"
"I think you are right, Mr. Passford. You spoke of history."
"George Washington is regarded as one who could not tell a lie from the
time the little hatchet story had birth to the end of the Revolution. We
read that he strongly impressed Clinton with the belief that he intended
to attack New York; and the school history says that this deception was
so successfully practised, that Washington was some distance on his way
to Virginia before Clinton suspected where he was leading his army.
"Bancroft says that Clinton was deceived by letters which were written
to be intercepted. The books say that Washington used every art in his
power to deceive Clinton. He wrote letters containing the barefaced
lie that he intended to attack New York when he intended to attack
Cornwallis. It was not a mere white lie, for he intended to deceive. We
don't regard Washington as a liar, and he was not a liar in any proper
sense of the word. All the high-toned generals on both sides in the
present war do not hesitate to deceive the enemy, for it is a part of
their duty to do so. In my judgment, a lie that is acted is the same as
a spoken lie."
"You are a moral philosopher, Mr. Passford," said the surgeon, laughing
at the earnestness of the speaker.
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