We have reason to be thankful he was so long spared, that the most useful life should be the longest, also that it was protracted so far beyond the ordinary span allotted to man, as to avail us of his wisdom in the establishment of our own Freedom.
Thomas Jefferson
OUR COUNTRY
Dr. Benjamin Franklin to General George Washington
I must soon quit the scene, but you may live to see our Country flourish, as it will amazingly and rapidly after the War is over; like a field of young Indian Corn, which long fair weather and sunshine had enfeebled and discoloured, and which in that weak state, by a thundergust of violent wind, hail, and rain, seemed to be threatened with absolute destruction; yet the storm being past, it recovers fresh verdure, shoots up with double vigour, and delights the eye not of its owner only, but of every observing traveller.
March 5, 1780
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, January 17, 1706
Went to Philadelphia, 1723
Through his diplomacy, France was persuaded to recognize the United States by treaty, February 6, 1778
He signed the Constitution of the United States, 1787
He died in Philadelphia, April 17, 1790
THE WHISTLE
Told by Franklin Himself
When I was a child of seven years old, my friends on a holiday filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children, and being charmed with the sound of a whistle that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one.
I then came home and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family.
My brothers and sisters and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money, and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation. And the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.
This, however, was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind, so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself:—
“Don’t give too much for the whistle!”
And I saved my money.
As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who gave too much for the whistle.
From The Whistle
THE CANDLE-MAKER’S BOY
Benjamin Franklin, when a boy, used to work in his father’s shop at the Sign of the Blue Ball. His father was a tallow chandler, and made soap and candles.
The boy got up early, cut wicks for candles, filled moulds with tallow, ran errands, and tended shop. Though he worked hard and honestly, his heart was not in his work. He wanted to go to sea. His elder brother, a sailor, had come home; and he told the most thrilling tales of his adventures. So Benjamin Franklin could not get the sea out of his mind.
He grew to detest the trade of tallow chandler, and hankered more and more for the sea. His father, wishing him to give up thoughts of a roving life, took him to talk with joiners, bricklayers, turners, and other workmen, and to watch them at work. But none of their trades appealed to the boy.
His place was at home his father urged, adding:
“Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before Kings; he shall not stand before mean men.”
THE BOY OF THE PRINTING PRESS
But Benjamin Franklin did not run away to sea. He became a printer’s boy.
Because he liked books, he was apprenticed to his brother James, who had set up a printing press in Boston. To James’s house he went, taking with him his collection of precious volumes.
There he worked hard by day, and read and studied at night. Recollecting his father’s favourite proverb, “Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before Kings,” Franklin saved his money, and worked early and late.
When James began to issue a newspaper, Franklin helped him print it, and delivered copies to customers. He wrote articles and slipped them under the printing-house door, and James published them, without knowing who was their author. Later Franklin wrote clever, audacious, and humorous articles on the questions of the day, which were widely read and much talked about.
So things continued until he was seventeen years old, when he ran away—but not to sea. He and his brother quarrelled often. Benjamin the apprentice was saucy and provoking, and James the master was hot-tempered and beat his younger brother severely. After a particularly bad quarrel, Franklin sold some of his books, and took passage on a sloop bound for New York.
Arriving at New York, he found no employment there, and went on to Philadelphia.
THE THREE ROLLS
Early in the morning of an October day, young Benjamin Franklin, seventeen years old and seeking his fortune, reached Philadelphia. He was tired and hungry, and had only a dollar of his little fund left.
He stopped at a baker’s, and bought three big puffy rolls. He put a roll under each arm, and, munching the third, walked along Market Street.
In the doorway of a house, stood a young girl. She saw the awkward, handsome boy, trudging past hungrily eating a big roll. She laughed to herself; she thought it funny to see him with his broad-brimmed hat, knee-breeches, and buckled shoes all shabby and dusty, and his great pockets stuffed with stockings and shirts.
So she laughed to herself, did Deborah Read. And little she knew that in a few years, she would become that boy’s wife! But so it happened.
Young Benjamin Franklin found work in a printer’s shop. He came to lodge at Deborah Read’s home. In a few years, he owned his own printing press. He married Deborah Read. He became a well-known printer. He issued an influential newspaper, and published “Poor Richard’s Almanack.” He was industrious, studious, thrifty, and prosperous. In time, he became the most famous and learned citizen of Pennsylvania, and a great American Patriot.
