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[Illustration: George Washington]


    LOG CABIN TO WHITE HOUSE SERIES

    From Farm House to the White House

    THE LIFE OF
    GEORGE WASHINGTON

    HIS BOYHOOD, YOUTH, MANHOOD, PUBLIC
    AND PRIVATE LIFE AND SERVICES

    _By_ William M. Thayer

    Author of "From Log Cabin to White House,"
    "From Pioneer Home to White House,"
    "From Tannery to White House,"
    "From Boyhood to Manhood," etc., etc.

    _ILLUSTRATED_

    NEW YORK
    HURST & COMPANY PUBLISHERS




Log Cabin to White House Series.

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME.

BY WILLIAM M. THAYER:

    From Boyhood to Manhood--Life of Benjamin Franklin.

    From Farm House to White House--Life of George Washington.

    From Log Cabin to White House--Life of James A. Garfield,
    with eulogy by Hon. James G. Blaine.

    From Pioneer Home to White House--Life of Abraham Lincoln,
    with eulogy by Hon. Geo. Bancroft.

    From Tannery to White House--Life of Ulysses S. Grant.

BY EDWARD S. ELLIS:

    From Ranch to White House--Life of Theodore Roosevelt.

_Price Post-Paid, 75c. each, or $4.50 for the set._

HURST & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.


Copyright, 1890, By JAMES H. EARLE.




    To ALL WHO HONOR TRUE MANHOOD,
    This Volume,
    _REPRESENTING THE ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS_,
    From Boyhood to Manhood
    IN THE
    CAREER AND NOBLE CHARACTER
    OF
    GEORGE WASHINGTON,
    "_THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY_,"
    Is Sincerely and Affectionately Dedicated.




PREFACE.

Every American, old or young, should become familiar with the life of
Washington; it will confirm their patriotism and strengthen their
loyalty. Such a character will become an inspiration to them, eliciting
nobler aims, and impelling to nobler deeds.

Washington himself wrote to his step-son, who was in college:

    "You are now extending into that stage of life when good or bad
    habits are formed; when the mind will be turned to things useful
    and praiseworthy or to dissipation and vice. Fix on which ever
    it may, it will stick by you; for you know it has been said, and
    truly, 'The way the twig is bent the tree's inclined.' This, in
    a strong point of view, shows the propriety of letting your
    inexperience be directed by maturer advice, and in placing guard
    upon the avenues which lead to idleness and vice. The latter
    will approach like a thief, working upon your passions,
    encouraged, perhaps, by bad examples, the propensity to which
    will increase in proportion to the practice of it and your
    yielding. Virtue and vice cannot be allied, nor can idleness and
    industry; of course if you resolve to adhere to the former of
    these extremes, an intimacy with those who incline to the latter
    of them would be extremely embarrassing to you; it would be a
    stumbling block in your way, and act like a mill-stone hung to
    your neck; for it is the nature of idleness and vice to obtain
    as many votaries as they can....

    "It is to close application and perseverance that men of letters
    and science are indebted for their knowledge and usefulness; and
    you are now at the period of life when these are to be acquired,
    or lost for ever. As you know how anxious your friends are to
    see you enter upon the grand theatre of life with the advantages
    of a finished education, a highly cultivated mind, and a proper
    sense of your duties to God and man, I shall only add one
    sentiment before I close this letter and that is, to pay due
    respect and obedience to your tutors, and affectionate reverence
    for the president of the college, whose character merits your
    highest regards. Let no bad example, for such is to be met in
    all seminaries, have an improper influence upon your conduct.
    Let this be such, and let it be your pride to demean yourself
    in such a manner as to obtain the good will of your superiors
    and the love of your fellow students."

Better advice than this was never given to a youth; and to enforce it,
we present in this volume the life and character of the great man who so
lovingly tendered it. By employing the colloquial style, anecdotal
illustration, and thrilling incident, the author hopes more successfully
to accomplish his purpose.

In the preparation of this work the author has availed himself of the
abundant material furnished by Washington's well-known biographers,
Ramsey, Weems, Marshall, Sparks, Bancroft, Irving, Everett, Custis,
etc., together with the anecdotes of his earlier and later life, found
in eulogies, essays, and literary articles upon his life and character,
with which the literature of our country abounds. Incident is allowed to
tell the life story of the subject. The incidents of his boyhood and
youth are particularly narrated, that the achievements of ripe manhood
may more clearly appear to be the outcome of a life well begun. To such
an example