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648

WASHINGTON IN SOCIAL LIFE.

[1785.

trembled with awe as I came into the presence I would not have been noticed; but as a trait of of this great man. I found him at table with the benevolence and private virtue of WashingMrs. Washington and his private family, and ton, deserves to be recorded." was received in the native dignity, and with that urbanity so peculiarly combined in the character of a soldier and an eminent private gentleman. He soon put me at my ease, by unbending, in a free and affable conversation.

"The cautious reserve which wisdom and policy dictated, whilst engaged in rearing the glorious fabric of our independence, was evidently the result of consummate prudence and not characteristic of his nature. I observed a peculiarity in his smile, which seemed to illuminate his eye; his whole countenance beamed with intelligence while it commanded confidence and respect.

The late Bishop White, in subsequent years, speaking of Washington's unassuming manners, observes: "I know no man who so carefully guarded against the discoursing of himself or of his acts, or of any thing that pertained to him; and it has occasionally occurred to me when in his company, that, if a stranger to his person were present, he would never have known from any thing said by him that he was conscious of having distinguished himself in the eye of the world."

An anecdote is told of Washington's conduct while commander-in-chief; illustrative of his benignant attention to others, and his freedom "I found him kind and benignant in the from all assumption. While the army was endomestic circle; revered and beloved by all camped at Morristown, he one day attended a around him; agreeably social, without osten- religious meeting where divine service was to tation; delighting in anecdote and adventures; be celebrated in the open air. A chair had without assumption; his domestic arrange-been set out for his use. Just before the serments harmonious and systematic. His ser- vice commenced, a woman with a child in her vants seemed to watch his eye, and to anticipate his every wish; hence a look was equivalent to a command. His servant Billy, the faithful companion of his military career, was always at his side. Smiling content animated and beamed on every countenance in his presence."

In the evening Mr. Watson sat conversing for a full hour with Washington after all the family had retired, expecting, perhaps, to hear him fight over some of his battles; but, if so, he was disappointed, for he observes: "He modestly waived all allusions to the events in which he had acted so glorious and conspicuous a part. Much of his conversation had reference to the interior country, and to the opening of the navigation of the Potomac by canals and locks, at the Seneca, the Great and Little Falls. His mind appeared to be deeply absorbed by that object, then in earnest contemplation."

Mr. Watson had taken a severe cold in the course of a harsh winter journey, and coughed excessively. Washington pressed him to take some remedies, but he declined. After retiring for the night his coughing increased. "When some time had elapsed," writes he, "the door of my room was gently opened, and, on drawing my bed curtains, I beheld Washington himself, standing at my bedside with a bowl of hot tea in his hand. I was mortified and distressed beyond expression. This little incident, occurring in common life with an ordinary man,

arms approached. All the seats were occupied. Washington immediately rose, placed her in the chair which had been assigned to him, and remained standing during the whole service.*

The reverential awe with which his deeds and elevated position threw around him was often a source of annoyance to him in private life; especially when he perceived its effect upon the young and gay. We have been told of a case in point, when he made his appearance at a private ball where all were enjoying themselves with the utmost glee. The moment he entered the room the buoyant mirth was checked; the dance lost its animation; every face was grave; every tongue was silent. He remained for a time, endeavoring to engage in conversation with some of the young people, and to break the spell; finding it in vain, he retired sadly to the company of the elders in an adjoining room, expressing his regret that his presence should operate as such a damper. After a little while light laughter and happy voices again resounded from the ball-room; upon which he rose cautiously, approached on tip-toe the door, which was ajar, and there stood for some time a delighted spectator of the youthful revelry.

Washington in fact, though habitually grave and thoughtful, was of a social disposition, and loved cheerful society. He was fond of the

Er. 53.]

WASHINGTON IN SOCIAL LIFE.

