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Show fAGE SEC jThe Mother of George XT T w asnmgton Hie Nation's Greatest Son WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE Wakefield, M KebuOt by she Wakefield National asaarta Association. , 1 I .s mothers of great men, Washington sought divine guidance through prayer ami through her Kiltie and other deeply religious writing. II 4 associations from early childhood were of a deeply religious nature, for the early settlers stanchly adhered to church doctrine end to the established custom of family prayers. Mary Dall was Iwhued with reverence and religious fervor. This, supplemented by adequate training in domestic routine and her sense of responsibility for the duties of home life, admirably fitted her for the role of motherhood. It was In 1730 that she came as a bride to the Washington home al Bridges Creek, later known as Wake field, which had beeu without a mistress since the death of Jane Butler. Captain Washington's first wife and mother of his three children. The greatest Joy and pride of Mary Washington's life came on February 22, 1732, when her first born was placed In her arms. She chose for her child the name of George in loving regard for her guardian, George an eminent lawyer of Virginia. George was only eleven when his father died but upon him she placed the old patrlarchlal duty of saying grace at table and prayers at night and morning. From this early age his mother expected him to assume and carry such responsibility as the cir cumstances of life brought to him. Under her pious guidance he could not have evaded any service that she deemed his duty. She was a wise and loving mother who set her face against every diversion In life to devote herself en Intlrely to her children. Her entire terest was centered In and revolved around the care and development of the best that was in them. The steady rise of her first born from one position of responsibility to another of leadership was accepted by the "Spartan" mother as a matter of course, as a part of his duty. She is never recorded as praising him. She LIKE other Dall I : !" a 'S;A II ! j 4V V ' .: wa COURAGE, physical and moral, his nature; and, whether In battle or In the midst of popular excitement, he was fearless of danger and regardless of consequences to himself. (Sparks, ,Jared The Life of George Washington, p. 458.) At all times and amid all conditions Washington rang true to the note of a splendid manhood. Hypocrisy and a trafficking in expedients for popular applause no more match with his life than the crime of murder. lie had little of the captivating style of speech or manner but regard for the nobility of his character, rather than any rhetorical art or charm f personal address on Ida part, kept wavering lines from retreat in tattle and from mutiny amid privation nd suffering to which our neglect had xposed the soldiers of the Revolution. (Underwood, Oscar The Career and the Words of Washington, p. 12.) State Society of Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Pa., February 22, 1912.) His Personal Triumph Then came the horrors of Valley Forge and of the winters In Morris county. Those were the days when desertions were many and enlistments were few, when Washington dared not give open battle and there was hardly left to him a place for retreat. Then came the Conway conspiracy, and the ambition of Gates, and the cowardice of Lee and the treason of Arnold, and a aeries of persecutions so petty, so Utter, to malignant, that it is amazing bow Washington survived them. Then, too, came defeats like that at Brandywlne, and battles of uncertain Meaning like that at Monmouth. , . . It Is easy for ns as we read these ssvents in the light of the issue to keep tap our courage and understand the triumph that finally came, but it was very different thins; for Washington. Congress was weak, meddlesome, and vacillating. The soldiers were raw, jndlsdpllned and sometimes mutinous. There were jealousies and libels and forgeries and slanders almost beyond nr present ability to believe. . . . When I recall Washington's calmness o the midst of exasperating annoy knees, his unselfish loyalty when surrounded by cupidity and jealousy and tiatred, Ids faith that put courage Into he hearts of men who marched hungry and left bloody footprints In the snow; when I remember how after sight years of this and .more he raerged victorious, as calm In victory a he bad been serene In defeat, 1 do Mot wonder that Frederick the Great ft) said to have pronounced George Washington's campaign In the Jerslea the most brilliant In military annals. . . (Barton, William E. George Washington.) Shared Men's Suffering Washington did not leave his men jtsd go borne to live la luxury, bat sided with the British crown; nor must we too hastily condemn them. But Washington, who had more to lose than almost any other man In the thirteen colonies, was