Riverside Literature Series 
 
 SCUDDERS 
 
 George Washington 
 
 Houghton,Mifflin &T Co.
 
 Hibersfoe ^Literature 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 AN HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY 
 
 HORACE E. SCUDDER 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 Boston : 4 Park Street ; New York : 85 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago : 378-388 Wabash Avenue 
 
 <be flnjcrjHbe pwjjji, Cambridge
 
 Copyright, 1886, 
 BY THE CENTURY COMPANY. 
 
 Copyright, 1889, 
 BY HORACE E. SCUDDEK. 
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. OLD VIRGINIA ...... 7 
 
 II. A VIRGINIA PLANTATION 14 
 
 III. THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON .... 21 
 
 IV. SCHOOL-DAYS 29 
 
 V. MOUNT VERNON AND BELVOIR . . . .37 
 
 VI. THE YOUNG SURVEYOR 45 
 
 VII. THE OHIO COMPANY . . . . . .52 
 
 VIII. MAJOR WASHINGTON . .... 60 
 
 IX. FORT DUQUESNE AND FORT NECESSITY . . 70 
 X. A TERRIBLE LESSON IN WAR .... 80 
 
 XI. COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF TH^; VIRGINIA FORCES 95 
 XII. WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON . . . 107 
 
 XIII. A VIRGINIA BURGESS 119 
 
 XIV. THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS .... 131 
 XV. UNDER THE OLD ELM ..... 144 
 
 XVI. LEADING THE ARMY 156 
 
 XVII. AT VALLEY FORGE 170 
 
 XVIII. THE CONWAY CABAL 178 
 
 XIX. MONMOUTH 187 
 
 XX. THE LAST CAMPAIGN 194 
 
 XXI. WASHINGTON RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION . . 203 
 XXII. MR. WASHINGTON 212 
 
 XXIII. CALLED TO THE HELM . . . 219 
 
 XXIV. PRESIDENT WASHINGTON 226 
 
 XXV. THE FAREWELL . 242 
 
 2033590
 
 LIST OF MAPS 
 
 FACING 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BOCTB OF SHADDOCK'S ARMY 90 
 
 BOSTON, WITH ITS ENVIRONS 154 
 
 THE CENTRAL FIELD OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAK . . 164
 
 GEOKGE WASHINGTON". 
 
 AN HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OLD VIRGINIA. 
 
 IN 1732, when people spoke of Virginia, they 
 meant commonly so much of the present State as 
 lies between Chesapeake Bay and the Blue Ridge 
 Mountains. In the valley of the Shenandoah 
 River, just beyond the first range of mountains, 
 there were a few families, chiefly Irish and Ger- 
 man, who had made their way southward from 
 Pennsylvania ; the governor of Virginia, too, was 
 at this time engaged in planting a colony of Ger- 
 mans in the valley. Still farther to the west- 
 ward were a few bold pioneers, who built their 
 log-cabins in the wilderness and lived by hunting 
 and fishing. No one knew how far Virginia 
 stretched ; the old charters from the king had 
 talked vaguely about the South Sea, meaning by 
 that the Pacific Ocean ; but the country beyond the 
 mountains had never been surveyed, and scarcely 
 even explored. The people who called themselves
 
 8 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Virginians looked upon those who lived beyond 
 the Blue Ridge very much as nowadays persons 
 on the Atlantic coast look upon those who settle 
 in Dakota or Montana. 
 
 Down from these mountains came the streams 
 which swelled into rivers, the Potomac, the Rap- 
 pahannock, the York, and the James, with their 
 countless branches and runs and creeks. Look at 
 any map of eastern Virginia and see what a long 
 coast line it has, what arms of the sea stretch in- 
 land, what rivers come down to meet the sea, and 
 what a net-work of water-ways spreads over the 
 whole country. You would say that the people 
 living there must be skillful fishermen and sail- 
 ors, that thriving seaport towns would be scattered 
 along the coast and rivers, and that there would 
 be great shipyards for the building of all kinds of 
 vessels. 
 
 But in 1732 there were no large towns in Vir- 
 ginia there were scarcely any towns at all. 
 Each county had a county seat, where were a 
 court-house and a prison, and an inn for the con- 
 venience of those who had business in court; 
 usually there was a church, and sometimes a small 
 country store ; but there were no other houses, and 
 often the place was in the middle of the woods. 
 The capital of Virginia AVilliamsburg had 
 less than two hundred houses ; and Norfolk, the 
 largest town, at the head of a noble harbor, had 
 a population of five thousand or so. A few fish
 
 OLD VIRGINIA. 9 
 
 were caught in the rivers or on the coast, but 
 there was no business of fishing ; a few boats plied 
 from place to place, but there was no ship-build- 
 ing ; and the ships which sailed into the harbors 
 and up the rivers were owned elsewhere, and came 
 from England or the other American colonies. 
 There were no manufactures, and scarcely a 
 trained mechanic in the whole colony. Yet Vir- 
 ginia was the most populous, and, some thought, 
 the richest of the British colonies in America. 
 In 1732 she had half a million inhabitants, 
 more than twice as many as New York had at 
 that time. 
 
 Where were the people, then, and what were 
 they doing? They were living in the country, 
 and raising tobacco. More than a hundred years 
 before, the first Englishmen who had come to Vir- 
 ginia had found that they could raise nothing 
 which was so much wanted in England, and could 
 bring them so much money, as tobacco. Besides, 
 these Englishmen had not been mechanics or fish- 
 ermen or sailors in England ; they had for the 
 most part been used to living on farms. So they 
 fell at once to planting tobacco, and they could 
 not raise enough to satisfy people in England and 
 other parts of the Old World. All the fine gen- 
 tlemen took to smoking ; it was something new 
 and fashionable ; and, I suppose, a great many 
 puffed away at their pipes who wondered what 
 the pleasure was, and sometimes wished the weed
 
 10 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 had never been discovered. The king of Eng- 
 land did not like it, and he wrote a book to dis- 
 suade people from the use of tobacco ; but every 
 one went on smoking Virginia tobacco as before. 
 
 The company which sent colonists to Virginia 
 promised fifty acres to any one who would clear 
 the land and settle upon it ; for a small sum of 
 money one might buy a hundred acres ; and if 
 any one did some special service to the colony, he 
 might receive a gift of as much as two thousand 
 acres. Now, in England, to own land was to be 
 thought much of. Only noblemen or country gen- 
 tlemen could boast of having two thousand or a 
 hundred or even fifty acres. So the Englishmen 
 who came to Virginia, where land was plenty, 
 were all eager to own great estates. 
 
 To carry on such estates, and especially to raise 
 tobacco, required many laborers. It was not 
 easy for the Virginia land-owners to bring these 
 from English farms. They could not be spared 
 by the farmers there, and besides, such laborers 
 were for the most part men and women who had 
 never been beyond the villages where they had 
 been born and had hardly ever heard of America. 
 They lived, father and son, in the same place, 
 and knew little about any other. But in London 
 and other cities of England there were, at the 
 time when the Virginia colony was formed, many 
 poor people who had no work and nothing to live 
 on. If these people could be sent to America,
 
 OLD VIRGINIA. 11 
 
 not only would the cities be rid of them, but the 
 gentlemen in the new country would have laborers 
 to cut down trees, clear the fields, and plant to- 
 bacco. 
 
 Accordingly, many of these idle and poor people 
 were sent over as servants. The Virginia plant- 
 ers paid their passage, sheltered, fed, and clothed 
 them, and in return had the use of their labor for 
 a certain number of years. The plan did not work 
 very well, however. Often these " indentured ser- 
 vants," as they were called, were idle and unwil- 
 ling to work that was one reason that they had 
 been poor in London. Even when they did work, 
 they were only " bound " for a certain length of 
 time. After they had served their time, they 
 were free. Then they sometimes cleared farms 
 for themselves ; but very often they led lazy, vi- 
 cious lives, and were a trouble and vexation to 
 the neighborhood. 
 
 It seemed to these Virginia planters that there 
 was a better way. In 1619, a year before the 
 Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, a Dutch captain 
 brought up the James River twenty blacks whom 
 he had captured on the coast of Africa. He 
 offered to sell these to the planters, and they 
 bought them. No one saw anything out of the 
 way in this. It was no new thing to own slaves. 
 There were slaves in the West India Islands, and 
 in the countries of Europe. Indians when cap- 
 tured in war were sold into slavery. For that
 
 12 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 matter, white men had been made slaves. The dif- 
 ference between these blacks and the indentured 
 servants was that the planter who paid the Dutch 
 captain for a black ,man had the use of him all 
 his lifetime, but if he bought from an English 
 captain the services of an indentured white man, 
 he could only have those services for a few months 
 or years. It certainly was much more convenient 
 to have an African slave. 
 
 There were not many of these slaves at first. 
 An occasional shipload was brought from Africa, 
 but it was not until after fifty years that negroes 
 made any considerable part of the population. 
 They had families, and all the children were slaves 
 like their parents. More were bought of captains 
 who made a business of going to Africa to trade 
 for slaves, just as they might have gone to the 
 East Indies for spices. The plantations were 
 growing larger, and the more slaves a man had, 
 the more tobacco he could raise ; the more tobacco 
 he could raise, the richer he was. Until long 
 after the year 1732, the people in Virginia were 
 wont to reckon the cost of things, not by pounds, 
 shillings, and pence the English currency, 
 but by pounds of tobacco the Virginia currency. 
 The salaries of the clergy were paid in tobacco ; 
 so were all their fees for christening, marrying, 
 and burying. Taxes were paid and accounts were 
 kept in tobacco. At a few points there were 
 houses to which planters brought their tobacco,
 
 OLD VIRGINIA. 13 
 
 and these warehouses served the purpose of banks. 
 A planter stored his tobacco and received a cer- 
 tificate of deposit. This certificate he could use 
 instead of a check on a bank. 
 
 The small planters who lived high up the rivers, 
 beyond the point where vessels could go, floated 
 their tobacco in boats down to one of the ware- 
 houses, where it made part of the cargo of some 
 ship sailing for England. But the largest part of 
 this produce was shipped directly from the great 
 plantations. Each of these had its own store- 
 house and its own wharf. The Virginia planter 
 was his own shipping merchant. He had his 
 agent in London. Once a year, a vessel would 
 make its way up the river to his wharf. It 
 brought whatever he or his family needed. He 
 had sent to his agent to buy clothes, furniture, 
 table-linen, tools, medicine, spices, foreign fruits, 
 harnesses, carriages, cutlery, wines, books, pic- 
 tures, there was scarcely an article used in his 
 house or on his plantation for which he did not 
 send to London. Then in return he helped to 
 load the vessel, and he had just one article with 
 which to make up the cargo tobacco. Now and 
 then tar, pitch, and turpentine were sent from 
 some districts, but the Virginia planter rarely sent 
 anything but tobacco to England in return for 
 what he received.
 
 CHAPTER II. ... 
 
 A VIRGINIA PLANTATION. 
 
 LET us visit in imagination one of these Vir- 
 ginia plantations, such as were to be found in 
 1732, and see what sort of life was led upon it. 
 
 To reach the plantation, one is likely to ride 
 for some distance through the woods. The coun- 
 try is not yet cleared of the forest, and each 
 planter, as he adds one tobacco-field to another, has 
 to make inroads upon the great trees. Coming 
 nearer, one rides past tracts where the underbrush 
 is gone, but tall, gaunt trees stand, bearing no 
 foliage and looking ready to fall to the ground. 
 They have been girdled, that is, have had a gash 
 cut around the trunk, through the bark, quite 
 into the wood ; thus the sap cannot flow, and the 
 tree rots away, falling finally with a great crash. 
 The luckless traveler sometimes finds his way 
 stopped by one of these trees fallen across the 
 road. By the border of these tracts are Virginia 
 rail-fences, eight or ten feet in height, which zig- 
 zag in a curious fashion, the rails, twelve feet 
 or so in length, not running into posts, but rest- 
 ing on one another at the ends, like a succession 
 of Ws. When the new land is wholly cleared
 
 A VIRGINIA PLANTATION. 15 
 
 />f trees, these fences can be removed, stick by 
 stick, and set farther back. No post-holes have to 
 be dug, nor posts driven in. 
 
 Now the tobacco-fields come into view. If the 
 plant is growing, one sees long rows of hillocks 
 kept free from weeds, and the plant well bunched 
 at the top, for the lower leaves and suckers are 
 pruned once a week ; and as there is a worm which 
 infests the tobacco, and has to be picked off and 
 killed, during the growth of the plant all hands 
 are kept busy in the field. 
 
 I have said that there were scarcely any towns 
 or villages in Virginia, so one might fancy there 
 was some mistake; for what means this great 
 collection of houses ? Surely here is a village ; 
 but look closer. There are no stores or shops or 
 churches or schoolhouses. Rising above the rest 
 is one principal building. It is the planter's own 
 house, which very likely is surrounded by beauti- 
 ful trees and gardens. At a little distance are 
 the cabins of the negroes, and the gaping wooden 
 tobacco-houses, in which the tobacco is drying, 
 hung upon poles and well sunned and aired, for 
 the houses are built so as to allow plenty of ven- 
 tilation and sunlight. The cabins of the negroes 
 are low wooden buildings, the chinks filled in 
 with clay. Many of them have kitchen gardens 
 about them, for the slaves are allowed plots of 
 ground on which to raise corn and melons and 
 small vegetables for their own use. The planter's
 
 16 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 house is sometimes of wood, sometimes of brick, 
 and sometimes of stone. The one feature, how- 
 ever, which always strikes a stranger is the great 
 outside chimney, usually there is one at each 
 end of the house, a huge pile of brick or stone, 
 rising above the ridge-pole. Very often, too, there 
 are wide verandas and porches. In this climate, 
 where there are no freezing-cold winters, it is not 
 necessary to build chimneys in the middle of the 
 house, where the warmth of the bricks may serve 
 to temper the air of all the rooms. Moreover, in 
 the warm summers it is well to keep the heat of 
 the cooking away from the house, so the meals 
 are prepared in kitchens built separate from the 
 main house. Inside the gx-eat house, one finds 
 one's self in large, airy rooms and halls; wide 
 fireplaces hold blazing fires in the cool days, and 
 in the summer there is a passage of air on all 
 sides. Sometimes the rooms are lathed and plas- 
 tered, but often they are sheathed in the cedar 
 and other woods which grow abundantly in the 
 country. There is little of that spruce tidiness 
 on which a New England housekeeper prides her- 
 self. The house servants are lazy and good- 
 natured, and the people live in a generous fashion, 
 careless of waste, and indifferent to orderly ways. 
 The planter has no market near by to which he 
 can go for his food ; accordingly he has his own 
 smokehouse, in which he cures his ham and smokes 
 ilia beef; he has outhouses and barns scattered
 
 A VIRGINIA PLANTATION. 17 
 
 about, where lie stores his provisions ; and down 
 where the brook runs is the spring-house, built 
 over the running stream. Here the milk and 
 butter and eggs are kept standing in buckets in 
 the cool fresh water. The table is an abundant 
 but coarse one. The woods supply game, and the 
 planter has herds of cattle. But he raises few veg- 
 etables and little wheat. The English ship brings, 
 him wines and liquors, which are freely used, 
 and now and then one of his negro women has a 
 genius for cooking and can make dainty dishes. 
 The living, however, is rather profuse than nice. 
 
 It fits the rude, out-of-door life of the men. 
 The master of the house spends much of Ms time 
 in the saddle. He prides himself on his norses, 
 and keeps his stables well filled. It is his chief 
 business to look after bis estate. He has, to be 
 sure, an overseer, or steward, who takes his orders 
 and sees that the various gangs of negroes do 
 their required work ; but the master, if he would 
 succeed, himself must visit the several parts of 
 his plantation and make sure that all goes on 
 smoothly. He must have an eye to his stock, for 
 very likely he has blooded horses ; he must see 
 that the tobacco is well harvested ; he must ride 
 to the new field which is being cleared, and in- 
 spect his fences. There is enough in all this to 
 keep the planter in his saddle all day long. 
 
 With horses in the stable and dogs in the ken- 
 nel, the Virginian is a great hunter. He lives in
 
 18 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 a country where he can chase not only the fox, 
 but the bear and the wild cat. With other plant- 
 ers he rides after the hounds ; and they try their 
 horses on the race-course. The man who can ride 
 the hardest, shoot the surest, lift the heaviest 
 weight, run, leap, and wrestle beyond his fellows, 
 is the most admired. 
 
 With so free and independent a life, the Vir- 
 ginian is a generous man, who is hospitable both 
 to his neighbors and to strangers. If he hears of 
 any one traveling through the country and putting 
 up at one of the uncomfortable little inns, he 
 sends for him to come to his house, without wait- 
 ing for a letter of introduction. He entertains 
 his neighbors, and there are frequent gatherings 
 of old and young for dancing and merry-making. 
 The tobacco crop varies, and the price of it is 
 constantly changing. Thus the planter can never 
 reckon with confidence upon his income, and, 
 with his reckless style of living, he is often in 
 debt. He despises small economies, and looks 
 down upon the merchant and trader, whose busi- 
 ness it is to watch closely what they receive and 
 what they pay out. 
 
 The Virginian does not often go far from his 
 plantation. His chief journey is to the capital, 
 at Williamsburg, where he goes when the colonial 
 House of Burgesses is in session. Then he gets 
 out his great yellow coach, and his family drive 
 over rough roads and come upon other planters
 
 A VIRGINIA PLANTATION. 19 
 
 and their families driving through the woods in 
 the same direction. At the capital, during the 
 session, are held balls and other grand entertain- 
 ments, and the men discuss the affairs of the col- 
 ony. They honor the king, and pay their taxes 
 without much grumbling, but they are used tc 
 managing affairs in Virginia without a great deal 
 of interference from England. The new country 
 helps to make them independent ; they are far 
 away from King and Parliament and Court ; they 
 are used to rule ; and in the defense of their 
 country against Indians and French thej have 
 been good soldiers. 
 
 But what is the Virginian lady doing all this 
 time ? It is not hard to see, when one thinks of 
 the great house, the many servants, the hospitality 
 shown to strangers, and the absence of towns. 
 She is a home-keeping body. She has to provide 
 for her household, and as she cannot go shopping 
 to town, she must keep abundant stores of every- 
 thing she needs. Often she must teach her chil- 
 dren, for very likely there is no school near to 
 which she can send them. She must oversee and 
 train her servants, and set one to spinning, an- 
 other to mending, and another to sewing; but 
 she does not find it easy to have nice work done ; 
 her black slaves are seldom skilled, and she has 
 to send to England for her finer garments. There 
 is 110 doctor near at hand, and she must try her 
 hand at prescribing for the sick on the plantation, 
 and must nurse white and black.
 
 20 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 In truth, the Virginian lady saves the Old Do- 
 minion. If it were not for her, the men would 
 be rude and barbarous ; but they treat her with 
 unfailing respect, and she gives the gentleness and 
 grace which they would quickly forget. Early 
 in this century some one went to visit an old Vir- 
 ginian lady, and she has left this description of 
 what she saw : 
 
 " On one side sits the chambermaid with her 
 knitting ; on the other, a little colored pet learn- 
 ing to sew ; an old decent woman is there with 
 her table and shears, cutting out the negroes' win- 
 ter clothes ; while the old lady directs them all, 
 incessantly knitting herself. She points out to 
 me several pair of nice colored stockings and 
 gloves she has just finished, and presents me with 
 a pair half-done, which she begs I will finish and 
 wear for her sake."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 THE old lady thus described was the widow of 
 George Washington, and so little had life in Vir- 
 ginia then changed from what it had been in 1732, 
 that the description might easily stand for a por- 
 trait of George Washington's mother. Of his 
 father he remembered little, for though his mothe* 
 lived long after he had grown up and was famous, 
 his father died when the boy was eleven years old. 
 
 It was near the shore of the Potomac River, 
 between Pope's Creek and Bridge's Creek, that 
 Augustine Washington lived when his son George 
 was born. The land had been in the family ever 
 since Augustine's grandfather, John Washington, 
 had bought it, when he came over from England 
 in 1657. John Washington was a soldier and a 
 public-spiiited man, and so the parish in which 
 he lived for Virginia was divided into parishes 
 as some other colonies into townships was named 
 Washington. It is a quiet neighborhood ; not a 
 sign remains of the old house, and the only mark 
 of the place is a stone slab, broken and overgrown 
 with weeds and brambles, which lies on a bed of
 
 22 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 bricks taken from the remnants of the old chim- 
 ney of the house. It bears the inscription : 
 
 Here 
 
 The nth of February, 1732 (old style) 
 
 George Wafhington 
 
 was born 
 
 The English had lately agreed to use the calen- 
 dar of Pope Gregory, which added eleven days to 
 the reckoning, but people still used the old style 
 as well as the new. By the new style, the birth- 
 day was February 22, and that is the day which 
 is now observed. The family into which the child 
 was born consisted of the father and mother, Au- 
 gustine and Mary Washington, and two boys, 
 ILawrence and Augustine. These were sons of 
 Augustine Washington by a former wife who had 
 died four years before. George Washington 
 was the eldest of the children of Augustine and 
 Mary Washington ; he had afterward three broth- 
 ers and two sisters, but one of the sisters died in 
 infancy. 
 
 It was not long after George Washington's 
 birth that the house in which he was born was 
 burned, and as his father was at the time espe- 
 cially interested in some iron-works at a distance, 
 it was determined not to rebuild upon the lonely 
 place. Accordingly Augustine Washington re- 
 moved his family to a place which he owned in 
 Stafford County, on the banks of the Rappahan-
 
 THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON. 23 
 
 nock River opposite Fredericksburg. The house 
 is not now standing, but a picture was made of it 
 before it was destroyed. It was, like many Vir 
 ginia houses of the day, divided into four rooms 
 on a floor, and had great outside chimneys at 
 either end. 
 
 Here George Washington spent his childhood. 
 He learned to read, write, and cipher at a small 
 school kept by Hobby, the sexton of the parish 
 church. Among his playmates was Richard 
 Henry Lee, who was afterward a famous Virgin- 
 ian. When the boys grew up, they wrote to each 
 other of grave matters of war and state, but here 
 is the beginning of their correspondence, written 
 when they were nine years old : 
 
 " RICHARD HENRY LEE TO GEORGE WASHINGTON : 
 
 " Pa brought me two pretty books full of pictures he 
 got them in Alexandria they have pictures of dogs and 
 cats and tigers and elefants and ever so many pretty 
 things cousin bids me send you one of them it has a 
 picture of an elefant and a little Indian boy on his 
 back like uncle jo's sam pa says if I learn my tasks 
 good he will let uncle jo bring me to see you will you 
 ask your ma to let you come to see me. 
 
 " RICHARD HENRY LEE." 
 
 " GEORGE WASHINGTON TO RICHARD HENRY LEE : 
 
 " DEAR DICKEY I thank you very much for the 
 pretty picture-book you gave me. Sam asked me to 
 show him the pictures and I showed him all the pic-
 
 24 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 tures in it ; and I read to him how the tame elephant 
 took care of the master's little boy, and put him on his 
 back and would not let anybody touch his master's lit- 
 tle son. I can read three or four pages sometimes 
 without missing a word. Ma says I may go to see you, 
 and stay all day with you next week if it be not rainy. 
 She says I may ride my pony Hero if Uncle Ben will 
 go with me and lead Hero. I have a little piece of 
 poetry about the picture book you gave me, but I 
 must n't tell you who wrote the poetry. 
 
 " ' G. W.'s compliments to R. H. L., 
 And likes his book full well, 
 Henceforth will count him his friend, 
 And hopes many happy days he may spend. 
 
 " Your good friend, 
 
 " GEOKGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 " I am going to get a whip top soon, and you may 
 see it and whip it." * 
 
 It looks very much as if Richard Henry sent 
 his letter off just as it was written. I suspect 
 that his correspondent's letter was looked over, 
 corrected, and copied before it was sent. Very 
 possibly Augustine Washington was absent at 
 the time on one of his journeys ; but at any rate 
 the boy owed most of his training to his mother, 
 for only two years after this his father died, and 
 he was left to his mother's care. 
 
 She was a woman born to command, and since 
 she was left alone with a family and an estate to 
 
 1 From B. J. Leasing 's The Home of Washington.
 
 THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON. 25 
 
 care for, she took the reins into her own hands, 
 and never gave them up to any one else. She 
 used to drive about in an old-fashioned open 
 chaise, visiting the various parts of her farm, just 
 as a planter would do on horseback. The story 
 is told that she had given an agent directions how 
 to do a piece of work, and he had seer fit to co it 
 differently, because he thought his way a better 
 one. He showed her the improvement. 
 
 " And pray," said the lady, " who gave you any 
 exercise of judgment in the matter ? I command 
 you, sir; there is nothing left for you but to 
 obey." 
 
 In those days, more than now, a boy used very 
 formal language when addressing his mother. 
 He might love her warmly, but he was expected 
 to treat her with a great show of respect. When 
 Washington wrote to his mother, even after he 
 was of age, he began his letter, " Honored 
 Madam," and signed it, " Your dutiful son." 
 This was a part of the manners of the time. It 
 was like the stiff dress which men wore when they 
 paid their respects to others ; it was put on for 
 the occasion, and one would have been thought 
 very unmannerly who did not make a marked dif- 
 ference between his every-day dress and that 
 which he wore when he went into the presence of 
 his betters. So Washington, when he wrote to 
 his mother, would not be so rude as to say, " Dear 
 Mother."
 
 26 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Such habits as this go deeper than mere forms 
 of speech. I do not suppose that the sons of this 
 lady feared her, but they stood in awe of her, 
 which is quite a different thing. 
 
 " We were all as mute as mice, when in her 
 presence," says one of Washington's companions ; 
 and common report makes her to have been very 
 much such a woman as her son afterward was a 
 man. 
 
 I think that George Washington owed two 
 strong traits to his mother, a governing spirit 
 and a spirit of order and method. She taught 
 him many lessons and gave him many rules ; but, 
 after all, it was her character shaping his which 
 was most powerful. She taught him to be truth- 
 ful, but her lessons were not half so forcible as 
 her own truthfulness. 
 
 There is a story told of George Washington's 
 boyhood unfortunately there are not many sto- 
 ries which is to the point. His father had 
 taken a great deal of pride in his blooded horses, 
 and his mother afterward took pains to keep the 
 stock pure. She had several young horses that 
 had not yet been broken, and one of them in par- 
 ticular, a sorrel, was extremely spirited. No one 
 had been able to do anything with it, and it was 
 pronounced thoroughly vicious, as people are apt 
 to pronounce horses which they have not learned 
 to master. George was determined to ride this 
 colt, and told his companions that if they would 
 help him catch it, he would ride and tame it.
 
 THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON. 27 
 
 Early in the morning they set out for the pas- 
 ture, where the boys managed to surround the sor- 
 rel and then to put a bit into its mouth. Wash- 
 ington sprang upon its back, the boys dropped the 
 bridle, and away flew the angry animal. Its 
 rider at once began to command; the horse re- 
 sisted, backing about the field, rearing and plung- 
 ing. The boys became thoroughly alarmed, but 
 Washington kept his seat, never once losing his 
 self-control or his mastery of the colt. The strug- 
 gle was a sharp one ; when suddenly, as if deter- 
 mined to rid itself of its rider, the creature leaped 
 into the air with a tremendous bound. It was its 
 last. The violence burst a blood-vessel, and the 
 noble horse fell dead. 
 
 Before the boys could sufficiently recover to 
 consider how they should extricate themselves from 
 the scrape, they were called to breakfast ; and the 
 mistress of the house, knowing that they had been 
 in the fields, began to ask after her stock. 
 
 " Pray, young gentlemen," said she, " have you 
 seen my blooded colts in your rambles ? I hope 
 they are well taken care of. My favorite, I am 
 told, is as large as his sire." 
 
 The boys looked at one another, and no one 
 liked to speak. Of course the mother repeated 
 her question. 
 
 "The sorrel is dead, madam," said her son, 
 "I killed him!" 
 
 And then he told the whole story. They say
 
 28 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 that his mother flushed with anger, as her son 
 often used to, and then, like him, controlled her- 
 self, and presently said, quietly : 
 
 "It is well ; but while I regret the loss of my 
 favorite, I rejoice in my son who always speaks 
 the truth." 
 
 The story of Washington's killing the blooded 
 colt is of a piece with other stories less particular, 
 which show that he was a very athletic fellow. 
 Of course, when a boy becomes famous, every one 
 likes to remember the wonderful things he did be- 
 fore he was famous ; and Washington's playmates, 
 when they grew up, used to show the spot by the 
 Rappahannock, near Fredericksburg, where he 
 stood and threw a stone to the opposite bank ; and 
 at the celebrated Natural Bridge, the arch of 
 which is two hundred feet above the ground, they 
 always tell the visitor that George Washington 
 threw a stone in the air the whole height. He un- 
 doubtedly took part in all the sports which were 
 the favorites of his country at that time he 
 pitched heavy bars, tossed quoits, ran, leaped, and 
 wrestled ; for he was a powerful, large-limbed 
 young fellow, and he had a very large and strong 
 hand.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SCHOOL-DAYS. 
 
 THE story of George Washington's struggle 
 with the colt must belong to his older boyhood, 
 when he was at home on a vacation ; for we have 
 seen that he had to have his pony led when he was 
 nine years old ; and after his father's death, which 
 occurred when he was eleven, he went away to 
 school. When Augustine Washington died, he 
 divided his several estates among his children ; 
 but his widow was to have the oversight of the 
 portions left to the younger children until they 
 should come of age. Lawrence Washington re- 
 ceived an estate called Hunting Creek, located 
 near a stream of the same name which flowed 
 into the Potomac; and Augustine, his brother, 
 received the old homestead near Bridge's Creek ; 
 the mother and younger children continued to live 
 near Fredericksburg. 
 
 Both Lawrence and Augustine Washington 
 married soon after their father's death, and as 
 there chanced to be a good school near Bridge's 
 Creek, George Washington now made his home 
 with his brother Augustine, staying with him till 
 he was nearly sixteen years old.
 
 30 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 He was to be, like his father, a Virginian 
 planter ; and I suppose that had something to do 
 with the kind of training which Mr. Williams, the 
 schoolmaster at Bridge's Creek, gave him. At 
 any rate, it is easy to see what he studied. Most 
 boys' copy-books and exercise-books are early de- 
 stroyed, but it chances that those of George Wash- 
 ington have been kept, and they are very interest- 
 ing. The handwriting in them is the first thing 
 to be noticed, round, fair, and bold, the letters 
 large like the hand that formed them, and the 
 lines running straight and even. In the arith- 
 metics and book-keeping manuals which we study 
 at school, there are printed forms of receipts, bills, 
 and other ordinary business papers : but in Wash- 
 ington's school-days, the teacher probably showed 
 the boys how to draw these up, and gave them, 
 also, copies of longer papers, like leases, deeds, and 
 wills. There were few lawyers in the colony, and 
 every gentleman was expected to know many 
 forms of documents which in these days are left 
 to our lawyers. 
 
 Washington's exercise-books have many pages 
 of these forms, written out carefully by the boy. 
 Sometimes he made ornamental letters, such as 
 clerks were wont to use in drawing up such pa- 
 pers. This was not merely exercise in penman- 
 ship ; it was practice work in all that careful 
 keeping of accounts and those business methods 
 which were sure to be needed by one who had to
 
 SCHOOL-DATS. 31 
 
 manage a great plantation. George Washington 
 was to manage something greater, though he did 
 not then know it ; and the habits which he formed 
 at this time were of inestimable value to him in 
 his manhood. 
 
 The manuscript book which contains these exer- 
 cises has also a list of a hundred and ten " Rules 
 of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and 
 Conversation." Probably they were not made up 
 by the boy, but copied from some book or taken 
 down from the lips of his mother or teacher. 
 They sound rather stiff to us, and we should be 
 likely to think the boy a prig who attempted to be 
 governed by them ; but it was a common thing in 
 those days to set such rules before children, and 
 George Washington, with his liking for regular, 
 orderly ways which is evident in his handwrit- 
 ing probably used the rules and perhaps com- 
 mitted them to memory, to secure an even temper 
 and self-control. Here are a few of them : 
 
 "Every action in company ought to be with 
 some sign of respect to those present. 
 
 " When you meet with one of greater quality 
 than yourself, stop and retire, especially if it be at y 
 a door or any strait place, to give way for him to 
 pass. 
 
 " They that are in dignity or in office have in 
 all places precedency ; but whilst they are young, 
 they ought to respect those that are their equals
 
 32 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 in birth or other qualities, though they have no 
 public charge. 
 
 " Strive not with your superiors in argument, 
 but always submit your judgment to others with 
 modesty. 
 
 " Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the 
 disparagement of any. 
 
 " Take all admonitions thankfully, in what time 
 or place soever given ; but afterwards, not being 
 culpable, take a time or place convenient to let 
 him know it that gave them. 
 
 " Think before you speak ; pronounce not im- 
 perfectly, nor bring out your words too hastily, 
 but orderly and distinctly. 
 
 " Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust. 
 
 " Make no show of taking great delight in your 
 victuals ; feed not with greediness ; cut your bread 
 with a knife ; lean not on the table ; neither find 
 fault with what you eat. 
 
 " Be not angry at table, whatever happens, and 
 if you have reason to be so, show it not ; put on a 
 cheerful countenance, especially if there be stran- 
 gers, for good humor makes one dish of meat a 
 feast. 
 
 " Let your recreations be manful, not sinful. 
 
 " Labor to keep alive in your breast that little 
 spark of celestial fire called conscience." 
 
 These are not unwise rules ; they touch on 
 things great and small. The difficulty with most
 
 SCHOOL-DATS. 33 
 
 boys would be to follow a hundred and ten of 
 them. They serve, however, to show what was 
 the standard of good manners and morals among 
 those who had the training of George Washington. 
 But, after all, the best of rules would have done 
 little with poor stuff ; it was because this boy had 
 a manly and honorable spirit that he could be 
 trained in manly and honorable ways. He was a 
 passionate but not a vicious boy, and so, since his 
 passion was kept under control, he was all the 
 stronger for it. The boy that could throw a stone 
 across the Rappahannock was taught to be gentle, 
 and not violent ; the tamer of the blooded sorrel 
 colt controlled himself, and that was the reason 
 he could control his horse. 
 
 With all his strength and agility, George 
 Washington was a generous and fair-minded boy ; 
 otherwise he would not have been chosen, as he 
 often was, to settle the disputes of his companions. 
 He was a natural leader. In his boyhood there 
 was plenty of talk of war. What is known as 
 King George's War had just broken out between 
 the English and the French ; and there were al- 
 ways stories of fights with the Indians in the back 
 settlements. It was natural, therefore, that boys 
 should play at fighting, and George Washington 
 had his small military company, which he drilled 
 and manoeuvred. 
 
 Besides, his brother Lawrence had been a sol-
 
 84 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 dier, and he must have heard many tales of war 
 when he visited him. Thus it came about that he 
 was for throwing his books aside and entering His 
 Majesty's service. He was, however, too young 
 for the army he was only fifteen ; but Lawrence 
 Washington encouraged him, and as he knew 
 many officers in the navy, he had no difficulty in 
 obtaining for his young brother a warrant as mid- 
 shipman in the navy. 
 
 It is said that the young middy's luggage was 
 on board a man-of-war anchored in the Potomac, 
 when Madam Washington, who had all along 
 been reluctant to have her son go to sea, now de- 
 clared finally that she could not give her consent 
 to the scheme. He was still young and at school ; 
 perhaps, also, this Virginian lady, living in a 
 country where the people were not much used to 
 the sea, looked with concern at a profession which 
 would take her oldest boy into all the perils of the 
 ocean. The influence which finally decided her 
 to refuse her consent is said to have been this 
 letter, which she received from her brother, then 
 in England : 
 
 " I understand that you are advised, and have some 
 thoughts of putting your son George to sea. I think 
 he had better be put apprentice to a tinker, for a com- 
 mon sailor before the mast has by no means the com- 
 mon liberty f the subject ; for they will press him from 
 a ship where he has fifty shillings a month, and make 
 him take twenty-three, and cut and slash, and use
 
 SCHOOL-DAYS. 35 
 
 like a negro, or rather like a dog. And, as to any con- 
 siderable preferment in the navy, it is not to be ex- 
 pected, as there are always so many gaping for it here 
 who have interest, and he has none. And if he should 
 get to be master of a Virginia ship (which is very diffi- 
 cult to do), a planter that has three or four hundred 
 acres of land, and three or four slaves, if he be indus- 
 trious, may live more comfortably, and leave his family 
 in better bread, than such a master of a ship can." 
 
 It seems possible from this letter that the plan 
 was to put George into the navy that he might come 
 to command a merchant ship ; but however that 
 may be, the plan was given up, and the boy went 
 back to school for another year. During that 
 time he applied himself especially to the study of 
 surveying. In a country of great estates, and 
 with a new, almost unexplored territory coming 
 into the hands of planters, surveying was a very 
 important occupation. George Washington, with 
 his love of exactness and regularity, his orderly 
 ways and his liking for outdoor life, was greatly 
 attracted by the art. Five or six years must 
 elapse before he could come into possession of the 
 property which his father had left him ; his 
 mother was living on it and managing it. Mean- 
 while, the work of surveying land would give him 
 plenty of occupation, and bring him in money; so 
 he studied geometry and trigonometry ; he made 
 calculations, and he surveyed all the fields about 
 the school-house, plotting them and setting down 
 everything with great exactness.
 