649

dance; and it was the boast of many ancient | great spirit and power. A braggadocia of the dames in our day, who had been belles in the time of the Revolution, that they had danced minuets with him, or had him for a partner in contra-dances. There were balls in camp, in some of the dark times of the Revolution. “We had a little dance at my quarters," writes General Greene from Middlebrook, in March, 1779. "His Excellency and Mrs. Greene danced upwards of three hours without once sitting down. Upon the whole, we had a

pretty little frisk."*

army, vain of his horsemanship, asked the privilege of breaking it. Washington gave his consent, and with some of his officers attended to see the horse receive his first lesson. After much preparation, the pretender to equitation mounted into the saddle and was making a great display of his science, when the horse suddenly planted his forefeet, threw up his heels, and gave the unlucky Gambado a somerset over his head. Washington, a thorough horseman, and quick to perceive the ludicrous in these matters, was so convulsed with laughter, that, we are told, the tears ran down his cheeks.*

Still another instance is given, which oc

A letter of Colonel Tench Tilghman, one of Washington's aides-de-camp, gives an instance of the general's festive gayety when in the above year the army was cantoned near Morristown. A large company, of which the Gen-curred at the return of peace, when he was eral and Mrs. Washington, General and Mrs. Greene, and Mr. and Mrs. Olney were part, dined with Colonel and Mrs. Biddle. Some little time after the ladies had retired from table, Mr. Olney followed them into the next room. A clamor was raised against him as a deserter, and it was resolved that a party should be sent to demand him, and that if the ladies refused to give him up, he should be brought by force. Washington humored the joke, and offered to head the party. He led it with great formality to the door of the drawing-room, and sent in a summons. The ladies refused to give up the deserter. An attempt was made to capture him. The ladies came to the rescue. There was a melée; in the course of which his Excellency seems to have had a passage at arms with Mrs. Olney. The ladies were victorious, as they always ought to be, says the gallant Tilghman.t

More than one instance is told of Washington's being surprised into hearty fits of laughter, even during the war. We have recorded one produced by the sudden appearance of old General Putnam on horseback, with a female prisoner en croupe. The following is another which occurred at the camp at Morristown. Washington had purchased a young horse of

* Greene to Colonel Wadsworth. MS.

This sportive occurrence gave rise to a piece of camp scandal. It was reported at a distance that Mrs. Olney had been in a violent rage, and had told Washington that,

sailing in a boat on the Hudson, and was so overcome by the drollery of a story told by Major Fairlie of New York, of facetious memory, that he fell back in the boat in a paroxysm of laughter. In that fit of laughter, it was sagely presumed that he threw off the burthen of care which had been weighing down his spirits throughout the war. He certainly relaxed much of his thoughtful gravity of demeanor when he had no longer the anxieties of a general command to harass him. The late Judge Brooke, who had served as an officer in the legion of Light-horse Harry, used to tell of having frequently met Washington on his visits to Fredericksburg after the revolutionary war, and how "hilarious" the general was on those occasions with "Jack Willis, and other friends of his young days," laughing heartily at the comic songs which were sung at table.

Colonel Henry Lee, too, who used to be a favored guest at Mount Vernon, does not seem to have been much under the influence of that "reverential awe" which Washington is said to have inspired; if we may judge from the following anecdote. Washington one day at table mentioned his being in want of carriage horses, and asked Lee if he knew where he could get a pair.

"I have a fine pair, general," replied Lee, "but you cannot get them." Why not?"

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66 Because you will never pay more than half "if he did not let go her hand she would tear his eyes out, price for any thing; and I must have full price

and that though he was a general, he was but a man."

Mr. Olney wrote to Colonel Tilghman, begging him to refute the scandal. The latter gave a true statement of

for horses."
my

The bantering reply set Mrs. Washington the affair, declaring that the whole was done in jest, and laughing, and her parrot, perched beside her,

that in the mock contest Mrs. Olney had made use of no expressions unbecoming a lady of her good breeding, or such as were taken the least amiss by the general.

*Notes of the Rev. Mr. Tuttlo. MS.

