CLOUDS GATHERING--JEALOUSY OF EXECUTIVE INFLUENCE--ANGRY PARTY
DEBATES--CALLS FOR INFORMATION RESPECTING FINANCIAL
AFFAIRS--HAMILTON CHARGED WITH BEING A DEFAULTER--HIS REPLY AND THE
RESULT--VENERATION FOR WASHINGTON TOUCHED BY PARTY RANCOR--FORMS TO
BE OBSERVED AT HIS SECOND INAUGURATION--THE CEREMONY--ACCOUNT BY AN
EYE-WITNESS--WASHINGTON CALLED TO MOUNT VERNON--DEATH OF HIS
NEPHEW--INTELLIGENCE OF DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST ENGLAND BY
FRANCE--OF THE DEATH OF KING LOUIS--EXCITEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
IN FAVOR OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONISTS--POPULAR MANIFESTATIONS OF
SYMPATHY IN BOSTON AND ELSEWHERE--DANGEROUS TENDENCY OF THAT
SYMPATHY--CITIZEN GENET AND HIS MISSION--WASHINGTON HASTENS BACK TO
PHILADELPHIA--CABINET COUNCIL--PROCLAMATION OF
NEUTRALITY--OPPOSITION TO THE MEASURE.
When the last session of the second Congress commenced in Philadelphia
on the fifth of November, 1792, ominous clouds were gathering in the
political horizon, which gave Washington many apprehensions of an
impending storm. Party spirit was growing more and more violent; war
with the Indians in the Northwest was progressing; discontents with the
operations of the excise laws were assuming alarming aspects; the
attitude of the European governments brought serious questions to those
who controlled public affairs in the United States; and the cabinet,
where unity of feeling was necessary in order to counsel the president
well, was yet torn by dissentions, with no prospect of their being
healed.
There was much apparent good feeling among the members of Congress when
they first met, but action upon public business soon aroused party
spirit in all its rancor. It was first summoned from its sleep by a
motion for the secretaries of war and of the treasury to attend the
house, and give such information as they might possess concerning the
conduct of the Indian war in the Northwest, with which there was much
public dissatisfaction. This proposition raised a cry of alarm from
those in the house opposed to the administration. It was resisted as
unconstitutional, and threatening to subject the house to executive
influence that might be dangerous--that heads of departments would
control the legislature.
A motion to refer the portion of the president's message relating to the
redemption of the public debt to the secretary of the treasury, to
report a plan, called forth still more angry opposition, and Jefferson's
charges of corruption were heard on every side. The secretary of the
treasury was violently assailed; and dark insinuations were made that
members of the house were implicated with Hamilton in dishonest
proceedings in relation to the assumption of state debts, the operation
of the Indian war, etc. And when Hamilton, in his report, offered a
scheme for the redemption of the public debt that effectually silenced
the clamors of his enemies, who had insisted that he regarded that debt
as a public blessing and meant to fix it upon the country as an incubus,
they changed their plans of opposition.
They called upon the president first for particular information as to
the several sums of money borrowed by his authority, the terms of the
loans, and the application of the money. These questions being
explicitly answered, another call was made by an unscrupulous member of
the opposition, from Virginia, for more minute information upon
financial matters. He made an elaborate speech in presenting the motion,
in which, in effect, he charged the secretary of the treasury with being
a defaulter to the amount of a million and a half of dollars! Other
charges having a similar bearing upon the integrity of Hamilton were
made, and the administration was most foully aspersed. The
speaker--acting, it was believed, under the influence of his superiors
in office--based his charges upon the letter of returns and other
treasury statements.
These charges were met by Hamilton in a calm and dignified report, which
ought to have disarmed malignity and made implacable party spirit hide
its head in shame. It was baffled for a moment, but not dismayed; and,
selecting points in the secretary's management of the financial
concerns of the government, the accuser already alluded to proceeded to
frame nine resolutions of censure, for which he asked the vote of the
house. The result was, says a careful and candid historian, "much to
raise the character of the secretary of the treasury, by convincing the
great body of impartial men, capable of understanding the subject, that,
both as regarded talent and integrity, he was admirably qualified for
his office, and that the multiplied charges against him had been
engendered by envy, suspicion, and ignorance."[41]
Up to this time, the opposition had not ventured to show any disrespect
to Washington. He had wisely avoided assuming in any degree the
character of a leader of a party, and had labored with conscientious
zeal for the public good, without the least regard to private
friendships, or with feelings of enmity toward personal friends who had
deserted his administration. Madison was now a leader of the opposition,
yet Washington esteemed him none the less, because he believed him to be
honest and patriotic.
