en foe before him and the darker
enemies at his back; Washington inspiring order and spirit into troops
hungry and in rags; stung by ingratitude, but betraying no anger, and
ever ready to forgive; in defeat invincible, magnanimous in conquest,
and never so sublime as on that day when he laid down his victorious
sword and sought his noble retirement:--here indeed is a character to
admire and revere; a life without a stain, a fame without a flaw. Quando
invenies parem? In that more extensive work, which I have planned and
partly written on the subject of this great war, I hope I have done
justice to the character of its greatest leader. [And I trust that in
the opinions I have recorded regarding him, I have shown that I also
can be just and magnanimous towards those who view me personally with
no favour. For my brother Hal being at Mount Vernon, and always eager to
bring me and his beloved Chief on good terms, showed his Excellency some
of the early sheets of my History. General Washington (who read but
few books, and had not the slightest pretensions to literary taste)
remarked, "If you will have my opinion, my dear General, I think Sir
George's projected work, from the specimen I have of it, is certain
to offend both parties."--G. E. W.]. And this from the sheer force
of respect which his eminent virtues extorted. With the young Mr.
Washington of my own early days I had not the honour to enjoy much
sympathy: though my brother, whose character is much more frank and
affectionate than mine, was always his fast friend in early times, when
they were equals, as in latter days when the General, as I do own and
think, was all mankind's superior.

I have mentioned that contrariety in my disposition, and, perhaps, in my
brother's, which somehow placed us on wrong sides in the quarrel which
ensued, and which from this time forth raged for five years, until the
mother country was fain to acknowledge her defeat. Harry should have
been the Tory, and I the Whig. Theoretically my opinions were very
much more liberal than those of my brother, who, especially after
his marriage, became what our Indian nabobs call a Bahadoor--a person
ceremonious, stately, and exacting respect. When my Lord Dunmore, for
instance, talked about liberating the negroes, so as to induce them to
join the King's standard, Hal was for hanging the Governor and the Black
Guards (as he called them) whom his Excellency had crimped. "If you,
gentlemen are fighting fo