know my own mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy, provided that would contribute to the people's ease." It was enough to move a heart of stone, to see that young man, only twenty-four years of age, burning to rescue the defenseless inhabitants, and panting for action; standing with idle hands and fettered feet, surrounded with gray-haired fathers and weeping orphans, whom the Indians had bereft of friends, his ears constantly stunned with tales of horrid murder, praying in bitterness of spirit, that he might be offered up a sacrifice, to effect that which an inefficient government will not permit him to do.

His friends in the council and assembly, were alarmed at the intimation that he wished to resign, and appealed to his patriotism and pride to dissuade him from so fatal a purpose. They declared no one believed the libels that appeared in print, and soon the author of them would be detected. A letter from Loudon, probably had more effect than any other remonstrance. The sagacious patriot told Washington that his resignation was probably the very result his libeler was after, so that he himself might take his place. He knew this would tell on the high, sensitive spirit of Washington, and he wound up with, "No sir, rather let Braddock's bed be your aim, than any thing might discolor those laurels which I promise myself are kept in store for you."

The plot being discovered, its authors were covered with disgrace, and Washington retained his command. His position, however, continued to be a most trying one. The officious governor, noi content with taking care of matters at home, using his power to augment, pay, clothe and feed the army, was constantly intermeddling with its movements, perplexing and harassing Washington beyond measure with his absurd orders.

The summer and autumn [1756] were passed in building

BURIAL OF BRADDOCK.

forts and defending the country from Indian encroachments, still every thing was in confusion. Soldiers were wanted, and if furnished, there was no clothing nor provisions prepared for them. Those already enrolled received only six-pence, sterling, per day, two of the eightpence allowed being kept back to buy clothing with, which, some how or other, failed to reach its destination..

Washington wished to hold only a few forts, and have them well garrisoned. Fort Cumberland being out of the state, and too far in advance of the settlements that remained, to be of any service, he proposed to abandon it, or at least withdraw all the troops with the exception of a single company, and build another fort between it and Winchester. But the governor would not listen to the proposal, while instead of lessening the number of forts, the assembly proposed to extend a line of them from the Potomac to North Carolina-running for three hundred miles through the Alleghanies. Washington asked for more men, and the assembly replied by bidding him build more forts. The former declared the garrisons were quite weak enough already, without spreading them over a still larger surface, thus provoking the enemy to cut them off in detail. His remonstrance, however, had no effect; these civilians knew more than the commander-in-chief; and he set about the arduous work forced upon him with all his accustomed energy. The line on which the forts were to be erected was determined by a council of officers at Fort Cumberland, and soon tools and men were dispatched to the different localities. These Washington visited in turn, and once made the entire tour of three hundred miles, exposed almost every step of his progress to the rifle shot of the savage. Most of the way he had no escort but a servant and guide, and thus accompanied, passed on one occasion a spot where, an hour afterward, two men were killed by the Indians. He found the militia insubordinate,

the officers away, and every thing at loose ends. There was no vigilance-no discipline. In one case he found the militia stubbornly refusing to lift their hands toward erectir the fort, till paid forty pounds of tobacco, which they declared to be their due. The works, however, were slowly carried forward, and the sound of the pickaxe and hammer-the call of the teamster, and the morning and evening gun, awoke the echoes of that vast wilderness, marking the barrier which the white man had reared against the savage, who from that time on has been crowded back, till the shadows of the Rocky Mountains now fall on his lodges.

Washington's letters to Governor Dinwiddie, during the summer and autumn, are a succession of appeals to put the military of the state on a better footing. Families butchered within twelve miles of his head-quarters-insubordination of his troops-the want of clothing, provisions and arms-complaints of being compelled to be in turn his own commissary and engineer-that to-day he is supplied with one batch of orders, to-morrow with others directly contradictory-troubles with Quakers who had been drafted, but would

be whipped to death" rather than fight--short levies of soldiers-court-martials for desertion-empty mili tary chest-skirmishes with the Indians, and often bootless pursuit of them-constant struggle with difficulties, where no glory could be gained, made up the budget of the summer. The encouraging letters of staunch friends-the advice of Col. Fairfax to read Cæsar's Commentaries and Quintius Curtius, in order to learn how to bear trials, were all very well in their way, yet a poor compensation for what he suffered.

At this early stage of his career he commenced that strict discipline which he ever after maintained in an army of the most irregular troops in the world. Hearing that profanity prevailed in his regiment, he issued an order of the day, in