a military academy. A copy of this paper he transmitted to the commander-in-chief, with a request that he would give it his consideration. To this Washington replied:--

"The establishment of an institution of this kind, upon a
respectable and extensive basis, has ever been considered by me as
an object of primary importance to this country; and, while I was
in the chair of government, I omitted no proper opportunity of
recommending it, in my public speeches and otherwise, to the
attention of the legislature. But I never undertook to go into a
detail of the organization of such an academy; leaving this task to
others, whose pursuit in the path of science, and attention to the
arrangement of such institutions, had better qualified them for the
execution of it. For the same reason, I must now decline making any
observations on the details of your plan; and, as it has already
been submitted to the secretary of war, through whom it will
naturally be laid before Congress, it might be too late for
alterations, if any should be suggested. I sincerely hope that the
subject will meet with due attention, and that the reasons for its
establishment, which you have so clearly pointed out in your letter
to the secretary, will prevail upon the legislature to place it
upon a permanent and respectable footing."

FOOTNOTES:

[130] The young man alluded to was the late George Washington Parke Custis, of Arlington House, Virginia, who lived to become the last surviving executor of Washington's will, and who died at his seat, on the tenth of October, 1857, when in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Mr. Custis prepared for the press a series of articles concerning the public and private life of his foster-father, which the present writer arranged, annotated, and published, under the title of "Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, by his Adopted Son." In that work is given a series of letters, composing portions of a correspondence between Washington and young Custis, during the period when the latter was in college, first at Princeton, in New Jersey, and then at Annapolis, in Maryland. From Washington's letters the following extracts have been taken, to show the parental solicitude which he felt for this talented but somewhat wayward boy, who was the idol of his grandmother, Mrs. Washington:--

"PHILADELPHIA, _15th November, 1796._

"DEAR WASHINGTON: Yesterday's mail brought me your letter of the
twelfth instant, and under cover of this letter you will receive a
ten dollar bill, to purchase a gown, &c., if proper. But as the
classes may be distinguished by a different insignia, I advise you
not to provide these without first obtaining the approbation of
your tutors; otherwise you may be distinguished more by folly than
by the dress.

"It affords me pleasure to hear that you are agreeably fixed; and I
receive still more from the assurance you give of attending closely
to your studies. It is you yourself who is to derive immediate
benefit from these. Your country may do it hereafter. The more
knowledge you acquire, the greater will be the probability of your
succeeding in both, and the greater will be your thirst for more.

"I rejoice to hear you went through your examination with
propriety, and have no doubt but that the president has placed you
in the class which he conceived best adapted to the present state
of your improvement. The more there are above you, the greater your
exertions should be to ascend; but let your promotion result from
your own application, and from intrinsic merit, not from the labors
of others. The last would prove fallacious, and expose you to the
reproach of the daw in borrowed feathers. This would be inexcusable
in you, because there is no occasion for it, forasmuch as you need
nothing but the exertion of the talents you possess, with proper
directions, to acquire all that is necessary; and the hours
allotted for study, if properly improved, will enable you to do
this. Although the confinement may feel irksome at first, the
advantages resulting from it, to a reflecting mind, will soon
overcome it.

"Endeavor to conciliate the good will of _all_ your
fellow-students, rendering them every act of kindness in your
power. Be particularly obliging and attentive to your chamber-mate,
Mr. Forsyth; who, from the account I have of him, is an admirable
young man, and strongly impressed with the importance of a liberal
and finished education. But, above all, be obedient to your tutors,
and in a particular manner respect the president of the seminary,
who is both learned and good.

"For any particular advantages you may derive from the attention
and aid of Mr. Forsyth, I shall have a disposition to reward. One
thing more, and I will close this letter. Never let an indigent
person ask, without receiving _something_, if you have the means;
always recollecting in what light the widow's mite was viewed."

PHILADELPHIA, _Nov_. 28, 1796.

"The assurances you give me of applying diligently to your studies,
and fulfilling those obligations which are enjoined by your Creator
and due to his creatures, are highly pleasing and satisfactory to
me. I rejoice in it on two accounts: first, as it is the sure means
of laying the foundation of your own happiness, and rendering you,
if it should please God to spare your life, a useful member of
society hereafter: and, secondly, that I may, if I live to enjoy
the pleasure, reflect that I have been, in some degree,
instrumental in effecting these purposes.

