In this respect, at his entrance into life, he felt a slightly presumptuous degree of self-confidence. He writes to Governor Dinwiddie; "For my own part I can answer, that I have a constitution hardy enough to encounter and undergo the most severe trials, and, I flatter myself, resolution to face what any man dares." [Footnote 24]
[Footnote 24: Washington's Writings, Vol. II. p. 29.]
To a spirit like this, war was a more congenial employment than field-sports or traveling. As soon as an opportunity offered, he embraced the employment with that ardor, which, in the early period of life, does not reveal a man's capacity so certainly as his taste. In 1754, it is said, when George the Second was hearing a despatch read, which had been transmitted by the Governor of Virginia, and in which Washington, than a young major, ended the narrative of his first battle with the words, "I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound;" the King observed, "He would not say so, if he had been used to hear many." Washington was of the King's opinion; for, when the major of the Virginia militia had become the Commander-in-chief of the United States, some one having asked him if it were true, that he had ever expressed such a sentiment, he replied, "If I said so, it was when I was young." [Footnote 25]
[Footnote 25: Washington's Writings, Vol. II. p. 39.]
But his youthful ardor, which was at the same time serious and calm, had the authority which belongs to a riper age. From the first moment in which he embraced the military profession, he took pleasure, far more than in the excitement of battle, in that noble exercise of the understanding and the will, armed with power in order to accomplish a worthy purpose, that powerful combination of human action and good fortune, which kindles and inspires the most elevated as well as the most simple minds. Born in the first rank of colonial society, trained in the public schools in the midst of his countrymen, he took his place naturally at their head; for he was at once their superior and their equal; formed to the same habits, skilled in the same exercises; a stranger, like them, to all elegant learning, without any pretensions to scientific knowledge, claiming nothing for himself, and exerting only in the public service that ascendency, which always attends a judicious and penetrating understanding, and a calm and energetic character, in a disinterested position.
In 1754, he was just appearing in society, and entering upon his military career. It is a young officer of two-and-twenty, who commands battalions of militia, and corresponds with the representative of the king of England. In neither of these relations does he feel any embarrassment. He loves his associates; he respects the king and the governor; but neither affection nor respect alters the independence of his judgment or of his conduct. By an admirable, instinctive power of action and command, he sees and apprehends, by what means and upon what terms success is to be obtained in the enterprise he has undertaken on behalf of his king and his country. And these terms he imposes, these means he insists upon; from the soldiers he exacts all that can be accomplished by discipline, promptness, and activity in the service; from the governor, that he shall discharge his duty in respect to the pay of the soldiers, the furnishing of supplies, and the choice of officers. In every case, whether his words or opinions are sent up to the superior to whom he is rendering his account, or pass down to the subordinates under his command, they are equally precise, practical, and decided, equally marked by that authority which truth and necessity bestow upon the man who appears in their name. From this moment, Washington is the leading American of his time, the faithful and conspicuous representative of his country, the man who will best understand and best serve her, whether he be called upon to fight or negotiate for her, to defend or to govern her.
It is not the issue alone which has revealed this. His contemporaries foresaw it. Colonel Fairfax, his first patron, wrote to him, in 1756, "Your good health and fortune are the toast at every table." [Footnote 26] In 1759, chosen, for the first time, to the House of Burgesses in Virginia, at the moment when he was taking his seat in the House, the Speaker, Mr. Robinson, presented to him, in warm and animated terms, the thanks of the House for the services which he had rendered to his country. Washington rose to make his acknowledgments for so distinguished an honor; but such was his embarrassment, that he could not speak a single word; he blushed, hesitated, and trembled. The Speaker at once came to his aid, and said, "Sit down, Mr. Washington; your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language that I possess." [Footnote 27]
n [Footnote 26: Washington's Writings, Vol. II. p. 145.]
[Footnote 27: Spark's Life of Washington, Vol. I. p. 107.]