{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_11192/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_11192","id":"gutenberg_11192","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11192","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Washington, George, 1732-1799"],"text":"THE\n\nAMERICANISM\n\nOF\n\nWASHINGTON\n\nBy\n\nHenry van Dyke\n\n\n1906\n\nHard is the task of the man who at this late day attempts to say\nanything new about Washington. But perhaps it may be possible to unsay\nsome of the things which have been said, and which, though they were at\none time new, have never at any time been strictly true.\n\nThe character of Washington, emerging splendid from the dust and tumult\nof those great conflicts in which he played the leading part, has passed\nsuccessively into three media of obscuration, from each of which his\nfigure, like the sun shining through vapors, has received some disguise\nof shape and color. First came the mist of mythology, in which we\ndiscerned the new St. George, serene, impeccable, moving through an\norchard of ever-blooming cherry-trees, gracefully vanquishing dragons\nwith a touch, and shedding fragrance and radiance around him. Out of\nthat mythological mist we groped our way, to find ourselves beneath the\nrolling clouds of oratory, above which the head of the hero was\npinnacled in remote grandeur, like a sphinx poised upon a volcanic peak,\nisolated and mysterious. That altitudinous figure still dominates the\ncloudy landscapes of the after-dinner orator; but the frigid, academic\nmind has turned away from it, and looking through the fog of criticism\nhas descried another Washington, not really an American, not amazingly a\nhero, but a very decent English country gentleman, honorable,\ncourageous, good, shrewd, slow, and above all immensely lucky.\n\nNow here are two of the things often said about Washington which need,\nif I mistake not, to be unsaid: first, that he was a solitary and\ninexplicable phenomenon of greatness; and second, that he was not an\nAmerican.\n\nSolitude, indeed, is the last quality that an intelligent student of his\ncareer would ascribe to him. Dignified and reserved he was, undoubtedly;\nand as this manner was natural to him, he won more true friends by\nusing it than if he had disguised himself in a forced familiarity and\nworn his heart upon his sleeve. But from first to last he was a man who\ndid his work in the bonds of companionship, who trusted his comrades in\nthe great enterprise even though they were not his intimates, and who\nneither sought nor occupied a lonely eminence of unshared glory. He was\nnot of the jealous race of those who\n\n    \"Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne\";\n\nnor of the temper of George III., who chose his ministers for their\nvacuous compliancy. Washington was surrounded by men of similar though\nnot of equal strength--Franklin, Hamilton, Knox, Greene, the Adamses,\nJefferson, Madison. He stands in history not as a lonely pinnacle like\nMount Shasta, elevated above the plain\n\n    \"By drastic lift of pent volcanic fires\";\n\nbut as the central summit of a mountain range, with all his noble\nfellowship of kindred peaks about him, enhancing his unquestioned\nsupremacy by their glorious neighborhood and their great support.\n\nAmong these men whose union in purpose and action made the strength and\nstability of the republic, Washington was first, not only in the\nlargeness of his nature, the loftiness of his desires, and the vigor of\nhis will, but also in that representative quality which makes a man able\nto stand as the true hero of a great people. He had an instinctive power\nto divine, amid the confusions of rival interests and the cries of\nfactional strife, the new aims and hopes, the vital needs and\naspirations, which were the common inspiration of the people's cause\nand the creative forces of the American nation. The power to understand\nthis, the faith to believe in it, and the unselfish courage to live for\nit, was the central factor of Washington's life, the heart and fountain\nof his splendid Americanism.\n\nIt was denied during his lifetime, for a little while, by those who\nenvied his greatness, resented his leadership, and sought to shake him\nfrom his lofty place. But he stood serene and imperturbable, while that\ndenial, like many another blast of evil-scented wind, passed into\nnothingness, even before the disappearance of the party strife out of\nwhose fermentation it had arisen. By the unanimous judgment of his\ncountrymen for two generations after his death he was hailed as _Pater\nPatriae_; and the age which conferred that title was too ingenuous to\nsuppose that the father could be of a different race from his own\noffspring.