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diff --git a/12300-h/12300-h.htm b/12300-h/12300-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9566fc --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/12300-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11090 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The True George Washington, by Paul Leicester Ford</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.right {text-align: right; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +p.caption {font-weight: bold; + text-align: center; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12300 ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:55%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<h1>The True George Washington</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Paul Leicester Ford</h2> + +<p class="center"> +Author of “The Honorable Peter Stirling”<br/> +Editor of “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson” and<br/> +“The Sayings of Poor Richard”<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +“That I have foibles, and perhaps many of them, I shall not deny. I +should esteem myself, as the world would, vain and empty, were I to arrogate +perfection.”<br/> +—<i>Washington</i> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +“Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in +malice.”<br/> +—<i>Shakespeare</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +1896<br/> +BY<br/> +J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Tenth Edition</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +Electrotyped and Printed by J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U.S.A. +</p> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p class="center"> +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED<br/> +TO<br/> +WILLIAM F. HAVEMEYER,<br/> +<br/> +IN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE INDEBTEDNESS OF THE AUTHOR TO HIS COLLECTION<br/> +OF<br/> +WASHINGTONIANA. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap00">Note</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I.—FAMILY RELATIONS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II.—PHYSIQUE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III.—EDUCATION</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV.—RELATIONS WITH THE FAIR SEX</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V.—FARMER AND PROPRIETOR</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI.—MASTER AND EMPLOYER</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII.—SOCIAL LIFE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII.—TASTES AND AMUSEMENTS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX.—FRIENDS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X.—ENEMIES</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI.—SOLDIER</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII.—CITIZEN AND OFFICE-HOLDER</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">INDEX</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>List of Illustrations with Notes</h2> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus01">MINIATURE OF WASHINGTON. By JAMES SHARPLESS</a><br/> +Painted for Washington in 1795, and presented by him to Nelly (Calvert) Stuart, +widow of John Parke Custis, Washington’s adopted son. Her son George +Washington Parke Custis, in whose presence the sittings were made, often spoke +of the likeness as “almost perfect.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus02">MEMORIAL TABLET OF LAURENCE AND AMEE WASHINGTON, IN SULGRAVE +CHURCH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE</a><br/> +The injury of the effigy of Laurence Washington and the entire disappearance of +the effigy of Amee antedate the early part of the present century, and probably +were done in the Puritan period. Since the above tracing was made the brasses +of the eleven children have been stolen, leaving nothing but the lettering and +the shield of the Washington arms.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus03">BETTY WASHINGTON, WIFE OF FIELDING LEWIS</a><br/> +Painted about 1750, and erroneously alleged to be by Copley. Original in the +possession of Mr. R. Byrd Lewis, of Marmion, Virginia.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus04">JOHN AND MARTHA CUSTIS</a><br/> +Original in the possession of General G.W. Custis Lee, of Lexington, Virginia.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus05">MINIATURE OF ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS</a><br/> +From the miniature by Gilbert Stuart, in the possession of her grandson, Edward +Parke Lewis Custis, of Hoboken, New Jersey.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus06">FICTITIOUS PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON</a><br/> +The lettering reads, “Done from an original Drawn from the Life, by +Alex’r Campbell of Williamsburg in Virginia. Published as the act directs +9 Sept’r 1775 by C. Shepherd.” It is the first engraved portrait of +Washington, and was issued to satisfy the English curiosity concerning the new +commander-in-chief of the rebels. From the original print in the possession of +Mr. W.F. Havemeyer, of New York.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus07">COPY SHEET FROM YOUNG MAN’S COMPANION</a><br/> +The sheet from which Washington modelled his handwriting, and to which his +earliest script shows a marked resemblance. From the original in the possession +of the author.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus08">LETTER TO MRS. FAIRFAX</a><br/> +Showing changes and corrections made by Washington at a later date. From +original copy-book in the Washington MSS. in the Department of State.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus09">PORTRAIT OF MARY PHILIPSE</a><br/> +From the original formerly in the possession of Mr. Frederick Philipse.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus10">PORTRAIT OF MARTHA CUSTIS</a><br/> +Alleged to have been painted by Woolaston about 1757. It has been asserted by +Mr. L.W. Washington and Mr. Moncure D. Conway that this is a portrait of Betty +Washington Lewis, but in this they are wholly in error, as proof exists that it +is a portrait of Mrs. Washington before her second marriage.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus11">SURVEY OF MOUNT VERNON HILLS</a><br/> +Made by Washington as a boy, and one of the earliest specimens of his work. The +small drawing of the house represents it as it was before Washington enlarged +it, and is the only picture of it known. Original in the Department of State.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus12">MOUNTAIN ROAD LOTTERY TICKET</a><br/> +From the original in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus13">FAMILY GROUP</a><br/> +Painted by Edward Savage about 1795, and issued as a large engraving in 1798. +The original picture is now in the possession of Mr. William F. Havemeyer, of +New York.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus14">DINNER INVITATION</a><br/> +The official invitation while President, from the original in the possession of +the author.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus15">DANCING AGREEMENT</a><br/> +This gives only the first few names, many more following. The original was +formerly in the possession of Mr. Thomas Biddle, of Philadelphia.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus16">BOOK-PLATE OF WASHINGTON</a><br/> +This is a slight variation from the true Washington coat of arms, the changes +being introduced by Washington. From the original in the possession of the +author.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus17">SURVEY OF WAKEFIELD</a><br/> +Washington’s birthplace. The survey was made in 1743, on the property +coming into the possession of Augustine Washington (second) from his father, +with the object of readjusting the boundary-lines. Original in the possession +of Mr. William F. Havemeyer, of New York.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus18">WASHINGTON FAMILY BIBLE</a><br/> +This record, with the exception of the interlined note concerning Betty +Washington Lewis, is in the handwriting of George Washington, and was written +when he was about sixteen years old. Original in the possession of Mrs. Lewis +Washington, of Charlestown, West Virginia.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus19">MINIATURE OF MRS. WASHINGTON</a><br/> +By an unknown artist. From the original in the possession of General G.W. +Custis Lee, of Lexington, Virginia.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus20">EARLIEST AUTOGRAPH OF WASHINGTON</a><br/> +On a fly-leaf of the volume to which this title belongs is written, “This +autograph of Genl. Washington’s name is believed to be the earliest +specimen of his writing, when he was probably not more than 8 or 9 years of +age.” This is a note by G.C. Washington, to whom Washington’s +library descended. Original in the possession of the Boston Athenaeum.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus21">RULES OF CIVILITY</a><br/> +First page of Washington’s boyish transcript, written when he was about +thirteen years of age. Used here by courtesy of Mr. S.M. Hamilton and +“Public Opinion,” who are preparing a fac-simile edition of the +entire rules.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus22">LIFE MASK BY HOUDON</a><br/> +Taken by Houdon in October, 1785. From the replica in the Historical Society of +Pennsylvania.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus23">TITLE-PAGE OF JOURNAL OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1754</a><br/> +Of this first edition but two copies are known. From the original in the Lenox +Library.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#illus24">PRESIDENTIAL HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA</a><br/> +Philadelphia offered to furnish the house for the President during the time +Congress sat in that city, but Washington “wholly declined living in any +public building,” and rented this house from Robert Morris. Though it was +considered one of the finest in the city, Washington several times complained +of being cramped.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus01"></a> +<img src="images/img01.jpg" width="491" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">SHARPLESS MINIATURE OF WASHINGTON, 1795</p> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap00"></a>Note</h2> + +<p> +In every country boasting a history there may be observed a tendency to make +its leaders or great men superhuman. Whether we turn to the legends of the +East, the folk-lore of Europe, or the traditions of the native races of +America, we find a mythology based upon the acts of man gifted with superhuman +powers. In the unscientific, primeval periods in which these beliefs were born +and elaborated into oral and written form, their origin is not surprising. But +to all who have studied the creation of a mythology, no phase is a more curious +one than that the keen, practical American of to-day should engage in the same +process of hero-building which has given us Jupiter, Wotan, King Arthur, and +others. By a slow evolution we have well-nigh discarded from the lives of our +greatest men of the past all human faults and feelings; have enclosed their +greatness in glass of the clearest crystal, and hung up a sign, “Do not +touch.” Indeed, with such characters as Washington, Franklin, and Lincoln +we have practically adopted the English maxim that “the king can do no +wrong.” In place of men, limited by human limits, and influenced by human +passions, we have demi-gods, so stripped of human characteristics as to make us +question even whether they deserve much credit for their sacrifices and deeds. +</p> + +<p> +But with this process of canonization have we not lost more than we have +gained, both in example and in interest? Many, no doubt, with the greatest +veneration for our first citizen, have sympathized with the view expressed by +Mark Twain, when he said that he was a greater man than Washington, for the +latter “couldn’t tell a lie, while he could, but +wouldn’t” We have endless biographies of Franklin, picturing him in +all the public stations of life, but all together they do not equal in +popularity his own human autobiography, in which we see him walking down Market +Street with a roll under each arm, and devouring a third. And so it seems as if +the time had come to put the shadow-boxes of humanity round our historic +portraits, not because they are ornamental in themselves, but because they will +make them examples, not mere idols. +</p> + +<p> +If the present work succeeds in humanizing Washington, and making him a man +rather than a historical figure, its purpose will have been fulfilled. In the +attempt to accomplish this, Washington has, so far as is possible, been made to +speak for himself, even though at times it has compelled the sacrifice of +literary form, in the hope that his own words would convey a greater sense of +the personality of the man. So, too, liberal drafts have been made on the +opinions and statements of his contemporaries; but, unless the contrary is +stated or is obvious, all quoted matter is from Washington’s own pen. It +is with pleasure that the author adds that the result of his study has only +served to make Washington the greater to him. +</p> + +<p> +The writer is under the greatest obligation to his brother, Worthington +Chauncey Ford, not merely for his numerous books on Washington, of which his +“Writings of George Washington” is easily first in importance of +all works relating to the great American, but also for much manuscript material +which he has placed at the author’s service. Hitherto unpublished facts +have been drawn from many other sources, but notably from the rich collection +of Mr. William F. Havemeyer, of New York, from the Department of State in +Washington, and from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. To Mr. S.M. +Hamilton, of the former institution, and to Mr. Frederick D. Stone, of the +latter, the writer is particularly indebted for assistance. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>THE TRUE GEORGE WASHINGTON</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>I<br/> +FAMILY RELATIONS</h2> + +<p> +Although Washington wrote that the history of his ancestors was, in his +opinion, “of very little moment,” and “a subject to which I +confess I have paid very little attention,” few Americans can prove a +better pedigree. The earliest of his forebears yet discovered was described as +“gentleman,” the family were granted lands by Henry the Eighth, +held various offices of honor, married into good families, and under the +Stuarts two were knighted and a third served as page to Prince Charles. +Lawrence, a brother of the three thus distinguished, matriculated at Oxford as +a “generosi filius” (the intermediate class between sons of the +nobility, “armigeri filius,” and of the people, “plebeii +filius”), or as of the minor gentry. In time he became a fellow and +lector of Brasenose College, and presently obtained the good living of +Purleigh. Strong royalists, the fortunes of the family waned along with King +Charles, and sank into insignificance with the passing of the Stuart dynasty. +Not the least sufferer was the rector of Purleigh, for the Puritan Parliament +ejected him from his living, on the charge “that he was a common +frequenter of ale-houses, not only himself sitting dayly tippling there … but +hath oft been drunk,”—a charge indignantly denied by the royalists, +who asserted that he was a “worthy Pious man, … always … a very Modest, +Sober Person;” and this latter claim is supported by the fact that though +the Puritans sequestered the rich living, they made no objection to his serving +as rector at Brixted Parva, where the living was “such a Poor and +Miserable one that it was always with difficulty that any one was persuaded to +accept of it.” +</p> + +<p> +Poverty resulting, John, the eldest son of this rector, early took to the sea, +and in 1656 assisted “as second man in Sayleing ye Vessel to +Virginia.” Here he settled, took up land, presently became a county +officer, a burgess, and a colonel of militia. In this latter function he +commanded the Virginia troops during the Indian war of 1675, and when his +great-grandson, George, on his first arrival on the frontier, was called by the +Indians “Conotocarius,” or “devourer of villages,” the +formidable but inappropriate title for the newly-fledged officer is supposed to +have been due to the reputation that John Washington had won for his name among +the Indians eighty years before. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus02"></a> +<img src="images/img02.jpg" width="341" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">TABLET TO LAURENCE WASHINGTON AND HIS FAMILY IN SULGRAVE CHURCH</p> +</div> + +<p> +Both John’s son, Lawrence, and Lawrence’s son, Augustine, describe +themselves in their wills as “gentlemen,” and both intermarried +with the “gentry families” of Virginia. Augustine was educated at +Appleby School, in England, like his grandfather followed the sea for a time, +was interested in iron mines, and in other ways proved himself far more than +the average Virginia planter of his day. He was twice married,—which +marriages, with unconscious humor, he describes in his will as “several +Ventures,”—had ten children, and died in 1743, when George, his +fifth child and the first by his second “Venture,” was a boy of +eleven. The father thus took little part in the life of the lad, and almost the +only mention of him by his son still extant is the one recorded in +Washington’s round school-boy hand in the family Bible, to the effect +that “Augustine Washington and Mary Ball was Married the Sixth of March +17-30/31. Augustine Washington Departed this Life ye 12th Day of April 1743, +Aged 49 Years.” +</p> + +<p> +The mother, Mary Washington, was more of a factor, though chiefly by mere +length of life, for she lived to be eighty-three, and died but ten years before +her son. That Washington owed his personal appearance to the Balls is true, but +otherwise the sentimentality that has been lavished about the relations between +the two and her influence upon him, partakes of fiction rather than of truth. +After his father’s death the boy passed most of his time at the homes of +his two elder brothers, and this was fortunate, for they were educated men, of +some colonial consequence, while his mother lived in comparatively straitened +circumstances, was illiterate and untidy, and, moreover, if tradition is to be +believed, smoked a pipe. Her course with the lad was blamed by a contemporary +as “fond and unthinking,” and this is borne out by such facts as +can be gleaned, for when his brothers wished to send him to sea she made +“trifling objections,” and prevented his taking what they thought +an advantageous opening; when the brilliant offer of a position on +Braddock’s staff was tendered to Washington, his mother, “alarmed +at the report,” hurried to Mount Vernon and endeavored to prevent him +from accepting it; still again, after Braddock’s defeat, she so wearied +her son with pleas not to risk the dangers of another campaign that Washington +finally wrote her, “It would reflect dishonor upon me to refuse; and +<i>that</i>, I am sure, must or <i>ought</i> to give you greater uneasiness, +than my going in an honorable command.” After he inherited Mount Vernon +the two seem to have seen little of each other, though, when occasion took him +near Fredericksburg, he usually stopped to see her for a few hours, or even for +a night. +</p> + +<p> +Though Washington always wrote to his mother as “Honored Madam,” +and signed himself “your dutiful and aff. son,” she none the less +tried him not a little. He never claimed from her a part of the share of his +father’s estate which was his due on becoming of age, and, in addition, +“a year or two before I left Virginia (to make her latter days +comfortable and free from care) I did, at her request, but at my own expence, +purchase a commodious house, garden and Lotts (of her own choosing) in +Fredericksburg, that she might be near my sister Lewis, her only +daughter,—and did moreover agree to take her land and negroes at a +certain yearly rent, to be fixed by Colo Lewis and others (of her own +nomination) which has been an annual expence to me ever since, as the estate +never raised one half the rent I was to pay. Before I left Virginia I answered +all her calls for money; and since that period have directed my steward to do +the same.” Furthermore, he gave her a phaeton, and when she complained of +her want of comfort he wrote her, “My house is at your service, and [I] +would press you most sincerely and most devoutly to accept it, but I am sure, +and candor requires me to say, it will never answer your purposes in any shape +whatsoever. For in truth it may be compared to a well resorted tavern, as +scarcely any strangers who are going from north to south, or from south to +north, do not spend a day or two at it. This would, were you to be an +inhabitant of it, oblige you to do one of 3 things: 1st, to be always dressing +to appear in company; 2d, to come into [the room] in a dishabille, or 3d to be +as it were a prisoner in your own chamber. The first you’ld not like; +indeed, for a person at your time of life it would be too fatiguing. The 2d, I +should not like, because those who resort here are, as I observed before, +strangers and people of the first distinction. And the 3d, more than probably, +would not be pleasing to either of us.” +</p> + +<p> +Under these circumstances it was with real indignation that Washington learned +that complaints of hers that she “never lived soe poore in all my +life” were so well known that there was a project to grant her a pension. +The pain this caused a man who always showed such intense dislike to taking +even money earned from public coffers, and who refused everything in the nature +of a gift, can easily be understood. He at once wrote a letter to a friend in +the Virginia Assembly, in which, after reciting enough of what he had done for +her to prove that she was under no necessity of a pension,—“or, in +other words, receiving charity from the public,”—he continued, +“But putting these things aside, which I could not avoid mentioning in +exculpation of a presumptive want of duty on my part; confident I am that she +has not a child that would not divide the last sixpence to relieve her from +real distress. This she has been repeatedly assured of by me; and all of us, I +am certain, would feel much hurt, at having our mother a pensioner, while we +had the means of supporting her; but in fact she has an ample income of her +own. I lament accordingly that your letter, which conveyed the first hint of +this matter, did not come to my hands sooner; but I request, in pointed terms, +if the matter is now in agitation in your Assembly, that all proceedings on it +may be stopped, or in case of a decision in her favor, that it may be done away +and repealed at my request.” +</p> + +<p> +Still greater mortification was in store for him, when he was told that she was +borrowing and accepting gifts from her neighbors, and learned “on good +authority that she is, upon all occasions and in all companies, complaining … +of her wants and difficulties; and if not in direct terms, at least by strong +innuendoes, endeavors to excite a belief that times are much altered, &c., +&c., which not only makes <i>her</i> appear in an unfavorable point of +view, but <i>those also</i> who are connected with her.” To save her +feelings he did not express the “pain” he felt to her, but he wrote +a brother asking him to ascertain if there was the slightest basis in her +complaints, and “see what is necessary to make her comfortable,” +for “while I have anything I will part with it to make her so;” but +begging him “at the same time … to represent to her in delicate terms, +the impropriety of her complaints, and <i>acceptance</i> of favors, even when +they are voluntarily offered, from any but relations.” Though he did not +“touch upon this subject in a letter to her,” he was enough fretted +to end the renting of her plantation, not because “I mean … to withhold +any aid or support I can give from you; for whilst I have a shilling left, you +shall have part,” but because “what I shall then give, I shall have +credit for,” and not be “viewed as a delinquent, and considered +perhaps by the world as [an] unjust and undutiful son.” +</p> + +<p> +In the last years of her life a cancer developed, which she refused to have +“dressed,” and over which, as her doctor wrote Washington, the +“Old Lady” and he had “a small battle every day.” Once +Washington was summoned by an express to her bedside “to bid, as I was +prepared to expect, the last adieu to an honored parent,” but it was a +false alarm. Her health was so bad, however, that just before he started to New +York to be inaugurated he rode to Fredericksburg, “and took a final leave +of my mother, never expecting to see her more,” a surmise that proved +correct. +</p> + +<p> +Only Elizabeth—or “Betty”—of Washington’s sisters +grew to womanhood, and it is said that she was so strikingly like her brother +that, disguised with a long cloak and a military hat, the difference between +them was scarcely detectable. She married Fielding Lewis, and lived at +“Kenmore House” on the Rappahannock, where Washington spent many a +night, as did the Lewises at Mount Vernon. During the Revolution, while +visiting there, she wrote her brother, “Oh, when will that day arrive +when we shall meet again. Trust in the lord it will be soon,—till when, +you have the prayers and kind wishes for your health and happiness of your +loving and sincerely affectionate sister.” Her husband died “much +indebted,” and from that time her brother gave her occasional sums of +money, and helped her in other ways. +</p> + +<p> +Her eldest son followed in his father’s footsteps, and displeased +Washington with requests for loans. He angered him still more by conduct +concerning which Washington wrote to him as follows: +</p> + +<p> +“Sir, Your letter of the 11th of Octor. never came to my hands +’till yesterday. Altho’ your disrespectful conduct towards me, in +coming into this country and spending weeks therein without ever coming near +me, entitled you to very little notice or favor from me; yet I consent that you +may get timber from off my Land in Fauquier County to build a house on your +Lott in Rectertown. Having granted this, now let me ask you what your views +were in purchasing a Lott in a place which, I presume, originated with and will +end in two or three Gin shops, which probably will exist no longer than they +serve to ruin the proprietors, and those who make the most frequent +applications to them. I am, &c.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus03"></a> +<img src="images/img03.jpg" width="394" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">MRS FIELDING LEWIS (BETTY WASHINGTON)</p> +</div> + +<p> +Other of the Lewis boys pleased him better, and he appointed one an officer in +his own “Life Guard.” Of another he wrote, when President, to his +sister, “If your son Howell is living with you, and not usefully employed +in your own affairs, and should incline to spend a few months with me, as a +writer in my office (if he is fit for it) I will allow him at the rate of three +hundred dollars a year, provided he is diligent in discharging the duties of it +from breakfast until dinner—Sundays excepted. This sum will be punctually +paid him, and I am particular in declaring beforehand what I require, and what +he may expect, that there may be no disappointment, or false expectations on +either side. He will live in the family in the same manner his brother Robert +did.” This Robert had been for some time one of his secretaries, and at +another time was employed as a rent-collector. +</p> + +<p> +Still another son, Lawrence, also served him in these dual capacities, and +Washington, on his retirement from the Presidency, offered him a home at Mount +Vernon. This led to a marriage with Mrs. Washington’s grandchild, Eleanor +Custis, a match which so pleased Washington that he made arrangements for +Lawrence to build on the Mount Vernon estate, in his will named him an +executor, and left the couple a part of this property, as well as a portion of +the residuary estate. +</p> + +<p> +As already noted, much of Washington’s early life was passed at the homes +of his elder (half-) brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, who lived respectively +at Mount Vernon and Wakefield. When Lawrence developed consumption, George was +his travelling companion in a trip to Barbadoes, and from him, when he died of +that disease, in 1752, came the bequest of Mount Vernon to “my loveing +brother George.” To Augustine, in the only letter now extant, Washington +wrote, “The pleasure of your company at Mount Vernon always did, and +always will afford me infinite satisfaction,” and signed himself +“your most affectionate brother.” Surviving this brother, he left +handsome bequests to all his children. +</p> + +<p> +Samuel, the eldest of his own brothers, and his junior by but two years, though +constantly corresponded with, was not a favorite. He seems to have had +extravagant tendencies, variously indicated by five marriages, and by (perhaps +as a consequence) pecuniary difficulties. In 1781, Washington wrote to another +brother, “In God’s name how did my brother Samuel get himself so +enormously in debt?” Very quickly requests for loans followed, than which +nothing was more irritating to Washington. Yet, though he replied that it would +be “very inconvenient” to him, his ledger shows that at least two +thousand dollars were advanced, and in a letter to this brother, on the danger +of borrowing at interest, Washington wrote, “I do not make these +observations on account of the money I purpose to lend you, because all I shall +require is that you return the net sum when in your power, without +interest.” Better even than this, in his will Washington discharged the +debt. +</p> + +<p> +To the family of Samuel, Washington was equally helpful. For the eldest son he +obtained an ensigncy, and “to save Thornton and you [Samuel] the expence +of buying a horse to ride home on, I have lent him a mare.” Two other +sons he assumed all the expenses of, and showed an almost fatherly interest in +them. He placed them at school, and when the lads proved somewhat unruly he +wrote them long admonitory letters, which became stern when actual misconduct +ensued, and when one of them ran away to Mount Vernon to escape a whipping, +Washington himself prepared “to correct him, but he begged so earnestly +and promised so faithfully that there should be no cause for complaint in the +future, that I have suspended punishment.” Later the two were sent to +college, and in all cost Washington “near five thousand dollars.” +</p> + +<p> +An even greater trouble was their sister Harriot, whose care was assumed in +1785, and who was a member of Washington’s household, with only a slight +interruption, till her marriage in 1796. Her chief failing was “no +disposition … to be careful of her cloathes,” which were “dabbed +about in every hole and corner and her best things always in use,” so +that Washington said “she costs me enough!” To her uncle she wrote +on one occasion, “How shall I apologise to my dear and Honor’d for +intruding on his goodness so soon again, but being sensible for your kindness +to me which I shall ever remember with the most heartfelt gratitude induces me +to make known my wants. I have not had a pair of stays since I first came here: +if you could let me have a pair I should be very much obleiged to you, and also +a hat and a few other articles. I hope my dear Uncle will not think me +extravagant for really I take as much care of my cloaths as I possibly +can.” Probably the expense that pleased him best in her case was that +which he recorded in his ledger “By Miss Harriot Washington gave her to +buy wedding clothes $100.” +</p> + +<p> +His second and favorite brother, John Augustine, who was four years his junior, +Washington described as “the intimate companion of my youth and the +friend of my ripened age.” While the Virginia colonel was on the +frontier, from 1754 to 1759, he left John in charge of all his business +affairs, giving him a residence at and management of Mount Vernon. With this +brother he constantly corresponded, addressing him as “Dear Jack,” +and writing in the most intimate and affectionate terms, not merely to him, but +when John had taken unto himself a wife, to her, and to “the little +ones,” and signing himself “your loving brother.” Visits +between the two were frequent, and invitations for the same still more so, and +in one letter, written during the most trying moment of the Revolution, +Washington said, “God grant you all health and happiness. Nothing in this +world could contribute so to mine as to be fixed among you.” John died in +1787, and Washington wrote with simple but undisguised grief of the death of +“my beloved brother.” +</p> + +<p> +The eldest son of this brother, Bushrod, was his favorite nephew, and +Washington took much interest in his career, getting the lad admitted to study +law with Judge James Wilson, in Philadelphia, and taking genuine pride in him +when he became a lawyer and judge of repute. He made this nephew his travelling +companion in the Western journey of 1784, and at other times not merely sent +him money, but wrote him letters of advice, dwelling on the dangers that beset +young men, though confessing that he was himself “not such a Stoic” +as to expect too much of youthful blood. To Bushrod, also, he appealed on legal +matters, adding, “You may think me an unprofitable applicant in asking +opinions and requiring services of you without dousing my money, but pay day +may come,” and in this he was as good as his word, for in his will +Washington left Bushrod, “partly in consideration of an intimation to his +deceased father, while we were bachelors and he had kindly undertaken to +superintend my Estates, during my military services in the former war between +Great Britain and France, that if I should fall therein, Mt. Vernon … should +become his property,” the home and “mansion-house farm,” one +share of the residuary estate, his private papers, and his library, and named +him an executor of the instrument. +</p> + +<p> +Of Washington’s relations with his youngest brother, Charles, little can +be learned. He was the last of his brothers to die, and Washington outlived him +so short a time that he was named in his will, though only for a mere token of +remembrance. “I add nothing to it because of the ample provision I have +made for his issue.” Of the children so mentioned, Washington was +particularly fond of George Augustine Washington. As a mere lad he used his +influence to procure for him an ensigncy in a Virginia regiment, and an +appointment on Lafayette’s staff. When in 1784 the young fellow was +threatened with consumption, his uncle’s purse supplied him with the +funds by which he was enabled to travel, even while Washington wrote, +“Poor fellow! his pursuit after health is, I fear, altogether +fruitless.” When better health came, and with it a renewal of a troth +with a niece of Mrs. Washington’s, the marriage was made possible by +Washington appointing the young fellow his manager, and not merely did it take +place at Mount Vernon, but the young couple took up their home there. More than +this, that their outlook might be “more stable and pleasing,” +Washington promised them that on his death they should not be forgotten. When +the disease again developed, Washington wrote his nephew in genuine anxiety, +and ended his letter, “At all times and under all circumstances you and +yours will possess my affectionate regards.” Only a few days later the +news of his nephew’s death reached him, and he wrote his widow, “To +you who so well know the affectionate regard I had for our departed friend, it +is unnecessary to describe the sorrow with which I was afflicted at the news of +his death.” He asked her and her children “to return to your old +habitation at Mount Vernon. You can go to no place where you can be more +welcome, nor to any where you can live at less expence and trouble,” an +offer, he adds, “made to you with my whole heart.” Furthermore, +Washington served as executor, assumed the expense of educating one of the +sons, and in his will left the two children part of the Mount Vernon estate, as +well as other bequests, “on account of the affection I had for, and the +obligation I was under to their father when living, who from his youth attached +himself to my person, and followed my fortunes through the vicissitudes of the +late Revolution, afterwards devoting his time for many years whilst my public +employments rendered it impracticable for me to do it myself, thereby affording +me essential services and always performing them in a manner the most filial +and respectful.” +</p> + +<p> +Of his wife’s kith and kin Washington was equally fond. Both alone and +with Mrs. Washington he often visited her mother, Mrs. Dandridge, and in 1773 +he wrote to a brother-in-law that he wished “I was master of Arguments +powerful enough to prevail upon Mrs. Dandridge to make this place her entire +and absolute home. I should think as she lives a lonesome life (Betsey being +married) it might suit her well, & be agreeable, both to herself & my +Wife, to me most assuredly it would.” Washington was also a frequent +visitor at “Eltham,” the home of Colonel Bassett, who had married +his wife’s sister, and constantly corresponded with these relatives. He +asked this whole family to be his guests at the Warm Springs, and, as this +meant camping out in tents, he wrote, “You will have occasion to provide +nothing, if I can be advised of your intentions, so that I may provide +accordingly.” To another brother-in-law, Bartholomew Dandridge, he lent +money, and forgave the debt to the widow in his will, also giving her the use +during her life of the thirty-three negroes he had bid in at the bankruptcy +sale of her husband’s property. +</p> + +<p> +The pleasantest glimpses of family feeling are gained, however, in his +relations with his wife’s children and grandchildren. John Parke and +Martha Parke Custis—or “Jack” and “Patsey,” as he +called them—were at the date of his marriage respectively six and four +years of age, and in the first invoice of goods to be shipped to him from +London after he had become their step-father, Washington ordered “10 +shillings worth of Toys,” “6 little books for children beginning to +read,” and “1 fashionable-dressed baby to cost 10 shillings.” +When this latter shared the usual fate, he further wrote for “1 +fashionable dress Doll to cost a guinea,” and for “A box of +Gingerbread Toys & Sugar Images or Comfits.” A little later he +ordered a Bible and Prayer-Book for each, “neatly bound in Turkey,” +with names “in gilt letters on the inside of the cover,” followed +ere long by an order for “1 very good Spinet” As Patsy grew to +girlhood she developed fits, and “solely on her account to try (by the +advice of her Physician) the effect of the waters on her Complaint,” +Washington took the family over the mountains and camped at the “Warm +Springs” in 1769, with “little benefit,” for, after ailing +four years longer, “she was seized with one of her usual Fits & +expired in it, in less than two minutes, without uttering a word, or groan, or +scarce a sigh.” “The Sweet Innocent Girl,” Washington wrote, +“entered into a more happy & peaceful abode than she has met with in +the afflicted Path she has hitherto trod,” but none the less “it is +an easier matter to conceive than to describe the distress of this +family” at the loss of “dear Patsy Custis.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus04"></a> +<img src="images/img04.jpg" width="409" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">JOHN AND MARTHA PARKE CUSTIS</p> +</div> + +<p> +The care of Jack Custis was a worry to Washington in quite another way. As a +lad, Custis signed his letters to him as “your most affectionate and +dutiful son,” “yet I conceive,” Washington wrote, +“there is much greater circumspection to be observed by a guardian than a +natural parent.” Soon after assuming charge of the boy, a tutor was +secured, who lived at Mount Vernon, but the boy showed little inclination to +study, and when fourteen, Washington wrote that “his mind [is] … more +turned … to Dogs, Horses and Guns, indeed upon Dress and equipage.” +“Having his well being much at heart,” Washington wished to make +him “fit for more useful purposes than [a] horse racer,” and so +Jack was placed with a clergyman, who agreed to instruct him, and with him he +lived, except for some home visits, for three years. Unfortunately, the lad, +like the true Virginian planter of his day, had no taste for study, and had +“a propensity for the [fair] sex.” After two or three flirtations, +he engaged himself, without the knowledge of his mother or guardian, to Nellie +Calvert, a match to which no objection could be made, except that, owing to his +“youth and fickleness,” “he may either change and therefore +injure the young lady; or that it may precipitate him into a marriage before, I +am certain, he has ever bestowed a serious thought of the consequences; by +which means his education is interrupted.” To avoid this danger, +Washington took his ward to New York and entered him in King’s College, +but the death of Patsy Custis put a termination to study, for Mrs. Washington +could not bear to have the lad at such a distance, and Washington “did +not care, as he is the last of the family, to push my opposition too +far.” Accordingly, Jack returned to Virginia and promptly married. +</p> + +<p> +The young couple were much at Mount Vernon from this time on, and Washington +wrote to “Dear Jack,” “I am always pleased with yours and +Nelly’s abidance at Mount Vernon.” When the winter snows made the +siege of Boston purely passive, the couple journeyed with Mrs. Washington to +Cambridge, and visited at head-quarters for some months. The arrival of +children prevented the repetition of such visits, but frequent letters, which +rarely failed to send love to “Nelly and the little girls,” were +exchanged. The acceptance of command compelled Washington to resign the care of +Custis’s estate, for which service “I have never charged him or his +sister, from the day of my connexion with them to this hour, one farthing for +all the trouble I have had in managing their estates, nor for any expense they +have been to me, notwithstanding some hundreds of pounds would not reimburse +the moneys I have actually paid in attending the public meetings in +Williamsburg to collect their debts, and transact these several matters +appertaining to the respective estates.” Washington, however, continued +his advice as to its management, and in other letters advised him concerning +his conduct when Custis was elected a member of the Virginia House of +Delegates. In the siege of Yorktown Jack served as an officer of militia, and +the exposure proved too much for him. Immediately after the surrender, news +reached Washington of his serious illness, and by riding thirty miles in one +day he succeeded in reaching Eltham in “time enough to see poor Mr. +Custis breath his last,” leaving behind him “four lovely children, +three girls and a boy.” +</p> + +<p> +Owing to his public employment, Washington refused to be guardian for these +“little ones,” writing “that it would be injurious to the +children and madness in me, to undertake, <i>as a principle</i>, a trust which +I could not discharge. Such aid, however, as it ever may be with me to give to +the children especially the boy, I will afford with all my heart, and on this +assurance you may rely.” Yet “from their earliest infancy” +two of Jack’s children, George Washington Parke and Eleanor Parke Custis, +lived at Mount Vernon, for, as Washington wrote in his will, “it has +always been my intention, since my expectation of having issue has ceased, to +consider the grandchildren of my wife in the same light as my own relations, +and to act a friendly part by them.” Though the cares of war prevented +his watching their property interests, his eight years’ absence could not +make him forget them, and on his way to Annapolis, in 1783, to tender Congress +his resignation, he spent sundry hours of his time in the purchase of gifts +obviously intended to increase the joy of his homecoming to the family circle +at Mount Vernon; set forth in his note-book as follows: +</p> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"> + +<tr> +<td>“By Sundries bo<sup>t</sup>. in Phil<sup>a</sup>.</td><td></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>A Locket</td><td>£5 5</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>3 Small Pockt. Books</td><td>1 10</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>3 Sashes</td><td>1 5 0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Dress Cap</td><td>2 8</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Hatt</td><td>3 10</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Handkerchief</td><td>1</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Childrens Books</td><td>4 6</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Whirligig</td><td>1 6</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Fiddle</td><td>2 6</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Quadrille Boxes</td><td>1 17 6.”</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p> +Indeed, in every way Washington showed how entirely he considered himself as a +father, not merely speaking of them frequently as “the children,” +but even alluding to himself in a letter to the boy as “your papa.” +Both were much his companions during the Presidency. A frequent sight in New +York and Philadelphia was Washington taking “exercise in the coach with +Mrs. Washington and the two children,” and several times they were taken +to the theatre and on picnics. +</p> + +<p> +For Eleanor, or “Nelly,” who grew into a great beauty, Washington +showed the utmost tenderness, and on occasion interfered to save her from her +grandmother, who at moments was inclined to be severe, in one case to bring the +storm upon himself. For her was bought a “Forte piano,” and later, +at the cost of a thousand dollars, a very fine imported harpsichord, and one of +Washington’s great pleasures was to have her play and sing to him. His +ledger constantly shows gifts to her ranging from “The Wayworn traveller, +a song for Miss Custis,” to “a pr. of gold eardrops” and a +watch. The two corresponded. One letter from Washington merits quotation: +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus05"></a> +<img src="images/img05.jpg" width="454" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">ELLANOR (NELLY) CUSTIS</p> +</div> + +<p> +“Let me touch a little now on your Georgetown ball, and happy, thrice +happy, for the fair who assembled on the occasion, that there was a man to +spare; for had there been 79 ladies and only 78 gentlemen, there might, in the +course of the evening have been some disorder among the caps; notwithstanding +the apathy which <i>one</i> of the company entertains for the +‘<i>youth</i>’ of the present day, and her determination +‘Never to give herself a moment’s uneasiness on account of any of +them.’ A hint here; men and women feel the same inclinations towards each +other <i>now</i> that they always have done, and which they will continue to do +until there is a new order of things, and <i>you</i>, as others have done, may +find, perhaps, that the passions of your sex are easier raised than allayed. Do +not therefore boast too soon or too strongly of your insensibility to, or +resistance of, its powers. In the composition of the human frame there is a +good deal of inflammable matter, however dormant it may lie for a time, and +like an intimate acquaintance of yours, when the torch is put to it, +<i>that</i> which is <i>within you</i> may burst into a blaze; for which reason +and especially too, as I have entered upon the chapter of advices, I will read +you a lecture from this text.” +</p> + +<p> +Not long after this was written, Nelly, as already mentioned, was married at +Mount Vernon to Washington’s nephew, Lawrence Lewis, and in time became +joint-owner with her husband of part of that place. +</p> + +<p> +As early as 1785 a tutor was wanted for “little Washington,” as the +lad was called, and Washington wrote to England to ask if some “worthy +man of the cloth could not be obtained,” “for the boy is a +remarkably fine one, and my intention is to give him a liberal +education.” His training became part of the private secretary’s +duty, both at Mount Vernon and New York and Philadelphia, but the lad inherited +his father’s traits, and “from his infancy … discovered an almost +unconquerable disposition to indolence.” This led to failures which gave +Washington “extreme disquietude,” and in vain he “exhorted +him in the most parental and friendly manner.” Custis would express +“sorrow and repentance” and do no better. Successively he was sent +to the College of Philadelphia, the College of New Jersey, and that at +Annapolis, but from each he was expelled, or had to be withdrawn. Irritating as +it must have been, his guardian never in his letters expressed anything but +affection, shielded the lad from the anger of his step-father, and saw that he +was properly supplied with money, of which he asked him to keep a careful +account,—though this, as Washington wrote, was “not because I want +to know how you spend your money.” After the last college failure a +private tutor was once more engaged, but a very few weeks served to give +Washington “a thorough conviction that it was in vain to keep Washington +Custis to any literary pursuits, either in a public Seminary or at home,” +and, as the next best thing, he procured him a cornetcy in the provisional +army. Even here, balance was shown; for, out of compliment and friendship to +Washington, “the Major Generals were desirous of placing him as +lieutenant in the first instance; but his age considered, I thought it more +eligible that he should enter into the lowest grade.” +</p> + +<p> +In this connection one side of Washington’s course with his relations +deserves especial notice. As early as 1756 he applied for a commission in the +Virginia forces for his brother, and, as already shown, he placed several of +his nephews and other connections in the Revolutionary or provisional armies. +But he made clear distinction between military and civil appointments, and was +very scrupulous about the latter. When his favorite nephew asked for a Federal +appointment, Washington answered,— +</p> + +<p> +“You cannot doubt my wishes to see you appointed to any office of honor +or emolument in the new government, to the duties of which you are competent; +but however deserving you may be of the one you have suggested, your standing +at the bar would not justify my nomination of you as attorney to the Federal +District Court in preference to some of the oldest and most esteemed general +court lawyers in your State, who are desirous of this appointment. My political +conduct in nominations, even if I were uninfluenced by principle, must be +exceedingly circumspect and proof against just criticism; for the eyes of Argus +are upon me, and no slip will pass unnoticed, that can be improved into a +supposed partiality for friends or relations.” +</p> + +<p> +And that in this policy he was consistent is shown by a letter of Jefferson, +who wrote to an office-seeking relative, “The public will never be made +to believe that an appointment of a relative is made on the ground of merit +alone, uninfluenced by family views; nor can they ever see with approbation +offices, the disposal of which they entrust to their Presidents for public +purposes, divided out as family property. Mr. Adams degraded himself infinitely +by his conduct on this subject, as Genl. Washington had done himself the +greatest honor. With two such examples to proceed by, I should be doubly +inexcusable to err.” +</p> + +<p> +There were many other more distant relatives with whom pleasant relations were +maintained, but enough has been said to indicate the intercourse. Frequent were +the house-parties at Mount Vernon, and how unstinted hospitality was to kith +and kin is shown by many entries in Washington’s diary, a single one of +which will indicate the rest: “I set out for my return home—at +which I arrived a little after noon—And found my Brother Jon Augustine +his Wife; Daughter Milly, & Sons Bushrod & Corbin, & the Wife of +the first. Mr. Willm Washington & his Wife and 4 Children.” +</p> + +<p> +His will left bequests to forty-one of his own and his wife’s relations. +“God left him childless that he might be the father of his +country.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>II<br/> +PHYSIQUE</h2> + +<p> +Writing to his London tailor for clothes, in 1763, Washington directed him to +“take measure of a gentleman who wares well-made cloaths of the following +size: to wit, 6 feet high and proportionably made—if anything rather +slender than thick, for a person of that highth, with pretty long arms and +thighs. You will take care to make the breeches longer than those you sent me +last, and I would have you keep the measure of the cloaths you now make, by +you, and if any alteration is required in my next it shall be pointed +out.” About this time, too, he ordered “6 pr. Man’s riding +Gloves—rather large than the middle size,”… and several dozen pairs +of stockings, “to be long, and tolerably large.” +</p> + +<p> +The earliest known description of Washington was written in 1760 by his +companion-in-arms and friend George Mercer, who attempted a +“portraiture” in the following words: “He may be described as +being as straight as an Indian, measuring six feet two inches in his stockings, +and weighing 175 pounds when he took his seat in the House of Burgesses in +1759. His frame is padded with well-developed muscles, indicating great +strength. His bones and joints are large, as are his feet and hands. He is wide +shouldered, but has not a deep or round chest; is neat waisted, but is broad +across the hips, and has rather long legs and arms. His head is well shaped +though not large, but is gracefully poised on a superb neck. A large and +straight rather than prominent nose; blue-gray penetrating eyes, which are +widely separated and overhung by a heavy brow. His face is long rather than +broad, with high round cheek bones, and terminates in a good firm chin. He has +a clear though rather a colorless pale skin, which burns with the sun. A +pleasing, benevolent, though a commanding countenance, dark brown hair, which +he wears in a cue. His mouth is large and generally firmly closed, but which +from time to time discloses some defective teeth. His features are regular and +placid, with all the muscles of his face under perfect control, though flexible +and expressive of deep feeling when moved by emotion. In conversation he looks +you full in the face, is deliberate, deferential and engaging. His voice is +agreeable rather than strong. His demeanor at all times composed and dignified. +His movements and gestures are graceful, his walk majestic, and he is a +splendid horseman.” +</p> + +<p> +Dr. James Thacher, writing in 1778, depicted him as “remarkably tall, +full six feet, erect and well proportioned. The strength and proportion of his +joints and muscles, appear to be commensurate with the pre-eminent powers of +his mind. The serenity of his countenance, and majestic gracefulness of his +deportment, impart a strong impression of that dignity and grandeur, which are +his peculiar characteristics, and no one can stand in his presence without +feeling the ascendancy of his mind, and associating with his countenance the +idea of wisdom, philanthropy, magnanimity and patriotism. There is a fine +symmetry in the features of his face, indicative of a benign and dignified +spirit. His nose is straight, and his eye inclined to blue. He wears his hair +in a becoming cue, and from his forehead it is turned back and powdered in a +manner which adds to the military air of his appearance. He displays a native +gravity, but devoid of all appearance of ostentation.” In this same year +a friend wrote, “General Washington is now in the forty-seventh year of +his age; he is a well-made man, rather large boned, and has a tolerably genteel +address; his features are manly and bold, his eyes of a bluish cast and very +lively; his hair a deep brown, his face rather long and marked with the +small-pox; his complexion sunburnt and without much color, and his countenance +sensible, composed and thoughtful; there is a remarkable air of dignity about +him, with a striking degree of gracefulness.” +</p> + +<p> +In 1789 Senator Maclay saw “him as he really is. In stature about six +feet, with an unexceptionable make, but lax appearance. His frame would seem to +want filling up. His motions rather slow than lively, though he showed no signs +of having suffered by gout or rheumatism. His complexion pale, nay, almost +cadaverous. His voice hollow and indistinct, owing, as I believe, to artificial +teeth before his upper jaw, which occasions a flatness.” +</p> + +<p> +From frequent opportunity of seeing Washington between 1794 and 1797, William +Sullivan described him as “over six feet in stature; of strong, bony, +muscular frame, without fullness of covering, well-formed and straight. He was +a man of most extraordinary strength. In his own house, his action was calm, +deliberate, and dignified, without pretension to gracefulness, or peculiar +manner, but merely natural, and such as one would think it should be in such a +man. When walking in the street, his movement had not the soldierly air which +might be expected. His habitual motions had been formed, long before he took +command of the American Armies, in the wars of the interior and in the +surveying of wilderness lands, employments in which grace and elegance were not +likely to be acquired. At the age of sixty-five, time had done nothing towards +bending him out of his natural erectness. His deportment was invariably grave; +it was sobriety that stopped short of sadness.” +</p> + +<p> +The French officers and travellers supply other descriptions. The Abbé Robin +found him of “tall and noble stature, well proportioned, a fine, +cheerful, open countenance, a simple and modest carriage; and his whole mien +has something in it that interests the French, the Americans, and even enemies +themselves in his favor.” +</p> + +<p> +The Marquis de Chastellux wrote enthusiastically, “In speaking of this +perfect whole of which General Washington furnishes the idea, I have not +excluded exterior form. His stature is noble and lofty, he is well made, and +exactly proportionate; his physiognomy mild and agreeable, but such as to +render it impossible to speak particularly of any of his features, so that in +quitting him you have only the recollection of a fine face. He has neither a +grave nor a familiar face, his brow is sometimes marked with thought, but never +with inquietude; in inspiring respect he inspires confidence, and his smile is +always the smile of benevolence.” +</p> + +<p> +To this description, however, Brissot de Warville took exception, and supplied +his own picture by writing in 1791, “You have often heard me blame M. +Chastellux for putting too much sprightliness in the character he has drawn of +this general. To give pretensions to the portrait of a man who has none is +truly absurd. The General’s goodness appears in his looks. They have +nothing of that brilliancy which his officers found in them when he was at the +head of his army; but in conversation they become animated. He has no +characteristic traits in his figure, and this has rendered it always so +difficult to describe it: there are few portraits which resemble him. All his +answers are pertinent; he shows the utmost reserve, and is very diffident; but, +at the same time, he is firm and unchangeable in whatever he undertakes. His +modesty must be very astonishing, especially to a Frenchman.” +</p> + +<p> +British travellers have left a number of pen-portraits. An anonymous writer in +1790 declared that in meeting him “it was not necessary to announce his +name, for his peculiar appearance, his firm forehead, Roman nose, and a +projection of the lower jaw, his height and figure, could not be mistaken by +any one who had seen a full-length picture of him, and yet no picture +accurately resembled him in the minute traits of his person. His features, +however, were so marked by prominent characteristics, which appear in all +likenesses of him, that a stranger could not be mistaken in the man; he was +remarkably dignified in his manners, and had an air of benignity over his +features which his visitant did not expect, being rather prepared for sternness +of countenance…. his smile was extraordinarily attractive. It was observed to +me that there was an expression in Washington’s face that no painter had +succeeded in taking. It struck me no man could be better formed for command. A +stature of six feet, a robust, but well-proportioned frame, calculated to +sustain fatigue, without that heaviness which generally attends great muscular +strength, and abates active exertion, displayed bodily power of no mean +standard. A light eye and full—the very eye of genius and reflection +rather than of blind passionate impulse. His nose appeared thick, and though it +befitted his other features, was too coarsely and strongly formed to be the +handsomest of its class. His mouth was like no other that I ever saw; the lips +firm and the under jaw seeming to grasp the upper with force, as if its muscles +were in full action when he sat still.” +</p> + +<p> +Two years later, an English diplomat wrote of him, “His person is tall +and sufficiently graceful; his face well formed, his complexion rather pale, +with a mild philosophic gravity in the expression of it In his air and manner +he displays much natural dignity; in his address he is cold, reserved, and even +phlegmatic, though without the least appearance of haughtiness or ill-nature; +it is the effect, I imagine, of constitutional diffidence. That caution and +circumspection which form so striking and well known a feature in his military, +and, indeed, in his political character, is very strongly marked in his +countenance, for his eyes retire inward (do you understand me?) and have +nothing of fire of animation or openness in their expression.” +</p> + +<p> +Wansey, who visited Mount Vernon in 1795, portrayed “The President in his +person” as “tall and thin, but erect; rather of an engaging than a +dignified presence. He appears very thoughtful, is slow in delivering himself, +which occasions some to conclude him reserved, but it is rather, I apprehend, +the effect of much thinking and reflection, for there is great appearance to me +of affability and accommodation. He was at this time in his sixty-third year … +but he has very little the appearance of age, having been all his life long so +exceeding temperate.” +</p> + +<p> +In 1797, Weld wrote, “his chest is full; and his limbs, though rather +slender, well shaped and muscular. His head is small, in which respect he +resembles the make of a great number of his countrymen. His eyes are of a light +grey colour; and in proportion to the length of his face, his nose is long. Mr. +Stewart, the eminent portrait painter, told me, that there were features in his +face totally different from what he ever observed in that of any other human +being; the sockets for the eyes, for instance, are larger than what he ever met +with before, and the upper part of the nose broader. All his features, he +observed, were indicative of the strongest and most ungovernable passions, and +had he been born in the forests, it was his opinion that he would have been the +fiercest man among the savage tribes.” +</p> + +<p> +Other and briefer descriptions contain a few phrases worth quoting. Samuel +Sterns said, “His countenance commonly carries the impression of a +serious cast;” Maclay, that “the President seemed to bear in his +countenance a settled aspect of melancholy;” and the Prince de Broglie +wrote, “His pensive eyes seem more attentive than sparkling, but their +expression is benevolent, noble and self-possessed.” Silas Deane in 1775 +said he had “a very young look and an easy soldier-like air and +gesture,” and in the same year Curwen mentioned his “fine +figure” and “easy and agreeable address.” Nathaniel Lawrence +noted in 1783 that “the General weighs commonly about 210 pounds.” +After death, Lear reports that “Doctor Dick measured the body, which was +as follows—In length 6 ft. 3-1/2 inches exact. Across the shoulders 1.9. +Across the elbows 2.1.” The pleasantest description is Jefferson’s: +“His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, +his deportment easy, erect and noble.” +</p> + +<p> +How far the portraits of Washington conveyed his expression is open to +question. The quotation already given which said that no picture accurately +resembled him in the minute traits of his person is worth noting. Furthermore, +his expression varied much according to circumstances, and the painter saw it +only in repose. The first time he was drawn, he wrote a friend, +“Inclination having yielded to Importunity, I am now contrary to all +expectation under the hands of Mr. Peale; but in so grave—so sullen a +mood—and now and then under the influence of Morpheus, when some critical +strokes are making, that I fancy the skill of this Gentleman’s Pencil +will be put to it, in describing to the World what manner of man I am.” +This passiveness seems to have seized him at other sittings, for in 1785 he +wrote to a friend who asked him to be painted, “<i>In for a penny, in for +a Pound</i>, is an old adage. I am so hackneyed to the touches of the +painter’s pencil that I am now altogether at their beck; and sit +‘like Patience on a monument,’ whilst they are delineating the +lines of my face. It is a proof, among many others, of what habit and custom +can accomplish. At first I was as impatient at the request, and as restive +under the operation, as a colt is of the saddle. The next time I submitted very +reluctantly, but with less flouncing. Now, no dray-horse moves more readily to +his thills than I to the painter’s chair.” His aide, Laurens, bears +this out by writing of a miniature, “The defects of this portrait are, +that the visage is too long, and old age is too strongly marked in it. He is +not altogether mistaken, with respect to the languor of the general’s +eye; for altho’ his countenance when affected either by joy or anger, is +full of expression, yet when the muscles are in a state of repose, his eye +certainly wants animation.