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CH. VII.]

POSITION ALREADY ATTAINED BY THE COLONIES.

work of purification. They lived too with exemplary sobriety; breakfasting on tea without milk and sweetened by a small bit of sugar passed round from one to the other; they dined on buttermilk and bread, and if to that they added sugar, it was esteemed delicious, though sometimes they indulged in broiled and roasted meats. The use

of stoves was unknown, and the huge fire-places, through which one might have driven a wagon, furnished with ample logs, were grand and cozy nestling-places during the long winter evenings, which the wail of the snow storm and the roar of the forest trees rendered more deliciously secure. Under the English the same simplicity of manners long prevailed.

The population of New Jersey, in 1738, had increased to forty-seven thousand three hundred and sixty-seven, of whom about four thousand were slaves. In 1736, a college was founded at Princeton, named Nassau Hall. The general prosperity of this colony was due, doubtless, to the virtuous and industrious character and habits of the people. In 1750, the population of New Jersey was about seventy thousand.

In regard to Pennsylvania and Delaware, no entirely reliable computation can be made of the population of these colonies; probably it was considerably less than that of Virginia at the same date. The colonists traded with England, Portugal and Spain; with the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores; with the West India Islands; with New England, Virginia, and Carolina. In 1731, Philadelphia is said to have

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numbered about twelve thousand inhabitants, being, probably, somewhat in advance of New York. In 1736, the vessels arriving and departing were considerably less than we have noted in the case of New York. The importations into Pennsylvania are reckoned at the annual value of £150,000, being much more than those of New York.

The value of the exports from Great Britain to North America, according to Mr. Hildreth, for the ten years from 1738 to 1748, was, on an average, annually about $3,500,000. The imports from the colonies were somewhat less. The balance against the colonies was paid in specie, the produce of their West India and African trade.

From this brief, imperfect, and, we fear, rather dry sketch of the general condition of the American colonies, it will be evident that there existed among them the undoubted elements of strength, decision of character, and firm resolves to maintain their just rights and privileges. Prosperity had fallen to their lot in a large degree, and with prosperity the natural restlessness of the Anglo-Saxon race urged them on to greater and more farreaching designs. Their neighbors, the French, they had never liked; already had there been many a contest between them; and now the day was fast approaching when the final struggle was to take place and the mastery be attained by one or the other. It was not possible much longer to put off the contest.

France, thus far secure in the West,to use the language of Mr. Parkman"next essayed to gain foothold upon the sources of the Ohio, and, about the

year 1748, the sagacious Count Galissonière proposed to bring over ten thousand peasants from France, and plant them in the valley of that beautiful river, and on the borders of the lakes. But while at Quebec, in the Castle of St. Louis, soldiers and statesmen were revolving schemes like this, the slowly-moving power of England bore on with silent progress from the East. Already the British settlements were creeping along the valley of the Mohawk, and ascending the eastern slope of the Alleganies. Forests crashing to the axe, dark spires of smoke ascending from autumnal fires, were heralds of the advancing host; and

while on the one side of the Alleganies, Celeron de Bienville was burying plates of lead, engraved with the arms of France, the ploughs and axes of Virginia backwoodsmen were enforcing a surer title on the other. The adverse powers were drawing near. The hour of collision was at hand."*

To the history of this last measuring of arms between the ancient rivals, and of its important bearing on the position of the colonies, in their disputes with the mother country, we now invite the reader's attention.

*Parkman's "History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac," p. 56.

CHAPTER VIII.

1749-1755.

THE FOURTH

Designs and claims of the French

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The Ohio

· Counter claims of the English - No regard to the Indians' claims Company Its policy and efforts GEORGE WASHINGTON Early life and training - His father's death — The mother of Washington Receives an appointment as midshipman in the Navy — Method and orderly habits Activity, spirit, energy - Studies surveying Undertakes the duties of a surveyor Military appointment His brother Lawrence's ill health and death — Appointed by Governor Dinwiddie to visit the French post on the Ohio - His adventurous mission Its results - His return His journal Appointed lieutenant-colonel· His military exploits - The affair with Jumonville - Truth of the matter Obliged to capitulate at Fort Necessity-Thanks of the Assembly to Washington Convention of governors at Albany - Plan of union and confederation Not received with favor Levy of troops called for-Dieskau's force Ill usage of colonial officers Braddock commander-in-chief Braddock's character and conduct Expeditions undertaken Franklin's help - His conversation with Braddock - Washington serves as aid-de-camp - His urgent advice rejected by Braddock — Splendid spectacle Troops routed by Indians and French in ambush - Death of Braddock - Washington's preservation - Panic of the army - Prestige of royal troops destroyed.

