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Authors: JAMES ALEXANDER Thom
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you, Excellency,” he said, tipping the decanter over his glass. “Let me show you what I have in mind …”
4
W ILLIAMSBURG , V IRGINIA
January 1778
G IVING HIS CLOAK TO A SERVANT AT THE DOOR OF THE GOVERNOR’S residence, George was ushered into the drawing room. He was surprised to see there all four of the men who had carried his appeal to the Privy Council. He had met frequently and in secret with one or two of them at a time since his first discussion with Governor Henry almost a month earlier. Now, they were all here gathered around the sideboard and there was an atmosphere of subdued excitement in the room. They all stopped talking and turned cheerfully to him with raised glasses. Jefferson, his boyhood neighbor, immediately proposed the toast.
“Gentlemen! To Virginia’s westward blade!”
“Well said!” cried George Mason, eyes twinkling as usual at the sound of a good phrase.
“To Colonel George Rogers Clark,” said George Wythe. “May his name become the bane of Henry Hamilton.”
George laughed, and feigned surprise. As he had expected, then, it obviously had been approved. “What is that ’Colonel’?” he said, as he accepted a glass and their handshakes.
“Why, George,” said Governor Henry, a smug expression on his face, “who else should lead this expedition but its original advocate? The colonelcy comes with your orders.”
“I am to lead it?” he said, still pretending to be astonished.
“Come now,” said Jefferson, throwing an arm up over his shoulders and looking archly at him from under his bushy red brows. “You haven’t fooled us a whit, hanging back all modestlike and playing hard-to-get. Why, you’d be mortified if we’d put your scheme in anyone else’s hands, now, wouldn’t you?”
George grinned and bowed. “I’m delighted to accept, of course …” he said in a found-out tone that made the four prominent conspirators erupt in laughter and backslapping.
“Now, George,” said the governor, “here are the
public
orders for your enterprise. The Assembly has authorized it on this basis.” He gave him a letter and stood sipping brandy, watching him read it:
Lieutenant Colo. George Rogers Clark
You are to proceed without Loss of Time to inlist Seven Companies of Men officered in the usual Manner to act as Militia under your Orders. They are to proceed to Kentucky & there to obey such orders & Directions as you shall give them for three Months after their arrival at that place, but to receive pay &c. in case they remain on Duty a longer Time.
You are empowered to raise these Men in any County in the Commonwealth and the County Lieutenants respectively are requested to give you all possible assistance in that Business.
Given under my Hand at Wmsburg
January 2d 1778
P. Henry
“Well, that should alarm no one,” George said. “Yet it gives me all the authority I should need to raise a force. And rather a lot of elbow room for contingencies.”
“And here are your
secret
orders,” the governor said, handing him a thicker packet. “They’re a bit more explicit, and ought not bear any surprises, as you all but wrote them yourself,” he added with gruff humor.
George Mason, portly and clear-eyed, rocked back and forth on his heels and looked up at him with thoughtfulness. A longtime friend of the Clark family, Mason had overseen much of George’s schooling, both in practical disciplines and in gentlemanly principles. That look of his evoked memories of long, sunny afternoons at Gunston Hall, divided among books and maps and the strenuous athletic competitions among the youth of the local gentry. One of Virginia’s eminent men, Mason was the author of the Bill of Rights of Virginia’s first Constitution. But to the young frontiersman he was still teacher and mentor, and one whom George would as much wish to please as his own father and grandfather. Mason smacked his lips. “Now, m’lad, you’re on your way to an audacious adventure which is
4
W ILLIAMSBURG , V IRGINIA
January 1778
G IVING HIS CLOAK TO A SERVANT AT THE DOOR OF THE GOVERNOR’S residence, George was ushered into the drawing room. He was surprised to see there all four of the men who had carried his appeal to the Privy Council. He had met frequently and in secret with one or two of them at a time since his first discussion with Governor Henry almost a month earlier. Now, they were all here gathered around the sideboard and there was an atmosphere of subdued excitement in the room. They all stopped talking and turned cheerfully to him with raised glasses. Jefferson, his boyhood neighbor, immediately proposed the toast.
“Gentlemen! To Virginia’s westward blade!”
“Well said!” cried George Mason, eyes twinkling as usual at the sound of a good phrase.
“To Colonel George Rogers Clark,” said George Wythe. “May his name become the bane of Henry Hamilton.”
George laughed, and feigned surprise. As he had expected, then, it obviously had been approved. “What is that ’Colonel’?” he said, as he accepted a glass and their handshakes.
“Why, George,” said Governor Henry, a smug expression on his face, “who else should lead this expedition but its original advocate? The colonelcy comes with your orders.”
“I am to lead it?” he said, still pretending to be astonished.
“Come now,” said Jefferson, throwing an arm up over his shoulders and looking archly at him from under his bushy red brows. “You haven’t fooled us a whit, hanging back all modestlike and playing hard-to-get. Why, you’d be mortified if we’d put your scheme in anyone else’s hands, now, wouldn’t you?”
George grinned and bowed. “I’m delighted to accept, of course …” he said in a found-out tone that made the four prominent conspirators erupt in laughter and backslapping.
“Now, George,” said the governor, “here are the
public
orders for your enterprise. The Assembly has authorized it on this basis.” He gave him a letter and stood sipping brandy, watching him read it:
Lieutenant Colo. George Rogers Clark
You are to proceed without Loss of Time to inlist Seven Companies of Men officered in the usual Manner to act as Militia under your Orders. They are to proceed to Kentucky & there to obey such orders & Directions as you shall give them for three Months after their arrival at that place, but to receive pay &c. in case they remain on Duty a longer Time.
You are empowered to raise these Men in any County in the Commonwealth and the County Lieutenants respectively are requested to give you all possible assistance in that Business.
Given under my Hand at Wmsburg
January 2d 1778
P. Henry
“Well, that should alarm no one,” George said. “Yet it gives me all the authority I should need to raise a force. And rather a lot of elbow room for contingencies.”
“And here are your
secret
orders,” the governor said, handing him a thicker packet. “They’re a bit more explicit, and ought not bear any surprises, as you all but wrote them yourself,” he added with gruff humor.
George Mason, portly and clear-eyed, rocked back and forth on his heels and looked up at him with thoughtfulness. A longtime friend of the Clark family, Mason had overseen much of George’s schooling, both in practical disciplines and in gentlemanly principles. That look of his evoked memories of long, sunny afternoons at Gunston Hall, divided among books and maps and the strenuous athletic competitions among the youth of the local gentry. One of Virginia’s eminent men, Mason was the author of the Bill of Rights of Virginia’s first Constitution. But to the young frontiersman he was still teacher and mentor, and one whom George would as much wish to please as his own father and grandfather. Mason smacked his lips. “Now, m’lad, you’re on your way to an audacious adventure which is
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