The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-23
GEORGE WASHINGTON
VIEWED AS A MAN
An Estimate Of Him Which Is Not Colored
for Effect.
HE WAS BY NO MEANS A DEMlGOD


The recent washington Monument
dedication in Philadelphia, inspired
Penn" of the Evening Bulletin to write
concerning the life and character of
the great patriot. He says:
There seems to be much less of a ten
dency than there once was to view him
as demi-god. Cold, passionless. severe,
exalted and unblemished, his character
as 1t long existed in the conceptions Of
his country was such as to place it be-
yond the range Of sympathy or affec-
tion. There are some persons who be-
lieve that 1t is well to keep up the ap-
pearance of this type of serene perfec-
tion for it's value as a. model and in
centive. / am not certain that they are
right. The more Washington has been
seen, as the more Lincoln has been, in
his little failings, and especially the
more we understand how he was view
ed and treated by his contemporaries,
the more is the lesson of his life likely
to be of practical helplessness than II
we idealize him into a figure of Parian
marble in the star light.
We can judge more correctly and with
more of the justice of charity our own
public men when we find that a man
like Washington went through the
same kind of experiences which cause
us to denounce or criticise them and to
cry out that the standard of public vir-
tue is on the decline. Whatever intri-
gue chicanery and blackguardism may
now be doing to despoil of their good
names, the best class of men in public
affairs, was suffered in some degree by
Washington, both as a soldier and a
civilian. The charges which were
heaped upon him included arrogance,
arbitrary conduct, marital infidelity,
cruelty to slaves, weakness and incom-
potency as a general, political ingrat-
itude, subserviency to the English, in
capacity as a statesman and submits
siveness to party managers. The only
usual form of public scandal from
which he was entirely free from in the
mouths Of the enemies was personal
corruption. The bitterest of them seem
never to have thought seriously of fas-
tening that charge upon him-not even
General Charles Lee or Tom Paine in
their fiercest abuse.
HAD HIS FAILINGS.
Washington was fond of cards, of
horses, of fox hunting, of cock fights
and of dancing. He enjoyed dancing
when he was president, in Philadelphia,
and was past sixty years of age. In
his early life he wrote verses; he was
lover when he was but sixteen. and
from his youth to his old age he was
| extremely careful to dress like a we'll
bred man, scrupulous in the care of his
| person and at one time having some
| thing of the reputation Of a dandy. He
drank freely of wine, but there is no
| record that he was ever intoxicated. He
was more than ordinarily fond of the
society of women, and some of his cor
respondence with them is marked by
| high-flown gallantry. His effusiOn of
| grief when Betsy Fauntleroy would not
| have him is well known; he was ac-
| cused of intimacy with Mrs. Fairfax,
| and when he first took command of the
Continental army, the Tories published
a pamphlet concerning one Mary Glib
| bons, who lived somewhere near New
York, and who was to deliver him into
the enemy's hands after one of his noe
| turnal visits to her house. A curious
letter of the first Benjamin Harrison
| to Washington, as well as a British
farce that was published about the
same time, gave some currency to
these scandals. The truth is that his
conduct in this particular, so far as
any authentic evidence exists, and es-
pecially so far as we can Judge 1t by the
spirit of his letters referring to the
sex, was that of a man who, with
strong admiration united deep and
manly respect.
USE OF LIQUOR.
| When Washington was a young man
he was a candidate for Burgess ol
member of the Virginia legislature
running on an anti-tavern platform
and was defeated by what we would
now call the liquor interest" The
next year he made the race again This
time he enlisted the good will of the
county boss, spent his money freely fol
liquor for the voters and gave instruc-
tions that there should be no stint ir
the quantity of whisky, brandy and
ale that the voters might desire. There
exists somewhere a tabulated list OF
his election expenses, or rum bills, or
that occasion. But this was not regard
ed for the most part with dsfavor
At that time the standard of politenes!
and liberality in a public man in the
Old Dominion was gauged largely by
his willingness to be generous and hos
pitable with his liquor The fine anC
true pattern of a Virginia gentleman
then was the one who, If a man en-
tered his house, set out his whisky on
the table and then took a long look ou
of the window.
The celebrated Conway Cabal,'
which gathered together all the discon
tents and reckless ambitions of tn,
army, was one of the most formida blt
attempts ever made to destroy a public
man. The complaint against the com
mander-in-c was that he was slow
dull and heavy, and that he was in
competent for any military command
and it was re-enforced by the clamo
and the plots of such men as Lee
Gates, Adams, Rush and Mifiiin. Thi
kind of opposition followed him in
nagging way all through the Revolu
ton. But perhaps the strongest temp
tation which came to him and whicl
tried his character more than anythins
else in the hours of darkness and ad
versity was when Elizabeth Ferguson
delivered to him the letter from Duche
who had been among the foremos
clergymen of his day in supporting tn
patriot cause, and who now piled hin
with all the arts of his eloquence anC
with lofty religious sentiment TO Civ,
up the struggle. In the whole course o
Washington's life there is to my mint
nothing in 1t more heroic than his re
sistance to this temptation in tn,
crucial hour of his patriotic career
and at a time when the country gen
orally seemed almost certain to turn t
Duche's way of thinking. Long after
ward. when it seemed that his country
men had come to understand him, h,