President Washington's Receptions

In classic Palladian style, on the western side, the main house is flanked by advancing,
single-story secondary wings creating a cour d'honneur. See and read more at Wikipedia.

        He devoted one hour every other Tuesday, from three to four, to these visits. He understood himself to be visited as the "President of the United States" and not on his own account. He was not to be seen by anybody and everybody; but required that everyone who came should be introduced by his secretary, or by some gentleman that he knew himself. He lived on the south side of Market street just below sixth. The place of reception was the dining room in the rear, twenty five or thirty feet in length, including the bow projecting over into the garden. Mrs. Washington received her visitors in the two rooms on the second floor, from front to rear.

       At three o'clock or at any time within a quarter of an hour afterward, the visitor was conducted to this dining room, from which all seats had been removed for the time. On entering, he saw the tall, manly figure of Washington clad in black velvet; his hair in full dress, powdered and gathered behind in a large silk bag; yellow gloves on his hands; holding a cocked hat with a cockade in it, and the edge adorned with a black feather, about an inch deep. He wore knee and shoe buckles; and a long sword with a finely wrought and polished steel hilt. The scabbard was white polished leather.

       He stood always in front of the fireplace, with his face toward the door of entrance. The visitor was conducted to him, and he required to have the name so distinctly pronounced that he could hear it. He had the very uncommon faculty of associating a man's name and personal appearance so durably in his memory, as to be able to call anyone by name who made a second visit.

       He received his visitor with a dignified bow, while his hands were so disposed of as to indicate that the salutation was not to be accompanied with shaking hands. This ceremony never occurred in these visits, even with his most near friends, that no distinction might be made.

       As these visitors came in they formed a circle around the room. At a quarter-past three, the door was closed and the circle was formed for that day. He then began on the right and spoke to each visitor, calling him by name and exchanging a few words with him. When he had completed his circuit, he resumed his first position, and the visitors approached him in succession, bowed and retired. By four o'clock the ceremony was over.

       On the evenings Mrs. Washington received visitors, he did not consider himself as visited. He was then as a private gentleman, dressed usually in some colored coat and waistcoat, often brown with bright buttons, and black on his lower limbs. He had then neither hat nor sword; he moved about among the company conversing with one and another. He had once a fortnight an official dinner, and select companies on other days. He sat,it is said, at the side in a central position, Mrs. Washington opposite; the two ends were occupied by members of his family, or by personal friends. by William Sullivan.

The Real Martha Washington.

• What to See
• Virtual Tour of Mount Vernon 

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

       Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now, we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation - or any nation so conceived and so established - can long endure.

       We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting- place of those who have given their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

       But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add to or to detract. The world will very little note nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here.

       It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here, to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from those honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 

Young students recite the Gettysburg Address.

Lincoln

 Lincoln

With life unsullied from his youth,

He meekly took the ruler's rod,

And, wielding it in love and truth.

He lived, the noblest work of God.

He knew no fierce, unbalanced zeal.

That spurns all human differings.

Nor craven fear that shuns the steel

That carves the way to better things.

And in the night of blood and grief,

When horror rested on the ark,

His was the calm, undimmed belief

That felt God's presence in the dark;

Full well he knew each wandering star.

That once had decked the azure dome

Would tremble through the clouds of War,

And, like a prodigal, come home.

He perished ere the angel Peace

Had rolled war's curtains from the sky.

But he shall live when wars shall cease -

The good and great can never die;

For though his heart lies cold and still

We feel its beatings warm and grand.

And still his spirit pulses thrill

Through all the councils of the land.

Oh, for the hosts that sleep to-day.

Lulled by the sound of Southern waves;

The sun that lit them in the fray

Now warms the flowers upon their graves-

Sweet flowers that speak like words of love

Between the forms of friend and foe,

Perchance their spirits meet above,

Who crossed their battle-blades below.

