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THE CHARACTER 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 ARTHUR W. LITTLE, L.H.D. 
 
 CHAl'LAIN OF THE SOCIETY OF THE SONS OF THE REVOLUTION IN THE STATE 
 OF ILLINOIS, RECTOR OF ST. MARk's CHURCH, FVANSTON 
 
 AN EXTEMPORE SERMON PREACHED BEFORE TJ^E SOqiEJY 
 
 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY, 1903 
 
 Stenographed by Mr. R. H. Wyman, a Son of the Revolution 
 Printed bv order of the Society 
 
 milwaukee, wis. 
 Young Churchman Co. 
 
THE LIBRARY OF 
 CONORESS, 
 
 Two Copies 
 
 Received 
 
 JUN 
 
 24 
 
 1903 
 
 (\ Copy 
 
 ignt 
 
 t-rilty 
 
 
 8-- 
 
 IC{0i' 
 
 CLASS 
 
 o^ 
 
 XXc. No. 
 
 1^1 
 
 ^ 
 
 XJ- 
 
 COPY 
 
 B. 
 
 Copyright, 1903, by 
 A«jMui^ W. Little. 
 
 
 U 
 
 1^ 
 
The Character of Washington 
 
 TEXT: — "Zy^/ ui nozv praise famous men and our fathers that hcgat us. 
 The Lord hath wrought great glory hy thrm.'''' Ecclesiasticus XLIV, 1-2. 
 
 It is well to remember Jli^ great and the good in Church 
 and in State. The recurring festivals of the Christian 
 Year, commemorating notable events in the life of the 
 Founder of Christianity or in the lives of the Apostles. 
 Saints, Martyrs of the Early Church, are examples of this 
 custom — examples salutary and lieneficent. 
 
 The same principle applies to our great national anni- 
 versary which is called Independence Day or the Fourth 
 of July, to Lincoln's birthday, and to the day we are now 
 celebrating — the Twenty-second of February. 
 
 I never think of the subject of Patriotism without first 
 of all thinking of that great man, Vjorn this day, who, and 
 who alone, is entitled to be called ''The Father of His 
 Country." God has raised up many great men for us, espe- 
 cially in times of national danger and distress. But George 
 Washington, above all men that this country has ever pro- 
 duced, and, 1 think, above all men that any nation has ever 
 produced, has set a high, noble and exalted standard of 
 patriotism and love of country. Let us, therefore, this 
 morning contem])1ate him as a man, as a Christian, as a 
 general and as a statesman. 
 
4 THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 
 
 Mis character as a man is one of the richest and most 
 precious of onr inheritances as a nation. Xo man ever 
 hxed wlio had, in my opinion, so perfect a lialance of virtues 
 as George Washington. It is quite impossil)le to sum up 
 and give in a single word the chief characteristics of his 
 mind and heart. Perhaps you will find them at least suh- 
 slantially grouped under a conspicuous and patient equan- 
 imity and self-mastery ; and in these things, taken all in 
 all. he never had a superior, and I think ne\-er an equal, in 
 history. 
 
 Hannihal was a greater general. Caesar was a greater 
 general and, perhaps, a greater statesman. Napoleon was 
 a greater general and certainly a more brilliant statesman. 
 But not one of them approached him in his perfect balance 
 of virtues and in the roundness and completeness of his 
 character. Perhaps Moses of old, and in more recent times 
 King Alfred the Great, are the only characters of history 
 that approach the Father of His Country. 
 
 Among his man}" virtues, one of the most conspicuous 
 was truthfulness. A glorious virtue! the al)sence of ^^■hich 
 is not only a blot upon character, but is the absolute ruin 
 of all that is lieautiful and admiral)le in human life. The 
 higher critics tell us that the stor_\- of Washington ar.d 
 the hatchet is no longer to l)e regarded as true. Neverthe- 
 less, it is at least of svmbolic and allegorical \'alue. If it 
 be not true, it is safe to say that it would ha\-e been true, if 
 the alleged circumstances had e\er arisen. Honest all 
 through his life, he was a man of absolute integrity which 
 nothing could shake and nothing cnnld corrupt. Indeed, 
 it is said that when, as a wealthv planter, he shii)pcd a 
 
THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 5 
 
 great deal of the produce of his plantation to the West 
 India Islands, the custom house officers never cared to in- 
 spect any goods marked, "George Washington, Mt. Ver- 
 non." They knew that every article that came from him 
 was exactly what it purported to be. Who would not 
 rather have such a tribute of praise from the custom house 
 officers than to be able to smuggle in priceless cases of 
 jewels and lace? 
 
