The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-06-13

VA
1776, when affairs looked darkest, and
he had but q handful Of men about
| him as he all but fed before Howe
through New Jersey, he had spoken,
as If in the very pleasantly of daring,
of what he would do should things
come to the worst with him. His
thought turned to those western fast
nesses he knew 80 well, where the
highlands of his own state lay, and he
spoke calmly of desperate venture
thither. Reed" he exclaimed, to one
of his aides, my neck does not feel
as though it was made for halter.
We must retire to Augusta county. in
Virginia, and II overpowered, must
pass the Allegheny mountains"
Faith In His Army.
And when the last movement Of the
war came, 1t was still with the same
feeling that he drew his lines about
CORVALLIS. I'VE may be beaten by
the English" he said; 1T is the
chance of war; but there Is the army
they will never conquer"
1.-THE privates are all generals, but
not soldiers" the gallant Montgomery
had cried, in his hot impatience with
the heady militiamen he was hidden
command; but 1t was not 30 in the
presence of Washington, when once
these men had taken his measure.
They were then rivals in praising
him." the Able Robin declared, fear
4. rrylaD no Gil n
retaining their full confidence in him
after defeats and disgrace.
French Officers Puzzled.
The singular majesty and poise Of
this revolutionary hero struck the
French officers as infinitely more re-
markable than his mastery in the
field and his ascendency in council.
They had looked to find him great in
action, but they had not thought to
see in him a great gentleman, man
after their own kind in grace and
courtesy and tact, and yet 80 lifted
above the manner of courts and draw
ing-rooms by an incommunicable quail
ity of grave sincerity which they were
at q loss how to describe.
No one could tell whether it were
gift of the mind or of the heart. 1t
was certainly only that it constituted
the atmosphere and apotheosis of the
man. The Marquis de Chastellux not
ed. with sort of reverent awe for
this hero not yet turned of fifty, how
perfect a union reigned between his
physical and moral qualities. "One
alone" he declared, will enable you
to judge of all the rest" ut is not
my intention to exaggerate," he said;
81 wish only to express my impress
sion of a perfect whole, which cannot
be the product of enthusiasm, since
the effect of proportion is rather to
diminish the idea of greatness"
Change in Washington's Looks.
Strangers who had noted his ap-
pearance in the earlier years of the
war had remarked the spirit and life
that sat in Washington's eyes; but
when the war was over, and its strain
relaxed, they found those eyes grown
pensive, more attentive than spark
/ ling; steady still, and noble in their
frankness and good feeling, but
touched a little with care, dimmed with
watching
The Prince de Broglie found him
''still as fresh and active as a young
man" in 1882, but thought che must
have been much handsomer three
years ago." for "the gentlemen who
had remained with him during all that
time said that he seemed to have
grown much older.
'Twould have been no marvel had
he. broken under the burden he had
carried, athletic soldier and hardened
campaigner though he was. This is
the seventh year that he has COM
manded the army and that he has
obeyed the congress; more need not
be said" the Marquis de Chastellux
declared, unconsciously uttering a
very bitter gibe against the govern
ment, when he meant only to praise
it's general.
Letters for All.
Such service told the more heavily
upon Washington because he had rem
dered it in silence.
No man among all the Revolution
airy leaders, it is true, had been more
at the desk than he. Letters of COM
mand and persuasion, reports that
carried every detail of the armys life
and hopes in their careful phrases,
orders of urgency and of provident ar
rangement, writings of any and every
sort that might keep the hard war
afoot, he had poured forth incessant-
~ and as if incapable Of fatigue or
encouragement. No one who was I'M
der orders, no man who could lend the
service hand or take turn at coun-
sci, was likely to escape seeing the
commander-in-chief's handwriting oft
en- enough to keep him in mind of his
tireless power to foresee and to d.
rect
A Silent Man.
Washington seemed present in ev-
cry transaction of the war.
And yet always and to every one
he seemed silent man. What he
said and what he wrote never touched
himself. He spoke seldom of motives,