Washington

by Douglas Southall Freeman

  The Congress did not make any formal recommendation that the Colonies prepare for their defence. The possibility of war could not be blinked; the probability of it was believed to hang on offensive action by the British. Argument was unnecessary where agreement was almost unanimous that if hard blows were struck, harder would be returned. An oddly dressed, eccentric British half-pay officer, Charles Lee, who had been in the service of the pro-Russian faction in Poland, had talked much in Philadelphia about the organization of a battalion which it was manifest he wished to command. Washington of course met him but made no record of it. In the eyes of some members Washington himself was essentially a soldier, but of his employment as such by the Congress there had been no suggestion.

  A great change was observable when Washington reached home. The people of Virginia were much more in a mood of preparation for defence. Older men and matrons busied themselves with enforcing the Association or adapting plantation life to it; young men were intent on organizing companies, finding arms and drilling. These volunteers were confident because men of their blood had just won a victory in Governor Dunmore’s War. At Point Pleasant, where the Kanawha enters the Ohio, Col. Andrew Lewis and a force of Virginia militia had encountered a mass of savages on October 10. The Indians had fought stubbornly but at length had broken and quit the field. News followed soon that the Indians were asking peace and had given hostages for the delivery of the white prisoners in their villages. It was the swiftest and the most decisive campaign the Virginians had waged against the Redmen.

  Washington found that committees could be set up readily enough in accordance with the resolutions of the Philadelphia Congress. In Fairfax no difficulty was encountered in dealing with a shipment of forbidden linens, to the value of £1101, reported by the consignees, Fitzgerald & Peers. The goods were sold by package to the highest bidder; the proceeds were set aside for the relief of the poor of Boston. Nothing similar to the feeling aroused by the Boston Port Act, the suppression of the Massachusetts Council and Assembly, and the occupation of Boston by British troops ever had been witnessed in Virginia.

  Washington daily was busy from early morning until three-o’clock dinner. He was able, once in a while, to go fox-hunting, but that was the limit of all recreation not incidental to business. In the winter of 1774-75, one of the most troublesome affairs was the breakup of the party of indentured servants and slaves sent in March to the Kanawha lands and halted at Redstone by the outbreak of Dunmore’s War. Lacking firm control, one after another of the workers disappeared, and with them the implements and supplies Washington had entrusted to the men in charge. Washington computed his loss at £300.

  The larger interests held first place in his mind. On January 15, 1775, George Mason, Martin Cockburn and others returned with Washington to Mount Vernon after service at Pohick Church, and talked of plans for having their county do its part in defence of Colonial rights. This was not easy. Fairfax County possessed no ammunition beyond the normal requirements of planters. Fowling pieces were the only weapons. Besides this, there was an obstacle of law: by whose authority were the Independent Companies being organized?

  Discussion of these subjects was resumed on the sixteenth at Alexandria, whither Washington rode, probably in the company of his overnight guests. Ammunition could not be purchased with money raised by formal county levy for that purpose unless the prior consent of the General Assembly was had, but powder and shot could be bought at the common cost of the inhabitants of the county. The Committee therefore voted: “It is . . . recommended that the sum of three shillings per poll . . . be paid by and for every tithable person in this County, to the Sheriff or such other collector as may be appointed, who is to render the same to this Committee, with a list of the names of such persons as shall refuse to pay the same, if any such there be.” Washington and Mason agreed to advance the money required for purchase of the explosive. As for the weapons, the committee concluded these could be provided quickly in no other way than by conforming to the principle of the militia law and requiring every man to have his own firelock and to keep it in good order.

  A solution of the other perplexity—that of arming without risk of arrest—already had been offered in Maryland and now was adopted, tongue in cheek. Citizens across the Potomac had decided that the Colonials would be safe if they acted on the ostensible theory that they simply were making the authorized militia more effective. So, some good draftsman, with a sense of humor—almost certainly Mason—prepared this “resolve,” which might have made even the stern-visaged Washington smile: “. . . that this committee do concur in opinion with the Provincial Committee of the Province of Maryland that a well regulated militia, composed of gentlemen freeholders and other freemen, is the natural strength and only stable security of a free government, and that such militia will relieve our mother country from any expense in our protection and defence, will obviate the pretence of a necessity for taxing us on that account, and render it unnecessary to keep standing armies among us—ever dangerous to liberty; and therefore it is recommended to such of the inhabitants of this County as are from 16 to 50 years of age to form themselves into Companies.”

  A new Virginia Convention was called in line with the recommendation of the Philadelphia Congress of 1774 that each Colony select Delegates to a similar Congress in May 1775. Peyton Randolph “requested” the election in each county of Delegates who were asked to meet in Richmond March 20. Washington was named Fairfax’s representative along with his fellow-Burgess, Charles Broadwater.

