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Title: The True George Washington [10th Ed.]
Author: Ford, Paul Leicester, 1865-1902
Language: English
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[Illustration: SHARPLESS MINIATURE OF WASHINGTON, 1795]
The True George Washington
By
Paul Leicester Ford
Author of "The Honorable Peter Stirling"
Editor of "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson" and
"The Sayings of Poor Richard"
"That I have foibles, and perhaps many of them, I shall not deny. I should
esteem myself, as the world would, vain and empty, were I to arrogate
perfection."
--_Washington_
"Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."
--_Shakespeare_
1896
BY
J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
_Tenth Edition_
Electrotyped and Printed by J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
TO
WILLIAM F. HAVEMEYER,
IN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE INDEBTEDNESS OF THE AUTHOR TO HIS COLLECTION
OF
WASHINGTONIANA.
+Note+
In every country boasting a history there may be observed a tendency to
make its leaders or great men superhuman. Whether we turn to the legends
of the East, the folk-lore of Europe, or the traditions of the native
races of America, we find a mythology based upon the acts of man gifted
with superhuman powers. In the unscientific, primeval periods in which
these beliefs were born and elaborated into oral and written form, their
origin is not surprising. But to all who have studied the creation of a
mythology, no phase is a more curious one than that the keen, practical
American of to-day should engage in the same process of hero-building
which has given us Jupiter, Wotan, King Arthur, and others. By a slow
evolution we have well-nigh discarded from the lives of our greatest men
of the past all human faults and feelings; have enclosed their greatness
in glass of the clearest crystal, and hung up a sign, "Do not touch."
Indeed, with such characters as Washington, Franklin, and Lincoln we have
practically adopted the English maxim that "the king can do no wrong." In
place of men, limited by human limits, and influenced by human passions,
we have demi-gods, so stripped of human characteristics as to make us
question even whether they deserve much credit for their sacrifices and
deeds.
But with this process of canonization have we not lost more than we have
gained, both in example and in interest? Many, no doubt, with the greatest
veneration for our first citizen, have sympathized with the view
expressed by Mark Twain, when he said that he was a greater man than
Washington, for the latter "couldn't tell a lie, while he could, but
wouldn't" We have endless biographies of Franklin, picturing him in all
the public stations of life, but all together they do not equal in
popularity his own human autobiography, in which we see him walking down
Market Street with a roll under each arm, and devouring a third. And so it
seems as if the time had come to put the shadow-boxes of humanity round
our historic portraits, not because they are ornamental in themselves, but
because they will make them examples, not mere idols.
If the present work succeeds in humanizing Washington, and making him a
man rather than a historical figure, its purpose will have been fulfilled.
In the attempt to accomplish this, Washington has, so far as is possible,
been made to speak for himself, even though at times it has compelled the
sacrifice of literary form, in the hope that his own words would convey a
greater sense of the personality of the man. So, too, liberal drafts have
been made on the opinions and statements of his contemporaries; but,
unless the contrary is stated or is obvious, all quoted matter is from
Washington's own pen. It is with pleasure that the author adds that the
result of his study has only served to make Washington the greater to him.
The writer is under the greatest obligation to his brother, Worthington
Chauncey Ford, not merely for his numerous books on Washington, of which
his "Writings of George Washington" is easily first in importance of all
works relating to the great American, but also for much manuscript
material which he has placed at the author's service. Hitherto unpublished
facts have been drawn from many other sources, but notably from the rich
collection of Mr. William F. Havemeyer, of New York, from the Department
of State in Washington, and from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
To Mr. S.M. Hamilton, of the former institution, and to Mr. Frederick D.
Stone, of the latter, the writer is particularly indebted for assistance.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.--FAMILY RELATIONS
II.--PHYSIQUE
III.--EDUCATION
IV.--RELATIONS WITH THE FAIR SEX
V.--FARMER AND PROPRIETOR
VI.--MASTER AND EMPLOYER
VII.--SOCIAL LIFE
VIII.--TASTES AND AMUSEMENTS
IX.--FRIENDS
X.--ENEMIES
XI.--SOLDIER
XII.--CITIZEN AND OFFICE-HOLDER
List of Illustrations with Notes
MINIATURE OF WASHINGTON. By JAMES SHARPLESS
Painted for Washington in 1795, and presented by him to Nelly (Calvert)
Stuart, widow of John Parke Custis, Washington's adopted son. Her son
George Washington Parke Custis, in whose presence the sittings were made,
often spoke of the likeness as "almost perfect."
MEMORIAL TABLET OF LAURENCE AND AMEE WASHINGTON, IN SULGRAVE CHURCH,
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
The injury of the effigy of Laurence Washington and the entire
disappearance of the effigy of Amee antedate the early part of the present
century, and probably were done in the Puritan period. Since the above
tracing was made the brasses of the eleven children have been stolen,
leaving nothing but the lettering and the shield of the Washington arms.
BETTY WASHINGTON, WIFE OF FIELDING LEWIS
Painted about 1750, and erroneously alleged to be by Copley. Original in
the possession of Mr. R. Byrd Lewis, of Marmion, Virginia.
JOHN AND MARTHA CUSTIS
Original in the possession of General G.W. Custis Lee, of Lexington,
Virginia.
MINIATURE OF ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS
From the miniature by Gilbert Stuart, in the possession of her grandson,
Edward Parke Lewis Custis, of Hoboken, New Jersey.
FICTITIOUS PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON
The lettering reads, "Done from an original Drawn from the Life, by Alex'r
Campbell of Williamsburg in Virginia. Published as the act directs
9 Sept'r 1775 by C. Shepherd." It is the first engraved portrait of
Washington, and was issued to satisfy the English curiosity concerning the
new commander-in-chief of the rebels. From the original print in the
possession of Mr. W.F. Havemeyer, of New York.
COPY SHEET FROM YOUNG MAN'S COMPANION
The sheet from which Washington modelled his handwriting, and to which his
earliest script shows a marked resemblance. From the original in the
possession of the author.
LETTER TO MRS. FAIRFAX
Showing changes and corrections made by Washington at a later date. From
original copy-book in the Washington MSS. in the Department of State.
PORTRAIT OF MARY PHILIPSE
From the original formerly in the possession of Mr. Frederick Philipse.
PORTRAIT OF MARTHA CUSTIS
Alleged to have been painted by Woolaston about 1757. It has been asserted
by Mr. L.W. Washington and Mr. Moncure D. Conway that this is a portrait
of Betty Washington Lewis, but in this they are wholly in error, as proof
exists that it is a portrait of Mrs. Washington before her second
marriage.
SURVEY OF MOUNT VERNON HILLS
Made by Washington as a boy, and one of the earliest specimens of his
work. The small drawing of the house represents it as it was before
Washington enlarged it, and is the only picture of it known. Original in
the Department of State.
MOUNTAIN ROAD LOTTERY TICKET
From the original in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
FAMILY GROUP
Painted by Edward Savage about 1795, and issued as a large engraving in
1798. The original picture is now in the possession of Mr. William F.
Havemeyer, of New York.
DINNER INVITATION
The official invitation while President, from the original in the
possession of the author.
DANCING AGREEMENT
This gives only the first few names, many more following. The original was
formerly in the possession of Mr. Thomas Biddle, of Philadelphia.
BOOK-PLATE OF WASHINGTON
This is a slight variation from the true Washington coat of arms, the
changes being introduced by Washington. From the original in the
possession of the author.
SURVEY OF WAKEFIELD
Washington's birthplace. The survey was made in 1743, on the property
coming into the possession of Augustine Washington (second) from his
father, with the object of readjusting the boundary-lines. Original in the
possession of Mr. William F. Havemeyer, of New York.
WASHINGTON FAMILY BIBLE
This record, with the exception of the interlined note concerning Betty
Washington Lewis, is in the handwriting of George Washington, and was
written when he was about sixteen years old. Original in the possession of
Mrs. Lewis Washington, of Charlestown, West Virginia.
MINIATURE OF MRS. WASHINGTON
By an unknown artist. From the original in the possession of General G.W.
Custis Lee, of Lexington, Virginia.
EARLIEST AUTOGRAPH OF WASHINGTON
On a fly-leaf of the volume to which this title belongs is written, "This
autograph of Genl. Washington's name is believed to be the earliest
specimen of his writing, when he was probably not more than 8 or 9 years
of age." This is a note by G.C. Washington, to whom Washington's library
descended. Original in the possession of the Boston Athenaeum.
RULES OF CIVILITY
First page of Washington's boyish transcript, written when he was about
thirteen years of age. Used here by courtesy of Mr. S.M. Hamilton and
"Public Opinion," who are preparing a fac-simile edition of the entire
rules.
LIFE MASK BY HOUDON
Taken by Houdon in October, 1785. From the replica in the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania.
TITLE-PAGE OF JOURNAL OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1754
Of this first edition but two copies are known. From the original in the
Lenox Library.
PRESIDENTIAL HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA
Philadelphia offered to furnish the house for the President during the
time Congress sat in that city, but Washington "wholly declined living in
any public building," and rented this house from Robert Morris. Though it
was considered one of the finest in the city, Washington several times
complained of being cramped.
THE TRUE GEORGE WASHINGTON
I
FAMILY RELATIONS
Although Washington wrote that the history of his ancestors was, in his
opinion, "of very little moment," and "a subject to which I confess I have
paid very little attention," few Americans can prove a better pedigree.
The earliest of his forebears yet discovered was described as "gentleman,"
the family were granted lands by Henry the Eighth, held various offices of
honor, married into good families, and under the Stuarts two were knighted
and a third served as page to Prince Charles. Lawrence, a brother of the
three thus distinguished, matriculated at Oxford as a "generosi filius"
(the intermediate class between sons of the nobility, "armigeri filius,"
and of the people, "plebeii filius"), or as of the minor gentry. In time
he became a fellow and lector of Brasenose College, and presently obtained
the good living of Purleigh. Strong royalists, the fortunes of the family
waned along with King Charles, and sank into insignificance with the
passing of the Stuart dynasty. Not the least sufferer was the rector of
Purleigh, for the Puritan Parliament ejected him from his living, on the
charge "that he was a common frequenter of ale-houses, not only himself
sitting dayly tippling there ... but hath oft been drunk,"--a charge
indignantly denied by the royalists, who asserted that he was a "worthy
Pious man, ... always ... a very Modest, Sober Person;" and this latter
claim is supported by the fact that though the Puritans sequestered the
rich living, they made no objection to his serving as rector at Brixted
Parva, where the living was "such a Poor and Miserable one that it was
always with difficulty that any one was persuaded to accept of it."
Poverty resulting, John, the eldest son of this rector, early took to the
sea, and in 1656 assisted "as second man in Sayleing ye Vessel to
Virginia." Here he settled, took up land, presently became a county
officer, a burgess, and a colonel of militia. In this latter function he
commanded the Virginia troops during the Indian war of 1675, and when his
great-grandson, George, on his first arrival on the frontier, was called
by the Indians "Conotocarius," or "devourer of villages," the formidable
but inappropriate title for the newly-fledged officer is supposed to have
been due to the reputation that John Washington had won for his name among
the Indians eighty years before.
[Illustration: TABLET TO LAURENCE WASHINGTON AND HIS FAMILY IN SULGRAVE
CHURCH]
Both John's son, Lawrence, and Lawrence's son, Augustine, describe
themselves in their wills as "gentlemen," and both intermarried with the
"gentry families" of Virginia. Augustine was educated at Appleby School,
in England, like his grandfather followed the sea for a time, was
interested in iron mines, and in other ways proved himself far more than
the average Virginia planter of his day. He was twice married,--which
marriages, with unconscious humor, he describes in his will as "several
Ventures,"--had ten children, and died in 1743, when George, his fifth
child and the first by his second "Venture," was a boy of eleven. The
father thus took little part in the life of the lad, and almost the only
mention of him by his son still extant is the one recorded in Washington's
round school-boy hand in the family Bible, to the effect that "Augustine
Washington and Mary Ball was Married the Sixth of March 17-30/31.
Augustine Washington Departed this Life ye 12th Day of April 1743, Aged 49
Years."
The mother, Mary Washington, was more of a factor, though chiefly by mere
length of life, for she lived to be eighty-three, and died but ten years
before her son. That Washington owed his personal appearance to the Balls
is true, but otherwise the sentimentality that has been lavished about the
relations between the two and her influence upon him, partakes of fiction
rather than of truth. After his father's death the boy passed most of his
time at the homes of his two elder brothers, and this was fortunate, for
they were educated men, of some colonial consequence, while his mother
lived in comparatively straitened circumstances, was illiterate and
untidy, and, moreover, if tradition is to be believed, smoked a pipe. Her
course with the lad was blamed by a contemporary as "fond and unthinking,"
and this is borne out by such facts as can be gleaned, for when his
brothers wished to send him to sea she made "trifling objections," and
prevented his taking what they thought an advantageous opening; when the
brilliant offer of a position on Braddock's staff was tendered to
Washington, his mother, "alarmed at the report," hurried to Mount Vernon
and endeavored to prevent him from accepting it; still again, after
Braddock's defeat, she so wearied her son with pleas not to risk the
dangers of another campaign that Washington finally wrote her, "It would
reflect dishonor upon me to refuse; and _that_, I am sure, must or _ought_
to give you greater uneasiness, than my going in an honorable command."
After he inherited Mount Vernon the two seem to have seen little of each
other, though, when occasion took him near Fredericksburg, he usually
stopped to see her for a few hours, or even for a night.
Though Washington always wrote to his mother as "Honored Madam," and
signed himself "your dutiful and aff. son," she none the less tried him
not a little. He never claimed from her a part of the share of his
father's estate which was his due on becoming of age, and, in addition,
"a year or two before I left Virginia (to make her latter days comfortable
and free from care) I did, at her request, but at my own expence,
purchase a commodious house, garden and Lotts (of her own choosing) in
Fredericksburg, that she might be near my sister Lewis, her only
daughter,--and did moreover agree to take her land and negroes at a
certain yearly rent, to be fixed by Colo Lewis and others (of her own
nomination) which has been an annual expence to me ever since, as the
estate never raised one half the rent I was to pay. Before I left Virginia
I answered all her calls for money; and since that period have directed my
steward to do the same." Furthermore, he gave her a phaeton, and when she
complained of her want of comfort he wrote her, "My house is at your
service, and [I] would press you most sincerely and most devoutly to
accept it, but I am sure, and candor requires me to say, it will never
answer your purposes in any shape whatsoever. For in truth it may be
compared to a well resorted tavern, as scarcely any strangers who are
going from north to south, or from south to north, do not spend a day or
two at it. This would, were you to be an inhabitant of it, oblige you to
do one of 3 things: 1st, to be always dressing to appear in company; 2d,
to come into [the room] in a dishabille, or 3d to be as it were a prisoner
in your own chamber. The first you'ld not like; indeed, for a person at
your time of life it would be too fatiguing. The 2d, I should not like,
because those who resort here are, as I observed before, strangers and
people of the first distinction. And the 3d, more than probably, would not
be pleasing to either of us."
Under these circumstances it was with real indignation that Washington
learned that complaints of hers that she "never lived soe poore in all my
life" were so well known that there was a project to grant her a pension.
The pain this caused a man who always showed such intense dislike to
taking even money earned from public coffers, and who refused everything
in the nature of a gift, can easily be understood. He at once wrote a
letter to a friend in the Virginia Assembly, in which, after reciting
enough of what he had done for her to prove that she was under no
necessity of a pension,--"or, in other words, receiving charity from the
public,"--he continued, "But putting these things aside, which I could not
avoid mentioning in exculpation of a presumptive want of duty on my part;
confident I am that she has not a child that would not divide the last
sixpence to relieve her from real distress. This she has been repeatedly
assured of by me; and all of us, I am certain, would feel much hurt, at
having our mother a pensioner, while we had the means of supporting her;
but in fact she has an ample income of her own. I lament accordingly that
your letter, which conveyed the first hint of this matter, did not come to
my hands sooner; but I request, in pointed terms, if the matter is now in
agitation in your Assembly, that all proceedings on it may be stopped, or
in case of a decision in her favor, that it may be done away and repealed
at my request."
Still greater mortification was in store for him, when he was told that
she was borrowing and accepting gifts from her neighbors, and learned "on
good authority that she is, upon all occasions and in all companies,
complaining ... of her wants and difficulties; and if not in direct terms,
at least by strong innuendoes, endeavors to excite a belief that times
are much altered, &c., &c., which not only makes _her_ appear in an
unfavorable point of view, but _those also_ who are connected with her."
To save her feelings he did not express the "pain" he felt to her, but he
wrote a brother asking him to ascertain if there was the slightest basis
in her complaints, and "see what is necessary to make her comfortable,"
for "while I have anything I will part with it to make her so;" but
begging him "at the same time ... to represent to her in delicate terms,
the impropriety of her complaints, and _acceptance_ of favors, even when
they are voluntarily offered, from any but relations." Though he did not
"touch upon this subject in a letter to her," he was enough fretted to end
the renting of her plantation, not because "I mean ... to withhold any aid
or support I can give from you; for whilst I have a shilling left, you
shall have part," but because "what I shall then give, I shall have credit
for," and not be "viewed as a delinquent, and considered perhaps by the
world as [an] unjust and undutiful son."
In the last years of her life a cancer developed, which she refused to
have "dressed," and over which, as her doctor wrote Washington, the "Old
Lady" and he had "a small battle every day." Once Washington was summoned
by an express to her bedside "to bid, as I was prepared to expect, the
last adieu to an honored parent," but it was a false alarm. Her health was
so bad, however, that just before he started to New York to be inaugurated
he rode to Fredericksburg, "and took a final leave of my mother, never
expecting to see her more," a surmise that proved correct.
Only Elizabeth--or "Betty"--of Washington's sisters grew to womanhood, and
it is said that she was so strikingly like her brother that, disguised
with a long cloak and a military hat, the difference between them was
scarcely detectable. She married Fielding Lewis, and lived at "Kenmore
House" on the Rappahannock, where Washington spent many a night, as did
the Lewises at Mount Vernon. During the Revolution, while visiting there,
she wrote her brother, "Oh, when will that day arrive when we shall meet
again. Trust in the lord it will be soon,--till when, you have the prayers
and kind wishes for your health and happiness of your loving and sincerely
affectionate sister." Her husband died "much indebted," and from that time
her brother gave her occasional sums of money, and helped her in other
ways.
Her eldest son followed in his father's footsteps, and displeased
Washington with requests for loans. He angered him still more by conduct
concerning which Washington wrote to him as follows:
"Sir, Your letter of the 11th of Octor. never came to my hands 'till
yesterday. Altho' your disrespectful conduct towards me, in coming into
this country and spending weeks therein without ever coming near me,
entitled you to very little notice or favor from me; yet I consent that
you may get timber from off my Land in Fauquier County to build a house on
your Lott in Rectertown. Having granted this, now let me ask you what your
views were in purchasing a Lott in a place which, I presume, originated
with and will end in two or three Gin shops, which probably will exist no
longer than they serve to ruin the proprietors, and those who make the
most frequent applications to them. I am, &c."
[Illustration: MRS FIELDING LEWIS (BETTY WASHINGTON)]
Other of the Lewis boys pleased him better, and he appointed one an
officer in his own "Life Guard." Of another he wrote, when President, to
his sister, "If your son Howell is living with you, and not usefully
employed in your own affairs, and should incline to spend a few months
with me, as a writer in my office (if he is fit for it) I will allow him
at the rate of three hundred dollars a year, provided he is diligent in
discharging the duties of it from breakfast until dinner--Sundays
excepted. This sum will be punctually paid him, and I am particular in
declaring beforehand what I require, and what he may expect, that there
may be no disappointment, or false expectations on either side. He will
live in the family in the same manner his brother Robert did." This Robert
had been for some time one of his secretaries, and at another time was
employed as a rent-collector.
Still another son, Lawrence, also served him in these dual capacities, and
Washington, on his retirement from the Presidency, offered him a home at
Mount Vernon. This led to a marriage with Mrs. Washington's grandchild,
Eleanor Custis, a match which so pleased Washington that he made
arrangements for Lawrence to build on the Mount Vernon estate, in his will
named him an executor, and left the couple a part of this property, as
well as a portion of the residuary estate.
As already noted, much of Washington's early life was passed at the homes
of his elder (half-) brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, who lived
respectively at Mount Vernon and Wakefield. When Lawrence developed
consumption, George was his travelling companion in a trip to Barbadoes,
and from him, when he died of that disease, in 1752, came the bequest of
Mount Vernon to "my loveing brother George." To Augustine, in the only
letter now extant, Washington wrote, "The pleasure of your company at
Mount Vernon always did, and always will afford me infinite satisfaction,"
and signed himself "your most affectionate brother." Surviving this
brother, he left handsome bequests to all his children.
Samuel, the eldest of his own brothers, and his junior by but two years,
though constantly corresponded with, was not a favorite. He seems to have
had extravagant tendencies, variously indicated by five marriages, and by
(perhaps as a consequence) pecuniary difficulties. In 1781, Washington
wrote to another brother, "In God's name how did my brother Samuel get
himself so enormously in debt?" Very quickly requests for loans followed,
than which nothing was more irritating to Washington. Yet, though he
replied that it would be "very inconvenient" to him, his ledger shows that
at least two thousand dollars were advanced, and in a letter to this
brother, on the danger of borrowing at interest, Washington wrote, "I do
not make these observations on account of the money I purpose to lend you,
because all I shall require is that you return the net sum when in your
power, without interest." Better even than this, in his will Washington
discharged the debt.
To the family of Samuel, Washington was equally helpful. For the eldest
son he obtained an ensigncy, and "to save Thornton and you [Samuel] the
expence of buying a horse to ride home on, I have lent him a mare." Two
other sons he assumed all the expenses of, and showed an almost fatherly
interest in them. He placed them at school, and when the lads proved
somewhat unruly he wrote them long admonitory letters, which became stern
when actual misconduct ensued, and when one of them ran away to Mount
Vernon to escape a whipping, Washington himself prepared "to correct him,
but he begged so earnestly and promised so faithfully that there should be
no cause for complaint in the future, that I have suspended punishment."
Later the two were sent to college, and in all cost Washington "near five
thousand dollars."
An even greater trouble was their sister Harriot, whose care was assumed
in 1785, and who was a member of Washington's household, with only a
slight interruption, till her marriage in 1796. Her chief failing was "no
disposition ... to be careful of her cloathes," which were "dabbed about
in every hole and corner and her best things always in use," so that
Washington said "she costs me enough!" To her uncle she wrote on one
occasion, "How shall I apologise to my dear and Honor'd for intruding on
his goodness so soon again, but being sensible for your kindness to me
which I shall ever remember with the most heartfelt gratitude induces me
to make known my wants. I have not had a pair of stays since I first came
here: if you could let me have a pair I should be very much obleiged to
you, and also a hat and a few other articles. I hope my dear Uncle will
not think me extravagant for really I take as much care of my cloaths as I
possibly can." Probably the expense that pleased him best in her case was
that which he recorded in his ledger "By Miss Harriot Washington gave her
to buy wedding clothes $100."
His second and favorite brother, John Augustine, who was four years his
junior, Washington described as "the intimate companion of my youth and
the friend of my ripened age." While the Virginia colonel was on the
frontier, from 1754 to 1759, he left John in charge of all his business
affairs, giving him a residence at and management of Mount Vernon. With
this brother he constantly corresponded, addressing him as "Dear Jack,"
and writing in the most intimate and affectionate terms, not merely to
him, but when John had taken unto himself a wife, to her, and to "the
little ones," and signing himself "your loving brother." Visits between
the two were frequent, and invitations for the same still more so, and in
one letter, written during the most trying moment of the Revolution,
Washington said, "God grant you all health and happiness. Nothing in this
world could contribute so to mine as to be fixed among you." John died in
1787, and Washington wrote with simple but undisguised grief of the death
of "my beloved brother."
The eldest son of this brother, Bushrod, was his favorite nephew, and
Washington took much interest in his career, getting the lad admitted to
study law with Judge James Wilson, in Philadelphia, and taking genuine
pride in him when he became a lawyer and judge of repute. He made this
nephew his travelling companion in the Western journey of 1784, and at
other times not merely sent him money, but wrote him letters of advice,
dwelling on the dangers that beset young men, though confessing that he
was himself "not such a Stoic" as to expect too much of youthful blood. To
Bushrod, also, he appealed on legal matters, adding, "You may think me an
unprofitable applicant in asking opinions and requiring services of you
without dousing my money, but pay day may come," and in this he was as
good as his word, for in his will Washington left Bushrod, "partly in
consideration of an intimation to his deceased father, while we were
bachelors and he had kindly undertaken to superintend my Estates, during
my military services in the former war between Great Britain and France,
that if I should fall therein, Mt. Vernon ... should become his property,"
the home and "mansion-house farm," one share of the residuary estate, his
private papers, and his library, and named him an executor of the
instrument.
Of Washington's relations with his youngest brother, Charles, little can
be learned. He was the last of his brothers to die, and Washington
outlived him so short a time that he was named in his will, though only
for a mere token of remembrance. "I add nothing to it because of the ample
provision I have made for his issue." Of the children so mentioned,
Washington was particularly fond of George Augustine Washington. As a mere
lad he used his influence to procure for him an ensigncy in a Virginia
regiment, and an appointment on Lafayette's staff. When in 1784 the young
fellow was threatened with consumption, his uncle's purse supplied him
with the funds by which he was enabled to travel, even while Washington
wrote, "Poor fellow! his pursuit after health is, I fear, altogether
fruitless." When better health came, and with it a renewal of a troth with
a niece of Mrs. Washington's, the marriage was made possible by Washington
appointing the young fellow his manager, and not merely did it take place
at Mount Vernon, but the young couple took up their home there. More than
this, that their outlook might be "more stable and pleasing," Washington
promised them that on his death they should not be forgotten. When the
disease again developed, Washington wrote his nephew in genuine anxiety,
and ended his letter, "At all times and under all circumstances you and
yours will possess my affectionate regards." Only a few days later the
news of his nephew's death reached him, and he wrote his widow, "To you
who so well know the affectionate regard I had for our departed friend, it
is unnecessary to describe the sorrow with which I was afflicted at the
news of his death." He asked her and her children "to return to your old
habitation at Mount Vernon. You can go to no place where you can be more
welcome, nor to any where you can live at less expence and trouble," an
offer, he adds, "made to you with my whole heart." Furthermore, Washington
served as executor, assumed the expense of educating one of the sons, and
in his will left the two children part of the Mount Vernon estate, as
well as other bequests, "on account of the affection I had for, and the
obligation I was under to their father when living, who from his youth
attached himself to my person, and followed my fortunes through the
vicissitudes of the late Revolution, afterwards devoting his time for many
years whilst my public employments rendered it impracticable for me to do
it myself, thereby affording me essential services and always performing
them in a manner the most filial and respectful."
Of his wife's kith and kin Washington was equally fond. Both alone and
with Mrs. Washington he often visited her mother, Mrs. Dandridge, and in
1773 he wrote to a brother-in-law that he wished "I was master of
Arguments powerful enough to prevail upon Mrs. Dandridge to make this
place her entire and absolute home. I should think as she lives a lonesome
life (Betsey being married) it might suit her well, & be agreeable, both
to herself & my Wife, to me most assuredly it would." Washington was also
a frequent visitor at "Eltham," the home of Colonel Bassett, who had
married his wife's sister, and constantly corresponded with these
relatives. He asked this whole family to be his guests at the Warm
Springs, and, as this meant camping out in tents, he wrote, "You will have
occasion to provide nothing, if I can be advised of your intentions, so
that I may provide accordingly." To another brother-in-law, Bartholomew
Dandridge, he lent money, and forgave the debt to the widow in his will,
also giving her the use during her life of the thirty-three negroes he had
bid in at the bankruptcy sale of her husband's property.
The pleasantest glimpses of family feeling are gained, however, in his
relations with his wife's children and grandchildren. John Parke and
Martha Parke Custis--or "Jack" and "Patsey," as he called them--were
at the date of his marriage respectively six and four years of age, and in
the first invoice of goods to be shipped to him from London after he had
become their step-father, Washington ordered "10 shillings worth of Toys,"
"6 little books for children beginning to read," and "1 fashionable-dressed
baby to cost 10 shillings." When this latter shared the usual fate, he
further wrote for "1 fashionable dress Doll to cost a guinea," and for "A
box of Gingerbread Toys & Sugar Images or Comfits." A little later he
ordered a Bible and Prayer-Book for each, "neatly bound in Turkey," with
names "in gilt letters on the inside of the cover," followed ere long by an
order for "1 very good Spinet" As Patsy grew to girlhood she developed
fits, and "solely on her account to try (by the advice of her Physician)
the effect of the waters on her Complaint," Washington took the family over
the mountains and camped at the "Warm Springs" in 1769, with "little
benefit," for, after ailing four years longer, "she was seized with one of
her usual Fits & expired in it, in less than two minutes, without uttering
a word, or groan, or scarce a sigh." "The Sweet Innocent Girl," Washington
wrote, "entered into a more happy & peaceful abode than she has met with in
the afflicted Path she has hitherto trod," but none the less "it is an
easier matter to conceive than to describe the distress of this family" at
the loss of "dear Patsy Custis."
[Illustration: JOHN AND MARTHA PARKE CUSTIS]
The care of Jack Custis was a worry to Washington in quite another way. As
a lad, Custis signed his letters to him as "your most affectionate and
dutiful son," "yet I conceive," Washington wrote, "there is much greater
circumspection to be observed by a guardian than a natural parent." Soon
after assuming charge of the boy, a tutor was secured, who lived at Mount
Vernon, but the boy showed little inclination to study, and when fourteen,
Washington wrote that "his mind [is] ... more turned ... to Dogs, Horses
and Guns, indeed upon Dress and equipage." "Having his well being much at
heart," Washington wished to make him "fit for more useful purposes than
[a] horse racer," and so Jack was placed with a clergyman, who agreed to
instruct him, and with him he lived, except for some home visits, for
three years. Unfortunately, the lad, like the true Virginian planter of
his day, had no taste for study, and had "a propensity for the [fair]
sex." After two or three flirtations, he engaged himself, without the
knowledge of his mother or guardian, to Nellie Calvert, a match to which
no objection could be made, except that, owing to his "youth and
fickleness," "he may either change and therefore injure the young lady; or
that it may precipitate him into a marriage before, I am certain, he has
ever bestowed a serious thought of the consequences; by which means his
education is interrupted." To avoid this danger, Washington took his ward
to New York and entered him in King's College, but the death of Patsy
Custis put a termination to study, for Mrs. Washington could not bear to
have the lad at such a distance, and Washington "did not care, as he is
the last of the family, to push my opposition too far." Accordingly, Jack
returned to Virginia and promptly married.
The young couple were much at Mount Vernon from this time on, and
Washington wrote to "Dear Jack," "I am always pleased with yours and
Nelly's abidance at Mount Vernon." When the winter snows made the siege of
Boston purely passive, the couple journeyed with Mrs. Washington to
Cambridge, and visited at head-quarters for some months. The arrival of
children prevented the repetition of such visits, but frequent letters,
which rarely failed to send love to "Nelly and the little girls," were
exchanged. The acceptance of command compelled Washington to resign the
care of Custis's estate, for which service "I have never charged him or
his sister, from the day of my connexion with them to this hour, one
farthing for all the trouble I have had in managing their estates, nor for
any expense they have been to me, notwithstanding some hundreds of pounds
would not reimburse the moneys I have actually paid in attending the
public meetings in Williamsburg to collect their debts, and transact these
several matters appertaining to the respective estates." Washington,
however, continued his advice as to its management, and in other letters
advised him concerning his conduct when Custis was elected a member of the
Virginia House of Delegates. In the siege of Yorktown Jack served as an
officer of militia, and the exposure proved too much for him. Immediately
after the surrender, news reached Washington of his serious illness, and
by riding thirty miles in one day he succeeded in reaching Eltham in "time
enough to see poor Mr. Custis breath his last," leaving behind him "four
lovely children, three girls and a boy."
Owing to his public employment, Washington refused to be guardian for
these "little ones," writing "that it would be injurious to the children
and madness in me, to undertake, _as a principle_, a trust which I could
not discharge. Such aid, however, as it ever may be with me to give to the
children especially the boy, I will afford with all my heart, and on this
assurance you may rely." Yet "from their earliest infancy" two of Jack's
children, George Washington Parke and Eleanor Parke Custis, lived at Mount
Vernon, for, as Washington wrote in his will, "it has always been my
intention, since my expectation of having issue has ceased, to consider
the grandchildren of my wife in the same light as my own relations, and to
act a friendly part by them." Though the cares of war prevented his
watching their property interests, his eight years' absence could not make
him forget them, and on his way to Annapolis, in 1783, to tender Congress
his resignation, he spent sundry hours of his time in the purchase of
gifts obviously intended to increase the joy of his homecoming to the
family circle at Mount Vernon; set forth in his note-book as follows:
"By Sundries bo't. in Phil'a.
A Locket £5 5
3 Small Pockt. Books 1 10
3 Sashes 1 5 0
Dress Cap 2 8
Hatt 3 10
Handkerchief 1
Childrens Books 4 6
Whirligig 1 6
Fiddle 2 6
Quadrille Boxes 1 17 6."
Indeed, in every way Washington showed how entirely he considered himself
as a father, not merely speaking of them frequently as "the children," but
even alluding to himself in a letter to the boy as "your papa." Both were
much his companions during the Presidency. A frequent sight in New York
and Philadelphia was Washington taking "exercise in the coach with Mrs.
Washington and the two children," and several times they were taken to the
theatre and on picnics.
For Eleanor, or "Nelly," who grew into a great beauty, Washington showed
the utmost tenderness, and on occasion interfered to save her from her
grandmother, who at moments was inclined to be severe, in one case to
bring the storm upon himself. For her was bought a "Forte piano,"
and later, at the cost of a thousand dollars, a very fine imported
harpsichord, and one of Washington's great pleasures was to have her play
and sing to him. His ledger constantly shows gifts to her ranging from
"The Wayworn traveller, a song for Miss Custis," to "a pr. of gold
eardrops" and a watch. The two corresponded. One letter from Washington
merits quotation:
[Illustration: ELLANOR (NELLY) CUSTIS]
"Let me touch a little now on your Georgetown ball, and happy, thrice
happy, for the fair who assembled on the occasion, that there was a man to
spare; for had there been 79 ladies and only 78 gentlemen, there might, in
the course of the evening have been some disorder among the caps;
notwithstanding the apathy which _one_ of the company entertains for the
'_youth_' of the present day, and her determination 'Never to give herself
a moment's uneasiness on account of any of them.' A hint here; men and
women feel the same inclinations towards each other _now_ that they always
have done, and which they will continue to do until there is a new order
of things, and _you_, as others have done, may find, perhaps, that the
passions of your sex are easier raised than allayed. Do not therefore
boast too soon or too strongly of your insensibility to, or resistance of,
its powers. In the composition of the human frame there is a good deal of
inflammable matter, however dormant it may lie for a time, and like an
intimate acquaintance of yours, when the torch is put to it, _that_ which
is _within you_ may burst into a blaze; for which reason and especially
too, as I have entered upon the chapter of advices, I will read you a
lecture from this text."
Not long after this was written, Nelly, as already
mentioned, was married at Mount Vernon to Washington's
nephew, Lawrence Lewis, and in time became
joint-owner with her husband of part of that
place.
As early as 1785 a tutor was wanted for "little Washington," as the lad
was called, and Washington wrote to England to ask if some "worthy man of
the cloth could not be obtained," "for the boy is a remarkably fine one,
and my intention is to give him a liberal education." His training became
part of the private secretary's duty, both at Mount Vernon and New York
and Philadelphia, but the lad inherited his father's traits, and "from his
infancy ... discovered an almost unconquerable disposition to indolence."
This led to failures which gave Washington "extreme disquietude," and in
vain he "exhorted him in the most parental and friendly manner." Custis
would express "sorrow and repentance" and do no better. Successively he
was sent to the College of Philadelphia, the College of New Jersey, and
that at Annapolis, but from each he was expelled, or had to be withdrawn.
Irritating as it must have been, his guardian never in his letters
expressed anything but affection, shielded the lad from the anger of his
step-father, and saw that he was properly supplied with money, of which he
asked him to keep a careful account,--though this, as Washington wrote,
was "not because I want to know how you spend your money." After the last
college failure a private tutor was once more engaged, but a very few
weeks served to give Washington "a thorough conviction that it was in vain
to keep Washington Custis to any literary pursuits, either in a public
Seminary or at home," and, as the next best thing, he procured him a
cornetcy in the provisional army. Even here, balance was shown; for, out
of compliment and friendship to Washington, "the Major Generals were
desirous of placing him as lieutenant in the first instance; but his age
considered, I thought it more eligible that he should enter into the
lowest grade."
In this connection one side of Washington's course with his relations
deserves especial notice. As early as 1756 he applied for a commission in
the Virginia forces for his brother, and, as already shown, he placed
several of his nephews and other connections in the Revolutionary or
provisional armies. But he made clear distinction between military and
civil appointments, and was very scrupulous about the latter. When his
favorite nephew asked for a Federal appointment, Washington answered,--
"You cannot doubt my wishes to see you appointed to any office of honor or
emolument in the new government, to the duties of which you are competent;
but however deserving you may be of the one you have suggested, your
standing at the bar would not justify my nomination of you as attorney to
the Federal District Court in preference to some of the oldest and most
esteemed general court lawyers in your State, who are desirous of this
appointment. My political conduct in nominations, even if I were
uninfluenced by principle, must be exceedingly circumspect and proof
against just criticism; for the eyes of Argus are upon me, and no slip
will pass unnoticed, that can be improved into a supposed partiality for
friends or relations."
And that in this policy he was consistent is shown by a letter of
Jefferson, who wrote to an office-seeking relative, "The public will never
be made to believe that an appointment of a relative is made on the ground
of merit alone, uninfluenced by family views; nor can they ever see with
approbation offices, the disposal of which they entrust to their
Presidents for public purposes, divided out as family property. Mr. Adams
degraded himself infinitely by his conduct on this subject, as Genl.
Washington had done himself the greatest honor. With two such examples to
proceed by, I should be doubly inexcusable to err."
There were many other more distant relatives with whom pleasant relations
were maintained, but enough has been said to indicate the intercourse.
Frequent were the house-parties at Mount Vernon, and how unstinted
hospitality was to kith and kin is shown by many entries in Washington's
diary, a single one of which will indicate the rest: "I set out for my
return home--at which I arrived a little after noon--And found my Brother
Jon Augustine his Wife; Daughter Milly, & Sons Bushrod & Corbin, & the
Wife of the first. Mr. Willm Washington & his Wife and 4 Children."
His will left bequests to forty-one of his own and his wife's relations.
"God left him childless that he might be the father of his country."
II
PHYSIQUE
Writing to his London tailor for clothes, in 1763, Washington directed him
to "take measure of a gentleman who wares well-made cloaths of the
following size: to wit, 6 feet high and proportionably made--if anything
rather slender than thick, for a person of that highth, with pretty long
arms and thighs. You will take care to make the breeches longer than those
you sent me last, and I would have you keep the measure of the cloaths you
now make, by you, and if any alteration is required in my next it shall be
pointed out." About this time, too, he ordered "6 pr. Man's riding
Gloves--rather large than the middle size,"... and several dozen pairs of
stockings, "to be long, and tolerably large."
The earliest known description of Washington was written in 1760 by his
companion-in-arms and friend George Mercer, who attempted a "portraiture"
in the following words: "He may be described as being as straight as an
Indian, measuring six feet two inches in his stockings, and weighing 175
pounds when he took his seat in the House of Burgesses in 1759. His frame
is padded with well-developed muscles, indicating great strength. His
bones and joints are large, as are his feet and hands. He is wide
shouldered, but has not a deep or round chest; is neat waisted, but is
broad across the hips, and has rather long legs and arms. His head is well
shaped though not large, but is gracefully poised on a superb neck. A
large and straight rather than prominent nose; blue-gray penetrating eyes,
which are widely separated and overhung by a heavy brow. His face is long
rather than broad, with high round cheek bones, and terminates in a good
firm chin. He has a clear though rather a colorless pale skin, which burns
with the sun. A pleasing, benevolent, though a commanding countenance,
dark brown hair, which he wears in a cue. His mouth is large and generally
firmly closed, but which from time to time discloses some defective teeth.
His features are regular and placid, with all the muscles of his face
under perfect control, though flexible and expressive of deep feeling when
moved by emotion. In conversation he looks you full in the face, is
deliberate, deferential and engaging. His voice is agreeable rather than
strong. His demeanor at all times composed and dignified. His movements
and gestures are graceful, his walk majestic, and he is a splendid
horseman."
Dr. James Thacher, writing in 1778, depicted him as "remarkably tall, full
six feet, erect and well proportioned. The strength and proportion of his
joints and muscles, appear to be commensurate with the pre-eminent powers
of his mind. The serenity of his countenance, and majestic gracefulness of
his deportment, impart a strong impression of that dignity and grandeur,
which are his peculiar characteristics, and no one can stand in his
presence without feeling the ascendancy of his mind, and associating with
his countenance the idea of wisdom, philanthropy, magnanimity and
patriotism. There is a fine symmetry in the features of his face,
indicative of a benign and dignified spirit. His nose is straight, and his
eye inclined to blue. He wears his hair in a becoming cue, and from his
forehead it is turned back and powdered in a manner which adds to the
military air of his appearance. He displays a native gravity, but devoid
of all appearance of ostentation." In this same year a friend wrote,
"General Washington is now in the forty-seventh year of his age; he is a
well-made man, rather large boned, and has a tolerably genteel address;
his features are manly and bold, his eyes of a bluish cast and very
lively; his hair a deep brown, his face rather long and marked with the
small-pox; his complexion sunburnt and without much color, and his
countenance sensible, composed and thoughtful; there is a remarkable air
of dignity about him, with a striking degree of gracefulness."
In 1789 Senator Maclay saw "him as he really is. In stature about six
feet, with an unexceptionable make, but lax appearance. His frame would
seem to want filling up. His motions rather slow than lively, though he
showed no signs of having suffered by gout or rheumatism. His complexion
pale, nay, almost cadaverous. His voice hollow and indistinct, owing, as I
believe, to artificial teeth before his upper jaw, which occasions a
flatness."
From frequent opportunity of seeing Washington between 1794 and 1797,
William Sullivan described him as "over six feet in stature; of strong,
bony, muscular frame, without fullness of covering, well-formed and
straight. He was a man of most extraordinary strength. In his own house,
his action was calm, deliberate, and dignified, without pretension to
gracefulness, or peculiar manner, but merely natural, and such as one
would think it should be in such a man. When walking in the street, his
movement had not the soldierly air which might be expected. His habitual
motions had been formed, long before he took command of the American
Armies, in the wars of the interior and in the surveying of wilderness
lands, employments in which grace and elegance were not likely to be
acquired. At the age of sixty-five, time had done nothing towards bending
him out of his natural erectness. His deportment was invariably grave; it
was sobriety that stopped short of sadness."
The French officers and travellers supply other descriptions. The Abbé
Robin found him of "tall and noble stature, well proportioned, a fine,
cheerful, open countenance, a simple and modest carriage; and his whole
mien has something in it that interests the French, the Americans, and
even enemies themselves in his favor."
The Marquis de Chastellux wrote enthusiastically, "In speaking of this
perfect whole of which General Washington furnishes the idea, I have not
excluded exterior form. His stature is noble and lofty, he is well made,
and exactly proportionate; his physiognomy mild and agreeable, but such as
to render it impossible to speak particularly of any of his features, so
that in quitting him you have only the recollection of a fine face. He has
neither a grave nor a familiar face, his brow is sometimes marked with
thought, but never with inquietude; in inspiring respect he inspires
confidence, and his smile is always the smile of benevolence."
To this description, however, Brissot de Warville took exception, and
supplied his own picture by writing in 1791, "You have often heard me
blame M. Chastellux for putting too much sprightliness in the character he
has drawn of this general. To give pretensions to the portrait of a man
who has none is truly absurd. The General's goodness appears in his looks.
They have nothing of that brilliancy which his officers found in them when
he was at the head of his army; but in conversation they become animated.
He has no characteristic traits in his figure, and this has rendered it
always so difficult to describe it: there are few portraits which resemble
him. All his answers are pertinent; he shows the utmost reserve, and is
very diffident; but, at the same time, he is firm and unchangeable in
whatever he undertakes. His modesty must be very astonishing, especially
to a Frenchman."
British travellers have left a number of pen-portraits. An anonymous
writer in 1790 declared that in meeting him "it was not necessary to
announce his name, for his peculiar appearance, his firm forehead, Roman
nose, and a projection of the lower jaw, his height and figure, could not
be mistaken by any one who had seen a full-length picture of him, and yet
no picture accurately resembled him in the minute traits of his person.
His features, however, were so marked by prominent characteristics, which
appear in all likenesses of him, that a stranger could not be mistaken in
the man; he was remarkably dignified in his manners, and had an air
of benignity over his features which his visitant did not expect,
being rather prepared for sternness of countenance.... his smile was
extraordinarily attractive. It was observed to me that there was an
expression in Washington's face that no painter had succeeded in taking.
It struck me no man could be better formed for command. A stature of six
feet, a robust, but well-proportioned frame, calculated to sustain
fatigue, without that heaviness which generally attends great muscular
strength, and abates active exertion, displayed bodily power of no mean
standard. A light eye and full--the very eye of genius and reflection
rather than of blind passionate impulse. His nose appeared thick, and
though it befitted his other features, was too coarsely and strongly
formed to be the handsomest of its class. His mouth was like no other that
I ever saw; the lips firm and the under jaw seeming to grasp the upper
with force, as if its muscles were in full action when he sat still."
Two years later, an English diplomat wrote of him, "His person is tall and
sufficiently graceful; his face well formed, his complexion rather pale,
with a mild philosophic gravity in the expression of it In his air and
manner he displays much natural dignity; in his address he is cold,
reserved, and even phlegmatic, though without the least appearance of
haughtiness or ill-nature; it is the effect, I imagine, of constitutional
diffidence. That caution and circumspection which form so striking and
well known a feature in his military, and, indeed, in his political
character, is very strongly marked in his countenance, for his eyes retire
inward (do you understand me?) and have nothing of fire of animation or
openness in their expression."
Wansey, who visited Mount Vernon in 1795, portrayed "The President in his
person" as "tall and thin, but erect; rather of an engaging than a
dignified presence. He appears very thoughtful, is slow in delivering
himself, which occasions some to conclude him reserved, but it is rather,
I apprehend, the effect of much thinking and reflection, for there is
great appearance to me of affability and accommodation. He was at this
time in his sixty-third year ... but he has very little the appearance of
age, having been all his life long so exceeding temperate."
In 1797, Weld wrote, "his chest is full; and his limbs, though rather
slender, well shaped and muscular. His head is small, in which respect he
resembles the make of a great number of his countrymen. His eyes are of a
light grey colour; and in proportion to the length of his face, his nose
is long. Mr. Stewart, the eminent portrait painter, told me, that there
were features in his face totally different from what he ever observed in
that of any other human being; the sockets for the eyes, for instance, are
larger than what he ever met with before, and the upper part of the nose
broader. All his features, he observed, were indicative of the strongest
and most ungovernable passions, and had he been born in the forests, it
was his opinion that he would have been the fiercest man among the savage
tribes."
Other and briefer descriptions contain a few phrases worth quoting. Samuel
Sterns said, "His countenance commonly carries the impression of a serious
cast;" Maclay, that "the President seemed to bear in his countenance a
settled aspect of melancholy;" and the Prince de Broglie wrote, "His
pensive eyes seem more attentive than sparkling, but their expression is
benevolent, noble and self-possessed." Silas Deane in 1775 said he had "a
very young look and an easy soldier-like air and gesture," and in the same
year Curwen mentioned his "fine figure" and "easy and agreeable address."
Nathaniel Lawrence noted in 1783 that "the General weighs commonly about
210 pounds." After death, Lear reports that "Doctor Dick measured the
body, which was as follows--In length 6 ft. 3-1/2 inches exact. Across the
shoulders 1.9. Across the elbows 2.1." The pleasantest description is
Jefferson's: "His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one
would wish, his deportment easy, erect and noble."
How far the portraits of Washington conveyed his expression is open to
question. The quotation already given which said that no picture
accurately resembled him in the minute traits of his person is
worth noting. Furthermore, his expression varied much according to
circumstances, and the painter saw it only in repose. The first time he
was drawn, he wrote a friend, "Inclination having yielded to Importunity,
I am now contrary to all expectation under the hands of Mr. Peale; but in
so grave--so sullen a mood--and now and then under the influence of
Morpheus, when some critical strokes are making, that I fancy the skill of
this Gentleman's Pencil will be put to it, in describing to the World what
manner of man I am." This passiveness seems to have seized him at other
sittings, for in 1785 he wrote to a friend who asked him to be painted,
"_In for a penny, in for a Pound_, is an old adage. I am so hackneyed to
the touches of the painter's pencil that I am now altogether at their
beck; and sit 'like Patience on a monument,' whilst they are delineating
the lines of my face. It is a proof, among many others, of what habit and
custom can accomplish. At first I was as impatient at the request, and as
restive under the operation, as a colt is of the saddle. The next time I
submitted very reluctantly, but with less flouncing. Now, no dray-horse
moves more readily to his thills than I to the painter's chair." His aide,
Laurens, bears this out by writing of a miniature, "The defects of this
portrait are, that the visage is too long, and old age is too strongly
marked in it. He is not altogether mistaken, with respect to the languor
of the general's eye; for altho' his countenance when affected either by
joy or anger, is full of expression, yet when the muscles are in a state
of repose, his eye certainly wants animation."
[Illustration: FIRST (FICTITIOUS) ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON]
One portrait which furnished Washington not a little amusement was an
engraving issued in London in 1775, when interest in the "rebel General"
was great. This likeness, it is needless to say, was entirely spurious,
and when Reed sent a copy to head-quarters, Washington wrote to him, "Mrs.
Washington desires I will thank you for the picture sent her. Mr.
Campbell, whom I never saw, to my knowledge, has made a very formidable
figure of the Commander-in-chief, giving him a sufficient portion of
terror in his countenance."
