Martha Washington

Table of Contents

 

 

 

VIKING

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First published in 2005 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

Copyright © Patricia Brady, 2005

All rights reserved

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Brady, Patricia, date.
Martha Washington : an American life / Patricia Brady.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-1-101-11881-8

1. Washington, Martha, 1731-1802. 2. Presidents' spouses—United States—Biography.
I. Title.
E312.19.W34B73 2005
973.4'1'092—dc22
[B] 2004061242

 

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—L. P. HARTLEY

THE DANDRIDGE FAMILY

THE WASHINGTON FAMILY

PROLOGUE

I
t 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 apart—but always to their deep distress. They couldn't, or more truly didn't, 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 wife's critical role in that success. Today, he is still an overpowering figure in American history, while Martha Washington's image has nearly faded away. She is both famous as the first First Lady and completely unknown. After her husband's 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 Washington's desire for privacy means that her life story has been assembled from fleeting glimpses—her 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 country's foremost founding father.

In April 1789, George Washington, just turned fifty-seven, rumbled off in Mount Vernon's 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 didn't 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 wasn't 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 that's where she wanted to be.