"You are now extending into that stage of life when good or bad
habits are formed; when the mind will be turned to things useful
and praiseworthy, or to dissipation and vice. Fix on whichever it
may, it will stick by you; for you know it has been said, and
truly, that 'as the twig is bent so it will grow.' This, in a
strong point of view, shows the propriety of letting your
inexperience be directed by maturer advice, and in placing guard
upon the avenues which lead to idleness and vice. The latter will
approach like a thief, working upon your passions--encouraged,
perhaps, by bad examples--the propensity to which will increase in
proportion to the practice of it, and your yielding. This
admonition proceeds from the purest affection for you; but I do not
mean by it that you are to become a stoic, or to deprive yourself,
in the intervals of study, of any recreations or manly exercise
which reason approves.

"'Tis well to be on good terms with all your fellow-students, and I
am pleased to hear you are so; but while a courteous behavior is
due to all, select the most deserving only for your friendships,
and, before this becomes intimate, weigh their dispositions and
character _well_. True friendship is a plant of slow growth; to be
sincere, there must be a congeniality of temper and pursuits.
Virtue and vice can not be allied; nor can idleness and industry.
Of course, if you resolve to adhere to the two former of these
extremes, an intimacy with those who incline to the latter of them
would be extremely embarrassing to you: it would be a
stumbling-block in your way, and act like a millstone hung to your
neck, for it is the nature of idleness and vice to obtain as many
votaries as they can.

"I would guard you, too, against imbibing hasty and unfavorable
impressions of any one. Let your judgment always balance well
before you decide; and even then, where there is no occasion for
expressing an opinion, it is best to be silent, for there is
nothing more certain than that it is at all times more easy to make
enemies than friends. And besides, to speak evil of any one, unless
there are unequivocal proofs of their deserving it, is an injury
for which there is no adequate reparation. For, as Shakespeare
says, 'He that robs me of my good name enriches not himself, but
renders me poor indeed,' or words to that effect. Keep in mind that
scarcely any change would be agreeable to you at _first_, from the
sudden transition, and from never having been accustomed to shift
or rough it; and, moreover, that if you meet with collegiate fare,
it will be unmanly to complain. My paper reminds me it is time to
conclude."

"MOUNT VERNON, 4_th June_, 1797.

"Your letter of the twenty-ninth ultimo came to hand by the post of
Friday, and eased my mind of many unpleasant sensations and
reflections on your account. It has, indeed, done more--it has
filled it with pleasure more easy to be conceived than expressed;
and if your sorrow and repentance for the disquietude occasioned by
the preceding letter--your resolution to abandon the ideas which
were therein expressed--are sincere, I shall not only heartily
forgive, but will forget also, and bury in oblivion all that has
passed....

"You must not suffer the resolution you have recently entered into,
to operate as the mere result of a momentary impulse, occasioned by
the letters you have received from hence. This resolution should be
founded on sober reflection, and a thorough conviction of your
error; otherwise it will be as wavering as the wind, and become the
sport of conflicting passions, which will occasion such a lassitude
in your exertions as to render your studies of little avail. To
insure permanency, think seriously of the advantages which are to
be derived, on the one hand, from the steady pursuit of a course of
study to be marked out by your preceptor, whose judgment,
experience, and acknowledged abilities, enables him to direct them;
and, on the other hand, revolve as seriously on the consequences
which would inevitably result from an indisposition to this
measure, or from an idle habit of hankering after unprofitable
amusements at your time of life, before you have acquired that
knowledge which would be found beneficial in every situation--I say
_before_, because it is not my wish that, having gone through the
essentials, you should be deprived of any rational amusement
_afterward_; or, lastly, from dissipation in such company as you
would most likely meet under such circumstances, who but too often
mistake ribaldry for wit, and rioting, swearing, intoxication, and
gambling, for manliness."

