Brief biographies from American history, for the fifth and sixth grades

by Edna Henry Lee Turpin

There was formed a conspiracy to depose Washington and to put at the head of the army General Gates who had won the victory of the campaign. Congress, however, supported Washington and collected men and supplies for a new campaign. The army was drilled in the winter of 1778 by Baron von Steuben, a Prussian officer who had served under Frederic the Great.

In 1778 the British evacuated Philadelphia and Washington attacked them at Monmouth. Here he had a clash with General Charles Lee; his temper, usually under control, rose at what he considered General Lee’s failure to perform his duty.

The little army marched north and encamped near White Plains. In this vicinity it remained during the year. During the campaign of 1779 also, Washington remained in the Highlands of the Hudson on the defensive. The next year came French aid. That same year the plot of General Arnold to surrender West Point to the English was discovered from papers in the possession of a captured spy. This spy, the brave young General André, paid the penalty with his life; the traitor Arnold escaped to the British.

In 1781 brilliant victories were won at the south by General Greene, General Morgan and by Marion, called “the Swamp Fox.” That same year Washington, aided by the French troops, invested Lord Cornwallis’s men at Yorktown, and forced them to surrender.

A treaty of peace, made in September, 1783, ended the war which, as Pitt said, “was conceived in injustice, nurtured in folly, and whose footsteps were marked with blood and devastation.” In November the British evacuated New York and on December the fourth Washington read his farewell address to the army. He resigned his commission to Congress, thinking that his remaining days were to be spent in private life at the home he loved.

But his country needed him still. Victory had been won indeed, but the debt and burden of war remained. Congress with its limited delegated power was unable to settle matters, and there seemed danger that the colonies, united in their struggle against British oppression, would drift apart. Washington had won public confidence; it was he who could best advance the work of peace. He presided over the Convention of 1787 which framed a Constitution for the newly-established United States. This was adopted by the required number of states and Washington was unanimously chosen President of the United States. On April 30, 1789, he assumed the duties of the office in New York, which was the first seat of national government. He entered upon the performance of his work as president with the conscientious attention which he gave to all matters. He aided to organize the different departments of the government and appointed as their heads the ablest men in the country—Hamilton, Jefferson, and others. He never openly allied himself with either the Federalist party led by Hamilton or the Democratic-Republican party led by Jefferson, but strove for union and peace.

After serving eight years, he declined to be a candidate a third time—thus establishing a precedent that no President shall serve a third term. In 1796 Washington delivered a farewell address to the people he had led and served. He retired to private life, but did not live long to enjoy his well-earned rest. December 14, 1799, he died and was buried at his home at Mount Vernon. The eulogy pronounced on him by “Light Horse Harry” Lee well said that he was “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life.”

Philip Schuyler

Philip Schuyler was a member of an old Dutch family in New York, which had extensive possessions on the river Hudson. Under a French tutor, he received a better education than was usual in colonial days. He was an energetic manly lad, and early learned to ride and skate, to shoot and manage a boat. He grew up an intelligent man and a good woodsman, trained in the learning of the frontiers.

His father died when he was eight years old; Philip was the eldest son and when he attained his majority, according to the English custom he became master of his father’s wealth. This did not accord with Schuyler’s Dutch ideas of justice nor with his native generosity; he divided the property equally with his brothers and sisters.