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TOBIAS LEAR, PRIVATE SECRETARY TO WASHINGTON.
From the original miniature owned by his granddaughter, Mrs. Susan Lear Eyre, of Philadelphia.
THE LAST DAYS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON.
FROM THE MANUSCRIPT DIARY OF HIS PRIVATE SECRETARY,
COLONEL TOBIAS LEAR.
{{right|Saturday, December 14, 1799.
THIS day being marked by an event which will be memorable in the history of America, and perhaps of the world, I shall give a particular statement of it, to which I was an eyewitness.
THE LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH OF
GENERAL WASHINGTON.
On Thursday, December 12th, the General rode out to his farms about ten o'clock, and did not return home till past three.
Soon after he went out the weather became very bad, rain, hail, and snow falling alternately, with a cold wind.
When he came in I carried some letters to him to frank, intending to send them to the post-office in the evening. He franked the letters; but said the weather was too bad to send a servant to the office that evening.
I observed to him that I was afraid he had got wet; he said no, his great coat had kept him dry; but his neck appeared to be wet, and the snow was hanging upon his hair. He came to dinner (which had been waiting for him) without changing his dress. In the evening he appeared as well as usual.
A heavy fall of snow took place on Friday, which prevented the General from riding out as usual. He had taken cold
Editor's Note—Tobias Lear was born at Portsmouth, N. H., September 19, 1762, and died at Washington, D. C, October 11, 1816. He graduated at Harvard University in 1783, and in 1785 became private secretary to General Washington. In 1802 he was appointed consul general at Santo Domingo, and in 1804 consul general at Algiers. In 1805 he negotiated a treaty of peace with Tripoli. Colonel Lear was greatly trusted by Washington, and his account of Washington's last days is the one on which all of the important biographers have depended; but it has rarely, if ever, been published in full. It is printed here from the original manuscript, now in the possession of a near relative of Mrs. Lear. This manuscript has been generally supposed to be lost.
