sent him money, and men, and leaders such as Lafayette. But in the
realm of international politics gratitude has no place. When France in
1914 faced the menace of overwhelming and final destruction; when
Belgium, to whose independence the United States was a signatory at the
Hague Convention, was overrun, the Government at Washington did not
even enter a protest, and the President still addressed the Kaiser as
'great and good friend.' While France that won her liberty for America
was for three years in Gethsemane, the States were 'too proud to
fight.' As late as 1917 there was the famous speech about 'peace
without victory.' It was only when a Presidential Election was gained
by 'the Man who kept us out of the war,' and when the interests of the
States on the high seas were threatened with ruin, that the Americans
at last entered the fray. If Britain had acted as the States did,
France to-day would have been the conscript appendage of Germany. When
the American Ambassador in London declared in a candid moment that
America came into the war for 'her own interests,' the resolutions
passed and the speeches made disowning him were amazing. That key of
the Bastille there in Mount Vernon is a monument of international
ingratitude. There is no reason to narcotise ourselves into believing
that poor humanity has been changed for ever in this year of grace at
Washington.

IV

To-day Mount Vernon is a shrine, and a sky-scraping monument dominates
Washington, but George Washington learned in his own day the lesson
that in politics there is no gratitude. The founder of the great
Republic did not escape the common fate. He was accused as President
of drawing more than his salary, of aping at monarchy; there were hints
of the guillotine being needed; until at last the scurrilous attacks
drove Washington to declare at a Cabinet meeting in 1793 that he would
rather be in his grave than in his present position. It is said that
at the end he would have preferred to seek reunion with Britain. (An
American lecturer was howled down in New York two years ago for
venturing to refer to that!) This at least is sure, that Washington
was glad to end his days in the peace of Mount Vernon. If this may
seem incredible one has only to think of the fate of Clemenceau, of
Venizelos, or of Woodrow Wilson. There is to-day in Washington a
living monument of national ingratitude. Whatever may be thought of
many of the acts of Presiden