Hero Tales From American History | Page 6

the country, because he feared heavy responsibility,
but solely because, as a high-minded and patriotic man, he did not
believe in meeting the situation in that way. He was, moreover, entirely
devoid of personal ambition, and had no vulgar longing for personal
power. After resigning his commission he returned quietly to Mount
Vernon, but he did not hold himself aloof from public affairs. On the
contrary, he watched their course with the utmost anxiety. He saw the
feeble Confederation breaking to pieces, and he soon realized that that
form of government was an utter failure. In a time when no American
statesman except Hamilton had yet freed himself from the local
feelings of the colonial days, Washington was thoroughly national in
all his views. Out of the thirteen jarring colonies he meant that a nation
should come, and he saw--what no one else saw--the destiny of the
country to the westward. He wished a nation founded which should
cross the Alleghanies, and, holding the mouths of the Mississippi, take

possession of all that vast and then unknown region. For these reasons
he stood at the head of the national movement, and to him all men
turned who desired a better union and sought to bring order out of
chaos. With him Hamilton and Madison consulted in the preliminary
stages which were to lead to the formation of a new system. It was his
vast personal influence which made that movement a success, and
when the convention to form a constitution met at Philadelphia, he
presided over its deliberations, and it was his commanding will which,
more than anything else, brought a constitution through difficulties and
conflicting interests which more than once made any result seem
well-nigh hopeless. When the Constitution formed at Philadelphia had
been ratified by the States, all men turned to Washington to stand at the
head of the new government. As he had borne the burden of the
Revolution, so he now took up the task of bringing the government of
the Constitution into existence. For eight years he served as president.
He came into office with a paper constitution, the heir of a bankrupt,
broken-down confederation. He left the United States, when he went
out of office, an effective and vigorous government. When he was
inaugurated, we had nothing but the clauses of the Constitution as
agreed to by the Convention. When he laid down the presidency, we
had an organized government, an established revenue, a funded debt, a
high credit, an efficient system of banking, a strong judiciary, and an
army. We had a vigorous and well-defined foreign policy; we had
recovered the western posts, which, in the hands of the British, had
fettered our march to the west; and we had proved our power to
maintain order at home, to repress insurrection, to collect the national
taxes, and to enforce the laws made by Congress. Thus Washington had
shown that rare combination of the leader who could first destroy by
revolution, and who, having led his country through a great civil war,
was then able to build up a new and lasting fabric upon the ruins of a
system which had been overthrown. At the close of his official service
he returned again to Mount Vernon, and, after a few years of quiet
retirement, died just as the century in which he had played so great a
part was closing.
Washington stands among the greatest men of human history, and those
in the same rank with him are very few. Whether measured by what he
did, or what he was, or by the effect of his work upon the history of

mankind, in every aspect he is entitled to the place he holds among the
greatest of his race. Few men in all time have such a record of
achievement. Still fewer can show at the end of a career so crowded
with high deeds and memorable victories a life so free from spot, a
character so unselfish and so pure, a fame so void of doubtful points
demanding either defense or explanation. Eulogy of such a life is
needless, but it is always important to recall and to freshly remember
just what manner of man he was. In the first place he was physically a
striking figure. He was very tall, powerfully made, with a strong,
handsome face. He was remarkably muscular and powerful. As a boy
he was a leader in all outdoor sports. No one could fling the bar further
than he, and no one could ride more difficult horses. As a young man
he became a woodsman and hunter. Day after day he could tramp
through the wilderness with his gun and his surveyor's chain, and then
sleep at night beneath the stars. He feared no exposure or fatigue, and
outdid the