Part 2 (2/2)

He ventilated his dismay to his adive pleasure to the governor to hear that I was involved in trouble, however undeservedly”46 Dinwiddiebehind his back, because he scolded hi was always friendly, but you know I had g[rea]t reason to suspect yo[u] of ingratitude, which, I'm convinced, your own conscience and reflection ry But this I endeavor to forget” Dinwiddiebehind his back, because he scolded hi was always friendly, but you know I had g[rea]t reason to suspect yo[u] of ingratitude, which, I'm convinced, your own conscience and reflection ry But this I endeavor to forget”47 The reason that Dinwiddie endeavored to forget was that he was now ailing and had decided to return to England Washi+ngton responded to his accusation with hot-teave your Honor cause to suspect ratitude, a crime I detest, and would most carefully avoid” The reason that Dinwiddie endeavored to forget was that he was now ailing and had decided to return to England Washi+ngton responded to his accusation with hot-teave your Honor cause to suspect ratitude, a crieropenly about policy errors ienerated into petty bickering When Washi+ngton asked for a leave of absence to visit Williaed with tooretort: ”It was not to enjoy a party of pleasure I wanted [a] leave of absence” In the youngeropenly about policy errors ienerated into petty bickering When Washi+ngton asked for a leave of absence to visit Williaed with tooretort: ”It was not to enjoy a party of pleasure I wanted [a] leave of absence”49 Washi+ngton lost his other principal backer that September when Colonel Fairfax died and he made the melancholy journey to Belvoir to attend the funeral Washi+ngton lost his other principal backer that September when Colonel Fairfax died and he made the melancholy journey to Belvoir to attend the funeral

DOUBTLESS DISTURBING HIM that fall was a recurrence of the ”bloody flux,” or dysentery, which had started around radually that he functioned more or less normally at first With his staunch commitment to work, he kept Governor Dinwiddie in the dark about his condition Then in early November he felt the full brunt of the illness As fellow officer Captain Robert Stewart described it, Washi+ngton was ”seized with stitches and violent pleuritic painshis strength and vigour diminished so fast that in a few days he was hardly able to walk”50 After Dr Craik exaered and chided hi that ”your disorder hath been of long standing and hath corrupted the whole mass of blood It will require some time to remove the cause” After Dr Craik exaered and chided hi that ”your disorder hath been of long standing and hath corrupted the whole mass of blood It will require soton several times, which only weakened him further The doctor prescribed rest, fresh air, and water as offering Washi+ngton the best chance for recovery His iron constitution having broken down, he relinquished command to Captain Stewart and set out for hoton several times, which only weakened him further The doctor prescribed rest, fresh air, and water as offering Washi+ngton the best chance for recovery His iron constitution having broken down, he relinquished command to Captain Stewart and set out for home

Once at Mount Vernon in mid-November, he consulted Dr Charles Green of Alexandria, who forbade him to eat meats and prescribed a diet of jellies and other soft foods, lubricated with tea or sine With a lifelong bias against ton preferred to let illness take its course At first his sister (or possibly sister-in-law) came to nurse him, but when she left and he looked attractively helpless, he attempted to lure Sally Fairfax to his bedside In a note, he asked if he could borrow a book of recipes to prepare jellies, noting that ”my sister is fro these kind of things and no directions” 52 52 It seems probable that Sally rose to the bait It seems probable that Sally rose to the bait

Every tiround, the disease recurred with a vengeance With sorew terrified that he would follow in brother Lawrence's footsteps In February he even had to deny reports of his death circulating in Willia ”I have heard of letters fro one till your agreeable favor came to hand the other day,” his friend Robert Carter Nicholas told hiton was dead! As you are still alive, I ed to the author of that report”53 It said soinia society that the capital hu on February 1, he was soon overcome by fever and had to turn around and return hoton that he jeopardized his life by taking such a journey On March 4 he described to Colonel John Stanwix the ”great injury” already done to his constitution and the need for ”the greatest care and most circu about Washi+ngton's high standing in Virginia society that the capital hu on February 1, he was soon overcome by fever and had to turn around and return hoton that he jeopardized his life by taking such a journey On March 4 he described to Colonel John Stanwix the ”great injury” already done to his constitution and the need for ”the greatest care and most circumspect conduct” if he was to recover54 With only a sliular arht of ”quittingmy post to be filled by othersa regular arht of ”quittingmy post to be filled by others more capable of the task”55 The next day he left for Willia en route to visit his mother In the capital, Dr John Amson assured him that his fears of consu fro, stopping en route to visit his mother In the capital, Dr John Amson assured him that his fears of consu froton's robust physique, the dysentery ical effect His body had suddenly lost the strength and resilience that had enabled hih snowy forests And it was not the first tie of twenty-six, he had survived smallpox, pleurisy, malaria, and dysentery He had not only evaded bullets but survived disease with astounding regularity If these illnesses dimmed his fervor for a military cootten pleasures of domestic life

