In 1759 Washington married a widow named Martha Custis, with two children, John and Martha Parke Custis. He was a great favorite with the two youngsters, and used to order toys, dolls, and gingerbreads for them from London. Mrs. Custis had a large estate and so had Washington, and the management cf them took up all of his time.
When the disputes between England and the American colonies were at their height, in 1774, he became a member of the First Continental Congress, and the following year was chosen by that body Commander-in-Chief of the Continental army. For this position his training and his surveying experiences had thoroughly fitted him. He took command of the troops at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 3, 1775; but it was a poor army that he found under him. It was in want of arms, ammunition, and general equipment. Washington, however, kept it together with patience and skill during the trying years of the Revolution. The war lasted six years and ended with the surrender of the British commander, Cornwallis, at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. During all this time Washington had had to contend with the greatest difficulties. The troops were poorly paid or equipped; often there were disputes among the officers, and Congress did not know the army's needs; but the General always kept the confidence of his men until victory was assured....
In 1783 Washington bade farewell to his army, and for the next six years lived the simple life of a country gentleman on his estate at Mount Vernon, attending to the affairs of his homestead and property.
In 1789 he was again called from private life, to become first president of the United States. Congress was sitting at New York, for which city he started, in April. He disliked fuss and ceremony, but the people could not be restrained from showing their love and admiration. His progress through New Jersey was amid constant cheering, ringing of bells, and the booming of cannon. At Elizabethtown he embarked on a splendid barge, followed by other barges and boats, making a long water procession up the Bay of New York, the ships in the harbor being decorated with colors, and firing salutes as it passed. The inauguration took place on April 30, 1789, at the old City Hall, in Wall Street, Broad Street being crowded with thousands of people as far as the eye could reach. In 1793, he was re-elected for a second term of four years, after which he bade farewell to the people and retired into private life. On the 12th of December, 1799, he caught a severe cold in making the round of his plantations and died two days later, in his sixty-eighth year. In number of years he had not lived a long life, but how much was crowded into it!
Most of the portraits of Washington show him as a serious-looking gentleman in a wig, and the earliest biographies of him would lead us to believe that he was always on his dignity. But our first president was, in fact, a very genial man, with a hearty laugh, who enjoyed going to the theater, was fond of fox-hunting and was a thorough sportsman, and, as he himself admitted, had a hot temper. Towards young people and children he was always very gracious and kind....
Like Lincoln, Washington was very athletic. Both of our two great presidents were tall men: Washington was six feet two inches; Lincoln was six feet four. When he first visited the Natural Bridge, in Virginia, Washington threw a stone to the top, a distance of about two hundred feet, and, climbing the rocks, carved his name far above all others....
In all the positions which he was called upon to fill, in his remarkable life, whether as host at his home, as surveyor, as general, or as president, Washington showed the same desire to give the best that was in him for his people, his country, and for humanity at large. He endeared himself to the lowly and he gained the admiration of the great. He was never influenced by mean motives, and those who were under him loved him. Thus it was that among Americans he came to be regarded as "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen;" and when his death became known on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the armies of Napoleon in France, and the fleet of Great Britain, his former enemy, did homage to his memory.
Washington's birthday was celebrated even during his lifetime, and he had the satisfaction of receiving the congratulations of his fellow-citizens many times upon the return of this day, frequently being a guest at banquets given in honor of the occasion. In fact, after the Revolution, Washington's birthday practically took the place of the birthday of the various crowned heads of Great Britain, which had always been celebrated with enthusiasm during colonial times. When independence was established, all these royal birthdays were cast aside, and the birthday of Washington naturally became one of the most widely celebrated of American holidays....
Let us not forget what we owe to Washington, or make him merely a name—an excuse for a holiday. Let us remember him as a real, flesh and blood man—one of the greatest known to history.
He gave us a nation to make it immortal;
He laid down for Freedom the sword that he drew;
And his faith leads us on through the uplifting portal
Of the glories of peace and our destinies new.