Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1879 — How Washington Was Knocked Down. [ARTICLE]

How Washington Was Knocked Down.

At the time Gen. Washington was stationed at Alexandria, Va., as a Colonel of a British regiment, before the war of the Revolution, an altercation took place in the Court House yard between him And William Payne, in which Payne knocked .Washington down. Great excitement prevailed as Payne was known to be firm and Washington beloved by all. A night’s reflection, however, satisfied Washing-

ton that Jie was the aggressor and in the WTong, and in the morning he, like a true and magnanimous hero, sought an interview with Payne, which resulted in an apology from Washington and a warm and lasting friendship between the two, founded on mutual esteem. During the Revolutionary war, while Washington was on a visit to his family, William Payne, with his son, De Vail, went to pay his respects to the great American chief. Gen. Washington met him some distance from the house, took him by the hand and led him into the presence of Mrs. Washington, to whom he introduced Mr. Payne as follows: “My dear, here is the little man whom you have so frequently heard me speak of, who once had the courage to knock me down in the Court House yard at Alexandria, big as I am.” —Collins’ History of Kentucky.