\n\nBut the modern doubt is more subtle, more curious, more refined in its\nmethods. It does not spring, as the old denial did, from a partisan\nhatred, which would seek to discredit Washington by an accusation of\nundue partiality for England, and thus to break his hold upon the love\nof the people. It arises, rather, like a creeping exhalation, from a\nmodern theory of what true Americanism really is: a theory which goes\nback, indeed, for its inspiration to Dr. Johnson's somewhat crudely\nexpressed opinion that \"the Americans were a race whom no other mortals\ncould wish to resemble\"; but which, in its later form, takes counsel\nwith those British connoisseurs who demand of their typical American\nnot depravity of morals but deprivation of manners, not vice of heart\nbut vulgarity of speech, not badness but bumptiousness, and at least\nenough of eccentricity to make him amusing to cultivated people.\n\nNot a few of our native professors and critics are inclined to accept\nsome features of this view, perhaps in mere reaction from the unamusing\ncharacter of their own existence. They are not quite ready to subscribe\nto Mr. Kipling's statement that the real American is\n\n    \"Unkempt, disreputable, vast,\"\n\nI remember reading somewhere that Tennyson had an idea that Longfellow,\nwhen he met him, would put his feet upon the table. And it is precisely\nbecause Longfellow kept his feet in their proper place, in society as\nwell as in verse, that some critics, nowadays, would have us believe\nthat he was not a truly American poet.\n\nTraces of this curious theory of Americanism in its application to\nWashington may now be found in many places. You shall hear historians\ndescribe him as a transplanted English commoner, a second edition of\nJohn Hampden. You shall read, in a famous poem, of Lincoln as\n\n    \"New birth of our new soil, the _first_ American.\"\n\nHe knew it, I say: and by what divination? By a test more searching than\nany mere peculiarity of manners, dress, or speech; by a touchstone able\nto divide the gold of essential character from the alloy of superficial\ncharacteristics; by a standard which disregarded alike Franklin's fur\ncap and Putnam's old felt hat, Morgan's leather leggings and\nWitherspoon's black silk gown and John Adams's lace ruffles, to\nrecognize and approve, beneath these various garbs, the vital sign of\nAmerica woven into the very souls of the men who belonged to her by a\nspiritual birthright.\n\nFor what is true Americanism, and where does it reside? Not on the\ntongue, nor in the clothes, nor among the transient social forms,\nrefined or rude, which mottle the surface of human life. The log cabin\nhas no monopoly of it, nor is it an immovable fixture of the stately\npillared mansion. Its home is not on the frontier nor in the populous\ncity, not among the trees of the wild forest nor the cultured groves of\nAcademe. Its dwelling is in the heart. It speaks a score of dialects but\none language, follows a hundred paths to the same goal, performs a\nthousand kinds of service in loyalty to the same ideal which is its\nlife. True Americanism is this:\n\nTo believe that the inalienable rights of man to life, liberty, and the\npursuit of happiness are given by God.\n\nTo believe that any form of power that tramples on these rights is\nunjust.\n\nTo believe that taxation without representation is tyranny, that\ngovernment must rest upon the consent of the governed, and that the\npeople should choose their own rulers.\n\nTo believe that freedom must be safeguarded by law and order, and that\nthe end of freedom is fair play for all.\n\nTo believe not in a forced equality of conditions and estates, but in a\ntrue equalization of burdens, privileges, and opportunities.\n\nTo believe that the selfish interests of persons, classes, and sections\nmust be subordinated to the welfare of the commonwealth.\n\nTo believe that union is as much a human necessity as liberty is a\ndivine gift.\n\nTo believe, not that all people are good, but that the way to make them\nbetter is to trust the whole people.\n\nTo believe that a free state should offer an asylum to the oppressed,\nand an example of virtue, sobriety, and fair dealing to all nations.\n\nTo believe that for the existence and perpetuity of such a state a man\nshould be willing to give his whole service, in property, in labor, and\nin life.\n\nThat is Americanism; an ideal embodying itself in a people; a creed\nheated white hot in the furnace of conviction and hammered into shape on\nthe anvil of life; a vision commanding men to follow it whithersoever it\nmay lead them. And it was the subordination of the personal self to that\nideal, that creed, that vision, which gave eminence and glory to\nWashington and the men who stood with him.