Part 12 (1/2)
[Illustration: SURVEY OF WAshi+NGTON'S BIRTHPLACE (WAKEFIELD), 1743]
In 1755 Washi+ngton told his brother that ”to that faentleman,” but as time went on he more than paid the debt In 1757 he acted as pallbearer to William Fairfax, and twelve years later his diary records, ”Set off with Mrs Washi+ngton and Patsey, in order to stand for Mr B Fairfax's third son, which I did together with ton and his lady” For one of the family he obtained an army commission, and for another he undertook the care of his property during a visit to England; a care which unexpectedly lengthened, and was resigned only when Washi+ngton's time became public property Nor did that lessen his services or the Fairfaxes' need of them, for in the Revolution that family were loyalists Despite this, ”the friendshi+p,” Washi+ngton assured them, ”which I ever professed and felt for you, met no diminution from the difference in our political sentiments,”
and in 1778 he was able to secure the safety of Lord Fairfax froed by his lordshi+p in the folloords:
”There are tireater ih I have received many, I hope I have not been unmindful of thehest and mine at the lowest, and when it is so coainst those, who differ from them in opinion, you should act with your wonted kindness towards me, has affected me more than any favor I have received; and could not be believed by so above the run of common minds”
In behalf of another member of the family, threatened with confiscation, he wrote to a ates, ”I hope, I trust, that no act of Legislation in the State of Virginia has affected, or can affect, the properly of this gentleood and well disposed citizen of America,” and this was sufficient to put an end to the project At the close of the war he wrote to this absentee, ”There was nothing wanting in [your] Letter to give coton and myself but some expression to induce us to believe you would once hbors Your house at Belvoir I aed since you saw it), is most sincerely and heartily at your service till you could rebuild it As the path, after being closed by a long, arduous, and painful contest, is to use an Indian metaphor, now opened andfroe the wish, I shall not despair of seeing you and Mrs Fairfax onceyou both there the intier years” And to another he left a token of remembrance in his will
One of the most curious circle of friends was that co thened hieneral sense he requested an Indian agent to ”recommend me kindly to Mononcatoocha and others; tell them how happy it wouldthem by the hand” A little later he had this pleasure, and he wrote the governor, ”the Indians are all around teasing and perplexingor another, so that I scarce knohat I write” When Washi+ngton left the frontier this intercourse ceased, but he was not forgotten, for in descending the Ohio in his Western trip of 1770 a hunting party was met, and ”in the person of Kiashuto I found an old acquaintance, he being one of the Indians that went [withus a quarter of very fine buffalo He insisted upon our spending that night with him, and, in order to retard us as little as possible moved his cainia regiment came military friends From the earliest of these--Van Braaena expedition of 1742, and who had coton had previously taken lessons in fencing, and when appointed the bearer of a letter to the French commander on the Ohio he took Van Braa hislieutenant, and recoovernor for a captain's coood officer” To Van Braa the capitulation to the French at Fort Necessity, and to his reading was laid the blunder by which Washi+ngton signed a state hioat of the expedition, was charged by the governor with being a ”poltroon” and traitor, and was omitted froiess succeeded in getting this latter vote rescinded
Another friend of the saton first overnor to advance hie me in this request, I shall look upon it in a very particular light” Peyroney was badly wounded at Fort Necessity and was furloughed, during which he wrote his commander, ”I have made my particular Business to tray if any had soainst you here Below; But thank God I ood wish for you fro such Caracter of you as I have the honour to do ain in the Braddock ton wrote, ”Captain Peyroney and all his officers down to a corporal, was killed”
With Captain Stewart--”a gentleman whose assiduity and military capacity are second to none in our Service”--Washi+ngton was intih to have Stewart apply in 1763 for four hundred pounds to aid hiton did not have at his disposal But because of ”a regard of that high nature that I could never see you uneasy without feeling a part and wishi+ng to reton lent him three hundred pounds towards it, apparently without much return, for solad to learn that my friend Steell when you left London I have not had a letter from him these five years” At the close of the Revolution he received a letter fro expressions,” which gave Washi+ngton ” labored under, of your having taken your departure for the land of Spirits How else could I account for a silence of 15 years I shall always be happy to see you at Mt Vernon”
His friend William Ramsay--”well knoell-esteemed, and of unble after, in 1769, wrote,--
”Having once or twice of late heard you speak highly in praise of the Jersey College, as if you had a desire of sending your son Willialad, if you have no other objection to it than what may arise from the expense, if you would send him there as soon as it is convenient, and depend on me for twenty-five pounds this currency a year for his support, so long as it may be necessary for the completion of his education If I live to see the accomplishment of this term, the sum here stipulated shall he annually paid; and if I die in the atory uponto the true intent andhereof No other return is expected, or wished, for this offer, than that you will accept it with the saood will, hich it is ht of an obligation or mention it as such; for, be assured, that from me it will never be known”
