and
judicious truth, and I should have told it myself in the circumstances.
But I should have stopped there. It was a stately truth, a lofty
truth--a Tower; and I think it was a mistake to go on and distract
attention from its sublimity by building another Tower alongside of it
fourteen times as high. I refer to his remark that he 'could not lie.'
I should have fed that to the marines; or left it to Carlyle; it is
just in his style. It would have taken a medal at any European fair,
and would have got an honourable mention even at Chicago if it had been
saved up. But let it pass; the Father of his Country was excited. I have
been in those circumstances, and I recollect.

With the truth he told I have no objection to offer, as already
indicated. I think it was not premeditated but an inspiration. With his
fine military mind, he had probably arranged to let his brother Edward
in for the cherry tree results, but by an inspiration he saw his
opportunity in time and took advantage of it. By telling the truth he
could astonish his father; his father would tell the neighbours; the
neighbours would spread it; it would travel to all firesides; in the end
it would make him President, and not only that, but First President.
He was a far-seeing boy and would be likely to think of these things.
Therefore, to my mind, he stands justified for what he did. But not for
the other Tower; it was a mistake. Still, I don't know about that; upon
reflection I think perhaps it wasn't. For indeed it is that Tower that
makes the other one live. If he hadn't said 'I cannot tell a lie' there
would have been no convulsion. That was the earthquake that rocked the
planet. That is the kind of statement that lives for ever, and a fact
barnacled to it has a good chance to share its immortality.

To sum up, on the whole I am satisfied with things the way they are.
There is a prejudice against the spoken lie, but none against any
other, and by examination and mathematical computation I find that the
proportion of the spoken lie to the other varieties is as 1 to 22,894.
Therefore the spoken lie is of no consequence, and it is not worth while
to go around fussing about it and trying to make believe that it is an
important matter. The silent colossal National Lie that is the support
and confederate of all the tyrannies and shams and inequalities and
unfairnesses that afflict the peoples--that is the one to throw bricks
and sermons at. But let us be judicious