STANDING BEFORE KINGS
When the American Colonies rose against the exactions of England, Benjamin Franklin was called upon to serve his Country as a diplomat in France and England.
“My father,” wrote Franklin, “having among his instructions to me when a boy frequently repeated a proverb of Solomon, ‘Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before Kings; he shall not stand before mean men,’ “I from thence considered industry as a means of obtaining wealth and distinction, which encouraged me, though I did not think that I should ever literally stand before Kings, which, however, has since happened, for I have stood before five, and even had the honour of sitting down with one, the King of Denmark, to dinner.”
THE WONDERFUL KITE EXPERIMENT
In Benjamin Franklin’s time, there were no electric trains, no telegraphs, telephones, radiographs, and radiophones. The driving and lighting power of electricity was not understood. People did not know that lightning was due to the presence of electricity in nature.
Benjamin Franklin, who was keen and inquisitive, made scientific experiments with the Leyden jar and with simple machines which produced electricity by friction. He discovered that in certain ways, the action of electricity and lightning was the same, and he observed that electric fluid might be conducted along a pack-string.
So he determined to prove that electricity and lightning were the same, by drawing lightning down from the clouds along a pack-string. He used a silk kite, with a sharp-pointed wire fastened to its framework, and a silk ribbon tied to the end of the kite-string holding a metal key in place.
He secretly flew the kite during a June thunderstorm. And as he saw the kite-string stiffen in a strange way, he eagerly laid his hand against the key. Instantly he felt a shock of electricity pass through him. He had made one of the most important discoveries of all ages!
His discovery was soon known throughout the world. Men made other experiments, and in time invented the wonderful electrical machines and devices which we enjoy to-day.
THE RISING SUN
When the Federal Constitutional Convention met at Philadelphia, General Washington was unanimously made President of the Convention. He took the chair with diffidence. He assured the members that he was not used to such a situation, that he was embarrassed, and he hoped they would excuse his errors. And in what masterly fashion he conducted the convention, history shows.
Behind his chair was painted a picture of the sun. After the debates were over and the Constitution was adopted, Benjamin Franklin, who had just signed the immortal Document, turned to some of the members. He drew their attention to the sun behind General Washington’s chair.
“I have often and often,” said Franklin, “in the course of the session and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising, and not a setting, sun.”
TO MY FRIEND
From Franklin’s Will and Testament
My fine crabtree walking-stick, with a gold head curiously wrought in the form of the Cap of Liberty, I give to my friend and the friend of Mankind, General Washington.
If it were a Sceptre, he has merited it, and would become it.
Benjamin Franklin
FEBRUARY 12
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
THE GREAT EMANCIPATOR
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the Nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all Nations.
Gentle and merciful and just!
Who, in the fear of God, didst bear
The sword of power, a Nation’s trust!
Amid the awe that hushes all,
And speak the anguish of a land
That shook with horror at thy fall.
We bear thee to an honoured grave,
Whose proudest monument shall be
The broken fetters of the slave.
Hath placed thee with the sons of light,
Among the noble host of those
Who perished in the cause of Right.
William Cullen Bryant
Abraham Lincoln was born, February 12, 1809
Was elected President, 1860
Issued the Emancipation Proclamation, New Year’s Day, 1863
Was re-elected, 1864
He was assassinated, 1865
THE CABIN IN THE CLEARING
It was only a small cabin in a forest-clearing in the wilderness of Indiana. It stood on a knoll overlooking a piece of ground where corn and vegetables grew. In the woods around the cabin were bear, deer, and other wild creatures. The furniture was rude, brought from the East, or made of logs and hickory-sticks, while the bed was a sack of leaves. In the big fireplace, the logs cut from the forest, burned with a cheerful blaze.
And there lived little Abe Lincoln, nine years old, with his father and sister and his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln.
Abe was born in Kentucky. When he was seven, his family moved to the cabin in Indiana. He helped clear the way through the wilderness to the new home. So with swinging the axe and blazing trails, he was made unusually large and strong for his age, alert and courageous—a real backwoods boy.
He could shoot, fish, cut down trees, and work on the farm in the clearing. In his veins ran the red blood of Kentucky pioneers. His grandfather, in the days of Daniel Boone, had been killed by an Indian, while Abe’s father—a child then—had been rescued from this same Indian by his brother, Mordecai Lincoln, a daring lad, who shot the savage with his dead father’s rifle, so saving his little brother.