Young Custis was placed in the college at Annapolis in the spring of 1798, when Washington wrote to Mr. M'Dowell, the president, as follows:--

"Mr. Custis possesses competent talents to fit him for any studies,
but they are counteracted by an indolence of mind which renders it
difficult to draw them into action. Doctor Stuart having been an
attentive observer of this, I shall refer you to him for the
development of the causes, while justice from me requires I should
add, that I know of no vice to which this inertness can be
attributed. From drinking and gaming he is perfectly free; and if
he has a propensity to any other impropriety, it is hidden from me.
He is generous, and regardful of truth.

"As his family, fortune, and talents (if the latter can be
improved), give him just pretensions to become a useful member of
society in the councils of his country, his friends, and none more
than myself, are extremely desirous that his education should be
liberal, polished, and suitable for this end."

Young Custis did not remain long at Annapolis. He was now eighteen years of age, and his mind was filled with visions of military glory. He received the appointment of cornet of horse, early in January, 1799, and was soon afterward promoted to the position of aid-de-camp to General Pinckney. As the army was not called to the field, he remained at Mount Vernon, awaiting orders. Meanwhile, Washington endeavored to keep him engaged in his studies, but with little success, as appears by the following extract from a letter to Doctor Stuart, young Custis's stepfather, written on the twenty-second of January, 1799, soon after the cornet received his appointment:--

"DEAR SIR: Washington leaves this to-day on a visit to Hope Park,
which will afford you an opportunity to examine the progress he has
made in the studies he was directed to pursue.

"I can, and I believe I do, keep him in his room a certain portion
of the twenty-four hours, but it will be impossible for me to make
him attend to his books if inclination on his part is wanting; nor,
while I am out, if he chooses to be so, is it in my power to
prevent it. I will not say this is the case, nor will I run the
hazard of doing him injustice, by saying he does not apply as he
ought to what has been prescribed; but no risk will be run, and
candor requires I should declare it as my opinion that he will not
derive much benefit in any course which can be marked out for him
at this place, without an _able_ preceptor always with him. I
believe Washington means well, but has not resolution to act well."

For the entire correspondence alluded to, and a vast amount of information concerning the private life of Washington, the reader is referred to Custis's _Recollections and Private Memoirs_ of the Father of his Country.

[131] Lossing's _Mount Vernon and its Associations_, page 313.

[132] Ib., page 314.

[133] The original chart of this survey, made by Washington's own hand, is preserved by the daughter of Mr. Custis (Mrs. Colonel Robert E. Lee), at Arlington House. A _facsimile_ of it is published in Custis's _Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington_.

[134] The following is a true copy of Washington's will:--

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. I, GEORGE WASHINGTON, of Mount Vernon, a citizen of the United States, and lately President of the same, do make, ordain, and declare this instrument, which is written with my own hand, and every page thereof subscribed with my name, to be my last WILL AND TESTAMENT, revoking all others.

_Imprimis._--All my debts, of which there are but few, and none of magnitude, are to be punctually and speedily paid; and the legacies, hereinafter bequeathed, are to be discharged as soon as circumstances will permit, and in the manner directed.

_Item._--To my dearly beloved wife, _Martha Washington_, I give and bequeath the use, profit, and benefit of my whole estate, real and personal, for the term of her natural life, except such parts thereof as are specially disposed of hereafter. My improved lot in the town of Alexandria, situated on Pitt and Cameron streets, I give to her and her heirs for ever; as I also do my household and kitchen furniture of every sort and kind, with the liquors and groceries which may be on hand at the time of my decease, to be used and disposed of as she may think proper.

