Throughout his retirement, Washington entertained local friends, former official associates, and strangers who wished to converse and see the first president, the Revolutionary War hero, and founder of the nation.

He was appointed by his successor as president, John Adams, on July 2, 1798, as Lieutenant General and Commander of America's newly-augmented army.

Washington insisted for active command to be vested in Alexander Hamilton, whom Adams appointed Major General and Inspector of the Armies.

[3] Washington's will was meant to be an act of atonement for a lifetime spent in human exploitation, and he hoped it would serve as an example to other slaveholders and hasten the end of American slavery.

Washington served in the Virginia militia, was appointed Lieutenant Colonel and was British General Edward Braddock's aide-de-camp during the French and Indian War.

The dispute with France over Washington's alliance with Great Britain in the Jay Treaty had not been settled, and the country was on the verge of the Quasi-War.

Washington attended Adams's presidential inauguration on March 4, 1797, in Philadelphia and read aloud his final brief "farewell address."

[7] Before his departure, Washington sold and gave away his belongings, including a writing desk that contained love letters from his wife, Martha.

[8] Although no one dared to challenge Washington for the presidency, his reputation, during the second half of this second term in office was under scrutiny of the Republican Party, which had been founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

Pro-French Republican editorials accused Washington of being a "tyrannical monster," and his lauded Farewell Address was castigated "the loathings of a sick mind."

He diligently put to work carpenters, masons, and painters to fix the buildings and the mansion house while he made efforts to rehabilitate his farmlands.

At 7:00, Washington ate a meal of cornbread, butter, and honey that was easy to eat and reduced the pain that he suffered from ill-fitting dentures and swollen gums.

After the meal, Washington showed his medals; prints of war battles by John Trumbull; and a key of the Bastille, a relic of the French Revolution that had been given to him by Lafayette.

In March 1798, Washington agreed with a negative assessment that Jefferson was "one of the most artful, intriguing, industrious and double-faced politicians in America.

He wrote to Lafayette that "a party exists in the United States, formed by a combination of causes, who oppose the government in all its measures, and are determined (as all their conduct evinces) by clogging its wheels, indirectly to change the nature of it, and to subvert the Constitution."

Washington also foolhardily endorsed John Adams's Federalist Alien and Sedition Acts, which were passed by Congress to quell the incendiary Republicans.

Six days into his first term, the French Revolution plunged Europe into war, between France and Britain, and President Washington and his administration chose to remain neutral.

Matters became more complicated when Washington signed the Jay Treaty in 1794 during his second term, which formalised commercial and diplomatic reproachment with Britain.

On July 11, 1798, Secretary of State James McHenry, who personally traveled to Mount Vernon, presented Washington with a letter and commission from Adams, which had been approved by Congress.

[3] Since the Revolutionary War, Washington was troubled by slavery and had for some time been contemplating freeing his slaves and reducing the size of his plantation.

[27] Washington's elderly valet-shoemaker slave William Lee was freed outright for his "faithful services during the Revolutionary War.

On December 12, 1799, a severe storm passed over Mount Vernon and the surrounding region that deposited heavy snow, sleet, and hail.

"[30] The following day, at 3:00 a.m. on December 14, Washington woke up and was acutely ill, with his speaking voice barely audible, and he had extreme difficulty breathing.

[31] Dr. James Craik, Washington's personal physician, and two other doctors, Dr. Gustavus Richard Brown and Dr. Elisha C. Dick, were called to Mount Vernon.

Washington's condition rapidly worsened while his doctors purged or bled him and administered various standard medical procedures of the time, all of which had no positive effect to help their dying patient.

Seeing the gravity of the situation, Dick, the youngest of the three consulting doctors, recommended a tracheotomy to allow air into Washington's lungs and save the patient's life, but the two senior physicians refused to have the fairly-new surgical procedure performed.

Both senior physicians diagnosed Washington's fatal illness as quinsey or cynanche tracheal, but Dick thought that the condition was a more serious "violent inflammation of the throat.

A Masonic apron and Washington's sword adorned his coffin, and his trusted horse was led by two slaves in black attire as it passed in front of his body.

A week later, the procession was led by a trumpeter and started from Congressional Hall, leading through the streets of Philadelphia and ending at a German Lutheran Church.

The Library facility is 45,000 square feet and contains Washington's books, manuscripts, newspapers, and documents and also is a scholarly retreat and place of education.