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SOCIAL LIFE OF WASHINGTON-DEATH OF GENERAL GREENE.

[1785.

joined in the laugh. The general took this fa- | after a while, but were never stanch, and caused miliar assault upon his dignity in great good him frequent disappointments. Probably he part. 'Ah, Lee, you are a funny fellow," said was not as stanch himself as formerly; an inhe," see, that bird is laughing at you."* terval of several years may have blunted his keenness, if we may judge from the following entry in his diary:

Hearty laughter, however, was rare with Washington. The sudden explosions we hear of were the result of some sudden and ludicrous surprise. His general habit was a calm seriousness, easily softening into a benevolent smile.

In some few of his familiar letters, yet preserved, and not relating to business, there is occasionally a vein of pleasantry and even of humor; but almost invariably, they treat of matters of too grave import to admit of any thing of the kind. It is to be deeply regretted that most of his family letters have been purposely destroyed.

The passion for hunting had revived with Washington on returning to his old huntinggrounds; but he had no hounds. His kennel had been broken up when he went to the wars, and the dogs given away, and it was not easy to replace them. After a time he received several hounds from France, sent out by Lafayette, and other of the French officers, and once more sallied forth to renew his ancient sport. The French hounds, however, proved indifferent; he was out with them repeatedly, putting other hounds with them borrowed from gentlemen of the neighborhood. They improved

NOTE.

Another instance is on record of one of Washing ton's fits of laughter, which occurred in subsequent years. Judge Marshall and Judge Washington, a relative of the general, were on their way on horseback to visit Mount Vernon, attended by a black servant, who had charge of a large portmanteau containing their clothes. As they passed through a wood on the skirts of the Mount Vernon grounds, they were tempted to make a hasty toilet beneath its shade; being covered with dust from the state of the roads. Dismounting, they threw off their dusty garments, while the servant took down the portmanteau. As he opened it, out flew cakes of windsor soap and fancy articles of all

"Out after breakfast with my hounds, found a fox and ran him sometimes hard, and sometines at cold hunting from 11 till near 2when I came home and left the huntsmen with them, who followed in the same manner two hours or more, and then took the dogs off without killing."

He appears at one time to have had an idea of stocking part of his estate with deer. In a letter to his friend, George William Fairfax, in England, a letter expressive of kind recol lections of former companionship, he says: "Though envy is no part of my composition, yet the picture you have drawn of your present habitation and mode of living, is enough to create a strong desire in me to be a participator of the tranquillity and rural amusements you have described. I am getting into the latter as fast as I can, being determined to make the remainder of my life easy, let the world or the affairs of it go as they may. I am not a little obliged to you for contributing to this, by procuring me a buck and doe of the best English deer; but if you have not already been at this trouble, I would, my good sir, now wish to relieve you from it, as Mr. Ogle of Maryland has from his park of English deer at Bellair. With been so obliging as to present me six fawns these, and tolérable care, I shall soon have a full stock for my small paddock.*

While Washington was thus calmly enjoying himself, came a letter from Henry Lee, who was now in Congress, conveying a mournful piece of intelligence: "Your friend and second, the patriot and noble Greene, is no more. Universal grief reigns here." Greene died on the 18th of June, at his estate of Mulberry Grove, kinds. The man by mistake had changed their port-State of Georgia. His last illness was brief; on Savannah River, presented to him by the

manteau at the last stopping place for one which resembled it, belonging to a Scotch pedlar. The consternation of the negro, and their own dismantled state, struck them so ludicrously as to produce loud and repeated bursts of laughter. Washington, who happened to be out upon his grounds, was attracted by the noise, and so overcome by the strange plight of his friends, and the whimsicality of the whole scene, that he is said to have actually rolled on the grass with laughter. See Life of Judge J. Smith.

Loe.

Communicated to us in a letter from a son of Colonel

caused by a stroke of the sun; he was but forty-four years of age.