HOW HE LEARNED TO BE JUST
Let us have faith that Right makes Might, and in that Faith, let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
Abraham Lincoln, from his speech at Cooper Institute
But it was not all work for Abe on the new farm in Indiana. He picked wild plums and pawpaws in the woods, and ate corn dodgers, fried bacon, roast wild turkey, and fish caught in the Indiana streams. He went to school when he could, which was not often, for in those days schools were few and far between, and teachers were not many.
But little Abe had the best teacher of all, his mother, Nancy Lincoln. For, though his father could scarcely write his own name, his mother could read, and she loved books. She taught her little son his letters and how to read. Often they sat together in the cabin, Abe and his sister at their mother’s knee, while she read the Bible to them.
“I would rather my son would be able to read the Bible, than to own a farm, if he can’t have but one,” she said.
She was a beautiful woman, slender, sad, and pale, with dark hair. She was more refined than most women of those hardy pioneer times, but she could use a rifle, work on the farm, spin, and do other housework. Because of her gentle and firm character, she was loved and respected not only by her husband and children, but by her neighbours.
Above all things she had a deep and tender religious spirit which she shared with Abe and his sister, Sarah. She taught Abe to love truth and justice and to revere God. In time he could repeat by heart much of the Bible, and, when he grew up, he thought and wrote in the simple, clear, and forceful language of the Bible. And he learned from it his ideas of right and his scorn of wrong, making him “Honest Abe.”
OFF TO NEW ORLEANS
Young Abe Lincoln went on several flatboat trips carrying produce down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
One of these trips made a deep and lasting impression upon him. In New Orleans, he visited the slave-market. There negro men, women, and children were bought, sold, and flogged. Wives were torn from their husbands, children from their mothers, and auctioned off like cattle.
The anguish of these scenes wrung Lincoln’s heartstrings. With quivering lips, he said, “If ever I get a chance to hit that thing, I will hit it hard.”
John Hanks, a relative who was with him at the slave-market, said in after years:—
“Lincoln saw it; his heart bled; said nothing much, was silent, looked bad. I can say it, knowing him, that it was on this trip that he formed his opinions of slavery. It run its iron into him, then and there.”
THE KINDNESS OF LINCOLN
The Little Birds
When Lincoln was a lawyer, one day he was going with a party of lawyers to attend court. They were riding, two by two, on horseback through a country lane, Lincoln in the rear. As they passed through a thicket of wild plum and crab-apple trees, his friends missed him.
“Where is he?” they asked.
Just then Lincoln’s companion came riding up. “Oh,” replied he, “when I saw him last, he had caught two young birds that the wind had blown out of their nest, and was hunting for the nest to put them back.”
After a little while, Lincoln rode up, and when his friends rallied him about his tender heart, he said:—
“I could not have slept, unless I had restored those little birds to their mother.”
Rescuing the Pig
Another time, Lincoln was riding past a deep miry ditch, and saw a pig struggling in the mud. The animal could not get out, and was squealing with terror.
Lincoln looked at the pig and the mud, and then at his clothes—clean ones, that he had just put on. Then he decided in favour of the clean clothes, and rode along.
But he could not get rid of the thought of the poor animal struggling so pitifully in its terror. He had not gone far when he turned back.
He reached the ditch, dismounted, and tied his horse. Then he collected some old wooden rails, and with them made a foot-bridge to the bottom of the ditch. He carefully walked down the bridge, and caught hold of the pig. He pulled it out, and setting it on the ground, let it run away.
The screaming, struggling pig, had spattered Lincoln’s clean clothes with mud. His hands were covered with filth; so he went to the nearest brook, washed them, and wiped them on the grass.
Later, when telling a friend about his adventure, Lincoln said that he had rescued the pig for purely selfish reasons, “to take a pain out of his own mind.”
Opening Their Eyes
It was toward the close of the Civil War, the crisis had come, and the end of the long struggle was in sight. The Union troops were hemming in Richmond. President Lincoln went himself to City Point, and there he remained, anxiously waiting.
In his tent lived a pet cat. It had a family of new-born kittens. Sometimes, the President relieved his mind by playing with them.
Finally Richmond was taken, and Lincoln prepared to visit the city. Before he left his tent, he picked up one of the kittens, saying:—
“Little kitten, I must perform a last act of kindness for you before I go. I must open your eyes.”
He passed his hand gently over its closed lids, until the eyes opened; then he set the kitten on the floor, and said:—
“Oh! that I could open the eyes of my blinded fellow-countrymen as easily as I have those of that little creature!”
