Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1885-11-13
ORIGIN OF A FAMOUS EXPRESSION.


The reviewer of Mr.. McMasteI's
second volume, in the last Dial,
noticed his error in attributing to
Judge Marshall, instead OF Colonel
Henry Lee, the authorship Of the
well.known sentence concerning
Washington: First in war, first
in peace, and first in the hearts of
his contrymen.' The correct read
ing of this familiar quotation is hl
doubt. Marshall, in his 'Life of
Washington (Vol. ", p. 76O,
prints the proceedings in the House
Of Representatives, and the resOlu-
tions read, on the death of Wash
ingtOn, in which the sentence first
appeared. The last clause there
reads, 'and first IN the hearts of
his fellow -citizens.' Colonel Lee, a
week later, used the sentence in
his Grafton before Congress, and
makes it end with 'countrymen'
instead of 'fellow-citizens.' The
'Annals of Congress- Q799-1SO1,
p. 204] reports the resolutions read
in the House, and ends the sen
tence with 'cOuntrymen.' The
annals however, was not a con-
temporaneous publication, having
been made up more than twenty
years later, by Gales and Seaton,
from such materials as they could
find. Its wording of the resolu-
tions is so unlike that given by
Marshall and other contemporaries
that they must have been report
ed from memory. 'Washingtoniaua',
published at Baltimore in 1900, ID
a compilation, made up soon after
the death of Washington, of public
resolutions, testimonials of respect
and orations. The resolutions read
IN the House there appear in pre-.
cisely the words quoted by Mar
shall, except that the sentence
under consideration ends neither
with 'fellow-citzens' nor country
men,, but with country Up. 1lO),
Two pages later, the same resOlu
tions are given as adopted in the
Senate, and the sentence again
ends with country Genera
Robert L. Lee, of the Confederate
army, was the son of Colonel Lee
and in the life Of his father, 1856!
(prefxed to the reprint Of Colone
Lees Memoirs Of the Revolution
ary war in the Southern Depart
ment) quotes, on page 51, the sen
tence, and ends it as Marshal
gave it, with fellow citizens Thii
statement might be regarded a
authoritative as to the reading, !
General lee on the next page ha'
not spoiled the inference by saying
But there is a line single line
in the works of Lee which wOul'
hand him over to immortality
though he had never written an
other. 'Frst in war, first in peace
and first in the hearts Of his conI
trymen' will last while languag
lasts The question is still nnan
swered-'In what form will it last
We venture to express tue Opill
ion that Colonel Lee used, on dii
ferent occasions, both forms; benc
either form is correct. lie was al
ardent Federalist and a devote'
military and personal friend G
Washington during and subseQuen
a
to the war. lis grief at the deaf
of his dearest friend first took forr
in his own personal loss; and then
as a Virginian, in the loss his Stat
had sustained. While in this fran
of mind he wrote the resolution
read in Congress, ending with 'hi
fellow. w.citizens' which to hir
meant 'Yirginians.' Having late
been appointed by Congress t
deliver an grafton on Washington
as an expression of the grief OF tn
nation, he again used the sentence
and gave it a broader meaning b
changing 'his fellow.citizens to 'hl
countrymen.'-The Dial, October