But now, party rancor was gradually usurping the place of that
veneration which every man felt for the character of Washington; and
that jealousy of everything aristocratic in fact or appearance which was
at that moment inaugurating a republic in France, with a baptism of
blood, hesitated not to show personal disrespect to the president. The
people in different parts of the Union, with spontaneous affection,
prepared to celebrate the birthday of Washington on the twenty-second of
February, 1793, with balls, parties, visits of congratulation, etc. Many
members of Congress were desirous of waiting upon the president, in
testimony of their respect for the chief magistrate of the republic, and
a motion was made to adjourn for half an hour for that purpose, when
quite an acrimonious debate ensued. The opposition, with real or feigned
alarm, denounced the proposition as a species of homage unworthy of
republicans; a tendency to monarchy; the setting up of an idol for
hero-worship, dangerous to the liberties of the nation! Freneau's paper
condemned the birthday celebration; and in view of the great dangers to
which the republic was exposed by the monarchical bias of many leading
men, a New Jersey member of the republican party in the house moved that
the mace carried by the marshall on state occasions--"an unmeaning
symbol, unworthy the dignity of a republican government"--be sent to the
mint, broken up, and the silver coined and placed in the treasury. The
peculiar state of public feeling at that time, irritated by prophets of
evil, affords a reasonable excuse for these jealousies.
Washington was not unmindful of these signs, and the necessity of paying
due respect even to the prejudices of the people; and as the time for
his second inauguration was drawing near, he asked the opinions of his
cabinet concerning the forms to be used on that occasion. Jefferson and
Hamilton proposed that he should take the oath of office privately at
his own house, a certificate of the fact to be deposited in the state
department. Knox and Randolph proposed to have the ceremony in public,
but without any ostentatious display. Washington's opinion coincided
with the latter; and at a cabinet meeting held on the first of March,
Mr. Jefferson being the only absentee, it was agreed that the oath
should be administered by Judge Cushing, of the supreme court of the
United States, in public, in the senate chamber, on the fourth of the
month, at twelve o'clock at noon, and that the "president go without
form, attended by such gentlemen as he shall choose, and return without
form except that he be preceded by the marshall."
Accordingly, a little before twelve o'clock, the president rode from his
residence to the Congress hall in his cream-colored coach drawn by six
horses, preceded by the marshall, as proposed, and accompanied by a
great concourse of citizens, and took the oath in the senate chamber.
The heads of departments, foreign ministers, members of Congress, and as
many spectators as could find room in the apartment, were present.
Previous to the administration of the oath by Judge Cushing, Washington
arose and said:--
"Fellow-citizens: I am again called upon by the voice of my country
to execute the functions of its chief magistrate. When the occasion
proper for it shall arrive, I shall endeavor to express the high
sense I entertain of this distinguished honor, and of the
confidence which has been reposed in me by the people of the United
States of America. Previous to the execution of any official act of
the president, the constitution requires an oath of office. This
oath I am now about to take, and in your presence; that if it shall
be found, during my administration of the government, I have in any
instance violated, willingly or knowingly, the injunction thereof,
I may, besides incurring constitutional punishment, be subject to
the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn
ceremony."
The oath was then administered, and the president returned to his
residence as he came.[42]
It was with sincere reluctance that Washington entered upon the duties
of the office of chief magistrate of the nation for a second term. "To
you," he said in a letter to Colonel Humphreys (then abroad) soon after
his inauguration--"To you, who know my love of retirement and domestic
life, it is unnecessary to say, that in accepting this reappointment I
relinquish those personal enjoyments to which I am peculiarly attached.