 36 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 I wonder if his sudden diligence in study and 
 outdoor work was due at all to an affair which 
 happened about this time. He was a tall, large- 
 limbed, shy boy of fifteen when he fell in love 
 with a girl whom he seems to have met when liv- 
 ing with his brother Augustine. He calls her, in 
 one of his letters afterward, a " lowland beauty," 
 and tradition makes her to have been a Miss 
 Grimes, who later married, and was the mother of 
 one of the young soldiers who served under Wash- 
 ington in the War for Independence. Whatever 
 may have been the exact reason that his love af- 
 fair did not prosper whether he was too shy to 
 make his mind known, or so silent as not to show 
 himself to advantage, or so discreet with grave 
 demeanor as to hold himself too long in reserve, it 
 is impossible now to say ; but I suspect that one 
 effect was to make him work the harder. Sensi- 
 ble people do not expect boys of fifteen to be 
 playing the lover ; and George Washington was 
 old for his years, and not likely to appear in the 
 role of a spooney. 

 
 '. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MOUNT VEBNON AND BELVOIR. 
 
 ALTHOUGH, after his father's death, George 
 Washington went to live with his brother Augus- 
 tine for the sake of going to Mr. Williams's school, 
 he was especially under the care of his eldest 
 brother. Lawrence Washington, like other oldest 
 sons of Virginia planters, was sent to England to 
 be educated. After his return to America, there 
 was war between England and Spain, and Ad- 
 miral Vernon of the English navy captured one 
 of the Spanish towns in the West Indies. The 
 people in the American colonies looked upon the 
 West Indies somewhat differently from the way 
 in which we regard them at present. Not only 
 were the islands on the map of America, but like 
 the colonies, some of them were a part of the 
 British possessions. A brisk trade was kept up 
 between them and the mainland ; and indeed, 
 the Bermudas were once within the bounds of 
 Virginia. 
 
 So, when Admiral Vernon needed reinforce- 
 ments, he very naturally looked to the colonies 
 close at hand. A regiment was to be raised and 
 sent out to Jamaica as part of the British forces.
 
 88 GEORGE WASHINGTON". 
 
 Lawrence Washington, who was a spirited young 
 fellow, obtained a commission as captain in a 
 company of this regiment, and went to the West 
 Indies, where he fought bravely in the engage- 
 ments which followed. When the war was over 
 he returned to Virginia, so in love with his new 
 profession that he determined to go to England, 
 with the regiment to which his company was at- 
 tached, and to continue as a soldier in His Majes- 
 ty's service. 
 
 Just then there happened two events which 
 changed his plans and perhaps prevented him from 
 some day fighting against an army commanded by 
 his younger brother. He fell in love with Anne 
 Fairfax, and before they were married his father 
 died. This left his mother alone with the care of 
 a young family, and made him also at once the 
 owner of a larger estate. His father, as I have 
 said, bequeathed to him Hunting Creek, and 
 there, after his marriage, he went to live, as a 
 planter, like his father before him. For the time, 
 at any rate, he laid aside his sword, but he kept 
 up his friendship with officers of the army and the 
 navy ; and out of admiration for the admiral un- 
 der whom he had served, he changed the name of 
 his estate from Hunting Creek to Mount Vernon. 
 
 The house which Lawrence Washington built 
 was after the pattern of many Virginian houses of 
 the day, two stories in height, with a porch run- 
 ning along the front, but with its two chimneys,
 
 MOUNT VERNON AND BELVOIR. 39 
 
 one at each end, built inside instead of outside. 
 Possibly this was a notion which Lawrence Wash- 
 ington brought with him from England ; perhaps 
 he did it to please his English bride. The site 
 which he chose was a pleasant one, upon a swell- 
 ing ridge, wooded in many places, and high above 
 the Potomac, which swept in great curves above 
 and below, almost as far as the eye could see. 
 Beyond, on the other side, were the Maryland 
 fields and woods. 
 
 A few miles below Mount Vernon was another 
 plantation, named Belvoir, and it was here that 
 William Fairfax lived, whose daughter Anne had 
 married Lawrence Washington. Fairfax also had 
 been an officer in the English army, and at one 
 time had been governor of one of the Bahama Isl- 
 ands. Now he had settled in Virginia, where his 
 family had large landed possessions. 
 
 He was a man of education and wealth, and he 
 had been accustomed to plenty of society. He 
 had no mind to bury himself in the backwoods of 
 Virginia, and with his grown-up sons and daugh- 
 ters about him, he made his house the centre of 
 gayety. It was more richly furnished than most 
 of the houses of the Virginia planters. The floors 
 were covered with carpets, a great luxury in those 
 days ; the rooms were lighted with wax candles ; 
 and he had costly wines in his cellars. Servants 
 in livery moved about to wait on the guests, and 
 Virginia gentlemen and ladies flocked to Belvoir.
 
 40 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 The master of the house was an officer of the 
 king, for he was collector of customs for the col- 
 ony and president of the governor's council. 
 British men-of-war sailed up the Potomac and an- 
 chored in the stream, and the officers came ashore 
 to be entertained by the Honorable William Fair- 
 fax. 
 
 The nearness of Mount Vernon and the close 
 connection between the two families led to con- 
 stant passage between the places. The guests of 
 one were the guests of the other, and George 
 Washington, coming to visit his brother Law- 
 rence, was made at home at Belvoir also. He was 
 a reserved, shy, awkward schoolboy. He was 
 only fifteen when he was thrown into the gay 
 society there, but he was tall, large-limbed, and 
 altogether much older and graver than his years 
 would seem to indicate. He took his place among 
 the men in sports and hunting, and though he was 
 silent and not very lively in his manner, there was 
 something in his serious, strong face which made 
 him a favorite among the ladies. 
 
 He met at Belvoir William Fairfax's son, 
 George William, who had recently come home 
 from England, and was just married. He was 
 six years older than George Washington, but that 
 did not prevent them from striking up a warm 
 friendship, which continued through life. The 
 young bride had a sister with her, and this lively 
 girl, Miss Gary, teased and played with the big,
 
 MOUNT VERNON AND BELVOIR. 41 
 
 overgrown schoolboy. I do not believe he told her 
 what he wrote to one of his boy friends, that he 
 would have passed his time very pleasantly if all 
 this merriment and young society had not kept 
 him constantly thinking of his " lowland beauty," 
 and wishing himself with her ! 
 
 But his most notable friend was Thomas, sixth 
 Lord Fairfax, who was at this time staying at 
 Belvoir. 1 He had been a brilliant young man, of 
 university education, an officer in a famous regi- 
 ment, and at home in the fashionable and literary 
 world of London. But he had suffered two terri- 
 ble disappointments. His mother and his grand- 
 mother, when he was a boy, had so misused the 
 property which descended to him from the Fair- 
 faxes that when he came of age it had been 
 largely lost. Then, later on, just as he was about 
 to be married to a fine lady, she discovered that 
 she could have a duke instead, and so broke the 
 engagement and threw Lord Fairfax aside. 
 
 It chanced that his mother had all this while 
 an immense property in Virginia, nearly a fifth of 
 the present State, which the good-natured King 
 Charles the Second had given to her. This was 
 now Lord Fairfax's, and he had appointed his 
 cousin, "William Fairfax, his agent to look after it. 
 So, when he found all London pitying him or 
 
 1 He was of the family of the famous Thomas, third Lord Fair- 
 fax, who lived in Cromwell's day, and was the head of that 
 house of fighters who took first the side of Parliament and after- 
 ward the side of the King.
 
 42 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 smiling at him behind his back, he left England 
 to visit his American estate. That had occurred 
 eight years before George Washington's visit to 
 Belvoir. And now Lord Fairfax was back again, 
 for his taste of Virginian life had so charmed him 
 that he had determined to turn his back on Lon- 
 don and plunge again into the wilderness of the 
 New World. 
 
 He was at this time nearly sixty years of age, 
 gaunt and grizzled in appearance, and eccentric in 
 many of his ways ; but people generally laid that 
 to the disappointments which he had met. He 
 was the great man at Belvoir ; the younger people 
 looked with admiration upon the fine -mannered 
 gentleman who had been at court, who knew 
 Steele and Addison and other men of letters, and 
 had now come out into the backwoods to live upon 
 his vast estate, the greatest in all Virginia. 
 
 His lordship, meanwhile, cared little for the gay 
 society which gathered at Belvoir ; he was courtly 
 to the ladies but they saw little of him. He liked 
 best the free, out-of-doors life in the woods and 
 the excitement of the hunt. It was this that had 
 pleased him when he first visited Virginia, and 
 that now had brought him back for the rest of his 
 life. It was not strange, therefore, that a friend- 
 ship should spring up between him and the talL 
 grave lad, who was so strong in limb, who sat his 
 horse so firmly and rode after the hounds so well. 
 They hunted together, and the older man came to
 
 MOUNT VERNON AND BELV01R. 43 
 
 know familiarly and like the strong young Ameri- 
 can, George Washington. 
 
 What if, in the still night, as they sat over their 
 camp fire, the shy boy had told his gaunt, grizzled 
 friend the secret of the trouble which kept him 
 constrained and silent in the midst of the bright 
 company at Belvoir ! I fancy this same friend, 
 schooled in Old World experiences and disap- 
 pointments, knew how to receive this fresh con- 
 fidence. 
 
 Out of this friendship came a very practical ad- 
 vantage. Neither Lord Fairfax nor his cousin 
 William knew the bounds and extent of the lands 
 beyond the Blue Ridge, which formed an impor- 
 tant part of his lordship's domain. Moreover, 
 rumors came that persons from the northward had 
 found out the value of these lands, and that one 
 and another had settled upon them without asking 
 leave or troubling themselves about Lord Fairfax's 
 title. At that time the government had done very 
 little toward surveying the country which lay be- 
 yond the borders of population. It was left to any 
 one who claimed such land to find out exactly 
 where it was, and of what it consisted. 
 
 Lord Fairfax therefore determined to have his 
 property surveyed, and he gave the commission to 
 his young friend George Washington, who had 
 shown not only that he knew how to do the tech- 
 nical work, but that he had those qualities of 
 courage, endurance, and perseverance which were
 
 44 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 necessary. The young surveyor had just passed 
 his sixteenth birthday, but, as I have said, he was 
 so serious and self-possessed that his companions 
 did not treat him as a real boy. He did not go 
 alone, for his friend George William Fairfax went 
 with him. As the older of the two, and bearing 
 the name of Fairfax, he was the head of the ex- 
 pedition, but the special work of surveying was to 
 be done by George Washington.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE YOUNG SURVEYOR 
 
 IT was in March, 1748, just a month after 
 George Washington was sixteen years old, that 
 the two young men set out on their errand. They 
 were only absent four or five weeks, but it was a 
 sudden and rough initiation into hard life. They 
 were mounted, and crossed the Blue Ridge by 
 Ashby's Gap, entering the Shenandoah Valley and 
 making their first important halt at a spot known 
 as Lord Fairfax's Quarters. The term "quar- 
 ters " was usually applied at that time to the part 
 of a plantation where the negro slaves lived. 
 Here, in a lonely region near the river, about 
 twelve miles south of the present town of Win- 
 chester, Lord Fairfax's overseer had charge of a 
 number of slaves who were cultivating the ground. 
 
 The next day after reaching this place, the 
 young surveyor and his companion sent their bag- 
 gage forward to a Captain Kite's, and followed 
 more slowly, working as they went at their task 
 of laying off land. At the end of a hard day they 
 had supper, and were ready for bed. As young 
 gentlemen, they were shown into a chamber, and
 
 46 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Washington, who had known nothing of frontier 
 life, proceeded as at home. He stripped himself 
 very orderly, he says in the diary which he kept, 
 and went to bed. What was his dismay, instead 
 of finding a comfortable bed like that to which he 
 was used, to discover nothing but a little dirty 
 straw, " without sheet or anything else, but only 
 one threadbare blanket, with double its weight of 
 vermin." He was glad to be out of it, and to 
 dress himself and sleep in his clothes like his com- 
 panions. After that, he knew better how to man- 
 age, and lay wrapped before the fire, especially 
 glad when the fire was out-of-doors and the blue 
 sky overhead formed the counterpane of his bed. 
 
 The party followed the Shenandoah to its junc- 
 tion with the Potomac, and then ascended that 
 river and went some seventy miles up the South 
 Branch, returning over the mountains. They 
 were harc^ at work at the business of surveying, 
 but had plenty of adventure besides. They 
 camped out in the midst of wild storms ; they 
 swam their horses over swollen streams ; they shot 
 deer and wild turkeys ; they visited one of His 
 Majesty's justices of the peace, as Washington 
 takes pains to note. He invited them to supper, 
 but expected them to eat it with their hunting- 
 knives, for he had neither knife nor fork on his 
 table ; and when they were near no house they 
 prepared their own suppers, using forked sticks 
 for spits, and chips for plates.
 
 THE TO UNO SURVEYOR. 47 
 
 At one place they had the good luck to be on 
 hand when thirty Indians who had been on the 
 war-path came in. "We had some liquor with 
 us," Washington says, " of which we gave them a 
 part. This elevating their spirits, put them in 
 the humor of dancing." So they had a grand 
 war-dance, to the music of a native band which 
 consisted of two pieces, a pot half full of water, 
 over which a deer-skin was stretched, and a gourd 
 with some shot in it used as a rattle. 
 
 This month of roughing it was a novelty to the 
 young Virginian. He was used to living with 
 gentlemen, and he shrank a little from the dis- 
 comforts which he met. He saw the rude life of 
 the new settlers, and heard them jabbering in the 
 German tongue, which he could not understand. 
 It was a stormy, cold month, one of the hardest of 
 the year in which to lead an outdoor life. Still, 
 he was earning his living, and that made it toler- 
 able. He was paid according to the amount of 
 work he did, and sometimes he was able to earn 
 as much as twenty dollars in a day. 
 
 Washington kept a brief diary while he was on 
 the excursion, and very likely he showed it to 
 Lord Fairfax on his return; at any rate, he gave 
 him an account of his adventures, and no doubt 
 expanded the entry at the beginning of the diary, 
 where he writes : " Rode to his Lordship's quarters, 
 about four miles higher up the river Shenandoah. 
 We went through most beautiful groves of sugar-
 
 48 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 trees, and spent the best part of the day in admir- 
 ing the trees and the richness of the land." Very 
 likely Lord Fairfax had himself visited his quar- 
 ters before this, but I think he must have been 
 further stirred by the reports which Washington 
 brought of the country, for not long after he went 
 to live there. 
 
 The place known as Lord Fairfax's Quarters, he 
 now called Green way Court, and he hoped to build 
 a great manor-house in which he should live, after 
 the style of an English earl, surrounded by his 
 tenants and servants. He never built more than 
 a house for his steward, however. It was a long 
 story-and-a-half limestone building, the roof slop- 
 ing forward so as to form a cover for the veranda, 
 which ran the whole length of the house. The 
 great Virginia outside chimneys were the homes 
 of martins and swallows, and the house itself shel- 
 tered the steward and such chance guests as came 
 into the wilderness. Upon the roof were two 
 wooden belfries ; the bells were to call the slaves 
 to work, or to sound an alarm in case of an attack 
 by Indians. 
 
 Lord Fairfax built for his private lodging a 
 rough cabin only about twelve feet square, a short 
 distance from the larger building. Here he lived 
 the rest of his days. Upon racks on the walls 
 were his guns, and close at hand choice books 
 with which he kept alive hi& old taste for litera- 
 ture. His hounds walked in and out ; and hither,
 
 THE YOUNG SURVEYOR. 49 
 
 too, came backwoodsmen and Indians. He spent 
 his time hunting and apportioning his great es- 
 tate amongst the settlers, fixing boundary lines, 
 making out leases, and arranging settlements with 
 his tenants. He gave freely to all who came, but 
 his own life was plain and simple. He kept up, 
 however, in a curious way, his old relation with 
 the fine world of London ; for, though he dressed 
 as a hunter, and almost as a backwoodsman, he 
 sent every year to London for new suits of clothes 
 of the most fashionable sort. 
 
 I suppose this was in part to enable him to ap- 
 pear in proper dress when he went to his friends' 
 plantations ; but perhaps also he wished to re- 
 mind himself that he was still an English gentle- 
 man, and might, whenever he chose, go back to 
 the Old World. But he never did go. He lived 
 to see his young friend become general of the army 
 raised to defend the colonies against the unlaw- 
 ful use of authority by the British crown. Lord 
 Fairfax never believed it unlawful ; but he was an 
 old man ; he took no part in the struggle, but he 
 lived to hear of the surrender of Cornwallis and 
 the downfall of the British power in the colonies ; 
 he received messages of love from the victorious 
 general whom he had first started in the world ; 
 and he died soon after on December 12, 1781 
 ninety years old. 
 
 It was this commission from Lord Fairfax to 
 survey iris lands which made the beginning of
 
 60 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Washington's public life. His satisfactory execu- 
 tion of the task brought him an appointment from 
 the governor as public surveyor. This meant 
 that, when he made surveys, he could record them 
 in the regular office of the county, and they would 
 stand as authority if land were bought and sold. 
 For three years now, he devoted himself to this 
 pursuit, spending all but the winter months, when 
 he could not well carry on field work, in laying 
 out tracts of land up and down the Shenandoah 
 Valley and along the Potomac. 
 
 A great deal depended on the accuracy of sur- 
 veys ; for if the surveyor made mistakes, he would 
 be very likely to involve the persons whose land 
 he surveyed in endless quarrels and lawsuits. 
 People soon found out that Washington made no 
 mistakes, and he had his hands full. Years after- 
 ward, a lawyer who had a great deal of business 
 with land - titles in the new Virginia country de- 
 clared that the only surveys on which he could de- 
 pend were those of Washington. 
 
 The young surveyor, by his familiarity with the 
 country, learned where the best lands lay, and he 
 was quick to take advantage of the knowledge, so 
 that many fine sections were taken up by him and 
 others of his family and connections. He saw 
 what splendid prospects the wilderness held out, 
 and by contact with the backwoodsmen and the 
 Indians, he laid the foundation of that broad 
 knowledge of men and woodcraft which stood him
 
 TEE YOUNG SURVEYOR. 51 
 
 in such good stead afterward. He must have 
 seemed almost like one of the Indians themselves, 
 as he stood, grave and silent, watching them 
 around their camp-fires. 
 
 His outdoor life, his companionship with rough 
 men, and his daily work of surveying served to 
 toughen him. They made him a self-reliant man 
 beyond his years. People who saw him were 
 struck by the curious likeness which his walk bore 
 ;o that of the Indians. He was straight as an ar- 
 row, and he walked with his feet set straight out, 
 moving them forward with the precision and care 
 which the Indian uses. Especially did his long 
 isolation in the wilderness confirm him in the 
 habit of silence which he had as a boy and kept 
 through life. Living so much by himself, he 
 learned to think for himself and rely on himself. 
 
 Meanwhile, though his occupation was thus 
 helping to form his character, he was still learn- 
 ing from his associates. There were three or four 
 houses where he was at home. He went back to 
 his mother at her plantation on the Rappahan- 
 nock ; he was a welcome guest at Belvoir j he vis- 
 ited Lord Fairfax in his cabin, and, as his diary 
 shows, read his lordship's books as well as talked 
 with the quaint old gentleman ; and he always 
 had a home with his brother Lawrence at Mount 
 Vernon.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE OHIO COMPANY. 
 
 WHETHER in the woods or at his friends' 
 houses, George Washington was sure, at this time, 
 to hear much talk of the country which lay to the 
 westward. The English had their colonies along 
 the Atlantic coast, and guarded the front door to 
 the American continent. The French had their 
 military posts along the St. Lawrence and the 
 great lakes, and in the Mississippi and Ohio val- 
 leys. They had entered the continent by other 
 doors, and the two nations were like two families 
 living in the same house, each wishing the whole 
 premises and making ready to oust the other. 
 
 The French held their possessions in America 
 chiefly by means of forts and trading-posts ; the 
 English by means of farms and towns. So, while 
 the French were busy making one fort after an- 
 other in the interior, meaning to have a line from 
 New Orleans to Quebec, the English were con- 
 stantly clearing away woods and planting farms 
 farther to the westward and nearer to the French 
 forts. The great Appalachian mountain range 
 kept the two people apart for a time, but English 
 settlers were every year crossing the mountains,
 
 THE OHIO COMPANY. 53 
 
 and making their way into the fertile valleys be- 
 yond. 
 
 The Indians who roamed over the country 
 found themselves between two fires. They saw 
 very plainly that if these two foreign nations kept 
 increasing their foothold, there would be little 
 room left for themselves. They saw, too, that the 
 French and the English would not settle down in 
 peace together, nor divide the land between them. 
 Nor were the Indians wholly at peace among 
 themselves. One tribe fought another, and each 
 was very ready to call in the aid of the white man. 
 
 So the tribes divided. The French were very 
 willing to have certain Indians on their side, when 
 they should come to blows with the English ; the 
 English sought to make friends with other Indians 
 who were the enemies of those that had formed 
 alliance with the French ; and a tribe would some- 
 times change its position, siding now with the 
 French, now with the English. 
 
 The region of country which was the prize most 
 eagerly contended for by both nations was that 
 watered by the Ohio River and its tributaries. As 
 yet, there were no white settlements in this region ; 
 but both French and English traders made their 
 way into it and carried on a brisk business with 
 the Indians. The two nations now set to work in 
 characteristic fashion to get control of the Ohio 
 Valley. The French began to build forts in com- 
 manding positions; the English formed a great
 
 54 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 land company, the object of which was to send out 
 emigrants from, England and the Atlantic colonies 
 to settle in the Ohio Valley, plant farms, and so 
 gain a real possession. 
 
 The company thus formed was called the Ohio 
 Company. It was planned in 1748, by Thomas 
 Lee, a Virginian gentleman, who associated with 
 himself thirteen other gentlemen, one, a London 
 merchant who was to act as the company's agent 
 in England ; the others, persons living in Virginia 
 and Maryland. They obtained a charter from the 
 king, and the grant of five hundred thousand 
 acres of land lying chiefly south of the Ohio River 
 and west of the Alleghany Mountains, between 
 the Monongahela and Kanawha rivers. These 
 gentlemen reasoned that the natural passage to 
 the Ohio country lay by the Potomac River and 
 through the breaks in the mountain ranges caused 
 by those branches of the Ohio River which took 
 their rise in Virginia. So they intended that the 
 stream of trade which flowed into the Ohio Valley 
 should take its rise in Maryland and Virginia, 
 and benefit the people of those colonies ; and in 
 order to carry out their plans, they proposed to 
 build a road for wagons from the Potomac to the 
 Monongahela. 
 
 George Washington's elder brothers Lawrence 
 and Augustine, were both among the original mem- 
 bers of the Ohio Company, and when, shortly af- 
 ter its formation, Mr. Lee died, Lawrence Wash-
 
 THE OHIO COMPANY. 55 
 
 ington became the principal manager. He took a 
 very strong interest in the enterprise, and was par- 
 ticularly desirous of settling a colony of Germans 
 on the company's land. The plans of the Ohio 
 Company were freely discussed at Mount Vernon, 
 and George Washington, who had made himself 
 well acquainted with much of the country which 
 lay on the way to the Ohio, was an interested lis- 
 tener and talker. 
 
 There was other talk, however, besides that of 
 trade and settlement. The French were every- 
 where making preparations to assert their owner- 
 ship of the western country, and the colonies took 
 the alarm and began also to make ready for pos- 
 sible war. Virginia was divided into military dis- 
 tricts, each of which was under the charge of an 
 adjutant-general, whose business it was to attend 
 to the organization and .equipment of the militia. 
 George Washington was only nineteen years of 
 age, but his brother Lawrence had such confidence 
 in his ability that he secured for him the appoint- 
 ment of adjutant-general for the military district 
 which included Mount Vernon. 
 
 To hold such a post, one must be both a drill- 
 master and something of a tactician, as well as a 
 natural leader and good manager. Washington 
 went to work with a will to qualify himself for his 
 place. His brother had served long enough in 
 the army to be able to give him some help, and 
 Lawrence's comrades in the West Indies cam-
 
 56 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 paigns could give even more explicit aid. One of 
 these, Major Muse, was a frequent guest at Mount 
 Vernon, and now undertook to teach George 
 Washington the art of war. He lent the young 
 adjutant military treatises, and drilled him in 
 manual exercises. A Dutch soldier, Jacob Van 
 Braam, who was making a living as fencing-mas- 
 ter, gave him lessons in the sword exercise, and 
 Washington had the opportunity afterward of 
 doing his old teacher a good turn by securing him 
 a position in the army of which he was himself an 
 officer. 
 
 While he was in the midst of all this military 
 exercise, which was very well suited to the mind 
 of one who had been captain of his school com- 
 pany, he was suddenly obliged to drop his sword 
 and manual, and make ready for a voyage. Law- 
 rence Washington, whose health had been im- 
 paired by his campaigning in the West Indies, 
 was ill with consumption ; and his physicians or- 
 dered him to take a voyage to the West Indies 
 again, this time to recover, if possible, the 
 health which he had lost there when a soldier. 
 He proposed to pass the winter at Barbadoes, and 
 to take his brother George with him. 
 
 The two brothers sailed near the end of Septem- 
 ber, 1751. George Washington, with his method- 
 ical habits, at once began a diary, which he kept 
 on the voyage and during his stay on the island. 
 As two gentlemen from Virginia, they were seized
 
 THE OHIO COMPANY. 57 
 
 upon at once by the English officers and other 
 residents, and treated with great hospitality. The 
 people who live in a small and isolated settlement 
 like that of Barbadoes are generally very glad to 
 meet some one whom they have not seen every 
 day the year around. So the two brothers dined 
 with this and that new acquaintance, and George, 
 being robust and not needing to spare himself, 
 walked, rode, and drove over the island. 
 
 Unfortunately, in the midst of his pleasure, he 
 was seized with small-pox and obliged to keep by 
 himself during the last part of his stay. Vacci- 
 nation was not understood at that time, and there 
 was nothing to be done, if the small-pox were 
 about, but to have it and have it as lightly as pos- 
 sible. Washington had a strong constitution, and 
 bore this trying illness well, but he carried some 
 slight scars from the disease through the rest of 
 his life. 
 
 In his diary he recorded briefly the events of 
 each day of his journey, but at the end of his stay, 
 he filled a few pages with general reflections upon 
 the life on which he had looked, and which was 
 so different from that of Virginia. He was of a 
 frugal mind himself, and was amazed at the shift- 
 less ways of the people of Barbadoes. " How 
 wonderful," he says, " that such people should be 
 in debt, and not be able to indulge themselves 
 in all the luxuries as well as necessaries of life. 
 Yet so it happens. Estates are often alienated
 
 58 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 for debts. How persons coming to estates of two, 
 three, and four hundred acres (which are the 
 largest) can want, is to me most wonderful." 
 
 The exactness which the young surveyor had 
 shown in his plans and in his accounts is very apt 
 to go with great prudence and economy. Up to 
 this time he had had very little money besides 
 what he had earned ; but he shows in many ways 
 that he had acquired the fundamental principle of 
 sound living, never spend money until you have 
 earned it ; and to this principle he held all his life. 
 I know that prudence and economy are usually 
 regarded as habits which one acquires by careful 
 training, and so they may be. But with George 
 Washington I suspect these traits were inborn and 
 very nearly allied to genius. He had a genius for 
 order and method ; it did not sparkle like a genius 
 for wit or imagination, but one must not think less 
 of it for that reason. Because he was so careful 
 and correct, some people thought him mean and 
 close ; but he could afford to be thought so, if 
 his carefulness and correctness kept him scrupu- 
 lously honest. 
 
 After the two brothers had been on the island 
 about six weeks, Lawrence Washington, with the 
 uneasiness of an invalid, was sure that he should 
 be better off in Bermuda, and he resolved to go 
 there as soon as the spring opened. But he longed 
 to see his family, and accordingly sent his brother 
 back to Virginia, intending that he should return
 
 THE OHIO COMPANY. 59 
 
 later to Bermuda with Mrs. Washington. George 
 had a stormy passage, and reached Virginia in 
 February. There he awaited orders from his 
 brother. But Lawrence Washington, with the 
 caprice and changing mood of a consumptive, 
 could not make up his mind what he most wanted, 
 whether to send for his wife or to go home 
 himself. At last his disease increased so rapidly 
 as to alarm him, and he hastened home, reaching 
 Mount Vernon only a short time before his death, 
 which took place in July, 1752. 
 
 He left a wife and one daughter. It is a sign 
 both of his confidence in his brother George and 
 of his love for him, that he made him, though 
 only twenty years old, one of the executors of his 
 will, and his heir in case his daughter should not 
 live to be of age. As George Washington was 
 more familiar with his brother's affairs than any 
 one else, the other executors left the management 
 of the estate almost entirely to him. From this 
 time, Mount Vernon was his home, though it 
 must have been a melancholy home at first ; for 
 he had looked up to his elder brother since he was 
 a boy, and now it was as if a second father and 
 a dear companion had died.
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 MAJOR WASHINGTON. 
 
 FOR a while George Washington was closely 
 occupied with settling his brother's estate, but he 
 was obliged to busy himself with public affairs 
 also ; for there were growing rumors of French 
 movements to the westward, and to these Virginia, 
 as one of the nearest colonies and most concerned, 
 was bound to pay special heed. Robert Dinwid- 
 die, a Scotchman and surveyor of customs in Vir- 
 ginia, had just been appointed lieutenant-governor, 
 which at that time meant resident and acting gov- 
 ernor. As a new broom sweeps clean, immediately 
 he was very active. Virginia was divided into 
 four military districts and the militia put into ac- 
 tive training. Washington had shown himself so 
 capable before that he was again appointed ad- 
 jutant-general, with the rank of major ; and one 
 of the districts, including the northern counties, 
 was assigned to him. 
 
 It was not in the colonies alone that prepara- 
 tions went on. The colonies were a part of the 
 British empire, and a blow struck at them by the 
 French in America was an attack on England by 
 France. England, therefore, sent out cannon and
 
 MAJOR WASHINGTON. 61 
 
 powder to Virginia, and instructed the governor 
 to make all speed and build two forts on the Ohio 
 River, in order to secure the country against 
 French occupation. 
 
 But the French had moved before the English. 
 In military affairs, the general who is first on the 
 ground usually has a great advantage ; the French 
 were a more military people than the English ; the 
 whole occupation by the French in America was 
 an occupation by soldiers ; and so, while the Eng- 
 lish ministry and Governor Dinwiddie and the 
 Virginia militia were making ready to start, the 
 governor of Canada had dispatched troops and 
 supplies into the debatable territory, and was 
 busily engaged in winning over the Indians. 
 Moreover; it was said that he had seized certain 
 English traders and sent them, prisoners, to 
 France. 
 
 As soon as the news of this reached Governor 
 Dinwiddie, he determined to send a commissioner 
 to the officer in command of the French forces, 
 and ask by what right Frenchmen were building 
 forts in the king's dominions, and what they were 
 intending to do ; why they had made prisoners of 
 peaceable Englishmen ; and, as the two nations 
 were not at war, why French soldiers were invad- 
 ing English territory. Moreover, the commis- 
 sioner was to see the Indian chiefs and make 
 sure that they did not form an alliance with the 
 French.
 
 62 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 It was no slight matter for any one to undertake 
 such an errand. He must know something of the 
 country ; he must be used to Indians ; he must be 
 a person whom the French would respect ; above 
 all, he must be strong of body, courageous, pru- 
 dent, wise, and on the alert ; for the journey 
 would be a severe one, and the messenger would 
 need to have what is called a " level head." The 
 king's officers in Virginia would have to act on 
 such information as he brought : how many 
 Frenchmen there were in the Ohio country ; how 
 many more were on the way ; what they were 
 doing ; what were their plans. Of course no one 
 expected that the French commandant would 
 kindly sit down and tell the Virginian commis- 
 sioner what he meant to do ; the commissioner 
 must find that out by his own sagacity. 
 
 Now the persons who were most immediately 
 concerned were the members of the Ohio Com- 
 pany. Indeed, it was largely through their agency 
 that the governor of Virginia, who himself was a 
 stockholder, had moved in the matter. Lawrence 
 Washington was dead, but Augustine Washington 
 was interested, and the younger brother, George, 
 had charge of Lawrence Washington's affairs. 
 He knew perfectly what interests were at stake. 
 Besides, he was a backwoodsman ; it was no nov- 
 elty for him to follow trails through the forest ; 
 he could deal with Indians; and, above all, he 
 had shown himself a clear-headed, far-sighted
 
 MAJOR WASHINGTON. 63 
 
 young man, whom every one instinctively trusted. 
 He was one of his Majesty's officers, for he was 
 Adjutant-General of the Northern District; and 
 so, though Major George Washington was but 
 twenty-one years old, Governor Dinwiddie and his 
 council selected him for this delicate and weighty 
 mission. 
 
 It was no summer jaunt on which he set out. 
 He waited upon the governor at Williamsburg, 
 and was armed with papers duly signed and 
 sealed with the great seal of Virginia, giving him 
 authority as commissioner. On October 30, 1753, 
 he left Williamsburg with a journey of more than 
 a thousand miles before him. He stopped at 
 Fredericksburg to say good-by to his mother, and 
 to engage his old fencing-master, Van Braam, as 
 an interpreter. Washington knew no French, 
 and never learned it. Van Braam pretended to 
 know it well, but really had only an ignorant 
 smattering of the language. Thence he went to 
 Alexandria, where he laid in supplies ; and to 
 Winchester, which was the most important fron- 
 tier settlement, where he provided himself with 
 horses, tents, and other camp equipments. 
 
 The real start of the expedition was to be made 
 from Wills Creek, now Cumberland in Maryland, 
 which was the outpost of civilization. Here 
 Washington arrived on November 14, and made 
 up his little company. It consisted of Christo- 
 pher Gist, who was in the employ of the Ohio
 
 64 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Company, and was an experienced frontiersman ; 
 of Jacob Van Braam, the French interpreter ; of 
 Davidson, an Indian interpreter ; and of four 
 frontiersmen. The party was now complete, and 
 the next day they plunged into the wilderness. 
 
 Gist knew the way as far as an Indian village 
 called Logstown, on the banks of the Ohio, about 
 seventeen miles from where Pittsburg now stands ; 
 there they were to call together the Indian chiefs 
 and confer with them. It had been raining and 
 snowing so heavily in the mountains that they 
 were a week making their way to the Mononga- 
 hela River at Turtle Creek. Here they found 
 the river so swollen that they saw it was impossi- 
 ble to cross with their pack-horses. Accordingly, 
 they sent all their baggage down the river in a 
 canoe, under charge of two of the men, while the 
 rest swam their horses across and rode down to 
 the rendezvous at the fork of the Ohio, ten miles 
 below. 
 
 The Ohio Company had proposed to build a 
 fort about ten miles away from the junction of the 
 Monongahela and Alleghany ; here lived a friendly 
 Indian, Shingiss, and that may have determined 
 their plans. But Washington, who reached the 
 fork of the rivers before the canoe, began at once 
 to look over the ground, and decided without hes- 
 itation that the real site for the fort should be the 
 point of land which lay between the two rivers. 
 
 Shingiss went on with the party to Logstown,
 
 MAJOR WASHINGTON. 65 
 
 and there Washington stayed five days, conferring 
 with the Indian chiefs and gathering information 
 from some French deserters who happened to be 
 there. He was impatient to go forward to the 
 French forts, but he knew something of Indian 
 ways, and he was learning more. The chiefs sat 
 and talked and smoked, and were silent, and shook 
 their heads, and said it was a serious matter. 
 Serious, indeed, it was to the poor Indians, for 
 the French had already told them that they were 
 coming in force in the spring to drive the English 
 out of the country ; but if the English proved too 
 strong for that, then French and English would 
 agree and divide the land between them. As in 
 that case the Indians would have small favor, the 
 French advised the chiefs to side with them against 
 the English. 
 
 At last Washington persuaded the Indians to 
 let three of their chiefs and an old hunter accom- 
 pany his party to where the French were, and 
 they followed the Alleghany to Venango, now 
 Franklin in Venango County, Pennsylvania, 
 where were a few Frenchmen who had driven 
 out an English trader. But the really important 
 station was Fort le Bosuf . 
 
 The Frenchmen tried to entice the Indians from 
 Washington, and otherwise to keep him from going 
 on ; but he insisted on carrying out his plans, and 
 toiled for four more days through mire and snow- 
 drifts until he came to the fort.
 
 66 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 The French commandant, M. de Saint Pierre, 
 received the Virginian commissioner politely, and 
 entertained him for a few days with hospitality, 
 but in the mean time did his utmost to win from 
 Washington the Indian chiefs who had accompa- 
 nied him. Finally, however, M. de Saint Pierre 
 drew up a formal reply to Governor Dinwiddie's 
 letter, and Washington and his party returned by 
 canoe to Venango, having sent the horses and bag- 
 gage on in advance. 
 
