The True George Washington Part 6

The authenticity of this pamphlet thus becomes of importance, and over this little time need be spent. The committee named in it differs from the committee really named by the Provincial Congress, and the proceedings nowhere implicate the men actually proved guilty. In other words, the whole publication is a clumsy Tory forgery, put forward with the same idle story of "captured papers" employed in the "spurious letters" of Washington, and sent forth from the same press (J. Bew) from which that forgery and several others issued.

The source from which the English fabricator drew this scandal is fortunately known. In 1775 a letter to Washington from his friend Benjamin Harrison was intercepted by the British, and at once printed broadcast in the newspapers. In this the writer gossips to Washington "to amuse you and unbend your minds from the cares of war," as follows: "As I was in the pleasing task of writing to you, a little noise occasioned me to turn my head around, and who should appear but pretty little Kate, the Washer-woman's daughter over the way, clean, trim and as rosy as the morning. I s.n.a.t.c.hed the golden, glorious opportunity, and, but for the cursed antidote to love, Sukey, I had fitted her for my general against his return. We were obliged to part, but not till we had contrived to meet again: if she keeps the appointment, I shall relish a week's longer stay."

From this originated the stories of Washington's infidelity as already given, and also a coa.r.s.er version of the same, printed in 1776 in a Tory farce ent.i.tled "The Battle of Brooklyn."

Jonathan Boucher, who knew Washington well before the Revolution, yet who, as a loyalist, wrote in no friendly spirit of him, a.s.serted that "in his moral character, he is regular." A man who disliked him far more, General Charles Lee, in the excess of his hatred, charged Washington in 1778 with immorality,--a rather amusing impeachment, since at the very time Lee was flaunting the evidence of his own incontinence without apparent shame,--and a mutual friend of the accused and accuser, Joseph Reed, whose service on Washington's staff enabled him to speak wittingly, advised that Lee "forbear any Reflections upon the Commander in Chief, of whom for the first time I have heard Slander on his private Character, viz., great cruelty to his Slaves in Virginia & Immorality of Life, tho' they acknowledge so very secret that it is difficult to detect. To me who have had so good opportunities to know the Purity of the latter & equally believing the Falsehood of the former from the known excellence of his disposition, it appears so nearly bordering upon frenzy, that I can pity the wretches rather than despise them."

Washington was too much of a man, however, to have his marriage lessen his liking for other women; and Yeates repeats that "Mr. Washington once told me, on a charge which I once made against the President at his own Table, that the admiration he warmly professed for Mrs. Hartley, was a Proof of his Homage to the worthy Part of the s.e.x, and highly respectful to his Wife." Every now and then there is an allusion in his letters which shows his appreciation of beauty, as when he wrote to General Schuyler, "Your fair daughter, for whose visit Mrs. Washington and myself are greatly obliged," and again, to one of his aides, "The fair hand, to whom your letter ... was committed presented it safe."

His diary, in the notes of the b.a.l.l.s and a.s.semblies which he attended, usually had a word for the s.e.x, as exampled in: "at which there were between 60 & 70 well dressed ladies;" "at which there was about 100 well dressed and handsome ladies;" "at which were 256 elegantly dressed ladies;" "where there was a select Company of ladies;" "where (it is said) there were upwards of 100 ladies; their appearance was elegant, and many of them very handsome;" "at wch. there were about 400 ladies the number and appearance of wch. exceeded anything of the kind I have ever seen;"

"where there were about 75 well dressed, and many of them very handsome ladies--among whom (as was also the case at the Salem and Boston a.s.semblies) were a greater proportion with much blacker hair than are usually seen in the Southern States."

At his wife's receptions, as already said, Washington did not view himself as host, and "conversed without restraint, generally with women, who rarely had other opportunity of seeing him," which perhaps accounts for the statement of another eye-witness that Washington "looked very much more at ease than at his own official levees." Sullivan adds that "the young ladies used to throng around him, and engaged him in conversation.

