favourite pursuit, were the multiplied avocations
resulting from the high office he had lately filled. He was engaged in
an extensive correspondence with the friends most dear to his
heart--the foreign and American officers who had served under him
during the late war--and with almost every conspicuous political
personage of his own, and with many of other countries. Literary men
also were desirous of obtaining his approbation of their works, and
his attention was solicited to every production of American genius.
His countrymen who were about to travel, were anxious to receive from
the first citizen of this rising republic, some testimonial of their
worth; and all those strangers of distinction who visited this newly
created empire, were ambitious of being presented to its founder.
Among those who were drawn across the Atlantic by curiosity, and
perhaps by a desire to observe the progress of the popular governments
which were instituted in this new world, was Mrs. Macauley Graham. By
the principles contained in her History of the Stuarts, this lady had
acquired much reputation in republican America, and by all was
received with marked attention. For the sole purpose of paying her
respects to a person whose fame had spread over Europe, she paid a
visit to Mount Vernon; and, if her letters may be credited, the
exalted opinion she had formed of its proprietor, was "not diminished
by a personal acquaintance with him."

To these occupations, which were calculated to gratify an intelligent
mind, or which derived a value from the indulgence they afforded to
the feelings of the heart, others were unavoidably added, in the
composition of which, no palatable ingredient was intermixed. Of these
unwelcome intrusions upon his time, General Washington thus complained
to an intimate military friend. "It is not, my dear sir, the letters
of my friends which give me trouble, or add aught to my perplexity. I
receive them with pleasure, and pay as much attention to them as my
avocations will permit. It is references to old matters with which I
have nothing to do--applications which oftentimes can not be complied
with--inquiries, to satisfy which would employ the pen of a
historian--letters of compliment, as unmeaning perhaps as they are
troublesome, but which must be attended to; and the common-place
business--which employ my pen and my time often disagreeably. Indeed,
these, with company, deprive me of exercise; and, unless I can obtain