The motives which induced my acceptance are the same which ever ruled my
decision when the public desire--or, as my countrymen are pleased to
denominate it, the _public good_--was placed in the scale against my
personal enjoyments and private interest. The latter I have ever
considered as subservient to the former; and perhaps in no instance of
my life have I been more sensible of the sacrifice than at the present;
for at my age the love of retirement grows every day more and more
powerful, and the death of my nephew will, I apprehend, cause my private
concerns to suffer very much."[43]
On account of this death, Washington made a hurried visit to Mount
Vernon in April, and while there the important intelligence reached him
that France had declared war against England and Holland, an event which
prophesied a general European war. Almost simultaneously with this
intelligence came that of the execution of King Louis, by order of the
National Convention of France. The king, who had been a mere
shuttle-cock of faction for two years, was beheaded on the twenty-first
of January, with circumstances of brutality which make humanity shudder.
His death had been long predestinated by the ferocious men who ruled
France, and, to accomplish it with a semblance of justice, he had been
accused of crimes of which he was utterly innocent. Even at the last
moment, when standing before the implement of death, he was made to feel
the brutality of men in power. He looked complacently upon the vast
multitude who came to see him die, and was about to say a few words,
when the officer in charge, with ferocious emphasis, said, "_No
speeches! come, no speeches!_" and ordered the drums to be beaten and
the trumpets to be sounded. Louis was heard to say, "I forgive my
enemies; may God forgive them, and not lay my innocent blood to the
charge of the nation! God bless my people!" Thus perished a monarch,
patriotic and amiable, but too weak in intellectual and moral power to
control the terrible storm of popular vengeance which a long series of
abuses had engendered.
For many months Washington had watched with great anxiety the
manifestations of public feeling in the United States while the bloody
work of the French Revolution was progressing. He saw with alarm the
spirit of that Revolution, so widely different from that which had
shaken off the fetters of kingly rule in America, working insidiously
into the constitution of the politics of the United States, and passion
assuming the control of reason in the minds of his people. This was
specially manifested by an outburst of popular feeling when the
proclamation of the French republic reached America, and news that
French arms had made a conquest of the Austrian Netherlands. Forgetting
the friendship of Holland during our war for independence, and the
spirit of genuine liberty (of which that, flaunting its bloody banners
in France, was but a ferocious caricature) which had prevailed in the
Netherlands and made it the asylum of the persecuted for conscience'
sake for centuries, the people of Boston and other places held a
celebration in honor of the temporary victory. In the New England
capital there was a grand barbecue. An ox was roasted whole, and then,
decorated and elevated upon a car drawn by sixteen horses, the flags of
France and the United States displayed from its horns, it was paraded
through the streets, followed by carts bearing sixteen hundred loaves of
bread and two hogsheads of punch. These were distributed among the
people; and at the same time a party of three hundred, with Samuel Adams
(lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts) at their head, assisted by the
French consul, sat down to dinner in Faneuil hall. To the children of
all the schools, who were paraded in the streets, cakes were presented
bearing the inscription, "_Liberty and Equality_." By public
subscription, the sums owed by prisoners for debt, in jail, were paid,
and the victims were set free. There was a general jubilee in Boston on
that barbecue day.
With a similar spirit the news of the death of the king was hailed by
the leaders of the republican party in the United States; and when
intelligence of the French declaration of war against England went over
the land, a fervor of enthusiasm in favor of the old ally was awakened
which called loudly for compliance with the spirit and letter of the
treaty of 1778, by which the United States and France became allies in
peace and war. By that treaty the United States were bound to guarantee
the French possessions in America; and by a treaty of commerce executed
at the same time, French privateers and prizes were entitled to shelter
in the American ports, while those of the enemies of France should be
excluded.
There was now a wide-spreading sentiment in favor of an active
participation with France, on the part of the United States, in her
struggles against armed Europe; and many, in the wild enthusiasm of the
moment, would not have hesitated an instant in precipitating our country
into a war. Indeed, for a while, the universal sentiment was a cheer for
republican France, whose Convention had declared, in the name of the
French nation, that they would grant fraternity and assistance to every
people who wished to recover their liberty; and they charged the
executive power to send the necessary orders to the generals "to give
assistance to such people, and to defend those citizens who may have
been, or who may be, vexed for the cause of liberty."
