Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

WASHINGTON IRVING commences his | the picturesque era of the early days of life of George Washington with a the Plantagenets, when the De Wessyng genealogical chapter tracing the anti- tons did manorial service in the battle quity of his family to the eleventh cen- and the chase, to the military Bishop tury. Though the transcendent merit of Durham. Following these spirited of his hero little needs this blazonry, scenes through the fourteenth century which, as he himself intimated on one to the fifteenth, we have a glimpse occasion, his occupation in active busi- of John de Wessyngton, a stout, controness had given him no time to ferret versial abbot attached to the cathedral. out, yet it is not to be denied that it is After him, we are called upon to trace quite in harmony with the character of the family in the various parts of Eng Washington, that his family should be land, and particularly in its branch of traced through an ancient and honor- Washingtons-for so the spelling of the able descent. He is placed in history name had now become determined-at as a connecting link between too great Sulgrave, in Northamptonshire. They eras of civilization, and it is important were loyalists in the Cromwellian era, to know that the goodly tree of his fair when Sir Henry gained renown by his fame has its roots in the one, while it defence of Worcester. While this event extends its widely spread, still growing was quite recent, two brothers of the branches into the other. He certainly race, John and Lawrence, emigrated to would be less a representative man Virginia in 1657, and established themwere his origin unknown, or had he selves as planters, in Westmoreland just arrived, a chance comer, to do his county, bordering on the Potomac and work of revolutionizing a nation. On Rappahannock, in the midst of a disthe contrary, he was especially fitted trict destined to produce many eminent for his great employment by the place men for the service of a State then of his birth, leaning fondly on the undreamt of. One of these brothers, parent country as the Old Dominion, the John, a colonel in the Virginia service, estates and institutions by which he was the grandfather of Augustine, was surrounded, and the recollections who married Mary Ball, the belle of of an elder time which these circum- the county, and became the parent of stances implied. In supplying these George Washington. The family home traditions, Mr. Irving carries us back to was on Bridges' Creek, near the banks

of the Potomac, where, the oldest of six children by this second marriage of his father, the illustrious subject of our sketch was born on the twenty-second of February, 1732.

school," by a village pedagogue, named Hobby, one of his father's tenants, who joined to his afflictive calling the more melancholy profession of sexton-a shabby member of the race of instruc tors, who in his old age kept up the association by getting patriotically fuddled on his pupils' birth-days. The boy could have learnt little there which was not better taught at home. Indeed we find his mother inculcating the best precepts. In addition to the Scriptures and the lessons of the Church, which always form the most important part of such a child's education, she had a book of excellent wisdom, as the event proved, especially suitable for the guidance of her son's future life, in Sir Matthew Hale's "Contemplations, Moral and Divine"-a book written by one who had attained high public dis tinction, and who tells the secret of his worth and success. The very volume out of which Washington was thus taught by his mother is preserved at Mount Vernon. He had, however, some limited school instruction with a Mr. Williams, whom he attended from his half brother, Augustine's, home, in Westmoreland, and from whom he learnt a knowledge of accounts, in which he was always skilful. His ciphering book, neatly written out, may be seen among other relics of his early years, in the public archives at Washington. Another juvenile note-book of this time, penned when he was thirteen, contains not only forms of business, as bonds, The domestic instruction of Wash- leases, and the like, but copies of verses ington was of the best and purest. He and "Rules of Behavior in Company had been early indoctrinated in the and Conversation," full of homely prac rudiments of learning, in the "field tical wisdom of the Benjamin Franklin

Augustine Washington was the owner of several estates in this region of the two rivers, to one of which, on the Rappahannock, in Stafford County, he removed shortly after his son's birth, and there the boy received his first impressions. He was not destined to be much indebted to schools or school-masters. His father, indeed, was not insensible to the advantages of education, since, according to the custom of those days with wealthy planters, he had sent Lawrence, his oldest son by his previous marriage, to be educated in England; an opportunity which was not given him in the case of George; for before the boy was of an age to leave home on such a journey, the father was suddenly taken out of the world by an attack of gout. This event happened in April, 1743, when George was left to the guardianship of his mother. The honest merits of Mary, "the mother of Washington," have often been matters of comment. All that is preserved of this lady, who survived her husband forty-six years, and of course lived to witness the matured triumphs of her son-he was seated in the Presidential chair when she died-bears witness to her good sense and simplicity, the plainness and sincerity of her household virtues.

[ocr errors]

ness recite, among those of

pattern. Some lines on "True Happi- books. It is worth mentioning, this other benefits, tender susceptibility of one who was all tenderness within, while his grave public duties so long conscientiously required him to present an iron front to the world.

"A merry night without much drinking,
A happy thought without much thinking;
Each night by quick sleep made short,
A will to be but what thou art."

The "Rules," one hundred and ten in number, are plain, sensible maxims, commonplace enough, some of them, but not the less valuable; minor moralities which add to the comfort as well as the greatness of life, form the gentleman, and assist the Christian. Washington, who was ever sedulously observant of all matters of good conduct and high principle, may well be studied in this elementary exercise of his boyish days. He had early set his mind in these precepts upon kindness, forbearance, self-denial, probity, the love of justice. The youth had also particular instructions from Mr. Williams in geometry, trigonometry, and surveying, in which he became an adept, writ ing out his examples in the neatest and most careful manner. This was a branch of instruction more important to him than Latin and Greek, of which he was taught nothing, and one that he turned to account through life. All the school instruction which Washington received was thus completed before he was sixteen.

