locations with the federal Secretary of State. Washington's locations
and surveys of this Ohio land had already been recorded in the Virginia
land office, and with a carelessness unusual in him he neglected to
comply with the statute. After his death certain persons took advantage
of the defect and seized the lands, and his executors failed to embrace
another opportunity given them to perfect the title, with the result
that the lands were lost.

The matter rested until a few years ago when some descendants of the
heirs set their heads together and one of them, Robert E. Lee, Jr.,
procured his appointment in 1907 by the court of Fairfax County as
administrator _de bonis non_ of Washington's estate. It was, of course,
impossible to regain the lands--which lie not far from Cincinnati and
are worth vast sums--so the movers in the matter had recourse to that
last resort of such claimants--Congress--and, with the modesty usually
shown by claimants, asked that body to reimburse the heirs in the sum of
three hundred and five thousand one hundred dollars--that is, one
hundred dollars per acre--with interest from the date of petition.

Thus far Congress has not seen fit to comply, nor does there seem to be
any good reason why it should do so. The land cost Washington a mere
bagatelle, it was lost through the neglect of himself and his executors,
and not one of the persons who would benefit by such a subsidy from the
public funds is his lineal descendant. As a mere matter of public policy
and common sense it may well be doubted whether any claim upon
government, no matter how just in itself, should be reimbursed beyond
the third generation. The heirs urge in extenuation of the claim that
Washington refused to accept any compensation for his Revolutionary
services, but it is answered that it is hardly seemly for his grand
nephews and grand nieces many times removed to beg for something that
the Father of His Country himself rejected. One wonders whether the
claimants would dare to press their claims in the presence of their
great Kinsman himself!

CHAPTER III

VIRGINIA AGRICULTURE IN WASHINGTON'S DAY

The Virginia of George Washington's youth and early manhood was an
imperial domain reaching from Atlantic tidewater through a thousand
leagues of forests, prairies and mountains "west and northwest" to the
South Sea. Only a narrow fringe along the eastern coast was settled by
white men; the remainder was a terra incognit