education,--Washington, Madison, and Monroe.

It may be pretty confidently stated that both Madison and Monroe owed
their success and eminence more to their engaging manners than to great
intellectual powers. They were even notably deficient in that oratorical
ability which counted for so much in the political era with which they
were connected. They rarely spoke in Congress. When speaking, Madison
was hesitating, and was heard with difficulty; but his quietness and
modesty, his consideration for others, made the eloquent speak for him
Whether these two statesmen were personally taught by James Marye is
doubtful, for he was getting old when they were at school in
Fredericksburg; but we may feel sure that civility was still taught
there in their time, as, indeed it was within the memory of many now
living.

George Washington, though even less able than the two others to speak in
public, had naturally a strong intellect. But in boyhood he had much
more against him than most of his young comrades,--obstructions that
could be surmounted only by character. His father had much land but
little money; at his death (1743,) the lands were left chiefly to his
sons by the first wife. His widow was left poor, and her eldest son,
George, had not the fair prospect of most of his schoolmates. Instead of
being prepared for William and Mary College, he was prepared only for
going into some business as soon as possible, so as to earn support for
his mother and her four younger children. In his old book of
school-exercises, the "Rules of Civility" are found in proximity to
business forms that bear pathetic testimony to the severe outlook of
this boy of fourteen. In the MS. of Col. Byrd Willis, already referred
to (loaned me by his granddaughter, Mrs. Tayloe, of Fredericksburg), he
says: "My father, Lewis Willis, was a schoolmate of General Washington,