From Farm House to the White House - 912 Freedom Library

Farm House to the White House, by William M. Thayer 193
country. He designed to spend the remainder of his days in retirement at Mount Vernon. His large estates
demanded his attention, and his tastes for agricultural pursuits adapted him to the situation.
Under his careful and efficient supervision, his Mount Vernon estate rapidly improved. He enlarged his house,
so that he might accommodate the numerous distinguished visitors who now paid him their respects. He
studied agriculture by consulting the best authorities, doing it not alone for the purpose of improving his own
estates, but also to aid his newly emancipated country in developing its resources.
He lent his great influence to educational and religious enterprises, so essential to the stability and progress of
the free and independent Colonies. Through his influence, two companies were organized to extend the
navigation of the James and Potomac rivers. Grateful for his aid in creating enterprises of so great public
benefit, the General Assembly presented him with one hundred and fifty shares of the stock, worth fifty
thousand dollars. He declined to accept the large gift, saying:
"What will the world think if they should hear that I have taken fifty thousand dollars for this affair? Will they
not suspect, on my next proposition, that money is my motive? Thus for the sake of money, which, indeed, I
never coveted from my country, I may lose the power to do her some service, which may be worth more than
all money."
He assured the Assembly that if they would contribute the amount for a national university in what is now the
District of Columbia, and a literary institution in Rockbridge County, since called Washington College, he
should esteem their gift even more than he would were he to accept and devote it to his own private use; and
they complied with his wishes.
As before the war, he continued to remember the poor, whose veneration for him was greater than ever. His
methods of assisting them were often original, and always practical; as, for example, keeping a boat on the
Potomac for their use in fishing. Here was an opportunity for them to obtain subsistence without sacrificing
the virtues of industry and self-reliance.
Mr. Peake, who had charge of one of his plantations, said:
"I had orders to fill a corn-house every year for the sole use of the poor in my neighborhood, to whom it was a
seasonable and most precious relief, saving numbers of poor women and children from miserable famine, and
blessing them with a cheerful plenteousness of bread."
One year, when there was a scarcity of corn, and the price of it went up to a dollar per bushel, the suffering
among the poor was much increased. Washington ordered his agent to distribute all that could be spared from
the granaries, and he purchased several hundred bushels in addition, at the high price, to be used in charity.
Governor Johnson of Maryland, a hero of '76, related the following incident to Mr. Weems:
The governor went to the Virginia Springs for his health. The place was crowded with people, but he secured
"a mattress in the hut of a very honest baker" whom he knew. The baker did a large business, and every day
Mr. Johnson noticed that many poor negroes came for loaves, and took them away without paying a cent.
"Stophel," said Mr. Johnson one day, "you seem to sell a world of bread here every day, but notwithstanding
that, I fear you don't gain much by it."
"What makes you think so?" replied Stophel.
"You credit too much."