 Now began a terrible journey. The horses were 
 so weak, but so necessary for carrying the bag- 
 gage, that Washington and his companions set 
 out on foot, while the horses followed behind. 
 Washington was dressed as an Indian, and for 
 three days they kept on in this way, the horses 
 losing strength, the cold increasing, and the roads 
 growing worse. Then Washington, seeing how 
 slowly the party was moving, determined to take 
 Gist with him, and push through the woods, the 
 nearest way, leaving the rest of the company to- 
 gether with the horses and baggage under charge 
 of Van Braam to follow as well as they could. 
 
 It was the day after Christmas when he started. 
 He put his journal and other papers into a pack 
 which he strapped to his back, wrapped himself 
 in a stout coat, took his gun in his hand, and set 
 off alone with Gist. They were only a few miles 
 from Venango, and they meant to follow the path 
 a short distance to an Indian village called Mur-
 
 MAJOR WASHINGTON. 67 
 
 dering Town, and then go by the compass through 
 the woods in as straight a line as possible to the 
 fork of the Ohio. The village was well-named ; 
 for shortly after they had left it, they were fired 
 at by a French Indian whom they had taken along 
 there as a guide. They pretended to think that 
 his gun went off for some other reason ; but they 
 kept him with them, watching him very closely 
 all day till nine o'clock that night. Then they 
 sent him home. But they knew well that he 
 would rally his friends and pursue them ; so they 
 walked all that night and the next day, reaching 
 the Ohio River at dark, and rested there over 
 night. 
 
 They supposed, of course, that they should find 
 the river frozen tight and could cross on the ice, 
 but to their dismay, it was frozen only near the 
 shore, while blocks of ice were swirling down the 
 middle of the stream. " There was no way of 
 getting over," says Washington in his journal, 
 " but on a raft, which we set about, with but one 
 poor hatchet, and finished just after sun-setting. 
 This was a whole day's work ; we next got it 
 launched, then went on board of it, and set off ; 
 but before we were half-way over, we were jammed 
 in the ice in such a manner that we expected every 
 moment our raft to sink and ourselves to perish. 
 I put out my setting-pole to try to stop the raft, 
 that the ice might pass by, when the rapidity of 
 the stream threw it with so much violence against
 
 68 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 the pole that it jerked me out into ten feet water j 
 but I fortunately saved myself by catching hold 
 of one of the raft-logs. Notwithstanding all our 
 efforts, we could not get to either shore, but were 
 obliged, as we were near an island, to quit our 
 I raft and make to it. The cold was so extremely 
 severe that Mr. Gist had all his fingers and some 
 of his toes frozen, and the water was shut up so 
 hard that we found no difficulty in getting off the 
 island on the ice in the morning, and went to Mr. 
 Frazier's." 
 
 Here they succeeded in getting horses, and in 
 a few days Washington was at Williamsburg and 
 reporting to the governor. He had not merely 
 made a very difficult journey in the depth of win- 
 ter and brought back an answer to the governor's 
 letter ; but he had made the most minute obser- 
 vations of the condition and plans of the French ; 
 he had also strengthened the friendship of the 
 English and Indians ; and by patient, unwearied, 
 and resolute attention to the object of his mis- 
 sion, he had brought back a fund of extremely 
 valuable information for the use of the colony. 
 There could be no doubt in the minds of his 
 friends, after reading his journal, that here was 
 a man who could be depended upon. They had 
 known him as a prudent, careful, economical, de- 
 liberate, rather silent young fellow, whose judg- 
 ment was worth having ; but I doubt if they had 
 fully perceived before what indomitable courage
 
 MAJOR WASHINGTON. 69 
 
 he had, how fearless he was in the midst of dan, 
 ger, how keen and wary in his dealing with an 
 enemy, and how full of resources and pluck when 
 difficulties arose. Here was no sunshine soldier.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FORT DUQUESNE AND FORT NECESSITY. 
 
 THE House of Burgesses was not in session 
 when Washington made his report to Governor 
 Dinwiddie. But no time was to be lost, and the 
 energetic governor and council issued orders to 
 erect a fort at once upon the point of land at the 
 fork of the Ohio, which Washington had recom- 
 mended as the best site. Washington was to 
 have command of the two companies of men who 
 were to be enlisted for this purpose, but he was to 
 remain for the present at Alexandria, organizing 
 the expedition, while his second in command, 
 Captain Trent, a trader and frontiersman, went 
 forward with such men as he could raise in the 
 back settlements, and began the construction of 
 the fort. 
 
 Lord Fairfax took a lively interest in his young 
 friend's business, but it was not so easy to enlist 
 men for an expedition of this kind, as it was to 
 raise and drill a company of militia, which, by the 
 laws of the colony, could not be marched more 
 than five miles from the boundary line of the 
 colony. Throughout the winter months Wash- 
 ington was hard at work raising his company and
 
 FORT DUQ.UESNE AND FORT NECESSITY. 71 
 
 putting them in readiness. He had a sorry lot of 
 volunteers to work with ; they were for the most 
 part shiftless fellows who had nothing else to do, 
 and scarcely anything to their backs. They were 
 good-natured, however, and ready to buy clothing 
 if the major would pay them their wages ; but the 
 major had no money of his own to advance, and 
 he had hard work getting any from the govern- 
 ment. He had to reason with his men, humor 
 them, and fit them for service as well as he could. 
 It was capital preparation for a kind of work 
 which he had to do on a large scale afterward. 
 
 The governor, meanwhile, had been stirring up 
 the governors of the other colonies, and had called 
 the burgesses together. He could not make every 
 one feel his own need of action ; but he persuaded 
 the burgesses to vote a sum of money, and thus 
 was able to enlarge the military force to six com- 
 panies. There was a proposition to put Wash- 
 ington in command of the entire force ; but the 
 young major was reluctant to assume such a 
 charge, when he had had so little experience in 
 handling troops. " I have too sincere a love for 
 my country," he said, " to undertake that which 
 may tend to the prejudice of it." 
 
 Accordingly Joshua Fry, an English gentleman 
 of education, was commissioned as colonel, and 
 Washington was given the second place, with rank 
 of lieutenant-colonel. Fry now remained at Alex- 
 andria and Washington pushed forward to Wills
 
 72 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Creek, with about a hundred and fifty men, in- 
 tending to join Trent and complete the fort which 
 le had begun. He reached Wills Creek with his 
 ragged, half-drilled men on April 20, and soon re- 
 ceived a very disagreeable piece of news. 
 
 Trent, for some reason, had left the fort which 
 he was building, and his second in command hav- 
 ing also absented himself, the next highest offi- 
 cer, Ensign Ward, was left in command of the 
 company, which numbered forty-one men. Sud- 
 denly there had appeared a multitude of canoes 
 and other craft coming down the Alleghany. It 
 was a large French force dispatched by the 
 governor of Canada to occupy the same point of 
 land. Ward, of course, could do nothing. He 
 was permitted to withdraw with his men, and the 
 French at once pulled down the fort which Trent 
 had begun, and set to work building another and 
 larger one which they named Fort Duquesne. 
 Here, after the wars of the next thirty years were 
 over, the city of Pittsburgh began to rise. 
 
 The taking of the post by an armed force was 
 like a declaration of war on the part of France. 
 It was the beginning of the great seven years' war 
 between France and England which ended in the 
 fall of France in America, and led by swift steps 
 to the independence of the colonies. By a strange 
 coincidence, the nearest English force was under 
 the command of a young Virginian officer of 
 militia, only twenty-two years old, who was after-
 
 FORT DUQUESNE AND FORT NECESSITY. 73 
 
 ward to be the leader of the colonies in their war 
 against England, and to have the aid of the very 
 France which he was now fighting. 
 
 Washington did not hesitate. He at once sent 
 a messenger with the news to Governor Dinwid 
 die, and wrote letters to the governors of Mary- 
 land and Pennsylvania, urging them to send for- 
 ward troops ; for each colony acted independently 
 of the others. Then he began work with such 
 men and materials as he had, meaning to push 
 through the woods to where Red Stone Creek 
 empties into the Monongahela, about half-way to 
 Fort Duquesne, and to build a fort there. It was 
 a spot where Gist had already constructed a store- 
 house for the Ohio Company. By this plan, 
 Washington would be keeping his men at work, 
 and would have a road built for the use of the 
 troops yet to come. At that point, moreover, 
 there was water communication with Fort Du- 
 quesne. 
 
 Washington built his road and marched his 
 men until he reached a level piece of grassland, 
 partially covered with bushes, that lay at the foot 
 of Laurel Hill, a spur of the Alleghanies, and was 
 called Great Meadows. It was a good place for 
 a camp, and a good place for fighting if he should 
 be attacked. His scouts had been out, and his 
 Indian friends were on the watch for him. Word 
 came that a French party had left Fort Duquesne 
 and were intending to engage with the first Eng-
 
 74 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 lish forces they should meet, for they had heard 
 that the English were on the move. 
 
 Washington at once made ready for the attack. 
 There was a gully crossing the field, which he 
 turned into an intrenchment. He also cut down 
 the bushes ; but he did not wait for the enemy. 
 He feared they might surprise his camp ; and get- 
 ting word from the Indians that they had dis- 
 covered, as they thought, the place where the 
 French were hidden, he took forty men, and at 
 ten o'clock at night, in the midst of a hard rain, 
 set out to surprise the enemy. 
 
 " The path," he says, " was hardly wide enough 
 for one man ; we often lost it, and could not find 
 it again for fifteen or twenty minutes, and we 
 often tumbled over each other in the dark." 
 
 At sunrise, May 28, 1754, Washington reached 
 the camp where his Indian friends were. They 
 joined him, and the impetuous young soldier led 
 his combined forces, Indian file, in a stealthy 
 march through the woods to the rocky hollow 
 where the Frenchmen lay concealed. As soon as 
 the English came upon them, the Frenchmen 
 sprang up and raised their guns. Washington, 
 who was in front, gave his men the order to fire, 
 and a sharp engagement followed. Ensign Ju- 
 monville, commanding the French party, and nine 
 others were killed. On the English side, one man 
 was killed and two or three wounded. Twenty-two 
 prisoners were taken, and Washington marched 
 back with them to the camp at Great Meadows.
 
 FORT DUQUESNE AND FORT NECESSITY. 75 
 
 It turned out that Jumonville and his men were 
 an advance party sent out from Fort Duquesne to 
 reconnoitre. They had discovered Washington's 
 force, and being fewer in number, had sent back 
 to the fort for reinforcements. Meanwhile, they 
 were in hiding when surprised by Washington, 
 and had no chance to escape. The young Virgin- 
 ian lieutenant-colonel had every reason to believe 
 that his force was to be attacked, and he acted 
 promptly. He did not stop to parley with them, 
 but answered their raised guns with an order to 
 his men to fire. 
 
 The first shot had been fired, and Washington 
 was the man who had fired - it. He knew well 
 what would be the immediate consequence of his 
 act ; the French would come in force as soon as 
 they heard the news, and he began at once to pre- 
 pare for defense. He threw up earthworks and 
 made a palisade, and named it Fort Necessity. 
 It was a slight enough protection. He sent his 
 prisoners to Winchester, and informed Governor 
 Dinwiddie of what he had done. " Your Honor 
 may depend," he says, " I will not be surprised, 
 let them come at what hour they will ; and this is 
 as much as I can promise. But my best endeav- 
 ors shall not be wanting to effect more. I doubt 
 not if you hear I am beaten, but you will hear at 
 the same time that we have done our duty, in fight- 
 ing as long as there was a shadow of hope." 
 
 The camp was now a lively place. The Indians,
 
 76 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 afraid of the French, began to flock to it, and the 
 companies left behind at Wills Creek now came 
 up ; but Colonel Fry was dead, and Washington 
 was in sole command, after all. Meanwhile, Cap- 
 tain Mackay came with a company from South 
 Carolina. He was a captain of the regular army, 
 and so could not serve under a colonial officer ; 
 but he was a man of sense and courtesy, and, by 
 mutual consideration, he and Washington avoided 
 any serious conflict of authority. But the volun- 
 teer and regular troops could not agree so well ; 
 the camp was becoming crowded, and Washington, 
 anxious to carry out his plans, left Captain Mac- 
 kay in command at Great Meadows, and moved 
 his men thirteen miles further, to a place where 
 Gist had formed a small settlement. It took two 
 weeks to do this, for the men built a road as they 
 went, and the way led through a mountain gorge. 
 Of course this forward movement was made 
 known to the French by their scouts, and Wash- 
 ington had his scouts out quite as far as Fort 
 Duquesne itself. Soon reports came thick and 
 fast that the French post had been strongly re- 
 enforced, and that a large body of men was pre- 
 paring to descend upon the English. Washington 
 sent for Captain Mackay and his company, and 
 they arrived near the end of June. A council of 
 war was held, and the situation studied. The 
 place where they were was unsuited for defense, 
 since hills surrounded it. The enemy's force was
 
 FORT DUQUESNE AND FORT NECESSITY. 77 
 
 much greater than their own, and they were in no 
 condition to make a successful resistance. 
 
 The order to retreat was given. Washington, 
 who had the courage to lead an attack, had also 
 the patience, the self-control, and the cheerful 
 spirit which are so necessary in a retreat. The 
 horses were broken down and the men had to 
 drag the heavy guns themselves. Washington 
 loaded his own horse with public stores and went 
 afoot. He would not even require the soldiers to 
 carry his own baggage, as he might have done, 
 but paid them for the labor. So, on July 2, they 
 were back at Great Meadows. They did not 
 mean to stay there, for though it was a good field 
 for an open fight, it had no natural protection, 
 and Fort Necessity was a hasty, flimsy affair. 
 But the men were exhausted ; they had been with- 
 out sufficient provision for some time, and they 
 were expecting supplies from below. 
 
 They strengthened the fort as well as they could, 
 but the French were only a few hours behind 
 them. The very next morning they came in sight, 
 nine hundred strong, not counting Indians. Now 
 was the time for boldness ; it was too late to re- 
 treat. Washington led his little army out before 
 the fort as if to invite attack ; if the Frenchmen 
 came on, he might, in a fair fight, beat them ; but 
 they did not come on. They remained at the 
 border of the woods in a position where they could 
 cut off his retreat, and began firing from a dis-
 
 78 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 tance. Washington, accordingly, withdrew his 
 men behind the embankment. 
 
 For nine hours the two forces faced each other, 
 sending shots through the heavy rain and the mist 
 which almost shut them out from each other's 
 sight. There had been a heavy loss on both sides, 
 but when night fell the English were in a desper- 
 ate condition, half starved, their powder nearly 
 gone, and their guns almost good for nothing. 
 The French proposed a parley. Washington re- 
 fused, thinking they meant to send an officer who 
 would find out in what a deplorable condition they 
 were. But when they proposed that he should 
 send an officer to them, he consented, and sent 
 Jacob Van Braam, who was now a captain, and 
 the only uninjured officer who understood French. 
 
 Van Braam came back, bringing with him in 
 writing the terms upon which the French would 
 accept a surrender. The terms were on the whole 
 liberal. The English were to carry with them 
 everything in their possession except their artil- 
 lery, were to promise to build no more forts there 
 or beyond the mountains for a year, and were to 
 return the prisoners taken when Jumonville was 
 killed. As a security for this last, two officers 
 were to be left with the French as hostages. 
 Washington accepted the terms, and the next 
 morning began his march back to Wills Creek. 
 From there he and Captain Mackay went to Wil- 
 liamsburg to report in person to the governor.
 
 FORT DDQUESNE AND FORT NECESSITY. 79 
 
 Failure is sometimes quite as necessary to char- 
 acter as success. It must have been with a heavy 
 heart that the young colonel turned back from 
 Fort Necessity that 4th of July, 1754, his expedi- 
 tion broken up, his military ardor damped, his eye 
 resting on the miserable men whom he was lead, 
 ing away from the bloody field of Great Meadows. 
 He was only twenty-two years old. Twenty-one 
 years after the day when he marshaled his men 
 before Fort Necessity, he was to draw his sword 
 at the head of an American army.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A TERRIBLE LESSON IN WAR. 
 
 HOWEVER keenly Washington may have felt 
 the defeat which he suffered at Great Meadows, 
 no one blamed him for a misfortune which he 
 had tried in so spirited a fashion to prevent. On 
 the contrary, the House of Burgesses, then in 
 session, after hearing an account of the engage- 
 ment and reading the articles of capitulation, 
 passed a vote of thanks to Colonel Washington 
 and his officers, " for their bravery and gallant de- 
 fense of their country." In point of fact, the ex- 
 pedition had by no means been a failure. It had 
 built many miles of road ; it had shown that the 
 Virginian soldiers could fight, and it had made 
 the French respect their enemy. 
 
 To Washington it had been an initiation into 
 military service. He had heard the bullets whis- 
 tling about him, and had known what it was to 
 lead men ; he had encountered on a small scale 
 the difficulties which beset commanders of armies ; 
 he had stood for nine hours under fire from a su- 
 perior force. Not all the hardships of the sharp 
 campaign could dampen his ardor. He knew that 
 he was a soldier ; he knew, too, that he was a com-
 
 A TERRIBLE LESSON IN WAR. 81 
 
 mander, and such knowledge is much more than 
 petty conceit. 
 
 He was to be put to the test in this matter in 
 a new way. He went back to Alexandria, where 
 his regiment was quartered, and shortly after re- 
 ceived word from Governor Dinwiddie to be in 
 readiness for a fresh movement. It had been re- 
 solved to send another expedition to attack Fort 
 Duquesne, and Washington was bidden at once to 
 fill up his regiment to three hundred men and join 
 the other forces at Wills Creek. Eager as the 
 young colonel was for service, he had not taken 
 leave of his good sense. He was something more 
 than a fighter, and his native judgment, as well as 
 his hard-earned experience, showed him the fool- 
 hardiness of such an adventure. It does not ap- 
 pear that he wrote to his superior officer, the 
 governor, remonstrating against the wild project, 
 but he wrote to Lord Fairfax, who had influence, 
 giving his reasons why the enterprise was morally 
 impossible. 
 
 They were without men, money, or provisions. 
 It would be impossible in any case to move before 
 November, and he knew well enough, by his ex- 
 perience the year before, what a terrible winter 
 campaign it would be. " To show you the state 
 of the regiment," he writes to Lord Fairfax, " I 
 have sent you a report by which you will perceive 
 what great deficiencies there are of men, arms, 
 tents, kettles, screws (which was a fatal want be-
 
 82 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 fore), bayonets, cartouch- boxes, and everything 
 else. Again, were our men ever so willing to go, 
 for want of the proper necessaries of life they are 
 unable to do it. The chief part are almost naked, 
 and scarcely a man has either shoes, stockings, or 
 a hat. These things the merchants will not credit 
 them for. The country has made no provision ; 
 they have not money themselves, and it cannot 
 be expected that the officers will engage for them 
 again, personally, having suffered greatly on this 
 head already ; especially now, when we have all 
 the reason in the world to believe that they will 
 desert whenever they have an opportunity. There 
 is not a man that has a blanket to secure him 
 from cold or wet. Ammunition is a material ob- 
 ject, and that is to come from Williamsburg or 
 wherever the governor can procure it. An ac- 
 count must be first sent of the quantity which is 
 wanted ; this, added to the carriage up, with the 
 necessary tools that must be had, as well as the 
 time for bringing them round, will, I believe, ad- 
 vance us into that season, when it is usual, in 
 more moderate climates, to retreat into winter- 
 quarters, but here, with us, to begin a campaign ! " 
 The argument of Washington's letter, of which 
 this is a part, was unanswerable. It showed his 
 clear, cool judgment, and the thoroughness with 
 which he considered every detail in a scheme. 
 The governor gave up his design, but it was not 
 long before he stumbled into a new folly. He
 
 A TERRIBLE LESSON IN WAR. 83 
 
 had persuaded the burgesses to grant twenty 
 thousand pounds for military operations, and had 
 received ten thousand more from England. So 
 he set about enlarging the army to ten indepen- 
 dent companies of one hundred men each, propos- 
 ing to place each company under command of a 
 captain. He hoped in this way to be rid of the 
 jealousy which existed between the several offi- 
 cers, since there would be none above the rank of 
 Daptain. 
 
 The plan was only inferior to one by which 
 every soldier who enlisted should have been made 
 captain, so that nobody need be inferior to any- 
 body else. Washington not only saw the folly of 
 the proceeding from a military point of view (for 
 many of his difficulties had arisen from the pres- 
 ence of independent companies in the field with 
 his troops), but he resented the plan as at once 
 reducing him from the rank of colonel to that of 
 captain. He had risen to the position which he 
 held by regular promotion for bravery and sol- 
 dierly qualities. He could not be the football of 
 a capricious governor, and he resigned his com- 
 mission. 
 
 He was instantly wanted in another quarter. 
 Governor Sharpe of Maryland had received a 
 commission from the king, as commander-in- 
 chief of all the forces in America engaged against 
 the French. As soon as it was known that Wash- 
 ington had resigned his commission as colonel of
 
 84 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 a Virginia regiment, Governor Sharpe sent to in- 
 vite him to return to the service under his com' 
 inand. He was to have command of a company, 
 but to retain his rank as colonel. Washington 
 replied at once that he could not think of accept- 
 ing service upon such terms. He was not to be 
 cajoled into assuming a false position. He cared 
 little for the title. What he wanted was the au- 
 thority which goes with the title. There was no 
 pressing danger to the country, and he was not so 
 impatient to be in military service that he needed 
 as a soldier to throw away the position which he 
 had fairly won. 
 
 There was one consideration which especially 
 determined Washington against serving either as 
 captain of an independent company in Virginia, 
 or as one of Governor Sharpe's captains, with the 
 complimentary title of colonel. By a regulation 
 of government, all officers commissioned by the 
 king took rank above officers commissioned by 
 the governors of provinces. It seems that the 
 English authorities were determined to make the 
 colonies understand that their militia officers were 
 always inferior to the regular army officers who 
 came over from England. 
 
 There was such an officer sent over shortly after 
 this to take command of all the forces in the col- 
 onies. This was Major-General Edward Brad- 
 dock. He had been in military service forty-five 
 years, and he knew all the rules of war. He was
 
 A TERRIBLE LESSON IN WAR. 85 
 
 a brave, hot-headed man, who knew to a nicety just 
 how troops should be drawn up, how they should 
 march and perform all the evolutions, how a captain 
 should salute his superior officer, and how much 
 pipeclay a soldier needed to keep his accoutre- 
 ments bright. He was a rigid disciplinarian, and 
 was called harsh and cruel, but that, very likely, was 
 because he demanded strict and instant obedience. 
 
 In February, 1755, General Braddock arrived 
 in Virginia, with his two regiments of regular 
 troops from England. Governor Dinwiddie was 
 delighted. He should have no more trouble with 
 obstinate burgesses and quarrelsome Virginia cap- 
 tains. Everybody expected that the French would 
 at once be driven out of the Ohio Valley, and 
 General Braddock was not the least confident. 
 There was a bustle in every quarter, and Alex- 
 andria was made the headquarters from which 
 troops, military stores, and provisions were to be 
 sent forward, for they could be brought up the 
 river to that point in men-of-war and transports. 
 
 As soon as Braddock had arrived in the coun- 
 try, Washington had addressed him a letter of 
 welcome, and now he was keenly intent on the 
 general's movements. From Mount Vernon he 
 could see the ships in the Potomac and hear the 
 din of preparation. He could not ride into town 
 or to Belvoir without being in the midst of the ex- 
 citement. This was something very different from 
 the poor, niggardly conduct of war which he had
 
 86 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 known in the colony. It was on a great scale ; it 
 was war carried on by his Majesty's troops, well- 
 clad, splendidly equipped, and drilled under the 
 lead of a veteran general. He longed to join 
 them. Here would be a chance such as he had 
 never had, to learn something of the art of war ; 
 but he held no commission now, and had not even 
 a company to offer. Nor was he willing to be a 
 militia captain and subject to the orders of some 
 lieutenant in the regular army. 
 
 He was considering how he might volunteer, 
 when he received exactly the kind of invitation 
 which he desired. He was a marked man now, 
 and it did not take long for word to reach General 
 Braddock that the young Virginian colonel, who 
 had shown great spirit and ability in the recent 
 expedition, and was thoroughly familiar with the 
 route they were to take, desired to serve under 
 him, but not as a subordinate captain. There was 
 a way out of the difficulty, and the general at once 
 invited Washington to join his military family as 
 aid-de-camp. 
 
 Washington joyfully accepted. There was only 
 one drawback to his pleasure. His mother, as 
 soon as she heard of his decision, was filled with 
 alarm, and hurried to Mount Vernon to beg her 
 son to reconsider. No doubt they both remem- 
 bered how, at her earnest wish, he had abandoned 
 his purpose to join the British navy, eight or nine 
 years before. But these eight or nine years had
 
 A TERRIBLE LESSON IN WAR. 87 
 
 made a great difference. He was a man now, and, 
 without loss of respect for his mother, he was 
 bound to decide for himself. He would be a loser 
 by the step in many ways. There was no one to 
 whom he could intrust the management of his af- 
 fairs at Mount Vernon, and his attendance on 
 General Braddock would involve him in consid- 
 erable expense. Nor could he expect, as a mere 
 aid-de-camp, to advance his interests in the mili- 
 tary profession. Nevertheless, Washington had 
 counted the cost, and not even his mother's en- 
 treaties turned him from his purpose. 
 
 At Alexandria, Washington first saw Brad- 
 dock ; he met there also the governors of Virginia, 
 Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massa- 
 chusetts, who gathered for a grand council on the 
 campaign. Washington, quiet but observant, 
 looked upon all the preparations with admiration, 
 but without losing his coolness of judgment. He 
 saw the heavy artillery which Braddock had 
 brought, and which was waiting for teams to trans- 
 port it over the mountains. He remembered how 
 his men had toiled in dragging their few guns 
 over the rough road. " If our march is to be reg- 
 ulated by the slow movements of the train," he 
 said, " it will be tedious, very tedious indeed." 
 
 Early in May, Washington joined General 
 Braddock at Fredericktown, Maryland, and there 
 he must have met a man of more consequence than 
 all the governors of the colonies ; for Benjamin
 
 88 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Franklin, Postmaster-General of Pennsylvania, at 
 that time a man of fifty years, came to confer with 
 General Braddock, and to do for him what no one 
 else could procure horses and wagons enough to 
 transport his supplies and artillery. Franklin and 
 Washington probably seemed to most people at 
 that time as rather insignificant persons beside the 
 Major-General in command of the English forces 
 in America. 
 
 The headquarters were moved to Wills Creek, 
 where the militia had been hard at work with axe 
 and spade, and had built a fort which was named 
 Fort Cumberland, from the Duke of Cumberland, 
 Captain-General of the British army. For a 
 month Braddock fretted and fumed over the de- 
 lays which everybody seemed to cause. He was 
 thoroughly out of patience with all his surround- 
 ings. There were in all about twenty-two hun- 
 dred men gathered in camp. Some of these were 
 Virginia troops, and Braddock set his officers to 
 drilling them, but he thought them a slouchy lot 
 that never could be made into soldiers. Indeed, 
 it would have taken a long time to make them into 
 such machines as the soldiers whom he had 
 brought over from England. Washington was 
 fast learning many things. He was not deceived 
 by appearances. He found this great general an 
 obstinate, hot-tempered man, who would scarcely 
 listen to reason, and his soldiers, with all their 
 military training, of different stuff from the Vir- 
 ginians.
 
 A TERRIBLE LESSON IN WAR. 89 
 
 Washington was sent off on an errand to Wil- 
 liam sburg for money. He performed his duty 
 with great promptness, and a week after his return 
 to camp, the army was on the move. But it 
 moved like a snail, for it was carrying a whole 
 house on its back. Braddock and his officers, ac- 
 customed to campaigns in Europe, seemed to be 
 unable to adapt themselves to the different condi- 
 tions of a new country. They encumbered them- 
 selves with everything which English army regu- 
 lations permitted. Washington saw the folly of 
 the course pursued, and, when his advice was 
 asked by the general, urged him, he says, in the 
 warmest terms he was able to use, " to push for- 
 ward, if even with a small but chosen band, with 
 such artillery and light stores as were necessary, 
 leaving the heavy artillery, baggage, and the like, 
 with the rear division of the army, to follow by 
 slow and easy marches, which they might do 
 safely, wLile we were advanced in front ; " and in 
 order to enforce his opinion and to lead the offi- 
 cers to give up some of their superfluous baggage, 
 and thus release horses for more necessary work, 
 he gave up his own best horse, and took no more 
 baggage than half his portmanteau could easily 
 contain. 
 
 His advice prevailed, and he set out with the 
 advance party. It was a prospect, he wrote to his 
 brother, which conveyed infinite delight to his 
 mind, though he was excessively ill at the time.
 
 90 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 " But this prospect was soon clouded, and my 
 hopes brought very low indeed, when I found 
 that, instead of pushing on with vigor, without 
 regarding a little rough road, they were halting 
 to level every molehill, and to erect bridges over 
 every brook, by which means we were four days 
 in getting twelve miles." Ill, indeed, he was, and 
 for a fortnight so prostrated with fever that he 
 was forced to lie in hospital. But as soon as he 
 could move at all, he insisted on rejoining his 
 corps. " My fevers are very moderate," he writes 
 to one of the other aids on the last day of June, 
 "and I hope, near terminating. Then I shall 
 have nothing to encounter but weakness, which is 
 excessive, and the difficulty of getting to you, aris- 
 ing therefrom ; but this I would not miss doing, 
 before you reach Duquesne, for five hundred 
 pounds. However, I have no doubt now of doing 
 it, as I am moving on, and the general has given 
 me his word of honor, in the most solemn manner, 
 that it shall be effected." 
 
 On July 8, he succeeded in rejoining the ad- 
 vance division of the army, though he had to be 
 carried in a covered wagon. On July 9, he at- 
 tended the general on horseback, though he was 
 still very ill and weak. He had joined Braddock's 
 military family because he wished to learn how an 
 experienced English general practiced the art of 
 war, and how regularly trained troops fought. He 
 was to have the opportunity that day. They had
 
 Spendelow Camp 
 Martin's Plantation 
 Savage River 
 Little Meadow 
 West eide of Little 
 Crossing of Yoxiopeny 
 Bear Camp 
 Squaw's Fort 
 East side Ot. Meadow 
 West " " 
 Rock Fort 
 Gist's Plantation 
 East Side of Great 
 Crossing of Yoxiogeny 
 West side 
 Great Swamp 
 Jacole's Cabin 
 Salt lick 
 Thicketty Run 
 Monacatuca Camp 
 Monongahela " 
 Battle field 
 
 5 10 K> 20 25 
 
 ROUTE OF BRADDOCK'S ARMY
 
 A TERRIBLE LESSON IN WAR. 91 
 
 reached a ford on the Monongahela, fifteen miles 
 from Fort Duquesne, and had crossed it. A sec- 
 ond ford lay five miles below, and the troops 
 marched, as if on dress parade, down the bank of 
 the river. Braddock intended that the French, if 
 they saw him, should be dismayed by the array, 
 and Washington was often heard to say, in after 
 years, that the most beautiful spectacle he had 
 ever beheld was the display of the British troops 
 on that eventful morning. Every man was neatly 
 dressed in full uniform, the soldiers were ar- 
 ranged in columns and marched in exact order, 
 the sun gleamed from their burnished arms ; the 
 river flowed tranquilly on their right, and the 
 deep forest overshadowed them with solemn gran- 
 deur on their left. Officers and men were equally 
 inspirited with cheering hopes and confident an- 
 ticipations. 
 
 But Washington was not so dazzled by this 
 brilliant spectacle as not to see the fatal blunder 
 which Braddock was making. He urged the gen- 
 eral to throw out Virginia rangers and Indian 
 scouts into the woods and ravines which lay before 
 them and on their side. It is almost incredible 
 that the general paid no attention to the caution, 
 and merely kept a few skirmishers a short way in 
 advance of his force. His army was now across 
 the second ford and moving along the other bank, 
 eight miles only from the fort. Suddenly a man 
 dressed like an Indian, but bearing the decoration
 
 92 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 of an officer, sprang forward from the woods, 
 faced the column a moment, then turned and 
 waved his hat. 
 
 It was an officer leading the French forces, 
 which, accompanied by a horde of Indian allies, 
 had issued from Fort Duquesne and had disposed 
 themselves in the wood. Another instant, and a 
 storm of bullets rained down upon the English- 
 men. It was a surprise, but the troops were well 
 trained. They fired volley after volley into the 
 wood. They planted their cannon and went to 
 work in a business-like way, cheering as they 
 jnoved forward. For a moment the French 
 seemed to give way ; then, in another instant, 
 &gain the bullets fell from all sides upon the Eng- 
 lishmen, who were bewildered by the attack. 
 They could scarcely see any man ; there was noth- 
 ing to aim at. The enemy was indeed invisible, 
 for every man had posted himself, Indian fashion, 
 behind a tree. Now the troops huddled together 
 into a solid square and made so much the more 
 deadly mark for the rifles. They fell into a 
 panic ; they began to leave their guns and to re- 
 treat. 
 
 Braddock, who had been in the rear, came up 
 with the main body and met the vanguard on its 
 retreat. The two columns of men were thrown 
 into confusion. The Virginians alone, whom 
 Braddock had so despised for their negligent 
 bearing, kept their heads, and promptly adopting
 
 A TERRIBLE LESSON IN WAR. 93 
 
 tactics familiar to them, screened themselves, as 
 did the enemy, behind trees. But Braddock, to 
 whom such methods were contrary to all the rules 
 of war, ordered them, with oaths, to form in line. 
 The general was a brave man, and if personal 
 courage could have saved the day, his intrepidity 
 would have done it. He dashed about on horse- 
 back. Two of his aids were wounded, and the 
 duty of carrying the general's orders fell on the 
 third, Colonel Washington, who was now learning 
 war with a vengeance. He rode in every direc- 
 tion, his tall, commanding figure a conspicuous 
 mark for the enemy's sharpshooters. More than 
 that, there were men there who had met him at 
 Great Meadows, and who now made him their 
 special mark. He had four bullets through his 
 coat, and two horses shot under him. He seemed 
 to escape injury as by a miracle. 
 
 Braddock at last ordered a retreat, and while 
 he and such of his officers as remained were en- 
 deavoring to bring the panic-stricken troops into 
 some kind of order, he was mortally wounded and 
 fell from his horse. He was borne 011 a litter, 
 but laid at last at the foot of a tree near the scene 
 of Washington's fight at Fort Necessity, where he 
 died in the night of July 13. The chaplain was 
 wounded, and Washington read the burial service 
 over the body of the general. It was a sorry 
 ending of the expedition which had set out with 
 such high hopes.
 
 94 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Five days later Washington reached Fort Cum- 
 berland, and one of his first duties was to send a 
 letter to his mother. " I am still in a weak and 
 feeble condition," he writes, "which induces me 
 to halt here two or three days in the hope of re- 
 covering a little strength, to enable me to pro- 
 ceed homewards, from whence, I fear, I shall not 
 be able to stir till towards September ; so that I 
 shall not have the pleasure of seeing you till then, 
 unless it be in Fairfax." 
 
 He arrived at Mount Vernon 011 July 26.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE VIRGINIA FORCES. 
 
 THE disastrous defeat of Braddock filled the 
 Virginia people with uneasiness, for it was sure to 
 be followed by Indian raids. The House of Bur- 
 gesses voted a sum of money, and resolved to in- 
 crease the regiment by making it consist of six- 
 teen companies. His friends immediately began 
 to urge Washington to solicit the command, but 
 he would do nothing of the sort. His experience 
 had taught him the weakness of the colonial mili- 
 tary system ; if he were to seek the place he could 
 not at the same time propose reforms. If the 
 command were offered him, that would be a dif- 
 ferent matter, for then he would be at liberty to 
 make conditions. 
 
 The command was offered to him on his own 
 terms, and for three years he was engaged in as 
 trying and perplexing a business as could well be 
 committed to a young man of twenty-three to 
 twenty-six years of age. He did not know it at 
 the time, but we see now that he was attending a 
 school of the severest sort in preparation for the 
 arduous task which was to be set him later in life. 
 
 His headquarters were at Winchester, where he
 
 96 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 had the active support of his old friend Lord Fair- 
 fax. As soon as he had effected some sort of 
 organization, he sent out recruiting officers and 
 did his best to fill up the ranks of his little army. 
 Then he was off on a tour of inspection, visiting 
 the outposts and making himself acquainted, by 
 personal observation, with all the details of his 
 command. 
 
