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Famous Americans' Series 
 FOUR GREAT 
 
 American Presidents, No. i 
 
 WASHINGTON,' JEFFERSON, JACKSON, 
 LINCOLN 
 
 A BOOK FOR AMERICAN READERS 
 
 BY 
 
 MISS FRANCES M. PERRY 
 
 Author of " Four Great Americati Pioneers," " Four Great Atnerican 
 Inventors," etc., etc. 
 
 AND 
 
 HENRY W. ELSON 
 
 Author of " Side Lights on American History," " A History 
 of the United States," etc., etc. 
 
 J. M. STRADLING & COIV^PANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 M.AH 15 1907 
 
 A Cooyright Entry 
 
 ^uss A xxc, No. 
 
 COFV B. 
 
 • I 
 .T4-T 
 
 Copyright, 1905, 
 By J. M. STRADLING & COMPANY. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Story of the Father of His Country. 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Boyhood Days 9 
 
 II. Washington's Youth 19 
 
 III. Winning His Spurs 29 
 
 IV. Washington's First Command 39 
 
 V. Washington with General Braddock 47 
 
 VI. Days of Peace 60 
 
 VII. Indignation 68 
 
 VIII. Rebellion 76 
 
 IX. The Struggle for Independence 85 
 
 X. The President 100 
 
 3 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Story of the Author of the Declaration of Independence. 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Celebrating His Twenty-first Birthday in 
 
 II. College Days 120 
 
 III. Practising Law . 129 
 
 IV. The Declaration of Independence 136 
 
 V. Serving Virginia 146 
 
 VI. Minister to France 158 
 
 VII. At Home Once More i73 
 
 VIII. The President 184 
 
 IX. The Sage of Monticello 197 
 
 4 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Story of "Old Hickory.' 
 ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Birth and Boyhood of Andrew Jackson 211 
 
 II. Jackson in the Revoi^ution 214 
 
 III. Journey to the Far West 221 
 
 IV. Wild Life in Tennessee 224 
 
 V. Jackson in Congress 229 
 
 VI. Jackson Becomes a Judge 2^2 
 
 VII. "Old Hickory" 2t,7 
 
 VIII. Fighting Indians 242 
 
 IX. More Indian Fighting 245 
 
 X. A Major General 250 
 
 XI. Battle of New Orleans 254 
 
 XII. Echoes from the Battle . 259 
 
 XIII. Jackson Becomes President 264 
 
 XIV. Jackson as President 269 
 
 XV. Jackson's Old Age 273 
 
 5 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Story of the Martyred President. 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. An Unpromising Start in Life 281 
 
 II. The Indiana Home 287 
 
 III. Rough Schooling 295 
 
 IV. Of Age 304 
 
 V. A Politician 316 
 
 VI. A Lawyer -325 
 
 VII. Political Success 334 
 
 VIII. A Leader 342 
 
 IX. The President 351 
 
 6 
 
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
The Story of the Father of His Country. 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 By miss FRANCES M. PERRY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 BOYHOOD DAYS. 
 
 We like to call George Washington the father 
 of our country. This title must not make us 
 think of him as connected with the early settle- 
 ment of America. Fifty years had passed since 
 the settlement of Jamestown, and Y'^ginia was 
 already a flourishing colony ^Iwh-^^ George 
 Washington's great-grandfather" Crossed the 
 sea to make his home on the western side of 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 He bought an extensive tract of fertile land, 
 lying between the Potomac and the Rappahan- 
 nock rivers. He cleared the forest, ploughed 
 the ground, and cultivated acres of the broad- 
 leaved tobacco, to be shipped to the home 
 
lO GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 country, where it was in great demand and 
 brought a good price. 
 
 On this estate, in a house built near Bridge's 
 Creek, his children and his children's children 
 were born and grew to manhood ; and here, as 
 every schoolboy knows, on February 22, 1732, 
 George Washington was born. 
 
 So, even though the country was still young 
 and undeveloped, Washington enjoyed some 
 of those advantages that we usually think of as 
 belonging only to citizens of older countries. 
 His people were known and respected far and 
 near: and many important planters in that part 
 of the colony were related to his family by ties 
 of blood or marriage. 
 
 Though the Washingtons had prospered, they 
 lived very simply. The old-fashioned wooden 
 farmhouse in which George Washington was 
 born had four rooms on the ground-floor. The 
 roof came down almost to the tops of the doors 
 and windows, in front and rear. 
 
 At the high-gabled ends of the building were 
 great brick chimneys. The old house was un- 
 pretentious, even for that period, but it was dear 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. II 
 
 to the Washington family, for every room in 
 the house, every tree in the garden, had con- 
 nected with it some oft-repeated story in which 
 a favorite aunt, uncle, or cousin figured promi- 
 nently. 
 
 When little George was about three years 
 old, his father, Augustine Washington, moved 
 from their plantation, on Bridge's Creek, to a 
 large estate on the Rappahannock, near the 
 village of Fredericksburg, and it was not until 
 he was eleven years of age that he went back 
 to the home of his ancestors to live once more. 
 
 Augustine Washington was married twice, 
 and George was the first child of his second 
 marriage. George's two half-brothers, Law- 
 rence and Augustine, were well-grown youths 
 when he was born. They took great delight in 
 their little brother, and his younger brothers 
 and sisters never displaced George in their 
 affections. 
 
 They were well-bred, manly boys, and George 
 felt great love and admiration for them. As 
 soon as he was old enough, George was sent to 
 school to one of his father's tenants. This 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
 
 man was named Hobby. He combined with 
 the affairs of schoolmaster that of sexton. He 
 was a man of but little learning. 
 
 Still, people were glad to have him teach their 
 children how to read and write and work out 
 problems in arithmetic, for the little ones were 
 in a fair way to grow up ignorant of even these 
 elementary branches of knowledge. Most of 
 the men who were well educated were in de- 
 mand for other work, and capable schoolmasters 
 were rare in the new country. 
 
 It would not seem strange if George Wash- 
 ington had cared very little for books and the 
 work of the schoolroom when he was a small 
 boy; for his schoolmasters were the men he 
 associated with learning, and they were not the 
 sort of men that he cared to resemble. His 
 father and the men who seemed to him impor- 
 tant he saw more often in the saddle, booted 
 and spurred, than reading books and writing 
 letters. 
 
 Then, too, books and letters and papers were 
 all so rare in that part of the world when he 
 was a boy that they could not seem to him to 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1 3 
 
 be an important element in life. Besides, he 
 was strong and full of energy and spirit, and 
 liked much better to be playing ball or racing 
 over the fields on some half-tamed horse than 
 sitting at a desk writing. 
 
 But however much he disliked school, he 
 worked faithfully and well at his school tasks. 
 He probably would have done so in any cir- 
 cumstance, for he had a great deal of self-con- 
 trol and believed his elders required of him 
 what was for his good. But he had one strong 
 incentive to study that we must not forget. 
 
 In those days the colonists regarded England 
 as the source of nearly all things desirable. 
 From England came the great sailing ships that 
 brought the spinet, the high mahogany dresser, 
 the brass andirons, the tall clock, the brocade 
 gowns, the satin breeches, the silk stockings, the 
 china and silver-ware for the table, the loaves of 
 fine white sugar, the coffee and tea, the carriages 
 and harness, the saddles, whips, pistols and 
 swords — all to be exchanged for bales of 
 tobacco. 
 
 It was from England that the Virginia matron 
 
14 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 procured the fashions for furnishing her house, 
 dressing her hair, and making puddings. It 
 was of the English king and EngHsh statesmen 
 and English writers that Virginia gentlemen 
 talked, and it was to the English universities 
 that the well-to-do Virginia planters sent their 
 sons. 
 
 When George Washington was a little boy, 
 his brother Lawrence was being educated in 
 England. His letters were watched for eagerly, 
 read many times, and discussed with the utmost 
 interest and no small amount of pride by family 
 and friends. When George was eight years old 
 Lawrence came home. 
 
 Tall and handsome, dignified and courteous 
 with his talk of far-away places and interesting 
 people, it is not strange that the elder brother 
 appeared to the younger the very pattern of a 
 gentleman. To be like that one day would be 
 reward enough for hours of adding long col- 
 umns of figures and laboriously copying rules 
 of deportment and right conduct. 
 
 The strong influence of Lawrence Washing- 
 ton on the life of his younger brother was not 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 15 
 
 lessened by his again leaving home. This time 
 he went to war. He had been made captain of 
 a company of Virginia soldiers, and, under 
 Admiral Vernon, acquitted himself gallantly in 
 the campaign against the Spaniards in the West 
 Indies. 
 
 This made him more a hero than ever in the 
 eyes of nine-year-old George, who spent his 
 time acting as captain of a company of school- 
 boys, drilling them or leading violent charges 
 against imaginary Spaniards. After an absence 
 of two years the gallant young captain came 
 home. Preparations were being made for his 
 marriage with the eldest daughter of the honor- 
 able William Fairfax. His marriage was post- 
 poned, however, by the death of his father. 
 j Augustine Washington had been a man of 
 affairs. Besides large farms, well equipped and 
 stocked with valuable cattle, besides chattels and 
 slaves, he left to his sons important interests in 
 I the largest iron works in Virginia. 
 
 His fortune was not divided equally among 
 his children, for in those days it was thought 
 very undesirable to break up a family estate. 
 
l6 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 and, however much the younger children might 
 be loved, it was usually the first-born who on 
 the death of the father took the place at the head 
 of the family and inherited the largest part of 
 the property. 
 
 Accordingly, Lawrence Washington received 
 the lion's share of his father's property, a beauti- 
 ful estate on the Potomac. But his younger 
 brothers were not left portionless. To the 
 namesake and second son, Augustine, was willed 
 the old Bridge's Creek homestead. George 
 was to have the farm on the Rappahannock. 
 
 Mrs. Washinerton was entrusted with the care 
 of her own children and their property till they 
 should become of age. Lawrence and Augus- 
 tine soon married and took possession of their 
 estates. Mrs. Washington was a practical busi- 
 ness-like woman. 
 
 She saw that with her limited income and 
 large family she could not give her sons the 
 educational advantages their half-brothers had 
 enjoyed. George, the eldest must speedily be 
 trained for some occupation which would enable 
 him to better his fortune. 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1 7 
 
 There was a good school now in the Bridge's 
 Creek neighborhood, so, at the age of eleven, 
 George went back to his birthplace to live 
 with his brother Augustine. He attended 
 Mr. Williams' school and worked diligently 
 to acquire business methods. 
 
 He took pains to write a good hand, to master 
 arithmetic, and to learn, by careful and frequent 
 copying, business forms, deeds, bills of lading, 
 and book-keeping. He tried always to be 
 accurate and thorough in his work. He pre- 
 ferred action to study, however, and the sober 
 pains-taking student became an enthusiastic 
 athlete when school hours were over; to work 
 and to sport, in turn, he gave whole-hearted 
 attention. 
 
 The result was that he was relied upon by 
 young and old. His comrades pinned their 
 faith in him in contests in running, swimming, 
 or strength of arm. His elders knew he could 
 be counted upon to execute faithfully the most 
 difficult undertakings. 
 
 This very practical boy was not without his 
 dreams. He wanted to go to sea. His father 
 
1 8 GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
 
 had been a good seaman and had commanded 
 a ship. His brother Lawrence had been a naval 
 officer in the expedition under Admiral Vernon. 
 The boy's idea was not to escape the monotony 
 of school and to seek adventure. He looked 
 upon the navy as the open door to a military 
 life and he was willing to undergo some hard 
 experience as a sailor in order to fit himself for 
 naval service. 
 
 So strong was his desire that he succeeded 
 in persuading others of the wisdom of his plan. 
 And when he was fourteen some steps were 
 taken to secure for him a place on a sailing 
 vessel. Fortunately, some of his relatives 
 interfered at the last moment, and the would-be 
 sailor went back to school for two years more. 
 Though disappointed he threw himself into his 
 work with characteristic zeal, giving special 
 attention now to surveying. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 WASHINGTON'S YOUTH. 
 
 When vacation came George Washington 
 was always ready for a ride across-country to 
 make his brother Lawrence a visit. After his 
 marriage the latter had built a fine house on his 
 estate. He called the place Mount Vernon, in 
 honor of his former naval commander and 
 friend. 
 
 The young man was well liked by his neigh- 
 bors, so they elected him to represent them in 
 the House of Burgesses. His home was an 
 attractive place, and frequently friends or trav- 
 eling strangers tested the hospitality of the 
 master and mistress. 
 
 George Washington was always sure of a 
 warm welcome and delightful entertainment at 
 Mount Vernon. He was fond of the society 
 of older men. He enjoyed listening to their 
 discussions of business and politics, their talk 
 
 19 
 
20 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 of the development of western lands, of colonies, 
 of old England, of universities, of courts and 
 camps. The guests at his brother's table were 
 usually men of experience, and their lively talk 
 had in it much to interest and inform a wide- 
 awake youth. 
 
 The boy himself at first took small part in 
 these discussions, but when he answered a 
 question or ventured a comment it showed so 
 much sense that it received flattering considera- 
 tion. Though reticent, George Washington 
 was by no means bashful. He had too true a 
 sense of relative values to underestimate his 
 own worth, and always had a large measure of 
 self-respect. 
 
 His fondness for the society of older men 
 was encouraged by Lawrence Washington and 
 his friends. All liked the tall, thoughtful boy, 
 whose calm gray eyes looked straight at one 
 when he talked, who was always ready but 
 never in a hurry. He made a good companion^ 
 and did not seem in the way when the conversa- 
 tion was such that he did not understand and 
 to which he could not contribute. 
 
WASHINGTON'S YOUTH. 21 
 
 He was an appreciative listener and could 
 ask sensible questions, and when it came to the 
 hunt he was as good a rider as any : fearless 
 and enduring, he attracted attention by his 
 splendid horsemanship. Lord Fairfax, the 
 brother of Lawrence Washington's father-in- 
 I law, was especially pleased with the youth. 
 Lord Fairfax had spent most of his life in 
 England, and had been a man of fashion as 
 well as a man of affairs. 
 
 He had written for the Spectator, and was as 
 clever in speech as in print. He had not been 
 in America longf enouofh to lose his interest in 
 England nor to be fully acquainted with colonial 
 life. 
 
 Among the people he had met in the new 
 world, few listened with interest so untiring and 
 who was so keen to talk of his past life as this 
 brother of Lawrence Washington. His pleasure 
 in young Washington's society did not consist 
 solely in the satisfaction one takes in giving 
 information and pleasure to one eager to learn. 
 
 For, while he had found many who could 
 discourse at length on Virginia and America, 
 
22 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 he had found few who could tell him exactly 
 what he wanted to know about Fairfax County 
 or Virginia manners and customs so accurately 
 and in so few words as this clear-headed boy. 
 In spite of the difference in their ages, a strong 
 friendship sprang up between the two. 
 
 At Mount Vernon and at Belvoir, the Fairfax 
 estate, George Washington came in contact with 
 the best people in the colony : men and women 
 whose rousrh, active life had not at all made 
 them forget elaborate courtesy and stately 
 manners. Living on the verge of the wilder- 
 ness, they, so far as possible, lived in the style 
 prevailing in ''merrie" England. 
 
 A coach-and-six on Virginias undrained, 
 ungraded roads, for state occasions ; yes, and 
 gowns of stiff brocade, and powdered wigs, 
 sparkling wines, and shining swords and duels, 
 if need be ! Among such people the youth 
 learned never to be careless in appearance, 
 speech, or manner. With so much to recom- 
 mend him and with so many influential friends, 
 this younger brother had no difficulty in getting 
 a start in business. 
 
WASHINGTON'S YOUTH. 23 
 
 When he was sixteen years old he was en- 
 trusted by Lord Fairfax with an important piece 
 of work. Lord Fairfax had a vast estate in the 
 wilderness beyond the mountains. He planned 
 to build for himself a great mansion on this 
 estate and go there to live. First, however, he 
 wanted the land surveyed and a reliable map 
 of it drawn. He knew of George Washington's 
 interest in surveying, and asked him if he would 
 be willing to undertake the survey of his land. 
 
 The responsibility did not awe the inex- 
 perienced boy. He readily consented, for a 
 compensation of about a doubloon a day, to 
 take charge of the survey. Early in March, 
 before the snow was all melted in the deep 
 mountain ravines, he started on the expedition, 
 with the nephew of Lord Fairfax for company. 
 The youths had good horses and set out for the 
 wilderness in high spirits. 
 
 They went first to his lordship's ''quarters," 
 where the directors and the employes on the 
 great estate lived. Then, with little luggage, 
 and with assistants to carry chain and transit, 
 axes, and other implements with which to do the 
 
24 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 heavy work of marking boundaries, Washing- 
 ton and his friend commenced their journey 
 through almost unexplored territory. Inns 
 there were none ; so the surveying party had to 
 depend on the hospitality of the few scattered 
 settlers for lodging at night. 
 
 The accommodations offered them were of 
 the poorest, and after a single night's experience 
 in sleeping in the close loft of a settler's cabin, 
 with nothing but unclean straw for covering, 
 the fastidious Washington chose to spend his 
 nights wrapped in his cloak on the ground by 
 the fire. 
 
 At one time they fell in with a party of 
 Indians. Washington had seen very little of 
 the Indians, and his curiosity concerning them 
 was keen. With presents he induced them to 
 give a war dance for his benefit. He made 
 careful notes in his diary concerning the sav- 
 ages and also about the pioneers he met in 
 his travels. 
 
 The weather was unsettled. The bridgeless 
 rivers and creeks were swollen ; roads were 
 almost impassable where there was any pre- 
 
WASHINGTON'S YOUTH. 2 5 
 
 tense of a road. But Washington had not 
 expected a frolic. When the weather would 
 permit he pushed the work of surveying with 
 business-like rapidity. 
 
 On stormy days he worked over his maps 
 and reports. He had all his life ridden much 
 going from his mothers home to his brother's, 
 and he had, unconsciously almost, learned many 
 important lessons about watersheds, natural 
 drainage, forests, good soils, etc., and this 
 knowledge enabled him to make valuable 
 observations. 
 
 When, early in April, he returned to Belvoir 
 he gave a most satisfactory report of work done. 
 Lord Fairfax was greatly pleased, and, it is sup- 
 posed, used his influence to have Washington 
 appointed public surveyor. At any rate, Wash- 
 ington received the appointment, and was kept 
 busy on the frontier with line and transit for 
 three years. 
 
 During those years he learned much about 
 the country that was to be of service to him 
 later. With wonted thrift he made note of 
 desirable tracts of land that he or some friend 
 
26 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 of his should one day purchase. But more 
 important than that, he acquired wood love and 
 knowledge of the pioneers and the Indians on 
 his various surveying expeditions that were to 
 help him in time of need. 
 
 His experience on the frontier made him 
 strong and hardy but never coarsened him. 
 He spent much of his leisure time at Mount 
 Vernon with his brother, or with Lord Fairfax at 
 Greenway Court. Lord Fairfax had built a com- 
 fortable lodge on his estate and lived in simple 
 plenty — farming, hunting, or reading at pleas- 
 ure, and always glad to have young Washing- 
 ton to share either business or pastime with 
 him. 
 
 Under his guidance, in the days spent at 
 Greenway Court, Washington read a good deal 
 of English history and became familiar with the 
 essays of Addison and Steele. He must have 
 enjoyed especially the Sir Roger de Coverly 
 papers, since he could scarcely be blind to the 
 points of similarity between that worthy char- 
 acter and his generous but sometimes eccentric 
 host. 
 
WASHINGTON'S YOUTH. 2/ 
 
 While George Washington was growing into 
 robust manhood, his brother Lawrence was fail- 
 ing in health. The devotion of the brothers 
 had strengthened with years. The younger now 
 spent as much time as possible at Mount 
 Vernon, and in his quiet, capable way took 
 charge of much of the business of the estate, 
 relieving Lawrence of care and responsibility 
 wherever he could, till the latter came to look 
 to his brother for advice and help as well as 
 comradeship. 
 
 When the doctors said a trip to the West 
 Indies might prove beneficial to Lawrence, 
 George, at his request, gave up his position as 
 surveyor and went South with him. It was his 
 first voyage, and the two men took great pleas- 
 ure in the novel scenes and experiences. Un- 
 fortunately, they accepted an invitation to dine 
 at a house where one of the members of the 
 family had small-pox. 
 
 , They were aware of the danger, and George 
 wrote in his journal that he accepted the invita- 
 tion with some reluctance. Well he might, for 
 in due time he was taken ill with the dreaded 
 
28 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 disease. After an illness of some three weeks 
 he was, however, well and strong again. 
 
 For a time it was hoped that Lawrence Wash- 
 ington's health was decidedly benefited by the 
 change. But the relief proved only temporary, 
 and he died soon after his return to Mount 
 Vernon. He showed his great love and trust 
 in his half-brother by leaving to him the man- 
 agement of the fortune of his wife and daughter, 
 and by willing to him the greater part of that 
 fortune provided he should outlive them. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 WINNING HIS SPURS. 
 
 " I WAS commissioned and appointed by the 
 Honorable Robert Dinwiddie, Esq., Governor 
 of Virginia, to visit and deliver a letter to the 
 commandant of the French forces of the Ohio, 
 and set out on the intended journey the same 
 day." Thus wrote George Washington in his 
 journal, in the autumn of 1753. 
 
 But what were the French forces doing on 
 the Ohio ? Why was the Governor of Virginia 
 sending them a letter ? And why was a youth 
 of twenty-one selected to bear the governor's 
 message ? 
 
 The last question is the most easily answered. 
 Because there was a youth of twenty-one able 
 to do the work successfully and eager to do it. 
 How George Washington came to be ready for 
 an embassy that required a tried man, at an age 
 
 when many youths are irresponsible college 
 
 29 
 
30 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 ''boys," we have in part seen, for his selection 
 for this important mission shows to what good 
 purpose he had put his early years of life. 
 
 After the death of his brother Lawrence, 
 though he took almost entire charge of the 
 Mount Vernon estate, he had time to give to 
 public affairs. Through the influence of his 
 brother he had been appointed district adju- 
 tant general, and had control of the organiza- 
 tion and equipment of one-fourth of the militia 
 of Virginia. Some of Captain Lawrence 
 Washington's old comrades in arms were at 
 hand to school the youthful major in military 
 matters. 
 
 That there was need of preparation for war, 
 the Washingtons were among the first Vir- 
 ginians to realize. Lawrence Washington had 
 been president of the Ohio Company, w^hose 
 purpose was to protect English trade and to 
 further settlement in English land beyond the 
 mountains. He had seen more clearly than 
 most men that the French aimed at nothing 
 less than absolute control of the trade with 
 the Indians and possession of the western land. 
 
WINNING HIS SPURS. 3 1 
 
 He knew what progress the bold French 
 traders and missionaries had made in the West. 
 He knew that the Indians were attracted by 
 the gay, pleasure-loving French and repelled 
 by the serious-faced, hard-working English ; 
 and he felt that the defense of the extensive 
 frontier against the combined strength of the 
 French and Indians would be a difficult matter 
 
 Governor Dinwiddie was also a member of 
 the Ohio Company, and agreed with its presi- 
 dent. So, when the French advanced to 
 Presque Isle, on Lake Erie, while other gov- 
 ernors were waiting for the action of colonial 
 legislatures, the Virginia governor wrote to his 
 majesty the king, explaining the situation, and 
 received prompt directions to build forts if he 
 could get the money, and if the French ad- 
 vanced upon English territory to request them 
 peaceably to depart, "or, if necessary, to drive 
 them off by force of arms." 
 
 The French w^ere not slow to justify the 
 alarm Governor Dinwiddie had sounded. 
 They were reported to have advanced to the 
 headwaters of the Ohio and to be building 
 
32 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 forts there. First, the king's instructions said 
 the French should be warned " peaceably to 
 depart." The governor must find a brave and 
 responsible messenger to carry that warning 
 and to see how far the report was correct. 
 This called for a man who could face danger 
 without flinching. 
 
 On the thirtieth day of October, 1753, he 
 appointed George Washington to take the 
 message. If he desired a prompt agent, young 
 Washington promised to give satisfaction. No 
 time was lost in elaborate preparation for the 
 five-hundred-mile march through the wilder- 
 ness. On the day he received his appointment 
 Washington ''set out on his journey." 
 
 He could not speak French, so he took with 
 him as interpreter Captain Van Braam, who 
 had taught him the use of sword and musket 
 in more peaceful days at Mount Vernon. The 
 first part of the journey was the easiest. The 
 horses were fresh; the cabins of settlers and 
 traders not infrequent; a road had been opened 
 by the Ohio Company, and the party was 
 encumbered with little luggage. Still, it was 
 
WINNING HIS SPURS. 33 
 
 the middle of November before Washington 
 made the last halt in Virginia. 
 
 This was at Will's Creek, where the Ohio 
 Company had established a store. When he 
 left Will's Creek on the fifteenth of November 
 his way lay over a winding Indian trail, along 
 which his little band rode single file. At its 
 head was Christopher Gist, a hardy woodman 
 who had served the Ohio Company as surveyor 
 along the Ohio River. 
 
 He was a rugged man, well acquainted with 
 the solitude of uninhabited mountains and 
 plains, thoroughly at home with the red man, 
 versed in their prejudices and weaknesses, 
 and skilled in managing them. Washington 
 found in him a faithful and invaluable guide. 
 Over mountain ranges, through valleys, across 
 streams, the trail wound. The days grew 
 shorter as well as raw and cold. The rain 
 fell ceaselessly, and the tired horses made 
 slow progress on the slippery trail. 
 
 Washington had not been a wilderness 
 surveyor in vain, for, however hard the way, 
 he was not exhausted and made no complaint. 
 
34 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Still, even the stanch Washington was glad 
 to see the smoke of a cabin chimney as he 
 neared the place where Turtle Creek enters the 
 Monongahela River. But Frazer, the inmate 
 of that cabin, had no good news for the 
 English. 
 
 The French, he said, had driven him from 
 his house at Venango and were building a fort 
 there. Moreover, he had received a belt of 
 wampum and a speech for the governor of 
 Virginia, telling of strong Indian tribes which 
 had joined the French cause. At Logstown 
 Washington was met by some friendly Indi. ' 
 who attached themselves to his company. c 
 Venango, as he had expected, he found le 
 French flag floating over the Frazer cabin. 
 
 Here he and his men were received \ th 
 great courtesy. But in the evening, as t ^y 
 sat around the fire, liquor flowed freely, i id 
 the French forgot their caution and gave le 
 ever- watchful envoy a glimpse of their t le 
 attitude toward the English. Washington e- 
 scribed the experience as follows: ''The wive, 
 as they dosed themselves pretty plentifully w th 
 
WINNING HIS SPURS. 35 
 
 it, soon banished the restraint which at first ap- 
 peared in their conversation, and gave a license 
 to their tongues to reveal their sentiments more 
 fully." ''They told me that it was their abso- 
 lute design to take possession of the Ohio, and 
 they would do it ; for that although they were 
 sensible the English could raise two men to 
 their one, yet they knew their motions were 
 too slow and dilatory to prevent any under- 
 taking of theirs." 
 
 Four more days of travel brought the gov- 
 ernor's messenger to Fort Le Boeuf, his jour- 
 nev's end. While waiting for the commander's 
 r y, Washington and his men were again 
 ev Ttained with the utmost civility. It was 
 no ^ the middle of December. Washington 
 ha seen enough to make him feel sure that 
 nc time was to be lost. Governor Dinwiddle 
 m St know what the French were doing in 
 th king's territory. 
 
 ^ut horses and men w^ere well-nigh ex- 
 hc isted. Washington decided to try to make 
 pc t of the journey in canoes. The streams 
 w ;e winding and choked with ice, however, 
 
36 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 and that method of traveling took too much 
 time to suit him. Therefore, leaving the rest 
 of his party to follow at a slower pace, and 
 not heeding remonstrances, he set out on foot, 
 accompanied only by Gist. After a day in 
 the saddle Washington was fresh and bright, 
 but he was not used to walking and suffered 
 greatly from fatigue. 
 
 Near the Ohio an Indian offered his services 
 as guide, with every appearance of friendliness. 
 At the first opportunity he turned treacherously 
 and fired on the travelers, but Washington 
 and Gist were not the men to be taken una- 
 wares. They not only escaped injury, but 
 caught the Indian and wrested his gun from 
 him. 
 
 Gist would have shot the Indian on the spot, 
 but Washington prevented him. Gist argued 
 that if he were left alive he would follow 
 them and repeat his attempt on their lives. 
 Washington saw the danger, but he saw also 
 that at this juncture the English must give the 
 Indians no cause for complaint. He, therefore, 
 insisted that the Indian should be allowed to 
 
 * 
 
WINNING HIS SPURS. 37 
 
 live, and by giving him a false idea of their 
 plans succeeded in evading him. 
 
 The journey home, though difficult and 
 dangerous in the extreme, was at length safely 
 accomplished. Washington reached Williams- 
 burg on the 1 6th of January, and delivered 
 to the governor the French commander's defiant 
 reply to his letter. The French officer said, in 
 part: "As to the summons you send me to 
 retire, I do not think myself obliged to obey 
 it. Whatever may be your instructions, I am 
 here by virtue of the orders of my general ; and 
 I entreat you, sir, not to doubt one moment but 
 that I am determined to conform myself to them 
 with all the exactness and resolution which can 
 be expected from the best officer. I made it 
 my particular care to receive Mr. Washington 
 with a distinction suitable to your dignity, as 
 well as to his own quality and great merit." 
 
 The governor requested Washington to make 
 a report of his journey to his Council, which 
 met on the day after Washington's return. He 
 had carefully ke^Dt a journal during his absence, 
 and from that he hastily drew up a report. 
 
38 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 This report or journal was considered a 
 most valuable document. It was published 
 and distributed in America and London. It* 
 was so accurate and frank an account of ex- 
 isting conditions that it everywhere created 
 great interest. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 WASHINGTON'S HRST COMMAND. 
 
 There was now no hope of peace. Troops 
 must be sent to drive away the intruding French, 
 and forts must be built on the disputed ground. 
 Having executed so well the first trust com- 
 mitted to him, it was but natural that Washing- 
 ton should now be given a more responsible 
 position. He was accordingly made lieutenant- 
 colonel under Colonel P>y. 
 
 This time, however, he could not start on the 
 day he received his commission. Upon him 
 devolved much of the burden of raising and 
 organizing the Virginia troops. As almost no 
 money was provided with which to pay the 
 soldiers and provide them with clothing and 
 ammunition, he found this a heavy task and 
 one that required much time. 
 
 He felt sure the French would make the 
 
 39 
 
40 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 best of the delay, and with shame and anger 
 he remembered how they had boasted that the 
 French could beat twice their number of Eng- 
 lish, because the English were so slow. 
 
 He was impatient to be off and hurry out to 
 Captain Trent, who had been sent in advance 
 with a few men to seize and fortify a site Wash- 
 ington had chosen as suitable for a fort, at the 
 meeting of the Monongahela and Allegheny 
 Rivers. Before the main body of the troops 
 were ready he set out with several companies 
 to prepare the way for the rapid advance of the 
 troops when they should be ready to move. 
 
 He and his handful of men had not gone far 
 when he received word that he was too late to 
 support Captain Trent. A large body of French 
 had reached the headwaters of the Ohio and 
 compelled the little band of English to retreat. 
 The French were already at work building a 
 large, strong fort at the point abandoned by 
 the English. This famous fort was afterward 
 known as Fort Du Ouesne. 
 
 In spite of this discouraging news Washing- 
 ton pressed on, clearing the way for Colonel 
 
WASHINGTON'S FIRST COMMAND. 4 1 
 
 Fry. As he advanced the peril of his position 
 increased. His friends were — he knew not how 
 far — behind ; his foes — he knew not how close 
 —before. For while an attack was scarcely to 
 be feared from the French, their Indian allies 
 could not be depended upon to wait for the 
 English to open the war, and there was no tell- 
 ing what measures the French themselves might 
 take to provoke the English and bring about 
 an engagement. 
 
 Washington was therefore not surprised when 
 a friendly Indian reported to him that a French 
 scouting party was lurking about in the woods. 
 The report was vague, however, and Washing- 
 ton sent out spies to definitely learn the where- 
 abouts of the enemy. They scoured the woods 
 for several days before they found the French 
 established in an almost inaccessible place. 
 
 The night was black and the rain fell heavily, 
 when Washington executed the first of those 
 sudden and secret manoeuvres for which he was 
 later noted. By a long and devious march over 
 a steep and narrow pass he succeeded in taking 
 the French off their guard. The French made 
 
42 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 a brave attempt to defend themselves, but after 
 a sharp skirmish they were compelled to sur- 
 render. Ten of their number were dead. 
 Among the dead was the leader of the party, 
 Ensign Cowlon de Jumonville. 
 
 One Frenchman escaped in this encounter 
 and speedily carried to his countrymen 
 the news of the disaster. Measures were im- 
 mediately taken to send a strong force against 
 Washington and avenge what they called the 
 murder of their brethren. Washington, rein- 
 forced by troops from the rear and by the 
 friendly Indians under Half-King, retired to 
 Great Meadows to await the French. 
 
 In the meantime Colonel Fry had died, and 
 Washington had thus become first in command. 
 He expected additional reinforcements and 
 supplies. These did not come ; but he learned 
 that the enemy had fared better, a strong detach- 
 ment of French had arrived at Fort Du Quesne. 
 He had not so much faith in the spade in war- 
 fare as he came to have later. 
 
 He wished for a good fight in a fair field, and 
 the entrenchments he had thrown up at Fort 
 
WASHINGTON'S FIRST COMMAND. 43 
 
 Necessity were but insignificant. On the 3d of 
 July the French attacked the fort. Washington 
 had hoped for a brisk and decisive action ; but 
 he was disappointed. The French evidently 
 proposed a siege. For this Washington was 
 unprepared. Courage could not fill empty 
 powder horns nor supply food for starving 
 men. 
 
 He was obliged to admit the impossibility of 
 holding his position, and surrendered. He 
 succeeded, however, in gaining surprisingly 
 liberal terms. His troops were allowed to keep 
 their arms and to march out with drums beating 
 and flags flying. The young colonel, who be- 
 came the wise and cautious general of the 
 Revolution, had not well conducted this cam- 
 paign. 
 
 The impetuous young colonel had made mis- 
 takes ; mistakes due to too great eagerness for 
 action. His reckless courage had astonished 
 and fairly intimidated the French. His Indian 
 ally, old Half-King, had not been overawed by 
 the Virginian. He said: ''The colonel was 
 a good-natured man, but had no experience ; he 
 
44 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 took upon himself to command the Indians as 
 if they were his slaves, and would have them 
 every day upon the scout and to attack the 
 enemy by themselves, but would by no means 
 take advice from the Indians." 
 
 *' He stayed in one place from one full moon 
 to the other without fortifications, except that 
 little thing on the meadows ; whereas, had he 
 taken advice and built such fortifications as I 
 advised here, he might easily have beat off the 
 French. But the French acted like cowards, 
 and the English like fools." 
 
 We must remember, in reading this criticism 
 of Washington, that Half-King had to offer 
 some excuse for deserting the English before 
 the battle, and that Washington probably had 
 not taken Half-King into his confidence con- 
 cerning his inability to endure a long siege and 
 the needlessness of strong fortifications. 
 
 The young man's fame had gone abroad in 
 no enviable fashion. His hasty attack on the 
 scouting party was bitterly condemned in 
 France. It was claimed that Jumonville and 
 his thirty followers were not scouts, but that 
 
 
WASHINGTON'S FIRST COMMAND. 45 
 
 Jumonville was an ambassador bearing mes- 
 sages from one government to another. 
 
 They could not explain satisfactorily, however, 
 why he should have brought with him thirty 
 armed followers and should have remained for 
 days hidden in the woods, within easy reach 
 of the English, with whom it was claimed he 
 wished to communicate. 
 
 The English naturally felt no resentment to- 
 ward Washington on that score, but they pro- 
 nounced his name with a smile and called him 
 a ''bragging upstart." This was because he 
 had written his brother a letter after his first 
 battle, in which the spirited youth showed an 
 almost foolhardy relish for danger. 
 
 He wrote : " I fortunately escaped without 
 any wound, for the right wing, where I stood, 
 was exposed to and received all the enemy's 
 fire ; it was the part where the man was killed 
 and the rest were wounded. I heard the bullets 
 whistle; and, believe me, there is something 
 charming in the sound." 
 
 At home, where the great odds under which 
 Washington had worked, and the failure of the 
 
46 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 government to send him support, were better 
 understood ; men put a more just estimate on 
 the campaign. The House of Burgesses gave 
 him a vote of thanks for gallant and brave 
 behavior in defense of his country. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 WITH BRADDOCK. 
 
 Blood had been shed on both sides. War 
 was unavoidable. Now the English king had 
 need that the colonists should feel that they 
 were British subjects and that it was their duty 
 to help hold his land against the French. In- 
 stead, however, of winning their loyalty, he did 
 much to arouse the ill-will of his American 
 subjects, so that the English and the Americans 
 worked at cross-purposes much of the time. 
 
 A plan degrading colonial officers to the rank 
 of captains and making them subordinate to 
 any officer holding the royal commission gave 
 great offence to the colonial army officers. 
 When Washington learned that henceforth he 
 was to be colonel in name but not in authority 
 he resigned his commission and wrote a letter 
 to the governor of Virginia, declaring in very 
 plain terms that, while he was eager^ to take^ 
 
 47 
 
48 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 part in the war, he would not submit to this 
 humiliation and masquerade under an empty 
 military title. 
 
 His personal interests had suffered somewhat 
 while he was looking after colonial interests on 
 the frontier. After the fatigue and the humilia- 
 tion of the campaign he found it pleasant to be 
 back at Mount Vernon, surrounded by admiring 
 friends and willing servants, and to give his 
 attention to the details of farm management. 
 
 Order, prosperity, and stability were dear to 
 him. He enjoyed being master of the situation 
 and bringing Mount Vernon and his mother's 
 estate into shipshape condition. He enjoyed 
 the hunt, the stately dinner parties, the good 
 talk, that helped make up life in the home on 
 the Potomac. But more than all he loved the 
 first of these — to be master of the situation, 
 whatever that might be. 
 
 And however worthy an occupation planting 
 acres, and regulating the rations of slaves and 
 the sale of crops, he was ready to relegate much 
 of that to an overseer if there was more impor- 
 tant work to be done. That there was impor- 
 
WITH BR ADD OCX. 49 
 
 tant work to be done he was reminded on every 
 hand. A great army was being equipped to go 
 to the wilderness and conquer gloriously the 
 enemy that was rejoicing over his defeat. 
 
 Could he stand back and take no part in it ? 
 Everywhere he heard war talked of. The 
 transports, bearing the regular soldiers in their 
 red uniforms, sailed up the Potomac beneath 
 his very windows. As the Virginia ex-colonel 
 rode about the country he met English officers 
 and even the great General Braddock himself. 
 
 Though inclined to treat the colonists with 
 small respect, the British usually made an ex- 
 ception of Washington. His strong face, his 
 fearless, soldierly bearing, his fine horseman- 
 ship, as well as his good horses, well-groomed 
 attendants, and London-made clothes, helped 
 to save him from the slurring epithet *' provin- 
 cial " But his real dignity of character counted 
 more than all 
 
 He did not go about pouring into the ears of 
 his friends his grievances, or seeking applause 
 by making a parade of his knowledge of the 
 West, or telling how he thought the expedition 
 
50 GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
 
 against Fort Du Quesne should be conducted. 
 Even at this early day he had learned the 
 dignity and the power of silence. He made, 
 however, no secret of the fact that he gladly 
 would join the expedition if he could do so on 
 such terms as would seem a proper recognition 
 of his past honorable and able service. 
 
