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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12540-0.txt b/12540-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43a08a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/12540-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7444 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12540 *** + +The Riverside Library + +George Washington + +By + +WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER + + +1922 + + +TO + +HARRIET SEARS AMORY + +WITH THE BEST WISHES OF HER OLD FRIEND + +THE AUTHOR + + + + +PREFACE + + +To obviate misunderstanding, it seems well to warn the reader that +this book aims only at giving a sketch of George Washington's life +and acts. I was interested to discover, if I could, the human residue +which I felt sure must persist in Washington after all was said. Owing +to the pernicious drivel of the Reverend Weems no other great man in +history has had to live down such a mass of absurdities and deliberate +false inventions. At last after a century and a quarter the rubbish +has been mostly cleared away, and only those who wilfully prefer to +deceive themselves need waste time over an imaginary Father of His +Country amusing himself with a fictitious cherry-tree and hatchet. + +The truth is that the material about George Washington is very +voluminous. His military records cover the eight years of the +Revolutionary War. His political work is preserved officially in +the reports of Congress. Most of the public men who were his +contemporaries left memoirs or correspondence in which he figures. +Above all there is the edition, in fourteen volumes, of his own +writings compiled by Mr. Worthington C. Ford. And yet many persons +find something that baffles them. They do not recognize a definite +flesh and blood Virginian named Washington behind it all. Even so +sturdy an historian as Professor Channing calls him the most elusive +of historic personages. Who has not wished that James Boswell could +have spent a year with Wellington on terms as intimate as those he +spent with Dr. Johnson and could have left a report of that intimacy? + +In this sketch I have conceived of Washington as of some superb +athlete equipped for every ordeal which life might cause him to face. +The nature of each ordeal must be briefly stated; brief also, but +sufficient, the account of the way he accomplished it. I have quoted +freely from his letters wherever it seemed fitting, first, because in +them you get his personal authentic statement of what happened as he +saw it, and you get also his purpose in making any move; and next, +because nothing so well reveals the real George Washington as those +letters do. Whoever will steep himself in them will hardly declare +that their writer remains an elusive person beyond finding out or +understanding. In the course of reading them you will come upon many +of those "imponderables" which are the secret soul of statecraft. + +And so with all humility--for no one can spend much time with +Washington, and not feel profound humility--I leave this little sketch +to its fate, and hope that some readers will find in it what I strove +to put in it. + +W.R.T. + +CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS _June 11, 1922_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. ORIGINS AND YOUTH +II. MARRIAGE. THE LIFE OF A PLANTER +III. THE FIRST GUN +IV. BOSTON FREED +V. TRENTON AND VALLEY FORGE +VI. AID FROM FRANCE; TRAITORS +VII. WASHINGTON RETURNS TO PEACE +VIII. WELDING THE NATION +IX. THE FIRST AMERICAN PRESIDENT +X. THE JAY TREATY +XI. WASHINGTON RETIRES FROM PUBLIC LIFE +XII. CONCLUSION +INDEX + + + + +ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES FREQUENTLY REFERRED TO + + +_Channing_ = Edward Channing: _History of the United States_. New +York: Macmillan Company, III, IV. 1912. + +_Fiske_ = John Fiske: _The Critical Period of American History, +1783-1789_. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1897. + +_Ford_ = Worthington C. Ford: _The Writings of George Washington_. 14 +vols. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1889-93. + +_Ford_ = Worthington C. Ford: _George Washington_. 2 vols. Paris: +Goupil; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1900. + +_Hapgood_ = Norman Hapgood: _George Washington_. New York: Macmillan +Company. 1901. + +_Irving_ = Washington Irving: _Life of George Washington_. New York: +G.P. Putnam. 1857. + +_Lodge_ = Henry Cabot Lodge: _George Washington_. 2 vols. American +Statesman Series. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1889. + +_Marshall_ = John Marshall: _The Life of George Washington_. 5 vols. +Philadelphia. 1807. + +_Sparks_ = Jared Sparks: _The Life of George Washington_. Boston. + +_Wister_ = Owen Wister: _The Seven Ages of Washington_. New York: +Macmillan Company. 1909. + + + + +GEORGE WASHINGTON + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ORIGINS AND YOUTH + + +Zealous biographers of George Washington have traced for him a most +respectable, not to say distinguished, ancestry. They go back to +the time of Queen Elizabeth, and find Washingtons then who were +"gentlemen." A family of the name existed in Northumberland +and Durham, but modern investigation points to Sulgrave, in +Northamptonshire, as the English home of his stock. Here was born, +probably during the reign of Charles I, his great-grandfather, John +Washington, who was a sea-going man, and settled in Virginia in 1657. +His eldest son, Lawrence, had three children--John, Augustine, and +Mildred. Of these, Augustine married twice, and by his second +wife, Mary Ball, whom he married on March 17, 1730, there were six +children--George, Betty, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, and Mildred. +The family home at Bridges Creek, near the Potomac, in Westmoreland +County, was Washington's birthplace, and (February 11, Old Style) +February 22, New Style, 1732, was the date. We hear little about his +childhood, he being a wholesomely unprecocious boy. Rumors have it +that George was coddled and even spoiled by his mother. He had very +little formal education, mathematics being the only subject in which +he excelled, and that he learned chiefly by himself. But he lived +abundantly an out-of-door life, hunting and fishing much, and playing +on the plantation. His family, although not rich, lived in easy +fashion, and ranked among the gentry. + +No Life of George Washington should fail to warn the reader at the +start that the biographer labors under the disadvantage of having to +counteract the errors and absurdities which the Reverend Mason L. +Weems made current in the Life he published the year after Washington +died. No one, not even Washington himself, could live down the +reputation of a goody-goody prig with which the officious Scotch +divine smothered him. The cherry-tree story has had few rivals in +publicity and has probably done more than anything else to implant an +instinctive contempt of its hero in the hearts of four generations of +readers. "Why couldn't George Washington lie?" was the comment of a +little boy I knew, "Couldn't he talk?" + +Weems pretended to an intimacy at Mount Vernon which it appears he +never had. In "Blackwood's Magazine" John Neal said of the book, "Not +one word of which we believe. It is full of ridiculous exaggerations." +And yet neither this criticism nor any other stemmed the outpouring +of editions of it which must now number more than seventy. Weems +doubtless thought that he was helping God and doing good to Washington +by his offensive and effusive support of rudimentary morals. + +Weems had been dead a dozen years when another enemy sprang up. This +was the worthy Jared Sparks, an historian, a professor of history, who +collected with much care the correspondence of George Washington and +edited it in a monumental work. Sparks, however, suffered under the +delusion that something other than fact can be the best substance of +history. According to his tastes, many of Washington's letters were +not sufficiently dignified; they were too colloquial, they even let +slip expressions which no man conscious that he was the model of +propriety, the embodiment of the dignity of history, could have used. +So Mr. Sparks without blushing went through Washington's letters and +substituted for the originals words which he decided were more seemly. +Again the public came to know George Washington, not by his own words, +but by those attributed to him by an overzealous stylist-pedant. Well +might the Father of his Country pray to be delivered from the parsons. + +One of the earliest records of Washington's youth is the copy, written +in his beautiful, almost copper-plate hand, of "Rules of Civility & +Decent Behavior, In Company and Conversation." These maxims were taken +from an English book called "The Young Man's Companion," by W. Mather. +It had passed through thirteen editions and contained information upon +many matters besides conduct Perhaps Washington copied the maxims as a +school exercise; perhaps he learned them by heart. + +They are for the most part the didactic aphorisms which greatly +pleased our worthy ancestors during the middle of the eighteenth +century and later. Some of the entries referred to simple matters of +deportment: you must not turn your back on persons to whom you talk. +Others touch morals rather than manners. One imagines that the parson +or elderly uncles allowed themselves to bestow this indisputably +correct advice upon the youths whom they were interested in. A boy +brought up rigidly on these doctrines could hardly fail to become a +prig unless he succeeded in following the last injunction of all: +"Labor to keep alive in your heart, that little spark of celestial +fire called conscience." + +When he was eleven years old, Washington's father died, and his older +half-brother, Lawrence, who inherited the estate now known as Mount +Vernon, became his guardian. Lawrence had married the daughter of a +neighbor, William Fairfax, agent for the large Fairfax estate. Fairfax +and he had served with the Colonial forces at Cartagena under Admiral +Vernon, from whom the Washington manor took its name. Lord Fairfax, +William's cousin and head of the family, offered George work on the +survey of his domain. George, then a sturdy lad of sixteen, accepted +gladly, and for more than two years he carried it on. The Fairfax +estate extended far into the west, beyond the immediate tidewater +district, beyond the fringe of sparsely settled clearings, into the +wilderness itself. The effect of his experience as surveyor lasted +throughout George Washington's life. His self-reliance and his courage +never flagged. Sometimes he went alone and passed weeks among the +solitudes; sometimes he had a companion whom he had to care for as +well as for himself. But besides the toughening of his character which +this pioneer life assured him, he got much information, which greatly +influenced, years later, his views on the development, not only of +Virginia, but of the Northwest. Perhaps from this time there entered +into his heart the conviction that the strongest bond of union must +sometime bind together the various colonies, so different in resources +and in interests, including his native commonwealth. + +From journals kept during some of his expeditions we see that he was +a clear observer and an accurate reporter; far from bookish, but a +careful penman, and conscious of the obligation laid upon him to +acquire at least the minimum of polite knowledge which was expected of +a country gentleman such as he aspired to be. + +Here is an extract in which he describes the squalid conditions under +which he passed some of his life as a woodsman and surveyor. + + We got our suppers and was lighted into a Room and I not being + so good a woodsman as ye rest of my company, striped myself very + orderly and went into ye Bed, as they calld 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 + bare blanket with double its weight of vermin, such as Lice, + Fleas, etc. I was glad to get up (as soon as ye light was carried + from us). I put on my cloths and lay as my companions. Had we not + 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. + + Wednesday 16th. We set out early and finish'd about one o'clock + and then Travelled up to Frederick Town, where our Baggage came to + us. We cleaned ourselves (to get rid of ye game we had catched ye + night before), I took a Review of ye Town and then return'd to our + Lodgings where we had a good Dinner prepared for us. Wine and Rum + Punch in plenty, and a good Feather Bed with clean sheets, which + was a very agreeable regale. + +The longest of Washington's early expeditions was the "Journey over +the Mountains, began Fryday the 11th of March 1747/8." The mountains +were the Alleghanies, and the trip gave him a closer acquaintance than +he had had with Indians in the wilds. On his return, he stayed with +his half-brother, Lawrence, at Mount Vernon, or with Lord Fairfax, and +enjoyed the country life common to the richer Virginians of the time. +Towns which could provide an inn being few and far between, travellers +sought hospitality in the homes of the well-to-do residents, and every +one was in a way a neighbor of the other dwellers in his county. So +both at Belvoir and at Mount Vernon, guests were frequent and broke +the monotony and loneliness of their inmates. I think the reputation +of gravity, which was fixed upon Washington in his mature years, has +been projected back over his youth. The actual records are lacking, +but such hints and surmises as we have do not warrant our thinking +of him as a self-centred, unsociable youth. On the contrary, he was +rather, what would be called now, a sport, ready for hunting or +riding, of splendid physical build, agile and strong. He liked +dancing, and was not too shy to enjoy the society of young women; +indeed, he wrote poems to some of them, and seems to have been popular +with them. And still, the legend remains that he was bashful. + +From our earliest glimpses of him, Washington appears as a youth very +particular as to his dress. He knew how to rough it as the extracts +of his personal journals which I have quoted show, and this passage +confirms: + + I seem to be in a place where no real satisfaction is to be had. + Since you received my letter in October last, I have not sleep'd + above three or four nights in a bed, but, after walking a good + deal all the day, I 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 and cats, and happy is + he who gets the berth nearest the fire. There's nothing would make + it pass off tolerably but a good reward. A doubloon is my constant + gain every day that the weather will permit my going out, and + sometimes six pistoles. The coldness of the weather will not allow + of my making a long stay, as the lodging is rather too cold for + this time of year. I have never had my clothes off but lay and + sleep in them, except the few nights I have lay'n in Frederic + Town.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, p, 11.] + +Later, when Washington became master of Mount Vernon, his servants +were properly liveried. He himself rode to hounds in the approved +apparel of a fox-hunting British gentleman, and we find in the lists +of articles for which he sends to London the names of clothes and +other articles for Mrs. Washington and the children carefully +specified with the word "fashionable" or "very best quality" added. +Still later, when he was President he attended to this matter of dress +with even greater punctilio. + +One incident of this early period should not be passed by unmentioned. +Admiral Vernon offered him an appointment as midshipman in the navy, +but Washington's mother objected so strongly that Washington gave up +the opportunity. We may well wonder whether, if he had accepted it, +his career might not have been permanently turned aside. Had he served +ten or a dozen years in the navy, he might have grown to be so loyal +to the King, that, when the Revolution came, he would have been found +in command of one of the King's men-of-war, ordered to put down +the Rebels in Boston, or in New York. Thus Fate suggests amazing +alternatives to us in the retrospect, but in the actual living, Fate +makes it clear that the only course which could have happened was that +which did happen. + +In 1751 the health of Washington's brother, Lawrence, became so bad +from consumption that he decided to pass the winter in a warm climate. +He chose the Island of Barbados, and his brother George accompanied +him. Shortly before sailing, George was commissioned one of the +Adjutants-General of Virginia, with the rank of Major, and the pay +of £150 a year. They sailed on the Potomac River, perhaps near Mount +Vernon, on September 28, 1751, and landed at Bridgetown on November +3d. The next day they were entertained at breakfast and dinner +by Major Clark, the British officer who commanded some of the +fortifications of the island. "We went," says George Washington, in a +journal he kept, "myself with some reluctance, as the smallpox was in +his family." Thirteen days later, George fell ill of a very strong +case of smallpox which kept him housed for six weeks and left his face +much disfigured for life with pock marks, a fact which, so far as I +have observed his portraits, the painters have carefully forgotten to +indicate. + +The brothers passed a fairly pleasant month and a half at the +Barbados. Major Clark, and other gentlemen and officials of the +island, showed them much attention. They enjoyed the hospitality of +the Beefsteak and Tripe Club, which seems to have been the fashionable +club. On one occasion, Washington was taken to the play to see the +"Tragedy of George Barnwell." This may have been the first time that +he went to the theatre. He refers to it in his journal with his +habitual caution: + + Was treated with a play ticket by Mr. Carter 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 by Mr. + +But Lawrence Washington's consumption did not improve: he grew +homesick and pined for his wife and for Mount Vernon. The physicians +had recommended him to spend a full year at Barbados, in order to +give the climate and the regimen there a fair trial, but he could not +endure it so long, and he sailed from there to Bermuda, whence he +shortly returned to Virginia and Mount Vernon. George, meanwhile, had +also gone back to Virginia, sailing December 22, 1751, and arriving +February 1, 1752. Even from his much-mutilated journal, we can see +that he travelled with his eyes open, and that his interests were +many. As he mentioned in his journal thirty persons with whom +he became acquainted at the Barbados, we infer that in spite of +bashfulness he was an easy mixer. This short journey to the Barbados +marks the only occasion on which George Washington went outside of the +borders of the American Colonies, which became later, chiefly through +his genius, the United States.[1] + +[Footnote 1: J.M. Toner: _The Daily Journal of Major George Washington +in 1751-2_ (Albany, N.Y., 1892).] + +In July, 1752, Lawrence Washington died of the disease which he +had long struggled against. He left his fortune and his property, +including Mount Vernon, to his daughter, Sarah, and he appointed his +brother, George, her guardian. She was a sweet-natured girl, but very +frail, who died before long, probably of the same disease which +had carried her father off, and, until its infectious nature was +understood, used to decimate families from generation to generation. + +To have thrust upon him, at the age of twenty, the management of a +large estate might seem a heavy burden for any young man; but George +Washington was equal to the task, and it seems as if much of his +career up to that time was a direct preparation for it. He knew every +foot of its fields and meadows, of its woodlands and streams; he knew +where each crop grew, and its rotation; he had taken great interest in +horses and cattle, and in the methods for maintaining and improving +their breed; and now, of course being master, his power of choosing +good men to do the work was put to the test. But he had not been long +at these new occupations before public duties drew him away from them. + +Though they knew it not, the European settlers in North America were +approaching a life-and-death catastrophe. From the days when the +English and the French first settled on the continent, Fate ordained +for them an irrepressible conflict. Should France prevail? Should +England prevail? With the growth of their colonies, both the English +and the French felt their rivalry sharpened. Although distances often +very broad kept them apart in space, yet both nations were ready to +prove the terrible truth that when two men, or two tribes, wish +to fight each other, they will find out a way. The French, at New +Orleans, might be far away from the English at Boston; and the +English, in New York, or in Philadelphia, might be removed from the +French in Quebec; but in their hatreds they were near neighbors. The +French pushed westward along the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes, and +from Lake Erie, they pushed southward, across the rich plains of Ohio, +to the Ohio River. Their trails spread still farther into the Western +wilderness. They set up trading-posts in the very region which the +English settlers expected to occupy in the due process of their +advance. At the junction of the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, they +planted Fort Duquesne, which not only commanded the approach to the +territory through which the Ohio flowed westward, but served notice +on the English that the French regarded themselves as the rightful +claimants of that territory. + +In 1753 Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, had sent a commissioner to +warn the French to cease from encroaching on the lands in the Ohio +wilderness which belonged to the King of England, but the messenger +stopped one hundred and fifty miles short of his goal. Therefore, +the Governor decided to despatch another envoy. He selected George +Washington, who was already well known for his surveying, and for his +expedition beyond the mountains, and doubtless had the backing of the +Fairfaxes and other influential gentlemen. Washington set out on the +same day he received his appointment from Governor Dinwiddie (October +31, 1753), engaged Jacob Van Braam, a Hollander who had taught him +fencing, to be his French interpreter; and Christopher Gist, the best +guide through the Virginia wilderness, to pilot the party. In spite +of the wintry conditions which beset them, they made good time. +Washington presented his official warning to M. Joncaire, the +principal French commander in the region under dispute, but he replied +that he must wait for orders from the Governor in Quebec. One object +of Washington's mission was to win over, if possible, the Indians, +whose friendship for either the French or the English depended wholly +on self-interest. He seems to have been most successful in securing +the friendship of Thanacarishon, the great Seneca Chief, known as the +Half-King. This native left it as his opinion that + + the colonel was a good-natured man, but had no experience; he took + upon him to command the Indians as his slaves, and would have them + every day upon the scout and to attack the enemy by themselves, + but would by no means take advice from the Indians. He lay in + one place from one full moon to the other, without making any + fortifications, except that little thing on the meadow, whereas, + had he taken advice, and built such fortifications as I advised + him, he might easily have beat off the French. But the French in + the engagement acted like cowards, and the English like fools.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Quoted by Lodge, I, 74.] + +Believing that he could accomplish no more at that time, Washington +retraced his steps and returned to Williamsburg. + +Governor Dinwiddie, being much disappointed with the outcome of the +expedition, urged the Virginian Legislature to equip another party +sufficiently strong to be able to capture Fort Duquesne, and to +confirm the British control of the Ohio. The Burgesses, however, +pleaded economy, and refused to grant funds adequate to this purpose. +Nevertheless, the Governor having equipped a small troop, under the +command of Colonel Fry, with Washington as second, hurried it forth. +During May and June they were near the Forks, and with the approach of +danger, Washington's spirit and recklessness increased. In a slight +skirmish, M. de Jumonville, the French commander, was killed. Fry died +of disease and Washington took his place as commander. Perceiving that +his own position was precarious, and expecting an attack by a large +force of the enemy, he entrenched himself near Great Meadows in a +hastily built fort, which he called Fort Necessity, and thought it +possible to defend, even with his own small force, against five +hundred French and Indians. He miscalculated, however. The enemy +exceeded in numbers all his expectations. His own resources dwindled; +and so he took the decision of a practical man and surrendered the +fort, on condition that he and his men be allowed to march out with +the honors of war. They returned to Virginia with little delay. + +The Burgesses and the people of the State, though chagrined, did not +take so gloomy a view of the collapse of the expedition as Washington +himself did. His own depression equalled his previous exaltation. As +he thought over the affairs of the past half-year in the quiet of +Mount Vernon, the feeling which he had had from the start, that the +expedition had not been properly planned, or directed, or reënforced +in men and supplies, was confirmed. Governor Dinwiddie's notion that +raw volunteers would suffice to overcome trained soldiers had been +proved a delusion. The inadequate pay and provisions of the officers +irritated Washington, not only because they were insufficient, but +also because they fell far short of those of the English regulars. + +In his penetrating Biography of Washington, Senator Lodge regards +his conduct of the campaign, which ended in the surrender of Great +Meadows, and his narrative as revealing Washington as a "profoundly +silent man." Carlyle, Senator Lodge says, who preached the doctrine of +silence, brushed Washington aside as a "bloodless Cromwell," "failing +utterly to see that he was the most supremely silent of the great men +of action that the world can show." Let us admit the justice of the +strictures on Carlyle, but let us ask whether Washington's letters at +this time spring from a "silent" man. He writes with perfect openness +to Governor Dinwiddie; complains of the military system under which +the troops are paid and the campaign is managed; he repeatedly +condemns the discrimination against the Virginian soldiers in favor of +the British regulars; and he points out that instead of attempting to +win the popularity of the Virginians, they are badly treated. Their +rations are poor, and he reminds the Governor that a continuous diet +of salt pork and water does not inspire enthusiasm in either the +stomach or the spirit. No wonder that the officers talk of resigning. +"For my own part I can answer, I have a constitution hardy enough to +encounter and undergo the most severe trials, and, I flatter myself, +resolution to face what any man durst, as shall be proved when it +comes to the test, which I believe we are on the borders of." In +several other passages from letters at this time, we come upon +sentiments which indicate that Washington had at least a sufficiently +high estimation of his own worth, and that his genius for silence had +not yet curbed his tongue. There is the famous boast attributed to him +by Horace Walpole. In a despatch which Washington sent back to the +Governor after the little skirmish in which Jumonville was killed, +Washington said: "'I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there +is something charming in the sound.' On hearing of this the King said +sensibly, 'he would not say so if he had been used to hear many.'" +This reply of George II deserves to be recorded if only because it is +one of the few feeble witticisms credited to the Hanoverian Kings. +Years afterward, Washington declared that he did not remember ever +having referred to the charm of listening to whistling bullets. +Perhaps he never said it; perhaps he forgot. He was only twenty-two at +the time of the Great Meadows campaign. No doubt he was as well aware +as was Governor Dinwiddie, and other Virginians, that he was the best +equipped man on the expedition, experienced in actual fighting, and +this, added to his qualifications as a woodsman, had given him a real +zest for battle. In their discussion over the campfire, he and his +fellow officers must inevitably have criticized the conduct of the +expedition, and it may well be that Washington sometimes insisted +that if his advice were followed things would go better. Not on this +account, therefore, must we lay too much blame on him for being +conceited or immodest. He knew that he knew, and he did not dissemble +the fact. Silence came later. + +The result of the expeditions to and skirmishes at the Forks of the +Ohio was that England and France were at war, although they had not +declared war on each other. A chance musket shot in the backwoods of +Virginia started a conflict which reverberated in Europe, disturbed +the peace of the world for seven years, and had serious consequences +in the French and English colonies of North America. The news of +Washington's disaster at Fort Necessity aroused the British Government +to the conclusion that it must make a strong demonstration in order +to crush the swelling prestige of the French rivals in America. The +British planned, accordingly, to send out three expeditions, one +against Fort Duquesne, another against the French in Nova Scotia, and +a third against Quebec. The command of the first they gave to General +Edward Braddock. He was then sixty years old, had been in the Regular +Army all his life, had served in Holland, at L'Orient, and at +Gibraltar, was a brave man, and an almost fanatical believer in the +rules of war as taught in the manuals. During the latter half of 1754, +Governor Dinwiddie was endeavoring against many obstacles to send +another expedition, equipped by Virginia herself, to the Ohio. Only in +the next spring, however, after Braddock had come over from England +with a relatively large force of regulars, were the final preparations +for a campaign actually made. Washington, in spite of being the +commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, had his wish of going as +a volunteer at his own expense. He wrote his friend William Byrd, on +April 20, 1755, from Mount Vernon: + + I am now preparing for, and shall in a few days set off, to serve + in the ensuing campaign, with different views, however, from those + I had before. For here, if I can gain any credit, or if I am + entitled to the least countenance and esteem, it must be from + serving my country without fee or reward; for I can truly say, I + have no expectation of either. To merit its esteem, and the good + will of my friends, is the sum of my ambition, having no prospect + of attaining a commission, being well assured it is not in Gen'l + Braddock's power to give such an one as I would accept of. The + command of a Company is the highest commission vested in his gift. + He was so obliging as to desire my company this campaign, has + honoured me with particular marks of his esteem, and kindly + invited me into his family--a circumstance which will ease me of + expences that otherwise must have accrued in furnishing + stores, camp equipages, etc. Whereas the cost will now be easy + (comparatively speaking), as baggage, horses, tents, and some + other necessaries, will constitute the whole of the charge.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 146-49.] + +The army began to move about the middle of May, but it went very +slowly. During June Washington was taken with an acute fever, in +spite of which he pressed on, but he became so weak that he had to be +carried in a cart, as he was unable to sit his horse. Braddock, with +the main army, had gone on ahead, and Washington feared that the +battle, which he believed imminent, would be fought before he came up +with the front. But he rejoined the troops on July 8th. The next day +they forded the Monongahela and proceeded to attack Fort Duquesne. +Writing from Fort Cumberland, on July 18th, Washington gave Governor +Dinwiddie the following account of Braddock's defeat. The one thing +happened which Washington had felt anxious about--a surprise by the +Indians. He had more than once warned Braddock of this danger, and +Benjamin Franklin had warned him too before the expedition started, +but Braddock, with perfect British contempt, had replied that though +savages might be formidable to raw Colonials, they could make +no impression on disciplined troops. The surprise came and thus +Washington reports it: + + When we came to this place, we were attacked (very unexpectedly) + by about three hundred French and Indians. Our numbers consisted + of about thirteen hundred well armed men, chiefly Regulars, who + were immediately struck with such an inconceivable panick, that + nothing but confusion and disobedience of orders prevailed among + them. The officers, in general, behaved with incomparable bravery, + for which they greatly suffered, there being near 60 killed and + wounded--a large proportion, out of the number we had! + + The Virginia companies behaved like men and died like soldiers; + for I believe out of three companies that were on the ground that + day scarce thirty were left alive. Capt. Peyroney and all his + officers, down to a corporal, were killed; Capt. Polson had + almost as hard a fate, for only one of his escaped. In short, the + dastardly behaviour of the Regular troops (so-called) exposed + those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death; + and, at length, in despite of every effort to the contrary, broke + and ran as sheep before hounds, leaving the artillery, ammunition, + provisions, baggage, and, in short, everything a prey to the + enemy. And when we endeavored to rally them, in hopes of regaining + the ground and what we had left upon it, it was with as little + success as if we had attempted to have stopped the wild bears of + the mountains, or rivulets with our feet; for they would break by, + in despite of every effort that could be made to prevent it. + + The General was wounded in the shoulder and breast, of which he + died three days after; his two aids-de-camp were both wounded, but + are in a fair way of recovery; Colo. Burton and Sr. John St. Clair + are also wounded, and I hope will get over it; Sir Peter Halket, + with many other brave officers, were killed in the field. It is + supposed that we had three hundred or more killed; about that + number we brought off wounded, and it is conjectured (I believe + with much truth) that two thirds of both received their shot from + our own cowardly Regulars, who gathered themselves into a body, + contrary to orders, ten or twelve deep, would then level, fire and + shoot down the men before them.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 173-74-75.] + +In this admirable letter Washington tells nothing about his own +prowess in the battle, where he rode to all parts of the field, trying +to stem the retreat, and had two horses shot under him and four bullet +holes in his coat. He tried to get the troops to break ranks and to +screen themselves behind rocks and trees, but Braddock, helpless +without his rules, drove them back to regular formation with the flat +of his sword, and made them an easy mark for the volleys of the enemy. +Washington's personal valor could not fail to be admired, although his +audacity exposed him to unjustified risks. + +On reaching Fort Cumberland he wrote to his brother John, on July +18th: + + As I have heard, since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial + account of my death and dying speech, I take this early + opportunity of contradicting the first, and assuring you, that + I have not as yet composed the latter. But, by the all-powerful + dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all + human probability and expectation.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ibid. 175-76.] + +The more he thought over the events of that day, the more was he +amazed--"I join very heartily with you in believing," he wrote Robert +Jackson on August 2d, "that when this story comes to be related in +future annals, it will meet with unbelief and indignation, for had I +not been witness to the fact on that fatal day, I should scarce have +given credit to it even _now_."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 177.] + +Although Washington was thoroughly disgusted by the mismanagement of +military affairs in Virginia, he was not ready to deny the appeals +of patriotism. From Mount Vernon, on August 14, 1755, he wrote his +mother: + + Honored Madam, If it is in my power to avoid going to the Ohio + again, I shall; but if the command is pressed upon me, by the + general _voice_ of the country, and offered upon such terms as + cannot be objected against, it would reflect dishonor upon me to + refuse; and _that_, I am sure must or _ought_ to give you greater + uneasiness, than my going in an honorable command, for upon no + other terms I will accept of it. At present I have no proposals + made to me, nor have I any advice of such an intention, except + from private hands.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ibid. 180-81.] + +Braddock's defeat put an end to campaigning in Virginia for some time. +The consternation it caused, not only held the people of the sparse +western settlements in alarm but agitated the tidewater towns and +villages. The Burgesses and many of the inhabitants had not yet +learned their lesson sufficiently to set about reorganizing their army +system, but the Assembly partially recognized its obligation to the +men who had fought by voting to them a small sum for losses during +their previous service. Washington received £300, but his patriotic +sense of duty kept him active. In the winter of 1758, however, owing +to a very serious illness, he resigned from the army and returned to +Mount Vernon to recuperate. + +During the long and tedious weeks of sickness and recovery, Washington +doubtless had time to think over, to clarify in his mind, and to pass +judgment on the events in which he had shared during the past six or +seven years. From boyhood that was his habit. He must know the meaning +of things. An event might be as fruitless as a shooting star unless he +could trace the relations which tied it to what came before and after. +Hence his deliberation which gave to his opinions the solidity of +wisdom. Audacious he might be in battle, but perhaps what seems to us +audacity seemed to him at the moment a higher prudence. If there were +crises when the odds looked ten to one against him, he would take the +chance. He knew the incalculable value of courage. His experiences +with the British regulars and their officers left a deep impression on +him and colored his own decisions in his campaigns against the British +during the Revolutionary War. To genius nothing comes amiss, and by +genius nothing is forgotten. So we find that all that Washington saw +and learned during his years of youth--his apprenticeship as surveyor, +his vicissitudes as pioneer, tasks as Indian fighter and as companion +of the defeated Braddock--all contributed to fit him for the supreme +work for which Fate had created him and the ages had waited. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MARRIAGE. THE LIFE OF A PLANTER + + +War is like the wind, nobody can tell into whose garden it may blow +desolation. The French and Indian War, generally called now the Seven +Years' War, beginning as a mere border altercation between the British +and French backwoodsmen on the banks of the upper Ohio River, grew +into a struggle which, by the year 1758, when Washington retired from +his command of the Virginia Forces, spread over the world. A new +statesman, one of the ablest ever born in England, came to control the +English Government. William Pitt, soon created Earl of Chatham, saw +that the British Empire had reached a crisis in its development. +Incompetence, inertia, had blurred its prestige, and the little +victories which France, its chief enemy, had been winning against it +piecemeal, were coming to be regarded as signs that the grandeur of +Britain was passing. Pitt saw the gloomy situation, and the still +gloomier future which it seemed to prophesy, but he saw also the +remedy. Within a few months, under his direction, English troops were +in every part of the world, and English ships of war were sailing +every ocean, to recover the slipping elements and to solidify the +British Empire. Just as Pitt was taking up his residence at Downing +Street, Robert Clive was winning the Battle of Plassey in India, which +brought to England territory of untold wealth. Two years later James +Wolfe, defeating the French commander, Montcalm, on the Plains of +Abraham, added not only Quebec, but all Canada, to the British Crown, +and ended French rivalry north of the Great Lakes. Victories like +these, seemingly so casual, really as final and as unrevisable as +Fate, might well cause Englishmen to suspect that Destiny itself +worked with them, and that an Englishman could be trusted to endure +through any difficulties to a triumphant conclusion. + +Beaten at every point where they met the British, the French, even +after they had secured an alliance with Spain, which proved of little +worth, were glad to make peace. On February 10, 1763, they signed +the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed to the British nearly all their +victories and left England the dominant Power in both hemispheres. +The result of the war produced a marked effect on the people of the +British Colonies in North America. "At no period of time," says Chief +Justice Marshall, in his "Life of Washington," "was the attachment of +the colonists to the mother country more strong, or more general, than +in 1763, when the definitive articles of the treaty which restored +peace to Great Britain, France, and Spain, were signed."[1] But we +who know the sequel perceive that the Seven Years' War not only +strengthened the attachment between the Colonies and the Mother +Country, but that it also made the Colonies aware of their common +interests, and awakened among them mutual friendship, and in a very +brief time their sense of unity prevailed over their temporary +enthusiasm for England. George III, a monarch as headstrong as he was +narrow, with insanity lurking in his mind, succeeded to the throne in +1760, and he seized the first opportunity to get rid of his masterful +Minister, William Pitt. He replaced him with the Earl of Bute, a +Scotchman, and a man of ingenious parts, but with the incurable Tory +habit of insisting that it was still midnight long after the sun was +shining in the forenoon of another day. + +[Footnote 1: Marshall: _The Life of George Washington_ (Philadelphia, +1805, 5 vols.), II, 68.] + +Before the Treaty was signed and the world had begun to spin in a new +groove, which optimists thought would stretch on forever, an equally +serious change had come to the private life of George Washington. To +the surprise of his friends, who had begun to doubt whether he would +ever get married, he found his life's companion and married her +without delay. The notion seems to have been popular during his +lifetime, and it certainly has continued to later days, that he was +too bashful to feel easy in ladies' society. I find no evidence +for this mistaken idea. Although little has been recorded of the +intimacies of Washington's youth, there are indications of more than +one "flame" and that he was not dull and stockish with the young +women. As early as 1748, we hear of the Low-Land Beauty who had +captivated him, and who is still to be identified. Even earlier, in +his school days, he indulged in writing love verses. But we need not +infer that they were inspired by living damsels or by the Muses. + + "Oh ye Gods why should my poor resistless Heart + Stand to oppose thy might and power-- + + * * * * * + + "In deluding sleepings let my eyelids close + That in an enraptured dream I may + In a rapt lulling sleep and gentle repose + Possess those joys denied by day."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Quoted by Wister, 39.] + +Cavour said that it was easier for him to make Italy than to write a +poem: Washington, who was also an honest man, and fully aware of his +limitations, would probably have admitted that he could make the +American Republic more easily than a love song. But he was susceptible +to feminine charms, and we hear of Betsy Fauntleroy, and of a "Mrs. +Meil," and on his return to Mount Vernon, after Braddock's defeat, he +received the following round robin from some of the young ladies at +Belvoir: + + 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 tomorrow morning very early + we shall be at Mount Vernon. + + S[ALLY] FAIRFAX ANN SPEARING ELIZ'TH DENT + +Apparently Washington's love affairs were known and talked about among +his group. What promised to be the most serious of his experiences was +with Mary Philipse, of New York, daughter of Frederick Philipse, one +of the richest landowners in that Colony, and sister-in-law of Beverly +Robinson, one of Washington's Virginian friends. Washington was going +to Boston on a characteristic errand. One of the minor officers in +the Regular British Army, which had accompanied Braddock to Virginia, +refused to take orders from Washington, and officers of higher grade +in Virginia Troops, declaring that their commissions were assigned +only by Colonial officials, whereas he had his own from King George. +This led, of course, to insubordination and frequent quarrels. To +put a stop to the wrangling, Washington journeyed to Boston, to have +Governor Shirley, the Commander-in-Chief of the King's Forces in the +Colonies, give a decision upon it. The Governor ruled in favor of +Washington, who then rode back to Virginia. But he spent a week in New +York City in order to see his enchantress, Mary Philipse, and it is +even whispered that he proposed to her and that she refused him. Two +years afterwards she married Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Morris, and +during the Revolution the Morris house was Washington's headquarters; +the Morrises, who were Tories, having fled. + +Persons have speculated why it was that so many of the young women +whom Washington took a fancy to, chilled and drew back when it came to +the question of marriage. One very clever writer thinks that perhaps +his nose was inordinately large in his youth, and that that repelled +them. I do not pretend to say. So far as I know, psychologists have +not yet made a sufficiently exact study of the nose as a determining +factor in matrimony, to warrant an opinion from persons who have +made no special study of the subject. The plain fact was that by his +twenty-fifth year, Washington was an unusually presentable young man, +more than six feet tall, broad-shouldered, very strong, slender and +athletic, carefully polite in his manners, a boon companion, though he +talked little, a sound and deliberate thinker; moreover, the part he +had taken in the war with the Indians and the French made him almost +a popular hero, and gave him a preëminent place among the Virginians, +both the young and the old, of that time. The possession of the +estate of Mount Vernon, which he had inherited from his half-brother, +Lawrence, assured to him more than a comfortable fortune, and yet +gossip wondered why he was not married. Thackeray intimates that +Washington was too evidently on the lookout for a rich wife, which, if +true, may account for some of the alleged rebuffs. I do not believe +this assertion, nor do I find evidence for it. Washington was always a +very careful, farseeing person, and no doubt had a clear idea of what +constitutes desirable qualifications in marriage, but I believe he +would have married a poor girl out of the workhouse if he had really +loved her. However, he was not put to that test. + +One May day Washington rode off from Mount Vernon to carry despatches +to Williamsburg. He stopped at William's Ferry for dinner with his +friend Major Chamberlayne. At the table was Mrs. Daniel Parke Custis, +who, under her maiden name of Martha Dandridge, was well known +throughout that region for her beauty and sweet disposition. She was +now a widow of twenty-six, with two small children. Her late husband, +Colonel Custis, her elder by fifteen years, had left her a large +estate called White House, and a fortune which made her one of the +richest women in Virginia. From their first introduction, Washington +and she seemed to be mutually attracted. He lingered throughout the +afternoon and evening with her and went on to Williamsburg with his +despatches the next morning. Having finished his business at the +Capitol, he returned to William's Ferry, where he again saw Mrs. +Custis, pressed his suit upon her and was accepted. Characteristic +was it that he should conclude the matter so suddenly; but he had had +marriage in his intentions for many years. + +During the summer Washington returned to his military duties and led +a troop to Fort Duquesne. He found the fort partly demolished, and +abandoned by the French; he marched in and took it, and gave it the +name of Fort Pitt, in recognition of the great statesman who had +directed the revival of British prestige. The fort, thus recovered to +English possession, stood on the present site of Pittsburgh. I quote +the following brief letter from Washington to Mrs. Custis, as it is +almost the only note of his to her during their engagement that has +been preserved: + + 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: P.L. Ford, _The True George Washington_, 93.] + +Late in that autumn Washington returned for good from his Western +fighting. On January 6, 1759 (Old Style), his marriage to Mrs. Custis +took place in St. Peter's Church, near her home at the White House. +Judging from the fine writing which old historians and new have +devoted to describing it, Virginia had seen few such elegant pageants +as upon that occasion. The grandees in official station and in social +life were all there. Francis Fauquier was, of course, gorgeous in his +Governor's robes but he could not outshine the bridegroom, in blue and +silver with scarlet trimmings, and gold buckles at his knees, with his +imperial physique and carriage. The Reverend Peter Mossum conducted +the Episcopal service, after which the bride drove back with a coach +and six to the White House, while Washington, with other gentlemen, +rode on horseback beside her acting as escort. + +The bridal couple spent two or three months at the White House. The +Custis estates were large and in so much need of oversight that if +Washington had not appeared at this time, a bailiff, or manager, would +have had to be hired for them. Henceforth Washington seems to have +added the care of the White House to that of Mount Vernon, and the two +involved a burden which occupied most of his time, for he had retired +from the army. His fellow citizens, however, had elected him a member +of the House of Burgesses, a position he held for many years; going to +Williamsburg every season to attend the sessions of the Assembly. +On his first entrance to take his seat, Mr. Robinson, the Speaker, +welcomed him in Virginia's name, and praised him for his high +achievements. This so embarrassed the modest young member that he was +unable to reply, upon which Speaker Robinson said, "Sit down, Mr. +Washington, your modesty is equal to your valor, and that surpasses +the power of any language that I possess." In all his life, probably, +Washington never heard praise more genuine or more deserved. He had +just passed his twenty-seventh year. In the House of Burgesses he had +the reputation of being the silent member. He never acquired the art +of a debater. He was neither quick at rebuttal nor at repartee, but +so surely did his character impress itself on every one that when he +spoke the Assembly almost took it for granted that he had said the +final word on the subject under discussion. How careful he was to +observe the scope and effects of parliamentary speaking appears from a +letter which he wrote many years later. + +Agriculture has always been a particularly fine training-ground +for statesmen. To persons who do not watch it closely, it may seem +monotonous. In reality, while the sum of the conditions of one year +tally closely with those of another, the daily changes and variations +create a variety which must be constantly watched and provided for. A +sudden freshet and unseasonable access of heat or cold, a scourge of +hail, a drought, a murrain among the cattle, call for ingenuity and +for resourcefulness; and for courage, a higher moral quality. Constant +comradeship with Nature seems to beget placidity and quiet assurance. +From using the great natural forces which bring to pass crops and the +seasons, they seem to work in and through him also. The banker, the +broker, even the merchant, lives in a series of whirlwinds, or seems +to be pursuing a mirage or groping his way through a fog. The +farmer, although he be not beyond the range of accident, deals more +continually with causes which regularly produce certain effects. He +knows a rainbow by sight and does not waste his time and money in +chasing it. + +No better idea of Washington's activity as a planter can be had than +from his brief and terse journals as an agriculturist. He sets down +day by day what he did and what his slaves and the free employees did +on all parts of his estate. We see him as a regular and punctual man. +He had a moral repugnance to idleness. He himself worked steadily and +he chided the incompetent, the shirkers, and the lazy. + +A short experience as landowner convinced him that slave labor was the +least efficient of all. This conviction led him very early to believe +in the emancipation of the slaves. I do not find that sentiment or +abstract ideals moved him to favor emancipation, but his sense of +fitness, his aversion to wastefulness and inefficiency made him +disapprove of a system which rendered industry on a high plane +impossible. Experience only confirmed these convictions of his, and in +his will he ordered that many slaves should be freed after the death +of Mrs. Washington. He was careful to apportion to his slaves the +amount of food they needed in order to keep in health and to work the +required stint. He employed a doctor to look after them in sickness. +He provided clothing for them which he deemed sufficient. I do not +gather that he ever regarded the black man as being essentially made +of the same clay as the white man, the chief difference being the +color of their skin. To Washington, the Slave System seemed bad, not +so much because it represented a debased moral standard, but because +it was economically and socially inadequate. His true character +appears in his making the best of a system which he recognized as most +faulty. Under his management, in a few years, his estate at Mount +Vernon became the model of that kind of plantation in the South. + +Whoever desires to understand Washington's life as a planter should +read his diaries with their brief, and one might almost say brusque, +entries from day to day.[1] Washington's care involved not only +bringing the Mount Vernon estate to the highest point of prosperity +by improving the productiveness of its various sections, but also by +buying and annexing new pieces of land. To such a planter as he was, +the ideal was to raise enough food to supply all the persons who lived +or worked on the place, and this he succeeded in doing. His chief +source of income, which provided him with ready money, was the tobacco +crop, which proved to be of uncertain value. By Washington's time the +Virginians had much diminished the amount and delicacy of the tobacco +they raised by the careless methods they employed. They paid little +attention to the rotation of crops, or to manuring, with the result +that the soil was never properly replenished. In his earlier days +Washington shipped his year's product to an agent in Glasgow or in +London, who sold it at the market price and sent him the proceeds. The +process of transportation was sometimes precarious; a leaky ship might +let in enough sea water to damage the tobacco, and there was always +the risk of loss by shipwreck or other accident. Washington sent out +to his brokers a list of things which he desired to pay for out of +the proceeds of the sale, to be sent to him. These lists are most +interesting, as they show us the sort of household utensils and +furniture, the necessaries and the luxuries, and the apparel used in a +mansion like Mount Vernon. We find that he even took care to order a +fashionably dressed doll for little Martha Custis to play with. + +[Footnote 1: See for instance in W.C. Ford's edition of _The Writings +of George Washington_, II, 140-69. Diary for 1760, 230-56. Diary for +1768.] + +The care and education of little Martha and her brother, John Parke +Custis, Washington undertook with characteristic thoroughness and +solicitude. He had an instinct for training growing creatures. He +liked to experiment in breeding horses and cattle and the farmyard +animals. He watched the growth of his plantations of trees, and he +was all the more interested in studying the development of mental and +moral capacities in the little children. + +In due time a tutor was engaged, and besides the lessons they learned +in their schoolbooks, they were taught both music and dancing. Little +Patsy suffered from epilepsy, and after the prescriptions of the +regular doctors had done no good, her parents turned to a quack named +Evans, who placed on the child's finger an iron ring supposed to have +miraculous virtues, but it brought her no relief, and very suddenly +little Martha Custis died. Washington himself felt the loss of his +unfortunate step-daughter, but he was unflagging in trying to console +the mother, heartbroken at the death of the child. + +Jack Custis was given in charge of the Reverend Jonathan Boucher, +an Anglican clergyman, apparently well-meaning, who agreed with +Washington's general view that the boy's training "should make him fit +for more useful purposes than horse-racing." In spite of Washington's +carefully reasoned plans, the youth of the young man prevailed over +the reason of his stepfather. Jack found dogs, horses, and guns, and +consideration of dress more interesting and more important than +his stepfather's theories of education. Washington wrote to Parson +Boucher, the teacher: + + Had he begun, or rather pursued his study of the Greek language, + I should have thought it no bad acquisition; ... To be acquainted + with the French Tongue is become a part of polite education; + and to a man who has the prospect of mixing in a large circle, + absolutely necessary. Without arithmetic, the common affairs of + life are not to be managed with success. The study of Geometry, + and the mathematics (with due regard to the limits of it) is + equally advantageous. The principles of Philosophy, Moral, + Natural, etc. I should think a very desirable knowledge for a + gentleman.[1] + +[Footnote 1: W.C. Ford, _George Washington_ (1900), I, 136-37.] + +There was nothing abstract in young Jack Custis's practical response +to his stepfather's reasoning; he fell in love with Miss Nelly Calvert +and asked her to marry him. Washington was forced to plead with the +young lady that the youth was too young for marriage by several years, +and that he must finish his education. Apparently she acquiesced +without making a scene. She accepted a postponement of the engagement, +and Custis was enrolled among the students of King's College +(subsequently Columbia) in New York City. Even then, his passion for +an education did not develop as his parents hoped. He left the college +in the course of a few months. Throughout John Custis's perversities, +and as long as he lived, Washington's kindness and real affection +never wavered. Although he had now taught himself to practice complete +self-control, he could treat with consideration the young who had it +not. + +By nature Washington was a man of business. He wished to see things +grow, not so much for the actual increase in value which that +indicated, as because increase seemed to be a proof of proper methods. +Not content, therefore, with rounding out his holdings at Mount Vernon +and Mrs. Washington's estate at the White House, he sought investment +in the unsettled lands on the Ohio and in Florida, and on the +Mississippi. It proved to be a long time before the advance of +settlement in the latter regions made his investments worth much, and +during the decade after his marriage in 1759, we must think of him +as a man of great energy and calm judgment who was bent not only +on making Mount Vernon a model country place on the outside, but a +civilized home within. In its furnishings and appointments it did not +fall behind the manors of the Virginia men of fashion and of wealth +in that part of the country. Before Washington left the army, he +recognized that his education had been irregular and inadequate, and +he set himself to make good his defects by studying and reading for +himself. There were no public libraries, but some of the gentlemen +made collections of books. They learned of new publications in England +from journals which were few in number and incomplete. Doubtless +advertising went by word of mouth. The lists of things desired which +Washington sent out to his agents, Robert Cary and Company, once a +year or oftener, usually contained the titles of many books, chiefly +on architecture, and he was especially intent on keeping up with new +methods and experiments in farming. Thus, among the orders in May, +1759, among a request for "Desert Glasses and Stand for Sweetmeats +Jellies, etc.; 50 lbs. Spirma Citi Candles; stockings etc.," he asks +for "the newest and most approved Treatise of Agriculture--besides +this, send me a Small piece in Octavo--called a New System of +Agriculture, or a Speedy Way to Grow Rich; Longley's Book of +Gardening; Gibson upon Horses, the latest Edition in Quarto." This +same invoice contains directions for "the Busts--one of Alexander the +Great, another of Charles XII, of Sweden, and a fourth of the King of +Prussia (Frederick the Great); also of Prince Eugene and the Duke of +Marlborough, but somewhat smaller." Do these celebrities represent +Washington's heroes in 1759? + +As time went on, his commissions for books were less restricted to +agriculture, and comprised also works on history, biography, and +government. + +But although incessant activity devoted to various kinds of work was a +characteristic of Washington's life at Mount Vernon, his attention to +social duties and pleasures was hardly less important. He aimed to be +a country gentleman of influence, and he knew that he could achieve +this only by doing his share of the bountiful hospitality which was +expected of such a personage. Virginia at that time possessed no large +cities or towns with hotels. When the gentry travelled, they put up +overnight at the houses of other gentry, and thus, in spite of very +restricted means of transportation, the inhabitants of one part of the +country exchanged ideas with those of another. In this way also the +members of the upper class circulated among themselves and acquired +a solidarity which otherwise would hardly have been possible. We are +told that Mount Vernon was always full of guests; some of these being +casual strangers travelling through, and others being invited friends +and acquaintances on a visit. There were frequent balls and parties +when neighbors from far and near joined in some entertainment at the +great mansion. There were the hunt balls which Washington himself +particularly enjoyed, hunting being his favorite sport. Fairfax +County, where Mount Vernon lay, and its neighboring counties, Fauquier +and Prince William, abounded in foxes, and the land was not too +difficult for the hunters, who copied as far as possible the dress +and customs of the foxhunters in England. Possibly there might be a +meeting at Mount Vernon of the local politicians. At least once a year +Washington and his wife--"Lady," as the somewhat florid Virginians +called her--went off to Williamsburg to attend the session of the +House of Burgesses. Washington seldom missed going to the horse-races, +one of the chief functions of the year, not only for jockeys and +sporting men, but for the fashionable world of the aristocracy. Thanks +to his carefulness and honesty in keeping his accounts, we have his +own record of the amounts he spent at cards--never large amounts, nor +indicative of the gamester's passion. + +Thus Washington passed the first ten years of his married life. A +stranger meeting him at that time might have little suspected that +here was the future founder of a nation, one who would prove himself +the greatest of Americans, if not the greatest of men. But if you had +spent a day with Washington, and watched him at work, or listened to +his few but decisive words, or seen his benign but forcible smile, +you would have said to yourself--"This man is equal to any fate that +destiny may allot to him." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FIRST GUN + + +Meanwhile the course of events was leading toward a new and unexpected +goal. Chief Justice Marshall said, as I have quoted, that 1763, the +end of the French-Indian War, marked the greatest friendship and +harmony between the Colonies and England. The reason is plain. In +their incessant struggles with the French and the Indians, the +Colonists had discovered a real champion and protector. That +protector, England, had found that she must really protect the +Colonies unless she was willing to see them fall into the hands of +her rival, France. Putting forth her strength, she crushed France in +America, and remained virtually in control not only of the Colonies +and territory from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, but also of +British America. In these respects the Colonies and the Mother Country +seemed destined to be bound more closely together; but the very spirit +by which Britain had conquered France in America, and France in India, +and had made England paramount throughout the world, prevented the +further fusion, moral, social, and political, of the Colonies with the +Mother Country. + +That spirit was the Imperial Spirit, which Plassey and Quebec had +called to life. The narrow Hanoverian King, who now ruled England, +could not himself have devised the British Empire, but when the Empire +crystallized, George III rightly surmised that, however it had come +about, it meant a large increase in power for him. The Colonies and +Dependencies were to be governed like conquered provinces. Evidently, +the Hindus of Bengal could hardly be treated in the same fashion as +were the Colonists of Massachusetts or Virginia. The Bengalese knew +that there was no bond of language or of race between them and their +conquerors, whereas American Colonists knew that they and the British +sprang from the same race and spoke the same language. One of the +first realizations that came to the British Imperialists was that the +ownership of the conquered people or state warranted the conquerors in +enriching themselves from the conquered. But while this might do very +well in India, and be accepted there as a matter of course, it would +be most ill-judged in the American Colonies, for the Colonists were +not a foreign nor a conquered people. They originally held grants of +land from the British Crown, but they had worked that land themselves +and settled the wilderness by their own efforts, and had a right to +whatever they might earn. + +The Tory ideals, which took possession of the British Government when +Lord Bute succeeded to William Pitt in power, were soon applied to +England's relations to the American Colonies. The Seven Years' War +left England heavily in debt. She needed larger revenues, and being +now swayed by Imperialism, she easily found reasons for taxing the +Colonies. In 1765 she passed the Stamp Act which caused so much bad +feeling that in less than a year she decided to repeal it, but new +duties on paper, glass, tea, and other commodities were imposed +instead. In the North, Massachusetts took the lead in opposing what +the Colonists regarded as the unconstitutional acts of the Crown. The +patriotic lawyer of Boston, James Otis, shook the Colony with his +eloquence against the illegal encroachments and actual tyranny of the +English. Other popular orators of equal eminence, John and Samuel +Adams and Josiah Quincy, fanned the flames of discontent. Even the +most radical did not yet whisper the terrible word Revolution, or +suggest that they aspired to independence. They simply demanded their +"rights" which the arrogant and testy British Tories had shattered and +were withholding from them. At the outset rebels seldom admit that +their rebellion aims at new acquisitions, but only at the recovery of +the old. + +Next to Massachusetts, Virginia was the most vigorous of the Colonies +in protesting against British usurpation of power, which would deprive +them of their liberty. Although Virginia had no capital city like +Boston, in which the chief political leaders might gather and discuss +and plan, and mobs might assemble and equip with physical force the +impulses of popular indignation, the Old Dominion had means, just as +the Highland clans or the Arab tribes had, of keeping in touch with +each other. Patrick Henry, a young Virginia lawyer of sturdy Scotch +descent, by his flaming eloquence was easily first among the spokesmen +of the rights of the Colonists in Virginia. In the "Parsons Cause," a +lawsuit which might have passed quickly into oblivion had he not seen +the vital implications concerned in it, he denied the right of the +King to veto an act of the Virginia Assembly, which had been passed +for the good of the people of Virginia. In the course of the trial +he declared, "Government was a conditional compact between the King, +stipulating protection on the one hand, and the people, stipulating +obedience and support on the other," and he asserted that a violation +of these covenants by either party discharged the other party from its +obligations. Doctrines as outspoken as these uttered in court, whether +right or wrong, indicated that the attorney who uttered them, and the +judge who listened, and the audience who applauded, were not blind +worshippers of the illegal rapacity of the Crown. + +Patrick Henry was the most spectacular of the early champions of the +Colonists in Virginia, but many others of them agreed with him. Among +these the weightiest was the silent George Washington. He said little, +but his opinions passed from mouth to mouth, and convinced many. In +1765 he wrote to Francis Dandridge, an uncle of Mrs. Washington: + + The Stamp Act imposed on the colonies by the Parliament of Great + Britain, engrosses the conversation of the speculative part of the + colonists, who look upon this unconstitutional method of taxation, + as a direful attack upon their liberties, and loudly exclaim + against the violation. What may be the result of this, and of + some other (I think I may add) ill-judged measures, I will not + undertake to determine; but this I may venture to affirm, that the + advantage accruing to the mother country will fall greatly short + of the expectations of the ministry; for certain it is, that an + whole substance does already in a manner flow to Great Britain, + and that whatsoever contributes to lessen our importations must + be hurtful to their manufacturers. And the eyes of our people, + already beginning to open, will perceive, that many luxuries, + which we lavish our substance in Great Britain for, can well be + dispensed with, whilst the necessaries of life are (mostly) to + be had within ourselves. This, consequently, will introduce + frugality, and be a necessary stimulation to industry. If Great + Britain, therefore, loads her manufacturies with heavy taxes, + will it not facilitate these measures? They will not compel us, I + think, to give our money for their exports, whether we will or + not; and certain I am, none of their traders will part from them + without a valuable consideration. Where then, is the utility of + the restrictions? As to the Stamp Act, taken in a single view, one + and the first bad consequence attending it, I take to be this, + our courts of judicature must inevitably be shut up; for it + is impossible, (or next of kin to it), under our present + circumstances, that the act of Parliament can be complied with, + were we ever so willing to enforce the execution; for, not to say, + which alone would be sufficient, that we have not money to pay the + stamps, there are many other cogent reasons, to prevent it; and if + a stop be put to our judicial proceedings, I fancy the merchants + of Great Britain, trading to the colonies, will not be among the + last to wish for a repeal of it.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 209-10.] + +This passage would suffice, were there not many similar which might be +quoted, to prove that Washington was from the start a loyal American. +A legend which circulated during his lifetime, and must have been +fabricated by his enemies, for I find no evidence to support it either +in his letters or in other trustworthy testimony, insinuated that he +was British at heart and threw his lot in with the Colonists only when +war could not be averted. In 1770 the merchants of Philadelphia +drew up an agreement in which they pledged themselves to practise +non-importation of British goods sent to America. Washington's wise +neighbor and friend, George Mason, drafted a plan of association of +similar purport to be laid before the Virginia Burgesses. But Lord +Botetourt, the new Royal Governor, deemed some of these resolutions +dangerous to the prerogative of the King, and dissolved the Assembly. +The Burgesses, however, met at Anthony Hay's house and adopted +Mason's Association. Washington, who was one of the signers of the +Association, wrote to his agents in London: "I am fully determined to +adhere religiously to it." + +Five years had now elapsed since the British Tories attempted to fix +on the Colonies the Stamp Act, and although they had withdrawn +that hateful law, the relations between the Mother Country and the +Colonists had not improved. Far from it. The English issued a series +of irritating provisions which convinced the Colonists that the +Government had no real desire to be friendly, and that, on the +contrary, it intended to make no distinction between them and the +other conquered provinces of the Crown. Then and always, the English +forgot that the Colonists were men of their own stock, equally +stubborn in their devotion to principles, and probably more accessible +to scruples of conscience. So they were not likely to be frightened +into subjection. The governing class in England was in a state of mind +which has darkened its judgment more than once; the state of mind +which, when it encounters an obstacle to its plans, regards that +obstacle as an enemy, and remarks in language brutally frank, though +not wholly elegant: "We will lick him first and then decide who is +right." In 1770 King George III, who fretted at all seasons at the +slowness with which he was able to break down the ascendency of the +Whigs, manipulated the Government so as to make Lord North Prime +Minister. Lord North was a servant, one might say a lackey, after +the King's own heart. He abandoned lifelong traditions, principles, +fleeting whims, prejudices even, in order to keep up with the King's +wish of the moment. After Lord North became Prime Minister, the +likelihood of a peaceful settlement between the crown and the Colonies +lessened. He ran ahead of the King in his desire to serve the King's +wishes, and George III, by this time, was wrought up by the persistent +tenacity of the Whigs--he wished them dead, but they would not +die--and he was angered by the insolence of the Colonists who showed +that they would not shrink from forcibly resisting the King's command. +On both sides of the Atlantic a vehement and most enlightening debate +over constitutional and legal fundamentals still went on. Although +the King had packed Parliament, not all the oratory poured out at +Westminster favored the King. On the contrary, the three chief masters +of British eloquence at that time, and in all time--Edmund Burke, +William Pitt, and Charles James Fox--spoke on the side of the +Colonists. Reading the magnificent arguments of Burke to-day, we ask +ourselves how any group in Parliament could have withstood them. But +there comes a moment in every vital discussion when arguments and +logic fail to convince. Passions deeper than logic controlled motives +and actions. The Colonists contended that in proclaiming "no taxation +without representation," they were appealing to a principle of +Anglo-Saxon liberty inherent in their race. When King George, or any +one else, denied this principle, he denied an essential without which +Anglo-Saxon polity could not survive, but neither King George nor Lord +North accepted the premises. If they had condescended to reply at all, +they might have sung the hymn of their successors a hundred years +later: + + "We don't want to fight, + But by jingo! if we do, + We've got the men, we've got the ships, + We've got the money too." + +Meanwhile, the Virginia Planter watched the course of events, pursued +his daily business regularly, attended the House of Burgesses when it +was in session, said little, but thought much. He did not break +out into invective or patriotic appeals. No doubt many of his +acquaintances thought him lukewarm in spirit and non-committal; but +persons who knew him well knew what his decision must be. As early as +April 5, 1769, he wrote his friend, George Mason: + + 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--ms in + defence of so valuable a blessing, on which all the good and evil + of life depends, is clearly my opinion. Yet a--ms, I would beg + leave to add, should be the last resource, the dernier resort. + Addresses to the throne, and remonstrances to Parliament, we have + already, it is said, proved the inefficiency of. How far, then, + their attention to our rights and privileges is to be awakened or + alarmed, by starving their trade and manufacturers, remains to be + tried.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 263-64.] + +Thus wrote the Silent Member six years before the outbreak of +hostilities, and he did not then display any doubt either of his +patriotism, or of the course which every patriot must take. To his +intimates he spoke with point-blank candor. Years later, George Mason +wrote to him: + + I never forgot your declaration, when I had last the pleasure of + being at your house in 1768, that you were ready to take your + musket upon your shoulder whenever your country called upon you. + +Some writers point out that Washington excelled rather as a critic of +concrete plans than of constitutional and legal aspects. Perhaps this +is true. Assuredly he had no formal legal training. There were many +other men in Massachusetts, in Virginia, and in some of the other +Colonies, who could and did analyze minutely the Colonists' protest +against taxation without representation, and the British rebuttal +thereof; but Washington's strength lay in his primal wisdom, the +wisdom which is based not on conventions, even though they be laws and +constitutions, but on a knowledge of the ways in which men will react +toward each other in their primitive, natural relations. In this +respect he was one of the wisest among the statesmen. + +He does not seem to have joined in such clandestine methods as those +of the Committees of Correspondence, which Samuel Adams and some of +the most radical patriots in the Bay State had organized, but he said +in the Virginia Convention, in 1774: "I will raise one thousand men, +subsist them at my own expense and march myself at their head for the +relief of Boston."[1] The ardor of Washington's offer matched the +increasing anger of the Colonists. Lord North, abetted by the British +Parliament, had continued to exasperate them by passing new bills +which could have produced under the best circumstances only a +comparatively small revenue. One of these imposed a tax on tea. The +Colonists not only refused to buy it, but to have it landed. In Boston +a large crowd gathered and listened to much fiery speech-making. +Suddenly, a body of fifty men disguised as Mohawk Indians rushed +down to the wharves, rowed out to the three vessels in which a large +consignment of tea had been sent across the ocean, hoisted it out of +the holds to the decks and scattered the contents of three hundred and +forty chests in Boston Harbor. + +[Footnote 1: _John Adams's Diary_, August 31, 1774, quoting Lynch.] + +The Boston Tea Party was as sensational as if it had sprang from +the brain of a Paris Jacobin in the French Revolution. It created +excitement among the American Colonists from Portsmouth to Charleston. +Six more of the Colonies enrolled Committees of Correspondence, +Pennsylvania alone refusing to join. In every quarter American +patriots felt exalted. In England the reverse effects were signalized +with equal vehemence. The Mock Indians were denounced as incendiaries, +and the town meetings were condemned as "nurseries of sedition." +Parliament passed four penal laws, the first of which punished Boston +by transferring its port to Salem and closing its harbor. The second +law suspended the charter of the Province and added several new and +tyrannical powers to the British Governor and to Crown officials. + +On September 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress met in +Philadelphia. Except Georgia, every Colony sent delegates to it. The +election of those delegates was in several cases irregular, because +the body which chose them was not the Legislature but some temporary +body of the patriots. Nevertheless, the Congress numbered some of +the men who were actually and have remained in history, the great +engineers of the American Revolution. Samuel Adams and John Adams went +from Massachusetts; John Jay and Philip Livingston from New York; +Roger Sherman from Connecticut; Thomas Mifflin and Edward Biddle from +Pennsylvania; Thomas McKean from Delaware; George Washington, Patrick +Henry, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton, and Richard H. Lee from +Virginia; and Edward and John Rutledge from South Carolina. Although +the Congress was made up of these men and of others like them, the +petitions adopted by it and the work done, not to mention the freshets +of oratory, were astonishingly mild. Probably many of the delegates +would have preferred to use fiery tongues. Samuel Adams, for instance, +though "prematurely gray, palsied in hand, and trembling in voice," +must have had difficulty in restraining himself. He wrote as viciously +as he spoke. "Damn that Adams," said one of his enemies. "Every dip of +his pen stings like a horned snake." Patrick Henry, being asked when +he returned home, "Who is the greatest man in Congress," replied: "If +you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina is by far the +greatest orator; but if you speak of solid information and sound +judgment, Colonel Washington is unquestionably the greatest man on +that floor." The rumor had it that Washington said, he wished to God +the Liberties of America were to be determined by a single Combat +between himself and George. One other saying of his at this time is +worth reporting, although it cannot be satisfactorily verified. +"_More blood will be spilled on this occasion_, if the ministry are +determined to push matters to extremity, _than history has ever yet +furnished instances of_ in the annals of North America." The language +and tone of the "Summary View"--a pamphlet which Thomas Jefferson had +issued shortly before--probably chimed with the emotions of most of +the delegates. They adopted (October 14, 1774) the "Declaration +of Rights," which may not have seemed belligerent enough for the +Radicals, but really leaves little unsaid. A week later Congress +agreed to an "Association," an instrument for regulating, by +preventing, trade with the English. Having provided for the assembling +of a second Congress, the first adjourned. + +As a symbol, the First Congress has an integral importance in the +growth of American Independence. It marked the first time that the +American Colonies had acted together for their collective interests. +It served notice on King George and Lord North that it repudiated the +claims of the British Parliament to govern the Colonies. It implied +that it would repel by force every attempt of the British to exercise +an authority which the Colonists refused to recognize. In a very real +sense the Congress thus delivered an ultimatum. The winter of 1774/5 +saw preparations being pushed on both sides. General Thomas Gage, the +British Commander-in-Chief stationed at Boston, had also thrust upon +him the civil government of that town. He had some five thousand +British troops in Boston, and several men-of-war in the harbor. +There were no overt acts, but the speed with which, on more than one +occasion, large bodies of Colonial farmers assembled and went swinging +through the country to rescue some place, which it was falsely +reported the British were attacking, showed the nervous tension under +which the Americans were living. As the enthusiasm of the Patriots +increased, that of the Loyalists increased also. Among the latter were +many of the rich and aristocratic inhabitants, and, of course, most +of the office-holders. Until the actual outbreak of hostilities they +upheld the King's cause with more chivalry than discretion, and then +they migrated to Nova Scotia and to England, and bore the penalty of +confiscation and the corroding distress of exile. In England during +this winter, Pitt and Burke had defended the Colonies and the Whig +minority had supported them. Even Lord North used conciliatory +suggestions, but with him conciliation meant that the Colonies should +withdraw all their offensive demands and kneel before the Crown in +penitent humiliation before a new understanding could be thought of. + +Meanwhile Colonel Washington was in Virginia running his plantations +to the best of his ability and with his mind made up. He wrote to his +friend Bryan Fairfax (July 20, 1774): + + As I see nothing, on the one hand, to induce a belief that the + Parliament would embrace a favorable opportunity of repealing + acts, which they go on with great rapidity to pass, and in order + to enforce their tyrannical system; and on the other, I observe, + or think I observe, that government is pursuing a regular plan at + the expense of law and justice to overthrow our constitutional + rights and liberties, how can I expect any redress from a measure, + which has been ineffectually tried already? For, Sir, what is it + we are contending against? Is it against paying the duty of three + pence per pound on tea because burthensome? No, it is the right + only, we have all along disputed, and to this end we have already + petitioned his Majesty in as humble and dutiful manner as subjects + could do[1].... + + And has not General Gage's conduct since his arrival, (in stopping + the address of his Council, and publishing a proclamation more + becoming a Turkish bashaw, than an English governor, declaring it + treason to associate in any manner by which the commerce of Great + Britain is to be affected) exhibited an unexampled testimony of + the most despotic system of tyranny, that ever was practised in + a free government? In short, what further proofs are wanted to + satisfy one of the designs of the ministry, than their own acts, + which are uniform and plainly tending to the same point, nay, if I + mistake not, avowedly to fix the right of taxation? What hope then + from petitioning, when they tell us, that now or never is the time + to fix the matter? Shall we after this, whine and cry for relief, + when we have already tried it in vain? Or shall we supinely sit + and see one province after another fall a prey to despotism?[2] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 421-22.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., 423-24.] + +In the early autumn Washington wrote to Captain Robert MacKenzie, who +was serving in the Regular British Army with Gage at Boston: + + I think I can announce it as a fact, that it is not the wish or + intent of that government, (Massachusetts) or any other upon this + continent, separately or collectively, to set up for independence; + but this you may at the same time rely on, that none of them will + ever submit to the loss of these valuable rights and privileges, + which are essential to the happiness of every free state, and + without which, life, liberty, and property are rendered totally + insecure.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., 443.] + +In the following spring the battles of Lexington and Concord, on April +19th, began the war of the American Revolution. A few weeks later, a +Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. The delegates to it, +understanding that they must prepare for war, proceeded to elect +a Commander-in-Chief. There was some jealousy between the men of +Virginia and those of Massachusetts. The former seemed to think that +the latter assumed the first position, and indeed, most of the angry +gestures had been made in Boston, and Boston had been the special +object of British punishment. Still, with what may seem unexpected +self-effacement, they did not press strongly for the choice of a +Massachusetts man as Commander-in-Chief. On June 15, 1775, Congress +having resolved "that a general be appointed to command all the +continental forces raised or to be raised for the defence of American +liberty," proceeded to a choice, and the ballots being taken, George +Washington, Esq., was unanimously elected. On the next day the +President of the Congress, Mr. John Hancock, formally announced the +election to Colonel Washington, who replied: + + Mr. President, though I am truly sensible of the high honor + done me in this appointment, yet I feel great distress from a + consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not + be equal to the extensive and important trust. However, as the + Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty and exert + every power I possess in the service and for the support of the + glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most cordial thanks for + this distinguished testimony of their approbation. But lest some + unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg 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. + + As to pay, Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress, that as no + pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this + arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and + happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep + an exact account of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will + discharge, and that is all I desire.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 477-78-79, 480-81.] + +Accompanied by Lee and Schuyler and a brilliant escort, he set forth +on June 21st for Boston. Before they had gone twenty miles a messenger +bringing news of the Battle of Bunker Hill crossed them. "Did the +Militia fight?" Washington asked. On being told that they did, he +said: "Then the liberties of the country are safe." Then he pushed on, +stopping long enough in New York to appoint General Schuyler military +commander of that Colony, and so through Connecticut to the old Bay +State. There, at Cambridge, he found the crowd awaiting him and some +of the Colonial troops. On the edge of the Common, under a large elm +tree broad of spread, he took command of the first American army. It +was the second of July, 1775. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BOSTON FREED + + +Thus began what seems to us now an impossible war. Although it had +been brooding for ten years, since the Stamp Act, which showed that +the ties of blood and of tradition meant nothing to the British +Tories, now that it had come, the Colonists may well have asked +themselves what it meant. Probably, if the Colonists had taken a poll +on that fine July morning in 1775, not one in five of them would have +admitted that he was going to war to secure Independence, but all +would have protested that they would die if need be to recover their +freedom, the old British freedom, which came down to them from +Runnymede and should not be wrested from them. + +A British Tory, at the same time, might have replied: "We fight, we +cannot do less, in order to discipline and punish these wretches who +assume to deny the jurisdiction of the British Crown and to rebel +against the authority of the British Parliament." A few years before, +an English general had boasted that with an army of five thousand +troops he would undertake a march from Canada, through the Colonies, +straight to the Gulf of Mexico. And Colonel George Washington, who had +seen something of the quality of the British regulars, remarked that +with a thousand seasoned Virginians he would engage to block the five +thousand wherever he met them. The test was now to be made. + +The first thing that strikes us is the great extent of the field of +war. From the farthest settlements in the northeast, in what is now +Maine, to the border villages in Georgia was about fifteen hundred +miles; but mere distance did not represent the difficulty of the +journey. Between Boston and Baltimore ran a carriage road, not always +kept in good repair. Most of the other stretches had to be traversed +on horseback. The country along the seaboard was generally well +supplied with food, but the supply was nowhere near large enough to +furnish regular permanent subsistence for an army. A lack of munitions +seriously threatened the Colonists' ability to fight at all, but the +discovery of lead in Virginia made good this deficiency until the year +1781, when the lead mine was exhausted. + +More important than material concerns, however, was the diversity +in origin and customs among the Colonists themselves. The total +population numbered in 1775 nearly two and one half million souls. Of +these, the slaves formed about 500,000. The three largest Colonies, +Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania contained 900,000 +inhabitants, of which a little more than one half were slaves. +Pennsylvania, the third Colony, had a total of 300,000, mostly white, +while South Carolina had 200,000, of whom only 65,000 were white. +Connecticut, on the other hand, had 200,000 with scarcely any blacks. +The result was a very mottled population. The New Englanders had +already begun to practise manufacturing, and they continued to raise +under normal conditions sufficient food for their subsistence. South +of the Mason and Dixon line, however, slave labor prevailed and the +three great staples--tobacco, indigo, and rice--were the principal +crops. Where these did not grow, the natives got along as best they +could on scanty common crops, and by raising a few sheep and hogs. As +the war proceeded, it taught with more and more force the inherent +wastefulness of slave labor in the South. It was inefficient, costly, +and unreliable. + +The Battle of Bunker Hill was at once hailed as a Patriot victory, +but the rejoicing was premature, for the Americans had been forced +to retreat, giving up the position they had bravely defended. +Nevertheless, the opinion prevailed that they had won a real victory +by withstanding through many hours of a bloody fight some of the best +of the British regiments. + +Washington took command of the American army at Cambridge, he was +faced with the great task of organizing it and of forming a plan +of campaign. The Congress had taken over the charge of the army at +Boston, and the events had so shaped themselves that the first +thing for Washington to do was to drive out the British troops. To +accomplish this he planned to seal up all the entrances into the town +by land so that food could not be smuggled in. The British had a +considerable fleet in Boston Harbor, and they had to rely upon it to +bring provisions and to keep in touch with the world outside. + +Washington had his headquarters at the Craigie House in Cambridge, +some half a mile from Harvard Square and the College. He was now +forty-three years old, a man of commanding presence, six feet three +inches tall, broad-shouldered but slender, without any signs of the +stoutness of middle age. His hands and feet were large. His head was +somewhat small. The blue-gray eyes, set rather far apart, looked out +from heavy eyebrows with an expression of attentiveness. The most +marked feature was the nose, which was fairly large and straight and +vigorous. The mouth shut firmly, as it usually does where decision +is the dominant trait. The lips were flat. His color was pale but +healthy, and rarely flushed, even under great provocation. + +All that had gone before seemed to be strangely blended in his +appearance. The surveyor lad; the Indian fighter and officer; the +planter; the foxhunter; the Burgess; you could detect them all. But +underlying them all was the permanent Washington, deferent, plain of +speech, direct, yet slow in forming or expressing an opinion. Most +men, after they had been with him awhile, felt a sense of his majesty +grow upon them, a sense that he was made of common flesh like them, +but of something uncommon besides, something very high and very +precious. + +Washington found that he had sixteen thousand troops under his +command near Boston. Of these two thirds came from Massachusetts, and +Connecticut halved the rest. During July Congress added three thousand +men from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. They lacked everything. +In order to give them some uniformity in dress, Washington suggested +hunting-shirts, which he said "would have a happier tendency to unite +the men and abolish those Provincial Distinctions which lead to +jealousy and dissatisfaction." Among higher officers, jealousy, which +they made no attempt to dissemble or to disguise, was common. Two of +the highest posts went to Englishmen who proved themselves not only +technically unfit, but suspiciously near disloyalty. One of these +was Charles Lee, who thought the major-generalship to which Congress +appointed him beneath his notice; the other was also an Englishman, +Horatio Gates, Adjutant-General. A third, Thomas, when about to retire +in pique, received from Washington the following rebuke: + + In the usual contests of empire and ambition, the conscience of a + soldier has so little share, that he may very properly insist + upon his claims of rank, and extend his pretensions even to + punctilio;--but in such a cause as this, when the object is + neither glory nor extent of territory, but a defense of all that + is dear and valuable in private and public life, surely every + post ought to be deemed honorable in which a man can serve his + country.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, _George Washington_, I, 175.] + +Besides the complaints which reached Washington from all sides, he had +also to listen to the advice of military amateurs. Some of these had +never been in a battle and knew nothing about warfare except from +reading, but they were not on this account the most taciturn. Many +urged strongly that an expedition be sent against Canada, a design +which Washington opposed. His wisdom was justified when Richard +Montgomery, with about fifteen hundred men, took Montreal--November +12, 1775--and after waiting several weeks formed a junction with +Benedict Arnold near Quebec, which they attacked in a blinding +snowstorm, December 31, 1775. Arnold had marched up the Kennebec River +and through the Maine wilderness with fifteen hundred men, which were +reduced to five hundred before they came into action with Montgomery's +much dwindled force. The commander of Quebec repulsed them and sent +them flying southward as fast as the rigors of the winter and the +difficulties of the wilderness permitted. + +By the end of July, meanwhile, Washington had brought something like +order into the undisciplined and untrained masses who formed his +army, but now another lack threatened him: a lack of gunpowder. The +cartridge boxes of his soldiers contained on an average only nine +charges of ball and gunpowder apiece, hardly enough to engage in +battle for more than ten minutes. Washington sent an urgent appeal +to every town, and hearing that a ship at Bermuda had a cargo of +gunpowder, American ships were despatched thither to secure it. In +such straits did the army of the United Colonies go forth to war. By +avoiding battles and other causes for using munitions, they not only +kept their original supply, but added to it as fast as their appeals +were listened to. Washington kept his lines around Boston firm. In the +autumn General Gage was replaced, as British Commander-in-Chief, by +Sir William Howe, whose brother Richard, Lord Howe, became Admiral of +the Fleet. But the Howes knew no way to break the strangle hold of the +Americans. How Washington contrived to create the impression that +he was master of the situation is one of the mysteries of his +campaigning, because, although he had succeeded in making soldiers of +the raw recruits and in enforcing subordination, they were still a +very skittish body. They enlisted for short terms of service, and even +before their term was completed, they began to hanker to go home. This +caused not only inconvenience, but real difficulty. Still, Washington +steadily pushed on, and in March, 1776, by a brilliant manoeuvre at +Dorchester Heights, he secured a position from which his cannons could +bombard every British ship in Boston Harbor. On the 17th of March all +those ships, together with the garrison of eight thousand, and with +two thousand fugitive Loyalists, sailed off to Halifax. Boston has +been free from foreign enemies from that day to this. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TRENTON AND VALLEY FORGE + + +Howe's retreat from Boston freed Massachusetts and, indeed, all New +England from British troops. It also gave Washington the clue to his +own next move. He was a real soldier and therefore his instinct told +him that his next objective must be the enemy's army. Accordingly +he prepared to move his own troops to New York. He passed through +Providence, Norwich, and New London, reaching New York on April 13th. +Congress was then sitting in Philadelphia and he was requested to +visit it. + +He spent a fortnight during May in Philadelphia where he had +conferences with men of all kinds and seems to have been particularly +impressed, not to say shocked, by the lack of harmony which he +discovered. The members of the Congress, although they were ostensibly +devoting themselves to the common affairs of the United Colonies, were +really intriguing each for the interests of his special colony or +section. Washington thought this an ominous sign, as indeed it was, +for since the moment when he joined the Revolution he threw off all +local affiliation. He did his utmost to perform his duty, clinging as +long as he could to the hope that there would be no final break with +England. Throughout the winter, however, from almost every part of the +country the demands of the Colonists for independence became louder +and more urgent and these he heard repeated and discussed during his +visit to the Congress. On May 31st he wrote his brother John Augustine +Washington: + + Things have come to that pass now, as to convince us, that we have + nothing more to expect from the justice of Great Britain; also, + that she is capable of the most delusive acts; for I am satisfied, + that no commissioners ever were designed, except Hessians and + other foreigners; and that the idea was only to deceive and throw + us off our guard. The first has been too effectually accomplished, + as many members of Congress, in short, the representation of whole + provinces, are still feeding themselves upon the dainty food + of reconciliation; and though they will not allow, that the + expectation of it has any influence upon their judgment, (with + respect to their preparations for defence,) it is but too obvious, + that it has an operation upon every part of their conduct, and is + a clog to their proceedings. It is not in the nature of things to + be otherwise; for no man, that entertains a hope of seeing this + dispute speedily and equitably adjusted by commissioners, will go + to the same expense and run the same hazards to prepare for the + worst event, as he who believes that he must conquer, or submit to + unconditional terms, and its concomitants, such as confiscation, + hanging, etc. etc.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, iv, 106.] + +The Hessians to whom Washington alludes were German mercenaries +hired by the King of England from two or three of the princelings of +Germany. These Hessians turned a dishonest penny by fighting in behalf +of a cause in which they took no immediate interest or even knew what +it was about. During the course of the Revolution there were thirty +thousand Hessians in the British armies in America, and, as their +owners, the German princelings, received £5 apiece for them it was a +profitable arrangement for those phlegmatic, corpulent, and braggart +personages. The Americans complained that the Hessians were brutal and +tricky fighters; but in reality they merely carried out the ideals of +their German Fatherland which remained behind the rest of Europe in +its ideals of what was fitting in war. Being uncivilized, they could +not be expected to follow the practice of civilized warfare. + +When Washington returned to his headquarters in New York, he left the +Congress in Philadelphia simmering over the question of Independence. +Almost simultaneously with Washington's return came the British fleet +under Howe, which passed Sandy Hook and sailed up New York Harbor. He +brought an army of twenty-five thousand men. Washington's force was +nominally nineteen thousand men, but it was reduced to not more than +ten thousand by the detachment of several thousand to guard Boston +and of several thousand more to take part in the struggle in Canada, +besides thirty-six hundred sick. The Colonists clung as if by +obsession to their project of capturing Quebec. The death of +Montgomery and the discomfiture of Benedict Arnold, which really gave +a quietus to the success of the expedition, did not suffice to crush +it. Only too evident was it that Quebec could be taken. Canada would +fall permanently into American control, and cease to be a constant +menace and the recruiting ground for new expeditions against the +central Colonies. + +August was drawing to a close when the two armies were in a position +to begin fighting. The British, who had originally camped upon Staten +Island where Nature provided them with a shelter from attack, had now +moved across the bay to Long Island. There General Sullivan, having +lost eleven or twelve hundred men, was caught between two fires and +compelled to surrender with the two thousand or more of his army which +remained after the attack of the British. Washington watched the +disaster from Brooklyn, but was unable to detach any regiments to +bring aid to Sullivan, as it now became clear to him that his whole +army on Long Island might easily be cut off. He decided to retreat +from the island. This he did on August 29th, having commandeered every +boat that he could find. He ferried his entire force across to the +New York side with such secrecy and silence that the British did not +notice that they were gone. A heavy fog, which settled over the water +during the night, greatly aided the adventure. The result of +the Battle of Long Island gave the British great exultation and +correspondingly depressed the Americans. On the preceding fourth +of July they had declared their Independence; they were no longer +Colonies but independent States bound together by a common interest. +They felt all the more keenly that in this first battle after their +Independence they should be so ignominiously defeated. They might have +taken much comfort in the thought that had Howe surprised them on +their midnight retreat across the river, he might have captured most +of the American army and probably have ended the war. Washington's +disaster sprang not from his incompetence, but from his inadequate +resources. The British outnumbered him more than two to one and they +had control of the water; an advantage which he could not offset. One +important fact should not be forgotten: New York, both City and State, +had been notoriously Loyalist--that is, pro-British--ever since the +troubles between the Colonists and the British grew angry. Governor +Tryon, the Governor of the State, made no secret of his British +preferences; indeed, they were not preferences at all, but downright +British acts. + +Having won the Battle of Long Island, Lord Howe thought the time +favorable for acting in his capacity as a peacemaker, because he had +come over with authority to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the +Colonists' quarrel. He appealed, therefore, to the Congress of +Philadelphia, which appointed a committee of three--Benjamin Franklin, +John Adams, and Edward Rutledge to confer with Lord Howe. The +conference, which exhibited the shrewd quality of John Adams and of +Franklin, the politeness of Rutledge, and the studied urbanity of Lord +Howe, simply showed that there was no common ground on which they +could come to an agreement. The American Commissioners returned to +Philadelphia and Lord Howe to New York City and there were no further +attempts at peacemaking. + +Having brought his men to New York, Washington may well have debated +what to do next. The general opinion seemed to be that New York must +be defended at all costs. Whether Washington approved of this plan, I +find it hard to say. Perhaps he felt that if the American army could +hold its own on Manhattan for several weeks, it would be put into +better discipline and prepared either to risk a battle with the +British, or to retreat across the Hudson toward New Jersey. He decided +that for the moment at least he would station his army on the heights +of Harlem. From the house of Colonel Morris, where he made his +headquarters, he wrote on September 4, 1776, to the President of the +Congress: "We are now, as it were, upon the eve of another dissolution +of our army." The term of service of most of the soldiers under +Washington would expire at the end of the year, and he devoted the +greater part of the letter to showing up the evils of the military +system existing in the American army. + + A soldier [he said] reasoned with upon the goodness of the cause + he is engaged in, and the inestimable rights he is contending + for, hears you with patience, and acknowledges the truth of your + observations, but adds that it is of no more importance to him + than to others. The officer makes you the same reply, with this + further remark, that his pay will not support him and he cannot + ruin himself and family to serve his country, when every member of + the community is equally interested, and benefited by his labors. + The few, therefore, who act upon principles of disinterestedness, + comparatively speaking, are no more than a drop in the ocean. + + It becomes evident to me then, that, as this contest is not + likely to be the work of a day, as the war must be carried on + systematically, and to do it you must have good officers, there + are in my judgment no other possible means to obtain them but by + establishing your army upon a permanent footing and giving your + officers good pay. This will induce gentlemen and men of character + to engage; and, till the bulk of your officers is composed of such + persons as are actuated by principles of honor and a spirit of + enterprise, you have little to expect from them.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, IV, 440.] + +Washington proceeds to argue that the soldiers ought not to be engaged +for a shorter time than the duration of the war, that they ought to +have better pay and the offer of a hundred or a hundred and fifty +acres of land. Officers' pay should be increased in proportion. "Why +a captain in the Continental service should receive no more than five +shillings currency per day for performing the same duties that an +officer of the same rank in the British service receives ten shillings +for, I never could conceive." He further speaks strongly against the +employment of militia--"to place any dependence upon [it] is assuredly +resting upon a broken staff." + +Washington wrote thus frankly to the Congress which seems to have read +his doleful reports without really being stimulated, as it ought to +have been, by a determination to remove their causes. Probably the +delegates came to regard the jeremiads as a matter of course and +assumed that Washington would pull through somehow. Very remarkable is +it that the Commander-in-Chief of any army in such a struggle should +have expressed himself as he did, bluntly, in regard to its glaring +imperfections. Doing this, however, he managed to hold the loyalty and +spirit of his men. In the American Civil War, McClellan contrived to +infatuate his troops with the belief that his plans were perfect, and +that only the annoying fact that the Confederate generals planned +better caused him to be defeated; and yet to his obsessed soldiers +defeat under McClellan was more glorious than victory under Lee or +Stonewall Jackson. I take it that Washington's frankness simply +reflected his passion for veracity, which was the cornerstone of his +character. The strangest fact of all was that it did not lessen his +popularity or discourage his troops. + +To his intimates Washington wrote with even more unreserve. Thus he +says to Lund Washington (30th September): + + In short, such is my situation that if I were to wish the + bitterest curse to an enemy on this side of the grave, I should + put him in my stead with my feelings; and yet I do not know what + plan of conduct to pursue. I see the impossibility of serving + with reputation, or doing any essential service to the cause by + continuing in command, and yet I am told that if I quit the + command, inevitable ruin will follow from the distraction that + will ensue. In confidence I tell you that I never was in such an + unhappy, divided state since I was born. To lose all comfort and + happiness on the one hand, whilst I am fully persuaded that under + such a system of management as has been adopted, I cannot have the + least chance for reputation, nor those allowances made which the + nature of the case requires; and to be told, on the other, that if + I leave the service all will be lost, is, at the same time that I + am bereft of every peaceful moment, distressing to a degree. But I + will be done with the subject, with the precaution to you that it + is not a fit one to be publicly known or discussed. If I fall, + it may not be amiss that these circumstances be known, and + declaration made in credit to the justice of my character. And + if the men will stand by me (which by the by I despair of), I am + resolved not to be forced from this ground while I have life; + and a few days will determine the point, if the enemy should not + change their place of operations; for they certainly will not--I + am sure they ought not--to waste the season that is now fast + advancing, and must be precious to them.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, IV, 458.] + +The British troops almost succeeded in surrounding Washington's force +north of Harlem. Washington retreated to White Plains, where, on +October 28th, the British, after a severe loss, took an outpost +and won what is called the "Battle of White Plains." Henceforward +Washington's movements resembled too painfully those of the proverbial +toad under the harrow; and yet in spite of Lord Howe's efforts to +crush him, he succeeded in escaping into New Jersey with a small +remnant--some six thousand men--of his original army. The year 1776 +thus closed in disaster which seemed to be irremediable. It showed +that the British, having awakened to the magnitude of their task, were +able to cope with it. Having a comparatively unlimited sea-power, they +needed only to embark their regiments, with the necessary provisions +and ammunition, on their ships and send them across the Atlantic, +where they were more than a match for the nondescript, undisciplined, +ill-equipped, and often badly nourished Americans. The fact that +at the highest reckoning hardly a half of the American people were +actively in favor of Independence, is too often forgotten. But from +this fact there followed much lukewarmness and inertia in certain +sections. Many persons had too little imagination or were too sordidly +bound by their daily ties to care. As one planter put it: "My business +is to raise tobacco, the rest doesn't concern me." + +Over the generally level plains of New Jersey, George Washington +pushed the remnant of the army that remained to him. He had now hardly +five thousand men, but they were the best, most seasoned, and in +many respects the hardiest fighters. In addition to the usual +responsibility of warfare, of feeding his troops, finding quarters +for them, and of directing the line of march, he had to cope with +wholesale desertions and to make desperate efforts to raise money and +to persuade some of those troops, whose term was expiring, to stay on. +His general plan now was to come near enough to the British centre and +to watch its movements. The British had fully twenty-five thousand men +who could be centred at a given point. This centre was now Trenton, +and the objective of the British was so plainly Philadelphia that the +Continental Congress, after voting to remain in permanence there, fled +as quietly as possible to Baltimore. On December 18th Washington wrote +from the camp near the Falls of Trenton to John Augustine Washington: + + If every nerve is not strained to recruit the new army with all + possible expedition, I think the game is pretty near up, owing, + in great measure, to the insidious acts of the Enemy, and + disaffection of the Colonies before mentioned, but principally to + the accursed policy of short enlistments, and placing too great + a dependence on the militia, the evil consequences of which were + foretold fifteen months ago, with a spirit almost Prophetic. ... + You can form no idea of the perplexity of my situation. No man, I + believe, ever had a greater choice of difficulties, and less means + to extricate himself from them. However, under a full persuasion + of the justice of our cause, I cannot entertain an idea that it + will finally sink, though it may remain for some time under a + cloud.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, V, 111.] + +Washington stood with his forlorn little array on the west bank of +the Delaware above Trenton. He had information that the British had +stretched their line very far and thin to the east of the town. +Separating his forces into three bodies, he commanded one of these +himself, and during the night of Christmas he crossed the river in +boats. The night was stormy and the crossing was much interrupted by +floating cakes of ice; in spite of which he landed his troops safely +on the eastern shore. They had to march nine miles before they reached +Trenton, taking Colonel Rall and his garrison of Hessians by surprise. +More than a thousand surrendered and were quickly carried back over +the river into captivity. + +The prestige of the Battle of Trenton was enormous. For the first time +in six months Washington had beaten the superior forces of the British +and beaten them in a fortified town of their own choosing. The result +of the victory was not simply military; it quickly penetrated the +population of New Jersey which had been exasperatingly Loyalist, had +sold the British provisions, and abetted their intrigues. Now the New +Jersey people suddenly bethought them that they might have chosen the +wrong side after all. This feeling was deepened in them a week later +when, at Princeton, Washington suddenly fell upon and routed several +British regiments. By this success he cleared the upper parts of New +Jersey of British troops, who were shut once more within the limits of +New York City and Long Island. + +In January, 1777, no man could say that the turning-point in the +American Revolution had been passed. There were still to come long +months, and years even, of doubt and disillusion and suffering; the +agony of Valley Forge; the ignominy of betrayal; and the slowly +gnawing pain of hope deferred. But the fact, if men could have but +seen it, was clear--Trenton and Princeton were prophetic of the +end. And what was even clearer was the supreme importance of George +Washington. Had he been cut off after Princeton or had he been forced +to retire through accident, the Revolution would have slackened, lost +head and direction, and spent itself among thinly parcelled rivulets +without strength to reach the sea. Washington was a Necessary Man. +Without him the struggle would not then have continued. Sooner +or later America would have broken free from England, but he was +indispensable to the liberty and independence of the Colonies then. +This thought brooded over him at all times, not to make him boastful +or imperious, but to impress him with a deeper awe, and to impress +also his men with the supreme importance of his life to them all. They +grew restive when, at Princeton, forgetful of self, he faced a volley +of muskets only thirty feet away. One of his officers wrote after the +Trenton campaign: + + 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, makes him fearless of danger. This + occasions us much uneasiness. But Heaven, which has hitherto been + his shield, I hope will still continue to guard so valuable a + life.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 171.] + +Robert Morris, who had already achieved a very important position +among the Patriots of New York, wrote to Washington: + + Heaven, no doubt for the noblest purposes, has blessed you with + a firmness of mind, steadiness of countenance, and patience in + sufferings, that give you infinite advantages over other men. This + being the case, you are not to depend on other people's exertions + being equal to your own. One mind feeds and thrives on misfortunes + by finding resources to get the better of them; another sinks + under their weight, thinking it impossible to resist; and, as the + latter description probably includes the majority of mankind, we + must be cautious of alarming them. + +Washington doubtless thanked Morris for his kind advice about issuing +reports which had some streaks of the rainbow and less truth in them. +He did not easily give up his preference for truth. + + Common prudence [he said] dictates the necessity of duly attending + to the circumstances of both armies, before the style of + conquerors is assumed by either; and I am sorry to add, that this + does not appear to be the case with us; nor is it in my power to + make Congress fully sensible of the real situation of our affairs, + and that it is with difficulty (if I may use the expression) that + I can, by every means in my power, keep the life and soul of this + army together. In a word, when they are at a distance, they think + it is but to say, Presto begone, and everything is done. They + seem not to have any conception of the difficulty and perplexity + attending those who are to execute. + +After the Battle of Princeton, Washington drew his men off to the +Heights of Morristown where he established his winter quarters. The +British had gone still farther toward New York City. Both sides seemed +content to enjoy a comparative truce until spring should come with +better weather; but true to his characteristic of being always +preparing something, Howe had several projects in view, any one of +which might lead to important activity. If ever a war was fought at +long range, that war was the American Revolution. Howe received his +orders from the War Office in London. Every move was laid down; no +allowance was made for the change which unforeseeable contingencies +might render necessary; the young Under-Secretaries who carefully +drew up the instructions in London knew little or nothing about the +American field of operations and simply relied upon the fact that +their callipers showed that it was so many miles between Point X and +Point Y and that the distance should ordinarily be covered in so many +hours. + +With Washington himself the case was hardly better. There were few +motions that he could make of his own free will. He had to get +authority from the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. The Congress +was not made up of military experts and in many cases it knew nothing +about the questions he asked. The members of the Congress were +talkers, not doers, and they sometimes lost themselves in endless +debate and sometimes they seemed quite to forget the questions +Washington put to them. We find him writing in December to beg them to +reply to the urgent question which he had first asked in the preceding +October. He was scrupulous not to take any step which might seem +dictatorial. The Congress and the people of the country dreaded +military despotism. That dread made them prefer the evil system +of militia and the short-term enlistments to a properly organized +standing army. To their fearful imagination the standing army would +very quickly be followed by the man on horseback and by hopeless +despotism. + +The Olympians in London who controlled the larger issues of war and +peace whispered to the young gentlemen in the War Office to draw up +plans for the invasion, during the summer of 1777, of the lower Hudson +by British troops from Canada. General Burgoyne should march down and +take Ticonderoga and then proceed to Albany. There he could meet a +smaller force under Colonel St. Leger coming from Oswego and following +the Mohawk River. A third army under Sir William Howe could ascend +the Hudson and meet Burgoyne and St. Leger at the general +rendezvous--Albany. It was a brave plan, and when Burgoyne started +with his force of eight thousand men high hopes flushed the British +hearts. These hopes seemed to be confirmed when a month later Burgoyne +took Ticonderoga. The Americans attributed great importance to this +place, an importance which might have been justified at an earlier +time, but which was now really passed, and it proved of little value +to Burgoyne. Pursuing his march southward, he found himself entangled +in the forest and he failed to meet boats which were to ferry him over +the streams. + +The military operations during the summer and autumn of 1777 might +well cause the Americans to exult. The British plan of sending three +armies to clear out the forces which guarded or blocked the road from +Canada to the lower Hudson burst like a bubble. The chief contingent +of 8000 men, under General Burgoyne, seems to have strayed from its +route and to have been in need of food. Hearing that there were +supplies at Bennington, Burgoyne turned aside to that place. He +little suspected the mettle of John Stark and of his Green Mountain +volunteers. Their quality was well represented by Stark's address to +his men: "They are ours to-night, or Molly Stark is a widow." He did +not boast. By nightfall he had captured all of Burgoyne's men who were +alive (August 16, 1777). + +Only one reverse marred the victories of the summer. This was at +Oriskany in August, 1777. An American force of 400 or 500 men fell +into an ambush, and its leader, General Herkimer, though mortally +wounded, refused to retire, but continued to give directions to the +end. Oriskany was reputed to be the most atrocious fight of the +Revolution. Joseph Brant, the Mohawk chief, led the Indians, who were +allies of the English. + +In spite of this, Burgoyne seemed to lose resolution, uncertain +whither to turn. He instinctively groped for a way that would take him +down the Hudson and bring him to Albany, where he was to meet British +reënforcements. But he missed his bearings and found himself near +Saratoga. Here General Gates confronted him with an army larger than +his own in regulars. On October 7th they fought a battle, which the +British technically claimed as a victory, as they were not driven from +their position, but it left them virtually hemmed in without a line +of escape. Burgoyne waited several days irresolute. He hoped that +something favorable to him might turn up. He had a lurking hope that +General Clinton was near by, coming to his rescue. He wavered, gallant +though he was, and would not give the final order of desperation--to +cut their way through the enemy lines. Instead of that he sought a +truce with Gates, and signed the Convention of Saratoga (October +17th), by which he surrendered his army with the honors of war, and it +was stipulated that they should be sent to England by English ships +and paroled against taking any further part in the war. + +The victory of Saratoga had much effect on America; it reverberated +through Europe. Only the peculiar nature of the fighting in America +prevented it from being decisive. Washington himself had never dared +to risk a battle which, if he were defeated in it, would render it +impossible for him to continue the war. The British, on the other +hand, spread over much ground, and the destruction of one of their +armies would not necessarily involve the loss of all. So it was +now; Burgoyne's surrender did little to relieve the pressure on +Washington's troops on the Hudson, but it had a vital effect across +the sea. + +Since the first year of the war the Americans had hoped to secure a +formal alliance with France against England, and among the French who +favored this scheme there were several persons of importance. Reasons +were easily found to justify such an alliance. The Treaty of Paris in +1763 had dispossessed France of her colonies in America and had left +her inferior to England in other parts of the world. Here was her +chance to take revenge. The new King, Louis XVI, had for Foreign +Minister Count de Vergennes, a diplomat of some experience, who warmly +urged supporting the cause of the American Colonists. He had for +accomplice Beaumarchais, a nimble-witted playwright and seductive man +of the world who talked very persuasively to the young King and many +others. + +The Americans on their side had not been inactive, and early in 1776 +Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, was sent over +to Paris with the mission to do his utmost to cement the friendship +between the American Colonies and France. Deane worked to such good +purpose that by October, 1776, he had sent clothing for twenty +thousand men, muskets for thirty thousand and large quantities of +ammunition. A fictitious French house, which went by the name of +Hortalaz et Cie, acted as agent and carried on the necessary business +from Paris. By this time military adventurers in large numbers began +to flock to America to offer their swords to the rebellious Colonials. +Among them were a few--de Kalb, Pulaski, Steuben, and Kosciuszko--who +did good service for the struggling young rebels, but most of them +were worthless adventurers and marplots. + +Almost any American in Paris felt himself authorized to give a letter +of introduction to any Frenchman or other European who wished to try +his fortunes in America. One of the notorious cases was that of a +French officer named Ducoudray, who brought a letter from Deane +purporting to be an agreement that Ducoudray should command the +artillery of the Continental army with the rank and pay of a +major-general. Washington would take no responsibility for this +appointment, which would have displaced General Knox, a hardy veteran, +an indefectible patriot, and Washington's trusted friend. When +the matter was taken up by the Congress, the demand was quickly +disallowed. The absurdity of allowing Silas Deane or any other +American in Paris, no matter how meritorious his own services might +be, to assign to foreigners commissions of high rank in the American +army was too obvious to be debated. + +To illustrate the character of Washington's miscellaneous labors in +addition to his usual household care of the force under him, I borrow +a few items from his correspondence. I borrow at random, the time +being October, 1777, when the Commander-in-Chief is moving from place +to place in northern New Jersey, watching the enemy and avoiding an +engagement. A letter comes from Richard Henry Lee, evidently intended +to sound Washington, in regard to the appointment of General Conway to +a high command in the American army. Washington replies with corroding +veracity. + + [Matuchin Hill, 17 October, 1777.] If there is any truth in + the report that Congress hath appointed ... Brigadier Conway a + Major-general in this army, it will be as unfortunate a measure as + ever was adopted. I may add, (and I think with truth) that it + will give a fatal blow to the existence of the army. Upon so + interesting a subject, I must speak plain. The duty I owe my + country, the ardent desire I have to promote its true interests, + and justice to individuals, requires this of me. General Conway's + merit, then, as an officer, and his importance in this army, + exists more in his imagination, than in reality. For it is a maxim + with him, to leave no service of his own untold, nor to want + anything, which is to be obtained by importunity.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 121.] + +It does not appear that Lee fished for letters of introduction for +himself or any of his friends after this experiment. He needed no +further proof that George Washington had the art of sending _complete_ +answers.[2] + +[Footnote 2: For the end of Conway and his cabal see _post_, 112, +113.] + +On October 25, 1777, desertions being frequent among the officers and +men, Washington issued this circular to Pulaski and Colonels of Horse: + + I am sorry to find that the liberty I granted to the light + dragoons of impressing horses near the enemy's line has been most + horribly abused and perverted into a mere plundering scheme. + I intended nothing more than that the horses belonging to the + disaffected in the neighborhood of the British Army, should be + taken for the use of the dismounted dragoons, and expected, that + they would be regularly reported to the Quartermaster General, + that an account might be kept of the number and the persons from + whom they were taken, in order to a future settlement.--Instead of + this, I am informed that under pretence of the authority derived + from me, they go about the country plundering whomsoever they are + pleased to denominate tories, and converting what they get to + their own private profit and emolument. This is an abuse that + cannot be tolerated; and as I find the license allowed them, has + been made a sanction for such mischievous practices, I am under + the necessity of recalling it altogether. You will therefore + immediately make it known to your whole corps, that they are not + under any pretence whatever to meddle with the horses or other + property of any inhabitant whatever on pain of the severest + punishment, for they may be assured as far as it depends upon me + that military execution will attend all those who are caught in + the like practice hereafter.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 141.] + +One finds nothing ambiguous in this order to Pulaski and the Colonels +of Horse. A more timid commander would have hesitated to speak so +curtly at a time when the officers and men of his army were deserting +at will; but to Washington discipline was discipline, and he would +maintain it, cost what it might, so long as he had ten men ready to +obey him. + +Passing over three weeks we find Washington writing from Headquarters +on November 14th to Sir William Howe, the British Commander-in-Chief, +in regard to the maltreatment of prisoners and to proposals of +exchanging officers on parole. + + I must also remonstrate against the maltreatment and confinement + of our officers--this, I am informed, is not only the case of + those in Philadelphia, but of many in New York. Whatever plausible + pretences may be urged to authorize the condition of the former, + it is certain but few circumstances can arise to justify that of + the latter. I appeal to you to redress these several wrongs; and + you will remember, whatever hardships the prisoners with us may be + subjected to will be chargeable on you. At the same time it is but + justice to observe, that many of the cruelties exercised towards + prisoners are said to proceed from the inhumanity of Mr. + Cunningham, provost-martial, without your knowledge or + approbation.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 195.] + +The letter was sufficiently direct for Sir William to understand it. +If these extracts were multiplied by ten they would represent more +nearly the mass of questions which came daily to Washington for +decision. The decision had usually to be made in haste and always +with the understanding that it would not only settle the question +immediately involved, but it would serve as precedent. + +The victory of Saratoga gave a great impetus to the party in France +which wished Louis XVI to come out boldly on the side of the Americans +in their war with the British. The King was persuaded. Vergennes also +secured the coöperation of Spain with France, for Spain had views +against England, and she agreed that if a readjustment of sovereignty +were coming in America, it would be prudent for her to be on hand to +press her own claims. On February 6, 1778, the treaty between France +and America was signed.[1] Long before this, however, a young French +enthusiast who proved to be the most conspicuous of all the foreign +volunteers, the Marquis de Lafayette, had come over with magnificent +promises from Silas Deane. On being told, however, that the Congress +found it impossible to ratify Deane's promises, he modestly requested +to enlist in the army without pay. Washington at once took a fancy to +him and insisted on his being a member of the Commander's family. + +[Footnote 1: The treaty was ratified by Congress May 4, 1778.] + +While Burgoyne's surrendered army was marching to Boston and +Cambridge, to be shut up as prisoners, Washington was taking into +consideration the best place in which to pass the winter. Several were +suggested, Wilmington, Delaware, and Valley Forge--about twenty-five +miles from Philadelphia--being especially urged upon him. Washington +preferred the latter, chiefly because it was near enough to +Philadelphia to enable him to keep watch on the movements of the +British troops in that city. Valley Forge! One of the names in human +history associated with the maximum of suffering and distress, with +magnificent patience, sacrifice, and glory. + + The surrounding hills were covered with woods and presented an + inhospitable appearance. The choice was severely criticised, and + de Kalb described it as a wilderness. But the position was central + and easily defended. The army arrived there about the middle of + December, and the erection of huts began. They were built of logs + and were 14 by 15 feet each. The windows were covered with oiled + paper, and the openings between the logs were closed with clay. + The huts were arranged in streets, giving the place the appearance + of a city. It was the first of the year, however, before they + were occupied, and previous to that the suffering of the army had + become great. Although the weather was intensely cold, the men + were obliged to work at the buildings, with nothing to support + life but flour unmixed with water, which they baked into cakes at + the open fires ... the horses died of starvation by hundreds, and + the men were obliged to haul their own provisions and firewood. As + straw could not be found to protect the men from the cold ground, + sickness spread through their quarters with fearful rapidity. "The + unfortunate soldiers," wrote Lafayette in after years, "they were + in want of everything; they had neither coats, hats, shirts nor + shoes; their feet and their legs froze till they became black, and + it was often necessary to amputate them." ... The army frequently + remained whole days without provisions, and the patient endurance + of the soldiers and officers was a miracle which each moment + served to renew ... while the country around Valley Forge was so + impoverished by the military operations of the previous summer as + to make it impossible for it to support the army. The sufferings + of the latter were chiefly owing to the inefficiency of + Congress.[1] + +[Footnote 1: F.D. Stone, _Struggle for the Delaware_, vi, ch. 5.] + +No one felt more keenly than did Washington the horrors, of Valley +Forge. He had not believed in forming such an encampment, and from the +start he denounced the neglect and incompetence of the commissions. +In a letter to the President of the Congress on December 3, 1777, he +wrote: + + Since the month of July we have had no assistance from the + quartermaster-general, and to want of assistance from this + department the commissary-general charges great part of his + deficiency. To this I am to add, that, notwithstanding it is a + standing order, and often repeated that the troops shall always + have two days' provisions by them, that they might be ready at + any sudden call; yet an opportunity has scarcely ever offered of + taking an advantage of the enemy, that has not either been totally + obstructed or greatly impeded, on this account. And this, the + great and crying evil, is not all. The soap, vinegar, and other + articles allowed by Congress, we see none of, nor have we seen + them, I believe, since the Battle of Brandywine. The first, + indeed, we have now little occasion for; few men having more than + one shirt, many only the moiety of one, and some none at all. In + addition to which, as a proof of the little benefit received from + a clothier-general, and as a further proof of the inability of + an army, under the circumstances of this, to perform the common + duties of soldiers, (besides a number of men confined to hospitals + for want of shoes, and others in farmers' houses on the same + account,) we have, by a field-return this day made, no less than + two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight men now in camp unfit + for duty, because they are barefoot and otherwise naked. By the + same return it appears, that our whole strength in Continental + troops, including the eastern brigades, which have joined us since + the surrender of General Burgoyne, exclusive of the Maryland + troops sent to Wilmington, amounts to no more than eight thousand + two hundred in camp fit for duty; notwithstanding which, and that + since the 4th instant our numbers fit for duty, from the hardships + and exposures they have undergone, particularly on account of + blankets (numbers having been obliged, and still are, to sit + up all night by fires, instead of taking comfortable rest in a + natural and common way), have decreased near two thousand men. + + We find gentlemen, without knowing whether the army was really + going into winter-quarters or not (for I am sure no resolution of + mine would warrant the Remonstrance), reprobating the measure as + much as if they thought the soldiers were made of stocks or stones + and equally insensible of frost and snow; and moreover, as if they + conceived it easily practicable for an inferior army, under the + disadvantages I have described ours to be, which are by no + means exaggerated, to confine a superior one, in all respects + well-appointed and provided for a winter's campaign within the + city of Philadelphia, and to cover from depredation and waste the + States of Pennsylvania and Jersey. But what makes this matter + still more extraordinary in my eye is, that these very + gentlemen,--who were well apprized of the nakedness of the troops + from ocular demonstration, who thought their own soldiers worse + clad than others, and who advised me near a month ago to postpone + the execution of a plan I was about to adopt, in consequence of a + resolve of Congress for seizing clothes, under strong assurances + that an ample supply would be collected in ten days agreeably to a + decree of the State (not one article of which, by the by, is yet + come to hand)--should think a winter's campaign, and the covering + of these States from the invasion of an enemy, so easy and + practicable a business. I can assure those gentlemen, 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. + However, although they seem to have little feeling for the naked + and distressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and, + from my soul, I pity those miseries, which it is neither in my + power to relieve or prevent. + + It is for these reasons, therefore, that I have dwelt upon the + subject, and it adds not a little to my other difficulties and + distress to find, that much more is expected of me than is + possible to be performed, and that upon the ground of safety and + policy I am obliged to conceal the true state of the army + from public view, and thereby expose myself to detraction and + calumny.