Private Lives of the First Ladies

Martha Washington: The “ways of pleasantness”

Martha Washington writes about the pleasure of returning to domestic life after the termination of the Revolutionary War: “The difficulties, and distresses to which we have been exposed during the war must now be forgotten – we must endevor to let our ways be the ways of pleasantness, and all our paths Peace.” (GLC03909)

Martha Washington’s letter was sent to her close friend Hannah Stockton Boudinot in thanks for the kind words she wrote on the retirement of the Washingtons to their Virginia estate, Mount Vernon. Even though the Revolution’s last major battle took place in October of 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia, the final peace treaty ending the war was not signed by American and British representatives in Paris until September of 1783. Congress finally ratified the Treaty of Paris the day before Martha wrote this letter.

George Washington had remained at the head of the Continental Army after Yorktown. Nine days after the last British forces left New York City, he gave a farewell address to his army at Fraunces Tavern. Washington then resigned his commission in Annapolis, Maryland on December 23. He arrived at his estate late on Christmas Eve to begin his first extended stay there since 1775.

The Washington and Boudinot families were very close. The letters the two couples exchanged all contain affectionate congratulations and expressions of friendship. Their intimate relationship began when Washington asked Boudinot to serve as commissary general of prisoners for the Continental Army in 1777. In this capacity, Boudinot helped free numerous prisoners of war taken by the British, in some cases using his own money to secure their release. He went on to serve as president of the Continental Congress. At about the same time that George Washington arrived in Virginia, Elias Boudinot returned to his law practice in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, ending his lengthy tour of public duty.

In her letter, Martha mentions Susan Boudinot, the only child of Elias and Hannah. Though Martha mentions that Susan was ill at the beginning of 1784, she was well enough in September 1784 to marry Revolutionary War hero William Bradford. He would eventually become the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1791 and George Washington’s attorney general in 1794.