Washingtons Birthday | Page 6

been a steady drift toward giving Washington his proper place in history and his appropriate appreciation as soldier and statesman. The general who never won a battle is now understood to have been the Revolution itself, and one of the great generals of history. The statesman who never made a motion, nor devised a measure, nor constructed a proposition in the convention of which he was president, is appreciated as the spirit, the energy, the force, the wisdom which initiated, organized, and directed the formation of the Constitution of the United States and the Union by, through, and under it; and therefore it seems now possible to present him as the Virginian soldier, gentleman, and planter, as a man, the evolution of the society of which he formed a part, representative of his epoch, and his surroundings, developed by circumstances into the greatest character of all time--the first and most illustrious of Americans.
Henry Cabot Lodge,[5] writing in 1899, was one of the first to discover "the new Washington." "The real man," he wrote, "has been so overlaid with myths and traditions, and so distorted by misleading criticisms, that ... he has been wellnigh lost. We have the religious and statuesque myth, we have the Weems myth (which turns Washington into a faultless prig), and the ludicrous myth of the writer of paragraphs. We have the stately hero of Sparks, and Everett, and Marshall, and Irving, with all his great deeds as general and President duly recorded and set down in polished and eloquent sentences; and we know him to be very great and wise and pure, and, be it said with bated breath, very dry and cold.... In death as in life, there is something about Washington, call it greatness, dignity, majesty, what you will, which seems to hold men aloof and keep them from knowing him. In truth he was a difficult man to know....
"Behind the popular myths, behind the statuesque figure of the orator and the preacher, behind the general and the President of the historian, there was a strong, vigorous man, in whose veins ran warm, red blood, in whose heart were stormy passions and deep sympathy for humanity, in whose brain were far-reaching thoughts, and who was informed throughout his being with a resistless will."
It is a shameful thing that there should ever have been any doubt in American minds of the true significance of Washington either as man or soldier or statesman. But the writers of our day have decided that--if they can help it--the sins of the fathers are not going to be visited upon "the third and fourth generation." The call has gone out for modern champions of our ancient champion; and literature has responded with a will.
It takes long, however, to straighten out a national misconception. The new literature has not yet had time to take hold of the popular imagination. But when it does, and when we cease to regard the Father of our Country as a demigod, and begin to love him as a man, then Washington's Birthdays everywhere will lose their stiff, perfunctory, bloodless character, and recover the inspiring, emotional quality of the early celebrations.
R.H.S.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In "The True History of the American Revolution" and "The Struggle for American Independence."
[2] "The Seven Ages of Washington."
[3] In "Curiosities of Popular Customs."
[4] "General Washington."
[5] Introduction to "George Washington."

I
THE DAY
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY[6]
BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Welcome to the day returning, Dearer still as ages flow, While the torch of Faith is burning, Long as Freedom's altars glow! See the hero whom it gave us Slumbering on a mother's breast; For the arm he stretched to save us Be its morn forever blest!
Vain is empire's mad temptation! Not for him an earthly crown! He whose sword has freed a nation Strikes the offered scepter down. See the throneless conqueror seated, Ruler by a people's choice; See the patriot's task completed; Hear the Father's dying voice:
"By the name that you inherit, By the sufferings you recall, Cherish the fraternal spirit; Love your country first of all! Listen not to idle questions If its bands may be untied; Doubt the patriot whose suggestions Strive a nation to divide."
Father! we, whose ears have tingled With the discord notes of shame; We, whose sires their blood have mingled In the battle's thunder-flame,-- Gathering, while this holy morning Lights the land from sea to sea, Hear thy counsel, heed thy warning; Trust us while we honor thee.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] _By permission of the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin & Co_.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY
BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER
'Tis splendid to live so grandly That long after you are gone, The things you did are remembered, And recounted under the sun; To live so bravely and purely, That a nation stops on its way, And once a year, with banner and drum, Keeps its thought of