Mount Vernon: Estate of George Washington

Weather Vane on Mt. Vernon
"It is better to be alone than in bad company." (GWashington)



The backyard of the Washington home overlooking the Potomac River.
"I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."  George Washington





The front gate to Mount Vernon, home of George Washington.
"Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses." George Washington

 



One of the many gardens on the estate.
"We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience." George Washington

 



Washington was a very progressive farmer.  He designed this threshing barn in two levels.  They would pile the grain on the floor of the first level, allow horses or mules to walk around on the grains causing the wheat kernals to fall through the floor to the second level to be harvested while most of the chaff was left on the first floor.
"Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse." George Washington

 


Lower farmland and threshing barn.
"True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation."  George Washington




Door handle to the Washington burial structure where General Washington was originally buried.
"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." George Washington



A depiction of the swearing in of  the first President of the United States.
“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”



George Washington as a young man.
“Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”



The handle to the coffin of President Washington. 
"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. "



George Washington wanted to be a farmer.  His remarkable life took him on a different path many times, but part of his greatness was his ability to give up the presidency and return to the life he loved as a farmer.
One of his officers, Henry Lee, summed up contemporary public opinion of Washington: First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.