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Show eLji ill 1 i' 1- El jil i SI i - g j, U ' ' - 4 - ' - -3 - . a n t , s y By ELMO SCOTT WATSON WW 1 - ' - '"X, "7S3&55IK wholu lllstory o tI,e American Wj tff- V?7 ' - ' "i f J- ' S i -s. RevoluUon revolves around one . W2iUflfe " " M man George Wtishlnston. ' ' !v .V Ck J So it-was eminently littinff that NOaCf ' IlV r" ' J , v the one hundred und lii'Uetli an- VjvJST " j f1'"" T1 uiversury of Unit tremendous event (ft 7 ' y " ,N in U,e l.Lstory of the world should lO . , ' M.A Fjfer find the nation's interest centered r ROjl H A- -fV s v " " 3 V II H n H'at ninn. What were the - St-W A VST? ,t-u:JJ outstanding events in the year f-f'J? y ,''y' ' A" 47" 1020, the anniversary of the high ' ' VtVfX iiolnt in the American war for independence? Cer- 'Jz&JfT ' . vivi,' tuinly it was not the sesqulcentenuial celebration , ' ' ' t)c s- mI U the city whero the Declaration of Independence feiS L ' i van signed, for that celebration was a dismal ,. A?-y SvlTf 'H'v failure. Undoubtedly the outstanding events were ACSA W'; WfW'58tlf tSCVI those which put upon the lips of all Americans 7Xi M VviV Ktif ?" V? once n,ore the name of Washington and caused l$MNfe WISt? them to take part in a discussion, which lias not I ' " ' JJ t Nl$'2&' " 4 7 yet ended, as to the "real Washington." . rJi N Wft) ' 1 . X So 1U20 will go down in history, not only as the ' P S;?t .WTVxXv-4 one hundred and liltieth anniversary of the Dec- i&t5 ?t 4? Z laration of Independence, hut also as the year in Mv ' w I???? 4 which an immense store of infornmtion was added v Stf-'f., t' - V i v t f ' lV:s, to the available Washiugtoniana and which prom- . )CJ jV, M , r , it, t lses well for further accession to that national ) k V ' heritage in lULt. As the result of the events of J J U f& ' J? K. , -i l!)2fi. we come to another celebration of Wash- tkx -t nlSt'' '"""' 4 ington's birthday with our knowledge of him en- I ( i"V --L-- .c ' V-5 I'iched and, despite or perhaps, because of all lyS v Hri jjjTS, s l. 4 the controversy that has raged over what was or K 1 tf j 'iJ', ' was not the "real Washington," a better apprecia.- 'W' J - Sl s , ' tien of jiust liow much we owe to the man we ' ' i t 1 "-S '4 call "The Father of His Country." -S j, ' i-S V? vfM' An arrangement of the l'J2(i Washingtoniann J ' v J 1 Items in chronological order rather than attempt- qJ " f.V ' ' ' r ,"" lug to consider them on the basis of relative iin- . V jiortanco shows the curious fact that this man, A ( Y7 dead these 127 years, started off the year Us a Jj'tT X3''"V " l newsiiaper "lieadliner." This came about when ' "r . . -- f I(i)ert Hughes, the novelist, in January gave an TA77?PATnPltmj?&T'n7y address before the Sons of the American Itevolu- JiOJ J OitlKHU W HtOsXUJlWUJT 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON T7r UK whole history of tiie American Revolution revolves around one O man George Washington. Sk J So it- was eminently Pitting that the one hundred and fiftieth an-i an-i (?"" ' uiversary of that tremendous event j pfiVi) h-i the history of the world should f-ffrTT i-!nd the nation's interest centered v II -H afe,!l'u im l'iat mnn. What were the J outstanding events in the year 1020, the anniversary of the high iiolnt in the American war for independence? Certainly Cer-tainly it was not the sesqulcentenuial celebration In the city where the Declaration of Independence ""as signed, for that celebration was a dismal failure. Undoubtedly the outstanding events were those which put upon the lips of all Americans once more the name of Washington and caused them to take part In a discussion, which has not yet ended, as to the "real Washington." So HJ-li will go down in history, not only as the one hundred and liltieth anniversary of the Declaration Dec-laration of Independence, hut also as the year in which an immense store of information was added to the available Washiugtoniana and which promises prom-ises well for further accession to that national heritage in lULt. As the result of the events of 1!)20. we come to another celebration of Washington's Wash-ington's birthday with our knowledge of him enriched en-riched and, despite or perhaps, because of all the controversy that has raged over what was or was not the "real Washington," a better appreciation apprecia-tion of just liow much we owe to the man we call "The Father of His Country." An arrangement of the 1020 Washingtoniann Items in chronological order rather than attempting attempt-ing to consider them on the basis of relative importance