Washington's Hardest Decision
With this essay the Atlantic begins a series of biographical papers each of which will discuss that time of supreme crisis, that turning point. when a man’s fortunes were made or lost. DOUGLAS SOUTHALL FREEMAN, the leading historian of the South, knows more about George Washington than any other man alive. Ten years ago he began laying the foundation for his great biography, four volumes of which have already appeared, with a fifth announced for this autumn. Mr. Freeman, affectionately known as the Sage of Richmond, was for thirty-four years the editor of the Richmond News Leader, but at his busiest he never ceased to work at his monumental life of Robert E. Lee for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1934. He knew the turning point in Lee’s career, and he now singles out with fresh illumination the hardest decision General Washington ever made.