Evening star., 1925-07-04


our sovereign there can be but one
appeal. Such a declaration. coming
from one whose repute was high In
all the Colonies. and who was begin.
ming to speak with the voice of some
thing like authority for the Southern
could not fail to
strengthen the arm and purpose OF
the New Englanders.
The selection of Washington to com.
mand the Continental Armies has. !
think, been too much attributed to his
high military repute and too little to
the fact that he had long taken the
view of a true statesman regarding
the impending crisis. The fact Is that
he had all along seen the struggle as
a continental and national one. He
realized that Massachusetts could not
win alone, nor could New England
In helping to set up the committee OF
in molding the senti
ment of Virginia. in his service as
member of the Continental Congress
the ideal of firm and whole hearted
union of all the Colonies was plainly
fundamental. Repeatedly. in his writ
ings, even long before the struggle
had seriously suggested the possibil.
ity OF war, he used the phrase, "our
country" giving it an application
vastly broader than the domain or
concerns of any single Colony. He
was among the first to see the vision
of an American Nation. No other
man so early grasped certain phys.
ical and geographic arguments which
urged nationality as inevitable.
Had Learned Country.
In this. his engineering training, to-
gether with his intimate knowledge
of the topography of the Ohio and Pc.
tomac Valleys, had an important part
AS young surveyor he realized the
of that break through the
Allegheny system which these two
valleys mark. Many years later he
pointed out its strategic Importance
in connection with the defense and
unity of the Colonies fronting the At.
lantic. Before the Ohio was much
more than myth to most people
even in Virginia, Washington saw
that the Ohio basin must be con
trolled by the Colonies If they were
to he secure
Thus 1t was that a complete and
clear vision of all the arguments for
national unity was due to the MANY.
sidedness Of the Washington mind
be saw 1t as politician, as statesman,
as military man, as engineer. With.
out such a grasp of all the elements
he could not have taken the states.
manly and essentially national view
of the problem before hostilities be.
gan. Nor could he have dealt effec.
lively with It's military aspects during
the war. He possessed one of those
rarely endowed minds which not only
recognize all the factors, but assign
to each It's proper weight
lie was In truth a consummate poli.
tlcian When he went to the sittings
or the Continental Congress, wearing
his Virginia uniform of buff and blue
some were inclined to ridicule the dis
play OF military prediction. They
accused him of swashbuckling, and
pointed to his uniform as equivalent
to announcement of his candidacy for
commander-in-chief. In the first, they
were utterly wrong; in the second
quite probably right. That uniform
when he presided over the commit.
tees on military preparation, could
hardly have been construed as mean.
Ing anything other than its wearer
realized what was ahead and was will.
ing to force some part of that realiza-
ton on others.
Compares With Adams.
L suppose if we were to pick any
two men out of that gathering, to be
set down as something other than
politicians, Washington and sturdy old
John Adams would be well toward the
top In the polling. Though they ap.
preached the matter from utterly diff.
ferent angles, they were both led by
the sagacity of great politicians to
the same conclusion. To both, the
crisis was essentially national. A
nation must be created to deal with il.
The army before Boston must be
taken over by the Congress as a ma.
tional army. There must be a com.
mander-in-chief, supreme in the mill.
tary field. All this we look back upon
as illumined craftsmanship. But states.
is nothing more than good
sound politics, tested and proved. That
is what 1t was when John Adams con.
cefved the great strategy of calling a
man of the South to the chief com.
mand. A more provincial man might
have dreamed of Massachusetts,, aided
by the other Colonies, taking and hold
Ing the lead and garnering the lions
share of glory. But Adams was
planning in terms of nation, not of
and Washington had for
years been writing of "our country"
So Washington put on his uniform in
testimony of his readiness for what
ever might happen, and Adams. after
some period of misgivings, set about
the delegates from New
England and the middle Colonies that
there must be nation, and a ma
-ional army, with a commander in
chief, and that must be Washington.
1t was a stroke of political genius
that Adams, soul of Puritanic ideal.
sm, should have moved the adoption
Of the army by Congress and the
selection Of Washington as comman-
1er-in-chief. The selection was made
without a dissenting vote, though it is
not true to say that Washington was
preferred. Already there
we're clashing ambitions and divergent
interests. But Adams saw,
and made others see, the peculiar
reasons that urged Washington. The
middle Colonies, dominated by their
anded aristocracies, had much in COM
non with the social and economic
system of the South. To them Wash
ngton meant the enlistment of prop
erty, substance and eminent respec-
liability. In presenting his name to
he Congress, Adams described him in
terms which seem prophetic, and on
which we can hardly improve: "a
gentleman. whose skill and experience
as an officer. whose Independent for
tune, great talents and excellent uni
versal character would command the
appreciation of all America and unite
the cordial exertions of all the Colo
MES better than any other person in
the Union"
Let it be set down to the glory of
that John Adams made
George Washington commander-in-
chief Of the Continental Armies and
John Marshall Chief Justice of the
United States. Destiny could have
done no more.
Took Over Army.
Immediately after his selection
set out from Philadelphia
for Boston. On the way he received
first tidings of the battle of Bunker
Hill. which had been fought two days