Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/506

 4SG GEORGE WASHINGTON latter years of his life, consisted of about 8,000 acres. One half of this was in wood or un- cultivated lawns, but about 4,000 acres were in tillage, and managed directly by Washing- ton himself. The cultivated lands lay in five farms, each with its appropriate set of laborers directed by an overseer, the whole, during his long absences from home, under a general superintendent. During his absence each of the overseers was required to make a weekly written report to the superintendent, contain- ing a minute account of everything done on the farm in the course of the week, including the condition of the stock and the number of days' work performed by each laborer. These reports were recorded in a book by the super- intendent, who then sent the originals in a weekly letter to Gen. Washington. A weekly answer was returned ; usually a letter of four pages, sometimes of twice that length, care- fully prepared from a rough draft, then neatly transcribed by the writer, after which a press copy was taken. The rotation of crops in his numerous fields was arranged by himself for years beforehand. The culture of tobacco was given up in the latter part of his life, as ex- hausting to the soil and unfavorable to the health of the laborers. Being the proprietor of a large landed property in eastern Virginia, Washington was, as a matter of course, a slave- holder. He inherited a plantation cultivated by slaves, and their number was largely in- creased by the dowry of his wife. The whole number belongimg to the estate of Washington in his own right, at the time of his decease, was 124; the "dower negroes," as they are styled in his will, were probably as numer- ous. His correspondence shows him to have been a strict and vigilant, but at the same time a kind, just, and considerate master ; not more careful of his own interests than of the health and comfort of his dependents. As early as 1786 he had formed a resolution never, unless compelled by particular circumstances, "to possess another slave by purchase." In a let- ter written to Mr. Morris in that year he says: "There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery. But there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by legislative author- ity; and this, as far as my suffrage will go, will never be wanting." This sentiment recurs in several parts of his correspondence. In ac- cordance with the views which he had so long entertained, he provided by his will for the freedom of his slaves on the decease of his wife. will, " would, though earnestly wished by me, be attended with such insuperable difficulties, on account of their intermixture by marriage with the dower negroes, as to excite the most painful sensations, if not disagreeable conse- quences to the latter, while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same person, it not being in my power, under the tenure by which the dower negroes are held, to manu- mit them." For the support and education of those emancipated, and especially for the sup- port of his favorite servant Billy, provision was made by his will. In 1770, accompanied by his friend Dr. Craik, Washington made a journey to western Virginia. From Pittsburgh the party descended the Ohio in river boats. Among their objects in visiting the Great Ka- nawha was the selection of fertile lands in that region still lying in a state of nature. Wash- ington was a member of the house of burgesses during the whole period of that war of legis- lation in England, and popular resistance and agitation in the colonies, which preceded the appeal to arms. His military education, his great stake as a property holder, and his habit- ual respect for lawful authority led him, as they did all others of his class, to deprecate a rupture with the mother country; but the moment it became evident that the connection could be kept up only by the sacrifice of the principle that representation and taxation should go hand in hand, ho placed himself in the front rank of the patriots. The principles which guided him are summarily expressed in a letter written from Philadelphia, during his attendance as a member of the first continen- tal congress in the autumn of 1774, to Capt. Mackenzie, a brother officer of the old war, then stationed in Boston. " I think," said ho, " I can announce it as a fact, that it is not the wish nor the interest of the government of Massachusetts, or any other government upon this continent separately or collectively, to set up for independence; but this you may rely upon, that none of them will ever submit to the loss of those valuable rights and privileges which are essential to the inhabitants of every free state, and without which life, liberty, and property are rendered totally insecure." On April 19, 1775, the appeal to arms was made at Lexington and Concord ; and the continen- tal congress, which in the preceding October had vowed eternal loyalty to George III., on June 15 following unanimously elected George Washington commander-in-chief of the ar- mies of the revolution. (See UNITED STATES.) The war was conducted by Washington under every possible disadvantage. He engaged in it without any personal experience in the handling of large bodies of men, and this was equally the case with all his subordinates. The continental congress, under whose authority the war was waged, was destitute of all the attributes of an efficient government. It had no power of taxation, and no right to compel the obedience of the individual. The country was nearly as destitute of the materiel of war aa of the means of procuring it ; it had no founderies, no arsenals, no forts, no navy, no means, no credit. The opposing power had all the prestige of an ancient monarchy, of the legitimate authority, of disciplined and veteran armies, of a powerful navy, of the military possession of most of the large towns, and the
 * ' To emancipate them before," he remarks in his