STORY BEHIND GREAT LOVERS OF YESTERDAY

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 42, 26 April 1935, Page 54

STORY BEHIND GREAT LOVERS OF YESTERDAY

Washington and Lady Fairfax

} Written by INEZ

HAYNES

IRWIN

NTIL recently, the world . believed that so far as there was any love . in. George Washington's !ife, Martha Custis was the woman. There can be no doubt ‘that George Washington held in. the highest esteem the kindly, sensible lady who became his wife. But she was by no means the star of his existence. — oo Sally Fairfax, a. Virginian, was born Sally Cary. The Cary family was aristocratic but highly liberal. When Sally married George William Fairfax, she entered another family even more aristocratic. and quite as liberal. The match seems to have been one of the marriages of convenience so typical of their class at this period. Of George Fairfax’ himself we know little. He was perhaps somewhat cool’ and formal, but a gentleman and a man of principle Fairfax brought his bride to Belvoir, his ample, hospitable: estate in Virginia. There, a lad of sixteen years. Sally Fairfax’s junior by two years, met her and apparently fell in love with her on sight. He was a surveyor, without lands or property ; a big, raw-boned lad,- awkward on foot, but singularly impressive in the saddle; fond of dancing, plays, sport and most other innocent diversion. That lad was George Washington There grew up between those twe -shall we say a friendship on her part, a serious romance on his? The miniatures of Sally Fairfax prove’ that she had a delicate, high-bred beauty. We glimpse in her that combination of wit and_ intelligence which the French ‘call: esprit. How

dazzling she must have seemed to’ that ardent; inexpetienced,. \ ambitious. boy!» ‘There is ng proof. that "she, fell. in love> with’ Washington ; "but. certainly’ the .able-- country lad mterested her. . But. he-for nine years, during which he. becartie the .young:military héro of Virginia-his tiever changed. When he was at’ Mount Vernon: he saw her constantly, ~ When -he was at © the front with Braddock or.the Virginia . Militia, he wrote. to her. regularly Then: he married: Martha Custispartly, if not wholly, one must ‘be-

weve, as an escape from a love which his sense of honour rendered" hopeless, During the period of his engagement, he sent Sally Fairfax two’ letters from his soldier tent whose language leaves no doubt. He loved her, would always love her. Butfarewell to all that! What Belvoir and-especially-its mistress did for him in the malleable years betwéen .sixteen and’ twenty-five cannot be over-estimat-The. house -was- a hotbed of’ probably’ "of "republican- | ism. To what discussions must the boy \Have‘fistened! New ideas, bril-_ liantly expressed, must have swirled their fiery-patterns..on his plastic" young intelligence. Opinions, vocabulary, democracy of feeling, ex-

_quisiteness of livihg-he must-have ' absorbed-them all. ~~ -.; OF: _ At ‘that. time, Addisan’s "Cato" , was the-inspiration of all people. with ‘tepublican leanings. — It is the tragedy of a patriot: who ‘died: tor the ; Roman Republic. *. Sally. Fairfax in‘troduced George’ Washington id ‘this play. Possibly they. read. it toigether. At any rate, the Fairfaxes "produced it at Belvoir, In later letters Washington refers to his mem‘ory of Sally Fairfax as the heroine. Henceforth, "Cato" became. his ‘Bible, He carried the book with him on-his campaigris. In his plain but ‘rather diffuse writings, ‘he seldom quotes poetry, even indirectly, but when he does, it .is always "Cato," Finally in that desperate winter at Valley Forge, he had the play produced for the encouragement of his army: "What memories thosé- pompous periods ‘must have evokedBelvoir and Sally and the loveliness of Virginia! These memories were the more poignant because two years hefore the Revolution began, George Fairfax had taken his wife to England. They never returned: and George Washington never saw Sally Fairfax again; -. In 1877, two letters written by George Washington to- Sally Fairfax, nineteen months before his death, cathe to light. Although apparently she destroyed many of his other letters, these, carefully preserved, were’ found among his papers. They descended to the Fairfax ‘relatives. in- Amética, who, as John Corbin puts it, "treasured them through two generations in the awéd silence of Victorian propri ety." ae

George . Washington ‘signed one, fartha .copied and sigtied the other. he adds a message, "My affectionate egards for you." Washington says: "During this period many important events have occurred ... Nons of which events, however, nor all of them together, have been able to eradicate from my mind the recollection of those happy moments, the happiest in my life, which I have enjoyed in your company." Surely those sentences, coming from the contained Washington, are surcharged with meaning, The situation has 2 lovely fragrance, All three of these people were in their late sixties, The man

tells the love of his youth what she has always meant to him. The wife adds a postscript as one who intimates "I known all about it, my dear, and I understand." The other woman keeps the letter all her life. _ But more important than the fact that Sally Fairfax gave George Washington the happiest moments of his life is the quality of the ideals which she instilled in him. When he came to her, he had no opinions; when they parted, the tepublican principle was part of his mental fibre. When, after the Revolution, a group of his officers suggested to Washington that he declare a morarehy and seize the throne, he rejected

the idea with horror. It is very likely that, if he had chosen to become a king the American people, still living in the uncertainties of hope and belief, would have approved, Instead he went on in his quiet, sober, powerful way moulding America’s scheme of government. % * # Such is the charm of romance at the back of the scenes in the lives of most renowned men. It is of such material as this that the romance of Robert Clive and his beloved Marguerite is built, This tender love story, and other adventures, are beautifully presented in United Artists’ new 20th Century production, "Clive of India." Ronald Colman portrays Clive, with Loretta Young as Marguerite,