Article March 22, 1900 Issue

Washington's Greatest Political Service

Spectator

But Washington was "first in peace" as well as in war, and was twice President of the infant Republic. His position as such was one of the most difficult that ever fell to the lot of man, and he held it with remarkable wisdom. He was one of the first to see that the old Confederation, which had carried on the war, was impossible to direct the Republic's affairs, and he summed up the essence of the situation in one pregnant sentence: "Influence is no government." To make a real and effective government which should bind the young and errant states together was his first aim, and he presided over the Convention which made that constitution which, with all its faults, has lasted over a century and has seen the dissolving wrecks of many a European structure. That, we take it, was the fundamental political service rendered by Washington to his people, and only those who have sufficient political imagination to realize the immense problem of meeting the needs of a new nation can estimate the value of that service.

Spectator.

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