Since coming to Congress I have learned more about General Washington, and have been surprised to find what a narrow base his reputation rests on.

A fair military officer, who made many blunders, and who never had more men than would make a full army-corps under his command, he got an enormous reputation in Europe because he did not make himself king, as though he ever had a chance of doing it.
A respectable, painstaking President, he was treated by the Opposition with an amount of deference that would have made government easy to a baby, but it worried him to death.

His official papers are fairly done, and contain good average sense such as a hundred thousand men in the United States would now write.

I suspect that half of his attachment to this spot rose from his consciousness of inferior powers and his dread of responsibility.

This government can show to-day a dozen men of equal abilities, but we don't deify them.