(1732-1799)
[Illustration: George Washington. [TN]]
George Washington was born at Bridge's Creek, in Westmoreland County,
Va., on February 22, 1732. The first of the family who settled in
Virginia came from Northampton, but their ancestors are believed to have
been from Lancashire, while the ancient stock of the family is traced to
the De Wessyngtons of Durham. George Washington's father, Augustine, who
died, after a sudden illness, in 1743, was twice married. At his death
he left two surviving sons by the first marriage, and by the second,
four sons (of whom George was the eldest) and a daughter. The mother of
George Washington survived to see her son President. Augustine
Washington left all his children in a state of comparative independence;
to his eldest son by the first marriage he left an estate (afterward
called Mount Vernon) of twenty-five hundred acres and shares in iron
works situated in Virginia and Maryland; to the second, an estate in
Westmoreland. Confiding in the prudence of his widow, he directed that
the proceeds of all the property of her children should be at her
disposal till they should respectively come of age; to George were left
the lands and mansion occupied by his father at his decease; to each of
the other sons, an estate of six or seven hundred acres; a suitable
provision was made for the daughter.
George Washington was indebted for all the education he received to one
of the common schools of the province, in which little was taught beyond
reading, writing, and accounts. He left it before he had completed his
sixteenth year; the last two years of his attendance had been devoted to
the study of geometry, trigonometry, and surveying. He had learned to
use logarithms. It is doubtful whether he ever received any instruction
in the grammar of his own language; and although, when the French
officers under Rochambeau were in America, he attempted to acquire their
language, it appears to have been without success. From his thirteenth
year he evinced a turn for mastering the forms of deeds, constructing
diagrams, and preparing tabular statements. His juvenile manuscripts
have been preserved; the handwriting is neat, but stiff. During the last
summer he was at school, he surveyed the fields adjoining the
school-house and the surrounding plantations, entering his measurements
and calculations in a respectable field-book. He compiled about the same
time, from various sources, "Rules of Behavior in Company and
Conversation." Some selections in rhyme appear in his manuscripts, but
the passages were evidently selected for the moral and religious
sentiments they express, not from any taste for poetry. When a boy he
was fond of forming his school-mates into companies, who paraded and
fought mimic battles, in which he always commanded one of the parties.
He cultivated with ardor all athletic exercises. His demeanor and
conduct at school are said to have won the deference of the other boys,
who were accustomed to make him the arbiter of their disputes.
From the time of his leaving school till the latter part of 1753,
Washington was unconsciously preparing himself for the great duties he
had afterward to discharge. An attempt made to have him entered in the
Royal Navy, in 1746, was frustrated by the interposition of his mother.
The winter of 1748-49 he passed at Mount Vernon, then the seat of his
brother Lawrence, in the study of mathematics and the exercise of
practical surveying. George was introduced about this time to the family
of Lord Fairfax, his brother having married the daughter of William
Fairfax, a member of the Colonial Council, and a distant relative of
that nobleman. The immense tracts of wild lands belonging to Lord
Fairfax, in the valley of the Alleghany Mountains, had never been
surveyed; he had formed a favorable estimate of the talents of young
Washington, and intrusted the task to him. His first essay was on some
lands situated on the south branch of the Potomac, seventy miles above
its junction with the main branch. Although performed in an almost
impenetrable country, while winter yet lingered in the valleys, by a
youth who had only a month before completed his sixteenth year, it gave
so much satisfaction that he soon after received a commission as public
surveyor, an appointment which gave authority to his surveys, and
enabled him to enter them in the county offices.
The next three years were devoted without intermission, except in the
winter months, to his profession. There were few surveyors in Virginia,
and the demand for their services was consequently great, and their
remuneration ample. Washington spent a considerable portion of these
three years among the Alleghanies. The exposures and hardships of the
wilderness could be endured only for a few weeks together, and he
recruited his strength by surveying, at intervals, tracts and farms in
the settled districts. Even at that early age his regular habits enabled
him to acquire some property; and his probity and business talent
obtained for him the confidence of the leading men of the colony.
