Washington and his Comrades in Arms | Page 7

for hogsheads of molasses and rum and writing that
the man would bring a good price, "if kept clean and trim'd up a little
when offered for sale."
In early life Washington had had very little of formal education. He
knew no language but English. When he became world famous and his
friend La Fayette urged him to visit France he refused because he
would seem uncouth if unable to speak the French tongue. Like another
great soldier, the Duke of Wellington, he was always careful about his
dress. There was in him a silent pride which would brook nothing
derogatory to his dignity. No one could be more methodical. He kept
his accounts rigorously, entering even the cost of repairing a hairpin for
a ward. He was a keen farmer, and it is amusing to find him recording
in his careful journal that there are 844,800 seeds of "New River Grass"
to the pound Troy and so determining how many should be sown to the
acre. Not many youths would write out as did Washington, apparently
from French sources, and read and reread elaborate "Rules of Civility
and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation." In the fashion
of the age of Chesterfield they portray the perfect gentleman. He is
always to remember the presence of others and not to move, read, or
speak without considering what may be due to them. In the true spirit
of the time he is to learn to defer to persons of superior quality.
Tactless laughter at his own wit, jests that have a sting of idle gossip,
are to be avoided. Reproof is to be given not in anger but in a sweet and
mild temper. The rules descend even to manners at table and are a
revelation of care in self-discipline. We might imagine Oliver
Cromwell drawing up such rules, but not Napoleon or Wellington.
The class to which Washington belonged prided itself on good birth
and good breeding. We picture him as austere, but, like Oliver
Cromwell, whom in some respects he resembles, he was very human in

his personal relations. He liked a glass of wine. He was fond of dancing
and he went to the theater, even on Sunday. He was, too, something of
a lady's man; "He can be downright impudent sometimes," wrote a
Southern lady, "such impudence, Fanny, as you and I like." In old age
he loved to have the young and gay about him. He could break into
furious oaths and no one was a better master of what we may call
honorable guile in dealing with wily savages, in circulating falsehoods
that would deceive the enemy in time of war, or in pursuing a business
advantage. He played cards for money and carefully entered loss and
gain in his accounts. He loved horseracing and horses, and nothing
pleased him more than to talk of that noble animal. He kept hounds and
until his burden of cares became too great was an eager devotee of
hunting. His shooting was of a type more heroic than that of an English
squire spending a day on a moor with guests and gamekeepers and
returning to comfort in the evening. Washington went off on
expeditions into the forest lasting many days and shared the life in the
woods of rough men, sleeping often in the open air. "Happy," he wrote,
"is he who gets the berth nearest the fire." He could spend a happy day
in admiring the trees and the richness of the land on a neighbor's estate.
Always his thoughts were turning to the soil. There was poetry in him.
It was said of Napoleon that the one approach to poetry in all his
writings is the phrase: "The spring is at last appearing and the leaves
are beginning to sprout." Washington, on the other hand, brooded over
the mysteries of life. He pictured to himself the serenity of a calm old
age and always dared to look death squarely in the face. He was
sensitive to human passion and he felt the wonder of nature in all her
ways, her bounteous response in growth to the skill of man, the delight
of improving the earth in contrast with the vain glory gained by
ravaging it in war. His most striking characteristics were energy and
decision united often with strong likes and dislikes. His clever secretary,
Alexander Hamilton, found, as he said, that his chief was not
remarkable for good temper and resigned his post because of an
impatient rebuke. When a young man serving in the army of Virginia,
Washington had many a tussle with the obstinate Scottish Governor,
Dinwiddie, who thought his vehemence unmannerly and ungrateful.
Gilbert Stuart, who painted several of his portraits, said that his features
showed strong passions and that, had he