There were some of the well-remembered belles of the day who imagined themselves to be favorites with him. As these were the only opportunities which they had of conversing with him, they were disposed to use them." In his Southern trip of 1791 Washington noted, with evident pleasure, that he "was visited about 2 o'clock, by a great number of the most respectable ladies of Charleston--the first honor of the kind I had ever experienced and it was flattering as it was singular." And that this attention was not merely the respect due to a great man is shown in the letter of a Virginian woman, who wrote to her correspondent in 1777, that when "General Washington throws off the Hero and takes up the chatty agreeable Companion--he can be down right impudent sometimes--such impudence, f.a.n.n.y, as you and I like."

Another feminine compliment paid him was a highly laudatory poem which was enclosed to him, with a letter begging forgiveness, to which he playfully answered,--

"You apply to me, my dear Madam, for absolution as tho' I was your father Confessor; and as tho' you had committed a crime, great in itself, yet of the venial cla.s.s. You have reason good--for I find myself strangely disposed to be a very indulgent ghostly adviser on this occasion; and, notwithstanding 'you are the most offending Soul alive' (that is, if it is a crime to write elegant Poetry,) yet if you will come and dine with me on Thursday, and go thro' the proper course of penitence which shall be prescribed I will strive hard to a.s.sist you in expiating these poetical trespa.s.ses on this side of purgatory. Nay more, if it rests with me to direct your future lucubrations, I shall certainly urge you to a repet.i.tion of the same conduct, on purpose to shew what an admirable knack you have at confession and reformation; and so without more hesitation, I shall venture to command the muse, not to be restrained by ill-grounded timidity, but to go on and prosper. You see, Madam, when once the woman has tempted us, and we have tasted the forbidden fruit, there is no such thing as checking our appet.i.tes, whatever the consequences may be. You will, I dare say, recognize our being the genuine Descendants of those who are reputed to be our great Progenitors."

Nor was Washington open only to beauty and flattery. From the rude frontier in 1756 he wrote, "The supplicating tears of the women,... melt me into such deadly sorrow, that I solemnly declare, if I know my own mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy, provided that would contribute to the people's ease." And in 1776 he said, "When I consider that the city of New York will in all human probability very soon be the scene of a b.l.o.o.d.y conflict, I cannot but view the great numbers of women, children, and infirm persons remaining in it, with the most melancholy concern. When the men-of-war pa.s.sed up the river, the shrieks and cries of these poor creatures running every way with their children, were truly distressing.... Can no method be devised for their removal?"

Nevertheless, though liked by and liking the fair s.e.x, Washington was human, and after experience concluded that "I never again will have two women in my house when I am there myself."

V

FARMER AND PROPRIETOR

The earliest known Washington coat of arms had blazoned upon it "3 Cinque foiles," which was the herald's way of saying that the bearer was a landholder and cultivator, and when Washington had a book-plate made for himself he added to the conventional design of the arms spears of wheat and other plants, as an indication of his favorite labor. During his career he acted several parts, but in none did he find such pleasure as in farming, and late in life he said, "I think with you, that the life of a husbandman of all others is the most delectable. It is honorable, it is amusing, and, with judicious management, it is profitable. To see plants rise from the earth and flourish by the superior skill and bounty of the laborer fills a contemplative mind with ideas which are more easy to be conceived than expressed." "Agriculture has ever been the most favorite amus.e.m.e.nt of my life," he wrote after the Revolution, and he informed another correspondent that "the more I am acquainted with agricultural affairs, the better pleased I am with them; insomuch, that I can no where find so great satisfaction as in those innocent and useful pursuits: In indulging these feelings, I am led to reflect how much more delightful to an undebauched mind is the task of making improvements on the earth, than all the vain glory which can be acquired from ravaging it, by the most uninterrupted career of conquests." A visitor to Mount Vernon in 1785 states that his host's "greatest pride is, to be thought the first farmer in America. He is quite a Cincinnatus."

Undoubtedly a part of this liking flowed from his strong affection for Mount Vernon. Such was his feeling for the place that he never seems to have been entirely happy away from it, and over and over again, during his various and enforced absences, he "sighs" or "pants" for his "own vine and fig tree." In writing to an English correspondent, he shows his feeling for the place by saying, "No estate in United America, is more pleasantly situated than this. It lies in a high, dry and healthy country, three hundred miles by water from the sea, and, as you will see by the plan, on one of the finest rivers in the world."

