itish had captured New York in September, 1776, and
it was more than seven years later, on November 25, 1783, that the last
of the British fleet put to sea. Britain and America had broken forever
their political tie and for many years to come embittered memories kept
up the alienation.

It was fitting that Washington should bid farewell to his army at New
York, the center of his hopes and anxieties during the greater part of
the long struggle. On December 4, 1783, his officers met at a tavern to
bid him farewell. The tears ran down his cheeks as he parted with these
brave and tried men. He shook their hands in silence and, in a fashion
still preserved in France, kissed each of them. Then they watched him as
he was rowed away in his barge to the New Jersey shore. Congress was
now sitting at Annapolis in Maryland and there on December 23, 1783,
Washington appeared and gave up finally his command. We are told that
the members sat covered to show the sovereignty of the Union, a quaint
touch of the thought of the time. The little town made a brave show and
"the gallery was filled with a beautiful group of elegant ladies." With
solemn sincerity Washington commended the country to the protection of
Almighty God and the army to the special care of Congress. Passion had
already subsided for the President of Congress in his reply praised the
"magnanimous king and nation" of Great Britain. By the end of the
year Washington was at Mount Vernon, hoping now to be able, as he said
simply, to make and sell a little flour annually and to repair houses
fast going to ruin. He did not foresee the troubled years and the
vexing problems which still lay before him. Nor could he, in his modest
estimate of himself, know that for a distant posterity his character and
his words would have compelling authority. What Washington's countryman,
Motley, said of William of Orange is true of Washington himself: "As
long as he lived he was the guiding star of a brave nation and when he
died the little children cried in the streets." But this is not all. To
this day in the domestic and foreign affairs of the United States the
words of Washington, the policies which he favored, have a living and
almost binding force. This attitude of mind is not without its dangers,
for nations require to make new adjustments of policy, and the past
is only in part the master of the present; but it is the tribute of a
grateful nation to the noble character of its chief found