_Item._--Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all the slaves whom I hold _in my own right_ shall receive their freedom. To emancipate them during her life would, though earnestly wished by me, be attended with such insuperable difficulties, on account of their intermixture by marriage with the dower-negroes, as to excite the most painful sensations, if not disagreeable consequences, to the latter, while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor; it not being in my power, under the tenure by which the dower-negroes are held, to manumit them.[137] And whereas, among those who will receive freedom according to this devise, there may be some who, from old age or bodily infirmities, and others who, on account of their infancy, will be unable to support themselves, it is my will and desire that all, who come under the first and second description, shall be comfortably clothed and fed by my heirs while they live; and that such of the latter description as have no parents living, or, if living, are unable or unwilling to provide for them, shall be bound by the court until they shall arrive at the age of twenty-five years; and, in cases where no record can be produced, whereby their ages can be ascertained, the judgment of the court, upon its own view of the subject, shall be adequate and final. The negroes thus bound are (by their masters or mistresses) to be taught to read and write, and to be brought up to some useful occupation, agreeably to the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of orphan and other poor children. And I do hereby expressly forbid the sale or transportation out of the said Commonwealth, of any slave I may die possessed of, under any pretence whatsoever. And I do, moreover, most pointedly and most solemnly enjoin it upon my executors hereafter named, or the survivors of them, to see that this clause respecting slaves, and every part thereof, be religiously fulfilled at the epoch at which it is directed to take place, without evasion, neglect, or delay, after the crops which may then be on the ground are harvested, particularly as it respects the aged and infirm; seeing that a regular and permanent fund be established for their support, as long as there are subjects requiring it; not trusting to the uncertain provision to be made by individuals. And to my mulatto man, _William_, calling himself _William Lee_, I give immediate freedom, or, if he should prefer it (on account of the accidents which have befallen him, and which have rendered him incapable of walking, or of any active employment), to remain in the situation he now is, it shall be optional in him to do so; in either case, however, I allow him an annuity of thirty dollars, during his natural life, which shall be independent of the victuals and clothes he has been accustomed to receive, if he chooses the last alternative; but in full with his freedom, if he prefers the first; and this I give him, as a testimony of my sense of his attachment to me, and for his faithful services during the Revolutionary War.

_Item._--To the trustees (governors, or by whatsoever other name they may be designated) of the Academy in the town of Alexandria, I give and bequeath, in trust, four thousand dollars, or, in other words, twenty of the shares which I hold in the Bank of Alexandria, toward the support of a free school, established at, and annexed to, the said Academy, for the purpose of educating such orphan children, or the children of such other poor and indigent persons, as are unable to accomplish it with their own means, and who, in the judgment of the trustees of the said seminary, are best entitled to the benefit of this donation. The aforesaid twenty shares I give and bequeath in perpetuity; the dividends only of which are to be drawn for and applied, by the said trustees for the time being, for the uses above mentioned; the stock to remain entire and untouched, unless indications of failure of the said bank should be so apparent, or a discontinuance thereof, should render a removal of this fund necessary. In either of these cases, the amount of the stock here devised is to be vested in some other bank, or public institution, whereby the interest may with regularity and certainty be drawn and applied as above. And to prevent misconception, my meaning is, and is hereby declared to be, that these twenty shares are in lieu of, and not in addition to, the thousand pounds given by a missive letter some years ago, in consequence whereof an annuity of fifty pounds has since been paid toward the support of this institution.

_Item._--Whereas, by a law of the Commonwealth of Virginia, enacted in the year 1785, the Legislature thereof was pleased, as an evidence of its approbation of the services I had rendered the public during the Revolution, and partly, I believe, in consideration of my having suggested the vast advantages which the community would derive from the extension of its inland navigation under legislative patronage, to present me with one hundred shares, of one hundred dollars each, in the incorporated Company, established for the purpose of extending the navigation of James River from the tide-water to the mountains; and also with fifty shares, of £100 sterling each, in the corporation of another Company, likewise established for the similar purpose of opening the navigation of the River Potomac from the tide-water to Fort Cumberland; the acceptance of which, although the offer was highly honorable and grateful to my feelings, was refused, as inconsistent with a principle which I had adopted, and had never departed from, viz., not to receive pecuniary compensation for any services I could render my country in its arduous struggle with Great Britain for its rights, and because I had evaded similar propositions from other States in the Union; adding to this refusal, however, an intimation that, if it should be the pleasure of the Legislature to permit me to appropriate the said shares to _public uses_, I would receive them on those terms with due sensibility; and this it having consented to, in flattering terms, as will appear by a subsequent law, and sundry resolutions, in the most ample and honorable manner;--I proceed after this recital, for the more correct understanding of the case, to declare; that, as it has always been a source of serious regret with me, to see the youth of these United States sent to foreign countries for the purpose of education, often before their minds were formed, or they had imbibed any adequate ideas of the happiness of their own; contracting too frequently, not only habits of dissipation and extravagance, but principles unfriendly to republican government, and to the true and genuine liberties of mankind, which thereafter are rarely overcome; for these reasons it has been my ardent wish to see a plan devised, on a liberal scale, which would have a tendency to spread systematic ideas through all parts of this rising empire, thereby to do away local attachments and State prejudices, as far as the nature of things would, or indeed ought to admit, from our national councils. Looking anxiously forward to the accomplishment of so desirable an object as this is (in my estimation), my mind has not been able to contemplate any plan more likely to effect the measure, than the establishment of a University in a central part of the United States, to which the youths of fortune and talents from all parts thereof may be sent for the completion of their education, in all the branches of polite literature, in arts and sciences, in acquiring knowledge in the principles of politics and good government, and, as a matter of infinite importance in my judgment, by associating with each other, and forming friendships in juvenile years, be enabled to free themselves in a proper degree from those local prejudices and habitual jealousies which have just been mentioned, and which, when carried to excess, are never-failing sources of disquietude to the public mind, and pregnant of mischievous consequences to this country. Under these impressions, so fully dilated--

