Show THE STORY or BY THE installment 11 the opening of the year had found washington la a very genial humor his letters touched with pleasantry and gossip our celebrated fortune miss french whom half the world was in pursuit of he wrote in february to colonel hassett bestowed her hand on wednesday last being her birthday you perceive I 1 think myself under a necessity of accounting for the choice on mr ben dulany who Is to take her to maryland mentioning of one wedding puts me in mind of another and so through the news of miss more remarkable tor a very frizzled head and good singing and the rest of the neighbor hood talk trouble at mount vernon but the year turned out very sad one for him he had been scarcely ten days back from new york when patsy custas whom he loved as bis own daughter died it called forth all the latent christian faith of the thoughtful steadfast man to withstand the shock and master jack custas the girls wayward brother gave him little but anxiety he would not study tor all washington was so solicitous he should have the liberalizing outlook of books and be made fit tor more use tul purposes than horse racer and though he was but twenty could hard ly be induced to see the year out at college before getting married the boston tea party it was no doubt very well that public affairs of the first consequence 1 called washington B mind imperative ly off from these private anxieties which could not but be dwarfed in the presence of transactions which threat ened to shake the continent As the year drew on the govern ment in england undertook to force cargoes of the east india company s tea into the ports when all resisted and boston more forward even than the rest threw three hundred and forty odd chests of tea into the bar bor acts passed parliament giving dangerous increase of power to the governor of massachusetts and dl reeling that boston port be closed to all commerce on and after the first day of june and it became evident that vigorous action must be taken in response A day of prayer and fasting the burgesses in virginia may 1774 resolved that june ast 1st should be set apart as a day of fasting and prayer prayer that civil war might be averted and the people of america united in a common cause again dunmore dissolved them but they gathered in the long room of th raleigh tavern and there resolved to urge a congress of all the colonies and to call a convention for virginia to meet at that place on the first day of august to take action for the col ony dines with lord dunmore they showed no spleen towards the governor washington dined with him the very day of the dissolution spent the evening at the palace even rode out with him to his farm on the tol lowing morning and breakfasted there and the burgesses did not fall to give the ball they had planned in honor of lady dunmore and her daughters on the evening the day they had held their meeting in the appolo room at the but there were tasting and prayer on the ast 1st of june the convention met on the first day of august very outspoken resolutions were adopted and peyton randolph richard henry lee patrick henry richard bland admund pendleton george washing ton and benjamin harrlson were dl erected to attend the congress of the colonies appointed to meet in phil adelph la on the fifth day of septem her sets out for congress when the time came for the jour ney henry and joined wash ington at mount vernon it must have been with many grave thoughts that the three companions got to horse and turned to ride through the long august day towards the north in the congress of 1774 the leaders of virginia were for the first time brought into face to face conference with the men of other colonies in 1765 fauquier Fau quler had dissolved the burgesses with such sharp despatch upon the passage of mr henrys reso lations lut ions that they were all gone home before the call tor a congress to act upon the stamp duties could reach them the patriot leader independent but in 1774 they were not to be BO cheated they had themselves issued the call for a congress this time and dissolution could not drive them home their leader could at least linger at the raleigh and concert means to have their way house or no house A convention took the place of the assembly ad seven leading members of the house were sent to philadel ehla with as full authority to speak and act for the colony as it the bur gesses themselves bad commissioned them mr harrlson declared in philadel ehla that be would have come on toot rather than not come and quiet richard bland that he would have gone it it had been to jericho colonel II arrison struck his new colleagues from the north as a bit rough in his tree southern speech and manner and mr seemed to them a plain sensible man such as would be more given to study than to agitation it such men artless and steady as any downright country gentleman 0 old england held so high a fancy for the business of the congress it was easy to conclude what the hastier younger men would be likely to plan and do and the massachusetts dele gates found themselves greatly heart eneff john adams thomas cushing sam uel adams and robert treat balne were the representatives of massa chu it was their people who had most provoked parliament to be high handed and aggressive the struggle with he