Then they watched him as he was
rowed away in his barge to the New Jersey shore. Congress was now
sitting at Annapolis in Maryland and there on December 23, 1783,
Washington appeared and gave up finally his command. We are told
that the members sat covered to show the sovereignty of the
Union, a quaint touch of the thought of the time. The little town
made a brave show and "the gallery was filled with a beautiful
group of elegant ladies." With solemn sincerity Washington
commended the country to the protection of Almighty God and the
army to the special care of Congress. Passion had already
subsided for the President of Congress in his reply praised the
"magnanimous king and nation" of Great Britain. By the end of the
year Washington was at Mount Vernon, hoping now to be able, as he
said simply, to make and sell a little flour annually and to
repair houses fast going to ruin. He did not foresee the troubled
years and the vexing problems which still lay before him. Nor
could he, in his modest estimate of himself, know that for a
distant posterity his character and his words would have
compelling authority. What Washington's countryman, Motley, said
of William of Orange is true of Washington himself: "As long as
he lived he was the guiding star of a brave nation and when he
died the little children cried in the streets.
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