 Everything seemed to be against him, and every 
 advantage which he gained was won only by the 
 most determined effort. He must often have 
 thought with envy of the profusion of military 
 stores of all kinds with which Braddock's army 
 was provided, and of the abundant money in the 
 hands of the paymaster. Here was he, obliged to 
 use the strictest economy if he would make the 
 money which the burgesses doled out answer the 
 needs of his command, and he was forced to be 
 his own commissary and quartermaster, laying in 
 stores and buying cattle up and down the country. 
 *' At the repeated instance of the soldiers," he 
 writes once to the Speaker of the House, " I must 
 pay so much regard to their representations, as 
 to transmit their complaints. They think it ex- 
 tremely hard, as it is indeed, sir, that they, who 
 perhaps do more duty, and undergo more fatigue 
 and hardship from the nature of the service and 
 situation of the country, should be allowed the 
 least pay, and smallest encouragements in other 
 respects. Our soldiers complain that their pay is
 
 COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF VIRGINIA. 97 
 
 insufficient even to furnish shoes, shirts, and stock- 
 ings, which their officers, in order to keep them 
 fit for duty, oblige them to provide. This, they 
 say, deprives them of the means of purchasing any 
 of the conveniences or accessories of life, and com- 
 pels them to drag through a disagreeable service, 
 in the most disagreeable manner. That their pay 
 will not afford more than enough to keep them in 
 clothes, I should be convinced for these reasons, 
 if experience had not taught me. The British 
 soldiers are allowed eight pence sterling per day, 
 with many necessaries that ours are not, and can 
 buy what is requisite upon the cheapest terms; 
 and they lie one half the year in camp or garri- 
 son, when they cannot consume the fifth part of 
 what ours do in continual marches over mountains, 
 rocks, and rivers. . . . And I dare say you will 
 be candid enough to allow that few men would 
 choose to have their lives exposed to the incessant 
 insults of a merciless enemy, without some view 
 or hope of reward." ' 
 
 But his difficulties with regard to money and 
 supplies were as nothing to those which he endured 
 when seeking to raise men, and to control them. 
 His recruiting officers were negligent. " Several 
 officers," he writes at one time, " have been out 
 six weeks, or two months, without getting a man, 
 spending their time in all the gayety of pleasur- 
 able mirth, with their relations and friends ; not 
 attempting nor having a possible chance to recruit
 
 98 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 any but those who, out of their inclination to the 
 service, will proffer themselves." At one time, 
 when the Shenandoah Valley was in imminent 
 danger from Indians, he called upon Lord Fairfax 
 and other officers of the militia to put forth 
 special efforts to bring together all the men they 
 could raise for an expedition to go out and scour 
 the country, and when the day came, after all the 
 drumming and beating up of recruits, only fifteen 
 appeared ! 
 
 Nor, after he had his men, could he bring them 
 under regular discipline. He had seen something 
 of the order which prevailed under English offi- 
 cers, and it brought into stronger contrast the 
 loose, independent ways of the Virginia militia, 
 where the men had very little uotion of obedience, 
 and regarded an order as a request which they 
 could attend to or not as suited their convenience. 
 All this was exasperating enough to a high-spirited 
 commander, who knew that no effective military 
 work could be done when there was such a spirit, 
 and Washington prevailed upon the legislature to 
 enact a more stringent code of laws, which gave 
 more power to the commander, and compelled the 
 soldier to obey at risk of severe penalty. To ac- 
 complish this, he had to visit Williamsburg and 
 labor with the members of the legislature individ- 
 ually. 
 
 There is no doubt that Washington had very 
 troublesome material to make into soldiers, and
 
 COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF VIRGINIA. 99 
 
 that, as a young commander, he was incensed by 
 their conduct, and ready to be very summary with 
 them. As a military man, he was also greatly an- 
 noyed by the indifferent manner in which he was 
 supported by the country people whom he was 
 engaged in protecting. One reason lay in the pe- 
 culiar life of Virginia. When an ignorant white 
 man found himself under strict orders, he resented 
 it, because he thought it placed him on a level 
 with negro slaves. Then there was no class of 
 intelligent, hard-working mechanics, from which 
 soldiers could be drafted. The planters' sons were 
 ready to be officers, but they did not care about 
 being privates. The better men in the ranks were 
 drawn from the hardy backwoodsmen, whose life 
 was a free, self-reliant one. In fact, the stubborn 
 burgesses and independent soldiers were made 
 stubborn and independent by the life in America 
 which several generations of planters and frontiers- 
 men had been living. Washington was too near 
 these people to understand this at the time, but 
 we can see that his troublesome soldiers were the 
 stuff out of which the fighting armies of the war 
 for independence were made. 
 
 The old trouble between provincial officers and 
 those appointed by the king continued ; and 
 Washington found himself balked in his plans by 
 a little whipper-snapper of a captain, who was 
 posted at Fort Cumberland and refused to take 
 orders from him. Even the governor was timidly
 
 100 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 unwilling to sustain the commander-in-chief, and 
 in order to set the matter at rest, for the case was 
 one which involved much, Washington made a 
 journey to Boston to consult with Governor Shir- 
 ley, who at that time was at the head of all the 
 British forces in America. 
 
 This journey of seven weeks, taken on horse- 
 back in the middle of winter, was the first which 
 the young Virginian had taken to the northward. 
 His route lay through Philadelphia, New York, 
 New London, and Newport ; and everywhere that 
 he went he was received with great attention. He 
 obtained without difficulty the support of Gov- 
 ernor Shirley, and had a long and thorough con- 
 ference with him upon the plans of the approach- 
 ing campaign. In one thing, however, he was dis- 
 appointed. He had hoped to obtain a commission 
 from the governor, as the king's representative, 
 making him an officer in the regular army. He 
 sought this more than once, but never obtained it. 
 So much the better, we think, for America. Had 
 Washington received such a commission and risen 
 to the position in the British army which his genius 
 would have commanded, he might not have served 
 against his country, but it is not likely that he 
 would have served for it as he did. 
 
 Then he had unceasing trouble with Governor 
 Dinwiddie. The governor was a fussy, opinion- 
 ated man, who showed much zeal in the defense 
 of Virginia, but not always a zeal according to
 
 COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF VIRGINIA. 101 
 
 knowledge. He was constantly proposing im- 
 practicable schemes, and it required great patience 
 and ingenuity on the part of Washington to per- 
 suade the governor out of his plans without per- 
 petually coming into open conflict with him. He 
 learned the part of the wise man who goes around 
 a difficulty if possible, rather than over it. 
 
 The position in which Washington stood during 
 these three years was indeed a very trying one. 
 He was expected to defend the western border of 
 Virginia against the incursions of the Indians, 
 aided by the French, who grew more audacious 
 after the defeat of Braddock. Yet he had, as it 
 were, neither men nor money at his command, and 
 the governor and burgesses, to whom he looked 
 for aid, were quarreling at the other end of the 
 province. His neighbors and friends gave him 
 some help, but there were only a few who really 
 stood by him in all weathers. More than once he 
 was on the point of resigning a position which 
 brought him scarcely anything but disappoint- 
 ment ; but he was prevented by the urgency of his 
 friends and by the crying needs of the settlers on 
 the frontiers. If he failed them, who would pro- 
 tect them ? And so this young man of twenty-four 
 kept his post and worked month after month to 
 secure peace and safety for them. How strongly 
 he felt may be seen by a letter which he wrote to 
 Governor Dinwiddie at the time of their sorest 
 need :
 
 102 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 11 Your Honor may see to what unhappy straits the 
 distressed inhabitants and myself are reduced. I am 
 too little acquainted, Sir, with pathetic language to at- 
 tempt a description of the people's distresses, though I 
 have a generous soul, sensible of wrongs, and swelling 
 for redress. But what can I do ? I see their situation, 
 know their danger, and participate in their sufferings, 
 without having it in my power to give them further 
 relief than uncertain promises. In short, I see inevita- 
 ble destruction in so clear a light that, unless vigorous 
 measures are taken by the Assembly, and speedy assist- 
 ance sent from below, the poor inhabitants that are now 
 in forts must unavoidably fall, while the remainder are 
 flying before the barbarous foe. In fine, the melan- 
 choly situation of the people, the little prospect of as- 
 sistance, the gross and scandalous abuses cast upon 
 the officers in general, which is reflecting upon me in 
 particular, for suffering misconduct of such extraordi- 
 nary kinds, and the distant prospect, if any, of gaining 
 honor and reputation in the service, cause me to 
 lament the hour that gave me a commission, and would 
 induce me at any other time than this of imminent dan- 
 ger, to resign, without one hesitating moment, a com- 
 mand, from which I never expect to reap either honor 
 or benefit ; but, on the contrary, have almost an abso- 
 lute certainty of incurring displeasure below [that is, at 
 Williamsburg and in the older parts of the province], 
 while the murder of helpless families may be laid to my 
 account here. The supplicating tears of the women and 
 the moving petitions of the men melt me into such 
 deadly sorrow, that I solemnly declare, if I know my 
 own mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the
 
 COMMANDER IN-CHIEF OF VIRGINIA. 103 
 
 butchering enemy, provided that would contribute to 
 the people's ease." 
 
 It is no wonder that the constant anxiety and 
 hardship which he endured undermined his health, 
 and that for four months he was obliged to give up 
 his command and retire to Mount Vernon. Upon 
 his recovery, a brighter prospect opened. Din- 
 widdie was recalled and a more sensible lieutenant- 
 governor took his place. Best of all, Mr. Pitt, the 
 great English statesman, took direction of affairs 
 in England, and at once planned for the quick 
 ending of the war with France. He thrust out 
 inefficient generals, and put the armies in America 
 into the hands of resolute, able men. He won 
 over the colonies by a hearty interest in them, and 
 by counting on the colonial forces in the coming 
 campaigns. Then he pushed preparation for at- 
 tacking the French in their strongholds. 
 
 Washington was overjoyed at the news of an- 
 other movement against Fort Duquesne. Virginia 
 raised two regiments to add to the British regulars, 
 who were under the command of General Forbes. 
 Washington was to be at the head of one of 
 these regiments, while still retaining his position 
 as commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces. He 
 was in hearty accord with the English officers and 
 with the new governor, and he was at last with 
 men who understood his value and listened with 
 respect to his judgment. It is a great moment in 
 a young man's life when older men turn to him for
 
 104 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 counsel, and if he has won his knowledge by solid 
 experience, he is not likely to have his head turned 
 by such attention. Washington had borne neg- 
 lect and misunderstanding ; he had been left to 
 work out his plans by himself, and had for nearly 
 three years been learning to rely upon himself, 
 since there was no one else on whom he could lean. 
 So he had become strong, and other men now 
 leaned on him. 
 
 He was kept busy for some time at Winchester, 
 collecting men and material, and at last marched 
 to Fort Cumberland at the head of his forces. 
 The expedition against Fort Duquesne was a dif- 
 ferent affair from that undertaken by Braddock. 
 A lesson had been learned, and Washington was 
 in a position now, not only to advise, but to carry 
 out plans. Braddock had refused to listen to his 
 advice, but Forbes and the other officers not only 
 listened, but gave him the lead in many things. 
 Washington had seen the folly of Braddock' s elab- 
 orate and cumbersome outfit, and had urged him 
 to move more lightly equipped. Now he had his 
 way, and he took advantage of his men's lack of 
 regimental clothing to dress them like Indians. 
 " If I were left to pursue rny own inclinations," he 
 wrote to the British commander, " I would not 
 only order the men to adopt the Indian dress, but 
 cause the officers to do it also, and be the first to 
 set the example myself. Nothing but the uncer- 
 tainty of obtaining the general approbation causes
 
 COMMANDER-IN-CBIEF OF VIRGINIA. 105 
 
 me to hesitate a moment to leave my regimentals 
 at this place, and proceed as light as any Indian 
 in the woods. It is an unbecoming dress, I own, 
 for an officer ; but convenience rather than show, 
 I think, should be consulted." Fortunately he did 
 not have to deal with a pedantic officer. His dress 
 was approved and became very popular. It " takes 
 very well here," wrote the British commander, 
 " and, thank God, we see nothing but shirts and 
 blankets." 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that all now 
 went smoothly. On the contrary, Washington 
 had a bitter disappointment. The general, influ- 
 enced by the advice of some interested persons, 
 proposed to cut a new road through Pennsylvania 
 to Fort Duquesne. Washington remonstrated 
 with all his might. They already had the old road, 
 over which troops could be transported quickly 
 and the expedition be brought to a speedy close. 
 His remonstrance was in vain, and again he had 
 to use all his patience and self-command, as he saw 
 foolish counsels prevail. He was able, however, 
 to prevent General Forbes from dividing his forces 
 and sending part by one road, and part by the 
 other ; and he never indulged in a petty sulking 
 fit, because his advice was not followed, or showed 
 one whit less determination to do his part. " I 
 pray your interest most sincerely with the gen- 
 eral," he wrote to Colonel Bouquet, of the regular 
 army, " to get myself and my regiment included
 
 106 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 in the number" [of the advance troops]. "If 
 any argument is needed to obtain this favor, I 
 hope without vanity I may be allowed to say that, 
 from long intimacy with these woods, and frequent 
 scouting in them, my men are at least as well ac- 
 quainted with all the passes and difficulties, as any 
 troops that will be employed." 
 
 He had his way in this. He had his way also, 
 though he cared less for that, in showing the folly 
 of the course pursued in opening a new road. 
 However, the expedition succeeded, for when the 
 general reached Fort Duquesne, the French had 
 withdrawn their forces to meet a demand else- 
 where, and had burned the fort. 
 
 The English now took possession of that part 
 of the country. People forgot the mistakes which 
 had been made. A new fort was built and named 
 Fort Pitt (whence came the modern name of Pitts- 
 burgh), and Washington led his men back to Win- 
 chester. 
 
 There was no longer any need of an army to be 
 kept in the field, now that the French had been 
 driven from the Ohio Valley, and Washington re- 
 signed his commission. He had given up any ex- 
 pectation of receiving a commission in the British 
 army, and he had indeed no longer a desire to be 
 a soldier by profession. As with his brother Law- 
 rence before him, something now occurred in his 
 life which made it easy for him to be a Virginia 
 planter.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON. 
 
 NEAR the end of May, 1758, Washington was 
 ordered by the Quartermaster- General of the 
 British forces to leave Winchester and make all 
 haste to William sburg, there to explain to the 
 governor and council in what a desperate condi- 
 tion the Virginia troops were as regarded clothing 
 and equipments. The army was making ready 
 for its expedition against Fort Duquesne, and so 
 urgent was the case that the young commander- 
 in-chief of the volunteers was sent on this errand. 
 Pie was on horseback, for that was the only mode 
 of travel, and accompanied by Billy Bishop, once 
 the military servant of General Braddock, but % 
 since the death of the general, the faithful ser^ 
 vant of the young Virginian aid who had read tha 
 funeral service over his dead master. 
 
 The two men had reached Williams Ferry, on 
 the Pamunkey River, and had crossed on the boat, 
 when they met Mr. Chamberlayne, a Virginian 
 gentleman living in the neighborhood. The hos- 
 pitable planter insisted that Washington should 
 at once go to his house. It was forenoon, and 
 dinner would be served as usual, early, and after
 
 108 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 that Colonel Washington could go forward to 
 Williamsburg, if go he must. Besides all that, 
 there was a charming young widow at his house 
 Colonel Washington must have known her, the 
 daughter of John Dandridge, and the wife of John 
 Parke Custis. Virginia hospitality was hard to re- 
 sist, and Washington yielded. He would stay to 
 dinner if his host would let him hurry off imme- 
 diately afterward. 
 
 Bishop was bidden to bring his master's horse 
 around after dinner in good season, and Wash- 
 ington surrendered himself to his host. Dinner 
 followed, and the afternoon went by, and Mr. 
 Chamberlayne was in excellent humor, as he 
 kept one eye on the restless horses at the door, 
 and the other on his guests, the tall, Indian-like 
 officer and the graceful, hazel -eyed, animated 
 young widow. Sunset came, and still Washing- 
 ton lingered. Then Mr. Chamberlayne stoutly 
 declared that no guest was ever permitted to leave 
 his house after sunset. Mrs. Martha Custis was 
 not the one to drive the soldier away, and so 
 Bishop was bidden to take the horses back to the 
 stable. Not till the next morning did the young 
 colonel take his leave. Then he dispatched his 
 business promptly at Williamsburg, and whenever 
 he could get an hour dashed over to White House, 
 where Mrs. Custis lived. So prompt was he 
 about this business, also, that when he returned 
 to Winchester he had the promise of the young
 
 WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON. 109 
 
 widow that she would marry him' as soon as the 
 campaign was over. 
 
 So runs the story told by the grandson of Mrs. 
 Custis, for when she married Washington, January 
 6, 1759, she had two children, a boy of six and a 
 girl of four. 
 
 Washington took his wife and her little chil- 
 dren home to Mount Vernon, which was his own, 
 since Lawrence Washington's only child had died, 
 and his widow had married again. Martha Custis 
 added her own large property to her husband's, 
 and Washington was now a rich man, with large 
 estates and with plenty to occupy him if he would 
 devote himself to the care of his property. 
 
 From the time of his marriage until his death, 
 Washington wore a miniature portrait of his wife, 
 hung from his neck by a gold chain. " My dear 
 Patsy," he calls her in his letters, and he was 
 never happier than when living with her in quiet 
 at Mount Vernon. They never had son or 
 daughter ; but Washington loved dearly the boy 
 and girl whom his wife brought to him. The girl 
 died when she was sixteen ; the boy grew up, 
 married, and became the father of several chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Washington was broken with grief when his 
 wife's daughter died, and when the son died, he 
 adopted as his own the orphan children whom 
 John Custis left behind. 
 
 It was no light matter to be a Virginia planter,
 
 110 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 when one had so high a standard of excellence as 
 George Washington had. The main crop which 
 he raised was tobacco, and the immediate atten- 
 tion which it required was only during a small 
 part of the year ; but, as we have seen, a success- 
 ful planter was also a man of business, and really 
 the governor of a little province. Many planters 
 contented themselves with leaving the care of their 
 estates and their negroes to overseers, while they 
 themselves spent their time in visiting and receiv- 
 ing visits, in sports, and in politics. That was not 
 Washington's way. He might easily have done 
 so, for he had money enough ; but such a life 
 would have been very distasteful to a man who 
 had undergone the hardships of a soldier, and 
 had acquired habits of thoroughness and of love 
 of work. It would have been no pleasure to 
 Washington to be idle and self-indulgent, while 
 seeing his fences tumbling down, and knowing 
 that he was spending more money for everything 
 than was necessary. The man who attends to his 
 own affairs, and sees everything thriving under 
 wise management, is the most contented man, and 
 Washington's heart was in his work. 
 
 So he looked after everything himself. He 
 rose early, often before light, when the days were 
 short. He breakfasted lightly at seven in the 
 summer and at eight in winter, and after break- 
 fast was in the saddle visiting the different parts 
 of his estate, and looking after any improvements
 
 WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON. Ill 
 
 he had ordered. He was a splendid horseman 
 and very fond of breaking in new horses. Din- 
 ner followed at two o'clock ; he had an early tea ; 
 and when living at home, he was often in bed by 
 nine o'clock. 
 
 These were regular, old fashioned hours, and 
 the life which he led enabled him to accomplish a 
 vast amount. He kept no clerk, but wrote out in 
 his large round hand all his letters and orders, en- 
 tered every item in his day-book and ledger, and 
 was scrupulously exact about every farthing of his 
 accounts. He did not guess how he stood at any 
 time, but he knew precisely how last year's crop 
 compared with this year's ; how many head of 
 cattle he had; how many acres he had planted 
 with tobacco ; what wood he had cut ; and just 
 what goods he had ordered from London. He 
 had been appointed by the court, guardian of his 
 wife's two children, who had inherited property 
 from their father ; and he kept all their accounts 
 separate, with the minutest care, for he held a 
 trust to be sacred. 
 
 Twice a year he sent to his agent in London a 
 list of such articles as he needed ; there were 
 plows, hoes, spades, and other agricultural imple- 
 ments; drugs, groceries of various sorts, clothes 
 both for his family and for his negroes ; tools, 
 books, busts, and ornaments ; household furniture, 
 and linen. Indeed, as one reads the long invoices 
 which Washington sent to London, he wonders
 
 112 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 how people managed who had to send across the 
 Atlantic for everything they might possibly need 
 for the next six months. Then there were special 
 orders for the children ; for " Master Custis, six. 
 years old," there were, besides Irish holland, fine 
 cambric, gloves, shoes, stockings, hats, combs, and 
 brushes, such items as these, " one pair hand, 
 some silver shoe and knee buckles, ten shillings' 
 worth of toys, and six little books, for children 
 beginning to read ; " while for " Miss Custis, four 
 years old," were a great variety of clothes, includ^ 
 ing " two caps, two pairs of ruffles, two tuckers, 
 bibs, and aprons if fashionable," and finally, a 
 " fashionable dressed baby, ten shillings, and 
 other toys " to the same amount. 
 
 He required his agent to send him, with his bill 
 for all the goods, the original bills of the mer- 
 chants who sold the goods to the agent ; then he 
 copied all these orders and bills, giving every item, 
 and in this way he had before him in his books an 
 exact statement, in every particular, of his trans- 
 actions. 
 
 He watched the market closely, and knew just 
 what the varying price of tobacco was, and what 
 he might expect for any other goods which he 
 sent to be sold. He was determined that every- 
 thing from his plantation should be of value and 
 should receive its full price. So high a reputation 
 did he secure for honesty that it was said that 
 any barrel of flour that bore the brand of George
 
 WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON. 113 
 
 Washington, Mount Vernon, was exempted from 
 the customary inspection in the West Indian 
 ports. 
 
 Like other Virginia planters, Washington was 
 a slave-holder. All the work on the plantations 
 was done by slaves, and no other method was sup- 
 posed possible. Washington was born into a so- 
 ciety where slaves were held as a matter of course, 
 and he inherited slaves. At that time the right 
 to own negroes was scarcely questioned, and slaves 
 were held throughout the colonies. There are few 
 things that test the character of a man more than 
 his treatment of those who are dependent upon 
 him, his servants, his workmen, his children. 
 Washington was a just and a generous master. 
 He cared for his slaves, not merely because to 
 have them well and strong was more profitable, 
 but because without his care they would suffer. 
 He looked after them in their sickness because he 
 was humane and compassionate. He also re- 
 quired good work of them. That was what they 
 were for to work ; and he knew each man's 
 capacity. He watched them at their work, and 
 as they would labor more industriously when he 
 was looking on, he made up his mind what they 
 could do, and then expected just so much from 
 them. But he was fair in all this ; he made allow- 
 ances for different kinds of work, and tried to be 
 perfectly just in his requirements. 
 
 He even worked with his men, and that was a
 
 114 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 rare thing for a Virginia planter to do. He kept 
 a diary of his occupation, so that we can follow 
 the farmer day after day. 
 
 This is the busy planter, with his hands full of 
 work ; but there was another kind of life going on, 
 not in the quarters, or the field, but in the house. 
 On rainy days, Washington took down his ledger 
 and posted it, and worked over his accounts, but 
 he was also the hospitable gentleman who opened 
 his doors wide to guests. Not only the neighbor- 
 ing families, the Fairfaxes, and others came and 
 went, but the man who had been commander-in- 
 chief of the Virginia army and the best-known 
 military man in America, was sure to be visited 
 by every one of distinction who passed that 
 way. The governors of Virginia and Maryland 
 were his guests ; and he himself with his beautiful 
 wife were welcomed at Williamsburg and Annap- 
 olis and the country-seats of the most notable 
 people. 
 
 He was extremely fond of society. A grave, 
 silent man himself, he was very gallant and 
 courtly, and in those days moved through the 
 stately minuet with a fine air. He admired beau- 
 tiful women, and he liked to listen to good talk- 
 ers ; he rarely laughed loudly, but he had a sly 
 amusement over ludicrous things ; and while he 
 kept most people at a distance by his serious man- 
 ners, he had the love of children and young people. 
 After all, his greatest pleasure was in those sports
 
 WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON. Ho 
 
 which were akin to work and to that military life 
 which had been his passion. He was always 
 ready for a fox-hunt. As in his younger days he 
 had ridden with Lord Fairfax and the Fairfaxes 
 of Belvoir, so now, when he was master of Mount 
 Vernon, he and his friends were always out in the 
 season, and when night came, the party would 
 meet at one house or the other, for a merry sup- 
 per, to be off again behind the hounds early the 
 next day. 
 
 In a letter describing Mount Vernon, Washing- 
 ton speaks of it as " on one of the finest rivers in 
 the world ; a river well stocked with various kinds 
 of fish, at all seasons of the year, and in the spring 
 with shad, herring, bass, carp, sturgeon, etc., in 
 great abundance. The borders of the estate are 
 washed by more than ten miles of tide-water ; sev- 
 eral valuable fisheries appertain to it ; the whole 
 shore, in fact, is one entire fishery." Here was 
 business and sport combined, and it was a great 
 occasion in the herring season, when the fish came 
 up in vast shoals, and the negroes turned out to 
 haul in the seine with its catch. In the season of 
 canvas-back ducks, also, Washington was out with 
 his fowling-piece early and late. The story is told 
 that he had been much annoyed by a lawless fel- 
 low who came without leave to shoot on the estate. 
 He crossed over from the Maryland shore, and hid 
 his boat in one of the creeks. One day Washing- 
 ton heard the report of a gun, and guessing it to
 
 116 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 be that of this man, who had more than once been 
 warned to leave, he sprang on his horse and rode 
 in the direction of the sound. He pushed his way 
 through the bushes just as the man, who had seen 
 him approach, was pushing his boat off. The 
 trespasser raised his gun, and aimed it at Wash- 
 ington, who spurred his horse at once into the 
 water and seized the boat before the man knew 
 what he was about. Then Washington, who had 
 a powerful arm, seized the fellow and gave him 
 a sound thrashing, and was never troubled by him 
 again. 
 
 There was always a Washington to surprise 
 people. There was the still, self -controlled, grave 
 man, who suddenly flashed forth in a resolute act, 
 seizing the opportunity, and doing the one thing 
 which was instantly demanded ; and there was the 
 quick-tempered, fiery man who held himself in 
 check, waited for other people to speak and act, 
 and then came forward with a few plain, deliber- 
 ate words, which showed that he had grasped the 
 whole situation, and could be depended on to 
 carry through his resolution patiently and persist- 
 ently. 
 
 There were, as I have said, few towns in Vir- 
 ginia. The divisions were by parishes, after the 
 old English custom, and so when a man was of 
 importance in his neighborhood he was very apt 
 to be a vestryman in his parish. Mount Vernon 
 was in Truro parish, and Washington was a vestry-
 
 WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON. 117 
 
 man there, as also in Fairfax parish. It happened 
 that the church of Truro parish had fallen into 
 decay, and was in a sorry condition. It was neces- 
 sary to build a new one, and several meetings were 
 held, for two parties had sprung up, one wishing 
 to rebuild on the same spot ; and another urging 
 some location more convenient to the parishioners, 
 for the place where the old church had stood was 
 not a central one. Finally a meeting was called 
 to settle the matter. One of Washington's friends, 
 George Mason, a man of fine speech, rose up and 
 spoke most eloquently in favor of holding to the 
 old site ; there their fathers had worshiped, and 
 there had their bodies been laid to rest. Every 
 one seemed moved and ready to accept Mason's 
 proposal. 
 
 Washington had also come prepared with a 
 plea. He had not Mason's power of speech, but 
 he took from his pocket a roll of paper and spread 
 it before the meeting. On this sheet he had drawn 
 off a plan of Truro parish ; upon the plan were 
 marked plainly the site of the old church, the 
 place where every parishioner lived, and the spot 
 which he advised as the site for the new church. 
 He said very little ; he simply showed the people 
 his survey, and let them see for themselves that 
 every consideration of convenience and fairness 
 pointed to the new site as the one to be chosen. 
 It was central, and no one could fail to see that 
 the church was first of all for the living. His
 
 118 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 argument was the argument of good sense and 
 reasonableness, and it carried the day against 
 Mason's eloquent speech. Pohick Church, which 
 was built on the new site, was constructed from 
 plans which Washington himself drew.
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 A VIRGINIA BURGESS. 
 
 BEFORE Washington's marriage, and while he 
 was in camp near Fort Cumberland, making ac- 
 tive preparations for the campaign against Fort 
 Duquesne, there was an election for members of 
 the Virginia House of Burgesses. Washington of- 
 fered himself as candidate to the electors of Fred- 
 erick County, in which Winchester, where he had 
 been for the past three years, was the principal 
 town. His friends were somewhat fearful that 
 the other candidates, who were on the ground, 
 would have the advantage over Washington, who 
 was with the army, at a distance ; and they wrote, 
 urging him to come on and look after his interests. 
 Colonel Bouquet, under whose orders he was, 
 cheerfully gave him leave of absence, but Wash- 
 ington replied : 
 
 "I had, before Colonel Stephen came to this 
 place, abandoned all thoughts of attending per- 
 sonally the election at Winchester, choosing rather 
 to leave the management of that affair to my 
 friends, than be absent from my regiment, when 
 there is a probability of its being called to duty. 
 I am much pleased now, that I did so."
 
 120 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Here was a case where Washington broke his 
 excellent rule of " If you want a thing done, do 
 it yourself." If his regiment was to lie idle at Fort 
 Cumberland, he could easily have galloped to 
 Winchester, and have been back in a few days ; 
 but there was a chance that it might move, and 
 so he gave up at once all thought of leaving it. 
 Glad enough he was to have the news confirmed. 
 To lead his men forward, and to have a hand in 
 \the capture of Fort Duquesne, was the first thing 
 the election must take care of itself. This was 
 not a bad statement for his friends at Winchester 
 to make. A man who sticks to his post, and does 
 his duty without regard to his personal interests, 
 is the very man for a representative in the legisla- 
 ture. The people of Frederick knew Washington 
 thoroughly, and though they had sometimes felt 
 his heavy hand, they gave him a hearty vote, and 
 he was elected a member of the House of Bur- 
 gesses. 
 
 This was in 1758, and he continued to serve as 
 a member for the next fifteen years. There is a 
 story told of his first appearance in the House. 
 He was something more than a new member ; he 
 was the late commander-in-chief of the Virginia 
 army, the foremost man, in a military way, in the 
 province ; he had just returned from the successful 
 expedition against Fort Duquesne. So the House 
 resolved to welcome him in a manner becoming so 
 gallant a Virginian, and it passed a vote of thanks
 
 A VIRGINIA BURGESS. 121 
 
 for the distinguished military services he had ren- 
 dered the country. The Speaker, Mr. Robinson, 
 rose when Washington came in to take his seat, 
 and made a little speech of praise and welcome, 
 presenting the thanks of the House. Every one 
 applauded and waited for the tall colonel to re- 
 spond. There he stood, blushing, stammering, 
 confused. He could give his orders to his men 
 easily enough, and he could even say what was 
 necessary to Mrs. Martha Custis ; but to address 
 the House of Burgesses in answer to a vote of 
 thanks that was another matter ! Not a plain 
 word could he get out. It was a capital answer, 
 and the Speaker interpreted it to the House. 
 
 " Sit down, Mr. Washington," said he. " Your 
 modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses the 
 power of any language I possess." 
 
 It was a trying ordeal for the new member, and 
 if speech-making had been his chief business in 
 the House, he would have made a sorry failure. 
 He rarely made a speech, and never a long one, 
 but for all that he was a valuable member, and 
 his reelection at every term showed that the peo- 
 ple understood his value. If there was any work 
 to be done, any important committee to be ap- 
 pointed, Washington could be counted on, and 
 his sound judgment, his mature experience, and 
 sense of honor, made his opinion one which every 
 one respected. He was always on hand, punctual, 
 and faithful ; and qualities of diligence and fidelity
 
 122 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 in such a place, when combined with sound judg- 
 ment and honor, are sure to tell in the long run. 
 He once gave a piece of advice to a nephew who 
 had also been elected to the House, and it prob- 
 ably was the result of his own experience and ob- 
 servation. 
 
 " The only advice I will offer," he said, " if you 
 have a mind to command the attention of the 
 House, is to speak seldom but on important sub- 
 jects, except such as particularly relate to your 
 constituents ; and, in the former case, make your- 
 self perfect master of the subject. Never exceed 
 a decent warmth, and submit your sentiments with 
 diffidence. A dictatorial style, though it may 
 carry conviction, is always accompanied with dis- 
 gust." 
 
 It was in January, 1759, that Washington took 
 his seat in the House, and if he made it his 
 rule "to speak seldom but on important sub- 
 jects," he had several opportunities to speak be- 
 fore he finally left the Virginia legislature for a 
 more important gathering. The first very im- 
 portant subject was the Stamp Act, in 1765. The 
 British government had passed an act requiring 
 the American colonies to place a stamp upon every 
 newspaper or almanac that was published, upon 
 every marriage certificate, every will, every deed, 
 and upon other legal papers. These stamps were 
 to be sold by officers of the crown, and the money 
 obtained by the sale was to be used to pay British
 
 A VIRGINIA BURGESS. 123 
 
 soldiers stationed in America to enforce the laws 
 made by Parliament. 
 
 The colonies were aflame with indignation. 
 They declared that Parliament had no right to 
 pass such an act ; that the Ministry that proposed 
 it was about an unlawful business; and that it 
 was adding insult to injury to send over soldiers 
 to enforce such laws. People, when they meet on 
 the corner of the street and discuss public mat- 
 ters, are usually much more outspoken than when 
 they meet in legislatures ; but the American colo- 
 nists were wont to talk very plainly in their as- 
 semblies, and it was no new thing for the repre- 
 sentatives, chosen by the people, to be at odds 
 with the governor, who represented the British 
 government. So when Patrick Henry rose in 
 the House of Burgesses, with his resolutions de- 
 claring that the Stamp Act was illegal, and that 
 the colony of Virginia had always enjoyed the 
 right of governing itself, as far as taxation went, 
 and when he made a flaming speech which 
 threatened the king, there was great confusion ; 
 and though his resolutions were passed, there was 
 but a bare majority. 
 
 There is no record of what Washington may 
 have said or how he voted on that occasion, but 
 his letters show that he thought the Stamp Act a 
 very unwise proceeding on the part of Great Brit- 
 ain, and a piece of oppression. " That act," he 
 says, " could be looked upon in no other light by
 
 124 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 every person who would view it in its proper 
 colors." But he did not rush into a passion over 
 it. Instead, he studied it coolly, and before it was 
 repealed wrote at some length to his wife's uncle, 
 who was living in London, his reasons for think- 
 ing that the British ministry would gain nothing 
 by pressing the Stamp Act and other laws which 
 bore hard on colonial prosperity ; for he held that 
 if they would only see it, the colonies were as nec- 
 essary to England as England was to the colonies. 
 It is difficult for us to-day to put ourselves in 
 the place of Washington and other men of his 
 time. Washington was a Virginian, and was one 
 of the legislature. He was used to making laws 
 and providing for the needs of the people of Vir- 
 ginia, but he was accustomed to look beyond Vir- 
 ginia to England. There the king was, and he 
 was one of the subjects of the king. The king's 
 officers came to Virginia, and when Washington 
 saw, as he so often did, a British man-of-war lying 
 in the river off Mount Vernon, his mind was 
 thrilled with pleasure as he thought of the power 
 of the empire to which he belonged. He had seen 
 the British soldiers marching against the French, 
 and he had himself served under a British general. 
 He had an ardent desire to go to England, to see 
 London, to see the king and his court, and Par- 
 liament, and the Courts of Justice, and the great 
 merchants who made the city famous ; but as yet 
 he had been unable to go.
 
 A VIRGINIA BURGESS. 125 
 
 He had seen but little of the other colonies. He 
 had made a journey to Boston, and that had given 
 him some acquaintance with men ; but wherevei 
 he went, he found people looking eagerly toward 
 England and asking what the ministry there would 
 do about fighting the French on the Western bor- 
 ders. Though he and others might never have 
 seen England, it was the centre of the world to 
 them. He thought of the other colonies not so 
 much as all parts of one great country on this side 
 of the Atlantic, as each separately a part of the 
 British Empire. 
 
 After all, however, and most of all, he was a 
 Virginian. In Virginia he owned land. There 
 was his home, and there his occupation. He was 
 a farmer, a planter of tobacco and wheat, and it 
 was his business to sell his products. As for the 
 French, they were enemies of Great Britain, but 
 they were also very near enemies of Virginia. 
 They were getting possession of land in Virginia 
 itself land which Washington owned in part ; 
 and when he was busily engaged in driving them 
 out, he did not have to stop and think of France, 
 he needed only to think of Fort Duquesne, a few 
 days' march to the westward. 
 
 When, therefore he found the British govern- 
 ment making laws which made him pay roundly 
 for sending his tobacco to market, and taxing him 
 as if there were no Virginia legislature to say 
 what taxes the people could and should pay, he
 
 126 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 began to be restless and dissatisfied. England 
 was a great way off ; Virginia was close at hand. 
 He was loyal to the king and had fought under 
 the king's officers, but if the king cared nothing 
 for his loyalty, and only wanted his pence, his 
 loyalty was likely to cool. His chief resentment, 
 however, was against Parliament. Parliament 
 was making laws and laying taxes. But what 
 was Parliament ? It was a body of law-makers in 
 England, just as the House of Burgesses was in 
 Virginia. To be sure, it could pass laws about 
 navigation which concerned all parts of the Brit- 
 ish Empire ; but, somehow, it made these laws 
 very profitable to England and very disadvan- 
 tageous to Virginia. Parliament, however, had no 
 right to pass such a law as the Stamp Act. That 
 was making a special law for the American col- 
 onies, and taking away a right which belonged to 
 the colonial assemblies. 
 
 Washington had grown up with an intense love 
 of law, and in this he was like other American 
 Englishmen. In England there were very few 
 persons who made the laws, the vast majority had 
 nothing to do but to obey the laws. Yet it is 
 among the makers of laws that the love of law 
 prevails ; and since in America a great many more 
 Englishmen had to do with government in colony 
 and in town than in England, there were more 
 who passionately insisted upon the law being ob- 
 served. An unlawful act was to them an outrage.
 
