Part 25

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.

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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.

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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 Cæsar'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.

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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.