Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1843-06-03
From the New Mirror.
w A SHING ON

From the New Mirror
WASHING TON.
To the historian, indeed, there are few
characters that appear so little to have
shared the common frailtes and imperfec-
tons of hnman nature; there are but few
particulars that can be mentioned even to
his disadvantage. 1t is understood, for in
stance, that he was once going to C, unit
an important mistake as a general in the
feld but he had at least the very great merit
of listening to Lee, "a man whom he could
not like, and who was even his rival) and
of not committing the mistake. Instances
may be found where perhaps it may be
thought that he was decisive to degree
that partook of severity and harshness, or
even more; but how innumerable were the
decisions which he had to take! how diff
cult and how important, through the event
full series of twenty years of commando
the cabinet or the field! Let i be con3id-
cred what it is to have the management of
a revolution, and afterwards the mainten.
ance of order Where is the man that, in
the history Of our race, has ever succeeded
in attempting successfully the one and the
other? not on small scale, petty state in
Italy, or among a horde of barbarians,
but in an enlightened age, when it is not
easy for one man TO rise superior to anoth-
err and in the eyes of mankind
"A kingdom for a stage,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene"
The plaudits of his country were contin.
ually sounding in his ears, and neither the
Judgment nor the virtues of the man were
ever disturbed Armies were led TO the
field with all the enterprise of hero, and
then dismissed with all the equanimily of
philosopher Power was accepted, was
exercised, was resigned, precisely at the
moment and in the way that duty and pa
trotism directed. Whatever was the diff.
Guilty, the trial, the temptation, or the dan
ger. there stood the soldier and the citizen,
out reproach, and there was man who
was not only at all times virtuous. but at
all times wise. The merit Of Washington
by no means ceases with his campaigns;
it becomes, after the peace of 1888, even
more striking than before: for the same
man who, for the sake Of liberty. was ar
dent enough to resist the power of Great
Britain, and hazard every thing on this side
the grave, at later period had to be tenn
perate enough to resist the same spirit of
liberty, when it was installing its proper
objects, and transgressing its appointed
limits. The American revolution was TO
approach him, and he was TO kinde in the
general fame:-the French revolution was
to reach him, and to consume but too
many of his countrymen, and his "oc'
ethereal mould, incapable Of stain, vas to
purge off the baser fire victorious" But
all this was done; he might have been par
doned, though he had failed amid the en-
thusiasm of those around him, and when
liberty was the decisions but the founda
tons of the moral world were shaken, anC
not the understanding of Washington. TIC
those who must necessarily contemplate
this remarkable man at distance, there il
a kind of fixed calmness in his character
that seems not well fitted TO engage oul
affections, Constant superiority we rather
venerate than love3 bu, he had those wht
loved him, This friends and his family a
well as the world and those that admired
As ruler of mankind, however, he may
be proposed as model. Deeply impressed
with the original rights of human nature
J he never forgot that the end, and meaning
f and aim. of all just government was tn
happiness of the people, and he never Ell
/ ercised authority till he had first taken car
: 10 put himself clearly in the right. Hi
: candour. his patience, his love of justice
were unexampled; and this, though natu:
, ally be was not Patient--much otherwise