The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-02-14

fury, there has come a tendency to depreciate the
ability OF the one man who, more than any other,
would naturally be exalted. For a long time it was
held that his fame was furnished because he swore
real oaths at the battle of Monmouth. That was
succeeded by the present epoch. which has chosen
to regard him as a lovable gentleman, with enough
horse sense not to make a fool Of himself and, by
a series Of events over which he had no control,
to become the father of his country.
And yet 1t is doubtful if another character of
the age is more to be admired for its many-sided
exceLencies. AS a man, warrior and statesman.
Washington yields to no figure of his time.
What place Washington held, in his own day,
must now become a matter Of interest. Shortly
after his death, Felix Faulcon voiced the opinion
OF the French parliamentarians when he ad-
dressed the legislative assembly as follows:
THE tomb has claimed him who was the model
Of republican perfection. This is not the time to
trace all this truly great man has accomplished
for the liberties Of America, the generous inspira-
tons which he impaired to the French who were
attracted to his school of arms; the sublime act
which will ever add luster to his memory, when,
after having exerted his talents in giving liberty
to his country, he voluntarily relinquished su-
preme power to conceal his glory in the obscurity
of private life"
Naturally, Napoleon was attracted to the great
general who led an army of rag amufins to VIC
tory, after a long campaign of almost unparalleled
vicissitudes, and whose power was attested by
the fact that none of his general, except Wayne.
accomplished much after they left him. When
the news of his death reached France. the first
consul issued the following order:
Washington is no more! That great man
fought against tyranny. He firmly established the
liberty of his country. His memory will ever be
dear to the French people, as it must be to every
friend of freedom in two worlds, and especially
to the French soldiers, who, like him and the
Americans, bravely fight for liberty and equality.
The first consul, in consequence, orders that, for
ten days, black crepe shall be suspended to all the
| standards and flags of the republic"
At almost the same the Gazette de France said:
Washington is dead! The news in the time
Of the directory it would have been imprudent
to announce. Now, the heart may with conf
dence abandon itself to all the generous emotions
of the soul. and we may dare to weep at the tomb
of a great man. A general funeral service has
been ordered in America, and this will be OBJ
served by the citizens of every nation. No period
has sustained a loss so irreparable as the end of
the eighteenth century"
This concluding sentence may be taken as gen.
orally expressing the estimation in which the
father of his country" was then held. Since
then, with that flash tendency to appreciate high
sounding phrases rather than sound statesman
ship, it has become the fashion rather to exalt
the orators and the writer's, who had secondary
roles, than to accept the verdict of colonial times.
1t is doubly strange, too, that in a country
whose citizenship is rapidly altering, because of
the large and continuous additions from foreign
lands, should have no one great work, not even
an essay, which vitality and vigorously presents
the character of its first great general, statesman
and citizen.
When reading the first presidents letters, 1t
seems strange that his correspondence should
never have excited more attention or study. BY
comparison they are almost unknown when one
considers for example how much attention and
controversy has been directed of late years to
lives and writings OF Hamilton and Burr.
Very strange it is, indeed, that the CORE
spondence of so commanding a character as
hn.IA - a n - any 90 AkA
ninety and more millions OF people who owe their
liberty and prosperity to him. And to the fact