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Show If Washington's public life had ended end-ed with the end of the Revolution and his fame rested on his military achievement achieve-ment alone, we should still have to place him among the foremost of mankind. But Washington's constructive genius gen-ius was not misled by the results of the war. The military victory of the colonies ushered In their real test ; It was then to be determined whether statesmanship could create a nation to seal the victory In the field ; whether wheth-er the idea of nationality could supplant sup-plant in provincial minds the raw conception of the sovereignty of detached de-tached and jealous colonies. Washington Wash-ington the soldier retires from history, his-tory, and Washington the statesman emerges. As the voice of Massachusetts Massachu-setts called him to the command of armies, the voice of all now called the same great leader to. guide the deliberations of that body that made the Constitution under which we live today. Here again the American Pabius displayed the daring of Trenton. Tren-ton. The colonies were not ready for nationality, but the cautious but sure judgment of Washington risked giving it. The Virginia plan drawn by Madison Madi-son had his approval. It must be nationality na-tionality or anarchy. Washington took the risk, knowing It to ,be a risk, declaring de-claring that what the convention did might be rejected by the people, but approving and guiding the deed. Iet it be conceded that the mentality of Madison Mad-ison and Hamilton made the Constitution Constitu-tion the weight of the character of Washington ballasted it. His name carried It. His statesmanship executed exe-cuted It In the first feeble years of the young republic. Broad in His Views. We have been told many tlme, says W.'.V.V.V.W.'AV.V.W.V.V The Greatness of J J Washington iv.NV.Vsr'A'.V.VW.V.V.V.vS EVERT nation has some great figure fig-ure of its own by which it fixes the standard of greatness in man, but to America was given a figure whose greatness Is more than national. The greatness of George Washington, observes ob-serves a writer in the Kansas City Star, is universal, like that of Shakespeare Shake-speare ; his name and fame abide in all lands. The explanation Is not difficult to find. Washington's greatness was in the man, and was not made by events. As a soldier lie met defeat more often than victory, yet as a soldier he takes rank with the greatest in all lands and all ages. Washington lost many battles, bat-tles, but he never lost an army, and in that he outranks Napoleon. He had both the courage to fight and the courage cour-age to decline fighting, for his judg-! judg-! ment always held complete sway over the man. He could afford not to win ; he could not afford to lose. "The old fox," the British generals called him, and called him well. He had the supreme su-preme faculty, without which there can be no great generalship, of making mak-ing himself Invisible, of turning up at Unexpected places, of striking and disappearing. dis-appearing. Napoleon's soldiers in the first Italian Ital-ian campaign boasted that they won their general's victories with their legs. It was Washington's ability to move his army that saved the Revolution. The greatest military victory of the war was won at Saratoga by a third-rate general. The greatest military achievement achieve-ment of the war was Washington's retreat re-treat across the Jerseys, after having been beaten twice. We do not need Von Moltke's word for this, though he was a good judge, nor Comwallis', though he was present. We have the pointing finger of history to read by. On that rbtreat the American Fabius and the term was then one of reproach re-proach to Washington snatched two victories that remain classics in war. With a beaten army in full retreat, In the dead of winter, he surprised and defeated two Rrltish armies In quick succession and got away before either could know where he came from or where he went. Trenton and Princeton Prince-ton stand high above Saratoga in military mili-tary annals. In daring and in swiftness swift-ness these movements are unsurpassed. unsur-passed. The risks were great, yet were taken by a general whose cautiousness cau-tiousness is a mnxim of military (teienoe. Nothing approached these movements until a generation later when Napoleon, feinting at England, threw his army from the channel to Ulm. Did Not Love War. Washington was a great soldier who did not love war. As a youth he felt, as he confessed, a "bent for anus," and Horace Wulpole records that the young Virginia militia ollicer wrote in a dispatch from his first field something some-thing about the "charming sound" of the bullets. The dispatch is not authentic. au-thentic. In the fullness of his fume Washington, was asked if he wrote It. "If I did," he replied gravely, "it was when I was very young." With-our With-our loving war for glory or waging it for fame, Washington rose to the front rank in an art pursued for a great cause alone, refusing pay for his services and laying down command In the hour of victory, and while the world rang with his renown, to re-tlrv) re-tlrv) to th 1U of a Virgin!! farmer. a school boy in an oration, that Washington Wash-ington was not a genius, but a person per-son of excellent common sense, of admirable ad-mirable judgment, of rare virtues. He belonged to that rare class of men who are broad enough to include all the facts of people's practical life, and deep enough to discern the spiritual laws which animate and govern those facts. Caesar was merciful, Scipio was a master of self, Hannibal was patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all In one, and, like the lovely masterpiece of the artist, to exhibit, in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of every master. A conqueror, con-queror, he was untainted with crime of blood; a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason, for aggression aggres-sion commenced the contest and his country called him to the command. If he had paused there history might have doubted what station to assign him; whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers, her heroes or her patriots. But the last glorious act crowns his career and banishes all hesitation. Who, like Washington, after having emancipated a hemisphere, hemi-sphere, resigned its crown and preferred pre-ferred the retirement of domestic life to adoration of a land he might be almost said to have created. Just honor to Washington can only be rendered by observing his precepts and imitating his example. He has built his own monument. We and those who come after us in successive " "' np " !ts appointed, its privileged priv-ileged guardians, the widespread re-puolic re-puolic is the future monument to Washington. Maintain its independence, independ-ence, defend its liberty. Let it stand before the world in all its original strength and beauty, securing peace, order, equality and freedom to all within its boundaries and shedding light and hope and joy upon the pathway path-way of human liberty throughout the world and Washington needs no other monument. Other structures may fully testify our veneration for him; this, tli is alone can adequately illustrate his services to mankind. |