Toward his servants he was uniformly
kind.
"He was an enemy to slavery, and never hesitated to avow his
sentiments. His black servants were very much attached to him. The
peculiar nature of Washington forbade those heart-friendships demanded
by a narrower and more impulsive nature. He kept all the world too far
from him ever to win that tenderness of affection which sweetens social
life in the blending of hearts and sympathy of souls. But he commanded
that esteem which results from respect and appreciation of the great
and commanding attributes of his nature, which elevated him so far
above the men of his age. He wanted the softness and yielding of the
heart that so wins upon the affections of associates and those who are
in close and constant intercommunication. Are not these incompatible
with the stern and towering traits essential to such a character as was
Washington's? Like a shaft of polished granite towering amid shrubs and
flowers, cold and hard, but grand and beautiful, he stood among the men
and the women who surrounded him when President.
"General Washington was cautious and reserved in his expressions about
men.
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