 \\'ashington was a man of clean and pure life, a man 
 who from boyhood to old age needed not to be ashamed 
 in the presence of man or woman; he could always look 
 another in the eye. Furthermore, he was always a man 
 of moral earnestness, diligence, punctuality, modesty, dig- 
 nity, calmness, courtesy, and above all of a sensible and 
 manly piety, a piety without cant, without hypocrisy, with- 
 (^ut display, loving, noble, self-respecting, humble. There 
 is for all of us a valuable lesson in this very fact, that 
 he could be a religious. God-fearing man without any of the 
 disagreeable cant, long-facedness and austerity which have 
 too often marred the cheerful and manly religion of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Washington was a man who loved nature, who loved ani- 
 mals, who loved little children. There is something wrong 
 in the moral make-up of the man who does not love nature, 
 and does not love animals, and does not love little children. 
 He loved them all, and found place for them all in his 
 capacious heart. Furthermore, he was always respectful, 
 courteous and affable to women. He was kind to slaves. 
 Indeed, in his heart he was a wise and judicious abolition- 
 ist. He did not approve of slavery, though, like Saint 
 
6 THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 
 
 Paul, he knew that slavery was so gigantic an institution 
 and so rooted in the commnnity that it could not be abol- 
 ished at once. But he set an example by freeing his (nvn 
 slaves. 
 
 I have somewhere read the story that at one time he was 
 walking along the roadside near his old home in the com- 
 pany of a very proud and haughty officer, when a negro 
 passed them and, meekly stepping out of the wav. bowed 
 to these gentlemen. Washington, with his wonted cour- 
 tesy, returned the bow. The other man said to him con- 
 temptuously, "Do you bow to niggers?'" Washington re- 
 plied, "Would you have me less polite than the poor col- 
 ored man ?" 
 
 He did those duties that pertained to him in his boyhood 
 faithfully and well. As a young man. after he became a 
 surveyor, penetrating through the wilderness of \'irginia, 
 he did his surveying well. As a woodsman and hunter he 
 excelled, and was a master of all that pertained to wood- 
 craft. As a wealthy planter, a A'irginian of the old school, 
 he did his duty in that state of life, and did it well. As a 
 vestryman of his parish church, he did his work well. In his 
 faithful attendance upon divine service, in his lovaltv to 
 the old Church, in the example that he set to all his neigh- 
 bors, he did well. As a meml)er of the House of Burgesses, 
 that is to say, a representative to the Legislature of the 
 Colony of \^irginia. he did his work well. There is a beau- 
 tiful picture, only too brief, of Washington in the 
 character of a ])lanter and burgess, a colonel of militia and 
 a gentleman of old \'irginia. which you will find in Thack- 
 eray's 'A^irginians," which T beliexe to be a substantial! v 
 
THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 7 
 
 true picture of W'ashiugtou in his earlier days before the 
 Revohition. As a soldier and a statesman, lie did his work 
 more than well. 
 
 It is, of course, in the eight years' struggle out of which 
 our nation, as a nation, was born that the glory and the 
 sublimity of his character are most conspicuous. Here we 
 see that, alike in adversity and in prosperity, he always pre- 
 served that perfect loalance of mind which we may call 
 e([uanimitv. I know of no example of a man who remained 
 so absolutely calm and unmoved, whether in victory or in. 
 defeat, as did this anas andron, this veritable king of men. 
 
 One of his particular accomplishments as a general was 
 not merely the calmness and dignity with which he endured 
 defeat, but the skill with which he rose superior to mis- 
 fortune. As a young man, after the disastrous defeat of 
 the British and Colonial troops under General Braddock, it 
 was Colonel Washington who saved the remnant of that 
 unfortunate army, and conducted with masterh- skill what 
 is said to be one of the longest continuous retreats in mar- 
 tial history. Nor did he forget, even in the anguish of that 
 defeat, his religious duties. As the chaplain of the regi- 
 ment had lieen killed, \\'ashing"ton read the Office of the 
 Dead over the dust and for the soul of the brave, strong, 
 stubborn and unfortunate Braddock. 
 
