It was also a consideration of some importance, that the high rank he had held in the American army, would obviate those difficulties in filling the inferior grades with men of experience, which might certainly be expected, should a person who had acted in a less elevated station, be selected for the chief command.
[Illustration: Tomb of Mary, Mother of Washington _This is the original monument as it appeared before the present granite obelisk was erected over the grave of George Washington's mother in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

It was in Fredericksburg that she made her home during her declining years, and it was on the Kenmore estate of her daughter, Elizabeth, and son-in-law, Fielding Lewis, that she was buried, September, 1789, having survived her husband, Augustine Washington, forty-six years._] [Sidenote: The president makes a tour through the southern states.] After making the necessary arrangements for recruiting the army, the President prepared to make his long contemplated tour through the southern states.[53] In passing through them, he was received universally with the same marks of affectionate attachment, which he had experienced in the northern and central parts of the union.

To the sensibilities which these demonstrations of the regard and esteem of good men could not fail to inspire, was added the high gratification produced by observing the rapid improvements of the country, and the advances made by the government, in acquiring the confidence of the people.

The numerous letters written by him after his return to Philadelphia, attest the agreeable impressions made by these causes.
"In my late tour through the southern states," said he, in a letter of the 28th of July, to Mr.Gouverneur Morris, "I experienced great satisfaction in seeing the good effects of the general government in that part of the union.

The people at large have felt the security which it gives, and the equal justice which it administers to them.
The farmer, the merchant, and the mechanic, have seen their several interests attended to, and from thence they unite in placing a confidence in their representatives, as well as in those in whose hands the execution of the laws is placed.