Robert Charles Winthrop

“ No people can be bound to acknowledge the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of man more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. ”

“ I do not conceive we can exist long as a nation without lodging somewhere a power which will pervade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the authority of the state governments extends over the several states. ”

“ Washington ardently sympathized with her husband in his patriotic measures. To a kinswoman, who deprecated what she called "his folly," Mrs. Washington wrote in 1774: "Yes, I foresee consequences—dark days, domestic happiness suspended, social enjoyments abandoned, and eternal separations on earth possible. But my mind is made up, my heart is in the cause. George is right; he is always right. God has promised to protect the righteous, and I will trust him." Patrick Henry and Edmund Pendleton spent a day and night at Mount Vernon in August, 1774, on their way to congress. ”

“ Of that ever-memorable convention be was unanimously elected president, and on the following 17th of September he had the supreme satisfaction of addressing a letter to congress announcing the adoption of the constitution of the United States, which had been signed on that day. "In all our deliberations on this subject," he said in that letter, "we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American—the consolidation of our Union—in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, and perhaps our national existence." ”

“ Washington talked like a Spartan to her son on his going to battle. 'I hope you will all stand firm,' she said; 'I know George will.'" After her husband became commander-in-chief she was burdened with many cares. He visited Mount Vernon only twice during the war. She joined him at Cambridge, Mass., in 1775, subsequently accompanying Gen. Washington to New York and Philadelphia, and whenever it was possible joined him in camp. ”

“ A provisional army was authorized by congress to meet the exigency, and all eyes were again turned toward Washington as its leader. President Adams wrote to him: "We must have your name, if you will permit us to use it. There will be more efficacy in it than in many an army." Hamilton urged him to make "this further, this very great sacrifice." And thus, on July 3, 1798, Washington, yielding to the entreaty of friends and a sense of duty to his country, was once more commissioned as "Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-chief of all the armies raised, or to be raised, in the United States." ”

“ In declining the invitation he used this memorable language: "I shall have the consolation of knowing that I have opened the way, when the smallness of our numbers exposed us to the attacks of a superior enemy; and that I have had the thanks of my country for the services I have rendered." But now Gen. Braddock was sent over from England with two regiments of regulars, and Washington did not hesitate to accept an appointment on his staff as a volunteer aide-de-camp. ”

“ Those were the papers and that the congress of which Chatham in the house of lords, in his memorable speech on the removal of troops from Boston, January 20, 1775, said: "When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America, when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. ”

“ Martha Custis, daughter of John Dandridge and widow of John Parke Custis, was henceforth to be known in history as Martha Washington. He had now finally resigned his commission as a colonial officer, and was preparing to enjoy something of the retirement of private life. But while he was still absent on his last campaign he had been chosen a delegate to the Virginia house of burgesses, and he had hardly established himself at Mount Vernon, a few months after his marriage, when he was summoned to attend a session of that body at Williamsburg. ”

“ As the four years of his first term drew to an end, he was seriously inclined to withdraw from further public service, but Jefferson and Hamilton alike, with all their respective followers, while they differed widely on so many other matters, were of one mind in earnestly remonstrating against Washington's retirement. "The confidence of the whole country," wrote Jefferson, "is centred in you. . . . North and south will hang together if they have you to hang on." "It is clear," wrote Hamilton, "that if you continue in office nothing materially mischievous is to be apprehended ”

“ A force of 2,000 men having now been ordered to be raised by the Virginia assembly, Washington was appointed to the chief command and established his headquarters at Winchester. He broke away from the perplexing cares of this place in February, 1756, to make a hurried visit to Gov. Shirley in Boston, where he settled successfully with him, then the commander-in-chief of the English forces on this continent, a vexatious question of precedence between the provincial officers and those appointed by the crown. ”

“ Purchasing lands in Westmoreland County and establishing his residence at Pope's Creek, not far from the Potomac, he became, in due course, an extensive planter, a county magistrate, and a member of the house of burgesses. He distinguished himself, also, as colonel of the Virginia forces in driving off a band of Seneca Indians who were ravaging the neighboring settlements. In honor of his public and private character, the parish in which he resided was called Washington. In this parish his grandson, Augustine, the second son of Lawrence Washington, was born in 1694. ”

“ The American army numbered about 17,000 men, but only 14,500 were fit for duty. Coming hastily from different colonies, they were without supplies of tents or clothing, and there was not ammunition enough for nine cartridges to a man. Washington's work in combining and organizing this mass of raw troops was most embarrassing and arduous. But he persevered untiringly, and after a siege of eight months succeeded in driving the British from Boston on March 17, 1776. ”

“ Washington and an escort of cavaliers riding by its side. Mrs. Washington's life at Mount Vernon for the subsequent seventeen years partook much of the style of the English aristocracy. She was a thorough housekeeper, and entertained constantly. Her daughter, Martha Parke Custis, who died in the seventeenth year of her age, was known as the "dark lady," on account of her brunette complexion, and was greatly loved by the neighboring poor, to whom she frequently ministered. On her well preserved portrait, painted by Charles Wilson Peale, is inscribed "A Virginia Beauty." ”

“ It will undoubtedly often happen that there will be several candidates for the same office, whose pretensions, ability, and integrity may be nearly equal, and who will come forward so equally supported in every respect as almost to require the aid of supernatural intuition to fix upon the right. ”

“ Her last surviving child, John Parke Custis, died in November, 1781, leaving four children. The two younger, Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis, Gen. Washington at once adopted. After Mrs. Washington left headquarters at Newburgh in 1782, she did not again return to camp life. She was residing at Mount Vernon at the time Washington was chosen president of the United States. When she assumed the duties of mistress of the executive mansion in New York she was fifty-seven years old, but still retained traces of beauty, and bore herself with great personal dignity. ”

“ Washington retired at once from the meeting, but resolutions were forthwith unanimously adopted, on motion of Gen. Knox seconded by Gen. Putnam, reciprocating all his affectionate expressions, and concurring entirely in the policy he had proposed. "Every doubt was dispelled," says Maj. Shaw in his journal, "and the tide of patriotism rolled again in its wonted course." The treaty of peace was signed in Paris on January 20, 1783. On April 17 following, a proclamation by congress was received by Washington for the cessation of hostilities. ”

“ A crisis in Washington's life occurred before he left school. His eldest half-brother, Lawrence, had already been an officer in the English service, and was at the siege of Carthagena under Admiral Vernon, for whom he formed a great regard, and whose name he afterward gave to his estate on the Potomac. ”

“ He played soldier, sometimes, with his school-mates, always asserting the authority of captain, and subjecting the little company to a rigid discipline. Running, leaping, and wrestling were among his favorite pastimes. He became a fearless rider, too, and no horse is said to have been too fiery for him. "Above all," as Irving well says, "his inherent probity, and the principles of justice on which he regulated his conduct, even at this early period of his life, were soon appreciated by his school-mates ”

“ Two of them died young, but two sons, Lawrence and Augustine, survived their mother, who died in 1728. On March 6, 1730, the father was again married. His second wife was Mary Ball, and George was her first child.
If tradition is to be trusted, few sons ever had a more lovely and devoted mother, and no mother a more dutiful and affectionate son. ”

“ Meantime his appointment as adjutant-general was renewed by Gov. Dinwiddie, and he was assigned to the charge of one of the grand military divisions of the colony. A wider field of service was thus opened to Washington, on which he entered with alacrity.
War between France and England was now rapidly approaching, involving a conflict for the possession of a large part of the American continent. French posts were already established on the banks of the Ohio, with a view of confining the English colonies within the Alleghany mountains. Gov. ”