) But,
rugged, country-born men though they were, it was in no such neighborly
democracy as Lincoln knew that they were bred. Washington had his slaves,
his coat of arms, and the occupations and leisures and pleasures, so far
as the frontier would permit, of an English gentleman. And it is no such
slouchy, shabbily dressed figure as Lincoln's that Washington presents. I
saw a few years ago a letter in Washington's own hand, in which he gave
directions to the tailor as to the number of buttons that his coat should
have, the shape of its lapel, and the fit of its collar. He was most
insistent upon the conventions, though if such an assembly had been held,
as I have suggested, of the young men from the eastern waters, there would
have been no such uniformity of costume as now makes an audience of men in
America, or in Europe, so monotonously black and white.
These young men did not dress alike; they did not spell alike.
Washington's letters show that he did not even spell consistently with
himself.
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