Show installment 19 out the face of had greatly changed nevertheless the old gener of statesmen had passed away almost with the colon and a er generation was in the saddle not withstanding a gray haired figure here and there achard ahland hid died in the year of the declaration peyton randolph had not lived to see it edmund pendleton Pend letoi after presiding over virginia a making as a state as chairman of her revolutionary commit tee of safety was now withdrawn from active affairs to the bench his line figure marred by a fall from his harse his old power as an advocate transmuted into the cooler talents of the jude patrick henry the ardent leader of the revolution had been chosen the state s first governor in the ear of the declaration of independence thee th ee vears later thomas jefferson had succeeded him in office the philosophical of times of change the choice of imar ll arrion had but completed the bound of the new variety in affairs men who like richard henry lee had counseled revolution and the breaking of old bonds were now in all things at the fiant of virginia s busl nees and lounger men of a force and of origination equal to his own were pressing forward as it to carry a new generation to the stage which had known nothing but independence and a tree field of among the rest james madison only a little more than ten years out of college but already done with his novitiate in the congress of the confederation a publicist and leader in the old dominion at thirty two edmund randolph of the new gen oration of the commonwealths great family of lawyers like his forbears in gifts and spirit was already received at thirty into a place of influence among public men marshall a war veteran john just turned of awen ty eight but a veteran of the long war none the loss having been at the thick of the fighting a lieutenant and a cap tain abong the virginian forces from the time dunmore was driven from till the eve of yorktown was now that trat duty was done a lawyer in quiet lau quler drawing to the eyes of every man who had the perception to note qualities of force and leadership james monroe had come out of the yar at twenty five to go at one into the public councils of hla state an bual among his elders young men came forgard for vard upon every side to take their part in the novel rush of affairs blat followed upon the heels of rev royal welcome for washington washington found himself no strang er in the new state for all it had grown of a sudden so unlike that old community in which bis own life had been formed he found a very royal welcome awaiting him at bis homecoming the old commonwealth loved a hero still as much as ever was as loyal to him now as it bad been in the far away days of the french war when din alone fretted against him received him with every tribute of at faction fec tion offered him gifts and loved him all the better for refusing m but he must have felt that a deep change had come upon bis life none the less and even upon his relations with his old familiars and neighbors moat famous man of the day tie bad gone away honored indeed and marked for responsible services 1 among als people a purgess as a matter of course a notable citizen whose force no man who knew him could fall to remark but by no means ac greatest even among the men who gathered for the colony a business at chosen only upon occasion for special services of action no debater or statesman so far as or binary men could see too reserved to bo popular with the crowd though it like his frankness and taking and go out of its way to see him on horse backa man for his neigh hors who could know him not for the world which he refused to court but the war had suddenly lifted him to the view of all mankind had set him among the great captains of w t the world had marked him a states y man in the midst of affairs more a statesman than a foldier even men i must have thought who had read his letters or heard them read in congress on the floor or in the committee rooms had drawn to himself the admiration of the very men be had been fighting the verv nation dominion he had helped to cast off he bud come homo perhaps the mos famous man of hie day and could not take up the old life where he had left it faff much as he wished to was obliged in eplite of himself to play a e part in affairs by nature t pw a few cela indeed after he aunt vernon nature bal rE read td albi lo 10 a 1 atle privacy sed wj rp ti nuit yi im ana nn un 01 e lay p ld t i pen the roada h banry against t travel he could not get een to fred ericksburg to see his aged mother and not many visitors though they were his near neighbors could reach him at amount vernon in fancied retirement at length my dear marquis be could write to lafayette in his cecur it I 1 am become a citizen on the banks of the potomac and under the shadow ot my own vine and my own alg tree free from the bustle of a camp and the busy scenes of pub lie life I 1 am solacing mi self with those tranquil enjoyments enjoy ments of which the foldier eol dier who Is ever in pursuit of fame the statesman whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes to promote the wel tare of his own perhaps the ruin of other countries as it this globe was insufficient tor us all and the courtier who is always watching the coulten ance of