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, VI, 259, 262.] + +Mrs. Washington, as was her custom throughout the war, spent part of +the winter with the General. Her brief allusions to Valley Forge would +hardly lead the reader to infer the horrors that nearly ten thousand +American soldiers were suffering. + + "Your Mamma has not yet arrived," Washington writes to Jack + Custis, "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 when 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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: P.L. Ford, _The True George Washington_, 99.] + +While the Americans languished and died at Valley Forge during the +winter months, Sir William Howe and his troops lived in Philadelphia +not only in great comfort, but in actual luxury. British gold paid out +in cash to the dealers in provisions bought full supplies from one of +the best markets in America. And the people of the place, largely made +up of Loyalists, vied with each other in providing entertainment for +the British army. There were fashionable balls for the officers and +free-and-easy revels for the soldiers. Almost at any time the British +army might have marched out to Valley Forge and dealt a final blow to +Washington's naked and starving troops, but it preferred the good food +and the dissipations of Philadelphia; and so the winter dragged on to +spring. + +Howe was recalled to England and General Sir Henry Clinton succeeded +him in the command of the British forces. He was one of those +well-upholstered carpet knights who flourished in the British army at +that time, and was even less energetic than Howe. We must remember, +however, that the English officers who came over to fight in America +had had their earlier training in Europe, where conditions were quite +different from those here. Especially was this true of the terrain. +Occasionally a born fighter like Wolfe did his work in a day, but this +was different from spending weeks and months in battleless campaigns. +The Philadelphians arranged a farewell celebration for General Howe +which they called the _Meschianza_, an elaborate pageant, said to be +the most beautiful ever seen in America, after which General Howe and +General Clinton had orders to take their army back to New York. As +much as could be shipped on boats went that way, but the loads that +had to be carried in wagons formed a cavalcade twelve miles long, and +with the attending regiment advanced barely more than two and a half +miles a day. Washington, whose troops entered Philadelphia as soon as +the British marched out, hung on the retreating column and at Monmouth +engaged in a pitched battle, which was on the point of being a +decisive victory for the Americans when, through the blunder +of General Lee, it collapsed. The blunder seemed too obviously +intentional, but Washington appeared in the midst of the mêlée and +urged on the men to retrieve their defeat. This was the battle of +which one of the soldiers said afterwards, "At Monmouth the General +swore like an angel from Heaven." He prevented disaster, but that +could not reconcile him to the loss of the victory which had been +almost within his grasp. Those who witnessed it never forgot +Washington's rage when he met Lee and asked him what he meant and then +ordered him to the rear. Washington prepared to renew the battle on +the following day, but during the night Clinton withdrew his army, and +by daylight was far on his way to the seacoast. + +Washington followed up the coast and took up his quarters at White +Plains. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AID FROM FRANCE; TRAITORS + + +This month of July, 1778, marked two vital changes in the war. The +first was the transfer by the British of the field of operations to +the South. The second was the introduction of naval warfare through +the coming of the French. The British seemed to desire, from the day +of Concord and Lexington on, to blast every part of the Colonies with +military occupation and battles. After Washington drove them out +of Boston in March, 1776, they left the seaboard, except Newport, +entirely free. Then for nearly three years they gave their chief +attention to New York City and its environs, and to Jersey down to, +and including, Philadelphia. On the whole, except for keeping their +supremacy in New York, they had lost ground steadily, although they +had always been able to put more men than the Americans could match in +the field, so that the Americans always had an uphill fight. Part of +this disadvantage was owing to the fact that the British had a fleet, +often a very large fleet, which could be sent suddenly to distant +points along the seacoast, much to the upsetting of the American +plans. + +The French Alliance, ratified during the spring, not only gave the +Americans the moral advantage of the support of a great nation, but +actually the support of a powerful fleet. It opened French harbors to +American vessels, especially privateers, which could there take refuge +or fit out. It enabled the Continentals to carry on commerce, which +before the war had been the monopoly of England. Above all it brought +a large friendly fleet to American waters, which might aid the land +forces and must always be an object of anxiety to the British. + +Such a fleet was that under Count d'Estaing, who reached the mouth of +Delaware Bay on July 8, 1778, with twelve ships of the line and four +frigates. He then went to New York, but the pilots thought his heavy +draught ships could not cross the bar above Sandy Hook; and so he +sailed off to Newport where a British fleet worsted him and he was +obliged to put into Boston for repairs. Late in the autumn he took up +his station in the West Indies for the winter. This first experiment +of French naval coöperation had not been crowned by victory as the +Americans had hoped, but many of the other advantages which they +expected from the French Alliance did ensue. The opening of the +American ports to the trade of the world, and incidentally the +promotion of American privateering, proved of capital assistance to +the cause itself. + +The summer and autumn of 1778 passed uneventfully for Washington and +his army. He was not strong enough to risk any severe fighting, but +wished to be near the enemy's troops to keep close watch on them and +to take advantage of any mistake in their moves. We cannot see how he +could have saved himself if they had attacked him with force. But that +they never made the attempt was probably owing to orders from London +to be as considerate of the Americans as they could; for England in +that year had sent out three Peace Commissioners who bore the most +seductive offers to the Americans. The Government was ready to pledge +that there should never again be an attempt to quell the Colonists by +an army and that they should be virtually self-governing. But while +the Commissioners tried to persuade, very obviously, they did not +receive any official recognition from the Congress or the local +conventions, and when winter approached, they sailed back to England +with their mission utterly unachieved. Rebuffed in their purpose of +ending the war by conciliation, the British now resorted to treachery +and corruption. I do not know whether General Sir Henry Clinton was +more or less of a man of honor than the other high officers in the +British army at that time. We feel instinctively loath to harbor a +suspicion against the honor of these officers; and yet, the truth +demands us to declare that some one among them engaged in the +miserable business of bribing Americans to be traitors. Where the full +guilt lies, we shall never know, but the fact that so many of the +trails lead back to General Clinton gives us a reason for a strong +surmise. We have lists drawn up at British Headquarters of the +Americans who were probably approachable, and the degree of ease with +which it was supposed they could be corrupted. "Ten thousand guineas +and a major-general's commission were the price for which West Point, +with its garrison, stores, and outlying posts, was to be placed in the +hands of the British."[1] The person with whom the British made this +bargain was Benedict Arnold, who had been one of the most efficient of +Washington's generals, and of unquestioned loyalty. Major John André, +one of Clinton's adjutants, served as messenger between Clinton +and Arnold. On one of these errands André, somewhat disguised, was +captured by the Americans and taken before Washington, who ordered a +court-martial at once. Fourteen officers sat on it, including Generals +Greene, Lafayette, and Steuben. In a few hours they brought in a +verdict to the effect that "Major André ought to be considered a spy +from the enemy, and that agreeable to the law and usage of nations, +it is their opinion he ought to suffer death." [2] Throughout the +proceedings André behaved with great dignity. He was a young man +of sympathetic nature. Old Steuben, familiar with the usage in the +Prussian army, said: "It is not possible to save him. He put us to no +proof, but a premeditated design to deceive."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Channing, III, 305.] + +[Footnote 2: Channing, III, 307.] + +[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., 307.] + +He was sentenced to death by hanging--the doom of traitors. He did +not fear to die, but that doom repelled him and he begged to be shot +instead. Washington, however, in view of his great crime and as a +most necessary example in that crisis, firmly refused to commute the +sentence. So, on the second of October, 1780, André was hanged. + +This is an appropriate place to refer briefly to one of the most +trying features of Washington's career as Commander-in-Chief. From +very early in the war jealousy inspired some of his associates with a +desire to have him displaced. He was too conspicuously the very head +and front of the American cause. Some men, doubtless open to dishonest +suggestions, wished to get rid of him in order that they might carry +on their treasonable conspiracy with greater ease and with a better +chance of success. Others bluntly coveted his position. Perhaps some +of them really thought that he was pursuing wrong methods or policy. +However it may be, few commanders-in-chief in history have had to +suffer more than Washington did from malice and faction. + +The most serious of the plots against him was the so-called Conway +Cabal, whose head was Thomas Conway, an Irishman who had served in the +French army and had come over early in the war to the Colonies to make +his way as a soldier of fortune. He seems to have been one of the +typical Irishmen who had no sense of truth, who was talkative and +boastful, and a mirthful companion. It happened that Washington +received a letter from one of his friends which drew from him the +following note to Brigadier-General Conway: + + A letter, which I received last night, contained the following + paragraph: + + "In a letter from General Conway to General Gates he says, 'Heaven + has been determined to save your country, or a weak General and + bad counsellors would have ruined it.'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 180.] + +It was characteristic of Washington that he should tell Conway at once +that he knew of the latter's machinations. Nevertheless Washington +took no open step against him. The situation of the army at Valley +Forge was then so desperately bad that he did not wish to make it +worse, perhaps, by interjecting into it what might be considered a +matter personal to himself. In the Congress also there were members +who belonged to the Conway Cabal, and although it was generally known +that Washington did not trust him, Congress raised his rank to that of +Major-General and appointed him Inspector-General to the Army. On this +Conway wrote to Washington: "If my appointment is productive of any +inconvenience, or otherwise disagreeable to your Excellency, as I +neither applied nor solicited for this place, I am very ready to +return to France." The spice of this letter consists in the fact that +Conway's disavowal was a plain lie; for he had been soliciting for the +appointment "with forwardness," says Mr. Ford, "almost amounting to +impudence." Conway did not enjoy his new position long. Being wounded +in a duel with an American officer, and thinking that he was going to +die, he wrote to Washington: "My career will soon be over, therefore +justice and truth prompt me to declare my last sentiments. You are +in my eyes the great and good man. May you long enjoy the love, +veneration, and esteem of these states, whose liberties you have +asserted by your virtues."[1] But he did not die of his wound, and in +a few months he left for France. After his departure the cabal, of +which he seemed to be the centre, died. + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 254.] + +The story of this cabal is still shrouded in mystery. Whoever had the +original papers either destroyed them or left them with some one who +deposited them in a secret place where they have been forgotten. +Persons of importance, perhaps of even greater importance than some of +those who are known, would naturally do their utmost to prevent being +found out. + +Two other enemies of Washington had unsavory reputations in their +dealings with him. One of these was General Horatio Gates, who was +known as ambitious to be made head of the American army in place +of Washington. Gates won the Battle of Saratoga at which Burgoyne +surrendered his British army. Washington at that time was struggling +to keep his army in the Highlands, where he could watch the other +British forces. It was easy for any one to make the remark that +Washington had not won a battle for many months, whereas Gates was +the hero of the chief victory thus far achieved by the Americans. +The shallow might think as they chose, however: the backbone of the +country stood by Washington, and the trouble between him and Gates +came to no further outbreak. + +The third intriguer was General Charles Lee, who, like Gates, was +an Englishman, and had served under General Braddock, being in the +disaster of Fort Duquesne. When the Revolution broke out, he took +sides with the Americans, and being a glib and forth-putting person he +talked himself into the repute of being a great general. The Americans +proudly gave him a very high commission, in which he stood second to +Washington, the Commander-in-Chief. But being taken prisoner by the +British, he had no opportunity of displaying his military talents for +more than two years. Then, when Washington was pursuing the enemy +across Jersey, Lee demanded as his right to lead the foremost +division. At Monmouth he was given the post of honor and he attacked +with such good effect that he had already begun to beat the British +division opposed to him when he suddenly gave strange orders which +threw his men into confusion. + +Lafayette, who was not far away, noticed the disorder, rode up to Lee +and remarked that the time seemed to be favorable for cutting off a +squadron of the British troops. To this Lee replied: "Sir, you do not +know the British soldiers; we cannot stand against them; we shall +certainly be driven back at first, and we must be cautious."[1] +Washington himself had by this time perceived that something was wrong +and galloped up to Lee in a towering passion. He addressed him words +which, so far as I know, no historian has reported, not because there +was any ambiguity in them, and Lee's line was sufficiently re-formed +to save the day. Lee, however, smarted under the torrent of reproof, +as well he might. The next day he wrote Washington a very insulting +letter. Washington replied still more hotly. Lee demanded a +court-martial and was placed under arrest on three charges: "First, +disobedience of orders in not attacking the enemy agreeably to +repeated instructions; secondly, misbehavior before the enemy, in +making an unnecessary, disorderly and shameful retreat; thirdly, +disrespect to the Commander-in-Chief in two letters written after the +action."[2] By the ruling of the court all the charges against General +Lee were sustained with the exception that the word "shameful" was +omitted. Lee left the army, retired to Philadelphia, and died before +the end of the Revolution. General Mifflin, another conspicuous member +of the cabal, resigned at the end of the year, December, 1777. So the +traducers of Washington were punished by the reactions of their own +crimes. + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 275, note 1.] + +[Footnote 2: Sparks, 278. Sparks tells the story that when Washington +administered the oath of allegiance to his troops at Valley Forge, +soon after Lee had rejoined the army, the generals, standing together, +held a Bible. But Lee deliberately withdrew his hand twice. Washington +asked why he hesitated. He replied, "As to King George, I am ready +enough to absolve myself from all allegiance to him, but I have some +scruples about the Prince of Wales." (Ibid., 278.)] + +That the malicious hostility of his enemies really troubled +Washington, such a letter as the following from him to President +Laurens of the Congress well indicates. He says: + + I cannot sufficiently express the obligation I feel to you, for + your friendship and politeness upon an occasion in which I am so + deeply interested. I was not unapprized that a malignant faction + had been for some time forming to my prejudice; which, conscious + as I am of having ever done all in my power to answer the + important purposes of the trust reposed in me, could not but give + me some pain on a personal account. But my chief concern arises + from an apprehension of the dangerous consequences, which + intestine dissensions may produce to the common cause. + + As I have no other view than to promote the public good, and + am unambitious of honors not founded in the approbation of my + country, I would not desire in the least degree to suppress a free + spirit of inquiry into any part of my conduct, that even faction + itself may deem reprehensible. The anonymous paper handed to you + exhibits many serious charges, and it is my wish that it should + be submitted to Congress. This I am the more inclined to + the suppression or concealment may possibly involve you in + embarrassments hereafter, since it is uncertain how many or who + may be privy to the contents. + + My enemies take an ungenerous advantage of me. They know the + delicacy of my situation, and that motives of policy deprive me + of the defence, I might otherwise make against their insidious + attacks. They know I cannot combat their insinuations, however + injurious, without disclosing secrets, which it is of the utmost + moment to conceal. But why should I expect to be exempt from + censure, the unfailing lot of an elevated station? Merit and + talents, with which I can have no pretensions of rivalship, have + ever been subject to it. My heart tells me, that it has been my + unremitted aim to do the best that circumstances would permit; yet + I may have been very often mistaken in my judgment of the means, + and may in many instances deserve the imputation of error. (Valley + Forge, 31 January, 1778.)[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 353.] + +Such was the sort of explanation which was wrung from the Silent Man +when he explained to an intimate the secrets of his heart. + +To estimate the harassing burden of these plots we must bear in mind +that, while Washington had to suffer them in silence, he had also to +deal every day with the Congress and with an army which, at Valley +Forge, was dying slowly of cold and starvation. There was literally no +direction from which he could expect help; he must hold out as long as +he could and keep from the dwindling, disabled army the fact that some +day they would wake up to learn that the last crumb had been eaten +and that death only remained for them. On one occasion, after he had +visited Philadelphia and had seen the Congress in action, he unbosomed +himself about it in a letter which contained these terrible words: + + If I was to be called upon to draw a picture of the times and of + men, from what I have seen, and heard, and in part know, I should + in one word say that idleness, dissipation and extravagance + seems to have laid fast hold of most of them. That + speculation--peculation--and an insatiable thirst for riches seems + to have got the better of every other consideration and almost of + every order of men. That party disputes and personal quarrels are + the great business of the day whilst the momentous concerns of an + empire--a great and accumulated debt--ruined finances--depreciated + money--and want of credit (which in their consequences is the want + of everything) are but secondary considerations, and postponed + from day to day--from week to week as if our affairs wear the + most-promising aspect. + +The events of 1778 made a lasting impression on King George III. +The alliance of France with the Americans created a sort of reflex +patriotism which the Government did what it could to foster. British +Imperialism flamed forth as an ideal, one whose purposes must be to +crush the French. The most remarkable episode was the return of the +Earl of Chatham, much broken and in precarious health, to the King's +fold. To the venerable statesman the thought that any one with British +blood in his veins should stand by rebels of British blood, or by +their French allies, was a cause of rage. On April 7, 1778, the great +Chatham appeared in the House of Lords and spoke for Imperialism and +against the Americans and French. There was a sudden stop in his +speaking, and a moment later, confusion, as he fell in a fit. He never +spoke there again, and though he was hurried home and cared for by the +doctors as best they could, he died on the eleventh of May. At the +end he reverted to the dominant ideal of his life--the supremacy of +England. So his chief rival in Parliament, Edmund Burke, who shocked +more than half of England by seeming to approve the nascent French +Revolution, died execrating it. + +The failure of the Commission on Reconciliation to get even an +official hearing in America further depressed George III, and there +seemed to have flitted through his unsound mind more and more frequent +premonitions that England might not win after all. Having made +friendly overtures, which were rejected, he now planned to be more +savage than ever. In 1779 the American privateers won many victories +which gave them a reputation out of proportion to the importance of +the battles they fought, or the prizes they took. Chief among the +commanders of these vessels was a Scotchman, John Paul Jones, who +sailed the Bonhomme Richard and with two companion ships attacked the +Serapis and the Scarborough, convoying a company of merchantmen off +Flamborough Head. Night fell, darkness came, the Bonhomme Richard and +the Serapis kept up bombarding each other at short range. During a +brief pause, Pearson, the British captain, called out, "Have you +struck your colors?" at which Jones shouted back, "I have not yet +begun to fight." Before morning the Serapis surrendered and in the +forenoon the victorious Bonhomme Richard sank. Europe rang with the +exploit; not merely those easily thrilled by a spectacular engagement, +but those who looked deeper began to ask themselves whether the naval +power that must be reckoned with was not rising in the West. + +Meanwhile, Washington kept his uncertain army near New York. The city +swarmed with Loyalists, who at one time boasted of having a volunteer +organization larger than Washington's army. These later years seem +to have been the hey-day of the Loyalists in most of the Colonies, +although the Patriots passed severe laws against them, sequestrating +their property and even banishing them. In places like New York, where +General Clinton maintained a refuge, they stayed on, hoping, as they +had done for several years, that the war would soon be over and the +King's authority restored. + +In the South there were several minor fights, in which now the British +and now the Americans triumphed. At the end of December, 1779, Clinton +and Cornwallis with nearly eight thousand men went down to South +Carolina intending to reduce that State to submission. One of +Washington's lieutenants, General Lincoln, ill-advisedly thought that +he could defend Charleston. But as soon as the enemy were ready, they +pressed upon him hard and he surrendered. The year ended in gloom. The +British were virtually masters in the Carolinas and in Georgia. The +people of those States felt that they had been abandoned by the +Congress and that they were cut off from relations with the Northern +States. The glamour of glory at sea which had brightened them all +the year before had vanished. John Paul Jones might win a striking +sea-fight, but there was no navy, nor ships enough to transport troops +down to the Southern waters where they might have turned the tide +of battle on shore. During the winter the British continued their +marauding in the South. For lack of troops Washington was obliged +to stay in his quarters near New York and feel the irksomeness of +inactivity. General Nathanael Greene, a very energetic officer, next +indeed to Washington himself in general estimation, commanded in +the South. At the Cowpens (January 17, 1781) one of his +lieutenants--Morgan, a guerilla leader--killed or captured nearly all +of Tarleton's men, who formed a specially crack regiment. A little +later Washington marched southward to Virginia, hoping to coöperate +with the French fleet under Rochambeau and to capture Benedict Arnold, +now a British Major-General, who was doing much damage in Virginia. +Arnold was too wary to be caught. Cornwallis, the second in command of +the British forces, pursued Lafayette up and down Virginia. Clinton, +the British Commander-in-Chief, began to feel nervous for the +safety of New York and wished to detach some of his forces thither. +Cornwallis led his army into Yorktown and proceeded to fortify it, so +that it might resist a siege. Now at last Washington felt that he +had the enemy's army within his grasp. Sixteen thousand American and +French troops were brought down from the North to furnish the fighting +arm he required. + +Yorktown lay on the south shore of the York River, an estuary of +Chesapeake Bay. On the opposite side the little town of Gloucester +projected into the river. In Yorktown itself the English had thrown up +two redoubts and had drawn some lines of wall. The French kept up an +unremitting cannonade, but it became evident that the redoubts must be +taken in order to subdue the place. Washington, much excited, took his +place in the central battery along with Generals Knox and Lincoln and +their staff. Those about him recognized the peril he was in, and one +of his adjutants called his attention to the fact that the place was +much exposed. "If you think so," said he, "you are at liberty to +step back." Shortly afterward a musket ball struck the cannon in the +embrasure and rolled on till it fell at his feet. General Knox took +him by the arm. "My dear General," he exclaimed, "we can't spare you +yet." "It is a spent ball," Washington rejoined calmly; "no harm is +done." When the redoubts were taken, he drew a long breath and said to +Knox: "The work is done, and well done."[1] Lord Cornwallis saw that +his position was desperate, if not hopeless. And on October 16th +he made a plucky attempt to retard the final blow, but he did not +succeed. That evening he thought of undertaking a last chance. He +would cross the York River in flatboats, land at Gloucester, and march +up the country through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. +Any one who knew the actual state of that region understood that +Cornwallis's plan was crazy; but it is to be judged as the last +gallantry of a brave man. During the night he put forth on his +flatboats, which were driven out of their course and much dispersed by +untoward winds. They had to return to Yorktown by morning, and at ten +o'clock Cornwallis ordered that a parley should be beaten. Then he +despatched a flag of truce with a letter to Washington proposing +cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours. Washington knew that +British ships were on their way from New York to bring relief and he +did not wish to grant so much delay. He, therefore, proposed that the +formal British terms should be sent to him in writing; upon which he +would agree to a two hours' truce. It was the morning of the 10th of +October that the final arrangement was made. Washington, on horseback, +attended by his staff, headed the American line. His troops, in +worn-out uniforms, but looking happy and victorious, were massed near +him. Count Rochambeau, with his suite, held place on the left of the +road, the French troops all well-uniformed and equipped; and they +marched on the field with a military band playing--the first time, it +was said, that this had been known in America. "About two o'clock the +garrison sallied forth and passed through with shouldered arms, slow +and solemn steps, colors cased, and drums beating a British march."[2] +General O'Hara, who led them, rode up to Washington and apologized for +the absence of Lord Cornwallis, who was indisposed. Washington pointed +O'Hara to General Lincoln, who was to receive the submission of the +garrison. They were marched off to a neighboring field where they +showed a sullen and dispirited demeanor and grounded their arms so +noisily and carelessly that General Lincoln had to reprove them. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, iv, 378.] + +[Footnote 2: Irving, iv, 383.] + +With little delay Washington went back to the North with his army, +expecting to see the first fruits of the capitulation. There were +nearly seventeen thousand Allied troops at Yorktown of whom three +thousand were militia of Virginia. The British force under Cornwallis +numbered less than eight thousand men. + +Months were required before the truce between the two belligerents +resulted in peace. But the people of America hailed the news of +Yorktown as the end of the war. They had hardly admitted to themselves +the gravity of the task while the war lasted, and being now +relieved of immediate danger, they gave themselves up to surprising +insouciance. A few among them who thought deeply, Washington above +all, feared that the British might indulge in some surprise which they +would find it hard to repel. + +But the American Revolution was indeed ended, and the American +Colonies of 1775 were indeed independent and free. Even in the brief +outline of the course of events which I have given, it must appear +that the American Revolution was almost the most hare-brained +enterprise in history. After the first days of Lexington and Concord, +when the farmers and country-folk rushed to the centres to check +the British invaders, the British had almost continuously a large +advantage in position and in number of troops. And in those early days +the Colonists fought, not for Independence, but for the traditional +rights which the British Crown threatened to take from them. Now they +had their freedom, but what a freedom! There were thirteen unrelated +political communities bound together now only by the fact of having +been united in their common struggle against England. Each had adopted +a separate constitution, and the constitutions were not uniform nor +was there any central unifying power to which they all looked up and +obeyed. The vicissitudes of the war, which had been fought over the +region of twelve hundred miles of coast, had proved the repellent +differences of the various districts. The slave-breeder and the +slave-owner of Virginia and the States of the South had little in +common with the gnarled descendants of the later Puritans in New +England. What principle could be found to knit them together? The war +had at least the advantage of bringing home to all of them the evils +of war which they all instinctively desired to escape. The numbers of +the disaffected, particularly of the Loyalists who openly sided with +the King and with the British Government, were much larger than we +generally suppose, and they not only gave much direct help and comfort +to the enemy, but also much indirect and insidious aid. In the great +cities like New York and Philadelphia they numbered perhaps two fifths +of the total population, and, as they were usually the rich and +influential people, they counted for more than their showing in the +census. How could they ever be unified in the American Republic? How +many of them, like the traitorous General Charles Lee, would confess +that, although they were willing to pass by George III as King, they +still felt devotion and loyalty to the Prince of Wales? + +Some of those who had leaned toward Loyalism, to be on what they +supposed would prove the winning side, quickly forgot their lapse and +were very enthusiastic in acclaiming the Patriotic victory. Those +Irreconcilables who had not already fled did so at once, leaving their +property behind them to be confiscated by the Government. On only one +point did there seem to be unanimity and accord. That was that the +dogged prosecution of the war and the ultimate victory must be +credited to George Washington. Others had fought valiantly and endured +hardships and fatigues and gnawing suspense, but without him, who +never wavered, they could not have gone on. He had among them some +able lieutenants, but not one who, had he himself fallen out of the +command by wound or sickness for a month, could have taken his place. +The people knew this and they now paid him in honor and gratitude for +what he had done for them. If there were any members of the old cabal, +any envious rivals, they either held their peace or spoke in whispers. +The masses were not yet weary of hearing Aristides called the Just. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WASHINGTON RETURNS TO PEACE + + +Nearly two years elapsed before the real settlement of the war. The +English held New York City, Charleston, and Savannah, the strong +garrisons. It seemed likely that they would have been glad to arrange +the terms of peace sooner, but there was much inner turmoil at home. +The men who, through thick and thin, had abetted the King in one plan +after another to fight to the last ditch had nothing more to propose. +Lord North, when he heard of the surrender of Yorktown, almost +shrieked, "My God! It is all over; it is all over!" and was plunged in +gloom. A new ministry had to be formed. Lord North had been succeeded +by Rockingham, who died in July, 1782, and was followed by Shelburne, +supposed to be rather liberal, but to share King George's desire to +keep down the Whigs. Negotiations over the terms of peace were carried +on with varying fortune for more than a year. John Adams, John Jay, +and Benjamin Franklin were the American Peace Commissioners. The +preliminaries between Great Britain and America were signed on +December 30, 1782, and with France and Spain nearly two months +later. The Dutch held out still longer into 1783. Washington, at his +Headquarters in Newburgh, New York, had been awaiting the news of +peace, not lazily, but planning for a new campaign and meditating upon +the various projects which might be undertaken. To him the news of the +actual signing of the treaty came at the end of March. He replied at +once to Theodorick Bland; a letter which gave his general views +in regard to the needs and rights of the army before it should be +disbanded: + + It is now the bounden duty of every one to make the blessings + thereof as diffusive as possible. Nothing would so effectually + bring this to pass as the removal of those local prejudices which + intrude upon and embarrass that great line of policy which alone + can make us a free, happy and powerful People. Unless our Union + can be fixed upon such a basis as to accomplish these, certain + I am we have toiled, bled and spent our treasure to very little + purpose. + + We have now a National character to establish, and it is of the + utmost importance to stamp favorable impressions upon it; let + justice be then one of its characteristics, and gratitude another. + Public creditors of every denomination will be comprehended in the + first; the Army in a particular manner will have a claim to the + latter; to say that no distinction can be made between the claims + of public creditors is to declare that there is no difference in + circumstances; or that the services of all men are equally alike. + This Army is of near eight years' standing, six of which they have + spent in the Field without any other shelter from the inclemency + of the seasons than Tents, or such Houses as they could build for + themselves without expense to the public. They have encountered + hunger, cold and nakedness. They have fought many Battles and bled + freely. They have lived without pay and in consequence of it, + officers as well as men have subsisted upon their Rations. + + They have often, very often, been reduced to the necessity of + eating Salt Porke, or Beef not for a day, or a week only but + months together without Vegetables or money to buy them; or a + cloth to wipe on. + + Many of them do better, and to dress as Officers have contracted + heavy debts or spent their patrimonies. The first see the Doors of + gaols open to receive them, whilst those of the latter are shut + against them. Is there no discrimination then--no extra exertion + to be made in favor of men in these peculiar circumstances, in the + event of their military dissolution? Or, if no worse cometh of it, + are they to be turned adrift soured and discontented, complaining + of the ingratitude of their Country, and under the influence of + these passions to become fit subjects for unfavorable impressions, + and unhappy dissentions? For permit me to add, tho every man in + the Army feels his distress--it is not every one that will reason + to the cause of it. + + I would not from the observations here made, be understood to mean + that Congress should (because I know they cannot, nor does + the army expect it) pay the full arrearages due to them till + Continental or State funds are established for the purpose. They + would, from what I can learn, go home contented--nay--_thankful_ + to receive what I have mentioned in a more public letter of this + date, and in the manner there expressed. And surely this may be + effected with proper exertions. Or what possibility was there of + keeping the army together, if the war had continued, when the + victualls, clothing, and other expenses of it were to have been + added? Another thing, Sir, (as I mean to be frank and free in my + communications on this subject,) I will not conceal from you--it + is the dissimilarity in the payments to men in Civil and Military + life. The first receive everything--the others get nothing but + bare subsistence--they ask what this is owing to? and reasons have + been assigned, which, say they, amount to this--that men in Civil + life have stronger passions and better pretensions to indulge + them, or less virtue and regard for their Country than + us,--otherwise, as we are all contending for the same prize and + equally interested in the attainment of it, why do we not bear the + burthen equally?[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, X, 203.] + +The army was indeed the incubus of the Americans. They could not fight +the war without it, but they had never succeeded in mastering the +difficulties of maintaining and strengthening it. The system of a +standing army was of course not to be thought of, and the uncertain +recruits who took its place were mostly undisciplined and unreliable. +When the exigencies became pressing, a new method was resorted to, and +then the usual erosion of life in the field, the losses by casualties +and sickness, caused the numbers to dwindle. Long ago the paymaster +had ceased to pretend to pay off the men regularly so that there was +now a large amount of back pay due them. Largely through Washington's +patriotic exhortations had they kept fighting to the end; and, with +peace upon them, they did not dare to disband because they feared +that, if they left before they were paid, they would never be paid. +Washington felt that, if thousands of discontented and even angry +soldiers were allowed to go back to their homes without the means of +taking up any work or business, great harm would be done. The love of +country, which he believed to be most important to inculcate, would +not only be checked but perverted. They already had too many reasons +to feel aggrieved. Why should they, the men who risked their lives +in battle and actually had starved or frozen in winter quarters, go +unpaid, whereas every civilian who had a post under the Government +lived at least safely and healthily and was paid with fair +promptitude? They felt now that their best hope for justice lay in +General Washington's interest in their behalf; and that interest of +his seems now one of the noblest and wisest and most patriotic of his +expressions. + +Washington had need to be prepared for any emergency. Thus a body +of officers deliberated not only a mutiny of the army, but a _coup +d'état_, in which they planned to overthrow the flimsy Federation of +the thirteen States and to set up a monarchy. They wrote to Washington +announcing their intention and their belief that he would make an +ideal monarch. He was amazed and chagrined. He replied in part as +follows, to the Colonel who had written him: + + I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have + given encouragement to an address, which to me seems big with + the greatest mischiefs, that can befall my country. If I am not + deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a + person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. I must add, + that no man possesses a more sincere wish to see ample justice + done to the army than I do; and, as far as my powers and + influence, in a constitutional way, extend, they shall be employed + to the extent of my abilities to effect it, should there be any + occasion. Let me conjure you, then, if you have any regard for + your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for + me, to banish these thoughts from your mind and never communicate, + as from yourself to any one else, a sentiment of the like + nature.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 355.] + +The turmoil of the army continued throughout the year and into the +next. The so-called "Newburgh Address" set forth the quarrel of the +soldiers and Washington's discreet reply. On April 19, 1783, the +eighth anniversary of the first fighting at Concord, a proclamation +was issued to the American army announcing the official end of all +hostilities. In June Washington issued a circular letter to the +Governors of the States, bidding them farewell and urging them to +guard their precious country. Many of the American troops were allowed +to go home on furlough. In company with Governor Clinton he went up +the Hudson to Ticonderoga and then westward to Fort Schuyler. Being +invited by Congress, which was then sitting at Annapolis, he journeyed +thither. Before he left New York City arrangements were made for a +formal farewell to his comrades in arms. I quote the description of it +from Chief Justice Marshall's "Life of Washington": + + This affecting interview took place on the 4th of December. 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 White hall, where a barge + waited to convey him to Powles' hook (Paulus Hook). The whole + company followed in mute and solemn procession, with dejected + countenances, testifying feelings of delicious melancholy, which + no language can describe. Having entered the barge, he turned to + the company; and waving his hat, bade them a silent adieu. They + paid him the same affectionate compliment, and after the barge had + left them, returned in the same solemn manner to the place where + they had assembled.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Marshall, IV, 561.] + +Marshall's description, simple but not commonplace, reminds one of +Ville-Hardouin's pictures, so terse, so rich in color, of the Barons +of France in the Fifth Crusade. The account once read, you can never +forget that majestic, silent figure of Washington being rowed across +to Paulus Hook with no sound but the dignified rhythm of the oars. Not +a cheer, not a word! + +His reception by Congress took place on Tuesday, the twenty-third +of December, at twelve o'clock. Again I borrow from Chief Justice +Marshall's account: + + When the hour arrived for performing a ceremony so well calculated + to recall to the mind the various interesting scenes which had + passed since the commission now to be returned was granted, the + gallery was crowded with spectators, and many respectable persons, + among whom were the legislative and executive characters of the + state, several general officers, and the consul general of France, + were admitted on the floor of Congress. + + The representatives of the sovereignty of the union remained + seated and covered. The spectators were standing and uncovered. + The General was introduced by the secretary and conducted to a + chair. After a decent interval, silence was commanded, and a short + pause ensued. The President (General Mifflin) then informed him + that "the United States in Congress assembled were prepared to + receive his communications." With a native dignity improved by + the solemnity of the occasion, the General rose and delivered the + following address: + + "_Mr. President_: + + "The great events on which my resignation depended, having at + length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere + congratulations to Congress, and on presenting myself before them, + to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me and to + claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country. + + "Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty + and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States, of + becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the + appointment I accepted with diffidence; a diffidence in my + abilities to accomplish so arduous a task, which, however, was + superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the + support of the supreme power of the union, and the patronage of + heaven. + + "The successful termination of the war has verified the most + sanguine expectations; and my gratitude for the interposition of + Providence, and the assistance I have received from my countrymen, + increases with every review of the momentous contest. + + "While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I should do + injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge in this place, the + peculiar services and distinguished merits of the gentlemen who + have been attached to my person during the war. It was impossible + the choice of confidential officers to compose my family should + have been more fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend in + particular, those who have continued in the service to the present + moment, as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of + Congress. + + "I consider it as an indispensable duty to close this last act + of my official life, by commending the interests of our dearest + country, to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the + superintendence of them to his holy keeping. + + "Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great + theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this + august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer + my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public + life." + + After advancing to the chair, and delivering his commission to the + President, he returned to his place, and received standing, the + answer of Congress which was delivered by the President. In the + course of his remarks, General Mifflin said: + + "Having defended the standard of liberty in this new world: having + taught a new lesson useful to those who inflict, and to those who + feel oppression, you retire from the great theatre of action, + with the blessings of your fellow citizens; but the glory of your + virtues will not terminate with your military command: it will + continue to animate remotest ages."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Marshall, IV, 563.] + +The meeting then broke up, and Washington departed. He went that same +afternoon to Virginia and reached Mount Vernon in the evening. We can +imagine with what satisfaction and gratitude he, to whom home was the +dearest place in the world, returned to the home he had seen only once +by chance since the beginning of the Revolution, eight years before. +Probably few of those who had risen to the highest station in their +country said, and felt more honestly, that they were grateful at being +allowed by Fate to retire from office, than did Washington. To be +relieved of responsibility, free from the hourly spur, day and night, +of planning and carrying out, of trying to find food for starving +soldiers, of leading forlorn hopes against the truculent enemy, must +have seemed to the weary and war-worn General like a call from the +Hesperides. Men of his iron nature, and of his capacity for work and +joy in it, do not, of course, really delight in idleness. They may +think that they crave idleness, but in reality they crave the power of +going on. + +It took comparatively little effort for Washington to fall into +his old way of life at Mount Vernon, although there, too, much was +changed. Old buildings had fallen out of repair. There were new +experiments to be tried, and the general purpose to be carried out of +making Mount Vernon a model place in that part of the country. Whether +he would or not, he was sought for almost daily by persons who came +from all parts of the United States, and from overseas. Hospitality +being not merely a duty, but a passion with him, he gladly received +the strangers and learned much from them. From their accounts of their +interviews we see that, although he was really the most natural of +men, some of them treated him as if he were some strange creature--a +holy white elephant of Siam, or the Grand Lama of Tibet. Age had +brought its own deductions and reservations. It does not appear that +parties rode to hounds after the fox any more at Mount Vernon. And +then there were the irreparable gaps that could not be filled. At +Belvoir, where his neighbors the Fairfaxes, friends of a lifetime, +used to live, they lived no more. One of them, more than ninety years +old, had turned his face to the wall on hearing of the surrender at +Yorktown. Another had gone back to England to live out his life there, +true to his Tory convictions. + +Washington had sincerely believed, no doubt, that he was to spend the +rest of his life in dignified leisure, and especially that he would +mix no more in political or public worries; but he soon found that he +had deceived himself. The army, until it officially disbanded at the +end of 1783, caused him constant anxiety interspersed with fits of +indignation over the indifference and inertia of the Congress, which +showed no intention of being just to the soldiers. The reason for its +attitude seems hard to state positively. May it be that the Congress, +jealous since the war began of being ruled by the man on horseback, +feared at its close to grant Washington's demands for it lest they +should bring about the very thing they had feared and avoided--the +creation of a military dictatorship under Washington? When Vergennes +proposed to entrust to Washington a new subsidy from France, the +Congress had taken umbrage and regarded such a proposal as an insult +to the American Government. Should they admit that the Government +itself was not sufficiently sound and trustworthy, and that, +therefore, a private individual, even though he had been a leader of +the Revolution, must be called into service? + +From among persons pestered by this obsession, it was not surprising +that the idea should spring up that Washington was at heart a believer +in monarchy and that he might, when the opportunity favored, allow +himself to be proclaimed king. Several years later he wrote to his +trusted friend, John Jay: + + I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical + form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds + speaking; thence to acting is often but a single step. But how + irrevocable and tremendous! What a triumph for our enemies to + verify their predictions! What a triumph for the advocates of + despotism to find, that we are incapable of governing ourselves, + and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely + ideal and fallacious! Would to God, that wise measures may be + taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much + reason to apprehend.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 285.] + +In the renewal of his life at Mount Vernon, Washington gave almost +as much attention to the cultivation of friendship as to that of his +estate. He pursued with great zest the career of planter-farmer. "I +think," he wrote a friend, "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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 288.] + +The cultivation of his friendships he carried on by letters and by +entertaining his friends as often as he could at Mount Vernon. To +Benjamin Harrison he wrote: "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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., 289.] + +How constantly the flock of guests frequented Mount Vernon we can +infer from this entry in his diary for June 30, 1785: "Dined with only +Mrs. Washington which, I believe, is the first instance of it since my +retirement from public life." To his young friend Lafayette he wrote +without reserve in a vein of deep affection: + + At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on the + banks of the Potomac; and under the shadow of my own vine and my + own fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp, and the busy + scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil + enjoyments, of which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame, + the statesman, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent + in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the + ruin of other countries, as if this globe was insufficient for us + all, and the courtier, who is always watching the countenance of + his prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile, can have + very little conception. I have not only retired from all public + employments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to + view the solitary walk, and tread the paths of private life, with + heartful satisfaction. Envious of none, I am determined to be + pleased with all; and this, my dear friend, being the order of my + march, I will move gently down the stream of life, until I sleep + with my fathers.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 287.] + +In September, 1784, he made a journey on horseback, with a pack-train +to carry his tents and food, into the Northwestern country, which had +especially interested him since the early days when Fort Duquesne was +the goal of his wandering. He observed very closely and his mind was +filled with large imaginings of what the future would see in the +development of the Northwest. Since his youth he had never lost +the conviction that an empire would spring up there; only make the +waterways easy and safe and he felt sure that a very large commerce +would result and with it the extension of civilization. In a memorial +to the legislature he urged that Virginia was the best placed +geographically of all the States to undertake the work of establishing +connection with the States of the Northwest, and he suggested various +details which, when acted upon later, proved to be, as Sparks +remarked, "the first suggestion of the great system of internal +improvements which has since been pursued in the United States." + +On returning to Mount Vernon, he entertained Lafayette for the last +time before he sailed for France. After he had gone, Washington wrote +him this letter in which appears the affection of a friend and the +reverie of an old man looking somewhat wistfully towards sunset, "and +after that the dark": + + 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 connection, + 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, though I wished to say No, my fears answered + Yes. I called to mind the days of my youth, and found they had + long since fled to return no more; that I was now descending the + hill I had been fifty-two years climbing, and that, though I was + blest with a good constitution, I was of a short-lived family and + might soon expect to be entombed in the mansion of my fathers. + These thoughts darkened the shades, and gave a gloom to the + picture, and consequently to my prospect of seeing you again. + +We should not overlook the fact that Washington declined all gifts, +including a donation from Virginia, for his services as General during +the war. He had refused to take any pay, merely keeping a strict +account of what he spent for the Government from 1775 to 1782. This +amounted to over £15,000 and covered only sums actually disbursed by +him for the army. Unlike Marlborough, Nelson, and Wellington, and +other foreign chieftains on whom grateful countrymen conferred +fortunes and high titles, Washington remains as the one great +state-founder who literally _gave_ his services to his country. + +Sparks gives the following interesting account of the way in which +Washington spent his days after his return to Mount Vernon: + + His habits were uniform, and nearly the same as they had been + previous to the war. He rose before the sun and employed himself + in his study, writing letters or reading, till the hour of + breakfast. When breakfast was over, his horse was ready at the + door, and he rode to his farms and gave directions for the day to + the managers and laborers. Horses were likewise prepared for + his guests, whenever they chose to accompany him, or to amuse + themselves by excursions into the country. Returning from his + fields, and despatching such business as happened to be on hand, + he went again to his study, and continued there till three + o'clock, when he was summoned to dinner. The remainder of the day + and the evening were devoted to company, or to recreation in the + family circle. At ten he retired to rest. From these habits + he seldom deviated, unless compelled to do so by particular + circumstances.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 389, 390.] + +This list does not include the item which Washington soon found the +greatest of his burdens--letter-writing. His correspondence increased +rapidly and to an enormous extent. + + Many mistakenly think [he writes to Richard Henry Lee] that I am + retired to ease, and to that kind of tranquility which would grow + tiresome for want of employment; but at no period of my life, not + in the eight years I served the public, have I been obliged to + write so much myself, as I have done since my retirement.... It + is not the letters from my friends which give me trouble, or add + aught to my perplexity. It is references to old matters, with + which I have nothing to do; applications which often cannot + be complied with; inquiries which would require the pen of a + historian to satisfy; letters of compliment as unmeaning perhaps + as they are troublesome, but which must be attended to; and the + commonplace business which employs my pen and my time often + disagreeably. These, with company, deprive me of exercise, and + unless I can obtain relief, must be productive of disagreeable + consequences.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Irving, IV, 466.] + +When we remember that Washington used to write most of his letters +himself, and that from boyhood his handwriting was beautifully neat, +almost like copper-plate, in its precision and elegance, we shall +understand what a task it must have been for him to keep up his +correspondence. A little later he employed a young New Hampshire +graduate of Harvard, Tobias Lear, who graduated in 1783, who served +him as secretary until his death, and undoubtedly lightened the +epistolary cares of the General. But Washington continued to carry on +much of the letter-writing, especially the intimate, himself; +and, like the Adamses and other statesmen of that period, he kept +letter-books which contained the first drafts or copies of the letters +sent. + +Another source of annoyance, to which, however, he resigned himself as +contentedly as he could, was the work of the artists who came to him +to beg him to sit for his picture or statue. Of the painters the most +eminent were Charles Peale and his son Rembrandt. Of the sculptors +Houdon undoubtedly made the best life-sized statue--that which still +adorns the Capitol at Richmond, Virginia--and from the time it was +first exhibited has been regarded as the best, most lifelike. Another, +sitting statue, was made for the State of North Carolina by the +Italian, Canova, the most celebrated of the sculptors of that day. The +artist shows a Roman costume, a favorite of his, unless, as in the +case of Napoleon, he preferred complete nudity. This statue was much +injured in a fire which nearly consumed the Capitol at Raleigh. +The English sculptor, Chantrey, executed a third statue in which +Washington was represented in military dress. This work used to be +shown at the State House in Boston. + +Of the many painted portraits of Washington, those by Gilbert Stuart +have come to be accepted as authentic; especially the head in the +painting which hung in the Boston Athenaeum as a pendant to that of +Martha Washington, and is now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. But +as I remarked earlier, the fact that none of the painters indicate the +very strong marks of smallpox (which he took on his trip to Barbados) +on Washington's face creates a natural suspicion as to accuracy in +detail of any of the portraits. Perhaps the divergence among them +is not greater than that among those of Mary, Queen of Scots, and +indicates only the marked incapacity of some of the painters who did +them. We are certainly justified in saying that Washington's features +varied considerably from his early prime to the days when he was +President. We have come to talk about him as an old man because +from the time when he was sixty years old he frequently used that +expression himself; although, as he died at sixty-seven, he was never +really "an old man." One wonders whether those who lived among pioneer +conditions said and honestly believed that they were old at the time +when, as we think, middle age would hardly have begun. Thus Abraham +Lincoln writes of himself as a patriarch, and no doubt sincerely +thought that he was, at a time when he had just reached forty. The two +features in Washington's face about which the portraitists differ most +are his nose and his mouth. In the early portrait by Charles Peale, +his nose is slightly aquiline, but not at all so massive and +conspicuous as in some of the later works. His mouth, and with it the +expression of the lower part of his face, changed after he began to +wear false teeth. Is it not fair to suppose that the effigies of +Washington, made in later years and usually giving him a somewhat +stiff and expansive grin, originated in the fact that his false set of +teeth lacked perfect adjustment? + +Thus Washington dropped into the ways of peace; working each day what +would have been a long stint for a strong young man, and thinking, +besides, more than most men thought of the needs and future of the +country to which he had given liberty and independence. His chief +anxiety henceforth was that the United States of America should not +miss the great destiny for which he believed the Lord had prepared it. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WELDING THE NATION + + +The doubt, the drifting, the incongruities and inconsistencies, the +mistakes and follies which marked the five years after 1783 form what +has been well called "The Critical Period of American History." They +proved that the conquests of peace may not only be more difficult than +the conquests of war, but that they may outlast those of war. Who +should be the builders of the Ship of State? Those who had courage +and clear vision, who loved justice, who were patient and humble and +unflagging, and who believed with an ineluctable conviction that +righteousness exalteth a nation; they were the simple fishermen who +in the little church at Torcello predicted the splendor and power of +Venice; they were the stern pioneers of Plymouth and Boston who laid +the foundations of an empire greater than that of Rome. + +It happened that during the American Revolution and immediately +afterward, a larger number of such men existed in what had been the +American Colonies than anywhere else at any other time in history. At +the beginning of the Revolution, within a few weeks of the Declaration +of Independence, some of these men, impelled by a common instinct, +adopted Articles of Confederation which should hold the former +Colonies together and enable them to maintain a common front against +the enemy during the war. The Congress controlled military and civic +affairs, but the framers of the Articles were wary and too timid to +grant the Congress sufficient powers, with the result that Washington, +who embodied the dynamic control of the war, was always most +inadequately supported; and as he fared, so fared his subordinates. + +At the end of the war the Americans found that they had won, not only +freedom, but also Independence, the desire for which was not among +their original motives. Each of the thirteen States was independent; +they all felt the need of a union which would enable them to protect +themselves; of a common coinage and postage; of certain common laws +for criminal and similar cases; of a common government to direct their +affairs with other nations. But by habit and by training each was +local rather than National in its outlook. The Georgian had nothing +in common with the men of Massachusetts Bay whose livelihood depended +upon fisheries, or with the Virginian of the Western border, to whom +his relations with the Indians were his paramount concern. The Rhode +Islander, busy with his manufactures, knew and cared nothing for the +South Carolinian with his rice plantations. How to find a common +denominator for all these? That was the business of them all. + +The one thing which Washington regarded as likely and against which he +wished to have every precaution taken, was a possible attempt of +the English to pick a quarrel over some small matter and bring on +a renewal of the war. Fortunately for the Americans, this did not +happen. Washington knew our weakness so well that he could see how +easy it would be for a bold and determined enemy to do us great if not +fatal harm. But he did not know that the English themselves were in +an almost desperate plight. By Rodney's decisive victory at sea they +began to recover their ascendancy against the Coalition, but it was +then too late to disavow the treaty. In Parliament George III had been +defeated; the defeat meaning a very serious check to the policy which +he had pursued for more than twenty years to fix royal tyranny on the +British people. King George's system of personal government, himself +being the person, had broken down and he could not revive it. Nearly +seventy years were to elapse before Queen Victoria, who was as putty +in the hands of her German husband, Prince Albert, rejoiced that she +had restored the personal power of the British sovereign to a pitch it +had not known since her grandfather George III. + +The American Revolution had illustrated the fatal weakness of the +Congress as an organ of government, and the Articles merely embodied +the vagueness of the American people in regard to any real régime. The +Congress has been much derided for its shortcomings and its blunders, +although in truth not so much the Congress, as those who made it, was +to blame. They had refused, in their timidity, to give it power to +exercise control. It might not compel or enforce obedience. It did +require General Washington during the war to furnish a regular report +of his military actions and it put his suggestions on file where +many of them grew yellow and dusty; but he might not strike, do that +decisive act by which history is born. Their timidity made them see +what he had accomplished not nearly so plainly as the dictator on +horseback whom their fears conjured up. + +During the war the sense of a common danger had lent the Congress a +not easily defined but quite real coherence, which vanished when +peace came, and the local ideals of the States took precedence. Take +taxation. Congress could compute the quota of taxes which each State +ought to pay, but it had no way of collecting or of enforcing payment. +It took eighteen months to collect five per cent of the taxes laid in +1783. Of course a nation could not go on with such methods. No law +binding all the States could be adopted unless every one of the +thirteen States assented. Unanimity was almost unattainable; as when +Governor Clinton of New York withheld his approval of a measure to +improve a system of taxation to which the other twelve States had +assented; so Rhode Island, the smallest of all, blocked another reform +which twelve States had approved. Our foreign relations must be +described as ignominious. Jefferson had taken Franklin's place as +Minister to France, but we had no credit and he could not secure the +loan he was seeking. John Adams in London, and John Jay in Madrid, +were likewise balked. Jay had to submit to the closing of the lower +Mississippi to American shipping. He did this in the hope of thereby +conciliating Spain to make a commercial treaty which he thought +was far more important than shipping. Our people in the Southwest, +however, regarded the closing of the river as portending their ruin, +and they threatened to secede if it were persisted in. Pennsylvania +and New Jersey threw their weight with the Southerners and Congress +voted against the Jay treaty. That was the time when the corsairs of +the Barbary States preyed upon American shipping in the Mediterranean +and seized crews of our vessels and sold them into slavery in Northern +Africa. That there was not in the thirteen States sufficient feeling +of dignity to resent and punish these outrages marks both their +dispersed power and lack of regard for National honor. + +After 1783 the States, virtually bankrupt at home, discordant, fickle, +and aimless, and without credit or prestige abroad, were filled with +many citizens who recognized that the system was bad and must be +amended. The wise among them wrote treatises on the remedies they +proposed. The wisest went to school of experience and sought in +history how confederations and other political unions had fared. +Washington wrote for his own use an account of the classical +constitutions of Greece and Rome and of the more modern states; of the +Amphictyonic Council among the ancient, and the Helvetic, Belgic, and +Germanic among the more recent. John Adams devoted two massive volumes +to an account of the medieval Italian republics. James Madison studied +the Achaian League and other ancient combinations. There were many +other men less eminent than these--there was a Peletiah Webster, for +instance. + +Washington viewed the situation as a pessimist. Was it because the +high hopes that he had held during the war, that America should be the +noblest among the nations, had been disappointed, or was it because he +saw farther into the future than his colleagues saw? On May 18, 1786, +he writes intimately to John Jay: + + ... We are certainly in a delicate situation; but my fear is that + the people are not yet sufficiently _misled_ to retract from + error. To be plainer, I think there is more wickedness than + ignorance mixed in our councils. Under this impression I scarcely + know what opinion to entertain of a general convention. That it + is necessary to revise and amend the Articles of Confederation, I + entertain no doubt; but what may be the consequences of such an + attempt is doubtful. Yet something must be done, or the fabric + must fall, for it certainly is tottering. + + Ignorance and design are difficult to combat. Out of these proceed + illiberal sentiments, improper jealousies, and a train of evils + which oftentimes in republican governments must be sorely felt + before they can be removed. The former, that is ignorance, being + a fit soil for the latter to work in, tools are employed by them + which a generous mind would disdain to use; and which nothing but + time, and their own puerile or wicked productions, can show + the inefficacy and dangerous tendency of. I think often of our + situation, and view it with concern. From the high ground we stood + upon, from the plain path which invited our footsteps, to be so + fallen! so lost! it is really mortifying.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, xi, 31.] + +One of the chief causes of the discontents which troubled the public +was the increasing number of persons who had been made debtors after +the war by the more and more pressing demands of their creditors. +These debtors knew nothing about economics; they only knew that +they were being crushed by persons more lucky than themselves. In +Massachusetts they broke out in actual rebellion named after the man +who led it, Daniel Shays. They were put down by the more or less +doubtful appeal to veterans of the National Army, but their ebullition +was not forgotten as a symptom of a very dangerous condition. In 1786 +representatives from five States met in a convention at Annapolis +to consider the hard times and the troubles in trade. Washington, +Hamilton, and Madison were thought to be behind the convention, which +accomplished little, but made it clear that a large general convention +ought to meet and to discuss the way of securing a strong central +government. This convention was discussed during that summer and +autumn, and a call was issued for a meeting in the following spring +at Philadelphia. Virginia turned first to Washington to be one of its +delegates, but he had sincere scruples against entering public life +again. He wrote to James Madison on November 18th: + + Although I had bid adieu to the public walks of life in a public + manner, and had resolved never more to tread upon public ground, + yet if, upon an occasion so interesting to the well-being of the + confederacy, it should have appeared to have been the wish of the + Assembly to have employed me with other associates in the business + of revising the federal system, I should, from a sense of + obligation I am under for repeated proof of confidence in me, more + than from any opinion I should have entertained of my usefulness, + have obeyed its call; but it is now out of my power to do so with + any degree of consistency.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 87.] + +Washington's disinclination to abandon the quiet of Mount Vernon +and the congenial work he found there, and to be plunged again into +political labors, was perhaps his strongest reason for making this +decision. But a temporary aggravation ruled him. The Society of the +Cincinnati, of which he was president, had aroused much odium in the +country among those who were jealous or envious that such a special +privileged class should exist, and among those who really believed +that it had the secret design of establishing an aristocracy if not +actually a monarchy. Washington held that its original avowed purpose, +to keep the officers who had served in the Revolution together, would +perpetuate the patriotic spirit which enabled them to win, and might +be a source of strength in case of further ordeals. But when he found +that public sentiment ran so strongly against the Cincinnati, he +withdrew as its president and he told Madison that he would vote to +have the Society disbanded if it were not that it counted a minority +of foreign members. Stronger than a desire for a private life and for +the ease of Mount Vernon was his sense of duty as a patriot; so that +when this was strongly urged upon him he gave way and consented. + +Spring came, the snows melted in the Northern States, and through the +month of April the delegates to this Convention started from their +homes in the North and in the South for Philadelphia. The first +regular session was held on May 25th, although some of the delegates +did not arrive until several weeks later. They sat in Independence +Hall in the same room where, eleven years before, the Declaration of +Independence had been adopted and signed. Of the members in the new +Convention, George Washington was easily the first. His commanding +figure, tall and straight and in no wise impaired by eight years' +campaigns and hardships, was almost the first to attract the attention +of any one who looked upon that assembly. He was fifty-five years old. +Next in reputation was the patriarch, Benjamin Franklin, twenty-seven +years his senior, shrewd, wise, poised, tart, good-natured; whose +prestige was thought to be sufficient to make him a worthy presiding +officer when Washington was not present. James Madison of Virginia was +among the young men of the Convention, being only thirty-six years +old, and yet almost at the top of them all in constitutional learning. +More precocious still was Alexander Hamilton of New York, who was +only thirty, one of the most remarkable examples of a statesman who +developed very early and whom Death cut off before he showed any +signs of a decline. One figure we miss--that of Thomas Jefferson of +Virginia, tall and wiry and red-curled, who was absent in Paris as +Minister to France. + +Massachusetts sent four representatives, important but not +preëminent--Elbridge Gerry, Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King, and Caleb +Strong. New York had only two besides Hamilton; Robert Yates and John +Lansing. Pennsylvania trusted most to Benjamin Franklin, but she sent +the financier of the Revolution, Robert Morris, and Gouverneur Morris; +and with them went Thomas Mifflin, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimmons, +Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson--all conspicuous public men at the time, +although their fame is bedraggled or quite faded now. Wilson ranked as +the first lawyer of the group. Of the five from little Delaware sturdy +John Dickinson, a man who thought, was no negligible quantity. + +Connecticut also had as spokesmen two strong individualities--Roger +Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth. Maryland spoke through James McHenry and +Daniel Carroll and three others of greater obscurity. Virginia had +George Washington, President of the Convention, and James Madison, +active, resourceful, and really accomplishing; and in addition to +these two: Edmund Randolph, the Governor; George Mason, Washington's +hard-headed and discreet lawyer friend; John Blair, George Wythe, and +James McClurg. From South Carolina went three unusual orators, John +Rutledge, C.C. Pinckney and Charles Pinckney, and Pierce Butler. +Georgia named four mediocre but useful men. + +In this gathering of fifty-five persons, the proportion between those +who were preëminent for common sense and those who were remarkable for +special knowledge and talents was very fairly kept. Most of them had +had experience in dealing with men either in local government offices +or in the army. Socially, they came almost without exception from +respectable if not aristocratic families. Of the fifty-five, +twenty-nine were university or college bred, their universities +comprising Oxford, Glasgow, and Edinburgh besides the American +Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia. The two +foremost members, Washington and Franklin, were not college bred. +Among the fifty-five we do not find John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, +who, as I have said, were in Europe on official business. John Jay +also was lacking, because, as it appears, the Anti-Federalists did +not wish him to represent them in the Convention; but his influence +permeated it and the wider public, who later read his unsigned +articles in "The Federalist." Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Richard +Henry Lee stayed at home. General Nathanael Greene, the favorite +son of Rhode Island, would have been at the Convention but for his +untimely death a few weeks before the preceding Christmas. + +Owing to delays the active business of the Convention halted, although +for at least a fortnight the members who had come promptly carried on +unofficial discussions. Washington, being chosen President without a +competitor, presided, with perhaps more than his habitual gravity and +punctilio. The members took their work very seriously. The debates +lasted five or six hours a day, and, as they were continued +consecutively until the autumn, there was ample time to discuss many +subjects. The Convention adopted strict secrecy as its rule, so that +its proceedings were not known by the public nor was any satisfactory +report of them kept and published. At the time there was objection to +this provision, and now, after more than a century and a third, we +must regret that we can never know many points in regard to the +actual give and take of discussion in this the most fateful of all +assemblies. But from Madison's memoranda and reminiscences we can +infer a good deal as to what went on. + +The wisdom of keeping the proceedings secret was fully justified. The +framers of the Constitution knew that it was to a large degree a new +experiment, that it would be subjected to all kinds of criticism, but +that it must be judged by its entirety and not by its parts; and that +therefore it must be presented entire. At the outset some of the +members, foreseeing opposition, were for suggesting palliatives and +for sugar-coating. Some of the measures they feared might excite +hostility. To these suggestions Washington made a brief but very noble +remonstrance which seemed deeply to impress his hearers. And no one +could question that it gave the keynote on which he hoped to maintain +the business of the Convention. "It is too probable that no plan we +propose will be adopted," Washington said very gravely. "Perhaps +another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the +people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward +defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest +can repair; the event is in the hand of God."[1] Among the obstacles +which seemed very serious--and many believed they would wreck the +Convention--was the question of slavery. By this time all the northern +part of the country favored its abolition. Even Virginia was on that +side. For practical planters like George Washington knew that it was +the most costly and least productive form of labor. They opposed it on +economic rather than moral grounds. Farther South, however, especially +in South Carolina where the negroes seemed to be the only kind +of laborers for the rice-fields, and in those regions where they +harvested the cotton, the whites insisted that slavery should be +maintained. The contest seemed likely to be very fierce between the +disputants, and then, with true Anglo-Saxon instinct, they sought +for a compromise. The South had regarded slaves as chattels. The +compromise brought forward by Madison consisted in agreeing that five +slaves should count in population as three. By this curious device a +negro was equivalent to three fifths of a white man. Such a compromise +was, of course, illogical, leaving the question whether negroes were +chattels or human beings with even a theoretical civil character +undecided. But many of the members, who saw the illogic quite plainly, +voted for it, being dazzled if not seduced by the thought that it was +a compromise which would stave off an irreconcilable conflict at least +for the present; so Washington, who wished the abolition of slavery, +voted for the compromise along with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the +South Carolinian who regarded slavery as higher than any of the Ten +Commandments. + +[Footnote 1: Fiske, _Critical Period_, 250.] + +The second compromise referred to the slave trade, which was +particularly defended by South Carolina and Georgia. The raising of +rice and indigo in those States caused an increasing death-rate among +the slaves. The slave trade, which brought many kidnapped slaves from +Africa to those States was needed to replenish the number of slaves +who died. Virginia had not yet become an important breeding-place of +slaves who were sold to planters farther south. The members of the +Convention who wished to put an end to this hideous traffic proposed +that it should be prohibited, and that the enforcement of the +prohibition should be assigned to the General Government. Pinckney, +however, keen to defend his privileged institution and the special +interests of his State, bluntly informed the Convention that if they +voted to abolish the slave trade, South Carolina would regard it as a +polite way of telling her that she was not wanted in the new Union. To +think of attempting to form a Union without South Carolina amazed them +all and made them pliable. Although there was considerable opposition +to giving the General Government control over shipping, this provision +was passed. The Northerners saw in it the germs of a tariff act which +would benefit their manufacturers, and they agreed that the slave +trade should not be interfered with before 1808 and that no export tax +should be authorized. + +The third compromise affected representation. The Convention had +already voted that the Congress should consist of two parts, a Senate +and a House of Representatives. By a really clever device each State +sent two members to the Senate, thus equalizing the small and large +States in that branch of the Government. The House, on the other hand, +represented the People, and the number of members elected from each +State corresponded, therefore, to the population. + +As I do not attempt to make even a summary of the details of the +Convention, I should pass over many of the other topics which it +considered, often with very heated discussion. The fundamental problem +was how to preserve the rights of the States and at the same time give +the Central Government sufficient power. By devices which actually +worked, and for many years continued to work, this conflict was +smoothed over, although sixty years later the question of State +rights, intertwined with that of slavery, nearly split the Nation in +the War of Secession. There was much question as to the term for +which the President should be elected and whether by the People or by +Congress. Some were for one, two, three, four, ten, and even fifteen +years. Rufus King, grown sarcastic, said: "Better call it twenty--it's +the average reign of princes." Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur +Morris stood for a life service with provision for the President's +removal in case of malfeasance. These gentlemen, in spite of their +influence in the Convention, stirred up a deep-seated enmity to their +plan. Few instincts were more general than that which drew back from +any arrangement which might embolden the monarchists to make a man +President for a ten or fifteen years' term or for life. This could not +fail to encourage those who wished for the equivalent of an hereditary +prince. The Convention soon made it evident that they would have none +but a short term, and they chose, finally, four years. There was a +debate over the question of his election; should he be chosen directly +by the legislature, or by electors? The strong men--Mason, +Rutledge, Roger Sherman, and Strong--favored the former; stronger +men--Washington, Madison, Gerry, and Gouverneur Morris--favored the +latter, and it prevailed. Nevertheless, the Electoral College thus +created soon became, and has remained, as useless as a vermiform +appendix. + +Towards the end of the summer the Convention had completed its first +draft of the Constitution; then they handed their work over to a +Committee for Style and Arrangement, composed of W.S. Johnson of North +Carolina, Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Madison, and King. Then, on +September 17th, the Constitution of the United States was formally +published. This document, done "by the Unanimous Consent of the States +present," was sent to the Governor or Legislature of each State with +the understanding that its ratification by nine States would be +required before it was proclaimed the law of the land. + +In his diary for Monday, the seventeenth of September, 1787, +Washington makes this entry: + + Met in Convention, when the Constitution received the unanimous + consent of 11 States and Colo. Hamilton's from New York [the only + delegate from thence in Convention], and was subscribed to by + every member present, except Governor Randolph and Colo. Mason + from Virginia, & Mr. Gerry from Massachusetts. + + The business being thus closed, the members adjourned to the City + Tavern, dined together, and took a cordial leave of each other. + After which I returned to my lodgings, did some business with, + and received the papers from the Secretary of the Convention, and + retired to meditate on the momentous wk. which had been executed, + after not less than five, for a large part of the time six and + sometimes 7 hours sitting every day, [except] Sundays & the ten + days adjournment to give a Comee. [Committee] opportunity & time + to arrange the business for more than four months.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 155.] + +One likes to think of Washington presiding over that Convention for +more than four months, seeing one suggestion after another brought +forward and debated until finally disposed of, he saying little except +to enforce the rules of parliamentary debate. No doubt his asides (and +part of his conversation) frankly gave his opinion as to each measure, +because he never disguised his thoughts and he seems to have voted +when the ballots were taken--a practice unusual to modern presiding +officers except in case of a tie. His summing-up of the Constitution, +which he wrote on the day after the adjournment in a hurried letter to +Lafayette, is given briefly in these lines: + + It is the result of four months' deliberation. It is now a child + of fortune, to be fostered by some and buffeted by others. What + will be the general opinion, or the reception of it, is not for me + to decide; nor shall I say anything for or against it. If it be + good, I suppose it will work its way; if bad, it will recoil on + the framers. + +A month later, in the seclusion of Mount Vernon, he spread the same +news before his friend General Knox: + + ... The Constitution is now before the judgment-seat. It has, + as was expected, its adversaries and supporters. Which will + preponderate is yet to be decided. The former more than probably + will be most active, as the major part of them will, it is to be + feared, be governed by sinister and self-important motives, to + which everything in their breasts must yield.... + +The other class, he said, would probably ask itself whether the +Constitution now submitted was not better than the inadequate and +precarious government under which they had been living. If there +were defects, as doubtless there were, did it not provide means for +amending them? Then he concludes with a gleam of optimism: + + ... Is it not likely that real defects will be as readily + discovered after as before trial? and will not our successors be + as ready to apply the remedy as ourselves, if occasion should + require it? To think otherwise will, in my judgment, be ascribing + more of the amor patriae, more wisdom and more virtue to + ourselves, than I think we deserve.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 173.] + +Nearly five months later, February 7, 1788, he wrote Lafayette what we +may consider a more deliberate opinion: + + As to my sentiments with respect to the merits of the new + constitution, I will disclose them without reserve, (although by + passing through the post-office they should become known to + all the world,) for in truth I have nothing to conceal on that + subject. It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that + the delegates from so many different States (which States you + know are also different from each other), in their manners, + circumstances, and prejudices, should unite in forming a system of + national government, so little liable to well-founded objections. + Nor am I yet such an enthusiastic, partial, or indiscriminating + admirer of it, as not to perceive it is tinctured with some real + (though not radical) defects. The limits of a letter would not + suffer me to go fully into an examination of them; nor would the + discussion be entertaining or profitable. I therefore forbear to + touch upon it. With regard to the two great points (the pivots + upon which the whole machine must move), my creed is simply, + + 1st. That the general government is not invested with more powers, + than are indispensably necessary to perform the functions of a + good government; and consequently, that no objection ought to be + made against the quantity of power delegated to it. + + 2nd. That these powers (as the appointment of all rulers will for + ever arise from, and at short, stated intervals recur to, the free + suffrage of the people), are so distributed among the legislative, + executive, and judicial branches, into which the general + government is arranged, that it can never be in danger of + degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any + other despotic or oppressive form, so long as there shall remain + any virtue in the body of the people. + + I would not be understood, my dear Marquis, to speak of + consequences, which may be produced in the revolution of ages, by + corruption of morals, profligacy of manners and listlessness for + the preservation of the natural and unalienable rights of mankind, + nor of the successful usurpations, that may be established at + such an unpropitious juncture upon the ruins of liberty, however + providently guarded and secured; as these are contingencies + against which no human prudence can effectually provide. It will + at least be a recommendation to the proposed constitution, that it + is provided with more checks and barriers against the introduction + of tyranny, and those of a nature less liable to be surmounted, + than any government hitherto instituted among mortals hath + possessed. We are not to expect perfection in this world; but + mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in + the science of government. Should that which is now offered to the + people of America, be found on experiment less perfect than it + can be made, a constitutional door is left open for its + amelioration.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 218-21.] + +Thus was accomplished the American Constitution. Gladstone has said of +it in well-known words that, just "as the British Constitution is the +most subtle organism which has proceeded from the womb and the long +gestation of progressive history, so the American Constitution is so +far as I can see the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given +time by the brain and purpose of man."[1] Note that Gladstone does +not name a single or an individual man, which would have been wholly +untrue, for the American Constitution was struck off by the wisdom and +foresight of fifty-five men collectively. There were among them two +or three who might be called transcendent men. It gained its peculiar +value from the fact that it represents the composite of many divergent +opinions and different characters. + +[Footnote 1: W.E. Gladstone, _North American Review_, September, +1878.] + +Just before the members broke up at their final meeting in +Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin amused them with a characteristic +bit of raillery. On the back of the President's black chair, a +half sun was carved and emblazoned. "During all these weeks," said +Franklin, "I have often wondered whether that sun was rising or +setting. I know now that it is a rising sun." + +The first State to ratify the Constitution was Delaware, on December +6, 1787. Pennsylvania followed on December 12th, and New Jersey +on December 18th. Ratifications continued without haste until New +Hampshire, the ninth State, signed on June 21, 1788. Four days later, +Virginia, a very important State, ratified. New York, which had been +Anti-Federalist throughout, joined the majority on July 26th. North +Carolina waited until November 21st, and little Rhode Island, the +last State of all, did not come in until May 29, 1790. But, as the +adherence of nine States sufficed, the affirmative action of New +Hampshire on June 21, 1788, constituted the legal beginning of the +United States of America. + +No test could be more winnowing than that to which the Constitution +was subjected during more than eighteen months before its adoption. In +each State, in each section, its friends and enemies discussed it at +meetings and in private gatherings. In New York, for instance, it was +only the persistence of Alexander Hamilton and his unfailing oratory, +unmatched until then in this country, that routed the Anti-Federalists +at Poughkeepsie and caused the victory of the Federalists in the +State. In Virginia, Patrick Henry, who had said on the eve of the +Revolution, "I am not a Virginian, but an American," still held out. +Nevertheless, the more the people of the country discussed the matter, +the surer was their conviction that Washington was right when he +intimated that they must prefer the new Constitution unless they could +show reason for supposing that the anarchy towards which the old order +was swiftly driving them was preferable. + +During the autumn of 1788 peaceful electioneering went on throughout +the country. Among the last acts of that thin wraith, the Continental +Congress, was a decree that Presidential Electors should be chosen +on the first Wednesday of January, 1789; that they should vote for +President on the first Wednesday in February, and that the new +Congress should meet on the first Wednesday in March. The State of New +York, where Anti-Federalists swarmed, did not follow the decree--with +the result that that State, which had been behindhand in signing the +Declaration of Independence, failed through the intrigues of the +Anti-Federalists to choose electors, and so had no part in the choice +of Washington as President of the United States. The other ten States +performed their duty on time. They elected Washington President by a +unanimous vote of sixty-nine out of sixty-nine votes cast. + +The Vice-Presidential contest was perplexing, there being many +candidates who received only a few votes each. Many persons thought +that it would be fitting that Samuel Adams, the father of the +Revolution, should be chosen to serve with Washington, the father of +his country; but too many remembered that he had been hostile to the +Federalists until almost the end of the preliminary canvass and so +they did not think that he ought to be chosen. The successful man was +John Adams, who had been a robust Patriot from the beginning and had +served honorably and devotedly in every position which he had held +since 1775. + +On April 14th Washington's election was notified to him, and on the +16th he bade farewell to Mount Vernon, where he had hoped to pass the +rest of his days in peace and home duties and agriculture, and he rode +in what proved to be a triumphal march to New York. That city was +chosen the capital of the new Nation. Streams of enthusiastic and +joyous citizens met and acclaimed him at every town through which +he passed. At Trenton a party of thirteen young girls decked out +in muslin and wreaths represented the thirteen States, and perhaps +brought to his mind the contrast between that day and thirteen years +before when he crossed the Delaware on boats amid floating cakes of +ice and the pelting of sleet and rain. On April 23d he entered New +York City. A week later at noon a military escort attended him from +his lodging to Federal Hall at the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, +where a vast crowd awaited him. Washington stood on a balcony. All +could witness the ceremony. The Secretary of the Senate bore a Bible +upon a velvet cushion, and Chancellor Livingston administered the oath +of office. Washington's head was still bowed when Livingston shouted: +"Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" The +crowds took up the cheer, which spread to many parts of the city and +was repeated in all parts of the United States. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE FIRST AMERICAN PRESIDENT + + +The inauguration of Washington on April 30, 1789, brought a new type +of administration into the world. The democracy which it initiated was +very different from that of antiquity, from the models of Greece and +of Rome, and quite different from that of the Italian republics during +the Middle Age. The head of the new State differed essentially +from the monarchs across the sea. Although there were varieties of +traditions and customs in what had been the Colonies, still their +dominant characteristic was British. According to the social +traditions of Virginia, George Washington was an aristocrat, but in +contrast with the British, he was a democrat. + +He believed, however, that the President must guard his office from +the free-and-easy want of decorum which some of his countrymen +regarded as the stamp of democracy. At his receptions he wore a black +velvet suit with gold buckles at the knee and on his shoes, and yellow +gloves, and profusely powdered hair carried in a silk bag behind. In +one hand he held a cocked hat with an ostrich plume; on his left thigh +he wore a sword in a white scabbard of polished leather. He shook +hands with no one; but acknowledged the courtesy of his visitors by +a very formal bow. When he drove, it was in a coach with four or six +handsome horses and outriders and lackeys dressed in resplendent +livery. + +After his inauguration he spoke his address to the Congress, and +several days later members of the House and of the Senate called on +him at his residence and made formal replies to his Inaugural Address. +After a few weeks, experience led him to modify somewhat his daily +schedule. He found that unless it was checked, the insatiate public +would consume all his time. Every Tuesday afternoon, between three and +four o'clock, he had a public reception which any one might attend. +Likewise, on Friday afternoons, Mrs. Washington had receptions of her +own. The President accepted no invitations to dinner, but at his own +table there was an unending succession of invited guests, except on +Sunday, which he observed privately. Interviews with the President +could be had at any time that suited his convenience. Thus did he +arrange to transact his regular or his private business. + +Inevitably, some of the public objected to his rules and pretended to +see very strong monarchical leanings in them. But the country took +them as he intended, and there can be no doubt that it felt the +benefit of his promoting the dignity of his office. Equally beneficial +was his rule of not appointing to any office any man merely because he +was the President's friend. Washington knew that such a consideration +would give the candidate an unfair advantage. He knew further that +office-holders who could screen themselves behind the plea that they +were the President's friends might be very embarrassing to him. As +office-seekers became, with the development of the Republic, among +the most pernicious of its evils and of its infamies, we can but feel +grateful that so far as in him lay Washington tried to keep them +within bounds. + +In all his official acts he took great pains not to force his personal +wishes. He knew that both in prestige and popularity he held a place +apart among his countrymen, and for this reason he did not wish to +have measures passed simply because they were his. Accordingly, in +the matter of receiving the public and in granting interviews and of +ceremonials at the Presidential Residence, he asked the advice of John +Adams, John Jay, Hamilton, and Jefferson, and he listened to many +of their suggestions. Colonel Humphreys, who had been one of his +aides-de-camp and was staying in the Presidential Residence, acted as +Chamberlain at the first reception. Humphreys took an almost childish +delight in gold braid and flummery. At a given moment the door of the +large hall in which the concourse of guests was assembled was opened +and he, advancing, shouted, with a loud voice: "The President of the +United States!" Washington followed him and went through the paces +prescribed by the Colonel with punctilious exactness, but with evident +lack of relish. When the levee broke up and the party had gone, +Washington said to Colonel Humphreys: "Well, you have taken me in +once, but, by God, you shall never take me in a second time."[1] +Irving, who borrows this story from Jefferson, warns us that perhaps +Jefferson was not a credible witness. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 14.] + +Congress transacted much important business at this first session. +It determined that the President should have a Cabinet of men whose +business it was to administer the chief departments and to advise the +President. Next in importance were the financial measures proposed by +the Secretary of the Treasury. Washington chose for his first Cabinet +Ministers: Thomas Jefferson, who had not returned from Paris, as +Secretary of State, or Foreign Minister as he was first called; +Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; General Henry Knox, +Secretary of War; and Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General. Of these, +Hamilton had to face the most bitter opposition. Throughout the +Revolution the former Colonies had never been able to collect enough +money to pay the expense of the war and the other charges of the +Confederation. The Confederation handed over a considerable debt to +the new Government. Besides this many of the States had paid each its +own cost of equipping and maintaining its contingent. Hamilton now +proposed that the United States Government should assume these various +State debts, which would aggregate $21,000,000 and bring the National +debt to a total of $75,000,000. Hamilton's suggestion that the State +debts be assumed caused a vehement outcry. Its opponents protested +that no fair adjustment could be reached. The Assumptionists +retorted that this would be the only fair settlement, but the +Anti-Assumptionists voted them down by a majority of two. In other +respects, Hamilton's financial measures prospered, and before many +months he seized the opportunity of making a bargain by which the next +Congress reversed its vote on Assumption. In less than a year the +members of Congress and many of the public had reached the conclusion +that New York City was not the best place to be the capital of the +Nation. The men from the South argued that it put the South to a +disadvantage, as its ease of access to New York, New Jersey, and +the Eastern States gave that section of the country a too favorable +situation. There was a strong party in favor of Philadelphia, but +it was remembered that in the days of the Confederation a gang of +turbulent soldiers had dashed down from Lancaster and put to flight +the Convention sitting at Philadelphia. Nevertheless, Philadelphia was +chosen temporarily, the ultimate choice of a situation being farther +south on the Potomac. + +Jefferson returned from France in the early winter. The discussion +over Assumption was going on very virulently. It happened that one day +Jefferson met Hamilton, and this is his account of what followed: + + As I was going to the President's one day, I met him [Hamilton] + in the street. He walked me backwards and forwards before the + President's door for half an hour. He painted pathetically the + temper into which the legislature had been wrought; the disgust + of those who were called the creditor States; the danger of the + secession of their members, and the separation of the States. He + observed that the members of the administration ought to act in + concert; that though this question was not of my department, yet + a common duty should make it a common concern; that the President + was the centre on which all administrative questions ultimately + rested, and that all of us should rally around him and support, + with joint efforts, measures approved by him; and that the + question having been lost by a small majority only, it was + probable that an appeal from me to the judgment and discretion of + some of my friends, might effect a change in the vote, and the + machine of government now suspended, might be again set into + motion. I told him that I was really a stranger to the whole + subject, that not having yet informed myself of the system of + finance adopted, I knew not how far this was a necessary sequence; + that undoubtedly, if its rejection endangered a dissolution of our + Union at this incipient stage, I should deem it most unfortunate + of all consequences to avert which all partial and temporary evils + should be yielded, I proposed to him, however, to dine with me the + next day, and I would invite another friend or two, bring them + into conference together, and I thought it impossible that + reasonable men, consulting together coolly, could fail, by some + mutual sacrifices of opinion, to form a compromise which was to + save the Union. The discussion took place. I could take no part + in it but an exhortatory one, because I was a stranger to the + circumstances which should govern it. But it was finally agreed, + that whatever importance had been attached to the rejection of + this proposition, the preservation of the Union and of concord + among the States was more important, and that, therefore, it would + be better that the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to + effect which some members should change their votes. But it was + observed that this pill would be peculiarly bitter to the Southern + States, and that some concomitant measure should be adopted to + sweeten it a little to them. There had before been projects to fix + the seat of government either at Philadelphia or at Georgetown on + the Potomac; and it was thought that, by giving it to Philadelphia + for ten years, and to Georgetown permanently afterwards, this + might, as an anodyne, solve in some degree the ferment which might + be excited by the other measure alone. So two of the Potomac + members (White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of stomach + almost convulsive) agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton + undertook to carry the other point. In doing this, the influence + he had established over the eastern members, with the agency of + Robert Morris with those of the Middle States, effected his side + of the engagement.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Jefferson's Works_, IX, 93.] + +As a result of Hamilton's bargain, the bill for Assumption was passed, +and it was agreed that Philadelphia should be the capital for ten +years and that afterwards a new city should be built on the banks of +the Potomac and made the capital permanently. + +During the summer of 1789 Washington suffered the most serious +sickness of his entire life. The cause was anthrax in his thigh, and +at times it seemed that it would prove fatal. For many weeks he was +forced to lie on one side, with frequent paroxysms of great pain. +After a month and a half he began to mend, but very slowly, so that +autumn came before he got up and could go about again. His medical +adviser was Dr. Samuel Bard of New York, and Irving reports the +following characteristic conversation between him and his patient: +"Do not flatter me with vain hopes," said Washington, with placid +firmness; "I am not afraid to die, and therefore can bear the worst." +The doctor expressed hope, but owned that he had apprehensions. +"Whether to-night or twenty hence, makes no difference," observed +Washington. "I know that I am in the hands of a good Providence."[1] +His friends thought that he never really recovered his old-time vigor. +That autumn, as soon as Congress had adjourned, he took a journey +through New England, going as far as Portsmouth and returning in time +for the opening of the Second Congress. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 22.] + +The Government was now settling down into what became its normal +routine. The Cabinet was completed by the appointment of Jefferson as +Secretary of State and Edmund Randolph as Attorney-General. Jefferson +would have preferred to go back to France as American Minister, but +in a fulsome letter he declared himself willing to accept any office +which Washington wished him to fill. The Supreme Court was organized +with John Jay as Chief Justice, and five Associate Justices. +Washington could not fail to be aware that parties were beginning to +shape themselves. At first the natural divisions consisted of the +Federalists, who believed in adopting the Constitution, and those +who did not. As soon as the thirteen States voted to accept the +Constitution, the Anti-Federalists had no definite motive for +existing. Their place was taken principally by the Republicans over +against whom were the Democrats. A few years later these parties +exchanged names. A fundamental difference in the ideas of the +Americans sprang from their views in regard to National and State +rights. Some of them regarded the State as the ultimate unit. Others +insisted that the Nation was sovereign. These two conflicting views +run through American history down to the Civil War, and even in +Washington's time they existed in outline. Washington himself was +a Federalist, believing that the Federation of the former Colonies +should be made as compact and strongly knit as possible. He had +had too much evidence during the Revolution of the weakness of +uncentralized government, and yet his Virginia origin and training had +planted in him a strong sympathy for State rights. In Washington's +own Cabinet dwelt side by side the leaders of the two parties: Thomas +Jefferson, the Secretary of State, though born in Virginia of high +aristocratic stock, was the most aggressive and infatuated of +Democrats. Alexander Hamilton, born in the West Indies and owing +nothing to family connections, was a natural aristocrat. He believed +that the educated and competent few must inevitably govern the +incompetent masses. His enemies suspected that he leaned strongly +towards monarchy and would have been glad to see Washington crowned +king. + +President Washington, believing in Assumption, took satisfaction in +Hamilton's bargain with Jefferson which made Assumption possible. For +the President saw in the act a power making for union, and union was +one of the chief objects of his concern. The foremost of Hamilton's +measures, however, for good or for ill, was the protective tariff on +foreign imports. Experience has shown that protection has been much +more than a financial device. It has been deeply and inextricably +moral. It has caused many American citizens to seek for tariff favors +from the Government. Compared with later rates, those which Hamilton's +tariff set were moderate indeed. The highest duties it exacted on +foreign imports were fifteen per cent, while the average was only +eight and a half per cent. And yet it had not been long in force when +the Government was receiving $200,000 a month, which enabled it to +defray all the necessary public charges. Hamilton, in the words of +Daniel Webster, "smote the rock of National resources and copious +streams of wealth poured forth. He touched the dead corpse of public +credit and it stood forth erect with life." The United States of all +modern countries have been the best fitted by their natural resources +to do without artificial stimulation, in spite of which fact they +still cling, after one hundred and thirty-five years, to the easy +and plausible tariff makeshift. Washington himself believed that the +tariff should so promote industries as to provide for whatever the +country needed in time of war. + +Two other financial measures are to be credited to Hamilton. The first +was the excise, an internal revenue on distilled spirits. It met with +opposition from the advocates of State rights, but was passed after +heated debate. The last was the establishment of a United States Bank. +All of Hamilton's measures tended directly to centralization, the +object which he and Washington regarded as paramount. + +In 1790 Washington made a second trip through the Eastern States, +taking pains to visit Rhode Island, which was the last State to ratify +the Constitution (May 29, 1790). These trips of his, for which the +hostile might have found parallels in the royal progresses of the +British sovereigns, really served a good purpose; for they enabled the +people to see and hear their President; which had a good effect in a +newly established nation. Washington lost no opportunity for teaching +a moral. Thus, when he came to Boston, John Hancock, the Governor of +Massachusetts, seemed to wish to indicate that the Governor was the +highest personage in the State and not at all subservient even to +the President of the United States. He wished to arrange it so that +Washington should call on him first, but this Washington had no idea +of doing. Hancock then wrote and apologized for not greeting the +President owing to an unfortunate indisposition. Washington replied +regretting the Governor's illness and announcing that the schedule on +which he was travelling required him to quit Boston at a given time. +Governor Hancock, whose spectacular signature had given him prominence +everywhere, finding that he could not make the President budge, sent +word that he was coming to pay his respects. Washington replied that +he should be much pleased to welcome him, but expressed anxiety lest +the Governor might increase his indisposition by coming out. This +little comedy had a far-reaching effect. It settled the question as to +whether the Governor of a State or the President of the United States +should take precedence. From that day to this, no Governor, so far +as I am aware, has set himself above the President in matters of +ceremonial. + +One of the earliest difficulties which Washington's administration had +to overcome was the hostility of the Indians. Indian discontent and +even lawlessness had been going on for years, with only a desultory +and ineffectual show of vigor on the part of the whites. Washington, +who detested whatever was ineffectual and lacking in purpose, +determined to beat down the Indians into submission. He sent out a +first army under General St. Clair, but it was taken in ambush by the +Indians and nearly wiped out--a disaster which caused almost a panic +throughout the Western country. Washington felt the losses deeply, but +he had no intention of being beaten there. He organized a second army, +gave it to General Wayne to command, who finally brought the Six +Nations to terms. The Indians in the South still remained unpacified +and lawless. + +Washington made another prolonged trip, this time through the Southern +States, which greatly improved his health and gave an opportunity of +seeing many of the public men, and enabled the population to greet for +the first time their President. Meanwhile the seeds of partisan feuds +grew apace, as they could not fail to do where two of the ablest +politicians ever known in the United States sat in the same Cabinet +and pursued with unremitting energy ideas that were mutually +uncompromising. Thomas Jefferson, although born of the old +aristocratic stock of Virginia, had early announced himself a +Democrat, and had led that faction throughout the Revolution. His +facile and fiery mind gave to the Declaration of Independence an +irresistible appeal, and it still remains after nearly one hundred and +fifty years one of the most contagious documents ever drawn up. Going +to France at the outbreak of the French Revolution, he found the +French nation about to put into practice the principles on which he +had long fed his imagination--principles which he accepted without +qualification and without scruple. Returning to America after the +organization of the Government, he accepted with evident reluctance +the position of Secretary of State which Washington offered to him. In +the Cabinet his chief adversary or competitor was Alexander Hamilton, +his junior by fourteen years, a man equally versatile and equally +facile--and still more enthralling as an orator. Hamilton harbored the +anxiety that the United States under their new Constitution would be +too loosely held together. He promoted, therefore, every measure +that tended to strengthen the Central Government and to save it +from dissolution either by the collapse of its unifying bonds or +by anarchy. In the work of the first two years of Washington's +administration, Hamilton was plainly victorious. The Tariff Law, the +Excise, the National Bank, the National Funding Bill, all centralizing +measures, were his. Washington approved them all, and we may believe +that he talked them over with Hamilton and gave them his approval +before they came under public discussion. + +Thus, as Hamilton gained, Jefferson plainly lost. But Washington +did not abandon his sound position as a neutral between the two. He +requested Jefferson and Edmund Randolph to draw up objections to some +of Hamilton's schemes, so that he had in writing the arguments of very +strong opponents. + +Meanwhile the French Revolution had broken all bounds, and Jefferson, as +the sponsor of the French over here, was kept busy in explaining and +defending the Gallic horrors. The Americans were in a large sense +law-abiding, but in another sense they were lawless. Nevertheless, they +heard with horror of the atrocities of the French Revolutionists--of the +drownings, of the guillotining, of the imprisonment and execution of the +King and Queen--and they had a healthy distrust of the Jacobin Party, +which boasted that these things were natural accompaniments of Liberty +with which they planned to conquer the world. Events in France +inevitably drove that country into war with England. Washington and his +chief advisers believed that the United States ought to remain neutral +as between the two belligerents. But neutrality was difficult. In spite +of their horror at the French Revolution, the memory of our debt to +France during our own Revolution made a very strong bond of sympathy, +whereas our long record of hostility to England during our Colony days, +and since the Declaration of Independence, kept alive a traditional +hatred for Great Britain. While it was easy, therefore, to preach +neutrality, it was very difficult to enforce it. An occurrence which +could not have been foreseen further added to the difficulty of +neutrality. + +In the spring of 1793 the French Republic appointed Edmond Charles +Genêt, familiarly called "Citizen Genêt," Minister to the United +States. He was a young man, not more than thirty, of very quick parts, +who had been brought up in the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, had an +exorbitant idea of his own importance, and might be described without +malice as a master of effrontery. The ship which brought him to this +country was driven by adverse winds to Charleston and landed him there +on April 8th. He lost no time in fitting out a privateer against +British mercantile vessels. The fact that by so doing he broke the +American rule of neutrality did not seem to trouble him at all; on the +contrary, he acted as if he were simply doing what the United States +would do if they really did what they wished. As soon as he had made +his arrangements, he proceeded by land up the coast to Philadelphia. +Jefferson was exuberant, and he wrote in exultation to Madison on the +fifth of May, concluding with the phrase, "I wish we may be able +to repress the spirit of the people within the limits of a fair +neutrality." If there be such things as crocodile tears, perhaps there +may also be crocodile wishes, of which this would seem to be one. A +friend of Hamilton's, writing about the same time, speaks in different +terms, as follows: + + He has a good person, a fine ruddy complexion, quite active, and + seems always in a bustle, more like a busy man than a man of + business. A Frenchman in his manners, he announces himself in all + companies as the Minister of the Republic, etc., talks freely of + his commission, and, like most Europeans, seems to have adopted + mistaken notions of the penetration and knowledge of the people of + the United States. His system, I think, is to laugh us into war if + he can.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 151.] + +Citizen Genêt did not allow his progress up the coast to be so +rapid that he was deprived of any ovation. The banquets, luncheons, +speech-makings, by which he was welcomed everywhere, had had no +parallel in the country up to that time. They seemed to be too +carefully prepared to be unpremeditated, and probably many of those +who took part in them did not understand that they were cheering for a +cause which they had never espoused. One wonders why he was allowed to +carry on this personal campaign and to show rude unconcern for good +manners, or indeed for any manners except those of a wayward and +headstrong boy. It might be thought that the Secretary of State +abetted him and in his infatuation for France did not check him; but, +so far as I have discovered, no evidence exists that Jefferson was +in collusion with the truculent and impertinent "Citizen." No doubt, +however, the shrewd American politician took satisfaction in observing +the extravagances of his fellow countrymen in paying tribute to the +representative of France. At Philadelphia, for instance, the city +which already was beginning to have a reputation for spinster +propriety which became its boast in the next century, we hear that +"... before Genêt had presented his credentials and been acknowledged +by the President, he was invited to a grand republican dinner, 'at +which,' we are told, 'the company united in singing the Marseillaise +Hymn. A deputation of French sailors presented themselves, and were +received by the guests with the fraternal embrace.' The table was +decorated with the 'tree of liberty,' and a red cap, called the cap +of liberty, was placed on the head of the minister, and from his +travelled in succession from head to head round the table."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Jay's _Life_, I, 30.] + +But not all the Americans were delirious enthusiasts. Hamilton kept +his head amid the whirling words which, he said, might "do us much +harm and could do France no good." In a letter, which deserves to be +quoted in spite of its length, he states very clearly the opinions of +one of the sanest of Americans. He writes to a friend: + + It cannot be without danger and inconvenience to our interests, to + impress on the nations of Europe an idea that we are actuated by + the same spirit which has for some time past fatally misguided the + measures of those who conduct the affairs of France, and sullied + a cause once glorious, and that might have been triumphant. The + cause of France is compared with that of America during its late + revolution. Would to Heaven that the comparison were just! Would + to Heaven we could discern, in the mirror of French affairs, the + same decorum, the same gravity, the same order, the same dignity, + the same solemnity, which distinguished the cause of the American + Revolution! Clouds and darkness would not then rest upon the + issue as they now do. I own I do not like the comparison. When I + contemplate the horrid and systematic massacres of the 2nd and 3rd + of September, when I observe that a Marat and a Robespierre, the + notorious prompters of those bloody scenes, sit triumphantly in + the convention, and take a conspicuous part in its measures--that + an attempt to bring the assassins to justice has been obliged to + be abandoned--when I see an unfortunate prince, whose reign was + a continued demonstration of the goodness and benevolence of his + heart, of his attachment to the people of whom he was the monarch, + who, though educated in the lap of despotism, had given repeated + proofs that he was not the enemy of liberty, brought precipitately + and ignominiously to the block without any substantial proof of + guilt, as yet disclosed--without even an authentic exhibition of + motives, in decent regard to the opinions of mankind; when I find + the doctrine of atheism openly advanced in the convention, and + heard with loud applause; when I see the sword of fanaticism + extended to force a political creed upon citizens who were invited + to submit to the arms of France as the harbingers of liberty; when + I behold the hand of rapacity outstretched to prostrate and ravish + the monuments of religious worship, erected by those citizens and + their ancestors; when I perceive passion, tumult, and violence + usurping those seats, where reason and cool deliberation ought to + preside, I acknowledge that I am glad to believe there is no real + resemblance between what was the cause of America and what is the + cause of France; that the difference is no less great than that + between liberty and licentiousness. I regret whatever has a + tendency to confound them, and I feel anxious, as an American, + that the ebullitions of inconsiderate men among us may not tend to + involve our reputation in the issue.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Hamilton's Works_, 566.] + +Citizen Genêt continued his campaign unabashed. He attempted to force +the United States to give arms and munitions to the French. Receiving +cool answers to his demands, he lost patience, and intended to appeal +to the American People, over the head of the Government. He sent his +communication for the two Houses of Congress, in care of the Secretary +of State, to be delivered. But Washington, whose patience had seemed +inexhaustible, believed that the time had come to act boldly. By his +instruction Jefferson returned the communication to Genêt with a note +in which he curtly reminded the obstreperous Frenchman of a diplomat's +proper behavior. As the American Government had already requested the +French to recall Genêt, his amazing inflation collapsed like a pricked +bladder. He was too wary, however, to return to France which he had +served so devotedly. He preferred to remain in this country, to become +an American citizen, and to marry the daughter of Governor Clinton of +New York. Perhaps he had time for leisure, during the anticlimax of +his career, to recognize that President Washington, whom he had +looked down upon as a novice in diplomacy, knew how to accomplish his +purpose, very quietly, but effectually. A century and a quarter later, +another foreigner, the German Ambassador, Count Bernstorff, was +allowed by the American Government to weave an even more menacing +plot, but the sound sense of the country awoke in time to sweep him +and his truculence and his conspiracies beyond the Atlantic. + +The intrigues of Genêt emphasized the fact that a party had arisen and +was not afraid to speak openly against President Washington. He held +in theory a position above that of parties, but the theory did not +go closely with fact, for he made no concealment of his fundamental +Federalism, and every one saw that, in spite of his formal neutrality, +in great matters he almost always sided with Hamilton instead of with +Jefferson. When he himself recognized that the rift was spreading +between his two chief Cabinet officers, he warned them both to avoid +exaggerating their differences and pursuing any policy which must be +harmful to the country. Patriotism was the chief aim of every one, and +patriotism meant sinking one's private desires in order to achieve +liberty through unity. Washington himself was a man of such strict +virtue that he could work with men who in many matters disagreed with +him, and as he left the points of disagreement on one side, he +used the more effectively points of agreement. I do not think that +Jefferson could do this, or Hamilton either, and I cannot rid myself +of the suspicion that Jefferson furnished Philip Freneau, who came +from New York to Philadelphia to edit the anti-Washington newspaper, +with much of his inspiration if not actual articles. The objective +of the "Gazette" was, of course, the destruction of Hamilton and his +policy of finance. If Hamilton could be thus destroyed, it would be +far easier to pull down Washington also. Lest the invectives in the +"Gazette" should fail to shake Washington in his regard for Hamilton, +Jefferson indited a serious criticism of the Treasury, and he took +pains to have friends of his leave copies of the indictment so that +Washington could not fail to see them. The latter, however, by a +perfectly natural and characteristic stroke which Jefferson could not +foresee, sent the indictment to Hamilton and asked him to explain. +This Hamilton did straightforwardly and point-blank--and Jefferson had +the mortification of perceiving that his ruse had failed. Hamilton, +under a thin disguise, wrote a series of newspaper assaults on +Jefferson, who could not parry them or answer them. He was no match +for the most terrible controversialist in America; but he could wince. +And presently B.F. Bache, the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, brought +his unusual talents in vituperation, in calumny, and in nastiness to +the "Aurora," a blackguard sheet of Philadelphia. Washington doubtless +thought himself so hardened to abuse by the experience he had had of +it during the Revolution that nothing which Freneau, Bache, and their +kind could say or do, would affect him. But he was mistaken. And one +cannot fail to see that they saddened and annoyed him. He felt +so keenly the evil which must come from the deliberate sowing of +dissensions. He cared little what they might say against himself, but +he cared immensely for their sin against patriotism. Before his term +as President drew to a close, he was already deciding not to be +a candidate for a second term. He told his intention to a few +intimates--from them it spread to many others. His best friends were +amazed. They foresaw great trials for the Nation and a possible +revolution. Hamilton tried to move him by every sort of appeal. +Jefferson also was almost boisterous in denouncing the very idea. He +impressed upon him the importance of his continuing at that crisis. He +had not been President long enough to establish precedents for the new +Nation. There were many volatile incidents which, if treated with less +judgment than his, might do grievous harm. One wonders how sincere all +the entreaties to Washington were, but one cannot doubt that the great +majority of the country was perfectly sincere in wishing to have him +continue; for it had sunk deep into the hearts of Americans that +Washington was himself a party, a policy, an ideal above all the rest. +And when the election was held in the autumn of 1792, he was reëlected +by the equivalent of a unanimous vote. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE JAY TREATY + + +There is no doubt that Washington in his Olympian quiet took a real +satisfaction in his election. On January 20, 1793, he wrote to +Governor Henry Lee of Virginia: + + A mind must be insensible indeed not to be gratefully impressed by + so distinguished and honorable a testimony of public approbation + and confidence; and as I suffered my name to be contemplated on + this occasion, it is more than probable that I should, for a + moment, have experienced chagrin, if my reëlection had not been + by a pretty respectable vote. But to say I feel pleasure from the + prospect of commencing another term of duty would be a departure + from the truth,--for, however it might savor of affectation in + the opinion of the world (who, by the by, can only guess at my + sentiments, as it never has been troubled with them), my + particular and confidential friends well know, that it was after a + long and painful conflict in my own breast, that I was withheld, + (by considerations which are not necessary to be mentioned), from + requesting in time, that no vote might be thrown away upon me, it + being my fixed determination to return to the walks of private + life at the end of my term.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XII, 256.] + +Washington felt at his reëlection not merely egotistic pleasure for +a personal success, but the assurance that it involved a triumph of +measures which he held to be of far more importance than any success +of his own. The American Nation's new organism which he had set +in motion could now continue with the uniformity of its policy +undisturbed by dislocating checks and interruptions. Much, very much +depended upon the persons appointed to direct its progress, and +they depended upon the President who appointed them. In matters of +controversy or dispute, Washington upheld a perfectly impartial +attitude. But he did not believe that this should shackle his freedom +in appointing. According to him a man must profess right views in +order to be considered worthy of appointment. The result of this was +that Washington's appointees must be orthodox in his definition of +orthodoxy. + +His first important act in his new administration was to issue a +Proclamation of Neutrality on April 22d. Although this document was +clear in intent and in purpose, and was evidently framed to keep +the United States from being involved in the war between France and +England, it gave offence to partisans of either country. They used it +as a weapon for attacking the Government, so that Washington found to +his sorrow that the partisan spites, which he had hoped would vanish +almost of their own accord, were become, on the contrary, even more +formidable and irritating. At this juncture the coming of Genêt and +his machinations added greatly to the embarrassment, and, having no +sense of decency, Genêt insinuated that the President had usurped the +powers of Congress and that he himself would seek redress by appealing +to the people over the President. I have already stated that, having +tolerated Genêt's insults and menaces as far as he deemed necessary, +Washington put forth his hand and crushed the spluttering Frenchman +like a bubble. + +Persons who like to trace the sardonic element in history--the element +which seems to laugh derisively at the ineffectual efforts of us poor +mortals to establish ourselves and lead rational lives in the world as +it is--can find few better examples of it than these early years of +the American Republic. In the war which brought about the independence +of the American Colonies, England had been their enemy and France +their friend. Now their instinctive gratitude to France induced many, +perhaps a majority of them, to look with effusive favor on France, +although her character and purpose had quite changed and it was very +evident that for the Americans to side with France would be against +sound policy and common sense. Neutrality, the strictest neutrality, +between England and France was therefore the only rational course; but +the American partisans of these rivals did their utmost to render this +unachievable. Much of Washington's second term see-sawed between one +horn and the other of this dilemma. The sardonic aspect becomes more +glaring if we remember that the United States were a new-born nation +which ought to have been devoting itself to establishing viable +relations among its own population and not to have been dissipating +its strength taking sides with neighbors who lived four thousand miles +away. + +In the autumn of 1793 Jefferson insisted upon resigning as Secretary +of State. Washington used all his persuasiveness to dissuade him, but +in vain. Jefferson saw the matter in its true light, and insisted. +Perhaps it at last occurred to him, as it must occur to every +dispassionate critic, that he could not go on forever acting as +an important member of an administration which pursued a policy +diametrically opposed to his own. After all, even the most adroit +politicians must sometimes sacrifice an offering to candor, not to say +honesty. At the end of the year he retired to the privacy of his home +at Monticello, where he remained in seclusion, not wholly innocuous, +until the end of 1796. Edmund Randolph succeeded him as Secretary of +State. + +Whether it was owing to the departure of Jefferson from the Cabinet or +not, the fact remains that Washington concluded shortly thereafter +the most difficult diplomatic negotiation of his career. This was +the treaty with England, commonly called Jay's Treaty. The President +wished at first to appoint Hamilton, the ablest member of the Cabinet, +but, realizing that it would be unwise to deprive himself and his +administration of so necessary a supporter, he offered the post to +John Jay, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The quality, deemed +most desirable, which it was feared Jay might lack, was audacity. But +he had discretion, tact, and urbanity in full share, besides that +indefinable something which went with his being a great gentleman. + +The President, writing to Gouverneur Morris, who had recently been +recalled as Minister to France, said: + + My primary objects, to which I have steadily adhered, have been to + preserve the country in peace, if I can, and to be prepared for + war if I cannot, to effect the first, upon terms consistent with + the respect which is due to ourselves, and with honor, justice and + good faith to all the world. + + Mr. Jay (and not Mr. Jefferson) as has been suggested to you, + embarked as envoy extraordinary for England about the middle of + May. If he succeed, well; if he does not, why, knowing the worst, + we must take measures accordingly.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XII, 436. Mount Vernon, June 25, 1794.] + +Jay reached London early in June, 1794, and labored over the treaty +with the British negotiators during the summer and autumn, started for +home before Christmas, and put the finished document in Washington's +hands in March. From the moment of his going enemies of all kinds +talked bitterly against him. The result must be a foregone conclusion, +since John Jay was regarded as the chief Anglo-maniac in America after +Hamilton. They therefore condemned in advance any treaty he might +agree to. But their criticism went deeper than mere hatred of him: it +sprang from an inveterate hatred of England, which dated from before +the Revolution. Since the Treaty of 1783 the English seemed to act +deliberately with studied truculence, as if the Americans would not +and could not retaliate. They were believed to be instigating the +Indians to continuous underhand war. They had reached that dangerous +stage of truculence, when they did not think it mattered whether +they spoke with common diplomatic reticence. Lord Dorchester, the +Governor-General of Canada, and to-day better known as Sir Guy +Carleton, his name before they made him a peer, addressed a gathering +of Indian chiefs at Quebec on the assumption that war would come in a +few weeks. President Washington kept steady watch of every symptom, +and he knew that it would not require a large spark to kindle a +conflagration. "My objects are, to prevent a war," he wrote to Edmund +Randolph, on April 15, 1794, "if justice can be obtained by fair and +strong representations (to be made by a special envoy) of the injuries +which this country has sustained from Great Britain in various ways, +to put it into a complete state of military defence, and to provide +_eventually_ for such measures as seem to be now pending in +Congress for execution, if negotiations in a reasonable time proves +unsuccessful."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIII, 4-9.] + +The year 1794 marked the sleepless anxiety of the Silent President. +Day and night his thoughts were in London, with Jay. He said little; +he had few letters from Jay--it then required from eight to ten weeks +for the mail clippers to make a voyage across the Atlantic. Opposition +to the general idea of such a treaty as the mass of Republicans and +Anti-Federalists supposed Washington hoped to secure, grew week by +week. The Silent Man heard the cavil and said nothing. + +At last early in 1795 Jay returned. His Treaty caused an uproar. The +hottest of his enemies found an easy explanation on the ground that +he was a traitor. Stanch Federalists suffered all varieties of +mortification. Washington himself entered into no discussion, but he +ruminated over those which came to him. I am not sure that he +invented the phrase "Either the Treaty, or war," which summed up the +alternatives which confronted Jay; but he used it with convincing +emphasis. When it came before the Senate, both sides had gathered +every available supporter, and the vote showed only a majority of +one in its favor. Still, it passed. But that did not satisfy its +pertinacious enemies. Neither were they restrained by the President's +proclamation. The Constitution assigned the duty of negotiating and +ratifying treaties to the President and Senate; but to the perfervid +Anti-Britishers the Constitution was no more than an old cobweb to be +brushed away at pleasure. The Jay Treaty could not be put into effect +without money for expenses; all bills involving money must pass the +House of Representatives; therefore, the House would actually control +the operation of the Treaty. + +The House at this time was Republican by a marked majority. In March, +1796, the President laid the matter before the House. In a twinkling +the floodgates of speechifying burst open; the debates touched +every aspect of the question. James Madison, the wise supporter of +Washington and Hamilton in earlier days and the fellow worker on "The +Federalist," led the Democrats in their furious attacks. He was ably +seconded by Albert Gallatin, the high-minded young Swiss doctrinaire +from Geneva, a terrible man, in whose head principles became two-edged +weapons with Calvinistic precision and mercilessness. The Democrats +requested the President to let them see the correspondence in +reference to the Treaty during its preparation. This he wisely +declined to do. The Constitution did not recognize their right to make +the demand, and he foresaw that, if granted by him then, it might be +used as a harmful precedent. + +For many weeks the controversy waxed hot in the House. Scores of +speakers hammered at every argument, yet only one speech eclipsed +all the rest, and remains now, after one hundred and thirty years, a +paragon. There are historians who assert that this was the greatest +speech delivered in Congress before Daniel Webster spoke there--an +implication which might lead irreverent critics to whisper that too +much reading may have dulled their discrimination. But fortunately not +only the text of the speech remains; we have also ample evidence of +the effect it produced on its hearers. Fisher Ames, a Representative +from Massachusetts, uttered it. He was a young lawyer, feeble in +health, but burning, after the manner of some consumptives, with +intellectual and moral fire which strangely belied his slender thread +of physical life. Ames pictured the horrors which would ensue if the +Treaty were rejected. Quite naturally he assumed the part of a man +on the verge of the grave, which increased the impressiveness of his +words. He spoke for three hours. The members of the House listened +with feverish attention; the crowds in the balconies could not smother +their emotion. One witness reports that Vice-President John Adams sat +in the gallery, the tears running down his cheeks, and that he said to +the friend beside him, "My God, how great he is!" + +When Ames began, no doubt the Anti-British groups which swelled +the audience turned towards him an unsympathetic if not a scornful +attention--they had already taken a poll of their members, from which +it appeared that they could count on a majority of six to defeat the +Treaty. As he proceeded, however, and they observed how deeply he was +moving the audience, they may have had to keep up their courage by +reflecting that speeches in Congress rarely change votes. They are +intended to be read by the public outside, which is not under the +spell of the orator or the crowd. But when Fisher Ames, after what +must have seemed to them a whirlwind speech, closed with these solemn, +restrained words, they must have doubted whether their victory was +won: + + Even the minutes I have spent in expostulating, have their value [he + said] because they protract the crisis and the short period in which + alone we may resolve to escape it. Yet I have, perhaps, as little + personal interest in the event as any one here. There is, I believe, no + member, who will not think his chance to be a witness of the + consequences greater than mine. If, however, the vote should pass to + reject--even I, slender and almost broken as my hold on life is, may + outlive the government and Constitution of my country.