13. From George Washington to Joseph Whipple, 28, November 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-00037; “From George Washington to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 1 September 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-00910. [This is an Early Access document from PGW. It is not an authoritative final version.]
14. “From George Washington to Frederick Kitt, 29 January 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0053.
15. “From George Washington to Joseph Whipple, 28 November 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-00037.
16. “From George Washington to John Francis Mercer, 9 September 1786,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-04-02-0232.
17. “From George Washington to Alexander Spotswood, 23 November 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-17-02-0136.
18. “From George Washington to Joseph Thompson, 2 July 1766,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-07-02-0300.
19. “An Act to Authorize the Manumission of Slaves (1782),” Encyclopedia Virginia, accessed May 6, 2019, www.encyclopediavirginia.org/An_act_to_authorize_the_manumission_of_slaves_1782.
20. “From George Washington to Lund Washington, 7 May 1787,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-05-02-0161. The best resource on this is Mary V. Thompson. Please see her most recent book, “The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret”: George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019).
21. “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 5 March 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-12-02-0005, and “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 9 March 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-12-02-0009.
CHAPTER 19: FINAL RETIREMENT
1. “From George Washington to Lawrence Augustine Washington, 3 September 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-01-02-0302.
2. “From George Washington to James Anderson (of Scotland), 7 April 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-01-02-0059.
3. “From George Washington to James McHenry, 29 May 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-01-02-0128.
4. “From George Washington to Burgess Ball, 22 September 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0266.
5. “Martha Washington to Elizabeth Willing Powel, 17 December 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-01-02-0462.
6. Washington Irving, The Life of George Washington, vol. 5 (New York: G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1859), 138.
7. “From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 22 May 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-01-02-0121.
8. Virginia Kays Creesy, “George Washington as a Princeton Parent,” Princeton Alumni Weekly, July 4, 1976.
9. “From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 24 July 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0354.
10. George Washington Parke Custis and Mary Randolph Custis Lee, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1860), 38.
11. “Comments on Monroe’s A View of the Conduct of the Executive of the United States, March 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0146. Washington’s copy ended up at Harvard’s Houghton Library because his nephew, Bushrod Washington, gave it to his fellow Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Story. Story taught at Harvard Law School and donated the book.
12. “Thomas Jefferson to Walter Jones, 2 January 1814,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-07-02-0052.
13. PGW, RS, 2: 169–217.
14. The United States still had no meaningful standing army. It was not until after the founding of West Point and the near disaster of the War of 1812 that such a force came into existence. An army was raised by nationalizing state militia regiments.
15. John Adams to George Washington, June 22, 1798, PGW, RS, 2: 351–352.
16. “From George Washington to John Adams, 13 July 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0314.
17. “From George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., 21 July 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0165.
CHAPTER 20: “’TIS WELL”
1. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations come from Tobias Lear’s Narrative Accounts of the Death of George Washington. “II, 14 December 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0406-0002.
He officially died, according to Craik and Dick, of “cynanche trachealis,” an inflamed upper windpipe. But most historians, consulting with physicians, have argued it was acute epiglottitis caused by virulent bacteria, which partially obstructed his airway, and his symptoms are consistent with that diagnosis. When the epiglottis is inflamed, it can be very sore and painful, sometimes swelling to the size of a golf ball. As it grows, it obstructs the larynx, making breathing and swallowing extremely painful. Although later accounts would describe Washington experiencing “with so little pain” during his “beautiful death,” he more than likely spent much of that last day feeling as if he was being smothered.
2. Nelly had married Lawrence Lewis, the late Betty Washington Lewis’s son.
3. Tobias Lear to Alexander Hamilton, January 16, 1800, PAH, 24: 199.
4. Gustavus Richard Brown to James Craik, WGW, 14: 257.
5. “From George Washington to Martha Washington, 18 June 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-01-02-0003.
6. “George Washington’s Last Will and Testament, 9 July 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0404-0001.
7. Bushrod Washington did a poor job of keeping the documents, handing them out as mementos to friends and colleagues. He also allowed great liberties to John Marshall, George Washington’s first biographer, and Jared Sparks, George Washington’s first editor, that led to further dispersal of the collection.
8. “10 Facts About Washington and Slavery,” George Washington’s Mount Vernon, accessed May 13, 2019, www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/ten-facts-about-washington-slavery/.
9. Ashley Bateman, “George Washington’s Anti-Slavery Legacy,” The Federalist, accessed May 16, 2019, https://thefederalist.com/2016/02/22/george-washingtons-anti-slavery-legacy/.