LINCOLN AND THE CHILDREN
Hurrah for Lincoln!
Abraham Lincoln loved children, and even strange children were drawn to him, as though they had known him all their lives. Here are a few of the stories told about Lincoln and his child-friends.
Soon after Lincoln was elected President, he went to Chicago, where he was welcomed with shouts and cheers.
Later, as he sat in a room talking with friends, a little boy was led in. At the sight of the President-elect, he took off his hat and swung it, shouting:—
“Hurrah for Lincoln!”
Lincoln rose, and catching the little fellow in his strong hands, tossed him to the ceiling, shouting:—
“Hurrah for you!”
Only Eight of Us, Sir!
On this same visit to Chicago, while Lincoln was talking with visitors, a little German girl, heading a delegation of other girls, walked timidly up to him.
“What do you want, my little girl? What can I do for you?” he asked kindly.
“I want your name,” she said.
“But there are many other little girls that want my name, and as I cannot give it to them all, they will feel hurt if I give it to you.”
She looked around at her companions, and said, “Only eight of us, sir!”
Lincoln could not resist that, so he sat down immediately, and forgetting his other visitors, took eight sheets of paper and wrote a line and his name on each. These he gave to the little girls, and they went away happy.
He’s Beautiful!
Once a little girl’s father took her to call upon Lincoln. She had been told that he was very homely. But when he lifted her on his knee and talked to her in his kindly, merry way, she turned to her father, and exclaimed:—
“O Pa! He isn’t ugly at all! He’s beautiful!”
Please Let Your Beard Grow
But there was another little girl who did not think so. She lived in Westfield, in the State of New York. She had seen Lincoln’s picture, and did not like it; so after his election she wrote a letter asking him to let his beard grow, as she thought it would make him better looking.
Lincoln enjoyed the letter very much.
It happened later that he was on a train passing through Westfield, and, as the train stopped for a few minutes, he was asked to address the people at the station. He told about the letter, and stroking his chin, added:—
“I intend to follow her advice!”
He then called for the little girl. She came forward, and he greeted her kindly.
Three Little Girls
One day, after Lincoln had gone to Washington, three little girls, the children of a workingman, went to the White House on a reception day. They joined the throng, and were pushed along until they came to where Lincoln was shaking hands with each of his visitors.
When the children reached him, they were so bashful, that they did not dare to put out their hands. But Lincoln saw them passing by, and called:—
“Little girls, are you going to pass me without shaking hands?”
Then, stooping over, he kept every one waiting while he shook hands with each child.
THE PRESIDENT AND THE BIBLE
Lincoln’s love of truth, justice, and mercy, his detestation of everything ignoble, brutal, or mean, were taught him or strengthened in him from childhood through his reading of the Bible.
The language of his speeches and writings was forceful and direct like the English of the Bible, and such a phrase as “A house divided against itself,” he took from the Bible.
While President, he used to carry a New Testament with him; and he could quote whole passages. He used often to rise early in the morning to get time to read and pray before the pressing business of the day began.
He read the Bible aloud to the coloured servants of the White House. Once, when a Committee of Coloured People waited upon him, to present him with a fine copy of the Bible, he took it and made a speech to them, a part of which was:—
“In regard to this great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Saviour gave to the World was communicated through this book. But for it, we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.
“To you I return my most sincere thanks for the very elegant copy of the great Book of God which you present.”
WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN SPEAK
A LINCOLN ORDER
To the Army and Navy
The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service.
The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine will, demand that Sunday labour in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.
The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled, by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High.
“At this time of public distress”—adopting the words of Washington in 1776—“men may find enough to do in the service of God and their Country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.”
The first General Order issued by the Father of his Country after the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should ever be defended:—
“The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavour to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his Country.”
November 15, 1862.
ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION OF THE GETTYSBURG NATIONAL CEMETERY
Fourscore and seven years ago our Fathers brought forth on this continent a new Nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that Nation, or any Nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that Nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The World will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of Freedom; and that Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863.
The following famous stories about Lincoln are in “Good Stories for Great Holidays”: A Solomon Come to Judgment; The Colonel of the Zouaves; Courage of his Convictions; George Pickett’s Friend; He Rescues the Birds; His Springfield Farewell Address; Lincoln and the Little Girl; Lincoln the Lawyer; Mr. Lincoln and the Bible; A Stranger at Five-Points; Training for the Presidency; Why Lincoln was called “Honest Abe”; The Widow and her Three Sons; The Young Sentinel.
