The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-02-22
WASHINGTON.

WASHINGTON.
The sculptor who carved the statue of
George Washington which occupies the
square in front of the Capitol building in
the city that bears his name, and who
displayed him clad in toga, seated in an
ancient chair and grasping Roman sword,
fell into an error which has affected many
people who have attempted to frame in
thought, in words or in marble the figure
of the real Washington. The error lies in
the endeavor to measure him by the models
of the great in other nations and in other
times. There is no nation past or present
which has presented as its type of charac-
ter or as its ideal of craftsmanship a person.
atty which is the archtype of our Wash
ington. 1t is not surprising, therefore, to
find, even among grave biographers and
erudite historians, concepts of his great
ness as vague as the guesses of children
whom we sometimes hear estimating COM
paratively the size of the moon.
The best possible method of arriving at
the true conception of Washington's char
acter and power is by the judgment of his
contemporaries, who were in position to
measure him according to his worth. 1t
is related of Napoleon that being asked
where he got his ideas of that mastery
movement which gave him possession of
the heights about Toulon and COM
PEELED its evacuation he replied: "From a
study of the siege of Boston and of Wash
ington' occupation of Dorchester Heights -
This appreciation of the military genius of
Washington by the worlds greatest tacti-
clan was but an echo of the estimate
which his own soldiers placed upon his
powers from the siege of Boston to the
surrender at Yorktown. Amid all the dis
tress and despair of the Revolution the
army was true to its general. It took but
a wave of Washington's hand to dispense
the cabal which in the darkest days of the
conflict raised its head for his overthrow
And when the war was ended and indie
penaence was ours, itwas the army which,
but for his own refusal, would have made
Washington king.
The greatness of Washington as a mill
tary leader is eclipsed, however, by his
career as statesman, and of this also the
estimate of his associates forms the best
basis for a Judgment. When the crucial
time arrived wherein a stronger form of
government must be wrung from the neces-
sites of a reluctant people, if our liberties
and nationality were to be maintained, it
was Washington to whom men looked
with confidence to be chairman of the con-
vention which was summoned to frame a
Federal constitution. When that instru-
ment was framed and submitted to the
States for its adoption, it was the
power and personality Of Washington
which overcame all opposition, and caused
the instrument to be ratified by the requi-
site number of the States. When the first
election for President was held no one of
all the ambitious and able statesmen of his
time would venture to oppose their desire
even against Washington's disinclination
for the office, and even while yearning for
the privacy of Mount Vernon he was forced
to yield TO the demand of his country for
yet further public service, and he became
the first President of the republic.
The eight important years of his admin
istration furnish one notable picture in
which the exceeding greatness of Wash
ington stands forth in sublime and yet ex-
act proportions. We see him calling into
his Cabinet as his two chief secre-
taries Hamilton and Jefferson. These
statesmen typified the two extremes
in the politics of the time. Hamilton
was monarchical in his convictions,
while Jefferson was the arch-democrat of
his age. Out OF their political antagonisms
a personal antipathy had grown up be-
tween these two strong men which con-
tinued during their service in the Cabinet
of Washington. Mark now the surprising
greatness of the man who was capable of
holding these two antagonists in his
Cabinet, taking from each that which
was wisest and best, and, while
their ideas in forming
the very foundations of our ma
tional structure, was able to retain
the abiding friendship of them both
From these contemporaneous pictures of
the real Washington we can form the best
estimates of his character to place in the
annals of our country and of time. Judged
by these standards he endures a test of
greatness which no other man in history
could sustain. 1t is not a vain and empty
phrase which dignifies him as ''the father
of his country" nor is it other than meet
and proper that holiday should be set
apart in which Americans can do them
selves honor in the eyes of the world by
doing honor to him who was ''frst in war,
first in peace and first in the hearts of his