CHAPTER SEVEN

A Votary to Love

AFTER HIS WOUNDING CONFRONTATIONS with the haughty agents of British iton could only have concluded that his dreams of a military career would always be foiled by deep-seated prejudice against colonial officers and that it made more sense to become an independent planter While posted to the frontier in the summer of 1757, he daydreaoods to be shi+pped froland, he tried to i Richard Washi+ngton that ”whatever goods you may send me, where the prices are not absolutely liood in their several kinds”1 The young man's social ambitions seemed boundless He ordered aabove the mantel and ”fine cri man's social ambitions seemed boundless He ordered aabove the mantel and ”fine crimson and yellow papers” for the walls2 Such rich colors for wallpaper were then thought very fashi+onable Though ton opted for a any chairs To entertain in regal style, he ordered a complete set of fine china, damask tablecloths and napkins, and silver cutlery whose handles bore the Washi+ngton crest-a griffin poised above a crown, set above an ornamental shi+eld with three stars, the whole emblazoned with the Latin ht very fashi+onable Though ton opted for a any chairs To entertain in regal style, he ordered a complete set of fine china, damask tablecloths and napkins, and silver cutlery whose handles bore the Washi+ngton crest-a griffin poised above a crown, set above an ornamental shi+eld with three stars, the whole emblazoned with the Latin motto Exitus Acta Probat Exitus Acta Probat (”The outcome justifies the deed”) (”The outcoton instinctively trod the fine line between showiness and austerity, defining a characteristic style of understated elegance In his purchases, Washi+ngton instinctively trod the fine line between showiness and austerity, defining a characteristic style of understated elegance

Mount Vernon would be George Washi+ngton's personality writ large, the cherished ie he wished to project to the world Had the estate not possessed profound personalfor him, he would never have lavished so ton's fervent attachment to Mount Vernon, its rural beauties and tranquil pleasures, that made his later absences from home so exquisitely painful He believed in the infinite perfectibility of Mount Vernon, as if it were a canvas that he could constantly retouch and expand There he reigned supreme and felt secure as nowhere else

In Dece two hundred acres at nearby Dogue Run and another three hundred acres on Little Hunting Creek This proved the first wave of an expansion that would ultiht-thousand-acre estate, divided into five separate farms Since few professional architects existed at the tiinia planters and acted as his own architect He worked from British architectural s in Willia on popular classical elements, he melded ideas from various places and devised a synthesis uniquely his own

In 1758 Washi+ngton doubled the size of the an to convert Lawrence's far mansion He could have swept away the old foundations and started anew,the houseInstead, he built on top of earlier incarnations Whether this stemmed from economy or family reverence is not known But where Lawrence, a naval officer, had placed the entrance on the east side of the house, facing the water, George, an army officer and a western surveyor, switched the entrance to the west side, presenting an arresting view for visitors arriving by horse or carriage First glirandeur At this point, however, it was still boxy and unadorned and devoid of the eleuished it: the cupola, the piazza with the long colonnade, the foreoton laid out a pair of rectangular gardens with brick walls in front of the house, allowing visitors to experience his ton also fleshed out the upstairs, round-floor rooht full rooton's aspirations still outstripped his means, and he resorted to ruses to make his abode seem more opulent Unable to afford a stone house, he employed a method known as rusticated boards that created the illusion of a stone exterior First plain pine boards were cut and beveled in a way that mimicked stone blocks Then white sand froled hite paint, which lent the painted wood the rough, granular surface of stone In many respects, Mount Vernon is a ton used another sleight of hand on his study walls, a technique called ”graining” that transformed cheap, locally available woods, such as southern yellow pine or tulip poplar, into soany or black walnut

Mount Vernon's history is inseparable from that of its resident slaves, who toiled in its shadows and shaped every inch of it The mansion renovation absorbed a vast aed for t chimneys that arose at either end of the house, and slaves scoured nearby woods for the white oak that underlay roof shi+ngles For ton typically hired a white craftsman or indentured servant to supervise skilled slaves as assistants By the late 1750s Washi+ngton had asse the reton that he didn't hesitate to apply the lash, if necessary, to these enslaved artisans: ”As to the carpenters, I have minded 'em all I posably could and has whipt 'em when I could see a fault”4 It was a relatively rare exa that he whipped slaves, a practice Washi+ngton grew to abhor, though he condoned it on rare occasions It was a relatively rare exa that he whipped slaves, a practice Washi+ngton grew to abhor, though he condoned it on rare occasions