At the time he attained his nineteenth year the frontiers were
threatened with Indian depredations and French encroachments. To meet
this danger the province was divided into military districts, to each of
which an adjutant-general with the rank of major was appointed. George
Washington was commissioned to one of these districts, with a salary of
L150 per annum. There were many provincial officers (his brother among
the number) in Virginia, who had served in the expedition against
Carthagena and in the West Indies. Under them he studied military
exercises and tactics, entering with alacrity and zeal into the duties
of his office. These pursuits were varied by a voyage to Barbadoes, and
a residence of some months in that colony, in company with his brother
Lawrence, who was sent there by his physicians to seek relief from a
pulmonary complaint. Fragments of the journal kept by George Washington
on this excursion have been preserved; they evince an interest in a wide
range of subjects, and habits of minute observation. At sea the log-book
was daily copied, and the application of his favorite mathematics to
navigation studied; in the island, the soil, agricultural products,
modes of culture, fruits, commerce, military force, fortifications,
manners of the inhabitants, municipal regulations and government, all
were noted in this journal. Lawrence Washington died in July, 1752,
leaving a wife and infant daughter, and upon George, although the
youngest executor, devolved the whole management of the property, in
which he had a residuary interest. The affairs of the estate were
extensive and complicated, and engrossed much of his time and thoughts
for several months. His public duties were not, however, neglected. Soon
after the arrival of Governor Dinwiddie the number of military divisions
was reduced to four and the northern division allotted to Washington. It
included several counties, which he had visited at stated intervals, to
train and instruct the military officers, inspect the men, arms, and
accoutrements, and establish a uniform system of manoeuvres and
discipline.
In 1753 the French in Canada pushed troops across the lakes, and at the
same time bodies of armed men ascended from New Orleans to form a
junction with them, and establish themselves on the upper waters of the
Ohio. Governor Dinwiddie resolved to send a commissioner to confer with
the French officer in command, and inquire by what authority he occupied
a territory claimed by the British. This charge required a man of
discretion, accustomed to travel in the woods, and familiar with Indian
manners. Washington was selected, notwithstanding his youth, as
possessed of these requisites. He set out from Williamsburg on October
31, 1753, and returned on January 16, 1754. He discovered that a
permanent settlement was contemplated by the French within the British
territory, and notwithstanding the vigilance of the garrison, he
contrived to bring back with him a plan of their fort on a branch of
French Creek, fifteen miles south of Lake Erie, and an accurate
description of its form, size, construction, cannon, and barracks.
In March, 1754, the military establishment of the colony was increased
to six companies. Colonel Fry, an Englishman of scientific acquirements
and gentlemanly manners, was placed at the head of them, and Washington
was appointed second in command. His first campaign was a trying but
useful school to him. He was pushed forward, with three small companies,
to occupy the outposts of the Ohio, in front of a superior French force,
and unsupported by his commanding officer. Relying upon his own
resources and the friendship of the Indians, Washington pushed boldly
on. On May 27th he encountered and defeated a detachment of the French
army under M. De Jumonville, who fell in the action. Soon after Colonel
Fry died suddenly, and the chief command devolved upon Washington.
Innis, the commander of the North Carolina troops, was, it is true,
placed over his head, but the new commander never took the field. An
ill-timed parsimony had occasioned disgust among the soldiers, but
Washington remained unshaken. Anticipating that a strong detachment
would be sent against him from Fort Duquesne as soon as Jumonville's
defeat was known there, he intrenched himself on the Great Meadows. The
advance of the French in force obliged him to retreat, but this
operation he performed in a manner that elicited a vote of thanks from
the House of Burgesses. In 1755 Colonel Washington acceded to the
request of General Braddock to take part in the campaign as one of his
military family, retaining his former rank. When privately consulted by
Braddock, "I urged him," wrote Washington, "in the warmest terms I was
able, to push forward, if he even did it with a small but chosen band,
with such artillery and light stores as were necessary, leaving the
heavy artillery and baggage to follow with the rear division by slow and
easy marches." This advice prevailed. Washington was, however, attacked
by a violent fever, in consequence of which he was only able to rejoin
the army on the evening before the battle of the Monongahela. In that
fatal affair he exposed himself with the most reckless bravery, and when
the soldiers were finally put to rout, hastened to the rear division to
order up horses and wagons for the wounded. The panic-stricken army
dispersed on all sides, and Washington retired to Mount Vernon, which
had now, by the death of his brother's daughter without issue, become
his own property. His bravery was universally admitted, and it was known
that latterly his prudent counsels had been disregarded.
