Another thoroughly incompetent man was one employed to take charge of the negro carpenters, of whom his employer wrote, “I am apprehensive … that Green never will overcome his propensity to drink; that it is this which occasions his frequent sickness, absences from work and poverty. And I am convinced, moreover, that it answers no purpose to admonish him.” Yet, though “I am so well satisfied of Thomas Green’s unfitness to look after Carpenters,” for a time “the helpless situation in which you find his family, has prevailed on me to retain him,” and when he finally had to be discharged for drinking, Washington said, “Nothing but compassion for his helpless family, has hitherto induced me to keep him a moment in my service (so bad is the example he sets); but if he has no regard for them himself, it is not to be expected that I am to be a continual sufferer on this account for his misconduct.” His successor needed the house the family lived in, but Washington could not “bear the thought of adding to the distress I know they must be in, by turning them adrift;… It would be better therefore on all accounts if they were removed to some other place, even if I was to pay the rent, provided it was low, or make some allowance towards it.”

To many others, besides family, friends, and employees, Washington was charitable. From an early date his ledger contains frequent items covering gifts to the needy. To mention a tenth of them would take too much space, but a few typical entries are worth quoting:

“By Cash gave a Soldiers wife 5/;” “To a crippled man 5/;” “Gave a man who had his House Burnt £1.;” “By a begging woman /5;” “By Cash gave for the Sufferers at Boston by fire £12;” “By a wounded soldier 10/;” “Alexandria Academy, support of a teacher of Orphan children £50;” “By Charity to an invalid wounded Soldier who came from Redston with a petition for Charity 18/;” “Gave a poor man by the President’s order $2;” “Delivd to the President to send to two distress’d french women at Newcastle $25;” “Gave Pothe a poor old man by the President’s order $2;” “Gave a poor sailor by the Presdt order $1;” “Gave a poor blind man by the Presdt order $1.50;” “By Madame de Seguer a french Lady in distress gave her $50;” “By Subscription paid to Mr. Jas. Blythe towards erecting and Supporting an Academy in the State of Kentucky $100;” “By Subscription towards an Academy in the South Western Territory $100;” “By Charity sent Genl Charles Pinckney in Columbus Bank Notes, for the sufferers by the fire in Charleston So. Carolina $300;” “By Charity gave to the sufferers by fire in Geo. Town $10;” “By an annual Donation to the Academy at Alexandria pd. Dr. Cook $166.67;” “By Charity to the poor of Alexandria deld. to the revd. Dr. Muir $100.”

To an overseer he said, concerning a distant relative, “Mrs. Haney should endeavor to do what she can for herself—this is a duty incumbent on every one; but you must not let her suffer, as she has thrown herself upon me; your advances on this account will be allowed always, at settlement; and I agree readily to furnish her with provisions, and for the good character you give of her daughter make the latter a present in my name of a handsome but not costly gown, and other things which she may stand most in need of. You may charge me also with the worth of your tenement in which she is placed, and where perhaps it is better she should be than at a great distance from your attentions to her.”

After the terrible attack of fever in Philadelphia in 1793, Washington wrote to a clergyman of that city,—

“It has been my intention ever since my return to the city, to contribute my mite towards the relief of the most needy inhabitants of it. The pressure of public business hitherto has suspended, but not altered my resolution. I am at a loss, however, for whose benefit to apply the little I can give, and in whose hands to place it; whether for the use of the fatherless children and widows, made so by the late calamity, who may find it difficult, whilst provisions, wood, and other necessaries are so dear, to support themselves; or to other and better purposes, if any, I know not, and therefore have taken the liberty of asking your advice. I persuade myself justice will be done to my motives for giving you this trouble. To obtain information, and to render the little I can afford, without ostentation or mention of my name, are the sole objects of these inquiries. With great and sincere esteem and regard, I am, &c.”

His adopted grandson he advised to “never let an indigent person ask, without receiving something if you have the means; always recollecting in what light the widow’s mite was viewed.” And when he took command of the army in 1775, the relative who took charge of his affairs was told to “let the hospitality of the house, with respect to the poor, be kept up. Let no one go hungry away. If any of this kind of people should be in want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in idleness; and I have no objection to your giving my money in charity, to the amount of forty or fifty pounds a year, when you think it well bestowed. What I mean by having no objection is, that it is my desire that it should be done. You are to consider, that neither myself nor wife is now in the way to do these good offices.”

VII
SOCIAL LIFE

There can be no doubt that Washington, like the Virginian of his time, was pre-eminently social. It is true that late in life he complained, as already quoted, that his home had become a “well resorted tavern,” and that at his own table “I rarely miss seeing strange faces, come as they say out of respect for me. Pray, would not the word curiosity answer as well?” but even in writing this he added, “how different this from having a few social friends at a cheerful board!” When a surveyor he said that the greatest pleasure he could have would be to hear from or be with “my Intimate friends and acquaintances;” to one he wrote, “I hope you in particular will not Bauk me of what I so ardently wish for,” and he groaned over being “amongst a parcel of barbarians.” While in the Virginia regiment he complained of a system of rations which “deprived me of the pleasure of inviting an officer or friend, which to me would be more agreeable, than nick-nacks I shall meet with,” and when he was once refused leave of absence by the governor, he replied bitterly, “it was not to enjoy a party of pleasure I wanted a leave of absence; I have been indulged with few of these, winter or summer!” At Mount Vernon, if a day was spent without company the fact was almost always noted in his diary, and in a visit, too, he noted that he had “a very lonesome Evening at Colo Champe’s, not any Body favoring us with their Company but himself.”

The plantation system which prevented town life and put long distances between neighbors developed two forms of society. One of these was house parties, and probably nowhere else in the world was that form of hospitality so unstinted as in this colony. Any one of a certain social standing was privileged, even welcomed, to ride up to the seat of a planter, dismount, and thus become a guest, ceasing to be such only when he himself chose. Sometimes one family would go en masse many miles to stay a week with friends, and when they set out to return their hosts would journey with them and in turn become guests for a week. The second form of social life was called clubs. At all the cross-roads and court-houses there sprang up taverns or ordinaries, and in these the men of a neighborhood would gather, and over a bowl of punch or a bottle of wine, the expense of which they “clubbed” to share, would spend their evenings.