Filled with the spirit of this declaration, and charged with the
performance of political functions seldom exercised by _diplomats_,
Edmund Charles Genet--"Citizen Genet," as he was termed in the new
nomenclature of the French republic--came to America at this time, as
the representative of that republic, to supersede the more conservative
M. Ternant. Genet was a man of culture, spoke the English language
fluently, possessed a pleasing address, was lively, frank, and
unguarded, and as fiery as the most intense Jacobins could wish. He
arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, on the eighth of April, five days
after the news of the French declaration of war reached New York. His
presence intensified the enthusiasm with which the country was then
glowing; and for a moment, until sober reason assumed the sceptre, all
opposition to the revolutionary sentiment was swept away by the tide of
popular zeal for a cause that seemed identical with that which secured
independence to the United States. "Is it wonderful," says the latest
biographer of Jefferson, "that American popular sympathy swelled to a
pitch of wild enthusiasm, when an emissary came from the new republic,
surrounded with its prestige; proclaiming wild, stirring doctrines;
declaring the unbounded affection of his country for the United States;
scorning the arts of old diplomacy, and mixing freely with the
democratic masses; not declining to talk of the important objects of his
mission in promiscuous assemblies of plain working men; and exhibiting
in his deportment that practical democracy, that fraternity, which men
in his position, of English blood, never exhibit?"[44]
These events excited the deepest anxiety in the mind of Washington. He
had no confidence whatever in the men at the head of public affairs in
France--the self-constituted government of that unhappy nation. "Those
in whose hands the government is intrusted," he said in a letter to
Governor Lee, "are ready to tear each other to pieces, and will, more
than probably, prove the worst foes the country has." He deeply deplored
the wild enthusiasm which was threatening to involve his country in the
European war then kindling. "Unwise would we be in the extreme," he
wrote to Gouverneur Morris a month before, "to involve ourselves in the
contests of European nations, where our weight would be but small,
though the loss to ourselves would be certain." With such views
Washington hastened back to Philadelphia; for he foresaw the necessity
for announcing the disposition of his country toward the belligerent
powers, and the propriety of restraining as far as possible his
fellow-citizens from taking part in the contest. He immediately
despatched an express to Philadelphia with the following letter to Mr.
Jefferson, the secretary of state:--
"Your letter of the seventh was brought to me by the last post. War
having actually commenced between France and Great Britain, it
behooves the government of this country to use every means in its
power to prevent the citizens thereof from embroiling us with
either of those powers, by endeavoring to maintain a strict
neutrality. I therefore require that you will give the subject
mature consideration, that such measures as shall be deemed most
likely to effect this desirable purpose may be adopted without
delay; for I have understood that vessels are already designated as
privateers and are preparing accordingly. Such other measures as
may be necessary for us to pursue, against events which it may not
be in our power to avoid or control, you will also think of, and
lay them before me on my arrival in Philadelphia, for which place I
will set out to-morrow."
Washington reached Philadelphia on the seventeenth, and on the
nineteenth held a cabinet council, having on the previous day submitted
to each member of his cabinet the following questions for their
consideration:--
"I. Shall a proclamation issue for the purpose of preventing
interferences of the citizens of the United States in the war
between France and Great Britain, etc.? Shall it contain a
declaration of neutrality, or not? What shall it contain?
"II. Shall a minister from the republic of France be received?
"III. If received, shall it be absolutely without qualifications;
and if with qualifications, of what kind?
"IV. Are the United States obliged by good faith to consider the
treaties heretofore made with France as applying to the present
situation of the parties? May they either renounce them, or hold
them suspended till the government of France shall be
_established_?
"V. If they have the right, is it expedient to do either, and which?
"VI. If they have an option, would it be a breach of neutrality to
consider the treaties still in operation?
"VII. If the treaties are to be considered as now in operation, is
the guaranty in the treaty of alliance applicable to a defensive
war only, or to war either offensive or defensive?
"VIII. Does the war in which France is engaged appear to be
offensive or defensive on her part? or of a mixed and equivocal
character?
"IX. If of a mixed and equivocal character, does the guaranty, in
any event, apply to such a war?
"X. What is the effect of a guaranty such as that to be found in
the treaty of alliance between the United States and France?
"XI. Does any article in either of the treaties prevent ships of
war, other than privateers, of the powers opposed to France, from
coming into the ports of the United States to act as convoys to
their own merchantmen? Or does it lay any other restraint upon them
more than would apply to the ships of war with France?