  The Convention met with many auguries of peace with Britain. This was meat and drink to the Delegates who still had faith in their King and unpalatable to those who believed the monarch a tyrant. Initial division among members did not interfere with a sympathetic review of the recommendations of the Philadelphia Congress. The proceedings of the Congress were approved by unanimous vote, and the Delegates were thanked. On March 23, the fourth day of the Convention, Henry won recognition and offered a series of resolutions. They repeated substantially the Maryland and Fairfax argument regarding a “well regulated militia, composed of gentlemen and yeomen” as the “natural strength and only security of a free government.” After that came words with a rumble: “Resolved, therefore”—the Convention must have become tense as the Clerk read on—”that this Colony be immediately put in a posture of defence; and that [blank] be a committee to prepare a plan for the embodying, arming and disciplining such a number of men as may be sufficient for that purpose.” Henry then took the floor. He launched into a bold argument that the increase of British force in America was intended for the enslavement of the Colonies. In one way only could Americans retain their liberty. “We must fight!” he cried, as if the command were from Heaven. Henry swept furiously onward until his words were the call of bugles and the roar of guns: “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

  Men sat as if they had been stunned or condemned or called to a task so much beyond their strength but so lofty and commanding that it awed them. A few were vain or reckless enough to attempt to match their eloquence against Henry’s; others felt they must dispute his logic though they could not rival his delivery. They could not believe the King would permit the controversy to reach the dreadful pass where British subjects would be at one another’s throat. The vote, in the end, was for putting the Colony “into a posture of defence.”

  Henry was named first on a committee of twelve to bring in a plan for “embodying, arming and disciplining such a number of men as may be sufficient for that purpose.” Washington was assigned to the committee with most of the leading members of Henry’s following. This committee could do so little for the immediate strengthening of the Colony’s defence that it had its report ready by the next day. As adopted, the report was essentially an appeal for the organization of volunteers. As the weakness of Virginia’s d
efence was certain to be the lack of arms, ammunition and equipment of every sort, the committee recommended that each county levy the equivalent of a head tax, as in Fairfax, for the purchase of ammunition. A central committee of three was created to buy military supplies for counties that did not know how to procure them. The Convention likewise selected a committee of thirteen to “prepare a plan for the encouragement of arts and manufactures in this Colony,” a euphemism for employing the pitifully undeveloped resources of war. Washington was on this committee, too. A third and far more important assignment also was his. When the seven members to the new General Congress were elected, Washington was the second chosen. Randolph’s name alone preceded his; Henry’s followed. All the other members of the delegation to Philadelphia in 1774 were re-elected. The committee on the encouragement of arts and manufactures threw together a plan that covered a diversity of objects. The Convention approved the report and, after transacting a variety of other business, adjourned March 27.

  Washington left Richmond March 28 and reached home March 31. He scarcely had rested when he heard an alarming rumor—that Governor Dunmore was going to cancel all the land patents issued under the proclamation of 1754 because William Crawford who surveyed the tracts was alleged to have failed to qualify in the manner prescribed by statute. Washington was aghast. Twenty-three thousand acres of his land were involved! They must not be lost. Washington concluded he should inquire directly of the Governor whether the story had anything more behind it than excited gossip. Promptly enough there came a terse and formal answer from his Lordship: “Sir, I have received your letter. . . . The information you have received that the patents granted for the lands under the proclamation of 1754 would be declared null and void, is founded on a report that the Surveyor who surveyed those lands did not qualify agreeable to the act of Assembly directing the duty and qualification of surveyors. If this is the case, the patents will of consequence be declared null and void.”

  The letter was one to ponder. If in some manner unknown to the man most heavily concerned Crawford had failed to qualify, all the cost and all the labor would go for nought. Could the whole affair be an attempt to bribe Washington and the others into acceptance of royal policy? If Washington suspected blackmail or reprisal, it did not deter him from a single act of military preparation or from the utterance of a word he would have spoken in aid of the Colonial cause.

  Now came a visit to Alexandria for the muster of the Independent Company, and five days of discourse by Gen. Charles Lee, at Mount Vernon on a visit. After that, when lengthening April days brought spring to the Potomac, the greater part of Washington’s time was given to the direction of plantation affairs. It was on the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh that a hurrying express brought a startling letter from Fredericksburg, signed by Hugh Mercer and three other men interested in organizing troops for the defence of the Colony. They had heard from Williamsburg that on the night of April 20/21, the captain of a British armed schooner had landed with fifteen marines, gone to the magazine in Williamsburg and taken from it the powder stored there. Mercer and the committee in Fredericksburg reported: “The gentlemen of the Independent Company of this town think this first public insult is not to be tamely submitted to and determine with your approbation to join any other bodies of armed men who are willing to appear in support of the honor of Virginia as well as to secure the military stores yet remaining in the magazine. It is proposed to march on Saturday next for Williamsburg properly accoutred as light horsemen. Expresses are sent off to inform the commanding officers of Companies in the adjacent Counties of this our resolution, and we shall wait prepared for your instructions and their assistance.”