FEBRUARY 22
GEORGE WASHINGTON
THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY
When gazing on the Great;
Where neither guilty glory glows,
Nor despicable state?
Yes—one—the first—the last—the best—
The Cincinnatus of the West,
Whom Envy dared not hate,
Bequeathed the name of Washington,
To make man blush there was but one!
LINCOLN ON WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY
This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of Washington. We are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the mightiest name of earth—long since mightiest in the cause of Civil Liberty; still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington, is alike impossible. Let none attempt it.
In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendour, leave it shining on.
Abraham Lincoln, February 22, 1849
Washington was born, February 22, 1732
Was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the American Army, 1775
Was made President of the Federal Convention for Framing the Constitution, and signed the Constitution, 1787
Was inaugurated, first President of the United States, 1789
Issued his “Farewell Address,” 1796
He died at Mount Vernon, December 14, 1799
THE BOY IN THE VALLEY
The boy George Washington was magnificently strong and tall, with firm muscles and powerful body. He could run, leap, wrestle, toss the bar, and pitch quoits. He rode fiery horses and hunted foxes. He was a silent, determined lad, truth-telling, with a wonderful grip on his temper. By the time that he was sixteen he was an excellent surveyor.
And he was a proud and happy boy when, one spring day, he leaped on his horse, and, with a companion, rode away into the Wilderness on a real job of surveying.
Lord Fairfax, his close friend, owned a great estate of over five million acres stretching to the westward. A part of the estate was a wilderness, and lay on the other side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It had never been surveyed. Squatters were stealing the land. So Lord Fairfax had sent sixteen-year old George Washington to survey it for him.
As the boy rode over the mountains, and guided his horse down the steep trail into the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, Spring was busy all around him. Cascades and torrents of snow-water were rushing from the mountain-tops to feed the bright Shenandoah River—“The Daughter of the Stars,” the Indians called the river.
The boy spent the better part of the first day riding through fine groves of sugar maples, and admiring the trees and the richness of the land. Here and there showed the little clearings, where the squatters were preparing their small farms for crops of tobacco, hemp, and corn.
For some days, he surveyed along the banks of the river and in the valley, roughing it at night. And many were the adventures he had about which he has written in his diary.
Sometimes he slept before the camp-fire or in a hut, at others in a tent. Once, he was nearly burnt to death when his straw bed caught fire. He roasted wild turkeys, and ate off chips for plates. He swam his horse through swollen streams, and followed the rough roads made by the squatters.
But his most exciting adventure was with Indians.
On the bank of the Potomac stood a little cabin. Near it was hung a huge kettle suspended over a place always ready for a fire. The cabin belonged to Cresap, a frontiersman, and so did the kettle. He kept the fireplace and everything in readiness for the passing Indians to cook their meals. The grateful Red Skins called him “Big Spoon.”
Rain and floods drove Washington to the cabin. Big Spoon invited him to stay until the bad weather was past.
On the third day, Washington looked out and saw a band of Indians carrying a scalp, come toward the cabin. It was a war-party returning from a raid.
Big Spoon greeted them heartily, for everybody was welcome at his place. The Indians built a fire, sat down in a circle, and held a big celebration. Then they performed a war-dance, while their musicians played on drums made of pots half full of water, with deerskin stretched tightly over them.
And as Washington watched their savage antics, he little dreamed how soon he himself would be fighting with Red Skins.
When his surveying was finished, he returned home to make his report. Lord Fairfax was delighted with his careful work and fine maps. In fact, to-day the surveys Washington made when a boy, stand unquestioned; they are so perfect.
Roughing it in the Shenandoah Valley was not the last of Washington’s adventures in the Wilderness. He was appointed public surveyor. For the next three years, he spent a great deal of time in the wilds, with settlers, frontiersmen, trappers, and Indians.
He grew to be over six feet tall, and remarkably strong and rugged. He overcame difficulties and faced dangers through pluck and perseverance.
He became a Colonel of a Virginia regiment. He acquired military training and widened his knowledge of handling all sorts of men.
What he learned about Indian warfare and life in the forests and in the Wilderness, taught him the caution and knowledge which he showed while guarding the retreat of what was left of Braddock’s troops.