 The chance soon offered. General Braddock 
 invited him to join his staff. This position had 
 the advantage of bringing him into close asso- 
 ciation with a trained officer. Washington had 
 learned in the campaign of 1754 the value of 
 experience. He was glad General Braddock 
 was an experienced soldier, and was ready to 
 learn from him. 
 
 He found much to learn. Used to the make- 
 shift provisions of the colonial militia, the 
 young aide looked with wonder at the elaborate 
 equipment of this army. There was nothing 
 wanting for battle : cannon, ammunition, arms, 
 were abundantly supplied. But it was the 
 great equipment for the march that astonished 
 Washington. 
 
 Army wagons and pack-horses were collected 
 
WITH BRADDOCK. 5 I 
 
 from far and near to carry food for horses and 
 men ; tents, axes and picks for opening the 
 road ; personal baggage and most of the luxu- 
 ries of civilized life for the officers. The 
 regulars were in fine condition and made an 
 excellent appearance. As Washington com- 
 pared them with the Virginia backwoodsmen 
 on the drill-ground he could not fail to note 
 the superiority of the British. 
 
 Their erect soldierly bearing, their smart 
 uniforms, their instant response to the word of 
 command, contrasted sharply with the slouching 
 carriage and lagging response of the colonial 
 volunteers. The great camp for twenty-two 
 hundred men was a model of order. Rimd 
 military discipline prevailed everywhere. 
 
 Washington was impressed with the general's 
 knowledge of the army code, with his extreme 
 punctiliousness. The army had not been long 
 on the march, however, before he began to 
 realize that, so far as experience that would 
 count, in the kind of warfare they had under- 
 taken, went, he was the experienced officer and 
 the despised colonials were the fit soldiers. 
 
52 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 A general who started into the wilderness in 
 a ponderous coach drawn by six horses, who 
 must '* bridge every brook and level every mole 
 hill " for his army, had something to learn from 
 the man who had walked every foot of the 
 rugged path. A man who rashly led an army 
 whose narrow line extended four miles along 
 the narrow forest road, through dense thickets, 
 without scouts, might well have listened to the 
 advice of the officer who surprised the French 
 before the battle of Great Meadow. 
 
 But General Braddock was very confident of 
 his own wisdom, and, though he liked the young 
 Virginian and listened to him with more patience 
 than he showed to others, he was but little 
 impressed by Washington's sensible counsel. 
 Still, even he could see that progress along the 
 narrow, rough way with heavy baggage was 
 too slow, and he at length acted upon Washing- 
 ton's advice and divided the army, hastening 
 forward with the less-encumbered part and 
 leaving the rest under the commend of Colonel 
 Dunbar, to follow more slowly with the baggage. 
 
 At this stage of affairs Washington was seized 
 
WITH BR AD DOCK. 53 
 
 with a fever. He was too ill to travel, but he 
 could not be reconciled to the idea of gfivine 
 up the battle. With real affection and concern 
 General Braddock insisted on his staying behind 
 with the proper attendants, and assured him 
 that if his strength permitted he should rejoin 
 the army before the battle. 
 
 Washington had made a warm place for him- 
 self in the esteem and affection of the officers 
 on General Braddock's staff. The letters of his 
 comrades, telling of the slow progress they 
 were making, must have had an element of 
 consolation for the impatient, afflicted aide, 
 who declared he would rather give five hun- 
 dred pounds than miss the coming encounter 
 at Fort Du Ouesne. 
 
 But the fever was stubborn, and even Brad- 
 dock's ponderous, slow-moving army was near 
 .its goal before Washington's malady was 
 conquered; but he was not to be thwarted. 
 Though not able to mount his horse, he made 
 ; the journey in a wagon and rejoined Braddock's 
 force when it was about fifteen miles from Fort 
 Du Quesne. He was most cordially received 
 
54 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 and consulted with regard to the advance upon 
 the fort. 
 
 He advised that, as there would probably be 
 Indian fighting to do before reaching the fort, 
 it would be well to put the Virginia Rangers in 
 advance. This suggestion was not relished by 
 General Braddock, who had a decided contempt 
 for provincial soldiers and unlimited faith in the 
 regulars. 
 
 And, surely, they made a splendid show, those 
 scarlet-coated regulars, as they marched along 
 the bank of the Monongahela, acros-s the ford 
 in the noon sunshine, and into the forest be- 
 yond. The forest path, with its tall trees and 
 thick underbrush growing on either side, was 
 fresh and cool even on that July day, and the 
 regulars entered it eagerly. 
 
 Perhaps the Virginia Rangers, who knew 
 the ways of the Indians, had visions of a 
 fire in its cool shade hotter than the noon-day 
 sun, but all pressed on, confident of victory 
 whenever they might encounter the enemy. 
 They were within eight miles of Fort Du 
 Quesne when some French and Indians sud- 
 
WITH BRADDOCK. 55 
 
 denly appeared in the road before them and 
 fired. 
 
 Undismayed, the British answered with a 
 volley that cut down the leader and many of 
 his men. But if they expected this to end the 
 skirmish they were mistaken. On came the 
 yelling band in front, and along either side of 
 the British army, stretching like a slender 
 ribbon through the forest, swept a tempest of 
 fire and smoke, and sounded the terrible war- 
 whoop. 
 
 Then Washington would have had the men 
 take to the forest, and from the shelter of trees 
 and stones fight the savages in their own way. 
 But this was not the British way, and General 
 Braddock ordered up the ordnance and com- 
 manded the men to form in ranks, stand fast, 
 and return the fire. It was terrible to stand 
 there firing at trees and bushes, with comrades 
 falling all around, under the deadly hail of 
 bullets and to hear those frenzied yells from a 
 near but unseen foe. 
 
 Panic soon seized the stoutest hearts, and, 
 dropping their guns, the soldiers would have 
 
56 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 fled, but their leaders were more terrible than 
 the enemy. Washington saw the officers, who 
 had seemed so effeminate on the march in their 
 fear of hardship and love of ease, tireless and 
 fearless on the field of battle. 
 
 With absolute disregard for his own safety. 
 General Braddock galloped along the line, 
 cursing the panic-stricken men, beating them 
 with the flat side of his sword, and compelling 
 obedience. One horse after another was shot 
 under him, but his courage did not fail. The 
 Virginians, not waiting for the command, took 
 to the woods, fighting Indian fashion, and 
 so afforded the regulars some protection ; but 
 they, firing from the road and unable to dis- 
 tinouish friend from foe in the thicket shot 
 them down. 
 
 Washington tasted to the full on that day the 
 horrors of battle. The roar of cannon, the 
 victorious scalp-cry, the neighing of frightened 
 horses, the groans of the dying, the brute fear 
 of trapped men, the terrible anger of balked 
 courage, made a lasting impression on his 
 mind. The faintness of fever that had made 
 
WITH BRADDOCK. 5/ 
 
 him in the morning scarcely able to sit his 
 horse gave way to the passion for conquest. 
 
 He saw men dying all around him. Three 
 horses were killed under him; bullets whizzed 
 past him and some pierced his clothing, but he 
 felt no fear of death for himself. He rode about 
 in the thickest of the battle, like one who bore 
 a charmed life. And when at last General 
 Braddock, sorely wounded and forced to admit 
 defeat, ordered a retreat to save the remnant 
 of his force, he found Washington his chief 
 support 
 
 The British left their provisions and ammuni- 
 tion in the road and fled in disorder toward 
 Camp Dunbar. The handful of attacking 
 French, satisfied with their victory, held the 
 horde of Indians in check and offered no pur- 
 suit. But the terrified regulars fancied them 
 ever at their heels and ran with no abatement 
 of fear. Washington, with the few surviving 
 officers and the Virginia Rangers, conveyed 
 General Braddock to Camp Dunbar, where he 
 died. 
 
 He was buried in the middle of the road, 
 
58 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 that the wagons might pass over his grave and 
 obliterate all trace of it. It is said that after 
 the battle the old general hated the sight of a 
 red coat and had only praise for the blue-coated 
 Virginians. 
 
 The fragment of General Braddock's division 
 paused at Camp Dunbar only long enough to 
 communicate to the rest of the army their own 
 terror. Colonel Dunbar himself caught their 
 panic, and, against the entreaties of Washing- 
 ton, beat a hasty retreat, leaving the settlements 
 on the frontier without defence against the 
 victorious savages. 
 
 During the war that followed, it was Wash- 
 ington's task to defend the Virginia frontier 
 against the Indians. The frontier was exten- 
 sive ; the settlements were scattered ; Washing- 
 ton's force was small and spiritless ; his enemy 
 numerous, cunning, and treacherous. So great 
 was the suffering of the people on the frontier 
 that Washington declared, '* I would be a will- 
 ing offering to savage fury and die by inches 
 to save the people." 
 
 But his death would have been the gravest 
 
WITH BRADDOCK. 59 
 
 misfortune for his distressed countrymen. They 
 looked upon him as their chief defence and 
 loved him well. Colonel Fairfax wrote him, 
 " Your health and fortune are the toast of every 
 table." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 DAYS OF PEACE. 
 
 Not every brave soldier makes a good citi- 
 zen in time of peace. Let us see how it was 
 with Virginia's military hero. Were the trials 
 and the excitement of war and the love of 
 glory necessary to bring out the strong qualities 
 of this man ? Or were there elements in his 
 character that answered to milder stimulus ? 
 
 Washington's was a many-sided nature. 
 Years of life in camp and on the march had not 
 spoiled him for finer pleasures. Dreams of 
 military glory had not lessened his desire to 
 stand well in the occupations of peace. 
 
 Indeed, sometime before the day when he 
 took possession of the smoking ruin that had 
 been Fort Du Quesne, he had had a personal 
 reason for wishing the war to be over. He 
 had, in truth, fallen in love, and had pressed 
 his suit with such success that he only waited 
 
 60 
 
DAYS OF PEACE. 6 1 
 
 to be free from the stern duties of war to be 
 married. 
 
 The lady who had won the heart of Wash- 
 ington was not an unexperienced girl, but a 
 widow only a few months younger than he — 
 Mrs. Martha Custis. She was a fair colonial 
 dame, with sweet voice and gentle, gracious 
 manners. The face of Martha Washington, as 
 she looked in the days when she was the '* first 
 lady of the land," is almost as familiar to us as 
 Washington's, and from that we can judge a 
 little how she must have looked when, in the 
 prime of womanhood, she gave her hand to her 
 soldierly suitor. 
 
 Many of the best families of Virginia were 
 represented in the company gathered in the 
 little church on the bright January morning in 
 1759 when George Washington was married. 
 And all looked with pleasure on the stately, 
 elegant dame in her ample, shimmering bridal 
 robes, and upon the noble-looking officer beside 
 her. He was a man good to see — tall, straight, 
 and handsome, with the bearing of a soldier 
 and a gentleman. 
 
62 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 He was richly dressed for the occasion, in 
 blue and scarlet with silver trimmings. When 
 the wedding was over and the bride rode off in 
 her great coach, Washington rode beside her 
 on his war horse, attended by servants in 
 splendid new livery of white and scarlet. He 
 responded gayly to the greetings of the .good 
 people along the way, who were glad to see 
 their brave young colonel so handsome and so 
 happy. 
 
 Washington's marriage brought him increased 
 responsibilities. Mount Vernon, which since the 
 death of Lawrence Washington's widow and 
 daughter had belonged to him, was now but a 
 small part of the great estate under his charge. 
 His wife and her two children had inherited 
 from Mr. Custis a vast fortune, and Washing- 
 ton now undertook the management of their 
 property. 
 
 Forest trees must be turned into lumber; 
 uncultivated fields must be made to yield first- 
 class tobacco ; acres of exhausted tobacco land 
 must be made to wave with grain ; wheat must 
 be converted into fine flour ; a hardy breed of 
 
DAYS OF PEACE. 63 
 
 horses and mules must be raised to do the 
 draught work of the estate. 
 
 Stables must be filled with blooded horses 
 for driving and hunting ; untrained and extrav- 
 agant servants must be disciplined and trained 
 to give good service ; former buildings and 
 quarters for the negroes must be repaired or 
 newly built; good foreign markets must be 
 found where, at the highest profit, the products 
 of farm and mill could be disposed of in ex- 
 change for such goods as were not made in the 
 colonies. 
 
 And Washington welcomed these tasks, great 
 and small, and set about doing them in the best 
 possible way. Even such small matters as the 
 quantity and quality of food to be distributed 
 to the servants, the doctoring of a lame horse, 
 the building of a goose pen, received his per- 
 sonal attention. Mrs. Washington had no taste 
 for business, and her husband freely gave his 
 thought and time to the most minute details of 
 the household. 
 
 He loved his step-children fondly and ordered 
 little Patsy Custis playthings from London 
 
64 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 with the greatest care. He was concerned 
 about the education of the children and took 
 pains to secure thein good teachers. The boy's 
 indifference to books and school troubled him 
 greatly. He employed a housekeeper to save 
 his wife the burden of looking after the Mount 
 Vernon home. 
 
 He even ordered dresses for her, and we 
 find in his account book frequently such entries 
 as the following: ''A salmon-colored Tabby 
 of the enclosed pattern, with satin flowers, to 
 be made in a sack." *' i cap, handkerchief. 
 Tucker and Ruffles, to be made of Brussels lace 
 or point, proper to wear with the above negligee, 
 to cost ;j^ 20", ''I pair black, and i pair white 
 satin shoes, of the smallest." 
 
 Indeed, Washington never considered dress 
 a trifling matter. He once advised his nephew, 
 " Do not conceive that fine clothes make fine 
 men more than fine feathers make fine birds. 
 A plain genteel dress is more admired and 
 obtains more credit than lace and embroidery, 
 in the eyes of the judicious and sensible." 
 
DAYS OF PEACE. 6$ 
 
 Yet, when a young man, he had some taste for 
 "fine feathers" himself 
 
 At one time he ordered, "A superfine blue 
 broadcloth coat, with silver trimmings." *'A 
 fine scarlet waistcoat full laced," and "silver 
 lace for a hat." Later, however, his taste became 
 more sedate, and he wrote his tailor, " I want 
 neither lace nor embroidery. Plain clothes 
 with a gold or silver button (if worn in genteel 
 dress) are all I desire." 
 
 But he was particular to have the cloth good 
 and the clothes cut in late style. He was fond 
 of society, and while in Williamsburg he and 
 Mrs. Washington went to dinners and dances 
 with the gayest. Even at Mount Vernon life 
 was not without diversion, and the family was 
 rarely vv^ithout guests. 
 
 Washington's horses and dogs were his pride. 
 He was one of the best riders in the country, 
 and to follow the hounds on his spirited horse, 
 Blueskin, was a pleasure of which he did not 
 weary. His journal has frequent entries of 
 this sort: 
 
 "Went a-hunting with J^cky Custis, and 
 
66 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 catched a fox after three hours' chase ; found it 
 in the creek." '' Started a fox and run him four 
 hours. Took the hounds off at night." " Fox 
 hunting with Lord Fairfax and his brother and 
 Colonel Fairfax. Started a fox and lost it." 
 "Catched two foxes." *' Catched two more 
 foxes." 
 
 Though Washington heartily enjoyed this 
 rough sport there was a very gentle side to his 
 nature, that is shown in his tender love for his 
 little step-daughter, *' Patsy Custis." When 
 she died he wrote to a friend : 
 
 " It is an easier matter to conceive than to 
 describe the distress of this family ; especially 
 that of the unhappy parent of our dear Patsy 
 Custis, when I inform you that death yester- 
 day removed the sweet, innocent girl. She 
 entered into a more happy and peaceful abode 
 than any she had met within the afflicted path 
 she hitherto had trode." 
 
 During her lifetime he eagerly sought reme- 
 dies for her illness and means of giving her 
 pleasure. Numerous as were the demands on 
 Washington's time and attention by his home 
 
BAYS OF PEACE. 6/ 
 
 and business, he never lost interest in the pubHc 
 welfare. He was elected a member of the 
 House of Burgesses year after year, and al- 
 ways found time to go to Williamsburg, the 
 capital, and attend to the duties of that office. 
 
 It is said that when he first took his seat in 
 the House, the Speaker made an eloquent ad- 
 dress thanking him for his services to his 
 country. Washington rose to reply, but stood 
 stammering, unable to think of an appropriate 
 reply, till the Speaker said: '*Sit down, 
 Mr. Washington, your modesty equals your 
 valor, and that surpasses the power of any 
 language I possess." 
 
 Washington was never an orator, but ordi- 
 narily he had the power to speak well and to 
 the point, and in a short time he gained con- 
 siderable influence among the lawmakers of 
 Virginia. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 INDIGNATION. 
 
 The peace that followed the French and 
 Indian War was a period of material prosper- 
 ity for Washington and his neighbors. The 
 American colonies were, indeed, becoming 
 strong and self-confident, but their outlook 
 was not unclouded. 
 
 For these were the years preceding the 
 Revolution, and they were years of indignant 
 resistance to the despotic acts of the mother 
 country. To be sure, some of the colonists 
 were loyal to the king and advocated obedience 
 to his will. The Fairfax family, for example, 
 was unshaken in its faith that the king could 
 do no wrong. 
 
 Others were quite determined that the king 
 should do no wrong, though they did not in the 
 least question his ability and inclination to do 
 serious mischief. But they said little about the 
 
 68 
 
INDIGNATION. 69 
 
 king and directed their criticism against his 
 ministers. 
 
 Washington took a profound interest in the 
 great question at issue between England and 
 America. He had warm personal friends 
 on both sides and heard many heated discus- 
 sions as to the right and wrong of the cause. 
 
 He dined with the royal governor of Virginia 
 one day; on another he went to the Raleigh 
 Tavern, where the members of the dissolved 
 House of Burgesses were passing resolutions 
 declaring their rights. George Mason and 
 Patrick Henry were his associates; still, his 
 friendship for the Fairfax family did not grow 
 cold. 
 
 But, nevertheless, for him there were no two 
 sides to the question, and he made quite clear 
 by word and deed on which side he stood. 
 From the first he regarded the attitude of 
 England as a menace to American liberty, and 
 quietly but firmly took his stand for freedom 
 —an end to be gained at any price. 
 
 His private interests and his knowledge of 
 the evils of war led him to hope devoutly 
 
70 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 that the trouble might be peaceably settled. 
 But he doubted the possibility of that and was 
 ready to take up arms, if need be, to show 
 England that she could not tax the American 
 colonies without their consent. 
 
 The French and Indian War had overcome 
 his awe for British regulars, and he believed 
 that in the event of war victory to the colonists 
 was highly probable. It is said that, on hearing 
 Sir Jeffrey Amherst's boast that with five thou- 
 sand British regulars he would engage to march 
 from one end of the continent of North Amer- 
 ica to the other, repeated in a coffee house one 
 day, Washington declared that with one thou- 
 sand Virginians he would undertake to stop 
 Sir Jeffrey's march. 
 
 He feared that the sword must be drawn in 
 the end, but he was in earnest about trying 
 other means first. He used his influence to 
 secure the introduction and passage of the non- 
 importation resolutions. It was his hope that 
 by refusing to buy the taxed articles the colo- 
 nists might succeed in forcing England to 
 remove the hated tax. 
 
INDIGNATION. 7 1 
 
 To refrain from importing taxed articles 
 occasioned inconvenience to the colonists, and 
 many who voted for the resolutions promptly 
 violated them. Washington, however, was 
 very particular in making out his orders for 
 merchandise to specify that no taxed goods 
 were to be shipped to him. 
 
 He noted in his journal that he observed the 
 first day of June, the day on which the Boston 
 Port Bill was to go into effect, as a day of fast- 
 ing and prayer. But when he saw peaceful 
 methods failing his voice was for war. In 1769 
 he wrote with reference to civil liberty, " That 
 no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment, 
 to use arms in defence of so valuable a bless- 
 ing, on which all the good and evil of life 
 depends, is clearly my opinion." 
 
 At a Virginia convention he made a brief 
 but characteristic speech, of which we have the 
 following record : '' Colonel Washington made 
 the most eloquent speech at the Virginia Con- 
 vention that ever was made. He said, ' I will 
 raise one thousand men, subsist them at my 
 
72 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 own expense, and march myself at their head 
 for the relief of Boston." 
 
 Washington was chosen as one of the six 
 delegates sent by Virginia to the First Con- 
 tinental Congress. Two fellow delegates 
 stopped at Mount Vernon for a night, and it 
 is said that when the three friends started on 
 their journey to Philadelphia, Mrs. Washing- 
 ton's words to her husband and departing 
 guests were, '' I hope you will stand firm. 
 I know George will." 
 
 In that Congress Washington made no 
 speeches, but he was, nevertheless, much 
 noted. Men commented upon his youthful 
 appearance with surprise, recalling his mili- 
 tary record. They quoted to one another the 
 speech he had made at the Virginia conven- 
 tion. He was regarded by all as a man of 
 few words, but a man of power. 
 
 Patrick Henry said: '* If you speak of solid 
 information and sound judgment. Colonel 
 Washington is unquestionably the greatest 
 man on the floor." In due time Washington 
 
INDIGNA TION. 73 
 
 went back to Virginia and took an active part 
 in organizing the militia. 
 
 He thought of leading a company into action 
 in the event of war, and declared, *' I shall very 
 cheerfully accept the honor of commanding it, 
 if occasion requires it to be drawn out, as it is 
 my full intention to devote my life and fortune 
 in the cause we are engaged in, if needful." 
 
 After Lexington and Concord, Washington 
 wrote : '' Unhappy it is to reflect that a brother's 
 sword has been sheathed in a brother s breast, 
 and that the once peaceful plains of America 
 are either to be drenched with blood or inhab- 
 ited bv slaves — sad alternative! But can a 
 virtuous man hesitate in his choice." 
 
 Washington went to the Second Continental 
 Congress dressed in his colonel's uniform of 
 blue-and-buff; and was representative of the 
 war spirit of Virginia. He was placed on 
 several important committees and his opinion 
 on all questions was solicited. There were 
 many brave and able men in that Congress, 
 but men of military experience were scarce. 
 
 It is not strange, then, that when resistance 
 
74 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 was determined upon and a commander-in-chief 
 of the Continental forces had to be chosen, 
 Massachusetts yielded to Virginia, and the 
 honor fell to George Washington. He had 
 not sought the honor and accepted it with 
 some reluctance, declaring that he did not 
 consider himself equal to the task. 
 
 At the same time he announced his intention 
 of serving his country without pay. Having 
 written a most affectionate letter to his wife 
 and made his will he started for Cambridge, 
 to take command of the army that was to drive 
 the British from Boston. 
 
 He had scarcely begun his journey when he 
 received news of the Battle of Bunker Hill. 
 He asked eagerly: *' Did the militia fight?" 
 He would have had less doubt of the Virginia 
 militia, but he was going to take command of 
 strange soldiers from a section of the country 
 more famed for commerce and preaching than 
 fighting. 
 
 If Washington felt some doubt about the 
 military ability of the New Englanders, those 
 plain democratic people were on their part 
 
INDIGNATION. 75 
 
 only half-ready to receive this aristocratic South- 
 erner as commander. But his noble soldierly 
 bearing won confidence and admiration every- 
 where. 
 
 And when, on the third of July, seated on his 
 splendid horse, under the great elm tree, now 
 famous as the ** Washington Elm," he took 
 command of the American army, there was 
 genuine enthusiasm for the American com- 
 mander-in-chief. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 REBELLION. 
 
 Force was to be matched against force. The 
 indignant colonists were determined that the 
 British troops should be driven from their 
 midst. General Gage and his twelve thousand 
 red coats must be dislodged from the city of 
 Boston. This was the task of the new com- 
 mander-in-chief 
 
 With an army twenty thousand strong of 
 such men as had fought the Battle of Bunker 
 Hill the undertaking seemed possible enough. 
 The people expected to give the parent country 
 a prompt and efficient rebuke. General Wash- 
 ington found the Continental troops in great 
 disorder and confusion. 
 
 His force must be organized and drilled be- 
 fore it could be used to advantage. On actual 
 count the reputed twenty thousand men proved 
 
 to be but fourteen thousand. In giving direc- 
 
 76 
 
REBELLION. 77 
 
 tions for the welcome of General Washington, 
 John Adams had written : '' The whole army, 
 I think, should be drawn up in line on the 
 occasion, and all the pride, pomp, and circum- 
 stances of glorious war displayed ; no powder 
 burned, however." 
 
 That last clause had a terrible signification. 
 When General Washington learned that he 
 had taken command of an army without gun- 
 powder, he is said not to have spoken for half 
 an hour. His situation was most distressing. 
 The fact that he was without powder must be 
 kept with the utmost secrecy, lest some hint of 
 it should reach the enemy. 
 
 The colonists, the soldiers themselves, could 
 not know the true reason why the insulting 
 roar of the enemy's cannon was answered with 
 silence : why days and weeks and months 
 passed without action. While messengers 
 were hurrying over the land to secure powder, 
 the intrenchments were being strengthened, the 
 men drilled, and the camp reduced to military 
 order. 
 
 General Washington, with his great thorough- 
 
78 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 ness and genius for detail, found almost baffling 
 difficulties in the way of this accomplishment. 
 Many of the volunteers were youths from New 
 England farms, who had come to war eager for 
 battle, but not ready to endure the hardships 
 of a long encampment. 
 
 They deserted in great numbers, and when 
 the period of enlistment was ended many 
 refused to re-enlist, so that really a new army 
 had to be recruited and a new beginning made 
 with discipline. General Washington was ex- 
 ceedingly strict, but his magnificent presence 
 excited the soldiers' awe, and his personal 
 courage roused their enthusiasm. 
 
 Once, while talking with some officers at head- 
 quarters, he received word that a serious dis- 
 turbance was taking place between some New 
 England troops and the newly arrived com- 
 panies from Virginia, on the commons near the 
 college. 
 
 Making an excuse to his officers, he sprang 
 on his always-ready horse and was off for the 
 scene of action with such speed that his friends 
 and attendants had difficulty in keeping up 
 
REBELLION. 79 
 
 with him. They found about a thousand men 
 engaged in a scuffle with fists, and stones, and 
 snowballs. An attendant ran forward to let 
 down the bars, but General Washington spurred 
 his horse and the thoroughbred cleared bars, 
 boy and all, with a bound, and landed the 
 general in the midst of the mutineers like a 
 thunderbolt. 
 
 He was off his horse in an instant and had 
 two great brawny fellows by the throat, shaking 
 them and rebuking them in a way that brought 
 them and all observers very promptly to their 
 senses. There were troubles, however, that 
 could not be settled so easily by a strong arm. 
 
 Some of the officers were local politicians 
 with no patriotism and no courage, attracted to 
 the war, by the opportunities it offered for dis- 
 honest gain. Their cupidity and cowardice 
 angered the high-principled General Washing- 
 ton, and he watched sharply for fraud, and 
 punished it relentlessly, however popular and 
 influential the offender might be. 
 
 But the power above him, the Continental 
 Congress, gave General Washington the most 
 
80 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 trouble. He tried to impress upon Congress 
 the necessity of long terms of enlistment, as 
 the volunteers were no sooner made ready for 
 service than their term was over, and the work 
 of training had all to be done over again with 
 new men. 
 
 He tried, too, to show the necessity of a 
 higher quality of men for officers and, con- 
 sequently, the need of more liberal salaries, and 
 the necessity of better equipment for private 
 soldiers. But Congress was so afraid of the 
 army's becoming too powerful that it handi- 
 capped the commander-in-chief at every turn. 
 
 It was well that the British generals. Gage 
 and Howe, remained inactive while General 
 Washington was mastering the difficulties that 
 beset him. When spring came he was ready 
 for action, and on the night of the fourth of 
 March he conducted a detachment of twelve 
 hundred men to Dorchester Heights, to throw 
 up intrenchments and station themselves in a 
 place from which their cannon could command 
 the city. 
 
 General Washington feared discovery and 
 
REBELLION. 8 1 
 
 had his men in position ready to meet an attack 
 should the British take the alarm. But the men 
 worked through the night at Dorchester Neck 
 without interruption, and the British looked 
 out at daybreak to see the American entrench- 
 ments frowning upon them. Their dismay 
 was complete. It seemed almost as if Aladdin 
 with his magic lamp must have come true. 
 
 General Howe said it must have taken 
 twelve thousand men to do the work ; that his 
 entire army could not have done in a month so 
 much as the Americans had achieved in a single 
 night. General Washington's highest expecta- 
 tions were realized. These raw country boys 
 had shown their general that they could work 
 with a will when real business w^as afoot. 
 
 He half expected an advance from the British, 
 but a storm prevented such a step on the 
 enemy's part, and General Washington made 
 good use of the time thereby to push on the 
 work of entrenchment, and made the fortifica- 
 tions so strong that the British gave up hope 
 of storming them. An occasional shell from 
 General Washington's guns soon warned the 
 
82 GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
 
 British commander that to save his men 
 from total destruction he must make a hasty 
 departure. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 17th of March, the hated 
 red-coats left the crooked streets of Boston. 
 This brought general rejoicing to the colonies ; 
 and General Washington's wisdom and general- 
 ship were the theme of the hour. Those who 
 had criticised him most severely were now 
 ready with congratulations and well-deserved 
 praise. 
 
 No one knew better than General Washing- 
 ton how great was the work he had done. He 
 summed up his winter's achievement in this 
 telling sentence : '' To maintain a post within 
 musket-shot of the enemy for six months to- 
 gether, without powder, and at the same time 
 to disband one army and recruit another within 
 that distance of twenty-odd British regiments, 
 is more, probably, than was ever attempted 
 before." 
 
 But he did not rest on his laurels. He knew 
 that the war was not over ; and began hurrying 
 troops to New York. That city was the strong- 
 
REBELLION. 83 
 
 hold of the Tory interest in the north, and he 
 rightly conjectured that it would be the objective 
 point of General Howe when he returned with 
 a fresh force. Here he had to do again much 
 the same work that he had done at Cambridge. 
 
 There was this added difficulty that New 
 York was full of British sympathizers who did 
 everything in their power to annoy and handi- 
 cap the Americans. General Washington re- 
 garded the Tories as traitors and treated them 
 with severity. 
 
 The long winter's experience, the restlessness 
 and insolence of the British, and their cruelty 
 to American prisoners of war, had convinced 
 him that there could be no permanent healing 
 of the breach between the colonies and Eng- 
 land. The hatred had become too deep and 
 bitter, the wrongs too grievous to be forgiven 
 or forgotten. 
 
 i He saw quite clearly that the war had best 
 be fought to the end and that the issue was not 
 one of the right of exemption from taxation, 
 but of absolute independence. When he was 
 called to Philadelphia by Congress to give his 
 
84 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 opinion concerning the management of the 
 Indians during the war, a campaign against 
 Canada, and the treatment of prisoners of war, 
 he did his best to make Congress see that, while 
 these were important questions, the question 
 of the end for which they were fighting was the 
 most important of all. 
 
 It was with solemn joy that he welcomed the 
 Declaration of Independence and read it to his 
 assembled troops, amidst great rejoicing. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 I The Americans were still rejoicing over the 
 I Declaration of Independence, when General 
 \ Howe appeared with a large force, and, sailing 
 up the Hudson, landed his troops on Staten 
 Island. One of his first acts was to send to 
 General Washington a letter addressed to 
 '' George Washington, Esq." 
 
 Now General Washington had no disposition 
 to see one of the foremost representatives of 
 the new government treated without full re- 
 spect, so he promptly returned the letter with 
 the reply that there was no person of that 
 address in the army. As General Howe had 
 been instructed not to recognize the American 
 commander-in-chief by his title, this put an end 
 to communication between them. 
 
 Congress thanked General Washington for 
 his conduct on this occasion and refused to 
 
 S3 
 
86 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 consider the proposals for peace brought by 
 General Howe. The days for reconciliation 
 were past; the struggle for independence had 
 begun. The prospect w^as not an encouraging 
 one. 
 
 The British general had a large fleet and a 
 well-trained, well-equipped army at his com- 
 mand and limitless resources to draw upon. 
 The American general, with his motley, ever 
 changing host of raw recruits, saw the difficulty 
 of holding the unfortified disaffected city of 
 New York. He would have burned the city 
 had Congress been willing, but, thwarted in that 
 plan, he was compelled to take the defensive 
 and to make the capture of the city as difficult 
 for the enemy as possible. 
 
 Believing an advance might be made by way 
 of Long Island, he stationed a force at Brook- 
 lyn under General Greene. The movement 
 General Washington anticipated occurred. The 
 British surprised the Americans on Long 
 Island and after a sharp engagment took 
 over one thousand of them prisoners. They 
 delayed storming the entrenchments, however, 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 87 
 
 and General Washington brought over from 
 New York strong reinforcements. 
 
 But learning that the British fleet was 
 making some movement and realizing the 
 danger of being surrounded and entrapped 
 by the British, he determined to retreat to New 
 York. To do that he must procure boats and 
 transport nine thousand men across a broad, 
 swift channel within a few hundred yards of 
 the enemy. It was a hazardous undertaking; 
 the risk was great, but it was the only possible 
 way to escape. 
 
 A dense fog arose and that hastened General 
 Washington's movements. All night he super- 
 intended the loading of the boats and grimly 
 watched the heavy, silent specks as they slipped 
 out into the fog, and as morning came he took 
 his place on the last boat. For forty-eight 
 hours he had not closed his eyes, had, in fact, 
 scarcely left the saddle. 
 
 The anxiety he had suffered for the safety of 
 his army had been terrible. But the danger 
 was over and he was a devoutedly thankful 
 man. The chagrin of the British when they 
 
88 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 awoke in the morning to find their prey had 
 escaped and the trenches empty was unspeak- 
 able. 
 
 The wonder and the admiration roused by 
 General Washington's masterly retreat went 
 far to overcome the depression and discourage- 
 ment to which the tidings of the great loss of 
 men on Long Island had given rise among the 
 colonists. 
 
 General Washington congratulated himself 
 that September had come and he had held the 
 enemy at New York so long that it was scarcely 
 likely that they would undertake to make any 
 serious incursions into the country before going, 
 into winter-quarters. The taking of the city 
 could not, however, be delayed much longer, 
 so General Washington held his men in readi- 
 ness for instant retreat: 
 
 He had no intention, however, of retreating 
 before it was necessary, and when a detachment 
 of British made an attack. General Washing- 
 ton in person rushed to the front to help 
 repulse the skirmishing party. The untried 
 militia were panic stricken. General Washing- 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 89 
 
 ton was enraged to see them fleeing like 
 cowards. 
 
 He commanded them, he beat them with his 
 sword after the manner of Braddock on that 
 fatal day long passed, but all in vain. They 
 fled, leaving him alone in the very presence of 
 the enemy. Later the British took Fort Wash- 
 ington and the American army was obliged to 
 withdraw toward the capital. The American 
 cause looked hopeless. 
 
 The soldiers were dispirited, and deserted in 
 great numbers. Many of the New Jersey 
 people indicated their loss of confidence and 
 their alarm by tacking red rags on their doors 
 to show that they were the king's loyal sub- 
 jects. Every day the condition became more 
 desperate. On the twentieth of December 
 General Washington wrote to Congress that 
 ten days would put an end to the existence of 
 the army. 
 
 In this dark hour all who looked for success 
 in the struggle pinned their faith in General 
 Washington. Hitherto Congress had limited 
 his power jealously. In this emergency it con- 
 
90 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 ferred upon him almost unlimited power for 
 a period of six months. The leader was 
 worthy of the trust. This strong, resourceful 
 man was well-nigh indomitable. 
 
 In extremity he showed his mettle. The 
 journey across the ice-encumbered Delaware 
 in open boats, the surprise of the Hessians at 
 Trenton after their Christmas night revels, the 
 brilliant maneuvers at Princeton, renewed the 
 courage of the army and the country. The 
 cause was saved. 
 
 General Washington's success not only 
 electrified America, but Europe. Frederick 
 the Great is said to have pronounced the 
 Trenton campaign the most brilliant of the 
 century. Many a daring French youth deter- 
 mined to seek a commission under the great 
 American general. 
 
 Still, the condition of the army was too 
 critical to be materially remedied by the great- 
 est generalship. General Washington had no 
 hope of conducting an aggressive campaign. 
 His plan now was to keep an army together 
 in the field with which to harass the British. 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 9I 
 
 To do this required effort, and for years 
 General Washington worked against obstacles 
 and discouragements that would have over- 
 whelmed any but this invincible man. But he 
 had no thought of surrender. Indeed, he 
 declared that rather than yield he would cross 
 the Susquehanna River and the Allegheny 
 Mountains, if need be the Mississippi, and 
 found an independent empire on its farther 
 shore. 
 
 Though always impatient with disloyalty or 
 cowardice in his men, he had a father's sym- 
 pathy and care for them in their trials and 
 hardships, and the soldiers and common people 
 loved him with a sort of hero worship. Indeed, 
 not a little jealousy and even alarm was felt 
 in some quarters because of the people's 
 devotion to him. 
 
 During the terrible winter when he was 
 holding together the fragments of an army of 
 barefooted, half-starved men at Valley Forge, 
 a plot was formed to deprive him of his com- 
 mand and supplement him by General Gates. 
 Men that he trusted were in this plot, but a 
 
92 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 loyal friend disclosed the affair to General 
 Washington. He had but to write to the 
 leader, calmly informing him that he was aware 
 of his treachery. The possibility of the matter 
 being made public was enough to end it. 
 
 Still, there were many who feared and 
 resented the almost unlimited authority of the 
 commander-in-chief, and they did what they 
 could to check and embarrass his undertakings. 
 To personal slights and indignities he rose 
 superior. He was too truly great to falter or 
 recoil because of the malice or even the 
 treachery of others. 
 
 When his trusted officer, Benedict Arnold, 
 turned traitor. General Washington was as firm 
 and inflexible as justice itself in his attitude 
 toward Arnold and his accomplice, Major 
 Andre. 
 
 When Lee proved insubordinate if not trai- 
 torous at Monmouth, General Washington, far 
 from being unmanned by the blow, redoubled 
 his ordinary energy of mind and limb and was 
 all of General Washington and more than Lee 
 besides. 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE, 93 
 
 Men likened him to an angel from heaven 
 as in his terrible wrath and glorious courage 
 he led that day's battle. When Hamilton was 
 petulant and angry, General Washington seems 
 not to have been tempted to be other than 
 magnanimous and kind. But enmity and dis- 
 loyalty toward General Washington were the 
 exception. 
 
 Where one was jealous or hostile many 
 were devoted. Tilgham, Morgan, and La 
 Fayette were not exceptions ; most of his 
 officers revered and loved him. He was the 
 people's idol. Their gratitude and trust were 
 precious to him, but in no petty way; he 
 sought not to acquire but to deserve their 
 affection. 
 
 The long-drawn-out war had strained the 
 resources of the country, and the people had 
 sunk into a state of indifference, from which 
 General Washington saw they could not be 
 aroused except by a signal victory. 
 
 He believed a defeat at this time would be 
 fatal to the cause for which he had worked so 
 devotedly. He was, therefore, unwilling to 
 
94 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 hazard an engagement unless reasonably sure 
 of success. 
 
