The True George Washington Part 13

"Although the exalted station, which your love of us and our love of you has placed you in, calls for change in mode of address, yet I cannot so quickly relinquish the old manner. Your military rank holds its place in my mind, notwithstanding your civic glory; and, whenever I do abandon the t.i.tle which used to distinguish you, I shall do it with awkwardness.... My reluctance to trespa.s.s a moment on your time would have operated to a further procrastination of my wishes, had I not been roused above every feeling of ceremony by the heart rending intelligence, received yesterday, that your life was despaired of. Had I had wings in the moment, I should have wafted myself to your bedside, only again to see the first of men; but alas! despairing as I was, from the account received, after the affliction of one day and night, I was made most happy by receiving a letter, now before me from New York, announcing the restoration of your health. May heaven preserve it!"

It was Lee who first warned Was.h.i.+ngton that Jefferson was slandering him in secret, and who kept him closely informed as to the political manuvres in Virginia. Was.h.i.+ngton intrusted to him the command of the army in the Whiskey Insurrection, and gave him an appointment in the provisional army.

Lee was in Congress when the death of the great American was announced to that body, and it was he who coined the famous "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

As need hardly be said, however, the strongest affection among the general officers was that between Was.h.i.+ngton and Lafayette. In the advent of this young Frenchman the commander saw only "embara.s.sment," but he received "the young volunteer," so Lafayette said, "in the most friendly manner,"

invited him to reside in his house as a member of his military family, and as soon as he came to know him he recommended Congress to give him a command. As Lafayette became popular with the army, an endeavor was made by the Cabal to win him to their faction by bribing him with an appointment to lead an expedition against Canada, independent of control by Was.h.i.+ngton. Lafayette promptly declined the command, unless subject to the General, and furthermore he "braved the whole party (Cabal) and threw them into confusion by making them drink the health of their general." At the battle of Monmouth Was.h.i.+ngton gave the command of the attacking party to Lafayette, and after the conflict the two, according to the latter, "pa.s.sed the night lying on the same mantle, talking." In the same way Was.h.i.+ngton distinguished him by giving him the command of the expedition to rescue Virginia from Cornwallis, and to his division was given the most honorable position at Yorktown. When the siege of that place was completed, Lafayette applied for leave of absence to spend the winter in France, and as he was on the point of sailing he received a personal letter from Was.h.i.+ngton, for "I owe it to friends.h.i.+p and to my affectionate regard for you my dear Marquis, not to let you leave this country without carrying fresh marks of my attachment to you," and in his absence Was.h.i.+ngton wrote that a mutual friend who bore a letter "can tell you more forcibly, than I can express how much we all love and wish to embrace you."

A reunion came in 1784, looked forward to by Lafayette with an eagerness of which he wrote, "by Sunday or Monday, I hope at last to be blessed with a sight of my dear General. There is no rest for me till I go to Mount Vernon. I long for the pleasure to embrace you, my dear General; and the happiness of being once more with you will be so great, that no words can ever express it. Adieu, my dear General; in a few days I shall be at Mount Vernon, and I do already feel delighted with so charming a prospect."

After this visit was over Was.h.i.+ngton wrote, "In the moment of our separation, upon the road as I travelled, and every hour since, I have felt all that love, respect and attachment for you, with which length of years, close connexion, and your merits have inspired me. I often asked myself, as our carriages separated, whether that was the last sight I ever should have of you?" And to this letter Lafayette replied,--

"No my beloved General, our late parting was not by any means a last interview. My whole soul revolts at the idea; and could I harbour it an instant, indeed, my dear General, it would make me miserable. I well see you will never go to France. The inexpressible pleasure of embracing you in my own house, of welcoming you in a family where your name is adored, I do not much expect to experience; but to you I shall return, and, within the walls of Mount Vernon, we shall yet speak of olden times. My firm plan is to visit now and then my friend on this side of the Atlantic; and the most beloved of all friends I ever had, or ever shall have anywhere, is too strong an inducement for me to return to him, not to think that whenever it is possible I shall renew my so pleasing visits to Mount Vernon.... Adieu, adieu, my dear General. It is with inexpressible pain that I feel I am going to be severed from you by the Atlantic. Everything, that admiration, respect, grat.i.tude, friends.h.i.+p, and fillial love, can inspire, is combined in my affectionate heart to devote me most tenderly to you. In your friends.h.i.+p I find a delight which words cannot express.