his prince caff have cry little conception I 1 have not only retired from all public employments but I 1 am retiring within myself kenvl ous of none I 1 am determined to be pleased with all and this my dear friend being the order of my march I 1 will move gently down the stream of time until I 1 sleep with my fathers the simple gentleman did not yet realize what the breaking up of the frosts would bring with the spring the whole life of the world seemed to come pouring in upon washington men of note everywhere pressed their correspondence upon him no stranger visited america but thought first of mount vernon in planning where he should go and what he should see new friends and old sat everi day at his table a year and a half had gone by since his home corn ing before he could note in his diary june 30 1785 ened with only mrs washington which I 1 believe Is the farst instance of it since my re tl rement from public life for some visitors had broken their way even through the winter roads all roads lead to mount vernon authors sent him what they wrote inventors submitted their ideas and models to him everything that was being said everything that was being done seemed to find its way it no where paa to mount varnon hlll thoa who knew his occupations could speak of washington ery justly as 1 the foods of political intelligence for the new world he would not alter his dav of alv ng even in the face of such over wh elming interruptions sticks to his business his guests saw him for a little aft er dinner and once and again it might be in the evening also but he kept to his business throughout all the working hours of the day was at alg desk even before breakfast and after breakfast was always early in the saddle and off to hla farms only at table did he play the host lingering over the wine to give and call for toasts and relax in genial con vers atlon losing as the months pass ed by some of the deep gravity that bad settled upon him in the camp and showing once more an enjoying relish for a pleasant story an unaffected eally of wit or a burlesque description as in the old days after hunt ing strangers in awe of him strangers were often in awe of him it did not encourage talk in those who had little to sav to sit in the presence of a roan who so looked his greatness in the very proportions of his strong figure even and whose grave and steady aea so challenged the cance of what was said young people would leave off dan cang and romping when he came into the room and force him to withdraw and peep at the fun from without the door unobserved it was among his intimates that he was suffered and taken to be the simple straightforward man he was exciting not awe but only a warm and affectionate al le glance the general with a few alases of champagne got quite mer ry a young englishman could report who had had the good luck to be in produced trod by richard henry lee and being with his intimate friends laugh ed and talked a good deal resumes his old life As much as he could he resumed tha old life and the thoughts and pastimes that bad gone with it once more be became the familiar of his hounds at the kennels and fol lowed them as often as might be in the hunt at sunrise he asked but one thing of a horse as of old and that was to go he ridiculed the idea that he could be unhorsed provided the animal kept on his legs the two little children a boy and a romping mischievous lassie not much bigger whom h had adopt ed at jack custas deathbed took strong hold upon his heart and grow slowly to an intimacy with him such as few to claim any longer amidst thoe bus days in the guest crowded house Lafay ettes word picture it to lafayette a very en paging when he saw washing ton and the little toddling boy together a very little gentleman with a ay st w ag feather in his hat holding fast to one finger of the good general a remark able hand which eo large that hand was all the tiny fellow could manage these washington back more completely than anything else to tho old days when he had brought his bride home with her own little ones lie felt those days come back too when he was on his horse in the open going the round of good twelve miles and more that carried him to all the quarters of his planta alon again a farmer once more he was the thorough farmer books when dpn and his own observation failed him to come at the best methods of culta once more he took dally ac count of the character of his slaves and servants and of the progress of thear work with them when be could and gaining a personal mas tery over them contracts for work he drew up with his own band with a minuteness and particularity which were sometimes whimsical and shot through with a gleam of grim humor he agreed with philip barter that it he would serve him faithfully as gardener and keep sober at all other times he would allow him four dol lars at christmas with which to be drunk four dais and tour nights two dollars at easter to detect the same purpose two dollars at whitsuntide to be drunk for two days a dram in the morning and a drink of grog at dinner at noon and the contract was drawn signed and witnessed with all formality A thorough going master philip doubt found short shrift of consideration from his thoroughgoing master it there was any drunk enness in the garden beyond the limit of