 General Clinton with a strong force held 
 New York. General Cornwallis with another 
 strong force was stationed at ^ Yorktown. 
 General Washington was watching General 
 Clinton, while Generals Greene and La Fayette 
 were in the South, w^here they received only 
 faint-hearted support from the Americans. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, who was then Governor 
 of Virginia, wrote General Washington urging 
 him to come in person to Virginia, saying that 
 were he there " the difficulty would be to keep 
 men out of the field." And that was exactly 
 what General Washington intended to do. 
 But he took great pains to give the enemy and 
 even his own countrymen the id^a that he 
 was preparing to attack General Clinton in 
 New York. 
 
 He was meanwhile secretly arranging to 
 concentrate the entire force at his command, 
 including his own army and the troops and 
 fleet of our French allies, in Virginia. With 
 wonderful secrecy and sureness General Wash- 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 95 
 
 ington planned every detail of the campaign. 
 There must be no slip. With great satisfaction 
 he saw his carefully laid plans being realized, 
 and believed General Cornwallis would soon be 
 within his grasp. 
 
 During the siege of Yorktown, General 
 Washington, of course, took no part in the 
 fighting, but he showed his usual indifference 
 to danger. 
 
 One of his aides seeing him standing in an 
 exposed place begged him to step back a little. 
 He replied quietly, ** You have the liberty to 
 step back, sir, if you wish," but kept his stand, 
 watching the progress of the battle. 
 
 When the redoubts were taken and the sur- 
 render of the city assured General Washington 
 remarked, ** The work is done, and well done : 
 bring my horse." It was in one sense done. 
 
 On the seventeenth of October, 1781, 
 General Cornwallis surrendered to General 
 Washington. General Washington spared 
 General Cornwallis unnecessary humiliation 
 and the ceremony of the laying down of their 
 arms was made as little public as possible. 
 
96 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 This surrender was a crushing blow to the 
 British and was virtually the end of the war. 
 The victor nevertheless considered this no time 
 for idle rejoicing. There was business calling 
 him North. For a few days he was detained 
 in the South by a personal sorrow. His wife's 
 only son had been stricken with camp fever 
 while on duty at Yorktown and now lay dying 
 at Eltham. 
 
 Mrs. Washington was overcome with grief, 
 and General Washington, taking her in his 
 arms, declared, '' From this moment I adopt 
 his two youngest children as my own." After 
 a brief visit at Mount Vernon, General Wash- 
 ington went North. 
 
 He agreed with Benjamin Franklin's state- 
 ment : " The English are unable to carry on 
 the war and too proud to make peace." He 
 saw the necessity of overcoming that pride by 
 keeping up a good show of readiness to go on 
 with the war. He said, *' If we are wise let us 
 prepare for the worst. There is nothing which 
 will so soon produce a speedy and honorable 
 peace as a state of preparation for war; and 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 97 
 
 we must either do this or lay our account for 
 a patched-up, inglorious peace after all the toil, 
 blood, and treasure we have spent." 
 
 His theory prevailed in Congress and the 
 army was kept together with promises of pay. 
 Congress, however, treated the army with such 
 neglect that large numbers of officers would 
 have resigned had it not been for the influence 
 of General Washincrton. Learninc^ that their 
 discontent was about to find expression in such 
 a move, he called them together and made 
 them an address. 
 
 Before beginning to read he remarked: 
 " Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my 
 spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but 
 almost blind in the service of my country." 
 He then proceeded to read a moving declara- 
 tion of the identity of his interests with theirs, 
 of appreciation for what they had done, and 
 sympathy in their struggle for just recognition 
 of their services. 
 
 Those battle-scarred men were moved to 
 tears by the generosity and patriotism of the 
 man who had endured so much more than any 
 
98 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 of them, and they were dissuaded from their 
 purpose„ Not only was the army dissatisfied 
 with Congress, the people also gave the 
 Government but feeble support. 
 
 At this juncture a proposal was secretly 
 made to General Washington that he take the 
 government into his own hands. Had he been 
 a Cromwell the matter would have been easily 
 accomplished. Being General Washington, 
 he rejected the proposal with displeasure. 
 
 However impatient he might become with 
 the actions of Congress, he always respected 
 what Congress stood for. He had not been 
 toiling all these years to give America up to 
 one-man power. He understood that this was 
 not the nation's wish. On the twenty-third of 
 March he received word that the treaty of 
 peace had been signed, and officially the war 
 was over. 
 
 But it was not until the twenty-fifth of 
 November, 1783, that the British army left 
 and General Washington and his troops took 
 possession of New York. He sent out an 
 eloquent farewell address to his army, and 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 99 
 
 made a brief speech to his officers. The part- 
 ing was deeply felt on both sides. He then 
 went to Annapolis to lay down his commission. 
 On the twenty-third of December, 1783, he 
 stood before the assembled Congress and sur- 
 rendered the office he had made so illustrious. 
 
 LOFC. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 The prospect of quiet life at Mount Vernon 
 had seemed most alluring to General Wash- 
 ington during the years of responsibility and 
 turmoil through which he had passed. And 
 now he gladly went back to his farm. The 
 surrender of his commission, however, could 
 not release him from the claims of the public. 
 
 He wrote to his mother: *' My house is at 
 your service, and I would press you most 
 sincerely and most devoutly to accept it, but 
 I am sure, and candor requires me to say, it 
 will never answer your purpose in any shape 
 whatsoever. For, in truth, it may be compared 
 to a well-resorted tavern, as scarcely any 
 strangers who are going from North to South, 
 or from South to West, do not spend a day 
 or two at it." 
 
 Thus friends and admirers found him out 
 
 100 
 
THE PRESIDENT. 10 1 
 
 in his retreat. Among his guests were distin- 
 guished men of all sorts. Not infrequently 
 artists came that way, and he has left an amus- 
 ing account of his attitude toward having his 
 portrait painted: "I am so hackneyed to the 
 touches of painter's pencil," he wrote, ''that 
 I am now altogether at their beck, and sit 
 like Patience on a monument whilst they are 
 delineating the lines of my face. 
 
 ** It is a proof among many others of what 
 habit and custom can accomplish. At first 
 I was as impatient* at the request and as restive 
 under the operation as a colt is of the saddle. 
 The next time I submitted very reluctantly 
 but with less flouncing. Now, no dray-horse 
 moves more readily to his thill than I to the 
 painter's chair." 
 
 Many a traveller of that day has written in 
 the notes of his journey some significant 
 comments on his Mount Vernon host. One 
 tells how he was distressed with a cough while 
 a guest of the house, and how, as he lay cough- 
 ing in his bed, he heard some one enter the 
 room, and, drawing his bedcurtains, looked 
 
[02 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 out to find the dignified General Washington 
 standing beside him with a bowl of hot tea. 
 
 General Washington saw in a few months 
 many influential men under his own roof. 
 Further, he carried on an extensive correspond- 
 ence with men actively engaged with the 
 government of the confederacy. It is, then, 
 not surprising that when a convention for 
 drawing up a constitution for the United States 
 was decided upon. General George Washing- 
 ton was called to preside over its meetings. 
 
 The convention was made up of delegates 
 from the several States. It lasted for four 
 months. Some of the members were in favor 
 of a strong central government ; others favored 
 leaving the States more independent of one 
 another. General Washington had learned 
 from the troubles and successes of war the 
 weakness of separation and the power of 
 union. He supported the Federal side. 
 
 Now that the Union was at last created, a 
 President must be chosen. There were in 
 America two men above party, trusted by 
 the whole people : the philosopher, Benjamin 
 
THE PRESIDENT. IO3 
 
 Franklin, and the soldier, General George 
 Washington. Both were considered worthy 
 of the honor, but General Washington ''was 
 first in the hearts of his countrymen," and he, 
 whose extensive talents Jefferson pronounced 
 "superior to those of any man in the world" 
 was chosen almost unanimously for the grave 
 responsibility of launching the new ship of 
 state. 
 
 In all humility, as General Washington meas- 
 ured his powers with the requirements of so 
 high a trust, he felt some misgivings. But at 
 the same time he knew that circumstances had 
 made him the one man best fitted to do the 
 critical work of binding the various States into 
 a strong, enduring union, and he had no thought 
 of shirking the responsibility. 
 
 His journey to New York was a continued 
 ovation. The evidence that people gave their 
 enthusiastic love and trust moved General 
 Washington deeply. Concerning his welcome 
 in New York, he wrote : '' The display of boats 
 which attended and joined us on this occasion, 
 some with vocal and some with instrumental 
 
104 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 music on board ; the decoration of the ships ; 
 the roar of cannon, and the loud acclamations 
 of the people, which rent the skies as I passed 
 along the wharves, filled my mind with sensa- 
 tions as painful (considering the reverse of this 
 scene, which may be the case after all my 
 labors to do good) as they were pleasing." 
 
 On the thirtieth of April he was inaugurated 
 on the balcony of the City Hall. The beloved 
 blue-and-buff uniform worn on his journey 
 had been changed for a citizen's dress of brown 
 cloth of American make ; he wore, however, 
 a steel-hilted sword. After General Washing- 
 ton had taken the oath of office, Chancellor 
 Livingston, who had administered it, stepped 
 forward and cried with upraised hand, *' Long 
 live George Washington, President of the 
 United States." 
 
 The watching crowd below took up the 
 shout ; cannon roared a salute ; bells rang, and 
 all was hope and joy. As there never had been 
 a President of the United States, there were 
 no fixed customs to follow. President Wash- 
 ington felt that all that he did would be criti- 
 
THE PRESIDENT, IO5 
 
 cally observed and that his conduct would set 
 a standard for those who followed him. 
 
 What the President should wear, with what 
 degree of elegance he should drive abroad, 
 how he should receive his guests, by what title 
 he should be addressed, were questions of 
 sufficient importance to concern the public. 
 
 Fortunately President Washington was a 
 man of excellent taste and great dignity, and 
 his solution of these problems was always 
 admirable. Democratic in theory, he was in- 
 flexibly opposed to the conferring of titles of 
 nobility. By temperament an aristocrat, he 
 would brook no familiarity. 
 
 Hamilton once remarked that President 
 Washington was most austere in his relations 
 even with his friends. Morris objected, assert- 
 ing that he was as much at ease with the 
 President as with any man. At that Hamilton 
 offered to give him and twelve friends a dinner 
 if he would approach President Washington, 
 slap him gently on the shoulder, and remark : 
 ''Well, General, I'm glad to see you looking so 
 well." One evening Morris tried the experi- 
 
I06 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 ment; whereupon the President withdrew his 
 hand, stepped back, and gave his friend a look 
 of surprise and displeasure that made it quite 
 clear to him that he was rebuked. 
 
 With such a temperament as this incident 
 reveals, it is not likely that the new President 
 would err on the side of want of dignity. In- 
 deed, President Washington and his "Lady" 
 were fully equal to their social responsibilities 
 in those days of stately ceremony. 
 
 In the early experience of General Washing- 
 ton, when commander-in-chief of the army, he 
 had been criticised for yielding his own judg- 
 ment too readily and acting upon the advice 
 of his generals. As President he did not make 
 that mistake. It was said of him that while he 
 sought information from all, he was influenced 
 by none. 
 
 He made his appointments independently 
 and wisely. In affairs of state he acted upon 
 his own conviction of right against the opposi- 
 tion of his friends and advisers. This was 
 especially true in his conduct with reference to 
 the French during the French Revolution. 
 
THE PRESIDENT. IO7 
 
 Many were in favor of returning to the 
 French in their struggle for liberty the sym- 
 pathy and aid they had so generously given 
 us. President Washington felt the generous 
 desire as strongly as any, but he had taken the 
 presidency with the resolve to see the new 
 Republic firmly established. 
 
 He was determined that he would not sac- 
 rifice the welfare of his own nation to that of 
 others ; if he could prevent it the United States 
 should not become embroiled in disputes with 
 other nations. 
 
 In spite of threatened unpopularity he did 
 not waver, and when, after eight years of service 
 as chief executive, he refused another term of 
 office, his farewell address was based on this 
 idea: the importance of union at home and 
 the absolute political independence of foreign 
 powers abroad. 
 
 He foresaw more clearly than many men of 
 his time the great future of the United States, 
 the possibility of growth and development in 
 this western continent, and the peril of alliance 
 with European nations before the elements of 
 
I08 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 our Union were more firmly cemented and 
 developed. On the thirteenth day of Decem- 
 ber, 1799, after a single day's illness, the great 
 and illustrious George Washington died at 
 Mount Vernon, Virginia. 
 
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
The Story of the Author of the 
 Declaration of Independence. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 By miss FRANCES M. PERRY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson celebrated his twenty- 
 first birthday by planting an avenue of shade 
 trees in front of the old homestead, Shadwell, 
 as the place was called ; it was his now, to make 
 as beautiful as he liked. 
 
 Doubtless, on that bright thirteenth of April, 
 the tall, fair-haired youth thought eagerly of 
 the future when those sapplings should be 
 towering trees, and other changes should be 
 made. But he must have thought of the past, 
 too; for in that homely old house, with its 
 great chimneys and many-paned windows, he 
 was born. 
 
1 1 2 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 With it were connected many memories of 
 his childhood, one at least dating back to his 
 very babyhood. He remembered quite dis- 
 tinctly, just there where the blacks were busily 
 shoveling the earth over the roots of that 
 young locust, being lifted up on a pillow when 
 only two years old, to be taken in the arms 
 of a mounted slave on the long journey to 
 Tuckahoe. 
 
 As he looked at the rich fields stretching 
 away on all sides of the house he must have 
 smiled if he remembered a certain deed filed 
 away with his important business papers. For 
 that deed solemnly witnessed that his father 
 had ** purchased those 400 acres from William 
 Randolph for Henry Weatherbourne's biggest 
 bowl of arrack punch." 
 
 He loved to think about that father, the hero 
 of his early boyhood, whose companionship 
 and guidance he had of late years sorely 
 missed. And Peter Jefferson was a man any 
 son must needs have loved and respected. 
 He belonged to a good but undistinguished 
 Virginia family. Being a younger son, his 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 1 3 
 
 education had been neglected and he had 
 inherited no wealth. 
 
 But he had ability to acquire what had not 
 been provided for him. He had a natural 
 aptitude for study and knew more about math- 
 ematics and literature than many a graduate of 
 William and Mary College. He had a strong, 
 free nature that easily won the confidence and 
 affections of men of all classes. 
 
 Among Peter Jefferson's many friends were 
 the Randolphs. Now the Randolphs be- 
 longed to the aristocracy of old Virginia. 
 They were proud of their blue blood, of their 
 wealth and of their worth. And they had 
 good reason for their pride. Few families 
 could boast so many distinguished ancestors 
 and living members, so much cultivation, and 
 so much achievement. 
 
 Peter Jefferson was the intimate friend of 
 William Randolph, of Tuckahoe, and was 
 frequently a guest at the home of William's 
 uncle, John Randolph, whose daughter Jane 
 he sought in marriage. 
 
 We are told that John Randolph was a 
 
1 14 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 scholarly gentleman and lived handsomely and 
 luxuriously, with more than a hundred servants 
 to do his bidding. 
 
 We find the following mention of him in a 
 letter written from London, England, to the 
 naturalist, Bartram, who was traveling in Amer- 
 ica: "When thee proceeds home, I know no 
 person will make thee more welcome than 
 Isham Randolph. He lives thirty or forty 
 miles above the falls of James River, in Gooch- 
 land, above the other settlements. Now, I 
 take his house to be a very suitable place to 
 make a settlement at, for to take several days 
 excursions all round and to return to his house 
 at night." 
 
 "One thing I must desire of thee and do 
 insist that thee oblige me therein : that thou 
 make up thy drugget clothes, to go to Virginia 
 in and not appear to disgrace thyself or me; 
 for though I should not esteem thee the less 
 to come to me in what dress thou will, yet 
 these Virginians are a very gentle, well-dressed 
 people, and look, perhaps, more at a man's 
 outside than his inside. For these and other 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 1 5 
 
 reasons pray go very clean, and handsomely 
 dressed to Virginia." 
 
 However much Isham Randolph esteemed 
 a fair exterior and material things, he could 
 appreciate manliness and worth of character, 
 too, and he made no objections when Peter 
 Jefferson asked for his daughter's hand. 
 Young Peter Jefferson and William Randolph 
 secured large tracts of Virginia land adjoining 
 each other. 
 
 Randolph patented 2400 acres, Jefferson, 
 1000. Jefferson's plantation was on the Ri- 
 vanna; it was largely made up of fertile 
 fields, but ran back into the foothills of the 
 Blue Ridge mountains and included the entire 
 hill, or mountain, that afterward became known 
 and famous as Monticello. But beautiful as 
 the situation was, Peter Jefferson, apparently, 
 did not find a building site to suit his taste, for 
 he built his home on the land given him by 
 William Randolph for a bowl of punch. 
 
 As soon as the house was finished, Peter 
 Jefferson married Jane Randolph and brought 
 her out on the frontier to live. Thomas Jeffer- 
 
1 1 6 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 son, their third child, was born on the thirteenth 
 of April, 1743. ' 
 
 But Shadwell was not the scene of all of 
 Thomas Jefferson's boyhood. When he was 
 but two years old his father's friend, William 
 Randolph, died. His dying request was that 
 Peter Jefterson should take charge of his great 
 estate at Tuckahoe and be the guardian of his 
 young son. 
 
 To do this it was necessary that Peter Jeffer- 
 son should live at Tuckahoe. Accordingly he 
 moved his family there, and for seven years de- 
 voted a large part of his time to executing the 
 trust of his friend, which he did without pay. 
 
 Aside from farming, Peter Jefferson did a 
 great deal of surveying. He made the first 
 reliable map of Virginia which had ever been 
 made. While living at Tuckahoe he was 
 appointed a member of a commission to survey 
 the boundary line between North Carolina and 
 Virginia. He was often away from home on 
 difficult and even dangerous surveying expedi- 
 tions. 
 
 Little Thomas Jefferson never wearied of 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 1 / 
 
 hearing tales of his encounters with wild 
 beasts, of nights spent in trees for safety, of 
 days of journeying through unbroken forests 
 with only an Indian for a comrade. In the 
 community that grew up near Shadwell, Peter 
 Jefferson was a leader. He was a justice of 
 the peace, colonel of the militia, and member 
 of the House of Burgesses of Virginia. 
 
 His position as colonel of the militia brought 
 him into contact with the Indians. Important 
 chiefs were often entertained at his hospitable 
 home. Thus Thomas Jefferson's interest in 
 the red man may be traced to his early child- 
 hood, when he saw the chiefs in his father's 
 house and visited their camps in the woods. 
 
 Peter Jefferson took great interest in his 
 son's physical development; he taught him 
 to ride and swim and to take long w^alks. He 
 often said that men who have strong bodies 
 are most apt to have strong, free minds. His 
 own strength was the wonder and delight of 
 his son. 
 
 He could pass between two hogsheads of 
 tobacco, lying on their sides, and lift them, 
 
Il8 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 both at the same time, to an upright position, 
 though each weighed almost one thousand 
 pounds. One day when he was directing three 
 slaves to pull down an old shed with a rope, 
 growing impatient with their futile efforts to 
 do the work, he siezed the rope and, single- 
 handed, brought the structure down with a 
 crash. 
 
 But Peter Jefferson desired strength for his 
 son as a means to an end. When the lad was 
 only five years old he was sent to a good 
 school where he had to work hard. As he 
 grew older he showed unusual ability. This 
 delighted the father, who read and talked with 
 him and took pains to excite in him a true 
 ambition for knowledge. When Thomas was 
 fourteen years old his father suddenly died. 
 
 The boy now studied under Mr. Maury. 
 He made rapid progress and was his teacher's 
 pride. He was popular with boys of his own 
 age, and was the darling of his mother and 
 his older sister, Jane. Indeed, he seemed in a 
 fair way to be spoiled ; but his father had 
 kindled in him ambitions that were easily 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON. I 1 9 
 
 fanned into flame, and at the age of seventeen 
 he wrote his guardian the following letter : 
 
 " Shadwell, January 14, 1760. 
 
 ''Sir. — I was at colo, Peter Randolph's about a fortnight 
 ago, and my SchooHng faUing into Discourse, he said he 
 thought it would be to my Advantage to go to the college, 
 and was desirous I should go, as indeed I am myself for 
 several Reasons. In the first place as long as I stay at the 
 Mountain, the loss of one-fourth of my Time is inevitable, by 
 company's coming here and detaining me from School. And 
 likewise my absence will in a great measure put a stop to so 
 much company, and by that means lessen the expense of the 
 Estate in House-keeping. 
 
 '* And on the other hand by going to college, I shall get a 
 more universal acquaintance, which may hereafter be service- 
 able to me ; and I suppose I can pursue my Studies in the 
 Greek and Latin as well there as here, and likewise learn 
 something of the Mathematics. I shall be glad of your 
 opinion, and remain Sir, your most humble servant. 
 
 "THOMAS JEFFERSON, Jr. 
 
 "To Mr. John YIymnyn^ at Bellemont:^ 
 
 The college referred to in this letter was 
 William and Mary College, in Williamsburg. 
 Mr. Hervey thought Thomas Jefferson's plan 
 a good one, and the boy accordingly became 
 a student in that institution. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 COLLEGE DAYS. 
 
 The distance from Shadwell to Williams- 
 burg seemed greater in 1760 than in these days 
 of steam engines and electric cars. A traveler 
 in those days usually allowed himself time 
 for one or two visits on the way. It was 
 winter when Thomas Jefferson first took the 
 journey with William and Mary College for 
 his goal. 
 
 He stopped at Hanover to make one of a 
 merry party spending the Christmas holidays 
 at the home of Colonel Dandridge. The visit 
 was a memorable one for Thomas Jefferson 
 not only because he had a very good time, 
 but also because it was here that he first met 
 Patrick Henry. 
 
 Patrick Henry was then an uncouth-looking 
 country lad whose principal object in life 
 seemed to be to have a good time and to 
 
COLLEGE DAYS. 121 
 
 furnish amusement to others. Perhaps Thomas 
 Jefferson discovered that the big rustic had a 
 serious as well as a comic side ; at any rate, 
 he liked him and their friendship dated from 
 that visit. 
 
 Williamsburg was the capital of the colony, 
 the town in which the royal governor lived. 
 Here rich planters from all parts of the colony 
 gathered for the regular sessions of the House 
 of Burgesses. Many brought their wives and 
 daughters with them, and some who had no 
 particular business there came to spend a few 
 weeks in the city and enjoy the balls and 
 banquets. 
 
 William and Mary College offered the best 
 educational advantages in the South, and its stu- 
 dents were promising, if not cultivated, Amer- 
 ican boys. Then, as now, some of the students 
 wanted to learn and were willing to study 
 hard; others cared more for pranks than for 
 books. At one time Thomas Jefferson wrote 
 a friend ''that all was excitement at the college 
 and several boys had run away to escape 
 ilagellation." 
 
122 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was not long in making 
 acquaintances at Williamsburg. He found 
 many relatives there, who vied with each other 
 in trying to make their young kinsman have 
 a good time. He accepted their hospitality 
 and went often to balls and parties, rode fine 
 horses, played the violin, and made himself 
 agreeable to the ladies. 
 
 He was a most elegant and scrupulous gal- 
 lant. It is said that when the groom brought 
 up his spirited horse for his daily ride, Thomas 
 Jefferson would brush his cambric handkerchief 
 across the animal's shoulders and if the snowy 
 linen was in the least soiled thereby he would 
 send the horse back to the stable to be groomed 
 more perfectly. He was a handsome rider and 
 loved a fine horse. 
 
 When the end of the year came, young 
 Thomas Jefferson, who had thought it would 
 be cheaper to study at Williamsburg than at 
 home, was surprised to find how much money 
 he had spent. He wrote a frank letter to his 
 guardian, acknowledging his extravagance and 
 requesting him not to take the amount from 
 
COLLEGE DAYS. 1 23 
 
 the family income, but to deduct it from his 
 share of the estate. 
 
 His indulgent guardian replied, that if this 
 was the extent of his wild oats the estate 
 could well afford to pay the bills. But Thomas 
 Jefferson was no trifler; he had a real thirst 
 for knowledge, and his interest in his college 
 courses being once thoroughly aroused there 
 was no danger of his squandering his oppor- 
 tunities for self-improvement. 
 
 For awhile he devoted nearly all his time to 
 study. He did not, however, forget altogether 
 his father's teaching about the importance of 
 exercise, and every evening at dusk he left 
 his work long enough for a brisk run to the 
 first mile-post and back. 
 
 As the result of his close application, he 
 soon came to be regarded as the most brilliant 
 student in college. He did excellent work 
 in all his classes, whether Latin, Greek, or 
 mathematics. But he enjoyed the most of all 
 the lectures on rhetoric and literature, given 
 by Dr. William Small, a scholarly Scotch 
 professor. 
 
124 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 The latter was strongly attached to this 
 gifted student, and the two spent many happy 
 hours together. Dr. Small introduced Thomas 
 Jefferson to his friend, George Wythe, at that 
 time one of the most distinguished lawyers in 
 America, and a noble, worthy gentleman. His 
 influence decided Thomas Jefferson to make 
 law his profession. 
 
 It was through Dr. Small, also, that Thomas 
 Jefferson became acquainted with Governor 
 Fauquier, a most polished gentleman, a man 
 of rare gifts and accomplishments. The latter 
 immediately took the young law student into 
 high favor. Not only was he invited to all 
 social functions at the governor's palace, but 
 he was made welcome there at any hour. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, Mr. Wythe, and Dr. Small 
 met frequently at the governor's table for 
 friendly talks on philosophy, art, books, archi- 
 tecture, or music. Thomas Jefferson was fond 
 of music on the violin. He belonged to a 
 small musical club of which Governor Fauquier 
 was a member. 
 
 In short, he saw a great deal more than 
 
COLLEGE DAYS. 1 25 
 
 would have been wise for an ordinary boy to 
 see of that brilliant but dangerous man, who 
 was a reckless gambler and is said to have 
 wielded an evil influence over the entire 
 colony. Thomas Jefferson's character must 
 have been unusually strong; for, while many 
 older men were led into gambling and other 
 evils by the example and influence of the 
 governor, this youth, his daily companion, 
 gained from him only what was good. 
 
 Years later he wrote his grandson an inter- 
 esting letter in which he told him how he 
 was able to resist the temptations that beset 
 him in those days. Here is a quotation from 
 that letter : ** When I recollect that at fourteen 
 year? of age the whole care and direction of 
 myself was thrown on myself entirely, with- 
 out a relative or friend qualified to advise or 
 guide me, and recollect the various sorts of 
 bad company with which I associated from 
 time to time, I am astonished that I did not 
 turn off* with some of them and become as 
 worthless to society as they were. 
 
 '' I had the good fortune to become acquainted 
 
126 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 very early with some characters of very high 
 standing, and to feel the incessant wish that 
 I could even become what they were. Under 
 temptation and difficulties, I would ask my- 
 self—what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, or 
 Peyton Randolph do in this situation ? What 
 course in it will insure their approbation ? 
 
 '' I am certain of this mode of deciding on 
 my conduct tended more to correctness than 
 any reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing 
 the even and dignified lives they pursued, I 
 could never doubt for a moment which of 
 two courses would be in character for them ; 
 whereas, seeking the same object through a 
 process of normal reasoning, and with the 
 jaundiced eye of youth, I should have erred. 
 
 *' From the circumstances of my position, I 
 was often thrown into the society of horse- 
 racers, card-players, fox-hunters, scientific and 
 professional men, and of dignified men ; and 
 many a time have I asked myself, in the 
 enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the 
 victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a ques- 
 tion eloquently argued at the bar, or in the 
 
COLLEGE DAYS. 12/ 
 
 great council of the nation, well, which of 
 these kinds of reputation should I prefer — that 
 of a horse jockey, a fox-hunter, an orator, or 
 the honest advocate of my country's rights ? 
 
 '*Be assured, my dear Jefferson, that these 
 little returns into ourselves, this self-catechising 
 habit, is not trifling nor useless, but leads to 
 the prudent selection and steady pursuit of 
 what is right." 
 
 Yet Thomas Jefferson was not a prig and 
 was very much respected by boys of his own 
 age. He had also many friends among the 
 Williamsburg belles and thought himself in 
 love several times, as we learn from his letters 
 to a confidential friend. 
 
 However much he enjoyed society he was 
 faithful to work. In the summer he rose 
 before it was light, just as soon as it was 
 possible to see the hands on the clock at the 
 foot of his bed ; in the winter, five was his 
 rising hour. His practice was to study four- 
 teen or fifteen hours a day. He had great 
 endurance and sometimes studied nearly all 
 night for many successive nights, but, unless 
 
128 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 there was some special reason for his keeping 
 late hours ten o'clock usually found him 
 asleep. 
 
 His vacations were spent at Shadwell. Near 
 his home was a mountain that he called Monti- 
 cello. This was his favorite resort, and he and 
 his friend, Dabney Carr, frequently took their 
 books and violins on fair summer days and 
 spent delightful hours studying and practising 
 under a splendid oak near its summit. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 PRACTISING LAW. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was by inheritance a 
 farmer; and, though he never intended to 
 make farming his chief business, he gave a 
 good deal of attention to his estate even before 
 becoming of age. He was fond of nature and 
 a keen observer, and knew much about his 
 land. 
 
 He kept a garden book in which he made 
 careful entries about the fruit and vegetables 
 raised on the place. He had many plans for 
 making the estate more beautiful. How he 
 celebrated his twenty-first birthday, we have 
 already seen. His life at Shadwell was sad- 
 dened by the death of his sister Jane, on the 
 first of October, 1765. 
 
 Jane, his oldest sister, had always been his 
 favorite. Their tastes were somewhat similar. 
 She cared for music and books, and it had been 
 
I 30 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 their custom to sing and read together. No 
 other member of the family could fill her place 
 in his affection. He found consolation in 
 work. 
 
 That he was no idler may be judged from 
 the programme he made at about this time 
 for a young friend to follow. He advised 
 him to study the natural sciences, anatomy, 
 zoology, botany, chemistry, etc., till eight o'clock 
 in the morning; to read law from eight to 
 twelve ; politics from twelve to one ; history 
 during the afternoon ; and literature, criticism, 
 and rhetoric from dark till bedtime. It was 
 his habit not only to read extensively, but 
 very carefully, and to take notes as he read. 
 
 He studied law under the guidance of his 
 friend, George Wythe, and in 1767, at the age 
 of twenty-four, was admitted to the practice 
 of law in the General Court of Virginia. He 
 was thoroughly prepared for his work and 
 did not have to wait for clients. His account 
 books show that during his first year of practice 
 he was employed on sixty-eight cases and 
 made about fifteen hundred dollars. 
 
PRACTISING LAW. 131 
 
 That was doing very well at a time when 
 money was scarce and prices were low. His 
 practice increased rapidly. Thomas Jefferson 
 was not an advocate but an office lawyer. 
 His strength was in his knowledge of law and 
 his power to reason clearly — not in making 
 moving speeches. His voice was not suited 
 to oratory; when raised above the natural 
 pitch it soon grew husky and could not be 
 heard in a large room. 
 
 But when he did plead a case he spoke in 
 such a way as to convince his hearers that 
 he supported the right side. An old Vir- 
 ginian, who had heard him speak many times, 
 was asked by one of the latter's descendants 
 whether or not Thomas Jefferson had much 
 persuasive power. He answered. ** Well, that 
 would be hard to tell, you see he always 
 happened to speak on the right side." 
 
 His ability was promptly recognized by the 
 community in which he lived. He was elected 
 a member of the House of Burgesses. He 
 was employed as attorney by some of the 
 most prominent men in the colony. While 
 
132 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 especially a collector of facts pertaining to his 
 profession he gathered zealously information 
 on all lines. 
 
 His note book was in constant use, and 
 every note was made in a fine, beautiful, 
 legible hand. Even a chance talk was often 
 made to furnish some specific and valuable 
 information. He usually encouraged a man to 
 talk on the subject best known to him and was 
 willing to learn of any one who had anything 
 to teach him. 
 
 Strangers were always impressed by the 
 variety and extent of Thomas Jefferson's infor- 
 mation. A traveler at an inn one day began 
 talking with him about trade and was sure he 
 was a merchant ; a little later the conversation 
 turned to the subject of medicine and the 
 traveler thought he must have been mistaken, 
 this man was not a merchant but a doctor ; he 
 seemed absolutely at home on whatever topic 
 was introduced. 
 
 In the winter of 1770, Shadwell was burned 
 to the ground. Thomas Jefferson was not at 
 home at the time. On learning of the fire 
 
PRACTISING LAW. I33 
 
 he exclaimed, "Did you save my books?" 
 "No," answered the servant who had brought 
 the news, "they are all burned, but we saved 
 your fiddle." 
 
 Except for the loss of the books Thomas 
 Jefferson was not seriously disturbed by the 
 destruction of his home at Shadwell, as he had 
 already begun to build a beautiful new home 
 on the summit of Monticello. 
 
 Only a small part of Thomas Jefferson's 
 new home was completed when, two years 
 after the burning of Shadwell, he married. 
 He had many rivals in his suit for the hand of 
 Martha Skelton, a widow, young, beautiful, and 
 rich. Tradition tells us how three of her hope- 
 ful lovers cast lots to determine which should 
 have the first chance to declare his love, and 
 how the two luckless ones waited in the garden 
 while Thomas Jefferson tried his fortune, until, 
 at length, they heard a violin and the voices of 
 Thomas Jefferson and the lady singing a love 
 song together. Then they knew that there 
 was no hope for them. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was married at "The 
 
I 34 THOMAS JEFFERSOA. 
 
 Forest," as the home of the bride's father was 
 called, on the first of January, 1772. The 
 wedding was celebrated with splendor and 
 gayety. There were fair dames in elegant silken 
 gowns and gallant men dressed no whit less 
 splendidly than the ladies. There were music 
 and dancing to suit the gayest ; all the guests 
 were royally served with food and drink, and 
 every one was happy. 
 
 Happiest of all were the laughing-eyed bride- 
 groom and the beautiful bride ; and they had 
 need to be happy to bear with good nature the 
 hardships in store for them. A light snow 
 was falling when they left '' The Forest," which 
 increased as they journeyed until it became 
 so deep that progress seemed hopeless. They 
 had to leave the carriage and ride on horse- 
 back over eight miles of dark, rough mountain 
 road. 
 
 When at last they reached Monticello there 
 were no lights or servants to welcome the 
 belated travelers. The negroes had long since 
 given up hope of their coming, darkened the 
 house, and gone to their quarters. Once within 
 
PRACTISING LAW. 1 35 
 
 the snug library, however, with candles lighted, 
 things looked a bit more cheerful. 
 
 And surely the bride laughed when her 
 scholarly husband pulled down some solemn- 
 looking law books from a shelf and drew from 
 behind them a bottle of red wine. Thomas 
 Jefferson was at the time of his marriage 
 twenty-eight years of age. He had proved 
 himself successful in law and in the mana^re- 
 ment of his estate. 
 
 He had increased the nineteen hundred acres 
 his father had left him by wise purchases till 
 he now owned five thousand acres. His farm 
 yielded him two thousand dollars a year; his 
 law practice three thousand dollars a year. 
 This gave him an income that entitled him to 
 be counted a successful business man. His 
 wife's fortune was about equal to his own. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson had not been so en- 
 grossed in building up his private fortune that 
 he had had no time for larger interests. When 
 he was still a law student, in 1765, he had been 
 one of the throng crowded in the lobby of the 
 assembly room to hear his friend, Patrick Henry, 
 make his speech, moving resolutions against 
 the Stamp Act. 
 
 His pulse had bounded when he heard 
 
 Patrick Henry say: ''Caesar had his Brutus, 
 
 Charles the First his Cromwell — and George 
 
 the Third — " but his was not one of the voices 
 
 that interrupted with the cry of ''Treason! 
 
 treason!" He listened breathlessly for the 
 
 orator's fearless conclusion — " may profit by 
 
 their example. If this be treason, make the 
 
 most of it." 
 
 Thomas Jefferson said that Patrick Henry 
 136 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 1 37 
 
 spoke as Homer wrote. He was thrilled by 
 his words, and all his native love of freedom 
 and justice was fired to a heat not easily sub- 
 dued. Shortly after beginning the practice of 
 law, Thomas Jefferson had been elected a 
 member of the House of Burgesses. The 
 House had not been long in session before it 
 was dissolved by the governor for asserting 
 rights denied the colonies by the king and 
 Parliament. 
 
 The next day the members met in the 
 Apollo, the long room in the Raleigh Tavern. 
 They formed an association agreeing to retal- 
 iate against England's laws interfering with 
 colonial trade by not buying taxed goods from 
 England. Thomas Jefferson was among those 
 \ who signed this agreement. 
 
 He was repeatedly re-elected to his place in 
 the House of Burgesses, and was one of the 
 committee that drew up resolutions against the 
 deportation of American citizens to England 
 for trial. These resolutions were passed with- 
 out opposition, and the Assembly was again 
 dissolved by the Royal Governor. But undis- 
 
138 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 mayed, the members of the committee met 
 and sent copies of their resolutions to other 
 colonies. 
 
 When, in 1774, news of the bill closing the 
 Boston Port reached the Virginia Assembly, 
 Thomas Jefferson was one of the leaders in 
 the movement to have the day of its taking 
 effect celebrated by fasting and prayer. The 
 usual punishment had the usual effect. The 
 dissolution of the House of Burgesses was 
 followed by a meeting at the Raleigh Tavern. 
 This time it was decided to consult with other 
 colonies about holding an annual Congress 
 made up of represetatives from all the colonies. 
 
 The result was the First Continental Con- 
 gress, which convened at Philadelphia on the 
 fourth of September, 1774. To Thomas Jeffer- 
 son had been intrusted the important work of 
 drawing up instructions to guide the Virginia 
 delegates in their actions in Congress. He rose 
 to the occasion and wrote the masterly docu- 
 ment afterward known as *'A Summary View 
 of the Rights of British America." 
 
 It was a clear and fearless presentation of 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 1 39 
 
 many of the ideas afterward expressed in the 
 Declaration of Independence. It was some- 
 what in advance of the feeling of the time, and 
 the Virginia Convention gave its delegates 
 milder instructions. Yet Thomas Jefferson's 
 work had not been done in vain; the Summary 
 View was published and circulated widely in 
 America and in England and found many eager 
 
 readers. 
 
 1 
 
 ' Thomas Jefferson was already well known 
 in Virginia, but this paper made him more 
 prominent than ever. When Peyton Randolph 
 I was called away from the Second Continental 
 Congress in order to preside over the Virginia 
 House of Burgesses, Thomas Jefferson was 
 chosen to take his place in Congress. 
 
 On the eleventh of June, 1775, he started on 
 
 his journey from Williamsburg to Philadelphia. 
 
 He traveled in a four-horse carriage, and it 
 
 took him ten days to make the journey. The 
 
 road was so poorly marked that he had several 
 
 j times to employ guides. On reaching Phila- 
 
 1 delphia he found comfortable rooms in the 
 
 I house of a carpenter, the man who made for 
 
I40 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 him the desk on which he wrote the Declara- 
 tion of Independence. 
 
 As a representative of the leading Southern 
 colony, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson was assured 
 a certain prominence in Congress. AH were, 
 indeed, anxious to hear from Williamsburg. 
 They knew Thomas Jefferson brought with 
 him Virginia's answer to England's Concilia- 
 tory Propositions, and, moreover, that he was 
 the author of that answer. 
 
 When he took his place in that gathering of 
 distinguished men, a great many were surprised 
 to find the writer of the " Summary View of 
 the Rights of British America" so young a 
 man. He was, in fact, next to the youngest 
 member in Congress. He was unusually tall, 
 being six feet two inches in height, and very 
 slender. 
 
