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PUTNAM'S MONTHLY.

A Magazine of Literature, Science, and Art.

VOL. III.-JANUARY 1854.-NO. XIII.

WASHINGTON'S EARLY DAYS.

THER
HERE may, perhaps, be among our

readers, especially the younger por tion of them, some who are not as conversant as they would desire, with every particular of the early life and character of him whom it is our pride and happiness to call the Father of our Country. For the benefit of such we propose to give one or two papers about his boyhood, thinking that the little that is known of a life so interesting and important to us and to the world, can never be brought before the public in too many forms. With no ambitious but rather a patriotic aim we do this. It is a character we love to contemplate, to dwell upon; one that we think Americans of the rising race might profitably study more closely than they do. We find many intelligent persons who have only a very vague notion of the Washington they admire; they take for granted his perfections, but put off the examination into him to some other time, or perhaps lack courage to attack the large volumes in which authentic lives of him are mostly shrouded. But our Monthly travels as on the wings of the wind; and modest and unassuming as it is, wins easy way into parlors and workshops, ships and factories, wherever our tongue is spoken. Let it then be the bearer of a few words about our country's hero, words so few that every body will find time to read them, just to give a zest to real, full, satisfactory histories now existing or soon to be. We shall make use of all the authorities within our reach, not even rejecting tradition, which is often the vehicle of important truth where character is to be estimated. We dare not promise any thing new, but we shall try VOL. III.-1

to omit nothing that is interesting or illustrative; and if, on this modest plan, as may well happen, we fail to be "graphic," we shall be provided with what will more than supply the deficiency, in the aid of Mr. Darley's unfailing pencil, which is to accompany our sketches with such lifelike presentation of striking points and incidents as our readers will know how to value.

Fortunately for us, Washington needs no embellishment from his biographer, nor invention in his illustrator. A simple recital of facts best shows the distinction between him and common men. It may be said that this difference is not discernible in his youth; that he was a boy among boys, and that an idea of his early excellence is merely a romantic deduction from the eminence of his virtue in after life. But even the few simple records that remain, plainly show that he was marked from the beginning; and the theory that his youth gave no promise of his future, seems to us as little sustained by wisdom and experience as the wildest notions of a precocious virtue would be. It is only to be regretted that the discernment of those about him should not have sufficed to make them treasure up every fact of his conduct and every particular of his conversation, that we might at least have tried to train up other boys to be the Washingtons of our days of peace and prosperity.

Washington was born in the State of Virginia, county of Westmoreland, at a place called Pope's Creek, near the banks of the Potomac, that happy river, whose every tree and wave seems now to be glorified by close association with his memory. The dwelling was humble

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who describe it as a plain, four-roomed farm-house, with a chimney at each end, which chimney was carried all the way up on the outside, as is the case with many a building of the same date still standing. The surrounding landscape has few features of interest, being graced with little natural variety or careful cultivation. Its trees are very ordinary trees-wild figs, pines and hemlocks;-the land has no extraordinary fertility, but shows plainly enough the effect of imperfect tillage and laissez aller habits in the people, who make one suspect that the energy and determination which might have served the entire region was absorbed by George Washington, model as he was of promptness and thoroughness in all things, from the greatest to the least. But what a charm hovers over the whole! What other spot on earth makes the soul thrill like this? A vine-leaf-a sprig of cedara pebble, from that hallowed ground, is a possession, not only to the American but to every noble heart. The poet's words, so true to nature, rise unbidden to the memory as we pace those silent fields and

woods. We do not wrest them from their highest meaning when we apply them to the place consecrated by the memory of Washington.

Call it not vain-they do not err

Who say that when the HERO dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper
And celebrates his obsequies;
Who say that hill and forest lono
For the departed Chief make moan;
Through his loved groves that breezes sigh
And oaks in deeper groan reply;
And rivers teach their rushing wave
To murmur dirges round his grave.

One needs little stretch of Fancy to hear the name of Washington whispered in every breeze that ruffles the bosom of the Potomac he loved so dearly.

