 |
Malice could never blast his honor, and envy made him a single exception to her universal rule. For himself he had lived enough to life and to glory. For his fellow-citizens, if their prayers could have been answered, he would have been immortal. His example is complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read.
JOHN ADAMS.
* * * * *
His character, though regular and uniform, possessed none of the littleness which may sometimes belong to these descriptions of men. It formed a majestic pile, the effect of which was not inspired, but improved, by order and symmetry. There was nothing in it to dazzle by wildness, and surprise by eccentricity. It was of a higher species of moral beauty. It contained everything great and elevated, but it had no false or trivial ornament. It was not the model cried up by fashion and circumstance: its excellence was adapted to the true and just moral taste, incapable of change from the varying accidents of manners, of opinions, and times. General Washington is not the idol of a day, but the hero of ages.
ANONYMOUS.
* * * * *
Washington stands alone and unapproachable like a snow peak rising above its fellows into the clear air of morning, with a dignity, constancy, and purity which have made him the ideal type of civic virtue to succeeding generations.
JAMES BRYCE.
* * * * *
Pale is the February sky, And brief the midday's sunny hours; The wind-swept forest seems to sigh For the sweet time of leaves and flowers.
Yet has no month a prouder day, Not even when the Summer broods O'er meadows in their fresh array, Or Autumn tints the glowing woods.
For this chill season now again Brings, in its annual round, the morn When, greatest of the sons of men, Our glorious Washington was born!
* * * * *
Amid the wreck of thrones shall live Unmarred, undimmed, our hero's fame, And years succeeding years shall give Increase of honors to his name.
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
* * * * *
Washington, the warrior and legislator! In war contending, by the wager of battle, for the independence of his country, and for the freedom of the human race; ever manifesting amidst its horrors, by precept and example, his reverence for the laws of peace and the tenderest sympathies of humanity: in peace soothing the ferocious spirit of discord among his countrymen into harmony and union; and giving to that very sword, now presented to his country, a charm more potent than that attributed in ancient times to the lyre of Orpheus.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
* * * * *
George Washington may justly be pronounced one of the greatest men whom the world has produced. Greater soldiers, more intellectual statesmen, and profounder sages have doubtlessly existed in the history of the English race—perhaps in our own country—but no one who to great excellence in each of these fields has added such exalted integrity, such unaffected piety, such unsullied purity of soul, and such wondrous control of his own spirit. That one grand rounded life, full-orbed with intellectual and moral glory, is worth, as the product of Christianity, more than all the dogmas of all the teachers. He was a blessing to the whole human race, no less than to his own countrymen—to the many millions who celebrate the day of his birth.
ZEBULON B. VANCE.
* * * * *
First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life; pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere, uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting.
HENRY LEE.
* * * * *
Happy was it for America, happy for the world, that a great name, a guardian genius, presided over her destinies in war. The hero of America was the conqueror only of his country's foes, and the hearts of his countrymen. To the one he was a terror, and in the other he gained an ascendency, supreme, unrivaled, the triumph of admiring gratitude, the reward of a nation's love.
JARED SPARKS.
* * * * *
The sword of Washington! The staff of Franklin! Oh sir, what associations are linked in adamant with these names! Washington, whose sword, as my friend has said, was never drawn but in the cause of his country, and never sheathed when wielded in his country's cause. Franklin, the philosopher of the thunderbolt, the printing-press, and the plowshare.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
* * * * *
Others of our great men have been appreciated,—many admired by all. But him we love. Him we all love. About and around him we call up no dissentient and discordant and dissatisfied elements, no sectional prejudice nor bias, no party, no creed, no dogma of politics. None of these shall assail him. When the storm of battle blows darkest and rages highest, the memory of Washington shall nerve every American arm and cheer every American heart. It shall relume that Promethean fire, that sublime flame of patriotism, that devoted love of country, which his words have commended, which his example has consecrated.
RUFUS CHOATE.
* * * * *
Where may the wearied eyes repose When gazing on the great, Where neither guilty glory glows Nor despicable state? Yes,—one, the first, the last, the best, The Cincinnatus of the West, Whom envy dared not hate, Bequeathed the name of Washington To make men blush there was but one.
LORD BYRON.
* * * * *
From "Washington's Vow," by John Greenleaf Whittier, read at the dedication of the Washington Arch, at New York City, 1889
How felt the land in every part The strong throb of a nation's heart? As its great leader gave, with reverent awe, His pledge to Union, Liberty, and Law!
That pledge the heavens above him heard, That vow the sleep of centuries stirred. In world-wide wonder listening peoples bent Their gaze on Freedom's great experiment.
* * * * *
Thank God! the people's choice was just! The one man equal to his trust. Wise without lore, and without weakness good, Calm in the strength of flawless rectitude.
* * * * *
Our first and Best—his ashes lie Beneath his own Virginia sky. Forgive, forget, oh! true and just and brave, The storm that swept above thy sacred grave.
* * * * *
Then let the sovereign millions where Our banner floats in sun and air, From the warm palm-lands to Alaska's cold, Repeat with us the pledge, a century old!
Let a man fasten himself to some great idea, some large truth, some noble cause, even in the affairs of this world, and it will send him forward with energy, with steadfastness, with confidence. This is what Emerson meant when he said: "Hitch your wagon to a star." These are the potent, the commanding, the enduring men,—in our own history, men like Washington and Lincoln. They may fail, they may be defeated, they may perish; but onward moves the cause, and their souls go marching on with it, for they are part of it, they have believed in it.
HENRY VAN DYKE.
* * * * *
O name forever to thy country dear! Still wreath'd with pride, "still uttered with a tear!" Thou that could'st rouse a nation's host to arms, Could'st calm the spreading tumult of alarms, Of civil discord, awe the threatening force And check even Anarchy's licentious course! Long as exalted worth commands applause, Long as the virtuous bow to virtue's laws, Long as thy reverence and honor join'd, Long as the hero's glory warms the mind, Long as the flame of gratitude shall burn, Or human tears bedew the patriot's urn, Thy sound shall dwell on each Columbian tongue And live lamented in elegiac song! Till some bold bard, inspired with Delphic rage! Shall with thy lusters fire his epic page!
In Fate's vast chronicle of future time, The mystic mirror of events sublime Where deeds of virtue gild each pregnant page And some grand epoch makes each coming age, Where germs of future history strike the eye And empires' rise and fall in embryo lie, Though statesmen, heroes, sages, chiefs abound Yet none of worth like Washington's are found!
* * * * *
Rear to his name a monument sublime! Bid art and genius all their powers bestow, And let the pile with life and grandeur glow. High on the top let Fame with trumpet's sound, Announce his god-like deeds to worlds around! Let Pallas lead her hero to the field, In Wisdom's train, and cover with her shield. A sword present to dazzle from afar And flash bright terrors through the ranks of war. With port august let oak-wreath'd Freedom stand And hail him father of the chosen land; With laurels deck him, with due honors greet, And crowns and scepters place beneath his feet; Let Peace, her olive blooming like the morn, And kindred Plenty with her teeming horn, With Commerce, child, and regent of the main, While Arts and Agriculture join the train, Rear a sad altar, bend around his urn, And to their guardian, grateful incense burn! Let History calm, in thoughtful mood reclin'd, Record his actions to enrich mankind, And Poesy divine his deeds rehearse In all the energy of epic verse!
To future ages there let Mercy own He never from her bosom forc'd a groan; Here let a statesman, there a reverend sage To mark and emulate his steps engage, Columbia widow'd, count his virtues o'er, Around his tomb her pearly sorrows pour, And mild Religion of celestial mien Point to her patron's place, in realms unseen! Then stamp in gold the monument above The mournful tribute of a nation's love! But not alone in scenes where glory fir'd, He mov'd, no less, in civic walks admir'd! Though long a warrior, choice of human blood, As Brutus noble, and as Titus good! To all that formed the hero of the age, He joined the patriot and the peaceful sage, The statesman powerful and the ruler just, No less illustrious than the chief august; And to condense his characters in one, The god-like Father of his Country shone!