 His eyes were hazel; his hair, reddish; his 
 features, delicate ; his face was sensitive and 
 expressive. His voice w^as gentle and he rarely 
 spoke in Congress. Those who had been 
 prepared to oppose the newcomer were dis- 
 armed. His personality was so winning that 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. I4I 
 
 all sorts of men liked him and wished to agree 
 with him. 
 
 His was not the mildness of indecision that 
 exasperates men of power. Vigorous John 
 Adams said : "Though a silent member in Con- 
 gress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, and 
 decisive upon committees and in convention, 
 that he soon seized upon my heart." There 
 were in Congress bitter disagreements and 
 strong factions. The members who had the 
 best friends had also the most implacable 
 enemies. Thomas Jefferson came among these 
 men and made himself liked even by those 
 who could not think as he did. 
 
 His courtesy was so unfailing, his merit so 
 indisputable, his patriotism so genuine, that 
 none could cherish antagonism toward him. 
 It is, therefore, not strange that the brilliant 
 young Southerner was elected chairman of the 
 committee to prepare a Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. The other members of the com- 
 mittee, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger 
 Sherman, and Robert R. Livingstone, had a 
 high opinion of Thomas Jefferson's gifts as a 
 
142 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 writer and they pressed upon him the honor of 
 drawing up the declaration, as was intended by 
 those who had voted to give him the chair- 
 manship. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was full of his subject, 
 and retiring to his quiet parlor on the second 
 floor of an isolated house on Market street, he j 
 wrote, without reference to notes or books of 
 any sort, the Declaration of American Inde- 
 pendence. The first men to read those words we 
 now all know so well, *' We hold these truths 
 to be self-evident: that all men are created 
 equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
 with certain unalienable rights; that among 
 these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness," etc, etc., were John Adams and 
 Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 They were well satisfied with Jefferson's 
 work and suggested only a few trifling changes. 
 A meeting of the entire committee was then 
 held and the Declaration of Independence 
 was formally submitted for criticism. The 
 committee cordially endorsed the work of the 
 chairman. On the second of July the docu- 
 
 ii 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 143 
 
 ment was taken up for discussion by Con- 
 gress. 
 
 It was severely criticised by some and 
 warmly defended by others. Thomas Jefferson 
 sat through the debate, which lasted two days, 
 without taking any part in it. John Adams 
 spoke for him, fearlessly and firmly. As a 
 result of this discussion two important changes 
 were made : Thomas Jefferson had directed 
 censure against the king and the English 
 people. This, it was feared, might offend some 
 Englishmen who were disposed to be friendly 
 to America, and the blame was made to rest 
 on the king alone. 
 
 Again, Thomas Jefferson had declared against 
 the evils of slavery and the slave trade and 
 charged England with narrow self-interest and 
 inhumanity in introducing that barbarous insti- 
 tution into the colonies. This was omitted, 
 lest it alienate slave-holding colonists. Both 
 changes were regretted by Thomas Jefferson, 
 who thought the document weakened by the 
 changes. 
 
 On the evening of the fourth of July the 
 
144 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 vote was taken and every member of Congress, 
 save one, went to the desk and signed his name 
 to the Declaration of Independence. Liberty 
 bells and cannon announced to the waiting 
 public the birth of the new government — that, 
 "We the representatives of the United States 
 of America in General Congress assembled, 
 appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world 
 for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the 
 name, and by the authority of the good 
 people of these colonies, solemnly publish and 
 declare, that these United Colonies are, and 
 of right ought to be, free and independent 
 States ; that they are absolved from all alle- 
 giance to the British Crown, and that all polit- 
 ical connection between them and the State of 
 Great Britian is, and ought to be, totally dis- 
 solved, and that as free and independent States 
 they have full power to levy war, conclude 
 peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, 
 and do all other acts and things which inde- 
 pendent States may of right do." 
 
 The Declaration of Independence was read 
 in the field before the divisions of the army, 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 1 45 
 
 in the legislatures, before the lawmakers, in 
 the churches before the people. Everywhere 
 it was heard with solemn joy or uncurbed 
 enthusiasm ; everywhere men honored the 
 one who had said so nobly what all wanted to 
 say. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 SERVING VIRGINIA, 
 
 The success of the Revolution was not to 
 be decided on the field of battle alone. Not 
 only must a nation be beaten ; a new State 
 must be built. For this statesmen as well as 
 soldiers were needed. The illustrious men 
 who helped to strike down the oppressor did 
 a glorious work. Service no less important 
 was rendered by those who established the 
 new government on a firm basis of freedom 
 and equality. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was one of these. A 
 student of history and law and politics, he had 
 clear, well-matured notions of a practical re- 
 public. His thought did not love to dwell 
 on the terrible present, the filthy prison ships, 
 burned and plundered homes, bloodshed and 
 death. His imagination flew forward to the 
 
 days when peace should rest upon the country 
 
 146 
 
SERVING VIRGINIA. 1 47 
 
 and men ' should be free to enjoy their hardly 
 won liberty. 
 
 He wanted to make the reward worthy of 
 the awful cost. It was not enough that the 
 people should be free from the tyranny of a 
 king; they must be secured against other 
 forms of tyranny. The opportunity to found 
 a government, based on sound democratic 
 principles, in Virginia, appealed to him. He 
 resigned his seat in Congress and was elected 
 to membership in the House of Delegates of 
 the new State of Virginia. 
 
 He knew that the changes he wished to 
 make in Virginia laws would meet with opposi- 
 tion from the conservatives, but he went to 
 work heart and soul to accomplish such reforms 
 as he could. In the first place he wanted per- 
 sonal liberty for all men. Slavery had always 
 seemed to him an offence in the sight of God 
 and man. 
 
 During his first term in the old House of 
 Burgesses he had introduced a bill to abolish 
 slavery, but had failed to carry it. He now 
 introduced another to the effect that every 
 
148 THOMAS JEFFERSOJV. 
 
 negro child born in Virginia after a certain 
 date should be free. But the people were not 
 willing to give up an institution that had been 
 so profitable, and this measure was lost. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson regretted that the republic 
 must start with this serious blemish, but he 
 did not, because defeated here, relinquish his 
 efforts to secure justice in other particulars. 
 In Virginia at that time the Church of England 
 was the State Church. Citizens were required 
 by law to have their children baptized into the 
 Church and to contribute toward its support 
 one-tenth of their income. 
 
 This was a hardship for those who were 
 not Episcopalians in faith. Thomas Jefferson 
 believed a man's religion was a personal mat- 
 ter and that every man should be free to 
 worship God in his own way without inter- 
 ference from the State. Here again the oppos- 
 ing force was strong. The Church party did 
 its utmost to continue laws so favorable to its 
 material power. 
 
 The contest was long and bitter, but in 
 the course of years the will and wisdom of 
 
SERVING VIRGINIA. 1 49 
 
 Thomas Jefferson prevailed, and one of the 
 three achievements chosen by him to be men- 
 tioned on his tomb stone was the authorship 
 of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom. 
 
 It seemed to Thomas Jefferson that it was 
 unjust that only those with wealth should be 
 able to educate their children. The poor 
 certainly needed the benefits of education. 
 He therefore secured for his new republic a 
 system of public schools. Of his crowning 
 contribution to the educational system of Vir- 
 ginia more will be said later. 
 
 There was a strong tendency in Virginia to 
 establish a landed aristocracy. A man might 
 secure a great estate and make such provisions 
 regarding it in his will that it should always 
 stay in the family undivided. When he died 
 the property would pass to his oldest male 
 descendant to be enjoyed by him for life and 
 to be handed down at bis death to the next 
 in line, and so on down through the centuries. 
 
 The man who held an estate thus entailed 
 might need money, might wish to move to 
 another country, might prefer business of an- 
 
150 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 other sort, but he was not free to dispose of 
 his land: he must preserve it unbroken. He 
 might reahze that his oldest son was unprin- 
 cipled, a worthless idler, and wish to leave 
 his property in the hands of his capable, 
 energetic second son. This he could not do, 
 for a man long-since dead had decreed that 
 the first son should possess it. 
 
 A proud and lordly gentleman was the 
 prosperous life-tenant of one of these great Vir- 
 ginia estates. He was attended by obsequious 
 servants in family livery ; his crest blazed from 
 the panels of his coach ; his sideboard was 
 loaded with massive old silver plate; his 
 galleries were hung with family portraits. He 
 lived bountifully, eating and drinking, enter- 
 taining or visiting friends, playing cards or 
 following the hounds on thoroughbred horses. 
 
 You may believe he was regarded with 
 admiration and envy by his poor neighbors. 
 But the bankrupt tenant without money to 
 work his farm must see his debts grow and 
 his income dwindle if he chose to live on his 
 land. Or he must leave the fine old place a 
 
SERVING VIRGINIA. I51 
 
 prey to weeds and decay and strike out to 
 seek his fortune without the capital he might 
 have had if he could sell his plantation. 
 
 To Thomas Jefferson, neither of the results 
 of the custom of entailing estates seemed 
 good for the State. It was not well to have 
 a class exempt from labor, making a display 
 of luxurious idleness to their hard-working 
 neighbors. On the other hand, it was not well 
 that lands that might produce wealth should 
 lie idle because the men who worked them 
 could not or would not cultivate them. 
 
 He was instrumental in having the laws 
 allowing perpetual entail, and favoring the 
 oldest son above the other children in the 
 division of an estate, abolished. It is interest- 
 ing to note that Thomas Jefferson himself had 
 never suffered from the injustice of these laws. 
 His personal experience had been such as might 
 lead us to expect to find him on the side of 
 his opponents. He was himself the owner of 
 more than a hundred slaves; he had been 
 brought up in the English Church ; his educa- 
 tion had not been neglected ; his had been 
 
I 5 2 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the eldest brother's portion; he was free to 
 dispose of his beautiful estate. Wholly dis- 
 interested was his desire for reform. 
 
 Havingf done an invaluable work in review- 
 ing the laws of the State, Thomas Jefferson 
 accepted the position of governor. He 
 succeeded Patrick Henry, the first governor 
 of Virginia after Colonial days. He had served 
 the full three years allowed by the constitution. 
 Thomas Jefferson was elected by a very small 
 majority over an old college friend, John Page. 
 
 As governor, Thomas Jefferson was criticised 
 by the short-sighted for not fortifying Virginia, 
 so as to prevent the English from invading 
 it. They complained that Virginia was left 
 defenceless while the conquest of the North- 
 west Territory and the victories of the Con- 
 tinental army were accomplished with Virginia 
 soldiers and Virginia treasure. 
 
 It was Thomas Jefferson's policy to support 
 the commander-in-chief in such a way that it 
 might be possible for him to keep the enemy 
 engaged afar from Virginia. This had been 
 the policy of Patrick Henry. This would 
 
SERVING VIRGINIA. 1 53 
 
 surely have been the poHcy of John Page, who 
 melted the lead roof from his house, the most 
 magnificent mansion in Virginia, to furnish 
 General Washington with bullets. 
 
 This was the policy urged by General Wash- 
 ington, greatest of Virginians and Americans. 
 This was the policy dictated by common sense 
 when there was not treasure enough in Vir- 
 ginia to fortify the State with its extensive sea- 
 front in such a way as to keep out the English 
 should they triumph elsewhere. 
 
 This was the policy dictated by patriotism 
 when the commander-in-chief of the American 
 army was in sore need of additional soldiers 
 and ammunition, yes, even in want of shoes and 
 bread for his army. We all know that General 
 Washington and his generals could not keep 
 the enemy from Virginia. They came with 
 fire and sword and no Virginian s person or 
 property was in greater danger than Governor 
 Thomas Jefferson's. 
 
 General Cornwallis sent Tarleton to Char- 
 lottesville where the State Legislature was in 
 session with instructions to seize the governor 
 
I 54 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and other prominent patriots. One beautiful 
 June morning while Thomas Jefferson and his 
 family were sitting at the breakfast table at 
 Monticello with the speakers of both houses 
 of the legislature for guests, the meal was 
 interrupted by the arrival of a dust-covered 
 rider on a dripping horse. 
 
 He stopped only long enough to cry, '' Fly! 
 The English are here ! A detachment of 
 Tarleton's terrible riders, under McLeod, are 
 already climbing the mountain!" and went 
 thundering on to carry the warning to Char- 
 lottesville. Thomas Jefferson gave orders to 
 have the coach made ready and his guests 
 horses brought. His own horse he sent to 
 the smith's to be reshod. 
 
 After a hurried breakfast the guests rode 
 away. The master of Monticello, making light 
 of the danger and promising to follow soon, 
 started his wife and children to a place of 
 safety, fourteen miles distant. They went in 
 the family carriage accompanied by Thomas 
 Jefferson's private secretary. 
 
 While Thomas Jefferson was busy collecting 
 
SERVING VIRGINIA. 1 55 
 
 valuable papers and giving directions for their 
 concealment another messenger arrived, bid- 
 ding him fly with all speed. He instructed a 
 servant to have his horse taken to a spur in 
 the mountain, from which he could view the 
 valley. With telescope in hand he walked to 
 this point. 
 
 But as he could not hear the tramp of 
 cavalry and with his telecope could see no 
 soldiers in the valley, he decided the alarm 
 must have been a false one and started to 
 return to the house. He discovered after he 
 had gone a short way that his light walking 
 sword had dropped from its sheath. Retracing 
 his steps to find it, he took another look at 
 the valley and saw the village streets swarming 
 with Tarleton's white and yellow riders. He 
 then mounted his horse and followed his 
 family. 
 
 In the meantime danger was nearer than he 
 knew. The English had come up the moun- 
 tain by another road and had entered the 
 house five minutes after Thomas Jefferson left 
 it. Caesar, a slave, was in a hole under the 
 
156 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 floor, hiding the silver and important papers, 
 when his comrade, Martin, who had been hand- 
 ing the articles to him, heard the clatter of 
 hoofs on the driveway, and, without giving 
 Caesar time to climb out, clapped down the 
 boards on man and treasures. 
 
 The faithful Caesar stayed in this grave-like 
 cell eighteen hours without food or light. 
 Martin, grim and fearless, faced the foe. He 
 found Captain McLeod disposed to be a 
 gentleman, and the soldiers had strict orders 
 to injure nothing. But he encountered alone 
 some disorderly ruffians in the cellar. One of 
 them thrust a pistol into his face with the 
 command, "Tell where your master is or I'll 
 fire." 
 
 ** Fire away," answered Thomas Jefferson's 
 devoted servant without flinching. After eigh- 
 teen hours at Monticello, McLeod and his men 
 rode off. They had kept Tarleton's injunction 
 to do no injury to the governor's property. 
 Thomas Jefferson's Elk Hill Plantation did 
 not fare so well during the visit of Lord 
 Cornwallis. The soldiers of the latter de- 
 
SERVING VIRGINIA. 1 57 
 
 stroyed his growing crops and burned his 
 barns and stores of grain. 
 
 They killed or carried off cattle, sheep, hogs, 
 and horses, cut the throats of young colts, 
 burned the fences, and carried off thirty slaves, 
 not to freedom, but to death by small-pox and 
 camp fever. This treatment of the governor's 
 property is the more shocking when we re- 
 member how Thomas Jefferson had interfered 
 in behalf of the English prisoners of war held 
 in Virginia and secured for them humane 
 treatment. 
 
 At the close of his second term as governor, 
 Thomas Jefferson declined to be a candidate 
 for re-election. He found that the successful 
 British raids in Virginia had shaken the 
 people's confidence in a democratic govern- 
 ment in time of war. 
 
 He believed the presence of a man who had 
 a reputation as a soldier in the office of 
 governor would do much to restore the con- 
 fidence of the people. It was Thomas Jeffer- 
 son's intention to retire to his farm and no 
 longer take an active part in public affairs. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 MINISTER TO FRANCE. 
 
 There was much to make private life attrac- 
 tive to Thomas Jefferson. His estate was 
 large. He had chosen a most beautiful spot 
 for his home. He had himself made the plans 
 for the fine house he had built on the crest of 
 the mountain, gaining many ideas from books 
 on architecture he had read and the prints he 
 had seen of Greek buildings. 
 
 He loved to collect beautiful things and 
 choice books for his house. He enjoyed lay- 
 ing out his grounds in beautiful gardens, 
 raising rare shrubs and flowers and trees. Of 
 vegetables and grains, grapes and olives he 
 wished Monticello to produce the finest. 
 Kennels and stables, pens and poultry yards, 
 garden, orchard, grainfield and woodland, re- 
 ceived his personal attention. 
 
 But great as was Thomas Jefferson's enjoy- 
 
 158 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 1 59 
 
 ment of building, collecting, and farming, 
 much of his delight in Monticello grew out of 
 the human relationships he enjoyed there. 
 The beautiful bride he had brought to his 
 mountain home on that stormy night in 1772 
 had grown frail as the years passed, but as she 
 lost her vigorous health her beauty became, in 
 the eyes of her husband, the more ''exquisite." 
 
 He loved her with a devotion so strong and 
 tender that public honor and glory had for 
 him no charm when measured against her 
 happiness. In order to be with her when she 
 needed him or wished for his presence he w^as 
 ready to forego political appointments that 
 would bring him popularity and fame. To 
 some it may seem a weakness, but it must be 
 admitted that Thomas Jefferson's affection was 
 stronger than his ambition. 
 
 As might be supposed, his six children were 
 to him a source of great pleasure. His eldest 
 daughter was named Martha, for her mother; 
 the second Jane, in memory of the dear elder 
 sister who had died. Children had a promi- 
 nent place at Monticello. Dabney Carr, the 
 
l6o THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 friend with whom Thomas Jefferson in his 
 youth loved to spend summer days studying 
 near the mountain top, had married one of his 
 sisters. 
 
 Mr. Carr died the year after Thomas Jeffer- 
 son's marriage, and the latter took his widow 
 and her six children to Monticello to make 
 their home with him. He watched over his 
 nephews and nieces with a father's affection, 
 superintending their games and acting as their 
 schoolmaster. The hospitality of Monticello 
 was far-famed. Its master had brilliant social 
 qualities and was sought after and loved by the 
 able and gifted men of his time. 
 
 Scientists, philosophers, writers, musicians, 
 were among his guests. Of good books and of 
 good talk there was no lack — good music, too, 
 was generally to be heard in Thomas Jeffer- 
 son's home. He had given much attention 
 and time to practice on the violin and played 
 well. He appreciated a good instrument 
 and came near to coveting his friend's (John 
 Randolph) excellent violin. 
 
 Half in fun, half in seriousness, the two 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. l6l 
 
 men drew up a small legal document, with 
 an imposing array of witnesses, agreeing that 
 if John Randolph outlived Thomas Jefferson 
 he should have books belonging to Thomas 
 Jefferson's library to the value of eight 
 hundred pounds sterling, on condition that if 
 Thomas Jefferson lived the longer he should 
 receive the violin. 
 
 But just before the outbreak of the Revolu- 
 tion Randolph offered to sell his violin to 
 Jefferson. He purchased it gladly, though 
 henceforth his life was to be too busy to 
 permit him using it very much. Thomas 
 Jefferson, as has been seen, while not approv- 
 ing of slavery, yielded to the prevailing custom 
 and employed slaves to work his estate. 
 
 He treated them with great kindness and 
 consideration, instructing the overseer always 
 that under no circumstances must the force be 
 overworked. They felt for him a devotion 
 amounting almost to worship. In their eyes 
 their master was the greatest and best man in 
 the world. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was too true a democrat 
 
1 62 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 by nature to require of any man, bound or 
 free, such personal service as was customary 
 for Virginians of that day to exact. He had 
 no body-servant, and when he rode he dis- 
 pensed with the usual mounted attendants. 
 
 After his wearying experience as war 
 governor, Thomas Jefferson looked forward 
 to years of quiet happiness at Monticello. But 
 the time was not ripe for that. His wife's frail 
 health did not mend, and calls to political 
 offices followed him to her bedside. Persist- 
 ent efforts were made to secure his services 
 as peace ambassador. 
 
 Friends urged him to accept the appoint- 
 ment, and because he did not, charged him 
 with want of patriotism. Though stung by 
 their reproaches, he turned a deaf ear to their 
 entreaties. The voice of his dying wife was 
 the only voice to which he fully listened in 
 those days. And when, at length, on the sixth 
 of September, 1782, the heart-breaking parting 
 came, Jefferson was ill with grief and sought 
 comfort in a seclusion that he could endure 
 to have broken by only those he best loved. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 1 63 
 
 When, however, the call to public service 
 was renewed he gave it favorable consideration. 
 He was first asked to go as Peace Ambas- 
 sador to France, but as the treaty of peace 
 was made before he had sailed, he resumed 
 his place in Congress. The membership had 
 changed much since he had been there, but 
 he was as cordially received by the new House 
 as he had been by the old. 
 
 Once in touch with public affairs his interest 
 revived, and he was soon pushing forward 
 reforms with characteristic zeal. His thoughts 
 dwelt much with his motherless children, 
 however. Here is a letter he wrote his oldest 
 daughter : 
 
 "Annapolis, Nov. 28th, 1783. 
 " My Dear Patsy : 
 
 " After four days' journey, I arrived here without any acci- 
 dent and in as good health as when I left Philadelphia. The 
 conviction that you would be more improved in the situation 
 I have placed you than if still with me, has solaced me on my 
 parting with you, which my love for you has rendered a diffi- 
 cult thing. The acquirements which I hope you will make 
 under the tutors I have provided for you will render you more 
 worthy of my love ; and if they cannot increase it will prevent 
 
164 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 its diminution. Consider the good lady who has taken you 
 under her roof, who has undertaken to see that you perform 
 all your exercises, and to admonish you in those wanderings 
 from what is right, or what is clever, to which your inexperi- 
 ence would expose you ; consider her, I say, as your mother, 
 as the only person to whom, since the loss with which Heaven 
 has been pleased to afflict you, you can now look up; and 
 that her displeasure or disapprobation, on any occasion, will 
 be an immense misfortune, which should you be so unhappy 
 as to incur by any unguarded act, think no concession too 
 much to regain her good will. 
 
 " With respect to the distribution of your time, the following 
 is what I should approve: 
 
 From 8 to 10, practise music. 
 
 From 10 to i, dance one day and draw another. 
 
 From I to 2, draw on the day you dance, and write a 
 
 letter next day. 
 From 3 to 4, read French. 
 From 4 to 5, exercise yourself in music. 
 From 5 till bed time, read English, write, etc., etc. 
 
 " Communicate this plan to Mrs. Hopkinson, and if she ap- 
 proves it, pursue it I expect you will write me 
 
 by every post. Inform me what books you read, what tunes 
 you learn, and inclose me your best copy of every lesson in 
 drawing. Write also one letter every week, either to your 
 Aunt Eppes, your Aunt Skipwith, your Aunt Carr, or the 
 Httle lady for whom I now inclose a letter, and always put 
 the letter you so write under cover to me. Take care that 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 1 65 
 
 you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a 
 word, consider how it is spelt, and, \{ you do not remember 
 it, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to 
 spell well. I have placed my happiness on seeing you good 
 and accompHshed ; and no distress which this world can now 
 bring on me would equal that of your disappointing my hopes. 
 If you love me, then, strive to be good under every situation, 
 and to all living creatures, and to acquire those accomplish- 
 ments which I have put in your power, and which will go far 
 towards insuring you the warmest love of your affectionate 
 father. 
 
 ''Th. Jefferson." 
 
 " P. S. Keep my letters and read them at times, that you 
 may always have present in your mind those things that will 
 endear you to me." 
 
 Little eleven-year-old Martha or "Patsy" 
 read the postscript and heeded it. Years after- 
 ward she gave this particular letter to Queen 
 Victoria for her collection of letters written by 
 distinguished men. She valued it highly. 
 Thomas Jefferson wrote his daughter often 
 and always told her to be good and to be 
 industrious. He was anxious that she should 
 become a lovable, accomplished woman. 
 
 In 1784 Congress appointed Thomas Jeffer- 
 son as a minister to act with Adams and 
 
1 66 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Franklin in negotiating treaties of commerce 
 with foreign nations. This necessitated his 
 going to France. He had not been there 
 long when, on the resignation of Dr. Franklin, 
 he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to 
 the court of France. 
 
 Dr. Franklin, diplomatist and philosopher, 
 had filled this position so brilliantly that the 
 office had come to be regarded as one of great 
 honor. The French were anxious to know 
 what manner of man his successor was. You 
 may be sure they had heard of him. They 
 had read and admired The Declaration of 
 American Independence, and his interesting 
 and instructive '' Notes on Virginia." 
 
 A Frenchman who had visited him in 
 America had published a book in which he 
 celebrated Thomas Jefferson in this fashion : 
 
 '' Let me describe to you a man, not yet 
 forty, tall, and with a mild and pleasing counte- 
 nance, but whose mind and understanding are 
 ample substitutes for every exterior grace ; an 
 American who, without ever having quitted 
 his own country, is at once a musician, skilled 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 1 67 
 
 in drawing, a geometrician, an astronomer, a 
 natural philosopher, legislator and statesman. 
 A senator of America who sat for two years 
 in that famous Congress which brought about 
 the Revolution. A governor of Virginia who 
 filled this difficult station during the invasions 
 of Arnold, of Phillips, and of Cornwallis; a 
 philosopher in voluntary retirement from the 
 world." 
 
 He told much more about his host and life 
 at Monticello that was calculated to make his 
 readers think Thomas Jefferson a man of rare 
 ability and charm. Indeed, the office he had 
 been appointed to fill, the work he had done, 
 the rumors that had gone abroad regarding 
 him, led the French people to have the highest 
 expectations of Thomas Jeff*erson. Everywhere 
 he more than filled that expectation. 
 
 The veteran French diplomats found this 
 pleasant young American as keen and firm 
 as the illustrious Dr. Franklin. He looked 
 sharply after American interests, but at the 
 same time he made warm friends for his 
 country and for himself Naturally La Fayette 
 
1 68 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 and Thomas Jefferson were strongly attached 
 to each other and were much together. In the 
 troubled times before the French Revolution 
 Thomas Jefferson acted with discretion and 
 wisdom. 
 
 Even among the polished French his social 
 grace and conversational power were conceded 
 to be of superior order. Scientists found him 
 scholarly and accurate. An amusing instance 
 of his convincing the eminent naturalist, Buffon^ 
 of an error is told. They disagreed about the 
 formation of a moose. The naturalist contra- 
 dicted Thomas Jefferson with authority. 
 
 The latter did not argue the matter, but 
 quietly arranged to have the skeleton of a 
 gigantic moose shipped to him from New 
 England. Inviting those who had been 
 interested in the discussion to his house, he 
 exhibited the unmistakable evidence of the 
 correctness of his impression. The scientist 
 admitted his error and henceforth treated 
 Thomas Jefferson's comments on animals as 
 those of a brother scientist who knew whereof 
 he spoke. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 1 69 
 
 When business was not pressing, Thomas 
 Jefferson traveled through several European 
 countries. In his travels he gave particular 
 attention to agriculture and horticulture and 
 to the industries and the social condition of 
 the people. He had brought with him his 
 oldest daughter, and placed her in a convent 
 school. Maria, aged six, and Lucy, aged two 
 (his only other living children), he had left 
 with an aunt. 
 
 Little Lucy died, and he was so unhappy at 
 having Maria so far away that he arranged to 
 have her brought to France. The little girl 
 stopped in England to visit Mrs. Adams, and 
 this is that lady's description of her: 
 
 ** I have had with me for a fortnight a little 
 daughter of Mr. Jefferson, who arrived here 
 with a young negro girl, her servant, from 
 Virginia. Mr. Jefferson wrote me some months 
 ago that he expected them, and desired me to 
 receive them. I did so, and was amply repaid 
 for my trouble. A finer child of her age I 
 never saw. 
 
 So mature an understanding, so womanly in 
 
I/O THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 behavior, and so much sensibility united are 
 rarely met with. 
 
 I grew so fond of her, and she was so 
 attached to me, that, when Mr. Jefferson sent 
 for her, they were obliged to force the little 
 creature away. She is but eight years old. 
 She would sit sometimes and describe to me 
 the parting with her aunt, who brought her 
 up, the obligations she was under to her, and 
 the love she had for her little cousins, till the 
 tears would stream down her cheeks ; and 
 how I had been her friend, and she loved me. 
 
 " Her papa would break her heart by making 
 her go again. She clung around me so that 
 I could not help shedding a tear at parting 
 with her. She was the favorite of every one 
 in the house." 
 
 It is no wonder that Mr. Jefferson wanted 
 this affectionate, impressionable child near her 
 sister and himself Both of his daughters seem 
 to have been very warm-hearted and ready to 
 give their affection to those who were near 
 them. 
 
 Martha was so attracted to convent life that, 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. I71 
 
 after she had been in the convent school some- 
 time, she wished to be a nun. She wrote to 
 her father to ask his consent. For several 
 days she received no answer. Then her father, 
 her delightful, entertaining father, came to the 
 school to make a call. After an interview with 
 the abbess he sent for Martha. Without 
 referring to the letter, he asked in his winning 
 way if his daughter was not almost ready to 
 take her mother's place in his household. 
 
 She could not resist that, and gladly went 
 to her father's house. She and her sister were 
 sent no more to school, but had tutors at home. 
 Though still young, Martha was allowed to 
 see something of French society, for Mr. Jeffer- 
 son was always inclined to make companions 
 of his children. 
 
 While Mr. Jefferson was Minister to France 
 he injured his wrist so that it was never strong 
 again and occasioned him much inconvenience 
 in writing. He was walking some miles from 
 home with a friend one day when he slipped 
 and fell in such a way as to fracture the wrist. 
 Grasping the injured member with his left 
 
\y2 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 hand he went on with his discussion as if 
 nothing had happened. It was not until they 
 reached his home and he gave directions to 
 have a physician sent for, that his friend was 
 aware that he had been hurt. This shows his 
 fortitude in little things. 
 
 Although Mr. Jefferson enjoyed living in 
 France, he was far from preferring that country 
 to his native land. It pained him to have his 
 daughters growing up strangers to their 
 friends and relatives, and in a society so 
 different from the simple, sincere social order 
 that prevailed in Virginia. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 AT HOME ONCE MORE. 
 
 Great changes had taken place in the 
 United States during Thomas Jefferson's stay 
 in France ; the Constitution had been formed, 
 and the government changed from a loose 
 confederacy of well-nigh independent States 
 to a strong centralized nation. The executive 
 department was now under the control of one 
 man, a president, and that president was his 
 old neighbor and friend, the great and good 
 George Washington. 
 
 In 1789 President Washington granted 
 Jefferson a leave of absence that he might 
 visit America and look after his affairs in 
 Virginia. He had been away for five years. 
 His oldest daughter had grown to be a young 
 lady. Little Maria had become a lovely, 
 slender girl, suggesting to every one who had 
 known her, her beautiful mother. 
 
 173 
 
174 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 When the news of the master's coming 
 reached Monticello there was great excitement 
 among the slaves. They asked for a hoHday, 
 and, arranging themselves in their best, men, 
 women, and children went trooping down 
 the mountain toward Shadwell to meet him. 
 When, after long waiting, they saw his carriage 
 in the distance, they rushed forward, shouting 
 and waving their hats. At sight of his kind 
 familiar face their joy passed all bounds. 
 
 They must give some expression to their 
 gladness, and, in spite of his remonstrances, 
 they took the horses from the carriage, and, 
 some pushing and others pulling the vehicle, 
 and all very noisy and happy, they made quick 
 time up the mountain. When Monticello was 
 reached and Jefferson would have stepped from 
 the carriage, he found himself seized in strong 
 arms and borne on the men's shoulders to the 
 house, while the women pressed near to touch 
 his hands or at least his coat. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson did not approve of hero 
 worship, especially when he was the object; 
 but he was deeply touched to find every human 
 
AT HOME ONCE MORE, 175 
 
 being at his beloved Monticello so glad to have 
 him home again. His daughters lost no time 
 in renewing the friendships of childhood. It 
 was December when they reached home. 
 
 In the following February, Martha, who had 
 grown to be all her father could wish, accom- 
 plished, kind-hearted, with her father's own 
 sweetness and serenity of temper, who in 
 some measure deserved her father's enemy's 
 warm praise that she was the '* sweetest woman 
 in Virginia," married her second cousin, 
 Thomas Man Randolph. Thus, by the mar- 
 riage of their grand-children, were the families 
 of the old friends, Peter Jefferson and William 
 Randolph, united. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson had scarcely set foot on 
 American soil before he received a letter from 
 President George Washington, offering him 
 the position of Secretary of State. After some 
 correspondence, Jefferson consented to take 
 charge of the Department of State in Wash- 
 ington's cabinet. It happened in this way 
 that Jefferson did not return to France. 
 
 On the first of March Thomas Jefferson 
 
I j6 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 started on his journey to New York, the seat 
 of government. The roads were so bad that 
 he sent his carriage by water and took the 
 stage. That conveyance crept along so slowly 
 through the snow and mud that he was two 
 weeks going from Richmond to New York. 
 He stopped at Philadelphia long enough to 
 make a farewell visit to Dr. Benjamin Frank- 
 lin, who was ill and approaching the end. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson had left his younger daughter 
 with her sister. His heart, judging from his 
 letters, was much with his daughters. The 
 following letters to eleven-year-old Maria 
 show how lively an interest the great states- 
 man took in their most feminine occupations 
 and wishes : 
 
 "New York, April ii, 1790. 
 
 " Where are you, my dear Maria ? how do you do ? how 
 are you occupied? Write me a letter by the first post, and 
 answer me all these questions. Tell me whether you see the 
 sun rise every day ? how many pages a day you read in Don 
 Quixote ? how far you are advanced in him ? whether you 
 repeat a grammar lesson every day ? what else you read ? 
 how many hours a day you sew ? whether you have an oppor- 
 tunity of continuing your music ? 
 
 " Whether you know how to make a pudding yet? to sow 
 
AT HOME ONCE MORE. 1 77 
 
 spinach ? or to set a hen ? Be good, my dear, as I have always 
 found you ; never be angry with anybody, nor speak harsh of 
 them ; try to let everybody's faults be forgotten, as you would 
 wish yours to be ; take more pleasure in giving what is best 
 to another than in having it yourself, and then all the world 
 will love you, and I more than all the world. 
 
 " If your sister is with you, kiss her, and tell her how much 
 I love her also, and present my affections to Mr. Randolph- 
 Love your aunt and uncle and be dutiful and obliging to them 
 for all their kindness to you. What would you do without 
 them and with such a vagrant for a father ? Say to both of 
 them a thousand affectionate things for me; and adieu, my 
 
 dear Maria. 
 
 "Th. Jefferson." 
 
 " Philadelphia, April 24, 1791. 
 
 *' I have received, my dear Maria, your letter of March the 
 twenty-sixth ; I find I have counted too much on you as a 
 Botanical and Zoological correspondent, for I undertook to 
 affirm here that the fruit was not killed in Virginia, because I 
 had a young daughter there who was in that kind of corre- 
 spondence with me, and who, I was sure, would have mentioned 
 it if it had been so. However, I shall go on communicating 
 to you whatever may contribute to a comparative estimate of 
 the true climate, in hopes it will induce you to do the same 
 to me. 
 
 " Instead of waiting to send the two veils for your sister and 
 yourself round with the other things, I will inclose them with 
 this letter. Observe that one of the strings is to be drawn 
 
1 78 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tight round the root of the crown of the hat, and the veil 
 then falHng over the brim of the hat is drawn by the longer 
 string as tight or as loose as you please round the neck. 
 
 '* When the veil is not chosen to be down, the lower string 
 is also tied round the root of the crown, so as to give the 
 appearance of a puffed bandage for the hat. I send also the 
 green hning for the calash. J. Eppes is arrived here. Present 
 my affections to Mr. R., your sister, and niece." 
 
 " Yours with tender love, 
 
 " Th. Jefferson." 
 
 "April 5, Apricots in bloom, cherry leafing. 
 " 9, Peach in blossom, apple leafing. 
 " II, Cherry leafing." 
 
 While writing to little Maria in this careful 
 style, Jefferson was not a little troubled by the 
 way affairs at the Capital were running. As 
 he had been abroad for five years he was at 
 a disadvantage in the president's cabinet con- 
 cerning many domestic matters. The brilliant 
 Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, 
 knew all the questions before the American 
 public, the disagreements in Congress, the 
 sides taken by leading men, the feeling in 
 different sections of the country in regard to 
 
AT HOME ONCE MORE. 1 79 
 
 political issues, as well as a good chess player 
 knows the disposition of his chess men. 
 
 He met Jefferson cordially and presented 
 matters to him in such a light that Jefferson 
 used his influence to have the South consent 
 to the assumption by Congress of the debts 
 of the several States, in return for which con- 
 cession to the North, the North granted the 
 South the seat of national government. When 
 Jefferson became aware of the true situation, 
 and knew the feeling of the Southern people 
 upon the matter he regretted that he had been 
 so ready to take Hamilton's view of the case. 
 
 Once on his guard, he was not again misled. 
 There were then, besides the president, only 
 four members of the cabinet. It was Wash- 
 ington's wish to have both political parties 
 represented there. Though himself, like Ham- 
 ilton, a Federalist, he had known Jefferson's 
 Antifederalistic tendency when he urged him 
 to become Secretary of State. 
 
 The natural inclination of the people to 
 think of the past as better than the present, 
 and the horrors of the French Revolution, 
 
l8o THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 produced in America a strong reaction against 
 popular government. Many openly declared 
 their distrust of a republic and their preference 
 for a monarchy. 
 
 One political party was in favor of a strongly 
 centralized government, of diminishing the 
 powers of the State government, and increas- 
 ing the powers of the national government; 
 and of enlarging the powers of the national 
 executive. Jefferson's theoretical disapproval 
 of undemocratic government had been con- 
 firmed by the state of society he had found 
 in France. 
 
 He watched over, with a jealous eye, what he 
 regarded as the safeguards of democracy, 
 freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the 
 rights of the several States, and the equality 
 in power of the legislative, the judicial, and 
 the executive departments of government. 
 He became the recognized leader of the Anti- 
 federalist party. He preferred to call it ' the 
 Republican party, and it w^as for a time so 
 designated; but that name has since been 
 used to distinguish the party that continues 
 
AT HOME ONCE MORE. l8l 
 
 the policy of the Federalists, while Jefferson's 
 party is known as the Democratic party. 
 
 Jefferson was as unyielding in the cabinet as 
 Hamilton. He was unwilling to act against 
 his convictions ; at the same time he realized 
 that the president was in sympathy with 
 Hamilton's measures and that he gained little 
 by opposition. He sought again and again to 
 withdraw from a position fraught with much 
 friction and bitterness. 
 
 Washington valued Jefferson highly and 
 urged him to continue in office. It was not 
 until the close of 1793 that he was permitted 
 to resign. In 1796 he was recalled to political 
 life as the presidential candidate of the 
 Republican party. John Adams, who had been 
 vice-president during Washington's presi- 
 dency, was elected by a majority of three votes. 
 
 As the law stood, the candidate receiving 
 the second highest number of votes was vice- 
 president. As Jefferson had received a larger 
 number of votes than the Federalist candidate 
 for the vice-presidency, he, though of the 
 opposing political party, became vice-president. 
 
1 8 2 THOMA S JEFFERS ON. 
 
