Scouting, Volume 60, Number 1, January-February 1972 Page: 2
68, [20] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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ON APRIL 30, 1789, the first Presi-
dent of the United States stood
on the balcony of New York's Federal
Hall. George Washington was a regal
figure in a suit of American-made
brown broadcloth, his benign fea-
tures masking the turbulence of the
emotions that racked him. Once
again, the good soldier had answered
the call of his country. He had carved
victory out of defeat because he
could never give in, never admit that
he was beaten. At the darkest mo-
ment of the Revolution, he would only
say that this was just the end of the
beginning and that the way ahead
would be even harder.
It is seldom that a man measures
up to his legend. Washington trans-
cended his. This is why he seems so
remote. More has been written and
less understood about him than with
any other major figure of our history.
To us, he is a face on a postage
stamp, a statue in marble; in his own
time, he was a man, but even more
of a symbol.
By MARGARET L. COIT
Yet he was all too human. Mistakes
he could forgive, but careless in-
competence never. His passions
were volcanic. The artist, Gilbert
Stuart, thought he could detect signs
of a fierce temper, rammed down
under control; said Washington, "He
is right." Those who felt the cutting
lash of that temper, like General
Charles Lee, who retreated when he
should have advanced, never forgot
the dressing down.
Now, as he voiced his Presidential
oath, his mind might have leaped
back to another moment, to that hot
July day in 1775 in Boston. There
under the elms, mounted on a mag-
nificent white horse, he raised his
gleaming sword and proclaimed him-
self commander-in-chief. Drums
rolled, bells rang and the people
cheered; he looked the hero, as well
as the patriot, yet he had vast ex-
perience only in defeat.
An Indian's bullet just missed him
in the wilderness, perhaps changing
the course of history forever. He
fought his way out of the "lethal
cold" of an ice-packed river to fire
the first shots of the old French and
Indian War. At little Fort Necessity,
he made a futile, desperate stand
from which he emerged with a third
of his men lying dead.
Yet his gallant fight had made him
a hero and aide to the British General
Edward Braddock. Washington was
there in that nightmare of bloody
defeat, as Indians flashing out from
behind trees slaughtered Englishmen
who insisted on fighting in rows like
Englishmen. Burning up with fever,
his horse shot out from under him,
Washington rallied and saved the
last of Braddock's shattered army,
fleeing back to civilization.
He returned to the mellow beauty
and peace of his beloved plantation
home in Virginia, Mt. Vernon. He was
a countryman who loved horse breed-
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 60, Number 1, January-February 1972, periodical, January 1972; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353658/m1/6/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.