 Alas ! that so many of the gallant British officers of to- 
 day seem not yet to have learned the lesson of "Braddock's 
 Defeat." 
 
 Again, in the remarka1)le retreat across Xew Jersey, he 
 displayed a skill and generalship which are realK' deserving 
 of higher praise than the w inning of many a victory. 
 
8 THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 
 
 During" the long and desperate struggle of the war, he 
 was left without adequate resources in the wa}- of officers 
 and men, arms and ammunition, clothing and commissary 
 supplies, and with a great lack of enthusiasm and loyalty 
 throughout the army and throughout the land. In meas- 
 uring, therefore, his greatness as a general, we must n(<i 
 judge of victories per sc, hut of victories won m spite of 
 adverse circumstances, and of disasters transmuted into suc- 
 cess. Frederick the Great, who was considered the ahle.-t 
 general of the w^orld during the eighteenth century, said 
 that Washington's victories from the 25th of Decemher, 
 1776, to the 4th of January, 1777, were the most brilliant 
 recorded in the pages of history. 
 
 But perhaps the grandeur of his character shone forth 
 more than ever in the melancholy and desperate winter in 
 Valley Forge. There, with his starving, sick and dying 
 men, whose privations he shared, he bore up with a cour- 
 age, wdth a fortitude and with a cheerfulness that are the 
 wonder and amazement of all who read that pathetic his- 
 tory. Then, too, were conspicuously seen his habits 
 of devotion and trust in God. You all doubtless 
 remember the stor}- of the old Quaker who. out in 'lIk- 
 woods, heard a voice, and peering through the trees saw 
 Washington's horse tied, and, near by. the great Com- 
 mander in Chief kneeling upon his knees and praying aloud 
 to God. casting all his cares upon Him. And you know 
 how the Quaker went Imuie and told his wife that he was 
 sure of the success of the Continental ami)-, for God would 
 hear such prayers as those. 
 
 There is a special lesson for us here, and particularly it 
 
THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 9 
 
 mav be, for some of y(Xi men and boys wbo are sometimes 
 tempted to think it is not a manly thint^" to pray. Bnt I 
 tell von it is a manly thing. Xot only that, bnt it is the 
 greatest of pri\ileges that we, poor and weak as we are, 
 have access to the Throne of Divine Strength, that we may 
 lay all our cares and burdens there, and find grace to help 
 in every time of need. 
 
 At last there came the time which is described by an 
 English poet in these words : 
 
 "When the tide of war was turned on their foes, 
 And the eagle in air triumphant arose, 
 And the shout was heard o'er land and sea: 
 'Our cause is blest and Columbia free.' " 
 
 It followed, as a matter of course — for who could gain- 
 say or oppose it? — that the man who had led our feeble 
 f(^rces to glorious victory should be chosen to l)e the first 
 President of the now organized and united States — the 
 onh- man wIkj has been unanimousl}- chosen t(» that high 
 office. 
 
 I cannot take the time this morning to descril)e his eigh.l 
 \ ears' administration. But surelv never a chief magistrate 
 was called upon to guide a ship of state through more peril- 
 ous breaker^ than was the first pilot of our ship. That 
 same- English poet from whom I have already (pioted says: 
 
 "Then wisdom spoke in that chieftain's voice, 
 When called to rule by the people's choice; 
 But soon, for his country's wish too soon. 
 He resigned his sway, that country's boon; 
 Retired again to the sylvan shade, 
 To the ploughshare turned his patriot blade; 
 And greater than king, in his jeweled crown, 
 Was he when he laid that greatness down. " 
 
 There is something in the character, in the bearing, in 
 the work of this great statesman, and in the humble laying 
 
10 THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 
 
 aside of his i^'lni'v and retiring to ])ri\ate life, that seems to 
 lift him alxive the plane of mankind, lie has in these re- 
 spects, as in most others, no sni)erior, and scarcely an eqnal 
 in all histor)-. .\nti(|nit}' wonld ha\e placed him among tlie 
 gods of ()lympns, and wcudd ha\e reared to him many a 
 nohle temple and many a smoking altar, as to Hercules, 
 when his t\vel\e laliors were performed. 
 