 Again he went to the national capital, this time 
 at Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 When Adams' administration was drawing 
 to a close he was chosen by his party as 
 presidential candidate, and Jefferson was a 
 second time named by the Antifederalists. 
 Aaron Burr was candidate for the vice-presi- 
 dency on the same ticket. The campaign was 
 a bitter one. Jefferson's opponents did not 
 hesitate shamelessly to attack his character. 
 He was called anarchist and atheist. He was 
 charged with insults to Washington, his friend, 
 and the nation's idol. He could not pass 
 over in quiet the accusation that he had been 
 a robber of widows and orphans, but to most 
 charges, however revolting, he returned only 
 dignified silence. 
 
 When the campaign was over and votes 
 were counted it was found that the Re- 
 publicans had won. But here again was an 
 embarrassing situation. Jefferson and Burr 
 had both received the same number of votes. 
 It would seem quite natural that as Jefferson 
 had been the candidate for the first place, he 
 
AT HOME ONCE MORE. 1 83 
 
 would receive it without question. But Con- 
 gress spent many days in deciding the matter. 
 At last, however, only a few days before the 
 time for inauguration, Jefferson was pronounced 
 president and Aaron Burr, vice-president. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 PRESIDENT. 
 
 Washington City, on the Potomac, had 
 become the seat of government in June, 1800, 
 and Thomas Jefferson was the first president 
 to be inaugurated there. At that time there 
 was Httle in Washington to deserve the name 
 of city. Some of the government buildings 
 were erected, but they rose in their beauty, 
 solitary, in the midst of the wilderness. 
 
 Walcott describes in rather a gloomy way 
 the national capital as follows : 
 
 "The capitol is situated on an eminence, 
 which I should suppose was near the center 
 of the immense country here called the city. 
 It is a mile and a half from the President's 
 house, and three miles on a straight line from 
 Georgetown. There is one good tavern, about 
 forty rods from the Capitol, and several other 
 
 houses are built or erecting ; but I do not see 
 
 184 
 
PRESIDENT. 185 
 
 how the members of Congress can possibly 
 secure lodgings, unless they will consent to 
 live like scholars in a college, or monks in a 
 monastery, crowded ten or twelve in one house, 
 and utterly secluded from society. 
 
 ** There are, in fact, but few houses in any one 
 place, and most of them small, miserable huts, 
 which present an awful contrast to the public 
 buildings, — you may look in almost any direc- 
 tion, over an extent of ground nearly as large 
 as the city of New York, without seeing a fence 
 or any object except brick-kilns and temporary 
 huts for laborers." 
 
 After announcing *'we want nothing here 
 but houses, cellars, kitchens, well-informed 
 men, amiable women, and other little trifles of 
 this kind to make our city perfect," Gouverneur 
 Morris gave a friend the following amusing 
 recommendation of the capital city : " I assure 
 you that freestone is very abundant here ; that 
 excellent brick can be burned here ; that there 
 is no want of sites for magnificent hotels; that 
 contemplated canals can bring a vast commerce 
 to this place ; that the wealth, which is the 
 
1 86 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 natural consequence, must attract the fine arts 
 hither; in short, that it is the very best city 
 in the world for a future residence." 
 
 Mrs. Adams, in a letter to an intimate friend, 
 complains of the great unfinished White 
 House, ''requiring about thirty servants to 
 attend and keep the apartments in proper 
 order," without wood enough for fires, and 
 tells how she uses the great audience room 
 for drying clothes. 
 
 Though Adams and Jefferson had been good 
 friends in the past and were again in their old 
 age to be good friends, at the time of Jeffer- 
 son's inauguration the feeling between them 
 was far from friendly. Jefferson resented 
 Adams' making at the very close of his 
 administration an appoinment so important as 
 that of chief justice of the supreme court, 
 and giving that office to John Marshall, a 
 known political opponent of Jefferson. 
 
 He resented, too, Adams' making the most 
 of every moment of his time to fill minor 
 judicial offices with Federalists. He took 
 measures to have a stop put to these appoint- 
 
PRESIDENT. 187 
 
 ments promptly at midnight on the night 
 before his inauguration. President Adams did 
 not stay to participate in the inauguration 
 ceremonies, but left the city early in the day. 
 This was unfortunate. 
 
 There was not a little anxiety in the country 
 over this first transfer of power from the tried 
 Federalist party to the untried Republicans. 
 And it would have been well had the leading 
 Federalist acted with the tolerance advocated 
 by Jefferson in his inaugural address. He 
 said in part : '* This being now decided by the 
 voice of the nation, announced according to 
 the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, 
 arrange themselves under the will of the law, 
 and unite in common effort for the common 
 good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred 
 principle, that though the will of the majority 
 is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful, 
 " must be reasonable ; that the minority possess 
 their equal rights, which equal laws must 
 protect, and to violate which would be 
 oppression. 
 
 "Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one 
 
1 88 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 heart and one mind. Let us restore to social 
 intercourse that harmony and affection without 
 which Hberty and even Hfe itself are but dreary 
 things. And let us reflect that having banished 
 from our land that religious intolerance under 
 which mankind so long bled and suffered, we 
 have yet gained little if we countenance a 
 political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and 
 capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions — 
 every difference of opinion is not a difference 
 of principle. 
 
 *' We have called by different names brethren 
 of the same principle. We are all Re- 
 publicans, we are all Federalists. If there are 
 any among us who would wish to dissolve 
 this Union, or to change its republican form, 
 let them stand undisturbed as momuments of 
 the safety with which error of opinion may be 
 tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. 
 
 "I know, indeed, that some honest men fear 
 that a republican government cannot be 
 strong; that this government is not strong 
 enough. I believe, on the contrary, that this 
 is the strongest government on the earth. I 
 
PRESIDENT. 1 89 
 
 believe it is the only one where every man, at 
 the call of the laws, would fly to the standard 
 of the law, and would meet invasions of the 
 public order as his own personal concern. 
 
 "Sometimes it is said that man cannot be 
 trusted with the government of himself Can 
 he then be trusted with the government of 
 others?" 
 
 Now it seems strange that there ever 
 should have been need for a president of the 
 United States to say these things. Jefferson 
 had disapproved of what he considered an 
 undemocratic ceremoniousness in the attitude 
 of his predecessors. 
 
 He wished the American people not to 
 regard their presidents with the awe that 
 subjects of despotic monarchs feel for their 
 sovereigns, but to give them merely such 
 respect as is due to every honorable, law- 
 abiding citizen. It was his wish that his inaug- 
 uration should be without display. Plainly 
 dressed and unattended he went to the capitol 
 and delivered his address in a scarcely audible 
 tone of voice. 
 
190 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 As both of President Jefferson's daughters 
 were married he had neither of them to pre- 
 side over the White House. Here he kept 
 house in an abundant and hospitable fashion. 
 He had a French cook, well-trained servants, 
 and his table was bountifully served. His 
 household expenses were about fifty dollars a 
 day. His house was open to guests of all 
 degrees. 
 
 Perfectly accessible, the new president 
 received the lowly or the mighty as his 
 equals, with entire informality. So desirous 
 was he not to err on the side of aristocratic 
 exclusiveness and respect for rank that he 
 went to the other extreme, and *'Jeffersonian 
 simplicity" came near to making serious 
 trouble. Dressed like a farmer, he received 
 pompous foreign officials with as much infor- 
 mality as if they were his neighbors. 
 
 At his parties and at his dinners all guests 
 were on an equal footing. Special honor was 
 shown to no one. No man waited for another 
 unless his inner sense of courtesy and the 
 fitness of things prompted him to do so. This 
 
PRESIDENT. 191 
 
 gave great offence to those who were accus- 
 tomed to be treated with deference. It was not 
 because President Jefferson was discourteous to 
 the wife of the British ambassador, but because 
 he was equally courteous to Mrs. Brown and 
 Mrs. Smith, that the world was shocked. 
 
 Society was not ready for any such innova- 
 tions ; much resentment and bitterness grew 
 out of his democratic style of entertainment. 
 President Jefferson, after giving it a fair trial, 
 abandoned it for a somewhat more conven- 
 tional deportment. 
 
 In his management of public affairs Presi- 
 dent Jefferson overcame the general distrust 
 in Republicanism, and won the confidence of 
 the people to such an extent that he was 
 almost unanimously elected to a second term. 
 
 He was, indeed, urgently pressed, even by 
 those with whom he had once been regarded 
 as a dangerous theorist, to be a candidate for 
 a third term. He had always advocated 
 frequent rotation in the office of chief executive 
 and opposed repeated re-elections. He, there- 
 fore, firmly refused to consider a third term 
 
192 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and lent his support to Madison, who had 
 been his Secretary of State. 
 
 President Jefferson's administration was not 
 an untroubled one. As he had anticipated, 
 he found the judicial and the executive 
 branches of government in frequent conflict. 
 The friction between the president and chief 
 justice reached a crisis in the trial of Aaron 
 Burr for treason, when the chief executive 
 refused to answer the summons of the chief 
 justice to appear as a witness. 
 
 While President, Jefferson found the power 
 he had done so much to foster — the right of 
 the individual State — asserting itself against 
 him in no pleasant manner. When the British 
 outrages against American seamen culminated 
 in the LeopanV s attack on the Chesapeake, 
 and the British government refused to give 
 satisfaction, President Jefferson recommended 
 the passage of the "Embargo Act." Congress 
 acted upon his suggestion and all the American 
 ports were closed against the British. Some 
 of the States rebelled against this measure as 
 unconstitutional. 
 
PRESIDENT. 193 
 
 One of the most notable achievements of 
 President Jefferson's administration, the Louis- 
 iana Purchase, surpassed the constitutional 
 rights of the chief executive. Of this no 
 man was more painfully aware than President 
 Jefferson. He saw his opportunity to gain for 
 the new country a vast rich territory that he 
 foresaw would one day be needed by it. He 
 found no authority in the Constitution to act 
 in the matter. 
 
 He must either exceed his chartered author- 
 ity and so establish what he deemed a 
 dangerous precedent, or he must let pass an 
 opportunity to incalculably benefit his coun- 
 try. To make the decision he made required 
 courage and confidence in the future of the 
 new republic. With the great ''World's Fair," 
 held in St. Louis in the summer of 1904 to 
 celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the 
 " Louisiana Purchase," fresh in the nation's 
 mind, we cannot doubt posterity's commenda- 
 tion of his act. 
 
 Having bought the land from its French 
 owners, President Jeft'erson had no disposition 
 13 
 
194 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to ignore the Indians claims thereto. He had 
 taken a genuine interest in the Indians since 
 the days of his boyhood when he saw the 
 chiefs made welcome in his father's house. He 
 had studied their customs and their languages, 
 and deserved the confidence they had in him 
 as their friend. His attitude toward them was 
 more philanthropic and more just than that of 
 many other American statesmen. 
 
 As the time approached for President Jeffer- 
 son to retire from office his countrymen sought 
 to express their appreciation of his work by 
 sending him ''addresses." These addresses came 
 from all parts of the country. The people 
 of his own county summed up his services 
 in this way : 
 
 ** We have to thank you for the model of an 
 administration conducted on the purest prin- 
 ciples of republicanism ; for pomp and state 
 laid aside ; patronage discarded ; internal taxes 
 abolished ; a host of superfluous offices dis- 
 banded ; the monarchic maxim that a national 
 debt is a national blessing renounced, and 
 more than thirty-three millions of our debt 
 
PRESIDENT. 195 
 
 discharged; the natives' right to near one 
 hundred milHons of acres of our national 
 domain extinguished ; and without the guilt 
 or calamities of conquest, a vast and fertile 
 region added to our country, far more extensive 
 than her original possessions, bringing along 
 with it the Mississippi and the port of Orleans, 
 the trade of the West to the Pacific Ocean, 
 and in the intrinsic value of the land itself, a 
 source of permanent and almost inexhaustible 
 revenue. 
 
 "These are points in your administration 
 which the historian will not fail to seize, to 
 expand, and teach posterity to dwell upon 
 with delight. Nor will he forget our peace 
 with the civilized world, preserved through a 
 season of uncommon difficulty and trial ; the 
 good will cultivated with the unfortunate 
 aborigines of our country and the civilization 
 humanely extended among them; the lesson 
 taught the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary, 
 that we have the means of chastising their 
 piratical encroachments, and awing them into 
 justice; and that theme, which, above all 
 
196 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 others, the historic genius will hang upon with 
 rapture, the liberty of speech and the press 
 preserved inviolate, without which genius and 
 science are given to man in vain." 
 
 President Jefferson in his eight years as 
 president made so admirable a record as to 
 firmly establish republicanism in this country. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 THE SAGE OF MONTICELLO. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was now sixty-five 
 years old. His political work was done. The 
 patriot was at liberty to give place to the 
 farmer, the philosopher, the scholar, the man ; 
 and Jefferson was free to enjoy the pleasures 
 of books and nature and the companionship 
 of those who were left of the ones he had 
 loved. 
 
 Maria had died, and of his children Martha 
 Randolph only was living. She, however, 
 "the sweetest woman in Virginia," with her 
 husband and large family of boys and girls, 
 came to Monticello to keep loneliness from 
 her father's hearth. When she asked him how 
 he wished to live, he answered, " As a plain 
 country gentleman." And, truly, he looked the 
 
 part, riding about his estate in his unpretentious 
 
 197 
 
198 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 gray riding dress, on a horse that any horse- 
 loving Virginian might covet. 
 
 That is what he was taken to be by the old 
 man who stood at the ford one morning when 
 Jefferson rode up with a party of friends. The 
 stranger eyed each rider who passed him till 
 the ex-president approached. Saluting re- 
 spectfully, he asked, " Sir, will your horse carry 
 double across the river?" Jefferson stopped 
 instantly and bade the old man mount behind 
 him. 
 
 After they were all across the stream, one of 
 the party, amused at the adventure, fell back 
 and asked the old man, *' Why did you single 
 out the man in gray to give you a ride ?" " Oh," 
 said the old man, " I was sure by his looks 
 that he would not refuse." 
 
 It was Jefferson's custom to ride often and 
 far, sometimes accompanied by a friend, but 
 more often alone. At such times he hummed 
 or sang happily to himself. He always had 
 a courteous greeting for those he met. On 
 one occasion his nephew received from him a 
 rebuke that he did not soon forget. While 
 
THE SAGE OF MONTICELLO. 1 99 
 
 riding with his uncle one morning the young 
 man neglected to respond to the greeting of a 
 slave who passed them on the road. "What," 
 said Jefferson, " do you allow a servant to be 
 more of a gentleman than you?" 
 
 Jefferson had never lost interest in farming 
 and in improving his estate. He found his 
 farm sadly in need of attention, and was 
 glad to give it his personal supervision. His 
 powerful mind was as fertile in ideas for 
 improving a farm as for building a nation. 
 He had invented a plow. He had both a 
 carpenter and a blacksmith shop where, with 
 his own hands, he had contrived innumerable 
 labor-saving devices. 
 
 He also had a shop where his slaves made 
 nails. Nails were then all made by hand. 
 Nailmaking and woodcutting were more profit- 
 able pursuits at Monticello in those days than 
 raising tobacco and wheat. The land was 
 impoverished. Besides, the war of 1812 and 
 the troubles that had led to it had disturbed 
 and well-nigh destroyed American commerce, 
 and there was no market for the produce of 
 
200 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Virginia. In spite of his utmost care Jefferson 
 found farming a losing business. 
 
 Still, he worked persistently, repairing, build- 
 ing, improving, experimenting. In many of 
 his letters to his daughters and to his neigh- 
 bors and nephews he had urged upon them 
 the importance of always being busy. He 
 was himself one of the most industrious of 
 men. His old overseer said that he had 
 found Jefferson sitting unemployed only twice 
 in his life, and then he was suffering from 
 headache. 
 
 He believed in early rising, and declared 
 near the close of his life that five o'clock had 
 not found him in bed for fifty years. He 
 superintended the work on his estate in detail; 
 he carried on an enormous correspondence ; 
 he kept most elaborate account and note books ; 
 he read and studied diligently, and he directed 
 the studies of many young people of his 
 acquaintance. 
 
 But all of his employments were not of a 
 serious or laborious sort. This letter from a 
 granddaughter, shows us a charming side of 
 
THE SAGE OF MONTICELLO. 201 
 
 his life at Monticello: ''I cannot describe the 
 feehngs of veneration, admiration, and love 
 that existed in my heart toward him. I looked 
 upon him as a being too great and good for 
 my companionship ; and yet I felt no fear to 
 approach him, and be taught by him some of 
 the childish sports that I delighted in. 
 
 "When he walked in the garden and would 
 call the children to go with him, we raced 
 after and before him, and we were made per- 
 fectly happy by this permission to accompany 
 him. Not one of us in our wildest moods 
 ever placed a foot on one of the garden-beds, 
 for that would violate one of his rules, and 
 yet I never heard him utter a harsh word to 
 one of us, or speak in a raised tone of voice, 
 or use a threat. 
 
 "He simply said 'do' or * do not' He 
 would gather fruit for us, seek out the ripest 
 figs, or bring down the cherries from on high 
 above our heads with a long stick, at the end 
 of which was a hook and a little net bag. One 
 of our earliest amusements was in running 
 races on the terrace or around the lawn. He 
 
202 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 placed us according to our ages, giving the 
 youngest and smallest the start of all the 
 others by some yards, and then he raised his 
 arm high with his white handkerchief in his 
 hand, on which our eager eyes were fixed, and 
 slowly counted three, at which number he 
 dropped the handkerchief and we started off to 
 finish the race by returning to the starting 
 place and receiving our reward of dried fruit — 
 three figs, prunes, or dates to the victor, two 
 to the second, and one to the lagger, who came 
 in last. These were our summer sports with 
 him. 
 
 ** On winter evenings, when it grew too dark 
 to read, in the half hour that passed before 
 candles came in, as we all sat around the fire, 
 he taught us several childish games, and 
 would play them with us. I remember that 
 * Cross questions ' and * I love my love with 
 an A' were two I learned from him ; and we 
 would teach some of ours to him. 
 
 "When the candles were brought, all was 
 quiet immediately, for he took up his book to 
 read, and we would not speak above a whisper 
 
THE SAGE OF MONTICELLO. 203 
 
 lest we should disturb him, and generally we 
 followed his example and took a book, and I 
 have seen him raise his eyes from his own 
 book and look round on the little circle of 
 readers, smile, and make some remarks to 
 mamma about it. 
 
 ** When the snow fell we would go out as 
 soon as it stopped to clear it off the terraces 
 with shovels, that he might have his usual walk 
 on them without treading in snow. He often 
 gave us little presents. I remember his giving 
 us * Parent's Assistant,' and that we drew 
 lots, and that she who drew the longest straw 
 had the first reading of the book — the next 
 longest straw entitled the drawer to the second 
 reading — the shortest, to the last reading and 
 the ownership of the book. One day I was 
 passing hastily through the glass door from 
 the hall to the portico ; there was a broken 
 pane which caught my muslin dress and tore it 
 sadly. 
 
 "Grandpapa was standing by and saw the 
 disaster. A few days after he came into 
 mamma's sitting room with a bundle in his 
 
204 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 hand, and said to me, ' I have been mending 
 your dress for you.' He had himself selected 
 for me another beautiful dress." Indeed, there 
 was much simple happiness in the life at 
 Monticello. Jefferson could not altogether 
 escape, however, the penalties of fame. 
 
 He had more than a convenient number of 
 letters to answer and guests to entertain. He 
 did not wish himself to be made a hero. 
 Again and again people of various States 
 sought to celebrate his birthday, but he firmly 
 though courteously refused to disclose the 
 date of his birth. The citizens of his neigh- 
 borhood wanted to give him a grand welcome 
 home when he came back from Washing- 
 ton — he could not be sure of the date of his 
 arrival. 
 
 A French friend, after visiting him, sent him 
 a wreath of immortels to crown the head of 
 a fine bust of himself that adorned his hall I 
 on receiving it Jefferson wound it around the 
 brow of a statue in his hall, but the statue was 
 that of Washington. Yet there was a sort of 
 tribute that it was not his nature to reject. 
 
THE SAGE OF MONTICELLO. 20$ 
 
 When men came from all parts of America 
 and from across the seas to visit him, the sage 
 of Monticello made them welcome to the best 
 he had. No one was content to leave that 
 part of the country without climbing the wind- 
 ing road that lead to the grassy summit of the 
 forest-covered mountain. The view of valley, 
 mountain, and plain, the sight of the wierd 
 "looming" mountain that now seemed a 
 square, now a cylinder, now an inverted cone, 
 would have rewarded one for the time and 
 effort. 
 
 The beautiful house and grounds, the gay 
 flower-beds, the well-proportioned mansion 
 with its pillored portico, were worth seeing. 
 The great hall with its curiosities, the bones 
 of the mammoth and splendid trophies from 
 the far west, its good pictures, its statues and 
 busts, would have interested many. The 
 student would have enjoyed looking over that 
 wonderful collection of books that overflowed 
 from the library into almost every room in the 
 house. But all these together would not have 
 satisfied the pilgrims who climbed Monticello 
 
206 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 SO well as a glimpse of the tall, gray-haired, 
 mild-mannered old man who lived there. 
 
 Among the truly welcome of the hundreds 
 that visited Monticello, was the aged La- 
 Fayette. Both because of the love they bore 
 each other and because of all they had thought 
 and done for the cause of democratic govern- 
 ment, the meeting was most significant. 
 
 Even in his old age Jefferson found opportun- 
 ities to serve his country. Perhaps his proudest 
 and most satisfying possession was his vast 
 collection of books gathered from all parts of 
 the world, through a long life. There was 
 not to be found anywhere so complete and 
 valuable a mass of information about America. 
 When the Congressional Library was des- 
 troyed in the war of 1812, Jefferson generously 
 offered to Congress his own library, and ac- 
 tually sold it for the nominal sum of some 
 twenty-three thousand dollars. 
 
 The favorite enterprise of Jefferson's declin- 
 ing years was the establishment of the State 
 University in Virginia. He interested many 
 prominent men, among them his friend 
 
THE SAGE OF MONTICELLO. 20/ 
 
 Madison, in the movement, but he was him- 
 self ever the heart and soul of it He made 
 the plans for the beautiful quadrangle of classic 
 buildings, supervised personally their erection^ 
 chose the professors, planned a most democratic 
 system of government both for faculty and for 
 students, and was, in very truth, as he called 
 himself, the father of the University of Vir- 
 ginia. This was the crowning work of his 
 rich, full life. 
 
 As the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of 
 the Declaration of Independence approached, 
 Jefferson fell ill and was obliged to decline 
 the invitation to take part in the great celebra- 
 tion to be held in Washington. And at noon 
 on that day of national rejoicing, the Fourth of 
 July, 1826, the author of the Declaration of 
 Independence breathed his last. 
 
 The staunch champion of that Declaration, 
 John Adams, lay dying on the same day in 
 his northern home. His last words were : 
 "Thomas JefTerson still survives." In some 
 senses may we not truthfully repeat those 
 words to-day ? 
 
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON 
 
GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON 
 
THE STORY OF ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 By H. W. ELSON. 
 
 BIRTH AND BOYHOOD OF ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 In 1765, two years after the French and 
 Indian War had closed, a man named Andrew 
 Jackson, with his good wife and two bright 
 little boys named Hugh and Robert, came 
 from the north of Ireland and settled in South 
 Carolina. 
 
 They landed at the port of Charleston and 
 made a long journey through the wilderness, 
 one hundred and sixty miles to the northwest. 
 
 They came to a settlement, called the Wax- 
 haw Settlement, after a tribe of Indians of 
 that name. 
 
 Here Mr. Jackson made his home. He was 
 not a rich man, but had means enough left to 
 purchase a little farm, on which he built a little 
 log-house and began to clear away the forest. 
 
 The family rejoiced to have a home of their 
 own though it was a rude one. In his native 
 country Mr. Jackson had been only a tenant, 
 
212 • ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 and his wife had helped support the family by 
 weaving linen. 
 
 Now they owned their home and looked for- 
 ward to a long, happy life. 
 
 But their happiness in their forest-home was 
 soon to be ended, and their family life broken 
 up forever. Scarcely had they been two years 
 in their new abode when Mr. Jackson's health 
 gave way ; he became ill and soon died. 
 
 On the sad day of the funeral Mrs. Jack- 
 son's brother-in-law took her and her two little 
 sons to his own home, a short distance away ; 
 and here a few days later, on the fifteenth of 
 March, 1767, another child was born into the 
 family. 
 
 The new baby was a boy, and his mother 
 named him Andrew, after his dead father. 
 
 The home of the Jacksons was in South 
 Carolina, very near the State line; but the 
 house of this relative was just across the line in 
 Union County, North Carolina, and it was here 
 that the future president was born. 
 
 Mrs. Jackson was thus left with three little 
 fatherless boys, and for them she must care as 
 best she could ; but she was a noble woman. 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 2 1 3 
 
 brave and industrious, and she left nothing 
 undone that she could do for her children. 
 
 Hugh and Robert were soon old enough to 
 help earn the living, and with what they could 
 do and what the mother could earn at her spin- 
 ning-wheel, they managed to live with comfort. 
 
 During the long winter evenings the broth- 
 ers would often sit at their mothers knee 
 and hear her tell of the oppression of the poor 
 in Ireland, of their long voyage across the 
 ocean to their new home in the widerness, and 
 of their brave and generous father, whom 
 Andrew had never seen. 
 
 Mrs. Jackson was a devout Christian, and 
 she desired that one of her sons should be- 
 come a minister. 
 
 Her choice fell upon Andrew, and he was 
 sent to school in a little log meeting-house in 
 a pine forest near their home. 
 
 Here he spent a few months each year for 
 several years, while his faithful mother earned 
 enough to pay his expenses by spinning flax. 
 Andrew learned readily, and was soon able 
 to read and write. 
 
 He was very fond of sports, especially riding, 
 
214 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 hunting, and wrestling, nor was there a boy to 
 be found in all that region so full of courage 
 as he. 
 
 11. 
 
 JACKSON IN THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 While our young hero was attending school 
 the Revolutionary War broke out, and many a 
 brave colonist left his home and dear ones to 
 lay down his life on the battle-field. 
 
 But the South was not greatly harassed 
 until near the close of the war. In 1780 the 
 city of Charleston was captured by the British, 
 and Lord Cornwallis passed through the Caro- 
 linas and laid waste the country. 
 
 In May of that year Colonel Tarleton, one 
 of the most vicious and inhuman of the Brit- 
 ish raiders, came right through the Waxhaw 
 Settlement, suprised a camp of militia, and 
 killed and wounded more than two hundred. 
 
 The old meeting-house was now turned into 
 a hospital, and Mrs. Jackson and her two sons 
 became nurses and did all in their power to 
 care for the wounded. 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 2 1 5 
 
 I say her two sons, for there were now but 
 two ; the oldest boy Hugh had joined the army 
 some time before, and, after fighting in the battle 
 of Stono, had died of heat and exhaustion. 
 
 It was here while caring for the wounded 
 that the heart of Andrew Jackson was fired 
 with a love of his country and a hatred of 
 its foes that burned in his bosom as long as 
 he lived. 
 
 Before the summer was over he and his 
 brother Robert took up arms and joined the 
 Patriot army. Andrew was only thirteen years 
 old, but almost as tall as a man and as brave 
 as a lion. 
 
 For nearly a year the Patriots and Tories 
 carried on war with each other, and there were 
 many deeds of cruelty. 
 
 The Tories did not belong to the English 
 army ; they lived in America, but favored 
 the English side and fought against the 
 Patriots. 
 
 By and by Cornwallis, hearing that there 
 were so many Patriots at Waxhaw, sent a body 
 of troops to assist the Tories. 
 
 Forty of the Patriots, including the two Jack- 
 
2 1 6 ANDRE W JACKSON. 
 
 son boys, assembled in the old meeting-house 
 to prepare for defence, but a Tory told the 
 troops where they were, and eleven of the forty 
 were captured, the rest escaping, mostly on 
 horseback. 
 
 The Jackson brothers both escaped, but in 
 different directions. Andrew had a companion 
 in his flight, Thomas Crawford, his cousin. 
 
 The two galloped along at headlong speed, 
 hotly pursued by the British, till they came to 
 a swamp into which they plunged. His cousin 
 was taken captive in the swamp, but Andrew 
 gained the other side and soon left his ene- 
 mies behind. 
 
 Toward evening as he was riding along in 
 the lonely forest he saw some one in the dis- 
 tance, and, on looking carefully, found it to 
 be his brother Robert. 
 
 What a happy meeting it must have been, 
 for neither of them knew, before they met, that 
 the other was alive ! That night was spent by 
 these two brothers under the bank of a little 
 creek. 
 
 When morning came they were almost 
 starved. Leaving their horses they crept slyly 
 
ANDREW J A CKSON. 2 1 7 
 
 to a farm-house to ask for food, but an enemy 
 saw them and gave the alarm. 
 
 The house was soon surrounded by English 
 soldiers and the two brave lads were made 
 prisoners. 
 
 I am sorry to have to tell you how these sol- 
 diers acted. There was no one in the house but 
 a woman and her little children, besides the 
 two captured boys ; but these soldiers, acting 
 more like brutes than men, broke to pieces all 
 the furniture in the house, tore up the bedding 
 and clothing — even the clothing of the baby 
 in the mother's arms. 
 
 While this was going on, the brutal officer 
 in command ordered Andrew Jackson to clean 
 his boots. Andrew answered: '*Sir, I am a 
 prisoner of war, and claim to be treated as 
 such." 
 
 At these words the man drew his sword and 
 struck a terrible blow at the boy's head, but 
 Andrew saved his life by throwing up his 
 hand. 
 
 His hand was badly cut, and he also re- 
 ceived a severe wound in his head, the scars 
 of which remained to the end of his life. 
 
2 I 8 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 The officer now turned to Robert and or- 
 dered him to clean the boots, but he also re- 
 fused, when the officer struck him with his 
 sword and made a terrible gash in his head 
 which afterward caused the boy's death. 
 
 They were then placed on horses and taken 
 to Camden, forty miles away, and during the 
 long journey they were allowed nothing to eat 
 nor to drink. At Camden they were thrown 
 into prison with about two hundred and fifty 
 other prisoners. 
 
 Here they spent several weeks without hav- 
 ing their wounds dressed, without beds, and 
 with no food but bad bread. 
 
 There was one whose efforts to get the two 
 brothers out of prison never ceased, and that 
 was their loving mother. 
 
 At length she succeeded, but when she met 
 her boys she hardly knew them, so haggard 
 and weak they had become. They were in the 
 first stages of small-pox, which had broken out 
 in the prison. 
 
 The doctors did not know in those days 
 how to treat this disease as they do now, and 
 many a poor captive died of it in the prison. 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 2 1 9 
 
 The wound in Robert's head had not healed, 
 and when set free he was unable to walk. His 
 mother had two horses there and he was put 
 on one of them, but he could not sit alone 
 and two friends had to hold him during all 
 that journey of forty miles to their home. 
 
 The mother rode the other horse, and An- 
 drew walked behind without hat or shoes and 
 at the same time suffering with the small-pox. 
 
 It was a long, terrible journey. A rain- 
 storm overtook them on the way and their suf- 
 ferings were increased. When at last they 
 reached home, they were utterly exhausted, 
 and poor Robert died within two days. 
 
 Andrew had a long siege of sickness, and, 
 for a time, lost his mind ; but the loving care 
 of a tender mother brought him back to 
 health though it was many months before he 
 had fully recovered. 
 
 What a noble woman was Mrs. Jackson! 
 She had lost two sons and almost the third in 
 defence of her country ; but she was not one 
 to sit down and say that she had done enough. 
 She could not rest when there was suffering 
 around her. 
 
2 20 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 Hearing that the prisoners in the British ships 
 at Charleston were in great distress, and some 
 of them being her neighbors, she resolved to 
 do what she could. 
 
 She left her boy with friends and made the 
 long journey, one hundred and sixty miles, 
 that she might minister to the wants of those 
 in distress. 
 
 She truly believed the Saviour's words: 
 " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
 least of these, ye have done it unto me." 
 
 Andrew Jackson never again saw his mother. 
 She gave her own life, as well as that of her 
 sons, to the cause of her country. 
 
 When about to return home she was seized 
 with a fatal fever and soon died. She w^as 
 buried near the place where she died, and only 
 God knows her burial-place. 
 
 Her son Andrew searched for her grave in 
 after years, but he never could find it. 
 
ANDREW JACKSON. 221 
 
 III. 
 JOURNEY TO THE FAR WEST, 
 
 Andrew Jackson was thus left without 
 parents or near relatives while still a boy, only 
 fourteen years of age. 
 
 But he never forgot his beloved mother and 
 the lessons she had taught him. He loved 
 to speak of her as long as he lived. 
 
 Her life was so pure and so unselfish, her 
 character so firm, so lovable, and so kind that 
 her image was forever imprinted on his soul. 
 
 Above all did she impress upon his mind a 
 reverence for truth and child-like trust in God. 
 
 Many years after, when he had become a 
 great man, he would often quote some homely 
 saying when in the heat of an argument, and 
 then remark: ''That I learned from my dear 
 old mother." 
 
 What a blessing for a boy to have a good 
 mother. Many a boy who has such a mother 
 does not honor her as he should. 
 
 For several years Andrew Jackson remained 
 in the Waxhaw Settlement. He taught school 
 
222 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 for two or three years. His education was 
 not what is now required of school-teachers. 
 No doubt many a boy twelve years old now 
 knows more than he did. 
 
 When he was eighteen he decided to be- 
 come a lawyer, and made a long journey to 
 Salisbury, North Carolina. Here he entered 
 the law office of Mr. McCay, one of the lead- 
 ing lawyers of the State, and remained with 
 him for two years. 
 
 In 1788 there was a party leaving North 
 Carolina for the far west, as it was called — that 
 is, for Tennessee. The land west of the 
 Mississippi River did not then belong to the 
 United States. Tennessee was not then a 
 State. It belonged to North Carolina and was 
 called Washington County. 
 
 Mr. Jackson, who was now a lawyer, twenty- 
 one years old, resolved to go with them. The 
 journey was a long one through hundreds of 
 miles of dense forest and over rugged moun- 
 tains. 
 
 There were many wild animals and sav- 
 age Indians in the way ; but the men were 
 strong and brave and they reached Nashville 
 
A NDRE W J A CKSON. 223 
 
 in October. Nashville is now a beautiful city; 
 then it was a small village of log-cabins. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Jackson reached Nashville 
 he became public prosecutor — that is, the law- 
 yer who brings criminals to justice. 
 
 Before he came there was no one there who 
 had the courage to do this. Many of the men 
 in the country refused to pay their debts, and 
 when asked to do so they were insulted and 
 wanted to fight. 
 
 They often fought with pistol or knife. 
 But Andrew Jackson was a hero, and when 
 sent to arrest them, if they wished to fight him, 
 he was always ready for them. 
 
 He loved justice and right, and the law- 
 breakers soon came to fear and hate him. 
 Many a time his life was in danger from these 
 men, but he always came out ahead in the end. 
 
 One day a gang of ruffians, who had long 
 defied the law, were arrested by Mr. Jackson. 
 
 When they came into the court they became 
 insolent and defiant and refused to be tried. 
 Jackson instantly drew his pistols and called 
 upon the good citizens to assist him. 
 
 When the ruffians saw what kind of a man 
 
224 ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 they had to deal with they were awed and 
 made no further trouble. They were then 
 tried and punished according to law. 
 
 IV. 
 
 WILD LIFE IN TENNESSEE, 
 
 Tennessee was a wild country one hundred 
 years ago when Andrew Jackson first went 
 there. It was like some of the mining regions 
 of the Rocky Mountains at present. 
 
 Many of the people were as rough and ig- 
 norant as any of the cow-boys of our western 
 prairies. 
 
 Hostile Indians swarmed all around the 
 settlers, and scarcely a week passed without 
 some one being killed by them. Women and 
 children never went away from home alone. 
 The men all carried guns. 
 
 If two men stopped in the road to talk, they 
 would stand, each with his back to the other, 
 one looking each way with rifle in hand 
 ready for use. 
 
 No one dared stoop to drink from a spring 
 without having a comrade on guard. Boys and 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON, 225 
 
 girls could not go out berrying without the at- 
 tendance of armed men. 
 
 One dark, lonely night Mr. Jackson was 
 riding through the woods alone in the heart of 
 the Indian country. 
 
 The rain had fallen for some hours, and he 
 came to a stream that he could not ford. He 
 did not dare to light a fire, lest the Indians 
 should see it, nor even to let his horse move 
 about to browse. 
 
 So he took off the saddle, put it at the root 
 of a tree, and sat upon it all night, holding the 
 bridle in one hand and his rifle in the other. 
 
 Thus he sat in silence, and when morn- 
 ing dawned he mounted his horse and soon 
 reached his home. 
 
 At another time he travelled through the 
 forest for sixty hours without sleeping, the 
 Indians being on his trail. Then he wrapped 
 himself in his blanket, lay down on the 
 ground, and soon fell asleep. 
 
 It was midwinter, and when he awoke in the 
 
 morning he found that six inches of snow had 
 
 fallen on him. But the Indians had lost his 
 
 track and he escaped. 
 15 
 
226 A NDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 Besides the Indians there were many white 
 men who would defy the law and do as they 
 pleased. A new country always attracts per- 
 sons of this kind. There were many deeds of 
 violence. 
 
 Not only the law-breakers but the farmers 
 and everybody were quick to resent an insult, 
 and it was a common thing to see men or boys 
 fighting. 
 
 When two men got into a quarrel they 
 would often settle the matter on the spot with 
 pistol and knife, and sometimes one or both 
 were killed. 
 
 Any one living in such a country very 
 long is almost sure to become like the rest 
 of the people ; and so it was with Andrew 
 Jackson. 
 
 He lived many years in this wild, half-civ- 
 ilized country, and we find him as ready 
 as anyone to engage in a fight. 
 
 There was very little money in Tennessee 
 at this time, and the people had to use other 
 things instead of money. They used sugar 
 and the skins of animals and different kinds 
 of liquors for money. 
 
A NDRE W J A CKSON. 2 2 7 
 
 For example, a coon-skin or fox-skin was 
 worth a half-gallon of whiskey or twelve 
 pounds of sugar. Three coon-skins equalled 
 a gallon of peach brandy, and four gallons of 
 peach brandy were worth an otter-skin. The 
 otter-skin was the most valuable piece of 
 money they had. 
 
 When large sums of money were to be paid, 
 the soft money — that is, the liquor, was con- 
 veyed in large jugs, and the hard money, the 
 skins, in wooden boxes. 
 
 To save the trouble of opening the box to 
 count the money every time it changed hands 
 the tail of each skin was left sticking out of 
 a small opening for the purpose. 
 
 But sometimes a dishonest person would fill 
 his box with coon-skins with otter's-tails 
 tacked on them and thus deceive the unwary. 
 
 One of the worst features of social life a 
 hundred years ago was duel fighting. When 
 a man felt himself insulted by another, he 
 would challenge him to fight a duel. 
 
 Then they would meet on the field of honor, 
 as they called it, stand some distance apart, 
 and fire at each other with pistols. Sometimes 
 
228 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 they would use knives or swords. It often 
 happened that one or both were killed or dis- 
 abled. 
 
 If a man refused to fight a duel, or did not 
 send a challenge when insulted, he was 
 called a coward, and was looked down upon 
 by the people. Many took pride in the num- 
 ber of duels they had fought. 
 
 There was more duelling in a new settle- 
 ment like Tennessee than elsewhere, but the 
 practice existed in all the States. It had been 
 introduced from Europe. 
 
