The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-07-11

not Hamilton, preferred in the coun'
sells of a Virginia president; was be-
yond measure dismayed to see the
administration already in the hands,
as it seemed, of man just two months
turned of thirty-three. He began ere
long to declare that he had been
"most ignorantly and innocently made
to hold the candle" to the sharp work
of the secretary of the treasury, hav-
ing been "a stranger to the circum-
stances" But it was not the circum-
stances of which he had been ignorant;
it was the effect of what he had done
upon his own wish to play the chief
role in the new government.
When he came to a calm scrutiny
of the matter, he did not like the as
sumption of the state debts, and, what
was more serious for man of politi-
cal ambition, it was bitterly distaste-
full to the very men from whom he
must look to draw a following when
parties should form. He felt that he
had been tricked; he knew that he
had been outrun in the race for lead
ership.
What he did not understand or
know how to reckon with was the
place and purpose of Washington in
the government. Hamilton had been
Washington's aide and confidant when
a lad of twenty, and knew in what way
those must rule who served under
such a chief. He knew that Wash
ington must first be convinced and
won; did not for a moment doubt that
the president held the reins and was
master; was aware that his own plans
had prospered both in the making and
in the adoption because the purpose
they spoke was the purpose Washing
ton most cherished. Washington had
adopted the fiscal measures as his
own; Hamilton's strength consisted in
having his confidence and support.
Washington and Jefferson.
Jefferson had slowly to discover
that leadership in the cabinet was to
be had, not by winning a majority of
the councillors who sat in it, but by
winning Washington. That masterful
man asked counsel upon every ques-
tion of consequence, but took none
his own judgment did not approve.
He had chosen Hamilton because he
knew his views, Jefferson only be-
cause he knew his influence, ability,
and experience in affairs. When he
did test Jefferson's views he found
them less to his liking than he lad ex-
pected.
He had taken Jefferson direct from
France, where for five years he had been
watching a revolution come on apace,
hurried from stage to stage, not by
statesmen who were masters in the
art and practice of freedom, like
those who had presided in the coun-
sells of America, but by demagogues
and philosophers rather; and the sub
tie air of that age of change had crept
into the mans thought. He had come
back a philosophical radical rather
than a statesman. He had yet to
learn. in the practical cir Of America,
what plain and steady policy must
serve him to win hard-headed men to
to his following; and Washington
found him guide who needed watch
ing.
Foreign affairs, over which it was
Jefferson's duty to preside, began OF
a sudden to turn upon the politics of
France, where Jefferson's thought was
so much engaged. The year 1889, in
which America gained self-possession
and set up a government soberly plan
ned to last, was the year in which
France lost self-possession and set out
upon a wild quest for liberty which
was to cost her both her traditional
polity and all the hopes she had of a
new one. In that year broke the
storm of the French revolution.
1t was a dangerous infection that
went abroad from France in those first
days of her ardor. and nowhere was
it more likely to spread than in Amer
lea.
But Washington's vision in affairs
was not obscured. He had not led
revolutionary armies without learn
ing what revolution meant. "The rev.
olution which has been effected in
France he said, sis of so wonderful
a nature that man can hardly real
ize the fact"-his calm tones ringing
strangely amidst the enthusiastic cries
of the time. 81 fear, though it has
gone triumphantly through the first
paroxysm, it is net the last it has to
encounter before matters are finally
settled. The revolution is of too
great ma Snitude to be effected in go
short a space and with the loss of so
little blood
He hoped, but did not believe, that
it would run it's course without fatal
disorders; and he meant, in any case,
to keep America from the infection.
She was herself but Gin a GONZALES
cent state" as he said, after her own
struggle She was too observant still,
Tnoreover Of FurOpean politics and