im-portance shows the curious fact that this man, dead these 127 years, started off the year Us a newsiiaper "lieadliner." This came about when import Hughes, the novelist, in January gave an address before the Sons of the American Revolu tion in me national capital and not only aroused the ire of that organization, but stirred up a nation-wide controversy, when he told the truth " about Washington, as he saw the truth. Although It turned out later that the speaker was misquoted, mis-quoted, even at that some of his statements were too strong for some persons to accept without protest. So the tempest in a teapot, which the affair seeim'd to be, took on greater proportions as Hughes was successively attacked and defended und others took a hand in the row. The net result was that, paradoxical as It may sound, George Washington became a "national figure" once more, at least so far ns the newspapers news-papers were concerned and one New York dally pointed out that Washington's birthday was celebrated cele-brated as never before because of Hughes' effort to represent Washington "as a man and not a statue." One event of considerable significance connected with the celebration of Washington's birthday was the "rediscovery" of what has been termed the hist portrait made of Washington, which is reproduced re-produced with this article. The story of this portrait por-trait is a romantic one. In 1703 a twenty-three-year-old Frenchman named Charles Iinlthar-ar .lulien Fevert de St. Jlemin came to America from the city of Dijon and settled in Philadelphia. There he invented what be called a "physlonotraee and pnntagraph" with which he was enabled to outline a human head on paper with mathematical exactness, reducing or enlarging it to any size for reproduction on a copper pl-ate. The original was liuished on crayon and the copper In mezzotint. mezzo-tint. In 1708 Washington went to Philadelphia and while there he sat for the Frenchman for what Is said to have been Ids last portrait. There is . authentic record of the fact that St. Memln loaned the original pantagraphic portrait to Gilbert Stuart, the most famous of all painters of Washington. Wash-ington. St. Memin never recovered the portrait from Stuart, for some unknown reason, and Stuart gave It to J. Carson ISrevoort of Brooklyn, N". Y. I'.revoort. It seems, lent some money to Kev. .7. D. 1'hillip, an Episcopal minister of Brooklyn, taking as security the pastor's library. In some way tin-port tin-port rait came into Phillip's possession and he passed it on to a nephew, J. S. Phillip, who. prob-ably prob-ably tittle r'i!i.-.ing Its value, gave it to the wife of bis sun, George W. F. Phillip. Ii ISSli the Phillip family removed from Ilmok-lyn Ilmok-lyn to Kiverside. 111., and George Phillip wen' lain the fuel business In Lombard, lil. A few years Intel an aunt from Brooklyn came to visit thc-.i and spoke of the St. Memin portrait. Some tim.-nfter tim.-nfter this McClure's Magazine contained a story I' I '"tit the St. Mnr.in twtrrlt of V:ishiTT i :::vl made the statement that the original Lad l-;o:J lost. Whereupon tl;e s.mis ot George W. 1'. Pi. .nip, reiiwMiiberlug their aunt's statement that ;i Sf. lleiiiin portrait was owned in their family, began searching for it In the attic of their home and found the precious pantagraph. Its authenticity was established by officials of the Chicago Historical His-torical society. That was a number of years ago, but so far as is known the portrait was never reproduced re-produced In print until It appeared in a Chicago newspaper upon the occasion of )Vashington's birthday, 1020. ' Although the anniversary of a number of Revolutionary Revo-lutionary events during the year 1020 served to bring about mention of Washington's name from time to time, it waa not until September that the controversy which arose from Hughes' speech was revived. This came about with the publication of two books "George Washington The Image and the Man," by W. E. Woodward (Bon! and Live-right, Live-right, N. Y.) and "George Washington The Human Being and the Hero, 1732 17G2," by Rupert Hughes (William Morrow & Co., N. Y.). While Hughes' biography dealt with only the first thirty years of Washington's life, Woodward's covered his whole life from 1732 to 1790. The aim of both was to reveal the "real Washington," but by widely different methods. Hughes, covering less than half of Washington's life, bucked up his statements with documentary authority, his effort being, as he stated, to "let Washington tell his own story as fully as possible In his own words." Woodward's