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WE have already spoken of the designs of the French and their determination to obtain, if possible, the control of the entire region from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, based upon that law which gives to the dis

coverers of rivers, the jurisdiction over the lands watered by them. So long as the English colonies were confined to the immediate vicinity of the sea coast, there was little reason for them to interfere with the plans and pur

CH. VIII.]

FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLAIMS IN THE OHIO VALLEY.

poses of the French. In the progress of events, however, as they became acquainted with the regions beyond the mountains, and as they penetrated into those beautiful and fertile portions of the country on the banks of the Ohio and its tributaries, the English colonists not only learned the value and importance of the vast tracts of territory thus far unexplored, but also resolved to set up counter claims to the right over the soil. The French had established numerous military and trading posts from the frontiers of Canada even to the city of New Orleans, and in order to establish their claims to jurisdiction over the country, they had carved the lilies of France on the forest trees, or had sunk plates of metal in the ground for this purpose.* The French claimed as discoverers, and in so far seemed to have a just ground for their pretensions: the English, on the other hand, had grants of territory extending in a direct line westward to the Pacific Ocean, and hence they claimed a right to all the thousands of miles intervening between the Atlantic coast and the almost illimitable West. Neither party, it is worth noticing, deemed it necessary to pay a moment's attention to the prior claims of the Indian occupants. From this position of things, it is evident, that actual collision be

* See the language of Mr. Parkman quoted on p. 219, and more fully in his "Conspiracy of Pontiac,” pp. 85-126.

† In November, 1749, when the hardy pioneer, Gist, was surveying for the Ohio Company the lands on the south side of the Ohio River as far down as the great Kanawha, an old Delaware Chief, observing what he was about, propounded to him a shrewd inquiry:-"The French claim all the land on one side of

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tween the contending parties could not much longer be deferred.

Shortly after the peace of Aix-laChapelle, a body of London merchants and Virginia land speculators, known as the Ohio Company, obtained in England a grant of six hundred thousand acres of land on the east bank of that river, with exclusive privileges of Indian traffic. This was naturally looked upon, by the French, as an encroachment, they claiming the whole region watered by the tributaries of the Mississippi. The English set up a counter claim, in the name of the Six Nations, recognized by the treaties of Utrecht and Aix-laChapelle, as under British protection, whose empire, so it was said, reached over the whole eastern portion of the Mississippi Valley and the basin also of the lower lakes. As the principal object of the Ohio Company was to obtain a footing on the soil, they forthwith proceeded to establish the post of Redstone, on the Monongahela River-a step, of course, regarded as an aggression by the French, who built a new fort on the shores of Lake Erie, and were evidently preparing to drive out all opponents, and take possession of the disputed territory. In anticipation of this step, Dinwiddie, lieutenant-governor of Virginia, had already sent out a messenger in the guise of a trader, to ascertain the temper of the Indians, and to spy out the proceed

1751.

the Ohio, the English claim all the land on the other side-tell me now, where does the Indians' land lie ?" Poor savages, as Mr. Irving well says, between their "fathers," the French, and their "brothers," the English, they were in a fair way of being most lovingly shared out of the whole country.

1753.

ings of the French. The English government, in anticipation of a war, had urged the governor, to lose no time in building two forts, for which purpose artillery and munitions were sent over; but the French had been beforehand with them, and had already gathered a considerable force to act according as the emergency might require. It was evident that active measures needed to be taken at once, and Dinwiddie determined to send a messenger to the nearest French post, and demand explanations, as also the release and indemnification of certain traders captured by them a short time before. This resolve on the governor's part brings before us, for the first time, the man, of all others, whom Americans most love to honor. It is but right that here we should say something of the family from which he sprang, as also of his early life and training.

