Washington had been uneasy about McHenry’s ability to discharge the mounting duties of the War Department. These apprehensions were sharpened by Hamilton’s opinion of McHenry’s utter inadequacy. Washington wrote plainly to the Secretary of War. Although “called to the Army in a moment of danger,” the General remonstrated, he was now “as ignorant of its foundation, its munitions and everything else relating thereto, as if I had just dropped from the clouds.” Call out the Inspector without delay, he entreated. Hamilton went to Philadelphia on November 1, but soon confessed to Washington his conviction that “the administration of the War Department cannot prosper in the present very well disposed but very unqualified hands.”
At the end of October McHenry made firm an earlier intimation that the Commander-in-Chief and the Major Generals should gather in Philadelphia by November 10. Knox had declined and the President could not attend, the Secretary wrote October 30, but General Pinckney would remain in the North until after the conference and Hamilton would be there. Washington agreed to be in Philadelphia but advised McHenry that he might not reach there until the eleventh.
On the morning of November 5 General Washington and Colonel Lear drove away from the Potomac. Cavalry escort met the Commander-in-Chief outside Alexandria and military honors awaited him within the city. As it began, so it continued. Alexandria escort gave over to Georgetown soldiery. Nor was Baltimore to be outdone. Washington found the Baltimore Horse ready to join him on a twelve-mile ride into the city. At the Susquehanna he was met by the Harford Horse and escorted to Elkton. On the tenth the General entered Philadelphia. Cavalry and infantry were drawn up along the streets, and on the commons waiting to receive him was the colorful corps of the MacPherson Blues.
Washington had need of both the good health and good spirits that accompanied him. Hours not taken by conferences with McHenry, Hamilton and Pinckney were given to reports of other Department heads or to consultation with them. Besides the difficult business of army organization, there were countless visits and almost daily state entertainment. A few days after Adams returned from Quincy, Commander-in-Chief and President dined together at the residence Washington had occupied as Chief Executive. To this same house, now rebuilt into one of Philadelphia’s finest, the General had come during the Constitutional Convention as the guest of Robert Morris. As it chanced, the very day after he dined with the President, Morris was again his host, but at the humblest of tables—for that friend now resided in Debtor’s Prison.
With December, members began to arrive for the second session of the Fifth Congress. On the eighth Lieutenant General Washington entered the Hall of the House where the two bodies of Congress were assembled. With him were Major Generals Pinckney and Hamilton and Colonel Lear. They took their seats at the right of Speaker John Laurance’s chair. After a bit, President Adams rose to make his Annual Address. The major portion of the speech was devoted to French affairs. In his summary of the crisis Adams mentioned an apparent aversion of the French government to war with the United States, but he declared: “Nothing is discoverable in the conduct of France which ought to change or relax our measures of defence.” While he exhorted to defensive arms, he was careful to reassert that the objective was peace, that there would be “no obstacle to the restoration of a friendly intercourse,” and that the option for peace rested with the French Directory.
Political reconciliation continued to be Washington’s concern, but it was not now his particular responsibility. The Provisional Army was. The work proved tedious; there was much to be done. Sunday the ninth Hamilton and Pinckney worked the whole day with him in an effort to finish by the end of the week. Many hours of the thirteenth, his last full day in Philadelphia, Washington spent in preparation of a report on the business accomplished during his stay. Three letters to the Secretary of War, all in Hamilton’s autograph, went forward in first draft, with various inserts and corrections. There was not time, the General explained, to have fair copies made. Questions McHenry had posed were treated in detail. Other matters of military importance were presented in a long communication whose principal subject was that of a proper plan for organization of military forces throughout the country.