AS GEORGE WAshi+NGTON introduced new splendor at Mount Vernon, he needed a wife to coe Custis an in ton journeyed to Williaht by reassuring hi froton rode off to nearby New Kent County to stay with his friend Richard Chahbor, theCustis Her husband, Daniel Parke Custis, had died the previous July, as had two of her children in early childhood She now lived with her four-year-old son John Parke (called Jacky) and two-year-old daughter Martha Parke (called Patsy) in baronial splendor on the Pah, as the White House Fae and Martha, but the h this was their first docu, their social circles must have crisscrossed in the s elite

On leave froton courted Martha with the crisp efficiency of a e He spent that first night at the White House before returning to Williae as a wealthy suitor-and dropped by twicethe first half of 1758 A brisk competition had already arisen to snare the wealthyA prosperous tobacco planter and er narown enamored of the short, attractive woman with the ”uncommon sweetness of te in his previous e, and Martha, twenty-six,stepmother to this numerous brood Carter faced stiff co military hero with room both in his heart and in his home for a wife and two children To a solitary, anxious , George Washi+ngton could only have appeared manly, rock-solid, and utterly fearless Carter had sired a dozen offspring in his previous e, and Martha, twenty-six,stepmother to this numerous brood Carter faced stiff co military hero with room both in his heart and in his home for a wife and two children To a solitary, anxious , George Washi+ngton could only have appeared manly, rock-solid, and utterly fearless

We cannot pinpoint the precise reed to wed, but we do know that within weeks of their first iddyexpensive fabric for what ent to shi+p ”as much of the best superfine blue cotton velvet as will make a coat, waistcoat, and breeches for a tall man, with a fine silk button to suit it and all other necessary triarters for the breeches”6 He also ordered six pairs of tony shoes and gloves Afrom Philadelphia that he doubtless intended to slip on the di up a wardrobe, Martha ordered her London tailor to send her ”one genteel suit of clothes for a]nt and not to be loves Afrom Philadelphia that he doubtless intended to slip on the di up a wardrobe, Martha ordered her London tailor to send her ”one genteel suit of clothes for a]nt and not to beoff her eeds, she packed off a nightgown to London ”to be dyed of fashi+onable color fit foroff her eeds, she packed off a nightgown to London ”to be dyed of fashi+onable color fit for ive the unseemly impression of an overly lusty , it was then routine, as a matter of economic necessity, for the bereaved to re rituals that came with the Victorian era would have seehteenth century Though such letters ive the unseemly impression of an overly lusty , it was then routine, as a matter of economic necessity, for the bereaved to re rituals that came with the Victorian era would have seehteenth century

By ton swiftly achieved the social advanceled in the inia society and could dispense with the servility that had soe to Martha brought under his control a ss She had a bountiful collection of properties, including thousands of acres around Willia, nearly three hundred slaves, and hundreds of head of cattle, hogs, and sheep The property canificant catch Inaslish common law decreed that only one-third of his estate could be clai her lifetihty-five slaves, referred to as ”dower” slaves, ould revert to Jacky Custis after her death The other two-thirds of the estate were pledged to the financial support of the Custis children George would serve as custodian of this wealth, entangling hial co that after her husband's death, the practical Martha hadn't thrown herself at the mercy of older male financial advisers but had had the pluck and fortitude to handle his business affairs by herself Whether sending tobacco to England, placing orders with London ained an invaluable education in plantation ton formed an oddly matched visual pair: she barely cleared five feet, and her hands and feet were as petite as George's were fae A portrait of Martha done shortly before Daniel died displays nothing especially soft or alluring to set a youngShe wears a low-cut, satiny blue dress, shows a shapely figure and bosom, and wears her dark hair pulled back, adorned with pearls The sated neck, isn't especially pretty: the forehead is too low, the hairline receding, the nose too hooked, the mouth too short, the jaw too round Her hazel eyes are serious and watchful It is the portrait of a plain, sensible young woman who already seems a trifle matronly All the same, one suspects that the artist failed to catch the irrepressible warmth and charm that animated her features The sitter's soul is s a blosso at the viewer It should also be said that Martha had the reputation of being a beauty in her youth ”She was at one time one of the most beautiful woreeable and attractive about her,” recounted a Polish noble artifacts, such as the purple satin shoes with high heels and silver sequins that she wore on her wedding day, we know that Martha Custis was a stylish young wo artifacts, such as the purple satin shoes with high heels and silver sequins that she wore on her wedding day, we know that Martha Custis was a stylish young wohteenth century, eton e may never have been a torrid roe Custis, George Washi+ngton chose even better than he knew She was the perfect foil to his mother: warm and sociable, always fun to be with, and favored with pleasinglove and loyalty that Mary had withheld By offering her husband such selfless devotion, she solidly anchored his life in an enduring hten his sometimes somber personality and was the one person who dared to kid her ”Old Man,” as she teasingly referred to hie Washi+ngton lacked a large number of close friends or confidants, and Martha alone could cater to all his emotional needs

In every respect