\n\nThis is the truth that emerges, crystalline and luminous, from the\nconflicts and confusions of the Revolution. The men who were able to\nsurrender themselves and all their interests to the pure and loyal\nservice of their ideal were the men who made good, the victors crowned\nwith glory and honor. The men who would not make that surrender, who\nsought selfish ends, who were controlled by personal ambition and the\nlove of gain, who were willing to stoop to crooked means to advance\ntheir own fortunes, were the failures, the lost leaders, and, in some\ncases, the men whose names are embalmed in their own infamy. The\nultimate secret of greatness is neither physical nor intellectual, but\nmoral. It is the capacity to lose self in the service of something\ngreater. It is the faith to recognize, the will to obey, and the\nstrength to follow, a star.\n\nWashington, no doubt, was pre-eminent among his contemporaries in\nnatural endowments. Less brilliant in his mental gifts than some, less\neloquent and accomplished than others, he had a rare balance of large\npowers which justified Lowell's phrase of \"an imperial man.\" His\nathletic vigor and skill, his steadiness of nerve restraining an\nintensity of passion, his undaunted courage which refused no necessary\nrisks and his prudence which took no unnecessary ones, the quiet\nsureness with which he grasped large ideas and the pressing energy with\nwhich he executed small details, the breadth of his intelligence, the\ndepth of his convictions, his power to apply great thoughts and\nprinciples to every-day affairs, and his singular superiority to current\nprejudices and illusions--these were gifts in combination which would\nhave made him distinguished in any company, in any age.\n\nBut what was it that won and kept a free field for the exercise of these\ngifts? What was it that secured for them a long, unbroken opportunity of\ndevelopment in the activities of leadership, until they reached the\nsummit of their perfection? It was a moral quality. It was the evident\nmagnanimity of the man, which assured the people that he was no\nself-seeker who would betray their interests for his own glory or rob\nthem for his own gain. It was the supreme magnanimity of the man, which\nmade the best spirits of the time trust him implicitly, in war and\npeace, as one who would never forget his duty or his integrity in the\nsense of his own greatness.\n\nFrom the first, Washington appears not as a man aiming at prominence or\npower, but rather as one under obligation to serve a cause. Necessity\nwas laid upon him, and he met it willingly. After Washington's\nmarvellous escape from death in his first campaign for the defence of\nthe colonies, the Rev. Samuel Davies, fourth president of Princeton\nCollege, spoke of him in a sermon as \"that heroic youth, Colonel\nWashington, whom I can but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so\nsignal a manner for some important service to his country.\" It was a\nprophetic voice, and Washington was not disobedient to the message.\nChosen to command the Army of the Revolution in 1775, he confessed to\nhis wife his deep reluctance to surrender the joys of home, acknowledged\npublicly his feeling that he was not equal to the great trust committed\nto him, and then, accepting it as thrown upon him \"by a kind of\ndestiny,\" he gave himself body and soul to its fulfilment refusing all\npay beyond the mere discharge of his expenses, of which he kept a strict\naccount, and asking no other reward than the success of the cause which\nhe served.\n\n\"Ah, but he was a rich man,\" cries the carping critic; \"he could afford\nto do it.\" How many rich men to-day avail themselves of their\nopportunity to indulge in this kind of extravagance, toiling\ntremendously without a salary, neglecting their own estate for the\npublic benefit, seeing their property diminished without complaint, and\ncoming into serious financial embarrassment, even within sight of\nbankruptcy, as Washington did, merely for the gratification of a desire\nto serve the people? This is indeed a very singular and noble form of\nluxury. But the wealth which makes it possible neither accounts for its\nexistence nor detracts from its glory. It is the fruit of a manhood\nsuperior alike to riches and to poverty, willing to risk all, and to use\nall, for the common good.