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Elson, 359.] + +The next day when the vote was taken it appeared that the Republicans, +instead of winning by a majority of six, had lost by three. + +The person who really triumphed was George Washington, although Fisher +Ames, who won the immediate victory, deserved undying laurel. The +Treaty had all the objections that its critics brought against it +then, but it had one sterling virtue which outweighed them all. It not +only made peace between the United States and Great Britain the normal +condition, but it removed the likelihood that the wrangling over petty +matters might lead to war. For many years Washington had a fixed idea +that if the new country could live for twenty years without a conflict +with its chief neighbors, its future would be safe; for he felt that +at the end of that time it would have grown so strong by the natural +increase in population and by the strength that comes from developing +its resources, that it need not fear the attack of any people in the +world. The Jay Treaty helped towards this end; it prevented war for +sixteen years only; but even that delay was of great service to the +Americans and made them more ready to face it than they would have +been in 1795. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WASHINGTON RETIRES FROM PUBLIC LIFE + + +The Treaty with England had scarely been put in operation before the +Treaty with France, of which Washington also felt the importance, came +to the front. Monroe was not an aggressive agent. Perhaps very +few civilized Americans could have filled that position to the +satisfaction of his American countrymen. They wished the French to +acknowledge and explain various acts which they qualified as outrages, +whereas the French regarded as glories what they called grievances. +The men of the Directory which now ruled France did not profess the +atrocious methods of the Terrorists, but they could not afford in +treating with a foreigner to disavow the Terrorists. In the summer of +'96, Washington, being dissatisfied with Monroe's results, recalled +him, and sent in his place Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, to whom +President Adams afterwards added John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, +forming a Commission of three. Some of the President's critics have +regarded his treatment of Monroe as unfair, and they imply that it +was inspired by partisanship. He had always been an undisguised +Federalist, whereas Monroe, during the past year or more, had followed +Jefferson and become an unswerving Democrat. The publication here of +a copy of Monroe's letter to the French Committee of Public Safety +caused a sensation; for he had asserted that he was not instructed to +ask for the repeal of the French decrees by which the spoliation of +American commerce had been practised, and he added that if the decrees +benefited France, the United States would submit not only with +patience but with pleasure. What wonder that Washington, in reading +this letter and taking in the full enormity of Monroe's words, should +have allowed himself the exclamation, "Extraordinary!" What wonder +that in due course of time he recalled Monroe from Paris and replaced +him with a man whom he could trust! + +The settlement of affairs with France did not come until after +Washington ceased to be President. I will, therefore, say no more +about it, except to refer to the outrageous conduct of the French, who +hurried two of the Commissioners out of France, and, apparently at the +instigation of Talleyrand, declared that they must pay a great deal of +money before they made any arrangement, to which Charles Pinckney made +the famous rejoinder, "Millions for defence, but not one cent for +tribute." The negotiations became so stormy that war seemed imminent. +Congress authorized President Adams to enlist ten thousand men to be +put into the field in case of need, and he wrote to Washington: "We +must have your name, if you will in any case permit us to use it. +There will be more efficacy in it than in many an army." McHenry, the +Secretary of War, wrote: "You see how the storm thickens, and that our +vessel will soon require its ancient pilot. Will you--may we flatter +ourselves, that in a crisis so awful and important, you will accept +the command of all our armies? I hope you will, because you alone can +unite all hearts and all hands, if it is possible that they can be +united."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 290.] + +To President Adams Washington replied on July 4, 1799: "As my whole +life has been dedicated to my country in one shape or another, for the +poor remains of it, it is not an object to contend for ease and quiet, +when all that is valuable is at stake, further than to be satisfied +that the sacrifice I should make of these, is acceptable and desired +by my country."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., 291.] + +Congress voted to restore for Washington the rank of +Commander-in-Chief, and he agreed with the Secretary of War that the +three Major-Generals should be Alexander Hamilton, Inspector-General; +Charles C. Pinckney, who was still in Europe; and Henry Knox. But a +change came over the passions of France; Napoleon Bonaparte, the new +despot who had taken control of that hysterical republic for himself, +was now aspiring to something higher and larger than the humiliation +of the United States and his menace in that direction ceased. + +We need to note two or three events before Washington's term ended +because they were thoroughly characteristic. First of these was the +Whiskey Insurrection in western Pennsylvania. The inhabitants first +grew surly, then broke out in insurrection on account of the Excise +Law. They found it cheaper to convert their corn and grain into +whiskey, which could be more easily transported, but the Government +insisted that the Excise Law, being a law, should be obeyed. The +malcontents held a great mass meeting on Braddock's Field, denounced +the law and declared that they would not obey it. Washington issued a +proclamation calling upon the people to resume their peaceable life. +He called also on the Governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New +Jersey, and Virginia for troops, which they furnished. His right-hand +lieutenant was Alexander Hamilton, who felt quite as keenly as he +did himself the importance of putting down such an insurrection. +Washington knew that if any body of the people were allowed unpunished +to rise and disobey any law which pinched or irritated them, all law +and order would very soon go by the board. His action was one of the +great examples in government which he set the people of the United +States. He showed that we must never parley or haggle with sedition, +treason, or lawlessness, but must strike a blow that cannot be +parried, and at once. The Whiskey Insurrectionists may have imagined +that they were too remote to be reached in their western wilderness, +but he taught them a most salutary lesson that, as they were in the +Union, the power of the Union could and would reach them. + +One of the matters which Washington could not have foreseen was the +outrageous abuse of the press, which surpassed in virulence and +indecency anything hitherto known in the United States. At first the +journalistic thugs took care not to vilify Washington personally, +but, as they became more outrageous, they spared neither him nor his +family. Freneau, Bache, and Giles were among the most malignant of +these infamous men; and most suspicious is it that two of them at +least were protégés of Thomas Jefferson. Once, when the attack was +particularly atrocious, and the average citizen might well be excused +if he believed that Jefferson wrote it, Jefferson, unmindful of the +full bearing of the French proverb, _Qui s'excuse s'accuse_, wrote +to Washington exculpating himself and protesting that he was not the +author of that particular attack, and added that he had never written +any article of that kind for the press. Many years later the editor of +that newspaper, one of the most shameless of the malignants, calmly +reported in a batch of reminiscences that Jefferson did contribute +many of the most flagrant articles. Senator Lodge, in commenting +on this affair, caustically remarks: "Strict veracity was not the +strongest characteristic of either Freneau or Jefferson, and it is +really of but little consequence whether Freneau was lying in his old +age or in the prime of life."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 223.] + +An unbiassed searcher after truth to-day will find that the +circumstantial evidence runs very strongly against Jefferson. He +brought Freneau over from New York to Philadelphia, he knew the sort +of work that Freneau would and could do, he gave him an office in the +State Department, he probably discussed the topics which the "National +Gazette" was to take up, and he probably read the proof of the +articles which that paper was to publish. In his animosities the cloak +of charity neither became him nor fitted him. + +Several years later, when Bache's paper, the "Aurora," printed some +material which Washington's enemies hoped would damage him, Jefferson +again took alarm and wrote to Washington to free himself from blame. +To him, the magnanimous President replied in part: + + If I had entertained any suspicions before, that the queries, + which have been published in Bache's paper, proceeded from you, + the assurances you have given of the contrary would have removed + them; but the truth is, I harbored none. I am at no loss to + _conjecture_ from what source they flowed, through what channel + they were conveyed, and for what purpose they and similar + publications appear. They were known to be in the hands of Mr. + Parker in the early part of the last session of Congress. They + were shown about by Mr. Giles during the session, and they made + their public exhibition about the close of it. + + Perceiving and probably hearing, that no abuse in the gazettes + would induce me to take notice of anonymous publications against + me, those, who were disposed to do me _such friendly offices_, + have embraced without restraint every opportunity to weaken the + confidence of the people; and, by having the whole game in their + hands, they have scrupled not to publish things that do not, as + well as those which do exist, and to mutilate the latter, so as to + make them subserve the purposes which they have in view.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIII, 229.] + +Washington's opinion of the scurrilous crusade against him, he +expressed in the following letter to Henry Lee: + + But in what will this abuse terminate? For the result, as it + respects myself, I care not; for I have a consolation within that + no earthly efforts can deprive me of, and that is, that neither + ambition 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 up as a mark, they will be continually aimed. The publications + in Freneau's and Bache's papers are outrages 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. The tendency + of them, however, is too obvious to be mistaken by men of cool + and dispassionate minds, and, in my opinion, ought to alarm them, + because it is difficult to prescribe bounds to the effect.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 236.] + +By his refusal to take notice of these indecencies, Washington set a +high example. In other countries, in France and England, for example, +the victims of such abuse resorted to duels with their abusers: a very +foolish and inadequate practice, since it happened as often as not +that the aggrieved person was killed. In taking no notice of the +calumnies, therefore, Washington prevented the President of the United +States from being drawn into an unseemly duel. We cannot fail to +recognize also that Washington was very sensitive to the maintenance +of freedom of speech. He seems to have acted on the belief that it was +better that occasionally license should degenerate into abuse than +that liberty should be suppressed. He was the President of the first +government in the world which did not control the utterances of its +people. Perhaps he may have supposed that their patriotism would +restrain them from excesses, and there can be no doubt that the insane +gibes of the Freneaus and the Baches gave him much pain because they +proved that those scorpions were not up to the level which the new +Nation offered them. + +As the time for the conclusion of Washington's second term drew near, +he left no doubt as to his intentions. Though some of his best friends +urged him to stand for reëlection, he firmly declined. He felt that he +had done enough for his country in sacrificing the last eight years to +it. He had seen it through its formative period, and had, he thought, +steered it into clear, quiet water, so that there was no threatening +danger to demand his continuance at the helm. Many persons thought +that he was more than glad to be relieved of the increasing abuse of +the scurrilous editors. No doubt he was, but we can hardly agree that +merely for the sake of that relief he would abandon his Presidential +post. But does it not seem more likely that his unwillingness to +convert the Presidency into a life office, and so to give the critics +of the American experiment a valid cause for opposition, led him to +establish the precedent that two terms were enough? More than once in +the century and a quarter since he retired in 1797, over-ambitious +Presidents have schemed to win a third election and flattering +sycophants have encouraged them to believe that they could attain it. +But before they came to the test Washington's example--"no more than +two"--has blocked their advance. In this respect also we must admit +that he looked far into the future and saw what would be best for +posterity. The second term as it has proved is bad enough, diverting +a President during his first term to devote much of his energy and +attention to setting traps to secure the second. It might be better +to have only one term to last six years, instead of four, which would +enable a President to give all his time to the duties of his office, +instead of giving a large part of it to the chase after a reëlection. + +As soon as Washington determined irrevocably to retire, he began +thinking of the "Farewell Address" which he desired to deliver to his +countrymen as the best legacy he could bequeath. Several years before +he had talked it over with Madison, with whom he was then on very +friendly terms, and Madison had drafted a good deal of it. Now he +turned to Hamilton, giving him the topics as far as they had been +outlined, and bidding him to rewrite it if he thought it desirable. In +September, 1796, Washington read the "Address" before the assembled +Congress. + +The "Farewell Address" belongs among the few supreme utterances on +human government. Its author seems to be completely detached from all +personal or local interests. He tries to see the thing as it is, and +as it is likely to be in its American environment. His advice applies +directly to the American people, and only in so far as what he says +has in a large sense human pertinence do we find in it more than a +local application. + +"Be united" is the summary and inspiration of the entire "Address." +"Be united and be American"; as an individual each person must feel +himself most strongly an American. He urges against the poisonous +effects of parties. He warns against the evils that may arise when +parties choose different foreign nations for their favorites. + + The great rule of conduct for us [he says] in regard to foreign + Nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with + them as little _Political_ connection as possible. So far as + we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with + perfect good faith. Here let us stop. + + Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or + a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent + controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our + concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate + ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her + politics, ... or enmities. + + Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to + pursue a different course. If we remain one People, under an + efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may defy + material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an + attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve + upon to be scrupulously respected. When belligerent nations, under + the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly + hazard the giving us provocation when we may choose peace or war, + as our interest guided by justice shall counsel. + + Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our + own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny + with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity + in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour or + caprice? + +Compared with Machiavelli's "Prince," which must come to the mind of +every one who reads the "Farewell Address," one sees at once that the +"Prince" is more limber, it may be more spontaneous, but the great +difference between the two is in their fundamental conception. The +"Address" is frankly a preachment and much of its impressiveness comes +from that fact. The "Prince," on the other hand, has little concern +with the moral aspect of politics discussed and makes no pretence of +condemning immoral practices or making itself a champion of virtue. In +other words, Washington addresses an audience which had passed through +the Puritan Revolution, while Machiavelli spoke to men who were +familiar with the ideals and crimes of the Italian Renaissance. + +Washington spread his gospel so clearly that all persons were sure to +learn and inwardly digest it, and many of them assented to it in their +minds, although they did not follow it In their conduct. His paramount +exhortations--"Be united"--"Be Americans"; "do not be drawn into +complications with foreign powers"--at times had a very real living +pertinence. The only doctrine which still causes controversy is that +which touches our attitude towards foreign countries. During the late +World War we heard it revived, and a great many persons who had never +read the "Farewell Address" gravely reminded us of Washington's +warning against "entangling alliances." As a matter of fact, that +phrase does not appear in the "Farewell Address" at all. It was first +used by Thomas Jefferson in his first Inaugural Address, March 4, +1801, sixteen months after Washington was dead and buried. No doubt +the meaning could be deduced from what Washington said in more than +one passage of his "Farewell." But to understand in 1914 what he said +or implied in 1796, we must be historical. In 1796 the country was +torn by conflicting parties for and against strong friendship, if not +an actual alliance, between the United States on one side and Great +Britain or France on the other. Any foreign alliance that could be +made in 1914, however, could not have been, for the same reason, with +either Great Britain or France. The aim proposed by its advocates was +to curb and destroy the German domination of the world. Now Washington +was almost if not quite the most actual of modern statesmen. All +his arrangements at a given moment were directed at the needs and +likelihood of the moment, and in 1914 he would have planned as 1914 +demanded. He would have steered his ship by the wind that blew then +and not by the wind that had blown and vanished one hundred and twenty +years before. + +Some one has remarked that, while Washington achieved a great victory +in the ratification of the Jay Treaty, that event broke up the +Federalist Party. That is probably inexact, but the break-up of +the Federalist Party was taking place during the last years of +Washington's second administration. The changes in Washington's +Cabinet were most significant, especially as they nearly all meant the +change from a more important to a less important Secretary. Thus +John Jay, the first Secretary of State, really only an incumbent _ad +interim_, gave way to Thomas Jefferson, who was replaced by Edmund +Randolph in 1794, and who in turn was succeeded by Timothy Pickering +in 1795. Alexander Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury from the +beginning in 1789 to 1795, when he made way for Oliver Wolcott, Jr. +Henry Knox, the original Secretary of War, was succeeded by Timothy +Pickering in 1795, who, after less than a year, was followed by James +McHenry. Edmund Randolph served as Attorney-General in 1789 to 1794, +then retiring for William Bradford who, after a brief year, was +replaced by Charles Lee. The Postmaster-Generalship was filled from +1789 to 1791 by Samuel Osgood, and then by Timothy Pickering. Thus at +the end of Washington's eight years we find that in the place of two +really eminent men, like Jefferson and Hamilton, he was served by +Edmund Randolph and Oliver Wolcott, Jr., and James McHenry, good +routine men at the best, mediocrities if judged by comparison with +their predecessors. Moreover, the reputation for discretion of some +of them, suffered. Thus Randolph had not long been Secretary of State +when Joseph Fauchet, the French Minister, produced some papers which +could be construed as implying that Randolph had accepted money. +Randolph was known to be impecunious, but his personal honor had never +been suspected. Washington with characteristic candor sent Randolph +the batch of incriminating letters. Randolph protested that he +"forgave" the President and tried to exculpate himself in the +newspapers. Even that process of deflation did not suffice and he +had recourse to a "Vindication," which was read by few and popularly +believed to vindicate nobody. Washington is believed to have held +Randolph as guiltless, but as weak and as indiscreet. He pitied the +ignominy, for Randolph had been in a way Washington's protégé, whose +career had much interested him and whose downfall for such a cause was +doubly poignant. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CONCLUSION + + +Washington's term as President ended at noon on March 4, 1797. He was +present at the inauguration of President John Adams which immediately +followed. On the 3d, besides attending to the final necessary routine, +he wrote several letters of farewell to his immediate friends, +including Henry Knox, Jonathan Trumbull, Timothy Pickering, and James +McHenry. To all he expressed his grief at personal parting, but also +immense relief and happiness in concluding his public career. He said, +for instance, in his letter to Trumbull: + + Although I shall resign the chair of government without a single + regret, or any desire to intermeddle in politics again, yet there + are many of my compatriots, among whom be assured I place you, + from whom I shall part sorrowing; because, unless I meet with them + at Mount Vernon, it is not likely that I shall ever see them more, + as I do not expect that I shall ever be twenty miles from it, + after I am tranquilly settled there. To tell you how glad I should + be to see you at that place is unnecessary. To this I will add + that it would not only give me pleasure, but pleasure also to Mrs. + Washington, and others of the family with whom you are acquainted, + and who all unite, in every good wish for you and yours.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIII, 377.] + +In a few days he returned to Mount Vernon and there indulged himself +in a leisurely survey of the plantation. He rode from one farm to +another and reacquainted himself with the localities where the various +crops were either already springing or would soon be. Indoors there +was an immense volume of correspondence to be attended to with the +aid of Tobias Lear, the faithful secretary who had lived with the +President during the New York and Philadelphia periods. When the +letters were sorted, many answers had to be written, some of which +Washington dictated and others he wrote with his own hand. He admits +to Secretary McHenry that, when he goes to his writing table to +acknowledge the letters he has received, when the lights are brought, +he feels tired and disinclined to do this work, conceiving that the +next night will do as well. "The next night comes," he adds, "and with +it the same causes for postponement, and so on." He has not had time +to look into a book. He is dazed by the incessant number of new faces +which appear at Mount Vernon. They come, he says, out of "respect" +for him, but their real reason is curiosity. He practises Virginian +hospitality very lavishly, but he cannot endure the late hours. So he +invites his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, to spend as much time as he can +at Mount Vernon while he himself and Mrs. Washington go to bed early, +"soon after candle light." Lewis accepted the invitation all the more +willingly because he found at the mansion Nelly Custis, a pretty and +sprightly young lady with whom he promptly fell in love and married +later. Nelly and her brother George had been adopted by Washington +and brought up in the family. She was his particular pet. Like other +mature men he found the boys of the younger generation somewhat +embarrassing. I suppose they felt, as well they might, a great and +awful gulf yawning between them. "I can govern men," he would say, +"but I cannot govern boys."[1] With Nelly Custis, however, he found it +easy to be chums. No one can forget the mock-serious letter in which +he wrote to her in regard to becoming engaged and gave her advice +about falling in love. The letter is unexpected and yet it bears every +mark of sincerity and reveals a genuine vein in his nature. We must +always think of Nelly as one of the refreshments of his older life and +as one of its great delights. He considered himself an old man now. +His hair no longer needed powder; years and cares had made it white. +He spoke of himself without affectation as a very old man, and +apparently he often thought, as he was engaged in some work, "this is +the last time I shall do this." He seems to have taken it for granted +that he was not to live long; but this neither slackened his industry +nor made him gloomy. And he had in truth spent a life of almost +unremitting laboriousness. Those early years as surveyor and Indian +fighter and pathfinder were years of great hardships. The eight years +of the Revolution were a continuous physical strain, an unending +responsibility, and sometimes a bodily deprivation. And finally his +last service as President had brought him disgusts, pinpricks which +probably wore more on his spirits than did the direct blows of his +opponents. Very likely he felt old in his heart of hearts, much older +than his superb physical form betokened. We cannot but rejoice that +Nelly Custis flashed some of the joyfulness and divine insouciance of +youth into the tired heart of the tired great man. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 277.] + +Perhaps the best offhand description of Washington in these later days +is that given by an English actor, Bernard, who happened to be driving +near Mount Vernon when a carriage containing a man and a woman was +upset. Bernard dismounted to give help, and presently another rider +came up and joined in the work. "He was a tall, erect, well-made man, +evidently advanced in years, but who appeared to have retained all the +vigor and elasticity resulting from a life of temperance and exercise. +His dress was a blue coat buttoned to the chin, and buckskin +breeches."[1] They righted the chaise, harnessed the horse, and +revived the young woman who, true to her time and place, had fainted. +Then she and her companion drove off towards Alexandria. Washington +invited Bernard to come home with him and rest during the heat of the +day. The actor consented. From what the actor subsequently wrote about +that chance meeting I take the following paragraphs, some of which +strike to the quick: + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 277.] + + In conversation his face had not much variety of expression. A + look of thoughtfulness was given by the compression of the mouth + and the indentations of the brow (suggesting an habitual conflict + with, and mastery over, passion), which did not seem so much + to disdain a sympathy with trivialities as to be incapable of + denoting them. Nor had his voice, so far as I could discover in + our quiet talk, much change or richness of intonation, but he + always spoke with earnestness, and his eyes (glorious conductors + of the light within) burned with a steady fire which no one could + mistake for mere affability; they were one grand expression of the + well-known line: "I am a man, and interested in all that concerns + humanity." In one hour and a half's conversation he touched on + every topic that I brought before him with an even current of good + sense, if he embellished it with little wit or verbal elegance. He + spoke like a man who had felt as much as he had reflected, more + than he had spoken; like one who had looked upon society rather in + the mass than in detail, and who regarded the happiness of America + but as the first link in a series of universal victories; for his + full faith in the power of those results of civil liberty which + he saw all around him led him to foresee that it would erelong, + prevail in other countries and that the social millennium of + Europe would usher in the political. When I mentioned to him the + difference I perceived between the inhabitants of New England + and of the Southern States, he remarked: "I esteem those people + greatly, they are the stamina of the Union and its greatest + benefactors. They are continually spreading themselves too, to + settle and enlighten less favored quarters. Dr. Franklin is a New + Englander." When I remarked that his observations were flattering + to my country, he replied, with great good humor, "Yes, yes, + Mr. Bernard, but I consider your country the cradle of free + principles, not their armchair. Liberty in England is a sort of + idol; people are bred up in the belief and love of it, but see + little of its doings. They walk about freely, but then it is + between high walls; and the error of its government was in + supposing that after a portion of their subjects had crossed the + sea to live upon a common, they would permit their friends at home + to build up those walls about them."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 338, 339.] + +We find among the allusions of several strangers who travelled in +Virginia in Washington's later days, who saw him or perhaps even +stayed at Mount Vernon, some which are not complimentary. More than +one story implies that he was a hard taskmaster, not only with the +negroes, but with the whites. Some of the writers go out of their way +to pick up unpleasant things. For instance, during his absence from +home a mason plastered some of the rooms, and when Washington returned +he found the work had been badly done, and remonstrated. The mason +died. His widow married another mason, who advertised that he would +pay all claims against his forerunner. Thereupon Washington put in a +claim for fifteen shillings, which was paid. Washington's detractors +used this as a strong proof of his harshness. But they do not inform +us whether the man was unable to pay, or whether the claim was +dishonest. Since the man paid voluntarily and did not question the +lightness of the amount, may we not at least infer that he had no +quarrel? And if he had not, who else had? + +Insinuations concerning Washington's lack of sympathy for his slaves +was a form which in later days most of the references to his care of +them took. But here also there are evident facts to be taken into +account. The Abolitionists very naturally were prejudiced against +every slave-owner; they were also prejudiced in favor of every slave. +Washington, on the contrary, harbored no prepossessions for or against +the black man. He found the slaves idle, incompetent, lazy, although +he would not have denied that the very fact of slavery caused and +increased these evils. He treated the negroes justly, but without any +sentimentality. He found them in the order in which he lived. They +were the workmen of his plantation; he provided them with food, +clothing, and a lodging; in return they were expected to give him +their labor. It does not appear that the slaves on Washington's +plantation endured any special hardship. A physician attended them at +their master's expense when they were sick. That he obliged them to +do their specified work, that he punished them in case of dishonesty, +just as he would have done to white workmen, were facts which he never +would have thought a rational person would have regarded as heinous. +In his will he freed his slaves, not for the Abolitionist's reason, +but because he regarded slavery as the most pernicious form of labor, +debasing alike the slave and his master, uneconomic and most wasteful. + +But in so general a matter as Washington's treatment of his slaves, we +must be careful not to take a solitary case and argue from it as if it +were habitual. By common report his slaves were so well treated that +they regretted it if there was talk of transferring them to other +planters. We have many instances cited which show his unusual +kindness. When he found, for instance, that a mulatto woman, who had +lived many years with one of the negroes, had been transferred to +another part of his domain and that the negro pined for her, he +arranged to have her brought back so that they might pass their old +age together. The old negro was his servant, Billy Lee, who suffered +an accident to his knee, which made him a cripple for the rest of +his life. This he spent at Mount Vernon well cared for. Washington +continued to the end the old custom of supplying a hogshead of rum for +the negroes to drink at harvest time, always premising that they must +partake of it sparingly. + +Washington's religious beliefs and practices have also occasioned much +controversy. If we accept his own statements at their plain value, we +must regard him as a Church of England man. I do not discover that he +was in any sense an ardent believer. He preferred to say "Providence" +rather than "God," probably because it was less definite. He attended +divine service on Sundays, whenever a church was near, but for +a considerable period at one part of his life he did not attend +communion. He thoroughly believed in the good which came from +church-going in the army and he always arranged to have a service on +Sundays during his campaigns. When at Mount Vernon, on days when +he did not go out to the service, he spent several hours alone in +meditation in his study. The religious precepts which he had been +taught in childhood remained strong in him through life. He believed +moral truths, and belief with him meant putting in practice what he +professed. While he had imbibed much of the deistic spirit of the +middle of the eighteenth century it would be inaccurate to infer that +he was not fundamentally a Christian. + +After Washington withdrew to Mount Vernon, early in the spring of +1797, his time was chiefly devoted to agriculture and the renewing of +his life as a planter. He declined all public undertakings except that +which President Adams begged him to assume--the supreme command of +the army in case of the expected war with France. That new duty +undoubtedly was good for him, for it proved to him that at least all +his official relations with the Government had not ceased, and it also +served to cheer the people of the country to know that in case of +military trouble their old commander would lead them once more. +Washington gave so much attention to this work, which could be in the +earlier stages arranged at Mount Vernon, that he felt justified in +accepting part of the salary which the President allotted to him. But +the war did not come. As Washington prophesied, the French thought +better of their truculence. The new genius who was ruling France +had in mind something more grandiose than a war with the American +Republic. + +On December 10, 1799, Washington sent a long letter to James Anderson +in regard to agricultural plans for his farm during the year 1800. He +calculates closely the probable profits, and specifies the rotation of +crops on five hundred and twenty-five acres. The next day, December +12th, he wrote a short note to Alexander Hamilton, in regard to the +organization of a National Military Academy, a matter in which the +President had long been deeply interested. The day was stormy. +"Morning snowing and about three inches drop. Wind at Northeast, and +mercury at 30. Continued snowing till one o'clock, and about four it +became perfectly clear. Wind in the same place, but not hard. Mercury +28 at night." Washington, who scorned to take any account of weather, +rode for five hours during the morning to several of the farms on his +plantations, examining the conditions at each and conferring with the +overseers. + +On reaching home he complained a little of chilliness. His secretary, +Tobias Lear, observed that he feared he had got wet, but Washington +protested that his greatcoat had kept him dry; in spite of which the +observant Lear saw snow hanging to his hair and remarked that his neck +was wet. Washington went in to dinner, which was waiting, without +changing his dress, as he usually did. "In the evening he appeared as +well as usual. The next day, Friday, there was a heavy fall of snow, +but having a severe cold, he went out for only a little while to mark +some trees, between the house and the river which were to be cut down. +During the day his hoarseness increased, but he made light of it, and +paid no heed to the suggestion that he should take something for it, +only replying, as was his custom, that he would 'let it go as it +came.'" + +Mrs. Washington went upstairs to a room on the floor above to chat +with Mrs. Lewis (Nelly Custis) who had recently been confined. +Washington remained in the parlor with Lear, and when the evening +mail was brought in from the post-office, they read the newspapers; +Washington even reading aloud, as well as his sore throat would allow, +anything "which he thought diverting or interesting." Then Lear read +the debates of the Virginia Assembly on the election of a Senator +and Governor. "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," says Lear, +"as I always did on such occasions. On his returning to bed, he +appeared to be in perfect health, excepting the cold before mentioned, +which he considered as trifling, and had been remarkably cheerful all +the evening." + +At between two and three o'clock of Saturday morning, December 14th, +Washington awoke Mrs. Washington and told her that he was very unwell +and had had an ague. She observed that he could hardly speak and +breathed with difficulty. She wished to get up to call a servant, +but he, fearing she might take cold, dissuaded her. When daylight +appeared, the woman Caroline came and lighted the fire. Mrs. +Washington sent her to summon Mr. Lear, and Washington asked that Mr. +Rawlins, one of the overseers, should be summoned before the Doctor +could arrive. Lear got up at once, dressed hastily, and went to the +General's bedside. Lear wrote a letter to Dr. Craik, Washington's +longtime friend and physician, and sent it off post-haste by a +servant. Mrs. Washington was up. They prepared a mixture of molasses, +vinegar, and butter, but the patient could not swallow a drop; +whenever he attempted it he appeared to be distressed, convulsed, and +almost suffocated. + +"Mr. Rawlins came in soon after sunrise and prepared to bleed him. +When the arm was ready, the General, observing that Rawlins appeared +to be agitated, said, as well as he could speak, 'Don't be afraid,' +and after the incision was made, he observed, 'The orifice is not +large enough,' However, the blood ran pretty freely. Mrs. Washington, +not knowing whether bleeding was proper or not in the General's +situation, begged that much might not be taken from him, lest it +should be injurious, and desired me to stop it; but when I was about +to untie the string, the General put up his hand to prevent it, and as +soon as he could speak, he said, 'More.' Mrs. Washington being still +very uneasy, lest too much blood should be taken, it was stopped after +about half a pint was taken from him. + +"Finding that no relief was obtained from bleeding, and that nothing +would go down the throat, I proposed bathing the throat externally +with salvolatile which was done; during the operation, which was with +the hand, in the gentlest manner, he observed, ''Tis very sore.' A +piece of flannel dipped in salvolatile was then put round his neck. +His feet were also bathed in warm water. This, however, gave no +relief. In the meantime, before Dr. Craik arrived, Mrs. Washington +requested me to send for Dr. Brown, of Port Tobacco, whom Dr. Craik +had recommended to be called, if any case should ever occur that was +seriously alarming. I despatched a Messenger (Cyrus) to Dr. Brown +immediately (between eight and nine o'clock). Dr. Craik came in soon +after, and after examining the General, he put a blister of Cantharide +on the throat and took some more blood from him, and had some Vinegar +and hot water put into a Teapot for the General to draw in the steam +from the nozel, which he did as well as he was able. He also ordered +sage tea and Vinegar to be mixed for a Gargle. This the General used +as often as desired; but when he held back his head to let it run +down, it put him into great distress and almost produced suffocation. +When the mixture came out of his mouth some phlegm followed it, and he +would attempt to cough, which the Doctor encouraged him to do as much +as he could; but without effect--he could only make the attempt. + +"About eleven o'clock, Dr. Dick was sent for. Dr. Craik requested that +Dr. Dick might be sent for, as he feared Dr. Brown would not come in +time. A message was accordingly despatched for him. Dr. Craik bled the +General again about this time. No effect, however, was produced by it, +and he continued in the same state, unable to swallow anything. Dr. +Dick came in about three o'clock, and Dr. Brown arrived soon after. +Upon Dr. Dick's seeing the General, and consulting a few minutes with +Dr. Craik, he was bled gain, the blood ran very slowly and did not +produce any symptoms of fainting. Dr. Brown came Into the chamber room +soon after, and upon feeling the General's pulse &c., the Physicians +went out together. Dr. Craik soon after returned. The General could +now swallow a little--about four o'clock Calomel and tartar emetic +were administered; but without any effect. About half past four +o'clock, he desired me to ask Mrs. Washington to come to his +bedside--when he requested her to go down into his room and take from +his desk two wills which she would find there, and bring them to him, +which she did. Upon looking at them he gave her one, which he observed +was useless, as it was superseded by the other, and desired her to +burn it, which she did, and then took the other and put it away into +her closet. After this was done, I returned again to his bedside and +took his hand. He said to me, 'I find I am going, my breath cannot +continue long; I believed from the first attack it would be +fatal--do you arrange and record all my late military letters and +papers--arrange my accounts and settle my books, as you know more +about them than any one else, and let Mr. Rawlins finish recording my +other letters.' He then asked if I recollected anything which it was +essential for him to do, as he had but a very short time to continue +with us. I told him that I could recollect nothing, but that I hoped +he was not so near his end. He observed, smiling, that he certainly +was, and that, as it was the debt which we all must pay, he looked to +the event with perfect resignation. + +"In the course of the afternoon he appeared to be in great pain and +distress, from the difficulty of breathing, and frequently changed +his posture in the bed. On these occasions 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'; and upon my +answering him, that I could feel nothing but a wish to give him ease, +he replied, 'Well, it is a debt we must pay to each other, and I hope, +when you want aid of this kind, you will find it.' He asked when Mr. +Lewis and Washington[1] would return. They were then in New Kent. I +told him I believed about the 20th of the month. He made no reply. + +[Footnote 1: George Washington Parke Custis.] + +"About five o'clock Dr. Craik came again into the room, and upon going +to the bedside the General said to him: 'Doctor, I die hard, but I am +not afraid to go. I believed, from my first attack, that I should not +survive it. My breath cannot last long.' The Doctor pressed his hand, +but could not utter a word. He retired from the bedside, and sat by +the fire absorbed in grief. The physicians, Dr. Dick and Dr. Brown, +again came in (between five and six o'clock), and when they came to +his bedside, Dr. Craik asked him if he could sit up in the bed. +He held out his hand to me and was raised up, when he said to the +Physicians: '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; I cannot last long,' They found out that all which had been +done was of no effect. He lay down again, and all retired except Dr. +Craik. He continued in the same position, uneasy and restless, but +without complaining; frequently asking what hour it was. When I helped +to move him at this, he did not speak, but looked at me with strong +expressions of gratitude. The Doctor pressed his hand, but could +not utter a word. He retired from the bedside, and sat by the fire +absorbed in grief. About eight o'clock the Physicians came again into +the Room and applied blisters, and cataplasms of wheat bran, to his +legs and feet: but went out (except Dr. Craik) without a ray of hope. +I went out about this time, and wrote a line to Mr. Low and Mr. +Peter requesting them to come with their wives (Mrs. Washington's +granddaughters) as soon as possible. + +"From this time he appeared to breathe with less difficulty than he +had done; but was very restless, constantly changing his position to +endeavor to get ease. I aided him all in my power, and was gratified +in believing he felt it: for he would look upon me with his eyes +speaking gratitude; but unable to utter a word without great distress. +About ten o'clock he made several attempts to speak to me before +he could effect it. At length, he said: 'I am just going. Have me +decently buried, and do not let my body be put into the Vault in less +than three days after I am dead.' I bowed assent, for I could not +speak. He then looked at me again, and said, 'Do you understand me?' I +replied, 'Yes, sir.' + +"''Tis well,' said he. About ten minutes before he expired his +breathing became much easier; he lay quietly; he withdrew his hand +from mine and felt his own pulse. I spoke to Dr. Craik who sat by the +fire; he came to the bedside. The General's hand fell from his wrist. +I took it in mine and laid it upon my breast. Dr. Craik put his hand +on his eyes and he expired without a struggle or a Sigh! While we were +fixed in silent grief, Mrs. Washington, who was sitting at the foot of +the bed, asked, with a firm and collected voice, 'Is he gone?' I could +not speak, but held up my hand as a signal that he was. ''Tis well,' +said she in a plain voice. 'All is now over. I have no more trials to +pass through. I shall soon follow him.'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIV, 246-52. I have copied Tobias Lear's remarkable +account of Washington's death almost verbatim.] + +Once read, honest Tobias Lear's account of Washington's death will +hardly be forgotten. It has a majestic simplicity which we feel must +have accompanied Washington in his last hours. The homely sick-bed +details; his grim fortitude; his willingness to do everything which +the physicians recommended, not because he wanted to live, nor because +he thought they would help him, but because he wished to obey. We see +him there trying to force out the painful words from his constricted +throat and when he was unable to whisper even a "thank you" for some +service done, Lear read the unuttered gratitude in his eyes. The +faithful Lear, lying on the outside of the bed in order to be able to +help turn Washington with less pain, and poor old Dr. Craik, lifelong +friend, who became too moved to speak, so that he sat off near the +fire in silence except for a stifled sob, and Mrs. Washington, placed +near the foot of the bed, waiting patiently in complete self-control. +She seemed to have determined that the last look which her mate of +forty years had of her should not portray helpless grief. And from +time to time the negro slaves came to the door that led into the entry +and they peered into the room very reverently, and with their emotions +held in check, at their dying master. And then there was a ceasing of +the pain and the breathing became easier and quieter and Dr. Craik +placed his hand over the life-tired eyes and Washington was dead +without a struggle or even a sigh. + +The pathos or tragedy of it lies in the fact that all the devices and +experiments of the doctors could avail nothing. The quinsy sore throat +which killed him could not be cured by any means then known to medical +art. The practice of bleeding, which by many persons was thought to +have killed him, was then so widely used that his doctors would have +been censured If they had omitted it. Sixty years later it was still +in use, and no one can doubt that it deprived Italy's great statesman +of his chance of living. The premonition of Washington on his first +seizure with the quinsy that the end had come proved fatally true. + +The news of Washington's death did not reach the capital until +Wednesday, December 18th. The House immediately adjourned. On the +following day, when it reassembled, John Marshall delivered a brief +tribute and resolutions were passed to attend the funeral and to pay +honor "to the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace, and +first in the hearts of his countrymen," The immortal phrase was by +Colonel Henry Lee, the father of General Robert E. Lee. President +Adams, in response to a letter from the Senate of the United States, +used the less happy phrase, "If a Trajan found a Pliny, a Marcus +Aurelius can never want biographers, eulogists, or historians." + +During the days immediately following Washington's death, preparations +were made at Mount Vernon for the funeral. They sent to Alexandria for +a coffin and Dr. Dick measured the body, which he found to be exactly +six feet three and one half inches in length. The family vault was +on the slope of the hill, a little to the south of the house. Mrs. +Washington desired that a door should be made for the vault instead of +having it closed up as formerly, after the body should be deposited, +observing that "it will soon be necessary to open it again." Mourning +clothes were prepared for the family and servants. The ceremony took +place on Wednesday. There were many troops. Eleven pieces of artillery +were brought down from Alexandria and a schooner belonging to Mr. R. +Hamilton came down and lay off Mount Vernon to fire minute guns. +The pall-holders were Colonels Little, Charles Sims, Payne, Gilpin, +Ramsay, and Marsteller, and Colonel Blackburne walked before the +corpse. Colonel Deneal marched with the military. About three o'clock +the procession began to move. Colonels Little, Sims and Deneal and +Dr. Dick directed the arrangements of the procession. This moved out +through the gate at the left wing of the house and proceeded around +in front of the lawn and down to the vault on the right wing of the +house. The procession was as follows: The troops; horse and foot; +music playing a solemn dirge with muffled drums; the clergy, viz.: +the Reverends Mr. Davis, Mr. James Miner, and Mr. Moffatt, and Mr. +Addison; the General's horse, with his saddle, holsters, and pistols, +led by two grooms, Cyrus and Wilson, in black; the body borne by +officers and Masons who insisted upon carrying it to the grave; the +principal mourners, viz.: Mrs. Stuart and Mrs. Low, Misses Nancy and +Sally Stuart, Miss Fairfax, and Miss Dennison, Mr. Low and Mr. Peter, +Dr. Craik and T. Lear; Lord Fairfax and Ferdinando Fairfax; Lodge No. +23; Corporation of Alexandria. All other persons, preceded by Mr. +Anderson, Mr. Rawlins, the Overseers, etc., etc. + +The Reverend Mr. Davis read the service and made a short extempore +speech. The Masons performed their ceremonies and the body was +deposited in the vault. All then returned to the house and partook +of some refreshment, and dispersed with the greatest good order and +regularity. The remains of the provisions were distributed among +the blacks. Mr. Peter, Dr. Craik, and Dr. Thornton tarried here all +night.[1] + +[Footnote 1: From notes by T. Lear, Ford, XIV, 254-55.] + +The Committee appointed by Congress to plan a suitable memorial +for Washington proposed a monument to be erected in the city of +Washington, to be adorned with statuary symbolizing his career as +General and as President, and containing a tomb for himself and for +Mrs. Washington. The latter replied to President Adams that "taught by +the great example which I have so long had before me, never to oppose +my private wishes to the public will, I must consent to the request +made by Congress, which you have had the goodness to transmit me, +and in doing this, I need not say, I cannot say, what a sacrifice of +individual feeling I make to a sense of public duty." The intended +monument at the capital was never erected. Martha Washington lies +beside her husband where she wished to be, in the family vault at +Mount Vernon. From her chamber window in the upper story of the Mount +Vernon house she could look across the field to the vault. She died +in 1802, a woman of rare discretion and good sense who, during forty +years, proved herself the worthiest companion of the founder of his +country. + +I have wished to write this biography of George Washington so that +it would explain itself. There is no need of eulogy. All eulogy is +superfluous. We see the young Virginia boy, born in aristocratic +conditions, with but a meagre education, but trained by the sports and +rural occupations of his home in perfect manliness, in courage, in +self-reliance, in resourcefulness. Some one instilled into him moral +precepts which fastened upon his young conscience and would not let +him go. At twenty he was physically a young giant capable of enduring +any hardship and of meeting any foe. He ran his surveyor's chain far +into the wilderness to the west of Mount Vernon. When hardly a man +in age, the State of Virginia knew of his qualities and made him +an officer in its militia. At only twenty-three he was invited to +accompany General Braddock's staff, but neither he nor angels from +heaven could prevent Braddock from plunging with typical British +bull-headedness into the fatal Indian ambush. He gave up border +warfare, but did not cease to condemn the inadequacy of the Virginia +military equipment and its training. He devoted himself to the +pursuits of a large planter, and on being elected a Burgess, he +attended regularly the sessions at Williamsburg. Wild conditions which +in his boyhood had reached almost to Fauquier County, had drifted +rapidly westward. Within less than ten years of Braddock's defeat, +Fort Duquesne had become permanently English and the name of +Pittsburgh reminded men of the great British statesman who had urged +on the fateful British encroachment on the Ohio River. For Washington +in person, the lasting effect of the early training and fighting in +western Pennsylvania was that it gave him direct knowledge of the +Indian and his ways, and that it turned his imagination to thinking +out the problem of developing the Middle West, and of keeping the +connections between the East and the West strong and open. + +In the House of Burgesses Washington was a taciturn member, yet he +seemed to have got a great deal of political knowledge and wisdom so +that his colleagues thought of him as the solid man of the House +and they referred many matters to him as if for final decision. He +followed political affairs in the newspapers. Above all, at Mount +Vernon he heard all sides from the guests who passed his domain and +enjoyed his hospitality. From the moment that the irritation between +Great Britain and the Colonies became bitter he seems to have made up +his mind that the contention of the Colonists was just. After that +he never wavered, but he was not a sudden or a shallow clamorer for +Independence. He believed that the sober second sense of the British +would lead them to perceive that they had made a mistake. When at +length the Colonies had to provide themselves with an army and to +undertake a war, he was the only candidate seriously considered for +General, although John Hancock, who had made his peacock way so +successfully in many walks of life, thought that he alone was +worthy of the position. Who shall describe Washington's life as +Commander-in-Chief of the Colonial forces during the Revolutionary +War? What other commander ever had a task like his? For a few weeks +the troops led by Napoleon--the barefooted and ragged heroes of Lodi +and Arcola and Marengo--were equally destitute, but victory brought +them food and clothes and prosperity. Whereas Washington's men had no +comfort before victory and none after it. + +Some of the military critics to-day deny Washington's right to be +ranked among the great military commanders of the world, but the truth +is that he commanded during nearly eight years and won one of the +supreme crucial wars of history against far superior forces. The +General who did that was no understrapper. The man whose courage +diffused itself among the ten thousand starving soldiers at Valley +Forge, and enabled them to endure against the starvation and distress +of a winter, may very well fail to be classified among the Prince +Ruperts and the Marshal Neys of battle, but he ranks first in a +higher class. His Fabian policy, which troubled so many of his +contemporaries, saved the American Revolution. His title as General +is secure. Nor should we forget that it was his scrupulous patriotism +which prevented the cropping out of militarism in this country. + +Finally, a country which owed its existence to him chose him to be for +eight years its first President. He saw the planting of the roots of +the chief organs of its government. In every act he looked far forward +into the future. He shunned making or following evil precedents. He +endured the most virulent personal abuse that has ever been poured out +on American public men, preferring that to using the power which his +position gave him, and denaturing the President into a tyrant. Nor +should we fail to honor him for his insistence on dignity and a proper +respect for his office. His enemies sneered at him for that, but +we see plainly how much it meant to this new Nation to have such +qualities exemplified. Had Thomas Jefferson been our first President +in his _sans-culotte_ days, our Government might not have outlasted +the _sans-culottist_ enthusiasts in France. A man is known by his +friends. The chosen friends of Washington were among the best of his +time in America. Hamilton, Henry Knox, Nathanael Greene, John Jay, +John Marshall--these were some. + +Although Washington was less learned than many of the men of his time +in political theory and history, he excelled them all in a concrete +application of principles. He had the widest acquaintance among men of +different sorts. He heard all opinions, but never sacrificed his own. +As I have said earlier, he was the most _actual_ statesman of his +time; the people in Virginia came very early to regard him as a man +apart; this was true of the later days when the Government sat in New +York and Philadelphia. If they sought a reason, they usually agreed +that Washington excelled by his character, and if you analyze most +closely you will never get deeper than that. Reserved he was, and not +a loose or glib talker, but he always showed his interest and gave +close attention. After Yorktown, when the United States proclaimed to +the world that they were an independent Republic, Europe recognized +that this was indeed a Republic unlike all those which had preceded it +during antiquity and the Middle Age. Foreigners doubted that it could +exist. They doubted that Democracy could ever govern a nation. They +knew despots, like the Prussian King, Frederic, who walked about the +streets of Berlin and used his walking-stick on the cringing persons +whom he passed on the sidewalk and did not like the looks of. They +remembered the crazy Czar, Peter, and they knew about the insane +tendencies of the British sovereign, George. The world argued from +these and other examples that monarchy was safe; it could not doubt +that the supply of monarchs would never give out; but it had no hope +of a Republic governed by a President. It was George Washington more +than any other agency who made the world change its mind and conclude +that the best President was the best kind of monarch. + +It is reported that after he died many persons who had been his +neighbors and acquaintances confessed that they had always felt a +peculiar sense of being with a higher sort of person in his presence: +a being not superhuman, but far above common men. That feeling will +revive in the heart of any one to-day who reads wisely in the fourteen +volumes of "Washington's Correspondence," in which, as in a mine, +are buried the passions and emotions from which sprang the American +Revolution and the American Constitution. That George Washington lived +and achieved is the justification and hope of the United States. + + +THE END + + + + +INDEX + + +Throughout the index, the initial _W_. is used for the name of George +Washington. + +Adams, John, his _Diary_ quoted, 57 _n_.; + on committee to confer with Howe, 79; + on Peace Commission, 130; + chosen first Vice-President, 176; + appoints _W_. Commander-in-Chief, in 1799, 217, 240; + letter of _W_. to, 217; 49, 59, 155, 156, 162, 180, 212, 215, + 217, 231, 251, 254. + +Adams, Samuel, 49, 57, 59, 60, 162, 175, 176. + +Addison, Rev. Mr., 253. + +Agriculturist, _W_. as an, 37 _ff_. + +Albert, Prince, 153. + +Alleghany Mts., 7. + +American Revolution, 64-126 _passim_; + great extent of field of operations, 67; + really ended with surrender at Yorktown, 126; + nature and results of, 126-128; + proclamation of end of hostilities, 135; + saved by _W.'s_ Fabian policy, 257. + +Ames, Fisher, speech on Jay Treaty, and its effect, 211-213. + +Anderson, James, 240, 253. + +André, John, Clinton's messenger to Arnold, court-martialed and + hanged, 110, 111. + +Annapolis Convention, 158. + +Anti-Assumptionists. _See_ State debts. + +Anti-Federalists, 186. + +Army, Colonial, at Boston, 69 _ff_.; + brought into order by _W_., 72; + lacks powder, 72; + compels evacuation of Boston, 72,73; + how distributed, 76, 77; + _W_. on proper organization of, 80, 81; + his influence over, 82,88; + condition of, at end of 1776, 84; + desertions from, 84, 97; + at Valley Forge, 100 _ff_.; + _W_. on condition of, after the war, 131, 132; + difficulties about back pay, 133, 134, 141; + some officers of, intrigue to make _W_. king, 134; + _W.'s_ reply, 135; + continued turmoil in, 135; + _W.'s_ farewell to officers of, 136, 137; + attitude of Congress toward, 139, 140. + +Arnold, Benedict, repulsed at Quebec, 72; + surrenders West Point, 110; + in Virginia, 122, 123; 77. + +Articles of Confederation, 152, 153, 156. + And _see_ States of the Confederation. + +Assumptionists. _See_ State debts. + +_Aurora. See_ Bache, B.F. + + +Bache, Benjamin F., attacks _W.'s_ administration, in the + _Aurora_, 201, 219, 221, 222. + +Ball, Mary, marries Augustine Washington, 1. + And _see_ Washington, Mary (Ball). + +Barbados, _W.'s_ visit to, 9-11. + +Barbary States, corsairs of, 155. + +Bard, Dr. Samuel, 185, 186. + +Beaumarchais, Caron de, 94. + +Beefsteak and Tripe Club, 10. + +Belvoir, Fairfax estate, 7. + +Bennington, Battle of, 92. + +Bernard, John, quoted on _W_. in retirement, 234-236. + +_Blackwood's Magazine_, 3. + +Blair, John, 161. + +Bland, Theodorick, letter of _W_. to, 131, 132. + +Bonhomme Richard, the. _See_ Jones, John Paul. + +Boston, port of, transferred to Salem, 58; + blockaded by _W_., 69; + evacuated by Howe, 72, 73; + _W.'s_ visit to, as President, 189, 190. + +Boston Tea Party, 58. + +Botetourt, Norborne Berkeley, Lord, 53. + +Boucher, Rev. Jonathan, 41. + +Braddock, Edward, his career, 19, 20; + in America, 20; + attacks Fort Duquesne, and is defeated and killed, 21, 22; 255. + +Bradford, William, 229. + +Brant, Joseph, 92. + +British troops, position of, at end of 1776, 83, 84, 85; + confined to New York City and Long Island, 86; + _W_. on maltreatment of prisoners by, 98; + field of operations of, transferred to South, 107, 121-123; + surrender of, at Yorktown, 123 _ff_. + +Brown, Dr., 244, 245, 247, 248. + +Bunker Hill, Battle of, 65, 68. + +Burgoyne, John, takes Ticonderoga, 91; + defeated at Bennington, 92; + surrenders to Gates at Saratoga, 93. + +Burke, Edmund, 55, 62, 120. + +Bute, John Stuart, Earl of, 29, 49. + +Butler, Pierce, 162. + +Byrd, William, letter of _W_. to, 20, 21. + + +Calvert, Nelly, 42. + +Cambridge, _W_. takes command of army at, 65; + _W.'s_ headquarters at, 69. + +Canada, and Wolfe's victory at Quebec, 28. + +Canova, Antonio, statue of _W_. by, 148. + +Capital, national, question of location of, 182-185. + +Carlyle, Thomas, 17. + +Carroll, Daniel, 161. + +Cavour, Camillo, Count di, 30, 251. + +Chamberlayne, Major, 33. + +Charming, Edward, _History of the U.S._, 111 _n_. + +Chantrey, Sir F.L., statue of _W_., 148. + +Cherry-tree story, absurdity of, 2. + +Cincinnati, Society of the, public feeling against, 159; + _W_. resigns presidency of, 159. + +Clark, Major, 10. + +Clinton, George, Governor of New York, 136, 199. + +Clinton, Sir Henry, succeeds Howe as Commander-in-Chief, 105; + takes troops to New York, 106; + was he responsible for bribing Arnold? 109, 110; + _W.'s_ criticism of, 118, 119; 93, 121, 123. + +Clive, Robert, Lord, 28. + +Clymer, George, 161. + +Colonies, effect of Seven Years' War on, 29; + opposition to taxation in, 49 _ff_.; + at outbreak of war, 67; + diversity in origin and customs, 67, 68; + increasing urgency of demand for independence in, 75; + relations of, with England, in 1763, 47; + how affected by the Imperial Spirit, 47, 48; + in 1770, 53, 54; + at beginning of Revolution, 66; + lack of ardor for Independence, 84. + +Committees of Correspondence, 57, 58. + +Compromises of the Constitution. _See_ Representation, Slave + trade, Slavery. + +Concord, Battle of, 64. + +Congress of the U.S.: + _First: W.'s_ first address to, 179; + votes to assume state debts and change location of capital, 182-185. + _Fourth_: Jay Treaty ratified by Senate, 210; + bill to carry out treaty provisions passed by House, 210-213. + _Sixth_: revives rank of Commander-in-Chief for _W_., 217; + and _W_.'s death, 251, 253, 254. + +Connecticut, population of, in 1775, 68. + +Constitution of the U.S., in the making, 164-168; + promulgated, 168, 169; + _W.'s_ views of, 170, 171, 172; + ratified by States, 173-175; + opposition to, in N.Y. and Virginia, 174. + +Constitutional Convention, call for, 158; + first meeting of, 160; + members of, 160-162; + _W_. President of, 161, 163; + proceedings of, secret, 163; + divers questions discussed, 164-168, 169, 170. + +Continental Congress: + _First_: members of, 59; + work of, 59-61; + adopts Declaration of Rights, 60; + importance of, as a symbol, 61. + _Second_: elects _W_. Commander-in-Chief, 64; + sectional intrigues in, 74; + _W_. quoted on, 75; + appoints committee to confer with Howe, 79; + and _W.'s_ "doleful reports," 81; + removes to Baltimore, 85; + method of conducting the war, 90; + _W.'s_ farewell reception by, and address to, 137-139; + post-war attitude of, toward the army, discussed, 141, 142; + powers of, limited by Articles of Confederation, 152, 153; + its weakness, 153; + lack of unanimity in, 155; + rejects Spanish treaty, 155; + orders first election under Constitution, 175. + +Conway, Thomas, and the Cabal, 112, 113; + letters of, to _W_., 113; 96. + +Conway Cabal, The, 112-114, 116, 117. + +Cornwallis, Charles, Earl, surrenders at Yorktown, 123. + +Cowpens, Battle of the, 122. + +Craik, Dr. James, attends _W_. in his last illness, 243 _ff_.; 253. + +Critical Period of American History, 151 _ff_. + +Custis, Daniel P., 33, 34. + +Custis, Eleanor, _W.'s_ affection for, 233, 234. + And _see_ Lewis, Eleanor (Custis). + +Custis, George W P., 233, 247. + +Custis, John Parke, _W.'s_ step-son, 40-42; 104. + +Custis, Mrs. Martha (Dandridge), widow of D.P. Custis, is courted by + _W_., 33, 34, + and marries him, 35. + And _see_ Washington, Martha (Custis). + +Custis, Martha, W.'s step-daughter, 40, 41. + + +Dandridge, Francis, letter of _W_. to, 51, 52. + +Davis, Rev. Mr., 252, 253. + +Deane, Silas, sent to enlist aid of France, 94; + his unauthorized promises to Ducoudray, 95, + and Lafayette, 99. + +Declaration of Independence, 78, 191. + +"Declaration of Rights," 60. + +Delaware River, _W.'s_ crossing of, 85, 86. + +Democracy in the U.S., contrasted with earlier types, 178. + +Democratic Party, 186. + +Dent, Elizabeth, 31. + +Dick, Dr., 245, 247, 248, 252. + +Dickinson, John, 161. + +Dinwiddie, Robert, sends _W_. on mission to French, 14; + sends expedition under Fry to take Duquesne, 15; 16, 17, 18, 20, 21. + +Dorchester, Guy Carleton, Lord, 208. + +Dorchester Heights, occupied by Americans, 73. + +Ducoudray, M., 95. + + +Election, first, under Constitution, 175, 176. + +Ellsworth, Oliver. 161. + +England, expeditions planned by, 19 _ff_.; + effect of Chatham's administration on power and prestige of, 27, 28; + relations with Colonies in 1763, 47; + the Imperial Spirit in, 47 _ff_.; + measures imposing taxation on Colonies, 49 _ff_.; + division of opinion in, in 1770, 53, 54, 55; + Hessians in service of, 76; + effect of sea-power of, 84; + plans for campaign of 1777, 90, 91; + sends Commission to treat for peace, 109, 120; + reconstruction of government in, after Yorktown, 130; + and _W.'s_ proclamation of neutrality (1789), 204; + hatred of, in U.S., and the Jay Treaty, 208 _ff_.; + threat of war with, 208, 209; + and the U.S. in 1796 and 1914, 227, 228. + And _see_ Paris, Treaty of (1783). + +England and France, rivalry between in North America, 12, 13; + actually at war, 19; + effect of Wolfe's victory at Quebec, 28; + war between (1789), 193; + difficulty in maintaining neutrality of U.S., 193 _ff_. + +"Entangling alliances," authorship of the phrase, 227. + +Estaing, Charles H, Count d', brings French fleet to America, 108. + +Excise tax, on distilled spirits, 189; + and the Whiskey Insurrection, 218. + + +Fairfax, Bryan, letter of _W_. to, 62, 63; 253. + +Fairfax, Sally, 31. + +Fairfax, Thomas, Lord, employs _W_. to survey his estate, 5; 7. + +Farewell Address, the, 224 _ff_.; + declarations of, how far applicable in 1914, 227, 228. + +Fauchet, Joseph, 229. + +Fauntleroy, Betsy, 30. + +Fauquier, Francis, 35. + +_Federalist, The_, 162. + +Federalist Party, break-up of, 228; 186, 187. + +Fitzsimmons, Thomas, 161. + +Fort Duquesne, built by French, 13; + unsuccessfully attacked by Braddock, 21 _ff_.; + renamed Fort Pitt, 34, 255. + +Fort Necessity, surrender of, 16, 17. + +Fox, Charles James, 55. + +France, steps toward alliance with, 94 _ff_.; + effect of victory at Saratoga in, 99; + treaty with, 99 and _n_.; + results of alliance on American commerce and privateering, 108; + sends fleet to America, 108; + effect in England of alliance with, 119; + and _W.'s_ proclamation of neutrality, 204; + effect of feeling of gratitude to, in U.S., 205; + later relations with, 215, 216; + and the U.S. in 1796 and 1914, 227, 228. + And _see_ England and France. + +Franklin, Benjamin, on committee to confer with Howe, 79; + on Peace Commission, 130; + quoted, 173; 21, 155, 160, 161, 201, 236. + +Frederick the Great, 259. + +Freedom of speech, _W_. and, 222, 223. + +Freemasons, at _W.'s_ funeral, 253. + +French, westward and southward progress of, 13; + build Fort Duquesne, 13. + +French Committee of Public Safety, Monroe's letter to, 216. + +French and Indian War. _See_ Seven Years' War. + +French Revolution, reaction of, in U.S., 193 _ff_. + +Freneau, Philip, and his _National Gazette_, encouraged by + Jefferson, 200, 201, 219, 220. + +Fry, Colonel, 15. + + +Gage, Thomas, military and civil governor of Boston, 61; + _W_. quoted on his conduct, 63; + recalled, 72. + +Gallatin, Albert, opposes Jay Treaty, 210, 211. + +Gates, Horatio, Adjutant-General, 71; + defeats Burgoyne at Saratoga, 92, 93; + ambitious to supplant _W_., 114; 112. + +Genêt, Edmond Charles, mission of, to U.S., 194 _ff_.; + would appeal to people over government, 198,205; + snubbed by Jefferson, 198; + his recall requested, 199. + +George II, 18. + +George III, dismisses Pitt, 29; + and the British Empire, 48; + makes North Prime Minister, 54; + effect of events of 1778 on, 119; + and of the failure of the Commission on Reconciliation, 120; 60, + 130, 153, 259. + +Georgetown, proposed as seat of national capital, 184. + +Georgia, only colony unrepresented in First Continental Congress, 59; + British victories in, 122; 165. + +Gerry, Elbridge, on X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215; 161, 168, 169. + +Giles, William B., and newspaper attacks on _W_., 219, 221. + +Gist, Christopher, 14. + +Gladstone, W.E., quoted, 173. + +Gorham, Nathaniel, 161. + +Great Britain. _See_ England. + +Great Meadows. _See_ Fort Necessity. + +Greene, Nathanael, commands in South, 122; 110, 162, 163, 258. + + +"Half-King, the." _See_ Thanacarishon. + +Hamilton, Alexander, influence of, ensures ratification of + Constitution in N.Y., 174; + Secretary of Treasury, 181, 228, 229; + opposition to, 181, 182; + favors "Assumption," 182,183; + obtains Jefferson's support for compromise, 183, 184; + his political status, 187; + his protective tariff, 188; + his measures tended to centralization, 189,192; + quoted, on the French Revolution, 197, 198; + _W_. seeks to keep peace between Jefferson and, 199, 200; + attacked by Freneau, 200; + attacks Jefferson in newspapers, 201; + urges _W_. to accept second term, 201; + and the Whiskey Insurrection, 218; + and the Farewell Address, 224; 160, 167, 168, 180, 195, 208, 210, + 217, 241, 258. + +Hancock, John, President of Congress, 64; + letter of _W_. to, 80, 81; + Governor of Massachusetts, and _W.'s_ visit to Boston, 189, + 190; 64, 256. + +Harlem, Heights of, army stationed on, 80. + +Harrison, Benjamin, letter of _W_. to, 143. + +Hay, Anthony, 53. + +Henry, Patrick, quoted, 50; + opposed to Constitution, 174; 59, 60, 162. + +Herkimer, Nicholas, 92. + +Hessians, in British army, 76; + defeated at Trenton, 86. + +Hortalaz et Cie, 94. + +Houdon, Jean A., statue of _W_. 148. + +House of Representatives, representation of States in, 167. + +Howe, Richard, Lord, takes fleet to N.Y., 76; 72, 83. + +Howe, Sir William, evacuates Boston, 72, 73; + fruitless peace overtures of, 79; + in Phila. (1777-78), 104, 105; + succeeded by Clinton, 105; 74, 78, 87, 91. + +Humphreys, Colonel, as Chamberlain at President's receptions, 180, 181. + + +Imperial Spirit, effect of, on relations between England and + Colonies, 47, 48; + revived by events of 1778, 119. + +Independence Hall, Phila., 160. + +Indians, surprise attack by, 21, 22; + difficulties of _W_.'s administration with, 190, 191. + +Ingersoll, Jared, 161. + +Irving, Washington, _Life of Washington_, quoted, 181, 185, + 186, 195. 217, 233. + + +Jackson, Robert, 24. + +Jacobin Club, 193. + +Jay, John, on Peace Commission, 130; + concludes treaty with Spain, 155; + appointed Chief Justice, 186; + mission of, to England in 1794-95, 207; + his character, 207; + prejudice against, in U.S., 208; + Secretary of State, 228; + letters of _W_. to, 142, 157; 59, 162, 180, 258. + And _see_ Jay Treaty. + +Jay Treaty, the, negotiated, 207, 208, 209; + opposition of Anti-Federalists to, 209; + ratified by Senate, 210; + violent struggle over, in House, 210-213; + how the controversy was settled, 213; + effect of, 214; + and the Federalist Party, 228. + +Jefferson, Thomas, _A Summary View_, 60; + Secretary of State, 181, 186, 192, 228, 229; + interview with Hamilton on Assumption, etc., 183-185; + most aggressive of Democrats, 187, 191; + rivalry with Hamilton, 192; + and the French Revolution, 193; + and Citizen Genêt, 194, 195, 198; + _W_. seeks to keep peace between Hamilton and, 199, 200; + and Freneau's attacks on _W_., 200, 219, 220, 221; + intrigues against Hamilton, 200, 201; + urges _W_. to accept second term, 201, 202; + resigns as Secretary of State, 206; + 155, 160, 161, 162, 180, 181, 207, 227, 258. + +Johnson, W.S., 168. + +Joncaire, M., 14. + +Jones, John Paul, 120, 121. + +Jumonville, M. de, 15, 18. + + +Kalb, Baron Johann de, 95, 100. + +King, Rufus, 161, 167, 168. + +Knox, Henry, Secretary of War, 181, 229; + letters of _W_. to, 170, 171, 203; + 95, 123, 124, 136, 217, 231, 258. + +Kosciuszko, Tadeusz, 95. + + +Lafayette, Gilbert Motier, Marquis de, joins _W_.'s staff, 99; + and Charles Lee, at Monmouth, 115; + letters of _W_. to, 143, 144, 145, 170, 171, 172; 110, 123. + +Lansing, John, 161. + +Laurens, Henry, letters of _W_. to, 101-103, 117, 118. + +Lear, Tobias, secretary to _W_., 148; + quoted, 242; + his account of _W_.'s last hours, 243-249; + notes on _W_.'s funeral, 252, 253; 232, 241, 250. + +Lee, Billy (slave), 238, 239. + +Lee, Charles, appointed Major-General, 70, 71; + at Monmouth, 106, 115; + censured by _W_., 106, 115, 116; + early career of, 114, 115; + court-martialed, and leaves the army, 116; + anecdote of, 116 _n_.; 65, 128. + +Lee, Charles, Attorney-General, 229. + +Lee, Henry, author of phrase, "First in war," etc., 251; + letter of _W_. to, 221, 222. + +Lee, Richard H., letters of _W_. to, 96, 147; 163. + +Lewis, Mrs. Eleanor (Custis), 242. + +Lewis, Lawrence, and Miss Custis, 232, 233; 247. + +Lexington, Battle of, 63. + +Lillo, George, _George Barnwell_, 10, 11. + +Lincoln, Abraham, 149. + +Lincoln, Benjamin, surrenders Charleston, S.C., 122; + receives surrender of British at Yorktown, 125; 123. + +Livingston, Robert R., 177. + +Lodge, H.C., _George Washington_, quoted, 15, 17, 220, 235, 236. + +Long Island, Battle of, 77, 78. + +Louis XVI, execution of, 193; 94, 99. + +Low-Land Beauty, the, 30. + +Loyalists, in the Colonies, 61, 62; + during and after the war, 127, 128. + + +McClellan, George B., 82. + +McClurg, James, 162. + +McHenry, James, Secretary of War, 229; + letter of, to _W_., 217; 161, 231, 232. + +McKean, Thomas, 59. + +MacKenzie, Robert, letter of _W_. to, 63. + +Machiavelli, Niccolo, _The Prince_, and _W_.'s Farewell + Address, 226. + +Madison, James, opposes Jay Treaty, 210; + and the Farewell Address, 224; + letter of _W_. to, 158; + 156, 159, 160, 161, 163, 165, 168, 194, 242. + +Marie Antoinette, execution of, 193. + +Marshall, John, _Life of Washington_, quoted, 28, 136, 137-139; + on X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215; 47, 251, 258. + +Mason, George, plan of association, 52, 53; + letter to _W_. 56; + letter of _W_. to, 56; 161, 168, 169. + +Massachusetts, leads in opposing acts of British Crown, 49; + charter of, suspended, 58, 59; + population of, in 1775, 67, 68; + and Virginia, jealousy between, 64; + freed from British troops, 74. + +Mather, W., _The Young Man's Companion_, 4. + +Meil, Mrs., 30, 31. + +Mifflin, Thomas, of the Conway Cabal, 116; 138, 139, 161. + +Military dictatorship under _W_., fear of, 141, 142, 154. + +Militia, _W_. quoted on, 81. + +Miner, Rev. James, 252. + +Mississippi River, Lower, closed to Americans by treaty with Spain, + 155. + +Moffatt, Rev. Mr., 252. + +Monarchy, fears of reversion to, 142. + +Monmouth, Battle of, 106. + +Monongahela River, 13. + +Monroe, James, Minister to France, recalled by _W_., 216; + his letter to Committee of Public Safety, 116; 242. + +Montcalm, Louis Joseph, Marquis de, 28. + +Montgomery, Richard, at Quebec, 71, 72; 77. + +Morgan, Daniel, 122. + +Morris, Gouverneur, 161, 167, 168, 207. + +Morris, Robert, letter to _W_., 88; 161. + +Morris, Roger, 32, 80. + +Morristown, winter quarters at, 89. + +Mossum, Rev. Peter, 35. + +Mount Vernon, inherited by Lawrence Washington, 5; + hospitality of, 7, 45; + _W_. manager of, 12; + inherited by _W_., 33; + a model plantation of Its kind, 39, 43, 44; + _W_. returns to, after the war, 139; + his life at, 146; + his last days at, 232 _ff_.; + his funeral at, 251-253. + + +Napoleon I, 218, 240. + +_National Gazette_, 220, 222. + +Neal, John, quoted, 3. + +Neutrality, Proclamation of, gives offense to both England and + France, 204; + the only rational course, 205. + +New England, manufacturing in, 68; + freed from British troops, 74. + +New Jersey, 155. + +New York City, _W_.'s headquarters at, 76; + Howe's fleet arrives at, 76; + loyalist sentiment in, 78, 79, 121; + British troops return to, 105,106; + _W_.'s farewell to officers at, 136, 137; + _W_. inaugurated as President at, 176, 177; + ceases to be national capital, 182 _ff_. + +New York State, fails to choose electors in 1788, 175. + +North, Frederick, Lord, Prime Minister, 54; + his subservience to the King, 54, 55; + retires after Yorktown, 130; 60, 61. + +North Carolina, British victories in, 122. + +Northwest, the, _W_.'s vision of development of, 144, 145. + + +Office-seekers, _W_. and, 180. + +O'Hara, General, 125. + +Ohio River, 13. + +Oriskany, Battle of, 92. + +Osgood, Samuel, 229. + +Otis, James, 49. + + +Pall-holders at _W_.'s funeral, 252. + +Paris, Treaty of (1763), 28, 29. + +Paris, Treaty of (1783), 130, 131; + _W_. quoted on, 131. + +Parliament, passes and repeals Stamp Act, 49; + lays duties on paper, tea, etc., 49; + other irritating measures passed by, 53, 58; + enacts penal laws, 58, 59. + +"Parsons Cause, The," 50. + +Parties, in _W_.'s first term, 186, 187. + +Peale, Charles, portrait of _W_., 148, 150. + +Peale, Rembrandt, portrait of _W_., 148. + +Pearson, Captain, 120. + +Pendleton, Edmund, 59. + +Pennsylvania, population of, in 1775, 68; 58, 155. + +Peter the Great, 259. + +Philadelphia, non-importation agreement of merchants of, 52; + Continental Congresses meet at, 59, 64; + _W_. at, 75 _ff_.; + British troops at, in 1777-78, 104, 105; + _W_. takes possession of, 106; + to be national capital for ten years, 183, 185; + Genêt at, 196. + +Philipse, Frederick, 31. + +Philipse, Mary, 31, 32. + +Pickering, Timothy, Cabinet offices held by, 228, 229; 231. + +Pinckney, Charles, 162. + +Pinckney, Charles C., on X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215, 216; 162, + 165, 166, 217. + +Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, effect of his accession to power, + 27, 28; + dismissed by George III, 29; + his last appearance in the Lords, 119, and death, 120. + +Pitt, William, the younger, 55, 62. + +Pittsburgh, on site of Fort Duquesne, 34, 255. + +Plassey, Buttle of, 48. + +Portraits of _W_., 148, 149, 150. + +President, discussion as to term and method of election of, 167, 168; + _W_.'s view of office of, 178; + _W_.'s example as preventive of third term for, 223, 224. + +Press, the, virulence and indecency of, 219 _ff_. + +Princeton, Battle of, 86, 87. + +Privateering, effect of French Alliance on, 108, 120, 121. + +Protective tariff, Hamilton's, 188. + +Pulaski, Count Casimir, 95, 97. + + +Quebec, Battle of, 28, 48; + abortive attack on, 71, 72; + persistence in project of capturing, 77. + +Quincy, Josiah, 49. + + +Rall, Colonel, 86. + +Randolph, Edmund, Attorney-General, 181, 186, 229; + Secretary of State, 206,228; + his "Vindication," 229, 230; + letter of _W_. to, 208, 209; 161, 169, 193. + +Randolph, Peyton, 59. + +Rawlins, Mr., 243, 253. + +Reconciliation, Commission on, 109, 120. + +Representation of States in Congress, question of, settled by + compromise, 167. + +Republicans, 186. + +Revolutionary War. _See_ American Revolution. + +Robinson, Beverly, 31. + +Robinson, Mr., Speaker of the House of Burgesses (Va.), quoted, 36. + +Rochambeau, Jean B.D. de Vimeure, Count de, 122, 125. + +Rockingham, Charles Wentworth, Marquis of, 130. + +Rodney, George, Lord, 153. + +Rutledge, Edward, on committee to confer with Howe, 79; 59. + +Rutledge, John, 59, 162, 168. + + +St. Clair, General, 191. + +St. Leger, Barry, 91. + +Saratoga, Battle of, Burgoyne defeated in, 93; + effect of, in France, 99. + +Schuyler, Philip, 65. + +Senate of U.S., representation of States in, 167. + +Seven Years' War, 27 _ff_.; + effect of, 29. + +Shays, Daniel, 158. + +Shays's Rebellion, causes of, 157,158. + +Shelburne, William Petty, Earl of, 130. + +Sherman, Roger, 59, 161, 168. + +Shirley, William, 32. + +Slave labor, _W_.'s view of, 38; 68. + +Slave trade, question of, settled by compromise, 165, 166. + +Slavery, why _W_. disapproved of, 38, 39, 238; + question of, settled by compromise, 164, 165. + +Slaves, _W_.'s relations with, 38, 237-239; + number of, in Colonies, in 1775, 68. + +South Carolina, population of, in 1775, 68; + British victories in, 122; 165. + +Sparks, Jared, his _Life of Washington_, defects of, 3; + quoted, 113,116 and _n_., 146. + +Spearing, Ann, 31. + +Stamp Act, 49, 51, 52, 66. + +Stark, John, defeats Burgoyne at Bennington, 92. + +State debts, assumption of, by national government, how secured, + 182-185; + favored by _W_., 188. + +State rights, problem of, 167; + a fundamental subject of difference, 187. + +States of the Confederation, _W_.'s farewell letter to + governors of, 135; + after the Revolution, 152, 156; + their relations to one another, 152, 153; + lack of coherence among, 154, 155; + foreign relations of, ignominious, 155; + delegates of, in Constitutional Convention, 160-162; + ratification by, 175, 174. + And _see_ Paris, Treaty of (1783). + +Statues of _W_., 148. + +Steuben, Baron Frederick W. von, 95, 110, 111. + +Stone, F.D., _Struggle for the Delaware_, quoted, 100, 101. + +Strong, Caleb, 161, 168. + +Stuart, Gilbert, portraits of _W_., 149. + +Sulgrave, English home of Washington family, 1. + +Sullivan, John, defeated on Long Island, 77. + + +Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles M. de, and the X.Y.Z. mission, 216. + +Tariff, _W_.'s view of a, 189. + +Tarleton, Sir Banastre, 122. + +"Taxation without representation," 55, 57. + +Thanacarishon, Seneca chief, quoted, on _W_. 14, 15. + +Thomas, John, 71. + +Ticonderoga, taken by Burgoyne, 91. + +Tobacco-raising in Virginia, 39, 40. + +Toner, J.M., _The Daily Journal of George Washington_, 11 + _n_. + +Trenton, Battle of, and its effect, 86, 87. + +Trumbull, Jonathan, letter of _W_. to, 231. + +Tryon, William, 79. + +United States, debt of Confederation turned over to, 182; + excitement in, over Citizen Genêt, 195 _ff_.; + anomalous position of, between France and England, 205, 206; + the first country in which free speech existed, 222; + effect of _W_.'s example on world's opinion of, 259. + +United States Bank, 189. + + +Valley Forge, American army in winter quarters at, 100 _ff_., 118. + +Van Braam, Jacob, 14. + +Vergennes, Charles Gravier, Count de, favors cause of the Colonies, 94; + secures coöperation of Spain, 99; 142. + +Vernon, Edward, Admiral, 5, 9. + +Victoria, Queen, 153. + +Virginia, effect in, of Braddock's defeat, 24, 25; + in the 1750's, 44, 45; + fox-hunting and horse-racing, 45,46; + opposition in, to acts of the Crown, 50, 51; + state of opinion in, 55, 56; population of, in 1775, 67, 68; + jealousy between Mass, and, 64; 164, 166. + +Virginia House of Burgesses, _W_. a member of, 36, 37; + adopts Mason's plan of association, 53. + + +Walpole, Horace, 18. + +Washington, Augustine, _W.'s_ father, marries Mary Ball, 1. + +Washington, George, ancestry, 1; + birth, 1, 2; + childhood and education, 2; + errors of Weems's biography, 2, 3; + absurdity of the cherry-tree story, 2; + Sparks's ill-advised editing of letters of, 3, 4; + and Mather's _Young Man's Companion_, 4; + surveys Fairfax estate, 5; + results of his experience as surveyor, 5; + his journals, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 37, 38, 39, 169; + his disposition, 7, 8; + attention, to dress, 8, 9; + declines appointment as midshipman, 9; + commissioned major of militia, 9; + visit to Barbados, 9, 10; + as manager of Mt. Vernon, 12; + sent by Dinwiddie on mission of warning to French, 14; + and the "Half-King," 14, 15; + second in command of Fry's expedition, 15_ff_.; + was he a "silent man"? 17, 18; + a volunteer on Braddock's expedition, 20, 21; + his account of the defeat, 22, 23; + his conduct in the battle, 23; + moral results of his campaigning, 25, 26; + his early love-affairs, 30, 31; + and Mary Philipse, 31, 32; + his physique, 32, 69; + a sound thinker, 33, 70; + inherits Mt. Vernon, 33; + courts and marries Mrs. Custis, 33, 34, 35; + in House of Burgesses, 36, 37; + as an agriculturist, 37 _ff_.; + his views on slave labor, 38, and slavery, 38, 39, 238; + relations with his slaves, 38, 237-239; + and his step-children, 40-42; + by nature a man of business, 42, 43; + improves his education, 43, 44; + as a country gentleman, 44_ff_.; + the hospitality of Mt. Vernon, 45. + + His view of the Stamp Act and other measures of the British + Government, 51, 52; + a loyal American, 52; + signs Mason's plan of association, 53; + no doubt as to his position, 55, 56, 57; + offers to raise 1000 men at his own expense, 57; + in first Continental Congress, 59, 60; + his mind made up, 62, 63; + chosen Commander-in-chief of Continental forces, 64, 65; + takes command at Cambridge, 65, 69; + plans to blockade Boston, 69; + jealousy among his officers, 70, 71; + and military amateurs, 71; + opposes expedition against Canada, 71; + whips his army into shape, 72; + appeals for supply of powder, 72; + forces evacuation of Boston, 73; + moves troops to New York, 74; + before Congress in Phila., 74, 75; + his opinion of Congress, 75; + retreats from Long Island after Sullivan's defeat, 77, 78; + inadequacy of his resources, 78; + moves army to Heights of Harlem, 80; + on the evils of American military system, 80, 81; + his troops not discouraged by his frankness, 82; + on the difficulty of his position, 82, 83; + his movements after battle of White Plains, 83 _ff_.; + crosses the Delaware and wins battles of Trenton and Princeton, 86; + a Necessary Man, 87; + his fearlessness of danger, 87, 88; + his movements impeded by dependence on Congress, 90, 118, 119; + his miscellaneous labors, 95 _ff_.; + his circular on looting by his troops, 97, 98; + on the maltreatment of American prisoners, 98; + takes Lafayette on his staff, 99; + chooses Valley Forge for winter quarters, 100; + describes its horrors, 101-103; + enters Phila. on the heels of the British, 106; + censures Charles Lee at Monmouth, 106; + the uneventful summer and autumn of 1778, 109; + refuses to commute André's sentence, 111; + jealous ambitions of his associates: the Conway Cabal, 111 _ff_.; + and Gates, 114; + and C. Lee, 114-116, 116_n_.; + on the intrigues of his enemies, 117, 118; + difficulties of his position, 118; + forced inactivity of, 121; + marches South to Virginia, 123; + lays siege to Yorktown, and forces Cornwallis to surrender, 122-125; + the country unanimous in giving him credit for the final victory 128, + 129. + + His view of the problems to be solved after the peace, 131; + urges payment of troops in full, 131-133, 134; + and the plan to make him king, 134, 135; + his letter to governors of States, 135; + his farewell to his officers, 136, 137; + his reception by, and address to, Congress, 137-139; + returns to Mt. Vernon, 139; + his life there, described, 140, 141, 143, 144, 146, 147; + fears of military dictatorship under, 141, 142; + his vision of the development of the Northwest 144, 145; + declines all gifts and pay for his services, 146; + his correspondence, 147, 148; + fears further trouble with England, 153; + his pessimism over the outlook for the future, 156, 157; + reluctantly consents to sit in Constitutional Convention, 158, 159; + and the Society of the Cincinnati, 159; + President of the Convention, 163, 164, 168, 169, 170; + his view of the Constitution, 170 _ff_.; + unanimously elected first President of the U.S., 175; + the journey to New York and inauguration, 176, 177. + + His receptions as President, 178, 179, 180, 181; + his inaugural address, 179; + dealings with office-seekers, 180; + his first Cabinet, 181, 186; + serious illness of, 185, 186; + appoints Justices of Supreme Court, 186; + a Federalist, 187, 199, 215; + favors Assumption, 187, 188; + his tariff views, 189; + his visit to Boston, 189, 190; + sends expeditions against Indians, 191; + approves Hamilton's centralizing measures, 192; + determined to maintain neutrality as between France and England, 193; + deals firmly with Genêt, 198; + open criticism of, 199, 200, 201, 219 _ff_.; + his sympathies generally with Hamilton against Jefferson, 199; + effect on, of newspaper abuse, 201, 223; + disinclined to serve second term, 201; + reëlected, 202, 203, 204; + issues Proclamation of Neutrality, 204; + its effect, 204, 205; + appoints Randolph to succeed Jefferson, 206; + and the Jay Treaty, 207 _ff_.; + sends C.C. Pinckney to replace Monroe in Paris, 215; + why he recalled Monroe, 215, 216; + consents to act as Commander-in-Chief in 1799, 217, 240; + puts down Whiskey Insurrection, 218, 219; + favors maintenance of free speech, 222; + declines to consider a third term, 223; + effect in later years of the precedent set by him, 223, 224; + his "Farewell Address," 224-227; + what would he have done in 1914? 228; + changes in his Cabinet, 228, 229; + and the charges against Randolph, 229, 230. + + Again in retirement at Mt. Vernon, 231 _ff_.; + and Nelly Custis, 233; + his career reviewed, 234, 254-260; + Bernard quoted on, 234-236; + his detractors, 236, 237; + his religious beliefs, 239, 240; + declines all public undertakings, 240; + his last illness, 241 _ff_.; + the last hours described by T. Lear, 243-249; + his death, 249; + action of Congress and President Adams, 251; + his funeral at Mt. Vernon, 252, 253; + project for memorial of, abandoned, 254; + his rank as a soldier, 256, 257; + as President, 258; + the most _actual_ statesman of his time, 258; + his example made the world change its mind about republics, 259. + + _Portraits and statues of_, 148-150. + + _Letters_ (quoted in whole or in part) to John Adams, 217; + Theodorick Bland, 131; + Rev. Mr. Boucher, 41; + William Byrd, 20; + Thomas Conway, 112; + Francis Dandridge, 51; + Robert Dinwiddie, 17, 22; + Bryan Fairfax, 62; + John Hancock, 9; + Benjamin Harrison, 143; + Sir W. Howe, 98; + Robert Jackson, 24; + John Jay, 142, 157; + Thomas Jefferson, 221; + Henry Knox, 170; + Marquis de Lafayette, 143, 145, 170, 171; + Henry Laurens, 101, 117; + Henry Lee, 203, 221; + Richard H. Lee, 96, 147; + Robert Mackenzie, 63; + George Mason, 56; + Gouverneur Morris, 207; + Edmund Randolph, 208; + Jonathan Trumbull, 231; + John Augustine Washington, 23, 75, 85; + Lund Washington, 82; + Martha (Custis) Washington, 34; + Mary Ball Washington, 24. + +Washington, John, _W_.'s great-grandfather settles in Virginia, 1. + +Washington, John Augustine, _W_.'s brother, letters of _W_. + to, 75, 85; 1, 11, 23. + +Washington, Lawrence,_W.'s_ half-brother, inherits Mount Vernon, 5; + _W_.'s guardian, 5; + marries Lord Fairfax's daughter, 5; + visits Barbados with _W_., 9-11; + his death, 11, 12; 7, 33. + +Washington, Lund, letter of _W_. to, 82, 83. + +Washington, Mrs. Martha (Custis), quoted, 104; + and _W_.'s last illness, 243 _ff_.; + letter of, to President Adams, 254; + buried at Mount Vernon, 254; 9, 38, 41, 43, 45, 252, 253. + +Washington, Mrs. Mary (Ball), _W_.'s mother, 2, 9, 24. + +Washington, Mildred, _W_.'s niece, _W_. guardian of, 12; + her death, 12. + +Washington family, the, 1. + +Wayne, Anthony, 191. + +Webster, Daniel, quoted, 188; 211. + +Webster, Peletiah, 156. + +Weems, Rev. Mason L., his _Life of_ _Washington_, + discredited, 2, 3. + +West Point, surrendered by Arnold, 110. + +Whigs, in Parliament, favor Colonies, 54, 62. + +Whiskey Insurrection, the, 218, 219. + +White House (Custis estate), 34, 35, 36. + +White Plains, Battle of, 83. + +Wilson, James, 161. + +Wister, Owen, 30 _n_. + +Wolcott, Oliver, Jr., 228, 229. + +Wolfe, James, 28, 105. + +Wythe, George, 161. + + +X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215, 216. + + +Yates, Robert, 161. + +Yorktown, Cornwallis surrenders at, 123 _ff_.; + the war really ended at, 126; + effect in England, 130. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's George Washington, by William Roscoe Thayer + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12540 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f784a9c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12540 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12540) diff --git a/old/12540-8.txt b/old/12540-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8bea392 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12540-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7862 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of George Washington, by William Roscoe Thayer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: George Washington + +Author: William Roscoe Thayer + +Release Date: June 6, 2004 [EBook #12540] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE WASHINGTON *** + + + + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +The Riverside Library + +George Washington + +By + +WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER + + +1922 + + +TO + +HARRIET SEARS AMORY + +WITH THE BEST WISHES OF HER OLD FRIEND + +THE AUTHOR + + + + +PREFACE + + +To obviate misunderstanding, it seems well to warn the reader that +this book aims only at giving a sketch of George Washington's life +and acts. I was interested to discover, if I could, the human residue +which I felt sure must persist in Washington after all was said. Owing +to the pernicious drivel of the Reverend Weems no other great man in +history has had to live down such a mass of absurdities and deliberate +false inventions. At last after a century and a quarter the rubbish +has been mostly cleared away, and only those who wilfully prefer to +deceive themselves need waste time over an imaginary Father of His +Country amusing himself with a fictitious cherry-tree and hatchet. + +The truth is that the material about George Washington is very +voluminous. His military records cover the eight years of the +Revolutionary War. His political work is preserved officially in +the reports of Congress. Most of the public men who were his +contemporaries left memoirs or correspondence in which he figures. +Above all there is the edition, in fourteen volumes, of his own +writings compiled by Mr. Worthington C. Ford. And yet many persons +find something that baffles them. They do not recognize a definite +flesh and blood Virginian named Washington behind it all. Even so +sturdy an historian as Professor Channing calls him the most elusive +of historic personages. Who has not wished that James Boswell could +have spent a year with Wellington on terms as intimate as those he +spent with Dr. Johnson and could have left a report of that intimacy? + +In this sketch I have conceived of Washington as of some superb +athlete equipped for every ordeal which life might cause him to face. +The nature of each ordeal must be briefly stated; brief also, but +sufficient, the account of the way he accomplished it. I have quoted +freely from his letters wherever it seemed fitting, first, because in +them you get his personal authentic statement of what happened as he +saw it, and you get also his purpose in making any move; and next, +because nothing so well reveals the real George Washington as those +letters do. Whoever will steep himself in them will hardly declare +that their writer remains an elusive person beyond finding out or +understanding. In the course of reading them you will come upon many +of those "imponderables" which are the secret soul of statecraft. + +And so with all humility--for no one can spend much time with +Washington, and not feel profound humility--I leave this little sketch +to its fate, and hope that some readers will find in it what I strove +to put in it. + +W.R.T. + +CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS _June 11, 1922_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. ORIGINS AND YOUTH +II. MARRIAGE. THE LIFE OF A PLANTER +III. THE FIRST GUN +IV. BOSTON FREED +V. TRENTON AND VALLEY FORGE +VI. AID FROM FRANCE; TRAITORS +VII. WASHINGTON RETURNS TO PEACE +VIII. WELDING THE NATION +IX. THE FIRST AMERICAN PRESIDENT +X. THE JAY TREATY +XI. WASHINGTON RETIRES FROM PUBLIC LIFE +XII. CONCLUSION +INDEX + + + + +ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES FREQUENTLY REFERRED TO + + +_Channing_ = Edward Channing: _History of the United States_. New +York: Macmillan Company, III, IV. 1912. + +_Fiske_ = John Fiske: _The Critical Period of American History, +1783-1789_. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1897. + +_Ford_ = Worthington C. Ford: _The Writings of George Washington_. 14 +vols. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1889-93. + +_Ford_ = Worthington C. Ford: _George Washington_. 2 vols. Paris: +Goupil; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1900. + +_Hapgood_ = Norman Hapgood: _George Washington_. New York: Macmillan +Company. 1901. + +_Irving_ = Washington Irving: _Life of George Washington_. New York: +G.P. Putnam. 1857. + +_Lodge_ = Henry Cabot Lodge: _George Washington_. 2 vols. American +Statesman Series. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1889. + +_Marshall_ = John Marshall: _The Life of George Washington_. 5 vols. +Philadelphia. 1807. + +_Sparks_ = Jared Sparks: _The Life of George Washington_. Boston. + +_Wister_ = Owen Wister: _The Seven Ages of Washington_. New York: +Macmillan Company. 1909. + + + + +GEORGE WASHINGTON + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ORIGINS AND YOUTH + + +Zealous biographers of George Washington have traced for him a most +respectable, not to say distinguished, ancestry. They go back to +the time of Queen Elizabeth, and find Washingtons then who were +"gentlemen." A family of the name existed in Northumberland +and Durham, but modern investigation points to Sulgrave, in +Northamptonshire, as the English home of his stock. Here was born, +probably during the reign of Charles I, his great-grandfather, John +Washington, who was a sea-going man, and settled in Virginia in 1657. +His eldest son, Lawrence, had three children--John, Augustine, and +Mildred. Of these, Augustine married twice, and by his second +wife, Mary Ball, whom he married on March 17, 1730, there were six +children--George, Betty, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, and Mildred. +The family home at Bridges Creek, near the Potomac, in Westmoreland +County, was Washington's birthplace, and (February 11, Old Style) +February 22, New Style, 1732, was the date. We hear little about his +childhood, he being a wholesomely unprecocious boy. Rumors have it +that George was coddled and even spoiled by his mother. He had very +little formal education, mathematics being the only subject in which +he excelled, and that he learned chiefly by himself. But he lived +abundantly an out-of-door life, hunting and fishing much, and playing +on the plantation. His family, although not rich, lived in easy +fashion, and ranked among the gentry. + +No Life of George Washington should fail to warn the reader at the +start that the biographer labors under the disadvantage of having to +counteract the errors and absurdities which the Reverend Mason L. +Weems made current in the Life he published the year after Washington +died. No one, not even Washington himself, could live down the +reputation of a goody-goody prig with which the officious Scotch +divine smothered him. The cherry-tree story has had few rivals in +publicity and has probably done more than anything else to implant an +instinctive contempt of its hero in the hearts of four generations of +readers. "Why couldn't George Washington lie?" was the comment of a +little boy I knew, "Couldn't he talk?" + +Weems pretended to an intimacy at Mount Vernon which it appears he +never had. In "Blackwood's Magazine" John Neal said of the book, "Not +one word of which we believe. It is full of ridiculous exaggerations." +And yet neither this criticism nor any other stemmed the outpouring +of editions of it which must now number more than seventy. Weems +doubtless thought that he was helping God and doing good to Washington +by his offensive and effusive support of rudimentary morals. + +Weems had been dead a dozen years when another enemy sprang up. This +was the worthy Jared Sparks, an historian, a professor of history, who +collected with much care the correspondence of George Washington and +edited it in a monumental work. Sparks, however, suffered under the +delusion that something other than fact can be the best substance of +history. According to his tastes, many of Washington's letters were +not sufficiently dignified; they were too colloquial, they even let +slip expressions which no man conscious that he was the model of +propriety, the embodiment of the dignity of history, could have used. +So Mr. Sparks without blushing went through Washington's letters and +substituted for the originals words which he decided were more seemly. +Again the public came to know George Washington, not by his own words, +but by those attributed to him by an overzealous stylist-pedant. Well +might the Father of his Country pray to be delivered from the parsons. + +One of the earliest records of Washington's youth is the copy, written +in his beautiful, almost copper-plate hand, of "Rules of Civility & +Decent Behavior, In Company and Conversation." These maxims were taken +from an English book called "The Young Man's Companion," by W. Mather. +It had passed through thirteen editions and contained information upon +many matters besides conduct Perhaps Washington copied the maxims as a +school exercise; perhaps he learned them by heart. + +They are for the most part the didactic aphorisms which greatly +pleased our worthy ancestors during the middle of the eighteenth +century and later. Some of the entries referred to simple matters of +deportment: you must not turn your back on persons to whom you talk. +Others touch morals rather than manners. One imagines that the parson +or elderly uncles allowed themselves to bestow this indisputably +correct advice upon the youths whom they were interested in. A boy +brought up rigidly on these doctrines could hardly fail to become a +prig unless he succeeded in following the last injunction of all: +"Labor to keep alive in your heart, that little spark of celestial +fire called conscience." + +When he was eleven years old, Washington's father died, and his older +half-brother, Lawrence, who inherited the estate now known as Mount +Vernon, became his guardian. Lawrence had married the daughter of a +neighbor, William Fairfax, agent for the large Fairfax estate. Fairfax +and he had served with the Colonial forces at Cartagena under Admiral +Vernon, from whom the Washington manor took its name. Lord Fairfax, +William's cousin and head of the family, offered George work on the +survey of his domain. George, then a sturdy lad of sixteen, accepted +gladly, and for more than two years he carried it on. The Fairfax +estate extended far into the west, beyond the immediate tidewater +district, beyond the fringe of sparsely settled clearings, into the +wilderness itself. The effect of his experience as surveyor lasted +throughout George Washington's life. His self-reliance and his courage +never flagged. Sometimes he went alone and passed weeks among the +solitudes; sometimes he had a companion whom he had to care for as +well as for himself. But besides the toughening of his character which +this pioneer life assured him, he got much information, which greatly +influenced, years later, his views on the development, not only of +Virginia, but of the Northwest. Perhaps from this time there entered +into his heart the conviction that the strongest bond of union must +sometime bind together the various colonies, so different in resources +and in interests, including his native commonwealth. + +From journals kept during some of his expeditions we see that he was +a clear observer and an accurate reporter; far from bookish, but a +careful penman, and conscious of the obligation laid upon him to +acquire at least the minimum of polite knowledge which was expected of +a country gentleman such as he aspired to be. + +Here is an extract in which he describes the squalid conditions under +which he passed some of his life as a woodsman and surveyor. + + We got our suppers and was lighted into a Room and I not being + so good a woodsman as ye rest of my company, striped myself very + orderly and went into ye Bed, as they calld 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 + bare blanket with double its weight of vermin, such as Lice, + Fleas, etc. I was glad to get up (as soon as ye light was carried + from us). I put on my cloths and lay as my companions. Had we not + 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. + + Wednesday 16th. We set out early and finish'd about one o'clock + and then Travelled up to Frederick Town, where our Baggage came to + us. We cleaned ourselves (to get rid of ye game we had catched ye + night before), I took a Review of ye Town and then return'd to our + Lodgings where we had a good Dinner prepared for us. Wine and Rum + Punch in plenty, and a good Feather Bed with clean sheets, which + was a very agreeable regale. + +The longest of Washington's early expeditions was the "Journey over +the Mountains, began Fryday the 11th of March 1747/8." The mountains +were the Alleghanies, and the trip gave him a closer acquaintance than +he had had with Indians in the wilds. On his return, he stayed with +his half-brother, Lawrence, at Mount Vernon, or with Lord Fairfax, and +enjoyed the country life common to the richer Virginians of the time. +Towns which could provide an inn being few and far between, travellers +sought hospitality in the homes of the well-to-do residents, and every +one was in a way a neighbor of the other dwellers in his county. So +both at Belvoir and at Mount Vernon, guests were frequent and broke +the monotony and loneliness of their inmates. I think the reputation +of gravity, which was fixed upon Washington in his mature years, has +been projected back over his youth. The actual records are lacking, +but such hints and surmises as we have do not warrant our thinking +of him as a self-centred, unsociable youth. On the contrary, he was +rather, what would be called now, a sport, ready for hunting or +riding, of splendid physical build, agile and strong. He liked +dancing, and was not too shy to enjoy the society of young women; +indeed, he wrote poems to some of them, and seems to have been popular +with them. And still, the legend remains that he was bashful. + +From our earliest glimpses of him, Washington appears as a youth very +particular as to his dress. He knew how to rough it as the extracts +of his personal journals which I have quoted show, and this passage +confirms: + + I seem to be in a place where no real satisfaction is to be had. + Since you received my letter in October last, I have not sleep'd + above three or four nights in a bed, but, after walking a good + deal all the day, I 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 and cats, and happy is + he who gets the berth nearest the fire. There's nothing would make + it pass off tolerably but a good reward. A doubloon is my constant + gain every day that the weather will permit my going out, and + sometimes six pistoles. The coldness of the weather will not allow + of my making a long stay, as the lodging is rather too cold for + this time of year. I have never had my clothes off but lay and + sleep in them, except the few nights I have lay'n in Frederic + Town.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, p, 11.] + +Later, when Washington became master of Mount Vernon, his servants +were properly liveried. He himself rode to hounds in the approved +apparel of a fox-hunting British gentleman, and we find in the lists +of articles for which he sends to London the names of clothes and +other articles for Mrs. Washington and the children carefully +specified with the word "fashionable" or "very best quality" added. +Still later, when he was President he attended to this matter of dress +with even greater punctilio. + +One incident of this early period should not be passed by unmentioned. +Admiral Vernon offered him an appointment as midshipman in the navy, +but Washington's mother objected so strongly that Washington gave up +the opportunity. We may well wonder whether, if he had accepted it, +his career might not have been permanently turned aside. Had he served +ten or a dozen years in the navy, he might have grown to be so loyal +to the King, that, when the Revolution came, he would have been found +in command of one of the King's men-of-war, ordered to put down +the Rebels in Boston, or in New York. Thus Fate suggests amazing +alternatives to us in the retrospect, but in the actual living, Fate +makes it clear that the only course which could have happened was that +which did happen. + +In 1751 the health of Washington's brother, Lawrence, became so bad +from consumption that he decided to pass the winter in a warm climate. +He chose the Island of Barbados, and his brother George accompanied +him. Shortly before sailing, George was commissioned one of the +Adjutants-General of Virginia, with the rank of Major, and the pay +of £150 a year. They sailed on the Potomac River, perhaps near Mount +Vernon, on September 28, 1751, and landed at Bridgetown on November +3d. The next day they were entertained at breakfast and dinner +by Major Clark, the British officer who commanded some of the +fortifications of the island. "We went," says George Washington, in a +journal he kept, "myself with some reluctance, as the smallpox was in +his family." Thirteen days later, George fell ill of a very strong +case of smallpox which kept him housed for six weeks and left his face +much disfigured for life with pock marks, a fact which, so far as I +have observed his portraits, the painters have carefully forgotten to +indicate. + +The brothers passed a fairly pleasant month and a half at the +Barbados. Major Clark, and other gentlemen and officials of the +island, showed them much attention. They enjoyed the hospitality of +the Beefsteak and Tripe Club, which seems to have been the fashionable +club. On one occasion, Washington was taken to the play to see the +"Tragedy of George Barnwell." This may have been the first time that +he went to the theatre. He refers to it in his journal with his +habitual caution: + + Was treated with a play ticket by Mr. Carter 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 by Mr. + +But Lawrence Washington's consumption did not improve: he grew +homesick and pined for his wife and for Mount Vernon. The physicians +had recommended him to spend a full year at Barbados, in order to +give the climate and the regimen there a fair trial, but he could not +endure it so long, and he sailed from there to Bermuda, whence he +shortly returned to Virginia and Mount Vernon. George, meanwhile, had +also gone back to Virginia, sailing December 22, 1751, and arriving +February 1, 1752. Even from his much-mutilated journal, we can see +that he travelled with his eyes open, and that his interests were +many. As he mentioned in his journal thirty persons with whom +he became acquainted at the Barbados, we infer that in spite of +bashfulness he was an easy mixer. This short journey to the Barbados +marks the only occasion on which George Washington went outside of the +borders of the American Colonies, which became later, chiefly through +his genius, the United States.[1] + +[Footnote 1: J.M. Toner: _The Daily Journal of Major George Washington +in 1751-2_ (Albany, N.Y., 1892).] + +In July, 1752, Lawrence Washington died of the disease which he +had long struggled against. He left his fortune and his property, +including Mount Vernon, to his daughter, Sarah, and he appointed his +brother, George, her guardian. She was a sweet-natured girl, but very +frail, who died before long, probably of the same disease which +had carried her father off, and, until its infectious nature was +understood, used to decimate families from generation to generation. + +To have thrust upon him, at the age of twenty, the management of a +large estate might seem a heavy burden for any young man; but George +Washington was equal to the task, and it seems as if much of his +career up to that time was a direct preparation for it. He knew every +foot of its fields and meadows, of its woodlands and streams; he knew +where each crop grew, and its rotation; he had taken great interest in +horses and cattle, and in the methods for maintaining and improving +their breed; and now, of course being master, his power of choosing +good men to do the work was put to the test. But he had not been long +at these new occupations before public duties drew him away from them. + +Though they knew it not, the European settlers in North America were +approaching a life-and-death catastrophe. From the days when the +English and the French first settled on the continent, Fate ordained +for them an irrepressible conflict. Should France prevail? Should +England prevail? With the growth of their colonies, both the English +and the French felt their rivalry sharpened. Although distances often +very broad kept them apart in space, yet both nations were ready to +prove the terrible truth that when two men, or two tribes, wish +to fight each other, they will find out a way. The French, at New +Orleans, might be far away from the English at Boston; and the +English, in New York, or in Philadelphia, might be removed from the +French in Quebec; but in their hatreds they were near neighbors. The +French pushed westward along the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes, and +from Lake Erie, they pushed southward, across the rich plains of Ohio, +to the Ohio River. Their trails spread still farther into the Western +wilderness. They set up trading-posts in the very region which the +English settlers expected to occupy in the due process of their +advance. At the junction of the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, they +planted Fort Duquesne, which not only commanded the approach to the +territory through which the Ohio flowed westward, but served notice +on the English that the French regarded themselves as the rightful +claimants of that territory. + +In 1753 Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, had sent a commissioner to +warn the French to cease from encroaching on the lands in the Ohio +wilderness which belonged to the King of England, but the messenger +stopped one hundred and fifty miles short of his goal. Therefore, +the Governor decided to despatch another envoy. He selected George +Washington, who was already well known for his surveying, and for his +expedition beyond the mountains, and doubtless had the backing of the +Fairfaxes and other influential gentlemen. Washington set out on the +same day he received his appointment from Governor Dinwiddie (October +31, 1753), engaged Jacob Van Braam, a Hollander who had taught him +fencing, to be his French interpreter; and Christopher Gist, the best +guide through the Virginia wilderness, to pilot the party. In spite +of the wintry conditions which beset them, they made good time. +Washington presented his official warning to M. Joncaire, the +principal French commander in the region under dispute, but he replied +that he must wait for orders from the Governor in Quebec. One object +of Washington's mission was to win over, if possible, the Indians, +whose friendship for either the French or the English depended wholly +on self-interest. He seems to have been most successful in securing +the friendship of Thanacarishon, the great Seneca Chief, known as the +Half-King. This native left it as his opinion that + + the colonel was a good-natured man, but had no experience; he took + upon him to command the Indians as his slaves, and would have them + every day upon the scout and to attack the enemy by themselves, + but would by no means take advice from the Indians. He lay in + one place from one full moon to the other, without making any + fortifications, except that little thing on the meadow, whereas, + had he taken advice, and built such fortifications as I advised + him, he might easily have beat off the French. But the French in + the engagement acted like cowards, and the English like fools.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Quoted by Lodge, I, 74.] + +Believing that he could accomplish no more at that time, Washington +retraced his steps and returned to Williamsburg. + +Governor Dinwiddie, being much disappointed with the outcome of the +expedition, urged the Virginian Legislature to equip another party +sufficiently strong to be able to capture Fort Duquesne, and to +confirm the British control of the Ohio. The Burgesses, however, +pleaded economy, and refused to grant funds adequate to this purpose. +Nevertheless, the Governor having equipped a small troop, under the +command of Colonel Fry, with Washington as second, hurried it forth. +During May and June they were near the Forks, and with the approach of +danger, Washington's spirit and recklessness increased. In a slight +skirmish, M. de Jumonville, the French commander, was killed. Fry died +of disease and Washington took his place as commander. Perceiving that +his own position was precarious, and expecting an attack by a large +force of the enemy, he entrenched himself near Great Meadows in a +hastily built fort, which he called Fort Necessity, and thought it +possible to defend, even with his own small force, against five +hundred French and Indians. He miscalculated, however. The enemy +exceeded in numbers all his expectations. His own resources dwindled; +and so he took the decision of a practical man and surrendered the +fort, on condition that he and his men be allowed to march out with +the honors of war. They returned to Virginia with little delay. + +The Burgesses and the people of the State, though chagrined, did not +take so gloomy a view of the collapse of the expedition as Washington +himself did. His own depression equalled his previous exaltation. As +he thought over the affairs of the past half-year in the quiet of +Mount Vernon, the feeling which he had had from the start, that the +expedition had not been properly planned, or directed, or reënforced +in men and supplies, was confirmed. Governor Dinwiddie's notion that +raw volunteers would suffice to overcome trained soldiers had been +proved a delusion. The inadequate pay and provisions of the officers +irritated Washington, not only because they were insufficient, but +also because they fell far short of those of the English regulars. + +In his penetrating Biography of Washington, Senator Lodge regards +his conduct of the campaign, which ended in the surrender of Great +Meadows, and his narrative as revealing Washington as a "profoundly +silent man." Carlyle, Senator Lodge says, who preached the doctrine of +silence, brushed Washington aside as a "bloodless Cromwell," "failing +utterly to see that he was the most supremely silent of the great men +of action that the world can show." Let us admit the justice of the +strictures on Carlyle, but let us ask whether Washington's letters at +this time spring from a "silent" man. He writes with perfect openness +to Governor Dinwiddie; complains of the military system under which +the troops are paid and the campaign is managed; he repeatedly +condemns the discrimination against the Virginian soldiers in favor of +the British regulars; and he points out that instead of attempting to +win the popularity of the Virginians, they are badly treated. Their +rations are poor, and he reminds the Governor that a continuous diet +of salt pork and water does not inspire enthusiasm in either the +stomach or the spirit. No wonder that the officers talk of resigning. +"For my own part I can answer, I have a constitution hardy enough to +encounter and undergo the most severe trials, and, I flatter myself, +resolution to face what any man durst, as shall be proved when it +comes to the test, which I believe we are on the borders of." In +several other passages from letters at this time, we come upon +sentiments which indicate that Washington had at least a sufficiently +high estimation of his own worth, and that his genius for silence had +not yet curbed his tongue. There is the famous boast attributed to him +by Horace Walpole. In a despatch which Washington sent back to the +Governor after the little skirmish in which Jumonville was killed, +Washington said: "'I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there +is something charming in the sound.' On hearing of this the King said +sensibly, 'he would not say so if he had been used to hear many.'" +This reply of George II deserves to be recorded if only because it is +one of the few feeble witticisms credited to the Hanoverian Kings. +Years afterward, Washington declared that he did not remember ever +having referred to the charm of listening to whistling bullets. +Perhaps he never said it; perhaps he forgot. He was only twenty-two at +the time of the Great Meadows campaign. No doubt he was as well aware +as was Governor Dinwiddie, and other Virginians, that he was the best +equipped man on the expedition, experienced in actual fighting, and +this, added to his qualifications as a woodsman, had given him a real +zest for battle. In their discussion over the campfire, he and his +fellow officers must inevitably have criticized the conduct of the +expedition, and it may well be that Washington sometimes insisted +that if his advice were followed things would go better. Not on this +account, therefore, must we lay too much blame on him for being +conceited or immodest. He knew that he knew, and he did not dissemble +the fact. Silence came later. + +The result of the expeditions to and skirmishes at the Forks of the +Ohio was that England and France were at war, although they had not +declared war on each other. A chance musket shot in the backwoods of +Virginia started a conflict which reverberated in Europe, disturbed +the peace of the world for seven years, and had serious consequences +in the French and English colonies of North America. The news of +Washington's disaster at Fort Necessity aroused the British Government +to the conclusion that it must make a strong demonstration in order +to crush the swelling prestige of the French rivals in America. The +British planned, accordingly, to send out three expeditions, one +against Fort Duquesne, another against the French in Nova Scotia, and +a third against Quebec. The command of the first they gave to General +Edward Braddock. He was then sixty years old, had been in the Regular +Army all his life, had served in Holland, at L'Orient, and at +Gibraltar, was a brave man, and an almost fanatical believer in the +rules of war as taught in the manuals. During the latter half of 1754, +Governor Dinwiddie was endeavoring against many obstacles to send +another expedition, equipped by Virginia herself, to the Ohio. Only in +the next spring, however, after Braddock had come over from England +with a relatively large force of regulars, were the final preparations +for a campaign actually made. Washington, in spite of being the +commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, had his wish of going as +a volunteer at his own expense. He wrote his friend William Byrd, on +April 20, 1755, from Mount Vernon: + + I am now preparing for, and shall in a few days set off, to serve + in the ensuing campaign, with different views, however, from those + I had before. For here, if I can gain any credit, or if I am + entitled to the least countenance and esteem, it must be from + serving my country without fee or reward; for I can truly say, I + have no expectation of either. To merit its esteem, and the good + will of my friends, is the sum of my ambition, having no prospect + of attaining a commission, being well assured it is not in Gen'l + Braddock's power to give such an one as I would accept of. The + command of a Company is the highest commission vested in his gift. + He was so obliging as to desire my company this campaign, has + honoured me with particular marks of his esteem, and kindly + invited me into his family--a circumstance which will ease me of + expences that otherwise must have accrued in furnishing + stores, camp equipages, etc. Whereas the cost will now be easy + (comparatively speaking), as baggage, horses, tents, and some + other necessaries, will constitute the whole of the charge.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 146-49.] + +The army began to move about the middle of May, but it went very +slowly. During June Washington was taken with an acute fever, in +spite of which he pressed on, but he became so weak that he had to be +carried in a cart, as he was unable to sit his horse. Braddock, with +the main army, had gone on ahead, and Washington feared that the +battle, which he believed imminent, would be fought before he came up +with the front. But he rejoined the troops on July 8th. The next day +they forded the Monongahela and proceeded to attack Fort Duquesne. +Writing from Fort Cumberland, on July 18th, Washington gave Governor +Dinwiddie the following account of Braddock's defeat. The one thing +happened which Washington had felt anxious about--a surprise by the +Indians. He had more than once warned Braddock of this danger, and +Benjamin Franklin had warned him too before the expedition started, +but Braddock, with perfect British contempt, had replied that though +savages might be formidable to raw Colonials, they could make +no impression on disciplined troops. The surprise came and thus +Washington reports it: + + When we came to this place, we were attacked (very unexpectedly) + by about three hundred French and Indians. Our numbers consisted + of about thirteen hundred well armed men, chiefly Regulars, who + were immediately struck with such an inconceivable panick, that + nothing but confusion and disobedience of orders prevailed among + them. The officers, in general, behaved with incomparable bravery, + for which they greatly suffered, there being near 60 killed and + wounded--a large proportion, out of the number we had! + + The Virginia companies behaved like men and died like soldiers; + for I believe out of three companies that were on the ground that + day scarce thirty were left alive. Capt. Peyroney and all his + officers, down to a corporal, were killed; Capt. Polson had + almost as hard a fate, for only one of his escaped. In short, the + dastardly behaviour of the Regular troops (so-called) exposed + those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death; + and, at length, in despite of every effort to the contrary, broke + and ran as sheep before hounds, leaving the artillery, ammunition, + provisions, baggage, and, in short, everything a prey to the + enemy. And when we endeavored to rally them, in hopes of regaining + the ground and what we had left upon it, it was with as little + success as if we had attempted to have stopped the wild bears of + the mountains, or rivulets with our feet; for they would break by, + in despite of every effort that could be made to prevent it. + + The General was wounded in the shoulder and breast, of which he + died three days after; his two aids-de-camp were both wounded, but + are in a fair way of recovery; Colo. Burton and Sr. John St. Clair + are also wounded, and I hope will get over it; Sir Peter Halket, + with many other brave officers, were killed in the field. It is + supposed that we had three hundred or more killed; about that + number we brought off wounded, and it is conjectured (I believe + with much truth) that two thirds of both received their shot from + our own cowardly Regulars, who gathered themselves into a body, + contrary to orders, ten or twelve deep, would then level, fire and + shoot down the men before them.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 173-74-75.] + +In this admirable letter Washington tells nothing about his own +prowess in the battle, where he rode to all parts of the field, trying +to stem the retreat, and had two horses shot under him and four bullet +holes in his coat. He tried to get the troops to break ranks and to +screen themselves behind rocks and trees, but Braddock, helpless +without his rules, drove them back to regular formation with the flat +of his sword, and made them an easy mark for the volleys of the enemy. +Washington's personal valor could not fail to be admired, although his +audacity exposed him to unjustified risks. + +On reaching Fort Cumberland he wrote to his brother John, on July +18th: + + As I have heard, since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial + account of my death and dying speech, I take this early + opportunity of contradicting the first, and assuring you, that + I have not as yet composed the latter. But, by the all-powerful + dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all + human probability and expectation.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ibid. 175-76.] + +The more he thought over the events of that day, the more was he +amazed--"I join very heartily with you in believing," he wrote Robert +Jackson on August 2d, "that when this story comes to be related in +future annals, it will meet with unbelief and indignation, for had I +not been witness to the fact on that fatal day, I should scarce have +given credit to it even _now_."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 177.] + +Although Washington was thoroughly disgusted by the mismanagement of +military affairs in Virginia, he was not ready to deny the appeals +of patriotism. From Mount Vernon, on August 14, 1755, he wrote his +mother: + + Honored Madam, If it is in my power to avoid going to the Ohio + again, I shall; but if the command is pressed upon me, by the + general _voice_ of the country, and offered upon such terms as + cannot be objected against, it would reflect dishonor upon me to + refuse; and _that_, I am sure must or _ought_ to give you greater + uneasiness, than my going in an honorable command, for upon no + other terms I will accept of it. At present I have no proposals + made to me, nor have I any advice of such an intention, except + from private hands.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ibid. 180-81.] + +Braddock's defeat put an end to campaigning in Virginia for some time. +The consternation it caused, not only held the people of the sparse +western settlements in alarm but agitated the tidewater towns and +villages. The Burgesses and many of the inhabitants had not yet +learned their lesson sufficiently to set about reorganizing their army +system, but the Assembly partially recognized its obligation to the +men who had fought by voting to them a small sum for losses during +their previous service. Washington received £300, but his patriotic +sense of duty kept him active. In the winter of 1758, however, owing +to a very serious illness, he resigned from the army and returned to +Mount Vernon to recuperate. + +During the long and tedious weeks of sickness and recovery, Washington +doubtless had time to think over, to clarify in his mind, and to pass +judgment on the events in which he had shared during the past six or +seven years. From boyhood that was his habit. He must know the meaning +of things. An event might be as fruitless as a shooting star unless he +could trace the relations which tied it to what came before and after. +Hence his deliberation which gave to his opinions the solidity of +wisdom. Audacious he might be in battle, but perhaps what seems to us +audacity seemed to him at the moment a higher prudence. If there were +crises when the odds looked ten to one against him, he would take the +chance. He knew the incalculable value of courage. His experiences +with the British regulars and their officers left a deep impression on +him and colored his own decisions in his campaigns against the British +during the Revolutionary War. To genius nothing comes amiss, and by +genius nothing is forgotten. So we find that all that Washington saw +and learned during his years of youth--his apprenticeship as surveyor, +his vicissitudes as pioneer, tasks as Indian fighter and as companion +of the defeated Braddock--all contributed to fit him for the supreme +work for which Fate had created him and the ages had waited. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MARRIAGE. THE LIFE OF A PLANTER + + +War is like the wind, nobody can tell into whose garden it may blow +desolation. The French and Indian War, generally called now the Seven +Years' War, beginning as a mere border altercation between the British +and French backwoodsmen on the banks of the upper Ohio River, grew +into a struggle which, by the year 1758, when Washington retired from +his command of the Virginia Forces, spread over the world. A new +statesman, one of the ablest ever born in England, came to control the +English Government. William Pitt, soon created Earl of Chatham, saw +that the British Empire had reached a crisis in its development. +Incompetence, inertia, had blurred its prestige, and the little +victories which France, its chief enemy, had been winning against it +piecemeal, were coming to be regarded as signs that the grandeur of +Britain was passing. Pitt saw the gloomy situation, and the still +gloomier future which it seemed to prophesy, but he saw also the +remedy. Within a few months, under his direction, English troops were +in every part of the world, and English ships of war were sailing +every ocean, to recover the slipping elements and to solidify the +British Empire. Just as Pitt was taking up his residence at Downing +Street, Robert Clive was winning the Battle of Plassey in India, which +brought to England territory of untold wealth. Two years later James +Wolfe, defeating the French commander, Montcalm, on the Plains of +Abraham, added not only Quebec, but all Canada, to the British Crown, +and ended French rivalry north of the Great Lakes. Victories like +these, seemingly so casual, really as final and as unrevisable as +Fate, might well cause Englishmen to suspect that Destiny itself +worked with them, and that an Englishman could be trusted to endure +through any difficulties to a triumphant conclusion. + +Beaten at every point where they met the British, the French, even +after they had secured an alliance with Spain, which proved of little +worth, were glad to make peace. On February 10, 1763, they signed +the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed to the British nearly all their +victories and left England the dominant Power in both hemispheres. +The result of the war produced a marked effect on the people of the +British Colonies in North America. "At no period of time," says Chief +Justice Marshall, in his "Life of Washington," "was the attachment of +the colonists to the mother country more strong, or more general, than +in 1763, when the definitive articles of the treaty which restored +peace to Great Britain, France, and Spain, were signed."[1] But we +who know the sequel perceive that the Seven Years' War not only +strengthened the attachment between the Colonies and the Mother +Country, but that it also made the Colonies aware of their common +interests, and awakened among them mutual friendship, and in a very +brief time their sense of unity prevailed over their temporary +enthusiasm for England. George III, a monarch as headstrong as he was +narrow, with insanity lurking in his mind, succeeded to the throne in +1760, and he seized the first opportunity to get rid of his masterful +Minister, William Pitt. He replaced him with the Earl of Bute, a +Scotchman, and a man of ingenious parts, but with the incurable Tory +habit of insisting that it was still midnight long after the sun was +shining in the forenoon of another day. + +[Footnote 1: Marshall: _The Life of George Washington_ (Philadelphia, +1805, 5 vols.), II, 68.] + +Before the Treaty was signed and the world had begun to spin in a new +groove, which optimists thought would stretch on forever, an equally +serious change had come to the private life of George Washington. To +the surprise of his friends, who had begun to doubt whether he would +ever get married, he found his life's companion and married her +without delay. The notion seems to have been popular during his +lifetime, and it certainly has continued to later days, that he was +too bashful to feel easy in ladies' society. I find no evidence +for this mistaken idea. Although little has been recorded of the +intimacies of Washington's youth, there are indications of more than +one "flame" and that he was not dull and stockish with the young +women. As early as 1748, we hear of the Low-Land Beauty who had +captivated him, and who is still to be identified. Even earlier, in +his school days, he indulged in writing love verses. But we need not +infer that they were inspired by living damsels or by the Muses. + + "Oh ye Gods why should my poor resistless Heart + Stand to oppose thy might and power-- + + * * * * * + + "In deluding sleepings let my eyelids close + That in an enraptured dream I may + In a rapt lulling sleep and gentle repose + Possess those joys denied by day."