cted according to his ideas of duty in obeying the voice of his
country. The consciousness of having attempted to do all the good in
his power, and the pleasure of finding his fellow-citizens so well
satisfied with the disinterestedness of his conduct, will, doubtless,
be some compensation for the great sacrifices which I know he has
made. Indeed, on his journey from Mount Vernon to this place in his
late tour through the Eastern States, by every public and every
private information which has come to him, I am persuaded he has
experienced nothing to make him repent his having acted from what he
conceived to be a sense of indispensable duty. On the contrary, all
his sensibility has been awakened in receiving such repeated and
unequivocal proofs of sincere regard from his countrymen.

"With respect to myself, I sometimes think the arrangement is not
quite as it ought to have been,--that I, who had much rather be at
home, should occupy a place with which a great many younger and gayer
women would be extremely pleased. As my grandchildren and domestic
connections make up a great portion of the felicity which I looked for
in this world, I shall hardly be able to find any substitute that will
indemnify me for the loss of a part of such endearing society. I do
not say this because I feel dissatisfied with my present station; for
every body and every thing conspire to make me as contented as
possible in it; yet I have learned too much of the vanity of human
affairs to expect felicity from the scenes of public life. I am still
determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may be;
for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our
happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not on our
circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with
us in our minds wherever we go.

"I have two of my grandchildren with me, who enjoy advantages in point
of education, and who, I trust, by the goodness of Providence, will be
a great blessing to me. My other two grandchildren are with their
mother in Virginia."

In the spring of 1797, bidding adieu to public life, Washington
took leave of the seat of government, and returned to Mount Vernon,
prepared in good earnest to spend the remainder of his days in
retirement. He accepted, indeed, the command of the army of the
United States, soon after; but this did not draw him from his home.
In 1799, he died, after a brief illness. His affectionat