Volume 3 — CHAPTER XLI.

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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.

1799

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.”

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