Yet few really knew him, despite his fame. He was a very private man when it came to personal matters. And his reputation sometimes seems to be built as much on myth as reality. As a result, America’s first president, George Washington, is not only one of our nation’s most famous leaders, but also one of its most misunderstood.

I couldn’t agree more, and have only come to love and appreciate Washington all the more thanks to my friend Kriston Capps‘ justified reverence for the man over these past many years. And since the Weekly Standard and its affiliates remain apologists for torture, it’s worthwhile to acquaint them with Smith and Reed’s good advice. This is Washington in 1775:

Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]. . . I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause… for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.

As it happens, there’s another general of the Army who lives by Washington’s example and whom the Standard reveres only selectively.