marriage, had been left under the guardianship of their mother, to
whom was intrusted the proceeds of all their property until they
should severally come of age. She proved herself worthy of the trust.
Endowed with plain, direct good sense, thorough conscientiousness, and
prompt decision, she governed her family strictly, but kindly,
exacting deference while she inspired affection. George being her
eldest son, was thought to be her favorite, yet she never gave him
undue preference, and the implicit deference exacted from him in
childhood continued to be habitually observed by him to the day of her
death. He inherited from her a high temper and a spirit of command,
but her early precepts and example taught him to restrain and govern
that temper, and to square his conduct on the exact principles of
equity and justice.

Having no longer the benefit of a father's instructions at home, and
the scope of tuition of Hobby being too limited for the growing wants
of his pupil, George was now sent to reside with Augustine Washington,
at Bridges Creek, and enjoy the benefit of a superior school in that
neighborhood, kept by a Mr. Williams. His education, however, was
plain and practical. He never attempted the learned languages, nor
manifested any inclination for rhetoric or belles-lettres. His object,
or the object of his friends, seems to have been confined to fitting
him for ordinary business. His manuscript school-books still exist,
and are models of neatness and accuracy. Before he was thirteen years
of age he had copied into a volume forms for all kinds of mercantile
and legal papers; bills of exchange, notes of hand, deeds, bonds, and
the like. This early self-tuition gave him throughout life a lawyer's
skill in drafting documents, and a merchant's exactness in keeping
accounts. He was a self-disciplinarian in physical as well as mental
matters, and practised himself in all kinds of athletic exercises,
such as running, leaping, wrestling, pitching quoits, and tossing
bars. His frame, even in infancy, had been large and powerful, and he
now excelled most of his playmates in contests of agility and
strength. Above all, his inherent probity and the principles of
justice on which he regulated all his conduct, even at this early
period of life, were soon appreciated by his school-mates; he was
referred to as an umpire in their disputes, and his decisions were
never reversed. As he had formerly been military chieftain, he was no