ministry at home had taken shape in boston it had come to actual rot there all the continent and all england had seen how stubborn was the temper how in corrigible the spirit of resistance in that old seat of the puritan power al was hard set and proud in its self willed resolution tobe independent and all eyes were turned now upon cushing and balne and this brace of adamsey Ad amses who had come it was thought to hurry the congress into radical courses kindness applause hospitality studied and expensive respect had attended them at every stage of their long ride from boston to philadelphia great excitement over congress the country was much stirred by the prospect 0 a general congress of committees at philadelphia and the delegates from massachusetts were greeted as they passed even more gen the rest because their people had been the first to suffer in this bad business because their chief port at boston was closed and radco cited sentries were on their streets it behooved the massachusetts men however not to suffer themselves to be misled many looked upon them askance some disturbed them ly their own hotheaded mob had provoked the massacre of which they made so much they hart wan tonly private property when they threw the tea into harbor to show the government their spirit suspicious of new englanders Cn there had been more than a touch of violence more than a little lence and a vast deal of radical and revolutionary talk in all that they had done and the colonies were full vet of men who had no tolerance for any thing that transgressed were it never so little the moderate limits of con agitation there Is an opinion which does in some degree obtain in the other colonies that the massachusetts gentle men and especially of the town of boston do affect to dictate and take the lead in continental measures that we are apt from an inyard vanity and self conceit to assume big and haughty airs said joseph haw ley who for all he had grown old aa a quiet massachusetts lawyer among his neighbors had kept 1 Is shrewd eyes abroad it Is highly probable he told john adams with a wholesome bluntness ahat you will meet gentle men from several of the other colo ales fully equal to i ourselves or any of you in their knowledge of great britain the colonies law hestor hl stor gov commerce by what we from time to time see in the public papers and what our assembly and committees have received from the assemblies and committees of the more southern colonies we must be satisfied that they have men of as much sense and literature as any we can or ever could boast of advised to be prudent it was more counsel of prudence that they should play their part in the congress with modesty and discretion bisot cushing and balne but the adamsey carried the strength of the massachusetts delegation and it was samuel adams rather than john who was just now the effective master in the great bay colony master of puppets his enemies called him hale bluff adroit plain a iran of the people he had grown old in the business of agitation fifty two years he had lived planning always tor others never or himself he had never looked forward in his life he frankly said never planned laid a scheme or framed a design of laying up anything tor himself or others aft er him had let all his private bust ness go neglected and lived upon the petty salary of a small public office the indulgence of fortune and the good offices of the friends and neigh bora who loved him the matter of puppets he was in philadelphia now wear ing the plain suit and spending the modest purse with which his friends and partisans had fitted him out the very impersonation of the revolution men were beginning so to fear no man had ever daunted him neither could any corrupt him was possessed with the instinct ot aal led the people not the lead ers cared not for place but only for power showed a mastery of means a self containment a capacity for timely and telling speech that mark ed him a statesman though he loved the rough ways of a peoples govern ment and preferred the fierce demo cracy ot the town meeting to the sober dignity of senates like an eagle in bis high building and strength of audacious flight but in instinct and habit a bird of the storm not over nice what he did not too scrupulous what he devised he was yet not self ish loved the principles be bad given his life to and spent himself without limit to see ahem triumph another kind of adams john adams his cousin was of a very different mould a younger man by thirteen years no man of the peo pie but with a taste rather tor the ex elusive claims of education and breed ing self regardful a thought too cal too quick witted to be pa alent with dull men too self conscious to be at ease with great ones and yet public spirited withal and gener ous in action it not in judgment of great powers it only he could manage to use them without jealousy samuel adams thought only of his end not of himself seldom spoke of himself indeed seemed a sort of subtle engine for the people s bus ness john adams thought of himself always and yet mastered himself to play a great part with the nobility of a man of genius if not with the grace of a man of modesty and self forgetful devotion for the time he could even hold back with his wily cousin resign leadership in the congress to virginia