The physical strength mentioned by nearly every one who described
Washington is so undoubted that the traditions of his climbing the walls
of the Natural Bridge, throwing a stone across the Rappahannock at
Fredericksburg, and another into the Hudson from the top of the Palisades,
pass current more from the supposed muscular power of the man than from
any direct evidence. In addition to this, Washington in 1755 claimed to
have "one of the best of constitutions," and again he wrote, "for my own
part I can answer, I have a constitution hardy enough to encounter and
undergo the most severe trials."
This vigor was not the least reason of Washington's success. In the
retreat from Brooklyn, "for forty-eight hours preceeding that I had hardly
been off my horse," and between the 13th and the 19th of June of 1777 "I
was almost constantly on horseback." After the battle of Monmouth, as told
elsewhere, he passed the night on a blanket; the first night of the siege
of York "he slept under a mulberry tree, the root serving for a pillow,"
and another time he lay "all night in my Great Coat & Boots, in a birth
not long enough for me by the head, & much cramped." Besides the physical
strain there was a mental one. During the siege of Boston he wrote that
"The reflection on my situation and that of this army, produces many an
uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep." Humphreys relates
that at Newburg in 1783 a revolt of the whole army seemed imminent, and
"when General Washington rose from bed on the morning of the meeting, he
told the writer his anxiety had prevented him from sleeping one moment the
preceeding night." Washington observed, in a letter written after the
Revolution, "strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that it was
not until lately I could get the better of my usual custom of ruminating
as soon as I awoke in the morning, on the business of the ensuing day; and
of my surprise at finding, after revolving many things in my mind that I
was no longer a public man, or had any thing to do with public
transactions."
Despite his strength and constitution, Washington was frequently the
victim of illness. What diseases of childhood he suffered are not known,
but presumably measles was among them, for when his wife within the first
year of married life had an attack he cared for her without catching the
complaint. The first of his known illnesses was "Ague and Feaver, which I
had to an extremity" about 1748, or when he was sixteen.
In the sea voyage to Barbadoes in 1751, the seamen told Washington that
"they had never seen such weather before," and he says in his diary that
the sea "made the Ship rowl much and me very sick." While in the island,
he went to dine with a friend "with great reluctance, as the small-pox was
in his family." A fortnight later Washington "was strongly attacked with
the small Pox," which confined him for nearly a month, and, as already
noted, marked his face for life. Shortly after the return voyage he was
"taken with a violent pleurise, which ... reduced me very low."
During the Braddock march, "immediately upon our leaving the camp at
George's Creek, on the 14th, ... I was seized with violent fevers and
pains in my head, which continued without intermission 'till the 23d
following, when I was relieved, by the General's [Braddock] absolutely
ordering the physicians to give me Dr. James' powders (one of the most
excellent medicines in the world), for it gave me immediate ease, and
removed my fevers and other complaints in four days' time. My illness was
too violent to suffer me to ride; therefore I was indebted to a covered
wagon for some part of my transportation; but even in this I could not
continue far, for the jolting was so great, I was left upon the road with
a guard, and necessaries, to wait the arrival of Colonel Dunbar's
detachment which was two days' march behind us, the General giving me his
word of honor, that I should be brought up, before he reached the French
fort. This _promise_, and the doctor's _threats_, that, if I persevered
in my attempts to get on, in the condition I was, my life would be
endangered, determined me to halt for the above detachment." Immediately
upon his return from that campaign, he told a brother, "I am not able,
were I ever so willing, to meet you in town, for I assure you it is with
some difficulty, and with much fatigue, that I visit my plantations in the
Neck; so much has a sickness of five weeks' continuance reduced me."
On the frontier, towards the end of 1757, he was seized with a violent
attack of dysentery and fever, which compelled him to leave the army
and retire to Mount Vernon. Three months later he said, "I have never
been able to return to my command, ... my disorder at times returning
obstinately upon me, in spite of the efforts of all the sons of
Aesculapius, whom I have hitherto consulted. At certain periods I have
been reduced to great extremity, and have too much reason to apprehend
an approaching decay, being visited with several symptoms of such a
disease.... I am now under a strict regimen, and shall set out to-morrow
for Williamsburg to receive the advice of the best physician there. My
constitution is certainly greatly impaired, and ... nothing can retrieve
it, but the greatest care and the most circumspect conduct." It was in
this journey that he met his future wife, and either she or the doctor
cured him, for nothing more is heard of his approaching "decay."
In 1761 he was attacked with a disease which seems incidental to new
settlements, known in Virginia at that time as the "river fever," and a
hundred years later, farther west, as the "break-bone fever," and which,
in a far milder form, is to-day known as malaria. Hoping to cure it, he
went over the mountains to the Warm Springs, being "much overcome with the
fatigue of the ride and weather together. However, I think my fevers are a
good deal abated, although my pains grow rather worse, and my sleep
equally disturbed. What effect the waters may have upon me I can't say at
present, but I expect nothing from the air--this certainly must be
unwholesome. I purpose staying here a fortnight and longer if benefitted."
After writing this, a relapse brought him "very near my last gasp. The
indisposition ... increased upon me, and I fell into a very low and
dangerous state. I once thought the grim king would certainly master my
utmost efforts, and that I must sink, in spite of a noble struggle; but
thank God, I have now got the better of the disorder, and shall soon be
restored, I hope, to perfect health again."
During the Revolution, fortunately, he seems to have been wonderfully
exempt from illness, and not till his retirement to Mount Vernon did an
old enemy, the ague, reappear. In 1786 he said, in a letter, "I write to
you with a very aching head and disordered frame.... Saturday last, by an
imprudent act, I brought on an ague and fever on Sunday, which returned
with violence Tuesday and Thursday; and, if Dr. Craik's efforts are
ineffectual I shall have them again this day." His diary gives the
treatment: "Seized with an ague before 6 o'clock this morning after having
laboured under a fever all night--Sent for Dr. Craik who arrived just as
we were setting down to dinner; who, when he thought my fever sufficiently
abated gave me cathartick and directed the Bark to be applied in the
Morning. September 2. Kept close to the House to day, being my fit day in
course least any exposure might bring it on,--happily missed it September
14. At home all day repeating dozes of Bark of which I took 4 with an
interval of 2 hours between."
With 1787 a new foe appeared in the form of "a rheumatic complaint which
has followed me more than six months, is frequently so bad that it is
sometimes with difficulty I can raise my hand to my head or turn myself in
bed."
During the Presidency Washington had several dangerous illnesses, but the
earliest one had a comic side. In his tour through New England in 1789, so
Sullivan states, "owing to some mismanagement in the reception ceremonials
at Cambridge, Washington was detained a long time, and the weather being
inclement, he took cold. For several days afterward a severe influenza
prevailed at Boston and its vicinity, and was called the _Washington
Influenza_." He himself writes of this attack: "Myself much disordered by
a cold, and inflammation in the left eye."
Six months later, in New York, he was "indisposed with a bad cold, and at
home all day writing letters on private business," and this was the
beginning of "a severe illness," which, according to McVickar, was "a case
of anthrax, so malignant as for several days to threaten mortification.
During this period Dr. Bard never quitted him. On one occasion, being left
alone with him, General Washington, looking steadily in his face, desired
his candid opinion as to the probable termination of his disease, adding,
with that placid firmness which marked his address, 'Do not flatter me
with vain hopes; I am not afraid to die, and therefore can bear the
worst!' Dr. Bard's answer, though it expressed hope, acknowledged his
apprehensions. The President replied, 'Whether to-night or twenty years
hence, makes no difference.'" It was of this that Maclay wrote, "Called to
see the President. Every eye full of tears. His life despaired of. Dr.
MacKnight told me he would trifle neither with his own character nor the
public expectation; his danger was imminent, and every reason to expect
that the event of his disorder would be unfortunate."
During his convalescence the President wrote to a correspondent, "I have
the pleasure to inform you, that my health is restored, but a feebleness
still hangs upon me, and I am much incommoded by the incision, which was
made in a very large and painful tumor on the protuberance of my thigh.
This prevents me from walking or sitting. However, the physicians assure
me that it has had a happy effect in removing my fever, and will tend very
much to the establishment of my general health; it is in a fair way of
healing, and time and patience only are wanting to remove this evil. I am
able to take exercise in my coach, by having it so contrived as to extend
myself the full length of it." He himself seems to have thought this
succession of illness due to the fatigues of office, for he said,--
"Public meetings, and a dinner once a week to as many as my table will
hold, with the references _to and from_ the different department of state
and _other_ communications with _all_ parts of the Union, are as much, if
not more, than I am able to undergo; for I have already had within less
than a year, two severe attacks, the last worst than the first. A third,
more than probable, will put me to sleep with my fathers. At what distance
this may be I know not. Within the last twelve months I have undergone
more and severer sickness, than thirty preceding years afflicted me with.
Put it all together I have abundant reason, however, to be thankful that I
am so well recovered; though I still feel the remains of the violent
affection of my lungs; the cough, pain in my breast, and shortness in
breathing not having entirely left me."
While at Mount Vernon in 1794, "an exertion to save myself and horse from
falling among the rocks at the Lower Falls of the Potomac (whither I went
on Sunday morning to see the canal and locks),... wrenched my back in
such a manner as to prevent my riding;" the "hurt" "confined me whilst I
was at Mount Vernon," and it was some time before he could "again ride
with ease and safety." In this same year Washington was operated on by Dr.
Tate for cancer,--the same disorder from which his mother had suffered.
After his retirement from office, in 1798, he "was seized with a fever, of
which I took little notice until I was obliged to call for the aid of
medicine; and with difficulty a remission thereof was so far effected as
to dose me all night on thursday with Bark--which having stopped it, and
weakness only remaining, will soon wear off as my appetite is returning;"
and to a correspondent he apologized for not sooner replying, and pleaded
"debilitated health, occasioned by the fever wch. deprived me of 20 lbs.
of the weight I had when you and I were at Troy Mills Scales, and rendered
writing irksome."
A glance at Washington's medical knowledge and opinions may not lack
interest. In the "Rules of civility" he had taken so to heart, the boy had
been taught that "In visiting the Sick, do not Presently play the
Physician if you be not Knowing therein," but plantation life trained
every man to a certain extent in physicking, and the yearly invoice sent
to London always ordered such drugs as were needed,--ipecacuanha, jalap,
Venice treacle, rhubarb, diacordium, etc., as well as medicines for horses
and dogs. In 1755 Washington received great benefit from one quack
medicine, "Dr. James's Powders;" he once bought a quantity of another,
"Godfrey's Cordial;" and at a later time Mrs. Washington tried a third,
"Annatipic Pills." More unenlightened still was a treatment prescribed for
Patsy Custis, when "Joshua Evans who came here last night, put a [metal]
ring on Patsey (for Fits)." A not much higher order of treatment was
Washington sending for Dr. Laurie to bleed his wife, and, as his diary
notes, the doctor "came here, I may add, drunk," so that a night's sleep
was necessary before the service could be rendered. When the small-pox was
raging in the Continental Army, even Washington's earnest request could
not get the Virginia Assembly to repeal a law which forbade inoculation,
and he had to urge his wife for over four years before he could bring her
to the point of submitting to the operation. One quality which implies
greatness is told by a visitor, who states that in his call "an allusion
was made to a serious fit of illness he had recently suffered; but he took
no notice of it" Custis notes that "his aversion to the use of medicine
was extreme; and, even when in great suffering, it was only by the
entreaties of his lady, and the respectful, yet beseeching look of his
oldest friend and companion in arms (Dr. James Craik) that he could be
prevailed upon to take the slightest preparation of medicine." In line
with this was his refusal to take anything for a cold, saying, "Let it go
as it came," though this good sense was apparently restricted to his own
colds, for Watson relates that in a visit to Mount Vernon "I was extremely
oppressed by a severe cold and excessive coughing, contracted by the
exposure of a harsh journey. He pressed me to use some remedies, but I
declined doing so. As usual, after retiring my coughing increased. When
some time had elapsed, the door of my room was gently opened, and, on
drawing my bed-curtains, to my utter astonishment, I beheld Washington
himself, standing at my bedside, with a bowl of hot tea in his hand."
The acute attacks of illness already touched upon by no means represent
all the physical debility and suffering of Washington's life. During the
Revolution his sight became poor, so that in 1778 he first put on glasses
for reading, and Cobb relates that in the officers' meeting in 1783, which
Washington attended In order to check an appeal to arms, "When the General
took his station at the desk or pulpit, which, you may recollect, was in
the Temple, he took out his written address from his coat pocket and then
addressed the officers in the following manner: 'Gentlemen, you will
permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray, but
almost blind, in the service of my country.' This little address, with the
mode and manner of delivering it, drew tears from [many] of the officers."
Nor did his hearing remain entirely good. Maclay noted, at one of the
President's dinners in 1789, that "he seemed in more good humor than I
ever saw him, though he was so deaf that I believe he heard little of the
conversation," and three years later the President is reported as saying
to Jefferson that he was "sensible, too, of a decay of his hearing,
perhaps his other faculties might fall off and he not be sensible of it."
Washington's teeth were even more troublesome. Mercer in 1760 alluded to
his showing, when his mouth was open, "some defective teeth," and as early
as 1754 one of his teeth was extracted. From this time toothache, usually
followed by the extraction of the guilty member, became almost of yearly
recurrence, and his diary reiterates, with verbal variations, "indisposed
with an aching tooth, and swelled and inflamed gum," while his ledger
contains many items typified by "To Dr. Watson drawing a tooth 5/." By
1789 he was using false teeth, and he lost his last tooth in 1795. At
first these substitutes were very badly fitted, and when Stuart painted
his famous picture he tried to remedy the malformation they gave the mouth
by padding under the lips with cotton. The result was to make bad worse,
and to give, in that otherwise fine portrait, a feature at once poor and
unlike Washington, and for this reason alone the Sharpless miniature,
which in all else approximates so closely to Stuart's masterpiece, is
preferable. In 1796 Washington was furnished with two sets of "sea-horse"
(_i.e._, hippopotamus) ivory teeth, and they were so much better fitted
that the distortion of the mouth ceased to be noticeable.
Washington's final illness began December 12, 1799, in a severe cold taken
by riding about his plantation while "rain, hail and snow" were "falling
alternately, with a cold wind." When he came in late in the afternoon,
Lear "observed to him that I was afraid that he had got wet, he said no
his great coat had kept him dry; but his neck appeared to be wet and the
snow was hanging on his hair." The next day he had a cold, "and complained
of having a sore throat," yet, though it was snowing, none the less he
"went out in the afternoon ... to mark some trees which were to be cut
down." "He had a hoarseness which increased in the evening; but he made
light of it as he would never take anything to carry off a cold, always
observing, 'let it go as it came.'" At two o'clock the following morning
he was seized with a severe ague, and as soon as the house was stirring he
sent for an overseer and ordered the man to bleed him, and about half a
pint of blood was taken from him. At this time he could "swallow nothing,"
"appeared to be distressed, convulsed and almost suffocated."
There can be scarcely a doubt that the treatment of his last illness by
the doctors was little short of murder. Although he had been bled once
already, after they took charge of the case they prescribed "two pretty
copious bleedings," and finally a third, "when about 32 ounces of blood
were drawn," or the equivalent of a quart. Of the three doctors, one
disapproved of this treatment, and a second wrote, only a few days after
Washington's death, to the third, "you must remember" Dr. Dick "was averse
to bleeding the General, and I have often thought that if we had acted
according to his suggestion when he said, 'he needs all his strength--
bleeding will diminish it,' and taken no more blood from him, our good
friend might have been alive now. But we were governed by the best light
we had; we thought we were right, and so we are justified."
Shortly after this last bleeding Washington seemed to have resigned
himself, for he gave some directions concerning his will, and said, "I
find I am going," and, "smiling," added, that, "as it was the debt which
we must all pay, he looked to the event with perfect resignation." From
this time on "he appeared to be in great pain and distress," and said,
"Doctor, I die hard, but I am not afraid to go. I believed from my first
attack that I should not survive it." A little later he said, "I feel
myself going. I thank you for your attention, you had better not take any
more trouble about me; but let me go off quietly." The last words he said
were, "'Tis well." "About ten minutes before he expired, his breathing
became much easier--he lay quietly--... and felt his own pulse.... The
general's hand fell from his wrist,... and he expired without a struggle
or a Sigh."
III
EDUCATION
The father of Washington received his education at Appleby School in
England, and, true to his alma mater, he sent his two elder sons to the
same school. His death when George was eleven prevented this son from
having the same advantage, and such education as he had was obtained in
Virginia. His old friend, and later enemy, Rev. Jonathan Boucher, said
that "George, like most people thereabouts at that time, had no education
than reading, writing and accounts which he was taught by a convict
servant whom his father bought for a schoolmaster;" but Boucher managed to
include so many inaccuracies in his account of Washington, that even if
this statement were not certainly untruthful in several respects, it could
be dismissed as valueless.
Born at Wakefield, in Washington parish, Westmoreland, which had been the
home of the Washingtons from their earliest arrival in Virginia, George
was too young while the family continued there to attend the school which
had been founded in that parish by the gift of four hundred and forty
acres from some early patron of knowledge. When the boy was about three
years old, the family removed to "Washington," as Mount Vernon was called
before it was renamed, and dwelt there from 1735 till 1739, when, owing to
the burning of the homestead, another remove was made to an estate on the
Rappahannock, nearly opposite Fredericksburg.
Here it was that the earliest education of George was received, for in an
old volume of the Bishop of Exeter's Sermons his name is written, and on a
flyleaf a note in the handwriting of a relative who inherited the library
states that this "autograph of George Washington's name is believed to be
the earliest specimen of his handwriting, when he was probably not more
than eight or nine years old." During this period, too, there came into
his possession the "Young Man's Companion," an English _vade-mecum_ of
then enormous popularity, written "in a plain and easy stile," the title
states, "that a young Man may attain the same, without a Tutor." It would
be easier to say what this little book did not teach than to catalogue
what it did. How to read, write, and figure is but the introduction to the
larger part of the work, which taught one to write letters, wills, deeds,
and all legal forms, to measure, survey, and navigate, to build houses, to
make ink and cider, and to plant and graft, how to address letters to
people of quality, how to doctor the sick, and, finally, how to conduct
one's self in company. The evidence still exists of how carefully
Washington studied this book, in the form of copybooks, in which are
transcribed problem after problem and rule after rule, not to exclude the
famous Rules of civility, which biographers of Washington have asserted
were written by the boy himself. School-mates thought fit, after
Washington became famous, to remember his "industry and assiduity at
school as very remarkable," and the copies certainly bear out the
statement, but even these prove that the lad was as human as the man, for
scattered here and there among the logarithms, geometrical problems, and
legal forms are crude drawings of birds, faces, and other typical
school-boy attempts.
From this book, too, came two qualities which clung to him through life.
His handwriting, so easy, flowing, and legible, was modelled from the
engraved "copy" sheet, and certain forms of spelling were acquired here
that were never corrected, though not the common usage of his time. To the
end of his life, Washington wrote lie, lye; liar, lyar; ceiling, cieling;
oil, oyl; and blue, blew, as in his boyhood he had learned to do from this
book. Even in his carefully prepared will, "lye" was the form in which he
wrote the word. It must be acknowledged that, aside from these errors
which he had been taught, through his whole life Washington was a
non-conformist as regarded the King's English: struggle as he undoubtedly
did, the instinct of correct spelling was absent, and thus every now and
then a verbal slip appeared: extravagence, lettely (for lately), glew,
riffle (for rifle), latten (for Latin), immagine, winder, rief (for rife),
oppertunity, spirma citi, yellow oaker,--such are types of his lapses late
in life, while his earlier letters and journals are far more inaccurate.
It must be borne in mind, however, that of these latter we have only the
draughts, which were undoubtedly written carelessly, and the two letters
actually sent which are now known, and the text of his surveys before he
was twenty, are quite as well written as his later epistles.
[Illustration: _Easy Copies to Write by_. COPY OF PENMANSHIP BY WHICH
WASHINGTON'S HANDWRITING WAS FORMED]
On the death of his father, Washington went to live with his brother
Augustine, in order, it is presumed, that he might take advantage of a
good school near Wakefield, kept by one Williams; but after a time he
returned to his mother's, and attended the school kept by the Rev. James
Marye, in Fredericksburg. It has been universally asserted by his
biographers that he studied no foreign language, but direct proof to the
contrary exists in a copy of Patrick's Latin translation of Homer, printed
in 1742, the fly-leaf of a copy of which bears, in a school-boy hand, the
inscription:
"Hunc mihi quaeso (bone Vir) Libellum
Redde, si forsan tenues repertum
Ut Scias qui sum sine fraude Scriptum.
Est mihi nomen,
Georgio Washington,
George Washington,
Fredericksburg,
Virginia."
It is thus evident that the reverend teacher gave Washington at least the
first elements of Latin, but it is equally clear that the boy, like most
others, forgot it with the greatest facility as soon as he ceased
studying.
The end of Washington's school-days left him, if a good "cipherer," a bad
speller, and a still worse grammarian, but, fortunately, the termination
of instruction did not by any means end his education. From that time
there is to be noted a steady improvement in both these failings.
Pickering stated that "when I first became acquainted with the General (in
1777) his writing was defective in grammar, and even spelling, owing to
the insufficiency of his early education; of which, however, he gradually
got the better in the subsequent years of his life, by the official
perusal of some excellent models, particularly those of Hamilton; by
writing with care and patient attention; and reading numerous, indeed
multitudes of letters to and from his friends and correspondents. This
obvious improvement was begun during the war." In 1785 a contemporary
noted that "the General is remarked for writing a most elegant letter,"
adding that, "like the famous Addison, his writing excells his speaking,"
and Jefferson said that "he wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy
and correct style. This he had acquired by conversation with the world,
for his education was merely reading, writing and common arithmetic, to
which he added surveying at a later day."
There can be no doubt that Washington felt his lack of education very
keenly as he came to act upon a larger sphere than as a Virginia planter.
"I am sensible," he wrote a friend, of his letters, "that the narrations
are just, and that truth and honesty will appear in my writings; of which,
therefore, I shall not be ashamed, though criticism may censure my style."
When his secretary suggested to him that he should write his own life, he
replied, "In a former letter I informed you, my dear Humphreys, that
if I had _talents_ for it, I have not leisure to turn my thoughts to
Commentaries. A consciousness of a defective education, and a certainty
of the want of time, unfit me for such an undertaking." On being pressed
by a French comrade-in-arms to pay France a visit, he declined, saying,
"Remember, my good friend, that I am unacquainted with your language, that
I am too far advanced in years to acquire a knowledge of it, and that, to
converse through the medium of an interpreter upon common occasions,
especially with the Ladies, must appear so extremely awkward, insipid, and
uncouth, that I can scarce bear it in idea."
In 1788, without previous warning, he was elected chancellor of William
and Mary College, a distinction by which he felt "honored and greatly
affected;" but "not knowing particularly what duties, or whether any
active services are immediately expected from the person holding the
office of chancellor, I have been greatly embarrassed in deciding upon the
public answer proper to be given.... My difficulties are briefly these. On
the one hand, nothing in this world could be farther from my heart,
than ... a refusal of the appointment ... provided its duties are not
incompatible with the mode of life to which I have entirely addicted
myself; and, on the other hand, I would not for any consideration
disappoint the just expectations of the convocation by accepting an office,
whose functions I previously knew ... I should be absolutely unable to
perform."
Perhaps the most touching proof of his own self-depreciation was something
he did when he had become conscious that his career would be written
about. Still in his possession were the letter-books in which he had kept
copies of his correspondence while in command of the Virginia regiment
between 1754 and 1759, and late in life he went through these volumes,
and, by interlining corrections, carefully built them into better literary
form. How this was done is shown here by a single facsimile.
With the appointment to command the Continental Army, a secretary was
secured, and in an absence of this assistant he complained to him that "my
business increases very fast, and my distresses for want of you along with
it. Mr. Harrison is the only gentleman of my family, that can afford me
the least assistance in writing. He and Mr. Moylan,... have heretofore
afforded me their aid; and ... they have really had a great deal of
trouble."
Most of Washington's correspondence during the Revolution was written by
his aides. Pickering said,--
"As to the public letters bearing his signature, it is certain that he
could not have maintained so extensive a correspondence with his own pen,
even if he had possessed the ability and promptness of Hamilton.
That he would, sometimes with propriety, observe upon, correct, and add to
any draught submitted for his examination and signature, I have no doubt.
And yet I doubt whether many, if any, of the letters ... are his own
draught.... I have even reason to believe that not only the _composition_,
the _clothing of the ideas_, but the _ideas themselves_, originated
generally with the writers; that Hamilton and Harrison, in particular,
were scarcely in any degree his amanuenses. I remember, when at
head-quarters one day, at Valley Forge, Colonel Harrison came down
from the General's chamber, with his brows knit, and thus accosted me, 'I
wish to the Lord the General would give me the heads or some idea, of what
he would have me write.'"
[Illustration: CORRECTED LETTER OF WASHINGTON SHOWING LATER CHANGES.]
After the Revolution, a visitor at Mount Vernon said, "It's astonishing
the packet of letters that daily comes for him from all parts of the
world, which employ him most of the morning to answer." A secretary was
employed, but not so much to do the actual writing as the copying and
filing, and at this time Washington complained "that my numerous
correspondencies are daily becoming irksome to me." Yet there can be
little question that he richly enjoyed writing when it was not for the
public eye. "It is not the letters of my friends which give me trouble,"
he wrote to one correspondent; to another he said, "I began with telling
you that I should not write a lengthy letter but the result has been to
contradict it;" and to a third, "when I look back to the length of this
letter, I am so much astonished and frightened at it myself that I
have not the courage to give it a careful reading for the purpose of
correction. You must, therefore, receive it with all its imperfections,
accompanied with this assurance, that, though there may be inaccuracies in
the letter, there is not a single defect in the friendship." Occasionally
there was, as here, an apology: "I am persuaded you will excuse this
scratch'd scrawl, when I assure you it is with difficulty I write at all,"
he ended a letter in 1777, and in 1792 of another said, "You must receive
it blotted and scratched as you find it for I have not time to copy it. It
is now ten o'clock at night, after my usual hour for retiring to rest, and
the mail will be closed early to-morrow morning."
To his overseer, who neglected to reply to some of his questions, he told
his method of writing, which is worth quoting:
"Whenever I set down to write you, I read your letter, or letters
carefully over, and as soon as I come to a part that requires to be
noticed, I make a short note on the cover of a letter or piece of waste
paper;--then read on the next, noting that in like manner;--and so on
until I have got through the whole letter and reports. Then in writing my
letter to you, as soon as I have finished what I have to say on one of
these notes I draw my pen through it and proceed to another and another
until the whole is done--crossing each as I go on, by which means if I am
called off twenty times whilst I am writing, I can never with these notes
before me finished or unfinished, omit anything I wanted to say; and
they serve me also, as I keep no copies of letters I wrote to you, as
Memorandums of what has been written if I should have occasion at any time
to refer to them."
Another indication of his own knowledge of defects is shown by his fear
about his public papers. When his Journal to the Ohio was printed by order
of the governor, in 1754, in the preface the young author said, "I think I
can do no less than apologize, in some Measure, for the numberless
imperfections of it. There intervened but one Day between my Arrival in
Williamsburg, and the Time for the Council's Meeting, for me to prepare
and transcribe, from the rough Minutes I had taken in my Travels, this
Journal; the writing of which only was sufficient to employ me closely the
whole Time, consequently admitted of no Leisure to consult of a new and
proper Form to offer it in, or to correct or amend the Diction of the
old." Boucher states that the publication, "in Virginia at least, drew on
him some ridicule."
This anxiety about his writings was shown all through life, and led
Washington to rely greatly on such of his friends as would assist him,
even to the point, so Reed thought, that he "sometimes adopted draughts of
writing when his own would have been better ... from an extreme diffidence
in himself," and Pickering said, in writing to an aide,--
"Although the General's private correspondence was doubtless, for the most
part, his own, and extremely acceptable to the persons addressed; yet, in
regard to whatever was destined to meet the public eye, he seems to have
been fearful to exhibit his own compositions, relying too much on the
judgment of his friends, and sometimes adopted draughts that were
exceptionable. Some parts of his private correspondence must have
essentially differed from other parts in the style of composition. You
mention your own aids to the General in this line. Now, if I had your
draughts before me, mingled with the General's to the same persons,
nothing would be more easy than to assign to each his own proper
offspring. You could neither restrain your _courser_, nor conceal your
imagery, nor express your ideas otherwise than in the language of a
scholar. The General's compositions would be perfectly plain and didactic,
and not always correct."
During the Presidency, scarcely anything of a public nature was penned by
Washington,--Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph acting as his
draughtsmen. "We are approaching the first Monday in December by hasty
strides," he wrote to Jefferson. "I pray you, therefore, to revolve in
your mind such matters as may be proper for me to lay before Congress, not
only in your own department, (if any there be,) but such others of a
general nature, as may happen to occur to you, that I may be prepared to
open the session with such communication, as shall appear to merit
attention." Two years later he said to the same, "I pray you to note down
or rather to frame into paragraphs or sections, such matters as may occur
to you as fit and proper for general communication at the opening of the
next session of Congress, not only in the department of state, but on any
other subject applicable to the occasion, that I may in due time have
everything before me." To Hamilton he wrote in 1795, "Having desired the
late Secretary of State to note down every matter as it occurred, proper
either for the speech at the opening of the session, or for messages
afterwards, the inclosed paper contains everything I could extract from
that office. Aid me, I pray you, with your sentiments on these points, and
such others as may have occurred to you relative to my communications to
Congress."
The best instance is furnished in the preparation of the Farewell Address.
First Madison was asked to prepare a draft, and from this Washington drew
up a paper, which he submitted to Hamilton and Jay, with the request that
"even if you should think it best to throw the whole into a different
form, let me request, notwithstanding, that my draught may be returned to
me (along with yours) with such amendments and corrections as to render it
as perfect as the formation is susceptible of; curtailed if too verbose;
and relieved of all tautology not necessary to enforce the ideas in the
original or quoted part. My wish is that the whole may appear in a plain
style, and be handed to the public in an honest, unaffected, simple part."
Accordingly, Hamilton prepared what was almost a new instrument in form,
though not in substance, which, after "several serious and attentive
readings," Washington wrote that he preferred "greatly to the other
draughts, being more copious on material points, more dignified on the
whole, and with less egotism; of course, less exposed to criticism,
and better calculated to meet the eye of discerning readers (foreigners
particularly, whose curiosity I have little doubt will lead them
to inspect it attentively, and to pronounce their opinions on the
performance)." The paper was then, according to Pickering, "put into the
hands of Wolcott, McHenry, and myself ... with a request that we would
examine it, and note any alterations and corrections which we should think
best. We did so; but our notes, as well as I recollect, were very few, and
regarded chiefly the grammar and composition." Finally, Washington revised
the whole, and it was then made public.
Confirmatory of this sense of imperfect cultivation are the pains he took
that his adopted son and grandson should be well educated. As already
noted, tutors for both were secured at the proper ages, and when Jack was
placed with the Rev. Mr. Boucher, Washington wrote: "In respect to the
kinds, & manner of his Studying I leave it wholely to your better
Judgment--had he begun, or rather pursued his study of the Greek Language,
I should have thought it no bad acquisition; but whether if he acquire
this now, he may not forego some useful branches of learning, is a matter
worthy of consideration. To be acquainted with the French Tongue is become
part of polite Education; and to a man who has the prospect of mixing in a
large Circle absolutely necessary. Without Arithmetick, the common affairs
of Life are not to be managed with success. The study of Geometry,
and the Mathematics (with due regard to the limites of it) is equally
advantageous. The principles of Philosophy Moral, Natural, &c. I should
think a very desirable knowledge for a Gentleman." So, too, he wrote to
Washington Custis, "I do not hear you mention anything of geography or
mathematics as parts of your study; both these are necessary branches of
useful knowledge. Nor ought you to let your knowledge of the Latin
language and grammatical rules escape you. And the French language is now
so universal, and so necessary with foreigners, or in a foreign country,
that I think you would be injudicious not to make yourself master of it."
It is worth noting in connection with this last sentence that Washington
used only a single French expression with any frequency, and that he
always wrote "faupas."
Quite as indicative of the value he put on education was the aid he gave
towards sending his young relatives and others to college, his annual
contribution to an orphan school, his subscriptions to academies, and his
wish for a national university. In 1795 he said,--
"It has always been a source of serious reflection and sincere regret with
me, that the youth of the United States should be sent to foreign
countries for the purpose of education.... For this reason I have greatly
wished to see a plan adopted, by which the arts, sciences, and
belles-lettres could be taught in their _fullest_ extent, thereby embracing
_all_ the advantages of European tuition, with the means of acquiring the
liberal knowledge, which is necessary to qualify our citizens for the
exigencies of public as well as private life; and (which with me is a
consideration of great magnitude) by assembling the youth from the
different parts of this rising republic, contributing from their
intercourse and interchange of information to the removal of prejudices,
which might perhaps sometimes arise from local circumstances."
In framing his Farewell Address, "revolving ... on the various matters it
contained and on the first expression of the advice or recommendation
which was given in it, I have regretted that another subject (which in my
estimation is of interesting concern to the well-being of this country)
was not touched upon also; I mean education generally, as one of the
surest means of enlightening and giving just ways of thinking to our
citizens, but particularly the establishment of a university; where the
youth from all parts of the United States might receive the polish of
erudition in the arts, sciences and belles-lettres." Eventually he reduced
this idea to a plea for the people to "promote, then, as an object of
primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge,"
because "in proportion as the structure of a government gives force
to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be
enlightened." By his will he left to the endowment of a university in the
District of Columbia the shares in the Potomac Company which had been
given him by the State of Virginia, but the clause was never carried into
effect.
It was in 1745 that Washington's school-days came to an end. His share of
his father's property being his mother's till he was twenty-one, a
livelihood had to be found, and so at about fourteen years of age the work
of life began. Like a true boy, the lad wanted to go to sea, despite his
uncle's warning "that I think he had better be put apprentice to a tinker;
for a common sailor before the mast has by no means the liberty of the
subject; for they will press him from a ship where he has fifty shillings
a month; and make him take twenty-three, and cut and slash, and use him
like a negro, or rather like a dog." His mother, however, would not
consent, and to this was due his becoming a surveyor.
From his "Young Man's Companion" Washington had already learned the use of
Gunter's rule and how it should be used in surveying, and to complete his
knowledge he seems to have taken lessons of the licensed surveyor of
Westmoreland County, James Genn, for transcripts of some of the surveys
drawn by Genn still exist in the handwriting of his pupil. This implied a
distinct and very valuable addition to his knowledge, and a large number
of his surveys still extant are marvels of neatness and careful drawing.
As a profession it was followed for only four years (1747-1751), but all
through life he often used his knowledge in measuring or platting his own
property. Far more important is the service it was to him in public life.
In 1755 he sent to Braddock's secretary a map of the "back country," and
to the governor of Virginia plans of two forts. During the Revolution it
helped him not merely in the study of maps, but also in the facility it
gave him to take in the topographical features of the country. Very
largely, too, was the selection of the admirable site for the capital due
to his supervising: all the plans for the city were submitted to him,
and nowhere do the good sense and balance of the man appear to better
advantage than in his correspondence with the Federal city commissioners.
In Washington's earliest account-book there is an item when he was sixteen
years old, "To cash pd ye Musick Master for my Entrance 3/9." It is
commonly said that he played the flute, but this is as great a libel on
him as any Tom Paine wrote, and though he often went to concerts, and
though fond of hearing his granddaughter Nelly play and sing, he never
was himself a performer, and the above entry probably refers to the
singing-master whom the boys and girls of that day made the excuse for
evening frolics.
Mention is made elsewhere of his taking lessons in the sword exercise from
Van Braam in these earlier years, and in 1756 he paid to Sergeant Wood,
fencing-master, the sum of £1.1.6. When he received the offer of a
position on Braddock's staff, he acknowledged, in accepting, that "I must
be ingenuous enough to confess, that I am not a little biassed by selfish
considerations. To explain, Sir, I wish earnestly to attain some knowledge
in the military profession, and, believing a more favorable opportunity
cannot offer, than to serve under a gentleman of General Braddock's
abilities and experience, it does ... not a little contribute to influence
my choice." Hamilton is quoted as saying that Washington "never read any
book upon the art of war but Sim's Military Guide," and an anonymous
author asserted that "he never read a book in the art of war of higher
value than Bland's Exercises." Certain it is that nearly all the military
knowledge he possessed was derived from practice rather than from books,
and though, late in life, he purchased a number of works on the subject,
it was after his army service was over.
One factor in Washington's education which must not go unnoticed was his
religious belief. When only two months old he was baptized, presumably by
the Rev. Lawrence De Butts, the clergyman of Washington parish. The
removal from that locality prevented any further religious influence from
this clergyman, and it probably first came from the Rev. Charles Green, of
Truro parish, who had received his appointment through the friendship of
Washington's father, and who later was on such friendly terms with
Washington that he doctored Mrs. Washington in an attack of the measles,
and caught and returned two of his parishioner's runaway slaves. As early
as 1724 the clergyman of the parish in which Mount Vernon was situated
reported that he catechised the youth of his congregation "in Lent and a
great part of the Summer," and George, as the son of one of his vestrymen,
undoubtedly received a due amount of questioning.
From 1748 till 1759 there was little church-going for the young surveyor
or soldier, but after his marriage and settling at Mount Vernon he was
elected vestryman in the two parishes of Truro and Fairfax, and from that
election he was quite active in church affairs. It may be worth noting
that in the elections of 1765 the new vestryman stood third in popularity
in the Truro church and fifth in that of Fairfax. He drew the plans for a
new church in Truro, and subscribed to its building, intending "to lay the
foundation of a family pew," but by a vote of the vestry it was decided
that there should be no private pews, and this breach of contract angered
Washington so greatly that he withdrew from the church in 1773. Sparks
quotes Madison to the effect that "there was a tradition that, when he
[Washington] belonged to the vestry of a church in his neighborhood, and
several little difficulties grew out of some division of the society, he
sometimes spoke with great force, animation, and eloquence on the topics
that came before them." After this withdrawal he bought a pew in Christ
Church in Alexandria (Fairfax parish), paying £36.10, which was the
largest price paid by any parishioner. To this church he was quite
liberal, subscribing several times towards repairs, etc.
The Rev. Lee Massey, who was rector at Pohick (Truro) Church before the
Revolution, is quoted by Bishop Meade as saying that
"I never knew so constant an attendant in church as Washington. And his
behavior in the house of God was ever so deeply reverential that it
produced the happiest effect on my congregation, and greatly assisted me
in my pulpit labors. No company ever withheld him from church. I have
often been at Mount Vernon on Sabbath morning, when his breakfast table
was filled with guests; but to him they furnished no pretext for
neglecting his God and losing the satisfaction of setting a good example.
For instead of staying at home, out of false complaisance to them, he used
constantly to invite them to accompany him."
This seems to have been written more with an eye to its influence on
others than to its strict accuracy. During the time Washington attended at
Pohick Church he was by no means a regular church-goer. His daily "where
and how my time is spent" enables us to know exactly how often he attended
church, and in the year 1760 he went just sixteen times, and in 1768 he
went fourteen, these years being fairly typical of the period 1760-1773.
During the Presidency a sense of duty made him attend St Paul's and Christ
churches while in New York and Philadelphia, but at Mount Vernon, when the
public eye was not upon him, he was no more regular than he had always
been, and in the last year of his life he wrote, "Six days do I labor, or,
in other words, take exercise and devote my time to various occupations in
Husbandry, and about my mansion. On the seventh, now called the first day,
for want of a place of Worship (within less than nine miles) such letters
as do not require immediate acknowledgment I give answers to.... But it
hath so happened, that on the two last Sundays--call them the first or the
seventh as you please, I have been unable to perform the latter duty on
account of visits from Strangers, with whom I could not use the freedom to
leave alone, or recommend to the care of each other, for their amusement."
What he said here was more or less typical of his whole life. Sunday was
always the day on which he wrote his private letters,--even prepared his
invoices,--and he wrote to one of his overseers that his letters should
be mailed so as to reach him Saturday, as by so doing they could be
answered the following day. Nor did he limit himself to this, for he
entertained company, closed land purchases, sold wheat, and, while a
Virginia planter, went foxhunting, on Sunday. It is to be noted, however,
that he considered the scruples of others as to the day. When he went
among his western tenants, rent-collecting, he entered in his diary that,
it "being Sunday and the People living on my Land _apparently_ very
religious, it was thought best to postpone going among them till
to-morrow," and in his journey through New England, because it was
"contrary to the law and disagreeable to the People of this State
(Connecticut) to travel on the Sabbath day--and my horses, after passing
through such intolerable roads, wanting rest, I stayed at Perkins' tavern
(which, by the bye, is not a good one) all day--and a meetinghouse being
within a few rods of the door, I attended the morning and evening
services, and heard very lame discourses from a Mr. Pond." It is of this
experience that tradition says the President started to travel, but was
promptly arrested by a Connecticut tithing-man. The story, however, lacks
authentication.
There can be no doubt that religious intolerance was not a part of
Washington's character. In 1775, when the New England troops intended to
celebrate Guy Fawkes day, as usual, the General Orders declared that "as
the Commander in chief has been apprised of a design, formed for the
observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the effigy of
the Pope, he cannot help expressing his surprise, that there should be
officers and soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see
the impropriety of such a step." When trying to secure some servants, too,
he wrote that "if they are good workmen, they may be from Asia, Africa, or
Europe; they may be Mahometans, Jews, or Christians of any sect, or they
may be Atheists." When the bill taxing all the people of Virginia to
support the Episcopal Church (his own) was under discussion, he threw his
weight against it, as far as concerned the taxing of other sectaries, but
adding:
"Although no man's sentiments are more opposed to any kind of restraint
upon religious principles than mine are, yet I must confess, that I am not
amongst the number of those, who are so much alarmed at the thoughts of
making people pay towards the support of that which they profess, if
of the denomination, of Christians, or to declare themselves Jews,
Mahometans, or otherwise, and thereby obtain proper relief. As the matter
now stands, I wish an assessment had never been agitated, and as it has
gone so far, that the bill could die an easy death; because I think it
will be productive of more quiet to the State, than by enacting it into a
law, which in my opinion would be impolitic, admitting there is a decided
majority for it, to the disquiet of a respectable minority. In the former
case, the matter will soon subside; in the latter, it will rankle and
perhaps convulse the State."
Again in a letter he says,--
"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are
caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most
inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in
hopes, that the lightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present
age, would at least have reconciled _Christians_ of every denomination so
far, that we should never again see their religious disputes carried to
such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society."
And to Lafayette, alluding to the proceedings of the Assembly of Notables,
he wrote,--
"I am not less ardent in my wish, that you may succeed in your plan of
toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself, I am disposed to
indulge the professors of Christianity in the church with that road to
Heaven, which to them shall seem the most direct, plainest, easiest, and
least liable to exception."
What Washington believed has been a source of much dispute. Jefferson
states "that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets, and
believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington
believed no more of that system than he himself did," and Morris, it is
scarcely necessary to state, was an atheist. The same authority quotes
Rush, to the effect that "when the clergy addressed General Washington on
his departure from the government, it was observed in their consultation,
that he had never, on any occasion, said a word to the public which showed
a belief in the Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen
their address, as to force him at length to declare publicly whether he
was a Christian or not They did so. But, he observed, the old fox was too
cunning for them. He answered every article of their address particularly
except that, which he passed over without notice."
Whatever his belief, in all public ways Washington threw his influence in
favor of religion, and kept what he really believed a secret, and in only
one thing did he disclose his real thoughts. It is asserted that before
the Revolution he partook of the sacrament, but this is only affirmed by
hearsay, and better evidence contradicts it. After that war he did not, it
is certain. Nelly Custis states that on "communion Sundays he left the
church with me, after the blessing, and returned home, and we sent the
carriage back for my grandmother." And the assistant minister of Christ
Church in Philadelphia states that--
"Observing that on Sacrament Sundays, Gen'l Washington, immediately after
the Desk and Pulpit services, went out with the greater part of the
congregation, always leaving Mrs. Washington with the communicants, she
_invariably_ being one, I considered it my duty, in a sermon on Public
Worship, to state the unhappy tendency of _example_, particularly those in
elevated stations, who invariably turned their backs upon the celebration
of the Lord's Supper. I acknowledge the remark was intended for the
President, as such, he received it. A few days after, in conversation
with, I believe, a Senator of the U.S. he told me he had dined the day
before with the President, who in the course of the conversation at the
table, said, that on the preceding Sunday, he had received a very just
reproof from the pulpit, for always leaving the church before the
administration of the Sacrament; that he honored the preacher for his
integrity and candour; that he had never considered the influence of his
example; that he would never again give cause for the repetition of the
reproof; and that, as he had never been a communicant, were he to become
one then, it would be imputed to an ostentatious display of religious zeal
arising altogether from his elevated station. Accordingly he afterwards
never came on the morning of Sacrament Sunday, tho' at other times, a
constant attendant in the morning."
Nelly Custis, too, tells us that Washington always "stood during the
devotional part of the service," and Bishop White states that "his
behavior was always serious and attentive; but, as your letter seems to
intend an inquiry on the point of kneeling during the service, I owe it to
the truth to declare, that I never saw him in the said attitude." Probably
his true position is described by Madison, who is quoted as saying that he
did "not suppose that Washington had ever attended to the arguments for
Christianity, and for the different systems of religion, or in fact that
he had formed definite opinions on the subject. But he took these things
as he found them existing, and was constant in his observances of worship
according to the received forms of the Episcopal Church, in which he was
brought up."
If there was proof needed that it is mind and not education which pushes a
man to the front, it is to be found in the case of Washington. Despite his
want of education, he had, so Bell states, "an excellent understanding."
Patrick Henry is quoted as saying of the members of the Congress of 1774--
the body of which Adams claimed that "every man in it is a great man, an
orator, a critic, a statesman"--that "if you speak of solid information
and sound judgment Colonel Washington is unquestionably the greatest man
on the floor;" while Jefferson asserted that "his mind was great and
powerful, without being of the very first order; his penetration strong,
though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or Locke; and as far as he
saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little
aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion."
IV
RELATIONS WITH THE FAIR SEX
The book from which Washington derived almost the whole of his education
warned its readers,--
"Young Men have ever more a special care That Womanish Allurements prove
not a snare;"
but, however carefully the lad studied the rest, this particular
admonition took little root in his mind. There can be no doubt that
Washington during the whole of his life had a soft heart for women, and
especially for good-looking ones, and both in his personal intercourse and
in his letters he shows himself very much more at ease with them than in
his relations with his own sex. Late in life, when the strong passions of
his earlier years were under better control, he was able to write,--
"Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and it is, therefore,
contended that it cannot be resisted. This is true in part only, for like
all things else, when nourished and supplied plentifully with aliment, it
is rapid in its progress; but let these be withdrawn and it may be stifled
in its birth or much stinted in its growth. For example, a woman (the same
may be said of the other sex) all beautiful and accomplished will, while
her hand and heart are undisposed of, turn the heads and set the circle in
which she moves on fire. Let her marry, and what is the consequence? The
madness _ceases_ and all is quiet again. Why? not because there is any
diminution in the charms of the lady, but because there is an end of hope.
Hence it follows, that love may and therefore ought to be under the
guidance of reason, for although we cannot avoid first impressions, we may
assuredly place them under guard."
To write thus in one's sixty-sixth year and to practise one's theory in
youth were, however, very different undertakings. Even while discussing
love so philosophically, the writer had to acknowledge that "in the
composition of the human frame, there is a good deal of inflammable
matter," and few have had better cause to know it. When he saw in the
premature engagement of his ward, Jack Custis, the one advantage that it
would "in a great measure avoid those little flirtations with other young
ladies that may, by dividing the attention, contribute not a little to
divide the affection," it is easy to think of him as looking back to his
own boyhood, and remembering, it is to be hoped with a smile, the
sufferings he owed to pretty faces and neatly turned ankles.
While still a school-boy, Washington was one day caught "romping with one
of the largest girls," and very quickly more serious likings followed. As
early as 1748, when only sixteen years of age, his heart was so engaged
that while at Lord Fairfax's and enjoying the society of Mary Cary he
poured out his feelings to his youthful correspondents "Dear Robin" and
"Dear John" and "Dear Sally" as follows:
"My place of Residence is at present at His Lordships where I might was my
heart disengag'd pass my time very pleasantly as theres a very agreeable
Young Lady Lives in the same house (Colo George Fairfax's Wife's Sister)
but as thats only adding Fuel to fire it makes me the more uneasy for by
often and unavoidably being in Company with her revives my former Passion
for your Low Land Beauty whereas was I to live more retired from young
Women I might in some measure eliviate my sorrows by burying that chast
and troublesome Passion in the grave of oblivion or etarnall forgetfulness
for as I am very well assured thats the only antidote or remedy that I
shall be releivd by or only recess that can administer any cure or help to
me as I am well convinced was I ever to attempt any thing I should only
get a denial which would be only adding grief to uneasiness."
"Was my affections disengaged I might perhaps form some pleasure in the
conversation of an agreeable Young Lady as theres one now Lives in the
same house with me but as that is only nourishment to my former affecn for
by often seeing her brings the other into my remembrance whereas perhaps
was she not often & (unavoidably) presenting herself to my view I might in
some measure aliviate my sorrows by burying the other in the grave of
Oblivion I am well convinced my heart stands in defiance of all others but
only she thats given it cause enough to dread a second assault and from a
different Quarter tho' I well know let it have as many attacks as it will
from others they cant be more fierce than it has been."
"I Pass the time of[f] much more agreeabler than what I imagined I should
as there's a very agrewable Young Lady lives in the same house where I
reside (Colo George Fairfax's Wife's Sister) that in a great Measure
cheats my thoughts altogether from your Parts I could wish to be with you
down there with all my heart but as it is a thing almost Impractakable
shall rest myself where I am with hopes of shortly having some Minutes of
your transactions in your Parts which will be very welcomely receiv'd."
Who this "Low Land Beauty" was has been the source of much speculation,
but the question is still unsolved, every suggested damsel--Lucy Grymes,
Mary Bland, Betsy Fauntleroy, _et al._--being either impossible or the
evidence wholly inadequate. But in the same journal which contains the
draughts of these letters is a motto poem--
"Twas Perfect Love before
But Now I do adore"--
followed by the words "Young M.A. his W[ife?]," and as it was a fashion
of the time to couple the initials of one's well-beloved with such
sentiments, a slight clue is possibly furnished. Nor was this the only
rhyme that his emotions led to his inscribing in his journal: and he
confided to it the following:
"Oh Ye Gods why should my Poor Resistless Heart
Stand to oppose thy might and Power
At Last surrender to cupids feather'd Dart
And now lays Bleeding every Hour
For her that's Pityless of my grief and Woes
And will not on me Pity take
He sleep amongst my most inveterate Foes
And with gladness never wish to wake
In deluding sleepings let my Eyelids close
That in an enraptured Dream I may
In a soft lulling sleep and gentle repose
Possess those joys denied by Day."
