Show george washington t first president ident of 0 the united states V I 1 r 4 1 aa h r 1 1 K ONA nature and fortune never made A better man ta tiilman S WUn dunbaker baker 1 in CM C M wory ONE ot of the recent biographers of washington has given us so just and tru true a a picture of the man a as drawn by jel jefferson lerson more than a century ago 1 I think I 1 knew general Wasti WaSI Ington LIngton intimately and thoroughly lie he said ills mind was great and powerful without being of the very first order lila his penetration strong though not so acute a as a that of newton or bacon or lo 10 locke ck a and as far as lie he saw no judgment was over ever sounder it was waa slow in operation being little aided by invention ran tion or imagination but sure in co buslon alence the common re in majc X of hla fits officers cei of the advantage he derived from councils of war where hearing all suggestions lie he selected whatever was best he was incapable or of fear meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence never acting until every circumstance every consideration was maturely weighed r rehearing a all suggestions he ha selected whatever was best training fra ining it if he saw a doubt but when once decided going through with his purpose whatever obstacles op posed ills heart was not warm in its affections but lie he exactly calculated every mans value and gave him a solid esteem proportioned to it it may bo be true he said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a great man and to place him la in the same constellation stel lation with whatever worthies have merited from man everlasting remembrance after all has been said it was character which was supremely great which was responsible tor for the greatness of his achievements in the revolution it was the trust 1 in washington which held field together a faltering and discouraged cou raged people which tided the i country over the darkest hours which was responsible for the eventual victory after pence peace had been won it was this trust in washington which made it possible for a disunited people to attain enduring strength and unity there have been greater generals than washington greater statesmen there has been no greater character when the writings of his detractors have passed into obscurity his bis memory will remain what it has haa always been a sacred legacy to the american people I 1 family george mother was mary ball said to have been a lineal descendant from john D ball a 1 medieval champion of the rights of man her other mother was mary montague who as the widow johnson was married to colonel joseph ball her grandfather was colonel william ball who emigrated to virginia in 1650 and settled in lancaster county comity george father was augustine washington the grandson of lawrence washington and the great grand son of john washington who came from england about 1650 and settled in westmoreland county comaty virginia the english ancestry has been traced back through laurentia washington father of lawrence several generations erat ions to the sulgrave branch af pf of the family |