The General and Lear set out after dinner on December 14. They stayed the night at Chester and before he retired Washington wrote to McHenry. Again it was a military matter, but a decidedly personal one. Young Custis had been nominated to serve as Cornet in the Troop of Light Dragoons, but to prevent probable disappointment and the natural resentment of youth, the General cautioned McHenry against any mention of his grandson’s name until the way was cleared for his acceptance through consultation with his mother and grandmother. The boy would covet such a colorful assignment as that suggested for him under Capt. Lawrence Lewis, Washington knew, but, remembering Martha’s anxiety and uneasiness over her own son, consent was by no means to be taken for granted.
On November 19 Washington sat down to dinner at his own table. For six weeks and three days he had given himself to the duties of Commander-in-Chief. If he could not now put aside public business completely, he could enjoy again in part his role as plantation proprietor. About two weeks later Richard Parkinson, an Englishman with whom Washington had corresponded concerning possible tenancy of River Farm and who had recently arrived at Alexandria, braved the December weather and drove out to spend the day. Parkinson spoke often of the beautiful river, but “did not like the land at all.” His lack of interest in the tenancy by no means diminished Washington’s consideration and courtesy towards him. Impressed with the earnestness of the newcomer, he gave a careful description of the countryside and the important cities in order to help Parkinson choose a location for the small acreage he wished to acquire. The Englishman learned that “Baltimore was and would be the risingest town in America, except the Federal City . . . that Philadelphia would decline, but New York would always maintain an eminent commercial rank. . . .” At length, the visitor declining to stay the night, Washington tactfully sent Lear to inquire whether his departing guest needed money. He did. Such was the friendliness of the busy man, of whom Parkinson later said: “His behavior to me was such that I shall ever revere his name.”
Christmas was perhaps less gay at Mount Vernon since Nelly Custis had gone to Hope Park to be with her parents. Washington Custis and Lawrence Lewis also were away. The General spent the early morning at his desk, his thoughts and pen dedicated to Lafayette in a long letter, the first in over a year. Washington explained he had not written sooner because for months he thought Lafayette and George had embarked for America. In relief that such a voyage had not begun, Washington urged Lafayette to postpone it until differences between France and America were settled. Even without actual war, Washington feared Lafayette’s return at this time would be misinterpreted by both sides. When “harmony between the nations is again restored,” the General wrote, “no one in the United States would receive you . . . with more ardent affection than I should.” Within the limitations of a letter, Washington sketched his view of the crisis. If, as Lafayette had stated, the Directory were disposed to peaceful accommodation, “let them accompany it by action for words unaccompanied therewith will not be much regarded now.” From distant friends he turned to those close by. The master of Mount Vernon and Martha had gathered with their guests, Judge and Mrs. William Cushing, at the Christmas table when the sound of carriage wheels announced the expected arrival of General Pinckney, his wife and daughter. The holiday dinner was heightened in enjoyment by the addition of this charming company.
As 1799 commenced news from the War Department was disquieting. McHenry, it appeared, was inept when he was not inactive. Washington regretted that the Secretary of War had not reported to Congress the proceedings with Hamilton and Pinckney in full rather than in part. Furthermore, where Executive action was required, could not McHenry obtain it promptly? Many valuable officers and recruits already had been lost by dilatoriness, and others soon would become impatient. Besides these complaints, there was on
e on a private account the General did not fail to mention, though he was careful to call it “incidental” : When costs of his Philadelphia trip were reckoned, expenditures were found to be in excess of the two months’ pay he had drawn. Exclusive of $300 paid for a horse, he had spent $1115.55. But he urged that McHenry not consider this a plea for further pay—he had no wish to incur public criticism and preferred to sustain loss rather than be suspected of mercenary motives. Even the pinch of unpaid bills would be more endurable than wounded pride. Besides, there were other means by which he might obtain money to finance his houses in the Federal City and for other needs. The General hoped to realize £800 from three jacks, descendants of Royal Gift. If John Tayloe declined to purchase these fine animals, then Washington might have to borrow from the bank, “at its ruinous interest.”
