The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1877-06-19
TAMPERING WITH HISTORY.

Popular taste would have military
heroes imposing in presence as well as
i.uougnty III deed-d relic of impression
by inheritance from what was anclHntly
true. that proWess in battle required
men Of Drawn rather than of brain. After
its long experience of the Outgoing OF
spears and breastplates ana the incom-
ing Of steam and gunpowder, the popular
MUD sliIl does not quite realize that
| stalWart Marshal SAKE, who twists
horseshoe ike wisp of straw in his
| fingers, Is less formidable than aged
Mo Ike, and that battles are planned in
| the closet and fought by telegraph. rneI
popular conception OF a great general is
| illustrated i'll the colored prints of the
! BoWery show windows.
He Uestrides coasblack charger,
from whose gllstening eyes and dis
tended nostrils red flames are shooting;
he waves on high IA sword fit for 6 j.
Hath; bombs burst idly in thick pro-
fusion about tue charmed hero, though
dead soldiers are piled three or tour
| deep around his horses hoots; steed
ami cavalier are OF Brobdignaglan IN I'D,
and the total is labeled, "Major General
| sherman at R4saCa," or "SlerIdan at
| Five Forks" 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 re.
verse Is true of Sheridan, and Grant,
ana Mcclellan. The popular idea of an
| infantry charge appears, also, in the
old-fasnioned pictures, where straight
line drawn from the Dayonet tip on the
| extreme right OF tue charging regiment
to the tip OF the bayonet on the extreme
lett, would just gaze every lnt!rme-
diaLe weapon.
| The painter, whether with pen or
brush, mas not always skill or candor
enough 10 present his hero in his faults
Of body and soul; besides, the hero him-
self has rarely 50 little vanity as to ex-
pose his own defects and delormitles.
Ii an occasional Cromwell stoutly de-
mands to be- painted with his wart, il
iustriOus men are not equally eager to
SET forth their moral blemlsnes and men
tai blunders, but suffer their reports
and their official chroniclers TO excuse
or dettly disguise them.
National PRIDE and various kinds of
partisanship also resent the rough hand
ling of historic heroes. The portrait OF
William Penn which Macauay drew
reused the indignation OF many Qua
kers, in whose minds Penn had CONF to
be figure quite free from the human
frailties which the historian ascribed to
him. When Thackeray, in the "Virgin-
I lduS,' ShCICuSu w douluBIOu dS oil vi ul-
nary mortal, falling in love and quarrel
ing in very ordinary way, the picture
shocked many Americans, Tor Washing
ton is our patron Saint. We had pre-
ferred to diyest him of the frivolous gall
Iantries in which youth commonly in
dulge, and to think Of him as Glowing
but once" when he led the widow Gus
tis to the altar. Bishop Meade, however,
tells us, in his "Old Churches and Fami-
lies of Virginia." that Miss Cary had
previously captivated the affections of
young Washington, and rejected the
offer OF his hand; and there are rumors
OF other like experiences III Washing
toms life.
A rare, perhaps solitary, lapse into
profanity, under sudden irritation, is
hardly matter to be concealed in
Washington'S lie, since it really serves
to bring into the light OF positive virtues
mis- habitual self-Gestraint and decorum;
lyet some eulogists would gloss even
that speck on the sun. Such eulogists
think it wise to figure our first Presi-
dent as a recognized demigod among
his contemporaries, Ignoring the tact
that hostile newspapers called him a
traitor, an ally of Britain, "a stupen-
dous monument OF perddy, ingratltude
and degeneracy," and tnat his i'm
peachment was called for. While the
treaty with England, which he favored,
was under discussion, "his merits
says Young, las soldier and states.
man, were disparaged. His private
character did not escape detraction. He
was accused OF having oyerdrawn the
amount of his salary and appropriated
the money to his private USE" Wash
ington himself, in regard to the attacks
of the press upon him for his treaty
: policy, wrote that he could not have be
, lieyed that every act of his administra
tion would be tortured, and the grossesl
, misrepresentation of them made, Sand
tnat, too, in such exaggerated and inde'
cent terms as could scarcely be applied
to Nero, a notorious delauiter, or even
to common plckpocket."-IG. K. Pond
in The Galaxy for July.