VI.

charged with all the faithfulness and assiduity of a father, CHAPTER till the son became of age, and till the daughter died in her nineteenth year. This union was in every respect

1759.

Mrs. Wash

felicitous. It continued forty years. To her intimate ac- Character of quaintances and to the nation, the character of Mrs. Wash- ington. ington was ever a theme of praise. Affable and courteous, exemplary in her deportment, remarkable for her deeds of charity and piety, unostentatious and without vanity, she adorned by her domestic virtues the sphere of private life, and filled with dignity every station in which she was placed.*

While engaged in the last campaign, Colonel Washington had been elected a representative to the House of Burgesses, in Virginia, from Frederic County. Having determined to quit the military line, and being yet inclined to serve his country in a civil capacity, this choice of the people was peculiarly gratifying to him. As this was the first time he had been proposed for the popular suffrages, his friends urged him to leave the army for a few days, and repair to Winchester, where the election was to be held. But, regarding his duties in the field as cutweighing every other consideration, he remained at his post, and the election was carried without his personal solicitation or influence. There were four candidates, and he was chosen by a large majority over all his competitors. The success was beyond his most sanguine anticipations.

One of his friends wrote to him immediately after the polls were closed; "The punctual discharge of every trust, your humane and equitable treatment of each individual, and your ardent zeal for the common cause, have gained your point with credit; as your friends could, with the greatest warmth and truth, urge the worth of those noble endowments and principles, as well as your superior interest both here and in the House." Considering the command, which he had been obliged to exercise in Frederic County for near five years, and the restraints which the

* A Memoir of this lady, written by her grandson, G. W. P. Custis, is contained in the first volume of the American Portrait Gallery.

Elected a

member of

the House of

Burgesses.