Washington returned during the "Quasi-War," a national emergency in 1798. When trade disputes threatened a conflict with France, President Adams made preparations for war, including the creation of a provisional army of 20,000 fighting men. In July 1798 Adams dispatched Secretary of War James McHenry to Mount Vernon to implore Washington to take command of the army.

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Washington immediately accepted the appointment on the condition that he could remain at Mount Vernon until the French actually threatened to invade. That was acceptable to Adams, and probably not unanticipated. Washington did travel to Philadelphia on November 5, however, for planning meetings with McHenry. He did not return to Mount Vernon until just before Christmas 1798. Shortly after Washington left Philadelphia, Adams, who once had said that he thought the prospect of seeing the French army in America was about as great as seeing it in Heaven, announced a diplomatic mission to France to seek a peaceful solution to the imbroglio. The sense of crisis swiftly diminished in 1799, and Washington's interest once again turned to farming and business.

It was a busy time for Washington. He took an inventory of his work force, which included 317 slaves. Many were dower slaves, but he held clear, legal title to more than 200 chattel. Then he prepared a new will, terminating the one he had drawn up on the eve of the War of Independence. He bequeathed the use of his estate to his wife. He also awarded Martha all of the mansion's furnishings, property in Alexandria, and the profits from the sales of his land and businesses. He deeded Mount Vernon to Bushrod Washington, his nephew, whom Adams had recently appointed to the United States Supreme Court. He allocated his remaining possessions to nearly 40 people, including approximately 9,000 acres that was to be divided among more than 20 relatives. He gave his Potomac Company stock to a university planned for the Federal District. Finally, he decreed that Billy Lee–his body servant throughout the war–be manumitted and awarded an annual pension of $30 immediately upon his owner's death. The remainder of the slaves were to be freed upon his death, or Martha's should she survive him.

Washington remained in such excellent health, however, that he began to plan another arduous trip for the spring of 1800 to inspect his frontier properties in the vicinity of present-day Charleston, West Virginia. In fact, when illness first invaded the mansion in 1799, it was Martha who collapsed and was briefly thought to be at death's door. A physician diagnosed her malady as an "Ague & fever" and treated her with quinine. Subsequently describing herself as "so very sick," Martha was incapacitated from August into October.

While she was recuperating, Washington learned of the death of his last surviving brother, Charles. Not one male in the family had lived to be 70. Nevertheless, Washington, now approaching his sixty-eighth birthday, appears to have been lighthearted that autumn and was thrilled when word arrived that Nelly had safely given birth to her first child on November 27. Washington was busy and looking toward the future. He drafted a four-year plan of operations at Mount Vernon and, in a letter written on the last day that he enjoyed good health, urged Alexander Hamilton, his aide-de-camp during the War of Independence and later his Secretary of the Treasury, to work for the establishment of a national military academy.

Washington wrote that letter on December 12, at the end of a long, cold day that he had spent out-of-doors. He had ridden out in mid-morning under heavy, gray skies. Around noon snow began to fall. Later, the snow turned to sleet, and still later to a cold rain. Washington remained outside for more than five hours, and according to Tobias Lear, his secretary, did not change out of his wet clothes or dry his hair when he returned home.

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.

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