is hardly necessary to add, that, if you should finally decline the appointment of major-general, there is none to whom I would give a more decided preference as an aide-de-camp, the offer of which is highly flattering, honorable, and grateful to my feelings, and for which I entertain a high sense. But, my dear General Knox, and here again I repeat to you, in the language of candor and friendship, examine well your own mind upon this subject. Do not unite yourself to the suite of a man, whom you may consider as the primary cause of what you call a degradation, with unpleasant sensations. This, while it is gnawing upon you, would, if I should come to the knowledge of it, make me unhappy; as my first wish would be that my military family, and the whole army, should consider themselves a band of brothers, willing and ready to die for each other."

Before Knox could have received this lettter, he had on the 23d of October, written to the Secretary of War, declining to serve under Hamilton and Pinckney, on the principle "that no officer can consent to his own degradation by serving in an inferior situation." General Pinckney, on the contrary, cheerfully accepted his appointment, although placed under Hamilton, who had been of inferior rank to him in the last war It was with the greatest pleasure he had seen that officer's name at the head of the list of majorgenerals, and applauded the discernment which had placed him there. He regretted that General Knox had declined his appointment, and that his feelings should be hurt by being outranked. "If

the authority," adds he, "which appointed me to the rank of second major in the army, will review the arrangement, and place General Knox before me, I will neither quit the service nor be dissatisfied." 1

1 Letter to the Secretary of War.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Washington taxed anew with the Cares of Office. — Correspondence with Lafayette. A Marriage at Mount Vernon. - Appointment of a Minister to the French Republic. Washington's Surprise. His Activity on his Estate.- Political Anxieties. - Concern about the Army.

ARLY in November (1798) Washington left his retirement and repaired to Philadelphia, at the earnest request of the Secretary of War, to meet that public functionary and major-generals Hamilton and Pinckney, and make arrangements respecting the forces about to be raised. The Secretary had prepared a series of questions for their consideration, and others were suggested by Washington, all bearing upon the organization of the provisional army. Upon these Washington and the two major-generals were closely engaged for nearly five weeks, at great inconvenience and in a most inclement season. The result of their deliberations was reduced to form, and communicated to the Secretary in two letters drafted by Hamilton, and signed by the commander-in-chief. Not the least irksome of Washington's task, in his present position, was to wade through volumes of applications and recommendations for military appointments; a task which he performed with extreme assiduity, anx

ious to avoid the influence of favor or prejudice, and sensitively alive to the evil of improper selections.

As it was a part of the plan on which he had accepted the command of the army to decline the occupations of the office until circumstances should require his presence in the field; and as the sea son and weather rendered him impatient to leave Philadelphia, he gave the Secretary of War his views and plans for the charge and direction of military affairs, and then set out once more for Mount Vernon. The cares and concerns of office, however, followed him to his retreat. "It is not the time nor the attention only," writes he," which the public duties I am engaged in require, but their bringing upon me applicants, recommenders of applicants, and seekers of information, none of whom, perhaps, are my acquaintances, with their servants and horses to aid in the consumption of my forage, and what to me is more valuable, my time, that I most regard; for a man in the country, nine miles from any house of entertainment, is differently situated from one in a city, where none of these inconveniences are felt."

In a letter, recently received from Lafayette, the latter spoke feelingly of the pleasure he experienced in conversing incessantly with his son George about Mount Vernon, its dear and venerated inhabitants, of the tender obligations, so profoundly felt, which he and his son had contracted towards him who had become a father to both.

In the conclusion of his letter, Lafayette writes that, from the information he had received, he

was fully persuaded that the French Directory desired to be at peace with the United States. "The aristocratical party," adds he, "whose hatred of America dates from the commencement of the European revolution, and the English gov ernment, which, since the Declaration of Independence, have forgotten and forgiven nothing, will rejoice, I know, at the prospect of a rupture between two nations heretofore united in the cause of liberty, and will endeavor, by all the means in their power, to precipitate us into a war. . . But you are there, my dear general, independent of all parties, venerated by all, and if, as I hope, your informant lead you to judge favorably of the disposition of the French government, your influence ought to prevent the breach from widening, and should insure a noble and durable reconciliation."

In his reply, December 25th, Washington says: "You have expressed a wish worthy of the benevolence of your heart, that I would exert all my endeavors to avert the calamitous effects of a rupture between our countries. Believe me, my dear friend, that no man can deprecate an event of this sort more than I should. . . You add, in another place, that the Executive Directory are disposed to an accommodation of all differences. If they are sincere in this declaration, let them C.idence it by actions; for words, unaccompanied therewith, will not be much regarded now. I would pledge myself that the government and people of the United States will meet them heart and hand at a fair negotiation; having no wish more