From an old Magazine.
* * * * *
Hail, brightest banner that floats on the gale, Flag of the country of Washington, hail! Red are thy stripes with the blood of the brave; Bright are thy stars as the sun on the wave; Wrapt in thy folds are the hopes of the free. Banner of Washington!—blessings on thee!
Traitors shall perish and treason shall fail; Kingdoms and thrones in thy glory grow pale! Thou shalt live on, and thy people shall own Loyalty's sweet, when each heart is thy throne; Union and Freedom thine heritage be. Country of Washington!—blessings on thee!
WILLIAM S. ROBINSON.
* * * * *
Point of that pyramid whose solid base Rests firmly founded on a nation's trust, Which, While the gorgeous palace sinks in dust, Shall stand sublime, and fill its ample space.
Elected chief of freemen! greater far Than kings whose glittering parts are fixed by birth— Nam'd by thy country's voice for long try'd worth, Her crown in peace, as once her shield in war!
Deign, Washington, to hear a British lyre, That ardent greets thee with applausive lays, And to the patriot hero homage pays.
O, would the muse immortal strains inspire, That high beyond all Greek and Roman fame, Might soar to times unborn, thy purer, nobler name!
DOCTOR AIKIN.
* * * * *
Had he, a mortal, the failings attached to man?—Was he the slave of avarice? No. Wealth was an object too mean for his regard, and yet economy presided over his domestic concerns; for his mind was too lofty to brook dependence. Was he ambitious? No. His spirit soared beyond ambition's reach. He saw a crown high above all human grandeur. He sought, he gained, and wore that crown. But he had indeed one frailty—the weakness of great minds. He was fond of fame, and had reared a colossal reputation. It stood on the rock of his virtue. This was dear to his heart. There was but one thing dearer. He loved glory, but still more he loved his country. That was the master passion, and with resistless might it ruled his every thought and word and deed.
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.
* * * * *
Washington! Father and deliverer of his country! What sweetness dwells in his name—a name sounded by million-tongued fame through her golden trumpet into distant worlds. The sooty African that traverses Niger's sandy waste—the Algerian desperate in fight—the half-lived Laplander—the Arabian, swift as the wind—the Scythian—the inoffensive Brahmin,—have all heard it, and when mentioned, revere it.
WILLIAM CLARK FRAZER.
* * * * *
Three times Washington's character saved the country; once by keeping up the courage of the nation till the Revolutionary War was ended; then, by uniting the nation in the acceptance of the Federal Constitution; thirdly, by saving it from being swept away into anarchy and civil war during the immense excitement of the French Revolution. Such was the gift of Washington, a gift of God to the nation, as far beyond any other of God's gifts as virtue is more than genius, as character is more than intellect, as wise conduct is better than outward prosperity.
JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.
* * * * *
Patriots of America—and military officers of every name, view the great example that is set before you. Emulate the virtues of Washington, and in due time your heads will also be adorned with the wreath of honor. Here you learn what is true and unfading glory. You will see that it is not the man who is led on by the blind impulse of ambition; who rushes into the midst of embattled hosts, merely to show his contempt of death; or who wastes fair cities or depopulates rich provinces,—to spread far the terrors of his name—who is admired and praised as the true hero and friend of mankind;—but the man, who, in obedience to the public voice, appears in arms for the salvation of his country, shuns no perils in a just cause, endeavors to alleviate instead of increase the calamities of war, and whose aim is to strengthen and adorn the temple of liberty, as resting on the immovable basis of virtue and religion. The voice of justice and the voice of suffering humanity forbid us to bestow the palm of true valor on the mad exploits of the destroyers of mankind.
Washington's delight was to save, not to destroy. His greatest glory is that with small armies and the loss of few lives—compared with the wastes of other wars—he made his country free and happy.
ROBERT DAVIDSON.
* * * * *
Brave without temerity, laborious without ambition, generous without prodigality, noble without pride, virtuous without severity—Washington seems always to have confined himself within those limits where the virtues, by clothing themselves in more lively but more changeable and doubtful colors, may be mistaken for faults. Inspiring respect, he inspires confidence, and his smile is always the smile of benevolence.
MARQUIS CHASTELLEUX.
* * * * *
God has given this nation many precious gifts; but the chief gift of all, the one, we may say, which has added something to every other one, is the gift of this great soldier, this great statesman, this great and good man, this greatest of all Americans, past, present—past, if not to come. Our heritage from him is illustrious above all others.
ANONYMOUS.
* * * * *
Great without pomp, without ambition brave, Proud, not to conquer fellow-men, but save; Friend to the weak, a foe to none but those Who plan their greatness on their brethrens' woes; Aw'd by no titles—undefil'd by lust— Free without faction—obstinately just; Warm'd by religion's sacred, genuine ray, That points to future bliss the unerring way; Yet ne'er control'd by superstition's laws, That worst of tyrants in the noblest cause.
—From a London Newspaper.
* * * * *
Extract from a translation of a Dutch Ode to Washington. Dr. O'Calla has made a literal translation; Alfred B. Street, of Albany, the poetical translation.
No lofty monument thy greatness needs; The freedom which America from thee Received, and happiness of thy great deeds The everlasting monument shall be.
Thy proud foot trampled on the British chain; But O! beware lest some false foreign power Rivet his fetters on thy land again, For despots smile while waiting for their hour.
How deeply touched, Humanity! your soul, When you beheld the grateful tears that rained Down a glad Nation's cheek, as Freedom's goal Was by that Nation's might in triumph gained.
O, Fatherland, whoever loves thy fame, Sighing shall mourn thy glory lost, when won; Freedom, when leaving thee, lit up her flame Within the patriot heart of Washington.
When Time shall sink in everlasting gloom, And Death with Time shall cease for evermore; When the dead burst the cerements of the tomb, As the last trumpet breaks in thunder o'er;
Then as it feels its pulses once more free, Let every heart Columbia claims as son Beat first for God, but let its next throb be For the eternal bliss of Washington.
* * * * *
The character of Washington! Who can delineate it worthily? Modest, disinterested, generous, just, of clean hands and a pure heart, self-denying and self-sacrificing, seeking nothing for himself, declining all remuneration beyond the reimbursement of his outlays, scrupulous to a farthing in keeping his accounts, of spotless integrity, scorning gifts, charitable to the needy, forgiving injuries and injustices, brave, fearless, heroic, with a prudence ever governing his impulses, a wisdom ever guiding his valor, true to his friends, true to his country, true to himself, fearing God, no stranger to private devotion or public worship, but ever recognizing a divine aid and direction in all that he accomplished. His magnetism was that of merit, superior, surpassing merit; the merit of spotless integrity, of recognized ability, and of unwearied willingness to spend and be spent in the service of his country.
ROBERT C. WINTHROP.
* * * * *
One of the best of modern Americans, James Russell Lowell, who was born on the same day of the month as Washington, February 22d, 1819, wrote shortly before his death, to a schoolgirl, whose class proposed noticing his own birthday: "Whatever else you do on the twenty-second of February, recollect, first of all, that on that day a really great man was born, and do not fail to warm your hearts with the memory of his service, and to brace your minds with the contemplation of his character. The rest of us must wait uncovered till he be served."
ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS.
* * * * *
The fame of Washington stands apart from every other in history, shining with a truer luster and a more benignant glory. With us his memory remains a national property, where all sympathies, throughout our widely extended and diversified empire meet in unison. Under all dissensions and amid all the storms of party, his precepts and example speak to us from the grave with a paternal appeal; and his name—by all revered—forms a universal brotherhood, a watchword of our Union.
IRVING AND FISKE.
