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+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
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