Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930, 1906-02-22
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
His Greatness Has Been Recognized
and Lauded Everywhere.

His Greatness Has Been Recognized
and Lauded Everywhere.
The human trait of hero worship has
this disadvantage, that it often exalts it's
heroes into the clouds and cuts them off
from human sympathy by making demi-
gods Of them. No man of modern times
has suffered from idealizatien SO much
as Washington. We all acknowledge that
he was the greatest of Americans, that
his patriotism was of the purest and his
character of the noblest, and that we abb
solutely owe our national independence
to his consummate generalshfp. Yet the
homage paid to his greatness in these
days is of the head rather than of the
heart.
Excessive idealization has eliminated
the warm human heart from our idea Of
him and has left in place of the real
Washington a sort of alabaster image or
only steel engraving. This is wrong
both to him and to ourselves, but it seems
to have been inevitable in view of the I'M
deniable greatness and nobility of his
character. His chief fault, so to speak,
was in being too perfect. He was so
high above the ordinary man that hero
worship was bound to strip away all the
natural human traits and leave nothing
but sort Of demigod eXaled on q pedes-
tai to be worshiped from afar off. In
recent years this unfortunate process has
had its natural reaction, and the pious
rhapsodies of Weems have been partly re-
placed by biographies which allow the
lonely hero at least a few human limita-
lions and peecadilloes. 1t is even said
that he hurled strong language at Lee in
the battle of Monmouth, but men are
still writing books to disprove this evil
dence that he could lapse into justifable
human passion. For the present, then,
we must be content with q more or less
defied Washington.
If any man was ever Justly idealized
that man was George Washington. But
for him the country could not have won
Its independence, but for him it could not
have formed its union, and but for him
It could not have set it's new government
Into motion. He alone could bind North
and South together. He embodied the
qualities and virtues which won the ad-
miration of the austere New England
cOlonists as well as of the aristicratic
Virginians. He had the practical knowl-
edge and the rare balance of judgment
which could cope with every emergency
and render justice in every dispute. He
could be eloquent with the Virginians
and devout with the Puritans, and could
command the respect and devotion of all
who came within reach of his unselish
and fascinating character. Modest. gen
erous, just, forceful, fearless, of absolute
integrity, declining all pay for his price
less patriotic services what wonder that
his soldiers offered to crown him king.
or that, after his panied and angry re-
fusal, the nation made him not only its |
President but it's canonized hero forever?
Beyond doubt the greatest of Wash
tngton's many services was rendered az a |
soldier. John Adams and Congress said |
the colonists were free, and there lett the |
matter. Washington and his soldiers |
made the Declaration Of Independence a |
fact, instead of mere assertion. It was
a comparatively small body Of heroes that |
presented freedom and nationality to the |
thirteen colonies. The feats of general |
ship by which Washington achieved this |
end have never been surpassed in the his |
tory Of war.
From the days of his youthful but dan
gerous mission to the French frontier on |
the Ohio, and from the time of his warn |
ings to Braddock, he showed an unusual |
grasp of the art of war. He knew the |
value Of striking quickly as we'll as Grant |
did. Napoleon never struck more swift /
ly or suddenly in his brilliant Italian |
than Washington did on that
Christmas night in 1776 at Trenton. Nor