Kossuth and Intervention [pp. 221-234]

222 Kossuth and Litervention. [July,
virtues tried alike in prosperity and adversity, and never,
for a moment, found wanting, by a life dedicated successfully to the establishment of a mighty people's liberties
and fortunes; and, on the other, by many speecties at
pleasant feasts, much courtly flattery, various little trickeries, that savour of demagogue craft, and politic contrivances for getting money, in every possible shape, unincumbered with inconvenient scruples. Can any man, by
any efforts of the highest genius for historical romance,
imagine George Washington playing the same partpassing from town to town, and leaving bills to be paid
by reluctant corporations, for champagne and shaving,
taking money for bonds which he has no right to issue,
and which can never be paid; sometimes fawning, when
the prospect of gain is promising, and sometimes coarse
and rude, when the expectation is disappointed? Could
any change of fortune have induced George Washington
to become a migratory political adventurer? If this were
possible, he could not have become the model statesman
and hero of the world. lie could never have received
that magnificent eulogy of Lord Brougham, which makes
the just appreciation of his character the test of every
nation's progress in civilization. lie con id never have
been enshrined, as he is, and will continue to be, in the
hearts of his countrymen.
This deep sentiment of devotion to the character of the
Father of his Country, is, without doubt, a strong abiding
principle in the hearts of the American people. Still, it
`nay not be amiss to dwell upon it at such a time as this,
and the more so, as the sentiment, although true, is sometimes vague, and seems to lack a just appreciation in
some minds, of the incomparable excellence to which it
is given.
We have, unfortunately, in this country, an undue admiration for the flasby brilliancy of rhetorical talent, and
we occasionally hear an admission, in a sort of deprecatory
tone and manner, that Washington could not talk and
write with the ability of other men, because he did not
make speeches like Henry, or compose essays like Madison or Jay. Even his Far~well Address has, in consequence, been ascribed to another man, and its influence
been weakened by the pretended discovery that it belongs
to Hamilton's pen. The intimation is a mere imperti