Nor let it be supposed that these sober mathematical calculations constituted all the dreams of the boy. He had other visions of a softer character in the charms of a certain lowland beauty, to whose memory some love-sick rhymes are left in his youthful note

He had, however, to look to some practical work in the scant condition of his fortunes, and we find him early bent upon it. While he was yet at school, a proposition was entertained by himself and a portion of his family, which, if it had been carried out, might have seriously affected the destinies of America. His brother, Lawrence, fourteen years his senior, had served a few years before with the West India fleet of Admiral Vernon, in the land force at the siege of Carthagena, and in honor of his commander, gave the name Mount Vernon to the estate on the Potomac which he inherited from his father. He was now married to the daughter of a neighboring gentleman, William Fairfax, and in the enjoyment of his home had given up military life; but he thought well of the foreign service, and procured a midshipman's warrant for his brother George, who, full of active vigor, with a boyish taste for war, eagerly desired the adventure. Little more is known of the affair, beyond his mother's earnest final interposition-she had given her consent in the first instance-by which his majesty's navy lost an excellent recruit, and his majesty's dominions half a continent, while the world gained a nation.

On leaving school, young Washing ton appears to have taken up his resi dence with his brother at Mount

Vernon, where he was introduced to the wilderness, in the spring of 1748; new social influences of a liberal the prelude, in its introduction to character in the family society of the Indians and the exposures of camp life, Fairfaxes. Lawrence, as we have seen, to many rougher scenes of military was married to a daughter of William service, stretching westward from the Fairfax, a gentleman of much experience region.

and adventure about the world, who Three years were passed in experesided at his neighboring seat "Bel-ditions of this nature, the young survoir," on the Potomac, and superin- veyor making his home in his intervals tended, as agent, the large landed of duty mostly at Mount Vernon. The operations of his cousin, Lord Fairfax. health of his brother, the owner of this These comprehended a huge territory, place, to whom he was much attached, embracing the Northern Neck, and was now failing with consumption, and stretching over the mountains into George accompanied him in one of his what was then something of a frontier tours for health in the autumn of 1751 region, the valley of the Shenandoah. to Barbadoes. As usual, he kept a In this more remote spot resided the journal of his observations-he was owner himself at Greenway Court, always diligent and exact in these keeping up a rude state, and gratifying records from a boy, so that of no one his love of the chase, for he had so illustrious in history have we a brought with him from Old England more perfect picture through lifethe tastes of a genuine fox-hunter. which tells us of the every-day living Washington, though too young to and hospitalities of the place, with a appreciate the eccentric nobleman's shrewd glance at its agricultural revaried experience, was ready to follow sources and the conduct of its gover him in the hunt, and there was another nor. A few lines cover nearly a month source of sympathy in the practical of the visit; they record an attack of management of his vast territory. Surveys were to be made to keep possession of the lands, and bring them into the market; and who so well adapted for this service as the youth who had made the science an object of special study? We consequently find him regularly retained in this service. His journal, at the age of sixteen, remains to tell us of the duties and adventures of the journey, as he traversed the outlying rough ways and passages of the South Branch of the Potomac. It is a short record of camp incidents and the Previous to this time, rumors progress of his surveys for a month in of imminent French and Indian ag

the smallpox, of which his countenance always bore some faint traces. Leaving his brother, partially recruited, to pursue his way to Bermuda, George returned in February to Virginia. The health of Lawrence, however, continued to decline, and in the ensuing summer he died at Mount Vernon. The estate was left to a daughter, who, dying in infancy, the property passed, according to the terms of the will, into the possession of George, who thus became the owner of his memorable home.

engage the attention of the colony, and preparations were making to resist the threatened attack. The province was divided into districts for enlistment and organization of the militia, over one of which Washington was placed, with the rank of major, in 1751, when he was but nineteen-a mark of confidence sustained by his youthful studies and experience, but in which his family influence, doubtless, had its full share. We hear of his attention to military exercises at Mount Vernon, and of some special hints and instructions from one Adjutant Ware, a Virginian, and a Dutchman, Jacob Van Braam, who gave him lessons in fencing. Both of these worthies had been the military companions of Lawrence Washington in the West Indies.

gressions on the frontier began to subsequently selected as the site of Fort Du Quesne, and now the flourishing city of Pittsburg. He then held a council of the Indians at Logstown, and procured guides to the station of the French commandant, a hundred and twenty miles distant, in the vicinity of Lake Erie, which he reached on the 11th of December. An interview having been obtained, the mes sage delivered and an answer received, the most hazardous part of the expedition yet lay before the party in their return home. They were exposed to frozen streams, the winter inclemencies, the perils of the wilderness and Indian hostilities, when Indian hostilities were most cruel. To hasten his homeward journey, Washington separated from the rest, with a single companion. His life was more than once in danger on In 1753, the year following his the way, first from the bullet of an brother's death, the affairs on the fron- Indian, and during a night of extratier becoming pressing, Governor Din- ordinary severity, in crossing the violent widdie stood in need of a resolute Allegany river on a raft beset with ice. agent, to bear a message to the French Escaping these disasters, he reached commander on the Ohio, remonstrating Williamsburg on the 16th January, against the advancing occupation of the and gave the interesting journal now territory. It was a hazardous service included in his writings as the report crossing a rough, intervening wilder of his proceedings. It was at once ness, occupied by unfriendly Indians, published by the Governor, and was and it was a high compliment to Wash-speedily reprinted in London. ington to select him for the duty. The observations of Washington, and Amply provided with instructions, he the reply which he brought, confirmed left Williamsburg on the mission on the growing impressions of the designs the last day of October, and, by the of the French, and military preparamiddle of November, reached the ex- tions were kept up with spirit. A treme frontier settlement at Will's Virginia regiment of three hundred Creek. Thence, with his little party was raised for frontier service, and of eight, he pursued his way to the Washington was appointed its Lieufork of the Ohio, where, with a military tenant-Colonel. Advancing with a eye, he noted the advantageous position portion of the force of which he had

« PředchozíPokračovat »