* * * * *
The soul of Washington was one of the grandest of all ages that takes its equal rank with Greek and Roman and Hebrew names of renown for humane and prime worth, names that seem written not in our poor records, but on the sky's arch—names in the broad sunshine of whose moral glory, spreading through the world, all the little fires which men have made with the kindling of words from abstract conceptions,—go out. For however otherwise a man may be distinguished—unless there be in him a spirit of love, devotion, and self-sacrifice, we feel he lacks the very pith and beauty of manhood; and though he may be a great performer with his pen as one plays well on a musical instrument, a Great Being he is not.
Christian Examiner.
* * * * *
It will be the duty of the historian and the sage of all nations to let no occasion pass of commemorating this illustrious man; and until time shall be no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue, be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington.
LORD BROUGHAM.
* * * * *
The character of Washington may want some of those poetical elements, but it possessed fewer inequalities and a rarer union of virtues than perhaps ever fell to the lot of any other man. Prudence, firmness, sagacity, moderation, an overruling judgment, an immovable justice, courage that never faltered, patience that never wearied, truth that disdained all artifice, magnanimity without alloy. It seems as if Providence had endowed him in a pre-eminent degree with the qualities requisite to fit him for the high destiny he was called upon to fulfill.
IRVING AND FISKE.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON'S NAME IN THE HALL OF FAME
BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER
Republics are ungrateful, but ours, its best-loved son Still keeps in memory green, and wreathes the name of Washington. As year by year returns the day that saw the patriot's birth, With boom of gun and beat of drum and peals of joy and mirth, And songs of children in the streets and march of men-at-arms, We honor pay to him who stood serene 'mid war's alarms; And with his ragged volunteers long kept the foe at bay, And bore the flag to victory in many a battle's day.
We were a little nation then; so mighty have we grown That scarce would Washington believe to-day we were his own. With ships that sail on every sea, and sons in every port, And harvest-fields to feed the world, wherever food is short, And if at council-board our chiefs are now discreet and wise, And if to great estate and high, our farmers' lads may rise, We owe a debt to him who set the fashion of our fame, And never more may we forget our loftiest hero's name.
Great knightly soul who came in time to serve his country's need, To serve her with the timely word and with the valiant deed, Along the ages brightening as endless cycles run Undimmed and gaining luster in the twentieth century's sun, First in our Hall of Fame we write the name all folk may ken, As first in war, and first in peace, first with his countrymen.
* * * * *
ESTIMATES OF WASHINGTON
George Washington, the brave, the wise, the good. Supreme in war, in council, and in peace. Washington, valiant, without ambition; discreet, without fear; confident, without presumption.
DR. ANDREW LEE.
* * * * *
More than any other individual, and as much as to one individual was possible, has he contributed to found this, our wide spreading empire, and to give to the Western World independence and freedom.
CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL.
* * * * *
Let him who looks for a monument to Washington look around the United States. Your freedom, your independence, your national power, your prosperity, and your prodigious growth are a monument to him.
KOSSUTH.
* * * * *
More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself. If there be one quality more than another in his character which may exercise a useful control over the men of the present hour, it is the total disregard of self when in the most elevated positions for influence and example.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON'S RELIGIOUS CHARACTER
BY WILLIAM M'KINLEY
In an Address, February 22, 1898
Though Washington's exalted character and the most striking acts of his brilliant record are too familiar to be recounted here, yet often as the story is retold, it engages our love and admiration and interest. We love to record his noble unselfishness, his heroic purposes, the power of his magnificent personality, his glorious achievements for mankind, and his stalwart and unflinching devotion to independence, liberty, and union. These cannot be too often told or be too familiarly known.
A slaveholder himself, he yet hated slavery, and provided in his will for the emancipation of his slaves. Not a college graduate, he was always enthusiastically the friend of liberal education....
And how reverent always was this great man, how prompt and generous his recognition of the guiding hand of Divine Providence in establishing and controlling the destinies of the colonies and the Republic....
Washington states the reasons of his belief in language so exalted that it should be graven deep in the mind of every patriot:
No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of man more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consents of so many distinguished communities from which the events resulted cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the same seems to presage. The reflections arising out of the present crisis have forced themselves strongly upon my mind. You will join me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government are more auspiciously commenced.
In his Farewell Address, Washington contends in part:
(1) For the promotion of institutions of learning;
(2) for cherishing the public credit;
(3) for the observance of good faith and justice toward all nations....
At no point in his administration does Washington appear in grander proportions than when he enunciates his ideas in regard to the foreign policy of the government:
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all; religion and morality enjoin this conduct. Can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON
ANONYMOUS
We are met to testify our regard for him whose name is intimately blended with whatever belongs most essentially to the prosperity, the liberty, the free institutions, and the renown of our country. That name was a power to rally a nation in the hour of thick-thronging public disasters and calamities; that name shone amid the storm of war, a beacon light to cheer and guide the country's friends; its flame, too, like a meteor, to repel her foes. That name in the days of peace was a loadstone, attracting to itself a whole people's confidence, a whole people's love, and the whole world's respect; that name, descending with all time, spread over the whole earth, and uttered in all the languages belonging to the tribes and races of men, will forever be pronounced with affectionate gratitude by everyone in whose breast there shall arise an aspiration for human rights and human liberty.
Washington stands at the commencement of a new era, as well as at the head of the New World. A century from the birth of Washington has changed the world. The country of Washington has been the theater on which a great part of that change has been wrought, and Washington himself a principal agent by which it has been accomplished. His age and his country are equally full of wonders, and of both he is the chief.
It is the spirit of human freedom, the new elevation of individual man, in his moral, social, and political character, leading the whole long train of other improvements, which has most remarkably distinguished the era. Society has assumed a new character; it has raised itself from beneath governments to a participation in governments; it has mixed moral and political objects with the daily pursuits of individual men, and, with a freedom and strength before altogether unknown, it has applied to these objects the whole power of the human understanding. It has been the era, in short, when the social principle has triumphed over the feudal principle; when society has maintained its rights against military power, and established on foundations never hereafter to be shaken its competency to govern itself.
VII
WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY
THE HIGHEST PEDESTAL
BY WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE
When I first read in detail the life of Washington, I was profoundly impressed with the moral elevation and greatness of his character, and I found myself at a loss to name among the statesmen of any age or country many, or possibly any, who could be his rival. In saying this I mean no disparagement to the class of politicians, the men of my own craft and cloth, whom in my own land, and my own experience, I have found no less worthy than other men of love and admiration. I could name among them those who seem to me to come near even to him. But I will shut out the last half century from the comparison. I will then say that if, among all the pedestals supplied by history for public characters of extraordinary nobility and purity, I saw one higher than all the rest, and if I were required at a moment's notice to name the fittest occupant for it, I think my choice at any time during the last forty-five years would have lighted, as it would now light, upon Washington.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON IN HISTORY
BY CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW
No man ever stood for so much to his country and to mankind as George Washington. Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Jay each represented some of the elements which formed the Union. Washington embodied them all.
The superiority of Washington's character and genius were more conspicuous in the formation of our government and in putting it on indestructible foundations than leading armies to victory and conquering the independence of his country. "The Union in any event" is the central thought of the "Farewell Address," and all the years of his grand life were devoted to its formation and preservation.
Do his countrymen exaggerate his virtues? Listen to Guizot, the historian of civilization: "Washington did the two greatest things which in politics it is permitted to man to attempt. He maintained by peace the independence of his country, which he conquered by war. He founded a free government in the name of the principles of order, and by re-establishing their sway."
Hear Lord Erskine, the most famous of English advocates: "You are the only being for whom I have an awful reverence."
Remember the tribute of Charles James Fox, the greatest parliamentary orator who ever swayed the British House of Commons: "Illustrious man, before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into insignificance."
Contemplate the character of Lord Brougham, pre-eminent for two generations in every department of human thought and activity, and then impress upon the memories of your children his deliberate judgment: "Until time shall be no more will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington."
