No less characteristic of Washington's sentiments thereafter is the
correspondence continued by him with a number of French people when the
war was a thing of the past and no further help could be needed. With
Rochambeau, with d'Estaing, Chastellux, La Luzerne, then ambassador in
London, whom he had seen with keen regret leave the United States,[171]
and, of course, with Lafayette, he kept up a correspondence which
affords most pleasant reading: a friend writes to his friends and tells
them of his feelings and expectations. The attitude of France at the
peace is the subject of a noble letter to La Luzerne: "The part your
Excellency has acted in the cause of America and the great and
benevolent share you have taken in the establishment of her independence
are deeply impressed on my mind, and will not be effaced from my
remembrance, or that of the citizens of America.... The articles of the
general treaty do not appear so favorable to France, in point of
territorial acquisitions, as they do to the other Powers.[172] But the
magnanimous and disinterested scale of action which that great nation
has exhibited to the world during this war, and at the conclusion of
peace, will insure to the King and nation that reputation which will be
of more consequence to them than every other consideration."[173]
Washington keeps his French friends aware of the progress of the country
and of his hopes for its greatness; he wants to visit the United States
to the limit of what was then the extreme West. "Prompted by these
actual observations," he writes to Chastellux, "I could not help taking
a more contemplative and extensive view of the vast inland navigation of
these United States from maps and the information of others, and could
not but be struck with the immense diffusion and importance of it, and
with the goodness of that Providence which has dealt her favors to us
with so profuse a hand. Would to God we may have wisdom enough to
improve them. I shall not rest contented till I have explored the
Western country and traversed those lines, or great part of them, which
have given new bounds to a new empire."[174] To La Luzerne he wrote some
years later: "The United States are making great progress toward
national happiness, and if it is not attained here in as high a degree
as human nature will admit of, I think we may then conclude that
political happiness is unattainable."[175]
That rest for which Washington had been longing ("I pant for
retirement," he had written to Cary in June, 1782) had been granted him
by the end of 1783, when, the definitive treaty having been concluded,
he had resigned his commission in the hands of Congress, at Annapolis on
the 23d of December, "bidding an affectionate farewell," he said, "to
this august body under whose orders I have so long acted." It was at
first difficult for him to enjoy, in his dear Mount Vernon, that
so-much-desired quiet life, and "to get the better," he wrote to General
Knox, "of my custom of ruminating as soon as I waked in the morning on
the business of the ensuing day, and of my surprise at finding, after
revolving many things in my mind, that I was no longer a public man, nor
had anything to do with public transactions." But he soon came to the
thorough enjoyment of his peaceful surroundings and happy family life,
writing about his new existence to Rochambeau and Lafayette, not without
a tinge of melancholy, as from one whose life's work is a thing of the
past. To the man of all men for whom his manly heart felt most
tenderness, to Lafayette, it is that he wrote the beautiful letter of
February 1, 1784, unaware that his rest was only temporary, and that he
was to become the first President of the country he had given life to:
"At length, my dear marquis, I am become a private citizen on the banks
of the Potomac, and under the shadow of my own vine and my own fig-tree,
free from the bustle of a camp and the busy scenes of public life, I am
solacing myself with those tranquil enjoyments of which the soldier who
is ever in pursuit of fame, the statesman whose watchful days and
sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of
his own, perhaps the ruin of other countries, as if the globe was
insufficient for us all ... can have very little conception. I have not
only retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within
myself, and shall be able to view the solitary walk of private life with
heartfelt satisfaction. Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased
with all; and this, my dear friend, being the order for my march, I will
move gently down the stream of life until I sleep with my fathers."
With Lafayette the great man unbends, he becomes affectionate, poetical
as in the passage just quoted, sometimes even jocose, which was so rare
with him. He wants Madame de Lafayette to come to America and visit
Mount Vernon, saying to her: "Your own doors do not open to you with
more readiness than mine would."[176] She never came, but her husband
returned for a few months, the same year, and this was the first of his
two triumphant journeys to the freed United States; it was then that he
parted at Annapolis from his chief, never to see him again; a very sad
parting for both, Washington sending him from Mount Vernon, in time for
it to reach him before he sailed, the most touching, perhaps, of all his
letters:
"In the moment of our separation, upon the road as I travelled, and
every hour since, I have felt all that love, respect, and attachment for
you which length of years, close connection, and your merits have
inspired me. I often asked myself, when our carriages separated, whether
that was the last sight I should ever have of you. And though I wished
to say, no, my fears answered, yes. I called to mind the days of my
youth and found they had long since fled, to return no more; that I was
now descending the hill I had been fifty-two years climbing, and that,
though I was blessed with a good constitution, I was of a short-lived
family and might soon expect to be entombed in the mansion of my
fathers. These thoughts darkened the shades and gave a gloom to the
picture, and consequently to my prospect of seeing you again. But I will
not repine; I have had my day."[177]
A portrait of Lafayette, his wife, and children was received the
following year by Washington, and caused him great pleasure; this, he
said to the sender, "I consider as an invaluable present and shall give
it the best place in my house."[178]
He continued to the end to be Lafayette's confidant and adviser. In one
of his most notable letters, passing judgment on the great warrior
Frederick II and on his brother, Prince Henry, whom Lafayette had
recently visited, he clearly outlined what should be his correspondent's
ideal as to the government of men. "To be received," he says, "by the
King of Prussia and Prince Henry, his brother (who as soldiers and
politicians yield the palm to none), with such marks of attention and
distinction, was as indicative of their discernment as it is of your
merit.... It is to be lamented, however, that great characters are
seldom without a blot. That one man should tyrannize over millions will
always be a shade in that of the former, while it is pleasing to hear
that due regards to the rights of mankind is characteristic of the
latter."