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Quoted by Wister, 39.] + +Cavour said that it was easier for him to make Italy than to write a +poem: Washington, who was also an honest man, and fully aware of his +limitations, would probably have admitted that he could make the +American Republic more easily than a love song. But he was susceptible +to feminine charms, and we hear of Betsy Fauntleroy, and of a "Mrs. +Meil," and on his return to Mount Vernon, after Braddock's defeat, he +received the following round robin from some of the young ladies at +Belvoir: + + 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 tomorrow morning very early + we shall be at Mount Vernon. + + S[ALLY] FAIRFAX ANN SPEARING ELIZ'TH DENT + +Apparently Washington's love affairs were known and talked about among +his group. What promised to be the most serious of his experiences was +with Mary Philipse, of New York, daughter of Frederick Philipse, one +of the richest landowners in that Colony, and sister-in-law of Beverly +Robinson, one of Washington's Virginian friends. Washington was going +to Boston on a characteristic errand. One of the minor officers in +the Regular British Army, which had accompanied Braddock to Virginia, +refused to take orders from Washington, and officers of higher grade +in Virginia Troops, declaring that their commissions were assigned +only by Colonial officials, whereas he had his own from King George. +This led, of course, to insubordination and frequent quarrels. To +put a stop to the wrangling, Washington journeyed to Boston, to have +Governor Shirley, the Commander-in-Chief of the King's Forces in the +Colonies, give a decision upon it. The Governor ruled in favor of +Washington, who then rode back to Virginia. But he spent a week in New +York City in order to see his enchantress, Mary Philipse, and it is +even whispered that he proposed to her and that she refused him. Two +years afterwards she married Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Morris, and +during the Revolution the Morris house was Washington's headquarters; +the Morrises, who were Tories, having fled. + +Persons have speculated why it was that so many of the young women +whom Washington took a fancy to, chilled and drew back when it came to +the question of marriage. One very clever writer thinks that perhaps +his nose was inordinately large in his youth, and that that repelled +them. I do not pretend to say. So far as I know, psychologists have +not yet made a sufficiently exact study of the nose as a determining +factor in matrimony, to warrant an opinion from persons who have +made no special study of the subject. The plain fact was that by his +twenty-fifth year, Washington was an unusually presentable young man, +more than six feet tall, broad-shouldered, very strong, slender and +athletic, carefully polite in his manners, a boon companion, though he +talked little, a sound and deliberate thinker; moreover, the part he +had taken in the war with the Indians and the French made him almost +a popular hero, and gave him a preëminent place among the Virginians, +both the young and the old, of that time. The possession of the +estate of Mount Vernon, which he had inherited from his half-brother, +Lawrence, assured to him more than a comfortable fortune, and yet +gossip wondered why he was not married. Thackeray intimates that +Washington was too evidently on the lookout for a rich wife, which, if +true, may account for some of the alleged rebuffs. I do not believe +this assertion, nor do I find evidence for it. Washington was always a +very careful, farseeing person, and no doubt had a clear idea of what +constitutes desirable qualifications in marriage, but I believe he +would have married a poor girl out of the workhouse if he had really +loved her. However, he was not put to that test. + +One May day Washington rode off from Mount Vernon to carry despatches +to Williamsburg. He stopped at William's Ferry for dinner with his +friend Major Chamberlayne. At the table was Mrs. Daniel Parke Custis, +who, under her maiden name of Martha Dandridge, was well known +throughout that region for her beauty and sweet disposition. She was +now a widow of twenty-six, with two small children. Her late husband, +Colonel Custis, her elder by fifteen years, had left her a large +estate called White House, and a fortune which made her one of the +richest women in Virginia. From their first introduction, Washington +and she seemed to be mutually attracted. He lingered throughout the +afternoon and evening with her and went on to Williamsburg with his +despatches the next morning. Having finished his business at the +Capitol, he returned to William's Ferry, where he again saw Mrs. +Custis, pressed his suit upon her and was accepted. Characteristic +was it that he should conclude the matter so suddenly; but he had had +marriage in his intentions for many years. + +During the summer Washington returned to his military duties and led +a troop to Fort Duquesne. He found the fort partly demolished, and +abandoned by the French; he marched in and took it, and gave it the +name of Fort Pitt, in recognition of the great statesman who had +directed the revival of British prestige. The fort, thus recovered to +English possession, stood on the present site of Pittsburgh. I quote +the following brief letter from Washington to Mrs. Custis, as it is +almost the only note of his to her during their engagement that has +been preserved: + + 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: P.L. Ford, _The True George Washington_, 93.] + +Late in that autumn Washington returned for good from his Western +fighting. On January 6, 1759 (Old Style), his marriage to Mrs. Custis +took place in St. Peter's Church, near her home at the White House. +Judging from the fine writing which old historians and new have +devoted to describing it, Virginia had seen few such elegant pageants +as upon that occasion. The grandees in official station and in social +life were all there. Francis Fauquier was, of course, gorgeous in his +Governor's robes but he could not outshine the bridegroom, in blue and +silver with scarlet trimmings, and gold buckles at his knees, with his +imperial physique and carriage. The Reverend Peter Mossum conducted +the Episcopal service, after which the bride drove back with a coach +and six to the White House, while Washington, with other gentlemen, +rode on horseback beside her acting as escort. + +The bridal couple spent two or three months at the White House. The +Custis estates were large and in so much need of oversight that if +Washington had not appeared at this time, a bailiff, or manager, would +have had to be hired for them. Henceforth Washington seems to have +added the care of the White House to that of Mount Vernon, and the two +involved a burden which occupied most of his time, for he had retired +from the army. His fellow citizens, however, had elected him a member +of the House of Burgesses, a position he held for many years; going to +Williamsburg every season to attend the sessions of the Assembly. +On his first entrance to take his seat, Mr. Robinson, the Speaker, +welcomed him in Virginia's name, and praised him for his high +achievements. This so embarrassed the modest young member that he was +unable to reply, upon which Speaker Robinson said, "Sit down, Mr. +Washington, your modesty is equal to your valor, and that surpasses +the power of any language that I possess." In all his life, probably, +Washington never heard praise more genuine or more deserved. He had +just passed his twenty-seventh year. In the House of Burgesses he had +the reputation of being the silent member. He never acquired the art +of a debater. He was neither quick at rebuttal nor at repartee, but +so surely did his character impress itself on every one that when he +spoke the Assembly almost took it for granted that he had said the +final word on the subject under discussion. How careful he was to +observe the scope and effects of parliamentary speaking appears from a +letter which he wrote many years later. + +Agriculture has always been a particularly fine training-ground +for statesmen. To persons who do not watch it closely, it may seem +monotonous. In reality, while the sum of the conditions of one year +tally closely with those of another, the daily changes and variations +create a variety which must be constantly watched and provided for. A +sudden freshet and unseasonable access of heat or cold, a scourge of +hail, a drought, a murrain among the cattle, call for ingenuity and +for resourcefulness; and for courage, a higher moral quality. Constant +comradeship with Nature seems to beget placidity and quiet assurance. +From using the great natural forces which bring to pass crops and the +seasons, they seem to work in and through him also. The banker, the +broker, even the merchant, lives in a series of whirlwinds, or seems +to be pursuing a mirage or groping his way through a fog. The +farmer, although he be not beyond the range of accident, deals more +continually with causes which regularly produce certain effects. He +knows a rainbow by sight and does not waste his time and money in +chasing it. + +No better idea of Washington's activity as a planter can be had than +from his brief and terse journals as an agriculturist. He sets down +day by day what he did and what his slaves and the free employees did +on all parts of his estate. We see him as a regular and punctual man. +He had a moral repugnance to idleness. He himself worked steadily and +he chided the incompetent, the shirkers, and the lazy. + +A short experience as landowner convinced him that slave labor was the +least efficient of all. This conviction led him very early to believe +in the emancipation of the slaves. I do not find that sentiment or +abstract ideals moved him to favor emancipation, but his sense of +fitness, his aversion to wastefulness and inefficiency made him +disapprove of a system which rendered industry on a high plane +impossible. Experience only confirmed these convictions of his, and in +his will he ordered that many slaves should be freed after the death +of Mrs. Washington. He was careful to apportion to his slaves the +amount of food they needed in order to keep in health and to work the +required stint. He employed a doctor to look after them in sickness. +He provided clothing for them which he deemed sufficient. I do not +gather that he ever regarded the black man as being essentially made +of the same clay as the white man, the chief difference being the +color of their skin. To Washington, the Slave System seemed bad, not +so much because it represented a debased moral standard, but because +it was economically and socially inadequate. His true character +appears in his making the best of a system which he recognized as most +faulty. Under his management, in a few years, his estate at Mount +Vernon became the model of that kind of plantation in the South. + +Whoever desires to understand Washington's life as a planter should +read his diaries with their brief, and one might almost say brusque, +entries from day to day.[1] Washington's care involved not only +bringing the Mount Vernon estate to the highest point of prosperity +by improving the productiveness of its various sections, but also by +buying and annexing new pieces of land. To such a planter as he was, +the ideal was to raise enough food to supply all the persons who lived +or worked on the place, and this he succeeded in doing. His chief +source of income, which provided him with ready money, was the tobacco +crop, which proved to be of uncertain value. By Washington's time the +Virginians had much diminished the amount and delicacy of the tobacco +they raised by the careless methods they employed. They paid little +attention to the rotation of crops, or to manuring, with the result +that the soil was never properly replenished. In his earlier days +Washington shipped his year's product to an agent in Glasgow or in +London, who sold it at the market price and sent him the proceeds. The +process of transportation was sometimes precarious; a leaky ship might +let in enough sea water to damage the tobacco, and there was always +the risk of loss by shipwreck or other accident. Washington sent out +to his brokers a list of things which he desired to pay for out of +the proceeds of the sale, to be sent to him. These lists are most +interesting, as they show us the sort of household utensils and +furniture, the necessaries and the luxuries, and the apparel used in a +mansion like Mount Vernon. We find that he even took care to order a +fashionably dressed doll for little Martha Custis to play with. + +[Footnote 1: See for instance in W.C. Ford's edition of _The Writings +of George Washington_, II, 140-69. Diary for 1760, 230-56. Diary for +1768.] + +The care and education of little Martha and her brother, John Parke +Custis, Washington undertook with characteristic thoroughness and +solicitude. He had an instinct for training growing creatures. He +liked to experiment in breeding horses and cattle and the farmyard +animals. He watched the growth of his plantations of trees, and he +was all the more interested in studying the development of mental and +moral capacities in the little children. + +In due time a tutor was engaged, and besides the lessons they learned +in their schoolbooks, they were taught both music and dancing. Little +Patsy suffered from epilepsy, and after the prescriptions of the +regular doctors had done no good, her parents turned to a quack named +Evans, who placed on the child's finger an iron ring supposed to have +miraculous virtues, but it brought her no relief, and very suddenly +little Martha Custis died. Washington himself felt the loss of his +unfortunate step-daughter, but he was unflagging in trying to console +the mother, heartbroken at the death of the child. + +Jack Custis was given in charge of the Reverend Jonathan Boucher, +an Anglican clergyman, apparently well-meaning, who agreed with +Washington's general view that the boy's training "should make him fit +for more useful purposes than horse-racing." In spite of Washington's +carefully reasoned plans, the youth of the young man prevailed over +the reason of his stepfather. Jack found dogs, horses, and guns, and +consideration of dress more interesting and more important than +his stepfather's theories of education. Washington wrote to Parson +Boucher, the teacher: + + Had he begun, or rather pursued his study of the Greek language, + I should have thought it no bad acquisition; ... To be acquainted + with the French Tongue is become a part of polite education; + and to a man who has the prospect of mixing in a large circle, + absolutely necessary. Without arithmetic, the common affairs of + life are not to be managed with success. The study of Geometry, + and the mathematics (with due regard to the limits of it) is + equally advantageous. The principles of Philosophy, Moral, + Natural, etc. I should think a very desirable knowledge for a + gentleman.[1] + +[Footnote 1: W.C. Ford, _George Washington_ (1900), I, 136-37.] + +There was nothing abstract in young Jack Custis's practical response +to his stepfather's reasoning; he fell in love with Miss Nelly Calvert +and asked her to marry him. Washington was forced to plead with the +young lady that the youth was too young for marriage by several years, +and that he must finish his education. Apparently she acquiesced +without making a scene. She accepted a postponement of the engagement, +and Custis was enrolled among the students of King's College +(subsequently Columbia) in New York City. Even then, his passion for +an education did not develop as his parents hoped. He left the college +in the course of a few months. Throughout John Custis's perversities, +and as long as he lived, Washington's kindness and real affection +never wavered. Although he had now taught himself to practice complete +self-control, he could treat with consideration the young who had it +not. + +By nature Washington was a man of business. He wished to see things +grow, not so much for the actual increase in value which that +indicated, as because increase seemed to be a proof of proper methods. +Not content, therefore, with rounding out his holdings at Mount Vernon +and Mrs. Washington's estate at the White House, he sought investment +in the unsettled lands on the Ohio and in Florida, and on the +Mississippi. It proved to be a long time before the advance of +settlement in the latter regions made his investments worth much, and +during the decade after his marriage in 1759, we must think of him +as a man of great energy and calm judgment who was bent not only +on making Mount Vernon a model country place on the outside, but a +civilized home within. In its furnishings and appointments it did not +fall behind the manors of the Virginia men of fashion and of wealth +in that part of the country. Before Washington left the army, he +recognized that his education had been irregular and inadequate, and +he set himself to make good his defects by studying and reading for +himself. There were no public libraries, but some of the gentlemen +made collections of books. They learned of new publications in England +from journals which were few in number and incomplete. Doubtless +advertising went by word of mouth. The lists of things desired which +Washington sent out to his agents, Robert Cary and Company, once a +year or oftener, usually contained the titles of many books, chiefly +on architecture, and he was especially intent on keeping up with new +methods and experiments in farming. Thus, among the orders in May, +1759, among a request for "Desert Glasses and Stand for Sweetmeats +Jellies, etc.; 50 lbs. Spirma Citi Candles; stockings etc.," he asks +for "the newest and most approved Treatise of Agriculture--besides +this, send me a Small piece in Octavo--called a New System of +Agriculture, or a Speedy Way to Grow Rich; Longley's Book of +Gardening; Gibson upon Horses, the latest Edition in Quarto." This +same invoice contains directions for "the Busts--one of Alexander the +Great, another of Charles XII, of Sweden, and a fourth of the King of +Prussia (Frederick the Great); also of Prince Eugene and the Duke of +Marlborough, but somewhat smaller." Do these celebrities represent +Washington's heroes in 1759? + +As time went on, his commissions for books were less restricted to +agriculture, and comprised also works on history, biography, and +government. + +But although incessant activity devoted to various kinds of work was a +characteristic of Washington's life at Mount Vernon, his attention to +social duties and pleasures was hardly less important. He aimed to be +a country gentleman of influence, and he knew that he could achieve +this only by doing his share of the bountiful hospitality which was +expected of such a personage. Virginia at that time possessed no large +cities or towns with hotels. When the gentry travelled, they put up +overnight at the houses of other gentry, and thus, in spite of very +restricted means of transportation, the inhabitants of one part of the +country exchanged ideas with those of another. In this way also the +members of the upper class circulated among themselves and acquired +a solidarity which otherwise would hardly have been possible. We are +told that Mount Vernon was always full of guests; some of these being +casual strangers travelling through, and others being invited friends +and acquaintances on a visit. There were frequent balls and parties +when neighbors from far and near joined in some entertainment at the +great mansion. There were the hunt balls which Washington himself +particularly enjoyed, hunting being his favorite sport. Fairfax +County, where Mount Vernon lay, and its neighboring counties, Fauquier +and Prince William, abounded in foxes, and the land was not too +difficult for the hunters, who copied as far as possible the dress +and customs of the foxhunters in England. Possibly there might be a +meeting at Mount Vernon of the local politicians. At least once a year +Washington and his wife--"Lady," as the somewhat florid Virginians +called her--went off to Williamsburg to attend the session of the +House of Burgesses. Washington seldom missed going to the horse-races, +one of the chief functions of the year, not only for jockeys and +sporting men, but for the fashionable world of the aristocracy. Thanks +to his carefulness and honesty in keeping his accounts, we have his +own record of the amounts he spent at cards--never large amounts, nor +indicative of the gamester's passion. + +Thus Washington passed the first ten years of his married life. A +stranger meeting him at that time might have little suspected that +here was the future founder of a nation, one who would prove himself +the greatest of Americans, if not the greatest of men. But if you had +spent a day with Washington, and watched him at work, or listened to +his few but decisive words, or seen his benign but forcible smile, +you would have said to yourself--"This man is equal to any fate that +destiny may allot to him." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FIRST GUN + + +Meanwhile the course of events was leading toward a new and unexpected +goal. Chief Justice Marshall said, as I have quoted, that 1763, the +end of the French-Indian War, marked the greatest friendship and +harmony between the Colonies and England. The reason is plain. In +their incessant struggles with the French and the Indians, the +Colonists had discovered a real champion and protector. That +protector, England, had found that she must really protect the +Colonies unless she was willing to see them fall into the hands of +her rival, France. Putting forth her strength, she crushed France in +America, and remained virtually in control not only of the Colonies +and territory from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, but also of +British America. In these respects the Colonies and the Mother Country +seemed destined to be bound more closely together; but the very spirit +by which Britain had conquered France in America, and France in India, +and had made England paramount throughout the world, prevented the +further fusion, moral, social, and political, of the Colonies with the +Mother Country. + +That spirit was the Imperial Spirit, which Plassey and Quebec had +called to life. The narrow Hanoverian King, who now ruled England, +could not himself have devised the British Empire, but when the Empire +crystallized, George III rightly surmised that, however it had come +about, it meant a large increase in power for him. The Colonies and +Dependencies were to be governed like conquered provinces. Evidently, +the Hindus of Bengal could hardly be treated in the same fashion as +were the Colonists of Massachusetts or Virginia. The Bengalese knew +that there was no bond of language or of race between them and their +conquerors, whereas American Colonists knew that they and the British +sprang from the same race and spoke the same language. One of the +first realizations that came to the British Imperialists was that the +ownership of the conquered people or state warranted the conquerors in +enriching themselves from the conquered. But while this might do very +well in India, and be accepted there as a matter of course, it would +be most ill-judged in the American Colonies, for the Colonists were +not a foreign nor a conquered people. They originally held grants of +land from the British Crown, but they had worked that land themselves +and settled the wilderness by their own efforts, and had a right to +whatever they might earn. + +The Tory ideals, which took possession of the British Government when +Lord Bute succeeded to William Pitt in power, were soon applied to +England's relations to the American Colonies. The Seven Years' War +left England heavily in debt. She needed larger revenues, and being +now swayed by Imperialism, she easily found reasons for taxing the +Colonies. In 1765 she passed the Stamp Act which caused so much bad +feeling that in less than a year she decided to repeal it, but new +duties on paper, glass, tea, and other commodities were imposed +instead. In the North, Massachusetts took the lead in opposing what +the Colonists regarded as the unconstitutional acts of the Crown. The +patriotic lawyer of Boston, James Otis, shook the Colony with his +eloquence against the illegal encroachments and actual tyranny of the +English. Other popular orators of equal eminence, John and Samuel +Adams and Josiah Quincy, fanned the flames of discontent. Even the +most radical did not yet whisper the terrible word Revolution, or +suggest that they aspired to independence. They simply demanded their +"rights" which the arrogant and testy British Tories had shattered and +were withholding from them. At the outset rebels seldom admit that +their rebellion aims at new acquisitions, but only at the recovery of +the old. + +Next to Massachusetts, Virginia was the most vigorous of the Colonies +in protesting against British usurpation of power, which would deprive +them of their liberty. Although Virginia had no capital city like +Boston, in which the chief political leaders might gather and discuss +and plan, and mobs might assemble and equip with physical force the +impulses of popular indignation, the Old Dominion had means, just as +the Highland clans or the Arab tribes had, of keeping in touch with +each other. Patrick Henry, a young Virginia lawyer of sturdy Scotch +descent, by his flaming eloquence was easily first among the spokesmen +of the rights of the Colonists in Virginia. In the "Parsons Cause," a +lawsuit which might have passed quickly into oblivion had he not seen +the vital implications concerned in it, he denied the right of the +King to veto an act of the Virginia Assembly, which had been passed +for the good of the people of Virginia. In the course of the trial +he declared, "Government was a conditional compact between the King, +stipulating protection on the one hand, and the people, stipulating +obedience and support on the other," and he asserted that a violation +of these covenants by either party discharged the other party from its +obligations. Doctrines as outspoken as these uttered in court, whether +right or wrong, indicated that the attorney who uttered them, and the +judge who listened, and the audience who applauded, were not blind +worshippers of the illegal rapacity of the Crown. + +Patrick Henry was the most spectacular of the early champions of the +Colonists in Virginia, but many others of them agreed with him. Among +these the weightiest was the silent George Washington. He said little, +but his opinions passed from mouth to mouth, and convinced many. In +1765 he wrote to Francis Dandridge, an uncle of Mrs. Washington: + + The Stamp Act imposed on the colonies by the Parliament of Great + Britain, engrosses the conversation of the speculative part of the + colonists, who look upon this unconstitutional method of taxation, + as a direful attack upon their liberties, and loudly exclaim + against the violation. What may be the result of this, and of + some other (I think I may add) ill-judged measures, I will not + undertake to determine; but this I may venture to affirm, that the + advantage accruing to the mother country will fall greatly short + of the expectations of the ministry; for certain it is, that an + whole substance does already in a manner flow to Great Britain, + and that whatsoever contributes to lessen our importations must + be hurtful to their manufacturers. And the eyes of our people, + already beginning to open, will perceive, that many luxuries, + which we lavish our substance in Great Britain for, can well be + dispensed with, whilst the necessaries of life are (mostly) to + be had within ourselves. This, consequently, will introduce + frugality, and be a necessary stimulation to industry. If Great + Britain, therefore, loads her manufacturies with heavy taxes, + will it not facilitate these measures? They will not compel us, I + think, to give our money for their exports, whether we will or + not; and certain I am, none of their traders will part from them + without a valuable consideration. Where then, is the utility of + the restrictions? As to the Stamp Act, taken in a single view, one + and the first bad consequence attending it, I take to be this, + our courts of judicature must inevitably be shut up; for it + is impossible, (or next of kin to it), under our present + circumstances, that the act of Parliament can be complied with, + were we ever so willing to enforce the execution; for, not to say, + which alone would be sufficient, that we have not money to pay the + stamps, there are many other cogent reasons, to prevent it; and if + a stop be put to our judicial proceedings, I fancy the merchants + of Great Britain, trading to the colonies, will not be among the + last to wish for a repeal of it.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 209-10.] + +This passage would suffice, were there not many similar which might be +quoted, to prove that Washington was from the start a loyal American. +A legend which circulated during his lifetime, and must have been +fabricated by his enemies, for I find no evidence to support it either +in his letters or in other trustworthy testimony, insinuated that he +was British at heart and threw his lot in with the Colonists only when +war could not be averted. In 1770 the merchants of Philadelphia +drew up an agreement in which they pledged themselves to practise +non-importation of British goods sent to America. Washington's wise +neighbor and friend, George Mason, drafted a plan of association of +similar purport to be laid before the Virginia Burgesses. But Lord +Botetourt, the new Royal Governor, deemed some of these resolutions +dangerous to the prerogative of the King, and dissolved the Assembly. +The Burgesses, however, met at Anthony Hay's house and adopted +Mason's Association. Washington, who was one of the signers of the +Association, wrote to his agents in London: "I am fully determined to +adhere religiously to it." + +Five years had now elapsed since the British Tories attempted to fix +on the Colonies the Stamp Act, and although they had withdrawn +that hateful law, the relations between the Mother Country and the +Colonists had not improved. Far from it. The English issued a series +of irritating provisions which convinced the Colonists that the +Government had no real desire to be friendly, and that, on the +contrary, it intended to make no distinction between them and the +other conquered provinces of the Crown. Then and always, the English +forgot that the Colonists were men of their own stock, equally +stubborn in their devotion to principles, and probably more accessible +to scruples of conscience. So they were not likely to be frightened +into subjection. The governing class in England was in a state of mind +which has darkened its judgment more than once; the state of mind +which, when it encounters an obstacle to its plans, regards that +obstacle as an enemy, and remarks in language brutally frank, though +not wholly elegant: "We will lick him first and then decide who is +right." In 1770 King George III, who fretted at all seasons at the +slowness with which he was able to break down the ascendency of the +Whigs, manipulated the Government so as to make Lord North Prime +Minister. Lord North was a servant, one might say a lackey, after +the King's own heart. He abandoned lifelong traditions, principles, +fleeting whims, prejudices even, in order to keep up with the King's +wish of the moment. After Lord North became Prime Minister, the +likelihood of a peaceful settlement between the crown and the Colonies +lessened. He ran ahead of the King in his desire to serve the King's +wishes, and George III, by this time, was wrought up by the persistent +tenacity of the Whigs--he wished them dead, but they would not +die--and he was angered by the insolence of the Colonists who showed +that they would not shrink from forcibly resisting the King's command. +On both sides of the Atlantic a vehement and most enlightening debate +over constitutional and legal fundamentals still went on. Although +the King had packed Parliament, not all the oratory poured out at +Westminster favored the King. On the contrary, the three chief masters +of British eloquence at that time, and in all time--Edmund Burke, +William Pitt, and Charles James Fox--spoke on the side of the +Colonists. Reading the magnificent arguments of Burke to-day, we ask +ourselves how any group in Parliament could have withstood them. But +there comes a moment in every vital discussion when arguments and +logic fail to convince. Passions deeper than logic controlled motives +and actions. The Colonists contended that in proclaiming "no taxation +without representation," they were appealing to a principle of +Anglo-Saxon liberty inherent in their race. When King George, or any +one else, denied this principle, he denied an essential without which +Anglo-Saxon polity could not survive, but neither King George nor Lord +North accepted the premises. If they had condescended to reply at all, +they might have sung the hymn of their successors a hundred years +later: + + "We don't want to fight, + But by jingo! if we do, + We've got the men, we've got the ships, + We've got the money too." + +Meanwhile, the Virginia Planter watched the course of events, pursued +his daily business regularly, attended the House of Burgesses when it +was in session, said little, but thought much. He did not break +out into invective or patriotic appeals. No doubt many of his +acquaintances thought him lukewarm in spirit and non-committal; but +persons who knew him well knew what his decision must be. As early as +April 5, 1769, he wrote his friend, George Mason: + + 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--ms in + defence of so valuable a blessing, on which all the good and evil + of life depends, is clearly my opinion. Yet a--ms, I would beg + leave to add, should be the last resource, the dernier resort. + Addresses to the throne, and remonstrances to Parliament, we have + already, it is said, proved the inefficiency of. How far, then, + their attention to our rights and privileges is to be awakened or + alarmed, by starving their trade and manufacturers, remains to be + tried.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 263-64.] + +Thus wrote the Silent Member six years before the outbreak of +hostilities, and he did not then display any doubt either of his +patriotism, or of the course which every patriot must take. To his +intimates he spoke with point-blank candor. Years later, George Mason +wrote to him: + + I never forgot your declaration, when I had last the pleasure of + being at your house in 1768, that you were ready to take your + musket upon your shoulder whenever your country called upon you. + +Some writers point out that Washington excelled rather as a critic of +concrete plans than of constitutional and legal aspects. Perhaps this +is true. Assuredly he had no formal legal training. There were many +other men in Massachusetts, in Virginia, and in some of the other +Colonies, who could and did analyze minutely the Colonists' protest +against taxation without representation, and the British rebuttal +thereof; but Washington's strength lay in his primal wisdom, the +wisdom which is based not on conventions, even though they be laws and +constitutions, but on a knowledge of the ways in which men will react +toward each other in their primitive, natural relations. In this +respect he was one of the wisest among the statesmen. + +He does not seem to have joined in such clandestine methods as those +of the Committees of Correspondence, which Samuel Adams and some of +the most radical patriots in the Bay State had organized, but he said +in the Virginia Convention, in 1774: "I will raise one thousand men, +subsist them at my own expense and march myself at their head for the +relief of Boston."[1] The ardor of Washington's offer matched the +increasing anger of the Colonists. Lord North, abetted by the British +Parliament, had continued to exasperate them by passing new bills +which could have produced under the best circumstances only a +comparatively small revenue. One of these imposed a tax on tea. The +Colonists not only refused to buy it, but to have it landed. In Boston +a large crowd gathered and listened to much fiery speech-making. +Suddenly, a body of fifty men disguised as Mohawk Indians rushed +down to the wharves, rowed out to the three vessels in which a large +consignment of tea had been sent across the ocean, hoisted it out of +the holds to the decks and scattered the contents of three hundred and +forty chests in Boston Harbor. + +[Footnote 1: _John Adams's Diary_, August 31, 1774, quoting Lynch.] + +The Boston Tea Party was as sensational as if it had sprang from +the brain of a Paris Jacobin in the French Revolution. It created +excitement among the American Colonists from Portsmouth to Charleston. +Six more of the Colonies enrolled Committees of Correspondence, +Pennsylvania alone refusing to join. In every quarter American +patriots felt exalted. In England the reverse effects were signalized +with equal vehemence. The Mock Indians were denounced as incendiaries, +and the town meetings were condemned as "nurseries of sedition." +Parliament passed four penal laws, the first of which punished Boston +by transferring its port to Salem and closing its harbor. The second +law suspended the charter of the Province and added several new and +tyrannical powers to the British Governor and to Crown officials. + +On September 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress met in +Philadelphia. Except Georgia, every Colony sent delegates to it. The +election of those delegates was in several cases irregular, because +the body which chose them was not the Legislature but some temporary +body of the patriots. Nevertheless, the Congress numbered some of +the men who were actually and have remained in history, the great +engineers of the American Revolution. Samuel Adams and John Adams went +from Massachusetts; John Jay and Philip Livingston from New York; +Roger Sherman from Connecticut; Thomas Mifflin and Edward Biddle from +Pennsylvania; Thomas McKean from Delaware; George Washington, Patrick +Henry, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton, and Richard H. Lee from +Virginia; and Edward and John Rutledge from South Carolina. Although +the Congress was made up of these men and of others like them, the +petitions adopted by it and the work done, not to mention the freshets +of oratory, were astonishingly mild. Probably many of the delegates +would have preferred to use fiery tongues. Samuel Adams, for instance, +though "prematurely gray, palsied in hand, and trembling in voice," +must have had difficulty in restraining himself. He wrote as viciously +as he spoke. "Damn that Adams," said one of his enemies. "Every dip of +his pen stings like a horned snake." Patrick Henry, being asked when +he returned home, "Who is the greatest man in Congress," replied: "If +you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina is by far the +greatest orator; but if you speak of solid information and sound +judgment, Colonel Washington is unquestionably the greatest man on +that floor." The rumor had it that Washington said, he wished to God +the Liberties of America were to be determined by a single Combat +between himself and George. One other saying of his at this time is +worth reporting, although it cannot be satisfactorily verified. +"_More blood will be spilled on this occasion_, if the ministry are +determined to push matters to extremity, _than history has ever yet +furnished instances of_ in the annals of North America." The language +and tone of the "Summary View"--a pamphlet which Thomas Jefferson had +issued shortly before--probably chimed with the emotions of most of +the delegates. They adopted (October 14, 1774) the "Declaration +of Rights," which may not have seemed belligerent enough for the +Radicals, but really leaves little unsaid. A week later Congress +agreed to an "Association," an instrument for regulating, by +preventing, trade with the English. Having provided for the assembling +of a second Congress, the first adjourned. + +As a symbol, the First Congress has an integral importance in the +growth of American Independence. It marked the first time that the +American Colonies had acted together for their collective interests. +It served notice on King George and Lord North that it repudiated the +claims of the British Parliament to govern the Colonies. It implied +that it would repel by force every attempt of the British to exercise +an authority which the Colonists refused to recognize. In a very real +sense the Congress thus delivered an ultimatum. The winter of 1774/5 +saw preparations being pushed on both sides. General Thomas Gage, the +British Commander-in-Chief stationed at Boston, had also thrust upon +him the civil government of that town. He had some five thousand +British troops in Boston, and several men-of-war in the harbor. +There were no overt acts, but the speed with which, on more than one +occasion, large bodies of Colonial farmers assembled and went swinging +through the country to rescue some place, which it was falsely +reported the British were attacking, showed the nervous tension under +which the Americans were living. As the enthusiasm of the Patriots +increased, that of the Loyalists increased also. Among the latter were +many of the rich and aristocratic inhabitants, and, of course, most +of the office-holders. Until the actual outbreak of hostilities they +upheld the King's cause with more chivalry than discretion, and then +they migrated to Nova Scotia and to England, and bore the penalty of +confiscation and the corroding distress of exile. In England during +this winter, Pitt and Burke had defended the Colonies and the Whig +minority had supported them. Even Lord North used conciliatory +suggestions, but with him conciliation meant that the Colonies should +withdraw all their offensive demands and kneel before the Crown in +penitent humiliation before a new understanding could be thought of. + +Meanwhile Colonel Washington was in Virginia running his plantations +to the best of his ability and with his mind made up. He wrote to his +friend Bryan Fairfax (July 20, 1774): + + As I see nothing, on the one hand, to induce a belief that the + Parliament would embrace a favorable opportunity of repealing + acts, which they go on with great rapidity to pass, and in order + to enforce their tyrannical system; and on the other, I observe, + or think I observe, that government is pursuing a regular plan at + the expense of law and justice to overthrow our constitutional + rights and liberties, how can I expect any redress from a measure, + which has been ineffectually tried already? For, Sir, what is it + we are contending against? Is it against paying the duty of three + pence per pound on tea because burthensome? No, it is the right + only, we have all along disputed, and to this end we have already + petitioned his Majesty in as humble and dutiful manner as subjects + could do[1].... + + And has not General Gage's conduct since his arrival, (in stopping + the address of his Council, and publishing a proclamation more + becoming a Turkish bashaw, than an English governor, declaring it + treason to associate in any manner by which the commerce of Great + Britain is to be affected) exhibited an unexampled testimony of + the most despotic system of tyranny, that ever was practised in + a free government? In short, what further proofs are wanted to + satisfy one of the designs of the ministry, than their own acts, + which are uniform and plainly tending to the same point, nay, if I + mistake not, avowedly to fix the right of taxation? What hope then + from petitioning, when they tell us, that now or never is the time + to fix the matter? Shall we after this, whine and cry for relief, + when we have already tried it in vain? Or shall we supinely sit + and see one province after another fall a prey to despotism?[2] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 421-22.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., 423-24.] + +In the early autumn Washington wrote to Captain Robert MacKenzie, who +was serving in the Regular British Army with Gage at Boston: + + I think I can announce it as a fact, that it is not the wish or + intent of that government, (Massachusetts) or any other upon this + continent, separately or collectively, to set up for independence; + but this you may at the same time rely on, that none of them will + ever submit to the loss of these valuable rights and privileges, + which are essential to the happiness of every free state, and + without which, life, liberty, and property are rendered totally + insecure.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., 443.] + +In the following spring the battles of Lexington and Concord, on April +19th, began the war of the American Revolution. A few weeks later, a +Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. The delegates to it, +understanding that they must prepare for war, proceeded to elect +a Commander-in-Chief. There was some jealousy between the men of +Virginia and those of Massachusetts. The former seemed to think that +the latter assumed the first position, and indeed, most of the angry +gestures had been made in Boston, and Boston had been the special +object of British punishment. Still, with what may seem unexpected +self-effacement, they did not press strongly for the choice of a +Massachusetts man as Commander-in-Chief. On June 15, 1775, Congress +having resolved "that a general be appointed to command all the +continental forces raised or to be raised for the defence of American +liberty," proceeded to a choice, and the ballots being taken, George +Washington, Esq., was unanimously elected. On the next day the +President of the Congress, Mr. John Hancock, formally announced the +election to Colonel Washington, who replied: + + Mr. President, though I am truly sensible of the high honor + done me in this appointment, yet I feel great distress from a + consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not + be equal to the extensive and important trust. However, as the + Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty and exert + every power I possess in the service and for the support of the + glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most cordial thanks for + this distinguished testimony of their approbation. But lest some + unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg 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. + + As to pay, Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress, that as no + pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this + arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and + happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep + an exact account of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will + discharge, and that is all I desire.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 477-78-79, 480-81.] + +Accompanied by Lee and Schuyler and a brilliant escort, he set forth +on June 21st for Boston. Before they had gone twenty miles a messenger +bringing news of the Battle of Bunker Hill crossed them. "Did the +Militia fight?" Washington asked. On being told that they did, he +said: "Then the liberties of the country are safe." Then he pushed on, +stopping long enough in New York to appoint General Schuyler military +commander of that Colony, and so through Connecticut to the old Bay +State. There, at Cambridge, he found the crowd awaiting him and some +of the Colonial troops. On the edge of the Common, under a large elm +tree broad of spread, he took command of the first American army. It +was the second of July, 1775. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BOSTON FREED + + +Thus began what seems to us now an impossible war. Although it had +been brooding for ten years, since the Stamp Act, which showed that +the ties of blood and of tradition meant nothing to the British +Tories, now that it had come, the Colonists may well have asked +themselves what it meant. Probably, if the Colonists had taken a poll +on that fine July morning in 1775, not one in five of them would have +admitted that he was going to war to secure Independence, but all +would have protested that they would die if need be to recover their +freedom, the old British freedom, which came down to them from +Runnymede and should not be wrested from them. + +A British Tory, at the same time, might have replied: "We fight, we +cannot do less, in order to discipline and punish these wretches who +assume to deny the jurisdiction of the British Crown and to rebel +against the authority of the British Parliament." A few years before, +an English general had boasted that with an army of five thousand +troops he would undertake a march from Canada, through the Colonies, +straight to the Gulf of Mexico. And Colonel George Washington, who had +seen something of the quality of the British regulars, remarked that +with a thousand seasoned Virginians he would engage to block the five +thousand wherever he met them. The test was now to be made. + +The first thing that strikes us is the great extent of the field of +war. From the farthest settlements in the northeast, in what is now +Maine, to the border villages in Georgia was about fifteen hundred +miles; but mere distance did not represent the difficulty of the +journey. Between Boston and Baltimore ran a carriage road, not always +kept in good repair. Most of the other stretches had to be traversed +on horseback. The country along the seaboard was generally well +supplied with food, but the supply was nowhere near large enough to +furnish regular permanent subsistence for an army. A lack of munitions +seriously threatened the Colonists' ability to fight at all, but the +discovery of lead in Virginia made good this deficiency until the year +1781, when the lead mine was exhausted. + +More important than material concerns, however, was the diversity +in origin and customs among the Colonists themselves. The total +population numbered in 1775 nearly two and one half million souls. Of +these, the slaves formed about 500,000. The three largest Colonies, +Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania contained 900,000 +inhabitants, of which a little more than one half were slaves. +Pennsylvania, the third Colony, had a total of 300,000, mostly white, +while South Carolina had 200,000, of whom only 65,000 were white. +Connecticut, on the other hand, had 200,000 with scarcely any blacks. +The result was a very mottled population. The New Englanders had +already begun to practise manufacturing, and they continued to raise +under normal conditions sufficient food for their subsistence. South +of the Mason and Dixon line, however, slave labor prevailed and the +three great staples--tobacco, indigo, and rice--were the principal +crops. Where these did not grow, the natives got along as best they +could on scanty common crops, and by raising a few sheep and hogs. As +the war proceeded, it taught with more and more force the inherent +wastefulness of slave labor in the South. It was inefficient, costly, +and unreliable. + +The Battle of Bunker Hill was at once hailed as a Patriot victory, +but the rejoicing was premature, for the Americans had been forced +to retreat, giving up the position they had bravely defended. +Nevertheless, the opinion prevailed that they had won a real victory +by withstanding through many hours of a bloody fight some of the best +of the British regiments. + +Washington took command of the American army at Cambridge, he was +faced with the great task of organizing it and of forming a plan +of campaign. The Congress had taken over the charge of the army at +Boston, and the events had so shaped themselves that the first +thing for Washington to do was to drive out the British troops. To +accomplish this he planned to seal up all the entrances into the town +by land so that food could not be smuggled in. The British had a +considerable fleet in Boston Harbor, and they had to rely upon it to +bring provisions and to keep in touch with the world outside. + +Washington had his headquarters at the Craigie House in Cambridge, +some half a mile from Harvard Square and the College. He was now +forty-three years old, a man of commanding presence, six feet three +inches tall, broad-shouldered but slender, without any signs of the +stoutness of middle age. His hands and feet were large. His head was +somewhat small. The blue-gray eyes, set rather far apart, looked out +from heavy eyebrows with an expression of attentiveness. The most +marked feature was the nose, which was fairly large and straight and +vigorous. The mouth shut firmly, as it usually does where decision +is the dominant trait. The lips were flat. His color was pale but +healthy, and rarely flushed, even under great provocation. + +All that had gone before seemed to be strangely blended in his +appearance. The surveyor lad; the Indian fighter and officer; the +planter; the foxhunter; the Burgess; you could detect them all. But +underlying them all was the permanent Washington, deferent, plain of +speech, direct, yet slow in forming or expressing an opinion. Most +men, after they had been with him awhile, felt a sense of his majesty +grow upon them, a sense that he was made of common flesh like them, +but of something uncommon besides, something very high and very +precious. + +Washington found that he had sixteen thousand troops under his +command near Boston. Of these two thirds came from Massachusetts, and +Connecticut halved the rest. During July Congress added three thousand +men from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. They lacked everything. +In order to give them some uniformity in dress, Washington suggested +hunting-shirts, which he said "would have a happier tendency to unite +the men and abolish those Provincial Distinctions which lead to +jealousy and dissatisfaction." Among higher officers, jealousy, which +they made no attempt to dissemble or to disguise, was common. Two of +the highest posts went to Englishmen who proved themselves not only +technically unfit, but suspiciously near disloyalty. One of these +was Charles Lee, who thought the major-generalship to which Congress +appointed him beneath his notice; the other was also an Englishman, +Horatio Gates, Adjutant-General. A third, Thomas, when about to retire +in pique, received from Washington the following rebuke: + + In the usual contests of empire and ambition, the conscience of a + soldier has so little share, that he may very properly insist + upon his claims of rank, and extend his pretensions even to + punctilio;--but in such a cause as this, when the object is + neither glory nor extent of territory, but a defense of all that + is dear and valuable in private and public life, surely every + post ought to be deemed honorable in which a man can serve his + country.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, _George Washington_, I, 175.] + +Besides the complaints which reached Washington from all sides, he had +also to listen to the advice of military amateurs. Some of these had +never been in a battle and knew nothing about warfare except from +reading, but they were not on this account the most taciturn. Many +urged strongly that an expedition be sent against Canada, a design +which Washington opposed. His wisdom was justified when Richard +Montgomery, with about fifteen hundred men, took Montreal--November +12, 1775--and after waiting several weeks formed a junction with +Benedict Arnold near Quebec, which they attacked in a blinding +snowstorm, December 31, 1775. Arnold had marched up the Kennebec River +and through the Maine wilderness with fifteen hundred men, which were +reduced to five hundred before they came into action with Montgomery's +much dwindled force. The commander of Quebec repulsed them and sent +them flying southward as fast as the rigors of the winter and the +difficulties of the wilderness permitted. + +By the end of July, meanwhile, Washington had brought something like +order into the undisciplined and untrained masses who formed his +army, but now another lack threatened him: a lack of gunpowder. The +cartridge boxes of his soldiers contained on an average only nine +charges of ball and gunpowder apiece, hardly enough to engage in +battle for more than ten minutes. Washington sent an urgent appeal +to every town, and hearing that a ship at Bermuda had a cargo of +gunpowder, American ships were despatched thither to secure it. In +such straits did the army of the United Colonies go forth to war. By +avoiding battles and other causes for using munitions, they not only +kept their original supply, but added to it as fast as their appeals +were listened to. Washington kept his lines around Boston firm. In the +autumn General Gage was replaced, as British Commander-in-Chief, by +Sir William Howe, whose brother Richard, Lord Howe, became Admiral of +the Fleet. But the Howes knew no way to break the strangle hold of the +Americans. How Washington contrived to create the impression that +he was master of the situation is one of the mysteries of his +campaigning, because, although he had succeeded in making soldiers of +the raw recruits and in enforcing subordination, they were still a +very skittish body. They enlisted for short terms of service, and even +before their term was completed, they began to hanker to go home. This +caused not only inconvenience, but real difficulty. Still, Washington +steadily pushed on, and in March, 1776, by a brilliant manoeuvre at +Dorchester Heights, he secured a position from which his cannons could +bombard every British ship in Boston Harbor. On the 17th of March all +those ships, together with the garrison of eight thousand, and with +two thousand fugitive Loyalists, sailed off to Halifax. Boston has +been free from foreign enemies from that day to this. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TRENTON AND VALLEY FORGE + + +Howe's retreat from Boston freed Massachusetts and, indeed, all New +England from British troops. It also gave Washington the clue to his +own next move. He was a real soldier and therefore his instinct told +him that his next objective must be the enemy's army. Accordingly +he prepared to move his own troops to New York. He passed through +Providence, Norwich, and New London, reaching New York on April 13th. +Congress was then sitting in Philadelphia and he was requested to +visit it. + +He spent a fortnight during May in Philadelphia where he had +conferences with men of all kinds and seems to have been particularly +impressed, not to say shocked, by the lack of harmony which he +discovered. The members of the Congress, although they were ostensibly +devoting themselves to the common affairs of the United Colonies, were +really intriguing each for the interests of his special colony or +section. Washington thought this an ominous sign, as indeed it was, +for since the moment when he joined the Revolution he threw off all +local affiliation. He did his utmost to perform his duty, clinging as +long as he could to the hope that there would be no final break with +England. Throughout the winter, however, from almost every part of the +country the demands of the Colonists for independence became louder +and more urgent and these he heard repeated and discussed during his +visit to the Congress. On May 31st he wrote his brother John Augustine +Washington: + + Things have come to that pass now, as to convince us, that we have + nothing more to expect from the justice of Great Britain; also, + that she is capable of the most delusive acts; for I am satisfied, + that no commissioners ever were designed, except Hessians and + other foreigners; and that the idea was only to deceive and throw + us off our guard. The first has been too effectually accomplished, + as many members of Congress, in short, the representation of whole + provinces, are still feeding themselves upon the dainty food + of reconciliation; and though they will not allow, that the + expectation of it has any influence upon their judgment, (with + respect to their preparations for defence,) it is but too obvious, + that it has an operation upon every part of their conduct, and is + a clog to their proceedings. It is not in the nature of things to + be otherwise; for no man, that entertains a hope of seeing this + dispute speedily and equitably adjusted by commissioners, will go + to the same expense and run the same hazards to prepare for the + worst event, as he who believes that he must conquer, or submit to + unconditional terms, and its concomitants, such as confiscation, + hanging, etc. etc.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, iv, 106.] + +The Hessians to whom Washington alludes were German mercenaries +hired by the King of England from two or three of the princelings of +Germany. These Hessians turned a dishonest penny by fighting in behalf +of a cause in which they took no immediate interest or even knew what +it was about. During the course of the Revolution there were thirty +thousand Hessians in the British armies in America, and, as their +owners, the German princelings, received £5 apiece for them it was a +profitable arrangement for those phlegmatic, corpulent, and braggart +personages. The Americans complained that the Hessians were brutal and +tricky fighters; but in reality they merely carried out the ideals of +their German Fatherland which remained behind the rest of Europe in +its ideals of what was fitting in war. Being uncivilized, they could +not be expected to follow the practice of civilized warfare. + +When Washington returned to his headquarters in New York, he left the +Congress in Philadelphia simmering over the question of Independence. +Almost simultaneously with Washington's return came the British fleet +under Howe, which passed Sandy Hook and sailed up New York Harbor. He +brought an army of twenty-five thousand men. Washington's force was +nominally nineteen thousand men, but it was reduced to not more than +ten thousand by the detachment of several thousand to guard Boston +and of several thousand more to take part in the struggle in Canada, +besides thirty-six hundred sick. The Colonists clung as if by +obsession to their project of capturing Quebec. The death of +Montgomery and the discomfiture of Benedict Arnold, which really gave +a quietus to the success of the expedition, did not suffice to crush +it. Only too evident was it that Quebec could be taken. Canada would +fall permanently into American control, and cease to be a constant +menace and the recruiting ground for new expeditions against the +central Colonies. + +August was drawing to a close when the two armies were in a position +to begin fighting. The British, who had originally camped upon Staten +Island where Nature provided them with a shelter from attack, had now +moved across the bay to Long Island. There General Sullivan, having +lost eleven or twelve hundred men, was caught between two fires and +compelled to surrender with the two thousand or more of his army which +remained after the attack of the British. Washington watched the +disaster from Brooklyn, but was unable to detach any regiments to +bring aid to Sullivan, as it now became clear to him that his whole +army on Long Island might easily be cut off. He decided to retreat +from the island. This he did on August 29th, having commandeered every +boat that he could find. He ferried his entire force across to the +New York side with such secrecy and silence that the British did not +notice that they were gone. A heavy fog, which settled over the water +during the night, greatly aided the adventure. The result of +the Battle of Long Island gave the British great exultation and +correspondingly depressed the Americans. On the preceding fourth +of July they had declared their Independence; they were no longer +Colonies but independent States bound together by a common interest. +They felt all the more keenly that in this first battle after their +Independence they should be so ignominiously defeated. They might have +taken much comfort in the thought that had Howe surprised them on +their midnight retreat across the river, he might have captured most +of the American army and probably have ended the war. Washington's +disaster sprang not from his incompetence, but from his inadequate +resources. The British outnumbered him more than two to one and they +had control of the water; an advantage which he could not offset. One +important fact should not be forgotten: New York, both City and State, +had been notoriously Loyalist--that is, pro-British--ever since the +troubles between the Colonists and the British grew angry. Governor +Tryon, the Governor of the State, made no secret of his British +preferences; indeed, they were not preferences at all, but downright +British acts. + +Having won the Battle of Long Island, Lord Howe thought the time +favorable for acting in his capacity as a peacemaker, because he had +come over with authority to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the +Colonists' quarrel. He appealed, therefore, to the Congress of +Philadelphia, which appointed a committee of three--Benjamin Franklin, +John Adams, and Edward Rutledge to confer with Lord Howe. The +conference, which exhibited the shrewd quality of John Adams and of +Franklin, the politeness of Rutledge, and the studied urbanity of Lord +Howe, simply showed that there was no common ground on which they +could come to an agreement. The American Commissioners returned to +Philadelphia and Lord Howe to New York City and there were no further +attempts at peacemaking. + +Having brought his men to New York, Washington may well have debated +what to do next. The general opinion seemed to be that New York must +be defended at all costs. Whether Washington approved of this plan, I +find it hard to say. Perhaps he felt that if the American army could +hold its own on Manhattan for several weeks, it would be put into +better discipline and prepared either to risk a battle with the +British, or to retreat across the Hudson toward New Jersey. He decided +that for the moment at least he would station his army on the heights +of Harlem. From the house of Colonel Morris, where he made his +headquarters, he wrote on September 4, 1776, to the President of the +Congress: "We are now, as it were, upon the eve of another dissolution +of our army." The term of service of most of the soldiers under +Washington would expire at the end of the year, and he devoted the +greater part of the letter to showing up the evils of the military +system existing in the American army. + + A soldier [he said] reasoned with upon the goodness of the cause + he is engaged in, and the inestimable rights he is contending + for, hears you with patience, and acknowledges the truth of your + observations, but adds that it is of no more importance to him + than to others. The officer makes you the same reply, with this + further remark, that his pay will not support him and he cannot + ruin himself and family to serve his country, when every member of + the community is equally interested, and benefited by his labors. + The few, therefore, who act upon principles of disinterestedness, + comparatively speaking, are no more than a drop in the ocean. + + It becomes evident to me then, that, as this contest is not + likely to be the work of a day, as the war must be carried on + systematically, and to do it you must have good officers, there + are in my judgment no other possible means to obtain them but by + establishing your army upon a permanent footing and giving your + officers good pay. This will induce gentlemen and men of character + to engage; and, till the bulk of your officers is composed of such + persons as are actuated by principles of honor and a spirit of + enterprise, you have little to expect from them.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, IV, 440.] + +Washington proceeds to argue that the soldiers ought not to be engaged +for a shorter time than the duration of the war, that they ought to +have better pay and the offer of a hundred or a hundred and fifty +acres of land. Officers' pay should be increased in proportion. "Why +a captain in the Continental service should receive no more than five +shillings currency per day for performing the same duties that an +officer of the same rank in the British service receives ten shillings +for, I never could conceive." He further speaks strongly against the +employment of militia--"to place any dependence upon [it] is assuredly +resting upon a broken staff." + +Washington wrote thus frankly to the Congress which seems to have read +his doleful reports without really being stimulated, as it ought to +have been, by a determination to remove their causes. Probably the +delegates came to regard the jeremiads as a matter of course and +assumed that Washington would pull through somehow. Very remarkable is +it that the Commander-in-Chief of any army in such a struggle should +have expressed himself as he did, bluntly, in regard to its glaring +imperfections. Doing this, however, he managed to hold the loyalty and +spirit of his men. In the American Civil War, McClellan contrived to +infatuate his troops with the belief that his plans were perfect, and +that only the annoying fact that the Confederate generals planned +better caused him to be defeated; and yet to his obsessed soldiers +defeat under McClellan was more glorious than victory under Lee or +Stonewall Jackson. I take it that Washington's frankness simply +reflected his passion for veracity, which was the cornerstone of his +character. The strangest fact of all was that it did not lessen his +popularity or discourage his troops. + +To his intimates Washington wrote with even more unreserve. Thus he +says to Lund Washington (30th September): + + In short, such is my situation that if I were to wish the + bitterest curse to an enemy on this side of the grave, I should + put him in my stead with my feelings; and yet I do not know what + plan of conduct to pursue. I see the impossibility of serving + with reputation, or doing any essential service to the cause by + continuing in command, and yet I am told that if I quit the + command, inevitable ruin will follow from the distraction that + will ensue. In confidence I tell you that I never was in such an + unhappy, divided state since I was born. To lose all comfort and + happiness on the one hand, whilst I am fully persuaded that under + such a system of management as has been adopted, I cannot have the + least chance for reputation, nor those allowances made which the + nature of the case requires; and to be told, on the other, that if + I leave the service all will be lost, is, at the same time that I + am bereft of every peaceful moment, distressing to a degree. But I + will be done with the subject, with the precaution to you that it + is not a fit one to be publicly known or discussed. If I fall, + it may not be amiss that these circumstances be known, and + declaration made in credit to the justice of my character. And + if the men will stand by me (which by the by I despair of), I am + resolved not to be forced from this ground while I have life; + and a few days will determine the point, if the enemy should not + change their place of operations; for they certainly will not--I + am sure they ought not--to waste the season that is now fast + advancing, and must be precious to them.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, IV, 458.] + +The British troops almost succeeded in surrounding Washington's force +north of Harlem. Washington retreated to White Plains, where, on +October 28th, the British, after a severe loss, took an outpost +and won what is called the "Battle of White Plains." Henceforward +Washington's movements resembled too painfully those of the proverbial +toad under the harrow; and yet in spite of Lord Howe's efforts to +crush him, he succeeded in escaping into New Jersey with a small +remnant--some six thousand men--of his original army. The year 1776 +thus closed in disaster which seemed to be irremediable. It showed +that the British, having awakened to the magnitude of their task, were +able to cope with it. Having a comparatively unlimited sea-power, they +needed only to embark their regiments, with the necessary provisions +and ammunition, on their ships and send them across the Atlantic, +where they were more than a match for the nondescript, undisciplined, +ill-equipped, and often badly nourished Americans. The fact that +at the highest reckoning hardly a half of the American people were +actively in favor of Independence, is too often forgotten. But from +this fact there followed much lukewarmness and inertia in certain +sections. Many persons had too little imagination or were too sordidly +bound by their daily ties to care. As one planter put it: "My business +is to raise tobacco, the rest doesn't concern me." + +Over the generally level plains of New Jersey, George Washington +pushed the remnant of the army that remained to him. He had now hardly +five thousand men, but they were the best, most seasoned, and in +many respects the hardiest fighters. In addition to the usual +responsibility of warfare, of feeding his troops, finding quarters +for them, and of directing the line of march, he had to cope with +wholesale desertions and to make desperate efforts to raise money and +to persuade some of those troops, whose term was expiring, to stay on. +His general plan now was to come near enough to the British centre and +to watch its movements. The British had fully twenty-five thousand men +who could be centred at a given point. This centre was now Trenton, +and the objective of the British was so plainly Philadelphia that the +Continental Congress, after voting to remain in permanence there, fled +as quietly as possible to Baltimore. On December 18th Washington wrote +from the camp near the Falls of Trenton to John Augustine Washington: + + If every nerve is not strained to recruit the new army with all + possible expedition, I think the game is pretty near up, owing, + in great measure, to the insidious acts of the Enemy, and + disaffection of the Colonies before mentioned, but principally to + the accursed policy of short enlistments, and placing too great + a dependence on the militia, the evil consequences of which were + foretold fifteen months ago, with a spirit almost Prophetic. ... + You can form no idea of the perplexity of my situation. No man, I + believe, ever had a greater choice of difficulties, and less means + to extricate himself from them. However, under a full persuasion + of the justice of our cause, I cannot entertain an idea that it + will finally sink, though it may remain for some time under a + cloud.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, V, 111.] + +Washington stood with his forlorn little array on the west bank of +the Delaware above Trenton. He had information that the British had +stretched their line very far and thin to the east of the town. +Separating his forces into three bodies, he commanded one of these +himself, and during the night of Christmas he crossed the river in +boats. The night was stormy and the crossing was much interrupted by +floating cakes of ice; in spite of which he landed his troops safely +on the eastern shore. They had to march nine miles before they reached +Trenton, taking Colonel Rall and his garrison of Hessians by surprise. +More than a thousand surrendered and were quickly carried back over +the river into captivity. + +The prestige of the Battle of Trenton was enormous. For the first time +in six months Washington had beaten the superior forces of the British +and beaten them in a fortified town of their own choosing. The result +of the victory was not simply military; it quickly penetrated the +population of New Jersey which had been exasperatingly Loyalist, had +sold the British provisions, and abetted their intrigues. Now the New +Jersey people suddenly bethought them that they might have chosen the +wrong side after all. This feeling was deepened in them a week later +when, at Princeton, Washington suddenly fell upon and routed several +British regiments. By this success he cleared the upper parts of New +Jersey of British troops, who were shut once more within the limits of +New York City and Long Island. + +In January, 1777, no man could say that the turning-point in the +American Revolution had been passed. There were still to come long +months, and years even, of doubt and disillusion and suffering; the +agony of Valley Forge; the ignominy of betrayal; and the slowly +gnawing pain of hope deferred. But the fact, if men could have but +seen it, was clear--Trenton and Princeton were prophetic of the +end. And what was even clearer was the supreme importance of George +Washington. Had he been cut off after Princeton or had he been forced +to retire through accident, the Revolution would have slackened, lost +head and direction, and spent itself among thinly parcelled rivulets +without strength to reach the sea. Washington was a Necessary Man. +Without him the struggle would not then have continued. Sooner +or later America would have broken free from England, but he was +indispensable to the liberty and independence of the Colonies then. +This thought brooded over him at all times, not to make him boastful +or imperious, but to impress him with a deeper awe, and to impress +also his men with the supreme importance of his life to them all. They +grew restive when, at Princeton, forgetful of self, he faced a volley +of muskets only thirty feet away. One of his officers wrote after the +Trenton campaign: + + 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, makes him fearless of danger. This + occasions us much uneasiness. But Heaven, which has hitherto been + his shield, I hope will still continue to guard so valuable a + life.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 171.] + +Robert Morris, who had already achieved a very important position +among the Patriots of New York, wrote to Washington: + + Heaven, no doubt for the noblest purposes, has blessed you with + a firmness of mind, steadiness of countenance, and patience in + sufferings, that give you infinite advantages over other men. This + being the case, you are not to depend on other people's exertions + being equal to your own. One mind feeds and thrives on misfortunes + by finding resources to get the better of them; another sinks + under their weight, thinking it impossible to resist; and, as the + latter description probably includes the majority of mankind, we + must be cautious of alarming them. + +Washington doubtless thanked Morris for his kind advice about issuing +reports which had some streaks of the rainbow and less truth in them. +He did not easily give up his preference for truth. + + Common prudence [he said] dictates the necessity of duly attending + to the circumstances of both armies, before the style of + conquerors is assumed by either; and I am sorry to add, that this + does not appear to be the case with us; nor is it in my power to + make Congress fully sensible of the real situation of our affairs, + and that it is with difficulty (if I may use the expression) that + I can, by every means in my power, keep the life and soul of this + army together. In a word, when they are at a distance, they think + it is but to say, Presto begone, and everything is done. They + seem not to have any conception of the difficulty and perplexity + attending those who are to execute. + +After the Battle of Princeton, Washington drew his men off to the +Heights of Morristown where he established his winter quarters. The +British had gone still farther toward New York City. Both sides seemed +content to enjoy a comparative truce until spring should come with +better weather; but true to his characteristic of being always +preparing something, Howe had several projects in view, any one of +which might lead to important activity. If ever a war was fought at +long range, that war was the American Revolution. Howe received his +orders from the War Office in London. Every move was laid down; no +allowance was made for the change which unforeseeable contingencies +might render necessary; the young Under-Secretaries who carefully +drew up the instructions in London knew little or nothing about the +American field of operations and simply relied upon the fact that +their callipers showed that it was so many miles between Point X and +Point Y and that the distance should ordinarily be covered in so many +hours. + +With Washington himself the case was hardly better. There were few +motions that he could make of his own free will. He had to get +authority from the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. The Congress +was not made up of military experts and in many cases it knew nothing +about the questions he asked. The members of the Congress were +talkers, not doers, and they sometimes lost themselves in endless +debate and sometimes they seemed quite to forget the questions +Washington put to them. We find him writing in December to beg them to +reply to the urgent question which he had first asked in the preceding +October. He was scrupulous not to take any step which might seem +dictatorial. The Congress and the people of the country dreaded +military despotism. That dread made them prefer the evil system +of militia and the short-term enlistments to a properly organized +standing army. To their fearful imagination the standing army would +very quickly be followed by the man on horseback and by hopeless +despotism. + +The Olympians in London who controlled the larger issues of war and +peace whispered to the young gentlemen in the War Office to draw up +plans for the invasion, during the summer of 1777, of the lower Hudson +by British troops from Canada. General Burgoyne should march down and +take Ticonderoga and then proceed to Albany. There he could meet a +smaller force under Colonel St. Leger coming from Oswego and following +the Mohawk River. A third army under Sir William Howe could ascend +the Hudson and meet Burgoyne and St. Leger at the general +rendezvous--Albany. It was a brave plan, and when Burgoyne started +with his force of eight thousand men high hopes flushed the British +hearts. These hopes seemed to be confirmed when a month later Burgoyne +took Ticonderoga. The Americans attributed great importance to this +place, an importance which might have been justified at an earlier +time, but which was now really passed, and it proved of little value +to Burgoyne. Pursuing his march southward, he found himself entangled +in the forest and he failed to meet boats which were to ferry him over +the streams. + +The military operations during the summer and autumn of 1777 might +well cause the Americans to exult. The British plan of sending three +armies to clear out the forces which guarded or blocked the road from +Canada to the lower Hudson burst like a bubble. The chief contingent +of 8000 men, under General Burgoyne, seems to have strayed from its +route and to have been in need of food. Hearing that there were +supplies at Bennington, Burgoyne turned aside to that place. He +little suspected the mettle of John Stark and of his Green Mountain +volunteers. Their quality was well represented by Stark's address to +his men: "They are ours to-night, or Molly Stark is a widow." He did +not boast. By nightfall he had captured all of Burgoyne's men who were +alive (August 16, 1777). + +Only one reverse marred the victories of the summer. This was at +Oriskany in August, 1777. An American force of 400 or 500 men fell +into an ambush, and its leader, General Herkimer, though mortally +wounded, refused to retire, but continued to give directions to the +end. Oriskany was reputed to be the most atrocious fight of the +Revolution. Joseph Brant, the Mohawk chief, led the Indians, who were +allies of the English. + +In spite of this, Burgoyne seemed to lose resolution, uncertain +whither to turn. He instinctively groped for a way that would take him +down the Hudson and bring him to Albany, where he was to meet British +reënforcements. But he missed his bearings and found himself near +Saratoga. Here General Gates confronted him with an army larger than +his own in regulars. On October 7th they fought a battle, which the +British technically claimed as a victory, as they were not driven from +their position, but it left them virtually hemmed in without a line +of escape. Burgoyne waited several days irresolute. He hoped that +something favorable to him might turn up. He had a lurking hope that +General Clinton was near by, coming to his rescue. He wavered, gallant +though he was, and would not give the final order of desperation--to +cut their way through the enemy lines. Instead of that he sought a +truce with Gates, and signed the Convention of Saratoga (October +17th), by which he surrendered his army with the honors of war, and it +was stipulated that they should be sent to England by English ships +and paroled against taking any further part in the war. + +The victory of Saratoga had much effect on America; it reverberated +through Europe. Only the peculiar nature of the fighting in America +prevented it from being decisive. Washington himself had never dared +to risk a battle which, if he were defeated in it, would render it +impossible for him to continue the war. The British, on the other +hand, spread over much ground, and the destruction of one of their +armies would not necessarily involve the loss of all. So it was +now; Burgoyne's surrender did little to relieve the pressure on +Washington's troops on the Hudson, but it had a vital effect across +the sea. + +Since the first year of the war the Americans had hoped to secure a +formal alliance with France against England, and among the French who +favored this scheme there were several persons of importance. Reasons +were easily found to justify such an alliance. The Treaty of Paris in +1763 had dispossessed France of her colonies in America and had left +her inferior to England in other parts of the world. Here was her +chance to take revenge. The new King, Louis XVI, had for Foreign +Minister Count de Vergennes, a diplomat of some experience, who warmly +urged supporting the cause of the American Colonists. He had for +accomplice Beaumarchais, a nimble-witted playwright and seductive man +of the world who talked very persuasively to the young King and many +others. + +The Americans on their side had not been inactive, and early in 1776 +Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, was sent over +to Paris with the mission to do his utmost to cement the friendship +between the American Colonies and France. Deane worked to such good +purpose that by October, 1776, he had sent clothing for twenty +thousand men, muskets for thirty thousand and large quantities of +ammunition. A fictitious French house, which went by the name of +Hortalaz et Cie, acted as agent and carried on the necessary business +from Paris. By this time military adventurers in large numbers began +to flock to America to offer their swords to the rebellious Colonials. +Among them were a few--de Kalb, Pulaski, Steuben, and Kosciuszko--who +did good service for the struggling young rebels, but most of them +were worthless adventurers and marplots. + +Almost any American in Paris felt himself authorized to give a letter +of introduction to any Frenchman or other European who wished to try +his fortunes in America. One of the notorious cases was that of a +French officer named Ducoudray, who brought a letter from Deane +purporting to be an agreement that Ducoudray should command the +artillery of the Continental army with the rank and pay of a +major-general. Washington would take no responsibility for this +appointment, which would have displaced General Knox, a hardy veteran, +an indefectible patriot, and Washington's trusted friend. When +the matter was taken up by the Congress, the demand was quickly +disallowed. The absurdity of allowing Silas Deane or any other +American in Paris, no matter how meritorious his own services might +be, to assign to foreigners commissions of high rank in the American +army was too obvious to be debated. + +To illustrate the character of Washington's miscellaneous labors in +addition to his usual household care of the force under him, I borrow +a few items from his correspondence. I borrow at random, the time +being October, 1777, when the Commander-in-Chief is moving from place +to place in northern New Jersey, watching the enemy and avoiding an +engagement. A letter comes from Richard Henry Lee, evidently intended +to sound Washington, in regard to the appointment of General Conway to +a high command in the American army. Washington replies with corroding +veracity. + + [Matuchin Hill, 17 October, 1777.] If there is any truth in + the report that Congress hath appointed ... Brigadier Conway a + Major-general in this army, it will be as unfortunate a measure as + ever was adopted. I may add, (and I think with truth) that it + will give a fatal blow to the existence of the army. Upon so + interesting a subject, I must speak plain. The duty I owe my + country, the ardent desire I have to promote its true interests, + and justice to individuals, requires this of me. General Conway's + merit, then, as an officer, and his importance in this army, + exists more in his imagination, than in reality. For it is a maxim + with him, to leave no service of his own untold, nor to want + anything, which is to be obtained by importunity.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 121.] + +It does not appear that Lee fished for letters of introduction for +himself or any of his friends after this experiment. He needed no +further proof that George Washington had the art of sending _complete_ +answers.[2] + +[Footnote 2: For the end of Conway and his cabal see _post_, 112, +113.] + +On October 25, 1777, desertions being frequent among the officers and +men, Washington issued this circular to Pulaski and Colonels of Horse: + + I am sorry to find that the liberty I granted to the light + dragoons of impressing horses near the enemy's line has been most + horribly abused and perverted into a mere plundering scheme. + I intended nothing more than that the horses belonging to the + disaffected in the neighborhood of the British Army, should be + taken for the use of the dismounted dragoons, and expected, that + they would be regularly reported to the Quartermaster General, + that an account might be kept of the number and the persons from + whom they were taken, in order to a future settlement.--Instead of + this, I am informed that under pretence of the authority derived + from me, they go about the country plundering whomsoever they are + pleased to denominate tories, and converting what they get to + their own private profit and emolument. This is an abuse that + cannot be tolerated; and as I find the license allowed them, has + been made a sanction for such mischievous practices, I am under + the necessity of recalling it altogether. You will therefore + immediately make it known to your whole corps, that they are not + under any pretence whatever to meddle with the horses or other + property of any inhabitant whatever on pain of the severest + punishment, for they may be assured as far as it depends upon me + that military execution will attend all those who are caught in + the like practice hereafter.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 141.] + +One finds nothing ambiguous in this order to Pulaski and the Colonels +of Horse. A more timid commander would have hesitated to speak so +curtly at a time when the officers and men of his army were deserting +at will; but to Washington discipline was discipline, and he would +maintain it, cost what it might, so long as he had ten men ready to +obey him. + +Passing over three weeks we find Washington writing from Headquarters +on November 14th to Sir William Howe, the British Commander-in-Chief, +in regard to the maltreatment of prisoners and to proposals of +exchanging officers on parole. + + I must also remonstrate against the maltreatment and confinement + of our officers--this, I am informed, is not only the case of + those in Philadelphia, but of many in New York. Whatever plausible + pretences may be urged to authorize the condition of the former, + it is certain but few circumstances can arise to justify that of + the latter. I appeal to you to redress these several wrongs; and + you will remember, whatever hardships the prisoners with us may be + subjected to will be chargeable on you. At the same time it is but + justice to observe, that many of the cruelties exercised towards + prisoners are said to proceed from the inhumanity of Mr. + Cunningham, provost-martial, without your knowledge or + approbation.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 195.] + +The letter was sufficiently direct for Sir William to understand it. +If these extracts were multiplied by ten they would represent more +nearly the mass of questions which came daily to Washington for +decision. The decision had usually to be made in haste and always +with the understanding that it would not only settle the question +immediately involved, but it would serve as precedent. + +The victory of Saratoga gave a great impetus to the party in France +which wished Louis XVI to come out boldly on the side of the Americans +in their war with the British. The King was persuaded. Vergennes also +secured the coöperation of Spain with France, for Spain had views +against England, and she agreed that if a readjustment of sovereignty +were coming in America, it would be prudent for her to be on hand to +press her own claims. On February 6, 1778, the treaty between France +and America was signed.[1] Long before this, however, a young French +enthusiast who proved to be the most conspicuous of all the foreign +volunteers, the Marquis de Lafayette, had come over with magnificent +promises from Silas Deane. On being told, however, that the Congress +found it impossible to ratify Deane's promises, he modestly requested +to enlist in the army without pay. Washington at once took a fancy to +him and insisted on his being a member of the Commander's family. + +[Footnote 1: The treaty was ratified by Congress May 4, 1778.] + +While Burgoyne's surrendered army was marching to Boston and +Cambridge, to be shut up as prisoners, Washington was taking into +consideration the best place in which to pass the winter. Several were +suggested, Wilmington, Delaware, and Valley Forge--about twenty-five +miles from Philadelphia--being especially urged upon him. Washington +preferred the latter, chiefly because it was near enough to +Philadelphia to enable him to keep watch on the movements of the +British troops in that city. Valley Forge! One of the names in human +history associated with the maximum of suffering and distress, with +magnificent patience, sacrifice, and glory. + + The surrounding hills were covered with woods and presented an + inhospitable appearance. The choice was severely criticised, and + de Kalb described it as a wilderness. But the position was central + and easily defended. The army arrived there about the middle of + December, and the erection of huts began. They were built of logs + and were 14 by 15 feet each. The windows were covered with oiled + paper, and the openings between the logs were closed with clay. + The huts were arranged in streets, giving the place the appearance + of a city. It was the first of the year, however, before they + were occupied, and previous to that the suffering of the army had + become great. Although the weather was intensely cold, the men + were obliged to work at the buildings, with nothing to support + life but flour unmixed with water, which they baked into cakes at + the open fires ... the horses died of starvation by hundreds, and + the men were obliged to haul their own provisions and firewood. As + straw could not be found to protect the men from the cold ground, + sickness spread through their quarters with fearful rapidity. "The + unfortunate soldiers," wrote Lafayette in after years, "they were + in want of everything; they had neither coats, hats, shirts nor + shoes; their feet and their legs froze till they became black, and + it was often necessary to amputate them." ... The army frequently + remained whole days without provisions, and the patient endurance + of the soldiers and officers was a miracle which each moment + served to renew ... while the country around Valley Forge was so + impoverished by the military operations of the previous summer as + to make it impossible for it to support the army. The sufferings + of the latter were chiefly owing to the inefficiency of + Congress.[1] + +[Footnote 1: F.D. Stone, _Struggle for the Delaware_, vi, ch. 5.] + +No one felt more keenly than did Washington the horrors, of Valley +Forge. He had not believed in forming such an encampment, and from the +start he denounced the neglect and incompetence of the commissions. +In a letter to the President of the Congress on December 3, 1777, he +wrote: + + Since the month of July we have had no assistance from the + quartermaster-general, and to want of assistance from this + department the commissary-general charges great part of his + deficiency. To this I am to add, that, notwithstanding it is a + standing order, and often repeated that the troops shall always + have two days' provisions by them, that they might be ready at + any sudden call; yet an opportunity has scarcely ever offered of + taking an advantage of the enemy, that has not either been totally + obstructed or greatly impeded, on this account. And this, the + great and crying evil, is not all. The soap, vinegar, and other + articles allowed by Congress, we see none of, nor have we seen + them, I believe, since the Battle of Brandywine. The first, + indeed, we have now little occasion for; few men having more than + one shirt, many only the moiety of one, and some none at all. In + addition to which, as a proof of the little benefit received from + a clothier-general, and as a further proof of the inability of + an army, under the circumstances of this, to perform the common + duties of soldiers, (besides a number of men confined to hospitals + for want of shoes, and others in farmers' houses on the same + account,) we have, by a field-return this day made, no less than + two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight men now in camp unfit + for duty, because they are barefoot and otherwise naked. By the + same return it appears, that our whole strength in Continental + troops, including the eastern brigades, which have joined us since + the surrender of General Burgoyne, exclusive of the Maryland + troops sent to Wilmington, amounts to no more than eight thousand + two hundred in camp fit for duty; notwithstanding which, and that + since the 4th instant our numbers fit for duty, from the hardships + and exposures they have undergone, particularly on account of + blankets (numbers having been obliged, and still are, to sit + up all night by fires, instead of taking comfortable rest in a + natural and common way), have decreased near two thousand men. + + We find gentlemen, without knowing whether the army was really + going into winter-quarters or not (for I am sure no resolution of + mine would warrant the Remonstrance), reprobating the measure as + much as if they thought the soldiers were made of stocks or stones + and equally insensible of frost and snow; and moreover, as if they + conceived it easily practicable for an inferior army, under the + disadvantages I have described ours to be, which are by no + means exaggerated, to confine a superior one, in all respects + well-appointed and provided for a winter's campaign within the + city of Philadelphia, and to cover from depredation and waste the + States of Pennsylvania and Jersey. But what makes this matter + still more extraordinary in my eye is, that these very + gentlemen,--who were well apprized of the nakedness of the troops + from ocular demonstration, who thought their own soldiers worse + clad than others, and who advised me near a month ago to postpone + the execution of a plan I was about to adopt, in consequence of a + resolve of Congress for seizing clothes, under strong assurances + that an ample supply would be collected in ten days agreeably to a + decree of the State (not one article of which, by the by, is yet + come to hand)--should think a winter's campaign, and the covering + of these States from the invasion of an enemy, so easy and + practicable a business. I can assure those gentlemen, 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. + However, although they seem to have little feeling for the naked + and distressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and, + from my soul, I pity those miseries, which it is neither in my + power to relieve or prevent. + + It is for these reasons, therefore, that I have dwelt upon the + subject, and it adds not a little to my other difficulties and + distress to find, that much more is expected of me than is + possible to be performed, and that upon the ground of safety and + policy I am obliged to conceal the true state of the army + from public view, and thereby expose myself to detraction and + calumny.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, VI, 259, 262.] + +Mrs. Washington, as was her custom throughout the war, spent part of +the winter with the General. Her brief allusions to Valley Forge would +hardly lead the reader to infer the horrors that nearly ten thousand +American soldiers were suffering. + + "Your Mamma has not yet arrived," Washington writes to Jack + Custis, "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 when 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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: P.L. Ford, _The True George Washington_, 99.] + +While the Americans languished and died at Valley Forge during the +winter months, Sir William Howe and his troops lived in Philadelphia +not only in great comfort, but in actual luxury. British gold paid out +in cash to the dealers in provisions bought full supplies from one of +the best markets in America. And the people of the place, largely made +up of Loyalists, vied with each other in providing entertainment for +the British army. There were fashionable balls for the officers and +free-and-easy revels for the soldiers. Almost at any time the British +army might have marched out to Valley Forge and dealt a final blow to +Washington's naked and starving troops, but it preferred the good food +and the dissipations of Philadelphia; and so the winter dragged on to +spring. + +Howe was recalled to England and General Sir Henry Clinton succeeded +him in the command of the British forces. He was one of those +well-upholstered carpet knights who flourished in the British army at +that time, and was even less energetic than Howe. We must remember, +however, that the English officers who came over to fight in America +had had their earlier training in Europe, where conditions were quite +different from those here. Especially was this true of the terrain. +Occasionally a born fighter like Wolfe did his work in a day, but this +was different from spending weeks and months in battleless campaigns. +The Philadelphians arranged a farewell celebration for General Howe +which they called the _Meschianza_, an elaborate pageant, said to be +the most beautiful ever seen in America, after which General Howe and +General Clinton had orders to take their army back to New York. As +much as could be shipped on boats went that way, but the loads that +had to be carried in wagons formed a cavalcade twelve miles long, and +with the attending regiment advanced barely more than two and a half +miles a day. Washington, whose troops entered Philadelphia as soon as +the British marched out, hung on the retreating column and at Monmouth +engaged in a pitched battle, which was on the point of being a +decisive victory for the Americans when, through the blunder +of General Lee, it collapsed. The blunder seemed too obviously +intentional, but Washington appeared in the midst of the mêlée and +urged on the men to retrieve their defeat. This was the battle of +which one of the soldiers said afterwards, "At Monmouth the General +swore like an angel from Heaven." He prevented disaster, but that +could not reconcile him to the loss of the victory which had been +almost within his grasp. Those who witnessed it never forgot +Washington's rage when he met Lee and asked him what he meant and then +ordered him to the rear. Washington prepared to renew the battle on +the following day, but during the night Clinton withdrew his army, and +by daylight was far on his way to the seacoast. + +Washington followed up the coast and took up his quarters at White +Plains. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AID FROM FRANCE; TRAITORS + + +This month of July, 1778, marked two vital changes in the war. The +first was the transfer by the British of the field of operations to +the South. The second was the introduction of naval warfare through +the coming of the French. The British seemed to desire, from the day +of Concord and Lexington on, to blast every part of the Colonies with +military occupation and battles. After Washington drove them out +of Boston in March, 1776, they left the seaboard, except Newport, +entirely free. Then for nearly three years they gave their chief +attention to New York City and its environs, and to Jersey down to, +and including, Philadelphia. On the whole, except for keeping their +supremacy in New York, they had lost ground steadily, although they +had always been able to put more men than the Americans could match in +the field, so that the Americans always had an uphill fight. Part of +this disadvantage was owing to the fact that the British had a fleet, +often a very large fleet, which could be sent suddenly to distant +points along the seacoast, much to the upsetting of the American +plans. + +The French Alliance, ratified during the spring, not only gave the +Americans the moral advantage of the support of a great nation, but +actually the support of a powerful fleet. It opened French harbors to +American vessels, especially privateers, which could there take refuge +or fit out. It enabled the Continentals to carry on commerce, which +before the war had been the monopoly of England. Above all it brought +a large friendly fleet to American waters, which might aid the land +forces and must always be an object of anxiety to the British. + +Such a fleet was that under Count d'Estaing, who reached the mouth of +Delaware Bay on July 8, 1778, with twelve ships of the line and four +frigates. He then went to New York, but the pilots thought his heavy +draught ships could not cross the bar above Sandy Hook; and so he +sailed off to Newport where a British fleet worsted him and he was +obliged to put into Boston for repairs. Late in the autumn he took up +his station in the West Indies for the winter. This first experiment +of French naval coöperation had not been crowned by victory as the +Americans had hoped, but many of the other advantages which they +expected from the French Alliance did ensue. The opening of the +American ports to the trade of the world, and incidentally the +promotion of American privateering, proved of capital assistance to +the cause itself. + +The summer and autumn of 1778 passed uneventfully for Washington and +his army. He was not strong enough to risk any severe fighting, but +wished to be near the enemy's troops to keep close watch on them and +to take advantage of any mistake in their moves. We cannot see how he +could have saved himself if they had attacked him with force. But that +they never made the attempt was probably owing to orders from London +to be as considerate of the Americans as they could; for England in +that year had sent out three Peace Commissioners who bore the most +seductive offers to the Americans. The Government was ready to pledge +that there should never again be an attempt to quell the Colonists by +an army and that they should be virtually self-governing. But while +the Commissioners tried to persuade, very obviously, they did not +receive any official recognition from the Congress or the local +conventions, and when winter approached, they sailed back to England +with their mission utterly unachieved. Rebuffed in their purpose of +ending the war by conciliation, the British now resorted to treachery +and corruption. I do not know whether General Sir Henry Clinton was +more or less of a man of honor than the other high officers in the +British army at that time. We feel instinctively loath to harbor a +suspicion against the honor of these officers; and yet, the truth +demands us to declare that some one among them engaged in the +miserable business of bribing Americans to be traitors. Where the full +guilt lies, we shall never know, but the fact that so many of the +trails lead back to General Clinton gives us a reason for a strong +surmise. We have lists drawn up at British Headquarters of the +Americans who were probably approachable, and the degree of ease with +which it was supposed they could be corrupted. "Ten thousand guineas +and a major-general's commission were the price for which West Point, +with its garrison, stores, and outlying posts, was to be placed in the +hands of the British."[1] The person with whom the British made this +bargain was Benedict Arnold, who had been one of the most efficient of +Washington's generals, and of unquestioned loyalty. Major John André, +one of Clinton's adjutants, served as messenger between Clinton +and Arnold. On one of these errands André, somewhat disguised, was +captured by the Americans and taken before Washington, who ordered a +court-martial at once. Fourteen officers sat on it, including Generals +Greene, Lafayette, and Steuben. In a few hours they brought in a +verdict to the effect that "Major André ought to be considered a spy +from the enemy, and that agreeable to the law and usage of nations, +it is their opinion he ought to suffer death." [2] Throughout the +proceedings André behaved with great dignity. He was a young man +of sympathetic nature. Old Steuben, familiar with the usage in the +Prussian army, said: "It is not possible to save him. He put us to no +proof, but a premeditated design to deceive."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Channing, III, 305.] + +[Footnote 2: Channing, III, 307.] + +[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., 307.] + +He was sentenced to death by hanging--the doom of traitors. He did +not fear to die, but that doom repelled him and he begged to be shot +instead. Washington, however, in view of his great crime and as a +most necessary example in that crisis, firmly refused to commute the +sentence. So, on the second of October, 1780, André was hanged. + +This is an appropriate place to refer briefly to one of the most +trying features of Washington's career as Commander-in-Chief. From +very early in the war jealousy inspired some of his associates with a +desire to have him displaced. He was too conspicuously the very head +and front of the American cause. Some men, doubtless open to dishonest +suggestions, wished to get rid of him in order that they might carry +on their treasonable conspiracy with greater ease and with a better +chance of success. Others bluntly coveted his position. Perhaps some +of them really thought that he was pursuing wrong methods or policy. +However it may be, few commanders-in-chief in history have had to +suffer more than Washington did from malice and faction. + +The most serious of the plots against him was the so-called Conway +Cabal, whose head was Thomas Conway, an Irishman who had served in the +French army and had come over early in the war to the Colonies to make +his way as a soldier of fortune. He seems to have been one of the +typical Irishmen who had no sense of truth, who was talkative and +boastful, and a mirthful companion. It happened that Washington +received a letter from one of his friends which drew from him the +following note to Brigadier-General Conway: + + A letter, which I received last night, contained the following + paragraph: + + "In a letter from General Conway to General Gates he says, 'Heaven + has been determined to save your country, or a weak General and + bad counsellors would have ruined it.'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 180.] + +It was characteristic of Washington that he should tell Conway at once +that he knew of the latter's machinations. Nevertheless Washington +took no open step against him. The situation of the army at Valley +Forge was then so desperately bad that he did not wish to make it +worse, perhaps, by interjecting into it what might be considered a +matter personal to himself. In the Congress also there were members +who belonged to the Conway Cabal, and although it was generally known +that Washington did not trust him, Congress raised his rank to that of +Major-General and appointed him Inspector-General to the Army. On this +Conway wrote to Washington: "If my appointment is productive of any +inconvenience, or otherwise disagreeable to your Excellency, as I +neither applied nor solicited for this place, I am very ready to +return to France." The spice of this letter consists in the fact that +Conway's disavowal was a plain lie; for he had been soliciting for the +appointment "with forwardness," says Mr. Ford, "almost amounting to +impudence." Conway did not enjoy his new position long. Being wounded +in a duel with an American officer, and thinking that he was going to +die, he wrote to Washington: "My career will soon be over, therefore +justice and truth prompt me to declare my last sentiments. You are +in my eyes the great and good man. May you long enjoy the love, +veneration, and esteem of these states, whose liberties you have +asserted by your virtues."[1] But he did not die of his wound, and in +a few months he left for France. After his departure the cabal, of +which he seemed to be the centre, died. + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 254.] + +The story of this cabal is still shrouded in mystery. Whoever had the +original papers either destroyed them or left them with some one who +deposited them in a secret place where they have been forgotten. +Persons of importance, perhaps of even greater importance than some of +those who are known, would naturally do their utmost to prevent being +found out. + +Two other enemies of Washington had unsavory reputations in their +dealings with him. One of these was General Horatio Gates, who was +known as ambitious to be made head of the American army in place +of Washington. Gates won the Battle of Saratoga at which Burgoyne +surrendered his British army. Washington at that time was struggling +to keep his army in the Highlands, where he could watch the other +British forces. It was easy for any one to make the remark that +Washington had not won a battle for many months, whereas Gates was +the hero of the chief victory thus far achieved by the Americans. +The shallow might think as they chose, however: the backbone of the +country stood by Washington, and the trouble between him and Gates +came to no further outbreak. + +The third intriguer was General Charles Lee, who, like Gates, was +an Englishman, and had served under General Braddock, being in the +disaster of Fort Duquesne. When the Revolution broke out, he took +sides with the Americans, and being a glib and forth-putting person he +talked himself into the repute of being a great general. The Americans +proudly gave him a very high commission, in which he stood second to +Washington, the Commander-in-Chief. But being taken prisoner by the +British, he had no opportunity of displaying his military talents for +more than two years. Then, when Washington was pursuing the enemy +across Jersey, Lee demanded as his right to lead the foremost +division. At Monmouth he was given the post of honor and he attacked +with such good effect that he had already begun to beat the British +division opposed to him when he suddenly gave strange orders which +threw his men into confusion. + +Lafayette, who was not far away, noticed the disorder, rode up to Lee +and remarked that the time seemed to be favorable for cutting off a +squadron of the British troops. To this Lee replied: "Sir, you do not +know the British soldiers; we cannot stand against them; we shall +certainly be driven back at first, and we must be cautious."[1] +Washington himself had by this time perceived that something was wrong +and galloped up to Lee in a towering passion. He addressed him words +which, so far as I know, no historian has reported, not because there +was any ambiguity in them, and Lee's line was sufficiently re-formed +to save the day. Lee, however, smarted under the torrent of reproof, +as well he might. The next day he wrote Washington a very insulting +letter. Washington replied still more hotly. Lee demanded a +court-martial and was placed under arrest on three charges: "First, +disobedience of orders in not attacking the enemy agreeably to +repeated instructions; secondly, misbehavior before the enemy, in +making an unnecessary, disorderly and shameful retreat; thirdly, +disrespect to the Commander-in-Chief in two letters written after the +action."[2] By the ruling of the court all the charges against General +Lee were sustained with the exception that the word "shameful" was +omitted. Lee left the army, retired to Philadelphia, and died before +the end of the Revolution. General Mifflin, another conspicuous member +of the cabal, resigned at the end of the year, December, 1777. So the +traducers of Washington were punished by the reactions of their own +crimes. + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 275, note 1.] + +[Footnote 2: Sparks, 278. Sparks tells the story that when Washington +administered the oath of allegiance to his troops at Valley Forge, +soon after Lee had rejoined the army, the generals, standing together, +held a Bible. But Lee deliberately withdrew his hand twice. Washington +asked why he hesitated. He replied, "As to King George, I am ready +enough to absolve myself from all allegiance to him, but I have some +scruples about the Prince of Wales." (Ibid., 278.)] + +That the malicious hostility of his enemies really troubled +Washington, such a letter as the following from him to President +Laurens of the Congress well indicates. He says: + + I cannot sufficiently express the obligation I feel to you, for + your friendship and politeness upon an occasion in which I am so + deeply interested. I was not unapprized that a malignant faction + had been for some time forming to my prejudice; which, conscious + as I am of having ever done all in my power to answer the + important purposes of the trust reposed in me, could not but give + me some pain on a personal account. But my chief concern arises + from an apprehension of the dangerous consequences, which + intestine dissensions may produce to the common cause. + + As I have no other view than to promote the public good, and + am unambitious of honors not founded in the approbation of my + country, I would not desire in the least degree to suppress a free + spirit of inquiry into any part of my conduct, that even faction + itself may deem reprehensible. The anonymous paper handed to you + exhibits many serious charges, and it is my wish that it should + be submitted to Congress. This I am the more inclined to + the suppression or concealment may possibly involve you in + embarrassments hereafter, since it is uncertain how many or who + may be privy to the contents. + + My enemies take an ungenerous advantage of me. They know the + delicacy of my situation, and that motives of policy deprive me + of the defence, I might otherwise make against their insidious + attacks. They know I cannot combat their insinuations, however + injurious, without disclosing secrets, which it is of the utmost + moment to conceal. But why should I expect to be exempt from + censure, the unfailing lot of an elevated station? Merit and + talents, with which I can have no pretensions of rivalship, have + ever been subject to it. My heart tells me, that it has been my + unremitted aim to do the best that circumstances would permit; yet + I may have been very often mistaken in my judgment of the means, + and may in many instances deserve the imputation of error. (Valley + Forge, 31 January, 1778.)[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 353.] + +Such was the sort of explanation which was wrung from the Silent Man +when he explained to an intimate the secrets of his heart. + +To estimate the harassing burden of these plots we must bear in mind +that, while Washington had to suffer them in silence, he had also to +deal every day with the Congress and with an army which, at Valley +Forge, was dying slowly of cold and starvation. There was literally no +direction from which he could expect help; he must hold out as long as +he could and keep from the dwindling, disabled army the fact that some +day they would wake up to learn that the last crumb had been eaten +and that death only remained for them. On one occasion, after he had +visited Philadelphia and had seen the Congress in action, he unbosomed +himself about it in a letter which contained these terrible words: + + If I was to be called upon to draw a picture of the times and of + men, from what I have seen, and heard, and in part know, I should + in one word say that idleness, dissipation and extravagance + seems to have laid fast hold of most of them. That + speculation--peculation--and an insatiable thirst for riches seems + to have got the better of every other consideration and almost of + every order of men. That party disputes and personal quarrels are + the great business of the day whilst the momentous concerns of an + empire--a great and accumulated debt--ruined finances--depreciated + money--and want of credit (which in their consequences is the want + of everything) are but secondary considerations, and postponed + from day to day--from week to week as if our affairs wear the + most-promising aspect. + +The events of 1778 made a lasting impression on King George III. +The alliance of France with the Americans created a sort of reflex +patriotism which the Government did what it could to foster. British +Imperialism flamed forth as an ideal, one whose purposes must be to +crush the French. The most remarkable episode was the return of the +Earl of Chatham, much broken and in precarious health, to the King's +fold. To the venerable statesman the thought that any one with British +blood in his veins should stand by rebels of British blood, or by +their French allies, was a cause of rage. On April 7, 1778, the great +Chatham appeared in the House of Lords and spoke for Imperialism and +against the Americans and French. There was a sudden stop in his +speaking, and a moment later, confusion, as he fell in a fit. He never +spoke there again, and though he was hurried home and cared for by the +doctors as best they could, he died on the eleventh of May. At the +end he reverted to the dominant ideal of his life--the supremacy of +England. So his chief rival in Parliament, Edmund Burke, who shocked +more than half of England by seeming to approve the nascent French +Revolution, died execrating it. + +The failure of the Commission on Reconciliation to get even an +official hearing in America further depressed George III, and there +seemed to have flitted through his unsound mind more and more frequent +premonitions that England might not win after all. Having made +friendly overtures, which were rejected, he now planned to be more +savage than ever. In 1779 the American privateers won many victories +which gave them a reputation out of proportion to the importance of +the battles they fought, or the prizes they took. Chief among the +commanders of these vessels was a Scotchman, John Paul Jones, who +sailed the Bonhomme Richard and with two companion ships attacked the +Serapis and the Scarborough, convoying a company of merchantmen off +Flamborough Head. Night fell, darkness came, the Bonhomme Richard and +the Serapis kept up bombarding each other at short range. During a +brief pause, Pearson, the British captain, called out, "Have you +struck your colors?" at which Jones shouted back, "I have not yet +begun to fight." Before morning the Serapis surrendered and in the +forenoon the victorious Bonhomme Richard sank. Europe rang with the +exploit; not merely those easily thrilled by a spectacular engagement, +but those who looked deeper began to ask themselves whether the naval +power that must be reckoned with was not rising in the West. + +Meanwhile, Washington kept his uncertain army near New York. The city +swarmed with Loyalists, who at one time boasted of having a volunteer +organization larger than Washington's army. These later years seem +to have been the hey-day of the Loyalists in most of the Colonies, +although the Patriots passed severe laws against them, sequestrating +their property and even banishing them. In places like New York, where +General Clinton maintained a refuge, they stayed on, hoping, as they +had done for several years, that the war would soon be over and the +King's authority restored. + +In the South there were several minor fights, in which now the British +and now the Americans triumphed. At the end of December, 1779, Clinton +and Cornwallis with nearly eight thousand men went down to South +Carolina intending to reduce that State to submission. One of +Washington's lieutenants, General Lincoln, ill-advisedly thought that +he could defend Charleston. But as soon as the enemy were ready, they +pressed upon him hard and he surrendered. The year ended in gloom. The +British were virtually masters in the Carolinas and in Georgia. The +people of those States felt that they had been abandoned by the +Congress and that they were cut off from relations with the Northern +States. The glamour of glory at sea which had brightened them all +the year before had vanished. John Paul Jones might win a striking +sea-fight, but there was no navy, nor ships enough to transport troops +down to the Southern waters where they might have turned the tide +of battle on shore. During the winter the British continued their +marauding in the South. For lack of troops Washington was obliged +to stay in his quarters near New York and feel the irksomeness of +inactivity. General Nathanael Greene, a very energetic officer, next +indeed to Washington himself in general estimation, commanded in +the South. At the Cowpens (January 17, 1781) one of his +lieutenants--Morgan, a guerilla leader--killed or captured nearly all +of Tarleton's men, who formed a specially crack regiment. A little +later Washington marched southward to Virginia, hoping to coöperate +with the French fleet under Rochambeau and to capture Benedict Arnold, +now a British Major-General, who was doing much damage in Virginia. +Arnold was too wary to be caught. Cornwallis, the second in command of +the British forces, pursued Lafayette up and down Virginia. Clinton, +the British Commander-in-Chief, began to feel nervous for the +safety of New York and wished to detach some of his forces thither. +Cornwallis led his army into Yorktown and proceeded to fortify it, so +that it might resist a siege. Now at last Washington felt that he +had the enemy's army within his grasp. Sixteen thousand American and +French troops were brought down from the North to furnish the fighting +arm he required. + +Yorktown lay on the south shore of the York River, an estuary of +Chesapeake Bay. On the opposite side the little town of Gloucester +projected into the river. In Yorktown itself the English had thrown up +two redoubts and had drawn some lines of wall. The French kept up an +unremitting cannonade, but it became evident that the redoubts must be +taken in order to subdue the place. Washington, much excited, took his +place in the central battery along with Generals Knox and Lincoln and +their staff. Those about him recognized the peril he was in, and one +of his adjutants called his attention to the fact that the place was +much exposed. "If you think so," said he, "you are at liberty to +step back." Shortly afterward a musket ball struck the cannon in the +embrasure and rolled on till it fell at his feet. General Knox took +him by the arm. "My dear General," he exclaimed, "we can't spare you +yet." "It is a spent ball," Washington rejoined calmly; "no harm is +done." When the redoubts were taken, he drew a long breath and said to +Knox: "The work is done, and well done."[1] Lord Cornwallis saw that +his position was desperate, if not hopeless. And on October 16th +he made a plucky attempt to retard the final blow, but he did not +succeed. That evening he thought of undertaking a last chance. He +would cross the York River in flatboats, land at Gloucester, and march +up the country through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. +Any one who knew the actual state of that region understood that +Cornwallis's plan was crazy; but it is to be judged as the last +gallantry of a brave man. During the night he put forth on his +flatboats, which were driven out of their course and much dispersed by +untoward winds. They had to return to Yorktown by morning, and at ten +o'clock Cornwallis ordered that a parley should be beaten. Then he +despatched a flag of truce with a letter to Washington proposing +cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours. Washington knew that +British ships were on their way from New York to bring relief and he +did not wish to grant so much delay. He, therefore, proposed that the +formal British terms should be sent to him in writing; upon which he +would agree to a two hours' truce. It was the morning of the 10th of +October that the final arrangement was made. Washington, on horseback, +attended by his staff, headed the American line. His troops, in +worn-out uniforms, but looking happy and victorious, were massed near +him. Count Rochambeau, with his suite, held place on the left of the +road, the French troops all well-uniformed and equipped; and they +marched on the field with a military band playing--the first time, it +was said, that this had been known in America. "About two o'clock the +garrison sallied forth and passed through with shouldered arms, slow +and solemn steps, colors cased, and drums beating a British march."[2] +General O'Hara, who led them, rode up to Washington and apologized for +the absence of Lord Cornwallis, who was indisposed. Washington pointed +O'Hara to General Lincoln, who was to receive the submission of the +garrison. They were marched off to a neighboring field where they +showed a sullen and dispirited demeanor and grounded their arms so +noisily and carelessly that General Lincoln had to reprove them. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, iv, 378.] + +[Footnote 2: Irving, iv, 383.] + +With little delay Washington went back to the North with his army, +expecting to see the first fruits of the capitulation. There were +nearly seventeen thousand Allied troops at Yorktown of whom three +thousand were militia of Virginia. The British force under Cornwallis +numbered less than eight thousand men. + +Months were required before the truce between the two belligerents +resulted in peace. But the people of America hailed the news of +Yorktown as the end of the war. They had hardly admitted to themselves +the gravity of the task while the war lasted, and being now +relieved of immediate danger, they gave themselves up to surprising +insouciance. A few among them who thought deeply, Washington above +all, feared that the British might indulge in some surprise which they +would find it hard to repel. + +But the American Revolution was indeed ended, and the American +Colonies of 1775 were indeed independent and free. Even in the brief +outline of the course of events which I have given, it must appear +that the American Revolution was almost the most hare-brained +enterprise in history. After the first days of Lexington and Concord, +when the farmers and country-folk rushed to the centres to check +the British invaders, the British had almost continuously a large +advantage in position and in number of troops. And in those early days +the Colonists fought, not for Independence, but for the traditional +rights which the British Crown threatened to take from them. Now they +had their freedom, but what a freedom! There were thirteen unrelated +political communities bound together now only by the fact of having +been united in their common struggle against England. Each had adopted +a separate constitution, and the constitutions were not uniform nor +was there any central unifying power to which they all looked up and +obeyed. The vicissitudes of the war, which had been fought over the +region of twelve hundred miles of coast, had proved the repellent +differences of the various districts. The slave-breeder and the +slave-owner of Virginia and the States of the South had little in +common with the gnarled descendants of the later Puritans in New +England. What principle could be found to knit them together? The war +had at least the advantage of bringing home to all of them the evils +of war which they all instinctively desired to escape. The numbers of +the disaffected, particularly of the Loyalists who openly sided with +the King and with the British Government, were much larger than we +generally suppose, and they not only gave much direct help and comfort +to the enemy, but also much indirect and insidious aid. In the great +cities like New York and Philadelphia they numbered perhaps two fifths +of the total population, and, as they were usually the rich and +influential people, they counted for more than their showing in the +census. How could they ever be unified in the American Republic? How +many of them, like the traitorous General Charles Lee, would confess +that, although they were willing to pass by George III as King, they +still felt devotion and loyalty to the Prince of Wales? + +Some of those who had leaned toward Loyalism, to be on what they +supposed would prove the winning side, quickly forgot their lapse and +were very enthusiastic in acclaiming the Patriotic victory. Those +Irreconcilables who had not already fled did so at once, leaving their +property behind them to be confiscated by the Government. On only one +point did there seem to be unanimity and accord. That was that the +dogged prosecution of the war and the ultimate victory must be +credited to George Washington. Others had fought valiantly and endured +hardships and fatigues and gnawing suspense, but without him, who +never wavered, they could not have gone on. He had among them some +able lieutenants, but not one who, had he himself fallen out of the +command by wound or sickness for a month, could have taken his place. +The people knew this and they now paid him in honor and gratitude for +what he had done for them. If there were any members of the old cabal, +any envious rivals, they either held their peace or spoke in whispers. +The masses were not yet weary of hearing Aristides called the Just. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WASHINGTON RETURNS TO PEACE + + +Nearly two years elapsed before the real settlement of the war. The +English held New York City, Charleston, and Savannah, the strong +garrisons. It seemed likely that they would have been glad to arrange +the terms of peace sooner, but there was much inner turmoil at home. +The men who, through thick and thin, had abetted the King in one plan +after another to fight to the last ditch had nothing more to propose. +Lord North, when he heard of the surrender of Yorktown, almost +shrieked, "My God! It is all over; it is all over!" and was plunged in +gloom. A new ministry had to be formed. Lord North had been succeeded +by Rockingham, who died in July, 1782, and was followed by Shelburne, +supposed to be rather liberal, but to share King George's desire to +keep down the Whigs. Negotiations over the terms of peace were carried +on with varying fortune for more than a year. John Adams, John Jay, +and Benjamin Franklin were the American Peace Commissioners. The +preliminaries between Great Britain and America were signed on +December 30, 1782, and with France and Spain nearly two months +later. The Dutch held out still longer into 1783. Washington, at his +Headquarters in Newburgh, New York, had been awaiting the news of +peace, not lazily, but planning for a new campaign and meditating upon +the various projects which might be undertaken. To him the news of the +actual signing of the treaty came at the end of March. He replied at +once to Theodorick Bland; a letter which gave his general views +in regard to the needs and rights of the army before it should be +disbanded: + + It is now the bounden duty of every one to make the blessings + thereof as diffusive as possible. Nothing would so effectually + bring this to pass as the removal of those local prejudices which + intrude upon and embarrass that great line of policy which alone + can make us a free, happy and powerful People. Unless our Union + can be fixed upon such a basis as to accomplish these, certain + I am we have toiled, bled and spent our treasure to very little + purpose. + + We have now a National character to establish, and it is of the + utmost importance to stamp favorable impressions upon it; let + justice be then one of its characteristics, and gratitude another. + Public creditors of every denomination will be comprehended in the + first; the Army in a particular manner will have a claim to the + latter; to say that no distinction can be made between the claims + of public creditors is to declare that there is no difference in + circumstances; or that the services of all men are equally alike. + This Army is of near eight years' standing, six of which they have + spent in the Field without any other shelter from the inclemency + of the seasons than Tents, or such Houses as they could build for + themselves without expense to the public. They have encountered + hunger, cold and nakedness. They have fought many Battles and bled + freely. They have lived without pay and in consequence of it, + officers as well as men have subsisted upon their Rations. + + They have often, very often, been reduced to the necessity of + eating Salt Porke, or Beef not for a day, or a week only but + months together without Vegetables or money to buy them; or a + cloth to wipe on. + + Many of them do better, and to dress as Officers have contracted + heavy debts or spent their patrimonies. The first see the Doors of + gaols open to receive them, whilst those of the latter are shut + against them. Is there no discrimination then--no extra exertion + to be made in favor of men in these peculiar circumstances, in the + event of their military dissolution? Or, if no worse cometh of it, + are they to be turned adrift soured and discontented, complaining + of the ingratitude of their Country, and under the influence of + these passions to become fit subjects for unfavorable impressions, + and unhappy dissentions? For permit me to add, tho every man in + the Army feels his distress--it is not every one that will reason + to the cause of it. + + I would not from the observations here made, be understood to mean + that Congress should (because I know they cannot, nor does + the army expect it) pay the full arrearages due to them till + Continental or State funds are established for the purpose. They + would, from what I can learn, go home contented--nay--_thankful_ + to receive what I have mentioned in a more public letter of this + date, and in the manner there expressed. And surely this may be + effected with proper exertions. Or what possibility was there of + keeping the army together, if the war had continued, when the + victualls, clothing, and other expenses of it were to have been + added? Another thing, Sir, (as I mean to be frank and free in my + communications on this subject,) I will not conceal from you--it + is the dissimilarity in the payments to men in Civil and Military + life. The first receive everything--the others get nothing but + bare subsistence--they ask what this is owing to? and reasons have + been assigned, which, say they, amount to this--that men in Civil + life have stronger passions and better pretensions to indulge + them, or less virtue and regard for their Country than + us,--otherwise, as we are all contending for the same prize and + equally interested in the attainment of it, why do we not bear the + burthen equally?[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, X, 203.] + +The army was indeed the incubus of the Americans. They could not fight +the war without it, but they had never succeeded in mastering the +difficulties of maintaining and strengthening it. The system of a +standing army was of course not to be thought of, and the uncertain +recruits who took its place were mostly undisciplined and unreliable. +When the exigencies became pressing, a new method was resorted to, and +then the usual erosion of life in the field, the losses by casualties +and sickness, caused the numbers to dwindle. Long ago the paymaster +had ceased to pretend to pay off the men regularly so that there was +now a large amount of back pay due them. Largely through Washington's +patriotic exhortations had they kept fighting to the end; and, with +peace upon them, they did not dare to disband because they feared +that, if they left before they were paid, they would never be paid. +Washington felt that, if thousands of discontented and even angry +soldiers were allowed to go back to their homes without the means of +taking up any work or business, great harm would be done. The love of +country, which he believed to be most important to inculcate, would +not only be checked but perverted. They already had too many reasons +to feel aggrieved. Why should they, the men who risked their lives +in battle and actually had starved or frozen in winter quarters, go +unpaid, whereas every civilian who had a post under the Government +lived at least safely and healthily and was paid with fair +promptitude? They felt now that their best hope for justice lay in +General Washington's interest in their behalf; and that interest of +his seems now one of the noblest and wisest and most patriotic of his +expressions. + +Washington had need to be prepared for any emergency. Thus a body +of officers deliberated not only a mutiny of the army, but a _coup +d'état_, in which they planned to overthrow the flimsy Federation of +the thirteen States and to set up a monarchy. They wrote to Washington +announcing their intention and their belief that he would make an +ideal monarch. He was amazed and chagrined. He replied in part as +follows, to the Colonel who had written him: + + I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have + given encouragement to an address, which to me seems big with + the greatest mischiefs, that can befall my country. If I am not + deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a + person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. I must add, + that no man possesses a more sincere wish to see ample justice + done to the army than I do; and, as far as my powers and + influence, in a constitutional way, extend, they shall be employed + to the extent of my abilities to effect it, should there be any + occasion. Let me conjure you, then, if you have any regard for + your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for + me, to banish these thoughts from your mind and never communicate, + as from yourself to any one else, a sentiment of the like + nature.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 355.] + +The turmoil of the army continued throughout the year and into the +next. The so-called "Newburgh Address" set forth the quarrel of the +soldiers and Washington's discreet reply. On April 19, 1783, the +eighth anniversary of the first fighting at Concord, a proclamation +was issued to the American army announcing the official end of all +hostilities. In June Washington issued a circular letter to the +Governors of the States, bidding them farewell and urging them to +guard their precious country. Many of the American troops were allowed +to go home on furlough. In company with Governor Clinton he went up +the Hudson to Ticonderoga and then westward to Fort Schuyler. Being +invited by Congress, which was then sitting at Annapolis, he journeyed +thither. Before he left New York City arrangements were made for a +formal farewell to his comrades in arms. I quote the description of it +from Chief Justice Marshall's "Life of Washington": + + This affecting interview took place on the 4th of December. 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 White hall, where a barge + waited to convey him to Powles' hook (Paulus Hook). The whole + company followed in mute and solemn procession, with dejected + countenances, testifying feelings of delicious melancholy, which + no language can describe. Having entered the barge, he turned to + the company; and waving his hat, bade them a silent adieu. They + paid him the same affectionate compliment, and after the barge had + left them, returned in the same solemn manner to the place where + they had assembled.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Marshall, IV, 561.] + +Marshall's description, simple but not commonplace, reminds one of +Ville-Hardouin's pictures, so terse, so rich in color, of the Barons +of France in the Fifth Crusade. The account once read, you can never +forget that majestic, silent figure of Washington being rowed across +to Paulus Hook with no sound but the dignified rhythm of the oars. Not +a cheer, not a word! + +His reception by Congress took place on Tuesday, the twenty-third +of December, at twelve o'clock. Again I borrow from Chief Justice +Marshall's account: + + When the hour arrived for performing a ceremony so well calculated + to recall to the mind the various interesting scenes which had + passed since the commission now to be returned was granted, the + gallery was crowded with spectators, and many respectable persons, + among whom were the legislative and executive characters of the + state, several general officers, and the consul general of France, + were admitted on the floor of Congress. + + The representatives of the sovereignty of the union remained + seated and covered. The spectators were standing and uncovered. + The General was introduced by the secretary and conducted to a + chair. After a decent interval, silence was commanded, and a short + pause ensued. The President (General Mifflin) then informed him + that "the United States in Congress assembled were prepared to + receive his communications." With a native dignity improved by + the solemnity of the occasion, the General rose and delivered the + following address: + + "_Mr. President_: + + "The great events on which my resignation depended, having at + length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere + congratulations to Congress, and on presenting myself before them, + to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me and to + claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country. + + "Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty + and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States, of + becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the + appointment I accepted with diffidence; a diffidence in my + abilities to accomplish so arduous a task, which, however, was + superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the + support of the supreme power of the union, and the patronage of + heaven. + + "The successful termination of the war has verified the most + sanguine expectations; and my gratitude for the interposition of + Providence, and the assistance I have received from my countrymen, + increases with every review of the momentous contest. + + "While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I should do + injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge in this place, the + peculiar services and distinguished merits of the gentlemen who + have been attached to my person during the war. It was impossible + the choice of confidential officers to compose my family should + have been more fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend in + particular, those who have continued in the service to the present + moment, as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of + Congress. + + "I consider it as an indispensable duty to close this last act + of my official life, by commending the interests of our dearest + country, to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the + superintendence of them to his holy keeping. + + "Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great + theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this + august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer + my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public + life." + + After advancing to the chair, and delivering his commission to the + President, he returned to his place, and received standing, the + answer of Congress which was delivered by the President. In the + course of his remarks, General Mifflin said: + + "Having defended the standard of liberty in this new world: having + taught a new lesson useful to those who inflict, and to those who + feel oppression, you retire from the great theatre of action, + with the blessings of your fellow citizens; but the glory of your + virtues will not terminate with your military command: it will + continue to animate remotest ages."