(9) Chevalier de Silly (1781)
“Man is born with a tendency to pride and the further he progresses in his career in an elevated rank the more his self love nourishes this vice in him but so far this Washington although born with every superior quality adds to them an imposing modesty which will always cause him to be admired by those who have the good fortune to see him; as for esteem he has already drawn to himself that of all Europe even the heart of his enemies and ours—‘tandemoculi nostril, videuntur honorem et virtutem.’”82 [at last, all our eyes will see honor and virtue]
(10) Prince De Broglie (1782)
“His physiognomy is mild and open. His accost cold although polite. His pensive eyes seem more attentive than sparkling; but their expression is benevolent, noble and self-possessed. In his private conduct, he preserves that polite and attentive good breeding which satisfies everybody, and that dignified reserve which offends no one. He is a foe to ostentation and to vain-glory. His temple is always even. He has never testified the least humor. Modest even to humility, he does not seem to estimate himself at his true worth. He receives with perfect grace all the homages which are paid him, but he evades rather than seeks them…
“Mr. Washington’s first military services were against the French in the War for Canada. He has no opportunity for distinguishing himself, and after the defeat of Braddock, the war having crossed the river St. Lawrence, and the Virginia militia of which he was a Colonel having been sent home, he was not kept in active service; whereupon he retired to his plantation where he lived like a philosopher.
“His estate was quite distant from the seat of the English government, the real hotbed of the insurrection; and his wise character withheld him still further from mixing in its movements, so that he had but little share in the first troubles.
“On the breaking out of hostilities with the mother-country, every body wished a chief who joined a profound sagacity to the advantage of having had military experience. All eyes turned toward Washington, and he was unanimously called to the command of the army. The course of events justified the choice. Never was there a man better fitted to command the Americans, and his conduct throughout developed the greatest foresight, steadiness and wisdom.”83
(11) Joseph Mandrillon (1782)
“Imposing in size, noble and well proportioned, a countenance open, calm and sedate, but without any one striking feature, and when you depart from him, the remembrance only of a fine man will remain, a fine figure, an exterior plain and modest, a pleasing address, firm without severity, a manly courage, an uncommon capacity for grasping the whole scope of a subject, and a complete experience in war and politics; equally useful in the cabinet and in the field of Mars, the idol of his country, the admiration of the enemy he has fought and vanquished; modest in victory, great in the reverse; why do I say the reverse! Very far from being subdued he has made every misfortune contribute to his success. He knows how to obey as well as command, he never made use of his power or the submission of his army to derogate from the authority of his country or to disobey its commands.”84
(12) Comte de Segur (1782)
“One of my most earnest wishes was to see Washington, the hero of America. He was then encamped at a short distance from us, and the Count de Rochambeau was kind enough to introduce me to him. Too often reality disappoints the expectations our imagination had raised, and admiration diminishes by a too near view upon which it has been bestowed; but, on seeing General Washington, I found a perfect similarity between the impression produced upon me by his aspect, and the idea I had formed of him. His exterior disclosed, as it were, the history of his life: simplicity, grandeur, dignity, calmness, goodness, firmness, the attributes of his character, where also stamped upon his features, and in all his person. His stature was noble and elevated; the expression of his features mild and benevolent; his smile graceful and pleasing; his manners simple, without familiarity….Washington, when I him, was forty-nine years of age. He endeavored modestly to avoid the marks of admiration and respect which were so anxiously offered to him, and yet no man ever knew better how to receive and to acknowledge them. He listened, with an obliging attention, to all those who addressed him, and the expression of his countenance had conveyed his answer before he spoke.”85
(13) Chevalier Anne C. de la Luzerne (1784)
“The estate of General Washington not being more than fifteen leagues from Annapolis I accepted an invitation that he gave me to go and pass several days there, and it is from his house that I have the honor to write to you. After having seen him on my arrival on this continent, in the midst of his camp and in the tumult of arms, I have the pleasure to see him a simple citizen, enjoying in the repose of his retreat the glory which he so justly acquired….He dresses in a gray coat like a Virginia farmer, and nothing about him recalls the recollections of the important part which he has played except the great number of foreigners who come to see him.”86
(14) Charles Varlo (1784)
“I crossed the river from Maryland into Virginia, near the renowned General Washington’s, where I had the honour to spend some time, and was kindly entertained with that worthy family. As to the General, if we may judge by the countenance, he is what the world says of him, a shrewd, good-natured, plain, humane man, about fifty-five years of age, and seems to wear well, being healthful and active, straight, well made, and about six feet high. He keeps a good table, which is always open to those of a genteel appearance. He does not use many Frenchified congees [formal bows as part of a ceremonial departure] or flattering useless words without meaning, which savours more of deceit than an honest heart; but on the contrary, his words seem to point at truth and reason, and to spring from the fountain of a heart, which being have every one’s good word, and those are—the Queen of England and General Washington, which I never heard friend or foe speak slightly of.”87
(15) Jean Pierre Brissot De Warville (1791)
“He shows the utmost reserve, and is very diffident; but at the same time, he is firm and unchangeable in whatever he undertakes. His modesty must be very astonishing, especially to a Frenchman. He speaks of the American war as if he had not directed it; and of his victories with an indifference which strangers even would not affect. I never saw him divest himself of that coolness by which he is characterized, and become warm but when speaking of the present stat of America … He spoke to me of M. La Fayette with tenderness. He regarded him as his son; and foresaw with a joy mixed with anxiety, the part he was about to play in the revolution preparing in France.”88