not blinded by vested interests, nor bound to conserv- atlve action by his wealth and station. For the sake of the country which he loved he suffered Innumerable hardships, was stung by ingratitude and hurt by slander, but he stood firm in his loyalty to the cause he had espoused, and was faithful to the end. (Barton, William R. George Wash lngton.) There is a life that is worth living now, as it was worth living in the former days, and that Is the honest life, the useful life, the unselfish life, cleansed by devotion to an ideal. There is a battle that Is worth fighting now, as It was worth fighting then, and that is the battle for justice and equality. To make our city and our state free In fact as well as in name; to break the rings that strangle real liberty, and to keep them broken; to cleanse, so far as In our power lies, the foundations of our national life from political, commercial, and social corruption; to teach our sons and daughters, by precept and example, the honor of serving such a country as America that Is work worthy of the finest manhood and womanhood. . . . The well educated are those who see deepest Into the meaning and the necessity of that work. Nor shall their labor be for naught, nor the reward of their sacrifice fall them. For high In the firmament of human destiny are set the stars of faith In mankind, and unselfish courage, and loyalty to the ideal; and while they shine, the Americanism of Washington and the men who stood with him shall never, never die. (Van Dyke, Henry The Americanism of Washington, pp. stayed to endure privation with them. Only he who reads his letters written during these trying times can appreciate his troubles and anxieties. (McLaughlin, Andrew C History of the American Nation, p. 6.) Behold him (George Washington) in 1773 taking leave of his family and his home, and hastening to the relief of a distant and then unknown part of America. See him transforming and cementing a band of rustics Into an army. Follow him to the field of battle, and see him first in danger and last out of it. Go with him into Valley Forge, and see him sharing the hunger, the cold, the fatigue of every soldier In the camp. Was there ever such fortitude In adversity? Was there ever such moderation In the hour of victory? (McMaster, John B. History of the People of the United States. Vol. I, p. 4fr.) Washington's Victory there seem t.i be unanimity and accord. That was that the dogged prosecution of th war and the ultimate victory must be credited to George Washington. Others had, fought valiantly and endured hardships and fatigues and gnawing On only one point did suspense, but without him, who never wavered, they could not have gone on. (Thayer, William It. George Wash lngton, p. 123.) The American revolution from a military point of view was a group of little wars rather than a single war. The one Integrating force was the person of the great commander, but George Washington held the army and the cause together by his exhaustless WASHINGTON'S ARMS 70-72- Man of Firm Friendships The chief thought that runs through all the sayings Is to practice l, and no man ever displayed that most difficult of virtues to such a degree as George Washington. (Lodge, Henry C. George Washington (American Statesmen) Vol. I, p. 51.) Solitude, indeed. Is the last quality that an Intelligent student of his career would ascribe to him. Dignified and reserved he was undoubtedly; and as this manner was natural to him, he won more true friends by using It than if he had disguised himself in a forced familiarity and worn his heart upon his sleeve. But from first to last he was a man who did his work In the bonds of companionship, who trusted his comrades In the great enterprise even though they were not bis intimates, and who neither sought nor occupied a lonely eminence of unshared glory. (Van Dyke, Henry The Americanism of Washington, pp. Ills passions were strong, and soma. times they broke out with vehemence. but he had the power of checking them in an Instant. Perhaps was the most remarkable trait of his character. It was In part the effect of bis discipline; yet he seems by nature to have possessed the power to a degree which has been denied to other men. (Sparks, Jared The Life of George Washington, p. 400.) self-contro- patience and courage rather than by any comprehensive plan wfwar. (Mux-seDavid S. History of the Ameri- y, can Teople, p. 130.) To Washington no duty, however obscure, was unimportant, and no deviation from duty, however trifling, was possible. (Hoar, George F. Washington, p. SI.) (Chicago, February 23, self-contr- 1903.) Put Patriotism First Washington was an incorruptible paHe was one ef the few rich uts who was not a Tory. A very large proportion of men of large means MOTHER WASHINGTON'S Mary Bali Washington, From a Portrait Mads at the Time f Her Marriage. took his superb valor nnder fire, his unfailing patriotism, all