_Item._--I give and bequeath, in perpetuity, the fifty shares which I hold in the Potomac company (under the aforesaid acts of the Legislature of Virginia), toward the endowment of a University, to be established within the limits of the District of Columbia, under the auspices of the general government, if that government should incline to extend a fostering hand toward it; and, until such seminary is established, and the funds arising on these shares shall be required for its support, my further will and desire is, that the profit accruing therefrom shall, whenever the dividends are made, be laid out in purchasing stock in the Bank of Columbia, or some other bank, at the discretion of my executors, or by the Treasurer of the United States for the time being, under the direction of Congress, provided that honorable body should patronize the measure; and the dividends proceeding from the purchase of such stock are to be vested in more stock, and so on, until a sum adequate to the accomplishment of the object is obtained; of which I have not the smallest doubt before many years pass away, even if no aid or encouragement is given by the legislative authority, or from any other source.

_Item._--The hundred shares, which I hold in the James River Company, I have given, and now confirm in perpetuity, to and for the use and benefit of Liberty Hall Academy, in the County of Rockbridge, in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

_Item._--I release, exonerate, and discharge the estate of my deceased brother, _Samuel Washington_, from the payment of the money which is due to me for the land I sold to _Philip Pendleton_ (lying in the county of Berkeley), who assigned the same to him, the said _Samuel_, who by agreement was to pay me therefor. And whereas, by some contract (the purport of which was never communicated to me) between the said _Samuel_ and his son, _Thornton Washington_, the latter became possessed of the aforesaid land, without any conveyance having passed from me, either to the said _Pendleton_, the said _Samuel_, or the said _Thornton_, and without any consideration having been made, by which neglect neither the legal nor equitable title has been alienated; it rests therefore with me to declare my intentions concerning the premises; and these are, to give and bequeath the said land to whomsoever the said _Thornton Washington_ (who is also dead) devised the same, or to his heirs for ever, if he died intestate; exonerating the estate of the said _Thornton_, equally with that of the said _Samuel_, from payment of the purchase money, which, with interest, agreeably to the original contract with the said _Pendleton_, would amount to more than a thousand pounds. And whereas two other sons of my said deceased brother _Samuel_, namely, _George Steptoe Washington_ and _Lawrence Augustine Washington_, were, by the decease of those to whose care they were committed, brought under my protection, and, in consequence, have occasioned advances on my part, for their education at college and other schools, for their board, clothing, and other incidental expenses, to the amount of near five thousand dollars, over and above the sums furnished by their estate, which sum it may be inconvenient for them or their father's estate to refund; I do for these reasons acquit them and the said estate from the payment thereof, my intention being, that all accounts between them and me, and their father's estate and me, shall stand balanced.

