WASHINGTON'S CHARACTER.
Our chronicle of the career of Washington is finished. We have traced
the details of that career, from his birth through all the vicissitudes
of an eventful life of more than sixty years, with conscientious
fidelity to truth and justice.
We have seen him first a generous, truthful boy; and then a handsome,
robust, manly youth, perfectly self-reliant, bearing the implements of a
professional surveyor's vocation through the forests of Virginia, and
gaining that knowledge of woodcraft which afterward proved of essential
service to him.
We have seen him, at the age of twenty-one years, traversing a portion
of the same wilderness and beyond, bearing the commission and
responsibilities of a military officer, and intrusted with service the
most delicate yet most arduous, requiring for its performance the
combined abilities of pioneer, soldier, and diplomat. We have seen him
returning, crowned with success, and receiving the applause of his
countrymen.
We have seen him, a little later, leading a military expedition into
that wilderness, to roll back a wave of French encroachment supported by
deluded savages, and exhibiting the wisdom of a veteran in his marches,
conflicts, and retreats. And, later still, we have seen him wisely
advising a British general how to fight, but to be answered with
contempt. We have seen him left to act upon the principles involved in
that advice, when his commander was laid low, and permitted to save, by
most brave and judicious management, the remnant of the broken army.
We have seen him in other campaigns of that old French and Indian War,
always judicious, brave, and successful, and always evidently
God-protected; and we have seen that devotion to his country rewarded by
the love and admiration of his fellow-men, and the affections and
fortune of one of the loveliest of Virginia's daughters who became his
wife, and was his companion, solace, and joy, during the remaining forty
years of his life.
We have seen him a chosen member of the Virginia house of burgesses year
after year, always remarkable for his wisdom, his patriotism, and his
prudence; always conservative, yet never lagging when a crisis demanded
action--one of the most decisive when reconciliation with the
mother-country was evidently impossible, and a resort to arms absolutely
necessary.
We have seen him at the kindling of that war, a sage and influential
member of the grand national council; and soon afterward called by that
body to the supreme leadership of the armies formed to fight for liberty
and independence. We have seen him so devoted to the high and holy trust
committed to his case, that for more than six years he never crossed the
threshold of his delightful mansion on the Potomac, where he had enjoyed
many long years of connubial happiness, the pleasures of social
intercourse, and the delights of rural pursuits.
We have seen him at the close of a successful seven years' war for
independence, venerated and almost worshipped by a grateful people,
refusing a proffered crown, resigning his commission into the hands of
the power that gave it, and retiring to private life at his own dear
Mount Vernon. And we have seen him in that delightful retreat,
entertaining friends and strangers with the most generous hospitality,
and receiving the homage of the great and the good of all lands.
We have seen him called from that retirement to take the lead in the
formation of a new code of organic laws for the government of the infant
nation in whose nativity he had performed the most conspicuous part; and
then, by the spontaneous voice of the whole people, summoned to the helm
of state under that more perfect form of government which he and his
compatriots had devised. We have seen him as the chief magistrate of
the republic, firm almost beyond precedent in his loyalty to the best
interests of his country, unmoved by the appeals of sympathy, unseduced
by the wiles of politicians, unappalled by the shocks of faction and the
surges of popular commotions. We have seen him leave the cares and
honors of office, even while the nation was imploring him to remain, and
retiring to private life with the blessed assurance of repose and a
serene old age. We have seen him leaving that repose at the call of the
people, and again cheerfully preparing to serve his country, as the
leader of its armies, to repel hostile invasion. And we have seen him go
down into the grave, without any of the infirmities of old age--with
step elastic, eye undimmed, countenance fresh and youthful in
appearance, and intellect unclouded, until the last--leaving to his
countrymen the image of an almost perfect man, in all the beautiful
proportions of mental, moral, and physical vigor, while the world
lamented, and eulogy found him one of its noblest and most suggestive
themes.
It remains for us now to consider his character and his habits of life
in the social relations. Historians, biographers, essayists, and
personal friends, have drawn pictures of that wonderful man (whose
proportions, in comparison of others, grow more colossal every day) with
pencils somewhat partial, perhaps, as is natural, but graphic and
generally truthful. It is not for us, at this remote distance from the
period and theatre of his life, to attempt to delineate him with any
expectation of improving upon these originals. We will be content to
group some of their pictures, in whole and in part, in such a way, that
all knowledge essential to a just appreciation of the _whole_ character
of WASHINGTON may be obtained by the reader who may have followed us in
the long narrative of his public life, recorded on the pages of these
volumes. In making up the group, we shall borrow freely from the
limners, beginning with the graphic outline of one of his most devoted
and well-appreciated personal friends, and his first biographer,
Chief-Justice Marshall.
