The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-02-18

ernment back of it and a superio l army in its
front. Charlemagne was far more brilliant
as he swept Europe with his victorious
armies; but he would have been helpless
in the role of wearing out the enemy through
seven long years by avoidance of battle.
Cromwell excelled him in breadth of scope;
vet the lord protector would have quailed
before the task given to Washington when
be took the oath of Office as chief of little
nation that was bankrupt in treasury and
which was rent and torn by internal fac
tiOns and jealOusies. Napoleon founded
great empire upon the ruins of the revolu-
ton; yet it endured scarcely more than
decade. The work of Washington, after
more than a century, gives promise of un-
measured duration. Alexander, the Caesars,
Genghis Khan and Napoleon sought personal
glory in conquest, and Cromwell realized his
ambition in individual power and domin-
ion; but Washington looked only to the
liberties of his people and the perpetuatiOn
of a simple government whose greatness
should be established in the fruitful results
growing out of peace.
A man of commanding presence, shapely
in limb and body, with most benign and in
telligent face and well-proportioned head,
he was no less symmetric in character.
What weaknesses pertained to him were
His temper was high, and there were occa-
sions, as at Monmouth, when it displayed
itself in hot Indignation; but he curbed it
before it went beyond the bounds of right
cOus wrath. The unlicensed vituperatiOn of
his enemies wrung from him, sometimes,
earnest protest against their injustice; yet
so few were these protests in the many
years of his sorely tried life that the per-
feet self-control of the man has passed into
a proverb. He vas an ardent admrer of
woman, yet sternly chaste in character.
OF splendid physique, he loved the good
things of the table; but to his appetite he
set proper bounds and partook in modera-
tion of what was set before him.
Born of gentle parents, his tastes and
surroundings were those of an aristOcrat;
but in the great work of founding repub-
lie, he insisted that the rights of all classes
should be respected alike and that no bar
should be placed before a man who sought
distinction because of his birth or social
position. Doubtless the richest man of his
time in America, his manner of living was
simple, although generous. a Shareholder,
he detested the institution, and at his death
manumitted his "chattels." Brave to daT-
ing, he curbed the spirit of battle within
him, and forced peace and victory by a sue
cession of mastery movements that were
characterized chiefly by evasion of collision
with the enemy. Proud, he was affable,
ever; reserved, all might approach him.
These were not contradictions in his char
acter; rather are they evidences of the
majesty that was in him, which could shape
and control disposition to the forming and
framing of a perfect man.
He might have founded monarchy, for
the people were ready to acquiesce in any
MIA of d 1T ba of ba orS'
war brought by his genius to such happy
termination. In such an event none would
have dared to question his assumption of
the kingly power. He chose, rather, to give
his voice to a government of the people,
whose rulers should be chosen by their suf-
frages. OF his own act he surrendered the
reins of power after eight years of service,
when by a word he might have perpetuated
himself in the administration until the end
of his days.
He was not without ambition; but it was
of that sublime quality which makes self
subordinate to country. He was in public
service almost continuously from l775 to
1877; yet in all these years he longed for the
quiet and happiness of his home on the
Potomac. The perils of his country having
passed, he felt himself free to yield to this
temper which was accCntuated by the decay
d
war with a foreign power seemed imminent,
he yielded readily to the popular call and
accepted the leadership of the American
army. Happily the cloud passed without
bursting, and he spent the remainder of his
days, brief their number, in his beloved
home, where he died the victim of medical
stupidity, in the closing days of the last
year of the century which had been made
glorious by his illustrious deeds.
Whether as private citizen, soldier, law
maker, or ruler of professionally great re-
public, the superb virtues of the man shone |
as bright stars. So well poised was he, that |
one might find it difficult to determine in |
what he most excelled. Yet none may doubt |
that the combination of the whole gives to |
history the loftiest character to be found |
in all its pages. He alone of all humanity |
IS the ideal man of all the nations, the |
adored of all who reach out after the noblest |
ideals Of living. This country is great in |
the matchless achievements Of the now /
lying century, but the world without holds |
her greatest in that she gave to humanity /
. Washington, IS pattern Tor tTus human |
greatness Ia whatever farm.
WILLIAM RossEF CoBBE I