Chapter I: Preface

The popular idea of Washington has recently begun to veer away from the vision of an eighteenth century demigod in a wig,--an old-fashioned statue in dusky bronze, stern and forbidding. We are swinging around toward the idea of a loveable, fallible, very human personality with humor, a hot temper, and a genuine love of pleasure.

Accordingly, in gathering material for this book the editor has passed by those earlier writers who are mainly responsible for this distorted view; and he has aimed to gather here the essays, orations poems, stories, and exercises which best exhibit the modern conception of Washington; together with a selection from his own writings and the finest of the elder tributes to the memory of our greatest National Hero.

NOTE

The Editor and Publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to Houghton, Mifflin & Company; Doubleday, Page & Company; J.B. Lippincott & Co.; Mr. David McKay, John Macy, and others who have very kindly granted permission to reprint selections from works bearing their copyright.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I THE DAY

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY _Oliver Wendell Holmes_ WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY _Margaret E. Sangster_ THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON _Anonymous_ WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY _George Howland_ WASHINGTON AND OUR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES _Charles W. Eliot_ CROWN OUR WASHINGTON _Hezekiah Butterworth_ WASHINGTON-MONTH _Will Carleton_

II EARLY YEARS

A GLIMPSE OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE _Grace B. Johnson_ SOMETHING OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD _Anonymous_ WASHINGTON'S TRAINING _Charles Wentworth Upham_ WASHINGTON AS HE LOOKED

III THE GENERAL

WASHINGTON IS APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF _Sydney George Fisher_ WASHINGTON AT TRENTON _Richard Watson Gilder_ GEORGE WASHINGTON VALLEY FORGE _Henry Armitt Brown_ WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE _Canon R.G. Sutherland_ A FRENCHMAN'S ESTIMATE OF WASHINGTON IN 1781 _Claude C. Robin_

IV THE PRESIDENT

WASHINGTON AND THE CONSTITUTION _John M. Harlan_ WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION _Edward S. Ellis_ WASHINGTON _Mary Wingate_ WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION _Edward Everett Hale_ WASHINGTONIANA LESSONS FROM THE WASHINGTON CENTENNIAL _George A. Gordon_ PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RECEPTIONS _William Sullivan_ THE FOREIGN POLICY OF WASHINGTON _Charles James Fox_

V LAST DAYS

GEORGE WASHINGTON _Hamilton Wright Mabie_ WASHINGTON'S LAST DAYS _Elisabeth Eggleston Seelye_ THE MOUNT VERNON TRIBUTE THE WORDS OF WASHINGTON _Daniel Webster_

VI TRIBUTES

MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON _Henry B. Carrington_ FROM THE "COMMEMORATION ODE" _Harriet Monroe_ WASHINGTON'S STATUE _Henry Theodore Tuckerman_ TRIBUTES WASHINGTON'S NAME IN THE HALL OF FAME _Margaret E. Sangster_ ESTIMATES OF WASHINGTON WASHINGTON'S RELIGIOUS CHARACTER _William M'Kinley_ WASHINGTON _Anonymous_

VII WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY

THE HIGHEST PEDESTAL _William E. Gladstone_ WASHINGTON IN HISTORY _Chauncey M. Depew_ TO THE SHADE OF WASHINGTON _Richard Alsop_ THE MAJESTIC EMINENCE OF WASHINGTON _Chauncey M. Depew_ FOR A LITTLE PUPIL _Anonymous_ WASHINGTON'S FAME _Asher Robbins_ WASHINGTON, THE BRIGHTEST NAME ON HISTORY'S PAGE _Eliza Cook_ WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT

VIII THE WHOLE MAN

GEORGE WASHINGTON _John Hall Ingham_ HISTORICAL MEMORABILIA OF WASHINGTON _H.B. Carrington_ A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF WASHINGTON _Henry Mitchell MacCracken_ THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON _Daniel Webster_ MOUNT VERNON, THE HOME OF WASHINGTON _William Day_ THE UNSELFISHNESS OF WASHINGTON _Robert Treat Paine_ THE GENIUS OF WASHINGTON _Edwin P. Whipple_ WASHINGTON'S SERVICE TO EDUCATION _Charles W.E. Chapin_ ADDRESS AT THE DEDICATION OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT _John W. Daniel_ THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON _Henry Cabot Lodge_

IX ANECDOTES AND STORIES

ANECDOTES OF WASHINGTON THE ABUSE OF WASHINGTON _Thomas Wentworth Higginson_ PROVIDENTIAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON _Irving Allen_ CHARACTERISTICS OF WASHINGTON GREAT GEORGE WASHINGTON _Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith_ HEADQUARTERS IN 1776 _Paul Leicester Ford_

X SELECTIONS FROM WASHINGTON'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS

SELECTIONS FROM THE RULES OF CIVILITY SAID BY WASHINGTON WASHINGTON BEFORE THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND, AUGUST, 1776 FROM VARIOUS LETTERS, SPEECHES, AND ADDRESSES WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL TO THE ARMY PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RESPONSE TO THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR ON RECEIPT OF THE COLORS OF FRANCE, 1769 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS

XI EXERCISES

DECORATIONS FOR WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY EXERCISES SOME YEARS IN WASHINGTON'S LIFE _M. Lizzie Stanley_ SOMETHING BETTER _Clara J. Denton_ THE STATES CROWNING WASHINGTON _Kate Bowles Sherwood_ THE NEW GEORGE WASHINGTON _Anonymous_ IN PRAISE OF WASHINGTON