Page:The Ifs of History (1907).pdf/110

 Had the idea prevailed that he would not accept the Presidency, it would have proved fatal."

Washington was the pivot upon which all things turned. Lacking such a pivot, the machinery of the American republic would have tumbled into ruin. Happy the choice of the Virginian mother who could not spare her boy on that summer day, and sent aboard the man-of-war in Potomac's stream for his dunnage!