Word: skillfulness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Baptist preacher in Houston, Lawyer Jordan won national attention with her solemnly impressive eloquence during the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearings two years ago. As a black and a woman, she represents a new tide in politics, but she also plays old-fashioned politics with considerable skill...
However that may be, Washington was clearly a man of passion who was deeply disappointed in love, a tireless leader subject to profound fits of despair, a father figure who adored children but never had any of his own. He possessed extraordinary skill at getting what he wanted by wanting only what seemed good for the country. Like nearly every Washington biographer, Cunliffe compares the man's virtues to those of ancient Rome: "As for ambition-gloria -it is conceived as a civic impulse, not a private torment ... Washington's desire to be well thought...
...public idol of the most radical state, Hancock was easily elected President of the Congress (after his predecessor, Peyton Randolph, decided to return to Virginia). Although the job involves mostly paper work, Hancock has often served skillfully in mediating differences among the delegations. With similar skill, he conducted a long and arduous courtship of the very social Dorothy Quincy, whom he married last August during the congressional recess...
Despite Sir William's frivolities, he has served with great bravery, earning a reputation for combat discipline, skill in training men and planning tactical military operations. Two years ago, he created a new drill for light-infantry companies and pioneered a new system whereby flexible, fast-paced companies were attached to every regiment of the line. Lord George Germain, Britain's Secretary of State for the American Colonies and a leading advocate of an aggressive policy, remarked when Howe was appointed that no other officer was so well qualified to teach European soldiers how to fight from "behind trees, walls...
These unsung and almost unknown "limners" are not great, and they certainly lack technical skill (the grace of lace seems to be beyond Chandler's competence). But they have a distinctive quality that has something to do with the fact that they have not seen the classics of the Renaissance, that their heritage comes from sign painters for taverns rather than salon painters for courts. They (and their sitters) want a likeness that conveys how ordinary Americans live, what manner of people they are -prosperous but plain, not elegant but confident. Such elements may not survive either...