The news of his death struck heavily on Washington's heart, to whom, in the most ar

*George William Fairfax resided in Bath, where he died on the 3d of April, 1787, in the sixty-third year of his age. Though his income was greatly reduced by the con fiscation of his property in Virginia, he contributed gen erously during the revolutionary war to the relief of American prisoners.-Sparks Washington's Writings, T. il., p. 53.

ET. 53.] WASHINGTON'S ENCOMIUMS OF GENERAL GREENE-REVERIES OF PEACE.

duous trials of the Revolution, he had been a second self. He had taken Washington as his model, and possessed naturally many of his great qualities. Like him, he was sound in judgment; persevering in the midst of discouragements; calm and self-possessed in time of danger; heedful of the safety of others; heedless of his own. Like him, he was modest and unpretending, and like him he had a perfect command of temper.

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He had Washington's habits of early rising, and close and methodical despatch of business, never suffering the day to crowd upon the morrow." In private intercourse he was frank, noble, candid, and intelligent; in the hurry of business he was free from petulance, and had, we are told, “a winning blandness of manner that won the affections of his officers."

His campaigns in the Carolinas showed him to be a worthy disciple of Washington, keeping the war alive by his own persevering hope and inexhaustible energy, and, as it were, fighting almost without weapons. His great contest of generalship with the veteran Cornwallis, has ensured for him a lasting renown.

651

spirit of peace which was natural to him; for war with him had only been a matter of patriotism and public duty. To the Marquis de la Rouerie, who had so bravely but modestly fought under the title of Colonel Armand, he writes: "I never expect to draw my sword again. I can scarcely conceive the cause that would induce me to do it. My time is now occupied by rural amusements in which I have great satisfaction; and my first wish is (although it is against the profession of arms, and would clip the wings of some of our young soldiers who are soaring after glory) to see the whole world in peace, and the inhabitants of it as one band of brothers, striving who should contribute most to the happiness of mankind.”

So, also, in a letter to Count Rochambeau, dated July 31st, 1786: "It must give pleasure," writes he, "to the friends of humanity, even in this distant section of the globe, to find that the clouds which threatened to burst in a storm of war on Europe, have dissipated, and left a still brighter horizon. * * * * As the rage of conquest, which in times of barbarity stimulated nations to blood, has in a great measure ceased; as the objects which formerly gave birth to wars are daily diminishing; and as mankind are becoming more enlightened and humanized, I cannot but flatter myself with the pleasing prospect, that a more

"He was a great and good man!" was Washington's comprehensive eulogy on him; and in a letter to Lafayette he writes: "Greene's death is an event which has given such general concern, and is so much regretted by his numerous friends, that I can scarce persuade my-liberal policy and more pacific systems will self to touch upon it, even so far as to say that in him you lost a man who affectionately regarded, and was a sincere admirer of you."*

take place amongst them. To indulge this idea affords a soothing consolation to a philanthropic mind; insomuch that, although it should be found an illusion, one would hardly wish to be divested of an error so grateful in itself and so innocent in its consequences."

And in another letter,-"It is thus, you see, my dear Count, in retirement upon my farm I

Other deaths pressed upon Washington's sensibility about the same time. That of General McDougall, who had served his country faithfully through the war, and since with equal fidelity in Congress. That, too, of Colonel Tench Tilghman, for a long time one of Wash-speculate upon the fate of nations, amusing ington's aides-de-camp, and "who left," writes he, "as fair a reputation as ever belonged to a human character." 66 "Thus," adds he, some of the pillars of the Revolution fall. Others are mouldering by insensible degrees. May our country never want props to support the glorious fabric."

In his correspondence about this time with several of the French noblemen who had been his associates in arms, his letters breathe the

*We are happy to learn that a complete collection of the correspondence of General Greene is about to be published by his worthy and highly cultivated grandson, George Washington Greene. It is a work that, like Sparks' Writings of Washington, should form a part of every American library.

myself with innocent reveries that mankind will one day grow happier and better."