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Marshall, IV, 563.] + +The meeting then broke up, and Washington departed. He went that same +afternoon to Virginia and reached Mount Vernon in the evening. We can +imagine with what satisfaction and gratitude he, to whom home was the +dearest place in the world, returned to the home he had seen only once +by chance since the beginning of the Revolution, eight years before. +Probably few of those who had risen to the highest station in their +country said, and felt more honestly, that they were grateful at being +allowed by Fate to retire from office, than did Washington. To be +relieved of responsibility, free from the hourly spur, day and night, +of planning and carrying out, of trying to find food for starving +soldiers, of leading forlorn hopes against the truculent enemy, must +have seemed to the weary and war-worn General like a call from the +Hesperides. Men of his iron nature, and of his capacity for work and +joy in it, do not, of course, really delight in idleness. They may +think that they crave idleness, but in reality they crave the power of +going on. + +It took comparatively little effort for Washington to fall into +his old way of life at Mount Vernon, although there, too, much was +changed. Old buildings had fallen out of repair. There were new +experiments to be tried, and the general purpose to be carried out of +making Mount Vernon a model place in that part of the country. Whether +he would or not, he was sought for almost daily by persons who came +from all parts of the United States, and from overseas. Hospitality +being not merely a duty, but a passion with him, he gladly received +the strangers and learned much from them. From their accounts of their +interviews we see that, although he was really the most natural of +men, some of them treated him as if he were some strange creature--a +holy white elephant of Siam, or the Grand Lama of Tibet. Age had +brought its own deductions and reservations. It does not appear that +parties rode to hounds after the fox any more at Mount Vernon. And +then there were the irreparable gaps that could not be filled. At +Belvoir, where his neighbors the Fairfaxes, friends of a lifetime, +used to live, they lived no more. One of them, more than ninety years +old, had turned his face to the wall on hearing of the surrender at +Yorktown. Another had gone back to England to live out his life there, +true to his Tory convictions. + +Washington had sincerely believed, no doubt, that he was to spend the +rest of his life in dignified leisure, and especially that he would +mix no more in political or public worries; but he soon found that he +had deceived himself. The army, until it officially disbanded at the +end of 1783, caused him constant anxiety interspersed with fits of +indignation over the indifference and inertia of the Congress, which +showed no intention of being just to the soldiers. The reason for its +attitude seems hard to state positively. May it be that the Congress, +jealous since the war began of being ruled by the man on horseback, +feared at its close to grant Washington's demands for it lest they +should bring about the very thing they had feared and avoided--the +creation of a military dictatorship under Washington? When Vergennes +proposed to entrust to Washington a new subsidy from France, the +Congress had taken umbrage and regarded such a proposal as an insult +to the American Government. Should they admit that the Government +itself was not sufficiently sound and trustworthy, and that, +therefore, a private individual, even though he had been a leader of +the Revolution, must be called into service? + +From among persons pestered by this obsession, it was not surprising +that the idea should spring up that Washington was at heart a believer +in monarchy and that he might, when the opportunity favored, allow +himself to be proclaimed king. Several years later he wrote to his +trusted friend, John Jay: + + I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical + form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds + speaking; thence to acting is often but a single step. But how + irrevocable and tremendous! What a triumph for our enemies to + verify their predictions! What a triumph for the advocates of + despotism to find, that we are incapable of governing ourselves, + and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely + ideal and fallacious! Would to God, that wise measures may be + taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much + reason to apprehend.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 285.] + +In the renewal of his life at Mount Vernon, Washington gave almost +as much attention to the cultivation of friendship as to that of his +estate. He pursued with great zest the career of planter-farmer. "I +think," he wrote a friend, "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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 288.] + +The cultivation of his friendships he carried on by letters and by +entertaining his friends as often as he could at Mount Vernon. To +Benjamin Harrison he wrote: "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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., 289.] + +How constantly the flock of guests frequented Mount Vernon we can +infer from this entry in his diary for June 30, 1785: "Dined with only +Mrs. Washington which, I believe, is the first instance of it since my +retirement from public life." To his young friend Lafayette he wrote +without reserve in a vein of deep affection: + + At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on the + banks of the Potomac; and under the shadow of my own vine and my + own fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp, and the busy + scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil + enjoyments, of which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame, + the statesman, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent + in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the + ruin of other countries, as if this globe was insufficient for us + all, and the courtier, who is always watching the countenance of + his prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile, can have + very little conception. I have not only retired from all public + employments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to + view the solitary walk, and tread the paths of private life, with + heartful satisfaction. Envious of none, I am determined to be + pleased with all; and this, my dear friend, being the order of my + march, I will move gently down the stream of life, until I sleep + with my fathers.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 287.] + +In September, 1784, he made a journey on horseback, with a pack-train +to carry his tents and food, into the Northwestern country, which had +especially interested him since the early days when Fort Duquesne was +the goal of his wandering. He observed very closely and his mind was +filled with large imaginings of what the future would see in the +development of the Northwest. Since his youth he had never lost +the conviction that an empire would spring up there; only make the +waterways easy and safe and he felt sure that a very large commerce +would result and with it the extension of civilization. In a memorial +to the legislature he urged that Virginia was the best placed +geographically of all the States to undertake the work of establishing +connection with the States of the Northwest, and he suggested various +details which, when acted upon later, proved to be, as Sparks +remarked, "the first suggestion of the great system of internal +improvements which has since been pursued in the United States." + +On returning to Mount Vernon, he entertained Lafayette for the last +time before he sailed for France. After he had gone, Washington wrote +him this letter in which appears the affection of a friend and the +reverie of an old man looking somewhat wistfully towards sunset, "and +after that the dark": + + 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 connection, + 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, though I wished to say No, my fears answered + Yes. I called to mind the days of my youth, and found they had + long since fled to return no more; that I was now descending the + hill I had been fifty-two years climbing, and that, though I was + blest with a good constitution, I was of a short-lived family and + might soon expect to be entombed in the mansion of my fathers. + These thoughts darkened the shades, and gave a gloom to the + picture, and consequently to my prospect of seeing you again. + +We should not overlook the fact that Washington declined all gifts, +including a donation from Virginia, for his services as General during +the war. He had refused to take any pay, merely keeping a strict +account of what he spent for the Government from 1775 to 1782. This +amounted to over £15,000 and covered only sums actually disbursed by +him for the army. Unlike Marlborough, Nelson, and Wellington, and +other foreign chieftains on whom grateful countrymen conferred +fortunes and high titles, Washington remains as the one great +state-founder who literally _gave_ his services to his country. + +Sparks gives the following interesting account of the way in which +Washington spent his days after his return to Mount Vernon: + + His habits were uniform, and nearly the same as they had been + previous to the war. He rose before the sun and employed himself + in his study, writing letters or reading, till the hour of + breakfast. When breakfast was over, his horse was ready at the + door, and he rode to his farms and gave directions for the day to + the managers and laborers. Horses were likewise prepared for + his guests, whenever they chose to accompany him, or to amuse + themselves by excursions into the country. Returning from his + fields, and despatching such business as happened to be on hand, + he went again to his study, and continued there till three + o'clock, when he was summoned to dinner. The remainder of the day + and the evening were devoted to company, or to recreation in the + family circle. At ten he retired to rest. From these habits + he seldom deviated, unless compelled to do so by particular + circumstances.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 389, 390.] + +This list does not include the item which Washington soon found the +greatest of his burdens--letter-writing. His correspondence increased +rapidly and to an enormous extent. + + Many mistakenly think [he writes to Richard Henry Lee] that I am + retired to ease, and to that kind of tranquility which would grow + tiresome for want of employment; but at no period of my life, not + in the eight years I served the public, have I been obliged to + write so much myself, as I have done since my retirement.... It + is not the letters from my friends which give me trouble, or add + aught to my perplexity. It is references to old matters, with + which I have nothing to do; applications which often cannot + be complied with; inquiries which would require the pen of a + historian to satisfy; letters of compliment as unmeaning perhaps + as they are troublesome, but which must be attended to; and the + commonplace business which employs my pen and my time often + disagreeably. These, with company, deprive me of exercise, and + unless I can obtain relief, must be productive of disagreeable + consequences.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Irving, IV, 466.] + +When we remember that Washington used to write most of his letters +himself, and that from boyhood his handwriting was beautifully neat, +almost like copper-plate, in its precision and elegance, we shall +understand what a task it must have been for him to keep up his +correspondence. A little later he employed a young New Hampshire +graduate of Harvard, Tobias Lear, who graduated in 1783, who served +him as secretary until his death, and undoubtedly lightened the +epistolary cares of the General. But Washington continued to carry on +much of the letter-writing, especially the intimate, himself; +and, like the Adamses and other statesmen of that period, he kept +letter-books which contained the first drafts or copies of the letters +sent. + +Another source of annoyance, to which, however, he resigned himself as +contentedly as he could, was the work of the artists who came to him +to beg him to sit for his picture or statue. Of the painters the most +eminent were Charles Peale and his son Rembrandt. Of the sculptors +Houdon undoubtedly made the best life-sized statue--that which still +adorns the Capitol at Richmond, Virginia--and from the time it was +first exhibited has been regarded as the best, most lifelike. Another, +sitting statue, was made for the State of North Carolina by the +Italian, Canova, the most celebrated of the sculptors of that day. The +artist shows a Roman costume, a favorite of his, unless, as in the +case of Napoleon, he preferred complete nudity. This statue was much +injured in a fire which nearly consumed the Capitol at Raleigh. +The English sculptor, Chantrey, executed a third statue in which +Washington was represented in military dress. This work used to be +shown at the State House in Boston. + +Of the many painted portraits of Washington, those by Gilbert Stuart +have come to be accepted as authentic; especially the head in the +painting which hung in the Boston Athenaeum as a pendant to that of +Martha Washington, and is now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. But +as I remarked earlier, the fact that none of the painters indicate the +very strong marks of smallpox (which he took on his trip to Barbados) +on Washington's face creates a natural suspicion as to accuracy in +detail of any of the portraits. Perhaps the divergence among them +is not greater than that among those of Mary, Queen of Scots, and +indicates only the marked incapacity of some of the painters who did +them. We are certainly justified in saying that Washington's features +varied considerably from his early prime to the days when he was +President. We have come to talk about him as an old man because +from the time when he was sixty years old he frequently used that +expression himself; although, as he died at sixty-seven, he was never +really "an old man." One wonders whether those who lived among pioneer +conditions said and honestly believed that they were old at the time +when, as we think, middle age would hardly have begun. Thus Abraham +Lincoln writes of himself as a patriarch, and no doubt sincerely +thought that he was, at a time when he had just reached forty. The two +features in Washington's face about which the portraitists differ most +are his nose and his mouth. In the early portrait by Charles Peale, +his nose is slightly aquiline, but not at all so massive and +conspicuous as in some of the later works. His mouth, and with it the +expression of the lower part of his face, changed after he began to +wear false teeth. Is it not fair to suppose that the effigies of +Washington, made in later years and usually giving him a somewhat +stiff and expansive grin, originated in the fact that his false set of +teeth lacked perfect adjustment? + +Thus Washington dropped into the ways of peace; working each day what +would have been a long stint for a strong young man, and thinking, +besides, more than most men thought of the needs and future of the +country to which he had given liberty and independence. His chief +anxiety henceforth was that the United States of America should not +miss the great destiny for which he believed the Lord had prepared it. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WELDING THE NATION + + +The doubt, the drifting, the incongruities and inconsistencies, the +mistakes and follies which marked the five years after 1783 form what +has been well called "The Critical Period of American History." They +proved that the conquests of peace may not only be more difficult than +the conquests of war, but that they may outlast those of war. Who +should be the builders of the Ship of State? Those who had courage +and clear vision, who loved justice, who were patient and humble and +unflagging, and who believed with an ineluctable conviction that +righteousness exalteth a nation; they were the simple fishermen who +in the little church at Torcello predicted the splendor and power of +Venice; they were the stern pioneers of Plymouth and Boston who laid +the foundations of an empire greater than that of Rome. + +It happened that during the American Revolution and immediately +afterward, a larger number of such men existed in what had been the +American Colonies than anywhere else at any other time in history. At +the beginning of the Revolution, within a few weeks of the Declaration +of Independence, some of these men, impelled by a common instinct, +adopted Articles of Confederation which should hold the former +Colonies together and enable them to maintain a common front against +the enemy during the war. The Congress controlled military and civic +affairs, but the framers of the Articles were wary and too timid to +grant the Congress sufficient powers, with the result that Washington, +who embodied the dynamic control of the war, was always most +inadequately supported; and as he fared, so fared his subordinates. + +At the end of the war the Americans found that they had won, not only +freedom, but also Independence, the desire for which was not among +their original motives. Each of the thirteen States was independent; +they all felt the need of a union which would enable them to protect +themselves; of a common coinage and postage; of certain common laws +for criminal and similar cases; of a common government to direct their +affairs with other nations. But by habit and by training each was +local rather than National in its outlook. The Georgian had nothing +in common with the men of Massachusetts Bay whose livelihood depended +upon fisheries, or with the Virginian of the Western border, to whom +his relations with the Indians were his paramount concern. The Rhode +Islander, busy with his manufactures, knew and cared nothing for the +South Carolinian with his rice plantations. How to find a common +denominator for all these? That was the business of them all. + +The one thing which Washington regarded as likely and against which he +wished to have every precaution taken, was a possible attempt of +the English to pick a quarrel over some small matter and bring on +a renewal of the war. Fortunately for the Americans, this did not +happen. Washington knew our weakness so well that he could see how +easy it would be for a bold and determined enemy to do us great if not +fatal harm. But he did not know that the English themselves were in +an almost desperate plight. By Rodney's decisive victory at sea they +began to recover their ascendancy against the Coalition, but it was +then too late to disavow the treaty. In Parliament George III had been +defeated; the defeat meaning a very serious check to the policy which +he had pursued for more than twenty years to fix royal tyranny on the +British people. King George's system of personal government, himself +being the person, had broken down and he could not revive it. Nearly +seventy years were to elapse before Queen Victoria, who was as putty +in the hands of her German husband, Prince Albert, rejoiced that she +had restored the personal power of the British sovereign to a pitch it +had not known since her grandfather George III. + +The American Revolution had illustrated the fatal weakness of the +Congress as an organ of government, and the Articles merely embodied +the vagueness of the American people in regard to any real régime. The +Congress has been much derided for its shortcomings and its blunders, +although in truth not so much the Congress, as those who made it, was +to blame. They had refused, in their timidity, to give it power to +exercise control. It might not compel or enforce obedience. It did +require General Washington during the war to furnish a regular report +of his military actions and it put his suggestions on file where +many of them grew yellow and dusty; but he might not strike, do that +decisive act by which history is born. Their timidity made them see +what he had accomplished not nearly so plainly as the dictator on +horseback whom their fears conjured up. + +During the war the sense of a common danger had lent the Congress a +not easily defined but quite real coherence, which vanished when +peace came, and the local ideals of the States took precedence. Take +taxation. Congress could compute the quota of taxes which each State +ought to pay, but it had no way of collecting or of enforcing payment. +It took eighteen months to collect five per cent of the taxes laid in +1783. Of course a nation could not go on with such methods. No law +binding all the States could be adopted unless every one of the +thirteen States assented. Unanimity was almost unattainable; as when +Governor Clinton of New York withheld his approval of a measure to +improve a system of taxation to which the other twelve States had +assented; so Rhode Island, the smallest of all, blocked another reform +which twelve States had approved. Our foreign relations must be +described as ignominious. Jefferson had taken Franklin's place as +Minister to France, but we had no credit and he could not secure the +loan he was seeking. John Adams in London, and John Jay in Madrid, +were likewise balked. Jay had to submit to the closing of the lower +Mississippi to American shipping. He did this in the hope of thereby +conciliating Spain to make a commercial treaty which he thought +was far more important than shipping. Our people in the Southwest, +however, regarded the closing of the river as portending their ruin, +and they threatened to secede if it were persisted in. Pennsylvania +and New Jersey threw their weight with the Southerners and Congress +voted against the Jay treaty. That was the time when the corsairs of +the Barbary States preyed upon American shipping in the Mediterranean +and seized crews of our vessels and sold them into slavery in Northern +Africa. That there was not in the thirteen States sufficient feeling +of dignity to resent and punish these outrages marks both their +dispersed power and lack of regard for National honor. + +After 1783 the States, virtually bankrupt at home, discordant, fickle, +and aimless, and without credit or prestige abroad, were filled with +many citizens who recognized that the system was bad and must be +amended. The wise among them wrote treatises on the remedies they +proposed. The wisest went to school of experience and sought in +history how confederations and other political unions had fared. +Washington wrote for his own use an account of the classical +constitutions of Greece and Rome and of the more modern states; of the +Amphictyonic Council among the ancient, and the Helvetic, Belgic, and +Germanic among the more recent. John Adams devoted two massive volumes +to an account of the medieval Italian republics. James Madison studied +the Achaian League and other ancient combinations. There were many +other men less eminent than these--there was a Peletiah Webster, for +instance. + +Washington viewed the situation as a pessimist. Was it because the +high hopes that he had held during the war, that America should be the +noblest among the nations, had been disappointed, or was it because he +saw farther into the future than his colleagues saw? On May 18, 1786, +he writes intimately to John Jay: + + ... We are certainly in a delicate situation; but my fear is that + the people are not yet sufficiently _misled_ to retract from + error. To be plainer, I think there is more wickedness than + ignorance mixed in our councils. Under this impression I scarcely + know what opinion to entertain of a general convention. That it + is necessary to revise and amend the Articles of Confederation, I + entertain no doubt; but what may be the consequences of such an + attempt is doubtful. Yet something must be done, or the fabric + must fall, for it certainly is tottering. + + Ignorance and design are difficult to combat. Out of these proceed + illiberal sentiments, improper jealousies, and a train of evils + which oftentimes in republican governments must be sorely felt + before they can be removed. The former, that is ignorance, being + a fit soil for the latter to work in, tools are employed by them + which a generous mind would disdain to use; and which nothing but + time, and their own puerile or wicked productions, can show + the inefficacy and dangerous tendency of. I think often of our + situation, and view it with concern. From the high ground we stood + upon, from the plain path which invited our footsteps, to be so + fallen! so lost! it is really mortifying.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, xi, 31.] + +One of the chief causes of the discontents which troubled the public +was the increasing number of persons who had been made debtors after +the war by the more and more pressing demands of their creditors. +These debtors knew nothing about economics; they only knew that +they were being crushed by persons more lucky than themselves. In +Massachusetts they broke out in actual rebellion named after the man +who led it, Daniel Shays. They were put down by the more or less +doubtful appeal to veterans of the National Army, but their ebullition +was not forgotten as a symptom of a very dangerous condition. In 1786 +representatives from five States met in a convention at Annapolis +to consider the hard times and the troubles in trade. Washington, +Hamilton, and Madison were thought to be behind the convention, which +accomplished little, but made it clear that a large general convention +ought to meet and to discuss the way of securing a strong central +government. This convention was discussed during that summer and +autumn, and a call was issued for a meeting in the following spring +at Philadelphia. Virginia turned first to Washington to be one of its +delegates, but he had sincere scruples against entering public life +again. He wrote to James Madison on November 18th: + + Although I had bid adieu to the public walks of life in a public + manner, and had resolved never more to tread upon public ground, + yet if, upon an occasion so interesting to the well-being of the + confederacy, it should have appeared to have been the wish of the + Assembly to have employed me with other associates in the business + of revising the federal system, I should, from a sense of + obligation I am under for repeated proof of confidence in me, more + than from any opinion I should have entertained of my usefulness, + have obeyed its call; but it is now out of my power to do so with + any degree of consistency.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 87.] + +Washington's disinclination to abandon the quiet of Mount Vernon +and the congenial work he found there, and to be plunged again into +political labors, was perhaps his strongest reason for making this +decision. But a temporary aggravation ruled him. The Society of the +Cincinnati, of which he was president, had aroused much odium in the +country among those who were jealous or envious that such a special +privileged class should exist, and among those who really believed +that it had the secret design of establishing an aristocracy if not +actually a monarchy. Washington held that its original avowed purpose, +to keep the officers who had served in the Revolution together, would +perpetuate the patriotic spirit which enabled them to win, and might +be a source of strength in case of further ordeals. But when he found +that public sentiment ran so strongly against the Cincinnati, he +withdrew as its president and he told Madison that he would vote to +have the Society disbanded if it were not that it counted a minority +of foreign members. Stronger than a desire for a private life and for +the ease of Mount Vernon was his sense of duty as a patriot; so that +when this was strongly urged upon him he gave way and consented. + +Spring came, the snows melted in the Northern States, and through the +month of April the delegates to this Convention started from their +homes in the North and in the South for Philadelphia. The first +regular session was held on May 25th, although some of the delegates +did not arrive until several weeks later. They sat in Independence +Hall in the same room where, eleven years before, the Declaration of +Independence had been adopted and signed. Of the members in the new +Convention, George Washington was easily the first. His commanding +figure, tall and straight and in no wise impaired by eight years' +campaigns and hardships, was almost the first to attract the attention +of any one who looked upon that assembly. He was fifty-five years old. +Next in reputation was the patriarch, Benjamin Franklin, twenty-seven +years his senior, shrewd, wise, poised, tart, good-natured; whose +prestige was thought to be sufficient to make him a worthy presiding +officer when Washington was not present. James Madison of Virginia was +among the young men of the Convention, being only thirty-six years +old, and yet almost at the top of them all in constitutional learning. +More precocious still was Alexander Hamilton of New York, who was +only thirty, one of the most remarkable examples of a statesman who +developed very early and whom Death cut off before he showed any +signs of a decline. One figure we miss--that of Thomas Jefferson of +Virginia, tall and wiry and red-curled, who was absent in Paris as +Minister to France. + +Massachusetts sent four representatives, important but not +preëminent--Elbridge Gerry, Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King, and Caleb +Strong. New York had only two besides Hamilton; Robert Yates and John +Lansing. Pennsylvania trusted most to Benjamin Franklin, but she sent +the financier of the Revolution, Robert Morris, and Gouverneur Morris; +and with them went Thomas Mifflin, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimmons, +Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson--all conspicuous public men at the time, +although their fame is bedraggled or quite faded now. Wilson ranked as +the first lawyer of the group. Of the five from little Delaware sturdy +John Dickinson, a man who thought, was no negligible quantity. + +Connecticut also had as spokesmen two strong individualities--Roger +Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth. Maryland spoke through James McHenry and +Daniel Carroll and three others of greater obscurity. Virginia had +George Washington, President of the Convention, and James Madison, +active, resourceful, and really accomplishing; and in addition to +these two: Edmund Randolph, the Governor; George Mason, Washington's +hard-headed and discreet lawyer friend; John Blair, George Wythe, and +James McClurg. From South Carolina went three unusual orators, John +Rutledge, C.C. Pinckney and Charles Pinckney, and Pierce Butler. +Georgia named four mediocre but useful men. + +In this gathering of fifty-five persons, the proportion between those +who were preëminent for common sense and those who were remarkable for +special knowledge and talents was very fairly kept. Most of them had +had experience in dealing with men either in local government offices +or in the army. Socially, they came almost without exception from +respectable if not aristocratic families. Of the fifty-five, +twenty-nine were university or college bred, their universities +comprising Oxford, Glasgow, and Edinburgh besides the American +Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia. The two +foremost members, Washington and Franklin, were not college bred. +Among the fifty-five we do not find John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, +who, as I have said, were in Europe on official business. John Jay +also was lacking, because, as it appears, the Anti-Federalists did +not wish him to represent them in the Convention; but his influence +permeated it and the wider public, who later read his unsigned +articles in "The Federalist." Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Richard +Henry Lee stayed at home. General Nathanael Greene, the favorite +son of Rhode Island, would have been at the Convention but for his +untimely death a few weeks before the preceding Christmas. + +Owing to delays the active business of the Convention halted, although +for at least a fortnight the members who had come promptly carried on +unofficial discussions. Washington, being chosen President without a +competitor, presided, with perhaps more than his habitual gravity and +punctilio. The members took their work very seriously. The debates +lasted five or six hours a day, and, as they were continued +consecutively until the autumn, there was ample time to discuss many +subjects. The Convention adopted strict secrecy as its rule, so that +its proceedings were not known by the public nor was any satisfactory +report of them kept and published. At the time there was objection to +this provision, and now, after more than a century and a third, we +must regret that we can never know many points in regard to the +actual give and take of discussion in this the most fateful of all +assemblies. But from Madison's memoranda and reminiscences we can +infer a good deal as to what went on. + +The wisdom of keeping the proceedings secret was fully justified. The +framers of the Constitution knew that it was to a large degree a new +experiment, that it would be subjected to all kinds of criticism, but +that it must be judged by its entirety and not by its parts; and that +therefore it must be presented entire. At the outset some of the +members, foreseeing opposition, were for suggesting palliatives and +for sugar-coating. Some of the measures they feared might excite +hostility. To these suggestions Washington made a brief but very noble +remonstrance which seemed deeply to impress his hearers. And no one +could question that it gave the keynote on which he hoped to maintain +the business of the Convention. "It is too probable that no plan we +propose will be adopted," Washington said very gravely. "Perhaps +another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the +people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward +defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest +can repair; the event is in the hand of God."[1] Among the obstacles +which seemed very serious--and many believed they would wreck the +Convention--was the question of slavery. By this time all the northern +part of the country favored its abolition. Even Virginia was on that +side. For practical planters like George Washington knew that it was +the most costly and least productive form of labor. They opposed it on +economic rather than moral grounds. Farther South, however, especially +in South Carolina where the negroes seemed to be the only kind +of laborers for the rice-fields, and in those regions where they +harvested the cotton, the whites insisted that slavery should be +maintained. The contest seemed likely to be very fierce between the +disputants, and then, with true Anglo-Saxon instinct, they sought +for a compromise. The South had regarded slaves as chattels. The +compromise brought forward by Madison consisted in agreeing that five +slaves should count in population as three. By this curious device a +negro was equivalent to three fifths of a white man. Such a compromise +was, of course, illogical, leaving the question whether negroes were +chattels or human beings with even a theoretical civil character +undecided. But many of the members, who saw the illogic quite plainly, +voted for it, being dazzled if not seduced by the thought that it was +a compromise which would stave off an irreconcilable conflict at least +for the present; so Washington, who wished the abolition of slavery, +voted for the compromise along with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the +South Carolinian who regarded slavery as higher than any of the Ten +Commandments. + +[Footnote 1: Fiske, _Critical Period_, 250.] + +The second compromise referred to the slave trade, which was +particularly defended by South Carolina and Georgia. The raising of +rice and indigo in those States caused an increasing death-rate among +the slaves. The slave trade, which brought many kidnapped slaves from +Africa to those States was needed to replenish the number of slaves +who died. Virginia had not yet become an important breeding-place of +slaves who were sold to planters farther south. The members of the +Convention who wished to put an end to this hideous traffic proposed +that it should be prohibited, and that the enforcement of the +prohibition should be assigned to the General Government. Pinckney, +however, keen to defend his privileged institution and the special +interests of his State, bluntly informed the Convention that if they +voted to abolish the slave trade, South Carolina would regard it as a +polite way of telling her that she was not wanted in the new Union. To +think of attempting to form a Union without South Carolina amazed them +all and made them pliable. Although there was considerable opposition +to giving the General Government control over shipping, this provision +was passed. The Northerners saw in it the germs of a tariff act which +would benefit their manufacturers, and they agreed that the slave +trade should not be interfered with before 1808 and that no export tax +should be authorized. + +The third compromise affected representation. The Convention had +already voted that the Congress should consist of two parts, a Senate +and a House of Representatives. By a really clever device each State +sent two members to the Senate, thus equalizing the small and large +States in that branch of the Government. The House, on the other hand, +represented the People, and the number of members elected from each +State corresponded, therefore, to the population. + +As I do not attempt to make even a summary of the details of the +Convention, I should pass over many of the other topics which it +considered, often with very heated discussion. The fundamental problem +was how to preserve the rights of the States and at the same time give +the Central Government sufficient power. By devices which actually +worked, and for many years continued to work, this conflict was +smoothed over, although sixty years later the question of State +rights, intertwined with that of slavery, nearly split the Nation in +the War of Secession. There was much question as to the term for +which the President should be elected and whether by the People or by +Congress. Some were for one, two, three, four, ten, and even fifteen +years. Rufus King, grown sarcastic, said: "Better call it twenty--it's +the average reign of princes." Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur +Morris stood for a life service with provision for the President's +removal in case of malfeasance. These gentlemen, in spite of their +influence in the Convention, stirred up a deep-seated enmity to their +plan. Few instincts were more general than that which drew back from +any arrangement which might embolden the monarchists to make a man +President for a ten or fifteen years' term or for life. This could not +fail to encourage those who wished for the equivalent of an hereditary +prince. The Convention soon made it evident that they would have none +but a short term, and they chose, finally, four years. There was a +debate over the question of his election; should he be chosen directly +by the legislature, or by electors? The strong men--Mason, +Rutledge, Roger Sherman, and Strong--favored the former; stronger +men--Washington, Madison, Gerry, and Gouverneur Morris--favored the +latter, and it prevailed. Nevertheless, the Electoral College thus +created soon became, and has remained, as useless as a vermiform +appendix. + +Towards the end of the summer the Convention had completed its first +draft of the Constitution; then they handed their work over to a +Committee for Style and Arrangement, composed of W.S. Johnson of North +Carolina, Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Madison, and King. Then, on +September 17th, the Constitution of the United States was formally +published. This document, done "by the Unanimous Consent of the States +present," was sent to the Governor or Legislature of each State with +the understanding that its ratification by nine States would be +required before it was proclaimed the law of the land. + +In his diary for Monday, the seventeenth of September, 1787, +Washington makes this entry: + + Met in Convention, when the Constitution received the unanimous + consent of 11 States and Colo. Hamilton's from New York [the only + delegate from thence in Convention], and was subscribed to by + every member present, except Governor Randolph and Colo. Mason + from Virginia, & Mr. Gerry from Massachusetts. + + The business being thus closed, the members adjourned to the City + Tavern, dined together, and took a cordial leave of each other. + After which I returned to my lodgings, did some business with, + and received the papers from the Secretary of the Convention, and + retired to meditate on the momentous wk. which had been executed, + after not less than five, for a large part of the time six and + sometimes 7 hours sitting every day, [except] Sundays & the ten + days adjournment to give a Comee. [Committee] opportunity & time + to arrange the business for more than four months.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 155.] + +One likes to think of Washington presiding over that Convention for +more than four months, seeing one suggestion after another brought +forward and debated until finally disposed of, he saying little except +to enforce the rules of parliamentary debate. No doubt his asides (and +part of his conversation) frankly gave his opinion as to each measure, +because he never disguised his thoughts and he seems to have voted +when the ballots were taken--a practice unusual to modern presiding +officers except in case of a tie. His summing-up of the Constitution, +which he wrote on the day after the adjournment in a hurried letter to +Lafayette, is given briefly in these lines: + + It is the result of four months' deliberation. It is now a child + of fortune, to be fostered by some and buffeted by others. What + will be the general opinion, or the reception of it, is not for me + to decide; nor shall I say anything for or against it. If it be + good, I suppose it will work its way; if bad, it will recoil on + the framers. + +A month later, in the seclusion of Mount Vernon, he spread the same +news before his friend General Knox: + + ... The Constitution is now before the judgment-seat. It has, + as was expected, its adversaries and supporters. Which will + preponderate is yet to be decided. The former more than probably + will be most active, as the major part of them will, it is to be + feared, be governed by sinister and self-important motives, to + which everything in their breasts must yield.... + +The other class, he said, would probably ask itself whether the +Constitution now submitted was not better than the inadequate and +precarious government under which they had been living. If there +were defects, as doubtless there were, did it not provide means for +amending them? Then he concludes with a gleam of optimism: + + ... Is it not likely that real defects will be as readily + discovered after as before trial? and will not our successors be + as ready to apply the remedy as ourselves, if occasion should + require it? To think otherwise will, in my judgment, be ascribing + more of the amor patriae, more wisdom and more virtue to + ourselves, than I think we deserve.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 173.] + +Nearly five months later, February 7, 1788, he wrote Lafayette what we +may consider a more deliberate opinion: + + As to my sentiments with respect to the merits of the new + constitution, I will disclose them without reserve, (although by + passing through the post-office they should become known to + all the world,) for in truth I have nothing to conceal on that + subject. It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that + the delegates from so many different States (which States you + know are also different from each other), in their manners, + circumstances, and prejudices, should unite in forming a system of + national government, so little liable to well-founded objections. + Nor am I yet such an enthusiastic, partial, or indiscriminating + admirer of it, as not to perceive it is tinctured with some real + (though not radical) defects. The limits of a letter would not + suffer me to go fully into an examination of them; nor would the + discussion be entertaining or profitable. I therefore forbear to + touch upon it. With regard to the two great points (the pivots + upon which the whole machine must move), my creed is simply, + + 1st. That the general government is not invested with more powers, + than are indispensably necessary to perform the functions of a + good government; and consequently, that no objection ought to be + made against the quantity of power delegated to it. + + 2nd. That these powers (as the appointment of all rulers will for + ever arise from, and at short, stated intervals recur to, the free + suffrage of the people), are so distributed among the legislative, + executive, and judicial branches, into which the general + government is arranged, that it can never be in danger of + degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any + other despotic or oppressive form, so long as there shall remain + any virtue in the body of the people. + + I would not be understood, my dear Marquis, to speak of + consequences, which may be produced in the revolution of ages, by + corruption of morals, profligacy of manners and listlessness for + the preservation of the natural and unalienable rights of mankind, + nor of the successful usurpations, that may be established at + such an unpropitious juncture upon the ruins of liberty, however + providently guarded and secured; as these are contingencies + against which no human prudence can effectually provide. It will + at least be a recommendation to the proposed constitution, that it + is provided with more checks and barriers against the introduction + of tyranny, and those of a nature less liable to be surmounted, + than any government hitherto instituted among mortals hath + possessed. We are not to expect perfection in this world; but + mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in + the science of government. Should that which is now offered to the + people of America, be found on experiment less perfect than it + can be made, a constitutional door is left open for its + amelioration.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 218-21.] + +Thus was accomplished the American Constitution. Gladstone has said of +it in well-known words that, just "as the British Constitution is the +most subtle organism which has proceeded from the womb and the long +gestation of progressive history, so the American Constitution is so +far as I can see the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given +time by the brain and purpose of man."[1] Note that Gladstone does +not name a single or an individual man, which would have been wholly +untrue, for the American Constitution was struck off by the wisdom and +foresight of fifty-five men collectively. There were among them two +or three who might be called transcendent men. It gained its peculiar +value from the fact that it represents the composite of many divergent +opinions and different characters. + +[Footnote 1: W.E. Gladstone, _North American Review_, September, +1878.] + +Just before the members broke up at their final meeting in +Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin amused them with a characteristic +bit of raillery. On the back of the President's black chair, a +half sun was carved and emblazoned. "During all these weeks," said +Franklin, "I have often wondered whether that sun was rising or +setting. I know now that it is a rising sun." + +The first State to ratify the Constitution was Delaware, on December +6, 1787. Pennsylvania followed on December 12th, and New Jersey +on December 18th. Ratifications continued without haste until New +Hampshire, the ninth State, signed on June 21, 1788. Four days later, +Virginia, a very important State, ratified. New York, which had been +Anti-Federalist throughout, joined the majority on July 26th. North +Carolina waited until November 21st, and little Rhode Island, the +last State of all, did not come in until May 29, 1790. But, as the +adherence of nine States sufficed, the affirmative action of New +Hampshire on June 21, 1788, constituted the legal beginning of the +United States of America. + +No test could be more winnowing than that to which the Constitution +was subjected during more than eighteen months before its adoption. In +each State, in each section, its friends and enemies discussed it at +meetings and in private gatherings. In New York, for instance, it was +only the persistence of Alexander Hamilton and his unfailing oratory, +unmatched until then in this country, that routed the Anti-Federalists +at Poughkeepsie and caused the victory of the Federalists in the +State. In Virginia, Patrick Henry, who had said on the eve of the +Revolution, "I am not a Virginian, but an American," still held out. +Nevertheless, the more the people of the country discussed the matter, +the surer was their conviction that Washington was right when he +intimated that they must prefer the new Constitution unless they could +show reason for supposing that the anarchy towards which the old order +was swiftly driving them was preferable. + +During the autumn of 1788 peaceful electioneering went on throughout +the country. Among the last acts of that thin wraith, the Continental +Congress, was a decree that Presidential Electors should be chosen +on the first Wednesday of January, 1789; that they should vote for +President on the first Wednesday in February, and that the new +Congress should meet on the first Wednesday in March. The State of New +York, where Anti-Federalists swarmed, did not follow the decree--with +the result that that State, which had been behindhand in signing the +Declaration of Independence, failed through the intrigues of the +Anti-Federalists to choose electors, and so had no part in the choice +of Washington as President of the United States. The other ten States +performed their duty on time. They elected Washington President by a +unanimous vote of sixty-nine out of sixty-nine votes cast. + +The Vice-Presidential contest was perplexing, there being many +candidates who received only a few votes each. Many persons thought +that it would be fitting that Samuel Adams, the father of the +Revolution, should be chosen to serve with Washington, the father of +his country; but too many remembered that he had been hostile to the +Federalists until almost the end of the preliminary canvass and so +they did not think that he ought to be chosen. The successful man was +John Adams, who had been a robust Patriot from the beginning and had +served honorably and devotedly in every position which he had held +since 1775. + +On April 14th Washington's election was notified to him, and on the +16th he bade farewell to Mount Vernon, where he had hoped to pass the +rest of his days in peace and home duties and agriculture, and he rode +in what proved to be a triumphal march to New York. That city was +chosen the capital of the new Nation. Streams of enthusiastic and +joyous citizens met and acclaimed him at every town through which +he passed. At Trenton a party of thirteen young girls decked out +in muslin and wreaths represented the thirteen States, and perhaps +brought to his mind the contrast between that day and thirteen years +before when he crossed the Delaware on boats amid floating cakes of +ice and the pelting of sleet and rain. On April 23d he entered New +York City. A week later at noon a military escort attended him from +his lodging to Federal Hall at the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, +where a vast crowd awaited him. Washington stood on a balcony. All +could witness the ceremony. The Secretary of the Senate bore a Bible +upon a velvet cushion, and Chancellor Livingston administered the oath +of office. Washington's head was still bowed when Livingston shouted: +"Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" The +crowds took up the cheer, which spread to many parts of the city and +was repeated in all parts of the United States. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE FIRST AMERICAN PRESIDENT + + +The inauguration of Washington on April 30, 1789, brought a new type +of administration into the world. The democracy which it initiated was +very different from that of antiquity, from the models of Greece and +of Rome, and quite different from that of the Italian republics during +the Middle Age. The head of the new State differed essentially +from the monarchs across the sea. Although there were varieties of +traditions and customs in what had been the Colonies, still their +dominant characteristic was British. According to the social +traditions of Virginia, George Washington was an aristocrat, but in +contrast with the British, he was a democrat. + +He believed, however, that the President must guard his office from +the free-and-easy want of decorum which some of his countrymen +regarded as the stamp of democracy. At his receptions he wore a black +velvet suit with gold buckles at the knee and on his shoes, and yellow +gloves, and profusely powdered hair carried in a silk bag behind. In +one hand he held a cocked hat with an ostrich plume; on his left thigh +he wore a sword in a white scabbard of polished leather. He shook +hands with no one; but acknowledged the courtesy of his visitors by +a very formal bow. When he drove, it was in a coach with four or six +handsome horses and outriders and lackeys dressed in resplendent +livery. + +After his inauguration he spoke his address to the Congress, and +several days later members of the House and of the Senate called on +him at his residence and made formal replies to his Inaugural Address. +After a few weeks, experience led him to modify somewhat his daily +schedule. He found that unless it was checked, the insatiate public +would consume all his time. Every Tuesday afternoon, between three and +four o'clock, he had a public reception which any one might attend. +Likewise, on Friday afternoons, Mrs. Washington had receptions of her +own. The President accepted no invitations to dinner, but at his own +table there was an unending succession of invited guests, except on +Sunday, which he observed privately. Interviews with the President +could be had at any time that suited his convenience. Thus did he +arrange to transact his regular or his private business. + +Inevitably, some of the public objected to his rules and pretended to +see very strong monarchical leanings in them. But the country took +them as he intended, and there can be no doubt that it felt the +benefit of his promoting the dignity of his office. Equally beneficial +was his rule of not appointing to any office any man merely because he +was the President's friend. Washington knew that such a consideration +would give the candidate an unfair advantage. He knew further that +office-holders who could screen themselves behind the plea that they +were the President's friends might be very embarrassing to him. As +office-seekers became, with the development of the Republic, among +the most pernicious of its evils and of its infamies, we can but feel +grateful that so far as in him lay Washington tried to keep them +within bounds. + +In all his official acts he took great pains not to force his personal +wishes. He knew that both in prestige and popularity he held a place +apart among his countrymen, and for this reason he did not wish to +have measures passed simply because they were his. Accordingly, in +the matter of receiving the public and in granting interviews and of +ceremonials at the Presidential Residence, he asked the advice of John +Adams, John Jay, Hamilton, and Jefferson, and he listened to many +of their suggestions. Colonel Humphreys, who had been one of his +aides-de-camp and was staying in the Presidential Residence, acted as +Chamberlain at the first reception. Humphreys took an almost childish +delight in gold braid and flummery. At a given moment the door of the +large hall in which the concourse of guests was assembled was opened +and he, advancing, shouted, with a loud voice: "The President of the +United States!" Washington followed him and went through the paces +prescribed by the Colonel with punctilious exactness, but with evident +lack of relish. When the levee broke up and the party had gone, +Washington said to Colonel Humphreys: "Well, you have taken me in +once, but, by God, you shall never take me in a second time."[1] +Irving, who borrows this story from Jefferson, warns us that perhaps +Jefferson was not a credible witness. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 14.] + +Congress transacted much important business at this first session. +It determined that the President should have a Cabinet of men whose +business it was to administer the chief departments and to advise the +President. Next in importance were the financial measures proposed by +the Secretary of the Treasury. Washington chose for his first Cabinet +Ministers: Thomas Jefferson, who had not returned from Paris, as +Secretary of State, or Foreign Minister as he was first called; +Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; General Henry Knox, +Secretary of War; and Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General. Of these, +Hamilton had to face the most bitter opposition. Throughout the +Revolution the former Colonies had never been able to collect enough +money to pay the expense of the war and the other charges of the +Confederation. The Confederation handed over a considerable debt to +the new Government. Besides this many of the States had paid each its +own cost of equipping and maintaining its contingent. Hamilton now +proposed that the United States Government should assume these various +State debts, which would aggregate $21,000,000 and bring the National +debt to a total of $75,000,000. Hamilton's suggestion that the State +debts be assumed caused a vehement outcry. Its opponents protested +that no fair adjustment could be reached. The Assumptionists +retorted that this would be the only fair settlement, but the +Anti-Assumptionists voted them down by a majority of two. In other +respects, Hamilton's financial measures prospered, and before many +months he seized the opportunity of making a bargain by which the next +Congress reversed its vote on Assumption. In less than a year the +members of Congress and many of the public had reached the conclusion +that New York City was not the best place to be the capital of the +Nation. The men from the South argued that it put the South to a +disadvantage, as its ease of access to New York, New Jersey, and +the Eastern States gave that section of the country a too favorable +situation. There was a strong party in favor of Philadelphia, but +it was remembered that in the days of the Confederation a gang of +turbulent soldiers had dashed down from Lancaster and put to flight +the Convention sitting at Philadelphia. Nevertheless, Philadelphia was +chosen temporarily, the ultimate choice of a situation being farther +south on the Potomac. + +Jefferson returned from France in the early winter. The discussion +over Assumption was going on very virulently. It happened that one day +Jefferson met Hamilton, and this is his account of what followed: + + As I was going to the President's one day, I met him [Hamilton] + in the street. He walked me backwards and forwards before the + President's door for half an hour. He painted pathetically the + temper into which the legislature had been wrought; the disgust + of those who were called the creditor States; the danger of the + secession of their members, and the separation of the States. He + observed that the members of the administration ought to act in + concert; that though this question was not of my department, yet + a common duty should make it a common concern; that the President + was the centre on which all administrative questions ultimately + rested, and that all of us should rally around him and support, + with joint efforts, measures approved by him; and that the + question having been lost by a small majority only, it was + probable that an appeal from me to the judgment and discretion of + some of my friends, might effect a change in the vote, and the + machine of government now suspended, might be again set into + motion. I told him that I was really a stranger to the whole + subject, that not having yet informed myself of the system of + finance adopted, I knew not how far this was a necessary sequence; + that undoubtedly, if its rejection endangered a dissolution of our + Union at this incipient stage, I should deem it most unfortunate + of all consequences to avert which all partial and temporary evils + should be yielded, I proposed to him, however, to dine with me the + next day, and I would invite another friend or two, bring them + into conference together, and I thought it impossible that + reasonable men, consulting together coolly, could fail, by some + mutual sacrifices of opinion, to form a compromise which was to + save the Union. The discussion took place. I could take no part + in it but an exhortatory one, because I was a stranger to the + circumstances which should govern it. But it was finally agreed, + that whatever importance had been attached to the rejection of + this proposition, the preservation of the Union and of concord + among the States was more important, and that, therefore, it would + be better that the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to + effect which some members should change their votes. But it was + observed that this pill would be peculiarly bitter to the Southern + States, and that some concomitant measure should be adopted to + sweeten it a little to them. There had before been projects to fix + the seat of government either at Philadelphia or at Georgetown on + the Potomac; and it was thought that, by giving it to Philadelphia + for ten years, and to Georgetown permanently afterwards, this + might, as an anodyne, solve in some degree the ferment which might + be excited by the other measure alone. So two of the Potomac + members (White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of stomach + almost convulsive) agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton + undertook to carry the other point. In doing this, the influence + he had established over the eastern members, with the agency of + Robert Morris with those of the Middle States, effected his side + of the engagement.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Jefferson's Works_, IX, 93.] + +As a result of Hamilton's bargain, the bill for Assumption was passed, +and it was agreed that Philadelphia should be the capital for ten +years and that afterwards a new city should be built on the banks of +the Potomac and made the capital permanently. + +During the summer of 1789 Washington suffered the most serious +sickness of his entire life. The cause was anthrax in his thigh, and +at times it seemed that it would prove fatal. For many weeks he was +forced to lie on one side, with frequent paroxysms of great pain. +After a month and a half he began to mend, but very slowly, so that +autumn came before he got up and could go about again. His medical +adviser was Dr. Samuel Bard of New York, and Irving reports the +following characteristic conversation between him and his patient: +"Do not flatter me with vain hopes," said Washington, with placid +firmness; "I am not afraid to die, and therefore can bear the worst." +The doctor expressed hope, but owned that he had apprehensions. +"Whether to-night or twenty hence, makes no difference," observed +Washington. "I know that I am in the hands of a good Providence."[1] +His friends thought that he never really recovered his old-time vigor. +That autumn, as soon as Congress had adjourned, he took a journey +through New England, going as far as Portsmouth and returning in time +for the opening of the Second Congress. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 22.] + +The Government was now settling down into what became its normal +routine. The Cabinet was completed by the appointment of Jefferson as +Secretary of State and Edmund Randolph as Attorney-General. Jefferson +would have preferred to go back to France as American Minister, but +in a fulsome letter he declared himself willing to accept any office +which Washington wished him to fill. The Supreme Court was organized +with John Jay as Chief Justice, and five Associate Justices. +Washington could not fail to be aware that parties were beginning to +shape themselves. At first the natural divisions consisted of the +Federalists, who believed in adopting the Constitution, and those +who did not. As soon as the thirteen States voted to accept the +Constitution, the Anti-Federalists had no definite motive for +existing. Their place was taken principally by the Republicans over +against whom were the Democrats. A few years later these parties +exchanged names. A fundamental difference in the ideas of the +Americans sprang from their views in regard to National and State +rights. Some of them regarded the State as the ultimate unit. Others +insisted that the Nation was sovereign. These two conflicting views +run through American history down to the Civil War, and even in +Washington's time they existed in outline. Washington himself was +a Federalist, believing that the Federation of the former Colonies +should be made as compact and strongly knit as possible. He had +had too much evidence during the Revolution of the weakness of +uncentralized government, and yet his Virginia origin and training had +planted in him a strong sympathy for State rights. In Washington's +own Cabinet dwelt side by side the leaders of the two parties: Thomas +Jefferson, the Secretary of State, though born in Virginia of high +aristocratic stock, was the most aggressive and infatuated of +Democrats. Alexander Hamilton, born in the West Indies and owing +nothing to family connections, was a natural aristocrat. He believed +that the educated and competent few must inevitably govern the +incompetent masses. His enemies suspected that he leaned strongly +towards monarchy and would have been glad to see Washington crowned +king. + +President Washington, believing in Assumption, took satisfaction in +Hamilton's bargain with Jefferson which made Assumption possible. For +the President saw in the act a power making for union, and union was +one of the chief objects of his concern. The foremost of Hamilton's +measures, however, for good or for ill, was the protective tariff on +foreign imports. Experience has shown that protection has been much +more than a financial device. It has been deeply and inextricably +moral. It has caused many American citizens to seek for tariff favors +from the Government. Compared with later rates, those which Hamilton's +tariff set were moderate indeed. The highest duties it exacted on +foreign imports were fifteen per cent, while the average was only +eight and a half per cent. And yet it had not been long in force when +the Government was receiving $200,000 a month, which enabled it to +defray all the necessary public charges. Hamilton, in the words of +Daniel Webster, "smote the rock of National resources and copious +streams of wealth poured forth. He touched the dead corpse of public +credit and it stood forth erect with life." The United States of all +modern countries have been the best fitted by their natural resources +to do without artificial stimulation, in spite of which fact they +still cling, after one hundred and thirty-five years, to the easy +and plausible tariff makeshift. Washington himself believed that the +tariff should so promote industries as to provide for whatever the +country needed in time of war. + +Two other financial measures are to be credited to Hamilton. The first +was the excise, an internal revenue on distilled spirits. It met with +opposition from the advocates of State rights, but was passed after +heated debate. The last was the establishment of a United States Bank. +All of Hamilton's measures tended directly to centralization, the +object which he and Washington regarded as paramount. + +In 1790 Washington made a second trip through the Eastern States, +taking pains to visit Rhode Island, which was the last State to ratify +the Constitution (May 29, 1790). These trips of his, for which the +hostile might have found parallels in the royal progresses of the +British sovereigns, really served a good purpose; for they enabled the +people to see and hear their President; which had a good effect in a +newly established nation. Washington lost no opportunity for teaching +a moral. Thus, when he came to Boston, John Hancock, the Governor of +Massachusetts, seemed to wish to indicate that the Governor was the +highest personage in the State and not at all subservient even to +the President of the United States. He wished to arrange it so that +Washington should call on him first, but this Washington had no idea +of doing. Hancock then wrote and apologized for not greeting the +President owing to an unfortunate indisposition. Washington replied +regretting the Governor's illness and announcing that the schedule on +which he was travelling required him to quit Boston at a given time. +Governor Hancock, whose spectacular signature had given him prominence +everywhere, finding that he could not make the President budge, sent +word that he was coming to pay his respects. Washington replied that +he should be much pleased to welcome him, but expressed anxiety lest +the Governor might increase his indisposition by coming out. This +little comedy had a far-reaching effect. It settled the question as to +whether the Governor of a State or the President of the United States +should take precedence. From that day to this, no Governor, so far +as I am aware, has set himself above the President in matters of +ceremonial. + +One of the earliest difficulties which Washington's administration had +to overcome was the hostility of the Indians. Indian discontent and +even lawlessness had been going on for years, with only a desultory +and ineffectual show of vigor on the part of the whites. Washington, +who detested whatever was ineffectual and lacking in purpose, +determined to beat down the Indians into submission. He sent out a +first army under General St. Clair, but it was taken in ambush by the +Indians and nearly wiped out--a disaster which caused almost a panic +throughout the Western country. Washington felt the losses deeply, but +he had no intention of being beaten there. He organized a second army, +gave it to General Wayne to command, who finally brought the Six +Nations to terms. The Indians in the South still remained unpacified +and lawless. + +Washington made another prolonged trip, this time through the Southern +States, which greatly improved his health and gave an opportunity of +seeing many of the public men, and enabled the population to greet for +the first time their President. Meanwhile the seeds of partisan feuds +grew apace, as they could not fail to do where two of the ablest +politicians ever known in the United States sat in the same Cabinet +and pursued with unremitting energy ideas that were mutually +uncompromising. Thomas Jefferson, although born of the old +aristocratic stock of Virginia, had early announced himself a +Democrat, and had led that faction throughout the Revolution. His +facile and fiery mind gave to the Declaration of Independence an +irresistible appeal, and it still remains after nearly one hundred and +fifty years one of the most contagious documents ever drawn up. Going +to France at the outbreak of the French Revolution, he found the +French nation about to put into practice the principles on which he +had long fed his imagination--principles which he accepted without +qualification and without scruple. Returning to America after the +organization of the Government, he accepted with evident reluctance +the position of Secretary of State which Washington offered to him. In +the Cabinet his chief adversary or competitor was Alexander Hamilton, +his junior by fourteen years, a man equally versatile and equally +facile--and still more enthralling as an orator. Hamilton harbored the +anxiety that the United States under their new Constitution would be +too loosely held together. He promoted, therefore, every measure +that tended to strengthen the Central Government and to save it +from dissolution either by the collapse of its unifying bonds or +by anarchy. In the work of the first two years of Washington's +administration, Hamilton was plainly victorious. The Tariff Law, the +Excise, the National Bank, the National Funding Bill, all centralizing +measures, were his. Washington approved them all, and we may believe +that he talked them over with Hamilton and gave them his approval +before they came under public discussion. + +Thus, as Hamilton gained, Jefferson plainly lost. But Washington +did not abandon his sound position as a neutral between the two. He +requested Jefferson and Edmund Randolph to draw up objections to some +of Hamilton's schemes, so that he had in writing the arguments of very +strong opponents. + +Meanwhile the French Revolution had broken all bounds, and Jefferson, as +the sponsor of the French over here, was kept busy in explaining and +defending the Gallic horrors. The Americans were in a large sense +law-abiding, but in another sense they were lawless. Nevertheless, they +heard with horror of the atrocities of the French Revolutionists--of the +drownings, of the guillotining, of the imprisonment and execution of the +King and Queen--and they had a healthy distrust of the Jacobin Party, +which boasted that these things were natural accompaniments of Liberty +with which they planned to conquer the world. Events in France +inevitably drove that country into war with England. Washington and his +chief advisers believed that the United States ought to remain neutral +as between the two belligerents. But neutrality was difficult. In spite +of their horror at the French Revolution, the memory of our debt to +France during our own Revolution made a very strong bond of sympathy, +whereas our long record of hostility to England during our Colony days, +and since the Declaration of Independence, kept alive a traditional +hatred for Great Britain. While it was easy, therefore, to preach +neutrality, it was very difficult to enforce it. An occurrence which +could not have been foreseen further added to the difficulty of +neutrality. + +In the spring of 1793 the French Republic appointed Edmond Charles +Genêt, familiarly called "Citizen Genêt," Minister to the United +States. He was a young man, not more than thirty, of very quick parts, +who had been brought up in the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, had an +exorbitant idea of his own importance, and might be described without +malice as a master of effrontery. The ship which brought him to this +country was driven by adverse winds to Charleston and landed him there +on April 8th. He lost no time in fitting out a privateer against +British mercantile vessels. The fact that by so doing he broke the +American rule of neutrality did not seem to trouble him at all; on the +contrary, he acted as if he were simply doing what the United States +would do if they really did what they wished. As soon as he had made +his arrangements, he proceeded by land up the coast to Philadelphia. +Jefferson was exuberant, and he wrote in exultation to Madison on the +fifth of May, concluding with the phrase, "I wish we may be able +to repress the spirit of the people within the limits of a fair +neutrality." If there be such things as crocodile tears, perhaps there +may also be crocodile wishes, of which this would seem to be one. A +friend of Hamilton's, writing about the same time, speaks in different +terms, as follows: + + He has a good person, a fine ruddy complexion, quite active, and + seems always in a bustle, more like a busy man than a man of + business. A Frenchman in his manners, he announces himself in all + companies as the Minister of the Republic, etc., talks freely of + his commission, and, like most Europeans, seems to have adopted + mistaken notions of the penetration and knowledge of the people of + the United States. His system, I think, is to laugh us into war if + he can.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 151.] + +Citizen Genêt did not allow his progress up the coast to be so +rapid that he was deprived of any ovation. The banquets, luncheons, +speech-makings, by which he was welcomed everywhere, had had no +parallel in the country up to that time. They seemed to be too +carefully prepared to be unpremeditated, and probably many of those +who took part in them did not understand that they were cheering for a +cause which they had never espoused. One wonders why he was allowed to +carry on this personal campaign and to show rude unconcern for good +manners, or indeed for any manners except those of a wayward and +headstrong boy. It might be thought that the Secretary of State +abetted him and in his infatuation for France did not check him; but, +so far as I have discovered, no evidence exists that Jefferson was +in collusion with the truculent and impertinent "Citizen." No doubt, +however, the shrewd American politician took satisfaction in observing +the extravagances of his fellow countrymen in paying tribute to the +representative of France. At Philadelphia, for instance, the city +which already was beginning to have a reputation for spinster +propriety which became its boast in the next century, we hear that +"... before Genêt had presented his credentials and been acknowledged +by the President, he was invited to a grand republican dinner, 'at +which,' we are told, 'the company united in singing the Marseillaise +Hymn. A deputation of French sailors presented themselves, and were +received by the guests with the fraternal embrace.' The table was +decorated with the 'tree of liberty,' and a red cap, called the cap +of liberty, was placed on the head of the minister, and from his +travelled in succession from head to head round the table."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Jay's _Life_, I, 30.] + +But not all the Americans were delirious enthusiasts. Hamilton kept +his head amid the whirling words which, he said, might "do us much +harm and could do France no good." In a letter, which deserves to be +quoted in spite of its length, he states very clearly the opinions of +one of the sanest of Americans. He writes to a friend: + + It cannot be without danger and inconvenience to our interests, to + impress on the nations of Europe an idea that we are actuated by + the same spirit which has for some time past fatally misguided the + measures of those who conduct the affairs of France, and sullied + a cause once glorious, and that might have been triumphant. The + cause of France is compared with that of America during its late + revolution. Would to Heaven that the comparison were just! Would + to Heaven we could discern, in the mirror of French affairs, the + same decorum, the same gravity, the same order, the same dignity, + the same solemnity, which distinguished the cause of the American + Revolution! Clouds and darkness would not then rest upon the + issue as they now do. I own I do not like the comparison. When I + contemplate the horrid and systematic massacres of the 2nd and 3rd + of September, when I observe that a Marat and a Robespierre, the + notorious prompters of those bloody scenes, sit triumphantly in + the convention, and take a conspicuous part in its measures--that + an attempt to bring the assassins to justice has been obliged to + be abandoned--when I see an unfortunate prince, whose reign was + a continued demonstration of the goodness and benevolence of his + heart, of his attachment to the people of whom he was the monarch, + who, though educated in the lap of despotism, had given repeated + proofs that he was not the enemy of liberty, brought precipitately + and ignominiously to the block without any substantial proof of + guilt, as yet disclosed--without even an authentic exhibition of + motives, in decent regard to the opinions of mankind; when I find + the doctrine of atheism openly advanced in the convention, and + heard with loud applause; when I see the sword of fanaticism + extended to force a political creed upon citizens who were invited + to submit to the arms of France as the harbingers of liberty; when + I behold the hand of rapacity outstretched to prostrate and ravish + the monuments of religious worship, erected by those citizens and + their ancestors; when I perceive passion, tumult, and violence + usurping those seats, where reason and cool deliberation ought to + preside, I acknowledge that I am glad to believe there is no real + resemblance between what was the cause of America and what is the + cause of France; that the difference is no less great than that + between liberty and licentiousness. I regret whatever has a + tendency to confound them, and I feel anxious, as an American, + that the ebullitions of inconsiderate men among us may not tend to + involve our reputation in the issue.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Hamilton's Works_, 566.] + +Citizen Genêt continued his campaign unabashed. He attempted to force +the United States to give arms and munitions to the French. Receiving +cool answers to his demands, he lost patience, and intended to appeal +to the American People, over the head of the Government. He sent his +communication for the two Houses of Congress, in care of the Secretary +of State, to be delivered. But Washington, whose patience had seemed +inexhaustible, believed that the time had come to act boldly. By his +instruction Jefferson returned the communication to Genêt with a note +in which he curtly reminded the obstreperous Frenchman of a diplomat's +proper behavior. As the American Government had already requested the +French to recall Genêt, his amazing inflation collapsed like a pricked +bladder. He was too wary, however, to return to France which he had +served so devotedly. He preferred to remain in this country, to become +an American citizen, and to marry the daughter of Governor Clinton of +New York. Perhaps he had time for leisure, during the anticlimax of +his career, to recognize that President Washington, whom he had +looked down upon as a novice in diplomacy, knew how to accomplish his +purpose, very quietly, but effectually. A century and a quarter later, +another foreigner, the German Ambassador, Count Bernstorff, was +allowed by the American Government to weave an even more menacing +plot, but the sound sense of the country awoke in time to sweep him +and his truculence and his conspiracies beyond the Atlantic. + +The intrigues of Genêt emphasized the fact that a party had arisen and +was not afraid to speak openly against President Washington. He held +in theory a position above that of parties, but the theory did not +go closely with fact, for he made no concealment of his fundamental +Federalism, and every one saw that, in spite of his formal neutrality, +in great matters he almost always sided with Hamilton instead of with +Jefferson. When he himself recognized that the rift was spreading +between his two chief Cabinet officers, he warned them both to avoid +exaggerating their differences and pursuing any policy which must be +harmful to the country. Patriotism was the chief aim of every one, and +patriotism meant sinking one's private desires in order to achieve +liberty through unity. Washington himself was a man of such strict +virtue that he could work with men who in many matters disagreed with +him, and as he left the points of disagreement on one side, he +used the more effectively points of agreement. I do not think that +Jefferson could do this, or Hamilton either, and I cannot rid myself +of the suspicion that Jefferson furnished Philip Freneau, who came +from New York to Philadelphia to edit the anti-Washington newspaper, +with much of his inspiration if not actual articles. The objective +of the "Gazette" was, of course, the destruction of Hamilton and his +policy of finance. If Hamilton could be thus destroyed, it would be +far easier to pull down Washington also. Lest the invectives in the +"Gazette" should fail to shake Washington in his regard for Hamilton, +Jefferson indited a serious criticism of the Treasury, and he took +pains to have friends of his leave copies of the indictment so that +Washington could not fail to see them. The latter, however, by a +perfectly natural and characteristic stroke which Jefferson could not +foresee, sent the indictment to Hamilton and asked him to explain. +This Hamilton did straightforwardly and point-blank--and Jefferson had +the mortification of perceiving that his ruse had failed. Hamilton, +under a thin disguise, wrote a series of newspaper assaults on +Jefferson, who could not parry them or answer them. He was no match +for the most terrible controversialist in America; but he could wince. +And presently B.F. Bache, the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, brought +his unusual talents in vituperation, in calumny, and in nastiness to +the "Aurora," a blackguard sheet of Philadelphia. Washington doubtless +thought himself so hardened to abuse by the experience he had had of +it during the Revolution that nothing which Freneau, Bache, and their +kind could say or do, would affect him. But he was mistaken. And one +cannot fail to see that they saddened and annoyed him. He felt +so keenly the evil which must come from the deliberate sowing of +dissensions. He cared little what they might say against himself, but +he cared immensely for their sin against patriotism. Before his term +as President drew to a close, he was already deciding not to be +a candidate for a second term. He told his intention to a few +intimates--from them it spread to many others. His best friends were +amazed. They foresaw great trials for the Nation and a possible +revolution. Hamilton tried to move him by every sort of appeal. +Jefferson also was almost boisterous in denouncing the very idea. He +impressed upon him the importance of his continuing at that crisis. He +had not been President long enough to establish precedents for the new +Nation. There were many volatile incidents which, if treated with less +judgment than his, might do grievous harm. One wonders how sincere all +the entreaties to Washington were, but one cannot doubt that the great +majority of the country was perfectly sincere in wishing to have him +continue; for it had sunk deep into the hearts of Americans that +Washington was himself a party, a policy, an ideal above all the rest. +And when the election was held in the autumn of 1792, he was reëlected +by the equivalent of a unanimous vote. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE JAY TREATY + + +There is no doubt that Washington in his Olympian quiet took a real +satisfaction in his election. On January 20, 1793, he wrote to +Governor Henry Lee of Virginia: + + A mind must be insensible indeed not to be gratefully impressed by + so distinguished and honorable a testimony of public approbation + and confidence; and as I suffered my name to be contemplated on + this occasion, it is more than probable that I should, for a + moment, have experienced chagrin, if my reëlection had not been + by a pretty respectable vote. But to say I feel pleasure from the + prospect of commencing another term of duty would be a departure + from the truth,--for, however it might savor of affectation in + the opinion of the world (who, by the by, can only guess at my + sentiments, as it never has been troubled with them), my + particular and confidential friends well know, that it was after a + long and painful conflict in my own breast, that I was withheld, + (by considerations which are not necessary to be mentioned), from + requesting in time, that no vote might be thrown away upon me, it + being my fixed determination to return to the walks of private + life at the end of my term.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XII, 256.] + +Washington felt at his reëlection not merely egotistic pleasure for +a personal success, but the assurance that it involved a triumph of +measures which he held to be of far more importance than any success +of his own. The American Nation's new organism which he had set +in motion could now continue with the uniformity of its policy +undisturbed by dislocating checks and interruptions. Much, very much +depended upon the persons appointed to direct its progress, and +they depended upon the President who appointed them. In matters of +controversy or dispute, Washington upheld a perfectly impartial +attitude. But he did not believe that this should shackle his freedom +in appointing. According to him a man must profess right views in +order to be considered worthy of appointment. The result of this was +that Washington's appointees must be orthodox in his definition of +orthodoxy. + +His first important act in his new administration was to issue a +Proclamation of Neutrality on April 22d. Although this document was +clear in intent and in purpose, and was evidently framed to keep +the United States from being involved in the war between France and +England, it gave offence to partisans of either country. They used it +as a weapon for attacking the Government, so that Washington found to +his sorrow that the partisan spites, which he had hoped would vanish +almost of their own accord, were become, on the contrary, even more +formidable and irritating. At this juncture the coming of Genêt and +his machinations added greatly to the embarrassment, and, having no +sense of decency, Genêt insinuated that the President had usurped the +powers of Congress and that he himself would seek redress by appealing +to the people over the President. I have already stated that, having +tolerated Genêt's insults and menaces as far as he deemed necessary, +Washington put forth his hand and crushed the spluttering Frenchman +like a bubble. + +Persons who like to trace the sardonic element in history--the element +which seems to laugh derisively at the ineffectual efforts of us poor +mortals to establish ourselves and lead rational lives in the world as +it is--can find few better examples of it than these early years of +the American Republic. In the war which brought about the independence +of the American Colonies, England had been their enemy and France +their friend. Now their instinctive gratitude to France induced many, +perhaps a majority of them, to look with effusive favor on France, +although her character and purpose had quite changed and it was very +evident that for the Americans to side with France would be against +sound policy and common sense. Neutrality, the strictest neutrality, +between England and France was therefore the only rational course; but +the American partisans of these rivals did their utmost to render this +unachievable. Much of Washington's second term see-sawed between one +horn and the other of this dilemma. The sardonic aspect becomes more +glaring if we remember that the United States were a new-born nation +which ought to have been devoting itself to establishing viable +relations among its own population and not to have been dissipating +its strength taking sides with neighbors who lived four thousand miles +away. + +In the autumn of 1793 Jefferson insisted upon resigning as Secretary +of State. Washington used all his persuasiveness to dissuade him, but +in vain. Jefferson saw the matter in its true light, and insisted. +Perhaps it at last occurred to him, as it must occur to every +dispassionate critic, that he could not go on forever acting as +an important member of an administration which pursued a policy +diametrically opposed to his own. After all, even the most adroit +politicians must sometimes sacrifice an offering to candor, not to say +honesty. At the end of the year he retired to the privacy of his home +at Monticello, where he remained in seclusion, not wholly innocuous, +until the end of 1796. Edmund Randolph succeeded him as Secretary of +State. + +Whether it was owing to the departure of Jefferson from the Cabinet or +not, the fact remains that Washington concluded shortly thereafter +the most difficult diplomatic negotiation of his career. This was +the treaty with England, commonly called Jay's Treaty. The President +wished at first to appoint Hamilton, the ablest member of the Cabinet, +but, realizing that it would be unwise to deprive himself and his +administration of so necessary a supporter, he offered the post to +John Jay, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The quality, deemed +most desirable, which it was feared Jay might lack, was audacity. But +he had discretion, tact, and urbanity in full share, besides that +indefinable something which went with his being a great gentleman. + +The President, writing to Gouverneur Morris, who had recently been +recalled as Minister to France, said: + + My primary objects, to which I have steadily adhered, have been to + preserve the country in peace, if I can, and to be prepared for + war if I cannot, to effect the first, upon terms consistent with + the respect which is due to ourselves, and with honor, justice and + good faith to all the world. + + Mr. Jay (and not Mr. Jefferson) as has been suggested to you, + embarked as envoy extraordinary for England about the middle of + May. If he succeed, well; if he does not, why, knowing the worst, + we must take measures accordingly.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XII, 436. Mount Vernon, June 25, 1794.] + +Jay reached London early in June, 1794, and labored over the treaty +with the British negotiators during the summer and autumn, started for +home before Christmas, and put the finished document in Washington's +hands in March. From the moment of his going enemies of all kinds +talked bitterly against him. The result must be a foregone conclusion, +since John Jay was regarded as the chief Anglo-maniac in America after +Hamilton. They therefore condemned in advance any treaty he might +agree to. But their criticism went deeper than mere hatred of him: it +sprang from an inveterate hatred of England, which dated from before +the Revolution. Since the Treaty of 1783 the English seemed to act +deliberately with studied truculence, as if the Americans would not +and could not retaliate. They were believed to be instigating the +Indians to continuous underhand war. They had reached that dangerous +stage of truculence, when they did not think it mattered whether +they spoke with common diplomatic reticence. Lord Dorchester, the +Governor-General of Canada, and to-day better known as Sir Guy +Carleton, his name before they made him a peer, addressed a gathering +of Indian chiefs at Quebec on the assumption that war would come in a +few weeks. President Washington kept steady watch of every symptom, +and he knew that it would not require a large spark to kindle a +conflagration. "My objects are, to prevent a war," he wrote to Edmund +Randolph, on April 15, 1794, "if justice can be obtained by fair and +strong representations (to be made by a special envoy) of the injuries +which this country has sustained from Great Britain in various ways, +to put it into a complete state of military defence, and to provide +_eventually_ for such measures as seem to be now pending in +Congress for execution, if negotiations in a reasonable time proves +unsuccessful."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIII, 4-9.] + +The year 1794 marked the sleepless anxiety of the Silent President. +Day and night his thoughts were in London, with Jay. He said little; +he had few letters from Jay--it then required from eight to ten weeks +for the mail clippers to make a voyage across the Atlantic. Opposition +to the general idea of such a treaty as the mass of Republicans and +Anti-Federalists supposed Washington hoped to secure, grew week by +week. The Silent Man heard the cavil and said nothing. + +At last early in 1795 Jay returned. His Treaty caused an uproar. The +hottest of his enemies found an easy explanation on the ground that +he was a traitor. Stanch Federalists suffered all varieties of +mortification. Washington himself entered into no discussion, but he +ruminated over those which came to him. I am not sure that he +invented the phrase "Either the Treaty, or war," which summed up the +alternatives which confronted Jay; but he used it with convincing +emphasis. When it came before the Senate, both sides had gathered +every available supporter, and the vote showed only a majority of +one in its favor. Still, it passed. But that did not satisfy its +pertinacious enemies. Neither were they restrained by the President's +proclamation. The Constitution assigned the duty of negotiating and +ratifying treaties to the President and Senate; but to the perfervid +Anti-Britishers the Constitution was no more than an old cobweb to be +brushed away at pleasure. The Jay Treaty could not be put into effect +without money for expenses; all bills involving money must pass the +House of Representatives; therefore, the House would actually control +the operation of the Treaty. + +The House at this time was Republican by a marked majority. In March, +1796, the President laid the matter before the House. In a twinkling +the floodgates of speechifying burst open; the debates touched +every aspect of the question. James Madison, the wise supporter of +Washington and Hamilton in earlier days and the fellow worker on "The +Federalist," led the Democrats in their furious attacks. He was ably +seconded by Albert Gallatin, the high-minded young Swiss doctrinaire +from Geneva, a terrible man, in whose head principles became two-edged +weapons with Calvinistic precision and mercilessness. The Democrats +requested the President to let them see the correspondence in +reference to the Treaty during its preparation. This he wisely +declined to do. The Constitution did not recognize their right to make +the demand, and he foresaw that, if granted by him then, it might be +used as a harmful precedent. + +For many weeks the controversy waxed hot in the House. Scores of +speakers hammered at every argument, yet only one speech eclipsed +all the rest, and remains now, after one hundred and thirty years, a +paragon. There are historians who assert that this was the greatest +speech delivered in Congress before Daniel Webster spoke there--an +implication which might lead irreverent critics to whisper that too +much reading may have dulled their discrimination. But fortunately not +only the text of the speech remains; we have also ample evidence of +the effect it produced on its hearers. Fisher Ames, a Representative +from Massachusetts, uttered it. He was a young lawyer, feeble in +health, but burning, after the manner of some consumptives, with +intellectual and moral fire which strangely belied his slender thread +of physical life. Ames pictured the horrors which would ensue if the +Treaty were rejected. Quite naturally he assumed the part of a man +on the verge of the grave, which increased the impressiveness of his +words. He spoke for three hours. The members of the House listened +with feverish attention; the crowds in the balconies could not smother +their emotion. One witness reports that Vice-President John Adams sat +in the gallery, the tears running down his cheeks, and that he said to +the friend beside him, "My God, how great he is!" + +When Ames began, no doubt the Anti-British groups which swelled +the audience turned towards him an unsympathetic if not a scornful +attention--they had already taken a poll of their members, from which +it appeared that they could count on a majority of six to defeat the +Treaty. As he proceeded, however, and they observed how deeply he was +moving the audience, they may have had to keep up their courage by +reflecting that speeches in Congress rarely change votes. They are +intended to be read by the public outside, which is not under the +spell of the orator or the crowd. But when Fisher Ames, after what +must have seemed to them a whirlwind speech, closed with these solemn, +restrained words, they must have doubted whether their victory was +won: + + Even the minutes I have spent in expostulating, have their value [he + said] because they protract the crisis and the short period in which + alone we may resolve to escape it. Yet I have, perhaps, as little + personal interest in the event as any one here. There is, I believe, no + member, who will not think his chance to be a witness of the + consequences greater than mine. If, however, the vote should pass to + reject--even I, slender and almost broken as my hold on life is, may + outlive the government and Constitution of my country.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Elson, 359.] + +The next day when the vote was taken it appeared that the Republicans, +instead of winning by a majority of six, had lost by three. + +The person who really triumphed was George Washington, although Fisher +Ames, who won the immediate victory, deserved undying laurel. The +Treaty had all the objections that its critics brought against it +then, but it had one sterling virtue which outweighed them all. It not +only made peace between the United States and Great Britain the normal +condition, but it removed the likelihood that the wrangling over petty +matters might lead to war. For many years Washington had a fixed idea +that if the new country could live for twenty years without a conflict +with its chief neighbors, its future would be safe; for he felt that +at the end of that time it would have grown so strong by the natural +increase in population and by the strength that comes from developing +its resources, that it need not fear the attack of any people in the +world. The Jay Treaty helped towards this end; it prevented war for +sixteen years only; but even that delay was of great service to the +Americans and made them more ready to face it than they would have +been in 1795. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WASHINGTON RETIRES FROM PUBLIC LIFE + + +The Treaty with England had scarely been put in operation before the +Treaty with France, of which Washington also felt the importance, came +to the front. Monroe was not an aggressive agent. Perhaps very +few civilized Americans could have filled that position to the +satisfaction of his American countrymen. They wished the French to +acknowledge and explain various acts which they qualified as outrages, +whereas the French regarded as glories what they called grievances. +The men of the Directory which now ruled France did not profess the +atrocious methods of the Terrorists, but they could not afford in +treating with a foreigner to disavow the Terrorists. In the summer of +'96, Washington, being dissatisfied with Monroe's results, recalled +him, and sent in his place Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, to whom +President Adams afterwards added John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, +forming a Commission of three. Some of the President's critics have +regarded his treatment of Monroe as unfair, and they imply that it +was inspired by partisanship. He had always been an undisguised +Federalist, whereas Monroe, during the past year or more, had followed +Jefferson and become an unswerving Democrat. The publication here of +a copy of Monroe's letter to the French Committee of Public Safety +caused a sensation; for he had asserted that he was not instructed to +ask for the repeal of the French decrees by which the spoliation of +American commerce had been practised, and he added that if the decrees +benefited France, the United States would submit not only with +patience but with pleasure. What wonder that Washington, in reading +this letter and taking in the full enormity of Monroe's words, should +have allowed himself the exclamation, "Extraordinary!" What wonder +that in due course of time he recalled Monroe from Paris and replaced +him with a man whom he could trust! + +The settlement of affairs with France did not come until after +Washington ceased to be President. I will, therefore, say no more +about it, except to refer to the outrageous conduct of the French, who +hurried two of the Commissioners out of France, and, apparently at the +instigation of Talleyrand, declared that they must pay a great deal of +money before they made any arrangement, to which Charles Pinckney made +the famous rejoinder, "Millions for defence, but not one cent for +tribute." The negotiations became so stormy that war seemed imminent. +Congress authorized President Adams to enlist ten thousand men to be +put into the field in case of need, and he wrote to Washington: "We +must have your name, if you will in any case permit us to use it. +There will be more efficacy in it than in many an army." McHenry, the +Secretary of War, wrote: "You see how the storm thickens, and that our +vessel will soon require its ancient pilot. Will you--may we flatter +ourselves, that in a crisis so awful and important, you will accept +the command of all our armies? I hope you will, because you alone can +unite all hearts and all hands, if it is possible that they can be +united."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 290.] + +To President Adams Washington replied on July 4, 1799: "As my whole +life has been dedicated to my country in one shape or another, for the +poor remains of it, it is not an object to contend for ease and quiet, +when all that is valuable is at stake, further than to be satisfied +that the sacrifice I should make of these, is acceptable and desired +by my country."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., 291.] + +Congress voted to restore for Washington the rank of +Commander-in-Chief, and he agreed with the Secretary of War that the +three Major-Generals should be Alexander Hamilton, Inspector-General; +Charles C. Pinckney, who was still in Europe; and Henry Knox. But a +change came over the passions of France; Napoleon Bonaparte, the new +despot who had taken control of that hysterical republic for himself, +was now aspiring to something higher and larger than the humiliation +of the United States and his menace in that direction ceased. + +We need to note two or three events before Washington's term ended +because they were thoroughly characteristic. First of these was the +Whiskey Insurrection in western Pennsylvania. The inhabitants first +grew surly, then broke out in insurrection on account of the Excise +Law. They found it cheaper to convert their corn and grain into +whiskey, which could be more easily transported, but the Government +insisted that the Excise Law, being a law, should be obeyed. The +malcontents held a great mass meeting on Braddock's Field, denounced +the law and declared that they would not obey it. Washington issued a +proclamation calling upon the people to resume their peaceable life. +He called also on the Governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New +Jersey, and Virginia for troops, which they furnished. His right-hand +lieutenant was Alexander Hamilton, who felt quite as keenly as he +did himself the importance of putting down such an insurrection. +Washington knew that if any body of the people were allowed unpunished +to rise and disobey any law which pinched or irritated them, all law +and order would very soon go by the board. His action was one of the +great examples in government which he set the people of the United +States. He showed that we must never parley or haggle with sedition, +treason, or lawlessness, but must strike a blow that cannot be +parried, and at once. The Whiskey Insurrectionists may have imagined +that they were too remote to be reached in their western wilderness, +but he taught them a most salutary lesson that, as they were in the +Union, the power of the Union could and would reach them. + +One of the matters which Washington could not have foreseen was the +outrageous abuse of the press, which surpassed in virulence and +indecency anything hitherto known in the United States. At first the +journalistic thugs took care not to vilify Washington personally, +but, as they became more outrageous, they spared neither him nor his +family. Freneau, Bache, and Giles were among the most malignant of +these infamous men; and most suspicious is it that two of them at +least were protégés of Thomas Jefferson. Once, when the attack was +particularly atrocious, and the average citizen might well be excused +if he believed that Jefferson wrote it, Jefferson, unmindful of the +full bearing of the French proverb, _Qui s'excuse s'accuse_, wrote +to Washington exculpating himself and protesting that he was not the +author of that particular attack, and added that he had never written +any article of that kind for the press. Many years later the editor of +that newspaper, one of the most shameless of the malignants, calmly +reported in a batch of reminiscences that Jefferson did contribute +many of the most flagrant articles. Senator Lodge, in commenting +on this affair, caustically remarks: "Strict veracity was not the +strongest characteristic of either Freneau or Jefferson, and it is +really of but little consequence whether Freneau was lying in his old +age or in the prime of life."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 223.] + +An unbiassed searcher after truth to-day will find that the +circumstantial evidence runs very strongly against Jefferson. He +brought Freneau over from New York to Philadelphia, he knew the sort +of work that Freneau would and could do, he gave him an office in the +State Department, he probably discussed the topics which the "National +Gazette" was to take up, and he probably read the proof of the +articles which that paper was to publish. In his animosities the cloak +of charity neither became him nor fitted him. + +Several years later, when Bache's paper, the "Aurora," printed some +material which Washington's enemies hoped would damage him, Jefferson +again took alarm and wrote to Washington to free himself from blame. +To him, the magnanimous President replied in part: + + If I had entertained any suspicions before, that the queries, + which have been published in Bache's paper, proceeded from you, + the assurances you have given of the contrary would have removed + them; but the truth is, I harbored none. I am at no loss to + _conjecture_ from what source they flowed, through what channel + they were conveyed, and for what purpose they and similar + publications appear. They were known to be in the hands of Mr. + Parker in the early part of the last session of Congress. They + were shown about by Mr. Giles during the session, and they made + their public exhibition about the close of it. + + Perceiving and probably hearing, that no abuse in the gazettes + would induce me to take notice of anonymous publications against + me, those, who were disposed to do me _such friendly offices_, + have embraced without restraint every opportunity to weaken the + confidence of the people; and, by having the whole game in their + hands, they have scrupled not to publish things that do not, as + well as those which do exist, and to mutilate the latter, so as to + make them subserve the purposes which they have in view.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIII, 229.] + +Washington's opinion of the scurrilous crusade against him, he +expressed in the following letter to Henry Lee: + + But in what will this abuse terminate? For the result, as it + respects myself, I care not; for I have a consolation within that + no earthly efforts can deprive me of, and that is, that neither + ambition 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 up as a mark, they will be continually aimed. The publications + in Freneau's and Bache's papers are outrages 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. The tendency + of them, however, is too obvious to be mistaken by men of cool + and dispassionate minds, and, in my opinion, ought to alarm them, + because it is difficult to prescribe bounds to the effect.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 236.] + +By his refusal to take notice of these indecencies, Washington set a +high example. In other countries, in France and England, for example, +the victims of such abuse resorted to duels with their abusers: a very +foolish and inadequate practice, since it happened as often as not +that the aggrieved person was killed. In taking no notice of the +calumnies, therefore, Washington prevented the President of the United +States from being drawn into an unseemly duel. We cannot fail to +recognize also that Washington was very sensitive to the maintenance +of freedom of speech. He seems to have acted on the belief that it was +better that occasionally license should degenerate into abuse than +that liberty should be suppressed. He was the President of the first +government in the world which did not control the utterances of its +people. Perhaps he may have supposed that their patriotism would +restrain them from excesses, and there can be no doubt that the insane +gibes of the Freneaus and the Baches gave him much pain because they +proved that those scorpions were not up to the level which the new +Nation offered them. + +As the time for the conclusion of Washington's second term drew near, +he left no doubt as to his intentions. Though some of his best friends +urged him to stand for reëlection, he firmly declined. He felt that he +had done enough for his country in sacrificing the last eight years to +it. He had seen it through its formative period, and had, he thought, +steered it into clear, quiet water, so that there was no threatening +danger to demand his continuance at the helm. Many persons thought +that he was more than glad to be relieved of the increasing abuse of +the scurrilous editors. No doubt he was, but we can hardly agree that +merely for the sake of that relief he would abandon his Presidential +post. But does it not seem more likely that his unwillingness to +convert the Presidency into a life office, and so to give the critics +of the American experiment a valid cause for opposition, led him to +establish the precedent that two terms were enough? More than once in +the century and a quarter since he retired in 1797, over-ambitious +Presidents have schemed to win a third election and flattering +sycophants have encouraged them to believe that they could attain it. +But before they came to the test Washington's example--"no more than +two"--has blocked their advance. In this respect also we must admit +that he looked far into the future and saw what would be best for +posterity. The second term as it has proved is bad enough, diverting +a President during his first term to devote much of his energy and +attention to setting traps to secure the second. It might be better +to have only one term to last six years, instead of four, which would +enable a President to give all his time to the duties of his office, +instead of giving a large part of it to the chase after a reëlection. + +As soon as Washington determined irrevocably to retire, he began +thinking of the "Farewell Address" which he desired to deliver to his +countrymen as the best legacy he could bequeath. Several years before +he had talked it over with Madison, with whom he was then on very +friendly terms, and Madison had drafted a good deal of it. Now he +turned to Hamilton, giving him the topics as far as they had been +outlined, and bidding him to rewrite it if he thought it desirable. In +September, 1796, Washington read the "Address" before the assembled +Congress. + +The "Farewell Address" belongs among the few supreme utterances on +human government. Its author seems to be completely detached from all +personal or local interests. He tries to see the thing as it is, and +as it is likely to be in its American environment. His advice applies +directly to the American people, and only in so far as what he says +has in a large sense human pertinence do we find in it more than a +local application. + +"Be united" is the summary and inspiration of the entire "Address." +"Be united and be American"; as an individual each person must feel +himself most strongly an American. He urges against the poisonous +effects of parties. He warns against the evils that may arise when +parties choose different foreign nations for their favorites. + + The great rule of conduct for us [he says] in regard to foreign + Nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with + them as little _Political_ connection as possible. So far as + we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with + perfect good faith. Here let us stop. + + Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or + a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent + controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our + concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate + ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her + politics, ... or enmities. + + Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to + pursue a different course. If we remain one People, under an + efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may defy + material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an + attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve + upon to be scrupulously respected. When belligerent nations, under + the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly + hazard the giving us provocation when we may choose peace or war, + as our interest guided by justice shall counsel. + + Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our + own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny + with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity + in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour or + caprice? + +Compared with Machiavelli's "Prince," which must come to the mind of +every one who reads the "Farewell Address," one sees at once that the +"Prince" is more limber, it may be more spontaneous, but the great +difference between the two is in their fundamental conception. The +"Address" is frankly a preachment and much of its impressiveness comes +from that fact. The "Prince," on the other hand, has little concern +with the moral aspect of politics discussed and makes no pretence of +condemning immoral practices or making itself a champion of virtue. In +other words, Washington addresses an audience which had passed through +the Puritan Revolution, while Machiavelli spoke to men who were +familiar with the ideals and crimes of the Italian Renaissance. + +Washington spread his gospel so clearly that all persons were sure to +learn and inwardly digest it, and many of them assented to it in their +minds, although they did not follow it In their conduct. His paramount +exhortations--"Be united"--"Be Americans"; "do not be drawn into +complications with foreign powers"--at times had a very real living +pertinence. The only doctrine which still causes controversy is that +which touches our attitude towards foreign countries. During the late +World War we heard it revived, and a great many persons who had never +read the "Farewell Address" gravely reminded us of Washington's +warning against "entangling alliances." As a matter of fact, that +phrase does not appear in the "Farewell Address" at all. It was first +used by Thomas Jefferson in his first Inaugural Address, March 4, +1801, sixteen months after Washington was dead and buried. No doubt +the meaning could be deduced from what Washington said in more than +one passage of his "Farewell." But to understand in 1914 what he said +or implied in 1796, we must be historical. In 1796 the country was +torn by conflicting parties for and against strong friendship, if not +an actual alliance, between the United States on one side and Great +Britain or France on the other. Any foreign alliance that could be +made in 1914, however, could not have been, for the same reason, with +either Great Britain or France. The aim proposed by its advocates was +to curb and destroy the German domination of the world. Now Washington +was almost if not quite the most actual of modern statesmen. All +his arrangements at a given moment were directed at the needs and +likelihood of the moment, and in 1914 he would have planned as 1914 +demanded. He would have steered his ship by the wind that blew then +and not by the wind that had blown and vanished one hundred and twenty +years before. + +Some one has remarked that, while Washington achieved a great victory +in the ratification of the Jay Treaty, that event broke up the +Federalist Party. That is probably inexact, but the break-up of +the Federalist Party was taking place during the last years of +Washington's second administration. The changes in Washington's +Cabinet were most significant, especially as they nearly all meant the +change from a more important to a less important Secretary. Thus +John Jay, the first Secretary of State, really only an incumbent _ad +interim_, gave way to Thomas Jefferson, who was replaced by Edmund +Randolph in 1794, and who in turn was succeeded by Timothy Pickering +in 1795. Alexander Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury from the +beginning in 1789 to 1795, when he made way for Oliver Wolcott, Jr. +Henry Knox, the original Secretary of War, was succeeded by Timothy +Pickering in 1795, who, after less than a year, was followed by James +McHenry. Edmund Randolph served as Attorney-General in 1789 to 1794, +then retiring for William Bradford who, after a brief year, was +replaced by Charles Lee. The Postmaster-Generalship was filled from +1789 to 1791 by Samuel Osgood, and then by Timothy Pickering. Thus at +the end of Washington's eight years we find that in the place of two +really eminent men, like Jefferson and Hamilton, he was served by +Edmund Randolph and Oliver Wolcott, Jr., and James McHenry, good +routine men at the best, mediocrities if judged by comparison with +their predecessors. Moreover, the reputation for discretion of some +of them, suffered. Thus Randolph had not long been Secretary of State +when Joseph Fauchet, the French Minister, produced some papers which +could be construed as implying that Randolph had accepted money. +Randolph was known to be impecunious, but his personal honor had never +been suspected. Washington with characteristic candor sent Randolph +the batch of incriminating letters. Randolph protested that he +"forgave" the President and tried to exculpate himself in the +newspapers. Even that process of deflation did not suffice and he +had recourse to a "Vindication," which was read by few and popularly +believed to vindicate nobody. Washington is believed to have held +Randolph as guiltless, but as weak and as indiscreet. He pitied the +ignominy, for Randolph had been in a way Washington's protégé, whose +career had much interested him and whose downfall for such a cause was +doubly poignant. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CONCLUSION + + +Washington's term as President ended at noon on March 4, 1797. He was +present at the inauguration of President John Adams which immediately +followed. On the 3d, besides attending to the final necessary routine, +he wrote several letters of farewell to his immediate friends, +including Henry Knox, Jonathan Trumbull, Timothy Pickering, and James +McHenry. To all he expressed his grief at personal parting, but also +immense relief and happiness in concluding his public career. He said, +for instance, in his letter to Trumbull: + + Although I shall resign the chair of government without a single + regret, or any desire to intermeddle in politics again, yet there + are many of my compatriots, among whom be assured I place you, + from whom I shall part sorrowing; because, unless I meet with them + at Mount Vernon, it is not likely that I shall ever see them more, + as I do not expect that I shall ever be twenty miles from it, + after I am tranquilly settled there. To tell you how glad I should + be to see you at that place is unnecessary. To this I will add + that it would not only give me pleasure, but pleasure also to Mrs. + Washington, and others of the family with whom you are acquainted, + and who all unite, in every good wish for you and yours.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIII, 377.] + +In a few days he returned to Mount Vernon and there indulged himself +in a leisurely survey of the plantation. He rode from one farm to +another and reacquainted himself with the localities where the various +crops were either already springing or would soon be. Indoors there +was an immense volume of correspondence to be attended to with the +aid of Tobias Lear, the faithful secretary who had lived with the +President during the New York and Philadelphia periods. When the +letters were sorted, many answers had to be written, some of which +Washington dictated and others he wrote with his own hand. He admits +to Secretary McHenry that, when he goes to his writing table to +acknowledge the letters he has received, when the lights are brought, +he feels tired and disinclined to do this work, conceiving that the +next night will do as well. "The next night comes," he adds, "and with +it the same causes for postponement, and so on." He has not had time +to look into a book. He is dazed by the incessant number of new faces +which appear at Mount Vernon. They come, he says, out of "respect" +for him, but their real reason is curiosity. He practises Virginian +hospitality very lavishly, but he cannot endure the late hours. So he +invites his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, to spend as much time as he can +at Mount Vernon while he himself and Mrs. Washington go to bed early, +"soon after candle light." Lewis accepted the invitation all the more +willingly because he found at the mansion Nelly Custis, a pretty and +sprightly young lady with whom he promptly fell in love and married +later. Nelly and her brother George had been adopted by Washington +and brought up in the family. She was his particular pet. Like other +mature men he found the boys of the younger generation somewhat +embarrassing. I suppose they felt, as well they might, a great and +awful gulf yawning between them. "I can govern men," he would say, +"but I cannot govern boys."[1] With Nelly Custis, however, he found it +easy to be chums. No one can forget the mock-serious letter in which +he wrote to her in regard to becoming engaged and gave her advice +about falling in love. The letter is unexpected and yet it bears every +mark of sincerity and reveals a genuine vein in his nature. We must +always think of Nelly as one of the refreshments of his older life and +as one of its great delights. He considered himself an old man now. +His hair no longer needed powder; years and cares had made it white. +He spoke of himself without affectation as a very old man, and +apparently he often thought, as he was engaged in some work, "this is +the last time I shall do this." He seems to have taken it for granted +that he was not to live long; but this neither slackened his industry +nor made him gloomy. And he had in truth spent a life of almost +unremitting laboriousness. Those early years as surveyor and Indian +fighter and pathfinder were years of great hardships. The eight years +of the Revolution were a continuous physical strain, an unending +responsibility, and sometimes a bodily deprivation. And finally his +last service as President had brought him disgusts, pinpricks which +probably wore more on his spirits than did the direct blows of his +opponents. Very likely he felt old in his heart of hearts, much older +than his superb physical form betokened. We cannot but rejoice that +Nelly Custis flashed some of the joyfulness and divine insouciance of +youth into the tired heart of the tired great man. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 277.] + +Perhaps the best offhand description of Washington in these later days +is that given by an English actor, Bernard, who happened to be driving +near Mount Vernon when a carriage containing a man and a woman was +upset. Bernard dismounted to give help, and presently another rider +came up and joined in the work. "He was a tall, erect, well-made man, +evidently advanced in years, but who appeared to have retained all the +vigor and elasticity resulting from a life of temperance and exercise. +His dress was a blue coat buttoned to the chin, and buckskin +breeches."[1] They righted the chaise, harnessed the horse, and +revived the young woman who, true to her time and place, had fainted. +Then she and her companion drove off towards Alexandria. Washington +invited Bernard to come home with him and rest during the heat of the +day. The actor consented. From what the actor subsequently wrote about +that chance meeting I take the following paragraphs, some of which +strike to the quick: + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 277.] + + In conversation his face had not much variety of expression. A + look of thoughtfulness was given by the compression of the mouth + and the indentations of the brow (suggesting an habitual conflict + with, and mastery over, passion), which did not seem so much + to disdain a sympathy with trivialities as to be incapable of + denoting them. Nor had his voice, so far as I could discover in + our quiet talk, much change or richness of intonation, but he + always spoke with earnestness, and his eyes (glorious conductors + of the light within) burned with a steady fire which no one could + mistake for mere affability; they were one grand expression of the + well-known line: "I am a man, and interested in all that concerns + humanity." In one hour and a half's conversation he touched on + every topic that I brought before him with an even current of good + sense, if he embellished it with little wit or verbal elegance. He + spoke like a man who had felt as much as he had reflected, more + than he had spoken; like one who had looked upon society rather in + the mass than in detail, and who regarded the happiness of America + but as the first link in a series of universal victories; for his + full faith in the power of those results of civil liberty which + he saw all around him led him to foresee that it would erelong, + prevail in other countries and that the social millennium of + Europe would usher in the political. When I mentioned to him the + difference I perceived between the inhabitants of New England + and of the Southern States, he remarked: "I esteem those people + greatly, they are the stamina of the Union and its greatest + benefactors. They are continually spreading themselves too, to + settle and enlighten less favored quarters. Dr. Franklin is a New + Englander." When I remarked that his observations were flattering + to my country, he replied, with great good humor, "Yes, yes, + Mr. Bernard, but I consider your country the cradle of free + principles, not their armchair. Liberty in England is a sort of + idol; people are bred up in the belief and love of it, but see + little of its doings. They walk about freely, but then it is + between high walls; and the error of its government was in + supposing that after a portion of their subjects had crossed the + sea to live upon a common, they would permit their friends at home + to build up those walls about them."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 338, 339.] + +We find among the allusions of several strangers who travelled in +Virginia in Washington's later days, who saw him or perhaps even +stayed at Mount Vernon, some which are not complimentary. More than +one story implies that he was a hard taskmaster, not only with the +negroes, but with the whites. Some of the writers go out of their way +to pick up unpleasant things. For instance, during his absence from +home a mason plastered some of the rooms, and when Washington returned +he found the work had been badly done, and remonstrated. The mason +died. His widow married another mason, who advertised that he would +pay all claims against his forerunner. Thereupon Washington put in a +claim for fifteen shillings, which was paid. Washington's detractors +used this as a strong proof of his harshness. But they do not inform +us whether the man was unable to pay, or whether the claim was +dishonest. Since the man paid voluntarily and did not question the +lightness of the amount, may we not at least infer that he had no +quarrel? And if he had not, who else had? + +Insinuations concerning Washington's lack of sympathy for his slaves +was a form which in later days most of the references to his care of +them took. But here also there are evident facts to be taken into +account. The Abolitionists very naturally were prejudiced against +every slave-owner; they were also prejudiced in favor of every slave. +Washington, on the contrary, harbored no prepossessions for or against +the black man. He found the slaves idle, incompetent, lazy, although +he would not have denied that the very fact of slavery caused and +increased these evils. He treated the negroes justly, but without any +sentimentality. He found them in the order in which he lived. They +were the workmen of his plantation; he provided them with food, +clothing, and a lodging; in return they were expected to give him +their labor. It does not appear that the slaves on Washington's +plantation endured any special hardship. A physician attended them at +their master's expense when they were sick. That he obliged them to +do their specified work, that he punished them in case of dishonesty, +just as he would have done to white workmen, were facts which he never +would have thought a rational person would have regarded as heinous. +In his will he freed his slaves, not for the Abolitionist's reason, +but because he regarded slavery as the most pernicious form of labor, +debasing alike the slave and his master, uneconomic and most wasteful. + +But in so general a matter as Washington's treatment of his slaves, we +must be careful not to take a solitary case and argue from it as if it +were habitual. By common report his slaves were so well treated that +they regretted it if there was talk of transferring them to other +planters. We have many instances cited which show his unusual +kindness. When he found, for instance, that a mulatto woman, who had +lived many years with one of the negroes, had been transferred to +another part of his domain and that the negro pined for her, he +arranged to have her brought back so that they might pass their old +age together. The old negro was his servant, Billy Lee, who suffered +an accident to his knee, which made him a cripple for the rest of +his life. This he spent at Mount Vernon well cared for. Washington +continued to the end the old custom of supplying a hogshead of rum for +the negroes to drink at harvest time, always premising that they must +partake of it sparingly. + +Washington's religious beliefs and practices have also occasioned much +controversy. If we accept his own statements at their plain value, we +must regard him as a Church of England man. I do not discover that he +was in any sense an ardent believer. He preferred to say "Providence" +rather than "God," probably because it was less definite. He attended +divine service on Sundays, whenever a church was near, but for +a considerable period at one part of his life he did not attend +communion. He thoroughly believed in the good which came from +church-going in the army and he always arranged to have a service on +Sundays during his campaigns. When at Mount Vernon, on days when +he did not go out to the service, he spent several hours alone in +meditation in his study. The religious precepts which he had been +taught in childhood remained strong in him through life. He believed +moral truths, and belief with him meant putting in practice what he +professed. While he had imbibed much of the deistic spirit of the +middle of the eighteenth century it would be inaccurate to infer that +he was not fundamentally a Christian. + +After Washington withdrew to Mount Vernon, early in the spring of +1797, his time was chiefly devoted to agriculture and the renewing of +his life as a planter. He declined all public undertakings except that +which President Adams begged him to assume--the supreme command of +the army in case of the expected war with France. That new duty +undoubtedly was good for him, for it proved to him that at least all +his official relations with the Government had not ceased, and it also +served to cheer the people of the country to know that in case of +military trouble their old commander would lead them once more. +Washington gave so much attention to this work, which could be in the +earlier stages arranged at Mount Vernon, that he felt justified in +accepting part of the salary which the President allotted to him. But +the war did not come. As Washington prophesied, the French thought +better of their truculence. The new genius who was ruling France +had in mind something more grandiose than a war with the American +Republic. + +On December 10, 1799, Washington sent a long letter to James Anderson +in regard to agricultural plans for his farm during the year 1800. He +calculates closely the probable profits, and specifies the rotation of +crops on five hundred and twenty-five acres. The next day, December +12th, he wrote a short note to Alexander Hamilton, in regard to the +organization of a National Military Academy, a matter in which the +President had long been deeply interested. The day was stormy. +"Morning snowing and about three inches drop. Wind at Northeast, and +mercury at 30. Continued snowing till one o'clock, and about four it +became perfectly clear. Wind in the same place, but not hard. Mercury +28 at night." Washington, who scorned to take any account of weather, +rode for five hours during the morning to several of the farms on his +plantations, examining the conditions at each and conferring with the +overseers. + +On reaching home he complained a little of chilliness. His secretary, +Tobias Lear, observed that he feared he had got wet, but Washington +protested that his greatcoat had kept him dry; in spite of which the +observant Lear saw snow hanging to his hair and remarked that his neck +was wet. Washington went in to dinner, which was waiting, without +changing his dress, as he usually did. "In the evening he appeared as +well as usual. The next day, Friday, there was a heavy fall of snow, +but having a severe cold, he went out for only a little while to mark +some trees, between the house and the river which were to be cut down. +During the day his hoarseness increased, but he made light of it, and +paid no heed to the suggestion that he should take something for it, +only replying, as was his custom, that he would 'let it go as it +came.'" + +Mrs. Washington went upstairs to a room on the floor above to chat +with Mrs. Lewis (Nelly Custis) who had recently been confined. +Washington remained in the parlor with Lear, and when the evening +mail was brought in from the post-office, they read the newspapers; +Washington even reading aloud, as well as his sore throat would allow, +anything "which he thought diverting or interesting." Then Lear read +the debates of the Virginia Assembly on the election of a Senator +and Governor. "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," says Lear, +"as I always did on such occasions. On his returning to bed, he +appeared to be in perfect health, excepting the cold before mentioned, +which he considered as trifling, and had been remarkably cheerful all +the evening." + +At between two and three o'clock of Saturday morning, December 14th, +Washington awoke Mrs. Washington and told her that he was very unwell +and had had an ague. She observed that he could hardly speak and +breathed with difficulty. She wished to get up to call a servant, +but he, fearing she might take cold, dissuaded her. When daylight +appeared, the woman Caroline came and lighted the fire. Mrs. +Washington sent her to summon Mr. Lear, and Washington asked that Mr. +Rawlins, one of the overseers, should be summoned before the Doctor +could arrive. Lear got up at once, dressed hastily, and went to the +General's bedside. Lear wrote a letter to Dr. Craik, Washington's +longtime friend and physician, and sent it off post-haste by a +servant. Mrs. Washington was up. They prepared a mixture of molasses, +vinegar, and butter, but the patient could not swallow a drop; +whenever he attempted it he appeared to be distressed, convulsed, and +almost suffocated. + +"Mr. Rawlins came in soon after sunrise and prepared to bleed him. +When the arm was ready, the General, observing that Rawlins appeared +to be agitated, said, as well as he could speak, 'Don't be afraid,' +and after the incision was made, he observed, 'The orifice is not +large enough,' However, the blood ran pretty freely. Mrs. Washington, +not knowing whether bleeding was proper or not in the General's +situation, begged that much might not be taken from him, lest it +should be injurious, and desired me to stop it; but when I was about +to untie the string, the General put up his hand to prevent it, and as +soon as he could speak, he said, 'More.' Mrs. Washington being still +very uneasy, lest too much blood should be taken, it was stopped after +about half a pint was taken from him. + +"Finding that no relief was obtained from bleeding, and that nothing +would go down the throat, I proposed bathing the throat externally +with salvolatile which was done; during the operation, which was with +the hand, in the gentlest manner, he observed, ''Tis very sore.' A +piece of flannel dipped in salvolatile was then put round his neck. +His feet were also bathed in warm water. This, however, gave no +relief. In the meantime, before Dr. Craik arrived, Mrs. Washington +requested me to send for Dr. Brown, of Port Tobacco, whom Dr. Craik +had recommended to be called, if any case should ever occur that was +seriously alarming. I despatched a Messenger (Cyrus) to Dr. Brown +immediately (between eight and nine o'clock). Dr. Craik came in soon +after, and after examining the General, he put a blister of Cantharide +on the throat and took some more blood from him, and had some Vinegar +and hot water put into a Teapot for the General to draw in the steam +from the nozel, which he did as well as he was able. He also ordered +sage tea and Vinegar to be mixed for a Gargle. This the General used +as often as desired; but when he held back his head to let it run +down, it put him into great distress and almost produced suffocation. +When the mixture came out of his mouth some phlegm followed it, and he +would attempt to cough, which the Doctor encouraged him to do as much +as he could; but without effect--he could only make the attempt. + +"About eleven o'clock, Dr. Dick was sent for. Dr. Craik requested that +Dr. Dick might be sent for, as he feared Dr. Brown would not come in +time. A message was accordingly despatched for him. Dr. Craik bled the +General again about this time. No effect, however, was produced by it, +and he continued in the same state, unable to swallow anything. Dr. +Dick came in about three o'clock, and Dr. Brown arrived soon after. +Upon Dr. Dick's seeing the General, and consulting a few minutes with +Dr. Craik, he was bled gain, the blood ran very slowly and did not +produce any symptoms of fainting. Dr. Brown came Into the chamber room +soon after, and upon feeling the General's pulse &c., the Physicians +went out together. Dr. Craik soon after returned. The General could +now swallow a little--about four o'clock Calomel and tartar emetic +were administered; but without any effect. About half past four +o'clock, he desired me to ask Mrs. Washington to come to his +bedside--when he requested her to go down into his room and take from +his desk two wills which she would find there, and bring them to him, +which she did. Upon looking at them he gave her one, which he observed +was useless, as it was superseded by the other, and desired her to +burn it, which she did, and then took the other and put it away into +her closet. After this was done, I returned again to his bedside and +took his hand. He said to me, 'I find I am going, my breath cannot +continue long; I believed from the first attack it would be +fatal--do you arrange and record all my late military letters and +papers--arrange my accounts and settle my books, as you know more +about them than any one else, and let Mr. Rawlins finish recording my +other letters.' He then asked if I recollected anything which it was +essential for him to do, as he had but a very short time to continue +with us. I told him that I could recollect nothing, but that I hoped +he was not so near his end. He observed, smiling, that he certainly +was, and that, as it was the debt which we all must pay, he looked to +the event with perfect resignation. + +"In the course of the afternoon he appeared to be in great pain and +distress, from the difficulty of breathing, and frequently changed +his posture in the bed. On these occasions 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'; and upon my +answering him, that I could feel nothing but a wish to give him ease, +he replied, 'Well, it is a debt we must pay to each other, and I hope, +when you want aid of this kind, you will find it.' He asked when Mr. +Lewis and Washington[1] would return. They were then in New Kent. I +told him I believed about the 20th of the month. He made no reply. + +[Footnote 1: George Washington Parke Custis.] + +"About five o'clock Dr. Craik came again into the room, and upon going +to the bedside the General said to him: 'Doctor, I die hard, but I am +not afraid to go. I believed, from my first attack, that I should not +survive it. My breath cannot last long.' The Doctor pressed his hand, +but could not utter a word. He retired from the bedside, and sat by +the fire absorbed in grief. The physicians, Dr. Dick and Dr. Brown, +again came in (between five and six o'clock), and when they came to +his bedside, Dr. Craik asked him if he could sit up in the bed. +He held out his hand to me and was raised up, when he said to the +Physicians: '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; I cannot last long,' They found out that all which had been +done was of no effect. He lay down again, and all retired except Dr. +Craik. He continued in the same position, uneasy and restless, but +without complaining; frequently asking what hour it was. When I helped +to move him at this, he did not speak, but looked at me with strong +expressions of gratitude. The Doctor pressed his hand, but could +not utter a word. He retired from the bedside, and sat by the fire +absorbed in grief. About eight o'clock the Physicians came again into +the Room and applied blisters, and cataplasms of wheat bran, to his +legs and feet: but went out (except Dr. Craik) without a ray of hope. +I went out about this time, and wrote a line to Mr. Low and Mr. +Peter requesting them to come with their wives (Mrs. Washington's +granddaughters) as soon as possible. + +"From this time he appeared to breathe with less difficulty than he +had done; but was very restless, constantly changing his position to +endeavor to get ease. I aided him all in my power, and was gratified +in believing he felt it: for he would look upon me with his eyes +speaking gratitude; but unable to utter a word without great distress. +About ten o'clock he made several attempts to speak to me before +he could effect it. At length, he said: 'I am just going. Have me +decently buried, and do not let my body be put into the Vault in less +than three days after I am dead.' I bowed assent, for I could not +speak. He then looked at me again, and said, 'Do you understand me?' I +replied, 'Yes, sir.' + +"''Tis well,' said he. About ten minutes before he expired his +breathing became much easier; he lay quietly; he withdrew his hand +from mine and felt his own pulse. I spoke to Dr. Craik who sat by the +fire; he came to the bedside. The General's hand fell from his wrist. +I took it in mine and laid it upon my breast. Dr. Craik put his hand +on his eyes and he expired without a struggle or a Sigh! While we were +fixed in silent grief, Mrs. Washington, who was sitting at the foot of +the bed, asked, with a firm and collected voice, 'Is he gone?' I could +not speak, but held up my hand as a signal that he was. ''Tis well,' +said she in a plain voice. 'All is now over. I have no more trials to +pass through. I shall soon follow him.'