The Washington herald., 1913-02-01
The Story Of
HEM The First President IA
fk&M3A) By k&aY) u
-. W. The President-Elec W. ,,,,
WOODROW WILSON'S
A Life Of Washington -
New Ensands Congress Surprised Capacity and Bearing the
Men from Virginia Washington Does Not Figure
Among the Leaders, He Coune-He Investigates the


,co,vyiebt lsss by Harper Bros. All rights re-
seryed.l
tcOrr-,sb+ 1911, by Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.l
NO. "a.
The high bearing and capacity Of the
Southern delegates came upon the New
England men like a great surprise;
where they had expected to see rustic
sauires they found men of elegance and
Learning
But there was. in fact, no good rea-
son TO wonder at the natural leader
shin of these men. Their life had bred
them more literally than others. 1t
required a much more various capacity
and knowledge of the world to admin
lister a great property and live the life
OF a local magnate in the South than
sufficed to put a man at the 'front.' OF
trade or OF legal practice in Boston or
New York or Philadelphia. -s.-.'E
The Southern colonies, besides. had
lived more in sympathy with the life
of the empire than had their Northern
neighbors Their life had depended di-
rectly upon that of England 'hitho(to.
and had psrtaken of 1t with a constant
zest They had no rival trade; they
had wanted no rival government The
general air of the wide empire had
blown in all ordinary seasons through
their affairs, and they had cultivated
none of that shrewd antagonism to-
wards the home government which had
so sharpened the wits and narrowed
the political interests OF the best men
in New England.
Reasons for NirGfniR's Primary:
They had read law because they were
men of business without caring too
much about its niceties or meaning TO
M in HtiPa They had road
their English history without feeling
that they were separate from it. Their
passion for freedom was born not of
local feeling so much as of personal
pride and the spirit of those who love
old practices and the just exemptions
of an ancient constitution.
1t was the life they had lived, and
the conceptions Of personal dignity and
Immemorial privilege that had gone al
ways with it, that gave them so strik-
ing an air OF mastery. 1t was not sim
ply because the Massachusetts, dele
gates kept themselves prudently in the
background and the rest yielded to her
pretensions that Virginia was accorded
primacy in the congress: il was also
because her representatives were men
TO whom power naturally fell, and be-
cause she had won so honorable a place
OF leadership already in the common
affairs OF the continent
Washington Not n Leader.
Col. Washington. striking and fOrceabIe
man though he was. did not figure as
leader among the Virginian delegates.
Peyton Randolph was elected president
Of the congress; Richard Henry Lee and
Patrick Henry stood forth as the Vir-
gilman leaders on the floor.
''It you speak of solid information and
sound judgment, Col Washington is un-
questionably the greatest man on that
floor was Henry's confident and gen.
erous verdict: but Washington was no
politician. and did not stand in exactly
the same class with thk rest
He had headed committees and presided
over popular meetings among his own
neighbors in Fairfax, and had been
prompt to join them In speaking with
high spirit against the course of the
ministry in England He had been for
ward in urging and punctilliously careful
in praCtiCinE nOn-importation. He had
declared Cages conduct in Boston more
becoming a Turkish bashaw than an
English governor
Deeds and Not Words
But he was a man Of action rather
than of parliament. Il will raise one
thousand men. enlist them at my own
expense, and march myself at their head
impetuous utterance in the Virginian
convention-''the most eloquent speech
that ever was made Mr. Lynch de-
ciared. Il have heard lie said" reported
an admirinS Philadelphian-'T have heard
he said he wished TO God the liberties of
America were to be determined by a
single combat between himself and
George"
But his fellow Virginians understood
him hesfar They had .hnSap i'm,
force and sobriety; not as an orator.
but as the first soldier and one of the
first characters of the commonwealth:
and he had made the impression they
expected.
Not n Committee Man.
He had not been put upon their COM
mittee of correspondence, or been APP
pointed with Nicholas and PendletOn
and Lee and Henry to draw resolutions
and remonstrances; but when It came to
choosing those who should represent the
Old Dominion I'm the congress. but two
names stood before his in the vote.
Peyton Randolph, l04; Richard Henry
Lee, 100; George Washington. Is: Patrick
Henry. So: Richard Bland 70: Benjamin
Harrison. IS: Edmund PendletOn. 62-such
had been the preference of the conven-
ton.
Admired by Northerncrs.
The Northern delegates admired his
easy, soldier-like air and gesture and
his modest and cool but determined
style and accent when he spoke: and
wondered to see him look scarce forty.
when they recalled how his name had
gone through the colonies twenty years
ago. when he had met the French so
calamity at Great Meadows, and with
Braddock at the forks of the Ohio.
The Massachusetts delegates had rea-