However woe-begone the young lover was, he does not seem to have been
wholly lost to others of the sex, and at this same time he was able to
indite an acrostic to another charmer, which, if incomplete, nevertheless
proves that there was a "midland" beauty as well, the lady being
presumptively some member of the family of Alexanders, who had a
plantation near Mount Vernon.
"From your bright sparkling Eyes I was undone;
Rays, you have; more transperent than the Sun.
Amidst its glory in the rising Day
None can you equal in your bright array;
Constant in your calm and unspotted Mind;
Equal to all, but will to none Prove kind,
So knowing, seldom one so Young, you'l Find.
Ah! woe's me, that I should Love and conceal
Long have I wish'd, but never dare reveal,
Even though severely Loves Pains I feel;
Xerxes that great, was't free from Cupids Dart,
And all the greatest Heroes, felt the smart."
When visiting Barbadoes, in 1751, Washington noted in his journal his
meeting a Miss Roberts, "an agreeable young lady," and later he went with
her to see some fireworks on Guy Fawkes day. Apparently, however, the
ladies of that island made little impression on him, for he further noted,
"The Ladys Generally are very agreeable but by ill custom or w[ha]t effect
the Negro style." This sudden insensibility is explained by a letter he
wrote to William Fauntleroy a few weeks after his return to Virginia:
"Sir: I should have been down long before this, but my business in
Frederick detained me somewhat longer than I expected, and immediately
upon my return from thence I was taken with a violent Pleurise, but
purpose as soon as I recover my strength, to wait on Miss Betsy, in hopes
of a revocation of the former cruel sentence, and see if I can meet with
any alteration in my favor. I have enclosed a letter to her, which should
be much obliged to you for the delivery of it. I have nothing to add but
my best respects to your good lady and family, and that I am, Sir, Your
most ob't humble serv't."
Because of this letter it has been positively asserted that Betsy
Fauntleroy was the Low-Land Beauty of the earlier time; but as Washington
wrote of his love for the latter in 1748, when Betsy was only eleven, the
absurdity of the claim is obvious.
In 1753, while on his mission to deliver the governor's letter to the
French, one duty which fell to the young soldier was a visit to royalty,
in the person of Queen Aliquippa, an Indian majesty who had "expressed
great Concern" that she had formerly been slighted. Washington records
that "I made her a Present of a Match-coat and a Bottle of Rum; which
latter was thought much the best Present of the Two," and thus (externally
and internally) restored warmth to her majesty's feelings.
When returned from his first campaign, and resting at Mount Vernon, the
time seems to have been beguiled by some charmer, for one of Washington's
officers and intimates writes from Williamsburg, "I imagine you By this
time plung'd in the midst of delight heaven can afford & enchanted By
Charmes even Stranger to the Ciprian Dame," and a footnote by the same
hand only excites further curiosity concerning this latter personage by
indefinitely naming her as "Mrs. Neil."
With whatever heart-affairs the winter was passed, with the spring the
young man's fancy turned not to love, but again to war, and only when the
defeat of Braddock brought Washington back to Mount Vernon to recover from
the fatigues of that campaign was his intercourse with the gentler sex
resumed. Now, however, he was not merely a good-looking young fellow, but
was a hero who had had horses shot from under him and had stood firm when
scarlet-coated men had run away. No longer did he have to sue for the
favor of the fair ones, and Fairfax wrote him that "if a Satterday Nights
Rest cannot be sufficient to enable your coming hither to-morrow, the
Lady's will try to get Horses to equip our Chair or attempt their strength
on Foot to Salute you, so desirous are they with loving Speed to have an
occular Demonstration of your being the same Identical Gent--that lately
departed to defend his Country's Cause." Furthermore, to this letter was
appended the following:
"DEAR SIR,--After thanking Heaven for your safe return I must accuse you
of great unkindness in refusing us the pleasure of seeing you this night.
I do assure you nothing but our being satisfied that our company would be
disagreeable should prevent us from trying if our Legs would not carry us
to Mount Vernon this night, but if you will not come to us to-morrow
morning very early we shall be at Mount Vernon.
"S[ALLY] FAIRFAX,
"ANN SPEARING.
"ELIZ'TH DENT."
Nor is this the only feminine postscript of this time, for in the
postscript of a letter from Archibald Cary, a leading Virginian, he is
told that "Mrs. Cary & Miss Randolph joyn in wishing you that sort of
Glory which will most Indear you to the Fair Sex."
In 1756 Washington had occasion to journey on military business to Boston,
and both in coming and in going he tarried in New York, passing ten days
in his first visit and about a week on his return. This time was spent
with a Virginian friend, Beverly Robinson, who had had the good luck to
marry Susannah Philipse, a daughter of Frederick Philipse, one of the
largest landed proprietors of the colony of New York. Here he met the
sister, Mary Philipse, then a girl of twenty-five, and, short as was the
time, it was sufficient to engage his heart. To this interest no doubt are
due the entries in his accounts of sundry pounds spent "for treating
Ladies," and for the large tailors' bills then incurred. But neither
treats nor clothes won the lady, who declined his proposals, and gave her
heart two years later to Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Morris. A curious sequel
to this disappointment was the accident that made the Roger Morris house
Washington's head-quarters in 1776, both Morris and his wife being
fugitive Tories. Again Washington was a chance visitor in 1790, when, as
part of a picnic, he "dined on a dinner provided by Mr. Marriner at the
House lately Colo. Roger Morris, but confiscated and in the occupation of
a common Farmer."
[Illustration: MARY PHILIPSE]
It has been asserted that Washington loved the wife of his friend George
William Fairfax, but the evidence has not been produced. On the contrary,
though the two corresponded, it was in a purely platonic fashion, very
different from the strain of lovers, and that the correspondence implied
nothing is to be found in the fact that he and Sally Carlyle (another
Fairfax daughter) also wrote each other quite as frequently and on
the same friendly footing; indeed, Washington evidently classed them
in the same category, when he stated that "I have wrote to my two
female correspondents." Thus the claim seems due, like many another of
Washington's mythical love-affairs, rather to the desire of descendants to
link their family "to a star" than to more substantial basis. Washington
did, indeed, write to Sally Fairfax from the frontier, "I should think our
time more agreeably spent, believe me, in playing a part in Cato, with the
company you mention, and myself doubly happy in being the Juba to such a
Marcia, as you must make," but private theatricals then no more than now
implied "passionate love." What is more, Mrs. Fairfax was at this very
time teasing him about another woman, and to her hints Washington
replied,--
"If you allow that any honor can be derived from my opposition ... you
destroy the merit of it entirely in me by attributing my anxiety to the
animating prospect of possessing Mrs. Custis, when--I need not tell you,
guess yourself. Should not my own Honor and country's welfare be the
excitement? 'Tis true I profess myself a votary of love. I acknowledge
that a lady is in the case, and further I confess that this lady is known
to you. Yes, Madame, as well as she is to one who is too sensible of her
charms to deny the Power whose influence he feels and must ever submit to.
I feel the force of her amiable beauties in the recollection of a thousand
tender passages that I could wish to obliterate, till I am bid to revive
them. But experience, alas! sadly reminds me how impossible this is, and
evinces an opinion which I have long entertained that there is a Destiny
which has the control of our actions, not to be resisted by the strongest
efforts of Human Nature. You have drawn me, dear Madame, or rather I have
drawn myself, into an honest confession of a simple Fact. Misconstrue not
my meaning; doubt it not, nor expose it. The world has no business to know
the object of my Love, declared in this manner to you, when I want to
conceal it. One thing above all things in this world I wish to know, and
only one person of your acquaintance can solve me that, or guess my
meaning."
The love-affair thus alluded to had begun in March, 1758, when ill health
had taken Washington to Williamsburg to consult physicians, thinking,
indeed, of himself as a doomed man. In this trip he met Mrs. Martha
(Dandridge) Custis, widow of Daniel Parke Custis, one of the wealthiest
planters of the colony. She was at this time twenty-six years of age, or
Washington's senior by nine months, and had been a widow but seven, yet in
spite of this fact, and of his own expected "decay," he pressed his
love-making with an impetuosity akin to that with which he had urged his
suit of Miss Philipse, and (widows being proverbial) with better success.
The invalid had left Mount Vernon on March 5, and by April 1 he was back
at Fort Loudon, an engaged man, having as well so far recovered his health
as to be able to join his command. Early in May he ordered a ring from
Philadelphia, at a cost of £2.16.0; soon after receiving it he found
that army affairs once more called him down to Williamsburg, and, as
love-making is generally considered a military duty, the excuse was
sufficient. But sterner duties on the frontier were awaiting him, and very
quickly he was back there and writing to his _fiancée_,--
"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."
Five months after this letter was written, Washington was able to date
another from Fort Duquesne, and, the fall of that post putting an end to
his military service, only four weeks later he was back in Williamsburg,
and on January 6, 1759, he was married.
Very little is really known of his wife, beyond the facts that she was
petite, over-fond, hot-tempered, obstinate, and a poor speller. In 1778
she was described as "a sociable, pretty kind of woman," and she seems to
have been but little more. One who knew her well described her as "not
possessing much sense, though a perfect lady and remarkably well
calculated for her position," and confirmatory of this is the opinion of
an English traveller that "there was nothing remarkable in the person of
the lady of the President; she was matronly and kind, with perfect good
breeding." None the less she satisfied Washington; even after the
proverbial six months were over he refused to wander from Mount Vernon,
writing that "I am now, I believe, fixed at this seat with an agreeable
Consort for life," and in 1783 he spoke of her as the "partner of all my
Domestic enjoyments."
John Adams, in one of his recurrent moods of bitterness and jealousy
towards Washington, demanded, "Would Washington have ever been commander
of the revolutionary army or president of the United States if he had not
married the rich widow of Mr. Custis?" To ask such a question is to
overlook the fact that Washington's colonial military fame was entirely
achieved before his marriage. It is not to be denied that the match was a
good one from a worldly point of view, Mrs. Washington's third of the
Custis property equalling "fifteen thousand acres of land, a good part of
it adjoining the city of Williamsburg; several lots in the said city;
between two and three hundred negroes; and about eight or ten thousand
pounds upon bond," estimated at the time as about twenty thousand pounds
in all, which was further increased on the death of Patsy Custis in 1773
by a half of her fortune, which added ten thousand pounds to the sum.
Nevertheless the advantage was fairly equal, for Mrs. Custis's lawyer had
written before her marriage of the impossibility of her managing the
property, advising that she "employ a trusty steward, and as the estate is
large and very extensive, it is Mr. Wallers and my own opinion, that you
had better not engage any but a very able man, though he should require
large wages." Of the management of this property, to which, indeed, she
was unequal, Washington entirely relieved her, taking charge also of her
children's share and acting for their interests with the same care with
which he managed the part he was more directly concerned in.
He further saved her much of the detail of ordering her own clothing, and
we find him sending for "A Salmon-colored Tabby of the enclosed pattern,
with satin flowers, to be made in a sack," "1 Cap, Handkerchief, Tucker
and Ruffles, to be made of Brussels lace or point, proper to wear with the
above negligee, to cost £20," "1 pair black, and 1 pair white Satin Shoes,
of the smallest," and "1 black mask." Again he writes his London agent,
"Mrs. Washington sends home a green sack to get cleaned, or fresh dyed of
the same color; made up into a handsome sack again, would be her choice;
but if the cloth won't afford that, then to be thrown into a genteel Night
Gown." At another time he wants a pair of clogs, and when the wrong kind
are sent he writes that "she intended to have leathern Gloshoes." When she
was asked to present a pair of colors to a company, he attended to every
detail of obtaining the flag, and when "Mrs. Washington ... perceived the
Tomb of her Father ... to be much out of Sorts" he wrote to get a workman
to repair it. The care of the Mount Vernon household proving beyond his
wife's ability, a housekeeper was very quickly engaged, and when one who
filled this position was on the point of leaving, Washington wrote his
agent to find another without the least delay, for the vacancy would
"throw a great additional weight on Mrs. Washington;" again, writing in
another domestic difficulty, "Your aunt's distresses for want of a good
housekeeper are such as to render the wages demanded by Mrs. Forbes
(though unusually high) of no consideration." Her letters of form, which
required better orthography than she was mistress of, he draughted for
her, pen-weary though he was.
It has already been shown how he fathered her "little progeny," as he once
called them. Mrs. Washington was a worrying mother, as is shown by a
letter to her sister, speaking of a visit in which "I carried my little
patt with me and left Jacky at home for a trial to see how well I could
stay without him though we were gon but wone fortnight I was quite
impatient to get home. If I at aney time heard the doggs barke or a noise
out, I thought thair was a person sent for me. I often fancied he was sick
or some accident had happened to him so that I think it is impossible
for me to leave him as long as Mr. Washington must stay when he comes
down." To spare her anxiety, therefore, when the time came for "Jacky" to
be inoculated, Washington "withheld from her the information ... &
purpose, if possible, to keep her in total ignorance ... till I hear of
his return, or perfect recovery;... she having often wished that Jack
wou'd take & go through the disorder without her knowing of it, that she
might escape those Tortures which suspense wd throw her into." And on the
death of Patsy he wrote, "This sudden and unexpected blow, I scarce need
add has almost reduced my poor Wife to the lowest ebb of Misery; which is
encreas'd by the absence of her son."
When Washington left Mount Vernon, in May, 1775, to attend the Continental
Congress, he did not foresee his appointment as commander-in-chief, and as
soon as it occurred he wrote his wife,--
"I am now set down to write to you on a subject, which fills me with
inexpressible concern, and this concern is greatly aggravated and
increased, when I reflect upon the uneasiness I know it will give you. It
has been determined in Congress, that the whole army raised for the
defence of the American cause shall be put under my care, and that it is
necessary for me to proceed immediately to Boston to take upon me the
command of it.
"You may believe me, my dear Patsey, when I assure you, in the most solemn
manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment, I have used every
endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part
with you and the family, but from a consciousness of its being a trust too
great for my capacity, and that I should enjoy more real happiness in one
month with you at home, than I have the most distant prospect of finding
abroad, if my stay were to be seven times seven years.... I shall feel no
pain from the toil or danger of the campaign; my unhappiness will flow
from the uneasiness I know you will feel from being left alone."
To prevent this loneliness as far as possible, he wrote at the same time
to different members of the two families as follows:
"My great concern upon this occasion is, the thought of leaving your
mother under the uneasiness which I fear this affair will throw her into;
I therefore hope, expect, and indeed have no doubt, of your using every
means in your power to keep up her spirits, by doing everything in your
power to promote her quiet. I have, I must confess, very uneasy feelings
on her account, but as it has been a kind of unavoidable necessity which
has led me into this appointment, I shall more readily hope that success
will attend it and crown our meetings with happiness."
"I entreat you and Mrs. Bassett if possible to visit at Mt. Vernon, as
also my wife's other friends. I could wish you to take her down, as I have
no expectation of returning till winter & feel great uneasiness at her
lonesome situation."
"I shall hope that my friends will visit and endeavor to keep up the
spirits of my wife, as much as they can, as my departure will, I know, be
a cutting stroke upon her; and on this account alone I have many very
disagreeable sensations. I hope you and my sister, (although the distance
is great), will find as much leisure this summer as to spend a little time
at Mount Vernon."
When, six months later, the war at Boston settled into a mere siege,
Washington wrote that "seeing no prospect of returning to my family and
friends this winter, I have sent an invitation to Mrs. Washington to come
to me," adding, "I have laid a state of difficulties, however, which must
attend the journey before her, and left it to her own choice." His wife
replied in the affirmative, and one of Washington's aides presently wrote
concerning some prize goods to the effect that "There are limes, lemons
and oranges on board, which, being perishable, you must sell immediately.
The General will want some of each, as well of the sweetmeats and pickles
that are on board, as his lady will be here to-day or to-morrow. You will
please to pick up such things on board as you think will be acceptable to
her, and send them as soon as possible; he does not mean to receive
anything without payment."
Lodged at head-quarters, then the Craigie house in Cambridge, the
discomforts of war were reduced to a minimum, but none the less it was a
trying time to Mrs. Washington, who complained that she could not get used
to the distant cannonading, and she marvelled that those about her paid so
little heed to it. With the opening of the campaign in the following
summer she returned to Mount Vernon, but when the army was safely in
winter quarters at Valley Forge she once more journeyed northward, a trip
alluded to by Washington in a letter to Jack, as follows: "Your Mamma is
not yet arrived, but ... expected every hour. [My aide] Meade set off
yesterday (as soon as I got notice of her intention) to meet her. We are
in a dreary kind of place, and uncomfortably provided." And of this
reunion Mrs. Washington wrote, "I came to this place, some time about the
first of February where I found the General very well,... in camp in what
is called the great valley on the Banks of the Schuylkill. Officers and
men are chiefly in Hutts, which they say is tolerably comfortable; the
army are as healthy as can be well expected in general. The General's
apartment is very small; he has had a log cabin built to dine in, which
has made our quarters much more tolerable than they were at first"
Such "winterings" became the regular custom, and brief references in
various letters serve to illustrate them. Thus, in 1779, Washington
informed a friend that "Mrs. Washington, according to custom marched home
when the campaign was about to open;" in July, 1782, he noted that his
wife "sets out this day for Mount Vernon," and later in the same year he
wrote, "as I despair of seeing my home this Winter, I have sent for Mrs.
Washington;" and finally, in a letter he draughted for his wife, he made
her describe herself as "a kind of perambulator, during eight or nine
years of the war."
Another pleasant glimpse during these stormy years is the couple, during a
brief stay in Philadelphia, being entertained almost to death, described
as follows by Franklin's daughter in a letter to her father: "I have
lately been several times abroad with the General and Mrs. Washington. He
always inquires after you in the most affectionate manner, and speaks of
you highly. We danced at Mrs. Powell's your birthday, or night I should
say, in company together, and he told me it was the anniversary of his
marriage; it was just twenty years that night" Again there was junketing
in Philadelphia after the surrender at Yorktown, and one bit of this is
shadowed in a line from Washington to Robert Morris, telling the latter
that "Mrs. Washington, myself and family, will have the honor of dining
with you in the way proposed, to-morrow, being Christmas day."
With the retirement to Mount Vernon at the close of the war, little more
companionship was obtained, for, as already stated, Washington could only
describe his home henceforth as a "well resorted tavern," and two years
after his return he entered in his diary, "Dined with only Mrs. Washington
which I believe is the first instance of it since my retirement from
public life."
Even this was only a furlough, for in six years they were both in public
life again. Mrs. Washington was inclined to sulk over the necessary
restraints of official life, writing to a friend, "Mrs. Sins will give you
a better account of the fashions than I can--I live a very dull life hear
and know nothing that passes in the town--I never goe to any public
place--indeed I think I am more like a State prisoner than anything else;
there is certain bounds set for me which I must not depart from--and as I
cannot doe as I like, I am obstinate and stay at home a great deal."
[Illustration: MRS. DANIEL PARKE CUSTIS, LATER MRS. WASHINGTON]
None the less she did her duties well, and in these "Lady Washington" was
more at home, for, according to Thacher, she combined "in an uncommon
degree, great dignity of manner with most pleasing affability," though
possessing "no striking marks of beauty," and there is no doubt that she
lightened Washington's shoulders of social demands materially. At the
receptions of Mrs. Washington, which were held every Friday evening, so a
contemporary states, "the President did not consider himself as visited.
On these occasions he appeared as a private gentleman, with neither hat
nor sword, conversing without restraint."
From other formal society Mrs. Washington also saved her husband, for a
visitor on New Year's tells of her setting "'the General' (by which title
she always designated her husband)" at liberty: "Mrs. Washington had stood
by his side as the visitors arrived and were presented, and when the clock
in the hall was heard striking nine, she advanced and with a complacent
smile said, 'The General always retires at nine, and I usually precede
him,' upon which all arose, made their parting salutations, and withdrew."
Nor was it only from the fatigues of formal entertaining that the wife
saved her husband, Washington writing in 1793, "We remain in Philadelphia
until the 10th instant. It was my wish to have continued there longer; but
as Mrs. Washington was unwilling to leave me surrounded by the malignant
fever which prevailed, I could not think of hazarding her, and the
Children any longer by _my_ continuance in the City, the house in which we
live being in a manner blockaded by the disorder, and was becoming every
day more and more fatal; I therefore came off with them."
Finally from these "scenes more busy, tho' not more happy, than the
tranquil enjoyment of rural life," they returned to Mount Vernon, hoping
that in the latter their "days will close." Not quite three years of this
life brought an end to their forty years of married life. On the night
that Washington's illness first became serious his secretary narrates that
"Between 2 and 3 o'clk on Saturday morning he [Washington] awoke Mrs.
Washington & told her he was very unwell, and had had an ague.
She ... would have got up to call a servant; but he would not permit her
lest she should take cold." As a consequence of this care for her, her
husband lay for nearly four hours in a chill in a cold bedroom before
receiving any attention, or before even a fire was lighted. When death
came, she said, "Tis well--All is now over--I have no more trials to pass
through--I shall soon follow him." In his will he left "to my dearly
beloved wife" the use of his whole property, and named her an executrix.
As a man's views of matrimony are more or less colored by his personal
experience, what Washington had to say on the institution is of interest.
As concerned himself he wrote to his nephew, "If Mrs. Washington should
survive me, there is a moral certainty of my dying without issue: and
should I be the longest liver, the matter in my opinion, is hardly less
certain; for while I retain the faculty of reasoning, I shall never marry
a girl; and it is not probable that I should have children by a woman of
an age suitable to my own, should I be disposed to enter into a second
marriage." And in a less personal sense he wrote to Chastellux,--
"In reading your very friendly and acceptable letter,... I was, as you
may well suppose, not less delighted than surprised to meet the plain
American words, 'my wife.' A wife! Well, my dear Marquis, I can hardly
refrain from smiling to find you are caught at last. I saw, by the
eulogium you often made on the happiness of domestic life in America, that
you had swallowed the bait, and that you would as surely be taken, one day
or another, as that you were a philosopher and a soldier. So your day has
at length come. I am glad of it, with all my heart and soul. It is quite
good enough for you. Now you are well served for coming to fight in favor
of the American rebels, all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, by catching
that terrible contagion--domestic felicity--which same, like the small pox
or the plague, a man can have only once in his life; because it commonly
lasts him (at least with us in America--I don't know how you manage these
matters in France) for his whole life time. And yet after all the
maledictions you so richly merit on the subject, the worst wish which I
can find in my heart to make against Madame de Chastellux and yourself is,
that you may neither of you ever get the better of this same domestic
felicity during the entire course of your mortal existence."
Furthermore, he wrote to an old friend, whose wife stubbornly refused to
sign a deed, "I think, any Gentleman, possessed of but a very moderate
degree of influence with his wife, might, in the course of five or six
years (for I think it is at least that time) have prevailed upon her to do
an act of justice, in fulfiling his Bargains and complying with his
wishes, if he had been really in earnest in requesting the matter of her;
especially, as the inducement which you thought would have a powerful
operation on Mrs. Alexander, namely the birth of a child, has been
doubled, and tripled."
However well Washington thought of "the honorable state," he was
no match-maker, and when asked to give advice to the widow of Jack Custis,
replied, "I never did, nor do I believe I ever shall, give advice to a
woman, who is setting out on a matrimonial voyage; first, because I never
could advise one to marry without her own consent; and, secondly because I
know it is to no purpose to advise her to refrain, when she has obtained
it. A woman very rarely asks an opinion or requires advice on such an
occasion, till her resolution is formed; and then it is with the hope and
expectation of obtaining a sanction, not that she means to be governed by
your disapprobation, that she applies. In a word the plain English of the
application may be summed up in these words: 'I wish you to think as I do;
but, if unhappily you differ from me in opinion, my heart, I must confess,
is fixed, and I have gone too far now to retract.'" Again he wrote:
"It has ever been a maxim with me through life, neither to promote nor to
prevent a matrimonial connection, unless there should be something
indispensably requiring interference in the latter. I have always
considered marriage as the most interesting event of one's life, the
foundation of happiness or misery. To be instrumental therefore in
bringing two people together, who are indifferent to each other, and may
soon become objects of disgust; or to prevent a union, which is prompted
by the affections of the mind, is what I never could reconcile with
reason, and therefore neither directly nor indirectly have I ever said a
word to Fanny or George, upon the subject of their intended connection."
The question whether Washington was a faithful husband might well be left
to the facts already given, were it not that stories of his immorality are
bandied about in clubs, a well-known clergyman has vouched for their
truth, and a United States senator has given further currency to them by
claiming special knowledge on the subject. Since such are the facts, it
seems best to consider the question and show what evidence there actually
is for these stories, that at least the pretended "letters," etc., which
are always being cited, and are never produced, may no longer have
credence put in them, and the true basis for all the stories may be known
and valued at its worth.
In the year 1776 there was printed in London a small pamphlet entitled
"Minutes of the Trial and Examination of Certain Persons in the Province
of New York," which purported to be the records of the examination of the
conspirators of the "Hickey plot" (to murder Washington) before a
committee of the Provincial Congress of New York. The manuscript of this
was claimed in the preface to have been "discovered (on the late capture
of New York by the British troops) among the papers of a person who
appears to have been secretary to the committee." As part of the evidence
the following was printed:
"William Cooper, soldier, sworn.
"Court. Inform us what conversation you heard at the Serjeant's Arms?
"Cooper. Being there the 21st of May, I heard John Clayford inform the
company, that Mary Gibbons was thoroughly in their interest, and that the
whole would be safe. I learnt from enquiry that Mary Gibbons was a girl
from New Jersey, of whom General Washington was very fond, that he
maintained her genteelly at a house near Mr. Skinner's,--at the North
River; that he came there very often late at night in disguise; he learnt
also that this woman was very intimate with Clayford, and made him
presents, and told him of what General Washington said.
"Court. Did you hear Mr. Clayford say any thing himself that night?
"Cooper. Yes; that he was the day before with Judith, so he called her,
and that she told him, Washington had often said he wished his hands were
clear of the dirty New-Englanders, and words to that effect.
"Court. Did you hear no mention made of any scheme to betray or seize him?
"Cooper. Mr. Clayford said he could easily be seized and put on board a
boat, and carried off, as his female friend had promised she would assist:
but all present thought it would be hazardous."
"William Savage, sworn.
"Court. Was you at the Serjeant's Arms on the 21st of May? Did you hear
any thing of this nature?
"Savage. I did, and nearly as the last evidence has declared; the society
in general refused to be concerned in it, and thought it a mad scheme.
"Mr. Abeel. Pray, Mr. Savage, have not you heard nothing of an information
that was to be given to Governor Tryon?
"Savage. Yes; papers and letters were at different times shewn to the
society, which were taken out of General Washington's pockets by Mrs.
Gibbons, and given (as she pretended some occasion of going out) to Mr.
Clayford, who always copied them, and they were put into his pockets
again."
The authenticity of this pamphlet thus becomes of importance, and over
this little time need be spent. The committee named in it differs from the
committee really named by the Provincial Congress, and the proceedings
nowhere implicate the men actually proved guilty. In other words, the
whole publication is a clumsy Tory forgery, put forward with the same idle
story of "captured papers" employed in the "spurious letters" of
Washington, and sent forth from the same press (J. Bew) from which that
forgery and several others issued.
The source from which the English fabricator drew this scandal is
fortunately known. In 1775 a letter to Washington from his friend Benjamin
Harrison was intercepted by the British, and at once printed broadcast in
the newspapers. In this the writer gossips to Washington "to amuse you and
unbend your minds from the cares of war," as follows: "As I was in the
pleasing task of writing to you, a little noise occasioned me to turn my
head around, and who should appear but pretty little Kate, the
Washer-woman's daughter over the way, clean, trim and as rosy as the
morning. I snatched the golden, glorious opportunity, and, but for the
cursed antidote to love, Sukey, I had fitted her for my general against his
return. We were obliged to part, but not till we had contrived to meet
again: if she keeps the appointment, I shall relish a week's longer stay."
From this originated the stories of Washington's infidelity as already
given, and also a coarser version of the same, printed in 1776 in a Tory
farce entitled "The Battle of Brooklyn."
Jonathan Boucher, who knew Washington well before the Revolution, yet who,
as a loyalist, wrote in no friendly spirit of him, asserted that "in his
moral character, he is regular." A man who disliked him far more, General
Charles Lee, in the excess of his hatred, charged Washington in 1778 with
immorality,--a rather amusing impeachment, since at the very time Lee was
flaunting the evidence of his own incontinence without apparent shame,--and
a mutual friend of the accused and accuser, Joseph Reed, whose service on
Washington's staff enabled him to speak wittingly, advised that Lee
"forbear any Reflections upon the Commander in Chief, of whom for the
first time I have heard Slander on his private Character, viz., great
cruelty to his Slaves in Virginia & Immorality of Life, tho' they
acknowledge so very secret that it is difficult to detect. To me who have
had so good opportunities to know the Purity of the latter & equally
believing the Falsehood of the former from the known excellence of his
disposition, it appears so nearly bordering upon frenzy, that I can pity
the wretches rather than despise them."
Washington was too much of a man, however, to have his marriage lessen his
liking for other women; and Yeates repeats that "Mr. Washington once told
me, on a charge which I once made against the President at his own Table,
that the admiration he warmly professed for Mrs. Hartley, was a Proof of
his Homage to the worthy Part of the Sex, and highly respectful to his
Wife." Every now and then there is an allusion in his letters which shows
his appreciation of beauty, as when he wrote to General Schuyler, "Your
fair daughter, for whose visit Mrs. Washington and myself are greatly
obliged," and again, to one of his aides, "The fair hand, to whom your
letter ... was committed presented it safe."
His diary, in the notes of the balls and assemblies which he attended,
usually had a word for the sex, as exampled in: "at which there were
between 60 & 70 well dressed ladies;" "at which there was about 100 well
dressed and handsome ladies;" "at which were 256 elegantly dressed
ladies;" "where there was a select Company of ladies;" "where (it is said)
there were upwards of 100 ladies; their appearance was elegant, and many
of them very handsome;" "at wch. there were about 400 ladies the number
and appearance of wch. exceeded anything of the kind I have ever seen;"
"where there were about 75 well dressed, and many of them very handsome
ladies--among whom (as was also the case at the Salem and Boston
assemblies) were a greater proportion with much blacker hair than are
usually seen in the Southern States."
At his wife's receptions, as already said, Washington did not view himself
as host, and "conversed without restraint, generally with women, who
rarely had other opportunity of seeing him," which perhaps accounts for
the statement of another eye-witness that Washington "looked very much
more at ease than at his own official levees." Sullivan adds that "the
young ladies used to throng around him, and engaged him in conversation.
There were some of the well-remembered belles of the day who imagined
themselves to be favorites with him. As these were the only opportunities
which they had of conversing with him, they were disposed to use them." In
his Southern trip of 1791 Washington noted, with evident pleasure, that he
"was visited about 2 o'clock, by a great number of the most respectable
ladies of Charleston--the first honor of the kind I had ever experienced
and it was flattering as it was singular." And that this attention was not
merely the respect due to a great man is shown in the letter of a
Virginian woman, who wrote to her correspondent in 1777, that when
"General Washington throws off the Hero and takes up the chatty agreeable
Companion--he can be down right impudent sometimes--such impudence, Fanny,
as you and I like."
Another feminine compliment paid him was a highly laudatory poem which was
enclosed to him, with a letter begging forgiveness, to which he playfully
answered,--
"You apply to me, my dear Madam, for absolution as tho' I was your father
Confessor; and as tho' you had committed a crime, great in itself, yet of
the venial class. You have reason good--for I find myself strangely
disposed to be a very indulgent ghostly adviser on this occasion; and,
notwithstanding 'you are the most offending Soul alive' (that is, if it is
a crime to write elegant Poetry,) yet if you will come and dine with me on
Thursday, and go thro' the proper course of penitence which shall be
prescribed I will strive hard to assist you in expiating these poetical
trespasses on this side of purgatory. Nay more, if it rests with me
to direct your future lucubrations, I shall certainly urge you to a
repetition of the same conduct, on purpose to shew what an admirable knack
you have at confession and reformation; and so without more hesitation, I
shall venture to command the muse, not to be restrained by ill-grounded
timidity, but to go on and prosper. You see, Madam, when once the woman
has tempted us, and we have tasted the forbidden fruit, there is no such
thing as checking our appetites, whatever the consequences may be. You
will, I dare say, recognize our being the genuine Descendants of those who
are reputed to be our great Progenitors."
Nor was Washington open only to beauty and flattery. From the rude
frontier in 1756 he wrote, "The supplicating tears of the women,... melt
me into such deadly sorrow, that I solemnly declare, if I know my own
mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy,
provided that would contribute to the people's ease." And in 1776 he said,
"When I consider that the city of New York will in all human probability
very soon be the scene of a bloody conflict, I cannot but view the great
numbers of women, children, and infirm persons remaining in it, with the
most melancholy concern. When the men-of-war passed up the river, the
shrieks and cries of these poor creatures running every way with their
children, were truly distressing.... Can no method be devised for their
removal?"
Nevertheless, though liked by and liking the fair sex, Washington was
human, and after experience concluded that "I never again will have two
women in my house when I am there myself."
V
FARMER AND PROPRIETOR
The earliest known Washington coat of arms had blazoned upon it "3 Cinque
foiles," which was the herald's way of saying that the bearer was a
landholder and cultivator, and when Washington had a book-plate made for
himself he added to the conventional design of the arms spears of wheat
and other plants, as an indication of his favorite labor. During his
career he acted several parts, but in none did he find such pleasure as in
farming, and late in life he said, "I think with you, that the life of a
husbandman of all others is the most delectable. It is honorable, it is
amusing, and, with judicious management, it is profitable. To see plants
rise from the earth and flourish by the superior skill and bounty of the
laborer fills a contemplative mind with ideas which are more easy to be
conceived than expressed." "Agriculture has ever been the most favorite
amusement of my life," he wrote after the Revolution, and he informed
another correspondent that "the more I am acquainted with agricultural
affairs, the better pleased I am with them; insomuch, that I can no where
find so great satisfaction as in those innocent and useful pursuits: In
indulging these feelings, I am led to reflect how much more delightful to
an undebauched mind is the task of making improvements on the earth, than
all the vain glory which can be acquired from ravaging it, by the most
uninterrupted career of conquests." A visitor to Mount Vernon in 1785
states that his host's "greatest pride is, to be thought the first farmer
in America. He is quite a Cincinnatus."
Undoubtedly a part of this liking flowed from his strong affection for
Mount Vernon. Such was his feeling for the place that he never seems to
have been entirely happy away from it, and over and over again, during his
various and enforced absences, he "sighs" or "pants" for his "own vine and
fig tree." In writing to an English correspondent, he shows his feeling
for the place by saying, "No estate in United America, is more pleasantly
situated than this. It lies in a high, dry and healthy country, three
hundred miles by water from the sea, and, as you will see by the plan, on
one of the finest rivers in the world."
The history of the Mount Vernon estate begins in 1674, when Lord Culpepper
conveyed to Nicholas Spencer and Lieutenant-Colonel John Washington five
thousand acres of land "scytuate Lying and being within the said terrytory
in the County of Stafford in the ffreshes of the Pottomocke River
and ... bounded betwixt two Creeks." Colonel John's half was bequeathed to
his son Lawrence, and by Lawrence's will it was left to his daughter
Mildred. She sold it to the father of George, who by his will left it to
his son Lawrence, with a reversion to George should Lawrence die without
issue. The original house was built about 1740, and the place was named
Mount Vernon by Lawrence, in honor of Admiral Vernon, under whom he had
served at Carthagena. After the death of Lawrence, the estate of
twenty-five hundred acres came under Washington's management, and from 1754
it was his home, as it had been practically even in his brother's life.
Twice Washington materially enlarged the house at Mount Vernon, the first
time in 1760 and the second in 1785, and a visitor reports, what his host
must have told him, that "its a pity he did not build a new one at
once, for it has cost him nearly as much to repair his old one." These
alterations consisted in the addition of a banquet-hall at one end (by far
the finest room in the house), and a library and dining-room at the other,
with the addition of an entire story to the whole.
The grounds, too, were very much improved. A fine approach, or bowling
green, was laid out, a "botanical garden," a "shrubbery," and greenhouses
were added, and in every way possible the place was improved. A deer
paddock was laid out and stocked, gifts of Chinese pheasants and geese,
French partridges, and guinea-pigs were sent him, and were gratefully
acknowledged, and from all the world over came curious, useful, or
beautiful plants.
The original tract did not satisfy the ambition of the farmer, and from
the time he came into the possession of Mount Vernon he was a persistent
purchaser of lands adjoining the property. In 1760 he bargained with one
Clifton for "a tract called Brents," of eighteen hundred and six acres,
but after the agreement was closed the seller, "under pretence of his wife
not consenting to acknowledge her right of dower wanted to disengage
himself ... and by his shuffling behavior convinced me of his being the
trifling body represented." Presently Washington heard that Clifton had
sold his lands to another for twelve hundred pounds, which "fully
unravelled his conduct ... and convinced me that he was nothing less than
a thorough pac'd rascall." Meeting the "rascall" at a court, "much
discourse," Washington states, "happened between him and I concerning his
ungenerous treatment of me, the whole turning to little account, 'tis not
worth reciting." After much more friction, the land was finally sold at
public auction, and "I bought it for £1210 Sterling, [and] under many
threats and disadvantages paid the money."
[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S SURVEY OF MOUNT VERNON, CIRCA 1746]
In 1778, when some other land was offered, Washington wrote to his agent,
"I have premised these things to shew my inability, not my unwillingness
to purchase the Lands in my own Neck at (almost) any price--& this I am
very desirous of doing if it could be accomplished by any means in my
power, in ye way of Barter for other Land--for Negroes ... or in short--for
any thing else ... but for money I cannot, I want the means." Again, in
1782, he wrote, "Inform Mr. Dulany,... that I look upon £2000 to be a
great price for his land; that my wishes to obtain it do not proceed from
its intrinsic value, but from the motives I have candidly assigned in my
other letter. That to indulge this fancy, (for in truth there is more
fancy than judgment in it) I have submitted, or am willing to submit, to
the disadvantage of borrowing as large a sum as I think this Land is
worth, in order to come at it"
By thus purchasing whenever an opportunity occurred, the property was
increased from the twenty-five hundred acres which had come into
Washington's possession by inheritance to an estate exceeding eight
thousand acres, of which over thirty-two hundred were actually under
cultivation during the latter part of its owner's life.
To manage so vast a tract, the property was subdivided into several
tracts, called "Mansion House Farm," "River Farm," "Union Farm," "Muddy
Hole Farm," and "Dogue Run Farm," each having an overseer to manage it,
and each being operated as a separate plantation, though a general
overseer controlled the whole, and each farm derived common benefit from
the property as a whole. "On Saturday in the afternoon, every week,
reports are made by all his overseers, and registered in books kept for
the purpose," and these accounts were so schemed as to show how every
negro's and laborer's time had been employed during the whole week, what
crops had been planted or gathered, what increase or loss of stock had
occurred, and every other detail of farm-work. During Washington's
absences from Mount Vernon his chief overseer sent him these reports, as
well as wrote himself, and weekly the manager received in return long
letters of instruction, sometimes to the length of sixteen pages, which
showed most wonderful familiarity with every acre of the estate and the
character of every laborer, and are little short of marvellous when
account is taken of the pressure of public affairs that rested upon their
writer as he framed them.
When Washington became a farmer, but one system of agriculture, so far as
Virginia was concerned, existed, which he described long after as follows:
"A piece of land is cut down, and kept under constant cultivation, first
in tobacco, and then in Indian corn (two very exhausting plants), until it
will yield scarcely any thing; a second piece is cleared, and treated in
the same manner; then a third and so on, until probably there is but
little more to clear. When this happens, the owner finds himself reduced
to the choice of one of three things--either to recover the land which he
has ruined, to accomplish which, he has perhaps neither the skill, the
industry, nor the means; or to retire beyond the mountains; or to
substitute quantity for quality, in order to raise something. The latter
has been generally adopted, and, with the assistance of horses, he
scratches over much ground, and seeds it, to very little purpose."
Knowing no better, Washington adopted this one-crop system, even to the
extent of buying corn and hogs to feed his hands. Though following in the
beaten track, he experimented in different kinds of tobacco, so that, "by
comparing then the loss of the one with the extra price of the other, I
shall be able to determine which is the best to pursue." The largest crop
he ever seems to have produced, "being all sweet-scented and neatly
managed," was one hundred and fifteen hogsheads, which averaged in sale
twelve pounds each.
From a very early time Washington had been a careful student of such books
on agriculture as he could obtain, even preparing lengthy abstracts of
them, and the knowledge he thus obtained, combined with his own practical
experience, soon convinced him that the Virginian system was wrong. "I
never ride on my plantations," he wrote, "without seeing something which
makes me regret having continued so long in the ruinous mode of farming,
which we are in," and he soon "discontinued the growth of tobacco myself;
[and] except at a plantation or two upon York River, I make no more of
that article than barely serves to furnish me with goods."
From this time (1765) "the whole of my force [was] in a manner confined to
the growth of wheat and manufacturing of it into flour," and before long
he boasted that "the wheat from some of my plantations, by one pair of
steelyards, will weigh upwards of sixty pounds,... and better wheat than
I now have I do not expect to make." After the Revolution he claimed that
"no wheat that has ever yet fallen under my observation exceeds the wheat
which some years ago I cultivated extensively but which, from inattention
during my absence of almost nine years from home, has got so mixed or
degenerated as scarcely to retain any of its original characteristics
properly." In 1768 he was able to sell over nineteen hundred bushels, and
how greatly his product was increased after this is shown by the fact that
in this same year he sowed four hundred and ninety bushels.
Still further study and experimentation led him to conclude that "my
countrymen are too much used to corn blades and corn shucks; and have too
little knowledge of the profit of grass lands," and after his final
home-coming to Mount Vernon, he said, "I have had it in contemplation ever
since I returned home to turn my farms to grazing principally, as fast as
I can cover the fields sufficiently with grass. Labor and of course
expence will be considerably diminished by this change, the nett profit as
great and my attention less divided, whilst the fields will be improving."
That this was only an abandonment of a "one crop" system is shown by the
fact that in 1792 he grew over five thousand bushels of wheat, valued at
four shillings the bushel, and in 1799 he said, "as a farmer, wheat and
flour are my principal concerns." And though, in abandoning the growth of
tobacco, Washington also tried "to grow as little Indian corn as may be,"
yet in 1795 his crop was over sixteen hundred barrels, and the quantity
needed for his own negroes and stock is shown in a year when his crop
failed, which "obliged me to purchase upwards of eight hundred barrels of
corn."
In connection with this change of system, Washington became an early
convert to the rotation of crops, and drew up elaborate tables sometimes
covering periods of five years, so that the quantity of each crop should
not vary, yet by which his fields should have constant change. This system
naturally very much diversified the product of his estate, and flax, hay,
clover, buckwheat, turnips, and potatoes became large crops. The scale on
which this was done is shown by the facts that in one year he sowed
twenty-seven bushels of flaxseed and planted over three hundred bushels of
potatoes.
Early and late Washington preached to his overseers the value of
fertilization; in one case, when looking for a new overseer, he said the
man must be, "above all, Midas like, one who can convert everything he
touches into manure, as the first transmutation towards gold;--in a word
one who can bring worn out and gullied Lands into good tilth in the
shortest time." Equally emphatic was his urging of constant ploughing and
grubbing, and he even invented a deep soil plough, which he used till he
found a better one in the English Rotheran plough, which he promptly
imported, as he did all other improved farming tools and machinery of
which he could learn. To save his woodlands, and for appearance's sake, he
insisted on live fences, though he had to acknowledge that "no hedge,
alone, will, I am persuaded, do for an outer inclosure, where _two_ or
four footed hogs find it convenient to open passage." In all things he was
an experimentalist, carefully trying different kinds of tobacco and wheat,
various kinds of plants for hedges, and various kinds of manure for
fertilizers; he had tests made to see whether he could sell his wheat to
best advantage in the grain or when made into flour, and he bred from
selected horses, cattle, and sheep. "In short I shall begrudge no
reasonable expence that will contribute to the improvement and neatness of
my Farms;--for nothing pleases me better than to see them in good order,
and everything trim, handsome, and thriving about them."
The magnitude of the charge of such an estate can be better understood
when the condition of a Virginia plantation is realized. Before the
Revolution practically everything the plantation could not produce was
ordered yearly from Great Britain, and after the annual delivery
of the invoices the estate could look for little outside help. Nor did
this change rapidly after the Revolution, and during the period of
Washington's management almost everything was bought in yearly supplies.
This system compelled each plantation to be a little world unto itself;
indeed, the three hundred souls on the Mount Vernon estate went far to
make it a distinct and self-supporting community, and one of Washington's
standing orders to his overseers was to "buy nothing you can make within
yourselves." Thus the planting and gathering of the crops were but a small
part of the work to be done.
A corps of workmen--some negroes, some indentured servants, and some hired
laborers--were kept on the estate. A blacksmith-shop occupied some, doing
not merely the work of the plantation, but whatever business was brought
to them from outside; and a wood-burner kept them and the mansion-house
supplied with charcoal. A gang of carpenters were kept busy, and their
spare time was utilized in framing houses to be put up in Alexandria, or
in the "Federal city," as Washington was called before the death of its
namesake. A brick-maker, too, was kept constantly employed, and masons
utilized the product of his labor. The gardener's gang had charge of the
kitchen-garden, and set out thousands of grape-vines, fruit-trees, and
hedge-plants.
A water-mill, with its staff, not merely ground meal for the hands, but
produced a fine flour that commanded extra price in the market In 1786
Washington asserted that his flour was "equal, I believe, in quality to
any made in this country," and the Mount Vernon brand was of such value
that some money was made by buying outside wheat and grinding it into
flour. The coopers of the estate made the barrels in which it was packed,
and Washington's schooner carried it to market.
The estate had its own shoemaker, and in time a staff of weavers was
trained. Before this was obtained, in 1760, though with only a modicum of
the force he presently had, Washington ordered from London "450 ells of
Osnabrig, 4 pieces of Brown Wools, 350 yards of Kendall Cotton, and 100
yards of Dutch blanket." By 1768 he was manufacturing the chief part of
his requirements, for in that year his weavers produced eight hundred and
fifteen and three-quarter yards of linen, three hundred and sixty-five and
one-quarter yards of woollen, one hundred and forty-four yards of linsey,
and forty yards of cotton, or a total of thirteen hundred and sixty-five
and one-half yards, one man and five negro girls having been employed.
When once the looms were well organized an infinite variety of cloths was
produced, the accounts mentioning "striped woollen, woolen plaided, cotton
striped, linen, wool-birdseye, cotton filled with wool, linsey, M.'s &
O.'s, cotton-India dimity, cotton jump stripe, linen filled with tow,
cotton striped with silk, Roman M., Janes twilled, huccabac, broadcloth,
counterpain, birdseye diaper, Kirsey wool, barragon, fustian, bed-ticking,
herring-box, and shalloon."
One of the most important features of the estate was its fishery, for the
catch, salted down, largely served in place of meat for the negroes' food.
Of this advantage Washington wrote, "This river,... is well supplied with
various kinds of fish at all seasons of the year; and, in the spring, with
the greatest profusion of shad, herrings, bass, carp, perch, sturgeon, &c.
Several valuable fisheries appertain to the estate; the whole shore, in
short, is one entire fishery." Whenever there was a run of fish, the seine
was drawn, chiefly for herring and shad, and in good years this not merely
amply supplied the home requirements, but allowed of sales; four or five
shillings the thousand for herring and ten shillings the hundred for shad
were the average prices, and sales of as high as eighty-five thousand
herring were made in a single year.
In 1795, when the United States passed an excise law, distilling became
particularly profitable, and a still was set up on the plantation. In
this whiskey was made from "Rye chiefly and Indian corn in a certain
proportion," and this not merely used much of the estate's product of
those two grains, but quantities were purchased from elsewhere. In 1798
the profit from the distillery was three hundred and forty-four pounds
twelve shillings and seven and three-quarter pence, with a stock carried
over of seven hundred and fifty-five and one-quarter gallons; but this was
the most successful year. Cider, too, was made in large quantities.
A stud stable was from an early time maintained, and the Virginia papers
regularly advertised that the stud horse "Samson," "Magnolia," "Leonidas,"
"Traveller," or whatever the reigning stallion of the moment might be,
would "cover" mares at Mount Vernon, with pasturage and a guarantee of
foal, if their owners so elected. During the Revolution Washington bought
twenty-seven of the army mares that had been "worn-down so as to render it
beneficial to the public to have them sold," not even objecting to those
"low in flesh or even crippled," because "I have many large Farms and am
improving a good deal of Land into Meadow and Pasture, which cannot fail
of being profited by a number of Brood Mares." In addition to the stud,
there were, in 1793, fifty-four draught horses on the estate.
A unique feature of this stud was the possession of two jackasses, of
which the history was curious. At that time there was a law in Spain
(where the best breed was to be found) which forbade the exportation of
asses, but the king, hearing of Washington's wish to possess a jack,
sent him one of the finest obtainable as a present, which was promptly
christened "Royal Gift." The sea-voyage and the change of climate,
however, so affected him that for a time he proved of little value
to his owner, except as a source of amusement, for Washington wrote
Lafayette, "The Jack I have already received from Spain in appearance is
fine, but his late Royal master, tho' past his grand climacteric cannot be
less moved by female allurements than he is; or when prompted, can proceed
with more deliberation and majestic solemnity to the work of procreation."
This reluctance to play his part Washington concluded was a sign of
aristocracy, and he wrote a nephew, "If Royal Gift will administer, he
shall be at the service of your Mares, but at present he seems too full of
Royalty, to have anything to do with a plebeian Race," and to Fitzhugh he
said, "particular attention shall be paid to the mares which your servant
brought, and when my Jack is in the humor, they shall derive all the
benefit of his labor, for labor it appears to be. At present tho' young,
he follows what may be supposed to be the example of his late Royal
Master, who can not, tho' past his grand climacteric, perform seldomer or
with more majestic solemnity than he does. However I am not without hope
that when he becomes a little better acquainted with republican enjoyment,
he will amend his manners, and fall into a better and more expeditious
mode of doing business." This fortunately proved to be the case, and his
master not merely secured such mules as he needed for his own use, but
gained from him considerable profit by covering mares in the neighborhood.
