Chapter 18

Once he conceived the idea of reclaiming the Great Dismal Swamp, and actually explored it with reference to that ultimate purpose. Through his agency, the incorporated company known as the Dismal Swamp Company was organized. "This vast morass was about thirty miles long and ten miles wide, and its interior but little known" until Washington explored it, and found a lake six miles long and three miles wide near its centre.

The large number of guests at Mount Vernon, and Washington's enjoyment in hunting, fishing, and visiting, particularly in winter time, when the cares of his plantation were less numerous, appear from his journal. In the month of January, 1770, are the following entries:

"2. Mr. Peake dined here.

"4. Went hunting with John Custis and Lund Washington. Started a deer, and then a fox, but got neither.

"5. Went to Muddy Hole and Dogue Run. Took the dogs with me, but found nothing. Warner Washington and Mr. Thurston came in the evening.

"6. The two Col. Fairfaxes dined here, and Mr. R. Alexander and the two gentlemen that came the day before.

"8. Went hunting with Mr. Alexander, J. Custis, and Lund Washington. Killed a fox after three hours' chase. Mr. Thurston came in the afternoon.

"9. Went a ducking, but got nothing, the creek and rivers being frozen. Robert Adam dined here.

"10. Went hunting on the Neck, and visited the plantation there, and killed a fox after treeing it three times and chasing it three hours.

"13. Dined at Belvoir with Mrs. Washington and Mr. and Miss Custis.

"15. Went up to Alexandria, expecting court, but there was none. [He was county judge.]

"20. Went hunting with Jackay Custis, and killed a fox after a three hours' chase.

"23. Went hunting after breakfast, and found a fox at Muddy Hole and killed her. Mr. Temple and Mr. Robert Adam dined here.

"27. Went hunting; and after tracking a fox a good while, the dogs raised a deer and ran out of the Neck with it, and did not come home till the next day.

"28. Mr. Temple came here.

"29. Dined at Belvoir with J. P. Custis.

"30. Went hunting, and having found a deer, it ran to the head of the Neck before we could stop the dogs. Mr. Peake dined here."

In the following month, February, fox-hunting occupied nine days, and five days were given to surveying.

The laws of Virginia were very strict against interlopers on the Potomac. They were a great nuisance to the wealthy planters on its banks. Fishing and duck-hunting lured them thither. One day Mrs. Washington remarked to her husband, "I think that strangers are at the landing."

"Are you sure they are strangers?"

"Yes, I think so," Mrs. Washington answered. "Look and see."

"They are strangers, surely," responded Washington, after a critical look towards the landing. "An oysterman's craft, I think."

"What should an oysterman come to our landing for?"

"We shall find out before long, no doubt," Washington replied.

It was at the landing where the family barge was tied up. The affluent planters kept beautiful barges, imported from England, for the use of their families. Washington had one, rowed by six negroes, wearing a kind of uniform of check shirts and black velvet caps.

They did find out very soon who the strangers were--an oysterman and his crew. They were a drunken, noisy rabble, who disturbed the neighborhood with their yells and revelry.

"They must be sent away," remarked Washington, as he hurried toward the landing. But they were not in a condition to listen to his counsels. They were in the defiant state of intoxication, and refused to evacuate. They declared themselves able and determined "to hold the fort."

The hero of Monongahela was not to be defied in that way. He adopted immediate measures to drive the mob away, but was not successful. Finally, summoning his negroes, and organizing a campaign against them, he forced them to leave, though, Irving says, "It took a campaign of three days to expel these invaders from the premises."

At another time Washington was riding over his estate, when the report of a gun on the banks of the river, not far away, startled him. Turning his horse in the direction of the report, he soon discovered an interloper in a canoe, making havoc among the canvas-back ducks which were numerous on the river.

"Stranger," he called.

The hunter looked up.

"By what authority are you trespassing upon these grounds?"

The only reply that Washington received was, the hunter aimed his gun at him as if to fire. But the owner of Mount Vernon had seen guns pointed at him before; and, nothing daunted, he dashed into the river, shouting, "Fire if you dare!"

Seizing the painter of the canoe, he drew it to the shore; then, springing from his horse, he wrested the gun from the hands of the astonished hunter.

"I am the proprietor of this estate," he shouted, seizing the fellow by the nape of his neck and pulling him out of his canoe, "and we will see whose rights are to be regarded."

The hunter begged for mercy, promising to quit the grounds and never more trespass upon them. Washington restored his gun to him, and allowed him to depart without further punishment.