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus06"></a> +<img src="images/img06.jpg" width="451" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">FIRST (FICTITIOUS) ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON</p> +</div> + +<p> +One portrait which furnished Washington not a little amusement was an engraving +issued in London in 1775, when interest in the “rebel General” was +great. This likeness, it is needless to say, was entirely spurious, and when +Reed sent a copy to head-quarters, Washington wrote to him, “Mrs. +Washington desires I will thank you for the picture sent her. Mr. Campbell, +whom I never saw, to my knowledge, has made a very formidable figure of the +Commander-in-chief, giving him a sufficient portion of terror in his +countenance.” +</p> + +<p> +The physical strength mentioned by nearly every one who described Washington is +so undoubted that the traditions of his climbing the walls of the Natural +Bridge, throwing a stone across the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, and another +into the Hudson from the top of the Palisades, pass current more from the +supposed muscular power of the man than from any direct evidence. In addition +to this, Washington in 1755 claimed to have “one of the best of +constitutions,” and again he wrote, “for my own part I can answer, +I have a constitution hardy enough to encounter and undergo the most severe +trials.” +</p> + +<p> +This vigor was not the least reason of Washington’s success. In the +retreat from Brooklyn, “for forty-eight hours preceeding that I had +hardly been off my horse,” and between the 13th and the 19th of June of +1777 “I was almost constantly on horseback.” After the battle of +Monmouth, as told elsewhere, he passed the night on a blanket; the first night +of the siege of York “he slept under a mulberry tree, the root serving +for a pillow,” and another time he lay “all night in my Great Coat +& Boots, in a birth not long enough for me by the head, & much +cramped.” Besides the physical strain there was a mental one. During the +siege of Boston he wrote that “The reflection on my situation and that of +this army, produces many an uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in +sleep.” Humphreys relates that at Newburg in 1783 a revolt of the whole +army seemed imminent, and “when General Washington rose from bed on the +morning of the meeting, he told the writer his anxiety had prevented him from +sleeping one moment the preceeding night.” Washington observed, in a +letter written after the Revolution, “strange as it may seem, it is +nevertheless true, that it was not until lately I could get the better of my +usual custom of ruminating as soon as I awoke in the morning, on the business +of the ensuing day; and of my surprise at finding, after revolving many things +in my mind that I was no longer a public man, or had any thing to do with +public transactions.” +</p> + +<p> +Despite his strength and constitution, Washington was frequently the victim of +illness. What diseases of childhood he suffered are not known, but presumably +measles was among them, for when his wife within the first year of married life +had an attack he cared for her without catching the complaint. The first of his +known illnesses was “Ague and Feaver, which I had to an extremity” +about 1748, or when he was sixteen. +</p> + +<p> +In the sea voyage to Barbadoes in 1751, the seamen told Washington that +“they had never seen such weather before,” and he says in his diary +that the sea “made the Ship rowl much and me very sick.” While in +the island, he went to dine with a friend “with great reluctance, as the +small-pox was in his family.” A fortnight later Washington “was +strongly attacked with the small Pox,” which confined him for nearly a +month, and, as already noted, marked his face for life. Shortly after the +return voyage he was “taken with a violent pleurise, which … reduced me +very low.” +</p> + +<p> +During the Braddock march, “immediately upon our leaving the camp at +George’s Creek, on the 14th, … I was seized with violent fevers and pains +in my head, which continued without intermission ’till the 23d following, +when I was relieved, by the General’s [Braddock] absolutely ordering the +physicians to give me Dr. James’ powders (one of the most excellent +medicines in the world), for it gave me immediate ease, and removed my fevers +and other complaints in four days’ time. My illness was too violent to +suffer me to ride; therefore I was indebted to a covered wagon for some part of +my transportation; but even in this I could not continue far, for the jolting +was so great, I was left upon the road with a guard, and necessaries, to wait +the arrival of Colonel Dunbar’s detachment which was two days’ +march behind us, the General giving me his word of honor, that I should be +brought up, before he reached the French fort. This <i>promise</i>, and the +doctor’s <i>threats</i>, that, if I persevered in my attempts to get on, +in the condition I was, my life would be endangered, determined me to halt for +the above detachment.” Immediately upon his return from that campaign, he +told a brother, “I am not able, were I ever so willing, to meet you in +town, for I assure you it is with some difficulty, and with much fatigue, that +I visit my plantations in the Neck; so much has a sickness of five weeks’ +continuance reduced me.” +</p> + +<p> +On the frontier, towards the end of 1757, he was seized with a violent attack +of dysentery and fever, which compelled him to leave the army and retire to +Mount Vernon. Three months later he said, “I have never been able to +return to my command, … my disorder at times returning obstinately upon me, in +spite of the efforts of all the sons of Aesculapius, whom I have hitherto +consulted. At certain periods I have been reduced to great extremity, and have +too much reason to apprehend an approaching decay, being visited with several +symptoms of such a disease…. I am now under a strict regimen, and shall set out +to-morrow for Williamsburg to receive the advice of the best physician there. +My constitution is certainly greatly impaired, and … nothing can retrieve it, +but the greatest care and the most circumspect conduct.” It was in this +journey that he met his future wife, and either she or the doctor cured him, +for nothing more is heard of his approaching “decay.” +</p> + +<p> +In 1761 he was attacked with a disease which seems incidental to new +settlements, known in Virginia at that time as the “river fever,” +and a hundred years later, farther west, as the “break-bone fever,” +and which, in a far milder form, is to-day known as malaria. Hoping to cure it, +he went over the mountains to the Warm Springs, being “much overcome with +the fatigue of the ride and weather together. However, I think my fevers are a +good deal abated, although my pains grow rather worse, and my sleep equally +disturbed. What effect the waters may have upon me I can’t say at +present, but I expect nothing from the air—this certainly must be +unwholesome. I purpose staying here a fortnight and longer if +benefitted.” After writing this, a relapse brought him “very near +my last gasp. The indisposition … increased upon me, and I fell into a very low +and dangerous state. I once thought the grim king would certainly master my +utmost efforts, and that I must sink, in spite of a noble struggle; but thank +God, I have now got the better of the disorder, and shall soon be restored, I +hope, to perfect health again.” +</p> + +<p> +During the Revolution, fortunately, he seems to have been wonderfully exempt +from illness, and not till his retirement to Mount Vernon did an old enemy, the +ague, reappear. In 1786 he said, in a letter, “I write to you with a very +aching head and disordered frame…. Saturday last, by an imprudent act, I +brought on an ague and fever on Sunday, which returned with violence Tuesday +and Thursday; and, if Dr. Craik’s efforts are ineffectual I shall have +them again this day.” His diary gives the treatment: “Seized with +an ague before 6 o’clock this morning after having laboured under a fever +all night—Sent for Dr. Craik who arrived just as we were setting down to +dinner; who, when he thought my fever sufficiently abated gave me cathartick +and directed the Bark to be applied in the Morning. September 2. Kept close to +the House to day, being my fit day in course least any exposure might bring it +on,—happily missed it September 14. At home all day repeating dozes of +Bark of which I took 4 with an interval of 2 hours between.” +</p> + +<p> +With 1787 a new foe appeared in the form of “a rheumatic complaint which +has followed me more than six months, is frequently so bad that it is sometimes +with difficulty I can raise my hand to my head or turn myself in bed.” +</p> + +<p> +During the Presidency Washington had several dangerous illnesses, but the +earliest one had a comic side. In his tour through New England in 1789, so +Sullivan states, “owing to some mismanagement in the reception +ceremonials at Cambridge, Washington was detained a long time, and the weather +being inclement, he took cold. For several days afterward a severe influenza +prevailed at Boston and its vicinity, and was called the <i>Washington +Influenza</i>.” He himself writes of this attack: “Myself much +disordered by a cold, and inflammation in the left eye.” +</p> + +<p> +Six months later, in New York, he was “indisposed with a bad cold, and at +home all day writing letters on private business,” and this was the +beginning of “a severe illness,” which, according to McVickar, was +“a case of anthrax, so malignant as for several days to threaten +mortification. During this period Dr. Bard never quitted him. On one occasion, +being left alone with him, General Washington, looking steadily in his face, +desired his candid opinion as to the probable termination of his disease, +adding, with that placid firmness which marked his address, ‘Do not +flatter me with vain hopes; I am not afraid to die, and therefore can bear the +worst!’ Dr. Bard’s answer, though it expressed hope, acknowledged +his apprehensions. The President replied, ‘Whether to-night or twenty +years hence, makes no difference.’” It was of this that Maclay +wrote, “Called to see the President. Every eye full of tears. His life +despaired of. Dr. MacKnight told me he would trifle neither with his own +character nor the public expectation; his danger was imminent, and every reason +to expect that the event of his disorder would be unfortunate.” +</p> + +<p> +During his convalescence the President wrote to a correspondent, “I have +the pleasure to inform you, that my health is restored, but a feebleness still +hangs upon me, and I am much incommoded by the incision, which was made in a +very large and painful tumor on the protuberance of my thigh. This prevents me +from walking or sitting. However, the physicians assure me that it has had a +happy effect in removing my fever, and will tend very much to the establishment +of my general health; it is in a fair way of healing, and time and patience +only are wanting to remove this evil. I am able to take exercise in my coach, +by having it so contrived as to extend myself the full length of it.” He +himself seems to have thought this succession of illness due to the fatigues of +office, for he said,— +</p> + +<p> +“Public meetings, and a dinner once a week to as many as my table will +hold, with the references <i>to and from</i> the different department of state +and <i>other</i> communications with <i>all</i> parts of the Union, are as +much, if not more, than I am able to undergo; for I have already had within +less than a year, two severe attacks, the last worst than the first. A third, +more than probable, will put me to sleep with my fathers. At what distance this +may be I know not. Within the last twelve months I have undergone more and +severer sickness, than thirty preceding years afflicted me with. Put it all +together I have abundant reason, however, to be thankful that I am so well +recovered; though I still feel the remains of the violent affection of my +lungs; the cough, pain in my breast, and shortness in breathing not having +entirely left me.” +</p> + +<p> +While at Mount Vernon in 1794, “an exertion to save myself and horse from +falling among the rocks at the Lower Falls of the Potomac (whither I went on +Sunday morning to see the canal and locks),… wrenched my back in such a manner +as to prevent my riding;” the “hurt” “confined me +whilst I was at Mount Vernon,” and it was some time before he could +“again ride with ease and safety.” In this same year Washington was +operated on by Dr. Tate for cancer,—the same disorder from which his +mother had suffered. +</p> + +<p> +After his retirement from office, in 1798, he “was seized with a fever, +of which I took little notice until I was obliged to call for the aid of +medicine; and with difficulty a remission thereof was so far effected as to +dose me all night on thursday with Bark—which having stopped it, and +weakness only remaining, will soon wear off as my appetite is returning;” +and to a correspondent he apologized for not sooner replying, and pleaded +“debilitated health, occasioned by the fever wch. deprived me of 20 lbs. +of the weight I had when you and I were at Troy Mills Scales, and rendered +writing irksome.” +</p> + +<p> +A glance at Washington’s medical knowledge and opinions may not lack +interest. In the “Rules of civility” he had taken so to heart, the +boy had been taught that “In visiting the Sick, do not Presently play the +Physician if you be not Knowing therein,” but plantation life trained +every man to a certain extent in physicking, and the yearly invoice sent to +London always ordered such drugs as were needed,—ipecacuanha, jalap, +Venice treacle, rhubarb, diacordium, etc., as well as medicines for horses and +dogs. In 1755 Washington received great benefit from one quack medicine, +“Dr. James’s Powders;” he once bought a quantity of another, +“Godfrey’s Cordial;” and at a later time Mrs. Washington +tried a third, “Annatipic Pills.” More unenlightened still was a +treatment prescribed for Patsy Custis, when “Joshua Evans who came here +last night, put a [metal] ring on Patsey (for Fits).” A not much higher +order of treatment was Washington sending for Dr. Laurie to bleed his wife, +and, as his diary notes, the doctor “came here, I may add, drunk,” +so that a night’s sleep was necessary before the service could be +rendered. When the small-pox was raging in the Continental Army, even +Washington’s earnest request could not get the Virginia Assembly to +repeal a law which forbade inoculation, and he had to urge his wife for over +four years before he could bring her to the point of submitting to the +operation. One quality which implies greatness is told by a visitor, who states +that in his call “an allusion was made to a serious fit of illness he had +recently suffered; but he took no notice of it” Custis notes that +“his aversion to the use of medicine was extreme; and, even when in great +suffering, it was only by the entreaties of his lady, and the respectful, yet +beseeching look of his oldest friend and companion in arms (Dr. James Craik) +that he could be prevailed upon to take the slightest preparation of +medicine.” In line with this was his refusal to take anything for a cold, +saying, “Let it go as it came,” though this good sense was +apparently restricted to his own colds, for Watson relates that in a visit to +Mount Vernon “I was extremely oppressed by a severe cold and excessive +coughing, contracted by the exposure of a harsh journey. 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 astonishment, I beheld Washington +himself, standing at my bedside, with a bowl of hot tea in his hand.” +</p> + +<p> +The acute attacks of illness already touched upon by no means represent all the +physical debility and suffering of Washington’s life. During the +Revolution his sight became poor, so that in 1778 he first put on glasses for +reading, and Cobb relates that in the officers’ meeting in 1783, which +Washington attended In order to check an appeal to arms, “When the +General took his station at the desk or pulpit, which, you may recollect, was +in the Temple, he took out his written address from his coat pocket and then +addressed the officers in the following manner: ‘Gentlemen, you will +permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray, but almost +blind, in the service of my country.’ This little address, with the mode +and manner of delivering it, drew tears from [many] of the officers.” +</p> + +<p> +Nor did his hearing remain entirely good. Maclay noted, at one of the +President’s dinners in 1789, that “he seemed in more good humor +than I ever saw him, though he was so deaf that I believe he heard little of +the conversation,” and three years later the President is reported as +saying to Jefferson that he was “sensible, too, of a decay of his +hearing, perhaps his other faculties might fall off and he not be sensible of +it.” +</p> + +<p> +Washington’s teeth were even more troublesome. Mercer in 1760 alluded to +his showing, when his mouth was open, “some defective teeth,” and +as early as 1754 one of his teeth was extracted. From this time toothache, +usually followed by the extraction of the guilty member, became almost of +yearly recurrence, and his diary reiterates, with verbal variations, +“indisposed with an aching tooth, and swelled and inflamed gum,” +while his ledger contains many items typified by “To Dr. Watson drawing a +tooth 5/.” By 1789 he was using false teeth, and he lost his last tooth +in 1795. At first these substitutes were very badly fitted, and when Stuart +painted his famous picture he tried to remedy the malformation they gave the +mouth by padding under the lips with cotton. The result was to make bad worse, +and to give, in that otherwise fine portrait, a feature at once poor and unlike +Washington, and for this reason alone the Sharpless miniature, which in all +else approximates so closely to Stuart’s masterpiece, is preferable. In +1796 Washington was furnished with two sets of “sea-horse” +(<i>i.e.</i>, hippopotamus) ivory teeth, and they were so much better fitted +that the distortion of the mouth ceased to be noticeable. +</p> + +<p> +Washington’s final illness began December 12, 1799, in a severe cold +taken by riding about his plantation while “rain, hail and snow” +were “falling alternately, with a cold wind.” When he came in late +in the afternoon, Lear “observed to him that I was afraid that he had got +wet, he said no his great coat had kept him dry; but his neck appeared to be +wet and the snow was hanging on his hair.” The next day he had a cold, +“and complained of having a sore throat,” yet, though it was +snowing, none the less he “went out in the afternoon … to mark some trees +which were to be cut down.” “He had a hoarseness which increased in +the evening; but he made light of it as he would never take anything to carry +off a cold, always observing, ‘let it go as it came.’” At two +o’clock the following morning he was seized with a severe ague, and as +soon as the house was stirring he sent for an overseer and ordered the man to +bleed him, and about half a pint of blood was taken from him. At this time he +could “swallow nothing,” “appeared to be distressed, +convulsed and almost suffocated.” +</p> + +<p> +There can be scarcely a doubt that the treatment of his last illness by the +doctors was little short of murder. Although he had been bled once already, +after they took charge of the case they prescribed “two pretty copious +bleedings,” and finally a third, “when about 32 ounces of blood +were drawn,” or the equivalent of a quart. Of the three doctors, one +disapproved of this treatment, and a second wrote, only a few days after +Washington’s death, to the third, “you must remember” Dr. +Dick “was averse to bleeding the General, and I have often thought that +if we had acted according to his suggestion when he said, ‘he needs all +his strength— bleeding will diminish it,’ and taken no more blood +from him, our good friend might have been alive now. But we were governed by +the best light we had; we thought we were right, and so we are +justified.” +</p> + +<p> +Shortly after this last bleeding Washington seemed to have resigned himself, +for he gave some directions concerning his will, and said, “I find I am +going,” and, “smiling,” added, that, “as it was the +debt which we must all pay, he looked to the event with perfect +resignation.” From this time on “he appeared to be in great pain +and distress,” and said, “Doctor, I die hard, but I am not afraid +to go. I believed from my first attack that I should not survive it.” A +little later he said, “I feel myself going. I thank you for your +attention, you had better not take any more trouble about me; but let me go off +quietly.” The last words he said were, “’Tis well.” +“About ten minutes before he expired, his breathing became much +easier—he lay quietly—… and felt his own pulse…. The +general’s hand fell from his wrist,… and he expired without a struggle or +a Sigh.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>III<br/> +EDUCATION</h2> + +<p> +The father of Washington received his education at Appleby School in England, +and, true to his alma mater, he sent his two elder sons to the same school. His +death when George was eleven prevented this son from having the same advantage, +and such education as he had was obtained in Virginia. His old friend, and +later enemy, Rev. Jonathan Boucher, said that “George, like most people +thereabouts at that time, had no education than reading, writing and accounts +which he was taught by a convict servant whom his father bought for a +schoolmaster;” but Boucher managed to include so many inaccuracies in his +account of Washington, that even if this statement were not certainly +untruthful in several respects, it could be dismissed as valueless. +</p> + +<p> +Born at Wakefield, in Washington parish, Westmoreland, which had been the home +of the Washingtons from their earliest arrival in Virginia, George was too +young while the family continued there to attend the school which had been +founded in that parish by the gift of four hundred and forty acres from some +early patron of knowledge. When the boy was about three years old, the family +removed to “Washington,” as Mount Vernon was called before it was +renamed, and dwelt there from 1735 till 1739, when, owing to the burning of the +homestead, another remove was made to an estate on the Rappahannock, nearly +opposite Fredericksburg. +</p> + +<p> +Here it was that the earliest education of George was received, for in an old +volume of the Bishop of Exeter’s Sermons his name is written, and on a +flyleaf a note in the handwriting of a relative who inherited the library +states that this “autograph of George Washington’s name is believed +to be the earliest specimen of his handwriting, when he was probably not more +than eight or nine years old.” During this period, too, there came into +his possession the “Young Man’s Companion,” an English +<i>vade-mecum</i> of then enormous popularity, written “in a plain and +easy stile,” the title states, “that a young Man may attain the +same, without a Tutor.” It would be easier to say what this little book +did not teach than to catalogue what it did. How to read, write, and figure is +but the introduction to the larger part of the work, which taught one to write +letters, wills, deeds, and all legal forms, to measure, survey, and navigate, +to build houses, to make ink and cider, and to plant and graft, how to address +letters to people of quality, how to doctor the sick, and, finally, how to +conduct one’s self in company. The evidence still exists of how carefully +Washington studied this book, in the form of copybooks, in which are +transcribed problem after problem and rule after rule, not to exclude the +famous Rules of civility, which biographers of Washington have asserted were +written by the boy himself. School-mates thought fit, after Washington became +famous, to remember his “industry and assiduity at school as very +remarkable,” and the copies certainly bear out the statement, but even +these prove that the lad was as human as the man, for scattered here and there +among the logarithms, geometrical problems, and legal forms are crude drawings +of birds, faces, and other typical school-boy attempts. +</p> + +<p> +From this book, too, came two qualities which clung to him through life. His +handwriting, so easy, flowing, and legible, was modelled from the engraved +“copy” sheet, and certain forms of spelling were acquired here that +were never corrected, though not the common usage of his time. To the end of +his life, Washington wrote lie, lye; liar, lyar; ceiling, cieling; oil, oyl; +and blue, blew, as in his boyhood he had learned to do from this book. Even in +his carefully prepared will, “lye” was the form in which he wrote +the word. It must be acknowledged that, aside from these errors which he had +been taught, through his whole life Washington was a non-conformist as regarded +the King’s English: struggle as he undoubtedly did, the instinct of +correct spelling was absent, and thus every now and then a verbal slip +appeared: extravagence, lettely (for lately), glew, riffle (for rifle), latten +(for Latin), immagine, winder, rief (for rife), oppertunity, spirma citi, +yellow oaker,—such are types of his lapses late in life, while his +earlier letters and journals are far more inaccurate. It must be borne in mind, +however, that of these latter we have only the draughts, which were undoubtedly +written carelessly, and the two letters actually sent which are now known, and +the text of his surveys before he was twenty, are quite as well written as his +later epistles. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus07"></a> +<img src="images/img07.jpg" width="600" height="297" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption"><i>Easy Copies to Write by</i>.<br /> +COPY OF PENMANSHIP BY WHICH WASHINGTON’S HANDWRITING WAS FORMED</p> +</div> + +<p> +On the death of his father, Washington went to live with his brother Augustine, +in order, it is presumed, that he might take advantage of a good school near +Wakefield, kept by one Williams; but after a time he returned to his +mother’s, and attended the school kept by the Rev. James Marye, in +Fredericksburg. It has been universally asserted by his biographers that he +studied no foreign language, but direct proof to the contrary exists in a copy +of Patrick’s Latin translation of Homer, printed in 1742, the fly-leaf of +a copy of which bears, in a school-boy hand, the inscription: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Hunc mihi quaeso (bone Vir) Libellum<br/> +Redde, si forsan tenues repertum<br/> +Ut Scias qui sum sine fraude Scriptum. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +Est mihi nomen, <br/> +Georgio Washington, <br/> +George Washington, <br/> +Fredericksburg, <br/> +Virginia.” +</p> + +<p> +It is thus evident that the reverend teacher gave Washington at least the first +elements of Latin, but it is equally clear that the boy, like most others, +forgot it with the greatest facility as soon as he ceased studying. +</p> + +<p> +The end of Washington’s school-days left him, if a good +“cipherer,” a bad speller, and a still worse grammarian, but, +fortunately, the termination of instruction did not by any means end his +education. From that time there is to be noted a steady improvement in both +these failings. Pickering stated that “when I first became acquainted +with the General (in 1777) his writing was defective in grammar, and even +spelling, owing to the insufficiency of his early education; of which, however, +he gradually got the better in the subsequent years of his life, by the +official perusal of some excellent models, particularly those of Hamilton; by +writing with care and patient attention; and reading numerous, indeed +multitudes of letters to and from his friends and correspondents. This obvious +improvement was begun during the war.” In 1785 a contemporary noted that +“the General is remarked for writing a most elegant letter,” adding +that, “like the famous Addison, his writing excells his speaking,” +and Jefferson said that “he wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy +and correct style. This he had acquired by conversation with the world, for his +education was merely reading, writing and common arithmetic, to which he added +surveying at a later day.” +</p> + +<p> +There can be no doubt that Washington felt his lack of education very keenly as +he came to act upon a larger sphere than as a Virginia planter. “I am +sensible,” he wrote a friend, of his letters, “that the narrations +are just, and that truth and honesty will appear in my writings; of which, +therefore, I shall not be ashamed, though criticism may censure my +style.” When his secretary suggested to him that he should write his own +life, he replied, “In a former letter I informed you, my dear Humphreys, +that if I had <i>talents</i> for it, I have not leisure to turn my thoughts to +Commentaries. A consciousness of a defective education, and a certainty of the +want of time, unfit me for such an undertaking.” On being pressed by a +French comrade-in-arms to pay France a visit, he declined, saying, +“Remember, my good friend, that I am unacquainted with your language, +that I am too far advanced in years to acquire a knowledge of it, and that, to +converse through the medium of an interpreter upon common occasions, especially +with the Ladies, must appear so extremely awkward, insipid, and uncouth, that I +can scarce bear it in idea.” +</p> + +<p> +In 1788, without previous warning, he was elected chancellor of William and +Mary College, a distinction by which he felt “honored and greatly +affected;” but “not knowing particularly what duties, or whether +any active services are immediately expected from the person holding the office +of chancellor, I have been greatly embarrassed in deciding upon the public +answer proper to be given…. My difficulties are briefly these. On the one hand, +nothing in this world could be farther from my heart, than … a refusal of the +appointment … provided its duties are not incompatible with the mode of life to +which I have entirely addicted myself; and, on the other hand, I would not for +any consideration disappoint the just expectations of the convocation by +accepting an office, whose functions I previously knew … I should be absolutely +unable to perform.” +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps the most touching proof of his own self-depreciation was something he +did when he had become conscious that his career would be written about. Still +in his possession were the letter-books in which he had kept copies of his +correspondence while in command of the Virginia regiment between 1754 and 1759, +and late in life he went through these volumes, and, by interlining +corrections, carefully built them into better literary form. How this was done +is shown here by a single facsimile. +</p> + +<p> +With the appointment to command the Continental Army, a secretary was secured, +and in an absence of this assistant he complained to him that “my +business increases very fast, and my distresses for want of you along with it. +Mr. Harrison is the only gentleman of my family, that can afford me the least +assistance in writing. He and Mr. Moylan,… have heretofore afforded me their +aid; and … they have really had a great deal of trouble.” +</p> + +<p> +Most of Washington’s correspondence during the Revolution was written by +his aides. Pickering said,— +</p> + +<p> +“As to the public letters bearing his signature, it is certain that he +could not have maintained so extensive a correspondence with his own pen, even +if he had possessed the ability and promptness of Hamilton. That he would, +sometimes with propriety, observe upon, correct, and add to any draught +submitted for his examination and signature, I have no doubt. And yet I doubt +whether many, if any, of the letters … are his own draught…. I have even reason +to believe that not only the <i>composition</i>, the <i>clothing of the +ideas</i>, but the <i>ideas themselves</i>, originated generally with the +writers; that Hamilton and Harrison, in particular, were scarcely in any degree +his amanuenses. I remember, when at head-quarters one day, at Valley Forge, +Colonel Harrison came down from the General’s chamber, with his brows +knit, and thus accosted me, ‘I wish to the Lord the General would give me +the heads or some idea, of what he would have me write.’” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus08"></a> +<img src="images/img08.jpg" width="379" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">CORRECTED LETTER OF WASHINGTON SHOWING LATER CHANGES</p> +</div> + +<p> +After the Revolution, a visitor at Mount Vernon said, “It’s +astonishing the packet of letters that daily comes for him from all parts of +the world, which employ him most of the morning to answer.” A secretary +was employed, but not so much to do the actual writing as the copying and +filing, and at this time Washington complained “that my numerous +correspondencies are daily becoming irksome to me.” Yet there can be +little question that he richly enjoyed writing when it was not for the public +eye. “It is not the letters of my friends which give me trouble,” +he wrote to one correspondent; to another he said, “I began with telling +you that I should not write a lengthy letter but the result has been to +contradict it;” and to a third, “when I look back to the length of +this letter, I am so much astonished and frightened at it myself that I have +not the courage to give it a careful reading for the purpose of correction. You +must, therefore, receive it with all its imperfections, accompanied with this +assurance, that, though there may be inaccuracies in the letter, there is not a +single defect in the friendship.” Occasionally there was, as here, an +apology: “I am persuaded you will excuse this scratch’d scrawl, +when I assure you it is with difficulty I write at all,” he ended a +letter in 1777, and in 1792 of another said, “You must receive it blotted +and scratched as you find it for I have not time to copy it. It is now ten +o’clock at night, after my usual hour for retiring to rest, and the mail +will be closed early to-morrow morning.” +</p> + +<p> +To his overseer, who neglected to reply to some of his questions, he told his +method of writing, which is worth quoting: +</p> + +<p> +“Whenever I set down to write you, I read your letter, or letters +carefully over, and as soon as I come to a part that requires to be noticed, I +make a short note on the cover of a letter or piece of waste paper;—then +read on the next, noting that in like manner;—and so on until I have got +through the whole letter and reports. Then in writing my letter to you, as soon +as I have finished what I have to say on one of these notes I draw my pen +through it and proceed to another and another until the whole is +done—crossing each as I go on, by which means if I am called off twenty +times whilst I am writing, I can never with these notes before me finished or +unfinished, omit anything I wanted to say; and they serve me also, as I keep no +copies of letters I wrote to you, as Memorandums of what has been written if I +should have occasion at any time to refer to them.” +</p> + +<p> +Another indication of his own knowledge of defects is shown by his fear about +his public papers. When his Journal to the Ohio was printed by order of the +governor, in 1754, in the preface the young author said, “I think I can +do no less than apologize, in some Measure, for the numberless imperfections of +it. There intervened but one Day between my Arrival in Williamsburg, and the +Time for the Council’s Meeting, for me to prepare and transcribe, from +the rough Minutes I had taken in my Travels, this Journal; the writing of which +only was sufficient to employ me closely the whole Time, consequently admitted +of no Leisure to consult of a new and proper Form to offer it in, or to correct +or amend the Diction of the old.” Boucher states that the publication, +“in Virginia at least, drew on him some ridicule.” +</p> + +<p> +This anxiety about his writings was shown all through life, and led Washington +to rely greatly on such of his friends as would assist him, even to the point, +so Reed thought, that he “sometimes adopted draughts of writing when his +own would have been better … from an extreme diffidence in himself,” and +Pickering said, in writing to an aide,— +</p> + +<p> +“Although the General’s private correspondence was doubtless, for +the most part, his own, and extremely acceptable to the persons addressed; yet, +in regard to whatever was destined to meet the public eye, he seems to have +been fearful to exhibit his own compositions, relying too much on the judgment +of his friends, and sometimes adopted draughts that were exceptionable. Some +parts of his private correspondence must have essentially differed from other +parts in the style of composition. You mention your own aids to the General in +this line. Now, if I had your draughts before me, mingled with the +General’s to the same persons, nothing would be more easy than to assign +to each his own proper offspring. You could neither restrain your +<i>courser</i>, nor conceal your imagery, nor express your ideas otherwise than +in the language of a scholar. The General’s compositions would be +perfectly plain and didactic, and not always correct.” +</p> + +<p> +During the Presidency, scarcely anything of a public nature was penned by +Washington,—Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph acting as his +draughtsmen. “We are approaching the first Monday in December by hasty +strides,” he wrote to Jefferson. “I pray you, therefore, to revolve +in your mind such matters as may be proper for me to lay before Congress, not +only in your own department, (if any there be,) but such others of a general +nature, as may happen to occur to you, that I may be prepared to open the +session with such communication, as shall appear to merit attention.” Two +years later he said to the same, “I pray you to note down or rather to +frame into paragraphs or sections, such matters as may occur to you as fit and +proper for general communication at the opening of the next session of +Congress, not only in the department of state, but on any other subject +applicable to the occasion, that I may in due time have everything before +me.” To Hamilton he wrote in 1795, “Having desired the late +Secretary of State to note down every matter as it occurred, proper either for +the speech at the opening of the session, or for messages afterwards, the +inclosed paper contains everything I could extract from that office. Aid me, I +pray you, with your sentiments on these points, and such others as may have +occurred to you relative to my communications to Congress.” +</p> + +<p> +The best instance is furnished in the preparation of the Farewell Address. +First Madison was asked to prepare a draft, and from this Washington drew up a +paper, which he submitted to Hamilton and Jay, with the request that +“even if you should think it best to throw the whole into a different +form, let me request, notwithstanding, that my draught may be returned to me +(along with yours) with such amendments and corrections as to render it as +perfect as the formation is susceptible of; curtailed if too verbose; and +relieved of all tautology not necessary to enforce the ideas in the original or +quoted part. My wish is that the whole may appear in a plain style, and be +handed to the public in an honest, unaffected, simple part.” Accordingly, +Hamilton prepared what was almost a new instrument in form, though not in +substance, which, after “several serious and attentive readings,” +Washington wrote that he preferred “greatly to the other draughts, being +more copious on material points, more dignified on the whole, and with less +egotism; of course, less exposed to criticism, and better calculated to meet +the eye of discerning readers (foreigners particularly, whose curiosity I have +little doubt will lead them to inspect it attentively, and to pronounce their +opinions on the performance).” The paper was then, according to +Pickering, “put into the hands of Wolcott, McHenry, and myself … with a +request that we would examine it, and note any alterations and corrections +which we should think best. We did so; but our notes, as well as I recollect, +were very few, and regarded chiefly the grammar and composition.” +Finally, Washington revised the whole, and it was then made public. +</p> + +<p> +Confirmatory of this sense of imperfect cultivation are the pains he took that +his adopted son and grandson should be well educated. As already noted, tutors +for both were secured at the proper ages, and when Jack was placed with the +Rev. Mr. Boucher, Washington wrote: “In respect to the kinds, & +manner of his Studying I leave it wholely to your better Judgment—had he +begun, or rather pursued his study of the Greek Language, I should have thought +it no bad acquisition; but whether if he acquire this now, he may not forego +some useful branches of learning, is a matter worthy of consideration. To be +acquainted with the French Tongue is become part of polite Education; and to a +man who has the prospect of mixing in a large Circle absolutely necessary. +Without Arithmetick, the common affairs of Life are not to be managed with +success. The study of Geometry, and the Mathematics (with due regard to the +limites of it) is equally advantageous. The principles of Philosophy Moral, +Natural, &c. I should think a very desirable knowledge for a +Gentleman.” So, too, he wrote to Washington Custis, “I do not hear +you mention anything of geography or mathematics as parts of your study; both +these are necessary branches of useful knowledge. Nor ought you to let your +knowledge of the Latin language and grammatical rules escape you. And the +French language is now so universal, and so necessary with foreigners, or in a +foreign country, that I think you would be injudicious not to make yourself +master of it.” It is worth noting in connection with this last sentence +that Washington used only a single French expression with any frequency, and +that he always wrote “faupas.” +</p> + +<p> +Quite as indicative of the value he put on education was the aid he gave +towards sending his young relatives and others to college, his annual +contribution to an orphan school, his subscriptions to academies, and his wish +for a national university. In 1795 he said,— +</p> + +<p> +“It has always been a source of serious reflection and sincere regret +with me, that the youth of the United States should be sent to foreign +countries for the purpose of education…. For this reason I have greatly wished +to see a plan adopted, by which the arts, sciences, and belles-lettres could be +taught in their <i>fullest</i> extent, thereby embracing <i>all</i> the +advantages of European tuition, with the means of acquiring the liberal +knowledge, which is necessary to qualify our citizens for the exigencies of +public as well as private life; and (which with me is a consideration of great +magnitude) by assembling the youth from the different parts of this rising +republic, contributing from their intercourse and interchange of information to +the removal of prejudices, which might perhaps sometimes arise from local +circumstances.” +</p> + +<p> +In framing his Farewell Address, “revolving … on the various matters it +contained and on the first expression of the advice or recommendation which was +given in it, I have regretted that another subject (which in my estimation is +of interesting concern to the well-being of this country) was not touched upon +also; I mean education generally, as one of the surest means of enlightening +and giving just ways of thinking to our citizens, but particularly the +establishment of a university; where the youth from all parts of the United +States might receive the polish of erudition in the arts, sciences and +belles-lettres.” Eventually he reduced this idea to a plea for the people +to “promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for +the general diffusion of knowledge,” because “in proportion as the +structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that +public opinion should be enlightened.” By his will he left to the +endowment of a university in the District of Columbia the shares in the Potomac +Company which had been given him by the State of Virginia, but the clause was +never carried into effect. +</p> + +<p> +It was in 1745 that Washington’s school-days came to an end. His share of +his father’s property being his mother’s till he was twenty-one, a +livelihood had to be found, and so at about fourteen years of age the work of +life began. Like a true boy, the lad wanted to go to sea, despite his +uncle’s warning “that I think he had better be put apprentice to a +tinker; for a common sailor before the mast has by no means the liberty of 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 him like a +negro, or rather like a dog.” His mother, however, would not consent, and +to this was due his becoming a surveyor. +</p> + +<p> +From his “Young Man’s Companion” Washington had already +learned the use of Gunter’s rule and how it should be used in surveying, +and to complete his knowledge he seems to have taken lessons of the licensed +surveyor of Westmoreland County, James Genn, for transcripts of some of the +surveys drawn by Genn still exist in the handwriting of his pupil. This implied +a distinct and very valuable addition to his knowledge, and a large number of +his surveys still extant are marvels of neatness and careful drawing. As a +profession it was followed for only four years (1747-1751), but all through +life he often used his knowledge in measuring or platting his own property. Far +more important is the service it was to him in public life. In 1755 he sent to +Braddock’s secretary a map of the “back country,” and to the +governor of Virginia plans of two forts. During the Revolution it helped him +not merely in the study of maps, but also in the facility it gave him to take +in the topographical features of the country. Very largely, too, was the +selection of the admirable site for the capital due to his supervising: all the +plans for the city were submitted to him, and nowhere do the good sense and +balance of the man appear to better advantage than in his correspondence with +the Federal city commissioners. +</p> + +<p> +In Washington’s earliest account-book there is an item when he was +sixteen years old, “To cash pd ye Musick Master for my Entrance +3/9.” It is commonly said that he played the flute, but this is as great +a libel on him as any Tom Paine wrote, and though he often went to concerts, +and though fond of hearing his granddaughter Nelly play and sing, he never was +himself a performer, and the above entry probably refers to the singing-master +whom the boys and girls of that day made the excuse for evening frolics. +</p> + +<p> +Mention is made elsewhere of his taking lessons in the sword exercise from Van +Braam in these earlier years, and in 1756 he paid to Sergeant Wood, +fencing-master, the sum of £1.1.6. When he received the offer of a position on +Braddock’s staff, he acknowledged, in accepting, that “I must be +ingenuous enough to confess, that I am not a little biassed by selfish +considerations. To explain, Sir, I wish earnestly to attain some knowledge in +the military profession, and, believing a more favorable opportunity cannot +offer, than to serve under a gentleman of General Braddock’s abilities +and experience, it does … not a little contribute to influence my +choice.” Hamilton is quoted as saying that Washington “never read +any book upon the art of war but Sim’s Military Guide,” and an +anonymous author asserted that “he never read a book in the art of war of +higher value than Bland’s Exercises.” Certain it is that nearly all +the military knowledge he possessed was derived from practice rather than from +books, and though, late in life, he purchased a number of works on the subject, +it was after his army service was over. +</p> + +<p> +One factor in Washington’s education which must not go unnoticed was his +religious belief. When only two months old he was baptized, presumably by the +Rev. Lawrence De Butts, the clergyman of Washington parish. The removal from +that locality prevented any further religious influence from this clergyman, +and it probably first came from the Rev. Charles Green, of Truro parish, who +had received his appointment through the friendship of Washington’s +father, and who later was on such friendly terms with Washington that he +doctored Mrs. Washington in an attack of the measles, and caught and returned +two of his parishioner’s runaway slaves. As early as 1724 the clergyman +of the parish in which Mount Vernon was situated reported that he catechised +the youth of his congregation “in Lent and a great part of the +Summer,” and George, as the son of one of his vestrymen, undoubtedly +received a due amount of questioning. +</p> + +<p> +From 1748 till 1759 there was little church-going for the young surveyor or +soldier, but after his marriage and settling at Mount Vernon he was elected +vestryman in the two parishes of Truro and Fairfax, and from that election he +was quite active in church affairs. It may be worth noting that in the +elections of 1765 the new vestryman stood third in popularity in the Truro +church and fifth in that of Fairfax. He drew the plans for a new church in +Truro, and subscribed to its building, intending “to lay the foundation +of a family pew,” but by a vote of the vestry it was decided that there +should be no private pews, and this breach of contract angered Washington so +greatly that he withdrew from the church in 1773. Sparks quotes Madison to the +effect that “there was a tradition that, when he [Washington] belonged to +the vestry of a church in his neighborhood, and several little difficulties +grew out of some division of the society, he sometimes spoke with great force, +animation, and eloquence on the topics that came before them.” After this +withdrawal he bought a pew in Christ Church in Alexandria (Fairfax parish), +paying £36.10, which was the largest price paid by any parishioner. To this +church he was quite liberal, subscribing several times towards repairs, etc. +</p> + +<p> +The Rev. Lee Massey, who was rector at Pohick (Truro) Church before the +Revolution, is quoted by Bishop Meade as saying that +</p> + +<p> +“I never knew so constant an attendant in church as Washington. And his +behavior in the house of God was ever so deeply reverential that it produced +the happiest effect on my congregation, and greatly assisted me in my pulpit +labors. No company ever withheld him from church. I have often been at Mount +Vernon on Sabbath morning, when his breakfast table was filled with guests; but +to him they furnished no pretext for neglecting his God and losing the +satisfaction of setting a good example. For instead of staying at home, out of +false complaisance to them, he used constantly to invite them to accompany +him.” +</p> + +<p> +This seems to have been written more with an eye to its influence on others +than to its strict accuracy. During the time Washington attended at Pohick +Church he was by no means a regular church-goer. His daily “where and how +my time is spent” enables us to know exactly how often he attended +church, and in the year 1760 he went just sixteen times, and in 1768 he went +fourteen, these years being fairly typical of the period 1760-1773. During the +Presidency a sense of duty made him attend St Paul’s and Christ churches +while in New York and Philadelphia, but at Mount Vernon, when the public eye +was not upon him, he was no more regular than he had always been, and in the +last year of his life he wrote, “Six days do I labor, or, in other words, +take exercise and devote my time to various occupations in Husbandry, and about +my mansion. On the seventh, now called the first day, for want of a place of +Worship (within less than nine miles) such letters as do not require immediate +acknowledgment I give answers to…. But it hath so happened, that on the two +last Sundays—call them the first or the seventh as you please, I have +been unable to perform the latter duty on account of visits from Strangers, +with whom I could not use the freedom to leave alone, or recommend to the care +of each other, for their amusement.” +</p> + +<p> +What he said here was more or less typical of his whole life. Sunday was always +the day on which he wrote his private letters,—even prepared his +invoices,—and he wrote to one of his overseers that his letters should be +mailed so as to reach him Saturday, as by so doing they could be answered the +following day. Nor did he limit himself to this, for he entertained company, +closed land purchases, sold wheat, and, while a Virginia planter, went +foxhunting, on Sunday. It is to be noted, however, that he considered the +scruples of others as to the day. When he went among his western tenants, +rent-collecting, he entered in his diary that, it “being Sunday and the +People living on my Land <i>apparently</i> very religious, it was thought best +to postpone going among them till to-morrow,” and in his journey through +New England, because it was “contrary to the law and disagreeable to the +People of this State (Connecticut) to travel on the Sabbath day—and my +horses, after passing through such intolerable roads, wanting rest, I stayed at +Perkins’ tavern (which, by the bye, is not a good one) all day—and +a meetinghouse being within a few rods of the door, I attended the morning and +evening services, and heard very lame discourses from a Mr. Pond.” It is +of this experience that tradition says the President started to travel, but was +promptly arrested by a Connecticut tithing-man. The story, however, lacks +authentication. +</p> + +<p> +There can be no doubt that religious intolerance was not a part of +Washington’s character. In 1775, when the New England troops intended to +celebrate Guy Fawkes day, as usual, the General Orders declared that “as +the Commander in chief has been apprised of a design, formed for the observance +of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the effigy of the Pope, he +cannot help expressing his surprise, that there should be officers and soldiers +in this army so void of common sense, as not to see the impropriety of such a +step.” When trying to secure some servants, too, he wrote that “if +they are good workmen, they may be from Asia, Africa, or Europe; they may be +Mahometans, Jews, or Christians of any sect, or they may be Atheists.” +When the bill taxing all the people of Virginia to support the Episcopal Church +(his own) was under discussion, he threw his weight against it, as far as +concerned the taxing of other sectaries, but adding: +</p> + +<p> +“Although no man’s sentiments are more opposed to any kind of +restraint upon religious principles than mine are, yet I must confess, that I +am not amongst the number of those, who are so much alarmed at the thoughts of +making people pay towards the support of that which they profess, if of the +denomination, of Christians, or to declare themselves Jews, Mahometans, or +otherwise, and thereby obtain proper relief. As the matter now stands, I wish +an assessment had never been agitated, and as it has gone so far, that the bill +could die an easy death; because I think it will be productive of more quiet to +the State, than by enacting it into a law, which in my opinion would be +impolitic, admitting there is a decided majority for it, to the disquiet of a +respectable minority. In the former case, the matter will soon subside; in the +latter, it will rankle and perhaps convulse the State.” +</p> + +<p> +Again in a letter he says,— +</p> + +<p> +“Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are +caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate +and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes, that the +lightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least +have reconciled <i>Christians</i> of every denomination so far, that we should +never again see their religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger +the peace of society.” +</p> + +<p> +And to Lafayette, alluding to the proceedings of the Assembly of Notables, he +wrote,— +</p> + +<p> +“I am not less ardent in my wish, that you may succeed in your plan of +toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself, I am disposed to +indulge the professors of Christianity in the church with that road to Heaven, +which to them shall seem the most direct, plainest, easiest, and least liable +to exception.” +</p> + +<p> +What Washington believed has been a source of much dispute. Jefferson states +“that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets, and believed +himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington believed no more of +that system than he himself did,” and Morris, it is scarcely necessary to +state, was an atheist. The same authority quotes Rush, to the effect that +“when the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure from the +government, it was observed in their consultation, that he had never, on any +occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief in the Christian +religion, and they thought they should so pen their address, as to force him at +length to declare publicly whether he was a Christian or not They did so. But, +he observed, the old fox was too cunning for them. He answered every article of +their address particularly except that, which he passed over without +notice.” +</p> + +<p> +Whatever his belief, in all public ways Washington threw his influence in favor +of religion, and kept what he really believed a secret, and in only one thing +did he disclose his real thoughts. It is asserted that before the Revolution he +partook of the sacrament, but this is only affirmed by hearsay, and better +evidence contradicts it. After that war he did not, it is certain. Nelly Custis +states that on “communion Sundays he left the church with me, after the +blessing, and returned home, and we sent the carriage back for my +grandmother.” And the assistant minister of Christ Church in Philadelphia +states that— +</p> + +<p> +“Observing that on Sacrament Sundays, Gen’l Washington, immediately +after the Desk and Pulpit services, went out with the greater part of the +congregation, always leaving Mrs. Washington with the communicants, she +<i>invariably</i> being one, I considered it my duty, in a sermon on Public +Worship, to state the unhappy tendency of <i>example</i>, particularly those in +elevated stations, who invariably turned their backs upon the celebration of +the Lord’s Supper. I acknowledge the remark was intended for the +President, as such, he received it. A few days after, in conversation with, I +believe, a Senator of the U.S. he told me he had dined the day before with the +President, who in the course of the conversation at the table, said, that on +the preceding Sunday, he had received a very just reproof from the pulpit, for +always leaving the church before the administration of the Sacrament; that he +honored the preacher for his integrity and candour; that he had never +considered the influence of his example; that he would never again give cause +for the repetition of the reproof; and that, as he had never been a +communicant, were he to become one then, it would be imputed to an ostentatious +display of religious zeal arising altogether from his elevated station. +Accordingly he afterwards never came on the morning of Sacrament Sunday, +tho’ at other times, a constant attendant in the morning.” +</p> + +<p> +Nelly Custis, too, tells us that Washington always “stood during the +devotional part of the service,” and Bishop White states that “his +behavior was always serious and attentive; but, as your letter seems to intend +an inquiry on the point of kneeling during the service, I owe it to the truth +to declare, that I never saw him in the said attitude.” Probably his true +position is described by Madison, who is quoted as saying that he did +“not suppose that Washington had ever attended to the arguments for +Christianity, and for the different systems of religion, or in fact that he had +formed definite opinions on the subject. But he took these things as he found +them existing, and was constant in his observances of worship according to the +received forms of the Episcopal Church, in which he was brought up.” +</p> + +<p> +If there was proof needed that it is mind and not education which pushes a man +to the front, it is to be found in the case of Washington. Despite his want of +education, he had, so Bell states, “an excellent understanding.” +Patrick Henry is quoted as saying of the members of the Congress of 1774— +the body of which Adams claimed that “every man in it is a great man, an +orator, a critic, a statesman”—that “if you speak of solid +information and sound judgment Colonel Washington is unquestionably the +greatest man on the floor;” while Jefferson asserted that “his mind +was great and powerful, without being of the very first order; his penetration +strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or Locke; and as far as +he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little +aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>IV<br/> +RELATIONS WITH THE FAIR SEX</h2> + +<p> +The book from which Washington derived almost the whole of his education warned +its readers,— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Young Men have ever more a special care<br/> +That Womanish Allurements prove not a snare;” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +but, however carefully the lad studied the rest, this particular admonition +took little root in his mind. There can be no doubt that Washington during the +whole of his life had a soft heart for women, and especially for good-looking +ones, and both in his personal intercourse and in his letters he shows himself +very much more at ease with them than in his relations with his own sex. Late +in life, when the strong passions of his earlier years were under better +control, he was able to write,— +</p> + +<p> +“Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and it is, therefore, +contended that it cannot be resisted. This is true in part only, for like all +things else, when nourished and supplied plentifully with aliment, it is rapid +in its progress; but let these be withdrawn and it may be stifled in its birth +or much stinted in its growth. For example, a woman (the same may be said of +the other sex) all beautiful and accomplished will, while her hand and heart +are undisposed of, turn the heads and set the circle in which she moves on +fire. Let her marry, and what is the consequence? The madness <i>ceases</i> and +all is quiet again. Why? not because there is any diminution in the charms of +the lady, but because there is an end of hope. Hence it follows, that love may +and therefore ought to be under the guidance of reason, for although we cannot +avoid first impressions, we may assuredly place them under guard.” +</p> + +<p> +To write thus in one’s sixty-sixth year and to practise one’s +theory in youth were, however, very different undertakings. Even while +discussing love so philosophically, the writer had to acknowledge that +“in the composition of the human frame, there is a good deal of +inflammable matter,” and few have had better cause to know it. When he +saw in the premature engagement of his ward, Jack Custis, the one advantage +that it would “in a great measure avoid those little flirtations with +other young ladies that may, by dividing the attention, contribute not a little +to divide the affection,” it is easy to think of him as looking back to +his own boyhood, and remembering, it is to be hoped with a smile, the +sufferings he owed to pretty faces and neatly turned ankles. +</p> + +<p> +While still a school-boy, Washington was one day caught “romping with one +of the largest girls,” and very quickly more serious likings followed. As +early as 1748, when only sixteen years of age, his heart was so engaged that +while at Lord Fairfax’s and enjoying the society of Mary Cary he poured +out his feelings to his youthful correspondents “Dear Robin” and +“Dear John” and “Dear Sally” as follows: +</p> + +<p> +“My place of Residence is at present at His Lordships where I might was +my heart disengag’d pass my time very pleasantly as theres a very +agreeable Young Lady Lives in the same house (Colo George Fairfax’s +Wife’s Sister) but as thats only adding Fuel to fire it makes me the more +uneasy for by often and unavoidably being in Company with her revives my former +Passion for your Low Land Beauty whereas was I to live more retired from young +Women I might in some measure eliviate my sorrows by burying that chast and +troublesome Passion in the grave of oblivion or etarnall forgetfulness for as I +am very well assured thats the only antidote or remedy that I shall be releivd +by or only recess that can administer any cure or help to me as I am well +convinced was I ever to attempt any thing I should only get a denial which +would be only adding grief to uneasiness.” +</p> + +<p> +“Was my affections disengaged I might perhaps form some pleasure in the +conversation of an agreeable Young Lady as theres one now Lives in the same +house with me but as that is only nourishment to my former affecn for by often +seeing her brings the other into my remembrance whereas perhaps was she not +often & (unavoidably) presenting herself to my view I might in some measure +aliviate my sorrows by burying the other in the grave of Oblivion I am well +convinced my heart stands in defiance of all others but only she thats given it +cause enough to dread a second assault and from a different Quarter tho’ +I well know let it have as many attacks as it will from others they cant be +more fierce than it has been.” +</p> + +<p> +“I Pass the time of[f] much more agreeabler than what I imagined I should +as there’s a very agrewable Young Lady lives in the same house where I +reside (Colo George Fairfax’s Wife’s Sister) that in a great +Measure cheats my thoughts altogether from your Parts I could wish to be with +you down there with all my heart but as it is a thing almost Impractakable +shall rest myself where I am with hopes of shortly having some Minutes of your +transactions in your Parts which will be very welcomely receiv’d.” +</p> + +<p> +Who this “Low Land Beauty” was has been the source of much +speculation, but the question is still unsolved, every suggested +damsel—Lucy Grymes, Mary Bland, Betsy Fauntleroy, <i>et +al.