world, but the truth
is that he commanded during nearly eight years and won one of the
supreme crucial wars of history against far superior forces. The
General who did that was no understrapper. The man whose courage
diffused itself among the ten thousand starving soldiers at Valley
Forge, and enabled them to endure against the starvation and distress
of a winter, may very well fail to be classified among the Prince
Ruperts and the Marshal Neys of battle, but he ranks first in a
higher class. His Fabian policy, which troubled so many of his
contemporaries, saved the American Revolution. His title as General
is secure. Nor should we forget that it was his scrupulous patriotism
which prevented the cropping out of militarism in this country.

Finally, a country which owed its existence to him chose him to be for
eight years its first President. He saw the planting of the roots of
the chief organs of its government. In every act he looked far forward
into the future. He shunned making or following evil precedents. He
endured the most virulent personal abuse that has ever been poured out
on American public men, preferring that to using the power which his
position gave him, and denaturing the President into a tyrant. Nor
should we fail to honor him for his insistence on dignity and a proper
respect for his office. His enemies sneered at him for that, but
we see plainly how much it meant to this new Nation to have such
qualities exemplified. Had Thomas Jefferson been our first President
in his _sans-culotte_ days, our Government might not have outlasted
the _sans-culottist_ enthusiasts in France. A man is known by his
friends. The chosen friends of Washington were among the best of his
time in America. Hamilton, Henry Knox, Nathanael Greene, John Jay,
John Marshall--these were some.

Although Washington was less learned than many of the men of his time
in political theory and history, he excelled them all in a concrete
application of principles. He had the widest acquaintance among men of
different sorts. He heard all opinions, but never sacrificed his own.
As I have said earlier, he was the most _actual_ statesman of his
time; the people in Virginia came very early to regard him as a man
apart; this was true of the later days when the Government sat in New
York and Philadelphia. If they sought a reason, they usually agreed
that Washington excelled by his character, and if you analyze most
closely you will never get deeper