The True George Washington [10th Ed.]

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

SHARPLESS MINIATURE OF WASHINGTON, 1795
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.