WASHINGTON

The brilliant historian of the English people* has written of
Washington, that "no nobler figure ever stood in the fore-front
of a nation's life." In any book which undertakes to tell, no
matter how slightly, the story of some of the heroic deeds of
American history, that noble figre must always stand in the
fore-front. But to sketch the life of Washington even in the
barest outline is to write the history of the events which made
the United States independent and gave birth to the American
nation. Even to give alist of what he did, to name his battles
and recount his acts as president, would be beyond the limit and
the scope of this book. Yet it is always possible to recall the
man and to consider what he was and what he meant for us and for
mankind He is worthy the study and the remembrance of all men,
and to Americans he is at once a great glory of their past and an
inspiration and an assurance of their future.

*John Richard Green.


To understand Washington at all we must first strip off all the
myths which have gathered about him. We must cast aside into the
dust-heaps all the wretched inventions of the cherry-tree
variety, which were fastened upon him nearly seventy years after
his birth. We must look at him as he looked at life and the facts
about him, without any illusion or deception, and no man in
history can better stand such a scrutiny.