 It was by duelling that Alexander Hamil- 
 ton, Stephen Decatur, Senator Broderic, and 
 hundreds of others lost their lives. Andrew 
 Jackson fought several duels, and at various 
 times narrowly escaped being killed. 
 
 With all his courage he had not the moral 
 courage to defy public opinion and refuse to 
 fight a duel. Happily this barbarous practice 
 has almost entirely died out. 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 2 29 
 
 V. 
 JACKSON IN CONGRESS. 
 
 In 1796 Tennessee became a State. At the 
 close of the Revolutionary War there were 
 but thirteen States in the Union„ The first 
 to be admitted after this was Vermont. Ken- 
 tucky came next. This made fifteen ; now 
 Tennessee becomes the sixteenth State. 
 
 Before a territory becomes a State the peo- 
 ple elect men to meet and frame a constitution 
 — that is, a writing which is to be the basis of 
 the laws. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was one of the men elected 
 to make the Constitution of Tennessee. 
 When this was done and the State was ad- 
 mitted into the Union, the people elected Mr. 
 Jackson to Congress. 
 
 Congress is composed of two houses, first, 
 the Senate, or Upper House, and second, the 
 House of Representatives, or Lower House. 
 It was the Lower House to which Jackson 
 was elected. 
 
 He now had a long journey to make, nearly 
 
2 30 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 eight hundred miles, to Philadelphia, where 
 Congress then met. It was not until the year 
 1800 that Congress met in Washington City. 
 
 There were no railroads in those days, and 
 Jackson had to make this journey on horse- 
 back. It took about six weeks. 
 
 As he crossed the mountains his mind must 
 have gone back to the time, eight years before, 
 when he had crossed the same mountains, 
 seeking his fortune in the far western country. 
 
 He reached Philadelphia in December just 
 in time to hear President Washington make his 
 last speech to Congress. It was the custom 
 then for the President to speak sometimes be- 
 fore Congress, but he never does so now. 
 
 This was Jackson's first appearance in a 
 great city. He must have looked like a true 
 backwoodsman. He was described as a tall, 
 lank, uncouth-looking person with long hair 
 done up in a cue and tied at the back with 
 an eel-skin. 
 
 The only important thing that Jackson did 
 in this Congress was to secure payment to the 
 people of Tennessee for an expedition against 
 the Indians three years before. 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 23 1 
 
 The Indians had become so hostile that the 
 people could not wait for orders from the gov- 
 ernment, so they took their guns and drove 
 the Indians back. Now they asked that the 
 government pay them for this, as it did in 
 other territories. 
 
 Some were opposed to doing this ; but Jack- 
 son stuck to it and won his case. The gov- 
 ernment paid nearly twenty-three thousand 
 dollars to the Tennessee Indian fighters. 
 
 At the end of this session of Congress Jack- 
 son went back to his home. Soon after this 
 there was a vacancy from his State in the Sen- 
 ate, and he was appointed to fill it. 
 
 So the next year, 1797, when he went back to 
 Philadelphia, he was a United States Senator. 
 But Senator Jackson did not like the business 
 of law-making, and he resigned from the Sen- 
 ate within a year, returned to Tennessee, and 
 became a private citizen. 
 
232 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 VI. 
 JACKSON BECOMES A JUDGE. 
 
 Soon after Jackson had left the Senate he 
 became a store-keeper. He would purchase 
 goods in Philadelphia and send them to Pitts- 
 burg in wagons, a distance of three hundred 
 and fifty miles ; from there they were sent down 
 the Ohio River in flat-boats, and thence car- 
 ried on pack-horses, through the wilderness, 
 to Nashville. 
 
 This was certainly keeping store under diffi- 
 culties, and we can imagine that the store was 
 not a very extensive one. 
 
 But Jackson was not left long in private life. 
 He was elected to a seat in the Supreme Court 
 of the State. He did not desire to be a judge, 
 but he had always said that a citizen should 
 not seek nor decline public duty. He there- 
 fore accepted because he felt it his duty to do 
 so. 
 
 He held the office several years, when he 
 resigned. During this time he had to travel 
 over the State and hold court in different towns, 
 
A NDRE W J A CKSON. 233 
 
 and many were his thrilling adventures among 
 those half-civilized people. 
 
 The criminals and ruffians hated the judge, 
 because they knew it was his business to deal 
 justice and to punish them when they de- 
 served it. 
 
 A judge had to be a man of iron nerve, or 
 the ruffians would intimidate him. Jackson 
 was just such a man. When he was angry 
 his eyes shone like fire and no criminal could 
 stand before him. He loved justice and 
 despised crime and the oppression of the 
 poor. 
 
 One of the most thrilling incidents in his 
 life was at the trial of a criminal named Russell 
 Bean. Bean was a very bad man ; he would 
 commit almost any brutal crime ; he even cut 
 off a baby's ears to spite its mother. 
 
 One day a warrant was issued for his arrest. 
 "Jackson was in the court room ready to give him 
 a trial, but Bean refused to be arrested and de- 
 fied the sheriff 
 
 As he was armed with pistol and knife, the 
 sheriff was afraid of him. The sheriff came in 
 and told Jackson that the man sat on his horse 
 
2 34 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 with drawn pistol and swore he would shoot 
 anyone that came near him. 
 
 '' Then summon a posse," cried Jackson. 
 
 The sheriff went out again, but soon re- 
 turned and told Jackson that the men were all 
 afraid to lay hands on the man. 
 
 " Then summon me," roared Jackson. The 
 anger of Judge Jackson was now at its highest 
 pitch; he leaped from the bench, ran out to 
 where the desperado. Bean, was blustering 
 and threatening, pointed his pistol at his head, 
 and ordered him to surrender. Bean's nerve 
 failed him ; he dropped his pistol and said : 
 
 ''There's no use, Jedge, I give in." 
 
 He was then brought before the court and 
 punished. He afterward said that no man 
 could stand before the flashing eye of Judge 
 Jackson. 
 
 One of the stories told of Jackson while he 
 was judge is quite amusing, and shows how 
 cool he was at a critical moment. He was rid- 
 ing along a lonely road in his gig when he met 
 a ruffian who had been punished in court by 
 him years before. 
 
 The man now thought he would have some 
 
A NDRE W J A CKSON. 235 
 
 fun with the one who had sentenced him to 
 punishment. He drew his pistol and ordered 
 Jackson to dismount. Jackson coolly got out 
 of the gig. 
 
 *' Now, dance for your life," said the man. 
 
 '' How can I dance with these heavy boots 
 on," answered Jackson, **let me get my slip- 
 pers." 
 
 ''All right," said the man, and Jackson 
 quietly went to his valise. But instead of the 
 slippers, he drew his pistol, whirled upon the 
 man, and pointed it to his head. The man 
 was so taken back that he lost his aim at the 
 judge and stood trembling before him. 
 
 '' Drop that pistol," shouted Jackson, and he 
 dropped it. 
 
 '' Now, dance," demanded Jackson, and the 
 ruffian began to dance, Jackson pointing his 
 pistol at him all the time. When the man 
 had danced a long time and began to slacken 
 his efforts from fatigue, Jackson said, '' Keep 
 on dancing." 
 
 So he made him dance till he could stand 
 up no longer and fell helpless to the ground, 
 and Jackson drove off 
 
236 Andre w jackson. 
 
 I shall close this chapter by relating one 
 other incident, showing how faithful Jackson 
 was to a friend. A large crowd had met at a 
 place called Clover Bottom for the annual 
 horse-races. 
 
 The landlord of the tavern set a long table 
 in the open air and hundreds of men gathered 
 around it. Indeed the crowd was so dense on 
 both sides of the table that no one could get 
 through it. 
 
 Jydge Jackson was at the head of the table 
 and a friend of his named Patten Anderson 
 was at the other end, several rods away. An- 
 derson had enemies there who created a dis- 
 turbance, drew their pistols, and were about 
 to shoot him. 
 
 Jackson saw the great danger of his friend, 
 but the crowd was such that he could not get 
 to him. What could he do ? 
 
 Well, if ever there was a man who could 
 always find a way to do what he wanted to do, 
 it was Andrew Jackson. He leaped from his 
 seat, sprang upon the table, and ran among the 
 dishes the whole length of the table, shouting, 
 '* I'm coming, Patten." 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 237 
 
 As he ran he put his hand into his back 
 coat pocket as if for a pistol, but he had no 
 pistol. He had, instead, an old steel tobacco- 
 box with a stiff spring, which made a click 
 similar to that of a pistol. This he drew out 
 and snapped. 
 
 The men thinking this a pistol, and seeing 
 the terrible flash in Jackson's eye, instantly 
 dispersed, and Anderson was saved. 
 
 VII. 
 
 OLD HICKORY. 
 
 The store and farm of Judge Jackson were 
 so neglected by his being away from home a 
 large part of each year that he decided to 
 resign the judgeship and take personal charge 
 of his affairs at home. 
 
 This he did in 1804. His finances had also 
 suffered greatly through the failure of a man in 
 Philadelphia whose notes Jackson held. By this 
 failure he lost about seven thousand dollars, 
 and to meet it he was forced to sell a large 
 tract of land. 
 
238 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 Jackson owned at one time more than twenty- 
 five thousand acres of land, but it was not cul- 
 tivated ; its value therefore was not very great. 
 A large part of this now had to be sold to pay 
 his debts. 
 
 He then moved, with his wife, to a large 
 farm not far from Nashville, and this became 
 their permanent home. On this farm Jack- 
 son built in later years a fine house and named 
 it The Hermitage. 
 
 This house is still standing and is looked 
 upon as the most interesting place in Tennessee. 
 
 Before Jackson had been sent to Congress 
 he was married to Mrs. Rachel Robards. 
 Their married life was a long and happy one. 
 Jackson thought his wife the best woman in 
 the world, and was fondly devoted to her as 
 long as she lived. 
 
 From the time that Jackson ceased to be a 
 judge till the War of 181 2 began, he lived the 
 quiet life of a planter and store-keeper. There 
 was little in his life during this period that 
 would interest the reader. 
 
 But his experience during the war is highly 
 interesting to every American. He had been 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 2 39 
 
 chosen some years before as the leader of the 
 Tennessee militia. 
 
 The militia of a State are the men who are 
 drilled and practised for warfare, though they 
 do not belong to the regular army. 
 
 Volunteers are men who offer to fight for 
 their country in time of war, though they do 
 not belong to the militia. 
 
 Early in the summer of 1812, only a few 
 days after war was declared. General Jack- 
 son offered to raise a body of troops and lead 
 them into the field. 
 
 His offer was accepted, and in a few months 
 he had over two thousand volunteers ready for 
 service. He was ordered to lead them down 
 the Mississippi River, as it was supposed there 
 would soon be an enemy in that part of the 
 country. 
 
 After a long journey down the river they 
 came to the town of Natchez in February. 
 Here they stopped and went into camp. 
 They drilled for many weeks and prepared for 
 a campaign, but no enemy appeared. 
 
 At length, late in the spring, the general re- 
 ceived a letter from the Secretary of War. It 
 
240 ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 was very brief and very discouraging. It sim- 
 ply stated that there was no further need of the \ 
 troops under Jackson, and ordered him to dis- 
 miss them at once and turn over their arms 
 to another general, then commanding at New 
 Orleans. 
 
 General Jackson was very indignant when he 
 received this letter. He said it was cruel and 
 outrageous to lead men five hundred miles 
 from their homes and then turn them out to 
 find their way back through the wilderness, 
 without money, without arms, without food. 
 
 Many of them were young men, and he had 
 promised their parents that he would be a 
 father to them and bring them back to their 
 homes, if in his power. 
 
 And, besides, one hundred and fifty of them 
 were sick, and fifty-six of them could not lift 
 their heads from the pillow. What a strange 
 thing it would have been to turn these out 
 without protection ! 
 
 But General Jackson made up his mind that 
 he would not obey this order of the vSecretary 
 of War. He said he would march the men 
 back to Tennessee, if he had to pay the ex- 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 2\ I 
 
 penses himself. And so they started in a few 
 days. 
 
 The sick were put on the few wagons and 
 horses which they had ; the rest walked. The 
 general had three good horses of his own ; but 
 he gave them all to the sick, while he walked 
 with the others. Jackson was a good walker 
 and bore the trip well, though he was not a 
 strong, hearty man. 
 
 One day as they were jogging along some 
 one said, ** The general is tough ; " another 
 said, "As tough as hickory." From this he 
 soon came to be called " Old Hickory," a name 
 he retained as long as he lived. 
 
 The army reached their homes after march- 
 ing about a month. The sick men had re- 
 covered on the way, and they were all glad to 
 meet their friends again. The government 
 afterward bore the expense of the trip and thus 
 saved General Jackson from financial ruin. 
 
 i6 
 
242 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 VIII. 
 RGHTING INDIANS. 
 
 General Jackson was very popular in 
 Tennessee after returning with his army from 
 down the river. The people liked the way he 
 had treated the soldiers, and his praises were 
 sounded on every side. 
 
 Now it happened that the Creeic Indians be- 
 came involved in the War of 1812. They were 
 led to fight against the Americans by a noted 
 Indian chief from the north named Tecumseh, 
 who was a friend to England. 
 
 It was very wrong for the Creeks to fight 
 on the British side, for they were, at that time, 
 receiving a pension from the United States. 
 
 One of the first acts of these Indians was to 
 commit a horrible crime — the massacre of Fort 
 Mims. This occurred in August, 181 3. The 
 fort was in the southern part of Alabama, was 
 built of wood, and covered about an acre of 
 ground. 
 
 When the white people of the neighborhood 
 heard the Indians were hostile they gathered 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 243 
 
 here, men, women, and children, until there 
 were about five hundred in the fort. 
 
 One day a thousand Indian warriors, hideous 
 with war-paint, rushed upon the fort and mur- 
 dered the people, women and children as well 
 as men, until only a few were left ! 
 
 The news spread through Tennessee, and the 
 wildest excitement prevailed. What could be 
 done ? The people felt that the murder should 
 be avenged and their own homes protected. 
 
 " Raise an army and march into the Indian 
 country," was the cry throughout Tennessee. 
 Who would lead the army ? Jackson was their 
 general ; but he had been engaged in a street- 
 fight, and his left arm was terribly shattered 
 with a pistol-ball. 
 
 He had not been out of bed for some 
 weeks, and no one thought he would be able 
 to lead them. But as soon as he heard what 
 was going on, he got up and said he was 
 ready to go. He was a man of wonderful 
 nerve and courage. 
 
 His arm had not yet healed, but within a 
 few days he was on his horse marching with 
 an army into the Indian country. His left 
 
244 ANDRE IV J A CKSON. 
 
 arm was in a sling and he had to be Hfted on 
 and off his horse. 
 
 The army marched into the Indian country 
 a hundred miles or more and encamped at a 
 place called Fort Strother. Here the general 
 learned that the Indians were encamped at a 
 place called Talladega, about thirty miles away. 
 
 He now hastened with his army to the place, 
 covering nearly the whole distance in one 
 night. Next morning he met the Indians, and 
 the battle of Talladega was fought. 
 
 The Indians were put to flight in a short 
 time and Jackson returned to his camp. 
 
 But there was one serious trouble with which 
 he had to contend and that was a want of provis- 
 ions for his soldiers. There being no railroads, 
 it was not easy to get supplies to the army and 
 they had to wait for several weeks with almost 
 nothing to eat. 
 
 The result was that the men grew restless 
 and wanted to go home. Jackson pleaded with 
 them to stay with him until the Creeks were 
 subdued, and at times he would have half the 
 army watch the other half to keep them from 
 going. 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON, 24 5 
 
 At last the men vowed they would go home, 
 even after supplies had reached them, and be- 
 gan to move off in a body. 
 
 Jackson's old fighting spirit now arose. He 
 rode in front of the moving column, laid his 
 gun across his horse's neck with his right hand, 
 his left still being in a sling, and said he would 
 shoot the first man that made another step. 
 
 Not a man stirred for some minutes. At 
 length they gave it up and agreed to return to 
 their duty. It was afterward found that the 
 musket that Jackson had at the time was too 
 much out of order to be discharged. 
 
 IX. 
 
 MORE INDIAN HGHTING. 
 
 The troops now under Jackson were so dis- 
 contented that he thought it unwise to force 
 them to stay longer. They were not regular 
 soldiers, had never been in war before, and 
 soon grew tired of it. 
 
 They had won an important victory and 
 now longed to go back to their farm and their 
 
246 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 families. So General Jackson let them go, but 
 his ranks were soon filled by others sent to 
 take their places. 
 
 This second army was much better than the 
 first, and reached the number pf five thousand 
 men. It was several weeks before they could 
 get ready for a final campaign against the 
 enemy, and the spring was now at hand. 
 
 There is a bend in the Tallapoosa River 
 about midway between its source and its 
 mouth. The curve is so sharp that it forms a 
 small peninsula containing a hundred acres of 
 land, and this is called the Horseshoe, because 
 its shape is that of a horseshoe. 
 
 This peninsula was a wild, rough piece of 
 ground covered with timber. The Indians, 
 thinking this a good place to encamp and to 
 fortify themselves against the Americans, had 
 gathered here to the number of twelve 
 hundred. 
 
 Jackson, hearing of their encampment at 
 Horseshoe, hastened to meet them. He 
 reached the place the last part of March, 181 4. 
 Now occurred one of the bloodiest battles ever 
 fought with the Indians on American soil. 
 
A NDRE W J A CKSON. 247 
 
 Jackson placed his men in different points 
 around the peninsula and began the attack. 
 
 The battle raged all day. When night came 
 nearly nine hundred Indians lay dead upon 
 the field or at the bottom of the river. The 
 rest had escaped into the wilderness. The loss 
 on the American side was about one-fifth that 
 of the Indians. 
 
 The power of the Creek Indians was now 
 entirely broken. Not long after this battle 
 they began to come to Jackson and sue for 
 peace. Jackson offered to spare all who would 
 lay down their arms and promise to let the 
 white settlers alone in future. 
 
 Most of them did this. But there was 
 one Indian chief whom Jackson said they 
 must bring to him for punishment, and that 
 was Weatherford who had led the massacre at 
 Fort Mims. 
 
 One day when Jackson was sitting in his 
 tent a big Indian chief with his paint and 
 feathers walked in and said, '' I am Weather- 
 ford. I have come to ask peace for my 
 people." 
 
 Jackson was surprised at his coming and 
 
248 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 said : " I had directed that you be brought to 
 me bound; had you so appeared, I should 
 have known how to treat you." 
 
 '' I am in your power," answered the Indian ; 
 ''do with me as you please. I am a soldier. 
 I have done the white people all the harm I 
 could. If I had an army, I would yet fight 
 them; but I have none. My people are all 
 gone. 
 
 '' My warriors can no longer hear my voice. 
 Their bones are at Talladega and The Horse- 
 shoe. Do with me what you will. You are a 
 brave man ; I rely on your generosity. I ask 
 not for myself, but for my people." 
 
 Jackson had intended to put Weatherford to 
 death for what he had done at Fort Mims, but 
 after hearing this eloquent speech from so brave 
 a man, he could not do it. 
 
 Weatherford promised to do all in his power 
 toward keeping the peace in future, and was 
 suffered to depart. He kept his word, and 
 the Indian war was over. 
 
 I shall now close this story of Indian fight- 
 ing by relating a touching little incident. 
 
 Besides the battles of Talladega and The 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 249 
 
 Horseshoe, which we have noticed, there were 
 several other smaller battles fought during this 
 campaign. 
 
 Sometimes the Indians had with them their 
 women and children during a battle, and some 
 of them were sure to be killed, as well as the 
 men ; though the Americans did not kill them 
 if they could help it. 
 
 After one of these battles a little Indian 
 baby boy was brought into the American camp. 
 Its mother had been killed, and the living child 
 was found in the dead mother's arms. An 
 Indian baby is called a papoose. 
 
 General Jackson took this little papoose into 
 his tent where it was fed on water mixed with 
 sugar. He then sent it away to be nursed at 
 his expense ; and when the campaign was over 
 he took it to his own home. 
 
 Mrs. Jackson received the little fellow very 
 kindly. The boy grew up in their home till 
 he became a man and was treated by the gen- 
 eral and his wife almost as a son. 
 
250 ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 X. 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON* 
 
 A MAJOR-GENERAL in the army is one grade 
 below a lieutenant-general and one grade above 
 a brigadier-general. 
 
 Andrew Jackson had been simply the com- 
 mander of the Tennessee forces; but after his 
 success among the Indians he was made a 
 major-general in the army of the United States. 
 
 Major-General William Henry Harrison, 
 who afterward became President of the United 
 States, resigned from the army in 181 4, and 
 Jackson was appointed to take his place. 
 
 He was now a regular officer of the Union, 
 and the duty of defending the southern part 
 of the country was assigned to him. The 
 great work before him was to defend the lower 
 Mississippi valley ; but before going down the 
 river he made a short vigorous campaign into 
 Florida. 
 
 First he drove a small British fleet out of 
 Mobile Bay, destroying one of the ships ; then 
 he made a hurried march across the country 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 2 5 I 
 
 to Pensacola and took possession of the place 
 driving away the enemy. 
 
 The rumor was spread throughout the South 
 that a large English fleet had set sail for the 
 mouth of the Mississippi. 
 
 General Jackson therefore hastened with his 
 troops to New Orleans, and arrived about the 
 first of December, 1814. 
 
 The city was ill prepared for defense. The 
 people knew of the impending danger. The 
 citizens had met to consult about it, but they 
 could agree on nothing. At length the news 
 was spread that Jackson had arrived, and there 
 was magic in the news. 
 
 A leader had been greatly needed, and here 
 was now a leader who was born to command. 
 He had been but a few hours in the city when 
 the plan of defense was fully decided upon, 
 and hope was seen to beam in every counte- 
 nance. 
 
 Some days were now taken by the general 
 in viewing the various approaches to the city. 
 
 It was soon found that the fears of the peo- 
 ple were well grounded. A large British fleet 
 had landed. It consisted of fifty ships, carrying 
 
252 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 twenty thousand soldiers and a thousand heavy 
 guns. 
 
 It was commanded by Sir Edward Pakcn- 
 ham, a brave and successful soldier, and 
 brother-in-law of the duke of Wellington, the 
 hero of Waterloo. 
 
 Against this force Jackson had less than four 
 thousand men, and many of them were badly 
 armed. Many had never been in a battle. 
 
 General Jackson was himself in poor health. 
 The long exposure in the Indian country and 
 the long horseback rides through the wilderness 
 had greatly injured his health. 
 
 When he reached New Orleans, he was 
 scarcely able to sit on his horse. But the 
 power of his will was wonderful; and now for 
 weeks he was active day and night preparing to 
 save the city. 
 
 The British army was slowly making its 
 way up the river on the eastern bank toward 
 the city. As soon as Jackson knew of their 
 approach he decided to attack them. 
 
 This he did on the night of December 23 ; 
 and the battle raged in the darkness for several 
 hours. But neither side won a victory. 
 
A NDKE W J A CKSON. 253 
 
 On the next day, just one day before Christ- 
 mas, a treaty of peace was signed between 
 England and the United States, at the little 
 town of Ghent in Belgium. 
 
 But there was no Atlantic cable then, and the 
 news of the peace was not heard in America 
 for several weeks ; so the preparations for battle 
 were continued. 
 
 . General Jackson saw that the only way to 
 save the city was to throw up an embankment 
 and have his men fight from behind it. 
 
 He therefore put them to work, and for 
 nearly three weeks the soldiers worked like 
 beavers day and night with spade and shovel 
 and wheelbarrow. 
 
 It would remind one of bees building a 
 honey-comb, or a colony of ants making an 
 ant-hill. 
 
 During this time the British made two or 
 three assaults on the American line, but were 
 driven back each time. The loss of men 
 reached several hundred on each side. In one 
 of these attacks General Jackson was in a large 
 wooden house back of his army. 
 
 The English, knowing this, directed their fire 
 
254 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 toward it, and the house was struck by a hun- 
 dred cannon balls in ten minutes, but the gen- 
 eral was not hurt. 
 
 General Pakenham was ready for a grand 
 assault. By the evening of the seventh of Janu- 
 ary there was a feeling on both sides that an 
 awful battle was about to take place. 
 
 And so there was — one of the most terrible 
 this Western World had ever seen — but that 
 will be given in the next chapter. 
 
 XL 
 BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 War is a dreadful thing at best. It sweeps 
 over a land and leaves a frightful trail — 
 suffering and woe, widows and orphans! 
 The shouts of victory are mingled with the 
 wails of the dying ; the songs of triumph with 
 the groans of the fallen foe. 
 
 But with all its horrors, war will sometimes 
 come and we cannot help it. At such times it 
 is the part of one who loves his country to 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 255 
 
 fight for its honor with his heart brave and 
 unfaltering. 
 
 Such were the men who fought under Jack- 
 son at the battle of New Orleans on January 
 8, 1815. 
 
 General Jackson and his soldiers felt it their 
 solemn duty to repel the English invaders of 
 our land, and now the supreme moment had 
 come. 
 
 The general remembered how, thirty-five 
 years before when only a boy, he had been 
 captured by the English in the Revolutionary 
 War, and a cruel officer had struck him with a 
 sword, leaving a scar that he still bore. 
 
 He remembered how that war had deprived 
 him of his loving mother and his two brothers ; 
 and perhaps these memories made him the 
 more anxious now to inflict a terrible blow 
 upon the enemy. 
 
 He arose on this day at one o'clock in the 
 morning and rode along his lines, rousing his 
 men to their places of duty. 
 
 Within a few hours everything was in readi- 
 ness — the cannon mounted, and every man at 
 his place. 
 
256 A NDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 Great was the activity also in the British 1 
 camp. No soldiers are braver than the Eng- \ 
 lish soldiers, and they certainly proved it on 
 that fatal day. At the first break of day they 
 were marching in solid columns toward the 
 American lines. 
 
 Then at the signal of a skyrocket they 
 opened fire, and the awful work of the day was 
 begun. The aim of the British was to storm 
 and capture the American works. 
 
 A large body of troops, led by General Gibbs, 
 marched boldly toward the works. The Ameri- 
 cans held their peace till the British came with- 
 in a few hundred yards. 
 
 Then they opened a terrific fire, and mowed 
 them down like grass before the reaper's 
 scythe. 
 
 The boom of the cannon and the rattle of the 
 musketry made a noise at once terrible and 
 magnificent. 
 
 The top of the American breastwork, nearly 
 a mile in length, was one unbroken line of fire. 
 
 In a few minutes the British troops began to 
 falter and break away, leaving hundreds dead 
 on the field. General Gibbs rode in front and 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 2 5 / 
 
 tried to rally them, but they refused to rush to 
 certain death. 
 
 At that moment General Pakenham rode to 
 the front and cried, '' For shame ! recollect that 
 you are British soldiers." 
 
 At length they rallied and again faced the 
 awful fire from the American works. The 
 slaughter was now more dreadful than before. 
 The musketeers swept them down like chaff 
 before the wind. 
 
 A cannon was loaded to the muzzle with 
 musket balls and scraps of iron, and fired right 
 into the head of the column. It mowed a 
 wide swath from one end to the other, cutting 
 down two hundred men ! 
 
 Pakenham's horse was shot, and he leaped 
 upon another. His right arm was now shattered 
 by a musket ball and fell helpless to his side ; 
 but he kept on cheering his men as if he did 
 not notice it. 
 
 A few minutes later he was pierced through 
 the body by two balls, and his second horse 
 killed at the same instant. They fell together. 
 
 Friendly hands caught the falling general 
 and bore him to a place of safety in the rear; 
 
 17 
 
258 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 but when they reached there, the heroic com- 
 mander was dead. General Gibbs was also 
 killed, and General Lambert became the Eng- 
 lish commander. 
 
 The Americans were so secure behind their 
 works that they could fight in safety. 
 
 Twenty-five minutes after the first terrible 
 fire had begun, the British fled to a safe dis- 
 tance and the main part of the battle was over. 
 What an awful day it was to that English 
 army! 
 
 During the conflict General Jackson walked 
 along his lines, cheering his men and urging 
 them to do their best The victory was com- 
 plete, and the city was saved. 
 
 The British loss on that day in killed, 
 wounded, and prisoners, was two thousand 
 six hundred; the American loss was not 
 over twenty-one men ! 
 
 Ten days later General Lambert led the 
 remainder of his army silently back to their 
 ships by night, and they were seen no more on 
 the shores of Louisiana. 
 
A NDRE W J A CKSON. 259 
 
 XII. 
 ECHOES FROM THE BATTLE. 
 
 The great battle of January 8, 1815, was 
 fought on the east bank of the Mississippi, 
 about six miles below New Orleans. 
 
 Next to General Jackson the one who de- 
 served most credit for the victory was General 
 Coffee, who had been with Jackson all through 
 the Indian campaign. 
 
 While this battle was going on there was an- 
 other being fought on the west side of the 
 river. Only a few hundred men were here 
 engaged. 
 
 The result was a victory for the English, who 
 drove the Americans from their position ; but 
 General Lambert decided not to attempt to 
 hold the ground they had won, and he ordered 
 the men back to the main army. 
 
 Let me here relate a few little incidents of 
 the battle. 
 
 When the British first landed from their 
 ships some miles below the city, they took as 
 prisoners all who lived in that neighborhood, 
 
26o ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 SO that none could inform General Jackson that 
 they had made a landing. 
 
 Their object was to surprise the city and 
 capture it, if possible, without much fighting. 
 Among the prisoners was a young Creole, 
 Major Villere, who determined to escape, if he 
 could, and give the alarm in the city. 
 
 He was confined in a house guarded by 
 armed men ; but he escaped through a window, 
 ran across the yard filled with redcoats, leaped 
 over a high hedge fence, and made for the for- 
 est with all speed. 
 
 '* Catch him, or kill him," cried the colonel. 
 
 About fifty men started in pursuit. After a 
 long race through the woods, he found that they 
 were gaining on him, and decided to climb a 
 tree. 
 
 At that moment he heard a whining at his feet 
 and looked down, and behold ! his favorite 
 setter. The faithful dog had followed its 
 master and now crouched at his feet. 
 
 What could be done ? If the dog remained 
 there, he would be discovered. There was but 
 one thing to do — kill the dog. Now he did 
 what he often related in after years with tears 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 26 1 
 
 in his eyes. He slew the noble dog with a 
 club, hid its body, and climbed the tree. 
 
 The fate of the city was at stake, and he 
 could not do otherwise. The soldiers came 
 on, passed by under the tree, and were soon 
 gone. 
 
 When their voices died out in the distance, 
 he came down, made his way across the river, 
 and reached the city about one o'clock the next 
 afternoon. 
 
 He soon found General Jackson, and in- 
 formed him that the British had landed and 
 were encamped but eight miles below. 
 
 He had made a narrow escape, lost his faith- 
 ful dog, but had saved New Orleans from a 
 surprise by the enemy. 
 
 During the battle a few Englishmen would 
 now and then reach the American works and 
 climb upon the rampart; but they were in- 
 stantly shot down. Only one man. Lieutenant 
 Lavack, reached the summit unhurt, and he was 
 made a prisoner. 
 
 One Major Wilkinson reached the top and 
 there fell mortally wounded. The Americans, 
 seeing that he was not dead, ceased firing and 
 
262 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 carried him to the rear. Some one said, '' Bear 
 up, my dear fellow; you are a brave man." 
 
 The wounded man answered in a weak, faint 
 voice, " From my heart I thank you ; it is all 
 over with me. You can do me a favor; tell 
 my commander that I fell on your rampart and 
 died like a soldier." 
 
 One of the most touching incidents of the 
 battle was the following : A boy fourteen years 
 old was a bugler, that is, one who blows the 
 bugle to cheer the soldiers. 
 
 This boy climbed a small tree in the thickest 
 of the battle, sat astride a limb, and blew his 
 horn during the whole time. 
 
 The cannon balls and bullets plowed the 
 ground around him, killed scores of men, and 
 even tore the branches of the tree ; but still he 
 sat blowing with all his might. 
 
 The blast of his horn could be heard above 
 the roaring of the battle. When all was over 
 and the British had fled, some Americans, walk- 
 ing over the ground, found the brave lad still 
 in the tree. 
 
 He had not even been wounded. He was 
 taken to the American camp where many 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 26 3 
 
 gathered around to show him kindness, some 
 even embracing the gallant little soldier. 
 
 The people of New Orleans were exultant 
 with joy at the success of the American arms 
 and the salvation of the city. General Jackson 
 found himself exceedingly popular. 
 
 As the army returned to the city, hundreds 
 of people went out to meet them. A triumphal 
 arch was erected in the public square. 
 
 A solemn public service was held in the 
 cathedral to give thanks to God for their de- 
 liverance. 
 
 General Jackson was now forty-eight years 
 old. From this time his fame was world-wide. 
 When he returned to Tennessee late in the 
 spring, he was met with the most enthusiastic 
 welcome. 
 
 Some months later the President summoned 
 him to Washington. His journey thither was 
 one continued ovation. At Lynchburg, Vir- 
 ginia, a great meeting was held in his honor, 
 and the aged ex-President Jefferson was pre- 
 sent. To the end of Jackson's life his fame 
 never abated. 
 
 This battle of New Orleans, nearly eighty 
 
264 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 years ago, was the last battle fought between 
 America and England. Let us hope and pray 
 that there will never be another. 
 
 XIII. 
 GENERAL JACKSON BECOMES PRESIDENT. 
 
 For several years after the War of 181 2 
 Andrew^ Jackson led the quiet life of a planter. 
 
 As this little book must not be too long I 
 have omitted to tell of the long wait Jackson 
 and his army had in New Orleans for the com- 
 ing of the news of peace, and of the trouble 
 he had in that city with a judge of the United 
 States court. 
 
 I shall also leave out an account of the 
 Seminole War of 1818, since it was very 
 similar to the Indian fighting that has been re- 
 lated. 
 
 Let us go on to the presidential campaign 
 of 1824. 
 
 James Monroe, who had succeedecji Mr. 
 Madison as president, was now serving his 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 265 
 
 second term. The question on all sides was, 
 Who will be the next president? 
 
 Four candidates w^ere early in the field, John 
 Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, John C. Cal- 
 houn of South Carolina, and William H. Craw- 
 ford of Georgia. 
 
 These three were all in Mr. Monroe's cabinet. 
 The fourth candidate was Henry Clay of Ken- 
 tucky, Speaker of the House of Representa- 
 tives. 
 
 These were all strong men, and each had a 
 good following. Before the election a fifth 
 candidate entered the field, and that was An- 
 drew Jackson. 
 
 He was nominated by the Legislature of 
 Tennessee, and in a short time he became the 
 most popular of all. Mr. Calhoun soon 
 dropped out of the race and became the candi- 
 date for the vice-presidency. 
 
 When the election came, Calhoun was 
 elected vice-president ; but there was no elec- 
 tion of president, as no one had received the 
 majority of the Electoral College. 
 
 Jackson received the highest number of 
 votes, ninety-nine. Adams came next with 
 
266 ANDRE W J A CliSON. 
 
 eighty-four, while Crawford received forty-one 
 and Clay thirty-seven. 
 
 Now the Constitution of the United States 
 provides that when there is no election of 
 president by the people, the election must go 
 to the House of Representatives. 
 
 This was the second and last time thus far 
 that the House had to elect a president, the 
 first being in 1801 when Jefferson was elected 
 for the first time. 
 
 The house voted on February the ninth and 
 Adams was elected. Soon after the election 
 Adams chose Henry Clay Secretary of State. 
 
 Then Jackson and his friends raised the cry 
 that there had been a corrupt bargain between 
 Adams and Clay; that is, that Adams had 
 offered to make Clay secretary, if Clay would 
 help make him president. 
 
 There is no proof that such a bargain had 
 ever been made, but Jackson believed it and 
 was free to say so. 
 
 Not long after the inauguration of Adams, 
 Jackson's friends again nominated him for presi- 
 dent, and the subject was kept before the 
 people for nearly four years. 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 267 
 
 Jackson resigned his seat in the United States 
 Senate to which he had been elected, and gave 
 his attention to the canvass. When" the next 
 election came near, everything was done to 
 make Jackson a winning candidate. 
 
 In January, 1828, he attended an immense 
 celebration at New Orleans, in honor of his 
 victory of 1815. It lasted four days, and was 
 attended by a vast crowd of people from all 
 parts of the Union. 
 
 The campaign that followed that year was a 
 bitter one. Mr. Adams was a candidate for re- 
 election. Both parties seemed to forget their 
 courtesy. They stooped to every kind of per- 
 sonal abuse. The sooner such a practice in 
 our politics can be gotten rid of the better. 
 
 At the election Jackson won a great victory. 
 He received one hundred and seventy-eight 
 electoral votes to Adams's eighty-three. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was now elected president 
 of the United States ; but before taking his 
 seat there came upon him the greatest sorrow 
 of his life. His beloved wife died in Decem- 
 ber, a few weeks after the election. 
 
 The general was greatly devoted to his wife, 
 
268 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 and it is said that he never recovered from the 
 shock. It was said that he looked twenty 
 years older in a night. Scarcely was the fun- 
 eral over, when he had to begin his long jour- 
 ney to Washington. 
 
 The fourth of March was a beautiful day, and 
 the crowd was vast. The people had come 
 from every point of the compass to see the 
 *' people's man " made president. 
 
 Jackson was the first of our presidents to 
 rise from the lower strata of society. All the 
 presidents before him had come from rich and 
 aristocratic families. 
 
 Jackson rose from the ranks of the poor and 
 the unknown, and the people loved him the 
 more for that. The inauguration over, they 
 proceeded to the White House where a grand 
 public reception was held. 
 
 Here the people tramped over the fine Brus- 
 sels carpets, stood on the upholstered furniture, 
 and in their crowding smashed a fine, costly 
 chandelier. 
 
 Did Jackson get angry at their carelessness ? 
 Oh, no ! He simply said, " Let the boys have 
 a good time once in four years." 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 269 
 
 XIV. 
 JACKSON AS PRESIDENT. 
 
 Eight of our presidents thus far have been 
 elected for a second term. Jackson was one 
 of these; he was president from March, 1829, 
 to March, 1837. 
 
 During this period there were many very 
 important subjects before the country; but as 
 this little volume is intended for young readers, 
 I shall not discuss in it those great political 
 questions. 
 
 Let us simply refer to a few of the most im- 
 portant movements without going too deeply 
 into the subject. 
 
 One of the first things Jackson did, on be- 
 coming president, was to dismiss a great many 
 office-holders and to put his friends in their 
 places. These officers, post-masters, revenue 
 collectors, and the like, are appointed by the 
 president and are called civil service officers. 
 
 The presidents before Jackson appointed 
 civil service officials because of their fitness, 
 not because they were personal friends, or be- 
 longed to the same political party. 
 
270 ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 But Jackson turned these out by the hundred, 
 and put in his friends and members of his own 
 party. This is a very bad practice. It leads 
 men to work for their party, not for the sake of 
 good government, but because they expect to 
 be rewarded with an office. 
 
 President Jackson does not deserve our 
 thanks for introducing this custom, which is 
 still with us to some extent. But in the last 
 few years there has been an earnest endeacvor 
 to introduce Civil Service Reform, that is, to 
 get back to the old custom of the first presi- 
 dents. 
 
 Perhaps the best thing that Jackson did for 
 his country while president was to crush Nulli- 
 fication in South Carolina. You may wonder 
 what that big word "nullification" means. 
 
 To nullify means to make null and of no 
 effect. South Carolina did not like the tariff 
 of 1828, and decided to nullify it, to prevent it 
 from taking effect in that State. 
 