In the autumn of the same year he was appointed to reorganize the
provincial troops. He retained the command of them till the close of the
campaign of 1758. The tardiness and irresolution of provincial
assemblies and governors compelled him to act during much of this time
upon the defensive; but to the necessity hence imposed upon him of
projecting a chain of defensive forts for the Ohio frontier, he was
indebted for that mastery of this kind of war, which afterward availed
him so much. Till 1758 the Virginia troops remained on the footing of
militia; and Washington having had ample opportunities to convince
himself of the utter worthlessness of a militia in time of war, in the
beginning of that year prevailed upon the Government to organize them on
the same footing as the royal forces. At the same time that Washington's
experience was extending, his sentiments of allegiance were weakened by
the reluctance with which the claims of the provincial officers were
admitted, and the unreserved preference uniformly given to the officers
of the regular army. At the close of 1758 he resigned his commission and
retired into private life.
On January 6, 1759, he married Mrs. Martha Custis, a young widow with
two children. "Mr. Custis," says Mr. Sparke, "had left large landed
estates, and L45,000 sterling in money. One-third of this property she
held in her own right; the other two-thirds being equally divided
between her two children." Washington had a considerable fortune of his
own at the time of his marriage, consisting of the estate at Mount
Vernon, and large tracts of land which he had selected during his
surveying expeditions and obtained grants of at different times. He now
devoted himself to the management of this extensive property, and to the
guardianship of Mrs. Washington's children, and till the commencement of
1763 was, in appearance at least, principally occupied with these
private matters. He found time, however, for public civil duties. He had
been elected a member of the House of Burgesses before he resigned his
commission, and although there were commonly two, and sometimes three
sessions in every year, he was punctual in his attendance from beginning
to end of each. During the period of his service in the Legislature he
frequently attended on such theatrical exhibitions as were then
presented in America, and lived on terms of intimacy with the most
eminent men of Virginia. At Mount Vernon he practised on a large scale
the hospitality for which the Southern planters have ever been
distinguished. His chief diversion in the country was the chase. He
exported the produce of his estates to London, Liverpool, and Bristol,
and imported everything required for his property, and domestic
establishment. His industry was equal to his enterprise; his day-books,
ledgers and letter-books were all kept by himself and he drew up his own
contracts and deeds. In the House of Burgesses he seldom spoke, but
nothing escaped his notice, and his opinion was eagerly sought and
followed. He assumed trusts at the solicitation of friends, and was much
in request as an arbitrator. He was, probably without being himself
aware of it, establishing a wide and strong influence, which no person
suspected till the time arrived for exercising it.
On March 4, 1773, Lord Dunmore prorogued the intractable House of
Burgesses. Washington had been a close observer of every previous
movement in his country, though it was not in his nature to play the
agitator. He had expressed his disapprobation of the Stamp Act in
unqualified terms. The non-importation agreement, drawn up by George
Mason in 1769, was presented to the members of the dissolved House of
Burgesses by Washington. In 1773 he supported the resolutions
instituting a committee of correspondence and recommending the
legislatures of the other colonies to do the same. He represented
Fairfax County in the Convention which met at Williamsburg, in August,
1774, and was appointed by it one of the six Virginian delegates to the
first General Congress. On his return from Congress he was virtually
placed in command of the Virginian Independent Companies. In the spring
of 1775 he devised a plan for the more complete military organization of
Virginia; and on June 15th of that year, he was elected
commander-in-chief of the continental army by Congress.