\n\nWas it in any sense a misfortune for the people of America, even the\npoorest among them, that there was a man able to advance sixty-four\nthousand dollars out of his own purse, with no other security but his\nown faith in their cause, to pay his daily expenses while he was leading\ntheir armies? This unsecured loan was one of the very things, I doubt\nnot, that helped to inspire general confidence. Even so the prophet\nJeremiah purchased a field in Anathoth, in the days when Judah was\ncaptive unto Babylon, paying down the money, seventeen shekels of\nsilver, as a token of his faith that the land would some day be\ndelivered from the enemy and restored to peaceful and orderly\nhabitation.\n\nWashington's substantial pledge of property to the cause of liberty was\nrepaid by a grateful country at the close of the war. But not a dollar\nof payment for the tremendous toil of body and mind, not a dollar for\nwork \"overtime,\" for indirect damages to his estate, for commissions on\nthe benefits which he secured for the general enterprise, for the use of\nhis name or the value of his counsel, would he receive.\n\nA few years later, when his large sagacity perceived that the\ndevelopment of internal commerce was one of the first needs of the new\ncountry, at a time when he held no public office, he became president of\na company for the extension of navigation on the rivers James and\nPotomac. The Legislature of Virginia proposed to give him a hundred and\nfifty shares of stock. Washington refused this, or any other kind of\npay, saying that he could serve the people better in the enterprise if\nhe were known to have no selfish interest in it. He was not the kind of\na man to reconcile himself to a gratuity (which is the Latinized word\nfor a \"tip\" offered to a person not in livery), and if the modern\nmethods of \"coming in on the ground-floor\" and \"taking a rake-off\" had\nbeen explained and suggested to him, I suspect that he would have\ndescribed them in language more notable for its force than for its\nelegance.\n\nIt is true, of course, that the fortune which he so willingly imperilled\nand impaired recouped itself again after peace was established, and his\nindustry and wisdom made him once more a rich man for those days. But\nwhat injustice was there in that? It is both natural and right that men\nwho have risked their all to secure for the country at large what they\ncould have secured for themselves by other means, should share in the\ngeneral prosperity attendant upon the success of their efforts and\nsacrifices for the common good.\n\nI am sick of the shallow judgment that ranks the worth of a man by his\npoverty or by his wealth at death. Many a selfish speculator dies poor.\nMany an unselfish patriot dies prosperous. It is not the possession of\nthe dollar that cankers the soul, it is the worship of it. The true test\nof a man is this: Has he labored for his own interest, or for the\ngeneral welfare? Has he earned his money fairly or unfairly? Does he use\nit greedily or generously? What does it mean to him, a personal\nadvantage over his fellow-men, or a personal opportunity of serving\nthem?\n\nThere are a hundred other points in Washington's career in which the\nsame supremacy of character, magnanimity focussed on service to an\nideal, is revealed in conduct. I see it in the wisdom with which he, a\nson of the South, chose most of his generals from the North, that he\nmight secure immediate efficiency and unity in the army. I see it in the\ngenerosity with which he praised the achievements of his associates,\ndisregarding jealous rivalries, and ever willing to share the credit of\nvictory as he was to bear the burden of defeat. I see it in the patience\nwith which he suffered his fame to be imperilled for the moment by\nreverses and retreats, if only he might the more surely guard the frail\nhope of ultimate victory for his country. I see it in the quiet dignity\nwith which he faced the Conway Cabal, not anxious to defend his own\nreputation and secure his own power, but nobly resolute to save the army\nfrom being crippled and the cause of liberty from being wrecked. I see\nit in the splendid self-forgetfulness which cleansed his mind of all\ntemptation to take personal revenge upon those who had sought to injure\nhim in that base intrigue. I read it in his letter of consolation and\nencouragement to the wretched Gates after the defeat at Camden. I hear\nthe prolonged reechoing music of it in his letter to General Knox in\n1798, in regard to military appointments, declaring his wish to \"avoid\nfeuds with those who are embarked in the same general enterprise with\nmyself.\"\n\nListen to the same spirit as it speaks in his circular address to the\ngovernors of the different States, urging them to \"forget their local\nprejudices and policies; to make those mutual concessions which are\nrequisite to the general prosperity, and in some instances to sacrifice\ntheir individual advantages to the interest of the community.