 Washington was as charming and attractive in his per- 
 sonal life and manners as he \Nas great and glorious in char- 
 acter. .\nd to-day his memor_\' is almost as dear to the 
 nation against which he fought as it is to the nation whose 
 Father jie is. 
 
 And vet we cannot say that Washington was al)solutel\' 
 perfect. We cannot say that of any mere man. Indeed, 
 though T almost hate to say so, there is a certain satisfac- 
 tion to us in the knowledge that he did at least occasional]}' 
 lose his temper, and that, like Moses, he "spake unadvisedly 
 with his lips." 
 
 Under |)ro^•ocation which wnuld ha\e tempted a saint, 
 at the hattle of Alonmoi-th. \\hen the treason, or the stu- 
 pidit}', of Lee was hringing ahout a terril)le disaster to 
 Washington's army, we are told that Washington did lose 
 his temper, and that he swore. But these very things, 
 microscopic l)lots upon the solar radiance of his character, 
 only remind us that he was a iiuin, and keep us from he- 
 lie\ing him to ha\-e been so wholl_\- aho\e us that it is impos- 
 sible for us to imitate him. riuw make us helieve that 
 after all he was but a man, of true human nature, a man 
 "of like ])assions with ou.rseKes." 
 
 1 know of no character in histoiw who seems to ha\"e heen 
 
THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 11 
 
 more certain!}- raisccl np of God for liis sjjecial wnrk tlian 
 was this great man. And one reason why I think lie was 
 divinely raised np is hecanse God preserxed him all throngh 
 unspeakahle perils and risks r.ntil his warfare was accom- 
 plished and his lahor ended. Few men nnderwent greater 
 hazards of life than he; yet he ne\er received, 1 mav sa} . 
 a scratch. 
 
 In the terril)le hattle known as ''Braddnck's Defeat"". 
 \\'ashington was in the \ery thickest of the hght. Two 
 horses were shot nnder him; four bullets pierced his clothes. 
 An Indian chief, who had ambushed him. and who w.as in 
 close range, bred his rifle at him again and again, while 
 the whole compan\- n\ Indians under this special chief sin- 
 gled out this one man ftir their guns and arrows. Finall} 
 that Indian chief stopped bring at him, and said, "That man 
 IS going" to become a great sachem, for he is under the protec- 
 tion of the Great Spirit." Thev could not kill him. 1 do net 
 know why their bullets went astray. The}- were keen, accu- 
 rate marksmen. 1 beliex'e Almighty God wrought a miracle 
 to save him, because He had a work for him to do. At the 
 battles of Princeton and ■Monmouth, Washington exposed 
 liimself recklessh- to the bre of the foe, \et can-ie out un- 
 scathed. .\t the battle of \'orkto\\Ti, Washington, froni his 
 advanced position, was needlessh' exposed to the bre of the 
 enemy, when General Daxid Cobb, then a Colonel on the 
 Commander's staff, rode up to him and begged him not to 
 exix)se himself to such ])eril. Washington replied: "Col- 
 onel Cobb, if von fear for vourself you ma}- retire, but 1 
 sta}' here." The}- both stayed. 
 
 In sunin-iing u[) the character of this great man. it seems 
 
12 THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 
 
 lt> nic tliat lie jiossessed sex'cral \irtues which we as a nation 
 are inchned tc) lack, and some oi which we are growing to 
 lack more and m(M"e. His calmness, his dignit}'. his judi- 
 cious conservatism — these are characteristics that are not 
 l)articnlarly conspicuous in the American people. These 
 traits were seen in his religions life. He was a member of 
 the old Church of England, a Churchman of sincere, 
 manlv. unpretentious piety and devotion in a cold, skeptical 
 and nnchurchly age. 
 