He even sent him on a tour through the South, and Royal Gift passed a
whole winter in Charleston, South Carolina, with a resulting profit of six
hundred and seventy-eight dollars to his owner. In 1799 there were on the
estate "2 Covering Jacks & 3 young ones, 10 she asses, 42 working mules
and 15 younger ones."
Of cattle there were in 1793 a total of three hundred and seventeen head,
including "a sufficiency of oxen broke to the yoke," and a dairy was
operated separate from the farms, and some butter was made, but Washington
had occasion to say, "It is hoped, and will be expected, that more
effectual measures will be pursued to make butter another year; for it is
almost beyond belief, that from 101 cows actually reported on a late
enumeration of the cattle, that I am obliged to _buy butter_ for the use
of my family."
Sheep were an unusual adjunct of a Virginia plantation, and of his flock
Washington wrote, "From the beginning of the year 1784 when I returned
from the army, until shearing time of 1788, I improved the breed of my
sheep so much by buying and selecting the best formed and most promising
Rams, and putting them to my best ewes, by keeping them always well culled
and clean, and by other attentions, that they averaged me ... rather over
than under five pounds of washed wool each." In another letter he said,
"I ... was proud in being able to produce perhaps the largest mutton and
the greatest quantity of wool from my sheep that could be produced. But I
was not satisfied with this; and contemplated further improvements both in
the flesh and wool by the introduction of other breeds, which I should by
this time have carried into effect, had I been permitted to pursue my
favorite occupation." In 1789, however, "I was again called from home, and
have not had it in my power since to pay any attention to my farms. The
consequence of which is, that my sheep at the last shearing, yielded me not
more than 2-1/2" pounds. In 1793 he had six hundred and thirty-four in his
flock, from which he obtained fourteen hundred and-fifty-seven pounds of
fleece. Of hogs he had "many," but "as these run pretty much at large in
the woodland, the number is uncertain." In 1799 his manager valued his
entire live-stock at seven thousand pounds.
A separate account was kept of each farm, and of many of these separate
departments, and whenever there was a surplus of any product an account
was opened to cover it. Thus in various years there are accounts raised
dealing with cattle, hay, flour, flax, cord-wood, shoats, fish, whiskey,
pork, etc., and his secretary, Shaw, told a visitor that the "books were
as regular as any merchant whatever." It is proper to note, however, that
sometimes they would not balance, and twice at least Washington could only
force one, by entering "By cash supposed to be paid away & not credited
_£_17.6.2," and "By cash lost, stolen or paid away without charging
_£_143.15.2." All these accounts were tabulated at the end of the year
and the net results obtained. Those for a single year are here given:
BALANCE OF GAIN AND LOSS, 1798.
_Dr. gained._
Dogue Run Farm. 397.11.02
Union Farm ..... 529.10.11-1/2
River Farm ..... 234. 4.11
Smith's Shop.... 34.12.09 1/2
Distillery ..... 83.13.01
Jacks .......... 56.01
Traveller (studhorse) 9.17
Shoemaker....... 28.17.01
Fishery ........ 165.12.0-3/4
Dairy .......... 30.12.03
_Cr. lost._
Mansion House... 466.18.02-1/2
Muddy Hole Farm 60.01.03-1/2
Spinning ....... 51.02.0
Hire of head
overseer .... 140.00.0
By Clear gain on
the Estate. _£_898.16.4-1/4
A pretty poor showing for an estate and negroes which had certainly cost
him over fifty thousand dollars, and on which there was livestock which at
the lowest estimation was worth fifteen thousand dollars more. It is not
strange that in 1793 Washington attempted to find tenants for all but the
Mansion farm. This he reserved for my "own residence, occupation and
amusement," as Washington held that "idleness is disreputable," and in
1798 he told his chief overseer he did not choose to "discontinue my rides
or become a cipher on my own estate."
When at Mount Vernon, as this indicated, Washington rode daily about his
estate, and he has left a pleasant description of his life immediately
after retiring from the Presidency: "I begin my diurnal course with the
sun;... if my hirelings are not in their places at that time I send them
messages expressive of my sorrow for their indisposition;... having put
these wheels in motion, I examine the state of things further; and the
more they are probed, the deeper I find the wounds are which my buildings
have sustained by my absence and neglect of eight years; by the time
I have accomplished these matters, breakfast (a little after seven
o'clock)... is ready;... this being over, I mount my horse and ride round
my farms, which employs me until it is time to dress for dinner." A
visitor at this time is authority for the statement that the master "often
works with his men himself--strips off his coat and labors like a common
man. The General has a great turn for mechanics. It's astonishing with
what niceness he directs everything in the building way, condescending
even to measure the things himself, that all may be perfectly uniform."
This personal attention Washington was able to give only with very serious
interruptions. From 1754 till 1759 he was most of the time on the
frontier; for nearly nine years his Revolutionary service separated him
absolutely from his property; and during the two terms of his Presidency
he had only brief and infrequent visits. Just one-half of his forty-six
years' occupancy of Mount Vernon was given to public service.
The result was that in 1757 he wrote, "I am so little acquainted with the
business relative to my private affairs that I can scarce give you any
information concerning it," and this was hardly less true of the whole
period of his absences. In 1775 he engaged overseers to manage his various
estates in his absence "upon shares," but during the whole war the
plantations barely supported themselves, even with depletion of stock and
fertility, and he was able to draw nothing from them. One overseer, and a
confederate, he wrote, "I believe, divided the profits of my Estate on the
York River, tolerably betwn. them, for the devil of any thing do I get."
Well might he advise knowingly that "I have no doubt myself but that
middling land under a man's own eyes, is more profitable than rich land at
a distance." "No Virginia Estate (except a very few under the best of
management) can stand simple Interest," he declared, and went even further
when he wrote, "the nature of a Virginia Estate being such, that without
close application, it never fails bringing the proprietors in Debt
annually." "To speak within bounds," he said, "ten thousand pounds will
not compensate the losses I might have avoided by being at home, &
attending a little to my own concerns" during the Revolution.
Fortunately for the farmer, the Mount Vernon estate was but a small part
of his property. His father had left him a plantation of two hundred and
eighty acres on the Rappahannock, "one Moiety of my Land lying on Deep
Run," three lots in Frederick "with all the houses and Appurtenances
thereto belonging," and one quarter of the residuary estate. While
surveying for Lord Fairfax in 1748, as part of his compensation Washington
patented a tract of five hundred and fifty acres in Frederick County,
which he always spoke of as "My Bull-skin plantation."
As a military bounty in the French and Indian War the governor of Virginia
issued a proclamation granting Western lands to the soldiers, and under
this Washington not merely secured fifteen thousand acres in his own
right, but by buying the claims of some of his fellow officers doubled
that quantity. A further tract was also obtained under the kindred
proclamation of 1763, "5000 Acres of Land in my own right, & by purchase
from Captn. Roots, Posey, & some other officers, I obtained rights to
several thousand more." In 1786, after sales, he had over thirty thousand
acres, which he then offered to sell at thirty thousand guineas, and in
1799, when still more had been sold, his inventory valued the holdings at
nearly three hundred thousand dollars.
In addition, Washington was a partner in several great land
speculations,--the Ohio Company, the Walpole Grant, the Mississippi
Company, the Military Company of Adventures, and the Dismal Swamp Company;
but all these ventures except the last collapsed at the beginning of the
Revolution and proved valueless. His interest in the Dismal Swamp Company
he held at the time of his death, and it was valued in the inventory at
twenty thousand dollars.
The properties that came to him from his brother Lawrence and with his
wife have already been described. It may be worth noting that with the
widow of Lawrence there was a dispute over the will, but apparently it was
never carried into the courts, and that owing to the great depreciation of
paper money during the Revolution the Custis personal property was
materially lessened, for "I am now receiving a shilling in the pound in
discharge of Bonds which ought to have been paid me, & would have been
realized before I left Virginia, but for my indulgences to the debtors,"
Washington wrote, and in 1778 he said, "by the comparitive worth of money,
six or seven thousand pounds which I have in Bonds upon Interest is now
reduced to as many hundreds because I can get no more for a thousand at
this day than a hundred would have fetched when I left Virginia, Bonds,
debts, Rents, &c. undergoing no change while the currency is depreciating
in value and for ought I know may in a little time be totally sunk."
Indeed, in 1781 he complained "that I have totally neglected all my
private concerns, which are declining every day, and may, possibly, end in
capital losses, if not absolute ruin, before I am at liberty to look after
them."
In 1784 he became partner with George Clinton in some land purchases in
the State of New York with the expectation of buying the "mineral springs
at Saratoga; and ... the Oriskany tract, on which Fort Schuyler stands."
In this they were disappointed, but six thousand acres in the Mohawk
valley were obtained "amazingly cheap." Washington's share cost him,
including interest, eighteen hundred and seventy-five pounds, and in 1793
two-thirds of the land had been sold for three thousand four hundred
pounds, and in his inventory of 1799 Washington valued what he still held
of the property at six thousand dollars.
In 1790, having inside information that the capital was to be removed from
New York to Philadelphia, Washington tried to purchase a farm near that
city, foreseeing a speedy rise in value. In this apparently he did not
succeed. Later he purchased lots in the new Federal city, and built houses
on two of them. He also had town lots in Williamsburg, Alexandria,
Winchester, and Bath. In addition to all this property there were many
smaller holdings. Much was sold or traded, yet when he died, besides his
wife's real estate and the Mount Vernon property, he possessed fifty-one
thousand three hundred and ninety-five acres, exclusive of town property.
A contemporary said "that General Washington is, perhaps, the greatest
landholder in America."
All these lands, except Mount Vernon, were, so far as possible, rented,
but the net income was not large. Rent agents were employed to look after
the tenants, but low rents, war, paper money, a shifting population, and
Washington's dislike of lawsuits all tended to reduce the receipts, and
the landlord did not get simple interest on his investments. Thus, in 1799
he complains of slow payments from tenants in Washington and Lafayette
Counties (Pennsylvania). Instead of an expected six thousand dollars, due
June 1, but seventeen hundred dollars were received.
Income, however, had not been his object in loading himself with such a
vast property, as Washington believed that he was certain to become
rich. "For proof of" the rise of land, he wrote in 1767, "only look to
Frederick, [county] and see what fortunes were made by the ... first
taking up of those lands. Nay, how the greatest estates we have in this
colony were made. Was it not by taking up and purchasing at very low rates
the rich back lands, which were thought nothing of in those days, but are
now the most valuable land we possess?"
In this he was correct, but in the mean time he was more or less
land-poor. To a friend in 1763 he wrote that the stocking and repairing of
his plantations "and other matters ... swallowed up before I well knew
where I was, all the moneys I got by marriage, nay more, brought me in
debt" In 1775, replying to a request for a loan, he declared that "so far
am I from having £200 to lend ... I would gladly borrow that sum myself
for a few months." When offered land adjoining Mount Vernon for three
thousand pounds in 1778, he could only reply that it was "a sum I have
little chance, if I had inclination, to pay; & therefore would not engage
it, as I am resolved not to incumber myself with Debt." In 1782, to secure
a much desired tract he was forced to borrow two thousand pounds York
currency at the rate of seven per cent.
In 1788, "the total loss of my crop last year by the drought" "with
necessary demands for cash" "have caused me much perplexity and given me
more uneasiness than I ever experienced before from want of money," and a
year later, just before setting out to be inaugurated, he tried to borrow
five hundred pounds "to discharge what I owe" and to pay the expenses of
the journey to New York, but was "unable to obtain more than half of it,
(though it was not much I required), and this at an advanced interest with
other rigid conditions," though at this time "could I get in one fourth
part of what is due me on Bonds" "without the intervention of suits" there
would have been ample funds. In 1795 the President said, "my friends
entertain a very erroneous idea of my particular resources, when they set
me down for a money lender, or one who (now) has a command of it. You may
believe me when I assert that the bonds which were due to me before the
Revolution, were discharged during the progress of it--with a few
exceptions in depreciated paper (in some instances as low as a shilling in
the pound). That such has been the management of the Estate, for many
years past, especially since my absence from home, now six years, as
scarcely to support itself. That my public allowance (whatever the world
may think of it) is inadequate to the expence of living in this City; to
such an extravagant height has the necessaries as well as the conveniences
of life arisen. And, moreover that to keep myself out of debt; I have
found it expedient now and then to sell Lands, or something else to effect
this purpose."
[Illustration: LOTTERY TICKET SIGNED BY WASHINGTON]
As these extensive land ventures bespoke a national characteristic, so a
liking for other forms of speculation was innate in the great American.
During the Revolution he tried to secure an interest in a privateer. One
of his favorite flyers was chances in lotteries and raffles, which, if now
found only in association with church fairs, were then not merely
respectable, but even fashionable. In 1760 five pounds and ten shillings
were invested in one lottery. Five pounds purchased five tickets in
Strother's lottery in 1763. Three years later six pounds were risked in
the York lottery and produced prizes to the extent of sixteen pounds.
Fifty pounds were put into Colonel Byrd's lottery in 1769, and drew a
half-acre lot in the town of Manchester, but out of this Washington was
defrauded. In 1791 John Potts was paid four pounds and four shillings "in
part for 20 Lottery tickets in the Alexa. street Lottery at 6/ each, 14
Dollrs. the Bal. was discharged by 2.3 Lotr prizes." Twenty tickets of
Peregrine and Fitzhugh's lottery cost one hundred and eighty-eight dollars
in 1794. And these are but samples of innumerable instances. So, too, in
raffles, the entries are constant,--"for glasses 20/," "for a Necklace
£1.," "by profit & loss in two chances in raffling for Encyclopadia
Britannica, which I did not win £1.4," two tickets were taken in the
raffle of Mrs. Dawson's coach, as were chances for a pair of silver
buckles, for a watch, and for a gun; such and many others were smaller
ventures Washington took.
There were other sources of income or loss besides. Before the Revolution
he had a good sized holding of Bank of England stock, and an annuity in
the funds, besides considerable property on bond, the larger part of
which, as already noted, was liquidated in depreciated paper money. This
paper money was for the most part put into United States securities, and
eventually the "at least £10,000 Virginia money" proved to be worth six
thousand two hundred and forty-six dollars in government six per cents and
three per cents. A great believer in the Potomac Canal Company, Washington
invested twenty-four hundred pounds sterling in the stock, which produced
no income, and in time showed a heavy shrinkage. Another and smaller loss
was an investment in the James River Canal Company. Stock holdings in the
Bank of Columbia and in the Bank of Alexandria proved profitable
investments.
None the less Washington was a successful businessman. Though his property
rarely produced a net income, and though he served the public with
practically no profit (except as regards bounty lands), and thus was
compelled frequently to dip into his capital to pay current expenses, yet,
from being a surveyor only too glad to earn a doubloon (seven dollars and
forty cents) a day, he grew steadily in wealth, and when he died his
property, exclusive of his wife's and the Mount Vernon estate, was valued
at five hundred and thirty thousand dollars. This made him one of the
wealthiest Americans of his time, and it is to be questioned if a fortune
was ever more honestly acquired or more thoroughly deserved.
VI
MASTER AND EMPLOYER
In his "rules of civility" Washington enjoined that "those of high Degree
ought to treat" "Artificers & Persons of low Degree" "with affibility &
Courtesie, without Arrogancy," and it was a needed lesson to every young
Virginian, for, as Jefferson wrote, "the whole commerce between master and
slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most
insulting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the
other."
Augustine Washington's will left to his son George "Ten negro Slaves,"
with an additional share of those "not herein particularly Devised," but
all to remain in the possession of Mary Washington until the boy was
twenty-one years of age. With his taking possession of the Mount Vernon
estate in his twenty-second year eighteen more came under Washington's
direction. In 1754 he bought a "fellow" for £40.5, another (Jack) for
£52.5, and a negro woman (Clio) for £50. In 1756 he purchased of the
governor a negro woman and child for £60, and two years later a fellow
(Gregory) for £60.9. In the following year (the year of his marriage) he
bought largely: a negro (Will) for £50; another for £60; nine for £406, an
average of £45; and a woman (Hannah) and child, £80. In 1762 he added to
the number by purchasing seven of Lee Massey for £300 (an average of £43),
and two of Colonel Fielding Lewis at £115, or £57.10 apiece. From the
estate of Francis Hobbs he bought, in 1764, Ben, £72; Lewis, £36.10; and
Sarah, £20. Another fellow, bought of Sarah Alexander, cost him £76; and a
negro (Judy) and child, sold by Garvin Corbin, £63. In 1768 Mary Lee sold
him two mulattoes (Will and Frank) for £61.15 and £50, respectively; and
two boys (negroes), Adam and Frank, for £19 apiece. Five more were
purchased in 1772, and after that no more were bought. In 1760 Washington
paid tithes on forty-nine slaves, five years later on seventy-eight, in
1770 on eighty-seven, and in 1774 on one hundred and thirty-five; besides
which must be included the "dower slaves" of his wife. Soon after this
there was an overplus, and Washington in 1778 offered to barter for some
land "Negroes, of whom I every day long more to get clear of," and even
before this he had learned the economic fact that except on the richest of
soils slaves "only add to the Expence."
In 1791 he had one hundred and fifteen "hands" on the Mount Vernon estate,
besides house servants, and De Warville, describing his estate in the same
year, speaks of his having three hundred negroes. At this time Washington
declared that "I never mean (unless some particular circumstance compel me
to it) to possess another slave by purchase," but this intention was
broken, for "The running off of my cook has been a most inconvenient thing
to this family, and what rendered it more disagreeable, is that I had
resolved never to become the Master of another slave by purchase, but this
resolution I fear I must break. I have endeavored to hire, black or white,
but am not yet supplied."
A few more slaves were taken in payment of a debt, but it was from
necessity rather than choice, for at this very time Washington had decided
that "it is demonstratively clear, that on this Estate (Mount Vernon) I
have more working negros by a full moiety, than can be employed to any
advantage in the farming system, and I shall never turn Planter thereon.
To sell the overplus I cannot, because I am principled against this kind
of traffic in the human species. To hire them out, is almost as bad,
because they could not be disposed of in families to any advantage, and to
disperse the families I have an aversion. What then is to be done?
Something must or I shall be ruined; for all the money (in addition to
what I raise by crops, and rents) that have been _received_ for Lands,
sold within the last four years, to the amount of Fifty thousand dollars,
has scarcely been able to keep me afloat." And writing of one set he said,
"it would be for my interest to set them free, rather than give them
victuals and cloaths."
The loss by runaways was not apparently large. In October, 1760, his
ledger contains an item of seven shillings "To the Printing Office ... for
Advertising a run-a-way Negro." In 1761 he pays his clergyman, Rev. Mr.
Green, "for taking up one of my Runaway Negroes £4." In 1766 rewards are
paid for the "taking up" of "Negro Tom" and "Negro Bett." The "taking up
of Harry when Runaway" in 1771 cost £1.16. When the British invaded
Virginia in 1781, a number escaped or were carried away by the enemy. By
the treaty of peace these should have been returned, and their owner
wrote, "Some of my own slaves, and those of Mr. Lund Washington who lives
at my house may probably be in New York, but I am unable to give you their
description--their names being so easily changed, will be fruitless to
give you. If by chance you should come at the knowledge of any of them, I
will be much obliged by your securing them, so that I may obtain them
again."
In 1796 a girl absconded to New England, and Washington made inquiries of
a friend as to the possibility of recovering her, adding, "however well
disposed I might be to a gradual abolition, or even to an entire
emancipation of that description of people (if the latter was in itself
practicable) at this moment, it would neither be politic nor just to
reward unfaithfulness with a premature preference, and thereby discontent
beforehand the minds of all her fellow servants, who, by their steady
attachment, are far more deserving than herself of favor," and at this
time Washington wrote to a relative, "I am sorry to hear of the loss of
your servant; but it is my opinion these elopements will be much more,
before they are less frequent; and that the persons making them should
never be retained--if they are recovered, as they are sure to contaminate
and discontent others."
Another source of loss was sickness, which, in spite of all Washington
could do, made constant inroads on the numbers. A doctor to care for them
was engaged by the year, and in the contracts with his overseers clauses
were always inserted that each was "to take all necessary and proper care
of the Negroes committed to his management using them with proper humanity
and descretion," or that "he will take all necessary and proper care of
the negroes committed to his management, treating them with humanity and
tenderness when sick, and preventing them when well, from running about
and visiting without his consent; as also forbid strange negroes
frequenting their quarters without lawful excuses for so doing."
Furthermore, in writing to his manager, while absent from Mount Vernon,
Washington reiterated that "although it is last mentioned it is foremost
in my thoughts, to desire you will be particularly attentive to my negros
in their sickness; and to order every overseer _positively_ to be so
likewise; for I am sorry to observe that the generality of them view these
poor creatures in scarcely any other light than they do a draught horse or
ox; neglecting them as much when they are unable to work; instead of
comforting and nursing them when they lye on a sick bed." And in another
letter he added, "When I recommended care of, and attention to my negros
in sickness, it was that the first stage of, and the whole progress
through the disorders with which they might be seized (if more than a
slight indisposition) should be closely watched, and timely applications
and remedies be administered; especially in the pleurisies, and all
inflammatory disorders accompanied with pain, when a few days' neglect, or
want of bleeding might render the ailment incurable. In such cases
sweeten'd teas, broths and (according to the nature of the complaint, and
the doctor's prescription) sometimes a little wine, may be necessary to
nourish and restore the patient; and these I am perfectly willing to
allow, when it is requisite. My fear is, as I expressed to you in a former
letter, that the under overseers are so unfeeling, in short viewing the
negros in no other light than as a better kind of cattle, the moment they
cease to work, they cease their care of them."
At Mount Vernon his care for the slaves was more personal. At a time when
the small-pox was rife in Virginia he instructed his overseer "what to do
if the Small pox should come amongst them," and when he "received letters
from Winchester, informing me that the Small pox had got among my quarters
in Frederick; [I] determin'd ... to leave town as soon as possible, and
proceed up to them.... After taking the Doctors directions in regard to my
people ... I set out for my quarters about 12 oclock, time enough to go
over them and found every thing in the utmost confusion, disorder and
backwardness.... Got Blankets and every other requisite from Winchester,
and settl'd things on the best footing I cou'd, ... Val Crawford agreeing
if any of those at the upper quarter got it, to have them remov'd into my
room and the Nurse sent for."
Other sickness was equally attended to, as the following entries in his
diary show: "visited my Plantations and found two negroes sick ... ordered
them to be blooded;" "found that lightening had struck my quarters and
near 10 Negroes in it, some very bad but with letting blood they
recover'd;" "ordered Lucy down to the House to be Physikd," and "found the
new negro Cupid, ill of a pleurisy at Dogue Run Quarter and had him brot
home in a cart for better care of him.... Cupid extremely Ill all this day
and at night when I went to bed I thought him within a few hours of
breathing his last."
This matter of sickness, however, had another phase, which caused
Washington much irritation at times when he could not personally look into
the cases, but heard of them through the reports of his overseers. Thus,
he complained on one occasion, "I find by reports that Sam is, in a
manner, always returned sick; Doll at the Ferry, and several of the
spinners very frequently so, for a week at a stretch; and ditcher Charles
often laid up with lameness. I never wish my people to work when they are
really sick, or unfit for it; on the contrary, that all necessary care
should be taken of them when they are so; but if you do not examine into
their complaints, they will lay by when no more ails them, than all those
who stick to their business, and are not complaining from the fatigue and
drowsiness which they feel as the effect of night walking and other
practices which unfit them for the duties of the day." And again he asked,
"Is there anything particular in the cases of Ruth, Hannah and Pegg, that
they have been returned sick for several weeks together? Ruth I know is
extremely deceitful; she has been aiming for some time past to get into
the house, exempt from work; but if they are not made to do what their age
and strength will enable them, it will be a bad example for others--none
of whom would work if by pretexts they can avoid it"
Other causes than running away and death depleted the stock. One negro was
taken by the State for some crime and executed, an allowance of sixty-nine
pounds being made to his master. In 1766 an unruly negro was shipped to
the West Indies (as was then the custom), Washington writing the captain
of the vessel,--
"With this letter comes a negro (Tom) which I beg the favor of you to sell
in any of the islands you may go to, for whatever he will fetch, and bring
me in return for him
"One hhd of best molasses
"One ditto of best rum
"One barrel of lymes, if good and cheap
"One pot of tamarinds, containing about 10 lbs.
"Two small ditto of mixed sweetmeats, about 5 lbs. each.
And the residue, much or little, in good old spirits. That this fellow is
both a rogue and a runaway (tho' he was by no means remarkable for the
former, and never practised the latter till of late) I shall not pretend
to deny. But that he is exceeding healthy, strong, and good at the hoe,
the whole neighborhood can testify, and particularly Mr. Johnson and his
son, who have both had him under them as foreman of the gang; which gives
me reason to hope he may with your good management sell well, if kept
clean and trim'd up a little when offered for sale."
Another "misbehaving fellow" was shipped off in 1791, and was sold for
"one pipe and Quarter Cask of wine from the West Indies." Sometimes only
the threat of such riddance was used, as when an overseer complained of
one slave, and his master replied, "I am very sorry that so likely a
fellow as Matilda's Ben should addict himself to such courses as he is
pursuing. If he should be guilty of any atrocious crime, that would effect
his life, he might be given up to the civil authority for trial; but for
such offences as most of his color are guilty of, you had better try
further correction, accompanied with admonition and advice. The two latter
sometimes succeed where the first has failed. He, his father and mother
(who I dare say are his receivers) may be told in explicit language, that
if a stop is not put to his rogueries and other villainies, by fair means
and shortly, that I will ship him off (as I did Wagoner Jack) for the West
Indies, where he will have no opportunity of playing such pranks as he is
at present engaged in."
It is interesting to note, in connection with this conclusion, that
"admonition and advice" were able to do what "correction" sometimes failed
to achieve, that there is not a single order to whip, and that the above
case, and that which follows, are the only known cases where punishment
was approved. "The correction you gave Ben, for his assault on Sambo, was
just and proper. It is my earnest desire that quarrels may be stopped or
punishment of both parties follow, unless it shall appear _clearly_,
that one only is to blame, and the other forced into [a quarrel] from
self-defence." In one other instance Washington wrote, "If Isaac had his
deserts he would receive a severe punishment for the house, tools and
seasoned stuff, which has been burned by his carelessness." But instead of
ordering the "deserts" he continued, "I wish you to inform him, that I
sustain injury enough by their idleness; they need not add to it by their
carelessness."
This is the more remarkable, because his slaves gave him constant
annoyance by their wastefulness and sloth and dishonesty. Thus, "Paris has
grown to be so lazy and self-willed" that his master does not know what to
with him; "Doll at the Ferry must be taught to knit, and _made_ to do a
sufficient day's work of it--otherwise (if suffered to be idle) many more
will walk in her steps"; "it is observed by the weekly reports, that the
sewers make only six shirts a week, and the last week Carolina (without
being sick) made only five. Mrs. Washington says their usual task was to
make nine with shoulder straps and good sewing. Tell them therefore from
me, that what _has_ been done, _shall_ be done"; "none I think call louder
for [attention] than the smiths, who, from a variety of instances which
fell within my own observation whilst I was at home, I take to be two very
idle fellows. A daily account (which ought to be regularly) taken of their
work, would alone go a great way towards checking their idleness." And the
overseer was told to watch closely "the people who are at work with the
gardener, some of whom I know to be as lazy and deceitful as any in the
world (Sam particularly)."
Furthermore, the overseers were warned to "endeavor to make the Servants
and Negroes take care of their cloathes;" to give them "a weekly
allowance of Meat ... because the annual one is not taken care of but
either profusely used or stolen"; and to note "the delivery to and the
application of nails by the carpenters,... [for] I cannot conceive how it
is possible that 6000 twelve penny nails could be used in the corn house
at River Plantation; but of one thing I have no great doubt, and that is,
if they can be applied to other uses, or converted into cash, rum or other
things there will be no scruple in doing it."
When robbed of some potatoes, Washington complained that "the
deception ... is of a piece with other practices of a similar kind by which
I have suffered hitherto; and may serve to evince to you, in strong colors,
first how little confidence can be placed in any one round you; and
secondly the necessity of an accurate inspection into these things
yourself,--for to be plain, Alexandria is such a recepticle for every thing
that can be filched from the right owners, by either blacks or whites; and
I have such an opinion of my negros (two or three only excepted), and not
much better of some of the whites, that I am perfectly sure not a single
thing that can be disposed of at any price, at that place, that will not,
and is not stolen, where it is possible; and carried thither to some of the
underlying keepers, who support themselves by this kind of traffick." He
dared not leave wine unlocked, even for the use of his guests, "because
the knowledge I have of my servants is such, as to believe, that if
opportunities are given them, they will take off two glasses of wine for
every one that is drank by such visitors, and tell you they were used by
them." And when he had some work to do requiring very ordinary qualities,
he had to confess that "I know not a negro among all mine, whose capacity,
integrity and attention could be relied on for such a trust as this."
Whatever his opinion of his slaves, Washington was a kind master. In one
case he wrote a letter for one of them when the "fellow" was parted from
his wife in the service of his master, and at another time he enclosed
letters to a wife and to James's "del Toboso," for two of his servants, to
save them postage. In reference to their rations he wrote, "whether this
addition ... is sufficient, I will not undertake to decide;--but in most
explicit language I desire they may have plenty; for I will not have my
feelings hurt with complaints of this sort, nor lye under the imputation
of starving my negros, and thereby driving them to the necessity of
thieving to supply the deficiency. To prevent waste or embezzlement is the
only inducement to allowancing of them at all--for if, instead of a peck
they could eat a bushel of meal a week fairly, and required it, I would
not withhold or begrudge it them." At Christmas-time there are entries in
his ledger for whiskey or rum for "the negroes," and towards the end of
his life he ordered the overseer, "although others are getting out of the
practice of using spirits at Harvest, yet, as my people have always been
accustomed to it, a hogshead of Rum must be purchased; but I request at
the same time, that it may be used sparingly."
A greater kindness of his was, in 1787, when he very much desired a negro
mason offered for sale, yet directed his agent that "if he has a family,
with which he is to be sold; or from whom he would reluctantly part, I
decline the purchase; his feelings I would not be the means of hurting in
the latter case, nor _at any rate_ be incumbered with the former."
The kindness thus indicated bore fruit in a real attachment of the slaves
for their master. In Humphreys's poem on Washington the poet alluded to
the negroes at Mount Vernon in the lines,--
"Where that foul stain of manhood, slavery, flow'd
Through Afric's sons transmitted in the blood;
Hereditary slaves his kindness shar'd,
For manumission by degrees prepar'd:
Return'd from war, I saw them round him press,
And all their speechless glee by artless signs express."
And in a foot-note the writer added, "The interesting scene of his return
home, at which the author was present, is described exactly as it
existed."
A single one of these slaves deserves further notice. His body-servant
"Billy" was purchased by Washington in 1768 for sixty-eight pounds and
fifteen shillings, and was his constant companion during the war, even
riding after his master at reviews; and this servant was so associated
with the General that it was alleged in the preface to the "forged
letters" that they had been captured by the British from "Billy," "an old
servant of General Washington's." When Savage painted his well-known
"family group," this was the one slave included in the picture. In 1784
Washington told his Philadelphia agent that "The mulatto fellow, William,
who has been with me all the war, is attached (married he says) to one of
his own color, a free woman, who during the war, was also of my family.
She has been in an infirm condition for some time, and I had conceived
that the connexion between them had ceased; but I am mistaken it seems;
they are both applying to get her here, and tho' I never wished to see her
more, I cannot refuse his request (if it can be complied with on
reasonable terms) as he has served me faithfully for many years. After
premising this much, I have to beg the favor of you to procure her a
passage to Alexandria."
[Illustration: SAVAGE'S PICTURE OF THE WASHINGTON FAMILY]
When acting as chain-bearer in 1785, while Washington was surveying a
tract of land, William fell and broke his knee-pan, "which put a stop to
my surveying; and with much difficulty I was able to get him to Abington,
being obliged to get a sled to carry him on, as he could neither walk,
stand or ride." From this injury Lee never quite recovered, yet he started
to accompany his master to New York in 1789, only to give out on the road.
He was left at Philadelphia, and Lear wrote to Washington's agent that
"The President will thank you to propose it to Will to return to Mount
Vernon when he can be removed for he cannot be of any service here, and
perhaps will require a person to attend upon him constantly. If he should
incline to return to Mount Vernon, you will be so kind as to have him sent
in the first Vessel that sails for Alexandria after he can be moved with
safety--but if he is still anxious to come on here the President would
gratify him, altho' he will be troublesome--He has been an old and
faithful Servant, this is enough for the President to gratify him in every
reasonable wish."
By his will Washington gave Lee his "immediate freedom or if he should
prefer it (on account of the accidents which have befallen him and which
have rendered him incapable of walking or of any active employment) to
remain in the situation he now is, it shall be optional in him to do so--
In either case however I allow him an annuity of thirty dollars during his
natural life which shall be independent of the victuals and _cloaths_ he
has been accustomed to receive; if he _chuses_ the last alternative, but
in full with his freedom, if he prefers the first, and this I give him as
a testimony of my sense of his attachment to me and for his faithful
services during the Revolutionary War."
Two small incidents connected with Washington's last illness are worth
noting. The afternoon before the night he was taken ill, although he had
himself been superintending his affairs on horseback in the storm most of
the day, yet when his secretary "carried some letters to him to frank,
intending to send them to the Post Office in the evening," Lear tells us
"he franked the letters; but said the weather was too bad to send a
servant up to the office that evening." Lear continues, "The General's
servant, Christopher, attended his bed side & in the room, when he was
sitting up, through his whole illness.... In the [last] afternoon the
General observing that Christopher had been standing by his bed side for a
long time--made a motion for him to sit in a chair which stood by the bed
side."
A clause in Washington's will directed that
"Upon the decease of my wife it is my will and desire that all the
slaves which I hold in _my own right_ shall receive their freedom--To
emancipate them during her life, would, tho' earnestly wished by me, be
attended with such insuperable difficulties, on account of their
intermixture of marriages with the Dower negroes as to excite the most
painful sensations--if not disagreeable consequences from the latter,
while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor, it
not being in my power under the tenure by which the dower Negroes are held
to manumit them--And whereas among those who will receive freedom
according to this devise there may be some who from old age, or bodily
infirmities & others who on account of their infancy, that will be unable
to support themselves, it is my will and desire that all who come under
the first and second description shall be comfortably cloathed and fed by
my heirs while they live and that such of the latter description as have
no parents living, or if living are unable or unwilling to provide for
them, shall be bound by the Court until they shall arrive at the age of
twenty five years.... The negroes thus bound are (by their masters and
mistresses) to be taught to read and write and to be brought up to some
useful occupation."
In this connection Washington's sentiments on slavery as an institution
may be glanced at. As early as 1784 he replied to Lafayette, when told of
a colonizing plan, "The scheme, my dear Marqs., which you propose as a
precedent to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this
Country from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking
evidence of the benevolence of your Heart. I shall be happy to join you in
so laudable a work; but will defer going into a detail of the business,
till I have the pleasure of seeing you." A year later, when Francis Asbury
was spending a day in Mount Vernon, the clergyman asked his host if he
thought it wise to sign a petition for the emancipation of slaves.
Washington replied that it would not be proper for him, but added, "If the
Maryland Assembly discusses the matter; I will address a letter to that
body on the subject, as I have always approved of it."
When South Carolina refused to pass an act to end the slave-trade, he
wrote to a friend in that State, "I must say that I lament the decision of
your legislature upon the question of importing slaves after March 1793. I
was in hopes that motives of policy as well as other good reasons,
supported by the direful effects of slavery, which at this moment are
presented, would have operated to produce a total prohibition of the
importation of slaves, whenever the question came to be agitated in any
State, that might be interested in the measure." For his own State he
expressed the "wish from my soul that the Legislature of this State could
see the policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery; it would prev't much
future mischief." And to a Pennsylvanian he expressed the sentiment, "I
hope it will not be conceived from these observations, that it is my wish
to hold the unhappy people, who are the subject of this letter, in
slavery. I can only say, that there is not a man living, who wishes more
sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it;
but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be
accomplished, and that is by legislative authority; and this, as far
as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting."
Washington by no means restricted himself to slave servitors. Early in
life he took into his service John Alton at thirteen pounds per annum, and
this white man served as his body-servant in the Braddock campaign, and
Washington found in the march that "A most serious inconvenience attended
me in my sickness, and that was the losing the use of my servant, for poor
John Alton was taken about the same time that I was, and with nearly the
same disorder, and was confined as long; so that we did not see each other
for several days." As elsewhere noticed, Washington succeeded to the
services of Braddock's body-servant, Thomas Bishop, on the death of the
general, paying the man ten pounds a year.
These two were his servants in his trip to Boston in 1756, and in
preparation for that journey Washington ordered his English agent to send
him "2 complete livery suits for servants; with a spare cloak and all
other necessary trimmings for two suits more. I would have you choose the
livery by our arms, only as the field of the arms is white, I think the
clothes had better not be quite so, but nearly like the inclosed. The
trimmings and facings of scarlet, and a scarlet waist coat. If livery lace
is not quite disused, I should be glad to have the cloaks laced. I like
that fashion best, and two silver laced hats for the above servants."
For some reason Bishop left his employment, but in 1760 Washington "wrote
to my old servant Bishop to return to me again if he was not otherwise
engaged," and, the man being "very desirous of returning," the old
relation was reassumed. Alton in the mean time had been promoted to be
overseer of one of the plantations. In 1785 their master noted in his
diary, "Last night Jno Alton an Overseer of mine in the Neck--an old &
faithful Servant who has lived with me 30 odd years died--and this evening
the wife of Thos. Bishop, another old Servant who had lived with me an
equal number of years also died." Both were remembered in his will by a
clause giving "To Sarah Green daughter of the deceased Thomas Bishop, and
to Ann Walker, daughter of John Alton, also deceased I give each one
hundred dollars, in consideration of the attachment of their father[s] to
me, each of whom having lived nearly forty years in my family."
Of Washington's general treatment of the serving class a few facts can be
gleaned. He told one of his overseers, in reference to the sub-overseers,
that "to treat them civilly is no more than what all men are entitled to,
but my advice to you is, to keep them at a proper distance; for they will
grow upon familiarity, in proportion as you will sink in authority if you
do not." To a housekeeper he promised "a warm, decent and comfortable room
to herself, to lodge in, and will eat of the victuals of our Table, but
not set at it, or at any time _with us_ be her appearance what it may; for
if this was _once admitted_ no line satisfactory to either party, perhaps
could be drawn thereafter."
In visiting he feed liberally, good examples of which are given in the
cash account of the visit to Boston in 1756, when he "Gave to Servants on
ye Road 10/." "By Cash Mr. Malbones servants £4.0.0." "The Chambermaid
£1.2.6." When the wife of his old steward, Fraunces, came to need, he gave
her "for Charity £1.17.6." The majority will sympathize rather than
disapprove of his opinion when he wrote, "Workmen in most Countries I
believe are necessary plagues;---in this where entreaties as well as money
must be used to obtain their work and keep them to their duty they baffle
all calculation in the accomplishment of any plan or repairs they are
engaged in;--and require more attention to and looking after than can be
well conceived."
The overseers of his many plantations, and his "master" carpenters,
millers, and gardeners, were quite as great trials as his slaves. First
"young Stephens" gave him much trouble, which his diary reports in
a number of sententious entries: "visited my Plantation. Severely
reprimanded young Stephens for his Indolence, and his father for suffering
it;" "forbid Stephens keeping any horses upon my expence;" "visited my
quarters & ye Mill, according to custom found young Stephens absent;"
"visited my Plantation and found to my great surprise Stephens constantly
at work;" "rid out to my Plantn. and to my Carpenters. Found Richard
Stephens hard at work with an ax--Very extraordinary this!"
Again he records, "Visited my Plantations--found Foster had been absent
from his charge since the 28th ulto. Left orders for him to come
immediately to me upon his return, and repremanded him severely." Of
another, Simpson, "I never hear ... without a degree of warmth & vexation
at his extreme stupidity," and elsewhere he expresses his disgust at "that
confounded fellow Simpson." A third spent all the fall and half the winter
in getting in his crop, and "if there was any way of making such a rascal
as Garner pay for such conduct, no punishment would be too great for him.
I suppose he never turned out of mornings until the sun had warmed the
earth, and if _he_ did not, the _negros_ would not." His chief overseer
was directed to "Let Mr. Crow know that I view with a very evil eye the
frequent reports made by him of sheep dying;... frequent _natural deaths_
is a very strong evidence to my mind of the want of care or something
worse."
Curious distinctions were made oftentimes. Thus, in the contract with an
overseer, one clause was inserted to the effect, "And whereas there are a
number of whiskey stills very contiguous to the said Plantations, and many
idle, drunken and dissolute People continually resorting to the same,
priding themselves in debauching sober and well-inclined Persons, the said
Edd Voilett doth promise as well for his own sake as his employers to
avoid them as he ought." To the contrary, in hiring a gardener, it was
agreed as part of the compensation that the man should have "four dollars
at Christmas, with which he may be drunk for four days and four nights;
two dollars at Easter to effect the same purpose; two dollars at
Whitsuntide to be drunk for two days; a dram in the morning, and a drink
of grog at dinner at noon."
With more true kindness Washington wrote to one of his underlings, "I was
very glad to receive your letter of the 31st ultimo, because I was afraid,
from the accounts given me of your spitting blood,... that you would
hardly have been able to have written at all. And it is my request that
you will not, by attempting more than you are able to undergo, with safety
and convenience, injure yourself, and thereby render me a disservice....
I had rather therefore hear that you had nursed than exposed yourself. And
the things which I sent from this place (I mean the wine, tea, coffee and
sugar) and such other matters as you may lay in by the doctor's direction
for the use of the sick, I desire you will make use of as your own
personal occasions may require."
Of one Butler he had employed to overlook his gardeners, but who proved
hopelessly unfit, Washington said, "sure I am, there is no obligation upon
me to retain him from charitable motives; when he ought rather to be
punished as an imposter: for he well knew the services he had to perform,
and which he promised to fulfil with zeal, activity, and intelligence."
Yet when the man was discharged his employer gave him a "character:" "If
his activity, spirit, and ability in the management of Negroes, were equal
to his honesty, sobriety and industry, there would not be the least
occasion for a change," and Butler was paid his full wages, no deduction
being made for lost time, "as I can better afford to be without the money
than he can."
Another thoroughly incompetent man was one employed to take charge of the
negro carpenters, of whom his employer wrote, "I am apprehensive ... that
Green never will overcome his propensity to drink; that it is this which
occasions his frequent sickness, absences from work and poverty. And I am
convinced, moreover, that it answers no purpose to admonish him." Yet,
though "I am so well satisfied of Thomas Green's unfitness to look after
Carpenters," for a time "the helpless situation in which you find his
family, has prevailed on me to retain him," and when he finally had to be
discharged for drinking, Washington said, "Nothing but compassion for his
helpless family, has hitherto induced me to keep him a moment in my
service (so bad is the example he sets); but if he has no regard for them
himself, it is not to be expected that I am to be a continual sufferer on
this account for his misconduct." His successor needed the house the
family lived in, but Washington could not "bear the thought of adding to
the distress I know they must be in, by turning them adrift;... It would
be better therefore on all accounts if they were removed to some other
place, even if I was to pay the rent, provided it was low, or make some
allowance towards it."
To many others, besides family, friends, and employees, Washington was
charitable. From an early date his ledger contains frequent items covering
gifts to the needy. To mention a tenth of them would take too much space,
but a few typical entries are worth quoting:
"By Cash gave a Soldiers wife 5/;" "To a crippled man 5/;" "Gave a man who
had his House Burnt £1.;" "By a begging woman /5;" "By Cash gave for the
Sufferers at Boston by fire £12;" "By a wounded soldier 10/;" "Alexandria
Academy, support of a teacher of Orphan children £50;" "By Charity to an
invalid wounded Soldier who came from Redston with a petition for Charity
18/;" "Gave a poor man by the President's order $2;" "Delivd to the
President to send to two distress'd french women at Newcastle $25;" "Gave
Pothe a poor old man by the President's order $2;" "Gave a poor sailor by
the Presdt order $1;" "Gave a poor blind man by the Presdt order $1.50;"
"By Madame de Seguer a french Lady in distress gave her $50;" "By
Subscription paid to Mr. Jas. Blythe towards erecting and Supporting an
Academy in the State of Kentucky $100;" "By Subscription towards an
Academy in the South Western Territory $100;" "By Charity sent Genl
Charles Pinckney in Columbus Bank Notes, for the sufferers by the fire in
Charleston So. Carolina $300;" "By Charity gave to the sufferers by fire
in Geo. Town $10;" "By an annual Donation to the Academy at Alexandria pd.
Dr. Cook $166.67;" "By Charity to the poor of Alexandria deld. to the
revd. Dr. Muir $100."
To an overseer he said, concerning a distant relative, "Mrs. Haney should
endeavor to do what she can for herself--this is a duty incumbent on every
one; but you must not let her suffer, as she has thrown herself upon me;
your advances on this account will be allowed always, at settlement; and I
agree readily to furnish her with provisions, and for the good character
you give of her daughter make the latter a present in my name of a
handsome but not costly gown, and other things which she may stand most in
need of. You may charge me also with the worth of your tenement in which
she is placed, and where perhaps it is better she should be than at a
great distance from your attentions to her."
After the terrible attack of fever in Philadelphia in 1793, Washington
wrote to a clergyman of that city,--
"It has been my intention ever since my return to the city, to contribute
my mite towards the relief of the _most_ needy inhabitants of it. The
pressure of public business hitherto has suspended, but not altered my
resolution. I am at a loss, however, for whose benefit to apply the little
I can give, and in whose hands to place it; whether for the use of the
fatherless children and widows, made so by the late calamity, who may find
it difficult, whilst provisions, wood, and other necessaries are so dear,
to support themselves; or to other and better purposes, if any, I know
not, and therefore have taken the liberty of asking your advice. I
persuade myself justice will be done to my motives for giving you this
trouble. To obtain information, and to render the little I can afford,
without ostentation or mention of my name, are the sole objects of these
inquiries. With great and sincere esteem and regard, I am, &c."
His adopted grandson he advised to "never let an indigent person ask,
without receiving _something_ if you have the means; always recollecting
in what light the widow's mite was viewed." And when he took command of
the army in 1775, the relative who took charge of his affairs was told to
"let the hospitality of the house, with respect to the poor, be kept up.
Let no one go hungry away. If any of this kind of people should be in want
of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in
idleness; and I have no objection to your giving my money in charity, to
the amount of forty or fifty pounds a year, when you think it well
bestowed. What I mean by having no objection is, that it is my desire that
it should be done. You are to consider, that neither myself nor wife is
now in the way to do these good offices."
VII
SOCIAL LIFE
There can be no doubt that Washington, like the Virginian of his time, was
pre-eminently social. It is true that late in life he complained, as
already quoted, that his home had become a "well resorted tavern," and
that at his own table "I rarely miss seeing strange faces, come as they
say out of respect for me. Pray, would not the word curiosity answer as
well?" but even in writing this he added, "how different this from having
a few social friends at a cheerful board!" When a surveyor he said that
the greatest pleasure he could have would be to hear from or be with "my
Intimate friends and acquaintances;" to one he wrote, "I hope you in
particular will not Bauk me of what I so ardently wish for," and he
groaned over being "amongst a parcel of barbarians." While in the Virginia
regiment he complained of a system of rations which "deprived me of the
pleasure of inviting an officer or friend, which to me would be more
agreeable, than nick-nacks I shall meet with," and when he was once
refused leave of absence by the governor, he replied bitterly, "it was not
to enjoy a party of pleasure I wanted a leave of absence; I have been
indulged with few of these, winter or summer!" At Mount Vernon, if a day
was spent without company the fact was almost always noted in his diary,
and in a visit, too, he noted that he had "a very lonesome Evening at Colo
Champe's, not any Body favoring us with their Company but himself."
The plantation system which prevented town life and put long distances
between neighbors developed two forms of society. One of these was house
parties, and probably nowhere else in the world was that form of
hospitality so unstinted as in this colony. Any one of a certain social
standing was privileged, even welcomed, to ride up to the seat of a
planter, dismount, and thus become a guest, ceasing to be such only when
he himself chose. Sometimes one family would go _en masse_ many miles
to stay a week with friends, and when they set out to return their hosts
would journey with them and in turn become guests for a week. The
second form of social life was called clubs. At all the cross-roads and
court-houses there sprang up taverns or ordinaries, and in these the men
of a neighborhood would gather, and over a bowl of punch or a bottle of
wine, the expense of which they "clubbed" to share, would spend their
evenings.
Into this life Washington entered eagerly. As a mere lad his ledger
records expenditures: "By a club in Arrack at Mr. Gordon's 2/6;" "Club of
a bottle of Rhenish at Mitchells 1/3;" "To part of the club at Port Royal
1/;" "To Cash in part for a Bowl of fruit punch 1/7-1/2." So, too, he was
a visitor at this time at some of the great Virginian houses, as elsewhere
noted. When he came into possession of Mount Vernon he offered the same
unstinted welcome that he had met with, and even as a bachelor he writes
of his "having much company," and again of being occupied with "a good
deal of Company." In two months of 1768 Washington had company to dinner,
or to spend the night, on twenty-nine days, and dined or visited away from
home on seven; and this is typical.
Whenever, too, trips were made to Williamsburg, Annapolis, Philadelphia,
or elsewhere, it was a rare occurrence when the various stages of the
journey were not spent with friends, and in those cities he was dined and
wined to a surfeit.
During the Revolution all of Washington's aides and his secretary lived
with him at head-quarters, and constituted what he always called "my
family." In addition, many others sat down at table,--those who came
on business from a distance, as well as bidden guests,---which frequently
included ladies from the neighborhood, who must have been belles among
the sixteen to twenty men who customarily sat down to dinner.
"If ... convenient and agreeable to you to take pot luck with me to-day,"
the General wrote John Adams in 1776, "I shall be glad of your company."
