Homes of American statesmen: . he touch-hole ; he pulled with this and pushed withthat; and wheeled it round as if it had been nothing. Thepowder-monkey rushed up with the fire, and then the cannonbegan to bark, and the Indians came down. Nothing butdefeat and disgrace was the result of this unhappy encounter,except to Washington, who in that instance, as in so many 16 HOMES OF AMERICAN STATESMEN. others, stood out, individual and conspicuous, by qualities somuch in advance of those of all the men with whom he acted,that no misfortune or disaster ever caused him to be con-founded with them, or
Homes of American statesmen: . he touch-hole ; he pulled with this and pushed withthat; and wheeled it round as if it had been nothing. Thepowder-monkey rushed up with the fire, and then the cannonbegan to bark, and the Indians came down. Nothing butdefeat and disgrace was the result of this unhappy encounter,except to Washington, who in that instance, as in so many 16 HOMES OF AMERICAN STATESMEN. others, stood out, individual and conspicuous, by qualities somuch in advance of those of all the men with whom he acted,that no misfortune or disaster ever caused him to be con-founded with them, or included in the most hasty generalcensure. It is most instructive as well as interesting toobserve that his mind, never considered brilliant, was yetrecognized from the beginning as almost infallible in itsjudgments, a tower of strength for the weak, a terror to theselfish and dishonest. The uneasiness of Governor Dinwiddieunder Washingtons superiority is accounted for only by thefact that that superiority was WASHINGTON. 17 After Braddocks defeat, Washington retired to Mount Ver-non,—which had fallen to him by the will of his half-brotherLawrence—to recruit in mind and body, after a wasting feverand the distressing scenes he had been forced to country rang with his praises, and even the pulpit couldnot withhold its tribute. The Keverend Samuel Davieshardly deserves the reputation of a prophet for saying, in thecourse of a eulogy on the bravery of the Virginian troops,—As a remarkable instance of this, I may point out thatheroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hopeProvidence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner forsome important service to his country. When another army was to be raised for frontier service,the command was given to Washington, who stipulated for avoice in choosing his officers, a better system of military regu-lations, more promptness in paying the troops, and a thoroughreform in the system of procuring s
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectstatesmen, bookyear18