and act in all things the wise part of those who follow A situation full of peril it was a circumstance full of peril that the delegates of the several colonies should at such a juncture be strangers to one another and provan bials all nowhere bred to continental f affairs only since the passage of the stamp act had they taken any thought for each other there was no assur ance that even the best leaders of a colony could rise to the statesman s view and concert measures to insure the peace of an empire rising law ers like john adams brusque planters like colonel harrison well todo to do merchants like thomas might bring all honesty and good intention to the task and yet miserably fall A provincial law practice the easy as tendency cen dency of a provincial country gen aleman the narrow round of provan caal trade might afford capable men opportunity to become enlightened citizens but hardly fitted them to be statesmen delegates become acquainted the leal first business of the dele gates was to become acquainted and to learn how to live in the foreign parts to which most of them had come there was a continual round of entertainment in the hospitable town therefore a universal exchange of courtesies a rush of visiting and dining a flow of excellent wine a rich abundance of good cheer such as for a while made the occasion seem one of festivity rather than of anxious counsel many of the delegates had come to town a week or more before the date set for the congress and had settled to an acquaintance before it was time to effect an organization but the gen from maryland and virginia more familiar with the journey arrived almost upon the day make a good impression they made an instant impression upon their new colleagues john adams promptly declared them the most spirited and consistent of any and deemed mr I 1 ee particularly a masterly man joseph s pre diction was fulfilled the virginia and indeed all the southern delegates appear ake men of importance said silas deane I 1 never met nor scarcely had an idea of meeting with men of such firmness sensibility spirit and thorough knowledge of the inter ests of america mr lynch of south carolina though he wore the manu facture of this country and was in all things plain sensible above cere mony seemed to mr deane to carry with him more force la ahli very p than moat powdered folk in their conversation the high bearint and capacity ot the southern delegates came upon the new england men like a great sur prise where they bad expected to sea rustic they found men of elegance and learning but there was in fact no good rea son to wonder at the natural leader ship ot these men their life had bred them more liberally than others it required a much more various ca and knowledge of the world t administer a great property and arr the life of a local magnate in th south than sufficed to put a man at the front of trade or of legal in boston or new york or philadel ehla the southern colonies besides had lived more in sympathy with the life of the empire than had their northern neighbors their life had depended directly upon that of england hitherto and had partaker partaken par taken of it with a con slant zest they had no rival trade they bad wanted no rival government the general air of the wide had blown in all ordinary through their affairs and they had cut none of that shrewd antano elsm toward the home government which had so sharpened the wits and narrowed the political interests of best men in new england reasons for virginias primacy they had read law because the were men of business without carini too much about its niceties or mean ing to practice it in litigation they had read their english history with out feeling that they were se from it their passion for freedom was born not of local feeling so much as of personal pride and the spirit ol 01 those who love old practices and the just exemptions of an ancient consal gutlon it was the life they had lived an the conceptions of personal and immemorial privilege that bad gone always with it that gave then so striking an air of mastery it wa not simply because the massachusetts delegates kept themselves prudently in the background and the rest yield ed to her pretensions that virginia was accorded primacy in the con grass it was also because her representatives senta tives wee men to whom power naturally fell and because she had won so honorable a place of leaden ship already in the common affairs ol 01 the continent washington not a leader colonel washington striking and forcible man tl ough he was did not figure as a leader among the virginian delegates peyton randolph was elected dent of the congress richard henry lee and paerl k henry stood forth aa the virginian leaders on the floor it you speak ol 01 solid information and sound judgment colonel V ashling ton Is unquestionably the greatest man on that floor aas henrys confident ai d generous verdict but washington was no politician and did not stand in exactly the same class with the rest he had headed committees and presided over popular meetings amon his own neighbors in fairfax and had been prompt to join them in speaking with high spirit against the course ol 01 the ministry in england he had been forward in urging and punctilio iolj careful in practicing non importation he had declared gage |