THE BUILDER FEBRUARY 1916

THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON

BY HON. W.E.H. LECKEY

On the appointment of Washington, far more than to any other single
circumstance, is due the ultimate success of the American
Revolution. Punctual, methodical, and exact in the highest degree,
he excelled in managing those minute details which are so essential
to the efficiency of an army, and he possessed to an eminent degree
not only the common courage of a soldier, but also that much rarer
form of courage which can endure long-continued suspense, bear the
weight of great responsibility, and encounter the risks of
misrepresentation and unpopularity. For several years, and usually
in the neighborhood of superior forces, he commanded a perpetually
fluctuating army, almost wholly destitute of discipline and respect
for authority, torn by the most violent personal and provincial
jealousies, wretchedly armed, wretchedly clothed, and sometimes in
imminent danger of starvation. Unsupported for the most part by the
population among whom he was quartered, and incessantly thwarted by
the jealousy of Congress, he kept his army together by a
combination of skill, firmness, patience, and judgment which has
rarely been surpassed, and he led it at last to a signal triumph.
In civil as in military life he was preeminent among his
contemporaries for the clearness and soundness of his judgment, for
his perfect moderation and self-control, for the quiet dignity and
the indomitable firmness with which he pursued every path which he
had deliberately chosen. Of all the great men in history he was the
most invariably judicious, and there is scarcely a rash word or
action or judgment recorded of him. Those who knew him well noticed
that he had keen sensibilities and strong passions; but his power
of self-command never failed him, and no act of his public life can
be traced to personal caprice, ambition, or resentment.

In the despondency of long-continued failure, in the elation of
sudden success, at times when his soldiers were deserting by
hundreds and when malignant plots were formed against his
reputation, amid the constant quarrels, rivalries, and jealousies
of his subordinates, in the dark hour of national ingratitude, and
in the midst of the most universal and intoxicating flattery, he
was always the same calm, wise, just, and singleminded man,
pursuing the course which he believed to be right without fear or
favor or fanaticism; equally free from the passions that spring
from interest and from the passions that spring from imagination.
He never acted on the impulse of an absorbing or uncalculating
enthusiasm, and he valued very highly fortune, position, and
reputation; but at the command of duty he was ready to risk and
sacrifice them all. He was, in the highest sense of the words, a
gentleman and a man of honor, and he carried into public life the
severest standard of private morals. It was at first the constant
dread of large sections of the American people that if the old
Government were overthrown they would fall into the hands of
military adventurers and undergo the yoke of military despotism. It
was mainly the transparent integrity of the character of Washington
that dispelled the fear. It was always known by his friends, and it
was soon acknowledged by the whole nation, and by the English
themselves, that in Washington America had found a leader who could
be induced by no earthly motive to tell a falsehood or to break an
engagement or to commit any dishonorable act. Men of this moral
type are happily not rare, and we have all met them in our
experience; but there is scarcely another instance in history of
such a man having reached and maintained the highest position in
the convulsions of civil war and of a great popular agitation.

TO LESSING

You do not know it--nay--for if you knew,
Your soul would burst the bounds of time and space To stand here
crying in the market-place,
Crying to those who know not what they do. 
Of all your country's loving children, you
The best could serve her in her desperate case--
You whom no power could force to aught of base, 
Whose life was but the passion to be true.
Ah, to what end your spirit's high emprise,
Schiller's white flame, Goethe's Olympic calm, 
If after you come men of low surmise,
Men who belie your truth without a qualm,
Who think to enjoy--God's love!--a place in the sun,
With all around black Hell and faith fordone !
--R. R. Morgan.

IN PROPORTION

If there's only one thing that I can say 
That you might be likely to carry away; 
It is, that your Masonry of worth will be 
In proportion as you take it seriously.

MASONRY

It's no "market cart" with the physical fare 
That alike by us all must be won; 
But a vehicle laden with mysteries rare,--
A "chariot of the sun."