Mr. and Mrs. Washington were active and influential members of the Episcopal Church. Irving says:

"The Episcopal Church predominated throughout the 'Ancient Dominion,' as it was termed. Each county was divided into parishes, as in England, each with its parochial church, its parsonage, and glebe. Washington was vestryman of two parishes,--Fairfax and Truro. The parochial church of the former was at Alexandria, ten miles from Mount Vernon; of the latter, at Pohick, about seven miles. The church at Pohick was rebuilt on a plan of his own, and in a great measure at his expense. At one or other of these churches he attended every Sunday, when the weather and the roads permitted. His demeanor was reverential and devout. Mrs. Washington knelt during the prayers; he always stood, as was the custom at that time."

One of Mrs. Washington's biographers says of her:

"It is recorded of this devout Christian that never, during her life, whether in prosperity or adversity, did she omit that daily self-communion and self-examination, and those private devotional exercises, which would best prepare her for the self-control and self denial by which she was, for more than half a century, so eminently distinguished. It was her habit to retire to her own apartment every morning after breakfast, there to devote an hour to solitary prayer and meditation."

Mount Vernon was a home of prayer, of course. The presence of guests, however distinguished, never modified the family devotions. These were among the essentials of good family government. In one of Washington's orders sent to England is the following:

"A small Bible, neatly bound in Turkey, and "John Parke Custis" wrote in gilt letters on the inside of the cover.

"A neat small prayer-book bound as above, with "John Parke Custis," as above."

The necessity of erecting a new house of worship was discussed in the vestry of Truro, and a vote in favor of the project was secured. On the location, the vestrymen were divided.

"The old site is the proper one," said Mr. George Mason, whose residence was near the house of worship.

"Not at all central," replied another.

"Yet not so far aside as to discommode any one," responded Mason.

"I beg leave to dissent from Mr. Mason," added a third. "The location is inconvenient for my family."

"The sacred associations of the spot alone ought to keep the church there," urged Mr. Mason. "For generations our house of worship has stood there, and the place is hallowed by the sepulchres of our fathers around it."

The subject was discussed, pro and con, when Washington's opinion was asked. Without reserve he remarked:

"I cannot agree with my friend Mason that the location does not sensibly inconvenience some members of the parish. I think it does, and that a more central locality can be found. Neither can I see the force of his argument derived from the contiguity of the grave-yard. Churches are erected for the living, and not for the dead. The ashes of the dead can be sacredly protected by a suitable enclosure."

The vestry adjourned without deciding upon the location, and before the next meeting, Washington carefully surveyed the parish, and made a neat plan of the same, showing that the old location was far from the centre. Mr. Mason urged with more earnestness than before the claims of the old site. But when Washington took his plan of survey from his pocket, and gave ocular demonstration that the old location was at one side of the parish, the new location was adopted at once.

Rev. Lee Massey was rector of the church at that time, and he said of Washington:

"I never knew so constant an attendant on church as Washington. And his behavior in the house of God was ever so deeply reverential that it produced the happiest effects on my congregation, and greatly assisted me in my pulpit labors. No company ever kept him from church. I have often been at Mount Vernon on the 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."

Mrs. Washington's daughter died in 1770, after a lingering and painful disease. It was a terrible blow to her; and how severe a blow it was to her husband may be learned from the following incident:

Coming into the room when his wife's face was buried in her hands, convulsed with grief, he burst into tears, kneeled beside the bed, and poured out his soul in a most fervent prayer that God would yet spare the dear girl for the sake of her mother, and for Christ's sake. She had already breathed her last a moment before he entered the room; but, in his great sympathy for his wife, and his own passionate grief, the fact was unrecognized, and he sought relief in prayer.

The son was between sixteen and seventeen years of age when the daughter died, and was beginning to be a very wayward boy. He was sent to an Episcopal school at Annapolis, Maryland, where he attended to fox-hunting and other amusements more than he did to his studies. He fell in love, also, with Eleanor Calvert, daughter of Benedict Calvert of Mount Airy, and he entered into a matrimonial engagement with her. Mrs. Washington was very much tried by the course of the young man, and, after canvassing the whole subject carefully with her husband, he addressed a letter to Miss Calvert's father, which was a compliment alike to his head and heart. It was a very long letter, and we have space for brief extracts only:

MOUNT VERNON, April 3, 1773.

"DEAR SIR,--I am now set down to write to you on a subject of importance, and of no small embarrassment to me. My son-in-law and ward, Mr. Custis, has paid his addresses to your second daughter, and, having made some progress in her affections, has solicited her in marriage. How far a union of this sort may be agreeable to you, you best can tell; but I should think myself wanting in candor were I not to confess that Miss Nelly's amiable qualities are acknowledged on all hands, and that an alliance with your family will be pleasing to his.

"This acknowledgment being made, you must permit me to add sir, that at this, or in any short time, his youth, inexperience, and unripened education, are, and will be, insuperable obstacles, in my opinion, to the completion of the marriage. As his guardian, I consider it my indispensable duty to endeavor to carry him through a regular course of education, and to guard his youth to a more advanced age, before an event on which his own peace and the happiness of another are to depend, takes place....

