To his friend and physician, Doctor Craik, who sat on his bed, and took his head in his lap, he said with difficulty, "Doctor, I am dying, and have been dying for a long time, but I am not afraid to die." During the short period of his illness he economized his time, in arranging with the utmost serenity those few concerns which required his attention; and anticipated his approaching dissolution with every demonstration of that equanimity, for which his life was so uniformly, and singularly, conspicuous.
The deep and wide spreading grief occasioned by this melancholy event, assembled a great concourse of people for the purpose of paying the last tribute of respect to the first of Americans.

His body, attended by military honours and the ceremonies of religion, was deposited in the family vault at Mount Vernon, on Wednesday, the 18th of December.
So short was his illness that, at the seat of government, the intelligence of his death preceded that of his indisposition.

It was first communicated by a passenger in the stage to an acquaintance whom he met in the street, and the report quickly reached the house of representatives which was then in session.

The utmost dismay and affliction was displayed for a few minutes; after which a member stated in his place, the melancholy information which had been received.

This information he said was not certain, but there was too much reason to believe it true.
"After receiving intelligence," he added, "of a national calamity so heavy and afflicting, the house of representatives can be but ill fitted for public business." He therefore moved an adjournment.