in his day's work. Her fear for his safety was put aside in the challenge she gave herself "The mothers of brave men must themselves be brave." General Washington's election to the Presidency, the first Executive of the young Republic, brought no added elation to his mother. It was his duty. She saw nothing else for him to do. When he came to tell her of it, all his future honors were shadowed by her realization that this was her last meet- Ing with the child of her heart Her mother love sought to enfold bim In all the love, protection, and security that her prayers and blessings could Invoke. Mary Bali Washington typifies the highest example of American motherhood and is a most Illustrious prototype of Colonial home maker. Like Martha of old, she attended well to the ways of her household. MOUNT VERNON triot j birthplace of long reWashington mained a desolate and deserted spot on the banks of the Totomac, set in the most beautiful environment of nature, but with no one there, save a few sim ple negro folk and ghosts of the past, to tell its significance. In the past the site has not been easy to find. Lying some 100 miles south of the National Capital. Wakefield was not shown on the maps. There was little or no information available about this historic spot was born and where Washington where he spent the greater part of his boyhood. Known by few, It was difficult to get to except by water. In the colonial era, civilization followed the waterways, and the homes of the plantation owners along the Potomac were built upon some inviting epot close to its shores. The broad river was their artery of commerce. Wakefield burned before railroads and highIt was ways supplanted the river. never rebuilt, so when highways came they passed Wakefield by. So the birthplace remained, neglected and forlorn, until only a few years ago when the Wakefield National Memorial association was formed with the purpose of building, on the original site as exact "a replica of the house In which Washington was born as painstaking research and tedious study would enable it, and to restore the vast acres of the plantation to something more of Its size of Washington's boyhood. House a Mansion. To reconstruct the home was a task For many of no easy proportion. years very little reliable Information was obtainable as to the size and character of the old structure. There were a variety of opinions extant. Some contended It had been a cabin; others, a mansion. Some thought It was made of wood ; others that it was of brick, and still others that it was a structure of combined wood and brick construction. After considerable study, however, experts of the association arrived at what they believe to be the truth that the structure was built of Colonial brick of home manufacture. Excavations on the site established the nature of the construction and the type of brick used. The bricks for the new Wakefield are being produced from the original clay pit on the Wakefield estate. Research also established that the house was a mansion of considerable proportions, after the style of the big Virginia plantation homes of that period. Old Colonial Family. Many of the original furnishings, saved from the fire, are still In the hands of descendants of the family remaining in the neighborhood of the old mansion. These have been turned over to the association. The state of Virginia has constructed a road to the site and the federal government hat been asked to dredge and Improve the harbor and to reconstruct the wharf In order to accommodate visitors by boat from the Potomac The Washington family first settled at Wakefield In 1065, a full century Col. John before the Revolution, of the Washington, President, had come to Westmoreland, Va., In 1C30. He died and was burled there in 1676. Maj. Lawrence Washington and Maj. John Washington, his tons, succeeded him. ,k Afte?. their marriages the family lived on separate parts of the Wakefield estate until the house in which great-grandfath- er -- i V V J V1 VW.WS Seen Through the Treee, Frata the NatiuMi CapitoU Praaa ( Agrlcoltura As xlu'Wln:.' his :t:t',lui1e toward farm- is UoteU as saying: moat healthful, the the "Agriculture mot useful and the moot honorable f irnn." employment ing, Washington Is - George Washington was born burned. After that the Washlngtons centlnued In other houses on the same land, and descendants still live on part of the same Wakefield estate a continuous possession, in whole or In part for 264 .) ' The Esk-rldg- This portrait of Ceorgs Wishing ton, highly prized possession ot Marshall Solberg, Chicago, is claimed by him to hava been painted by Cilbert Stuart. It bears the year 1794, and is signet by the master in an inconspicuous way. Some have thought that the earliest "Stuart Washington" was painted In 179S, but such is not the case, (or John Jay gave Gilbert Stuart a Utter to Washington which Stuart delivered while congress