"His manners were rather reserved than free, though they partook nothing
of that dryness and sternness which accompany reserve when carried to
an extreme; and on all proper occasions he could relax sufficiently to
show how highly he was gratified by the charms of conversation and the
pleasures of society. His person and whole deportment exhibited an
unaffected and indescribable dignity, unmingled with haughtiness, of
which all who approached him were sensible; and the attachment of those
who possessed his friendship and enjoyed his intimacy was ardent, but
always respectful. His temper was humane, benevolent, and conciliatory;
but there was a quickness in his sensibility to anything apparently
offensive, which experience had taught him to watch and to correct.
"In the management of his private affairs he exhibited an exact yet
liberal economy. His funds were not prodigally wasted on capricious and
ill-examined schemes, nor refused to beneficial though costly
improvements. They remained, therefore, competent to that expensive
establishment which his reputation, added to a hospitable temper, had in
some measure imposed upon him, and to those donations which real
distress has a right to claim from opulence. He made no pretensions to
that vivacity which fascinates, or to that wit which dazzles, and
frequently imposes on the understanding. More solid than brilliant,
judgment rather than genius constituted the most prominent feature of
his character. Without making ostentatious professions of religion, he
was a sincere believer in the Christian faith, and a truly devout man.
"As a military man, he was brave, enterprising, and cautious. That
malignity which has sought to strip him of all the higher qualities of a
general, has conceded to him personal courage, and a firmness of
resolution which neither dangers nor difficulty could shake. But candor
will allow him other great and valuable endowments. If his military
course does not abound with splendid achievements, it exhibits a series
of judicious measures adapted to circumstances, which probably saved his
country.
"Placed, without having studied the theory or been taught in the school
of experience the practice of war, at the head of an undisciplined,
ill-organized multitude, which was impatient of the restraints and
unacquainted with the ordinary duties of the camp, without the aid of
officers possessing those lights which the commander-in-chief was yet to
acquire, it would have been a miracle indeed had his conduct been
absolutely faultless. But, possessing an energetic and distinguishing
mind, on which the lessons of experience were never lost, his errors, if
he committed any, were quickly repaired; and those measures which the
state of things rendered most advisable, were seldom if ever neglected.
Inferior to his adversary in the number, the equipment, and in the
discipline of his troops, it is evidence of real merit that no great and
decisive advantages were ever obtained over him; and that the
opportunity to strike an important blow never passed away unused. He has
been termed the American Fabius; but those who compare his actions with
his means, will perceive at least as much of Marcellus as Fabius in his
character. He could not have been more enterprising, without endangering
the cause he defended; nor have put more to hazard, without incurring
justly the imputation of rashness. Not relying upon those chances which
sometimes give a favorable issue to attempts apparently desperate, his
conduct was regulated by calculations made upon the capacities of his
army and the real situation of his country.
"In his civil administration, as in his military career, ample and
repeated proofs were exhibited of that practical good sense, of that
sound judgment, which is perhaps the most rare and is certainly the most
valuable quality of the human mind. Devoting himself to the duties of
his station, and pursuing no object distinct from the public good, he
was accustomed to contemplate at a distance those critical situations in
which the United States might probably be placed; and to digest, before
the occasion required action, the line of conduct which it would be
proper to observe. Taught to distrust first impressions, he sought to
acquire all the information which was attainable, and to hear, without
prejudice, all the reasons which could be urged for or against a
particular measure. His own judgment was suspended until it became
necessary to determine; and his decisions, thus maturely made, were
seldom if ever to be shaken. His conduct therefore was systematic, and
the great objects of his administration were steadily pursued.
"Respecting, as the first magistrate of a free government must ever do,
the real and deliberate sentiments of the people, their gusts of passion
passed over without ruffling the smooth surface of his mind. Trusting to
the reflecting good sense of the nation for approbation and support, he
had the magnanimity to pursue its real interests, in opposition to its
temporary prejudices; and, though far from being regardless of popular
favor, he could never stoop to retain, by deserving to lose it. In more
instances than one, we find him committing his whole popularity to
hazard, and pursuing steadily, in opposition to a torrent that would
have overwhelmed a man of ordinary firmness, that course which had been
dictated by a sense of duty.
"In speculation, he was a real republican, devoted to the constitution
of his country, and to that system of equal political rights on which it
is founded. But between a balanced republic and a democracy the
difference is like that between order and chaos. Real liberty, he
thought, was to be preserved only by preserving the authority of the
laws and maintaining the energy of government. Scarcely did society
present two characters which, in his opinion, less resembled each other,
than a patriot and a demagogue.