(16) Member of Parliament Charles James Fox (1794)
“And here, Sir, I cannot help alluding to the President of the United States, General Washington, a character whose conduct has been so different from that, which has been pursued by the ministers of this country. How infinitely wiser must appear the spirit and principles manifested in his late address to Congress, than the policy of modern European courts! Illustrious man, deriving honor less from the splendor of his situation than from the dignity of his mind; before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into significance, and all the potentates of Europe (excepting the members of our own royal family) become little and contemptible! He has had no occasion to have recourse to any tricks of policy or arts of alarm; his authority has been sufficiently supported by the same means by which it was acquired, and his conduct has uniformly been characterized by wisdom, moderation and firmness.”89
(17) Henry Wansey (1794)
“I confess, I was struck with awe and veneration, when I recollected that I was now in the presence of one of the greatest men upon earth—the GREAT WASHINGTON- the noble and wise benefactor of the world!…Whether we view him as a general in the field vested with unlimited authority and power, at the head of the victorious army; or in the cabinet, as the President of the United States; or as a private gentleman, cultivating his own farm; he is still the same great man, anxious only to discharge with propriety the duties of his relative situation. His conduct has always been so uniformly manly, honorable, just, patriotic, and disinterested, that his greatest enemies cannot fix on any one trait of his character that can deserve the least censure.”90
(18) Louis, Count de Fontanes (1800)
“The people who so lately stigmatized Washington as a rebel, regard even the enfranchisement of America, as one of the events consecrated by history and past ages. Such is the veneration excited by great characters. He seems so little to belong to modern times, that he imparts to us the same vivid impressions as the most august examples of antiquity with all that they accomplished. His work is scarcely finished when it at once attracts the veneration which we freely accord to those achievements only that are consecrated by time. The American Revolution, the contemporary of our own, is fixed forever. Washington began it with energy, and finished it with moderation. He knew how to maintain it, pursuing always the prosperity of his country; and this aim alone can justify at the tribunal of the Most High, enterprises so extraordinary.”91
“His administration was as mild and firm in internal affairs as it was noble and prudent toward foreign nations. He uniformly respected the usages of other countries, as he would desire the rights of Americans to be respected by them. Thus in all his negotiations, the heroic simplicity of the President of the United States, without elevation or debasement, was brought into communication with the majesty of the Kings. He sought not in his administration those conceptions which the age calls great, but which he regarded as vain. His ideas were more sage than bold; he sought not admiration, but he always enjoyed esteem, alike in the field and in the Senate, in the midst of business as in the quiet of retirement.”
(19) Francis Adrian van der Kemp (1800)
“Washington’s character was from his first entrance in public life through its whole course not only unimpeached but highly revered by all, who were admitted to his acquaintance. His active prudence was guided by his intrepid courage:—his vigilant mind, never appalled in the most distressing emergence, was always enliven’d by a manly devotion, and all these virtues, with a vivid sense of his own intrinsic value, were only equaled by his modesty. Remembering that he was a man, Washington made every reasonable allowance for the frailties of human nature, pardon’d its weaknesses, and pity’d her follies, as often they were not blackened by vices, or the Public welfare did not require the infliction of a severer punishment….
“We wrong this eminent man M. H.! [my hearers] in considering him along as a General. Washington’s claims, as a statesman, on our on Posterity’s respectful regard, are equally solid. We Americans, assent with all heart to this self-evident truth. Let Foreigners –to appreciate the solidity of our judgment, consider maturely Washington’s admonitions – when he divested himself of the supreme command—dijudicate our Constitution, as a part of his egregious workmanship, and scrutinize his letter to the Individual states, as President of the Convention, and none of them will longer hesitate to go over in the steps of Columbia’s sons. A constitution is adopted, and Washington unanimously chosen President of the United States. Here once more this great and good man sacrifices the delights of his retirement to the toils of a laborious life, for the benefit of his Country—with the same inimitable disinterestedness. What a large—what an immense field of glory for him, or stupefying amazement for us see I here opening!
“The sight of General in his brightest glory is lost in the radiance of this new Politic Luminary. Mine eyes are weakening—dedimmed—bedewed, but my heart in the same moment joyfully expanded by its benign all vivifying influence.”92
(20) Peter Ivanovitch Poletica (1812)
“All the life of this man, worthy of eternal praise, can be compared to the cleanest of looking glasses. If one can not say that he was always above the situation he occupied, one can however assert that in any case he was always adequate to it. In his private life, Gen. Washington was always a loving husband, ardent and steadfast friend, a just master and a pious Christian.”93
(21) Lord Byron (1818-1821)
“Can tyrants but by tyrants conquer’d be, And freedom fin not champion and no child
Such as Columbia saw arise when she Sprung forth a Pallas, arm’d and undefiled?
“Or must such minds be nourish’d in the wild,
Deep in the unpruned forest ’midst the roar
Of cataracts, where nursing Nature smiled On infant Washington? Has Earth no more
Such seeds within her breat, or Europe no such shore?
“Not so Leonidas and Washington, Whose every battle-field is holy ground,
Which breathes of nations saved, not worlds undone.
How sweetly on the ear such echoes sound!
While the mere victor’s may appal or stun
The servile and the vain, such names will be a watchword till the future shall be free.
“Great men have always scorn’d great recompenses; …
George Washing had thanks and nought beside,
Except the all-cloudless glory (which few men’s is)
To free his country.”