The history of the Mount Vernon estate begins in 1674, when Lord Culpepper conveyed to Nicholas Spencer and Lieutenant-Colonel John Washington five thousand acres of land "scytuate Lying and being within the said terrytory in the County of Stafford in the ffreshes of the Pottomocke River and ... bounded betwixt two Creeks." Colonel John's half was bequeathed to his son Lawrence, and by Lawrence's will it was left to his daughter Mildred. She sold it to the father of George, who by his will left it to his son Lawrence, with a reversion to George should Lawrence die without issue. The original house was built about 1740, and the place was named Mount Vernon by Lawrence, in honor of Admiral Vernon, under whom he had served at Carthagena. After the death of Lawrence, the estate of twenty-five hundred acres came under Washington's management, and from 1754 it was his home, as it had been practically even in his brother's life.

Twice Washington materially enlarged the house at Mount Vernon, the first time in 1760 and the second in 1785, and a visitor reports, what his host must have told him, that "its a pity he did not build a new one at once, for it has cost him nearly as much to repair his old one." These alterations consisted in the addition of a banquet-hall at one end (by far the finest room in the house), and a library and dining-room at the other, with the addition of an entire story to the whole.

The grounds, too, were very much improved. A fine approach, or bowling green, was laid out, a "botanical garden," a "shrubbery," and greenhouses were added, and in every way possible the place was improved. A deer paddock was laid out and stocked, gifts of Chinese pheasants and geese, French partridges, and guinea-pigs were sent him, and were gratefully acknowledged, and from all the world over came curious, useful, or beautiful plants.

The original tract did not satisfy the ambition of the farmer, and from the time he came into the possession of Mount Vernon he was a persistent purchaser of lands adjoining the property. In 1760 he bargained with one Clifton for "a tract called Brents," of eighteen hundred and six acres, but after the agreement was closed the seller, "under pretence of his wife not consenting to acknowledge her right of dower wanted to disengage himself ... and by his shuffling behavior convinced me of his being the trifling body represented." Presently Washington heard that Clifton had sold his lands to another for twelve hundred pounds, which "fully unravelled his conduct ... and convinced me that he was nothing less than a thorough pac'd rascall." Meeting the "rascall" at a court, "much discourse," Washington states, "happened between him and I concerning his ungenerous treatment of me, the whole turning to little account, 'tis not worth reciting." After much more friction, the land was finally sold at public auction, and "I bought it for 1210 Sterling, [and] under many threats and disadvantages paid the money."

[Ill.u.s.tration: WASHINGTON'S SURVEY OF MOUNT VERNON, CIRCA 1746]

In 1778, when some other land was offered, Washington wrote to his agent, "I have premised these things to shew my inability, not my unwillingness to purchase the Lands in my own Neck at (almost) any price--& this I am very desirous of doing if it could be accomplished by any means in my power, in ye way of Barter for other Land--for Negroes ... or in short--for any thing else ... but for money I cannot, I want the means." Again, in 1782, he wrote, "Inform Mr. Dulany,... that I look upon 2000 to be a great price for his land; that my wishes to obtain it do not proceed from its intrinsic value, but from the motives I have candidly a.s.signed in my other letter. That to indulge this fancy, (for in truth there is more fancy than judgment in it) I have submitted, or am willing to submit, to the disadvantage of borrowing as large a sum as I think this Land is worth, in order to come at it"

By thus purchasing whenever an opportunity occurred, the property was increased from the twenty-five hundred acres which had come into Washington's possession by inheritance to an estate exceeding eight thousand acres, of which over thirty-two hundred were actually under cultivation during the latter part of its owner's life.