He always lived near it when he could. It was ever in his eye at home, and in his heart when he was absent. All his dreams of quiet happiness-and he cherished such through lifee-were connected with its banks. It doubtless influenced his character, as every great feature of nature must influence those who study and delight in her as Washington did. His father re

moved soon after his birth to another plain farm-house, situated on the Rappahannock River, not far from Fredericksburgh, and not very far from the attractive Potomac. This house, too, has been destroyed, but a drawing of it exists, showing it to have been not exactly what a gentleman farmer of the present day would be satisfied with; plain even to homeliness, and scarcely affording what we think decent accommodation for a large family. Mr. Augustine Washington was twice married; he had by the first marriage four children, and by the second six, of which last George was the eldest. Two of the first family died in infancy, and two sons, Lawrence and Augustine, remained. Of the brothers and sisters of George Washington, "Betty" became Mrs. Fielding Lewis; Samuel was five times married; John Augustine married the daughter of Colonel John Bushrod; Charles married Mildred Thornton, daughter of Colonel Francis Thornton, of Spotsylvania County; and all left families, which intermarried in every direction, and spread the connection all over the country, so that one would think Virginia must be well inoculated from this excellent stock.

The ancestors of the Washington family came from Northamptonshire, in England, about 1657, during Cromwell's time. The name of Washington appears as early as the twelfth century. The family name was originally Hertburn, but William de Hertburn, about the latter part of the thirteenth century, assumed the name of his property, the manor of Wessyngton, afterwards written Washington. Deeds and monumental inscriptions still extant show the wealth and importance of the original stock at that early day. In 1692, Joseph Washington, an eminent lawyer, translated from the Latin one of Milton's political works, a fact which must be accepted as an indication of his political sentiments. Another of the family, Sir Henry Washington, is renowned in English annals, as having defended the city of Worcester against the Parliamentary forces, in 1646, so there seems to have been at least a balance of conservatism among them. The mother of this gentleman was half-sister to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

In 1539, the manor of Sulgrave, near Northampton, was granted to Laurence Washington, to whose memory and that of his wife, is found in the parish church there, a monument with an inscription, and "effigies in brass of four sons and seven daughters." The manor of Sulgrave continued long in the family, and

came to be called Washington's Manor. If the first proprietor of the manor had eleven children, his eldest son was yet more fortunate, having been blest with sixteen, and his eldest son, again, was the father of fourteen,-seven sons and seven daughters. The second and fourth of these sons were John and Laurence Washington, who came to Virginia about 1657. This John Washington was the great-grandfather of the greatest of the family. He was employed as general against the Indians in Maryland, and the parish in which he lived was called after him.

General Washington himself took but little interest in his pedigree. When he had become famous, Sir Isaac Heard, then Garter King at Arms in London, took some pains to trace back his ancestry, and wrote to him for such particulars as might be in his possession. In the answer, Washington observes, "This is a subject to which I confess I have paid very little attention. My time has been so much occupied in the busy and actiye scenes of life from an early period of it, that but a small portion could have been devoted to researches of this nature, even if my inclination or particular circumstances should have prompted to the inquiry." When family affection and kindness were in question, he seems to have been active in tracing relationships; but we can discover no research inspired by pride or ambition. Perhaps the occupations and services which make every little item of his history so important to us, preserved him against unbecoming solicitude about reflected honors. He had neither time nor inclination to turn aside to visit the tomb of any superfluous Jupiter Ammon of the old world. We should have been surprised to find him opening a correspondence with the King of the Heralds.

