From Farm House to the White House Part 37

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 G.o.d, 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 a.s.sociation 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 ma.s.sacred."

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 a.s.sist 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sage 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.

He supported these resolutions by a speech of surpa.s.sing eloquence, surprising his a.s.sociates by his boldness and powerful oratory.

"The resolutions are inflammatory," objected the speaker, Mr. Robinson.

"We can maintain our rights without challenging the arms of the mother-country."

"The resolutions are right in principle, but intemperate in spirit,"

remarked another.

"Our self-respect demands that we indignantly repel such invasion of our rights as taxation imposes!" exclaimed a third, in full accord with the resolutions.

After the discussion had proceeded for a while, a timid spirit being manifested by a few, and indignant remonstrance against British tyranny by the many, Patrick Henry rose to reply to objections advanced.

He vindicated colonial rights under the English Const.i.tution by an argument of great power, showing how often and causelessly they had been a.s.sailed; and he justified the resolutions by the "cool deliberation" of Parliament in fastening the chains of slavery upon them. Warming with his theme, he advanced to matchless eloquence, and closed his philippic with such a daring burst of patriotism as startled the a.s.sembly.

"Caesar had his Brutus!" he shouted; "Charles his Cromwell, and George the Third"--

"Treason! Treason!" cried the speaker.