Father of His Country: Excerpts from Peter Hannaford's The Essential George Washington.
Father of His Country My Dearest, It was with very great pleasure I see in your letter that you got safely down. We are all very well at this time, but it is still rainney and weft. I am...
...It was slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern...
...In him were the courage of a soldier, the intrepidity of a chief, the fortitude of a hero...
...Marquis de Lafayette h79 o) His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very, first order...
...He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man...
...Right from the start as president, he set very high standards for the office...
...Benjamin Franklin (1789) The fact that he was the intrepid leader through thick and thin--and remember, it was mostly thin--and triumphed made him irresistibly important and appealing...
...David McCullough (1999) The image of George Washington kneeling in prayer in the snow is one of the most famous in American history...
...I had rather nay sister would not come up so soon, as May would be a much plasenter time than April...
...Let his conduct, then, be an example for future ages...
...Thomas Jefferson (1814 ) If ever a nation has been debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by Washington...
...I speak here of the superstitious veneration that is sometimes paid to General Washington...
...He personified a people who knew it was not enough to depend on their own courage and goodness...
...His judgment was always clear, because his mind was pure...
...Ronald Reagan (1983) Excerpted with permission from Peter Hannaford's The Essential George Washington: Two Hundred Years of Observations On the Man, the Myth, the Patriot (Images From the Past, Bennington, Vermont, 18o pages, $19.5o ). The American Spectator June 2ooo 77...
...they must also seek help from God, their Father and Preserver...
...Children desired sight of him, and men felt lifted after he had passed...
...If ever a nation has been deceived by a man, the American nation has been deceived by Washington...
...Gouverneur Morris (cited in I932 ) I have been distressed to see some members of this house disposed to idolize an image which their own hands have molten...
...And seldom, if ever, will a sound understanding be met in the company of a corrupt heart...
...Altho' I honour him for his good qualities, yet in this house I feet myself his Superior...
...We wrote you last post...
...He created the presidential ideal, an American ideal, and of this, too, he was quite conscious...
...his penetration strong, though not as acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or Locke...
...Your Most Affectionate, -- Martha Washington (1767) Give me leave, My dear General, to present you With a picture of the Bastille just as it looked a few days after I Had ordered its demolition, with tile Main Kea [key] of that fortress of despot i s m - i t is a tribute Which I owe as A Son to My Adoptived father, as an aid de Camp to My General, as a Missionary of liberty to its patriarch...
...John Adams (1777) There was something about Washington that quickened the pulses of a crowd at the same time it awed them, that drew cheers which were a sort of voice of worship...
...they will guide our children and our children's children in the paths of prosperity and peace, while America shall hold her place in the family of nations...
...I am sorry you will not be at home soon, as I expected yon...
...Let the history of the Federal government instruct mankind that the mask of patriotism may be worn to conceal the foulest designs against the liberties of a people...
...Let it serve to be a warning that no man may be an idol...
...Woodrow Wilson h897 ) My fine crab-tree walking-stick, with a gold head curiously wrought in the form of a cap of liberty, I give to my friend, and the friend of mankind, General Washington...
...and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder...
...If it were a sceptre, he has merited it and would become it...
...as I have nothing new to tell you I must conclude myself...
...and dignity was among the most important of those standards...
...His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known...
...The Aurora (1797) The character, the counsels, and example of our Washington will guide us through the doubts and difficulties that beset us...
...Edward Everett (1858) So dignified his deportment, no man could approach him but with respect--none was great in his presence...
Vol. 33 • June 2000 • No. 5
