Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/246

222 of the French. The English government, in anticipation of a war, had urged the governor, to lose no time in building two forts, for which purpose artillery and munitions were sent over; but the French had been beforehand with them, and had already gathered a considerable force to act according as the emergency might require. It was evident that active measures needed to be taken at once, and Dinwiddie determined to send a messenger to the nearest French post, and demand explanations, as also the release and indemnification of certain traders captured by them a short time before. This resolve on the governor's part brings before us, for the first time, the man, of all others, whom Americans most love to honor. It is but right that here we should say something of the family from which he sprang, as also of his early life and training.

Nearly a century previous to the birth of the illustrious "father of his country," two brothers, of an honorable family in England, John and Andrew Washington, emigrated to Virginia, and settled in Westmoreland County, between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. The grandson of John Washington, Augustine, was born in 1694, and inherited the family estate, situate on Bridge's Creek, near where it falls into the Potomac. He was twice married: two children survived, Lawrence and Augustine, and the mother died in 1728. Two years later, Augustine Washington was married again; his bride was Mary Ball, a celebrated beauty of that day. Six children tvere the fruits of that union; four sons and two daughters. The family of Washington was one, which, for centuries, had borne itself nobly and honorably. As Mr. Irving finely says: "hereditary rank may be an illusion; but hereditary virtue gives a patent of innate nobleness beyond all the blazonry of the Herald's College."

, the eldest child of his mother, was born on the 22d of February, 1732, in the homestead on Bridge's Creek ; but not a vestige of the house or place remains. Soon after George's birth, his father removed to an estate in Stafford County, opposite Fredericksburg. This. too, the home of his boyhood, no longer exists; a few fragments of bricks and the like, are all that remain. George's eldest brother, Lawrence, had been sent by his father to England, and enjoyed privileges which were not within the reach of the other children. George had only the commonest advantages of the day ; no language but his own, and simple instruction in the ordinary branches of an English education, were the extent of his privileges. When George was about eight years old, his brother Lawrence returned from England, an accomplished young man, and there appears to have been formed at once a warm and abiding friendship, which grew with their growth, and strengthened with their strength, so long as Lawrence's life lasted. On the 12th of April, 1743, Augustine Washington died after a short illness: he was in the prime and vigor of manhood, and enjoyed the