“For four years after this he lived in retirement at Mount Vernon, busy with private affairs, yet necessarily thinking and planning about the best way to establish the nation securely. His farms, much neglected for eight years, needed careful management. He rejoiced in the opportunity of resuming his old, hospitable, outdoor life on a plantation. He took long journeys, much as in his earlier days, on horseback, to visit his extensive holdings of land. There was, however, a deal of correspondence to be attended to, because he was now one of the famous men of the world. People of all sorts, on all sorts of errands visited him. Historians desired data, painters wished to make his portrait. As the nation was not yet firmly established, the man who had guided it through the war for freedom, naturally, even in retirement, gave much time to the consideration of the best means for settling the government. He understood as well as any statesman of the time the inadequacy of the Articles of Confederation ratified in 1781. In fact, he wrote to James Warren, of Massachusetts, that the Confederation seemed little more than a shadow without substance. In furtherance of his idea of knitting the people firmly together, commercially as well as in sentiment, he planned the James River and Potomac canals. His attempts to bring about commerce between Maryland and Virginia led to a call for a convention at Annapolis to consider the subject. After the Annapolis convention a call was soon issued for the convention of 1787 at Philadelphia. Washington did not feel well enough to undertake attending the convention, but in spite of his pleas to be excused he was elected head of the Virginia delegation. When the convention organized, he became president. He acted as chairman during the four months of the convention, speaking only once on a motion, yet making himself a powerful influence in all the deliberations. The momentous work of forming the Constitution was consummated on September 17, 1787, on which day Washington, as presiding officer of the convention, was the first to sign the Constitution. He helped materially in getting the instrument ratified by Virginia, and when the other colonies had ratified it so that it was adopted, he was chosen President of the United States, unanimously , in February,1789. Washington served as President from April 30, 1789, when he was inaugurated at New York, till March 4, 1797. At the close of his first term, in 1792, he was unanimously re-elected. To forestall any efforts to induce him to serve a third term he issued, in September, 1796, his Farewell Address to the People of the United States.” Excerpted from “WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS,WEBSTER’S FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION”. Publisher: GINN & COMPANY, Boston, New York, Chicago, London.
FINI. Islander.
Islander.