USA > Virginia > Westmoreland County > Westmoreland County > Westmoreland County, Virginia : parts I and II : a short chapter and bright day in its history > Part 7
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Writing in the same year to John F. Mercer, he said :
"I never mean, unless some particular circumstance shall com- pel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law."-Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession, Munford, p. 83. The Writings of Wash- ington, Marshall, Vol. IX., p. 159.
Extract from the will of George Washington, dated July 9, 1799, recorded in the clerk's office of Fairfax county :
"Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all the slaves whom I hold in my own right shall receive their freedom. To emancipate them during her lifetime would, though earnestly wished by me, be attended with such insuperable difficulties on ac- count of their intermixture by marriage with the dower negroes as to excite the most painful sensations, if not disagreeable conse-
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quences to the latter, while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor ; it not being in my power under the tenure by which the dower negroes are held to manumit them."
The will further provides that all the slaves who at the time of their emancipation are unable by reason of old age, bodily infirmi- ties, or youth, to support themselves shall be cared for out of his estate, the testator declaring :
"I do moreover most pointedly and most solemnly enjoin it upon my executors hereafter named, or the survivors of them, to see that this clause respecting slaves and every part thereof be re- ligiously fulfilled at the epoch at which it is directed to take place without evasion, neglect, or delay, after the crops which may then be in the ground are harvested, particularly as it respects the aged and infirm; seeing that a regular and permanent fund be estab- lished for their support as long as there are subjects requiring it."- Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession, Munford, p. 108. Life of Washington, Irving, Vol. V., p. 439.
Here are some of the sayings of Washington. They still float around as other local traditions. Like most tommy-rot, and old chestnuts, they are frequently told with great gusto. For a long time the popular conception of the man was based upon the story of his life as portrayed by Rev. C. L. Weems, 1828, whose book passed through some fifty editions. From him we get the myth about the cherry tree, and numerous others, equally without foundation. Weems claimed to have been the rector of Mount Vernon parish, and to have lived on terms of intimacy with Washington. Major- General Henry Lee, United States Army, on title page, commends the book. But his pretensions were wholly void of truth, as claimed by subsequent writers. Senator Lodge describes him as "a preacher by profession and an adventurer by nature." A writer of popular books, peddling them himself as he traveled about the country. Historians now hold him up as a man whose mendacity is now quite well understood. and the unreliability of his book thoroughly recog- nized.
We give these sayings simply to relieve the grotesque, dreary and sombre style and character of this booklet, and to light up and brighten these pages. Please spare us the mendacity and unre- liability of these sayings.
The planting the flag upon the mountains of West Augusta has been and is a resourceful theme for oratory. The writer of this, heard a distinguished Virginia orator, Hon. Caperton Braxton, at the great banquet hall of the Homestead, Hot Springs, Va., before
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the joint meeting of the American Bar Association and the Vir- ginia Bar Association, use this flag incident and saying of Wash- ington, and it actually made the assembly go wild.
At the time Tarleton drove the Legislature from Charlottesville to Staunton, the stillness of the Sabbath eve was broken in the latter town by the beat of the drum and volunteers were called for to prevent the passage of the British through the mountains. Mrs. Colonel William Lewis, with the firmness of a Roman matron, gave up to her country all her boys of tender years to keep back the foot of the invader from the soil of Augusta. When this incident was related to Washington shortly after its occurrence, he enthusias- tically exclaimed: "Leave me but a banner to plant upon the mountains of Augusta, and I will rally around me the men who will raise our bleeding country from the dust and set her free." -- Ilowe's History, page 183.
Hon. Benson J. Lossing, author of "Life of Washington" and "Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution," and other historians have given their version, but the better and most correct version of to-day is taken from one of the addresses of Dr. Denny, presi- dent of Washington and Lee University: "Give me but a banner to plant upon the mountains of West Augusta, and I will rally about it the men who will lift our bleeding country from the dust, and set her free."
Another version is that in the darkest hour of the struggle for American Independence, the "Father of his Country," when the outlook for success staggered the hopes of the strongest patriot, said: "Give me but a flag and the means to plant it upon the mountains of West Augusta, and I will draw about it an army which will never yield."