[Illustration: The surrender of Cornwallis to Washington.]
The portion of Washington's life which we have hitherto been passing in
review, may be considered as his probationary period--the time during
which he was training himself for the great business of his life. His
subsequent career naturally subdivides itself into two periods--that of
his military command and that of his presidency. In the former we have
Washington the soldier; in the latter, Washington the statesman. His
avocations from 1748 to 1775 were as good a school as can well be
conceived for acquiring the accomplishments of either character. His
early intimacy and connection with the Fairfax family had taught him to
look on society with the eyes of the class which takes a part in
government. His familiarity with applied mathematics and his experience
as a surveyor on the wild frontier lands, had made him master of that
most important branch of knowledge for a commander--the topography of
the country. His experience as a parade officer, as a partisan on the
frontier, and as the commander of considerable bodies of disciplined
troops, had taught him the principles both of the war of detail and the
war of large masses. On the other hand, his punctual habits of business,
his familiarity with the details both of agriculture and commerce, and
the experience he had acquired as trustee, arbitrator, and member of the
House of Burgesses, were so many preparatory studies for the duties of a
statesman. He commenced his great task of first liberating and then
governing a nation, with all the advantages of this varied experience,
in his forty-third year, an age at which the physical vigor is
undiminished, and the intellect fully ripe. He persevered in it, with a
brief interval of repose, for upward of twenty years, with almost
uniform success, and with an exemption from the faults of great leaders
unparalleled in history.
Washington was elected commander-in-chief on June 15, 1775; he resigned
his commission into the hands of the President of Congress on December
23, 1783. His intermediate record as a general, and as the steadfast and
undismayed leader of an apparently hopeless struggle, we pass over here.
It is the entire history of the American Revolution.
We must also pass briefly over the interval which separates the epoch of
Washington the soldier from that of Washington the statesman--the few
years which elapsed between the resignation of his command in 1783, and
his election as first President of the United States, in February, 1789.
It was for him no period of idleness. In addition to a liberal increase
of hospitality at Mount Vernon, and indefatigable attention to the
management of his large estates, he actively promoted in his own State,
plans of internal navigation, acts for encouraging education, and plans
for the civilization of the Indians. He also acted as delegate from
Virginia to the Convention which framed the first constitution of the
United States. We now turn to contemplate him as president.
Washington left Mount Vernon for New York, which was then the seat of
Congress, on April 16, 1789. His journey was a triumphal procession. He
took the oath of office on April 30th, with religious services,
processions, and other solemnities.
The new president's first step was to request elaborate reports from the
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary of War, and the
Commissioners of the Treasury. The reports he read, and condensed with
his own hand, particularly those of the Treasury board. The voluminous
official correspondence in the public archives, from the time of the
treaty of peace till the time he entered on the presidency, he read,
abridged, and studied, with the view of fixing in his mind every
important point that had been discussed, and the history of what had
been done.
His arrangements for the transaction of business and the reception of
visitors were characterized by the same spirit of order which had marked
him when a boy and when at the head of the army. Every Tuesday, between
the hours of three and four, he was prepared to receive such persons as
chose to call. Every Friday afternoon the rooms were open in like manner
for visits to Mrs. Washington. He accepted no invitations to dinner, but
invited to his own table foreign ministers, officers of the government,
and others, in such numbers as his domestic establishment could
accommodate. The rest of the week-days were devoted to business
appointments. No visits were received on Sunday, or promiscuous company
admitted; he attended church regularly, and the rest of that day was his
own.
The organization of the executive departments was decreed by act of
Congress during the first session. They were the Departments of Foreign
Affairs (afterward called the Department of State, and including both
foreign and domestic affairs), of the Treasury, and of War. It devolved
upon the president to select proper persons to fill the several offices.
