Greene, his most trusted officer, in its command with a strong force. By a kind of rigid justice, grateful to every American, West Point has become the seat of the national school for training the defenders of American nationality and liberty; while Arnold's name is coupled with that of Judas.

The season closed with skirmishes north and south, and with many intimations that the British commander inclined to carry the war more forcibly into the south; as Georgia and South Carolina had not offered so much resistance as the northern states. Nothing marked was done in this campaign.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1781.

The sufferings of the army were so severe this winter, that there were several mutinies, and on one occasion quite a body of soldiers organized to march to Philadelphia and compel Congress to supply their wants and make sure their pay. This was a new trouble.

But the invasion of the Carolinas by Cornwallis aroused the people; and Sumpter, Marion and Morgan gathered the militia to the help of Greene, who had now been appointed to the command of the American army in the south. The invaders were severely punished. The tide of the conflict was various, but the British were the greater losers. The tories did not render them the help they expected, while the resistance was greater than they had provided for. They found that the open country in the south was scarcely more hospitable to them than in the north; and that nowhere in America were they safe out of the reach of their protecting ships of war.

The tide of war now set rapidly southward, as Washington expected it would. Both the British and the French fleets went to the Chesapeake bay and came into a sharp conflict which injured both; but gave neither a victory. Washington had sent Lafayette south with all the force he could spare. Lafayette had charge of the forces in Virginia, which were managed with great judgment and skill, according to Washington's plan of avoiding battles only when sure of favorable results. Greene

commanded in the Carolinas and Georgia, on the same plan and with excellent results.

In July, Washington led all the forces he could spare from before New York, and the French forces also, toward Virginia, with a view to the capture of Cornwallis and his army, now at Yorktown. Their passage through Philadelphia was hailed by the people with great enthusiasm. The French army, neatly uniformed, well drilled, officered and supplied with bands of music and rich flags, made an appearance dazzling to American eyes.

About the first of September, Count De Grasse came into the Chesapeake with heavy reinforcements of war ships and land forces. In conjunction with these, it was Washington's plan to make Yorktown a coop for Cornwallis. Forces were marching from every quarter with the greatest speed. The French army from Newport; the new French forces landed from De Grasse's fleet; Washington with all he could rally from New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey; Lafayette with his forces; the governor of Virginia with such militia as he could muster; were all hurrying toward Yorktown, while the fleet waited at the mouth of York river. Greene was left to threaten Charleston and hold the attention of the British in that region.

Early in October the great girdle began to draw around Cornwallis. He expected naval help from New York, but he did not see his danger soon enough to get it. His only resource was to entrench and defend. All Washington's plans carried. Armies from afar reached Virginia in time. The French fleet was but a few days behind the anticipated time for its arrival. The Virginia militia were gathered in season. Cornwallis had chosen a favorable spot for Washington at this opportune moment. Providence seemed helping the Americans in the fortunate combination of circumstances. When Cornwallis saw his danger he attempted a night escape across the York river, but a fierce storm scattered his boats and defeated the attempt. Officers and soldiers of all arms of the service were of one mind and worked with one will. All saw that the wary Cornwallis was cooped in a place of his own selec

tion, and only some strange chance of war could save him. Enthusiasm such as our poor soldiers had never known fired their hearts. Every man felt himself freedom's king. They made short work with their wily foe, whom they had got at last at a great disadvantage. They saw Washington's prudent plan of warfare ripening at last in a great and almost bloodless victory. Cannon from every quarter played upon the enemy's works and beat them down. The spade and pick opened a safe way to a close encounter with the caged lion. Seeing his certain fate, he surrendered, and in due time marched out into an open field and laid down his arms. This unequaled victory was the great ripe fruit of all their sufferings. It enheartened the whole country and gave it name and credit abroad. The whole world was watching this American conflict. If the new nation maintained its independence, a new era was to open to mankind. The nineteenth of October, 1781, which brought Cornwallis' surrender, made sure this opening future.

