The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-01-05

inGton died in l7Aa leaving Mary widow
| with six small children, OF whom George,
then eleven years Of age, was the eldest
| Added TO this was the care and manage
ment of large landed estate and Viz
ginia plantation. Mary washington
ty-six years she lived blameless life, COM
manding the respect and winning the ad-
mirntion of all who knew her.
Like the mothers OF all great and earnest
men she was praying woman Her
Bible was her constant companion, and Its
precepts were ever on her lips In this
she was like her SON For while she pray
ed on the banks OF the Rappahannock,
her son in the secluston OF the woods at
Valley Forge, apart from his suffering
fellow soldiers poured out his soul In pray
err for common country. Thus were
blended the prayers Of mother and son.
She was silent, serious woman, self
tanned, self.rsspscting aud reserved These
wore allmarks characteristic of her great
soI,. She formed the lives and won the
hearts of her children. "They each and
ali revered her and sought her counsel in
every emergency" In her home family
prayers were said morning and evening:
The Bible was read and the servants OF
the household were always present. she
was Of that grand old Covenanter stock,
which has given SO much OF backbone to
the Christian world. Like her great son,
she was singularly wantingip humor and
In Imagination. but possessed in an ex-
treme degree, consciousness, gentleness
and determination.
Washington, in the most trying emer
gency OF his career as Commander IN ChleI
did not display more self-control and cour-
age than did his mother in hiding from
her children for months and years, the
distressing fact that she was a sufferer
ho from than
and bore her anguish alone that they
might not suffer. She lived to see her son
the first President of the new born nation;
the most bonored and revered of men, yet
she always shrunk from public demonstra-
| ton. Only once during her mature life
did she enter a ball room; that was after
| the surrender Of CORVALLIS at Yorktown,
when the citizens Of Fredericksburg gave
| o ball to Washington and his staff, at
| which was gathered u brilliant throng Of
| military officers and foreigners. She was
| then over seventy years OF age. AT that
ball washington presented the American
| and European officers to his mother, who
regarded her with undisguised pleasure
and astonlshlnent, Tradition says she
was tho picture of beautiful simplicity,
moving among the dazzling throng dressed
| in the appropriate costumeof tho Virginia
| niatron Of th3 olden time
Oncs Lafayette in company with her
| grandson approached her home. She was
| working in the garden, IN homespun
| dress her snow white hair was covered
| with a sun bonnet. When she recognized
| her guest, she exclaimed, You sec an old
woman but come, can make you wei.
come to my poor dwelling without The
| parade of changing my dress" No more
| commanding figure appears in our R'voiu.
tionary record. than Mary the mother of
Washington. Tho. son was only the
mother amplitied. Well may DR..
Spark, say we do not realize the debt
owed by mankind to tho mother of Wash
ingtou" Tho son made loyal return to
tho noble mother 10 the words of praise
| of that son which fell upon her cars from
every quarter, her simple and uniform
! answer, coming from mothers heaF was
those noted words, George had always
| been u good SON.
| From this almost patrcian home and
life OF abundance, we turn to another and
n sadder phase OF American motherhood,
to Nancy Hanks Lincoln, tho mother
Of our martyrea President.
ABRAHAM LlNCOLNs MOTHER
In q lit lie cabin in Hardee county, keu-
tucky, on the twelfth day of February,
500, Abraham Lincoln the only son of
Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln wos
/ born. Thomas Lincoln, the father was
poor; he had mania for moving, for
changing homes and occupations; at his
| Trade iS IL carpenter he was poor work
man and made little Roadway. He was,
however, an i:yetcrato talker and had
great iuisd of anecdute. The latter beng
the one trait that the sou took from the
| father On the her hand the 'inother-
marks" colored the whole Of that great
| life Tho Historian says, 1T Is most I'M
! deniaby true that the undertone of deep
sorrow in Lincolns nature, was directly
| a, b,,b ,,p CT n nf mi ind in which
bis nurther had fallen just previous to his
She was in poor health, was a dissap-
pointed, hroken-heartnd wife overworked
and discouraged. M uraly kind, but
morbily sensitive to the sight Of suffer-
ing In others Her three years of married
life with her ne'er.dO- well, Eisft of II
husband had been daily to settle down
deeper and deeper in the hopeless poverty
Of mat dreary Western home. COnsump-
ton was slowly sapping her strength. As
| she gradually wasted away the tie be.
| tween mother aud sun was knit more
| firmly flo was her only living child,
| about him centred everV ambition of her
,,rtiry lite. In that Western world she
| Taught her H. tic child his latterS, by slow
| degree, 10 learn to spell and then to road
/ l. was m absorbing task for him, for the
vim in which hey lived had no comforts,
| and he h vi 10 nlnnsemeutS. His mothers
| at.rnOluH. denied him too much because
Of the nIrd work shB hal to perform, was
| TIE ,wcctrst boon he coveted, and 20 lean
| against her knee, and to sit beside her
! ana lNbDriously wrestle with the sound Of
letters, and tho spnllng Of words, was II
i pr cious pleasure to him.
She encouraged and praised him, and pic
| tiIrad Che future that he would make for
himself when he grew to be man; and
! the little child. watching her sad face and
| N.;pning to her earnest words, did not
| 1. If,,tr InrHi = e. bnu
| him understand what his mother wished
| him to do; without telling him in so
many words how unlike he must he to his
| father. Sac had amortal fear Of her sons
growing up in idloness aud ignorance, and
she suGce i-fully impressed upon him the
necessity of dong some particular task in
| life AMI doing it well. Compared to III,
mental poverty OF those about them, Mrs.
! Lincoln was prodigy of Learning, and
her husband and relations wero alike
| proud Of her. She held herself aloof from
many of her husbands friends, and had
he possessed a 1.-THE Of her pride and auer-
gy, the early home of the future President
| VI the United fStutes, might have beena
| pleasant memory to him in after years,
instead Of a sorrowful recollection.
She died when he was 10 years of age
| Thereafter his child-life was one of hard
ships Had she lived it would have been
different but as it was she laid SO sure IL
| foundation III his nature. that he owed to
her more than to any other human being
| his finest traits Of character
At the time Of her marriage she is de-
| sCriDCd as II slender, symmetrical woman
| Of medium stature aud brunette; with
| dark hair, regular features and soft, spark
ling hazel eyes" But her sons earliest re
| collection of his mother, was after her form
was bent with hard work, and her couute-
nance save for tho touchingly sad expires.
J sion, would havt been hard in outline.
She was buried without funeral service;
| but that little ten-ycar old boy wrote to
| tho minister who had performed his
mothers marriage ceremony (AIr. Head
| and three months afterwards, little Abe,
| his father and about twenty ncighbors
| gathered about tho new made grave to
| listen to the teuted funeral sermon, in
| which this act OF tllial devotion of the
| little son was touchingly alluded to-
| Think you that the teachings Of that saint.
| ed mother were not all about that boy
then and forevermOro In his life, and that
the touching, tender sympathy and pathos
| Of that man, to whom all the world seem
| ed akin, was not directly transmitted from
that shrinking, sensitive life that had Just
| gone out,
DR.. Holland says Of her, "She had much
in her nature that was truly heroic, and
much that shrunk from tho rude life
around her. A great man never drew his
infant life from u purer or more womanly
bosom than her own. The broodiny sor.
row, the touching pathos, the tender
sympathy and the matchless fOrbearance
and forgiveness Of the immortal Lincoln,
are but the larger expression Of the quail.
ties which he got from that fpothnr ,i'bara