But although he would now and then give way to these tremendous bursts of anger, Washington was never unjust.  As he said to one officer, “I never judge the propriety of actions by after events;” and in that sound philosophy is found the secret not only of much of his own success, but of the devotion of his officers and men.  He might be angry with them, but he was never unfair.  In truth, he was too generous to be unjust or even over-severe to any one, and there is not a line in all his writings which even suggests that he ever envied any man.  So long as the work in hand was done, he cared not who had the glory, and he was perfectly magnanimous and perfectly at ease about his own reputation.  He never showed the slightest anxiety to write his own memoirs, and he was not in the least alarmed when it was proposed to publish the memoirs of other people, like General Charles Lee, which would probably reflect upon him.

He had the same confidence in the judgment of posterity that he had in the future beyond the grave.  He regarded death with entire calmness and even indifference not only when it came to him, but when in previous years it had threatened him.  He loved life and tasted of it deeply, but the courage which never forsook him made him ready to face the inevitable at any moment with an unruffled spirit.  In this he was helped by his religious faith, which was as simple as it was profound.  He had been brought up in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and to that church he always adhered; for its splendid liturgy and stately forms appealed to him and satisfied him.  He loved it too as the church of his home and his childhood.  Yet he was as far as possible from being sectarian, and there is not a word of his which shows anything but the most entire liberality and toleration.  He made no parade of his religion, for in this as in other things he was perfectly simple and sincere.  He was tortured by no doubts or questionings, but believed always in an overruling Providence and in a merciful God, to whom he knelt and prayed in the day of darkness or in the hour of triumph with a supreme and childlike confidence.

* * * * *

As I bring these volumes to a close I am conscious that they speak, so far as they speak at all, in a tone of almost unbroken praise of the great man they attempt to portray.  If this be so, it is because I could come to no other conclusions.  For many years I have studied minutely the career of Washington, and with every step the greatness of the man has grown upon me, for analysis has failed to discover the act of his life which, under the conditions of the time, I could unhesitatingly pronounce to have been an error.  Such has been my experience, and although my deductions may be wrong, they at least have been carefully and slowly made.  I see in Washington a great soldier who fought a trying war to a successful end impossible without him; a great statesman who did more than all