Valley Forge. Threatened by the jealousy of his own subordinates, he put
to shame the cabal formed in the interests of Gates, who had this year
captured Burgoyne. For three years, 1778-80, he maintained himself
against heavy odds in the Jerseys, fighting at Monmouth the first year,
reaching out to capture Stony Point the next year, and the third year
combating the treason of Arnold. In 1781, he planned the cooping up of
Cornwallis on the peninsula of Yorktown, with the aid of the French
allies, and received his surrender on October 19th.

Resigning his commission at Annapolis, December 23, 1783, he returned to
his estate at Mount Vernon, but vastly aided the incipient work of
framing the Constitution by correspondence. In May, 1787, he took his
seat as President of the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia. He
was inaugurated the first President of the United States in April, 1789,
after a unanimous election. He was similarly reflected in 1793, but
refused a third term in 1796. In the face of unmeasured vituperation he
firmly kept the nascent nation from embroiling herself in the wars of
France and England. Retiring again to Mount Vernon in the spring of
1797, he nevertheless accepted, at sixty-six years of age, the post of
Commander-in-Chief of the provisional army raised in 1798 to meet the
insolence of the French Directorate. In December, 1799, while riding
about his estates during a snowstorm, he contracted a disease of the
throat, from which he died on December 14, 1799. He provided by his will
for the manumission of his slaves, to take effect on the decease of his
widow. No lineal descendants can claim as an ancestor this extraordinary
man. He belongs to his country. His tomb is at Mount Vernon, and is in
keeping of the women of America.

FOOTNOTES: