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- T is impossible at this day to add any
III thing of new character to the ac-
- count of men and events of hundred
years and more ago, for the field OF ms
tory, In so far as it relates to the Ameri-
can revolution and the men who were
representative in its accomplishment, has
been well explored and voluminously ex-
pounded by hundreds Of men equal to the
task. Nor is there school child OF lV
years In all this country, VINO mas NOT
written his essay on these same men ana
events, SO that their history is in-burned
in the minds of all Americans. Yet TINS
is one of the hopeful signs of the dlspo-
sition of a great people towards those
who called its nation into existence. And
of the leader of all those courageous
men, the one who before all others car
ried to an astonishing and successful
achievement the herculean labors OF
bringing victorious handful of ragged
and unframed soldiers through the dark
ness of a struggle with one OF the most
powerful countries on earth, certainly
nothing now needs be said.
As a young man, Washington was prop
ably no less fiippant and worldly than
hundreds of others in the colonies. HIS
manners, which have been thought extra
ordinary in their courtliness, were prob
ably not the slightest bit more so than
those Of the majority Of his acquaint-
ances. He was not fvec from the faults
of men Of his time. He was accustomed
to methodical exa4tness from his expert
ence on his mothers plantation and to
her he no doubt owed many OF the traits
which afterwards stood him IN such good
stead. From his school teachers, VIII
| liam Hobby, who was also the church
sexton, and Thomas Williams, he learn
| ed to read and to write as well as to un-
| derstand the art of computation. Inc
| latter Of the two also gave him the rudl-
ments Of surveying which served as much
| as any other one thing 10 develop him in
to the general of the American forces.
| For il was on account OF his knowledge
of this science that he spent three OF
| his years of early manhood in the wilds
of the forests, running lines, determin-
| ing levels, fixing boundaries. His wages
| at this time were sufficient to enable him
| to purchase large pieces of that trackless
| wilderness bordering on streams, which
| were afterwards of great value, thus de-
yeloping his insight and shrewdness as a
| business man. But the Lessons that he
| learned from that rugged nature in the
solitary hours, were priceless. and the
constitution that was hardened by his
life in the woods enabled him in after
years to endure untolu strains of expos
ure and suffering, to rescue Braddock af
ter that generals defeat by the French
to conceive the crossing Of the Delaware
on that bleak and cheerless December
night, to undergo Valley Forge and tc
emerge from them all, the modest, self
contained, reserved gentleman. 1t wa;
because OF his knowledge Of the ways Of
the forest that be was sent on that
seemingly needless errand to warn the
French off English territory in the win
ter of 1884, on which he quilted him
self well and learned his first lessons in
uractical warfare. The next year he
was chosen to 20 with Braddock on his
Inflated expedition against the French
Here it was that Washington learned fol
the first time, that Americans were oi
inst as good stuff as Englishmen, thai
they could fight just as bravely as the
seasoned veterans Of the mother country
For it was through the efforts Of thS
.bush-whacking' Virginians that Brad
docks force escaped entire destruction
The colonists knew better than did Brad
dock that the eyolutions of the parade
ground were of no avail in the sort oi
warfare in which they we're at that time
engaged. The physical strain undergone
by Washington at this time was extra
ordinary. From the ninth to the six
tecnth OF that July. he had little sleep
walking and riding, sometimes all nigh
long through the forest, and succeeding
in bringing mp some support for Brad
docks retreating army. He was theI
Is years old. In the course of that on'
expedition he had seen enough to giv'
him an ubconqnerable faith in the valo
and abilities of his fellow cOlonists. Thi
faith. II may have been, that so uphelt
him through the dark hours of defeat ant
intrigue, when his army well nigh per
ished from lack of food and clothing.
Washington had no idea, even when tn
colonies were being greatly reused owe
the injustice of their treatment by Eng
land. that the end would be war. III
did not desire war. And it was only whei
there was no other way to decide tn
momentOus question OF principle that b
set his heart on hostilities. The cour
age OF the man in accepting the position
of commapder-in-ehief which was offere
to him by the assembly was sublime
The mother country could send hundred
of thousands OF trained soldiers agains
the colonists: her ships ruled the seas
On the other hand, the colonists were
few thousands, undsciplined in any wal
} fare except that against the Indians
their resources were comparatively insit
nifcant. 1t seems as IL there could hay
: been but one outcome. But Washingto
modestly undertook the task. refusin
first any money remuneration for tn
services he might render. And then h
sagacity as a commander began to displa
itself Quietly did he collect stores an
ammunition and prepare for the struggle
The retreats which he managed in th
following years were almost as inspiriD
, as the victories he planned. His must
a waiting game to a great extent, an
. how well he played it history tells. II
compelled England to recognize the trol
BILE as more than a mere insurrectio
and secured thus the rights of ciyilize
) warfare.
How great the odds were against Ge
). Washington can never be rightly est
: mated. Time and again was his arm
on the point OF dssolying away. The
were many true hearts in the Congress
but there were many, also, who still lea
4 ed little towards England. fearing thi
the new order of things would never