the present” in America, he might have played a part in Carlyle’s best book, that book which is not history, but more—­an epic.  So, among the many obligations that America owes to Washington, must be named this one of pushing Thomas Jefferson, the scholar and man of peace, into the political embroglio and shutting the door.  Then it was that Hamilton’s taunting temper awoke a degree of power in Jefferson that before he wist not of; then it was that he first fully realized that the “United States” with England as a sole pattern was not enough.

A pivotal point!  Yes, a pivotal point for Jefferson, America and the world; for Jefferson gave the rudder of the Ship of State such a turn to starboard that there was never again danger of her drifting on to aristocratic shoals, an easy victim to the rapacity of Great Britain.  Hamilton’s distrust of the people found no echo in Jefferson’s mind.

He agreed with Hamilton that a “strong government” administered by a few, provided the few are wise and honorable, is the best possible government.  Nay, he went further and declared that an absolute monarchy in which the monarch was all-wise and all-powerful, could not be improved upon by the imagination of man.

In his composition, there was a saving touch of humor that both Hamilton and Washington seemed to lack.  He could smile at himself; but none ever dared turn a joke on Hamilton, much less on Washington.  And so when Hamilton explained that a strong government administered by Washington, President; Jefferson, Secretary of State; Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; Knox, Secretary of War; and Randolph, Attorney-General, was pretty nearly ideal, no one smiled.  But Jefferson’s plain inference was that power is dangerous and man is fallible; that a man so good as Washington dies tomorrow and another man steps in, and that those who have the government in their present keeping should curb ambitions, limit their own power, and thus fix a precedent for those who are to follow.

The wisdom that Jefferson as a statesman showed in working for a future good, and the willingness to forego the pomp of personal power, to sacrifice self if need be, that the day he should not see might be secure, ranks him as first among statesmen.  For a statesman is one who builds a State—­and not a politician who is dead, as some have said.

Others, since, have followed Jefferson’s example, but in the world’s history I do not recall a man before him who, while still having power in his grasp, was willing to trust the people.

The one mistake of Washington that borders on blunder was in refusing to take wages for his work.  In doing this, he visited untold misery on others, who, not having married rich widows, tried to follow his example and floundered into woeful debt and disgrace; and thereby were lost to useful society and to the world.  And there are yet many public offices where small men rattle about because men who can fill the place can not afford it.  Bryce declares that no able and honest man of moderate means can afford to take an active part in municipal affairs in America—­and Bryce is right.