The Wagner leader. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1912-1912, 1912-02-16
GEORGE WASHINGTON.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.
All over this broad land the 22d of
February-Wa shing tons b~irthday--is
celebrated.
How shall n man add aught to
the praise or enlogy cf George Wash
ington? History and biography. elo.
quence' and poetry have exhausted
their combined riches upon the success
full leader of the American revolu ion
ard the founder Of the American re-
public-our first great national haro.
Every great crisis IN II e history of
the world has found it's an to control
and g Tide it. Call this Providence or
ACCIDENT. the American revolution vas
no exception to it. Before the frs
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 nefore Lexington ano
B unker Hill. a truthful and manly boy
was growing up, ripening into stall
wart young manhood. With only the
common school education of that
early day, the young man was soon be-
ing educated in the broader cchool of
nature and experience, in the great
forest. under the open heavens, with
his surveyors chain and his word, 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, aud his skill, en-
durance and courage in those campaigns
swell the measure of his fame. Then
with his peace, the young commander
lay aide the s word, marries end settles
upon his inherited coun try seat at Mt.
Vernon and ike his ancestors is now a
rich landed proprietor, a Vir ginian
farmer and planter and country gentle
man. So he might have remained to
the end, had NOT the voice of patr OF
ism called him to take part with his
lneignbors and tine oppressed people of
the colonies against the tyranny of the
mother country. Washington sat with
J efferson and Richard Henry Lee and
Mason and Pendleton, colleagues to
that first continental congress at Phil
adelphia.
The guns of Lexington crack, and
their far echoes reach the patriot con-
lgress at Phila lelphia. They waked
the colonies to action. 1t had beer
debate and petition ard remunstrance
before-it was ar, war for liberty
now. twenty thousand patriot con-
sist had closed upon the retreating
B ritish in Boston. Who shouts this
lie ader be? Tie hour found the man,
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 colonel,
Legislator and planter-tall, imposing
and commanding in appearance, his fine
form n a lie q heltic and sinewy by long,
manly exercise; his judgement ripeneo
by experience in war and peace-the
very ideal picture of the hero which
the crisis demanded, George Washing
ton. 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 INTEL
~lectual 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 vas manhood 1t wss
character; it was moral greatness. 1t
was that nice adjustment of the moral
and Intellectual faculties, that perfect
blending Ct parts, that lofty sense of
duty in the performance of every trust
that spotless truth. that stainless
honor, that i~ncorruptible integrity,
that faultless courage aid u~nshhaken
endurce-l cthese and more that made
up that CT nsumate piece of manhoo d
which lowered out in that eighteenth
century of time and which IL now
evermore the priceless possession of
story and glory of. This is the SUI
prelne greatness of Vast ingtor.
SALE AND LEASE NOTICE.