GEORGE WASHINGTON.

He was a man, take him for all in all,
We ne'er shall look upon his like again.

THE ancestors of George Washington were among the first settlers of the oldest British Colony in America. He was the third in descent from John Washington, an English gentleman, who, about the middle of the 17th century, emigrated from the north of England, and settled in Westmoreland county, Virginia. In the place where he had fixed himself, his great grandson, the subject of this memoir, was born on the 22d of February, 1732.

Of the first nineteen years of George Washington's life, little is known. It is reported, in his youth, he was grave, silent and thoughtful, diligent and methodical in business, dignified in his appearance, and strictly honourable in all his deportment. His patrimonial estate was little, but that little was managed with prudence, and increased by industry. In the gay

est period of his life, he was a stranger to dissipation and riot.

At the age of nineteen, he was appointed one of the Adjutant Generals of Virginia with the rank of Major; and before he was barely twenty-two, he was despatched on an embassy to the French Commandant on the Ohio. Shortly after, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of a regiment, and an Aid-de-camp to General Braddock; and in an action with the French a few miles from Fort Duquesne, he had two horses shot under him, and four bullets passed through his coat. He was next appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Virginia; which commission he resigned in 1758. He shortly after married Mrs Curtis, a lady of large fortune, and great accomplishments.

Washington, by the death of his elder brother Lawrence, had a few years before acquired an estate situated on the Potomac, called Mount Vernon in compliment to admiral Vernon, who about the year 1741, commanded the British Fleet in an expedition against Carthagena, in which Mr Lawrence Washington had been engaged.

The clashing claims of Great Britain and

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her colonies were frequently brought before the Virginia Legislature, of which Washington was one of the burgesses. In every instance, he took a decided part in the opposition made to the principles of taxation claimed by the Parent State; this soon brought on a war, and Washington was chosen Commander-in-Chief of the forces of the twelve united colonies. To the president of Congress, announcing his appointment, in a short speech he said, 'As to pay, as no pecuniary considerations would have attempted him to accept the arduous employment, he did not wish to make any profit from it. That he would accept an exact account of his expences, the discharge of which was all he desired.' He shortly after joined the army at Cambridge; and on General Howe evacuating Boston, he took possession of that town, where he was received with every demonstration of joy. From this period, to the year 1781, when Lord Cornwallis surrendered his whole army, which gave the closing scene to the war, did this intrepid patriot victoriously struggle for the liberties of his country, and surmount the most unaccountable difficulties; at length, at the conclusion of the war, he retired to his seat,

Mount Vernon, in 1783; and there, in a short time, the most successful General in the world became the most diligent farmer in Virginia. In 1787, he was chosen President of the Society of Cincinnati; and recommended a revisal of the federal system. He was next chosen delegate, and afterwards president of the convention for revising the system of Government.

On the 14th of April, 1789, he was elected President of the United States; and on his way to New York to be installed, girls and women strewed flowers on the road before their beloved deliverer. On his arrival at New York, there was a general illumination; and, accompanied by the Vice President, Mr John Adams, he took the oath prescribed by the Constitution. An awful silence prevailed among the spectators during this part of the ceremony. It was a period of the most sublime political joy. In 1797, he resigned the office of President, and retired to Mount Vernon, and resumed his agricultural pursuits. In the same year, he was appointed Lieutenant General and Commander-in-Chief of the American army.

On the 13th of December, 1799, while out

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of doors, attending to some improvements on his estate, his neck and hair, from a slight rain, became wet. In the following night, he was seized with an inflammatory affection of the wind-pipe, attended with some pain and difficult deglutition. He was bled in the night, but would not permit his family physician to be sent for before day. Between eleven and twelve o'clock on Saturday night, and in about thirty-five hours from the time he was in his usual health, he expired without a struggle, and in the perfect use of his reason.

In every stage of his disorder, he believed that he should die, and was so much under this impression, that he submitted to the prescriptions of his physicians more from a sense of duty than expectation of relief. Having given them a trial, he expressed a wish that he might be permitted to die without further interruption. After his power of deglutition was gone, he undressed himself, and went to bed, to die there. To his friend and physician, Dr Craik, he said, ‘I am dying, and have been dying for a long time, but I am not afraid® to die.' The equanimity which attended him through life did not forsake him in death. He submitted to the inevitable stroke with