\" Watch\nhow it guides him unerringly through the critical period of American\nhistory which lies between the success of the Revolution and the\nestablishment of the nation, enabling him to avoid the pitfalls of\nsectional and partisan strife, and to use his great influence with the\npeople in leading them out of the confusion of a weak confederacy into\nthe strength of an indissoluble union of sovereign States.\n\nSee how he once more sets aside his personal preferences for a quiet\ncountry life, and risks his already secure popularity, together with his\nreputation for consistency, by obeying the voice which calls him to be a\ncandidate for the Presidency. See how he chooses for the cabinet and for\nthe Supreme Court, not an exclusive group of personal friends, but men\nwho can be trusted to serve the great cause of Union with fidelity and\npower--Jefferson, Randolph, Hamilton, Knox, John Jay, Wilson, Cushing,\nRutledge. See how patiently and indomitably he gives himself to the toil\nof office, deriving from his exalted station no gain \"beyond the lustre\nwhich may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting\nhuman felicity.\" See how he retires, at last, to the longed-for joys of\nprivate life, confessing that his career has not been without errors of\njudgment, beseeching the Almighty that they may bring no harm to his\ncountry, and asking no other reward for his labors than to partake, \"in\nthe midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under\na free government, the ever favorite object of my heart.\"\n\nOh, sweet and stately words, revealing, through their calm reserve, the\ninmost secret of a life that did not flare with transient enthusiasm but\nglowed with unquenchable devotion to a cause! \"The ever favorite object\nof my heart\"--how quietly, how simply he discloses the source and origin\nof a sublime consecration, a lifelong heroism! Thus speaks the victor in\ncalm retrospect of the long battle. But if you would know the depth and\nthe intensity of the divine fire that burned within his breast you must\ngo back to the dark and icy days of Valley Forge, and hear him cry in\npassion unrestrained: \"If I know my own mind, I could offer myself a\nliving sacrifice to the butchering enemy, provided that would contribute\nto the people's ease. I would be a living offering to the savage fury\nand die by inches to save the people.\"\n\n\"_The ever favorite object of my heart_!\" I strike this note again and\nagain, insisting upon it, harping upon it; for it is the key-note of the\nmusic. It is the capacity to find such an object in the success of the\npeople's cause, to follow it unselfishly, to serve it loyally, that\ndistinguishes the men who stood with Washington and who deserve to share\nhis fame. I read the annals of the Revolution, and I find everywhere\nthis secret and searching test dividing the strong from the weak, the\nnoble from the base, the heirs of glory from the captives of oblivion\nand the inheritors of shame. It was the unwillingness to sink and forget\nself in the service of something greater that made the failures and\nwrecks of those tempestuous times, through which the single-hearted and\nthe devoted pressed on to victory and honor.\n\nTurn back to the battle of Saratoga. There were two Americans on that\nfield who suffered under a great personal disappointment: Philip\nSchuyler, who was unjustly supplanted in command of the army by General\nGates; and Benedict Arnold, who was deprived by envy of his due share in\nthe glory of winning the battle. Schuyler forgot his own injury in\nloyalty to the cause, offered to serve Gates in any capacity, and went\nstraight on to the end of his noble life giving all that he had to his\ncountry. But in Arnold's heart the favorite object was not his country,\nbut his own ambition, and the wound which his pride received at Saratoga\nrankled and festered and spread its poison through his whole nature,\nuntil he went forth from the camp, \"a leper white as snow.\"\n\nWhat was it that made Charles Lee, as fearless a man as ever lived, play\nthe part of a coward in order to hide his treason at the battle of\nMonmouth? It was the inward eating corruption of that selfish vanity\nwhich caused him to desire the defeat of an army whose command he had\nwished but failed to attain. He had offered his sword to America for his\nown glory, and when that was denied him, he withdrew the offering, and\ndied, as he had lived, to himself.