{"id":2232,"date":"2021-02-15T17:36:05","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T17:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/?page_id=2232"},"modified":"2021-02-15T17:48:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T17:48:07","slug":"washington-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/washington-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“In preparation for a careful study of Washington’s great political masterpiece, his Farewell Address to the<\/em> People of the United States<\/em>, it will be best to devote most space to a con- sideration of his work as a statesman in the organization and successful beginning of the American nation; yet to compre- hend this phase of his life fully it will be necessary to glance at the principal incidents of his earlier life in Virginia, his exploits in the French and Indian War, and his masterly guid- ance of the colonial troops through the Revolution. It is hardly necessary to mention the date of Washington’s birth, because February 22, 1732, is a date almost as well known as July 4, 1776. For almost a hundred years before Washington was born, his ancestors had been living in Vir- ginia. The place of his birth was at Wakefield, in the colony of Virginia, near the shore of the Potomac River, in a parish named Washington, after the original settler of that name, John Washington, great grandfather of George. Washington’s boy- hood up to the age of sixteen was spent at Wakefield or in it’s vicinity. He lived from 1735 to 1739 on the plan- tation that was later called Mount Vernon. Then the family moved to an estate nearly opposite Fredericksburg, where Washington lived till the death of his father in 1743. After this, for the rest of his boyhood, he was under the care of his mother and his half-brothers, Lawrence and Augustine. When his father’s estates were divided, George went to live at Augustine’s house on the old Wakefield plantation, since that was close to a good school. Returning to his mother’s home, he attended a school kept by tbe Rev. James Marye. The copy books he worked on have been preserved. In them are found copied in a large, round hand over a hundred maxims or rules that no doubt made a strong impression on the high- spirited Virginia boy, – rules of which this is a good speci- men, “Think before you speak; pronounce not imperfectly, nor bring out your words too hastily, but orderly and distinctly.” In these early school days Washington learned the rudiments of surveying. In some of his youthful papers there are neat notes of surveys and accurate geometrical figures done with the utmost care, “The end of Washington’s school days left him, if a good ‘cipherer’, a bad speller, and a still worse gram- marian” [P. L. Ford’s The True George Washington].<\/em> Though living at his mother’s home, Washington often visited at his brother Lawrence’s plantation, Mount Vernon, where he mingled with people much older than himself. Big for his age, an expert horseman, he was a good companion for William Fairfax and Lord Fairfax, the largest property owners in Vir- ginia. From his acquaintance with Lord Fairfax came his first real work. In 1748, just a month after he was sixteen, Washington was chosen by Lord Fairfax to travel beyond the Blue Ridge and find out what he could about the bounds of the Fairfax estates. William Fairfax’s son, George William, who was six years older than Washington, was nominally the leader in the expedition, but to Washington was assigned the actual work of surveying. The trip was not child’s play, by any means, for the two friends were obliged to travel several hundred miles altogether, going and coming, and to rough it all the time. Washington acquitted himself so well in the expedition that on his return he was appointed a public surveyor by the governor of Virginia. The three years that he spent in this work hardened his frame, gave him knowledge of how to deal with difficult problems, taught him the ways of the woods, established his reputation as a reliable, absolutely accurate surveyor, and strengthened in him his early trait of silent self- dependence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpted from “WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS and WEBSTER’S FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION”. Publisher: GINN & COMPANY, Boston, New York, Chicago, London. To be continued: Islander.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“In preparation for a careful study of Washington’s great political masterpiece, his Farewell Address to the People of the United States, it will be best to devote most space to a con- sideration of his work as a statesman in the organization and successful beginning of the American nation; yet to compre- hend this phase … Continue reading “Washington”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2232","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2232"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2234,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2232\/revisions\/2234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}