Evening star., 1934-02-18


fathers of our country seek place in
a Government bureau Individual
i<m's opportunity in Virginia spelled
land. Washington learned surveying
For three years before he was 81 he
surveyed and explored the frontier.
He crossed streams no white man had
ever crossed, he followed trails that
only Indian moccasins had trod, he
broke away from them into virgin
forests and up mountain sides. He
learned the location of rich land and
the best avenues of approach for fu-
ture settlement.
Young paternal pathflnders of to-
day ought to agree that he was real
pathfinder for his day, and now en-
titled to individualism's B. A. in the
college of experience. He had learned
men, from Indian chiefs-those orig
inal American Northumberland
lean frontiersmen and trappers and
small settlers on the wilderness fringe
to the rich planters OF the tidewater
aristocracy and the elders of the
House of Burgesses.
When. in the Autumn of 1853, Gov.
Dinwiddie of Virginia wanted to serve
notice on the French Governor, Du-
uuesne, to arrest the southwark
march of the French from their out
posts into the Ohio Valley he did not
choose a commission of elders and
young blades about his court for the
mission. They would have got the
Group or been massacred by Indians
before they were halfway to the Ohio.
Turned to Youth Of FL.
To make that cruel Winter journey
he turned to the youth of 81 whose re-
sourcefulness and fortitude had al
ready been tested. The talk in Will
liamSburg, the Virginia capital, was
that the daShing George would never
be able to deliver the Governors let
ter-or, if he did, he would never re-
turn with the answer.
No passport that Dinwiddie could
give him, in the Kings name, would
help him through the regions occupied
by French squawmen and savages
sympathetic with the French. He per-
suaded chief to assign him Indian
guides, whose loyalty and tenacity
must depend upon further adroit
handling.
He reached the goal, and they with
him. His bearing carried the address
and dignity of imperial England when
he delivered the letter.
Then-how to get back to Williams
| burg in the dead of winter? His
power over the savage mind could not
prevail against cabin warmth and the
persuasion of French gifts and
brandy. His Indians deserted him.
He had one companion, a veteran
frontierSman who had been linked to
him in friendship before this mission.
| Behind the polite adieu they re-
ceived at the last French outpost was
the conviction that they were certain
of death from hostile tomahawks if not
from starvation or exposure. To avoid
Indians lying in wait for them on the
usual trails they cut across unknown
country and over the field of action,
his was a majestic and well placed
wrath.
But the trail and battle-worn mill
tiamen, ragged and on short rations,
who had marched and fought in vain
as they retraced their steps with
sore feet-they would hear no word
against him. They brought back their
expert opinion to influence home
opinion. A burgess had only to look
at that young Washington-not the
Washington with the prestige of the
Revolution behind him. but Wash
ington in defeat-to see that no one
could have done better than he. The
House gave him vote OF thanks.
Prevented Complete Disaster.
And who. If not a man of young
Washington's experience, would Gen.
Braddock want with him as he led
his British regulars and the Colonial
militia against the French? Brad
dock, however, failed to profit by
Washingtons experience. He was am
bushed. How Washington in quick
mastery of the situation and with
fiery energy rallied the troops and
prevented complete disaster is not yet
eliminated from our schoolbooks.
There were no jests about him after
this defeat. He had become a hero
in England and up and down the At
lantic Coast. While Adams and JEFF
ferson had local regulations, only
Benjamin Franklin was as well known
throughout the Colonies This is an
other fact we sometimes forget about
Westinghouse we do his next task,
which was further preparation for his
ordeal at Valley Forge and which
gave him serene poise that he i'm
parted to others through ups and
downs Of spirit and fortunes.
Winter and Summer he rode back
and forth from outpost to outpost
along 300 miles of frontier, which he
guarded with 700 men-less than
three to mile. They we're men who
had been accustomed to gathering to
punish Indians for a raid, afterward
returning to their cabins. Now Wash
ington won them in common action
to protect their castles from enemy
raids, to protect their rights to the
lands which the French claimed. By
this time he had certainly earned his
Phi D. in individualism.
Before the end of the war he had
compensation for his labors-he was
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