 A tariff is a duty, a tax on goods sold in this 
 country from foreign countries. It has two 
 objects: first, to raise money by this tax to 
 carry on the government. 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 2/ 1 
 
 This is called Revenue. Second, to protect 
 home industries ; to prevent the foreigner, by 
 taxing his goods, from underselling our own 
 people. For if his goods are taxed, he must 
 charge so much the more for them to make it 
 up.. This is called Protection. 
 
 South Carolina did not want protection, as 
 her people did not manufacture goods. They 
 desired a low tariff, so that they could purchase 
 foreign products at a low price. So South 
 Carolina decided not to be bound by this tariff, 
 nor permit its enforcement in that State. This 
 was nullification. 
 
 General Jackson took very strong ground 
 against South Carolina. His old war spirit 
 arose, and he determined to send an army into 
 the State and enforce obedience. When the 
 people of the State saw that he was in earnest, 
 they receded from their position and thus the 
 whole matter was settled. 
 
 This took place in 1832 — -just a hundred 
 years after the birth of George Washington 
 and the settlement of Georgia. 
 
 Let us notice one other event of Jackson's 
 administration — his dealing with the United 
 
2/2 A NDRE W J A CKSON, 
 
 States Bank. The United States Bank was a 
 very large concern with a capital of thirty-five 
 million dollars. It had been chartered by 
 Congress for twenty years, and had control of 
 nearly all the money of the country. 
 
 Now President Jackson was not a friend of 
 this bank. He believed that so great a bank, 
 with such power over the people's money, was 
 likely to become corrupt, and to carry the elec- 
 tions by a wrong use of the money. 
 
 When therefore a bill to re-charter the bank 
 was passed in Congress, Jackson vetoed the 
 bill. A president vetoes a bill when he refuses 
 to sign it and gives his reasons for it. 
 
 Jackson further determined to weaken the 
 bank by removing the money of the Treasury 
 from it. When he did this, it caused a great 
 deal of excitement throughout the country. 
 
 Many people thought the bank was a good 
 thing, and they feared that any disturbance of 
 the business of the bank would disturb all 
 sorts of business over the country, and perhaps 
 bring on a panic. 
 
 Thousands of people begged Jackson to re- 
 place the money in the bank, but nothing could 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON. 2] 3 
 
 move him. The final result was that the bank 
 was destroyed. 
 
 From that time to the present the surplus 
 money of the government has been kept in an 
 independent treasury, often called the Sub- 
 Treasury. 
 
 When Jackson's second term drew to a close, 
 he determined to retire to private life, though 
 there is little doubt that he could have been 
 elected a third time, had he so desired. 
 
 We have had only two presidents, perhaps, 
 who could have been elected to a third term, 
 and they were Washington and Jackson. 
 
 XV. 
 
 JACKSON'S OLD AGE, 
 
 Let us notice very briefly the closing years 
 of the active life of Andrew Jackson. When 
 he retired to the Hermitage in Tennessee, he 
 was seventy years old and very infirm in 
 health. 
 
 He had saved but little of his salary and his 
 farm had not been well kept. He soon became 
 
2 74 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 
 
 interested in the farm, his health improved and 
 he lived eight years in retirement, dying at the 
 age of seventy-eight. 
 
 Perhaps no public man in America has had 
 firmer friends and bitterer enemies than An- 
 drew Jackson. 
 
 That he had serious faults no one can deny. 
 He had a violent temper and he often failed to 
 control it ; or rather he did not seem to try to 
 control it. He loved to reward his friends and 
 to punish his enemies. 
 
 But far more can be said of Jackson's virtues 
 than his faults. He was an honest man and 
 loved his country. No one could ever accuse 
 him of selfish ambition. He often used rough 
 language, as did most men from the frontier; 
 but he was very courteous and chivalrous to 
 ladies. 
 
 Many a one was astonished to find him so 
 genteel and cultured in society. On one oc- 
 casion a fashionable lady from London called 
 on Jackson. She afterward remarked, ** Your 
 republican president is the royal model of a 
 gentleman." 
 
 Jackson's social life was as pure as snow. 
 
• ANDREW JACKSON. 2/5 
 
 He had a deeply religious spirit. It is true he 
 did not join the church until near the close of 
 his life ; but his letters and speeches often refer 
 to Divine Providence, and show that he had 
 a devout nature. 
 
 He said near the close of his life that he had 
 read three chapters in the Bible daily for 
 thirty-five years. 
 
 In 1842 he became a member of the Presby- 
 terian Church. During the remaining three 
 years of his life he spent most of his leisure 
 time reading the Bible and his hymn-book, 
 and had prayers every night with his family. 
 
 At length Jackson's great changeful life drew 
 to a close. His suffering had been intense for 
 many months, but not a word of complaint 
 ever escaped his lips. 
 
 How can we more fittingly close this 
 narrative than by quoting some of his last 
 words? The end came on the eighth of 
 June, 1845. 
 
 On the morning of that day the doctor said 
 that the hand of death was upon him. 
 
 The family and slaves gathered around. 
 The aged man swooned away ; they thought 
 
276 ANDREW JACKSON. . 
 
 the end was at hand, and many were weeping 
 and sobbing. 
 
 Presently the dying general opened his eyes 
 and said : " My dear children, do not grieve 
 for me ; it is true, I am going to leave you. 
 I have suffered much bodily pain, but my suf- 
 ferings are as nothing compared with that 
 which our blessed Saviour endured upon the 
 cross, that we might all be saved who put our 
 trust in him." 
 
 Soon after saying this he took leave of the 
 members of his family separately, beginning 
 with Mrs. Jackson, wife of his adopted son. 
 Then turning partly toward the piazza filled 
 with a crowd of black servants, he said : 
 
 " My dear children and friends and servants, 
 I hope and trust to meet you all in heaven, 
 both white and black," repeating the last words, 
 ''both white and black." 
 
 Thus the day passed, till evening. The 
 slaves had been standing about the house all 
 day, looking through the windows, wringing 
 their hands and weeping. 
 
 Half an hour before his death he heard the 
 sobbing of these servants, and turning his head 
 
A NDRE W J A CKSON. 2// 
 
 slightly, said in a weak, tremulous voice, 
 ** What is the matter with my dear children ? 
 Have I alarmed you ? Oh, do not cry. Be 
 good children, and we will all meet in heaven." 
 These were his last words. He died with- 
 out a struggle at six o'clock in the evening. 
 His body was laid to rest beside that of his 
 wife in a little garden near the Hermitage. 
 
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
The Story of the Martyred President, 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 
 By miss FRANCES M. PERRY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 AN UNPROMISING START IN LIFE. 
 
 The child was small to be alone in the 
 forest. He seemed quite as much at home 
 there, and looked almost as wild and tiny as a 
 rabbit, as he darted along the shady deer-trail. 
 
 His little brown arms and legs were tanned 
 till they were wellnigh as dark as the scant 
 .deer-skin garment he wore. No hat covered 
 the shock of straight black hair that hung over 
 his eyes. 
 
 He was scampering along at a lively pace, 
 for he had cau^^ht a fish, and was takinor it 
 
 home for his mother to cook for his supper, 
 
 281 
 
282 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 but he paused as he saw a strange man coming 
 toward him. 
 
 At sight of the small sportsman the stranger 
 stopped, too, and remarked, *' That's a fine fish 
 you have there, my boy." A smile lighted up 
 the thin, dark face of the child. '' Take it, sir, 
 you're a soldier," he answered, gazing rev- 
 erently at the dust-covered uniform of an 
 infantryman of the War of 1812. 
 
 ''What will your mother say if I take your 
 fish ?" asked the soldier, in some surprise. "She 
 says soldiers are brave, and we must be kind 
 to them," answered the lad, still offering the 
 fish. 
 
 The man took it, saying it would make a 
 hungry man a good supper. The boy ran on 
 with a light heart to the little cabin in the 
 clearing. He ate his supper of potatoes, which 
 had been baked in the ashes of the hearth, with 
 a good appetite while he told his adventure 
 with the soldier. 
 
 The boy was Abraham Lincoln. The cabin 
 in the clearing was the Kentucky home near 
 Hodgensville, where he was born on the twelfth 
 
AN UNPROMISING START IN LIFE, 283 
 
 day of February, 1809. The small hut, four- 
 teen feet square, made of rough logs, without 
 floor, without doors or windows, was little 
 better than an Indian's lodge. 
 
 There were a few acres of corn growing back 
 of the cabin, and there was a carpenter's bench 
 near the doorway. But the bench was often 
 idle and the weeds choked the corn, while 
 Thomas Lincoln, a Rip- Van-Winkle sort of a 
 man, was off" in the woods with his dog and 
 gun hunting wild turkey. 
 
 He had lived in Kentucky all his life. He 
 could remember seeing his own father shot by 
 an Indian while he was working in the field 
 with his sons, not far from the fort. He had 
 grown to manhood on the frontier, but, un- 
 like many of his thrifty neighbors, he had not 
 profited by the many opportunities to buy a 
 good farm, and was still miserably poor. 
 
 Sometimes he resolved to go to work, to pay 
 off his debts, and save a little money. After 
 such a resolution he worked with a will for a 
 time and accomplished a great deal, for he was 
 unusually strong. But he lacked persistence, 
 
284 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 and soon lost interest and slipped back into 
 his old idle habits. 
 
 Little '' Abe " liked to hear the stories his 
 father had to tell about hunting and Indians ; 
 he liked to hear his father laugh at his pert 
 remarks ; he liked his rough caresses. But 
 there were times when he avoided his strong 
 hand, which to-day might be raised to strike 
 him for some prank that yesterday would 
 have brought only laughter. 
 
 But the gaunt, unsmiling mother had a 
 gentle touch, and her anger was not easily 
 roused. What was she thinking about while 
 she hoed the corn and cured the skins and 
 cooked the meals ? Sometimes she talked to 
 Abraham and his sister about the future. She 
 hoped they would learn to read and write and 
 that they would grow up to be very wise and 
 good. 
 
 When a school was opened in the neighbor- 
 hood, Mrs. Lincoln wished to send the chil- 
 dren. Mr. Lincoln did not think it a matter of 
 importance. His wife could read and write. 
 She had taught him to write his name. She 
 
AN UNPROMISING START IN LIFE. 285 
 
 could teach the children, when they were older, 
 all they needed to know. But when Mrs. Lin- 
 coln had made up her mind to do a thing she 
 was not easily discouraged ; and her two chil- 
 dren were among the boys and girls and the 
 young men and women who gathered at the 
 log school-house to learn the alphabet and 
 master the spelling-book. 
 
 School was only open for a few weeks at a 
 time, however, and most of Abraham Lincoln's 
 days in Kentucky were spent in the forest, 
 either alone or with his sister. When he was 
 seven years old his father moved to a farm in 
 Indiana, where land was cheap and game more 
 abundant. 
 
 To move his family and household goods 
 Thomas Lincoln borrowed two horses. One 
 of them was loaded with a clumsy burden of 
 kettles, pans, stools, and dressed skins. On 
 the other the members of the family took turns 
 riding. Though but a little boy, Abe showed 
 great strength and endurance on the journey, 
 and trudged along for hours together without 
 making the least complaint. 
 
286 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 The distance the family had to travel was 
 only about seventy miles. It would not take 
 long to travel seventy miles on a good road, 
 but often these movers had not so much as a 
 bridle-path to follow, and had to cut their way 
 through the thick underbrush of the forest. 
 
 The roads that had been marked out were 
 very poor, and the horses picked their way 
 slowly between stumps and stones. To cross 
 streams they had to find good fording-places^ 
 for there were no bridges. But at length the 
 movers reached their new home on Pigeon 
 Creek, about sixteen miles north of the Ohio 
 River. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 THE INDIANA HOME. 
 
 Winter was now coming on, and necessity 
 drove even lazy Thomas Lincoln to work. He 
 sharpened his ax and, selecting a spot for a 
 dwelling, began to chop down the trees growing 
 there. He was not unaided in this work. His 
 wife and little son were both able to wield the 
 ax with long swinging strokes that drove its 
 edge far into the tough wood. 
 
 Together they built with more haste than 
 care a ** half-faced camp" of logs; a half-faced 
 camp was a shed roofed over and enclosed on 
 the three sides from which cold winds were 
 most likely to blow, but left open on the other. 
 No doors, windows, nor chimneys were needed 
 in this dwelling. 
 
 The open side gave plenty of light and air^ 
 and there the fire of brush and logs burned 
 
 night and day to keep the prowling wolves 
 
 287 
 
288 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 away and to boil the kettle and bake the corn- 
 cakes. It did not require great skill in car- 
 pentry to make the furniture for the camp. A 
 cross-section of a large log, supported on 
 blocks of wood, served for a table, and three 
 or four three-legged stools and a platform on 
 which leaves, corn-husks, and skins might be 
 strewn for a bed, made up the entire outfit. 
 
 When this rude shelter was completed and 
 furnished there was still a hard year's work 
 before Thomas Lincoln. Hunting was not a 
 matter of sport but of necessity for him that 
 fall. If he did not provide a good stock of 
 smoked deer-meat the family might starve. 
 Skins, for winter garments and to serve for 
 blankets during the long cold nights when the 
 fire burned low, had to be provided. 
 
 But the great work was to continue the 
 clearing, to make space for a few acres of corn 
 and a patch of wheat in the coming spring, 
 and with the logs cut from the felled trees 
 Thomas Lincoln built a permanent dwelling 
 house. 
 
 The family did not suffer so much as you 
 
THE INDIANA HOME. 289 
 
 might suppose during the winter in the half- 
 faced camp. Felling trees was hard enough 
 work to keep them warm even on the coldest 
 days. The corn-cakes and the pork and venison 
 they ate were nourishing and heat producing. 
 
 Constant exposure to the cold so hardened 
 them that they were less sensitive than people 
 accustomed to live in comfortable houses 
 would be in such circumstances. Indeed, they 
 were so well pleased with their new home that 
 they sent glowing reports of it to their friends. 
 
 The next spring some of Mrs. Lincoln's 
 relatives, members of the Hanks family, came 
 to join them in Indiana. The house was so 
 nearly completed that the Lincoln family 
 moved into it and gave up the camp to the 
 new-comers. The house was quite the best 
 the family had ever lived in. It was made of 
 hewn logs that fit neatly together. 
 
 The chimney was wide and deep. The room 
 was eighteen feet square, and above it was a 
 low loft, where Abraham Lincoln slept during 
 his boyhood. A square opening was left in the 
 floor of the loft, and a row of pegs driven into 
 19 
 
290 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the logs beneath it made as convenient a stair- 
 way as the long-limbed boy cared for. 
 
 A floor, windows, and doors in the living- 
 room were luxuries that Thomas Lincoln in- 
 tended to indulge in at some future time, but 
 after a winter in the half-faced camp the cabin 
 seemed very comfortable without them. As 
 long as all were well and strong the pioneers 
 in the wilderness home got along well enough 
 in spite of loneliness, hard work, and poverty. 
 
 But in the autumn of 1818 an illness pecu- 
 liar to the new, undeveloped country broke out 
 in southern Indiana, making cattle and men 
 sick, and causing many deaths. Then they felt 
 how hard it was to have no doctor within 
 reach, no money to send thirty or forty miles 
 to secure one, and no friendly neighbors to 
 help to nurse and care for the sick. 
 
 Illness first visited the half-faced camp and 
 two members of that household died. Before 
 they were buried, Mrs. Lincoln was stricken 
 with the disease. For seven days she suffered. 
 Her husband and children did what they could 
 to relieve her pain, but in spite of their best 
 
THE INDIANA HOME. 29 1 
 
 efforts she grew steadily worse, and on the 
 seventh day she knew that she must die. 
 
 As she placed her hand in blessing on the 
 head of her ragged, ill-favored boy she saw 
 only the love and sorrow that made his plain 
 face very beautiful to her. At that moment 
 she cared little whether he should ever become 
 a great man or not. Her wish was that he 
 should be a good one; that the deep, tender 
 love he had always shown Jier might never die 
 in his heart. 
 
 With heavy sorrow her husband and son 
 made the pine coffin and dug the grave of 
 Nancy Hanks Lincoln. There was no clergy- 
 man to say a prayer nor tell her virtues when 
 she was buried in the wheat-field, but her 
 husband made the prayer, and neither he nor 
 her children needed any one to remind them 
 how patient, how uncomplaining, how kind 
 and thoughtful for others had always been the 
 woman of whom Abraham Lincoln said when 
 he had grown to manhood : '* God bless my 
 mother; all that I am or ever hope to be, I 
 owe to her." 
 
292 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 But these simple people had a strong wish 
 to pay full respect to the dead. So, as was 
 customary, when a travelling preacher came 
 into the neighborhood a few months later, a 
 formal funeral service was held for those who 
 had died in the settlement. People came from 
 far and near to hear the long sermon and say 
 a word of comfort to the mourners. 
 
 That winter was a wretched one for the 
 Lincoln children. They found even the primi- 
 tive housekeeping of the frontier difficult. It 
 was easy to make corn-bread and to bake 
 potatoes in the ashes, but to do it every day^ 
 to keep up the supply of salt and meal, to 
 roast a wild turkey on a spit without burning 
 it, to provide clothes to take the place of those 
 worn out and outgrown, to keep the crowded 
 little room with its mud floor decently clean — 
 those were tasks that proved too much for Abe 
 and his sister. 
 
 Besides, they were lonely; when storms 
 raged, or when their father stayed away late 
 hunting, and they heard the dismal cries of 
 wild animals in the darkness, there was no one 
 
THE INDIANA HOME. 293 
 
 to reassure them. They missed their mother 
 very much. It was a glad day for them in 
 December, a year later, after an absence of 
 several days, their father came driving up to 
 the cabin in a big moving wagon, bringing 
 with him a kind-hearted, thrifty woman to be a 
 second mother to them, and her son and two 
 daughters. 
 
 At first the Lincoln children were shy and 
 afraid to speak to the strangers. The neatly 
 brushed and braided hair of the little girls 
 made Sarah Lincoln conscious of the tousled 
 condition of her own head. The clean, well- 
 fitting clothes of the boy made Abe wish- his 
 shrunken buckskin breeches were more ample. 
 
 But the sweet face and motherly ways of the 
 new Mrs. Lincoln soon made the children feel 
 at ease, and before long they were lending 
 willing hands to unload the wagon. With 
 wonder and delight they saw the goodly array 
 of kettles and bright pans, the great soft 
 feather bed, the pile of patchwork quilts, and 
 the fine black walnut bureau with drawers full 
 of clean clothes. 
 
294 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Mrs. Lincoln was used to living in a com- 
 fortable, neat cabin, and she went to work at 
 once to make the best of her new home. 
 Under her direction Thomas Lincoln put in a 
 good floor, took down the old skins flapping at 
 windows and doorways, and put in their place 
 windows and doors ; and soon order and clean- 
 liness reigned in the cabin. 
 
 Though clean, the house was now very 
 crowded, for Mr. Lincoln had two children and 
 Mrs. Lincoln had three, and the two Hanks' 
 children from the half-faced camp had come 
 to live with them. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 ROUGH SCHOOLING. 
 
 Every year more settlers came to live in 
 Spencer County, Indiana. When Abe Lincoln 
 reached his eleventh year there were enough 
 families living near to make it worth while to 
 build a school-house. 
 
 The school-house was, like most of the 
 dwelling houses, a small low building made of 
 round logs. The chinks were daubed with 
 clay to keep out the wind and rain. The floor 
 was made of split logs with the flat faces 
 turned upward. Oiled paper or parchment 
 took the place of window-glass. 
 
 To-day we should think the teachers who 
 held sway there very ignorant men. They 
 knew how to read and write and spell ; they 
 also knew the simple processes in arithmetic. 
 That was about all the book knowledge that 
 was required of a backwoods schoolmaster in 
 
 295 
 
296 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the early part of the nineteenth century. The 
 settlers did not see the use of more advanced 
 learning. 
 
 Indeed, many of them thought these subjects 
 more than necessary for their children to study. 
 Thomas Lincoln was impatient that a strong, 
 able-bodied boy like Abraham should waste 
 his time reading words in a book and making 
 figures on a shingle. Young Abe's step- 
 mother felt differently. She was very fond of 
 him, as her words spoken years later show. 
 
 She said : '' I can say what scarcely one 
 mother in a thousand can say. Abe never 
 gave me a cross word or look, and never re- 
 fused in fact or in appearance to do anything 
 I asked him. His mind and mine, what little 
 I had, seemed to run together. I had a son 
 John, who was raised with Abe ; both were 
 good boys, but I must say, both, now being 
 dead, that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or 
 ever expect to see." 
 
 She had great respect for schools and books, 
 and was determined that Abe should have as 
 good opportunities as the other children in the 
 
ROUGH SCHOOLING. 297 
 
 district. He liked to go to school and enjoyed 
 study. He worked so hard at his lessons that 
 he soon stood at the head of his classes. But 
 he had gained little more than a good start 
 before the money for paying the teacher was 
 exhausted and the school was closed. 
 
 He attended school a few months when he 
 was ten years old, again when he was four- 
 teen, and again when sixteen. But so brief 
 were the terms and so irregular was his attend- 
 ance that in all, counting his schooling in 
 Kentucky, he was not in school twelve months 
 during his life. 
 
 At school he learned enough to enable him 
 to study at home. His mother was proud of 
 the fine legible hand he wrote, of the ease and 
 rapidity with which he read, and of his reputa- 
 tion as the best speller in the district. She en- 
 couraged him to read and to figure, and treated 
 his study as a matter so important that even 
 his father came to take pride in Abe's scholar- 
 ship, and no one disturbed him while he read 
 or wrote. 
 
 This does not mean that he was excused 
 
298 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 from doing manual work that he might study. 
 When school was open, besides the walk there 
 and back, which was always long, in one case 
 being four and a half miles each way, he had 
 to work before and after school hours. And 
 when there was no school he was obliged to 
 spend the best part of the day at work. 
 
 His father was a carpenter and tried to teach 
 Abraham his trade. The youth made a chest 
 of drawers and two or three small articles of 
 furniture, but he did not care for the craft, and 
 there were so many chances to do farm work 
 that he gave the most of his time to that. 
 
 He grew rapidly, and by the time he was 
 eighteen years old was six feet three inches 
 tall. Though spare and angular, he was re- 
 markably strong, and it is said no man in the 
 country round about could drive an ax so far 
 into an oak tree as he. His strength made 
 him much in demand as a farm hand. 
 
 He cut a wider swath in the grass or grain 
 than any other laborer; the trees fell rapidly 
 under the telling strokes of his strong arm. 
 When several workmen stood trying to move 
 
ROUGH SCHOOLING. 299 
 
 a great log with a lever, he picked it up and 
 carried it to the desired place. While he 
 worked few could equal him. 
 
 The difficulty was to keep him at work, for 
 he was only a boy and not fond of hard work. 
 He liked to tell stories and play rough jokes 
 on his fellow- workmen. He was sometimes 
 found by his angry employer standing on a 
 stump delivering a political speech or a mock 
 sermon to an audience of laughing farm hands 
 who should have been at work. 
 
 If the farmer heard the funny stories and 
 droll remarks of the young orator, he usually 
 had to join in the laugh in spite of himself 
 Once an employer, finding him idle when he 
 should have been at work, demanded, '* Didn't 
 your father ever teach you to work?" "Yes," 
 replied the exasperating boy, *' he taught me to 
 work, but he didn't teach me to love it." 
 
 When he had a motive for work he could 
 keep at it as well as any one. On one occa- 
 sion he damaged a book he had borrowed from 
 Mr. Crawford, a farmer of grasping nature and 
 harsh manners. The book was a copy of 
 
300 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Weem's Life of IVashington, Abe had put 
 it in a chink between two logs in the wall, near 
 his bed. A driving rain coming up in the night 
 had soaked the book so that its covers were 
 bulging and ruined. 
 
 A book was an invaluable thing to young 
 Lincoln. When he discovered the mishap 
 he was greatly troubled. His stepmother 
 suggested, however, that it would be possi- 
 ble to pay for the book. He went straight- 
 way to Mr. Crawford, told him what had 
 happened, and said to him he was willing to 
 work to pay for the injury. Mr. Crawford said 
 the book was worth seventy-five cents, and 
 directed him to pull fodder in a certain field 
 for three days. 
 
 Young Lincoln afterward related, in the 
 following words, his effort to make good his 
 carelessness : '' You see, I am tall and long 
 armed, and I went to work in earnest. At the 
 end of two days there was not a corn-blade or 
 a stalk left in the field. I wanted to pay full 
 damage for all the whetting the book got, and 
 I made a clean sweep." 
 
ROUGH SCHOOLING. 3OI 
 
 This little incident shows how precious a 
 thing a bodk was in the life of the boy. He 
 had few and, indeed, there were but few in all 
 the neighboring country. When he heard of 
 any one who had a book, he would go miles 
 to borrow it, and then read it with the greatest 
 eagerness. 
 
 John Hanks tells how, when young Lincoln 
 came home from a day's work in the field, 
 barefoot, he would go to the cupboard, snatch 
 a piece of corn-bread, take down a book, sit 
 down, cock his legs as high as his head, and 
 read as long as it was light ; then, lying on the 
 floor in front of the fire-place, with the aid of 
 the glowing coals, he would read on into the 
 night. 
 
 The books most familiar to him were Weem's 
 Life of IVashington, ^sop's Fables, Pilgrim s 
 Progress, and the Bible. He is said to have 
 found a book of the laws of Indiana and to 
 have read it with as much interest as other 
 boys give to exciting tales of adventure. 
 When he borrowed a book he copied the 
 passages he wished to remember in a note- 
 
302 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 book. These he read and explained to his 
 stepmother. • 
 
 He often wrote original compositions in his 
 note-book. But paper was so scarce that he 
 more frequently chalked his compositions on a 
 wooden shovel with a piece of charcoal. When 
 the surface was covered he was sometimes 
 obliged to shave off the first part of his essay 
 to make room for the last. This made him 
 careful to write what he had to say in the 
 smallest number of words possible. 
 
 His mother was so well pleased with his 
 productions that he sought a wider audience 
 for them. To the loungers at the village store 
 his ideas were new and startling. His asser- 
 tion that the sun did not move around the 
 earth every day, but that the earth did the 
 moving, they laughed at as impossible and 
 ridiculous, but before he had finished talking 
 he had made it all very plain. 
 
 Some of his papers were on such subjects 
 as "Kindness to Animals," "The Importance 
 of Temperance," etc., etc. Others were merely 
 rude, coarse jingles or burlesques. He had a 
 
ROUGH SCHOOLING. 303 
 
 good deal of information on political questions, 
 and was regarded as a wonder by the frontiers- 
 men who listened to his papers or speeches. 
 His eagerness for knowledge surpassed that 
 of his associates ; his appreciation of what was 
 fine and good exceeded theirs. His interest 
 and sympathies, while firmly rooted in a very 
 low social plane, were already reaching beyond 
 it. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 OF AGE. 
 
 When young Lincoln was eighteen years 
 old he began to wish to strike out into the 
 world and try his fortune. But the thought 
 that it was his duty to obey and work for 
 his father until he was twenty-one kept him 
 toiling faithfully on the old farm. 
 
 In 1828, with his father's approval, he under- 
 took a business enterprise quite unlike any- 
 thing he had done heretofore. In those days, 
 when there were no railroads and few good 
 wagon-roads, transportation was carried on 
 chiefly on rivers. A rich farmer in Spencer 
 county, Mr. Gentry, wished to send a flat-boat 
 load of produce down the Ohio and the Missis- 
 sippi, to be sold at the towns along the rivers. 
 He made arrangements with Thomas Lincoln 
 that Abraham should take charge of this 
 business. 
 304 
 
OF AGE. 305 
 
 Young Lincoln made the trip and disposed 
 of the produce to the satisfaction of his em- 
 ployer. He had occasion to prove his courage 
 as well as business ability on this trip. One 
 night, while his boat was tied up near Baton 
 Rouge, a band of negroes came aboard with 
 the intention of plundering the boat. Young 
 Lincoln, roused from sleep by the noise they 
 made, rushed among them brandishing a heavy 
 club with his long arms, and drove the in- 
 truders off howling to the plantation from 
 which they had come. 
 
 The rest of the journey was made without 
 disturbance or accident. A short time after 
 this Thomas Lincoln, influenced by John 
 Hanks' reports of the rich farming-land in 
 Illinois, resolved to move once more. He 
 turned his farm over to Mr. Gentry, sold his 
 stock, and started in February with his wife 
 and son, her son, and her daughters and their 
 husbands to the prairie State. 
 
 The household possessions of all these people 
 were comfortably stowed into a moving wagon 
 drawn by two yoke of oxen, and still there was 
 
306 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 room for the women to ride in the wagon. 
 Abraham was now of age, and free to use his 
 time and strength for himself But, though 
 he had longed for this freedom, he was now 
 determined to see his father and his step- 
 mother settled in their new home before 
 claiming it. 
 
 The journey lasted for two weeks and was 
 so difficult that the movers were glad to have 
 this strong-armed, willing-handed member of 
 their family with them. They had started 
 early, so that they might get their plowing 
 done and their seed planted in good season. 
 It was a poor time to travel, for the frost was 
 not yet out of the ground, and after the sun 
 rose the surface became so soft that the wagon 
 wheels cut deep ruts in the rough earth, and 
 it required all the strength of the oxen to make 
 any progress. 
 
 The streams froze over at night, and the oxen 
 had to break their way through the thin ice to 
 cross them. Abraham, for the most part, 
 tramped beside the wagon, goad in hand, to 
 keep the slowly plodding animals at their best 
 
OF AGE. 307 
 
 speed, or to add his strength to theirs to pull 
 the wagon out of the mire. 
 
 Ha has told of one incident that happened 
 on this journey which is very characteristic of 
 him. After the family had crossed a broad but 
 shallow stream, coated with thin ice, they 
 missed their little yellow dog, and, looking 
 back, they saw him barking furiously on the 
 far shore. 
 
 Abraham wanted the company to turn back 
 to get the forlorn little dog, but the men 
 agreed that they could not spare the time to 
 go back for the useless, troublesome little 
 creature. He walked on, thinking he would 
 accept their decision, but he could not endure 
 the idea of deserting the affectionate little 
 dependent, and, turning back, took off his 
 shoes, rolled up his trousers, and waded 
 through the icy water to rescue the overjoyed 
 little animal. 
 
 These pioneers were not bound for the tree- 
 less prairies. They sought the wooded lands 
 along a river, that they might have wood for 
 building and for fuel. John Hanks had already 
 
308 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 selected a site for them, and had cut the timber 
 for a cabin. There were so many men in the 
 company that a house was quickly built. 
 
 After that was done Abraham Lincoln, with 
 the help of John Hanks, plowed fifteen acres 
 of land, and split enough rails from the walnut 
 trees growing near the river to build a rail 
 fence around the clearing. We shall hear 
 again of these fence-rails. They were destined 
 to play a picturesque part at a critical moment 
 in Lincoln's life. 
 
 The first months of Abraham Lincoln's 
 majority were devoted to hard but cheerful 
 service for others. Thomas Lincoln was not 
 able, like some of his more prosperous neigh- 
 bors, to start his son in life with a farm of his 
 own or a mill or a shop. The latter left his 
 father s home with an empty purse. 
 
 But from the hard frontier life he had known 
 he had gained much good, much that is of 
 more value than gold ; in spite of malaria, 
 exposure, discomforts, and poor food, he had 
 developed great physical strength, a rugged 
 constitution, and iron muscles ; notwithstand- 
 
OF AGE. 309 
 
 ing scant schooling, the lack of books, and 
 association with only illiterate people, he had 
 discovered a sense of intellectual power and 
 an ambition to make the most of it. 
 
 Out of much privation and hardship he had 
 brought a sound, genuine sense of humor and 
 an easy-going good nature not often disturbed; 
 among people rough and harsh in speech and 
 manners, where moral standards were low, he 
 had developed a character of inflexible integ- 
 rity and honor. 
 
 Lincoln was not a venturesome youth and 
 did not, on attaining his independence, greatly 
 change his manner of living. He stayed near 
 his father's house, splitting rails and working 
 as a hired hand for neighboring settlers. One 
 of his first enterprises was to provide himself 
 with a respectable suit of clothes. He made 
 a bargain with a woman who spun cloth to 
 split fourteen hundred rails for a pair of 
 trousers. 
 
 Through the influence of John Hanks he 
 was engaged by Denton Offut to take a cargo 
 of goods down the Mississippi. The trip was 
 
3IO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 noteworthy in that on this expedition Lincoln 
 was for the first time roused to the horrors of 
 slavery, for he saw men chained together and 
 driven through the streets, and women and 
 children sold at auction. 
 
 He showed himself so efficient in managing 
 the sale of the goods that his employer engaged 
 him to sell merchandise for him at a village 
 called New Salem, on the Sangamon River, in 
 Illinois. Lincoln arrived at the village before 
 his employer had come with the goods, and 
 passed a few days there without work. 
 
 One of these days was election day. The 
 schoolmaster of the village was to act as one 
 of the election clerks ; the man w^ho was to 
 assist him was ill, and he could think of no 
 one to take his place. Seeing the stranger, the 
 schoolmaster asked him if he could write. 
 The best penman of the Gentryville school 
 replied that he could make a few "rabbit 
 tracks," and was asked to act as clerk. 
 
 The voters, having many of them come from 
 some distance to cast their votes, had no 
 notion of going home as soon as that im- 
 
OF AGE. 311 
 
 portant but brief duty was performed. They 
 lounged around the poles most of the day. 
 They showed some interest in the strange 
 clerk, who proved to be most agreeable and 
 entertaining ; drawing on his fund of anecdotes 
 and amusing backwoods' experiences, he told 
 story after story, to the great delight of his 
 hearers. 
 
 A few days later Offut appeared, and with 
 Lincoln's assistance opened his store. There 
 was a roystering gang of youths from Clary's 
 Grove, who carried affairs with a high hand in 
 New Salem, and when they found that Lincoln 
 had come to stay they looked curiously at him. 
 It was their custom to give a new-comer a 
 welcome that would prove his mettle. 
 
 They sometimes nailed him up in a hogs- 
 head and rolled the hogshead down a hill ; 
 sometimes they drew him into a quarrel and 
 tried his muscle in a fist-fight. But the tall, 
 good-natured clerk in Offut's store had so 
 ready a tongue and seemed in every way so 
 well able to take care of himself, that he might 
 have escaped the ordeal had it not been for 
 
312 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 his admiring employer, who boasted that Lin- 
 coln knew more than any other man in the 
 county and could whip any man in Sangamon 
 County. 
 
 The Clary's Grove boys were willing to 
 admit his superior knowledge, but not his 
 stouter fists, and they arranged for a fight 
 between him and their leader. Jack Armstrong. 
 The event caused great excitement. 
 
 For some time Lincoln contented himself 
 with warding off Armstrong's blows, but when 
 the latter lost his temper and dealt an unfair 
 blow, the long-armed giant from Indiana put 
 forth his whole strength and, taking his oppo- 
 nent by the throat, lifted him from the ground 
 and shook him till he was breathless. 
 
 After this rather severe punishment, Lincoln 
 had no warmer admirers or more generous 
 friends in New Salem than Jack Armstrong 
 and his followers. Through his funny stories 
 and his remarkable strength Lincoln had 
 quickly gained the good-will of the towns- 
 people. 
 
 His duties at the store did not take all his 
 
OF AGE. 313 
 
 time, and he spent many hours in study. He 
 learned from the schoohnaster that a man 
 living seven miles away owned a grammar. 
 He walked that distance to borrow the book. 
 In a short time he had mastered the rules it 
 contained, and had begun to analyze his own 
 sentences and correct his errors. 
 
 He took a keen interest in the affairs of the 
 town. The burning question at New Salem 
 was whether or not the Sangamon River could 
 be converted into a navigable stream. Lincoln 
 took an active part in the discussion to prove 
 that the river could be navigated. 
 
 When the Black Hawk War broke out Lin- 
 coln enlisted. He was made captain of a 
 company of young men of the Clary's Grove 
 type, who were quite able to take care of them- 
 selves and had no idea of military discipline. 
 Lincoln was just the man to be their captain, 
 for he had qualities they could appreciate. 
 
 His strength and bravery won their admira- 
 tion; his friendliness, their affection; his dignity 
 and firmness, their respect. He made a point 
 of getting personally acquainted with all his 
 
3 14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 soldiers, and made lasting and devoted friends 
 of most of them. 
 
 In 1848, when making a speech in Congress 
 ridiculing the attempt to make a military hero 
 of General Cass, he made the following amus- 
 ing reference to his own experience in the 
 Black Hawk War: '* Did you know, Mr. 
 Speaker, I am a military hero? In the days of 
 the Black Hawk War I fought, bled, and came 
 away. I was not in Stillman's defeat, but I 
 was about as near it as General Cass was to 
 Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the 
 place very soon afterward. 
 
 " It is quite certain I did not break my 
 sword, for I had none to break, but I bent my 
 musket pretty badly on one occasion. If 
 General Cass went in advance of me picking 
 whortle-berries, I guess I surpassed him in 
 charges on the wild onions. If he saw any 
 live, fighting Indians, it was more than I did, 
 but I had a good many bloody struggles with 
 the mosquitoes, and, although I never fainted 
 from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often 
 very hungry." 
 
OF AGE. 315 
 
 In truth, the hardships that the volunteers 
 were called upon to suffer — the long tramps^ 
 the want of provisions — seemed small matters 
 to a man brought up in such want as Lincoln 
 had always known. When the time for which 
 he had volunteered his services expired, he 
 re-enlisted. But the war was soon over; the 
 rebellious Black Hawk was taken prisoner, and 
 the volunteers were discharged. 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 A POLITICIAN. 
 
 When the Black Hawk War was over 
 Lincoln had no work and no home. He 
 went back to New Salem. It was time for 
 the election of a representative for the State 
 Legislature. Lincoln's success as a speaker 
 had roused in him political ambitions, and he 
 now announced himself as a candidate for the 
 Legislature. 
 
 The great political parties at that time were 
 the Whig and the Democratic. The Demo- 
 cratic party was the stronger. It was most 
 popular among the poorer people in the North. 
 A poor young man without influential friends, 
 who wanted a public office, stood a better 
 chance of success if he belonged to that 
 party. 
 
 Lincoln wanted to be elected, but if he could 
 
 316 
 
A POLITICIAN. 317 
 
 not be elected without sacrificing his political 
 views, he would remain all his life a private 
 citizen. He boldly announced himself a Whig. 
 Only ten days intervened between his return 
 from the war and election day, but he went to 
 work with a will. He issued a circular in 
 which he declared his political views, and made 
 speeches in New Salem and in other towns 
 near by. 
 
 He was a tall, gawky looking fellow, wearing 
 a wide-brimmed straw hat without a band, a 
 homespun shirt and claw-hammer coat, and tow 
 trousers that did not meet his shoes by several 
 inches. People said when they saw him, '' Is 
 that the best man the Whigs can find to rep- 
 resent them?" But when they heard him 
 speak they realized that the Whig candidate 
 was not the clown he looked. 
 
 In his brief campaign he won so many votes 
 that he was nearly elected. In the New Salem 
 precinct only three of two hundred and eight 
 votes cast were against him. The result of 
 his first experience in politics was so encourag- 
 ing to the young man that he resolved to study 
 
3l8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 law, and to make law and politics the business 
 of his life. 
 
