The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1902-02-21

N his History Of England In the
Eighteenth Century" William Ed
ward Hartpole Lecky, M. p, pays
the following tribute to George
Washington:
To the appointment of Washington
las commander in chief far more than
to any other single circumstance is due
the ultimate success of the American
Revolution, though in purely intel
lectual powers Washington was GER
tainly inferior to Franklin and per-
haps to two or three others Of his col
leagues. There is theory which once
received the countenance of some con-
siderable psychologists, though it is
now, l believe, completely discarded,
that one of the great lines of division
among men may be traced to the COM
parative development Of the cerebrum
and the cerebellum. To the first organ
it was supposed belong those special
gifts or powers which make men poets,
orators, thinkers, artists, conquerors or
wits. To the second belong the super
intending, restraining, discerning and
directing faculties which enable men
to employ their several talents with
sanity and wisdom, which maintain
the balance and the proportion of in
tellect and character and make sound
judgments and well regulated lives.
The theory, however untrue in it's phys
biological aspect, corresponds to a real
distinction in human minds and char
acters, and it was especially in the
second order of faculties that Wash
1ngton excelled. His mind was not
quick or remarkably original. His con.
versation had no brilliancy or wit. He
was entirely without the gift of elo-
quence, and he had very few accom-
He knew no language but
his own, and except for a rather strong
turn for mathematics he had no taste
which can be called purely intellectual.
There was nothing in him of the me-
teor or the cataract, nothing that Ell
ther dazzled or overpowered.
AS soldier the circumstances Of his
career brought him into the blaze, not
only of domestic, but of foreign, criti-
cism, and it was only very gradually
that his superiority was fully recogniz-
ed. Lee, who of all American soldiers
had seen most service in the English
army, and Conway, who had risen to
great repute in the French army, were
both accustomed to speak of his mill
tary talents with extreme disparage-
ment, but personal jealousy and ami
mostly undoubtedly colored their judg-
ments. De Kalb, who had been trained
In the best military schools of the conti-
nent, at first pronounced him to be very
deficient in the strength, decision and
promptitude of general, and, although !
he soon learned to form the highest es-
innate of his military capacity, he con-
tinued to lament that an excessive mod |
esty led him too frequently to act upon
the opinion of inferior men rather than |
upon his own most excellent Judgment. !
In the army and the congress more |
than one rival was opposed to him. He
had his full share of disaster; the oper- |
ations which he conducted, if compared |
with great European wars, were on a |
very small scale, and he had the i'm
mense advantage of encountering, in |
most cases, generals of singular inca
pacity. 1t may, however, be truly said |
Of him that his military reputation
steadily rose through many successive
and before the end of the
struggle he had outlived all rivalry and
almost all envy. He had a thorough
znowledge of the technical part Of his
profession, good eye for military COM
an extraordinary gift Of mil
tary administration.