Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1916 — Spirit of Washington WITH US TODAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Spirit of Washington WITH US TODAY

bring men to be* well acquainted (( with the duties °* a so,dier re( l uires time. To bring them under proper discipline and subordination not only requires time but is a work of great difficulty and in this country, where there is so little distinction between the officers and soldiers, requires an uncommon degree of attention. To expect the same service from raw and undisciplined recruits as from the veteran soldiers is to expect what never did and perhaps never will happen.— Washington.

fNCE again, as the anniversary of his birthday rolls around, we contemplate the life and accomplishments of our nation s father. The United States of America is now in the midst of a great crisis—one of three. The first was the desperate struggle of the babyrepublic to maintain life between 1776 and 1815. The second was the terrific fever which rattled the bones of the half-grown nation from 1861 to 1865. The third is different. The hungry, blood-mad wolves of war are snarling all about us. We are charged with the problem of taking means of defense against the time when they may turn from their carcasses to attack us. We must insure for ourselves prosperity. For the good of the whole we must assume the task of harmonizing -all. the multitude of discordant and misunderstanding groups of people that compose our body politic—men and women of a great variety of racial antecedents, of political tenets, of religious beliefs, of capital and labor, of education and ignorance—-and weld them into one great patriotic mass. We must keep friendship with cur neighbors to North and South and across the seas So in this time of stress it behooves ua to keep our national temper and deal fairly and mean what we say. It is well worth while to eonsider the historian Lecky’s description of George Washington: "In the despondency of long continued f a i!ure, in the elation of snddcn 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, Washington was always the same calm, wise, just and single-mind-ed 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 “aTthe* 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 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. 'St was mainly the transparent integrity of the character of Washington that dispelled the fear.” There has rarely been a time when the people had more need of the lessons of Washington’s life than now. We are in the midst of the uncertainties visited upon us, as a people at peace, by a conflagration which has enveloped a continent in war. In a year of peace, of sowing and reaping, of the productive activities of market and factory, we suddenly found ourselves face to face with the peril of such apanic as the world had never witnessed. Industry withered as under a blight; trade dried up at the roots; our chief export crop lost for a time two-thirds of its value; specie payments were suspended in our financial centers. Instead of having heavy trade balances in our favor, we were called upon for gold by the ton to pay for securities sent back to us by foreign investors. Want and destitution appeared where there had been plenty. We have come far since those black -days, but -adangerous —road still stfetches hdfore usr Tct us remember Washington, the commander in chief of one battle. That was Yorktown. Washington took the command of the armies of the colonies in July, 1775. He received the surrender of Cornwallis in October, 1781, more than six years later. These six years were spent In avoiding battle. There was one brilliant sortie —the battle of Trenton. But the history of his campaigns is the history of skillful retreats, like that which followed Trenton, rear-guard actions, defensive fights when attacked, disas : trous offensive movements like that on Germantown. He had no government behind him —only a loose confederation of colonips, which refused to pay their levies and left him at one time with a discouraged remnant of only 3,000 sbldiers. He avoided battle with the British; he used the arts of the Indian fighter and slipped out of the very jaws of disaster; he moved from place to place. But he could not evade hunger, cold, nakedness, dissension, discouragement. These met him in frontal

attack. The siege of Yorktown was a- splendid thing—but the real test came at Valley Forge. When at last the hour came to fight, fighting was easy by comparison with the waiting that had preceded Jt. On July 2, 1775; General Washington arrived at Cambridge, Mass., accompaniedby Major General Lee,..his next in commandr wnd other officers, and established headquarters in the mansion subsequently occupied by Longfellow. About nine o’clock on the morning of the following day, attended by a suitable escort, he proceeded from his headquarters to a great elm tree near Harvard college. Here the Continental forces were drawn up Imnllitary order. Under the shadow of the tree Washington drew his sword as commander in chief of the American army, declaring that it should never be sheathed until the liberties of his country were established. 4 Finally the day came for Washington to take leave of his army—October 18, 1783. For the last time he assembled them at Newburgh, N. Y., when he rode out on the field and gave them one of those paternal addresses which so eminently characterized his relationship with his army. But his final leave of everything connected with his military life was taken on December 3, 1783, at Faunces' tavern, New York city. Here he had requested his officers in full uniform to assemble. On entering the room and finding, himself surrounded by his old companions in arms his agitated feelings overcame his usual self-control. Every man arose with eyes turned toward him. Filling a glass of wine and lifting it to his lips, he rested his benignant but saddened countenance upon them and said-. _ “With a heart full of love and gratitude, 1 now take leave of you. .1 most devotedly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous as your former ones have been honorable and glori-

ous. 1 cannot come to each of you and take my leave, but shall be obliged to you if each of you will come and take me by the hand.” A profound silence followed as the officers gazed at the countenance of their leader, while the eyes of all were wet with tears. He then expressed again his desire that each of them should come and take his hand. — One after another followed, receiving and returning the affectionate adieu of their commander, after which he left the room in silence, followed by his officers in procession to embark in the barge that was to convey him to Paulus Hook, now Jersey City. As he was passing through the light infantry, drawn up on either side to receive him, an old soldier who was by his side on the terrible night of his march to Trenton, stepped out of the ranks - and reached outrhi 3 arms, exclaiming: "Farewell, my dear general, farewell!” Washington seized his hand most heartily, when the soldiers forgot all discipline, rushed toward their chief and bathed him with their tears. The scene was like that of a good patriarch taking leave of his children and going on a long journey whence he might return no more. Having entered the barge, he turned to the weeping company upon the wharf and, waving his hat, bade them a silent adieu. They stood with heads uncovered until the barge was hidden from their view, when, in silent and solemn procession, they returned to the place where they had assembled. Napoleon Bonaparte said: “Posterity will talk of Washington with reverence, as the founder of a great empire, when my name shall be lost in the vortex of revolution.” Like so many other of the prophecies of the great Napoleon, its truth is becoming more and more apparent every day. A little more than 116 years ago, Washington died at Mount Vernon at the age of sixty-eight, after an illness of only 24 hours, in 1796.