The Meansure of a Man (A Closer Look at Five Great Men) :: essays research papers

How does one determine the measure of a man? His accomplishments? His communication channel? His financial worth? Or do we look deep into the amount of money and soul of that man and determine the weight of his values, his dreams and what he has s excessivelyd for in the atomic number 19 scheme of things?     We will appraise the lives of six important figures in the constitution of our country. With this evaluation, we risk becoming critic and judge, but in an attempt to go beyond those things both tangible and measurable, perhaps we will be forgiven.     doubting Thomas Jefferson called him, a wise, a good and a great man. Patrick Henry, when asked who he persuasion was the greatest man in Congress, replied, if you speak of solid information and overweight judgment, Colonel Washington is the greatest man on that floor.Despite his height and noble bearing, Washington was a quiet man who pondered long before decisions. even with little schooling, he was an avid student of math and science. At a very early age, he was aware and respectful of decorum and manners. At 13, he copied the one hundred and ten Rules of Civility and Decent appearance in Company and Conversations, and lived by them. His mathematical and science skills coupled with attributes of respect, state and strength secured him a position as a surveyor in Virginia at only sixteen.     These same qualities, planted as deeply into his soul as the trees on his fathers farm, are what gave him the courage and perseverance to clop headlong into a life filled with some of the greatest achievements in American history.     At 20 years old, Washington was plodding by means of one thousand miles of snow, swimming ice-clogged rivers and dodging the bullets of angry inhering Americans only to carry a warning message to an unwelcoming French commander in the Ohio River Valley. He was shot once, and walked one hundred mi les when his horse got too weak to go on. But he finished the task hardened before him. In this first mission, courage and perseverance were metals he clear to wear on his heart.     Two years later he commanded the British army in the French and Indian War. As Lieutenant Colonel of the Virginia forces, he captured twenty-one French and killed ten, loosing only one man in the process. In this, he added two metals, strength and wisdom.      Military battles dominated Washingtons years, and the battles both won and lost created the warp and weft of the fabric of his life.