The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-22
Tur pAY or ,.wAsHrNGroN.

t Today is rcd letter--or rather red figure--day on American caienders. One hundred and seventy -four years ago kindly fate gave to the American colonies the Noses who was to lead the people from a condition of subjection to political and religious liberty, and of whom a great poet spoke as
 s:--one. the first, the last. the best. The Cincinnatus of the West
 Whom Envy dared not hate
 and who was to stand in future ages as an example of unflinching courage, unwaVering patriotism and unseifish devotion to duty which would cause him to serve as a model to soldiers. citizens and statesmen for all time. So much has been said and written of Washington, that nothing new can be said. yet 1t is we'll that once in each year we can. for brief day, devote a little time to honoring a name which shed so much glory on america and on the American people, Whether we think of him as the fearless young surveyor penetrating the. savage wilds of new country. or as the still young follower of the ill-fated Braddock, or as the leader of the Continental armies. or as the calm and judicial ruler of 2 young nation which he had done so much to deliver from thralldom. we must look on him as the same Wash iDgton.
 In the dark days when success seem- x.4- little more than helpless skeleton at Valley Forge. his courage and faith upheld him. In the supreme hour of victory when the sword of Cornwallis was laid down and England was de- feated. he was too noble to exult over a fallen foe, as he had been too brave l to give up even when fate herself seemed .analterabiy fixed against him.
 Doubtless there have been greater military men than Washington. just as there have been greater statesmen, but in no one man of whom history tells, has there been a man who combined within himself so many of the qualities (which were needed at the time and for the occasion. Can we wonder at the belief that God Himself called him to Head the American people out of dark ness and to lay the superstructure of a great nation and free people? What the colonies and the American people would have done if there had been no Washington can only be conjectured. IL is enough to know that he was there and ready when his countrymen needed him. and when a new nation, feeble though it was. emerged from colonial dependence and raised the flag of in- dependence. he was there to make good the designs of the sponsors of the
 fend the new flag with alfthat was in him to give. What of effort and prt- vation and hardship" it meant to him were all laid aside and subm erged in the one desire and determination to win freedom for the colonies CT die in the attempt.
 We have sometimes wondered what
 would have been the result if the chief lcommand of the armies had been given
 to some one of the other generals who
 served with him. There were others
 who were as brave and p4triotic as he
 as devoted to the great. cause as he
 was, and as ready to sacrifice them-
 selves in that cause, but in no one was
 combined all those qualities without
 which independence could not have
 been assured. a.T
 But such speculations are idle be- lcause it Is impossible to say what might have been. We know what act
 ually came about, and we know that all the people of the country, regardless of sect or nation, of religion or poli- tics, may well afford to turn aside for
 a few brief hours from their daily oc- equations and give thought to him who well deserved and nobly wore the title
 of Father of his Country.
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