"No man has ever appeared upon the theatre of public action whose
integrity was more incorruptible, or whose principles were more
perfectly free from the contaminations of those selfish and unworthy
passions which find their nourishment in the conflicts of party. Having
no views which required concealment, his real and avowed motives were
the same; and his whole correspondence does not furnish a single case
from which even an enemy would infer that he was capable, under any
circumstances, of stooping to the employment of duplicity. No truth can
be uttered with more confidence than that his ends were always upright,
and his means always pure. He exhibits the rare example of a politician
to whom wiles were absolutely unknown, and whose professions to foreign
governments and to his own countrymen were always sincere. In him was
fully exemplified the real distinction which for ever exists between
wisdom and cunning, and the importance as well as truth of the maxim,
'Honesty is the best policy.'
"If Washington possessed ambition, that passion was, in his bosom, so
regulated by principles or controlled by circumstances, that it was
neither vicious nor turbulent. Intrigue was never employed as the means
of its gratification, nor was personal aggrandizement its object. The
various high and important stations to which he was called by the public
voice, were unsought by himself; and, in consenting to fill them, he
seems rather to have yielded to a general conviction that the interests
of his country would be thereby promoted, than to an avidity for power.
"Neither the extraordinary partiality of the American people, the
extravagant praises which were bestowed upon him, nor the inveterate
opposition and malignant calumnies which he encountered, had any visible
influence upon his conduct. The cause is to be looked for in the texture
of his mind. To him, that innate and unassuming modesty which adulation
would have offended, which the voluntary plaudits of millions could not
betray into indiscretion, and which never intruded upon others his
claims to superior consideration, was happily blended with a high and
correct sense of personal dignity, and with a just consciousness of that
respect which is due to station. Without exertion, he could maintain the
happy medium between that arrogance which wounds and that facility which
allows the office to be degraded in the person who fills it.
"It is impossible to contemplate the great events which have occurred in
the United States under the auspices of Washington, without ascribing
them, in some measure, to him. If we ask the causes of the prosperous
issue of a war, against the successful termination of which there were
so many probabilities; of the good which was produced, and the ill which
was avoided, during an administration fated to contend with the
strongest prejudices that a combination of circumstances and of passions
could produce; of the favor of the great mass of his fellow-citizens,
and of the confidence which, to the last moment of his life, they
reposed in him--the answer, so far as these causes may be found in his
character, will furnish a lesson well meriting the attention of those
who are candidates for political fame.
"Endowed by nature with a sound judgment and an accurate, discriminating
mind, he feared not that laborious attention which made him perfectly
master of those subjects, in all their relations, on which he was to
decide. And this essential quality was guided by an unvarying sense of
moral right, which would tolerate the employment only of those means
that would bear the most rigid examination; by a fairness of intention
which neither sought nor required disguise; and by a purity of virtue
which was not only untainted, but unsuspected.
"Washington's character, so perfect in its harmonious combination of the
best and greatest qualities that constitute the true man, has endured
the test of criticism for three quarters of a century; and every time it
passes through the crucible of severe analysis, in the hands of masters,
it appears more perfect than before the ordeal. To this task the best
minds of Europe have brought their keenest powers of research, and the
conclusion is always the same."