Adieu, my dear General. It is not without emotion that I write this word, although I know I shall soon visit you again. Be attentive to your health.

Let me hear from you every month. Adieu, adieu."

The correspondence begged was maintained, but Lafayette complained that "To one who so tenderly loves you, who so happily enjoyed the times we have pa.s.sed together, and who never, on any part of the globe, even in his own house, could feel himself so perfectly at home as in your family, it must be confessed that an irregular, lengthy correspondence is quite insufficient I beseech you, in the name of our friends.h.i.+p, of that paternal concern of yours for my happiness, not to miss any opportunity to let me hear from my dear General."

One letter from Was.h.i.+ngton told Lafayette of his recovery from a serious illness, and Lafayette responded, "What could have been my feelings, had the news of your illness reached me before I knew my beloved General, my adopted father, was out of danger? I was struck at the idea of the situation you have been in, while I, uninformed and so distant from you, was antic.i.p.ating the long-waited-for pleasure to hear from you, and the still more endearing prospect of visiting you and presenting you the tribute of a revolution, one of your first offsprings. For G.o.d's sake, my dear General, take care of your health!"

Presently, as the French Revolution gathered force, the anxiety was reversed, Was.h.i.+ngton writing that "The lively interest which I take in your welfare, my dear Sir, keeps my mind in constant anxiety for your personal safety." This fear was only too well founded, for shortly after Lafayette was a captive in an Austrian prison and his wife was appealing to her husband's friend for help. Our ministers were told to do all they could to secure his liberty, and Was.h.i.+ngton wrote a personal letter to the Emperor of Austria. Before receiving her letter, on the first news of the "truly affecting" condition of "poor Madame Lafayette," he had written to her his sympathy, and, supposing that money was needed, had deposited at Amsterdam two hundred guineas "subject to your orders."

When she and her daughters joined her husband in prison, Lafayette's son, and Was.h.i.+ngton's G.o.dson, came to America; an arrival of which the G.o.dfather wrote that, "to express all the sensibility, which has been excited in my breast by the receipt of young Lafayette's letter, from the recollection of his father's merits, services, and sufferings, from my friends.h.i.+p for him, and from my wishes to become a friend and father to his son is unnecessary." The lad became a member of the family, and a visitor at this time records that "I was particularly struck with the marks of affection which the General showed his pupil, his adopted son of Marquis de Lafayette. Seated opposite to him, he looked at him with pleasure, and listened to him with manifest interest." With Was.h.i.+ngton he continued till the final release of his father, and a simple business note in Was.h.i.+ngton's ledger serves to show both his delicacy and his generosity to the boy: "By Geo. W. Fayette, gave for the purpose of his getting himself such small articles of Clothing as he might not choose to ask for $100." Another item in the accounts was three hundred dollars "to defray his exps. to France," and by him Was.h.i.+ngton sent a line to his old friend, saying, "this letter I hope and expect will be presented to you by your son, who is highly deserving of such parents as you and your amiable lady."

Long previous to this, too, a letter had been sent to Virginia Lafayette, couched in the following terms:

"Permit me to thank my dear little correspondent for the favor of her letter of the 18 of June last, and to impress her with the idea of the pleasure I shall derive from a continuance of them. Her papa is restored to her with all the good health, paternal affection, and honors, which her tender heart could wish. He will carry a kiss to her from me (which might be more agreeable from a pretty boy), and give her a.s.surances of the affectionate regard with which I have the pleasure of being her well-wisher,

George Was.h.i.+ngton."

