The Anniversary of George Washington’s Death

On December 14, 1799, George Washington, the first president of the United States dies from pneumonia.

At 10:00 p.m., George Washington died at Mount Vernon, Virginia.   His last words were reported to be: "I feel myself going. I thank you for your attention, but I pray you to take no more trouble about me. Let me go off quietly. I cannot last long." Washington was only sixty-seven years old.

Washington had been so admired by his friends and enemies that even  Napoleon's French armies and the British channel fleet paid respect to his memory after learning of his death.  America mourned for their father for two months.  Americans constantly expressed their sorrow in resolutions of Congress and of State legislatures, in mentions in town meetings, in the pages of newspapers and in hundreds of funeral processions and solemn eulogies in every corner of the nation.