People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1897 — WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

Washington.

BHjgn pi HE fame of I Washington is so ' B L\ immense and the iff popular coneeption of his characV. ' ter so exalted, that some skeptical and fault-finding critics are disposed to question the universal estimate, and especially in the matter of his

ability as a soldier and military commander. However much we may iwish it otherwise, there is in human nature a mean spirit of envy and detraction which instinctively feels the honors bestowed upon a great man to be an indirect reflection and rebuke to its own littleness and baseness. This spirit cropped out conspicuously in the case of Columbus, in the efforts to belittle his great exploit and to blacken his character. I do not say that crieisms upon Washington’s generalship all proceed from base motives, but they doubtless do mostly come from the spirit and innate tendency which I have indicated. This unworthy spirit is as old as history, as old as humanity. It showed itself in a memorable fashion when the old Athenians wrote their sentence of banishment against Aristides because they were tired of hearing him called “the just.”

Washington and Napoleon,

Great soldiers are to be judged not alone by success, by battles fought and victories won—though this, of course, is the great popular test—but by all the circumstances and difficulties in which they are placed. There are great commanders in history who have won fame by avoiding battles, like the Roman Fabius, and even by great retreats like Xenophon with his ten thousand Greeks. If Washington is to be compared, to his disadvantage, with Napoleon, then the popular question is, would Napoleon, under the same circumstances, have done any better? It is enough for any commander that he fills the great measure of his requirement. This, of course, is not saying that Washington would have filled the place of Napoleon in the vastly different field and circumstances in which that great soldier won his fame. Nor should it be forgotten, all the while, that ultimately Washington succeeded and founded a nation, while Napoleon failed and lost an empire.

Washington’s Difficult Task. The difficulties which encountered Washington when he took up his great trust as commander-in-chief of the continental army were most complicated and immense. The theater of the struggle was a vast one, geographically, stretching along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to South Carolina, while the whole population ■was only three millions— not very much greater than that of the state of Michigan, and not so great into a million as that of. Illinois. Out of this small, scattering and peaceful population an army was to be raised, organized and equipped capable of contending with the chief military and maritime power of the globe. And it was aot to be a struggle between government and government, between one nation and another. It was a rebellion, and there was really no central authority, no arms or warlike stores, no navy, bo treasury or financial system or responsibility. It was only a brave and patriotic people, small in numbers, without discipline or military experience, without arms and without money, rushing thus bare-handed*'into a conflict with the mother-country, their own government; a powerful nation, which had recently been raised by the genius of the elder Pitt to the front rank among the great warlike nations sf the world—a nation whose military posts and possessions already dotted

the globe, whose victorious navies covered every ocean and sea, whose morning drum beat, as Webster said, was heard round the world. It was against such a power as this that this handful of patriots had thrown down the gage of rebellion and defiance. When England Closed In. When England saw that the contest was fairly opened her great navy closed in upon our ports and landed upon our shores different armies of her veteran soldiers, who had fought in the continental wars, and these were soon supplemented by trained Hessian soldiers, hired and paid by her gold. These armies were greater in numbers than the colonies had to oppose to them. And still, as they had to be transported so far, and to cover so wide a field, they were never very large, and the battles of the revolution were never on a great scale as to numbers. The country was new, there was next to no cavalry and not much artillery, and the engagements were thus mainly with infantry and at close range. There was little chance for tactics or maneuvers. All depended upon pluck, hard fighting and endurance. A Providential Man. Washington is known in history as a providential man; that is, a man raised up by Providence to fill a great place and perform a great mission. However this may be, he certainly had great parts and great and peculiar fitness for the most difficult and trying place which he filled in history. He had had experience in the previous Indian and French wars, and had proven himself a wise, competent and heroic officer. He had great personal advantages for command. He was of fine physique and imposing presence, a splendid horseman, carrying with him ever the port and air of authority and native majesty—an ideal commander. Know It Meant Freedom. So when this noble Virginian appeared before that northern army and drew his sword as their commander under those Cambridge elms his fame had preceded him and he was received with shouts of welcome and of confidence. Then all men knew it was to be a struggle to the death. I have no room

