scontents.

The obvious view of Washington's action in this crisis as a remarkable
exhibition of patriotism is at best somewhat superficial. In a man in
any way less great, the letter of refusal to Nicola and the treatment
of the opportunity presented at the time of the Newburgh addresses
would have been fine in a high degree. In Washington they were not so
extraordinary, for the situation offered him no temptation. Carlyle
was led to think slightingly of Washington, one may believe, because
he did not seize the tottering government with a strong hand, and
bring order out of chaos on the instant. But this is a woeful
misunderstanding of the man. To put aside a crown for love of country
is noble, but to look down upon such an opportunity indicates a much
greater loftiness and strength of mind. Washington was wholly free
from the vulgar ambition of the usurper, and the desire of mere
personal aggrandizement found no place in his nature. His ruling
passion was the passion for success, and for thorough and complete
success. What he could not bear was the least shadow of failure. To
have fought such a war to a victorious finish, and then turned it to
his own advantage, would have been to him failure of the meanest
kind. He fought to free the colonies from England, and make them
independent, not to play the part of a Caesar or a Cromwell in the
wreck and confusion of civil war. He flung aside the suggestion of
supreme power, not simply as dishonorable and unpatriotic, but because
such a result would have defeated the one great and noble object
at which he aimed. Nor did he act in this way through any indolent
shrinking from the great task of making what he had won worth winning,
by crushing the forces of anarchy and separation, and bringing order
and unity out of confusion. From the surrender of Yorktown to the
day of his retirement from the Presidency, he worked unceasingly to
establish union and strong government in the country he had made
independent. He accomplished this great labor more successfully
by honest and lawful methods than if he had taken the path of the
strong-handed savior of society, and his work in this field did more
for the welfare of his country than all his battles. To have restored
order at the head of the army was much easier than to effect it in the
slow and law-abiding fashion which he adopted. To have refused supreme
rule, and then to have effected in the spirit and under the forms
of free governm