was not one, was when,
on taking command of the army at Boston, the General writes to his
lifelong friend, Doctor Craik, asking what he can do for him, and adding a
sentiment still in the air: "But these Massachusetts people suffer
nothing to go by them that they can lay their hands on." In another letter
he pays his compliments to Connecticut thus: "Their impecunious meanness
surpasses belief." When Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Washington
refused to humiliate him and his officers by accepting their swords. He
treated Cornwallis as his guest, and even "gave a dinner in his honor." At
this dinner, Rochambeau being asked for a toast gave "The United States."
Washington proposed "The King of France." Cornwallis merely gave "The
King," and Washington, putting the toast, expressed it as Cornwallis
intended, "The King of England," and added a sentiment of his own that
made even Cornwallis laugh--"May he stay there!" Washington's treatment of
Cornwallis made him a lifelong friend. Many years after, when Cornwallis
was Governor-General of India, he sent a message to his old antagonist,
wishing him "prosperity and enjoyment," and adding, "As for myself, I am
yet in troubled waters."

* * * * *

Once in a century, possibly, a being is born who possesses a transcendent
insight, and him we call a "genius." Shakespeare, for instance, to whom
all knowledge lay open; Joan of Arc; the artist Turner; Swedenborg, the
mystic--these are the men who know a royal road to geometry; but we may
safely leave them out of account when we deal with the builders of a
State, for among statesmen there are no geniuses.

Nobody knows just what a genius is or what he may do next; he boils at an
unknown temperature, and often explodes at a touch. He is uncertain and
therefore unsafe. His best results are conjured forth, but no man has yet
conjured forth a Nation--it is all slow, patient, painstaking work along
mathematical lines. Washington was a mathematician and therefore not a
genius. We call him a great man, but his greatness was of that sort in
which we all can share; his virtues were of a kind that, in degree, we too
may possess. Any man who succeeds in a legitimate business works with the
same tools that Washington used. Washington was human. We know the man; we
understand him; we comprehend how he succeeded, for with him there were no
tricks, no legerdemain, no secrets. He is very near to us.

Washington i