here, of course, to recount the particulars of that seven years’ conflict. Patiently and steadily organizing and disciplining the raw patriot militia and volunteers into an army, Washington at the same time closely invested the British in Boston and finally drove them to their ships in the harbor, from which they sailed away/while:the’patriot army marched into the New England capital, which was never again to be trodden by the footsteps of an enemy. Thus was scored a great success at the opening. Then followed the march to New York to meet the enemy, landing in great force on Long Island; the brave but disastrous battle, followed by that masterly retreat which alone would stamp Washington as a great general; the gallant stand at White Plains; the reluctant hut stern and heroie winter retreat through the Jerseys ended by the master counter strokes of Trenton and Princeton, by which the great leader saved the cause of the revolution at its lowest ebb. Then the next year the struggle to save Philadelphia, the defeat at the Brandywine, where Lafayette first shed his blood in our cause; the loss of the continental capital and the well planned but accidentally lost battle of

Germantown. Then the gloomy winter quarters at Valley Forge, which tried the souls of patriot men and proved the great soul of George Washington. Who but he could have held that defeated, freezing, starving army together in that terrible winter? And at the same time the country was filled with the praise of Gates, who had conquered Burgoyne at Saratoga. In the Darkest Honrs. In this dark hour, too, Washington was beset with cabals and conspiracies, in congress and in the army, to depose him from the command which was to be given to the successful Gates. When in the early summer of 1778 the British commander evacuated Philadelphia, and Washington followed him with his little army to give him battle, on the field of Monmouth he met one of these detractors and conspirators, Gen. Lee, his second in command, disobeying his orders and in shameful and unnecessary retreat. It was here .that Washington is said to have lost his temper. It is pretty well demonstrated that he did, and if Gen. Lee received upon his miserable head that day an explosion of titanic wrath it was surely no more than he deserved. Despite this untoward disarrangement of his plans Washington here won a partial success. The battle of Monmouth was his last engagement until the crowning victory of Yorktown, three years later. In the meantime the war was going on in other parts of the great field of operations, battles and skirmishes were being fought and subordinate commanders, like Greene and Wayne and Morgan, were winning some laurels. But the central army was not immediately engaged. It was holding the ground and perfecting its alliance with the French forces, on land and water, which had now come to our assistance. When all was ready came that sudden and rapid march from the Hudson to Virginia and the great final victory at Yorktown. Had No Personal Ambition.

Even from this briefest outline of Washington’s career in the revolution, it will be seen that he had little opportunity for personal distinction as a commander. He was an unlucky general; fortune did not seem to smile upon him and he had more defeats than victories. Long Island, White Plains, Brandywine, Germantown—all these were defeats; some of them disastrous. Monmouth was little more than a drawn battle, while to offset these, Trenton and Princeton, while brilliant in conception and execution and great in effect, were 30 small in the.numbers engaged that they amounted to little more than successful skirmishes. And besides they were with Hessians and not with British regulars. Yorktown was, indeed, a great and crowning success, but it was won with superior numbers and the honors had to be divided with the French. Greatest Figure in History. Hardly a better instance does history afford of patience under provocation, of >dogged determination under difficulties, of unconquerable will and courage, holding on bo long and coming out triumphant at last over such mighty opposition. These great qualities, as we have already seen, belonged to the man more than to the Soldier. It was indeed the great man behind the soldier, the man with the great patriotic heart, with the wise head, and the lofty, unshaken sbul. that brought us through that long and tremendous struggle and gave us our gloi-ious place and opportunity among the nations. No other man on this continent but he could have done it. Greene among the generals of the revolution*, would have come nearest to it, but he would have failed. But in looking over the whole field and record, in the light of all the facts and history, it will be seen that Washington made no military mistakes, that he improved all his opportunities, that his generalship will stand the test of criticism. He struck whenever he had the chance, his plans were good, and when compelled, his retreats were masterly.

WASHINGTON THE SOLDIER.