THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPERIENCE IN BORDER WARFARE
I. GETTING USED TO ROUGHING IT
From the aristocratic tables and home comforts of Mount Vernon and
Belvoir, the youthful Washington began roughing it in the forests and
along the streams of the Shenandoah. He had begun to adapt himself to
the primitive conditions of his country and to share the coarse fare
of the commoners that composed the civilization of the new world.
To one of his friends, he wrote: “I have not slept more than three or
four nights in a bed, but, after walking a good deal all day, I have
lain down before the fire upon a little straw or fodder, or a
bearskin, whichever was to be had, with man, wife and children, like
dogs and cats; and happy is he who gets the berth nearest the fire.”
He wrote in his note-book that he received, when in active service, a
doubloon per day, which was $7.20 in gold and worth much more than
that correspondingly at that time. These first wages are in sharp
contrast to those received by Lincoln, and the preparation for life
coming to the two men was as notably different as their mission and as
their times.
Soon after this, Washington, though only a boy, was appointed official
surveyor for the government, and so accurate were his surveys that
they have ever remained the undisputed authority. Meantime, he had an
eye to the practical, and, as a result, the choicest parts of the
Shenandoah Valley came into possession of the Washingtons and remained
with them for many generations.
The able and talented young gentleman was frequently for long periods
the guest of Lord Fairfax, after Lord Fairfax had moved from Belvoir
to his “quarters” beyond the Blue Ridge, which he had made into a
spacious new home named Greenway Court. All the culture of England was
gathered there and nothing was failing to give the young man a clear
idea of the social and political conditions of the world.
World history has much to do in making individual history and so it
was with Washington. England and France were rivals and at war. The
war came to a close, and, so anxious was each for peace, that they
settled their home differences and left to the future their rivalry
for territory in North America. It then became a race for them, who
could occupy and defend territory the most rapidly. The vast
overlapping claims ran down from the Saint Lawrence River to the Ohio
River and on to the Mississippi.
French explorers had certainly been the first to pass through that
region and map out the territory, but the English had occupied the
eastern coast and given land titles that ran west to the setting sun.
Evidently, the mother countries had settled their differences in
Europe only to turn their energies to securing and fortifying their
claims in the new world.
Strange indeed is the course of destiny. The revolutionary
grandmothers used to recite a very vague stanza which ran as follows:
“A lion and a unicorn
Were fighting for the crown
Up jumped a little dog
And knocked them both down.”
At least, England lost most of its possessions in North America,
France lost all, and a little nation appeared that was the cradle of
liberty for mankind and the unsurpassable maker of a greater world.
II. LAND SPECULATION AS THE BEGINNING LEADING TO AMERICAN
SELF-GOVERNMENT
We may reasonably find a beginning of the American republic, involving
the career of George Washington, in the formation of what is known as
the Ohio Company. If this company had been formed of unscrupulous
speculators, as were other big franchises granted by kings, it could
well have been a near-relative to the get-rich-quick manias that
present so queer a view of men’s minds, not only in those days but
even in present times. But such honorable men as Lawrence and
Augustine Washington were prominent in that company, and it was not
long till Lawrence had chief management of the company.
A very significant controversy concerning freedom of conscience arose
in the endeavor to induce the Dutch from Pennsylvania to settle on the
new land grants. These Pennsylvanians were what is known as
dissenters. They had a religious belief of their own. If they moved
into the territory of the Ohio Company they would have to attend
Episcopalian service and contribute taxes to the support of the Church
of England.
Lawrence Washington was opposed to the English laws that demanded
such sectarian contribution of means and life.
“It has ever been my opinion,” he argued, “and I hope it will ever be,
that restraints on conscience are cruel in regard to those on whom
they are imposed, and injurious to the country imposing them....
Virginia was greatly settled in the latter part of Charles the First’s
time, and during the usurpation, by the zealous churchmen; and that
spirit, which was then brought in, has ever since continued; so that,
except a few Quakers, we have no dissenters. But what has been the
consequence? We have increased by slow degrees, whilst our neighboring
colonies, whose natural advantages are greatly inferior to ours, have
become populous.”
This view may look as if it had been taken from the old saying that
nothing succeeds like success, and yet this may, in the long run, be
the necessary proof found in a thing being true as it works. In any
event, the Washington idea was that of individual freedom, and this
was the first essential in a mind that was to have such a large share
in founding the government of America.
