“And be it further resolved, That the president of the United States be requested to direct a copy of these resolutions to be transmitted to Mrs. Washington, assuring her of the profound respect Congress will ever bear for her person and character, of their condolence on the late afflicting dispensation of Providence; and entreating her assent to the interment of the remains of General Washington in the manner expressed in the first resolution.[146]
“Resolved, That the president of the United States be requested to issue his proclamation, notifying to the people throughout the United States the recommendation contained in the third resolution.”
In accordance with the second of the foregoing resolutions. General Henry Lee, of Virginia, then a member of Congress, and one of the committee of sixteen, was invited to pronounce the funeral oration. He was one of Washington's favorites. Throughout the war for independence, he had been admired and beloved by the commander-in-chief for his manly and soldierly qualities, and he had ever been a welcome guest at Mount Vernon.
The choice of orator was an appropriate one. Both houses of Congress went in a body to the German Lutheran church, in Fourth street, above Arch, to listen to the oration.[147] A vast concourse of citizens was also in attendance; and the M'Pherson Blues, a corps of about three hundred young men, mostly from the best families of Philadelphia, attended as a guard of honor on that occasion. Only six of that corps are known to be alive at this time.[148]
On the thirtieth of December, the Congress resolved “that it be recommended to the people of the United States to assemble on the twenty-second day of February next, in such numbers and manner as may be convenient, publicly to testify their grief for the death of General George Washington, by suitable eulogies, orations, and discourses, or by public prayers.”
The president was requested to issue his proclamation in accordance with this resolution, which he did on the sixth of January; and the birthday of the illustrious Washington, usually celebrated with gayety and festivity, was made, in the year 1800, an occasion of funeral solemnities.
The death of Washington produced a profound sensation in Europe. The English newspapers were filled with eulogies on his character. On hearing of his death, Lord Bridport, who was in command of a British fleet of almost sixty sail, at Torbay, on the coast of Devon, ordered every ship to lower her flag to half-mast; and Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, announced his death to his army, and ordered black crape to be suspended from all the flags and standards in the French service for ten days. In Paris, the citizens showed many demonstrations of respect; and on the “20th Pluviose” (eighth of February, 1800), Louis de Fontanes pronounced an impassioned funeral oration in his honor, in the Temple of Mars.[149]
FOOTNOTES:
[138] In a letter to General Hamilton, written a month afterward, Mr. Lear says: “To Judge Washington the general left by will all his public and private papers. A few hours before his death he observed to him—'I am about to change the scene. I can not last long. I believed from the first the attack would be fatal. Do you arrange all my papers and accounts, as you know more about these things than any one else.'”—Works of Hamilton, vi. 424. There must have been a change of the word me to him, in transcribing this letter for the press, because in no account is the judge mentioned as having been present during Washington's last sickness.
[139] Mrs. Washington died at Mount Vernon, on the twenty-second of May, 1802, in the seventy-first year of her age.