In this connection it is worth glancing at Was.h.i.+ngton's relations with children, the more that it has been frequently a.s.serted that he had no liking for them. As already shown, at different times he adopted or a.s.sumed the expenses and charge of not less than nine of the children of his kith and kin, and to his relations with children he seldom wrote a letter without a line about the "little ones." His kindnesses to the sons of Ramsay, Craik, Greene, and Lafayette have already been noticed.

Furthermore, whenever death or illness came among the children of his friends there was sympathy expressed. Dumas relates of his visit to Providence with Was.h.i.+ngton, that "we arrived there at night; the whole of the population had a.s.sembled from the suburbs; we were surrounded by a crowd of children carrying torches, reiterating the acclamations of the citizens; all were eager to approach the person of him whom they called their father, and pressed so closely around us that they hindered us from proceeding. General Was.h.i.+ngton was much affected, stopped a few moments, and, pressing my hand, said, 'We may be beaten by the English; it is the chance of war; but behold an army which they can never conquer,'"

In his journey through New England, not being able to get lodgings at an inn, Was.h.i.+ngton spent a night in a private house, and when all payment was refused, he wrote his host from his next stopping-place,--

"Being informed that you have given my name to one of your sons, and called another after Mrs. Was.h.i.+ngton's family, and being moreover very much pleased with the modest and innocent looks of your two daughters, Patty and Polly, I do for these reasons send each of these girls a piece of chintz; and to Patty, who bears the name of Mrs. Was.h.i.+ngton, and who waited upon us more than Polly did, I send five guineas, with which she may buy herself any little ornaments she may want, or she may dispose of them in any other manner more agreeable to herself. As I do not give these things with a view to have it talked of, or even of its being known, the less there is said about the matter the better you will please me; but, that I may be sure the chintz and money have got safe to hand, let Patty, who I dare say is equal to it, write me a line informing me thereof, directed to 'The President of the United States at New York.'"

Miss Stuart relates that "One morning while Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton was sitting for his picture, a little brother of mine ran into the room, when my father thinking it would annoy the General, told him he must leave; but the General took him upon his knee, held him for some time, and had quite a little chat with him, and, in fact, they seemed to be pleased with each other. My brother remembered with pride, as long as he lived, that Was.h.i.+ngton had talked with him."

For the son of his secretary, Lear, there seems to have been great fondness, and in one instance the father was told that "It gave Mrs.

Was.h.i.+ngton, myself and all who know him, sincere pleasure to hear that our little favorite had arrived safe, and was in good health at Portsmouth. We sincerely wish him a long continuance of the latter--that he may always be as charming and promising as he now is--and that he may live to be a comfort and blessing to you, and an ornament to his country. As a testimony of my affection for him I send him a ticket in the lottery which is now drawing in the Federal City; and if it should be his fortune to draw the hotel it will add to the pleasure I have in giving it." A second letter condoled with "little Lincoln," because owing to the collapse of the lottery the "poor little fellow" will not even get enough to "build him a baby house."

For the father, Tobias Lear, who came into his employment in 1786 and remained with him till his death, Was.h.i.+ngton felt the greatest affection and trust. It was he who sent for the doctor in the beginning of the last illness, and he was in the sickroom most of the time. Holding Was.h.i.+ngton's hand, he received from him his last orders, and later when Was.h.i.+ngton "appeared to be in great pain and distress from the difficulty of breathing ... I lay upon the bed and endeavored to raise him, and turn him with as much ease as possible. He appeared penetrated with grat.i.tude for my attentions, and often said 'I am afraid I shall fatigue you too much.'"

Still later Lear "aided him all in my power, and was gratified in believing he felt it; for he would look upon me with eyes speaking grat.i.tude, but unable to utter a word without great distress." At the final moment Lear took his hand "and laid it upon his breast." When all was over, "I kissed the cold hand, laid it down, and was ... lost in profound grief."