To manage so vast a tract, the property was subdivided into several tracts, called "Mansion House Farm," "River Farm," "Union Farm," "Muddy Hole Farm," and "Dogue Run Farm," each having an overseer to manage it, and each being operated as a separate plantation, though a general overseer controlled the whole, and each farm derived common benefit from the property as a whole. "On Sat.u.r.day in the afternoon, every week, reports are made by all his overseers, and registered in books kept for the purpose," and these accounts were so schemed as to show how every negro's and laborer's time had been employed during the whole week, what crops had been planted or gathered, what increase or loss of stock had occurred, and every other detail of farm-work. During Washington's absences from Mount Vernon his chief overseer sent him these reports, as well as wrote himself, and weekly the manager received in return long letters of instruction, sometimes to the length of sixteen pages, which showed most wonderful familiarity with every acre of the estate and the character of every laborer, and are little short of marvellous when account is taken of the pressure of public affairs that rested upon their writer as he framed them.

When Washington became a farmer, but one system of agriculture, so far as Virginia was concerned, existed, which he described long after as follows:

"A piece of land is cut down, and kept under constant cultivation, first in tobacco, and then in Indian corn (two very exhausting plants), until it will yield scarcely any thing; a second piece is cleared, and treated in the same manner; then a third and so on, until probably there is but little more to clear. When this happens, the owner finds himself reduced to the choice of one of three things--either to recover the land which he has ruined, to accomplish which, he has perhaps neither the skill, the industry, nor the means; or to retire beyond the mountains; or to subst.i.tute quant.i.ty for quality, in order to raise something. The latter has been generally adopted, and, with the a.s.sistance of horses, he scratches over much ground, and seeds it, to very little purpose."

Knowing no better, Washington adopted this one-crop system, even to the extent of buying corn and hogs to feed his hands. Though following in the beaten track, he experimented in different kinds of tobacco, so that, "by comparing then the loss of the one with the extra price of the other, I shall be able to determine which is the best to pursue." The largest crop he ever seems to have produced, "being all sweet-scented and neatly managed," was one hundred and fifteen hogsheads, which averaged in sale twelve pounds each.

From a very early time Washington had been a careful student of such books on agriculture as he could obtain, even preparing lengthy abstracts of them, and the knowledge he thus obtained, combined with his own practical experience, soon convinced him that the Virginian system was wrong. "I never ride on my plantations," he wrote, "without seeing something which makes me regret having continued so long in the ruinous mode of farming, which we are in," and he soon "discontinued the growth of tobacco myself; [and] except at a plantation or two upon York River, I make no more of that article than barely serves to furnish me with goods."

From this time (1765) "the whole of my force [was] in a manner confined to the growth of wheat and manufacturing of it into flour," and before long he boasted that "the wheat from some of my plantations, by one pair of steelyards, will weigh upwards of sixty pounds,... and better wheat than I now have I do not expect to make." After the Revolution he claimed that "no wheat that has ever yet fallen under my observation exceeds the wheat which some years ago I cultivated extensively but which, from inattention during my absence of almost nine years from home, has got so mixed or degenerated as scarcely to retain any of its original characteristics properly." In 1768 he was able to sell over nineteen hundred bushels, and how greatly his product was increased after this is shown by the fact that in this same year he sowed four hundred and ninety bushels.

Still further study and experimentation led him to conclude that "my countrymen are too much used to corn blades and corn shucks; and have too little knowledge of the profit of gra.s.s lands," and after his final home-coming to Mount Vernon, he said, "I have had it in contemplation ever since I returned home to turn my farms to grazing princ.i.p.ally, as fast as I can cover the fields sufficiently with gra.s.s. Labor and of course expence will be considerably diminished by this change, the nett profit as great and my attention less divided, whilst the fields will be improving."

That this was only an abandonment of a "one crop" system is shown by the fact that in 1792 he grew over five thousand bushels of wheat, valued at four shillings the bushel, and in 1799 he said, "as a farmer, wheat and flour are my princ.i.p.al concerns." And though, in abandoning the growth of tobacco, Washington also tried "to grow as little Indian corn as may be,"

yet in 1795 his crop was over sixteen hundred barrels, and the quant.i.ty needed for his own negroes and stock is shown in a year when his crop failed, which "obliged me to purchase upwards of eight hundred barrels of corn."