Pot luck it was for commander-in-chief and staff. Mention has been made of
how sometimes Washington slept on the ground, and even when under cover
there was not occasionally much more comfort. Pickering relates that one
night was passed in "Headquarters at Galloway's, an old log house. The
General lodged in a bed, and his family on the floor about him. We had
plenty of sepawn and milk, and all were contented."
Oftentimes there were difficulties in the hospitality. "I have been at my
prest. quarters since the 1st day of Decr.," Washington complained to the
commissary-general, "and have not a Kitchen to cook a Dinner in, altho'
the Logs have been put together some considerable time by my own Guard.
Nor is there a place at this moment in which a servant can lodge, with the
smallest degree of comfort. Eighteen belonging to my family, and all Mrs.
Ford's, are crowded together in her Kitchen, and scarce one of them able
to speak for the cold they have caught." Pickering, in telling how he
tried to secure lodgings away from head-quarters, gave for his reasons
that "they are exceedingly pinched for room.... Had I conceived how much
satisfaction, quiet and even leisure, I should have enjoyed at separate
quarters, I would have taken them six months ago. For at head-quarters
there is a continual throng, and my room, in particular, (when I was happy
enough to get one,) was always crowded by all that came to headquarters on
business, because there was no other for them, we having, for the most
part, been in such small houses."
There were other difficulties. "I cannot get as much cloth," the general
wrote, "as will make cloaths for my servants, notwithstanding one of them
that attends my person and table is indecently and most shamefully naked."
One of his aides said to a correspondent, jocularly, "I take your Caution
to me in Regard to my Health very kindly, but I assure you, you need be
under no Apprehension of my losing it on the Score of Excess of living,
that Vice is banished from this Army and the General's Family in
particular. We never sup, but go to bed and are early up." "Only
conceive," Washington complained to Congress, "the mortification they
(even the general officers) must suffer, when they cannot invite a French
officer, a visiting friend, or a travelling acquaintance, to a better
repast, than stinking whiskey (and not always that) and a bit of Beef
without vegetables."
At times, too, it was necessary to be an exemplar. "Our truly republican
general," said Laurens, "has declared to his officers that he will set the
example of passing the winter in a hut himself," and John Adams, in a time
of famine, declared that "General Washington sets a fine example. He has
banished wine from his table, and entertains his friends with rum and
water."
Whenever it was possible, however, there was company at head-quarters.
"Since the General left Germantown in the middle of September last," the
General Orders once read, "he has been without his baggage, and on that
account is unable to receive company in the manner he could wish. He
nevertheless desires the Generals, Field Officers and Brigades Major of
the day, to dine with him in future, at three o'clock in the afternoon."
Again the same vehicle informed the army that "the hurry of business often
preventing particular invitations being given to officers to dine with the
General; He presents his compliments to the Brigadiers and Field Officers
of the day, and requests while the Camp continues settled in the City,
they will favor him with their company to dinner, without further or
special invitation."
Mrs. Drinker, who went with a committee of women to camp at Valley Forge,
has left a brief description of head-quarters hospitality: "Dinner was
served, to which he invited us. There were 15 Officers, besides ye Gl. and
his wife, Gen. Greene, and Gen. Lee. We had an elegant dinner, which was
soon over, when we went out with ye Genls wife, up to her Chamber--and saw
no more of him." Claude Blanchard, too, describes a dinner, at which
"there was twenty-five covers used by some officers of the army and a lady
to whom the house belonged in which the general lodged. We dined under the
tent. I was placed along side of the general. One of his aides-de-camp did
the honors. The table was served in the American style and pretty
abundantly; vegetables, roast beef, lamb, chickens, salad dressed with
nothing but vinegar, green peas, puddings, and some pie, a kind of tart,
greatly in use in England and among the Americans, all this being put upon
the table at the same time. They gave us on the same plate beef, green
peas, lamb, &c."
Nor was the ménage of the General unequal to unexpected calls. Chastellux
tells of his first arrival in camp and introduction to Washington: "He
conducted me to his house, where I found the company still at table,
although the dinner had been long over. He presented me to the Generals
Knox, Waine, Howe, &c. and to his _family_, then composed of Colonels
Hamilton and Tilgman, his Secretaries and his Aides de Camp, and of Major
Gibbs, commander of his guards; for in England and America, the Aides de
Camp, Adjutants and other officers attached to the General, form what is
called his _family_. A fresh dinner was prepared for me and mine; and the
present was prolonged to keep me company." "At nine," he elsewhere writes,
"supper was served, and when the hour of bed-time came, I found that the
chamber, to which the General conducted me was the very parlour I speak
of, wherein he had made them place a camp-bed." Of his hospitality
Washington himself wrote,--
"I have asked Mrs. Cochran & Mrs. Livingston to dine with me to-morrow;
but am I not in honor bound to apprize them of their fate? As I hate
deception, even where the imagination only is concerned; I will. It is
needless to premise, that my table is large enough to hold the ladies. Of
this they had ocular proof yesterday. To say how it is usually covered, is
rather more essential; and this shall be the purport of my Letter.
"Since our arrival at this happy spot, we have had a ham, (sometimes a
shoulder) of Bacon, to grace the head of the Table; a piece of roast Beef
adorns the foot; a dish of beans, or greens, (almost imperceptible,)
decorates the center. When the cook has a mind to cut a figure, (which, I
presume will be the case to-morrow) we have two Beef-steak pyes, or dishes
of crabs, in addition, one on each side of the center dish, dividing
the space & reducing the distance between dish & dish to about 6 feet,
which without them would be near 12 feet apart. Of late he has had the
surprising sagacity to discover, that apples will make pyes; and its a
question, if, in the violence of his efforts, we do not get one of apples,
instead of having both of Beef-steaks. If the ladies can put up with such
entertainment, and will submit to partake of it in plates, once Tin but
now Iron--(not become so by the labor of scouring), I shall be happy to
see them."
Dinners were not the only form of entertaining. In Cambridge, when Mrs.
Washington and Mrs. Jack Custis were at head-quarters, a reception was
held on the anniversary of Washington's marriage, and at other times when
there was anything to celebrate,--the capitulation of Burgoyne, the
alliance with France, the birth of a dauphin, etc.,--parades, balls,
receptions, "feux-de-joie," or cold collations were given. Perhaps the
most ambitious attempt was a dinner given on September 21, 1782, in a
large tent, to which ninety sat down, while a "band of American music"
added to the "gaiety of the company."
Whenever occasion called the General to attend on Congress there was
much junketing. "My time," he wrote, "during my winter's residence in
Philadelphia, was unusually (for me) divided between parties of pleasure
and parties of business." When Reed pressed him to pass the period of
winter quarters in visiting him in Philadelphia, he replied, "were I to
give in to private conveniency and amusement, I should not be able to
resist the invitation of my friends to make Philadelphia, instead of a
squeezed up room or two, my quarters for the winter."
While President, a more elaborate hospitality was maintained. Both in New
York and Philadelphia the best houses procurable were rented as the
Presidential home,--for Washington "wholly declined living in any public
building,"--and a steward and fourteen lower servants attended to all
details, though a watchful supervision was kept by the President over
them, and in the midst of his public duties he found time to keep a minute
account of the daily use of all supplies, with their cost. His payments to
his stewards for mere servants' wages and food (exclusive of wine) were
over six hundred dollars a month, and there can be little doubt that
Washington, who had no expense paid by the public, more than spent his
salary during his term of office.
It was the President's custom to give a public dinner once a week "to as
many as my table will hold," and there was also a bi-weekly levee,
to which any one might come, as well as evening receptions by Mrs.
Washington, which were more distinctly social and far more exclusive.
Ashbel Green states that "Washington's dining parties were entertained in
a very handsome style. His weekly dining day for company was Thursday, and
his dining hour was always four o'clock in the afternoon. His rule was to
allow five minutes for the variations of clocks and watches, and then go
to the table, be present or absent, whoever might. He kept his own clock
in the hall, just within the outward door, and always exactly regulated.
When lagging members of Congress came in, as they often did, after
the guests had sat down to dinner, the president's only apology was,
'Gentlemen (or sir) we are too punctual for you. I have a cook who never
asks whether the company has come, but whether the hour has come.' The
company usually assembled in the drawing-room, about fifteen or twenty
minutes before dinner, and the president spoke to every guest personally
on entering the room."
Maclay attended several of the dinners, and has left descriptions of them.
"Dined this day with the President," he writes. "It was a great dinner--
all in the tastes of high life. I considered it as a part of my duty as a
Senator to submit to it, and am glad it is over. The President is a cold,
formal man; but I must declare that he treated me with great attention. I
was the first person with whom he drank a glass of wine. I was often
spoken to by him." Again he says,--
"At dinner, after my second plate had been taken away, the President
offered to help me to part of a dish which stood before him. Was ever
anything so unlucky? I had just before declined being helped to anything
more, with some expression that denoted my having made up my dinner. Had,
of course, for the sake of consistency, to thank him negatively, but when
the dessert came, and he was distributing a pudding, he gave me a look of
interrogation, and I returned the thanks positive. He soon after asked me
to drink a glass of wine with him." On another occasion he "went to the
President's to dinner.... The President and Mrs. Washington sat opposite
each other in the middle of the table; the two secretaries, one at
each end. It was a great dinner, and the best of the kind I ever
was at. The room, however, was disagreeably warm. First the soup; fish
roasted and boiled; meats, sammon, fowls, etc.... The middle of the table
was garnished in the usual tasty way, with small images, flowers,
(artificial), etc. The dessert was, apple pies, pudding, etc.; then iced
creams, jellies, etc.; then water-melons, musk-melons, apples, peaches,
nuts. It was the most solemn dinner I ever was at. Not a health drank;
scarce a word was said until the cloth was taken away. Then the President
filling a glass of wine, with great formality drank to the health of every
individual by name round the table. Everybody imitated him, charged
glasses, and such a buzz of 'health, sir,' and 'health, madam,' and 'thank
you, sir,' and 'thank you, madam,' never had I heard before.... The ladies
sat a good while, and the bottles passed about; but there was a dead
silence almost. Mrs. Washington at last withdrew with the ladies. I
expected the men would now begin, but the same stillness remained. The
President told of a New England clergyman who had lost a hat and wig in
passing a river called the Brunks. He smiled, and everybody else laughed.
He now and then said a sentence or two on some common subject, and what he
said was not amiss.... The President ... played with the fork, striking on
the edge of the table with it. We did not sit long after the ladies
retired. The President rose, went up-stairs to drink coffee; the company
followed."
[Illustration: PRESIDENTIAL DINNER INVITATION]
Bradbury gives the menu of a dinner at which he was, where "there was an
elegant variety of roast beef, veal, turkey, ducks, fowls, hams, &c.;
puddings, jellies, oranges, apples, nuts, almonds, figs, raisins, and a
variety of wines and punch. We took our leave at six, more than an hour
after the candles were introduced. No lady but Mrs. Washington dined with
us. We were waited on by four or five men servants dressed in livery." At
the last official dinner the President gave, Bishop White was present, and
relates that "to this dinner as many were invited as could be accommodated
at the President's table.... Much hilarity prevailed; but on the removal
of the cloth it was put an end to by the President--certainly without
design. Having filled his glass, he addressed the company, with a smile on
his countenance, saying: 'Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last time I
shall drink your health, as a public man. I do it with sincerity, and
wishing you all possible happiness.' There was an end of all pleasantry."
A glance at Mrs. Washington's receptions has been given, but the levees of
the President remain to be described. William Sullivan, who attended many,
wrote,--
"At three o'clock or at any time within a quarter of an hour afterward,
the visitor was conducted to this dining room, from which all seats had
been removed for the time. On entering, he saw" Washington, who "stood
always in front of the fire-place, with his face towards the door of
entrance. The visitor was conducted to him, and he required to have the
name so distinctly pronounced that he could hear it. He had the very
uncommon faculty of associating a man's name, and personal appearance, so
durably in his memory, as to be able to call one by name, who made him a
second visit. He received his visitor with a dignified bow, while his
hands were so disposed of as to indicate, that the salutation was not to
be accompanied with shaking hands. This ceremony never occurred in these
visits, even with his most near friends, that no distinction might be
made. As visitors came in, they formed a circle round the room. At a
quarter past three, the door was closed, and the circle was formed for
that day. He then began on the right, and spoke to each visitor, calling
him by name, and exchanging a few words with him. When he had completed
his circuit, he resumed his first position, and the visitors approached
him in succession, bowed and retired. By four o'clock the ceremony was
over."
The ceremony of the dinners and levees and the liveried servants were
favorite impeachments of the President among the early Democrats before
they had better material, and Washington was charged with trying to
constitute a court, and with conducting himself like a king. Even his bow
was a source of criticism, and Washington wrote in no little irritation in
regard to this, "that I have not been able to make bows to the taste of
poor Colonel Bland, (who, by the by, I believe, never saw one of them), is
to be regretted, especially too, as (upon those occasions), they were
indiscriminately bestowed, and the best I was master of, would it not have
been better to throw the veil of charity over them, ascribing their
stiffness to the effects of age, or to the unskillfulness of my teacher,
than to pride and dignity of office, which God knows has no charms for me?
For I can truly say, I had rather be at Mount Vernon with a friend or two
about me, than to be attended at the seat of government by the officers of
state, and the representatives of every power in Europe."
There can be no doubt that Washington hated ceremony as much as the
Democrats, and yielded to it only from his sense of fitness and the
opinions of those about him. Jefferson and Madison both relate how such
unnecessary form was used at the first levee by the master of ceremonies
as to make it ridiculous, and Washington, appreciating this, is quoted as
saying to the amateur chamberlain, "Well, you have taken me in once, but,
by God, you shall never take me in a second time." His secretary, in
writing to secure lodgings in Philadelphia, when the President and family
were on their way to Mount Vernon, said, "I must repeat, what I observed
in a former letter, that as little ceremony & parade may be made as
possible, for the President wishes to command his own time, which these
things always forbid in a greater or less degree, and they are to him
fatiguing and oftentimes painful. He wishes not to exclude himself from
the sight or conversation of his fellow citizens, but their eagerness to
show their affection frequently imposes a heavy tax on him."
This was still further shown in his diary of his tours through New England
and the Southern States. Nothing would do but for Boston to receive him
with troops, etc., and Washington noted, "finding this ceremony not to be
avoided, though I had made every effort to do it, I named the hour." In
leaving Portsmouth he went "quietly, and without any attendance, having
earnestly entreated that all parade and ceremony might be avoided on my
return." When travelling through North Carolina, "a small party of horse
under one Simpson met us at Greenville, and in spite of every endeavor
which could comport with decent civility, to excuse myself from it, they
would attend me to Newburn."
During the few years that Washington was at Mount Vernon subsequent to the
Revolution, the same unbounded hospitality was dispensed as in earlier
times, while a far greater demand was made upon it, and one so variegated
that at times the host was not a little embarrassed. Thus he notes
that "a Gentleman calling himself the Count de Cheiza D'Artigan Officer
of the French Guards came here to dinner; but bringing no letters of
introduction, nor any authentic testimonials of his being either; I was at
a loss how to receive or treat him,--he stayed to dinner and the evening,"
and the next day departed in Washington's carriage to Alexandria. "A
farmer came here to see," he says, "my drill plow, and staid all night."
In another instance he records that a woman whose "name was unknown to me
dined here." Only once were visitors frowned on, and this was when a
British marauding party came to Mount Vernon during the Revolution. Even
they, in Washington's absence, were entertained by his overseer, but his
master wrote him, on hearing of this, "I am little sorry of my own [loss];
but that which gives me most concern is, that you should go on board the
enemy's vessels and furnish them with refreshments. It would have been a
less painful circumstance to me to have heard, that in consequence of
your non-compliance with their request, they had burnt my House and
laid the plantation in ruins. You ought to have considered yourself
as my representative, and should have reflected on the bad example of
communicating with the enemy, and making a voluntary offer of refreshments
to them with a view to prevent a conflagration."
The hospitality at Mount Vernon was perfectly simple. A traveller relates
that he was taken there by a friend, and, as Washington was "viewing his
laborers," we "were desired to tarry." "When the President returned he
received us very politely. Dr. Croker introduced me to him as a gentleman
from Massachusetts who wished to see the country and pay his respects. He
thanked us, desired us to be seated, and to excuse him a few
moments.... The President came and desired us to walk in to dinner and
directed us where to sit, (no grace was said).... The dinner was very good,
a small roasted pigg, boiled leg of lamb, roasted fowles, beef, peas,
lettice, cucumbers, artichokes, etc., puddings, tarts, etc., etc. We were
desired to call for what drink we chose. He took a glass of wine with Mrs.
Law first, which example was followed by Dr. Croker and Mrs. Washington,
myself and Mrs. Peters, Mr. Fayette and the young lady whose name is
Custis. When the cloth was taken away the President gave 'All our
Friends,'"
Another visitor tells that he was received by Washington, and,
"after ... half an hour, the General came in again, with his hair neatly
powdered, a clean shirt on, a new plain drab coat, white waistcoat and
white silk stockings. At three, dinner was on the table, and we were shown
by the General into another room, where everything was set off with a
peculiar taste and at the same time neat and plain. The General sent the
bottle about pretty freely after dinner, and gave success to the navigation
of the Potomac for his toasts, which he has very much at heart.... After
Tea General Washington retired to his study and left us with the ... rest
of the Company. If he had not been anxious to hear the news of Congress
from Mr. Lee, most probably he would not have returned to supper, but gone
to bed at his usual hour, nine o'clock, for he seldom makes any ceremony.
We had a very elegant supper about that time. The General with a few
glasses of champagne got quite merry, and being with his intimate friends
laughed and talked a good deal. Before strangers he is very reserved, and
seldom says a word. I was fortunate in being in his company with his
particular acquaintances.... At 12 I had the honor of being lighted up to
my bedroom by the General himself."
This break on the evening hours was quite unusual, Washington himself
saying in one place that nine o'clock was his bedtime, and he wrote of his
hours after dinner, "the usual time of setting at table, a walk, and tea,
brings me within the dawn of candlelight; previous to which, if not
prevented by company I resolve, that as soon as the glimmering taper
supplies the place of the great luminary, I will retire to my writing
table and acknowledge the letters I have received; but when the lights
were brought, I feel tired and disinclined to engage in this work,
conceiving that the next night will do as well. The next comes, and with
it the same causes for postponement, and effect, and so on."
The foregoing allusion to Washington's conversation is undoubtedly just.
All who met him formally spoke of him as taciturn, but this was not a
natural quality. Jefferson states that "in the circle of his friends,
where he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in
conversation," and Madison told Sparks that, though "Washington was not
fluent nor ready in conversation, and was inclined to be taciturn in
general society," yet "in the company of two or three intimate friends, he
was talkative, and when a little excited was sometimes fluent and even
eloquent" "The story so often repeated of his never laughing," Madison
said, was "wholly untrue; no man seemed more to enjoy gay conversation,
though he took little part in it himself. He was particularly pleased with
the jokes, good humor, and hilarity of his companions."
Washington certainly did enjoy a joke. Nelly Custis said, "I have
sometimes made him laugh most heartily from sympathy with my joyous and
extravagant spirits," and many other instances of his laughing are
recorded. He himself wrote in 1775 concerning the running away of some
British soldiers, "we laugh at his idea of chasing the Royal Fusileers
with the stores. Does he consider them as inanimate, or as treasure?" When
the British in Boston sent out a bundle of the king's speech, "farcical
enough, we gave great joy to them, (the red coats I mean), without knowing
or intending it; for on that day, the day which gave being to the new
army, (but before the proclamation came to hand,) we had hoisted the union
flag in compliment to the United Colonies. But, behold, it was received in
Boston as a token of the deep impression the speech had made upon us, and
as a signal of submission."
At times Washington would joke himself, though it was always somewhat
labored, as in the case of the Jack already cited. "Without a coinage," he
wrote, "or unless a stop can be put to the cutting and clipping of money,
our dollars, pistareens, &c., will be converted, as Teague says, into
_five_ quarters." When the Democrats were charging the Federalists with
having stolen from the treasury, he wrote to a Cabinet official, "and
pray, my good sir, what part of the $800.000 have come to your share? As
you are high in Office, I hope you did not disgrace yourself in the
acceptance of a paltry bribe--a $100.000 perhaps." He once even attempted
a pun, by writing, "our enterprise will be ruined, and we shall be stopped
at the Laurel Hill this winter; but not to gather laurels, (except of the
kind that covers the mountains)."
Probably the neatest turn was his course on one occasion with General
Tryon, who sent him some British proclamations with the request, "that
through your means, the officers and men under your command may be
acquainted with their contents." Washington promptly replied that he had
given them "free currency among the officers and men under my command,"
and enclosed to Tryon a lot of the counter-proclamation, asking him to "be
instrumental in communicating its contents, so far as it may be in your
power, to the persons who are the objects of its operation. The benevolent
purpose it is intended to answer will I persuade myself, sufficiently
recommend it to your candor."
To a poetess who had sent him some laudatory verses about himself he
expressed his thanks, and added, "Fiction is to be sure the very life and
Soul of Poetry--all Poets and Poetesses have been indulged in the free and
indisputable use of it, time out of mind. And to oblige you to make such
an excellent Poem on such a subject without any materials but those of
simple reality, would be as cruel as the Edict of Pharoah which compelled
the children of Israel to manufacture Bricks without the necessary
Ingredients."
Twice he joked about his own death. "As I have heard," he said after
Braddock's defeat, "since my arrival at this place, a circumstancial
account of my death and dying speech, I take this early opportunity of
contradicting the first, and of assuring you, that I have not as yet
composed the latter." Many years later, in draughting a letter for his
wife, he wrote,--
"I am now by desire of the General to add a few words on his behalf; which
he desires may be expressed in the terms following, that is to say,--that
despairing of hearing what may be said of him, if he should really go off
in an apoplectic, or any other fit (for he thinks all fits that issue in
death are worse than a love fit, a fit of laughter, and many other kinds
which he could name)--he is glad to hear _beforehand_ what will be said of
him on that occasion; conceiving that nothing extra will happen between
_this_ and _then_ to make a change in his character for better, or for
worse. And besides, as he has entered into an engagement ... not to quit
_this_ world before the year 1800, it may be _relied upon_ that no breach
of contract shall be laid to him on that account, unless dire necessity
should bring it about, maugre all his exertions to the contrary. In that
same, he shall hope they would do by him as he would do by them--excuse
it. At present there seems to be no danger of his thus giving them the
slip, as neither his health nor spirits, were ever in greater flow,
notwithstanding, he adds, he is descending, and has almost reached the
bottom of the hill; or in other words, the shades below. For your
particular good wishes on this occasion he charges me to say that he feels
highly obliged, and that he reciprocates them with great cordiality."
Other social qualities of the man cannot be passed over. A marked trait
was his extreme fondness of afternoon tea. "Dined at Mr. Langdon's, and
drank Tea there, with a large circle of Ladies;" "in the afternoon drank
Tea ... with about 20 ladies, who had been assembled for the occasion;"
"exercised between 5 & 7 o'clock in the morning & drank Tea with Mrs.
Clinton (the Governor's Lady) in the afternoon;" "Drank tea at the Chief
Justice's of the U. States;" "Dined with the Citizens in public; and in
the afternoon, was introduced to upwards of 50 ladies who had assembled
(at a Tea party) on the occasion;" "Dined and drank tea at Mr. Bingham's
in great splendor." Such are the entries in his diary whenever the was
"kettle-a-boiling-be" was within reach. Pickering's journal shows that
tea served regularly at head-quarters, and at Mount Vernon it was drunk
in summer on the veranda. In writing to Knox of his visit to Boston,
Washington mentioned his recollection of the chats over tea-drinking, and
of how "social and gay" they were.
A fondness for picnics was another social liking. "Rid with Fanny Bassett,
Mr. Taylor and Mr. Shaw to meet a Party from Alexandria at Johnsons
Spring ... where we dined on a cold dinner brought from Town by water and
spent the Afternoon agreeably--Returning home by Sun down or a little after
it," is noted in his diary on one occasion, and on another he wrote,
"Having formed a Party, consisting of the Vice-President, his lady, Son &
Miss Smith; the Secretaries of State, Treasury & War, and the ladies of the
two latter; with all the Gentlemen of my family, Mrs. Lear & the two
Children, we visited the old position of Fort Washington and afterwards
dined on a dinner provided by Mr. Mariner." Launchings, barbecues,
clambakes, and turtle dinners were other forms of social dissipations.
A distinct weakness was dancing. When on the frontier he sighed, "the
hours at present are melancholy dull. Neither the rugged toils of war, nor
the gentler conflict of A[ssembly] B[alls,] is in my choice." His diary
shows him at balls and "Routs" frequently; when he was President he was a
constant attendant at the regular "Dancing Assemblies" in New York and
Philadelphia, and when at Mount Vernon he frequently went ten miles to
Alexandria to attend dances. Of one of these Alexandria balls he has left
an amusing description: "Went to a ball at Alexandria, where Musick and
dancing was the chief Entertainment, however in a convenient room detached
for the purpose abounded great plenty of bread and butter, some biscuits,
with tea and coffee, which the drinkers of could not distinguish from hot
water sweet'ned--Be it remembered that pocket handkerchiefs servd the
purposes of Table cloths & Napkins and that no apologies were made for
either. I shall therefore distinguish this ball by the stile and title of
the Bread & Butter Ball."
During the Revolution, too, he killed many a weary hour of winter quarters
by dancing. When the camp spent a day rejoicing over the French alliance,
"the celebration," according to Thacher, "was concluded by a splendid ball
opened by his Excellency General Washington, having for his partner the
lady of General Knox." Greene describes how "we had a little dance at my
quarters a few evenings past. His Excellency and Mrs. Greene danced
upwards of three hours without once sitting down." Knox, too, tells of "a
most genteel entertainment given by self and officers" at which Washington
danced. "Everybody allows it to be the first of the kind ever exhibited in
this State at least. We had above seventy ladies, all of the first ton in
the State, and between three and four hundred gentlemen. We danced all
night--an elegant room, the illuminating, fireworks, &c., were more
than pretty." And at Newport, when Rochambeau gave a ball, by request
it was opened by Washington. The dance selected by his partner was "A
Successful Campaign," then in high favor, and the French officers took
the instruments from the musicians and played while he danced the first
figure.
[Illustration: AGREEMENT FOR DANCING ASSEMBLY]
While in winter quarters he subscribed four hundred dollars (paper money,
equal to eleven dollars in gold) to get up a series of balls, of which
Greene wrote, "We have opened an assembly in Camp. From this apparent
ease, I suppose it is thought we must be in happy circumstances. I wish it
was so, but, alas, it is not. Our provisions are in a manner, gone. We
have not a ton of hay at command, nor magazine to draw from. Money is
extremely scarce and worth little when we get it. We have been so poor in
camp for a fortnight, that we could not forward the public dispatches, for
want of cash to support the expresses." At the farewell ball given at
Annapolis, when the commander-in-chief resigned his command, Tilton
relates that "the General danced in every set, that all the ladies might
have the pleasure of dancing with him; or as it has since been handsomely
expressed, 'get a touch of him.'" He still danced in 1796, when sixty-four
years of age, but when invited to the Alexandria Assembly in 1799, he
wrote to the managers, "Mrs. Washington and myself have been honored with
your polite invitation to the assemblies of Alexandria this winter, and
thank you for this mark of your attention. But, alas! our dancing days are
no more. We wish, however all those who have a relish for so agreeable and
innocent an amusement all the pleasure the season will afford them; and I
am, gentlemen,
"Your most obedient and obliged humble servant,
"GEO. WASHINGTON."
VIII
TASTES AND AMUSEMENTS
A market trait of Washington's character was his particularity about his
clothes; there can be little question that he was early in life a good
deal of a dandy, and that this liking for fine feathers never quite left
him. When he was about sixteen years old he wrote in his journal,
"Memorandum to have my Coat made by the following Directions to be made a
Frock with a Lapel Breast the Lapel to Contain on each side six Button
Holes and to be about 5 or 6 Inches wide all the way equal and to turn as
the Breast on the Coat does to have it made very long Waisted and in
Length to come down to or below the bent of the knee the Waist from the
armpit to the Fold to be exactly as long or Longer than from thence to the
Bottom not to have more than one fold in the Skirt and the top to be made
just to turn in and three Button Holes the Lapel at the top to turn as the
Cape of the Coat and Bottom to Come Parallel with the Button Holes the
Last Button hole in the Breast to be right opposite to the Button on the
Hip."
In 1754 he bought "a Superfine blue broad cloth Coat, with Silver
Trimmings," "a fine Scarlet Waistcoat full Lac'd," and a quantity of
"silver lace for a Hatt," and from another source it is learned that at
this time he was the possessor of ruffled shirts. A little later he
ordered from London "As much of the best superfine blue Cotton Velvet as
will make a Coat, Waistcoat and Breeches for a Tall Man, with a fine silk
button to suit it, and all other necessary trimmings and linings, together
with garters for the Breeches," and other orders at different times were
for "6 prs. of the Very neatest shoes," "A riding waistcoat of superfine
scarlet cloth and gold Lace," "2 prs. of fashionable mix'd or marble
Color'd Silk Hose," "1 piece of finest and fashionable Stock Tape," "1
Suit of the finest Cloth & fashionable colour," "a New Market Great Coat
with a loose hood to it, made of Bleu Drab or broad cloth, with straps
before according to the present taste," "3 gold and scarlet sword-knots,
3 silver and blue do, 1 fashionable gold-laced hat."
As these orders indicated, the young fellow strove to be in the fashion.
In 1755 he wrote his brother, "as wearing boots is quite the mode, and
mine are in a declining state, I must beg the favor of you to procure me a
pair that is good and neat." "Whatever goods you may send me," he wrote
his London agent, "let them be fashionable, neat and good of their several
kinds." It was a great trial to him that his clothes did not fit him. "I
should have enclosed you my measure," he wrote to London, "but in a
general way they are so badly taken here, that I am convinced that it
would be of very little service." "I have hitherto had my clothes made by
one Charles Lawrence in Old Fish Street," he wrote his English factor.
"But whether it be the fault of the tailor, or the measure sent, I can't
say, but, certain it is, my clothes have never fitted me well."
It must not be inferred, however, that Washington carried his dandyism to
weakness. When fine clothes were not in place, they were promptly
discarded. In his trip to the Ohio in 1753 he states that "I put myself in
an Indian walking Dress," and "tied myself up in a Match Coat,"--that is,
an Indian blanket. In the campaign of 1758 he wrote to his superior
officer "that were I left to pursue my own Inclinations, I would not only
order the Men to adopt the Indian dress, but cause the Officers to do it
also, and be at the first to set the example myself. Nothing but the
uncertainty of its taking with the General causes me to hesitate a moment
at leaving my Regimentals at this place, and proceeding as light as any
Indian in the Woods. 'T is an unbecoming dress, I confess, for an officer;
but convenience, rather than shew, I think should be consulted." And this
was such good sense that the general gave him leave, and it was done.
With increase of years his taste in clothes became softened and more
sober. "On the other side is an invoice of clothes which I beg the favor
of you to purchase for me," he wrote to London. "As they are designed for
wearing apparel for myself, I have committed the choice of them to your
fancy, having the best opinion of your taste. I want neither lace nor
embroidery. Plain clothes, with a gold or silver button (if worn in
genteel dress) are all I desire." "Do not conceive," he told his nephew in
1783, "that fine clothes make fine men more than fine feathers make fine
Birds. A plain genteel dress is more admired, and obtains more credit than
lace and embroidery, in the Eyes of the judicious and sensible." And in
connection with the provisional army he decided that "on reconsidering the
uniform of the Commander in Chief, it has become a matter of doubt with
me, (although, as it respects myself _personally_, I was against _all_
embroidery,) whether embroidery on the Cape, Cuffs, and Pockets of the
Coat, and none on the buff waistcoat would not have a disjointed and
awkward appearance." Probably nowhere did he show his good taste more than
in his treatment of the idea of putting him in classic garments when his
bust was made by Houdon.
"In answer to your obliging inquiries respecting the dress, attitude,
&c.," he wrote, "which I would wish to have given to the statue in
question, I have only to observe, that, not having sufficient knowledge in
the art of sculpture to oppose my judgment to the taste of connoisseurs, I
do not desire to dictate in the matter. On the contrary I shall be
perfectly satisfied with whatever may be judged decent and proper. I
should even scarcely have ventured to suggest, that perhaps a servile
adherence to the garb of antiquity might not be altogether so expedient,
as some little deviation in favor of the modern costume."
Washington, as noted, bought his clothes in England; but it was
from necessity more than choice. "If there be any homespun Cloths in
Philadelphia which are tolerably fine, that you can come reasonably at,"
he said to his Philadelphia agent in 1784, "I would be obliged to you to
send me patterns of some of the best kinds--I should prefer that which is
mixed in the grain, because it will not so readily discover its quality as
a plain cloth." Before he was inaugurated he wrote "General Knox this day
to procure me homespun broadcloth of the Hartford fabric, to make a suit
of clothes for myself," adding, "I hope it will not be a great while
before it will be unfashionable for a gentleman to appear in any
other dress. Indeed, we have already been too long subject to British
prejudices." At another time he noted in his diary with evident pride, "on
this occasion I was dressed in a suit made at the Woolen Manufactory at
Hartford, as the buttons also were." But then, as now, the foreign clothes
were so much finer that his taste overcame his patriotism, and his
secretary wrote that "the President is desireous of getting as much
superfine blk broad Cloth as will make him a suit of Clothes, and desires
me to request that you would send him that quantity ... The best superfine
French or Dutch black--exceedingly fine--of a soft, silky texture--not
glossy like the Engh cloths."
A caller during the Presidency spoke of him as dressed in purple satin,
and at his levees he is described by Sullivan as "clad in black velvet;
his hair in full dress, powdered and gathered behind in a large silk bag;
yellow gloves on his hands; holding a cocked hat with a cockade in it, and
the edges adorned with a black feather about an inch deep. He wore knee
and shoe buckles; and a long sword, with a finely wrought and polished
steel hilt, which appeared at the left hip; the coat worn over the sword,
so that the hilt, and the part below the coat behind, were in view. The
scabbard was white polished leather."
About his person Washington was as neat as he desired his clothes to be.
At seventeen when surveying he records that he was
"Lighted into a Room & I not being so good a Woodsman as ye rest of my
Company striped myself very orderly & went in to ye Bed as they called it
when to my Surprize I found it to be nothing but a Little Straw--Matted
together without Sheets or any thing else but only one thread Bear blanket
with double its Weight of Vermin such as Lice, Fleas &c. I was glad to get
up (as soon as ye Light was carried from us) I put on my Cloths & Lay as
my Companions. Had we not have been very tired I am sure we should not
have slep'd much that night. I made a Promise not to Sleep so from that
time forward chusing rather to sleep in ye open Air before a fire as will
appear hereafter." The next day he notes that the party "Travell'd up to
Frederick Town where our Baggage came to us we cleaned ourselves (to get
Rid of ye Game we had catched y. Night before)" and slept in "a good
Feather Bed with clean Sheets which was a very agreeable regale."
Wherever he happened to be, the laundress was in constant demand. His
bill from the washer-lady for the week succeeding his inauguration as
President, and before his domestic ménage was in running order, was for "6
Ruffled shirts, 2 plain shirts, 8 stocks, 3 pair Silk Hose, 2 White hand.
2 Silk Handks. 1 pr. Flanl. Drawers, 1 Hair nett."
The barber, too, was a constant need, and Washington's ledger shows
constant expenditures for perfumed hair-powder and pomatum, and also for
powder bags and puffs. Apparently the services of this individual were
only for the arranging of his hair, for he seems never to have shaved
Washington, that being done either by himself or by his valet. Of this
latter individual Washington said (when the injury to William Lee unfitted
him for the service), "I do not as yet know whether I shall get a
substitute for William: nothing short of excellent qualities and a man of
good appearance, would induce me to do it--and under my present view of
the matter, too, who would employ himself otherwise than William did--that
is as a butler as well as a valette, for my wants of the latter are so
trifling that any man (as William was) would soon be ruined by idleness,
who had only them to attend to."
In food Washington took what came with philosophy. "If you meet with
collegiate fare, it will be unmanly to complain," he told his grandson,
though he once complained in camp that "we are debarred from the pleasure
of good living; which, Sir, (I dare say with me you will concur,) to one
who has always been used to it, must go somewhat hard to be confined to a
little salt provision and water." Usually, however, poor fare was taken as
a matter of course. "When we came to Supper," he said in his journal of
1748, "there was neither a Cloth upon ye Table nor a Knife to eat with but
as good luck would have it we had Knives of our own," and again he wrote,
"we pull'd out our Knapsack in order to Recruit ourselves every one was
his own Cook our Spits was Forked Sticks our Plates was a Large Chip as
for Dishes we had none." Nor was he squeamish about what he ate. In the
voyage to Barbadoes he several times ate dolphin; he notes that the bread
was almost "eaten up by Weavel & Maggots," and became quite enthusiastic
over some "very fine Bristol tripe" and "a fine Irish Ling & Potatoes."
But all this may have been due to the proverbial sea appetite.
Samuel Stearns states that Washington "breakfasts about seven o'clock on
three small Indian hoe-cakes, and as many dishes of tea," and Custis
relates that "Indian cakes, honey, and tea formed this temperate repast."
These two writers tell us that at dinner "he ate heartily, but was not
particular in his diet, with the exception of fish, of which he was
excessively fond. He partook sparingly of dessert, drank a home-made
beverage, and from four to five glasses of Madeira wine" (Custis), and
that "he dines, commonly on a single dish, and drinks from half a
pint to a pint of Madeira wine. This, with one small glass of punch, a
draught of beer, and two dishes of tea (which he takes half an hour before
sun-setting) constitutes his whole sustenance till the next day."
(Stearns.) Ashbel Green relates that at the state banquets during the
Presidency Washington "generally dined on one single dish, and that of a
very simple kind. If offered something either in the first or second
course which was very rich, his usual reply was--'That is too good for
me.'" It is worth noting that he religiously observed the fasts proclaimed
in 1774 and 1777, going without food the entire day.
A special liking is mentioned above. In 1782 Richard Varick wrote to a
friend, "General Washington dines with me to-morrow; he is exceedingly fond
of salt fish; I have some coming up, & tho' it will be here in a few days,
it will not be here in time--If you could conveniently lend me as much
fish as would serve a pretty large company to-morrow (at least for one
Dish), it will oblige me, and shall in a very few days be returned in as
good Dun Fish as ever you see. Excuse this freedom, and it will add to the
favor. Could you not prevail upon somebody to catch some Trout for me
early to-morrow morning?" When procurable, salt codfish was Washington's
regular Sunday dinner.
A second liking was honey. His ledger several times mentions purchases of
this, and in 1789 his sister wrote him, "when I last had the Pleasure of
seeing you I observ'd your fondness for Honey; I have got a large Pot of
very fine in the comb, which I shall send by the first opportunity." Among
his purchases "sugar candy" is several times mentioned, but this may have
been for children, and not for himself. He was a frequent buyer of fruit
of all kinds and of melons.
He was very fond of nuts, buying hazelnuts and shellbarks by the barrel,
and he wrote his overseer in 1792 to "tell house Frank I expect he will
lay up a more plenteous store of the black common walnuts than he usually
does." The Prince de Broglie states that "at dessert he eats an enormous
quantity of nuts, and when the conversation is entertaining he keeps
eating through a couple of hours, from time to time giving sundry healths,
according to the English and American custom. It is what they call
'toasting.'"
Washington was from boyhood passionately fond of horsemanship, and when
but seventeen owned a horse. Humphreys states that "all those who have
seen General Washington on horseback, at the head of his army, will
doubtless bear testimony with the author that they never saw a more
graceful or dignified person," and Jefferson said of him that he was "the
best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen
on horseback." His diary shows that he rode on various occasions as much
as sixty miles in a day, and Lawrence reports that he "usually rode from
Rockingham to Princeton, which is five miles, in forty minutes." John
Hunter, in a visit to Mount Vernon in 1785, writes that he went
"to see his famous race-horse Magnolia--a most beautiful creature. A whole
length of his was taken a while ago, (mounted on Magnolia) by a famous man
from Europe on copper.... I afterwards went to his stables, where among an
amazing number of horses, I saw old Nelson, now 22 years of age, that
carried the General almost always during the war; Blueskin, another fine
old horse next to him, now and then had that honor. Shaw also shewed me
his old servant, that was reported to have been taken, with a number of
the General's papers about him. They have heard the roaring of many a
cannon in their time. Blueskin was not the favorite, on account of his not
standing fire so well as venerable old Nelson."
Chastellux relates, "he was so attentive as to give me the horse he rode,
the day of my arrival, which I had greatly commended--I found him as good
as he is handsome; but above all, perfectly well broke, and well trained,
having a good mouth, easy in hand and stopping short in a gallop without
bearing the bit--I mention these minute particulars, because it is the
general himself who breaks all his own horses; and he is a very excellent
and bold horseman, leaping the highest fences, and going extremely quick,
without standing upon his stirrups, bearing on the bridle, or letting his
horse run wild."
As a matter of course this liking for horses made Washington fond of
racing, and he not only subscribed liberally to most of the racing purses,
but ran horses at them, attending in person, and betting moderately on the
results. So, too, he was fond of riding to the hounds, and when at Mount
Vernon it was a favorite pastime. From his diary excerpts of runs are,--
"Went a Fox hunting with the Gentlemen who came here yesterday.... after
a very early breakfast--found a Fox just back of Muddy hole Plantation and
after a Chase of an hour and a quarter with my Dogs, & eight couple of
Doctor Smiths (brought by Mr. Phil Alexander) we put him into a hollow
tree, in which we fastened him, and in the Pincushion put up another Fox
which, in an hour & 13 Minutes was killed--We then after allowing the Fox
in the hole half an hour put the Dogs upon his trail & in half a Mile he
took to another hollow tree and was again put out of it but he did not go
600 yards before he had recourse to the same shift--finding therefore that
he was a conquered Fox we took the Dogs off, and came home to Dinner."
"After an early breakfast [my nephew] George Washington, Mr. Shaw and
Myself went into the Woods back of Muddy hole Plantation a hunting and
were joined by Mr. Lund Washington and Mr. William Peake. About half after
ten Oclock (being first plagued with the Dogs running Hogs) we found a fox
near Colo Masons Plantation on little Hunting Creek (West fork) having
followed on his Drag more than half a Mile; and run him with Eight Dogs
(the other 4 getting, as was supposed after a Second Fox) close and well
for an hour. When the Dogs came to a fault and to cold Hunting until 20
minutes after when being joined by the missing Dogs they put him up afresh
and in about 50 Minutes killed up in an open field of Colo Mason's every
Rider & every Dog being present at the Death."
During the Revolution, when opportunity offered, he rode to the hounds,
for Hiltzheimer wrote in 1781, "My son Robert [having] been on a Hunt at
Frankfort says that His Excel'y Gen. Washington was there."
This liking made dogs an interest to him, and he took much pains to
improve the breed of his hounds. On one occasion he "anointed all my
Hounds (as well old Dogs as Puppies) which have the mange, with Hogs Lard
& Brimstone." Mopsey, Pilot, Tartar, Jupiter, Trueman, Tipler, Truelove,
Juno, Dutchess, Ragman, Countess, Lady, Searcher, Rover, Sweetlips,
Vulcan, Singer, Music, Tiyal, and Forrester are some of the names he gave
them. In 1794, in the fall of his horse, as already mentioned, he wrenched
his back, and in consequence, when he returned to Mount Vernon, this
pastime was never resumed, and his pack was given up.
Kindred to this taste for riding to the hounds was one for gunning. A few
entries in his diary tell the nature of his sport. "Went a ducking between
breakfast and dinner and kill'd 2 Mallards & 5 bald faces." "I went to the
Creek but not across it. Kill'd 2 ducks, viz. a sprig tail and a Teal."
"Rid out with my gun but kill'd nothing." In 1787 a man asked for
permission to shoot over Mount Vernon, and Washington refused it because
"my fixed determination is, that no person whatever shall hunt upon my
grounds or waters--To grant leave to one and refuse another would not only
be drawing a line of discrimination which would be offensive, but would
subject one to great inconvenience--for my strict and positive orders to
all my people are if they hear a gun fired upon my Land to go immediately
in pursuit of it.... Besides, as I have not lost my relish for this sport
when I find time to indulge myself in it, and Gentlemen who come to the
House are pleased with it, it is my wish not to have game within my
jurisdiction disturbed."
Fishing was another pastime. He "went a dragging for Sturgeon" frequently,
and sometimes "catch'd one" and sometimes "catch'd none." While in
Philadelphia in 1787 he went up to the old camp at Valley Forge and spent
a day fishing, and in 1789 at Portsmouth, "having lines, we proceeded to
the Fishing Banks a little without the Harbour and fished for Cod; but it
not being a proper time of tide, we only caught two." After his serious
sickness in 1790 a newspaper reports that "yesterday afternoon the
President of the United States returned from Sandy Hook and the fishing
banks, where he had been for the benefit of the sea air, and to amuse
himself in the delightful recreation of fishing. We are told he has had
excellent sport, having himself caught a great number of sea-bass and
black fish--the weather proved remarkably fine, which, together with the
salubrity of the air and wholesome exercise, rendered this little voyage
extremely agreeable, and cannot fail, we hope, of being serviceable to a
speedy and complete restoration of his health."
Washington was fond of cards, and in bad weather even records "at home all
day, over cards." How much time must have been spent in this way is shown
by the innumerable purchases of "1 dozen packs playing cards" noted in his
ledger. In 1748, when he was sixteen years old, he won two shillings and
threepence from his sister-in-law at whist and five shillings at "Loo"
(or, as he sometimes spells it, "Lue") from his brother, and he seems
always to have played for small stakes, which sometimes mounted into
fairly sizable sums. The largest gain found is three pounds, and the
largest loss nine pounds fourteen shillings and ninepence. He seems to
have lost oftener than he won.
Billiards was a rival of cards, and a game of which he seems to have been
fond. In his seventeenth year he won one shilling and threepence by the
cue, and from that time won and lost more or less money in this way. Here,
too, he seems to have been out of pocket, though not for so much money,
his largest winning noted being only seven shillings and sixpence, and his
largest loss being one pound and ten shillings.
In 1751, at Barbadoes, Washington "was treated with a play ticket to see
the Tragedy of George Barnwell acted: the character of Barnwell and
several others was said to be well perform'd there was Musick a Dapted and
regularly conducted." This presumptively was the lad's first visit to the
playhouse, but from that time it was one of his favorite amusements. At
first his ledger shows expenditures of "Cash at the Play House 1/3," which
proves that his purse would bear the cost of only the cheapest seats;
but later he became more extravagant in this respect, and during the
Presidency he used the drama for entertaining, his ledger giving many
items of tickets bought. A type entry in Washington's diary is, "Went
to the play in the evening--sent tickets to the following ladies and
gentlemen and invited them to seats in my box, viz:--Mrs. Adams (lady of
the Vice-President,) General Schuyler and lady, Mr. King and lady, Majr.
Butler and lady, Colo Hamilton and lady, Mrs. Green--all of whom accepted
and came except Mrs. Butler, who was indisposed."
Maclay describes the first of these theatre parties as follows: "I
received a ticket from the President of the United States to use his box
this evening at the theatre, being the first of his appearances at the
playhouse since his entering on his office. Went The President, Governor
of the State, foreign Ministers, Senators from New Hampshire, Connecticut,
Pennsylvania, M.[aryland] and South Carolina; and some ladies in the same
box. I am old, and notices or attentions are lost on me. I could have
wished some of my dear children in my place; they are young and would have
enjoyed it. Long might they live to boast of having been seated in
the same box with the first Character in the world. The play was the
'School for Scandal,' I never liked it; indeed, I think it an indecent
representation before ladies of character and virtue. Farce, the 'Old
Soldier.' The house greatly crowded, and I thought the players acted well;
but I wish we had seen the _Conscious Lovers_, or some one that inculcated
more prudential manners."
Of the play, or rather interlude, of the "Old Soldier" its author, Dunlap,
gives an amusing story. It turned on the home-coming of an old soldier,
and, like the topical song of to-day, touched on local affairs:
"When Wignell, as Darby, recounts what had befallen him in America, in New
York, at the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and the inauguration of
the president, the interest expressed by the audience in the looks and the
changes of countenance of this great man [Washington] became intense. He
smiled at these lines, alluding to the change in the government--
There too I saw some mighty pretty shows;
A revolution, without blood or blows,
For, as I understood, the cunning elves,
The people all revolted from themselves.
But at the lines--
A man who fought to free the land from we,
_Like me_, had left his farm, a-soldiering to go:
But having gain'd his point, he had _like me_,
Return'd his own potato ground to see.
But there he could not rest. With one accord
He's called to be a kind of--not a lord--
I don't know what, he's not a _great man_, sure,
For poor men love him just as he were poor.
They love him like a father or a brother,
DERMOT.
As we poor Irishmen love one another.
The president looked serious; and when Kathleen asked,
How looked he, Darby? Was he short or tall?
his countenance showed embarrassment, from the expectation or one of those
eulogiums which, he had been obliged to hear on many public occasions, and
which must doubtless have been a severe trial to his feelings: but Darby's
answer that he had _not seen him_, because he had mistaken a man 'all lace
and glitter, botherum and shine,' for him, until all the show had passed,
relieved the hero from apprehension of farther personality, and he
indulged in that which was with him extremely rare, a hearty laugh."
Washington did not even despise amateur performances. As already
mentioned, he expressed a wish to take part in "Cato" himself in 1758, and
a year before he had subscribed to the regimental "players at Fort
Cumberland," His diary shows that in 1768 the couple at Mount Vernon "& ye
two children were up to Alexandria to see the Inconstant or 'the way to win
him' acted," which was probably an amateur performance. Furthermore, Duer
tells us that "I was not only frequently admitted to the presence of this
most august of men, in _propria persona_, but once had the honor of
appearing before him as one of the _dramatis personae_ in the tragedy of
Julius Caesar, enacted by a young 'American Company,' (the theatrical
corps then performing in New York being called the 'Old American Company')
in the garret of the Presidential mansion, wherein before the magnates of
the land and the elite of the city, I performed the part of Brutus to the
Cassius of my old school-fellow, Washington Custis."
The theatre was by no means the only show that appealed to Washington. He
went to the circus when opportunity offered, gave nine shillings to a "man
who brought an elk as a show," three shillings and ninepence "to hear the
Armonica," two dollars for tickets "to see the automatum," treated the
"Ladies to ye Microcosm" and paid to see waxworks, puppet shows, a dancing
bear, and a lioness and tiger. Nor did he avoid a favorite Virginia
pastime, but attended cockfights when able. His frequent going to concerts
has been already mentioned.