 But in the meantime he was very poor and 
 must live. He looked around for some em- 
 ployment that would keep him in food and 
 clothes, that would give him an opportunity to 
 see and talk with men, and that would allow 
 him time for study. He cared little about 
 making money. He did not value greatly the 
 things that money can buy. His ambition 
 was not to be a wealthy man, but to be a man 
 of influence, and his present aim was to fit 
 himself to be that. 
 
 Had Offut not left New Salem, Lincoln 
 would have been glad to continue as his clerk ; 
 for the life of a storekeeper combined the three 
 advantages he was on the look out for : it fur- 
 nished a livelihood ; it gave an opportunity 
 for knowing men, as the store was the general 
 lounging-place ; and it offered him time for 
 reading and study. 
 
 It is not surprising, then, that Lincoln con- 
 sented to buy on credit a half interest in a 
 general supply-store in New Salem. Nor is 
 
A POLITICIAN. 
 
 319 
 
 it surprising that, as his partner was a worth- 
 less fellow, and Lincoln spent more time lying 
 on the counter reading law books or tilted 
 back in a chair arguing politics with village 
 loafers than in tending to business, the firm 
 soon failed. This left Lincoln without work 
 and burdened with a heavy debt. 
 
 In a short time he was made deputy county 
 surveyor. He knew nothing about surveying 
 but he got some books and, with the help of 
 the scoolmaster, by diligent application learned 
 what he needed to know in order to do his 
 work. He learned to use the transit and the 
 surveyor s chain so well, and was so accurate 
 in his calculations and in his work, that he 
 was often called upon to settle disputes about 
 the location of boundaries, and his decision 
 was accepted as final. 
 
 He was also made post-master of New 
 Salem. So little mail came to the village that 
 he carried it around in his hat. The salary 
 was also very slight, and the chief advantage 
 he drew from this office seems to have been 
 the opportunity it gave him to read all the 
 
320 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 newspapers that were received by the citizens 
 of New Salem. 
 
 He had secured some law books and was 
 studying earnestly. When he went on a sur- 
 veying trip he took a book and read as he 
 rode. He made some blank books and prac- 
 tised writing out deeds and abstracts. Some- 
 times he went into the courts and acted as 
 attorney for some man who was too poor to 
 employ a regular lawyer. 
 
 While studying, he kept up his friendly rela- 
 tions with the young men of the town. He 
 did not think, as some young politicians do, 
 that he must do all the weak and foolish 
 things his friends did in order to keep their 
 favor. He did not smoke or use tobacco or " 
 drink as they did ; he did not, like them, swear 
 or bet. Yet he was their hero. 
 
 They laughed loud and long at his stories, 
 and quoted them to all they met; they de- 
 clared there was not a man in the county who 
 was Lincoln's match at runniner or at throwing 
 or lifting heavy weights ; they told great tales : 
 of how at the cooper's shop he had lifted a box I 
 
A POLITICIAN. 321 
 
 of stones that weighed half a ton ; how he had 
 lifted a barrel of whisky, and other incredible 
 feats of strength. 
 
 His reputation for fair play and justice was 
 as good as his reputation for skill and strength, 
 and he was called upon to act as judge in all 
 sorts of contests from cock-fights to political 
 debates. They thought he knew all there 
 was to know. They were proud to serve him 
 in any way. Thus early he began to win 
 the confidence and loyalty of those who knew 
 him best. 
 
 This being the case, his political ambitions 
 were constantly encouraged. At the next elec- 
 tion he was made a member of the Legislature. 
 He felt the dignity of the office, provided him- 
 self with a decent suit of jeans, and took his 
 place among the law-makers of Illinois with a 
 determination to acquit himself in such a way 
 as to do credit to his district. 
 
 Vandalia was then the State capital. Here 
 Lincoln met men of broader education and 
 more liberal culture than those he had known 
 at Gentryville and New Salem, and from these 
 
322 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 he learned much. Among them he met a 
 Democrat named Stephen A. Douglas. The 
 latter was as much below the average height as 
 Lincoln was above it. 
 
 Together they made a strange-looking pair. 
 In the future they were to be closely associated 
 with each other. Notwithstanding the limited 
 opportunities for improvement that Lincoln 
 had had, he impressed his fellow legislators as 
 a young man of great force of character and 
 sagacity. He was repeatedly re-elected by 
 the voters of his district. 
 
 During his service as a State legislator no 
 act brought him greater local popularity and 
 commendation than the part he took in getting 
 the State capital moved from Vandalia to 
 Springfield. This made him a hero in the 
 eyes of the citizens of Sangamon County. 
 The people of Springfield gave a banquet in 
 his honor, and the other villages in the county 
 followed its example. 
 
 Among the toasts given at these banquets 
 were these : ''Abraham Lincoln — he has ful- 
 filled the expectations of his friends and 
 
A poLrriciAN. 323 
 
 disappointed the hopes of his enemies " and 
 '' Abraham Lincoln — one of nature's noble- 
 men." The most characteristic act performed 
 by Lincoln during his service as legislator, 
 however, was one that did not increase his 
 popularity. 
 
 In the North and West there was a 
 strong sentiment against Abolitionists, who 
 were regarded as disturbing spirits and mis- 
 chief-makers. The Legislatures of many of 
 the States passed resolutions denouncing their 
 utterances and acts. The feeling against the 
 Abolitionists was especially strong in southern 
 Illinois, which was settled chiefly by Kentucky 
 people, many of whom sympathized with the 
 slave-holding South. 
 
 In 1837 resolutions declaring disapproval of 
 the Abolitionists were passed by the General 
 Assembly of Illinois almost unanimously. It 
 was merely a political measure, intended to 
 have no effect on the actions of men. Many 
 in Lincoln's place would have thought they 
 had done their full duty in voting against the 
 resolutions. But Lincoln could not allow them 
 
324 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 to go on record without a protest; he drew 
 up one worded most guardedly but declaring 
 plainly that '' the undersigned believe that the 
 institution of slavery is founded on both in- 
 justice and bad policy." 
 
 In the Assembly he could find only one 
 member who would add his signature to the 
 document, but he nevertheless passed it in. 
 It is known in history as the Lincoln-Stone I 
 protest, Lincoln's first official measure against 
 slavery. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 A LAWYER. 
 
 In March, 1837, Lincoln was licensed to 
 practice law. As a member of the Legislature 
 he had come to feel at home in Springfield, 
 where, as we have seen, he was exceedingly 
 popular. When, therefore, he received from 
 John T. Stuart, one of the established lawyers 
 of Springfield, an invitation to become his 
 partner, he resolved to accept it and make 
 Springfield his home. 
 
 Accordingly, he borrowed a horse and rode 
 into the capital one morning with all his 
 worldly goods, a few books and some clothes, 
 stuffed into the saddle-bags. He was not 
 particular about the sort of place he lived in. 
 The cost and trouble of securing a lodging- 
 place depressed his spirits. 
 
 He enquired of the cabinet-maker the price 
 of a single bed. Then he went to his friend, 
 
 325 
 
326 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Joshua F. Speed, and asked him what the 
 cheapest mattress, pillow, and blankets would 
 be worth. His friend said he could furnish 
 him a comfortable bed for seventeen dollars. 
 
 *'That is no doubt cheap enough," said Lin- 
 coln, mournfully, "but I haven't seventeen 
 dollars to my name. If you are willing to give 
 me credit till Christmas I may be able to pay 
 you, but that depends on whether or not I 
 succeed at law." ''You make a very grave 
 matter of a slight expense," replied the other; 
 " if it troubles you so much, come share my 
 big room and big double bed, and it will cost 
 you nothing." 
 
 ''Where is it?" demanded Lincoln, eagerly. 
 " Overhead, over the store," answered Speed, 
 pointing to the stairs. Lincoln took his saddle- 
 bags on his arm without a word and went up 
 stairs. In a few minutes he returned, his face 
 beaming with smiles, and announced, "Well, 
 Speed, I'm moved." Thus simply was his 
 perplexity solved through his friend's kind- 
 ness. 
 
 The store was the meeting place of many 
 
A LAWYER. 327 
 
 of the promising young men of Springfield. 
 They gathered about the great fireplace and 
 talked politics and told stories. Lincoln was 
 soon leader of the group. In 1842 he married 
 Mary Todd, a well-educated, accomplished 
 young woman, a member of an aristocratic 
 Southern family. Her sister had married a 
 Springfield man who was a friend of Lincoln's, 
 and it was at their home that Lincoln and 
 Miss Todd became acquainted. 
 
 Mrs. Lincoln was ambitious for her hus- 
 band's advancement, and did much to help him 
 overcome his extreme peculiarities of dress, 
 speech, and manner. After his marriage Lin- 
 coln and his wife made their home at the 
 Globe Tavern, an unpretentious inn, where 
 their board cost only four dollars a week. 
 In 1844 he bought a comfortable frame house, 
 which was his home for the rest of his life^ 
 with the exception of those years spent in 
 Washington. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's attention was henceforth di- 
 vided between politics and law. While in 
 Springfield he was at different times a member 
 
328 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of three different law firms : Stuart & Lincoln, 
 Logan & Lincoln, and Lincoln & Herndon. 
 Even after he was made president he retained 
 his membership in the last-named firm. 
 
 He had no great knowledge of law, but he 
 had great honesty and common sense and 
 knowledge of human nature, and was so suc- 
 cessful in winning cases that he became a 
 most popular advocate. Though he was in 
 debt and needed money, he was never so 
 eager for profit as to forget what he con- 
 sidered his duty. 
 
 He believed that a lawyer should never 
 encourage strife, but should, on the contrary, 
 be a peacemaker and discourage lawsuits 
 where he could. He refused to take many a 
 case simply because he believed the man who 
 wished to employ him was in the wrong. He 
 dismissed one would-be client in this fashion: 
 "Yes, we can doubtless gain your case for 
 you ; we can set a whole neighborhood at 
 loggerheads ; we can distress a wudowed 
 mother and her six fatherless children, and 
 thereby get for you six hundred dollars to 
 
A LAWYER. 329 
 
 which you seem to have a legal claim, but 
 which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as 
 much to the woman and her children as it 
 does to you. 
 
 '•You must remember that some things 
 legally right are not morally so. We shall 
 not take your case, but will give you a little 
 advice for which we will charge you nothing. 
 You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man ; 
 we would advise you to try your hand at 
 making six hundred dollars in some other 
 way." 
 
 Indeed, Lincoln's habit of taking only the 
 side which he believed to be right was so well 
 known that his very presence in a case had 
 great weight with a jury. 
 
 His office was equipped with two green 
 baize tables, a case of pigeon-holes, a couch, 
 a few chairs, and a few books. It was an 
 untidy, dreary place, but those in distress who 
 climbed the narrow stairs that led to it were 
 sure of not being turned away because they 
 were not able to pay a large fee. 
 
 One day Hannah Armstrong, the wife of 
 
330 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the wrestler who had welcomed' Lincoln to 
 New Salem with a fight, came to the office of 
 the latter in great trouble. Her son was to be 
 tried for murder. Lincoln heard her story 
 and promised her that her boy should be 
 cleared before sundown. The chief witness 
 said he had seen William Armstrong commit 
 the murder by the light of the moon. 
 
 Lincoln was very particular to make the 
 witness state at just what time the deed was 
 done, how far away he was, and how^ clearly 
 he could see in the moonlight. Then he 
 astonished every one by drawing an almanac 
 from his pocket and showing that the moon 
 was not shining at the time the witness claimed 
 to have seen the murder committed. 
 
 When the overjoyed mother learned that 
 her son was saved, she hastened to Lincoln to 
 thank him and to ask him what she owed him 
 for his services. He answered her that he 
 had not forgotten the old days at New Salem 
 when he was penniless, and she and her hus- 
 band had befriended him and made him 
 welcome in their house to the best they had. 
 
A LAWYER. 331 
 
 He refused to take any fee from the poor 
 woman. 
 
 Lincoln had Httle business method. If he 
 had an unusual or difficult case he worked 
 hard over it, but for an ordinary case he made 
 little formal preparation. He planned his line 
 of argument, took a few notes, which he 
 usually carried in his high silk hat, and that 
 was all. 
 
 He was much in demand as an attorney in 
 various Illinois towns, and wherever Judge 
 Davis was holding court Lincoln was pretty 
 sure to be one of the company of lawyers that 
 ''rode the circuit" with him. In travelling 
 from place to place he rode horseback or drove 
 in a dilapidated old buggy. The lawyers, 
 when attending the circuit court, boarded and 
 lodged together in some inn or large private 
 house. 
 
 ' They were treated with great respect and 
 given the best the host had to offer, but even 
 the best was not very good. They often slept 
 two in a bed, four in a room. However 
 crowded the room or poor the fare Lincoln 
 
^^2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 never complained. He easily accommodated 
 himself to circumstances, and enjoyed going 
 on the circuit. 
 
 While his companions slept he often studied 
 till two o'clock in the morning. He studied 
 by the light of a kerosene lamp placed on a 
 rush-bottom chair beside his bed. The light 
 was poor, the room was cold ; why not go 
 comfortably to sleep like the others ? If the 
 temptation came, he did not often yield. It 
 was in those night hours that he learned 
 geometry and read Shakespeare. 
 
 In the daytime, when not in court, he was 
 usually the center of an interested group of 
 townspeople and fellow-lawyers assembled to 
 listen to and laugh at his shrewd sayings and 
 funny stories. 
 
 In court he spoke in a slow, drawling way 
 and seemed rather listless. Those who did 
 not know him thought he must be a poor 
 sort of a lawyer, but they soon learned better. 
 It was his habit to grant to his opponent — with 
 an indifferent '* I reckon I must be wTong" or 
 " I reckon it's fair to let that in " — all the 
 
A LAWYER. 333 
 
 points he could justly claim ; but as the 
 opposing lawyer began to feel that the victory 
 was his, Lincoln would introduce some clinch- 
 ing argument against him. 
 
 He was a sharp, clear reasoner, and though 
 apparently inattentive and indifferent, was 
 most alert. Besides, he had oratorical powers 
 which won the sympathy of the jury for his 
 cause; he was a matchless mimic, and was 
 able to use mimicry, irony, sarcasm, and funny 
 stories to put the jury into a good humor or 
 make his opponent appear ridiculous. 
 
 He was quite as able, when the case de- 
 manded it, to rouse a sense of righteous indig- 
 nation or even to make the honest-hearted 
 jurors weep out of pity for his client. These 
 gifts, added to the prevailing confidence in his 
 honesty, made him a powerful advocate in a 
 community where the question " Is it lawful ?" 
 was less important than the question *' Is it 
 right?" 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 POLITICAL SUCCESS. 
 
 The qualities that made Lincoln a success- 
 ful lawyer also contributed to make him a 
 successful politician. He had been recognized 
 in local politics for some time before he was 
 called upon to take part in national affairs. In 
 1840, when General William Henry Harrison 
 was nominated for the presidency, Lincoln was 
 made presidential elector. 
 
 General Harrison had been closely identi- 
 fied with western life, having been governor 
 of Indiana Territory and the hero of Tippe- 
 canoe. The log-cabin and hard cider figured 
 prominently in the campaign. Lincoln stumped 
 the State for Harrison. His speeches attracted 
 much attention. Sometimes he held debates 
 with Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic 
 speaker, who was very shrewd and able. The 
 334 
 
POLITICAL SUCCESS. 335 
 
 debates held by these two popular speakers 
 drew great crowds. 
 
 Having represented his district in the 
 State Assembly for several years, Lincoln was 
 elected Congressional Representative in 1846. 
 He thought now the opportunity had come to 
 make his mark in the political world ; his con- 
 stituents were fond and proud of him ; he 
 learned that they were waiting impatiently for 
 their ** Honest Abe," as they called him, to 
 distinguish himself. 
 
 The war with Mexico was in progress. Lin- 
 coln knew that the men who had elected him 
 favored the war, but he was opposed to it. He 
 contended that it was unnecessary and had 
 been begun unconstitutionally. He declared 
 the president had no right to plunge the nation 
 into war. He was not only sure that his views 
 were right, but he believed that the men who 
 had elected him would believe as he did if 
 they knew what he knew. 
 
 He did not in the least doubt that he would 
 be able to show them that he was right. He 
 made a brilliant speech against the president's 
 
336 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 policy, but his friends in Sangamon County 
 were so displeased with its contents that they 
 cared nothing for its brilliancy. Nor was he 
 able by other work to redeem himself in their 
 estimation. When his term ended he was 
 not re-elected. 
 
 In many ways his experience at the national 
 capital was helpful to him. There he came in 
 touch with the great thinkers of the nation. 
 He saw and heard educated, experienced 
 statesmen, such men as Daniel Webster and 
 John C. Calhoun. Though he realized his 
 own defects when he compared himself with 
 such men, he was not discouraged. He saw 
 that, in spite of his limited opportunities, he 
 could reason as well as any one, and he had 
 no difficulty in holding attention when he 
 addressed the House. 
 
 He resolved to study hard to make up for 
 defects in his education, and it was after this 
 that he studied geometry while practising law. 
 For five years after his return from Washing- 
 ton he devoted his attention to law and gave 
 little time to politics. In 1854, when, through 
 
POLITICAL SUCCESS. 337 
 
 the efforts of Stephen A. Douglas, the Missouri 
 Compromise was repealed and the Kansas- 
 Nebraska Bill was framed, he was roused once 
 more to take an active part in public affairs. 
 
 Lincoln still believed, as he had long before 
 declared in the Lincoln-Stone protest, that 
 the institution of *' slavery is founded on both 
 injustice and bad policy." He, therefore, re- 
 gretted this new law withdrawing the restraint 
 that had existed to the spread of slavery in 
 the United States, and making it possible for 
 the settlers in the territories to decide whether 
 they should come into the Union as slave or 
 free States. 
 
 General excitement prevailed. Proslavery 
 men were sending "squatters" into the terri- 
 tories to vote for slavery; the Abolitionists, 
 full of wrath, were hurrying to the frontier to 
 look after the interests of freedom. Border- 
 war broke out along the boundary between 
 Kansas and Missouri, and shocking outrages 
 were enacted there daily. 
 
 While the Abolitionists and Proslavery 
 Democrats contended with bitterness, many of 
 
338 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the Whigs and not a few anti-slavery Demo- 
 crats looked on with indignation at the aggres- 
 sive measures of those interested in the 
 extension of slavery. On returning to Illinois, 
 Douglas found himself unpopular even in his 
 own party. He saw he would have to explain 
 to the people of Illinois what he had done in 
 Washington. 
 
 During the State fair he visited Springfield 
 and made a speech on Popular Sovereignty. 
 So adroitly did he handle the question that he 
 seemed to be regaining the good-will of his 
 constituents. Lincoln was urged by those who 
 were opposed to Popular Sovereignty to reply ; 
 he did so in a w^onderful speech that quite 
 overcame the effects Mr. Douglas had pro- 
 duced. 
 
 Lincoln's friends were so satisfied with his 
 speech that they induced him to follow up 
 Douglas on a tour of the State, and after the 
 latter had made an address in a town to 
 answer him. Mr. Douglas was well informed, 
 a keen thinker, and a brilliant speaker. He 
 was very small in stature, but he had so much 
 
POLITICAL SUCCESS. 339 
 
 power in argument that he was called the 
 "Little Giant." 
 
 This man had rarely found his equal in 
 debate, but now he found himself more than 
 matched. He told Mr. Lincoln that he had 
 given more trouble on this question than the 
 entire United States Senate. He said that if 
 Lincoln would withdraw from the field and 
 make no more speeches he, too, would stop. 
 
 They did not come to this agreement, how- 
 ever, until after the Lincoln-Douglas debates 
 had attracted widespread attention, and Lin- 
 coln had spoken words that were not to be 
 forgotten lightly by those who heard or read 
 them. Lincoln was elected to the Legislature 
 after this, but he resigned that he might better 
 work for the United States Senatorship, which 
 he greatly desired. He was, however, disap- 
 pointed in his hope of being made senator 
 in 1855.. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth of May, 1856, he went 
 to Bloomington, Illinois, to attend a convention 
 held for the purpose of organizing a new 
 political party. Whigs were there, men of the 
 
340 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Free Soil party were there, conservative Aboli- 
 tionists and Anti-slavery Democrats were there. 
 Together they brought into being the great 
 Republican party. 
 
 After many eloquent speeches had been 
 heard a cry for Lincoln arose. He made his 
 way to the front of the room. "Take the 
 platform," shouted the people. He began 
 simply and slowly, almost hesitatingly, but as 
 he spoke he warmed to his subject. He 
 straightened his stooping shoulders and seemed 
 to tower even above his usual height. He 
 seemed inspired. The sympathy of his audi- 
 ence carried him away. 
 
 He forgot to be cautious. He spoke the 
 thoughts that had been lying unuttered in his 
 heart and in theirs. His bold words so moved 
 the people that even the reporters forgot their 
 duty in the enthusiasm of the hour, and the 
 speech has been known as the "lost speech." 
 
 One man in the audience said, " It paralleled 
 or exceeded the scene in Revolutionary Vir- 
 ginia of eighty-one years before when Patrick 
 Henry invoked death if liberty could not be 
 
POLITICAL SUCCESS. 34 1 
 
 preserved, and said, 'After all, we must fight' " 
 The new party nominated John C. Freemont 
 for president, but it had not yet gained suffi- 
 cient strength to carry an election, and the 
 Democratic candidate, James Buchanan, was 
 elected. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 A LEADER. 
 
 An election of United States Senators 
 occurred in 1858. Abraham Lincoln was 
 chosen as the candidate of the Republicans of 
 Illinois. At the close of the convention he 
 delivered an address of which he afterward 
 said that if all he had ever written or spoken 
 except one lecture must be blotted out of 
 existence, this one — the " last speech " — he 
 would save from destruction. 
 
 He had known for some time that he should 
 be called upon to make the speech and he 
 had prepared it carefully. He had read it to 
 his political friends. They had warned him 
 that it was unwise at this time to make so 
 bold and plain a statement of his views. One 
 paragraph in particular, they said, if delivered 
 would certainly secure his defeat. 
 
 But that was the very paragraph Lincoln 
 342 
 
A LEADER. 343 
 
 was determined to give to the world. Accord- 
 ingly, in the old State House at Springfield, 
 amid the disapproving silence of his friends, 
 he spoke these memorable words : " * A house 
 divided against itself cannot stand/ I believe 
 this government cannot endure permanently 
 half slave and half free. I do not expect the 
 Union to be dissolved, I do not expect the 
 house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to 
 be divided. It will become all one thing or 
 the other. Either the opponents of slavery 
 will arrest the further spread of it, and place 
 it where the public mind shall rest in the 
 belief that it is in the course of ultimate ex- 
 tinction, or its advocates will push it forward 
 till it shall become alike lawful in all the 
 States, old as well as new, North as well as 
 South." 
 
 Those who were most anxious to see elected 
 to the United States Senate the man who had 
 the courage to say this, were yet grieved that 
 he had spoken ; they feared they were losing 
 a senator ; they did not know they were gain- 
 ing a president. 
 
344 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Lincoln was so full of the truth and justness 
 of his words that he could not regard them 
 as fatal to his ambition for the Senate. He 
 neglected his business and gave his best efforts 
 to the campaign. During the months that 
 followed he held seven debates with Douglas, 
 made thirty-one speeches arranged for by the 
 State committee, and many informal speeches. 
 
 While Douglas was touring the State every 
 possible provision for his comfort was made 
 by his wealthy and influential friends: they 
 invited him to their homes ; they put their 
 carriages at his disposal ; the Illinois Central 
 Railroad Company furnished him with a pri- 
 vate car; prominent citizens in every town led 
 the applause when he spoke. 
 
 Lincoln had comparatively little support 
 from the rich and powerful, and from that 
 class he suffered many humiliating slights. 
 Travel-worn and weary he made his way from 
 place to place with only such help and encour- 
 agement as came from the assurance that he 
 was more and more making the people see 
 this grave question as he saw it. 
 
A LEADER. 345 
 
 When defeat came he wrote to a friend : '* I 
 am glad I made the race. It gave me a 
 hearing on the great and durable questions 
 of the age which I could have had in no other 
 way ; and, though I now sink out of view and 
 shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some 
 marks which will tell for the cause of liberty 
 long after I am gone." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln's efforts were not lost. 
 His words had not fallen on dead ears. His 
 name was becoming a familiar one in all parts 
 of the country. In October, 1859, he accepted 
 an invitation to speak in New York City some 
 time in the winter. As he was but, personally, 
 slightly known in the East, he prepared him- 
 self with great care for his first appearance in 
 New York. 
 
 His plan was to take for his text the words 
 of his rival, Stephen A. Douglas, *' Our fathers, 
 when they framed the government under which 
 we live, understood this question just as well, 
 and even better, than we do now," and to show 
 that those who framed the government under 
 which we live did not forbid the Federal 
 
34^ ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 government to control slavery in the Federal 
 territory. 
 
 On the twenty-seventh of February, i860, 
 he stood on the platform of Cooper Institute, 
 before a great assembly of highly educated, 
 cultivated men and women. For a moment, 
 as he looked into the hundreds of critical 
 faces before him, he felt very conscious of the 
 six feet four inches of his angular, uncouth 
 frame. He was aware that his ill-fitting coat 
 had not been improved by its journey in a 
 carpet-bag, he realized that his collar would 
 not stay down, and that one sleeve pulled up 
 whenever he lifted his arm. 
 
 He could hear his own voice and knew it 
 was high and piercing, but gradually he for- 
 got all those small things and remembered 
 only the message he had to deliver. And 
 those eastern people who had, many of 
 them, come to criticise, or out of curiosity 
 to see what the far-famed ''Honest Abe" 
 was like, to be entertained with his eccen- 
 tricities and funny stories, found themselves, 
 instead, thinking very hard as their minds 
 
I 
 
 A LEADER. 347 
 
 grasped the truths he hurled at them and 
 worked with his to inevitable conclusions. 
 
 And when he took up the moral side of the 
 question and spoke of the terrible wrong and 
 injustice of slavery, there was not one in the 
 audience whose heart was not stirred. All 
 realized that they were listening to a great 
 and earnest man. 
 
 The next day the New York papers said 
 that never in the history of the city had a 
 speaker so captivated a New York audience 
 on his first appearance. It was, indeed, a 
 triumph for this man whose only schooling 
 had been the rough school of life on the 
 frontier. Later he made several other suc- 
 cessful speeches in New England. 
 
 People now recognized him as one of the 
 leaders of the Republican party, and there 
 was talk of his being nominated for the 
 presidency. 
 
 In May the Republicans of Illinois held a 
 convention at Decatur to decide upon the man 
 for whom their delegates to the National Con- 
 vention should vote. There could be little 
 
348 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 
 doubt of the place Lincoln held in their 
 esteem. 
 
 While the convention was in session Lin- 
 coln's cousin, John Hanks, walked into the 
 hall with a weather-worn black walnut fence- 
 rail on either shoulder. All knew what it 
 meant. These were two of the rails Abe Lin- 
 coln had split for his father in 1830. They 
 stood for hard labor, but honorable, free labor. 
 They were more eloquent than words. 
 
 A sense of how good and great a thing it 
 is for a man to be able to work for himself, 
 and to cut and hew his destiny according to his 
 own ability and will, swept over that audience 
 of men who believed that slavery was harm- 
 ful to the man who obliged another to do his 
 work, as well as to the man obliged to work 
 against his will. 
 
 The enthusiasm roused there spread over 
 the State and over the nation, and when, a 
 week later, the National Republican Conven- 
 tion was held at Chicago, Lincoln was one of 
 the two leading candidates for the nomination. 
 The Republican party had become one of the 
 
A LEADER. 349 
 
 two great political parties of the country, and 
 the public waited with breathless anxiety to 
 learn what happened in the great convention 
 hall or wigwam, as the hall was named. 
 
 The eastern people and many western men 
 favored the nomination of William H. Seward, 
 a scholarly, able man, but with each ballot 
 taken at Chicago it became more and more 
 evident that Lincoln would be the choice of 
 the convention — and when at length the can- 
 non on the top of the wigwam boomed 
 over the prairies, it was to announce this 
 triumph. 
 
 While the excitement was going on in 
 Chicago, Lincoln sat in a large arm-chair in a 
 newspaper office in Springfield. When word 
 came of his nomination he strode off toward 
 home, as he said, '' to tell a little woman down 
 street the news." 
 
 The campaign of i860 was conducted with 
 intense feeling. The Democratic party had 
 divided and had in the field two candidates, 
 Lincoln's rival in debate, Douglas, and 
 John C. Breckinbridge. This division of the 
 
350 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Opposing party gave the Republicans hope. 
 Nor was their hope in vain. In November, 
 i860, Abraham Lincoln was elected. 
 
 On the eleventh of February, 1861, the 
 presidential party left Springfield for Wash- 
 ington. In spite of a severe storm a large 
 crowd gathered at the station to see the 
 president-elect start on his journey. Mr. Lin- 
 coln was touched by their evident affection ; 
 he found it a hard matter to say farewell to 
 his old friends; he had made his stepmother 
 a good-bye visit and had spent a few days in 
 New Salem. 
 
 Some way the poor plain people, so closely 
 associated with his boyhood and early man- 
 hood, seemed very precious now, that he was 
 leaving them — perhaps forever. As he stood 
 on the rear platform, looking into the familiar 
 friendly faces, he was oppressed with a deep 
 sadness. He spoke a few words of affectionate 
 farewell and then started on his way, " to 
 assume a task more difficult than that which 
 devolved upon Washington." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 The outlook had in it nothing of cheer for 
 President Lincoln. The Southern States were 
 united in rebellion against the North; the 
 North was divided into factions, bitterly op- 
 posed to each other; disloyalty and lack of 
 confidence were general. The conservative 
 citizens of the North were wailing, ** Let the 
 South keep their slaves and carry them where 
 they will. Peace and union at any price !" 
 
 The over-zealous were urging war. The 
 nations of the earth waited the outcome like 
 expectant birds of prey. The grim specter of 
 war seemed brooding over the country, and 
 the darkness of the shadow of death was upon 
 its people. Lincoln was deeply depressed, but 
 resolute. He saw his duty clearly. 
 
 He did not believe it was to rule the people, 
 but to rule for them. As he had believed in 
 
 351 
 
352 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the Mexican War, he still believed. Change 
 in point of view had not altered his faith in 
 the sovereignty of the people. Feeling so, it 
 was hard for him to face the many evidences 
 of distrust and ill-will that his countrymen 
 entertained toward him. 
 
 But they were too plain to escape him. 
 Threats were even made against his life, and 
 many believed he would never be inaugurated. 
 Plots were made for his destruction, but they 
 were discovered and he reached Washington 
 in safety. There he was guarded by soldiers. 
 
 The fourth of March was cold and dreary. 
 The people who gathered near the capitol to 
 witness the inaugural ceremony were silent 
 and grave. The president-elect was treated 
 with cold courtesy by men who made it clear 
 that they considered him less worthy than 
 themselves. The vanquished Douglas, who 
 knew his worth, sought to make him feel at 
 ease. It was he who came forward when 
 Lincoln was looking about for a place for his 
 hat, and held it while the latter was reading 
 his address. 
 
THE PRESIDENT. 353 
 
 Lincoln read in a high penetrating voice 
 that was heard at a great distance. His words 
 were wise and strong. He said, in part: 
 
 " In view of the constitution and the laws, 
 the union is unbroken ; and to the extent of 
 my abihty I shall take care, as the constitution 
 itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws 
 of the Union be faithfully executed in all the 
 States. In doing this there needs to be no 
 bloodshed or violence ; and there shall be 
 none, unless it be forced upon the national 
 authority. In your hands, my dissatisfied 
 fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the 
 momentous issue of civil war. 
 
 **The government will not assail you. You 
 can have no conflict without being yourselves 
 the aggressors. You have no oath registered 
 in heaven to destroy the government, while I 
 shall have the most solemn one to preserve, 
 protect, and defend it. We are not enemies, 
 but friends. We must not be enemies. 
 Though passion may have strained, it must 
 not break, our bonds of affection." 
 
 But wise words could avail little. A time 
 23 
 
354 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of trial and terror had come to the nation. 
 When things go wrong men want to blame 
 some one. Now it was the chief executive 
 who had to endure the general condemnation. 
 Men did not hesitate to call him incompetent, 
 inert, indifferent He did not shield himself 
 in an armor of formality. His simplicity, his 
 easy-going friendliness, and apparent lack of 
 diplomacy invited frankness, and he received 
 censure and slight from party leaders who 
 thought themselves his superiors. 
 
 Unmoved by denunciation, confident of the 
 wisdom of his policy, slowly but surely he 
 worked out his great plan to unite the North 
 and to strengthen the Federal cause in the 
 border States. He spared himself no pains; 
 day after day he toiled in the executive office 
 over the hard task of ''balancing things." 
 
 He denied no one who wished to see him, 
 and even the disappointed office-seeker went 
 home his friend. It made him sick at heart 
 that men should show such greed for office at 
 such a time, but he concealed this, and by 
 personal friendliness and a wise distribution 
 
THE PRESIDENT. 355 
 
 of offices did much to conciliate opponents 
 and to reconcile hostile factions. 
 
 Men of all political beliefs sought to in- 
 fluence the new president. ''Declare war," 
 dictated many, thinking they knew better than 
 he. He knew that the people did not yet feel 
 the necessity of war. Let the South take the 
 first step — then the people of the North would 
 rise of their own will to defend the union. 
 
 It was the firing on Sumpter that proclaimed 
 war, not the president of these United States — 
 his call to arms was but the echo of that 
 cannon-roar that roused the nation. The 
 answer came not reluctantly, but eagerly: 
 
 " We are coming, father Abraham, 
 Three hundred thousand strong." 
 
 The Abolitionists insisted, " Make this a war 
 for freedom. Emancipate the slaves." The 
 man who had carried in his great, freedom- 
 loving heart the cause of the slave from his 
 early youth, who had looked forward to the 
 crowning event of the age, found such impor- 
 tunity hard to resist. But the strength of his 
 
356 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 personal wish in the matter made him slow to 
 act lest it might blind him to the wish of ** My 
 rightful masters, the American people." 
 
 He said in a republic one man could not 
 free the slaves. It must be the people's act. 
 In their own good time they would demand 
 it. Till then such a measure would result 
 only in evil to the Union cause, in disaffect- 
 ing northern men of southern sympathies 
 and hopelessly alienating the border States. 
 
 Emancipation must not come till it would 
 help, not harm, the Union. It was his old 
 habit, before the jury, of waiving all side issues 
 and firmly and persistently holding to the 
 main one. But when the people came to look 
 upon the freedom of the slave as a necessary 
 step to crush rebellion and re-establish peace, 
 when they came to recognize in the fire and 
 bloodshed of this desolating war the fruit of 
 the great evil, emancipation became their plea. 
 
 Then, indeed, their responsive representa- 
 tive was not slow with his proclamation. Not- 
 withstanding the stimulus of this act, the war 
 tugged bitterly on with its awful balance of 
 
THE PRESIDENT. 357 
 
 victory and defeat. In all his anxiety for the 
 ends he desired, Lincoln never became indif- 
 ferent or hardened to the heroism and sorrow 
 that the battles fought to win them cost. 
 
 He ever had a father's care for the boys in 
 blue and a father's proud sorrow for those who 
 fell. Few can read without a thrill of patriot- 
 ism the words he spoke at the dedication of 
 the Gettysburg cemetery : '' Fourscore and 
 seven years ago our fathers brought forth on 
 this continent a new nation, conceived in 
 liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that 
 all men are created equal. 
 
 *' Now we are engaged in a great civil war, 
 testing whether that nation or any nation, 
 so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 
 We are met on a great battlefield of that 
 war. We have come to dedicate a portion of 
 that field as a final resting-place for those who 
 here gave their lives that that nation might 
 live. It is altogether fitting and proper that 
 we should do this. 
 
 " But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, 
 we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this 
 
358 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ground. The brave men, living and dead, who 
 struggled here have consecrated it far above 
 our poor power to add or detract. The world 
 will little note nor long remember what we 
 say here, but it can never forget what they 
 did here. 
 
 " It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedi- 
 cated here to the unfinished work which they 
 who fought here have thus far so nobly 
 advanced. It is, rather, for us to be here dedi- 
 cated to the great task remaining before us — 
 that from these honored dead we take increased 
 devotion to that cause for which they gave the 
 last full measure of devotion ; that we here 
 highly resolve that these dead shall not have 
 died in vain ; that this nation, under God, shall 
 have a new birth of freedom ; and that govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people, and for the 
 people shall not perish from the face of the 
 earth." 
 
 But it was not only in public that this great 
 president paid tribute to the private soldier. 
 Here is a letter he wrote to a woman he did 
 not know whose sons had fallen in battle: 
 
"Mrs. Bixby, 
 " Dear Madam : 
 
 THE PRESIDENT. 359 
 
 ** Executive Mansion, Washington, 
 "November 21, 1864. 
 
 " I have been shown in the files of the War Department a 
 statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you 
 are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the 
 field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any 
 words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the 
 grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from 
 tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the 
 thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our 
 heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereave- 
 ment, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved 
 and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have 
 laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
 
 " Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, 
 • ' Abraham Lincoln. ' ' 
 
 The man who wrote this did not love war. 
 Yet such was his strength of purpose that 
 when the very men who had once rebuked 
 his slowness, whose zeal had demanded, '* Make 
 war," " Emancipate the slaves," " On to Rich- 
 mond," before his wisdom dared, were clamor- 
 ing for peace, he was writing in his second 
 inaugural address: 
 
360 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " Fondly do we hope and fervently do we 
 pray that this mighty scourge of war may 
 speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it 
 continue until all the wealth piled up by the 
 bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of 
 unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every 
 drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be 
 paid by another drawn with the sword, as was 
 said, 'the judgments of the Lord are true 
 and righteous altogether.' " 
 
 Indeed, as General Grant had said, Lincoln's 
 re-election was a victory worth more to the 
 country than a battle won. Soon peace re- 
 turned to the nation, and Lincoln had begun — 
 " with malice toward none ; with charity for 
 all ; with firmness in the right — to bind up the 
 nation's wounds; to care for him who had 
 borne the battle, and for his widow, and his 
 orphan — to do all which might achieve and 
 cherish a just and lasting peace among our- 
 selves, and with all nations" — when he was 
 taken from his people by the bullet of an 
 assassin, and the national rejoicing was hushed 
 by a deep sense df grief. 
 
THE PRESIDENT. 361 
 
 This sense of personal loss in the midst of 
 triumph, that thousands of men, women, and 
 children felt, has been expressed in a noble 
 poem by Walt Whitman : 
 
 " O captain ! my captain ! our fearful trip is done, 
 The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won. 
 The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting. 
 While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring ; 
 
 But O heart ! heart ! heart ! 
 
 O the bleeding drops of red. 
 
 Where on the deck my captain lies, 
 
 Fallen cold and dead. 
 
 " O captain ! my captain ! rise up and hear the bells ; 
 
 Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle thrills. 
 
 For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths — for you the shores 
 
 a-crowding, 
 For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning ; 
 
 Here captain ! dear father ! 
 
 This arm beneath your head ! 
 It is some dream that on the deck, 
 You've fallen cold and dead. 
 
362 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " My captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, 
 My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, 
 The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and 
 
 done. 
 From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won ; 
 
 Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells ! 
 
 But I with mournful tread. 
 
 Walk the deck my captain hes, 
 
 Fallen cold and dead." 
 
 From Leaves of GrasSy by Walt WHITMAN, 
 
 By courtesy of Small, Maynard & Co., Publishers, Boston, Mass. 
 
 6 2? 
 
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