Blot out from the page of history the names of all the great actors of his time in the drama of nations, and preserve the name of Washington, and the century would be renowned.
* * * * *
TO THE SHADE OF WASHINGTON
BY RICHARD ALSOP
Exalted chief, in thy superior mind What vast resource, what various talents joined! Tempered with social virtue's milder rays, There patriot worth diffused a purer blaze; Formed to command respect, esteem, inspire, Midst statesmen grave, or midst the social choir, With equal skill the sword or pen to wield, In council great, unequaled in the field, Mid glittering courts or rural walks to please, Polite with grandeur, dignified with ease; Before the splendors of thy high renown How fade the glow-worn lusters of a crown; How sink diminished in that radiance lost The glare of conquest, and of power the boast. Let Greece her Alexander's deeds proclaim; Or Caesar's triumphs gild the Roman name; Stripped of the dazzling glare around them cast, Shrinks at their crimes humanity aghast; With equal claim to honor's glorious meed. See Attila his course of havoc lead! O'er Asia's realms, in one vast ruin hurled. See furious Zingis' bloody flag unfurled. On base far different from the conqueror's claim Rests the unsullied column of thy fame; His on the woes of millions proudly based, With blood cemented and with tears defaced; Thine on a nation's welfare fixed sublime, By freedom strengthened and revered by time. He, as the Comet, whose portentous light Spreads baleful splendor o'er the glooms of night, With chill amazement fills the startled breast. While storms and earthquakes dire its course attest, And nature trembles, lest, in chaos hurled, Should sink the tottering fabric of the world. Thou, like the Sun, whose kind propitious ray Opes the glad morn and lights the fields of day, Dispels the wintry storm, the chilling rain, With rich abundance clothes the smiling plain, Gives all creation to rejoice around, And life and light extends o'er nature's utmost bound. Though shone thy life a model bright of praise, Not less the example bright thy death portrays, When, plunged in deepest we, around thy bed, Each eye was fixed, despairing sunk each head, While nature struggled with severest pain, And scarce could life's last lingering powers retain: In that dread moment, awfully serene, No trace of suffering marked thy placid mien, No groan, no murmuring plaint, escaped thy tongue, No lowering shadows on thy brow were hung; But calm in Christian hope, undamped with fear, Thou sawest the high reward of virtue near, On that bright meed in sweetest trust reposed, As thy firm hand thine eyes expiring closed, Pleased, to the will of heaven resigned thy breath, And smiled as nature's struggles closed in death.
* * * * *
THE MAJESTIC EMINENCE OF WASHINGTON
BY CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW
In an Address, February 22, 1888
"Time's noblest offspring is the last."
As the human race has moved along down the centuries, the vigorous and ambitious, the dissenters from blind obedience and the original thinkers, the colonists and state builders, have broken camp with the morning, and followed the sun till the close of day. They have left behind narrow and degrading laws, traditions, and castes. Their triumphant success is pushing behind every bayonet carried at the order of Kaiser or Czar; men, who, in doing their own thinking, will one day decide for themselves the problems of peace and war.
The scenes of the fifth act of the grand drama are changing, but all attention remains riveted upon one majestic figure. He stands the noblest leader who ever was intrusted with his country's life. His patience under provocation, his calmness in danger, and lofty courage when all others despaired, his prudent delays when delay was best, and his quick and resistless blows when action was possible, his magnanimity to defamers and generosity to his foes, his ambition for his country and unselfishness for himself, his sole desire of freedom and independence for America, and his only wish to return after victory to private life, have all combined to make him, by the unanimous judgment of the world, the foremost figure of history.
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FOR A LITTLE PUPIL
ANONYMOUS
"Napoleon was great, I know, And Julius Caesar, and all the rest, But they didn't belong to us, and so I like George Washington the best."
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WASHINGTON'S FAME
BY ASHER ROBBINS
It is the peculiar good fortune of this country to have given birth to a citizen whose name everywhere produces a sentiment of regard for his country itself. In other countries, whenever and wherever this is spoken of to be praised, it is called the country of Washington. I believe there is no people, civilized or savage, in any place however remote, where the name of Washington has not been heard, and where it is not respected with the fondest admiration. We are told that the Arab of the desert talks of Washington in his tent, and that his name is familiar to the wandering Scythian. He seems, indeed, to be the delight of humankind, as their beau-ideal of human nature. No American, in any part of the world, but has found the regard for himself increased by his connection with Washington, as his fellow-countryman; and who has not felt a pride, and has occasion to exult, in the fortunate connection?
A century and more has now passed away since he came upon the stage, and his fame first broke upon the world; for it broke like the blaze of day from the rising sun—almost as sudden, and seemingly as universal. The eventful period since that era has teemed with great men, who have crossed the scene and passed off. Some of them have arrested great attention—very great. Still Washington retains his preeminent place in the minds of men; still his peerless name is cherished by them in the same freshness of delight as in the morn of its glory. History will keep a record of his fame; but history is not necessary to perpetuate it. In regions where history is not read, where letters are unknown, it lives, and will go down from age to age, in all future time, in their traditionary lore. Who would exchange this fame, the common inheritance of our country, for the fame of any individual which any country of any time can boast? I would not; with my sentiments I could not.
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WASHINGTON
The Brightest Name on History's Page
BY ELIZA COOK
Land of the West! though passing brief the record of thine age, Thou hast a name that darkens all on history's wide page! Let all the blasts of Fame ring out,—thine shall be loudest far; Let others boast their satellites,—thou hast the planet star. Thou hast a name whose characters of light shall ne'er depart; 'Tis stamped upon the dullest brain, and warms the coldest heart; A war-cry fit for any land where freedom's to be won; Land of the West! it stands alone,—it is thy Washington!
Rome had its Caesar, great and brave, but stain was on his wreath; He lived the heartless conqueror, and died the tyrant's death. France had its eagle, but his wings, though lofty they might soar, Were spread in false ambition's flight, and dipped in murder's gore. Those hero-gods, whose mighty sway would fain have chained the waves— Who flashed their blades with tiger zeal to make a world of slaves— Who, though their kindred barred the path, still fiercely waded on, Oh, where shall be their "glory" by the side of Washington!
He fought, but not with love of strife; he struck but to defend; And ere he turned a people's foe, he sought to be a friend; He strove to keep his country's right by reason's gentle word, And sighed when fell injustice threw the challenge sword to sword. He stood the firm, the wise, the patriot, and the sage; He showed no deep, avenging hate, no burst of despot rage; He stood for Liberty and Truth, and daringly led on Till shouts of victory gave forth the name of Washington.
No car of triumph bore him through a city filled with grief; No groaning captives at the wheels proclaimed him victor-chief; He broke the gyves of slavery with strong and high disdain, But cast no scepter from the links when he had rent the chain. He saved his land, but did not lay his soldier trappings down To change them for a regal vest and don a kingly crown. Fame was too earnest in her joy, too proud of such a son, To let a robe and title mask her noble Washington.
England, my heart is truly thine, my loved, my native earth,— The land that holds a mother's grave and gave that mother birth! Oh, keenly sad would be the fate that thrust me from thy shore And faltering my breath that sighed, "Farewell for evermore!" But did I meet such adverse lot, I would not seek to dwell Where olden heroes wrought the deeds for Homer's song to tell. "Away, thou gallant ship!" I'd cry, "and bear me safely on, But bear me from my own fair land to that of Washington."
