Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1908-03-14
WASHINGTON
AS He Was, Scars and All, Paint
ed BY n Loyal Con-
temporary.
Founder of Democracy Is the
Author of the Word
Picture.
One Man That All the World
Might Take Pattern
After.
JUSTICE WAS MOST INFLEXIBLE

Every American boy and girl looks
upon Washington as a hero. So he
was, but many see him only in the
glamour of history. Not all of them
have read of him as he was spoken
of by his contemporaries and fellow
patriots. Thomas jefferson, one of
his colleagues in the fight for Amer
ica's independence, and who, like
Washington, became President, who
really founded the doctrine of
Democracy in the United Safes, had
this to say of the illustrious founder
of our country:
81 think l knew Gen. Washington
intimately and thoroughly, and were
l called on TO delineate his character
it should be in terms like these: His
mind was great and powerful, with
out being of the very first order; his
penetration strong, though not so
acute as that of Newton, Bacon or
Locke; and as far as he saw, no
Judgment was ever sounder. 1t was
slow in operation, being little aided
by invention or Imagination, but sure
in conclusion.
"He was incapable of fear, meeting
personal danger with the calmest
unconcern. Perhaps the strongest
feature in his character was pru-
dence; never acting until every cir
cumstance, every consideration, was
maturely weighed; refraining if he
saw a doubt, but when once decided
going through with his purpose, what
ever obstacles opposed. His integrity
was most pure, his justice the most
hnfleXible | liave ever known, no
motives of interest or consanguinity,
of friendship or hatred, being able to
bias his decision.
"His heart was not warm in its
affections, but he exactly calculated
every mans value and gave him a
solid esteem proportional to 1t. His
person, you know, was fine, his
stature exactly what one could wish;
his department easy, erect and noble;
the best horseman of his age, and
the most graceful figure that could
be seen on horseback. Although in
the circle of his friends, where he
might be unreserved with safety, he
took free share in the conversation,
his colloquial talents were not above
mediocrity, possessing neither copi-
BUSINESS of ideas nor fluency of
words. In public, when called on
for a sudden opinion he was unready,
short and embarrassed. Yet he wrote
readily, rather diffusely, in an easy
and correct style. This me had ac-
quired by conversation with the
world, for his education was merely
reading, writing and common arith-
metic, to which he added surveying
at later day.
"On the whole his character was
in its mass perfect--in nothing bad,
in few points indifferent--and it may
be truly said that never did nature
and fortune combine more perfectly
TO make a man great, and to place
him in the same constellation with
whatever worthless have merited from
man an everlasting remembrance.
For his was the singular destiny and
merit of leading the armies of his
country through an ardous war for
the establishment of it's independ-
ence; of conducting its councils
through the birth of a government,
new in its powers and principles,
until it had settled down into quiet
and orderly train; and of
scrupulously obeying the laws
through the whole of his career,
civil and military, of which the his
tory of the world furnishes no other
example"