Chapter 14

RETURN TO QUIET LIFE--FRENCH AND ENGLISH PREPARE FOR HOSTILITIES--PLAN OF A CAMPAIGN--GENERAL BRADDOCK--HIS CHARACTER--SIR JOHN ST. CLAIR, QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL--HIS TOUR OF INSPECTION--PROJECTED ROADS--ARRIVAL OF BRADDOCK--MILITARY CONSULTATIONS AND PLANS--COMMODORE KEPPEL AND HIS SEAMEN--SHIPS AND TROOPS AT ALEXANDRIA--EXCITEMENT OF WASHINGTON--INVITED TO JOIN THE STAFF OF BRADDOCK--A MOTHER'S OBJECTIONS--WASHINGTON AT ALEXANDRIA--GRAND COUNCIL OF GOVERNORS--MILITARY ARRANGEMENTS--COLONEL WILLIAM JOHNSON--SIR JOHN ST. CLAIR AT FORT CUMBERLAND--HIS EXPLOSIONS OF WRATH--THEIR EFFECTS--INDIANS TO BE ENLISTED--CAPTAIN JACK AND HIS BAND OF BUSH-BEATERS.

Having resigned his commission, and disengaged himself from public affairs, Washington's first care was to visit his mother, inquire into the state of domestic concerns, and attend to the welfare of his brothers and sisters. In these matters he was ever his mother's adjunct and counsellor, discharging faithfully the duties of an eldest son, who should consider himself a second father to the family.

He now took up his abode at Mount Vernon, and prepared to engage in those agricultural pursuits, for which, even in his youthful days, he had as keen a relish as for the profession of arms. Scarcely had he entered upon his rural occupations, however, when the service of his country once more called him to the field.

The disastrous affair at the Great Meadows, and the other acts of French hostility on the Ohio, had roused the attention of the British ministry. Their ambassador at Paris was instructed to complain of those violations of the peace. The court of Versailles amused him with general assurances of amity, and a strict adherence to treaties. Their ambassador at the court of St. James, the Marquis de Mirepoix, on the faith of his instructions, gave the same assurances. In the mean time, however, French ships were fitted out, and troops embarked, to carry out the schemes of the government in America. So profound was the dissimulation of the court of Versailles, that even their own ambassador is said to have been kept in ignorance of their real designs, and of the hostile game they were playing, while he was exerting himself in good faith, to lull the suspicions of England, and maintain the international peace. When his eyes, however, were opened, he returned indignantly to France, and upbraided the cabinet with the duplicity of which he had been made the unconscious instrument.

The British government now prepared for military operations in America; none of them professedly aggressive, but rather to resist and counteract aggressions. A plan of campaign was devised for 1755, having four objects.

To eject the French from lands which they held unjustly, in the province of Nova Scotia.

To dislodge them from a fortress which they had erected at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, within what was claimed as British territory.

To