 A VIRGINIA BURGESS. 127 
 
 When they said that England was oppressing 
 them, and making them slaves, they did not mean 
 that they wanted liberty to do what they pleased, 
 but that they wanted to be governed by just laws, 
 made by the men who had the right to make laws. 
 And that right belonged to the legislatures, to 
 which they sent representatives. 
 
 So it was out of his love of law and justice that 
 Washington and others protested against the 
 Stamp Act ; and when the act was repealed they 
 threw up their hats and hurrahed, not because 
 they now should not have to buy and use stamps, 
 but because by repealing the act Parliament had 
 as much as said that it was an unlawful act. How- 
 ever, this was an unwilling admission on the part 
 of Parliament, which repealed the act, but said at 
 once : " We can tax you if we choose to." 
 
 In fact, Parliament stupidly tried soon after to 
 prove that it had the right by imposing duties on 
 tea, paper, glass, and painters' colors. But the 
 people in the colonies were on the alert. They 
 had really been governing themselves so long that 
 now, when Parliament tried to get the power away 
 from them, they simply went on using their power. 
 They did this in two ways ; the colonial govern- 
 ments again asserted their rights in the case, and 
 the people began to form associations, in which 
 they bound themselves not to buy goods of Eng- 
 land until the offensive act was repealed. This 
 Utter was one of the most interesting movements
 
 128 GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
 
 in the breaking away of the colonies from Eng- 
 land. It was a popular movement; it did not 
 depend upon what this or that colonial assembly 
 might do ; it was perfectly lawful, and so far as 
 it was complete it was effective. Yet all the while 
 the movement was doing more, and what but a 
 very few detected ; it was binding the scattered 
 people in the colonies together. 
 
 Washington took a great deal of interest in 
 these associations, and belonged to one himself. 
 He was growing exceedingly impatient of English 
 misrule, and saw clearly to what it was leading. 
 " At a time," he says, " when our lordly masters 
 in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less 
 than the deprivation of American freedom, it 
 seems highly necessary that something should be 
 done to avert the stroke, and maintain the liberty 
 which we have derived from our ancestors. But 
 the manner of doing it to answer the purpose 
 effectually is the point in question. That no man 
 should scruple, or hesitate a moment, to use arms 
 in defense of so valuable a blessing, is clearly my 
 opinion. Yet arms, I would beg leave to add, 
 should be the last resort. We have already, it is 
 said, proved the inefficacy of addresses to the 
 throne, and remonstrances to Parliament. How 
 far, then, their attention to our rights and privi- 
 leges is to be awakened or alarmed by starving 
 their trade and manufactures remains to be tried." 
 
 He took the lead in forming an association in
 
 A VIRGINIA BURGESS. 129 
 
 Virginia, and he kept scrupulously to his agree- 
 ment ; for when he sent his orders to London, he 
 was very careful to instruct his correspondents to 
 send him none of the goods unless the Act of Par- 
 liament had meantime been repealed. As the 
 times grew more exciting, Washington watched 
 events steadily. He took no step backward, but 
 he moved forward deliberately and with firmness. 
 He did not allow himself to be carried away by 
 the passions of the time. It was all very well, 
 some said, to stop buying from England, but let 
 us stop selling also. They need our tobacco. 
 Suppose we refuse to send it unless Parliament 
 repeals the act. Washington stood out against 
 that except as a final resource, and for the reason 
 which he stated in a letter : 
 
 " I am convinced, as much as I am of my own exist- 
 ence, that there is no relief for us but in their distress ; 
 and I think, at least I hope, that there is public virtue 
 enough left among us to deny ourselves everything but 
 the bare necessaries of life to accomplish this end. This 
 we have a right to do, and no power upon earth can 
 compel us to do otherwise, till it has first reduced us to 
 the most abject state of slavery. The stopping of our 
 exports would, no doubt, be a shorter method than the 
 other to effect this purpose ; but if we owe money to 
 Great Britain, nothing but the last necessity can justify 
 the non-payment of it ; and, therefore, I have great 
 doubts upon this head, and wish to see the other method 
 first tried, which is legal and will facilitate these pay- 
 ments."
 
 130 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 That is, by the economy necessarily preached, 
 the people would save money with which to pay 
 their debts. 
 
 Washington had been at the front in the House 
 of Burgesses, in his own county, and among the 
 people generally. He was a member of the con- 
 vention called to meet at Williamsburg ; and he 
 was appointed by that convention one of seven 
 delegates to attend the first Continental Congress 
 at Philadelphia.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 
 
 NEAR the end of August, 1774, Patrick Henry 
 and Edmund Pendleton, two of the delegates from 
 Virginia to the first Continental Congress, rode 
 from their homes to Mount Vernon and made 
 a short visit. Then, on the last day of the month, 
 Washington mounted his horse also, and the three 
 friends started for Philadelphia to attend the Con- 
 gress, which was called to meet on the 5th of 
 September. Pendleton was a dozen years older 
 than Washington, and Henry was the youngest of 
 the party. He was the most fiery in speech, and 
 more than once, in recent conventions, had carried 
 his hearers away by his bold words. He was the 
 most eloquent man in the colonies, of rude ap- 
 pearance, but when once wrought up by excite- 
 ment, able to pour out a torrent of words. 
 
 For my part, I would rather have heard the 
 speech which Washington made at the convention 
 in Williamsburg in the August before, when he 
 rose to read the resolution which he and his 
 neighbors had passed at their meeting in Fairfax 
 County. The eloquence of a man who is a famous 
 orator is not quite so convincing as that of a man
 
 132 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 of action, who rarely speaks, but who is finally 
 stirred by a great occasion. People were used to 
 hearing Washington say a few words in a slow, 
 hesitating, deliberate way ; and they knew that 
 he had carefully considered beforehand what 
 words he should use. But this time he was terri- 
 bly in earnest, and when he had read the resolu- 
 tion, he spoke as no one had heard him before. 
 He was a passionate man, who had his anger under 
 control ; but when it occasionally burst out, it was 
 as if a dam to a stream had given way. And now 
 he was consumed with indignation at the manner 
 in which Great Britain was treating the colonies. 
 He was ready, he said, to raise a regiment of a 
 thousand men, pay all their expenses, and lead 
 them to Boston to drive out the king's soldiers. 
 
 The three men, therefore, must have talked 
 long and earnestly as they rode to Philadelphia ; 
 for the Congress which they were to attend was 
 the first one to which all the colonies were invited 
 to send delegates. It was to consider the cause 
 of the whole people, and Virginia was to see in 
 Massachusetts not a rival colony, but one with 
 which she had common cause. The last time 
 Washington had gone over the road he had been 
 on an errand to the king's chief representative in 
 America, the commander-in-chief, Governor Shir- 
 ley, and one matter which he had held very much 
 at heart had been his own commission as an offi- 
 cer in his Majesty's army. He was on a different
 
 THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 133 
 
 errand now. Still, like the men who were most 
 in earnest at that time, he was thinking how the 
 colonies could secure their rights as colonies, not 
 how they might break away from England and 
 set up for themselves. 
 
 They were five days on the road, and on Sep- 
 tember the 4th they breakfasted near New Castle, 
 in Delaware, dined at Chester, in Pennsylvania, 
 and in the evening were in Philadelphia, at the 
 City Tavern, which stood on Second Street, above 
 Walnut Street, and was the meeting-place of most 
 of the delegates. Washington, however, though 
 he was often at the City Tavern, had his lodging 
 at Dr. Shippen's. The Congress met the next 
 day at Carpenters' Hall, and was in session for 
 seven weeks. The first two or three days were 
 especially exciting to the members. There they 
 were, fifty-one men, from all the colonies save 
 Georgia, met to consult together Englishmen 
 who sang " God save the king," but asked also 
 what right the king had to act as he had done 
 toward Boston. They did not know one another 
 well at the beginning. There was no man among 
 them who could be called famous beyond his own 
 colony, unless it were George Washington. Up to 
 this time the different colonies had lived so apart 
 from one another, each concerned about its own 
 affairs, that there had been little opportunity for 
 a man to be widely known. 
 
 So, as they looked at one another at the City
 
 134 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Tavern, or at Carpenters' Hall when they met, 
 each man was wondering who would take the 
 lead. Virginia was the largest and most im- 
 portant colony. Massachusetts had a right to 
 speak, because she had called the convention, and 
 because it was in Boston that the people were suf- 
 fering most from the action of the British Par- 
 liament. Perhaps the two most conspicuous 
 members at first were Patrick Henry of Virginia, 
 and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts ; but in the 
 seven weeks of the session, others showed their 
 good judgment and patriotism. Patrick Henry 
 was asked after he returned to Virginia whom he 
 considered the greatest man in the Congress, and 
 he replied : " If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rut- 
 ledge of South Carolina is by far the greatest 
 orator ; but if you speak of solid information and 
 sound judgment, Colonel Washington is unques- 
 tionably the greatest man on the floor." 
 
 Washington carried on the methods which he 
 had always practiced. He attended the sessions 
 punctually and regularly ; he listened to what 
 others had to say, and gave his own opinion only 
 after he had carefully formed it. It is an ex- 
 ample of the thoroughness with which he made 
 himself master of every subject, that he used to 
 copy in his own hand the important papers which 
 were laid before Congress, such as the petition to 
 the king which was agreed upon. This he would 
 do deliberately and exactly, it was like commit-
 
 THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 135 
 
 ting the paper to memory. Besides this, he made 
 abstracts of other papers, stating the substance of 
 them in a few clear words. 
 
 The greater part of each day was occupied in 
 the Congress, but besides the regular business, 
 there was a great deal of informal talk among the 
 members. They were full of the subject, and 
 used to meet to discuss affairs at dinner, or in 
 knots about the fire at the City Tavern. Phila- 
 delphia was then the most important city in the 
 country, and there were many men of wide expe- 
 rience living in it. Washington went everywhere 
 by invitation. He dined with the Chief Justice, 
 with the Mayor, and with all the notable people. 
 
 In this way he was able to become better ac- 
 quainted both with the state of affairs in other 
 colonies and with the way the most intelligent 
 people were thinking about the difficulties of the 
 time. The first Continental Congress gave ex- 
 pression to the deliberate judgment of the colonies 
 upon the acts of Great Britain. It protested 
 against the manner in which Parliament was 
 treating the colonies. It declared firmly and sol- 
 emnly that as British subjects the people of the 
 colonies owed no allegiance to Parliament, in 
 which they had no representatives ; that their 
 own legislatures alone had the right to lay taxes. 
 But after all, the great advantage of this first 
 Congress was in the opportunity which it gave 
 for representatives from the different colonies to
 
 136 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 become acquainted with one another, and thus to 
 make all parts of the country more ready to act 
 together. 
 
 It was only now and then that any one suggested 
 the independence of the colonies. Washington, 
 like a few others, thought it possible the colonies 
 might have to arm and resist the unlawful attempt 
 to force unconstitutional laws upon them ; but he 
 did not, at this time, go so far as to propose a 
 separation from England. He had a friend among 
 the British officers in Boston, one of his old com- 
 rades in the war against France, a Captain Mac- 
 kenzie, who wrote to him, complaining of the way 
 the Boston people were behaving. Captain Mac- 
 kenzie, very naturally, as an officer, saw only a 
 troublesome, rebellious lot of people whom it was 
 the business of the army to put down. Washing- 
 ton wrote earnestly to him, trying to show him the 
 reason why the people felt as they did, and the 
 wrong way of looking at the subject which Captain 
 Mackenzie and other officers had. He expressed 
 his sorrow that fortune should have placed his 
 friend in a service that was sure to bring down 
 vengeance upon those engaged in it. He went on : 
 
 " I do not mean by this to insinuate that an officer is 
 not to discharge his duty, even when chance, not choice, 
 has placed him in a disagreeable situation ; but I con- 
 ceive, when you condemn the conduct of the Massachu- 
 setts people, you reason from effects, not causes ; other- 
 wise you would not wonder at a people, who are every
 
 THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 137 
 
 day receiving fresh proofs of a systematic assertion of 
 an arbitrary power, deeply planned to overturn the laws 
 and constitution of their country, and to violate the 
 most essential and valuable rights of mankind, being 
 irritated, and with difficulty restrained from acts of the 
 greatest violence and intemperance. For my own part, 
 I confess to you candidly, that I view things in a very 
 different point of light from the one in which you seem 
 to consider them ; and though you are taught by venal 
 men ... to believe that the people of Massachusetts 
 are rebellious, setting up for independency, and what 
 not, give me leave, my good friend, to tell you, that you 
 are abused, grossly abused. . . . Give me leave to add, 
 and I think I can announce it as a fact, that it is not 
 the wish or interest of that government, or any other 
 upon this continent, separately or collectively, to set up 
 for independence ; but this you may at the same time 
 rely on, that none of them will ever submit to the loss 
 of those valuable rights and privileges which are essen- 
 tial to the happiness of every free state, and without 
 which, life, liberty, and property are rendered totally 
 insecure." 
 
 It was with such a belief as this that Washing- 
 ton went back to Mount Vernon, and while he was 
 occupied with his engrossing private affairs, busied 
 himself also with organizing and drilling soldiers. 
 Independent companies were formed all over Vir- 
 ginia, and one after another placed themselves 
 under his command. Although, by the custom 
 of those companies, each was independent of the 
 others, yet by choosing the same commander they
 
 138 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 virtually made Washington commander-in-chief 
 of the Virginia volunteers. He was the first mili- 
 tary man in the colony, and every one turned to 
 him for advice and instruction. So through the 
 winter and spring he was constantly on the move, 
 going to one place after another to review the 
 companies which had been formed. 
 
 I think that winter and spring of 1775 must 
 have been a somewhat sorrowful one to George 
 Washington, and that he must have felt as if a 
 great change were coming in his life. His wife's 
 daughter had died, and he missed her sadly. 
 Young John Custis had married and gone away 
 to live. The sound of war was heard on all 
 sides, and among the visitors to Mount Vernon 
 were some who afterward were to be generals in 
 the American army. He still rode occasionally 
 after the hounds, but the old days of fun were 
 gone. George William Fairfax had gone back 
 to England, and the jolly company at Belvoir was 
 scattered. The house itself there had caught fire 
 and burned to the ground. 
 
 But the time for action was at hand. Washing- 
 ton turned from his home and his fox-hunting to 
 go to Richmond as a delegate to a second Virginia 
 convention. It was called to hear the reports of 
 the delegates to Philadelphia and to see what fur- 
 ther was to be done. It was clear to some, and to 
 Washington among them, that the people must be 
 ready for the worst. They had shown themselves in
 
 THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 139 
 
 earnest by all the training they had been going 
 through as independent companies. Now let 
 those companies be formed into a real army. It 
 was idle to send any more petitions to the king. 
 
 " We must fight ! " exclaimed Patrick Henry ; 
 " I repeat it, sir ; we must fight ! An appeal to 
 arms and the God of Hosts is all that is left us ! " 
 
 A committee, of which Washington was one, 
 was appointed to report a plan for an army of 
 Virginia. 
 
 But when people make up their minds to fight, 
 they know very well, if they are sensible, that 
 more than half the task before them is to find 
 means for feeding and clothing not only the troops 
 but the people who are dependent on the troops. 
 Therefore the convention appointed another com- 
 mittee, of which Washington also was a member, 
 to devise a plan for encouraging manufactures, so 
 that the people could do without England. Here- 
 tofore, the Virginians had done scarcely any man- 
 ufacturing; nearly everything they needed they 
 had bought from England with tobacco. But if 
 they were to be at war with England, they must 
 be making ready to provide for themselves. It 
 was late in the day to do anything ; slavery, 
 though they did not then see it clearly, had made 
 a variety of industries impossible. However, the 
 people were advised to form associations to pro- 
 mote the raising of wool, cotton, flax, and hemp, 
 and to encourage the use of home manufactures.
 
 140 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Washington was again chosen one of the dele- 
 gates to the Continental Congress, for the second 
 Congress had been called to meet at Philadelphia. 
 He was even readier to go than before. On the 
 day when he was chosen, he wrote to his brother 
 John Augustine Washington : " It is my full in- 
 tention to devote my life and fortune to the cause 
 we are engaged in, if needful." 
 
 That was at the end of March. The second 
 Continental Congress was to meet on May 10 ; 
 and just before Washington left Mount Vernon 
 came the news of Lexington and Concord. Curi- 
 ously enough, the governor of Virginia had done 
 just what Governor Gage had attempted to do; 
 he had seized some powder which was stored at 
 Fredericksburg, and placed it for safety on board 
 a vessel of the British navy. The independent 
 companies at once met and called upon Washing- 
 ton to take command of them, that they might 
 compel the governor to restore the powder. 
 Washington kept cool. The governor promised 
 to restore the powder, and Washington advised 
 the people to wait to see what Congress would do. 
 
 When Congress met, the men who came to- 
 gether were no longer strangers to one another. 
 They had parted warm friends the previous fall ; 
 they had gone to their several homes and now had 
 come back more determined than ever, and more 
 united. Every one spoke of Lexington and Con- 
 cord ; and the Massachusetts men told how large
 
 THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 141 
 
 an army had already gathered around Boston. 
 But it was an army made up not only of Massa- 
 chusetts men, but of men from Connecticut, Rhode 
 Island, and New Hampshire. It was plain that 
 there must be some authority over such an army, 
 and the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts 
 wrote to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, 
 advising that body to assume control of all the 
 forces, to raise a continental army, appoint a com- 
 mander, and do whatever else was necessary to 
 prepare for war. There had already been fight- 
 ing ; there was an army ; and it was no longer a 
 war between Massachusetts and Great Britain. 
 
 I do not know what other delegates to the Con- 
 gress at Philadelphia came as soldiers, but there 
 was one tall Virginian present who wore his mili- 
 tary coat ; and when the talk fell upon appointing 
 a commander, all eyes were turned toward him. 
 Every one, however, felt the gravity and delicacy 
 of the situation. Here was an army adopted by 
 Congress ; but it was a New England army, and 
 if the struggle were to come at Boston, it was natu- 
 ral that the troops should mainly come from that 
 neighborhood. The colonies were widely sepa- 
 rated ; they had not acted much together. Would 
 it not be better, would it not save ill-feeling, if a 
 New England man were to command this New 
 England army? 
 
 There were some who thought thus ; and besides, 
 there was still a good deal of difference of opinion
 
 142 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 as to the course to be pursued. Some were ready 
 for independence; others, and perhaps the most, 
 hoped to bring the British to terms. Parties 
 were rising in Congress ; petty jealousies were 
 showing themselves, when suddenly John Adams 
 of Massachusetts, seeing into what perplexities 
 they were drifting, came forward with a distinct 
 proposition that Congress should adopt the army 
 before Boston and appoint a commander. He did 
 not name Washington, but described him as a cer- 
 tain gentleman from Virginia " who could unite 
 the cordial exertions of all the colonies better 
 than any other person." No one doubted who was 
 meant, and Washington, confused and agitated, 
 left the room at once. 
 
 Nothing else was now talked of. The delegates 
 discussed the matter in groups and small circles, 
 and a few days afterward a Maryland delegate 
 formally nominated George Washington to be 
 commander-in-chief of the American army. He 
 was unanimously elected, but the honor of bringing 
 him distinctly before the Congress belongs to John 
 Adams. It seems now a very natural thing to do, 
 but really it was something which required wisdom 
 and courage. When one sums up all Washing- 
 ton's military experience at this time, it was not 
 great, or such as to point him out as unmistakably 
 the leader of the American army. There was a 
 general then in command at Cambridge, who had 
 seen more of war than Washington had. But
 
 THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 143 
 
 Washington was the leading military man in Vir- 
 ginia, and it was for this reason that John Adams, 
 as a New England man, urged his election. The 
 Congress had done something to bring the colonies 
 together ; the war was to do more, but probably 
 no single act really had a more far-reaching sig- 
 nificance in making the Union, than the act of 
 nominating the Virginian Washington by the New 
 England Adams.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 UNDER THE OLD ELM. 
 
 IT was on the 15th day of June, 1775, that 
 George Washington was chosen commander-in- 
 chief of the American army. The next day he 
 made his answer to Congress, in which he de- 
 clared that he accepted the office, but that he 
 would take no pay ; he would keep an exact ac- 
 count of his expenses, but he would give his ser- 
 vices to his country. There was no time to be 
 lost. He could not go home to bid his wife good- 
 by, and he did not know when he would see her 
 again, so he wrote her as follows : 
 
 " PHILADELPHIA, 18th June, 1775. 
 
 " MY DEAREST : I am now set down to write to 
 you on a subject which fills me with inexpressible 
 concern, and this concern is greatly aggravated and in- 
 creased when I reflect upon the uneasiness I know it 
 will give you. It has been determined in Congress 
 that the whole army raised for the defense of the 
 American cause shall be put under my care, and that 
 it is necessary for me to proceed immediately to Boston 
 to take upon me the command of it. 
 
 " You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I as- 
 sure you in the most solemn manner, that, so far from
 
 UNDER THE OLD ELM. 145 
 
 seeking this appointment, I have used every endeavor 
 in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwilling- 
 ness to part with you and the family, but from a con- 
 sciousness of it being a trust too great for my capacity, 
 and that I should enjoy more real happiness in one 
 month with you at home than I have the most distant 
 prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven 
 times seven years. But, as it has been a kind of des- 
 tiny that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope 
 that my undertaking it is designed to answer some 
 good purpose. You might, and I suppose did perceive, 
 from the tenor of my letters, that I was apprehensive 
 I could not avoid this appointment, as I did not pre- 
 tend to intimate when I should return. That was the 
 case. It was utterly out of my power to refuse this 
 appointment, without exposing my character to such 
 censures as would have reflected dishonor upon myself 
 and given pain to my friends." 
 
 That is to say, he could not refuse the appoint- 
 ment without laying himself open to the charge 
 of being a coward and afraid to run the risk, or a 
 selfish man who preferred his own ease and com- 
 fort. He was neither. He was a courageous 
 man, as he had always shown himself to be, and 
 he was unselfish, for he was giving up home and 
 property, and undertaking a life of the greatest 
 difficulty in the service of what ? His coun- 
 try ? Yes. But we must remember that Virginia 
 was his country more than all the colonies were, 
 and at present it was only Massachusetts that 
 stood in peril. Of course every one is impelled
 
 146 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 to do great things by more than one motive. 
 Washington was a soldier, and his blood tingled 
 as he thought of being commander-in-chief, and 
 doing the most that a soldier could ; but he was, 
 above all, a man who had a keen sense of right 
 and wrong. He saw that England was wrong 
 and was doing injustice to America. The injus- 
 tice did not at once touch him as a planter, as a 
 man who was making money ; it touched him as 
 a free man who was obedient to the laws ; and he 
 was ready to give up everything to help right the 
 wrongs. 
 
 Washington left Philadelphia on his way to 
 Boston, June 21, escorted by a troop of horsemen, 
 and accompanied by Schuyler and Lee, who had 
 just been made major-generals by Congress. They 
 had gone about twenty miles when they saw a man 
 on horseback coming rapidly down the road. It 
 was a messenger riding post-haste to Philadelphia, 
 and carrying to Congress news of the battle of 
 Bunker Hill. Everybody was stirred by the news 
 and wanted to know the particulars. 
 
 " Why were the Provincials compelled to re- 
 treat ? " he was asked. 
 
 " It was for want of ammunition," he replied. 
 
 " Did they stand the fire of the regular troops ? " 
 asked Washington anxiously. 
 
 " That they did, and held their own fire in re- 
 serve until the enemy was within eight rods." 
 
 " Then the liberties of the country are safe ! " 
 
 \ 

 
 UNDER THE OLD ELM. 147 
 
 exclaimed Washington. He remembered well 
 the scenes under Braddock, and he knew what a 
 sight it must have been to those New England 
 farmers when a compact body of uniformed sol- 
 diers came marching up from the boats at Charles- 
 town. If they could stand fearlessly, there was 
 stuff in them to make soldiers of. 
 
 All along the route the people in the towns 
 turned out to see Washington's cavalcade, and at 
 Newark a committee of the New York Provincial 
 Congress met to escort him to the city. There he 
 left General Schuyler in command, and hurried 
 forward to Cambridge, for the news of Bunker 
 Hill made him extremely anxious to reach the 
 army. 
 
 In New England, the nearer he came to the 
 seat of war, the more excited and earnest he 
 found the people. At every town he was met by 
 the citizens and escorted through that place to the 
 next. This was done at New Haven. The colle- 
 gians all turned out, and they had a small band 
 of music, at the head of which, curiously enough, 
 was a freshman who afterward made some stir in 
 the world. It was Noah Webster, the man of spell- 
 ing-book and dictionary fame. At Springfield, 
 the party was met by a committee of the Provin- 
 cial Congress of Massachusetts, and at last, on 
 the 2d of July, he came to Watertown, where he 
 was welcomed by the Provincial Congress itself, 
 which was in session there.
 
 148 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 It was about two o'clock in the afternoon of the 
 same day that Washington rode into Cambridge, 
 escorted by a company of citizens. As he drew 
 near Cambridge Common, cannon were fired to 
 welcome him, and the people in Boston must have 
 wondered what had happened. The Provincial 
 Congress had set apart for his use the house of the 
 president of Harvard College, reserving only one 
 room for the president ; but this house was prob- 
 ably too small and inconvenient ; for shortly af- 
 terward Washington was established in the great 
 square house, on the way to Watertown, which 
 had been deserted by a rich Tory, and there he 
 stayed as long as he was in Cambridge. By good 
 fortune, years afterward, the poet Longfellow 
 bought the house, and so the names of Washing- 
 ton and Longfellow have made it famous. 
 
 On the morning of the next day, which was 
 Monday, July 3, 1775, Washington, with Lee and 
 other officers, rode into camp. Cambridge Com' 
 mon was not the little place it now is, hemmed in 
 by streets. It stretched out toward the country, 
 and a country road ran by its side, leading to 
 Watertown. An Episcopal church stood opposite 
 the Common, and a little farther on, just as the 
 road turned, nearly at a right angle, stood an old 
 house. In front of this house, at the corner of 
 the road, was a stout elm-tree. It was a warm 
 summer morning, and the officers were glad of 
 the shade of the tree.
 
 UNDER THE OLD ELM. 149 
 
 On the left, and stretching behind, were the 
 tents of the American camp. The soldiers them- 
 selves were drawn up in the road and on the dry, 
 treeless common. Crowded about were men, 
 women, and children, for the news had spread 
 that the general had come, and the crowd and the 
 soldiers were well intermingled. What did they 
 see ? They saw a group of men on horseback, in 
 military dress ; but the foremost man, on whom 
 all eyes were bent, was a tall, splendid figure, 
 erect upon his horse ; those nearest could see that 
 he had a rosy face, thick brown hair that was 
 brushed back from his face, and clear blue eyes 
 set rather far apart. By his side was a man who 
 appeared even taller, he was so thin and lank ; 
 he had a huge nose, eyes that were looking in 
 every direction, and a mouth that seemed almost 
 ready to laugh at the people before him. He sat 
 easily and carelessly on his horse. This was Gen- 
 eral Lee. 
 
 Now, the strong Virginian, easily marked by 
 his bearing and his striking dress, for he wore 
 a blue coat with buff facings, buff small-clothes, 
 an epaulet on each shoulder, and a cockade in his 
 hat, turned to General Ward, who had hereto- 
 fore been in command of the army, and laying his 
 hand on the hilt of his sword, drew it from the 
 scabbard, and raised it in the sight of the people. 
 The cannon roared, no doubt, and the people 
 shouted. It was a great occasion for them, and
 
 150 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 everybody was on tiptoe to see the Virginians. 
 All this is what we may suppose, for there is no 
 account of the exact ceremony. We only know 
 that, at that time, Washington took command of 
 the army. 
 
 But what did Washington see, and what did he 
 think, now, and later, when he made a tour of in- 
 spection through the camp and to the outposts ? 
 He saw a motley assembly, in all sorts of uni- 
 forms and without any uniform at all, with all 
 sorts of weapons and with precious little powder. 
 So little was there that Washington was very anx- 
 ious lest the British should find out how little he 
 had ; and so while he was urging Congress to pro- 
 vide supplies, he had barrels of sand, with powder 
 covering the top, placed in the magazine, that 
 any spy hanging about might be misled. Some of 
 the soldiers were in tents, some were quartered in 
 one or two college buildings then standing, and 
 some built huts for themselves. The most or- 
 derly camp was that of the Rhode Island troops, 
 under General Nathanael Greene. 
 
 The men were in companies of various sizes, 
 under captains and other officers who had very 
 little authority over the privates, for these usually 
 elected their own commanders. A visitor to the 
 camp relates a dialogue which he heard between 
 a captain and one of the privates under him. 
 
 " Bill," said the captain, " go and bring a pail 
 of water for the men."
 
 UNDER THE OLD ELM. 151 
 
 "I sha'n't," said Bill. "It's your turn now, 
 Captain ; I got it last time." 
 
 But the men, though under very little disci- 
 pline, were good stuff out of which to make sol- 
 diers. Most of them were in dead earnest, and 
 they brought, besides courage, great skill in the 
 use of the ordinary musket. A story is told of a 
 company of riflemen raised in one of the frontier 
 counties of Pennsylvania. So many volunteers 
 applied as to embarrass the leader who was enlist- 
 ing the company, and he drew on a board with 
 chalk the figure of a nose of the common size, 
 placed the board at the distance of a hundred and 
 fifty yards, and then declared he would take only 
 those who could hit the mark. Over sixty suc- 
 ceeded. " General Gage, take care of your nose," 
 says the newspaper that tells the story. General 
 Gage, as you know, was the commander of the 
 British forces in Boston. 
 
 Washington wrote to Congress, " I have a sin- 
 cere pleasure in observing that there are mate- 
 rials for a good army, a great number of able- 
 bodied men, active, zealous in the cause, and of 
 unquestionable courage." 
 
 His first business was to make an army out of 
 this material, and he shrewdly suggested that inas- 
 much as there was great need of clothing, it would 
 be well to furnish ten thousand hunting-shirts at 
 once. Not only would these be the cheapest gar- 
 ments, but they would furnish a convenient and
 
 152 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 characteristic uniform, which would destroy the 
 distinctions between the troops from different 
 colonies or towns. If the men looked alike, they 
 would act together better. 
 
 There is a story that Washing-ton had a plat- 
 form built in the branches of the elm under which 
 he had taken command of the army, and that 
 there he sat with his glass, spying the movements 
 across the water in Boston. Whether this be so 
 or not, he was constantly scouring the country 
 himself, and sending his scouts within the en- 
 emy's lines. The most critical time came at the 
 end of the year 1775, when the term of the old 
 soldiers' enlistment expired, and the ranks were 
 filling up with raw recruits. 
 
 " It is not in the pages of history, perhaps," 
 writes Washington to the president of Congress, 
 on the 4th of January, " to furnish a case like 
 ours. To maintain a post within musket-shot of 
 the enemy for six months together without 
 and at the same time to disband one army and 
 recruit another, within that distance of twenty odd 
 British regiments, is more, probably, than ever 
 was attempted. But if we succeed as well in the 
 last as we have heretofore in the first, I shall 
 think it the most fortunate event of my whole 
 life." 
 
 The blank purposely left in this letter, in case 
 it should fall into the hands of the enemy, was 
 easily filled by Congress with the word " powder."
 
 UNDER THE OLD ELM. 153 
 
 At one time there was not half a pound to a man. 
 General Sullivan writes that when General Wash- 
 ington heard of this, he was so much struck by 
 the danger that he did not utter a word for half 
 an hour. 
 
 When Washington left Philadelphia for Cam- 
 bridge, he wrote to his wife as if he expected to 
 return after a short campaign. Perhaps he said 
 this to comfort her. Perhaps he really hoped 
 that by a short, sharp struggle the colonies would 
 show Great Britain that they were in earnest, and 
 would secure the rights which had been taken 
 from them. At any rate, from the day he took 
 command of the army in Cambridge, Washington 
 had one purpose in view, to attack Boston just as 
 soon as possible. The summer was not over be- 
 fore he called his officers together and proposed 
 to make the attack. They hesitated, and finally 
 said they were not ready for so bold a move. He 
 called a council again, the middle of October, but 
 still he could not bring them to the point. He 
 kept on urging it, however, as the one thing to do, 
 and Congress at last, just at the end of the year, 
 passed a resolution giving Washington authority 
 to make an assault upon the British forces " in 
 any manner he might think expedient, notwith- 
 standing the town and property in it might be 
 destroyed." 
 
 As soon as he received this authority, Wash- 
 ington again called his officers together, and
 
 154 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 urged with all his might the necessity of i 
 diate action. He thought they should make a 
 bold attempt at once to conquer the English army 
 in Boston. In the spring more troops would 
 come over from England. " Strike now ! " he 
 said, "and perhaps it will not be necessary to 
 strike again." But it was not till the middle of 
 February that he was able to persuade his gen- 
 erals to agree to a move. As soon as he had won 
 them over, he made his preparations as rapidly as 
 possible, and on the 3d of March took possession 
 of Dorchester Heights. That movement showed 
 the British what was coming. If they were to 
 stay in Boston, they would at once be attacked. 
 They took to their ships and sailed out of Boston 
 harbor. 
 
 Washington had driven them out, though he 
 had fought no battle. It is impossible to say 
 what would have happened if he could have had 
 his way before, and attacked Boston. There were 
 many friends of America in Parliament, and if 
 the news had come that the New England men 
 had actually destroyed Boston, the town where 
 their property was, in their determination to drive 
 out the British soldiers, I think these friends 
 would have said : " See how much in earnest these 
 Massachusetts men are ! They have a right to be 
 heard, when they are willing to sacrifice their own 
 town to secure their rights." Boston was not de- 
 stroyed, and the war went on ; but one effect of
 
 BOSTON, WITH ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 ,in 1775 and 1776.
 
 UNDER THE OLD ELM. 155 
 
 this siege of Boston was to inspire confidence in 
 Washington. He showed that he was a born 
 leader. He did not hold back, but went right to 
 the front, and beckoned to the other generals to 
 come and stand where he stood. He had cour- 
 age ; he was ready to attack the enemy. It was 
 a righteous cause in which he was embarked, and 
 he wished to make short work of the business. 
 There were to be seven weary years of war, and 
 Washington was to show in other ways that he 
 was the leader ; but it was a great thing that in 
 the beginning of the struggle he should have been 
 head and shoulders above the men around him, 
 and that when he drew his sword from the scab- 
 bard he was no boaster, but was ready at once to 
 use it.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 LEADING THE ARMY. 
 
 ON the 13th of April, 1776, Washington 
 in New York, which now promised to be the cen- 
 tre of operations. Here he remained four or five 
 months, making one visit meanwhile to Philadel- 
 phia, at the request of Congress, which wished to 
 confer with him. He was busy increasing and 
 strengthening the army and erecting fortifications. 
 
 That spring and summer saw a rapid change in 
 men's minds regarding the war with England. 
 Washington no longer thought it possible to ob- 
 tain what the colonies demanded and still remain 
 subject to England. He was ready for indepen- 
 dence, and when Congress issued its declaration, 
 Washington had it read before the army with 
 great satisfaction. 
 
 Not long after the Declaration of Independence 
 an English fleet arrived in New York Bay, bring- 
 ing a large body of troops, under the command of 
 Lord Howe, who, with his brother Admiral Howe, 
 had been appointed commissioners to treat with 
 the Americans. In reality, they only brought a 
 promise of pardon to the rebels. It was very 
 clear to Washington that the British government
 
 LEADING THE ARMY. 157 
 
 had not the slightest intention of listening to the 
 grievances of the colonies with a desire to redress 
 them ; but that they meant by these proposals to 
 distract the colonies, if possible, and build up a 
 party there that would oppose the action of Con- 
 gress. There was a little incident attending the 
 arrival of the commissioners that showed the feel- 
 ing which prevailed. 
 
 One afternoon, word came that a boat was com- 
 ing to headquarters, bringing a messenger from 
 Lord Howe with a communication. Washington 
 had noticed that the British, whenever speaking 
 of him or other American officers, had refused to 
 regard them as officers of the army ; they were 
 simply private gentlemen who had taken up arms 
 against the king. Now Washington knew that 
 while it was in itself a small matter whether he 
 was addressed by people about him as General 
 Washington or Mr. Washington, it was not at all 
 a small matter how Lord Howe addressed him. 
 That officer had no business with George Wash- 
 ington, but he might have very important busi- 
 ness with General Washington. Accordingly, he 
 called together such of the American officers as 
 were at headquarters to consult them in regard 
 to the subject, and they agreed entirely with him. 
 Colonel Reed was directed to receive the messen- 
 ger and manage the matter. 
 