During those years of comparative rest--only comparative, for he had to
receive innumerable visitors, to answer an unbelievable quantity of
letters, because everybody wanted his counsels, to take part in the
framing of the Constitution as a delegate of Virginia in 1787--his fame
went on increasing in France from whence tokens of admiration came for
him of every kind, some noble, some simple, some high-flown, like that
letter from the Chevalier de Lormerie, who made bold to "present a _Plan
of Perpetual Peace_ to a general who is even more of a philosopher than
a warrior."[179]
Besides letters, French visitors would now and then appear at the door
of Mount Vernon. One did so by appointment, and even in virtue of a law,
namely Jean Antoine Houdon, the famous sculptor, whose coming was the
result of an act passed by the Assembly of Virginia, prescribing "that
the executive be requested to take measures for procuring a statue of
General Washington, to be of the finest marble and the best
workmanship."
The sculptor might be of any nationality, provided he were the best
alive. "The intention of the Assembly," the Governor informed Jefferson,
then in Paris, "is that the statue should be the work of the most
masterly hand. I shall therefore leave it to you to find out the best in
any of the European states."[180] Once more it was France's good fortune
to be able to answer, _Adsum_.
The "executive," Governor Harrison, not over-well versed in matters
artistic, had thought that all a sculptor could need to perform his task
was a painted portrait of the model, so he ordered one from Peale, which
would, he thought, enable the artist "to finish his work in the most
perfect manner."[181] Houdon decided that he would rather undertake the
journey, insisting only that, as he was the support of his father,
mother, and sisters, his life be insured, a condition which, owing to
the risks, was not fulfilled without difficulty. It finally was,
however, so that we know, to a cent, what the life of the great sculptor
was worth: it was worth two thousand dollars.
Houdon came on the same ship which brought back Franklin after his long
mission to France, and he reached Mount Vernon on October 2, 1785,
having been preceded by a letter, in which Jefferson had thus described
him to Washington: "I have spoken of him as an artist only, but I can
assure you also that, as a man, he is disinterested, generous, candid,
and panting for glory; in every circumstance meriting your good
opinion."[182] He remained at Mount Vernon a fortnight, an interpreter
having been provided from Alexandria for the occasion. The antique
costume with which the artist and the model had been threatened at one
time was discarded; Washington was represented, not as a Greek, which he
was not, but as an American general, which he was, the size being
"precisely that of life." Any one who wants to see with his eyes George
Washington, to live in his atmosphere, to receive the moral benefit of a
great man's presence, has only to go to Richmond. To those who know how
to listen the statue will know how to speak. No work of art in the whole
United States is of greater worth and interest than this one, and no
copy gives an adequate idea of the original, copies being further from
the statue than the statue was from the model. One must go to Richmond.
Unfortunately, no notes on his journey, and on his stay at Mount Vernon,
were left by Houdon. As was usual with him, what he had to say he said
in marble.
Other French visitors of more or less note called at Mount Vernon.
Popular in France, even at the time of their worst troubles, when
failure seemed threatening, the United States were much more so now, and
men wanted to go and see with their own eyes what was the power of
liberty, and whether it could, as reported, transform a country into an
Eden, and cities into modern "Salentes." The year of the alliance, 1778,
Sébastien Mercier, in his _De la Littérature_, had drawn up a picture of
the French people's expectation: "Perhaps it is in America that the
human race will transform itself, adopt a new and sublime religion,
improve sciences and arts, and become the representative of the nations
of antiquity. A haven of liberty, Grecian souls, all strong and generous
souls will develop or meet there, and this great example given to the
universe will show what men can do when they are of one mind and combine
their lights and their courage." Turgot, as mentioned before, had
written in the same strain, the same year.[183]
The results of the war had increased those hopes; the success of the
unprecedented crusade for liberty caused an enthusiasm which found its
expression in verse and prose. The very year of the treaty securing
independence an epic poem was published, written in French Alexandrine
verse, divided into cantos, adorned with all the machinery of the Greek
models, Jupiter and the gods playing their part: