NOBILITY OF WASHINGTON'S CHARACTER.

333

"You are the only being for whom I have an awful reverence !"

The great Count Herzburg wrote to him from Berlin:

"I have always admired your great virtues and qualities, your disinterested patriotism, your unshaken courage and simplicity of manners-qualifications by which you surpass men even the most celebrated of antiquity.”

Lord Brougham said:

"Until time shall be no more will a test of the progress which our race has made in Wisdom and Virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington!"

A writer in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," said:

"Of all men that ever lived, he was the greatest of good men and the best of great men."

And one of England's greatest poets wrote:

"Where may the wearied eye repose

When gazing on the great,

Where neither guilty glory glows,

Nor despicable State!

Yes, One-the first, the last, the best,

The Cincinnatus of the West,

Whom Envy dared not hate

Bequeathed the name of Washington,

To make men blush there was but One!"

The prime minister of England, Mr. Gladstone, has pronounced him "the purest figure in history," and has written that "if among all the pedestals supplied by history for public characters of extraordinary nobility and purity, I saw one higher than all the rest, and if I were required at a moment's notice to name the fittest occupant for it, I think

my choice, at any time during the last forty-five years, would have lighted, and would now light, on Washington."

The latest and best historian of England, Mr. Green,

wrote:

"No nobler figure ever stood in the forefront of a nation's life."

Such was the man for whom Martha Washington was worthy to be a wife, a counsellor, and a friend. I have spoken of her person. Her voice was sweet and musical, flowing gently, yet rather quickly, especially when excited by any emotion. Her husband's speech, on the contrary, was rather slow and deliberate, subdued in tone, precise in articulation, and always impressive.

SHADOW PORTRAIT.

Several portraits of Mrs. Washington were painted. Only two were of life size, namely, the Woollaston portrait (see page 93) painted when she was Mrs. Custis, and a head by Stuart, now belonging to the Boston Athenæum, painted when she was beyond sixty years of age. Of the several miniatures of her, probably the most accurate was painted by Archibald Robertson, a Scotch artist, in 1792, when she was sixty years old. It was first engraved from the original at Arlington House, about the year 1833, for the "American Portrait Gallery."

LIKENESSES OF THE GENERAL AND HIS WIFE. 335

From that miniature as a likeness Chappel made his fine. picture of Martha Washington for Duyckinck's "Portrait Gallery of Eminent Men and Women," published by Mr. Henry Johnson, who kindly permitted the artist of this work to copy it in pen and ink. James Sharpless made a profile of her in colored crayons when she was a year or two older, which her friends declared was an excellent likeness.

Mrs. Sharpless, who painted miniature portraits in watercolors most exquisitely, also delineated the likenesses of Mrs. Washington and her husband. I saw one of them in the possession of Mrs. Eliza M. Evans, of New Brunswick, N. J., a daughter of General Anthony Walton White. On the back of it was written, by the hand of the fair artist, "General Washington, Philadelphia, 1796. E. Sharpless."

Not long before Washington's death, shadow portraits in profile of the general and his wife were made at Mount Vernon. These were undoubtedly drawn by Mrs. Washington's clever granddaughter, Eleanor Parke Custis. The profiles were cast in shadow upon a wall by a strong light, and were traced there upon paper. They were in the possession of Mrs. Lewis many years, when they were presented to her friend Mrs. Gibson. On the back of each is the following certificate:

"The within profiles of General and Mrs. Washington were taken from shadows on the wall. They are as perfect likenesses as profiles can give. Presented to me by my friend, Mrs. Eleanor Parke Lewis, Woodland, July, 1832. "ELIZABETH BORDELEY GIBSON."

My pleasant task is done. In this volume I have endeavored to present to my readers an outline delineation of all that is known of the character and life-career of the

Mother and the Wife of Washington, and by so doing I have incidentally unveiled to view the most pleasing, because the most tender and lovable, characteristics of the Beloved Patriot.

APPENDIX.

MARTHA WASHINGTON WILL.

"In the name of GOD, Amen.

"I, MARTHA WASHINGTON, of Mount Vernon, in the county of Fairfax, being of sound mind and capable of disposing of my worldly estate, do make, ordain, and declare this to be my last Will and Testament, hereby revoking all other Wills and Testaments by me heretofore made. "Imprimis.—It is my desire that all my just debts may be punctually paid, and that as speedily as the same can be done.

Item.-I give and devise to my nephew, Bartholomew Dandridge, and his heirs, my lot in the town of Alexandria, situate on Pitt and Cameron streets, devised to me by my late husband, George Washington, deceased.

“Item.-I give and bequeath to my four nieces, Martha W. Dandridge, Mary Dandridge, Frances Lucy Dandridge, and Frances Henley, the debt of two thousand pounds due from Lawrence Lewis and secured by his bond, to be equally divided between them or such of them as shall be alive at my death, and to be paid to them respectively on the days of their respective marriage or arrival at the age of twentyone years, whichsoever shall first happen, together with all the interest on said debt remaining unpaid at the time of my death; and in case the whole or any part of said principal sum of two thousand pounds shall be paid to me during my life, then it is my will that so much money be raised out of my estate as shall be equal to what I shall have received of the said principal debt, and distributed among my four nieces aforesaid as herein has been bequeathed; and it is my meaning that the interest accruing after my death, on the said sum of two thousand pounds shall belong to my said nieces, and be equally divided between them, or such of them as shall be alive at the time of my death, and be paid annually for their respective uses, until they receive their shares of the principal.