“COMPLACENCY, AFFABILITY, AND CONDESCENSION TO ALL”. In the Wall Street Journal (December 15-16), Alan Pell Crawford reviewed a new biography by Albert Louis Zambone of the Revolutionary General Daniel Morgan. Crawford tells the story of the Battle of Cowpens and other Morgan battles in the South and shows that Morgan was one of the best and most important American generals.
Morgan is not as well-known as he should be, perhaps because he was not a gentleman. Crawford quotes a friend of Morgan’s who advised him: “Your reputation, fortune and present station in life demand of you to conduct yourself with greater complacency, affability, and condescension to all.” Crawford says that Morgan did not take the advice.
I think that none of these three virtues is important today. Perhaps affability is the word that is used least.