Washington visited Mount Vernon, and after a few days. repaired to Philadelphia where he spent the winter months of 1781 and 1782 with Congress, counseling in relation to both the civil and military affairs of the country. The army's suffering condition bore heavily on his generous heart.

A treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States was signed at Paris, January 21, 1783. A letter from Lafayette to Congress, bearing the intelligence, reached that body March 23. Sir Guy Carlton informed Washington a few days after that he was ordered to proclaim a cessation of hostilities by land and sea. On the seventeenth of April Washington made a similar proclamation to his army by order of Congress.

On the eighteenth of the following October Congress discharged the army, many of whom had already gone to their homes on furloughs.

On the second of November Washington made his farewell address to the soldiers who had won the independence of America.

Thus closed the great Revolutionary War, the most important and justifiable of any that the world had then known; as import

ant, perhaps, in securing the liberties of the English as the American people. Now that it is so far in the past, all true men can unite in tributes of praise and honor to the people who so nobly sacrificed for their convictions; and to Washington, their great leader, who, under Providence, became truly the "Father of their country," and, perhaps, the most fortunate and truly great man, taken all in all, in the history of the world..

LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON.

Washington now retired to Mount Vernon to take up again those rural pursuits so congenial to his retiring and domestic nature. He at once set about improving his estate, embellishing his home and its surrounding and reviving his former pleasures and associations. But he could not forget the country he had helped to bring into being. His wide acquaintance with the resources of the country and its great possibilities, and his intimate knowledge of the people, filled his mind with speculations on the settlement of the wilderness, the means of land and water communication with the fruitful regions which he saw must soon be settled. His correspondence and his conversation with visitors were filled with these thoughts, which reached far away from Mount Vernon.

In December, 1784, he was invited to Annapolis, by the Virginia Assembly, to consider with other public spirited gentlemen, the best ways of improving inland navigation. The meeting resulted in the formation of two navigation companies, for opening the navigation of the Potomac and James rivers, under the coöperation of the assemblies of Virginia and Maryland. He was made president of both. It was a part of the plan to open a communication with western waters and facilitate the movements of settlements into those inviting regions. The Assembly of Virginia, as a mark of respect and in recognition of his great services given without remuneration to the country, voted one hundred and fifty shares in these companies as a gift. to General Washington. This generous proposal puzzled and troubled him. It was one of his settled purposes not to accept

public gifts, because of their tendency to swerve the private judgment and put one under purchased obligation to the public. He had given eight years of the best of his life to fight for personal freedom, and now he would not accept a gift which might in any way act as a bribe upon that freedom; and yet he did not desire to seem not to appreciate the generous sentiments of his fellow-citizens. After much consideration he concluded to accept the gift, if the assembly would allow him to hold it in trust for some public institution. Later in life he applied it to public education.

It is the testimony of those who knew much of him that his character in private life was as free from guile and blemish as in public positions. His secretary, Mr. Lear, after two years residence in his family on very intimate relations, says: "General Washington, is, I believe, almost the only man of an exalted character, who does not lose some part of his respectability by an intimate acquaintance. I have never found a single thing that could lessen my respect for him. A complete knowledge of his honesty, uprightness and candor in all his private transactions, has sometimes led me to think he was more than a man.”

Bishop White says of him: "I know no man so carefully guarded against the discoursing of himself or of his acts, or of anything that pertained to him, and it has occasionally occurred to me when in has company, that if a stranger to his person were present, he would never have known from anything said by him that he was conscious of having distinguished himself in the eye of the world." His wife's grandchild who lived in his family, Miss Custis, has written of him: "He spoke little, generally; never of himself. I never heard him relate a single act of his life during the war."

He was social, fond of company, of children and youth; loved their laughter and gaiety; laughed himself sometimes immoderately; yet was usually calm and benignant. His friendships were very strong. Many of his companions in arms became very dear to him; General Greene, Lafayette and Hamilton in particular. To his early friendships he was always steadfast. The little excellencies of spirit and conduct, like the