EPILOGUE
1. Annual Report (Mount Vernon, VA: The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, 1936), 54.
2. Henry Lee, Fu
neral Oration on the Death of General Washington (Boston: Printed for Joseph Nancrede and Manning & Loring, 1800), 10.
3. John Cotton Smith, The Correspondence and Miscellanies of the Hon. John Cotton Smith with an Eulogy Pronounced before the Connecticut Historical Society at New Haven, May 27th, 1846. By the Rev. William W. Andrews (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1847), 224–225. Smith’s account, published years after the reported event in an extremely critical essay of Thomas Jefferson, was most likely somewhat exaggerated.
4. William P. Cutler and Julia P. Cutler, Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., vol. 2 (Cincinnati, OH: R. Clarke & Co., 1888), 56–57.
5. Martha Washington, December 31, 1799, quoted in John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856), 92.
6. “Virginia F. F’s.,” Cleveland Daily Leader, September 26, 1865.
7. Abigail Adams to Mary Adams, December 21, 1800, in Fritz Hirschfeld, George Washington and Slavery: A Documentary Portrayal (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997), 214.
8. Horace Binney, Bushrod Washington (Philadelphia: C. Sherman & Son, 1858), 25–26.
9. “Letter, Martha Washington to Fanny Bassett Washington, May 24, 1795,” George Washington’s Mount Vernon, accessed May 21, 2019, www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-sources-2/article/letter-martha-washington-to-fanny-bassett-washington-may-24-1795/.
10. Information about enslaved people has been drawn from Washington’s 1786 and 1799 slave lists: George Washington, Diary, February 18, 1786, and “Washington’s Slave List,” 1799, PGW; “List of the Different Drafts of Negros,” ca. 1802, in scrapbook, box 34, Peter Family Archives, Washington Library.
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Index
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.
Adams, Abigail, xxxviii, 42, 50, 122, 128, 144, 204, 241n
Adams, John, xxxi, 42, 50, 103, 121–22, 135–36, 144, 145, 156, 191, 241n
elected president, 174, 176
political parties and, 147
in presidential election, 121
presidential title and, 122
Washington compared with, 121–22
Washington’s relationship with, 111
Adams, John Quincy, 42
Adams, Samuel, 64
Addison, Joseph, 120
Allegheny River, 20
American colonies:
Continental Army of, see Continental Army
Continental Congress of, see Congress
Declaration of Independence of, 49, 91
unrest in, 44–48, 51–52
American Revolution, 19, 50, 52
Arnold’s betrayal and, 85–86
Boston siege in, 58, 66, 87
Brandywine battle in, 60
Britain’s diplomatic attempt to avert, 63–69
Britain’s surrender in, 98, 227n
Clouds battle in, 61
debt incurred by U.S. from, 138–39, 147, 157, 164
Delaware River crossing in, 60, 75–76, 225n
espionage in, 69, 77–78, 81–86, 226n, 228n
Fort Lee evacuation in, 59
Fort Washington battle in, 59
generals of, 56
Germantown battle in, 61
Harlem Heights battle in, 59
Indians and, 74–75, 135
Kip’s Bay battle in, 58
Long Island battle in, 58, 80, 227n
Monmouth battle in, 62
Princeton battle in, 60
prisoners in, 67–69, 224n
sexual assault cases and, 71–73
smallpox during, 91
Treaty of Paris ending, 103, 117
Trenton battles in, 60, 75
Valley Forge in, 119, 228n
Washington aged by, 101
Washington’s battles at a glance, 57–62
White Marsh battle in, 61
White Plains battle in, 59
Yorktown siege in, 62, 66, 79, 90, 96–98, 227n
see also Continental Army
Ames, Fisher, 132
André, John, 83–85
animals, xxi–xxii
mules, xxii, 113–14
