The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 - Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War - which Established the Independence of his Country and First - President of the United States

John Marshall

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• Publié par: epsie
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 18
• Langue: English
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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5), by
John Marshall
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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Title: The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5)
Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War
which Established the Independence of his Country and First
President of the United States
Author: John Marshall
Release Date: June 15, 2006 [EBook #18591]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON ***
Produced by Linda Cantoni and David Widger
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations General Washington
From the full length portrait by John Trumbull at Yale University
This portrait is one of 54 canvasses the artist presented
to Yale University in return for an annuity of $1,000.
Washington was in his forty-third year and it is
considered the best likeness of him at the outbreak of
the Revolution. The canvas depicts him, "six feet two
inches in height, with brown hair, blue eyes, large head
and hands, and strong arms."
THE
LIFE
OF
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
COMMANDER IN CHIEF
OF THE
AMERICAN FORCES,
DURING THE WAR WHICH ESTABLISHED THE
INDEPENDENCE OF HIS COUNTRY,AND
FIRST PRESIDENT
OF THE
UNITED STATES.
COMPILED UNDER THE INSPECTION OF
THE HONOURABLE BUSHROD WASHINGTON,
FROM
ORIGINAL PAPERS
BEQUEATHED TO HIM BY HIS DECEASED
RELATIVE, AND NOW IN POSSESSION OF THE
AUTHOR.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,
AN INTRODUCTION,
CONTAINING A COMPENDIOUS VIEW OF THE
COLONIES PLANTED BY THE ENGLISH ON THE
CONTINENT OF NORTH AMERICA,
FROM THEIR SETTLEMENT TO THE
COMMENCEMENT OF THAT WAR WHICH
TERMINATED IN THEIR
INDEPENDENCE.
BY JOHN MARSHALL.
VOL. I.
THE CITIZENS' GUILD
OF WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD HOME
FREDERICKSBURG, VA.
1926
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
IN his will George Washington bequeathed to his favorite nephew,
Bushrod Washington, his personal letters, private papers and secret
documents accumulated during a lifetime of service to his country.
When the bequest became known, many of the literary men of the
country were proposed for the commission to write the authorized life
of our First President.
Bushrod Washington's choice fell upon John Marshall, Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court. To him he handed over all the precious papers
left him by his distinguished relative. George Washington and
Marshall's father, Thomas Marshall, were boyhood companions, so
John Marshall knew "the Father of His Country" as a neighbor and
friend from his earliest youth, and served under him in the Revolution.
If it be true that it takes a great man to interpret the life of a great man
then Bushrod Washington made no mistake in the selection of abiographer. For Marshall, under the influence of Washington, came to
be nearly as great a man as the character whose life and
achievements held his deepest thought for nearly a quarter of a
century. Certainly his services to his country rank close to
Washington's. Marshall's sympathetic understanding of his subject,
his first-hand knowledge of events with his remarkable powers of
expression qualified him to produce the masterpiece that has come
down to us.
Seven years were spent in preparing the first edition, published in
1804-07. The work was based chiefly on Washington's own diaries
and letters and secret archives and it told not simply the epic story of
this great life but the truth about the birth of our nation. Marshall later
spent fifteen years revising the first edition, verifying to the last detail
every chapter, page and paragraph of his monumental work.
The first edition, published by C.P. Wayne of Philadelphia, was an
achievement in beautiful printing and bookmaking and still stands out
today as such. The present publishers have followed the format of the
original edition but have used the revised text which Marshall spent
so many years in perfecting.
Washington's personality lives on in John Marshall's great biography.
He still has the power to raise up men to greatness as he did during
his lifetime. The precepts, the principles and the shining example of
this foremost of self-educated, self-made Americans have the power
to uplift and start toward new heights of achievement, all who come in
contact with him. The work is now reissued in the hope that it may
give his countrymen of the present day the benefit of the counsel, the
guidance and the inspiration that has proven so valuable in the past.
February 22nd, 1926.
PREFACE
BY THE AUTHOR
A DESIRE to know intimately those illustrious personages, who have
performed a conspicuous part on the great theatre of the world, is,
perhaps, implanted in every human bosom. We delight to follow them
through the various critical and perilous situations in which they have
been placed, to view them in the extremes of adverse and prosperous
fortune, to trace their progress through all the difficulties they have
surmounted, and to contemplate their whole conduct, at a time when,
the power and the pomp of office having disappeared, it may be
presented to us in the simple garb of truth.
If among those exalted characters which are produced in every age,
none can have a fairer claim to the attention and recollection of
mankind than those under whose auspices great empires have been
founded, or political institutions deserving to be permanent,
established; a faithful representation of the various important events
connected with the life of the favourite son of America, cannot be
unworthy of the general regard. Among his own countrymen it will
unquestionably excite the deepest interest.
As if the chosen instrument of Heaven, selected for the purpose of
effecting the great designs of Providence respecting this our western
hemisphere, it was the peculiar lot of this distinguished man, at every
epoch when the destinies of his country seemed dependent on the
measures adopted, to be called by the united voice of his fellow
citizens to those high stations on which the success of those
measures principally depended. It was his peculiar lot to be equally
useful in obtaining the independence, and consolidating the civil
institutions, of his country. We perceive him at the head of her armies,during a most arduous and perilous war on the events of which her
national existence was staked, supporting with invincible fortitude the
unequal conflict. That war being happily terminated, and the political
revolutions of America requiring that he should once more relinquish
his beloved retirement, we find him guiding her councils with the
same firmness, wisdom, and virtue, which had, long and successfully,
been displayed in the field. We behold him her chief magistrate at a
time when her happiness, her liberty, perhaps her preservation
depended on so administering the affairs of the Union, that a
government standing entirely on the public favour, which had with
infinite difficulty been adopted, and against which the most inveterate
prejudices had been excited, should conciliate public opinion, and
acquire a firmness and stability that would enable it to resist the rude
shocks it was destined to sustain. It was too his peculiar fortune to
afford the brightest examples of moderation and patriotism, by
voluntarily divesting himself of the highest military and civil honours
when the public interests no longer demanded that he should retain
them. We find him retiring from the head of a victorious and
discontented army which adored him, so soon as the object for which
arms had been taken up was accomplished; and withdrawing from
the highest office an American citizen can hold, as soon as his
influence, his character, and his talents ceased to be necessary to the
maintenance of that government which had been established under
his auspices.
He was indeed, "first in war,[1] first in peace, and first in the hearts of
his fellow citizens."
A faithful detail of the transactions of a person so pre-eminently
distinguished will be looked for with avidity, and the author laments
his inability to present to the public a work which may gratify the
expectations that have been raised. In addition to that just diffidence
of himself which he very sincerely feels, two causes beyond his
control combine to excite this apprehension.
Accustomed to look in the page of history for incidents in themselves
of great magnitude, to find immense exertions attended with
inconsiderable effects, and vast means employed in producing
unimportant ends, we are in the habit of bestowing on the recital of
military actions, a degree of consideration proportioned to the
numbers engaged in them. When the struggle has terminated, and
the agitations felt during its suspense have subsided, it is difficult to
attach to enterprises, in which small numbers have been concerned,
that admiration which is often merited by the talents displayed in their
execution, or that interest which belongs to the consequences that
have arisen from t