"If the affection which they have avowed for each other is fixed upon a solid basis, it will receive no diminution in the course of two or three years, in which time he may prosecute his studies, and thereby render himself more deserving of the lady and useful to society. If, unfortunately, as they are both young, there should be an abatement of affection on either side, or both, it had better precede, than follow, marriage.

"Delivering my sentiments thus freely will not, I hope, lead you into a belief that I am desirous of breaking off the match. To postpone it is all I have in view; for I shall recommend to the young gentleman, with the warmth that becomes a man of honor, to consider himself as much engaged to your daughter as if the indissoluble knot was tied; and, as the surest means of affecting this, to apply himself closely to his studies, by which he will, 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 affections."

The result of this correspondence was that Washington took young Custis to King's (now Columbia) College, New York City, and entered him for two years. But love had so much more control of his heart than learning had of his head, that he remained there only a few months, when he returned to Mount Vernon, and was married to Miss Calvert on Feb. 3, 1774. The couple were nineteen and seventeen years of age, respectively, and their marriage proved a very fortunate event for themselves, and the families on both sides.

The following incident, illustrative of Washington's fine personal appearance, transpired when he accompanied his step-son to New York. It is from the pen of Mr. Custis:

"It was boasted at the table of the British governor that a regiment, just landed from England, contained among its officers some of the finest specimens of martial elegance in his Majesty's service; in fact, the most superb-looking fellows ever landed upon the shores of the new World. 'I wager your excellency a pair of gloves,' said Mrs. Morris, an American lady, 'that I will show you a finer man in the procession to-morrow than your excellency can select from your famous regiment;'--'Done, madam!' replied the governor. The morrow came (the fourth of June), and the procession, in honor of the birthday of the king, advanced through Broadway to the strains of military music. As the troops filed before the governor, he pointed out to the lady several officers by name, claiming her admiration for their superior persons and brilliant equipments. In rear of the troops came a band of officers not on duty, colonial officers, and strangers of distinction. Immediately, on their approach, the attention of the governor was seen to be directed toward a tall and martial figure, that marched with grave and measured tread, apparently indifferent to the scene around him. The lady now archly observed, 'I perceive that your excellency's eyes are turned to the right object; what say you to your wager now, sir?'--'Lost, madam,' replied the gallant governor; 'when I laid my wager I was not aware that Colonel Washington was in New York.'"

Washington kept his own books at the same time that he attended to the business of his vast estates. The same neatness, method, and accuracy characterized his accounts at Mount Vernon that characterized his writing books at Mr. Williams' school. They were models.

When Mrs. Washington went to Mount Vernon to live, the mansion contained only four square rooms on the ground. In this condition it remained until the close of the Revolution.

During the Revolution she was wont to spend the winter with her husband in his winter quarters. The accommodations were always meagre. One of these winters he occupied a small frame house, unfurnished in the second story. The general could get along with the meagre comforts, but he desired better accommodations for his wife. So he sent for a young mechanic and fellow-apprentice.

"Mrs. Washington will tell you what she wants, and you will make the changes under her direction," he said to them.

Soon Mrs. Washington was in their presence.

"Now, young men," she said, "I care for nothing but comfort here, and should like you to fit me up a beaufet on one side of the room, and some shelves and places for hanging clothes on the other."

The mechanic said afterwards that "every morning Mrs. Washington came up-stairs to see us; and after she and the general had dined, she always called us down to eat at her table. We worked very hard, nailing smooth boards over the rough and worm-eaten planks, and stopping the crevices in the walls made by time and hard usage. We studied to do everything to please so pleasant a lady, and to make some return in our humble way for the kindness of the general."

When the work was completed, Mrs. Washington was surveying it, when the mechanic said, "Madam, we have endeavored to do the best we could. I hope we have suited you."

"I am astonished," Mrs. Washington replied. "Your work would do honor to an old master, and you are mere lads. I am not only satisfied, but highly gratified with what you have done for my comfort."

She was accustomed to say, after the Revolution, "I heard the first cannon at the opening, and the last at the closing, of all the campaigns of the Revolutionary war."

She survived her husband by two years. As death drew near, with mind clear and heart staid on God, she awaited the final summons with calmness and sweet resignation. She called her grandchildren to her bedside, "discoursed to them of their respective duties, spoke of the happy influence of religion, and then triumphantly resigned her spirit into the hands of her Saviour," and expired.

Mount Vernon is now in a good state of preservation. A national association of women have charge of the place, that it may be kept in repair, and the relics--furniture, pictures, account books, library, etc.--be preserved for coming generations to see.

XVI.