  Besides this from Fredericksburg, Washington had an express from Dumfries; volunteer officers had voted to answer a summons from Mercer but awaited Washington’s instructions. Events in Williamsburg had been substantially as reported. When the townspeople discovered what had happened, wrath rose. The call was “To the Palace.” They would demand the immediate return of the powder; it was theirs of right, theirs with which to defend themselves. Before the crowd could start up the street, Randolph, Treasurer Nicholas and others urged that the Common Hall of the city was the proper body to act. This seemed reasonable to men who had not yet lost their heads completely. The Common Hall met, debated, drafted a paper and proceeded in a body to the Governor’s residence, where Randolph presented the address. It was a simple argument that the magazine and its contents were for the security of the Colony, which might require ammunition quickly in event of an uprising by the slaves. Would the Governor explain why he had removed the powder and would he return it?

  The reference to a rebellion by the Negroes gave Lord Dunmore a peg on which to hang a cloaking excuse: Reports of a servile insurrection in a neighboring county, he said, had led him to remove the powder to a place of security, whence it could be returned in half an hour were it needed to combat the uprising. He had been led to send it off at night to avoid excitement and was surprised to hear that the people had taken up arms. In that situation he did not think it prudent to put powder in their hands. The members of the Common Hall left the Palace unsatisfied; Dunmore armed his household and the naval officers who happened to be in town. The townspeople showed a temper that seemed to threaten attack, but, after a time, they began to disperse. Dunmore was a liar, they told one another. He had no information about a revolt of the slaves; all that the Governor was doing was for one purpose only—to make the people defenceless! They must have their powder.

  At the very time when peace or conflict in Virginia appeared to hang on the temper of Dunmore and the restraint of the Colonials, the news that had been half dreaded and half awaited for weeks arrived from the north: a clash had occurred in Massachusetts; much blood had been shed. In the early morning of April 19, a British infantry force had appeared ten miles northwest of Boston in the village of Lexington, where part of a volunteer company was awaiting them. The British commander called on these Colonials to disperse and, when they did not move swiftly enough to suit him, he ordered his front ranks to fire. At the volley, the company scattered, but the Americans left eight dead on the ground. Ten more were wounded. The British then marched on to Concord. At Concord, Massachusetts volunteers were gathering but fell back on the approach of the regulars. Then, while a hundred British held the bridge over the Concord River, others searched the town for military stores they had been told the Colonials had hidden there. Little was found but fires were lighted that angered the volunteers, who, after a time, returned to the bridge, where an exchange of musketry occurred. This and the menacing advance of the Colonials caused the British to leave the little stream. Presently the whole body of regulars reassembled and started back to Boston. Word of their presence had been heard throughout the countryside. Men hurried out with their rifles to reenforce the volunteers, and soon the Americans opened fire on the flank and rear of the British. A running fight began and kept up to Charlestown, within range of the British men-of-war.

  The British had struck the blow the Colonials had served notice they would resist. War might follow this bloody encounter: Washington was not the man to blink the reality or to change plans based on the probability. If he must, he would stay in Virginia to combat any violent acts of Dunmore; but if the semblance of peace were preserved in his own Colony, he would continue with plans to go to Philadelphia, there to share common council for the continental cause. Washington waited anxiously for more news. The thirtieth brought information that about six hundred men had rendezvoused at Fredericksburg for a march on Williamsburg, but that they had delayed their start because of a letter of advice from Randolph. Randolph wrote: “. . . the Governor considers his honor at stake; he thinks that he acted for the best, and will not be compelled to what, we have abundant reason to believe he would cheerfully do, if left to himself.” The Speaker continued: “If we, then, may be permitted to advise, it is our opinion and most earnest request that matters may be quieted for the present at least; we
are firmly persuaded that perfect tranquility will be speedily restored. By pursuing this course we foresee no hazard, or even inconvenience that can ensue, whereas we are apprehensive, and this we think upon good grounds, that violence may produce effects which God only knows the effects of.”

  This was counsel not to be disdained by men of sanity. The committee of volunteers and other citizens appointed to consider an answer approved a strong written summary of the Colonial case and recommended: “Whilst the least hope of reconciliation remains . . . that the several Companies now rendezvoused here do return to their respective homes; but considering the just rights and liberty of America to be greatly endangered by the violent and hostile proceedings of an arbitrary ministry, and being firmly resolved to resist such attempts at the utmost hazard of our lives and fortunes, we do now pledge ourselves to each other to be in readiness, at a moment’s warning, to reassemble, and by force of arms, to defend the law, the liberty and rights of this or any sister Colony, from unjust and wicked invasion.” In place of the “God save the King” that ended the Governor’s proclamation, the officers who read the volunteers’ paper to their men shouted boldly and defiantly: “God save the liberties of America.”