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HATRED OF TOBACCO.

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It is certain that Washington hated excess of every kind. Mr. Custis says that so far as personal habits went, tobacco was an abomination to him, which seems remarkable when we consider that he raised and dealt in it for so many years. His private dislike of it may have arisen from the fact that he was particularly neat. We have some little reason to suspect that Mrs. Washington took snuff, as it was the fashion for ladies to do in those days. In one of the orders sent to England, in September, 1759, occur the following items:

"3 lbs. best Scotch snuff.

"3 lbs. best violette Strasburg," (a fashionable snuff.)

Perhaps, however, this was only for the use of visitors, whose boxes might happen to be empty during some of those long snow-storms that throw people upon their vices. We see, in the orders sent to England in early times, that Washington made minute as well as ample preparation for the accommodation of guests. Next to agricultural improvements, company seems to have been the leading idea of his early domestic life.

CHAPTER XX.

Public affairs not forgotten-Independent companies-Organized resistance-Fairfax Resolves-Economy and self-denial-Non-importation act-Boston Port BillPublic fast-Patrick Henry's opinion of Washington.

CLOSELY as Washington seemed to be occupied in rural affairs, and in the duties of a most extensive hospitality at Mount Vernon, during the period immediately preceding the final outbreak of the Revolutionary spirit, he had in no degree excused himself from the most intimate knowledge of public affairs, or from those civil duties which carried him often from his home to the Virginian seat of government, where he met and conversed with the best-informed men in the State, and had his own sober and reasoning patriotism warmed and inspired, by the noble sentiments of a circle of statesmen and planters of whom the Old Dominion had, in that day, so much reason to be proud. Patrick Henry, Lee, Wythe, Randolph, George Mason, the Fairfaxes, all the prominent men on both sides, were his constant companions, at home and abroad; and from the conflict of their views, all well-informed, honorable and experienced men as they were, he was able

1771.]

BEGINNINGS OF TROUBLE.

211

to mature opinions which he never, throughout his whole career, saw reason to change. Thus fitted for the approaching crisis, it is not to be wondered at that Washington was among the earliest to notice and draw conclusions from the encroachments of Great Britain on American liberty. He might easily have excused himself, on the ground of past services and impaired health; for he had gone through severe duties in the British cause, and his health had never been fully re-established even by the robust, active, open-air life that it was his pleasure to lead. He continued subject to intermittents, as well as to difficulties of the throat and lungs, whenever he took cold or over-exerted himself. But he had no thought of self where public duty was concerned, and we find him considered by all the Independent companies of Virginia, as their destined commander. Mr. Smyth, very angry, but still honest enough, if we may judge by internal evidence, says-" It was at Alexandria that George Washington first stepped forth as the public patron and leader of sedition and revolt, having subscribed fifty pounds to these purposes when others subcribed only five, and having accepted the command of the first company of armed associators against the British government.

We have no doubt this is all very true, for we know that Washington aided the Independent companies in every way in his power. One of these companies. prayed him to take command of them, as field-officer, and that he would "be pleased to direct the fashion of

their uniform;" they also acquainted him with the motto of their company, AUT LIBER, AUT NULLUS, which was to appear on their colors. He never refused these requests.

At one time before the commencement of general hostilities, he came very near being called into active service as commander of several of these companies, who put themselves under arms and reported themselves in readiness to march, with the object of reclaiming and rescuing a quantity of powder which Governor Dinwiddie had caused to be removed from the magazine at Williamsburg, and placed on board a ship-of-war in the river. More than seven hundred men, well armed, had collected in Fredricksburg, but the governor wisely promised that the affair should be arranged to the satisfaction of the people.

This little flurry concluded the connection of Washington with these patriotic, independent companies; for he soon after went to the Continental Congress, and from there to Cambridge as commander-in-chief, where his greater public duties absorbed, for a long while, the attention he had been accustomed to give to those of his own State and neighborhood.

But to return, for the present, to Virginia doings, and the preparations for organized resistance. Some of these are very interesting; in their very nature significant of the kind of struggle that was to follow, just as the full, round and weighty grain of seed-wheat foretells the quality and abundance of the harvest it is to

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LIBERTY-STAMP ACT.

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bring. Those who were preparing the mighty change were patriots and men of honor; their reasons for acting were honest and sensible; their grievances were real and their hearts determined. The public mind was warm and ready for the good seed, and the sunshine of divine favor waiting to be gracious to it.

The people in general had never thought much about Liberty, as a possession. It was their birthright, and they expected it of course. They enjoyed it as we breathe the air and drink the water, without reflecting upon its value. It was only when they began to find it encroached upon, that they became aware how precious it was. Good and loyal subjects they had always been; proud of their loyalty and delighting to show it on all occasions; fighting the king's battles and drinking his health, without misgiving or demur, and calling England "home," as if they expected to return to it.

The Stamp Act and other measures for the oppression of the Colonies, aroused a different spirit. Parliament showed a disposition rather piratical than parental, relying more on brute force than on justice, and treating remonstrance with something worse than neglect. The king was on the wrong side from the beginning; and whatever may have been the blunders or the villainies of his ministers, he never thought they went far enough in taxing, fighting, or punishing the "rebels." Dutiful addresses and humble petitions only made him more insolent and determined, and the smell of blood acted upon him as it does upon wild animals, making him