 Accordingly, he entered a boat and was rowed 
 out toward Staten Island, whence Lord Howe's
 
 158 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 messenger was coming. The two boats met half- 
 way, and Lieutenant Brown for that was the 
 name of the messenger was very polite, and in- 
 formed Colonel Reed that he bore a letter from 
 General Howe to Mr. Washington. Colonel 
 Reed looked surprised. He himself was an offi- 
 cer in the Continental army, and he knew no such 
 person. Thereupon Lieutenant Brown showed 
 him the letter, which was addressed, George 
 Washington, Esq. Colonel Reed was polite, but 
 it was quite impossible for him to bear a letter to 
 the commander of the American army addressed 
 in that way. The lieutenant was embarrassed ; 
 as a gentleman and an officer he saw he was in the 
 wrong. He tried to make matters better by say- 
 ing that it was an important letter, but was in- 
 tended rather for a person who was of great im- 
 portance in American councils than for one who 
 was commanding an army. 
 
 Colonel Reed continued to refuse the letter, and 
 the boats parted. Presently, however, Lieutenant 
 Brown came rowing back and asked by what title 
 Washington chose to be addressed. It was quite 
 an unnecessary question, Reed thought. There 
 was not the slightest doubt as to what General 
 Washington's rank was. The lieutenant knew it 
 and was really very sorry, but he wished Colonel 
 Reed would take the letter. Colonel Reed re- 
 plied that it was the easiest matter in the world ; 
 it only needed that the letter should be correctly 
 addressed. And so they parted.
 
 LEADING THE ARMY. 159 
 
 Five days later, an aide-de-camp of General 
 Howe appeared with a flag and asked that an in- 
 terview might be granted to Colonel Patterson, 
 the British Adjutant-General. Consent was given, 
 and the next day Washington, with all his officers 
 about him, received Colonel Patterson, who was 
 very polite, and addressed him as " Your Excel- 
 lency," which did quite well, though it was dodg- 
 ing matters somewhat. He tried to explain away 
 the affair of the letter, and said that no imperti- 
 nence was intended, and he then produced another, 
 addressed to George Washington, Esq., etc., etc. 
 
 Evidently, Lord Howe thought he had invented 
 a capital way out of the difficulty. Et cetera, et 
 cetera ! Why, that might cover everything, 
 General-Commanding, Lord High Rebel, or any- 
 thing else this very punctilious Virginia gentle- 
 man might fancy as his title. It would save 
 Washington's pride and relieve Lord Howe's 
 scruples. Washington replied coolly, Yes, the et 
 cetera implied everything, but it also implied any- 
 thing or nothing. It was meaningless. He was 
 not a private person ; this letter was meant for a 
 public character, and as such he could not receive 
 it, unless it acknowledged him properly. So Colo- 
 nel Patterson was obliged to pocket the letter, 
 and try to cover his mortification and to deliver 
 the contents verbally. 
 
 Perhaps all this sounds like very small business. 
 In reality it meant a great deal. Were Washing-
 
 160 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 ton and other officers rebels against the king, or 
 were they the officers of a government which de- 
 clared itself independent of the king? Lord 
 Howe gave up trying to force Washington into 
 the trap, and wrote to his government that it 
 would be necessary in future to give the Ameri- 
 can commander his title ; and Congress, to whom 
 Washington reported the matter, passed a resolu- 
 tion approving of his course, and directing that 
 no letter or message be received on any occasion 
 whatsoever from the enemy, by the commander- 
 in-chief or by other commanders of the American 
 army, but such as should be directed to them in 
 the characters they respectively sustained. Little 
 things like this went a great way toward making 
 the people stand erect and look the world in the 
 face. 
 
 The Americans needed, indeed, all the aid and 
 comfort they could get, for it was plain that they 
 were at a great disadvantage, with their half- 
 equipped troops stationed some on Long Island 
 and some in New York, between the North and 
 East rivers, surrounded by Tories, who took cour- 
 age from the presence of a large British force in 
 the bay. Washington used his best endeavors to 
 bring about a strong spirit of patriotism in the 
 camp which should put an end to petty sectional 
 jealousies, and he felt the sacredness of the cause 
 in which they were engaged so deeply that he 
 sould not bear to have the army act or think other-
 
 LEADING THE ARMY. 161 
 
 wise than as the servants of God. He issued a 
 general order, which ran as follows : 
 
 " That the troops may have an opportunity of at- 
 tending public worship, as well as to take some rest af- 
 ter the great fatigue they have gone through, the gen- 
 eral, in future, excuses them from fatigue duty on 
 Sundays, except at the ship-yards, or on special occa- 
 sions, until further orders. The general is sorry to be 
 informed that the foolish and wicked practice of pro- 
 fane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little 
 known in an American army, is growing into fashion; 
 he hopes the officers will, by example as well as influ- 
 ence, endeavor to check it, and that both they and the 
 men will reflect, that we can have little hope of the 
 blessing of Heaven on our arms, if we insult it by our 
 impiety and folly ; added to this, it is a vice so mean 
 and low, without any temptation, that every man of 
 sense and character detests and despises it." 
 
 The time was now at hand when the army 
 would be put to a severe test, and Washington 
 was to show his generalship in other and more 
 striking ways. The battle of Long Island was 
 fought August 27, 1776, and was a severe blow to 
 the American army. Washington's first business 
 was to withdraw such of the forces as remained 
 on Long Island to the mainland, and unite the 
 two parts of his army. He had nine thousand 
 men and their baggage and arms to bring across 
 a swift strait, while a victorious enemy was so 
 near that their movements could be plainly heard.
 
 162 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Now his skill and energy were seen. He sent 
 verbal orders for all the boats of whatever size 
 that lay along the New York shore up the Hudson 
 and on the East River to be brought to the Brook- 
 lyn side. He issued orders for the troops to hold 
 themselves in readiness to attack the enemy at 
 night, and he made the troops that defended the 
 outer line of breastworks to have all the air of 
 preparation as if they were about to move at once 
 upon the enemy. All this time it was raining and 
 uncomfortable enough, for the soldiers were unpro- 
 tected by tents or shelter of any kind, save such 
 rude barriers as they could raise. They kept up 
 a brisk firing at the outposts, and the men who 
 held the advanced position were on the alert, ex- 
 pecting every moment orders to advance. 
 
 Then they heard dull sounds in the distance 
 toward the water. Suddenly at about two o'clock 
 in the morning a cannon went off with a tremen- 
 dous explosion. Nobody knew what it was, and 
 to this day the accident remains a mystery. But 
 the soldiers discovered what was going on. A 
 retreat instead of an advance had been ordered. 
 The order for an advance was intended to conceal 
 the plan. Washington was on the shore superin- 
 tending the embarkation of the troops. Some 
 had gone over ; when the tide turned, the wind 
 and current were against them; there were not 
 enough boats to carry the rest. To add to the 
 confusion one of the officers blundered, and the
 
 LEADING THE ARMY. 163 
 
 men who had been kept in front to conceal the 
 movement from the British were ordered down to 
 the Ferry. For a while it looked as if the retreat 
 would be discovered, but it was not, and when 
 morning came the entire army had been moved 
 across to New York, and not a man in the British 
 army knew what had been done. It was a great 
 feat, and Washington, who had not closed his 
 eyes for forty-eight hours, and scarcely left the 
 saddle all that time, again showed himself a mas- 
 terly general. 
 
 He had now to show the same kind of ability 
 the rest of the autumn. It requires one kind of 
 generalship to lead men into battle and another 
 to lead them on a retreat away from the enemy. 
 With a large fleet in the harbor, it was clear that 
 the British could at any time destroy New York 
 and any army that was there. Accordingly, 
 Washington withdrew his army up the island. 
 The British followed. They could transport 
 troops on both sides of the island, by water, and 
 could prevent the Americans from crossing the 
 Hudson River into New Jersey. They began to 
 land troops on the shore of East River not far 
 from where is now the Thirty-fourth Street Ferry. 
 Some breastworks had been thrown up there, and 
 were held by soldiers who had been in the battle 
 of Long Island. They seem to have been thor- 
 oughly demoralized by that defeat, for they fled 
 as soon as they saw the British advancing, and
 
 164 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 other troops which had been sent to reinforce 
 them were also seized with panic and fled. 
 
 Washington heard the firing in this direction 
 and galloped over to the scene. He met the sol- 
 diers running away and called on them to halt. 
 But they were overcome by fear and had lost their 
 self-command. They paid no heed to him, and 
 Washington, usually cool and self-possessed, was 
 so enraged by their cowardly behavior that he 
 flew into a transport of rage, flung down his hat, 
 exclaiming, " Are these the men with whom I am 
 to defend America ! " and drawing his pistols and 
 sword in turn, rushed upon the fugitives, trying 
 to drive them back to their duty. He had no 
 fear of danger himself, and was within a short 
 distance of the British, riding about furiously, 
 when one of his aids, seeing the danger, seized 
 the horse's bridle and called his commander to 
 his senses. 
 
 To cover the army, Washington posted his 
 forces across the narrow upper part of the island, 
 from Fort Washington on the Hudson to the 
 Harlem River, and here he kept the British at 
 bay while his men recovered their strength and 
 were ready for further movements. Meanwhile, 
 across the Hudson River from Fort Washington, 
 another fort, named from General Lee, had been 
 built, and Washington had posted General Greene 
 there. It was evident that with the British in 
 force, with an army and navy, it would be iinpos-
 
 THE CENTRAL FIELD OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
 
 LEADING THE ARMY. 165 
 
 sible to hold New York or the Hudson River, and 
 it was also clear that should Washington's army 
 be defeated there, the British would at once move 
 on Philadelphia, where Congress was sitting. 
 With New York commanding the Hudson River, 
 and with Philadelphia in their hands, the British 
 would have control of the most important parts of 
 America. 
 
 Washington saw also that there was hard work 
 before him, and that it would be impossible to 
 carry on the war with an army which was enlisted 
 for a year only, and he bent his energies toward 
 persuading Congress to enlist men for a longer 
 period. He had to organize this new army and 
 to superintend countless details. His old habits 
 of method and accuracy stood him in good stead 
 now, and he worked incessantly, getting affairs 
 into order, for he knew that the British would 
 soon move. Indeed, it is one of the strange 
 things in history that the British, with the im- 
 mense advantage which they had, did not at once 
 after the battle of Long Island press forward and 
 break down the Continental army in a quick suc- 
 cession of attacks by land and water. It is quite 
 certain that Washington, in their place, would 
 not have delayed action. 
 
 At the end of October, Washington occupied 
 a position at White Plains, in the rocky, hilly 
 country north of New York. Step by step he 
 had given way before General Howe, who had
 
 166 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 been trying to get the American army where he 
 could surround it and destroy it. Washington, 
 on the other hand, could not afford to run any 
 risks. He wished to delay the British as long as 
 possible, and not fight them till he had his new 
 army well organized. There was a battle at 
 White Plains, and the Americans were forced 
 back ; but Washington suddenly changed his 
 position, moved his men quickly to a stronger 
 place, and began to dig intrenchments. He was 
 too weak to fight in the open field, but he could 
 fight with his spade, and he meant to give Howe 
 all the trouble he could. He expected another 
 attack, but in a day or two there were signs of 
 a movement, and he discovered that the enemy 
 was leaving his front. 
 
 He was not quite certain what Howe's plans 
 might be, but he was quite sure he would move 
 on Philadelphia. Meanwhile, he kept watch over 
 Fort Washington, and gave orders that it should 
 be held only so long as it was prudent, but that 
 in case of extreme danger, it should be given up 
 and its garrison cross the river to Fort Lee. He 
 himself, with all but the New England troops, 
 crossed the river higher up, at King's Ferry. The 
 New England and New York troops he posted on 
 both sides of the river to defend the passes in the 
 Highlands, for it was of great importance to have 
 open communication between Philadelphia and 
 New England. A division also was left under
 
 LEADING THE ARMY. 167 
 
 General Lee at "White Plains, who was to be 
 ready to join Washington when it should become 
 necessary. 
 
 General Greene, who was in command at Fort 
 Lee, on the New Jersey side of the Hudson, hoped 
 to keep Fort Washington, on the New York side, 
 which was also under his command. He hoped to 
 keep it even after the British had begun to lay 
 siege to it. Washington was obliged to leave this 
 business to Greene's discretion, for he was occu- 
 pied with moving his army across the river, higher 
 up, and if the fort could have held out, they might 
 have been able to prevent the British from cross- 
 ing to New Jersey.* But Greene counted on a 
 stouter defense than the men in the fort gave, 
 and when Washington at last reached Fort Lee 
 it was only to see from the banks of the river 
 the surrender of Fort Washington with its mil- 
 itary stores and two thousand men. It was a ter- 
 rible loss ; and, moreover, the capture of that fort 
 made it impossible to hold Fort Lee, which was 
 at once abandoned. 
 
 Now began a wonderful retreat. The English 
 under Lord Cornwallis, with a well - equipped 
 army, and flushed with recent victory, crossed 
 over to New Jersey and began moving forward. 
 They were so prompt that the Americans left 
 their kettles on the fire in Fort Lee as they has- 
 tily left. Washington, with a small, ragged, dis- 
 couraged army, fell back from the enemy, some'
 
 168 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 times leaving a town at one end as the British 
 sntered it at the other; but he broke down 
 bridges, he destroyed provisions, and so hampered 
 and delayed the enemy that they made less than 
 seventy miles over level country in nineteen days. 
 
 Meanwhile the British general was issuing 
 proclamations calling upon the people of New 
 Jersey to return to their allegiance, and promising 
 them pardon. Many gave up and asked protec- 
 tion. It seemed as if the war were coming to an 
 end, and that all the struggle had been in vain. 
 The American army, moreover, had been enlisted 
 for a short term only, and before the end of De- 
 cember most of the men would have served their 
 time. General Lee delayed and delayed, and 
 Washington himself was harassed and well-nigh 
 disheartened ; but he meant to die hard. One 
 day, when affairs looked very dark, he turned to 
 Colonel Reed, who was by him, and said, drawing 
 his hand significantly across his throat : " Reed, 
 my neck does not feel as though it was made for 
 a halter. We must retire to Augusta County in 
 Virginia, and if overpowered, must pass the AUe- 
 ghany Mountains." 
 
 But Washington was made for something more 
 than a guerrilla chieftain. He had put the Dela- 
 ware River between his army and the British, who 
 were now scattered over New Jersey, going into 
 winter quarters, and intending, when the river 
 was frozen, to cross on the ice and move upon
 
 LEADING THE ARMY. 169 
 
 Philadelphia. Suddenly, on Christmas night, 
 Washington recrossed the river with his little 
 army, making a perilous passage through cakes of 
 floating ice that crunched against the boats, sur- 
 prised a large detachment of Hessians near Tren- 
 ton, and captured a thousand prisoners. Eight 
 days later he fought the battle of Princeton. 
 Within three weeks he had completely turned the 
 tables. He had driven the enemy from every 
 post it occupied in New Jersey, except Brunswick 
 and Amboy, made Philadelphia safe, and shown 
 the people that the army, which was thought to 
 be on the verge of destruction, could be used in 
 the hands of a great general like a rod with which 
 to punish the enemy. 
 
 Men were beginning to see that here was one 
 who was a true leader of men. 
 
 On the day after the victory at Trenton, Con- 
 gress, " having maturely considered the present 
 crisis, and having perfect reliance on the wisdom, 
 vigor, and uprightness of General Washington," 
 passed a resolution that " General Washington 
 shall be, and he is hereby, vested with full, am- 
 ple, and complete powers to raise armies, appoint 
 officers, and exercise control over the parts of the 
 country occupied by the army." Washington had 
 been constantly checked by the necessity of refer- 
 ring all questions to Congress and to his generals. 
 Now he was to have full power, for he had shown 
 himself a man fit to be trusted with power.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 \ 
 
 AT VALLEY FORGE. 
 
 THE winter of 1777 passed with little fighting ; 
 and when the spring opened, Washington used his 
 army so adroitly as to prevent the British from 
 moving on Philadelphia, and finally crowded them 
 out of New Jersey altogether. That summer, how- 
 ever, was an anxious one, for there was great un- 
 certainty as to the plans of the enemy ; and when 
 at last a formidable British army appeared in the 
 Chesapeake, whither it had been transported by 
 sea, Washington hurried his forces to meet it, and 
 fought the battle of Brandy wine, in which he met 
 with a severe loss. He retrieved his fortune in 
 part by a brilliant attack on the enemy at Ger- 
 mantown, and then retired to Valley Forge, in- 
 Pennsylvania, where he went into winter quar- 
 ters ; while the British army was comfortably es- 
 tablished in Philadelphia. 
 
 The defeat of Burgoyne by Gates, at Saratoga, 
 in the summer and Washington's splendid attack 
 at Germantown had made a profound impression 
 in Europe, and are counted as having turned the 
 scale in favor of an alliance with the United States 
 on the part of France. But when the winter shut
 
 AT VALLEY FORGE. 171 
 
 down on the American army, no such good cheer 
 encouraged it. That winter of 1778 was the most 
 terrible ordeal which the army endured, and one 
 has but to read of the sufferings of the soldiers to 
 learn at how great a cost independence was bought. 
 It is worth while to tell again the familiar story, 
 because the leader of the army himself shared the 
 want and privation of the men. To read of Valley 
 Forge is to read of Washington. 
 
 The place was chosen for winter quarters be- 
 cause of its position. It was equally distant with 
 Philadelphia from the Brandywine and from the 
 ferry across the Delaware into New Jersey. It 
 was too far from Philadelphia to be in peril from 
 attack, and yet it was so near that the American 
 army could, if opportunity offered, descend quickly 
 on the city. Then it was so protected by hills and 
 streams that the addition of a few lines of fortifi- 
 cation made it very secure. 
 
 But there was no town at Valley Forge, and it 
 became necessary to provide some shelter for the 
 soldiers other than the canvas tents which served 
 in the field in summer. It was the middle of De- 
 cember when the army began preparations for the 
 winter, and Washington gave directions for the 
 building of the little village. The men were di- 
 vided into parties of twelve, each party to build a 
 hut to accommodate that number ; and in order 
 to stimulate the men, Washington promised a re- 
 ward of twelve dollars to the party in each reg-
 
 172 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Lment which finished its hut first and most satis- 
 factorily. And as there was some difficulty in 
 getting boards, he offered a hundred dollars to 
 any officer or soldier who should invent some sub- 
 stitute which would be as cheap as boards and as 
 quickly provided. 
 
 Each hut was to be fourteen feet by sixteen, the 
 sides, ends, and roof to be made of logs, and the 
 sides made tight with clay. There was to be a 
 fireplace in the rear of each hut, built of wood, 
 but lined with clay eighteen inches thick. The 
 walls were to be six and a half feet high. Huts 
 were also to be provided for the officers, and to be 
 placed in the rear of those occupied by the troops. 
 All these were to be regularly arranged in streets. 
 A visitor to the camp when the huts were being 
 built wrote of the army : " They appear to me like 
 a family of beavers, every one busy ; some carry- 
 ing logs, others mud, and the rest plastering them 
 together." It was bitterly cold, and for a month 
 the men were at work, making ready for the 
 winter. 
 
 But in what sort of condition were the men them- 
 selves when they began this work? Here is a 
 picture of one of those men on his way to Valley 
 Forge : " His bare feet peep through his worn- 
 out shoes, his legs nearly naked from the tattered 
 remains of an only pair of stockings, his breeches 
 not enough to cover his nakedness, his shirt hang- 
 ing in strings, his hair disheveled, his face wan
 
 AT VALLEY FORGE. 173 
 
 and thin, his look hungry, his whole appearance 
 that of a man forsaken and neglected." And the 
 snow was falling I This was one of the privates. 
 The officers were scarcely better off. One was 
 wrapped " in a sort of dressing-gown made of an 
 old blanket or woolen bed-cover." The uniforms 
 were torn and ragged ; the guns were rusty ; a 
 few only had bayonets ; the soldiers carried their 
 powder in tin boxes and cow-horns. 
 
 To explain why this army was so poor and for- 
 lorn would be to tell a long story. It may be 
 summed up briefly in these words : The army was 
 not taken care of because there was no country to 
 take care of it. There were thirteen States, and 
 each of these States sent troops into the field, but 
 all the States were jealous of one another. There 
 was a Congress, which undertook to direct the war, 
 but all the members of Congress, coming from the 
 several States, were jealous of one another. They 
 were agreed on only one thing that it was not 
 prudent to give the army too much power. It is 
 true that they had once given Washington large 
 authority, but they had given it only for a short 
 period. They were very much afraid that some- 
 how the army would rule the country, and yet 
 they were trying to free the country from the rule 
 of England. But when they talked about freeing 
 the country, each man thought only of his own 
 State. The first fervor with which they had 
 talked about a common country had died away ;
 
 174 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 there were some very selfish men in Congress, who 
 could not be patriotic enough to think of the whole 
 country. 
 
 The truth is, it takes a long time for the people 
 of a country to come to feel that they have a coun- 
 try. Up to the time of the war for independence, 
 the people in America did not care much for one 
 another or for America. They had really been 
 preparing to be a nation, but they did not know 
 it. They were angry with Great Britain, and 
 they knew they had been wronged. They were 
 therefore ready to fight ; but it does not require 
 so much courage to fight as to endure suffering 
 and to be patient. 
 
 So it was that the people of America who were 
 most conscious that they were Americans were the 
 men who were in the army, and their wives and 
 mothers and sisters at home. All these were 
 making sacrifices for their country and so learning 
 to love it. The men in the army came from dif- 
 ferent States, and there was a great deal of state 
 feeling among them ; but, after all, they belonged 
 to one army, the Continental army, and they 
 had much more in common than they had sepa- 
 rately. Especially they had a great leader who 
 made no distinction between Virginians and New 
 England men. Washington felt keenly all the 
 lack of confidence which Congress showed. He 
 saw that the spirit in Congress was one which kept 
 the people divided, while the spirit at Valley Forge
 
 AT VALLEY FORGE. 175 
 
 kept the people united, and be wrote reproachfully 
 to Congress : 
 
 " If we would pursue a right system of policy, in my 
 opinion, ... we should all, Congress and army, be 
 considered as one people, embarked in one cause, in one 
 interest ; acting on the same principle, and to the same 
 end. The distinction, the jealousies set up or perhaps 
 only incautiously let out, can answer not a single good 
 purpose. . . . No order of men in the thirteen States 
 has paid a more sacred regard to the proceedings of 
 Congress than the army ; for without arrogance or the 
 smallest deviation from truth, it may be said that no 
 history now extant can furnish an instance of an army's 
 suffering such uncommon hardships as ours has done, 
 and bearing them with the same patience and fortitude. 
 To see men, without clothes to cover them, without 
 blankets to he on, without shoes (for the want of which 
 their marches might be traced by the blood from their 
 feet), and almost as often without provisions as with 
 them, marching through the frost and snow, and at 
 Christmas taking up their winter quarters within a 
 day's march of the enemy, without a house or hut to 
 cover them, till they could be built, and submitting with- 
 out a murmur, is a proof of patience and obedience, 
 which, in my opinion, can scarce be paralleled." 
 
 The horses died of starvation, and the men 
 harnessed themselves to trucks and sleds, hauling 
 wood and provisions from storehouse to hut. At 
 one time there was not a ration in camp. Wash- 
 ington seized the peril with a strong hand and com- 
 pelled the people in the country about, who had
 
 176 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 been selling to the British army at Philadelphia, 
 to give up their stores to the patriots at Valley 
 Forge. 
 
 Meanwhile, the wives of the officers came to the 
 camp, and these brave women gave of their cheer 
 to its dreary life. Mrs. Washington was there 
 with her husband. " The general's apartment is 
 very small," she wrote to a friend ; "he has had 
 a log cabin built to dine in, which has made our 
 quarters much more tolerable than they were at 
 first." 
 
 The officers and their wives came together and 
 told stories, perhaps over a plate of hickory nuts, 
 which, we are informed, furnished General Wash- 
 ington's dessert. The general was cheerful in the 
 little society ; but his one thought was how to 
 keep the brave company of men alive and prepare 
 them for what lay before them. The house where 
 he had his quarters was a farm-house belonging 
 to a Quaker, Mr. Potts, who has said that one day 
 when strolling up the creek, away from the camp, 
 he heard a deep, quiet voice a little way off. He 
 went nearer, and saw Washington's horse tied to 
 a sapling. Hard by, in the thicket, was Washing- 
 ton on his knees, praying earnestly. 
 
 At the end of February, light began to break. 
 The terrible winter was passing away, though the 
 army was still in a wretched state. But there came 
 to camp a volunteer, Baron Steuben, who had 
 been trained in the best armies of Europe. In
 
 AT VALLEY FORGE. 177 
 
 him Washington had, what he greatly needed, an 
 excellent drill-master. He made him Inspector 
 of the army, and soon, as if by magic, the men 
 changed from slouching, careless fellows into erect, 
 orderly soldiers. The baron began with a picked 
 company of one hundred and twenty men, whom 
 he drilled thoroughly ; these became the models 
 for others, and so the whole camp was turned into 
 a military school. 
 
 The prospect grew brighter and brighter, until 
 on the 4th of May, late at night, a messenger rode 
 into camp with despatches from Congress. Wash- 
 ington opened them, and his heart must have 
 leaped for joy as he read that an alliance had been 
 formed between France and the United States. 
 Two days later, the army celebrated the event. 
 The chaplains of the several regiments read the 
 intelligence and then offered up thanksgiving to 
 God. Guns were fired, and there was a public 
 dinner in honor of Washington and his generals. 
 There had been shouts for the king of France and 
 for the American States ; but when Washington 
 took his leave, " there was," says an officer who 
 was present, universal applause, " with loud huz- 
 zas, which continued till he had proceeded a quar- 
 ter of a mile, during which time there were a 
 thousand hats tossed in the air. His excellency 
 turned round with his retinue, and huzzaed sev 
 eral times."
 
 CHAPTER XVin. 
 
 THE CONWAY CABAL. 
 
 THERE is no man so high but some will always 
 be found who wish to pull him down. Washing- 
 ton was no exception to this rule. His men wor- 
 shiped him ; the people had confidence in him ; 
 the officers nearest to him, and especially those 
 who formed a part of his military family, were 
 warmly attached to him ; but in Congress there 
 were men who violently opposed him, and there 
 were certain generals who not only envied him but 
 were ready to seize any opportunity which might 
 offer to belittle him and to place one of their own 
 number in his place. The chief men who were 
 engaged in this business were Generals Conway, 
 Mifflin, and Gates, and from the prominent posi- 
 tion taken in the affair by the first-named officer, 
 the intrigue against Washington goes by the name 
 of the Conway Cabal. A " cabal " is a secret 
 combination against a person with the object of 
 his hurt or injury. 
 
 It is not easy to say just how or when this cabal 
 first showed itself. Conway was a young briga- 
 dier-general, very conceited and impudent. Mif- 
 flin had been quartermaster-general, but had re-
 
 THE CON WAT CABAL. 179 
 
 signed. He had been early in the service, and 
 was in Cambridge with Washington, but had long 
 been secretly hostile to him. Gates, who had 
 been Washington's companion in Virginia, was an 
 ambitious man who never lost an opportunity of* 
 looking after his own interest, and had been es- 
 pecially fortunate in being appointed to the com- 
 mand of the northern army just as it achieved the 
 famous victory over Burgoyne. 
 
 The defeat at Brandywine, the failure to make 
 Gerinantown a great success, and the occupation 
 of Philadelphia by the British troops, while the 
 American army was suffering at Valley Forge 
 all this seemed to many a sorry story compared 
 with the brilliant victory at Saratoga. There had 
 always been those who thought Washington slow 
 and cautious. John Adams was one of these, and 
 he expressed himself as heartily glad "that the 
 glory of turning the tide of arms was not imme- 
 diately due to the commander-in-chief." Others 
 shook their heads and said that the people of 
 America had been guilty of idolatry by making a 
 man their god ; and that, besides, the army would 
 become dangerous to the liberties of the people if 
 it were allowed to be so influenced by one man. 
 
 Conway was the foremost of these critics. " No 
 man was more a gentleman than General Wash- 
 ington, or appeared to more advantage at his ta- 
 ble, or in the usual intercourse of life," he would 
 say ; then he would give his shoulders a shrug,
 
 180 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 and look around and add, " but as to his talents 
 for the command of an army, they were miserable 
 indeed." 
 
 " Gates was the general ! " Conway said. 
 " There was a man who could fight, and win vic- 
 tories ! " 
 
 Gates himself was in a mood to believe it. 
 He had been so intoxicated by his success against 
 Burgoyne that he thought himself the man of the 
 day, and quite forgot to send a report of the ac- 
 tion to his commander-in-chief. Washington re- 
 buked him in a letter which was severe in its quiet 
 tone. He congratulated Gates on his great suc- 
 cess, and added, " At the same time, I cannot but 
 regret that a matter of such magnitude, and so in- 
 teresting to our general operations, should have 
 reached me by report only ; or through the channel 
 of letters not bearing that authenticity which the 
 importance of it required, and which it would have 
 received by a line over your signature stating the 
 simple fact." 
 
 Gates may have winced under the rebuke, but 
 he was then listening to Conway's flattery, and 
 that was more agreeable to him. Conway, on his 
 part, found Gates a convenient man to set up as a 
 rival to Washington. He himself did not aspire 
 to be commander-in-chief, though he would have 
 had no doubt as to his capacity. Washington 
 knew him well. " His merit as an officer," wrote 
 the commander-in-chief, " and his importance in
 
 THE CONWAT CABAL. 1S1 
 
 this army exist more in his own imagination than 
 in reality. For it is a maxim with him to leave no 
 service of his untold, nor to want anything which 
 is to be obtained by importunity." Conway 
 thought Gates was the rising man, and he meant 
 to rise with him. He filled his ear with things 
 which he thought would please him, and among 
 other letters wrote him one in which these words 
 occurred : " Heaven has determined to save your 
 country, or a weak general and bad counselors 
 would have ruined it." 
 
 Now Gates was foolish enough to show this let- 
 ter to Wilkinson, one of his aids, and Wilkinson 
 repeated it to an aid of Lord Stirling, one of 
 Washington's generals, and Lord Stirling at once 
 sat down and wrote it off to Washington. There- 
 upon Washington, who knew Conway too well to 
 waste any words upon him, sat down and wrote 
 him this letter : 
 
 " SIR, A letter which I received last night con- 
 tained the following paragraph : 
 
 " ' In a letter from General Conway to General 
 Gates he says : Heaven has determined to save your 
 country, or a weak general and bad counselors would 
 have ruined it.' 
 
 " I am, Sir, your humble servant, 
 
 "GEORGE WASHINGTON." 
 
 That was all, but it was quite enough to throw 
 Conway and Gates and Mifflin into a panic. How 
 did Washington get hold of the sentence ? Had
 
 182 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 he seen any other letters? How much did he 
 know ? In point of fact, that was all that Wash- 
 ington had seen. He had a contempt for Con way. 
 He knew of Mifflin's hostility and that Gates was 
 now cool to him ; but he did not suspect Gates of 
 any intrigue, and he supposed for a while that 
 Wilkinson's message had been intended only to 
 warn him of Conway's evil mind. 
 
 Gates was greatly perplexed to know what to 
 do, but he finally wrote to Washington as if there 
 were some wretch who had been stealing letters 
 and might be discovering the secrets of the Ameri- 
 can leaders. He begged Washington to help him 
 find the rascal. Washington replied, giving him 
 the exact manner in which the letter came into his 
 hands, and then closed with a few sentences that 
 showed Gates clearly that he had lost the confi- 
 dence of his commander-in-chief. 
 
 That particular occasion passed, but presently 
 the cabal showed its head again, this time working 
 through Congress. It secured the appointment 
 of a Board of War, with Gates at the head, and a 
 majority of the members from men who were hos- 
 tile to Washington. Now, they thought, Wash- 
 ington will resign, and to help matters on they 
 spread the report that Washington was about to 
 resign. The general checkmated them at once by 
 a letter to a friend, in which he wrote : 
 
 * To report a design of this kind is among the arts
 
 THE CON WAY CABAL. 183 
 
 which those who are endeavoring to effect a change are 
 practicing to bring it to pass. . . . While the public are 
 satisfied with my endeavors, I mean not to shrink from 
 the cause. But the moment her voice, not that of fac- 
 tion, calls upon me to resign, I shall do it with as much 
 pleasure as ever the wearied traveler retired to rest." 
 
 The cabal was not yet defeated. It had failed 
 by roundabout methods. It looked about in Con- 
 gress and counted the disaffected to see if it would 
 be possible to get a majority vote in favor of a 
 motion to arrest the commander-in-chief. So at 
 least the story runs which, from its nature, would 
 not be found in any record, but was whispered 
 from one man to another. The day came when 
 the motion was to be tried ; the conspiracy leaked 
 out, and Washington's friends bestirred them- 
 selves. They needed one more vote. They sent 
 post-haste for one of their number, Gouverneur 
 Morris, who was absent in camp ; but they feared 
 they could not get him in time. In their extrem- 
 ity, they went to William Duer, a member from 
 New York, who was dangerously ill. Duer sent 
 for his doctor. 
 
 " Doctor," he asked, " can I be carried to Con- 
 gress ? " 
 
 " Yes, but at the risk of your life," replied the 
 physician. 
 
 "Do you mean that I should expire before 
 reaching the place ? " earnestly inquired the pa- 
 tient.
 
 184 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 " No," came the answer ; " but I would not an- 
 swer for your leaving it alive." 
 
 " Very well, sir. You have done your duty and 
 I will do mine ! " exclaimed Duer. " Prepare a 
 litter for me ; if you will not, somebody else will, 
 but I prefer your aid." 
 
 The demand was in earnest, and Duer had al- 
 ready started when it was announced that Morris 
 had returned and that he would not be needed. 
 Morris had come direct from the camp with the 
 latest news of what was going on there. His vote 
 would make it impossible for the enemies of 
 Washington to carry their point ; their opportu- 
 nity was lost, and they never recovered it. 
 
 It was not the end of the cabal, however. They 
 still cherished their hostility to Washington, and 
 they sought to injure him where he would feel the 
 wound most keenly. They tried to win from him 
 the young Marquis de La Fayette, who had come 
 from France to join the American army, and 
 whom Washington had taken to his heart. La 
 Fayette was ambitious and enthusiastic. Conway, 
 who had been in France, did his best to attach 
 himself to the young Frenchman, but he betrayed 
 his hatred of Washington, and that was enough to 
 estrange La Fayette. Then a winter campaign in 
 Canada was planned, and the cabal intrigued to 
 have La Fayette appointed to command it. It was 
 argued that as a Frenchman he would have an 
 influence over the French Canadians. But the
 
 THE CON WAY CABAL. 185 
 
 plotters hoped that, away from Washington, the 
 young marquis could be more easily worked upon, 
 and it was intended that Conway should be his 
 second in command. 
 
 Of course, in contriving this plan, Washington 
 was not consulted ; but the moment La Fayette 
 was approached, he appealed to Washington for 
 advice. Washington saw through the device, but 
 he at once said, " I would rather it should be you 
 than another." La Fayette insisted on Kalb be- 
 ing second in command instead of Conway, whom 
 he disliked and distrusted. Congress was in ses- 
 sion at York, and thither La Fayette went to re- 
 ceive his orders. Gates, who spent much of his 
 time in the neighborhood of Congress, seeking to 
 influence the members, was there, and La Fayette 
 was at once invited to join him and his friends at 
 dinner. The talk ran freely, and great things 
 were promised of the Canada expedition, but not 
 a word was said about Washington. La Fayette 
 listened and noticed. He thought of the contrast 
 between the meagre fare and the sacrifices at Val- 
 ley Forge, and this feast at which he was a guest. 
 He watched his opportunity, and near the end of 
 the dinner, he said : 
 
 " I have a toast to propose. There is one health, 
 gentlemen, which we have not yet drunk. I have 
 the honor to propose it to you : The commander- 
 in-chief of the armies of the United States ! " 
 
 It was a challenge which no one dared openly
 
 186 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 to take up, but there was an end to the good spirits 
 of the company. La Fayette had shown his colors, 
 and he was let alone after that. Indeed, the Can- 
 ada expedition never was undertaken, for the men 
 who were urging it were not in earnest about any- 
 thing but diminishing the honor of Washington. 
 It is the nature of cabals and intrigues that they 
 flourish in the dark. They cannot bear the light. 
 As soon as these hostile intentions began to reach 
 the ears of the public, great was the indignation 
 aroused, and one after another of the conspirators 
 made haste to disown any evil purpose. Gates 
 and Mifflin each publicly avowed their entire con- 
 fidence in Washington, and Conway, who had 
 fought a duel and supposed himself to be dying, 
 made a humble apology. The cabal melted away, 
 leaving Washington more secure than ever in the 
 confidence of men all the more secure that he 
 did not lower himself by attempting the same arts 
 against his traducers. When Conway was utter- 
 ing his libels behind his back, Washington was 
 openly declaring his judgment of Conway ; and 
 throughout the whole affair, Washington kept his 
 hands clean, and went his way with a manly dis- 
 regard of his enemies.
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 MONMOUTH. 
 
 THE news of the French alliance, and conse- 
 quent war between France and England, com- 
 pelled the English to leave Philadelphia. They 
 had taken their ease there during the winter, while 
 hardships and Steuben's drilling and Washington's 
 unflagging zeal had made the American army at 
 Valley Forge strong and determined. A French 
 fleet might at any time sail up the Delaware, 
 and with the American army in the rear, Phila- 
 delphia would be a hard place to hold. So Gen- 
 eral Howe turned his command over to General 
 Clinton, and went home to England, and General 
 Clinton set about marching his army across New 
 Jersey to New York. 
 