The dearest friendshi+p foriment, James Craik, who in the course of his duties attended Washi+ngton in two serious illnesses, and when the as ended settled near Mount Vernon He was frequently a visitor there, and soon became the faton wrote, ”tell Doctor Craik that I should be very glad to see hi worth his acceptance; but the Massachusetts people suffer nothing to go by them that they lay hands upon” In 1777 the General secured his appointeneral of the Middle Department, and three years later, when the hospital service was being reformed, he used his influence to have hi the commander-in-chief of the existence of the Conway Cabal, because ”my attachment to your person is such, my friendshi+p is so sincere, that every hint which has a tendency to hurt your honor, wounds ton's companion, by invitation, in both his later trips to the Ohio, and his trust in hi that he put under his care the two nephehose charge he had assuer an entry tells of another piece of friendliness, to the effect, ”Dr Ja a donation to his son, Geo
Washi+ngton Craik for his education 30,” and after graduating the young man for a time served as one of his private secretaries After a serious illness in 1789, Washi+ngton wrote to the doctor, ”persuaded as I am, that the case has been treated with skill, and with as much tenderness as the nature of the complaint would admit, yet I confess I often wished for your inspection of it,” and later he wrote, ”if I should ever have occasion for a Physician or Surgeon, I should prefer eon, Dr Craik, who, from 40 years' experience, is better qualified than a Dozen of theether” Craik was the first of the doctors to reach Washi+ngton's bedside in his last illness, and when the dying man predicted his own death, ”the Doctor pressed his hand but could not utter a word He retired frorief” In Washi+ngton's will he left ”to my coive my Bureau (or as the Cabinet makers called it, Tae of my study”
The arrival of Braddock and his arht a new circle of ton ”was very particularly noticed by that General, was taken into his family as an extra aid, offered a Captain's corade he had it in his power to bestow) and had the coiven hi Gentlemen of his acquaintance” In this position he was treated ”with much complaisanceespecially from the General,”
whichbut curses for nearly every one else, and the ton and he ”had frequent disputes,” which were ”maintained arh his enrew to like and trust the young volunteer, and had he ”survived his unfortunate defeat, I should have”his proeneral when he ounded in the lungs, lifted hiht hiahela,” into temporary safety Three days later Braddock died of his wounds, bequeathing to Washi+ngton his favorite horse and his body-servant as tokens of his gratitude Over hiton read the funeral service, and it was left to hieneral” was interred ”with the honors of war”
Even before public service had uest of inians Between 1747 and 1754 he visited the Carters of shi+rley, Nomony, and Sabine Hall, the Lewises of Warner Hall, the Lees of Stratford, and the Byrds of Westover, and there was acquaintance at least with the Spotswoods, Fauntleroys, Corbins, Randolphs, Harrisons, Robinsons, Nicholases, and other prominent families
In fact, one friend wrote hiood fortune are the toast of every table,” and another that ”the Council and Burgesses are inian of real influence It was Richard Corbin who enclosed hie” and ending ”your friend,” but in titon suspected hientlemanly freedoinia, rote Washi+ngton in 1756, ”our hopes, dear George, are all fixed on you,” a close correspondence was overnor's course towards hi dear friend, that you will bear, so far as a hts you have too often met with” The son, Beverly Robinson, was a fellow-soldier, and, as already ton's host on his visit to New York in 1756 The Revolution interrupted the friendshi+p, but it is alleged that Robinson (as deep in the Arnold plot) made an appeal to the old-time relation in an endeavor to save Andre The appeal was in vain, but auld lang syne had its influence, for the sons of Beverly, British officers taken prisoners in 1779, were proed, so one of them asserted, ”in consequence of the euished in the breasts of ton”
Outside of his own colony, too, Washi+ngton made friends of many proe of hospitality
Before the Revolution there had been visiting or breaking of bread with the Galloways, Dulaneys, Carrolls, Calverts, Jenifers, Edens, Ringgolds, and Tilghmans of Maryland, the Penns, Cadwaladers, Morrises, shi+ppens, Aliens, dickinsons, Chews, and Willings of Pennsylvania, and the De Lanceys and Bayards of New York
Election to the Continental Congress strengthened some friendshi+ps and added new ones With Benja as the latter was in Congress he was the member most in the confidence of the General Later they differed in politics, but Washi+ngton assured Harrison that ”my friendshi+p is not in the least lessened by the difference, which has taken place in our political sentiard for you diminished by the part you have acted” Joseph Jones and Patrick Henry both took his part against the Cabal, and the latter did hi to hiton felt ”ton differed later in politics, and it was reported that the latter spoke disparagingly of the for after offered Henry the Secretaryshi+p of State Still later he made a personal appeal to hiinia resolutions of 1798, an appeal to which Henry responded The intimacy with Robert Morris was close, and, as already noted, Washi+ngton and his family were several times inmates of his home
Gouverneur Morris was one of hisvote which saved Washi+ngton fro arrested in 1778, when the Cabal was fiercest While President, Washi+ngton sent him on a most important mission to Great Britain, and on its completion made him Minister to France From that post the President was, at the request of France, coton wrote hi Morris that he ”held the saned himself ”yours affectionately” Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a partisan of the General, and veryhim ”almost literally that anybody who displeased or did not adht not to be kept in the arton wrote, ”I can but love and thank you, and I do it sincerely for your polite and friendly letter The sentiments contained in it are such as have unifor than pleasing to ht a new kind of friend, in the young aides of his staff One of his earliest appointh he remained but five months in the service, a close friendshi+p was forton wrote him in the most confidential and affectionate manner, and twice he appealed to Reed to take the position oncethat if ”you are disposed to continue with me, I shall think e” Yet Washi+ngton none the less sent Reed congratulations on his election to the Pennsylvania asserace to ain a ”member of et Reed legal business, and when all law business ceased and the would-be laithout occupation or means of support, he used his influence to secure him the appointment of adjutant