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WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT
An extract from President McKinley's address on Washington, taken from a report in the Cleveland Leader
Washington and the American Republic are inseparable. You cannot study history without having the name of Washington come to you unbidden. Bancroft said, "But for Washington the Republic would never have been conceived; the Constitution would not have been formed, and the Federal Government would never have been put in operation." Washington felt that the Revolution was a struggle for freedom, and it was by his strong character and wonderful patriotism that the army was held together during the prolonged and perilous war. In all the public affairs of the colonies Washington was the champion of right. His military career has never been equaled. He continued at the head of his army until the close of the war, overcoming jealousies and intrigues, which only the greatest courage and the sublimest wisdom could do. The ideal he had ever cherished was one in which the individual could have the greatest liberty, consistent with the country's best interests, and it was with this ideal constantly in mind that he carried on the war and embodied the principles of liberty within the government. Washington had many temptations, but the greatest of them came after the victory was achieved. At the time when the army was in revolt, when there was dissatisfaction in Congress, and consternation and distress throughout the colonies, it was proposed that the original plan of government be abandoned and that Washington be chosen as the military ruler or dictator. Washington's strong reproval of such proposals and his insistence upon the stronger government, showed his unselfish regard for the country. A weaker man might have weakened, a bad one would, but Washington was determined to embody into the government all that had been achieved by the war. Washington in what he did had no precedents. He and his associates made the chart which assisted them in guiding the new government. He established credit, put the army and navy on a permanent basis, fostered commerce, and was ever on the side of education.
Everything that he did demonstrates his marvelous foresight. We cannot afford to spare the inspiration that comes from Washington. It promotes patriotism and gives vigor to national life. Washington's views on slavery were characterized by a high sense of justice and an exalted conscience. He was the owner of slaves by inheritance, all his interests were affected by slavery, yet he was opposed to it, and in his will he provided for the liberation of his slaves. He set the example for emancipation. He hoped for, prayed for, and was willing to vote for what Lincoln afterward accomplished.
VIII
THE WHOLE MAN
GEORGE WASHINGTON
BY JOHN HALL INGHAM
This was the man God gave us when the hour Proclaimed the dawn of Liberty begun; Who dared a deed, and died when it was done, Patient in triumph, temperate in power,— Not striving like the Corsican to tower To heaven, nor like great Philip's greater son To win the world and weep for worlds unwon, Or lose the star to revel in the flower. The lives that serve the eternal verities Alone do mold mankind. Pleasure and pride Sparkle awhile and perish, as the spray Smoking across the crests of cavernous seas Is impotent to hasten or delay The everlasting surges of the tide.
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HISTORICAL MEMORABILIA OF WASHINGTON
COMPILED BY H.B. CARRINGTON
1732. February 22 (February 11, O.S.), born. 1748. Surveyor of lands at sixteen years of age. 1751. Military inspector and major at nineteen years of age. 1752. Adjutant-general of Virginia. 1753. Commissioner to the French. 1754. Colonel, and commanding the Virginia militia. 1755. Aide-de-camp to Braddock in his campaign. 1755. Again commands the Virginia troops. 1758. Resigns his commission. 1759. January 6. Married. 1759. Elected member of Virginia House of Burgesses. 1765. Commissioner to settle military accounts. 1774. In First Continental Congress. 1775. In Second Continental Congress. 1775. June 15. Elected commander-in-chief. 1775. July 2. In command at Cambridge. 1776. March 17. Expels the British from Boston. 1776. August 27. Battle of Long Island. 1776. August 29. Masterly retreat to New York. 1776. September 15. Gallant, at Kipp's Bay. 1776. October 27. Battle of Harlem Heights. 1776. October 29. Battle near White Plains. 1776. November 15. Enters New Jersey. 1776. December 5. Occupies right bank of the Delaware. 1776. December 12. Clothed with "full power." 1776. December 14. Plans an offensive campaign. 1776. December 26. Battle of Trenton. 1777. January 3. Battle of Princeton. 1777. July. British driven from New Jersey, during. 1777. July 13. Marches for Philadelphia. 1777. September 11. Battle of Brandywine. 1777. September 15. Offers battle at West Chester. 1777. October 4. Battle of Germantown. 1778. Winters at Valley Forge. 1778. June 28. Battle of Monmouth. 1778. British again retire from New Jersey. 1778. Again at White Plains. 1779. At Middlebrook, New Jersey, and New Windsor. 1780. Winters at Morristown, New Jersey. 1781. Confers with Rochambeau as to plans. 1781. Threatens New York in June and July. 1781. Joins Lafayette before Yorktown. 1781. October 19. Surrender of Cornwallis. 1783. November 2. Farewell to the army. 1733. November 25. Occupies New York. 1783. December 4. Parts with his officers. 1783. December 23. Resigns his commission. 1787. Presides at Constitutional Convention. 1789. March 4. Elected President of the United States. 1789. April 30. Inaugurated at New York. 1793. March 4. Re-elected for four years. 1796. September 17. Farewell to the people. 1797. March 4. Retires to private life. 1798. July 3. Appointed commander-in-chief. 1799. December 14. Died at Mount Vernon.
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A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF WASHINGTON[20]
BY HENRY MITCHELL MACCRACKEN
George Washington was a son of Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball, and a descendant of John Washington, who emigrated from England about 1657, during the protectorate of Cromwell. He was born in the English colony of Virginia, in Westmoreland County, on February 22, 1732. His education was simple and practical. To the common English instruction of his time and home, young Washington added bookkeeping and surveying. The three summers preceding his twentieth year he spent in surveying the estate of Lord Fairfax on the northwest boundary of the colony, an occupation which strengthened his splendid physical constitution to a high point of efficiency, and gave him practice in topography,—valuable aids in the military campaigning which speedily followed.
In 1751, at nineteen, he was made Adjutant in the militia, with the rank of Major. In the following year he inherited the estate of Mount Vernon. In the winter of 1753-54, at twenty-one, he was sent by the Governor of Virginia on a mission to the French posts beyond the Alleghanies. Soon after his return he led a regiment to the headwaters of the Ohio, but was compelled to retreat to the colony on account of the overwhelming numbers of the French at Fort Duquesne. In Braddock's defeat, July 9, 1755, Washington was one of the latter's aides, and narrowly escaped death, having had two horses shot under him. During the remaining part of the French and Indian War, he was in command of the Virginia frontier, with the rank of Colonel, and occupied Fort Duquesne in 1758. On January 17, 1759, he married a wealthy widow, Mrs. Martha Custis, and removed to Mount Vernon. The administration of his plantations involved a large measure of commerce with England, and he himself with his own hand kept his books with mercantile exactness.
Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, Washington was appointed by the Continental Congress, at forty-three years of age, Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the Revolution, and assumed their control at Cambridge on July 3, 1775. In 1776 he occupied Boston, lost New York, then brilliantly restored the drooping spirit of the land at Trenton and Princeton. In the year following he lost Philadelphia, and retreated to Valley Forge. Threatened by the jealousy of his own subordinates, he put to shame the cabal formed in the interests of Gates, who had this year captured Burgoyne. For three years, 1778-80, he maintained himself against heavy odds in the Jerseys, fighting at Monmouth the first year, reaching out to capture Stony Point the next year, and the third year combating the treason of Arnold. In 1781, he planned the cooping up of Cornwallis on the peninsula of Yorktown, with the aid of the French allies, and received his surrender on October 19th.
Resigning his commission at Annapolis, December 23, 1783, he returned to his estate at Mount Vernon, but vastly aided the incipient work of framing the Constitution by correspondence. In May, 1787, he took his seat as President of the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia. He was inaugurated the first President of the United States in April, 1789, after a unanimous election. He was similarly reflected in 1793, but refused a third term in 1796. In the face of unmeasured vituperation he firmly kept the nascent nation from embroiling herself in the wars of France and England. Retiring again to Mount Vernon in the spring of 1797, he nevertheless accepted, at sixty-six years of age, the post of Commander-in-Chief of the provisional army raised in 1798 to meet the insolence of the French Directorate. In December, 1799, while riding about his estates during a snowstorm, he contracted a disease of the throat, from which he died on December 14, 1799. He provided by his will for the manumission of his slaves, to take effect on the decease of his widow. No lineal descendants can claim as an ancestor this extraordinary man. He belongs to his country. His tomb is at Mount Vernon, and is in keeping of the women of America.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] From "The Hall of Fame." Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1901.