Washington seems to have been little of a reader except of books on
agriculture, which he bought, read, and even made careful abstracts of
many, and on this subject alone did he ever seem to write from pleasure.
As a lad, he notes in his journal that he is reading _The Spectator_ and a
history of England, but after those two brief entries there is no further
mention of books or reading in his daily memorandum of "where and how my
time is spent." In his ledger, too, almost the least common expenditure
entered is one for books. Nor do his London invoices, so far as extant,
order any books but those which treated of farming and horses. In the
settlement of the Custis estate, "I had no particular reason for keeping
and handing down to his son, the books of the late Colo Custis saving that
I thought it would be taking the advantage of a low appraisement, to make
them my own property at it, and that to sell them was not an object."
With the broadening that resulted from the command of the army more
attention was paid to books, and immediately upon the close of the
Revolution Washington ordered the following works: "Life of Charles the
Twelfth," "Life of Louis the Fifteenth," "Life and Reign of Peter the
Great," Robertson's "History of America," Voltaire's "Letters," Vertot's
"Revolution of Rome" and "Revolution of Portugal," "Life of Gustavus
Adolphus," Sully's "Memoirs," Goldsmith's "Natural History," "Campaigns of
Marshal Turenne," Chambaud's "French and English Dictionary," Locke "on
the Human Understanding," and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth." From this
time on he was a fairly constant book-buyer, and subscribed as a "patron"
to a good many forthcoming works, while many were sent him as gifts. On
politics he seems to have now read with interest; yet in 1797, after his
retirement from the Presidency, in writing of the manner in which he spent
his hours, he said, "it may strike you that in this detail no mention is
made of any portion of time allotted to reading. The remark would be just,
for I have not looked into a book since I came home, nor shall I be able
to do it until I have discharged my workmen; probably not before the
nights grow long when possibly I may be looking into Doomsday book." There
can be no doubt that through all his life Washington gave to reading only
the time he could not use on more practical affairs.
His library was a curious medley of books, if those on military science
and agriculture are omitted. There is a fair amount of the standard
history of the day, a little theology, so ill assorted as to suggest gifts
rather than purchases, a miscellany of contemporary politics, and a very
little belles-lettres. In political science the only works in the
slightest degree noticeable are Smith's "Wealth of Nations," "The
Federalist," and Rousseau's "Social Compact," and, as the latter was in
French, it could not have been read. In lighter literature Homer,
Shakespeare, and Burns, Lord Chesterfield, Swift, Smollett, Fielding, and
Sterne, and "Don Quixote," are the only ones deserving notice. It is
worthy of mention that Washington's favorite quotation was Addison's "'Tis
not in mortals to command success," but he also utilized with considerable
aptitude quotations from Shakespeare and Sterne. There were half a dozen
of the ephemeral novels of the day, but these were probably Mrs.
Washington's, as her name is written in one, and her husband's in none.
Writing to his grandson, Washington warned him that "light reading (by
this, I mean books of little importance) may amuse for the moment, but
leaves nothing solid behind."
[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S BOOK-PLATE]
One element of Washington's reading which cannot be passed over without
notice is that of newspapers. In his early life he presumably read the
only local paper of the time (the _Virginia Gazette_), for when an
anonymous writer, "Centinel," in 1756, charged that Washington's regiment
was given over to drunkenness and other misbehavior, he drew up a reply,
which he sent with ten shillings to the newspaper, but the printer
apparently declined to print it, for it never appeared.
After the Revolution he complained to his Philadelphia agent, "I have such
a number of Gazettes, crowded upon me (many without orders) that they are
not only expensive, but really useless; as my other avocations will not
afford me time to read them oftentimes, and when I do attempt it, find
them more troublesome, than profitable; I have therefore to beg, if you
Should get Money into your hands on Acct of the Inclosed Certificate, that
you would be so good as to pay what I am owing to Messrs Dunlap &
Claypoole, Mr. Oswald & Mr. Humphrey's. If they consider me however as
engaged for the year, I am Content to let the matter run on to the
Expiration of it" During the Presidency he subscribed to the _Gazette of
the United States_, Brown's _Gazette_, Dunlap's _American Advertiser_, the
_Pennsylvania Gazette_, Bache's _Aurora_, and the _New York Magazine_,
Carey's _Museum_, and the _Universal Asylum_, though at this time he
"lamented that the editors of the different gazettes in the Union do not
more generally and more correctly (instead of stuffing their papers with
scurrility and nonsensical declamation, which few would read if they were
apprised of the contents,) publish the debates in Congress on all great
national questions."
Presently, for personal and party reasons, certain of the papers began to
attack him, and Jefferson wrote to Madison that the President was
"extremely affected by the attacks made and kept up on him in the public
papers. I think he feels these things more than any person I ever met
with." Later the Secretary of State noted that at an interview Washington
"adverted to a piece in Freneau's paper of yesterday, he said that he
despised all their attacks on him personally, but that there never had
been an act of government ... that paper had not abused ... He was
evidently sore and warm." At a cabinet meeting, too, according to the same
writer, "the Presidt was much inflamed, got into one of those passions
when he cannot command himself, ran on much on the personal abuse which
had been bestowed on him, defied any man on earth to produce a single act
of his since he had been in the govmt which was not done on the purest
motives, that he had never repented but once the having slipped the moment
of resigning his office, & that was every moment since, that _by god_ he
had rather be in his grave than in his present situation. That he had
rather be on his farm than to be made _emperor of the world_ and yet that
they were charging him with wanting to be a king. That that _rascal
Freneau_ sent him 3 of his papers every day, as if he thought he would
become the distributor of his papers, that he could see in this nothing
but an impudent design to insult him. He ended in this high tone. There
was a pause."
To correspondents, too, Washington showed how keenly he felt the attacks
upon him, writing that "the publications in Freneau's and Bache's papers
are outrages on common decency; and they progress in that style in
proportion as their pieces are treated with contempt, and are passed by in
silence, by those at whom they are aimed," and asked "in what will this
abuse terminate? The result, as it respects myself, I care not; for I have
consolation within, that no earthly efforts can deprive me of, and that
is, that neither ambitious nor interested motives have influenced my
conduct. The arrows of malevolence, therefore however barbed and well
pointed, never can reach the most vulnerable part of me; though, whilst I
am _up_ as a _mark_, they will be continually aimed."
On another occasion he said, "I am beginning to receive, what I had
made my mind up for on this occasion, the abuse of Mr. Bache, and his
correspondents." He wrote a friend, "if you read the Aurora of this city,
or those gazettes, which are under the same influence, you cannot but have
perceived with what malignant industry and persevering falsehoods I am
assailed, in order to weaken if not destroy the confidence of the public."
When he retired from office he apparently cut off his subscriptions to
papers, for a few months later he inquired, "what is the character of
Porcupine's Gazette? I had thought when I left Philadelphia, of ordering
it to be sent to me; then again, I thought it best not to do it; and
altho' I should like to see both his and Bache's, the latter may, under
all circumstances, be the best decision; I mean not subscribing to either
of them." This decision to have no more to do with papers did not last,
for on the night he was seized with his last illness Lear describes how
"in the evening the papers having come from the post office, he sat in the
room with Mrs. Washington and myself, reading them, till about nine
o'clock when Mrs. Washington went up into Mrs. Lewis's room, who was
confined, and left the General and myself reading the papers. He was very
cheerful; and, when he met with anything which he thought diverting or
interesting, he would read it aloud as well as his hoarseness would
permit. He desired me to read to him the debates of the Virginia Assembly,
on the election of a Senator and Governor; which I did--and, on hearing
Mr. Madison's observations respecting Mr. Monroe, he appeared much
affected, and spoke with some degree of asperity on the subject, which I
endeavored to moderate, as I always did on such occasions."
IX
FRIENDS
The frequently repeated statement that Washington was a man without
friends is not the least curious of the myths that have obtained general
credence. That it should be asserted only goes to show how absolutely his
private life has been neglected in the study of his public career.
In his will Washington left tokens of remembrance "to the acquaintances
and friends of my juvenile years, Lawrence Washington and Robert
Washington of Chotanck," the latter presumably the "dear Robin" of his
earliest letter, and these two very distant kinsmen, whom he had come to
know while staying at Wakefield, are the earliest friends of whom any
record exists. Contemporary with them was a "Dear Richard," whose letters
gave Washington "unspeakable pleasure, as I am convinced I am still in the
memory of so worthy a friend,--a friendship I shall ever be proud of
increasing."
Next in time came his intimacy with the Fairfaxes and Carlyles, which
began with Washington's visits to his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon.
About four miles from that place, at Belvoir, lived the Fairfaxes; and
their kinspeople, the Carlyles, lived at Alexandria. Lawrence Washington
had married Ann Fairfax, and through his influence his brother George was
taken into the employment of Lord Fairfax, half as clerk and half as
surveyor of his great tract of land, "the northern neck," which he had
obtained by marriage with a daughter of Lord Culpeper, who in turn had
obtained it from the "Merrie Monarch" by means so disreputable that they
are best left unstated. From that time till his death Washington
corresponded with several of the family and was a constant visitor at
Belvoir, as the Fairfaxes were at Mount Vernon.
[Illustration: SURVEY OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE (WAKEFIELD), 1743]
In 1755 Washington told his brother that "to that family I am under many
obligations, particularly the old gentleman," but as time went on he more
than paid the debt. In 1757 he acted as pallbearer to William Fairfax, and
twelve years later his diary records, "Set off with Mrs. Washington and
Patsey,... in order to stand for Mr. B. Fairfax's third son, which I did
together with my wife, Mr. Warner Washington and his lady." For one of the
family he obtained an army commission, and for another he undertook the
care of his property during a visit to England; a care which unexpectedly
lengthened, and was resigned only when Washington's time became public
property. Nor did that lessen his services or the Fairfaxes' need of them,
for in the Revolution that family were loyalists. Despite this, "the
friendship," Washington assured them, "which I ever professed and felt for
you, met no diminution from the difference in our political sentiments,"
and in 1778 he was able to secure the safety of Lord Fairfax from
persecution at the hands of the Whigs, a service acknowledged by his
lordship in the following words:
"There are times when favors conferred make a greater impression than at
others, for, though I have received many, I hope I have not been unmindful
of them; yet that, at a time your popularity was at the highest and mine
at the lowest, and when it is so common for men's resentments to run up
high against those, who differ from them in opinion, you should act with
your wonted kindness towards me, has affected me more than any favor I
have received; and could not be believed by some in New York, it being
above the run of common minds."
In behalf of another member of the family, threatened with confiscation,
he wrote to a member of the House of Delegates, "I hope, I trust, that no
act of Legislation in the State of Virginia has affected, or can affect,
the properly of this gentleman, otherwise than in common with that of
every good and well disposed citizen of America," and this was sufficient
to put an end to the project At the close of the war he wrote to this
absentee, "There was nothing wanting in [your] Letter to give compleat
satisfaction to Mrs. Washington and myself but some expression to induce
us to believe you would once more become our neighbors. Your house at
Belvoir I am sorry to add is no more, but mine (which is enlarged since
you saw it), is most sincerely and heartily at your service till you could
rebuild it. As the path, after being closed by a long, arduous, and
painful contest, is to use an Indian metaphor, now opened and made smooth,
I shall please myself with the hope of hearing from you frequently; and
till you forbid me to indulge the wish, I shall not despair of seeing you
and Mrs. Fairfax once more the inhabitants of Belvoir, and greeting you
both there the intimate companions of our old age, as you have been of our
younger years." And to another he left a token of remembrance in his will.
One of the most curious circle of friends was that composed of Indians.
After his mission among them in 1753, Washington wrote to a tribe and
signed himself "your friend and brother." In a less general sense he
requested an Indian agent to "recommend me kindly to Mononcatoocha and
others; tell them how happy it would make Conotocarius to have an
opportunity of taking them by the hand." A little later he had this
pleasure, and he wrote the governor, "the Indians are all around teasing
and perplexing me for one thing or another, so that I scarce know what I
write." When Washington left the frontier this intercourse ceased, but he
was not forgotten, for in descending the Ohio in his Western trip of 1770
a hunting party was met, and "in the person of Kiashuto I found an old
acquaintance, he being one of the Indians that went [with me] to the
French in 1753. He expressed satisfaction at seeing me, and treated us
with great kindness, giving us a quarter of very fine buffalo. He insisted
upon our spending that night with him, and, in order to retard us as
little as possible moved his camp down the river."
With his appointment to the Virginia regiment came military friends. From
the earliest of these--Van Braam, who had served under Lawrence Washington
in the Carthagena expedition of 1742, and who had come to live at Mount
Vernon--Washington had previously taken lessons in fencing, and when
appointed the bearer of a letter to the French commander on the Ohio he
took Van Braam with him as interpreter. A little later, on receiving his
majority, Washington appointed Van Braam his recruiting lieutenant, and
recommended him to the governor for a captain's commission on the grounds
that he was "an experienced good officer." To Van Braam fell the duty of
translating the capitulation to the French at Fort Necessity, and to his
reading was laid the blunder by which Washington signed a statement
acknowledging himself as an "assassin." Inconsequence he became the
scapegoat of the expedition, was charged by the governor with being a
"poltroon" and traitor, and was omitted from the Assembly's vote of thanks
and extra pay to the regiment. But Washington stood by him, and when
himself burgess succeeded in getting this latter vote rescinded.
Another friend of the same period was the Chevalier Peyroney, whom
Washington first made an ensign, and then urged the governor to advance
him, promising that if the governor "should be pleased to indulge me in
this request, I shall look upon it in a very particular light." Peyroney
was badly wounded at Fort Necessity and was furloughed, during which he
wrote his commander, "I have made my particular Business to tray if any
had some Bad intention against you here Below; But thank God I meet
allowais with a good wish for you from evry Mouth each one entertining
such Caracter of you as I have the honour to do myself." He served again
in the Braddock march, and in that fiasco, Washington wrote, "Captain
Peyroney and all his officers down to a corporal, was killed."
With Captain Stewart--"a gentleman whose assiduity and military capacity
are second to none in our Service"--Washington was intimate enough to have
Stewart apply in 1763 for four hundred pounds to aid him to purchase a
commission, a sum Washington did not have at his disposal. But because of
"a regard of that high nature that I could never see you uneasy without
feeling a part and wishing to remove the cause," Washington lent him three
hundred pounds towards it, apparently without much return, for some years
later he wrote to a friend that he was "very glad to learn that my friend
Stewart was well when you left London. I have not had a letter from him
these five years." At the close of the Revolution he received a letter
from Stewart containing "affectionate and flattering expressions," which
gave Washington "much pleasure," as it "removed an apprehension I had long
labored under, of your having taken your departure for the land of
Spirits. How else could I account for a silence of 15 years. I shall
always be happy to see you at Mt. Vernon."
His friend William Ramsay--"well known, well-esteemed, and of unblemished
character"--he appointed commissary, and long after, in 1769, wrote,--
"Having once or twice of late heard you speak highly in praise of the
Jersey College, as if you had a desire of sending your son William
there ... I should be glad, if you have no other objection to it than what
may arise from the expense, if you would send him there as soon as it is
convenient, and depend on me for twenty-five pounds this currency a year
for his support, so long as it may be necessary for the completion of his
education. If I live to see the accomplishment of this term, the sum here
stipulated shall he annually paid; and if I die in the mean while, this
letter shall be obligatory upon my heirs, or executors, to do it according
to the true intent and meaning hereof. No other return is expected, or
wished, for this offer, than that you will accept it with the same freedom
and good will, with which it is made, and that you may not even consider
it in the light of an obligation or mention it as such; for, be assured,
that from me it will never be known."
The dearest friendship formed in these years was with the doctor of the
regiment, James Craik, who in the course of his duties attended Washington
in two serious illnesses, and when the war was ended settled near Mount
Vernon. He was frequently a visitor there, and soon became the family
medical attendant. When appointed General, Washington wrote, "tell Doctor
Craik that I should be very glad to see him here if there was anything
worth his acceptance; but the Massachusetts people suffer nothing to
go by them that they lay hands upon." In 1777 the General secured his
appointment as deputy surgeon-general of the Middle Department, and three
years later, when the hospital service was being reformed, he used his
influence to have him retained. Craik was one of those instrumental in
warning the commander-in-chief of the existence of the Conway Cabal,
because "my attachment to your person is such, my friendship is so
sincere, that every hint which has a tendency to hurt your honor, wounds
me most sensibly." The doctor was Washington's companion, by invitation,
in both his later trips to the Ohio, and his trust in him was so strong
that he put under his care the two nephews whose charge he had assumed. In
Washington's ledger an entry tells of another piece of friendliness, to
the effect, "Dr. James Craik, paid him, being a donation to his son, Geo.
Washington Craik for his education £30," and after graduating the young
man for a time served as one of his private secretaries. After a serious
illness in 1789, Washington wrote to the doctor, "persuaded as I am, that
the case has been treated with skill, and with as much tenderness as the
nature of the complaint would admit, yet I confess I often wished for your
inspection of it," and later he wrote, "if I should ever have occasion for
a Physician or Surgeon, I should prefer my old Surgeon, Dr. Craik, who,
from 40 years' experience, is better qualified than a Dozen of them put
together." Craik was the first of the doctors to reach Washington's
bedside in his last illness, and when the dying man predicted his own
death, "the Doctor pressed his hand but could not utter a word. He retired
from the bedside and sat by the fire absorbed in grief." In Washington's
will he left "to my compatriot in arms and old and intimate friend, Doctor
Craik I give my Bureau (or as the Cabinet makers called it, Tambour
Secretary) and the circular chair, an appendage of my study."
The arrival of Braddock and his army at Alexandria brought a new circle of
military friends. Washington "was very particularly noticed by that
General, was taken into his family as an extra aid, offered a Captain's
commission by _brevet_ (which was the highest grade he had it in his power
to bestow) and had the compliment of several blank Ensigncies given him to
dispose of to the Young Gentlemen of his acquaintance." In this position
he was treated "with much complaisance ... especially from the General,"
which meant much, as Braddock seems to have had nothing but curses for
nearly every one else, and the more as Washington and he "had frequent
disputes," which were "maintained with warmth on both sides, especially on
his." But the general, "though his enmities were strong," in "his
attachments" was "warm," and grew to like and trust the young volunteer,
and had he "survived his unfortunate defeat, I should have met with
preferment," having "his promise to that effect." Washington was by the
general when he was wounded in the lungs, lifted him into a covered cart,
and "brought him over the _first_ ford of the Monongahela," into temporary
safety. Three days later Braddock died of his wounds, bequeathing to
Washington his favorite horse and his body-servant as tokens of his
gratitude. Over him Washington read the funeral service, and it was left
to him to see that "the poor general" was interred "with the honors of
war."
Even before public service had made him known, Washington was a friend and
guest of many of the leading Virginians. Between 1747 and 1754 he visited
the Carters of Shirley, Nomony, and Sabine Hall, the Lewises of Warner
Hall, the Lees of Stratford, and the Byrds of Westover, and there was
acquaintance at least with the Spotswoods, Fauntleroys, Corbins,
Randolphs, Harrisons, Robinsons, Nicholases, and other prominent families.
In fact, one friend wrote him, "your health and good fortune are the toast
of every table," and another that "the Council and Burgesses are mostly
your friends," and those two bodies included every Virginian of real
influence. It was Richard Corbin who enclosed him his first commission, in
a brief note, beginning "Dear George" and ending "your friend," but in
time relations became more or less strained, and Washington suspected him
"of representing my character ... with ungentlemanly freedom." With
John Robinson, "Speaker" and Treasurer of Virginia, who wrote Washington
in 1756, "our hopes, dear George, are all fixed on you," a close
correspondence was maintained, and when Washington complained of the
governor's course towards him Robinson replied, "I beg dear friend, that
you will bear, so far as a man of honor ought, the discouragements and
slights you have too often met with." The son, Beverly Robinson, was a
fellow-soldier, and, as already mentioned, was Washington's host on his
visit to New York in 1756. The Revolution interrupted the friendship, but
it is alleged that Robinson (who was deep in the Arnold plot) made an
appeal to the old-time relation in an endeavor to save André. The appeal
was in vain, but auld lang syne had its influence, for the sons of
Beverly, British officers taken prisoners in 1779, were promptly
exchanged, so one of them asserted, "in consequence of the embers of
friendship that still remained unextinguished in the breasts of my father
and General Washington."
Outside of his own colony, too, Washington made friends of many prominent
families, with whom there was more or less interchange of hospitality.
Before the Revolution there had been visiting or breaking of bread with
the Galloways, Dulaneys, Carrolls, Calverts, Jenifers, Edens, Ringgolds,
and Tilghmans of Maryland, the Penns, Cadwaladers, Morrises, Shippens,
Aliens, Dickinsons, Chews, and Willings of Pennsylvania, and the De
Lanceys and Bayards of New York.
Election to the Continental Congress strengthened some friendships and
added new ones. With Benjamin Harrison he was already on terms of
intimacy, and as long as the latter was in Congress he was the member most
in the confidence of the General. Later they differed in politics, but
Washington assured Harrison that "my friendship is not in the least
lessened by the difference, which has taken place in our political
sentiments, nor is my regard for you diminished by the part you have
acted." Joseph Jones and Patrick Henry both took his part against the
Cabal, and the latter did him especial service in forwarding to him the
famous anonymous letter, an act for which Washington felt "most grateful
obligations." Henry and Washington differed later in politics, and it was
reported that the latter spoke disparagingly of the former, but this
Washington denied, and not long after offered Henry the Secretaryship of
State. Still later he made a personal appeal to him to come forward and
combat the Virginia resolutions of 1798, an appeal to which Henry
responded. The intimacy with Robert Morris was close, and, as already
noted, Washington and his family were several times inmates of his home.
Gouverneur Morris was one of his most trusted advisers, and, it is
claimed, gave the casting vote which saved Washington from being arrested
in 1778, when the Cabal was fiercest. While President, Washington sent him
on a most important mission to Great Britain, and on its completion made
him Minister to France. From that post the President was, at the request
of France, compelled to recall him; but in doing so Washington wrote him a
private letter assuring Morris that he "held the same place in my
estimation" as ever, and signed himself "yours affectionately." Charles
Carroll of Carrollton was a partisan of the General, and very much
disgusted a member of the Cabal by telling him "almost literally that
anybody who displeased or did not admire the Commander-in-chief, ought not
to be kept in the army." And to Edward Rutledge Washington wrote, "I can
but love and thank you, and I do it sincerely for your polite and friendly
letter.... The sentiments contained in it are such as have uniformly
flowed from your pen, and they are not the less flattering than pleasing
to me."
The command of the Continental army brought a new kind of friend, in the
young aides of his staff. One of his earliest appointments was Joseph
Reed, and, though he remained but five months in the service, a close
friendship was formed. Almost weekly Washington wrote him in the most
confidential and affectionate manner, and twice he appealed to Reed to
take the position once more, in one instance adding that if "you are
disposed to continue with me, I shall think myself too fortunate and
happy to wish for a change." Yet Washington none the less sent Reed
congratulations on his election to the Pennsylvania Assembly, "although I
consider it the coup-de-grace to my ever seeing you" again a "member of my
family," to help him he asked a friend to endeavor to get Reed legal
business, and when all law business ceased and the would-be lawyer was
without occupation or means of support, he used his influence to secure
him the appointment of adjutant.
Reed kept him informed as to the news of Philadelphia, and wrote even
such adverse criticism of the General as he heard, which Washington
"gratefully" acknowledged. But one criticism Reed did not write was what
he himself was saying of his general after the fall of Fort Washington,
for which he blamed the commander-in-chief in a letter to Lee, and
probably to others, for when later Reed and Arnold quarrelled, the latter
boasted that "I can say I never basked in the sunshine of my general's
favor, and courted him to his face, when I was at the same time treating
him with the greatest disrespect and villifying his character when absent.
This is more than a ruling member of the Council of Pennsylvania can say."
Washington learned of this criticism in a letter from Lee to Reed, which
was opened at head-quarters on the supposition that it was on army
matters, and "with no idea of its being a private letter, much less the
tendency of the correspondence," as Washington explained in a letter to
Reed, which had not a word of reproach for the double-dealing that must
have cut the General keenly, coming as it did at a moment of misfortune
and discouragement. Reed wrote a lame explanation and apology, and later
sought to "regain" the "lost friendship" by an earnest appeal to
Washington's generosity. Nor did he appeal in vain, for the General
replied that though "I felt myself hurt by a certain letter ... I was
hurt ... because the same sentiments were not communicated immediately to
myself." The old-time intimacy was renewed, and how little his personal
feeling had influenced Washington is shown in the fact that even previous
to this peace-making he had secured for Reed the appointment to command
one of the choicest brigades in the army. Perhaps the friendship was never
quite as close, but in writing him Washington still signed himself "yours
affectionately."
John Laurens, appointed an aide in 1777, quickly endeared himself to
Washington, and conceived the most ardent affection for his chief. The
young officer of twenty-four used all his influence with his father (then
President of Congress) against the Cabal, and in 1778, when Charles Lee
was abusing the commander-in-chief, Laurens thought himself bound to
resent it, "as well on account of the relation he bore to General
Washington, as from motives of personal friendship and respect for his
character," and he challenged the defamer and put a bullet into him. To
his commander he signed himself "with the greatest veneration and
attachment your Excellency's Faithful Aid," and Washington in his letters
always addressed him as "my dear Laurens." After his death in battle,
Washington wrote, in reply to an inquiry,--
"You ask if the character of Colonel John Laurens, as drawn in the
_Independent Chronicle_ of 2d of December last, is just. I answer, that
such parts of the drawing as have fallen under my observation, is
literally so; and that it is my firm belief his merits and worth richly
entitle him to the whole picture. No man possessed more of the _amor
patriae_. In a word, he had not a fault, that I could discover, unless
intrepidity bordering upon rashness could come under that denomination;
and to this he was excited by the purest motives."
Of another aide, Tench Tilghman, Washington said, "he has been a zealous
servant and slave to the public, and a faithful assistant to me for near
five years, great part of which time he refused to receive pay. Honor
and gratitude interest me in his favor." As an instance of this, the
commander-in-chief gave to him the distinction of bearing to Congress the
news of the surrender of Cornwallis, with the request to that body that
Tilghman should be honored in some manner. And in acknowledging a letter
Washington said, "I receive with great sensibility and pleasure your
assurances of affection and regard. It would be but a renewal of what I
have often repeated to you, that there are few men in the world to whom I
am more attached by inclination than I am to you. With the Cause, I
hope--most devoutly hope--there will be an end to my Military Service, when
as our places of residence will not be far apart, I shall never be more
happy than in your Company at Mt. Vernon. I shall always be glad to hear
from, and keep up a correspondence with you." When Tilghman died,
Washington asserted that
"He had left as fair a reputation as ever belonged to a human character,"
and to his father he wrote, "Of all the numerous acquaintances of your
lately deceased son, & midst all the sorrowings that are mingled on that
melancholy occasion, I may venture to assert that (excepting those of his
nearest relatives) none could have felt his death with more regret than I
did, because no one entertained a higher opinion of his worth, or had
imbibed sentiments of greater friendship for him than I had done.... Midst
all your grief, there is this consolation to be drawn;--that while living,
no man could be more esteemed, and since dead, none more lamented than
Colo. Tilghman."
To David Humphreys, a member of the staff, Washington gave the honor of
carrying to Congress the standards captured at Yorktown, recommending him
to the notice of that body for his "attention, fidelity, and good
services." This aide escorted Washington to Mount Vernon at the close of
the Revolution, and was "the last officer belonging to the army" who
parted from "the Commander-in-chief." Shortly after, Humphreys returned to
Mount Vernon, half as secretary and half as visitor and companion, and he
alluded to this time in his poem of "Mount Vernon," when he said,--
"Twas mine, return'd from Europe's courts
To share his thoughts, partake his sports."
[Illustration: WASHINGTON FAMILY RECORD]
When Washington was accused of cruelty in the Asgill case, Humphreys
published an account of the affair, completely vindicating his friend, for
which he was warmly thanked. He was frequently urged to come to Mount
Vernon, and Washington on one occasion lamented "the cause which has
deprived us of your aid in the attack of Christmas pies," and on another
assured Humphreys of his "great pleasure [when] I received the intimation
of your spending the winter under this Roof. The invitation was not less
sincere, than the reception will be cordial. The only stipulations I shall
contend for are, that in all things you shall do as you please--I will do
the same; and that no ceremony may be used or any restraint be imposed on
any one." Humphreys was visiting him when the notification of his election
as President was received, and was the only person, except servants, who
accompanied Washington to New York. Here he continued for a time to give
his assistance, and was successively appointed Indian commissioner,
informal agent to Spain, and finally Minister to Portugal. While holding
this latter position Washington wrote to him, "When you shall think with
the poet that 'the post of honor is a private station'--& may be inclined
to enjoy yourself in my shades ... I can only tell you that you will meet
with the same cordial reception at Mount Vernon that you have always
experienced at that place," and when Humphreys answered that his coming
marriage made the visit impossible, Washington replied, "The desire of a
companion in my latter days, in whom I could confide ... induced me to
express too strongly ... the hope of having you as an inmate." On the
death of Washington, Humphreys published a poem expressing the deepest
affection and admiration for "my friend."
The longest and closest connection was that with Hamilton. This very young
and obscure officer attracted Washington's attention in the campaign of
1776, early in the next year was appointed to the staff, and quickly
became so much a favorite that Washington spoke of him as "my boy."
Whatever friendliness this implied was not, however, reciprocated by
Hamilton. After four years of service, he resigned, under circumstances to
which he pledged Washington to secrecy, and then himself, in evident
irritation, wrote as follows:
"Two days ago, the General and I passed each other on the stairs. He told
me he wanted to speak to me. I answered that I would wait upon him
immediately. I went below, and delivered Mr. Tilghman a letter to be sent
to the commissary, containing an order of a pressing and interesting
nature. Returning to the General, I was stopped on the way by the Marquis
de Lafayette, and we conversed together about a minute on a matter of
business. He can testify how impatient I was to get back, and that I left
him in a manner which, but for our intimacy would have been more than
abrupt. Instead of finding the General, as is usual, in his room, I met
him at the head of the stairs, where, accosting me in an angry tone,
'Colonel Hamilton,' said he 'you have kept me waiting at the head of the
stairs these ten minutes. I must tell you, sir, you treat me with
disrespect.' I replied without petulancy, but with decision: 'I am not
conscious of it, sir; but since you have thought it necessary to tell me
so, we part.' 'Very well, sir,' said he, 'if it be your choice,' or
something to this effect, and we separated. I sincerely believe my
absence, which gave so much umbrage, did not last two minutes. In less
than an hour after, Tilghman came to me in the General's name, assuring me
of his great confidence in my abilities, integrity, usefulness, etc, and
of his desire, in a candid conversation, to heal a difference which could
not have happened but in a moment of passion. I requested Mr Tilghman to
tell him--1st. That I had taken my resolution in a manner not to be
revoked ... Thus we stand ... Perhaps you may think I was precipitate in
rejecting the overture made by the General to an accomodation. I assure
you, my dear sir, it was not the effect of resentment; it was the
deliberate result of maxims I had long formed for the government of my own
conduct.... I believe you know the place I held in the General's
confidence and counsels, which will make more extraordinary to you to
learn that for three years past I have felt no friendship for him and have
professed none. The truth is, our dispositions are the opposites of each
other, and the pride of my temper would not suffer me to profess what I
did not feel. Indeed, when advances of this kind have been made to me on
his part, they were received in a manner that showed at least that I had
no desire to court them, and that I desired to stand rather upon a footing
of military confidence than of private attachment."
Had Washington been the man this letter described he would never have
forgiven this treatment. On the contrary, only two months later, when
compelled to refuse for military reasons a favor Hamilton asked, he said
that "my principal concern arises from an apprehension that you will
impute my refusal to your request to other motives." On this refusal
Hamilton enclosed his commission to Washington, but "Tilghman came to me
in his name, pressed me to retain my commission, with an assurance that he
would endeavor, by all means, to give me a command." Later Washington did
more than Hamilton himself had asked, when he gave him the leading of the
storming party at Yorktown, a post envied by every officer in the army.
Apparently this generosity lessened Hamilton's resentment, for a
correspondence on public affairs was maintained from this time on, though
Madison stated long after "that Hamilton often spoke disparagingly of
Washington's talents, particularly after the Revolution and at the first
part of the presidentcy," and Benjamin Rush confirms this by a note to the
effect that "Hamilton often spoke with contempt of General Washington. He
said that ... his heart was a stone." The rumor of the ill feeling was
turned to advantage by Hamilton's political opponents in 1787, and
compelled the former to appeal to Washington to save him from the injury
the story was doing. In response Washington wrote a letter intended for
public use, in which he said,--
"As you say it is insinuated by some of your political adversaries,
and may obtain credit, 'that you _palmed_ yourself upon me, and was
_dismissed_ from my family,' and call upon me to do you justice by a
recital of the facts, I do therefore explicitly declare, that both charges
are entirely unfounded. With respect to the first, I have no cause to
believe, that you took a single step to accomplish, or had the most
distant idea of receiving an appointment in my family till you were
invited in it; and, with respect to the second, that your quitting it was
altogether the effect of your own choice."
With the appointment as Secretary of the Treasury warmer feelings were
developed. Hamilton became the President's most trusted official, and was
tireless in the aid he gave his superior. Even after he left office he
performed many services equivalent to official ones, for which Washington
did "not know how to thank" him "sufficiently," and the President leaned
on his judgment to an otherwise unexampled extent. This service produced
affection and respect, and in 1792 Washington wrote from Mount Vernon, "We
have learnt ... that you have some thoughts of taking a trip this way. I
felt pleasure at hearing it, and hope it is unnecessary to add, that it
would be considerably increased by seeing you under this roof; for you may
be assured of the sincere and affectionate regard of yours, &c." and
signed other letters "always and affectionately yours," or "very
affectionately," while Hamilton reciprocated by sending "affectionate
attachment."
On being appointed lieutenant-general in 1798, Washington at once sought
the aid of Hamilton for the highest position under him, assuring the
Secretary of War that "of the abilities and fitness of the gentleman you
have named for a high command in the _provisional army_, I think as you
do, and that his services ought to be secured at almost any price." To
this the President, who hated Hamilton, objected, but Washington refused
to take the command unless this wish was granted, and Adams had to give
way. They stood in this relation when Washington died, and almost the last
letter he penned was to this friend. On learning of the death, Hamilton
wrote of "our beloved Commander-in-chief,"--
"The very painful event ... filled my heart with bitterness. Perhaps no
man in this community has equal cause with myself to deplore the loss. I
have been much indebted to the kindness of the General, and he was an
_Ægis very essential to me_. But regrets are unavailing. For great
misfortunes it is the business of reason to seek consolation. The friends
of General Washington have very noble ones. If virtue can secure happiness
in another world, he is happy."
Knox was the earliest army friend of those who rose to the rank of
general, and was honored by Washington with absolute trust. After the war
the two corresponded, and Knox expressed "unalterable affection" for the
"thousand evidences of your friendship." He was appointed Secretary of War
in the first administration, and in taking command of the provisional army
Washington secured his appointment as a major-general, and at this time
asserted that, "with respect to General Knox I can say with truth there is
no man in the United States with whom I have been in habits of greater
intimacy, no one whom I have loved more sincerely nor any for whom I have
had a greater friendship."
Greene was perhaps the closest to Washington of all the generals, and
their relations might be dwelt upon at much length. But the best evidence
of friendship is in Washington's treatment of a story involving his
financial honesty, of which he said, "persuaded as I always have been of
Genl Greene's integrity and worth, I spurned those reports which tended to
calumniate his conduct ... being perfectly convinced that whenever the
matter should be investigated, his motives ... would appear pure and
unimpeachable." When on Greene's death Washington heard that his family
was left in embarrassed circumstances, he offered, if Mrs. Greene would
"entrust my namesake G. Washington Greene to my care, I will give him as
good an education as this country (I mean the United States) will afford,
and will bring him up to either of the genteel professions that his frds.
may chuse, or his own inclination shall lead him to pursue, at my own cost
& expence."
For "Light-horse Harry" Lee an affection more like that given to the
youngsters of the staff was felt Long after the war was over, Lee began a
letter to him "Dear General," and then continued,--
"Although the exalted station, which your love of us and our love of you
has placed you in, calls for change in mode of address, yet I cannot so
quickly relinquish the old manner. Your military rank holds its place in
my mind, notwithstanding your civic glory; and, whenever I do abandon the
title which used to distinguish you, I shall do it with awkwardness.... My
reluctance to trespass a moment on your time would have operated to a
further procrastination of my wishes, had I not been roused above every
feeling of ceremony by the heart rending intelligence, received yesterday,
that your life was despaired of. Had I had wings in the moment, I should
have wafted myself to your bedside, only again to see the first of men;
but alas! despairing as I was, from the account received, after the
affliction of one day and night, I was made most happy by receiving a
letter, now before me from New York, announcing the restoration of your
health. May heaven preserve it!"
It was Lee who first warned Washington that Jefferson was slandering him
in secret, and who kept him closely informed as to the political manuvres
in Virginia. Washington intrusted to him the command of the army in the
Whiskey Insurrection, and gave him an appointment in the provisional army.
Lee was in Congress when the death of the great American was announced to
that body, and it was he who coined the famous "First in war, first in
peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
As need hardly be said, however, the strongest affection among the general
officers was that between Washington and Lafayette. In the advent of this
young Frenchman the commander saw only "embarassment," but he received
"the young volunteer," so Lafayette said, "in the most friendly manner,"
invited him to reside in his house as a member of his military family, and
as soon as he came to know him he recommended Congress to give him a
command. As Lafayette became popular with the army, an endeavor was
made by the Cabal to win him to their faction by bribing him with an
appointment to lead an expedition against Canada, independent of control
by Washington. Lafayette promptly declined the command, unless subject to
the General, and furthermore he "braved the whole party (Cabal) and threw
them into confusion by making them drink the health of their general." At
the battle of Monmouth Washington gave the command of the attacking party
to Lafayette, and after the conflict the two, according to the latter,
"passed the night lying on the same mantle, talking." In the same way
Washington distinguished him by giving him the command of the expedition
to rescue Virginia from Cornwallis, and to his division was given the
most honorable position at Yorktown. When the siege of that place was
completed, Lafayette applied for leave of absence to spend the winter in
France, and as he was on the point of sailing he received a personal
letter from Washington, for "I owe it to friendship and to my affectionate
regard for you my dear Marquis, not to let you leave this country without
carrying fresh marks of my attachment to you," and in his absence
Washington wrote that a mutual friend who bore a letter "can tell you more
forcibly, than I can express how much we all love and wish to embrace
you."
A reunion came in 1784, looked forward to by Lafayette with an eagerness
of which he wrote, "by Sunday or Monday, I hope at last to be blessed with
a sight of my dear General. There is no rest for me till I go to Mount
Vernon. I long for the pleasure to embrace you, my dear General; and the
happiness of being once more with you will be so great, that no words can
ever express it. Adieu, my dear General; in a few days I shall be at Mount
Vernon, and I do already feel delighted with so charming a prospect."
After this visit was over Washington wrote, "In the moment of our
separation, upon the road as I travelled, and every hour since, I have
felt all that love, respect and attachment for you, with which length of
years, close connexion, and your merits have inspired me. I often asked
myself, as our carriages separated, whether that was the last sight I ever
should have of you?" And to this letter Lafayette replied,--
"No my beloved General, our late parting was not by any means a last
interview. My whole soul revolts at the idea; and could I harbour it an
instant, indeed, my dear General, it would make me miserable. I well see
you will never go to France. The inexpressible pleasure of embracing you
in my own house, of welcoming you in a family where your name is adored, I
do not much expect to experience; but to you I shall return, and, within
the walls of Mount Vernon, we shall yet speak of olden times. My firm plan
is to visit now and then my friend on this side of the Atlantic; and the
most beloved of all friends I ever had, or ever shall have anywhere, is
too strong an inducement for me to return to him, not to think that
whenever it is possible I shall renew my so pleasing visits to Mount
Vernon.... Adieu, adieu, my dear General. It is with inexpressible pain
that I feel I am going to be severed from you by the Atlantic. Everything,
that admiration, respect, gratitude, friendship, and fillial love, can
inspire, is combined in my affectionate heart to devote me most tenderly
to you. In your friendship I find a delight which words cannot express.
Adieu, my dear General. It is not without emotion that I write this word,
although I know I shall soon visit you again. Be attentive to your health.
Let me hear from you every month. Adieu, adieu."
The correspondence begged was maintained, but Lafayette complained that
"To one who so tenderly loves you, who so happily enjoyed the times we
have passed together, and who never, on any part of the globe, even in his
own house, could feel himself so perfectly at home as in your family, it
must be confessed that an irregular, lengthy correspondence is quite
insufficient I beseech you, in the name of our friendship, of that
paternal concern of yours for my happiness, not to miss any opportunity to
let me hear from my dear General."
One letter from Washington told Lafayette of his recovery from a serious
illness, and Lafayette responded, "What could have been my feelings, had
the news of your illness reached me before I knew my beloved General, my
adopted father, was out of danger? I was struck at the idea of the
situation you have been in, while I, uninformed and so distant from you,
was anticipating the long-waited-for pleasure to hear from you, and the
still more endearing prospect of visiting you and presenting you the
tribute of a revolution, one of your first offsprings. For God's sake, my
dear General, take care of your health!"
Presently, as the French Revolution gathered force, the anxiety was
reversed, Washington writing that "The lively interest which I take in
your welfare, my dear Sir, keeps my mind in constant anxiety for your
personal safety." This fear was only too well founded, for shortly after
Lafayette was a captive in an Austrian prison and his wife was appealing
to her husband's friend for help. Our ministers were told to do all they
could to secure his liberty, and Washington wrote a personal letter to the
Emperor of Austria. Before receiving her letter, on the first news of the
"truly affecting" condition of "poor Madame Lafayette," he had written to
her his sympathy, and, supposing that money was needed, had deposited at
Amsterdam two hundred guineas "subject to your orders."
When she and her daughters joined her husband in prison, Lafayette's son,
and Washington's godson, came to America; an arrival of which the
godfather wrote that, "to express all the sensibility, which has been
excited in my breast by the receipt of young Lafayette's letter, from the
recollection of his father's merits, services, and sufferings, from my
friendship for him, and from my wishes to become a friend and father to
his son is unnecessary." The lad became a member of the family, and a
visitor at this time records that "I was particularly struck with the
marks of affection which the General showed his pupil, his adopted son of
Marquis de Lafayette. Seated opposite to him, he looked at him with
pleasure, and listened to him with manifest interest." With Washington he
continued till the final release of his father, and a simple business note
in Washington's ledger serves to show both his delicacy and his generosity
to the boy: "By Geo. W. Fayette, gave for the purpose of his getting
himself such small articles of Clothing as he might not choose to ask for
$100." Another item in the accounts was three hundred dollars "to defray
his exps. to France," and by him Washington sent a line to his old friend,
saying, "this letter I hope and expect will be presented to you by your
son, who is highly deserving of such parents as you and your amiable
lady."
Long previous to this, too, a letter had been sent to Virginia Lafayette,
couched in the following terms:
"Permit me to thank my dear little correspondent for the favor of her
letter of the 18 of June last, and to impress her with the idea of
the pleasure I shall derive from a continuance of them. Her papa is
restored to her with all the good health, paternal affection, and honors,
which her tender heart could wish. He will carry a kiss to her from me
(which might be more agreeable from a pretty boy), and give her assurances
of the affectionate regard with which I have the pleasure of being her
well-wisher,
George Washington."
In this connection it is worth glancing at Washington's relations with
children, the more that it has been frequently asserted that he had no
liking for them. As already shown, at different times he adopted or
assumed the expenses and charge of not less than nine of the children of
his kith and kin, and to his relations with children he seldom wrote a
letter without a line about the "little ones." His kindnesses to the sons
of Ramsay, Craik, Greene, and Lafayette have already been noticed.
Furthermore, whenever death or illness came among the children of his
friends there was sympathy expressed. Dumas relates of his visit to
Providence with Washington, that "we arrived there at night; the whole of
the population had assembled from the suburbs; we were surrounded by a
crowd of children carrying torches, reiterating the acclamations of the
citizens; all were eager to approach the person of him whom they called
their father, and pressed so closely around us that they hindered us from
proceeding. General Washington was much affected, stopped a few moments,
and, pressing my hand, said, 'We may be beaten by the English; it is the
chance of war; but behold an army which they can never conquer,'"
In his journey through New England, not being able to get lodgings at an
inn, Washington spent a night in a private house, and when all payment was
refused, he wrote his host from his next stopping-place,--
"Being informed that you have given my name to one of your sons, and
called another after Mrs. Washington's family, and being moreover very
much pleased with the modest and innocent looks of your two daughters,
Patty and Polly, I do for these reasons send each of these girls a piece
of chintz; and to Patty, who bears the name of Mrs. Washington, and who
waited upon us more than Polly did, I send five guineas, with which she
may buy herself any little ornaments she may want, or she may dispose of
them in any other manner more agreeable to herself. As I do not give these
things with a view to have it talked of, or even of its being known, the
less there is said about the matter the better you will please me; but,
that I may be sure the chintz and money have got safe to hand, let Patty,
who I dare say is equal to it, write me a line informing me thereof,
directed to 'The President of the United States at New York.'"
Miss Stuart relates that "One morning while Mr. Washington was sitting for
his picture, a little brother of mine ran into the room, when my father
thinking it would annoy the General, told him he must leave; but the
General took him upon his knee, held him for some time, and had quite a
little chat with him, and, in fact, they seemed to be pleased with each
other. My brother remembered with pride, as long as he lived, that
Washington had talked with him."
For the son of his secretary, Lear, there seems to have been great
fondness, and in one instance the father was told that "It gave Mrs.
Washington, myself and all who know him, sincere pleasure to hear that our
little favorite had arrived safe, and was in good health at Portsmouth. We
sincerely wish him a long continuance of the latter--that he may always be
as charming and promising as he now is--and that he may live to be a
comfort and blessing to you, and an ornament to his country. As a
testimony of my affection for him I send him a ticket in the lottery which
is now drawing in the Federal City; and if it should be his fortune to
draw the hotel it will add to the pleasure I have in giving it." A second
letter condoled with "little Lincoln," because owing to the collapse of
the lottery the "poor little fellow" will not even get enough to "build
him a baby house."
For the father, Tobias Lear, who came into his employment in 1786 and
remained with him till his death, Washington felt the greatest affection
and trust. It was he who sent for the doctor in the beginning of the last
illness, and he was in the sickroom most of the time. Holding Washington's
hand, he received from him his last orders, and later when Washington
"appeared to be in great pain and distress from the difficulty of
breathing ... I lay upon the bed and endeavored to raise him, and turn him
with as much ease as possible. He appeared penetrated with gratitude for
my attentions, and often said 'I am afraid I shall fatigue you too much.'"
Still later Lear "aided him all in my power, and was gratified in
believing he felt it; for he would look upon me with eyes speaking
gratitude, but unable to utter a word without great distress." At the
final moment Lear took his hand "and laid it upon his breast." When all
was over, "I kissed the cold hand, laid it down, and was ... lost in
profound grief."
X
ENEMIES
Any man of force is to be known quite as much by the character of his
enemies as by that of his friends, and this is true of Washington. The
subject offers some difficulties, for most of his enemies later in life
went out of their way to deny all antagonism, and took pains to destroy
such proof as they could come at of ill-feeling towards him. Yet enough
remains to show who were in opposition to him, and on what grounds.
The first of those now known to be opposed to him was George Muse,
lieutenant-colonel in 1754 under Washington. At Fort Necessity he was
guilty of cowardice, he was discharged in disgrace, and his name was
omitted from the Assembly's vote of thanks to the regiment. Stung by this
action, he took his revenge in a manner related by Peyroney, who wrote
Washington,--
"Many enquired to me about Muse's Braveries, poor Body I had pity him
ha'nt he had the weakness to Confes his Coardise himself, & the impudence
to taxe all the reste of the oficers without exception of the same
imperfection for he said to many of the Consulars and Burgeses that he was
Bad But th' the reste was as Bad as he--To speak francly, had I been in
town at that time I cou'nt help'd to make use of my horses [whip] whereas
for to vindicate the injury of that vilain. He Contrived his Business so
that several ask me if it was true that he had Challeng'd you to fight: My
Answer was no other But that he should rather chuse to go to hell than
doing of it--for he had Such thing declar'd: that was his Sure Road."
Washington seems to have cherished no personal ill-will for Muse's
conduct, and when the division of the "bounty lands" was being pushed, he
used his influence that the broken officer should receive a quotum. Not
knowing this, or else being ungrateful, Muse seems to have written a
letter to Washington which angered him, for he replied,--
"Sir, Your impertinent letter was delivered to me yesterday. As I am not
accustomed to receive such from any man, nor would have taken the same
language from you personally, without letting you feel some marks of my
resentment, I would advise you to be cautious in writing me a second of
the same tenor. But for your stupidity and sottishness you might have
known, by attending to the public gazette, that you had your full quantity
of ten thousand acres of land allowed you, that is, nine thousand and
seventy-three acres in the great tract, and the remainder in the small
tract. But suppose you had really fallen short, do you think your
superlative merit entitles you to greater indulgence than others? Or, if
it did, that I was to make it good to you, when it was at the option of
the Governor and Council to allow but five hundred acres in the whole, if
they had been so inclined? If either of these should happen to be your
opinion, I am very well convinced that you will be singular in it; and all
my concern is, that I ever engaged in behalf of so ungrateful a fellow as
you are. But you may still be in need of my assistance, as I can inform
you, that your affairs, in respect to these lands, do not stand upon so
solid a basis as you imagine, and this you may take by way of hint. I
wrote to you a few days ago concerning the other distribution, proposing
an easy method of dividing our lands; but since I find in what temper you
are, I am sorry I took the trouble of mentioning the land or your name in
a letter, as I do not think you merit the least assistance from me."