book was a study not only of Washington, Wash-ington, but more broadly of the era In which Washington lived, and It was more of a personal interju-etation of the man and his time than the other. He Interpreted Washington more as a business man than In any other role and asserted that Washington is not really the least understood of onr great men, but the best understood, because be-cause "he was the American common denominator, denom-inator, the average man deified and raised to the nth power. . . . Here we see the typical captain cap-tain of Industry attitude." The effect of these two hooks, both attempting to substitute the living, breathing Washington for the marble statue Washington, was to revive Interest Inter-est in the whole subject and whatever the verdict of critics on both volumes may be, it Is perluips not too much to say that the publication of the Woodward und the Hughes biographlvs may well be regarded as mining the outstanding events In relation to the Washiugtoniana of 11120. If there Is one whii h may challenge that claim it is tile celebration which took place In Trenton, X. .7., last December when the anniversary of the battle of Trenton was observed. With I'resident and Mrs. Coolldire and thirteen governors, the present executives of the original colonies, as their guests, the citizens of the New Jersey capital Mazed a series of mass meetings, parades rind special church services in keeping with the importance im-portance of the winter night a hundred nid fifty years ago when Washington and his continentals made their famous crossing of the Delaware to defeat the Hessians and to present to the strug gling young JJepubllc the finest Christmas gift that It could possibly desire a victory at an hour when the hope for the cause of Independence seemed dim. Whatever the new school of historians may eventually accomplish in showing that Washington was not the demig-d that he has so often been painted, but that lie was a human being with human frailties that Is to sny, however much they may lake away from some of us our belief (hat he was a paragon of nil the virtues , It is doubtful if they will ever be able even If they desire It, to dim the glory of Washington, the military leader. And In all of his record there Is no more brilliant achievement than that which celebrated at Trenton In December or that other victory in the same campaign, the battle of Prince-ten, Prince-ten, which was appropriately observed on January Janu-ary 3 of this year. Of tlds campaign Cyrus Townsend Brady has written "There are three things which determine tiie relative values of military enterprises the Idea, the method and the result. From these points of view, Washington's Trenton and Princeton Prince-ton campaign ranks among the most brilliant In history, and Its conception and the manner of Its prosecution stamp him ns n soldier of the first order. The importance of the end aimed at, and attained in large measure, can hardly be overstated. over-stated. Although neither of the engagements nhlch took place In carrying out the great idea cf it rose to the dignity of a battle, but must rather be classed as heavy skirmishes, I regard It as one of those decisive operations which are. turning" points in history. Had the results been other than they were, the whole course of the world would have been altered. In spile of the apparent insignificance of the operations, the Incidents Inci-dents of the campaign, when the material with which it was worked out Is considered, Bre as fraught with interest, as full of value to the soldier, sol-dier, and evidence as much greatne.'s in the leader, as If Washington had held under his command a hundred thousand men, and the little combats had been as great and as sanguinary as the gigantic! hutles of larger wars and later days. It Is not numbers, hut strategy, tactics, personal courage, and things achieved, by wlih h we Judge the soldier. "In these operations, whir-h certainly ri-nre-rented the culmlnatlnc period of his career. Washington Wash-ington displayed n dash and daring like that of Napoleon In his early Italian campaigns, an inflexible capacity of resistance and recuperation which sniscts 'iie vreai Frederick In h;s days of adversitv, arid a d 'orniPiei!. dic-i:"(, not-to be denied persist, ii'-e wl.ich calls to rnr-d the iiidoni-Itahle iiidoni-Itahle Grant. The fate of the Bernini ion was determined right then ;v:d there. Mure than at any other given period of tliat groat conflict, ti n cause of hi'inau liberty Vwa'i in the treniiilin balance on lhi.r wild December ni; hi." |