</i>—being either impossible or the evidence wholly inadequate. But in +the same journal which contains the draughts of these letters is a motto +poem— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Twas Perfect Love before<br/> +But Now I do adore”— +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +followed by the words “Young M.A. his W[ife?],” and as it was a +fashion of the time to couple the initials of one’s well-beloved with +such sentiments, a slight clue is possibly furnished. Nor was this the only +rhyme that his emotions led to his inscribing in his journal: and he confided +to it the following: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Oh Ye Gods why should my Poor Resistless Heart<br/> + Stand to oppose thy might and Power<br/> +At Last surrender to cupids feather’d Dart<br/> + And now lays Bleeding every Hour<br/> +For her that’s Pityless of my grief and Woes<br/> + And will not on me Pity take<br/> +He sleep amongst my most inveterate Foes<br/> + And with gladness never wish to wake<br/> +In deluding sleepings let my Eyelids close<br/> + That in an enraptured Dream I may<br/> +In a soft lulling sleep and gentle repose<br/> + Possess those joys denied by Day.” +</p> + +<p> +However woe-begone the young lover was, he does not seem to have been wholly +lost to others of the sex, and at this same time he was able to indite an +acrostic to another charmer, which, if incomplete, nevertheless proves that +there was a “midland” beauty as well, the lady being presumptively +some member of the family of Alexanders, who had a plantation near Mount +Vernon. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“From your bright sparkling Eyes I was undone;<br/> +Rays, you have; more transperent than the Sun.<br/> +Amidst its glory in the rising Day<br/> +None can you equal in your bright array;<br/> +Constant in your calm and unspotted Mind;<br/> +Equal to all, but will to none Prove kind,<br/> +So knowing, seldom one so Young, you’l Find.<br/> +<br/> +Ah! woe’s me, that I should Love and conceal<br/> +Long have I wish’d, but never dare reveal,<br/> +Even though severely Loves Pains I feel;<br/> +Xerxes that great, was’t free from Cupids Dart,<br/> +And all the greatest Heroes, felt the smart.” +</p> + +<p> +When visiting Barbadoes, in 1751, Washington noted in his journal his meeting a +Miss Roberts, “an agreeable young lady,” and later he went with her +to see some fireworks on Guy Fawkes day. Apparently, however, the ladies of +that island made little impression on him, for he further noted, “The +Ladys Generally are very agreeable but by ill custom or w[ha]t effect the Negro +style.” This sudden insensibility is explained by a letter he wrote to +William Fauntleroy a few weeks after his return to Virginia: +</p> + +<p> +“Sir: I should have been down long before this, but my business in +Frederick detained me somewhat longer than I expected, and immediately upon my +return from thence I was taken with a violent Pleurise, but purpose as soon as +I recover my strength, to wait on Miss Betsy, in hopes of a revocation of the +former cruel sentence, and see if I can meet with any alteration in my favor. I +have enclosed a letter to her, which should be much obliged to you for the +delivery of it. I have nothing to add but my best respects to your good lady +and family, and that I am, Sir, Your most ob’t humble +serv’t.” +</p> + +<p> +Because of this letter it has been positively asserted that Betsy Fauntleroy +was the Low-Land Beauty of the earlier time; but as Washington wrote of his +love for the latter in 1748, when Betsy was only eleven, the absurdity of the +claim is obvious. +</p> + +<p> +In 1753, while on his mission to deliver the governor’s letter to the +French, one duty which fell to the young soldier was a visit to royalty, in the +person of Queen Aliquippa, an Indian majesty who had “expressed great +Concern” that she had formerly been slighted. Washington records that +“I made her a Present of a Match-coat and a Bottle of Rum; which latter +was thought much the best Present of the Two,” and thus (externally and +internally) restored warmth to her majesty’s feelings. +</p> + +<p> +When returned from his first campaign, and resting at Mount Vernon, the time +seems to have been beguiled by some charmer, for one of Washington’s +officers and intimates writes from Williamsburg, “I imagine you By this +time plung’d in the midst of delight heaven can afford & enchanted By +Charmes even Stranger to the Ciprian Dame,” and a footnote by the same +hand only excites further curiosity concerning this latter personage by +indefinitely naming her as “Mrs. Neil.” +</p> + +<p> +With whatever heart-affairs the winter was passed, with the spring the young +man’s fancy turned not to love, but again to war, and only when the +defeat of Braddock brought Washington back to Mount Vernon to recover from the +fatigues of that campaign was his intercourse with the gentler sex resumed. +Now, however, he was not merely a good-looking young fellow, but was a hero who +had had horses shot from under him and had stood firm when scarlet-coated men +had run away. No longer did he have to sue for the favor of the fair ones, and +Fairfax wrote him that “if a Satterday Nights Rest cannot be sufficient +to enable your coming hither to-morrow, the Lady’s will try to get Horses +to equip our Chair or attempt their strength on Foot to Salute you, so desirous +are they with loving Speed to have an occular Demonstration of your being the +same Identical Gent—that lately departed to defend his Country’s +Cause.” Furthermore, to this letter was appended the following: +</p> + +<p> +“DEAR SIR,—After thanking Heaven for your safe return I must accuse +you of great unkindness in refusing us the pleasure of seeing you this night. I +do assure you nothing but our being satisfied that our company would be +disagreeable should prevent us from trying if our Legs would not carry us to +Mount Vernon this night, but if you will not come to us to-morrow morning very +early we shall be at Mount Vernon. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +“S[<small>ALLY</small>] F<small>AIRFAX</small>,<br/> +“A<small>NN</small> S<small>PEARING</small>.<br/> +“E<small>LIZ’TH</small> D<small>ENT</small>.” +</p> + +<p> +Nor is this the only feminine postscript of this time, for in the postscript of +a letter from Archibald Cary, a leading Virginian, he is told that “Mrs. +Cary & Miss Randolph joyn in wishing you that sort of Glory which will most +Indear you to the Fair Sex.” +</p> + +<p> +In 1756 Washington had occasion to journey on military business to Boston, and +both in coming and in going he tarried in New York, passing ten days in his +first visit and about a week on his return. This time was spent with a +Virginian friend, Beverly Robinson, who had had the good luck to marry Susannah +Philipse, a daughter of Frederick Philipse, one of the largest landed +proprietors of the colony of New York. Here he met the sister, Mary Philipse, +then a girl of twenty-five, and, short as was the time, it was sufficient to +engage his heart. To this interest no doubt are due the entries in his accounts +of sundry pounds spent “for treating Ladies,” and for the large +tailors’ bills then incurred. But neither treats nor clothes won the +lady, who declined his proposals, and gave her heart two years later to +Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Morris. A curious sequel to this disappointment was +the accident that made the Roger Morris house Washington’s head-quarters +in 1776, both Morris and his wife being fugitive Tories. Again Washington was a +chance visitor in 1790, when, as part of a picnic, he “dined on a dinner +provided by Mr. Marriner at the House lately Colo. Roger Morris, but +confiscated and in the occupation of a common Farmer.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus09"></a> +<img src="images/img09.jpg" width="459" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">MARY PHILIPSE</p> +</div> + +<p> +It has been asserted that Washington loved the wife of his friend George +William Fairfax, but the evidence has not been produced. On the contrary, +though the two corresponded, it was in a purely platonic fashion, very +different from the strain of lovers, and that the correspondence implied +nothing is to be found in the fact that he and Sally Carlyle (another Fairfax +daughter) also wrote each other quite as frequently and on the same friendly +footing; indeed, Washington evidently classed them in the same category, when +he stated that “I have wrote to my two female correspondents.” Thus +the claim seems due, like many another of Washington’s mythical +love-affairs, rather to the desire of descendants to link their family +“to a star” than to more substantial basis. Washington did, indeed, +write to Sally Fairfax from the frontier, “I should think our time more +agreeably spent, believe me, in playing a part in Cato, with the company you +mention, and myself doubly happy in being the Juba to such a Marcia, as you +must make,” but private theatricals then no more than now implied +“passionate love.” What is more, Mrs. Fairfax was at this very time +teasing him about another woman, and to her hints Washington replied,— +</p> + +<p> +“If you allow that any honor can be derived from my opposition … you +destroy the merit of it entirely in me by attributing my anxiety to the +animating prospect of possessing Mrs. Custis, when—I need not tell you, +guess yourself. Should not my own Honor and country’s welfare be the +excitement? ’Tis true I profess myself a votary of love. I acknowledge +that a lady is in the case, and further I confess that this lady is known to +you. Yes, Madame, as well as she is to one who is too sensible of her charms to +deny the Power whose influence he feels and must ever submit to. I feel the +force of her amiable beauties in the recollection of a thousand tender passages +that I could wish to obliterate, till I am bid to revive them. But experience, +alas! sadly reminds me how impossible this is, and evinces an opinion which I +have long entertained that there is a Destiny which has the control of our +actions, not to be resisted by the strongest efforts of Human Nature. You have +drawn me, dear Madame, or rather I have drawn myself, into an honest confession +of a simple Fact. Misconstrue not my meaning; doubt it not, nor expose it. The +world has no business to know the object of my Love, declared in this manner to +you, when I want to conceal it. One thing above all things in this world I wish +to know, and only one person of your acquaintance can solve me that, or guess +my meaning.” +</p> + +<p> +The love-affair thus alluded to had begun in March, 1758, when ill health had +taken Washington to Williamsburg to consult physicians, thinking, indeed, of +himself as a doomed man. In this trip he met Mrs. Martha (Dandridge) Custis, +widow of Daniel Parke Custis, one of the wealthiest planters of the colony. She +was at this time twenty-six years of age, or Washington’s senior by nine +months, and had been a widow but seven, yet in spite of this fact, and of his +own expected “decay,” he pressed his love-making with an +impetuosity akin to that with which he had urged his suit of Miss Philipse, and +(widows being proverbial) with better success. The invalid had left Mount +Vernon on March 5, and by April 1 he was back at Fort Loudon, an engaged man, +having as well so far recovered his health as to be able to join his command. +Early in May he ordered a ring from Philadelphia, at a cost of £2.16.0; soon +after receiving it he found that army affairs once more called him down to +Williamsburg, and, as love-making is generally considered a military duty, the +excuse was sufficient. But sterner duties on the frontier were awaiting him, +and very quickly he was back there and writing to his <i>fiancée</i>,— +</p> + +<p> +“We have begun our march for the Ohio. A courier is starting for +Williamsburg, and I embrace the opportunity to send a few words to one whose +life is now inseparable from mine. Since that happy hour when we made our +pledges to each other, my thoughts have been continually going to you as +another Self. That an all-powerful Providence may keep us both in safety is the +prayer of your ever faithful and affectionate friend.” +</p> + +<p> +Five months after this letter was written, Washington was able to date another +from Fort Duquesne, and, the fall of that post putting an end to his military +service, only four weeks later he was back in Williamsburg, and on January 6, +1759, he was married. +</p> + +<p> +Very little is really known of his wife, beyond the facts that she was petite, +over-fond, hot-tempered, obstinate, and a poor speller. In 1778 she was +described as “a sociable, pretty kind of woman,” and she seems to +have been but little more. One who knew her well described her as “not +possessing much sense, though a perfect lady and remarkably well calculated for +her position,” and confirmatory of this is the opinion of an English +traveller that “there was nothing remarkable in the person of the lady of +the President; she was matronly and kind, with perfect good breeding.” +None the less she satisfied Washington; even after the proverbial six months +were over he refused to wander from Mount Vernon, writing that “I am now, +I believe, fixed at this seat with an agreeable Consort for life,” and in +1783 he spoke of her as the “partner of all my Domestic +enjoyments.” +</p> + +<p> +John Adams, in one of his recurrent moods of bitterness and jealousy towards +Washington, demanded, “Would Washington have ever been commander of the +revolutionary army or president of the United States if he had not married the +rich widow of Mr. Custis?” To ask such a question is to overlook the fact +that Washington’s colonial military fame was entirely achieved before his +marriage. It is not to be denied that the match was a good one from a worldly +point of view, Mrs. Washington’s third of the Custis property equalling +“fifteen thousand acres of land, a good part of it adjoining the city of +Williamsburg; several lots in the said city; between two and three hundred +negroes; and about eight or ten thousand pounds upon bond,” estimated at +the time as about twenty thousand pounds in all, which was further increased on +the death of Patsy Custis in 1773 by a half of her fortune, which added ten +thousand pounds to the sum. Nevertheless the advantage was fairly equal, for +Mrs. Custis’s lawyer had written before her marriage of the impossibility +of her managing the property, advising that she “employ a trusty steward, +and as the estate is large and very extensive, it is Mr. Wallers and my own +opinion, that you had better not engage any but a very able man, though he +should require large wages.” Of the management of this property, to +which, indeed, she was unequal, Washington entirely relieved her, taking charge +also of her children’s share and acting for their interests with the same +care with which he managed the part he was more directly concerned in. +</p> + +<p> +He further saved her much of the detail of ordering her own clothing, and we +find him sending for “A Salmon-colored Tabby of the enclosed pattern, +with satin flowers, to be made in a sack,” “1 Cap, Handkerchief, +Tucker and Ruffles, to be made of Brussels lace or point, proper to wear with +the above negligee, to cost £20,” “1 pair black, and 1 pair white +Satin Shoes, of the smallest,” and “1 black mask.” Again he +writes his London agent, “Mrs. Washington sends home a green sack to get +cleaned, or fresh dyed of the same color; made up into a handsome sack again, +would be her choice; but if the cloth won’t afford that, then to be +thrown into a genteel Night Gown.” At another time he wants a pair of +clogs, and when the wrong kind are sent he writes that “she intended to +have leathern Gloshoes.” When she was asked to present a pair of colors +to a company, he attended to every detail of obtaining the flag, and when +“Mrs. Washington … perceived the Tomb of her Father … to be much out of +Sorts” he wrote to get a workman to repair it. The care of the Mount +Vernon household proving beyond his wife’s ability, a housekeeper was +very quickly engaged, and when one who filled this position was on the point of +leaving, Washington wrote his agent to find another without the least delay, +for the vacancy would “throw a great additional weight on Mrs. +Washington;” again, writing in another domestic difficulty, “Your +aunt’s distresses for want of a good housekeeper are such as to render +the wages demanded by Mrs. Forbes (though unusually high) of no +consideration.” Her letters of form, which required better orthography +than she was mistress of, he draughted for her, pen-weary though he was. +</p> + +<p> +It has already been shown how he fathered her “little progeny,” as +he once called them. Mrs. Washington was a worrying mother, as is shown by a +letter to her sister, speaking of a visit in which “I carried my little +patt with me and left Jacky at home for a trial to see how well I could stay +without him though we were gon but wone fortnight I was quite impatient to get +home. If I at aney time heard the doggs barke or a noise out, I thought thair +was a person sent for me. I often fancied he was sick or some accident had +happened to him so that I think it is impossible for me to leave him as long as +Mr. Washington must stay when he comes down.” To spare her anxiety, +therefore, when the time came for “Jacky” to be inoculated, +Washington “withheld from her the information … & purpose, if +possible, to keep her in total ignorance … till I hear of his return, or +perfect recovery;… she having often wished that Jack wou’d take & go +through the disorder without her knowing of it, that she might escape those +Tortures which suspense wd throw her into.” And on the death of Patsy he +wrote, “This sudden and unexpected blow, I scarce need add has almost +reduced my poor Wife to the lowest ebb of Misery; which is encreas’d by +the absence of her son.” +</p> + +<p> +When Washington left Mount Vernon, in May, 1775, to attend the Continental +Congress, he did not foresee his appointment as commander-in-chief, and as soon +as it occurred he wrote his wife,— +</p> + +<p> +“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 increased, +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 defence 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. +</p> + +<p> +“You may believe me, my dear Patsey, when I assure you, in the most +solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment, I have used every +endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part with +you and the family, but from a consciousness of its 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…. I shall feel no pain from the toil or +danger of the campaign; my unhappiness will flow from the uneasiness I know you +will feel from being left alone.” +</p> + +<p> +To prevent this loneliness as far as possible, he wrote at the same time to +different members of the two families as follows: +</p> + +<p> +“My great concern upon this occasion is, the thought of leaving your +mother under the uneasiness which I fear this affair will throw her into; I +therefore hope, expect, and indeed have no doubt, of your using every means in +your power to keep up her spirits, by doing everything in your power to promote +her quiet. I have, I must confess, very uneasy feelings on her account, but as +it has been a kind of unavoidable necessity which has led me into this +appointment, I shall more readily hope that success will attend it and crown +our meetings with happiness.” +</p> + +<p> +“I entreat you and Mrs. Bassett if possible to visit at Mt. Vernon, as +also my wife’s other friends. I could wish you to take her down, as I +have no expectation of returning till winter & feel great uneasiness at her +lonesome situation.” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall hope that my friends will visit and endeavor to keep up the +spirits of my wife, as much as they can, as my departure will, I know, be a +cutting stroke upon her; and on this account alone I have many very +disagreeable sensations. I hope you and my sister, (although the distance is +great), will find as much leisure this summer as to spend a little time at +Mount Vernon.” +</p> + +<p> +When, six months later, the war at Boston settled into a mere siege, Washington +wrote that “seeing no prospect of returning to my family and friends this +winter, I have sent an invitation to Mrs. Washington to come to me,” +adding, “I have laid a state of difficulties, however, which must attend +the journey before her, and left it to her own choice.” His wife replied +in the affirmative, and one of Washington’s aides presently wrote +concerning some prize goods to the effect that “There are limes, lemons +and oranges on board, which, being perishable, you must sell immediately. The +General will want some of each, as well of the sweetmeats and pickles that are +on board, as his lady will be here to-day or to-morrow. You will please to pick +up such things on board as you think will be acceptable to her, and send them +as soon as possible; he does not mean to receive anything without +payment.” +</p> + +<p> +Lodged at head-quarters, then the Craigie house in Cambridge, the discomforts +of war were reduced to a minimum, but none the less it was a trying time to +Mrs. Washington, who complained that she could not get used to the distant +cannonading, and she marvelled that those about her paid so little heed to it. +With the opening of the campaign in the following summer she returned to Mount +Vernon, but when the army was safely in winter quarters at Valley Forge she +once more journeyed northward, a trip alluded to by Washington in a letter to +Jack, as follows: “Your Mamma is not yet arrived, but … expected every +hour. [My aide] Meade set off yesterday (as soon as I got notice of her +intention) to meet her. We are in a dreary kind of place, and uncomfortably +provided.” And of this reunion Mrs. Washington wrote, “I came to +this place, some time about the first of February where I found the General +very well,… in camp in what is called the great valley on the Banks of the +Schuylkill. Officers and men are chiefly in Hutts, which they say is tolerably +comfortable; the army are as healthy as can be well expected in general. The +General’s apartment is very small; he has had a log cabin built to dine +in, which has made our quarters much more tolerable than they were at +first” +</p> + +<p> +Such “winterings” became the regular custom, and brief references +in various letters serve to illustrate them. Thus, in 1779, Washington informed +a friend that “Mrs. Washington, according to custom marched home when the +campaign was about to open;” in July, 1782, he noted that his wife +“sets out this day for Mount Vernon,” and later in the same year he +wrote, “as I despair of seeing my home this Winter, I have sent for Mrs. +Washington;” and finally, in a letter he draughted for his wife, he made +her describe herself as “a kind of perambulator, during eight or nine +years of the war.” +</p> + +<p> +Another pleasant glimpse during these stormy years is the couple, during a +brief stay in Philadelphia, being entertained almost to death, described as +follows by Franklin’s daughter in a letter to her father: “I have +lately been several times abroad with the General and Mrs. Washington. He +always inquires after you in the most affectionate manner, and speaks of you +highly. We danced at Mrs. Powell’s your birthday, or night I should say, +in company together, and he told me it was the anniversary of his marriage; it +was just twenty years that night” Again there was junketing in +Philadelphia after the surrender at Yorktown, and one bit of this is shadowed +in a line from Washington to Robert Morris, telling the latter that “Mrs. +Washington, myself and family, will have the honor of dining with you in the +way proposed, to-morrow, being Christmas day.” +</p> + +<p> +With the retirement to Mount Vernon at the close of the war, little more +companionship was obtained, for, as already stated, Washington could only +describe his home henceforth as a “well resorted tavern,” and two +years after his return he entered in his diary, “Dined with only Mrs. +Washington which I believe is the first instance of it since my retirement from +public life.” +</p> + +<p> +Even this was only a furlough, for in six years they were both in public life +again. Mrs. Washington was inclined to sulk over the necessary restraints of +official life, writing to a friend, “Mrs. Sins will give you a better +account of the fashions than I can—I live a very dull life hear and know +nothing that passes in the town—I never goe to any public +place—indeed I think I am more like a State prisoner than anything else; +there is certain bounds set for me which I must not depart from—and as I +cannot doe as I like, I am obstinate and stay at home a great deal.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus10"></a> +<img src="images/img10.jpg" width="398" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">MRS. DANIEL PARKE CUSTIS, LATER MRS. WASHINGTON</p> +</div> + +<p> +None the less she did her duties well, and in these “Lady +Washington” was more at home, for, according to Thacher, she combined +“in an uncommon degree, great dignity of manner with most pleasing +affability,” though possessing “no striking marks of beauty,” +and there is no doubt that she lightened Washington’s shoulders of social +demands materially. At the receptions of Mrs. Washington, which were held every +Friday evening, so a contemporary states, “the President did not consider +himself as visited. On these occasions he appeared as a private gentleman, with +neither hat nor sword, conversing without restraint.” +</p> + +<p> +From other formal society Mrs. Washington also saved her husband, for a visitor +on New Year’s tells of her setting “‘the General’ (by +which title she always designated her husband)” at liberty: “Mrs. +Washington had stood by his side as the visitors arrived and were presented, +and when the clock in the hall was heard striking nine, she advanced and with a +complacent smile said, ‘The General always retires at nine, and I usually +precede him,’ upon which all arose, made their parting salutations, and +withdrew.” Nor was it only from the fatigues of formal entertaining that +the wife saved her husband, Washington writing in 1793, “We remain in +Philadelphia until the 10th instant. It was my wish to have continued there +longer; but as Mrs. Washington was unwilling to leave me surrounded by the +malignant fever which prevailed, I could not think of hazarding her, and the +Children any longer by <i>my</i> continuance in the City, the house in which we +live being in a manner blockaded by the disorder, and was becoming every day +more and more fatal; I therefore came off with them.” +</p> + +<p> +Finally from these “scenes more busy, tho’ not more happy, than the +tranquil enjoyment of rural life,” they returned to Mount Vernon, hoping +that in the latter their “days will close.” Not quite three years +of this life brought an end to their forty years of married life. On the night +that Washington’s illness first became serious his secretary narrates +that “Between 2 and 3 o’clk on Saturday morning he [Washington] +awoke Mrs. Washington & told her he was very unwell, and had had an ague. +She … would have got up to call a servant; but he would not permit her lest she +should take cold.” As a consequence of this care for her, her husband lay +for nearly four hours in a chill in a cold bedroom before receiving any +attention, or before even a fire was lighted. When death came, she said, +“Tis well—All is now over—I have no more trials to pass +through—I shall soon follow him.” In his will he left “to my +dearly beloved wife” the use of his whole property, and named her an +executrix. +</p> + +<p> +As a man’s views of matrimony are more or less colored by his personal +experience, what Washington had to say on the institution is of interest. As +concerned himself he wrote to his nephew, “If Mrs. Washington should +survive me, there is a moral certainty of my dying without issue: and should I +be the longest liver, the matter in my opinion, is hardly less certain; for +while I retain the faculty of reasoning, I shall never marry a girl; and it is +not probable that I should have children by a woman of an age suitable to my +own, should I be disposed to enter into a second marriage.” And in a less +personal sense he wrote to Chastellux,— +</p> + +<p> +“In reading your very friendly and acceptable letter,… I was, as you may +well suppose, not less delighted than surprised to meet the plain American +words, ‘my wife.’ A wife! Well, my dear Marquis, I can hardly +refrain from smiling to find you are caught at last. I saw, by the eulogium you +often made on the happiness of domestic life in America, that you had swallowed +the bait, and that you would as surely be taken, one day or another, as that +you were a philosopher and a soldier. So your day has at length come. I am glad +of it, with all my heart and soul. It is quite good enough for you. Now you are +well served for coming to fight in favor of the American rebels, all the way +across the Atlantic Ocean, by catching that terrible contagion—domestic +felicity—which same, like the small pox or the plague, a man can have +only once in his life; because it commonly lasts him (at least with us in +America—I don’t know how you manage these matters in France) for +his whole life time. And yet after all the maledictions you so richly merit on +the subject, the worst wish which I can find in my heart to make against Madame +de Chastellux and yourself is, that you may neither of you ever get the better +of this same domestic felicity during the entire course of your mortal +existence.” +</p> + +<p> +Furthermore, he wrote to an old friend, whose wife stubbornly refused to sign a +deed, “I think, any Gentleman, possessed of but a very moderate degree of +influence with his wife, might, in the course of five or six years (for I think +it is at least that time) have prevailed upon her to do an act of justice, in +fulfiling his Bargains and complying with his wishes, if he had been really in +earnest in requesting the matter of her; especially, as the inducement which +you thought would have a powerful operation on Mrs. Alexander, namely the birth +of a child, has been doubled, and tripled.” +</p> + +<p> +However well Washington thought of “the honorable state,” he was no +match-maker, and when asked to give advice to the widow of Jack Custis, +replied, “I never did, nor do I believe I ever shall, give advice to a +woman, who is setting out on a matrimonial voyage; first, because I never could +advise one to marry without her own consent; and, secondly because I know it is +to no purpose to advise her to refrain, when she has obtained it. A woman very +rarely asks an opinion or requires advice on such an occasion, till her +resolution is formed; and then it is with the hope and expectation of obtaining +a sanction, not that she means to be governed by your disapprobation, that she +applies. In a word the plain English of the application may be summed up in +these words: ‘I wish you to think as I do; but, if unhappily you differ +from me in opinion, my heart, I must confess, is fixed, and I have gone too far +now to retract.’” Again he wrote: +</p> + +<p> +“It has ever been a maxim with me through life, neither to promote nor to +prevent a matrimonial connection, unless there should be something +indispensably requiring interference in the latter. I have always considered +marriage as the most interesting event of one’s life, the foundation of +happiness or misery. To be instrumental therefore in bringing two people +together, who are indifferent to each other, and may soon become objects of +disgust; or to prevent a union, which is prompted by the affections of the +mind, is what I never could reconcile with reason, and therefore neither +directly nor indirectly have I ever said a word to Fanny or George, upon the +subject of their intended connection.” +</p> + +<p> +The question whether Washington was a faithful husband might well be left to +the facts already given, were it not that stories of his immorality are bandied +about in clubs, a well-known clergyman has vouched for their truth, and a +United States senator has given further currency to them by claiming special +knowledge on the subject. Since such are the facts, it seems best to consider +the question and show what evidence there actually is for these stories, that +at least the pretended “letters,” etc., which are always being +cited, and are never produced, may no longer have credence put in them, and the +true basis for all the stories may be known and valued at its worth. +</p> + +<p> +In the year 1776 there was printed in London a small pamphlet entitled +“Minutes of the Trial and Examination of Certain Persons in the Province +of New York,” which purported to be the records of the examination of the +conspirators of the “Hickey plot” (to murder Washington) before a +committee of the Provincial Congress of New York. The manuscript of this was +claimed in the preface to have been “discovered (on the late capture of +New York by the British troops) among the papers of a person who appears to +have been secretary to the committee.” As part of the evidence the +following was printed: +</p> + +<p> +“William Cooper, soldier, sworn. +</p> + +<p> +“Court. Inform us what conversation you heard at the Serjeant’s +Arms? +</p> + +<p> +“Cooper. Being there the 21st of May, I heard John Clayford inform the +company, that Mary Gibbons was thoroughly in their interest, and that the whole +would be safe. I learnt from enquiry that Mary Gibbons was a girl from New +Jersey, of whom General Washington was very fond, that he maintained her +genteelly at a house near Mr. Skinner’s,—at the North River; that +he came there very often late at night in disguise; he learnt also that this +woman was very intimate with Clayford, and made him presents, and told him of +what General Washington said. +</p> + +<p> +“Court. Did you hear Mr. Clayford say any thing himself that night? +</p> + +<p> +“Cooper. Yes; that he was the day before with Judith, so he called her, +and that she told him, Washington had often said he wished his hands were clear +of the dirty New-Englanders, and words to that effect. +</p> + +<p> +“Court. Did you hear no mention made of any scheme to betray or seize +him? +</p> + +<p> +“Cooper. Mr. Clayford said he could easily be seized and put on board a +boat, and carried off, as his female friend had promised she would assist: but +all present thought it would be hazardous.” +</p> + +<p> +“William Savage, sworn. +</p> + +<p> +“Court. Was you at the Serjeant’s Arms on the 21st of May? Did you +hear any thing of this nature? +</p> + +<p> +“Savage. I did, and nearly as the last evidence has declared; the society +in general refused to be concerned in it, and thought it a mad scheme. +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Abeel. Pray, Mr. Savage, have not you heard nothing of an +information that was to be given to Governor Tryon? +</p> + +<p> +“Savage. Yes; papers and letters were at different times shewn to the +society, which were taken out of General Washington’s pockets by Mrs. +Gibbons, and given (as she pretended some occasion of going out) to Mr. +Clayford, who always copied them, and they were put into his pockets +again.” +</p> + +<p> +The authenticity of this pamphlet thus becomes of importance, and over this +little time need be spent. The committee named in it differs from the committee +really named by the Provincial Congress, and the proceedings nowhere implicate +the men actually proved guilty. In other words, the whole publication is a +clumsy Tory forgery, put forward with the same idle story of “captured +papers” employed in the “spurious letters” of Washington, and +sent forth from the same press (J. Bew) from which that forgery and several +others issued. +</p> + +<p> +The source from which the English fabricator drew this scandal is fortunately +known. In 1775 a letter to Washington from his friend Benjamin Harrison was +intercepted by the British, and at once printed broadcast in the newspapers. In +this the writer gossips to Washington “to amuse you and unbend your minds +from the cares of war,” as follows: “As I was in the pleasing task +of writing to you, a little noise occasioned me to turn my head around, and who +should appear but pretty little Kate, the Washer-woman’s daughter over +the way, clean, trim and as rosy as the morning. I snatched the golden, +glorious opportunity, and, but for the cursed antidote to love, Sukey, I had +fitted her for my general against his return. We were obliged to part, but not +till we had contrived to meet again: if she keeps the appointment, I shall +relish a week’s longer stay.” From this originated the stories of +Washington’s infidelity as already given, and also a coarser version of +the same, printed in 1776 in a Tory farce entitled “The Battle of +Brooklyn.” +</p> + +<p> +Jonathan Boucher, who knew Washington well before the Revolution, yet who, as a +loyalist, wrote in no friendly spirit of him, asserted that “in his moral +character, he is regular.” A man who disliked him far more, General +Charles Lee, in the excess of his hatred, charged Washington in 1778 with +immorality,—a rather amusing impeachment, since at the very time Lee was +flaunting the evidence of his own incontinence without apparent +shame,—and a mutual friend of the accused and accuser, Joseph Reed, whose +service on Washington’s staff enabled him to speak wittingly, advised +that Lee “forbear any Reflections upon the Commander in Chief, of whom +for the first time I have heard Slander on his private Character, viz., great +cruelty to his Slaves in Virginia & Immorality of Life, tho’ they +acknowledge so very secret that it is difficult to detect. To me who have had +so good opportunities to know the Purity of the latter & equally believing +the Falsehood of the former from the known excellence of his disposition, it +appears so nearly bordering upon frenzy, that I can pity the wretches rather +than despise them.” +</p> + +<p> +Washington was too much of a man, however, to have his marriage lessen his +liking for other women; and Yeates repeats that “Mr. Washington once told +me, on a charge which I once made against the President at his own Table, that +the admiration he warmly professed for Mrs. Hartley, was a Proof of his Homage +to the worthy Part of the Sex, and highly respectful to his Wife.” Every +now and then there is an allusion in his letters which shows his appreciation +of beauty, as when he wrote to General Schuyler, “Your fair daughter, for +whose visit Mrs. Washington and myself are greatly obliged,” and again, +to one of his aides, “The fair hand, to whom your letter … was committed +presented it safe.” +</p> + +<p> +His diary, in the notes of the balls and assemblies which he attended, usually +had a word for the sex, as exampled in: “at which there were between 60 +& 70 well dressed ladies;” “at which there was about 100 well +dressed and handsome ladies;” “at which were 256 elegantly dressed +ladies;” “where there was a select Company of ladies;” +“where (it is said) there were upwards of 100 ladies; their appearance +was elegant, and many of them very handsome;” “at wch. there were +about 400 ladies the number and appearance of wch. exceeded anything of the +kind I have ever seen;” “where there were about 75 well dressed, +and many of them very handsome ladies—among whom (as was also the case at +the Salem and Boston assemblies) were a greater proportion with much blacker +hair than are usually seen in the Southern States.” +</p> + +<p> +At his wife’s receptions, as already said, Washington did not view +himself as host, and “conversed without restraint, generally with women, +who rarely had other opportunity of seeing him,” which perhaps accounts +for the statement of another eye-witness that Washington “looked very +much more at ease than at his own official levees.” Sullivan adds that +“the young ladies used to throng around him, and engaged him in +conversation. There were some of the well-remembered belles of the day who +imagined themselves to be favorites with him. As these were the only +opportunities which they had of conversing with him, they were disposed to use +them.” In his Southern trip of 1791 Washington noted, with evident +pleasure, that he “was visited about 2 o’clock, by a great number +of the most respectable ladies of Charleston—the first honor of the kind +I had ever experienced and it was flattering as it was singular.” And +that this attention was not merely the respect due to a great man is shown in +the letter of a Virginian woman, who wrote to her correspondent in 1777, that +when “General Washington throws off the Hero and takes up the chatty +agreeable Companion—he can be down right impudent sometimes—such +impudence, Fanny, as you and I like.” +</p> + +<p> +Another feminine compliment paid him was a highly laudatory poem which was +enclosed to him, with a letter begging forgiveness, to which he playfully +answered,— +</p> + +<p> +“You apply to me, my dear Madam, for absolution as tho’ I was your +father Confessor; and as tho’ you had committed a crime, great in itself, +yet of the venial class. You have reason good—for I find myself strangely +disposed to be a very indulgent ghostly adviser on this occasion; and, +notwithstanding ‘you are the most offending Soul alive’ (that is, +if it is a crime to write elegant Poetry,) yet if you will come and dine with +me on Thursday, and go thro’ the proper course of penitence which shall +be prescribed I will strive hard to assist you in expiating these poetical +trespasses on this side of purgatory. Nay more, if it rests with me to direct +your future lucubrations, I shall certainly urge you to a repetition of the +same conduct, on purpose to shew what an admirable knack you have at confession +and reformation; and so without more hesitation, I shall venture to command the +muse, not to be restrained by ill-grounded timidity, but to go on and prosper. +You see, Madam, when once the woman has tempted us, and we have tasted the +forbidden fruit, there is no such thing as checking our appetites, whatever the +consequences may be. You will, I dare say, recognize our being the genuine +Descendants of those who are reputed to be our great Progenitors.” +</p> + +<p> +Nor was Washington open only to beauty and flattery. From the rude frontier in +1756 he wrote, “The supplicating tears of the women,… 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 butchering enemy, provided that would +contribute to the people’s ease.” And in 1776 he said, “When +I consider that the city of New York will in all human probability very soon be +the scene of a bloody conflict, I cannot but view the great numbers of women, +children, and infirm persons remaining in it, with the most melancholy concern. +When the men-of-war passed up the river, the shrieks and cries of these poor +creatures running every way with their children, were truly distressing…. Can +no method be devised for their removal?” +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless, though liked by and liking the fair sex, Washington was human, +and after experience concluded that “I never again will have two women in +my house when I am there myself.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>V<br/> +FARMER AND PROPRIETOR</h2> + +<p> +The earliest known Washington coat of arms had blazoned upon it “3 Cinque +foiles,” which was the herald’s way of saying that the bearer was a +landholder and cultivator, and when Washington had a book-plate made for +himself he added to the conventional design of the arms spears of wheat and +other plants, as an indication of his favorite labor. During his career he +acted several parts, but in none did he find such pleasure as in farming, and +late in life he said, “I think with you, that the life of a husbandman of +all others is the most delectable. It is honorable, it is amusing, and, with +judicious management, it is profitable. To see plants rise from the earth and +flourish by the superior skill and bounty of the laborer fills a contemplative +mind with ideas which are more easy to be conceived than expressed.” +“Agriculture has ever been the most favorite amusement of my life,” +he wrote after the Revolution, and he informed another correspondent that +“the more I am acquainted with agricultural affairs, the better pleased I +am with them; insomuch, that I can no where find so great satisfaction as in +those innocent and useful pursuits: In indulging these feelings, I am led to +reflect how much more delightful to an undebauched mind is the task of making +improvements on the earth, than all the vain glory which can be acquired from +ravaging it, by the most uninterrupted career of conquests.” A visitor to +Mount Vernon in 1785 states that his host’s “greatest pride is, to +be thought the first farmer in America. He is quite a Cincinnatus.” +</p> + +<p> +Undoubtedly a part of this liking flowed from his strong affection for Mount +Vernon. Such was his feeling for the place that he never seems to have been +entirely happy away from it, and over and over again, during his various and +enforced absences, he “sighs” or “pants” for his +“own vine and fig tree.” In writing to an English correspondent, he +shows his feeling for the place by saying, “No estate in United America, +is more pleasantly situated than this. It lies in a high, dry and healthy +country, three hundred miles by water from the sea, and, as you will see by the +plan, on one of the finest rivers in the world.” +</p> + +<p> +The history of the Mount Vernon estate begins in 1674, when Lord Culpepper +conveyed to Nicholas Spencer and Lieutenant-Colonel John Washington five +thousand acres of land “scytuate Lying and being within the said +terrytory in the County of Stafford in the ffreshes of the Pottomocke River and +… bounded betwixt two Creeks.” Colonel John’s half was bequeathed +to his son Lawrence, and by Lawrence’s will it was left to his daughter +Mildred. She sold it to the father of George, who by his will left it to his +son Lawrence, with a reversion to George should Lawrence die without issue. The +original house was built about 1740, and the place was named Mount Vernon by +Lawrence, in honor of Admiral Vernon, under whom he had served at Carthagena. +After the death of Lawrence, the estate of twenty-five hundred acres came under +Washington’s management, and from 1754 it was his home, as it had been +practically even in his brother’s life. +</p> + +<p> +Twice Washington materially enlarged the house at Mount Vernon, the first time +in 1760 and the second in 1785, and a visitor reports, what his host must have +told him, that “its a pity he did not build a new one at once, for it has +cost him nearly as much to repair his old one.” These alterations +consisted in the addition of a banquet-hall at one end (by far the finest room +in the house), and a library and dining-room at the other, with the addition of +an entire story to the whole. +</p> + +<p> +The grounds, too, were very much improved. A fine approach, or bowling green, +was laid out, a “botanical garden,” a “shrubbery,” and +greenhouses were added, and in every way possible the place was improved. A +deer paddock was laid out and stocked, gifts of Chinese pheasants and geese, +French partridges, and guinea-pigs were sent him, and were gratefully +acknowledged, and from all the world over came curious, useful, or beautiful +plants. +</p> + +<p> +The original tract did not satisfy the ambition of the farmer, and from the +time he came into the possession of Mount Vernon he was a persistent purchaser +of lands adjoining the property. In 1760 he bargained with one Clifton for +“a tract called Brents,” of eighteen hundred and six acres, but +after the agreement was closed the seller, “under pretence of his wife +not consenting to acknowledge her right of dower wanted to disengage himself … +and by his shuffling behavior convinced me of his being the trifling body +represented.” Presently Washington heard that Clifton had sold his lands +to another for twelve hundred pounds, which “fully unravelled his conduct +… and convinced me that he was nothing less than a thorough pac’d +rascall.” Meeting the “rascall” at a court, “much +discourse,” Washington states, “happened between him and I +concerning his ungenerous treatment of me, the whole turning to little account, +’tis not worth reciting.” After much more friction, the land was +finally sold at public auction, and “I bought it for £1210 Sterling, +[and] under many threats and disadvantages paid the money.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus11"></a> +<img src="images/img11.jpg" width="486" height="500" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">WASHINGTON’S SURVEY OF MOUNT VERNON, CIRCA 1746</p> +</div> + +<p> +In 1778, when some other land was offered, Washington wrote to his agent, +“I have premised these things to shew my inability, not my unwillingness +to purchase the Lands in my own Neck at (almost) any price—& this I +am very desirous of doing if it could be accomplished by any means in my power, +in ye way of Barter for other Land—for Negroes … or in short—for +any thing else … but for money I cannot, I want the means.” Again, in +1782, he wrote, “Inform Mr. Dulany,… that I look upon £2000 to be a great +price for his land; that my wishes to obtain it do not proceed from its +intrinsic value, but from the motives I have candidly assigned in my other +letter. That to indulge this fancy, (for in truth there is more fancy than +judgment in it) I have submitted, or am willing to submit, to the disadvantage +of borrowing as large a sum as I think this Land is worth, in order to come at +it” +</p> + +<p> +By thus purchasing whenever an opportunity occurred, the property was increased +from the twenty-five hundred acres which had come into Washington’s +possession by inheritance to an estate exceeding eight thousand acres, of which +over thirty-two hundred were actually under cultivation during the latter part +of its owner’s life. +</p> + +<p> +To manage so vast a tract, the property was subdivided into several tracts, +called “Mansion House Farm,” “River Farm,” “Union +Farm,” “Muddy Hole Farm,” and “Dogue Run Farm,” +each having an overseer to manage it, and each being operated as a separate +plantation, though a general overseer controlled the whole, and each farm +derived common benefit from the property as a whole. “On Saturday in the +afternoon, every week, reports are made by all his overseers, and registered in +books kept for the purpose,” and these accounts were so schemed as to +show how every negro’s and laborer’s time had been employed during +the whole week, what crops had been planted or gathered, what increase or loss +of stock had occurred, and every other detail of farm-work. During +Washington’s absences from Mount Vernon his chief overseer sent him these +reports, as well as wrote himself, and weekly the manager received in return +long letters of instruction, sometimes to the length of sixteen pages, which +showed most wonderful familiarity with every acre of the estate and the +character of every laborer, and are little short of marvellous when account is +taken of the pressure of public affairs that rested upon their writer as he +framed them. +</p> + +<p> +When Washington became a farmer, but one system of agriculture, so far as +Virginia was concerned, existed, which he described long after as follows: +</p> + +<p> +“A piece of land is cut down, and kept under constant cultivation, first +in tobacco, and then in Indian corn (two very exhausting plants), until it will +yield scarcely any thing; a second piece is cleared, and treated in the same +manner; then a third and so on, until probably there is but little more to +clear. When this happens, the owner finds himself reduced to the choice of one +of three things—either to recover the land which he has ruined, to +accomplish which, he has perhaps neither the skill, the industry, nor the +means; or to retire beyond the mountains; or to substitute quantity for +quality, in order to raise something. The latter has been generally adopted, +and, with the assistance of horses, he scratches over much ground, and seeds +it, to very little purpose.” +</p> + +<p> +Knowing no better, Washington adopted this one-crop system, even to the extent +of buying corn and hogs to feed his hands. Though following in the beaten +track, he experimented in different kinds of tobacco, so that, “by +comparing then the loss of the one with the extra price of the other, I shall +be able to determine which is the best to pursue.” The largest crop he +ever seems to have produced, “being all sweet-scented and neatly +managed,” was one hundred and fifteen hogsheads, which averaged in sale +twelve pounds each. +</p> + +<p> +From a very early time Washington had been a careful student of such books on +agriculture as he could obtain, even preparing lengthy abstracts of them, and +the knowledge he thus obtained, combined with his own practical experience, +soon convinced him that the Virginian system was wrong. “I never ride on +my plantations,” he wrote, “without seeing something which makes me +regret having continued so long in the ruinous mode of farming, which we are +in,” and he soon “discontinued the growth of tobacco myself; [and] +except at a plantation or two upon York River, I make no more of that article +than barely serves to furnish me with goods.” +</p> + +<p> +From this time (1765) “the whole of my force [was] in a manner confined +to the growth of wheat and manufacturing of it into flour,” and before +long he boasted that “the wheat from some of my plantations, by one pair +of steelyards, will weigh upwards of sixty pounds,… and better wheat than I now +have I do not expect to make.” After the Revolution he claimed that +“no wheat that has ever yet fallen under my observation exceeds the wheat +which some years ago I cultivated extensively but which, from inattention +during my absence of almost nine years from home, has got so mixed or +degenerated as scarcely to retain any of its original characteristics +properly.” In 1768 he was able to sell over nineteen hundred bushels, and +how greatly his product was increased after this is shown by the fact that in +this same year he sowed four hundred and ninety bushels. +</p> + +<p> +Still further study and experimentation led him to conclude that “my +countrymen are too much used to corn blades and corn shucks; and have too +little knowledge of the profit of grass lands,” and after his final +home-coming to Mount Vernon, he said, “I have had it in contemplation +ever since I returned home to turn my farms to grazing principally, as fast as +I can cover the fields sufficiently with grass. Labor and of course expence +will be considerably diminished by this change, the nett profit as great and my +attention less divided, whilst the fields will be improving.” That this +was only an abandonment of a “one crop” system is shown by the fact +that in 1792 he grew over five thousand bushels of wheat, valued at four +shillings the bushel, and in 1799 he said, “as a farmer, wheat and flour +are my principal concerns.” And though, in abandoning the growth of +tobacco, Washington also tried “to grow as little Indian corn as may +be,” yet in 1795 his crop was over sixteen hundred barrels, and the +quantity needed for his own negroes and stock is shown in a year when his crop +failed, which “obliged me to purchase upwards of eight hundred barrels of +corn.” +</p> + +<p> +In connection with this change of system, Washington became an early convert to +the rotation of crops, and drew up elaborate tables sometimes covering periods +of five years, so that the quantity of each crop should not vary, yet by which +his fields should have constant change. This system naturally very much +diversified the product of his estate, and flax, hay, clover, buckwheat, +turnips, and potatoes became large crops. The scale on which this was done is +shown by the facts that in one year he sowed twenty-seven bushels of flaxseed +and planted over three hundred bushels of potatoes. +</p> + +<p> +Early and late Washington preached to his overseers the value of fertilization; +in one case, when looking for a new overseer, he said the man must be, +“above all, Midas like, one who can convert everything he touches into +manure, as the first transmutation towards gold;—in a word one who can +bring worn out and gullied Lands into good tilth in the shortest time.” +Equally emphatic was his urging of constant ploughing and grubbing, and he even +invented a deep soil plough, which he used till he found a better one in the +English Rotheran plough, which he promptly imported, as he did all other +improved farming tools and machinery of which he could learn. To save his +woodlands, and for appearance’s sake, he insisted on live fences, though +he had to acknowledge that “no hedge, alone, will, I am persuaded, do for +an outer inclosure, where <i>two</i> or four footed hogs find it convenient to +open passage.” In all things he was an experimentalist, carefully trying +different kinds of tobacco and wheat, various kinds of plants for hedges, and +various kinds of manure for fertilizers; he had tests made to see whether he +could sell his wheat to best advantage in the grain or when made into flour, +and he bred from selected horses, cattle, and sheep. “In short I shall +begrudge no reasonable expence that will contribute to the improvement and +neatness of my Farms;—for nothing pleases me better than to see them in +good order, and everything trim, handsome, and thriving about them.” +</p> + +<p> +The magnitude of the charge of such an estate can be better understood when the +condition of a Virginia plantation is realized. Before the Revolution +practically everything the plantation could not produce was ordered yearly from +Great Britain, and after the annual delivery of the invoices the estate could +look for little outside help. Nor did this change rapidly after the Revolution, +and during the period of Washington’s management almost everything was +bought in yearly supplies. This system compelled each plantation to be a little +world unto itself; indeed, the three hundred souls on the Mount Vernon estate +went far to make it a distinct and self-supporting community, and one of +Washington’s standing orders to his overseers was to “buy nothing +you can make within yourselves.” Thus the planting and gathering of the +crops were but a small part of the work to be done. +</p> + +<p> +A corps of workmen—some negroes, some indentured servants, and some hired +laborers—were kept on the estate. A blacksmith-shop occupied some, doing +not merely the work of the plantation, but whatever business was brought to +them from outside; and a wood-burner kept them and the mansion-house supplied +with charcoal. A gang of carpenters were kept busy, and their spare time was +utilized in framing houses to be put up in Alexandria, or in the “Federal +city,” as Washington was called before the death of its namesake. A +brick-maker, too, was kept constantly employed, and masons utilized the product +of his labor. The gardener’s gang had charge of the kitchen-garden, and +set out thousands of grape-vines, fruit-trees, and hedge-plants. +</p> + +<p> +A water-mill, with its staff, not merely ground meal for the hands, but +produced a fine flour that commanded extra price in the market In 1786 +Washington asserted that his flour was “equal, I believe, in quality to +any made in this country,” and the Mount Vernon brand was of such value +that some money was made by buying outside wheat and grinding it into flour. +The coopers of the estate made the barrels in which it was packed, and +Washington’s schooner carried it to market. +</p> + +<p> +The estate had its own shoemaker, and in time a staff of weavers was trained. +Before this was obtained, in 1760, though with only a modicum of the force he +presently had, Washington ordered from London “450 ells of Osnabrig, 4 +pieces of Brown Wools, 350 yards of Kendall Cotton, and 100 yards of Dutch +blanket.” By 1768 he was manufacturing the chief part of his +requirements, for in that year his weavers produced eight hundred and fifteen +and three-quarter yards of linen, three hundred and sixty-five and one-quarter +yards of woollen, one hundred and forty-four yards of linsey, and forty yards +of cotton, or a total of thirteen hundred and sixty-five and one-half yards, +one man and five negro girls having been employed. When once the looms were +well organized an infinite variety of cloths was produced, the accounts +mentioning “striped woollen, woolen plaided, cotton striped, linen, +wool-birdseye, cotton filled with wool, linsey, M.’s & O.’s, +cotton-India dimity, cotton jump stripe, linen filled with tow, cotton striped +with silk, Roman M., Janes twilled, huccabac, broadcloth, counterpain, birdseye +diaper, Kirsey wool, barragon, fustian, bed-ticking, herring-box, and +shalloon.” +</p> + +<p> +One of the most important features of the estate was its fishery, for the +catch, salted down, largely served in place of meat for the negroes’ +food. Of this advantage Washington wrote, “This river,… is well supplied +with various kinds of fish at all seasons of the year; and, in the spring, with +the greatest profusion of shad, herrings, bass, carp, perch, sturgeon, &c. +Several valuable fisheries appertain to the estate; the whole shore, in short, +is one entire fishery.” Whenever there was a run of fish, the seine was +drawn, chiefly for herring and shad, and in good years this not merely amply +supplied the home requirements, but allowed of sales; four or five shillings +the thousand for herring and ten shillings the hundred for shad were the +average prices, and sales of as high as eighty-five thousand herring were made +in a single year. +</p> + +<p> +In 1795, when the United States passed an excise law, distilling became +particularly profitable, and a still was set up on the plantation. In this +whiskey was made from “Rye chiefly and Indian corn in a certain +proportion,” and this not merely used much of the estate’s product +of those two grains, but quantities were purchased from elsewhere. In 1798 the +profit from the distillery was three hundred and forty-four pounds twelve +shillings and seven and three-quarter pence, with a stock carried over of seven +hundred and fifty-five and one-quarter gallons; but this was the most +successful year. Cider, too, was made in large quantities. +</p> + +<p> +A stud stable was from an early time maintained, and the Virginia papers +regularly advertised that the stud horse “Samson,” +“Magnolia,” “Leonidas,” “Traveller,” or +whatever the reigning stallion of the moment might be, would +“cover” mares at Mount Vernon, with pasturage and a guarantee of +foal, if their owners so elected. During the Revolution Washington bought +twenty-seven of the army mares that had been “worn-down so as to render +it beneficial to the public to have them sold,” not even objecting to +those “low in flesh or even crippled,” because “I have many +large Farms and am improving a good deal of Land into Meadow and Pasture, which +cannot fail of being profited by a number of Brood Mares.” In addition to +the stud, there were, in 1793, fifty-four draught horses on the estate. +</p> + +<p> +A unique feature of this stud was the possession of two jackasses, of which the +history was curious. At that time there was a law in Spain (where the best +breed was to be found) which forbade the exportation of asses, but the king, +hearing of Washington’s wish to possess a jack, sent him one of the +finest obtainable as a present, which was promptly christened “Royal +Gift.” The sea-voyage and the change of climate, however, so affected him +that for a time he proved of little value to his owner, except as a source of +amusement, for Washington wrote Lafayette, “The Jack I have already +received from Spain in appearance is fine, but his late Royal master, +tho’ past his grand climacteric cannot be less moved by female +allurements than he is; or when prompted, can proceed with more deliberation +and majestic solemnity to the work of procreation.” This reluctance to +play his part Washington concluded was a sign of aristocracy, and he wrote a +nephew, “If Royal Gift will administer, he shall be at the service of +your Mares, but at present he seems too full of Royalty, to have anything to do +with a plebeian Race,” and to Fitzhugh he said, “particular +attention shall be paid to the mares which your servant brought, and when my +Jack is in the humor, they shall derive all the benefit of his labor, for labor +it appears to be. At present tho’ young, he follows what may be supposed +to be the example of his late Royal Master, who can not, tho’ past his +grand climacteric, perform seldomer or with more majestic solemnity than he +does. However I am not without hope that when he becomes a little better +acquainted with republican enjoyment, he will amend his manners, and fall into +a better and more expeditious mode of doing business.” This fortunately +proved to be the case, and his master not merely secured such mules as he +needed for his own use, but gained from him considerable profit by covering +mares in the neighborhood. He even sent him on a tour through the South, and +Royal Gift passed a whole winter in Charleston, South Carolina, with a +resulting profit of six hundred and seventy-eight dollars to his owner. In 1799 +there were on the estate “2 Covering Jacks & 3 young ones, 10 she +asses, 42 working mules and 15 younger ones.” +</p> + +<p> +Of cattle there were in 1793 a total of three hundred and seventeen head, +including “a sufficiency of oxen broke to the yoke,” and a dairy +was operated separate from the farms, and some butter was made, but Washington +had occasion to say, “It is hoped, and will be expected, that more +effectual measures will be pursued to make butter another year; for it is +almost beyond belief, that from 101 cows actually reported on a late +enumeration of the cattle, that I am obliged to <i>buy butter</i> for the use +of my family.” +</p> + +<p> +Sheep were an unusual adjunct of a Virginia plantation, and of his flock +Washington wrote, “From the beginning of the year 1784 when I returned +from the army, until shearing time of 1788, I improved the breed of my sheep so +much by buying and selecting the best formed and most promising Rams, and +putting them to my best ewes, by keeping them always well culled and clean, and +by other attentions, that they averaged me … rather over than under five pounds +of washed wool each.” In another letter he said, “I … was proud in +being able to produce perhaps the largest mutton and the greatest quantity of +wool from my sheep that could be produced. But I was not satisfied with this; +and contemplated further improvements both in the flesh and wool by the +introduction of other breeds, which I should by this time have carried into +effect, had I been permitted to pursue my favorite occupation.” In 1789, +however, “I was again called from home, and have not had it in my power +since to pay any attention to my farms. The consequence of which is, that my +sheep at the last shearing, yielded me not more than 2-1/2” pounds. In +1793 he had six hundred and thirty-four in his flock, from which he obtained +fourteen hundred and-fifty-seven pounds of fleece. Of hogs he had +“many,” but “as these run pretty much at large in the +woodland, the number is uncertain.” In 1799 his manager valued his entire +live-stock at seven thousand pounds. +</p> + +<p> +A separate account was kept of each farm, and of many of these separate +departments, and whenever there was a surplus of any product an account was +opened to cover it. Thus in various years there are accounts raised dealing +with cattle, hay, flour, flax, cord-wood, shoats, fish, whiskey, pork, etc., +and his secretary, Shaw, told a visitor that the “books were as regular +as any merchant whatever.” It is proper to note, however, that sometimes +they would not balance, and twice at least Washington could only force one, by +entering “By cash supposed to be paid away & not credited +£17.6.2,” and “By cash lost, stolen or paid away without charging +£143.15.2.” All these accounts were tabulated at the end of the year and +the net results obtained. Those for a single year are here given: +</p> + +<p class="center"> +BALANCE OF GAIN AND LOSS, 1798. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Dr. gained.</i> +</p> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: 3em;"> + +<tr> +<td>Dogue Run Farm</td><td>397.11.02</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Union Farm</td><td>529.10.11½</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>River Farm</td><td>234. 4.11</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Smith’s Shop</td><td>34.12.09½</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Distillery</td><td>83.13.01</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Jacks</td><td>56.01</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Traveller (studhorse)</td><td>9.17</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Shoemaker</td><td>28.17.01</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Fishery</td><td>165.12.0¾</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Dairy</td><td>30.12.03</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Cr. lost.</i> +</p> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: 3em;"> + +<tr> +<td>Mansion House</td><td>466.18.02½</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Muddy Hole Farm</td><td>60.01.03½</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Spinning</td><td>51.02.0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Hire of head-overseer</td><td>140.00.0</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p class="letter"> +By Clear gain on the Estate £ 898.16.4¼ +</p> + +<p> +A pretty poor showing for an estate and negroes which had certainly cost him +over fifty thousand dollars, and on which there was livestock which at the +lowest estimation was worth fifteen thousand dollars more. It is not strange +that in 1793 Washington attempted to find tenants for all but the Mansion farm. +This he reserved for my “own residence, occupation and amusement,” +as Washington held that “idleness is disreputable,” and in 1798 he +told his chief overseer he did not choose to “discontinue my rides or +become a cipher on my own estate.” +</p> + +<p> +When at Mount Vernon, as this indicated, Washington rode daily about his +estate, and he has left a pleasant description of his life immediately after +retiring from the Presidency: “I begin my diurnal course with the sun;… +if my hirelings are not in their places at that time I send them messages +expressive of my sorrow for their indisposition;… having put these wheels in +motion, I examine the state of things further; and the more they are probed, +the deeper I find the wounds are which my buildings have sustained by my +absence and neglect of eight years; by the time I have accomplished these +matters, breakfast (a little after seven o’clock)… is ready;… this being +over, I mount my horse and ride round my farms, which employs me until it is +time to dress for dinner.” A visitor at this time is authority for the +statement that the master “often works with his men himself—strips +off his coat and labors like a common man. The General has a great turn for +mechanics. It’s astonishing with what niceness he directs everything in +the building way, condescending even to measure the things himself, that all +may be perfectly uniform.” +</p> + +<p> +This personal attention Washington was able to give only with very serious +interruptions. From 1754 till 1759 he was most of the time on the frontier; for +nearly nine years his Revolutionary service separated him absolutely from his +property; and during the two terms of his Presidency he had only brief and +infrequent visits. Just one-half of his forty-six years’ occupancy of +Mount Vernon was given to public service. +</p> + +<p> +The result was that in 1757 he wrote, “I am so little acquainted with the +business relative to my private affairs that I can scarce give you any +information concerning it,” and this was hardly less true of the whole +period of his absences. In 1775 he engaged overseers to manage his various +estates in his absence “upon shares,” but during the whole war the +plantations barely supported themselves, even with depletion of stock and +fertility, and he was able to draw nothing from them. One overseer, and a +confederate, he wrote, “I believe, divided the profits of my Estate on +the York River, tolerably betwn. them, for the devil of any thing do I +get.” Well might he advise knowingly that “I have no doubt myself +but that middling land under a man’s own eyes, is more profitable than +rich land at a distance.” “No Virginia Estate (except a very few +under the best of management) can stand simple Interest,” he declared, +and went even further when he wrote, “the nature of a Virginia Estate +being such, that without close application, it never fails bringing the +proprietors in Debt annually.” “To speak within bounds,” he +said, “ten thousand pounds will not compensate the losses I might have +avoided by being at home, & attending a little to my own concerns” +during the Revolution. +</p> + +<p> +Fortunately for the farmer, the Mount Vernon estate was but a small part of his +property. His father had left him a plantation of two hundred and eighty acres +on the Rappahannock, “one Moiety of my Land lying on Deep Run,” +three lots in Frederick “with all the houses and Appurtenances thereto +belonging,” and one quarter of the residuary estate. While surveying for +Lord Fairfax in 1748, as part of his compensation Washington patented a tract +of five hundred and fifty acres in Frederick County, which he always spoke of +as “My Bull-skin plantation.” +</p> + +<p> +As a military bounty in the French and Indian War the governor of Virginia +issued a proclamation granting Western lands to the soldiers, and under this +Washington not merely secured fifteen thousand acres in his own right, but by +buying the claims of some of his fellow officers doubled that quantity. A +further tract was also obtained under the kindred proclamation of 1763, +“5000 Acres of Land in my own right, & by purchase from Captn. Roots, +Posey, & some other officers, I obtained rights to several thousand +more.” In 1786, after sales, he had over thirty thousand acres, which he +then offered to sell at thirty thousand guineas, and in 1799, when still more +had been sold, his inventory valued the holdings at nearly three hundred +thousand dollars. +</p> + +<p> +In addition, Washington was a partner in several great land +speculations,—the Ohio Company, the Walpole Grant, the Mississippi +Company, the Military Company of Adventures, and the Dismal Swamp Company; but +all these ventures except the last collapsed at the beginning of the Revolution +and proved valueless. His interest in the Dismal Swamp Company he held at the +time of his death, and it was valued in the inventory at twenty thousand +dollars. +</p> + +<p> +The properties that came to him from his brother Lawrence and with his wife +have already been described. It may be worth noting that with the widow of +Lawrence there was a dispute over the will, but apparently it was never carried +into the courts, and that owing to the great depreciation of paper money during +the Revolution the Custis personal property was materially lessened, for +“I am now receiving a shilling in the pound in discharge of Bonds which +ought to have been paid me, & would have been realized before I left +Virginia, but for my indulgences to the debtors,” Washington wrote, and +in 1778 he said, “by the comparitive worth of money, six or seven +thousand pounds which I have in Bonds upon Interest is now reduced to as many +hundreds because I can get no more for a thousand at this day than a hundred +would have fetched when I left Virginia, Bonds, debts, Rents, &c. +undergoing no change while the currency is depreciating in value and for ought +I know may in a little time be totally sunk.” Indeed, in 1781 he +complained “that I have totally neglected all my private concerns, which +are declining every day, and may, possibly, end in capital losses, if not +absolute ruin, before I am at liberty to look after them.” +</p> + +<p> +In 1784 he became partner with George Clinton in some land purchases in the +State of New York with the expectation of buying the “mineral springs at +Saratoga; and … the Oriskany tract, on which Fort Schuyler stands.” In +this they were disappointed, but six thousand acres in the Mohawk valley were +obtained “amazingly cheap.” Washington’s share cost him, +including interest, eighteen hundred and seventy-five pounds, and in 1793 +two-thirds of the land had been sold for three thousand four hundred pounds, +and in his inventory of 1799 Washington valued what he still held of the +property at six thousand dollars. +</p> + +<p> +In 1790, having inside information that the capital was to be removed from New +York to Philadelphia, Washington tried to purchase a farm near that city, +foreseeing a speedy rise in value. In this apparently he did not succeed. Later +he purchased lots in the new Federal city, and built houses on two of them. He +also had town lots in Williamsburg, Alexandria, Winchester, and Bath. In +addition to all this property there were many smaller holdings. Much was sold +or traded, yet when he died, besides his wife’s real estate and the Mount +Vernon property, he possessed fifty-one thousand three hundred and ninety-five +acres, exclusive of town property. A contemporary said “that General +Washington is, perhaps, the greatest landholder in America.” +</p> + +<p> +All these lands, except Mount Vernon, were, so far as possible, rented, but the +net income was not large. Rent agents were employed to look after the tenants, +but low rents, war, paper money, a shifting population, and Washington’s +dislike of lawsuits all tended to reduce the receipts, and the landlord did not +get simple interest on his investments. Thus, in 1799 he complains of slow +payments from tenants in Washington and Lafayette Counties (Pennsylvania). +Instead of an expected six thousand dollars, due June 1, but seventeen hundred +dollars were received. +</p> + +<p> +Income, however, had not been his object in loading himself with such a vast +property, as Washington believed that he was certain to become rich. “For +proof of” the rise of land, he wrote in 1767, “only look to +Frederick, [county] and see what fortunes were made by the … first taking up of +those lands. Nay, how the greatest estates we have in this colony were made. +Was it not by taking up and purchasing at very low rates the rich back lands, +which were thought nothing of in those days, but are now the most valuable land +we possess?” +</p> + +<p> +In this he was correct, but in the mean time he was more or less land-poor. To +a friend in 1763 he wrote that the stocking and repairing of his plantations +“and other matters … swallowed up before I well knew where I was, all the +moneys I got by marriage, nay more, brought me in debt” In 1775, replying +to a request for a loan, he declared that “so far am I from having £200 +to lend … I would gladly borrow that sum myself for a few months.” When +offered land adjoining Mount Vernon for three thousand pounds in 1778, he could +only reply that it was “a sum I have little chance, if I had inclination, +to pay; & therefore would not engage it, as I am resolved not to incumber +myself with Debt.” In 1782, to secure a much desired tract he was forced +to borrow two thousand pounds York currency at the rate of seven per cent. +</p> + +<p> +In 1788, “the total loss of my crop last year by the drought” +“with necessary demands for cash” “have caused me much +perplexity and given me more uneasiness than I ever experienced before from +want of money,” and a year later, just before setting out to be +inaugurated, he tried to borrow five hundred pounds “to discharge what I +owe” and to pay the expenses of the journey to New York, but was +“unable to obtain more than half of it, (though it was not much I +required), and this at an advanced interest with other rigid conditions,” +though at this time “could I get in one fourth part of what is due me on +Bonds” “without the intervention of suits” there would have +been ample funds. In 1795 the President said, “my friends entertain a +very erroneous idea of my particular resources, when they set me down for a +money lender, or one who (now) has a command of it. You may believe me when I +assert that the bonds which were due to me before the Revolution, were +discharged during the progress of it—with a few exceptions in depreciated +paper (in some instances as low as a shilling in the pound). That such has been +the management of the Estate, for many years past, especially since my absence +from home, now six years, as scarcely to support itself. That my public +allowance (whatever the world may think of it) is inadequate to the expence of +living in this City; to such an extravagant height has the necessaries as well +as the conveniences of life arisen. And, moreover that to keep myself out of +debt; I have found it expedient now and then to sell Lands, or something else +to effect this purpose.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus12"></a> +<img src="images/img12.jpg" width="600" height="402" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">LOTTERY TICKET SIGNED BY WASHINGTON</p> +</div> + +<p> +As these extensive land ventures bespoke a national characteristic, so a liking +for other forms of speculation was innate in the great American. During the +Revolution he tried to secure an interest in a privateer. One of his favorite +flyers was chances in lotteries and raffles, which, if now found only in +association with church fairs, were then not merely respectable, but even +fashionable. In 1760 five pounds and ten shillings were invested in one +lottery. Five pounds purchased five tickets in Strother’s lottery in +1763. Three years later six pounds were risked in the York lottery and produced +prizes to the extent of sixteen pounds. Fifty pounds were put into Colonel +Byrd’s lottery in 1769, and drew a half-acre lot in the town of +Manchester, but out of this Washington was defrauded. In 1791 John Potts was +paid four pounds and four shillings “in part for 20 Lottery tickets in +the Alexa. street Lottery at 6/ each, 14 Dollrs. the Bal. was discharged by 2.3 +Lotr prizes.” Twenty tickets of Peregrine and Fitzhugh’s lottery +cost one hundred and eighty-eight dollars in 1794. And these are but samples of +innumerable instances. So, too, in raffles, the entries are +constant,—“for glasses 20/,” “for a Necklace +£1.,” “by profit & loss in two chances in raffling for +Encyclopadia Britannica, which I did not win £1.4,” two tickets were +taken in the raffle of Mrs. Dawson’s coach, as were chances for a pair of +silver buckles, for a watch, and for a gun; such and many others were smaller +ventures Washington took. +</p> + +<p> +There were other sources of income or loss besides. Before the Revolution he +had a good sized holding of Bank of England stock, and an annuity in the funds, +besides considerable property on bond, the larger part of which, as already +noted, was liquidated in depreciated paper money. This paper money was for the +most part put into United States securities, and eventually the “at least +£10,000 Virginia money” proved to be worth six thousand two hundred and +forty-six dollars in government six per cents and three per cents. A great +believer in the Potomac Canal Company, Washington invested twenty-four hundred +pounds sterling in the stock, which produced no income, and in time showed a +heavy shrinkage. Another and smaller loss was an investment in the James River +Canal Company. Stock holdings in the Bank of Columbia and in the Bank of +Alexandria proved profitable investments. +</p> + +<p> +None the less Washington was a successful businessman. Though his property +rarely produced a net income, and though he served the public with practically +no profit (except as regards bounty lands), and thus was compelled frequently +to dip into his capital to pay current expenses, yet, from being a surveyor +only too glad to earn a doubloon (seven dollars and forty cents) a day, he grew +steadily in wealth, and when he died his property, exclusive of his +wife’s and the Mount Vernon estate, was valued at five hundred and thirty +thousand dollars. This made him one of the wealthiest Americans of his time, +and it is to be questioned if a fortune was ever more honestly acquired or more +thoroughly deserved. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>VI<br/> +MASTER AND EMPLOYER</h2> + +<p> +In his “rules of civility” Washington enjoined that “those of +high Degree ought to treat” “Artificers & Persons of low +Degree” “with affibility & Courtesie, without Arrogancy,” +and it was a needed lesson to every young Virginian, for, as Jefferson wrote, +“the whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of +the most boisterous passions, the most insulting despotism on the one part, and +degrading submissions on the other.” +</p> + +<p> +Augustine Washington’s will left to his son George “Ten negro +Slaves,” with an additional share of those “not herein particularly +Devised,” but all to remain in the possession of Mary Washington until +the boy was twenty-one years of age. With his taking possession of the Mount +Vernon estate in his twenty-second year eighteen more came under +Washington’s direction. In 1754 he bought a “fellow” for +£40.5, another (Jack) for £52.5, and a negro woman (Clio) for £50. In 1756 he +purchased of the governor a negro woman and child for £60, and two years later +a fellow (Gregory) for £60.9. In the following year (the year of his marriage) +he bought largely: a negro (Will) for £50; another for £60; nine for £406, an +average of £45; and a woman (Hannah) and child, £80. In 1762 he added to the +number by purchasing seven of Lee Massey for £300 (an average of £43), and two +of Colonel Fielding Lewis at £115, or £57.10 apiece. From the estate of Francis +Hobbs he bought, in 1764, Ben, £72; Lewis, £36.10; and Sarah, £20. Another +fellow, bought of Sarah Alexander, cost him £76; and a negro (Judy) and child, +sold by Garvin Corbin, £63. In 1768 Mary Lee sold him two mulattoes (Will and +Frank) for £61.15 and £50, respectively; and two boys (negroes), Adam and +Frank, for £19 apiece. Five more were purchased in 1772, and after that no more +were bought. In 1760 Washington paid tithes on forty-nine slaves, five years +later on seventy-eight, in 1770 on eighty-seven, and in 1774 on one hundred and +thirty-five; besides which must be included the “dower slaves” of +his wife. Soon after this there was an overplus, and Washington in 1778 offered +to barter for some land “Negroes, of whom I every day long more to get +clear of,” and even before this he had learned the economic fact that +except on the richest of soils slaves “only add to the Expence.” +</p> + +<p> +In 1791 he had one hundred and fifteen “hands” on the Mount Vernon +estate, besides house servants, and De Warville, describing his estate in the +same year, speaks of his having three hundred negroes. At this time Washington +declared that “I never mean (unless some particular circumstance compel +me to it) to possess another slave by purchase,” but this intention was +broken, for “The running off of my cook has been a most inconvenient +thing to this family, and what rendered it more disagreeable, is that I had +resolved never to become the Master of another slave by purchase, but this +resolution I fear I must break. I have endeavored to hire, black or white, but +am not yet supplied.” +</p> + +<p> +A few more slaves were taken in payment of a debt, but it was from necessity +rather than choice, for at this very time Washington had decided that “it +is demonstratively clear, that on this Estate (Mount Vernon) I have more +working negros by a full moiety, than can be employed to any advantage in the +farming system, and I shall never turn Planter thereon. To sell the overplus I +cannot, because I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human +species. To hire them out, is almost as bad, because they could not be disposed +of in families to any advantage, and to disperse the families I have an +aversion. What then is to be done? Something must or I shall be ruined; for all +the money (in addition to what I raise by crops, and rents) that have been +<i>received</i> for Lands, sold within the last four years, to the amount of +Fifty thousand dollars, has scarcely been able to keep me afloat.” And +writing of one set he said, “it would be for my interest to set them +free, rather than give them victuals and cloaths.” +</p> + +<p> +The loss by runaways was not apparently large. In October, 1760, his ledger +contains an item of seven shillings “To the Printing Office … for +Advertising a run-a-way Negro.” In 1761 he pays his clergyman, Rev. Mr. +Green, “for taking up one of my Runaway Negroes £4.” In 1766 +rewards are paid for the “taking upp” of “Negro Tom” +and “Negro Bett.” The “taking up of Harry when Runaway” +in 1771 cost £1.16. When the British invaded Virginia in 1781, a number escaped +or were carried away by the enemy. By the treaty of peace these should have +been returned, and their owner wrote, “Some of my own slaves, and those +of Mr. Lund Washington who lives at my house may probably be in New York, but I +am unable to give you their description—their names being so easily +changed, will be fruitless to give you. If by chance you should come at the +knowledge of any of them, I will be much obliged by your securing them, so that +I may obtain them again.” +</p> + +<p> +In 1796 a girl absconded to New England, and Washington made inquiries of a +friend as to the possibility of recovering her, adding, “however well +disposed I might be to a gradual abolition, or even to an entire emancipation +of that description of people (if the latter was in itself practicable) at this +moment, it would neither be politic nor just to reward unfaithfulness with a +premature preference, and thereby discontent beforehand the minds of all her +fellow servants, who, by their steady attachment, are far more deserving than +herself of favor,” and at this time Washington wrote to a relative, +“I am sorry to hear of the loss of your servant; but it is my opinion +these elopements will be much more, before they are less frequent; and that the +persons making them should never be retained—if they are recovered, as +they are sure to contaminate and discontent others.” +</p> + +<p> +Another source of loss was sickness, which, in spite of all Washington could +do, made constant inroads on the numbers. A doctor to care for them was engaged +by the year, and in the contracts with his overseers clauses were always +inserted that each was “to take all necessary and proper care of the +Negroes committed to his management using them with proper humanity and +descretion,” or that “he will take all necessary and proper care of +the negroes committed to his management, treating them with humanity and +tenderness when sick, and preventing them when well, from running about and +visiting without his consent; as also forbid strange negroes frequenting their +quarters without lawful excuses for so doing.” +</p> + +<p> +Furthermore, in writing to his manager, while absent from Mount Vernon, +Washington reiterated that “although it is last mentioned it is foremost +in my thoughts, to desire you will be particularly attentive to my negros in +their sickness; and to order every overseer <i>positively</i> to be so +likewise; for I am sorry to observe that the generality of them view these poor +creatures in scarcely any other light than they do a draught horse or ox; +neglecting them as much when they are unable to work; instead of comforting and +nursing them when they lye on a sick bed.” And in another letter he +added, “When I recommended care of, and attention to my negros in +sickness, it was that the first stage of, and the whole progress through the +disorders with which they might be seized (if more than a slight indisposition) +should be closely watched, and timely applications and remedies be +administered; especially in the pleurisies, and all inflammatory disorders +accompanied with pain, when a few days’ neglect, or want of bleeding +might render the ailment incurable. In such cases sweeten’d teas, broths +and (according to the nature of the complaint, and the doctor’s +prescription) sometimes a little wine, may be necessary to nourish and restore +the patient; and these I am perfectly willing to allow, when it is requisite. +My fear is, as I expressed to you in a former letter, that the under overseers +are so unfeeling, in short viewing the negros in no other light than as a +better kind of cattle, the moment they cease to work, they cease their care of +them.” +</p> + +<p> +At Mount Vernon his care for the slaves was more personal. At a time when the +small-pox was rife in Virginia he instructed his overseer “what to do if +the Small pox should come amongst them,” and when he “received +letters from Winchester, informing me that the Small pox had got among my +quarters in Frederick; [I] determin’d … to leave town as soon as +possible, and proceed up to them…. After taking the Doctors directions in +regard to my people … I set out for my quarters about 12 oclock, time enough to +go over them and found every thing in the utmost confusion, disorder and +backwardness…. Got Blankets and every other requisite from Winchester, and +settl’d things on the best footing I cou’d, … Val Crawford agreeing +if any of those at the upper quarter got it, to have them remov’d into my +room and the Nurse sent for.” +</p> + +<p> +Other sickness was equally attended to, as the following entries in his diary +show: “visited my Plantations and found two negroes sick … ordered them +to be blooded;” “found that lightening had struck my quarters and +near 10 Negroes in it, some very bad but with letting blood they +recover’d;” “ordered Lucy down to the House to be +Physikd,” and “found the new negro Cupid, ill of a pleurisy at +Dogue Run Quarter and had him brot home in a cart for better care of him…. +Cupid extremely Ill all this day and at night when I went to bed I thought him +within a few hours of breathing his last.” +</p> + +<p> +This matter of sickness, however, had another phase, which caused Washington +much irritation at times when he could not personally look into the cases, but +heard of them through the reports of his overseers. Thus, he complained on one +occasion, “I find by reports that Sam is, in a manner, always returned +sick; Doll at the Ferry, and several of the spinners very frequently so, for a +week at a stretch; and ditcher Charles often laid up with lameness. I never +wish my people to work when they are really sick, or unfit for it; on the +contrary, that all necessary care should be taken of them when they are so; but +if you do not examine into their complaints, they will lay by when no more ails +them, than all those who stick to their business, and are not complaining from +the fatigue and drowsiness which they feel as the effect of night walking and +other practices which unfit them for the duties of the day.” And again he +asked, “Is there anything particular in the cases of Ruth, Hannah and +Pegg, that they have been returned sick for several weeks together? Ruth I know +is extremely deceitful; she has been aiming for some time past to get into the +house, exempt from work; but if they are not made to do what their age and +strength will enable them, it will be a bad example for others—none of +whom would work if by pretexts they can avoid it” +</p> + +<p> +Other causes than running away and death depleted the stock. One negro was +taken by the State for some crime and executed, an allowance of sixty-nine +pounds being made to his master. In 1766 an unruly negro was shipped to the +West Indies (as was then the custom), Washington writing the captain of the +vessel,— +</p> + +<p> +“With this letter comes a negro (Tom) which I beg the favor of you to +sell in any of the islands you may go to, for whatever he will fetch, and bring +me in return for him<br/> + “One hhd of best molasses<br/> + “One ditto of best rum<br/> + “One barrel of lymes, if good and cheap<br/> + “One pot of tamarinds, containing about 10 lbs.<br/> + “Two small ditto of mixed sweetmeats, about 5 lbs. each.<br/> +And the residue, much or little, in good old spirits. That this +fellow is both a rogue and a runaway (tho’ he was by no means remarkable +for the former, and never practised the latter till of late) I shall not +pretend to deny. But that he is exceeding healthy, strong, and good at the hoe, +the whole neighborhood can testify, and particularly Mr. Johnson and his son, +who have both had him under them as foreman of the gang; which gives me reason +to hope he may with your good management sell well, if kept clean and +trim’d up a little when offered for sale.” +</p> + +<p> +Another “misbehaving fellow” was shipped off in 1791, and was sold +for “one pipe and Quarter Cask of wine from the West Indies.” +Sometimes only the threat of such riddance was used, as when an overseer +complained of one slave, and his master replied, “I am very sorry that so +likely a fellow as Matilda’s Ben should addict himself to such courses as +he is pursuing. If he should be guilty of any atrocious crime, that would +effect his life, he might be given up to the civil authority for trial; but for +such offences as most of his color are guilty of, you had better try further +correction, accompanied with admonition and advice. The two latter sometimes +succeed where the first has failed. He, his father and mother (who I dare say +are his receivers) may be told in explicit language, that if a stop is not put +to his rogueries and other villainies, by fair means and shortly, that I will +ship him off (as I did Wagoner Jack) for the West Indies, where he will have no +opportunity of playing such pranks as he is at present engaged in.” +</p> + +<p> +It is interesting to note, in connection with this conclusion, that +“admonition and advice” were able to do what +“correction” sometimes failed to achieve, that there is not a +single order to whip, and that the above case, and that which follows, are the +only known cases where punishment was approved. “The correction you gave +Ben, for his assault on Sambo, was just and proper. It is my earnest desire +that quarrels may be stopped or punishment of both parties follow, unless it +shall appear <i>clearly</i>, that one only is to blame, and the other forced +into [a quarrel] from self-defence.” In one other instance Washington +wrote, “If Isaac had his deserts he would receive a severe punishment for +the house, tools and seasoned stuff, which has been burned by his +carelessness.” But instead of ordering the “deserts” he +continued, “I wish you to inform him, that I sustain injury enough by +their idleness; they need not add to it by their carelessness.” +</p> + +<p> +This is the more remarkable, because his slaves gave him constant annoyance by +their wastefulness and sloth and dishonesty. Thus, “Paris has grown to be +so lazy and self-willed” that his master does not know what to with him; +“Doll at the Ferry must be taught to knit, and <i>made</i> to do a +sufficient day’s work of it—otherwise (if suffered to be idle) many +more will walk in her steps”; “it is observed by the weekly +reports, that the sewers make only six shirts a week, and the last week +Carolina (without being sick) made only five. Mrs. Washington says their usual +task was to make nine with shoulder straps and good sewing. Tell them therefore +from me, that what <i>has</i> been done, <i>shall</i> be done”; +“none I think call louder for [attention] than the smiths, who, from a +variety of instances which fell within my own observation whilst I was at home, +I take to be two very idle fellows. A daily account (which ought to be +regularly) taken of their work, would alone go a great way towards checking +their idleness.” And the overseer was told to watch closely “the +people who are at work with the gardener, some of whom I know to be as lazy and +deceitful as any in the world (Sam particularly).” +</p> + +<p> +Furthermore, the overseers were warned to “endeavor to make the Servants +and Negroes take care of their cloathes;” to give them “a weekly +allowance of Meat … because the annual one is not taken care of but either +profusely used or stolen”; and to note “the delivery to and the +application of nails by the carpenters,… [for] I cannot conceive how it is +possible that 6000 twelve penny nails could be used in the corn house at River +Plantation; but of one thing I have no great doubt, and that is, if they can be +applied to other uses, or converted into cash, rum or other things there will +be no scruple in doing it.” +</p> + +<p> +When robbed of some potatoes, Washington complained that “the deception … +is of a piece with other practices of a similar kind by which I have suffered +hitherto; and may serve to evince to you, in strong colors, first how little +confidence can be placed in any one round you; and secondly the necessity of an +accurate inspection into these things yourself,—for to be plain, +Alexandria is such a recepticle for every thing that can be filched from the +right owners, by either blacks or whites; and I have such an opinion of my +negros (two or three only excepted), and not much better of some of the whites, +that I am perfectly sure not a single thing that can be disposed of at any +price, at that place, that will not, and is not stolen, where it is possible; +and carried thither to some of the underlying keepers, who support themselves +by this kind of traffick.” He dared not leave wine unlocked, even for the +use of his guests, “because the knowledge I have of my servants is such, +as to believe, that if opportunities are given them, they will take off two +glasses of wine for every one that is drank by such visitors, and tell you they +were used by them.” And when he had some work to do requiring very +ordinary qualities, he had to confess that “I know not a negro among all +mine, whose capacity, integrity and attention could be relied on for such a +trust as this.” +</p> + +<p> +Whatever his opinion of his slaves, Washington was a kind master. In one case +he wrote a letter for one of them when the “fellow” was parted from +his wife in the service of his master, and at another time he enclosed letters +to a wife and to James’s “del Toboso,” for two of his +servants, to save them postage. In reference to their rations he wrote, +“whether this addition … is sufficient, I will not undertake to +decide;—but in most explicit language I desire they may have plenty; for +I will not have my feelings hurt with complaints of this sort, nor lye under +the imputation of starving my negros, and thereby driving them to the necessity +of thieving to supply the deficiency. To prevent waste or embezzlement is the +only inducement to allowancing of them at all—for if, instead of a peck +they could eat a bushel of meal a week fairly, and required it, I would not +withhold or begrudge it them.” At Christmas-time there are entries in his +ledger for whiskey or rum for “the negroes,” and towards the end of +his life he ordered the overseer, “although others are getting out of the +practice of using spirits at Harvest, yet, as my people have always been +accustomed to it, a hogshead of Rum must be purchased; but I request at the +same time, that it may be used sparingly.” +</p> + +<p> +A greater kindness of his was, in 1787, when he very much desired a negro mason +offered for sale, yet directed his agent that “if he has a family, with +which he is to be sold; or from whom he would reluctantly part, I decline the +purchase; his feelings I would not be the means of hurting in the latter case, +nor <i>at any rate</i> be incumbered with the former.” +</p> + +<p> +The kindness thus indicated bore fruit in a real attachment of the slaves for +their master. In Humphreys’s poem on Washington the poet alluded to the +negroes at Mount Vernon in the lines,— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Where that foul stain of manhood, slavery, flow’d<br/> +Through Afric’s sons transmitted in the blood;<br/> +Hereditary slaves his kindness shar’d,<br/> +For manumission by degrees prepar’d:<br/> +Return’d from war, I saw them round him press,<br/> +And all their speechless glee by artless signs express.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And in a foot-note the writer added, “The interesting scene of his return +home, at which the author was present, is described exactly as it +existed.” +</p> + +<p> +A single one of these slaves deserves further notice. His body-servant +“Billy” was purchased by Washington in 1768 for sixty-eight pounds +and fifteen shillings, and was his constant companion during the war, even +riding after his master at reviews; and this servant was so associated with the +General that it was alleged in the preface to the “forged letters” +that they had been captured by the British from “Billy,” “an +old servant of General Washington’s.” When Savage painted his +well-known “family group,” this was the one slave included in the +picture. In 1784 Washington told his Philadelphia agent that “The mulatto +fellow, William, who has been with me all the war, is attached (married he +says) to one of his own color, a free woman, who during the war, was also of my +family. She has been in an infirm condition for some time, and I had conceived +that the connexion between them had ceased; but I am mistaken it seems; they +are both applying to get her here, and tho’ I never wished to see her +more, I cannot refuse his request (if it can be complied with on reasonable +terms) as he has served me faithfully for many years. After premising this +much, I have to beg the favor of you to procure her a passage to +Alexandria.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus13"></a> +<img src="images/img13.jpg" width="700" height="486" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">SAVAGE’S PICTURE OF THE WASHINGTON FAMILY</p> +</div> + +<p> +When acting as chain-bearer in 1785, while Washington was surveying a tract of +land, William fell and broke his knee-pan, “which put a stop to my +surveying; and with much difficulty I was able to get him to Abington, being +obliged to get a sled to carry him on, as he could neither walk, stand or +ride.” From this injury Lee never quite recovered, yet he started to +accompany his master to New York in 1789, only to give out on the road. He was +left at Philadelphia, and Lear wrote to Washington’s agent that +“The President will thank you to propose it to Will to return to Mount +Vernon when he can be removed for he cannot be of any service here, and perhaps +will require a person to attend upon him constantly. If he should incline to +return to Mount Vernon, you will be so kind as to have him sent in the first +Vessel that sails for Alexandria after he can be moved with safety—but if +he is still anxious to come on here the President would gratify him, +altho’ he will be troublesome—He has been an old and faithful +Servant, this is enough for the President to gratify him in every reasonable +wish.” +</p> + +<p> +By his will Washington gave Lee his “immediate freedom or if he should +prefer it (on account of the accidents which have befallen him and which have +rendered him incapable of walking or of any active employment) to remain in the +situation he now is, it shall be optional in him to do so— In either case +however I allow him an annuity of thirty dollars during his natural life which +shall be independent of the victuals and <i>cloaths</i> he has been accustomed +to receive; if he <i>chuses</i> the last alternative, but in full with his +freedom, if he prefers the first, and this I give him as a testimony of my +sense of his attachment to me and for his faithful services during the +Revolutionary War.” +</p> + +<p> +Two small incidents connected with Washington’s last illness are worth +noting. The afternoon before the night he was taken ill, although he had +himself been superintending his affairs on horseback in the storm most of the +day, yet when his secretary “carried some letters to him to frank, +intending to send them to the Post Office in the evening,” Lear tells us +“he franked the letters; but said the weather was too bad to send a +servant up to the office that evening.” Lear continues, “The +General’s servant, Christopher, attended his bed side & in the room, +when he was sitting up, through his whole illness…. In the [last] afternoon the +General observing that Christopher had been standing by his bed side for a long +time—made a motion for him to sit in a chair which stood by the bed +side.” +</p> + +<p> +A clause in Washington’s will directed that +</p> + +<p> +“Upon the decease of my wife it is my will and desire that all the slaves +which I hold in <i>my own right</i> shall receive their freedom—To +emancipate them during her life, would, tho’ earnestly wished by me, be +attended with such insuperable difficulties, on account of their intermixture +of marriages with the Dower negroes as to excite the most painful +sensations—if not disagreeable consequences from the latter, while both +descriptions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor, it not being in my +power under the tenure by which the dower Negroes are held to manumit +them—And whereas among those who will receive freedom according to this +devise there may be some who from old age, or bodily infirmities & others +who on account of their infancy, that will be unable to support themselves, it +is my will and desire that all who come under the first and second description +shall be comfortably cloathed and fed by my heirs while they live and that such +of the latter description as have no parents living, or if living are unable or +unwilling to provide for them, shall be bound by the Court until they shall +arrive at the age of twenty five years…. The negroes thus bound are (by their +masters and mistresses) to be taught to read and write and to be brought up to +some useful occupation.” +</p> + +<p> +In this connection Washington’s sentiments on slavery as an institution +may be glanced at. As early as 1784 he replied to Lafayette, when told of a +colonizing plan, “The scheme, my dear Marqs., which you propose as a +precedent to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this Country +from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the +benevolence of your Heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work; +but will defer going into a detail of the business, till I have the pleasure of +seeing you.” A year later, when Francis Asbury was spending a day in +Mount Vernon, the clergyman asked his host if he thought it wise to sign a +petition for the emancipation of slaves. Washington replied that it would not +be proper for him, but added, “If the Maryland Assembly discusses the +matter; I will address a letter to that body on the subject, as I have always +approved of it.” +</p> + +<p> +When South Carolina refused to pass an act to end the slave-trade, he wrote to +a friend in that State, “I must say that I lament the decision of your +legislature upon the question of importing slaves after March 1793. I was in +hopes that motives of policy as well as other good reasons, supported by the +direful effects of slavery, which at this moment are presented, would have +operated to produce a total prohibition of the importation of slaves, whenever +the question came to be agitated in any State, that might be interested in the +measure.” For his own State he expressed the “wish from my soul +that the Legislature of this State could see the policy of a gradual Abolition +of Slavery; it would prev’t much future mischief.” And to a +Pennsylvanian he expressed the sentiment, “I hope it will not be +conceived from these observations, that it is my wish to hold the unhappy +people, who are the subject of this letter, in slavery. I can only say, that +there is not a man living, who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan +adopted for the abolition of it; but there is only one proper and effectual +mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by legislative authority; and +this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting.” +</p> + +<p> +Washington by no means restricted himself to slave servitors. Early in life he +took into his service John Alton at thirteen pounds per annum, and this white +man served as his body-servant in the Braddock campaign, and Washington found +in the march that “A most serious inconvenience attended me in my +sickness, and that was the losing the use of my servant, for poor John Alton +was taken about the same time that I was, and with nearly the same disorder, +and was confined as long; so that we did not see each other for several +days.” As elsewhere noticed, Washington succeeded to the services of +Braddock’s body-servant, Thomas Bishop, on the death of the general, +paying the man ten pounds a year. +</p> + +<p> +These two were his servants in his trip to Boston in 1756, and in preparation +for that journey Washington ordered his English agent to send him “2 +complete livery suits for servants; with a spare cloak and all other necessary +trimmings for two suits more. I would have you choose the livery by our arms, +only as the field of the arms is white, I think the clothes had better not be +quite so, but nearly like the inclosed. The trimmings and facings of scarlet, +and a scarlet waist coat. If livery lace is not quite disused, I should be glad +to have the cloaks laced. I like that fashion best, and two silver laced hats +for the above servants.” +</p> + +<p> +For some reason Bishop left his employment, but in 1760 Washington “wrote +to my old servant Bishop to return to me again if he was not otherwise +engaged,” and, the man being “very desirous of returning,” +the old relation was reassumed. Alton in the mean time had been promoted to be +overseer of one of the plantations. In 1785 their master noted in his diary, +“Last night Jno Alton an Overseer of mine in the Neck—an old & +faithful Servant who has lived with me 30 odd years died—and this evening +the wife of Thos. Bishop, another old Servant who had lived with me an equal +number of years also died.” Both were remembered in his will by a clause +giving “To Sarah Green daughter of the deceased Thomas Bishop, and to Ann +Walker, daughter of John Alton, also deceased I give each one hundred dollars, +in consideration of the attachment of their father[s] to me, each of whom +having lived nearly forty years in my family.” +</p> + +<p> +Of Washington’s general treatment of the serving class a few facts can be +gleaned. He told one of his overseers, in reference to the sub-overseers, that +“to treat them civilly is no more than what all men are entitled to, but +my advice to you is, to keep them at a proper distance; for they will grow upon +familiarity, in proportion as you will sink in authority if you do not.” +To a housekeeper he promised “a warm, decent and comfortable room to +herself, to lodge in, and will eat of the victuals of our Table, but not set at +it, or at any time <i>with us</i> be her appearance what it may; for if this +was <i>once admitted</i> no line satisfactory to either party, perhaps could be +drawn thereafter.” +</p> + +<p> +In visiting he feed liberally, good examples of which are given in the cash +account of the visit to Boston in 1756, when he “Gave to Servants on ye +Road 10/.” “By Cash Mr. Malbones servants £4.0.0.” “The +Chambermaid £1.2.6.” When the wife of his old steward, Fraunces, came to +need, he gave her “for Charity £1.17.6.” The majority will +sympathize rather than disapprove of his opinion when he wrote, “Workmen +in most Countries I believe are necessary plagues;—-in this where +entreaties as well as money must be used to obtain their work and keep them to +their duty they baffle all calculation in the accomplishment of any plan or +repairs they are engaged in;—and require more attention to and looking +after than can be well conceived.” +</p> + +<p> +The overseers of his many plantations, and his “master” carpenters, +millers, and gardeners, were quite as great trials as his slaves. First +“young Stephens” gave him much trouble, which his diary reports in +a number of sententious entries: “visited my Plantation. Severely +reprimanded young Stephens for his Indolence, and his father for suffering +it;” “forbid Stephens keeping any horses upon my expence;” +“visited my quarters & ye Mill, according to custom found young +Stephens absent;” “visited my Plantation and found to my great +surprise Stephens constantly at work;” “rid out to my Plantn. and +to my Carpenters. Found Richard Stephens hard at work with an ax—Very +extraordinary this!” +</p> + +<p> +Again he records, “Visited my Plantations—found Foster had been +absent from his charge since the 28th ulto. Left orders for him to come +immediately to me upon his return, and repremanded him severely.” Of +another, Simpson, “I never hear … without a degree of warmth & +vexation at his extreme stupidity,” and elsewhere he expresses his +disgust at “that confounded fellow Simpson.” A third spent all the +fall and half the winter in getting in his crop, and “if there was any +way of making such a rascal as Garner pay for such conduct, no punishment would +be too great for him. I suppose he never turned out of mornings until the sun +had warmed the earth, and if <i>he</i> did not, the <i>negros</i> would +not.” His chief overseer was directed to “Let Mr. Crow know that I +view with a very evil eye the frequent reports made by him of sheep dying;… +frequent <i>natural deaths</i> is a very strong evidence to my mind of the want +of care or something worse.” +</p> + +<p> +Curious distinctions were made oftentimes. Thus, in the contract with an +overseer, one clause was inserted to the effect, “And whereas there are a +number of whiskey stills very contiguous to the said Plantations, and many +idle, drunken and dissolute People continually resorting to the same, priding +themselves in debauching sober and well-inclined Persons, the said Edd Voilett +doth promise as well for his own sake as his employers to avoid them as he +ought.” To the contrary, in hiring a gardener, it was agreed as part of +the compensation that the man should have “four dollars at Christmas, +with which he may be drunk for four days and four nights; two dollars at Easter +to effect the same purpose; two dollars at Whitsuntide to be drunk for two +days; a dram in the morning, and a drink of grog at dinner at noon.” +</p> + +<p> +With more true kindness Washington wrote to one of his underlings, “I was +very glad to receive your letter of the 31st ultimo, because I was afraid, from +the accounts given me of your spitting blood,… that you would hardly have been +able to have written at all. And it is my request that you will not, by +attempting more than you are able to undergo, with safety and convenience, +injure yourself, and thereby render me a disservice…. I had rather therefore +hear that you had nursed than exposed yourself. And the things which I sent +from this place (I mean the wine, tea, coffee and sugar) and such other matters +as you may lay in by the doctor’s direction for the use of the sick, I +desire you will make use of as your own personal occasions may require.” +</p> + +<p> +Of one Butler he had employed to overlook his gardeners, but who proved +hopelessly unfit, Washington said, “sure I am, there is no obligation +upon me to retain him from charitable motives; when he ought rather to be +punished as an imposter: for he well knew the services he had to perform, and +which he promised to fulfil with zeal, activity, and intelligence.” Yet +when the man was discharged his employer gave him a “character:” +“If his activity, spirit, and ability in the management of Negroes, were +equal to his honesty, sobriety and industry, there would not be the least +occasion for a change,” and Butler was paid his full wages, no deduction +being made for lost time, “as I can better afford to be without the money +than he can.” +</p> + +<p> +Another thoroughly incompetent man was one employed to take charge of the negro +carpenters, of whom his employer wrote, “I am apprehensive … that Green +never will overcome his propensity to drink; that it is this which occasions +his frequent sickness, absences from work and poverty. And I am convinced, +moreover, that it answers no purpose to admonish him.” Yet, though +“I am so well satisfied of Thomas Green’s unfitness to look after +Carpenters,” for a time “the helpless situation in which you find +his family, has prevailed on me to retain him,” and when he finally had +to be discharged for drinking, Washington said, “Nothing but compassion +for his helpless family, has hitherto induced me to keep him a moment in my +service (so bad is the example he sets); but if he has no regard for them +himself, it is not to be expected that I am to be a continual sufferer on this +account for his misconduct.” His successor needed the house the family +lived in, but Washington could not “bear the thought of adding to the +distress I know they must be in, by turning them adrift;… It would be better +therefore on all accounts if they were removed to some other place, even if I +was to pay the rent, provided it was low, or make some allowance towards +it.” +</p> + +<p> +To many others, besides family, friends, and employees, Washington was +charitable. From an early date his ledger contains frequent items covering +gifts to the needy. To mention a tenth of them would take too much space, but a +few typical entries are worth quoting: +</p> + +<p> +“By Cash gave a Soldiers wife 5/;” “To a crippled man +5/;” “Gave a man who had his House Burnt £1.;” “By a +begging woman /5;” “By Cash gave for the Sufferers at Boston by +fire £12;” “By a wounded soldier 10/;” “Alexandria +Academy, support of a teacher of Orphan children £50;” “By Charity +to an invalid wounded Soldier who came from Redston with a petition for Charity +18/;” “Gave a poor man by the President’s order $2;” +“Delivd to the President to send to two distress’d french women at +Newcastle $25;” “Gave Pothe a poor old man by the President’s +order $2;” “Gave a poor sailor by the Presdt order $1;” +“Gave a poor blind man by the Presdt order $1.50;” “By Madame +de Seguer a french Lady in distress gave her $50;” “By Subscription +paid to Mr. Jas. Blythe towards erecting and Supporting an Academy in the State +of Kentucky $100;” “By Subscription towards an Academy in the South +Western Territory $100;” “By Charity sent Genl Charles Pinckney in +Columbus Bank Notes, for the sufferers by the fire in Charleston So. Carolina +$300;” “By Charity gave to the sufferers by fire in Geo. Town +$10;” “By an annual Donation to the Academy at Alexandria pd. Dr. +Cook $166.67;” “By Charity to the poor of Alexandria deld. to the +revd. Dr. Muir $100.” +</p> + +<p> +To an overseer he said, concerning a distant relative, “Mrs. Haney should +endeavor to do what she can for herself—this is a duty incumbent on every +one; but you must not let her suffer, as she has thrown herself upon me; your +advances on this account will be allowed always, at settlement; and I agree +readily to furnish her with provisions, and for the good character you give of +her daughter make the latter a present in my name of a handsome but not costly +gown, and other things which she may stand most in need of. You may charge me +also with the worth of your tenement in which she is placed, and where perhaps +it is better she should be than at a great distance from your attentions to +her.” +</p> + +<p> +After the terrible attack of fever in Philadelphia in 1793, Washington wrote to +a clergyman of that city,— +</p> + +<p> +“It has been my intention ever since my return to the city, to contribute +my mite towards the relief of the <i>most</i> needy inhabitants of it. The +pressure of public business hitherto has suspended, but not altered my +resolution. I am at a loss, however, for whose benefit to apply the little I +can give, and in whose hands to place it; whether for the use of the fatherless +children and widows, made so by the late calamity, who may find it difficult, +whilst provisions, wood, and other necessaries are so dear, to support +themselves; or to other and better purposes, if any, I know not, and therefore +have taken the liberty of asking your advice. I persuade myself justice will be +done to my motives for giving you this trouble. To obtain information, and to +render the little I can afford, without ostentation or mention of my name, are +the sole objects of these inquiries. With great and sincere esteem and regard, +I am, &c.” +</p> + +<p> +His adopted grandson he advised to “never let an indigent person ask, +without receiving <i>something</i> if you have the means; always recollecting +in what light the widow’s mite was viewed.” And when he took +command of the army in 1775, the relative who took charge of his affairs was +told to “let the hospitality of the house, with respect to the poor, be +kept up. Let no one go hungry away. If any of this kind of people should be in +want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in +idleness; and I have no objection to your giving my money in charity, to the +amount of forty or fifty pounds a year, when you think it well bestowed. What I +mean by having no objection is, that it is my desire that it should be done. +You are to consider, that neither myself nor wife is now in the way to do these +good offices.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>VII<br/> +SOCIAL LIFE</h2> + +<p> +There can be no doubt that Washington, like the Virginian of his time, was +pre-eminently social. It is true that late in life he complained, as already +quoted, that his home had become a “well resorted tavern,” and that +at his own table “I rarely miss seeing strange faces, come as they say +out of respect for me. Pray, would not the word curiosity answer as +well?” but even in writing this he added, “how different this from +having a few social friends at a cheerful board!” When a surveyor he said +that the greatest pleasure he could have would be to hear from or be with +“my Intimate friends and acquaintances;” to one he wrote, “I +hope you in particular will not Bauk me of what I so ardently wish for,” +and he groaned over being “amongst a parcel of barbarians.” While +in the Virginia regiment he complained of a system of rations which +“deprived me of the pleasure of inviting an officer or friend, which to +me would be more agreeable, than nick-nacks I shall meet with,” and when +he was once refused leave of absence by the governor, he replied bitterly, +“it was not to enjoy a party of pleasure I wanted a leave of absence; I +have been indulged with few of these, winter or summer!” At Mount Vernon, +if a day was spent without company the fact was almost always noted in his +diary, and in a visit, too, he noted that he had “a very lonesome Evening +at Colo Champe’s, not any Body favoring us with their Company but +himself.” +</p> + +<p> +The plantation system which prevented town life and put long distances between +neighbors developed two forms of society. One of these was house parties, and +probably nowhere else in the world was that form of hospitality so unstinted as +in this colony. Any one of a certain social standing was privileged, even +welcomed, to ride up to the seat of a planter, dismount, and thus become a +guest, ceasing to be such only when he himself chose. Sometimes one family +would go <i>en masse</i> many miles to stay a week with friends, and when they +set out to return their hosts would journey with them and in turn become guests +for a week. The second form of social life was called clubs. At all the +cross-roads and court-houses there sprang up taverns or ordinaries, and in +these the men of a neighborhood would gather, and over a bowl of punch or a +bottle of wine, the expense of which they “clubbed” to share, would +spend their evenings. +</p> + +<p> +Into this life Washington entered eagerly. As a mere lad his ledger records +expenditures: “By a club in Arrack at Mr. Gordon’s 2/6;” +“Club of a bottle of Rhenish at Mitchells 1/3;” “To part of +the club at Port Royal 1/;” “To Cash in part for a Bowl of fruit +punch 1/7-1/2.” So, too, he was a visitor at this time at some of the +great Virginian houses, as elsewhere noted. When he came into possession of +Mount Vernon he offered the same unstinted welcome that he had met with, and +even as a bachelor he writes of his “having much company,” and +again of being occupied with “a good deal of Company.” In two +months of 1768 Washington had company to dinner, or to spend the night, on +twenty-nine days, and dined or visited away from home on seven; and this is +typical. +</p> + +<p> +Whenever, too, trips were made to Williamsburg, Annapolis, Philadelphia, or +elsewhere, it was a rare occurrence when the various stages of the journey were +not spent with friends, and in those cities he was dined and wined to a +surfeit. +</p> + +<p> +During the Revolution all of Washington’s aides and his secretary lived +with him at head-quarters, and constituted what he always called “my +family.” In addition, many others sat down at table,—those who came +on business from a distance, as well as bidden guests,—-which frequently +included ladies from the neighborhood, who must have been belles among the +sixteen to twenty men who customarily sat down to dinner. “If … +convenient and agreeable to you to take pot luck with me to-day,” the +General wrote John Adams in 1776, “I shall be glad of your +company.” Pot luck it was for commander-in-chief and staff. Mention has +been made of how sometimes Washington slept on the ground, and even when under +cover there was not occasionally much more comfort. Pickering relates that one +night was passed in “Headquarters at Galloway’s, an old log house. +The General lodged in a bed, and his family on the floor about him. We had +plenty of sepawn and milk, and all were contented.” +</p> + +<p> +Oftentimes there were difficulties in the hospitality. “I have been at my +prest. quarters since the 1st day of Decr.,” Washington complained to the +commissary-general, “and have not a Kitchen to cook a Dinner in, +altho’ the Logs have been put together some considerable time by my own +Guard. Nor is there a place at this moment in which a servant can lodge, with +the smallest degree of comfort. Eighteen belonging to my family, and all Mrs. +Ford’s, are crowded together in her Kitchen, and scarce one of them able +to speak for the cold they have caught.” Pickering, in telling how he +tried to secure lodgings away from head-quarters, gave for his reasons that +“they are exceedingly pinched for room…. Had I conceived how much +satisfaction, quiet and even leisure, I should have enjoyed at separate +quarters, I would have taken them six months ago. For at head-quarters there is +a continual throng, and my room, in particular, (when I was happy enough to get +one,) was always crowded by all that came to headquarters on business, because +there was no other for them, we having, for the most part, been in such small +houses.” +</p> + +<p> +There were other difficulties. “I cannot get as much cloth,” the +general wrote, “as will make cloaths for my servants, notwithstanding one +of them that attends my person and table is indecently and most shamefully +naked.” One of his aides said to a correspondent, jocularly, “I +take your Caution to me in Regard to my Health very kindly, but I assure you, +you need be under no Apprehension of my losing it on the Score of Excess of +living, that Vice is banished from this Army and the General’s Family in +particular. We never sup, but go to bed and are early up.” “Only +conceive,” Washington complained to Congress, “the mortification +they (even the general officers) must suffer, when they cannot invite a French +officer, a visiting friend, or a travelling acquaintance, to a better repast, +than stinking whiskey (and not always that) and a bit of Beef without +vegetables.” +</p> + +<p> +At times, too, it was necessary to be an exemplar. “Our truly republican +general,” said Laurens, “has declared to his officers that he will +set the example of passing the winter in a hut himself,” and John Adams, +in a time of famine, declared that “General Washington sets a fine +example. He has banished wine from his table, and entertains his friends with +rum and water.” +</p> + +<p> +Whenever it was possible, however, there was company at head-quarters. +“Since the General left Germantown in the middle of September +last,” the General Orders once read, “he has been without his +baggage, and on that account is unable to receive company in the manner he +could wish. He nevertheless desires the Generals, Field Officers and Brigades +Major of the day, to dine with him in future, at three o’clock in the +afternoon.” Again the same vehicle informed the army that “the +hurry of business often preventing particular invitations being given to +officers to dine with the General; He presents his compliments to the +Brigadiers and Field Officers of the day, and requests while the Camp continues +settled in the City, they will favor him with their company to dinner, without +further or special invitation.” +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Drinker, who went with a committee of women to camp at Valley Forge, has +left a brief description of head-quarters hospitality: “Dinner was +served, to which he invited us. There were 15 Officers, besides ye Gl. and his +wife, Gen. Greene, and Gen. Lee. We had an elegant dinner, which was soon over, +when we went out with ye Genls wife, up to her Chamber—and saw no more of +him.” Claude Blanchard, too, describes a dinner, at which “there +was twenty-five covers used by some officers of the army and a lady to whom the +house belonged in which the general lodged. We dined under the tent. I was +placed along side of the general. One of his aides-de-camp did the honors. The +table was served in the American style and pretty abundantly; vegetables, roast +beef, lamb, chickens, salad dressed with nothing but vinegar, green peas, +puddings, and some pie, a kind of tart, greatly in use in England and among the +Americans, all this being put upon the table at the same time. They gave us on +the same plate beef, green peas, lamb, &c.” +</p> + +<p> +Nor was the ménage of the General unequal to unexpected calls. Chastellux tells +of his first arrival in camp and introduction to Washington: “He +conducted me to his house, where I found the company still at table, although +the dinner had been long over. He presented me to the Generals Knox, Waine, +Howe, &c. and to his <i>family</i>, then composed of Colonels Hamilton and +Tilgman, his Secretaries and his Aides de Camp, and of Major Gibbs, commander +of his guards; for in England and America, the Aides de Camp, Adjutants and +other officers attached to the General, form what is called his <i>family</i>. +A fresh dinner was prepared for me and mine; and the present was prolonged to +keep me company.” “At nine,” he elsewhere writes, +“supper was served, and when the hour of bed-time came, I found that the +chamber, to which the General conducted me was the very parlour I speak of, +wherein he had made them place a camp-bed.” Of his hospitality Washington +himself wrote,— +</p> + +<p> +“I have asked Mrs. Cochran & Mrs. Livingston to dine with me +to-morrow; but am I not in honor bound to apprize them of their fate? 