So his adventures while a boy in the Valley, and his experiences as a young man roughing it on the frontier, fighting with Indians, carrying messages through the Wilderness, and serving as a soldier,—all prepared Washington to become the Liberator of our Country.
WASHINGTON’S MOTHER
Molly Ball of Virginia, Molly Ball with hair like flax and cheeks like mayblossoms,—as she is described in the fragment of a quaint old letter,—married Augustine Washington of Virginia, and became the mother of George Washington.
Washington was like his mother in qualities of character. He had her strength of will, love of truth, firm purpose, high sense of duty, dignity, and reverence.
All these noble qualities were strengthened and made practical by her careful education and discipline.
When he became great, she was quietly proud of him. And when people spoke warmly of his glory and success, she would say:—
“But, my good sirs, here is too much flattery. Still, George will not forget the lessons I early taught him. He will not forget himself, though he is the subject of so much praise.”
When she was informed by special messenger that Cornwallis had surrendered, she exclaimed:
“Thank God! war will now be ended, and peace, Independence, and happiness, bless our Country!”
After the surrender of Cornwallis, Washington visited his mother at Fredericksburg, where she was living in her own little house. She was about seventy-five years old.
He reached Fredericksburg surrounded by his numerous and brilliant suite. He dismounted, and sent to inquire when it would be her pleasure to receive him.
Afoot and alone, he walked to her house. She was by herself, employed in a household task, when she was told that the victor-chief was waiting at her door. She bade him welcome by a warm embrace, calling him “George,” the dear familiar name of his childhood.
She spoke to him of old times and old friends, but of his glory, not one word.
Meanwhile, in the town of Fredericksburg there was excitement and rejoicing. The place was crowded with foreign and American officers. Gentlemen from miles around were hastening into town to congratulate the conquerors of Yorktown.
The citizens got up a splendid ball in Washington’s honour, to which his mother was specially invited.
The foreign officers were eager to meet their Chief’s mother. They had heard of her remarkable character. They expected to see her enter the ballroom in glittering attire, clad in rich brocades, like the noble ladies of Europe.
How surprised they were, when, leaning on her son’s arm, she entered dressed simply. She was dignified and imposing. She received quietly all the compliments and attentions showered upon her. At an early hour she wished the company much pleasure, saying that it was time for old folk to be in bed.
She retired leaning on the arm of her son.
“If such are the matrons in America,” exclaimed the foreign officers, “well may she boast of illustrious sons!”
George Washington Parke Custis and Other Sources
WASHINGTON’S WEDDING DAY
Washington plighted his troth with Martha Dandridge, the charming widow of Daniel Parke Custis. She was young, pretty, intelligent, and an heiress.
It was a brilliant wedding party which assembled on a winter day in the little church near Mrs. Custis’s home. There were gathered the gay, free-thinking, high-living Governor, gorgeous in scarlet and gold; British officers, red-coated and gold-laced; and all the neighbouring gentry in their handsomest clothes.
The bride was attired in silk and satin, laces and brocade, with pearls on her neck and in her ears. While the bridegroom appeared in blue and silver trimmed with scarlet, and with gold buckles at his knees and on his shoes.
After the ceremony, the bride was taken home in a coach and six, Washington riding beside her, mounted on a splendid horse, and followed by all the gentlemen of the party.
Henry Cabot Lodge (Arranged)
WASHINGTON AND THE CHILDREN
I
There were two joyous little people who went to live with the bride in her new home at Mount Vernon. They were her two children, Jack Custis, six years old, and his sister Patsy, just four years old.
Washington gave them little ponies to ride. He bought fashionably dressed baby dolls for Patsy, silver shoe and knee buckles for Jack, and for both of them toys, gingerbread-figures, sugar-images, and little books with coloured pictures in them. He gave them each a Bible bound in turkey leather with their names printed in gilt letters on the inside covers.
II
Washington loved all children. He always smiled at them. He was specially popular with boys.
When he rode in state to Independence Hall in his cream-coloured coach drawn by six bays, and with postilions and outriders, boys were always at hand to cheer as he drove by. And when he returned to Mount Vernon, there were other boys waiting to welcome him. He could always count on boys, wherever he went, to shout and wave their hats. He used to touch his own hat to them as politely as if they were veterans on parade.
After his great dinners at Mount Vernon, as soon as the guests were done eating, he would tell his steward to call in the neighbours’ boys, who were never far away at such a time. In they would come, crowding around the table, and make quick work of the cakes, nuts, and raisins the guests had left.
