Morris, who was now engaged in grand
projects which were eventually to bring him to a debtor's prison, declined
the position but strongly recommended Hamilton. This suggestion proved
very acceptable to Washington, who was well aware of Hamilton's capacity.
The thorny question of etiquette was the next matter to receive
Washington's attention. Personally he favored the easy hospitality to
which he was accustomed in Virginia, but he knew quite well that his own
taste ought not to be decisive. The forms that he might adopt would become
precedents, and hence action should be taken cautiously. Washington was a
methodical man. He had a well-balanced nature which was never disturbed by
timidity of any kind and rarely by anxiety. His anger was strong when it
was excited, but his ordinary disposition was one of massive equanimity.
He was not imaginative, but he took things as they came, and did what the
occasion demanded. In crises that did not admit of deliberation, his
instinctive courage guided his behavior, but such crises belong to
military experience, and in civil life careful deliberation was his rule.
It was his practice to read important documents pen in hand to note the
points.
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