Farewell, Address To His Officers

1st pupil --

       This took place March 15, 1783. In the midst of his reading - for he addressed his officers by aid of a manuscript - Washington made a short pause, took out his spectacles, and begged the indulgence of the audience while he adjusted them, at the same time observing:

       "Gentlemen, I have grown gray in your service, and now find that I am growing blind."

       An eye-witness speaks of the act as being "so natural, so unaffected, as to render it superior to the most studied oratory! It found its way to every heart, and you could see sensibility moisten every eye!"

2nd pupil --

       The speech, by James Otis, against the "Stamp Act," fully illustrates the feeling prevalent against it: "England may as well dam up the waters of the Nile with bulrushes as to fetter the step of freedom, proud, and firm in this youthful land. Arbitrary principles, like those against which we now contend, have cost one king of England his life - another his crown - and they may yet cost a third his most flourishing colonies.

       "We are two millions, one-fifth fighting men. We call no man, Master!

       "Some have sneeringly asked: 'Are the Americans too poor to pay a few pounds on stamped paper?' No! America, thanks to God and herself, is rich. But the right to take ten pounds implies the right to take a thousand.

       "Others, in sentimental style, talk of the immense debt of gratitude which we owe to England. And what is the amount of this debt.  We plunged into the wave, with the great charter of freedom in our teeth, because the fagot and the torch were behind us. We owe nothing to the kind succor of the Mother Country - Tyranny drove us from her, to the pelting storms which invigorated our helpless infancy."

       The Act was passed by the British Parliament, March 22, 1765 - but was the occasion of so much excitement, overt resistance, and such violent protests, that it was repealed the following year, and a little later a "Bill of Indemnity" was passed for the benefit of those who had incurred its penalties.

3rd pupil --

       As indicative of the spirit of the times in which Washington lived, the following extract from Webster's ''Supposed Speech of John Adams on the Declaration of Independence" may be an illustration:

       "Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's a Divinity that shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest, for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till Independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the Declaration? If we postpone independence, do we mean to carry on or give up the war? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we ourselves shall be ground to powder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We never shall submit. The war must go on. We must fight it through. And if the war must go on, why put off longer the Declaration of Independence? That measure will strengthen us. It will give us character abroad. Sir the Declaration will inspire the people with increased courage. Read this Declaration at the head of the army; every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered to maintain it or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit; religion will approve it and the love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand or fall with it. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there ; let them hear it who first heard the roar of America's cannon; let them see it who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support.

       ''Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure and my whole heart is in it. All that I have and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now here ready to stake upon it - and I leave off as I begun - that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment - independence now; and independence forever."

Tribute To Washington

TRIBUTE TO WASHINGTON.

(Recitation for a Older School Pupil.)

by Eliza Cook

Land of the West! though passing brief the record of thy age,

Thou hast a name that darkens all the world's wide page!

Let all the blasts of fame ring out - thine shall be loudest far;

Let others boast their satellites - thou hast the planet star.

Thou hast a name whose characters of light shall ne'er depart;

'Tis stamped upon the dullest brain, and warms the coldest

heart;

A war cry it for any land where freedom's to be won.

Land of the West! - it stands alone - it is thy Washington.

He fought, but not with love of strife; he struck, but to defend;

And ere he turned a people's foe, he sought to be a friend.

He strove to keep his country's right by Reason's gentle word,

And sighed when fell Injustice threw the challenge - sword to

sword.

He stood the firm, the calm, the wise, the patriot and sage;

He showed no deep avenging hate, no burst of despot rage;

He stood for Liberty and Truth, and dauntlessly led on

Till shouts of victory gave forth the name of Washington.

No car of triumph bore him through a city filled with grief.

No groaning captives at the wheels proclaimed him victor -

chief;

He broke the gyves of slavery with strong and high disdain.

But cast no scepter from the links when he had crushed the

chain.

He saved his land, but did not lay his soldier trappings down

To change them for the regal vest, and don a kingly crown;

Fame was too earnest in her joy, too proud of such a son

To let a robe and title mask a noble WASHINGTON.