The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-02-28
GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Some one has said that George Wash
ington lived so long ago and has been
discussed so much that nothing more
remains to be said concerning him. If
the people of every generatian differed
in their thought, aspirations, ambitions
and passions from every other genera
ton more consideration might be given
the statement. Since, however, the
public life of cur country has not always
been conducted with that spirit of
patriotic unselishness so characteristic
OF the life and acts of George Washing
ton, and since many people are accus-
toned to lay all personal faults to in
herited disposition, it may be wise for
editors and teachers and public speakers
to keep before our young people, and
older ones, too, man who held his own
passions in check only by the grip of a
cultivated iron will, and who despite the
most insistent calls from his private
business, put it aside for the public
good at time when so doing put him
outside the pale of pardon from the
then most powerful nation upon the
face of the earth, and at time, also
when the chances were almost over
whelmingly against his ultimate success.
1t is well to pause on this the anniver-
sary of his natal day and cast up ac-
counts with ourselves and see if we can
measure up to the high standard to
which he so persistently adhered.
Time softens rugged outlines, and we
are apt to minimize the difficulties which
confronted this man. The restrospec-
tive eyes can now see victory, which to
the soundest judgment then spelled de-
feat. From the illustrations which
have come down to US from our school
histories of the triumphal professions
which greeted the first president of the
United States, the flowers, and songs
and the hearty greetings, and even in
the earlier and darker days of the boat
bearing the soldiers across the lev and
and tempestuous Delaware and the
heroic figure cloaked, erect, with hand
on sword, we get but the glory and the
grandeur without the thought of inter
minable worry and heart ache and in
sinuating figure of dismal failure back
of it all. We forget that in the midst
of the most engrossing and important
constructive public duties he was so
harrassed that in desperation he wrote
to one Of his friends. 81 wish that
might die so as to escape this most bit
ter and unjust criticism. Possibly no
president of the United States since
that time has been so great storm
center or suffered so much from malici-
GUS attacks. Yet through it all there
was the same calm demeanor; the same
resolute purpose.
There are but two notable instances
in the public life of George Washington
when he gave way to the fiery temper
with which he was endowed-onc at
the Battle of Monmouth when repri-
handing General Lee for disgraceful
flight and refusal to obey orders, and
another less well known incident when
all the walls of his wrath was poured
upon the head of John Marshall, who
refused to run for congress from Vir-
ginia, because of private business rea-
sons. Marshall reconsidered his de-
cision, and entered upon that larger
public life which resulted in such happy
effect to our nation.
George Washington was man. sub
ject to the frailtles of mankind. and
lived at a time when the grosser pas
sions Of mankind ran riot, but search
the pages of history and of private cor
respondence in vain for low reference
or note unworthy of private gentle
man or public official
Keeping in mind these splendid quail
ties of the man is it any wonder that
public exercises are held in our schools
on the anniversary of his birth? 1t it
any wonder that though more than a
hundred years have passed since he has
walked upon the earth, his name and
life are yet fruitful source of discus
sion?