ways nearest to his heart, a patriot and public benefactor, Robert Morris.

After remaining a short time in Philadelphia, the president speeded on his journey to that home where he ever found rest from his mighty labors, and enjoyed the sweets of rural and domestic happiness amid his farms and at his fireside of Mount Vernon.

Onward, still onward, flows the tide of time. The few who yet survive that remember the father of his country, are fast fading away. A little while, and their gray heads will all have dropped into the grave. May the reminiscences of one whom Washington adopted in infancy, cherished in youth, and who grew up to manhood under his parental care, continue to find favor with the American people!

CHAPTER XXI.

WASHINGTON'S HOME AND HOUSEHOLD.*

ORDER - PUBLIC DAYS WHILE PRESIDENT-WASHINGTON'S AVERSION TO SHOW AND POMPCONGRESSIONAL AND DIPLOMATIC DINNERS-MRS. WASHINGTON'S EVENING PARTIES -THE CINCINNATI-WASHINGTON'S ATTENTION TO PRIVATE CONCERNS - HIS ECONOMY - HIS EXDEAVORS TO AVOID PERSONAL ATTENTIONS - HIS RECEPTION EVERYWHERE-COLONEL PROCTOR - COLONEL ROGERS-GENERAL CHARLES SCOTT-AN IRISH SOLDIER AT THE PRESIDENTIAL MANSION-THE WRATH OF WASHINGTON- -HIS SENSE OF JUSTICE-FIRST INTERVIEW WITH ST. CLAIR AFTER HIS DEFEAT - WASHINGTON'S STEWARD-HIS EXTRAVAGANCE REPROVED THE CHIEF COOK OF THE PRESIDENTIAL MANSION HIS CHARACTER AND HABITS THE COACHMAN-THE COACH IN WHICH THE PRESIDENT MADE HIS TOUR THROUGH THE SOUTHERN STATES-THE STABLES IN PHILADELPHIA - THE CHARGERS AND THE COACH-HORSES ALMOST A CATASTROPHE - WASHINGTON'S PUNCTUALITY-SCENES ON THE NATIONAL ANNIVERSARIES- -REFLECTIONS.

WHEREVER Washington established a home-whether temporary or fixed, whether amid the log huts of Morristown or the Valley Forge, the presidential mansions in New York or Philadelphia, or his own beloved Mount Vernon-everywhere order, method, punctuality, economy reigned. His household, whether civil or military, was always upon a liberal scale, and was conducted with due regard to economy and usefulness.

The public days of the first president of the United States, were two in each week. On Tuesday from three to four o'clock, a levee was held for foreign ministers, strangers, and others, who could there be presented to

*The earlier portion of this chapter was written in July, 1827, and published in the Alexandria Gazette. The latter portion, commencing with a notice of Fraunces, the steward, was written and published in a Baltimore paper, in April, 1849.

the chief magistrate, without the formality of letters of introduction. It was, indeed more an arrangement of mutual convenience to the parties, than an affair of state; still it was objected to by some, at that time of day, as savoring rather of monarchal etiquette, than of the simpler customs which should distinguish a republic.— Who thinks so now? In truth, the first president was so occupied with the multiplicity of public concerns, attendant on the outset of a new government, that it became necessary to limit the time of visiters of mere ceremony, as much as possible; and the levee enabled all such personages to pay their respects within the moderate compass of an hour. The world is always governed in a considerable degree by form and usage. There never lived a man more averse to show and pomp than Washington. Plain in his habits, there was none to whom the details of official parade and ceremony could be less desirable; but correct in all his varied stations of life, the days of the first presidency will ever appear as among the most dignified and imposing in our country's annals.*

* In a letter to Doctor Stuart, Washington gives an account of the origin of his levees. "Before the custom was established," he says, "which now accommodates foreign characters, strangers, and others, who, from motives of curiosity, respect for the chief magistrate, or any other cause, are induced to call upon me, I was unable to attend to any business whatever; for gentlemen, consulting their own convenience rather than mine, were calling after the time I rose from breakfast, and often before, until I sat down to dinner. This, as I resolved not to neglect my public duties, reduced me to the choice of one of these alternatives: either to refuse visits altogether, or to appropriate a time for the reception of them. The first would, I knew, be disgusting to many; the latter, I expected, would undergo animadversions from those who would find fault with or without cause. To please everybody was impossible. I, therefore, adopted that line of conduct which combined public advantage with private convenience, and which, in my judgment, was unexceptionable in itself....These visits are optional; they are made without invitation; between the hours of three and four every Tuesday, I am prepared to receive them. Gentlemen,

On Thursday the president gave his congressional and diplomatic dinners; and on Friday night, Mrs. Washington received company at what was then, and is still, called the drawing-room.*

often in great numbers, come and go, chat with each other, and act as they please. A porter shows them into the room, and they retire from it when they choose, without ceremony. At their first entrance they salute me, and I them, and as many as I can I talk to."