In the Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, by Joseph A. Wad- dell (Virginia Historical Society, page 251), is stated: "We may state that the rhetorical declaration about West Augusta, attributed to Washington at a dark day during the war, is a sheer fiction. What Washington said, in the simplest terms, was, that if driven to extremity, he would retreat to Augusta county, in Virginia, and there make a stand."
Whether this is a "rhetorical declaration," or "sheer fiction," we think there is a sentiment and charm about it that is apt to live, and we venture to say, will live in the ages.
Below are some of the witticisms on Washington :
Washington would not tell a lie. All have heard of Washing- ton and the little hatchet and the cherry tree from Parson Weems, which we will not repeat.
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At a banquet in Philadelphia, General Fitzhugh Lee, Governor of Virginia, is reported to have said: "It is a tradition in Fred- ericksburg that the mother of Washington once had her servant women in her back yard in Fredericksburg making soap. The women reported that the soap would not come, when, upon exami- nation she found that they were trying to make soap with the ashes of the cherry tree, and there was no LYE in it."
When the Taft party visited the Philippines they went into a Japanese shop to make some purchases, and a Japanese merchant offered them the image of an idol, or some trinket which he said was five hundred years old. The American said : "Why don't you make it one thousand." and the Jap replied, "me have hearn of your George Washington, and me never tell a lie."
A passenger on one of the Rappahannock steamers was pointing out to an Englishman the place where George Wasnington is said to have thrown a silver dollar across the river (Chatham, opposite Fredericksburg), and the Englishman replied that a dollar went much further in those days than it does now. The Englishman still continued to doubt the proposition, when the American quickly replied, "Why, sir, that was easy for Washington to do, because he had thrown a crown across the Atlantic Ocean." This last is a tradition told of Oliver Wendell Holmes, who visited his son in the Union Army at Fredericksburg during the Civil War, now on United States Supreme Bench.
"This was fine sport for George, whose passion for active exer- cise was so strong that at play time no weather could keep him within doors. His fair cousins, who visited at his mother's, used to complain that 'George was not fond of their company like other boys ; but soon as he had got his task would run out to play.' But such trifling play as marbles and tops he could never endure. They did not afford him exercise enough. His delight was in that of the manliest sort, which. by stringing the limbs and swelling the muscles, promotes the kindliest flow of blood and spirits. At jump- ing with a long pole, or heaving heavy weights, for his years, he hardly had an equal. And as to running, the swift-footed Achilles could scarcely have matched his speed.
"'Egad ! he ran wonderfully,' said my amiable and aged friend, John Fitzhugh. Esq., who knew him well. 'We had no boy here- abouts that could come near him.' There was a young Langhorn Dade, of Westmoreland, a confounded clean made, tight young fel- low, and a mighty swift runner, too. But, then, he was no match for George. Langy, indeed, did not like to give up, and would brag that he had some times brought George to a tie. But I be-
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lieve he was mistaken, for I have seen them run together many a time, and George always beat him easy enough."
Colonel Lewis Willis, his playmate and kinsman, has been heard to say, that he has often seen him throw a stone across Rappahannock at the lower ferry of Fredericksburg. It would be no easy matter to find a man now-a-days who could do it .- Weems' Life of Washington, page 23.
We do not think that the german was in vogue at that period- certainly none of the bijou and vaudeville pranks. It may be that the old Virginia reel and chum, chum-a-loo, and clapping-in and clapping-out, which date back, were extant then. We hear noth- ing from old John Fitzhugh and Parson Weems as to this, nor of Washington's accomplishments in this direction. But there is still floating around in Tidewater the tradition that when Wash- ington's "fair cousins" and the other girls in the neighborhood used to assemble, that Washington and this same long Langhorn Dade and the other boys had a championship for kissing the pret- ticst girl by jumping the farthest, and that Washington jumped twenty-two feet. Of course, he won the prize.
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SURRENDER OF LORD CORNWALLIS
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V.
Anti-Slavery Sentiment of Robert E. Lee.