was m session In the year 1794 and Stuart refers to this in correspondence with relatives. It was then that one of the three settings occurred. There were many portraits of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart, but there were only three sittings, so that many ml the portraits were copied by Stuart from either completed pictures or sketches. It was, of course, not entirely unusual lor great painter to snake preliminary sketches of their subjects, although they did on many occasions entirely complete their paintings at sittings. This latter fsracodur was followed, it la thought, by Gilbert Stuart in this portrait. If this is so. It stands unique among the "Stuart W aldingtons." According to a volume In Mr. Solberg's library, Gilbert Stuart admired this picture so much that he retained it himself and would not art with it for many years thereafter. When It landed in the hands of Congressman Gilbert of western New York he loved it so much that ha asked that it might be the last object for bim to gaxa upon in this life. Washington, Man, Patriot, Statesman - 'J r O Wakefield Made Shrine Worthy Its Memory years eight generations. Mount Vernon Estate. It was at Wakefield, then, that George Washington was born, February 22, 1732. Between three and four years later the family moved to their estate of 2,500 acres which embraced the present Mount Vernon. There Washington passed about four years of bis boyhood. Then his parentsAugustine Washington and his second wife, ?fary Ball, a member of ajtother early Virginia family moved te aa estate In King George county, about two Billet east of Fredericks burg. There his father died, In 1743. His half brother, Lawrence Washington, with whom George was a great favorite, Inherited Mount Vernon; another half brother, Augustine, Jr., received Wakefield as his patrimony and George was to have still another farm when he grew up. Mrs. Washington retained the King George county es- tate. As there was a good school near Wakefield, and none near his mother's estate, George spent much of his time ut Wakefield until he was sixteen years old, when he returned to Mount Vernon, Lawrence, upon his death, having left him the estate. Incidental to the restoration of Wakefield there has been a better appreciation gained of the circumstances of Washington's family. Much of our own American story has grown out of the old Weems biography, published death. shortly after Washington's That gave us the cherry tree story and other incidents of his life, many of which were doubtlessly true. It pictured Washington as springing from a" ivy iiucuge uuu uutiu& mat sun vl a cultural background well calculated to produce a man who would lead the revolt against monarchial oppression. Family of Aristocrats. The truth of the matter as these researches show, is that Washington's-forbearwere intense royalists and closely allied to the house of Stuart s AT HIS BIRTHPLACE f I (ft ft 1 4 "ZM.J If fl &Tt llTlt if tlffi 1 1 I 1 h Pedestal of Monument Erected in the Craundo-a- t Wakefield, to Mark Sacred Spot. fact, It was their close adherence to the royal household and the consequent oppression of the Cromwell followers that forced Col , John Wash- -' lngton to leave bis rich estates In England and flee to the shores of Virginia. Thomas Washington, an uncle of the founder of the American family, was attached to the court of Charles L which gave the family a secure social standing In England. He accompanied! his sovereign to Spain, where he died and was buried on the grounds of the British embassy. A brother of Thomas, and father of the man who fled to America, was Rev. Lawrence Washington, proctor of Oxford university; one of the chief royalist stronghold! in England. As far back as the family history goes In England, the Washing tons belonged to the aristocratic landed gentry and were fervent supporters of the throne. So, too, with the At Wakefield, I American branch. Washington's youth, the stables held upward of thirty riding horses. Julia rcaiuiuuuu wi usiorou eVVf the nation another Washington shrine, second only to the beautirui home to which he retired after his years of honorable service both In war and peace had won for bim the title, "Father of His Country." Kansas City Times. Standard of Excallaac Washington was born a Virginian and died an American. The last public address be made to his countrymen contained an appeal to exalt, "American," which belonged to them In their national capacity, above all appellations derived from local discriminations. The name that be left Is not only incomparably the greatest to which all classes and sections of his own country can as yet pay equal tribute; but for a century and a half It has been to the whole world n byword for liberty and unselfish public service and Detroit Frea Press. Note far tha Cabby When another speaks be attentive yourself and disturb not the audience. George Washington. |