Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-27


feature in his character was prudence, never
acting until every circumstance. every consid-
Grafton was maturely weighed; RETAINING if he
saw doubt, but, when once decided. going
through with his purpose, whatever Obstacles
opposed.
His integrity was most pure, his justice the
most iDfexible have ever known: no motives
of interest or consaDguinity, of friendship or
hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was,
indeed, in every sense OF the words, a WISE
good and great man. His temper was nat
urally irritable and high toned, but reflection
and resolution had obtained firm and habit
ual ascendancy over it. If ever, however, it
broke its bonds he was most tremendous in his
wrath. In his expenses he was honorable, but
exact: liberal in contributions to whatever
promised utility, but frowning and unyielding
on all visionary projects and all unworthy ca IS
on his charity
His heart was not warm in its affections. but
he exactly calculated every mans value and
gave him solid esteem proportioned to it, His
person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly
what one would wish, his department easy,
erect and noble; the best horseman of his age
and the most graceful figure that could be seen
on horseback. Although in the circle of his
friends, where he might be unreserved with
safety, he took free share in conversation. his
colloquial talents were not above mediocrity
possessing neither copiousness of ideas nor ilu-
ency OF words. In public, when called on for
sudden opinion, he was unready short and en-
ba raised. Yet he wrote readily rather off
fusely, in an easy and correct style This he
mad acquired by conversation with the world,
Tor bis education was merely reading, writing
and a common arithmetic, to which he added
surveying at later day. His time was EN-
ployed in action chiefly, reading little, and that
only in agriculture and English history His
correspondence became necessarily extensive
and, with journaliziDg his agricultural proceed
ings, occupied most of his leisure hours within
doors. On the whole his character was. in its
mass, perfect; in nothing bad in few points in
different and it may truly be said that never
did nature and fortune combine more perfectly
TO make man great, and to place him in the
same constellation with whatever worthless
have merited from man an everlasting remem-
brance.
THE TRIBUTES OF ENGLISH STATESMEN
And historians TO the supreme worth of
Washington's character and the grandeur
OF his life, perhaps, surpass even those of
our own eminent countrymeD The &C.
companying extract is from lecture on
the American War; written in 1911 by
William Smvth, Professor of Modern His
tory in the University of Cambridge Re-
specting these memorable lectures, the West
minister Revie,u of April 1856, said: when we
| read them We are at no loss to understand
why Cambridge has produced so many
illustrious thinkers. For two entire gener-
atoms the political intellect of that Univer-
sity was under the training of man who
was perhaps better fitted for an instructor
IN the great social questions of the modern
world than any one who has filled the
chair of professor in this country" he
says:
To the historian, indeed, there are few char
aeters that appear SO little to have shared the
common frailties and imperfections of human
nature there are but few particulars that can
be mentioned even to his disadvantage.
Instances may be found where, perhaps it may
be thought he was decisive to degree that par
look OF harshness, or even more; but how in
Vulnerable were the decisions he had to take
how difficult and how important through the
eyentful series OF twenty years of command in
the Cabinet or the field Let it be considered
what it is to have the management of a revolu-
ton, and afterward the maintenance of order
The plaudits of his country were con-
tlnually 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 equanimity of philosopher. Power
was accepted, was exercised, was resigned, pre-
cisely at the moment and in the way that duty
and patriotism directed. Whatever was the
difficulty, the trial, the temptation or the dan
ger, there stood the soldier and the citizen
eternally the same. without fear and without
reproach, and there was tine man who was not
only at all times virtuous, but at all times wise
Inc 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 liorty was ardent
enough to resist the power of Great Britain and
hazard everything on this side of the grave at
a later period had to resist the same spirit of
liberty when it was installing its proper object
and transgressing its appointed limits. The
American Revolution was to approach him and
he was to kindle in the general flame: the
French Revolution was to reach him and to
consume but too many of his countrymen and
" his own ethereal world incapable of stain,
was to purge off the baser fire victorious" But
all this was DONE he might have been pardoned
though he had failed amid the enthusiasm of
those around him and when liberty was de-
fusion; but the foundations of the moral world
were shaken, and not the understanding of
Washington. As ruler of mankind he may he
proposed as model deeply impressed with the
original rights of human nature; he never for
got that the end and meaning and aim of all
Just government was the happiness of the peo-
pie, and he never exercised authority till he
mad nrst taken care to put himself clearly in
the right His candor, his patience his love of
justice were uuexampled; and this though
naturally he was not patient-much otherwise
irritable. He, therefore, deliberated well, and
placed lis subject in every point of view before
he decided; and his understanding being cor
rect, he was thus rendered, by the nature of his
faculties, his strength of mind and his princi-
pies, the man OF all others to whom the inter
ests of his fellow-creatures might with most con-
idence be intrlsted; that is he was the first of
the rulers OF mankind.
ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE PORTRAIT
UREs
vi Washington is TO be found in volume
by the eminent English actor John Ber-
nsrd, edited by his son in 1923. and brought
out in this country by the Harpers in 1887.
His retrospections cover from 1897 to 1911.
and throughout show the shrewd social OBJ
server, quick to see and acute in noting the
value of what he saw. The anecdotes he
narrates of Washington and his estimate of
the man will repay the perusal of the most
casual reader; in fact, the entire volume is
withouta page of dull reading | conclude
these running notes with brief sentence
or two from Green's remarkable History
of the English People" which for conden-
satlon. inpartiality and perspicuity is
rightly called the most satisfactory histor
ical production of our generation:
The congress of delegates from the colonial
Legis' atures at once voted measures for general
defense ordered the levy of an army. and set
George Washington at its head No nobler fig
mre ever stood IN the forefront of nations life
washington was grave and courteous in adj
dress, his manners were simple and unpre,end-
ing; his silence and the serene calmness of his
temper spoke OF a perfect self-mastery. But
there was little in his outer bearing to reveal
the grandeur of soul. which lifts his figure with
all the simple majesty of an ancient statue out
OF the smaller passions, tie meaner impulses of
the world around him. What recommended
him for command was simply his weight among
his fellow landowners of Virginia. and the ex.
perience OF war which he had gained by service
in border cor tests with the French and the In
dians as well as in Braddock's luckless expe-
dition against Fort Duquesne. II was only as
the weary fight went on that the
colonies discovered, however slowly and
imperfectly. the greatness of their
leader, his clear Judgment. his heroic
endurance, his silence under difficulties, his
ealmness in the hour of danger and defeat the
patience with which he waited. the quickness
and hardness with which he struck, the lofty
and serene sense of duty that never swerved
from its task through resentment or lie alousy
that never through war or peace felt the touch
OF meaner ambition; that knew no aim save
that OF guarding the freedom of his fellow
countrymen. and no personal longing save that
of returning TO his own fireside when their free
dom was secured. II was almost unconsciously
that men learned to cling to Washington with a
tiu,t and faith such as few men have now. and
TO regard him with reverence which still
bushes us in the presence of his memory.
Z. D'F.
Sleeping in the Woods.