X

ENEMIES

Any man of force is to be known quite as much by the character of his enemies as by that of his friends, and this is true of Was.h.i.+ngton. The subject offers some difficulties, for most of his enemies later in life went out of their way to deny all antagonism, and took pains to destroy such proof as they could come at of ill-feeling towards him. Yet enough remains to show who were in opposition to him, and on what grounds.

The first of those now known to be opposed to him was George Muse, lieutenant-colonel in 1754 under Was.h.i.+ngton. At Fort Necessity he was guilty of cowardice, he was discharged in disgrace, and his name was omitted from the a.s.sembly's vote of thanks to the regiment. Stung by this action, he took his revenge in a manner related by Peyroney, who wrote Was.h.i.+ngton,--

"Many enquired to me about Muse's Braveries, poor Body I had pity him ha'nt he had the weakness to Confes his Coardise himself, & the impudence to taxe all the reste of the oficers without exception of the same imperfection for he said to many of the Consulars and Burgeses that he was Bad But th' the reste was as Bad as he--To speak francly, had I been in town at that time I cou'nt help'd to make use of my horses [whip] whereas for to vindicate the injury of that vilain. He Contrived his Business so that several ask me if it was true that he had Challeng'd you to fight: My Answer was no other But that he should rather chuse to go to h.e.l.l than doing of it--for he had Such thing declar'd: that was his Sure Road."

Was.h.i.+ngton seems to have cherished no personal ill-will for Muse's conduct, and when the division of the "bounty lands" was being pushed, he used his influence that the broken officer should receive a quotum. Not knowing this, or else being ungrateful, Muse seems to have written a letter to Was.h.i.+ngton which angered him, for he replied,--

"Sir, Your impertinent letter was delivered to me yesterday. As I am not accustomed to receive such from any man, nor would have taken the same language from you personally, without letting you feel some marks of my resentment, I would advise you to be cautious in writing me a second of the same tenor. But for your stupidity and sottishness you might have known, by attending to the public gazette, that you had your full quant.i.ty of ten thousand acres of land allowed you, that is, nine thousand and seventy-three acres in the great tract, and the remainder in the small tract. But suppose you had really fallen short, do you think your superlative merit ent.i.tles you to greater indulgence than others? Or, if it did, that I was to make it good to you, when it was at the option of the Governor and Council to allow but five hundred acres in the whole, if they had been so inclined? If either of these should happen to be your opinion, I am very well convinced that you will be singular in it; and all my concern is, that I ever engaged in behalf of so ungrateful a fellow as you are. But you may still be in need of my a.s.sistance, as I can inform you, that your affairs, in respect to these lands, do not stand upon so solid a basis as you imagine, and this you may take by way of hint. I wrote to you a few days ago concerning the other distribution, proposing an easy method of dividing our lands; but since I find in what temper you are, I am sorry I took the trouble of mentioning the land or your name in a letter, as I do not think you merit the least a.s.sistance from me."

The Braddock campaign brought acquaintance with one which did not end in friends.h.i.+p, however amicable the beginning. There can be little doubt that there was cameraderie with the then Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, for in 1773, when in New York for four days, Was.h.i.+ngton "Dined with Gen. Gage,"

and also "dined at the entertainment given by the citizens of New York to Genl. Gage." When next intercourse was resumed, it was by formal correspondence between the commanders-in-chief of two hostile armies, Was.h.i.+ngton inquiring as to the treatment of prisoners, and as a satisfactory reply was not obtained, he wrote again, threatening retaliation, and "closing my correspondence with you, perhaps forever,"

--a letter which Charles Lee thought "a very good one, but Gage certainly deserved a stronger one, such as it was before it was softened." One cannot but wonder what part the old friends.h.i.+p played in this "softening."

