George Washington’s first appearance in history.

At such a crisis Governor Dinwiddie had need of the ablest man Virginia could afford, to undertake a journey of unwonted difficulty through the wilderness, to negotiate with Indian tribes, and to warn the advancing Frenchmen to trespass no further upon English territory. As the best person to entrust with this arduous enterprise, the shrewd old Scotchman selected a lad of one-and-twenty, Lord Fairfax’s surveyor, George Washington. History does not record a more extraordinary choice, nor one more completely justified.


This year 1753 marks the end of the period when we can deal with the history of Virginia by itself. The struggle against France, so long sustained by New York and New England, acquires a truly Continental character when Virginia comes to take part in it. Great public questions forthwith come up for solution, some of which are not set at rest until after that young land surveyor has become President of the United States. With the first encounter between Frenchmen and Englishmen in the Alleghanies, the stream of Virginia history becomes an inseparable portion of the majestic stream in which flows the career of our Federal Union.


INDEX.


INDEX.