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIV, 246-52. I have copied Tobias Lear's remarkable +account of Washington's death almost verbatim.] + +Once read, honest Tobias Lear's account of Washington's death will +hardly be forgotten. It has a majestic simplicity which we feel must +have accompanied Washington in his last hours. The homely sick-bed +details; his grim fortitude; his willingness to do everything which +the physicians recommended, not because he wanted to live, nor because +he thought they would help him, but because he wished to obey. We see +him there trying to force out the painful words from his constricted +throat and when he was unable to whisper even a "thank you" for some +service done, Lear read the unuttered gratitude in his eyes. The +faithful Lear, lying on the outside of the bed in order to be able to +help turn Washington with less pain, and poor old Dr. Craik, lifelong +friend, who became too moved to speak, so that he sat off near the +fire in silence except for a stifled sob, and Mrs. Washington, placed +near the foot of the bed, waiting patiently in complete self-control. +She seemed to have determined that the last look which her mate of +forty years had of her should not portray helpless grief. And from +time to time the negro slaves came to the door that led into the entry +and they peered into the room very reverently, and with their emotions +held in check, at their dying master. And then there was a ceasing of +the pain and the breathing became easier and quieter and Dr. Craik +placed his hand over the life-tired eyes and Washington was dead +without a struggle or even a sigh. + +The pathos or tragedy of it lies in the fact that all the devices and +experiments of the doctors could avail nothing. The quinsy sore throat +which killed him could not be cured by any means then known to medical +art. The practice of bleeding, which by many persons was thought to +have killed him, was then so widely used that his doctors would have +been censured If they had omitted it. Sixty years later it was still +in use, and no one can doubt that it deprived Italy's great statesman +of his chance of living. The premonition of Washington on his first +seizure with the quinsy that the end had come proved fatally true. + +The news of Washington's death did not reach the capital until +Wednesday, December 18th. The House immediately adjourned. On the +following day, when it reassembled, John Marshall delivered a brief +tribute and resolutions were passed to attend the funeral and to pay +honor "to the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace, and +first in the hearts of his countrymen," The immortal phrase was by +Colonel Henry Lee, the father of General Robert E. Lee. President +Adams, in response to a letter from the Senate of the United States, +used the less happy phrase, "If a Trajan found a Pliny, a Marcus +Aurelius can never want biographers, eulogists, or historians." + +During the days immediately following Washington's death, preparations +were made at Mount Vernon for the funeral. They sent to Alexandria for +a coffin and Dr. Dick measured the body, which he found to be exactly +six feet three and one half inches in length. The family vault was +on the slope of the hill, a little to the south of the house. Mrs. +Washington desired that a door should be made for the vault instead of +having it closed up as formerly, after the body should be deposited, +observing that "it will soon be necessary to open it again." Mourning +clothes were prepared for the family and servants. The ceremony took +place on Wednesday. There were many troops. Eleven pieces of artillery +were brought down from Alexandria and a schooner belonging to Mr. R. +Hamilton came down and lay off Mount Vernon to fire minute guns. +The pall-holders were Colonels Little, Charles Sims, Payne, Gilpin, +Ramsay, and Marsteller, and Colonel Blackburne walked before the +corpse. Colonel Deneal marched with the military. About three o'clock +the procession began to move. Colonels Little, Sims and Deneal and +Dr. Dick directed the arrangements of the procession. This moved out +through the gate at the left wing of the house and proceeded around +in front of the lawn and down to the vault on the right wing of the +house. The procession was as follows: The troops; horse and foot; +music playing a solemn dirge with muffled drums; the clergy, viz.: +the Reverends Mr. Davis, Mr. James Miner, and Mr. Moffatt, and Mr. +Addison; the General's horse, with his saddle, holsters, and pistols, +led by two grooms, Cyrus and Wilson, in black; the body borne by +officers and Masons who insisted upon carrying it to the grave; the +principal mourners, viz.: Mrs. Stuart and Mrs. Low, Misses Nancy and +Sally Stuart, Miss Fairfax, and Miss Dennison, Mr. Low and Mr. Peter, +Dr. Craik and T. Lear; Lord Fairfax and Ferdinando Fairfax; Lodge No. +23; Corporation of Alexandria. All other persons, preceded by Mr. +Anderson, Mr. Rawlins, the Overseers, etc., etc. + +The Reverend Mr. Davis read the service and made a short extempore +speech. The Masons performed their ceremonies and the body was +deposited in the vault. All then returned to the house and partook +of some refreshment, and dispersed with the greatest good order and +regularity. The remains of the provisions were distributed among +the blacks. Mr. Peter, Dr. Craik, and Dr. Thornton tarried here all +night.[1] + +[Footnote 1: From notes by T. Lear, Ford, XIV, 254-55.] + +The Committee appointed by Congress to plan a suitable memorial +for Washington proposed a monument to be erected in the city of +Washington, to be adorned with statuary symbolizing his career as +General and as President, and containing a tomb for himself and for +Mrs. Washington. The latter replied to President Adams that "taught by +the great example which I have so long had before me, never to oppose +my private wishes to the public will, I must consent to the request +made by Congress, which you have had the goodness to transmit me, +and in doing this, I need not say, I cannot say, what a sacrifice of +individual feeling I make to a sense of public duty." The intended +monument at the capital was never erected. Martha Washington lies +beside her husband where she wished to be, in the family vault at +Mount Vernon. From her chamber window in the upper story of the Mount +Vernon house she could look across the field to the vault. She died +in 1802, a woman of rare discretion and good sense who, during forty +years, proved herself the worthiest companion of the founder of his +country. + +I have wished to write this biography of George Washington so that +it would explain itself. There is no need of eulogy. All eulogy is +superfluous. We see the young Virginia boy, born in aristocratic +conditions, with but a meagre education, but trained by the sports and +rural occupations of his home in perfect manliness, in courage, in +self-reliance, in resourcefulness. Some one instilled into him moral +precepts which fastened upon his young conscience and would not let +him go. At twenty he was physically a young giant capable of enduring +any hardship and of meeting any foe. He ran his surveyor's chain far +into the wilderness to the west of Mount Vernon. When hardly a man +in age, the State of Virginia knew of his qualities and made him +an officer in its militia. At only twenty-three he was invited to +accompany General Braddock's staff, but neither he nor angels from +heaven could prevent Braddock from plunging with typical British +bull-headedness into the fatal Indian ambush. He gave up border +warfare, but did not cease to condemn the inadequacy of the Virginia +military equipment and its training. He devoted himself to the +pursuits of a large planter, and on being elected a Burgess, he +attended regularly the sessions at Williamsburg. Wild conditions which +in his boyhood had reached almost to Fauquier County, had drifted +rapidly westward. Within less than ten years of Braddock's defeat, +Fort Duquesne had become permanently English and the name of +Pittsburgh reminded men of the great British statesman who had urged +on the fateful British encroachment on the Ohio River. For Washington +in person, the lasting effect of the early training and fighting in +western Pennsylvania was that it gave him direct knowledge of the +Indian and his ways, and that it turned his imagination to thinking +out the problem of developing the Middle West, and of keeping the +connections between the East and the West strong and open. + +In the House of Burgesses Washington was a taciturn member, yet he +seemed to have got a great deal of political knowledge and wisdom so +that his colleagues thought of him as the solid man of the House +and they referred many matters to him as if for final decision. He +followed political affairs in the newspapers. Above all, at Mount +Vernon he heard all sides from the guests who passed his domain and +enjoyed his hospitality. From the moment that the irritation between +Great Britain and the Colonies became bitter he seems to have made up +his mind that the contention of the Colonists was just. After that +he never wavered, but he was not a sudden or a shallow clamorer for +Independence. He believed that the sober second sense of the British +would lead them to perceive that they had made a mistake. When at +length the Colonies had to provide themselves with an army and to +undertake a war, he was the only candidate seriously considered for +General, although John Hancock, who had made his peacock way so +successfully in many walks of life, thought that he alone was +worthy of the position. Who shall describe Washington's life as +Commander-in-Chief of the Colonial forces during the Revolutionary +War? What other commander ever had a task like his? For a few weeks +the troops led by Napoleon--the barefooted and ragged heroes of Lodi +and Arcola and Marengo--were equally destitute, but victory brought +them food and clothes and prosperity. Whereas Washington's men had no +comfort before victory and none after it. + +Some of the military critics to-day deny Washington's right to be +ranked among the great military commanders of the world, but the truth +is that he commanded during nearly eight years and won one of the +supreme crucial wars of history against far superior forces. The +General who did that was no understrapper. The man whose courage +diffused itself among the ten thousand starving soldiers at Valley +Forge, and enabled them to endure against the starvation and distress +of a winter, may very well fail to be classified among the Prince +Ruperts and the Marshal Neys of battle, but he ranks first in a +higher class. His Fabian policy, which troubled so many of his +contemporaries, saved the American Revolution. His title as General +is secure. Nor should we forget that it was his scrupulous patriotism +which prevented the cropping out of militarism in this country. + +Finally, a country which owed its existence to him chose him to be for +eight years its first President. He saw the planting of the roots of +the chief organs of its government. In every act he looked far forward +into the future. He shunned making or following evil precedents. He +endured the most virulent personal abuse that has ever been poured out +on American public men, preferring that to using the power which his +position gave him, and denaturing the President into a tyrant. Nor +should we fail to honor him for his insistence on dignity and a proper +respect for his office. His enemies sneered at him for that, but +we see plainly how much it meant to this new Nation to have such +qualities exemplified. Had Thomas Jefferson been our first President +in his _sans-culotte_ days, our Government might not have outlasted +the _sans-culottist_ enthusiasts in France. A man is known by his +friends. The chosen friends of Washington were among the best of his +time in America. Hamilton, Henry Knox, Nathanael Greene, John Jay, +John Marshall--these were some. + +Although Washington was less learned than many of the men of his time +in political theory and history, he excelled them all in a concrete +application of principles. He had the widest acquaintance among men of +different sorts. He heard all opinions, but never sacrificed his own. +As I have said earlier, he was the most _actual_ statesman of his +time; the people in Virginia came very early to regard him as a man +apart; this was true of the later days when the Government sat in New +York and Philadelphia. If they sought a reason, they usually agreed +that Washington excelled by his character, and if you analyze most +closely you will never get deeper than that. Reserved he was, and not +a loose or glib talker, but he always showed his interest and gave +close attention. After Yorktown, when the United States proclaimed to +the world that they were an independent Republic, Europe recognized +that this was indeed a Republic unlike all those which had preceded it +during antiquity and the Middle Age. Foreigners doubted that it could +exist. They doubted that Democracy could ever govern a nation. They +knew despots, like the Prussian King, Frederic, who walked about the +streets of Berlin and used his walking-stick on the cringing persons +whom he passed on the sidewalk and did not like the looks of. They +remembered the crazy Czar, Peter, and they knew about the insane +tendencies of the British sovereign, George. The world argued from +these and other examples that monarchy was safe; it could not doubt +that the supply of monarchs would never give out; but it had no hope +of a Republic governed by a President. It was George Washington more +than any other agency who made the world change its mind and conclude +that the best President was the best kind of monarch. + +It is reported that after he died many persons who had been his +neighbors and acquaintances confessed that they had always felt a +peculiar sense of being with a higher sort of person in his presence: +a being not superhuman, but far above common men. That feeling will +revive in the heart of any one to-day who reads wisely in the fourteen +volumes of "Washington's Correspondence," in which, as in a mine, +are buried the passions and emotions from which sprang the American +Revolution and the American Constitution. That George Washington lived +and achieved is the justification and hope of the United States. + + +THE END + + + + +INDEX + + +Throughout the index, the initial _W_. is used for the name of George +Washington. + +Adams, John, his _Diary_ quoted, 57 _n_.; + on committee to confer with Howe, 79; + on Peace Commission, 130; + chosen first Vice-President, 176; + appoints _W_. Commander-in-Chief, in 1799, 217, 240; + letter of _W_. to, 217; 49, 59, 155, 156, 162, 180, 212, 215, + 217, 231, 251, 254. + +Adams, Samuel, 49, 57, 59, 60, 162, 175, 176. + +Addison, Rev. Mr., 253. + +Agriculturist, _W_. as an, 37 _ff_. + +Albert, Prince, 153. + +Alleghany Mts., 7. + +American Revolution, 64-126 _passim_; + great extent of field of operations, 67; + really ended with surrender at Yorktown, 126; + nature and results of, 126-128; + proclamation of end of hostilities, 135; + saved by _W.'s_ Fabian policy, 257. + +Ames, Fisher, speech on Jay Treaty, and its effect, 211-213. + +Anderson, James, 240, 253. + +André, John, Clinton's messenger to Arnold, court-martialed and + hanged, 110, 111. + +Annapolis Convention, 158. + +Anti-Assumptionists. _See_ State debts. + +Anti-Federalists, 186. + +Army, Colonial, at Boston, 69 _ff_.; + brought into order by _W_., 72; + lacks powder, 72; + compels evacuation of Boston, 72,73; + how distributed, 76, 77; + _W_. on proper organization of, 80, 81; + his influence over, 82,88; + condition of, at end of 1776, 84; + desertions from, 84, 97; + at Valley Forge, 100 _ff_.; + _W_. on condition of, after the war, 131, 132; + difficulties about back pay, 133, 134, 141; + some officers of, intrigue to make _W_. king, 134; + _W.'s_ reply, 135; + continued turmoil in, 135; + _W.'s_ farewell to officers of, 136, 137; + attitude of Congress toward, 139, 140. + +Arnold, Benedict, repulsed at Quebec, 72; + surrenders West Point, 110; + in Virginia, 122, 123; 77. + +Articles of Confederation, 152, 153, 156. + And _see_ States of the Confederation. + +Assumptionists. _See_ State debts. + +_Aurora. See_ Bache, B.F. + + +Bache, Benjamin F., attacks _W.'s_ administration, in the + _Aurora_, 201, 219, 221, 222. + +Ball, Mary, marries Augustine Washington, 1. + And _see_ Washington, Mary (Ball). + +Barbados, _W.'s_ visit to, 9-11. + +Barbary States, corsairs of, 155. + +Bard, Dr. Samuel, 185, 186. + +Beaumarchais, Caron de, 94. + +Beefsteak and Tripe Club, 10. + +Belvoir, Fairfax estate, 7. + +Bennington, Battle of, 92. + +Bernard, John, quoted on _W_. in retirement, 234-236. + +_Blackwood's Magazine_, 3. + +Blair, John, 161. + +Bland, Theodorick, letter of _W_. to, 131, 132. + +Bonhomme Richard, the. _See_ Jones, John Paul. + +Boston, port of, transferred to Salem, 58; + blockaded by _W_., 69; + evacuated by Howe, 72, 73; + _W.'s_ visit to, as President, 189, 190. + +Boston Tea Party, 58. + +Botetourt, Norborne Berkeley, Lord, 53. + +Boucher, Rev. Jonathan, 41. + +Braddock, Edward, his career, 19, 20; + in America, 20; + attacks Fort Duquesne, and is defeated and killed, 21, 22; 255. + +Bradford, William, 229. + +Brant, Joseph, 92. + +British troops, position of, at end of 1776, 83, 84, 85; + confined to New York City and Long Island, 86; + _W_. on maltreatment of prisoners by, 98; + field of operations of, transferred to South, 107, 121-123; + surrender of, at Yorktown, 123 _ff_. + +Brown, Dr., 244, 245, 247, 248. + +Bunker Hill, Battle of, 65, 68. + +Burgoyne, John, takes Ticonderoga, 91; + defeated at Bennington, 92; + surrenders to Gates at Saratoga, 93. + +Burke, Edmund, 55, 62, 120. + +Bute, John Stuart, Earl of, 29, 49. + +Butler, Pierce, 162. + +Byrd, William, letter of _W_. to, 20, 21. + + +Calvert, Nelly, 42. + +Cambridge, _W_. takes command of army at, 65; + _W.'s_ headquarters at, 69. + +Canada, and Wolfe's victory at Quebec, 28. + +Canova, Antonio, statue of _W_. by, 148. + +Capital, national, question of location of, 182-185. + +Carlyle, Thomas, 17. + +Carroll, Daniel, 161. + +Cavour, Camillo, Count di, 30, 251. + +Chamberlayne, Major, 33. + +Charming, Edward, _History of the U.S._, 111 _n_. + +Chantrey, Sir F.L., statue of _W_., 148. + +Cherry-tree story, absurdity of, 2. + +Cincinnati, Society of the, public feeling against, 159; + _W_. resigns presidency of, 159. + +Clark, Major, 10. + +Clinton, George, Governor of New York, 136, 199. + +Clinton, Sir Henry, succeeds Howe as Commander-in-Chief, 105; + takes troops to New York, 106; + was he responsible for bribing Arnold? 109, 110; + _W.'s_ criticism of, 118, 119; 93, 121, 123. + +Clive, Robert, Lord, 28. + +Clymer, George, 161. + +Colonies, effect of Seven Years' War on, 29; + opposition to taxation in, 49 _ff_.; + at outbreak of war, 67; + diversity in origin and customs, 67, 68; + increasing urgency of demand for independence in, 75; + relations of, with England, in 1763, 47; + how affected by the Imperial Spirit, 47, 48; + in 1770, 53, 54; + at beginning of Revolution, 66; + lack of ardor for Independence, 84. + +Committees of Correspondence, 57, 58. + +Compromises of the Constitution. _See_ Representation, Slave + trade, Slavery. + +Concord, Battle of, 64. + +Congress of the U.S.: + _First: W.'s_ first address to, 179; + votes to assume state debts and change location of capital, 182-185. + _Fourth_: Jay Treaty ratified by Senate, 210; + bill to carry out treaty provisions passed by House, 210-213. + _Sixth_: revives rank of Commander-in-Chief for _W_., 217; + and _W_.'s death, 251, 253, 254. + +Connecticut, population of, in 1775, 68. + +Constitution of the U.S., in the making, 164-168; + promulgated, 168, 169; + _W.'s_ views of, 170, 171, 172; + ratified by States, 173-175; + opposition to, in N.Y. and Virginia, 174. + +Constitutional Convention, call for, 158; + first meeting of, 160; + members of, 160-162; + _W_. President of, 161, 163; + proceedings of, secret, 163; + divers questions discussed, 164-168, 169, 170. + +Continental Congress: + _First_: members of, 59; + work of, 59-61; + adopts Declaration of Rights, 60; + importance of, as a symbol, 61. + _Second_: elects _W_. Commander-in-Chief, 64; + sectional intrigues in, 74; + _W_. quoted on, 75; + appoints committee to confer with Howe, 79; + and _W.'s_ "doleful reports," 81; + removes to Baltimore, 85; + method of conducting the war, 90; + _W.'s_ farewell reception by, and address to, 137-139; + post-war attitude of, toward the army, discussed, 141, 142; + powers of, limited by Articles of Confederation, 152, 153; + its weakness, 153; + lack of unanimity in, 155; + rejects Spanish treaty, 155; + orders first election under Constitution, 175. + +Conway, Thomas, and the Cabal, 112, 113; + letters of, to _W_., 113; 96. + +Conway Cabal, The, 112-114, 116, 117. + +Cornwallis, Charles, Earl, surrenders at Yorktown, 123. + +Cowpens, Battle of the, 122. + +Craik, Dr. James, attends _W_. in his last illness, 243 _ff_.; 253. + +Critical Period of American History, 151 _ff_. + +Custis, Daniel P., 33, 34. + +Custis, Eleanor, _W.'s_ affection for, 233, 234. + And _see_ Lewis, Eleanor (Custis). + +Custis, George W P., 233, 247. + +Custis, John Parke, _W.'s_ step-son, 40-42; 104. + +Custis, Mrs. Martha (Dandridge), widow of D.P. Custis, is courted by + _W_., 33, 34, + and marries him, 35. + And _see_ Washington, Martha (Custis). + +Custis, Martha, W.'s step-daughter, 40, 41. + + +Dandridge, Francis, letter of _W_. to, 51, 52. + +Davis, Rev. Mr., 252, 253. + +Deane, Silas, sent to enlist aid of France, 94; + his unauthorized promises to Ducoudray, 95, + and Lafayette, 99. + +Declaration of Independence, 78, 191. + +"Declaration of Rights," 60. + +Delaware River, _W.'s_ crossing of, 85, 86. + +Democracy in the U.S., contrasted with earlier types, 178. + +Democratic Party, 186. + +Dent, Elizabeth, 31. + +Dick, Dr., 245, 247, 248, 252. + +Dickinson, John, 161. + +Dinwiddie, Robert, sends _W_. on mission to French, 14; + sends expedition under Fry to take Duquesne, 15; 16, 17, 18, 20, 21. + +Dorchester, Guy Carleton, Lord, 208. + +Dorchester Heights, occupied by Americans, 73. + +Ducoudray, M., 95. + + +Election, first, under Constitution, 175, 176. + +Ellsworth, Oliver. 161. + +England, expeditions planned by, 19 _ff_.; + effect of Chatham's administration on power and prestige of, 27, 28; + relations with Colonies in 1763, 47; + the Imperial Spirit in, 47 _ff_.; + measures imposing taxation on Colonies, 49 _ff_.; + division of opinion in, in 1770, 53, 54, 55; + Hessians in service of, 76; + effect of sea-power of, 84; + plans for campaign of 1777, 90, 91; + sends Commission to treat for peace, 109, 120; + reconstruction of government in, after Yorktown, 130; + and _W.'s_ proclamation of neutrality (1789), 204; + hatred of, in U.S., and the Jay Treaty, 208 _ff_.; + threat of war with, 208, 209; + and the U.S. in 1796 and 1914, 227, 228. + And _see_ Paris, Treaty of (1783). + +England and France, rivalry between in North America, 12, 13; + actually at war, 19; + effect of Wolfe's victory at Quebec, 28; + war between (1789), 193; + difficulty in maintaining neutrality of U.S., 193 _ff_. + +"Entangling alliances," authorship of the phrase, 227. + +Estaing, Charles H, Count d', brings French fleet to America, 108. + +Excise tax, on distilled spirits, 189; + and the Whiskey Insurrection, 218. + + +Fairfax, Bryan, letter of _W_. to, 62, 63; 253. + +Fairfax, Sally, 31. + +Fairfax, Thomas, Lord, employs _W_. to survey his estate, 5; 7. + +Farewell Address, the, 224 _ff_.; + declarations of, how far applicable in 1914, 227, 228. + +Fauchet, Joseph, 229. + +Fauntleroy, Betsy, 30. + +Fauquier, Francis, 35. + +_Federalist, The_, 162. + +Federalist Party, break-up of, 228; 186, 187. + +Fitzsimmons, Thomas, 161. + +Fort Duquesne, built by French, 13; + unsuccessfully attacked by Braddock, 21 _ff_.; + renamed Fort Pitt, 34, 255. + +Fort Necessity, surrender of, 16, 17. + +Fox, Charles James, 55. + +France, steps toward alliance with, 94 _ff_.; + effect of victory at Saratoga in, 99; + treaty with, 99 and _n_.; + results of alliance on American commerce and privateering, 108; + sends fleet to America, 108; + effect in England of alliance with, 119; + and _W.'s_ proclamation of neutrality, 204; + effect of feeling of gratitude to, in U.S., 205; + later relations with, 215, 216; + and the U.S. in 1796 and 1914, 227, 228. + And _see_ England and France. + +Franklin, Benjamin, on committee to confer with Howe, 79; + on Peace Commission, 130; + quoted, 173; 21, 155, 160, 161, 201, 236. + +Frederick the Great, 259. + +Freedom of speech, _W_. and, 222, 223. + +Freemasons, at _W.'s_ funeral, 253. + +French, westward and southward progress of, 13; + build Fort Duquesne, 13. + +French Committee of Public Safety, Monroe's letter to, 216. + +French and Indian War. _See_ Seven Years' War. + +French Revolution, reaction of, in U.S., 193 _ff_. + +Freneau, Philip, and his _National Gazette_, encouraged by + Jefferson, 200, 201, 219, 220. + +Fry, Colonel, 15. + + +Gage, Thomas, military and civil governor of Boston, 61; + _W_. quoted on his conduct, 63; + recalled, 72. + +Gallatin, Albert, opposes Jay Treaty, 210, 211. + +Gates, Horatio, Adjutant-General, 71; + defeats Burgoyne at Saratoga, 92, 93; + ambitious to supplant _W_., 114; 112. + +Genêt, Edmond Charles, mission of, to U.S., 194 _ff_.; + would appeal to people over government, 198,205; + snubbed by Jefferson, 198; + his recall requested, 199. + +George II, 18. + +George III, dismisses Pitt, 29; + and the British Empire, 48; + makes North Prime Minister, 54; + effect of events of 1778 on, 119; + and of the failure of the Commission on Reconciliation, 120; 60, + 130, 153, 259. + +Georgetown, proposed as seat of national capital, 184. + +Georgia, only colony unrepresented in First Continental Congress, 59; + British victories in, 122; 165. + +Gerry, Elbridge, on X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215; 161, 168, 169. + +Giles, William B., and newspaper attacks on _W_., 219, 221. + +Gist, Christopher, 14. + +Gladstone, W.E., quoted, 173. + +Gorham, Nathaniel, 161. + +Great Britain. _See_ England. + +Great Meadows. _See_ Fort Necessity. + +Greene, Nathanael, commands in South, 122; 110, 162, 163, 258. + + +"Half-King, the." _See_ Thanacarishon. + +Hamilton, Alexander, influence of, ensures ratification of + Constitution in N.Y., 174; + Secretary of Treasury, 181, 228, 229; + opposition to, 181, 182; + favors "Assumption," 182,183; + obtains Jefferson's support for compromise, 183, 184; + his political status, 187; + his protective tariff, 188; + his measures tended to centralization, 189,192; + quoted, on the French Revolution, 197, 198; + _W_. seeks to keep peace between Jefferson and, 199, 200; + attacked by Freneau, 200; + attacks Jefferson in newspapers, 201; + urges _W_. to accept second term, 201; + and the Whiskey Insurrection, 218; + and the Farewell Address, 224; 160, 167, 168, 180, 195, 208, 210, + 217, 241, 258. + +Hancock, John, President of Congress, 64; + letter of _W_. to, 80, 81; + Governor of Massachusetts, and _W.'s_ visit to Boston, 189, + 190; 64, 256. + +Harlem, Heights of, army stationed on, 80. + +Harrison, Benjamin, letter of _W_. to, 143. + +Hay, Anthony, 53. + +Henry, Patrick, quoted, 50; + opposed to Constitution, 174; 59, 60, 162. + +Herkimer, Nicholas, 92. + +Hessians, in British army, 76; + defeated at Trenton, 86. + +Hortalaz et Cie, 94. + +Houdon, Jean A., statue of _W_. 148. + +House of Representatives, representation of States in, 167. + +Howe, Richard, Lord, takes fleet to N.Y., 76; 72, 83. + +Howe, Sir William, evacuates Boston, 72, 73; + fruitless peace overtures of, 79; + in Phila. (1777-78), 104, 105; + succeeded by Clinton, 105; 74, 78, 87, 91. + +Humphreys, Colonel, as Chamberlain at President's receptions, 180, 181. + + +Imperial Spirit, effect of, on relations between England and + Colonies, 47, 48; + revived by events of 1778, 119. + +Independence Hall, Phila., 160. + +Indians, surprise attack by, 21, 22; + difficulties of _W_.'s administration with, 190, 191. + +Ingersoll, Jared, 161. + +Irving, Washington, _Life of Washington_, quoted, 181, 185, + 186, 195. 217, 233. + + +Jackson, Robert, 24. + +Jacobin Club, 193. + +Jay, John, on Peace Commission, 130; + concludes treaty with Spain, 155; + appointed Chief Justice, 186; + mission of, to England in 1794-95, 207; + his character, 207; + prejudice against, in U.S., 208; + Secretary of State, 228; + letters of _W_. to, 142, 157; 59, 162, 180, 258. + And _see_ Jay Treaty. + +Jay Treaty, the, negotiated, 207, 208, 209; + opposition of Anti-Federalists to, 209; + ratified by Senate, 210; + violent struggle over, in House, 210-213; + how the controversy was settled, 213; + effect of, 214; + and the Federalist Party, 228. + +Jefferson, Thomas, _A Summary View_, 60; + Secretary of State, 181, 186, 192, 228, 229; + interview with Hamilton on Assumption, etc., 183-185; + most aggressive of Democrats, 187, 191; + rivalry with Hamilton, 192; + and the French Revolution, 193; + and Citizen Genêt, 194, 195, 198; + _W_. seeks to keep peace between Hamilton and, 199, 200; + and Freneau's attacks on _W_., 200, 219, 220, 221; + intrigues against Hamilton, 200, 201; + urges _W_. to accept second term, 201, 202; + resigns as Secretary of State, 206; + 155, 160, 161, 162, 180, 181, 207, 227, 258. + +Johnson, W.S., 168. + +Joncaire, M., 14. + +Jones, John Paul, 120, 121. + +Jumonville, M. de, 15, 18. + + +Kalb, Baron Johann de, 95, 100. + +King, Rufus, 161, 167, 168. + +Knox, Henry, Secretary of War, 181, 229; + letters of _W_. to, 170, 171, 203; + 95, 123, 124, 136, 217, 231, 258. + +Kosciuszko, Tadeusz, 95. + + +Lafayette, Gilbert Motier, Marquis de, joins _W_.'s staff, 99; + and Charles Lee, at Monmouth, 115; + letters of _W_. to, 143, 144, 145, 170, 171, 172; 110, 123. + +Lansing, John, 161. + +Laurens, Henry, letters of _W_. to, 101-103, 117, 118. + +Lear, Tobias, secretary to _W_., 148; + quoted, 242; + his account of _W_.'s last hours, 243-249; + notes on _W_.'s funeral, 252, 253; 232, 241, 250. + +Lee, Billy (slave), 238, 239. + +Lee, Charles, appointed Major-General, 70, 71; + at Monmouth, 106, 115; + censured by _W_., 106, 115, 116; + early career of, 114, 115; + court-martialed, and leaves the army, 116; + anecdote of, 116 _n_.; 65, 128. + +Lee, Charles, Attorney-General, 229. + +Lee, Henry, author of phrase, "First in war," etc., 251; + letter of _W_. to, 221, 222. + +Lee, Richard H., letters of _W_. to, 96, 147; 163. + +Lewis, Mrs. Eleanor (Custis), 242. + +Lewis, Lawrence, and Miss Custis, 232, 233; 247. + +Lexington, Battle of, 63. + +Lillo, George, _George Barnwell_, 10, 11. + +Lincoln, Abraham, 149. + +Lincoln, Benjamin, surrenders Charleston, S.C., 122; + receives surrender of British at Yorktown, 125; 123. + +Livingston, Robert R., 177. + +Lodge, H.C., _George Washington_, quoted, 15, 17, 220, 235, 236. + +Long Island, Battle of, 77, 78. + +Louis XVI, execution of, 193; 94, 99. + +Low-Land Beauty, the, 30. + +Loyalists, in the Colonies, 61, 62; + during and after the war, 127, 128. + + +McClellan, George B., 82. + +McClurg, James, 162. + +McHenry, James, Secretary of War, 229; + letter of, to _W_., 217; 161, 231, 232. + +McKean, Thomas, 59. + +MacKenzie, Robert, letter of _W_. to, 63. + +Machiavelli, Niccolo, _The Prince_, and _W_.'s Farewell + Address, 226. + +Madison, James, opposes Jay Treaty, 210; + and the Farewell Address, 224; + letter of _W_. to, 158; + 156, 159, 160, 161, 163, 165, 168, 194, 242. + +Marie Antoinette, execution of, 193. + +Marshall, John, _Life of Washington_, quoted, 28, 136, 137-139; + on X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215; 47, 251, 258. + +Mason, George, plan of association, 52, 53; + letter to _W_. 56; + letter of _W_. to, 56; 161, 168, 169. + +Massachusetts, leads in opposing acts of British Crown, 49; + charter of, suspended, 58, 59; + population of, in 1775, 67, 68; + and Virginia, jealousy between, 64; + freed from British troops, 74. + +Mather, W., _The Young Man's Companion_, 4. + +Meil, Mrs., 30, 31. + +Mifflin, Thomas, of the Conway Cabal, 116; 138, 139, 161. + +Military dictatorship under _W_., fear of, 141, 142, 154. + +Militia, _W_. quoted on, 81. + +Miner, Rev. James, 252. + +Mississippi River, Lower, closed to Americans by treaty with Spain, + 155. + +Moffatt, Rev. Mr., 252. + +Monarchy, fears of reversion to, 142. + +Monmouth, Battle of, 106. + +Monongahela River, 13. + +Monroe, James, Minister to France, recalled by _W_., 216; + his letter to Committee of Public Safety, 116; 242. + +Montcalm, Louis Joseph, Marquis de, 28. + +Montgomery, Richard, at Quebec, 71, 72; 77. + +Morgan, Daniel, 122. + +Morris, Gouverneur, 161, 167, 168, 207. + +Morris, Robert, letter to _W_., 88; 161. + +Morris, Roger, 32, 80. + +Morristown, winter quarters at, 89. + +Mossum, Rev. Peter, 35. + +Mount Vernon, inherited by Lawrence Washington, 5; + hospitality of, 7, 45; + _W_. manager of, 12; + inherited by _W_., 33; + a model plantation of Its kind, 39, 43, 44; + _W_. returns to, after the war, 139; + his life at, 146; + his last days at, 232 _ff_.; + his funeral at, 251-253. + + +Napoleon I, 218, 240. + +_National Gazette_, 220, 222. + +Neal, John, quoted, 3. + +Neutrality, Proclamation of, gives offense to both England and + France, 204; + the only rational course, 205. + +New England, manufacturing in, 68; + freed from British troops, 74. + +New Jersey, 155. + +New York City, _W_.'s headquarters at, 76; + Howe's fleet arrives at, 76; + loyalist sentiment in, 78, 79, 121; + British troops return to, 105,106; + _W_.'s farewell to officers at, 136, 137; + _W_. inaugurated as President at, 176, 177; + ceases to be national capital, 182 _ff_. + +New York State, fails to choose electors in 1788, 175. + +North, Frederick, Lord, Prime Minister, 54; + his subservience to the King, 54, 55; + retires after Yorktown, 130; 60, 61. + +North Carolina, British victories in, 122. + +Northwest, the, _W_.'s vision of development of, 144, 145. + + +Office-seekers, _W_. and, 180. + +O'Hara, General, 125. + +Ohio River, 13. + +Oriskany, Battle of, 92. + +Osgood, Samuel, 229. + +Otis, James, 49. + + +Pall-holders at _W_.'s funeral, 252. + +Paris, Treaty of (1763), 28, 29. + +Paris, Treaty of (1783), 130, 131; + _W_. quoted on, 131. + +Parliament, passes and repeals Stamp Act, 49; + lays duties on paper, tea, etc., 49; + other irritating measures passed by, 53, 58; + enacts penal laws, 58, 59. + +"Parsons Cause, The," 50. + +Parties, in _W_.'s first term, 186, 187. + +Peale, Charles, portrait of _W_., 148, 150. + +Peale, Rembrandt, portrait of _W_., 148. + +Pearson, Captain, 120. + +Pendleton, Edmund, 59. + +Pennsylvania, population of, in 1775, 68; 58, 155. + +Peter the Great, 259. + +Philadelphia, non-importation agreement of merchants of, 52; + Continental Congresses meet at, 59, 64; + _W_. at, 75 _ff_.; + British troops at, in 1777-78, 104, 105; + _W_. takes possession of, 106; + to be national capital for ten years, 183, 185; + Genêt at, 196. + +Philipse, Frederick, 31. + +Philipse, Mary, 31, 32. + +Pickering, Timothy, Cabinet offices held by, 228, 229; 231. + +Pinckney, Charles, 162. + +Pinckney, Charles C., on X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215, 216; 162, + 165, 166, 217. + +Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, effect of his accession to power, + 27, 28; + dismissed by George III, 29; + his last appearance in the Lords, 119, and death, 120. + +Pitt, William, the younger, 55, 62. + +Pittsburgh, on site of Fort Duquesne, 34, 255. + +Plassey, Buttle of, 48. + +Portraits of _W_., 148, 149, 150. + +President, discussion as to term and method of election of, 167, 168; + _W_.'s view of office of, 178; + _W_.'s example as preventive of third term for, 223, 224. + +Press, the, virulence and indecency of, 219 _ff_. + +Princeton, Battle of, 86, 87. + +Privateering, effect of French Alliance on, 108, 120, 121. + +Protective tariff, Hamilton's, 188. + +Pulaski, Count Casimir, 95, 97. + + +Quebec, Battle of, 28, 48; + abortive attack on, 71, 72; + persistence in project of capturing, 77. + +Quincy, Josiah, 49. + + +Rall, Colonel, 86. + +Randolph, Edmund, Attorney-General, 181, 186, 229; + Secretary of State, 206,228; + his "Vindication," 229, 230; + letter of _W_. to, 208, 209; 161, 169, 193. + +Randolph, Peyton, 59. + +Rawlins, Mr., 243, 253. + +Reconciliation, Commission on, 109, 120. + +Representation of States in Congress, question of, settled by + compromise, 167. + +Republicans, 186. + +Revolutionary War. _See_ American Revolution. + +Robinson, Beverly, 31. + +Robinson, Mr., Speaker of the House of Burgesses (Va.), quoted, 36. + +Rochambeau, Jean B.D. de Vimeure, Count de, 122, 125. + +Rockingham, Charles Wentworth, Marquis of, 130. + +Rodney, George, Lord, 153. + +Rutledge, Edward, on committee to confer with Howe, 79; 59. + +Rutledge, John, 59, 162, 168. + + +St. Clair, General, 191. + +St. Leger, Barry, 91. + +Saratoga, Battle of, Burgoyne defeated in, 93; + effect of, in France, 99. + +Schuyler, Philip, 65. + +Senate of U.S., representation of States in, 167. + +Seven Years' War, 27 _ff_.; + effect of, 29. + +Shays, Daniel, 158. + +Shays's Rebellion, causes of, 157,158. + +Shelburne, William Petty, Earl of, 130. + +Sherman, Roger, 59, 161, 168. + +Shirley, William, 32. + +Slave labor, _W_.'s view of, 38; 68. + +Slave trade, question of, settled by compromise, 165, 166. + +Slavery, why _W_. disapproved of, 38, 39, 238; + question of, settled by compromise, 164, 165. + +Slaves, _W_.'s relations with, 38, 237-239; + number of, in Colonies, in 1775, 68. + +South Carolina, population of, in 1775, 68; + British victories in, 122; 165. + +Sparks, Jared, his _Life of Washington_, defects of, 3; + quoted, 113,116 and _n_., 146. + +Spearing, Ann, 31. + +Stamp Act, 49, 51, 52, 66. + +Stark, John, defeats Burgoyne at Bennington, 92. + +State debts, assumption of, by national government, how secured, + 182-185; + favored by _W_., 188. + +State rights, problem of, 167; + a fundamental subject of difference, 187. + +States of the Confederation, _W_.'s farewell letter to + governors of, 135; + after the Revolution, 152, 156; + their relations to one another, 152, 153; + lack of coherence among, 154, 155; + foreign relations of, ignominious, 155; + delegates of, in Constitutional Convention, 160-162; + ratification by, 175, 174. + And _see_ Paris, Treaty of (1783). + +Statues of _W_., 148. + +Steuben, Baron Frederick W. von, 95, 110, 111. + +Stone, F.D., _Struggle for the Delaware_, quoted, 100, 101. + +Strong, Caleb, 161, 168. + +Stuart, Gilbert, portraits of _W_., 149. + +Sulgrave, English home of Washington family, 1. + +Sullivan, John, defeated on Long Island, 77. + + +Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles M. de, and the X.Y.Z. mission, 216. + +Tariff, _W_.'s view of a, 189. + +Tarleton, Sir Banastre, 122. + +"Taxation without representation," 55, 57. + +Thanacarishon, Seneca chief, quoted, on _W_. 14, 15. + +Thomas, John, 71. + +Ticonderoga, taken by Burgoyne, 91. + +Tobacco-raising in Virginia, 39, 40. + +Toner, J.M., _The Daily Journal of George Washington_, 11 + _n_. + +Trenton, Battle of, and its effect, 86, 87. + +Trumbull, Jonathan, letter of _W_. to, 231. + +Tryon, William, 79. + +United States, debt of Confederation turned over to, 182; + excitement in, over Citizen Genêt, 195 _ff_.; + anomalous position of, between France and England, 205, 206; + the first country in which free speech existed, 222; + effect of _W_.'s example on world's opinion of, 259. + +United States Bank, 189. + + +Valley Forge, American army in winter quarters at, 100 _ff_., 118. + +Van Braam, Jacob, 14. + +Vergennes, Charles Gravier, Count de, favors cause of the Colonies, 94; + secures coöperation of Spain, 99; 142. + +Vernon, Edward, Admiral, 5, 9. + +Victoria, Queen, 153. + +Virginia, effect in, of Braddock's defeat, 24, 25; + in the 1750's, 44, 45; + fox-hunting and horse-racing, 45,46; + opposition in, to acts of the Crown, 50, 51; + state of opinion in, 55, 56; population of, in 1775, 67, 68; + jealousy between Mass, and, 64; 164, 166. + +Virginia House of Burgesses, _W_. a member of, 36, 37; + adopts Mason's plan of association, 53. + + +Walpole, Horace, 18. + +Washington, Augustine, _W.'s_ father, marries Mary Ball, 1. + +Washington, George, ancestry, 1; + birth, 1, 2; + childhood and education, 2; + errors of Weems's biography, 2, 3; + absurdity of the cherry-tree story, 2; + Sparks's ill-advised editing of letters of, 3, 4; + and Mather's _Young Man's Companion_, 4; + surveys Fairfax estate, 5; + results of his experience as surveyor, 5; + his journals, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 37, 38, 39, 169; + his disposition, 7, 8; + attention, to dress, 8, 9; + declines appointment as midshipman, 9; + commissioned major of militia, 9; + visit to Barbados, 9, 10; + as manager of Mt. Vernon, 12; + sent by Dinwiddie on mission of warning to French, 14; + and the "Half-King," 14, 15; + second in command of Fry's expedition, 15_ff_.; + was he a "silent man"? 17, 18; + a volunteer on Braddock's expedition, 20, 21; + his account of the defeat, 22, 23; + his conduct in the battle, 23; + moral results of his campaigning, 25, 26; + his early love-affairs, 30, 31; + and Mary Philipse, 31, 32; + his physique, 32, 69; + a sound thinker, 33, 70; + inherits Mt. Vernon, 33; + courts and marries Mrs. Custis, 33, 34, 35; + in House of Burgesses, 36, 37; + as an agriculturist, 37 _ff_.; + his views on slave labor, 38, and slavery, 38, 39, 238; + relations with his slaves, 38, 237-239; + and his step-children, 40-42; + by nature a man of business, 42, 43; + improves his education, 43, 44; + as a country gentleman, 44_ff_.; + the hospitality of Mt. Vernon, 45. + + His view of the Stamp Act and other measures of the British + Government, 51, 52; + a loyal American, 52; + signs Mason's plan of association, 53; + no doubt as to his position, 55, 56, 57; + offers to raise 1000 men at his own expense, 57; + in first Continental Congress, 59, 60; + his mind made up, 62, 63; + chosen Commander-in-chief of Continental forces, 64, 65; + takes command at Cambridge, 65, 69; + plans to blockade Boston, 69; + jealousy among his officers, 70, 71; + and military amateurs, 71; + opposes expedition against Canada, 71; + whips his army into shape, 72; + appeals for supply of powder, 72; + forces evacuation of Boston, 73; + moves troops to New York, 74; + before Congress in Phila., 74, 75; + his opinion of Congress, 75; + retreats from Long Island after Sullivan's defeat, 77, 78; + inadequacy of his resources, 78; + moves army to Heights of Harlem, 80; + on the evils of American military system, 80, 81; + his troops not discouraged by his frankness, 82; + on the difficulty of his position, 82, 83; + his movements after battle of White Plains, 83 _ff_.; + crosses the Delaware and wins battles of Trenton and Princeton, 86; + a Necessary Man, 87; + his fearlessness of danger, 87, 88; + his movements impeded by dependence on Congress, 90, 118, 119; + his miscellaneous labors, 95 _ff_.; + his circular on looting by his troops, 97, 98; + on the maltreatment of American prisoners, 98; + takes Lafayette on his staff, 99; + chooses Valley Forge for winter quarters, 100; + describes its horrors, 101-103; + enters Phila. on the heels of the British, 106; + censures Charles Lee at Monmouth, 106; + the uneventful summer and autumn of 1778, 109; + refuses to commute André's sentence, 111; + jealous ambitions of his associates: the Conway Cabal, 111 _ff_.; + and Gates, 114; + and C. Lee, 114-116, 116_n_.; + on the intrigues of his enemies, 117, 118; + difficulties of his position, 118; + forced inactivity of, 121; + marches South to Virginia, 123; + lays siege to Yorktown, and forces Cornwallis to surrender, 122-125; + the country unanimous in giving him credit for the final victory 128, + 129. + + His view of the problems to be solved after the peace, 131; + urges payment of troops in full, 131-133, 134; + and the plan to make him king, 134, 135; + his letter to governors of States, 135; + his farewell to his officers, 136, 137; + his reception by, and address to, Congress, 137-139; + returns to Mt. Vernon, 139; + his life there, described, 140, 141, 143, 144, 146, 147; + fears of military dictatorship under, 141, 142; + his vision of the development of the Northwest 144, 145; + declines all gifts and pay for his services, 146; + his correspondence, 147, 148; + fears further trouble with England, 153; + his pessimism over the outlook for the future, 156, 157; + reluctantly consents to sit in Constitutional Convention, 158, 159; + and the Society of the Cincinnati, 159; + President of the Convention, 163, 164, 168, 169, 170; + his view of the Constitution, 170 _ff_.; + unanimously elected first President of the U.S., 175; + the journey to New York and inauguration, 176, 177. + + His receptions as President, 178, 179, 180, 181; + his inaugural address, 179; + dealings with office-seekers, 180; + his first Cabinet, 181, 186; + serious illness of, 185, 186; + appoints Justices of Supreme Court, 186; + a Federalist, 187, 199, 215; + favors Assumption, 187, 188; + his tariff views, 189; + his visit to Boston, 189, 190; + sends expeditions against Indians, 191; + approves Hamilton's centralizing measures, 192; + determined to maintain neutrality as between France and England, 193; + deals firmly with Genêt, 198; + open criticism of, 199, 200, 201, 219 _ff_.; + his sympathies generally with Hamilton against Jefferson, 199; + effect on, of newspaper abuse, 201, 223; + disinclined to serve second term, 201; + reëlected, 202, 203, 204; + issues Proclamation of Neutrality, 204; + its effect, 204, 205; + appoints Randolph to succeed Jefferson, 206; + and the Jay Treaty, 207 _ff_.; + sends C.C. Pinckney to replace Monroe in Paris, 215; + why he recalled Monroe, 215, 216; + consents to act as Commander-in-Chief in 1799, 217, 240; + puts down Whiskey Insurrection, 218, 219; + favors maintenance of free speech, 222; + declines to consider a third term, 223; + effect in later years of the precedent set by him, 223, 224; + his "Farewell Address," 224-227; + what would he have done in 1914? 228; + changes in his Cabinet, 228, 229; + and the charges against Randolph, 229, 230. + + Again in retirement at Mt. Vernon, 231 _ff_.; + and Nelly Custis, 233; + his career reviewed, 234, 254-260; + Bernard quoted on, 234-236; + his detractors, 236, 237; + his religious beliefs, 239, 240; + declines all public undertakings, 240; + his last illness, 241 _ff_.; + the last hours described by T. Lear, 243-249; + his death, 249; + action of Congress and President Adams, 251; + his funeral at Mt. Vernon, 252, 253; + project for memorial of, abandoned, 254; + his rank as a soldier, 256, 257; + as President, 258; + the most _actual_ statesman of his time, 258; + his example made the world change its mind about republics, 259. + + _Portraits and statues of_, 148-150. + + _Letters_ (quoted in whole or in part) to John Adams, 217; + Theodorick Bland, 131; + Rev. Mr. Boucher, 41; + William Byrd, 20; + Thomas Conway, 112; + Francis Dandridge, 51; + Robert Dinwiddie, 17, 22; + Bryan Fairfax, 62; + John Hancock, 9; + Benjamin Harrison, 143; + Sir W. Howe, 98; + Robert Jackson, 24; + John Jay, 142, 157; + Thomas Jefferson, 221; + Henry Knox, 170; + Marquis de Lafayette, 143, 145, 170, 171; + Henry Laurens, 101, 117; + Henry Lee, 203, 221; + Richard H. Lee, 96, 147; + Robert Mackenzie, 63; + George Mason, 56; + Gouverneur Morris, 207; + Edmund Randolph, 208; + Jonathan Trumbull, 231; + John Augustine Washington, 23, 75, 85; + Lund Washington, 82; + Martha (Custis) Washington, 34; + Mary Ball Washington, 24. + +Washington, John, _W_.'s great-grandfather settles in Virginia, 1. + +Washington, John Augustine, _W_.'s brother, letters of _W_. + to, 75, 85; 1, 11, 23. + +Washington, Lawrence,_W.'s_ half-brother, inherits Mount Vernon, 5; + _W_.'s guardian, 5; + marries Lord Fairfax's daughter, 5; + visits Barbados with _W_., 9-11; + his death, 11, 12; 7, 33. + +Washington, Lund, letter of _W_. to, 82, 83. + +Washington, Mrs. Martha (Custis), quoted, 104; + and _W_.'s last illness, 243 _ff_.; + letter of, to President Adams, 254; + buried at Mount Vernon, 254; 9, 38, 41, 43, 45, 252, 253. + +Washington, Mrs. Mary (Ball), _W_.'s mother, 2, 9, 24. + +Washington, Mildred, _W_.'s niece, _W_. guardian of, 12; + her death, 12. + +Washington family, the, 1. + +Wayne, Anthony, 191. + +Webster, Daniel, quoted, 188; 211. + +Webster, Peletiah, 156. + +Weems, Rev. Mason L., his _Life of_ _Washington_, + discredited, 2, 3. + +West Point, surrendered by Arnold, 110. + +Whigs, in Parliament, favor Colonies, 54, 62. + +Whiskey Insurrection, the, 218, 219. + +White House (Custis estate), 34, 35, 36. + +White Plains, Battle of, 83. + +Wilson, James, 161. + +Wister, Owen, 30 _n_. + +Wolcott, Oliver, Jr., 228, 229. + +Wolfe, James, 28, 105. + +Wythe, George, 161. + + +X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215, 216. + + +Yates, Robert, 161. + +Yorktown, Cornwallis surrenders at, 123 _ff_.; + the war really ended at, 126; + effect in England, 130. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's George Washington, by William Roscoe Thayer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE WASHINGTON *** + +***** This file should be named 12540-8.txt or 12540-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/4/12540/ + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/12540-8.zip b/old/12540-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a006432 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12540-8.zip diff --git a/old/12540.txt b/old/12540.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca0d90d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12540.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7862 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of George Washington, by William Roscoe Thayer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: George Washington + +Author: William Roscoe Thayer + +Release Date: June 6, 2004 [EBook #12540] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE WASHINGTON *** + + + + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +The Riverside Library + +George Washington + +By + +WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER + + +1922 + + +TO + +HARRIET SEARS AMORY + +WITH THE BEST WISHES OF HER OLD FRIEND + +THE AUTHOR + + + + +PREFACE + + +To obviate misunderstanding, it seems well to warn the reader that +this book aims only at giving a sketch of George Washington's life +and acts. I was interested to discover, if I could, the human residue +which I felt sure must persist in Washington after all was said. Owing +to the pernicious drivel of the Reverend Weems no other great man in +history has had to live down such a mass of absurdities and deliberate +false inventions. At last after a century and a quarter the rubbish +has been mostly cleared away, and only those who wilfully prefer to +deceive themselves need waste time over an imaginary Father of His +Country amusing himself with a fictitious cherry-tree and hatchet. + +The truth is that the material about George Washington is very +voluminous. His military records cover the eight years of the +Revolutionary War. His political work is preserved officially in +the reports of Congress. Most of the public men who were his +contemporaries left memoirs or correspondence in which he figures. +Above all there is the edition, in fourteen volumes, of his own +writings compiled by Mr. Worthington C. Ford. And yet many persons +find something that baffles them. They do not recognize a definite +flesh and blood Virginian named Washington behind it all. Even so +sturdy an historian as Professor Channing calls him the most elusive +of historic personages. Who has not wished that James Boswell could +have spent a year with Wellington on terms as intimate as those he +spent with Dr. Johnson and could have left a report of that intimacy? + +In this sketch I have conceived of Washington as of some superb +athlete equipped for every ordeal which life might cause him to face. +The nature of each ordeal must be briefly stated; brief also, but +sufficient, the account of the way he accomplished it. I have quoted +freely from his letters wherever it seemed fitting, first, because in +them you get his personal authentic statement of what happened as he +saw it, and you get also his purpose in making any move; and next, +because nothing so well reveals the real George Washington as those +letters do. Whoever will steep himself in them will hardly declare +that their writer remains an elusive person beyond finding out or +understanding. In the course of reading them you will come upon many +of those "imponderables" which are the secret soul of statecraft. + +And so with all humility--for no one can spend much time with +Washington, and not feel profound humility--I leave this little sketch +to its fate, and hope that some readers will find in it what I strove +to put in it. + +W.R.T. + +CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS _June 11, 1922_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. ORIGINS AND YOUTH +II. MARRIAGE. THE LIFE OF A PLANTER +III. THE FIRST GUN +IV. BOSTON FREED +V. TRENTON AND VALLEY FORGE +VI. AID FROM FRANCE; TRAITORS +VII. WASHINGTON RETURNS TO PEACE +VIII. WELDING THE NATION +IX. THE FIRST AMERICAN PRESIDENT +X. THE JAY TREATY +XI. WASHINGTON RETIRES FROM PUBLIC LIFE +XII. CONCLUSION +INDEX + + + + +ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES FREQUENTLY REFERRED TO + + +_Channing_ = Edward Channing: _History of the United States_. New +York: Macmillan Company, III, IV. 1912. + +_Fiske_ = John Fiske: _The Critical Period of American History, +1783-1789_. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1897. + +_Ford_ = Worthington C. Ford: _The Writings of George Washington_. 14 +vols. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1889-93. + +_Ford_ = Worthington C. Ford: _George Washington_. 2 vols. Paris: +Goupil; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1900. + +_Hapgood_ = Norman Hapgood: _George Washington_. New York: Macmillan +Company. 1901. + +_Irving_ = Washington Irving: _Life of George Washington_. New York: +G.P. Putnam. 1857. + +_Lodge_ = Henry Cabot Lodge: _George Washington_. 2 vols. American +Statesman Series. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1889. + +_Marshall_ = John Marshall: _The Life of George Washington_. 5 vols. +Philadelphia. 1807. + +_Sparks_ = Jared Sparks: _The Life of George Washington_. Boston. + +_Wister_ = Owen Wister: _The Seven Ages of Washington_. New York: +Macmillan Company. 1909. + + + + +GEORGE WASHINGTON + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ORIGINS AND YOUTH + + +Zealous biographers of George Washington have traced for him a most +respectable, not to say distinguished, ancestry. They go back to +the time of Queen Elizabeth, and find Washingtons then who were +"gentlemen." A family of the name existed in Northumberland +and Durham, but modern investigation points to Sulgrave, in +Northamptonshire, as the English home of his stock. Here was born, +probably during the reign of Charles I, his great-grandfather, John +Washington, who was a sea-going man, and settled in Virginia in 1657. +His eldest son, Lawrence, had three children--John, Augustine, and +Mildred. Of these, Augustine married twice, and by his second +wife, Mary Ball, whom he married on March 17, 1730, there were six +children--George, Betty, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, and Mildred. +The family home at Bridges Creek, near the Potomac, in Westmoreland +County, was Washington's birthplace, and (February 11, Old Style) +February 22, New Style, 1732, was the date. We hear little about his +childhood, he being a wholesomely unprecocious boy. Rumors have it +that George was coddled and even spoiled by his mother. He had very +little formal education, mathematics being the only subject in which +he excelled, and that he learned chiefly by himself. But he lived +abundantly an out-of-door life, hunting and fishing much, and playing +on the plantation. His family, although not rich, lived in easy +fashion, and ranked among the gentry. + +No Life of George Washington should fail to warn the reader at the +start that the biographer labors under the disadvantage of having to +counteract the errors and absurdities which the Reverend Mason L. +Weems made current in the Life he published the year after Washington +died. No one, not even Washington himself, could live down the +reputation of a goody-goody prig with which the officious Scotch +divine smothered him. The cherry-tree story has had few rivals in +publicity and has probably done more than anything else to implant an +instinctive contempt of its hero in the hearts of four generations of +readers. "Why couldn't George Washington lie?" was the comment of a +little boy I knew, "Couldn't he talk?" + +Weems pretended to an intimacy at Mount Vernon which it appears he +never had. In "Blackwood's Magazine" John Neal said of the book, "Not +one word of which we believe. It is full of ridiculous exaggerations." +And yet neither this criticism nor any other stemmed the outpouring +of editions of it which must now number more than seventy. Weems +doubtless thought that he was helping God and doing good to Washington +by his offensive and effusive support of rudimentary morals. + +Weems had been dead a dozen years when another enemy sprang up. This +was the worthy Jared Sparks, an historian, a professor of history, who +collected with much care the correspondence of George Washington and +edited it in a monumental work. Sparks, however, suffered under the +delusion that something other than fact can be the best substance of +history. According to his tastes, many of Washington's letters were +not sufficiently dignified; they were too colloquial, they even let +slip expressions which no man conscious that he was the model of +propriety, the embodiment of the dignity of history, could have used. +So Mr. Sparks without blushing went through Washington's letters and +substituted for the originals words which he decided were more seemly. +Again the public came to know George Washington, not by his own words, +but by those attributed to him by an overzealous stylist-pedant. Well +might the Father of his Country pray to be delivered from the parsons. + +One of the earliest records of Washington's youth is the copy, written +in his beautiful, almost copper-plate hand, of "Rules of Civility & +Decent Behavior, In Company and Conversation." These maxims were taken +from an English book called "The Young Man's Companion," by W. Mather. +It had passed through thirteen editions and contained information upon +many matters besides conduct Perhaps Washington copied the maxims as a +school exercise; perhaps he learned them by heart. + +They are for the most part the didactic aphorisms which greatly +pleased our worthy ancestors during the middle of the eighteenth +century and later. Some of the entries referred to simple matters of +deportment: you must not turn your back on persons to whom you talk. +Others touch morals rather than manners. One imagines that the parson +or elderly uncles allowed themselves to bestow this indisputably +correct advice upon the youths whom they were interested in. A boy +brought up rigidly on these doctrines could hardly fail to become a +prig unless he succeeded in following the last injunction of all: +"Labor to keep alive in your heart, that little spark of celestial +fire called conscience." + +When he was eleven years old, Washington's father died, and his older +half-brother, Lawrence, who inherited the estate now known as Mount +Vernon, became his guardian. Lawrence had married the daughter of a +neighbor, William Fairfax, agent for the large Fairfax estate. Fairfax +and he had served with the Colonial forces at Cartagena under Admiral +Vernon, from whom the Washington manor took its name. Lord Fairfax, +William's cousin and head of the family, offered George work on the +survey of his domain. George, then a sturdy lad of sixteen, accepted +gladly, and for more than two years he carried it on. The Fairfax +estate extended far into the west, beyond the immediate tidewater +district, beyond the fringe of sparsely settled clearings, into the +wilderness itself. The effect of his experience as surveyor lasted +throughout George Washington's life. His self-reliance and his courage +never flagged. Sometimes he went alone and passed weeks among the +solitudes; sometimes he had a companion whom he had to care for as +well as for himself. But besides the toughening of his character which +this pioneer life assured him, he got much information, which greatly +influenced, years later, his views on the development, not only of +Virginia, but of the Northwest. Perhaps from this time there entered +into his heart the conviction that the strongest bond of union must +sometime bind together the various colonies, so different in resources +and in interests, including his native commonwealth. + +From journals kept during some of his expeditions we see that he was +a clear observer and an accurate reporter; far from bookish, but a +careful penman, and conscious of the obligation laid upon him to +acquire at least the minimum of polite knowledge which was expected of +a country gentleman such as he aspired to be. + +Here is an extract in which he describes the squalid conditions under +which he passed some of his life as a woodsman and surveyor. + + We got our suppers and was lighted into a Room and I not being + so good a woodsman as ye rest of my company, striped myself very + orderly and went into ye Bed, as they calld 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 + bare blanket with double its weight of vermin, such as Lice, + Fleas, etc. I was glad to get up (as soon as ye light was carried + from us). I put on my cloths and lay as my companions. Had we not + 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. + + Wednesday 16th. We set out early and finish'd about one o'clock + and then Travelled up to Frederick Town, where our Baggage came to + us. We cleaned ourselves (to get rid of ye game we had catched ye + night before), I took a Review of ye Town and then return'd to our + Lodgings where we had a good Dinner prepared for us. Wine and Rum + Punch in plenty, and a good Feather Bed with clean sheets, which + was a very agreeable regale. + +The longest of Washington's early expeditions was the "Journey over +the Mountains, began Fryday the 11th of March 1747/8." The mountains +were the Alleghanies, and the trip gave him a closer acquaintance than +he had had with Indians in the wilds. On his return, he stayed with +his half-brother, Lawrence, at Mount Vernon, or with Lord Fairfax, and +enjoyed the country life common to the richer Virginians of the time. +Towns which could provide an inn being few and far between, travellers +sought hospitality in the homes of the well-to-do residents, and every +one was in a way a neighbor of the other dwellers in his county. So +both at Belvoir and at Mount Vernon, guests were frequent and broke +the monotony and loneliness of their inmates. I think the reputation +of gravity, which was fixed upon Washington in his mature years, has +been projected back over his youth. The actual records are lacking, +but such hints and surmises as we have do not warrant our thinking +of him as a self-centred, unsociable youth. On the contrary, he was +rather, what would be called now, a sport, ready for hunting or +riding, of splendid physical build, agile and strong. He liked +dancing, and was not too shy to enjoy the society of young women; +indeed, he wrote poems to some of them, and seems to have been popular +with them. And still, the legend remains that he was bashful. + +From our earliest glimpses of him, Washington appears as a youth very +particular as to his dress. He knew how to rough it as the extracts +of his personal journals which I have quoted show, and this passage +confirms: + + I seem to be in a place where no real satisfaction is to be had. + Since you received my letter in October last, I have not sleep'd + above three or four nights in a bed, but, after walking a good + deal all the day, I 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 and cats, and happy is + he who gets the berth nearest the fire. There's nothing would make + it pass off tolerably but a good reward. A doubloon is my constant + gain every day that the weather will permit my going out, and + sometimes six pistoles. The coldness of the weather will not allow + of my making a long stay, as the lodging is rather too cold for + this time of year. I have never had my clothes off but lay and + sleep in them, except the few nights I have lay'n in Frederic + Town.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, p, 11.] + +Later, when Washington became master of Mount Vernon, his servants +were properly liveried. He himself rode to hounds in the approved +apparel of a fox-hunting British gentleman, and we find in the lists +of articles for which he sends to London the names of clothes and +other articles for Mrs. Washington and the children carefully +specified with the word "fashionable" or "very best quality" added. +Still later, when he was President he attended to this matter of dress +with even greater punctilio. + +One incident of this early period should not be passed by unmentioned. +Admiral Vernon offered him an appointment as midshipman in the navy, +but Washington's mother objected so strongly that Washington gave up +the opportunity. We may well wonder whether, if he had accepted it, +his career might not have been permanently turned aside. Had he served +ten or a dozen years in the navy, he might have grown to be so loyal +to the King, that, when the Revolution came, he would have been found +in command of one of the King's men-of-war, ordered to put down +the Rebels in Boston, or in New York. Thus Fate suggests amazing +alternatives to us in the retrospect, but in the actual living, Fate +makes it clear that the only course which could have happened was that +which did happen. + +In 1751 the health of Washington's brother, Lawrence, became so bad +from consumption that he decided to pass the winter in a warm climate. +He chose the Island of Barbados, and his brother George accompanied +him. Shortly before sailing, George was commissioned one of the +Adjutants-General of Virginia, with the rank of Major, and the pay +of L150 a year. They sailed on the Potomac River, perhaps near Mount +Vernon, on September 28, 1751, and landed at Bridgetown on November +3d. The next day they were entertained at breakfast and dinner +by Major Clark, the British officer who commanded some of the +fortifications of the island. "We went," says George Washington, in a +journal he kept, "myself with some reluctance, as the smallpox was in +his family." Thirteen days later, George fell ill of a very strong +case of smallpox which kept him housed for six weeks and left his face +much disfigured for life with pock marks, a fact which, so far as I +have observed his portraits, the painters have carefully forgotten to +indicate. + +The brothers passed a fairly pleasant month and a half at the +Barbados. Major Clark, and other gentlemen and officials of the +island, showed them much attention. They enjoyed the hospitality of +the Beefsteak and Tripe Club, which seems to have been the fashionable +club. On one occasion, Washington was taken to the play to see the +"Tragedy of George Barnwell." This may have been the first time that +he went to the theatre. He refers to it in his journal with his +habitual caution: + + Was treated with a play ticket by Mr. Carter 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 by Mr. + +But Lawrence Washington's consumption did not improve: he grew +homesick and pined for his wife and for Mount Vernon. The physicians +had recommended him to spend a full year at Barbados, in order to +give the climate and the regimen there a fair trial, but he could not +endure it so long, and he sailed from there to Bermuda, whence he +shortly returned to Virginia and Mount Vernon. George, meanwhile, had +also gone back to Virginia, sailing December 22, 1751, and arriving +February 1, 1752. Even from his much-mutilated journal, we can see +that he travelled with his eyes open, and that his interests were +many. As he mentioned in his journal thirty persons with whom +he became acquainted at the Barbados, we infer that in spite of +bashfulness he was an easy mixer. This short journey to the Barbados +marks the only occasion on which George Washington went outside of the +borders of the American Colonies, which became later, chiefly through +his genius, the United States.[1] + +[Footnote 1: J.M. Toner: _The Daily Journal of Major George Washington +in 1751-2_ (Albany, N.Y., 1892).] + +In July, 1752, Lawrence Washington died of the disease which he +had long struggled against. He left his fortune and his property, +including Mount Vernon, to his daughter, Sarah, and he appointed his +brother, George, her guardian. She was a sweet-natured girl, but very +frail, who died before long, probably of the same disease which +had carried her father off, and, until its infectious nature was +understood, used to decimate families from generation to generation. + +To have thrust upon him, at the age of twenty, the management of a +large estate might seem a heavy burden for any young man; but George +Washington was equal to the task, and it seems as if much of his +career up to that time was a direct preparation for it. He knew every +foot of its fields and meadows, of its woodlands and streams; he knew +where each crop grew, and its rotation; he had taken great interest in +horses and cattle, and in the methods for maintaining and improving +their breed; and now, of course being master, his power of choosing +good men to do the work was put to the test. But he had not been long +at these new occupations before public duties drew him away from them. + +Though they knew it not, the European settlers in North America were +approaching a life-and-death catastrophe. From the days when the +English and the French first settled on the continent, Fate ordained +for them an irrepressible conflict. Should France prevail? Should +England prevail? With the growth of their colonies, both the English +and the French felt their rivalry sharpened. Although distances often +very broad kept them apart in space, yet both nations were ready to +prove the terrible truth that when two men, or two tribes, wish +to fight each other, they will find out a way. The French, at New +Orleans, might be far away from the English at Boston; and the +English, in New York, or in Philadelphia, might be removed from the +French in Quebec; but in their hatreds they were near neighbors. The +French pushed westward along the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes, and +from Lake Erie, they pushed southward, across the rich plains of Ohio, +to the Ohio River. Their trails spread still farther into the Western +wilderness. They set up trading-posts in the very region which the +English settlers expected to occupy in the due process of their +advance. At the junction of the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, they +planted Fort Duquesne, which not only commanded the approach to the +territory through which the Ohio flowed westward, but served notice +on the English that the French regarded themselves as the rightful +claimants of that territory. + +In 1753 Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, had sent a commissioner to +warn the French to cease from encroaching on the lands in the Ohio +wilderness which belonged to the King of England, but the messenger +stopped one hundred and fifty miles short of his goal. Therefore, +the Governor decided to despatch another envoy. He selected George +Washington, who was already well known for his surveying, and for his +expedition beyond the mountains, and doubtless had the backing of the +Fairfaxes and other influential gentlemen. Washington set out on the +same day he received his appointment from Governor Dinwiddie (October +31, 1753), engaged Jacob Van Braam, a Hollander who had taught him +fencing, to be his French interpreter; and Christopher Gist, the best +guide through the Virginia wilderness, to pilot the party. In spite +of the wintry conditions which beset them, they made good time. +Washington presented his official warning to M. Joncaire, the +principal French commander in the region under dispute, but he replied +that he must wait for orders from the Governor in Quebec. One object +of Washington's mission was to win over, if possible, the Indians, +whose friendship for either the French or the English depended wholly +on self-interest. He seems to have been most successful in securing +the friendship of Thanacarishon, the great Seneca Chief, known as the +Half-King. This native left it as his opinion that + + the colonel was a good-natured man, but had no experience; he took + upon him to command the Indians as his slaves, and would have them + every day upon the scout and to attack the enemy by themselves, + but would by no means take advice from the Indians. He lay in + one place from one full moon to the other, without making any + fortifications, except that little thing on the meadow, whereas, + had he taken advice, and built such fortifications as I advised + him, he might easily have beat off the French. But the French in + the engagement acted like cowards, and the English like fools.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Quoted by Lodge, I, 74.] + +Believing that he could accomplish no more at that time, Washington +retraced his steps and returned to Williamsburg. + +Governor Dinwiddie, being much disappointed with the outcome of the +expedition, urged the Virginian Legislature to equip another party +sufficiently strong to be able to capture Fort Duquesne, and to +confirm the British control of the Ohio. The Burgesses, however, +pleaded economy, and refused to grant funds adequate to this purpose. +Nevertheless, the Governor having equipped a small troop, under the +command of Colonel Fry, with Washington as second, hurried it forth. +During May and June they were near the Forks, and with the approach of +danger, Washington's spirit and recklessness increased. In a slight +skirmish, M. de Jumonville, the French commander, was killed. Fry died +of disease and Washington took his place as commander. Perceiving that +his own position was precarious, and expecting an attack by a large +force of the enemy, he entrenched himself near Great Meadows in a +hastily built fort, which he called Fort Necessity, and thought it +possible to defend, even with his own small force, against five +hundred French and Indians. He miscalculated, however. The enemy +exceeded in numbers all his expectations. His own resources dwindled; +and so he took the decision of a practical man and surrendered the +fort, on condition that he and his men be allowed to march out with +the honors of war. They returned to Virginia with little delay. + +The Burgesses and the people of the State, though chagrined, did not +take so gloomy a view of the collapse of the expedition as Washington +himself did. His own depression equalled his previous exaltation. As +he thought over the affairs of the past half-year in the quiet of +Mount Vernon, the feeling which he had had from the start, that the +expedition had not been properly planned, or directed, or reenforced +in men and supplies, was confirmed. Governor Dinwiddie's notion that +raw volunteers would suffice to overcome trained soldiers had been +proved a delusion. The inadequate pay and provisions of the officers +irritated Washington, not only because they were insufficient, but +also because they fell far short of those of the English regulars. + +In his penetrating Biography of Washington, Senator Lodge regards +his conduct of the campaign, which ended in the surrender of Great +Meadows, and his narrative as revealing Washington as a "profoundly +silent man." Carlyle, Senator Lodge says, who preached the doctrine of +silence, brushed Washington aside as a "bloodless Cromwell," "failing +utterly to see that he was the most supremely silent of the great men +of action that the world can show." Let us admit the justice of the +strictures on Carlyle, but let us ask whether Washington's letters at +this time spring from a "silent" man. He writes with perfect openness +to Governor Dinwiddie; complains of the military system under which +the troops are paid and the campaign is managed; he repeatedly +condemns the discrimination against the Virginian soldiers in favor of +the British regulars; and he points out that instead of attempting to +win the popularity of the Virginians, they are badly treated. Their +rations are poor, and he reminds the Governor that a continuous diet +of salt pork and water does not inspire enthusiasm in either the +stomach or the spirit. No wonder that the officers talk of resigning. +"For my own part I can answer, I have a constitution hardy enough to +encounter and undergo the most severe trials, and, I flatter myself, +resolution to face what any man durst, as shall be proved when it +comes to the test, which I believe we are on the borders of." In +several other passages from letters at this time, we come upon +sentiments which indicate that Washington had at least a sufficiently +high estimation of his own worth, and that his genius for silence had +not yet curbed his tongue. There is the famous boast attributed to him +by Horace Walpole. In a despatch which Washington sent back to the +Governor after the little skirmish in which Jumonville was killed, +Washington said: "'I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there +is something charming in the sound.' On hearing of this the King said +sensibly, 'he would not say so if he had been used to hear many.'" +This reply of George II deserves to be recorded if only because it is +one of the few feeble witticisms credited to the Hanoverian Kings. +Years afterward, Washington declared that he did not remember ever +having referred to the charm of listening to whistling bullets. +Perhaps he never said it; perhaps he forgot. He was only twenty-two at +the time of the Great Meadows campaign. No doubt he was as well aware +as was Governor Dinwiddie, and other Virginians, that he was the best +equipped man on the expedition, experienced in actual fighting, and +this, added to his qualifications as a woodsman, had given him a real +zest for battle. In their discussion over the campfire, he and his +fellow officers must inevitably have criticized the conduct of the +expedition, and it may well be that Washington sometimes insisted +that if his advice were followed things would go better. Not on this +account, therefore, must we lay too much blame on him for being +conceited or immodest. He knew that he knew, and he did not dissemble +the fact. Silence came later. + +The result of the expeditions to and skirmishes at the Forks of the +Ohio was that England and France were at war, although they had not +declared war on each other. A chance musket shot in the backwoods of +Virginia started a conflict which reverberated in Europe, disturbed +the peace of the world for seven years, and had serious consequences +in the French and English colonies of North America. The news of +Washington's disaster at Fort Necessity aroused the British Government +to the conclusion that it must make a strong demonstration in order +to crush the swelling prestige of the French rivals in America. The +British planned, accordingly, to send out three expeditions, one +against Fort Duquesne, another against the French in Nova Scotia, and +a third against Quebec. The command of the first they gave to General +Edward Braddock. He was then sixty years old, had been in the Regular +Army all his life, had served in Holland, at L'Orient, and at +Gibraltar, was a brave man, and an almost fanatical believer in the +rules of war as taught in the manuals. During the latter half of 1754, +Governor Dinwiddie was endeavoring against many obstacles to send +another expedition, equipped by Virginia herself, to the Ohio. Only in +the next spring, however, after Braddock had come over from England +with a relatively large force of regulars, were the final preparations +for a campaign actually made. Washington, in spite of being the +commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, had his wish of going as +a volunteer at his own expense. He wrote his friend William Byrd, on +April 20, 1755, from Mount Vernon: + + I am now preparing for, and shall in a few days set off, to serve + in the ensuing campaign, with different views, however, from those + I had before. For here, if I can gain any credit, or if I am + entitled to the least countenance and esteem, it must be from + serving my country without fee or reward; for I can truly say, I + have no expectation of either. To merit its esteem, and the good + will of my friends, is the sum of my ambition, having no prospect + of attaining a commission, being well assured it is not in Gen'l + Braddock's power to give such an one as I would accept of. The + command of a Company is the highest commission vested in his gift. + He was so obliging as to desire my company this campaign, has + honoured me with particular marks of his esteem, and kindly + invited me into his family--a circumstance which will ease me of + expences that otherwise must have accrued in furnishing + stores, camp equipages, etc. Whereas the cost will now be easy + (comparatively speaking), as baggage, horses, tents, and some + other necessaries, will constitute the whole of the charge.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 146-49.] + +The army began to move about the middle of May, but it went very +slowly. During June Washington was taken with an acute fever, in +spite of which he pressed on, but he became so weak that he had to be +carried in a cart, as he was unable to sit his horse. Braddock, with +the main army, had gone on ahead, and Washington feared that the +battle, which he believed imminent, would be fought before he came up +with the front. But he rejoined the troops on July 8th. The next day +they forded the Monongahela and proceeded to attack Fort Duquesne. +Writing from Fort Cumberland, on July 18th, Washington gave Governor +Dinwiddie the following account of Braddock's defeat. The one thing +happened which Washington had felt anxious about--a surprise by the +Indians. He had more than once warned Braddock of this danger, and +Benjamin Franklin had warned him too before the expedition started, +but Braddock, with perfect British contempt, had replied that though +savages might be formidable to raw Colonials, they could make +no impression on disciplined troops. The surprise came and thus +Washington reports it: + + When we came to this place, we were attacked (very unexpectedly) + by about three hundred French and Indians. Our numbers consisted + of about thirteen hundred well armed men, chiefly Regulars, who + were immediately struck with such an inconceivable panick, that + nothing but confusion and disobedience of orders prevailed among + them. The officers, in general, behaved with incomparable bravery, + for which they greatly suffered, there being near 60 killed and + wounded--a large proportion, out of the number we had! + + The Virginia companies behaved like men and died like soldiers; + for I believe out of three companies that were on the ground that + day scarce thirty were left alive. Capt. Peyroney and all his + officers, down to a corporal, were killed; Capt. Polson had + almost as hard a fate, for only one of his escaped. In short, the + dastardly behaviour of the Regular troops (so-called) exposed + those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death; + and, at length, in despite of every effort to the contrary, broke + and ran as sheep before hounds, leaving the artillery, ammunition, + provisions, baggage, and, in short, everything a prey to the + enemy. And when we endeavored to rally them, in hopes of regaining + the ground and what we had left upon it, it was with as little + success as if we had attempted to have stopped the wild bears of + the mountains, or rivulets with our feet; for they would break by, + in despite of every effort that could be made to prevent it. + + The General was wounded in the shoulder and breast, of which he + died three days after; his two aids-de-camp were both wounded, but + are in a fair way of recovery; Colo. Burton and Sr. John St. Clair + are also wounded, and I hope will get over it; Sir Peter Halket, + with many other brave officers, were killed in the field. It is + supposed that we had three hundred or more killed; about that + number we brought off wounded, and it is conjectured (I believe + with much truth) that two thirds of both received their shot from + our own cowardly Regulars, who gathered themselves into a body, + contrary to orders, ten or twelve deep, would then level, fire and + shoot down the men before them.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 173-74-75.] + +In this admirable letter Washington tells nothing about his own +prowess in the battle, where he rode to all parts of the field, trying +to stem the retreat, and had two horses shot under him and four bullet +holes in his coat. He tried to get the troops to break ranks and to +screen themselves behind rocks and trees, but Braddock, helpless +without his rules, drove them back to regular formation with the flat +of his sword, and made them an easy mark for the volleys of the enemy. +Washington's personal valor could not fail to be admired, although his +audacity exposed him to unjustified risks. + +On reaching Fort Cumberland he wrote to his brother John, on July +18th: + + As I have heard, since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial + account of my death and dying speech, I take this early + opportunity of contradicting the first, and assuring you, that + I have not as yet composed the latter. But, by the all-powerful + dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all + human probability and expectation.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ibid. 175-76.] + +The more he thought over the events of that day, the more was he +amazed--"I join very heartily with you in believing," he wrote Robert +Jackson on August 2d, "that when this story comes to be related in +future annals, it will meet with unbelief and indignation, for had I +not been witness to the fact on that fatal day, I should scarce have +given credit to it even _now_."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 177.] + +Although Washington was thoroughly disgusted by the mismanagement of +military affairs in Virginia, he was not ready to deny the appeals +of patriotism. From Mount Vernon, on August 14, 1755, he wrote his +mother: + + Honored Madam, If it is in my power to avoid going to the Ohio + again, I shall; but if the command is pressed upon me, by the + general _voice_ of the country, and offered upon such terms as + cannot be objected against, it would reflect dishonor upon me to + refuse; and _that_, I am sure must or _ought_ to give you greater + uneasiness, than my going in an honorable command, for upon no + other terms I will accept of it. At present I have no proposals + made to me, nor have I any advice of such an intention, except + from private hands.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ibid. 180-81.] + +Braddock's defeat put an end to campaigning in Virginia for some time. +The consternation it caused, not only held the people of the sparse +western settlements in alarm but agitated the tidewater towns and +villages. The Burgesses and many of the inhabitants had not yet +learned their lesson sufficiently to set about reorganizing their army +system, but the Assembly partially recognized its obligation to the +men who had fought by voting to them a small sum for losses during +their previous service. Washington received L300, but his patriotic +sense of duty kept him active. In the winter of 1758, however, owing +to a very serious illness, he resigned from the army and returned to +Mount Vernon to recuperate. + +During the long and tedious weeks of sickness and recovery, Washington +doubtless had time to think over, to clarify in his mind, and to pass +judgment on the events in which he had shared during the past six or +seven years. From boyhood that was his habit. He must know the meaning +of things. An event might be as fruitless as a shooting star unless he +could trace the relations which tied it to what came before and after. +Hence his deliberation which gave to his opinions the solidity of +wisdom. Audacious he might be in battle, but perhaps what seems to us +audacity seemed to him at the moment a higher prudence. If there were +crises when the odds looked ten to one against him, he would take the +chance. He knew the incalculable value of courage. His experiences +with the British regulars and their officers left a deep impression on +him and colored his own decisions in his campaigns against the British +during the Revolutionary War. To genius nothing comes amiss, and by +genius nothing is forgotten. So we find that all that Washington saw +and learned during his years of youth--his apprenticeship as surveyor, +his vicissitudes as pioneer, tasks as Indian fighter and as companion +of the defeated Braddock--all contributed to fit him for the supreme +work for which Fate had created him and the ages had waited. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MARRIAGE. THE LIFE OF A PLANTER + + +War is like the wind, nobody can tell into whose garden it may blow +desolation. The French and Indian War, generally called now the Seven +Years' War, beginning as a mere border altercation between the British +and French backwoodsmen on the banks of the upper Ohio River, grew +into a struggle which, by the year 1758, when Washington retired from +his command of the Virginia Forces, spread over the world. A new +statesman, one of the ablest ever born in England, came to control the +English Government. William Pitt, soon created Earl of Chatham, saw +that the British Empire had reached a crisis in its development. +Incompetence, inertia, had blurred its prestige, and the little +victories which France, its chief enemy, had been winning against it +piecemeal, were coming to be regarded as signs that the grandeur of +Britain was passing. Pitt saw the gloomy situation, and the still +gloomier future which it seemed to prophesy, but he saw also the +remedy. Within a few months, under his direction, English troops were +in every part of the world, and English ships of war were sailing +every ocean, to recover the slipping elements and to solidify the +British Empire. Just as Pitt was taking up his residence at Downing +Street, Robert Clive was winning the Battle of Plassey in India, which +brought to England territory of untold wealth. Two years later James +Wolfe, defeating the French commander, Montcalm, on the Plains of +Abraham, added not only Quebec, but all Canada, to the British Crown, +and ended French rivalry north of the Great Lakes. Victories like +these, seemingly so casual, really as final and as unrevisable as +Fate, might well cause Englishmen to suspect that Destiny itself +worked with them, and that an Englishman could be trusted to endure +through any difficulties to a triumphant conclusion. + +Beaten at every point where they met the British, the French, even +after they had secured an alliance with Spain, which proved of little +worth, were glad to make peace. On February 10, 1763, they signed +the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed to the British nearly all their +victories and left England the dominant Power in both hemispheres. +The result of the war produced a marked effect on the people of the +British Colonies in North America. "At no period of time," says Chief +Justice Marshall, in his "Life of Washington," "was the attachment of +the colonists to the mother country more strong, or more general, than +in 1763, when the definitive articles of the treaty which restored +peace to Great Britain, France, and Spain, were signed."[1] But we +who know the sequel perceive that the Seven Years' War not only +strengthened the attachment between the Colonies and the Mother +Country, but that it also made the Colonies aware of their common +interests, and awakened among them mutual friendship, and in a very +brief time their sense of unity prevailed over their temporary +enthusiasm for England. George III, a monarch as headstrong as he was +narrow, with insanity lurking in his mind, succeeded to the throne in +1760, and he seized the first opportunity to get rid of his masterful +Minister, William Pitt. He replaced him with the Earl of Bute, a +Scotchman, and a man of ingenious parts, but with the incurable Tory +habit of insisting that it was still midnight long after the sun was +shining in the forenoon of another day. + +[Footnote 1: Marshall: _The Life of George Washington_ (Philadelphia, +1805, 5 vols.), II, 68.] + +Before the Treaty was signed and the world had begun to spin in a new +groove, which optimists thought would stretch on forever, an equally +serious change had come to the private life of George Washington. To +the surprise of his friends, who had begun to doubt whether he would +ever get married, he found his life's companion and married her +without delay. The notion seems to have been popular during his +lifetime, and it certainly has continued to later days, that he was +too bashful to feel easy in ladies' society. I find no evidence +for this mistaken idea. Although little has been recorded of the +intimacies of Washington's youth, there are indications of more than +one "flame" and that he was not dull and stockish with the young +women. As early as 1748, we hear of the Low-Land Beauty who had +captivated him, and who is still to be identified. Even earlier, in +his school days, he indulged in writing love verses. But we need not +infer that they were inspired by living damsels or by the Muses. + + "Oh ye Gods why should my poor resistless Heart + Stand to oppose thy might and power-- + + * * * * * + + "In deluding sleepings let my eyelids close + That in an enraptured dream I may + In a rapt lulling sleep and gentle repose + Possess those joys denied by day."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Quoted by Wister, 39.] + +Cavour said that it was easier for him to make Italy than to write a +poem: Washington, who was also an honest man, and fully aware of his +limitations, would probably have admitted that he could make the +American Republic more easily than a love song. But he was susceptible +to feminine charms, and we hear of Betsy Fauntleroy, and of a "Mrs. +Meil," and on his return to Mount Vernon, after Braddock's defeat, he +received the following round robin from some of the young ladies at +Belvoir: + + 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 tomorrow morning very early + we shall be at Mount Vernon. + + S[ALLY] FAIRFAX ANN SPEARING ELIZ'TH DENT + +Apparently Washington's love affairs were known and talked about among +his group. What promised to be the most serious of his experiences was +with Mary Philipse, of New York, daughter of Frederick Philipse, one +of the richest landowners in that Colony, and sister-in-law of Beverly +Robinson, one of Washington's Virginian friends. Washington was going +to Boston on a characteristic errand. One of the minor officers in +the Regular British Army, which had accompanied Braddock to Virginia, +refused to take orders from Washington, and officers of higher grade +in Virginia Troops, declaring that their commissions were assigned +only by Colonial officials, whereas he had his own from King George. +This led, of course, to insubordination and frequent quarrels. To +put a stop to the wrangling, Washington journeyed to Boston, to have +Governor Shirley, the Commander-in-Chief of the King's Forces in the +Colonies, give a decision upon it. The Governor ruled in favor of +Washington, who then rode back to Virginia. But he spent a week in New +York City in order to see his enchantress, Mary Philipse, and it is +even whispered that he proposed to her and that she refused him. Two +years afterwards she married Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Morris, and +during the Revolution the Morris house was Washington's headquarters; +the Morrises, who were Tories, having fled. + +Persons have speculated why it was that so many of the young women +whom Washington took a fancy to, chilled and drew back when it came to +the question of marriage. One very clever writer thinks that perhaps +his nose was inordinately large in his youth, and that that repelled +them. I do not pretend to say. So far as I know, psychologists have +not yet made a sufficiently exact study of the nose as a determining +factor in matrimony, to warrant an opinion from persons who have +made no special study of the subject. The plain fact was that by his +twenty-fifth year, Washington was an unusually presentable young man, +more than six feet tall, broad-shouldered, very strong, slender and +athletic, carefully polite in his manners, a boon companion, though he +talked little, a sound and deliberate thinker; moreover, the part he +had taken in the war with the Indians and the French made him almost +a popular hero, and gave him a preeminent place among the Virginians, +both the young and the old, of that time. The possession of the +estate of Mount Vernon, which he had inherited from his half-brother, +Lawrence, assured to him more than a comfortable fortune, and yet +gossip wondered why he was not married. Thackeray intimates that +Washington was too evidently on the lookout for a rich wife, which, if +true, may account for some of the alleged rebuffs. I do not believe +this assertion, nor do I find evidence for it. Washington was always a +very careful, farseeing person, and no doubt had a clear idea of what +constitutes desirable qualifications in marriage, but I believe he +would have married a poor girl out of the workhouse if he had really +loved her. However, he was not put to that test. + +One May day Washington rode off from Mount Vernon to carry despatches +to Williamsburg. He stopped at William's Ferry for dinner with his +friend Major Chamberlayne. At the table was Mrs. Daniel Parke Custis, +who, under her maiden name of Martha Dandridge, was well known +throughout that region for her beauty and sweet disposition. She was +now a widow of twenty-six, with two small children. Her late husband, +Colonel Custis, her elder by fifteen years, had left her a large +estate called White House, and a fortune which made her one of the +richest women in Virginia. From their first introduction, Washington +and she seemed to be mutually attracted. He lingered throughout the +afternoon and evening with her and went on to Williamsburg with his +despatches the next morning. Having finished his business at the +Capitol, he returned to William's Ferry, where he again saw Mrs. +Custis, pressed his suit upon her and was accepted. Characteristic +was it that he should conclude the matter so suddenly; but he had had +marriage in his intentions for many years. + +During the summer Washington returned to his military duties and led +a troop to Fort Duquesne. He found the fort partly demolished, and +abandoned by the French; he marched in and took it, and gave it the +name of Fort Pitt, in recognition of the great statesman who had +directed the revival of British prestige. The fort, thus recovered to +English possession, stood on the present site of Pittsburgh. I quote +the following brief letter from Washington to Mrs. Custis, as it is +almost the only note of his to her during their engagement that has +been preserved: + + 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.[1] + +[Footnote 1: P.L. Ford, _The True George Washington_, 93.] + +Late in that autumn Washington returned for good from his Western +fighting. On January 6, 1759 (Old Style), his marriage to Mrs. Custis +took place in St. Peter's Church, near her home at the White House. +Judging from the fine writing which old historians and new have +devoted to describing it, Virginia had seen few such elegant pageants +as upon that occasion. The grandees in official station and in social +life were all there. Francis Fauquier was, of course, gorgeous in his +Governor's robes but he could not outshine the bridegroom, in blue and +silver with scarlet trimmings, and gold buckles at his knees, with his +imperial physique and carriage. The Reverend Peter Mossum conducted +the Episcopal service, after which the bride drove back with a coach +and six to the White House, while Washington, with other gentlemen, +rode on horseback beside her acting as escort. + +The bridal couple spent two or three months at the White House. The +Custis estates were large and in so much need of oversight that if +Washington had not appeared at this time, a bailiff, or manager, would +have had to be hired for them. Henceforth Washington seems to have +added the care of the White House to that of Mount Vernon, and the two +involved a burden which occupied most of his time, for he had retired +from the army. His fellow citizens, however, had elected him a member +of the House of Burgesses, a position he held for many years; going to +Williamsburg every season to attend the sessions of the Assembly. +On his first entrance to take his seat, Mr. Robinson, the Speaker, +welcomed him in Virginia's name, and praised him for his high +achievements. This so embarrassed the modest young member that he was +unable to reply, upon which Speaker Robinson said, "Sit down, Mr. +Washington, your modesty is equal to your valor, and that surpasses +the power of any language that I possess." In all his life, probably, +Washington never heard praise more genuine or more deserved. He had +just passed his twenty-seventh year. In the House of Burgesses he had +the reputation of being the silent member. He never acquired the art +of a debater. He was neither quick at rebuttal nor at repartee, but +so surely did his character impress itself on every one that when he +spoke the Assembly almost took it for granted that he had said the +final word on the subject under discussion. How careful he was to +observe the scope and effects of parliamentary speaking appears from a +letter which he wrote many years later. + +Agriculture has always been a particularly fine training-ground +for statesmen. To persons who do not watch it closely, it may seem +monotonous. In reality, while the sum of the conditions of one year +tally closely with those of another, the daily changes and variations +create a variety which must be constantly watched and provided for. A +sudden freshet and unseasonable access of heat or cold, a scourge of +hail, a drought, a murrain among the cattle, call for ingenuity and +for resourcefulness; and for courage, a higher moral quality. Constant +comradeship with Nature seems to beget placidity and quiet assurance. +From using the great natural forces which bring to pass crops and the +seasons, they seem to work in and through him also. The banker, the +broker, even the merchant, lives in a series of whirlwinds, or seems +to be pursuing a mirage or groping his way through a fog. The +farmer, although he be not beyond the range of accident, deals more +continually with causes which regularly produce certain effects. He +knows a rainbow by sight and does not waste his time and money in +chasing it. + +No better idea of Washington's activity as a planter can be had than +from his brief and terse journals as an agriculturist. He sets down +day by day what he did and what his slaves and the free employees did +on all parts of his estate. We see him as a regular and punctual man. +He had a moral repugnance to idleness. He himself worked steadily and +he chided the incompetent, the shirkers, and the lazy. + +A short experience as landowner convinced him that slave labor was the +least efficient of all. This conviction led him very early to believe +in the emancipation of the slaves. I do not find that sentiment or +abstract ideals moved him to favor emancipation, but his sense of +fitness, his aversion to wastefulness and inefficiency made him +disapprove of a system which rendered industry on a high plane +impossible. Experience only confirmed these convictions of his, and in +his will he ordered that many slaves should be freed after the death +of Mrs. Washington. He was careful to apportion to his slaves the +amount of food they needed in order to keep in health and to work the +required stint. He employed a doctor to look after them in sickness. +He provided clothing for them which he deemed sufficient. I do not +gather that he ever regarded the black man as being essentially made +of the same clay as the white man, the chief difference being the +color of their skin. To Washington, the Slave System seemed bad, not +so much because it represented a debased moral standard, but because +it was economically and socially inadequate. His true character +appears in his making the best of a system which he recognized as most +faulty. Under his management, in a few years, his estate at Mount +Vernon became the model of that kind of plantation in the South. + +Whoever desires to understand Washington's life as a planter should +read his diaries with their brief, and one might almost say brusque, +entries from day to day.[1] Washington's care involved not only +bringing the Mount Vernon estate to the highest point of prosperity +by improving the productiveness of its various sections, but also by +buying and annexing new pieces of land. To such a planter as he was, +the ideal was to raise enough food to supply all the persons who lived +or worked on the place, and this he succeeded in doing. His chief +source of income, which provided him with ready money, was the tobacco +crop, which proved to be of uncertain value. By Washington's time the +Virginians had much diminished the amount and delicacy of the tobacco +they raised by the careless methods they employed. They paid little +attention to the rotation of crops, or to manuring, with the result +that the soil was never properly replenished. In his earlier days +Washington shipped his year's product to an agent in Glasgow or in +London, who sold it at the market price and sent him the proceeds. The +process of transportation was sometimes precarious; a leaky ship might +let in enough sea water to damage the tobacco, and there was always +the risk of loss by shipwreck or other accident. Washington sent out +to his brokers a list of things which he desired to pay for out of +the proceeds of the sale, to be sent to him. These lists are most +interesting, as they show us the sort of household utensils and +furniture, the necessaries and the luxuries, and the apparel used in a +mansion like Mount Vernon. We find that he even took care to order a +fashionably dressed doll for little Martha Custis to play with. + +[Footnote 1: See for instance in W.C. Ford's edition of _The Writings +of George Washington_, II, 140-69. Diary for 1760, 230-56. Diary for +1768.] + +The care and education of little Martha and her brother, John Parke +Custis, Washington undertook with characteristic thoroughness and +solicitude. He had an instinct for training growing creatures. He +liked to experiment in breeding horses and cattle and the farmyard +animals. He watched the growth of his plantations of trees, and he +was all the more interested in studying the development of mental and +moral capacities in the little children. + +In due time a tutor was engaged, and besides the lessons they learned +in their schoolbooks, they were taught both music and dancing. Little +Patsy suffered from epilepsy, and after the prescriptions of the +regular doctors had done no good, her parents turned to a quack named +Evans, who placed on the child's finger an iron ring supposed to have +miraculous virtues, but it brought her no relief, and very suddenly +little Martha Custis died. Washington himself felt the loss of his +unfortunate step-daughter, but he was unflagging in trying to console +the mother, heartbroken at the death of the child. + +Jack Custis was given in charge of the Reverend Jonathan Boucher, +an Anglican clergyman, apparently well-meaning, who agreed with +Washington's general view that the boy's training "should make him fit +for more useful purposes than horse-racing." In spite of Washington's +carefully reasoned plans, the youth of the young man prevailed over +the reason of his stepfather. Jack found dogs, horses, and guns, and +consideration of dress more interesting and more important than +his stepfather's theories of education. Washington wrote to Parson +Boucher, the teacher: + + Had he begun, or rather pursued his study of the Greek language, + I should have thought it no bad acquisition; ... To be acquainted + with the French Tongue is become a part of polite education; + and to a man who has the prospect of mixing in a large circle, + absolutely necessary. Without arithmetic, the common affairs of + life are not to be managed with success. The study of Geometry, + and the mathematics (with due regard to the limits of it) is + equally advantageous. The principles of Philosophy, Moral, + Natural, etc. I should think a very desirable knowledge for a + gentleman.[1] + +[Footnote 1: W.C. Ford, _George Washington_ (1900), I, 136-37.] + +There was nothing abstract in young Jack Custis's practical response +to his stepfather's reasoning; he fell in love with Miss Nelly Calvert +and asked her to marry him. Washington was forced to plead with the +young lady that the youth was too young for marriage by several years, +and that he must finish his education. Apparently she acquiesced +without making a scene. She accepted a postponement of the engagement, +and Custis was enrolled among the students of King's College +(subsequently Columbia) in New York City. Even then, his passion for +an education did not develop as his parents hoped. He left the college +in the course of a few months. Throughout John Custis's perversities, +and as long as he lived, Washington's kindness and real affection +never wavered. Although he had now taught himself to practice complete +self-control, he could treat with consideration the young who had it +not. + +By nature Washington was a man of business. He wished to see things +grow, not so much for the actual increase in value which that +indicated, as because increase seemed to be a proof of proper methods. +Not content, therefore, with rounding out his holdings at Mount Vernon +and Mrs. Washington's estate at the White House, he sought investment +in the unsettled lands on the Ohio and in Florida, and on the +Mississippi. It proved to be a long time before the advance of +settlement in the latter regions made his investments worth much, and +during the decade after his marriage in 1759, we must think of him +as a man of great energy and calm judgment who was bent not only +on making Mount Vernon a model country place on the outside, but a +civilized home within. In its furnishings and appointments it did not +fall behind the manors of the Virginia men of fashion and of wealth +in that part of the country. Before Washington left the army, he +recognized that his education had been irregular and inadequate, and +he set himself to make good his defects by studying and reading for +himself. There were no public libraries, but some of the gentlemen +made collections of books. They learned of new publications in England +from journals which were few in number and incomplete. Doubtless +advertising went by word of mouth. The lists of things desired which +Washington sent out to his agents, Robert Cary and Company, once a +year or oftener, usually contained the titles of many books, chiefly +on architecture, and he was especially intent on keeping up with new +methods and experiments in farming. Thus, among the orders in May, +1759, among a request for "Desert Glasses and Stand for Sweetmeats +Jellies, etc.; 50 lbs. Spirma Citi Candles; stockings etc.," he asks +for "the newest and most approved Treatise of Agriculture--besides +this, send me a Small piece in Octavo--called a New System of +Agriculture, or a Speedy Way to Grow Rich; Longley's Book of +Gardening; Gibson upon Horses, the latest Edition in Quarto." This +same invoice contains directions for "the Busts--one of Alexander the +Great, another of Charles XII, of Sweden, and a fourth of the King of +Prussia (Frederick the Great); also of Prince Eugene and the Duke of +Marlborough, but somewhat smaller." Do these celebrities represent +Washington's heroes in 1759? + +As time went on, his commissions for books were less restricted to +agriculture, and comprised also works on history, biography, and +government. + +But although incessant activity devoted to various kinds of work was a +characteristic of Washington's life at Mount Vernon, his attention to +social duties and pleasures was hardly less important. He aimed to be +a country gentleman of influence, and he knew that he could achieve +this only by doing his share of the bountiful hospitality which was +expected of such a personage. Virginia at that time possessed no large +cities or towns with hotels. When the gentry travelled, they put up +overnight at the houses of other gentry, and thus, in spite of very +restricted means of transportation, the inhabitants of one part of the +country exchanged ideas with those of another. In this way also the +members of the upper class circulated among themselves and acquired +a solidarity which otherwise would hardly have been possible. We are +told that Mount Vernon was always full of guests; some of these being +casual strangers travelling through, and others being invited friends +and acquaintances on a visit. There were frequent balls and parties +when neighbors from far and near joined in some entertainment at the +great mansion. There were the hunt balls which Washington himself +particularly enjoyed, hunting being his favorite sport. Fairfax +County, where Mount Vernon lay, and its neighboring counties, Fauquier +and Prince William, abounded in foxes, and the land was not too +difficult for the hunters, who copied as far as possible the dress +and customs of the foxhunters in England. Possibly there might be a +meeting at Mount Vernon of the local politicians. At least once a year +Washington and his wife--"Lady," as the somewhat florid Virginians +called her--went off to Williamsburg to attend the session of the +House of Burgesses. Washington seldom missed going to the horse-races, +one of the chief functions of the year, not only for jockeys and +sporting men, but for the fashionable world of the aristocracy. Thanks +to his carefulness and honesty in keeping his accounts, we have his +own record of the amounts he spent at cards--never large amounts, nor +indicative of the gamester's passion. + +Thus Washington passed the first ten years of his married life. A +stranger meeting him at that time might have little suspected that +here was the future founder of a nation, one who would prove himself +the greatest of Americans, if not the greatest of men. But if you had +spent a day with Washington, and watched him at work, or listened to +his few but decisive words, or seen his benign but forcible smile, +you would have said to yourself--"This man is equal to any fate that +destiny may allot to him." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FIRST GUN + + +Meanwhile the course of events was leading toward a new and unexpected +goal. Chief Justice Marshall said, as I have quoted, that 1763, the +end of the French-Indian War, marked the greatest friendship and +harmony between the Colonies and England. The reason is plain. In +their incessant struggles with the French and the Indians, the +Colonists had discovered a real champion and protector. That +protector, England, had found that she must really protect the +Colonies unless she was willing to see them fall into the hands of +her rival, France. Putting forth her strength, she crushed France in +America, and remained virtually in control not only of the Colonies +and territory from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, but also of +British America. In these respects the Colonies and the Mother Country +seemed destined to be bound more closely together; but the very spirit +by which Britain had conquered France in America, and France in India, +and had made England paramount throughout the world, prevented the +further fusion, moral, social, and political, of the Colonies with the +Mother Country. + +That spirit was the Imperial Spirit, which Plassey and Quebec had +called to life. The narrow Hanoverian King, who now ruled England, +could not himself have devised the British Empire, but when the Empire +crystallized, George III rightly surmised that, however it had come +about, it meant a large increase in power for him. The Colonies and +Dependencies were to be governed like conquered provinces. Evidently, +the Hindus of Bengal could hardly be treated in the same fashion as +were the Colonists of Massachusetts or Virginia. The Bengalese knew +that there was no bond of language or of race between them and their +conquerors, whereas American Colonists knew that they and the British +sprang from the same race and spoke the same language. One of the +first realizations that came to the British Imperialists was that the +ownership of the conquered people or state warranted the conquerors in +enriching themselves from the conquered. But while this might do very +well in India, and be accepted there as a matter of course, it would +be most ill-judged in the American Colonies, for the Colonists were +not a foreign nor a conquered people. They originally held grants of +land from the British Crown, but they had worked that land themselves +and settled the wilderness by their own efforts, and had a right to +whatever they might earn. + +The Tory ideals, which took possession of the British Government when +Lord Bute succeeded to William Pitt in power, were soon applied to +England's relations to the American Colonies. The Seven Years' War +left England heavily in debt. She needed larger revenues, and being +now swayed by Imperialism, she easily found reasons for taxing the +Colonies. In 1765 she passed the Stamp Act which caused so much bad +feeling that in less than a year she decided to repeal it, but new +duties on paper, glass, tea, and other commodities were imposed +instead. In the North, Massachusetts took the lead in opposing what +the Colonists regarded as the unconstitutional acts of the Crown. The +patriotic lawyer of Boston, James Otis, shook the Colony with his +eloquence against the illegal encroachments and actual tyranny of the +English. Other popular orators of equal eminence, John and Samuel +Adams and Josiah Quincy, fanned the flames of discontent. Even the +most radical did not yet whisper the terrible word Revolution, or +suggest that they aspired to independence. They simply demanded their +"rights" which the arrogant and testy British Tories had shattered and +were withholding from them. At the outset rebels seldom admit that +their rebellion aims at new acquisitions, but only at the recovery of +the old. + +Next to Massachusetts, Virginia was the most vigorous of the Colonies +in protesting against British usurpation of power, which would deprive +them of their liberty. Although Virginia had no capital city like +Boston, in which the chief political leaders might gather and discuss +and plan, and mobs might assemble and equip with physical force the +impulses of popular indignation, the Old Dominion had means, just as +the Highland clans or the Arab tribes had, of keeping in touch with +each other. Patrick Henry, a young Virginia lawyer of sturdy Scotch +descent, by his flaming eloquence was easily first among the spokesmen +of the rights of the Colonists in Virginia. In the "Parsons Cause," a +lawsuit which might have passed quickly into oblivion had he not seen +the vital implications concerned in it, he denied the right of the +King to veto an act of the Virginia Assembly, which had been passed +for the good of the people of Virginia. In the course of the trial +he declared, "Government was a conditional compact between the King, +stipulating protection on the one hand, and the people, stipulating +obedience and support on the other," and he asserted that a violation +of these covenants by either party discharged the other party from its +obligations. Doctrines as outspoken as these uttered in court, whether +right or wrong, indicated that the attorney who uttered them, and the +judge who listened, and the audience who applauded, were not blind +worshippers of the illegal rapacity of the Crown. + +Patrick Henry was the most spectacular of the early champions of the +Colonists in Virginia, but many others of them agreed with him. Among +these the weightiest was the silent George Washington. He said little, +but his opinions passed from mouth to mouth, and convinced many. In +1765 he wrote to Francis Dandridge, an uncle of Mrs. Washington: + + The Stamp Act imposed on the colonies by the Parliament of Great + Britain, engrosses the conversation of the speculative part of the + colonists, who look upon this unconstitutional method of taxation, + as a direful attack upon their liberties, and loudly exclaim + against the violation. What may be the result of this, and of + some other (I think I may add) ill-judged measures, I will not + undertake to determine; but this I may venture to affirm, that the + advantage accruing to the mother country will fall greatly short + of the expectations of the ministry; for certain it is, that an + whole substance does already in a manner flow to Great Britain, + and that whatsoever contributes to lessen our importations must + be hurtful to their manufacturers. And the eyes of our people, + already beginning to open, will perceive, that many luxuries, + which we lavish our substance in Great Britain for, can well be + dispensed with, whilst the necessaries of life are (mostly) to + be had within ourselves. This, consequently, will introduce + frugality, and be a necessary stimulation to industry. If Great + Britain, therefore, loads her manufacturies with heavy taxes, + will it not facilitate these measures? They will not compel us, I + think, to give our money for their exports, whether we will or + not; and certain I am, none of their traders will part from them + without a valuable consideration. Where then, is the utility of + the restrictions? As to the Stamp Act, taken in a single view, one + and the first bad consequence attending it, I take to be this, + our courts of judicature must inevitably be shut up; for it + is impossible, (or next of kin to it), under our present + circumstances, that the act of Parliament can be complied with, + were we ever so willing to enforce the execution; for, not to say, + which alone would be sufficient, that we have not money to pay the + stamps, there are many other cogent reasons, to prevent it; and if + a stop be put to our judicial proceedings, I fancy the merchants + of Great Britain, trading to the colonies, will not be among the + last to wish for a repeal of it.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 209-10.] + +This passage would suffice, were there not many similar which might be +quoted, to prove that Washington was from the start a loyal American. +A legend which circulated during his lifetime, and must have been +fabricated by his enemies, for I find no evidence to support it either +in his letters or in other trustworthy testimony, insinuated that he +was British at heart and threw his lot in with the Colonists only when +war could not be averted. In 1770 the merchants of Philadelphia +drew up an agreement in which they pledged themselves to practise +non-importation of British goods sent to America. Washington's wise +neighbor and friend, George Mason, drafted a plan of association of +similar purport to be laid before the Virginia Burgesses. But Lord +Botetourt, the new Royal Governor, deemed some of these resolutions +dangerous to the prerogative of the King, and dissolved the Assembly. +The Burgesses, however, met at Anthony Hay's house and adopted +Mason's Association. Washington, who was one of the signers of the +Association, wrote to his agents in London: "I am fully determined to +adhere religiously to it." + +Five years had now elapsed since the British Tories attempted to fix +on the Colonies the Stamp Act, and although they had withdrawn +that hateful law, the relations between the Mother Country and the +Colonists had not improved. Far from it. The English issued a series +of irritating provisions which convinced the Colonists that the +Government had no real desire to be friendly, and that, on the +contrary, it intended to make no distinction between them and the +other conquered provinces of the Crown. Then and always, the English +forgot that the Colonists were men of their own stock, equally +stubborn in their devotion to principles, and probably more accessible +to scruples of conscience. So they were not likely to be frightened +into subjection. The governing class in England was in a state of mind +which has darkened its judgment more than once; the state of mind +which, when it encounters an obstacle to its plans, regards that +obstacle as an enemy, and remarks in language brutally frank, though +not wholly elegant: "We will lick him first and then decide who is +right." In 1770 King George III, who fretted at all seasons at the +slowness with which he was able to break down the ascendency of the +Whigs, manipulated the Government so as to make Lord North Prime +Minister. Lord North was a servant, one might say a lackey, after +the King's own heart. He abandoned lifelong traditions, principles, +fleeting whims, prejudices even, in order to keep up with the King's +wish of the moment. After Lord North became Prime Minister, the +likelihood of a peaceful settlement between the crown and the Colonies +lessened. He ran ahead of the King in his desire to serve the King's +wishes, and George III, by this time, was wrought up by the persistent +tenacity of the Whigs--he wished them dead, but they would not +die--and he was angered by the insolence of the Colonists who showed +that they would not shrink from forcibly resisting the King's command. +On both sides of the Atlantic a vehement and most enlightening debate +over constitutional and legal fundamentals still went on. Although +the King had packed Parliament, not all the oratory poured out at +Westminster favored the King. On the contrary, the three chief masters +of British eloquence at that time, and in all time--Edmund Burke, +William Pitt, and Charles James Fox--spoke on the side of the +Colonists. Reading the magnificent arguments of Burke to-day, we ask +ourselves how any group in Parliament could have withstood them. But +there comes a moment in every vital discussion when arguments and +logic fail to convince. Passions deeper than logic controlled motives +and actions. The Colonists contended that in proclaiming "no taxation +without representation," they were appealing to a principle of +Anglo-Saxon liberty inherent in their race. When King George, or any +one else, denied this principle, he denied an essential without which +Anglo-Saxon polity could not survive, but neither King George nor Lord +North accepted the premises. If they had condescended to reply at all, +they might have sung the hymn of their successors a hundred years +later: + + "We don't want to fight, + But by jingo! if we do, + We've got the men, we've got the ships, + We've got the money too." + +Meanwhile, the Virginia Planter watched the course of events, pursued +his daily business regularly, attended the House of Burgesses when it +was in session, said little, but thought much. He did not break +out into invective or patriotic appeals. No doubt many of his +acquaintances thought him lukewarm in spirit and non-committal; but +persons who knew him well knew what his decision must be. As early as +April 5, 1769, he wrote his friend, George Mason: + + 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--ms in + defence of so valuable a blessing, on which all the good and evil + of life depends, is clearly my opinion. Yet a--ms, I would beg + leave to add, should be the last resource, the dernier resort. + Addresses to the throne, and remonstrances to Parliament, we have + already, it is said, proved the inefficiency of. How far, then, + their attention to our rights and privileges is to be awakened or + alarmed, by starving their trade and manufacturers, remains to be + tried.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 263-64.] + +Thus wrote the Silent Member six years before the outbreak of +hostilities, and he did not then display any doubt either of his +patriotism, or of the course which every patriot must take. To his +intimates he spoke with point-blank candor. Years later, George Mason +wrote to him: + + I never forgot your declaration, when I had last the pleasure of + being at your house in 1768, that you were ready to take your + musket upon your shoulder whenever your country called upon you. + +Some writers point out that Washington excelled rather as a critic of +concrete plans than of constitutional and legal aspects. Perhaps this +is true. Assuredly he had no formal legal training. There were many +other men in Massachusetts, in Virginia, and in some of the other +Colonies, who could and did analyze minutely the Colonists' protest +against taxation without representation, and the British rebuttal +thereof; but Washington's strength lay in his primal wisdom, the +wisdom which is based not on conventions, even though they be laws and +constitutions, but on a knowledge of the ways in which men will react +toward each other in their primitive, natural relations. In this +respect he was one of the wisest among the statesmen. + +He does not seem to have joined in such clandestine methods as those +of the Committees of Correspondence, which Samuel Adams and some of +the most radical patriots in the Bay State had organized, but he said +in the Virginia Convention, in 1774: "I will raise one thousand men, +subsist them at my own expense and march myself at their head for the +relief of Boston."[1] The ardor of Washington's offer matched the +increasing anger of the Colonists. Lord North, abetted by the British +Parliament, had continued to exasperate them by passing new bills +which could have produced under the best circumstances only a +comparatively small revenue. One of these imposed a tax on tea. The +Colonists not only refused to buy it, but to have it landed. In Boston +a large crowd gathered and listened to much fiery speech-making. +Suddenly, a body of fifty men disguised as Mohawk Indians rushed +down to the wharves, rowed out to the three vessels in which a large +consignment of tea had been sent across the ocean, hoisted it out of +the holds to the decks and scattered the contents of three hundred and +forty chests in Boston Harbor. + +[Footnote 1: _John Adams's Diary_, August 31, 1774, quoting Lynch.] + +The Boston Tea Party was as sensational as if it had sprang from +the brain of a Paris Jacobin in the French Revolution. It created +excitement among the American Colonists from Portsmouth to Charleston. +Six more of the Colonies enrolled Committees of Correspondence, +Pennsylvania alone refusing to join. In every quarter American +patriots felt exalted. In England the reverse effects were signalized +with equal vehemence. The Mock Indians were denounced as incendiaries, +and the town meetings were condemned as "nurseries of sedition." +Parliament passed four penal laws, the first of which punished Boston +by transferring its port to Salem and closing its harbor. The second +law suspended the charter of the Province and added several new and +tyrannical powers to the British Governor and to Crown officials. + +On September 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress met in +Philadelphia. Except Georgia, every Colony sent delegates to it. The +election of those delegates was in several cases irregular, because +the body which chose them was not the Legislature but some temporary +body of the patriots. Nevertheless, the Congress numbered some of +the men who were actually and have remained in history, the great +engineers of the American Revolution. Samuel Adams and John Adams went +from Massachusetts; John Jay and Philip Livingston from New York; +Roger Sherman from Connecticut; Thomas Mifflin and Edward Biddle from +Pennsylvania; Thomas McKean from Delaware; George Washington, Patrick +Henry, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton, and Richard H. Lee from +Virginia; and Edward and John Rutledge from South Carolina. Although +the Congress was made up of these men and of others like them, the +petitions adopted by it and the work done, not to mention the freshets +of oratory, were astonishingly mild. Probably many of the delegates +would have preferred to use fiery tongues. Samuel Adams, for instance, +though "prematurely gray, palsied in hand, and trembling in voice," +must have had difficulty in restraining himself. He wrote as viciously +as he spoke. "Damn that Adams," said one of his enemies. "Every dip of +his pen stings like a horned snake." Patrick Henry, being asked when +he returned home, "Who is the greatest man in Congress," replied: "If +you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina is by far the +greatest orator; but if you speak of solid information and sound +judgment, Colonel Washington is unquestionably the greatest man on +that floor." The rumor had it that Washington said, he wished to God +the Liberties of America were to be determined by a single Combat +between himself and George. One other saying of his at this time is +worth reporting, although it cannot be satisfactorily verified. +"_More blood will be spilled on this occasion_, if the ministry are +determined to push matters to extremity, _than history has ever yet +furnished instances of_ in the annals of North America." The language +and tone of the "Summary View"--a pamphlet which Thomas Jefferson had +issued shortly before--probably chimed with the emotions of most of +the delegates. They adopted (October 14, 1774) the "Declaration +of Rights," which may not have seemed belligerent enough for the +Radicals, but really leaves little unsaid. A week later Congress +agreed to an "Association," an instrument for regulating, by +preventing, trade with the English. Having provided for the assembling +of a second Congress, the first adjourned. + +As a symbol, the First Congress has an integral importance in the +growth of American Independence. It marked the first time that the +American Colonies had acted together for their collective interests. +It served notice on King George and Lord North that it repudiated the +claims of the British Parliament to govern the Colonies. It implied +that it would repel by force every attempt of the British to exercise +an authority which the Colonists refused to recognize. In a very real +sense the Congress thus delivered an ultimatum. The winter of 1774/5 +saw preparations being pushed on both sides. General Thomas Gage, the +British Commander-in-Chief stationed at Boston, had also thrust upon +him the civil government of that town. He had some five thousand +British troops in Boston, and several men-of-war in the harbor. +There were no overt acts, but the speed with which, on more than one +occasion, large bodies of Colonial farmers assembled and went swinging +through the country to rescue some place, which it was falsely +reported the British were attacking, showed the nervous tension under +which the Americans were living. As the enthusiasm of the Patriots +increased, that of the Loyalists increased also. Among the latter were +many of the rich and aristocratic inhabitants, and, of course, most +of the office-holders. Until the actual outbreak of hostilities they +upheld the King's cause with more chivalry than discretion, and then +they migrated to Nova Scotia and to England, and bore the penalty of +confiscation and the corroding distress of exile. In England during +this winter, Pitt and Burke had defended the Colonies and the Whig +minority had supported them. Even Lord North used conciliatory +suggestions, but with him conciliation meant that the Colonies should +withdraw all their offensive demands and kneel before the Crown in +penitent humiliation before a new understanding could be thought of. + +Meanwhile Colonel Washington was in Virginia running his plantations +to the best of his ability and with his mind made up. He wrote to his +friend Bryan Fairfax (July 20, 1774): + + As I see nothing, on the one hand, to induce a belief that the + Parliament would embrace a favorable opportunity of repealing + acts, which they go on with great rapidity to pass, and in order + to enforce their tyrannical system; and on the other, I observe, + or think I observe, that government is pursuing a regular plan at + the expense of law and justice to overthrow our constitutional + rights and liberties, how can I expect any redress from a measure, + which has been ineffectually tried already? For, Sir, what is it + we are contending against? Is it against paying the duty of three + pence per pound on tea because burthensome? No, it is the right + only, we have all along disputed, and to this end we have already + petitioned his Majesty in as humble and dutiful manner as subjects + could do[1].... + + And has not General Gage's conduct since his arrival, (in stopping + the address of his Council, and publishing a proclamation more + becoming a Turkish bashaw, than an English governor, declaring it + treason to associate in any manner by which the commerce of Great + Britain is to be affected) exhibited an unexampled testimony of + the most despotic system of tyranny, that ever was practised in + a free government? In short, what further proofs are wanted to + satisfy one of the designs of the ministry, than their own acts, + which are uniform and plainly tending to the same point, nay, if I + mistake not, avowedly to fix the right of taxation? What hope then + from petitioning, when they tell us, that now or never is the time + to fix the matter? Shall we after this, whine and cry for relief, + when we have already tried it in vain? Or shall we supinely sit + and see one province after another fall a prey to despotism?[2] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 421-22.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., 423-24.] + +In the early autumn Washington wrote to Captain Robert MacKenzie, who +was serving in the Regular British Army with Gage at Boston: + + I think I can announce it as a fact, that it is not the wish or + intent of that government, (Massachusetts) or any other upon this + continent, separately or collectively, to set up for independence; + but this you may at the same time rely on, that none of them will + ever submit to the loss of these valuable rights and privileges, + which are essential to the happiness of every free state, and + without which, life, liberty, and property are rendered totally + insecure.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., 443.] + +In the following spring the battles of Lexington and Concord, on April +19th, began the war of the American Revolution. A few weeks later, a +Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. The delegates to it, +understanding that they must prepare for war, proceeded to elect +a Commander-in-Chief. There was some jealousy between the men of +Virginia and those of Massachusetts. The former seemed to think that +the latter assumed the first position, and indeed, most of the angry +gestures had been made in Boston, and Boston had been the special +object of British punishment. Still, with what may seem unexpected +self-effacement, they did not press strongly for the choice of a +Massachusetts man as Commander-in-Chief. On June 15, 1775, Congress +having resolved "that a general be appointed to command all the +continental forces raised or to be raised for the defence of American +liberty," proceeded to a choice, and the ballots being taken, George +Washington, Esq., was unanimously elected. On the next day the +President of the Congress, Mr. John Hancock, formally announced the +election to Colonel Washington, who replied: + + Mr. President, though I am truly sensible of the high honor + done me in this appointment, yet I feel great distress from a + consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not + be equal to the extensive and important trust. However, as the + Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty and exert + every power I possess in the service and for the support of the + glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most cordial thanks for + this distinguished testimony of their approbation. But lest some + unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg 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. + + As to pay, Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress, that as no + pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this + arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and + happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep + an exact account of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will + discharge, and that is all I desire.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, II, 477-78-79, 480-81.] + +Accompanied by Lee and Schuyler and a brilliant escort, he set forth +on June 21st for Boston. Before they had gone twenty miles a messenger +bringing news of the Battle of Bunker Hill crossed them. "Did the +Militia fight?" Washington asked. On being told that they did, he +said: "Then the liberties of the country are safe." Then he pushed on, +stopping long enough in New York to appoint General Schuyler military +commander of that Colony, and so through Connecticut to the old Bay +State. There, at Cambridge, he found the crowd awaiting him and some +of the Colonial troops. On the edge of the Common, under a large elm +tree broad of spread, he took command of the first American army. It +was the second of July, 1775. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BOSTON FREED + + +Thus began what seems to us now an impossible war. Although it had +been brooding for ten years, since the Stamp Act, which showed that +the ties of blood and of tradition meant nothing to the British +Tories, now that it had come, the Colonists may well have asked +themselves what it meant. Probably, if the Colonists had taken a poll +on that fine July morning in 1775, not one in five of them would have +admitted that he was going to war to secure Independence, but all +would have protested that they would die if need be to recover their +freedom, the old British freedom, which came down to them from +Runnymede and should not be wrested from them. + +A British Tory, at the same time, might have replied: "We fight, we +cannot do less, in order to discipline and punish these wretches who +assume to deny the jurisdiction of the British Crown and to rebel +against the authority of the British Parliament." A few years before, +an English general had boasted that with an army of five thousand +troops he would undertake a march from Canada, through the Colonies, +straight to the Gulf of Mexico. And Colonel George Washington, who had +seen something of the quality of the British regulars, remarked that +with a thousand seasoned Virginians he would engage to block the five +thousand wherever he met them. The test was now to be made. + +The first thing that strikes us is the great extent of the field of +war. From the farthest settlements in the northeast, in what is now +Maine, to the border villages in Georgia was about fifteen hundred +miles; but mere distance did not represent the difficulty of the +journey. Between Boston and Baltimore ran a carriage road, not always +kept in good repair. Most of the other stretches had to be traversed +on horseback. The country along the seaboard was generally well +supplied with food, but the supply was nowhere near large enough to +furnish regular permanent subsistence for an army. A lack of munitions +seriously threatened the Colonists' ability to fight at all, but the +discovery of lead in Virginia made good this deficiency until the year +1781, when the lead mine was exhausted. + +More important than material concerns, however, was the diversity +in origin and customs among the Colonists themselves. The total +population numbered in 1775 nearly two and one half million souls. Of +these, the slaves formed about 500,000. The three largest Colonies, +Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania contained 900,000 +inhabitants, of which a little more than one half were slaves. +Pennsylvania, the third Colony, had a total of 300,000, mostly white, +while South Carolina had 200,000, of whom only 65,000 were white. +Connecticut, on the other hand, had 200,000 with scarcely any blacks. +The result was a very mottled population. The New Englanders had +already begun to practise manufacturing, and they continued to raise +under normal conditions sufficient food for their subsistence. South +of the Mason and Dixon line, however, slave labor prevailed and the +three great staples--tobacco, indigo, and rice--were the principal +crops. Where these did not grow, the natives got along as best they +could on scanty common crops, and by raising a few sheep and hogs. As +the war proceeded, it taught with more and more force the inherent +wastefulness of slave labor in the South. It was inefficient, costly, +and unreliable. + +The Battle of Bunker Hill was at once hailed as a Patriot victory, +but the rejoicing was premature, for the Americans had been forced +to retreat, giving up the position they had bravely defended. +Nevertheless, the opinion prevailed that they had won a real victory +by withstanding through many hours of a bloody fight some of the best +of the British regiments. + +Washington took command of the American army at Cambridge, he was +faced with the great task of organizing it and of forming a plan +of campaign. The Congress had taken over the charge of the army at +Boston, and the events had so shaped themselves that the first +thing for Washington to do was to drive out the British troops. To +accomplish this he planned to seal up all the entrances into the town +by land so that food could not be smuggled in. The British had a +considerable fleet in Boston Harbor, and they had to rely upon it to +bring provisions and to keep in touch with the world outside. + +Washington had his headquarters at the Craigie House in Cambridge, +some half a mile from Harvard Square and the College. He was now +forty-three years old, a man of commanding presence, six feet three +inches tall, broad-shouldered but slender, without any signs of the +stoutness of middle age. His hands and feet were large. His head was +somewhat small. The blue-gray eyes, set rather far apart, looked out +from heavy eyebrows with an expression of attentiveness. The most +marked feature was the nose, which was fairly large and straight and +vigorous. The mouth shut firmly, as it usually does where decision +is the dominant trait. The lips were flat. His color was pale but +healthy, and rarely flushed, even under great provocation. + +All that had gone before seemed to be strangely blended in his +appearance. The surveyor lad; the Indian fighter and officer; the +planter; the foxhunter; the Burgess; you could detect them all. But +underlying them all was the permanent Washington, deferent, plain of +speech, direct, yet slow in forming or expressing an opinion. Most +men, after they had been with him awhile, felt a sense of his majesty +grow upon them, a sense that he was made of common flesh like them, +but of something uncommon besides, something very high and very +precious. + +Washington found that he had sixteen thousand troops under his +command near Boston. Of these two thirds came from Massachusetts, and +Connecticut halved the rest. During July Congress added three thousand +men from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. They lacked everything. +In order to give them some uniformity in dress, Washington suggested +hunting-shirts, which he said "would have a happier tendency to unite +the men and abolish those Provincial Distinctions which lead to +jealousy and dissatisfaction." Among higher officers, jealousy, which +they made no attempt to dissemble or to disguise, was common. Two of +the highest posts went to Englishmen who proved themselves not only +technically unfit, but suspiciously near disloyalty. One of these +was Charles Lee, who thought the major-generalship to which Congress +appointed him beneath his notice; the other was also an Englishman, +Horatio Gates, Adjutant-General. A third, Thomas, when about to retire +in pique, received from Washington the following rebuke: + + In the usual contests of empire and ambition, the conscience of a + soldier has so little share, that he may very properly insist + upon his claims of rank, and extend his pretensions even to + punctilio;--but in such a cause as this, when the object is + neither glory nor extent of territory, but a defense of all that + is dear and valuable in private and public life, surely every + post ought to be deemed honorable in which a man can serve his + country.