"XII. Should the future regent of France send a minister to the
United States, ought he to be received?
"XIII. Is it necessary or advisable to call together the two houses
of Congress, with a view to the present posture of European
affairs? If it is, what should be the _particular_ object of such a
call?"[45]
The cabinet meeting to consider these questions was held at the
president's house. All the heads of departments and the attorney-general
were present; and after a protracted discussion, it was unanimously
determined that a proclamation should issue forbidding citizens of the
United States to take part in any hostilities on the seas, with or
against any of the belligerent powers, and warning them against carrying
to any such powers any of those articles deemed contraband according to
the modern usage of nations; and enjoining them from all acts and
proceedings inconsistent with the duties of a friendly nation toward
those at war. It was also unanimously agreed that a minister from the
republic of France should be received. The remaining questions were
postponed for further consideration.
In the excited state of the public mind, and the proclivity of the
popular feeling toward sympathy with France, Washington's proclamation
met with the severest censures. Neither his unbounded popularity nor the
reverence for his character, as a wise, and honest, and patriotic man,
were proof against the operations of that feeling; and the proclamation
was assailed with the greatest vehemence. Every epithet in the
vocabulary of the opposition party was applied to it. It was stigmatized
as a royal edict, an unwarrantable and daring assumption of executive
power, and an open manifestation, of the president and his political
friends, of partiality for England and hostility to France. And it seems
fair to infer, from his letters at that time, that Mr. Jefferson, who
reluctantly voted in the cabinet for the proclamation, governed by his
almost fanatical hatred of Hamilton and his sympathy with the French
regicides, secretly promoted a feeling so hostile to the administration.
The wisdom of the proclamation,[46] and the position of neutrality which
the government of the United States assumed at that time, was soon
apparent, and has been fully vindicated by the logic of subsequent
events.
FOOTNOTES:
[41] Hildreth's History of the United States, Second Series, i, 405.
[42] An eye-witness of the scene when Washington read his annual message
to Congress has left a pleasant account of it on record. "As the
president alighted, and, ascending the steps, paused upon the platform,
looking over his shoulder, in an attitude that would have furnished an
admirable subject for the pencil, he was preceded by two gentlemen
bearing long white wands, who kept back the eager crowd that pressed on
every side to get a nearer view. At that moment I stood so near that I
might have touched his clothes; but I should as soon have thought of
touching an electric battery. I was penetrated with a veneration
amounting to the deepest awe. Nor was this the feeling of a schoolboy
only; it pervaded, I believe, every human being that approached
Washington; and I have been told that, even in his social and convivial
hours, this feeling, in those who were honored to share them, never
suffered intermission. I saw him a hundred times afterward, but never
with any other than that same feeling. The Almighty, who raised up for
our hour of need a man so peculiarly prepared for its whole dread
responsibility, seems to have put an impress of sacredness upon His own
instrument. The first sight of the man struck the heart with involuntary
homage, and prepared everything around him to obey. When he 'addressed
himself to speak,' there was an unconscious suspension of the breath,
while every eye was raised in expectation.
"The president, having seated himself, remained in silence, serenely
contemplating the legislature before him, whose members now resumed
their seats, waiting for the speech. No house of worship, in the most
solemn pauses of devotion, was ever more profoundly still than that
large and crowded chamber.
"Washington was dressed precisely as Stuart has painted him in Lord
Lansdowne's full-length portrait--in a full suit of the richest black
velvet, with diamond knee-buckles, and square silver buckles set upon
shoes japanned with the most scrupulous neatness, black silk stockings,
his shirt ruffled at the breast and wrists, a light dress-sword; his
hair profusely powdered, fully dressed, so as to project at the sides,
and gathered behind in a silk bag, ornamented with a large rose of black
riband. He held his cocked hat, which had a large black cockade on one
side of it, in his hand, as he advanced toward the chair, and when
seated, laid it on the table.
"At length, thrusting his hand within the side of his coat, he drew
forth a roll of manuscript, which he opened, and rising held it in his
hand, while, in a rich, deep, full, sonorous voice, he read his opening
address to Congress. His enunciation was deliberate, justly emphasized,
very distinct, and accompanied with an air of deep solemnity, as being
the utterance of a mind profoundly impressed with the dignity of the act
in which it was occupied, conscious of the whole responsibility of its
position and action, but not oppressed by it."
