The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-02-23
Washington The Soldier

washington Ile OUluitl
At the age of SO Washington said
of war: My first wish is to see
this plague of mankind banished
from off the earth" Less than two
wears before he had made his fare
we'll to the army he commanded for
more than eight years, resigned his
commission, and been translated to
private life," to use his own express
sion. OF the horrors of war as the
! world has since known them Wash
! ington had no conception. He could
never have dreamed of such car
mage as mankind has witnessed III
! the great war $50 years later, nor
would he have believed in a time
when civilized men would fight in
! armies of millions with more than
! the craft and cruelty of savages.
/ The soldiers profession attracted
| Washington in his youth. War
might be glorious. The age was still
! heroic. My inclinations," he wrote
at the age of %, ARE strongly bent
! to arms" In his French and Indian
campaigns he delighted in the shock
! of conflict and its hazards. OF his
! experience III Il lie WI Otc.
Il heard the bullets whistle, and, be-
| lieve me, there is something charm
| ing in the sound" He was proud of
! the four balls that passed through
his coat and that two horses were
| killed under him when he served
| without glory, but also without fear,
| under Braddock.
If Washington was not 1.-The BRAY
est of the brave" as Ney was de-
! scribed to be, he was intrepid and
even rash in action, exposing him
self too much for the comfort of his
officers. They dealt with man full
of choler when they demonstrated
with him. Sir. had you better not
step back a little?" ventured Col
onel Cobb at the siege of Yorktown.
But all the Colonel got for his con-
cern was: Colonel Cobb. if you are
| afraid you have liberty to step back. y
| Cowardice, in the Generals view,was
| a weakness never to be excused. In
| fact, he could not understand it. No
/ one will ever paint-yet it would
make a spirited picture if patriotism
could stand 1.-THE behavior of Cen
eral Washington when he rode
among the flying New Englanders,
who broke as the British landed on
Manhattan, when he struck at Off
| GERS with his cane, damned them
! for cowardly rascals," and beat the
running soldiers with the fiat of his
sword, until in his paroxysm he was
near capture by the enemy, from
whom he was saved by one of his
aids snatching at his bride and
! swinging his horse around. And at
| Monmouth how furiously he swore
when Lees troops began to retreat.
| No American commander ever had
| greater scorn for the craven, or
heaped expletives upon him with
freer use of robust adjective.
A soldier is a soldier in any age.
| To imagine Washington living today
! is to see him as stern disciplinar-
i ian as Joffre or Haig or Pershing,
and just as determined that official
rank should not be obtained by in
fiuence, that the incompetent must
be weeded out. Humane as the Cen
eral was, he once erected gallows
| forty feet high to encourage his
militiamen to stay with their COM
mands. He aogged deserters and
looters. and ached Go 10 4 sfta LIS ssis'
own hand, which was big and sinewy.
He broke" Colonels right and left.
II will not" he declared, have any
gentleman introduced from family
connection or local attachments to
the prejudice of the service" A
| family name had as little influence
with him as with Kitchener. Wash
ington found the militia as rule a
poor lot, either as soldiers or patri-
OTIS. The dependence" he wrote,
which the Congress have placed up
on the militia has already greatly in
| jured, and 1 fear will totally ruin,
our cause" George Washington,
living in these tragic times, would
have stood with Senator Chamber
lain in his advocacy of a well-trained
regular army, in his opposition to a
volunteering system to fill our ar
mics.
What the Father of the Country
would have thought of destructive
criticism in the great war may be
judged by his reply to those who in
dulged in political complaint about
his leadership: Il can assure these
gentlemen that it is much easier
and less distressing thing to draw
remonstrances in a comfortable
room by a good fireside than to oc-
cupy a cold, bleak hill and sleep un-
der frost and snow, without clothes
or blankets At the same time
! Washington did not have a very high
opinion of the quarternasters and
commissaries of his day. If he had
had control of the supply of troops,
there would have been no rags and
no meagre rations.
| AS commander in such a campaign
as that now being conducted in
France, Washington would some
times follow Fabian policies, nib
bling" as Joffre would say, and at
other times he would be found strik-
ing hard although it must be ad-
mitted that he deferred too much to
war councils of officers. The Revo-
! lutionary conflict he held to be "a
war of posts" He said, as the war
went on, Il am well convinced my
self that the enemy long ere this are
perfectly well satisfied that the pos
session of our towns while we have
an army in the field will avail them
little Yet if he could be accused
of Fabian tactics, Washington could
take the offensive vigorously, as at
Princeton and Trenton, and again
at Germantown. There is one thing
we can be sure of-that in war to
save democracy he would be as
stout hearted as Clemenceau, as in
| flexible as I1oyd George as ObSti-