Washington's Birthday Part 10

Adding New l.u.s.tre to Humanity, Resounded To The Remotest Regions Of the Earth.

Magnanimous in Youth,

GLORIOUS THROUGH LIFE, GREAT IN DEATH,

His Highest Ambition the Happiness of Mankind, His n.o.blest Victory the Conquest of Himself, Bequeathing to Posterity the Inheritance of His Fame,

_And Building His Monument in the Hearts of His Countrymen,_

He Lived the Ornament Of the Eighteenth Century, and Died Regretted By a Mourning World.

FOOTNOTES:

[18] The author of this inscription is not known. It has been transcribed from a ma.n.u.script copy written on the back of a picture-frame, in which is set a miniature likeness of Was.h.i.+ngton, and which hangs in one of the rooms of the mansion at Mount Vernon, where it was left some time after Was.h.i.+ngton's death.--H.B. CARRINGTON.

THE WORDS OF WAs.h.i.+NGTON

BY DANIEL WEBSTER

_Delivered at the laying of the cornerstone of the new wing of the Capitol at Was.h.i.+ngton, July 4, 1851_

Was.h.i.+ngton! Methinks I see his venerable form now before me. He is dignified and grave; but concern and anxiety seem to soften the lineaments of his countenance. The government over which he presides is yet in the crisis of experiment. Not free from troubles at home, he sees the world in commotion and arms all around him. He sees that imposing foreign powers are half disposed to try the strength of the recently established American Government. Mighty thoughts, mingled with fears as well as with hopes, are struggling within him. He heads a short procession over these then naked fields; he crosses yonder stream on a fallen tree; he ascends to the top of this eminence, whose original oaks of the forest stand as thick around him as if the spot had been devoted to Druidical wors.h.i.+p, and here he performs the appointed duty of the day.

And now, if this vision were a reality; if Was.h.i.+ngton now were actually amongst us, and if he could draw around him the shades of the great public men of his own day, patriots and warriors, orators and statesmen, and were to address us in their presence, would he not say to us:

"Ye men of this generation, I rejoice and thank G.o.d for being able to see that our labors, and toils, and sacrifices, were not in vain. You are prosperous, you are happy, you are grateful. The fire of liberty burns brightly and steadily in your hearts, while duty and the law restrain it from bursting forth in wild and destructive conflagration.

Cherish liberty, as you love it; cherish its securities, as you wish to preserve it. Maintain the Const.i.tution which we labored so painfully to establish, and which has been to you such a source of inestimable blessings. Preserve the Union of the States, cemented as it was by our prayers, our tears, and our blood. Be true to G.o.d, to your country, and to your duty. So shall the whole Eastern world follow the morning sun, so contemplate you as a nation; so shall all generations honor you, as they honor us; and so shall that Almighty power which so graciously protected us, and which now protects you, shower its everlasting blessings upon you and your posterity!"

Great Father of your Country! We need your words; we feel their force, as if you now uttered them with lips of flesh and blood. Your example teaches us, your affectionate addresses teach us, your public life teaches us, your sense of the value of the blessings of the Union. Those blessings our fathers have tasted, and we have tasted, and still taste.

Nor do we intend that those who come after us shall be denied the same high function. Our honor, as well as our happiness, is concerned. We cannot, we dare not, we will not, betray our sacred trust. We will not filch from posterity the treasure placed in our hands to be transmitted to other generations. The bow that gilds the clouds in the heavens, the pillars that uphold the firmament, may disappear and fall away in the hour appointed by the will of G.o.d; but, until that day comes, or so long as our lives may last, no ruthless hand shall undermine that bright arch of Union and Liberty which spans the continent from Was.h.i.+ngton to California!

VI

TRIBUTES

MEMORIALS OF WAs.h.i.+NGTON[19]

BY HENRY B. CARRINGTON

Modern history, oratory, and poetry are so replete with tributes to the memory of Was.h.i.+ngton, that the entire progress of the civilized world for more than a century has been shaped by the influence of his life and precepts. The memorial shaft at the national capital, which is the loftiest of human structures, and is inner-faced by typical expressions of honor from nearly all nations, is a fit type of his surmounting merit. The ceremonies which attended the cornerstone consecration and signalized its completion are no less an honor to the distinguished historian and statesman who voiced the acclamations of the American people than a perpetual testimonial worthy of the subject honored by the occasion and by the monument. When the world pays willing tribute, and the most ambitious monarch on earth would covet no higher plaudit than that he served his people as faithfully as Was.h.i.+ngton served America, it is difficult to fathom the depths of memorial sentiment and place in public view those which are the most worthy of study and appreciative respect. The national life itself throbs through his transmitted life, and the aroma of his grace is as consciously breathed by statesmen and citizens to-day as the invisible atmosphere which secures physical vitality and force. Senator Vance of North Carolina, thus earnestly commends to the youth of America the brightness and beauty of the great example:

