To the Worshipful, the Mayor and Commonalty of the Corporation of Fredericksburg:—
Gentlemen—With the greatest pleasure I receive in the character of a private citizen, the honor of your address. To a benevolent Providence and the fortitude of a Brave and Virtuous army, supported by the general exertion of our common country, I stand indebted for the plaudits you now bestow. The reflection, however, of having met the congratulating smiles and approbation of my fellow citizens for the part I have acted in the cause of Liberty and Independence cannot fail of adding pleasure to the other sweets of domestic life; and my sensibility of them is heightened by their coming from the respectable inhabitants of the place of my growing infancy[83] and the honorable mention which is made of my revered mother, by whose maternal hand (early deprived of a Father,) I was led to manhood. For the expressions of personal affection and attachment, and for your kind wishes for my future welfare, I offer grateful thanks and my sincere prayers for the happiness and prosperity of the corporate town of Fredericksburg.
Go Washington.
The ceremonies of this gala day were closed with a ball at the market-house at night, which is known in history as the “peace ball.” At the special request of the citizens, Mary, the mother of Washington, attended this ball and held a reception in company with her illustrious son. She “occupied a slightly elevated position, from which she could overlook the floor and see the dancers, and among them the kingly figure of the Commander-in-Chief, who led a Fredericksburg matron through a minuet.”[84]
It will be noticed—and the fact will no doubt be treasured with pride—that Washington, in his reply to the address on this occasion, alludes to Fredericksburg as the place of his “growing infancy,” which shows that, history and tradition to the contrary notwithstanding, he grew up in this town, where he was educated, and where the hand of that revered mother led him to manhood, and the address of Robt. Lewis, nephew of Washington, to Gen. Lafayette makes the same claim.
GEN. LAFAYETTE’S LAST VISIT.
On the 27th day of November, 1824, Gen. Lafayette visited the town and remained two days. He was Washington’s right arm in the Revolutionary war, and was visiting for the last time the early home of Washington, where he took affectionate farewell of Washington’s mother, in the early part of the year 1783, as he returned to France. The General’s coming was known some days beforehand and a splendid mounted guard of honor was organized in town and country, who met him just above the “Wilderness Tavern.” At that place hundreds of others joined the procession, including the volunteer companies from Fredericksburg, and thus he and his party—his son George Washington and Colonel La Vasseur—were escorted to town by hundreds of mounted men and men on foot, with martial music, amid the grandest display and wildest enthusiasm on the part of the people. He received a welcome to the town no less cordial and sincere than was accorded to Green and Washington, because the liberty, so highly prized and gratefully enjoyed by them, was not achieved by Green and Washington without the aid of Lafayette. A public reception was held during the day, when he was welcomed by Mayor Robert Lewis, Washington’s nephew, and Lafayette’s intimate friend, and thousands shook him by the hand and wished him a safe voyage home to his own beloved France.
At night a ball was given in his honor over the present market-house, where hundreds gathered to do him honor and contribute to his pleasure. The next day being Sunday he visited the Masonic Lodge, which was the mother lodge of his “bosom friend,” Washington, enrolled his name as an honorary member, eulogized Washington and attended services at St. George’s Episcopal church.
Entrance to National Cemetery, erected on Willis’s Hill, a portion of the Marye Heights.
(See [page 190])