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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; a dish of beans, or greens, (almost imperceptible,) decorates +the center. When the cook has a mind to cut a figure, (which, I presume will be +the case to-morrow) we have two Beef-steak pyes, or dishes of crabs, in +addition, one on each side of the center dish, dividing the space & +reducing the distance between dish & dish to about 6 feet, which without +them would be near 12 feet apart. Of late he has had the surprising sagacity to +discover, that apples will make pyes; and its 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 entertainment, and will submit +to partake of it in plates, once Tin but now Iron—(not become so by the +labor of scouring), I shall be happy to see them.” +</p> + +<p> +Dinners were not the only form of entertaining. In Cambridge, when Mrs. +Washington and Mrs. Jack Custis were at head-quarters, a reception was held on +the anniversary of Washington’s marriage, and at other times when there +was anything to celebrate,—the capitulation of Burgoyne, the alliance +with France, the birth of a dauphin, etc.,—parades, balls, receptions, +“feux-de-joie,” or cold collations were given. Perhaps the most +ambitious attempt was a dinner given on September 21, 1782, in a large tent, to +which ninety sat down, while a “band of American music” added to +the “gaiety of the company.” +</p> + +<p> +Whenever occasion called the General to attend on Congress there was much +junketing. “My time,” he wrote, “during my winter’s +residence in Philadelphia, was unusually (for me) divided between parties of +pleasure and parties of business.” When Reed pressed him to pass the +period of winter quarters in visiting him in Philadelphia, he replied, +“were I to give in to private conveniency and amusement, I should not be +able to resist the invitation of my friends to make Philadelphia, instead of a +squeezed up room or two, my quarters for the winter.” +</p> + +<p> +While President, a more elaborate hospitality was maintained. Both in New York +and Philadelphia the best houses procurable were rented as the Presidential +home,—for Washington “wholly declined living in any public +building,”—and a steward and fourteen lower servants attended to +all details, though a watchful supervision was kept by the President over them, +and in the midst of his public duties he found time to keep a minute account of +the daily use of all supplies, with their cost. His payments to his stewards +for mere servants’ wages and food (exclusive of wine) were over six +hundred dollars a month, and there can be little doubt that Washington, who had +no expense paid by the public, more than spent his salary during his term of +office. +</p> + +<p> +It was the President’s custom to give a public dinner once a week +“to as many as my table will hold,” and there was also a bi-weekly +levee, to which any one might come, as well as evening receptions by Mrs. +Washington, which were more distinctly social and far more exclusive. Ashbel +Green states that “Washington’s dining parties were entertained in +a very handsome style. His weekly dining day for company was Thursday, and his +dining hour was always four o’clock in the afternoon. His rule was to +allow five minutes for the variations of clocks and watches, and then go to the +table, be present or absent, whoever might. He kept his own clock in the hall, +just within the outward door, and always exactly regulated. When lagging +members of Congress came in, as they often did, after the guests had sat down +to dinner, the president’s only apology was, ‘Gentlemen (or sir) we +are too punctual for you. I have a cook who never asks whether the company has +come, but whether the hour has come.’ The company usually assembled in +the drawing-room, about fifteen or twenty minutes before dinner, and the +president spoke to every guest personally on entering the room.” +</p> + +<p> +Maclay attended several of the dinners, and has left descriptions of them. +“Dined this day with the President,” he writes. “It was a +great dinner— all in the tastes of high life. I considered it as a part +of my duty as a Senator to submit to it, and am glad it is over. The President +is a cold, formal man; but I must declare that he treated me with great +attention. I was the first person with whom he drank a glass of wine. I was +often spoken to by him.” Again he says,— +</p> + +<p> +“At dinner, after my second plate had been taken away, the President +offered to help me to part of a dish which stood before him. Was ever anything +so unlucky? I had just before declined being helped to anything more, with some +expression that denoted my having made up my dinner. Had, of course, for the +sake of consistency, to thank him negatively, but when the dessert came, and he +was distributing a pudding, he gave me a look of interrogation, and I returned +the thanks positive. He soon after asked me to drink a glass of wine with +him.” On another occasion he “went to the President’s to +dinner…. The President and Mrs. Washington sat opposite each other in the +middle of the table; the two secretaries, one at each end. It was a great +dinner, and the best of the kind I ever was at. The room, however, was +disagreeably warm. First the soup; fish roasted and boiled; meats, sammon, +fowls, etc…. The middle of the table was garnished in the usual tasty way, with +small images, flowers, (artificial), etc. The dessert was, apple pies, pudding, +etc.; then iced creams, jellies, etc.; then water-melons, musk-melons, apples, +peaches, nuts. It was the most solemn dinner I ever was at. Not a health drank; +scarce a word was said until the cloth was taken away. Then the President +filling a glass of wine, with great formality drank to the health of every +individual by name round the table. Everybody imitated him, charged glasses, +and such a buzz of ‘health, sir,’ and ‘health, madam,’ +and ‘thank you, sir,’ and ‘thank you, madam,’ never had +I heard before…. The ladies sat a good while, and the bottles passed about; but +there was a dead silence almost. Mrs. Washington at last withdrew with the +ladies. I expected the men would now begin, but the same stillness remained. +The President told of a New England clergyman who had lost a hat and wig in +passing a river called the Brunks. He smiled, and everybody else laughed. He +now and then said a sentence or two on some common subject, and what he said +was not amiss…. The President … played with the fork, striking on the edge of +the table with it. We did not sit long after the ladies retired. The President +rose, went up-stairs to drink coffee; the company followed.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus14"></a> +<img src="images/img14.jpg" width="600" height="353" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">PRESIDENTIAL DINNER INVITATION</p> +</div> + +<p> +Bradbury gives the menu of a dinner at which he was, where “there was an +elegant variety of roast beef, veal, turkey, ducks, fowls, hams, &c.; +puddings, jellies, oranges, apples, nuts, almonds, figs, raisins, and a variety +of wines and punch. We took our leave at six, more than an hour after the +candles were introduced. No lady but Mrs. Washington dined with us. We were +waited on by four or five men servants dressed in livery.” At the last +official dinner the President gave, Bishop White was present, and relates that +“to this dinner as many were invited as could be accommodated at the +President’s table…. Much hilarity prevailed; but on the removal of the +cloth it was put an end to by the President—certainly without design. +Having filled his glass, he addressed the company, with a smile on his +countenance, saying: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last time I shall +drink your health, as a public man. I do it with sincerity, and wishing you all +possible happiness.’ There was an end of all pleasantry.” +</p> + +<p> +A glance at Mrs. Washington’s receptions has been given, but the levees +of the President remain to be described. William Sullivan, who attended many, +wrote,— +</p> + +<p> +“At three o’clock or at any time within a quarter of an hour +afterward, the visitor was conducted to this dining room, from which all seats +had been removed for the time. On entering, he saw” Washington, who +“stood always in front of the fire-place, with his face towards the door +of entrance. The visitor was conducted to him, and he required to have the name +so distinctly pronounced that he could hear it. He had the very uncommon +faculty of associating a man’s name, and personal appearance, so durably +in his memory, as to be able to call one by name, who made him a second visit. +He received his visitor with a dignified bow, while his hands were so disposed +of as to indicate, that the salutation was not to be accompanied with shaking +hands. This ceremony never occurred in these visits, even with his most near +friends, that no distinction might be made. As visitors came in, they formed a +circle round the room. At a quarter past three, the door was closed, and the +circle was formed for that day. He then began on the right, and spoke to each +visitor, calling him by name, and exchanging a few words with him. When he had +completed his circuit, he resumed his first position, and the visitors +approached him in succession, bowed and retired. By four o’clock the +ceremony was over.” +</p> + +<p> +The ceremony of the dinners and levees and the liveried servants were favorite +impeachments of the President among the early Democrats before they had better +material, and Washington was charged with trying to constitute a court, and +with conducting himself like a king. Even his bow was a source of criticism, +and Washington wrote in no little irritation in regard to this, “that I +have not been able to make bows to the taste of poor Colonel Bland, (who, by +the by, I believe, never saw one of them), is to be regretted, especially too, +as (upon those occasions), they were indiscriminately bestowed, and the best I +was master of, would it not have been better to throw the veil of charity over +them, ascribing their stiffness to the effects of age, or to the unskillfulness +of my teacher, than to pride and dignity of office, which God knows has no +charms for me? For I can truly say, I had rather be at Mount Vernon with a +friend or two about me, than to be attended at the seat of government by the +officers of state, and the representatives of every power in Europe.” +</p> + +<p> +There can be no doubt that Washington hated ceremony as much as the Democrats, +and yielded to it only from his sense of fitness and the opinions of those +about him. Jefferson and Madison both relate how such unnecessary form was used +at the first levee by the master of ceremonies as to make it ridiculous, and +Washington, appreciating this, is quoted as saying to the amateur chamberlain, +“Well, you have taken me in once, but, by God, you shall never take me in +a second time.” His secretary, in writing to secure lodgings in +Philadelphia, when the President and family were on their way to Mount Vernon, +said, “I must repeat, what I observed in a former letter, that as little +ceremony & parade may be made as possible, for the President wishes to +command his own time, which these things always forbid in a greater or less +degree, and they are to him fatiguing and oftentimes painful. He wishes not to +exclude himself from the sight or conversation of his fellow citizens, but +their eagerness to show their affection frequently imposes a heavy tax on +him.” +</p> + +<p> +This was still further shown in his diary of his tours through New England and +the Southern States. Nothing would do but for Boston to receive him with +troops, etc., and Washington noted, “finding this ceremony not to be +avoided, though I had made every effort to do it, I named the hour.” In +leaving Portsmouth he went “quietly, and without any attendance, having +earnestly entreated that all parade and ceremony might be avoided on my +return.” When travelling through North Carolina, “a small party of +horse under one Simpson met us at Greenville, and in spite of every endeavor +which could comport with decent civility, to excuse myself from it, they would +attend me to Newburn.” +</p> + +<p> +During the few years that Washington was at Mount Vernon subsequent to the +Revolution, the same unbounded hospitality was dispensed as in earlier times, +while a far greater demand was made upon it, and one so variegated that at +times the host was not a little embarrassed. Thus he notes that “a +Gentleman calling himself the Count de Cheiza D’Artigan Officer of the +French Guards came here to dinner; but bringing no letters of introduction, nor +any authentic testimonials of his being either; I was at a loss how to receive +or treat him,—he stayed to dinner and the evening,” and the next +day departed in Washington’s carriage to Alexandria. “A farmer came +here to see,” he says, “my drill plow, and staid all night.” +In another instance he records that a woman whose “name was unknown to me +dined here.” Only once were visitors frowned on, and this was when a +British marauding party came to Mount Vernon during the Revolution. Even they, +in Washington’s absence, were entertained by his overseer, but his master +wrote him, on hearing of this, “I am little sorry of my own [loss]; but +that which gives me most concern is, that you should go on board the +enemy’s vessels 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.” +</p> + +<p> +The hospitality at Mount Vernon was perfectly simple. A traveller relates that +he was taken there by a friend, and, as Washington was “viewing his +laborers,” we “were desired to tarry.” “When the +President returned he received us very politely. Dr. Croker introduced me to +him as a gentleman from Massachusetts who wished to see the country and pay his +respects. He thanked us, desired us to be seated, and to excuse him a few +moments…. The President came and desired us to walk in to dinner and directed +us where to sit, (no grace was said)…. The dinner was very good, a small +roasted pigg, boiled leg of lamb, roasted fowles, beef, peas, lettice, +cucumbers, artichokes, etc., puddings, tarts, etc., etc. We were desired to +call for what drink we chose. He took a glass of wine with Mrs. Law first, +which example was followed by Dr. Croker and Mrs. Washington, myself and Mrs. +Peters, Mr. Fayette and the young lady whose name is Custis. When the cloth was +taken away the President gave ‘All our Friends,’” +</p> + +<p> +Another visitor tells that he was received by Washington, and, “after … +half an hour, the General came in again, with his hair neatly powdered, a clean +shirt on, a new plain drab coat, white waistcoat and white silk stockings. At +three, dinner was on the table, and we were shown by the General into another +room, where everything was set off with a peculiar taste and at the same time +neat and plain. The General sent the bottle about pretty freely after dinner, +and gave success to the navigation of the Potomac for his toasts, which he has +very much at heart…. After Tea General Washington retired to his study and left +us with the … rest of the Company. If he had not been anxious to hear the news +of Congress from Mr. Lee, most probably he would not have returned to supper, +but gone to bed at his usual hour, nine o’clock, for he seldom makes any +ceremony. We had a very elegant supper about that time. The General with a few +glasses of champagne got quite merry, and being with his intimate friends +laughed and talked a good deal. Before strangers he is very reserved, and +seldom says a word. I was fortunate in being in his company with his particular +acquaintances…. At 12 I had the honor of being lighted up to my bedroom by the +General himself.” +</p> + +<p> +This break on the evening hours was quite unusual, Washington himself saying in +one place that nine o’clock was his bedtime, and he wrote of his hours +after dinner, “the usual time of setting at table, a walk, and tea, +brings me within the dawn of candlelight; 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 acknowledge the +letters I have received; but when the lights were brought, I feel tired and +disinclined to engage in this work, conceiving that the next night will do as +well. The next comes, and with it the same causes for postponement, and effect, +and so on.” +</p> + +<p> +The foregoing allusion to Washington’s conversation is undoubtedly just. +All who met him formally spoke of him as taciturn, but this was not a natural +quality. Jefferson states that “in the circle of his friends, where he +might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation,” +and Madison told Sparks that, though “Washington was not fluent nor ready +in conversation, and was inclined to be taciturn in general society,” yet +“in the company of two or three intimate friends, he was talkative, and +when a little excited was sometimes fluent and even eloquent” “The +story so often repeated of his never laughing,” Madison said, was +“wholly untrue; no man seemed more to enjoy gay conversation, though he +took little part in it himself. He was particularly pleased with the jokes, +good humor, and hilarity of his companions.” +</p> + +<p> +Washington certainly did enjoy a joke. Nelly Custis said, “I have +sometimes made him laugh most heartily from sympathy with my joyous and +extravagant spirits,” and many other instances of his laughing are +recorded. He himself wrote in 1775 concerning the running away of some British +soldiers, “we laugh at his idea of chasing the Royal Fusileers with the +stores. Does he consider them as inanimate, or as treasure?” When the +British in Boston sent out a bundle of the king’s speech, “farcical +enough, we gave great joy to them, (the red coats I mean), without knowing or +intending it; for on that day, the day which gave being to the new army, (but +before the proclamation came to hand,) we had hoisted the union flag in +compliment to the United Colonies. But, behold, it was received in Boston as a +token of the deep impression the speech had made upon us, and as a signal of +submission.” +</p> + +<p> +At times Washington would joke himself, though it was always somewhat labored, +as in the case of the Jack already cited. “Without a coinage,” he +wrote, “or unless a stop can be put to the cutting and clipping of money, +our dollars, pistareens, &c., will be converted, as Teague says, into +<i>five</i> quarters.” When the Democrats were charging the Federalists +with having stolen from the treasury, he wrote to a Cabinet official, +“and pray, my good sir, what part of the $800.000 have come to your +share? As you are high in Office, I hope you did not disgrace yourself in the +acceptance of a paltry bribe—a $100.000 perhaps.” He once even +attempted a pun, by writing, “our enterprise will be ruined, and we shall +be stopped at the Laurel Hill this winter; but not to gather laurels, (except +of the kind that covers the mountains).” +</p> + +<p> +Probably the neatest turn was his course on one occasion with General Tryon, +who sent him some British proclamations with the request, “that through +your means, the officers and men under your command may be acquainted with +their contents.” Washington promptly replied that he had given them +“free currency among the officers and men under my command,” and +enclosed to Tryon a lot of the counter-proclamation, asking him to “be +instrumental in communicating its contents, so far as it may be in your power, +to the persons who are the objects of its operation. The benevolent purpose it +is intended to answer will I persuade myself, sufficiently recommend it to your +candor.” +</p> + +<p> +To a poetess who had sent him some laudatory verses about himself he expressed +his thanks, and added, “Fiction is to be sure the very life and Soul of +Poetry—all Poets and Poetesses have been indulged in the free and +indisputable use of it, time out of mind. And to oblige you to make such an +excellent Poem on such a subject without any materials but those of simple +reality, would be as cruel as the Edict of Pharoah which compelled the children +of Israel to manufacture Bricks without the necessary Ingredients.” +</p> + +<p> +Twice he joked about his own death. “As I have heard,” he said +after Braddock’s defeat, “since my arrival at this place, a +circumstancial account of my death and dying speech, I take this early +opportunity of contradicting the first, and of assuring you, that I have not as +yet composed the latter.” Many years later, in draughting a letter for +his wife, he wrote,— +</p> + +<p> +“I am now by desire of the General to add a few words on his behalf; +which he desires may be expressed in the terms following, that is to +say,—that despairing of hearing what may be said of him, if he should +really go off in an apoplectic, or any other fit (for he thinks all fits that +issue in death are worse than a love fit, a fit of laughter, and many other +kinds which he could name)—he is glad to hear <i>beforehand</i> what will +be said of him on that occasion; conceiving that nothing extra will happen +between <i>this</i> and <i>then</i> to make a change in his character for +better, or for worse. And besides, as he has entered into an engagement … not +to quit <i>this</i> world before the year 1800, it may be <i>relied upon</i> +that no breach of contract shall be laid to him on that account, unless dire +necessity should bring it about, maugre all his exertions to the contrary. In +that same, he shall hope they would do by him as he would do by +them—excuse it. At present there seems to be no danger of his thus giving +them the slip, as neither his health nor spirits, were ever in greater flow, +notwithstanding, he adds, he is descending, and has almost reached the bottom +of the hill; or in other words, the shades below. For your particular good +wishes on this occasion he charges me to say that he feels highly obliged, and +that he reciprocates them with great cordiality.” +</p> + +<p> +Other social qualities of the man cannot be passed over. A marked trait was his +extreme fondness of afternoon tea. “Dined at Mr. Langdon’s, and +drank Tea there, with a large circle of Ladies;” “in the afternoon +drank Tea … with about 20 ladies, who had been assembled for the +occasion;” “exercised between 5 & 7 o’clock in the +morning & drank Tea with Mrs. Clinton (the Governor’s Lady) in the +afternoon;” “Drank tea at the Chief Justice’s of the U. +States;” “Dined with the Citizens in public; and in the afternoon, +was introduced to upwards of 50 ladies who had assembled (at a Tea party) on +the occasion;” “Dined and drank tea at Mr. Bingham’s in great +splendor.” Such are the entries in his diary whenever the was +“kettle-a-boiling-be” was within reach. Pickering’s journal +shows that tea served regularly at head-quarters, and at Mount Vernon it was +drunk in summer on the veranda. In writing to Knox of his visit to Boston, +Washington mentioned his recollection of the chats over tea-drinking, and of +how “social and gay” they were. +</p> + +<p> +A fondness for picnics was another social liking. “Rid with Fanny +Bassett, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Shaw to meet a Party from Alexandria at Johnsons +Spring … where we dined on a cold dinner brought from Town by water and spent +the Afternoon agreeably—Returning home by Sun down or a little after +it,” is noted in his diary on one occasion, and on another he wrote, +“Having formed a Party, consisting of the Vice-President, his lady, Son +& Miss Smith; the Secretaries of State, Treasury & War, and the ladies +of the two latter; with all the Gentlemen of my family, Mrs. Lear & the two +Children, we visited the old position of Fort Washington and afterwards dined +on a dinner provided by Mr. Mariner.” Launchings, barbecues, clambakes, +and turtle dinners were other forms of social dissipations. +</p> + +<p> +A distinct weakness was dancing. When on the frontier he sighed, “the +hours at present are melancholy dull. Neither the rugged toils of war, nor the +gentler conflict of A[ssembly] B[alls,] is in my choice.” His diary shows +him at balls and “Routs” frequently; when he was President he was a +constant attendant at the regular “Dancing Assemblies” in New York +and Philadelphia, and when at Mount Vernon he frequently went ten miles to +Alexandria to attend dances. Of one of these Alexandria balls he has left an +amusing description: “Went to a ball at Alexandria, where Musick and +dancing was the chief Entertainment, however in a convenient room detached for +the purpose abounded great plenty of bread and butter, some biscuits, with tea +and coffee, which the drinkers of could not distinguish from hot water +sweet’ned—Be it remembered that pocket handkerchiefs servd the +purposes of Table cloths & Napkins and that no apologies were made for +either. I shall therefore distinguish this ball by the stile and title of the +Bread & Butter Ball.” +</p> + +<p> +During the Revolution, too, he killed many a weary hour of winter quarters by +dancing. When the camp spent a day rejoicing over the French alliance, +“the celebration,” according to Thacher, “was concluded by a +splendid ball opened by his Excellency General Washington, having for his +partner the lady of General Knox.” Greene describes how “we had a +little dance at my quarters a few evenings past. His Excellency and Mrs. Greene +danced upwards of three hours without once sitting down.” Knox, too, +tells of “a most genteel entertainment given by self and officers” +at which Washington danced. “Everybody allows it to be the first of the +kind ever exhibited in this State at least. We had above seventy ladies, all of +the first ton in the State, and between three and four hundred gentlemen. We +danced all night—an elegant room, the illuminating, fireworks, &c., +were more than pretty.” And at Newport, when Rochambeau gave a ball, by +request it was opened by Washington. The dance selected by his partner was +“A Successful Campaign,” then in high favor, and the French +officers took the instruments from the musicians and played while he danced the +first figure. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus15"></a> +<img src="images/img15.jpg" width="600" height="421" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">AGREEMENT FOR DANCING ASSEMBLY</p> +</div> + +<p> +While in winter quarters he subscribed four hundred dollars (paper money, equal +to eleven dollars in gold) to get up a series of balls, of which Greene wrote, +“We have opened an assembly in Camp. From this apparent ease, I suppose +it is thought we must be in happy circumstances. I wish it was so, but, alas, +it is not. Our provisions are in a manner, gone. We have not a ton of hay at +command, nor magazine to draw from. Money is extremely scarce and worth little +when we get it. We have been so poor in camp for a fortnight, that we could not +forward the public dispatches, for want of cash to support the +expresses.” At the farewell ball given at Annapolis, when the +commander-in-chief resigned his command, Tilton relates that “the General +danced in every set, that all the ladies might have the pleasure of dancing +with him; or as it has since been handsomely expressed, ‘get a touch of +him.’” He still danced in 1796, when sixty-four years of age, but +when invited to the Alexandria Assembly in 1799, he wrote to the managers, +“Mrs. Washington and myself have been honored with your polite invitation +to the assemblies of Alexandria this winter, and thank you for this mark of +your attention. But, alas! our dancing days are no more. We wish, however all +those who have a relish for so agreeable and innocent an amusement all the +pleasure the season will afford them; and I am, gentlemen, +</p> + +<p> +“Your most obedient and obliged humble servant, +</p> + +<p class="right"> +“G<small>EO</small>. W<small>ASHINGTON</small>.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>VIII<br/> +TASTES AND AMUSEMENTS</h2> + +<p> +A market trait of Washington’s character was his particularity about his +clothes; there can be little question that he was early in life a good deal of +a dandy, and that this liking for fine feathers never quite left him. When he +was about sixteen years old he wrote in his journal, “Memorandum to have +my Coat made by the following Directions to be made a Frock with a Lapel Breast +the Lapel to Contain on each side six Button Holes and to be about 5 or 6 +Inches wide all the way equal and to turn as the Breast on the Coat does to +have it made very long Waisted and in Length to come down to or below the bent +of the knee the Waist from the armpit to the Fold to be exactly as long or +Longer than from thence to the Bottom not to have more than one fold in the +Skirt and the top to be made just to turn in and three Button Holes the Lapel +at the top to turn as the Cape of the Coat and Bottom to Come Parallel with the +Button Holes the Last Button hole in the Breast to be right opposite to the +Button on the Hip.” +</p> + +<p> +In 1754 he bought “a Superfine blue broad cloth Coat, with Silver +Trimmings,” “a fine Scarlet Waistcoat full Lac’d,” and +a quantity of “silver lace for a Hatt,” and from another source it +is learned that at this time he was the possessor of ruffled shirts. A little +later he ordered from London “As much of the best superfine blue Cotton +Velvet as will make a Coat, Waistcoat and Breeches for a Tall Man, with a fine +silk button to suit it, and all other necessary trimmings and linings, together +with garters for the Breeches,” and other orders at different times were +for “6 prs. of the Very neatest shoes,” “A riding waistcoat +of superfine scarlet cloth and gold Lace,” “2 prs. of fashionable +mix’d or marble Color’d Silk Hose,” “1 piece of finest +and fashionable Stock Tape,” “1 Suit of the finest Cloth & +fashionable colour,” “a New Market Great Coat with a loose hood to +it, made of Bleu Drab or broad cloth, with straps before according to the +present taste,” “3 gold and scarlet sword-knots, 3 silver and blue +do, 1 fashionable gold-laced hat.” +</p> + +<p> +As these orders indicated, the young fellow strove to be in the fashion. In +1755 he wrote his brother, “as wearing boots is quite the mode, and mine +are in a declining state, I must beg the favor of you to procure me a pair that +is good and neat.” “Whatever goods you may send me,” he wrote +his London agent, “let them be fashionable, neat and good of their +several kinds.” It was a great trial to him that his clothes did not fit +him. “I should have enclosed you my measure,” he wrote to London, +“but in a general way they are so badly taken here, that I am convinced +that it would be of very little service.” “I have hitherto had my +clothes made by one Charles Lawrence in Old Fish Street,” he wrote his +English factor. “But whether it be the fault of the tailor, or the +measure sent, I can’t say, but, certain it is, my clothes have never +fitted me well.” +</p> + +<p> +It must not be inferred, however, that Washington carried his dandyism to +weakness. When fine clothes were not in place, they were promptly discarded. In +his trip to the Ohio in 1753 he states that “I put myself in an Indian +walking Dress,” and “tied myself up in a Match +Coat,”—that is, an Indian blanket. In the campaign of 1758 he wrote +to his superior officer “that were I left to pursue my own Inclinations, +I would not only order the Men to adopt the Indian dress, but cause the +Officers to do it also, and be at the first to set the example myself. Nothing +but the uncertainty of its taking with the General causes me to hesitate a +moment at leaving my Regimentals at this place, and proceeding as light as any +Indian in the Woods. ’Tis an unbecoming dress, I confess, for an officer; +but convenience, rather than shew, I think should be consulted.” And this +was such good sense that the general gave him leave, and it was done. +</p> + +<p> +With increase of years his taste in clothes became softened and more sober. +“On the other side is an invoice of clothes which I beg the favor of you +to purchase for me,” he wrote to London. “As they are designed for +wearing apparel for myself, I have committed the choice of them to your fancy, +having the best opinion of your taste. I want neither lace nor embroidery. +Plain clothes, with a gold or silver button (if worn in genteel dress) are all +I desire.” “Do not conceive,” he told his nephew in 1783, +“that fine clothes make fine men more than fine feathers make fine Birds. +A plain genteel dress is more admired, and obtains more credit than lace and +embroidery, in the Eyes of the judicious and sensible.” And in connection +with the provisional army he decided that “on reconsidering the uniform +of the Commander in Chief, it has become a matter of doubt with me, (although, +as it respects myself <i>personally</i>, I was against <i>all</i> embroidery,) +whether embroidery on the Cape, Cuffs, and Pockets of the Coat, and none on the +buff waistcoat would not have a disjointed and awkward appearance.” +Probably nowhere did he show his good taste more than in his treatment of the +idea of putting him in classic garments when his bust was made by Houdon. +</p> + +<p> +“In answer to your obliging inquiries respecting the dress, attitude, +&c.,” he wrote, “which I would wish to have given to the statue +in question, I have only to observe, that, not having sufficient knowledge in +the art of sculpture to oppose my judgment to the taste of connoisseurs, I do +not desire to dictate in the matter. On the contrary I shall be perfectly +satisfied with whatever may be judged decent and proper. I should even scarcely +have ventured to suggest, that perhaps a servile adherence to the garb of +antiquity might not be altogether so expedient, as some little deviation in +favor of the modern costume.” +</p> + +<p> +Washington, as noted, bought his clothes in England; but it was from necessity +more than choice. “If there be any homespun Cloths in Philadelphia which +are tolerably fine, that you can come reasonably at,” he said to his +Philadelphia agent in 1784, “I would be obliged to you to send me +patterns of some of the best kinds—I should prefer that which is mixed in +the grain, because it will not so readily discover its quality as a plain +cloth.” Before he was inaugurated he wrote “General Knox this day +to procure me homespun broadcloth of the Hartford fabric, to make a suit of +clothes for myself,” adding, “I hope it will not be a great while +before it will be unfashionable for a gentleman to appear in any other dress. +Indeed, we have already been too long subject to British prejudices.” At +another time he noted in his diary with evident pride, “on this occasion +I was dressed in a suit made at the Woolen Manufactory at Hartford, as the +buttons also were.” But then, as now, the foreign clothes were so much +finer that his taste overcame his patriotism, and his secretary wrote that +“the President is desireous of getting as much superfine blk broad Cloth +as will make him a suit of Clothes, and desires me to request that you would +send him that quantity … The best superfine French or Dutch +black—exceedingly fine—of a soft, silky texture—not glossy +like the Engh cloths.” +</p> + +<p> +A caller during the Presidency spoke of him as dressed in purple satin, and at +his levees he is described by Sullivan as “clad in black velvet; his hair +in full dress, powdered and gathered behind in a large silk bag; yellow gloves +on his hands; holding a cocked hat with a cockade in it, and the edges adorned +with a black feather about an inch deep. He wore knee and shoe buckles; and a +long sword, with a finely wrought and polished steel hilt, which appeared at +the left hip; the coat worn over the sword, so that the hilt, and the part +below the coat behind, were in view. The scabbard was white polished +leather.” +</p> + +<p> +About his person Washington was as neat as he desired his clothes to be. At +seventeen when surveying he records that he was +</p> + +<p> +“Lighted into a Room & I not being so good a Woodsman as ye rest of +my Company striped myself very orderly & went in to ye Bed as they called +it when to my Surprize I found it to be nothing but a Little Straw—Matted +together without Sheets or any thing else but only one thread Bear blanket with +double its Weight of Vermin such as Lice, Fleas &c. I was glad to get up +(as soon as ye Light was carried from us) I put on my Cloths & Lay as my +Companions. Had we not have been very tired I am sure we should not have +slep’d much that night. I made a Promise not to Sleep so from that time +forward chusing rather to sleep in ye open Air before a fire as will appear +hereafter.” The next day he notes that the party “Travell’d +up to Frederick Town where our Baggage came to us we cleaned ourselves (to get +Rid of ye Game we had catched y. Night before)” and slept in “a +good Feather Bed with clean Sheets which was a very agreeable regale.” +</p> + +<p> +Wherever he happened to be, the laundress was in constant demand. His bill from +the washer-lady for the week succeeding his inauguration as President, and +before his domestic ménage was in running order, was for “6 Ruffled +shirts, 2 plain shirts, 8 stocks, 3 pair Silk Hose, 2 White hand. 2 Silk +Handks. 1 pr. Flanl. Drawers, 1 Hair nett.” +</p> + +<p> +The barber, too, was a constant need, and Washington’s ledger shows +constant expenditures for perfumed hair-powder and pomatum, and also for powder +bags and puffs. Apparently the services of this individual were only for the +arranging of his hair, for he seems never to have shaved Washington, that being +done either by himself or by his valet. Of this latter individual Washington +said (when the injury to William Lee unfitted him for the service), “I do +not as yet know whether I shall get a substitute for William: nothing short of +excellent qualities and a man of good appearance, would induce me to do +it—and under my present view of the matter, too, who would employ himself +otherwise than William did—that is as a butler as well as a valette, for +my wants of the latter are so trifling that any man (as William was) would soon +be ruined by idleness, who had only them to attend to.” +</p> + +<p> +In food Washington took what came with philosophy. “If you meet with +collegiate fare, it will be unmanly to complain,” he told his grandson, +though he once complained in camp that “we are debarred from the pleasure +of good living; which, Sir, (I dare say with me you will concur,) to one who +has always been used to it, must go somewhat hard to be confined to a little +salt provision and water.” Usually, however, poor fare was taken as a +matter of course. “When we came to Supper,” he said in his journal +of 1748, “there was neither a Cloth upon ye Table nor a Knife to eat with +but as good luck would have it we had Knives of our own,” and again he +wrote, “we pull’d out our Knapsack in order to Recruit ourselves +every one was his own Cook our Spits was Forked Sticks our Plates was a Large +Chip as for Dishes we had none.” Nor was he squeamish about what he ate. +In the voyage to Barbadoes he several times ate dolphin; he notes that the +bread was almost “eaten up by Weavel & Maggots,” and became +quite enthusiastic over some “very fine Bristol tripe” and “a +fine Irish Ling & Potatoes.” But all this may have been due to the +proverbial sea appetite. +</p> + +<p> +Samuel Stearns states that Washington “breakfasts about seven +o’clock on three small Indian hoe-cakes, and as many dishes of +tea,” and Custis relates that “Indian cakes, honey, and tea formed +this temperate repast.” These two writers tell us that at dinner +“he ate heartily, but was not particular in his diet, with the exception +of fish, of which he was excessively fond. He partook sparingly of dessert, +drank a home-made beverage, and from four to five glasses of Madeira +wine” (Custis), and that “he dines, commonly on a single dish, and +drinks from half a pint to a pint of Madeira wine. This, with one small glass +of punch, a draught of beer, and two dishes of tea (which he takes half an hour +before sun-setting) constitutes his whole sustenance till the next day.” +(Stearns.) Ashbel Green relates that at the state banquets during the +Presidency Washington “generally dined on one single dish, and that of a +very simple kind. If offered something either in the first or second course +which was very rich, his usual reply was—‘That is too good for +me.’” It is worth noting that he religiously observed the fasts +proclaimed in 1774 and 1777, going without food the entire day. +</p> + +<p> +A special liking is mentioned above. In 1782 Richard Varick wrote to a friend, +“General Washington dines with me to-morrow; he is exceedingly fond of +salt fish; I have some coming up, & tho’ it will be here in a few +days, it will not be here in time—If you could conveniently lend me as +much fish as would serve a pretty large company to-morrow (at least for one +Dish), it will oblige me, and shall in a very few days be returned in as good +Dun Fish as ever you see. Excuse this freedom, and it will add to the favor. +Could you not prevail upon somebody to catch some Trout for me early to-morrow +morning?” When procurable, salt codfish was Washington’s regular +Sunday dinner. +</p> + +<p> +A second liking was honey. His ledger several times mentions purchases of this, +and in 1789 his sister wrote him, “when I last had the Pleasure of seeing +you I observ’d your fondness for Honey; I have got a large Pot of very +fine in the comb, which I shall send by the first opportunity.” Among his +purchases “sugar candy” is several times mentioned, but this may +have been for children, and not for himself. He was a frequent buyer of fruit +of all kinds and of melons. +</p> + +<p> +He was very fond of nuts, buying hazelnuts and shellbarks by the barrel, and he +wrote his overseer in 1792 to “tell house Frank I expect he will lay up a +more plenteous store of the black common walnuts than he usually does.” +The Prince de Broglie states that “at dessert he eats an enormous +quantity of nuts, and when the conversation is entertaining he keeps eating +through a couple of hours, from time to time giving sundry healths, according +to the English and American custom. It is what they call +‘toasting.’” +</p> + +<p> +Washington was from boyhood passionately fond of horsemanship, and when but +seventeen owned a horse. Humphreys states that “all those who have seen +General Washington on horseback, at the head of his army, will doubtless bear +testimony with the author that they never saw a more graceful or dignified +person,” and Jefferson said of him that he was “the best horseman +of his age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen on +horseback.” His diary shows that he rode on various occasions as much as +sixty miles in a day, and Lawrence reports that he “usually rode from +Rockingham to Princeton, which is five miles, in forty minutes.” John +Hunter, in a visit to Mount Vernon in 1785, writes that he went +</p> + +<p> +“to see his famous race-horse Magnolia—a most beautiful creature. A +whole length of his was taken a while ago, (mounted on Magnolia) by a famous +man from Europe on copper…. I afterwards went to his stables, where among an +amazing number of horses, I saw old Nelson, now 22 years of age, that carried +the General almost always during the war; Blueskin, another fine old horse next +to him, now and then had that honor. Shaw also shewed me his old servant, that +was reported to have been taken, with a number of the General’s papers +about him. They have heard the roaring of many a cannon in their time. Blueskin +was not the favorite, on account of his not standing fire so well as venerable +old Nelson.” +</p> + +<p> +Chastellux relates, “he was so attentive as to give me the horse he rode, +the day of my arrival, which I had greatly commended—I found him as good +as he is handsome; but above all, perfectly well broke, and well trained, +having a good mouth, easy in hand and stopping short in a gallop without +bearing the bit—I mention these minute particulars, because it is the +general himself who breaks all his own horses; and he is a very excellent and +bold horseman, leaping the highest fences, and going extremely quick, without +standing upon his stirrups, bearing on the bridle, or letting his horse run +wild.” +</p> + +<p> +As a matter of course this liking for horses made Washington fond of racing, +and he not only subscribed liberally to most of the racing purses, but ran +horses at them, attending in person, and betting moderately on the results. So, +too, he was fond of riding to the hounds, and when at Mount Vernon it was a +favorite pastime. From his diary excerpts of runs are,— +</p> + +<p> +“Went a Fox hunting with the Gentlemen who came here yesterday…. after a +very early breakfast—found a Fox just back of Muddy hole Plantation and +after a Chase of an hour and a quarter with my Dogs, & eight couple of +Doctor Smiths (brought by Mr. Phil Alexander) we put him into a hollow tree, in +which we fastened him, and in the Pincushion put up another Fox which, in an +hour & 13 Minutes was killed—We then after allowing the Fox in the +hole half an hour put the Dogs upon his trail & in half a Mile he took to +another hollow tree and was again put out of it but he did not go 600 yards +before he had recourse to the same shift—finding therefore that he was a +conquered Fox we took the Dogs off, and came home to Dinner.” +</p> + +<p> +“After an early breakfast [my nephew] George Washington, Mr. Shaw and +Myself went into the Woods back of Muddy hole Plantation a hunting and were +joined by Mr. Lund Washington and Mr. William Peake. About half after ten +Oclock (being first plagued with the Dogs running Hogs) we found a fox near +Colo Masons Plantation on little Hunting Creek (West fork) having followed on +his Drag more than half a Mile; and run him with Eight Dogs (the other 4 +getting, as was supposed after a Second Fox) close and well for an hour. When +the Dogs came to a fault and to cold Hunting until 20 minutes after when being +joined by the missing Dogs they put him up afresh and in about 50 Minutes +killed up in an open field of Colo Mason’s every Rider & every Dog +being present at the Death.” +</p> + +<p> +During the Revolution, when opportunity offered, he rode to the hounds, for +Hiltzheimer wrote in 1781, “My son Robert [having] been on a Hunt at +Frankfort says that His Excel’y Gen. Washington was there.” +</p> + +<p> +This liking made dogs an interest to him, and he took much pains to improve the +breed of his hounds. On one occasion he “anointed all my Hounds (as well +old Dogs as Puppies) which have the mange, with Hogs Lard & +Brimstone.” Mopsey, Pilot, Tartar, Jupiter, Trueman, Tipler, Truelove, +Juno, Dutchess, Ragman, Countess, Lady, Searcher, Rover, Sweetlips, Vulcan, +Singer, Music, Tiyal, and Forrester are some of the names he gave them. In +1794, in the fall of his horse, as already mentioned, he wrenched his back, and +in consequence, when he returned to Mount Vernon, this pastime was never +resumed, and his pack was given up. +</p> + +<p> +Kindred to this taste for riding to the hounds was one for gunning. A few +entries in his diary tell the nature of his sport. “Went a ducking +between breakfast and dinner and kill’d 2 Mallards & 5 bald +faces.” “I went to the Creek but not across it. Kill’d 2 +ducks, viz. a sprig tail and a Teal.” “Rid out with my gun but +kill’d nothing.” In 1787 a man asked for permission to shoot over +Mount Vernon, and Washington refused it because +</p> + +<p> +“my fixed determination is, that no person whatever shall hunt upon my +grounds or waters—To grant leave to one and refuse another would not only +be drawing a line of discrimination which would be offensive, but would subject +one to great inconvenience—for my strict and positive orders to all my +people are if they hear a gun fired upon my Land to go immediately in pursuit +of it…. Besides, as I have not lost my relish for this sport when I find time +to indulge myself in it, and Gentlemen who come to the House are pleased with +it, it is my wish not to have game within my jurisdiction disturbed.” +</p> + +<p> +Fishing was another pastime. He “went a dragging for Sturgeon” +frequently, and sometimes “catch’d one” and sometimes +“catch’d none.” While in Philadelphia in 1787 he went up to +the old camp at Valley Forge and spent a day fishing, and in 1789 at +Portsmouth, “having lines, we proceeded to the Fishing Banks a little +without the Harbour and fished for Cod; but it not being a proper time of tide, +we only caught two.” After his serious sickness in 1790 a newspaper +reports that “yesterday afternoon the President of the United States +returned from Sandy Hook and the fishing banks, where he had been for the +benefit of the sea air, and to amuse himself in the delightful recreation of +fishing. We are told he has had excellent sport, having himself caught a great +number of sea-bass and black fish—the weather proved remarkably fine, +which, together with the salubrity of the air and wholesome exercise, rendered +this little voyage extremely agreeable, and cannot fail, we hope, of being +serviceable to a speedy and complete restoration of his health.” +</p> + +<p> +Washington was fond of cards, and in bad weather even records “at home +all day, over cards.” How much time must have been spent in this way is +shown by the innumerable purchases of “1 dozen packs playing cards” +noted in his ledger. In 1748, when he was sixteen years old, he won two +shillings and threepence from his sister-in-law at whist and five shillings at +“Loo” (or, as he sometimes spells it, “Lue”) from his +brother, and he seems always to have played for small stakes, which sometimes +mounted into fairly sizable sums. The largest gain found is three pounds, and +the largest loss nine pounds fourteen shillings and ninepence. He seems to have +lost oftener than he won. +</p> + +<p> +Billiards was a rival of cards, and a game of which he seems to have been fond. +In his seventeenth year he won one shilling and threepence by the cue, and from +that time won and lost more or less money in this way. Here, too, he seems to +have been out of pocket, though not for so much money, his largest winning +noted being only seven shillings and sixpence, and his largest loss being one +pound and ten shillings. +</p> + +<p> +In 1751, at Barbadoes, Washington “was treated with a play ticket to see +the Tragedy of George Barnwell acted: the character of Barnwell and several +others was said to be well perform’d there was Musick a Dapted and +regularly conducted.” This presumptively was the lad’s first visit +to the playhouse, but from that time it was one of his favorite amusements. At +first his ledger shows expenditures of “Cash at the Play House +1/3,” which proves that his purse would bear the cost of only the +cheapest seats; but later he became more extravagant in this respect, and +during the Presidency he used the drama for entertaining, his ledger giving +many items of tickets bought. A type entry in Washington’s diary is, +“Went to the play in the evening—sent tickets to the following +ladies and gentlemen and invited them to seats in my box, viz:—Mrs. Adams +(lady of the Vice-President,) General Schuyler and lady, Mr. King and lady, +Majr. Butler and lady, Colo Hamilton and lady, Mrs. Green—all of whom +accepted and came except Mrs. Butler, who was indisposed.” +</p> + +<p> +Maclay describes the first of these theatre parties as follows: “I +received a ticket from the President of the United States to use his box this +evening at the theatre, being the first of his appearances at the playhouse +since his entering on his office. Went The President, Governor of the State, +foreign Ministers, Senators from New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, +M.[aryland] and South Carolina; and some ladies in the same box. I am old, and +notices or attentions are lost on me. I could have wished some of my dear +children in my place; they are young and would have enjoyed it. Long might they +live to boast of having been seated in the same box with the first Character in +the world. The play was the ‘School for Scandal,’ I never liked it; +indeed, I think it an indecent representation before ladies of character and +virtue. Farce, the ‘Old Soldier.’ The house greatly crowded, and I +thought the players acted well; but I wish we had seen the <i>Conscious +Lovers</i>, or some one that inculcated more prudential manners.” +</p> + +<p> +Of the play, or rather interlude, of the “Old Soldier” its author, +Dunlap, gives an amusing story. It turned on the home-coming of an old soldier, +and, like the topical song of to-day, touched on local affairs: +</p> + +<p> +“When Wignell, as Darby, recounts what had befallen him in America, in +New York, at the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and the inauguration of +the president, the interest expressed by the audience in the looks and the +changes of countenance of this great man [Washington] became intense. He smiled +at these lines, alluding to the change in the government— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +There too I saw some mighty pretty shows;<br/> +A revolution, without blood or blows,<br/> +For, as I understood, the cunning elves,<br/> +The people all revolted from themselves. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But at the lines— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +A man who fought to free the land from we,<br/> +<i>Like me</i>, had left his farm, a-soldiering to go:<br/> +But having gain’d his point, he had <i>like me</i>,<br/> +Return’d his own potato ground to see.<br/> +But there he could not rest. With one accord<br/> +He’s called to be a kind of—not a lord—<br/> +I don’t know what, he’s not a <i>great man</i>, sure,<br/> +For poor men love him just as he were poor.<br/> +They love him like a father or a brother,<br/> + DERMOT.<br/> +As we poor Irishmen love one another. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The president looked serious; and when Kathleen asked, +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +How looked he, Darby? Was he short or tall? +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +his countenance showed embarrassment, from the expectation or one of those +eulogiums which, he had been obliged to hear on many public occasions, and +which must doubtless have been a severe trial to his feelings: but +Darby’s answer that he had <i>not seen him</i>, because he had mistaken a +man ‘all lace and glitter, botherum and shine,’ for him, until all +the show had passed, relieved the hero from apprehension of farther +personality, and he indulged in that which was with him extremely rare, a +hearty laugh.” +</p> + +<p> +Washington did not even despise amateur performances. As already mentioned, he +expressed a wish to take part in “Cato” himself in 1758, and a year +before he had subscribed to the regimental “players at Fort +Cumberland,” His diary shows that in 1768 the couple at Mount Vernon +“& ye two children were up to Alexandria to see the Inconstant or +‘the way to win him’ acted,” which was probably an amateur +performance. Furthermore, Duer tells us that “I was not only frequently +admitted to the presence of this most august of men, in <i>propria persona</i>, +but once had the honor of appearing before him as one of the <i>dramatis +personae</i> in the tragedy of Julius Caesar, enacted by a young +‘American Company,’ (the theatrical corps then performing in New +York being called the ‘Old American Company’) in the garret of the +Presidential mansion, wherein before the magnates of the land and the elite of +the city, I performed the part of Brutus to the Cassius of my old +school-fellow, Washington Custis.” +</p> + +<p> +The theatre was by no means the only show that appealed to Washington. He went +to the circus when opportunity offered, gave nine shillings to a “man who +brought an elk as a show,” three shillings and ninepence “to hear +the Armonica,” two dollars for tickets “to see the +automatum,” treated the “Ladies to ye Microcosm” and paid to +see waxworks, puppet shows, a dancing bear, and a lioness and tiger. Nor did he +avoid a favorite Virginia pastime, but attended cockfights when able. His +frequent going to concerts has been already mentioned. +</p> + +<p> +Washington seems to have been little of a reader except of books on +agriculture, which he bought, read, and even made careful abstracts of many, +and on this subject alone did he ever seem to write from pleasure. As a lad, he +notes in his journal that he is reading <i>The Spectator</i> and a history of +England, but after those two brief entries there is no further mention of books +or reading in his daily memorandum of “where and how my time is +spent.” In his ledger, too, almost the least common expenditure entered +is one for books. Nor do his London invoices, so far as extant, order any books +but those which treated of farming and horses. In the settlement of the Custis +estate, “I had no particular reason for keeping and handing down to his +son, the books of the late Colo Custis saving that I thought it would be taking +the advantage of a low appraisement, to make them my own property at it, and +that to sell them was not an object.” +</p> + +<p> +With the broadening that resulted from the command of the army more attention +was paid to books, and immediately upon the close of the Revolution Washington +ordered the following works: “Life of Charles the Twelfth,” +“Life of Louis the Fifteenth,” “Life and Reign of Peter the +Great,” Robertson’s “History of America,” +Voltaire’s “Letters,” Vertot’s “Revolution of +Rome” and “Revolution of Portugal,” “Life of Gustavus +Adolphus,” Sully’s “Memoirs,” Goldsmith’s +“Natural History,” “Campaigns of Marshal Turenne,” +Chambaud’s “French and English Dictionary,” Locke “on +the Human Understanding,” and Robertson’s “Charles the +Fifth.” From this time on he was a fairly constant book-buyer, and +subscribed as a “patron” to a good many forthcoming works, while +many were sent him as gifts. On politics he seems to have now read with +interest; yet in 1797, after his retirement from the Presidency, in writing of +the manner in which he spent his hours, he said, “it may strike you that +in this detail no mention is made of any portion of time allotted to 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 long when possibly I may be looking into Doomsday +book.” There can be no doubt that through all his life Washington gave to +reading only the time he could not use on more practical affairs. +</p> + +<p> +His library was a curious medley of books, if those on military science and +agriculture are omitted. There is a fair amount of the standard history of the +day, a little theology, so ill assorted as to suggest gifts rather than +purchases, a miscellany of contemporary politics, and a very little +belles-lettres. In political science the only works in the slightest degree +noticeable are Smith’s “Wealth of Nations,” “The +Federalist,” and Rousseau’s “Social Compact,” and, as +the latter was in French, it could not have been read. In lighter literature +Homer, Shakespeare, and Burns, Lord Chesterfield, Swift, Smollett, Fielding, +and Sterne, and “Don Quixote,” are the only ones deserving notice. +It is worthy of mention that Washington’s favorite quotation was +Addison’s “’Tis not in mortals to command success,” but +he also utilized with considerable aptitude quotations from Shakespeare and +Sterne. There were half a dozen of the ephemeral novels of the day, but these +were probably Mrs. Washington’s, as her name is written in one, and her +husband’s in none. Writing to his grandson, Washington warned him that +“light reading (by this, I mean books of little importance) may amuse for +the moment, but leaves nothing solid behind.