How easily may the wisest of men be deceived in their speculations as to the future, especially when founded on the idea of the perfectibility of human nature. These halcyon dreams of universal peace were indulged on the very eve, as it were, of the French Revolution, which was to deluge the world in blood, and when the rage for conquest was to have unbounded scope under the belligerent sway of Napoleon.

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WASHINGTON DOUBTS THE SOLIDITY OF THE CONFEDERATION.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

[1786.

descending into the vale of confusion and dark

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The idea of conjoint arrangements between States, thus suggested in the quiet councils of Mount Vernon, was a step in the right direction, and will be found to lead to important results.

Not long previous to the writing of this let ter, Washington had been visited at Mount VerFROM his quiet retreat of Mount Vernon, non by commissioners, who had been appointed Washington, though ostensibly withdrawn by the legislatures of Virginia and Maryland to from public affairs, was watching with intense form a compact relative to the navigation of solicitude the working together of the several the rivers Potomac and Pocomoke, and of part parts in the great political confederacy; anx- of the Chesapeake Bay, and who had met at ious to know whether the thirteen distinct Alexandria for the purpose. During their visit States, under the present organization, could at Mount Vernon, the policy of maintaining form a sufficiently efficient general government. a naval force on the Chesapeake, and of estabHe was daily becoming more and more doubt-lishing a tariff of duties on imports to which ful of the solidity of the fabric he had assisted the laws of both States should conform, was to raise. The form of confederation which had discussed, and it was agreed, that the commisbound the States together and met the public sioners should propose to the governments of exigencies during the Revolution, when there their respective States the appointment of was a pressure of external danger, was daily other commissioners, with powers to make conproving more and more incompetent to the joint arrangements for the above purposes; to purposes of a national government. Congress which the assent of Congress was to be solicited. had devised a system of credit to provide for the national expenditure and the extinction of the national debts, which amounted to something more than forty millions of dollars. The system experienced neglect from some States and opposition from others; each consulting its local interests and prejudices, instead of the interests and obligations of the whole. In like manner treaty stipulations, which bound the good faith of the whole, were slighted, if not violated by individual States, apparently unconscious that they must each share in the discredit thus brought upon the national name. In a letter to James Warren, who had formerly been President of the Massachusetts provincial Congress, Washington writes: "The confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance, and Congress a nugatory body; their ordinances being little attended to. To me it is a solecism in politics; indeed, it is one of the most extraordinary things in nature, that we should confederate as a nation, and yet be afraid to give the rulers of that nation (who are creatures of our own making, appointed for a limited and short duration, and who are amenable for every action and may be recalled at any moment, and are subject to all the evils which they may be instrumental in producing) sufficient powers to order and direct the affairs of the same. By such policy as this the wheels of government are clogged, and our brightest prospects, and that high expectation which was entertained of us by the wondering world, are turned into astonishment; and from the high ground on which we stood, we are

From a letter, written two or three months subsequently, we gather some of the ideas on national policy which were occupying Washington's mind. "I have ever been a friend to adequate powers in Congress, without which it is evident to me we never shall establish a national character, or be considered as on a respectable footing by the powers of Europe. We are either a united people under one head and for federal purposes, or we are thirteen independent sovereignties, eternally counteracting each other. If the former, whatever such a majority of the State as the constitution points out, conceives to be for the benefit of the whole, should, in my humble opinion, be submitted to by the minority. I can foresee no evil greater than disunion; than those unrea sonable jealousies (I say unreasonable, because I would have a proper jealousy always awake, and the United States on the watch to prevent individual States from infracting the constitution with impunity) which are continually poisoning our minds and filling them with imaginary evils for the prevention of real ones."†

An earnest correspondence took place some months subsequently between Washington and the illustrious patriot, John Jay, at that,time Secretary of Foreign Affairs, wherein the signs of the times were feelingly discussed.

*Sparks, ix. 139.

† See Letter to James McHenry. Sparks, ix. 121.

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