Jefferson was appointed Secretary of State; Hamilton, Secretary of the
Treasury; and Knox, Secretary of War. Randolph had the post of
Attorney-General. Jay was made Chief-Justice. After making these
appointments he undertook a tour through the Eastern States, and
returned to be present at the opening of Congress, in January, 1790.
In his opening speech he recommended to the attention of the Legislature
a provision for the common defence; laws for naturalizing foreigners; a
uniform system of currency, weights, and measures; the encouragement of
agriculture, commerce, and manufactures; the promotion of science and
literature; and an effective system for the support of the public
credit. The last topic gave rise to protracted and vehement debates. At
last Hamilton's plan for funding all the domestic debts was carried by a
small majority in both Houses of Congress. The president suppressed his
sentiments on the subject while it was under debate in Congress, but he
approved the act for funding the public debt, and was from conviction a
decided friend to the measure. It now became apparent to the most
unreflecting that two great parties were in the process of formation,
the one jealous of anything that might encroach upon democratic
principles; the other distrustful of the power of institutions so simple
as those of the United States to preserve tranquillity and the cohesion
of the state. Jefferson was the head of the Democratic, Hamilton of what
was afterward called the Federalist party. Washington endeavored to
reconcile these ardent and incompatible spirits. His own views were more
in accordance with those of Hamilton; but he knew Jefferson's value as a
statesman, and he felt the importance of the president remaining
independent of either party. The two secretaries, however, continued to
diverge in their political course, and ultimately their differences
settled into personal enmity.
The president's term of office was drawing to a close, and an anxious
wish began to prevail that he should allow himself to be elected for a
second term. Jefferson, Hamilton, and Randolph--who did not exactly
coincide with either--all shared in this anxiety, and each wrote a long
letter to Washington, assigning reasons for his allowing himself to be
re-elected. He yielded; and on March 4, 1793, he took the oath of office
in the senate chamber.
The first question that came before the cabinet after the re-election,
rendered more decided the differences which already existed. The
European parties, of which the court of England and the French republic
were the representatives, were eager to draw the United States into the
vortex of their struggle. The president and his cabinet were unanimous
in their determination to preserve neutrality, but the aristocratic and
democratic sections of the cabinet could not refrain from displaying
their respective biases and their jealousy of each other. Foreign
affairs were mingled with domestic politics, and the Democratic and
Federalist parties became avowedly organized. Washington was for a time
allowed to keep aloof from the contest--not for a long time. A
circumstance insignificant in itself increased the bitterness of the
contest out of doors. Democratic societies had been formed on the model
of the Jacobin clubs of France. Washington regarded them with alarm, and
the unmeasured expression of his sentiments on this head subjected him
to a share in the attacks made upon the party accused of undue fondness
for England and English institutions.
Advices from the American minister in London representing that the
British cabinet was disposed to settle the differences between the two
countries amicably, Washington nominated Mr. Jay to the Senate as
Envoy-extraordinary to the court of Great Britain. The nomination,
though strenuously opposed by the Democratic party, was confirmed in the
Senate by a majority of two to one. The treaty negotiated by Jay was
received at the seat of government in March, 1795, soon after the
session of Congress closed. The president summoned the Senate to meet in
June to ratify it. The treaty was ratified. Before the treaty was signed
by the president it was surreptitiously published. It was vehemently
condemned, and public meetings against it were held to intimidate the
executive. The president, nevertheless, signed the treaty on August
18th. When Congress met in March, 1796, a resolution was carried by a
large majority in the House of Representatives, requesting the president
to lay before the house the instructions to Mr. Jay, the correspondence,
and other documents relating to the negotiations. Washington declined to
furnish the papers; a vehement debate ensued, but in the end the hostile
majority yielded to the exigency of the case and united in passing laws
for the fulfilment of the treaty.
The two houses of Congress met again in December. Washington had
published on September 15th his farewell address to the United States.