The romantic contest was now on for the possession of the great region
of the Ohio and its tributaries. It was a vast wilderness of pathless
forests, rich in the wild game that was then the fortune of new-world
traders. The friendship of the Indians was of the highest importance
to both sides. Every effort was made by both French and English to
form alliances with the Indians. The French addressed themselves in
all their meetings as “Fathers” to the Indians, while the English
always used the term “Brothers.” It was clear to all that if the
“Fathers” won the allegiance of the Indians, the “Brothers” would have
to go, or likewise “t’other way ’round.”
While Mr. Gist, the surveyor of the Ohio Company, was finding the
boundaries of their territory, he was met by an old Delaware Sachem
who asked him a very embarrassing question.
“The French,” said the old Indian chief, “claim all the land on one
side of the Ohio, and the English claim all the land on the other
side, now where does the Indian’s land lie?”
The question was answered at last by time. The French “Fathers” and
the English “Brothers” took it all, after which the new government of
the United States came into possession; and the orator and the poet
could fittingly say of the Indians, “Slowly and sadly they climb the
distant mountains and read their doom in the setting sun.”
But American responsibility, if not its humanity, at last settled “The
Indian Question,” and the “good Indian” became a new American.
III. THE STRUGGLE OF NATIONS FOR THE INDIAN’S HUNTING GROUNDS
The wild struggle between the French and English that now took place
in the wilderness, for the possession of the Indian’s hunting ground
could hardly be dignified enough to be called war, and the holiness of
its cause could hardly be raised higher than rival commercial
interests working for something in which neither had any clear claims.
But it had a most momentous consequence on whether America should be
French and Spanish or English and Spanish. In those dark forests where
the dusky savages held the balance of power, to make the “Fathers” or
the “Brothers” successful, was played the tragic scenes deciding the
political destiny of the new world.
The French began to build forts and supply stations along their
northern lines from Canada, and the English began to drill volunteers
for the purpose of defending the Ohio Company’s territory, if not even
further to expel the French entirely as a menace to the peace of the
company.
Virginia was divided into military districts whose commander-in-chief
was an adjutant-general, having the rank of major. Lawrence Washington
secured one of these military districts for his brother George, who
was then only nineteen years of age. Manhood of mind as well as of
body had come to him rapidly and there is no evidence but that he
fulfilled these high duties with complete satisfaction to all
concerned. To American interests, these experiences were indeed a
providential training for the priceless responsibilities to come.
Method, accuracy and persistence were prime characteristics of George
Washington. He did not assume to know it all without any need of
preparation. He believed he could take a job for which he was not
fitted with the profound belief that before the job got to him he
would be fitted. This reminds us of how Lincoln took the job of
surveyor before he knew how to survey, but when he began the work of
surveying, even with the rudest instruments, his work was correct.
There was a Westmoreland volunteer, Adjutant Muse, who had served
through the Spanish Campaigns with Lawrence Washington. He was well
informed by both experience and study in the art and theory of war.
George brought him to Mount Vernon and became under him a strenuous
student in military tactics. There was also Jacob Van Braam, a soldier
of fortune, who was an expert in fencing, and who had likewise been
through the West Indies with Lawrence. Jacob was speedily added to
the military academy at Mount Vernon with its one student. But these
teachers might well feel like Plato at the Academy in Athens. The
story is that a stormy day had kept all of Plato’s pupils away but
one. Nevertheless, Plato arose and began his lecture as usual. The
pupil protested but Plato continued, saying, “It is true that only one
pupil is here, but that one is Aristotle.”
Adjutant Muse and Swordmaster Van Braam had only one pupil for their
distinguished instruction, but that one was George Washington.
It was probably about the time when George had learned all he needed
of these teachers, that Lawrence’s health broke down, and his
physicians ordered him to go to the Barbadoes for the winter. It was
necessary for George to go with him, and he did so, writing a journal
of all the occurrences and observations he considered worthy of note.
Within two weeks, after he arrived in that happy-go-lucky colony where
no one was interested in anything but pleasure and pastime, George was
struck down by the smallpox. He recovered in three weeks and was
slightly marked for life, but with no other consequence than a
disagreeable experience.
Lawrence decided to leave the Barbadoes for Bermuda, and so he sent
George home to bring Mrs. Washington to Bermuda. But she did not go.
Lawrence returned, and died soon after, at the age of thirty-four
years.
This noble man and genuine American did much toward preparing his
half-brother George for the immortal work to be done, and the name of
Lawrence Washington should ever remain sacred in the memory of the
American people.