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

During the fifteen years of Washington's peaceful abode at Mount Vernon, public affairs were hastening to a crisis. The "Seven Years' War," beginning with Washington's attack upon De Jumonville, and ending with the surrender of Montreal and all Canada, and the signing of the treaty of peace at Fontainbleau, in 1763, had closed; but greater things awaited the colonists in the future.

Scarcely had the people settled down in the enjoyment of peace when an insurrection broke out among the Indian tribes, including the Delawares, Shawnees, and other tribes on the Ohio, with whom Washington had mingled. It was called "Pontiac's War," because Pontiac, a famous Indian chief, was its master-spirit. He induced the tribes to take up the hatchet against the English.

An attack was made upon all the English posts, from Detroit to Fort Pitt (late Duquesne). "Several of the small stockaded forts, the places of refuge of woodland neighbors, were surprised and sacked with remorseless butchery. The frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia were laid waste; traders in the wilderness were plundered and slain; hamlets and farm-houses were wrapped in flames, and their inhabitants massacred."

Washington was not engaged in this Indian war, which was short in duration. At the time he was pushing his project of draining the Dismal Swamp.

Other things, however, of a public nature enlisted his attention, as the following interview with Mr. George Mason will show:

"It appears that the British Government propose to tax the Colonies to help pay its debts," remarked Mr. Mason. "At least, the subject is before Parliament for discussion."

"Yes," answered Washington, "and the proposition is as unjust as it is impolitic. After we have helped the king maintain his authority in this country, we must not only pay our own bills, but help him pay his. The Colonists will never submit to that."

"They never should, whether they will or not," replied Mason. "I understand that the British officers have represented to the government that the colonists are rich, and abundantly able to assist in paying the debt of England."

"And that comes from entertaining them in an extravagant way, as our leaders did. A few rich families furnished the silver plate and luxuries that dazzled the eyes of British officers." Here Washington referred to what he never approved, "borrowing silver and begging luxuries" to treat British officers with.

"But suppose Parliament actually imposes a tax upon us, and sends agents to collect it, what can be done?"

"Resist the tax," Washington replied.

"How resist?"

"There is but one way to resist; resort to arms." "And there will be a poor show for us against the king's armies," said Mason.

"And the king's temper," added Washington, alluding to the fact that King George the Third, then ruling England, was an ambitious, unprincipled, and tyrannical ruler.

"The king will not be very merciful towards _rebels_."

"No, of course not. I suppose that resistance to the tax will be rebellion."

"It cannot be anything else. Nevertheless, we can never submit to taxation without representation," added Washington, referring to the fact that the Colonists had neither voice nor vote in the administration of the British Government.

"Never! Even loyalty cannot approve so base an act of injustice."

"Especially after Parliament has gone to the verge of extortion by previous acts," remarked Washington. "Our ports are now shut against foreign vessels; we can export our productions only to countries belonging to the British Crown, and must import goods only from England, and in English ships. Neither can we manufacture anything that will interfere with the manufactures of England. These are intolerant measures."

"That is so; and I do not wonder that the New England Colonies, particularly, should remonstrate against these arbitrary restraints, since their interests are chiefly commercial, and, therefore, more seriously affected by them."

"I doubt whether Parliament will venture upon so hazardous an experiment," continued Washington. "Walpole and Pitt, not to mention others, are opposed to this measure of deriving a revenue by taxation from the Colonies. Walpole said, 'It must be a bolder man than myself, and one less friendly to commerce, who should venture on such an expedient. For my part, I would encourage the trade of the Colonists to the utmost.' Such sentiments must have weight with the government."

Contrary to Washington's expectations, Parliament voted, in 1764, that England had a right to tax America; and Grenville, then at the head of the government, proceeded to preparations for taxing the Colonies. Through his influence, also, the "Stamp Act" was passed in March, 1765, whereby "all instruments in writing were to be executed on stamped paper, to be purchased from the agents of the British Government."

Other oppressive measures, also, were adopted subsequently, such as the appointment of judges by the English commissioners; that offenders should be tried in England for offences committed in America; with acts of lesser importance that infringed upon the rights of the people.

These things aroused the indignation of the Colonists, and the excitement grew to the highest pitch. In New England violent measures were adopted to express the indignant remonstrance of the people.

Two months after the passage of the "Stamp Act" in England, the Virginia Legislature convened at Williamsburg. Few of the members sympathized with the British Government. A large majority denounced the aforesaid measures as oppressive and tyrannical. Among the new members was Patrick Henry, a young lawyer of fearless courage and fervid eloquence. Rising in his seat, he presented a series of resolutions, which declared that the House of Burgesses of Virginia alone possessed the right to tax the people of that Colony, and whoever maintained the contrary should be deemed an enemy to the Colony.