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THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON
BY DANIEL WEBSTER
A Speech Delivered at a Public Dinner, Washington, February 22, 1832
The Power of the Name of Washington
We are met to testify our regard for him whose name is intimately blended with whatever belongs most essentially to the prosperity, the liberty, the free institutions, and the renown of our country;. That name was of power to rally a nation, in the hour of thick-thronging public disasters and calamities; that name shone, amid the storm of war, a beacon light, to cheer and guide the country's friends; it flamed, too, like a meteor, to repel her foes. That name, in the days of peace, was a lodestone, attracting to itself a whole people's confidence, a whole people's love, and the whole world's respect. That name, descending with all time, spreading over the whole earth, and uttered in all the languages belonging to the tribes and races of men, will forever be pronounced with affectionate gratitude by everyone in whose breast there shall arise an aspiration for human rights and human liberty.
We perform this grateful duty, Gentlemen, at the expiration of a hundred years from his birth, near the place so cherished and beloved by him, where his dust now reposes, and in the capital which bears his own immortal name.
All experience evinces that human sentiments are strongly influenced by association. The recurrence of anniversaries, or of longer periods of time, naturally freshens the recollection, and deepens the impression, of events with which they are historically connected. Renowned places, also, have a power to awaken feeling, which all acknowledge. No American can pass by the fields of Bunker Hill, Monmouth, and Camden, as if they were ordinary spots on the earth's surface. Whoever visits them feels the sentiment of love of country kindling anew, as if the spirit that belonged to the transactions which have rendered these places distinguished still hovered round, with power to move and excite all who in future time may approach them.
Washington's Great Moral Example to the Youth of America
But neither of these sources of emotion equals the power with which great moral examples affect the mind. When sublime virtues cease to be abstractions, when they become embodied in human character, and exemplified in human conduct, we should be false to our own nature if we did not indulge in the spontaneous effusions of our gratitude and our admiration. A true lover of the virtue of patriotism delights to contemplate its purest models; and that love of country may be well suspected which affects to soar so high into the regions of sentiment as to be lost and absorbed in the abstract feeling, and becomes too elevated or too refined to glow with fervor in the commendation or the love of individual benefactors. All this is unnatural. It is as if one should be so enthusiastic a lover of poetry as to care nothing for Homer or Milton; so passionately attached to eloquence as to be indifferent to Tully[21] and Chatham; or such a devotee to the art, in such an ecstasy with the elements of beauty, proportion, and expression, as to regard the masterpieces of Raphael and Michel Angelo with coldness or contempt. We may be assured, Gentlemen, that he who really loves the thing itself, loves its finest exhibitions. A true friend of his country loves her friends and benefactors, and thinks it no degradation to commend and commemorate them. The voluntary outpouring of the public feeling, made to-day, from the north to the south, and from the east to the west, proves this sentiment to be both just and natural. In the cities and in the villages, in the public temples and in the family circles, among all ages and sexes, gladdened voices to-day bespeak grateful hearts and a freshened recollection of the virtues of the Father of his Country. And it will be so, in all time to come, so long as public virtue is itself an object of regard. The ingenuous youth of America will hold up to themselves the bright model of Washington's example, and study to be what they behold; they will contemplate his character till all its virtues spread out and display themselves to their delighted vision; as the earliest astronomers, the shepherds on the plains of Babylon, gazed at the stars till they saw them form into clusters and constellations, overpowering at length the eyes of the beholders with the united blaze of a thousand lights.
A Wonderful Age and Country
Gentlemen, we are at a point of a century from the birth of Washington; and what a century it has been! During its course, the human mind has seemed to proceed with a sort of geometric velocity, accomplishing for human intelligence and human freedom more than had been done in fives or tens of centuries preceding. Washington stands at the commencement of a new era, as well as at the head of the New World. A century from the birth of Washington has changed the world. The country of Washington has been the theater on which a great part of that change has been wrought, and Washington himself a principal agent by which it has been accomplished. His age and his country are equally full of wonders; and of both he is the chief.
If the poetical prediction, uttered a few years before his birth, be true; if indeed it be designed by Providence that the grandest exhibition of human character and human affairs shall be made in this theater of the Western world; if it be true that,
"The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last";
how could this imposing, swelling, final scene be appropriately opened, how could its intense interest be adequately sustained but by the introduction of just such a character as our Washington?
The Spark of Human Freedom
Washington had attained his manhood when that spark of liberty was struck out in his own country which has since kindled into a flame and shot its beams over the earth. In the flow of a century from his birth, the world has changed in science, in arts, in the extent of commerce, in the improvement of navigation, and in all that relates to the civilization of man. But it is the spirit of human freedom, the new elevation of individual man, in his moral, social, and political character, leading the whole long train of other improvements, which has most remarkably distinguished the era. Society, in this century, has not made its progress, like Chinese skill, by a greater acuteness of ingenuity in trifles; it has not merely lashed itself to an increased speed round the old circles of thought and action; but it has assumed a new character; it has raised itself from beneath governments to a participation in governments; it has mixed moral and political objects with the daily pursuits of individual men; and, with a freedom and strength before altogether unknown, it has applied to these objects the whole power of the human understanding. It has been the era, in short, when the social principle has triumphed over the feudal principle; when society has maintained its rights against military power, and established, on foundations never hereafter to be shaken, its competency to govern itself.
A New Governmental Experiment
It was the extraordinary fortune of Washington that, having been intrusted in revolutionary times, with the supreme military command, and having fulfilled that trust with equal renown for wisdom and for valor, he should be placed at the head of the first government in which an attempt was to be made on a large scale to rear the fabric of social order on the basis of a written constitution, and of a pure representative principle. A government was to be established without a throne, without an aristocracy, without castes, orders, or privileges; and this government, instead of being a democracy existing and acting within the walls of a single city, was to be extended over a vast country of different climates, interests, and habits, and of various communions of our common Christian faith. The experiment certainly was entirely new. A popular government of this extent, it was evident, could be framed only by carrying into full effect the principle of representation or of delegated power; and the world was to see whether society could, by the strength of this principle, maintain its own peace and good government, carry forward its own great interests, and conduct itself to political renown and glory. By the benignity of Providence, this experiment, so full of interest to us and to our posterity forever, so full of interest, indeed, to the world in its present generation and in all its generations to come, was suffered to commence under the guidance of Washington. Destined for this high career, he was fitted for it by wisdom, by virtue, by patriotism, by discretion, by whatever can inspire confidence in man toward man. In entering on the untried scenes, early disappointment and the premature extinction of all hope of success would have been certain, had it not been that there did exist throughout the country, in a most extraordinary degree, an unwavering trust in him who stood at the helm.
The World Interested in the Experiment
I remarked, Gentlemen, that the whole world was and is interested in the result of this experiment. And is it not so? Do we deceive ourselves, or is it true that at this moment the career which this government is running is among the most attractive objects to the civilized world? Do we deceive ourselves, or is it true that at this moment that love of liberty and that understanding of its true principles which are flying over the whole earth, as on the wings of all the winds, are really and truly of American origin?
Importance of the English Revolution of 1688
At the period of the birth of Washington there existed in Europe no political liberty in large communities, except in the provinces of Holland, and except that England herself had set a great example, so far as it went, by her glorious Revolution of 1688. Everywhere else, despotic power was predominant, and the feudal or military principle held the mass of mankind in hopeless bondage. One-half of Europe was crushed beneath the Bourbon scepter, and no conception of political liberty, no hope even of religious toleration, existed among that nation which was America's first ally. The king was the state, the king was the country, the king was all. There was one king, with power not derived from his people, and too high to be questioned; and the rest were all subjects, with no political right but obedience. All above was intangible power, all below quiet subjection. A recent occurrence in the French chamber shows us how public opinion on these subjects is changed. A minister had spoken of the "king's subjects." "There are no subjects," exclaimed hundreds of voices at once, "in a country where the people make the king!"