At twilight, Washington had a habit of pacing up and down the large room on the first floor with his hands behind him.
One evening, a boy who had never seen him, climbed up to a high open window to look in at him.
The boy fell and hurt himself. Washington heard him cry, and sent a servant to see what was the matter.
The servant came back and said, “The boy was trying to get a look at you, sir.”
“Bring him in,” said Washington.
And when the boy came in, he patted him on the head, saying:—
“You wanted to see General Washington, did you? Well, I am General Washington.”
But the little fellow shook his head, and replied:—
“No, you are only just a man. I want to see the President.”
Washington laughed, and told him that he was the President and a man for all that. Then he had the servant give him some cakes and nuts, and sent him away happy.
Grace Greenwood and Other Sources (Retold)
THE LITTLE GIRL AND THE RED COATS
When Washington with the Army entered Boston after the British had evacuated the city, he made the best tavern in town his Headquarters. It had been the British Headquarters. The tavern-keeper’s little girl was running about very much interested in all that was going on.
Washington called her to him, and holding her on his knee, asked:—
“Now that you have seen the soldiers on both sides, which do you like best?”
The little girl hesitated, but like the great Washington himself, she could not tell a lie, so she said:—
“I like the Red Coats best.”
Washington laughed at her frankness, and said gently:—
“Yes, my dear, the Red Coats do look the best, but it takes the ragged boys to do the fighting.”
Wayne Whipple (Retold)
NELLIE AND LITTLE WASHINGTON
George Washington loved children, and, as he had none of his own, he adopted two of his wife’s grandchildren, Nellie Custis and George Washington Parke Custis.
The little boy was known as “Washington.” Nellie was a beautiful child with smiling black eyes and thick curly brown hair; while her brother was of very light complexion.
They had good times together at Mount Vernon. There was a delightfully fearsome pack of hounds in the kennel; French dogs, the gift of Lafayette, “fierce, big-mouthed, savage.” And there were litters of beautiful puppies.
The stables were full of horses, fine creatures for pets and playfellows. Nellie liked to be with the horses, and was constantly alarming her grandmother as she flashed by the windows or down the lanes, mounted upon some half-broken colt.
The children loved old Nelson, Washington’s war horse. They used to climb upon the fence to pat his forehead, as he came racing up to greet his master.
There were many other animals—gifts to Washington of friends and admirers.
Among them were Spanish jackasses, Chinese pigs, and Chinese geese.
There was always something going on to interest the children. They might run down to the river-landing to see what strange fish “Daddy Jack” had caught; day in and day out, “Daddy Jack” was always fishing there in his canoe. Or they might go to meet the hunter “carrying his gun and pouch, his body wrapped with strings of game, his dogs at heel.” They liked to look at the game, and smooth the thick feathers or soft fur. There were birds, squirrels, wild turkeys, molly cotton-tails, wily ’possums, and canvas-back ducks.
Coaches of company, too, were coming and going. State dinners were cooked and served to nobles and dignitaries.
And when the children ran about the gardens, they saw rare things growing—“fig-trees, raisins, limes, oranges, large English mulberries, artichokes.”
Then there were the mills to visit, the smithy, the shops, the fields, and the negro-quarters, all in company with their dear adopted father, Washington himself.
But the children and indeed every one looked forward to the evening, when Washington sat with them. This was the children’s hour, when by the uncertain twinkle of the home-made candles, they danced and sang their little songs.
The curled darling of the house was “Master Washington”—George Washington Parke Custis. Many years later, when Lafayette visited Master Washington, then grown up, he told how he had first seen him on the portico of Mount Vernon, a little boy, a very little gentleman, with a feather in his hat, holding fast to one finger of Washington’s hand, which finger was so large that the little boy could hardly hold on to it.
As for Nellie, she wanted to romp and play from morning till night. She did not like to have her hair dressed with feathers and ribbons. She did not enjoy her books and music. And she used to cry for hours together, while her determined grandmother stood guard over her, keeping her at practice on the beautiful harpsichord, which Washington had given her.
As for Washington, he tried to lighten little Nellie’s tasks, and used to carry her off for a gallop or brisk outdoor walk.
He was always extremely fond of little girls. He liked other little girls beside Nellie. He had with him her pretty sister, Elizabeth, when he sat for one of his portraits. And in the most critical week of his Presidency, Washington went to the house of one of his cabinet officers, and played with his little daughters.
Harriet Taylor Upton (Retold)