omination to office, I have endeavored, as far as my own
knowledge extended, or information could be obtained, to make fitness of
character my primary object."

At one time two applicants for an important office presented their
appeals, through friends. One of them was an intimate friend of the
president, often at his table. The other was a political enemy, though a
man of experience. No one really expected that his political enemy would
be appointed, but he was.

"Your appointment was unjust," a person dared to say to Washington.

"I receive my friend with a cordial welcome," answered Washington. "He
is welcome to my house and welcome to my heart; but, with all his good
qualities, he is not a man of business. His opponent is, with all his
political hostility to me, a man of business. My private feelings have
nothing to do with this case. I am not George Washington, but President
of the United States; as George Washington, I would do this man any
kindness in my power; but as President of the United States, I can do
nothing."

In 1793 Washington was deeply affected by the news of Lafayette's exile
and incarceration in Germany. He took measures at once to secure his
release, if possible, and sent him a thousand guineas. Lafayette's son,
who was named after the American general, George Washington Lafayette,
came to this country, accompanied by his tutor, when his father was
driven into exile. After the close of Washington's public life, young
Lafayette became a member of his family at Mount Vernon. His father was
not liberated until 1797.

The following maxims, gleaned from his prolific writings, disclose the
principles which governed his actions in public life, and at the same
time they magnify his ability as a writer. When we reflect that his
schooldays embraced instruction only in reading, writing, and
arithmetic, to which he added surveying later, the clearness and
elegance of his style become a matter of surprise. His epistolary
correspondence is a model to all who would attain excellence in the art;
and his grasp of thought and practical view of government and science,
are unsurpassed by any statesman. Of the large number of notable
extracts we might collect from his writings, we have space for a few
only, as follows:

"Our political system may be compared to the mechanism of a clock, and
we should derive a lesson from it; for it answers no good purpose to
keep the smaller wheels in order if the greater one, w