use Washington's words where I could, without making the narrative too long. I have quoted his diaries very freely, even where the incidents themselves were unimportant. And, especially where I have at any length given the history of events in which he was not the principal actor, it has been simply because he is the historian. For a marked instance, I have printed a long narrative of Arnold's treason. But this is not because it is Arnold's treason, but because it is Washington's narrative, a narrative which I believe has not before been published.

And thus I am led to say that in other instances, where the reader may think I have violated my own rules for biography, I have done so because the special document given has not before come into print, and seems to me too curious to be longer kept concealed. Thus if Washington bought lottery tickets, and wanted to know if he had drawn prizes, there is no reason for striking out from his letters the mention of such incident. In almost every in

stance the extracts from his letters here printed are made from the manuscripts, and have never before been printed in any permanent collection.

It is curious to observe that Franklin secured to himself by his masterly autobiography a treatment exactly the reverse of that which has been meted out to Washington. He wrote so good a life of himself that no one has ever wanted to write an

other; if indeed he had ever concluded it, it would be safe to say that no one would ever have written another.

Mr. John Bigelow took up the broken thread of Franklin's life at the age of fifty-one, and completed it, as far as the printed materials would permit, from his own letters. In the book which is in the reader's hands, I have not limited myself absolutely to Washington's own narrative. There are, indeed,

many occasions, some of them of the most critical character, where such material would fail us. As John Adams says, when a man is engaged on the most important matters, he has no time to be writing down the story of them. But Washington made more time than most men did. His personal record of his life's work is singularly full. And, as the reader will sec, I have largely used that record so far as it is preserved.

THE LIFE

OF

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

CHAPTER I.

BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION.

Birthplace of George Washington-His Father and Mother-A New Home near Fredricksburg-Early Training-Lawrence Washington -School Books-Land-Surveying-Death of Augustine Washington —The Fairfax Family and Marriage of Lawrence Washington—Mt. Vernon and Belvoir-Letters Ascribed to Washington and Richard Henry Lee-Sea Life Proposed-The Proposal Abandoned-Lord Fairfax-Surveying as a Profession-Geo. Washington's First LoveTrials-His Verses to "The Lowland Beauty"-His First Commission.

O

N the day of George Washington's birth, there was nothing to suggest that he was to be the foremost man of his time. He was born in an old Virginia farm-house in Westmoreland County, on a spot which overlooks the Potomac River, near where Bridge's Creek falls into that river. His father was Augustine Washington, who had, two years before, married Mary Ball. George Washington was her oldest son; she had afterwards three other sons and two daughters. By another wife Augustine Washington had two sons

older than George,-named Lawrence and Augustine. George Washington was born in 1732, on the day which corresponds to the 22d of February in our style.'

There is not now a vestige of the house remaining. It was an old-fashioned Virginia farm-house; a low-pitched, single-story, frame building, with four rooms on the first floor, and an enormous chimney

RESIDENCE OF THE WASHINGTON FAMILY.

at each end on the outside. The spot is visible from the deck of the steamboat as one goes to Norfolk from the city of Washington; but is a considerable distance below Mt. Vernon.

1

According to the old style it was the eleventh of February. The original record of his baptism is preserved. It is in these words: "George Washington, son to Augustine and Mary his wife, was born the 11th Day of February, 1731-2, about 10 in the morning, and was Baptiz'd the 3: of April following, Mrs. Beverly Whiting & Capt. Christopher Brooks, Godfathers, and Mrs. Mildred Gregory, Godmother."