The citizen., 1912-02-23
GEORGE WASHINGTON.

All over this broad land the 22nd oi
Februarv-Washington's birthday--is eel
ebrated.
/ How shall any man add aught to the
praise or eulogy OF George Washington?
History and biography. eloquence and
poetry have exhausted their combined
riches upon the successful leader of the
American revolution and the founder of
the great 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 American Revolution was
no exception to the rule. Before the
first murmurS of discomfort were heard
in that struggle the man was. being pre-
pared 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, and ripening into stalwart young
manhood. With only the common school
education of that early day. the young
man was soon being educated in the
broader>School of nature and experience,
in the great forest, and under the open
heavens. with his surveyors chain and
his sword in Indian wars, defending the
frontier settlements from savage incur
sionS.
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 when peace
comes, the young commander laws aside
the sword, marrieS and settles down
upon his inherited county seat at Mt.
Vernon and like his ancestors is now
rich landed proprietor, Virginia farmer
and planter and country gentleman. So
he might have remained to the end had
not the voice Of patriotism called him 10
take part with his ueighbors md the OPP
pressed people OF the colonies against
the tyranny of the mother country.
Washington sat with Jefferson and Rich
ard Henry Lee and Mason and Pendle-
ton. his colleagues to that first Cont
nental Congress at Philadelphia.
/ The guns of Lexington crack. and
their far echoes reach the patriot Con
gress in Philadelphia. They walked the
colonies TO action 1t had been debate
and pc tition and remonstrance before
ii was war, war for liberty now. Twenty
thousand patriot colonists have closed
in upon the retreating British in Boston.
Who should this leader be? The hour
found the man, and out there stepped
from the Virginia delegation aud ad-
ranced to the bar of the house to accept
his great trust, this modest frontier Col
onel, legislator and planter-tall, impos-
ing i'm appearance, his fine form made
4
exercise; his judgment ripened by eX-
perience in war and peaCe-the very
ideal picture of the hero which the crisis
demanded, George Washington, the
MAN
Aside from all questions of success
or failure, as we look at the man. what
was it that made Washington great? 1t
is clear that it was not the possession OF
great or brilliant intellectual faculties.
Not in Congress or convention, nor as a
speaker, writer, or even as a soldier,
weFe these displayed. Other -Ren have
exCelled him in all these ways. but in a
word. it was manhood; it was character;
it was mocal greatness. 1t was that nice
adjustment of the moral and intellectual
faculties, that perfect blending of parts,
that lofty sense of duty in the perform
anCe of every trust that spotless truth,
that stainless honor, that incorrupuble
integrity, that faultless courage and un-
shaken endurance-ail 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 posses
sion and glory of history. This is the
supreme greatness of Washington.