That day in June when the beloved Virginian was chosen to be Commander-in-Chief of the American forces, Jack and Solomon dined with Franklin at his home.  John Adams of Boston and John Brown, the great merchant of Providence, were his other guests.  The distinguished men were discussing the choice of Colonel Washington.

“I think that Ward is a greater soldier,” said Brown.  “Washington has done no fighting since ’58.  Our battles will be in the open.  He is a bush fighter.”

“True, but he is a fighter and, like Achilles, a born master of men,” Franklin answered.  “His fiery energy saved Braddock’s army from being utterly wiped out.  His gift for deliberation won the confidence of Congress.  He has wisdom and personality.  He can express them in calm debate or terrific action.  Above all, he has a sense of the oneness of America.  Massachusetts and Georgia are as dear to him as Virginia.”

“He is a Christian gentleman of proved courage and great sagacity,” said Adams.  “His one defeat proved him to be the master of himself.  It was a noble defeat.”

Doctor Franklin, who never failed to show some token of respect for every guest at his table, turned to Solomon and said: 

“Major Binkus, you have been with him a good deal.  What do you think of Colonel Washington?”

“I think he’s a hull four hoss team an’ the dog under the waggin,” said Solomon.

John Adams often quoted these words of the scout and they became a saying in New England.

“To ask you a question is like priming a pump,” said Franklin, as he turned to Solomon with a laugh.  “Washington is about four times the average man, with something to spare and that something is the dog under the wagon.  It would seem that the Lord God has bred and prepared and sent him among us to be chosen.  We saw and knew and voted.  There was no room for doubt in my mind.”

“And while I am a friend of Ward, I am after all convinced that Washington is the man,” said Brown.  “Nothing so became him as when he called upon all gentlemen present to remember that he thought himself unequal to the task.”

Washington set out in June with Colonel Lee and a company of Light Horse for Boston where some sixteen thousand men had assembled with their rifles and muskets to be organized into an army for the defense of Massachusetts.

2

A little later Jack and Solomon followed with eight horses and two wagons loaded with barrels of gunpowder made under the direction of Benjamin Franklin and paid for with his money.  A British fleet being in American waters, the overland route was chosen as the safer one.  It was a slow and toilsome journey with here and there a touch of stern adventure.  Crossing the pine barrens of New Jersey, they were held up by a band of Tory refugees and deprived of all the money in their pockets.  Always Solomon got a squint in one eye and a solemn look in the other when that matter was referred to.