Part 2

GEORGE WASHINGTON John Hall Ingham HISTORICAL MEMORABILIA OF WASHINGTON H.B. Carrington A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF WASHINGTON Henry Mitchell MacCracken THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON Daniel Webster MOUNT VERNON, THE HOME OF WASHINGTON William Day THE UNSELFISHNESS OF WASHINGTON Robert Treat Paine THE GENIUS OF WASHINGTON Edwin P. Whipple WASHINGTON'S SERVICE TO EDUCATION Charles W.E. Chapin ADDRESS AT THE DEDICATION OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT John W. Daniel THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON Henry Cabot Lodge

IX ANECDOTES AND STORIES

ANECDOTES OF WASHINGTON THE ABUSE OF WASHINGTON Thomas Wentworth Higginson PROVIDENTIAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON Irving Allen CHARACTERISTICS OF WASHINGTON GREAT GEORGE WASHINGTON Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith HEADQUARTERS IN 1776 Paul Leicester Ford

X SELECTIONS FROM WASHINGTON'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS

SELECTIONS FROM THE RULES OF CIVILITY SAID BY WASHINGTON WASHINGTON BEFORE THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND, AUGUST, 1776 FROM VARIOUS LETTERS, SPEECHES, AND ADDRESSES WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL TO THE ARMY PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RESPONSE TO THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR ON RECEIPT OF THE COLORS OF FRANCE, 1769 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS

XI EXERCISES

DECORATIONS FOR WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY EXERCISES SOME YEARS IN WASHINGTON'S LIFE M. Lizzie Stanley SOMETHING BETTER Clara J. Denton THE STATES CROWNING WASHINGTON Kate Bowles Sherwood THE NEW GEORGE WASHINGTON Anonymous IN PRAISE OF WASHINGTON

INTRODUCTION

A good deal of American history was once violently distorted by the partisanship of the eighteenth century, frozen solid by its icy formalism, and left thus for the edification of succeeding generations. For example, it was not until 1868 that Franklin's Autobiography was by accident given to the world in the simple natural style in which he wrote it. The book had been "edited" by Franklin's loyalist grandson, and had been cut and tortured into the pompous, stilted periods that were supposed to befit the dignity of so important a personage. When John Bigelow published the original with all its naïveté and homely turns of phrases and suppressed passages, he shed a flood of light upon Benjamin Franklin.

But not such a flood as has still more recently been shed upon our struggle for independence, and the hero who led it.

Mr. Sydney George Fisher has shown how the history of the Revolution has been garbled by the historians into the story of a struggle between a villainous monster on the one hand, and a virtuous fairy on the other: He has shown how a period that is said to have changed the thought of the world like the epochs of Socrates, of Christ, of the Reformation, and of the French Revolution, has been described in a series of "able rhetorical efforts, enlarged Fourth-of-July orations, or pleasing literary essays on selected phases of the contest." These writers have ignored the fearful struggle of the patriots with the loyalists, the early leniency of England as expressed in the conduct of General Howe, the Clinton-Cornwallis controversy, and many other important subjects. In short, their design was--as Mr. Wister has happily put it, "to leave out any facts which spoil the political picture of the Revolution they chose to paint for our edification; a ferocious, blood-shot tyrant on the one side, and on the other a compact band of 'Fathers,' downtrodden and martyred, yet with impeccable linen and bland legs."

In view of this state of affairs, it is not strange that Washington should have shared in the general misrepresentation. Like Franklin's, his writings, too, were altered by villainous editors. In his letters, for example, such a natural phrase as "one hundred thousand dollars will be but a flea-bite" was changed to "one hundred thousand dollars will be totally inadequate."

The editors were aided in their refrigerating enterprise by a throng of partisan biographers, first among whom was the Rev. Mr. Weems, that arch-manipulator of facts for moral purposes. They were helped also by many of our old sculptors and painters, who were evidently more concerned to portray a grand American hero in a wig than to give us a real man of flesh and blood.

"By such devices," writes Owen Wister, "was a frozen image of George Washington held up for Americans to admire, rigid with congealed virtue, ungenial, unreal, to whom from our school-days up we have been paying a sincere and respectful regard, but a regard without interest, sympathy, heart--or, indeed, belief. It thrills a true American to the marrow to learn at last that this far-off figure, this George Washington, this man of patriotic splendor, the captain and savior of our Revolution, the self-sacrificing and devoted President, was a man also with a hearty laugh, with a love of the theater, with a white-hot temper ... a constant sportsman, fox-hunter, and host...."

"The unfreezing of Washington was begun by Irving, but was in that day a venture so new and startling, that Irving, gentleman and scholar, went at it gingerly and with many inferential deprecations. His hand, however, first broke the ice, and to-day we can see the live and human Washington, full length. He does not lose an inch by it, and we gain a progenitor of flesh and blood."

