University of Virginia Library

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GEORGE
WASHINGTON.

THIS day, many years ago precisely,
George Washington was born. How
full of significance the thought! Especially
to those among us who have had a
similar experience, though subsequently; and
still more especially to the young, who should
take him for a model, and faithfully try to
be like him, undeterred by the frequency with
which the same thing has been attempted by
American youths before them and not satisfactorily
accomplished. George Washington
was the youngest of nine children, eight of
whom were the offspring of his uncle and his
aunt. As a boy, he gave no promise of the
greatness he was one day to achieve. He
was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments
of youth. He could not even lie. But
then he never had any of those precious advantages

which are within the reach of the humblest
of the boys of the present day. Any boy
can lie now. I could lie before I could stand—
yet this sort of sprightliness was so common in
our family that little notice was taken of it.
Young George appears to have had no sagacity
whatever. It is related of him that he once
chopped down his father's favorite cherry-tree,
and then didn't know enough to keep dark
about it. He came near going to sea once, as a
midshipman; but when his mother represented
to him that he must necessarily be absent when
he was away from home, and that this must
continue to be the case until he got back, the
sad truth struck him so forcibly that he ordered
his trunk ashore, and quietly but firmly
refused to serve in the navy and fight the battles
of his king so long as the effect of it would
be to discommode his mother. The great rule
of his life was, that procrastination was the
thief of time, and that we should always do
unto others somehow. This is the golden
rule. Therefore, he would never discommode
his mother.

Young George Washington was actuated in
all things by the highest and purest principles

of morality, justice, and right. He was a
model in every way worthy of the emulation
of youth. Young George was always prompt
and faithful in the discharge of every duty. It
has been said of him, by the historian, that he
was always on hand, like a thousand of brick.
And well deserved was this compliment. The
aggregate of the building material specified
might have been largely increased—might have
been doubled, even—without doing full justice
to these high qualities in the subject of this
sketch. Indeed, it would hardly be possible
to express in bricks the exceeding promptness
and fidelity of young George Washington. His
was a soul whose manifold excellencies were
beyond the ken and computation of mathematics,
and bricks are, at the least, but an inadequate
vehicle for the conveyance of a comprehension
of the moral sublimity of a nature
so pure as his.

Young George W. was a surveyor in early
life—a surveyor of an inland port—a sort of
county surveyor; and under a commission from
Governor Dinwiddie, he set out to survey his
way four hundred miles through trackless forests,
infested with Indians, to procure the liberation

of some English prisoners. The historian
says the Indians were the most depraved of
their species, and did nothing but lay for white
men, whom they killed for the sake of robbing
them. Considering that white men only traveled
through the country at the rate of one a
year, they were probably unable to do what
might be termed a land-office business in their
line. They did not rob young G. W.; one
savage made the attempt, but failed; he fired
at the subject of this sketch from behind a tree,
but the subject of this sketch immediately
snaked him out from behind the tree and took
him prisoner.

The long journey failed of success; the
French would not give up the prisoners, and
Wash went sadly back home again. A regiment
was raised to go and make a rescue, and
he took command of it. He caught the French
out in the rain and tackled them with great intrepidity.
He defeated them in ten minutes,
and their commander handed in his checks.
This was the battle of Great Meadows.

After this, a good while, George Washington
became Commander-in-Chief of the American
armies, and had an exceedingly dusty time of

it all through the Revolution. But every now
and then he turned a Jack from the bottom
and surprised the enemy. He kept up his lick
for seven long years, and hazed the British
from Harrisburg to Halifax—and America was
free! He served two terms as President, and
would have been President yet if he had lived
—even so did the people honor the Father of
his Country. Let the youth of America take
his incomparable character for a model, and
try it one jolt, any how. Success is possible
—let them remember that—success is possible,
though there are chances against it.

I could continue this biography with profit
to the rising generation, but I shall have to
drop the subject at present, because of other
matters which must be attended to.