d, and peace and harmony prevailed throughout the
land; in view of which, Jefferson said:

"Never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great
and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have
merited from man an everlasting remembrance."

During his presidency he made a tour through the Southern States. His
arrangement for the same furnishes a remarkable illustration of the
order and punctuality for which he was known from boyhood. Thinking that
the heads of the several State departments might have occasion to write
to him, he wrote out his route thus:

"I shall be, on the eighth of April, at Fredericksburg; the eleventh, at
Richmond; the fourteenth, at Petersburg; the sixteenth, at Halifax; the
eighteenth, at Tarborough; the twentieth, at Newtown;" and thus on to
the end, a journey of nineteen hundred miles.

Custis says: "His punctuality on that long journey astonished every one.
Scarcely would the artillery-men unlimber the cannon when the order
would be given, 'Light your matches; the white chariot is in full
view!'" Washington rode in a white chariot.

His industry, which had become proverbial, enabled him to perform a
great amount of work. General Henry Lee once said to him:

"Mr. President, we are amazed at the amount of work you are able to
accomplish."

"I rise at four o'clock, sir, and a great deal of the work I perform is
done while others are asleep," was Washington's reply.

At the same time his _thoroughness_ and method appeared in everything.
Mr. Sparks says:

"During his presidency it was likewise his custom to subject the
treasury reports and accompanying documents to the process of tutelar
condensation, with a vast expenditure of labor and patience."

Another biographer says:

"His accounts, while engaged in the service of his country, were so
accurately kept, that to this hour they are an example held up before
the nations."

In all these things the reader must note that "the boy is father of the
man."

Under his administration there was no demand, as now, for "civil service
reform." His nearest relative and best friend enjoyed no advantage over
others for position. Real qualifications and experience for office he
required. Alluding to the severity with which he treated the idea of
giving friends and favorites position, a public man remarked:

"It is unfortunate to be a Virginian."

At the close of his long service, he wrote:

"In every n