Why Do We Call Him 'Brother Jonathan."

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 11817, 14 November 1901, Page 3

Why Do We Call Him 'Brother Jonathan."

I Among things- not generally known, (the Yorkshire Post writes) is the reason why r.he American people are known JK> us as Brother Jonathan. It arose in this way. Jonathan Trumbull was Governor cf Connecticut, and in Washington's opinion was the first of patriots. Whenever Washington was in doubt how to proceed, his favourite resourcd was to consult Brother Johathan. The name caught, and was used by friend and foe alike as synonymous with* the. American people. Wheri on a recent Sunday a preacher who was very much on the spot with his text, gave out, " I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan," every child in the church knew as well who was meant as they knew the special reason for condolence. It is to Englishmen alone the American nation is Brother Jonathan ; to the Canadian as to himself he U impersonated by Uncle Sam. This is a play upon the initial letters of the United States, and it has enriched our language by the expression " to stand Sam," meaning to pay the piper, in illusion to ■ the way in which the nost of everything is thrown upon the Government of the U.S.A. Brother Jonathan is always the impersonation of the typical American,, as John Bull of the typico* Englishman." The' expression is as true as it is Tiappy. He is our brother. " Chatham's language was his mother-tongue." He is none the less our brotftier because quarrels have come between us, for rarely is ju otherwise. • Just when everyone was' expecting that we must go. to war. it has been shown that blood was .thicker than water, and brothers v?p remained. Has Yorkshire a peculiar claim to kinship a While it might be expected that one held in such reference as George Washington would have had his ancestry traced out for him in every detail, yet of few men is the origin more obscure. One genealogist bestows much labour irs trying to prove his decent from Odin, a story only relieved from being myth 7 ical by its connection with the Ea*?t Riding, in whose people so much of the blood of the old Norse heroes flowed. It is from the region of South Cave that the ancestors' of Washington went forth to seek thuir fortunes in the New World. A moro certain connection with Yorkshire is almost more romantic. In Nunburnholme Rectory, near Pocklington. hangs, or at least did hang, the picture of the lady who refused George Washington, In the loyal days, when the I Virginia Militia foug&t side by side with the King's soldiers two aides-de-camp of General Brad--dock were rivals for the hand of a lady. The heart of the lady warmed rather to the Royal scarlet than to tho buff and blue of the militia. The King's officer was Captain Robert Morris, of the 48th Foot ; the Virginihian volunteer, Colonel Georgo Washington/ of Mount Vernbn. The man of imperturbable truth had to face defeat, as 'he did in many another action, with the best grace be could, and-' is said to have witnessed the marriage of his Jady love to his rival in 1758. The next year Washington married ' Mrs Martha Curtis, but had no family. Captain Morris had a son, who was the father of the famous Yorkshire naturalist, the Rev. Francis Orpen Morris, and that is how the portrait of Washington's sweetheart came to hang in a York, shire rectory. What might haw happened had the lady accepted Washington? 'Would the States have had a Fourth of July in thoir calendar ?