land. Jay negotiated a commercial treaty which, though by no means satisfactory, was better than nothing, and this was signed by Washington on August 18, 1795. The publication of the terms of this treaty aroused the most violent discussion in and out of Congress. That body called upon the President for the correspondence and instructions involved in the negotiations, and these Washington declined to furnish. Acrimonious debate followed, but the President held firm to his position, and the matter died out. (See Jay Treaty.) Thus, by his wisdom and determination, did Washington prevent his country—just emerging from the trials and vicissitudes of the War of Independence—from engaging in “entangling alliances” which would certainly have precipitated renewed warfare and perhaps have rendered impossible the growth of the magnificent superstructure of which the solid foundation had been laid.
Among the important events of Washington's administration were the admission of Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee into the Union, the assumption of the war debts of the States by the Federal Government, the chartering of the Bank of the United States, the establishment of the national mint, the Whisky Insurrection (q.v.) of 1794 in western Pennsylvania (which was speedily put down without bloodshed), the unsuccessful expedition of General Harmar against the Northwestern Indians in 1790, the disastrous defeat of General St. Clair by them in 1791, and the victory gained by General Wayne over them at Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794. The retirement of Jefferson from the Cabinet, and the more decided ascendency of Hamilton in the councils of the Administration, also should be mentioned, as well as the scurrilous attacks upon Washington by the radical adherents of the former. While Washington leaned to the Federalist side, he was far from being the mere instrument of the brilliant Hamilton.
On September 19, 1796, Washington, declining to serve again, issued his Farewell Address to the country he had been so largely instrumental in forming almost out of chaos. He delivered his last Presidential message, turned over his office to his successor, John Adams, and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, followed by the love and veneration of his people. For further details concerning his two administrations as President, see the article United States.
At Mount Vernon he devoted himself to agriculture. In 1798 the prospect of a war with France led to his appointment as commander-in-chief of the National Army. On December 12, 1799, he was exposed in the saddle, for several hours, to cold and snow, and attacked with acute laryngitis, for which he was repeatedly and largely bled. He sank rapidly, and died on December 14th. His last words were characteristic. He said: “I die hard; but I am not afraid to go. I believed from my first attack that I should not survive it. My breath cannot last long.” A little later he said: “I feel myself going. I thank you for your attentions; but I pray you to take no more trouble about me. Let me go off quietly. I cannot last long.” After some instructions to his secretary about his burial he became easier, felt his own pulse, and died without a struggle, partly, it would seem, a victim to the malpractice of that day.
When news of his death reached Europe, the mourning became almost as widespread as it had been in America. The armies of Bonaparte and the Channel fleet of Great Britain did homage to his memory. It was admitted on all hands that a cosmopolitan statesman of the highest rank, and a noble friend of mankind, was lost to the world. The eulogy of ‘Light-Horse Harry’ Lee that he was “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” thus had a wider meaning than its author intended perhaps to give it—a meaning which the lapse of years has extended rather than diminished.
Washington was six feet two inches in height, with brown hair, blue eyes, large head and hands, and strong arms. The portraits painted in his early life are perhaps the most truthful, as the artificial teeth worn in his later years altered decidedly the expression of his face. The statue by Houdon, at Richmond, has been accepted as the typical likeness, but the forehead is probably too retreating. The earliest known portrait, by Charles Wilson Peale, was painted in 1772. That by Joseph Wright, painted in 1782, was highly approved by Washington himself. Those by Trumbull and Sharpless are considered faithful in most respects. Those by Stuart are somewhat idealized. No one picture can be accepted as entirely satisfactory. Washington was a forcible, but not a fluent, speaker. He was attentive to his personal appearance and somewhat fond of display. To a natural diffidence was doubtless due the cold and reserved manner that distinguished him when in public life. Toward young people, and especially toward his nieces and nephews—his adopted children, for he had none of his own—he was gracious and gentle. He was fond of fox-hunting, visited the theatre occasionally, and was a moderate wine-drinker, but was opposed to the use of tobacco, although he raised it on his plantations. He was, like nearly all Americans of property at that period, a slaveholder, but he was a considerate master. He possessed at his death 124 slaves, whom he directed, in his will, to be emancipated at the death of his wife, so that the negroes of the two estates who had intermarried might not be separated. As early as 1786 he expressed himself in favor of abolition by legislative authority. He was not a scholar, and the 1200 or more volumes that composed his library were chiefly on agricultural and military topics. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but the exact nature of his religious opinions is a subject of controversy.
The early biographers of Washington erred in representing him as an ideal being of almost superhuman excellence. The criticism of later times deems it but honest to portray the man as he was. There are writers who, forgetting that balance of genius is rarer and more commendable often than brilliance, are inclined to rate him below Hamilton or Jefferson in political wisdom; but even these echo the tributes paid by the world to his unselfish devotion to duty, especially to the cause of independence, to his courage, his sublime hopefulness under defeat, his strong will, his marvelous insight into character, his abiding faith in God, and his absolute integrity and purity of motives. When these virtues are considered, few, if any, heroes of history can be placed beside him.
