PATTY'S DEATH.

135

at, as he began the study of it as soon as he could speak), he is unacquainted with several of the classical authors that might be useful to him. He is ignorant of Greek, the divine advantages of learning which I do not pretend to judge, and he knows nothing of French, which is absolutely necessary to him as a traveller. He has little or no acquaintance with arithmetic, and is badly ignorant of the mathematics, than which, at least, so much of them as relates to surveying, nothing can be more essentially necessary to any man possessed of a large landed estate, the bounds of some part or other of which are always in controversy."

It would seem, from this, that the young gentleman had spent his sixteen years more actively in following the hounds and in shooting canvas-back ducks, than in prosecuting any special line of scholarship.

The boy's sister, Martha, who seems to have been an interesting and lovely child, died at Mount Vernon on the 19th of June, 1773. Washington had been absent at Williamsburg for some time, and found her in the last days of her life on his return. He had made an engagement to go to the western country with Lord Dunmore, but her death caused him to remain at home. The pictures of this lady, still existing, show that she was truly beautiful. Her complexion was so dark a brunette that she was always called "the dark lady." She left all her large fortune to Washington, who had been, indeed, the only father whom she remembered.

Just before her death, Master John Custis, her brother, had settled all questions about his travels and education, by engaging himself to Miss Eleanor Calvert, of Mount Airy, in Maryland. It was agreed by all parties that he should be sent to King's College, in New York, for two years before marriage; but, in fact, he remained there only a few months, and on the third of February, 1774, they were married. He was then nineteen years old and Miss Calvert was sixteen. He was the father of the George Washington Parke Custis who died in 1857, and who always observed jealously and faithfully the reminiscences of Mount Vernon and its great master. When the boy went to college, Washington went to New York with him, introduced him to Dr. Cooper, the president of the college, and established him there. This was in May, 1773.

Such were some of the domestic affairs which occupied Washington in what may well be looked back upon as one of the happiest periods of his life. From the time of his marriage till he left his wife to attend the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, nearly sixteen years passed, devoted to such pursuits. Of the public or political life of those years, we must attempt to give some account in another chapter.

The Court Party-The Stamp Act-Circular-Letter of the Massachusetts House of Representatives-George III.-Letter to George MasonNon-Importation-Tea Taxes--" The Virginia Patriot "-The Boston Port-Bill-Extracts from Washington's Diary-The Fairfax Convention and Resolutions Adopted There-Opening of Congress-Public Speaking-Patrick Henry's Opinion-" A Kitchen Cabinet "-George III. Again-Joseph Warren-Washington's Diary at the Time of the Opening of Congress-Resolution on Acts of Parliament-The Second Virginia Convention and the Second Congress-Washington Appointed Commander-in-Chief.

T

HERE were only a few years after Wolfe's success in Canada before the folly of George III., who was beginning his reign with his miserable hopes of imitating the kings of France, brought anxiety into the home of every man in America, who was in any sort a leader.

The "court party" of men who flattered the young king led him to his real ruin.

Men that in a narrower day,

Unprophetic rulers they,

Drove out from the mother's nest

The young eagle of the West."

The Stamp Act and the host of troubles which

followed it gave material enough for thought and correspondence, even to men who, like Washington, had, but a year or two before, said that there was no public business of importance. While far-sighted statesmen in Europe had expected some such breach as followed between the colonies and the home government, it is clear enough that, on the colonies themselves, the Stamp Act and the policy to which it belonged were like flashes of lightning in a clear sky. The outburst of opposition was as quick in Virginia as anywhere. In 1765, in May, Washington was in his seat in the House of Burgesses, to which he was regularly chosen for fifteen years from Fairfax County, when a discussion arose, which has been famous ever since in America, on a series of resolutions protesting against the Stamp Act and the principle on which it was founded. Washington felt the seriousness of the crisis. He wrote immediately to his correspondent, Dandridge, the uncle of his wife, who was then in London, the danger of such an unconstitutional and ill-judged measure.

"As to the Stamp Act, regarded in a single view, one of the first bad consequences attending it is, that our Courts of Judicature must inevitably be shut up. For it is impossible, or next to impossible, under our present circumstances, that the act of Parliament can be complied with, were we ever so willing to enforce its execution. and not to say, which alone would be sufficient, that we have not money enough to pay for the stamps, there are many other cogent reasons which prove that it would be ineffectual."

THE STAMP ACT.

139

He did not, however, take any part in the more popular agitation by which public assemblies condemned the Stamp Act and terrified the men who were to carry it into execution. Still, it was understood by his neighbors and friends that he looked with entire disapproval, on the plans of the government. On the other hand, his neighbors, the Fairfaxes, were watching the popular drift with uneasiness. For a moment this strain of great suspense was loosened when the Stamp Act was repealed, on the eighteenth of March, 1766. But the second tax act, which we recollect as the "Tea tax,” following at once, the public excitement was renewed. The landing of troops in Boston showed what was the determination of the government; and from this time forward, with occasional lulls of hope, and promises of peace, the preparation for war was really beginning. No one was more conscious of this than Washington. Writing to Capel Hanbury in London, as late as 1767, he goes back to the repeal of the Stamp Act, and then says:

"I could wish it were in my power to congratulate you on the success of having a commercial system of these colonies put upon a more enlarged and extensive footing than it is, because I am well satisfied that it would ultimately redound to the advantage of the mother country, so long as the colonies pursue trade and agriculture, and would be an effectual let to manufacture among them. The money which they raise would centre in Great Britain as certainly as the needle would settle to the pole."