The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-05-07


honestly believing it his duty so to do.
However, in whatever manner the ap-
pointment had come about, there is no
doubt that it was the very best that
could have been made.
Although still a young man, at least
% of his AZ years had been passed in
active duties that had peculiarly equip
ped him for this the greatest task of
his life, quarter century of prepare
ton in the school of experience-first,
as an explorer and surveyor of wild
lands; second, as q frontier fighter,
brought in contact with a willy foe and
implacable conditions of man and ma
ture; third, as a statesman, in a small
way, when, during 10 years, he was &C
quiring a knowledge of legislation and
| civil affairs; fourth, as manager of 8
vast estate and ample fortune, which
had developed him ON the economical
and business side and gave him that at
tention to detail which stood him and
the country in such good stead during
the poverty stricken period few years
later.
He was pre-eminently the man for
the occasion and the position, many
sided, broad minded, of commanding per.
sonal presence and fine mental poise.
Nature had endowed him with all the
qualifications for a leader of men. His
own energies had superadded mental
and moral discipline, rigid military
drill, an acquaintance with men and af-
fairs and thoroughness of administra-
tion. Even as the colonial wars had de-
stroyed the prestige of the British SOL
dier and had shown the superiority of
the provincial Tin these new conditions),
so the same conditions had operated to
produce the type of American which the
country needed in this emergency in
this struggle for its life.
Two happy condolences attended the
opening of congress and the appoint
ment of the commander in chief. On
the very day that congress assembled
the strong British fortress at Ticonder-
oga surrendered to brave Ethan Allen
and his "Green Mountain boys" sin
the name of the great Jehovah and the
continental congress. Closely follow
ing came the taking of Crown Point,
and from both places arms and stores
were obtained which were extremely op-
perfume.
The second coincidence, or favorable
augury, was the issuing of Washing
tons commission ON the very day Of
that victorious defeat at Bunker Hill,
June II, 1875. News of this latter event
reached him as he was ON his way to
take command of the army before Bos-
ton. He arrived at Cambridge on the I'd
of July and next day assumed command
of the undisciplined force gathered to
beard the British lion in his chosen
stronghold. His headquarters were es-
tablished in the colonial mansion since |
made famous as the home of the poet |
Longfellow, and there, after the summer
was past and it became certain that |
winter would wear away before the |
British could be dislodged, he was join
ed by his wife, who made the long jour- |
ney from Mount Vernon in her own
"chariot" drawn by four spirited bays |
and arrived on a cold December day.
Massachusetts had responded nobly to |
the call to arms, and something like |
20, 900 men were in the field, but many
of them had enlisted for a short period
only, and many more had not enlisted
at all. Consequently Washington soon
found himself confronted with one of
the gravest of problems. Writing to
congress in January, 1776, he says:
cit is not i'll the pages Of Shistory to
furnish case like ours. To maintain a
post within musket shot of the enemy
for six months together without ammu-
milton, and at the same time to disband
one army and recruit another within
that distance of twenty odd British reg
iments, is more, possibly, than was ever
attempted before. But if we succeed in
the last as we'll as we have heretofore
in the first shall think it the most
fortunate event of my whole life"
There was lack of everything. Pow
der was so scarce that barrels of sand
were daily rolled into camp in order to
deceive the American soldiers them