WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON
place in the war department in 1796; Joseph
Habersham of Georgia, became postmaster-gen-
eral in 1795, and Charles Lee of Virginia, suc-
ceeded AVilliam Bradford as attorney-general in
the same year. Washington sent Thomas Pinck-
ney of Soutli Carolina as U.S. minister to Great
Britain in 1793, and Rufus King of New York in
1796; Gouverneur Morris of New York as U.S.
minister to France in 1792; James Monroe
of Virginia in 1794, Charles C. Pinckney of
South Carolina in 1796; and William Short of
Virginia as minister resident to Spain in 1794;
Thomas Pinckney as U.S. minister, 1794, and
David Humphreys of Connecticut in 1796. The
President's appointments to the U.S. supreme
court were as follows: John Jay of New York,
chief justice, who served, 1789-95; and John Rut-
ledge of South Carolina (who declined); James
Wilson of Pennsylvania; William Gushing of
Massachusetts; Robert H. Harrison of Maryland;
John Blair of Virginia; James Iredell of North
Carolina, 1790; Thomas Johnson of Maryland,
1791, and William Paterson of New Jersey, 1793,
as associate justices. The seat of government
was New York city until 1790, when it was re-
moved to Philadelphia, where Washington re-
ceived John Adams as his successor, March 4,
1791, after a service as President of seven years,
ten months and four days. President Washington
visited the Eastern and Southern states on a tour
of observation. The Indian troubles in the west
called liis attention, and in 1790 he ordered out 300
regulars and 1100 militia from Pennsylvania and
Kentucky, under Colonels Harmer and Hardin,
but they were both defeated, as was Gen. Arthur
St. Clair (q.v.) who succeeded them, and panic
ran rampant along the frontier until Gen. An-
thony Wayne was appointed, and quelled the
disturbances. The financial condition of the
country was, at the time of Washington's inaug-
uration, in its worst stage: the national credit
was dishonored, the debt overwhebning, and the
States bankrupt through the inflation of Con-
tinental money, and repudiation. As a remedy
for these evils the President signed the bill for
the establishment of a United States bank. The
war in Europe between France and England
caused him to issue a proclamation setting forth,
that tiie " New power . . . meant to hold aloof
from Europe . . . and take no intei"est in the
balance of power or the fate of dynasties." Chief
Justice Jay was appointed a special minister to
Great Britain, and negotiated a treaty approved
by the President, that caused much dissension
among the states, and Washington was bitterly
assailed, and an impeachment sviggested. He
laid the corner stone of the Capitol building at
Washington. D.C., Sept. 18, 1793. The whisky
rebellion of 1794 caused the President to call out
the militia and forcibly suppress it; and the
trouble with the French minister Genet, and dis-
sensions in the cabinet, made the end of his
second term very troublesome. He refused to
have his name used as candidate for a third term,
and published a farewell address, Sept. 19, 1796.
After the expiration of his term of office hfe re-
turned to Mount Vernon and resumed charge of
his plantation. The threatened war with France
caused the authorization of a provisional armj',
and on July 3, 1798, Washington yielded to the
urging of his friends and was commissioned lieu-
tenant-general and commander-in-chief of all
the armies in the United States. He appointed
Alexander Hamilton chief of staff, and entered
into the preparations for the war, which was
happily averted. On Dec. 13, 1799, while at-
tending to his round of duties, he took a severe
cold that developed into acute laryngitis, and
after being bled three times, he sank rapidly, and
between ten and eleven o'clock Saturday night,
December 14, breathed his last. He was buried
in the vault at Mount Vernon, and although a
vault was prepared for the body beneath the
capitol at Washington, the state of Virginia re-
fused to consent to its removal. In 1796 he pre-
sented to Liberty Hall, Rockbridge county, Va.,
the 100 sliares of the stock of the Old James River
company, valued at $50,000 which he had received
from the legislature of Virgiziia, in token of es-
teem and admiration, with these words: "To
promote literature in this rising empire, and to
encourage the arts, have ever been amongst the
warmest wishes of my heart, and if the donation,
which the generosity of the legislature of the
commonwealth has enabled me to bestow upon
Liberty Hall,— now by your politeness called
Washington Academy, is likely to prove a means
to accomplish these ends, it will contribute to
the gratification of my desires." He received
the honorary degree of LL.D. from Harvard in
1776; from Yale in 1781; from the University of
Pennsylvania in 1783; from Washington college,
Md., probably in 1784, on the occasion of his visit,
when he placed his name on the records of the
board of visitors and governors, and consented
that his name should be given to the institution;
and from Brown university in 1790. He was a
fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, and of the American Philosophical so-
ciety in 1779. The name George Washington
(1733-1799), in " Class M, Rulers and Statesmen"
received 97 votes (one more than the vote for
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and for Daniel
Webster (1783-1852) in the same class), and se-
cured the highest place in the Hall of Fame for
Great Americans. New York university, in Octo-
ber, 1900. Congress passed a resolution setting
the 33d of February, the anniversary of his birth,