Owned No Slaves at Time of the War .- Declares Disunion an Aggravation of the Ills of the South .- Denies Constitution- ality of Secession .- Denies Ethical Right of Coercion .- His Sorrow at Disunion .- Anti-Slavery Sentiments of Richard Henry Lee, James Monroe, James Madison, Robert Carter of Nomony, and Bushrod Washington.
Robert E. Lee, writing in December, 1856, said :
"In this enlightened age there are few, I believe, but will acknowledge that as an institution, slavery is a moral and political evil in any country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think, it, however, a greater evil to the white than to the black race, and while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are strongly for the former.
"While we see the course of the final abolition of slavery is onward, and we give it the aid of our prayers and all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in His hands, who sees the end and chooses to work by slow influences."-Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession, Munford, p. 101; Life of R. E. Lee, Fitzhugh Lee, p. 64.
Robert E. Lee never owned a slave except the few he inherited from his mother-all of whom he emancipated many years prior to the war .- Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession, Munford, p. 156. Letter from his eldest son, Gen. G. W. Custis Lee, to the author, dated February 4, 1907, on file in Virginia Historical Society.
ROBERT E. LEE DECLARES DISUNION AN AGGRAVATION OF THE ILLS OF THE SOUTH.
Robert E. Lee, referring to the same subject, wrote :
"The South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved by the acts of the North, as you say. I feel the aggression and am willing to take every proper step for redress But I can anticipate no greater calamity than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything, but honor, for its preservation."-Idem, p. 227. Memoirs of Robert E. Lee by Long, p. 88.
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ROBERT E. LEE DENIES CONSTITUTIONALITY OF SECESSION, AND DENIES ETHICAL RIGHT OF COERCION.
Robert E. Lee, writing on 23rd of January. 1861, said :
"Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor. wisdom and forbear- ance in its formation and surrounded it with so many guards and securities if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will.
"Still a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me. If the Union is dissolved and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and share the miseries of my people-and save in defense will draw my sword on none."-Idem, p. 293. Memoirs of Robert E. Lee by Long, p. 88.
HIS SORROW AT DISUNION.
Robert E. Lee, anticipating the event, in January, 1861, wrote: "I shall mourn for my country and for the welfare and pro- gress of mankind. If the Union is dissolved and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, and, save in defense, will draw my sword on none." -- Idem, p. 302. Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, Long, p. 88.
Richard Henry Lee, speaking in the Virginia House of Bur- gesses, 1772, in support of a bill prohibiting the slave trade, said : "Nor, sir, are these the only reasons to be urged against the importation. In my opinion not the cruelties practised in the con- quest of South America, not the savage barbarity of a Saracen. can be more big with atrocity than our cruel trade to Africa. There we encourage those poor, ignorant people to wage eternal war against each other; that by war, stealth or sur- prise, we Christians may be furnished with our fellow creatures. who are no longer to be considered as created in the image of God as well as ourselves and equally entitled to liberty and free- dom by the great law of Nature, but they are to be deprived for- ever of all the comforts of life and to be made the most wretched of the human kind."-Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession, Munford, p. 82. Life of R. II. Lee, Lee, Vol. I., p. 18.
James Monroe, speaking in the Virginia Constitutional Con- vention on the 2nd of November, 1829, said :
"What has been the leading spirit of this State ever since our independence was obtained? She has always declared herself in
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favor of the equal rights of man. The Revolution was conducted on that principle. Yet there was at that time a slavish population in Virginia. We hold it in the condition in which the Revolution found it, and what can be done with this population ? As to the practicability of emancipating them, it can never be done by the State itself, nor without the aid of the Union. · "Sir, what brought us together in the Revolutionary War? It was the doctrine of equal rights. Each part of the country en- couraged and supported every other part. None took advantage of the other's distresses. And if we find that this evil has preyed upon the vitals of the Union and has been prejudicial to all the States where it existed, and is likewise repugnant to their several State Constitutions and Bills of Rights, why may we not expect that they will unite with us in accomplishing its removal."-Vir- ginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession, Munford. De- bates of Virginia Convention, 1829-'30, page 149.
James Madison, in 1831, wrote concerning slavery and the American Colonization Society :
"Many circumstances of the present moment seem to concur in brightening the prospects of the Society and cherishing the hope that the time will come when the dreadful calamity which has so long afflicted our country and filled so many with despair, will be gradually removed, and by means consistent with justice, peace and general satisfaction ; thus giving to our country the full enjoyment of the blessings of liberty, and to the world the full benefit of its great example."-Idem, p. 90. Life of James Madi- son, Hunt, p. 369.
Extracts from deeds of Robert Carter, of Westmoreland county each dated the 1st day of January, 1793:
"Whereas the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Vir- ginia did in the year seventeen hundred and eighty-two enact a law entitled, "An Act to Authorise the Manumission of Slaves," know all men by these presents that T, Robert Carter of Nomony Hall. in the county of Westmoreland. do under the said act for myself, my heirs, executors and administrators, emancipate, and forever set free from slavery the following slaves." (Here follow the names of the slaves, twenty-seven in number.)-Idem,, p. 106. Deed and Will Book, No. 18, p. 213. in the Clerk's Office, West- moreland county, Virginia.
On the 1st of January. 1817, Mr. Justice Bushrod Washing- ton was made first President of the American Colonization So- ciety .- Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession, Mun- ford, p. 62.
VI.
Beautiful Tributes to General Robert E. Lee. Sparkling Gems From Every Part of the World.
ROBERT E. LEE.
The name of Robert E. Lee symbolizes and embodies not only the military genius, but the best personal characteristics and private virtues of the men of the South. His was the culmina- tion of the South's growth and civilization.
Georgia's gifted orator, Senator Benjamin H. Hill, has epitom- ized his virtues and greatness: "He was a foe without hate, a friend without treachery, a soldier without cruelty, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vice, a private citizen without wrong, a neighbor without reproach, a Christian without hypocrisy, a man without guile. He was a Cæsar without his ambition, Frederick without his tyranny, Napo- leon without his selfishness, and Washington without his reward. He was as obedient to authority as a servant, as regal in authority as a king. He was as gentle as a woman in life, pure and modest as a virgin in thought, watchful as a Roman vestal, submissive to law as Socrates, and grand in battle as Achilles."
The ablest military critic in the British army in this genera- tion has placed Lee and Stonewall Jackson in the same group with Washington and Wellington and Marlborough, the five great- est generals, in his opinion of the English-speaking race.
Lord Wolseley, speaking of him not only as the "greatest soldier of his age," but also "the most perfect man I ever met," says in his personal memoirs : "A close student of war all my (his) life, and especially of this Confederate War, and with a full knowledge of the battles fought during its progress," repeating his judgment that General Lee was "the greatest of all modern leaders," compares his campaign of 1862 with that of Napoleon's of 1796. Speaking of his visit to General Lee, he says: "I have taken no special trouble to remember all he said to me then (1862) and during subsequent conversations, and yet it is still fresh in my recollection. But it is natural that it should be so, for he was the ablest General, and to me seemed the greatest man I ever con- versed with; and yet I have had the privilege of meeting Von Moltke and Prince Bismarck, and at least on one occasion had a very long and intensely interesting conversation with the latter.
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General Lee was one of the few men who ever seriously impressed me, and awed me, with their natural and inherent greatness. Forty years have come and gone since our meeting, and yet the majesty of his manly bearing, the genial, winning grace, the sweetness of his smile, and the impressive dignity of his old fashioned style of address, come back to me amongst the most cherished of my recollections. His greatness made me humble, and I never felt my own individual insignificance more keenly than I did in his presence. His was indeed a beautiful character, and of him it might truthfully be written: 'In righteousness he did judge and make war.' "
Says Lord Wolseley again: "I desire to make known to the readers not only the renowned soldier, whom I believe to have been the greatest of his age, but to give some insight into the char- acter of one whom I have always considered the most perfect man I ever met."
His judgment is that of such military writers and critics as Chesney, Lawler, and of the higher press, Northern as well as foreign.
Colonel Lawler, an English soldier, said :
"But, after all, the one name, which in connection with the great American Civil War posteris narratum atque traditum super- stes erit, is the name of Robert Edward Lee."