The General was intensely interested in Pickering’s report on French relations, made to Congress on January 21, and even more in the passages concerning Gerry that the President had deleted over the Secretary’s protest—Pickering’s observations on the “improper” and “inexcusable” conduct of the envoy. Washington lamented that the missing portions had not been retained. He applauded Pickering’s realistic view of the crisis and did not wonder that Republican hearers “disrelished” it.
The General might have spared himself worry where his grandson’s military appointment was concerned. Martha had no objection, and the permission of his mother, Mrs. David Stuart, soon followed. Possibly they had less fear for him on a field of battle than in the sea of matrimony on which he seemed determined to embark. No doubt it was a happy young gentleman who set out for a visit at Doctor Stuart’s January 22. It was an even happier young lady who returned to Mount Vernon just at this time. Eleanor Parke Custis, the adored “Nelly” of the household, was to be married soon to Lawrence Lewis. Even if Washington had discerned a growing attraction between Nelly and his nephew, the culmination of the romance came as a complete surprise, “they having, while I was at Philadelphia, without my having the smallest suspicion that such an affair was in agitation, formed their contract. . . .” Washington drove to Alexandria January 23 to become Nelly’s legal guardian, that he might authorize a license for her marriage.
February 11 found the General back in Alexandria for celebration of his sixty-seventh birthday. At eleven o’clock, when the General appeared on the streets, he was escorted by three companies of dragoons. The ceremonial was carefully planned and colorfully executed. Military maneuvers showed marching men at their best. There was a sham battle between defensive land forces and three companies of “enemy” infantry on ships. The General watched intently and approvingly until the “invaders” were forced to surrender. The climax of the occasion came with an elegant ball and supper, and before the revelry was ended toasts had vied with artillery salutations in number and grandeur.
Back at the Potomac plantation on the twelfth, all eyes were centered on the twenty-second, the “new calendar” date usually observed as the General’s birthday—this year of special significance because Nelly and Lawrence had chosen it for their wedding. By dinner time that day the Rev. Thomas Davis had arrived in the company of Nelly’s kinsman, George Calvert. Then, as the General recorded, “Miss Custis was married abt. Candle light to Mr. Lawe. Lewis.”
During the week beginning February 18 Washington had penned scarcely a dozen lines, but communications from Hamilton and McHenry soon called him back to his desk. Many were the reports, but few the explanations, of the unaccountable delay in recruiting. Although he hesitated to ascribe causes, the General did not hesitate to predict that “unless a material change takes place, our military theatre affords but a gloomy prospect to those who are to perform the principal parts in the drama.”
This state of affairs was alarming, but news that soon followed was nothing short of astounding: On February 18, when the Senate turned to Executive business, President Adams, without previous hint, nominated William Vans Murray, American Minister resident at The Hague, to be minister plenipotentiary to the French Republic. With this pronouncement Adams transmitted a copy of a communication from Talleyrand to Citizen Louis André Pichon, chargé d’affaires at The Hague, dated September 28, 1798. Pichon had shown the paper to Murray, and Murray had forwarded it to Adams. On its content the President apparently rested his determination to send another mission to France. Washington was surprised, but if France had made plea for peaceful negotiation, he was thankful that the nation’s tranquility soon might be restored. When he learned that no overtures had come direct from the French Republic, he was amazed and perplexed at Adams’ apparent indiscretion. In Washington’s view, it was not enough that the French Minister had communicated his altered sentiments circuitously through Murray. If there was no intrigue, why should there be the methods of intrigue? Washington wondered what influence, if any, a communication he had just sent the President might have had on his sudden decision. He had the answer almost at once in a letter from Adams written the day after his startling statements in the Senate Chamber.