Gentlemen, the spirit of human liberty and of free government, nurtured and grown into strength and beauty in America, has stretched its course into the midst of the nations. Like an emanation from Heaven, it has gone forth, and it will not return void. It must change, it is fast changing, the face of the earth. Our great, our high duty is to show, in our own example, that this spirit is a spirit of health as well as a spirit of power; that its benignity is as great as its strength; that its efficiency to secure individual rights, social relations, and moral order, is equal to the irresistible force with which it prostrates principalities and powers. The world, at this moment, is regarding us with a willing, but something of a fearful, admiration. Its deep and awful anxiety is to learn whether free States may be stable, as well as free; whether popular power may be trusted, as well as feared; in short, whether wise, regular, and virtuous self-government is a vision for the contemplation of theorists, or a truth established, illustrated, and brought into practice in the country of Washington.
The United States a Western Sun
Gentlemen, for the earth which we inhabit, and the whole circle of the sun, for all the unborn races of mankind, we seem to hold in our hands, for their weal or woe, the fate of this experiment. If we fail, who shall venture the repetition? If our example shall prove to be one not of encouragement, but of terror, not fit to be imitated, but fit only to be shunned, where else shall the world look for free models? If this great Western Sun be struck out of the firmament, at what other fountain shall the lamp of liberty hereafter be lighted? What other orb shall emit a ray to glimmer, even, on the darkness of the world?
There is no danger of our overrating or overstating the important part which we are now acting in human affairs. It should not flatter our personal self-respect, but it should reanimate our patriotic virtues and inspire us with a deeper and more solemn sense both of our privileges and of our duties. We cannot wish better for our country, nor for the world, than that the same spirit which influenced Washington may influence all who succeed him; and that the same blessing from above, which attended his efforts, may also attend theirs.
Washington's Farewell Address
The principles of Washington's administration are not left doubtful. They are to be found in the Constitution itself, in the great measures recommended and approved by him, in his speeches to Congress, and in that most interesting paper, his Farewell Address to the people of the United States. The success of the government under his administration is the highest proof of the soundness of these principles. And, after an experience of thirty-five years, what is there which an enemy could condemn? What is there which either his friends, or the friends of the country, could wish to have been otherwise? I speak, of course, of great measures and leading principles.
In the first place, all his measures were right in their intent. He stated the whole basis of his own great character, when he told the country, in the homely phrase of the proverb, that honesty is the best policy. One of the most striking things ever said of him is, that "he changed mankind's ideas of political greatness."[22] To commanding talents, and to success, the common elements of such greatness, he added a disregard of self, a spotlessness of motive, a steady submission to every public and private duty, which threw far into the shade the whole crowd of vulgar great. The object of his regard was the whole country. No part of it was enough to fill his enlarged patriotism. His love of glory, so far as that may be supposed to have influenced him at all, spurned everything short of general approbation. It would have been nothing to him that his partisans or his favorites outnumbered, or outvoted, or outmanaged, or outclamored, those of other leaders. He had no favorites; he rejected all partisanship; and, acting honestly for the universal good, he deserved, what he so richly enjoyed, the universal love.
His principle it was to act right, and to trust the people for support; his principle it was not to follow the lead of sinister and selfish ends, nor to rely on the little arts of party delusion to obtain public sanction for such a course. Born for his country and for the world, he did not give up to party what was meant for mankind. The consequence is, that his fame is as durable as his principles, as lasting as truth and virtue themselves. While the hundreds whom party excitement, and temporary circumstances, and casual combinations, have raised into transient notoriety, sink again, like thin bubbles, bursting and dissolving into the great ocean, Washington's fame is like the rock which bounds that ocean, and at whose feet its billows are destined to break harmlessly forever.
His Conduct of America's Foreign Relations
The maxims upon which Washington conducted our foreign relations were few and simple. The first was an entire and indisputable impartiality towards foreign States.[23] He adhered to this rule of public conduct, against very strong inducements to depart from it, and when the popularity of the moment seemed to favor such a departure. In the next place, he maintained true dignity and unsullied honor in all communications with foreign States. It was among the high duties devolved upon him to introduce our new government into the circle of civilized States and powerful nations. Not arrogant or assuming, with no unbecoming or supercilious bearing, he yet exacted for it from all others entire and punctilious respect. He demanded, and he obtained at once, a standing of perfect equality for his country in the society of nations; nor was there a prince or potentate of his day, whose personal character carried with it, into the intercourse of other States, a greater degree of respect and veneration.
He regarded other nations only as they stood in political relations to us. With their internal affairs, their political parties and dissensions, he scrupulously abstained from all interference; and, on the other hand, he repelled with spirit all such interference by others with us or our concerns. His sternest rebuke, the most indignant measure of his whole administration, was aimed against such an attempted interference. He felt it as an attempt to wound the national honor, and resented it accordingly.
Foreign Influence a Foe of Republican Government
The reiterated admonitions in his Farewell Address show his deep fears that foreign influence would insinuate itself into our counsels through the channels of domestic dissension, and obtain a sympathy with our own temporary parties. Against all such dangers he most earnestly entreats the country to guard itself. He appeals to its patriotism, to its self-respect, to its own honor, to every consideration connected with its welfare and happiness, to resist, at the very beginning, all tendencies toward such connection of foreign interests with our own affairs. With a tone of earnestness nowhere else found, even in his last affectionate farewell advice to his countrymen, he says, "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government."
The Advantages of American Isolation
Lastly, on the subject of foreign relations, Washington never forgot that we had interests peculiar to ourselves. The primary political concerns of Europe, he saw, did not affect us. We had nothing to do with her balance of power, her family compacts, or her successions to thrones. We were placed in a condition favorable to neutrality during European wars, and to the enjoyment of all the great advantages of that relation. "Why, then," he asks us, "why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?"
Indeed, Gentlemen, Washington's Farewell Address is full of truths important at all times, and particularly deserving consideration at the present. With a sagacity which brought the future before him, and made it like the present, he saw and pointed out the dangers that even at this moment most imminently threaten us. I hardly know how a greater service of that kind could now be done to the community, than by a renewed and wide diffusion of that admirable paper, and an earnest invitation to every man in the country to reperuse and consider it. Its political maxims are invaluable; its exhortations to love of country and to brotherly affection among citizens, touching; and the solemnity with which it urges the observance of moral duties, and impresses the power of religious obligation, gives to it the highest character of truly disinterested, sincere, parental advice.
Washington's Domestic Policy
The domestic policy of Washington found its pole-star in the avowed objects of the Constitution itself. He sought so to administer that Constitution as to form more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. These were objects interesting in the highest degree, to the whole country, and his policy embraced the whole country.
Among his earliest and most important duties was the organization of the government itself, the choice of his confidential advisers, and the various appointments to office. This duty, so important and delicate, when a whole government was to be organized, and all its offices for the first time filled, was yet not difficult to him, for he had no sinister ends to accomplish, no clamorous partisans to gratify, no pledges to redeem, no object to be regarded but simply the public good. It was a plain, straightforward matter, a mere honest choice of good men for the public service.
His First Cabinet
His own singleness of purpose, his disinterested patriotism, were evinced by the selection of his first cabinet, and by the manner in which he felled the seats of justice, and other places of high trust. He sought for men fit for offices; not for offices which might suit them. Above personal considerations, above local considerations, above party considerations, he felt that he could only discharge the sacred trust which the country had placed in his hands, by a diligent inquiry after real merit, and a conscientious preference of virtue and talent. The whole country was the field of his selection. He explored that whole field, looking only for whatever it contained most worthy and distinguished. He was, indeed, most successful, and he deserved success for the purity of his motives, the liberality of his sentiments, and his enlarged and manly policy.