Greater soldiers, more intellectual statesmen, and profounder sages have doubtless existed in the history of the English race, perhaps in our own country, but not one who to great excellence in the threefold composition of man, the physical, intellectual, and moral, has added such exalted integrity, such unaffected piety, such unsullied purity of soul, and such wondrous control of his own spirit. He ill.u.s.trated and adorned the civilization of Christianity, and furnished an example of the wisdom and perfection of its teachings which the subtlest arguments of its enemies cannot impeach. 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. The youth of America who aspire to promote their own and their country's welfare should never cease to gaze upon his great example, or to remember that the brightest gems in the crown of his immortality, the qualities which uphold his fame on earth and plead for him in heaven, were those which characterized him as the patient, brave, Christian gentleman.

In this respect he was a blessing to the whole human race no less than to his own countrymen, to the many millions who annually celebrate the day of his birth.

Such sentiments fitly ill.u.s.trate the controlling element of character which made the conduct of Was.h.i.+ngton so peerless in the field and in the chair of state. His first utterances upon a.s.suming command of the American army before Boston, on the 2d of July, 1775, were a rebuke of religious bigotry and an impressive protest against gaming, swearing, and all immoral practices, which might forfeit divine aid in the great struggle for national independence. Succeeding orders, preparatory to the battle of Long Island, in August, 1776, breathe the same spirit,--that which transfused all his activities, as with celestial fire, until he surrendered his commission with a devout and public recognition of Almighty G.o.d as the author of his success.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] From the "Patriotic Reader." Lippincott Co.

FROM THE "COMMEMORATION ODE"

_World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, October 21, 1892_

BY HARRIET MONROE

WAs.h.i.+NGTON

When dreaming kings, at odds with swift-paced time, Would strike that banner down, A n.o.bler knight than ever writ or rhyme With fame's bright wreath did crown Through armed hosts bore it till it floated high Beyond the clouds, a light that cannot die!

Ah, hero of our younger race!

Great builder of a temple new!

Ruler, who sought no lordly place!

Warrior, who sheathed the sword he drew!

Lover of men, who saw afar A world unmarred by want or war, Who knew the path, and yet forbore To tread, till all men should implore; Who saw the light, and led the way Where the gray world might greet the day; Father and leader, prophet sure, Whose will in vast works shall endure, How shall we praise him on this day of days, Great son of fame who has no need of praise?

How shall we praise him? Open wide the doors Of the fair temple whose broad base he laid.

Through its white halls a shadowy cavalcade Of heroes moves o'er unresounding floors-- Men whose brawned arms upraised these columns high, And reared the towers that vanish in the sky,-- The strong who, having wrought, can never die.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S STATUE

BY HENRY THEODORE TUCKERMAN

The quarry whence thy form majestic sprung Has peopled earth with grace, Heroes and G.o.ds that elder bards have sung, A bright and peerless race; But from its sleeping veins ne'er rose before A shape of loftier name Than his, who Glory's wreath with meekness wore, The n.o.blest son of Fame.

Sheathed is the sword that Pa.s.sion never stained; His gaze around is cast, As if the joys of Freedom, newly gained, Before his vision pa.s.sed; As if a nation's shout of love and pride With music filled the air, And his calm soul was lifted on the tide Of deep and grateful prayer; As if the crystal mirror of his life To fancy sweetly came, With scenes of patient toil and n.o.ble strife, Undimmed by doubt or shame; As if the lofty purpose of his soul Expression would betray-- The high resolve Ambition to control, And thrust her crown away!

O, it was well in marble firm and white To carve our hero's form, Whose angel guidance was our strength in fight, Our star amid the storm!

Whose matchless truth has made his name divine And human freedom sure, His country great, his tomb earth's dearest shrine.

While man and time endure!

And it is well to place his image there Upon the soil he blest: Let meaner spirits, who its councils share, Revere that silent guest!

Let us go up with high and sacred love To look on his pure brow, And as, with solemn grace, he points above, Renew the patriot's vow!

TRIBUTES

_Extract from an address by President Gary of the Union League Club, at the celebration of Was.h.i.+ngton's Birthday at the Auditorium, Chicago, February 22, 1900_

It is needless to dispute with others as to Was.h.i.+ngton's rank in minor things. We know that for us and for our country his is the greatest name that lives; that in the grand struggle and march for freedom he was humanity's greatest leader, and that through us as a nation he gave to the world its chiefest example of republican self-government And now that his greatness is acknowledged and his praises sung the world round, our hearts swell with pride and grat.i.tude that he is ours; our countryman; our great American; our Was.h.i.+ngton. Not the safe and invincible general merely, not the wise first President, but George Was.h.i.+ngton, the sublime personality, greatest seen when all props and scaffoldings of rank and station are torn away.