A mere one hundred miles away at Mount Vernon, however, John Washington, Jr., coldly delivered a different opinion. On learning that the Ladies’ Association had been chartered, Washington quickly withdrew Mount Vernon from sale. His reasoning has never been determined, though a number of speculations have been made. He may have disliked the idea of turning the property over to a group of women or disagreed with the provisions of the charter. Always fearful that Mount Vernon would fall into unworthy hands, he may have believed the charter too loosely constructed.

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If the latter were the case, he need not have worried. The charter rested on a fail-safe plan. It stated that the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association had indeed already begun raising funds through public subscription to purchase the estate, and that they would turn a large part of the money over to the care of the Commonwealth of Virginia, whose governor would then approach Washington to procure a contract. Once signed, that document would bind Washington to transfer the deed to Mount Vernon, along with two hundred acres of land, over to the care of the Ladies’ Association, which would remain under the state’s supervision. The governor would pay Washington $200,000 from the funds collected by the ladies for formal possession of the house and property. Should the association be unable to maintain the estate, the Commonwealth would take charge of the operation.

As the public learned that Mount Vernon was not for sale, donations rapidly diminished. Other less spirited individuals would have abandoned the fight to preserve the house; Ann Cunningham, however, refused to give way. The following June, she boldly made arrangements to see Washington personally.

During the summer of 1856, Ann journeyed down the Potomac on a steamboat to Mount Vernon. Lacking the strength to walk from the dock up the hill to the mansion, she arranged to be carried up in a chair. Mr. Washington received her courteously but remained unreceptive to her plans. According to her account of the meeting, written a decade later, Ann told Washington that “it was leap-year, woman was bound to have her way, he might resist with all his might, but I knew I was to be the victor, and must counsel him to follow the example of his illustrious ancestor, who never acted upon a grave affair without having slept on it.”

Having suffered a number of personal attacks on his character for refusing to sell Mount Vernon, Washington’s resolve had hardened to the point where neither additional sleep nor thinking would lead him to change his mind. Ann, unaware of this as she approached Washington just before climbing into her carriage to leave Mount Vernon, expressed her heartfelt regret at how the public was treating him. Remembering the scene, she wrote, “I looked up to him as I said this. What a change in his face! Unawares, I had at last touched the sore spot, the obstacle no money could have removed. I now found that he believed the whole thing had been arranged between the Association and Virginia to put an indignity upon him!!”

Now that both parties understood the situation, tension eased considerably. Washington still tried to bypass the Ladies’ Association and sell the property directly to either the federal or state government, but he continued to have no success.

By 1858, Mount Vernon was on the brink of ruin. Washington must have realized the hopelessness of his situation, for on March 14 Ann received a letter from him in which he considered turning the mansion and a large portion of land over to the care of the Ladies’ Association. In a cold, formal tone he wrote, “Under the circumstances, and believing that after the two highest powers in the country [the federal and state governments], the women of the land will probably be the safest, as they will certainly be the purest, guardians of a national shrine, I am willing so far to comply with your request as to await for a reasonably limited period of time the propositions you may wish to make to me on behalf of the Association over which you preside.”

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