President and harried constantly we find him stopping to acknowledge for
her "an invitation to take some Tea," and at the bottom of the sheet
adding a pious bit of finesse, thus: "The President requests me to send
his compliments and only regrets that the pressure of affairs compels him
to forego the Pleasure of seeing you."

After Washington's death, his wife destroyed the letters he had written
her--many hundred in number--an offense the world is not yet quite willing
to forget, even though it has forgiven.

* * * * *

Although we have been told that when Washington was six years old he could
not tell a lie, yet he afterwards partially overcame the disability. On
one occasion he writes to a friend that the mosquitoes of New Jersey "can
bite through the thickest boot," and though a contemporary clergyman,
greatly flurried, explains that he meant "stocking," we insist that the
statement shall stand as the Father of his Country expressed it.
Washington also records without a blush, "I announced that I would leave
at 8 and then immediately gave private Orders to go at 5, so to avoid the
Throng." Another time when he discharged an overseer for incompetency he
lessened the pain of parting by writing for the fellow "a Character."

When he went to Boston and was named as Commander of the Army, his chief
concern seemed to be how he would make peace with Martha. Ho! ye married
men! do you understand the situation? He was to be away for a year, two,
or possibly three, and his wife did not have an inkling of it. Now, he
must break the news to her.

As plainly shown by Cabot Lodge and other historians, there was much