Pocahontas star herald., 1910-02-18
George Washington

eAudusIeu Jnelf com Dlned riches up.
on the successful leader of the
American revolution and the found
er of the American republic-our
first great national hero.
Every great crisis IN the history
of the world has found its man to
control and guide, it. Call this
Providence or accident, the Ameri-
can revolution was no exception to
1t. Before the first murmurs Of
discomfort were heard in that strug-
gle the man was being prepared for
the crisis. On the banks of the
Potomac and the Rappahannock,
thirty years before Lexington and
Bunker Hill, a truthful and manly
boy was growing up, rlpening into
stalwart young manhood. With
only the common school education
in the broader school of nature and
experience, in the great forest, un-
der the open heavens, with his sur
yeyor'a chain and his sword, in
Indian wars, defending the frontier
settlements from savage incursions.
Growing still apace, the manly
young Virginian is soon the leading
spirit and military commander of
all that Potomac region, and his.
skill, endurance and courage in those
campaigns swell the measure of his
fame. Then with his peace, the
young commander lays aside the
sword, marries and settles upon his
inherited country seat at Mt. Yer
on and like bis ancestors is now a
rich landed proprietor, Virginian
farmer and planter and country
gentleman. So he might have re-
mained to the end, had not the
voice of patriotism called him to
take part with his neighbors and
the oppressed people of the colonies
against the tyranny of the mother
country. Washington sat with
Jefferson and Richard Henry Lee
and Mason and Pendleton, colles-
CUES to that first continental con-
gress at Philadelphia.
The guns of Lexington crack,
and their far echoes reach the pa
triot congress at Philadelphia.
They walked the colonies to action,
1t had been debate and petition and
remonstrance before-it was war,
war for liberty now. Twenty
thousand patriot cOlonists had clos
ed in upon the retreating British in
Boston. Who should this leader
be? The hour found the man, and
and out there stepped from the Vir-
ginia delegation and advanced to
the bar of the house to accept his
great trust, this modest frontier
colo mel, legislator and planter
tall, imposing and commanding in
appearance, his fine form made
athletic and sinewy by long, manly
exercise; his judgment ripened by
experience in war and peace-the
very ideal picture of the hero which
the crisis demanded George Wash.
ington, the MAN.
Aside from all questions OF sue
cess or failure, as we look at the
man, what was it that made Wash
ingtou great? 1t is clear that it was
not the possession of great or bril-
liant intellectual faculties. Not in
congress or convention, nor as
speaker, writer or even soldier.
were these displayed. Other men
have excelled him in all these ways,
but in a word, it was manhood; ltI
was character; 1T was moral great
ness. 1t was that nice adjustment
of the moral and intellectual facul.
ties, that perfect blending of parts,
that lofty sense of duty in the per.
formance of every trust, that spot.
less truth, that stainless honor,
that incorruptlble integrity, that
faultless courage and unshaken en-
durance-all these and more that
made up that consummate piece of
manhood which howered out in
that eighteenth century of time and
which is now evermore the priceless