Table of Contents
For my sisters,
Jane Brady and Melissa Brady Cosenza,
and my children,
Colin and Elizabeth Schmit
The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.
L. P. HARTLEY
THE DANDRIDGE FAMILY
THE WASHINGTON FAMILY
PROLOGUE
On the Road to History
It was a quiet love story, but a lasting one, not one of those tempestuous romances that blaze up suddenly and just as quickly turn to ashes. Both Martha and George Washington had been in love with others, but once they married in their late twenties, their relationship became a joyful duet that lasted more than four decades. Together, they created a life of tender companionship and, in his often repeated phrase, domestic enjoyments. Politics, war, or business sometimes kept them apartbut always to their deep distress. They couldnt, or more truly didnt, want to live without each other.
For the last third of his life, George Washington was widely revered as the greatest man of the age, and contemporaries recognized his wifes critical role in that success. Today, he is still an overpowering figure in American history, while Martha Washingtons image has nearly faded away. She is both famous as the first First Lady and completely unknown. After her husbands death, to keep their private life safe from inquisitive eyes, she destroyed all forty-one years of their correspondence. Scores, perhaps hundreds, of the letters they wrote to each other disappeared into the flames: only five letters are known to have survived destruction.
Martha Washingtons desire for privacy means that her life story has been assembled from fleeting glimpsesher few remaining letters to relatives and friends, descriptions and anecdotes written by contemporaries, and an informed understanding of the eighteenth-century world she lived in. Painstaking research reveals a delightful, intelligent, and passionate woman who shared a life of mutual love and support with the countrys foremost founding father.
In April 1789, George Washington, just turned fifty-seven, rumbled off in Mount Vernons best coach and four for New York City, the temporary capital of the United States. Elected unanimously under the brand-new Constitution, he would be the first president of the reorganized nation, charged with creating a federal government from scratch. Martha Washington stayed behind in Virginia to oversee the logistical nightmare of moving their household 250 miles away. Today this is not far, but then it meant a week of hard travel. All this for a sojourn of at least four years or (heaven forbid!) eight if her husband accepted a second term.
Martha was not happy to leave Mount Vernon and didnt hesitate to say so. She wrote to a nephew, I am truly sorry to tell that the General is gone to New York... when, or wheather he will ever come home again god only knows. I think it was much too late for him to go in to publick life again, but it was not to be avoided, our family will be deranged as I must soon follow him. As far as she was concerned, their family upsets, icy wintertime journeys, and makeshift lodgings during the eight years of the American Revolution had been enough sacrifice for a lifetime.
Many politicians wives stayed back home while their husbands served in the capital, but Martha Washington wasnt like many wives. When her husband heard the call of duty, she sometimes argued passionately against it, but in the end she always went along. Whether as planter, lawmaker, general, or president, George Washington relied on Martha emotionally. He needed her with him, and thats where she wanted to be.
Dismayed as she was at this fresh upheaval, she forged ahead with her preparations while awaiting the return of the coach and horses from New York. Every day was filled with arrangements great and small. On May 3, Washingtons secretary wrote to George Augustine Washington, his favorite nephew, at Mount Vernon. He urged the younger Washington to hurry Mrs. Washington along, for we are extremely desirous of seeing her here. She ignored the suggestion until she was ready to go. Whole wardrobes of clothing for herself, her husband, and the two grandchildren who would accompany her to New York, as well as a multitude of household items necessary for the familys comfort and pleasure in a rented housea month hardly seemed long enough to organize such a move.
Decisions had to be mulled over with George Augustine and his wife, Marthas own favorite niece, Fanny Bassett Washington. The young couple would be in charge at Mount Vernon during the presidency. Long-term visitors had to be sorted out. A nephew was summoned from New Kent County to retrieve his teenage sister, who had been staying with the Washingtons for the past nine months. Another nephew and his new bride, making a round of extended family visits, were abandoned with kisses and regrets. An orphaned niece, unruly and troublesome, was left under Fanny Washingtons kind supervision.
Travel was always uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous. What with coach breakdowns, runaway horses, overturned ferries, collapsing bridges, flooded fords, unmarked or even undetectable roads, and squalid inns (when there were any at all), ladies did not travel alone. Mundane arrangements and any and all disasters were the purview of their male escorts. At Washingtons invitation, his nephew Robert Lewis arrived on May 14, 1789, to accompany Martha on the trip to the capital, where he would serve as one of the presidents aides.
The next youngest of a large brood, son of Georges widowed only sister, Bob Lewis was a fresh-faced young man of nineteen, something of a mamas boy who loved singing, dancing, and kissing all the girls. Taking his first important responsibility very seriously, he was upset when he found that everything appeared to be in confusion at Mount Vernon. To his chagrin, his aunt refused to leave until the masses of boxes and trunks had been packed and repacked to her satisfaction, chests and closets ransacked one more time, lost items unearthed, and last minute matters talked over with George Augustine and Fanny.
Gentle, kind, and feminine as she genuinely was, Martha Washington was also strong-willed and determined; once Bob understood that his aunt would make the important decisions on their trip, he had an easier time of it. Like everyone, he succumbed to her matchless charm and passed a happy couple of days walking about and viewing all the curiosities that was to be seen while she completed her tasks.
Finally, after dinner in the early afternoon and a last round of family tears and farewells, they were ready to leave Mount Vernon on Monday, May 16. The house servants and a number of the field hands came up to take leave of their mistressnumbers of these poor wretches seemed much affectedMy aunt equally so. The slaves were also saying good-bye to their relatives and friends who accompanied Martha to New York.