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus16"></a> +<img src="images/img16.jpg" width="367" height="500" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">WASHINGTON’S BOOK-PLATE</p> +</div> + +<p> +One element of Washington’s reading which cannot be passed over without +notice is that of newspapers. In his early life he presumably read the only +local paper of the time (the <i>Virginia Gazette</i>), for when an anonymous +writer, “Centinel,” in 1756, charged that Washington’s +regiment was given over to drunkenness and other misbehavior, he drew up a +reply, which he sent with ten shillings to the newspaper, but the printer +apparently declined to print it, for it never appeared. +</p> + +<p> +After the Revolution he complained to his Philadelphia agent, “I have +such a number of Gazettes, crowded upon me (many without orders) that they are +not only expensive, but really useless; as my other avocations will not afford +me time to read them oftentimes, and when I do attempt it, find them more +troublesome, than profitable; I have therefore to beg, if you Should get Money +into your hands on Acct of the Inclosed Certificate, that you would be so good +as to pay what I am owing to Messrs Dunlap & Claypoole, Mr. Oswald & +Mr. Humphrey’s. If they consider me however as engaged for the year, I am +Content to let the matter run on to the Expiration of it” During the +Presidency he subscribed to the <i>Gazette of the United States</i>, +Brown’s <i>Gazette</i>, Dunlap’s <i>American Advertiser</i>, the +<i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, Bache’s <i>Aurora</i>, and the <i>New York +Magazine</i>, Carey’s <i>Museum</i>, and the <i>Universal Asylum</i>, +though at this time he “lamented that the editors of the different +gazettes in the Union do not more generally and more correctly (instead of +stuffing their papers with scurrility and nonsensical declamation, which few +would read if they were apprised of the contents,) publish the debates in +Congress on all great national questions.” +</p> + +<p> +Presently, for personal and party reasons, certain of the papers began to +attack him, and Jefferson wrote to Madison that the President was +“extremely affected by the attacks made and kept up on him in the public +papers. I think he feels these things more than any person I ever met +with.” Later the Secretary of State noted that at an interview Washington +“adverted to a piece in Freneau’s paper of yesterday, he said that +he despised all their attacks on him personally, but that there never had been +an act of government … that paper had not abused … He was evidently sore and +warm.” At a cabinet meeting, too, according to the same writer, +“the Presidt was much inflamed, got into one of those passions when he +cannot command himself, ran on much on the personal abuse which had been +bestowed on him, defied any man on earth to produce a single act of his since +he had been in the govmt which was not done on the purest motives, that he had +never repented but once the having slipped the moment of resigning his office, +& that was every moment since, that <i>by god</i> he had rather be in his +grave than in his present situation. That he had rather be on his farm than to +be made <i>emperor of the world</i> and yet that they were charging him with +wanting to be a king. That that <i>rascal Freneau</i> sent him 3 of his papers +every day, as if he thought he would become the distributor of his papers, that +he could see in this nothing but an impudent design to insult him. He ended in +this high tone. There was a pause.” +</p> + +<p> +To correspondents, too, Washington showed how keenly he felt the attacks upon +him, writing that “the publications in Freneau’s and Bache’s +papers are outrages on common decency; and they progress in that style in +proportion as their pieces are treated with contempt, and are passed by in +silence, by those at whom they are aimed,” and asked “in what will +this abuse terminate? The result, as it respects myself, I care not; for I have +consolation within, that no earthly efforts can deprive me of, and that is, +that neither ambitious nor interested motives have influenced my conduct. The +arrows of malevolence, therefore however barbed and well pointed, never can +reach the most vulnerable part of me; though, whilst I am <i>up</i> as a +<i>mark</i>, they will be continually aimed.” +</p> + +<p> +On another occasion he said, “I am beginning to receive, what I had made +my mind up for on this occasion, the abuse of Mr. Bache, and his +correspondents.” He wrote a friend, “if you read the Aurora of this +city, or those gazettes, which are under the same influence, you cannot but +have perceived with what malignant industry and persevering falsehoods I am +assailed, in order to weaken if not destroy the confidence of the +public.” +</p> + +<p> +When he retired from office he apparently cut off his subscriptions to papers, +for a few months later he inquired, “what is the character of +Porcupine’s Gazette? I had thought when I left Philadelphia, of ordering +it to be sent to me; then again, I thought it best not to do it; and +altho’ I should like to see both his and Bache’s, the latter may, +under all circumstances, be the best decision; I mean not subscribing to either +of them.” This decision to have no more to do with papers did not last, +for on the night he was seized with his last illness Lear describes how +“in the evening the papers having come from the post office, he sat in +the room with Mrs. Washington and myself, reading them, till about nine +o’clock when Mrs. Washington went up into Mrs. Lewis’s room, who +was confined, and left the General and myself reading the papers. He was very +cheerful; and, when he met with anything which he thought diverting or +interesting, he would read it aloud as well as his hoarseness would permit. He +desired me to read to him the debates of the Virginia Assembly, on the election +of a Senator and Governor; which I did—and, on hearing Mr. +Madison’s observations respecting Mr. Monroe, he appeared much affected, +and spoke with some degree of asperity on the subject, which I endeavored to +moderate, as I always did on such occasions.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>IX<br/> +FRIENDS</h2> + +<p> +The frequently repeated statement that Washington was a man without friends is +not the least curious of the myths that have obtained general credence. That it +should be asserted only goes to show how absolutely his private life has been +neglected in the study of his public career. +</p> + +<p> +In his will Washington left tokens of remembrance “to the acquaintances +and friends of my juvenile years, Lawrence Washington and Robert Washington of +Chotanck,” the latter presumably the “dear Robin” of his +earliest letter, and these two very distant kinsmen, whom he had come to know +while staying at Wakefield, are the earliest friends of whom any record exists. +Contemporary with them was a “Dear Richard,” whose letters gave +Washington “unspeakable pleasure, as I am convinced I am still in the +memory of so worthy a friend,—a friendship I shall ever be proud of +increasing.” +</p> + +<p> +Next in time came his intimacy with the Fairfaxes and Carlyles, which began +with Washington’s visits to his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon. About +four miles from that place, at Belvoir, lived the Fairfaxes; and their +kinspeople, the Carlyles, lived at Alexandria. Lawrence Washington had married +Ann Fairfax, and through his influence his brother George was taken into the +employment of Lord Fairfax, half as clerk and half as surveyor of his great +tract of land, “the northern neck,” which he had obtained by +marriage with a daughter of Lord Culpeper, who in turn had obtained it from the +“Merrie Monarch” by means so disreputable that they are best left +unstated. From that time till his death Washington corresponded with several of +the family and was a constant visitor at Belvoir, as the Fairfaxes were at +Mount Vernon. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus17"></a> +<img src="images/img17.jpg" width="458" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">SURVEY OF WASHINGTON’S BIRTHPLACE (WAKEFIELD), 1743</p> +</div> + +<p> +In 1755 Washington told his brother that “to that family I am under many +obligations, particularly the old gentleman,” but as time went on he more +than paid the debt. In 1757 he acted as pallbearer to William Fairfax, and +twelve years later his diary records, “Set off with Mrs. Washington and +Patsey,… in order to stand for Mr. B. Fairfax’s third son, which I did +together with my wife, Mr. Warner Washington and his lady.” For one of +the family he obtained an army commission, and for another he undertook the +care of his property during a visit to England; a care which unexpectedly +lengthened, and was resigned only when Washington’s time became public +property. Nor did that lessen his services or the Fairfaxes’ need of +them, for in the Revolution that family were loyalists. Despite this, +“the friendship,” Washington assured them, “which I ever +professed and felt for you, met no diminution from the difference in our +political sentiments,” and in 1778 he was able to secure the safety of +Lord Fairfax from persecution at the hands of the Whigs, a service acknowledged +by his lordship in the following words: +</p> + +<p> +“There are times when favors conferred make a greater impression than at +others, for, though I have received many, I hope I have not been unmindful of +them; yet that, at a time your popularity was at the highest and mine at the +lowest, and when it is so common for men’s resentments to run up high +against those, who differ from them in opinion, you should act with your wonted +kindness towards me, has affected me more than any favor I have received; and +could not be believed by some in New York, it being above the run of common +minds.” +</p> + +<p> +In behalf of another member of the family, threatened with confiscation, he +wrote to a member of the House of Delegates, “I hope, I trust, that no +act of Legislation in the State of Virginia has affected, or can affect, the +properly of this gentleman, otherwise than in common with that of every good +and well disposed citizen of America,” and this was sufficient to put an +end to the project At the close of the war he wrote to this absentee, +“There was nothing wanting in [your] Letter to give compleat satisfaction +to Mrs. Washington and myself but some expression to induce us to believe you +would once more become our neighbors. Your house at Belvoir I am sorry to add +is no more, but mine (which is enlarged since you saw it), is most sincerely +and heartily at your service till you could rebuild it. As the path, after +being closed by a long, arduous, and painful contest, is to use an Indian +metaphor, now opened and made smooth, I shall please myself with the hope of +hearing from you frequently; and till you forbid me to indulge the wish, I +shall not despair of seeing you and Mrs. Fairfax once more the inhabitants of +Belvoir, and greeting you both there the intimate companions of our old age, as +you have been of our younger years.” And to another he left a token of +remembrance in his will. +</p> + +<p> +One of the most curious circle of friends was that composed of Indians. After +his mission among them in 1753, Washington wrote to a tribe and signed himself +“your friend and brother.” In a less general sense he requested an +Indian agent to “recommend me kindly to Mononcatoocha and others; tell +them how happy it would make Conotocarius to have an opportunity of taking them +by the hand.” A little later he had this pleasure, and he wrote the +governor, “the Indians are all around teasing and perplexing me for one +thing or another, so that I scarce know what I write.” When Washington +left the frontier this intercourse ceased, but he was not forgotten, for in +descending the Ohio in his Western trip of 1770 a hunting party was met, and +“in the person of Kiashuto I found an old acquaintance, he being one of +the Indians that went [with me] to the French in 1753. He expressed +satisfaction at seeing me, and treated us with great kindness, giving us a +quarter of very fine buffalo. He insisted upon our spending that night with +him, and, in order to retard us as little as possible moved his camp down the +river.” +</p> + +<p> +With his appointment to the Virginia regiment came military friends. From the +earliest of these—Van Braam, who had served under Lawrence Washington in +the Carthagena expedition of 1742, and who had come to live at Mount +Vernon—Washington had previously taken lessons in fencing, and when +appointed the bearer of a letter to the French commander on the Ohio he took +Van Braam with him as interpreter. A little later, on receiving his majority, +Washington appointed Van Braam his recruiting lieutenant, and recommended him +to the governor for a captain’s commission on the grounds that he was +“an experienced good officer.” To Van Braam fell the duty of +translating the capitulation to the French at Fort Necessity, and to his +reading was laid the blunder by which Washington signed a statement +acknowledging himself as an “assassin.” Inconsequence he became the +scapegoat of the expedition, was charged by the governor with being a +“poltroon” and traitor, and was omitted from the Assembly’s +vote of thanks and extra pay to the regiment. But Washington stood by him, and +when himself burgess succeeded in getting this latter vote rescinded. +</p> + +<p> +Another friend of the same period was the Chevalier Peyroney, whom Washington +first made an ensign, and then urged the governor to advance him, promising +that if the governor “should be pleased to indulge me in this request, I +shall look upon it in a very particular light.” Peyroney was badly +wounded at Fort Necessity and was furloughed, during which he wrote his +commander, “I have made my particular Business to tray if any had some +Bad intention against you here Below; But thank God I meet allowais with a good +wish for you from evry Mouth each one entertining such Caracter of you as I +have the honour to do myself.” He served again in the Braddock march, and +in that fiasco, Washington wrote, “Captain Peyroney and all his officers +down to a corporal, was killed.” +</p> + +<p> +With Captain Stewart—“a gentleman whose assiduity and military +capacity are second to none in our Service”—Washington was intimate +enough to have Stewart apply in 1763 for four hundred pounds to aid him to +purchase a commission, a sum Washington did not have at his disposal. But +because of “a regard of that high nature that I could never see you +uneasy without feeling a part and wishing to remove the cause,” +Washington lent him three hundred pounds towards it, apparently without much +return, for some years later he wrote to a friend that he was “very glad +to learn that my friend Stewart was well when you left London. I have not had a +letter from him these five years.” At the close of the Revolution he +received a letter from Stewart containing “affectionate and flattering +expressions,” which gave Washington “much pleasure,” as it +“removed an apprehension I had long labored under, of your having taken +your departure for the land of Spirits. How else could I account for a silence +of 15 years. I shall always be happy to see you at Mt. Vernon.” +</p> + +<p> +His friend William Ramsay—“well known, well-esteemed, and of +unblemished character”—he appointed commissary, and long after, in +1769, wrote,— +</p> + +<p> +“Having once or twice of late heard you speak highly in praise of the +Jersey College, as if you had a desire of sending your son William there … I +should be glad, if you have no other objection to it than what may arise from +the expense, if you would send him there as soon as it is convenient, and +depend on me for twenty-five pounds this currency a year for his support, so +long as it may be necessary for the completion of his education. If I live to +see the accomplishment of this term, the sum here stipulated shall he annually +paid; and if I die in the mean while, this letter shall be obligatory upon my +heirs, or executors, to do it according to the true intent and meaning hereof. +No other return is expected, or wished, for this offer, than that you will +accept it with the same freedom and good will, with which it is made, and that +you may not even consider it in the light of an obligation or mention it as +such; for, be assured, that from me it will never be known.” +</p> + +<p> +The dearest friendship formed in these years was with the doctor of the +regiment, James Craik, who in the course of his duties attended Washington in +two serious illnesses, and when the war was ended settled near Mount Vernon. He +was frequently a visitor there, and soon became the family medical attendant. +When appointed General, Washington wrote, “tell Doctor Craik that I +should be very glad to see him here if there was anything worth his acceptance; +but the Massachusetts people suffer nothing to go by them that they lay hands +upon.” In 1777 the General secured his appointment as deputy +surgeon-general of the Middle Department, and three years later, when the +hospital service was being reformed, he used his influence to have him +retained. Craik was one of those instrumental in warning the commander-in-chief +of the existence of the Conway Cabal, because “my attachment to your +person is such, my friendship is so sincere, that every hint which has a +tendency to hurt your honor, wounds me most sensibly.” The doctor was +Washington’s companion, by invitation, in both his later trips to the +Ohio, and his trust in him was so strong that he put under his care the two +nephews whose charge he had assumed. In Washington’s ledger an entry +tells of another piece of friendliness, to the effect, “Dr. James Craik, +paid him, being a donation to his son, Geo. Washington Craik for his education +£30,” and after graduating the young man for a time served as one of his +private secretaries. After a serious illness in 1789, Washington wrote to the +doctor, “persuaded as I am, that the case has been treated with skill, +and with as much tenderness as the nature of the complaint would admit, yet I +confess I often wished for your inspection of it,” and later he wrote, +“if I should ever have occasion for a Physician or Surgeon, I should +prefer my old Surgeon, Dr. Craik, who, from 40 years’ experience, is +better qualified than a Dozen of them put together.” Craik was the first +of the doctors to reach Washington’s bedside in his last illness, and +when the dying man predicted his own death, “the Doctor pressed his hand +but could not utter a word. He retired from the bedside and sat by the fire +absorbed in grief.” In Washington’s will he left “to my +compatriot in arms and old and intimate friend, Doctor Craik I give my Bureau +(or as the Cabinet makers called it, Tambour Secretary) and the circular chair, +an appendage of my study.” +</p> + +<p> +The arrival of Braddock and his army at Alexandria brought a new circle of +military friends. Washington “was very particularly noticed by that +General, was taken into his family as an extra aid, offered a Captain’s +commission by <i>brevet</i> (which was the highest grade he had it in his power +to bestow) and had the compliment of several blank Ensigncies given him to +dispose of to the Young Gentlemen of his acquaintance.” In this position +he was treated “with much complaisance … especially from the +General,” which meant much, as Braddock seems to have had nothing but +curses for nearly every one else, and the more as Washington and he “had +frequent disputes,” which were “maintained with warmth on both +sides, especially on his.” But the general, “though his enmities +were strong,” in “his attachments” was “warm,” +and grew to like and trust the young volunteer, and had he “survived his +unfortunate defeat, I should have met with preferment,” having “his +promise to that effect.” Washington was by the general when he was +wounded in the lungs, lifted him into a covered cart, and “brought him +over the <i>first</i> ford of the Monongahela,” into temporary safety. +Three days later Braddock died of his wounds, bequeathing to Washington his +favorite horse and his body-servant as tokens of his gratitude. Over him +Washington read the funeral service, and it was left to him to see that +“the poor general” was interred “with the honors of +war.” +</p> + +<p> +Even before public service had made him known, Washington was a friend and +guest of many of the leading Virginians. Between 1747 and 1754 he visited the +Carters of Shirley, Nomony, and Sabine Hall, the Lewises of Warner Hall, the +Lees of Stratford, and the Byrds of Westover, and there was acquaintance at +least with the Spotswoods, Fauntleroys, Corbins, Randolphs, Harrisons, +Robinsons, Nicholases, and other prominent families. In fact, one friend wrote +him, “your health and good fortune are the toast of every table,” +and another that “the Council and Burgesses are mostly your +friends,” and those two bodies included every Virginian of real +influence. It was Richard Corbin who enclosed him his first commission, in a +brief note, beginning “Dear George” and ending “your +friend,” but in time relations became more or less strained, and +Washington suspected him “of representing my character … with +ungentlemanly freedom.” With John Robinson, “Speaker” and +Treasurer of Virginia, who wrote Washington in 1756, “our hopes, dear +George, are all fixed on you,” a close correspondence was maintained, and +when Washington complained of the governor’s course towards him Robinson +replied, “I beg dear friend, that you will bear, so far as a man of honor +ought, the discouragements and slights you have too often met with.” The +son, Beverly Robinson, was a fellow-soldier, and, as already mentioned, was +Washington’s host on his visit to New York in 1756. The Revolution +interrupted the friendship, but it is alleged that Robinson (who was deep in +the Arnold plot) made an appeal to the old-time relation in an endeavor to save +André. The appeal was in vain, but auld lang syne had its influence, for the +sons of Beverly, British officers taken prisoners in 1779, were promptly +exchanged, so one of them asserted, “in consequence of the embers of +friendship that still remained unextinguished in the breasts of my father and +General Washington.” +</p> + +<p> +Outside of his own colony, too, Washington made friends of many prominent +families, with whom there was more or less interchange of hospitality. Before +the Revolution there had been visiting or breaking of bread with the Galloways, +Dulaneys, Carrolls, Calverts, Jenifers, Edens, Ringgolds, and Tilghmans of +Maryland, the Penns, Cadwaladers, Morrises, Shippens, Aliens, Dickinsons, +Chews, and Willings of Pennsylvania, and the De Lanceys and Bayards of New +York. +</p> + +<p> +Election to the Continental Congress strengthened some friendships and added +new ones. With Benjamin Harrison he was already on terms of intimacy, and as +long as the latter was in Congress he was the member most in the confidence of +the General. Later they differed in politics, but Washington assured Harrison +that “my friendship is not in the least lessened by the difference, which +has taken place in our political sentiments, nor is my regard for you +diminished by the part you have acted.” Joseph Jones and Patrick Henry +both took his part against the Cabal, and the latter did him especial service +in forwarding to him the famous anonymous letter, an act for which Washington +felt “most grateful obligations.” Henry and Washington differed +later in politics, and it was reported that the latter spoke disparagingly of +the former, but this Washington denied, and not long after offered Henry the +Secretaryship of State. Still later he made a personal appeal to him to come +forward and combat the Virginia resolutions of 1798, an appeal to which Henry +responded. The intimacy with Robert Morris was close, and, as already noted, +Washington and his family were several times inmates of his home. Gouverneur +Morris was one of his most trusted advisers, and, it is claimed, gave the +casting vote which saved Washington from being arrested in 1778, when the Cabal +was fiercest. While President, Washington sent him on a most important mission +to Great Britain, and on its completion made him Minister to France. From that +post the President was, at the request of France, compelled to recall him; but +in doing so Washington wrote him a private letter assuring Morris that he +“held the same place in my estimation” as ever, and signed himself +“yours affectionately.” Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a +partisan of the General, and very much disgusted a member of the Cabal by +telling him “almost literally that anybody who displeased or did not +admire the Commander-in-chief, ought not to be kept in the army.” And to +Edward Rutledge Washington wrote, “I can but love and thank you, and I do +it sincerely for your polite and friendly letter…. The sentiments contained in +it are such as have uniformly flowed from your pen, and they are not the less +flattering than pleasing to me.” +</p> + +<p> +The command of the Continental army brought a new kind of friend, in the young +aides of his staff. One of his earliest appointments was Joseph Reed, and, +though he remained but five months in the service, a close friendship was +formed. Almost weekly Washington wrote him in the most confidential and +affectionate manner, and twice he appealed to Reed to take the position once +more, in one instance adding that if “you are disposed to continue with +me, I shall think myself too fortunate and happy to wish for a change.” +Yet Washington none the less sent Reed congratulations on his election to the +Pennsylvania Assembly, “although I consider it the coup-de-grace to my +ever seeing you” again a “member of my family,” to help him +he asked a friend to endeavor to get Reed legal business, and when all law +business ceased and the would-be lawyer was without occupation or means of +support, he used his influence to secure him the appointment of adjutant. +</p> + +<p> +Reed kept him informed as to the news of Philadelphia, and wrote even such +adverse criticism of the General as he heard, which Washington +“gratefully” acknowledged. But one criticism Reed did not write was +what he himself was saying of his general after the fall of Fort Washington, +for which he blamed the commander-in-chief in a letter to Lee, and probably to +others, for when later Reed and Arnold quarrelled, the latter boasted that +“I can say I never basked in the sunshine of my general’s favor, +and courted him to his face, when I was at the same time treating him with the +greatest disrespect and villifying his character when absent. This is more than +a ruling member of the Council of Pennsylvania can say.” Washington +learned of this criticism in a letter from Lee to Reed, which was opened at +head-quarters on the supposition that it was on army matters, and “with +no idea of its being a private letter, much less the tendency of the +correspondence,” as Washington explained in a letter to Reed, which had +not a word of reproach for the double-dealing that must have cut the General +keenly, coming as it did at a moment of misfortune and discouragement. Reed +wrote a lame explanation and apology, and later sought to “regain” +the “lost friendship” by an earnest appeal to Washington’s +generosity. Nor did he appeal in vain, for the General replied that though +“I felt myself hurt by a certain letter … I was hurt … because the same +sentiments were not communicated immediately to myself.” The old-time +intimacy was renewed, and how little his personal feeling had influenced +Washington is shown in the fact that even previous to this peace-making he had +secured for Reed the appointment to command one of the choicest brigades in the +army. Perhaps the friendship was never quite as close, but in writing him +Washington still signed himself “yours affectionately.” +</p> + +<p> +John Laurens, appointed an aide in 1777, quickly endeared himself to +Washington, and conceived the most ardent affection for his chief. The young +officer of twenty-four used all his influence with his father (then President +of Congress) against the Cabal, and in 1778, when Charles Lee was abusing the +commander-in-chief, Laurens thought himself bound to resent it, “as well +on account of the relation he bore to General Washington, as from motives of +personal friendship and respect for his character,” and he challenged the +defamer and put a bullet into him. To his commander he signed himself +“with the greatest veneration and attachment your Excellency’s +Faithful Aid,” and Washington in his letters always addressed him as +“my dear Laurens.” After his death in battle, Washington wrote, in +reply to an inquiry,— +</p> + +<p> +“You ask if the character of Colonel John Laurens, as drawn in the +<i>Independent Chronicle</i> of 2d of December last, is just. I answer, that +such parts of the drawing as have fallen under my observation, is literally so; +and that it is my firm belief his merits and worth richly entitle him to the +whole picture. No man possessed more of the <i>amor patriae</i>. In a word, he +had not a fault, that I could discover, unless intrepidity bordering upon +rashness could come under that denomination; and to this he was excited by the +purest motives.” +</p> + +<p> +Of another aide, Tench Tilghman, Washington said, “he has been a zealous +servant and slave to the public, and a faithful assistant to me for near five +years, great part of which time he refused to receive pay. Honor and gratitude +interest me in his favor.” As an instance of this, the commander-in-chief +gave to him the distinction of bearing to Congress the news of the surrender of +Cornwallis, with the request to that body that Tilghman should be honored in +some manner. And in acknowledging a letter Washington said, “I receive +with great sensibility and pleasure your assurances of affection and regard. It +would be but a renewal of what I have often repeated to you, that there are few +men in the world to whom I am more attached by inclination than I am to you. +With the Cause, I hope—most devoutly hope—there will be an end to +my Military Service, when as our places of residence will not be far apart, I +shall never be more happy than in your Company at Mt. Vernon. I shall always be +glad to hear from, and keep up a correspondence with you.” When Tilghman +died, Washington asserted that +</p> + +<p> +“He had left as fair a reputation as ever belonged to a human +character,” and to his father he wrote, “Of all the numerous +acquaintances of your lately deceased son, & midst all the sorrowings that +are mingled on that melancholy occasion, I may venture to assert that +(excepting those of his nearest relatives) none could have felt his death with +more regret than I did, because no one entertained a higher opinion of his +worth, or had imbibed sentiments of greater friendship for him than I had +done…. Midst all your grief, there is this consolation to be drawn;—that +while living, no man could be more esteemed, and since dead, none more lamented +than Colo. Tilghman.” +</p> + +<p> +To David Humphreys, a member of the staff, Washington gave the honor of +carrying to Congress the standards captured at Yorktown, recommending him to +the notice of that body for his “attention, fidelity, and good +services.” This aide escorted Washington to Mount Vernon at the close of +the Revolution, and was “the last officer belonging to the army” +who parted from “the Commander-in-chief.” Shortly after, Humphreys +returned to Mount Vernon, half as secretary and half as visitor and companion, +and he alluded to this time in his poem of “Mount Vernon,” when he +said,— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Twas mine, return’d from Europe’s courts<br/> +To share his thoughts, partake his sports.” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When Washington was accused of cruelty in the Asgill case, Humphreys published +an account of the affair, completely vindicating his friend, for which he was +warmly thanked. He was frequently urged to come to Mount Vernon, and Washington +on one occasion lamented “the cause which has deprived us of your aid in +the attack of Christmas pies,” and on another assured Humphreys of his +“great pleasure [when] I received the intimation of your spending the +winter under this Roof. The invitation was not less sincere, than the reception +will be cordial. The only stipulations I shall contend for are, that in all +things you shall do as you please—I will do the same; and that no +ceremony may be used or any restraint be imposed on any one.” Humphreys +was visiting him when the notification of his election as President was +received, and was the only person, except servants, who accompanied Washington +to New York. Here he continued for a time to give his assistance, and was +successively appointed Indian commissioner, informal agent to Spain, and +finally Minister to Portugal. While holding this latter position Washington +wrote to him, “When you shall think with the poet that ‘the post of +honor is a private station’—& may be inclined to enjoy yourself +in my shades … I can only tell you that you will meet with the same cordial +reception at Mount Vernon that you have always experienced at that +place,” and when Humphreys answered that his coming marriage made the +visit impossible, Washington replied, “The desire of a companion in my +latter days, in whom I could confide … induced me to express too strongly … the +hope of having you as an inmate.” On the death of Washington, Humphreys +published a poem expressing the deepest affection and admiration for “my +friend.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus18"></a> +<img src="images/img18.jpg" width="434" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">WASHINGTON FAMILY RECORD</p> +</div> + +<p> +The longest and closest connection was that with Hamilton. This very young and +obscure officer attracted Washington’s attention in the campaign of 1776, +early in the next year was appointed to the staff, and quickly became so much a +favorite that Washington spoke of him as “my boy.” Whatever +friendliness this implied was not, however, reciprocated by Hamilton. After +four years of service, he resigned, under circumstances to which he pledged +Washington to secrecy, and then himself, in evident irritation, wrote as +follows: +</p> + +<p> +“Two days ago, the General and I passed each other on the stairs. He told +me he wanted to speak to me. I answered that I would wait upon him immediately. +I went below, and delivered Mr. Tilghman a letter to be sent to the commissary, +containing an order of a pressing and interesting nature. Returning to the +General, I was stopped on the way by the Marquis de Lafayette, and we conversed +together about a minute on a matter of business. He can testify how impatient I +was to get back, and that I left him in a manner which, but for our intimacy +would have been more than abrupt. Instead of finding the General, as is usual, +in his room, I met him at the head of the stairs, where, accosting me in an +angry tone, ‘Colonel Hamilton,’ said he ‘you have kept me +waiting at the head of the stairs these ten minutes. I must tell you, sir, you +treat me with disrespect.’ I replied without petulancy, but with +decision: ‘I am not conscious of it, sir; but since you have thought it +necessary to tell me so, we part.’ ‘Very well, sir,’ said he, +‘if it be your choice,’ or something to this effect, and we +separated. I sincerely believe my absence, which gave so much umbrage, did not +last two minutes. In less than an hour after, Tilghman came to me in the +General’s name, assuring me of his great confidence in my abilities, +integrity, usefulness, etc, and of his desire, in a candid conversation, to +heal a difference which could not have happened but in a moment of passion. I +requested Mr Tilghman to tell him—1st. That I had taken my resolution in +a manner not to be revoked … Thus we stand … Perhaps you may think I was +precipitate in rejecting the overture made by the General to an accomodation. I +assure you, my dear sir, it was not the effect of resentment; it was the +deliberate result of maxims I had long formed for the government of my own +conduct…. I believe you know the place I held in the General’s confidence +and counsels, which will make more extraordinary to you to learn that for three +years past I have felt no friendship for him and have professed none. The truth +is, our dispositions are the opposites of each other, and the pride of my +temper would not suffer me to profess what I did not feel. Indeed, when +advances of this kind have been made to me on his part, they were received in a +manner that showed at least that I had no desire to court them, and that I +desired to stand rather upon a footing of military confidence than of private +attachment.” +</p> + +<p> +Had Washington been the man this letter described he would never have forgiven +this treatment. On the contrary, only two months later, when compelled to +refuse for military reasons a favor Hamilton asked, he said that “my +principal concern arises from an apprehension that you will impute my refusal +to your request to other motives.” On this refusal Hamilton enclosed his +commission to Washington, but “Tilghman came to me in his name, pressed +me to retain my commission, with an assurance that he would endeavor, by all +means, to give me a command.” Later Washington did more than Hamilton +himself had asked, when he gave him the leading of the storming party at +Yorktown, a post envied by every officer in the army. +</p> + +<p> +Apparently this generosity lessened Hamilton’s resentment, for a +correspondence on public affairs was maintained from this time on, though +Madison stated long after “that Hamilton often spoke disparagingly of +Washington’s talents, particularly after the Revolution and at the first +part of the presidentcy,” and Benjamin Rush confirms this by a note to +the effect that “Hamilton often spoke with contempt of General +Washington. He said that … his heart was a stone.” The rumor of the ill +feeling was turned to advantage by Hamilton’s political opponents in +1787, and compelled the former to appeal to Washington to save him from the +injury the story was doing. In response Washington wrote a letter intended for +public use, in which he said,— +</p> + +<p> +“As you say it is insinuated by some of your political adversaries, and +may obtain credit, ‘that you <i>palmed</i> yourself upon me, and was +<i>dismissed</i> from my family,’ and call upon me to do you justice by a +recital of the facts, I do therefore explicitly declare, that both charges are +entirely unfounded. With respect to the first, I have no cause to believe, that +you took a single step to accomplish, or had the most distant idea of receiving +an appointment in my family till you were invited in it; and, with respect to +the second, that your quitting it was altogether the effect of your own +choice.” +</p> + +<p> +With the appointment as Secretary of the Treasury warmer feelings were +developed. Hamilton became the President’s most trusted official, and was +tireless in the aid he gave his superior. Even after he left office he +performed many services equivalent to official ones, for which Washington did +“not know how to thank” him “sufficiently,” and the +President leaned on his judgment to an otherwise unexampled extent. This +service produced affection and respect, and in 1792 Washington wrote from Mount +Vernon, “We have learnt … that you have some thoughts of taking a trip +this way. I felt pleasure at hearing it, and hope it is unnecessary to add, +that it would be considerably increased by seeing you under this roof; for you +may be assured of the sincere and affectionate regard of yours, &c.” +and signed other letters “always and affectionately yours,” or +“very affectionately,” while Hamilton reciprocated by sending +“affectionate attachment.” +</p> + +<p> +On being appointed lieutenant-general in 1798, Washington at once sought the +aid of Hamilton for the highest position under him, assuring the Secretary of +War that “of the abilities and fitness of the gentleman you have named +for a high command in the <i>provisional army</i>, I think as you do, and that +his services ought to be secured at almost any price.” To this the +President, who hated Hamilton, objected, but Washington refused to take the +command unless this wish was granted, and Adams had to give way. They stood in +this relation when Washington died, and almost the last letter he penned was to +this friend. On learning of the death, Hamilton wrote of “our beloved +Commander-in-chief,”— +</p> + +<p> +“The very painful event … filled my heart with bitterness. Perhaps no man +in this community has equal cause with myself to deplore the loss. I have been +much indebted to the kindness of the General, and he was an <i>Ægis very +essential to me</i>. But regrets are unavailing. For great misfortunes it is +the business of reason to seek consolation. The friends of General Washington +have very noble ones. If virtue can secure happiness in another world, he is +happy.” +</p> + +<p> +Knox was the earliest army friend of those who rose to the rank of general, and +was honored by Washington with absolute trust. After the war the two +corresponded, and Knox expressed “unalterable affection” for the +“thousand evidences of your friendship.” He was appointed Secretary +of War in the first administration, and in taking command of the provisional +army Washington secured his appointment as a major-general, and at this time +asserted that, “with respect to General Knox I can say with truth there +is no man in the United States with whom I have been in habits of greater +intimacy, no one whom I have loved more sincerely nor any for whom I have had a +greater friendship.” +</p> + +<p> +Greene was perhaps the closest to Washington of all the generals, and their +relations might be dwelt upon at much length. But the best evidence of +friendship is in Washington’s treatment of a story involving his +financial honesty, of which he said, “persuaded as I always have been of +Genl Greene’s integrity and worth, I spurned those reports which tended +to calumniate his conduct … being perfectly convinced that whenever the matter +should be investigated, his motives … would appear pure and +unimpeachable.” When on Greene’s death Washington heard that his +family was left in embarrassed circumstances, he offered, if Mrs. Greene would +“entrust my namesake G. Washington Greene to my care, I will give him as +good an education as this country (I mean the United States) will afford, and +will bring him up to either of the genteel professions that his frds. may +chuse, or his own inclination shall lead him to pursue, at my own cost & +expence.” +</p> + +<p> +For “Light-horse Harry” Lee an affection more like that given to +the youngsters of the staff was felt Long after the war was over, Lee began a +letter to him “Dear General,” and then continued,— +</p> + +<p> +“Although the exalted station, which your love of us and our love of you +has placed you in, calls for change in mode of address, yet I cannot so quickly +relinquish the old manner. Your military rank holds its place in my mind, +notwithstanding your civic glory; and, whenever I do abandon the title which +used to distinguish you, I shall do it with awkwardness…. My reluctance to +trespass a moment on your time would have operated to a further procrastination +of my wishes, had I not been roused above every feeling of ceremony by the +heart rending intelligence, received yesterday, that your life was despaired +of. Had I had wings in the moment, I should have wafted myself to your bedside, +only again to see the first of men; but alas! despairing as I was, from the +account received, after the affliction of one day and night, I was made most +happy by receiving a letter, now before me from New York, announcing the +restoration of your health. May heaven preserve it!” +</p> + +<p> +It was Lee who first warned Washington that Jefferson was slandering him in +secret, and who kept him closely informed as to the political manuvres in +Virginia. Washington intrusted to him the command of the army in the Whiskey +Insurrection, and gave him an appointment in the provisional army. Lee was in +Congress when the death of the great American was announced to that body, and +it was he who coined the famous “First in war, first in peace, and first +in the hearts of his countrymen.” +</p> + +<p> +As need hardly be said, however, the strongest affection among the general +officers was that between Washington and Lafayette. In the advent of this young +Frenchman the commander saw only “embarassment,” but he received +“the young volunteer,” so Lafayette said, “in the most +friendly manner,” invited him to reside in his house as a member of his +military family, and as soon as he came to know him he recommended Congress to +give him a command. As Lafayette became popular with the army, an endeavor was +made by the Cabal to win him to their faction by bribing him with an +appointment to lead an expedition against Canada, independent of control by +Washington. Lafayette promptly declined the command, unless subject to the +General, and furthermore he “braved the whole party (Cabal) and threw +them into confusion by making them drink the health of their general.” At +the battle of Monmouth Washington gave the command of the attacking party to +Lafayette, and after the conflict the two, according to the latter, +“passed the night lying on the same mantle, talking.” In the same +way Washington distinguished him by giving him the command of the expedition to +rescue Virginia from Cornwallis, and to his division was given the most +honorable position at Yorktown. When the siege of that place was completed, +Lafayette applied for leave of absence to spend the winter in France, and as he +was on the point of sailing he received a personal letter from Washington, for +“I owe it to friendship and to my affectionate regard for you my dear +Marquis, not to let you leave this country without carrying fresh marks of my +attachment to you,” and in his absence Washington wrote that a mutual +friend who bore a letter “can tell you more forcibly, than I can express +how much we all love and wish to embrace you.” +</p> + +<p> +A reunion came in 1784, looked forward to by Lafayette with an eagerness of +which he wrote, “by Sunday or Monday, I hope at last to be blessed with a +sight of my dear General. There is no rest for me till I go to Mount Vernon. I +long for the pleasure to embrace you, my dear General; and the happiness of +being once more with you will be so great, that no words can ever express it. +Adieu, my dear General; in a few days I shall be at Mount Vernon, and I do +already feel delighted with so charming a prospect.” After this visit was +over Washington wrote, “In the moment of our separation, upon the road as +I travelled, and every hour since, I have felt all that love, respect and +attachment for you, with which length of years, close connexion, and your +merits have inspired me. I often asked myself, as our carriages separated, +whether that was the last sight I ever should have of you?” And to this +letter Lafayette replied,— +</p> + +<p> +“No my beloved General, our late parting was not by any means a last +interview. My whole soul revolts at the idea; and could I harbour it an +instant, indeed, my dear General, it would make me miserable. I well see you +will never go to France. The inexpressible pleasure of embracing you in my own +house, of welcoming you in a family where your name is adored, I do not much +expect to experience; but to you I shall return, and, within the walls of Mount +Vernon, we shall yet speak of olden times. My firm plan is to visit now and +then my friend on this side of the Atlantic; and the most beloved of all +friends I ever had, or ever shall have anywhere, is too strong an inducement +for me to return to him, not to think that whenever it is possible I shall +renew my so pleasing visits to Mount Vernon…. Adieu, adieu, my dear General. It +is with inexpressible pain that I feel I am going to be severed from you by the +Atlantic. Everything, that admiration, respect, gratitude, friendship, and +fillial love, can inspire, is combined in my affectionate heart to devote me +most tenderly to you. In your friendship I find a delight which words cannot +express. Adieu, my dear General. It is not without emotion that I write this +word, although I know I shall soon visit you again. Be attentive to your +health. Let me hear from you every month. Adieu, adieu.” +</p> + +<p> +The correspondence begged was maintained, but Lafayette complained that +“To one who so tenderly loves you, who so happily enjoyed the times we +have passed together, and who never, on any part of the globe, even in his own +house, could feel himself so perfectly at home as in your family, it must be +confessed that an irregular, lengthy correspondence is quite insufficient I +beseech you, in the name of our friendship, of that paternal concern of yours +for my happiness, not to miss any opportunity to let me hear from my dear +General.” +</p> + +<p> +One letter from Washington told Lafayette of his recovery from a serious +illness, and Lafayette responded, “What could have been my feelings, had +the news of your illness reached me before I knew my beloved General, my +adopted father, was out of danger? I was struck at the idea of the situation +you have been in, while I, uninformed and so distant from you, was anticipating +the long-waited-for pleasure to hear from you, and the still more endearing +prospect of visiting you and presenting you the tribute of a revolution, one of +your first offsprings. For God’s sake, my dear General, take care of your +health!” +</p> + +<p> +Presently, as the French Revolution gathered force, the anxiety was reversed, +Washington writing that “The lively interest which I take in your +welfare, my dear Sir, keeps my mind in constant anxiety for your personal +safety.” This fear was only too well founded, for shortly after Lafayette +was a captive in an Austrian prison and his wife was appealing to her +husband’s friend for help. Our ministers were told to do all they could +to secure his liberty, and Washington wrote a personal letter to the Emperor of +Austria. Before receiving her letter, on the first news of the “truly +affecting” condition of “poor Madame Lafayette,” he had +written to her his sympathy, and, supposing that money was needed, had +deposited at Amsterdam two hundred guineas “subject to your +orders.” +</p> + +<p> +When she and her daughters joined her husband in prison, Lafayette’s son, +and Washington’s godson, came to America; an arrival of which the +godfather wrote that, “to express all the sensibility, which has been +excited in my breast by the receipt of young Lafayette’s letter, from the +recollection of his father’s merits, services, and sufferings, from my +friendship for him, and from my wishes to become a friend and father to his son +is unnecessary.” The lad became a member of the family, and a visitor at +this time records that “I was particularly struck with the marks of +affection which the General showed his pupil, his adopted son of Marquis de +Lafayette. Seated opposite to him, he looked at him with pleasure, and listened +to him with manifest interest.” With Washington he continued till the +final release of his father, and a simple business note in Washington’s +ledger serves to show both his delicacy and his generosity to the boy: +“By Geo. W. Fayette, gave for the purpose of his getting himself such +small articles of Clothing as he might not choose to ask for $100.” +Another item in the accounts was three hundred dollars “to defray his +exps. to France,” and by him Washington sent a line to his old friend, +saying, “this letter I hope and expect will be presented to you by your +son, who is highly deserving of such parents as you and your amiable +lady.” +</p> + +<p> +Long previous to this, too, a letter had been sent to Virginia Lafayette, +couched in the following terms: +</p> + +<p> +“Permit me to thank my dear little correspondent for the favor of her +letter of the 18 of June last, and to impress her with the idea of the pleasure +I shall derive from a continuance of them. Her papa is restored to her with all +the good health, paternal affection, and honors, which her tender heart could +wish. He will carry a kiss to her from me (which might be more agreeable from a +pretty boy), and give her assurances of the affectionate regard with which I +have the pleasure of being her well-wisher, +</p> + +<p> +George Washington.” +</p> + +<p> +In this connection it is worth glancing at Washington’s relations with +children, the more that it has been frequently asserted that he had no liking +for them. As already shown, at different times he adopted or assumed the +expenses and charge of not less than nine of the children of his kith and kin, +and to his relations with children he seldom wrote a letter without a line +about the “little ones.” His kindnesses to the sons of Ramsay, +Craik, Greene, and Lafayette have already been noticed. Furthermore, whenever +death or illness came among the children of his friends there was sympathy +expressed. Dumas relates of his visit to Providence with Washington, that +“we arrived there at night; the whole of the population had assembled +from the suburbs; we were surrounded by a crowd of children carrying torches, +reiterating the acclamations of the citizens; all were eager to approach the +person of him whom they called their father, and pressed so closely around us +that they hindered us from proceeding. General Washington was much affected, +stopped a few moments, and, pressing my hand, said, ‘We may be beaten by +the English; it is the chance of war; but behold an army which they can never +conquer,’” +</p> + +<p> +In his journey through New England, not being able to get lodgings at an inn, +Washington spent a night in a private house, and when all payment was refused, +he wrote his host from his next stopping-place,— +</p> + +<p> +“Being informed that you have given my name to one of your sons, and +called another after Mrs. Washington’s family, and being moreover very +much pleased with the modest and innocent looks of your two daughters, Patty +and Polly, I do for these reasons send each of these girls a piece of chintz; +and to Patty, who bears the name of Mrs. Washington, and who waited upon us +more than Polly did, I send five guineas, with which she may buy herself any +little ornaments she may want, or she may dispose of them in any other manner +more agreeable to herself. As I do not give these things with a view to have it +talked of, or even of its being known, the less there is said about the matter +the better you will please me; but, that I may be sure the chintz and money +have got safe to hand, let Patty, who I dare say is equal to it, write me a +line informing me thereof, directed to ‘The President of the United +States at New York.’” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Stuart relates that “One morning while Mr. Washington was sitting +for his picture, a little brother of mine ran into the room, when my father +thinking it would annoy the General, told him he must leave; but the General +took him upon his knee, held him for some time, and had quite a little chat +with him, and, in fact, they seemed to be pleased with each other. My brother +remembered with pride, as long as he lived, that Washington had talked with +him.” +</p> + +<p> +For the son of his secretary, Lear, there seems to have been great fondness, +and in one instance the father was told that “It gave Mrs. Washington, +myself and all who know him, sincere pleasure to hear that our little favorite +had arrived safe, and was in good health at Portsmouth. We sincerely wish him a +long continuance of the latter—that he may always be as charming and +promising as he now is—and that he may live to be a comfort and blessing +to you, and an ornament to his country. As a testimony of my affection for him +I send him a ticket in the lottery which is now drawing in the Federal City; +and if it should be his fortune to draw the hotel it will add to the pleasure I +have in giving it.” A second letter condoled with “little +Lincoln,” because owing to the collapse of the lottery the “poor +little fellow” will not even get enough to “build him a baby +house.” +</p> + +<p> +For the father, Tobias Lear, who came into his employment in 1786 and remained +with him till his death, Washington felt the greatest affection and trust. It +was he who sent for the doctor in the beginning of the last illness, and he was +in the sickroom most of the time. Holding Washington’s hand, he received +from him his last orders, and later when Washington “appeared to be in +great pain and distress from the difficulty of breathing … I lay upon the bed +and endeavored to raise him, and turn him with as much ease as possible. He +appeared penetrated with gratitude for my attentions, and often said ‘I +am afraid I shall fatigue you too much.’” Still later Lear +“aided him all in my power, and was gratified in believing he felt it; +for he would look upon me with eyes speaking gratitude, but unable to utter a +word without great distress.” At the final moment Lear took his hand +“and laid it upon his breast.” When all was over, “I kissed +the cold hand, laid it down, and was … lost in profound grief.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>X<br/> +ENEMIES</h2> + +<p> +Any man of force is to be known quite as much by the character of his enemies +as by that of his friends, and this is true of Washington. The subject offers +some difficulties, for most of his enemies later in life went out of their way +to deny all antagonism, and took pains to destroy such proof as they could come +at of ill-feeling towards him. Yet enough remains to show who were in +opposition to him, and on what grounds. +</p> + +<p> +The first of those now known to be opposed to him was George Muse, +lieutenant-colonel in 1754 under Washington. At Fort Necessity he was guilty of +cowardice, he was discharged in disgrace, and his name was omitted from the +Assembly’s vote of thanks to the regiment. Stung by this action, he took +his revenge in a manner related by Peyroney, who wrote Washington,— +</p> + +<p> +“Many enquired to me about Muse’s Braveries, poor Body I had pity +him ha’nt he had the weakness to Confes his Coardise himself, & the +impudence to taxe all the reste of the oficers without exception of the same +imperfection for he said to many of the Consulars and Burgeses that he was Bad +But th’ the reste was as Bad as he—To speak francly, had I been in +town at that time I cou’nt help’d to make use of my horses [whip] +whereas for to vindicate the injury of that vilain. He Contrived his Business +so that several ask me if it was true that he had Challeng’d you to +fight: My Answer was no other But that he should rather chuse to go to hell +than doing of it—for he had Such thing declar’d: that was his Sure +Road.” +</p> + +<p> +Washington seems to have cherished no personal ill-will for Muse’s +conduct, and when the division of the “bounty lands” was being +pushed, he used his influence that the broken officer should receive a quotum. +Not knowing this, or else being ungrateful, Muse seems to have written a letter +to Washington which angered him, for he replied,— +</p> + +<p> +“Sir, Your impertinent letter was delivered to me yesterday. As I am not +accustomed to receive such from any man, nor would have taken the same language +from you personally, without letting you feel some marks of my resentment, I +would advise you to be cautious in writing me a second of the same tenor. But +for your stupidity and sottishness you might have known, by attending to the +public gazette, that you had your full quantity of ten thousand acres of land +allowed you, that is, nine thousand and seventy-three acres in the great tract, +and the remainder in the small tract. But suppose you had really fallen short, +do you think your superlative merit entitles you to greater indulgence than +others? Or, if it did, that I was to make it good to you, when it was at the +option of the Governor and Council to allow but five hundred acres in the +whole, if they had been so inclined? If either of these should happen to be +your opinion, I am very well convinced that you will be singular in it; and all +my concern is, that I ever engaged in behalf of so ungrateful a fellow as you +are. But you may still be in need of my assistance, as I can inform you, that +your affairs, in respect to these lands, do not stand upon so solid a basis as +you imagine, and this you may take by way of hint. I wrote to you a few days +ago concerning the other distribution, proposing an easy method of dividing our +lands; but since I find in what temper you are, I am sorry I took the trouble +of mentioning the land or your name in a letter, as I do not think you merit +the least assistance from me.” +</p> + +<p> +The Braddock campaign brought acquaintance with one which did not end in +friendship, however amicable the beginning. There can be little doubt that +there was cameraderie with the then Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, for in 1773, when +in New York for four days, Washington “Dined with Gen. Gage,” and +also “dined at the entertainment given by the citizens of New York to +Genl. Gage.” When next intercourse was resumed, it was by formal +correspondence between the commanders-in-chief of two hostile armies, +Washington inquiring as to the treatment of prisoners, and as a satisfactory +reply was not obtained, he wrote again, threatening retaliation, and +“closing my correspondence with you, perhaps forever,” —a +letter which Charles Lee thought “a very good one, but Gage certainly +deserved a stronger one, such as it was before it was softened.” One +cannot but wonder what part the old friendship played in this +“softening.” +</p> + +<p> +Relations with the Howes began badly by a letter from Lord Howe addressed +“George Washington, Esq.,” which Washington declined to receive as +not recognizing his official position. A second one to “George +Washington, Esq. &c. &c. &c.” met with the same fate, and +brought the British officer “to change my superscription.” A little +after this brief war of forms, a letter from Washington to his wife was +intercepted with others by the enemy, and General Howe enclosed it, +“happy to return it without the least attempt being made to discover any +part of the contents.” This courtesy the American commander presently was +able to reciprocate by sending “General Washington’s compliments to +General Howe,—does himself the pleasure to return to him a dog, which +accidentally fell into his hands, and, by the inscription on the collar, +appears to belong to General Howe.” Even politeness had its objections, +however, at moments, and Washington once had to write Sir William,— +</p> + +<p> +“There is one passage of your letter, which I cannot forbear taking +particular notice of. No expression of personal politeness to me can be +acceptable, accompanied by reflections on the representatives of a free people, +under whose authority I have the honor to act. The delicacy I have observed, in +refraining from everything offensive in this way, entitles me to expect a +similar treatment from you. I have not indulged myself in invective against the +present rulers of Great Britain, in the course of our correspondence, nor will +I even now avail myself of so fruitful a theme.” +</p> + +<p> +Apparently when Sir Henry Clinton succeeded to the command of the British army +the same old device to insult the General was again tried, for Dumas states +that Washington “received a despatch from Sir Henry Clinton, addressed to +‘Mr. Washington.’ Taking it from the hands of the flag of truce, +and seeing the direction, ‘This letter,’ said he, ‘is +directed to a planter of the state of Virginia. I shall have it delivered to +him after the end of the war; till that time it shall not be opened.’ A +second despatch was addressed to his Excellency General Washington.” A +better lesson in courtesy was contained in a letter from Washington to him, +complaining of “wanton, unprecedented and inhuman murder,” which +closed with the following: “I beg your Excellency to be persuaded, that +it cannot be more disagreeable to you to be addressed in this language, than it +is to me to offer it; but the subject requires frankness and decision.” +</p> + +<p> +Quite as firm was one addressed to Cornwallis, which read,— +</p> + +<p> +“It is with infinite regret, I am again compelled to remonstrate against +that spirit of wanton cruelty, that has in several instances influenced the +conduct of your soldiery. A recent exercise of it towards an unhappy officer of +ours, Lieutenant Harris, convinces me, that my former representations on this +subject have been unavailing. That Gentleman by the fortunes of war, on +Saturday last was thrown into the hands of a party of your horse, and +unnecessarily murdered with the most aggravated circumstances of barbarity. I +wish not to wound your Lordship’s feelings, by commenting on this event; +but I think it my duty to send his mangled body to your lines as an undeniable +testimony of the fact, should it be doubted, and as the best appeal to your +humanity for the justice of our complaint.” +</p> + +<p> +A pleasanter intercourse came with the surrender of Yorktown, after which not +merely were Cornwallis and his officers saved the mortification of surrendering +their swords, but the chief among them were entertained at dinner by +Washington. At this meal, so a contemporary account states, “Rochhambeau, +being asked for a toast, gave <i>‘The United States’</i>. +Washington gave <i>‘The King of France’</i>. Lord Cornwallis, +simply <i>‘The King’</i>; but Washington, putting that toast, +added, <i>‘of England’</i>, and facetiously, <i>‘confine him +there, I’ll drink him a full bumper’</i>, filling his glass till it +ran over. Rochambeau, with great politeness, was still so French, that he would +every now and then be touching on points that were improper, and a breach of +real politeness. Washington often checked him, and showed in a more saturnine +manner, the infinite esteem he had for his gallant prisoner, whose private +qualities the Americans admired even in a foe, that had so often filled them +with the most cruel alarms.” Many years later, when Cornwallis was +governor-general of India, he sent a verbal message to his old foe, wishing +“General Washington a long enjoyment of tranquility and happiness,” +adding that for himself he “continued in troubled waters.