Part 1

Our American Holidays

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

Its History, Observance, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse, with a Selection from Washington's Speeches and Writings

Edited by

ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER

New York Dodd, Mead and Company

PREFACE

The popular idea of Washington has recently begun to veer away from the vision of an eighteenth century demigod in a wig,--an old-fashioned statue in dusky bronze, stern and forbidding. We are swinging around toward the idea of a loveable, fallible, very human personality with humor, a hot temper, and a genuine love of pleasure.

Accordingly, in gathering material for this book the editor has passed by those earlier writers who are mainly responsible for this distorted view; and he has aimed to gather here the essays, orations poems, stories, and exercises which best exhibit the modern conception of Washington; together with a selection from his own writings and the finest of the elder tributes to the memory of our greatest National Hero.

NOTE

The Editor and Publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to Houghton, Mifflin & Company; Doubleday, Page & Company; J.B. Lippincott & Co.; Mr. David McKay, John Macy, and others who have very kindly granted permission to reprint selections from works bearing their copyright.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I THE DAY

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY Oliver Wendell Holmes WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY Margaret E. Sangster THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON Anonymous WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY George Howland WASHINGTON AND OUR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES Charles W. Eliot CROWN OUR WASHINGTON Hezekiah Butterworth WASHINGTON-MONTH Will Carleton

II EARLY YEARS

A GLIMPSE OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE Grace B. Johnson SOMETHING OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD Anonymous WASHINGTON'S TRAINING Charles Wentworth Upham WASHINGTON AS HE LOOKED

III THE GENERAL

WASHINGTON IS APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF Sydney George Fisher WASHINGTON AT TRENTON Richard Watson Gilder GEORGE WASHINGTON VALLEY FORGE Henry Armitt Brown WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE Canon R.G. Sutherland A FRENCHMAN'S ESTIMATE OF WASHINGTON IN 1781 Claude C. Robin

IV THE PRESIDENT

WASHINGTON AND THE CONSTITUTION John M. Harlan WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION Edward S. Ellis WASHINGTON Mary Wingate WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION Edward Everett Hale WASHINGTONIANA LESSONS FROM THE WASHINGTON CENTENNIAL George A. Gordon PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RECEPTIONS William Sullivan THE FOREIGN POLICY OF WASHINGTON Charles James Fox

V LAST DAYS

GEORGE WASHINGTON Hamilton Wright Mabie WASHINGTON'S LAST DAYS Elisabeth Eggleston Seelye THE MOUNT VERNON TRIBUTE THE WORDS OF WASHINGTON Daniel Webster

VI TRIBUTES

MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON Henry B. Carrington FROM THE "COMMEMORATION ODE" Harriet Monroe WASHINGTON'S STATUE Henry Theodore Tuckerman TRIBUTES WASHINGTON'S NAME IN THE HALL OF FAME Margaret E. Sangster ESTIMATES OF WASHINGTON WASHINGTON'S RELIGIOUS CHARACTER William M'Kinley WASHINGTON Anonymous

VII WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY

THE HIGHEST PEDESTAL William E. Gladstone WASHINGTON IN HISTORY Chauncey M. Depew TO THE SHADE OF WASHINGTON Richard Alsop THE MAJESTIC EMINENCE OF WASHINGTON Chauncey M. Depew FOR A LITTLE PUPIL Anonymous WASHINGTON'S FAME Asher Robbins WASHINGTON, THE BRIGHTEST NAME ON HISTORY'S PAGE Eliza Cook WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT

VIII THE WHOLE MAN