This was written by Professor E. Merrill Root, about those who have made their livelihood out of mocking and belittling the greatness of George Washington: They are always seeking to deflect the truth and to shock men, to reverse and pull apart, to destroy by “debunking.” They are not content with the truth, but lust for the trick; they seek fame by destroying fame…the Greeks had an image for it: There was a man of no merit, who therefore burned down the most beautiful of buildings, so that he might live in the fame of infamy. In the dawn of the twentieth century such men began to multiply in the land, raising and training a guerilla army of smilers with the knife, hero mockers, vivisectors of value, haters of life, “debunkers,” pint-sized Vandals of the mind, termites in the timbers of culture, who (having no greatness) resented all greatness…who, since they could not create, lusted to destroy. Like the fungus of decay, like the rust that eats pure metal, like the moths that devour the lustrous fabric (mere bellies with wings!), they lusted to devour and destroy and corrode and tarnish. They sought to shout “No” to life and to love. And these “debunkers” were, and always are, of the Devil’s party. They act as they do because they are little, and know it; because they are sick, and know it. They cannot endure that there should be greatness because they are not great; they cannot endure that there should be goodness, for they are not good. They cannot revere a master, for they are not artists. If they could see George Washington as [was and] is, they could not bear to see themselves as they are; [therefore] they hate him because he shames them.
