The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-02-22
GEORGE WASHINGTON

,oesiciai City. state and County Newspaper,
GEORGE WASHINGTON
In American veneration for the supreme figures IN
the nations history. Washington and Lincoln tower
above all others Neither the contemporaries of the one
nor those of the approach either of these sons OF
February in the heroic mold Of their Americansn
They themselves are deadlocked between each other
In their It is impossible to strike comparative
Judgment as to their greatness and to that one sur
passes other in In the role played IN the
nations e Birth tme and the nature Of their parts in
the affairs Of their country will forever separate them
Is types American leaders and Of political idols They
vary In all their elements Of activity Of mentality and
Of social makeup.
When one thinks of washington in the character of
gentleman In whom arstocracy and democracy blended
that is can come to comparison Tor the
democracy Of Lincoln blended with humble birth
and embodied the rugged social epidermis of the
frontier Washington military genius lkened to
Scipio; Lincoln had military glamour or skill and
came no nearer martial fame than almost buresque
service as captain In the Black Hawk Indian war.
washington was surveyor and a business head OF a.
great plantation Lincolns surveying was negligible for
professionally he vastly more lawyer. Both had
real religion and tenderness but the tenderness of Lii
coin far typicaly part of his character than
that Of Washington. Much Of Washington was masked
in austerity. Lincoln just intensely and wholly
oppostely Of an affable type Washington the we'll
OTeeCneS
Cling figure in shabby attire, do not compare either
One would stress the fact that these were con-
trass were it not that they and the same in
the hearts Of their countryen national figures
to be reverenced through all the generations that shall
mark the endurance Of the republic.
It is In their roles that might expect to find
basis for comparison but they rather accentuate the
contrast and set them apart from each other as xedy
as soil and water differentiated Washington was
the founder amid the founders Of the nation Lincoln
the preseryer among the Washington even
handed down the ethics Of international attitude that
would tend to keep the young nation on even keel,
free from the peris of foreign ENHANCEMENT; Lincoln
penned the emancipation proclamation that just as
surely laid another destructive peril and set the ship of
state even keel also.
so the nation to aside days each February
for leaders OF such supreme character that cannot
efface the other the two blend into and both
call sincerest ana devoutest from those
enjoying that political freedom and privilege which
established and the other perpetuated Ten days ago
the nation honored the memory OF the Great Emancpa
tor Now it turns in grateful homage to remember the
Father Of his Country to absorb the inspiration Of his
and his personal and civic virtues and thus clarity
the national SOUL With the great Of the people
this annual contemplation of the fneness the honesty
and the cleanness OF washington privately ana pub
lcly will have that effect The heart Of the nation
beats true the deplorabe apses from recude ypified
In great public scandals spnging out of the venality
Of few men of wealth Of political power are not
the OF its morality rather the outcome Of its
trsfulncss and the abuse Of the national confidence
Historians affect socude the myth and trad
ton have overlad and concealed the real Washington
This will not disturb the millions The people know
their Washington e. they want to know him. They
attribute to him those qualities which they idealiSe
. those of great and good man. He could not tell
e he would not be king; he loved the soil: he loved
peace he feared entansns alliances: he hated tyranny
hs deprecated factonalism; he priced the simple life
above the pomp Of official position 50
Perhaps to no other character history like homage
given few other people who have struggled for free
dom their liberator but Washington in the minds
Of the American people Is more than hberator. The
Revolutionary war might have been won without the
leadership Of Washington but 1t is not at all certain
that without the steadylng influence Of Washington,
the ship Of state could have been launched safely.
In the lengthy annals Of England there is name
held in BY the English the Of Wash
the Germans have no such hero But all these, holding
II common high regard for freedom and the rights Of
man, have claimed share In washington
England has been glad to proclaim Washington an
Englishman. When the news Of the death Of Wash
tngtcn taken the Atlantic, Europe mourncd
And n official report Taeyrand French minister Of
foreign affairs. said:
Ills country now honors his memory with funeral
coremones having lost citizen whose public actions
ma iinnoalnint grandeur In private life living
e11tapls - cossaee, wia1om and unsefshnes; and
ytlnes with hom the dawn d the American revolu-
tan hand vith ho1e natton. hitherto unknown that
te 6lacoa0mg the y1ces q EUROPE which foresaw eli
M G1oky thAt til nation would bestow On humanity
~ 4 governments that would erss,e
fn 4cvm el1ax9cA ~ II social institutions, and
nDW - g h1sot1m q which washington and
1. lss mo1g ~ ~ nor1d i lazse-Trance j
1a 6cra1 1lpeH fen e1tabtu1ned usaees md ~
B q. sl'111 lp l. lsson1 ssuauaEison v'tn thas