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Subject Area: War and Peace
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. X (1782-1785) [1891]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. X (1782-1785).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE.

I feel now, however, as I conceive a wearied traveller must do, who, after treading many a painful step with a heavy burthen on his shoulders, is eased of the latter, having reached the haven to which all the former were directed; and from his house-top is looking back, and tracing with an eager eye the meanders by which he escaped the quicksands and mires which lay in his way; and into which none but the all-powerful Guide and Dispenser of human events could have prevented his falling.

I shall be very happy, and I hope I shall not be disappointed, in seeing you at the proposed meeting in Philadelphia. The friendship I have conceived for you will not be impaired by absence, but it may be no unpleasing circumstance to brighten the chain by a renewal of the covenant. My best wishes attend Mrs. Knox and the little folks, in which Mrs. Washington most heartily joins me. With sentiments of the purest esteem, regard, and affection, I am, &c.

At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac; and under the shadow of my own vine and my own fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp, and the busy scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil enjoyments, of which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame, the statesman, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the ruin of other countries, as if this globe was insufficient for us all, and the courtier, who is always watching the countenance of his prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile, can have very little conception. I have not only retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to view the solitary walk, and tread the paths of private life, with heartfelt satisfaction. Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased with all; and this, my dear friend, being the order for my march, I will move gently down the stream of life, until I sleep with my fathers.

P. S. I hope General Greene will be in the delegation from Rhode Island, and that we shall see him at the general meeting of the Cincinnati. Will you intimate this to him?

Except an introductory letter or two, and one countermanding my request respecting plate, I have not written to you since the middle of October by General Duportail. To inform you, at this late hour, that the city of New York was evacuated by the British forces on the 25th of November; that the American troops took possession of it the same day, and delivered it over to the civil authority of the State; that good order, contrary to the expectation and predictions of General Carleton, his officers, and all the loyalists, was immediately established; and that the harbor of New York was finally cleared of the British flag about the 5th or 6th of December, would be an insult to your intelligence. And that I remained eight days in New York after we took possession of the city; that I was very much hurried during that time, which was the reason I did not write to you from thence; that, taking Philadelphia in my way, I was obliged to remain there a week; that at Annapolis, where Congress were then and are now sitting, I did, on the 23d of December present them my commission, and made them my last bow, and on the eve of Christmas entered these doors an older man by near nine years than when I left them, is very uninteresting to any but myself. Since that period, we have been fast locked up in frost and snow, and excluded in a manner from all kinds of intercourse, the winter having been, and still continues to be, extremely severe.