\n\nWhat was it that tarnished the fame of Gates and Wilkinson and Burr and\nConway? What made their lives, and those of men like them, futile and\ninefficient compared with other men whose natural gifts were less? It\nwas the taint of dominant selfishness that ran through their careers,\nnow hiding itself, now breaking out in some act of malignity or\ntreachery. Of the common interest they were reckless, provided they\nmight advance their own. Disappointed in that \"ever favorite object of\ntheir hearts,\" they did not hesitate to imperil the cause in whose\nservice they were enlisted.\n\nTurn to other cases, in which a charitable judgment will impute no\npositive betrayal of trusts, but a defect of vision to recognize the\nclaim of the higher ideal. Tory or Revolutionist a man might be,\naccording to his temperament and conviction; but where a man begins\nwith protests against tyranny and ends with subservience to it, we look\nfor the cause. What was it that separated Joseph Galloway from Francis\nHopkinson? It was Galloway's opinion that, while the struggle for\nindependence might be justifiable, it could not be successful, and the\ntemptation of a larger immediate reward under the British crown than\ncould ever be given by the American Congress in which he had once\nserved. What was it that divided the Rev. Jacob Duch\u00c3\u00a9 from the Rev.\nJohn Witherspoon? It was Duch\u00c3\u00a9's fear that the cause for which he had\nprayed so eloquently in the first Continental Congress was doomed after\nthe capture of Philadelphia, and his unwillingness to go down with that\ncause instead of enjoying the comfortable fruits of his native wit and\neloquence in an easy London chaplaincy. What was it that cut William\nFranklin off from his professedly prudent and worldly wise old father,\nBenjamin? It was the luxurious and benumbing charm of the royal\ngovernorship of New Jersey.\n\n\"Professedly prudent\" is the phrase that I have chosen to apply to\nBenjamin Franklin. For the one thing that is clear, as we turn to look\nat him and the other men who stood with Washington, is that, whatever\ntheir philosophical professions may have been, they were not controlled\nby prudence. They were really imprudent, and at heart willing to take\nall risks of poverty and death in a struggle whose cause was just though\nits issue was dubious. If it be rashness to commit honor and life and\nproperty to a great adventure for the general good, then these men were\nrash to the verge of recklessness. They refused no peril, they withheld\nno sacrifice, in the following of their ideal.\n\nI hear John Dickinson saying: \"It is not our duty to leave wealth to our\nchildren, but it is our duty to leave liberty to them. We have counted\nthe cost of this contest, and we find nothing so dreadful as voluntary\nslavery.\" I see Samuel Adams, impoverished, living upon a pittance,\nhardly able to provide a decent coat for his back, rejecting with scorn\nthe offer of a profitable office, wealth, a title even, to win him from\nhis allegiance to the cause of America. I see Robert Morris, the wealthy\nmerchant, opening his purse and pledging his credit to support the\nRevolution, and later devoting all his fortune and his energy to restore\nand establish the financial honor of the Republic, with the memorable\nwords, \"The United States may command all that I have, except my\nintegrity.\" I hear the proud John Adams saying to his wife, \"I have\naccepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have\nconsented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and the ruin of our children\";\nand I hear her reply, with the tears running down her face, \"Well, I am\nwilling in this cause to run all risks with you, and be ruined with you,\nif you are ruined,\" I see Benjamin Franklin, in the Congress of 1776,\nalready past his seventieth year, prosperous, famous, by far the most\ncelebrated man in America, accepting without demur the difficult and\ndangerous mission to France, and whispering to his friend, Dr. Rush, \"I\nam old and good for nothing, but as the store-keepers say of their\nremnants of cloth, 'I am but a fag-end, and you may have me for what\nyou please.'\"\n\nHere is a man who will illustrate and prove, perhaps better than any\nother of those who stood with Washington, the point at which I am\naiming. There was none of the glamour of romance about old Ben Franklin.\nHe was shrewd, canny, humorous. The chivalric Southerners disliked his\nphilosophy, and the solemn New-Englanders mistrusted his jokes. He made\nno extravagant claims for his own motives, and some of his ways were not\ndistinctly ideal. He was full of prudential proverbs, and claimed to be\na follower of the theory of enlightened self-interest. But there was not\na faculty of his wise old head which he did not put at the service of\nhis country, nor was there a pulse of his slow and steady heart which\ndid not beat loyal to the cause of freedom.