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Excerpt: We cannot think with a true vision, in estimating the meaning of colonial and revolutionary days, if we allow the glamor of fame and the idolatry of colonial patriotism to obscure our view of those times. There were heroes immortal with what we know as "the spirit of '76," but, grading from them were the good, bad and indifferent, that often seemed overwhelming in numbers. George Washington is known chiefly through the rather stilted style of writing that then prevailed, and the puritanic expressions that were used in describing commendable conduct. Even Washington's writings were edited so as not to offend sensitive ears, and so as not to give an impression to the reader different from the idealized orthodox character of that severe pioneer civilization. The people were free in everything but social expression. That was sternly required to conform to a rigid puritanic or cavalier standard. Washington, more than any other great man, seems to have composed his early life from what some well-meaning reformers have termed "copy-book morality;" that is, proverbial morality or personal rules of conduct. Washington in his boyhood wrote out many moral sentences as reminders for his own guidance. He was a persistent searcher after the right way toward the right life. Washington's mother is described as being stern in business and moral discipline, even as having a violent temper and being capable of very severe measures to accomplish needed results. It seems that Washington, seeing this method in both father and mother, reinforced, as it were, by the military bearing of his much-admired elder half-brother, took that form of life as his earliest ideal. He was as tireless in perfecting models of business and life as Lincoln was in mastering the unconventional meaning of human beings. Washington at the ages of eleven and twelve delighted to copy various book-keeping forms and mercantile documents. His school books at that age are still preserved and they are models of accuracy and neatness. Besides that, he loved to discipline himself. He was always subjecting himself, either mentally or physically, to some kind of orderly training.
Chapter 1 M. Stevens
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"The ingenuous youth of America will hold up to themselves the bright model of Washington's example, and study to be what they behold; they will contemplate his character, till all his virtues spread out and display themselves to their delighted vision; as the earliest astronomers, the shepherds on the plains of Babylon, gazed at the stars till they saw them form into clusters and constellations, overpowering at length the eyes of the beholders with the united blaze of a thousand lights."-Webster.
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Inspiration Series of Patriotic Americans
THE
WONDERFUL STORY
OF WASHINGTON
AND THE MEANING OF HIS LIFE
FOR THE YOUTH AND PATRIOTISM
OF AMERICA
By C. M. STEVENS
Author of "The Wonderful Story of Lincoln"
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
Copyright, 1917, by
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
* * *
CONTENTS
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Chapter 1 M. Stevens
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Chapter 2 EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE FIRST AMERICAN HERO 1732
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Chapter 3 A COMMUNITY PROUD OF ITS FAMILY HONOR
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Chapter 4 GETTING USED TO ROUGHING IT
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Chapter 5 LAND SPECULATION AS THE BEGINNING LEADING TO AMERICAN SELF-GOVERNMENT
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Chapter 6 THE FIRST GREAT PROBLEMS OF THE INDIANS
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Chapter 7 ALARM FOR THE FUTURE
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Chapter 8 ANNOYANCES AND ANTAGONISMS
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Chapter 9 DISHONORS AND DISASTERS
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Chapter 10 THE SEPARATION BEGINNING BETWEEN THE COLONIES AND ENGLAND
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Chapter 11 LESSONS GATHERED FROM DEFEAT
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Chapter 12 FRONTIER FEARS AND PANICS
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Chapter 13 POLITICAL INTRIGUE AND OFFICIAL CONFUSION
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Chapter 14 MILITARY VICTORY AND A HAPPY MARRIAGE
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Chapter 15 LIFE FULFILLED AS A VIRGINIA COUNTRY GENTLEMAN
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Chapter 16 MOUNT VERNON AT FIRST IN A ZONE OF CALM
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Chapter 17 GIVING THE APPEARANCE AND KEEPING THE SUBSTANCE
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Chapter 18 BLAZING THE WAY TO WAR
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Chapter 19 THE DOUBLE-QUICK MARCH TO REVOLUTION
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Chapter 20 SUPPRESSING AMERICANS
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Chapter 21 THE BUSINESS OF GETTING READY
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Chapter 22 UNPATRIOTIC CONFUSION OF OPINIONS AND INTERESTS
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Chapter 23 SOMETIMES TOO LATE TO MEND
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Chapter 24 THE FIRST COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
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Chapter 25 BIG BUSINESS, MONEY-MAKERS AND PATRIOTISM
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Chapter 26 SEEKING RETIREMENT FOR LIFE IN THE PEACE OF A COUNTRY HOME
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Chapter 27 FREEDOM AND THE WRANGLE FOR PERSONAL GAIN
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Chapter 28 SORROW FOR THE DEPARTED SCENES AROUND MOUNT VERNON
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Chapter 29 CROWNED IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME 1799
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Chapter 30 FOUNDATIONS
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Chapter 31 FREEDOM OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
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Chapter 32 THE WASHINGTON IDEAL AS THE FIRST GREAT AMERICAN IDEAL
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Chapter 33 NOT BIRTH BUT CHARACTER MAKES AMERICANS
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Chapter 34 THE AMERICAN LESSON LEARNED FROM THE GREATEST LEADERS IN THE MAKING OF AMERICA
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