And Colonel Chesney, another English soldier :
"The day will come History will speak with a clear voice and place above all others the name of the great chief of whom we have written (Lee). In strategy, mighty; in battle, terrible; in adversity and in prosperity, a hero indeed; with the simple devotion to duty and rare purity of the ideal Christian knight, he joined all the kingly qualities of a leader of men."
Von Moltke places General Lee above Wellington.
Dr. Hunter McGuire, Jackson's staff, says :
"Therefore, it is with swelling heart and deep thankfulness that I recently heard some of the first soldiers and military stu- dents of England declare, that within the past two hundred years the English-speaking race has produced but five soldiers of first rank-Marlborough, Washington, Wellington, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. You will not be surprised to hear of my telling them that of these five, thus overtopping all the rest, three were born in the State of Virginia; nor wonder that I reverently remember that two of them lie side by side in Lex-
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ington. while one is sleeping by the great river, there to sleep till time shall be no more-the three consecrating in death the soil of Virginia, as in life they stamped their mother State as the native home of men who living as they lived, shall be fit to go on quest for the Holy Grail."
And two of these were born on the consecrated soil of West- moreland.
Dr. Randolph Harrison McKim, at the Reunion United Con- federate Veterans at Nashville, said :
"Comrades, it is my conviction that the muse of History will write the names of some of our Southern heroes as high on her great Roll of Honor as those of any leaders of men in any era. Fame herself will rise from her throne to place the laurel with her own hands upon the immortal brows of Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston and Stonewall Jackson. I grant, indeed, that it is not for us who were their companions and fellow soldiers to ask the world to accept our estimate of their rightful place in history. We are partial, we are biased in our judgments, men will say. Be it so. We are content to await the calm verdict of the future historian, when, with philosophic impartiality, the char- acters and achievements and motives of our illustrious leaders shall have been weighed in the balances of Truth.
"What that verdict will be is foreshadowed, we believe, by the judgment expressed by General Lord Wolseley, who said, 'I be- lieve General Lee will be regarded not only as the most prominent figure of the Confederacy, but as the great American of the nine- teenth century, whose statue is well worthy to stand on an equal pedestal with that of Washington, and whose memory is equally worthy to be enshrined in the hearts of all his countrymen.' What that verdict will be was in fact declared by Freeman himself when he said that our Lee was worthy to stand with Washington beside Alfred the Great in the world's Temple of Fame."
The late President of the United States, Mr. Roosevelt, has said in his Life of Thomas H. Benton:
"The world has never seen better soldiers than those who fol- lowed Lee; and their leader will undoubtedly rank, as without any exception, the very greatest of all the great captains that the English-speaking peoples have brought forth; and this, although the last and chief of his antagonists may claim to stand as the full equal of Wellington and Marlborough."
As to rank and file, General Hooker, of the Union army, has said that "for steadiness and efficiency," Lee's army was unsur-
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passed in ancient or modern times,-"we have not been able to rival it." And General Chas. A. Whittier, of Massachusetts, has said, "The army of Northern Virginia will deservedly rank as the best army which has existed on this continent, suffering priva- tions unknown to its opponent. The North sent no such army to the field."
Colonel Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, President Historical Society of Massachusetts, at Lee Centennial, Washing- ton and Lee University, 1907, said :
"Robert E. Lee was the embodiment of those conditions, the creature of that environment,-a Virginian of Virginians. His father was 'Light Horse Harry' Lee, a devoted follower of Wash- ington ; but in January, 1792, 'Light Horse Harry' wrote to Mr. Madison : 'No consideration on earth could induce me to act a part, however gratifying to me, which could be construed into dis- regard of, or faithlessness to, this commonwealth'; and later, when in 1798 the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions were under dis- cussion, 'Light Horse Harry' exclaimed in debate, 'Virginia is my country ; her will I obey, however lamentable the fate to which it may subject me.' Born in this environment, nurtured in these traditions, to ask Lee to raise his hand against Virginia was like asking Montrose, or the MacCallum More to head a force designed for the subjection of the Highlands and the destruction of the clans."
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