June 10, 2013

RIDDLES, MYSTERIES, ENIGMAS: FINEST HOUR 134, SPRING 2007

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Churchill on Washington

Q; We understand that Churchill made a speech about George Washington at Mount Vernon, and would very much appreciate having the text of what he said for possible use by the President on Washington’s Birthday. —Gena H. Katz, The White House, Washington

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While we can find no references to a Churchill speech at Mount Vernon, there are several references to the first “W” in Churchill’s canon. The earliest seems to have been on 16 June 1941, in a broadcast to the USA after receiving an honorary degree from the University of Rochester (New York). Churchill’s mother was the former Jennie Jerome, and rumor (but not fact) had it that she was born in Rochester.

The great Burke has truly said, “People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors,” and I feel it most agreeable to recall to you that the Jeromes were rooted for many generations in American soil, and fought in Washington’s armies for the independence of the American Colonies and the foundation of the United States. I expect I was on both sides then. And I must say I feel on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean now.

Churchill also refers favorably several times to George Washington in The Age of Revolution, vol. 3 of his History of the English-Speaking Peoples (New York: Dodd Mead, 1957). This was probably written before World War II, although it was published years afterward. Here are some excerpts which may be useful…

Braddock was sent from England to reestablish British authority west of the Alleghenies, but his forces were cut to pieces by the French and Indians in Pennsylvania. In this campaign a young Virginian officer named George Washington learnt his first military lessons. (152)

It was now imperative for the Patriots to raise an army. Massachusetts had already appealed to Congress at Philadelphia for help against the British and for the appointment of a Commander-in-Chief…Adams’s eye centred upon a figure in uniform, among the dark brown clothes of the elegates. He was Colonel George Washington, of Mount Vernon, Virginia. This prosperous planter had fought in the campaigns of the 1750s and had helped extricate the remnants of Braddock’s force from their disastrous advance. He was the only man of any military experience at the Congress, and this was limited to a few minor campaigns on the frontier. He was now given command of all the forces that America could raise. Great calls were to be made on the spirit of resolution that was his by nature. (184-85)

Simply to have kept his army in existence during these years was probably Washington’s greatest contribution to the Patriot cause. No other American leader could have done as much. (204)

The first step [after ratification of the Constitution] was to elect a President, and General Washington, the commander of the Revolution, was the obvious choice. Disinterested and courageous, far-sighted and patient, aloof yet direct in manner, inflexible once his mind was made up, Washington possessed the gifts of character for which the situation called. He was reluctant to accept office. Nothing would have pleased him more than to remain in equable but active retirement at Mount Vernon, improving the husbandry of his estate. But, as always, he answered the summons of duty. Gouverneur Morris was right when he emphatically wrote to him, “The exercise of authority depends on personal character. Your cool, steady temper is indispensably necessary to give firm and manly tone to the new Government”….There was much confusion and discussion on titles and precedence, which aroused the mocking laughter of critics. But the prestige of Washington lent dignity to the new, untried office.

Q: One of our affiliates needs to have the attribution, if available, for this alleged quotation, which is ascribed to WSC in several places on the Internet: “Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. Courage is what counts.”—GARY GARRISON

A: The web is full of quotations ascribed to Churchill that he never said. Some have been attached to him to make them more interesting. But this one doesn’t even sound like him. Neither the whole quote, nor any of its three parts, can be found in our 50-million-word database of published words by and about WSC. We suspect it is a warped version of his famous remarks on King Alfonso XIII in Great Contemporaries: “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because, as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others.” Note that even this is not quite a Churchill original: “as has been said” most likely refers to Samuel Johnson’s “Sir, you know courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.” But Churchill expresses this thought better than Johnson.

• Answering requests for quotation attributions is one of the tasks assigned to the editor and is most agreeable, in that it sparked a huge database and digital scans of great wads of material, including all of Churchill’s 15 million words from his books, articles, speeches and correspondence in the Companion Volumes of the Official Biography. The upshot is a forthcoming book, now tentatively entitled Winston Churchill by Himself, to be published by the Ebury Press division of Random House in 2008. I feel sure that readers will enjoy using this comprehensive lexicon and reference. —RML