1739.]

THE IDEAL AMERICAN.

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must excuse this instance of prolixity. It seemed desirable to connect the consideration of an unpopular virtue with the character of one, confessedly the first of men, in whom it was so strikingly operative. Acknowledging at the outset that we look upon Washington as the ideal American man-not the slow and dogged Saxon, or the mercurial and chivalric Norman, but a product of both, and different from both-it follows that in making him a pattern, the American rises toward a high point of virtue; in departing from such a model he sinks to a lower grade. When we have seen an American of nobler and more admirable character -for we shall never propose a foreign model to a nation that has no prototype-we may, without loss, set aside this one, vouchsafed us by Almighty Providence as a birth-gift to our young republic, at once a pattern for its character and a promise of its fortune. The selfcontrol, the economy, the courage, the enterprise, the public spirit, the religiousness, which distinguished Washington, are the component points of the true American character, which has little ancestral prestige or inspiration to rely on, which has no "privilege" to shield corruption, no "caste" to dignify vice. Our wealth is suddenly acquired, bringing of course great necessity for self-control; it is continually changing hands, making economical habits peculiarly necessary. Our vast resources originating vast designs, enterprise becomes a splendid quality; the facility occasioned by a division of responsibility, is too often the source of

official corruption; true public spirit-the vital spark of national self-government-is the most difficult of virtues. Self-assertion and worldliness being our everpresent snare, amid such unexampled opportunities of material prosperity, religion is our best safeguard and highest wisdom-the only citadel of our liberties, the only voucher for their perpetuity. When we remember these things, let us remember also, that Washington was the model in all of them; and, wisely looking back to first causes in so important a matter, let us not disdain to lay foundations of character, upon which it shall at least be possible for so high and noble a struc ture to stand.

God pardon us for ever holding lightly so great a blessing as this model; for praising Washington in words, while we set aside his example, as not suited to what, we persuade ourselves, is an advance in the spirit of the age.

Circumstances and customs change, but the standard of character is eternal.

CHAPTER V.

Out-of-door habits-Alfred the Great, and Napoleon-Influence on a generous mind of wide possessions and the power they confer-Plantation life-Field school"Old Hobby "-Mother's practice of reading with her children-The Great AuditThe widow's lot-Was Washington deficient in tenderness?-Softening power of pity-Early love affairs-Washington's later gravity-Love of children-Its advantages-Proofs of goodness of heart.

Ir was, as we have said, a life-long advantage to Washington to have been bred up with simple habits, an inextinguishable love of the open air, and a relish for out-door amusements. That he was so, is evident in all histories of him. He never liked to be in the house when the weather was fine; and it was one of the trials of his self-denying spirit, when he had become involved in state affairs, that he was obliged to spend so many days and weeks shut up in councils and offices, when his heart was longing for the free blue sky and the fresh bracing wind, for his horse and his gun.

We must be allowed to connect this hearty love of the country, its unceremonious and sincere habits and primitive interests, with the courage, the truthfulness, the industry, and the complete unaffectedness of Washington.

Cities have bred great men, but of another stamp. Alfred the Great, to whom Washington has been compared, loved the country quite as well, and we hardly hear of him any where else; Napoleon, the opposite of Washington in almost every thing, cared nothing about it, and never showed any desire for rural scenes and pleasures. Lord Bacon, between whose intellect and Washington's there must have been some resemblance of original structure, if we may judge from internal evidences to be gathered from their respective styles, only fully lived while he had trees over his head, and Mother Earth in all her freshness under his feet.

There must be something, too, in the possession of wide ancestral domains; in the habit of contemplating and planning for extensive tracts, with all their variety of aspect, production and value, and the feeling of independence and abundance induced by plantation life on a large scale. Even the fact of holding slaves, when the holder is a George Washington, with his high sense of responsibility and his never-failing humanity and respect for human nature, tends, like other aristocratic institutions, to bring out some excellent traits of character, for which there is comparatively little occasion in town life. A wide neighborhood of independent gentlemen, each a prince in his own domain, yet subject to that most efficient police, the opinion of his peers; in the constant interchange of civilities and kindnesses, but wholly free in the expression of sentiment;

1744.]

IDEAS, IN THOSE EARLY TIMES.

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must have afforded, when the main feature of their lives and habits had hardly yet been mooted as a moral, much less as a political question, grand soil for the production of manly and Christian virtues. Judging them by their times, and not by ours, by what they did, when occasion offered, rather than by what we think, now that there is comparatively little to be done for the happy land they left us, we must confess that plantation life wore then and there its best aspect, and offered its most effective strength; and that slavery did all it ever can do, and more than its wiser advocates will venture to claim for it in our day, in cultivation of the generous affections, and refinement of the manners of those who were born and bred to it. In Washington's early days there does not seem to have been a misgiving as to the nature of the institution, although there were very decided opinions as to the infamy of maltreatment of those helpless creatures, by any man who had a character to lose. In his early days, we say advisedly, for afterwards it was very different.

The plain, humble home on Pope's Creek; the stout, kind, planter papa, and serious, housewifely mother; that primitive and retired mode of life, and its various calls upon the higher elements of character, influenced, evidently, the whole future of the General, President, Benefactor of nations. He wore their impress through all the toils and all the honors that distinguished him from the rest of mankind. Through the whole of his grand career, whenever the pressure of duty relented,