ing at
Mount Vernon, prepared to devote himself to agriculture. But in 1755,
General Braddock was sent out to undertake energetic operations against
the French, and Washington accepted the General's offer of a position
on his staff.

It was now that the eminent Benjamin Franklin did such great service to
the British arms by organizing transport, and listened with astonishment
to Braddock's anticipations of easy victory. The young aide-de-camp also
warned the English soldier in vain. On July 9 Braddock's force was
utterly routed by the French and Indians, and the general himself was
slain. This reverse did away with all belief, throughout the colonies,
in the power of British arms, and prepared the way for the independence
that was to follow.

On August 14 George Washington was appointed to the supreme command of
the Virginian forces, with his headquarters at Winchester, and was
occupied in the defence of a wide frontier with an insufficient force,
until the expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1758, when he planted the
British flag on its smoking ruins, and put an end to the French
domination of the Ohio.

His marriage to Mrs. Martha Custis, a young and wealthy widow, was
celebrated on January 6, 1759; he took his seat in the House of
Burgesses at Williamsburg, and established himself at Mount Vernon to
develop his estates. A large Virginia estate, in those days, was a
little empire.

_The Dawn of Independence_

The definitive treaty of peace between France and England was signed at
Fontainebleau in 1763; but the tranquility of the colonies was again
broken by an Indian insurrection, known as Pontiac's war. Washington had
no part in its suppression, but he was soon to be called again to the
defence of his country.

He was in his place in the House of Burgesses on May 29, 1765, when the
claims of Britain to tax the colony were first repudiated, and it was
declared that the General Assembly of Virginia had the exclusive right
to tax the inhabitants, and that whoever maintained the contrary should
be deemed an enemy to the colony. These resolutions were the signal for
general applause throughout the continent.

The repeal, in 1766, of the objectionable Stamp Act only postponed the
crisis, which became acute when the port of Boston was closed by
Parliament, because of the resistance of that city to the importation of
East Indian tea. A General Congress of deputies from the several
colonies was convened for Sept