The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-02-23
HE HAD HIS FAULTS.
ONE OF THE GREATEST OF MEN,
WASHINGTON WAS QUITE HUMAN.

The Tendency of Modern Historical Inves-
tigation Is Not to Lift Men Ueon Cold
and Snowy PinnacIes-His Strong VIII,
His Energy and His Perseverance.
fright, 1895, by American Press Associa-
toni
The tendency which promoted great
leaders to the honors of the godhead did
not altogether cease with the mythmak
ing period. Carlyle emphasizes hero
worship as the salt which saves poor
human nature from dry rot. In other
words, it upholds concrete ideals as OBJ
ject lessons to fire the imagination, sing
ing the chant:
On one clear harp of many tones
That men may rise stepping stones
OF their dead selves to higher things.
It is more than an open question
whether this instinct is not easily car
ried to excess vitiating its own purpose.
The idealization of the hero, if it petri-
fies it's object and lifts him above the
blood warmth of the human atmosphere,
makes the pattern man less virile and
vita. Such until a recent period was
the tone of historic discussion dealing
with George Washington. Chief Justice
Marshall, then Jared Sparks, then Wash
ington Irving, who wrote the standard
lives of our pater patrie, followed this
method of conception and planted a
marble colossus high up on a pedestal in
the freezing cold. It was an impeccab1e
deity, before which humanity should
bow down and burn perpetual incense,
half sitting itself in the fumes.
The more recent tendencies of historic
study what we may term the realistic
school, take Washington down from his
arctic perch, and without lessening his
| genuine greatness make him vastly more
lovable. He is presented to US in flesh
and blood and not in stone. We find
that he was man of very human faults
as we'll as of virtues; that he could give
way to fits of fiery wrath and could
swear terribly in such moods; that he
| was very sensitive alike to applause
and criticism; that he was often hasty,
even harsh, in his judgments, and that
he loved dearly to have his own way
and could enforce it with an imperious
will
Washington's lack of schooling was
quite as complete as that of Abraham
! Lincoln. He never knew much about
that magic wand, the pedagogue's birch.
His learning was the fruit of attrition,
contact with men and affairs, and he
was plunged into very whirlpool of it
when scarcely more than lad. He was
only % when he saved the beaten rem
nant of Braddock's forces, and this was
by no means his first trust of irpor
lance With the bluest blood of the col
onies running in his veins, he was nat
urally an aristocrat in the conventional
as we'll as the nobler sense of the word.
Noblesse oblige, to live up to the finest
there was in him, was law Of life as
natural as breathing Probably none
but an aristocrat, one forced by social
position from mere boyhood into great
number OF public responsibilities, would
have had the chance to have so proved
his sterling value This stamp on the
coin made him by general choice the
| picked man of men to lead the Ameri-
cans in the field when the thundercloud
of the Revolution burst All the tradi-
lions of his family and training nodded
him into a conservative. By instinct and
preference he was a royalist. But when
he reluctantly felt himself lifted on the
tide of public sentiment swelling
through all the colonies, he gave him.
self heart and soul to the work. 1t may
be too nice point of speculation but
one is tempted to believe that had Wash
ington been one whit more of the dema-
gogue, one whit less of the aristocrat,
he would have failed to have welded
that permanent adherence of men of
blood, family and social prestige to the
Revolutionary cause on which success
so much depended.
Judged by all the laws of military
probability the American Revolution
should have been a failure. 1t was a
house divided against itself. There were
almost as many Tories as patriots. The
enemy was the greatest power then ex-
listing by land and sea. Among the chief
causes which finally assured the tri-
umph of the colonies, the personal fac
tor, the leadership Of George Washing
ton, was not the least important. AS a
military genius he does not rank among
the first 10, scarcely perhaps among
the worlds second 20 great soldiers.
Yet critics of the art of war, if they
find few magnificent coups, can scarce
ly point to a mistake in his military
plans. In the talents of the statesmen he
was not great-scarcely even common
place as orator and writer He was es-
sentially the man of affairs, not the man
of words. 1t was his profound and i'm
perturbable sagacity, a lighthouse shin
ing serenely above the beat and roar Of
the waves. that made him master Of
men. 1t was common sense raised to its
superlative and become genius. Tenn
permanent and character entered into ii
equally with mind. The final product
was one Of those personalities so sym
; metrical and balanced as to stand iso-
, lated among the worlds leaders. Per
, haps nowhere else in history do we find
a great man with whom the absolute
touchstone of right and wrong was the
: golden test, one in whom the perception
of right and wrong was SO luminous and
direct All classes, plebeian and gentle,