\n\nHe forfeited profitable office and sure preferment under the crown, for\nhard work, uncertain pay, and certain peril in behalf of the colonies.\nHe followed the inexorable logic, step by step, which led him from the\nnatural rights of his countrymen to their liberty, from their liberty\nto their independence. He endured with a grim humor the revilings of\nthose whom he called \"malevolent critics and bug-writers.\" He broke with\nhis old and dear associates in England, writing to one of them,\n\n    \"You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy and I am Yours,\n    B. Franklin.\"\n\nHe never flinched or faltered at any sacrifice of personal ease or\ninterest to the demands of his country. His patient, skilful, laborious\nefforts in France did as much for the final victory of the American\ncause as any soldier's sword. He yielded his own opinions in regard to\nthe method of making the treaty of peace with England, and thereby\nimperilled for a time his own prestige. He served as president of\nPennsylvania three times, devoting all his salary to public\nbenefactions. His influence in the Constitutional Convention was\nsteadfast on the side of union and harmony, though in many things he\ndiffered from the prevailing party. His voice was among those who hailed\nWashington as the only possible candidate for the Presidency. His last\npublic act was a petition to Congress for the abolition of slavery. At\nhis death the government had not yet settled his accounts in its\nservice, and his country was left apparently his debtor; which, in a\nsense still larger and deeper, she must remain as long as liberty\nendures and union triumphs in the Republic.\n\nIs not this, after all, the root of the whole matter? Is not this the\nthing that is vitally and essentially true of all those great men,\nclustering about Washington, whose fame we honor and revere with his?\nThey all left the community, the commonwealth, the race, in debt to\nthem. This was their purpose and the ever-favorite object of their\nhearts. They were deliberate and joyful creditors. Renouncing the maxim\nof worldly wisdom which bids men \"get all you can and keep all you get,\"\nthey resolved rather to give all they had to advance the common cause,\nto use every benefit conferred upon them in the service of the general\nwelfare, to bestow upon the world more than they received from it, and\nto leave a fair and unblotted account of business done with life which\nshould show a clear balance in their favor.\n\nThus, in brief outline, and in words which seem poor and inadequate, I\nhave ventured to interpret anew the story of Washington and the men who\nstood with him: not as a stirring ballad of battle and danger, in which\nthe knights ride valiantly, and are renowned for their mighty strokes at\nthe enemy in arms; not as a philosophic epic, in which the development\nof a great national idea is displayed, and the struggle of opposing\npolicies is traced to its conclusion; but as a drama of the eternal\nconflict in the soul of man between self-interest in its Protean forms,\nand loyalty to the right, service to a cause, allegiance to an ideal.\n\nThose great actors who played in it have passed away, but the same drama\nstill holds the stage. The drop-curtain falls between the acts; the\nscenery shifts; the music alters; but the crisis and its issues are\nunchanged, and the parts which you and I play are assigned to us by our\nown choice of \"the ever favorite object of our hearts.\"\n\nMen tell us that the age of ideals is past, and that we are now come to\nthe age of expediency, of polite indifference to moral standards, of\ncareful attention to the bearing of different policies upon our own\npersonal interests. Men tell us that the rights of man are a poetic\nfiction, that democracy has nothing in it to command our allegiance\nunless it promotes our individual comfort and prosperity, and that the\nwhole duty of a citizen is to vote with his party and get an office for\nhimself, or for some one who will look after him. Men tell us that to\nsucceed means to get money, because with that all other good things can\nbe secured. Men tell us that the one thing to do is to promote and\nprotect the particular trade, or industry, or corporation in which we\nhave a share: the laws of trade will work out that survival of the\nfittest which is the only real righteousness, and if we survive that\nwill prove that we are fit. Men tell us that all beyond this is\nphantasy, dreaming, Sunday-school politics: there is nothing worth\nliving for except to get on in the world; and nothing at all worth\ndying for, since the age of ideals is past.