Nearly a century previous to the birth of the illustrious "father of his country," two brothers, of an honorable family in England, John and Andrew Washington, emigrated to Virginia, and settled in Westmoreland County, between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. The grandson of John Washington, Augustine, was born in 1694, and inherited the family estate, situate on Bridge's Creek, near where it falls into the Potomac. He was twice married: two children survived, Lawrence and Augustine, and the mother died in 1728. Two years later, Augustine Washington was married again; his bride was Mary Ball, a celebrated beauty of that day. Six children were the fruits of that union; four

sons and two daughters. The family of Washington was one, which, for centuries, had borne itself nobly and honorably. As Mr. Irving finely says: "hereditary rank may be an illusion; but hereditary virtue gives a patent of innate nobleness beyond all the blazonry of the Herald's College."*

GEORGE WASHINGTON, the eldest child of his mother, was born on the 22d of February, 1732, in the homestead on Bridge's Creek; but not a ves- 1732. tige of the house or place remains. Soon after George's birth, his father removed to an estate in Stafford County, opposite Fredericksburg. This, too, the home of his boyhood, no longer exists; a few fragments of bricks and the like, are all that remain. George's eldest brother, Lawrence, had been sent by his father to England, and enjoyed privileges which were not within the reach of the other children. George had only the commonest advantages of the day; no language but his own, and simple instruction in the ordinary branches of an English education, were the extent of his privileges. When George was about eight years old, his brother Lawrence returned from England, an accomplished young man, and there appears to have been formed at once a warm and abiding friendship, which grew with their growth, and strengthened with their strength, so long as Lawrence's life lasted. On the 12th of April, 1743, Augustine Washington died after a short illness: he was in the prime and vigor of manhood, and enjoyed the reputa

1743.

*Irving's "Life of Washington, vol. i. p. 18.

CH. VIII.]

THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON.

tion of being an upright and honorable man. His death was peculiarly afflictive to a young and growing family, which needed all a father's care and counsel, to aid in preparing them for the duties and responsibilities of life. By this sudden and great loss, MARY, the mother of George Washington, became his guide and instructor, and moulded his character for the future eminence which he attained. She was a woman of great energy and integrity, and to her care was intrusted the management of the large property left to the children of Augustine Washington, against the time they should severally come of age. She proved herself entirely worthy of this trust. Her plain, solid sense; her decision of character; her strict but not severe discipline; her conscientious heed to the religious and moral guidance of her four fatherless children; all these gave her authority and respect in her family, which were equalled only by the affection with which she was regarded by every member of her household.

Under such guidance, and favored with constant intercourse with his brother Lawrence and Lord Fairfax and family, George Washington passed his early years. From a child fond of the mimic sport of a soldier's life, this love of adventure grew upon him; and when he was about fourteen, a midshipman's warrant was obtained for him, and his luggage is said to have been actually on board a man-ofwar, when his mother's heart failed her, and George, ever obedient, gave up the plan of seeking for fame in the Navy. Humanly speaking, how

1746.

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vast a difference would it have made had he been permitted to follow his boyish inclination!

Returning to school, George devoted his attention to improvement in all those branches, especially mathematics, calculated to fit him for civil or military service. Perseverance and completeness marked his whole course, and the habits of method, order, and accuracy which were then established adhered to him through life. "He found time to do everything and to do it well. He had acquired the magic of method, which, of itself, works wonders." In short, his was a character which, even in boyhood, marked him out to be a leader and guide of others. His schoolfellows appealed to him to decide their little differences, and his sincerity and strict integrity and fairness gave him the undoubted ascendancy at all times. Active, energetic, delighting in athletic games and exercises, prompt, ready, knowing how to obey quite as well as how to command, conscientious, ardent, self-possessed,these qualities might well have raised him above his fellows, and indicated, especially to a mother's prophetic ken, the greatness and nobleness of the career before him.

After he left school, Washington continued to study mathematics and trigonometry, examined works on tactics and military topics, became expert in the use of arms, and kept alive the flame of ambition for warlike deeds by association with officers who had served in the recent wars. But he could not be idle and enjoy content; hence he was ready to undertake duties of an

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