The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1898-03-05
WASHINGTON AS A SOLDIER.
An Essay Read by Miss Violet Kent at
the Washington Day School Exercises.


! Washington was taught in the hard
school OF experience. Surveying the
wild frontier made him acquainted
with the country and ihured to hard
ship; the French and Indian war made
him soldier, soldier who dared
even to fight the stubborn redcoats.
After a siege of eight months. WASH
ington forced the British from Boston.
The country had scarcely heard the
| news of his success before a large
British feet and powerful British
| army arrived at New y ork. Fighting
the enemy when he could, outwltting
them when he could not, he reached
the Delaware. Trenton and Princeton
placed him among the greatest soldiers
| of the world: "Fredrick the Great, of
| Prussia declared that the achievements
| of Washington and his little band,
| during the six weeks following Christ
mas, were the most brilliant on the
pages of military history" Fredrick's
admiration for Washington did not
diminish, for short time before his
| death he sent Washington sword, in
scribed "The oldest general in the
world to the bravest."
Gathering all his soldiers. Washing
! ton threw them around the flower of
the British troops at Yorktown: and
crushed them till they could never
rise again in America.
How do the campaigns of Alexander
the Gi eat compare with the campaigns
of Washington? With his iron phalanx,
Alexander marched over continent,
with what to oppose him? Luxurious
orientals, who were often clothed in
their flowing robes, and armed with
their short spears only. Washington
with his poorly armed and poorly
clothed patriots, opposed and con-
| quered soldiers in many ways superior
| to his own. Alexander permitted his
men to consider him something more
| than human, and regarded his soldiers
as mere machines to aid him in eratify-
| ing his ambition. Washington went
among his men, cheering them and
sharing their privations. aud in soli-
tude he prayed for an abatement of
their sufferings. Napoleon Bonaparte
made grand speeches of praise to his
soldiers, promising them great things,
then, without a thought he broke his
promises. and heartlessly risked their
lives. Washington addressed his SOL
diers as brothers and made no rash
promises which he could not keep.
Napoleon, fighting first in Italy, next
in Spain, then marching his army in
to frozen Russia, and at last meeting
his superiors on the field of Waterloo,
loses not little of his false greatness
when contrasted with Washington.
In the end Napoleon gained nothing
but dreary prison on ST. Helena,
Washington earned the title of
"Father of his country"
Learned men have tried to rank
Washington among the great generals
of the earth, and we know that he was
a thoughtful general: his treatment of
his own soldiers and of the British
prisoners show that. We know that
he was an honest general; his entire
expenditure for the whole war did not
equal the cost of the stationary of con-
gress for one year. We know that he
was brave general; his action in
every battle shows it, and we know
that he was successful general; he
accomplished what he undertook, he
drove every British invader from the
land.