anthrax, 131
Appalachians, 114
Appleby Grammar School, 4, 5
armies, 150, 241n
Continental, see Continental Army
Provisional, 191
Armory, John K., xxxiii–xxxiv
Arnold, Benedict, 79, 84–86, 94, 141, 228n
Articles of Confederation, 103, 116–18
Aurora, 171, 174
bakers, 143–44, 240n
Ball, Burgess, 187
Ball, Joseph, 8–9, 216n
banks, 150
central, 138–39
Barbados, 11–13
Bard, Samuel, 131
Bassett, Anna Marie, 41
Bassett, Burwell, 41, 92
Bateman, Ashley, 199
Bates, Ann, 83–84
Beckwith, George, 86
Belvoir, 6, 7, 13
Bible, xxxvii, xxxviii, 126, 129–30
Biddle, Clement, 125
Bill of Rights, 150
biographers and historians, xxvi–xxvii
on Mary Washington, xxxiv–xxxix
on Washington, xxv–xxviii, xxi–xxxix
women, xxvi–xxvii, 213n
Boston, Siege of, 58, 66, 87
Boston Tea Party, 47
Boucher, Jonathan, 42, 211
Braddock, Edward, 23–25, 35
Braddock’s Field, 157–60
Bradford, William, 162
Brandywine, Battle of, 60
Brewster, Caleb, 80
Britain, British, 147
bank proposal and, 139
colonial unrest and, 44–48
diplomatic attempt to avert war, 63–69
fire sales of, 102
France’s war with, 153–56, 163–64
Indians and, 74, 135
Jay Treaty and, 163–66
navy of, xxxvi, 7–9, 163, 216n
Parliament, 44–48, 50, 63–65, 137, 146
peace treaty with, 103, 117
slaves and, 50, 74, 79, 88, 89
surrender of, 98, 227n
U.S. Neutrality Proclamation and, 153–55, 163
British Army, 35–36, 50–51, 63–65
sexual assault by soldiers in, 71–73
Virginia militia, 13–14, 15–22, 23–25, 35, 39
Brodie, Fawn, 213n, 219n
Brookhiser, Richard, xxxi, xxxii
Brown, Gustavus Richard, 195
Brown, Philip, 64
Bunker Hill, Battle of, 227n
cabinet:
use of word, 145, 240n
of Washington, 144–45, 153, 162, 167
Cain, Elizabeth, 71–72
Cain, Sarah, 71
Caldwell, Margaret, 234n
Cambridge, Mass., 227n
Capitol, U.S., 155
Carey, Matthew, xxx
Caroline (slave), 194
Carter, Charles, 28
Carter, Robert, III, 199
Cary, Mary, 13
Cary & Company, 33, 42–43
Cato (Addison), 120
Champe, John, 85
Charles II, King, 114
Charlotte (slave), 194
Chernow, Ron, xxvii, xxxi, xxxii, xxxiv–xxxvii, 214n, 2
16n, 232n
Civil War, 79, 206
Clinton, Cornelia, 243n
Clinton, George, 103, 243n
Clinton, Henry, 56, 62, 72, 82, 85
Clouds, Battle of the, 61
Cobbett, William, 166–67
Coercive Acts, 47
Common Sense (Paine), 172
Compromise of 1790, 140, 149
Congress, 49, 52, 64, 77, 78, 84, 101–4, 107, 115, 122, 127–28, 135, 138, 154, 161, 163, 203
House of Representatives, 121, 123, 124, 129, 155, 166, 167, 174
Senate, 121, 123, 124, 129, 135–37, 164, 166
and Washington’s election as president, 123
Constitution, U.S., 75, 119, 128, 130, 138, 147, 161, 163, 172
Bill of Rights, 150
Senate and, 135, 137
Twelfth Amendment to, 121
Whiskey Rebellion and, 158, 159
Constitutional Convention, 118–19, 141
Continental Army, 49–54, 63, 64, 78, 101–3, 119
desertions from, 64, 101–2
pay to soldiers in, 101, 102
supplies and, 64–65
Washington as commander of, 49–54, 123
Washington’s farewell address to, 104–6, 128
Washington’s resignation as commander of, 103–7
Continental Congress, see Congress
Conway, Richard, 129
Corbin, Richard, 21
Cornwallis, Charles, Lord, 56, 62, 81, 227n
Coulon de Villiers, Louis, 19
counterfeit currency, 78
Craik, James, 194, 195, 198–200, 248n
Cranch, Mary Smith, 128, 204
Cromwell, Oliver, 84
Culper ring, 80–82, 85
currency, 139, 150, 211
counterfeit, 78
U.S. dollars, 114
Cushing, Thomas, 51
Custis, Daniel Parke (Martha’s first husband), 28, 33, 203
Custis, Eleanor “Nelly” Parke (step-granddaughter), 31–32, 96, 99, 115, 123, 124, 140, 144, 183, 188–89, 193, 194, 203
slaves and, 205
Custis, Eliza (step-granddaughter), 31–32, 96
slaves and, 205