Ohio Indians; how he returned to the table with unchanged countenance; after dinner calmly going through all the ceremonious proceedings of Mrs. Washington's reception; preserving his usual serenity and urbanity of demeanor, until he found himself alone with his secretary. Then, and not till then, he uttered a cry of mingled grief and indignation: "It's all over! St. Clair 's defeated-routed! The officers nearly all killed; the men by wholesale-the rout complete! Too shocking to think of and a surprise into the bargain!" His anger grew as he recalled the parting scene: "Here on this very spot I took leave of him. I wished him success and honor. You have your instructions," I said, 'from the Secretary of War; I had a strict eye to them, and will add but one word: Beware of a surprise! I repeat it, Beware of a surprise! You know how the Indians fight.'" He heaped imprecations upon the unfortunate General: "Oh God, oh God, he's worse than a murderer! How can he answer it to his country?" But the storm subsided ere long. The man had spoken, and the Commander-in-Chief resumed : "" General St. Clair shall have justice. I looked hastily through the dispatches, saw the whole disaster, but not all the particulars; I will receive him without displeasure; I will hear him without prejudice; he shall have full justice."

The whole scene is characteristic; it shows how acutely he could feel, how firmly he could control his feelings, and how quickly he could resume control, if for a moment he had lost it.

Perhaps, of all the utterances of George Washington, the one that best reveals to us his habit of fidelity, was a question which he asked upon his death-bed. It was late in the afternoon of his last day. He felt that he could not long retain his consciousness, and that he must do speedily whatever remained to be done by him. He had sent for the two wills; he had seen Mrs. Washington burn the one which had been superseded, and put the other in a closet; he had given Tobias Lear his last directions concerning his accounts, his letters and his papers. He then thought his work was done; but he was not quite sure of it. There might be something that he had forgotten, the omission of which would cause inconvenience. "He then asked me," says Lear, "if I recollected anything which it was essential for him to do, as he had but a very short time to continue with us." It was the ruling principle strong in death. It was the habit of a life-time asserting itself when soul and body were parting. It was George Washington dying. Five hours after, his breathing became suddenly easier. He felt his own pulse, as if to ascer tain the cause of the change. As he exhaled his last breath, the hand fell from the wrist.

In this deliberate manner, with his fingers upon his own pulse, he yielded up his life, retaining to the last a mind composed enough to take an interest in the physical facts of death. As he had sat, forty years before, watching and timing his negroes sawing timber, he was, probably, not more collected than he was at the last moment of his life. That he retained, also, the esteem and confidence of the great body of his countrymen, was indicated by a letter from the ruling spirit of the Federalists, which reached Mount Vernon when he was no more. The letter urged him to stand again for the Presidency as the surest means of keeping out the dreadful democrats.

In quieter times, in an established order of things, he had been as nearly perfect a head of a republic as can ever be hoped for. Men of eminent gifts and acquirements are generally out of place at the head of a government. Such men are needed to suggest, to advise and to aid. Such belong properly to the cabinet, to the legislature, and to the courts of justice. But the head of the State should represent the great body of its well-disposed and self-sustaining people. In him a gifted cabinet and a brilliant debater should see a good specimen of the people they are working for. By the impression a measure makes upon his mind, they should be able to learn how it will strike the average good citizen, on his farm, in his shop, on his vessel. Rarely brilliant, always prudent, with moderate power to open his mouth, but mighty to keep it shut, reasonably benevolent, but greatly just, he should be a large sound, well-choosen specimen of the solvent and steadfast men who hold up the world.

JAMES PARTON

WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT PREAKNESS

During the first three weeks of July, 1780, Washington had his headquarters at Preakness, New Jersey, lodging at the house of Colonel Theunis Dey. The main body of the army was encamped along the Totowa Heights, near the Great Falls of the Passaic river, Colonel Moyland's Pennsylvania Dragoons occupying an advanced position at the Little Falls, on the opposite side of the river,' while the Marquis de la Fayette had his headquarters at the residence of Samuel Van Saun, near Sandford's race track, and about a mile from the Dey house.*

From October 9 until November 27, 1780, the army was again encamped at Totowa,' evidently on the same site as during the preceding July; but as there was a greater array of troops at this time, they covered a more extended area. Lafayette now held the left, his Light Infantry corps, formed in August,' with Major Lee's Virginia troop of Light Horse, occupying a small elevation on the extreme east, along the eastern bank of the Goffle stream, where it flows into the Passaic river, not far from the present suburb of Paterson, known as Hawthorne. He had his headquarters near the Ryerson homestead, Mr. Richard Degray's barn now occupying almost the precise site. On his left stretched a fine plain, for a mile, to the Wagraw neighborhood. When he revisited the United States in 1824-5, he passed through this locality and was amused to see that some of his former soldiers had remembered the old camp, and had put up a rough board sign to designate it, on the Goffle brook."

The main army was encamped on a broad plateau stretching from the Passaic river perhaps half a mile, to the base of the Preakness mountain, and at an elevation of from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet above the river, so that it was admirably situated for defence. Several ample fields afforded fine opportunities for exercising the troops in military evolutions. The Grand Parade ground was near the Falls,' the spot being now built over by the second ward of the city of Paterson, then undreamed of. The army was stretched along the base of the Preakness hills for a distance of six or seven miles, from Wagraw on the left wing to Lower Preakness, or Singack,' as it is generally called, on the right. The advanced guard, consisting of Moyland's Dragoons and Major Parr's Rifle Corps, were stationed south of the Passaic river, the former near the Little Falls, to protect the approach from Newark and Elizabeth

town from the west side of the First Mountain, as well as the road through the Great Notch, while the Rifle Corps occupied a broad ravine northeast of the Notch, in a position to command it, and also to patrol the roads leading into it from Acquackanonk and Newark." Although Major Parr's corps held this post less than two weeks, being then removed a mile or two further west, where he could protect the Cranetown Gap and the Notch at the same time," his former position is to this day known by the people in the neighborhood as "the Rifle Camp." Thirty or forty years ago, the remains were still plainly visible of the ovens built by the riflemen for their meagre baking. It is said that Washington caused a lookout to be erected on the summit of the peak on the east side of the Notch, whence he could obtain a clear view of the whole country for twenty miles or more, including New York, Newark, Elizabethtown, Haverstraw, Hackensack, etc. Tradition also asserts that he caused great masses of stones to be piled up on this hill, to be rolled down upon any troops that might undertake to force a passage through the gap.

The General doubtless had pleasant recollections of his first stay at the Dey mansion, and therefore occupied it in October and November, when the army was again in the vicinity. It certainly was not at all convenient to the army; so remote, indeed, that he felt constrained to relieve the officers of the day from attending at headquarters "when there was nothing more than common to report."" General Knox, with his artillery, may have been within a mile or two of headquarters;" the main body of the army was at least three or four miles distant, while Lafayette was seven or eight miles from Washington; Moyland's Dragoons and Parr's Riflemen were from two to four miles to the southwest. It is a common tradition in the neighborhood, and one borne out by contemporaneous records, that Washington had reason at this time to anticipate attempts to effect his capture; consequently, there was excellent cause for his keeping himself out of the reach of possible raids by Simcoe's daring cavalry, or any other party that might seek to secure his person. His selection of camp ground and headquarters was well calculated to prevent surprise. The First Mountain formed a natural defence for his army; the Passaic river another; back of that arose a steep bluff, surmounted by the plateau already mentioned; then came the Preakness hill; over this range, in one of the most beautiful valleys, stood the dwelling of Colonel Dey. Charming vistas extended for many miles through the openings in the mountains in almost every direction, and the plain was traversed by roads leading to New