Since Irving the thawing process has been carried on with growing success by such able biographers as Lodge and Scudder, Hapgood and Ford, Woodrow Wilson, Owen Wister, and Frederick Trevor Hill.

As yet this new idea of Washington's essential humanity has seemed too novel and startling to make its way deep into the popular conviction. I say "new idea." In reality it is a very old idea; only it has been smothered by the partisan writers of history and biography. Certainly the accounts of the first celebrations of Washington's Birthday do not sound as though our ancestors were trying to work up their enthusiasm over a steel-engraving hero.

"It was the most natural thing," writes Walsh, "for our forefathers to choose Washington's Birthday as a time for general thanksgiving and rejoicing, and it is interesting to note that the observance was not delayed until after the death of Washington. Washington had the satisfaction of receiving the congratulations of his fellow-citizens many times upon the return of his birthday, frequently being a guest at the banquets given in honor of the occasion. In fact, after the Revolution, Washington's Birthday practically took the place of the birthday of the various crowned heads of Great Britain, which had always been celebrated with enthusiasm during colonial times. When independence was established, all these royal birthdays were cast aside, and the birthday of Washington naturally became one of the most conspicuous in the calendar of America's holidays.

"It may be interesting at this time to look back upon those early days of the republic and see how the newly liberated citizens attested their admiration for their great general and the first President of their country. But the people did not wait until Washington was raised to the highest position his country could give him before honoring his birthday.

"The first recorded mention of the celebration is said to be the one in The Virginia Gazette or The American Advertiser of Richmond: 'Tuesday last being the birthday of his Excellency, General Washington, our illustrious Commander-in-Chief, the same was commemorated here with the utmost demonstrations of joy.' The day thus celebrated was February 11, 1782, the Old Style in the calendar not having then been everywhere and for every purpose abandoned. Indeed, the stone placed as late as in 1815 on the site of his birthplace in Westmoreland County, Virginia, had the following inscription: 'Here, the 11th of February, 1732, George Washington was born.'

"Twelve months later the 11th was commemorated at Talbot Court-House in Maryland. On the same day a number of gentlemen met in a tavern in New York. One had written an ode. Another brought a list of toasts. All, before they went reeling and singing home, agreed to assemble in future on the same anniversary and make merry over the birth of Washington.

"Next year they had an ampler opportunity. In the previous October the British troops had evacuated New York City, which was gradually recovering from the distresses of the long war. The demonstrations were not very elaborate, but they were intensely patriotic. In a newspaper of February 17, 1784, we find an interesting account of this first public celebration in New York:

"'Wednesday last being the birthday of his Excellency, General Washington, the same was celebrated here by all the true friends of American Independence and Constitutional Liberty with that hilarity and manly decorum ever attendant on the Sons of Freedom. In the evening an entertainment was given on board the East India ship in this harbor to a very brilliant and respectable company, and a discharge of thirteen cannon was fired on this joyful occasion.'

"A club called a 'Select Club of Whigs' assembled in New York on the evening of February 11, and a brief account of the proceedings at its meeting was sent to the New York Gazette, with an amusing song, written, it was stated, especially for this occasion. The following stanzas will serve as a sample of this effusion of poetical patriotism:

Americans, rejoice; While songs employ the voice, Let trumpets sound. The thirteen stripes display In flags and streamers gay, 'Tis Washington's Birthday, Let joy abound.

Long may he live to see This land of liberty Flourish in peace; Long may he live to prove A grateful people's love And late to heaven remove, Where joys ne'er cease.

Fill the glass to the brink, Washington's health we'll drink, 'Tis his birthday. Glorious deeds he has done, By him our cause is won, Long live great Washington! Huzza! Huzza!

"The following is also an interesting example of newspaper editorial patriotism which appeared in the New York Gazette at the same time: 'After the Almighty Author of our existence and happiness, to whom, as a people, are we under the greatest obligations? I know you will answer "To Washington." That great, that gloriously disinterested man has, without the idea of pecuniary reward, on the contrary, much to his private danger, borne the greatest and most distinguished part in our political salvation. He is now retired from public service, with, I trust, the approbation of God, his country, and his own heart. But shall we forget him? No; rather let our hearts cease to beat than an ungrateful forgetfulness shall sully the part any of us have taken in the redemption of our country. On this day, the hero enters into the fifty-third year of his age. Shall such a day pass unnoticed? No; let a temperate manifestation of joy express the sense we have of the blessings that arose upon America on that day which gave birth to Washington. Let us call our children around us and tell them the many blessings they owe to him and to those illustrious characters who have assisted him in the great work of the emancipation of our country, and urge them by such examples to transmit the delights of freedom and independence to their posterity.'