Important Measures of His Administrations
Washington's administration established the national credit, made provision for the public debt, and for that patriotic army whose interests and welfare were always so dear to him; and, by laws wisely framed, and of admirable effect, raised the commerce and navigation of the country, almost at once, from depression and ruin to a state of prosperity. Nor were his eyes open to these interests alone. He viewed with equal concern its agriculture and manufactures, and, so far as they came within the regular exercise of the powers of this government, they experienced regard and favor.
It should not be omitted, even in this slight reference to the general measures and general principles of the First President, that he saw and felt the full value and importance of the judicial department of the government. An upright and able administration of the laws he held to be alike indispensable to private happiness and public liberty. The temple of justice, in his opinion, was a sacred place, and he would profane and pollute it who should call any to minister in it, not spotless in character, not incorruptible in integrity, not competent by talent and learning, not a fit object of unhesitating trust.
His Opinion of the Dangers of Party Spirit
Among other admonitions Washington has left us, in his last communication to his country, an exhortation against the excesses of party spirit. A fire not to be quenched, he yet conjures us not to fan and feed the flame. Undoubtedly, Gentlemen, it is the greatest danger of our system and of our time. Undoubtedly, if that system should be overthrown, it will be the work of excessive party spirit, acting on the government, which is dangerous enough, or acting in the government, which is a thousand times more dangerous; for government then becomes nothing but organized party, and, in the strange vicissitudes of human affairs, it may come at last, perhaps, to exhibit the singular paradox of government itself being in opposition to its own powers, at war with the very elements of its own existence. Such cases are hopeless. As men may be protected against murder, but cannot be guarded against suicide, so government may be shielded from the assaults of external foes, but nothing can save it when it chooses to lay violent hands on itself.
His Love of the Union
Finally, Gentlemen, there was in the breast of Washington one sentiment so deeply felt, so constantly uppermost, that no proper occasion escaped without its utterance. From the letter which he signed in behalf of the Convention when the Constitution was sent out to the people, to the moment when he put his hand to that last paper in which he addressed his countrymen, the Union,—the Union was the great object of his thoughts. In that first letter he tells them that to him and his brethren of the Convention, union appears to be the greatest interest of every true American; and in that last paper he conjures them to regard that unity of government which constitutes them one people as the very palladium of their prosperity and safety, and the security of liberty itself. He regarded the union of these States less as one of our blessings, than as the great treasure-house which contained them all. Here, in his judgment, was the great magazine of all our means of prosperity; here as he thought, and as every true American still thinks, are deposited all our animating prospects, all our solid hopes for future greatness. He has taught us to maintain this union, not by seeking to enlarge the powers of the government, on the one hand, nor by surrendering them, on the other; but by an administration of them at once firm and moderate, pursuing objects truly national, and carried on in a spirit of justice and equity.
The American Nation Unique
The extreme solicitude for the preservation of the Union, at all times manifested by him, shows not only the opinion he entertained of its importance, but his clear perception of those causes which were likely to spring up to endanger it, and which, if once they should overthrow the present system, would leave little hope of any future beneficial reunion. Of all the presumptions indulged by presumptuous men, that is one of the rashest which looks for repeated and favorable opportunities for the deliberate establishment of a united government over distinct and widely extended communities. Such a thing has happened once in human affairs, and but once; the event stands out as a prominent exception to all ordinary history; and unless we suppose ourselves running into an age of miracles, we may not expect its repetition.
Washington, therefore, could regard, and did regard nothing as a paramount political interest but the integrity of the Union itself. With a united government, well administered, he saw that we had nothing to fear; and without it, nothing to hope. The sentiment is just, and its momentous truth should solemnly impress the whole country. If we might regard our country as personated in the spirit of Washington, if we might consider him as representing her, in her past renown, her present prosperity, and her future career, and as in that character demanding of us all to account for our conduct, as political men or as private citizens, how should he answer him who has ventured to talk of disunion and dismemberment? Oh how should he answer him who dwells perpetually on local interests, and fans every kindling flame of local prejudice? How should he answer him who would array State against State, interest against interest, and party against party, careless of the continuance of that unity of government which constitutes us one people?
The political prosperity which this country has attained, and which it now enjoys, has been acquired mainly through the instrumentality of the present government. While this agent continues, the capacity of attaining to still higher degrees of prosperity exists also. We have, while this lasts, a political life capable of beneficial exertion, with power to resist or overcome misfortunes, to sustain us against the ordinary accidents of human affairs, and to promote, by active efforts, every public interest. But dismemberment strikes at the very being which preserves these faculties. It would lay its rude and ruthless hand on this great agent itself. It would sweep away, not only what we possess, but all power of regaining lost, or acquiring new possessions. It would leave the country not only bereft of its prosperity and happiness, but without limbs, or organs, or faculties, by which to exert itself hereafter in the pursuit of that prosperity and happiness.
Dismemberment of the United States the Greatest of Evils
Other misfortunes may be borne, or their effects overcome. If disastrous war should sweep our commerce from the ocean, another generation may renew it; if it exhaust our treasury, future industry may replenish it; if it desolate and lay waste our fields, still, under a new cultivation, they will grow green again, and ripen to future harvests. It were but a trifle even if the walls of yonder Capitol were to crumble, if its lofty pillars should fall, and its gorgeous decorations be all covered by the dust of the valley. All these might be rebuilt. But who shall reconstruct the fabric of demolished government? Who shall rear again the well-proportioned columns of constitutional liberty? Who shall frame together the skillful architecture which unites national sovereignty with State rights, individual security, and public prosperity? No, if these columns fall, they will be raised not again. Like the Coliseum and the Parthenon, they will be destined to a mournful, a melancholy immortality. Bitterer tears, however, will flow over them than were ever shed over the monuments of Roman or Grecian art; for they will be the remnants of a more glorious edifice than Greece or Rome ever saw, the edifice of constitutional American liberty.
But let us hope for better things. Let us trust in that gracious Being who has hitherto held our country as in the hollow of his hand. Let us trust to the virtue and the intelligence of the people, and to the efficacy of religious obligation. Let us trust to the influence of Washington's example. Let us hope that that fear of Heaven which expels all other fear, and that regard to duty which transcends all other regard, may influence public men and private citizens, and lead our country still onward in her happy career. Full of these gratifying anticipations and hopes, let us look forward to the end of that century which is now commenced. A hundred years hence, other disciples of Washington will celebrate his birth, with no less of sincere admiration than we now commemorate it. When they shall meet, as we now meet, to do themselves and him that honor, so surely as they shall see the blue summits of his native mountains rise in the horizon, so surely as they shall behold the river on whose banks he lived, and on whose banks he rests, still flowing on toward the sea, so surely may they see, as we now see, the flag of the Union floating on the top of the Capitol; and then, as now, may the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!
FOOTNOTES:
[21] At the beginning of the nineteenth century Marcus Tullius Cicero was often called Tully.
[22] A remark by Fisher Ames (1758-1808), of Massachusetts,—perhaps the extremest Federalist of his time.
[23] The famous phrase, "honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none," was not Washington's but Jefferson's.
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MOUNT VERNON, THE HOME OF WASHINGTON
BY WILLIAM DAY
The following lines were written on the back of a picture at Mount Vernon:
There dwelt the Man, the flower of human kind, Whose visage mild bespoke his nobler mind.
There dwelt the Soldier, who his sword ne'er drew But in a righteous cause, to Freedom true.
There dwelt the Hero, who ne'er killed for fame, Yet gained more glory than a Caesar's name.
There dwelt the Statesman, who, devoid of art, Gave soundest counsels from an upright heart;
And, O Columbia, by thy sons caressed, There dwelt the Father of the realms he blessed; Who no wish felt to make his mighty praise, Like other chiefs, the means himself to raise; But there retiring, breathed in pure renown, And felt a grandeur that disdained a crown. |
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