The True George Washington

The True George Washington

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The True George Washington [10th
Ed.]
by Paul Leicester Ford This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at
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Title: The True George Washington [10th Ed.]
Author: Paul Leicester Ford
Release Date: May 8, 2004 [EBook #12300]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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WASHINGTON ***

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[Illustration: SHARPLESS MINIATURE OF WASHINGTON, 1795]

The True George Washington

By Paul Leicester Ford
Author of "The Honorable Peter Stirling" Editor of "The Writings of
Thomas Jefferson" and "The Sayings of Poor Richard"
"That I have foibles, and perhaps many of them, I shall not deny. I

should esteem myself, as the world would, vain and empty, were I to
arrogate perfection."
--Washington
"Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in
malice."
--Shakespeare
1896 BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
Tenth Edition Electrotyped and Printed by J.B. Lippincott Company,
Philadelphia, U

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO WILLIAM F. HAVEMEYER,
IN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE INDEBTEDNESS OF THE
AUTHOR TO HIS COLLECTION OF WASHINGTONIANA.

+Note+
In every country boasting a history there may be observed a tendency
to make its leaders or great men superhuman. Whether we turn to the
legends of the East, the folk-lore of Europe, or the traditions of the
native races of America, we find a mythology based upon the acts of
man gifted with superhuman powers. In the unscientific, primeval
periods in which these beliefs were born and elaborated into oral and
written form, their origin is not surprising. But to all who have studied
the creation of a mythology, no phase is a more curious one than that
the keen, practical American of to-day should engage in the same
process of hero-building which has given us Jupiter, Wotan, King
Arthur, and others. By a slow evolution we have well-nigh discarded
from the lives of our greatest men of the past all human faults and
feelings; have enclosed their greatness in glass of the clearest crystal,
and hung up a sign, "Do not touch." Indeed, with such characters as
Washington, Franklin, and Lincoln we have practically adopted the
English maxim that "the king can do no wrong." In place of men,
limited by human limits, and influenced by human passions, we have
demi-gods, so stripped of human characteristics as to make us question
even whether they deserve much credit for their sacrifices and deeds.
But with this process of canonization have we not lost more than we

have gained, both in example and in interest? Many, no doubt, with the
greatest veneration for our first citizen, have sympathized with the view
expressed by Mark Twain, when he said that he was a greater man than
Washington, for the latter "couldn't tell a lie, while he could, but
wouldn't" We have endless biographies of Franklin, picturing him in all
the public stations of life, but all together they do not equal in
popularity his own human autobiography, in which we see him walking
down Market Street with a roll under each arm, and devouring a third.
And so it seems as if the time had come to put the shadow-boxes of
humanity round our historic portraits, not because they are ornamental
in themselves, but because they will make them examples, not mere
idols.
If the present work succeeds in humanizing Washington, and making
him a man rather than a historical figure, its purpose will have been
fulfilled. In the attempt to accomplish this, Washington has, so far as is
possible, been made to speak for himself, even though at times it has
compelled the sacrifice of literary form, in the hope that his own words
would convey a greater sense of the personality of the man. So, too,
liberal drafts have been made on the opinions and statements of his
contemporaries; but, unless the contrary is stated or is obvious, all
quoted matter is from Washington's own pen. It is with pleasure that
the author adds that the result of his study has only served to make
Washington the greater to him.
The writer is under the greatest obligation to his brother, Worthington
Chauncey Ford, not merely for his numerous books on Washington, of
which his "Writings of George Washington" is easily first in
importance of all works relating to the great American, but also for
much manuscript material which he has placed at the author's service.
Hitherto unpublished facts have been drawn from many other sources,
but notably from the rich