\n\nIt is past indeed for those who proclaim, or whisper, or in their hearts\nbelieve, or in their lives obey, this black gospel. And what is to\nfollow? An age of cruel and bitter jealousies between sections and\nclasses; of hatted and strife between the Haves and the Have-nots; of\nfutile contests between parties which have kept their names and confused\ntheir principles, so that no man may distinguish them except as the Ins\nand Outs. An age of greedy privilege and sullen poverty, of blatant\nluxury and curious envy, of rising palaces and vanishing homes, of\nstupid frivolity and idiotic publicomania; in which four hundred gilded\nfribbles give monkey-dinners and Louis XV. revels, while four million\nungilded gossips gape at them and read about them in the newspapers. An\nage when princes of finance buy protection from the representatives of a\nfierce democracy; when guardians of the savings which insure the lives\nof the poor, use them as a surplus to pay for the extravagances of the\nrich; and when men who have climbed above their fellows on golden\nladders, tremble at the crack of the blackmailer's whip and come down at\nthe call of an obscene newspaper. An age when the python of political\ncorruption casts its \"rings\" about the neck of proud cities and\nsovereign States, and throttles honesty to silence and liberty to death.\nIt is such an age, dark, confused, shameful, that the sceptic and the\nscorner must face, when they turn their backs upon those ancient shrines\nwhere the flames of faith and integrity and devotion are flickering like\nthe deserted altar-fires of a forsaken worship.\n\nBut not for us who claim our heritage in blood and spirit from\nWashington and the men who stood with him,--not for us of other tribes\nand kindred who\n\n    \"Have found a fatherland upon this shore,\"\n\nand learned the meaning of manhood beneath the shelter of liberty,--not\nfor us, nor for our country, that dark apostasy, that dismal outlook! We\nsee the palladium of the American ideal--goddess of the just eye, the\nunpolluted heart, the equal hand--standing as the image of Athene stood\nabove the upper streams of Simois:\n\n\"It stood, and sun and moonshine rained their light\n  On the pure columns of its glen-built hall.\nBackward and forward rolled the waves of fight\n  Round Troy--but while this stood Troy could not fall.\"\n\nWe see the heroes of the present conflict, the men whose allegiance is\nnot to sections but to the whole people, the fearless champions of fair\nplay. We hear from the chair of Washington a brave and honest voice\nwhich cries that our industrial problems must be solved not in the\ninterest of capital, nor of labor, but of the whole people. We believe\nthat the liberties which the heroes of old won with blood and sacrifice\nare ours to keep with labor and service.\n\n    \"All that our fathers wrought With true prophetic thought, Must be\n    defended.\"\n\nNo privilege that encroaches upon those liberties is to be endured. No\nlawless disorder that imperils them is to be sanctioned. No class that\ndisregards or invades them is to be tolerated.\n\nThere is a life that is worth living now, as it was worth living in the\nformer days, and that is the honest life, the useful life, the unselfish\nlife, cleansed by devotion to an ideal. There is a battle that is worth\nfighting now, as it was worth fighting then, and that is the battle for\njustice and equality. To make our city and our State free in fact as\nwell as in name; to break the rings that strangle real liberty, and to\nkeep them broken; to cleanse, so far as in our power lies, the fountains\nof our national life from political, commercial, and social corruption;\nto teach our sons and daughters, by precept and example, the honor of\nserving such a country as America--that is work worthy of the finest\nmanhood and womanhood. The well born are those who are born to do that\nwork. The well bred are those who are bred to be proud of that work. The\nwell educated are those who see deepest into the meaning and the\nnecessity of that work. Nor shall their labor be for naught, nor the\nreward of their sacrifice fail them. For high in the firmament of human\ndestiny are set the stars of faith in mankind, and unselfish courage,\nand loyalty to the ideal; and while they shine, the Americanism of\nWashington and the men who stood with him shall never, never die.\n\n\nTHE END","title":"The Americanism of Washington","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":6397}