In connection with this change of system, Washington became an early convert to the rotation of crops, and drew up elaborate tables sometimes covering periods of five years, so that the quant.i.ty of each crop should not vary, yet by which his fields should have constant change. This system naturally very much diversified the product of his estate, and flax, hay, clover, buckwheat, turnips, and potatoes became large crops. The scale on which this was done is shown by the facts that in one year he sowed twenty-seven bushels of flaxseed and planted over three hundred bushels of potatoes.

Early and late Washington preached to his overseers the value of fertilization; in one case, when looking for a new overseer, he said the man must be, "above all, Midas like, one who can convert everything he touches into manure, as the first trans.m.u.tation towards gold;--in a word one who can bring worn out and gullied Lands into good tilth in the shortest time." Equally emphatic was his urging of constant ploughing and grubbing, and he even invented a deep soil plough, which he used till he found a better one in the English Rotheran plough, which he promptly imported, as he did all other improved farming tools and machinery of which he could learn. To save his woodlands, and for appearance's sake, he insisted on live fences, though he had to acknowledge that "no hedge, alone, will, I am persuaded, do for an outer inclosure, where _two_ or four footed hogs find it convenient to open pa.s.sage." In all things he was an experimentalist, carefully trying different kinds of tobacco and wheat, various kinds of plants for hedges, and various kinds of manure for fertilizers; he had tests made to see whether he could sell his wheat to best advantage in the grain or when made into flour, and he bred from selected horses, cattle, and sheep. "In short I shall begrudge no reasonable expence that will contribute to the improvement and neatness of my Farms;--for nothing pleases me better than to see them in good order, and everything trim, handsome, and thriving about them."

The magnitude of the charge of such an estate can be better understood when the condition of a Virginia plantation is realized. Before the Revolution practically everything the plantation could not produce was ordered yearly from Great Britain, and after the annual delivery of the invoices the estate could look for little outside help. Nor did this change rapidly after the Revolution, and during the period of Washington's management almost everything was bought in yearly supplies.

This system compelled each plantation to be a little world unto itself; indeed, the three hundred souls on the Mount Vernon estate went far to make it a distinct and self-supporting community, and one of Washington's standing orders to his overseers was to "buy nothing you can make within yourselves." Thus the planting and gathering of the crops were but a small part of the work to be done.

A corps of workmen--some negroes, some indentured servants, and some hired laborers--were kept on the estate. A blacksmith-shop occupied some, doing not merely the work of the plantation, but whatever business was brought to them from outside; and a wood-burner kept them and the mansion-house supplied with charcoal. A gang of carpenters were kept busy, and their spare time was utilized in framing houses to be put up in Alexandria, or in the "Federal city," as Washington was called before the death of its namesake. A brick-maker, too, was kept constantly employed, and masons utilized the product of his labor. The gardener's gang had charge of the kitchen-garden, and set out thousands of grape-vines, fruit-trees, and hedge-plants.

A water-mill, with its staff, not merely ground meal for the hands, but produced a fine flour that commanded extra price in the market In 1786 Washington a.s.serted that his flour was "equal, I believe, in quality to any made in this country," and the Mount Vernon brand was of such value that some money was made by buying outside wheat and grinding it into flour. The coopers of the estate made the barrels in which it was packed, and Washington's schooner carried it to market.

The estate had its own shoemaker, and in time a staff of weavers was trained. Before this was obtained, in 1760, though with only a modic.u.m of the force he presently had, Washington ordered from London "450 ells of Osnabrig, 4 pieces of Brown Wools, 350 yards of Kendall Cotton, and 100 yards of Dutch blanket." By 1768 he was manufacturing the chief part of his requirements, for in that year his weavers produced eight hundred and fifteen and three-quarter yards of linen, three hundred and sixty-five and one-quarter yards of woollen, one hundred and forty-four yards of linsey, and forty yards of cotton, or a total of thirteen hundred and sixty-five and one-half yards, one man and five negro girls having been employed.

