Part 3 (1/2)
But the estate really became public property three years before this, when a regiment, under the command of Colonel Glover, pitched its tents in the park. In July, 1775, Was.h.i.+ngton made the house his headquarters, remaining until April 4, 1776.
During these months the house was a busy place. Officers gathered here both for business and for pleasure. Military conferences and court-martials were held in the large room in the second story which was later used by Longfellow as a study. Dinners and entertainments were frequent; these provided a needed safety valve during the weeks of anxious waiting near the British line. Mrs. Was.h.i.+ngton was a visitor here, thus giving to her husband the taste of home life which he was unwilling to take during the Revolution by making a visit to his estate at Mt. Vernon.
On one of the early days of the Commander-in-Chief's occupancy of the house, he wrote this entry in his carefully-kept account book:
”July 15, 1775, Paid for cleaning the House which was provided for my Quarters, and which had been occupied by the Marblehead regiment, 2 10s. 9d.”
The day before this entry was made General Green wrote to Samuel Ward:
”His Excellency, General Was.h.i.+ngton, has arrived amongst us, universally admired. Joy was visible in every countenance, and it seemed as if the spirit of conquest breathed through the whole army. I hope I shall be taught, to copy his example, and to prefer the love of liberty, in this time of public danger to all the soft pleasures of domestic life, and support ourselves with manly fort.i.tude amidst all the dangers and hards.h.i.+ps that attend a state of war. And I doubt not, under the General's wise direction, we shall establish such excellent order and strictness of discipline as to invite victory to attend him wherever he goes.”
A council of war was held in the upstairs room on August 3, 1775.
After this council General Sullivan wrote to the New Hamps.h.i.+re Committee of Safety:
”To our great surprise, discovered that we had not powder enough to furnish half a pound a man, exclusive of what the people have in their homes and cartridge boxes. The General was so struck that he did not utter a word for half an hour.”
Further hints of the serious straits caused by the lack of ammunition were contained in a letter of Elias Boudinot. He said that at the time there were fourteen miles of line to guard, so that Was.h.i.+ngton did not dare fire an Evening or Morning Gun. ”In this situation one of the Committee of Safety for Ma.s.sachusetts ... deserted and went over to General Gage, and discovered our poverty to him. The fact was so incredible, that General Gage treated it as a stratagem of war, and the informant as a Spy, or coming with the express purpose of deceiving him & drawing his Army into a Snare, by which means we were saved from having our Quarters beaten up....”
The strange inactivity of the British in the face of the unpreparedness of the Continental troops was remarked in a letter written to Congress on January 4, from Headquarters:
”It is not in the pages of history, perhaps, to furnish a case like ours. To maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy, for six months together, without [powder], and at the same time to disband one army, and recruit another, within that distance of twenty odd British regiments, is more, probably, than was ever attempted.”
To-day visitors are free to roam through the rooms that echoed to the tread of Was.h.i.+ngton and his generals, in which the children played in Longfellow's day, and where the poet wrote so many of his messages that have gone straight to the hearts of millions.
VII
THE ADAMS HOUSES, QUINCY, Ma.s.sACHUSETTS
WHERE TWO PRESIDENTS WERE BORN
John Adams was born and spent his boyhood in a simple farmhouse near Braintree (now Quincy), Ma.s.sachusetts. It has been described as a ”plain, square, honest block of a house, widened by a lean-to, and scarcely two stories high.” This house, built in 1681, Daniel Munro Wilson says was ”the veritable roof-tree, under which was ushered into being the earliest and strongest advocate of independence, the leader whose clear intelligence was paramount in shaping our free inst.i.tutions, the founder of a line of statesmen, legislators, diplomats, historians, whose patriotism is a pa.s.sion, and whose integrity is like the granite of their native hills.”
It is a remarkable fact that John Adams and John Hanc.o.c.k, who stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight for American independence, were born within a mile of each other, on days only a little more than a year apart. The baptismal records show that October 19, 1735, was the birthday of John Adams, while John Hanc.o.c.k was born on January 12, 1737.
From the modest home in Braintree John Adams went to college. Later he taught school and studied law. Soon after he returned home in 1758 he wrote in his diary:
”Rose at sunrise, unpitched a load of hay, and translated two more leaves of Justinian.”
After the death of his father, in 1761, the burden of the home fell on his shoulders, and in the same year he was called to serve the country. His diary tells of the call:
”In March, when I had no suspicion, I heard my name p.r.o.nounced (at town meeting) in a nomination of surveyor of highways. I was very wroth, because I knew better, but said nothing. My friend, Dr. Savil, came to me and told me that he had nominated me to prevent me from being nominated as a constable. 'For,' said the doctor, 'they make it a rule to compel every man to serve either as constable or surveyor, or to pay a fine.' Accordingly, I went to ploughing and ditching.”
Thus John Adams showed the spirit of service that later animated his son, John Quincy Adams, who, after he had been President, became a representative in Congress, and made answer to those who thought such an office beneath his dignity, ”An ex-President would not be degraded by serving as a selectman in his town if elected thereto by the people.”
During those early years the young lawyer had other occupations than ditch-digging. The records of the family show that he was a.s.siduously courting Abigail Smith, daughter of Rev. William Smith, minister in Weymouth, near by. Probably he first met her in the historic house, for she was a frequent visitor there.
The marriage of the young people on October 25, 1764, excited much comment. In Puritan New England the profession of the law was not a popular calling, and many of the people thought Abigail Smith was ”throwing herself away.” Parson Smith was equal to the occasion; as he had helped his eldest daughter out of a similar difficulty by preaching on the text, ”And Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her,” so, on the Sunday after Abigail's marriage, he announced the text, ”For John ... came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.”
The year of the marriage witnessed the beginning of John Adams' fight for independence. For it was the year of the iniquitous Stamp Act. In his diary he wrote:
”I drew up a pet.i.tion to the selectmen of Braintree, and procured it to be signed by a number of the respectable inhabitants, to call a meeting of the town to instruct their representatives in relation to the stamps.”