"
It was not a time for much talking, and Washington was soon gone,
leaving real sorrow behind him. Within a few weeks he had resigned his
commission as commander-in-chief, and had retired as a private citizen
to his home at Mount Vernon.
The city of New York was in quite a deplorable state. The wide tract
swept by the fire of 1776 still lay in blackened ruins. No effort had
been made to rebuild except where temporary wooden huts had been set
up by the soldiers. The churches, all of which had been used for one
purpose or another, were dismantled, blackened, and marred. There was
scarcely a house in all the little town that had not been ill-used
by the soldiers. Fences were down, and the streets were filled with
rubbish. It was a city stricken with premature decay. Business life
was dead, and would have to be begun all over again. The citizens were
divided against themselves. Feuds existed everywhere. Patriots who had
fled and had now come back felt a deep bitterness against those who had
adopted the royal cause for the purpose of keeping possession of their
property. These, however, complained just as bitterly because now their
homes were taken from them in the adjustment.
King's College, of which you have been told, had been closed all during
the war, and had been used as a hospital.
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