XVI.
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.
During the fifteen years of Washington's peaceful abode at Mount Vernon, public affairs were hastening to a crisis. The "Seven Years' War," beginning with Washington's attack upon De Jumonville, and ending with the surrender of Montreal and all Canada, and the signing of the treaty of peace at Fontainbleau, in 1763, had closed; but greater things awaited the colonists in the future.
Scarcely had the people settled down in the enjoyment of peace when an insurrection broke out among the Indian tribes, including the Delawares, Shawnees, and other tribes on the Ohio, with whom Washington had mingled. It was called "Pontiac's War," because Pontiac, a famous Indian chief, was its master-spirit. He induced the tribes to take up the hatchet against the English.
An attack was made upon all the English posts, from Detroit to Fort Pitt (late Duquesne). "Several of the small stockaded forts, the places of refuge of woodland neighbors, were surprised and sacked with remorseless butchery. The frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia were laid waste; traders in the wilderness were plundered and slain; hamlets and farm-houses were wrapped in flames, and their inhabitants massacred."
Washington was not engaged in this Indian war, which was short in duration. At the time he was pushing his project of draining the Dismal Swamp.
Other things, however, of a public nature enlisted his attention, as the following interview with Mr. George Mason will show:
"It appears that the British Government propose to tax the Colonies to help pay its debts," remarked Mr. Mason. "At least, the subject is before Parliament for discussion."
"Yes," answered Washington, "and the proposition is as unjust as it is impolitic. After we have helped the king maintain his authority in this country, we must not only pay our own bills, but help him pay his. The Colonists will never submit to that."
"They never should, whether they will or not," replied Mason. "I understand that the British officers have represented to the government that the colonists are rich, and abundantly able to assist in paying the debt of England."