the eight days nominated in the bond and found the contract no jest in the end for washington had small patience and no soft words for a breach of agreement whatever its kind he would help men in distress with a generosity and wise choice of means which few took the pains to exercise but he had only sharp rebuke for carelessness or neglect or any slackness in the performance of a duty men who had cheated or sought pose upon him deemed him harsh and called him a hard mas ter so sharply did they smart after he had reckoned with them washington exacted the uttermost farthing but he spent it with the other hand to relieve genuine suffer ing and real want though it were dc served and tho fruit of a cring fault in his home dealings as in every thing else his mind kept that trait by which men had been awed in the camp that trick as if of fate 0 let ting every act come at its condei and its full punishment or reward as it he but presided at a bioc ess which was just natures own when he succored distress he did it in pity not in justice not excusing fault but giving leave to mercy if he urged the government to pension and reward the soldiers of the war who had only done their duty he him self set an example rewarded for service there were black pensioners not a few about his own homestead bishop his old body servant lived like a retired gentleman in his cottage there even nelson the good sorrel who had borne him BO bravely in the field till yorktown ork town now went forever died free in his own pasture but much as he loved his home and courted retirement amidst the du ties of a planter the old life would not come back was gone forever he was too famous and there was an end on it he could not go abroad without drawing crowds about him if he attended op a sunday away from home though it were in never so quiet a parish the very walls of the church groaned threateningly under the unaccustomed weight of people gathered in the galleries and packed upon the floor to see the hero of the revolution not even a ride into the far west to view his lands and pull together his neglected busl ness on the ohio was long enough to abc him beyond the reach of public affairs A trip into the west on the ast 1st of september 1784 with dr craik tor company he set out on horseback to go by braddicks braddocks Brad docks road igalo into the west for nearly five weeks he waa deep in the wilderness riding close upon seven hundred allea through the for ested mountains and along the remote courses of the long rivers that ran in to the mississippi camping out as in the old days when he was a surveyor and a soldier in hla in these very wilds renewing his zest for the rough life and the sudden ad ventures of the frontiersman but though he had come upon his own business it was the seat of a tu ture empire he saw rather than his own acres scattered here and there A different washington hen lt ha had ridden the long stages from settlement to settlement and cabin to cabin in abla far country AL ot the anlo he had been virginian and nothing a colonial colonel merely coma to pick out lands or bis comrades and himself their reward for serving the crown against the french A transformation had been worked upon him since then he had led the armies ot the whole country had been the chief inspru of a new nation in winning independence pen dence had carried its affairs by hla own counsels as no other man had done had been through all the watches ot those long campaigns the destinies and the hope that were at stake now he saw the crowding lm migrants come into the west with a new solicitude he had not felt before A new vision was in his thought athla western country was now a rising world to be kept or lost husbanded hus banded or squandered by the raw nation he had helped put upon its feet his thought was stretched at last to a continental measure lems of statesmanship that were na dional questions of policy that bad a scope great as schemes of empire stood foremost in bis lew he returned home more engrossed than ever by interests not his own but central to public affairs and of the very stuff of politics A stream of letters and BO not the letters merely which poured in with every mall not only his host ot visitors great and small the governor of the state the dent of congress foreign noblemen eold lers diplomatists travelers neigh bors friends acquaintances intruders but his own unbidden thoughts as well and the ery suggestions ot bis own interest as a land citizen and landowner land owner drew him from his dreams of retirement and forced him upon the open stage again even hunting ceased before many seasons were out the bavage boar hounds which lafayette had sent in his kindness from the old world proved too fierce and great a breed for even the sharp sport with the gray to the old hunting companions were gone the Fair faxes over sea belvola deserted and burned george mason too much engaged none but boys and strangers left to ride with poor sport after all without the right sportsmen it must needs give way before a statesman s cares A new sense of responsibility upon bis first homecoming home coming wash ington had found it hard to break himself of hla habit of waking very early in the morning with a sense of care concerning the affairs of the day as it he were still in camp and in |