Mingled with this favourite pursuit, were the multiplied avocations resulting from the high office he had lately filled. He was engaged in an extensive correspondence with the friends most dear to his heart--the foreign and American officers who had served under him during the late war--and with almost every conspicuous political personage of his own, and with many of other countries. Literary men also were desirous of obtaining his approbation of their works, and his attention was solicited to every production of American genius. His countrymen who were about to travel, were anxious to receive from the first citizen of this rising republic, some testimonial of their worth; and all those strangers of distinction who visited this newly created empire, were ambitious of being presented to its founder. Among those who were drawn across the Atlantic by curiosity, and perhaps by a desire to observe the progress of the popular governments which were instituted in this new world, was Mrs. Macauley Graham. By the principles contained in her History of the Stuarts, this lady had acquired much reputation in republican America, and by all was received with marked attention. For the sole purpose of paying her respects to a person whose fame had spread over Europe, she paid a visit to Mount Vernon; and, if her letters may be credited, the exalted opinion she had formed of its proprietor, was "not diminished by a personal acquaintance with him." To these occupations, which were calculated to gratify an intelligent mind, or which derived a value from the indulgence they afforded to the feelings of the heart, others were unavoidably added, in the composition of which, no palatable ingredient was intermixed. Of these unwelcome intrusions upon his time, General Washington thus complained to an intimate military friend. "It is not, my dear sir, the letters of my friends which give me trouble, or add aught to my perplexity. I receive them with pleasure, and pay as much attention to them as my avocations will permit. It is references to old matters with which I have nothing to do--applications which oftentimes can not be complied with--inquiries, to satisfy which would employ the pen of a historian--letters of compliment, as unmeaning perhaps as they are troublesome, but which must be attended to; and the common-place business--which employ my pen and my time often disagreeably. Indeed, these, with company, deprive me of exercise; and, unless I can obtain relief, must be productive of disagreeable consequences. Already I begin to feel their effects. Heavy and painful oppressions of the head, and other disagreeable sensations often trouble me. I am determined therefore to employ some person who shall ease me of the _drudgery_ of this business. At any rate, if the whole of it is thereby suspended, I am determined to use exercise. My private affairs also require infinitely more attention than I have given, or can give them, under present circumstances.