BIRTH OF WASHINGTON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21112, 20 February 1932, Page 6

BIRTH OF WASHINGTON.

notable anniversary, honouring a great name, CELEBRATIONS ON MONDAY. Americans the world over will celebrate on Monday the 200 th anniversary of the birth of George Washington, first President of the United States. The occasion is one that may be gratefully - iecalled by others equally with his countrymen, for Washington's greatness is the heritage not of any one nation, but of the human race. As soldier, statesman and man of affairs, his simplicity, his sagacity and his incorruptible purity of purpose will remain as an abiding example and inspiration. George Washington was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, on February 12, 1732. His father, an energetic and able man, owned large estates there. But little has been recorded of Washington's childhood, and it is a relief to learn on authority that the fable of the cherry tree and the axe and other kindred moral tales are but absurd fictions invented by Mason L. Weerns, a clergyman who aspired to. be his biographer at the oeginning of last century. Washington's chief education was on his father's estates, and at the age of 14 ho had mastered the elements of surveying. At the age of 17 he was given the position of public surveyor of Fairfax County, and his surveying trips, carrying him far into the western wilderness, taught him resourcefulness and endurance and toughened his character. First Taste of War. At the age of 20 Washington became manager of a large plantation he inherited from his older half-brother. v For the next 20 years the main background of his life was the work and the social life of the Mount Vernon estate. Washington's first taste of warfare was in a campaign against the French in 1754, in which he played a brave but by no means brilliant part. A year later he was attached to the staff of the EnglishIran, General Braddock, and in saving Braddock's forces from annihilation in an ambush lie displayed a combination of coolness and determination, an alliance of unconquerable energy, with complete # poise, that was the of so many of his successes. His marriage in 1759 to Martha Dandridge gave Washington one of the largest fortunes in Virginia, and from his, marriage to the eve of the Revolution he devoted himself to the duties and pleasures of a great landowner. By the Virginia provincial convention he was elected one of the seven delegates to the first continental Congress in 1774, and his participation in it marks the beginning of his national career. By this time his reputation and personality were such that his choice as commander-in-chief of the military forces of, all the colonies followed immediately upon the first fighting with the English forces. First in War and Peace. It was Washington's strength ot character, his ability to hold the confidence of army and people and to diffuse his own courage among them, his unremitting activity and his strong common sense that constituted the chief factor in achieving the American victory in the long-drawn campaigns. First in war, Washington was also first in peace, and in 1787 he presided over the Constitutional Convention for four months. His weight of character did more than anything else to bring the r convention to an agreement and -obtain rftification of the instrument afterwards. In his diffidence he sincerely believed that he would be allowed to return to private life, but all eyes turned to him as the first President and he could not resist. Twice he was unanimously returned to the high post, and his eight years' administration was marked by the caution, the methodical precision and the sober judgment that had always characterised him. He was privileged to enjoy only two and a-half years of retirement, for he died on December 14, 1799, shortly after several hours' exposure on horseback to severe cold and snow. "Father of his country " came to be accepted as his title, and time has endorsed the famous contemporary judgment that he was "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen." To do honour to the memory of this strong man who holds secure among the heroes of history the Consul for the United States. Mr. Walter F. Boyle, and Mrs. Boyle are giving a luncheon at the tearooms of the Farmers' Trading Company at 12.45 p.m. on Monday.