Relations with the Howes began badly by a letter from Lord Howe addressed "George Was.h.i.+ngton, Esq.," which Was.h.i.+ngton declined to receive as not recognizing his official position. A second one to "George Was.h.i.+ngton, Esq. &c. &c. &c." met with the same fate, and brought the British officer "to change my superscription." A little after this brief war of forms, a letter from Was.h.i.+ngton to his wife was intercepted with others by the enemy, and General Howe enclosed it, "happy to return it without the least attempt being made to discover any part of the contents." This courtesy the American commander presently was able to reciprocate by sending "General Was.h.i.+ngton's compliments to General Howe,--does himself the pleasure to return to him a dog, which accidentally fell into his hands, and, by the inscription on the collar, appears to belong to General Howe."

Even politeness had its objections, however, at moments, and Was.h.i.+ngton once had to write Sir William,--

"There is one pa.s.sage of your letter, which I cannot forbear taking particular notice of. No expression of personal politeness to me can be acceptable, accompanied by reflections on the representatives of a free people, under whose authority I have the honor to act. The delicacy I have observed, in refraining from everything offensive in this way, ent.i.tles me to expect a similar treatment from you. I have not indulged myself in invective against the present rulers of Great Britain, in the course of our correspondence, nor will I even now avail myself of so fruitful a theme."

Apparently when Sir Henry Clinton succeeded to the command of the British army the same old device to insult the General was again tried, for Dumas states that Was.h.i.+ngton "received a despatch from Sir Henry Clinton, addressed to 'Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton.' Taking it from the hands of the flag of truce, and seeing the direction, 'This letter,' said he, 'is directed to a planter of the state of Virginia. I shall have it delivered to him after the end of the war; till that time it shall not be opened.' A second despatch was addressed to his Excellency General Was.h.i.+ngton." A better lesson in courtesy was contained in a letter from Was.h.i.+ngton to him, complaining of "wanton, unprecedented and inhuman murder," which closed with the following: "I beg your Excellency to be persuaded, that it cannot be more disagreeable to you to be addressed in this language, than it is to me to offer it; but the subject requires frankness and decision."

Quite as firm was one addressed to Cornwallis, which read,--

"It is with infinite regret, I am again compelled to remonstrate against that spirit of wanton cruelty, that has in several instances influenced the conduct of your soldiery. A recent exercise of it towards an unhappy officer of ours, Lieutenant Harris, convinces me, that my former representations on this subject have been unavailing. That Gentleman by the fortunes of war, on Sat.u.r.day last was thrown into the hands of a party of your horse, and unnecessarily murdered with the most aggravated circ.u.mstances of barbarity. I wish not to wound your Lords.h.i.+p's feelings, by commenting on this event; but I think it my duty to send his mangled body to your lines as an undeniable testimony of the fact, should it be doubted, and as the best appeal to your humanity for the justice of our complaint."

A pleasanter intercourse came with the surrender of Yorktown, after which not merely were Cornwallis and his officers saved the mortification of surrendering their swords, but the chief among them were entertained at dinner by Was.h.i.+ngton. At this meal, so a contemporary account states, "Rochhambeau, being asked for a toast, gave _'The United States'_.

Was.h.i.+ngton gave _'The King of France'_. Lord Cornwallis, simply _'The King'_; but Was.h.i.+ngton, putting that toast, added, _'of England'_, and facetiously, _'confine him there, I'll drink him a full b.u.mper'_, filling his gla.s.s till it ran over. Rochambeau, with great politeness, was still so French, that he would every now and then be touching on points that were improper, and a breach of real politeness. Was.h.i.+ngton often checked him, and showed in a more saturnine manner, the infinite esteem he had for his gallant prisoner, whose private qualities the Americans admired even in a foe, that had so often filled them with the most cruel alarms." Many years later, when Cornwallis was governor-general of India, he sent a verbal message to his old foe, wis.h.i.+ng "General Was.h.i.+ngton a long enjoyment of tranquility and happiness," adding that for himself he "continued in troubled waters."

[Ill.u.s.tration: MRS WAs.h.i.+NGTON]