The Braddock campaign brought acquaintance with one which did not end in
friendship, however amicable the beginning. There can be little doubt
that there was cameraderie with the then Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, for in
1773, when in New York for four days, Washington "Dined with Gen. Gage,"
and also "dined at the entertainment given by the citizens of New
York to Genl. Gage." When next intercourse was resumed, it was by
formal correspondence between the commanders-in-chief of two hostile
armies, Washington inquiring as to the treatment of prisoners, and
as a satisfactory reply was not obtained, he wrote again, threatening
retaliation, and "closing my correspondence with you, perhaps forever,"
--a letter which Charles Lee thought "a very good one, but Gage certainly
deserved a stronger one, such as it was before it was softened." One
cannot but wonder what part the old friendship played in this "softening."
Relations with the Howes began badly by a letter from Lord Howe addressed
"George Washington, Esq.," which Washington declined to receive as not
recognizing his official position. A second one to "George Washington,
Esq. &c. &c. &c." met with the same fate, and brought the British officer
"to change my superscription." A little after this brief war of forms, a
letter from Washington to his wife was intercepted with others by the
enemy, and General Howe enclosed it, "happy to return it without the least
attempt being made to discover any part of the contents." This courtesy
the American commander presently was able to reciprocate by sending
"General Washington's compliments to General Howe,--does himself the
pleasure to return to him a dog, which accidentally fell into his hands,
and, by the inscription on the collar, appears to belong to General Howe."
Even politeness had its objections, however, at moments, and Washington
once had to write Sir William,--
"There is one passage of your letter, which I cannot forbear taking
particular notice of. No expression of personal politeness to me can be
acceptable, accompanied by reflections on the representatives of a free
people, under whose authority I have the honor to act. The delicacy I have
observed, in refraining from everything offensive in this way, entitles me
to expect a similar treatment from you. I have not indulged myself in
invective against the present rulers of Great Britain, in the course of
our correspondence, nor will I even now avail myself of so fruitful a
theme."
Apparently when Sir Henry Clinton succeeded to the command of the British
army the same old device to insult the General was again tried, for Dumas
states that Washington "received a despatch from Sir Henry Clinton,
addressed to 'Mr. Washington.' Taking it from the hands of the flag of
truce, and seeing the direction, 'This letter,' said he, 'is directed to a
planter of the state of Virginia. I shall have it delivered to him after
the end of the war; till that time it shall not be opened.' A second
despatch was addressed to his Excellency General Washington." A better
lesson in courtesy was contained in a letter from Washington to him,
complaining of "wanton, unprecedented and inhuman murder," which closed
with the following: "I beg your Excellency to be persuaded, that it cannot
be more disagreeable to you to be addressed in this language, than it is
to me to offer it; but the subject requires frankness and decision."
Quite as firm was one addressed to Cornwallis, which read,--
"It is with infinite regret, I am again compelled to remonstrate against
that spirit of wanton cruelty, that has in several instances influenced
the conduct of your soldiery. A recent exercise of it towards an unhappy
officer of ours, Lieutenant Harris, convinces me, that my former
representations on this subject have been unavailing. That Gentleman by
the fortunes of war, on Saturday last was thrown into the hands of a party
of your horse, and unnecessarily murdered with the most aggravated
circumstances of barbarity. I wish not to wound your Lordship's feelings,
by commenting on this event; but I think it my duty to send his mangled
body to your lines as an undeniable testimony of the fact, should it be
doubted, and as the best appeal to your humanity for the justice of our
complaint."
A pleasanter intercourse came with the surrender of Yorktown, after which
not merely were Cornwallis and his officers saved the mortification of
surrendering their swords, but the chief among them were entertained at
dinner by Washington. At this meal, so a contemporary account states,
"Rochhambeau, being asked for a toast, gave _'The United States'_.
Washington gave _'The King of France'_. Lord Cornwallis, simply _'The
King'_; but Washington, putting that toast, added, _'of England'_, and
facetiously, _'confine him there, I'll drink him a full bumper'_, filling
his glass till it ran over. Rochambeau, with great politeness, was still
so French, that he would every now and then be touching on points that
were improper, and a breach of real politeness. Washington often checked
him, and showed in a more saturnine manner, the infinite esteem he had for
his gallant prisoner, whose private qualities the Americans admired even
in a foe, that had so often filled them with the most cruel alarms." Many
years later, when Cornwallis was governor-general of India, he sent a
verbal message to his old foe, wishing "General Washington a long
enjoyment of tranquility and happiness," adding that for himself he
"continued in troubled waters."
[Illustration: MRS WASHINGTON]
Turning from these public rather than personal foes, a very different type
of enemies is encountered in those inimical to Washington in his own army.
Chief of these was Horatio Gates, with whom Washington had become
acquainted in the Braddock campaign, and with whom there was friendly
intercourse from that time until the Revolution. In 1775, at Washington's
express solicitation, Gates was appointed adjutant- and brigadier-general,
and in a letter thanking Washington for the favor he professed to have
"the greatest respect for your character and the sincerest attachment to
your person." Nevertheless, he very early in the war suggested that a
committee of Congress be sent to camp to keep watch on Washington, and as
soon as he was in a separate command he began to curry favor with Congress
and scheme against his commander. This was not unknown to Washington, who
afterwards wrote, "I discovered very early in the war symptoms of coldness
& constraint in General Gates' behavior to me. These increased as he rose
into greater consequence."
When Burgoyne capitulated to Gates, he sent the news to Congress and not
to Washington, and though he had no further need for troops the
commander-in-chief had sent him, he endeavored to prevent their return at a
moment when every man was needed in the main army. His attitude towards
Washington was so notorious that his friends curried favor with him by
letters criticising the commander, and when, by chance, the General
learned of the contents of one of these letters, and news to that effect
reached the ears of Gates, he practically charged Washington with having
obtained his knowledge by dishonorable means; but Washington more than
repaid the insult, in telling Gates how he had learned of the affair, by
adding that he had "considered the information as coming from yourself,
and given with a friendly view to forewarn and consequently forearm me,
against a secret enemy ... but in this, as in other matters of late, I
have found myself mistaken." Driven to the wall, Gates wrote to Washington
a denial that the letter contained the passage in question, which was an
absolute lie, and this untruth typifies his character. Without expressing
either belief or disbelief in this denial, Washington replied,--
"I am as averse to controversy as any man, and had I not been forced into
it, you never would have had occasion to impute to me, even the shadow of
disposition towards it. Your repeatedly and solemnly disclaiming any
offensive views in those matters, which have been the subject of our past
correspondence makes me willing to close with the desire, you express, of
burying them hereafter in silence, and, as far as future events will
permit, oblivion. My temper leads me to peace and harmony with all men;
and it is peculiarly my wish to avoid any personal feuds or dissentions
with those who are embarked in the same great national interest with,
myself; as every difference of this kind must in its consequence be very
injurious."
After this affair subsided, Washington said,--
"I made a point of treating Gen. Gates with all the attention and
cordiality in my power, as well from a sincere desire of harmony, as from
an unwillingness to give any cause of triumph among ourselves. I can
appeal to the world, and to the whole army, whether I have not cautiously
avoided offending Gen. Gates in any way. I am sorry his conduct to me has
not been equally generous, and that he is continually giving me fresh
proofs of malevolence and opposition. It will not be doing him injustice
to say, that, besides the little underhand intrigues which he is
frequently practising, there has hardly been any great military question,
in which his advice has been asked, that it has not been given in an
equivocal and designing manner, apparently calculated to afford him an
opportunity of censuring me, on the failure of whatever measures might be
adopted."
After the defeat of Gates at Camden, the Prince de Broglie wrote that "I
saw General Gates at the house of General Washington, with whom he had had
a misunderstanding.... This interview excited the curiosity of both
armies. It passed with a most perfect propriety on the part of both
gentlemen. Mr. Washington treated Mr. Gates with a politeness which had a
frank and easy air, while the other responded with that shade of respect
which was proper towards his general." And how fair-minded Washington
was is shown by his refusal to interfere in an army matter, because,
"considering the delicate situation in which I stand with respect to
General Gates, I feel an unwillingness to give any opinion (even in a
confidential way) in a matter in which he is concerned, lest my sentiments
(being known) should have unfavorable interpretations ascribed to them by
illiberal Minds." Yet the friendship was never restored, and when the two
after the war were associated in the Potomac company, Washington's sense
of the old treachery was still so keen that he alluded to the appointment
of "my bosom friend Genl G-tes, who being at Richmond, contrived to edge
himself in to the commission."
Thomas Conway was Washington's traducer to Gates. He was an Irish-French
soldier of fortune who unfortunately had been made a brigadier-general in
the Continental army. Having made friends of the New England delegates in
Congress, it was then proposed by them to advance him to the rank of
major-general, which Washington opposed, on the grounds that "his merit
and importance exist more in his imagination than in reality." For the
moment this was sufficient to prevent Conway's promotion, and even if he
had not before been opposed to his commander, he now became his bitter
enemy. To more than Gates he said or wrote, "A great & good God has
decreed that America shall be free, or Washington and weak counsellors
would have ruined her long ago." Upon word of this reaching Washington, so
Laurens tells, "The genl immediately copied the contents of the paper,
introducing them with 'sir,' and concluding with, 'I am your humble
servt,' and sent this copy in the form of a letter to Genl Conway. This
drew an answer, in which he first attempts to deny the fact, and then in a
most shameless manner, to explain away the matter. The perplexity of his
style, and evident insincerity of his compliments, betray his weak
sentiments, and expose his guilt."
Yet, though detected, Conway complained to the Continental Congress that
Washington was not treating him properly, and in reply to an inquiry from
a member the General acknowledged that,--
"If General Conway means by cool receptions mentioned in the last
paragraph of his letter of the 31st ultimo, that I did not receive him in
the language of a warm and cordial friend, I readily confess the charge. I
did not, nor shall I ever, till I am capable of the arts of dissimulation.
These I despise, and my feelings will not permit me to make professions of
friendship to the man I deem my enemy, and whose system of conduct forbids
it. At the same time, truth authorizes me to say, that he was received and
treated with proper respect to his official character, and that he has had
no cause to justify the assertion, that he could not expect any support
for fulfilling the duties of his appointment."
In spite of Washington's opposition, Conway's friends were numerous enough
in the Congress finally to elect him major-general, at the same time
appointing him inspector-general. Elated with this evident partiality of
the majority of that body for him, he went even further, and Laurens
states that he was guilty of a "base insult" to Washington, which "affects
the General very sensibly," and he continues,--
"It is such an affront as Conway would never have dared to offer, if the
General's situation had not assured him of the impossibility of its being
revenged in a private way. The Genl, therefore, has determined to return
him no answer at all, but to lay the whole matter before Congress; they
will determine whether Genl W. is to be sacrificed to Genl. C., for the
former can never consent to be concern'd in any transaction with the
latter, from whom he has received such unpardonable insults."
Fortunately, Conway did not limit his "insulting letters" to the
commander-in-chief alone, and presently he sent one to Congress
threatening to resign, which so angered that body that they took him at
his word. Moreover, his open abuse of Washington led an old-time friend of
the latter to challenge him, and to lodge a ball, with almost poetic
justice, in Conway's mouth. Thinking himself on the point of death, he
wrote a farewell line to Washington "expressing my sincere grief for
having done, written or said anything disagreeable to your
Excellency.... You are in my eyes a great and good man." And with this
recantation he disappeared from the army. A third officer in this "cabal"
was Thomas Mifflin. He was the first man appointed on Washington's staff at
the beginning of the war, but did not long remain in that position, being
promoted by Washington to be quartermaster-general. In this position the
rumor reached the General that Mifflin was "concerned in trade," and
Washington took "occasion to hint" the suspicion to him, only to get a
denial from the officer. Whether this inquiry was a cause for ill-feeling
or not, Mifflin was one of the most outspoken against the
commander-in-chief as his opponents gathered force, and Washington informed
Henry that he "bore the second part in the cabal." Mifflin resigned from
the army and took a position on the board of war, but when the influence of
that body broke down with the collapse of the Cabal, he applied for a
reappointment,--a course described by Washington in plain English as
follows:
"I was not a little surprised to find a certain gentleman, who, some time
ago (when a cloud of darkness hung heavy over us, and our affairs looked
gloomy,) was desirous of resigning, now stepping forward in the line of
the army. But if he can reconcile such conduct to his own, feelings, as an
officer and a man of honor, and Congress hath no objections to his leaving
his seat in another department, I have nothing personally to oppose it.
Yet I must think, that gentleman's stepping in and out, as the sun happens
to beam forth or obscure, is not _quite_ the thing, nor _quite_ just, with
respect to those officers, who take ye bitter with the sweet."
Not long after Greene wrote that "I learn that General Mifflin has
publicly declared that he looked upon his Excellency as the best friend he
ever had in his life, so that is a plain sign that the Junto has given up
all ideas of supplanting our excellent general from a confidence of the
impracticability of such an attempt."
A very minor but most malignant enemy was Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1774
Washington dined with him in Philadelphia, which implied friendship.
Very early in the war, however, an attempt was made to remove the
director-general of hospitals, in which, so John Armstrong claimed,
"Morgan was the ostensible--Rush the real prosecutor of Shippen--the
former acting from revenge,... the latter from a desire to obtain the
directorship. In approving the sentence of the court, Washington
stigmatized the prosecution as one originating in bad motives, which made
Rush his enemy and defamer as long as he lived." Certain it is he wrote
savage letters of criticism about his commander-in-chief of which the
following extract is a sample:
"I have heard several officers who have served under General Gates compare
his army to a well regulated family. The same gentlemen have compared
Gen'l Washington's imitation of an army to an unformed mob. Look at the
characters of both! The one on the pinnacle of military glory--exulting in
the success of schemes planned with wisdom, & executed with vigor and
bravery--and above all see a country saved by his exertions. See the other
outgeneral'd and twice heated--obliged to witness the march of a body of
men only half their number thro' 140 Miles of a thick settled country--
forced to give up a city the capitol of a state & after all outwitted by
the same army in a retreat."
Had Rush written only this, there would be no grounds for questioning his
methods; but, not content with spreading his opinions among his friends,
he took to anonymous letter-writing, and sent an unsigned letter abusing
Washington to the governor of Virginia (and probably to others), with the
request that the letter should be burned. Instead of this, Henry sent it
to Washington, who recognized at once the handwriting, and wrote to Henry
that Rush "has been elaborate and studied in his professions of regard to
me, and long since the letter to you." An amusing sequel to this incident
is to be found in Rush moving heaven and earth on the publication of
Marshall's "Life of Washington" to prevent his name from appearing as one
of the commander-in-chief's enemies.
After the collapse of the attempt Washington wrote to a friend, "I thank
you sincerely for the part you acted at York respecting C---y, and believe
with you that matters have and will turn out very different to what that
party expected. G---s has involved himself in his letters to me in the
most absurd contradictions. M--- has brought himself into a scrape that he
does not know how to get out of with a gentleman of this State, and C---,
as you know is sent upon an expedition which all the world knew, and the
event has proved, was not practicable. In a word, I have a good deal of
reason to believe that the machination of this junta will recoil upon
their own heads, and be a means of bringing some matters to light which,
by getting me out of the way, some of them thought to conceal."
Undoubtedly the most serious army antagonist was General Charles Lee, and,
but for what seem almost fatalistic chances, he would have been a
dangerous rival. He was second in command very early in the war, and at
this time he asserted that "no man loves, respects and reverences another
more than I do General Washington. I esteem his virtues, private and
public. I know him to be a man of sense, courage and firmness." But four
months later he was lamenting Washington's "fatal indecision," and by
inference was calling him "a blunderer." In another month he wrote,
"_entre nous_ a certain great man is most damnably deficient." At this
point, fortunately, Lee was captured by the British, so that his influence
for the time being was destroyed. While a prisoner he drew up a plan for
the English general, showing how America could be conquered.
When he had been exchanged, and led the American advance at the battle of
Monmouth, he seems to have endeavored to aid the British in another way,
for after barely engaging, he ordered a retreat, which quickly developed
into a rout, and would have ended in a serious defeat had not, as Laurens
wrote, "fortunately for the honor of the army, and the welfare of America,
Genl Washington met the troops retreating in disorder, and without any
plan to make an opposition. He ordered some pieces of artillery to be
brought up to defend the pass, and some troops to form and defend the
pieces. The artillery was too distant to be brought up readily, so that
there was but little opposition given here. A few shot though, and a
little skirmishing in the wood checked the enemy's career. The Genl
expressed his astonishment at this unaccountable retreat Mr. Lee
indecently replied that the attack was contrary to his advice and opinion
in council."
In a fit of temper Lee wrote Washington two imprudent letters, expressed
"in terms [so] highly improper" that he was ordered under arrest and tried
by a court-martial, which promptly found him guilty of disobedience and
disrespect, as well as of making a "disorderly and unnecessary retreat."
To this Lee retorted, "I aver that his Excellencies letter was from
beginning to the end a most abominable lie--I aver that my conduct will
stand the strictest scrutiny of every military judge--I aver that my Court
Martial was a Court of Inquisition--that there was not a single member
with a military idea--at least if I may pronounce from the different
questions they put to the evidences."
In this connection it is of interest to note a letter from Washington's
friend Mason, which said, "You express a fear that General Lee will
challenge our friend. Indulge in no such apprehensions, for he too well
knows the sentiments of General Washington on the subject of duelling.
From his earliest manhood I have heard him express his contempt of the man
who sends and the man who accepts a challenge, for he regards such acts as
no proof of moral courage; and the practice he abhors as a relic of old
barbarisms, repugnant alike to sound morality and Christian
enlightenment."
A little later, still smarting from this court-martial, Lee wrote to a
newspaper a savage attack on his late commander, apparently in the belief,
as he said in a private letter, that "there is ... a visible
revolution ... in the minds of men, I mean that our Great Gargantua, or
Lama Babak (for I know not which Title is the properest) begins to be no
longer consider'd as an infallible Divinity--and that those who have been
sacrificed or near sacrific'd on his altar, begin to be esteem'd as
wantonly and foolishly offer'd up." Lee very quickly found his mistake,
for the editor of the paper which contained his attack was compelled by a
committee of citizens to publish an acknowledgment that in printing it "I
have transgressed against truth, justice and my duty as a good citizen,"
and, as Washington wrote to a friend, "the author of the Queries,
'Political and Military,' has had no cause to exult in the favorable
reception of them by the public." With Lee's disappearance the last army
rival dropped from the ranks, and from that time there was no question as
to who should command the armies of America. Long after, a would-be editor
of Lee's papers wrote to Washington to ask if he had any wishes in regard
to the publication, and was told in the reply that,--
"I never had a difference with that gentleman, but on public ground, and
my conduct towards him upon this occasion was such only, as I conceived
myself indispensably bound to adopt in discharge of the public trust
reposed in me. If this produced in him unfavorable sentiments of me, I yet
can never consider the conduct I pursued, with respect to him, either
wrong or improper, however I may regret that it may have been differently
viewed by him and that it excited his censure and animadversions. Should
there appear in General Lee's writings any thing injurious or unfriendly
to me, the impartial and dispassionate world must decide how far I
deserved it from the general tenor of my conduct."
These attempts to undermine Washington owed their real vitality to the
Continental Congress, and it is safe to say that but for Washington's
political enemies no army rival would have ventured to push forward. In
what the opposition in that body consisted, and to what length it went,
are discussed elsewhere, but a glance at the reasons of hostility to him
is proper here.
John Adams declared himself "sick of the Fabian systems," and in writing
of the thanksgiving for the Saratoga Convention, he said that "one cause
of it ought to be that the glory of turning the tide of arms is not
immediately due to the commander-in-chief.... If it had, idolatry and
adulation would have been unbounded." James Lovell asserted that "Our
affairs are Fabiused into a very disagreeable posture," and wrote that
"depend upon it for every ten soldiers placed under the command of our
Fabius, five recruits will be wanted annually during the war." William
Williams agreed with Jonathan Trumbull that the time had come when "a much
exalted character should make way for a _general_" and suggested if this
was not done "voluntarily," those to whom the public looked should "see to
it." Abraham Clark thought "we may talk of the Enemy's Cruelty as we will,
but we have no greater Cruelty to complain of than the Management of our
Army." Jonathan D. Sargent asserted that "we want a general--thousands of
Lives & Millions of Property are yearly sacrificed to the Insufficiency
of our Commander-in-Chief--Two Battles he has lost for us by two such
Blunders as might have disgraced a Soldier of three months standing, and
yet we are so attached to this Man that I fear we shall rather sink
with him than throw him off our Shoulders. And sink we must under his
Management. Such Feebleness, & Want of Authority, such Confusion & Want of
Discipline, such Waste, such destruction would exhaust the Wealth of both
the Indies & annihilate the armies of all Europe and Asia." Richard
Henry Lee agreed with Mifflin that Gates was needed to "procure the
indispensable changes in our Army." Other Congressmen who were inimical to
Washington, either by openly expressed opinion or by vote, were Elbridge
Gerry, Samuel Adams, William Ellery, Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sherman, Samuel
Chase, and F.L. Lee. Later, when Washington's position was more secure,
Gerry and R.H. Lee wrote to him affirming their friendship, and to both
the General replied without a suggestion of ill-feeling, nor does he seem,
in later life, to have felt a trace of personal animosity towards any one
of the men who had been in opposition to him in Congress. Of this enmity
in the army and Congress Washington wrote,--
"It is easy to bear the first, and even the devices of private enemies
whose ill will only arises from their common hatred to the cause we are
engaged in, are to me tolerable; yet, I confess, I cannot help feeling the
most painful sensations, whenever I have reason to believe I am the object
of persecution to men, who are embarked in the same general interest, and
whose friendship my heart does not reproach me with, ever having done any
thing to forfeit. But with many, it is a sufficient cause to hate and wish
the ruin of a man, because he has been happy enough, to be the object of
_his country's_ favor."
The political course of Washington while President produced the alienation
of the two Virginians whom he most closely associated with himself in the
early part of his administration. With Madison the break does not seem to
have come from any positive ill-feeling, but was rather an abandonment of
intercourse as the differences of opinion became more pronounced. The
disagreement with Jefferson was more acute, though probably never forced
to an open rupture. To his political friends Jefferson in 1796 wrote that
the measures pursued by the administration were carried out "under the
sanction of a name which has done too much good not to be sufficient to
cover harm also," and that he hoped the President's "honesty and his
political errors may not furnish a second occasion to exclaim, 'curse on
his virtues, they've undone his country.'" Henry Lee warned Washington of
the undercurrent of criticism, and when Jefferson heard indirectly of this
he wrote his former chief that "I learn that [Lee] has thought it worth
his while to try to sow tares between you and me, by representing me as
still engaged in the bustle of politics & in turbulence & intrigue against
the government. I never believed for a moment that this could make any
impression on you, or that your knowledge of me would not overweigh the
slander of an intriguer dirtily employed in sifting the conversations of
my table." To this Washington replied,--
"As you have mentioned the subject yourself, it would not be frank, candid
or friendly to conceal, that your conduct has been represented as
derogating from that opinion _I_ had conceived you entertained of me;
that, to your particular friends and connexions you have described, and
they have denounced me as a person under a dangerous influence; and that,
if I would listen more to some _other_ opinions, all would be well. My
answer invariably has been, that I had never discovered any thing in
the conduct of Mr. Jefferson to raise suspicions in my mind of his
insincerity; that, if he would retrace my public conduct while he was in
the administration, abundant proofs would occur to him, that truth and
right decisions were the _sole_ objects of my pursuit; that there was as
many instances within his own knowledge of my having decided _against_ as
in _favor_ of the opinions of the person evidently alluded to; and, I was
no believer in the infallibility of the politics or measures of _any man
living_. In short that I was no party man myself and the first wish of my
heart was, if parties did exist, to reconcile them."
As proof upon proof of Jefferson's secret enmity accumulated, Washington
ceased to trust his disclaimers, and finally wrote to one of his
informants, "Nothing short of the evidence you have adduced, corroborative
of intimations which I had received long before through another channel,
could have shaken my belief in the sincerity of a friendship, which I had
conceived as possessed for me by the person to whom you allude. But
attempts to injure those, who are supposed to stand well in the estimation
of the people, and are stumbling blocks in the way, by misrepresenting
their political tenets, thereby to destroy all confidence in them, are
among the means by which the government is to be assailed, and the
constitution destroyed."
Once convinced, all relations with Jefferson were terminated. It is
interesting in this connection to note something repeated by Madison, to
the effect that "General Lafayette related to me the following anecdote,
which I shall repeat as nearly as I can in his own words. 'When I last saw
Mr. Jefferson,' he observed, 'we conversed a good deal about General
Washington, and Mr. Jefferson expressed high admiration of his character.
He remarked particularly that he and Hamilton often disagreed when they
were members of the Cabinet, and that General Washington would sometimes
favor the opinion of one and sometimes the other, with an apparent strict
impartiality. And Mr. Jefferson added that, so sound was Washington's
judgment, that he was commonly convinced afterwards of the accuracy of his
decision, whether it accorded with the opinion he had himself first
advanced or not.'"
[Illustration: EARLIEST SIGNATURE OF WASHINGTON]
A third Virginian who was almost as closely associated was Edmund
Randolph. There had been a friendship with his father, until he turned
Tory and went to England, when, according to Washington's belief, he wrote
the "forged letters" which gave Washington so much trouble. For the sake
of the old friendship, however, he gave the son a position on his staff,
and from that time was his friend and correspondent. In the first
administration he was made Attorney-General, and when Jefferson retired
from office he became Secretary of State. In this position he was charged
with political dishonesty. Washington gave him a chance to explain,
but instead he resigned from office and published what he called "a
vindication," in which he charged the President with "prejudging,"
"concealment," and "want of generosity." Continuing, he said,
"never ... could I have believed that in addressing you ... I should use
any other language than that of a friend. From my early period of life, I
was taught to esteem you--as I advanced in years, I was habituated to
revere you:--you strengthened my prepossessions by marks of attention." And
in another place he acknowledged the weakness of his attack by saying,
"still however, those very objections, the very reputation which you have
acquired, will cause it to be asked, why you should be suspected of acting
towards me, in any other manner, than deliberately, justly and even
kindly?"
In the preparation of this pamphlet Randolph wrote the President a letter
which the latter asserted was "full of innuendoes," and one statement in
the pamphlet he denounced as being "as impudent and insolent an assertion
as it is false." And his irritation at this treatment from one he had
always befriended gave rise to an incident, narrated by James Ross, at a
breakfast at the President's, when "after a little while the Secretary of
War came in, and said to Washington, 'Have you seen Mr. Randolph's
pamphlet?' 'I have,' said Washington, 'and, by the eternal God, he is the
damnedest liar on the face of the earth!' and as he spoke he brought his
fist down upon the table with all his strength, and with a violence which
made the cups and plates start from their places." Fortunately, the attack
was ineffective; indeed, Hamilton wrote that "I consider it as amounting
to a confession of guilt; and I am persuaded this will be the universal
opinion. His attempts against you are viewed by all whom I have seen, as
base. They will certainly fail of their aim, and will do good rather than
harm, to the public cause and to yourself. It appears to me that, by you,
no notice can be, or ought to be, taken of the publication. It contains
its own antidote."
Not content with this double giving up of what to any man of honor was
confidential, Randolph, a little later, rested under Washington's
suspicions of a third time breaking the seal of official secrecy by
sending a Cabinet paper to the newspapers for no other purpose than to
stir up feeling against Washington. But after his former patron's death
regret came, and Randolph wrote to Bushrod Washington, "If I could now
present myself before your venerated uncle it would be my pride to confess
my contrition that I suffered my irritation, be the cause what it might,
to use some of those expressions respecting him which, at this moment ... I
wish to recall as being inconsistent with my subsequent convictions."
Another type of enemy, more or less the result of this differing with
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Randolph, was sundry editors and writers
who gathered under their patronage and received aids of money or of secret
information. One who prospered for a time by abusing Washington was Philip
Freneau. He was a college friend of Madison's, and was induced to
undertake the task by his and Jefferson's urging, though the latter denied
this later. As aid to the undertaking, Jefferson, then Secretary of State,
gave Freneau an office, and thus produced the curious condition of a clerk
in the government writing and printing savage attacks on the President.
Washington was much irritated at the abuse, and Jefferson in his "Anas"
said that he "was evidently sore & warm and I took his intention to be
that I should interpose in some way with Freneau, perhaps withdraw his
appointment of translating clerk to my office. But I will not do it."
According to the French minister, some of the worst of these articles were
written by Jefferson himself, and Freneau is reported to have said, late
in life, that many of them were written by the Secretary of State.
Far more indecent was the paper conducted by Benjamin Franklin Bache, who,
early in the Presidency, applied for a place in the government, which for
some reason not now known was refused. According to Cobbett, who hated
him, "this ... scoundrel ... spent several years in hunting offices under
the Federal Government, and being constantly rejected, he at last became
its most bitter foe. Hence his abuse of General Washington, whom at the
time he was soliciting a place he panegyrized up to the third heaven."
Certain it is that under his editorship the _General Advertiser_ and
_Aurora_ took the lead in all criticisms of Washington, and not content
with these opportunities for daily and weekly abuse, Bache (though the
fact that they were forgeries was notorious) reprinted the "spurious
letters which issued from a certain press in New York during the war, with
a view to destroy the confidence which the army and community might have
had in my political principles,--and which have lately been republished
with greater avidity and perseverance than ever, by Mr. Bache to answer
the same nefarious purpose with the latter," and Washington added that
"immense pains has been taken by this said Mr. Bache, who is no more than
the agent or tool of those who are endeavoring to destroy the confidence
of the people, in the officers of Government (chosen by themselves) to
disseminate these counterfeit letters." In addition Bache wrote a
pamphlet, with the avowal that "the design of these remarks is to prove
the want of claim in Mr. Washington either to the gratitude or confidence
of his country.... Our chief object ... is to _destroy undue impressions
in favor of Mr. Washington_." Accordingly it charged that Washington was
"treacherous," "mischievous," "inefficient;" dwelt upon his "farce of
disinterestedness," his "stately journeyings through the American
continent in search of personal incense," his "ostentatious professions
of piety," his "pusillanimous neglect," his "little passions," his
"ingratitude," his "want of merit," his "insignificance," and his
"spurious fame."
The successor of Bache as editor of these two journals, William Duane,
came to the office with an equal hatred of Washington, having already
written a savage pamphlet against him. In this the President was charged
with "treacherous mazes of passion," and with having "discharged the
loathings of a sick mind." Furthermore it asserted "that had you obtained
promotion ... after Braddock's defeat, your sword would have been drawn
against your country," that Washington "retained the barbarous usages of
the feudal system and kept men in Livery," and that "posterity will in
vain search for the monuments of wisdom in your administration;" the
purpose of the pamphlet, by the author's own statement, being "to expose
the _Personal Idolatry_ into which we have been heedlessly running," and
to show the people the "fallibility of the most favored of men."
A fourth in this quartet of editors was the notorious James Thomson
Callender, whose publications were numerous, as were also his impeachments
against Washington. By his own account, this writer maintained, "Mr.
Washington has been twice a traitor," has "authorized the robbery and ruin
of the remnants of his own army," has "broke the constitution," and
Callender fumes over "the vileness of the adulation which has been paid"
to him, claiming that "the extravagant popularity possessed by this
citizen reflects the utmost ridicule on the discernment of America."
The bitterest attack, however, was penned by Thomas Paine. For many years
there was good feeling between the two, and in 1782, when Paine was in
financial distress, Washington used his influence to secure him a position
"out of friendship for me," as Paine acknowledged. Furthermore, Washington
tried to get the Virginia Legislature to pension Paine or give him a grant
of land, an endeavor for which the latter was "exceedingly obliged." When
Paine published his "Rights of Man" he dedicated it to Washington, with an
inscription dwelling on his "exemplary virtue" and his "benevolence;"
while in the body of the work he asserted that no monarch of Europe had a
character to compare with Washington's, which was such as to "put all
those men called kings to shame." Shortly after this, however, Washington
refused to appoint him Postmaster-General; and still later, when Paine had
involved himself with the French, the President, after consideration,
decided that governmental interference was not proper. Enraged by these
two acts, Paine published a pamphlet in which he charged Washington with
"encouraging and swallowing the greatest adulation," with being "the
patron of fraud," with a "mean and servile submission to the insults of
one nation, treachery and ingratitude to another," with "falsehood,"
"ingratitude," and "pusillanimity;" and finally, after alleging that the
General had not "served America with more disinterestedness or greater
zeal, than myself, and I know not if with better effect," Paine closed his
attack by the assertion, "and as to you, sir, _treacherous in private
friendship_, and a _hypocrite_ in public life, the world will be puzzled
to decide, whether you are an _apostate_ or an _impostor_; whether you
have _abandoned good principles_, or whether _you ever had any?_"
Washington never, in any situation, took public notice of these attacks,
and he wrote of a possible one, "I am gliding down the stream of life, and
wish, as is natural, that my remaining days may be undisturbed and
tranquil; and, conscious of my integrity, I would willingly hope, that
nothing would occur tending to give me anxiety; but should anything
present itself in this or any other publication, I shall never undertake
the painful task of recrimination, nor do I know that I should even enter
upon my justification." To a friend he said, "my temper leads me to peace
and harmony with all men; and it is peculiarly my wish to avoid any feuds
or dissentions with those who are embarked in the same great national
interest with myself; as every difference of this kind must in its
consequence be very injurious."
XI
SOLDIER
"My inclinations," wrote Washington at twenty-three, "are strongly bent to
arms," and the tendency was a natural one, coming not merely from his
Indian-fighting great-grandfather, but from his elder brother Lawrence,
who had held a king's commission in the Carthagena expedition, and was one
of the few officers who gained repute in that ill-fated attempt. At Mount
Vernon George must have heard much of fighting as a lad, and when the ill
health of Lawrence compelled resignation of command of the district
militia, the younger brother succeeded to the adjutancy. This quickly led
to the command of the first Virginia regiment when the French and Indian
War was brewing. Twice Washington resigned in disgust during the course of
the war, but each time his natural bent, or "glowing zeal," as he phrased
it, drew him back into the service. The moment the news of Lexington
reached Virginia he took the lead in organizing an armed force, and in the
Virginia Convention of 1775, according to Lynch, he "made the most
eloquent speech ... that ever was made. Says he, 'I will raise one
thousand men, enlist them at my own expense, and march myself at their
head for the relief of Boston.'" At fifty-three, in speaking of war,
Washington said, "my first wish is to see this plague to mankind banished
from off the earth;" but during his whole life, when there was fighting to
be done, he was among those who volunteered for the service.
The personal courage of the man was very great. Jefferson, indeed, said
"he was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest
unconcern." Before he had ever been in action, he noted of a certain
position that it was "a charming field for an encounter," and his first
engagement he described as follows: "I fortunately escaped without any
wound, for the right wing, where I stood, was exposed to and received all
the enemy's fire, and it was the part where the man was killed, and the
rest wounded. I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is
something charming in the sound." In his second battle, though he knew
that he was "to be attacked and by unequal numbers," he promised
beforehand to "withstand" them "if there are five to one," adding, "I
doubt not, but if you hear I am beaten, but you will, at the same [time,]
hear that we have done our duty, in fighting as long [as] there was a
possibility of hope," and in this he was as good as his word. When
sickness detained him in the Braddock march, he halted only on condition
that he should receive timely notice of when the fighting was to begin,
and in that engagement he exposed himself so that "I had four bullets
through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, altho'
death was levelling my companions on every side of me!" Not content with
such an experience, in the second march on Fort Duquesne he "prayed" the
interest of a friend to have his regiment part of the "light troops" that
were to push forward in advance of the main army.
The same carelessness of personal danger was shown all through the
Revolution. At the battle of Brooklyn, on New York Island, at Trenton,
Germantown, and Monmouth, he exposed himself to the enemy's fire, and at
the siege of Yorktown an eyewitness relates that "during the assault, the
British kept up an incessant firing of cannon and musketry from their
whole line. His Excellency General Washington, Generals Lincoln and Knox
with their aids, having dismounted, were standing in an exposed situation
waiting the result. Colonel Cobb, one of General Washington's aids,
solicitous for his safety, said to his Excellency, 'Sir, you are too much
exposed here, had you not better step back a little?' 'Colonel Cobb,'
replied his Excellency, 'if you are afraid, you have liberty to step
back.'" It is no cause for wonder that an officer wrote, "our army love
their General very much, but they have one thing against him, which is the
little care he takes of himself in any action. His personal bravery, and
the desire he has of animating his troops by example, make him fearless of
danger. This occasions us much uneasiness."
[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S TRANSCRIPT OF THE RULES OF CIVILITY, CIRCA
1744]
This fearlessness was equally shown by his hatred and, indeed,
non-comprehension of cowardice. In his first battle, upon the French
surrendering, he wrote to the governor, "if the whole Detach't of the
French behave with no more Resolution than this chosen Party did, I
flatter myself we shall have no g't trouble in driving them to the d---."
At Braddock's defeat, though the regiment he had commanded "behaved like
men and died like soldiers," he could hardly find words to express his
contempt for the conduct of the British "cowardly regulars," writing of
their "dastardly behavior" when they "broke and ran as sheep before
hounds," and raging over being "most scandalously" and "shamefully
beaten." When the British first landed on New York Island, and two New
England brigades ran away from "a small party of the enemy," numbering
about fifty, without firing a shot, he completely lost his self-control at
their "dastardly behavior," and riding in among them, it is related, he
laid his cane over the officers' backs, "damned them for cowardly
rascals," and, drawing his sword, struck the soldiers right and left with
the flat of it, while snapping his pistols at them. Greene states that the
fugitives "left his Excellency on the ground within eighty yards of the
enemy, so vexed at the infamous conduct of the troops, that he sought
death rather than life," and Gordon adds that the General was only saved
from his "hazardous position" by his aides, who "caught the bridle of his
horse and gave him a different direction." At Monmouth an aide stated that
when he met a man running away he was "exasperated ... and threatened the
man ... he would have him whipped," and General Scott says that on finding
Lee retreating, "he swore like an angel from heaven." Wherever in his
letters he alludes to cowardice it is nearly always coupled with the
adjectives "infamous," "scandalous," or others equally indicative of loss
of temper.
There can be no doubt that Washington had a high temper. Hamilton's
allusion to his not being remarkable for "good temper" has already been
quoted, as has also Stuart's remark that "all his features were indicative
of the strongest and most ungovernable passions, and had he been born in
the forests, he would have been the fiercest man among the savage tribes."
Again Stuart is quoted by his daughter as follows:
"While talking one day with General Lee, my father happened to remark that
Washington had a tremendous temper, but held it under wonderful control.
General Lee breakfasted with the President and Mrs. Washington a few days
afterwards.
"'I saw your portrait the other day,' said the General, 'but Stuart says
you have a tremendous temper.'
"'Upon my word,' said Mrs. Washington, coloring, 'Mr. Stuart takes a great
deal upon himself to make such a remark.'
"'But stay, my dear lady,' said General Lee, 'he added that the president
had it under wonderful control.'
"With something like a smile, General Washington remarked, 'He is right.'"
Lear, too, mentions an outburst of temper when he heard of the defeat of
St. Clair, and elsewhere records that in reading politics aloud to
Washington "he appeared much affected, and spoke with some degree of
asperity on the subject, which I endeavored to moderate, as I always did
on such occasions." How he swore at Randolph and at Freneau is mentioned
elsewhere. Jefferson is evidence that "his temper was naturally irritable
and high-toned, but reflection and resolution had obtained a firm and
habitual ascendency over it. If however it broke its bonds, he was most
tremendous in his wrath."
Strikingly at variance with these personal qualities of courage and hot
blood is the "Fabian" policy for which he is so generally credited, and a
study of his military career goes far to dispel the conception that
Washington was the cautious commander that he is usually pictured.
In the first campaign, though near a vastly superior French force,
Washington precipitated the conflict by attacking and capturing an advance
party, though the delay of a few days would have brought him large
reinforcements. As a consequence he was very quickly surrounded, and after
a day's fighting was compelled to surrender. In what light his conduct was
viewed at the time is shown in two letters, Dr. William Smith writing,
"the British cause,... has received a fatal Blow by the entire defeat of
Washington, whom I cannot but accuse of Foolhardiness to have ventured so
near a vigilant enemy without being certain of their numbers, or waiting
for Junction of some hundreds of our best Forces, who are within a few
Days' March of him," and Ann Willing echoed this by saying, "the
melancholy news has just arrived of the loss of sixty men belonging to
Col. Washington's Company, who were killed on the spot, and of the Colonel
and Half-King being taken prisoners, all owing to the obstinacy of
Washington, who would not wait for the arrival of reinforcements."
Hardly less venturesome was he in the Braddock campaign, for "the General
(before they met in council,) asked my opinion concerning the expedition.
I urged it, in the warmest terms I was able, to push forward, if we even
did it with a small but chosen band, with such artillery and light stores
as were absolutely necessary; leaving the heavy artillery, baggage, &c.
with the rear division of the army, to follow by slow and easy marches,
which they might do safely, while we were advanced in front." How far the
defeat of that force was due to the division thus urged it is not possible
to say, but it undoubtedly made the French bolder and the English more
subject to panic.
The same spirit was manifested in the Revolution. During the siege of
Boston he wrote to Reed, "I proposed [an assault] in council; but behold,
though we had been waiting all the year for this favorable event the
enterprise was thought too dangerous. Perhaps it was; perhaps the
irksomeness of my situation led me to undertake more than could be
warranted by prudence. I did not think so, and I am sure yet, that the
enterprise, if it had been undertaken with resolution, must have
succeeded." He added that "the enclosed council of war:... being
almost unanimous, I must suppose it to be right; although, from a
thorough conviction of the necessity of attempting something against the
ministerial troops before a reinforcement should arrive, and while we were
favored with the ice, I was not only ready but willing, and desirous of
making the assault," and a little later he said that had he but foreseen
certain contingencies "all the generals upon earth should not have
convinced me of the propriety of delaying an attack upon Boston."
In the defence of New York there was no chance to attack, but even when
our lines at Brooklyn had been broken and the best brigades in the army
captured, Washington hurried troops across the river, and intended to
contest the ground, ordering a retreat only when it was voted in the
affirmative by a council of war. At Harlem plains he was the attacking
party.
How with a handful of troops he turned the tide of defeat by attacking at
Trenton and Princeton is too well known to need recital. At Germantown,
too, though having but a few days before suffered defeat, he attacked and
well-nigh won a brilliant victory, because the British officers did not
dream that his vanquished army could possibly take the initiative. When
the foe settled down into winter quarters in Philadelphia Laurens wrote,
"our Commander-in-chief wishing ardently to gratify the public expectation
by making an attack upon the enemy ... went yesterday to view the works."
On submitting the project to a council, however, they stood eleven to four
against the attempt.
The most marked instance of Washington's un-Fabian preferences, and proof
of the old saying that "councils of war never fight," is furnished in the
occurrences connected with the battle of Monmouth. When the British began
their retreat across New Jersey, according to Hamilton "the General
unluckily called a council of war, the result of which would have done
honor to the most honorable society of mid-wives and to them only. The
purport was, that we should keep at a comfortable distance from the enemy,
and keep up a vain parade of annoying them by detachment ... The General,
on mature reconsideration of what had been resolved on, determined to
pursue a different line of conduct at all hazards." Concerning this
decision Pickering wrote,--
"His great caution in respect to the enemy, acquired him the name of the
American Fabius. From this _governing_ policy he is said to have departed,
when" at Monmouth he "indulged the most anxious desire to close with his
antagonist in general action. Opposed to his wishes was the advice of
his general officers. To this he for a time yielded; but as soon as he
discovered that the enemy had reached Monmouth Court House, not more than
twelve miles from the heights of Middletown, he determined that he should
not escape without a blow."
Pickering considered this a "departure" from Washington's "usual practice
and policy," and cites Wadsworth, who said, in reference to the battle of
Monmouth, that the General appeared, on that occasion, "to act from the
impulses of his own mind."
Thrice during the next three years plans for an attack on the enemy's
lines at New York were matured, one of which had to be abandoned because
the British had timely notice of it by the treachery of an American
general, a second because the other generals disapproved the attempt, and,
on the authority of Humphreys, "the accidental intervention of some
vessels prevented [another] attempt, which was more than once resumed
afterwards. Notwithstanding this favorite project was not ultimately
effected, it was evidently not less bold in conception or feasible in
accomplishment, than that attempted so successfully at Trenton, or than
that which was brought to so glorious an issue in the successful siege of
Yorktown."
As this _résumé_ indicates, the most noticeable trait of Washington's
military career was a tendency to surrender his own opinions and wishes to
those over whom he had been placed, and this resulted in a general
agreement not merely that he was disposed to avoid action, but that he
lacked decision. Thus his own aide, Reed, in obvious contrast to
Washington, praised Lee because "you have decision, a quality often wanted
in minds otherwise valuable," continuing, "Oh! General, an indecisive mind
is one of the greatest misfortunes that can befall an army; how often have
I lamented it this campaign," and Lee in reply alluded to "that fatal
indecision of mind." Pickering relates meeting General Greene and saying
to him, "'I had once conceived an exalted opinion of General Washington's
military talents; but since I have been with the army, I have seen nothing
to increase that opinion.' Greene answered, 'Why, the General does want
decision: for my part, I decide in a moment.' I used the word 'increase,'
though I meant 'support,' but did not dare speak it." Wayne exclaimed "if
our worthy general will but follow his own good judgment without listening
too much to some counsel!" Edward Thornton, probably repeating the
prevailing public estimate of the time rather than his own conclusion,
said, "a certain degree of indecision, however, a want of vigor and
energy, may be observed in some of his actions, and are indeed the obvious
result of too refined caution."
Undoubtedly this leaning on others and the want of decision were not
merely due to a constitutional mistrust of his own ability, but also in a
measure to real lack of knowledge. The French and Indian War, being almost
wholly "bush-fighting," was not of a kind to teach strategic warfare, and
in his speech accepting the command Washington requested that "it may be
remembered by every gentleman in the room, that I this day declare with
the utmost sincerity I do not think myself equal to the command I am
honored with." Indeed, he very well described himself and his generals
when he wrote of one officer, "his wants are common to us all--the want of
experience to move upon a large scale, for the limited and contracted
knowledge, which any of us have in military matters, stands in very little
stead." There can be no question that in most of the "field" engagements
of the Revolution Washington was out-generalled by the British, and
Jefferson made a just distinction when he spoke of his having often
"failed in the field, and rarely against an enemy in station, as at Boston
and York."
The lack of great military genius in the commander-in-chief has led
British writers to ascribe the results of the war to the want of ability
in their own generals, their view being well summed up by a writer in
1778, who said, "in short, I am of the opinion ... that any other General
in the world than General Howe would have beaten General Washington; and
any other General in the world than General Washington would have beaten
General Howe."
This is, in effect, to overlook the true nature of the contest, for it was
their very victories that defeated the British. They conquered New Jersey,
to meet defeat; they captured Philadelphia, only to find it a danger; they
established posts in North Carolina, only to abandon them; they overran
Virginia, to lay down their arms at Yorktown. As Washington early in the
war divined, the Revolution was "a war of posts," and he urged the danger
of "dividing and subdividing our Force too much [so that] we shall have no
one post sufficiently guarded," saying, "it is a military observation
strongly supported by experience, 'that a superior army may fall a
sacrifice to an inferior, by an injudicious division.'" It was exactly
this which defeated the British; every conquest they made weakened their
force, and the war was not a third through when Washington said, "I am
well convinced myself, that the enemy, long ere this, are perfectly well
satisfied, that the possession of our towns, while we have an army in the
field, will avail them little." As Franklin said, when the news was
announced that Howe had captured Philadelphia, "No, Philadelphia has
captured Howe."
The problem of the Revolution was not one of military strategy,
but of keeping an army in existence, and it was in this that the
commander-in-chief's great ability showed itself. The British could and
did repeatedly beat the Continental army, but they could not beat the
General, and so long as he was in the field there was a rallying ground
for whatever fighting spirit there was.
The difficulty of this task can hardly be over-magnified. When Washington
assumed command of the forces before Boston, he "found a mixed multitude
of people ... under very little discipline, order, or government," and
"confusion and disorder reigned in every department, which, in a little
time, must have ended either in the separation of the army or fatal
contests with one another." Before he was well in the saddle his general
officers were quarrelling over rank, and resigning; there was such a
scarcity of powder that it was out of the question for some months to do
anything; and the British sent people infected with small-pox to the
Continental army, with a consequent outbreak of that pest.
Hardly had he brought order out of chaos when the army he had taken such
pains to discipline began to melt away, having been by political folly
recruited for short terms, and the work was to be all done over. Again and
again during the war regiments which had been enlisted for short periods
left him at the most critical moment. Very typical occurrences he himself
tells of, when Connecticut troops could "not be prevailed upon to stay
longer than their term (saving those who have enlisted for the next
campaign, and mostly on furlough), and such a dirty, mercenary spirit
pervades the whole, that I should not be at all surprised at any disaster
that may happen," and when he described how in his retreat through New
Jersey, "The militia, instead of calling forth their utmost efforts to a
brave and manly opposition in order to repair our losses, are dismayed,
intractable, and impatient to return. Great numbers of them have gone off;
in some instances, almost by whole regiments, by half ones, and by
companies at a time." Another instance of this evil occurred when "the
Continental regiments from the eastern governments ... agreed to stay six
weeks beyond their term of enlistment.... For this extraordinary mark of
their attachment to their country, I have agreed to give them a bounty of
ten dollars per man, besides their pay running on." The men took the
bounty, and nearly one-half went off a few days after.
Nor was this the only evil of the policy of short enlistments. Another was
that the new troops not merely were green soldiers, but were without
discipline. At New York Tilghman wrote that after the battle of Brooklyn
the "Eastern" soldiers were "plundering everything that comes in their
way," and Washington in describing the condition said, "every Hour brings
the most distressing complaints of the Ravages of our own Troops who are
become infinitely more formidable to the poor Farmers and Inhabitants than
the common Enemy. Horses are taken out of the Continental Teams; the
Baggage of Officers and the Hospital Stores, even the Quarters of General
Officers are not exempt from Rapine." At the most critical moment of the
war the New Jersey militia not merely deserted, but captured and took with
them nearly the whole stores of the army. As the General truly wrote, "the
Dependence which the Congress have placed upon the militia, has already
greatly injured, and I fear will totally ruin our cause. Being subject to
no controul themselves, they introduce disorder among the troops, whom you
have attempted to discipline, while the change in their living brings
on sickness; this makes them Impatient to get home, which spreads
universally, and introduces abominable desertions." "The collecting
militia," he said elsewhere, "depends entirely upon the prospects of the
day. If favorable they throng in to you; if not, they will not move."