* See note on page 396. Mr. Wansey, an English traveller, who published an account of his Excursion in the United States, in 1795, says, that the democrats "objected to these drawing-rooms of Mrs. Washington, as tending to give her a super-eminency, and as introductory to the paraphernalia of courts." After quoting this, Dr. Griswold, in his Republican Court, remarks: "With what feelings the excellent woman regarded these democrats is shown by an anecdote of the same period. She was a severe disciplinarian, and Nelly Custis was not often permitted by her to be idle, or to follow her own caprices. The young girl was compelled to practise at the harpsichord four or five hours every day, and one morning, when she should have been playing, her grandmother entered the room, remarking that she had not heard the music, and also that she had observed some person going out, whose name she would very much like to know. Nelly was silent, and suddenly her attention was arrested by a blemish on the wall, which had been newly painted a delicate cream color. 'Ah! it was no federalist,' she exclaimed, looking at the spot just above a settee; "none but a filthy democrat would mark a place with his good-fornothing head in that manner!"

Samuel York Atlee, Esq. of Washington city, called the attention of Mr. Custis to this statement, when the venerable author of these Recollections, in a letter to that gentleman, on the 29th of December, 1854, remarked :—

"As to the story of Nelly Custis, my sister, practising very long and very unwillingly at the harpsichord, that part of the tale of Wansey is true. The poor girl would play and cry, and cry and play, for long hours, under the immediate eye of her grandmother, a rigid disciplinarian in all things.

"As to the absurd details that chronicle a saying of Mrs. Washington, touching democrats, no one, my dear sir, who knew that venerable lady, or who had ever heard of her, will believe a word of it. As the esteemed Lady Washington of the army of Independence, or the Lady-president of later days, Mrs. Washington was remarkable for her affable and dignified manners, and her courteous and kindly demeanor to all who approached her. Again, it is notorious that the politicians and statesmen of both parties were equally well and kindly received at the presidental mansion, where were welcomed Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Giles, and others of the chiefs of the democratic party, as well as Mr. Ames, Mr. Sedgwick, and others of the federalists.

"I can, with great truth, aver that, in the whole period of the first presidency, I

The president attended Mrs. Washington's evening parties, and paid his compliments to the circle of ladies, with that ease and elegance of manners for which he was remarkable. Among the most polished and wellbred gentlemen of his time, he was always particularly polite to ladies, even in the rugged scenes of war; and, in advanced age, many were the youthful swains who sighed for those gracious smiles with which the fair always received the attentions of this old beau of sixtyfive.

An interesting class of persons were to be found at the side of the chief, on both his public and private days, who gave a feeling and character to every scene, and threw a charm over very many of the associations of more than thirty years ago. We mean the patriots and heroes of the Revolution. Among the finest recollections of those gone-by days, were of the anniversary of independence, when the gray-haired brethren of the Cincinnati assembled around their illustrious president-general, many of them seamed with scars, and all bearing the badge of the most honored association upon earth. These

never heard Mrs. Washington engage in any political controversy, or, indeed, touch on the subject of politics at all.

"Another remark, and I have done.

"The sitting parlor, into which all visiters were shown, was papered, not "painted;" but even had it been painted à la Griswold, things were better ordered in the house of the first president than that a gentleman-visiter, on leaning against the wainscot, should leave his mark behind him."

The society of the Cincinnati, composed of officers of the continental army, was organized in 1783. It was conceived by General Henry Knox, and when he communicated his ideas on the subject to Washington, he heartily approved of it. A committee, consisting of Generals Knox, Hand, and Huntington, and Captain Shaw, was appointed to put the propositions of several who were interested in the matter into a proper form. This committee reported at a meeting held at the quarters of the Baron Steuben, in Fishkill, Duchess county, nearly opposite Newburgh