He now delivered his last speech to Congress, and took occasion to urge
upon that body the gradual increase of the navy, a provision for the
encouragement of agriculture and manufactures, the establishment of a
national university, and of a military academy. Little was done during
the session; public attention was engrossed by the presidential
election. Adams, the Federalist candidate, had the highest number of
votes; Jefferson, the Democratic candidate (who was consequently
declared vice-president), the next. Washington's commanding character
and isolation from party, had preserved this degree of strength to the
holders of his own political views. He was present as a spectator at
the installation of his successor, and immediately afterward returned to
Mount Vernon.
He survived till December 14, 1799, but except when summoned in May,
1798, to take the command of the provincial army, on the prospect of a
war with France, did not again engage in public business.
The character of Washington is one of simple and substantial greatness.
His passions were vehement but concentrated, and thoroughly under
control. An irresistible strength of will was combined with a singularly
well-balanced mind, with much sagacity, much benevolence, much love of
justice. Without possessing what may be called genius, Washington was
endowed with a rare quickness of perception and soundness of judgment,
and an eager desire of knowledge. His extremely methodical habits
enabled him to find time for everything, and were linked with a talent
for organization. During the War of Independence he was the defensive
force of America; wanting him, it would almost appear as if the
democratic mass must have resolved itself into its elements. To place
Washington as a warrior on a footing with the Caesars, Napoleons, and
Wellingtons, would be absurd. He lost more battles than he gained. But
he kept an army together and kept up resistance to the enemy, under more
adverse circumstances than any other general ever did. His services as a
statesman were similar in kind. He upheld the organization of the
American state during the first eight years of its existence, amid the
storms of Jacobinical controversy, and gave it time to consolidate. No
other American but himself could have done this, for of all the American
leaders he was the only one whom men felt differed from themselves. The
rest were soldiers or civilians, Federalists or Democrats; but he was
Washington. The awe and reverence felt for him were blended with
affection for his kindly qualities, and except for a brief period toward
the close of his second presidential term, there has been but one
sentiment entertained toward him throughout the Union--that of
reverential love. His was one of those rare natures which greatness
follows without their striving for it.
* * * * *
The following extract is from a letter written by him to his adopted
daughter, Nellie Custis, on the subject of love:[4]
[Footnote 4: Copied by kind permission of the publishers,
Messrs. Harper & Bros., from Benson Lossing's "Mary and Martha
Washington."]
"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 progress; but let these be withdrawn and it may
be stifled in its birth or much stunted 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 charm 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;
and my motives for treating on this subject are to show you, while you
remain Eleanor Parke Custis, spinster, and retain the resolution to love
with moderation, the propriety of adhering to the latter resolution, at
least until you have secured your game, or the way by which it may be
accomplished.
"When the fire is beginning to kindle, and your heart growing warm,
propound these questions to it: Who is this invader? Have I a competent
knowledge of him? Is he a man of good character; a man of sense? For, be
assured, a sensible woman can never be happy with a fool. What has been
his walk in life? Is he a gambler, a spendthrift, or drunkard? Is his
fortune sufficient to maintain me in the manner I have been accustomed
to live, and my sisters do live? and is he one to whom my friends can
have no reasonable objection? If these interrogatories can be
satisfactorily answered there will remain but one more to be asked;
that, however, is an important one: Have I sufficient ground to conclude
that his affections are engaged by me? Without this the heart of
sensibility will struggle against a passion that is not
reciprocated--delicacy, custom, or call it by what epithet you will,
having precluded all advances on your part. The declaration, without the
_most indirect_ invitation of yours, must proceed from the man, to
render it permanent and valuable, and nothing short of good sense, and
an easy, unaffected conduct can draw the line between prudery and
coquetry. It would be no great departure from truth to say that it
rarely happens otherwise than that a thorough-paced coquette dies in
celibacy, as a punishment for her attempts to mislead others by
encouraging looks, words, or actions, given for no other purpose than to
draw men on to make overtures that they may be rejected.... Every
blessing, among which a good husband when you want one, is bestowed on
you by yours affectionately."