War now be-gan in dead-ly earn-est; and, at the great bat-tle of Long
Isl-and, our men met with great loss of life, and had to flee from the
foe. Soon af-ter this bad news the Brit-ish took Phil-a-del-phi-a, and
now Wash-ing-ton was sad at heart; on Christ-mas day of 1776, though,
our troops won in the great fight that took place at Tren-ton, and there
was joy in the whole land; good news came with the New Year, too, for
Wash-ing-ton won ma-ny fights; and at last, in Oc-to-ber, 1777, the
Brit-ish troops in charge of Gen-er-al Bur-goyne gave up their arms to
Gen-er-al Gates. That win-ter of 1777 was a bad one for Wash-ing-ton and
his men; at no time in the war did they suf-fer so much; the time was
spent at Val-ley Forge, and the men lived in log huts which they had
first built, in long straight lines, like cit-y streets; twelve men
lived in each hut, and there was a fire-place at the back, but no fire
could keep out the aw-ful cold, and no hut was snug e-nough to keep out
the snow that fell in great drifts a-round this lit-tle town of log
huts. To make things worse there was lit-tle food to be had; the men had
on-ly poor, thin clothes, and their bare feet oft-en left marks of blood
on the white snow. But the men did not lose hope, and kept their faith
through all the long months in their great lead-er, whose lot was quite
as hard as theirs was; the farm-house in which he had a room still
stands, and it is hard to be-lieve, as you look at this old house on the
banks of the Del-a-ware Riv-er, that once the big or-chard back of it
and all the pret-ty fields were filled with poor little wood-en huts
in which, for the sake of free-dom, lived and suf-fered thou-sands of
brave men.
In the spring things were bet-ter, for France joined A-mer-i-ca in her
fight for free-dom, and three years from this time the Brit-ish were
beaten at York-town and A-mer-i-ca was free. One of the great
French-men, who gave us much help, and was a firm friend of
Wash-ing-ton's, was the Mar-quis de La-fay-ette.
[Illustration: MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE.]
A ver-y sad thing dur-ing these last years of the war was the base act
of Ben-e-dict Ar-nold, who made up his mind to sell to the Brit-ish some
posts near West Point, of which he had charge. He sent a note to
Clin-ton by a young Brit-ish spy, Ma-jor An-dre; but on his way to the
Brit-ish lines this young man was caught by three of our men. They found
the note in his boots and he was brought to the A-mer-i-can camp, tried
for his life and hung as a spy. Ben-e-dict Ar-nold had made his way to a
ship and set sail for Eng-land, and his name is hat-ed, not on-ly by his
own land, but by e-ven the land to whom he tried to sell his coun-try.
It was in March, 1783, that the news of peace spread through the land,
and it is said that Wash-ing-ton wept with joy, as he read the glad news
to his troops; he gave or-ders that the whole ar-my should give thanks
to God; and this was done at a great meet-ing on the day af-ter Lord
Corn-wal-lis laid down his sword. Then there was a great ball giv-en at
Fred-er-icks-burg, and Wash-ing-ton's old moth-er, sev-en-ty-four years
old, was there lean-ing on the arm of her son; and do you not think she
was proud, as one af-ter an-oth-er of the great French of-fi-cers bowed
to her, and spoke in her son's praise?
[Illustration: SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS AT YORKTOWN.]
It was on Christ-mas eve that Wash-ing-ton came home to Mt. Vernon,
af-ter eight years of war: rid-ing in state, with his wife at his side,
this great A-mer-i-can, feared now by kings, and loved more than ev-er
by the coun-try he had made free, came glad-ly back to take up the
qui-et coun-try life he loved so well; and here, could he have had his
way, he would have lived un-til his death; but this new coun-try need-ed
at its head a man whom folks loved and trust-ed, and of whom oth-er
lands stood in fear. No man but Wash-ing-ton could fill this great
place; and so, at the end of three years, once more at his coun-try's
call, he left his home,--this time to be-come the first Pres-i-dent of
the U-ni-ted States. Not one voice was a-gainst him; eve-ry man in the
new coun-try vot-ed to give him this last hon-or; and on Ap-ril 30th,
1789, in New York Ci-ty, he took the oath of of-fice. Wash-ing-ton, who
was a ve-ry rich man, had tak-en no mon-ey for serv-ing his coun-try
in the war; and said he would take none now; but be-cause oth-er
Pres-i-dents might not be rich e-nough or good e-nough to want to do
the same, the peo-ple made him take $25,000 a year; now, you know, the
Pres-i-dent gets $50,000 a year.
Wash-ing-ton was in New York but one year, then the cap-i-tal was moved
to Phil-a-del-phia, and here he lived in great state, un-til af-ter
eight years in the Pres-i-dent's chair, once more, and for the last
time, he came back home to Mt. Ver-non.
At the end of his term of of-fice, Wash-ing-ton on-ly wait-ed to see
the next Pres-i-dent, John Ad-ams, take the chair, and soon af-ter he
came back talk a-rose of war with France; and, of course, the coun-try
turned to him; he was a-gain put in charge of the ar-my, and took up
the pub-lic life he had so glad-ly laid down. But he had not long to
bear it this time, for on De-cem-ber 12th, 1799, while rid-ing in a
hard rain-storm, he took a heav-y cold, from which he died on Sat-ur-day
night, De-cem-ber 14th, be-tween ten and twelve o'clock.
Wash-ing-ton was bur-ied at Mt. Ver-non, and to-day the tomb of "The
Fa-ther of his Coun-try," as he is lov-ing-ly called is a sa-cred place;
not on-ly to us, but to the men and wo-men of the old lands, which were
taught by him so long a-go to hon-or and fear this great, new A-mer-i-ca.
Wash-ing-ton had been dead just one hun-dred years on De-cem-ber 14th,
1899, and the date was made much of in the U-nit-ed States: in New York
Ci-ty, in Wash-ing-ton, and at Mt. Ver-non there was a great time in his
hon-or, for this great man is as dear to his coun-try to-day as he was
when he was a-live.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON FAMILY VAULT.]