From Farm House to the White House - 912 Freedom Library

Farm House to the White House, by William M. Thayer 194
"Not I, indeed, sir; I don't credit at all."
"Ay, how do you make that out? Don't I see the poor people every day carrying away your bread, and yet
paying you nothing?"
"Pshaw! what of that? They will pay me all in a lump at last."
"At last!" exclaimed the governor, "at the last day, I suppose. You think the Almighty will stand paymaster,
and wipe off all your old scores for you at a dash."
"Not by any means, squire. The poor bakers can't give such long credit; but I will tell you how we work the
matter. Washington directed me to supply these poor people at his expense, and I do it. Believe me, squire, he
has often, at the end of the season, paid me as much as eighty dollars, and that, too, for poor creatures who did
not know the hand that fed them; for I had strict orders from him not to mention it to anybody."
In a former chapter we learned the magnanimity of his conduct towards one Payne, who knocked him down
for a supposed insult. Mr. Payne relates that after the Revolution he called upon Washington at Mount
Vernon.
"As I drew near the house," he says, "I began to experience a rising fear lest he should call to mind the blow I
had given him in former days. Washington met me at the door with a kind welcome, and conducted me into an
adjoining room where Mrs. Washington sat.
"'Here, my dear,' said he, presenting me to his lady, 'here is the little man you have so often heard me talk of,
and who, on a difference between us one day, had the resolution to knock me down, big as I am; I know you
will honor him as he deserves, for I assure you he has the heart of a true Virginian.'"
Mr. Payne adds: "He said this with an air which convinced me that his long familiarity with war had not
robbed him of his nobleness of heart. And Mrs. Washington looked at him as if he appeared to her greater and
lovelier than ever."
The same industry distinguished him on his return to his farms, for which he was so well known before the
war. His rule was to rise at four o'clock and retire at nine. The forenoon was employed in labor and overseeing
the work on his plantations. The presence of company did not interrupt his systematic methods. He would say
to such:
"Gentlemen, I must beg leave of absence this forenoon. Here are books, music, and amusements; consider
yourselves at home, and be happy."
But Washington was not allowed to remain long in private life. In 1787, a convention assembled in
Philadelphia to form a confederacy of States. Washington was a member of that body, and was unanimously
made its presiding officer. The convention sat four months, in which time the confederacy of States was
consummated, called the United States, with the present Constitution essentially.
This new order of things required the election of a president, and Washington was unanimously elected. He
was inaugurated on the thirtieth day of April, 1789, in the city of New York, then the seat of government. That
the position was not one of his own seeking is quite evident from a letter which he wrote to General Knox:
"My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who
is going to the place of his execution, so unwilling am I, in the evening of life, nearly consumed in public
cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties, without the competency of political skill, abilities,
and inclinations which are necessary to manage the helm."