He called his wife to bring his toga from their hut. After he had wiped off the dust and sweat, he put on his toga and went with the messengers.
So he saved Rome.
Thus it was with Washington.
When the call came for him to save his Country, he left his plantation. So did many farmers and planters; at a moment’s notice they left their farms and plantations, took up their muskets and answered the call of their Country. They became officers in Washington’s Army.
After the war, these officers formed a society, called the Society of the Cincinnati, naming it after the patriotic old Roman farmer.
To it belonged Washington, Hamilton, Lafayette, Kosciuszko, and many other American and foreign officers, who had served with honour in the Continental army. To-day their descendants, one representing each officer, belong to the Society of the Cincinnati.
The French members presented Washington with a magnificent badge of the Order, studded with about two hundred precious stones—diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and amethysts.
Washington himself is called:—
“Yes—one—the first—the last—the best,
The Cincinnatus of the West.”