To make matters worse, politics were allowed to play a prominent part in
the selection of officers, and Washington complained that "the different
States [were], without regard to the qualifications of an officer,
quarrelling about the appointments, and nominating such as are not fit to
be shoeblacks, from the attachments of this or that member of Assembly."
As a result, so he wrote of New England, "their officers are generally of
the lowest class of the people; and, instead of setting a good example to
their men, are leading them into every kind of mischief, one species of
which is plundering the inhabitants, under the pretence of their being
Tories." To this political motive he himself would not yield, and a sample
of his appointments was given when a man was named "because he stands
unconnected with either of these Governments; or with this, or that or
tother man; for between you and me there is more in this than you can
easily imagine," and he asserted that "I will not have any Gentn.
introduced from family connexion, or local attachments, to the prejudice
of the Service."
To misbehaving soldiers Washington showed little mercy. In his first
service he had deserters and plunderers "flogged," and threatened that if
he could "lay hands" on one particular culprit, "I would try the effect of
1000 lashes." At another time he had "a Gallows near 40 feet high erected
(which has terrified the _rest_ exceedingly) and I am determined if I can
be justified in the proceeding, to hang two or three on it, as an example
to others." When he took command of the Continental army he "made a pretty
good slam among such kind of officers as the Massachusetts Government
abound in since I came to this Camp, having broke one Colo, and two
Captains for cowardly behavior in the action on Bunker's Hill,--two
Captains for drawing more provisions and pay than they had men in their
Company--and one for being absent from his Post when the Enemy appeared
there and burnt a House just by it Besides these, I have at this time--one
Colo., one Major, one Captn., & two subalterns under arrest for tryal--In
short I spare none yet fear it will not at all do as these People seem to
be too inattentive to every thing but their Interest" "I am sorry," he
wrote, "to be under a Necessity of making frequent Examples among the
Officers," but "as nothing can be more fatal to an Army, than Crimes of
this kind, I am determined by every Motive of Reward and Punishment to
prevent them in future." Even when plundering was avoided there were short
commons for those who clung to the General. The commander-in-chief wrote
Congress that "they have often, very often, been reduced to the necessity
of Eating Salt Porke, or Beef not for a day, or a week but months
together without Vegetables, or money to buy them;" and again, he
complained that "the Soldiers [were forced to] eat every kind of horse
food but Hay. Buckwheat, common wheat, Rye and Indn. Corn was the
composition of the Meal which made their bread. As an Army they bore it,
[but] accompanied by the want of Cloaths, Blankets, &c., will produce
frequent desertions in all armies and so it happens with us, tho' it did
not excite a mutiny." Even the horses suffered, and Washington wrote to
the quartermaster-general, "Sir, my horses I am told have not had a
mouthful of long or short forage for three days. They have eaten up their
mangers and are now, (though wanted for immediate use,) scarcely able to
stand."
Two results were sickness and discontent. At times one-fourth of the
soldiers were on the sick-list. Three times portions of the army mutinied,
and nothing but Washington's influence prevented the disorder from
spreading. At the end of the war, when, according to Hamilton, "the army
had secretly determined not to lay down their arms until due provision and
a satisfactory prospect should be offered on the subject of their pay,"
the commander-in-chief urged Congress to do them justice, writing, "the
fortitude--the long, & great suffering of this army is unexampled in
history; but there is an end to all things & I fear we are very near to
this. Which, more than probably will oblige me to stick very close to my
flock this winter, & try like a careful physician, to prevent, if
possible, the disorders getting to an incurable height." In this he judged
rightly, for by his influence alone was the army prevented from adopting
other than peaceful measures to secure itself justice.
A chief part of these difficulties the Continental Congress is directly
responsible for, and the reason for their conduct is to be found largely
in the circumstances of Washington's appointment to the command.
[Illustration: Life Mask of Washington]
When the Second Congress met, in May, 1775, the battle of Lexington had
been fought, and twenty thousand minute-men were assembled about Boston.
To pay and feed such a horde was wholly beyond the ability of New England,
and her delegates came to the Congress bent upon getting that body to
assume the expense, or, as the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts
naively put it, "we have the greatest Confidence in the Wisdom and Ability
of the Continent to support us."
The other colonies saw this in a different light. Massachusetts, without
our advice, has begun a war and embodied an army; let Massachusetts pay
her own bills, was their point of view. "I have found this Congress like
the last," wrote John Adams. "When we first came together, I found a
strong jealousy of us from New England, and the Massachusettes in
particular, suspicions entertained of designs of independency, an American
republic, Presbyterian principles, and twenty other things. Our sentiments
were heard in Congress with great caution, and seemed to make but little
impression." Yet "every post brought me letters from my friends ... urging
in pathetic terms the impossibility of keeping their men together without
the assistance of Congress." "I was daily urging all these things, but we
were embarrassed with more than one difficulty, not only with the party in
favor of the petition to the King, and the party who were zealous of
independence, but a third party, which was a southern party against a
Northern, and a jealousy against a New England army under the command of a
New England General."
Under these circumstances a political deal was resorted to, and Virginia
was offered by John and Samuel Adams, as the price of an adoption and
support of the New England army, the appointment of commander-in-chief,
though the offer was not made with over-good grace, and only because "we
could carry nothing without conceding it." There was some dissension
among the Virginia delegates as to who should receive the appointment,
Washington himself recommending an old companion in arms, General Andrew
Lewis, and "more than one," Adams says of the Virginia delegates, were
"very cool about the appointment of Washington, and particularly Mr.
Pendleton was very clear and full against it" Washington himself said the
appointment was due to "partiality of the Congress, joined to a political
motive;" and, hard as it is to realize, it was only the grinding political
necessity of the New England colonies which secured to Washington the
place for which in the light of to-day he seems to have been created.
As a matter of course, there was not the strongest liking felt for the
General thus chosen by the New England delegates, and this was steadily
lessened by Washington's frank criticism of the New England soldiers and
officers already noticed. Equally bitter to the New England delegates and
their allies were certain army measures that Washington pressed upon the
attention of Congress. He urged and urged that the troops should be
enlisted for the war, that promotions should be made from the army as a
whole, and not from the colony- or State-line alone, and most unpopular of
all, that since Continental soldiers could not otherwise be obtained, a
bounty should be given to secure them, and that as compensation for their
inadequate pay half-pay should be given them after the war. He eventually
carried these points, but at the price of an entire alienation of the
democratic party in the Congress, who wished to have the war fought with
militia, to have all the officers elected annually, and to whom the very
suggestion of pensions was like a red rag to a bull.
A part of their motive in this was unquestionably to prevent the danger of
a standing army, and of allowing the commander-in-chief to become popular
with the soldiers. Very early in the war Washington noted "the _jealousy_
which Congress unhappily entertain of the army, and which, if reports are
right, some members labor to establish." And he complained that "I see a
distrust and jealousy of military power, that the commander-in-chief has
not an opportunity, even by recommendation, to give the least assurance of
reward for the most essential services." The French minister told his
government that when a committee was appointed to institute certain army
reforms, delegates in Congress "insisted on the danger of associating the
Commander-in-chief with it, whose influence, it was stated, was already
too great," and when France sent money to aid the American cause, with the
provision that it should be subject to the order of the General, it
aroused, a writer states, "the jealousy of Congress, the members of which
were not satisfied that the head of the army should possess such an agency
in addition to his military power."
His enemies in the Congress took various means to lessen his influence and
mortify him. Burke states that in the discussion of one question "Jersey,
Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina voted for expunging it;
the four Eastern States, Virginia and Georgia for retaining it. There
appeared through this whole debate a great desire, in some of the
delegates from the Eastern States, and in one from New Jersey, to insult
the General," and a little later the Congress passed a "resolve which,"
according to James Lovell, "was meant to rap a Demi G--over the knuckles."
Nor was it by commission, but as well by omission, that they showed their
ill feeling. John Laurens told his father that
"there is a conduct observed towards" the General "by certain great men,
which as it is humiliating, must abate his happiness.... The Commander in
Chief of this army is not sufficiently informed of all that is known by
Congress of European affairs. Is it not a galling circumstance, for him to
collect the most important intelligence piecemeal, and as they choose to
give it, from gentlemen who come from York? Apart from the chagrin which
he must necessarily feel at such an appearance of slight, it should be
considered that in order to settle his plan of operations for the ensuing
campaign, he should take into view the present state of European affairs,
and Congress should not leave him in the dark."
Furthermore, as already noted, Washington was criticised for his Fabian
policy, and in his indignation he wrote to Congress, "I am informed that
it is a matter of amazement, and that reflections have been thrown out
against this army, for not being more active and enterprising than, in the
opinion of some, they ought to have been. If the charge is just, the best
way to account for it will be to refer you to the returns of our strength,
and those which I can produce of the enemy, and to the enclosed abstract
of the clothing now actually wanting for the army." "I can assure those
gentlemen," he said, in reply to political criticism, "that it is a much
easier and less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable
room by a good fireside, than to occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep
under frost and snow, without clothes or blankets."
The ill feeling did not end with insults. With the defeats of the years
1776 and 1777 it gathered force, and towards the end of the latter year it
crystallized in what has been known in history as the Conway Cabal. The
story of this conspiracy is so involved in shadow that little is known
concerning its adherents or its endeavors. But in a general way it has
been discovered that the New England delegates again sought the aid of the
Lee faction in Virginia, and that this coalition, with the aid of such
votes as they could obtain, schemed several methods which should lessen
the influence of Washington, if they did not force him to resign. Separate
and detached commands were created, which were made independent of the
commander-in-chief, and for this purpose even a scheme which the General
called "a child of folly" was undertaken. Officers notoriously inimical to
Washington, yet upon whom he would be forced to rely, were promoted. A
board of war made up of his enemies, with powers "in effect paramount,"
Hamilton says, "to those of the commander-in-chief," was created It is
even asserted that it was moved in Congress that a committee should be
appointed to arrest Washington, which was defeated only by the timely
arrival of a new delegate, by which the balance of power was lost to the
Cabal.
Even with the collapse of the army Cabal the opposition in Congress was
maintained. "I am very confident," wrote General Greene, "that there is
party business going on again, and, as Mifflin is connected with it, I
doubt not its being a revival of the old scheme;" again writing, "General
Schuyler and others consider it a plan of Mifflin's to injure your
Excellency's operations. I am now fully convinced of the reality of what I
suggested to you before I came away." In 1779 John Sullivan, then a member
of Congress, wrote,--
"Permit me to inform your Excellency, that the faction raised against you
in 1777, is not yet destroyed. The members are waiting to collect
strength, and seize some favorable moment to appear in force. I speak not
from conjecture, but from certain knowledge. Their plan is to take every
method of proving the danger arising from a commander, who enjoys the full
and unlimited confidence of his army, and alarm the people with the
prospects of imaginary evils; nay, they will endeavor to convert your
virtue into arrows, with which, they will seek to wound you."
But Washington could not be forced into a resignation, ill-treat and
slight him as they would, and at no time were they strong enough to vote
him out of office. For once a Congressional "deal" between New England and
Virginia did not succeed, and as Washington himself wrote, "I have a good
deal of reason to believe that the machination of this junto will recoil
on their own heads, and be a means of bringing some matters to light which
by getting me out of the way, some of them thought to conceal," In this he
was right, for the re-elections of both Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee
were put in danger, and for some time they were discredited even in their
own colonies. "I have happily had," Washington said to a correspondent,
"but few differences with those with whom I have had the honor of being
connected in the service. With whom, and of what nature these have been,
you know. I bore much for the sake of peace and the public good"
As is well known, Washington served without pay during his eight years of
command, and, as he said, "fifty thousand pounds would not induce me again
to undergo what I have done." No wonder he declared "that the God of
armies may incline the hearts of my American brethren to support the
present contest, and bestow sufficient abilities on me to bring it to a
speedy and happy conclusion, thereby enabling me to sink into sweet
retirement, and the full enjoyment of that peace and happiness, which will
accompany a domestic life, is the first wish and most fervent prayer of my
soul."
The day finally came when his work was finished, and he could be, as he
phrased it, "translated into a private citizen." Marshall describes the
scene as follows: "At noon, the principal officers of the army assembled
at Frances' tavern; soon after which, their beloved commander entered the
room. His emotions were too strong to be concealed. Filling a glass, he
turned to them and said, 'With a heart full of love and gratitude, I
now take leave of you; I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be
as prosperous and happy, as your former ones have been glorious and
honorable.' Having drunk, he added, 'I cannot come to each of you to take
my leave; but shall be obliged to you, if each of you will come and take
me by the hand.' General Knox, being nearest, turned to him. Incapable of
utterance, Washington grasped his hand, and embraced him. In the same
affectionate manner he took leave of each succeeding officer. In every eye
was the tear of dignified sensibility, and not a word was articulated to
interrupt the majestic silence, and the tenderness of the scene. Leaving
the room, he passed through the corps of light infantry, and walked to
Whitehall, where a barge waited to convey him to Powles-hook. The
whole company followed in mute and solemn procession, with dejected
countenance ... Having entered the barge, he turned to the company, and,
waving his hat, bade them a silent adieu."
XII
CITIZEN AND OFFICE-HOLDER
Washington became a government servant before he became a voter, by
receiving in 1749, or when he was seventeen years of age, the appointment
of official surveyor of Culpepper County, the salary of which, according
to Boucher, was about fifty pounds Virginia currency a year. The office
was certainly not a very fat berth, for it required the holder to live in
a frontier county, to travel at times, as Washington in his journal noted,
over "ye worst Road that ever was trod by Man or Beast," to sometimes lie
on straw, which once "catch'd a Fire," and we "was luckily Preserved by
one of our Mens waking," sometimes under a tent, which occasionally "was
Carried quite of[f] with ye Wind and" we "was obliged to Lie ye Latter
part of ye night without covering," and at other times driven from under
the tent by smoke. Indeed, one period of surveying Washington described to
a friend by writing,--
"[Since] October Last I have not sleep'd above three Nights or four in a
bed but after Walking a good deal all the Day lay down before the fire
upon a Little Hay Straw Fodder or bearskin which-ever is to be had with
Man Wife and Children like a Parcel of Dogs or Catts & happy's he that
gets the Birth nearest the fire there's nothing would make it pass of
tolerably but a good Reward a Dubbleloon is my constant gain every Day
that the Weather will permit my going out and some time Six Pistoles the
coldness of the Weather will not allow my making a long stay as the
Lodging is rather too cold for the time of Year. I have never had my
Cloths of but lay and sleep in them like a Negro except the few Nights I
have lay'n in Frederick Town."
In 1751, when he was nineteen, Washington bettered his lot by becoming
adjutant of one of the four military districts of Virginia, with a salary
of one hundred pounds and a far less toilsome occupation. This in turn led
up to his military appointment in 1754, which he held almost continuously
till 1759, when he resigned from the service.
Next to a position on the Virginia council, a seat in the House of
Burgesses, or lower branch of the Legislature, was most sought, and this
position had been held by Washington's great-grandfather, father, and
elder brother. It was only natural, therefore, that in becoming the head
of the family George should desire the position. As early as 1755, while
on the frontier, he wrote to his brother in charge of Mount Vernon
inquiring about the election to be held in the county, and asking him to
"come at Colo Fairfax's intentions, and let me know whether he purposes to
offer himself as a candidate." "If he does not, I should be glad to take a
poll, if I thought my chance tolerably good." His friend Carlyle,
Washington wrote, had "mentioned it to me in Williamsburg in a bantering
way," and he begged his brother to "discover Major Carlyle's real
sentiments on this head," as also those of the other prominent men of the
county, and especially of the clergymen. "_Sound_ their pulse," he wrote,
"with an air of indifference and unconcern ... without disclosing much of
_mine_." "If they seem inclinable to promote my interest, and things
should be drawing to a crisis, you may declare my intention and beg their
assistance. If on the contrary you find them more inclined to favor some
other, I would have the affair entirely dropped." Apparently the county
magnates disapproved, for Washington did not stand for the county.
In 1757 an election for burgesses was held in Frederick County, in which
Washington then was (with his soldiers), and for which he offered himself
as a candidate. The act was hardly a wise one, for, though he had saved
Winchester and the surrounding country from being overrun by the Indians,
he was not popular. Not merely was he held responsible for the massacres
of outlying inhabitants, whom it was impossible to protect, but in this
very defence he had given cause for ill-feeling. He himself confessed that
he had several times "strained the law,"--he had been forced to impress
the horses and wagons of the district, and had in other ways so angered
some of the people that they had threatened "to blow out my brains." But
he had been guilty of a far worse crime still in a political sense.
Virginia elections were based on liquor, and Washington had written to the
governor, representing "the great nuisance the number of tippling houses
in Winchester are to the soldiers, who by this means, in spite of the
utmost care and vigilance, are, so long as their pay holds, incessantly
drunk and unfit for service," and he wished that "the new commission for
this county may have the intended effect," for "the number of tippling
houses kept here is a great grievance." As already noted, the Virginia
regiment was accused in the papers of drunkenness, and under the sting of
that accusation Washington declared war on the publicans. He whipped his
men when they became drunk, kept them away from the ordinaries, and even
closed by force one tavern which was especially culpable. "Were it not too
tedious," he wrote the governor, "I cou'd give your Honor such instances
of the villainous Behavior of those Tippling House-keepers, as wou'd
astonish any person."
The conduct was admirable, but it was not good politics, and as soon as he
offered himself as a candidate, the saloon element, under the leadership
of one Lindsay, whose family were tavern-keepers in Winchester for at
least one hundred years, united to oppose him. Against the would-be
burgess they set up one Captain Thomas Swearingen, whom Washington later
described as "a man of great weight among the meaner class of people, and
supposed by them to possess extensive knowledge." As a result, the poll
showed Swearingen elected by two hundred and seventy votes, and Washington
defeated with but forty ballots.
This sharp experience in practical politics seems to have taught the young
candidate a lesson, for when a new election came in 1758 he took a leaf
from his enemy's book, and fought them with their own weapons. The
friendly aid of the county boss, Colonel John Wood, was secured, as also
that of Gabriel Jones, a man of much local force and popularity. Scarcely
less important were the sinews of war employed, told of in the following
detailed account. A law at that time stood on the Virginia statutes
forbidding all treating or giving of what were called "ticklers" to the
voters, and declaring illegal all elections which were thus influenced.
None the less, the voters of Frederick enjoyed at Washington's charge--
40 gallons of Rum Punch @ 3/6 pr. galn 7 0 0
15 gallons of Wine @ 10/ pr. galn 7 10 0
Dinner for your Friends 3 0 0
13-1/2 gallons of Wine @ 10/ 6 15
3-1/2 pts. of Brandy @ 1/3 4 4-1/2
13 Galls. Beer @ 1/3 16 3
8 qts. Cyder Royl @ 1/6 0 12 0
Punch 3 9
30 gallns. of strong beer @ 8d pr. gall 1 0
1 hhd & 1 Barrell of Punch, consisting of
26 gals. best Barbadoes rum, 5/ 6 10 0
12 lbs. S. Refd. Sugar 1/6 18 9
3 galls. and 3 quarts of Beer @ 1/ pr. gall 3 9
10 Bowls of Punch @ 2/6 each 1 5 0
9 half pints of rum @ 7-1/2 d. each 5 7-1/2
1 pint of wine 1 6
After the election was over, Washington wrote Wood that "I hope no
Exception was taken to any that voted against me, but that all were alike
treated, and all had enough. My only fear is that you spent with too
sparing a hand." It is hardly necessary to say that such methods reversed
the former election; Washington secured three hundred and ten votes, and
Swearingen received forty-five. What is more, so far from now threatening
to blow out his brains, there was "a general applause and huzzaing for
Colonel Washington."
From this time until he took command of the army Washington was a
burgess. Once again he was elected from Frederick County, and then, in
1765, he stood for Fairfax, in which Mount Vernon was located. Here he
received two hundred and eight votes, his colleague getting but one
hundred and forty-eight, and in the election of 1768 he received one
hundred and eighty-five, and his colleague only one hundred and forty-two.
Washington spent between forty and seventy-five pounds at each of these
elections, and usually gave a ball to the voters on the night he was
chosen. Some of the miscellaneous election expenses noted in his ledger
are, "54 gallons of Strong Beer," "52 Do. of Ale," "£1.0.0. to Mr. John
Muir for his fiddler," and "For cakes at the Election £7.11.1."
The first duty which fell to the new burgess was service on a committee to
draught a law to prevent hogs from running at large in Winchester. He was
very regular in his attendance; and though he took little part in the
proceedings, yet in some way he made his influence felt, so that when the
time came to elect deputies to the First Congress he stood third in order
among the seven appointed to attend that body, and a year later, in the
delegation to the Continental Congress, he stood second, Peyton Randolph
receiving one more vote only, and all the other delegates less.
This distinction was due to the sound judgment of the man rather than to
those qualities that are considered senatorial. Jefferson said, "I served
with General Washington in the legislature of Virginia before the
revolution, and, during it, with Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard
either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point
which was to decide the question. They laid their shoulders to the great
points, knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves."
Through all his life Washington was no speechmaker. In 1758, by an
order of the Assembly, Speaker Robinson was directed to return its thanks
to Colonel Washington, on behalf of the colony, for the distinguished
military services which he had rendered to the country. As soon as he
took his seat in the House, the Speaker performed this duty in such
glowing terms as quite overwhelmed him. Washington rose to express his
acknowledgments for the honor, but was so disconcerted as to be unable to
articulate a word distinctly. He blushed and faltered for a moment, when
the Speaker relieved him from his embarrassment by saying, "Sit down, Mr.
Washington, your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses the power
of any language that I possess."
This stage-fright seems to have clung to him. When Adams hinted that
Congress should "appoint a General," and added, "I had no hesitation to
declare that I had but one gentleman in my mind for that important
command, and that was a gentleman whose skill and experience as an
officer, whose independent fortune, great talents, and excellent universal
character, would command the approbation of all America, and unite the
cordial exertions of all the Colonies better than any other person in the
Union," he relates that "Mr. Washington who happened to sit near the door,
as soon as he heard me allude to him, from his usual modesty, darted into
the library-room."
So, too, at his inauguration as President, Maclay noted that "this great
man was agitated and embarrassed more than ever he was by the leveled
cannon or pointed musket. He trembled, and several times could scarce make
out to read [his speech], though it must be supposed he had often read it
before," and Fisher Ames wrote, "He addressed the two Houses in the
Senate-chamber; it was a very touching scene and quite of a solemn kind.
His aspect grave, almost to sadness; his modesty actually shaking; his
voice deep, a little tremulous, and so low as to call for close
attention,"
There can be little doubt that this non-speech-making ability was not
merely the result of inaptitude, but was also a principle, for when his
favorite nephew was elected a burgess, and made a well-thought-of speech
in his first attempt, his uncle wrote him, "You have, I find, broke the
ice. The only advice I will offer to you on the occasion (if you have a
mind to command the attention of the House,) is to speak seldom, but
to important subjects, except such as particularly relate to your
constituents; and, in the former case, make yourself perfectly master of
the subject. Never exceed a decent warmth, and submit your sentiments with
diffidence. A dictatorial stile, though it may carry conviction, is always
accompanied with disgust." To a friend writing of this same speech he
said, "with great pleasure I received the information respecting the
commencement of my nephew's political course. I hope he will not be so
bouyed by the favorable impression it has made, as to become a babbler."
Even more indicative of his own conceptions of senatorial conduct is
advice given in a letter to Jack Custis, when the latter, too, achieved an
election to the Assembly.
"I do not suppose," he wrote, "that so young a senator as you are, little
versed in political disquisitions, can yet have much influence in a
populous assembly, composed of Gentln. of various talents and of different
views. But it is in your power to be punctual in your attendance (and duty
to the trust reposed in you exacts it of you), to hear dispassionately and
determine coolly all great questions. To be disgusted at the decision of
questions, because they are not consonant to your own ideas, and to
withdraw ourselves from public assemblies, or to neglect our attendance at
them, upon suspicion that there is a party formed, who are inimical to our
cause, and to the true interest of our country, is wrong, because these
things may originate in a difference of opinion; but, supposing the fact
is otherwise, and that our suspicions are well founded, it is the
indispensable duty of every patriot to counteract them by the most steady
and uniform opposition."
In the Continental Congress, Randolph states, "Washington was prominent,
though silent. His looks bespoke a mind absorbed in meditation on his
country's fate; but a positive concert between him and Henry could not
more effectually have exhibited him to view, than when Henry ridiculed the
idea of peace 'when there was no peace,' and enlarged on the duty of
preparing for war." Very quickly his attendance on that body was ended by
its appointing him general.
His political relations to the Congress have been touched upon elsewhere,
but his attitude towards Great Britain is worth attention. Very early he
had said, "At a time when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be
satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of American freedom, it
seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke,
and maintain the liberty, which we have derived from our ancestors. But
the manner of doing it, to answer the purpose effectually, is the point in
question. That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment, to use a--s in
defence of so valuable a blessing, on which all the good and evil of life
depends, is clearly my opinion." When actual war ensued, he was among the
first to begin to collect and drill a force, even while he wrote, "unhappy
it is, though to reflect, that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a
brother's breast, and that the once happy and peaceful plains of America
are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad
alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?"
Not till early in 1776 did he become a convert to independence, and
then only by such "flaming arguments as were exhibited at Falmouth and
Norfolk," which had been burned by the British. At one time, in 1776, he
thought "the game will be pretty well up," but "under a full persuasion of
the justice of our cause, I cannot entertain an Idea, that it will finally
sink, tho' it may remain for some time under a cloud," and even in this
time of terrible discouragement he maintained that "nothing short of
independence, it appears to me, can possibly do. A peace on other terms
would, if I may be allowed the expression, be a peace of war."
Pickering, who placed a low estimate on his military ability, said that,
"upon the whole, I have no hesitation in saying that General Washington's
talents were much better adapted to the Presidency of the United States
than to the command of their armies," and this is probably true. The
diplomatist Thornton said of the President, that if his "circumspection is
accompanied by discernment and penetration, as I am informed it is, and as
I should be inclined to believe from the judicious choice he has generally
made of persons to fill public stations, he possesses the two great
requisites of a statesman, the faculty of concealing his own sentiments
and of discovering those of other men."
To follow his course while President is outside of the scope of this work,
but a few facts are worth noting. Allusion has already been made to his
use of the appointing power, but how clearly he held it as a "public
trust" is shown in a letter to his longtime friend Benjamin Harrison, who
asked him for an office. "I will go to the chair," he replied, "under no
pre-engagement of any kind or nature whatsoever. But, when in it, to the
best of my judgment, discharge the duties of the office with that
impartiality and zeal for the public good, which ought never to suffer
connection of blood or friendship to intermingle so as to have the least
sway on the decision of a public nature." This position was held to
firmly. John Adams wrote an office-seeker, "I must caution you, my dear
Sir, against having any dependence on my influence or that of any other
person. No man, I believe, has influence with the President. He seeks
information from all quarters, and judges more independently than any man
I ever knew. It is of so much importance to the public that he should
preserve this superiority, that I hope I shall never see the time that any
man will have influence with him beyond the powers of reason and
argument."
Long after, when political strife was running high, Adams said,
"Washington appointed a multitude of democrats and jacobins of the deepest
die. I have been more cautious in this respect; but there is danger of
proscribing under imputations of democracy, some of the ablest, most
influential, and best characters in the Union." In this he was quite
correct, for the first President's appointments were made with a view to
destroy party and not create it, his object being to gather all the talent
of the country in support of the national government, and he bore many
things which personally were disagreeable in an endeavor to do this.
Twice during Washington's terms he was forced to act counter to the public
sentiment. The first time was when a strenuous attempt was made by the
French minister to break through the neutrality that had been proclaimed,
when, according to John Adams, "ten thousand people in the streets of
Philadelphia, day after day, threatened to drag Washington out of his
house, and effect a revolution in the government, or compel it to declare
in favor of the French revolution and against England." The second time
was when he signed the treaty of 1795 with Great Britain, which produced a
popular outburst from one end of the country to the other. In neither case
did Washington swerve an iota from what he thought right, writing, "these
are unpleasant things, but they must be met with firmness." Eventually the
people always came back to their leader, and Jefferson sighed over the
fact that "such is the popularity of the President that the people will
support him in whatever he will do or will not do, without appealing to
their own reason or to anything but their feelings towards him."
[Illustration: PRESIDENTIAL MANSION, PHILADELPHIA]
It is not to be supposed from this that Washington was above considering
the popular bent, or was lacking in political astuteness. John Adams
asserted that "General Washington, one of the most attentive men in the
world to the manner of doing things, owed a great proportion of his
celebrity to this circumstance," and frequently he is to be found
considering the popularity or expediency of courses. In 1776 he said, "I
have found it of importance and highly expedient to yield to many points
in fact, without seeming to have done it, and this to avoid bringing on a
too frequent discussion of matters which in a political view ought to be
kept a little behind the curtain, and not to be made too much the subjects
of disquisition. Time only can eradicate and overcome customs and
prejudices of long standing--they must be got the better of by slow and
gradual advances."
Elsewhere he wrote, "In a word, if a man cannot act in all respects as he
would wish, he must do what appears best, under the circumstances he is
in. This I aim at, however short I may fall of the end;" of a certain
measure he thought, "it has, however, like many other things in which I
have been involved, two edges, neither of which can be avoided without
falling on the other;" and that even in small things he tried to be
politic is shown in his journey through New England, when he accepted an
invitation to a large public dinner at Portsmouth, and the next day, being
at Exeter, he wrote in his diary, "a jealousy subsists between this town
(where the Legislature alternately sits) and Portsmouth; which, had I
known it in time, would have made it necessary to have accepted an
invitation to a public dinner, but my arrangements having been otherwise
made, I could not."
Nor was Washington entirely lacking in finesse. He offered Patrick Henry a
position after having first ascertained in a roundabout manner that it
would be refused, and in many other ways showed that he understood good
politics. Perhaps the neatest of his dodges was made when the French
revolutionist Volney asked him for a general letter of introduction to the
American people. This was not, for political and personal reasons, a thing
Washington cared to give, yet he did not choose to refuse, so he wrote on
a sheet of paper,--
"C. Volney
needs no recommendation from
Geo. Washington."
There is a very general belief that success in politics and truthfulness
are incompatible, yet, as already shown, Washington prospered in politics,
and the Rev. Mason L. Weems is authority for the popular statement that at
six years of age George could not tell a lie. Whether this was so, or
whether Mr. Weems was drawing on his imagination for his facts, it seems
probable that Washington partially outgrew the disability in his more
mature years.
When trying to win the Indians to the English cause in 1754, Washington in
his journal states that he "let the young Indians who were in our camp
know that the French wanted to kill the Half King," a diplomatic statement
he hardly believed, which the writer says "had its desired effect," and
which the French editor declared to be an "imposture." In this same
campaign he was forced to sign a capitulation which acknowledged that he
had been guilty of assassination, and this raised such a storm in Virginia
when it became known that Washington hastened to deny all knowledge of the
charge having been contained among the articles, and alleged that it had
not been made clear to him when the paper had been translated and read.
On the contrary, another officer present at the reading states that
he refused to "sign the Capitulation because they charged us with
Assasination in it."
In writing to an Indian agent in 1755, Washington was "greatly enraptured"
at hearing of his approach, dwelt upon the man's "hearty attachment to our
glorious Cause" and his "Courage of which I have had very great proofs."
Inclosing a copy of the letter to the governor, Washington said, "the
letter savors a little of flattery &c., &c., but this, I hope is
justifiable on such an occasion."
With his London agent there was a little difficulty in 1771, and
Washington objected to a letter received "because there is one paragraph
in particular in it ... which appears to me to contain an implication of
my having deviated from the truth." A more general charge was Charles
Lee's: "I aver that his Excellencies letter was from beginning to the end
a most abominable lie."
As a _ruse de guerre_ Washington drew up for a spy in 1779 a series of
false statements as to the position and number of his army for him to
report to the British. And in preparation for the campaign of 1781 "much
trouble was taken and finesse used to misguide and bewilder Sir Henry
Clinton by making a deceptive provision of ovens, forage and boats in his
neighborhood." "Nor were less pains taken to deceive our own army," and
even "the highest military as well as civil officers" were deceived at
this time, not merely that the secret should not leak out, but also "for
the important purpose of inducing the eastern and middle states to make
greater exertions."
When travelling through the South in 1791, Washington entered in his
diary, "Having suffered very much by the dust yesterday--and finding that
parties of Horse, & a number of other Gentlemen were intending to attend
me part of the way to-day, I caused their enquiries respecting the time of
my setting out, to be answered that, I should endeavor to do it before
eight o'clock; but I did it a little after five, by which means I avoided
the inconveniences above mentioned."
Weld, in his "Travels in America," published that "General Washington told
me that he never was so much annoyed by the mosquitos in any part of
America as in Skenesborough, for that they used to bite through the
thickest boot." When this anecdote appeared in print, good old Dr. Dwight,
shocked at the taradiddle, and fearing its evil influence on Washington's
fame, spoiled the joke by explaining in a book that "a gentleman of
great respectability, who was present when General Washington made the
observation referred to, told me that he said, when describing those
mosquitoes to Mr. Weld, that they 'bit through his stockings above the
boots.'" Whoever invented the explanation should also have evolved a type
of boots other than those worn by Washington, for unfortunately for the
story Washington's military boots went above his "small clothes," giving
not even an inch of stocking for either mosquito or explanation. In 1786,
Washington declared that "I do not recollect that in the course of my
life, I ever forfeited my word, or broke a promise made to any one," and
at another time he wrote, "I never say any thing of a Man that I have the
smallest scruple of saying _to him_."
From 1749 till 1784, and from 1789 till 1797, or a period of forty years,
Washington filled offices of one kind or another, and when he died he
still held a commission. Thus, excluding his boyhood, there were but seven
years of his life in which he was not engaged in the public service. Even
after his retirement from the Presidency he served on a grand jury, and
before this he had several times acted as petit juror. In another way he
was a good citizen, for when at Mount Vernon he invariably attended the
election, rain or shine, though it was a ride of ten miles to the polling
town.
Both his enemies and his friends bore evidence to his honesty. Jefferson
said, "his integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have
ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity or friendship or
hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was indeed in every sense of
the words, a wise, a good, and a great man." Pickering wrote that "to the
excellency of his _virtues_ I am not disposed to set any limits. All his
views were upright, all his actions just" Hamilton asserted that "the
General is a very honest Man;" and Tilghman spoke of him as "the honestest
man that I believe ever adorned human nature."
Index.
ADAMS, John, opinion of Washington,
use of appointing power,
deal arranged by,
dislike of Washington,
quoted,
----, Samuel, opposed to Washington,
Agriculture, Washington's fondness for,
Ague, Washington's attacks of,
ALEXANDER, Frances,
Alexandria, assemblies at,
Washington builds in,
lots in,
ALIQUIPPA, Queen,
Alton, John,
Ames, Fisher, quoted,
Appleby school,
ARMSTRONG, John, quoted,
ARNOLD, B.,
Asses, breeding of,
_Aurora_,
BACHE, B.F., writes against Washington,
BALLS, maternal ancestors of Washington,
Balls,
Bank-stock, holdings of,
Barbadoes, Washington's visit to,
BARD, Dr., quoted,
BASSETT, Burwell,
----, Frances,
Bath, Virginia, lots in,
_Battle of Brooklyn_, a farce,
Billiards,
BISHOP, Thomas,
BLAND, Mary,
----, T., criticises Washington's bow,
"Blueskin,"
Books,
Boston, siege of,
BOUCHER, Rev. J., quoted,
mentioned,
Bounties,
BRADDOCK, Edward, Washington and,
defeat of,
march of,
mentioned,
Brasenose College, Lawrence Washington a fellow of,
BRISSOT de Warville, quoted,
British forgeries,
Brixted Parva, Lawrence Washington rector of,
BROGLIE, Prince de, quoted,
Brooklyn, battle of,
CALLENDER, James Thomson, publications of,
CALVERT, Eleanor, marriage with Jack Custis,
visit to Cambridge,
remarriage,
Cambridge, head-quarters at,
mentioned,
CAMPBELL, A., portrait of Washington by,
Cancer, George Washington's,
Mary Washington's,
Capital. _See_ Washington City.
Cards,
CARLYLE, Washington's friendship for,
----, Major,
----, Sally,
CARROLL, Charles,
CARY, Mary,
"Cato,"
"Centinel,"
Charity, Washington's,
Charleston, ladies of, visit Washington,
jackass at,
CHASTELLUX, Marquis de, quoted,
marriage of,
Children and Washington,
Christ Church,
Christianity, Washington's view of,
CLARK, Abraham, opinion of Washington,
CLINTON, George, Washington's investment with,
----, Sir H.,
Washington's relations with,
Clothes, Washington's taste in,
Clubs, Washington's share in,
COBB, David, quoted,
at Yorktown,
COBBETT, William, quoted,
Colds, Washington's treatment of,
Commissariat,
Congress, Continental, Washington's relations with,
jealousy of Washington and the army,
endeavors to insult Washington,
part in the Conway cabal,
Washington's election to,
Washington in,
Connecticut troops, misconduct of,
"Conotocarius," Indian name for Washington,
Continental army,
sickness of,
farewell to,
small-pox in,
threatened mutiny of,
Conway Cabal,
CONWAY, Thomas, Washington's relations with,
CORBIN, Richard,
CORNWALLIS, Lord, Washington's relations with,
Craigie house,
CRAIK, Dr. James, Washington's friendship for,
bleeds Washington,
CULPEPER, Lord,
Culpeper County,
CUSTIS, Eleanor P.,
marriage to L. Lewis,
quoted,
----, G.W.P., education,
quoted,
acts,
----, John Parke, relations with Washington,
education,
----, Martha. _See_ Washington, Martha.
----, Martha ("Patsy"), relations of Washington with,
death,
treatment of,
property,
---- property,
Dancing, Washington's fondness of,
DANDRIDGE, Bartholomew,
----, Martha. _See_ Washington, Martha.
----, Mrs.
DEANE, Silas, quoted,
DE BUTTS, Lawrence,
Democratic criticism of Washington,
DENT, Elizabeth,
DICK, Dr., quoted,
Dismal Swamp Company,
Distillery at Mount Vernon,
District of Columbia,
Dogs,
DUANE, William, writes against Washington,
Duelling, Washington's views on,
threatened,
DUER, W.A., quoted,
DUMAS, M., quoted,
DUNLAP, W., quoted,
Duquesne, Fort,
"Eltham,"
Exeter, Bishop of, Sermons,
FAIRFAX, Ann,
----, Bryan, Lord,
----, George William,
----, Sally, 90-1,
----, Thomas, Lord,
----, William,
Fairfax County,
Fairfax Parish,
Farewell Address,
drafting of,
Fauntleroy, Betsy,
William,
Federal city. _See_ Washington City.
Fees, Washington's gifts of,
Fertilization, Washington's value of,
Fish, Washington's fondness of,
Fishery at Mount Vernon,
Fishing,
Flour, Washington's pride in his,
Forged letters,
authorship of,
Bache reprints,
Fort Necessity,
Fox hunting,
FRANKLIN, B., quoted,
Frederick County, Washington stands for,
Fredericksburg,
residence of Mary Washington,
French and Indian War,
French language, Washington on,
FRENEAU, P., writes against Washington,
GAGE, Thomas, relations with Washington,
GATES, Horatio, Washington's relations with,
mentioned,
General orders, quotations from,
Genet episode,
GENN, James, Washington learns surveying from,
Germantown, battle of,
GERRY, Elbridge, attitude towards Washington,
GIBBONS, Mary, scandal concerning,
GORDON, Rev. W., quoted,
Great Britain, Washington's attitude towards,
GREEN, Rev. Charles,
GREENE, N., friendship with Washington,
quoted,
GRYMES, Lucy,
Half-King,
HAMILTON, A., mentioned,
quoted,
Washington's relations with,
HARRISON, Benjamin,
letter of,
asks office,
----, R.H.,
HENRY Eighth grants lands to Washingtons,
HENRY, Patrick, quoted,
mentioned,
offered office,
Herring, sales of,
Hickey plot,
Horses, stud at Mount Vernon,
Houdon bust,
HOWE, Lord, and Sir William, Washington's relations with,
Humphreys, D., quoted,
relations with Washington,
HUNTER, J., quoted,
Hunting,
Independence, Washington on,
Indians,
Washington's diplomacy with,
James River Land Company, Washington's interest in,
Jay treaty,
JEFFERSON, Thomas, Washington's relations with,
opinion of Washington,
helps Freneau,
quoted,
mentioned,
JONES, Gabriel,
Kenmore House,
KNOX, Henry,
relations with Washington,
LAFAYETTE, Marquis de,
Washington's relations with,
quoted,
----, G.W.,
----, Virginia,
Land bounties,
---- companies,
Latin, Washington's knowledge of,
LAURENS, John, Washington's relations with,
quoted,
LAWRENCE, Nathaniel, quoted,
Lawsuits, Washington's dislike of,
LEAR, T., friendship for,
quoted,
LEE, Charles, Washington's relations with,
libels Washington,
quoted,
----, Henry, friendship for Washington,
anecdote of,
warns Washington of Jefferson's conduct,
----, R.H., opinion of Washington,
re-election of,
----, William, Washington's body-servant,
LEWIS, Elizabeth,
----, Fielding,
----, ----. Jr.,
----, Howell,
----, Lewis,
----, Robert,
Lexington, battle of,
Liveried servants,
Lotteries, Washington's liking for,
LOVELL, John, opinion of Washington,
quoted, 288.
"Lowland Beauty,"
LYNCH, Thomas, quoted,
McHENRY, James,
McKNIGHT, Dr. C., quoted,
MACLAY, W., quoted,
MADISON, James, relations with Washington,
quoted,
drafts papers,
"Magnolia,"
MARSHALL, J., quoted,
MARYE, Rev. T., Washington's teacher,
MASON, George, quoted,
Massachusetts, difficulties of,
"slam" at officers of,
MASSEY, Rev. Lee, quoted,
Mather's _Young Man's Companion_,
Matrimony, Washington's views on,
Medical knowledge of Washington,
treatment of last illness,
Medicine, Washington's aversion to,
MERCER, George, quoted,
MIFFLIN, Thomas, Washington's relations with,
mentioned,
Military Company of Adventurers,
---- science, books on,
Washington's knowledge of,
Militia, evils of,
"Minutes of the Trial,"
authority of,
Mississippi Company,
Monmouth, battle of,
allusions to,
MORRIS, Gouverneur, quoted,
friendship with,
----, Robert,
----, Roger,
Mount Vernon, boyhood home of Washington,
division of estate by will,
invitation to visit,
history of,
name,
house at,
grounds,
additions to land,
management of,
absence of Washington from,
system at,
work at,
fishery of,
distillery at,
stud stable of,
live stock of,
profits of,
desire to rent farms of,
Washington's superintendence of,
Washington's life at,
slaves at,
overseers of,
British visit to,
hunting at,
shooting at,
MOYLAN, S.,
MUSE, George, relations with Washington,
Music, Washington's fondness of,
"Nelson,"
Nepotism, Washington's views on,
Newburg, threatened revolt of army at,
New England, opposition to Washington,
jealousy of,
arranges deal,
journey in,
conduct of troops,
officers,
New Jersey troops, desertion of,
New York, Washington's visit to,
borrows money for journey to,
head-quarters at,
warfare at,
_Minutes of the Trial in_,
proposed attack on,
farewell to army at,
presidential house at,
Newspapers,
Nuts, Washington's fondness for,
Oaths, Washington's use of,
Office-seekers,
Ohio, march to,
journey to,
_Journal_,
Ohio Company,
_Old Soldier_,
PAINE, Thomas, relations with Washington,
Paper money, depreciation of,
Pension of Mary Washington,
PEYRONEY, Chevalier,
Philadelphia, visit to,
fever at,
proposed attack on,
capture of,
Presidential house in,
Washington's attempted purchase near,
PHILIPSE, Mary,
PICKERING, Timothy, quoted,
Pohick Church,
Potomac Canal Company,
Presidency, Washington in the,
duties of,
hospitality of,
Privateer, Washington tries to secure share in,
Purleigh, Lawrence Washington, rector of,
Raffles, Washington's liking for,
RAMSAY, W.,
RANDOLPH, Edmund, Washington's relations with,
quoted,
----, John, forges letters,
REED, Joseph, sends print to Washington,
relations with Washington,
quoted,
Revolution, Washington's service in,
ROBIN, Abbé, quoted,
ROBINSON, Beverly,
----, John,
ROCHAMBEAU, Count,
Ross, James, quoted,
"Royal Gift," jackass,
Rules of civility,
RUSH, Benjamin, anonymous letter of,
Washington's relations with,
quoted,
RUTLEDGE, E.,
St. Clair's defeat,
St. Paul's Church,
SARGENT, J.D., opinion of Washington,
SCOTT, Charles, quoted,
Servants, Washington's,
Shad, sales of,
Sharpless portrait,
Sheep at Mount Vernon,
Shooting,
Skenesborough, mosquitoes at,
Slavery, Washington's views on,
Slaves, Washington's,
runaway,
carried off by British,
sickness,
laziness,
punishment,
rations of,
thieving by,
Small-pox, Washington's attack of,
SMITH, Rev. W., quoted,
Southern tour,
Spain, king of, gift of jackass to Washington,
SPEARING, Ann,
STEARN, Samuel, quoted,
STEWART, R.,
STUART, Gilbert, opinion on Washington's face,
quoted,
Stuart portrait,
Stud stable at Mount Vernon,
SULLIVAN, John, quoted,
----, W., quoted,
Sunday, Washington's observance of,
SWEARINGEN, Thomas,
Taverns, Washington's view of,
Tea, Washington's fondness for,
THACHER, Dr. James, quoted,
Theatre,
THORNTON, Edward, quoted,
TILGHMAN, Tench, Washington's relations with,
quoted,
Tobacco, Washington's crop of,
Trenton, battle of,
TRUMBULL, Jonathan, wishes Washington removed,
Truro Parish,
University, National, Washington's wish for,
Valley Forge,
VAN BRAAM, J.,
VARICK, Richard,
VERNON, Admiral E., Mount Vernon named after,
Virginia, social life of,
clubs,
British invasion of,
convention,
land bounties,
elections,
agricultural system of,
deal with New England,
Washington's office-holding in,
estates, Washington's opinion of,
---- Regiment, drunkenness of,
VOLNEY, C., Washington's diplomacy with,
WADSWORTH, J., quoted,
"Wakefield,"
Walpole grant,
WANSEY, H., quoted,
Warm Springs, visit to,
WASHINGTON, Augustine,
----, Augustine (Jr.),
----, Bushrod,
letter to,
----, Charles,
----, Elizabeth (Betty). _See_ Fielding.
----, Frances,
----, George, ancestors of,
birth of,
his resemblance to the Balls,
relations with his mother,
his dislike of public recompense,
views on public office,
financial help to relatives,
will of,
views on drinking,
loans,
care of Custis property,
adoption of Custis children,
physique,
weight,
eyes,
hair,
teeth,
nose,
height,
mouth,
expression,
gracefulness,
complexion,
pock-marked,
modesty,
manners,
portraits of,
strength,
illnesses of,
his last,
medicine, his dislike of,
fall of,
hearing,
education,
handwriting,
spelling,
surveyor,
secretaries of,
journal to the Ohio,
messages,
farewell address,
languages,
music,
reading,
religion,
church attendance,
Sunday conduct,
hunting,
tolerance,
love affairs,
poetry,
Barbadoes, visit to,
Ohio, mission to,
Boston, visit to, (1756)
New York, visit to, (1773)
marriage,
appointed commander-in-chief,
matrimony, his views on,
morality,
forged letters,
agriculture, fondness for,
[agriculture] system,
[agriculture] study of,
coat-of-arms of,
as farmer,
land purchases of,
invents a plow,
humor,
income,
accounts,
property of,
bounty lands of,
investments in land companies,
borrower,
speculation, liking for,
lotteries, liking for,
raffles, liking for,
interest in Potomac Canal Company,
wealth of,
slaves of,
[slaves] care of,
slavery, views on,
charity,
social life,
headquarters life,
dinners,
levees,
bows,
ceremony, hatred of,
conversation,
tea, liking for,
dancing, fondness of,
staff,
simple habits,
dress of,
Rules of Civility,
neatness of,
food,
horsemanship,
fishing, fondness for,
card-playing,
theatre, fondness for,
embarrassment,
library of,
newspapers,
abuse, sensitiveness to,
friendships of,
godfather,
pall-bearer,
Indian friends,
[Indian] name,
assassin,
temper,
quarrel of Hamilton with,
children, relations with,
enemies,
[enemies] duelling and,
drinks toasts,
intrigues against,
attacks on,
insulted,
Presidency,
judgment,
liveried servants of,
courage of,
swears,
Fabian policy,
rashness of,
indecision of,
lack of military knowledge,
generalship,
severity to soldiers,
relations with Continental Congress,
New England, dislike of,
farewell to army,
adjutant of Virginia,
burgess,
stands for Frederick County,
elected,
election expenses of,
drafts law,
inability to make speeches,
stage fright,
inauguration,
in the Continental Congress,
attitude towards Great Britain,
threatened,
popularity of,
diplomacy of,
truthfulness,
serves on jury,
attends elections,
honesty,
----, George Augustine,
----, Harriot,
----, John,
----, John Augustine,
----, Lawrence, Rev. (1st),
----, Lawrence (2d),
----, Lawrence, Major (3d),
----, Lawrence, of Chotanck (4th),
----, Lund,
----, Martha, sickness of,
meets Washington,
engaged,
Washington's letters to,
marriage,
character,
Washington's fondness for,
wealth,
clothing,
housekeeper for,
orthography, 93,
children,
visits to head-quarters,
social life,
mentioned,
dower slaves,
drafts of letters for,
receptions,
----, Mary (Ball),
----, Mildred,
----, Robert,
----, Samuel,
----, Thornton,
Washington City,
WATSON, Elkanah, quoted,
WAYNE, Anthony, quoted,
Weaving at Mount Vernon,
WEEMS, M.L., quoted,
WELD, Isaac, quoted,
Wheat, Washington's production of,
Whiskey, distilling of, at Mount Vernon,
WHITE, Rev. W., quoted,
William and Mary College,
Williamsburg,
lots in,
Washington goes to, for medical advice,
WILLIAMS, William, wishes Washington removed,
WILLING, Ann, quoted,
Winchester, lots in,
election at, 295,
WOLCOTT, Oliver,
WOOD, John,
Yorktown, siege of,
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