lonel Humphries, with
the best dispositions to render service to my country in obedience
to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations.

The journey began with a public dinner at Alexandria. Said the
gentlemen of Alexandria in their address to him:

Farewell!... Go!... and make a grateful people happy, a people who
will be doubly grateful when they contemplate this recent sacrifice
for their interest.

And Washington in his reply said:

At my age, and in my circumstances, what prospects or advantages
could I propose to myself, for embarking again on the tempestuous
and uncertain ocean of public life?

The journey went on with similar interruptions. The rule so often laid
down by the Virginians afterward that that is the best government which
governs least, was certainly well kept until the thirteenth of April. To
this hour the adventurous cyclist, stopping at some wayside inn to
refresh himself, may find upon the wall the picture of the maidens and
mothers of Trenton in New Jersey. Here Washington met a deputation sent
to him by Congress. A triumphal arch had been erected, and a row of
young girls dressed in white, a second row of ladies, and a third of
their mothers, awaited him. As he passed, the girls scattered flowers,
and sang the verses which Judge Marshall has preserved:

Welcome, mighty chief, once more
Welcome to this grateful shore;
Now no mercenary foe
Aims again the fatal blow--
Aims at thee the fatal blow.

Virgins fair and matrons grave,
These thy conquering arm did save.
Build for thee triumphal bowers,
Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers--
Strew your Hero's way with flowers.

His progress through New Jersey was everywhere accompanied by similar
festivities--"festive illuminations, the ringing of bells, and the
booming of cannon." He had written to Governor Clinton, that he hoped he
might enter New York without ceremony; but this was hardly to be
expected. A committee of both houses met him at Elizabethtown; he
embarked in a splendid barge manned by thirteen pilots, masters of
vessels, and commanded by Commodore Nicholson; other barges and boats
fell in in the wake; and a nautical procession swept up the Bay of New
York. On board two vessels were parties of ladies and gentlemen, who
sang odes as Washington appeared. The ships in the harbor were dressed
in colors and fired salutes as he passed. On landing at Murray's