Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1885 — GEORGE WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

BY BILL NYE.

Who was George Washing ton? He was the father of his , country for one tiring. He gave this country a start that it has never fully recovered from. He vias also first in peace, first in war, and first in the Hearts of his men. He did not take the position lion account of his salary, At that trine the pay was not large, yet George attended to the work well. He would get up before daylight and work till late at night He very,, seldom took a holiday and used to work right on through the 22nd of February as he did other days. George Washington was different from some of our modern statesmen in many respects. He scorned to enter a convention and grapple with the delegates all day. He did not seek to be president so hard as some have done since. He simply placed himself in the hands of his friends and let nature take her course. The more I study the character of George Washington the more I regret his untimely death. We need him almost every day. If he could see how badly his orphaned country needs him sometimes, it seems as though he would almost open the door of the Mount Vernon smoke-house and come forth. A vary curious incident occurred in the life of George Washington, which now appears in print for the first time. It appears that George was given a small hatchet by his father when a boy, and in an unguarded moment the youth cut down a favorite cherry tree belonging to his father. On the return of the old gentleman he discovered the act, and calling his son to him, asked how it occurred. George did not know what to say, but finally he looked bravely up in his father’s face and said: “Father, I cannot tell a lie. I, did it with my little hatchet.” I have often wondered that an anecdote like this, concerning a great man, should have remained so long unknown. lam indebted for the above facts to friends of the deceased. The monument to George Washington is a deserved tribute to a great man. It is no slouch of a job to be President the first time and pay off the help that it takes to run such a government as this. Let those who think it easy to be President try to write an an-* nual message once, and see how their brains will throb. A President mast not only shine in society and be able to stand on one leg and shake hands with every 10-cent official in the Union, but he must be quiet and gentlemanly in his home life and a good provider in his household. Added to all this he must be able at a glance to distinguish between a flotilla and a reciprocity. He must knpw how to spell at sight and be able to sign his name so that it will look like a bird’s eye view of a stroke of paralysis. He must be firm with foreign powers, and still he must govern his temper and avoid the unnecessary shedding of other people's blood. He should be a good business man, a good statesman, a gentleman and a scholar. We can readily see that a successful President cannot be picked up on every street Of course, he has a good deal of help, but he alone is responsible. George Washington was all that was great, but the most successful thing that he did was to quit at the right time and to die before he slopped over. Late years great men commit an error, some of them at least. They make a bad break and then die, jnstead of dying first Some of our eminent men have saved the American people the expense of a tall monument, I notice, by procrastinating in the matter of death, George Washington did not wait till “the nation” craved his death. He now has a monument that is tall and attractive. This is a powerful lesson to some of our public men not to overdo the matter of longevity. Long life is all right in other walks of life, but in politics it may be overdone. George Washington attracted a great deal of notice, even in this time, by telling the truth. Think what a curiosity he would be now. And yet truth is within the reach of all. We may accnstom ourselvs to almost anything if we begin gradually and work our way up to it George Washington to-day would no doubt be regarded as a freak of nature, and yet he told the truth without effort and without his notes. He used to entertain his friends through the long winter evenings by allowing them to tie his hands and feet and blindfold him, and on top of all this he would tell the truth for hours at a time. But he had to give up at last, and finally he yielded to the unequal strain and death ensued. People who contemplate a political career with more or less truth in it should see that they have strong constitutions to begin with.— New York Mercury.