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus19"></a> +<img src="images/img19.jpg" width="303" height="400" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">MRS WASHINGTON</p> +</div> + +<p> +Turning from these public rather than personal foes, a very different type of +enemies is encountered in those inimical to Washington in his own army. Chief +of these was Horatio Gates, with whom Washington had become acquainted in the +Braddock campaign, and with whom there was friendly intercourse from that time +until the Revolution. In 1775, at Washington’s express solicitation, +Gates was appointed adjutant- and brigadier-general, and in a letter thanking +Washington for the favor he professed to have “the greatest respect for +your character and the sincerest attachment to your person.” +Nevertheless, he very early in the war suggested that a committee of Congress +be sent to camp to keep watch on Washington, and as soon as he was in a +separate command he began to curry favor with Congress and scheme against his +commander. This was not unknown to Washington, who afterwards wrote, “I +discovered very early in the war symptoms of coldness & constraint in +General Gates’ behavior to me. These increased as he rose into greater +consequence.” +</p> + +<p> +When Burgoyne capitulated to Gates, he sent the news to Congress and not to +Washington, and though he had no further need for troops the commander-in-chief +had sent him, he endeavored to prevent their return at a moment when every man +was needed in the main army. His attitude towards Washington was so notorious +that his friends curried favor with him by letters criticising the commander, +and when, by chance, the General learned of the contents of one of these +letters, and news to that effect reached the ears of Gates, he practically +charged Washington with having obtained his knowledge by dishonorable means; +but Washington more than repaid the insult, in telling Gates how he had learned +of the affair, by adding that he had “considered the information as +coming from yourself, and given with a friendly view to forewarn and +consequently forearm me, against a secret enemy … but in this, as in other +matters of late, I have found myself mistaken.” Driven to the wall, Gates +wrote to Washington a denial that the letter contained the passage in question, +which was an absolute lie, and this untruth typifies his character. Without +expressing either belief or disbelief in this denial, Washington +replied,— +</p> + +<p> +“I am as averse to controversy as any man, and had I not been forced into +it, you never would have had occasion to impute to me, even the shadow of +disposition towards it. Your repeatedly and solemnly disclaiming any offensive +views in those matters, which have been the subject of our past correspondence +makes me willing to close with the desire, you express, of burying them +hereafter in silence, and, as far as future events will permit, oblivion. My +temper leads me to peace and harmony with all men; and it is peculiarly my wish +to avoid any personal feuds or dissentions with those who are embarked in the +same great national interest with, myself; as every difference of this kind +must in its consequence be very injurious.” +</p> + +<p> +After this affair subsided, Washington said,— +</p> + +<p> +“I made a point of treating Gen. Gates with all the attention and +cordiality in my power, as well from a sincere desire of harmony, as from an +unwillingness to give any cause of triumph among ourselves. I can appeal to the +world, and to the whole army, whether I have not cautiously avoided offending +Gen. Gates in any way. I am sorry his conduct to me has not been equally +generous, and that he is continually giving me fresh proofs of malevolence and +opposition. It will not be doing him injustice to say, that, besides the little +underhand intrigues which he is frequently practising, there has hardly been +any great military question, in which his advice has been asked, that it has +not been given in an equivocal and designing manner, apparently calculated to +afford him an opportunity of censuring me, on the failure of whatever measures +might be adopted.” +</p> + +<p> +After the defeat of Gates at Camden, the Prince de Broglie wrote that “I +saw General Gates at the house of General Washington, with whom he had had a +misunderstanding…. This interview excited the curiosity of both armies. It +passed with a most perfect propriety on the part of both gentlemen. Mr. +Washington treated Mr. Gates with a politeness which had a frank and easy air, +while the other responded with that shade of respect which was proper towards +his general.” And how fair-minded Washington was is shown by his refusal +to interfere in an army matter, because, “considering the delicate +situation in which I stand with respect to General Gates, I feel an +unwillingness to give any opinion (even in a confidential way) in a matter in +which he is concerned, lest my sentiments (being known) should have unfavorable +interpretations ascribed to them by illiberal Minds.” Yet the friendship +was never restored, and when the two after the war were associated in the +Potomac company, Washington’s sense of the old treachery was still so +keen that he alluded to the appointment of “my bosom friend Genl G-tes, +who being at Richmond, contrived to edge himself in to the commission.” +</p> + +<p> +Thomas Conway was Washington’s traducer to Gates. He was an Irish-French +soldier of fortune who unfortunately had been made a brigadier-general in the +Continental army. Having made friends of the New England delegates in Congress, +it was then proposed by them to advance him to the rank of major-general, which +Washington opposed, on the grounds that “his merit and importance exist +more in his imagination than in reality.” For the moment this was +sufficient to prevent Conway’s promotion, and even if he had not before +been opposed to his commander, he now became his bitter enemy. To more than +Gates he said or wrote, “A great & good God has decreed that America +shall be free, or Washington and weak counsellors would have ruined her long +ago.” Upon word of this reaching Washington, so Laurens tells, “The +genl immediately copied the contents of the paper, introducing them with +‘sir,’ and concluding with, ‘I am your humble servt,’ +and sent this copy in the form of a letter to Genl Conway. This drew an answer, +in which he first attempts to deny the fact, and then in a most shameless +manner, to explain away the matter. The perplexity of his style, and evident +insincerity of his compliments, betray his weak sentiments, and expose his +guilt.” +</p> + +<p> +Yet, though detected, Conway complained to the Continental Congress that +Washington was not treating him properly, and in reply to an inquiry from a +member the General acknowledged that,— +</p> + +<p> +“If General Conway means by cool receptions mentioned in the last +paragraph of his letter of the 31st ultimo, that I did not receive him in the +language of a warm and cordial friend, I readily confess the charge. I did not, +nor shall I ever, till I am capable of the arts of dissimulation. These I +despise, and my feelings will not permit me to make professions of friendship +to the man I deem my enemy, and whose system of conduct forbids it. At the same +time, truth authorizes me to say, that he was received and treated with proper +respect to his official character, and that he has had no cause to justify the +assertion, that he could not expect any support for fulfilling the duties of +his appointment.” +</p> + +<p> +In spite of Washington’s opposition, Conway’s friends were numerous +enough in the Congress finally to elect him major-general, at the same time +appointing him inspector-general. Elated with this evident partiality of the +majority of that body for him, he went even further, and Laurens states that he +was guilty of a “base insult” to Washington, which “affects +the General very sensibly,” and he continues,— +</p> + +<p> +“It is such an affront as Conway would never have dared to offer, if the +General’s situation had not assured him of the impossibility of its being +revenged in a private way. The Genl, therefore, has determined to return him no +answer at all, but to lay the whole matter before Congress; they will determine +whether Genl W. is to be sacrificed to Genl. C., for the former can never +consent to be concern’d in any transaction with the latter, from whom he +has received such unpardonable insults.” +</p> + +<p> +Fortunately, Conway did not limit his “insulting letters” to the +commander-in-chief alone, and presently he sent one to Congress threatening to +resign, which so angered that body that they took him at his word. Moreover, +his open abuse of Washington led an old-time friend of the latter to challenge +him, and to lodge a ball, with almost poetic justice, in Conway’s mouth. +Thinking himself on the point of death, he wrote a farewell line to Washington +“expressing my sincere grief for having done, written or said anything +disagreeable to your Excellency…. You are in my eyes a great and good +man.” And with this recantation he disappeared from the army. A third +officer in this “cabal” was Thomas Mifflin. He was the first man +appointed on Washington’s staff at the beginning of the war, but did not +long remain in that position, being promoted by Washington to be +quartermaster-general. In this position the rumor reached the General that +Mifflin was “concerned in trade,” and Washington took +“occasion to hint” the suspicion to him, only to get a denial from +the officer. Whether this inquiry was a cause for ill-feeling or not, Mifflin +was one of the most outspoken against the commander-in-chief as his opponents +gathered force, and Washington informed Henry that he “bore the second +part in the cabal.” Mifflin resigned from the army and took a position on +the board of war, but when the influence of that body broke down with the +collapse of the Cabal, he applied for a reappointment,—a course described +by Washington in plain English as follows: +</p> + +<p> +“I was not a little surprised to find a certain gentleman, who, some time +ago (when a cloud of darkness hung heavy over us, and our affairs looked +gloomy,) was desirous of resigning, now stepping forward in the line of the +army. But if he can reconcile such conduct to his own, feelings, as an officer +and a man of honor, and Congress hath no objections to his leaving his seat in +another department, I have nothing personally to oppose it. Yet I must think, +that gentleman’s stepping in and out, as the sun happens to beam forth or +obscure, is not <i>quite</i> the thing, nor <i>quite</i> just, with respect to +those officers, who take ye bitter with the sweet.” +</p> + +<p> +Not long after Greene wrote that “I learn that General Mifflin has +publicly declared that he looked upon his Excellency as the best friend he ever +had in his life, so that is a plain sign that the Junto has given up all ideas +of supplanting our excellent general from a confidence of the impracticability +of such an attempt.” +</p> + +<p> +A very minor but most malignant enemy was Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1774 Washington +dined with him in Philadelphia, which implied friendship. Very early in the +war, however, an attempt was made to remove the director-general of hospitals, +in which, so John Armstrong claimed, “Morgan was the +ostensible—Rush the real prosecutor of Shippen—the former acting +from revenge,… the latter from a desire to obtain the directorship. In +approving the sentence of the court, Washington stigmatized the prosecution as +one originating in bad motives, which made Rush his enemy and defamer as long +as he lived.” Certain it is he wrote savage letters of criticism about +his commander-in-chief of which the following extract is a sample: +</p> + +<p> +“I have heard several officers who have served under General Gates +compare his army to a well regulated family. The same gentlemen have compared +Gen’l Washington’s imitation of an army to an unformed mob. Look at +the characters of both! The one on the pinnacle of military +glory—exulting in the success of schemes planned with wisdom, & +executed with vigor and bravery—and above all see a country saved by his +exertions. See the other outgeneral’d and twice heated—obliged to +witness the march of a body of men only half their number thro’ 140 Miles +of a thick settled country— forced to give up a city the capitol of a +state & after all outwitted by the same army in a retreat.” +</p> + +<p> +Had Rush written only this, there would be no grounds for questioning his +methods; but, not content with spreading his opinions among his friends, he +took to anonymous letter-writing, and sent an unsigned letter abusing +Washington to the governor of Virginia (and probably to others), with the +request that the letter should be burned. Instead of this, Henry sent it to +Washington, who recognized at once the handwriting, and wrote to Henry that +Rush “has been elaborate and studied in his professions of regard to me, +and long since the letter to you.” An amusing sequel to this incident is +to be found in Rush moving heaven and earth on the publication of +Marshall’s “Life of Washington” to prevent his name from +appearing as one of the commander-in-chief’s enemies. +</p> + +<p> +After the collapse of the attempt Washington wrote to a friend, “I thank +you sincerely for the part you acted at York respecting C—-y, and believe +with you that matters have and will turn out very different to what that party +expected. G—-s has involved himself in his letters to me in the most +absurd contradictions. M—- has brought himself into a scrape that he does +not know how to get out of with a gentleman of this State, and C—-, as +you know is sent upon an expedition which all the world knew, and the event has +proved, was not practicable. In a word, I have a good deal of reason to believe +that the machination of this junta will recoil upon their own heads, and be a +means of bringing some matters to light which, by getting me out of the way, +some of them thought to conceal.” +</p> + +<p> +Undoubtedly the most serious army antagonist was General Charles Lee, and, but +for what seem almost fatalistic chances, he would have been a dangerous rival. +He was second in command very early in the war, and at this time he asserted +that “no man loves, respects and reverences another more than I do +General Washington. I esteem his virtues, private and public. I know him to be +a man of sense, courage and firmness.” But four months later he was +lamenting Washington’s “fatal indecision,” and by inference +was calling him “a blunderer.” In another month he wrote, +“<i>entre nous</i> a certain great man is most damnably deficient.” +At this point, fortunately, Lee was captured by the British, so that his +influence for the time being was destroyed. While a prisoner he drew up a plan +for the English general, showing how America could be conquered. +</p> + +<p> +When he had been exchanged, and led the American advance at the battle of +Monmouth, he seems to have endeavored to aid the British in another way, for +after barely engaging, he ordered a retreat, which quickly developed into a +rout, and would have ended in a serious defeat had not, as Laurens wrote, +“fortunately for the honor of the army, and the welfare of America, Genl +Washington met the troops retreating in disorder, and without any plan to make +an opposition. He ordered some pieces of artillery to be brought up to defend +the pass, and some troops to form and defend the pieces. The artillery was too +distant to be brought up readily, so that there was but little opposition given +here. A few shot though, and a little skirmishing in the wood checked the +enemy’s career. The Genl expressed his astonishment at this unaccountable +retreat Mr. Lee indecently replied that the attack was contrary to his advice +and opinion in council.” +</p> + +<p> +In a fit of temper Lee wrote Washington two imprudent letters, expressed +“in terms [so] highly improper” that he was ordered under arrest +and tried by a court-martial, which promptly found him guilty of disobedience +and disrespect, as well as of making a “disorderly and unnecessary +retreat.” To this Lee retorted, “I aver that his Excellencies +letter was from beginning to the end a most abominable lie—I aver that my +conduct will stand the strictest scrutiny of every military judge—I aver +that my Court Martial was a Court of Inquisition—that there was not a +single member with a military idea—at least if I may pronounce from the +different questions they put to the evidences.” +</p> + +<p> +In this connection it is of interest to note a letter from Washington’s +friend Mason, which said, “You express a fear that General Lee will +challenge our friend. Indulge in no such apprehensions, for he too well knows +the sentiments of General Washington on the subject of duelling. From his +earliest manhood I have heard him express his contempt of the man who sends and +the man who accepts a challenge, for he regards such acts as no proof of moral +courage; and the practice he abhors as a relic of old barbarisms, repugnant +alike to sound morality and Christian enlightenment.” +</p> + +<p> +A little later, still smarting from this court-martial, Lee wrote to a +newspaper a savage attack on his late commander, apparently in the belief, as +he said in a private letter, that “there is … a visible revolution … in +the minds of men, I mean that our Great Gargantua, or Lama Babak (for I know +not which Title is the properest) begins to be no longer consider’d as an +infallible Divinity—and that those who have been sacrificed or near +sacrific’d on his altar, begin to be esteem’d as wantonly and +foolishly offer’d up.” Lee very quickly found his mistake, for the +editor of the paper which contained his attack was compelled by a committee of +citizens to publish an acknowledgment that in printing it “I have +transgressed against truth, justice and my duty as a good citizen,” and, +as Washington wrote to a friend, “the author of the Queries, +‘Political and Military,’ has had no cause to exult in the +favorable reception of them by the public.” With Lee’s +disappearance the last army rival dropped from the ranks, and from that time +there was no question as to who should command the armies of America. Long +after, a would-be editor of Lee’s papers wrote to Washington to ask if he +had any wishes in regard to the publication, and was told in the reply +that,— +</p> + +<p> +“I never had a difference with that gentleman, but on public ground, and +my conduct towards him upon this occasion was such only, as I conceived myself +indispensably bound to adopt in discharge of the public trust reposed in me. If +this produced in him unfavorable sentiments of me, I yet can never consider the +conduct I pursued, with respect to him, either wrong or improper, however I may +regret that it may have been differently viewed by him and that it excited his +censure and animadversions. Should there appear in General Lee’s writings +any thing injurious or unfriendly to me, the impartial and dispassionate world +must decide how far I deserved it from the general tenor of my conduct.” +</p> + +<p> +These attempts to undermine Washington owed their real vitality to the +Continental Congress, and it is safe to say that but for Washington’s +political enemies no army rival would have ventured to push forward. In what +the opposition in that body consisted, and to what length it went, are +discussed elsewhere, but a glance at the reasons of hostility to him is proper +here. +</p> + +<p> +John Adams declared himself “sick of the Fabian systems,” and in +writing of the thanksgiving for the Saratoga Convention, he said that +“one cause of it ought to be that the glory of turning the tide of arms +is not immediately due to the commander-in-chief…. If it had, idolatry and +adulation would have been unbounded.” James Lovell asserted that +“Our affairs are Fabiused into a very disagreeable posture,” and +wrote that “depend upon it for every ten soldiers placed under the +command of our Fabius, five recruits will be wanted annually during the +war.” William Williams agreed with Jonathan Trumbull that the time had +come when “a much exalted character should make way for a +<i>general</i>” and suggested if this was not done +“voluntarily,” those to whom the public looked should “see to +it.” Abraham Clark thought “we may talk of the Enemy’s +Cruelty as we will, but we have no greater Cruelty to complain of than the +Management of our Army.” Jonathan D. Sargent asserted that “we want +a general—thousands of Lives & Millions of Property are yearly +sacrificed to the Insufficiency of our Commander-in-Chief—Two Battles he +has lost for us by two such Blunders as might have disgraced a Soldier of three +months standing, and yet we are so attached to this Man that I fear we shall +rather sink with him than throw him off our Shoulders. And sink we must under +his Management. Such Feebleness, & Want of Authority, such Confusion & +Want of Discipline, such Waste, such destruction would exhaust the Wealth of +both the Indies & annihilate the armies of all Europe and Asia.” +Richard Henry Lee agreed with Mifflin that Gates was needed to “procure +the indispensable changes in our Army.” Other Congressmen who were +inimical to Washington, either by openly expressed opinion or by vote, were +Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Adams, William Ellery, Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sherman, +Samuel Chase, and F.L. Lee. Later, when Washington’s position was more +secure, Gerry and R.H. Lee wrote to him affirming their friendship, and to both +the General replied without a suggestion of ill-feeling, nor does he seem, in +later life, to have felt a trace of personal animosity towards any one of the +men who had been in opposition to him in Congress. Of this enmity in the army +and Congress Washington wrote,— +</p> + +<p> +“It is easy to bear the first, and even the devices of private enemies +whose ill will only arises from their common hatred to the cause we are engaged +in, are to me tolerable; yet, I confess, I cannot help feeling the most painful +sensations, whenever I have reason to believe I am the object of persecution to +men, who are embarked in the same general interest, and whose friendship my +heart does not reproach me with, ever having done any thing to forfeit. But +with many, it is a sufficient cause to hate and wish the ruin of a man, because +he has been happy enough, to be the object of <i>his country’s</i> +favor.” +</p> + +<p> +The political course of Washington while President produced the alienation of +the two Virginians whom he most closely associated with himself in the early +part of his administration. With Madison the break does not seem to have come +from any positive ill-feeling, but was rather an abandonment of intercourse as +the differences of opinion became more pronounced. The disagreement with +Jefferson was more acute, though probably never forced to an open rupture. To +his political friends Jefferson in 1796 wrote that the measures pursued by the +administration were carried out “under the sanction of a name which has +done too much good not to be sufficient to cover harm also,” and that he +hoped the President’s “honesty and his political errors may not +furnish a second occasion to exclaim, ‘curse on his virtues, +they’ve undone his country.’” Henry Lee warned Washington of +the undercurrent of criticism, and when Jefferson heard indirectly of this he +wrote his former chief that “I learn that [Lee] has thought it worth his +while to try to sow tares between you and me, by representing me as still +engaged in the bustle of politics & in turbulence & intrigue against +the government. I never believed for a moment that this could make any +impression on you, or that your knowledge of me would not overweigh the slander +of an intriguer dirtily employed in sifting the conversations of my +table.” To this Washington replied,— +</p> + +<p> +“As you have mentioned the subject yourself, it would not be frank, +candid or friendly to conceal, that your conduct has been represented as +derogating from that opinion <i>I</i> had conceived you entertained of me; +that, to your particular friends and connexions you have described, and they +have denounced me as a person under a dangerous influence; and that, if I would +listen more to some <i>other</i> opinions, all would be well. My answer +invariably has been, that I had never discovered any thing in the conduct of +Mr. Jefferson to raise suspicions in my mind of his insincerity; that, if he +would retrace my public conduct while he was in the administration, abundant +proofs would occur to him, that truth and right decisions were the <i>sole</i> +objects of my pursuit; that there was as many instances within his own +knowledge of my having decided <i>against</i> as in <i>favor</i> of the +opinions of the person evidently alluded to; and, I was no believer in the +infallibility of the politics or measures of <i>any man living</i>. In short +that I was no party man myself and the first wish of my heart was, if parties +did exist, to reconcile them.” +</p> + +<p> +As proof upon proof of Jefferson’s secret enmity accumulated, Washington +ceased to trust his disclaimers, and finally wrote to one of his informants, +“Nothing short of the evidence you have adduced, corroborative of +intimations which I had received long before through another channel, could +have shaken my belief in the sincerity of a friendship, which I had conceived +as possessed for me by the person to whom you allude. But attempts to injure +those, who are supposed to stand well in the estimation of the people, and are +stumbling blocks in the way, by misrepresenting their political tenets, thereby +to destroy all confidence in them, are among the means by which the government +is to be assailed, and the constitution destroyed.” +</p> + +<p> +Once convinced, all relations with Jefferson were terminated. It is interesting +in this connection to note something repeated by Madison, to the effect that +“General Lafayette related to me the following anecdote, which I shall +repeat as nearly as I can in his own words. ‘When I last saw Mr. +Jefferson,’ he observed, ‘we conversed a good deal about General +Washington, and Mr. Jefferson expressed high admiration of his character. He +remarked particularly that he and Hamilton often disagreed when they were +members of the Cabinet, and that General Washington would sometimes favor the +opinion of one and sometimes the other, with an apparent strict impartiality. +And Mr. Jefferson added that, so sound was Washington’s judgment, that he +was commonly convinced afterwards of the accuracy of his decision, whether it +accorded with the opinion he had himself first advanced or not.’” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus20"></a> +<img src="images/img20.jpg" width="389" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">EARLIEST SIGNATURE OF WASHINGTON</p> +</div> + +<p> +A third Virginian who was almost as closely associated was Edmund Randolph. +There had been a friendship with his father, until he turned Tory and went to +England, when, according to Washington’s belief, he wrote the +“forged letters” which gave Washington so much trouble. For the +sake of the old friendship, however, he gave the son a position on his staff, +and from that time was his friend and correspondent. In the first +administration he was made Attorney-General, and when Jefferson retired from +office he became Secretary of State. In this position he was charged with +political dishonesty. Washington gave him a chance to explain, but instead he +resigned from office and published what he called “a vindication,” +in which he charged the President with “prejudging,” +“concealment,” and “want of generosity.” Continuing, he +said, “never … could I have believed that in addressing you … I should +use any other language than that of a friend. From my early period of life, I +was taught to esteem you—as I advanced in years, I was habituated to +revere you:—you strengthened my prepossessions by marks of +attention.” And in another place he acknowledged the weakness of his +attack by saying, “still however, those very objections, the very +reputation which you have acquired, will cause it to be asked, why you should +be suspected of acting towards me, in any other manner, than deliberately, +justly and even kindly?” +</p> + +<p> +In the preparation of this pamphlet Randolph wrote the President a letter which +the latter asserted was “full of innuendoes,” and one statement in +the pamphlet he denounced as being “as impudent and insolent an assertion +as it is false.” And his irritation at this treatment from one he had +always befriended gave rise to an incident, narrated by James Ross, at a +breakfast at the President’s, when “after a little while the +Secretary of War came in, and said to Washington, ‘Have you seen Mr. +Randolph’s pamphlet?’ ‘I have,’ said Washington, +‘and, by the eternal God, he is the damnedest liar on the face of the +earth!’ and as he spoke he brought his fist down upon the table with all +his strength, and with a violence which made the cups and plates start from +their places.” Fortunately, the attack was ineffective; indeed, Hamilton +wrote that “I consider it as amounting to a confession of guilt; and I am +persuaded this will be the universal opinion. His attempts against you are +viewed by all whom I have seen, as base. They will certainly fail of their aim, +and will do good rather than harm, to the public cause and to yourself. It +appears to me that, by you, no notice can be, or ought to be, taken of the +publication. It contains its own antidote.” +</p> + +<p> +Not content with this double giving up of what to any man of honor was +confidential, Randolph, a little later, rested under Washington’s +suspicions of a third time breaking the seal of official secrecy by sending a +Cabinet paper to the newspapers for no other purpose than to stir up feeling +against Washington. But after his former patron’s death regret came, and +Randolph wrote to Bushrod Washington, “If I could now present myself +before your venerated uncle it would be my pride to confess my contrition that +I suffered my irritation, be the cause what it might, to use some of those +expressions respecting him which, at this moment … I wish to recall as being +inconsistent with my subsequent convictions.” +</p> + +<p> +Another type of enemy, more or less the result of this differing with +Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Randolph, was sundry editors and writers who +gathered under their patronage and received aids of money or of secret +information. One who prospered for a time by abusing Washington was Philip +Freneau. He was a college friend of Madison’s, and was induced to +undertake the task by his and Jefferson’s urging, though the latter +denied this later. As aid to the undertaking, Jefferson, then Secretary of +State, gave Freneau an office, and thus produced the curious condition of a +clerk in the government writing and printing savage attacks on the President. +Washington was much irritated at the abuse, and Jefferson in his +“Anas” said that he “was evidently sore & warm and I took +his intention to be that I should interpose in some way with Freneau, perhaps +withdraw his appointment of translating clerk to my office. But I will not do +it.” According to the French minister, some of the worst of these +articles were written by Jefferson himself, and Freneau is reported to have +said, late in life, that many of them were written by the Secretary of State. +</p> + +<p> +Far more indecent was the paper conducted by Benjamin Franklin Bache, who, +early in the Presidency, applied for a place in the government, which for some +reason not now known was refused. According to Cobbett, who hated him, +“this … scoundrel … spent several years in hunting offices under the +Federal Government, and being constantly rejected, he at last became its most +bitter foe. Hence his abuse of General Washington, whom at the time he was +soliciting a place he panegyrized up to the third heaven.” Certain it is +that under his editorship the <i>General Advertiser</i> and <i>Aurora</i> took +the lead in all criticisms of Washington, and not content with these +opportunities for daily and weekly abuse, Bache (though the fact that they were +forgeries was notorious) reprinted the “spurious letters which issued +from a certain press in New York during the war, with a view to destroy the +confidence which the army and community might have had in my political +principles,—and which have lately been republished with greater avidity +and perseverance than ever, by Mr. Bache to answer the same nefarious purpose +with the latter,” and Washington added that “immense pains has been +taken by this said Mr. Bache, who is no more than the agent or tool of those +who are endeavoring to destroy the confidence of the people, in the officers of +Government (chosen by themselves) to disseminate these counterfeit +letters.” In addition Bache wrote a pamphlet, with the avowal that +“the design of these remarks is to prove the want of claim in Mr. +Washington either to the gratitude or confidence of his country…. Our chief +object … is to <i>destroy undue impressions in favor of Mr. +Washington</i>.” Accordingly it charged that Washington was +“treacherous,” “mischievous,” +“inefficient;” dwelt upon his “farce of +disinterestedness,” his “stately journeyings through the American +continent in search of personal incense,” his “ostentatious +professions of piety,” his “pusillanimous neglect,” his +“little passions,” his “ingratitude,” his “want +of merit,” his “insignificance,” and his “spurious +fame.” +</p> + +<p> +The successor of Bache as editor of these two journals, William Duane, came to +the office with an equal hatred of Washington, having already written a savage +pamphlet against him. In this the President was charged with “treacherous +mazes of passion,” and with having “discharged the loathings of a +sick mind.” Furthermore it asserted “that had you obtained +promotion … after Braddock’s defeat, your sword would have been drawn +against your country,” that Washington “retained the barbarous +usages of the feudal system and kept men in Livery,” and that +“posterity will in vain search for the monuments of wisdom in your +administration;” the purpose of the pamphlet, by the author’s own +statement, being “to expose the <i>Personal Idolatry</i> into which we +have been heedlessly running,” and to show the people the +“fallibility of the most favored of men.” +</p> + +<p> +A fourth in this quartet of editors was the notorious James Thomson Callender, +whose publications were numerous, as were also his impeachments against +Washington. By his own account, this writer maintained, “Mr. Washington +has been twice a traitor,” has “authorized the robbery and ruin of +the remnants of his own army,” has “broke the constitution,” +and Callender fumes over “the vileness of the adulation which has been +paid” to him, claiming that “the extravagant popularity possessed +by this citizen reflects the utmost ridicule on the discernment of +America.” +</p> + +<p> +The bitterest attack, however, was penned by Thomas Paine. For many years there +was good feeling between the two, and in 1782, when Paine was in financial +distress, Washington used his influence to secure him a position “out of +friendship for me,” as Paine acknowledged. Furthermore, Washington tried +to get the Virginia Legislature to pension Paine or give him a grant of land, +an endeavor for which the latter was “exceedingly obliged.” When +Paine published his “Rights of Man” he dedicated it to Washington, +with an inscription dwelling on his “exemplary virtue” and his +“benevolence;” while in the body of the work he asserted that no +monarch of Europe had a character to compare with Washington’s, which was +such as to “put all those men called kings to shame.” Shortly after +this, however, Washington refused to appoint him Postmaster-General; and still +later, when Paine had involved himself with the French, the President, after +consideration, decided that governmental interference was not proper. Enraged +by these two acts, Paine published a pamphlet in which he charged Washington +with “encouraging and swallowing the greatest adulation,” with +being “the patron of fraud,” with a “mean and servile +submission to the insults of one nation, treachery and ingratitude to +another,” with “falsehood,” “ingratitude,” and +“pusillanimity;” and finally, after alleging that the General had +not “served America with more disinterestedness or greater zeal, than +myself, and I know not if with better effect,” Paine closed his attack by +the assertion, “and as to you, sir, <i>treacherous in private +friendship</i>, and a <i>hypocrite</i> in public life, the world will be +puzzled to decide, whether you are an <i>apostate</i> or an <i>impostor</i>; +whether you have <i>abandoned good principles</i>, or whether <i>you ever had +any?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +Washington never, in any situation, took public notice of these attacks, and he +wrote of a possible one, “I am gliding down the stream of life, and wish, +as is natural, that my remaining days may be undisturbed and tranquil; and, +conscious of my integrity, I would willingly hope, that nothing would occur +tending to give me anxiety; but should anything present itself in this or any +other publication, I shall never undertake the painful task of recrimination, +nor do I know that I should even enter upon my justification.” To a +friend he said, “my temper leads me to peace and harmony with all men; +and it is peculiarly my wish to avoid any feuds or dissentions with those who +are embarked in the same great national interest with myself; as every +difference of this kind must in its consequence be very injurious.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>XI<br/> +SOLDIER</h2> + +<p> +“My inclinations,” wrote Washington at twenty-three, “are +strongly bent to arms,” and the tendency was a natural one, coming not +merely from his Indian-fighting great-grandfather, but from his elder brother +Lawrence, who had held a king’s commission in the Carthagena expedition, +and was one of the few officers who gained repute in that ill-fated attempt. At +Mount Vernon George must have heard much of fighting as a lad, and when the ill +health of Lawrence compelled resignation of command of the district militia, +the younger brother succeeded to the adjutancy. This quickly led to the command +of the first Virginia regiment when the French and Indian War was brewing. +Twice Washington resigned in disgust during the course of the war, but each +time his natural bent, or “glowing zeal,” as he phrased it, drew +him back into the service. The moment the news of Lexington reached Virginia he +took the lead in organizing an armed force, and in the Virginia Convention of +1775, according to Lynch, he “made the most eloquent speech … that ever +was made. Says he, ‘I will raise one thousand men, enlist them at my own +expense, and march myself at their head for the relief of Boston.’” +At fifty-three, in speaking of war, Washington said, “my first wish is to +see this plague to mankind banished from off the earth;” but during his +whole life, when there was fighting to be done, he was among those who +volunteered for the service. +</p> + +<p> +The personal courage of the man was very great. Jefferson, indeed, said +“he was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest +unconcern.” Before he had ever been in action, he noted of a certain +position that it was “a charming field for an encounter,” and his +first engagement he described as follows: “I fortunately escaped without +any wound, for the right wing, where I stood, was exposed to and received all +the enemy’s fire, and it was the part where the man was killed, and the +rest wounded. I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something +charming in the sound.” In his second battle, though he knew that he was +“to be attacked and by unequal numbers,” he promised beforehand to +“withstand” them “if there are five to one,” adding, +“I doubt not, but if you hear I am beaten, but you will, at the same +[time,] hear that we have done our duty, in fighting as long [as] there was a +possibility of hope,” and in this he was as good as his word. When +sickness detained him in the Braddock march, he halted only on condition that +he should receive timely notice of when the fighting was to begin, and in that +engagement he exposed himself so that “I had four bullets through my +coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, altho’ death was +levelling my companions on every side of me!” Not content with such an +experience, in the second march on Fort Duquesne he “prayed” the +interest of a friend to have his regiment part of the “light +troops” that were to push forward in advance of the main army. +</p> + +<p> +The same carelessness of personal danger was shown all through the Revolution. +At the battle of Brooklyn, on New York Island, at Trenton, Germantown, and +Monmouth, he exposed himself to the enemy’s fire, and at the siege of +Yorktown an eyewitness relates that “during the assault, the British kept +up an incessant firing of cannon and musketry from their whole line. His +Excellency General Washington, Generals Lincoln and Knox with their aids, +having dismounted, were standing in an exposed situation waiting the result. +Colonel Cobb, one of General Washington’s aids, solicitous for his +safety, said to his Excellency, ‘Sir, you are too much exposed here, had +you not better step back a little?’ ‘Colonel Cobb,’ replied +his Excellency, ‘if you are afraid, you have liberty to step +back.’” It is no cause for wonder that an officer wrote, “our +army love their General very much, but they have one thing against him, which +is the little care he takes of himself in any action. His personal bravery, and +the desire he has of animating his troops by example, make him fearless of +danger. This occasions us much uneasiness.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus21"></a> +<img src="images/img21.jpg" width="370" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">WASHINGTON’S TRANSCRIPT OF THE RULES OF CIVILITY, +CIRCA 1744</p> +</div> + +<p> +This fearlessness was equally shown by his hatred and, indeed, +non-comprehension of cowardice. In his first battle, upon the French +surrendering, he wrote to the governor, “if the whole Detach’t of +the French behave with no more Resolution than this chosen Party did, I flatter +myself we shall have no g’t trouble in driving them to the +d—-.” At Braddock’s defeat, though the regiment he had +commanded “behaved like men and died like soldiers,” he could +hardly find words to express his contempt for the conduct of the British +“cowardly regulars,” writing of their “dastardly +behavior” when they “broke and ran as sheep before hounds,” +and raging over being “most scandalously” and “shamefully +beaten.” When the British first landed on New York Island, and two New +England brigades ran away from “a small party of the enemy,” +numbering about fifty, without firing a shot, he completely lost his +self-control at their “dastardly behavior,” and riding in among +them, it is related, he laid his cane over the officers’ backs, +“damned them for cowardly rascals,” and, drawing his sword, struck +the soldiers right and left with the flat of it, while snapping his pistols at +them. Greene states that the fugitives “left his Excellency on the ground +within eighty yards of the enemy, so vexed at the infamous conduct of the +troops, that he sought death rather than life,” and Gordon adds that the +General was only saved from his “hazardous position” by his aides, +who “caught the bridle of his horse and gave him a different +direction.” At Monmouth an aide stated that when he met a man running +away he was “exasperated … and threatened the man … he would have him +whipped,” and General Scott says that on finding Lee retreating, +“he swore like an angel from heaven.” Wherever in his letters he +alludes to cowardice it is nearly always coupled with the adjectives +“infamous,” “scandalous,” or others equally indicative +of loss of temper. +</p> + +<p> +There can be no doubt that Washington had a high temper. Hamilton’s +allusion to his not being remarkable for “good temper” has already +been quoted, as has also Stuart’s remark that “all his features +were indicative of the strongest and most ungovernable passions, and had he +been born in the forests, he would have been the fiercest man among the savage +tribes.” Again Stuart is quoted by his daughter as follows: +</p> + +<p> +“While talking one day with General Lee, my father happened to remark +that Washington had a tremendous temper, but held it under wonderful control. +General Lee breakfasted with the President and Mrs. Washington a few days +afterwards. +</p> + +<p> +“‘I saw your portrait the other day,’ said the General, +‘but Stuart says you have a tremendous temper.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Upon my word,’ said Mrs. Washington, coloring, ‘Mr. +Stuart takes a great deal upon himself to make such a remark.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘But stay, my dear lady,’ said General Lee, ‘he added +that the president had it under wonderful control.’ +</p> + +<p> +“With something like a smile, General Washington remarked, ‘He is +right.’” +</p> + +<p> +Lear, too, mentions an outburst of temper when he heard of the defeat of St. +Clair, and elsewhere records that in reading politics aloud to Washington +“he appeared much affected, and spoke with some degree of asperity on the +subject, which I endeavored to moderate, as I always did on such +occasions.” How he swore at Randolph and at Freneau is mentioned +elsewhere. Jefferson is evidence that “his temper was naturally irritable +and high-toned, but reflection and resolution had obtained a firm and habitual +ascendency over it. If however it broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in +his wrath.” +</p> + +<p> +Strikingly at variance with these personal qualities of courage and hot blood +is the “Fabian” policy for which he is so generally credited, and a +study of his military career goes far to dispel the conception that Washington +was the cautious commander that he is usually pictured. +</p> + +<p> +In the first campaign, though near a vastly superior French force, Washington +precipitated the conflict by attacking and capturing an advance party, though +the delay of a few days would have brought him large reinforcements. As a +consequence he was very quickly surrounded, and after a day’s fighting +was compelled to surrender. In what light his conduct was viewed at the time is +shown in two letters, Dr. William Smith writing, “the British cause,… has +received a fatal Blow by the entire defeat of Washington, whom I cannot but +accuse of Foolhardiness to have ventured so near a vigilant enemy without being +certain of their numbers, or waiting for Junction of some hundreds of our best +Forces, who are within a few Days’ March of him,” and Ann Willing +echoed this by saying, “the melancholy news has just arrived of the loss +of sixty men belonging to Col. Washington’s Company, who were killed on +the spot, and of the Colonel and Half-King being taken prisoners, all owing to +the obstinacy of Washington, who would not wait for the arrival of +reinforcements.” +</p> + +<p> +Hardly less venturesome was he in the Braddock campaign, for “the General +(before they met in council,) asked my opinion concerning the expedition. I +urged it, in the warmest terms I was able, to push forward, if we even did it +with a small but chosen band, with such artillery and light stores as were +absolutely necessary; leaving the heavy artillery, baggage, &c. with the +rear division of the army, to follow by slow and easy marches, which they might +do safely, while we were advanced in front.” How far the defeat of that +force was due to the division thus urged it is not possible to say, but it +undoubtedly made the French bolder and the English more subject to panic. +</p> + +<p> +The same spirit was manifested in the Revolution. During the siege of Boston he +wrote to Reed, “I proposed [an assault] in council; but behold, though we +had been waiting all the year for this favorable event the enterprise was +thought too dangerous. Perhaps it was; perhaps the irksomeness of my situation +led me to undertake more than could be warranted by prudence. I did not think +so, and I am sure yet, that the enterprise, if it had been undertaken with +resolution, must have succeeded.” He added that “the enclosed +council of war:… being almost unanimous, I must suppose it to be right; +although, from a thorough conviction of the necessity of attempting something +against the ministerial troops before a reinforcement should arrive, and while +we were favored with the ice, I was not only ready but willing, and desirous of +making the assault,” and a little later he said that had he but foreseen +certain contingencies “all the generals upon earth should not have +convinced me of the propriety of delaying an attack upon Boston.” +</p> + +<p> +In the defence of New York there was no chance to attack, but even when our +lines at Brooklyn had been broken and the best brigades in the army captured, +Washington hurried troops across the river, and intended to contest the ground, +ordering a retreat only when it was voted in the affirmative by a council of +war. At Harlem plains he was the attacking party. +</p> + +<p> +How with a handful of troops he turned the tide of defeat by attacking at +Trenton and Princeton is too well known to need recital. At Germantown, too, +though having but a few days before suffered defeat, he attacked and well-nigh +won a brilliant victory, because the British officers did not dream that his +vanquished army could possibly take the initiative. When the foe settled down +into winter quarters in Philadelphia Laurens wrote, “our +Commander-in-chief wishing ardently to gratify the public expectation by making +an attack upon the enemy … went yesterday to view the works.” On +submitting the project to a council, however, they stood eleven to four against +the attempt. +</p> + +<p> +The most marked instance of Washington’s un-Fabian preferences, and proof +of the old saying that “councils of war never fight,” is furnished +in the occurrences connected with the battle of Monmouth. When the British +began their retreat across New Jersey, according to Hamilton “the General +unluckily called a council of war, the result of which would have done honor to +the most honorable society of mid-wives and to them only. The purport was, that +we should keep at a comfortable distance from the enemy, and keep up a vain +parade of annoying them by detachment … The General, on mature reconsideration +of what had been resolved on, determined to pursue a different line of conduct +at all hazards.” Concerning this decision Pickering wrote,— +</p> + +<p> +“His great caution in respect to the enemy, acquired him the name of the +American Fabius. From this <i>governing</i> policy he is said to have departed, +when” at Monmouth he “indulged the most anxious desire to close +with his antagonist in general action. Opposed to his wishes was the advice of +his general officers. To this he for a time yielded; but as soon as he +discovered that the enemy had reached Monmouth Court House, not more than +twelve miles from the heights of Middletown, he determined that he should not +escape without a blow.” +</p> + +<p> +Pickering considered this a “departure” from Washington’s +“usual practice and policy,” and cites Wadsworth, who said, in +reference to the battle of Monmouth, that the General appeared, on that +occasion, “to act from the impulses of his own mind.” +</p> + +<p> +Thrice during the next three years plans for an attack on the enemy’s +lines at New York were matured, one of which had to be abandoned because the +British had timely notice of it by the treachery of an American general, a +second because the other generals disapproved the attempt, and, on the +authority of Humphreys, “the accidental intervention of some vessels +prevented [another] attempt, which was more than once resumed afterwards. +Notwithstanding this favorite project was not ultimately effected, it was +evidently not less bold in conception or feasible in accomplishment, than that +attempted so successfully at Trenton, or than that which was brought to so +glorious an issue in the successful siege of Yorktown.” +</p> + +<p> +As this <i>résumé</i> indicates, the most noticeable trait of +Washington’s military career was a tendency to surrender his own opinions +and wishes to those over whom he had been placed, and this resulted in a +general agreement not merely that he was disposed to avoid action, but that he +lacked decision. Thus his own aide, Reed, in obvious contrast to Washington, +praised Lee because “you have decision, a quality often wanted in minds +otherwise valuable,” continuing, “Oh! General, an indecisive mind +is one of the greatest misfortunes that can befall an army; how often have I +lamented it this campaign,” and Lee in reply alluded to “that fatal +indecision of mind.” Pickering relates meeting General Greene and saying +to him, “‘I had once conceived an exalted opinion of General +Washington’s military talents; but since I have been with the army, I +have seen nothing to increase that opinion.’ Greene answered, ‘Why, +the General does want decision: for my part, I decide in a moment.’ I +used the word ‘increase,’ though I meant ‘support,’ but +did not dare speak it.” Wayne exclaimed “if our worthy general will +but follow his own good judgment without listening too much to some +counsel!” Edward Thornton, probably repeating the prevailing public +estimate of the time rather than his own conclusion, said, “a certain +degree of indecision, however, a want of vigor and energy, may be observed in +some of his actions, and are indeed the obvious result of too refined +caution.” +</p> + +<p> +Undoubtedly this leaning on others and the want of decision were not merely due +to a constitutional mistrust of his own ability, but also in a measure to real +lack of knowledge. The French and Indian War, being almost wholly +“bush-fighting,” was not of a kind to teach strategic warfare, and +in his speech accepting the command Washington requested that “it may be +remembered by every gentleman in the room, that I this day declare with the +utmost sincerity I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored +with.” Indeed, he very well described himself and his generals when he +wrote of one officer, “his wants are common to us all—the want of +experience to move upon a large scale, for the limited and contracted +knowledge, which any of us have in military matters, stands in very little +stead.” There can be no question that in most of the “field” +engagements of the Revolution Washington was out-generalled by the British, and +Jefferson made a just distinction when he spoke of his having often +“failed in the field, and rarely against an enemy in station, as at +Boston and York.” +</p> + +<p> +The lack of great military genius in the commander-in-chief has led British +writers to ascribe the results of the war to the want of ability in their own +generals, their view being well summed up by a writer in 1778, who said, +“in short, I am of the opinion … that any other General in the world than +General Howe would have beaten General Washington; and any other General in the +world than General Washington would have beaten General Howe.” +</p> + +<p> +This is, in effect, to overlook the true nature of the contest, for it was +their very victories that defeated the British. They conquered New Jersey, to +meet defeat; they captured Philadelphia, only to find it a danger; they +established posts in North Carolina, only to abandon them; they overran +Virginia, to lay down their arms at Yorktown. As Washington early in the war +divined, the Revolution was “a war of posts,” and he urged the +danger of “dividing and subdividing our Force too much [so that] we shall +have no one post sufficiently guarded,” saying, “it is a military +observation strongly supported by experience, ‘that a superior army may +fall a sacrifice to an inferior, by an injudicious division.’” It +was exactly this which defeated the British; every conquest they made weakened +their force, and the war was not a third through when Washington said, “I +am well convinced myself, that the enemy, long ere this, are perfectly well +satisfied, that the possession of our towns, while we have an army in the +field, will avail them little.” As Franklin said, when the news was +announced that Howe had captured Philadelphia, “No, Philadelphia has +captured Howe.” +</p> + +<p> +The problem of the Revolution was not one of military strategy, but of keeping +an army in existence, and it was in this that the commander-in-chief’s +great ability showed itself. The British could and did repeatedly beat the +Continental army, but they could not beat the General, and so long as he was in +the field there was a rallying ground for whatever fighting spirit there was. +</p> + +<p> +The difficulty of this task can hardly be over-magnified. When Washington +assumed command of the forces before Boston, he “found a mixed multitude +of people … under very little discipline, order, or government,” and +“confusion and disorder reigned in every department, which, in a little +time, must have ended either in the separation of the army or fatal contests +with one another.” Before he was well in the saddle his general officers +were quarrelling over rank, and resigning; there was such a scarcity of powder +that it was out of the question for some months to do anything; and the British +sent people infected with small-pox to the Continental army, with a consequent +outbreak of that pest. +</p> + +<p> +Hardly had he brought order out of chaos when the army he had taken such pains +to discipline began to melt away, having been by political folly recruited for +short terms, and the work was to be all done over. Again and again during the +war regiments which had been enlisted for short periods left him at the most +critical moment. Very typical occurrences he himself tells of, when Connecticut +troops could “not be prevailed upon to stay longer than their term +(saving those who have enlisted for the next campaign, and mostly on furlough), +and such a dirty, mercenary spirit pervades the whole, that I should not be at +all surprised at any disaster that may happen,” and when he described how +in his retreat through New Jersey, “The militia, instead of calling forth +their utmost efforts to a brave and manly opposition in order to repair our +losses, are dismayed, intractable, and impatient to return. Great numbers of +them have gone off; in some instances, almost by whole regiments, by half ones, +and by companies at a time.” Another instance of this evil occurred when +“the Continental regiments from the eastern governments … agreed to stay +six weeks beyond their term of enlistment…. For this extraordinary mark of +their attachment to their country, I have agreed to give them a bounty of ten +dollars per man, besides their pay running on.” The men took the bounty, +and nearly one-half went off a few days after. +</p> + +<p> +Nor was this the only evil of the policy of short enlistments. Another was that +the new troops not merely were green soldiers, but were without discipline. At +New York Tilghman wrote that after the battle of Brooklyn the +“Eastern” soldiers were “plundering everything that comes in +their way,” and Washington in describing the condition said, “every +Hour brings the most distressing complaints of the Ravages of our own Troops +who are become infinitely more formidable to the poor Farmers and Inhabitants +than the common Enemy. Horses are taken out of the Continental Teams; the +Baggage of Officers and the Hospital Stores, even the Quarters of General +Officers are not exempt from Rapine.” At the most critical moment of the +war the New Jersey militia not merely deserted, but captured and took with them +nearly the whole stores of the army. As the General truly wrote, “the +Dependence which the Congress have placed upon the militia, has already greatly +injured, and I fear will totally ruin our cause. Being subject to no controul +themselves, they introduce disorder among the troops, whom you have attempted +to discipline, while the change in their living brings on sickness; this makes +them Impatient to get home, which spreads universally, and introduces +abominable desertions.” “The collecting militia,” he said +elsewhere, “depends entirely upon the prospects of the day. If favorable +they throng in to you; if not, they will not move.” +</p> + +<p> +To make matters worse, politics were allowed to play a prominent part in the +selection of officers, and Washington complained that “the different +States [were], without regard to the qualifications of an officer, quarrelling +about the appointments, and nominating such as are not fit to be shoeblacks, +from the attachments of this or that member of Assembly.” As a result, so +he wrote of New England, “their officers are generally of the lowest +class of the people; and, instead of setting a good example to their men, are +leading them into every kind of mischief, one species of which is plundering +the inhabitants, under the pretence of their being Tories.” To this +political motive he himself would not yield, and a sample of his appointments +was given when a man was named “because he stands unconnected with either +of these Governments; or with this, or that or tother man; for between you and +me there is more in this than you can easily imagine,” and he asserted +that “I will not have any Gentn. introduced from family connexion, or +local attachments, to the prejudice of the Service.” +</p> + +<p> +To misbehaving soldiers Washington showed little mercy. In his first service he +had deserters and plunderers “flogged,” and threatened that if he +could “lay hands” on one particular culprit, “I would try the +effect of 1000 lashes.” At another time he had “a Gallows near 40 +feet high erected (which has terrified the <i>rest</i> exceedingly) and I am +determined if I can be justified in the proceeding, to hang two or three on it, +as an example to others.” When he took command of the Continental army he +“made a pretty good slam among such kind of officers as the Massachusetts +Government abound in since I came to this Camp, having broke one Colo, and two +Captains for cowardly behavior in the action on Bunker’s Hill,—two +Captains for drawing more provisions and pay than they had men in their +Company—and one for being absent from his Post when the Enemy appeared +there and burnt a House just by it Besides these, I have at this time—one +Colo., one Major, one Captn., & two subalterns under arrest for +tryal—In short I spare none yet fear it will not at all do as these +People seem to be too inattentive to every thing but their Interest” +“I am sorry,” he wrote, “to be under a Necessity of making +frequent Examples among the Officers,” but “as nothing can be more +fatal to an Army, than Crimes of this kind, I am determined by every Motive of +Reward and Punishment to prevent them in future.” Even when plundering +was avoided there were short commons for those who clung to the General. The +commander-in-chief wrote Congress that “they have often, very often, been +reduced to the necessity of Eating Salt Porke, or Beef not for a day, or a week +but months together without Vegetables, or money to buy them;” and again, +he complained that “the Soldiers [were forced to] eat every kind of horse +food but Hay. Buckwheat, common wheat, Rye and Indn. Corn was the composition +of the Meal which made their bread. As an Army they bore it, [but] accompanied +by the want of Cloaths, Blankets, &c., will produce frequent desertions in +all armies and so it happens with us, tho’ it did not excite a +mutiny.” Even the horses suffered, and Washington wrote to the +quartermaster-general, “Sir, my horses I am told have not had a mouthful +of long or short forage for three days. They have eaten up their mangers and +are now, (though wanted for immediate use,) scarcely able to stand.” +</p> + +<p> +Two results were sickness and discontent. At times one-fourth of the soldiers +were on the sick-list. Three times portions of the army mutinied, and nothing +but Washington’s influence prevented the disorder from spreading. At the +end of the war, when, according to Hamilton, “the army had secretly +determined not to lay down their arms until due provision and a satisfactory +prospect should be offered on the subject of their pay,” the +commander-in-chief urged Congress to do them justice, writing, “the +fortitude—the long, & great suffering of this army is unexampled in +history; but there is an end to all things & I fear we are very near to +this. Which, more than probably will oblige me to stick very close to my flock +this winter, & try like a careful physician, to prevent, if possible, the +disorders getting to an incurable height.” In this he judged rightly, for +by his influence alone was the army prevented from adopting other than peaceful +measures to secure itself justice. +</p> + +<p> +A chief part of these difficulties the Continental Congress is directly +responsible for, and the reason for their conduct is to be found largely in the +circumstances of Washington’s appointment to the command. