George Washington: His Final Days

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Washington awoke the following morning with a sore throat. Although he was not especially alarmed, he remained inside most of the day, except for a brief spell when he tagged trees that he wanted to have removed. By nightfall his voice had grown hoarse, but otherwise he felt fine. That evening Washington read the newspaper and listened as Lear read an account of recent debates in the Virginia assembly. He was in good spirits when he retired around 10:00 p.m.

When Washington awoke about four or five hours later, his breathing was labored, and he felt desperately ill. He roused Martha, but would not permit her to summon a physician. By dawn, his condition had further deteriorated. Unable to swallow and barely able to breathe, Washington asked Martha to send for an overseer who treated his slaves and was experienced in bleeding, a standard medical remedy of the time. Meanwhile, Lear sent for Dr. James Craik, who lived nearby and had attended Washington for more than 40 years.

The overseer arrived at 7:30 a.m. and drew off a half-pint of Washington’s blood in the useless and dangerous procedure. When Craik arrived he diagnosed Washington’s malady as quinsy, or a peritonsillar abscess. There is a greater likelihood that Washington had been struck down by a streptococcus infection, an ailment that results in asphyxia as the swelling about the glottis inhibits breathing. Craik may have been mistaken in his diagnosis, but he appreciated the seriousness of his patient’s condition and immediately sent for Dr. Gustavus Richard Brown of Port Tobacco and Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick of nearby Alexandria, hoping that one of the doctors would arrive while there was still time to save Washington.

Both physicians reached Mount Vernon by mid-afternoon and attempted a variety of expedients. They immersed their patient’s feet in warm water and wrapped his throat with a compress that had been soaked in a medication. Later, they applied a blister (a local irritant) made of cantharides–Spanish fly–and concocted a vaporizer. Washington tried without success to gargle a mixture of molasses, vinegar, and butter prescribed by his doctors. Throughout the day the doctors applied poultices of wheat bran and administered two laxatives. Washington was bled three more times, the last time against the strong objections of Dr. Dick, the youngest of the three doctors and a former apprentice of Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, America’s foremost physician. Instead, Dick proposed a delicate operation to open the trachea below the site of the infection, enabling Washington to breathe. He was outvoted, however, by his colleagues, who viewed surgery as too dangerous and who, perhaps, also feared attempting such a hazardous expedient on their famous patient.

Washington steadily deteriorated. He sat in a chair in front of the fireplace during the morning but returned to bed at about 11:00 a.m., never to arise again. Around 5:00 p.m. Washington, with great difficulty, told all present that he knew he was dying and asked that his doctors do no more. He had been aware of his fate since first awakening in the darkness of early morning, he said. ‘I die hard, but I am not afraid to go,’ he whispered at about 8:00 p.m. For two hours the only sounds were his labored breathing. Then he stirred. ‘I am just going,’ he said to Lear. ‘Have me decently buried, and do not let my body be put into the vault in less than two days after I am dead.’ Martha, Lear, the doctors, and Christopher Sheels, his body servant, stayed with him, listening and watching in anxious silence. At about 10:30 p.m. on December 14, 1799, George Washington, aged 67, drew his final, difficult breath.

The following day, Lear arranged for a coffin to be constructed in Alexandria. Slaves opened and cleaned the family’s modest brick vault, located a few hundred feet from the mansion. Mount Vernon’s female domestic servants worked longer hours than usual, making mourning clothes, baking cakes, preparing punch, and attending the first mourners who descended on the estate. On the clear, cold morning of December 18, slaves placed Washington’s open casket on a wooden bier on the portico above the Potomac River. From noon onward, several hundred guests viewed the body.

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Tags: American History, Historical Figures, Politics