The communication Washington had forwarded was a long letter received on January 31 from Joel Barlow in Paris. Barlow had written urging Washington to use his influence towards a new attempt at negotiation with France. The dispute was simply a misunderstanding, he said; he enumerated reasons for belief in the Directory’s peaceful and tractable intent and listed concessions that France was willing to make. If the United States refused these generous overtures, Barlow admonished, “war of the most terrible and vindictive kind will follow.” Washington transmitted the letter “without delay and without comment, except to say that it must have been written with a very good or a very bad design. . . .” Adams explained in his reply to Washington that, as he saw it, Talleyrand had met the conditions prescribed in the message to Congress on June 21, 1798. Hence Murray’s appointment—though Adams said he would instruct the envoy not to make a move until formal assurances pledged his proper reception and treatment.
The proposed new mission was at once the topic of tongues and pens and presses throughout the country. Stunned Federalists soon became articulate and active against this “degrading and mischievous measure.” This appointment—”dishonorable to the United States, and disastrous to prospects of other foreign negotiations”—was altogether Adams’ own, Pickering hastened to inform Washington. Then, in an effort to ameliorate both the wound and its after effects, the nomination was referred to a committee of the Senate. When the committee found that the President was fixed in his intention to send an envoy, Adams perceived that they too were fixed in their intention to defeat the proposal. Thereupon, he nominated two additional envoys to serve with Murray—Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth and Patrick Henry. Senators saw that they must approve the mission; the alteration from a single to a three-member envoy appeased Federalists in the only possible way. At least Adams had named safe men for his unsafe mission. Republicans, meanwhile, kept a cautious quiet. There was satisfaction enough in watching the schism within the Federal party.
From Pickering’s letters and the newspapers, Washington was kept well informed politically; but militarily, the bulk of his communications was cause for justifiable complaint. He now had questions and comments he no longer could forbear stating, and on March 25 he set them down in an unflinching manner to McHenry. What, the General wished to know, kept back commissions of officers already appointed; and what continued to arrest recruiting? “Blame is in every mind,” he said, “attached by some to the President, by some to the Secretary of War.” Still others, “fertile in invention,” might censure the Commander-in-Chief. Washington was exasperated that he had been left “in the field of conjecture.” Every accusation, every argument against conditions in the War Department, the General repeated and reemphasized. “These, my dear McHenry, are serious considerations to a man who has nothing to gain, and is putting everything to hazard.” The most delicate of his criticisms, Washington left for the last. He had come to the unhappy conclusion, he wrote, that predictions
of McHenry’s complete inability to conduct his Department in event of war were well founded.
Washington feared he might lose a friend, but this was not the first time he had put principle above personality. He need not have worried. McHenry did not take offense at the candor of Washington, but asked, that the General “continue to give me such proofs of your friendship.” In return, McHenry had the satisfaction of some reassurance from Washington: He often had stated his belief, the General replied, that circumstances beyond the Secretary’s control accounted largely for his conduct, and that all the blame should not be attached to him personally.
Whatever his potential worth in lands, Washington faced this spring the most awkward financial situation of his life. Within the last four years he had sold lands to the amount of $50,000, but all the money received from this source, from crops and rents, Washington admitted, had “scarcely been able to keep me afloat.” Out of $15,000 due him a year ago and a like amount payable this June, he had received only $1700. To the embarrassment of insufficient funds, long familiar, was added the painful necessity of borrowing money. For the first time Washington had to negotiate a bank loan. He wrote early in March that his real want of cash had driven him to “a ruinous mode of obtaining money.” Reproachfully he explained to George Ball, whose payment of £303 due in April 1798 had not yet come, that he had sold those most valuable Gloucester lands only because he lacked funds and exhorted Ball to forward his overdue instalment; and he warned James Welch that he no longer was to be “trifled with.” That deception was a part of Welch’s dealings Washington now had no doubt. Earlier Washington had warned Israel Shreve that his judgment bond would be enforced. The knowledge that Shreve had sold part of the property bought from Washington for more than he owed the General was particularly annoying. The best Washington could expect from Henry Lee’s obligation was a shipment of corn, for which he would allow a credit of fifteen shillings per barrel.
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