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus22"></a> +<img src="images/img22.jpg" width="406" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">LIFE MASK OF WASHINGTON</p> +</div> + +<p> +When the Second Congress met, in May, 1775, the battle of Lexington had been +fought, and twenty thousand minute-men were assembled about Boston. To pay and +feed such a horde was wholly beyond the ability of New England, and her +delegates came to the Congress bent upon getting that body to assume the +expense, or, as the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts naively put it, +“we have the greatest Confidence in the Wisdom and Ability of the +Continent to support us.” +</p> + +<p> +The other colonies saw this in a different light. Massachusetts, without our +advice, has begun a war and embodied an army; let Massachusetts pay her own +bills, was their point of view. “I have found this Congress like the +last,” wrote John Adams. “When we first came together, I found a +strong jealousy of us from New England, and the Massachusettes in particular, +suspicions entertained of designs of independency, an American republic, +Presbyterian principles, and twenty other things. Our sentiments were heard in +Congress with great caution, and seemed to make but little impression.” +Yet “every post brought me letters from my friends … urging in pathetic +terms the impossibility of keeping their men together without the assistance of +Congress.” “I was daily urging all these things, but we were +embarrassed with more than one difficulty, not only with the party in favor of +the petition to the King, and the party who were zealous of independence, but a +third party, which was a southern party against a Northern, and a jealousy +against a New England army under the command of a New England General.” +</p> + +<p> +Under these circumstances a political deal was resorted to, and Virginia was +offered by John and Samuel Adams, as the price of an adoption and support of +the New England army, the appointment of commander-in-chief, though the offer +was not made with over-good grace, and only because “we could carry +nothing without conceding it.” There was some dissension among the +Virginia delegates as to who should receive the appointment, Washington himself +recommending an old companion in arms, General Andrew Lewis, and “more +than one,” Adams says of the Virginia delegates, were “very cool +about the appointment of Washington, and particularly Mr. Pendleton was very +clear and full against it” Washington himself said the appointment was +due to “partiality of the Congress, joined to a political motive;” +and, hard as it is to realize, it was only the grinding political necessity of +the New England colonies which secured to Washington the place for which in the +light of to-day he seems to have been created. +</p> + +<p> +As a matter of course, there was not the strongest liking felt for the General +thus chosen by the New England delegates, and this was steadily lessened by +Washington’s frank criticism of the New England soldiers and officers +already noticed. Equally bitter to the New England delegates and their allies +were certain army measures that Washington pressed upon the attention of +Congress. He urged and urged that the troops should be enlisted for the war, +that promotions should be made from the army as a whole, and not from the +colony- or State-line alone, and most unpopular of all, that since Continental +soldiers could not otherwise be obtained, a bounty should be given to secure +them, and that as compensation for their inadequate pay half-pay should be +given them after the war. He eventually carried these points, but at the price +of an entire alienation of the democratic party in the Congress, who wished to +have the war fought with militia, to have all the officers elected annually, +and to whom the very suggestion of pensions was like a red rag to a bull. +</p> + +<p> +A part of their motive in this was unquestionably to prevent the danger of a +standing army, and of allowing the commander-in-chief to become popular with +the soldiers. Very early in the war Washington noted “the <i>jealousy</i> +which Congress unhappily entertain of the army, and which, if reports are +right, some members labor to establish.” And he complained that “I +see a distrust and jealousy of military power, that the commander-in-chief has +not an opportunity, even by recommendation, to give the least assurance of +reward for the most essential services.” The French minister told his +government that when a committee was appointed to institute certain army +reforms, delegates in Congress “insisted on the danger of associating the +Commander-in-chief with it, whose influence, it was stated, was already too +great,” and when France sent money to aid the American cause, with the +provision that it should be subject to the order of the General, it aroused, a +writer states, “the jealousy of Congress, the members of which were not +satisfied that the head of the army should possess such an agency in addition +to his military power.” +</p> + +<p> +His enemies in the Congress took various means to lessen his influence and +mortify him. Burke states that in the discussion of one question “Jersey, +Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina voted for expunging it; the +four Eastern States, Virginia and Georgia for retaining it. There appeared +through this whole debate a great desire, in some of the delegates from the +Eastern States, and in one from New Jersey, to insult the General,” and a +little later the Congress passed a “resolve which,” according to +James Lovell, “was meant to rap a Demi G—over the knuckles.” +Nor was it by commission, but as well by omission, that they showed their ill +feeling. John Laurens told his father that +</p> + +<p> +“there is a conduct observed towards” the General “by certain +great men, which as it is humiliating, must abate his happiness…. The Commander +in Chief of this army is not sufficiently informed of all that is known by +Congress of European affairs. Is it not a galling circumstance, for him to +collect the most important intelligence piecemeal, and as they choose to give +it, from gentlemen who come from York? Apart from the chagrin which he must +necessarily feel at such an appearance of slight, it should be considered that +in order to settle his plan of operations for the ensuing campaign, he should +take into view the present state of European affairs, and Congress should not +leave him in the dark.” +</p> + +<p> +Furthermore, as already noted, Washington was criticised for his Fabian policy, +and in his indignation he wrote to Congress, “I am informed that it is a +matter of amazement, and that reflections have been thrown out against this +army, for not being more active and enterprising than, in the opinion of some, +they ought to have been. If the charge is just, the best way to account for it +will be to refer you to the returns of our strength, and those which I can +produce of the enemy, and to the enclosed abstract of the clothing now actually +wanting for the army.” “I can assure those gentlemen,” he +said, in reply to political criticism, “that it is a much easier and less +distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable room by a good +fireside, than to occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow, +without clothes or blankets.” +</p> + +<p> +The ill feeling did not end with insults. With the defeats of the years 1776 +and 1777 it gathered force, and towards the end of the latter year it +crystallized in what has been known in history as the Conway Cabal. The story +of this conspiracy is so involved in shadow that little is known concerning its +adherents or its endeavors. But in a general way it has been discovered that +the New England delegates again sought the aid of the Lee faction in Virginia, +and that this coalition, with the aid of such votes as they could obtain, +schemed several methods which should lessen the influence of Washington, if +they did not force him to resign. Separate and detached commands were created, +which were made independent of the commander-in-chief, and for this purpose +even a scheme which the General called “a child of folly” was +undertaken. Officers notoriously inimical to Washington, yet upon whom he would +be forced to rely, were promoted. A board of war made up of his enemies, with +powers “in effect paramount,” Hamilton says, “to those of the +commander-in-chief,” was created It is even asserted that it was moved in +Congress that a committee should be appointed to arrest Washington, which was +defeated only by the timely arrival of a new delegate, by which the balance of +power was lost to the Cabal. +</p> + +<p> +Even with the collapse of the army Cabal the opposition in Congress was +maintained. “I am very confident,” wrote General Greene, +“that there is party business going on again, and, as Mifflin is +connected with it, I doubt not its being a revival of the old scheme;” +again writing, “General Schuyler and others consider it a plan of +Mifflin’s to injure your Excellency’s operations. I am now fully +convinced of the reality of what I suggested to you before I came away.” +In 1779 John Sullivan, then a member of Congress, wrote,— +</p> + +<p> +“Permit me to inform your Excellency, that the faction raised against you +in 1777, is not yet destroyed. The members are waiting to collect strength, and +seize some favorable moment to appear in force. I speak not from conjecture, +but from certain knowledge. Their plan is to take every method of proving the +danger arising from a commander, who enjoys the full and unlimited confidence +of his army, and alarm the people with the prospects of imaginary evils; nay, +they will endeavor to convert your virtue into arrows, with which, they will +seek to wound you.” +</p> + +<p> +But Washington could not be forced into a resignation, ill-treat and slight him +as they would, and at no time were they strong enough to vote him out of +office. For once a Congressional “deal” between New England and +Virginia did not succeed, and as Washington himself wrote, “I have a good +deal of reason to believe that the machination of this junto will recoil on +their own heads, and be a means of bringing some matters to light which by +getting me out of the way, some of them thought to conceal,” In this he +was right, for the re-elections of both Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee were +put in danger, and for some time they were discredited even in their own +colonies. “I have happily had,” Washington said to a correspondent, +“but few differences with those with whom I have had the honor of being +connected in the service. With whom, and of what nature these have been, you +know. I bore much for the sake of peace and the public good” +</p> + +<p> +As is well known, Washington served without pay during his eight years of +command, and, as he said, “fifty thousand pounds would not induce me +again to undergo what I have done.” No wonder he declared “that the +God of armies may incline the hearts of my American brethren to support the +present contest, and bestow sufficient abilities on me to bring it to a speedy +and happy conclusion, thereby enabling me to sink into sweet retirement, and +the full enjoyment of that peace and happiness, which will accompany a domestic +life, is the first wish and most fervent prayer of my soul.” +</p> + +<p> +The day finally came when his work was finished, and he could be, as he phrased +it, “translated into a private citizen.” Marshall describes the +scene as follows: “At noon, the principal officers of the army assembled +at Frances’ tavern; soon after which, their beloved commander entered the +room. His emotions were too strong to be concealed. Filling a glass, he turned +to them and said, ‘With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take +leave of you; I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous +and happy, as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.’ Having +drunk, he added, ‘I cannot come to each of you to take my leave; but +shall be obliged to you, if each of you will come and take me by the +hand.’ General Knox, being nearest, turned to him. Incapable of +utterance, Washington grasped his hand, and embraced him. In the same +affectionate manner he took leave of each succeeding officer. In every eye was +the tear of dignified sensibility, and not a word was articulated to interrupt +the majestic silence, and the tenderness of the scene. Leaving the room, he +passed through the corps of light infantry, and walked to Whitehall, where a +barge waited to convey him to Powles-hook. The whole company followed in mute +and solemn procession, with dejected countenance … Having entered the barge, he +turned to the company, and, waving his hat, bade them a silent adieu.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>XII<br/> +CITIZEN AND OFFICE-HOLDER</h2> + +<p> +Washington became a government servant before he became a voter, by receiving +in 1749, or when he was seventeen years of age, the appointment of official +surveyor of Culpepper County, the salary of which, according to Boucher, was +about fifty pounds Virginia currency a year. The office was certainly not a +very fat berth, for it required the holder to live in a frontier county, to +travel at times, as Washington in his journal noted, over “ye worst Road +that ever was trod by Man or Beast,” to sometimes lie on straw, which +once “catch’d a Fire,” and we “was luckily Preserved by +one of our Mens waking,” sometimes under a tent, which occasionally +“was Carried quite of[f] with ye Wind and” we “was obliged to +Lie ye Latter part of ye night without covering,” and at other times +driven from under the tent by smoke. Indeed, one period of surveying Washington +described to a friend by writing,— +</p> + +<p> +“[Since] October Last I have not sleep’d above three Nights or four +in a bed but after Walking a good deal all the Day lay down before the fire +upon a Little Hay Straw Fodder or bearskin which-ever is to be had with Man +Wife and Children like a Parcel of Dogs or Catts & happy’s he that +gets the Birth nearest the fire there’s nothing would make it pass of +tolerably but a good Reward a Dubbleloon is my constant gain every Day that the +Weather will permit my going out and some time Six Pistoles the coldness of the +Weather will not allow my making a long stay as the Lodging is rather too cold +for the time of Year. I have never had my Cloths of but lay and sleep in them +like a Negro except the few Nights I have lay’n in Frederick Town.” +</p> + +<p> +In 1751, when he was nineteen, Washington bettered his lot by becoming adjutant +of one of the four military districts of Virginia, with a salary of one hundred +pounds and a far less toilsome occupation. This in turn led up to his military +appointment in 1754, which he held almost continuously till 1759, when he +resigned from the service. +</p> + +<p> +Next to a position on the Virginia council, a seat in the House of Burgesses, +or lower branch of the Legislature, was most sought, and this position had been +held by Washington’s great-grandfather, father, and elder brother. It was +only natural, therefore, that in becoming the head of the family George should +desire the position. As early as 1755, while on the frontier, he wrote to his +brother in charge of Mount Vernon inquiring about the election to be held in +the county, and asking him to “come at Colo Fairfax’s intentions, +and let me know whether he purposes to offer himself as a candidate.” +“If he does not, I should be glad to take a poll, if I thought my chance +tolerably good.” His friend Carlyle, Washington wrote, had +“mentioned it to me in Williamsburg in a bantering way,” and he +begged his brother to “discover Major Carlyle’s real sentiments on +this head,” as also those of the other prominent men of the county, and +especially of the clergymen. “<i>Sound</i> their pulse,” he wrote, +“with an air of indifference and unconcern … without disclosing much of +<i>mine</i>.” “If they seem inclinable to promote my interest, and +things should be drawing to a crisis, you may declare my intention and beg +their assistance. If on the contrary you find them more inclined to favor some +other, I would have the affair entirely dropped.” Apparently the county +magnates disapproved, for Washington did not stand for the county. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus23"></a> +<img src="images/img23.jpg" width="344" height="600" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">TITLE-PAGE OF WASHINGTON’S JOURNAL</p> +</div> + +<p> +In 1757 an election for burgesses was held in Frederick County, in which +Washington then was (with his soldiers), and for which he offered himself as a +candidate. The act was hardly a wise one, for, though he had saved Winchester +and the surrounding country from being overrun by the Indians, he was not +popular. Not merely was he held responsible for the massacres of outlying +inhabitants, whom it was impossible to protect, but in this very defence he had +given cause for ill-feeling. He himself confessed that he had several times +“strained the law,”—he had been forced to impress the horses +and wagons of the district, and had in other ways so angered some of the people +that they had threatened “to blow out my brains.” But he had been +guilty of a far worse crime still in a political sense. Virginia elections were +based on liquor, and Washington had written to the governor, representing +“the great nuisance the number of tippling houses in Winchester are to +the soldiers, who by this means, in spite of the utmost care and vigilance, +are, so long as their pay holds, incessantly drunk and unfit for +service,” and he wished that “the new commission for this county +may have the intended effect,” for “the number of tippling houses +kept here is a great grievance.” As already noted, the Virginia regiment +was accused in the papers of drunkenness, and under the sting of that +accusation Washington declared war on the publicans. He whipped his men when +they became drunk, kept them away from the ordinaries, and even closed by force +one tavern which was especially culpable. “Were it not too +tedious,” he wrote the governor, “I cou’d give your Honor +such instances of the villainous Behavior of those Tippling House-keepers, as +wou’d astonish any person.” +</p> + +<p> +The conduct was admirable, but it was not good politics, and as soon as he +offered himself as a candidate, the saloon element, under the leadership of one +Lindsay, whose family were tavern-keepers in Winchester for at least one +hundred years, united to oppose him. Against the would-be burgess they set up +one Captain Thomas Swearingen, whom Washington later described as “a man +of great weight among the meaner class of people, and supposed by them to +possess extensive knowledge.” As a result, the poll showed Swearingen +elected by two hundred and seventy votes, and Washington defeated with but +forty ballots. +</p> + +<p> +This sharp experience in practical politics seems to have taught the young +candidate a lesson, for when a new election came in 1758 he took a leaf from +his enemy’s book, and fought them with their own weapons. The friendly +aid of the county boss, Colonel John Wood, was secured, as also that of Gabriel +Jones, a man of much local force and popularity. Scarcely less important were +the sinews of war employed, told of in the following detailed account. A law at +that time stood on the Virginia statutes forbidding all treating or giving of +what were called “ticklers” to the voters, and declaring illegal +all elections which were thus influenced. None the less, the voters of +Frederick enjoyed at Washington’s charge— +</p> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"> + +<tr> +<td>40 gallons of Rum Punch @ 3/6 pr. galn</td><td>7 0 0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>15 gallons of Wine @ 10/ pr. galn</td><td>7 10 0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Dinner for your Friends</td><td>3 0 0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>13½ gallons of Wine @ 10/</td><td>6 15</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>3½ pts. of Brandy @ 1/3</td><td>4 4½</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>13 Galls. Beer @ 1/3</td><td>16 3</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>8 qts. Cyder Royl @ 1/6</td><td>0 12 0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Punch</td><td>3 9</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>30 gallns. of strong beer @ 8d pr. gall</td><td>1 0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>1 hhd & 1 Barrell of Punch, consisting of</td><td></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> 26 gals. best Barbadoes rum, 5/</td><td>6 10 0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> 12 lbs. S. Refd. Sugar 1/6</td><td>18 9</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>3 galls. and 3 quarts of Beer @ 1/ pr. gall</td><td>3 9</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>10 Bowls of Punch @ 2/6 each</td><td>1 5 0</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>9 half pints of rum @ 7½ d. each</td><td>5 7½</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>1 pint of wine</td><td>1 6</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p> +After the election was over, Washington wrote Wood that “I hope no +Exception was taken to any that voted against me, but that all were alike +treated, and all had enough. My only fear is that you spent with too sparing a +hand.” It is hardly necessary to say that such methods reversed the +former election; Washington secured three hundred and ten votes, and Swearingen +received forty-five. What is more, so far from now threatening to blow out his +brains, there was “a general applause and huzzaing for Colonel +Washington.” +</p> + +<p> +From this time until he took command of the army Washington was a burgess. Once +again he was elected from Frederick County, and then, in 1765, he stood for +Fairfax, in which Mount Vernon was located. Here he received two hundred and +eight votes, his colleague getting but one hundred and forty-eight, and in the +election of 1768 he received one hundred and eighty-five, and his colleague +only one hundred and forty-two. Washington spent between forty and seventy-five +pounds at each of these elections, and usually gave a ball to the voters on the +night he was chosen. Some of the miscellaneous election expenses noted in his +ledger are, “54 gallons of Strong Beer,” “52 Do. of +Ale,” “£1.0.0. to Mr. John Muir for his fiddler,” and +“For cakes at the Election £7.11.1.” +</p> + +<p> +The first duty which fell to the new burgess was service on a committee to +draught a law to prevent hogs from running at large in Winchester. He was very +regular in his attendance; and though he took little part in the proceedings, +yet in some way he made his influence felt, so that when the time came to elect +deputies to the First Congress he stood third in order among the seven +appointed to attend that body, and a year later, in the delegation to the +Continental Congress, he stood second, Peyton Randolph receiving one more vote +only, and all the other delegates less. +</p> + +<p> +This distinction was due to the sound judgment of the man rather than to those +qualities that are considered senatorial. Jefferson said, “I served with +General Washington in the legislature of Virginia before the revolution, and, +during it, with Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak +ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point which was to decide the +question. They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing that the +little ones would follow of themselves.” +</p> + +<p> +Through all his life Washington was no speechmaker. In 1758, by an order of the +Assembly, Speaker Robinson was directed to return its thanks to Colonel +Washington, on behalf of the colony, for the distinguished military services +which he had rendered to the country. As soon as he took his seat in the House, +the Speaker performed this duty in such glowing terms as quite overwhelmed him. +Washington rose to express his acknowledgments for the honor, but was so +disconcerted as to be unable to articulate a word distinctly. He blushed and +faltered for a moment, when the Speaker relieved him from his embarrassment by +saying, “Sit down, Mr. Washington, your modesty equals your valor, and +that surpasses the power of any language that I possess.” +</p> + +<p> +This stage-fright seems to have clung to him. When Adams hinted that Congress +should “appoint a General,” and added, “I had no hesitation +to declare that I had but one gentleman in my mind for that important command, +and that was a gentleman whose skill and experience as an officer, whose +independent fortune, great talents, and excellent universal character, would +command the approbation of all America, and unite the cordial exertions of all +the Colonies better than any other person in the Union,” he relates that +“Mr. Washington who happened to sit near the door, as soon as he heard me +allude to him, from his usual modesty, darted into the library-room.” +</p> + +<p> +So, too, at his inauguration as President, Maclay noted that “this great +man was agitated and embarrassed more than ever he was by the leveled cannon or +pointed musket. He trembled, and several times could scarce make out to read +[his speech], though it must be supposed he had often read it before,” +and Fisher Ames wrote, “He addressed the two Houses in the +Senate-chamber; it was a very touching scene and quite of a solemn kind. His +aspect grave, almost to sadness; his modesty actually shaking; his voice deep, +a little tremulous, and so low as to call for close attention,” +</p> + +<p> +There can be little doubt that this non-speech-making ability was not merely +the result of inaptitude, but was also a principle, for when his favorite +nephew was elected a burgess, and made a well-thought-of speech in his first +attempt, his uncle wrote him, “You have, I find, broke the ice. The only +advice I will offer to you on the occasion (if you have a mind to command the +attention of the House,) is to speak seldom, but to important subjects, except +such as particularly relate to your constituents; and, in the former case, make +yourself perfectly master of the subject. Never exceed a decent warmth, and +submit your sentiments with diffidence. A dictatorial stile, though it may +carry conviction, is always accompanied with disgust.” To a friend +writing of this same speech he said, “with great pleasure I received the +information respecting the commencement of my nephew’s political course. +I hope he will not be so bouyed by the favorable impression it has made, as to +become a babbler.” +</p> + +<p> +Even more indicative of his own conceptions of senatorial conduct is advice +given in a letter to Jack Custis, when the latter, too, achieved an election to +the Assembly. +</p> + +<p> +“I do not suppose,” he wrote, “that so young a senator as you +are, little versed in political disquisitions, can yet have much influence in a +populous assembly, composed of Gentln. of various talents and of different +views. But it is in your power to be punctual in your attendance (and duty to +the trust reposed in you exacts it of you), to hear dispassionately and +determine coolly all great questions. To be disgusted at the decision of +questions, because they are not consonant to your own ideas, and to withdraw +ourselves from public assemblies, or to neglect our attendance at them, upon +suspicion that there is a party formed, who are inimical to our cause, and to +the true interest of our country, is wrong, because these things may originate +in a difference of opinion; but, supposing the fact is otherwise, and that our +suspicions are well founded, it is the indispensable duty of every patriot to +counteract them by the most steady and uniform opposition.” +</p> + +<p> +In the Continental Congress, Randolph states, “Washington was prominent, +though silent. His looks bespoke a mind absorbed in meditation on his +country’s fate; but a positive concert between him and Henry could not +more effectually have exhibited him to view, than when Henry ridiculed the idea +of peace ‘when there was no peace,’ and enlarged on the duty of +preparing for war.” Very quickly his attendance on that body was ended by +its appointing him general. +</p> + +<p> +His political relations to the Congress have been touched upon elsewhere, but +his attitude towards Great Britain is worth attention. Very early he had said, +“At a time 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 a—s in defence of so valuable a +blessing, on which all the good and evil of life depends, is clearly my +opinion.” When actual war ensued, he was among the first to begin to +collect and drill a force, even while he wrote, “unhappy it is, though to +reflect, that a brother’s sword has been sheathed in a brother’s +breast, and that the once happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be +drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous +man hesitate in his choice?” +</p> + +<p> +Not till early in 1776 did he become a convert to independence, and then only +by such “flaming arguments as were exhibited at Falmouth and +Norfolk,” which had been burned by the British. At one time, in 1776, he +thought “the game will be pretty well up,” but “under a full +persuasion of the justice of our cause, I cannot entertain an Idea, that it +will finally sink, tho’ it may remain for some time under a cloud,” +and even in this time of terrible discouragement he maintained that +“nothing short of independence, it appears to me, can possibly do. A +peace on other terms would, if I may be allowed the expression, be a peace of +war.” +</p> + +<p> +Pickering, who placed a low estimate on his military ability, said that, +“upon the whole, I have no hesitation in saying that General +Washington’s talents were much better adapted to the Presidency of the +United States than to the command of their armies,” and this is probably +true. The diplomatist Thornton said of the President, that if his +“circumspection is accompanied by discernment and penetration, as I am +informed it is, and as I should be inclined to believe from the judicious +choice he has generally made of persons to fill public stations, he possesses +the two great requisites of a statesman, the faculty of concealing his own +sentiments and of discovering those of other men.” +</p> + +<p> +To follow his course while President is outside of the scope of this work, but +a few facts are worth noting. Allusion has already been made to his use of the +appointing power, but how clearly he held it as a “public trust” is +shown in a letter to his longtime friend Benjamin Harrison, who asked him for +an office. “I will go to the chair,” he replied, “under no +pre-engagement of any kind or nature whatsoever. But, when in it, to the best +of my judgment, discharge the duties of the office with that impartiality and +zeal for the public good, which ought never to suffer connection of blood or +friendship to intermingle so as to have the least sway on the decision of a +public nature.” This position was held to firmly. John Adams wrote an +office-seeker, “I must caution you, my dear Sir, against having any +dependence on my influence or that of any other person. No man, I believe, has +influence with the President. He seeks information from all quarters, and +judges more independently than any man I ever knew. It is of so much importance +to the public that he should preserve this superiority, that I hope I shall +never see the time that any man will have influence with him beyond the powers +of reason and argument.” +</p> + +<p> +Long after, when political strife was running high, Adams said, +“Washington appointed a multitude of democrats and jacobins of the +deepest die. I have been more cautious in this respect; but there is danger of +proscribing under imputations of democracy, some of the ablest, most +influential, and best characters in the Union.” In this he was quite +correct, for the first President’s appointments were made with a view to +destroy party and not create it, his object being to gather all the talent of +the country in support of the national government, and he bore many things +which personally were disagreeable in an endeavor to do this. +</p> + +<p> +Twice during Washington’s terms he was forced to act counter to the +public sentiment. The first time was when a strenuous attempt was made by the +French minister to break through the neutrality that had been proclaimed, when, +according to John Adams, “ten thousand people in the streets of +Philadelphia, day after day, threatened to drag Washington out of his house, +and effect a revolution in the government, or compel it to declare in favor of +the French revolution and against England.” The second time was when he +signed the treaty of 1795 with Great Britain, which produced a popular outburst +from one end of the country to the other. In neither case did Washington swerve +an iota from what he thought right, writing, “these are unpleasant +things, but they must be met with firmness.” Eventually the people always +came back to their leader, and Jefferson sighed over the fact that “such +is the popularity of the President that the people will support him in whatever +he will do or will not do, without appealing to their own reason or to anything +but their feelings towards him.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus24"></a> +<img src="images/img24.jpg" width="600" height="310" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">PRESIDENTIAL MANSION, PHILADELPHIA</p> +</div> + +<p> +It is not to be supposed from this that Washington was above considering the +popular bent, or was lacking in political astuteness. John Adams asserted that +“General Washington, one of the most attentive men in the world to the +manner of doing things, owed a great proportion of his celebrity to this +circumstance,” and frequently he is to be found considering the +popularity or expediency of courses. In 1776 he said, “I have found it of +importance and highly expedient to yield to many points in fact, without +seeming to have done it, and this to avoid bringing on a too frequent +discussion of matters which in a political view ought to be kept a little +behind the curtain, and not to be made too much the subjects of disquisition. +Time only can eradicate and overcome customs and prejudices of long +standing—they must be got the better of by slow and gradual +advances.” +</p> + +<p> +Elsewhere he wrote, “In a word, if a man cannot act in all respects as he +would wish, he must do what appears best, under the circumstances he is in. +This I aim at, however short I may fall of the end;” of a certain measure +he thought, “it has, however, like many other things in which I have been +involved, two edges, neither of which can be avoided without falling on the +other;” and that even in small things he tried to be politic is shown in +his journey through New England, when he accepted an invitation to a large +public dinner at Portsmouth, and the next day, being at Exeter, he wrote in his +diary, “a jealousy subsists between this town (where the Legislature +alternately sits) and Portsmouth; which, had I known it in time, would have +made it necessary to have accepted an invitation to a public dinner, but my +arrangements having been otherwise made, I could not.” +</p> + +<p> +Nor was Washington entirely lacking in finesse. He offered Patrick Henry a +position after having first ascertained in a roundabout manner that it would be +refused, and in many other ways showed that he understood good politics. +Perhaps the neatest of his dodges was made when the French revolutionist Volney +asked him for a general letter of introduction to the American people. This was +not, for political and personal reasons, a thing Washington cared to give, yet +he did not choose to refuse, so he wrote on a sheet of paper,— +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +“C. Volney<br/> + needs no recommendation from<br/> + Geo. Washington.” +</p> + +<p> +There is a very general belief that success in politics and truthfulness are +incompatible, yet, as already shown, Washington prospered in politics, and the +Rev. Mason L. Weems is authority for the popular statement that at six years of +age George could not tell a lie. Whether this was so, or whether Mr. Weems was +drawing on his imagination for his facts, it seems probable that Washington +partially outgrew the disability in his more mature years. +</p> + +<p> +When trying to win the Indians to the English cause in 1754, Washington in his +journal states that he “let the young Indians who were in our camp know +that the French wanted to kill the Half King,” a diplomatic statement he +hardly believed, which the writer says “had its desired effect,” +and which the French editor declared to be an “imposture.” In this +same campaign he was forced to sign a capitulation which acknowledged that he +had been guilty of assassination, and this raised such a storm in Virginia when +it became known that Washington hastened to deny all knowledge of the charge +having been contained among the articles, and alleged that it had not been made +clear to him when the paper had been translated and read. On the contrary, +another officer present at the reading states that he refused to “sign +the Capitulation because they charged us with Assasination in it.” +</p> + +<p> +In writing to an Indian agent in 1755, Washington was “greatly +enraptured” at hearing of his approach, dwelt upon the man’s +“hearty attachment to our glorious Cause” and his “Courage of +which I have had very great proofs.” Inclosing a copy of the letter to +the governor, Washington said, “the letter savors a little of flattery +&c., &c., but this, I hope is justifiable on such an occasion.” +</p> + +<p> +With his London agent there was a little difficulty in 1771, and Washington +objected to a letter received “because there is one paragraph in +particular in it … which appears to me to contain an implication of my having +deviated from the truth.” A more general charge was Charles Lee’s: +“I aver that his Excellencies letter was from beginning to the end a most +abominable lie.” +</p> + +<p> +As a <i>ruse de guerre</i> Washington drew up for a spy in 1779 a series of +false statements as to the position and number of his army for him to report to +the British. And in preparation for the campaign of 1781 “much trouble +was taken and finesse used to misguide and bewilder Sir Henry Clinton by making +a deceptive provision of ovens, forage and boats in his neighborhood.” +“Nor were less pains taken to deceive our own army,” and even +“the highest military as well as civil officers” were deceived at +this time, not merely that the secret should not leak out, but also “for +the important purpose of inducing the eastern and middle states to make greater +exertions.” +</p> + +<p> +When travelling through the South in 1791, Washington entered in his diary, +“Having suffered very much by the dust yesterday—and finding that +parties of Horse, & a number of other Gentlemen were intending to attend me +part of the way to-day, I caused their enquiries respecting the time of my +setting out, to be answered that, I should endeavor to do it before eight +o’clock; but I did it a little after five, by which means I avoided the +inconveniences above mentioned.” +</p> + +<p> +Weld, in his “Travels in America,” published that “General +Washington told me that he never was so much annoyed by the mosquitos in any +part of America as in Skenesborough, for that they used to bite through the +thickest boot.” When this anecdote appeared in print, good old Dr. +Dwight, shocked at the taradiddle, and fearing its evil influence on +Washington’s fame, spoiled the joke by explaining in a book that “a +gentleman of great respectability, who was present when General Washington made +the observation referred to, told me that he said, when describing those +mosquitoes to Mr. Weld, that they ‘bit through his stockings above the +boots.’” Whoever invented the explanation should also have evolved +a type of boots other than those worn by Washington, for unfortunately for the +story Washington’s military boots went above his “small +clothes,” giving not even an inch of stocking for either mosquito or +explanation. In 1786, Washington declared that “I do not recollect that +in the course of my life, I ever forfeited my word, or broke a promise made to +any one,” and at another time he wrote, “I never say any thing of a +Man that I have the smallest scruple of saying <i>to him</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +From 1749 till 1784, and from 1789 till 1797, or a period of forty years, +Washington filled offices of one kind or another, and when he died he still +held a commission. Thus, excluding his boyhood, there were but seven years of +his life in which he was not engaged in the public service. Even after his +retirement from the Presidency he served on a grand jury, and before this he +had several times acted as petit juror. In another way he was a good citizen, +for when at Mount Vernon he invariably attended the election, rain or shine, +though it was a ride of ten miles to the polling town. +</p> + +<p> +Both his enemies and his friends bore evidence to his honesty. Jefferson said, +“his integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever +known, no motives of interest or consanguinity or friendship or hatred, being +able to bias his decision. He was indeed in every sense of the words, a wise, a +good, and a great man.” Pickering wrote that “to the excellency of +his <i>virtues</i> I am not disposed to set any limits. All his views were +upright, all his actions just” Hamilton asserted that “the General +is a very honest Man;” and Tilghman spoke of him as “the honestest +man that I believe ever adorned human nature.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>INDEX.</h2> + +<p> +ADAMS, John, opinion of Washington, use of appointing power,<br/> +deal arranged by,<br/> +dislike of Washington,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +——, Samuel, opposed to Washington, +</p> + +<p> +Agriculture, Washington’s fondness for,<br/> +Ague, Washington’s attacks of, +</p> + +<p> +ALEXANDER, Frances, +</p> + +<p> +Alexandria, assemblies at,<br/> +Washington builds in,<br/> +lots in, +</p> + +<p> +ALIQUIPPA, Queen, +</p> + +<p> +Alton, John, +</p> + +<p> +Ames, Fisher, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Appleby school, +</p> + +<p> +ARMSTRONG, John, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +ARNOLD, B., +</p> + +<p> +Asses, breeding of, +</p> + +<p> +<i>Aurora</i>, +</p> + +<p> +BACHE, B.F., writes against Washington, +</p> + +<p> +BALLS, maternal ancestors of Washington, +</p> + +<p> +Balls, +</p> + +<p> +Bank-stock, holdings of, +</p> + +<p> +Barbadoes, Washington’s visit to, +</p> + +<p> +BARD, Dr., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +BASSETT, Burwell, +</p> + +<p> +——, Frances, +</p> + +<p> +Bath, Virginia, lots in, +</p> + +<p> +<i>Battle of Brooklyn</i>, a farce, +</p> + +<p> +Billiards, +</p> + +<p> +BISHOP, Thomas, +</p> + +<p> +BLAND, Mary, +</p> + +<p> +——, T., criticises Washington’s bow, +</p> + +<p> +“Blueskin,” +</p> + +<p> +Books, +</p> + +<p> +Boston, siege of, +</p> + +<p> +BOUCHER, Rev. J., quoted,<br/> +mentioned, +</p> + +<p> +Bounties, +</p> + +<p> +BRADDOCK, Edward, Washington and, defeat of,<br/> +march of,<br/> +mentioned, +</p> + +<p> +Brasenose College, Lawrence Washington a fellow of, +</p> + +<p> +BRISSOT de Warville, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +British forgeries, +</p> + +<p> +Brixted Parva, Lawrence Washington rector of, +</p> + +<p> +BROGLIE, Prince de, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Brooklyn, battle of, +</p> + +<p> +CALLENDER, James Thomson, publications of, +</p> + +<p> +CALVERT, Eleanor, marriage with Jack Custis,<br/> +visit to Cambridge,<br/> +remarriage, +</p> + +<p> +Cambridge, head-quarters at,<br/> +mentioned, +</p> + +<p> +CAMPBELL, A., portrait of Washington by, +</p> + +<p> +Cancer, George Washington’s,<br/> +Mary Washington’s, +</p> + +<p> +Capital. <i>See</i> Washington City. +</p> + +<p> +Cards, +</p> + +<p> +CARLYLE, Washington’s friendship for, +</p> + +<p> +——, Major, +</p> + +<p> +——, Sally, +</p> + +<p> +CARROLL, Charles, +</p> + +<p> +CARY, Mary, +</p> + +<p> +“Cato,” +</p> + +<p> +“Centinel,” +</p> + +<p> +Charity, Washington’s, +</p> + +<p> +Charleston, ladies of, visit Washington,<br/> +jackass at, +</p> + +<p> +CHASTELLUX, Marquis de, quoted,<br/> +marriage of, +</p> + +<p> +Children and Washington, +</p> + +<p> +Christ Church, +</p> + +<p> +Christianity, Washington’s view of, +</p> + +<p> +CLARK, Abraham, opinion of Washington, +</p> + +<p> +CLINTON, George, Washington’s investment with, +</p> + +<p> +——, Sir H.,<br/> +Washington’s relations with, +</p> + +<p> +Clothes, Washington’s taste in, +</p> + +<p> +Clubs, Washington’s share in, +</p> + +<p> +COBB, David, quoted,<br/> +at Yorktown, +</p> + +<p> +COBBETT, William, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Colds, Washington’s treatment of, +</p> + +<p> +Commissariat, +</p> + +<p> +Congress, Continental, Washington’s relations with,<br/> +jealousy of Washington and the army,<br/> +endeavors to insult Washington,<br/> +part in the Conway cabal,<br/> +Washington’s election to,<br/> +Washington in, +</p> + +<p> +Connecticut troops, misconduct of, +</p> + +<p> +“Conotocarius,” Indian name for Washington, +</p> + +<p> +Continental army,<br/> +sickness of,<br/> +farewell to,<br/> +small-pox in,<br/> +threatened mutiny of, +</p> + +<p> +Conway Cabal, +</p> + +<p> +CONWAY, Thomas, Washington’s relations with, +</p> + +<p> +CORBIN, Richard, +</p> + +<p> +CORNWALLIS, Lord, Washington’s relations with, +</p> + +<p> +Craigie house, +</p> + +<p> +CRAIK, Dr. James, Washington’s friendship for,<br/> +bleeds Washington, +</p> + +<p> +CULPEPER, Lord, +</p> + +<p> +Culpeper County, +</p> + +<p> +CUSTIS, Eleanor P.,<br/> +marriage to L. Lewis,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +——, G.W.P., education,<br/> +quoted,<br/> +acts, +</p> + +<p> +——, John Parke, relations with Washington,<br/> +education, +</p> + +<p> +——, Martha. <i>See</i> Washington, Martha. +</p> + +<p> +——, Martha (“Patsy”), relations of Washington +with,<br/> +death,<br/> +treatment of,<br/> +property, +</p> + +<p> +—— property, +</p> + +<p> +Dancing, Washington’s fondness of, +</p> + +<p> +DANDRIDGE, Bartholomew, +</p> + +<p> +——, Martha. <i>See</i> Washington, Martha. +</p> + +<p> +——, Mrs. +</p> + +<p> +DEANE, Silas, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +DE BUTTS, Lawrence, +</p> + +<p> +Democratic criticism of Washington, +</p> + +<p> +DENT, Elizabeth, +</p> + +<p> +DICK, Dr., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Dismal Swamp Company, +</p> + +<p> +Distillery at Mount Vernon, +</p> + +<p> +District of Columbia, +</p> + +<p> +Dogs, +</p> + +<p> +DUANE, William, writes against Washington, +</p> + +<p> +Duelling, Washington’s views on,<br/> +threatened, +</p> + +<p> +DUER, W.A., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +DUMAS, M., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +DUNLAP, W., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Duquesne, Fort, +</p> + +<p> +“Eltham,” +</p> + +<p> +Exeter, Bishop of, Sermons, +</p> + +<p> +FAIRFAX, Ann, +</p> + +<p> +——, Bryan, Lord, +</p> + +<p> +——, George William, +</p> + +<p> +——, Sally, 90-1, +</p> + +<p> +——, Thomas, Lord, +</p> + +<p> +——, William, +</p> + +<p> +Fairfax County, +</p> + +<p> +Fairfax Parish, +</p> + +<p> +Farewell Address,<br/> +drafting of, +</p> + +<p> +Fauntleroy, Betsy,<br/> +William, +</p> + +<p> +Federal city. <i>See</i> Washington City. +</p> + +<p> +Fees, Washington’s gifts of, +</p> + +<p> +Fertilization, Washington’s value of, +</p> + +<p> +Fish, Washington’s fondness of, +</p> + +<p> +Fishery at Mount Vernon, +</p> + +<p> +Fishing, +</p> + +<p> +Flour, Washington’s pride in his, +</p> + +<p> +Forged letters,<br/> +authorship of,<br/> +Bache reprints, +</p> + +<p> +Fort Necessity, +</p> + +<p> +Fox hunting, +</p> + +<p> +FRANKLIN, B., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Frederick County, Washington stands for, +</p> + +<p> +Fredericksburg,<br/> +residence of Mary Washington, +</p> + +<p> +French and Indian War, +</p> + +<p> +French language, Washington on, +</p> + +<p> +FRENEAU, P., writes against Washington, +</p> + +<p> +GAGE, Thomas, relations with Washington, +</p> + +<p> +GATES, Horatio, Washington’s relations with,<br/> +mentioned, +</p> + +<p> +General orders, quotations from, +</p> + +<p> +Genet episode, +</p> + +<p> +GENN, James, Washington learns surveying from, +</p> + +<p> +Germantown, battle of, +</p> + +<p> +GERRY, Elbridge, attitude towards Washington, +</p> + +<p> +GIBBONS, Mary, scandal concerning, +</p> + +<p> +GORDON, Rev. W., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Great Britain, Washington’s attitude towards, +</p> + +<p> +GREEN, Rev. Charles, +</p> + +<p> +GREENE, N., friendship with Washington,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +GRYMES, Lucy, +</p> + +<p> +Half-King, +</p> + +<p> +HAMILTON, A., mentioned,<br/> +quoted,<br/> +Washington’s relations with, +</p> + +<p> +HARRISON, Benjamin,<br/> +letter of,<br/> +asks office, +</p> + +<p> +——, R.H., +</p> + +<p> +HENRY Eighth grants lands to Washingtons, +</p> + +<p> +HENRY, Patrick, quoted,<br/> +mentioned,<br/> +offered office, +</p> + +<p> +Herring, sales of, +</p> + +<p> +Hickey plot, +</p> + +<p> +Horses, stud at Mount Vernon, +</p> + +<p> +Houdon bust, +</p> + +<p> +HOWE, Lord, and Sir William, Washington’s relations with, +</p> + +<p> +Humphreys, D., quoted,<br/> +relations with Washington, +</p> + +<p> +HUNTER, J., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Hunting, +</p> + +<p> +Independence, Washington on, +</p> + +<p> +Indians,<br/> +Washington’s diplomacy with, +</p> + +<p> +James River Land Company, Washington’s interest in, +</p> + +<p> +Jay treaty, +</p> + +<p> +JEFFERSON, Thomas, Washington’s relations with,<br/> +opinion of Washington,<br/> +helps Freneau,<br/> +quoted,<br/> +mentioned, +</p> + +<p> +JONES, Gabriel, +</p> + +<p> +Kenmore House, +</p> + +<p> +KNOX, Henry,<br/> +relations with Washington, +</p> + +<p> +LAFAYETTE, Marquis de,<br/> +Washington’s relations with,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +——, G.W., +</p> + +<p> +——, Virginia, +</p> + +<p> +Land bounties, +</p> + +<p> +—— companies, +</p> + +<p> +Latin, Washington’s knowledge of, +</p> + +<p> +LAURENS, John, Washington’s relations with,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +LAWRENCE, Nathaniel, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Lawsuits, Washington’s dislike of, +</p> + +<p> +LEAR, T., friendship for,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +LEE, Charles, Washington’s relations with,<br/> +libels Washington,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +——, Henry, friendship for Washington,<br/> +anecdote of,<br/> +warns Washington of Jefferson’s conduct, +</p> + +<p> +——, R.H., opinion of Washington,<br/> +re-election of, +</p> + +<p> +——, William, Washington’s body-servant, +</p> + +<p> +LEWIS, Elizabeth, +</p> + +<p> +——, Fielding, +</p> + +<p> +——, ——. Jr., +</p> + +<p> +——, Howell, +</p> + +<p> +——, Lewis, +</p> + +<p> +——, Robert, +</p> + +<p> +Lexington, battle of, +</p> + +<p> +Liveried servants, +</p> + +<p> +Lotteries, Washington’s liking for, +</p> + +<p> +LOVELL, John, opinion of Washington,<br/> +quoted, 288. +</p> + +<p> +“Lowland Beauty,” +</p> + +<p> +LYNCH, Thomas, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +McHENRY, James, +</p> + +<p> +McKNIGHT, Dr. C., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +MACLAY, W., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +MADISON, James, relations with Washington,<br/> +quoted,<br/> +drafts papers, +</p> + +<p> +“Magnolia,” +</p> + +<p> +MARSHALL, J., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +MARYE, Rev. T., Washington’s teacher, +</p> + +<p> +MASON, George, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Massachusetts, difficulties of,<br/> +“slam” at officers of, +</p> + +<p> +MASSEY, Rev. Lee, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Mather’s <i>Young Man’s Companion</i>, +</p> + +<p> +Matrimony, Washington’s views on, +</p> + +<p> +Medical knowledge of Washington,<br/> +treatment of last illness, +</p> + +<p> +Medicine, Washington’s aversion to, +</p> + +<p> +MERCER, George, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +MIFFLIN, Thomas, Washington’s relations with,<br/> +mentioned, +</p> + +<p> +Military Company of Adventurers, +</p> + +<p> +—— science, books on,<br/> +Washington’s knowledge of, +</p> + +<p> +Militia, evils of, +</p> + +<p> +“Minutes of the Trial,” authority of, +</p> + +<p> +Mississippi Company, +</p> + +<p> +Monmouth, battle of,<br/> +allusions to, +</p> + +<p> +MORRIS, Gouverneur, quoted,<br/> +friendship with, +</p> + +<p> +——, Robert, +</p> + +<p> +——, Roger, +</p> + +<p> +Mount Vernon, boyhood home of Washington,<br/> +division of estate by will,<br/> +invitation to visit,<br/> +history of,<br/> +name,<br/> +house at,<br/> +grounds,<br/> +additions to land,<br/> +management of,<br/> +absence of Washington from,<br/> +system at,<br/> +work at,<br/> +fishery of,<br/> +distillery at,<br/> +stud stable of,<br/> +live stock of,<br/> +profits of,<br/> +desire to rent farms of,<br/> +Washington’s superintendence of,<br/> +Washington’s life at,<br/> +slaves at,<br/> +overseers of,<br/> +British visit to,<br/> +hunting at,<br/> +shooting at, +</p> + +<p> +MOYLAN, S., +</p> + +<p> +MUSE, George, relations with Washington, +</p> + +<p> +Music, Washington’s fondness of, +</p> + +<p> +“Nelson,” +</p> + +<p> +Nepotism, Washington’s views on, +</p> + +<p> +Newburg, threatened revolt of army at,<br/> +New England, opposition to Washington,<br/> +jealousy of,<br/> +arranges deal,<br/> +journey in,<br/> +conduct of troops,<br/> +officers, +</p> + +<p> +New Jersey troops, desertion of, +</p> + +<p> +New York, Washington’s visit to,<br/> +borrows money for journey to,<br/> +head-quarters at,<br/> +warfare at,<br/> +<i>Minutes of the Trial in</i>,<br/> +proposed attack on,<br/> +farewell to army at,<br/> +presidential house at, +</p> + +<p> +Newspapers, +</p> + +<p> +Nuts, Washington’s fondness for, +</p> + +<p> +Oaths, Washington’s use of, +</p> + +<p> +Office-seekers, +</p> + +<p> +Ohio, march to,<br/> +journey to,<br/> +<i>Journal</i>, +</p> + +<p> +Ohio Company, +</p> + +<p> +<i>Old Soldier</i>, +</p> + +<p> +PAINE, Thomas, relations with Washington, +</p> + +<p> +Paper money, depreciation of, +</p> + +<p> +Pension of Mary Washington, +</p> + +<p> +PEYRONEY, Chevalier, +</p> + +<p> +Philadelphia, visit to,<br/> +fever at,<br/> +proposed attack on,<br/> +capture of,<br/> +Presidential house in,<br/> +Washington’s attempted purchase near, +</p> + +<p> +PHILIPSE, Mary, +</p> + +<p> +PICKERING, Timothy, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Pohick Church, +</p> + +<p> +Potomac Canal Company, +</p> + +<p> +Presidency, Washington in the,<br/> +duties of,<br/> +hospitality of, +</p> + +<p> +Privateer, Washington tries to secure share in, +</p> + +<p> +Purleigh, Lawrence Washington, rector of, +</p> + +<p> +Raffles, Washington’s liking for, +</p> + +<p> +RAMSAY, W., +</p> + +<p> +RANDOLPH, Edmund, Washington’s relations with,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +——, John, forges letters, +</p> + +<p> +REED, Joseph, sends print to Washington,<br/> +relations with Washington,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Revolution, Washington’s service in, +</p> + +<p> +ROBIN, Abbé, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +ROBINSON, Beverly, +</p> + +<p> +——, John, +</p> + +<p> +ROCHAMBEAU, Count, +</p> + +<p> +Ross, James, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +“Royal Gift,” jackass, +</p> + +<p> +Rules of civility, +</p> + +<p> +RUSH, Benjamin, anonymous letter of,<br/> +Washington’s relations with,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +RUTLEDGE, E., +</p> + +<p> +St. Clair’s defeat, +</p> + +<p> +St. Paul’s Church, +</p> + +<p> +SARGENT, J.D., opinion of Washington, +</p> + +<p> +SCOTT, Charles, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Servants, Washington’s, +</p> + +<p> +Shad, sales of, +</p> + +<p> +Sharpless portrait, +</p> + +<p> +Sheep at Mount Vernon, +</p> + +<p> +Shooting, +</p> + +<p> +Skenesborough, mosquitoes at, +</p> + +<p> +Slavery, Washington’s views on, +</p> + +<p> +Slaves, Washington’s,<br/> +runaway,<br/> +carried off by British,<br/> +sickness,<br/> +laziness,<br/> +punishment,<br/> +rations of,<br/> +thieving by, +</p> + +<p> +Small-pox, Washington’s attack of, +</p> + +<p> +SMITH, Rev. W., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Southern tour, +</p> + +<p> +Spain, king of, gift of jackass to Washington, +</p> + +<p> +SPEARING, Ann, +</p> + +<p> +STEARN, Samuel, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +STEWART, R., +</p> + +<p> +STUART, Gilbert, opinion on Washington’s face,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Stuart portrait, +</p> + +<p> +Stud stable at Mount Vernon, +</p> + +<p> +SULLIVAN, John, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +——, W., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Sunday, Washington’s observance of, +</p> + +<p> +SWEARINGEN, Thomas, +</p> + +<p> +Taverns, Washington’s view of, +</p> + +<p> +Tea, Washington’s fondness for, +</p> + +<p> +THACHER, Dr. James, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Theatre, +</p> + +<p> +THORNTON, Edward, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +TILGHMAN, Tench, Washington’s relations with,<br/> +quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Tobacco, Washington’s crop of, +</p> + +<p> +Trenton, battle of, +</p> + +<p> +TRUMBULL, Jonathan, wishes Washington removed, +</p> + +<p> +Truro Parish, +</p> + +<p> +University, National, Washington’s wish for, +</p> + +<p> +Valley Forge, +</p> + +<p> +VAN BRAAM, J., +</p> + +<p> +VARICK, Richard, +</p> + +<p> +VERNON, Admiral E., Mount Vernon named after, +</p> + +<p> +Virginia, social life of,<br/> +clubs,<br/> +British invasion of,<br/> +convention,<br/> +land bounties,<br/> +elections,<br/> +agricultural system of,<br/> +deal with New England,<br/> +Washington’s office-holding in,<br/> +estates, Washington’s opinion of, +</p> + +<p> +—— Regiment, drunkenness of, +</p> + +<p> +VOLNEY, C., Washington’s diplomacy with, +</p> + +<p> +WADSWORTH, J., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +“Wakefield,” +</p> + +<p> +Walpole grant, +</p> + +<p> +WANSEY, H., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Warm Springs, visit to, +</p> + +<p> +WASHINGTON, Augustine, +</p> + +<p> +——, Augustine (Jr.), +</p> + +<p> +——, Bushrod,<br/> +letter to, +</p> + +<p> +——, Charles, +</p> + +<p> +——, Elizabeth (Betty). <i>See</i> Fielding. +</p> + +<p> +——, Frances, +</p> + +<p> +——, George, ancestors of,<br/> +birth of,<br/> +his resemblance to the Balls,<br/> +relations with his mother,<br/> +his dislike of public recompense,<br/> +views on public office,<br/> +financial help to relatives,<br/> +will of,<br/> +views on drinking,<br/> +loans,<br/> +care of Custis property,<br/> +adoption of Custis children,<br/> +physique,<br/> +weight,<br/> +eyes,<br/> +hair,<br/> +teeth,<br/> +nose,<br/> +height,<br/> +mouth,<br/> +expression,<br/> +gracefulness,<br/> +complexion,<br/> +pock-marked,<br/> +modesty,<br/> +manners,<br/> +portraits of,<br/> +strength,<br/> +illnesses of,<br/> +his last,<br/> +medicine, his dislike of,<br/> +fall of,<br/> +hearing,<br/> +education,<br/> +handwriting,<br/> +spelling,<br/> +surveyor,<br/> +secretaries of,<br/> +journal to the Ohio,<br/> +messages,<br/> +farewell address,<br/> +languages,<br/> +music,<br/> +reading,<br/> +religion,<br/> +church attendance,<br/> +Sunday conduct,<br/> +hunting,<br/> +tolerance,<br/> +love affairs,<br/> +poetry,<br/> +Barbadoes, visit to,<br/> +Ohio, mission to,<br/> +Boston, visit to, (1756)<br/> +New York, visit to, (1773)<br/> +marriage,<br/> +appointed commander-in-chief,<br/> +matrimony, his views on,<br/> +morality,<br/> +forged letters,<br/> +agriculture, fondness for,<br/> +[agriculture] system,<br/> +[agriculture] study of,<br/> +coat-of-arms of,<br/> +as farmer,<br/> +land purchases of,<br/> +invents a plow,<br/> +humor,<br/> +income,<br/> +accounts,<br/> +property of,<br/> +bounty lands of,<br/> +investments in land companies,<br/> +borrower,<br/> +speculation, liking for,<br/> +lotteries, liking for,<br/> +raffles, liking for,<br/> +interest in Potomac Canal Company,<br/> +wealth of,<br/> +slaves of,<br/> +[slaves] care of,<br/> +slavery, views on,<br/> +charity,<br/> +social life,<br/> +headquarters life,<br/> +dinners,<br/> +levees,<br/> +bows,<br/> +ceremony, hatred of,<br/> +conversation,<br/> +tea, liking for,<br/> +dancing, fondness of,<br/> +staff,<br/> +simple habits,<br/> +dress of,<br/> +Rules of Civility,<br/> +neatness of,<br/> +food,<br/> +horsemanship,<br/> +fishing, fondness for,<br/> +card-playing,<br/> +theatre, fondness for,<br/> +embarrassment,<br/> +library of,<br/> +newspapers,<br/> +abuse, sensitiveness to,<br/> +friendships of,<br/> +godfather,<br/> +pall-bearer,<br/> +Indian friends,<br/> +[Indian] name,<br/> +assassin,<br/> +temper,<br/> +quarrel of Hamilton with,<br/> +children, relations with,<br/> +enemies,<br/> +[enemies] duelling and,<br/> +drinks toasts,<br/> +intrigues against,<br/> +attacks on,<br/> +insulted,<br/> +Presidency,<br/> +judgment,<br/> +liveried servants of,<br/> +courage of,<br/> +swears,<br/> +Fabian policy,<br/> +rashness of,<br/> +indecision of,<br/> +lack of military knowledge,<br/> +generalship,<br/> +severity to soldiers,<br/> +relations with Continental Congress,<br/> +New England, dislike of,<br/> +farewell to army,<br/> +adjutant of Virginia,<br/> +burgess,<br/> +stands for Frederick County,<br/> +elected,<br/> +election expenses of,<br/> +drafts law,<br/> +inability to make speeches,<br/> +stage fright,<br/> +inauguration,<br/> +in the Continental Congress,<br/> +attitude towards Great Britain,<br/> +threatened,<br/> +popularity of,<br/> +diplomacy of,<br/> +truthfulness,<br/> +serves on jury,<br/> +attends elections,<br/> +honesty, +</p> + +<p> +——, George Augustine, +</p> + +<p> +——, Harriot, +</p> + +<p> +——, John, +</p> + +<p> +——, John Augustine, +</p> + +<p> +——, Lawrence, Rev. (1st), +</p> + +<p> +——, Lawrence (2d), +</p> + +<p> +——, Lawrence, Major (3d), +</p> + +<p> +——, Lawrence, of Chotanck (4th), +</p> + +<p> +——, Lund, +</p> + +<p> +——, Martha, sickness of,<br/> +meets Washington,<br/> +engaged,<br/> +Washington’s letters to,<br/> +marriage,<br/> +character,<br/> +Washington’s fondness for,<br/> +wealth,<br/> +clothing,<br/> +housekeeper for,<br/> +orthography, 93,<br/> +children,<br/> +visits to head-quarters,<br/> +social life,<br/> +mentioned,<br/> +dower slaves,<br/> +drafts of letters for,<br/> +receptions, +</p> + +<p> +——, Mary (Ball), +</p> + +<p> +——, Mildred, +</p> + +<p> +——, Robert, +</p> + +<p> +——, Samuel, +</p> + +<p> +——, Thornton, +</p> + +<p> +Washington City, +</p> + +<p> +WATSON, Elkanah, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +WAYNE, Anthony, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Weaving at Mount Vernon, +</p> + +<p> +WEEMS, M.L., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +WELD, Isaac, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Wheat, Washington’s production of, +</p> + +<p> +Whiskey, distilling of, at Mount Vernon, +</p> + +<p> +WHITE, Rev. W., quoted, +</p> + +<p> +William and Mary College, +</p> + +<p> +Williamsburg,<br/> +lots in,<br/> +Washington goes to, for medical advice, +</p> + +<p> +WILLIAMS, William, wishes Washington removed, +</p> + +<p> +WILLING, Ann, quoted, +</p> + +<p> +Winchester, lots in,<br/> +election at, 295, +</p> + +<p> +WOLCOTT, Oliver, +</p> + +<p> +WOOD, John, +</p> + +<p> +Yorktown, siege of, +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12300 ***</div> +</body> + +</html> + + diff --git a/12300-h/images/cover.jpg b/12300-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2c690e --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img01.jpg b/12300-h/images/img01.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c06dab4 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img01.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img02.jpg b/12300-h/images/img02.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b330d56 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img02.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img03.jpg b/12300-h/images/img03.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f4d0c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img03.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img04.jpg b/12300-h/images/img04.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e494c1c --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img04.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img05.jpg b/12300-h/images/img05.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5bc1880 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img05.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img06.jpg b/12300-h/images/img06.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..56b00cd --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img06.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img07.jpg b/12300-h/images/img07.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca3b47b --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img07.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img08.jpg b/12300-h/images/img08.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..23b0593 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img08.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img09.jpg b/12300-h/images/img09.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9fa241c --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img09.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img10.jpg b/12300-h/images/img10.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc7577b --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img10.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img11.jpg b/12300-h/images/img11.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..69a62c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img11.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img12.jpg b/12300-h/images/img12.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d1eac1 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img12.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img13.jpg b/12300-h/images/img13.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..972ae01 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img13.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img14.jpg b/12300-h/images/img14.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c95ecf2 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img14.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img15.jpg b/12300-h/images/img15.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..546beef --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img15.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img16.jpg b/12300-h/images/img16.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2deb7d --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img16.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img17.jpg b/12300-h/images/img17.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5eee8e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img17.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img18.jpg b/12300-h/images/img18.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bbbda78 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img18.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img19.jpg b/12300-h/images/img19.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..21af5ef --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img19.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img20.jpg b/12300-h/images/img20.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5d3b2d --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img20.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img21.jpg b/12300-h/images/img21.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f387d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img21.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img22.jpg b/12300-h/images/img22.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9110da9 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img22.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img23.jpg b/12300-h/images/img23.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a48943e --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img23.jpg diff --git a/12300-h/images/img24.jpg b/12300-h/images/img24.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..89def92 --- /dev/null +++ b/12300-h/images/img24.jpg |