 The moment the troops left Philadelphia armed 
 men sprang up all over New Jersey to contest 
 their passage, and Washington set his army in 
 motion, following close upon the heels of the en- 
 emy, who were making for Staten Island. There 
 was a question whether they should attack the 
 British and bring on a general engagement, or 
 only follow them and vex them. The generals on 
 whom Washington most relied, Greene, La Fay-
 
 188 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 ette, and Wayne, all good fighters, urged that it 
 would be a shame to let the enemy leave New Jer- 
 sey without a severe punishment. The majority 
 of generals in the council, however, strongly op- 
 posed the plan of giving battle. They said that 
 the French alliance would undoubtedly put an end 
 to the war at once. Why, then, risk life and suc- 
 cess? The British army, moreover, was strong 
 and well equipped. 
 
 The most strenuous opponent of the fighting 
 plan was General Charles Lee. When he was 
 left in command of a body of troops at the time of 
 Washington's crossing the Hudson River more 
 than a year before, his orders were to hold himself 
 in readiness to join Washington at any time. In 
 his march across New Jersey, Washington had re- 
 peatedly sent for Lee, but Lee had delayed in an 
 unaccountable manner, and finally was himself 
 surprised by a company of dragoons, and taken 
 captive. For a year he had been held a prisoner, 
 and only lately had been released on exchange. 
 He had returned to the army while the cabal 
 against Washington was going on, and had taken 
 part in it, for he always felt that he ought to be 
 first and Washington second. He was second in 
 command now, and his opinion had great weight. 
 He was a trained soldier, and besides, in his long 
 captivity he had become well acquainted with 
 General Clinton, and he professed to know well 
 the condition and temper of the British officers.
 
 M ON MOUTH. 189 
 
 Washington thus found himself unsupported by 
 a majority of his officers. But he had no doubt in 
 his own mind that the policy of attack was a sound 
 one. All had agreed that it was well to harass 
 the enemy ; he therefore ordered La Fayette with 
 a large division to fall upon the enemy at an ex- 
 posed point. He thought it not unlikely that this 
 woidd bring on a general action, and he disposed 
 his forces so as to be ready for such an emergency. 
 He gave the command to La Fayette, because Lee 
 had disapproved the plan ; but after La Fayette 
 had set out, Lee came to Washington and declared 
 that La Fayette's division was so large as to make 
 it almost an independent army, and that therefore 
 he would like to change his mind and take com- 
 mand. It never would do to have his junior in 
 such authority. 
 
 Here was a dilemma. Washington could not 
 recall La Fayette. He wished to make use of 
 Lee ; so he gave Lee two additional brigades, sent 
 him forward to join La Fayette, when, as his sen- 
 ior, he would of course command the entire force ; 
 and at the same time he notified La Fayette of 
 what he had done, trusting to his sincere devotion 
 to the cause in such an emergency. 
 
 When Clinton found that a large force was 
 close upon him, he took up his position at Mon- 
 mouth Court House, now Freehold, New Jersey, 
 and prepared to meet the Americans. Washing- 
 ton knew Clinton's movements, and sent word to
 
 190 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Lee at once to attack the British, unless there 
 should be very powerful reasons to the contrary ; 
 adding that he himself was bringing up the rest 
 of the army. Lee had joined La Fayette and was 
 now in command of the advance. La Fayette 
 was eager to move upon the enemy. 
 
 " You do not know British soldiers," said Lee ; 
 " we cannot stand against them. We shall cer- 
 tainly be driven back at first, and we must be 
 cautious." 
 
 " Perhaps so," said La Fayette. " But we have 
 beaten British soldiers, and we can do it again." 
 
 Soon after, one of Washington's aids appeared 
 for intelligence, and La Fayette, in despair at Lee's 
 inaction, sent the messenger to urge Washington 
 to come at once to the front ; that he was needed. 
 Washington was already on the way, before the 
 messenger reached him, when he was met by a 
 little fif er boy, who cried out : 
 
 " They are all coming this way, your honor." 
 
 " Who are coming, my little man ? " asked 
 General Knox, who was riding by Washington. 
 
 "Why, our boys, your honor, our boys, and the 
 British right after them." 
 
 " Impossible ! " exclaimed Washington, and he 
 galloped to a hill just ahead. To his amazement 
 and dismay, he saw his men retreating. He lost 
 not an instant, but, putting spurs to his horse, 
 dashed forward. After him flew the officers who 
 had been riding by his side, but they could not
 
 M ON MOUTH. 191 
 
 overtake him. His horse, covered with foam, 
 shot down the road over a bridge and up the hill 
 beyond. The retreating column saw him come. 
 The men knew him ; they stopped ; they made 
 way for the splendid-looking man, as he, their 
 leader, rode headlong into the midst of them. 
 Lee was there, ordering the retreat, and Wash- 
 ington drew his rein as he came upon him. A 
 moment of terrible silence then Washington 
 burst out, his eyes flashing : 
 
 " What, sir, is the meaning of this ? " 
 
 " Sir, sir," stammered Lee. 
 
 " I desire to know, sir, the meaning of this dis- 
 order and confusion ? " 
 
 Lee, enraged now by Washington's towering 
 passion, made an angry reply. He declared that 
 the whole affair was against his opinion. 
 
 " You are a poltroon ! " flashed back Washing- 
 ton, with an oath. " Whatever your opinion may 
 have been, I expected my orders to be obeyed." 
 
 " These men cannot face the British grena- 
 diers," answered Lee. 
 
 " They can do it, and they shall ! " exclaimed 
 Washington, galloping off to survey the ground. 
 Presently he came back ; his wrath had gone down 
 in the presence of the peril to the army. He would 
 waste no strength in cursing Lee. 
 
 " Will you retain the command here, or shall 
 I ? " he asked. " If you will, I will return to the 
 main body and have it formed on the next height."
 
 192 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 " It is equal to me where I command," said 
 Lee, sullenly. 
 
 " Then remain here," said Washington. " I 
 expect you to take proper means for checking the 
 enemy." 
 
 " Your orders shall be obeyed, and I shall not 
 be the first to leave the ground," replied Lee, with 
 spirit. 
 
 The rest of the day the battle raged, and when 
 night came the enemy had been obliged to fall 
 back, and Washington determined to follow up his 
 success in the morning. He directed all the troops 
 to lie on their arms where they were. He himself 
 lay stretched on the ground beneath a tree, his 
 cloak wrapped about him. About midnight, an 
 officer came near with a message, but hesitated, 
 reluctant to waken him. 
 
 "Advance, sir, and deliver your message," 
 Washington called out ; " I lie here to think, and 
 not to sleep." 
 
 In the morning, Washington prepared to renew 
 the attack, but the British had slipped away under 
 cover of the darkness, not willing to venture an- 
 other battle. 
 
 Pursuit, except by some cavalry, was unavail- 
 ing. The men were exhausted. The sun beat 
 down fiercely, and the hot sand made walking 
 difficult. Moreover, the British fleet lay off Sandy 
 Hook, and an advance in that direction would lead 
 the army nearer to the enemy's reinforcements.
 
 M ON MOUTH. 193 
 
 Accordingly Washington marched his army to 
 Brunswick, and thence to the Hudson River, 
 crossed it, and encamped again near White Plains. 
 
 After the battle of Monmouth, Lee wrote an 
 angry letter to Washington and received a cool 
 one in reply. Lee demanded a court-martial, and 
 Washington at once ordered it. Three charged 
 were made, and Lee was convicted of disobedience 
 of orders in not attacking the enemy on the 28th 
 of June, agreeably to repeated instructions ; mis- 
 behavior before the enemy on the same day, by 
 making an unnecessary and disorderly retreat ; 
 and disrespect to the commander-in-chief. He 
 was suspended from the army for a year, and he 
 never returned to it. Long after his death facts 
 were brought to light which make it seem more 
 than probable that General Lee was so eaten up 
 by vanity, by jealousy of Washington, and by a 
 love of his profession above a love of his country, 
 that he was a traitor at heart, and that instead of 
 being ready to sacrifice himself for his country, he 
 was ready to sacrifice the country to his own will- 
 ful ambition and pride. 
 
 But his disgrace was the end of all opposition to 
 Washington. From that time there was no ques- 
 tion as to who was at the head of the army and 
 the people.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 
 
 THE battle of Monmouth was the last great 
 battle before the final victory at Yorktown. The 
 three and a half years which intervened, however, 
 were busy years for Washington. He was obliged 
 to settle disputes between the French and Ameri- 
 can officers, to order the disposition of the forces, 
 and to give his attention to all the suggestions of 
 plans for action. He was greatly concerned that 
 Congress should be growing weak and ineffi- 
 cient. Here was a man, whom some had foolishly 
 supposed to be aiming at supreme power, only 
 anxious that the civil government should be 
 strengthened. He saw very clearly that while the 
 separate States were looking after their several 
 affairs, the Congress which represented the whole 
 country was losing its influence and power. " I 
 think our political system," he wrote, "may be 
 compared to the mechanism of a clock, and that 
 we should derive a lesson from it ; for it answers 
 no good purpose to keep the smaller wheels in 
 order, if the greater one, which is the support and 
 prime mover of the whole, is neglected." 
 
 He was indignant at the manner in which Con-
 
 THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 195 
 
 gressmen, and others who were concerned in the 
 affairs of the country, spent their time in Phila- 
 delphia. " An assembly," he said, " a concert, a 
 dinner, a supper, that will cost three or four hun- 
 dred pounds, will not only take off men from act- 
 ing in this business, but even from thinking of it ; 
 while a great part of the officers of our army, from 
 absolute necessity, are quitting the service ; and 
 the more virtuous few, rather than do this, are 
 sinking by sure degrees into beggary and want." 
 How simply he himself lived may be seen by the 
 jocose letter which he wrote to a friend, inviting 
 him to dine with him at headquarters. The letter 
 is addressed to Dr. Cochran, surgeon-general in 
 the army : 
 
 " DEAR DOCTOR, I have asked Mrs. Cochran and 
 Mrs. Livingston to dine with me to-morrow ; but am I 
 not in honor bound to apprise them of their fare ? As 
 I hate deception, even where the imagination only is 
 concerned, I will. It is needless to premise that my 
 table is large enough to hold the ladies. Of this they 
 had ocular proof yesterday. To say how it is usually 
 covered is rather more essential ; and this shall be the 
 purport of my letter. 
 
 " Since our arrival at this happy spot, we have had 
 a ham, sometimes a shoulder of bacon, to grace the head 
 of the table ; a piece of roast beef adorns the foot ; and 
 a dish of beans or greens, almost imperceptible, deco- 
 rates the centre. When the cook has a mind to cut a 
 figure, which I presume will be the case to-morrow, we
 
 196 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 have two beefsteak pies, or dishes of crabs, dividing 
 the space and reducing the distance between dish and 
 dish, to about six feet, which, without them, would be 
 near twelve feet apart. Of late he has had the surpris- 
 ing sagacity to discover that apples will make pies ; and 
 it is a question if, in the violence of his efforts, we do 
 not get one of apples, instead of having both of beef- 
 steaks. If the ladies can put up with such entertain- 
 ment, and will submit to partake of it on plates once 
 tin but now iron (not become so by the labor of scour- 
 ing), I shall be happy to see them ; and am, dear 
 Doctor, yours." 
 
 The main activity of the two armies in the last 
 years of the war was in the South, where General 
 Gates, and after him General Greene, were engaged 
 in a contest with Lord Cornwallis. Washington, 
 meanwhile, kept his position on the Hudson, where 
 he could watch the movements of the enemy still 
 in strong force in New York. The care of the 
 whole country was on his shoulders, for, except by 
 his personal endeavors, it was impossible for the 
 armies to secure even what support they did receive 
 from Congress and the state governments. The 
 letters written by Washington during this period 
 disclose the numberless difficulties which he was 
 obliged to meet and overcome. He was the one 
 man to whom all turned, and he gave freely of 
 himself. How completely he ignored his own 
 personal interests may be seen by an incident 
 which occurred at Mount Vernon.
 
 THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 197 
 
 Several British vessels had sailed up the Chesa- 
 peake and Potomac, and had pillaged the country 
 roundabout. When these vessels lay off Mount 
 Vernon, the manager of Washington's estate, 
 anxious to save the property under his charge, 
 went out and bought off the marauders by a lib- 
 eral gift. Washington wrote at once, rebuking 
 him for his conduct. In the letter, he used these 
 words : 
 
 " I am very sorry to hear of your loss : I am a little 
 sorry to hear of my own ; but that which gives me most 
 concern is that you should go on board the enemy's 
 vessel and furnish them with refreshments. It would 
 have been a less painful circumstance to me to have heard 
 that, in consequence of your non-compliance with their 
 request, they had burnt my house and laid the plantation 
 in ruins. You ought to have considered yourself as 
 my representative, and should have reflected on the bad 
 example of communicating with the enemy, and making 
 a voluntary offer of refreshments to them with a view 
 to prevent a conflagration. It was not in your power, 
 I acknowledge, to prevent them from sending a flag on 
 shore, and you did right to meet it ; but you should, in 
 the same instant that the business of it was unfolded, 
 have declared explicitly that it was improper for you 
 to yield to their request; after which, if they had pro- 
 ceeded to help themselves by force, you could but have 
 submitted ; and being unprovided for defense, this was 
 to be preferred to a feeble opposition, which only serves 
 as a pretext to burn and destroy." 
 
 In July, 1781, Washington's army, which was
 
 198 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 watching Sir Henry Clinton in New York, was re- 
 eiiforced by the French troops, and at the same 
 time a French squadron cruised off the coast ready 
 to cooperate. General Greene was crowding Lord 
 Cornwallis in the South and edging him up into 
 Virginia, and the design was to keep the two 
 British armies apart, and defeat each. But the 
 siege of New York was likely to be a long one, and 
 the French admiral had orders to repair to the 
 West Indies in the fall. So time was precious. 
 
 Accordingly, Washington determined to mass 
 his troops in Virginia, unite the northern and 
 southern armies, and, in conjunction with the 
 French fleet, completely crush Cornwallis. It was 
 necessary, however, that Clinton, in New York, 
 should suspect nothing of this scheme, or else he, 
 too, would join Cornwallis. The change of plan 
 was carried out with great skill. Letters were 
 written detailing imaginary movements, and these 
 letters fell into the hands of the British general, 
 who supposed that great preparations were making 
 to attack him in New York. Meanwhile, a few 
 troops only were left in camp at White Plains, 
 while the rest of the army crossed the Hudson and 
 moved rapidly to Virginia. It was not until the 
 two armies were within reach of each other that 
 Clinton learned what had really been going on. 
 
 Washington took this opportunity to make a fly- 
 ing visit to Mount Vernon. It was the first time 
 he had been there since he left it to attend that
 
 THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 199 
 
 meeting of the Continental Congress at which he 
 had been chosen commander-in-chief. He had 
 never lost sight of his home, however. Thither 
 his thoughts often turned, and many a time, amid 
 the anxieties and cares of his burdensome life, he 
 looked with longing toward the quiet haven of 
 Mount Vernon. He wrote weekly to the manager 
 of his estate, and he gave him one general rule of 
 conduct in this wise : "Let the hospitality of the 
 house, with respect to the poor, be kept up. Let 
 no one go away hungry. If any of this kind of 
 people should be in want of corn, supply their 
 necessities, provided it does not encourage them 
 in idleness." 
 
 He stayed but a couple of days at Mount Ver- 
 non, where he was joined by Count Rochambeau, 
 and then he hastened to the headquarters of the 
 army at William sburg. It was now the middle of 
 September. Cornwallis was at Yorktown, and 
 everything depended on the ability of the com- 
 bined French and American forces to capture his 
 army before he could be reenforced by Clinton. 
 The leading generals of the American army were 
 there, eagerly directing operations, and Washing- 
 ton was at the front superintending the works, for 
 the men were fighting Cornwallis with the spade 
 as well as with cannon. Washington put the 
 match to the first gun that was fired. One who 
 was in the army at the time relates an incident 
 that came under his notice :
 
 200 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 " A considerable cannonading from the enemy ; 
 one shot killed three men, and mortally wounded 
 another. While the Rev. Mr. Evans, our chap 
 lain, was standing near the commander-in-chief, 
 a shot struck the ground so near as to cover his 
 hat with sand. Being much agitated, he took off 
 his hat, and said, * See here, General ! ' ' Mr. 
 Evans,' replied his excellency, with his usual com- 
 posure, ' you 'd better carry that home and show 
 it to your wife and children.' " 
 
 Indeed, it seemed to many that Washington bore 
 a charmed life, and it was often said that he was 
 under the special protection of God. He was fear- 
 less, and constantly exposed to danger, but his 
 constant escapes made him cool and self-possessed, 
 and the admiration of his men. He was excited 
 by the events which were hurrying the war to the 
 close, and he watched with intense earnestness the 
 several assaults which were made on the works. 
 Once he had dismounted and was standing by 
 Generals Knox and Lincoln at the grand battery. 
 It was not a safe place, for, though they were be- 
 hind a fortification, it was quite possible for shot 
 to enter the opening through which they were 
 looking. One of his aids, growing nervous, begged 
 fiim to leave, for the place was very much exposed. 
 
 " If you think so," said Washington, " you are 
 at liberty to step back." Presently a ball did 
 strike the cannon, and, rolling off, fell at Wash- 
 ington's feet. General Knox seized him by the 
 arm.
 
 THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 201 
 
 " My dear General," said he, " we can't spare 
 you yet." 
 
 " It 's a spent ball," replied Washington, coolly. 
 " No harm is done." He watched the action until 
 the redoubts which his men had been assaulting 
 were taken ; then he drew a long breath of relief 
 and turned to Knox. 
 
 " The work is done," he said emphatically ; 
 " and well done." 
 
 The siege was short, the work was sharp, for it 
 was full of enthusiasm and hope, and when, on 
 October 19, the army of Lord Cornwallis sur- 
 rendered to General Washington, there was a 
 tumult of rejoicing in camp which was long re- 
 membered. Washington issued orders that the 
 army should give thanks to God. " Divine ser- 
 vice," he said, " is to be performed to-morrow in 
 the several brigades and divisions. The com- 
 mander-in-chief earnestly recommends that the 
 troops not on duty should universally attend, with 
 that seriousness of deportment and gratitude of 
 heart which the recognition of such reiterated and 
 astonishing interpositions of Providence demand 
 of us." 
 
 The officers of the combined armies spent some 
 time in the neighborhood, and there was a great 
 ball given at Fredericksburg by the citizens of the 
 place. The most distinguished guest was the 
 mother of Washington, then seventy-four years 
 old, who came into the room leaning on the arm
 
 202 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 of her son. She was quiet and dignified, as one 
 after another of the French officers made his bow 
 and his complimentary speech ; but I think there 
 must have been a great deal of motherly pride in 
 her heart, though it is said that when her George 
 came to see her alone after the victory at York- 
 town, she spoke to him of his health, marked the 
 lines of care on his face, spoke of his early days, 
 and gave him a mother's caution, but said nothing 
 of the glory he had won. To the last he was her 
 boy, and not America's hero.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 WASHINGTON RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION. 
 
 AFTER the surrender of Yorktown and the de- 
 parture of the French, Washington established his 
 headquarters at Newburgh on the Hudson. There 
 he remained with the army until it was disbanded ; 
 and the house in which he lived is carefully pre- 
 served and shown as an historical museum. 
 
 There is a pleasant story of La Fayette's affec- 
 tionate remembrance of the life there. Just be- 
 fore his death, which occurred in 1834, he gave a 
 dinner party in Paris to the American Minister 
 and some friends who had been old associates. 
 Later in the evening, when the hour for supper 
 came, the guests were ushered into a room which 
 was in strange contrast with the elegance of the 
 apartments they had been in. The ceiling was 
 low, with large beams crossing it ; there was a 
 single small, uncurtained window, and several 
 small doors. It looked more like an old-fashioned 
 Dutch kitchen than a room in a French house. A 
 long, rough table was meagrely set. A dish of 
 meat stood on it, some uncouth-looking pastry, 
 and wine in decanters and bottles, ready to be 
 poured out into glasses and camp-mugs.
 
 204 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 "Do you know where we are now?" asked La 
 Fayette as his companions looked about puzzled, 
 and as if in a dream. " Ah ! the seven doors and 
 one window ! and the silver camp-goblets ! We 
 are at Washington's headquarters on the Hudson, 
 fifty years ago ! " He had reproduced the room 
 as a surprise to his friends. 
 
 Peace did not come at once after Yorktown ; 
 there was still fighting in a desultory way, but all 
 knew that the end was not far off. Yet the sol- 
 diers could not go back to their homes, and Con- 
 gress was shamefully remiss about paying them. 
 Murmurs deep and loud arose, and Washington 
 suffered keenly from the neglect shown to the 
 army. It required all his patience and tact to 
 keep the murmurs from breaking out into violent 
 action. With no military duty to perform, and 
 with the impatience of men who were suffering in- 
 justice, the officers and men began to form all 
 sorts of plans. 
 
 One of the officers and how many agreed 
 with him is not known, but the sentiment easily 
 took this form one of the officers wrote to 
 Washington that it was clear that Congress was 
 a failure. The army had won independence, but 
 no reliance could be placed on the government. 
 How much more stable was the government of 
 England ! Would not such a government be af- 
 ter all the best for America ? It might not be
 
 WASHINGTON RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION. 205 
 
 necessary to call the head of the government a 
 king, though even that title many would prefer, 
 but the head ought to have the power of a king. 
 There was much more to the same effect, and the 
 letter was really a feeler to see how Washington 
 would look upon such a movement, which, of 
 course, aimed to make him the monarch of the 
 new nation. Washington did not hesitate a mo- 
 ment, but wrote a letter which must have made 
 the officer's ears tingle, however honest he may 
 have been in his opinion. Washington said : 
 
 " With a mixture of great surprise and astonishment, 
 I have read with attention the sentiments you have 
 submitted to my perusal. Be assured, sir, no occur- 
 rence in the course of the war has given me more pain- 
 ful sensations than your information of there being such 
 ideas existing in the army as you have expressed and I 
 must view with abhorrence and reprehend with severity. 
 For the present, the communication of them will rest 
 in my own bosom, unless some further agitation of the 
 matter shall make a disclosure necessary. I am much 
 at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could 
 have given encouragement to an address, which, to me, 
 seems big with the greatest mischief that can befall any 
 country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of 
 myself, you could not have found a person to whom 
 your schemes are more disagreeable. At the same 
 time, in justice to my own feelings, I must add that no 
 man possesses a more sincere wish to see ample justice 
 done to the army than I do ; and as far as my powers 
 and influence in a constitutional way extend, they shall
 
 206 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 be employed to the utmost of my abilities to effect it, 
 should there be any occasion. Let me conjure you, 
 then, if you have any regard for your country, concern 
 for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish 
 these thoughts from your mind, and never communicate, 
 as from yourself or any one else, a sentiment of the 
 like nature." 
 
 A graver peril arose, and Washington redeemed 
 his promise to stand by the army. In spite of the 
 united effort of the army and its friends in Con- 
 gress, no satisfactory arrangement was made for 
 paying the long-delayed wages due to the soldiers. 
 On March 10, 1783, a notice was issued in the 
 camp at Newburgh, calling a meeting of the offi- 
 cers. The notice was not signed by any name, 
 and with it was sent out an address which re- 
 hearsed the wrongs suffered by the army, and 
 hinted that the time had come when the soldiers 
 must take matters into their own hands and com- 
 pel Congress to attend to their demands. It was 
 an appeal to which the officers were ready to listen, 
 and every one was in so excited a condition that 
 it was impossible to say what might not be done. 
 
 Washington, at any rate, saw there was great 
 danger, and he at once seized the occasion. He 
 issued an order calling attention to the address, 
 and asking that the meeting should be postponed 
 four days and then should convene at his invita- 
 tion. This was to give the men time to cool off. 
 When the day came, Washington, as soon as the
 
 WASHINGTON RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION. 207 
 
 meeting was called to order, made a long and pow- 
 erful speech. He was not a ready speaker, and 
 so, feeling the importance of the occasion, he had 
 written out what he had to say, and he began to 
 read it to the officers. He had read only a sen- 
 tence, when he stopped, took out his spectacles, 
 and said, as he put them on : 
 
 " Gentlemen, you will pardon me for putting 
 on my glasses. I have grown gray in your ser- 
 vice, and I now find myself growing blind." 
 
 It was a simple thing to say, and simply said, 
 but it touched the soldiers, and made them very 
 tender to their commander, and more ready even 
 than before to listen to his counsel. Washington 
 went on to say : 
 
 " If my conduct heretofore has not evinced to you 
 that I have been a faithful friend to the army, my dec- 
 laration of it at this time would be equally unavailing 
 and improper. But, as I was among the first who em- 
 barked in the cause of our common country ; as I have 
 never left your side one moment, save when called from 
 you on public duty ; as I have been the constant com- 
 panion and witness of your distresses, and not among 
 the last to feel and acknowledge your merits ; as I have 
 considered my own military reputation as inseparably 
 connected with that of the army ; as my heart has ever 
 expanded with joy, when I have heard its praises, and 
 my indignation has arisen, when the mouth of detrac- 
 tion has been opened against it ; it can scarcely be sup- 
 posed, at this late stage of the war, that I am indiffer- 
 ent to its interests,"
 
 208 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 He used all his personal influence to heal the 
 breach between the army and Congress, and he 
 brought the officers back to a more reasonable 
 mind. All the while he was writing to members 
 of Congress and doing his utmost to bring about 
 a just treatment of the army. 
 
 When the time came to disband the army, 
 Washington, ready as he was to go back to his 
 home, could not forget that the work of the past 
 seven years would not be completed until the peo- 
 ple which had become independent was united 
 under a strong government. He was the fore- 
 most man in the country ; he was also profoundly 
 aware of the difficulties through which the people 
 were yet to pass, and he addressed a long letter to 
 the governors of the several states. Congress was 
 weak and unable to take the lead. The states 
 were each provided with governments, and were 
 the real powers, but Washington saw clearly that 
 it would not do to have thirteen independent 
 governments in the country, each looking only 
 after its own interests. So in this letter he tried 
 to show the states the importance of four things : 
 
 1. An indissoluble union of the states under 
 one head. 
 
 2. The payment of all the debts contracted by 
 the country in the war. 
 
 3. The establishment of a uniform militia sys- 
 tem throughout the country. He did not advise 
 having a standing army, but he thought all the
 
 WASHINGTON RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION. 209 
 
 men should be drilled in their neighborhoods, 
 formed into companies, and be ready in any peril 
 to take up arms again. 
 
 4. The cultivation of a spirit of confidence be- 
 tween different parts of the country. He had 
 seen so much jealousy and prejudice that he knew 
 how dangerous these were to the peace of the 
 country. 
 
 At last the time came when the army was dis- 
 banded. A few of the troops only and their offi- 
 cers went with Washington to New York when 
 the British left the city. There was rejoicing 
 everywhere ; but it was a sorrowful moment when 
 Washington took leave in person of the officers 
 who had stood by him through the long, dreary 
 years of the war. He was about to leave the city 
 to be ferried across the North River to the Jersey 
 shore, and his old friends gathered to say good- 
 by at Fraunce's Tavern, in Broad Street. When 
 he entered the room he could scarcely command 
 his voice. He said a word or two, and they all 
 drank a farewell toast, as the custom was in those 
 days. Then Washington said : " I cannot come 
 to each of you to take my leave, but shall be 
 obliged if each of you will come and take me by 
 the hand." 
 
 General Knox stood nearest, and he held out 
 his hand. The tears were in Washington's eyes 
 as he turned to his old comrade and grasped his
 
 210 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 hand. He drew the strong man to him Rnox 
 was nearly twenty years younger than Washing- 
 ton, and very dear to him and kissed him. Not 
 a word could either of them speak. Another 
 general followed and another, each greeted with 
 the same affection ; and then Washington left the 
 room, passed through the corps of infantry which 
 stood on guard, and walked to Whitehall, followed 
 by the whole company, a silent procession. He 
 entered the barge, turned as the boat pushed off, 
 and waved his hat in silent adieu. The officers 
 returned the salute in the same way, and then 
 turned and in silence marched back to Fraunce's. 
 
 Washington went to Philadelphia. Congress 
 was in session at Annapolis, but the Treasury was 
 in Philadelphia. On receiving his commission as 
 commander-in-chief, Washington had announced 
 that he would receive no money for services, but 
 would keep an exact account of all his expenses. 
 That account he had kept as carefully and scrupu- 
 lously as any book-keeper in a bank, and he now 
 rendered it to the comptroller of the treasury. 
 It was in his own handwriting, every item set 
 down and explained. I know of few incidents in 
 Washington's career which show the character of 
 the man better than this. He held that a sacred 
 trust had been reposed in him, and he meant to 
 be faithful in the least particular. 
 
 On December 23, 1783, Congress was assem- 
 bled at Annapolis. The gallery was filled with
 
 WASHINGTON RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION. 211 
 
 ladies. The governor, council, and legislature of 
 Maryland, several officers, and the consul-general 
 of France were on the floor. The members of 
 Congress were seated and wore their hats to sig- 
 nify that they represented the government. The 
 spectators stood with bare heads. General Wash- 
 ington entered and was conducted by the secretary 
 of Congress to a seat. When all was quiet, Gen- 
 eral Mifflin, who was then president of Congress, 
 turned to Washington and said : " The United 
 States, in Congress assembled, is prepared to re- 
 ceive the communications of the commander-in- 
 chief." 
 
 Washington rose and read a short address, in 
 which he resigned his commission. He delivered 
 the paper into the hands of the president, who 
 replied with a little speech ; and Washington was 
 now a private citizen. The next day he left 
 Annapolis, and made all haste to return to his 
 beloved Mount Vernon.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 MR. WASHINGTON. 
 
 IT was hard for Washington at first to forget 
 that he was no longer commander-in-chief. He 
 had so long been accustomed to wake early, and 
 at once begin to think of the cares of the day, 
 that it was a novel sensation to discover that he 
 had no cares beyond looking after his estate. It 
 chanced that the winter of 1783-84 was a very 
 severe one. The roads were blocked with snow, 
 the streams were frozen, and Washington found 
 himself almost a prisoner at Mount Vernon. He 
 was not even able to go to Fredericksburg to see 
 his mother, until the middle of February. He 
 was not sorry for his enforced quiet. It left him 
 leisure to look over his papers and enjoy the com- 
 pany of his wife and his wife's grandchildren, 
 whom he had adopted as his own children- His 
 public papers had been put into the hands of 
 Colonel Richard Varick, in 1781, and they were 
 now returned to him, arranged and classified and 
 copied into volumes, in a manner to delight the 
 methodical soul of their author. 
 
 As the spring came on, and the snow and ice 
 melted, the roads were again open, and Mount
 
 MR. WASHINGTON. 213 
 
 Vernon was soon busy with its old hospitality. 
 Washington foresaw that he would have plenty 
 of visitors, but he did not mean to let his life be 
 at the mercy of everybody, and he meant to keep 
 up his regular habits and his plain living. " My 
 manner of living is plain," he wrote to a friend, 
 " and I do not mean to be put out of it. A glass 
 of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready, 
 and such as will be content to partake of them are 
 always welcome. Those who expect more will be 
 disappointed." 
 
 The house at Mount Vernon before this time 
 had been very much like that in which Washing- 
 ton was born ; now he found it necessary to en- 
 large it, and accordingly added an extension at 
 each end, making it substantially as it now ap- 
 pears. He was his own architect, and he drew 
 every plan and specification for the workmen with 
 his own hand. He amused himself also with lay- 
 ing out the grounds about his house, and plant- 
 ing trees, a great pleasure to him. Every 
 morning he arose early, and dispatched his cor- 
 respondence before breakfast, which was at half- 
 past seven. His horse stood ready at the door, 
 and as soon as breakfast was over, he was in the 
 saddle, visiting the various parts of his estate. 
 Sometimes he went hunting, for he never lost his 
 fondness for the chase. He dined at three o'clock, 
 and usually spent the afternoon in the library, 
 sometimes working at his papers till nine o'clock ;
 
 214 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 but when not pressed by business, and when his 
 house was full of guests, he spent the evening 
 with them. If he was alone with his family, he 
 read aloud to them ; and very often on Sundays, 
 when they could not go to church, he read aloud 
 a sermon and prayers. 
 
 Guests crowded upon him, and he was espe- 
 cially glad to see his old comrades. A visit from 
 La Fayette was the occasion of a very gay time, 
 when Mount Vernon was full of visitors, and the 
 days were given to sport. 
 
 Washington had constant applications from per- 
 sons who wished to write his life or paint his por- 
 trait. There was a sculptor named Wright who 
 undertook to get a model of Washington's face. 
 " Wright came to Mount Vernon," so Washing- 
 ton tells the story, " with the singular request 
 that I should permit him to take a model of my 
 face, in plaster of Paris, to which I consented 
 with some reluctance. He oiled my features, and 
 placing me flat upon my back, upon a cot, pro- 
 ceeded to daub my face with the plaster. Whilst 
 I was in this ludicrous attitude, Mrs. Washington 
 entered the room, and seeing my face thus over- 
 spread with plaster, involuntarily exclaimed. Her 
 cry excited in me a disposition to smile, which 
 gave my mouth a slight twist, or compression of 
 the lips, that is now observable in the busts which 
 Wright afterward made." A more successful 
 sculptor was Houdon. who was commissioned by
 
 MR. WASHINGTON. 215 
 
 Virginia to make a statue of Washington. He 
 also took a plaster model, and the fine statue 
 which he made stands in Richmond. A portrait 
 painter, named Pine, also paid a visit to Mount 
 Vernon about this time with a letter from one of 
 Washington's friends to whom Washington wrote 
 during Pine's visit : 
 
 " ' In for a penny, in for a pound,' is an old adage. 
 I am so hackneyed to the touches of the painter's pen- 
 cil 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 effect. 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 moves more readily to the thill than I do 
 to the painter's chair. It may easily be conceived, 
 therefore, that I yielded a ready obedience to your re- 
 quest, and to the views of Mr. Pine." 
 
 Washington was a most considerate and court- 
 eous host. He was very fond of young people, 
 but his silent ways and the reputation which he 
 enjoyed as a great man made it difficult for the 
 young always to be easy in his presence. The 
 story is told of his coming into a room once, when 
 dancing was going on, and the sport suddenly 
 ceased. Washington begged the young people to 
 go on, but they refused until he left the room. 
 Then, after they felt free again to dance, he came 
 back and peeped through the open door.
 
 216 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 He was very apt to affect older people in the 
 same way. He was a large man, with large 
 hands and feet, and eyes that looked steadily at 
 one. When not speaking he was very apt to for- 
 get there were other people in the room, and his 
 lips would move as he talked to himself while 
 thinking hard upon some matter. But he did 
 not neglect people. One of his visitors tells this 
 story : " The first evening I spent under the wing 
 of his hospitality, we sat a full hour at table, by 
 ourselves, without the least interruption, after the 
 family had retired. I was extremely oppressed 
 with a severe cold and excessive coughing, con- 
 tracted from the exposure of a harsh winter jour- 
 ney. He pressed me to use some remedies, but I 
 declined doing so. As usual, after retiring, my 
 coughing increased. When some time had 
 elapsed, the door of my room was gently opened, 
 and, on drawing my bed-curtains, to my utter as- 
 tonishment I beheld Washington himself stand- 
 ing at my bedside, with a bowl of hot tea in his 
 hand. I was mortified and distressed beyond ex- 
 pression." 
 
 Although Washington had now retired to 
 Mount Vernon, and seemed perfectly willing to 
 spend the rest of his days as a country gentleman, 
 it was impossible for him to do so. The leaders 
 of the country needed him, and he was himself 
 too deeply interested in affairs to shut his eyes 
 and ears. He was especially interested in the
 
 MR. WASHINGTON. 217 
 
 western country, which then meant the Ohio 
 Valley and the region bordered by the Great 
 Lakes. In the autumn of 1784, he made a tour 
 beyond the Alleghanies, for the purpose of look- 
 ing after the lands which he owned there ; but he 
 looked about him not only as a land-owner, but as 
 a wise, far-seeing statesman. 
 
 It was a wild journey to take in those days. 
 Washington traveled nearly seven hundred miles 
 on horseback, and had to carry camping conven- 
 iences and many of his supplies on pack-horses. 
 He had especially in mind to see if there might 
 be a way of connecting by a canal the water sys- 
 tem of Virginia with the Western rivers. After 
 he came back, he wrote a long letter to the gov- 
 ernor of Virginia, in which he gave the result of 
 his observation and reflection. He was not merely 
 considering how a profitable enterprise could be 
 undertaken, but he was thinking how necessary it 
 was to bind the western country to the eastern in 
 order to strengthen the Union. Many people had 
 crossed the mountains and were scattered in the 
 Mississippi Valley. They found the Mississippi 
 River a stream easy to sail down, but the Span- 
 iards held the mouth of the river, and if the 
 latter chose to make friends with those western 
 settlers, they might easily estrange them from the 
 eastern states. Besides this, Great Britain was 
 reaching down toward this last territory from 
 Canada. In every way, it seemed to him of im-
 
 218 GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
 
 portance that good roads and good water com- 
 munication should bind the East and the West 
 together. He thought Virginia was the state to 
 do this. It extended then far to the westward, 
 and it had great rivers flowing to the sea. It was 
 the most important state in the country, and it 
 was very natural that Washington should look to 
 it to carry out his grand ideas ; for the separate 
 states had the power at that time Congress was 
 unable to do anything. It is interesting to see 
 how Washington, who thought he could go back 
 to Mount Vernon and be a planter, was unable to 
 keep his mind from working upon a great plan 
 which intended the advantage of a vast number 
 of people. He was made to care for great things, 
 and he cared for them naturally.
 
