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." He then invites her to bring his niece, Harriet Washington, with her, to Mount Vernon, of whose conduct he had heard pleasant words. Miss Harriet remained at Mount Vernon a long time, the grateful recipient of her uncle's bounty.

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 educa tion would otherwise call for."

Washington's affection for children was very great, and he was ever anxious to have young people in the mansion at Mount Vernon. He enjoyed their amusements with a keen relish, and yet the mysterious awe felt in his presence, by all who had the good fortune to know him personally, was experienced by children. His adopted daughter (Mrs. Lewis) used to say that she had seen him laugh heartily at her merry pranks, or when, a gay, joyous girl, she would give him a description of some scene in which she had taken a part; and yet she had as often seen him retire from the room in which her young companions were amusing themselves, because he perceived that his presence created a reserve which they could not overcome.

His love for his two adopted children was very strong, and he watched over their mental and moral development with great solicitude. In several of his letters to Mr. Lear, from Mount Vernon, in the autumn of 1790, when preparing for his residence in Philadelphia, he mentioned the subject of schools, expressing a great desire to have young Custis placed in one of the best character.

Mrs. Washington was always over-indulgent to her two grandchildren. The boy (George Washington Parke Custis) was always familiarly called Washington, and by that name he was always distinguished in the general's private corre spondence. His beautiful sister, Nelly, used to speak of the affection which Mrs. Washington lavished upon him, and the many excuses which she offered in his defence, when the father, true to his nature and education, exacted submission to the most thorough discipline on all occasions, much as he loved the boy.

"Grandmamma always spoiled Washington," his sister would say; and his daughter, in a late memoir of him, has said—“ He was the pride of her heart, while the public duties of the veteran prevented the exercise of his influence in forming the character of the boy, too softly nurtured under his roof, and gifted with talents, which, under a sterner discipline, might have been more available for his own and his country's good."

Notwithstanding her indulgent disposition, Mrs. Washington was a thorough disciplinarian in her household, and Nelly Custis experienced many a tearful hour when compelled by her grandmother to attend assiduously to her studies in letters and music. Washington made her a present of a fine harpsichord, at the cost of one thousand dollars-Schroeder's beau'tiful invention, the piano-forte, not being then much used in America. In England, even, where Zumpe had introduced it, with many improvements, between twenty and thirty years before, the piano had by no means supplanted its parent the harpsichord, and the latter instrument, or the spinet, might be found in almost every family of wealth in the kingdom.

The best teachers were employed to instruct Nelly in the use of the harpsichord, and her grandmother made her practise upon it four or five hours every day. "The poor girl," says her brother, the late Mr. Custis, "would play and and cry cry, and play, for long hours, under the immediate eye of her grandmother, a rigid disciplinarian in all things."

That harpsichord, according to the inscription upon a plate above the keys, was manufactured by "Longman and Broderip, musical instrument makers, No. 26 Cheapside, and No. 13 Haymarket, London." It was carefully packed and taken

to Mount Vernon when Washington retired from office the last time. It was used there until his death, for Nelly and her husband resided at Mount Vernon for more than

a year after their marriage in February, 1779. It is now (1859) in the possession of Mrs. Lee, of Arlington House, who intends to present it to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Associa tion, when the home of Washington shall have passed into their absolute possession, that it may take its ancient place in the parlor of the hallowed mansion.

The instrument was one of the most elegant of its kind. It is about eight feet long, three and a half feet wide, and three

feet in length, with two banks, containing one hundred and twenty keys in all. The case is mahogany.

On the 4th of March, 1793, Judge Cushing, of Massachusetts, administered to Washington, in the senate chamber, in Philadelphia, the oath of office as President of the United States, he having been, by unanimous vote of the electoral college, speaking the will of the people, re-elected to the exalted station of chief magistrate. It was with great reluctance that he consented to serve another prescribed term of four years. He had looked forward to retirement from office with real pleasure, and when he agreed to serve his country still longer, he endured a sacrifice which none but a disinterested patriot could have made. For himself he preferred the quiet of domestic life at his pleasant home on the Potomac, to all the honors and emoluments that the world could offer. But in this instance, as in all others, he yielded his own wishes to the more important demands of his country. He knew, as well as any man living, the dangers to which the country was then exposed from the influence of French politics and of domestic factions; and the representations of the true friends of government convinced him that his further service in public life was demanded by every consideration of patriotism.

Hamilton, in whose judgment and purity of motives Washington had the most entire confidence, had urged him, in a touching letter, to accept the high office a second term; and while his cabinet was agitated by discordant opinions upon other subjects, they all agreed that Washington's retirement from office at that time would be a serious calamity to the country. Every one felt that the affairs of the national government were not yet firmly established; that its enemies