When once the looms were well organized an infinite variety of cloths was produced, the accounts mentioning "striped woollen, woolen plaided, cotton striped, linen, wool-birdseye, cotton filled with wool, linsey, M.'s & O.'s, cotton-India dimity, cotton jump stripe, linen filled with tow, cotton striped with silk, Roman M., Janes twilled, huccabac, broadcloth, counterpain, birdseye diaper, Kirsey wool, barragon, fustian, bed-ticking, herring-box, and shalloon."

One of the most important features of the estate was its fishery, for the catch, salted down, largely served in place of meat for the negroes' food.

Of this advantage Washington wrote, "This river,... is well supplied with various kinds of fish at all seasons of the year; and, in the spring, with the greatest profusion of shad, herrings, ba.s.s, carp, perch, sturgeon, &c.

Several valuable fisheries appertain to the estate; the whole sh.o.r.e, in short, is one entire fishery." Whenever there was a run of fish, the seine was drawn, chiefly for herring and shad, and in good years this not merely amply supplied the home requirements, but allowed of sales; four or five shillings the thousand for herring and ten shillings the hundred for shad were the average prices, and sales of as high as eighty-five thousand herring were made in a single year.

In 1795, when the United States pa.s.sed an excise law, distilling became particularly profitable, and a still was set up on the plantation. In this whiskey was made from "Rye chiefly and Indian corn in a certain proportion," and this not merely used much of the estate's product of those two grains, but quant.i.ties were purchased from elsewhere. In 1798 the profit from the distillery was three hundred and forty-four pounds twelve shillings and seven and three-quarter pence, with a stock carried over of seven hundred and fifty-five and one-quarter gallons; but this was the most successful year. Cider, too, was made in large quant.i.ties.

A stud stable was from an early time maintained, and the Virginia papers regularly advertised that the stud horse "Samson," "Magnolia," "Leonidas,"

"Traveller," or whatever the reigning stallion of the moment might be, would "cover" mares at Mount Vernon, with pasturage and a guarantee of foal, if their owners so elected. During the Revolution Washington bought twenty-seven of the army mares that had been "worn-down so as to render it beneficial to the public to have them sold," not even objecting to those "low in flesh or even crippled," because "I have many large Farms and am improving a good deal of Land into Meadow and Pasture, which cannot fail of being profited by a number of Brood Mares." In addition to the stud, there were, in 1793, fifty-four draught horses on the estate.

A unique feature of this stud was the possession of two jacka.s.ses, of which the history was curious. At that time there was a law in Spain (where the best breed was to be found) which forbade the exportation of a.s.ses, but the king, hearing of Washington's wish to possess a jack, sent him one of the finest obtainable as a present, which was promptly christened "Royal Gift." The sea-voyage and the change of climate, however, so affected him that for a time he proved of little value to his owner, except as a source of amus.e.m.e.nt, for Washington wrote Lafayette, "The Jack I have already received from Spain in appearance is fine, but his late Royal master, tho' past his grand climacteric cannot be less moved by female allurements than he is; or when prompted, can proceed with more deliberation and majestic solemnity to the work of procreation."

This reluctance to play his part Washington concluded was a sign of aristocracy, and he wrote a nephew, "If Royal Gift will administer, he shall be at the service of your Mares, but at present he seems too full of Royalty, to have anything to do with a plebeian Race," and to Fitzhugh he said, "particular attention shall be paid to the mares which your servant brought, and when my Jack is in the humor, they shall derive all the benefit of his labor, for labor it appears to be. At present tho' young, he follows what may be supposed to be the example of his late Royal Master, who can not, tho' past his grand climacteric, perform seldomer or with more majestic solemnity than he does. However I am not without hope that when he becomes a little better acquainted with republican enjoyment, he will amend his manners, and fall into a better and more expeditious mode of doing business." This fortunately proved to be the case, and his master not merely secured such mules as he needed for his own use, but gained from him considerable profit by covering mares in the neighborhood.

He even sent him on a tour through the South, and Royal Gift pa.s.sed a whole winter in Charleston, South Carolina, with a resulting profit of six hundred and seventy-eight dollars to his owner. In 1799 there were on the estate "2 Covering Jacks & 3 young ones, 10 she a.s.ses, 42 working mules and 15 younger ones."