_Item._--The balance due to me from the estate of _Bartholomew Dandridge_, deceased (my wife's brother), and which amounted on the first day of October, 1795, to four hundred and twenty-five pounds (as will appear by an account rendered by his deceased son, _John Dandridge_, who was the acting executor of his father's will), I release and acquit from the payment thereof. And the negroes, then thirty-three in number, formerly belonging to the said estate, who were taken in execution, sold, and purchased in on my account, in the year (_blank_), and ever since have remained in the possession and to the use of _Mary_, widow of the said _Bartholomew Dandridge_, with their increase, it is my will and desire shall continue and be in her possession, without paying hire, or making compensation for the same for the time past, or to come, during her natural life; at the expiration of which, I direct that all of them who are forty years old and upward shall receive their freedom; and all under that age, and above sixteen, shall serve seven years and no longer; and all under sixteen years shall serve until they are twenty-five years of age, and then be free. And, to avoid disputes respecting the ages of any of these negroes, they are to be taken into the court of the county in which they reside, and the judgment thereof, in this relation, shall be final, and record thereof made, which may be adduced as evidence at any time thereafter, if disputes should arise concerning the same. And I further direct, that the heirs of the said _Bartholomew Dandridge_ shall equally share the benefits arising from the services of the said negroes, according to the tenor of this devise, upon the decease of their mother.

_Item._--If _Charles Carter_, who intermarried with my niece, _Betty Lewis_, is not sufficiently secured in the title to the lots he had of me in the town of Fredericksburg, it is my will and desire, that my executors shall make such conveyances of them as the law requires to render it perfect.

_Item._--To my nephew, _William Augustine Washington_, and his heirs (if he should conceive them to be objects worth prosecuting), a lot in the town of Manchester (opposite to Richmond), No. 265, drawn on my sole account, and also the tenth of one or two hundred-acre lots, and two of three half-acre lots, in the city and vicinity of Richmond, drawn in partnership with nine others, all in the lottery of the deceased _William Byrd_, are given; as is also a lot which I purchased of _John Hood_, conveyed by _William Willie_ and _Samuel Gordon_, trustees of the said _John Hood_, numbered 139, in the town of Edinburgh, in the County of Prince George, State of Virginia.

_Item._--To my nephew, _Bushrod Washington_,[136] I give and bequeath all the papers in my possession, which relate to my civil and military administration of the affairs of this country. I leave to him also such of my private papers as are worth preserving; and at the decease of my wife, and before, if she is not inclined to retain them, I give and bequeath my library of books and pamphlets of every kind.

_Item._--Having sold lands which I possessed in the State of Pennsylvania, and part of a tract held in equal right with _George Clinton_, late governor of New York, in the State of New York, my share of land and interest in the Great Dismal Swamp, and a tract of land which I owned in the County of Gloucester,--withholding the legal titles thereto, until the consideration money should be paid,--and having moreover leased and conditionally sold (as will appear by the tenor of the said leases) all my lands upon the Great Kenhawa, and a tract upon Difficult Run, in the County of Loudoun, it is my will and direction, that whensoever the contracts are fully and respectively complied with, according to the spirit, true intent, and meaning thereof, on the part of the purchasers, their heirs or assigns, that then, and in that case, conveyances are to be made, agreeably to the terms of the said contracts, and the money arising therefrom, when paid, to be vested in bank stock; the dividends whereof, as of that also which is already vested therein, are to inure to my said wife during her life; but the stock itself is to remain and be subject to the general distribution hereafter directed.

_Item._--To the _Earl of Buchan_ I recommit the "Box made of the Oak that sheltered the great Sir _William Wallace_, after the battle of Falkirk," presented to me by his Lordship, in terms too flattering for me to repeat, with a request "to pass it, on the event of my decease, to the man in my country, who should appear to merit it best, upon the same conditions that have induced him to send it to me." Whether easy or not to select the man, who might comport with his Lordship's opinion in this respect, is not for me to say; but, conceiving that no disposition of this valuable curiosity can be more eligible than the recommitment of it to his own cabinet, agreeably to the original design of the Goldsmiths' Company of Edinburgh, who presented it to him, and, at his request, consented that it should be transferred to me, I do give and bequeath the same to his Lordship; and, in case of his decease, to his heir, with my grateful thanks for the distinguished honor of presenting it to me, and more especially for the favorable sentiments with which he accompanied it.