[43] This was George A. Washington, to whom had been intrusted the
management of affairs at Mount Vernon during the master's absence at the
seat of government. He was seized with alarming symptoms of pulmonary
disease early in 1792. He was greatly beloved by Washington, and his
sickness gave the president much pain, and was a frequent topic in
letters to his friends. To Lafayette he wrote as early as June, 1792:--
"I am afraid my nephew George, your old aid, will never have his
health perfectly re-established. He has lately been attacked with
the alarming symptoms of spitting large quantities of blood, and
the physicians give no hopes of restoration, unless it can be
effected by a change of air and a total dereliction from business,
to which he is too anxiously attentive. He will, if he should be
taken from his family and friends, leave three fine children, two
sons and a daughter. To the eldest of the boys he has given the
name of Fayette, and a fine-looking child he is."
To General Knox he wrote:--
"I thank you most sincerely for the medicine you were so obliging
as to send for my nephew, and for the sympathetic feeling you
express for his situation. Poor fellow! neither, I believe, will be
of any avail. Present appearances indicate a speedy dissolution. He
has not been able to leave his bed, except for a few moments to sit
in an arm-chair, since the fourteenth or fifteenth of last month.
The paroxysm of the disorder seems to be upon him, and death, or a
favorable turn to it, must speedily follow."
The sufferer was then residing upon a small estate in Hanover. He
lingered for several weeks, and then expired; and on the twenty-fourth
of February Washington wrote to his widow:--
"MY DEAR FANNY: To you, who so well knew the affectionate regard I
had for our departed friend, it is unnecessary to describe the
sorrow with which I was afflicted at the news of his death,
although it was an event I had expected many weeks before it
happened. To express this sorrow with the force I feel it, would
answer no other purpose than to revive in your breast that
poignancy of anguish, which by this time I hope is abated. The
object of this letter is to convey to your mind the warmest
assurance of my love, friendship, and disposition to serve you.
These I also profess to bear in an eminent degree for your
children."
He then invites her to make Mount Vernon the home of herself and
children. "You can go to no place," he said, "where you will be more
welcome, nor to any where you can live at less expense or trouble."
The young widow appears to have declined the offer of a home at Mount
Vernon, preferring to keep house in Alexandria, but offering to resign
the charge of her eldest son, Fayette, into Washington's keeping. In
March the president wrote to her, saying:--
"The carriage which I sent to Mount Vernon for your use I never
intended to reclaim; and now, making you a formal present of it, it
may be sent for whenever it suits your convenience and be
considered as your own. I shall, when I see you, request that
Fayette may be given up to me, either at that time or as soon after
as he is old enough to go to school. This will relieve you of that
portion of attention which his education would otherwise call
for."--_Mount Vernon and its Associations_, pages 264, 265.
[44] _The Life of Thomas Jefferson_, by Henry S. Randall, LL.D., ii, 128.
[45] Sparks's Washington, x, 533, 534.
[46] The following is copy of the proclamation:--
"Whereas it appears that a state of war exists between Austria,
Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the United Netherlands, on
the one part, and France on the other; and the duty and interest
of the United States require that they should, with sincerity and
good faith, adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial
toward the belligerent powers;
"I have therefore thought fit by these presents to declare the
disposition of the United States to observe the conduct aforesaid
towards those powers respectively; and to exhort and warn the
citizens of the United States carefully to avoid all acts and
proceedings whatsoever, which may in any manner tend to contravene
such disposition.
"And I do hereby also make known, that whosoever of the citizens of
the United States shall render himself liable to punishment or
forfeiture under the laws of nations, by committing, aiding, or
abetting hostilities against any of the said powers, or by carrying
to them any of those articles which are deemed contraband by the
modern usage of nations, will not receive the protection of the
United States against such punishment or forfeiture; and further,
that I have given instructions to those officers to whom it
belongs, to cause prosecutions to be instituted against all persons
who shall, within the cognizance of the courts of the United
States, violate the law of nations with respect to the powers at
war, or any of them.
"In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States
of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same
with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia, the twenty-second
day of April, 1793, and of the independence of the United States
the seventeenth.
"GEORGE WASHINGTON"