The first wife of Augustine Washington was Jane Butler, the second, Mary Ball, characterized on her tomb and known to history as "Mary, the mother of Washington," a sufficient distinction. She seems to have been a woman of strong understanding and decided will; kind and gentle through principle rather than feminine instinct; and noted for judgment and self-command. Her husband, a man of large landed estate, dying at forty-nine, left her in full control of his property, which she managed for her children till they successively came of age. All that is known of her, including Washington's life-long respect and duty towards her, speaks well of her, but that all is little to what we could desire to be told. She declined in her latter

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days becoming a resident of her son George's family, saying that her wants were few and that she preferred being independent; and when her son-in-law, Mr. Lewis, offered to take charge of her business, as she was failing in health, she told him he might keep her accounts, because his eyes were better than hers, but she chose to manage her own affairs. Tradition says she used to be consulted by the neighbors on the management of their farms and other business, and also that she mingled but little in society, finding her pleasures as well as her occupations within her own doors.

Mr. Weems says, she was a beauty in her youth, and, making due allowance for his somewhat luxuriant imagination, we find little difficulty in supposing the report to be correct, since her eldest son, at least, was a symmetrical being, in all respects; having a face full of expression, a rich complexion, a clear blue eye, a winning smile, and a fine, erect, athletic figure. His sister, Mrs. Lewis, can hardly have been as handsome, for a woman; for we are told that she was so like her brother, that, with his military hat and cloak on, she might have claimed the usual honors from the sentinels in his stead. Yet there was in Washington's face, especially as he grew older, an expression of modesty and even of tenderness, which might well become that of a woman, though we can never know whether that was derived from his mother. He honored her, however, and perhaps the formality which appears in what we know of their intercourse may be due, in part, at least, to the manners of the time. It is recorded that at their last parting he wept and trembled, while his mother maintained, so far as we are told, her usual selfcommand.

Besides the inestimable blessing of a good and reasonable mother, we have various reasons for believing that Washington had a man of sense and virtue for his father. So deep-laid and well-built a foundation of right-mindedness as was evinced in the life we are considering could hardly be accounted for else; so we may accept the result as in some measure confirming the tradition, even though the tradition be suspected of having been modified by the result. Tradition loves the marvellous, and therefore might as easily have presented Washington as the miraculously excellent product of bad antecedents, like Eugene Sue's heroes and heroines. As good authority as we have for the famous story of the hatchet which brought to light a love of truth well

known to have characterized Washington in every conjuncture, gives us one or two anecdotes, not quite so threadbare, which go to show that Augustine Washington, the worthy descendant of a long line of English country gentlemen, was not one of those parents who leave to chance the prompting of good thoughts in the minds of their children. An occurrence mentioned by good Mr. Weems, formerly Rector of Mount Vernon parish," who professes to have gathered his materials from the lips of people familiar with the Washington family, we shall quote here, since it seems characteristic and is certainly picturesque:

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"On a fine morning in the fall of 1737, Mr. Washington, having little George by the hand, came to the door "-(an old lady is the narrator)-" and asked my cousin Washington and myself to walk with him into the orchard, promising he would show us a fine sight. On arriving at the orchard, we were presented with a fine sight indeed. The whole earth, as far as we could see, was strewed with fruit, and yet the trees were bending under the weight of apples, which hung in clusters like grapes... 'Now George,' said his father, look here, my son! Don't you remember, when that good cousin of yours brought you that fine large apple last spring, how hardly I could prevail on you to divide with your brothers and sisters, though I promised you that if you would but do it, God would give you plenty of apples this fall?' Poor George couldn't say a word, but hanging down his head, looked quite confused, while with his little naked toes he scratched in the soft ground. 'Now look up, my son,' continued the father, 'look up, George! and see there how richly the blessed God has made good my promise to you. Wherever you turn your eyes, you see the trees loaded with fine fruit, many of them, indeed, breaking down, while the ground is covered with mellow apples, more than you could eat in all your lifetime.' George looked in silence on the wide wilderness of fruit, and lifting his eyes, filled with shining moisture, to his father, he softly said'Well, Pa, only forgive me this time, and see if I ever be so stingy any more!"" We must allow Mr. Weems the praise of a good narrator, and his generous enthusiasm makes him an inspiring one. As to his facts, we must accept them as honestly believed by a gentleman and a clergyman; and many of them can claim the benefit of internal evidence. If not literally true, 'Ils méritent bien de l'être.' Take an

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