Excerpt from Washington: An Address George Washington never was a prematurely developed prig. He was a healthy, wholesome, vig orous boy. Born like Lincoln in a log cabin, amidst humble backwoods surroundings, he was a genuine child of the soil, simple and without pretense or any trace of artificial self consciousness. His im perfect education was received, first from a Mr. Roddy, at what was then known as a fieldschool; then at the hands of a Mr. Williams who taught him the scant rudiments of reading, writ ing and arithmetic; afterwards he attended for a brief period an academy at old Fredericksburg pre sided over by a Mr. Marye, a French huguenot, or the son of a huguenot who had fled from France to escape the fierce persecutions heaped upon the protestants of that realm. The indomitable love of liberty, free dom of thought, and the right to worship God accord ing to the dictates of one's conscience, so dear to these exiles, were no doubt impressed by this teacher upon the mind of his young pupil. It was he who gave the name Marye's Heights to the bluffs back of Fredericksburg, where, in December, 1862, amid the thunders of artillery, the rattle of musketry and the horrors of battle, Burnside's forces led by the gallant Hancock were repulsed again and again in spite of their heroism and valor. Later still, but this is not certain, he may have had the benefit of a fragmentary term at William St Mary's, at Williamsburg. Such were the pitiful educational opportunities afforded Washington to fit him for his great career. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.