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, _George Washington_, I, 175.] + +Besides the complaints which reached Washington from all sides, he had +also to listen to the advice of military amateurs. Some of these had +never been in a battle and knew nothing about warfare except from +reading, but they were not on this account the most taciturn. Many +urged strongly that an expedition be sent against Canada, a design +which Washington opposed. His wisdom was justified when Richard +Montgomery, with about fifteen hundred men, took Montreal--November +12, 1775--and after waiting several weeks formed a junction with +Benedict Arnold near Quebec, which they attacked in a blinding +snowstorm, December 31, 1775. Arnold had marched up the Kennebec River +and through the Maine wilderness with fifteen hundred men, which were +reduced to five hundred before they came into action with Montgomery's +much dwindled force. The commander of Quebec repulsed them and sent +them flying southward as fast as the rigors of the winter and the +difficulties of the wilderness permitted. + +By the end of July, meanwhile, Washington had brought something like +order into the undisciplined and untrained masses who formed his +army, but now another lack threatened him: a lack of gunpowder. The +cartridge boxes of his soldiers contained on an average only nine +charges of ball and gunpowder apiece, hardly enough to engage in +battle for more than ten minutes. Washington sent an urgent appeal +to every town, and hearing that a ship at Bermuda had a cargo of +gunpowder, American ships were despatched thither to secure it. In +such straits did the army of the United Colonies go forth to war. By +avoiding battles and other causes for using munitions, they not only +kept their original supply, but added to it as fast as their appeals +were listened to. Washington kept his lines around Boston firm. In the +autumn General Gage was replaced, as British Commander-in-Chief, by +Sir William Howe, whose brother Richard, Lord Howe, became Admiral of +the Fleet. But the Howes knew no way to break the strangle hold of the +Americans. How Washington contrived to create the impression that +he was master of the situation is one of the mysteries of his +campaigning, because, although he had succeeded in making soldiers of +the raw recruits and in enforcing subordination, they were still a +very skittish body. They enlisted for short terms of service, and even +before their term was completed, they began to hanker to go home. This +caused not only inconvenience, but real difficulty. Still, Washington +steadily pushed on, and in March, 1776, by a brilliant manoeuvre at +Dorchester Heights, he secured a position from which his cannons could +bombard every British ship in Boston Harbor. On the 17th of March all +those ships, together with the garrison of eight thousand, and with +two thousand fugitive Loyalists, sailed off to Halifax. Boston has +been free from foreign enemies from that day to this. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TRENTON AND VALLEY FORGE + + +Howe's retreat from Boston freed Massachusetts and, indeed, all New +England from British troops. It also gave Washington the clue to his +own next move. He was a real soldier and therefore his instinct told +him that his next objective must be the enemy's army. Accordingly +he prepared to move his own troops to New York. He passed through +Providence, Norwich, and New London, reaching New York on April 13th. +Congress was then sitting in Philadelphia and he was requested to +visit it. + +He spent a fortnight during May in Philadelphia where he had +conferences with men of all kinds and seems to have been particularly +impressed, not to say shocked, by the lack of harmony which he +discovered. The members of the Congress, although they were ostensibly +devoting themselves to the common affairs of the United Colonies, were +really intriguing each for the interests of his special colony or +section. Washington thought this an ominous sign, as indeed it was, +for since the moment when he joined the Revolution he threw off all +local affiliation. He did his utmost to perform his duty, clinging as +long as he could to the hope that there would be no final break with +England. Throughout the winter, however, from almost every part of the +country the demands of the Colonists for independence became louder +and more urgent and these he heard repeated and discussed during his +visit to the Congress. On May 31st he wrote his brother John Augustine +Washington: + + Things have come to that pass now, as to convince us, that we have + nothing more to expect from the justice of Great Britain; also, + that she is capable of the most delusive acts; for I am satisfied, + that no commissioners ever were designed, except Hessians and + other foreigners; and that the idea was only to deceive and throw + us off our guard. The first has been too effectually accomplished, + as many members of Congress, in short, the representation of whole + provinces, are still feeding themselves upon the dainty food + of reconciliation; and though they will not allow, that the + expectation of it has any influence upon their judgment, (with + respect to their preparations for defence,) it is but too obvious, + that it has an operation upon every part of their conduct, and is + a clog to their proceedings. It is not in the nature of things to + be otherwise; for no man, that entertains a hope of seeing this + dispute speedily and equitably adjusted by commissioners, will go + to the same expense and run the same hazards to prepare for the + worst event, as he who believes that he must conquer, or submit to + unconditional terms, and its concomitants, such as confiscation, + hanging, etc. etc.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, iv, 106.] + +The Hessians to whom Washington alludes were German mercenaries +hired by the King of England from two or three of the princelings of +Germany. These Hessians turned a dishonest penny by fighting in behalf +of a cause in which they took no immediate interest or even knew what +it was about. During the course of the Revolution there were thirty +thousand Hessians in the British armies in America, and, as their +owners, the German princelings, received L5 apiece for them it was a +profitable arrangement for those phlegmatic, corpulent, and braggart +personages. The Americans complained that the Hessians were brutal and +tricky fighters; but in reality they merely carried out the ideals of +their German Fatherland which remained behind the rest of Europe in +its ideals of what was fitting in war. Being uncivilized, they could +not be expected to follow the practice of civilized warfare. + +When Washington returned to his headquarters in New York, he left the +Congress in Philadelphia simmering over the question of Independence. +Almost simultaneously with Washington's return came the British fleet +under Howe, which passed Sandy Hook and sailed up New York Harbor. He +brought an army of twenty-five thousand men. Washington's force was +nominally nineteen thousand men, but it was reduced to not more than +ten thousand by the detachment of several thousand to guard Boston +and of several thousand more to take part in the struggle in Canada, +besides thirty-six hundred sick. The Colonists clung as if by +obsession to their project of capturing Quebec. The death of +Montgomery and the discomfiture of Benedict Arnold, which really gave +a quietus to the success of the expedition, did not suffice to crush +it. Only too evident was it that Quebec could be taken. Canada would +fall permanently into American control, and cease to be a constant +menace and the recruiting ground for new expeditions against the +central Colonies. + +August was drawing to a close when the two armies were in a position +to begin fighting. The British, who had originally camped upon Staten +Island where Nature provided them with a shelter from attack, had now +moved across the bay to Long Island. There General Sullivan, having +lost eleven or twelve hundred men, was caught between two fires and +compelled to surrender with the two thousand or more of his army which +remained after the attack of the British. Washington watched the +disaster from Brooklyn, but was unable to detach any regiments to +bring aid to Sullivan, as it now became clear to him that his whole +army on Long Island might easily be cut off. He decided to retreat +from the island. This he did on August 29th, having commandeered every +boat that he could find. He ferried his entire force across to the +New York side with such secrecy and silence that the British did not +notice that they were gone. A heavy fog, which settled over the water +during the night, greatly aided the adventure. The result of +the Battle of Long Island gave the British great exultation and +correspondingly depressed the Americans. On the preceding fourth +of July they had declared their Independence; they were no longer +Colonies but independent States bound together by a common interest. +They felt all the more keenly that in this first battle after their +Independence they should be so ignominiously defeated. They might have +taken much comfort in the thought that had Howe surprised them on +their midnight retreat across the river, he might have captured most +of the American army and probably have ended the war. Washington's +disaster sprang not from his incompetence, but from his inadequate +resources. The British outnumbered him more than two to one and they +had control of the water; an advantage which he could not offset. One +important fact should not be forgotten: New York, both City and State, +had been notoriously Loyalist--that is, pro-British--ever since the +troubles between the Colonists and the British grew angry. Governor +Tryon, the Governor of the State, made no secret of his British +preferences; indeed, they were not preferences at all, but downright +British acts. + +Having won the Battle of Long Island, Lord Howe thought the time +favorable for acting in his capacity as a peacemaker, because he had +come over with authority to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the +Colonists' quarrel. He appealed, therefore, to the Congress of +Philadelphia, which appointed a committee of three--Benjamin Franklin, +John Adams, and Edward Rutledge to confer with Lord Howe. The +conference, which exhibited the shrewd quality of John Adams and of +Franklin, the politeness of Rutledge, and the studied urbanity of Lord +Howe, simply showed that there was no common ground on which they +could come to an agreement. The American Commissioners returned to +Philadelphia and Lord Howe to New York City and there were no further +attempts at peacemaking. + +Having brought his men to New York, Washington may well have debated +what to do next. The general opinion seemed to be that New York must +be defended at all costs. Whether Washington approved of this plan, I +find it hard to say. Perhaps he felt that if the American army could +hold its own on Manhattan for several weeks, it would be put into +better discipline and prepared either to risk a battle with the +British, or to retreat across the Hudson toward New Jersey. He decided +that for the moment at least he would station his army on the heights +of Harlem. From the house of Colonel Morris, where he made his +headquarters, he wrote on September 4, 1776, to the President of the +Congress: "We are now, as it were, upon the eve of another dissolution +of our army." The term of service of most of the soldiers under +Washington would expire at the end of the year, and he devoted the +greater part of the letter to showing up the evils of the military +system existing in the American army. + + A soldier [he said] reasoned with upon the goodness of the cause + he is engaged in, and the inestimable rights he is contending + for, hears you with patience, and acknowledges the truth of your + observations, but adds that it is of no more importance to him + than to others. The officer makes you the same reply, with this + further remark, that his pay will not support him and he cannot + ruin himself and family to serve his country, when every member of + the community is equally interested, and benefited by his labors. + The few, therefore, who act upon principles of disinterestedness, + comparatively speaking, are no more than a drop in the ocean. + + It becomes evident to me then, that, as this contest is not + likely to be the work of a day, as the war must be carried on + systematically, and to do it you must have good officers, there + are in my judgment no other possible means to obtain them but by + establishing your army upon a permanent footing and giving your + officers good pay. This will induce gentlemen and men of character + to engage; and, till the bulk of your officers is composed of such + persons as are actuated by principles of honor and a spirit of + enterprise, you have little to expect from them.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, IV, 440.] + +Washington proceeds to argue that the soldiers ought not to be engaged +for a shorter time than the duration of the war, that they ought to +have better pay and the offer of a hundred or a hundred and fifty +acres of land. Officers' pay should be increased in proportion. "Why +a captain in the Continental service should receive no more than five +shillings currency per day for performing the same duties that an +officer of the same rank in the British service receives ten shillings +for, I never could conceive." He further speaks strongly against the +employment of militia--"to place any dependence upon [it] is assuredly +resting upon a broken staff." + +Washington wrote thus frankly to the Congress which seems to have read +his doleful reports without really being stimulated, as it ought to +have been, by a determination to remove their causes. Probably the +delegates came to regard the jeremiads as a matter of course and +assumed that Washington would pull through somehow. Very remarkable is +it that the Commander-in-Chief of any army in such a struggle should +have expressed himself as he did, bluntly, in regard to its glaring +imperfections. Doing this, however, he managed to hold the loyalty and +spirit of his men. In the American Civil War, McClellan contrived to +infatuate his troops with the belief that his plans were perfect, and +that only the annoying fact that the Confederate generals planned +better caused him to be defeated; and yet to his obsessed soldiers +defeat under McClellan was more glorious than victory under Lee or +Stonewall Jackson. I take it that Washington's frankness simply +reflected his passion for veracity, which was the cornerstone of his +character. The strangest fact of all was that it did not lessen his +popularity or discourage his troops. + +To his intimates Washington wrote with even more unreserve. Thus he +says to Lund Washington (30th September): + + In short, such is my situation that if I were to wish the + bitterest curse to an enemy on this side of the grave, I should + put him in my stead with my feelings; and yet I do not know what + plan of conduct to pursue. I see the impossibility of serving + with reputation, or doing any essential service to the cause by + continuing in command, and yet I am told that if I quit the + command, inevitable ruin will follow from the distraction that + will ensue. In confidence I tell you that I never was in such an + unhappy, divided state since I was born. To lose all comfort and + happiness on the one hand, whilst I am fully persuaded that under + such a system of management as has been adopted, I cannot have the + least chance for reputation, nor those allowances made which the + nature of the case requires; and to be told, on the other, that if + I leave the service all will be lost, is, at the same time that I + am bereft of every peaceful moment, distressing to a degree. But I + will be done with the subject, with the precaution to you that it + is not a fit one to be publicly known or discussed. If I fall, + it may not be amiss that these circumstances be known, and + declaration made in credit to the justice of my character. And + if the men will stand by me (which by the by I despair of), I am + resolved not to be forced from this ground while I have life; + and a few days will determine the point, if the enemy should not + change their place of operations; for they certainly will not--I + am sure they ought not--to waste the season that is now fast + advancing, and must be precious to them.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, IV, 458.] + +The British troops almost succeeded in surrounding Washington's force +north of Harlem. Washington retreated to White Plains, where, on +October 28th, the British, after a severe loss, took an outpost +and won what is called the "Battle of White Plains." Henceforward +Washington's movements resembled too painfully those of the proverbial +toad under the harrow; and yet in spite of Lord Howe's efforts to +crush him, he succeeded in escaping into New Jersey with a small +remnant--some six thousand men--of his original army. The year 1776 +thus closed in disaster which seemed to be irremediable. It showed +that the British, having awakened to the magnitude of their task, were +able to cope with it. Having a comparatively unlimited sea-power, they +needed only to embark their regiments, with the necessary provisions +and ammunition, on their ships and send them across the Atlantic, +where they were more than a match for the nondescript, undisciplined, +ill-equipped, and often badly nourished Americans. The fact that +at the highest reckoning hardly a half of the American people were +actively in favor of Independence, is too often forgotten. But from +this fact there followed much lukewarmness and inertia in certain +sections. Many persons had too little imagination or were too sordidly +bound by their daily ties to care. As one planter put it: "My business +is to raise tobacco, the rest doesn't concern me." + +Over the generally level plains of New Jersey, George Washington +pushed the remnant of the army that remained to him. He had now hardly +five thousand men, but they were the best, most seasoned, and in +many respects the hardiest fighters. In addition to the usual +responsibility of warfare, of feeding his troops, finding quarters +for them, and of directing the line of march, he had to cope with +wholesale desertions and to make desperate efforts to raise money and +to persuade some of those troops, whose term was expiring, to stay on. +His general plan now was to come near enough to the British centre and +to watch its movements. The British had fully twenty-five thousand men +who could be centred at a given point. This centre was now Trenton, +and the objective of the British was so plainly Philadelphia that the +Continental Congress, after voting to remain in permanence there, fled +as quietly as possible to Baltimore. On December 18th Washington wrote +from the camp near the Falls of Trenton to John Augustine Washington: + + If every nerve is not strained to recruit the new army with all + possible expedition, I think the game is pretty near up, owing, + in great measure, to the insidious acts of the Enemy, and + disaffection of the Colonies before mentioned, but principally to + the accursed policy of short enlistments, and placing too great + a dependence on the militia, the evil consequences of which were + foretold fifteen months ago, with a spirit almost Prophetic. ... + You can form no idea of the perplexity of my situation. No man, I + believe, ever had a greater choice of difficulties, and less means + to extricate himself from them. However, under a full persuasion + of the justice of our cause, I cannot entertain an idea that it + will finally sink, though it may remain for some time under a + cloud.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, V, 111.] + +Washington stood with his forlorn little array on the west bank of +the Delaware above Trenton. He had information that the British had +stretched their line very far and thin to the east of the town. +Separating his forces into three bodies, he commanded one of these +himself, and during the night of Christmas he crossed the river in +boats. The night was stormy and the crossing was much interrupted by +floating cakes of ice; in spite of which he landed his troops safely +on the eastern shore. They had to march nine miles before they reached +Trenton, taking Colonel Rall and his garrison of Hessians by surprise. +More than a thousand surrendered and were quickly carried back over +the river into captivity. + +The prestige of the Battle of Trenton was enormous. For the first time +in six months Washington had beaten the superior forces of the British +and beaten them in a fortified town of their own choosing. The result +of the victory was not simply military; it quickly penetrated the +population of New Jersey which had been exasperatingly Loyalist, had +sold the British provisions, and abetted their intrigues. Now the New +Jersey people suddenly bethought them that they might have chosen the +wrong side after all. This feeling was deepened in them a week later +when, at Princeton, Washington suddenly fell upon and routed several +British regiments. By this success he cleared the upper parts of New +Jersey of British troops, who were shut once more within the limits of +New York City and Long Island. + +In January, 1777, no man could say that the turning-point in the +American Revolution had been passed. There were still to come long +months, and years even, of doubt and disillusion and suffering; the +agony of Valley Forge; the ignominy of betrayal; and the slowly +gnawing pain of hope deferred. But the fact, if men could have but +seen it, was clear--Trenton and Princeton were prophetic of the +end. And what was even clearer was the supreme importance of George +Washington. Had he been cut off after Princeton or had he been forced +to retire through accident, the Revolution would have slackened, lost +head and direction, and spent itself among thinly parcelled rivulets +without strength to reach the sea. Washington was a Necessary Man. +Without him the struggle would not then have continued. Sooner +or later America would have broken free from England, but he was +indispensable to the liberty and independence of the Colonies then. +This thought brooded over him at all times, not to make him boastful +or imperious, but to impress him with a deeper awe, and to impress +also his men with the supreme importance of his life to them all. They +grew restive when, at Princeton, forgetful of self, he faced a volley +of muskets only thirty feet away. One of his officers wrote after the +Trenton campaign: + + 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, makes him fearless of danger. This + occasions us much uneasiness. But Heaven, which has hitherto been + his shield, I hope will still continue to guard so valuable a + life.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 171.] + +Robert Morris, who had already achieved a very important position +among the Patriots of New York, wrote to Washington: + + Heaven, no doubt for the noblest purposes, has blessed you with + a firmness of mind, steadiness of countenance, and patience in + sufferings, that give you infinite advantages over other men. This + being the case, you are not to depend on other people's exertions + being equal to your own. One mind feeds and thrives on misfortunes + by finding resources to get the better of them; another sinks + under their weight, thinking it impossible to resist; and, as the + latter description probably includes the majority of mankind, we + must be cautious of alarming them. + +Washington doubtless thanked Morris for his kind advice about issuing +reports which had some streaks of the rainbow and less truth in them. +He did not easily give up his preference for truth. + + Common prudence [he said] dictates the necessity of duly attending + to the circumstances of both armies, before the style of + conquerors is assumed by either; and I am sorry to add, that this + does not appear to be the case with us; nor is it in my power to + make Congress fully sensible of the real situation of our affairs, + and that it is with difficulty (if I may use the expression) that + I can, by every means in my power, keep the life and soul of this + army together. In a word, when they are at a distance, they think + it is but to say, Presto begone, and everything is done. They + seem not to have any conception of the difficulty and perplexity + attending those who are to execute. + +After the Battle of Princeton, Washington drew his men off to the +Heights of Morristown where he established his winter quarters. The +British had gone still farther toward New York City. Both sides seemed +content to enjoy a comparative truce until spring should come with +better weather; but true to his characteristic of being always +preparing something, Howe had several projects in view, any one of +which might lead to important activity. If ever a war was fought at +long range, that war was the American Revolution. Howe received his +orders from the War Office in London. Every move was laid down; no +allowance was made for the change which unforeseeable contingencies +might render necessary; the young Under-Secretaries who carefully +drew up the instructions in London knew little or nothing about the +American field of operations and simply relied upon the fact that +their callipers showed that it was so many miles between Point X and +Point Y and that the distance should ordinarily be covered in so many +hours. + +With Washington himself the case was hardly better. There were few +motions that he could make of his own free will. He had to get +authority from the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. The Congress +was not made up of military experts and in many cases it knew nothing +about the questions he asked. The members of the Congress were +talkers, not doers, and they sometimes lost themselves in endless +debate and sometimes they seemed quite to forget the questions +Washington put to them. We find him writing in December to beg them to +reply to the urgent question which he had first asked in the preceding +October. He was scrupulous not to take any step which might seem +dictatorial. The Congress and the people of the country dreaded +military despotism. That dread made them prefer the evil system +of militia and the short-term enlistments to a properly organized +standing army. To their fearful imagination the standing army would +very quickly be followed by the man on horseback and by hopeless +despotism. + +The Olympians in London who controlled the larger issues of war and +peace whispered to the young gentlemen in the War Office to draw up +plans for the invasion, during the summer of 1777, of the lower Hudson +by British troops from Canada. General Burgoyne should march down and +take Ticonderoga and then proceed to Albany. There he could meet a +smaller force under Colonel St. Leger coming from Oswego and following +the Mohawk River. A third army under Sir William Howe could ascend +the Hudson and meet Burgoyne and St. Leger at the general +rendezvous--Albany. It was a brave plan, and when Burgoyne started +with his force of eight thousand men high hopes flushed the British +hearts. These hopes seemed to be confirmed when a month later Burgoyne +took Ticonderoga. The Americans attributed great importance to this +place, an importance which might have been justified at an earlier +time, but which was now really passed, and it proved of little value +to Burgoyne. Pursuing his march southward, he found himself entangled +in the forest and he failed to meet boats which were to ferry him over +the streams. + +The military operations during the summer and autumn of 1777 might +well cause the Americans to exult. The British plan of sending three +armies to clear out the forces which guarded or blocked the road from +Canada to the lower Hudson burst like a bubble. The chief contingent +of 8000 men, under General Burgoyne, seems to have strayed from its +route and to have been in need of food. Hearing that there were +supplies at Bennington, Burgoyne turned aside to that place. He +little suspected the mettle of John Stark and of his Green Mountain +volunteers. Their quality was well represented by Stark's address to +his men: "They are ours to-night, or Molly Stark is a widow." He did +not boast. By nightfall he had captured all of Burgoyne's men who were +alive (August 16, 1777). + +Only one reverse marred the victories of the summer. This was at +Oriskany in August, 1777. An American force of 400 or 500 men fell +into an ambush, and its leader, General Herkimer, though mortally +wounded, refused to retire, but continued to give directions to the +end. Oriskany was reputed to be the most atrocious fight of the +Revolution. Joseph Brant, the Mohawk chief, led the Indians, who were +allies of the English. + +In spite of this, Burgoyne seemed to lose resolution, uncertain +whither to turn. He instinctively groped for a way that would take him +down the Hudson and bring him to Albany, where he was to meet British +reenforcements. But he missed his bearings and found himself near +Saratoga. Here General Gates confronted him with an army larger than +his own in regulars. On October 7th they fought a battle, which the +British technically claimed as a victory, as they were not driven from +their position, but it left them virtually hemmed in without a line +of escape. Burgoyne waited several days irresolute. He hoped that +something favorable to him might turn up. He had a lurking hope that +General Clinton was near by, coming to his rescue. He wavered, gallant +though he was, and would not give the final order of desperation--to +cut their way through the enemy lines. Instead of that he sought a +truce with Gates, and signed the Convention of Saratoga (October +17th), by which he surrendered his army with the honors of war, and it +was stipulated that they should be sent to England by English ships +and paroled against taking any further part in the war. + +The victory of Saratoga had much effect on America; it reverberated +through Europe. Only the peculiar nature of the fighting in America +prevented it from being decisive. Washington himself had never dared +to risk a battle which, if he were defeated in it, would render it +impossible for him to continue the war. The British, on the other +hand, spread over much ground, and the destruction of one of their +armies would not necessarily involve the loss of all. So it was +now; Burgoyne's surrender did little to relieve the pressure on +Washington's troops on the Hudson, but it had a vital effect across +the sea. + +Since the first year of the war the Americans had hoped to secure a +formal alliance with France against England, and among the French who +favored this scheme there were several persons of importance. Reasons +were easily found to justify such an alliance. The Treaty of Paris in +1763 had dispossessed France of her colonies in America and had left +her inferior to England in other parts of the world. Here was her +chance to take revenge. The new King, Louis XVI, had for Foreign +Minister Count de Vergennes, a diplomat of some experience, who warmly +urged supporting the cause of the American Colonists. He had for +accomplice Beaumarchais, a nimble-witted playwright and seductive man +of the world who talked very persuasively to the young King and many +others. + +The Americans on their side had not been inactive, and early in 1776 +Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, was sent over +to Paris with the mission to do his utmost to cement the friendship +between the American Colonies and France. Deane worked to such good +purpose that by October, 1776, he had sent clothing for twenty +thousand men, muskets for thirty thousand and large quantities of +ammunition. A fictitious French house, which went by the name of +Hortalaz et Cie, acted as agent and carried on the necessary business +from Paris. By this time military adventurers in large numbers began +to flock to America to offer their swords to the rebellious Colonials. +Among them were a few--de Kalb, Pulaski, Steuben, and Kosciuszko--who +did good service for the struggling young rebels, but most of them +were worthless adventurers and marplots. + +Almost any American in Paris felt himself authorized to give a letter +of introduction to any Frenchman or other European who wished to try +his fortunes in America. One of the notorious cases was that of a +French officer named Ducoudray, who brought a letter from Deane +purporting to be an agreement that Ducoudray should command the +artillery of the Continental army with the rank and pay of a +major-general. Washington would take no responsibility for this +appointment, which would have displaced General Knox, a hardy veteran, +an indefectible patriot, and Washington's trusted friend. When +the matter was taken up by the Congress, the demand was quickly +disallowed. The absurdity of allowing Silas Deane or any other +American in Paris, no matter how meritorious his own services might +be, to assign to foreigners commissions of high rank in the American +army was too obvious to be debated. + +To illustrate the character of Washington's miscellaneous labors in +addition to his usual household care of the force under him, I borrow +a few items from his correspondence. I borrow at random, the time +being October, 1777, when the Commander-in-Chief is moving from place +to place in northern New Jersey, watching the enemy and avoiding an +engagement. A letter comes from Richard Henry Lee, evidently intended +to sound Washington, in regard to the appointment of General Conway to +a high command in the American army. Washington replies with corroding +veracity. + + [Matuchin Hill, 17 October, 1777.] If there is any truth in + the report that Congress hath appointed ... Brigadier Conway a + Major-general in this army, it will be as unfortunate a measure as + ever was adopted. I may add, (and I think with truth) that it + will give a fatal blow to the existence of the army. Upon so + interesting a subject, I must speak plain. The duty I owe my + country, the ardent desire I have to promote its true interests, + and justice to individuals, requires this of me. General Conway's + merit, then, as an officer, and his importance in this army, + exists more in his imagination, than in reality. For it is a maxim + with him, to leave no service of his own untold, nor to want + anything, which is to be obtained by importunity.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 121.] + +It does not appear that Lee fished for letters of introduction for +himself or any of his friends after this experiment. He needed no +further proof that George Washington had the art of sending _complete_ +answers.[2] + +[Footnote 2: For the end of Conway and his cabal see _post_, 112, +113.] + +On October 25, 1777, desertions being frequent among the officers and +men, Washington issued this circular to Pulaski and Colonels of Horse: + + I am sorry to find that the liberty I granted to the light + dragoons of impressing horses near the enemy's line has been most + horribly abused and perverted into a mere plundering scheme. + I intended nothing more than that the horses belonging to the + disaffected in the neighborhood of the British Army, should be + taken for the use of the dismounted dragoons, and expected, that + they would be regularly reported to the Quartermaster General, + that an account might be kept of the number and the persons from + whom they were taken, in order to a future settlement.--Instead of + this, I am informed that under pretence of the authority derived + from me, they go about the country plundering whomsoever they are + pleased to denominate tories, and converting what they get to + their own private profit and emolument. This is an abuse that + cannot be tolerated; and as I find the license allowed them, has + been made a sanction for such mischievous practices, I am under + the necessity of recalling it altogether. You will therefore + immediately make it known to your whole corps, that they are not + under any pretence whatever to meddle with the horses or other + property of any inhabitant whatever on pain of the severest + punishment, for they may be assured as far as it depends upon me + that military execution will attend all those who are caught in + the like practice hereafter.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 141.] + +One finds nothing ambiguous in this order to Pulaski and the Colonels +of Horse. A more timid commander would have hesitated to speak so +curtly at a time when the officers and men of his army were deserting +at will; but to Washington discipline was discipline, and he would +maintain it, cost what it might, so long as he had ten men ready to +obey him. + +Passing over three weeks we find Washington writing from Headquarters +on November 14th to Sir William Howe, the British Commander-in-Chief, +in regard to the maltreatment of prisoners and to proposals of +exchanging officers on parole. + + I must also remonstrate against the maltreatment and confinement + of our officers--this, I am informed, is not only the case of + those in Philadelphia, but of many in New York. Whatever plausible + pretences may be urged to authorize the condition of the former, + it is certain but few circumstances can arise to justify that of + the latter. I appeal to you to redress these several wrongs; and + you will remember, whatever hardships the prisoners with us may be + subjected to will be chargeable on you. At the same time it is but + justice to observe, that many of the cruelties exercised towards + prisoners are said to proceed from the inhumanity of Mr. + Cunningham, provost-martial, without your knowledge or + approbation.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 195.] + +The letter was sufficiently direct for Sir William to understand it. +If these extracts were multiplied by ten they would represent more +nearly the mass of questions which came daily to Washington for +decision. The decision had usually to be made in haste and always +with the understanding that it would not only settle the question +immediately involved, but it would serve as precedent. + +The victory of Saratoga gave a great impetus to the party in France +which wished Louis XVI to come out boldly on the side of the Americans +in their war with the British. The King was persuaded. Vergennes also +secured the cooeperation of Spain with France, for Spain had views +against England, and she agreed that if a readjustment of sovereignty +were coming in America, it would be prudent for her to be on hand to +press her own claims. On February 6, 1778, the treaty between France +and America was signed.[1] Long before this, however, a young French +enthusiast who proved to be the most conspicuous of all the foreign +volunteers, the Marquis de Lafayette, had come over with magnificent +promises from Silas Deane. On being told, however, that the Congress +found it impossible to ratify Deane's promises, he modestly requested +to enlist in the army without pay. Washington at once took a fancy to +him and insisted on his being a member of the Commander's family. + +[Footnote 1: The treaty was ratified by Congress May 4, 1778.] + +While Burgoyne's surrendered army was marching to Boston and +Cambridge, to be shut up as prisoners, Washington was taking into +consideration the best place in which to pass the winter. Several were +suggested, Wilmington, Delaware, and Valley Forge--about twenty-five +miles from Philadelphia--being especially urged upon him. Washington +preferred the latter, chiefly because it was near enough to +Philadelphia to enable him to keep watch on the movements of the +British troops in that city. Valley Forge! One of the names in human +history associated with the maximum of suffering and distress, with +magnificent patience, sacrifice, and glory. + + The surrounding hills were covered with woods and presented an + inhospitable appearance. The choice was severely criticised, and + de Kalb described it as a wilderness. But the position was central + and easily defended. The army arrived there about the middle of + December, and the erection of huts began. They were built of logs + and were 14 by 15 feet each. The windows were covered with oiled + paper, and the openings between the logs were closed with clay. + The huts were arranged in streets, giving the place the appearance + of a city. It was the first of the year, however, before they + were occupied, and previous to that the suffering of the army had + become great. Although the weather was intensely cold, the men + were obliged to work at the buildings, with nothing to support + life but flour unmixed with water, which they baked into cakes at + the open fires ... the horses died of starvation by hundreds, and + the men were obliged to haul their own provisions and firewood. As + straw could not be found to protect the men from the cold ground, + sickness spread through their quarters with fearful rapidity. "The + unfortunate soldiers," wrote Lafayette in after years, "they were + in want of everything; they had neither coats, hats, shirts nor + shoes; their feet and their legs froze till they became black, and + it was often necessary to amputate them." ... The army frequently + remained whole days without provisions, and the patient endurance + of the soldiers and officers was a miracle which each moment + served to renew ... while the country around Valley Forge was so + impoverished by the military operations of the previous summer as + to make it impossible for it to support the army. The sufferings + of the latter were chiefly owing to the inefficiency of + Congress.[1] + +[Footnote 1: F.D. Stone, _Struggle for the Delaware_, vi, ch. 5.] + +No one felt more keenly than did Washington the horrors, of Valley +Forge. He had not believed in forming such an encampment, and from the +start he denounced the neglect and incompetence of the commissions. +In a letter to the President of the Congress on December 3, 1777, he +wrote: + + Since the month of July we have had no assistance from the + quartermaster-general, and to want of assistance from this + department the commissary-general charges great part of his + deficiency. To this I am to add, that, notwithstanding it is a + standing order, and often repeated that the troops shall always + have two days' provisions by them, that they might be ready at + any sudden call; yet an opportunity has scarcely ever offered of + taking an advantage of the enemy, that has not either been totally + obstructed or greatly impeded, on this account. And this, the + great and crying evil, is not all. The soap, vinegar, and other + articles allowed by Congress, we see none of, nor have we seen + them, I believe, since the Battle of Brandywine. The first, + indeed, we have now little occasion for; few men having more than + one shirt, many only the moiety of one, and some none at all. In + addition to which, as a proof of the little benefit received from + a clothier-general, and as a further proof of the inability of + an army, under the circumstances of this, to perform the common + duties of soldiers, (besides a number of men confined to hospitals + for want of shoes, and others in farmers' houses on the same + account,) we have, by a field-return this day made, no less than + two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight men now in camp unfit + for duty, because they are barefoot and otherwise naked. By the + same return it appears, that our whole strength in Continental + troops, including the eastern brigades, which have joined us since + the surrender of General Burgoyne, exclusive of the Maryland + troops sent to Wilmington, amounts to no more than eight thousand + two hundred in camp fit for duty; notwithstanding which, and that + since the 4th instant our numbers fit for duty, from the hardships + and exposures they have undergone, particularly on account of + blankets (numbers having been obliged, and still are, to sit + up all night by fires, instead of taking comfortable rest in a + natural and common way), have decreased near two thousand men. + + We find gentlemen, without knowing whether the army was really + going into winter-quarters or not (for I am sure no resolution of + mine would warrant the Remonstrance), reprobating the measure as + much as if they thought the soldiers were made of stocks or stones + and equally insensible of frost and snow; and moreover, as if they + conceived it easily practicable for an inferior army, under the + disadvantages I have described ours to be, which are by no + means exaggerated, to confine a superior one, in all respects + well-appointed and provided for a winter's campaign within the + city of Philadelphia, and to cover from depredation and waste the + States of Pennsylvania and Jersey. But what makes this matter + still more extraordinary in my eye is, that these very + gentlemen,--who were well apprized of the nakedness of the troops + from ocular demonstration, who thought their own soldiers worse + clad than others, and who advised me near a month ago to postpone + the execution of a plan I was about to adopt, in consequence of a + resolve of Congress for seizing clothes, under strong assurances + that an ample supply would be collected in ten days agreeably to a + decree of the State (not one article of which, by the by, is yet + come to hand)--should think a winter's campaign, and the covering + of these States from the invasion of an enemy, so easy and + practicable a business. I can assure those gentlemen, 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. + However, although they seem to have little feeling for the naked + and distressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and, + from my soul, I pity those miseries, which it is neither in my + power to relieve or prevent. + + It is for these reasons, therefore, that I have dwelt upon the + subject, and it adds not a little to my other difficulties and + distress to find, that much more is expected of me than is + possible to be performed, and that upon the ground of safety and + policy I am obliged to conceal the true state of the army + from public view, and thereby expose myself to detraction and + calumny.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, VI, 259, 262.] + +Mrs. Washington, as was her custom throughout the war, spent part of +the winter with the General. Her brief allusions to Valley Forge would +hardly lead the reader to infer the horrors that nearly ten thousand +American soldiers were suffering. + + "Your Mamma has not yet arrived," Washington writes to Jack + Custis, "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 when 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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: P.L. Ford, _The True George Washington_, 99.] + +While the Americans languished and died at Valley Forge during the +winter months, Sir William Howe and his troops lived in Philadelphia +not only in great comfort, but in actual luxury. British gold paid out +in cash to the dealers in provisions bought full supplies from one of +the best markets in America. And the people of the place, largely made +up of Loyalists, vied with each other in providing entertainment for +the British army. There were fashionable balls for the officers and +free-and-easy revels for the soldiers. Almost at any time the British +army might have marched out to Valley Forge and dealt a final blow to +Washington's naked and starving troops, but it preferred the good food +and the dissipations of Philadelphia; and so the winter dragged on to +spring. + +Howe was recalled to England and General Sir Henry Clinton succeeded +him in the command of the British forces. He was one of those +well-upholstered carpet knights who flourished in the British army at +that time, and was even less energetic than Howe. We must remember, +however, that the English officers who came over to fight in America +had had their earlier training in Europe, where conditions were quite +different from those here. Especially was this true of the terrain. +Occasionally a born fighter like Wolfe did his work in a day, but this +was different from spending weeks and months in battleless campaigns. +The Philadelphians arranged a farewell celebration for General Howe +which they called the _Meschianza_, an elaborate pageant, said to be +the most beautiful ever seen in America, after which General Howe and +General Clinton had orders to take their army back to New York. As +much as could be shipped on boats went that way, but the loads that +had to be carried in wagons formed a cavalcade twelve miles long, and +with the attending regiment advanced barely more than two and a half +miles a day. Washington, whose troops entered Philadelphia as soon as +the British marched out, hung on the retreating column and at Monmouth +engaged in a pitched battle, which was on the point of being a +decisive victory for the Americans when, through the blunder +of General Lee, it collapsed. The blunder seemed too obviously +intentional, but Washington appeared in the midst of the melee and +urged on the men to retrieve their defeat. This was the battle of +which one of the soldiers said afterwards, "At Monmouth the General +swore like an angel from Heaven." He prevented disaster, but that +could not reconcile him to the loss of the victory which had been +almost within his grasp. Those who witnessed it never forgot +Washington's rage when he met Lee and asked him what he meant and then +ordered him to the rear. Washington prepared to renew the battle on +the following day, but during the night Clinton withdrew his army, and +by daylight was far on his way to the seacoast. + +Washington followed up the coast and took up his quarters at White +Plains. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AID FROM FRANCE; TRAITORS + + +This month of July, 1778, marked two vital changes in the war. The +first was the transfer by the British of the field of operations to +the South. The second was the introduction of naval warfare through +the coming of the French. The British seemed to desire, from the day +of Concord and Lexington on, to blast every part of the Colonies with +military occupation and battles. After Washington drove them out +of Boston in March, 1776, they left the seaboard, except Newport, +entirely free. Then for nearly three years they gave their chief +attention to New York City and its environs, and to Jersey down to, +and including, Philadelphia. On the whole, except for keeping their +supremacy in New York, they had lost ground steadily, although they +had always been able to put more men than the Americans could match in +the field, so that the Americans always had an uphill fight. Part of +this disadvantage was owing to the fact that the British had a fleet, +often a very large fleet, which could be sent suddenly to distant +points along the seacoast, much to the upsetting of the American +plans. + +The French Alliance, ratified during the spring, not only gave the +Americans the moral advantage of the support of a great nation, but +actually the support of a powerful fleet. It opened French harbors to +American vessels, especially privateers, which could there take refuge +or fit out. It enabled the Continentals to carry on commerce, which +before the war had been the monopoly of England. Above all it brought +a large friendly fleet to American waters, which might aid the land +forces and must always be an object of anxiety to the British. + +Such a fleet was that under Count d'Estaing, who reached the mouth of +Delaware Bay on July 8, 1778, with twelve ships of the line and four +frigates. He then went to New York, but the pilots thought his heavy +draught ships could not cross the bar above Sandy Hook; and so he +sailed off to Newport where a British fleet worsted him and he was +obliged to put into Boston for repairs. Late in the autumn he took up +his station in the West Indies for the winter. This first experiment +of French naval cooeperation had not been crowned by victory as the +Americans had hoped, but many of the other advantages which they +expected from the French Alliance did ensue. The opening of the +American ports to the trade of the world, and incidentally the +promotion of American privateering, proved of capital assistance to +the cause itself. + +The summer and autumn of 1778 passed uneventfully for Washington and +his army. He was not strong enough to risk any severe fighting, but +wished to be near the enemy's troops to keep close watch on them and +to take advantage of any mistake in their moves. We cannot see how he +could have saved himself if they had attacked him with force. But that +they never made the attempt was probably owing to orders from London +to be as considerate of the Americans as they could; for England in +that year had sent out three Peace Commissioners who bore the most +seductive offers to the Americans. The Government was ready to pledge +that there should never again be an attempt to quell the Colonists by +an army and that they should be virtually self-governing. But while +the Commissioners tried to persuade, very obviously, they did not +receive any official recognition from the Congress or the local +conventions, and when winter approached, they sailed back to England +with their mission utterly unachieved. Rebuffed in their purpose of +ending the war by conciliation, the British now resorted to treachery +and corruption. I do not know whether General Sir Henry Clinton was +more or less of a man of honor than the other high officers in the +British army at that time. We feel instinctively loath to harbor a +suspicion against the honor of these officers; and yet, the truth +demands us to declare that some one among them engaged in the +miserable business of bribing Americans to be traitors. Where the full +guilt lies, we shall never know, but the fact that so many of the +trails lead back to General Clinton gives us a reason for a strong +surmise. We have lists drawn up at British Headquarters of the +Americans who were probably approachable, and the degree of ease with +which it was supposed they could be corrupted. "Ten thousand guineas +and a major-general's commission were the price for which West Point, +with its garrison, stores, and outlying posts, was to be placed in the +hands of the British."[1] The person with whom the British made this +bargain was Benedict Arnold, who had been one of the most efficient of +Washington's generals, and of unquestioned loyalty. Major John Andre, +one of Clinton's adjutants, served as messenger between Clinton +and Arnold. On one of these errands Andre, somewhat disguised, was +captured by the Americans and taken before Washington, who ordered a +court-martial at once. Fourteen officers sat on it, including Generals +Greene, Lafayette, and Steuben. In a few hours they brought in a +verdict to the effect that "Major Andre ought to be considered a spy +from the enemy, and that agreeable to the law and usage of nations, +it is their opinion he ought to suffer death." [2] Throughout the +proceedings Andre behaved with great dignity. He was a young man +of sympathetic nature. Old Steuben, familiar with the usage in the +Prussian army, said: "It is not possible to save him. He put us to no +proof, but a premeditated design to deceive."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Channing, III, 305.] + +[Footnote 2: Channing, III, 307.] + +[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., 307.] + +He was sentenced to death by hanging--the doom of traitors. He did +not fear to die, but that doom repelled him and he begged to be shot +instead. Washington, however, in view of his great crime and as a +most necessary example in that crisis, firmly refused to commute the +sentence. So, on the second of October, 1780, Andre was hanged. + +This is an appropriate place to refer briefly to one of the most +trying features of Washington's career as Commander-in-Chief. From +very early in the war jealousy inspired some of his associates with a +desire to have him displaced. He was too conspicuously the very head +and front of the American cause. Some men, doubtless open to dishonest +suggestions, wished to get rid of him in order that they might carry +on their treasonable conspiracy with greater ease and with a better +chance of success. Others bluntly coveted his position. Perhaps some +of them really thought that he was pursuing wrong methods or policy. +However it may be, few commanders-in-chief in history have had to +suffer more than Washington did from malice and faction. + +The most serious of the plots against him was the so-called Conway +Cabal, whose head was Thomas Conway, an Irishman who had served in the +French army and had come over early in the war to the Colonies to make +his way as a soldier of fortune. He seems to have been one of the +typical Irishmen who had no sense of truth, who was talkative and +boastful, and a mirthful companion. It happened that Washington +received a letter from one of his friends which drew from him the +following note to Brigadier-General Conway: + + A letter, which I received last night, contained the following + paragraph: + + "In a letter from General Conway to General Gates he says, 'Heaven + has been determined to save your country, or a weak General and + bad counsellors would have ruined it.'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 180.] + +It was characteristic of Washington that he should tell Conway at once +that he knew of the latter's machinations. Nevertheless Washington +took no open step against him. The situation of the army at Valley +Forge was then so desperately bad that he did not wish to make it +worse, perhaps, by interjecting into it what might be considered a +matter personal to himself. In the Congress also there were members +who belonged to the Conway Cabal, and although it was generally known +that Washington did not trust him, Congress raised his rank to that of +Major-General and appointed him Inspector-General to the Army. On this +Conway wrote to Washington: "If my appointment is productive of any +inconvenience, or otherwise disagreeable to your Excellency, as I +neither applied nor solicited for this place, I am very ready to +return to France." The spice of this letter consists in the fact that +Conway's disavowal was a plain lie; for he had been soliciting for the +appointment "with forwardness," says Mr. Ford, "almost amounting to +impudence." Conway did not enjoy his new position long. Being wounded +in a duel with an American officer, and thinking that he was going to +die, he wrote to Washington: "My career will soon be over, therefore +justice and truth prompt me to declare my last sentiments. You are +in my eyes the great and good man. May you long enjoy the love, +veneration, and esteem of these states, whose liberties you have +asserted by your virtues."[1] But he did not die of his wound, and in +a few months he left for France. After his departure the cabal, of +which he seemed to be the centre, died. + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 254.] + +The story of this cabal is still shrouded in mystery. Whoever had the +original papers either destroyed them or left them with some one who +deposited them in a secret place where they have been forgotten. +Persons of importance, perhaps of even greater importance than some of +those who are known, would naturally do their utmost to prevent being +found out. + +Two other enemies of Washington had unsavory reputations in their +dealings with him. One of these was General Horatio Gates, who was +known as ambitious to be made head of the American army in place +of Washington. Gates won the Battle of Saratoga at which Burgoyne +surrendered his British army. Washington at that time was struggling +to keep his army in the Highlands, where he could watch the other +British forces. It was easy for any one to make the remark that +Washington had not won a battle for many months, whereas Gates was +the hero of the chief victory thus far achieved by the Americans. +The shallow might think as they chose, however: the backbone of the +country stood by Washington, and the trouble between him and Gates +came to no further outbreak. + +The third intriguer was General Charles Lee, who, like Gates, was +an Englishman, and had served under General Braddock, being in the +disaster of Fort Duquesne. When the Revolution broke out, he took +sides with the Americans, and being a glib and forth-putting person he +talked himself into the repute of being a great general. The Americans +proudly gave him a very high commission, in which he stood second to +Washington, the Commander-in-Chief. But being taken prisoner by the +British, he had no opportunity of displaying his military talents for +more than two years. Then, when Washington was pursuing the enemy +across Jersey, Lee demanded as his right to lead the foremost +division. At Monmouth he was given the post of honor and he attacked +with such good effect that he had already begun to beat the British +division opposed to him when he suddenly gave strange orders which +threw his men into confusion. + +Lafayette, who was not far away, noticed the disorder, rode up to Lee +and remarked that the time seemed to be favorable for cutting off a +squadron of the British troops. To this Lee replied: "Sir, you do not +know the British soldiers; we cannot stand against them; we shall +certainly be driven back at first, and we must be cautious."[1] +Washington himself had by this time perceived that something was wrong +and galloped up to Lee in a towering passion. He addressed him words +which, so far as I know, no historian has reported, not because there +was any ambiguity in them, and Lee's line was sufficiently re-formed +to save the day. Lee, however, smarted under the torrent of reproof, +as well he might. The next day he wrote Washington a very insulting +letter. Washington replied still more hotly. Lee demanded a +court-martial and was placed under arrest on three charges: "First, +disobedience of orders in not attacking the enemy agreeably to +repeated instructions; secondly, misbehavior before the enemy, in +making an unnecessary, disorderly and shameful retreat; thirdly, +disrespect to the Commander-in-Chief in two letters written after the +action."[2] By the ruling of the court all the charges against General +Lee were sustained with the exception that the word "shameful" was +omitted. Lee left the army, retired to Philadelphia, and died before +the end of the Revolution. General Mifflin, another conspicuous member +of the cabal, resigned at the end of the year, December, 1777. So the +traducers of Washington were punished by the reactions of their own +crimes. + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 275, note 1.] + +[Footnote 2: Sparks, 278. Sparks tells the story that when Washington +administered the oath of allegiance to his troops at Valley Forge, +soon after Lee had rejoined the army, the generals, standing together, +held a Bible. But Lee deliberately withdrew his hand twice. Washington +asked why he hesitated. He replied, "As to King George, I am ready +enough to absolve myself from all allegiance to him, but I have some +scruples about the Prince of Wales." (Ibid., 278.)] + +That the malicious hostility of his enemies really troubled +Washington, such a letter as the following from him to President +Laurens of the Congress well indicates. He says: + + I cannot sufficiently express the obligation I feel to you, for + your friendship and politeness upon an occasion in which I am so + deeply interested. I was not unapprized that a malignant faction + had been for some time forming to my prejudice; which, conscious + as I am of having ever done all in my power to answer the + important purposes of the trust reposed in me, could not but give + me some pain on a personal account. But my chief concern arises + from an apprehension of the dangerous consequences, which + intestine dissensions may produce to the common cause. + + As I have no other view than to promote the public good, and + am unambitious of honors not founded in the approbation of my + country, I would not desire in the least degree to suppress a free + spirit of inquiry into any part of my conduct, that even faction + itself may deem reprehensible. The anonymous paper handed to you + exhibits many serious charges, and it is my wish that it should + be submitted to Congress. This I am the more inclined to + the suppression or concealment may possibly involve you in + embarrassments hereafter, since it is uncertain how many or who + may be privy to the contents. + + My enemies take an ungenerous advantage of me. They know the + delicacy of my situation, and that motives of policy deprive me + of the defence, I might otherwise make against their insidious + attacks. They know I cannot combat their insinuations, however + injurious, without disclosing secrets, which it is of the utmost + moment to conceal. But why should I expect to be exempt from + censure, the unfailing lot of an elevated station? Merit and + talents, with which I can have no pretensions of rivalship, have + ever been subject to it. My heart tells me, that it has been my + unremitted aim to do the best that circumstances would permit; yet + I may have been very often mistaken in my judgment of the means, + and may in many instances deserve the imputation of error. (Valley + Forge, 31 January, 1778.)[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 353.] + +Such was the sort of explanation which was wrung from the Silent Man +when he explained to an intimate the secrets of his heart. + +To estimate the harassing burden of these plots we must bear in mind +that, while Washington had to suffer them in silence, he had also to +deal every day with the Congress and with an army which, at Valley +Forge, was dying slowly of cold and starvation. There was literally no +direction from which he could expect help; he must hold out as long as +he could and keep from the dwindling, disabled army the fact that some +day they would wake up to learn that the last crumb had been eaten +and that death only remained for them. On one occasion, after he had +visited Philadelphia and had seen the Congress in action, he unbosomed +himself about it in a letter which contained these terrible words: + + If I was to be called upon to draw a picture of the times and of + men, from what I have seen, and heard, and in part know, I should + in one word say that idleness, dissipation and extravagance + seems to have laid fast hold of most of them. That + speculation--peculation--and an insatiable thirst for riches seems + to have got the better of every other consideration and almost of + every order of men. That party disputes and personal quarrels are + the great business of the day whilst the momentous concerns of an + empire--a great and accumulated debt--ruined finances--depreciated + money--and want of credit (which in their consequences is the want + of everything) are but secondary considerations, and postponed + from day to day--from week to week as if our affairs wear the + most-promising aspect. + +The events of 1778 made a lasting impression on King George III. +The alliance of France with the Americans created a sort of reflex +patriotism which the Government did what it could to foster. British +Imperialism flamed forth as an ideal, one whose purposes must be to +crush the French. The most remarkable episode was the return of the +Earl of Chatham, much broken and in precarious health, to the King's +fold. To the venerable statesman the thought that any one with British +blood in his veins should stand by rebels of British blood, or by +their French allies, was a cause of rage. On April 7, 1778, the great +Chatham appeared in the House of Lords and spoke for Imperialism and +against the Americans and French. There was a sudden stop in his +speaking, and a moment later, confusion, as he fell in a fit. He never +spoke there again, and though he was hurried home and cared for by the +doctors as best they could, he died on the eleventh of May. At the +end he reverted to the dominant ideal of his life--the supremacy of +England. So his chief rival in Parliament, Edmund Burke, who shocked +more than half of England by seeming to approve the nascent French +Revolution, died execrating it. + +The failure of the Commission on Reconciliation to get even an +official hearing in America further depressed George III, and there +seemed to have flitted through his unsound mind more and more frequent +premonitions that England might not win after all. Having made +friendly overtures, which were rejected, he now planned to be more +savage than ever. In 1779 the American privateers won many victories +which gave them a reputation out of proportion to the importance of +the battles they fought, or the prizes they took. Chief among the +commanders of these vessels was a Scotchman, John Paul Jones, who +sailed the Bonhomme Richard and with two companion ships attacked the +Serapis and the Scarborough, convoying a company of merchantmen off +Flamborough Head. Night fell, darkness came, the Bonhomme Richard and +the Serapis kept up bombarding each other at short range. During a +brief pause, Pearson, the British captain, called out, "Have you +struck your colors?" at which Jones shouted back, "I have not yet +begun to fight." Before morning the Serapis surrendered and in the +forenoon the victorious Bonhomme Richard sank. Europe rang with the +exploit; not merely those easily thrilled by a spectacular engagement, +but those who looked deeper began to ask themselves whether the naval +power that must be reckoned with was not rising in the West. + +Meanwhile, Washington kept his uncertain army near New York. The city +swarmed with Loyalists, who at one time boasted of having a volunteer +organization larger than Washington's army. These later years seem +to have been the hey-day of the Loyalists in most of the Colonies, +although the Patriots passed severe laws against them, sequestrating +their property and even banishing them. In places like New York, where +General Clinton maintained a refuge, they stayed on, hoping, as they +had done for several years, that the war would soon be over and the +King's authority restored. + +In the South there were several minor fights, in which now the British +and now the Americans triumphed. At the end of December, 1779, Clinton +and Cornwallis with nearly eight thousand men went down to South +Carolina intending to reduce that State to submission. One of +Washington's lieutenants, General Lincoln, ill-advisedly thought that +he could defend Charleston. But as soon as the enemy were ready, they +pressed upon him hard and he surrendered. The year ended in gloom. The +British were virtually masters in the Carolinas and in Georgia. The +people of those States felt that they had been abandoned by the +Congress and that they were cut off from relations with the Northern +States. The glamour of glory at sea which had brightened them all +the year before had vanished. John Paul Jones might win a striking +sea-fight, but there was no navy, nor ships enough to transport troops +down to the Southern waters where they might have turned the tide +of battle on shore. During the winter the British continued their +marauding in the South. For lack of troops Washington was obliged +to stay in his quarters near New York and feel the irksomeness of +inactivity. General Nathanael Greene, a very energetic officer, next +indeed to Washington himself in general estimation, commanded in +the South. At the Cowpens (January 17, 1781) one of his +lieutenants--Morgan, a guerilla leader--killed or captured nearly all +of Tarleton's men, who formed a specially crack regiment. A little +later Washington marched southward to Virginia, hoping to cooeperate +with the French fleet under Rochambeau and to capture Benedict Arnold, +now a British Major-General, who was doing much damage in Virginia. +Arnold was too wary to be caught. Cornwallis, the second in command of +the British forces, pursued Lafayette up and down Virginia. Clinton, +the British Commander-in-Chief, began to feel nervous for the +safety of New York and wished to detach some of his forces thither. +Cornwallis led his army into Yorktown and proceeded to fortify it, so +that it might resist a siege. Now at last Washington felt that he +had the enemy's army within his grasp. Sixteen thousand American and +French troops were brought down from the North to furnish the fighting +arm he required. + +Yorktown lay on the south shore of the York River, an estuary of +Chesapeake Bay. On the opposite side the little town of Gloucester +projected into the river. In Yorktown itself the English had thrown up +two redoubts and had drawn some lines of wall. The French kept up an +unremitting cannonade, but it became evident that the redoubts must be +taken in order to subdue the place. Washington, much excited, took his +place in the central battery along with Generals Knox and Lincoln and +their staff. Those about him recognized the peril he was in, and one +of his adjutants called his attention to the fact that the place was +much exposed. "If you think so," said he, "you are at liberty to +step back." Shortly afterward a musket ball struck the cannon in the +embrasure and rolled on till it fell at his feet. General Knox took +him by the arm. "My dear General," he exclaimed, "we can't spare you +yet." "It is a spent ball," Washington rejoined calmly; "no harm is +done." When the redoubts were taken, he drew a long breath and said to +Knox: "The work is done, and well done."[1] Lord Cornwallis saw that +his position was desperate, if not hopeless. And on October 16th +he made a plucky attempt to retard the final blow, but he did not +succeed. That evening he thought of undertaking a last chance. He +would cross the York River in flatboats, land at Gloucester, and march +up the country through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. +Any one who knew the actual state of that region understood that +Cornwallis's plan was crazy; but it is to be judged as the last +gallantry of a brave man. During the night he put forth on his +flatboats, which were driven out of their course and much dispersed by +untoward winds. They had to return to Yorktown by morning, and at ten +o'clock Cornwallis ordered that a parley should be beaten. Then he +despatched a flag of truce with a letter to Washington proposing +cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours. Washington knew that +British ships were on their way from New York to bring relief and he +did not wish to grant so much delay. He, therefore, proposed that the +formal British terms should be sent to him in writing; upon which he +would agree to a two hours' truce. It was the morning of the 10th of +October that the final arrangement was made. Washington, on horseback, +attended by his staff, headed the American line. His troops, in +worn-out uniforms, but looking happy and victorious, were massed near +him. Count Rochambeau, with his suite, held place on the left of the +road, the French troops all well-uniformed and equipped; and they +marched on the field with a military band playing--the first time, it +was said, that this had been known in America. "About two o'clock the +garrison sallied forth and passed through with shouldered arms, slow +and solemn steps, colors cased, and drums beating a British march."[2] +General O'Hara, who led them, rode up to Washington and apologized for +the absence of Lord Cornwallis, who was indisposed. Washington pointed +O'Hara to General Lincoln, who was to receive the submission of the +garrison. They were marched off to a neighboring field where they +showed a sullen and dispirited demeanor and grounded their arms so +noisily and carelessly that General Lincoln had to reprove them. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, iv, 378.] + +[Footnote 2: Irving, iv, 383.] + +With little delay Washington went back to the North with his army, +expecting to see the first fruits of the capitulation. There were +nearly seventeen thousand Allied troops at Yorktown of whom three +thousand were militia of Virginia. The British force under Cornwallis +numbered less than eight thousand men. + +Months were required before the truce between the two belligerents +resulted in peace. But the people of America hailed the news of +Yorktown as the end of the war. They had hardly admitted to themselves +the gravity of the task while the war lasted, and being now +relieved of immediate danger, they gave themselves up to surprising +insouciance. A few among them who thought deeply, Washington above +all, feared that the British might indulge in some surprise which they +would find it hard to repel. + +But the American Revolution was indeed ended, and the American +Colonies of 1775 were indeed independent and free. Even in the brief +outline of the course of events which I have given, it must appear +that the American Revolution was almost the most hare-brained +enterprise in history. After the first days of Lexington and Concord, +when the farmers and country-folk rushed to the centres to check +the British invaders, the British had almost continuously a large +advantage in position and in number of troops. And in those early days +the Colonists fought, not for Independence, but for the traditional +rights which the British Crown threatened to take from them. Now they +had their freedom, but what a freedom! There were thirteen unrelated +political communities bound together now only by the fact of having +been united in their common struggle against England. Each had adopted +a separate constitution, and the constitutions were not uniform nor +was there any central unifying power to which they all looked up and +obeyed. The vicissitudes of the war, which had been fought over the +region of twelve hundred miles of coast, had proved the repellent +differences of the various districts. The slave-breeder and the +slave-owner of Virginia and the States of the South had little in +common with the gnarled descendants of the later Puritans in New +England. What principle could be found to knit them together? The war +had at least the advantage of bringing home to all of them the evils +of war which they all instinctively desired to escape. The numbers of +the disaffected, particularly of the Loyalists who openly sided with +the King and with the British Government, were much larger than we +generally suppose, and they not only gave much direct help and comfort +to the enemy, but also much indirect and insidious aid. In the great +cities like New York and Philadelphia they numbered perhaps two fifths +of the total population, and, as they were usually the rich and +influential people, they counted for more than their showing in the +census. How could they ever be unified in the American Republic? How +many of them, like the traitorous General Charles Lee, would confess +that, although they were willing to pass by George III as King, they +still felt devotion and loyalty to the Prince of Wales? + +Some of those who had leaned toward Loyalism, to be on what they +supposed would prove the winning side, quickly forgot their lapse and +were very enthusiastic in acclaiming the Patriotic victory. Those +Irreconcilables who had not already fled did so at once, leaving their +property behind them to be confiscated by the Government. On only one +point did there seem to be unanimity and accord. That was that the +dogged prosecution of the war and the ultimate victory must be +credited to George Washington. Others had fought valiantly and endured +hardships and fatigues and gnawing suspense, but without him, who +never wavered, they could not have gone on. He had among them some +able lieutenants, but not one who, had he himself fallen out of the +command by wound or sickness for a month, could have taken his place. +The people knew this and they now paid him in honor and gratitude for +what he had done for them. If there were any members of the old cabal, +any envious rivals, they either held their peace or spoke in whispers. +The masses were not yet weary of hearing Aristides called the Just. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WASHINGTON RETURNS TO PEACE + + +Nearly two years elapsed before the real settlement of the war. The +English held New York City, Charleston, and Savannah, the strong +garrisons. It seemed likely that they would have been glad to arrange +the terms of peace sooner, but there was much inner turmoil at home. +The men who, through thick and thin, had abetted the King in one plan +after another to fight to the last ditch had nothing more to propose. +Lord North, when he heard of the surrender of Yorktown, almost +shrieked, "My God! It is all over; it is all over!" and was plunged in +gloom. A new ministry had to be formed. Lord North had been succeeded +by Rockingham, who died in July, 1782, and was followed by Shelburne, +supposed to be rather liberal, but to share King George's desire to +keep down the Whigs. Negotiations over the terms of peace were carried +on with varying fortune for more than a year. John Adams, John Jay, +and Benjamin Franklin were the American Peace Commissioners. The +preliminaries between Great Britain and America were signed on +December 30, 1782, and with France and Spain nearly two months +later. The Dutch held out still longer into 1783. Washington, at his +Headquarters in Newburgh, New York, had been awaiting the news of +peace, not lazily, but planning for a new campaign and meditating upon +the various projects which might be undertaken. To him the news of the +actual signing of the treaty came at the end of March. He replied at +once to Theodorick Bland; a letter which gave his general views +in regard to the needs and rights of the army before it should be +disbanded: + + It is now the bounden duty of every one to make the blessings + thereof as diffusive as possible. Nothing would so effectually + bring this to pass as the removal of those local prejudices which + intrude upon and embarrass that great line of policy which alone + can make us a free, happy and powerful People. Unless our Union + can be fixed upon such a basis as to accomplish these, certain + I am we have toiled, bled and spent our treasure to very little + purpose. + + We have now a National character to establish, and it is of the + utmost importance to stamp favorable impressions upon it; let + justice be then one of its characteristics, and gratitude another. + Public creditors of every denomination will be comprehended in the + first; the Army in a particular manner will have a claim to the + latter; to say that no distinction can be made between the claims + of public creditors is to declare that there is no difference in + circumstances; or that the services of all men are equally alike. + This Army is of near eight years' standing, six of which they have + spent in the Field without any other shelter from the inclemency + of the seasons than Tents, or such Houses as they could build for + themselves without expense to the public. They have encountered + hunger, cold and nakedness. They have fought many Battles and bled + freely. They have lived without pay and in consequence of it, + officers as well as men have subsisted upon their Rations. + + They have often, very often, been reduced to the necessity of + eating Salt Porke, or Beef not for a day, or a week only but + months together without Vegetables or money to buy them; or a + cloth to wipe on. + + Many of them do better, and to dress as Officers have contracted + heavy debts or spent their patrimonies. The first see the Doors of + gaols open to receive them, whilst those of the latter are shut + against them. Is there no discrimination then--no extra exertion + to be made in favor of men in these peculiar circumstances, in the + event of their military dissolution? Or, if no worse cometh of it, + are they to be turned adrift soured and discontented, complaining + of the ingratitude of their Country, and under the influence of + these passions to become fit subjects for unfavorable impressions, + and unhappy dissentions? For permit me to add, tho every man in + the Army feels his distress--it is not every one that will reason + to the cause of it. + + I would not from the observations here made, be understood to mean + that Congress should (because I know they cannot, nor does + the army expect it) pay the full arrearages due to them till + Continental or State funds are established for the purpose. They + would, from what I can learn, go home contented--nay--_thankful_ + to receive what I have mentioned in a more public letter of this + date, and in the manner there expressed. And surely this may be + effected with proper exertions. Or what possibility was there of + keeping the army together, if the war had continued, when the + victualls, clothing, and other expenses of it were to have been + added? Another thing, Sir, (as I mean to be frank and free in my + communications on this subject,) I will not conceal from you--it + is the dissimilarity in the payments to men in Civil and Military + life. The first receive everything--the others get nothing but + bare subsistence--they ask what this is owing to? and reasons have + been assigned, which, say they, amount to this--that men in Civil + life have stronger passions and better pretensions to indulge + them, or less virtue and regard for their Country than + us,--otherwise, as we are all contending for the same prize and + equally interested in the attainment of it, why do we not bear the + burthen equally?[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, X, 203.] + +The army was indeed the incubus of the Americans. They could not fight +the war without it, but they had never succeeded in mastering the +difficulties of maintaining and strengthening it. The system of a +standing army was of course not to be thought of, and the uncertain +recruits who took its place were mostly undisciplined and unreliable. +When the exigencies became pressing, a new method was resorted to, and +then the usual erosion of life in the field, the losses by casualties +and sickness, caused the numbers to dwindle. Long ago the paymaster +had ceased to pretend to pay off the men regularly so that there was +now a large amount of back pay due them. Largely through Washington's +patriotic exhortations had they kept fighting to the end; and, with +peace upon them, they did not dare to disband because they feared +that, if they left before they were paid, they would never be paid. +Washington felt that, if thousands of discontented and even angry +soldiers were allowed to go back to their homes without the means of +taking up any work or business, great harm would be done. The love of +country, which he believed to be most important to inculcate, would +not only be checked but perverted. They already had too many reasons +to feel aggrieved. Why should they, the men who risked their lives +in battle and actually had starved or frozen in winter quarters, go +unpaid, whereas every civilian who had a post under the Government +lived at least safely and healthily and was paid with fair +promptitude? They felt now that their best hope for justice lay in +General Washington's interest in their behalf; and that interest of +his seems now one of the noblest and wisest and most patriotic of his +expressions. + +Washington had need to be prepared for any emergency. Thus a body +of officers deliberated not only a mutiny of the army, but a _coup +d'etat_, in which they planned to overthrow the flimsy Federation of +the thirteen States and to set up a monarchy. They wrote to Washington +announcing their intention and their belief that he would make an +ideal monarch. He was amazed and chagrined. He replied in part as +follows, to the Colonel who had written him: + + I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have + given encouragement to an address, which to me seems big with + the greatest mischiefs, that can befall my country. If I am not + deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a + person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. I must add, + that no man possesses a more sincere wish to see ample justice + done to the army than I do; and, as far as my powers and + influence, in a constitutional way, extend, they shall be employed + to the extent of my abilities to effect it, should there be any + occasion. Let me conjure you, then, if you have any regard for + your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for + me, to banish these thoughts from your mind and never communicate, + as from yourself to any one else, a sentiment of the like + nature.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 355.] + +The turmoil of the army continued throughout the year and into the +next. The so-called "Newburgh Address" set forth the quarrel of the +soldiers and Washington's discreet reply. On April 19, 1783, the +eighth anniversary of the first fighting at Concord, a proclamation +was issued to the American army announcing the official end of all +hostilities. In June Washington issued a circular letter to the +Governors of the States, bidding them farewell and urging them to +guard their precious country. Many of the American troops were allowed +to go home on furlough. In company with Governor Clinton he went up +the Hudson to Ticonderoga and then westward to Fort Schuyler. Being +invited by Congress, which was then sitting at Annapolis, he journeyed +thither. Before he left New York City arrangements were made for a +formal farewell to his comrades in arms. I quote the description of it +from Chief Justice Marshall's "Life of Washington": + + This affecting interview took place on the 4th of December. 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 White hall, where a barge + waited to convey him to Powles' hook (Paulus Hook). The whole + company followed in mute and solemn procession, with dejected + countenances, testifying feelings of delicious melancholy, which + no language can describe. Having entered the barge, he turned to + the company; and waving his hat, bade them a silent adieu. They + paid him the same affectionate compliment, and after the barge had + left them, returned in the same solemn manner to the place where + they had assembled.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Marshall, IV, 561.] + +Marshall's description, simple but not commonplace, reminds one of +Ville-Hardouin's pictures, so terse, so rich in color, of the Barons +of France in the Fifth Crusade. The account once read, you can never +forget that majestic, silent figure of Washington being rowed across +to Paulus Hook with no sound but the dignified rhythm of the oars. Not +a cheer, not a word! + +His reception by Congress took place on Tuesday, the twenty-third +of December, at twelve o'clock. Again I borrow from Chief Justice +Marshall's account: + + When the hour arrived for performing a ceremony so well calculated + to recall to the mind the various interesting scenes which had + passed since the commission now to be returned was granted, the + gallery was crowded with spectators, and many respectable persons, + among whom were the legislative and executive characters of the + state, several general officers, and the consul general of France, + were admitted on the floor of Congress. + + The representatives of the sovereignty of the union remained + seated and covered. The spectators were standing and uncovered. + The General was introduced by the secretary and conducted to a + chair. After a decent interval, silence was commanded, and a short + pause ensued. The President (General Mifflin) then informed him + that "the United States in Congress assembled were prepared to + receive his communications." With a native dignity improved by + the solemnity of the occasion, the General rose and delivered the + following address: + + "_Mr. President_: + + "The great events on which my resignation depended, having at + length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere + congratulations to Congress, and on presenting myself before them, + to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me and to + claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country. + + "Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty + and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States, of + becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the + appointment I accepted with diffidence; a diffidence in my + abilities to accomplish so arduous a task, which, however, was + superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the + support of the supreme power of the union, and the patronage of + heaven. + + "The successful termination of the war has verified the most + sanguine expectations; and my gratitude for the interposition of + Providence, and the assistance I have received from my countrymen, + increases with every review of the momentous contest. + + "While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I should do + injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge in this place, the + peculiar services and distinguished merits of the gentlemen who + have been attached to my person during the war. It was impossible + the choice of confidential officers to compose my family should + have been more fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend in + particular, those who have continued in the service to the present + moment, as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of + Congress. + + "I consider it as an indispensable duty to close this last act + of my official life, by commending the interests of our dearest + country, to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the + superintendence of them to his holy keeping. + + "Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great + theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this + august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer + my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public + life." + + After advancing to the chair, and delivering his commission to the + President, he returned to his place, and received standing, the + answer of Congress which was delivered by the President. In the + course of his remarks, General Mifflin said: + + "Having defended the standard of liberty in this new world: having + taught a new lesson useful to those who inflict, and to those who + feel oppression, you retire from the great theatre of action, + with the blessings of your fellow citizens; but the glory of your + virtues will not terminate with your military command: it will + continue to animate remotest ages."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Marshall, IV, 563.] + +The meeting then broke up, and Washington departed. He went that same +afternoon to Virginia and reached Mount Vernon in the evening. We can +imagine with what satisfaction and gratitude he, to whom home was the +dearest place in the world, returned to the home he had seen only once +by chance since the beginning of the Revolution, eight years before. +Probably few of those who had risen to the highest station in their +country said, and felt more honestly, that they were grateful at being +allowed by Fate to retire from office, than did Washington. To be +relieved of responsibility, free from the hourly spur, day and night, +of planning and carrying out, of trying to find food for starving +soldiers, of leading forlorn hopes against the truculent enemy, must +have seemed to the weary and war-worn General like a call from the +Hesperides. Men of his iron nature, and of his capacity for work and +joy in it, do not, of course, really delight in idleness. They may +think that they crave idleness, but in reality they crave the power of +going on. + +It took comparatively little effort for Washington to fall into +his old way of life at Mount Vernon, although there, too, much was +changed. Old buildings had fallen out of repair. There were new +experiments to be tried, and the general purpose to be carried out of +making Mount Vernon a model place in that part of the country. Whether +he would or not, he was sought for almost daily by persons who came +from all parts of the United States, and from overseas. Hospitality +being not merely a duty, but a passion with him, he gladly received +the strangers and learned much from them. From their accounts of their +interviews we see that, although he was really the most natural of +men, some of them treated him as if he were some strange creature--a +holy white elephant of Siam, or the Grand Lama of Tibet. Age had +brought its own deductions and reservations. It does not appear that +parties rode to hounds after the fox any more at Mount Vernon. And +then there were the irreparable gaps that could not be filled. At +Belvoir, where his neighbors the Fairfaxes, friends of a lifetime, +used to live, they lived no more. One of them, more than ninety years +old, had turned his face to the wall on hearing of the surrender at +Yorktown. Another had gone back to England to live out his life there, +true to his Tory convictions. + +Washington had sincerely believed, no doubt, that he was to spend the +rest of his life in dignified leisure, and especially that he would +mix no more in political or public worries; but he soon found that he +had deceived himself. The army, until it officially disbanded at the +end of 1783, caused him constant anxiety interspersed with fits of +indignation over the indifference and inertia of the Congress, which +showed no intention of being just to the soldiers. The reason for its +attitude seems hard to state positively. May it be that the Congress, +jealous since the war began of being ruled by the man on horseback, +feared at its close to grant Washington's demands for it lest they +should bring about the very thing they had feared and avoided--the +creation of a military dictatorship under Washington? When Vergennes +proposed to entrust to Washington a new subsidy from France, the +Congress had taken umbrage and regarded such a proposal as an insult +to the American Government. Should they admit that the Government +itself was not sufficiently sound and trustworthy, and that, +therefore, a private individual, even though he had been a leader of +the Revolution, must be called into service? + +From among persons pestered by this obsession, it was not surprising +that the idea should spring up that Washington was at heart a believer +in monarchy and that he might, when the opportunity favored, allow +himself to be proclaimed king. Several years later he wrote to his +trusted friend, John Jay: + + I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical + form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds + speaking; thence to acting is often but a single step. But how + irrevocable and tremendous! What a triumph for our enemies to + verify their predictions! What a triumph for the advocates of + despotism to find, that we are incapable of governing ourselves, + and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely + ideal and fallacious! Would to God, that wise measures may be + taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much + reason to apprehend.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 285.] + +In the renewal of his life at Mount Vernon, Washington gave almost +as much attention to the cultivation of friendship as to that of his +estate. He pursued with great zest the career of planter-farmer. "I +think," he wrote a friend, "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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 288.] + +The cultivation of his friendships he carried on by letters and by +entertaining his friends as often as he could at Mount Vernon. To +Benjamin Harrison he wrote: "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."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., 289.] + +How constantly the flock of guests frequented Mount Vernon we can +infer from this entry in his diary for June 30, 1785: "Dined with only +Mrs. Washington which, I believe, is the first instance of it since my +retirement from public life." To his young friend Lafayette he wrote +without reserve in a vein of deep affection: + + At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on the + banks of the Potomac; and under the shadow of my own vine and my + own fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp, and the busy + scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil + enjoyments, of which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame, + the statesman, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent + in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the + ruin of other countries, as if this globe was insufficient for us + all, and the courtier, who is always watching the countenance of + his prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile, can have + very little conception. I have not only retired from all public + employments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to + view the solitary walk, and tread the paths of private life, with + heartful satisfaction. Envious of none, I am determined to be + pleased with all; and this, my dear friend, being the order of my + march, I will move gently down the stream of life, until I sleep + with my fathers.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hapgood, 287.] + +In September, 1784, he made a journey on horseback, with a pack-train +to carry his tents and food, into the Northwestern country, which had +especially interested him since the early days when Fort Duquesne was +the goal of his wandering. He observed very closely and his mind was +filled with large imaginings of what the future would see in the +development of the Northwest. Since his youth he had never lost +the conviction that an empire would spring up there; only make the +waterways easy and safe and he felt sure that a very large commerce +would result and with it the extension of civilization. In a memorial +to the legislature he urged that Virginia was the best placed +geographically of all the States to undertake the work of establishing +connection with the States of the Northwest, and he suggested various +details which, when acted upon later, proved to be, as Sparks +remarked, "the first suggestion of the great system of internal +improvements which has since been pursued in the United States." + +On returning to Mount Vernon, he entertained Lafayette for the last +time before he sailed for France. After he had gone, Washington wrote +him this letter in which appears the affection of a friend and the +reverie of an old man looking somewhat wistfully towards sunset, "and +after that the dark": + + 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 connection, + 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, though I wished to say No, my fears answered + Yes. I called to mind the days of my youth, and found they had + long since fled to return no more; that I was now descending the + hill I had been fifty-two years climbing, and that, though I was + blest with a good constitution, I was of a short-lived family and + might soon expect to be entombed in the mansion of my fathers. + These thoughts darkened the shades, and gave a gloom to the + picture, and consequently to my prospect of seeing you again. + +We should not overlook the fact that Washington declined all gifts, +including a donation from Virginia, for his services as General during +the war. He had refused to take any pay, merely keeping a strict +account of what he spent for the Government from 1775 to 1782. This +amounted to over L15,000 and covered only sums actually disbursed by +him for the army. Unlike Marlborough, Nelson, and Wellington, and +other foreign chieftains on whom grateful countrymen conferred +fortunes and high titles, Washington remains as the one great +state-founder who literally _gave_ his services to his country. + +Sparks gives the following interesting account of the way in which +Washington spent his days after his return to Mount Vernon: + + His habits were uniform, and nearly the same as they had been + previous to the war. He rose before the sun and employed himself + in his study, writing letters or reading, till the hour of + breakfast. When breakfast was over, his horse was ready at the + door, and he rode to his farms and gave directions for the day to + the managers and laborers. Horses were likewise prepared for + his guests, whenever they chose to accompany him, or to amuse + themselves by excursions into the country. Returning from his + fields, and despatching such business as happened to be on hand, + he went again to his study, and continued there till three + o'clock, when he was summoned to dinner. The remainder of the day + and the evening were devoted to company, or to recreation in the + family circle. At ten he retired to rest. From these habits + he seldom deviated, unless compelled to do so by particular + circumstances.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sparks, 389, 390.] + +This list does not include the item which Washington soon found the +greatest of his burdens--letter-writing. His correspondence increased +rapidly and to an enormous extent. + + Many mistakenly think [he writes to Richard Henry Lee] that I am + retired to ease, and to that kind of tranquility which would grow + tiresome for want of employment; but at no period of my life, not + in the eight years I served the public, have I been obliged to + write so much myself, as I have done since my retirement.... It + is not the letters from my friends which give me trouble, or add + aught to my perplexity. It is references to old matters, with + which I have nothing to do; applications which often cannot + be complied with; inquiries which would require the pen of a + historian to satisfy; letters of compliment as unmeaning perhaps + as they are troublesome, but which must be attended to; and the + commonplace business which employs my pen and my time often + disagreeably. These, with company, deprive me of exercise, and + unless I can obtain relief, must be productive of disagreeable + consequences.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Irving, IV, 466.] + +When we remember that Washington used to write most of his letters +himself, and that from boyhood his handwriting was beautifully neat, +almost like copper-plate, in its precision and elegance, we shall +understand what a task it must have been for him to keep up his +correspondence. A little later he employed a young New Hampshire +graduate of Harvard, Tobias Lear, who graduated in 1783, who served +him as secretary until his death, and undoubtedly lightened the +epistolary cares of the General. But Washington continued to carry on +much of the letter-writing, especially the intimate, himself; +and, like the Adamses and other statesmen of that period, he kept +letter-books which contained the first drafts or copies of the letters +sent. + +Another source of annoyance, to which, however, he resigned himself as +contentedly as he could, was the work of the artists who came to him +to beg him to sit for his picture or statue. Of the painters the most +eminent were Charles Peale and his son Rembrandt. Of the sculptors +Houdon undoubtedly made the best life-sized statue--that which still +adorns the Capitol at Richmond, Virginia--and from the time it was +first exhibited has been regarded as the best, most lifelike. Another, +sitting statue, was made for the State of North Carolina by the +Italian, Canova, the most celebrated of the sculptors of that day. The +artist shows a Roman costume, a favorite of his, unless, as in the +case of Napoleon, he preferred complete nudity. This statue was much +injured in a fire which nearly consumed the Capitol at Raleigh. +The English sculptor, Chantrey, executed a third statue in which +Washington was represented in military dress. This work used to be +shown at the State House in Boston. + +Of the many painted portraits of Washington, those by Gilbert Stuart +have come to be accepted as authentic; especially the head in the +painting which hung in the Boston Athenaeum as a pendant to that of +Martha Washington, and is now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. But +as I remarked earlier, the fact that none of the painters indicate the +very strong marks of smallpox (which he took on his trip to Barbados) +on Washington's face creates a natural suspicion as to accuracy in +detail of any of the portraits. Perhaps the divergence among them +is not greater than that among those of Mary, Queen of Scots, and +indicates only the marked incapacity of some of the painters who did +them. We are certainly justified in saying that Washington's features +varied considerably from his early prime to the days when he was +President. We have come to talk about him as an old man because +from the time when he was sixty years old he frequently used that +expression himself; although, as he died at sixty-seven, he was never +really "an old man." One wonders whether those who lived among pioneer +conditions said and honestly believed that they were old at the time +when, as we think, middle age would hardly have begun. Thus Abraham +Lincoln writes of himself as a patriarch, and no doubt sincerely +thought that he was, at a time when he had just reached forty. The two +features in Washington's face about which the portraitists differ most +are his nose and his mouth. In the early portrait by Charles Peale, +his nose is slightly aquiline, but not at all so massive and +conspicuous as in some of the later works. His mouth, and with it the +expression of the lower part of his face, changed after he began to +wear false teeth. Is it not fair to suppose that the effigies of +Washington, made in later years and usually giving him a somewhat +stiff and expansive grin, originated in the fact that his false set of +teeth lacked perfect adjustment? + +Thus Washington dropped into the ways of peace; working each day what +would have been a long stint for a strong young man, and thinking, +besides, more than most men thought of the needs and future of the +country to which he had given liberty and independence. His chief +anxiety henceforth was that the United States of America should not +miss the great destiny for which he believed the Lord had prepared it. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WELDING THE NATION + + +The doubt, the drifting, the incongruities and inconsistencies, the +mistakes and follies which marked the five years after 1783 form what +has been well called "The Critical Period of American History." They +proved that the conquests of peace may not only be more difficult than +the conquests of war, but that they may outlast those of war. Who +should be the builders of the Ship of State? Those who had courage +and clear vision, who loved justice, who were patient and humble and +unflagging, and who believed with an ineluctable conviction that +righteousness exalteth a nation; they were the simple fishermen who +in the little church at Torcello predicted the splendor and power of +Venice; they were the stern pioneers of Plymouth and Boston who laid +the foundations of an empire greater than that of Rome. + +It happened that during the American Revolution and immediately +afterward, a larger number of such men existed in what had been the +American Colonies than anywhere else at any other time in history. At +the beginning of the Revolution, within a few weeks of the Declaration +of Independence, some of these men, impelled by a common instinct, +adopted Articles of Confederation which should hold the former +Colonies together and enable them to maintain a common front against +the enemy during the war. The Congress controlled military and civic +affairs, but the framers of the Articles were wary and too timid to +grant the Congress sufficient powers, with the result that Washington, +who embodied the dynamic control of the war, was always most +inadequately supported; and as he fared, so fared his subordinates. + +At the end of the war the Americans found that they had won, not only +freedom, but also Independence, the desire for which was not among +their original motives. Each of the thirteen States was independent; +they all felt the need of a union which would enable them to protect +themselves; of a common coinage and postage; of certain common laws +for criminal and similar cases; of a common government to direct their +affairs with other nations. But by habit and by training each was +local rather than National in its outlook. The Georgian had nothing +in common with the men of Massachusetts Bay whose livelihood depended +upon fisheries, or with the Virginian of the Western border, to whom +his relations with the Indians were his paramount concern. The Rhode +Islander, busy with his manufactures, knew and cared nothing for the +South Carolinian with his rice plantations. How to find a common +denominator for all these? That was the business of them all. + +The one thing which Washington regarded as likely and against which he +wished to have every precaution taken, was a possible attempt of +the English to pick a quarrel over some small matter and bring on +a renewal of the war. Fortunately for the Americans, this did not +happen. Washington knew our weakness so well that he could see how +easy it would be for a bold and determined enemy to do us great if not +fatal harm. But he did not know that the English themselves were in +an almost desperate plight. By Rodney's decisive victory at sea they +began to recover their ascendancy against the Coalition, but it was +then too late to disavow the treaty. In Parliament George III had been +defeated; the defeat meaning a very serious check to the policy which +he had pursued for more than twenty years to fix royal tyranny on the +British people. King George's system of personal government, himself +being the person, had broken down and he could not revive it. Nearly +seventy years were to elapse before Queen Victoria, who was as putty +in the hands of her German husband, Prince Albert, rejoiced that she +had restored the personal power of the British sovereign to a pitch it +had not known since her grandfather George III. + +The American Revolution had illustrated the fatal weakness of the +Congress as an organ of government, and the Articles merely embodied +the vagueness of the American people in regard to any real regime. The +Congress has been much derided for its shortcomings and its blunders, +although in truth not so much the Congress, as those who made it, was +to blame. They had refused, in their timidity, to give it power to +exercise control. It might not compel or enforce obedience. It did +require General Washington during the war to furnish a regular report +of his military actions and it put his suggestions on file where +many of them grew yellow and dusty; but he might not strike, do that +decisive act by which history is born. Their timidity made them see +what he had accomplished not nearly so plainly as the dictator on +horseback whom their fears conjured up. + +During the war the sense of a common danger had lent the Congress a +not easily defined but quite real coherence, which vanished when +peace came, and the local ideals of the States took precedence. Take +taxation. Congress could compute the quota of taxes which each State +ought to pay, but it had no way of collecting or of enforcing payment. +It took eighteen months to collect five per cent of the taxes laid in +1783. Of course a nation could not go on with such methods. No law +binding all the States could be adopted unless every one of the +thirteen States assented. Unanimity was almost unattainable; as when +Governor Clinton of New York withheld his approval of a measure to +improve a system of taxation to which the other twelve States had +assented; so Rhode Island, the smallest of all, blocked another reform +which twelve States had approved. Our foreign relations must be +described as ignominious. Jefferson had taken Franklin's place as +Minister to France, but we had no credit and he could not secure the +loan he was seeking. John Adams in London, and John Jay in Madrid, +were likewise balked. Jay had to submit to the closing of the lower +Mississippi to American shipping. He did this in the hope of thereby +conciliating Spain to make a commercial treaty which he thought +was far more important than shipping. Our people in the Southwest, +however, regarded the closing of the river as portending their ruin, +and they threatened to secede if it were persisted in. Pennsylvania +and New Jersey threw their weight with the Southerners and Congress +voted against the Jay treaty. That was the time when the corsairs of +the Barbary States preyed upon American shipping in the Mediterranean +and seized crews of our vessels and sold them into slavery in Northern +Africa. That there was not in the thirteen States sufficient feeling +of dignity to resent and punish these outrages marks both their +dispersed power and lack of regard for National honor. + +After 1783 the States, virtually bankrupt at home, discordant, fickle, +and aimless, and without credit or prestige abroad, were filled with +many citizens who recognized that the system was bad and must be +amended. The wise among them wrote treatises on the remedies they +proposed. The wisest went to school of experience and sought in +history how confederations and other political unions had fared. +Washington wrote for his own use an account of the classical +constitutions of Greece and Rome and of the more modern states; of the +Amphictyonic Council among the ancient, and the Helvetic, Belgic, and +Germanic among the more recent. John Adams devoted two massive volumes +to an account of the medieval Italian republics. James Madison studied +the Achaian League and other ancient combinations. There were many +other men less eminent than these--there was a Peletiah Webster, for +instance. + +Washington viewed the situation as a pessimist. Was it because the +high hopes that he had held during the war, that America should be the +noblest among the nations, had been disappointed, or was it because he +saw farther into the future than his colleagues saw? On May 18, 1786, +he writes intimately to John Jay: + + ... We are certainly in a delicate situation; but my fear is that + the people are not yet sufficiently _misled_ to retract from + error. To be plainer, I think there is more wickedness than + ignorance mixed in our councils. Under this impression I scarcely + know what opinion to entertain of a general convention. That it + is necessary to revise and amend the Articles of Confederation, I + entertain no doubt; but what may be the consequences of such an + attempt is doubtful. Yet something must be done, or the fabric + must fall, for it certainly is tottering. + + Ignorance and design are difficult to combat. Out of these proceed + illiberal sentiments, improper jealousies, and a train of evils + which oftentimes in republican governments must be sorely felt + before they can be removed. The former, that is ignorance, being + a fit soil for the latter to work in, tools are employed by them + which a generous mind would disdain to use; and which nothing but + time, and their own puerile or wicked productions, can show + the inefficacy and dangerous tendency of. I think often of our + situation, and view it with concern. From the high ground we stood + upon, from the plain path which invited our footsteps, to be so + fallen! so lost! it is really mortifying.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, xi, 31.] + +One of the chief causes of the discontents which troubled the public +was the increasing number of persons who had been made debtors after +the war by the more and more pressing demands of their creditors. +These debtors knew nothing about economics; they only knew that +they were being crushed by persons more lucky than themselves. In +Massachusetts they broke out in actual rebellion named after the man +who led it, Daniel Shays. They were put down by the more or less +doubtful appeal to veterans of the National Army, but their ebullition +was not forgotten as a symptom of a very dangerous condition. In 1786 +representatives from five States met in a convention at Annapolis +to consider the hard times and the troubles in trade. Washington, +Hamilton, and Madison were thought to be behind the convention, which +accomplished little, but made it clear that a large general convention +ought to meet and to discuss the way of securing a strong central +government. This convention was discussed during that summer and +autumn, and a call was issued for a meeting in the following spring +at Philadelphia. Virginia turned first to Washington to be one of its +delegates, but he had sincere scruples against entering public life +again. He wrote to James Madison on November 18th: + + Although I had bid adieu to the public walks of life in a public + manner, and had resolved never more to tread upon public ground, + yet if, upon an occasion so interesting to the well-being of the + confederacy, it should have appeared to have been the wish of the + Assembly to have employed me with other associates in the business + of revising the federal system, I should, from a sense of + obligation I am under for repeated proof of confidence in me, more + than from any opinion I should have entertained of my usefulness, + have obeyed its call; but it is now out of my power to do so with + any degree of consistency.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 87.] + +Washington's disinclination to abandon the quiet of Mount Vernon +and the congenial work he found there, and to be plunged again into +political labors, was perhaps his strongest reason for making this +decision. But a temporary aggravation ruled him. The Society of the +Cincinnati, of which he was president, had aroused much odium in the +country among those who were jealous or envious that such a special +privileged class should exist, and among those who really believed +that it had the secret design of establishing an aristocracy if not +actually a monarchy. Washington held that its original avowed purpose, +to keep the officers who had served in the Revolution together, would +perpetuate the patriotic spirit which enabled them to win, and might +be a source of strength in case of further ordeals. But when he found +that public sentiment ran so strongly against the Cincinnati, he +withdrew as its president and he told Madison that he would vote to +have the Society disbanded if it were not that it counted a minority +of foreign members. Stronger than a desire for a private life and for +the ease of Mount Vernon was his sense of duty as a patriot; so that +when this was strongly urged upon him he gave way and consented. + +Spring came, the snows melted in the Northern States, and through the +month of April the delegates to this Convention started from their +homes in the North and in the South for Philadelphia. The first +regular session was held on May 25th, although some of the delegates +did not arrive until several weeks later. They sat in Independence +Hall in the same room where, eleven years before, the Declaration of +Independence had been adopted and signed. Of the members in the new +Convention, George Washington was easily the first. His commanding +figure, tall and straight and in no wise impaired by eight years' +campaigns and hardships, was almost the first to attract the attention +of any one who looked upon that assembly. He was fifty-five years old. +Next in reputation was the patriarch, Benjamin Franklin, twenty-seven +years his senior, shrewd, wise, poised, tart, good-natured; whose +prestige was thought to be sufficient to make him a worthy presiding +officer when Washington was not present. James Madison of Virginia was +among the young men of the Convention, being only thirty-six years +old, and yet almost at the top of them all in constitutional learning. +More precocious still was Alexander Hamilton of New York, who was +only thirty, one of the most remarkable examples of a statesman who +developed very early and whom Death cut off before he showed any +signs of a decline. One figure we miss--that of Thomas Jefferson of +Virginia, tall and wiry and red-curled, who was absent in Paris as +Minister to France. + +Massachusetts sent four representatives, important but not +preeminent--Elbridge Gerry, Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King, and Caleb +Strong. New York had only two besides Hamilton; Robert Yates and John +Lansing. Pennsylvania trusted most to Benjamin Franklin, but she sent +the financier of the Revolution, Robert Morris, and Gouverneur Morris; +and with them went Thomas Mifflin, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimmons, +Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson--all conspicuous public men at the time, +although their fame is bedraggled or quite faded now. Wilson ranked as +the first lawyer of the group. Of the five from little Delaware sturdy +John Dickinson, a man who thought, was no negligible quantity. + +Connecticut also had as spokesmen two strong individualities--Roger +Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth. Maryland spoke through James McHenry and +Daniel Carroll and three others of greater obscurity. Virginia had +George Washington, President of the Convention, and James Madison, +active, resourceful, and really accomplishing; and in addition to +these two: Edmund Randolph, the Governor; George Mason, Washington's +hard-headed and discreet lawyer friend; John Blair, George Wythe, and +James McClurg. From South Carolina went three unusual orators, John +Rutledge, C.C. Pinckney and Charles Pinckney, and Pierce Butler. +Georgia named four mediocre but useful men. + +In this gathering of fifty-five persons, the proportion between those +who were preeminent for common sense and those who were remarkable for +special knowledge and talents was very fairly kept. Most of them had +had experience in dealing with men either in local government offices +or in the army. Socially, they came almost without exception from +respectable if not aristocratic families. Of the fifty-five, +twenty-nine were university or college bred, their universities +comprising Oxford, Glasgow, and Edinburgh besides the American +Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia. The two +foremost members, Washington and Franklin, were not college bred. +Among the fifty-five we do not find John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, +who, as I have said, were in Europe on official business. John Jay +also was lacking, because, as it appears, the Anti-Federalists did +not wish him to represent them in the Convention; but his influence +permeated it and the wider public, who later read his unsigned +articles in "The Federalist." Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Richard +Henry Lee stayed at home. General Nathanael Greene, the favorite +son of Rhode Island, would have been at the Convention but for his +untimely death a few weeks before the preceding Christmas. + +Owing to delays the active business of the Convention halted, although +for at least a fortnight the members who had come promptly carried on +unofficial discussions. Washington, being chosen President without a +competitor, presided, with perhaps more than his habitual gravity and +punctilio. The members took their work very seriously. The debates +lasted five or six hours a day, and, as they were continued +consecutively until the autumn, there was ample time to discuss many +subjects. The Convention adopted strict secrecy as its rule, so that +its proceedings were not known by the public nor was any satisfactory +report of them kept and published. At the time there was objection to +this provision, and now, after more than a century and a third, we +must regret that we can never know many points in regard to the +actual give and take of discussion in this the most fateful of all +assemblies. But from Madison's memoranda and reminiscences we can +infer a good deal as to what went on. + +The wisdom of keeping the proceedings secret was fully justified. The +framers of the Constitution knew that it was to a large degree a new +experiment, that it would be subjected to all kinds of criticism, but +that it must be judged by its entirety and not by its parts; and that +therefore it must be presented entire. At the outset some of the +members, foreseeing opposition, were for suggesting palliatives and +for sugar-coating. Some of the measures they feared might excite +hostility. To these suggestions Washington made a brief but very noble +remonstrance which seemed deeply to impress his hearers. And no one +could question that it gave the keynote on which he hoped to maintain +the business of the Convention. "It is too probable that no plan we +propose will be adopted," Washington said very gravely. "Perhaps +another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the +people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward +defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest +can repair; the event is in the hand of God."[1] Among the obstacles +which seemed very serious--and many believed they would wreck the +Convention--was the question of slavery. By this time all the northern +part of the country favored its abolition. Even Virginia was on that +side. For practical planters like George Washington knew that it was +the most costly and least productive form of labor. They opposed it on +economic rather than moral grounds. Farther South, however, especially +in South Carolina where the negroes seemed to be the only kind +of laborers for the rice-fields, and in those regions where they +harvested the cotton, the whites insisted that slavery should be +maintained. The contest seemed likely to be very fierce between the +disputants, and then, with true Anglo-Saxon instinct, they sought +for a compromise. The South had regarded slaves as chattels. The +compromise brought forward by Madison consisted in agreeing that five +slaves should count in population as three. By this curious device a +negro was equivalent to three fifths of a white man. Such a compromise +was, of course, illogical, leaving the question whether negroes were +chattels or human beings with even a theoretical civil character +undecided. But many of the members, who saw the illogic quite plainly, +voted for it, being dazzled if not seduced by the thought that it was +a compromise which would stave off an irreconcilable conflict at least +for the present; so Washington, who wished the abolition of slavery, +voted for the compromise along with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the +South Carolinian who regarded slavery as higher than any of the Ten +Commandments. + +[Footnote 1: Fiske, _Critical Period_, 250.] + +The second compromise referred to the slave trade, which was +particularly defended by South Carolina and Georgia. The raising of +rice and indigo in those States caused an increasing death-rate among +the slaves. The slave trade, which brought many kidnapped slaves from +Africa to those States was needed to replenish the number of slaves +who died. Virginia had not yet become an important breeding-place of +slaves who were sold to planters farther south. The members of the +Convention who wished to put an end to this hideous traffic proposed +that it should be prohibited, and that the enforcement of the +prohibition should be assigned to the General Government. Pinckney, +however, keen to defend his privileged institution and the special +interests of his State, bluntly informed the Convention that if they +voted to abolish the slave trade, South Carolina would regard it as a +polite way of telling her that she was not wanted in the new Union. To +think of attempting to form a Union without South Carolina amazed them +all and made them pliable. Although there was considerable opposition +to giving the General Government control over shipping, this provision +was passed. The Northerners saw in it the germs of a tariff act which +would benefit their manufacturers, and they agreed that the slave +trade should not be interfered with before 1808 and that no export tax +should be authorized. + +The third compromise affected representation. The Convention had +already voted that the Congress should consist of two parts, a Senate +and a House of Representatives. By a really clever device each State +sent two members to the Senate, thus equalizing the small and large +States in that branch of the Government. The House, on the other hand, +represented the People, and the number of members elected from each +State corresponded, therefore, to the population. + +As I do not attempt to make even a summary of the details of the +Convention, I should pass over many of the other topics which it +considered, often with very heated discussion. The fundamental problem +was how to preserve the rights of the States and at the same time give +the Central Government sufficient power. By devices which actually +worked, and for many years continued to work, this conflict was +smoothed over, although sixty years later the question of State +rights, intertwined with that of slavery, nearly split the Nation in +the War of Secession. There was much question as to the term for +which the President should be elected and whether by the People or by +Congress. Some were for one, two, three, four, ten, and even fifteen +years. Rufus King, grown sarcastic, said: "Better call it twenty--it's +the average reign of princes." Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur +Morris stood for a life service with provision for the President's +removal in case of malfeasance. These gentlemen, in spite of their +influence in the Convention, stirred up a deep-seated enmity to their +plan. Few instincts were more general than that which drew back from +any arrangement which might embolden the monarchists to make a man +President for a ten or fifteen years' term or for life. This could not +fail to encourage those who wished for the equivalent of an hereditary +prince. The Convention soon made it evident that they would have none +but a short term, and they chose, finally, four years. There was a +debate over the question of his election; should he be chosen directly +by the legislature, or by electors? The strong men--Mason, +Rutledge, Roger Sherman, and Strong--favored the former; stronger +men--Washington, Madison, Gerry, and Gouverneur Morris--favored the +latter, and it prevailed. Nevertheless, the Electoral College thus +created soon became, and has remained, as useless as a vermiform +appendix. + +Towards the end of the summer the Convention had completed its first +draft of the Constitution; then they handed their work over to a +Committee for Style and Arrangement, composed of W.S. Johnson of North +Carolina, Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Madison, and King. Then, on +September 17th, the Constitution of the United States was formally +published. This document, done "by the Unanimous Consent of the States +present," was sent to the Governor or Legislature of each State with +the understanding that its ratification by nine States would be +required before it was proclaimed the law of the land. + +In his diary for Monday, the seventeenth of September, 1787, +Washington makes this entry: + + Met in Convention, when the Constitution received the unanimous + consent of 11 States and Colo. Hamilton's from New York [the only + delegate from thence in Convention], and was subscribed to by + every member present, except Governor Randolph and Colo. Mason + from Virginia, & Mr. Gerry from Massachusetts. + + The business being thus closed, the members adjourned to the City + Tavern, dined together, and took a cordial leave of each other. + After which I returned to my lodgings, did some business with, + and received the papers from the Secretary of the Convention, and + retired to meditate on the momentous wk. which had been executed, + after not less than five, for a large part of the time six and + sometimes 7 hours sitting every day, [except] Sundays & the ten + days adjournment to give a Comee. [Committee] opportunity & time + to arrange the business for more than four months.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 155.] + +One likes to think of Washington presiding over that Convention for +more than four months, seeing one suggestion after another brought +forward and debated until finally disposed of, he saying little except +to enforce the rules of parliamentary debate. No doubt his asides (and +part of his conversation) frankly gave his opinion as to each measure, +because he never disguised his thoughts and he seems to have voted +when the ballots were taken--a practice unusual to modern presiding +officers except in case of a tie. His summing-up of the Constitution, +which he wrote on the day after the adjournment in a hurried letter to +Lafayette, is given briefly in these lines: + + It is the result of four months' deliberation. It is now a child + of fortune, to be fostered by some and buffeted by others. What + will be the general opinion, or the reception of it, is not for me + to decide; nor shall I say anything for or against it. If it be + good, I suppose it will work its way; if bad, it will recoil on + the framers. + +A month later, in the seclusion of Mount Vernon, he spread the same +news before his friend General Knox: + + ... The Constitution is now before the judgment-seat. It has, + as was expected, its adversaries and supporters. Which will + preponderate is yet to be decided. The former more than probably + will be most active, as the major part of them will, it is to be + feared, be governed by sinister and self-important motives, to + which everything in their breasts must yield.... + +The other class, he said, would probably ask itself whether the +Constitution now submitted was not better than the inadequate and +precarious government under which they had been living. If there +were defects, as doubtless there were, did it not provide means for +amending them? Then he concludes with a gleam of optimism: + + ... Is it not likely that real defects will be as readily + discovered after as before trial? and will not our successors be + as ready to apply the remedy as ourselves, if occasion should + require it? To think otherwise will, in my judgment, be ascribing + more of the amor patriae, more wisdom and more virtue to + ourselves, than I think we deserve.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 173.] + +Nearly five months later, February 7, 1788, he wrote Lafayette what we +may consider a more deliberate opinion: + + As to my sentiments with respect to the merits of the new + constitution, I will disclose them without reserve, (although by + passing through the post-office they should become known to + all the world,) for in truth I have nothing to conceal on that + subject. It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that + the delegates from so many different States (which States you + know are also different from each other), in their manners, + circumstances, and prejudices, should unite in forming a system of + national government, so little liable to well-founded objections. + Nor am I yet such an enthusiastic, partial, or indiscriminating + admirer of it, as not to perceive it is tinctured with some real + (though not radical) defects. The limits of a letter would not + suffer me to go fully into an examination of them; nor would the + discussion be entertaining or profitable. I therefore forbear to + touch upon it. With regard to the two great points (the pivots + upon which the whole machine must move), my creed is simply, + + 1st. That the general government is not invested with more powers, + than are indispensably necessary to perform the functions of a + good government; and consequently, that no objection ought to be + made against the quantity of power delegated to it. + + 2nd. That these powers (as the appointment of all rulers will for + ever arise from, and at short, stated intervals recur to, the free + suffrage of the people), are so distributed among the legislative, + executive, and judicial branches, into which the general + government is arranged, that it can never be in danger of + degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any + other despotic or oppressive form, so long as there shall remain + any virtue in the body of the people. + + I would not be understood, my dear Marquis, to speak of + consequences, which may be produced in the revolution of ages, by + corruption of morals, profligacy of manners and listlessness for + the preservation of the natural and unalienable rights of mankind, + nor of the successful usurpations, that may be established at + such an unpropitious juncture upon the ruins of liberty, however + providently guarded and secured; as these are contingencies + against which no human prudence can effectually provide. It will + at least be a recommendation to the proposed constitution, that it + is provided with more checks and barriers against the introduction + of tyranny, and those of a nature less liable to be surmounted, + than any government hitherto instituted among mortals hath + possessed. We are not to expect perfection in this world; but + mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in + the science of government. Should that which is now offered to the + people of America, be found on experiment less perfect than it + can be made, a constitutional door is left open for its + amelioration.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XI, 218-21.] + +Thus was accomplished the American Constitution. Gladstone has said of +it in well-known words that, just "as the British Constitution is the +most subtle organism which has proceeded from the womb and the long +gestation of progressive history, so the American Constitution is so +far as I can see the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given +time by the brain and purpose of man."[1] Note that Gladstone does +not name a single or an individual man, which would have been wholly +untrue, for the American Constitution was struck off by the wisdom and +foresight of fifty-five men collectively. There were among them two +or three who might be called transcendent men. It gained its peculiar +value from the fact that it represents the composite of many divergent +opinions and different characters. + +[Footnote 1: W.E. Gladstone, _North American Review_, September, +1878.] + +Just before the members broke up at their final meeting in +Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin amused them with a characteristic +bit of raillery. On the back of the President's black chair, a +half sun was carved and emblazoned. "During all these weeks," said +Franklin, "I have often wondered whether that sun was rising or +setting. I know now that it is a rising sun." + +The first State to ratify the Constitution was Delaware, on December +6, 1787. Pennsylvania followed on December 12th, and New Jersey +on December 18th. Ratifications continued without haste until New +Hampshire, the ninth State, signed on June 21, 1788. Four days later, +Virginia, a very important State, ratified. New York, which had been +Anti-Federalist throughout, joined the majority on July 26th. North +Carolina waited until November 21st, and little Rhode Island, the +last State of all, did not come in until May 29, 1790. But, as the +adherence of nine States sufficed, the affirmative action of New +Hampshire on June 21, 1788, constituted the legal beginning of the +United States of America. + +No test could be more winnowing than that to which the Constitution +was subjected during more than eighteen months before its adoption. In +each State, in each section, its friends and enemies discussed it at +meetings and in private gatherings. In New York, for instance, it was +only the persistence of Alexander Hamilton and his unfailing oratory, +unmatched until then in this country, that routed the Anti-Federalists +at Poughkeepsie and caused the victory of the Federalists in the +State. In Virginia, Patrick Henry, who had said on the eve of the +Revolution, "I am not a Virginian, but an American," still held out. +Nevertheless, the more the people of the country discussed the matter, +the surer was their conviction that Washington was right when he +intimated that they must prefer the new Constitution unless they could +show reason for supposing that the anarchy towards which the old order +was swiftly driving them was preferable. + +During the autumn of 1788 peaceful electioneering went on throughout +the country. Among the last acts of that thin wraith, the Continental +Congress, was a decree that Presidential Electors should be chosen +on the first Wednesday of January, 1789; that they should vote for +President on the first Wednesday in February, and that the new +Congress should meet on the first Wednesday in March. The State of New +York, where Anti-Federalists swarmed, did not follow the decree--with +the result that that State, which had been behindhand in signing the +Declaration of Independence, failed through the intrigues of the +Anti-Federalists to choose electors, and so had no part in the choice +of Washington as President of the United States. The other ten States +performed their duty on time. They elected Washington President by a +unanimous vote of sixty-nine out of sixty-nine votes cast. + +The Vice-Presidential contest was perplexing, there being many +candidates who received only a few votes each. Many persons thought +that it would be fitting that Samuel Adams, the father of the +Revolution, should be chosen to serve with Washington, the father of +his country; but too many remembered that he had been hostile to the +Federalists until almost the end of the preliminary canvass and so +they did not think that he ought to be chosen. The successful man was +John Adams, who had been a robust Patriot from the beginning and had +served honorably and devotedly in every position which he had held +since 1775. + +On April 14th Washington's election was notified to him, and on the +16th he bade farewell to Mount Vernon, where he had hoped to pass the +rest of his days in peace and home duties and agriculture, and he rode +in what proved to be a triumphal march to New York. That city was +chosen the capital of the new Nation. Streams of enthusiastic and +joyous citizens met and acclaimed him at every town through which +he passed. At Trenton a party of thirteen young girls decked out +in muslin and wreaths represented the thirteen States, and perhaps +brought to his mind the contrast between that day and thirteen years +before when he crossed the Delaware on boats amid floating cakes of +ice and the pelting of sleet and rain. On April 23d he entered New +York City. A week later at noon a military escort attended him from +his lodging to Federal Hall at the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, +where a vast crowd awaited him. Washington stood on a balcony. All +could witness the ceremony. The Secretary of the Senate bore a Bible +upon a velvet cushion, and Chancellor Livingston administered the oath +of office. Washington's head was still bowed when Livingston shouted: +"Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" The +crowds took up the cheer, which spread to many parts of the city and +was repeated in all parts of the United States. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE FIRST AMERICAN PRESIDENT + + +The inauguration of Washington on April 30, 1789, brought a new type +of administration into the world. The democracy which it initiated was +very different from that of antiquity, from the models of Greece and +of Rome, and quite different from that of the Italian republics during +the Middle Age. The head of the new State differed essentially +from the monarchs across the sea. Although there were varieties of +traditions and customs in what had been the Colonies, still their +dominant characteristic was British. According to the social +traditions of Virginia, George Washington was an aristocrat, but in +contrast with the British, he was a democrat. + +He believed, however, that the President must guard his office from +the free-and-easy want of decorum which some of his countrymen +regarded as the stamp of democracy. At his receptions he wore a black +velvet suit with gold buckles at the knee and on his shoes, and yellow +gloves, and profusely powdered hair carried in a silk bag behind. In +one hand he held a cocked hat with an ostrich plume; on his left thigh +he wore a sword in a white scabbard of polished leather. He shook +hands with no one; but acknowledged the courtesy of his visitors by +a very formal bow. When he drove, it was in a coach with four or six +handsome horses and outriders and lackeys dressed in resplendent +livery. + +After his inauguration he spoke his address to the Congress, and +several days later members of the House and of the Senate called on +him at his residence and made formal replies to his Inaugural Address. +After a few weeks, experience led him to modify somewhat his daily +schedule. He found that unless it was checked, the insatiate public +would consume all his time. Every Tuesday afternoon, between three and +four o'clock, he had a public reception which any one might attend. +Likewise, on Friday afternoons, Mrs. Washington had receptions of her +own. The President accepted no invitations to dinner, but at his own +table there was an unending succession of invited guests, except on +Sunday, which he observed privately. Interviews with the President +could be had at any time that suited his convenience. Thus did he +arrange to transact his regular or his private business. + +Inevitably, some of the public objected to his rules and pretended to +see very strong monarchical leanings in them. But the country took +them as he intended, and there can be no doubt that it felt the +benefit of his promoting the dignity of his office. Equally beneficial +was his rule of not appointing to any office any man merely because he +was the President's friend. Washington knew that such a consideration +would give the candidate an unfair advantage. He knew further that +office-holders who could screen themselves behind the plea that they +were the President's friends might be very embarrassing to him. As +office-seekers became, with the development of the Republic, among +the most pernicious of its evils and of its infamies, we can but feel +grateful that so far as in him lay Washington tried to keep them +within bounds. + +In all his official acts he took great pains not to force his personal +wishes. He knew that both in prestige and popularity he held a place +apart among his countrymen, and for this reason he did not wish to +have measures passed simply because they were his. Accordingly, in +the matter of receiving the public and in granting interviews and of +ceremonials at the Presidential Residence, he asked the advice of John +Adams, John Jay, Hamilton, and Jefferson, and he listened to many +of their suggestions. Colonel Humphreys, who had been one of his +aides-de-camp and was staying in the Presidential Residence, acted as +Chamberlain at the first reception. Humphreys took an almost childish +delight in gold braid and flummery. At a given moment the door of the +large hall in which the concourse of guests was assembled was opened +and he, advancing, shouted, with a loud voice: "The President of the +United States!" Washington followed him and went through the paces +prescribed by the Colonel with punctilious exactness, but with evident +lack of relish. When the levee broke up and the party had gone, +Washington said to Colonel Humphreys: "Well, you have taken me in +once, but, by God, you shall never take me in a second time."[1] +Irving, who borrows this story from Jefferson, warns us that perhaps +Jefferson was not a credible witness. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 14.] + +Congress transacted much important business at this first session. +It determined that the President should have a Cabinet of men whose +business it was to administer the chief departments and to advise the +President. Next in importance were the financial measures proposed by +the Secretary of the Treasury. Washington chose for his first Cabinet +Ministers: Thomas Jefferson, who had not returned from Paris, as +Secretary of State, or Foreign Minister as he was first called; +Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; General Henry Knox, +Secretary of War; and Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General. Of these, +Hamilton had to face the most bitter opposition. Throughout the +Revolution the former Colonies had never been able to collect enough +money to pay the expense of the war and the other charges of the +Confederation. The Confederation handed over a considerable debt to +the new Government. Besides this many of the States had paid each its +own cost of equipping and maintaining its contingent. Hamilton now +proposed that the United States Government should assume these various +State debts, which would aggregate $21,000,000 and bring the National +debt to a total of $75,000,000. Hamilton's suggestion that the State +debts be assumed caused a vehement outcry. Its opponents protested +that no fair adjustment could be reached. The Assumptionists +retorted that this would be the only fair settlement, but the +Anti-Assumptionists voted them down by a majority of two. In other +respects, Hamilton's financial measures prospered, and before many +months he seized the opportunity of making a bargain by which the next +Congress reversed its vote on Assumption. In less than a year the +members of Congress and many of the public had reached the conclusion +that New York City was not the best place to be the capital of the +Nation. The men from the South argued that it put the South to a +disadvantage, as its ease of access to New York, New Jersey, and +the Eastern States gave that section of the country a too favorable +situation. There was a strong party in favor of Philadelphia, but +it was remembered that in the days of the Confederation a gang of +turbulent soldiers had dashed down from Lancaster and put to flight +the Convention sitting at Philadelphia. Nevertheless, Philadelphia was +chosen temporarily, the ultimate choice of a situation being farther +south on the Potomac. + +Jefferson returned from France in the early winter. The discussion +over Assumption was going on very virulently. It happened that one day +Jefferson met Hamilton, and this is his account of what followed: + + As I was going to the President's one day, I met him [Hamilton] + in the street. He walked me backwards and forwards before the + President's door for half an hour. He painted pathetically the + temper into which the legislature had been wrought; the disgust + of those who were called the creditor States; the danger of the + secession of their members, and the separation of the States. He + observed that the members of the administration ought to act in + concert; that though this question was not of my department, yet + a common duty should make it a common concern; that the President + was the centre on which all administrative questions ultimately + rested, and that all of us should rally around him and support, + with joint efforts, measures approved by him; and that the + question having been lost by a small majority only, it was + probable that an appeal from me to the judgment and discretion of + some of my friends, might effect a change in the vote, and the + machine of government now suspended, might be again set into + motion. I told him that I was really a stranger to the whole + subject, that not having yet informed myself of the system of + finance adopted, I knew not how far this was a necessary sequence; + that undoubtedly, if its rejection endangered a dissolution of our + Union at this incipient stage, I should deem it most unfortunate + of all consequences to avert which all partial and temporary evils + should be yielded, I proposed to him, however, to dine with me the + next day, and I would invite another friend or two, bring them + into conference together, and I thought it impossible that + reasonable men, consulting together coolly, could fail, by some + mutual sacrifices of opinion, to form a compromise which was to + save the Union. The discussion took place. I could take no part + in it but an exhortatory one, because I was a stranger to the + circumstances which should govern it. But it was finally agreed, + that whatever importance had been attached to the rejection of + this proposition, the preservation of the Union and of concord + among the States was more important, and that, therefore, it would + be better that the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to + effect which some members should change their votes. But it was + observed that this pill would be peculiarly bitter to the Southern + States, and that some concomitant measure should be adopted to + sweeten it a little to them. There had before been projects to fix + the seat of government either at Philadelphia or at Georgetown on + the Potomac; and it was thought that, by giving it to Philadelphia + for ten years, and to Georgetown permanently afterwards, this + might, as an anodyne, solve in some degree the ferment which might + be excited by the other measure alone. So two of the Potomac + members (White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of stomach + almost convulsive) agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton + undertook to carry the other point. In doing this, the influence + he had established over the eastern members, with the agency of + Robert Morris with those of the Middle States, effected his side + of the engagement.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Jefferson's Works_, IX, 93.] + +As a result of Hamilton's bargain, the bill for Assumption was passed, +and it was agreed that Philadelphia should be the capital for ten +years and that afterwards a new city should be built on the banks of +the Potomac and made the capital permanently. + +During the summer of 1789 Washington suffered the most serious +sickness of his entire life. The cause was anthrax in his thigh, and +at times it seemed that it would prove fatal. For many weeks he was +forced to lie on one side, with frequent paroxysms of great pain. +After a month and a half he began to mend, but very slowly, so that +autumn came before he got up and could go about again. His medical +adviser was Dr. Samuel Bard of New York, and Irving reports the +following characteristic conversation between him and his patient: +"Do not flatter me with vain hopes," said Washington, with placid +firmness; "I am not afraid to die, and therefore can bear the worst." +The doctor expressed hope, but owned that he had apprehensions. +"Whether to-night or twenty hence, makes no difference," observed +Washington. "I know that I am in the hands of a good Providence."[1] +His friends thought that he never really recovered his old-time vigor. +That autumn, as soon as Congress had adjourned, he took a journey +through New England, going as far as Portsmouth and returning in time +for the opening of the Second Congress. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 22.] + +The Government was now settling down into what became its normal +routine. The Cabinet was completed by the appointment of Jefferson as +Secretary of State and Edmund Randolph as Attorney-General. Jefferson +would have preferred to go back to France as American Minister, but +in a fulsome letter he declared himself willing to accept any office +which Washington wished him to fill. The Supreme Court was organized +with John Jay as Chief Justice, and five Associate Justices. +Washington could not fail to be aware that parties were beginning to +shape themselves. At first the natural divisions consisted of the +Federalists, who believed in adopting the Constitution, and those +who did not. As soon as the thirteen States voted to accept the +Constitution, the Anti-Federalists had no definite motive for +existing. Their place was taken principally by the Republicans over +against whom were the Democrats. A few years later these parties +exchanged names. A fundamental difference in the ideas of the +Americans sprang from their views in regard to National and State +rights. Some of them regarded the State as the ultimate unit. Others +insisted that the Nation was sovereign. These two conflicting views +run through American history down to the Civil War, and even in +Washington's time they existed in outline. Washington himself was +a Federalist, believing that the Federation of the former Colonies +should be made as compact and strongly knit as possible. He had +had too much evidence during the Revolution of the weakness of +uncentralized government, and yet his Virginia origin and training had +planted in him a strong sympathy for State rights. In Washington's +own Cabinet dwelt side by side the leaders of the two parties: Thomas +Jefferson, the Secretary of State, though born in Virginia of high +aristocratic stock, was the most aggressive and infatuated of +Democrats. Alexander Hamilton, born in the West Indies and owing +nothing to family connections, was a natural aristocrat. He believed +that the educated and competent few must inevitably govern the +incompetent masses. His enemies suspected that he leaned strongly +towards monarchy and would have been glad to see Washington crowned +king. + +President Washington, believing in Assumption, took satisfaction in +Hamilton's bargain with Jefferson which made Assumption possible. For +the President saw in the act a power making for union, and union was +one of the chief objects of his concern. The foremost of Hamilton's +measures, however, for good or for ill, was the protective tariff on +foreign imports. Experience has shown that protection has been much +more than a financial device. It has been deeply and inextricably +moral. It has caused many American citizens to seek for tariff favors +from the Government. Compared with later rates, those which Hamilton's +tariff set were moderate indeed. The highest duties it exacted on +foreign imports were fifteen per cent, while the average was only +eight and a half per cent. And yet it had not been long in force when +the Government was receiving $200,000 a month, which enabled it to +defray all the necessary public charges. Hamilton, in the words of +Daniel Webster, "smote the rock of National resources and copious +streams of wealth poured forth. He touched the dead corpse of public +credit and it stood forth erect with life." The United States of all +modern countries have been the best fitted by their natural resources +to do without artificial stimulation, in spite of which fact they +still cling, after one hundred and thirty-five years, to the easy +and plausible tariff makeshift. Washington himself believed that the +tariff should so promote industries as to provide for whatever the +country needed in time of war. + +Two other financial measures are to be credited to Hamilton. The first +was the excise, an internal revenue on distilled spirits. It met with +opposition from the advocates of State rights, but was passed after +heated debate. The last was the establishment of a United States Bank. +All of Hamilton's measures tended directly to centralization, the +object which he and Washington regarded as paramount. + +In 1790 Washington made a second trip through the Eastern States, +taking pains to visit Rhode Island, which was the last State to ratify +the Constitution (May 29, 1790). These trips of his, for which the +hostile might have found parallels in the royal progresses of the +British sovereigns, really served a good purpose; for they enabled the +people to see and hear their President; which had a good effect in a +newly established nation. Washington lost no opportunity for teaching +a moral. Thus, when he came to Boston, John Hancock, the Governor of +Massachusetts, seemed to wish to indicate that the Governor was the +highest personage in the State and not at all subservient even to +the President of the United States. He wished to arrange it so that +Washington should call on him first, but this Washington had no idea +of doing. Hancock then wrote and apologized for not greeting the +President owing to an unfortunate indisposition. Washington replied +regretting the Governor's illness and announcing that the schedule on +which he was travelling required him to quit Boston at a given time. +Governor Hancock, whose spectacular signature had given him prominence +everywhere, finding that he could not make the President budge, sent +word that he was coming to pay his respects. Washington replied that +he should be much pleased to welcome him, but expressed anxiety lest +the Governor might increase his indisposition by coming out. This +little comedy had a far-reaching effect. It settled the question as to +whether the Governor of a State or the President of the United States +should take precedence. From that day to this, no Governor, so far +as I am aware, has set himself above the President in matters of +ceremonial. + +One of the earliest difficulties which Washington's administration had +to overcome was the hostility of the Indians. Indian discontent and +even lawlessness had been going on for years, with only a desultory +and ineffectual show of vigor on the part of the whites. Washington, +who detested whatever was ineffectual and lacking in purpose, +determined to beat down the Indians into submission. He sent out a +first army under General St. Clair, but it was taken in ambush by the +Indians and nearly wiped out--a disaster which caused almost a panic +throughout the Western country. Washington felt the losses deeply, but +he had no intention of being beaten there. He organized a second army, +gave it to General Wayne to command, who finally brought the Six +Nations to terms. The Indians in the South still remained unpacified +and lawless. + +Washington made another prolonged trip, this time through the Southern +States, which greatly improved his health and gave an opportunity of +seeing many of the public men, and enabled the population to greet for +the first time their President. Meanwhile the seeds of partisan feuds +grew apace, as they could not fail to do where two of the ablest +politicians ever known in the United States sat in the same Cabinet +and pursued with unremitting energy ideas that were mutually +uncompromising. Thomas Jefferson, although born of the old +aristocratic stock of Virginia, had early announced himself a +Democrat, and had led that faction throughout the Revolution. His +facile and fiery mind gave to the Declaration of Independence an +irresistible appeal, and it still remains after nearly one hundred and +fifty years one of the most contagious documents ever drawn up. Going +to France at the outbreak of the French Revolution, he found the +French nation about to put into practice the principles on which he +had long fed his imagination--principles which he accepted without +qualification and without scruple. Returning to America after the +organization of the Government, he accepted with evident reluctance +the position of Secretary of State which Washington offered to him. In +the Cabinet his chief adversary or competitor was Alexander Hamilton, +his junior by fourteen years, a man equally versatile and equally +facile--and still more enthralling as an orator. Hamilton harbored the +anxiety that the United States under their new Constitution would be +too loosely held together. He promoted, therefore, every measure +that tended to strengthen the Central Government and to save it +from dissolution either by the collapse of its unifying bonds or +by anarchy. In the work of the first two years of Washington's +administration, Hamilton was plainly victorious. The Tariff Law, the +Excise, the National Bank, the National Funding Bill, all centralizing +measures, were his. Washington approved them all, and we may believe +that he talked them over with Hamilton and gave them his approval +before they came under public discussion. + +Thus, as Hamilton gained, Jefferson plainly lost. But Washington +did not abandon his sound position as a neutral between the two. He +requested Jefferson and Edmund Randolph to draw up objections to some +of Hamilton's schemes, so that he had in writing the arguments of very +strong opponents. + +Meanwhile the French Revolution had broken all bounds, and Jefferson, as +the sponsor of the French over here, was kept busy in explaining and +defending the Gallic horrors. The Americans were in a large sense +law-abiding, but in another sense they were lawless. Nevertheless, they +heard with horror of the atrocities of the French Revolutionists--of the +drownings, of the guillotining, of the imprisonment and execution of the +King and Queen--and they had a healthy distrust of the Jacobin Party, +which boasted that these things were natural accompaniments of Liberty +with which they planned to conquer the world. Events in France +inevitably drove that country into war with England. Washington and his +chief advisers believed that the United States ought to remain neutral +as between the two belligerents. But neutrality was difficult. In spite +of their horror at the French Revolution, the memory of our debt to +France during our own Revolution made a very strong bond of sympathy, +whereas our long record of hostility to England during our Colony days, +and since the Declaration of Independence, kept alive a traditional +hatred for Great Britain. While it was easy, therefore, to preach +neutrality, it was very difficult to enforce it. An occurrence which +could not have been foreseen further added to the difficulty of +neutrality. + +In the spring of 1793 the French Republic appointed Edmond Charles +Genet, familiarly called "Citizen Genet," Minister to the United +States. He was a young man, not more than thirty, of very quick parts, +who had been brought up in the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, had an +exorbitant idea of his own importance, and might be described without +malice as a master of effrontery. The ship which brought him to this +country was driven by adverse winds to Charleston and landed him there +on April 8th. He lost no time in fitting out a privateer against +British mercantile vessels. The fact that by so doing he broke the +American rule of neutrality did not seem to trouble him at all; on the +contrary, he acted as if he were simply doing what the United States +would do if they really did what they wished. As soon as he had made +his arrangements, he proceeded by land up the coast to Philadelphia. +Jefferson was exuberant, and he wrote in exultation to Madison on the +fifth of May, concluding with the phrase, "I wish we may be able +to repress the spirit of the people within the limits of a fair +neutrality." If there be such things as crocodile tears, perhaps there +may also be crocodile wishes, of which this would seem to be one. A +friend of Hamilton's, writing about the same time, speaks in different +terms, as follows: + + He has a good person, a fine ruddy complexion, quite active, and + seems always in a bustle, more like a busy man than a man of + business. A Frenchman in his manners, he announces himself in all + companies as the Minister of the Republic, etc., talks freely of + his commission, and, like most Europeans, seems to have adopted + mistaken notions of the penetration and knowledge of the people of + the United States. His system, I think, is to laugh us into war if + he can.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 151.] + +Citizen Genet did not allow his progress up the coast to be so +rapid that he was deprived of any ovation. The banquets, luncheons, +speech-makings, by which he was welcomed everywhere, had had no +parallel in the country up to that time. They seemed to be too +carefully prepared to be unpremeditated, and probably many of those +who took part in them did not understand that they were cheering for a +cause which they had never espoused. One wonders why he was allowed to +carry on this personal campaign and to show rude unconcern for good +manners, or indeed for any manners except those of a wayward and +headstrong boy. It might be thought that the Secretary of State +abetted him and in his infatuation for France did not check him; but, +so far as I have discovered, no evidence exists that Jefferson was +in collusion with the truculent and impertinent "Citizen." No doubt, +however, the shrewd American politician took satisfaction in observing +the extravagances of his fellow countrymen in paying tribute to the +representative of France. At Philadelphia, for instance, the city +which already was beginning to have a reputation for spinster +propriety which became its boast in the next century, we hear that +"... before Genet had presented his credentials and been acknowledged +by the President, he was invited to a grand republican dinner, 'at +which,' we are told, 'the company united in singing the Marseillaise +Hymn. A deputation of French sailors presented themselves, and were +received by the guests with the fraternal embrace.' The table was +decorated with the 'tree of liberty,' and a red cap, called the cap +of liberty, was placed on the head of the minister, and from his +travelled in succession from head to head round the table."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Jay's _Life_, I, 30.] + +But not all the Americans were delirious enthusiasts. Hamilton kept +his head amid the whirling words which, he said, might "do us much +harm and could do France no good." In a letter, which deserves to be +quoted in spite of its length, he states very clearly the opinions of +one of the sanest of Americans. He writes to a friend: + + It cannot be without danger and inconvenience to our interests, to + impress on the nations of Europe an idea that we are actuated by + the same spirit which has for some time past fatally misguided the + measures of those who conduct the affairs of France, and sullied + a cause once glorious, and that might have been triumphant. The + cause of France is compared with that of America during its late + revolution. Would to Heaven that the comparison were just! Would + to Heaven we could discern, in the mirror of French affairs, the + same decorum, the same gravity, the same order, the same dignity, + the same solemnity, which distinguished the cause of the American + Revolution! Clouds and darkness would not then rest upon the + issue as they now do. I own I do not like the comparison. When I + contemplate the horrid and systematic massacres of the 2nd and 3rd + of September, when I observe that a Marat and a Robespierre, the + notorious prompters of those bloody scenes, sit triumphantly in + the convention, and take a conspicuous part in its measures--that + an attempt to bring the assassins to justice has been obliged to + be abandoned--when I see an unfortunate prince, whose reign was + a continued demonstration of the goodness and benevolence of his + heart, of his attachment to the people of whom he was the monarch, + who, though educated in the lap of despotism, had given repeated + proofs that he was not the enemy of liberty, brought precipitately + and ignominiously to the block without any substantial proof of + guilt, as yet disclosed--without even an authentic exhibition of + motives, in decent regard to the opinions of mankind; when I find + the doctrine of atheism openly advanced in the convention, and + heard with loud applause; when I see the sword of fanaticism + extended to force a political creed upon citizens who were invited + to submit to the arms of France as the harbingers of liberty; when + I behold the hand of rapacity outstretched to prostrate and ravish + the monuments of religious worship, erected by those citizens and + their ancestors; when I perceive passion, tumult, and violence + usurping those seats, where reason and cool deliberation ought to + preside, I acknowledge that I am glad to believe there is no real + resemblance between what was the cause of America and what is the + cause of France; that the difference is no less great than that + between liberty and licentiousness. I regret whatever has a + tendency to confound them, and I feel anxious, as an American, + that the ebullitions of inconsiderate men among us may not tend to + involve our reputation in the issue.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Hamilton's Works_, 566.] + +Citizen Genet continued his campaign unabashed. He attempted to force +the United States to give arms and munitions to the French. Receiving +cool answers to his demands, he lost patience, and intended to appeal +to the American People, over the head of the Government. He sent his +communication for the two Houses of Congress, in care of the Secretary +of State, to be delivered. But Washington, whose patience had seemed +inexhaustible, believed that the time had come to act boldly. By his +instruction Jefferson returned the communication to Genet with a note +in which he curtly reminded the obstreperous Frenchman of a diplomat's +proper behavior. As the American Government had already requested the +French to recall Genet, his amazing inflation collapsed like a pricked +bladder. He was too wary, however, to return to France which he had +served so devotedly. He preferred to remain in this country, to become +an American citizen, and to marry the daughter of Governor Clinton of +New York. Perhaps he had time for leisure, during the anticlimax of +his career, to recognize that President Washington, whom he had +looked down upon as a novice in diplomacy, knew how to accomplish his +purpose, very quietly, but effectually. A century and a quarter later, +another foreigner, the German Ambassador, Count Bernstorff, was +allowed by the American Government to weave an even more menacing +plot, but the sound sense of the country awoke in time to sweep him +and his truculence and his conspiracies beyond the Atlantic. + +The intrigues of Genet emphasized the fact that a party had arisen and +was not afraid to speak openly against President Washington. He held +in theory a position above that of parties, but the theory did not +go closely with fact, for he made no concealment of his fundamental +Federalism, and every one saw that, in spite of his formal neutrality, +in great matters he almost always sided with Hamilton instead of with +Jefferson. When he himself recognized that the rift was spreading +between his two chief Cabinet officers, he warned them both to avoid +exaggerating their differences and pursuing any policy which must be +harmful to the country. Patriotism was the chief aim of every one, and +patriotism meant sinking one's private desires in order to achieve +liberty through unity. Washington himself was a man of such strict +virtue that he could work with men who in many matters disagreed with +him, and as he left the points of disagreement on one side, he +used the more effectively points of agreement. I do not think that +Jefferson could do this, or Hamilton either, and I cannot rid myself +of the suspicion that Jefferson furnished Philip Freneau, who came +from New York to Philadelphia to edit the anti-Washington newspaper, +with much of his inspiration if not actual articles. The objective +of the "Gazette" was, of course, the destruction of Hamilton and his +policy of finance. If Hamilton could be thus destroyed, it would be +far easier to pull down Washington also. Lest the invectives in the +"Gazette" should fail to shake Washington in his regard for Hamilton, +Jefferson indited a serious criticism of the Treasury, and he took +pains to have friends of his leave copies of the indictment so that +Washington could not fail to see them. The latter, however, by a +perfectly natural and characteristic stroke which Jefferson could not +foresee, sent the indictment to Hamilton and asked him to explain. +This Hamilton did straightforwardly and point-blank--and Jefferson had +the mortification of perceiving that his ruse had failed. Hamilton, +under a thin disguise, wrote a series of newspaper assaults on +Jefferson, who could not parry them or answer them. He was no match +for the most terrible controversialist in America; but he could wince. +And presently B.F. Bache, the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, brought +his unusual talents in vituperation, in calumny, and in nastiness to +the "Aurora," a blackguard sheet of Philadelphia. Washington doubtless +thought himself so hardened to abuse by the experience he had had of +it during the Revolution that nothing which Freneau, Bache, and their +kind could say or do, would affect him. But he was mistaken. And one +cannot fail to see that they saddened and annoyed him. He felt +so keenly the evil which must come from the deliberate sowing of +dissensions. He cared little what they might say against himself, but +he cared immensely for their sin against patriotism. Before his term +as President drew to a close, he was already deciding not to be +a candidate for a second term. He told his intention to a few +intimates--from them it spread to many others. His best friends were +amazed. They foresaw great trials for the Nation and a possible +revolution. Hamilton tried to move him by every sort of appeal. +Jefferson also was almost boisterous in denouncing the very idea. He +impressed upon him the importance of his continuing at that crisis. He +had not been President long enough to establish precedents for the new +Nation. There were many volatile incidents which, if treated with less +judgment than his, might do grievous harm. One wonders how sincere all +the entreaties to Washington were, but one cannot doubt that the great +majority of the country was perfectly sincere in wishing to have him +continue; for it had sunk deep into the hearts of Americans that +Washington was himself a party, a policy, an ideal above all the rest. +And when the election was held in the autumn of 1792, he was reelected +by the equivalent of a unanimous vote. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE JAY TREATY + + +There is no doubt that Washington in his Olympian quiet took a real +satisfaction in his election. On January 20, 1793, he wrote to +Governor Henry Lee of Virginia: + + A mind must be insensible indeed not to be gratefully impressed by + so distinguished and honorable a testimony of public approbation + and confidence; and as I suffered my name to be contemplated on + this occasion, it is more than probable that I should, for a + moment, have experienced chagrin, if my reelection had not been + by a pretty respectable vote. But to say I feel pleasure from the + prospect of commencing another term of duty would be a departure + from the truth,--for, however it might savor of affectation in + the opinion of the world (who, by the by, can only guess at my + sentiments, as it never has been troubled with them), my + particular and confidential friends well know, that it was after a + long and painful conflict in my own breast, that I was withheld, + (by considerations which are not necessary to be mentioned), from + requesting in time, that no vote might be thrown away upon me, it + being my fixed determination to return to the walks of private + life at the end of my term.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XII, 256.] + +Washington felt at his reelection not merely egotistic pleasure for +a personal success, but the assurance that it involved a triumph of +measures which he held to be of far more importance than any success +of his own. The American Nation's new organism which he had set +in motion could now continue with the uniformity of its policy +undisturbed by dislocating checks and interruptions. Much, very much +depended upon the persons appointed to direct its progress, and +they depended upon the President who appointed them. In matters of +controversy or dispute, Washington upheld a perfectly impartial +attitude. But he did not believe that this should shackle his freedom +in appointing. According to him a man must profess right views in +order to be considered worthy of appointment. The result of this was +that Washington's appointees must be orthodox in his definition of +orthodoxy. + +His first important act in his new administration was to issue a +Proclamation of Neutrality on April 22d. Although this document was +clear in intent and in purpose, and was evidently framed to keep +the United States from being involved in the war between France and +England, it gave offence to partisans of either country. They used it +as a weapon for attacking the Government, so that Washington found to +his sorrow that the partisan spites, which he had hoped would vanish +almost of their own accord, were become, on the contrary, even more +formidable and irritating. At this juncture the coming of Genet and +his machinations added greatly to the embarrassment, and, having no +sense of decency, Genet insinuated that the President had usurped the +powers of Congress and that he himself would seek redress by appealing +to the people over the President. I have already stated that, having +tolerated Genet's insults and menaces as far as he deemed necessary, +Washington put forth his hand and crushed the spluttering Frenchman +like a bubble. + +Persons who like to trace the sardonic element in history--the element +which seems to laugh derisively at the ineffectual efforts of us poor +mortals to establish ourselves and lead rational lives in the world as +it is--can find few better examples of it than these early years of +the American Republic. In the war which brought about the independence +of the American Colonies, England had been their enemy and France +their friend. Now their instinctive gratitude to France induced many, +perhaps a majority of them, to look with effusive favor on France, +although her character and purpose had quite changed and it was very +evident that for the Americans to side with France would be against +sound policy and common sense. Neutrality, the strictest neutrality, +between England and France was therefore the only rational course; but +the American partisans of these rivals did their utmost to render this +unachievable. Much of Washington's second term see-sawed between one +horn and the other of this dilemma. The sardonic aspect becomes more +glaring if we remember that the United States were a new-born nation +which ought to have been devoting itself to establishing viable +relations among its own population and not to have been dissipating +its strength taking sides with neighbors who lived four thousand miles +away. + +In the autumn of 1793 Jefferson insisted upon resigning as Secretary +of State. Washington used all his persuasiveness to dissuade him, but +in vain. Jefferson saw the matter in its true light, and insisted. +Perhaps it at last occurred to him, as it must occur to every +dispassionate critic, that he could not go on forever acting as +an important member of an administration which pursued a policy +diametrically opposed to his own. After all, even the most adroit +politicians must sometimes sacrifice an offering to candor, not to say +honesty. At the end of the year he retired to the privacy of his home +at Monticello, where he remained in seclusion, not wholly innocuous, +until the end of 1796. Edmund Randolph succeeded him as Secretary of +State. + +Whether it was owing to the departure of Jefferson from the Cabinet or +not, the fact remains that Washington concluded shortly thereafter +the most difficult diplomatic negotiation of his career. This was +the treaty with England, commonly called Jay's Treaty. The President +wished at first to appoint Hamilton, the ablest member of the Cabinet, +but, realizing that it would be unwise to deprive himself and his +administration of so necessary a supporter, he offered the post to +John Jay, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The quality, deemed +most desirable, which it was feared Jay might lack, was audacity. But +he had discretion, tact, and urbanity in full share, besides that +indefinable something which went with his being a great gentleman. + +The President, writing to Gouverneur Morris, who had recently been +recalled as Minister to France, said: + + My primary objects, to which I have steadily adhered, have been to + preserve the country in peace, if I can, and to be prepared for + war if I cannot, to effect the first, upon terms consistent with + the respect which is due to ourselves, and with honor, justice and + good faith to all the world. + + Mr. Jay (and not Mr. Jefferson) as has been suggested to you, + embarked as envoy extraordinary for England about the middle of + May. If he succeed, well; if he does not, why, knowing the worst, + we must take measures accordingly.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XII, 436. Mount Vernon, June 25, 1794.] + +Jay reached London early in June, 1794, and labored over the treaty +with the British negotiators during the summer and autumn, started for +home before Christmas, and put the finished document in Washington's +hands in March. From the moment of his going enemies of all kinds +talked bitterly against him. The result must be a foregone conclusion, +since John Jay was regarded as the chief Anglo-maniac in America after +Hamilton. They therefore condemned in advance any treaty he might +agree to. But their criticism went deeper than mere hatred of him: it +sprang from an inveterate hatred of England, which dated from before +the Revolution. Since the Treaty of 1783 the English seemed to act +deliberately with studied truculence, as if the Americans would not +and could not retaliate. They were believed to be instigating the +Indians to continuous underhand war. They had reached that dangerous +stage of truculence, when they did not think it mattered whether +they spoke with common diplomatic reticence. Lord Dorchester, the +Governor-General of Canada, and to-day better known as Sir Guy +Carleton, his name before they made him a peer, addressed a gathering +of Indian chiefs at Quebec on the assumption that war would come in a +few weeks. President Washington kept steady watch of every symptom, +and he knew that it would not require a large spark to kindle a +conflagration. "My objects are, to prevent a war," he wrote to Edmund +Randolph, on April 15, 1794, "if justice can be obtained by fair and +strong representations (to be made by a special envoy) of the injuries +which this country has sustained from Great Britain in various ways, +to put it into a complete state of military defence, and to provide +_eventually_ for such measures as seem to be now pending in +Congress for execution, if negotiations in a reasonable time proves +unsuccessful."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIII, 4-9.] + +The year 1794 marked the sleepless anxiety of the Silent President. +Day and night his thoughts were in London, with Jay. He said little; +he had few letters from Jay--it then required from eight to ten weeks +for the mail clippers to make a voyage across the Atlantic. Opposition +to the general idea of such a treaty as the mass of Republicans and +Anti-Federalists supposed Washington hoped to secure, grew week by +week. The Silent Man heard the cavil and said nothing. + +At last early in 1795 Jay returned. His Treaty caused an uproar. The +hottest of his enemies found an easy explanation on the ground that +he was a traitor. Stanch Federalists suffered all varieties of +mortification. Washington himself entered into no discussion, but he +ruminated over those which came to him. I am not sure that he +invented the phrase "Either the Treaty, or war," which summed up the +alternatives which confronted Jay; but he used it with convincing +emphasis. When it came before the Senate, both sides had gathered +every available supporter, and the vote showed only a majority of +one in its favor. Still, it passed. But that did not satisfy its +pertinacious enemies. Neither were they restrained by the President's +proclamation. The Constitution assigned the duty of negotiating and +ratifying treaties to the President and Senate; but to the perfervid +Anti-Britishers the Constitution was no more than an old cobweb to be +brushed away at pleasure. The Jay Treaty could not be put into effect +without money for expenses; all bills involving money must pass the +House of Representatives; therefore, the House would actually control +the operation of the Treaty. + +The House at this time was Republican by a marked majority. In March, +1796, the President laid the matter before the House. In a twinkling +the floodgates of speechifying burst open; the debates touched +every aspect of the question. James Madison, the wise supporter of +Washington and Hamilton in earlier days and the fellow worker on "The +Federalist," led the Democrats in their furious attacks. He was ably +seconded by Albert Gallatin, the high-minded young Swiss doctrinaire +from Geneva, a terrible man, in whose head principles became two-edged +weapons with Calvinistic precision and mercilessness. The Democrats +requested the President to let them see the correspondence in +reference to the Treaty during its preparation. This he wisely +declined to do. The Constitution did not recognize their right to make +the demand, and he foresaw that, if granted by him then, it might be +used as a harmful precedent. + +For many weeks the controversy waxed hot in the House. Scores of +speakers hammered at every argument, yet only one speech eclipsed +all the rest, and remains now, after one hundred and thirty years, a +paragon. There are historians who assert that this was the greatest +speech delivered in Congress before Daniel Webster spoke there--an +implication which might lead irreverent critics to whisper that too +much reading may have dulled their discrimination. But fortunately not +only the text of the speech remains; we have also ample evidence of +the effect it produced on its hearers. Fisher Ames, a Representative +from Massachusetts, uttered it. He was a young lawyer, feeble in +health, but burning, after the manner of some consumptives, with +intellectual and moral fire which strangely belied his slender thread +of physical life. Ames pictured the horrors which would ensue if the +Treaty were rejected. Quite naturally he assumed the part of a man +on the verge of the grave, which increased the impressiveness of his +words. He spoke for three hours. The members of the House listened +with feverish attention; the crowds in the balconies could not smother +their emotion. One witness reports that Vice-President John Adams sat +in the gallery, the tears running down his cheeks, and that he said to +the friend beside him, "My God, how great he is!" + +When Ames began, no doubt the Anti-British groups which swelled +the audience turned towards him an unsympathetic if not a scornful +attention--they had already taken a poll of their members, from which +it appeared that they could count on a majority of six to defeat the +Treaty. As he proceeded, however, and they observed how deeply he was +moving the audience, they may have had to keep up their courage by +reflecting that speeches in Congress rarely change votes. They are +intended to be read by the public outside, which is not under the +spell of the orator or the crowd. But when Fisher Ames, after what +must have seemed to them a whirlwind speech, closed with these solemn, +restrained words, they must have doubted whether their victory was +won: + + Even the minutes I have spent in expostulating, have their value [he + said] because they protract the crisis and the short period in which + alone we may resolve to escape it. Yet I have, perhaps, as little + personal interest in the event as any one here. There is, I believe, no + member, who will not think his chance to be a witness of the + consequences greater than mine. If, however, the vote should pass to + reject--even I, slender and almost broken as my hold on life is, may + outlive the government and Constitution of my country.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Elson, 359.] + +The next day when the vote was taken it appeared that the Republicans, +instead of winning by a majority of six, had lost by three. + +The person who really triumphed was George Washington, although Fisher +Ames, who won the immediate victory, deserved undying laurel. The +Treaty had all the objections that its critics brought against it +then, but it had one sterling virtue which outweighed them all. It not +only made peace between the United States and Great Britain the normal +condition, but it removed the likelihood that the wrangling over petty +matters might lead to war. For many years Washington had a fixed idea +that if the new country could live for twenty years without a conflict +with its chief neighbors, its future would be safe; for he felt that +at the end of that time it would have grown so strong by the natural +increase in population and by the strength that comes from developing +its resources, that it need not fear the attack of any people in the +world. The Jay Treaty helped towards this end; it prevented war for +sixteen years only; but even that delay was of great service to the +Americans and made them more ready to face it than they would have +been in 1795. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WASHINGTON RETIRES FROM PUBLIC LIFE + + +The Treaty with England had scarely been put in operation before the +Treaty with France, of which Washington also felt the importance, came +to the front. Monroe was not an aggressive agent. Perhaps very +few civilized Americans could have filled that position to the +satisfaction of his American countrymen. They wished the French to +acknowledge and explain various acts which they qualified as outrages, +whereas the French regarded as glories what they called grievances. +The men of the Directory which now ruled France did not profess the +atrocious methods of the Terrorists, but they could not afford in +treating with a foreigner to disavow the Terrorists. In the summer of +'96, Washington, being dissatisfied with Monroe's results, recalled +him, and sent in his place Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, to whom +President Adams afterwards added John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, +forming a Commission of three. Some of the President's critics have +regarded his treatment of Monroe as unfair, and they imply that it +was inspired by partisanship. He had always been an undisguised +Federalist, whereas Monroe, during the past year or more, had followed +Jefferson and become an unswerving Democrat. The publication here of +a copy of Monroe's letter to the French Committee of Public Safety +caused a sensation; for he had asserted that he was not instructed to +ask for the repeal of the French decrees by which the spoliation of +American commerce had been practised, and he added that if the decrees +benefited France, the United States would submit not only with +patience but with pleasure. What wonder that Washington, in reading +this letter and taking in the full enormity of Monroe's words, should +have allowed himself the exclamation, "Extraordinary!" What wonder +that in due course of time he recalled Monroe from Paris and replaced +him with a man whom he could trust! + +The settlement of affairs with France did not come until after +Washington ceased to be President. I will, therefore, say no more +about it, except to refer to the outrageous conduct of the French, who +hurried two of the Commissioners out of France, and, apparently at the +instigation of Talleyrand, declared that they must pay a great deal of +money before they made any arrangement, to which Charles Pinckney made +the famous rejoinder, "Millions for defence, but not one cent for +tribute." The negotiations became so stormy that war seemed imminent. +Congress authorized President Adams to enlist ten thousand men to be +put into the field in case of need, and he wrote to Washington: "We +must have your name, if you will in any case permit us to use it. +There will be more efficacy in it than in many an army." McHenry, the +Secretary of War, wrote: "You see how the storm thickens, and that our +vessel will soon require its ancient pilot. Will you--may we flatter +ourselves, that in a crisis so awful and important, you will accept +the command of all our armies? I hope you will, because you alone can +unite all hearts and all hands, if it is possible that they can be +united."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 290.] + +To President Adams Washington replied on July 4, 1799: "As my whole +life has been dedicated to my country in one shape or another, for the +poor remains of it, it is not an object to contend for ease and quiet, +when all that is valuable is at stake, further than to be satisfied +that the sacrifice I should make of these, is acceptable and desired +by my country."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., 291.] + +Congress voted to restore for Washington the rank of +Commander-in-Chief, and he agreed with the Secretary of War that the +three Major-Generals should be Alexander Hamilton, Inspector-General; +Charles C. Pinckney, who was still in Europe; and Henry Knox. But a +change came over the passions of France; Napoleon Bonaparte, the new +despot who had taken control of that hysterical republic for himself, +was now aspiring to something higher and larger than the humiliation +of the United States and his menace in that direction ceased. + +We need to note two or three events before Washington's term ended +because they were thoroughly characteristic. First of these was the +Whiskey Insurrection in western Pennsylvania. The inhabitants first +grew surly, then broke out in insurrection on account of the Excise +Law. They found it cheaper to convert their corn and grain into +whiskey, which could be more easily transported, but the Government +insisted that the Excise Law, being a law, should be obeyed. The +malcontents held a great mass meeting on Braddock's Field, denounced +the law and declared that they would not obey it. Washington issued a +proclamation calling upon the people to resume their peaceable life. +He called also on the Governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New +Jersey, and Virginia for troops, which they furnished. His right-hand +lieutenant was Alexander Hamilton, who felt quite as keenly as he +did himself the importance of putting down such an insurrection. +Washington knew that if any body of the people were allowed unpunished +to rise and disobey any law which pinched or irritated them, all law +and order would very soon go by the board. His action was one of the +great examples in government which he set the people of the United +States. He showed that we must never parley or haggle with sedition, +treason, or lawlessness, but must strike a blow that cannot be +parried, and at once. The Whiskey Insurrectionists may have imagined +that they were too remote to be reached in their western wilderness, +but he taught them a most salutary lesson that, as they were in the +Union, the power of the Union could and would reach them. + +One of the matters which Washington could not have foreseen was the +outrageous abuse of the press, which surpassed in virulence and +indecency anything hitherto known in the United States. At first the +journalistic thugs took care not to vilify Washington personally, +but, as they became more outrageous, they spared neither him nor his +family. Freneau, Bache, and Giles were among the most malignant of +these infamous men; and most suspicious is it that two of them at +least were proteges of Thomas Jefferson. Once, when the attack was +particularly atrocious, and the average citizen might well be excused +if he believed that Jefferson wrote it, Jefferson, unmindful of the +full bearing of the French proverb, _Qui s'excuse s'accuse_, wrote +to Washington exculpating himself and protesting that he was not the +author of that particular attack, and added that he had never written +any article of that kind for the press. Many years later the editor of +that newspaper, one of the most shameless of the malignants, calmly +reported in a batch of reminiscences that Jefferson did contribute +many of the most flagrant articles. Senator Lodge, in commenting +on this affair, caustically remarks: "Strict veracity was not the +strongest characteristic of either Freneau or Jefferson, and it is +really of but little consequence whether Freneau was lying in his old +age or in the prime of life."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 223.] + +An unbiassed searcher after truth to-day will find that the +circumstantial evidence runs very strongly against Jefferson. He +brought Freneau over from New York to Philadelphia, he knew the sort +of work that Freneau would and could do, he gave him an office in the +State Department, he probably discussed the topics which the "National +Gazette" was to take up, and he probably read the proof of the +articles which that paper was to publish. In his animosities the cloak +of charity neither became him nor fitted him. + +Several years later, when Bache's paper, the "Aurora," printed some +material which Washington's enemies hoped would damage him, Jefferson +again took alarm and wrote to Washington to free himself from blame. +To him, the magnanimous President replied in part: + + If I had entertained any suspicions before, that the queries, + which have been published in Bache's paper, proceeded from you, + the assurances you have given of the contrary would have removed + them; but the truth is, I harbored none. I am at no loss to + _conjecture_ from what source they flowed, through what channel + they were conveyed, and for what purpose they and similar + publications appear. They were known to be in the hands of Mr. + Parker in the early part of the last session of Congress. They + were shown about by Mr. Giles during the session, and they made + their public exhibition about the close of it. + + Perceiving and probably hearing, that no abuse in the gazettes + would induce me to take notice of anonymous publications against + me, those, who were disposed to do me _such friendly offices_, + have embraced without restraint every opportunity to weaken the + confidence of the people; and, by having the whole game in their + hands, they have scrupled not to publish things that do not, as + well as those which do exist, and to mutilate the latter, so as to + make them subserve the purposes which they have in view.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIII, 229.] + +Washington's opinion of the scurrilous crusade against him, he +expressed in the following letter to Henry Lee: + + But in what will this abuse terminate? For the result, as it + respects myself, I care not; for I have a consolation within that + no earthly efforts can deprive me of, and that is, that neither + ambition 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 up as a mark, they will be continually aimed. The publications + in Freneau's and Bache's papers are outrages 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. The tendency + of them, however, is too obvious to be mistaken by men of cool + and dispassionate minds, and, in my opinion, ought to alarm them, + because it is difficult to prescribe bounds to the effect.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 236.] + +By his refusal to take notice of these indecencies, Washington set a +high example. In other countries, in France and England, for example, +the victims of such abuse resorted to duels with their abusers: a very +foolish and inadequate practice, since it happened as often as not +that the aggrieved person was killed. In taking no notice of the +calumnies, therefore, Washington prevented the President of the United +States from being drawn into an unseemly duel. We cannot fail to +recognize also that Washington was very sensitive to the maintenance +of freedom of speech. He seems to have acted on the belief that it was +better that occasionally license should degenerate into abuse than +that liberty should be suppressed. He was the President of the first +government in the world which did not control the utterances of its +people. Perhaps he may have supposed that their patriotism would +restrain them from excesses, and there can be no doubt that the insane +gibes of the Freneaus and the Baches gave him much pain because they +proved that those scorpions were not up to the level which the new +Nation offered them. + +As the time for the conclusion of Washington's second term drew near, +he left no doubt as to his intentions. Though some of his best friends +urged him to stand for reelection, he firmly declined. He felt that he +had done enough for his country in sacrificing the last eight years to +it. He had seen it through its formative period, and had, he thought, +steered it into clear, quiet water, so that there was no threatening +danger to demand his continuance at the helm. Many persons thought +that he was more than glad to be relieved of the increasing abuse of +the scurrilous editors. No doubt he was, but we can hardly agree that +merely for the sake of that relief he would abandon his Presidential +post. But does it not seem more likely that his unwillingness to +convert the Presidency into a life office, and so to give the critics +of the American experiment a valid cause for opposition, led him to +establish the precedent that two terms were enough? More than once in +the century and a quarter since he retired in 1797, over-ambitious +Presidents have schemed to win a third election and flattering +sycophants have encouraged them to believe that they could attain it. +But before they came to the test Washington's example--"no more than +two"--has blocked their advance. In this respect also we must admit +that he looked far into the future and saw what would be best for +posterity. The second term as it has proved is bad enough, diverting +a President during his first term to devote much of his energy and +attention to setting traps to secure the second. It might be better +to have only one term to last six years, instead of four, which would +enable a President to give all his time to the duties of his office, +instead of giving a large part of it to the chase after a reelection. + +As soon as Washington determined irrevocably to retire, he began +thinking of the "Farewell Address" which he desired to deliver to his +countrymen as the best legacy he could bequeath. Several years before +he had talked it over with Madison, with whom he was then on very +friendly terms, and Madison had drafted a good deal of it. Now he +turned to Hamilton, giving him the topics as far as they had been +outlined, and bidding him to rewrite it if he thought it desirable. In +September, 1796, Washington read the "Address" before the assembled +Congress. + +The "Farewell Address" belongs among the few supreme utterances on +human government. Its author seems to be completely detached from all +personal or local interests. He tries to see the thing as it is, and +as it is likely to be in its American environment. His advice applies +directly to the American people, and only in so far as what he says +has in a large sense human pertinence do we find in it more than a +local application. + +"Be united" is the summary and inspiration of the entire "Address." +"Be united and be American"; as an individual each person must feel +himself most strongly an American. He urges against the poisonous +effects of parties. He warns against the evils that may arise when +parties choose different foreign nations for their favorites. + + The great rule of conduct for us [he says] in regard to foreign + Nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with + them as little _Political_ connection as possible. So far as + we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with + perfect good faith. Here let us stop. + + Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or + a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent + controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our + concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate + ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her + politics, ... or enmities. + + Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to + pursue a different course. If we remain one People, under an + efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may defy + material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an + attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve + upon to be scrupulously respected. When belligerent nations, under + the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly + hazard the giving us provocation when we may choose peace or war, + as our interest guided by justice shall counsel. + + Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our + own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny + with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity + in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour or + caprice? + +Compared with Machiavelli's "Prince," which must come to the mind of +every one who reads the "Farewell Address," one sees at once that the +"Prince" is more limber, it may be more spontaneous, but the great +difference between the two is in their fundamental conception. The +"Address" is frankly a preachment and much of its impressiveness comes +from that fact. The "Prince," on the other hand, has little concern +with the moral aspect of politics discussed and makes no pretence of +condemning immoral practices or making itself a champion of virtue. In +other words, Washington addresses an audience which had passed through +the Puritan Revolution, while Machiavelli spoke to men who were +familiar with the ideals and crimes of the Italian Renaissance. + +Washington spread his gospel so clearly that all persons were sure to +learn and inwardly digest it, and many of them assented to it in their +minds, although they did not follow it In their conduct. His paramount +exhortations--"Be united"--"Be Americans"; "do not be drawn into +complications with foreign powers"--at times had a very real living +pertinence. The only doctrine which still causes controversy is that +which touches our attitude towards foreign countries. During the late +World War we heard it revived, and a great many persons who had never +read the "Farewell Address" gravely reminded us of Washington's +warning against "entangling alliances." As a matter of fact, that +phrase does not appear in the "Farewell Address" at all. It was first +used by Thomas Jefferson in his first Inaugural Address, March 4, +1801, sixteen months after Washington was dead and buried. No doubt +the meaning could be deduced from what Washington said in more than +one passage of his "Farewell." But to understand in 1914 what he said +or implied in 1796, we must be historical. In 1796 the country was +torn by conflicting parties for and against strong friendship, if not +an actual alliance, between the United States on one side and Great +Britain or France on the other. Any foreign alliance that could be +made in 1914, however, could not have been, for the same reason, with +either Great Britain or France. The aim proposed by its advocates was +to curb and destroy the German domination of the world. Now Washington +was almost if not quite the most actual of modern statesmen. All +his arrangements at a given moment were directed at the needs and +likelihood of the moment, and in 1914 he would have planned as 1914 +demanded. He would have steered his ship by the wind that blew then +and not by the wind that had blown and vanished one hundred and twenty +years before. + +Some one has remarked that, while Washington achieved a great victory +in the ratification of the Jay Treaty, that event broke up the +Federalist Party. That is probably inexact, but the break-up of +the Federalist Party was taking place during the last years of +Washington's second administration. The changes in Washington's +Cabinet were most significant, especially as they nearly all meant the +change from a more important to a less important Secretary. Thus +John Jay, the first Secretary of State, really only an incumbent _ad +interim_, gave way to Thomas Jefferson, who was replaced by Edmund +Randolph in 1794, and who in turn was succeeded by Timothy Pickering +in 1795. Alexander Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury from the +beginning in 1789 to 1795, when he made way for Oliver Wolcott, Jr. +Henry Knox, the original Secretary of War, was succeeded by Timothy +Pickering in 1795, who, after less than a year, was followed by James +McHenry. Edmund Randolph served as Attorney-General in 1789 to 1794, +then retiring for William Bradford who, after a brief year, was +replaced by Charles Lee. The Postmaster-Generalship was filled from +1789 to 1791 by Samuel Osgood, and then by Timothy Pickering. Thus at +the end of Washington's eight years we find that in the place of two +really eminent men, like Jefferson and Hamilton, he was served by +Edmund Randolph and Oliver Wolcott, Jr., and James McHenry, good +routine men at the best, mediocrities if judged by comparison with +their predecessors. Moreover, the reputation for discretion of some +of them, suffered. Thus Randolph had not long been Secretary of State +when Joseph Fauchet, the French Minister, produced some papers which +could be construed as implying that Randolph had accepted money. +Randolph was known to be impecunious, but his personal honor had never +been suspected. Washington with characteristic candor sent Randolph +the batch of incriminating letters. Randolph protested that he +"forgave" the President and tried to exculpate himself in the +newspapers. Even that process of deflation did not suffice and he +had recourse to a "Vindication," which was read by few and popularly +believed to vindicate nobody. Washington is believed to have held +Randolph as guiltless, but as weak and as indiscreet. He pitied the +ignominy, for Randolph had been in a way Washington's protege, whose +career had much interested him and whose downfall for such a cause was +doubly poignant. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CONCLUSION + + +Washington's term as President ended at noon on March 4, 1797. He was +present at the inauguration of President John Adams which immediately +followed. On the 3d, besides attending to the final necessary routine, +he wrote several letters of farewell to his immediate friends, +including Henry Knox, Jonathan Trumbull, Timothy Pickering, and James +McHenry. To all he expressed his grief at personal parting, but also +immense relief and happiness in concluding his public career. He said, +for instance, in his letter to Trumbull: + + Although I shall resign the chair of government without a single + regret, or any desire to intermeddle in politics again, yet there + are many of my compatriots, among whom be assured I place you, + from whom I shall part sorrowing; because, unless I meet with them + at Mount Vernon, it is not likely that I shall ever see them more, + as I do not expect that I shall ever be twenty miles from it, + after I am tranquilly settled there. To tell you how glad I should + be to see you at that place is unnecessary. To this I will add + that it would not only give me pleasure, but pleasure also to Mrs. + Washington, and others of the family with whom you are acquainted, + and who all unite, in every good wish for you and yours.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIII, 377.] + +In a few days he returned to Mount Vernon and there indulged himself +in a leisurely survey of the plantation. He rode from one farm to +another and reacquainted himself with the localities where the various +crops were either already springing or would soon be. Indoors there +was an immense volume of correspondence to be attended to with the +aid of Tobias Lear, the faithful secretary who had lived with the +President during the New York and Philadelphia periods. When the +letters were sorted, many answers had to be written, some of which +Washington dictated and others he wrote with his own hand. He admits +to Secretary McHenry that, when he goes to his writing table to +acknowledge the letters he has received, when the lights are brought, +he feels tired and disinclined to do this work, conceiving that the +next night will do as well. "The next night comes," he adds, "and with +it the same causes for postponement, and so on." He has not had time +to look into a book. He is dazed by the incessant number of new faces +which appear at Mount Vernon. They come, he says, out of "respect" +for him, but their real reason is curiosity. He practises Virginian +hospitality very lavishly, but he cannot endure the late hours. So he +invites his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, to spend as much time as he can +at Mount Vernon while he himself and Mrs. Washington go to bed early, +"soon after candle light." Lewis accepted the invitation all the more +willingly because he found at the mansion Nelly Custis, a pretty and +sprightly young lady with whom he promptly fell in love and married +later. Nelly and her brother George had been adopted by Washington +and brought up in the family. She was his particular pet. Like other +mature men he found the boys of the younger generation somewhat +embarrassing. I suppose they felt, as well they might, a great and +awful gulf yawning between them. "I can govern men," he would say, +"but I cannot govern boys."[1] With Nelly Custis, however, he found it +easy to be chums. No one can forget the mock-serious letter in which +he wrote to her in regard to becoming engaged and gave her advice +about falling in love. The letter is unexpected and yet it bears every +mark of sincerity and reveals a genuine vein in his nature. We must +always think of Nelly as one of the refreshments of his older life and +as one of its great delights. He considered himself an old man now. +His hair no longer needed powder; years and cares had made it white. +He spoke of himself without affectation as a very old man, and +apparently he often thought, as he was engaged in some work, "this is +the last time I shall do this." He seems to have taken it for granted +that he was not to live long; but this neither slackened his industry +nor made him gloomy. And he had in truth spent a life of almost +unremitting laboriousness. Those early years as surveyor and Indian +fighter and pathfinder were years of great hardships. The eight years +of the Revolution were a continuous physical strain, an unending +responsibility, and sometimes a bodily deprivation. And finally his +last service as President had brought him disgusts, pinpricks which +probably wore more on his spirits than did the direct blows of his +opponents. Very likely he felt old in his heart of hearts, much older +than his superb physical form betokened. We cannot but rejoice that +Nelly Custis flashed some of the joyfulness and divine insouciance of +youth into the tired heart of the tired great man. + +[Footnote 1: Irving, V, 277.] + +Perhaps the best offhand description of Washington in these later days +is that given by an English actor, Bernard, who happened to be driving +near Mount Vernon when a carriage containing a man and a woman was +upset. Bernard dismounted to give help, and presently another rider +came up and joined in the work. "He was a tall, erect, well-made man, +evidently advanced in years, but who appeared to have retained all the +vigor and elasticity resulting from a life of temperance and exercise. +His dress was a blue coat buttoned to the chin, and buckskin +breeches."[1] They righted the chaise, harnessed the horse, and +revived the young woman who, true to her time and place, had fainted. +Then she and her companion drove off towards Alexandria. Washington +invited Bernard to come home with him and rest during the heat of the +day. The actor consented. From what the actor subsequently wrote about +that chance meeting I take the following paragraphs, some of which +strike to the quick: + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 277.] + + In conversation his face had not much variety of expression. A + look of thoughtfulness was given by the compression of the mouth + and the indentations of the brow (suggesting an habitual conflict + with, and mastery over, passion), which did not seem so much + to disdain a sympathy with trivialities as to be incapable of + denoting them. Nor had his voice, so far as I could discover in + our quiet talk, much change or richness of intonation, but he + always spoke with earnestness, and his eyes (glorious conductors + of the light within) burned with a steady fire which no one could + mistake for mere affability; they were one grand expression of the + well-known line: "I am a man, and interested in all that concerns + humanity." In one hour and a half's conversation he touched on + every topic that I brought before him with an even current of good + sense, if he embellished it with little wit or verbal elegance. He + spoke like a man who had felt as much as he had reflected, more + than he had spoken; like one who had looked upon society rather in + the mass than in detail, and who regarded the happiness of America + but as the first link in a series of universal victories; for his + full faith in the power of those results of civil liberty which + he saw all around him led him to foresee that it would erelong, + prevail in other countries and that the social millennium of + Europe would usher in the political. When I mentioned to him the + difference I perceived between the inhabitants of New England + and of the Southern States, he remarked: "I esteem those people + greatly, they are the stamina of the Union and its greatest + benefactors. They are continually spreading themselves too, to + settle and enlighten less favored quarters. Dr. Franklin is a New + Englander." When I remarked that his observations were flattering + to my country, he replied, with great good humor, "Yes, yes, + Mr. Bernard, but I consider your country the cradle of free + principles, not their armchair. Liberty in England is a sort of + idol; people are bred up in the belief and love of it, but see + little of its doings. They walk about freely, but then it is + between high walls; and the error of its government was in + supposing that after a portion of their subjects had crossed the + sea to live upon a common, they would permit their friends at home + to build up those walls about them."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lodge, II, 338, 339.] + +We find among the allusions of several strangers who travelled in +Virginia in Washington's later days, who saw him or perhaps even +stayed at Mount Vernon, some which are not complimentary. More than +one story implies that he was a hard taskmaster, not only with the +negroes, but with the whites. Some of the writers go out of their way +to pick up unpleasant things. For instance, during his absence from +home a mason plastered some of the rooms, and when Washington returned +he found the work had been badly done, and remonstrated. The mason +died. His widow married another mason, who advertised that he would +pay all claims against his forerunner. Thereupon Washington put in a +claim for fifteen shillings, which was paid. Washington's detractors +used this as a strong proof of his harshness. But they do not inform +us whether the man was unable to pay, or whether the claim was +dishonest. Since the man paid voluntarily and did not question the +lightness of the amount, may we not at least infer that he had no +quarrel? And if he had not, who else had? + +Insinuations concerning Washington's lack of sympathy for his slaves +was a form which in later days most of the references to his care of +them took. But here also there are evident facts to be taken into +account. The Abolitionists very naturally were prejudiced against +every slave-owner; they were also prejudiced in favor of every slave. +Washington, on the contrary, harbored no prepossessions for or against +the black man. He found the slaves idle, incompetent, lazy, although +he would not have denied that the very fact of slavery caused and +increased these evils. He treated the negroes justly, but without any +sentimentality. He found them in the order in which he lived. They +were the workmen of his plantation; he provided them with food, +clothing, and a lodging; in return they were expected to give him +their labor. It does not appear that the slaves on Washington's +plantation endured any special hardship. A physician attended them at +their master's expense when they were sick. That he obliged them to +do their specified work, that he punished them in case of dishonesty, +just as he would have done to white workmen, were facts which he never +would have thought a rational person would have regarded as heinous. +In his will he freed his slaves, not for the Abolitionist's reason, +but because he regarded slavery as the most pernicious form of labor, +debasing alike the slave and his master, uneconomic and most wasteful. + +But in so general a matter as Washington's treatment of his slaves, we +must be careful not to take a solitary case and argue from it as if it +were habitual. By common report his slaves were so well treated that +they regretted it if there was talk of transferring them to other +planters. We have many instances cited which show his unusual +kindness. When he found, for instance, that a mulatto woman, who had +lived many years with one of the negroes, had been transferred to +another part of his domain and that the negro pined for her, he +arranged to have her brought back so that they might pass their old +age together. The old negro was his servant, Billy Lee, who suffered +an accident to his knee, which made him a cripple for the rest of +his life. This he spent at Mount Vernon well cared for. Washington +continued to the end the old custom of supplying a hogshead of rum for +the negroes to drink at harvest time, always premising that they must +partake of it sparingly. + +Washington's religious beliefs and practices have also occasioned much +controversy. If we accept his own statements at their plain value, we +must regard him as a Church of England man. I do not discover that he +was in any sense an ardent believer. He preferred to say "Providence" +rather than "God," probably because it was less definite. He attended +divine service on Sundays, whenever a church was near, but for +a considerable period at one part of his life he did not attend +communion. He thoroughly believed in the good which came from +church-going in the army and he always arranged to have a service on +Sundays during his campaigns. When at Mount Vernon, on days when +he did not go out to the service, he spent several hours alone in +meditation in his study. The religious precepts which he had been +taught in childhood remained strong in him through life. He believed +moral truths, and belief with him meant putting in practice what he +professed. While he had imbibed much of the deistic spirit of the +middle of the eighteenth century it would be inaccurate to infer that +he was not fundamentally a Christian. + +After Washington withdrew to Mount Vernon, early in the spring of +1797, his time was chiefly devoted to agriculture and the renewing of +his life as a planter. He declined all public undertakings except that +which President Adams begged him to assume--the supreme command of +the army in case of the expected war with France. That new duty +undoubtedly was good for him, for it proved to him that at least all +his official relations with the Government had not ceased, and it also +served to cheer the people of the country to know that in case of +military trouble their old commander would lead them once more. +Washington gave so much attention to this work, which could be in the +earlier stages arranged at Mount Vernon, that he felt justified in +accepting part of the salary which the President allotted to him. But +the war did not come. As Washington prophesied, the French thought +better of their truculence. The new genius who was ruling France +had in mind something more grandiose than a war with the American +Republic. + +On December 10, 1799, Washington sent a long letter to James Anderson +in regard to agricultural plans for his farm during the year 1800. He +calculates closely the probable profits, and specifies the rotation of +crops on five hundred and twenty-five acres. The next day, December +12th, he wrote a short note to Alexander Hamilton, in regard to the +organization of a National Military Academy, a matter in which the +President had long been deeply interested. The day was stormy. +"Morning snowing and about three inches drop. Wind at Northeast, and +mercury at 30. Continued snowing till one o'clock, and about four it +became perfectly clear. Wind in the same place, but not hard. Mercury +28 at night." Washington, who scorned to take any account of weather, +rode for five hours during the morning to several of the farms on his +plantations, examining the conditions at each and conferring with the +overseers. + +On reaching home he complained a little of chilliness. His secretary, +Tobias Lear, observed that he feared he had got wet, but Washington +protested that his greatcoat had kept him dry; in spite of which the +observant Lear saw snow hanging to his hair and remarked that his neck +was wet. Washington went in to dinner, which was waiting, without +changing his dress, as he usually did. "In the evening he appeared as +well as usual. The next day, Friday, there was a heavy fall of snow, +but having a severe cold, he went out for only a little while to mark +some trees, between the house and the river which were to be cut down. +During the day his hoarseness increased, but he made light of it, and +paid no heed to the suggestion that he should take something for it, +only replying, as was his custom, that he would 'let it go as it +came.'" + +Mrs. Washington went upstairs to a room on the floor above to chat +with Mrs. Lewis (Nelly Custis) who had recently been confined. +Washington remained in the parlor with Lear, and when the evening +mail was brought in from the post-office, they read the newspapers; +Washington even reading aloud, as well as his sore throat would allow, +anything "which he thought diverting or interesting." Then Lear read +the debates of the Virginia Assembly on the election of a Senator +and Governor. "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," says Lear, +"as I always did on such occasions. On his returning to bed, he +appeared to be in perfect health, excepting the cold before mentioned, +which he considered as trifling, and had been remarkably cheerful all +the evening." + +At between two and three o'clock of Saturday morning, December 14th, +Washington awoke Mrs. Washington and told her that he was very unwell +and had had an ague. She observed that he could hardly speak and +breathed with difficulty. She wished to get up to call a servant, +but he, fearing she might take cold, dissuaded her. When daylight +appeared, the woman Caroline came and lighted the fire. Mrs. +Washington sent her to summon Mr. Lear, and Washington asked that Mr. +Rawlins, one of the overseers, should be summoned before the Doctor +could arrive. Lear got up at once, dressed hastily, and went to the +General's bedside. Lear wrote a letter to Dr. Craik, Washington's +longtime friend and physician, and sent it off post-haste by a +servant. Mrs. Washington was up. They prepared a mixture of molasses, +vinegar, and butter, but the patient could not swallow a drop; +whenever he attempted it he appeared to be distressed, convulsed, and +almost suffocated. + +"Mr. Rawlins came in soon after sunrise and prepared to bleed him. +When the arm was ready, the General, observing that Rawlins appeared +to be agitated, said, as well as he could speak, 'Don't be afraid,' +and after the incision was made, he observed, 'The orifice is not +large enough,' However, the blood ran pretty freely. Mrs. Washington, +not knowing whether bleeding was proper or not in the General's +situation, begged that much might not be taken from him, lest it +should be injurious, and desired me to stop it; but when I was about +to untie the string, the General put up his hand to prevent it, and as +soon as he could speak, he said, 'More.' Mrs. Washington being still +very uneasy, lest too much blood should be taken, it was stopped after +about half a pint was taken from him. + +"Finding that no relief was obtained from bleeding, and that nothing +would go down the throat, I proposed bathing the throat externally +with salvolatile which was done; during the operation, which was with +the hand, in the gentlest manner, he observed, ''Tis very sore.' A +piece of flannel dipped in salvolatile was then put round his neck. +His feet were also bathed in warm water. This, however, gave no +relief. In the meantime, before Dr. Craik arrived, Mrs. Washington +requested me to send for Dr. Brown, of Port Tobacco, whom Dr. Craik +had recommended to be called, if any case should ever occur that was +seriously alarming. I despatched a Messenger (Cyrus) to Dr. Brown +immediately (between eight and nine o'clock). Dr. Craik came in soon +after, and after examining the General, he put a blister of Cantharide +on the throat and took some more blood from him, and had some Vinegar +and hot water put into a Teapot for the General to draw in the steam +from the nozel, which he did as well as he was able. He also ordered +sage tea and Vinegar to be mixed for a Gargle. This the General used +as often as desired; but when he held back his head to let it run +down, it put him into great distress and almost produced suffocation. +When the mixture came out of his mouth some phlegm followed it, and he +would attempt to cough, which the Doctor encouraged him to do as much +as he could; but without effect--he could only make the attempt. + +"About eleven o'clock, Dr. Dick was sent for. Dr. Craik requested that +Dr. Dick might be sent for, as he feared Dr. Brown would not come in +time. A message was accordingly despatched for him. Dr. Craik bled the +General again about this time. No effect, however, was produced by it, +and he continued in the same state, unable to swallow anything. Dr. +Dick came in about three o'clock, and Dr. Brown arrived soon after. +Upon Dr. Dick's seeing the General, and consulting a few minutes with +Dr. Craik, he was bled gain, the blood ran very slowly and did not +produce any symptoms of fainting. Dr. Brown came Into the chamber room +soon after, and upon feeling the General's pulse &c., the Physicians +went out together. Dr. Craik soon after returned. The General could +now swallow a little--about four o'clock Calomel and tartar emetic +were administered; but without any effect. About half past four +o'clock, he desired me to ask Mrs. Washington to come to his +bedside--when he requested her to go down into his room and take from +his desk two wills which she would find there, and bring them to him, +which she did. Upon looking at them he gave her one, which he observed +was useless, as it was superseded by the other, and desired her to +burn it, which she did, and then took the other and put it away into +her closet. After this was done, I returned again to his bedside and +took his hand. He said to me, 'I find I am going, my breath cannot +continue long; I believed from the first attack it would be +fatal--do you arrange and record all my late military letters and +papers--arrange my accounts and settle my books, as you know more +about them than any one else, and let Mr. Rawlins finish recording my +other letters.' He then asked if I recollected anything which it was +essential for him to do, as he had but a very short time to continue +with us. I told him that I could recollect nothing, but that I hoped +he was not so near his end. He observed, smiling, that he certainly +was, and that, as it was the debt which we all must pay, he looked to +the event with perfect resignation. + +"In the course of the afternoon he appeared to be in great pain and +distress, from the difficulty of breathing, and frequently changed +his posture in the bed. On these occasions 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'; and upon my +answering him, that I could feel nothing but a wish to give him ease, +he replied, 'Well, it is a debt we must pay to each other, and I hope, +when you want aid of this kind, you will find it.' He asked when Mr. +Lewis and Washington[1] would return. They were then in New Kent. I +told him I believed about the 20th of the month. He made no reply. + +[Footnote 1: George Washington Parke Custis.] + +"About five o'clock Dr. Craik came again into the room, and upon going +to the bedside the General said to him: 'Doctor, I die hard, but I am +not afraid to go. I believed, from my first attack, that I should not +survive it. My breath cannot last long.' The Doctor pressed his hand, +but could not utter a word. He retired from the bedside, and sat by +the fire absorbed in grief. The physicians, Dr. Dick and Dr. Brown, +again came in (between five and six o'clock), and when they came to +his bedside, Dr. Craik asked him if he could sit up in the bed. +He held out his hand to me and was raised up, when he said to the +Physicians: '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; I cannot last long,' They found out that all which had been +done was of no effect. He lay down again, and all retired except Dr. +Craik. He continued in the same position, uneasy and restless, but +without complaining; frequently asking what hour it was. When I helped +to move him at this, he did not speak, but looked at me with strong +expressions of gratitude. The Doctor pressed his hand, but could +not utter a word. He retired from the bedside, and sat by the fire +absorbed in grief. About eight o'clock the Physicians came again into +the Room and applied blisters, and cataplasms of wheat bran, to his +legs and feet: but went out (except Dr. Craik) without a ray of hope. +I went out about this time, and wrote a line to Mr. Low and Mr. +Peter requesting them to come with their wives (Mrs. Washington's +granddaughters) as soon as possible. + +"From this time he appeared to breathe with less difficulty than he +had done; but was very restless, constantly changing his position to +endeavor to get ease. I aided him all in my power, and was gratified +in believing he felt it: for he would look upon me with his eyes +speaking gratitude; but unable to utter a word without great distress. +About ten o'clock he made several attempts to speak to me before +he could effect it. At length, he said: 'I am just going. Have me +decently buried, and do not let my body be put into the Vault in less +than three days after I am dead.' I bowed assent, for I could not +speak. He then looked at me again, and said, 'Do you understand me?' I +replied, 'Yes, sir.' + +"''Tis well,' said he. About ten minutes before he expired his +breathing became much easier; he lay quietly; he withdrew his hand +from mine and felt his own pulse. I spoke to Dr. Craik who sat by the +fire; he came to the bedside. The General's hand fell from his wrist. +I took it in mine and laid it upon my breast. Dr. Craik put his hand +on his eyes and he expired without a struggle or a Sigh! While we were +fixed in silent grief, Mrs. Washington, who was sitting at the foot of +the bed, asked, with a firm and collected voice, 'Is he gone?' I could +not speak, but held up my hand as a signal that he was. ''Tis well,' +said she in a plain voice. 'All is now over. I have no more trials to +pass through. I shall soon follow him.'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ford, XIV, 246-52. I have copied Tobias Lear's remarkable +account of Washington's death almost verbatim.] + +Once read, honest Tobias Lear's account of Washington's death will +hardly be forgotten. It has a majestic simplicity which we feel must +have accompanied Washington in his last hours. The homely sick-bed +details; his grim fortitude; his willingness to do everything which +the physicians recommended, not because he wanted to live, nor because +he thought they would help him, but because he wished to obey. We see +him there trying to force out the painful words from his constricted +throat and when he was unable to whisper even a "thank you" for some +service done, Lear read the unuttered gratitude in his eyes. The +faithful Lear, lying on the outside of the bed in order to be able to +help turn Washington with less pain, and poor old Dr. Craik, lifelong +friend, who became too moved to speak, so that he sat off near the +fire in silence except for a stifled sob, and Mrs. Washington, placed +near the foot of the bed, waiting patiently in complete self-control. +She seemed to have determined that the last look which her mate of +forty years had of her should not portray helpless grief. And from +time to time the negro slaves came to the door that led into the entry +and they peered into the room very reverently, and with their emotions +held in check, at their dying master. And then there was a ceasing of +the pain and the breathing became easier and quieter and Dr. Craik +placed his hand over the life-tired eyes and Washington was dead +without a struggle or even a sigh. + +The pathos or tragedy of it lies in the fact that all the devices and +experiments of the doctors could avail nothing. The quinsy sore throat +which killed him could not be cured by any means then known to medical +art. The practice of bleeding, which by many persons was thought to +have killed him, was then so widely used that his doctors would have +been censured If they had omitted it. Sixty years later it was still +in use, and no one can doubt that it deprived Italy's great statesman +of his chance of living. The premonition of Washington on his first +seizure with the quinsy that the end had come proved fatally true. + +The news of Washington's death did not reach the capital until +Wednesday, December 18th. The House immediately adjourned. On the +following day, when it reassembled, John Marshall delivered a brief +tribute and resolutions were passed to attend the funeral and to pay +honor "to the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace, and +first in the hearts of his countrymen," The immortal phrase was by +Colonel Henry Lee, the father of General Robert E. Lee. President +Adams, in response to a letter from the Senate of the United States, +used the less happy phrase, "If a Trajan found a Pliny, a Marcus +Aurelius can never want biographers, eulogists, or historians." + +During the days immediately following Washington's death, preparations +were made at Mount Vernon for the funeral. They sent to Alexandria for +a coffin and Dr. Dick measured the body, which he found to be exactly +six feet three and one half inches in length. The family vault was +on the slope of the hill, a little to the south of the house. Mrs. +Washington desired that a door should be made for the vault instead of +having it closed up as formerly, after the body should be deposited, +observing that "it will soon be necessary to open it again." Mourning +clothes were prepared for the family and servants. The ceremony took +place on Wednesday. There were many troops. Eleven pieces of artillery +were brought down from Alexandria and a schooner belonging to Mr. R. +Hamilton came down and lay off Mount Vernon to fire minute guns. +The pall-holders were Colonels Little, Charles Sims, Payne, Gilpin, +Ramsay, and Marsteller, and Colonel Blackburne walked before the +corpse. Colonel Deneal marched with the military. About three o'clock +the procession began to move. Colonels Little, Sims and Deneal and +Dr. Dick directed the arrangements of the procession. This moved out +through the gate at the left wing of the house and proceeded around +in front of the lawn and down to the vault on the right wing of the +house. The procession was as follows: The troops; horse and foot; +music playing a solemn dirge with muffled drums; the clergy, viz.: +the Reverends Mr. Davis, Mr. James Miner, and Mr. Moffatt, and Mr. +Addison; the General's horse, with his saddle, holsters, and pistols, +led by two grooms, Cyrus and Wilson, in black; the body borne by +officers and Masons who insisted upon carrying it to the grave; the +principal mourners, viz.: Mrs. Stuart and Mrs. Low, Misses Nancy and +Sally Stuart, Miss Fairfax, and Miss Dennison, Mr. Low and Mr. Peter, +Dr. Craik and T. Lear; Lord Fairfax and Ferdinando Fairfax; Lodge No. +23; Corporation of Alexandria. All other persons, preceded by Mr. +Anderson, Mr. Rawlins, the Overseers, etc., etc. + +The Reverend Mr. Davis read the service and made a short extempore +speech. The Masons performed their ceremonies and the body was +deposited in the vault. All then returned to the house and partook +of some refreshment, and dispersed with the greatest good order and +regularity. The remains of the provisions were distributed among +the blacks. Mr. Peter, Dr. Craik, and Dr. Thornton tarried here all +night.[1] + +[Footnote 1: From notes by T. Lear, Ford, XIV, 254-55.] + +The Committee appointed by Congress to plan a suitable memorial +for Washington proposed a monument to be erected in the city of +Washington, to be adorned with statuary symbolizing his career as +General and as President, and containing a tomb for himself and for +Mrs. Washington. The latter replied to President Adams that "taught by +the great example which I have so long had before me, never to oppose +my private wishes to the public will, I must consent to the request +made by Congress, which you have had the goodness to transmit me, +and in doing this, I need not say, I cannot say, what a sacrifice of +individual feeling I make to a sense of public duty." The intended +monument at the capital was never erected. Martha Washington lies +beside her husband where she wished to be, in the family vault at +Mount Vernon. From her chamber window in the upper story of the Mount +Vernon house she could look across the field to the vault. She died +in 1802, a woman of rare discretion and good sense who, during forty +years, proved herself the worthiest companion of the founder of his +country. + +I have wished to write this biography of George Washington so that +it would explain itself. There is no need of eulogy. All eulogy is +superfluous. We see the young Virginia boy, born in aristocratic +conditions, with but a meagre education, but trained by the sports and +rural occupations of his home in perfect manliness, in courage, in +self-reliance, in resourcefulness. Some one instilled into him moral +precepts which fastened upon his young conscience and would not let +him go. At twenty he was physically a young giant capable of enduring +any hardship and of meeting any foe. He ran his surveyor's chain far +into the wilderness to the west of Mount Vernon. When hardly a man +in age, the State of Virginia knew of his qualities and made him +an officer in its militia. At only twenty-three he was invited to +accompany General Braddock's staff, but neither he nor angels from +heaven could prevent Braddock from plunging with typical British +bull-headedness into the fatal Indian ambush. He gave up border +warfare, but did not cease to condemn the inadequacy of the Virginia +military equipment and its training. He devoted himself to the +pursuits of a large planter, and on being elected a Burgess, he +attended regularly the sessions at Williamsburg. Wild conditions which +in his boyhood had reached almost to Fauquier County, had drifted +rapidly westward. Within less than ten years of Braddock's defeat, +Fort Duquesne had become permanently English and the name of +Pittsburgh reminded men of the great British statesman who had urged +on the fateful British encroachment on the Ohio River. For Washington +in person, the lasting effect of the early training and fighting in +western Pennsylvania was that it gave him direct knowledge of the +Indian and his ways, and that it turned his imagination to thinking +out the problem of developing the Middle West, and of keeping the +connections between the East and the West strong and open. + +In the House of Burgesses Washington was a taciturn member, yet he +seemed to have got a great deal of political knowledge and wisdom so +that his colleagues thought of him as the solid man of the House +and they referred many matters to him as if for final decision. He +followed political affairs in the newspapers. Above all, at Mount +Vernon he heard all sides from the guests who passed his domain and +enjoyed his hospitality. From the moment that the irritation between +Great Britain and the Colonies became bitter he seems to have made up +his mind that the contention of the Colonists was just. After that +he never wavered, but he was not a sudden or a shallow clamorer for +Independence. He believed that the sober second sense of the British +would lead them to perceive that they had made a mistake. When at +length the Colonies had to provide themselves with an army and to +undertake a war, he was the only candidate seriously considered for +General, although John Hancock, who had made his peacock way so +successfully in many walks of life, thought that he alone was +worthy of the position. Who shall describe Washington's life as +Commander-in-Chief of the Colonial forces during the Revolutionary +War? What other commander ever had a task like his? For a few weeks +the troops led by Napoleon--the barefooted and ragged heroes of Lodi +and Arcola and Marengo--were equally destitute, but victory brought +them food and clothes and prosperity. Whereas Washington's men had no +comfort before victory and none after it. + +Some of the military critics to-day deny Washington's right to be +ranked among the great military commanders of the world, but the truth +is that he commanded during nearly eight years and won one of the +supreme crucial wars of history against far superior forces. The +General who did that was no understrapper. The man whose courage +diffused itself among the ten thousand starving soldiers at Valley +Forge, and enabled them to endure against the starvation and distress +of a winter, may very well fail to be classified among the Prince +Ruperts and the Marshal Neys of battle, but he ranks first in a +higher class. His Fabian policy, which troubled so many of his +contemporaries, saved the American Revolution. His title as General +is secure. Nor should we forget that it was his scrupulous patriotism +which prevented the cropping out of militarism in this country. + +Finally, a country which owed its existence to him chose him to be for +eight years its first President. He saw the planting of the roots of +the chief organs of its government. In every act he looked far forward +into the future. He shunned making or following evil precedents. He +endured the most virulent personal abuse that has ever been poured out +on American public men, preferring that to using the power which his +position gave him, and denaturing the President into a tyrant. Nor +should we fail to honor him for his insistence on dignity and a proper +respect for his office. His enemies sneered at him for that, but +we see plainly how much it meant to this new Nation to have such +qualities exemplified. Had Thomas Jefferson been our first President +in his _sans-culotte_ days, our Government might not have outlasted +the _sans-culottist_ enthusiasts in France. A man is known by his +friends. The chosen friends of Washington were among the best of his +time in America. Hamilton, Henry Knox, Nathanael Greene, John Jay, +John Marshall--these were some. + +Although Washington was less learned than many of the men of his time +in political theory and history, he excelled them all in a concrete +application of principles. He had the widest acquaintance among men of +different sorts. He heard all opinions, but never sacrificed his own. +As I have said earlier, he was the most _actual_ statesman of his +time; the people in Virginia came very early to regard him as a man +apart; this was true of the later days when the Government sat in New +York and Philadelphia. If they sought a reason, they usually agreed +that Washington excelled by his character, and if you analyze most +closely you will never get deeper than that. Reserved he was, and not +a loose or glib talker, but he always showed his interest and gave +close attention. After Yorktown, when the United States proclaimed to +the world that they were an independent Republic, Europe recognized +that this was indeed a Republic unlike all those which had preceded it +during antiquity and the Middle Age. Foreigners doubted that it could +exist. They doubted that Democracy could ever govern a nation. They +knew despots, like the Prussian King, Frederic, who walked about the +streets of Berlin and used his walking-stick on the cringing persons +whom he passed on the sidewalk and did not like the looks of. They +remembered the crazy Czar, Peter, and they knew about the insane +tendencies of the British sovereign, George. The world argued from +these and other examples that monarchy was safe; it could not doubt +that the supply of monarchs would never give out; but it had no hope +of a Republic governed by a President. It was George Washington more +than any other agency who made the world change its mind and conclude +that the best President was the best kind of monarch. + +It is reported that after he died many persons who had been his +neighbors and acquaintances confessed that they had always felt a +peculiar sense of being with a higher sort of person in his presence: +a being not superhuman, but far above common men. That feeling will +revive in the heart of any one to-day who reads wisely in the fourteen +volumes of "Washington's Correspondence," in which, as in a mine, +are buried the passions and emotions from which sprang the American +Revolution and the American Constitution. That George Washington lived +and achieved is the justification and hope of the United States. + + +THE END + + + + +INDEX + + +Throughout the index, the initial _W_. is used for the name of George +Washington. + +Adams, John, his _Diary_ quoted, 57 _n_.; + on committee to confer with Howe, 79; + on Peace Commission, 130; + chosen first Vice-President, 176; + appoints _W_. Commander-in-Chief, in 1799, 217, 240; + letter of _W_. to, 217; 49, 59, 155, 156, 162, 180, 212, 215, + 217, 231, 251, 254. + +Adams, Samuel, 49, 57, 59, 60, 162, 175, 176. + +Addison, Rev. Mr., 253. + +Agriculturist, _W_. as an, 37 _ff_. + +Albert, Prince, 153. + +Alleghany Mts., 7. + +American Revolution, 64-126 _passim_; + great extent of field of operations, 67; + really ended with surrender at Yorktown, 126; + nature and results of, 126-128; + proclamation of end of hostilities, 135; + saved by _W.'s_ Fabian policy, 257. + +Ames, Fisher, speech on Jay Treaty, and its effect, 211-213. + +Anderson, James, 240, 253. + +Andre, John, Clinton's messenger to Arnold, court-martialed and + hanged, 110, 111. + +Annapolis Convention, 158. + +Anti-Assumptionists. _See_ State debts. + +Anti-Federalists, 186. + +Army, Colonial, at Boston, 69 _ff_.; + brought into order by _W_., 72; + lacks powder, 72; + compels evacuation of Boston, 72,73; + how distributed, 76, 77; + _W_. on proper organization of, 80, 81; + his influence over, 82,88; + condition of, at end of 1776, 84; + desertions from, 84, 97; + at Valley Forge, 100 _ff_.; + _W_. on condition of, after the war, 131, 132; + difficulties about back pay, 133, 134, 141; + some officers of, intrigue to make _W_. king, 134; + _W.'s_ reply, 135; + continued turmoil in, 135; + _W.'s_ farewell to officers of, 136, 137; + attitude of Congress toward, 139, 140. + +Arnold, Benedict, repulsed at Quebec, 72; + surrenders West Point, 110; + in Virginia, 122, 123; 77. + +Articles of Confederation, 152, 153, 156. + And _see_ States of the Confederation. + +Assumptionists. _See_ State debts. + +_Aurora. See_ Bache, B.F. + + +Bache, Benjamin F., attacks _W.'s_ administration, in the + _Aurora_, 201, 219, 221, 222. + +Ball, Mary, marries Augustine Washington, 1. + And _see_ Washington, Mary (Ball). + +Barbados, _W.'s_ visit to, 9-11. + +Barbary States, corsairs of, 155. + +Bard, Dr. Samuel, 185, 186. + +Beaumarchais, Caron de, 94. + +Beefsteak and Tripe Club, 10. + +Belvoir, Fairfax estate, 7. + +Bennington, Battle of, 92. + +Bernard, John, quoted on _W_. in retirement, 234-236. + +_Blackwood's Magazine_, 3. + +Blair, John, 161. + +Bland, Theodorick, letter of _W_. to, 131, 132. + +Bonhomme Richard, the. _See_ Jones, John Paul. + +Boston, port of, transferred to Salem, 58; + blockaded by _W_., 69; + evacuated by Howe, 72, 73; + _W.'s_ visit to, as President, 189, 190. + +Boston Tea Party, 58. + +Botetourt, Norborne Berkeley, Lord, 53. + +Boucher, Rev. Jonathan, 41. + +Braddock, Edward, his career, 19, 20; + in America, 20; + attacks Fort Duquesne, and is defeated and killed, 21, 22; 255. + +Bradford, William, 229. + +Brant, Joseph, 92. + +British troops, position of, at end of 1776, 83, 84, 85; + confined to New York City and Long Island, 86; + _W_. on maltreatment of prisoners by, 98; + field of operations of, transferred to South, 107, 121-123; + surrender of, at Yorktown, 123 _ff_. + +Brown, Dr., 244, 245, 247, 248. + +Bunker Hill, Battle of, 65, 68. + +Burgoyne, John, takes Ticonderoga, 91; + defeated at Bennington, 92; + surrenders to Gates at Saratoga, 93. + +Burke, Edmund, 55, 62, 120. + +Bute, John Stuart, Earl of, 29, 49. + +Butler, Pierce, 162. + +Byrd, William, letter of _W_. to, 20, 21. + + +Calvert, Nelly, 42. + +Cambridge, _W_. takes command of army at, 65; + _W.'s_ headquarters at, 69. + +Canada, and Wolfe's victory at Quebec, 28. + +Canova, Antonio, statue of _W_. by, 148. + +Capital, national, question of location of, 182-185. + +Carlyle, Thomas, 17. + +Carroll, Daniel, 161. + +Cavour, Camillo, Count di, 30, 251. + +Chamberlayne, Major, 33. + +Charming, Edward, _History of the U.S._, 111 _n_. + +Chantrey, Sir F.L., statue of _W_., 148. + +Cherry-tree story, absurdity of, 2. + +Cincinnati, Society of the, public feeling against, 159; + _W_. resigns presidency of, 159. + +Clark, Major, 10. + +Clinton, George, Governor of New York, 136, 199. + +Clinton, Sir Henry, succeeds Howe as Commander-in-Chief, 105; + takes troops to New York, 106; + was he responsible for bribing Arnold? 109, 110; + _W.'s_ criticism of, 118, 119; 93, 121, 123. + +Clive, Robert, Lord, 28. + +Clymer, George, 161. + +Colonies, effect of Seven Years' War on, 29; + opposition to taxation in, 49 _ff_.; + at outbreak of war, 67; + diversity in origin and customs, 67, 68; + increasing urgency of demand for independence in, 75; + relations of, with England, in 1763, 47; + how affected by the Imperial Spirit, 47, 48; + in 1770, 53, 54; + at beginning of Revolution, 66; + lack of ardor for Independence, 84. + +Committees of Correspondence, 57, 58. + +Compromises of the Constitution. _See_ Representation, Slave + trade, Slavery. + +Concord, Battle of, 64. + +Congress of the U.S.: + _First: W.'s_ first address to, 179; + votes to assume state debts and change location of capital, 182-185. + _Fourth_: Jay Treaty ratified by Senate, 210; + bill to carry out treaty provisions passed by House, 210-213. + _Sixth_: revives rank of Commander-in-Chief for _W_., 217; + and _W_.'s death, 251, 253, 254. + +Connecticut, population of, in 1775, 68. + +Constitution of the U.S., in the making, 164-168; + promulgated, 168, 169; + _W.'s_ views of, 170, 171, 172; + ratified by States, 173-175; + opposition to, in N.Y. and Virginia, 174. + +Constitutional Convention, call for, 158; + first meeting of, 160; + members of, 160-162; + _W_. President of, 161, 163; + proceedings of, secret, 163; + divers questions discussed, 164-168, 169, 170. + +Continental Congress: + _First_: members of, 59; + work of, 59-61; + adopts Declaration of Rights, 60; + importance of, as a symbol, 61. + _Second_: elects _W_. Commander-in-Chief, 64; + sectional intrigues in, 74; + _W_. quoted on, 75; + appoints committee to confer with Howe, 79; + and _W.'s_ "doleful reports," 81; + removes to Baltimore, 85; + method of conducting the war, 90; + _W.'s_ farewell reception by, and address to, 137-139; + post-war attitude of, toward the army, discussed, 141, 142; + powers of, limited by Articles of Confederation, 152, 153; + its weakness, 153; + lack of unanimity in, 155; + rejects Spanish treaty, 155; + orders first election under Constitution, 175. + +Conway, Thomas, and the Cabal, 112, 113; + letters of, to _W_., 113; 96. + +Conway Cabal, The, 112-114, 116, 117. + +Cornwallis, Charles, Earl, surrenders at Yorktown, 123. + +Cowpens, Battle of the, 122. + +Craik, Dr. James, attends _W_. in his last illness, 243 _ff_.; 253. + +Critical Period of American History, 151 _ff_. + +Custis, Daniel P., 33, 34. + +Custis, Eleanor, _W.'s_ affection for, 233, 234. + And _see_ Lewis, Eleanor (Custis). + +Custis, George W P., 233, 247. + +Custis, John Parke, _W.'s_ step-son, 40-42; 104. + +Custis, Mrs. Martha (Dandridge), widow of D.P. Custis, is courted by + _W_., 33, 34, + and marries him, 35. + And _see_ Washington, Martha (Custis). + +Custis, Martha, W.'s step-daughter, 40, 41. + + +Dandridge, Francis, letter of _W_. to, 51, 52. + +Davis, Rev. Mr., 252, 253. + +Deane, Silas, sent to enlist aid of France, 94; + his unauthorized promises to Ducoudray, 95, + and Lafayette, 99. + +Declaration of Independence, 78, 191. + +"Declaration of Rights," 60. + +Delaware River, _W.'s_ crossing of, 85, 86. + +Democracy in the U.S., contrasted with earlier types, 178. + +Democratic Party, 186. + +Dent, Elizabeth, 31. + +Dick, Dr., 245, 247, 248, 252. + +Dickinson, John, 161. + +Dinwiddie, Robert, sends _W_. on mission to French, 14; + sends expedition under Fry to take Duquesne, 15; 16, 17, 18, 20, 21. + +Dorchester, Guy Carleton, Lord, 208. + +Dorchester Heights, occupied by Americans, 73. + +Ducoudray, M., 95. + + +Election, first, under Constitution, 175, 176. + +Ellsworth, Oliver. 161. + +England, expeditions planned by, 19 _ff_.; + effect of Chatham's administration on power and prestige of, 27, 28; + relations with Colonies in 1763, 47; + the Imperial Spirit in, 47 _ff_.; + measures imposing taxation on Colonies, 49 _ff_.; + division of opinion in, in 1770, 53, 54, 55; + Hessians in service of, 76; + effect of sea-power of, 84; + plans for campaign of 1777, 90, 91; + sends Commission to treat for peace, 109, 120; + reconstruction of government in, after Yorktown, 130; + and _W.'s_ proclamation of neutrality (1789), 204; + hatred of, in U.S., and the Jay Treaty, 208 _ff_.; + threat of war with, 208, 209; + and the U.S. in 1796 and 1914, 227, 228. + And _see_ Paris, Treaty of (1783). + +England and France, rivalry between in North America, 12, 13; + actually at war, 19; + effect of Wolfe's victory at Quebec, 28; + war between (1789), 193; + difficulty in maintaining neutrality of U.S., 193 _ff_. + +"Entangling alliances," authorship of the phrase, 227. + +Estaing, Charles H, Count d', brings French fleet to America, 108. + +Excise tax, on distilled spirits, 189; + and the Whiskey Insurrection, 218. + + +Fairfax, Bryan, letter of _W_. to, 62, 63; 253. + +Fairfax, Sally, 31. + +Fairfax, Thomas, Lord, employs _W_. to survey his estate, 5; 7. + +Farewell Address, the, 224 _ff_.; + declarations of, how far applicable in 1914, 227, 228. + +Fauchet, Joseph, 229. + +Fauntleroy, Betsy, 30. + +Fauquier, Francis, 35. + +_Federalist, The_, 162. + +Federalist Party, break-up of, 228; 186, 187. + +Fitzsimmons, Thomas, 161. + +Fort Duquesne, built by French, 13; + unsuccessfully attacked by Braddock, 21 _ff_.; + renamed Fort Pitt, 34, 255. + +Fort Necessity, surrender of, 16, 17. + +Fox, Charles James, 55. + +France, steps toward alliance with, 94 _ff_.; + effect of victory at Saratoga in, 99; + treaty with, 99 and _n_.; + results of alliance on American commerce and privateering, 108; + sends fleet to America, 108; + effect in England of alliance with, 119; + and _W.'s_ proclamation of neutrality, 204; + effect of feeling of gratitude to, in U.S., 205; + later relations with, 215, 216; + and the U.S. in 1796 and 1914, 227, 228. + And _see_ England and France. + +Franklin, Benjamin, on committee to confer with Howe, 79; + on Peace Commission, 130; + quoted, 173; 21, 155, 160, 161, 201, 236. + +Frederick the Great, 259. + +Freedom of speech, _W_. and, 222, 223. + +Freemasons, at _W.'s_ funeral, 253. + +French, westward and southward progress of, 13; + build Fort Duquesne, 13. + +French Committee of Public Safety, Monroe's letter to, 216. + +French and Indian War. _See_ Seven Years' War. + +French Revolution, reaction of, in U.S., 193 _ff_. + +Freneau, Philip, and his _National Gazette_, encouraged by + Jefferson, 200, 201, 219, 220. + +Fry, Colonel, 15. + + +Gage, Thomas, military and civil governor of Boston, 61; + _W_. quoted on his conduct, 63; + recalled, 72. + +Gallatin, Albert, opposes Jay Treaty, 210, 211. + +Gates, Horatio, Adjutant-General, 71; + defeats Burgoyne at Saratoga, 92, 93; + ambitious to supplant _W_., 114; 112. + +Genet, Edmond Charles, mission of, to U.S., 194 _ff_.; + would appeal to people over government, 198,205; + snubbed by Jefferson, 198; + his recall requested, 199. + +George II, 18. + +George III, dismisses Pitt, 29; + and the British Empire, 48; + makes North Prime Minister, 54; + effect of events of 1778 on, 119; + and of the failure of the Commission on Reconciliation, 120; 60, + 130, 153, 259. + +Georgetown, proposed as seat of national capital, 184. + +Georgia, only colony unrepresented in First Continental Congress, 59; + British victories in, 122; 165. + +Gerry, Elbridge, on X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215; 161, 168, 169. + +Giles, William B., and newspaper attacks on _W_., 219, 221. + +Gist, Christopher, 14. + +Gladstone, W.E., quoted, 173. + +Gorham, Nathaniel, 161. + +Great Britain. _See_ England. + +Great Meadows. _See_ Fort Necessity. + +Greene, Nathanael, commands in South, 122; 110, 162, 163, 258. + + +"Half-King, the." _See_ Thanacarishon. + +Hamilton, Alexander, influence of, ensures ratification of + Constitution in N.Y., 174; + Secretary of Treasury, 181, 228, 229; + opposition to, 181, 182; + favors "Assumption," 182,183; + obtains Jefferson's support for compromise, 183, 184; + his political status, 187; + his protective tariff, 188; + his measures tended to centralization, 189,192; + quoted, on the French Revolution, 197, 198; + _W_. seeks to keep peace between Jefferson and, 199, 200; + attacked by Freneau, 200; + attacks Jefferson in newspapers, 201; + urges _W_. to accept second term, 201; + and the Whiskey Insurrection, 218; + and the Farewell Address, 224; 160, 167, 168, 180, 195, 208, 210, + 217, 241, 258. + +Hancock, John, President of Congress, 64; + letter of _W_. to, 80, 81; + Governor of Massachusetts, and _W.'s_ visit to Boston, 189, + 190; 64, 256. + +Harlem, Heights of, army stationed on, 80. + +Harrison, Benjamin, letter of _W_. to, 143. + +Hay, Anthony, 53. + +Henry, Patrick, quoted, 50; + opposed to Constitution, 174; 59, 60, 162. + +Herkimer, Nicholas, 92. + +Hessians, in British army, 76; + defeated at Trenton, 86. + +Hortalaz et Cie, 94. + +Houdon, Jean A., statue of _W_. 148. + +House of Representatives, representation of States in, 167. + +Howe, Richard, Lord, takes fleet to N.Y., 76; 72, 83. + +Howe, Sir William, evacuates Boston, 72, 73; + fruitless peace overtures of, 79; + in Phila. (1777-78), 104, 105; + succeeded by Clinton, 105; 74, 78, 87, 91. + +Humphreys, Colonel, as Chamberlain at President's receptions, 180, 181. + + +Imperial Spirit, effect of, on relations between England and + Colonies, 47, 48; + revived by events of 1778, 119. + +Independence Hall, Phila., 160. + +Indians, surprise attack by, 21, 22; + difficulties of _W_.'s administration with, 190, 191. + +Ingersoll, Jared, 161. + +Irving, Washington, _Life of Washington_, quoted, 181, 185, + 186, 195. 217, 233. + + +Jackson, Robert, 24. + +Jacobin Club, 193. + +Jay, John, on Peace Commission, 130; + concludes treaty with Spain, 155; + appointed Chief Justice, 186; + mission of, to England in 1794-95, 207; + his character, 207; + prejudice against, in U.S., 208; + Secretary of State, 228; + letters of _W_. to, 142, 157; 59, 162, 180, 258. + And _see_ Jay Treaty. + +Jay Treaty, the, negotiated, 207, 208, 209; + opposition of Anti-Federalists to, 209; + ratified by Senate, 210; + violent struggle over, in House, 210-213; + how the controversy was settled, 213; + effect of, 214; + and the Federalist Party, 228. + +Jefferson, Thomas, _A Summary View_, 60; + Secretary of State, 181, 186, 192, 228, 229; + interview with Hamilton on Assumption, etc., 183-185; + most aggressive of Democrats, 187, 191; + rivalry with Hamilton, 192; + and the French Revolution, 193; + and Citizen Genet, 194, 195, 198; + _W_. seeks to keep peace between Hamilton and, 199, 200; + and Freneau's attacks on _W_., 200, 219, 220, 221; + intrigues against Hamilton, 200, 201; + urges _W_. to accept second term, 201, 202; + resigns as Secretary of State, 206; + 155, 160, 161, 162, 180, 181, 207, 227, 258. + +Johnson, W.S., 168. + +Joncaire, M., 14. + +Jones, John Paul, 120, 121. + +Jumonville, M. de, 15, 18. + + +Kalb, Baron Johann de, 95, 100. + +King, Rufus, 161, 167, 168. + +Knox, Henry, Secretary of War, 181, 229; + letters of _W_. to, 170, 171, 203; + 95, 123, 124, 136, 217, 231, 258. + +Kosciuszko, Tadeusz, 95. + + +Lafayette, Gilbert Motier, Marquis de, joins _W_.'s staff, 99; + and Charles Lee, at Monmouth, 115; + letters of _W_. to, 143, 144, 145, 170, 171, 172; 110, 123. + +Lansing, John, 161. + +Laurens, Henry, letters of _W_. to, 101-103, 117, 118. + +Lear, Tobias, secretary to _W_., 148; + quoted, 242; + his account of _W_.'s last hours, 243-249; + notes on _W_.'s funeral, 252, 253; 232, 241, 250. + +Lee, Billy (slave), 238, 239. + +Lee, Charles, appointed Major-General, 70, 71; + at Monmouth, 106, 115; + censured by _W_., 106, 115, 116; + early career of, 114, 115; + court-martialed, and leaves the army, 116; + anecdote of, 116 _n_.; 65, 128. + +Lee, Charles, Attorney-General, 229. + +Lee, Henry, author of phrase, "First in war," etc., 251; + letter of _W_. to, 221, 222. + +Lee, Richard H., letters of _W_. to, 96, 147; 163. + +Lewis, Mrs. Eleanor (Custis), 242. + +Lewis, Lawrence, and Miss Custis, 232, 233; 247. + +Lexington, Battle of, 63. + +Lillo, George, _George Barnwell_, 10, 11. + +Lincoln, Abraham, 149. + +Lincoln, Benjamin, surrenders Charleston, S.C., 122; + receives surrender of British at Yorktown, 125; 123. + +Livingston, Robert R., 177. + +Lodge, H.C., _George Washington_, quoted, 15, 17, 220, 235, 236. + +Long Island, Battle of, 77, 78. + +Louis XVI, execution of, 193; 94, 99. + +Low-Land Beauty, the, 30. + +Loyalists, in the Colonies, 61, 62; + during and after the war, 127, 128. + + +McClellan, George B., 82. + +McClurg, James, 162. + +McHenry, James, Secretary of War, 229; + letter of, to _W_., 217; 161, 231, 232. + +McKean, Thomas, 59. + +MacKenzie, Robert, letter of _W_. to, 63. + +Machiavelli, Niccolo, _The Prince_, and _W_.'s Farewell + Address, 226. + +Madison, James, opposes Jay Treaty, 210; + and the Farewell Address, 224; + letter of _W_. to, 158; + 156, 159, 160, 161, 163, 165, 168, 194, 242. + +Marie Antoinette, execution of, 193. + +Marshall, John, _Life of Washington_, quoted, 28, 136, 137-139; + on X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215; 47, 251, 258. + +Mason, George, plan of association, 52, 53; + letter to _W_. 56; + letter of _W_. to, 56; 161, 168, 169. + +Massachusetts, leads in opposing acts of British Crown, 49; + charter of, suspended, 58, 59; + population of, in 1775, 67, 68; + and Virginia, jealousy between, 64; + freed from British troops, 74. + +Mather, W., _The Young Man's Companion_, 4. + +Meil, Mrs., 30, 31. + +Mifflin, Thomas, of the Conway Cabal, 116; 138, 139, 161. + +Military dictatorship under _W_., fear of, 141, 142, 154. + +Militia, _W_. quoted on, 81. + +Miner, Rev. James, 252. + +Mississippi River, Lower, closed to Americans by treaty with Spain, + 155. + +Moffatt, Rev. Mr., 252. + +Monarchy, fears of reversion to, 142. + +Monmouth, Battle of, 106. + +Monongahela River, 13. + +Monroe, James, Minister to France, recalled by _W_., 216; + his letter to Committee of Public Safety, 116; 242. + +Montcalm, Louis Joseph, Marquis de, 28. + +Montgomery, Richard, at Quebec, 71, 72; 77. + +Morgan, Daniel, 122. + +Morris, Gouverneur, 161, 167, 168, 207. + +Morris, Robert, letter to _W_., 88; 161. + +Morris, Roger, 32, 80. + +Morristown, winter quarters at, 89. + +Mossum, Rev. Peter, 35. + +Mount Vernon, inherited by Lawrence Washington, 5; + hospitality of, 7, 45; + _W_. manager of, 12; + inherited by _W_., 33; + a model plantation of Its kind, 39, 43, 44; + _W_. returns to, after the war, 139; + his life at, 146; + his last days at, 232 _ff_.; + his funeral at, 251-253. + + +Napoleon I, 218, 240. + +_National Gazette_, 220, 222. + +Neal, John, quoted, 3. + +Neutrality, Proclamation of, gives offense to both England and + France, 204; + the only rational course, 205. + +New England, manufacturing in, 68; + freed from British troops, 74. + +New Jersey, 155. + +New York City, _W_.'s headquarters at, 76; + Howe's fleet arrives at, 76; + loyalist sentiment in, 78, 79, 121; + British troops return to, 105,106; + _W_.'s farewell to officers at, 136, 137; + _W_. inaugurated as President at, 176, 177; + ceases to be national capital, 182 _ff_. + +New York State, fails to choose electors in 1788, 175. + +North, Frederick, Lord, Prime Minister, 54; + his subservience to the King, 54, 55; + retires after Yorktown, 130; 60, 61. + +North Carolina, British victories in, 122. + +Northwest, the, _W_.'s vision of development of, 144, 145. + + +Office-seekers, _W_. and, 180. + +O'Hara, General, 125. + +Ohio River, 13. + +Oriskany, Battle of, 92. + +Osgood, Samuel, 229. + +Otis, James, 49. + + +Pall-holders at _W_.'s funeral, 252. + +Paris, Treaty of (1763), 28, 29. + +Paris, Treaty of (1783), 130, 131; + _W_. quoted on, 131. + +Parliament, passes and repeals Stamp Act, 49; + lays duties on paper, tea, etc., 49; + other irritating measures passed by, 53, 58; + enacts penal laws, 58, 59. + +"Parsons Cause, The," 50. + +Parties, in _W_.'s first term, 186, 187. + +Peale, Charles, portrait of _W_., 148, 150. + +Peale, Rembrandt, portrait of _W_., 148. + +Pearson, Captain, 120. + +Pendleton, Edmund, 59. + +Pennsylvania, population of, in 1775, 68; 58, 155. + +Peter the Great, 259. + +Philadelphia, non-importation agreement of merchants of, 52; + Continental Congresses meet at, 59, 64; + _W_. at, 75 _ff_.; + British troops at, in 1777-78, 104, 105; + _W_. takes possession of, 106; + to be national capital for ten years, 183, 185; + Genet at, 196. + +Philipse, Frederick, 31. + +Philipse, Mary, 31, 32. + +Pickering, Timothy, Cabinet offices held by, 228, 229; 231. + +Pinckney, Charles, 162. + +Pinckney, Charles C., on X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215, 216; 162, + 165, 166, 217. + +Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, effect of his accession to power, + 27, 28; + dismissed by George III, 29; + his last appearance in the Lords, 119, and death, 120. + +Pitt, William, the younger, 55, 62. + +Pittsburgh, on site of Fort Duquesne, 34, 255. + +Plassey, Buttle of, 48. + +Portraits of _W_., 148, 149, 150. + +President, discussion as to term and method of election of, 167, 168; + _W_.'s view of office of, 178; + _W_.'s example as preventive of third term for, 223, 224. + +Press, the, virulence and indecency of, 219 _ff_. + +Princeton, Battle of, 86, 87. + +Privateering, effect of French Alliance on, 108, 120, 121. + +Protective tariff, Hamilton's, 188. + +Pulaski, Count Casimir, 95, 97. + + +Quebec, Battle of, 28, 48; + abortive attack on, 71, 72; + persistence in project of capturing, 77. + +Quincy, Josiah, 49. + + +Rall, Colonel, 86. + +Randolph, Edmund, Attorney-General, 181, 186, 229; + Secretary of State, 206,228; + his "Vindication," 229, 230; + letter of _W_. to, 208, 209; 161, 169, 193. + +Randolph, Peyton, 59. + +Rawlins, Mr., 243, 253. + +Reconciliation, Commission on, 109, 120. + +Representation of States in Congress, question of, settled by + compromise, 167. + +Republicans, 186. + +Revolutionary War. _See_ American Revolution. + +Robinson, Beverly, 31. + +Robinson, Mr., Speaker of the House of Burgesses (Va.), quoted, 36. + +Rochambeau, Jean B.D. de Vimeure, Count de, 122, 125. + +Rockingham, Charles Wentworth, Marquis of, 130. + +Rodney, George, Lord, 153. + +Rutledge, Edward, on committee to confer with Howe, 79; 59. + +Rutledge, John, 59, 162, 168. + + +St. Clair, General, 191. + +St. Leger, Barry, 91. + +Saratoga, Battle of, Burgoyne defeated in, 93; + effect of, in France, 99. + +Schuyler, Philip, 65. + +Senate of U.S., representation of States in, 167. + +Seven Years' War, 27 _ff_.; + effect of, 29. + +Shays, Daniel, 158. + +Shays's Rebellion, causes of, 157,158. + +Shelburne, William Petty, Earl of, 130. + +Sherman, Roger, 59, 161, 168. + +Shirley, William, 32. + +Slave labor, _W_.'s view of, 38; 68. + +Slave trade, question of, settled by compromise, 165, 166. + +Slavery, why _W_. disapproved of, 38, 39, 238; + question of, settled by compromise, 164, 165. + +Slaves, _W_.'s relations with, 38, 237-239; + number of, in Colonies, in 1775, 68. + +South Carolina, population of, in 1775, 68; + British victories in, 122; 165. + +Sparks, Jared, his _Life of Washington_, defects of, 3; + quoted, 113,116 and _n_., 146. + +Spearing, Ann, 31. + +Stamp Act, 49, 51, 52, 66. + +Stark, John, defeats Burgoyne at Bennington, 92. + +State debts, assumption of, by national government, how secured, + 182-185; + favored by _W_., 188. + +State rights, problem of, 167; + a fundamental subject of difference, 187. + +States of the Confederation, _W_.'s farewell letter to + governors of, 135; + after the Revolution, 152, 156; + their relations to one another, 152, 153; + lack of coherence among, 154, 155; + foreign relations of, ignominious, 155; + delegates of, in Constitutional Convention, 160-162; + ratification by, 175, 174. + And _see_ Paris, Treaty of (1783). + +Statues of _W_., 148. + +Steuben, Baron Frederick W. von, 95, 110, 111. + +Stone, F.D., _Struggle for the Delaware_, quoted, 100, 101. + +Strong, Caleb, 161, 168. + +Stuart, Gilbert, portraits of _W_., 149. + +Sulgrave, English home of Washington family, 1. + +Sullivan, John, defeated on Long Island, 77. + + +Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles M. de, and the X.Y.Z. mission, 216. + +Tariff, _W_.'s view of a, 189. + +Tarleton, Sir Banastre, 122. + +"Taxation without representation," 55, 57. + +Thanacarishon, Seneca chief, quoted, on _W_. 14, 15. + +Thomas, John, 71. + +Ticonderoga, taken by Burgoyne, 91. + +Tobacco-raising in Virginia, 39, 40. + +Toner, J.M., _The Daily Journal of George Washington_, 11 + _n_. + +Trenton, Battle of, and its effect, 86, 87. + +Trumbull, Jonathan, letter of _W_. to, 231. + +Tryon, William, 79. + +United States, debt of Confederation turned over to, 182; + excitement in, over Citizen Genet, 195 _ff_.; + anomalous position of, between France and England, 205, 206; + the first country in which free speech existed, 222; + effect of _W_.'s example on world's opinion of, 259. + +United States Bank, 189. + + +Valley Forge, American army in winter quarters at, 100 _ff_., 118. + +Van Braam, Jacob, 14. + +Vergennes, Charles Gravier, Count de, favors cause of the Colonies, 94; + secures cooeperation of Spain, 99; 142. + +Vernon, Edward, Admiral, 5, 9. + +Victoria, Queen, 153. + +Virginia, effect in, of Braddock's defeat, 24, 25; + in the 1750's, 44, 45; + fox-hunting and horse-racing, 45,46; + opposition in, to acts of the Crown, 50, 51; + state of opinion in, 55, 56; population of, in 1775, 67, 68; + jealousy between Mass, and, 64; 164, 166. + +Virginia House of Burgesses, _W_. a member of, 36, 37; + adopts Mason's plan of association, 53. + + +Walpole, Horace, 18. + +Washington, Augustine, _W.'s_ father, marries Mary Ball, 1. + +Washington, George, ancestry, 1; + birth, 1, 2; + childhood and education, 2; + errors of Weems's biography, 2, 3; + absurdity of the cherry-tree story, 2; + Sparks's ill-advised editing of letters of, 3, 4; + and Mather's _Young Man's Companion_, 4; + surveys Fairfax estate, 5; + results of his experience as surveyor, 5; + his journals, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 37, 38, 39, 169; + his disposition, 7, 8; + attention, to dress, 8, 9; + declines appointment as midshipman, 9; + commissioned major of militia, 9; + visit to Barbados, 9, 10; + as manager of Mt. Vernon, 12; + sent by Dinwiddie on mission of warning to French, 14; + and the "Half-King," 14, 15; + second in command of Fry's expedition, 15_ff_.; + was he a "silent man"? 17, 18; + a volunteer on Braddock's expedition, 20, 21; + his account of the defeat, 22, 23; + his conduct in the battle, 23; + moral results of his campaigning, 25, 26; + his early love-affairs, 30, 31; + and Mary Philipse, 31, 32; + his physique, 32, 69; + a sound thinker, 33, 70; + inherits Mt. Vernon, 33; + courts and marries Mrs. Custis, 33, 34, 35; + in House of Burgesses, 36, 37; + as an agriculturist, 37 _ff_.; + his views on slave labor, 38, and slavery, 38, 39, 238; + relations with his slaves, 38, 237-239; + and his step-children, 40-42; + by nature a man of business, 42, 43; + improves his education, 43, 44; + as a country gentleman, 44_ff_.; + the hospitality of Mt. Vernon, 45. + + His view of the Stamp Act and other measures of the British + Government, 51, 52; + a loyal American, 52; + signs Mason's plan of association, 53; + no doubt as to his position, 55, 56, 57; + offers to raise 1000 men at his own expense, 57; + in first Continental Congress, 59, 60; + his mind made up, 62, 63; + chosen Commander-in-chief of Continental forces, 64, 65; + takes command at Cambridge, 65, 69; + plans to blockade Boston, 69; + jealousy among his officers, 70, 71; + and military amateurs, 71; + opposes expedition against Canada, 71; + whips his army into shape, 72; + appeals for supply of powder, 72; + forces evacuation of Boston, 73; + moves troops to New York, 74; + before Congress in Phila., 74, 75; + his opinion of Congress, 75; + retreats from Long Island after Sullivan's defeat, 77, 78; + inadequacy of his resources, 78; + moves army to Heights of Harlem, 80; + on the evils of American military system, 80, 81; + his troops not discouraged by his frankness, 82; + on the difficulty of his position, 82, 83; + his movements after battle of White Plains, 83 _ff_.; + crosses the Delaware and wins battles of Trenton and Princeton, 86; + a Necessary Man, 87; + his fearlessness of danger, 87, 88; + his movements impeded by dependence on Congress, 90, 118, 119; + his miscellaneous labors, 95 _ff_.; + his circular on looting by his troops, 97, 98; + on the maltreatment of American prisoners, 98; + takes Lafayette on his staff, 99; + chooses Valley Forge for winter quarters, 100; + describes its horrors, 101-103; + enters Phila. on the heels of the British, 106; + censures Charles Lee at Monmouth, 106; + the uneventful summer and autumn of 1778, 109; + refuses to commute Andre's sentence, 111; + jealous ambitions of his associates: the Conway Cabal, 111 _ff_.; + and Gates, 114; + and C. Lee, 114-116, 116_n_.; + on the intrigues of his enemies, 117, 118; + difficulties of his position, 118; + forced inactivity of, 121; + marches South to Virginia, 123; + lays siege to Yorktown, and forces Cornwallis to surrender, 122-125; + the country unanimous in giving him credit for the final victory 128, + 129. + + His view of the problems to be solved after the peace, 131; + urges payment of troops in full, 131-133, 134; + and the plan to make him king, 134, 135; + his letter to governors of States, 135; + his farewell to his officers, 136, 137; + his reception by, and address to, Congress, 137-139; + returns to Mt. Vernon, 139; + his life there, described, 140, 141, 143, 144, 146, 147; + fears of military dictatorship under, 141, 142; + his vision of the development of the Northwest 144, 145; + declines all gifts and pay for his services, 146; + his correspondence, 147, 148; + fears further trouble with England, 153; + his pessimism over the outlook for the future, 156, 157; + reluctantly consents to sit in Constitutional Convention, 158, 159; + and the Society of the Cincinnati, 159; + President of the Convention, 163, 164, 168, 169, 170; + his view of the Constitution, 170 _ff_.; + unanimously elected first President of the U.S., 175; + the journey to New York and inauguration, 176, 177. + + His receptions as President, 178, 179, 180, 181; + his inaugural address, 179; + dealings with office-seekers, 180; + his first Cabinet, 181, 186; + serious illness of, 185, 186; + appoints Justices of Supreme Court, 186; + a Federalist, 187, 199, 215; + favors Assumption, 187, 188; + his tariff views, 189; + his visit to Boston, 189, 190; + sends expeditions against Indians, 191; + approves Hamilton's centralizing measures, 192; + determined to maintain neutrality as between France and England, 193; + deals firmly with Genet, 198; + open criticism of, 199, 200, 201, 219 _ff_.; + his sympathies generally with Hamilton against Jefferson, 199; + effect on, of newspaper abuse, 201, 223; + disinclined to serve second term, 201; + reelected, 202, 203, 204; + issues Proclamation of Neutrality, 204; + its effect, 204, 205; + appoints Randolph to succeed Jefferson, 206; + and the Jay Treaty, 207 _ff_.; + sends C.C. Pinckney to replace Monroe in Paris, 215; + why he recalled Monroe, 215, 216; + consents to act as Commander-in-Chief in 1799, 217, 240; + puts down Whiskey Insurrection, 218, 219; + favors maintenance of free speech, 222; + declines to consider a third term, 223; + effect in later years of the precedent set by him, 223, 224; + his "Farewell Address," 224-227; + what would he have done in 1914? 228; + changes in his Cabinet, 228, 229; + and the charges against Randolph, 229, 230. + + Again in retirement at Mt. Vernon, 231 _ff_.; + and Nelly Custis, 233; + his career reviewed, 234, 254-260; + Bernard quoted on, 234-236; + his detractors, 236, 237; + his religious beliefs, 239, 240; + declines all public undertakings, 240; + his last illness, 241 _ff_.; + the last hours described by T. Lear, 243-249; + his death, 249; + action of Congress and President Adams, 251; + his funeral at Mt. Vernon, 252, 253; + project for memorial of, abandoned, 254; + his rank as a soldier, 256, 257; + as President, 258; + the most _actual_ statesman of his time, 258; + his example made the world change its mind about republics, 259. + + _Portraits and statues of_, 148-150. + + _Letters_ (quoted in whole or in part) to John Adams, 217; + Theodorick Bland, 131; + Rev. Mr. Boucher, 41; + William Byrd, 20; + Thomas Conway, 112; + Francis Dandridge, 51; + Robert Dinwiddie, 17, 22; + Bryan Fairfax, 62; + John Hancock, 9; + Benjamin Harrison, 143; + Sir W. Howe, 98; + Robert Jackson, 24; + John Jay, 142, 157; + Thomas Jefferson, 221; + Henry Knox, 170; + Marquis de Lafayette, 143, 145, 170, 171; + Henry Laurens, 101, 117; + Henry Lee, 203, 221; + Richard H. Lee, 96, 147; + Robert Mackenzie, 63; + George Mason, 56; + Gouverneur Morris, 207; + Edmund Randolph, 208; + Jonathan Trumbull, 231; + John Augustine Washington, 23, 75, 85; + Lund Washington, 82; + Martha (Custis) Washington, 34; + Mary Ball Washington, 24. + +Washington, John, _W_.'s great-grandfather settles in Virginia, 1. + +Washington, John Augustine, _W_.'s brother, letters of _W_. + to, 75, 85; 1, 11, 23. + +Washington, Lawrence,_W.'s_ half-brother, inherits Mount Vernon, 5; + _W_.'s guardian, 5; + marries Lord Fairfax's daughter, 5; + visits Barbados with _W_., 9-11; + his death, 11, 12; 7, 33. + +Washington, Lund, letter of _W_. to, 82, 83. + +Washington, Mrs. Martha (Custis), quoted, 104; + and _W_.'s last illness, 243 _ff_.; + letter of, to President Adams, 254; + buried at Mount Vernon, 254; 9, 38, 41, 43, 45, 252, 253. + +Washington, Mrs. Mary (Ball), _W_.'s mother, 2, 9, 24. + +Washington, Mildred, _W_.'s niece, _W_. guardian of, 12; + her death, 12. + +Washington family, the, 1. + +Wayne, Anthony, 191. + +Webster, Daniel, quoted, 188; 211. + +Webster, Peletiah, 156. + +Weems, Rev. Mason L., his _Life of_ _Washington_, + discredited, 2, 3. + +West Point, surrendered by Arnold, 110. + +Whigs, in Parliament, favor Colonies, 54, 62. + +Whiskey Insurrection, the, 218, 219. + +White House (Custis estate), 34, 35, 36. + +White Plains, Battle of, 83. + +Wilson, James, 161. + +Wister, Owen, 30 _n_. + +Wolcott, Oliver, Jr., 228, 229. + +Wolfe, James, 28, 105. + +Wythe, George, 161. + + +X.Y.Z. mission to France, 215, 216. + + +Yates, Robert, 161. + +Yorktown, Cornwallis surrenders at, 123 _ff_.; + the war really ended at, 126; + effect in England, 130. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's George Washington, by William Roscoe Thayer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE WASHINGTON *** + +***** This file should be named 12540.txt or 12540.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/4/12540/ + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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