This was the man God gave us when the hour
Proclaimed the dawn of Liberty begun;
Who dared a deed, and died when it was done,
Patient in triumph, temperate in power,—
Not striving like the Corsican to tower
To heaven, nor like great Philip's greater son
To win the world and weep for worlds unwon,
Or lose the star to revel in the flower.
The lives that serve the eternal verities
Alone do mold mankind. Pleasure and pride
Sparkle awhile and perish, as the spray
Smoking across the crests of cavernous seas
Is impotent to hasten or delay
The everlasting surges of the tide.
HISTORICAL MEMORABILIA OF WASHINGTON [ToC]
COMPILED BY H.B. CARRINGTON
1732. February 22 (February 11, O.S.), born.
1748. Surveyor of lands at sixteen years of age.
1751. Military inspector and major at nineteen years of age.
1752. Adjutant-general of Virginia.
1753. Commissioner to the French.
1754. Colonel, and commanding the Virginia militia.
1755. Aide-de-camp to Braddock in his campaign.
1755. Again commands the Virginia troops.
1758. Resigns his commission.
1759. January 6. Married.
1759. Elected member of Virginia House of Burgesses.
1765. Commissioner to settle military accounts.
1774. In First Continental Congress.
1775. In Second Continental Congress.
1775. June 15. Elected commander-in-chief.
1775. July 2. In command at Cambridge.
1776. March 17. Expels the British from Boston.
1776. August 27. Battle of Long Island.
1776. August 29. Masterly retreat to New York.
1776. September 15. Gallant, at Kipp's Bay.
1776. October 27. Battle of Harlem Heights.
1776. October 29. Battle near White Plains.
1776. November 15. Enters New Jersey.
1776. December 5. Occupies right bank of the Delaware.
1776. December 12. Clothed with "full power."
1776. December 14. Plans an offensive campaign.
1776. December 26. Battle of Trenton.
1777. January 3. Battle of Princeton.
1777. July. British driven from New Jersey, during.
1777. July 13. Marches for Philadelphia.
1777. September 11. Battle of Brandywine.
1777. September 15. Offers battle at West Chester.
1777. October 4. Battle of Germantown.
1778. Winters at Valley Forge.
1778. June 28. Battle of Monmouth.
1778. British again retire from New Jersey.
1778. Again at White Plains.
1779. At Middlebrook, New Jersey, and New Windsor.
1780. Winters at Morristown, New Jersey.
1781. Confers with Rochambeau as to plans.
1781. Threatens New York in June and July.
1781. Joins Lafayette before Yorktown.
1781. October 19. Surrender of Cornwallis.
1783. November 2. Farewell to the army.
1733. November 25. Occupies New York.
1783. December 4. Parts with his officers.
1783. December 23. Resigns his commission.
1787. Presides at Constitutional Convention.
1789. March 4. Elected President of the United States.
1789. April 30. Inaugurated at New York.
1793. March 4. Re-elected for four years.
1796. September 17. Farewell to the people.
1797. March 4. Retires to private life.
1798. July 3. Appointed commander-in-chief.
1799. December 14. Died at Mount Vernon.