I. ORIGINS AND YOUTH II. MARRIAGE. THE LIFE OF A PLANTER III. THE FIRST GUN IV. BOSTON FREED V. TRENTON AND VALLEY FORGE VI. AID FROM FRANCE; TRAITORS VII. WASHINGTON RETURNS TO PEACE VIII. WELDING THE NATION IX. THE FIRST AMERICAN PRESIDENT X. THE JAY TREATY XI. WASHINGTON RETIRES FROM PUBLIC LIFE XII. CONCLUSION INDEX ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES FREQUENTLY REFERRED TO _Channing_ = Edward Channing: _History of the United States_. New York: Macmillan Company, III, IV. 1912. _Fiske_ = John Fiske: _The Critical Period of American History, 1783-1789_. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1897. _Ford_ = Worthington C. Ford: _The Writings of George Washington_. 14 vols. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1889-93. _Ford_ = Worthington C. Ford: _George Washington_. 2 vols. Paris: Goupil; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1900. _Hapgood_ = Norman Hapgood: _George Washington_. New York: Macmillan Company. 1901. _Irving_ = Washington Irving: _Life of George Washington_. New York: G.P. Putnam. 1857. _Lodge_ = Henry Cabot Lodge: _George Washington_. 2 vols. American Statesman Series. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1889. _Marshall_ = John Marshall: _The Life of George Washington_. 5 vols. Philadelphia. 1807. _Sparks_ = Jared Sparks: _The Life of George Washington_. Boston. _Wister_ = Owen Wister: _The Seven Ages of Washington_. New York: Macmillan Company. 1909. GEORGE WASHINGTON CHAPTER I ORIGINS AND YOUTH Zealous biographers of George Washington have traced for him a most respectable, not to say distinguished, ancestry. They go back to the time of Queen Elizabeth, and find Washingtons then who were "gentlemen." A family of the name existed in Northumberland and Durham, but modern investigation points to Sulgrave, in Northamptonshire, as the English home of his stock. Here was born, probably during the reign of Charles I, his great-grandfather, John Washington, who was a sea-going man, and settled in Virginia in 1657. His eldest son, Lawrence, had three children--John, Augustine, and Mildred. Of these, Augustine married twice, and by his second wife, Mary Ball, whom he married on March 17, 1730, there were six children--George, Betty, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, and Mildred. The family home at Bridges Creek, near the Potomac, in Westmoreland County, was Washington's birthplace, and (February 11, Old Style) February 22, New Style, 1732, was the date. We hear little about his childhood, he being a wholesomely unprecocious boy. Rumors have it that George was coddled and even spoiled by his mother. He had very little formal education, mathematics being the only subject in which he excelled, and that he learned chiefly by himself. But he lived abundantly an out-of-door life, hunting and fishing much, and playing on the plantation. His family, although not rich, lived in easy fashion, and ranked among the gentry.