The True George Washington [10th Ed.] — John Shaqi
The True George Washington [10th Ed.]Ford, Paul Leicester
History
The True George Washington [10th Ed.]
Ford, Paul Leicester
Generals -- United States -- Biography; Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Washington, George, 1732-1799
His second and favorite brother, John Augustine, who was four years his
junior, Washington described as “the intimate companion of my youth and
the friend of my ripened age.” While the Virginia colonel was on the
frontier, from 1754 to 1759, he left John in charge of all his business
affairs, giving him a residence at and management of Mount Vernon. With
this brother he constantly corresponded, addressing him as “Dear Jack,”
and writing in the most intimate and affectionate terms, not merely to
him, but when John had taken unto himself a wife, to her, and to “the
little ones,” and signing himself “your loving brother.” Visits between
the two were frequent, and invitations for the same still more so, and
in one letter, written during the most trying moment of the Revolution,
Washington said, “God grant you all health and happiness. Nothing in
this world could contribute so to mine as to be fixed among you.” John
died in 1787, and Washington wrote with simple but undisguised grief of
the death of “my beloved brother.”
The eldest son of this brother, Bushrod, was his favorite nephew, and
Washington took much interest in his career, getting the lad admitted
to study law with Judge James Wilson, in Philadelphia, and taking
genuine pride in him when he became a lawyer and judge of repute. He
made this nephew his travelling companion in the Western journey of
1784, and at other times not merely sent him money, but wrote him
letters of advice, dwelling on the dangers that beset young men, though
confessing that he was himself “not such a Stoic” as to expect too much
of youthful blood. To Bushrod, also, he appealed on legal matters,
adding, “You may think me an unprofitable applicant in asking opinions
and requiring services of you without dousing my money, but pay day may
come,” and in this he was as good as his word, for in his will
Washington left Bushrod, “partly in consideration of an intimation to
his deceased father, while we were bachelors and he had kindly
undertaken to superintend my Estates, during my military services in
the former war between Great Britain and France, that if I should fall
therein, Mt. Vernon … should become his property,” the home and
“mansion-house farm,” one share of the residuary estate, his private
papers, and his library, and named him an executor of the instrument.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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