Sixty years later it was still in use, and no one can doubt that it deprived Italy's great statesman of his chance of living.

The premonition of Washington on his first seizure with the quinsy that the end had come proved fatally true.
The news of Washington's death did not reach the capital until Wednesday, December 18th.

The House immediately adjourned.

On the following day, when it reassembled, John Marshall delivered a brief tribute and resolutions were passed to attend the funeral and to pay honor "to the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," The immortal phrase was by Colonel Henry Lee, the father of General Robert E.Lee.

President Adams, in response to a letter from the Senate of the United States, used the less happy phrase, "If a Trajan found a Pliny, a Marcus Aurelius can never want biographers, eulogists, or historians." During the days immediately following Washington's death, preparations were made at Mount Vernon for the funeral.