Today, the Lafayette Commemorative Silver Dollar Coin remembers when the Marquis de Lafayette arrived for a visit on August 4, 1784.
From George Washington at Mount Vernon on the Potomac, To Give a Clearer Idea of the Character of Washington is to Set a Higher Standard for American Patriotism by James Hosmer Penniman, published in 1921:
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In March, 1781, Lafayette, who was carrying on operations in Virginia which resulted in the penning up of Cornwallis at Yorktown, came to Mount Vernon, but he was not entertained there by the General until he returned to America in 1784.
Mrs. General Knox visited Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon in October, 1781, while the siege of Yorktown was in progress.
Her active interest in the sick and wounded made Lady Washington, as the soldiers liked to call her, be loved by the army.
Her only surviving child, John Parke Custis, earned the Gold Service Star when he died near Yorktown of a fever contracted at the siege.
Referring to his death, Washington wrote Lafayette from Mount Vernon, where he had returned for a week in November:
“This unexpected and affecting event threw Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Custis, who were both present, in such deep distress, that the circumstance of it, and a duty I owed the deceased in assisting at his funeral rites, prevented my reaching this place till the 13th.”
During this stay of a week at his home, Washington devoted much time to catching up with the arrears of his correspondence.
Washington resigned his commission at Annapolis, December 23, 1783, and, once more a private citizen, reached Mount Vernon with Mrs. Washington on Christmas eve.
Relatives and friends had gathered to welcome them, and the servants made the night gay with bonfires, fiddling and dancing.
February 1, 1784, Washington wrote Lafayette:
“At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on the banks of Potomac, and under the shadow of my own vine and my own fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp and the busy scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil enjoyments, of which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame, the statesman, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the ruin of other countries, as if this globe was insufficient for us all, and the courtier, who is always watching the countenance of his prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile can have very little conception.”
They were so fast locked in snow and ice after Christmas that it was not until February 11th Washington was able to go to Fredericksburg to visit his mother; he returned the 19th.
April 12th Luzerne, the French minister, who was spending several days at Mount Vernon, wrote of Washington:
“He dresses in a gray coat like a Virginia farmer, and nothing about him recalls the recollection of the important part which he has played, except the great number of foreigners who come to see him.”
Lafayette arrived in New York from France August 4, 1784, and reached Mount Vernon August 17th, where he remained twelve days.
November 14th Washington went to Richmond, met Lafayette there, and the Marquis returned to Mount Vernon for a second visit of a week.
November 29th Washington and Lafayette went to Annapolis, where he bade a final farewell to the Marquis.
The years from 1784 to 1789 Washington called his furlough.
Brissot de Warville, who visited Mount Vernon in 1788, wrote:
“Everything has an air of simplicity in his house, his table is good, but not ostentatious, and no deviation is seen from regularity and domestic economy.
Mrs. Washington superintends the whole, and joins to the qualities of an excellent housewife that simple dignity which ought to characterize a woman whose husband has acted the greatest part on the theatre of human affairs; while she possesses that amenity, and manifests that attention to strangers, which renders hospitality so charming.”
Thomas Lee Shippen wrote from Mount Vernon:
“Mrs. Washington is the very essence of kindness. Her soul seems to overflow with it like the most abundant fountain and her happiness is in exact proportion to the number of objects upon which she can dispense her benefits.”
More than half of the forty-six years of Washington’s ownership of Mount Vernon was spent in the public service.
In 1798, near the end of his life, he wrote:
“Twenty-five years have passed away since I have considered myself a permanent resident beneath my own roof at Mount Vernon.”
During the Revolution Washington was always looking forward to the time when he could return to his beloved home. He wrote his wife:
“I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad if my stay were to be seven times seven years.”
When it became probable that he would be chosen first President of the United States, he wrote John Armstrong, April 25, 1788:
“I well remember the observation you made in your letter to me of last year, ‘that my domestic retirement must suffer an interruption.’ This took place, notwithstanding it was utterly repugnant to my feelings, my interests, and my wishes. I sacrificed every private consideration, and personal enjoyment, to the earnest and pressing solicitations of those, who saw and knew the alarming situation of our public concerns, and had no other end in view but to promote the interests of their country; conceiving that under those circumstances, and at so critical a moment, an absolute refusal to act might on my part be construed as a total disregard of my country, if imputed to no worse motives. I am so wedded to a state of retirement, and find the occupations of a rural life so congenial with my feelings that to be drawn into public at my advanced age would be a sacrifice, that would admit of no compensation.”
When he was leaving to be inaugurated at New York, Washington wrote, April 16, 1789:
“I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity.”
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The Lafayette Commemorative Silver Dollar Coin shows with an artist’s image of the Marquis visiting Washington at Mount Vernon.
Coin images courtesy of Wikipedia and Lost Dutchman Rare Coins.
