The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-07-19
Tamperins with History.

rces imposing In presence as we'll as
doughty In dced--a relic Of impression
BY inheritance from what was anciently
true, that proves In battle required men
of Drawn rather than of brain. After its
long experience of the outgoing of spears
and breast. plates and the incoming of
steam and gunppwder, the popular mind
still does not quite realize that stalwart
Marshal SAKE, who twists horseshoe like
o wisp of straw in his fingers, Is less for.
midablc than aged Moltkc, and that bat
ties are planned in the closet and fought
by telegraph. The popular conception OF
great General is illustrated iii the COL
ptti prints of the Dowety show windows.
He bestrides c0al-black charger, from
whose glistening eyes and distended nos
trils red flames arc shooting; he waves on
high q sword fit for GOliah; bombs burst
idly in thick proiusion about the charmed
hero, though dead soldiers are piled three
or four deep around his horses hoofs;
steed and cavalier are of Brobdignagian
mold, and the total is labelled "MajOr.
General Sherman at Resaca," or Sheri-
dan at Five Folks" as the case may be.
Yet we know that If Hancock, and Frank
lin, and Thomas, were mighty in stature
and massive in thew and limb, the reverse
Is TRUE of. Sheridan, and Grant, and Nc
Clellan. The popular idea OF an infantry
charge appears, also, in the old fashioned
pictures, where q straight line drawn from
the bayonet-tip on the extreme right of
the charging regiment, to the tip of the
bayUnet on the extreme left, would just
Craze every intermediate weapon.
The painter. whether with pen or brush,
has not always skill or cand0r enough to
present his hero in his faults of body and
soul; beside, the hero himself has rarely
SO little vanity as 10 expose his own de.
fects and defOrmities. If an occasional
Cromwell stoutly demands to lie painted
with his wart, fllustfiots men are not
equally eager to set forth their moral
blemishes and mental blunders, but suffer
their reports and their official chronic1ets
to excuse or deity disguise them.
National pride and various kinds of
craftsmanship also resent the rough hand
ling OF historic heroes. The portrait of
William Penn, which Macaulay drew,
reused the indignation of many Quakers,
in whose minds Penn had come to be q
figure quite free from the human frailties
which the historian ascribed to him.
When Thackcray, in the Virginians, -
sketched Washington as an ordinary NOR
tai, falling In love and quarreling in q
very ordinary way, the picture shocked
many Americans, for Washington Is our
patron saint. We had preferred to divest
him of the frivolous gallantries in which
youth commonly indulge, and to think of
him as loving but once" when he led
the Widow Gusts to the altar. Bishop
Meade. however, tells us, in his Old
Churches and Families of Virginia, /" that
Miss Carey had previously captivated the
affections of young Washington, and re.
jected the offer of his hand; and there are
rumors of other like experiences in Wash
ington's life
4 rare. perhaps solitary, lapse into
profanity, under sudden irritation, is
hardly matter to be concealed in Wash.
ington's life, since 1t really serves to
bring into the light Of positive virtues his
habitual self.restraint and decorum; yet
some eulogists would gloss even that
speck on the sun. Such eulOgists think it
wise to figure our first President as rec
ognixed demigod among his contempora-
ries, ignoring the fact that hostile news.
papers called him . traitor, an ally Of
Britain, - stupendous monument Of
perndy. ingratitude and degeneracy." and
that his Impeachment was called for.
While the treaty with England, which he
favored, was under discussion, "his mer-
its," says Young, "asa soldier and states
man, were dispafaged. His private char
acter did not escape detraction. He was
accused of having overdrawn the amount
of his private salary and appropriated the
money to his private uae." Washington
himself, in regard to the attacks of the
press upon him for his treaty policy,
wrote that he could not have believed that
every act of his Administration would be
tortured, and the grossest misrepresenta-
lions of them made, "and that, too, in
such exaggerated and indecent terms a
could scarcely be applied to . Nero, . NO.
tori0us defaulter, or even to . common
pickpocket."-G. r. Pond, r GALAXY for
,Jwlx.