GEORGE WASHINGTON*

We are assembled on this occasion to do honor to George Washington, the "Father of his Country," and, in his own day, justly declared to be "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

It is eminently fitting that we should thus honor the memory of Washington, for the land in which we live with all its blessings of liberty and peace, is in a large measure a heritage received by us from the patriotism and wisdom of Washington.

Even a British statesman, Lord Brougham, once declared that until time shall be no more, a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue, will be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington.

It will not be out of place and certainly can not be without interest, to present in a condensed form some of the leading events of Washington's life, for though we all know something of Washington, it may be fairly doubted whether any of us are as familiar with his career as we are with that of some of the brilliant generals and statesmen who have lived in more recent years.

The home of the Washington family was on Bridge's Creek, near the banks of the Potomac in

*Delivered in Dania Hall, Minneapolis, February 22nd, 1896.

Virginia; and here George, the oldest of six children by his father's second marriage, was born on the twenty-second of February, 1732, one hundred sixty-four years ago. His father was a prosperous man, the owner of a number of estates in Virginia. He sent his oldest son, Lawrence, the fruit of a previous marriage, to be educated in England. But no such education was provided for George. Indeed, his father died when George was only eleven years old, and George was left to the care of his mother, whom we all have heard of as "Mary, the mother of Washington." She was a wise and good mother, and I doubt not that Washington owed more of his success in life to her counsels and training than he did to the schools. At all events, it is pleasant to know that she lived forty-six years after her husband's death, lived to witness the triumphs of her son, and did not die until he was seated in the presidential chair. It is always to me a satisfaction when a good father and a good mother who have made sacrifices for their children and have wisely trained them, are permitted to live long enough to see their children come to honor and so to taste the fruits of their own labors.

George Washington never went to college, never went to an academy or high school. The graduates of our Minneapolis high schools know ten times as much as Washington ever learned at school. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, the three R's, were about all that he got at school; but he subsequently had some special instruction in geometry, trigonometry, and surveying, and ultimately he adopted surveying as his profession. This choice of a profession had its direct bearing on his subsequent career. It led him into the woods of Virginia, it opened to his vision new and inviting land

further west than the existing settlements, in which new lands he made large investments; it made him acquainted with the Indians, their customs and spirit, and mode of warfare; it made him familiar with the country near the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at what is now the city of Pittsburg, a region on which both France and England had set covetous eyes, and in which later on the ownership was to be decided by gage of battle. The knowledge of the region and of the best methods of advancing the English interests, made Washington an almost indispensable assistant to every British officer who was engaged in saving that country from the French. He himself was in command of the Virginia forces in one expedition; but he was compelled by the French to surrender. No disgrace, however, attached to that. He was subsequently an aide to General Braddock, and was a participant in that fearful massacre which has always been known as Braddock's defeat, the description of which I can even now recall as one of the horrors of my childhood. But Washington escaped. He had two horses shot under him and his clothes were pierced by four bullets. It is related that "many years afterwards, when he visited the region on a peaceful mission, an old Indian came to see him as a wonder. He had, he said, leveled his rifle so often at Washington without effect, that he became persuaded that he was under the special protection of the Great Spirit and gave up the attempt. In Braddock's defeat, only four officers out of eighty-six on the English side were left alive and unwounded. Washington himself in a letter to his brother attributed "his protection beyond all human probability or expectation, to the all-powerful dispensations of Provi

dence." Samuel Davies, in his pulpit in Hanover County, urging men to enlist for the service, made this truly prophetic allusion to Washington's escape from death: "I may point to that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I can not but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some important service to his country." Who of us can doubt that it was so?

In January, 1759, Washington was married to Mrs. Martha Custis, of the White House, County of New Kent. She was born the same year as Washington; at twenty-four was the widow of a wealthy landed proprietor, and was married at twenty-seven to Washington. She was worthy to be the wife of Washington. The story of the courtship has often been told. "The first sight of the lady, at least in her widowhood, by the gallant Colonel, was on one of his military journeyings during the last campaign of the old French war. He was speeding to the council at Williamsburg, on a special message to stir up aid for the camp, when, crossing the ferry over the Samunkey, a branch of York River, he was waylaid by one of the residents of the region, who compelled him, by the inexorable laws of old Virginia hospitality, to stop for dinner at his mansion. The energetic officer, intent on despatch, was reluctant to yield a moment from his affairs of state, but there was no escape of such a guest from such a host. Within the house, he found Mrs. Custis, whose attractions reconciled even Washington to delay. He not only stayed to dine, but he passed the night a charmed guest, with his friendly entertainThe lady's residence, fortunately, was in the neighborhood of Williamsburg, and, a soldier's life requiring a prompt disposition of his opportunities,

er.