Evening star., 1926-10-14

but he has dug out of oblivion a GER
tain Miss Sally Fairfax to whom the
first President wrote letters when
probably weren't submitted to the CEN
-sorship of Martha Custis. who was
then his fiancee.
One of the letters cited by Mr..
Hughes follows:
You have drawn me, dear madame,
or rather I have drawn myself, into
an honest confession of a simple
fact. Misconstrue not my meaning,
doubt 1t not, nor expose it. The world
has no business to know the object OF
my love, declared in this manner TO
you, when l want to conceal 1t. one
thing above all things in this world
wish to know, and only one person OF
your acquaintance can solve me that,
or guess my meaning. But adieu 10
this till happier times, If l ever shall
see them. The hours at present are
melancholy dull. Neither the rugged
tolls of war, nor the gentler conflict
Of A B-s (assembly ballsO is
in my choice. / dare believe you are
as happy as you say. l wish was
happy also. Mirth, good humor, ease
of mind and-what else?-cannot lali
to render you so and consuiniiidle
your wishes
Author Interprets Letter.
Interpreting this letter freely, the
biographer finds vast signiflcance IL
the rounded period of the letter. lie
says:
Not the least astounding puzzle III
this letter is the motive Tor Wr.'.i,s
1t at all in the circumstances. let the
motive is perhaps the nnest thilis
about it and reveals his nerce nu,
manity. against which he always
fought, conquering him at the time oi
all times when it should nave oeeHi
most repressed.
"He loved Sally. He was going 10
marry Martha. Sally mocked hlm'
perhaps with deep hurt beneatn neI
raillery. She may well have lmplleo
that he could not really love anyDody.
This was the ultimate unbearabie
accusation. His love asserted ltselI
with volcanic fire. He had to tell her
that he loved her. She had the rlgnt
to know it. She must know it. lie
was like a mad Samson trying to
bind himself in discretion.
"It is the suppression, the edltlng
and the destruction of such letters
that have led people to describe WASH
ington as q silent man, a cold man,
man under almost perfect self-controi
"He Did Love-"
"But he could love. He did love-.
"There were numbers of people that
knew he had loved Sally Fairfax for
q long time.
"She kept that love hopeless, either
because she did not love him at all
or because she did not love him well
enough to destroy him and herself
and the home of her admirable hus-
band.
I'm spite of his infatuation for her,
Washington had made a try for the
hand of Mary Philipse, who had
81 ,000-odd acres coming to her-which
lin those days when a woman lost
her legal integrity on marriage) meant
coming to her husband.
"By a strange coincidence Martha
Custis also had acres; not so mdny
as Miss Philipse, but more than any
other eligible woman in Virginia. She
had inherited about $4,000 acres, much
of the land valuable from its vicinity
to Williamsburg, a number of town
lots, $50 negroes and about 100000
in cash"
Holds Washington UndemOcratic.
Some of the other observations of
Mr.. Hughes on Washington are the
following:
1T Is small wonder that in an at.
mosphere where even religion lacked
democracy George Washington grew
up to regard the common rum as he
called them, with a profound con
tempt that made it impossible for him
in later years to act upon or even to
understand the theory of another Vir
ginian that all men are created free
and equal Washington had bought
too many white men and women to
believe them essentially free.
Liquor of all kinds he loved and
manufactured. imported, gave away
and consumed in vast quantities.
Where Charles Lamb won a bad
name as little sot because anything
over thimblefui went to his head
Washington was always drinking but
never drunk.
Probably nobody ever lived who
accumulated more defeats than Wash
ington. Yet he was never really de
feated
Few men have been purer in in
tention, more bespattered with abuse
and slander and more incapable OF
ignoring them.
His heart was in nothing else sc
simple and unrestrained as in his de
vOtion to children. Jacky and Patsy
GUSTS had perfect love about them. u