When he entered his barge, he turned to the people, took off his hat, and waved a silent adieu to the tearful multitude. *
Washington remained a few days in Philadelphia, where he delivered in his accounts to the proper officers, ** and then hastened, with his wife, to Annapolis, where he arrived on the evening of the nine-with ladies, among whom was Mrs. Washington vast procession, and at two o'clock entered.Dec. 1783 The next day he informed Congress of his desire to resign his commission as commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States. That body resolved that it should be done at a public audience the following Tuesday,Dec. 23 at meridian. The day was fine, and around the State House (see page 402) a great concourse was assembled. The little gallery of the Senate Chamber was filled. ***
* Congress had adjourned to meet at Annapolis, in Maryland, on the twenty-sixth of November. A quorum was not present until Saturday, the thirteenth of December, when only nine states were represented.
** The account current of his expenditures for the public service during the war, rendered by Washington, was in his own handwriting. The total amount was about seventy-four thousand four hundred and eighty-five dollars. * The disbursements were for reconnoitering and traveling, secret intelligence service, and miscellaneous expenses. It will be remembered that Washington refused to receive any compensation for his own services.
*** Martha Dandridge was born in New Kent county, Virginia, in May, 1732. In 1749 she was married to Colonel Daniel Parke Custis, of New Kent, and settled with her husband on the bank of the Pamunky River, where she bore four children. Her husband died when she had arrived at the age of about twenty-five, leaving her in the possession of a large fortune. In 1758 she became acquainted with Colonel Washington, whose greatness was just budding, and whose fame had spread beyond Virginia. He became her suitor, and they were married. The exact period of their marriage has not been found on record; it is supposed to be in 1759. They removed to Mount Vernon soon after that event, and there was their home during the remainder of their lives. During the war for independence, she occasionally visited her husband in camp. Almost at the very hour of his great victory at Yorktown, a cloud came over her, for then her only surviving child expired. While Washington was President of the United States, Mrs. Washington presided with dignity in the mansion of the chief magistrate. The quiet of private life had more charms for her than the brilliancy of public greetings, and she joyfully sought the banks of the Potomac when her husband's second presidential term was ended. A little more than two years afterward, she was called to mourn his death. **