 CHAPTER XXHI. 
 
 CALLED TO THE HELM. 
 
 WHILE Washington was busy planting trees at 
 Mount Vernon and making excursions to see his 
 western lands, the country was like a vessel which 
 had no captain or pilot, drifting into danger. 
 During the War for Independence, one of the 
 greatest difficulties which Washington had to 
 overcome was the unwillingness of the several 
 states to act together as one nation. They called 
 themselves the United States of America, but they 
 were very loosely united. Congress was the only 
 body that held them together, and Congress had 
 no power to make the states do what they did 
 not care to do. So long as they all were fighting 
 for independence, they managed to hold together ; 
 but as soon as the war was over and the states 
 were recognized as independent, it was very hard 
 to get them to do anything as one nation. Every 
 state was looking out for itself, and afraid that 
 the others might gain some advantage over it. 
 
 This could not go on forever. They must be 
 either wholly independent of one another or more 
 closely united. The difficulty was more apparent 
 where two states were neighbors. Virginia and
 
 220 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Massachusetts might manage to live apart, though 
 in that case troubles would be sure to arise, but 
 how could Virginia and Maryland maintain their 
 individual independence ? The Chesapeake and 
 Potomac seemed to belong to one as much as to 
 the other ; and when foreign vessels came up the 
 stream, was each state to have its own rules and 
 regulations ? No. They must treat strangers at 
 any rate in some way that would not make each 
 the enemy of the other. 
 
 These two states felt this so strongly that they 
 appointed a commission to consider what could 
 be done. Washington was a member of the com- 
 mission, and asked all the gentlemen to his house. 
 They not only discussed the special subject com- 
 mitted to them, but they looked at the whole mat- 
 ter of the regulation of commerce in a broad way, 
 and agreed to propose to the two states to appoint 
 other commissioners, who should advise with Con- 
 gress and ask all the states of the Union to send 
 delegates to a meeting where they could arrange 
 some system by which all the states should act 
 alike in their treatment of foreign nations and of 
 each other. 
 
 That was exactly what Congress ought to have 
 been able to do, but could not, because nobody 
 paid any attention to it. Nor did this meeting, 
 which was called at Annapolis in September, 1786, 
 accomplish very much. Only five states sent del- 
 egates, and these delegates were so carefully in-
 
 CALLED TO THE HELM. 221 
 
 structed not to do much, that it was impossible for 
 the convention to settle affairs. Still, it was a 
 step forward. It was very clear to the delegates 
 that a general convention of all the states was 
 necessary, and so they advised another meeting at 
 which all the thirteen states should be represented, 
 and the whole subject of the better union of the 
 States should be considered. 
 
 This meeting, which was the great Constitu- 
 tional Convention of 1787, was held in Philadel- 
 phia, and to it Virginia sent George Washington 
 as one of her delegates. He was heart and soul 
 in favor of the movement. It was what he had 
 been urging on all his correspondents for a long 
 time. He was at first reluctant to go back into 
 public life after having so completely retired ; but 
 as soon as he saw that it was his duty to accept 
 the appointment, he set to work to qualify himself 
 for taking part in the deliberations of the conven- 
 tion. Probably no one in America understood 
 better than he the character of Americans and the 
 special dangers through which the country was 
 passing ; but several, no doubt, were better in- 
 formed about the practical working of government 
 and about the history of other confederations. 
 He had never been very much of a reader of 
 books, but he had been a member for many years 
 of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and so knew 
 how government was carried on on a small scale, 
 and now he began to read diligently and to com-
 
 222 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 pare accounts of ancient and modern political 
 unions. He made abstracts of them, and, in fact, 
 went to work as if he were at school, so in earnest 
 was he to learn this important lesson. 
 
 On May 9, 1787, Washington set out from 
 Mount Vernon in his carriage for Philadelphia. 
 He was a famous man and could not go to the 
 convention without attracting attention. So, when 
 he reached Chester, in Pennsylvania, he was met 
 by General Mifflin, who was then Speaker of the 
 Assembly of Pennsylvania, and by various public 
 men, who escorted him on the way. At the ferry 
 across the Schuylkill, where Gray's Ferry Bridge 
 now is, he was met by a company of light horse, 
 and so entered the city. One of his first errands 
 was to call on Benjamin Franklin, who was Presi- 
 dent of Pennsylvania, as the governor was then 
 called. No doubt they talked long and earnestly 
 about the work before them, for they were the 
 two most eminent men in the convention. 
 
 Washington was made the presiding officer of 
 the convention. For four months it met from day 
 to day, engaged in the great work of forming the 
 Constitution under which we are now governed. 
 There were many long and earnest debates ; and 
 the members felt the importance of the work 
 upon which they were engaged. At last, the Con- 
 stitution was formed. It was not satisfactory to 
 everybody, but the members all agreed to sign it, 
 and recommend it to the country for adoption.
 
 CALLED TO THE HELM. 223 
 
 George Washington, as president of the conven- 
 tion, was the first to set his name down ; and there 
 is a tradition that as he took the pen in his hand 
 he arose from his seat, considered a moment, and 
 then said : 
 
 " Should the states reject this excellent Consti- 
 tution, the probability is that an opportunity will 
 never again be offered to cancel another in peace ; 
 the next will be drawn in blood." 
 
 Washington, as president of the convention, 
 was directed to draw up a letter, stating what the 
 convention had done, and send it with the Con- 
 stitution to Congress. This he did. He was not 
 entirely satisfied with the Constitution, as he 
 wrote to Patrick Henry : " I wish the Constitution 
 which is offered had been more perfect ; but I sin- 
 cerely believe it is the best that could be obtained 
 at this time. And, as a constitutional door is 
 opened for amendments hereafter, the adoption of 
 it, under the present circumstances of the Union, 
 is, in my opinion, desirable." 
 
 He said at first that he should not say anything 
 for or against the Constitution. If it were good, 
 it would work its way ; if bad, it would recoil on 
 those who drew it up. Perhaps he thought it was 
 not becoming in those who discussed its parts and 
 finally signed it, to do anything more than send it 
 out and leave the people to do what they would 
 with it. But he could not keep silent long. 
 Everybody was debating it; the principal mem
 
 224 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 bers of the convention were defending it ; there 
 was danger that it would not be adopted, and soon 
 Washington, in his letters, was using arguments 
 in support of it. There is no doubt that his name 
 at the head of the paper did a great deal toward 
 inducing people to accept it. It was more than a 
 year before enough states had adopted the Con- 
 stitution to make it the law of the land, but as 
 time went on, and it was more certain that the 
 new government would go into operation, the 
 question arose as to who should be the first Presi- 
 dent of the United States. It can hardly be 
 called a question ; at any rate, it was answered at 
 once by all. Every one named Washington, and 
 his friends began to write to him as if there could 
 be no doubt on this point. The most distinguished 
 advocate of the new Constitution, Alexander Ham- 
 ilton, who had been one of Washington's aids in 
 the war, wrote to him : 
 
 " I take it for granted, sir, you have concluded 
 to comply with what will, no doubt, be the general 
 call of your country in relation to the new govern- 
 ment. You will permit me to say that it is indis- 
 pensable you should lend yourself to its first oper- 
 ations. It is to little purpose to have introduced 
 a system, if the weightiest influence is not given 
 to its firm establishment in the outset." 
 
 Washington was by no means elated at the 
 prospect. On the contrary, he was extremely re- 
 luctant to be president. He was not old ; he was
 
 CALLED TO THE HELM. 225 
 
 fifty-seven years of age when the election took 
 place, but his hard life as a soldier had broken 
 his constitution, and the cares and anxieties he 
 had undergone had made him feel old. " At my 
 time of life," he wrote to La Fayette, u and under 
 my circumstances, the increasing infirmities of 
 nature and the growing love of retirement do not 
 permit me to entertain a wish beyond that of liv- 
 ing and dying an honest man on my own farm. 
 Let those follow the pursuits of ambition and 
 fame who have a keener relish for them, or who 
 may have more years in store for the enjoyment." 
 He was perfectly sincere in saying this. He knew 
 that some people would not believe him, and 
 would assert that he was only saying all this to 
 get the credit of humility ; but his best friends 
 believed him, and to one of these he wrote : " If 
 I should receive the appointment, and if I should 
 be prevailed upon to accept it, the acceptance 
 would be attended with more diffidence and re- 
 luctance than ever I experienced before in my life. 
 It would be, however, with a fixed and sole deter- 
 mination of lending whatever assistance might be 
 in my power to promote the public weal, in hopes 
 that, at a convenient and early period, my services 
 might be dispensed with, and that I might be per- 
 mitted once more to retire, to pass an unclouded 
 evening, after the stormy day of life, in the bosom 
 of domestic tranquillity." 
 
 There never was any doubt about the people's 
 choice. Every vote was cast for Washington.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 
 
 IT was on April 16, 1789, that Washington 
 left Mount Vernon for New York, where Con- 
 gress first met, and where he was to be inaugurated 
 president. The country all along the route was 
 eager to see him, and at every place through which 
 he passed there were processions and triumphal 
 arches and ringing of bells. Some of the signs 
 of welcome were queer, and some were beautiful 
 and touching. When he crossed the Schuylkill, 
 there was a series of arches under which he was to 
 ride ; and when he came to the first one, a laurel 
 wreath was let down upon his head. The people 
 who arranged that exhibition must have been very 
 anxious as to how it would turn out. At Trenton, 
 where everybody remembered the famous battle 
 he had fought, the women had put up a great 
 triumphal arch resting upon thirteen columns, 
 with a great dome crowned by a sunflower ; then, 
 as he rode through, he came upon a company of 
 women and girls who marched toward him, strew- 
 ing flowers and singing. When he reached New 
 York, guns were fired ; and a vast crowd of peo- 
 ple, headed by the governor, was waiting to re- 
 ceive him.
 
 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 227 
 
 Congress had begun its sessions at Federal Hall, 
 which stood where the present Treasury building 
 stands in Wall Street. The day set for the inaugu- 
 ration was April 30. Precisely at noon, the pro- 
 cession moved from the house where Washington 
 was lodged, through what is now Pearl Street and 
 Broad Street, to the Hall. Washington entered 
 the Senate chamber, where John Adams, who was 
 vice-president and therefore presiding over the 
 Senate, received him in the presence of the Senate 
 and House, and then escorted him to a balcony 
 at the front of the hall. A crimson-covered table 
 stood on it, holding a large Bible. Below, Broad 
 Street and Wall Street were packed with people, 
 as were also the windows and the roofs of the 
 houses near by. They set up a great shout as 
 Washington appeared. He came to the front, 
 laid his hand on his heart, and bowed to the 
 people. 
 
 The multitude could see the commanding fig- 
 ure of the great general as he stood bareheaded 
 on the balcony. He was dressed in a suit of 
 brown cloth of American manufacture, with knee- 
 breeches and white silk stockings and silver shoe- 
 buckles. His hair was dressed and powdered, as 
 was the custom then. They saw near him John 
 Adams and Robert R. Livingston, the chancellor 
 of the State of New York, and distinguished men 
 generals and others ; but their eyes were bent 
 on Washington. They saw Chancellor Livingston
 
 228 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 stand as if speaking to him, and the secretary of 
 the Senate holding the open Bible, on which Wash- 
 ington's hand lay. Those nearest could hear the 
 chancellor pronounce the oath of office and Wash- 
 ington's reply, " I swear so help me, God ! " 
 and could see him bow and kiss the Bible. 
 
 Then the chancellor stepped forward, waved his 
 hand, and said aloud : " Long live George Wash- 
 ington, President of the United States." At the 
 same time, a flag, as a signal, was run up on the 
 cupola of the Hall. Instantly cannon were fired, 
 bells rung, and the people shouted. Washington 
 saluted them, and then turned back into the 
 Senate chamber, where he read his inaugural ad- 
 dress, in a low voice, for he was evidently deeply 
 affected, great occasions always solemnized him, 
 and after the address, he went on foot, with 
 many others, to St. Paul's Church, where prayers 
 were read by Dr. Provoost, Bishop of the Episco- 
 pal Church, and one of the chaplains of Congress. 
 At night, there were fireworks and bonfires. 
 
 Thus, with the good-will of the people and the 
 confidence of all the sections, however suspicious 
 they might be of one another, Washington be- 
 gan his career as president. For eight years he re- 
 mained in office. His character was now so fixed 
 that there is little new to be learned about it 
 from that time forward ; but there were many 
 events that made more clear how wise, how just, 
 how honorable, and how faithful to his trust he
 
 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 229 
 
 was. He had been very loath to take upon him- 
 self the duties of president, but when once he had 
 been placed in the chair, he let nothing stand in 
 the way of the most thorough discharge of his 
 duties. 
 
 Now came into play all those habits which he 
 had been forming from boyhood. As president 
 of the whole people, it was his business to have an 
 oversight of all the interests of the young nation, 
 and, as the first president, he had the opportunity 
 of setting an example to those who were to come 
 after him. It is one of the most excellent gifts 
 to the American people that they should have had 
 for their first president a man so well rounded 
 and so magnanimous as George ; Washington. 
 There were as yet no political parties, though 
 there were the seeds of parties in the opposite 
 ways in which public men regarded the new Con- 
 stitution. Washington called to his cabinet men 
 who disliked one another, and who were really as 
 much opposed to one another as if they belonged 
 to antagonistic parties; but they never could 
 draw Washington away from a strict impartiality. 
 He made Thomas Jefferson secretary of state, 
 because he was most thoroughly acquainted with 
 foreign affairs ; and he made Alexander Hamilton 
 secretary of the treasury, because he had shown 
 himself the most competent man to plan a way 
 out of the greatest peril which beset the young 
 nation. But Jefferson and Hamilton cordially
 
 230 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 disliked each other, and were decidedly of opposite 
 ways of thinking. 
 
 Washington, however, did not rest contented 
 with choosing the best men to carry on the gov- 
 ernment. In those days, when the country had 
 only a small population, a small area, and a small 
 business, it was possible for one man to know very 
 much more fully the details of government than it 
 is now. His lifelong habits of methodical indus- 
 try enabled Washington to get through an amount 
 of work which seems extraordinary. For exam- 
 ple, he read from beginning to end all the letters 
 which had passed between Congress and foreign 
 governments since the treaty of peace in 1783, 
 making abstracts and briefs of them, so as to 
 know thoroughly the whole history of the rela- 
 tions of the country to foreign governments. He 
 required from every head of department whom 
 he found in office a report of the state of public 
 business. He treated these reports as he had the 
 foreign correspondence, and in this way he mas- 
 tered all the internal affairs of the nation. The 
 result was that he had his own judgment about 
 any matter of importance which came up, and 
 was not obliged to follow the lead of the cabinet 
 officers. 
 
 There were, of course, only a few public offices 
 to be filled then, and it was quite possible for 
 Washington to know personally most of the men 
 who should be appointed to fill them. He thought
 
 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 231 
 
 this one of the most important parts of his work 
 as president ; because he knew well that it is not 
 rules and regulations, but men, that carry on any 
 government or any business, and that, if he could 
 put honest and capable men, who were unselfishly 
 devoted to the country, into all the offices, he 
 would secure a wise administration of the laws. 
 From the first, he began to be besieged by appli- 
 cants for office, and he made immediately the very 
 sensible rule that he would not give any pledge 
 or encouragement to any applicant. He heard 
 what they and their friends had to say, and then 
 made up his mind deliberately. He had, however, 
 certain principles in his mind which governed him 
 in making appointments, and they were so high 
 and honorable, and show so well the character of 
 the man, that I copy here what he had said with 
 regard to the matter : 
 
 " Scarcely a day passes in which applications of one 
 kind or another do not arrive ; insomuch that, had I 
 not early adopted some general principles, I should be- 
 fore this time have been wholly occupied in this business. 
 As it is, I have found the number of answers, which I 
 have been necessitated to give in my own hand, an al- 
 most insupportable burden to me. The points in which 
 all these answers have agreed in substance are, that, 
 should it be my lot to go again into public office, I 
 would go without being under any possible engage- 
 ments of any nature whatsoever ; that, so far as I knew 
 my own heart, I would not be in the remotest degree
 
 232 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 influenced in making nominations by motives arising 
 from the ties of family or blood ; and that, on the other 
 hand, three things, in my opinion, ought principally to 
 be regarded, namely : the fitness of characters to fill 
 offices, the comparative claims from the former merits 
 and sufferings in service of the different candidates, 
 and the distribution of appointments in as equal a pro- 
 portion as might be to persons belonging to the differ- 
 ent States in the Union. Without precautions of this 
 kind, I clearly foresaw the endless jealousies and pos- 
 sibly the fatal consequences to which a government, 
 depending altogether on the good-will of the people for 
 its establishment, would certainly be exposed in its 
 early stages. Besides, I thought, whatever the effect 
 might be in pleasing or displeasing any individuals at 
 the present moment, a due concern for my own reputa- 
 tion, not less decisively than a sacred regard to the in- 
 terests of the community, required that I should hold 
 myself absolutely at liberty to act, while in office, with 
 a sole reference to justice and the public good." 
 
 To protect himself from being at everybody's 
 call, and so unable to be of the greatest service, 
 he established certain rules. Every Tuesday, be- 
 tween the hours of three and four, he received 
 whoever might come. Every Friday afternoon 
 Mrs. Washington received with him. At all 
 other times, he could be seen only by special ap- 
 pointment. He never accepted invitations to din- 
 ner, and that has been the rule of presidents ever 
 since ; but he invited constantly to his own table 
 foreign ministers, members of the government,
 
 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 233 
 
 and other guests. He received no visits on Sun- 
 day. He went to church with his family in the 
 morning, and spent the afternoon by himself. 
 The evening he spent with his family and some- 
 times had with him an intimate friend. 
 
 He still kept up his old habit of rising at four 
 and going to bed at nine. Mrs. Washington had 
 a grave little formula with which she used to dis- 
 miss visitors in the evening : 
 
 " The General always retires at nine o'clock, 
 and I usually precede him." 
 
 His recreation he took chiefly in driving and 
 riding. He never lost his liking for a good horse, 
 and he knew what a good horse was. He had a 
 servant who had been General Braddock's sen 
 vant, and had been with Washington ever since 
 the battle of the Monongahela. Bishop, as he 
 was named, was a terrible disciplinarian, and de- 
 voted to his master's interests. At sunrise every 
 day he would go to the stables, where the boys 
 had been at work since dawn grooming the gen- 
 eral's horses. Woe to them if they had been 
 careless ! Bishop marched in with a muslin 
 handkerchief in his hand and passed it over the 
 coats of the horses ; if a single stain appeared on 
 the muslin, the boy who groomed the horse had 
 to take a thrashing. It was no light matter to 
 groom a horse in those days, for, just as the heada 
 of gentlemen were plastered and bewigged, so the 
 horses were made to undergo what would seem to
 
 234 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 us now a rather absurd practice. The night be- 
 fore a horse was to be ridden, he was covered from 
 head to foot with a paste made of whiting and 
 other ingredients ; then he was well wrapped in 
 cloth and laid to sleep on clean straw. By the 
 next morning the paste had hardened, and it was 
 then vigorously rubbed in, and the horse curried 
 and brushed. The result was a glossy and satiny 
 coat. The hoofs were blackened and polished, 
 the mouth washed, the teeth picked and cleaned, 
 and the horse was then ready to be saddled and 
 brought out. 
 
 Mrs. Washington was a domestic, home-loving 
 body, but a lady of great dignity and sweetness 
 of disposition, who moved serenely by the side of 
 her husband, receiving his guests in the same 
 spirit. She never talked about politics, but was 
 evenly courteous to every one. She was like her 
 husband, too, in her exactness and her attention 
 to little details of economy. While she was in 
 the midst of her duties as president's wife, she 
 wrote to one of her family : " I live a very dull 
 life here, and know nothing that passes in the 
 town. I never go to any public place ; indeed, I 
 think I am more like a state prisoner than any- 
 thing else. There are certain bounds set for me 
 which I must not depart from ; and, as I cannot 
 do as I like, I am obstinate and stay at home a 
 great deal." But her real heart was at Mount 
 Vernon and in her household affairs. " I send to
 
 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 235 
 
 dear Maria," she writes, " A piece of chene to 
 make her a frock, and a piece of muslin, which I 
 hope is long enough for an apron for you. In ex- 
 change for it, I beg you will give me a worked 
 muslin apron you have, like my gown that I made 
 just before I left home, of worked muslin, as I 
 wish to make a petticoat to my gown, of the two 
 aprons." 
 
 Washington himself never lost sight of Mount 
 Vernon. Just as in his absence, during the war, 
 he required weekly reports from the manager of 
 his plantation, so now he kept up the same prac- 
 tice. Occasionally, when Congress was not in 
 session, he could go home, but his visits were 
 short and rare. It may seem strange to some 
 that a soldier and a statesman like Washington 
 should be also an ardent farmer ; but that he was. 
 I suppose the one occupation that Washington 
 loved was farming ; in his earlier life there is no 
 doubt that he cared most for a soldier's fortune, 
 but after he was fairly in possession of Mount 
 Vernon, the care of that place became his passion, 
 and for the rest of his life he was first and last a 
 farmer. For my part, I like to think of Wash- 
 ington in this way, for the one indispensable art is 
 the art of agriculture ; all other arts are built upon 
 it, and the man who has a piece of land, and can 
 raise from it enough to feed and clothe and shel- 
 ter himself and his family, is the most indepen- 
 dent of men, and has a real place on the earth 
 which he can call his own.
 
 236 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 During his presidency, Washington made two 
 tours through the country, one into the East- 
 ern and one into the Southern States. He was 
 received with special honor in New England, for 
 he was less familiarly known to the people there, 
 and they made a great holiday in every town 
 through which the president passed. By these 
 tours, he made himself acquainted with the needs 
 of the country and with the persons who were the 
 leaders of the people. 
 
 But there were parts which he could not visit, 
 yet in which he felt the deepest interest and con- 
 cern. We have seen how, from time to time, he 
 visited the country beyond the Alleghanies, and 
 how much importance he attached to the settle- 
 ment of the West. The greatest difficulty in the 
 early days was through the relations which the 
 people had with the Indians. Washington knew 
 the Indians well ; he knew how to get along with 
 them, and he knew also what dangerous enemies 
 they were. At the end of his first term as presi- 
 dent, it became necessary to send a military expe- 
 dition to the frontiers, and General St. Clair was 
 placed at the head of it. When he came to bid 
 Washington good-by, his old chief gave him a 
 sqleinn warning : " You have your instructions 
 from the secretary of war. I had a strict eye to 
 them, and will add but one word : Beware of a 
 surprise ! You know how the Indians fight. I 
 repeat it beware of a surprise I "
 
 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 237 
 
 But St. Clair was surprised and terribly de- 
 feated. It was a bitter disappointment to Wash- 
 ington, who received the news of the disaster one 
 December day when he was at dinner. His pri- 
 vate secretary, Mr. Lear, was called out of the 
 room by a servant, who said there was a messen- 
 ger without who insisted bn seeing the president. 
 Mr. Lear went to him and found that he was an 
 officer from St. Glair's army with despatches which 
 he refused to give to any one but President Wash- 
 ington. Mr. Lear went back to the dining-room 
 and whispered this to Washington, who excused 
 himself to the company and went out to hear the 
 officer's news. He came back shortly after and 
 resumed his place at the table, but without ex- 
 plaining the reason of his absence. He was, how- 
 ever, absorbed, as he often was, and muttered to 
 himself ; and one of his neighbors caught the 
 words, " I knew it would be so ! " 
 
 It was an evening when Mrs. Washington was 
 holding a reception, and the gentlemen, when 
 leaving the dining-room, went directly into the 
 drawing-room. Washington went with them. He 
 was calm and showed no signs of disturbance. He 
 spoke as usual to every one, and at last the guests 
 had gone. Mrs. Washington also retired, and the 
 General was left alone with his secretary. He was 
 silent at first, walking to and fro in the room. 
 Then he took a seat by the fire, and motioned 
 Mr. Lear to sit by him. He could no longer con-
 
 238 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 tain himself ; he must have some relief, and sud- 
 denly he burst out : " It 's all over ! St. Clair 's 
 defeated ! routed ! The officers nearly all killed ; 
 the men by wholesale ; the rout complete too 
 shocking to think of, and a surprise into the bar- 
 gain ! " He jerked out the sentences as if he were 
 in pain. He got up and walked up and down 
 again like a caged lion, stood still, and once more 
 burst out in passionate speech: "Yes, here, on 
 this very spot I took leave of him ; I wished him 
 success and honor. * You have your instructions 
 from the secretary of war,' said I. ' I had a strict 
 eye to them, and will add but one word : BEWARE 
 OF A SURPRISE ! You know how the Indians 
 fight ; I repeat it BEWARE OF A SURPRISE ! ' 
 He went off with that, my last warning, thrown 
 into his ears. And yet ! To suffer that army 
 to be cut to pieces, butchered, tomahawked, by a 
 surprise the very thing I guarded him against ! '* 
 
 and the strong man threw up his hands while 
 he shook with terrible emotion : " He 's worse 
 than a murderer ! How can he answer f cr it to 
 his country ! The blood of the slain is upon him 
 
 the curse of widows and orphans the curse 
 of Heaven ! " 
 
 Mr. Lear was dumb. He had never seen or 
 heard Washington like this. It was a pent-up 
 volcano bursting forth. Washington himself re- 
 covered his control. He sat down again. He was 
 silent. He felt, as a strong man does who has for
 
 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 239 
 
 a moment broken the bounds of restraint, a noble 
 shame, not at his indignation, but at 'having for 
 a moment thus given way. " This must not go 
 beyond this room," he said presently, in a quiet, 
 almost whispered tone. Then he added, after a 
 pause : " General St. Clair shall have justice. I 
 looked hastily through the despatches ; saw the 
 whole disaster, but not all the particulars. I will 
 receive him without displeasure ; I will hear him 
 without prejudice ; he shall have full justice." 
 
 Washington kept his word. Perhaps all the 
 more for this outbreak, he determined that St. 
 Clair should be treated with scrupulous justice. 
 But the incident illustrates the character of Wash- 
 ington. Deep down in his nature was a passionate 
 regard for law, for obedience, for strict account- 
 ability. It was this which made him in minor 
 matters so punctual, so orderly, so precise in his 
 accounts ; in larger matters, it made him unself- 
 ishly and wholly consecrated to the country which 
 trusted him, just in all his dealings, and the soul 
 of honor. This consuming passion for law made 
 him govern himself, keep in restraint the fierce 
 wrath which leaped up within him, and measure 
 his acts and words with an iron will. The two 
 notable scenes when his anger blazed out and 
 burned up his self-control as if it were a casing 
 of straw were caused by Lee's faithlessness at 
 Monmouth and St. Glair's carelessness. On each 
 of these occasions, it was not an offense against
 
 240 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 himself which woke his terrible wrath ; it was an 
 offense against the country, against God ; for in 
 the moment of his anger he saw each of these 
 two men false to the trust reposed in him. 
 
 Yet the difficulties with the Indians were as 
 nothing to the perils which beset the country in 
 its intercourse with Europe. At that time, the 
 United States was almost a part of Europe. All 
 its business was with France and England. It had 
 declared and achieved political independence, but 
 was nevertheless connected by a thousand ties of 
 commerce, law, and custom with the Old World. 
 The fierce revolution in France was in part set in 
 flame by the example of America ; and when war 
 broke out between England and France, there was 
 scarcely a man in America who did not take sides 
 in his mind with one country or the other. There 
 was the greatest possible danger that the country 
 would be drawn into the quarrels of Europe. 
 
 In the midst of all these commotions, when the 
 very members of his cabinet were acting and 
 speaking as if they were the servants either of 
 England or of France, Washington maintained 
 his impartiality, and saw to it that the United 
 States was kept out of European disputes. What 
 was the result ? He saved the country from fear- 
 ful disaster ; for he was like the pilot that conducts 
 the ship through rapids and past dangerous reefs. 
 But he himself suffered incredible contumely and 
 reviling from the hot-headed partisans who were
 
 PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 241 
 
 ready to plunge the country into the dispute. " If 
 ever a nation," said one newspaper, " was de- 
 bauched by a man, the American nation has been 
 debauched by Washington. If ever a nation was 
 deceived by a man, the American nation has been 
 deceived by Washington. Let his conduct, then, 
 be an example to future ages ; let it serve to be a 
 warning that no man may be an idol ; let the his- 
 tory of the federal government instruct mankind 
 that the mask of patriotism may be worn to con- 
 ceal the foulest designs against the liberties of the 
 people." That is the way some people wrote about 
 Washington when he was president.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE FAREWELL. 
 
 WHEN Washington had completed his two 
 terms of office, he was unalterably fixed in his 
 resolution to go back to private life. The reasons 
 which had induced him to accept the presidency 
 against his inclination were no longer forcible. 
 The government was established. The country 
 was on the road to prosperity. No one man any 
 longer had it in his power greatly to help or greatly 
 to hurt the people. Moreover he was weary of 
 public life. He was tired of standing up and being 
 pelted with mud by all sorts of obscure people ; of 
 having his motives misconstrued ; of listening to 
 the endless bickerings of public men about him. 
 For more than twenty years he had really been at 
 the head of the nation. Now he meant to go back 
 to his farm ; but before he went, he had it in him 
 to say one word to his countrymen. 
 
 That Washington should write his famous 
 " Farewell Address to the People of the United 
 States" indicates how accurately he understood 
 his position. He was a great man, a splendid 
 figure in history, and he knew it. But he was too 
 great to be vain of his distinction. He was pot
 
 THE FAREWELL. 243 
 
 too great to use even his distinction for the ben- 
 efit of his country. He knew perfectly well that 
 any speech which he might make when he retired 
 from office would be listened to as almost no other 
 political paper was ever listened to by a people, 
 and he determined to gather into his " Farewell 
 Address" the weightiest judgment which he could 
 pronounce, as summing up the result of his long 
 study and observation of public affairs. He wrote, 
 of course, with a special eye to the needs of the 
 people who were immediately to hear and read the 
 address. They had dangers about them which 
 have since largely disappeared ; for example, we 
 do not especially need to-day the caution which 
 the men of that day needed when Washington 
 wrote : " A passionate attachment of one nation 
 for another produces a variety of evils." 
 
 Nevertheless, the address is so full of sound 
 political wisdom that I wish it might be read in 
 every public school in the land on the 22d day 
 of February. In it the large-minded Washington 
 speaks, thinking of the whole country, and pour- 
 ing into his words the ripe and full judgment of 
 a man whose one thought in his life had been to 
 serve his country faithfully. 
 
 The observance of Washington's birthday began 
 in a quiet way during Washington's lifetime. As 
 early as 1783, when the war was over, but before 
 the treaty of peace was signed, some gentlemen 
 met together to celebrate it, and during his presi-
 
 244 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 dency, the day was observed by members of Con- 
 gress and others who paid their respects to him, 
 and the observance of the day became more and 
 more general, especially after Washington's death. 
 The day before he was to leave office, Wash- 
 ington gave a farewell dinner to the Foreign Min- 
 isters and their wives, and eminent public men, 
 including the new President, John Adams. The 
 company was in excellent spirits, until Washing- 
 ton raised his glass to wish them all good health, 
 after the fashion of those days. He smiled and 
 said : " Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last time 
 I shall drink your health as a public man ; I do it 
 with sincerity, wishing you all possible happiness." 
 Perhaps he was thinking at the moment of his 
 own happiness in going back to private life ; but 
 it suddenly rushed over the minds of those present 
 what such a toast meant, and all mirth was gone. 
 The next day he attended the ceremonies of the 
 inauguration of John Adams. As he moved toward 
 the door to retire, there was a rush of the people 
 toward him. They cheered and cheered as he 
 passed into the street. He answered, smiling and 
 waving his hat, his gray hairs blown by the wind. 
 The people followed him to the door of his house. 
 He turned, as he entered, and looked on them. 
 Now it was his place to feel the pain of parting. 
 After all, he was going away from those busy 
 haunts where he was sure to see men who honored 
 and loved him. Tears stood in his eyes ; his face
 
 THE FAREWELL. 245 
 
 was pale and grave ; he raised his hand, but he 
 could not trust himself to speak. 
 
 He was once more at Mount Vernon, in the 
 quiet of his home, and again the days went by in 
 that regular routine which suited him. Here is a 
 letter which he wrote to James McHenry, the 
 secretary of war : 
 
 " I am indebted to you for several unacknowledged 
 letters ; but never mind that ; go on as if you had an- 
 swers. You are at the source of information, and can 
 find many things to relate ; while I have nothing to say 
 that could either inform or amuse a secretary of war 
 in Philadelphia. I might tell him that I begin my 
 diurnal course with the sun ; that, if my hirelings are 
 not in their places at that time I send them messages of 
 sorrow for their indisposition ; that, having put these 
 wheels in motion, I examine the state of things further ; 
 that, the more they are probed, the deeper I find the 
 wounds which my buildings have sustained by an ab- 
 sence and neglect of eight years ; that, by the time I 
 have accomplished these matters, breakfast (a little after 
 seven o'clock, about the time, I presume, you are taking 
 leave of Mrs. McHenry) is ready ; that, this being over, 
 I mount my horse and ride round my farms, which em- 
 ploys me until it is time to dress for dinner, at which 
 I rarely miss seeing strange faces, come, as they say, 
 out of respect for me. Pray, would not the word curi- 
 osity answer as well ? And how different this from 
 having a few social friends at a cheerful board ! The 
 usual time of sitting at table, a walk, and tea, bring me
 
 246 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 within the dawn of candle light ; previous to which, if 
 not prevented by company, I resolve that, as soon as 
 the glimmering taper supplies the place of the great 
 luminary, I will retire to my writing-table and acknowl- 
 edge the letters I have received ; but when the lights 
 are brought, I feel tired and disinclined to engage in 
 this work, conceiving that the next night will do as well. 
 The next night comes, and with it the same causes for 
 postponement, and so on. This will account for your 
 letter remaining so long unacknowledged ; and, having 
 given you the history of a day, it will serve for a year, 
 and I am persuaded you will not require a second edi- 
 tion of it. But it may strike you that in this detail no 
 mention is made of any portion of time allotted for 
 reading. The remark would be just, for I have not 
 looked into a book since I came home ; nor shall I be 
 able to do it until I have discharged my workmen, 
 probably not before the nights grow longer, when pos- 
 sibly I may be looking in Doomsday Book. At present 
 I shall only add that I am always and affectionately 
 yours." 
 
 But the time came when a letter to the secre- 
 tary of war was not a piece of pleasantry. There 
 was imminent danger of war with France ; Con- 
 gress issued an order to raise an army, and Presi- 
 dent John Adams immediately nominated George 
 Washington as commander-in-chief. The Senate 
 promptly confirmed the nomination, and Washing- 
 ton accepted on two conditions : that the principal 
 officers should be such as he approved, and that 
 he should not be called into the field till the army
 
 THE FAREWELL, 247 
 
 required his presence. He did not think there 
 would be war, but he believed the best way to 
 prevent it was to show that the people were ready 
 for it. 
 
 It was in March, 1797, that Washington left 
 Philadelphia for Mount Vernon ; in July, 1798, 
 he was appointed commander-in-chief. He con- 
 ducted most of his business by letter, though he 
 spent a month in Philadelphia. He took up again 
 the burden he had laid down, quietly, readily, 
 since it was necessary, and without complaint ; but 
 he had not very long to bear it. 
 
 On December 12, 1799, he had been riding over 
 his farms as usual, but a rain and sleet storm came 
 up, and he returned to the house chilled through 
 by the exposure. The next day was still stormy, 
 and he kept indoors ; but he had taken cold and 
 suffered from a sore throat. He passed the even- 
 ing with his family, however, read the papers, and 
 talked cheerfully. In the night he had an attack- 
 of ague, and on the next morning, which was 
 Saturday, the 14th, he breathed with difficulty, and 
 messengers were sent for one doctor after another. 
 He suffered acutely, but did not complain. To- 
 ward evening he said to Dr. Craik : " I die hard, 
 but I am not afraid to die. I believed from my 
 first attack that 1 should not survive it. My breath 
 cannot last long." He said little more, only 
 thanked his attendants for their kindness, and 
 bade them give themselves no further trouble,
 
 248 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 simply to let him die in quietness. Between ten 
 and eleven o'clock that night he died. 
 
 Chief Justice Marshall, when the news reached 
 Congress, said a few simple words in the House 
 of Representatives, and asked that a committee 
 be appointed in conjunction with a committee of 
 the Senate " to consider on the most suitable 
 manner of paying honor to the memory of the 
 man^rstf in war, first in peace, and first in the 
 hearts of his fellow-citizens ; " but no manner has 
 been found more suitable than the study of that 
 life which is the most priceless gift to America.
 
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