"The bold and successful passages of the Delaware, and the surprise of
the Hessians," says one of our most accomplished essayists, "awaked in
Frederick of Prussia the sympathy and high appreciation which he
manifested by the gift of a sword, with an inscription exclusively in
praise of Washington's generalship. The moderation of his nature, the
heroic balance of his soul, whereby elation was kept in abeyance in the
hour of success, not less nobly than despair in the day of misfortune,
attracted the French philosopher, habituated as he was, in the history
of his own nation, to the association of warlike and civic fame with the
extremes of zeal and indifference, of violence and caprice. In his
estimation, the good sense and moral consistency of Washington and his
compatriots naturally offered the most remarkable problem. Accordingly,
Guizot bears witness chiefly to this unprecedented union of
comprehensive designs and prudential habits, of aspiration and patience,
in the character of Washington; and, doubtless through the contrast with
the restless ambition which marks the lives of his own illustrious
countrymen, is mainly struck with the fact that, 'while capable of
rising to the level of the highest destiny, he might have lived in
ignorance of his real power, without suffering from it.' The Italian
patriot, obliged to vent his love of country in terse dramatic
colloquies, and through the lips of dead heroes, is thrilled with the
grand possibilities of action, through the realization of his sentiments
by achievement, opened to Washington. Even the poor Indians, so often
cajoled out of their rights as to be thoroughly incredulous of good
faith among the pale-faces, made him an exception to their rooted
distrust. 'The white men are bad,' said an aboriginal chief, in his
council-speech, 'and can not dwell in the region of the Great Spirit,
_except Washington_.' And Lord Brougham, in a series of analytical
biographies of the renowned men of the last and present century, which
indicate a deep study and philosophical estimate of human greatness,
closes his sketch of Washington by the emphatic assertion that the test
of the progress of mankind will be their appreciation of his
character."[151]
At his installation as chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, in the
spring of 1860, Lord Brougham, in his address, after speaking of
Napoleon and Wellington, said: "But in Washington we may contemplate
every excellence, military and civil, applied to the service of his
country and of mankind--a triumphant warrior, unshaken in confidence
when the most sanguine had a right to despair; a successful ruler in all
the difficulties of a course wholly untried--directing the formation of
a new government for a great people, the first time so vast an
experiment had ever been tried by man; voluntarily and unostentatiously
retiring from supreme power with the veneration of all parties, of all
nations, of all mankind, that the rights of men may be conserved, and
that his example might never be appealed to by vulgar tyrants. It will
be the duty of the historian and the sage, in all ages, to omit no
occasion of commemorating this illustrious man; and until time shall be
no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom
and in virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name
of WASHINGTON."
One of the most beautiful of the many eulogies of the Great Patriot was
written, soon after his death, by an unknown hand (supposed to be that
of an English gentleman), on the back of a cabinet profile likeness of
Washington, executed in crayon, by Sharpless. It is in the form of a
monumental inscription. The following is a copy of it:--
WASHINGTON,
The DEFENDER OF HIS COUNTRY,
The FOUNDER OF LIBERTY,
The FRIEND OF MAN.
HISTORY and TRADITION are explored in vain
For a Parallel to his Character.
In the Annals of MODERN GREATNESS
He stands alone,
And the noblest Names of Antiquity
Lose their Lustre in his Presence.
Born the _Benefactor of Mankind_,
He was signally Endowed with all the Qualities
Appropriate to his _Illustrious Career_.
_Nature_ made him _Great_,
And, Heaven-directed,
He made _himself Virtuous_.
Called by his Country to the _Defence_ of her _Soil_,
And the _Vindication_ of her _Liberties_,
He led to the Field
_Her Patriot Armies_;
And, displaying in rapid and brilliant succession
The United Powers
Of _Consummate Prudence_ and Heroic Valor,
He triumphed in Arms
Over the most powerful Nation of Modern Europe;
His Sword giving _Freedom to America_,
His Counsels breathing _Peace to the World_.
After a short repose
From the _tumultuous Vicissitudes_
Of a sanguinary War,
The astounding Energies of
WASHINGTON
Were again destined to a _New Course_
Of _Glory and Usefulness_.
_The Civic Wreath_
Was spontaneously placed
By the _Gratitude_ of the _Nation_
On the Brow of the DELIVERER _of his_ COUNTRY.
He was twice _solemnly invested_
With the POWERS of _Supreme Magistracy_,
By the _Unanimous Voice_ of
_A Free People_;
And in his EXALTED and ARDUOUS Station,
His _Wisdom_ in the _Cabinet_
Transcended the _Glories of the Field_.
The _Destinies_ of _Washington_
Were now complete.
Having passed the Meridian of a _Devoted Life_,
Having founded on the Pillars
Of NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
The _Splendid Fabric_
Of a GREAT REPUBLIC,
And having firmly Established
The Empire of the West,
He solemnly deposited on the _Altar of his Country_
His _Laurels_ and his _Sword_,
And retired to the _Shades_
Of PRIVATE LIFE.
A _Spectacle_ so _New_ and so _Sublime_,
Was contemplated by _Mankind_
With the _Profoundest Admiration_;
And the Name of WASHINGTON,
Adding new _Lustre_ to _Humanity_,
Resounded
_To the remotest Regions of the Earth_.
_Magnanimous in Youth_,
Glorious through Life,
Great in Death,
His highest Ambition
The _Happiness of Mankind_,
His _noblest Victory_
The _Conquest of Himself_.
Bequeathing to America
The _Inheritance_ of his _Fame_,
And building his _Monument_
In the _Hearts of his Countrymen_,
He Lived,
The _Ornament_ of the Eighteenth Century;
He Died,
LAMENTED BY A MOURNING WORLD.
FOOTNOTES:
[151] _Essays, Biographical and Critical; or, Studies of Character_. By
Henry T. Tuckerman.