WASHINGTON 



620S 



WASHINGTON 



From the cares of a Virginia landlord his at- 

 tention was soon distracted in 1798 by rumors 

 of war with France. Reluctantly he accepted 

 appointment as Commander-in-chief of the pro- 

 visional army, and for many months busied 

 himself with the details of organizing this new 

 force. When the danger was past he returned 

 to his usual round of duties at Mount Vernon. 

 There, on December 12, 1799, he was exposed 

 in the saddle for several hours to cold and 

 snow, with the result that he had an attack of 

 acute laryngitis. The disease was a simple one, 

 but according to the methods of the time the 

 chief remedy, which was useless, was bleeding. 

 The physicians called it quinsy, bilt in fact 

 Washington was being slowly strangled to 

 death by the closing of his throat. His suffer- 

 ings were acute, but he bore them quietly, gave 

 his last instructions clearly and concisely, and 

 at the very moment of death was taking his 

 own pulse. About ten o'clock on the last day 

 of the last month of the old century, December 

 31, 1799, he passed away. 



The news of his death caused mourning in 

 Europe as in America. The armies of Napo- 

 leon and the fleets of England alike paid honor 

 to his memory. And the tribute of his old 

 friend "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, was almost 

 worth dying for: 



First in war, first in peace, and first in the 

 hearts of his countrymen. 



He was buried in the family vault at Mount 

 Vernon, where three years later Martha Wash- 

 ington was laid to rest beside him. W.F.Z. 



Consult Lodge's 

 George Washing- 

 ton ; Carrington's 

 Washington, the 

 Soldier; Rush's 

 Washington in 

 Domestic Life; 

 Irving's Life of 

 Washington. 



WASHING- 

 TON, MARTHA 

 (1732-1802), the 

 wife of George 

 Washington and 

 the daughter of a 

 wealthy planter, 

 John Dandridge, 

 was born in New 



MARTHA WASHINGTON 



Kent County, Va., in May, 1732. At the age 

 of seventeen she was married to Daniel Parke 

 Custis, and in 1759 to Washington. No children 

 were born to them, but the son of her son by 

 her first husband was adopted by Washington, 



and bore the name of George Washington Parke 

 Custis. During the war she aided the American 

 soldiers in every way possible, and when Wash- 

 ington became President she made a charming 

 and extremely popular hostess. The courtesy 

 title of "Lady Washington" was bestowed on 

 her by general consent. After her husband's 

 death she lived at Mount Vernon for the three 

 remaining years of her life. 



WASHINGTON, PA., a borough and the 

 county seat of Washington County, located in 

 the southwest corner of the state, thirty-two 

 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, with which it is 

 connected by an interurban line, and fifteen 

 miles east of the West Virginia boundary line. 

 Railroads entering the borough are the Pitts- 

 burgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & Saint Louis, the 

 Baltimore & Ohio and the Waynesburg & 

 Washington. The population increased from 

 18,778 in 1910 to 21,618 in 1916 (Federal esti- 

 mate). 



The educational institutions of the place in- 

 clude Washington & Jefferson College, Trinity 

 Hall, a military school, and Washington Female 

 Seminary. Features of note are a Federal 

 building, completed in 1906 at a cost of $60,- 

 000, a courthouse, costing $1,000,000, a public 

 library, two hospitals, a sanatorium and Wash- 

 ington and College parks. Oil wells and coal 

 mines are the natural wealth of the section, and 

 in the town there are manufactories of glass, 

 tin plate, window glass, clay pottery, tubing, 

 baby carriages and foundry and machine-shop 

 products. The settlement, first called Basset- 

 town, received the name of Washington in 1784. 

 It was incorporated as a township in 1810, and 

 became a borough in 1852. Washington is in 

 the section where occurred the Whisky Insur- 

 rection (which see) in 1794. C.M.K. 



WASHINGTON, TREATY OF, a treaty entered 

 into by the United States and Great Britain 

 in 1871, which provided a means for the amica- 

 ble adjustment of the Alabama Claims, the 

 Northwest boundary controversy and conflict- 

 ing fishing rights in the Pacific. The commis- 

 sion, which consisted of five representatives of 

 the United States and an equal number from 

 Great Britain, met at Washington, D. C., on 

 May 8, and held thirty-eight sessions. The 

 treaty, which was proclaimed on July 4, re- 

 ferred the Alabama Claims to a special court 

 to be assembled at Geneva (see ALABAMA, THE ; 

 GENEVA ARBITRATION). The troublesome North- 

 western fishery dispute was referred to a mixed 

 commission, and the dispute with regard to 

 the Northwestern boundary was submitted to 