 And here I pause to say that there is a popular miscou- 
 ception as to the attitude of the Anglican Church in the 
 Colonies during the Revolution. It is commonly said, and 
 it is popularly believed, that the patriotic work of the Revo- 
 lution was done almost entirelv by the Puritans of New 
 England and their religious coiifiTi'cs in the Middle States. 
 True, they did their part with characteristic boldness, hero- 
 ism and self-sacrifice. 1 would Ije the last to belittle the 
 honorable and glorious share of the Puritans in the work of 
 Independence. It is true also that in New England, where 
 there were but few Churchmen, and they for the most part 
 new-comers who had not taken root in the soil, it is true, I 
 sav. in New England, that Churchmen were for the most 
 part "Tories" or "Royalists", and were loyal to the British 
 crown. But, after all, the great work of the Revolution 
 was not accomplished so much by the New Englanders as 
 bv the sturdy Ca\aliers of \'irginia, with the ]\[arylanders, 
 the Carolinians and the Georgians. 
 
 In praising the New Englanders, as I do. it may not be 
 out of ])lace to mention also the fact that throughout the 
 Colonies Churchmen were not generallv Tories. Of the 
 
THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 13 
 
 signers of the Declaration of Independence, ticu-t/iinis were 
 Anglican Churchmen, as were also a majority of the mem- 
 hers of the Congress that adopted the Constitution of the 
 I'nited States. And George \\'ashington was a hum1)le and 
 (le\'out communicant of the Anglo-Catholic Ch.urch. th;.' 
 old Mother Church of us all. 
 
 Finally, dear hrethren, among the man}- legacies that 
 Washington has left us, there is one which is coming to he 
 appreciated more than ever hefore, and that is the legacy 
 of friendship and love to the ^Mother Country. He had the 
 wisdom, he had the far-reaching sagacity in the days, whei^. 
 after the hitter contest everything English was hated and 
 despised, to see that it was the Alother Country of England, 
 and not France, although France had helped us, that would 
 in the future he our dearest friend, our most faithful neigh- 
 hor. our strongest ally. And in spite of opposition an 1 
 ohloquv, he expressed this conviction to many who were 
 opposed to the friendship of England in those days. It has 
 taken a long time for this lepacy, if I may so say, to he pro- 
 hated and accepted hy the American peojile, and hy 
 the English people for that matter: hut I think that now wc 
 are entering into possession. I helieve that henceforth and 
 forevermore these two great Anglo-Saxon nations — Eng- 
 land and the United States of America — will walk down 
 history hand in hand, and will stand together for the same 
 great principles of religion and justice, of liherty, of human- 
 it\- and of progress. And 1 would ha\e }'ou hehe\e that this 
 glorious consummation, fraught with hlessings to England, 
 to us and to the world, is one of the most precious of all the 
 legacies of the "Father of His Country." 
 
ILLINOIS SOCIETY SONS OF THE 
 REVOLUTION 
 
 OFFICERS FOR 1903 
 
 President, GEORGE LYON DOUGLASS, 
 
 153 La Salle Street, Chicago 
 
 First Vice-President, FOLLETT WILKINSON BULL, 
 
 The Temple, Chicago 
 
 Second Vice-President, CHARLES CROMWELL, 
 
 200 Adams Street, Chicago 
 
 Third Vice-President, LUCAS BUTTS, 
 
 Peoria, Illinois 
 
 Secretary, USAL HAGGERTY STRUBLE, Jr., 
 
 368 S. Hermitage Avenue, Chicago 
 
 Treasurer, HARRISON KELLEY, 
 
 99 Randolph Street, Chicago 
 
 Register, FREDERICK DICKINSON, 
 
 Board of Trade Building, Chicago 
 
 Chaplain, REV. ARTHUR W. LITTLE, L.H.D., 
 
 Evanston, Illinois 
 
 Historian, JOHN CROCKER FOOTE, 
 
 Belvidere, Illinois 
 
 STATE BOARD OF MANAGERS 
 
 Le Baron Loring Austin John Henry Brown 
 
 Orange Warner Ellis 
 Charles Thomson .\tkinson John Edward Case 
 
 Dr. Albert Scott Gray 
 
 William Cleveland Moulton Ernest Hammond Eversz 
 
 John Ralph Dickinson 
 
^. SI. 1908 
 
 W$4 
 

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