ET. 43.] WASHINGTON'S RECEPTION IN NEW ENGLAND. 583 fested by the people; and the progress of the cavalcade was a continuous ovation. 66 On the morning of the second of July, Washington and his attendants reached Watertown, where a large concourse of people were assembled, to greet and welcome the eminent Virginian. James Warren, of Plymouth, to whom his Excellency had been referred by the Massachusetts delegation in the continental Congress, as a judicious, confidential friend, who would never deceive him,"* was president of the provincial Congress in session there, and in the name of that body, he presented to Washington a congratulatory address, expressive of their esteem, and strong assurances of their "aid and support to enable him to discharge the duties of his arduous and exalted station." To this Washington replied: "Gentlemen, your kind congratulations on my appointment and arrival, demand my warmest acknowledgments, and will ever be retained in grateful remembrance. In exchanging the enjoyments. of domestic life for the duties of my present honorable but arduous station, I only emulate the virtue and public spirit of the whole province of Massachusetts Bay, which, with a firmness and patriotism without example in modern history, has sacrified all the comforts of social and political life in support of the rights of mankind and the welfare of our common country. My highest ambition is to be the happy instrument of vindicating those rights, and to see this devoted province again restored to peace, liberty, and safety." He then referred to the weak state of the army, alluded to in the address of the president, and added, "Whatever deficiencies there may be, will, I doubt not, soon be made up by the activity and zeal of the officers, and the docility and obedience of the men. These qualities, united with their native bravery and spirit, will afford a happy presage of success, and put a final period to those distresses which now overwhelm this once happy country." When these ceremonies were ended, Washington resumed his journey, escorted by a troop of light-horse, and a large company Mercy Warren's "History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination, of the American Revolution." † General Lee was also honored with an address of welcome. of mounted citizens, and at two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, he arrived at the headquarters of the army at Cambridge, amid the shouts of a great multitude of citizens and soldiers, the clangor of bells, the strains of martial music, and the waving of banners. The musket and the cannon were silent on that occasion, because the provincial Congress had prudently given such orders for " their honorable reception as might accord with the rules and circumstances of the army, and the respect due to their rank, without, however, any expense of powder, and without taking the troops from the necessary attention to their duty at this crisis of our affairs." Washington was then escorted to the house which had been lately occupied partly by President Warren, and partly by a regiment from Marblehead, and had been fitted up by order of the provincial Congress, as permanent headquarters for the commander-in-chief, and the temporary residence of General Lee.* *This dwelling, known as the "Cragie House," is yet perfectly preserved, and is the residence of Professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the eminent American poet. It stands a little back from the street, which was once the highway from Harvard university to Waltham. At this mansion, and at Winter Hill, Washington passed most of his time, after taking command of the Continental army, until the evacuation of Boston by the British, the following spring. |