The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-22
FEBRUARY 22Np.

This Is Washigton's birthday.f we are not putting this statement forth as a olt of news After Christmas and the Fourth of July it Is the best-known of our holt days. Many a man who permits his own birthday to pass unnoted or forgotten. stops to recall that this is Washington's. The statute brings it to mind if interest in the past does not. Washington was born February p, 17s2, one hundred and seventy-two years ago; Napoleon was born August 15, 17e9. more than one hun dred and thirty-four years ago. The world is still debating Napoleon, seeking to appoint his place among the great men of history. Is there any question as to Washington's rank?
 Every great soldier of the far past with the possible exception of Charlemagne, has partisans and hostile critics. This is true of Alexander, of Hannibal and Cae- sar. Washington was not great SOL dier. but his achievements in war are freely conceded their true value. As a statesman and ruler. too. his high position is as little disputed. Among the great men of affairs he has the most secure reputation apparently in the entire record of the world. Carlyle threatened once to take him down a peg. He never carried his threat into execution. It is fortunate for the reputation of that confirmed growler that he did not attempt to add to his fame by blackening the character of the American. He would have shocked mankind and by inviting would have in- cured contempt.
 As we look back at Washington from this distance-he has been dead but a little more than one hundred years-it seems there was never before so big a man compounded of such small material. He grew up a tall, raw-boned. awkward youth. He stood abashed in the presence of women, just as he was abashed out of power of speech when thanked by the Virginia Assembly. He never mastered the art of conversation, and while he wrote voluminously, he wrote carelessly, spelled badly. relying for the composition of State papers on important occasions upon the help of men otherwise far infe- rior to him. In the Constitutional Con vantion he made but one suggestion and that of trifiing importance. He was prob ably put at the head of the Revolutionary forces because he was Virginian and as such was thought likely to draw after him the Southern provinces in the strug- gle already begun in New England. There were several generals in the army who considered themselves his superiors as soldiers, and what is more. thousands of others agreed in the estimate. He was charged, when President, of being strong ly under the influence of Hamilton and unquestionably in making Hamilton's for tune as he did, he got much in return from that brilliant adventurer.
 If we are to seek for secret of his greatness we shall not find it. No one lived more directly in the full glaring light of publicity. We have everything necessary in the formation of an opinion through one trial to another. through test after test as surveyor. scout, Indian fighter, Burgess. farmer. master of slaves. commander-in-chief of an army, citizen, President and citizen again. rising con- tinuously in the admiration and affection of his countrymen. His greatest bit of fortune, of course. was his success. He more than any one man founded the greatest Republic the orld has known. and his fame has waxed acordingly. Still no one can deny he merits his glory. He had the genius of common sense. He had powerful will. the dominant feature of which, if not flexibility. was yet flexible enough. He was nobly unselfish. It is in his unselfshness that We will find. if we are to look for single quality to support his fame. the trait that has drawn man kind steadily toward him. He strove for others. Secular history has no name equally great that carries with it so dis tinct an attribute of the kind of unaf- fected devotion to the wefare of his coun- try.