Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1832-03-09
From the National Iutelbgsnesr.
The Dinner in Honor of the Memory OF
W,ch;putnn


on the 22d dav of the last month, being the Cen
tchhiai Birthday OF GEORGE WAsniNGroN, a mum.
per OF gentlemen from different parts OF the United
"'a.es' honsrcd the occasion by fuolc Di"ner
al bornard'S Hotel, in the City OF Washington
MIR. WEBSTER Senator of the United States
from the State OF Massachusetts,, presided; anC
Ccn. Charles Fcnton Mercer, Representatives
FROM Virginia; Gen. Walter Jones, OF the District
| Of Columbus and Cen Joseph Vance, Reprcscn-
,H,ive from Ohio, selected to act a. Vice Pre-
| sdcnts.
After tho dinner removed,
! Mr. WEBSTER, the President OF the Day, rose,
and addressed the Company to the following effect;
! !rsc gentlemen. to propose to You the name
| of that great man, in commemoration of whosr
! birth, aud IN honor of whose character and ser
vices, we have here assembled.
am sure | express scnlImen; common to
every ono present when | say, that there L.
| something more than ordinarily solemn and al
fcc'mg III this occoScn'
| We, are me, 10 testify regard for him,
whose name |, intimately blended with whatc.
/ YER belongs most essentially To tho prosperity
! thr liberty, the ,rc" institutions. and he rcGowI
| of our country. That name was of power t.
| RIA |. Il nation, in the hour of thick thrcngng
! pul lc disasters and CalGm'i"s; hat name shsne
aG.id he storm of war, beacAn light. to cheer
and guide the c"un,rys friends; its fame too,
hike meteor, TO rcpel hcr foes. That name in
he days OF peace, was n load, tone, attracting
% itself whole peoples confidence. n whole
peoples love, and the whole worlds respect;
ih't name, descending with al time, spread
oyer tie whoc earth, and uttered in all the Ian
guag"S bclurging to the tribes and races of men.
| Will T revcr be pronounced with afectirpaie gra
J u'udc by every one IN whose breast there shall
arise an aspiration for human rights and human
liberty.
We perform this grateful duty, gentlemen. at
ire expiration OF hundred years from his birth,
H. ar lie place so cherished and beloved by him.
Ill ~ ~,
which bears his own immortal name.
All experience cvinCcs, that human sentiments
are strongly affected BY associations. The re-
currence OF anniversaries, or OF longer periods
of time, naturally fiesicns the reco lection, and
dcepcns the Impression of events, with whit h
they are historically connected. Renowned
places, also, have power to awaken fe, ling.
VII CHI all acknowledge. No Amer can can Ia
by he fields Of Bunker HI, Monmouth, or
camden, as II they were ordinary spots on the
earth's surface. Whoever visits them, cells the
sen, mcnt of love Of country knGng anew, as
II the spirit that belonged to the transa cions
which have rendered these places distinguished
still lowered round, with PEW rto move and cx-
cite all who IN f:urc time nav approach them.
But neither of these sources of emotion equals the
power WIN which great moral examples affect the
mind. When sublime virtues cease to be abstract.
IONS, when they become embodied in human cha
racter, and cXempliiied in human conduct we
should be false to our own nature, if did not
indulge IN the spontaneous illusions of our graft
tude and our admiration. A true lover of the
virtue OF patriotism delights to contemplate its
Purest models; and that love cf country may be
we'll suspected which si.ccs to soar so OH into the
regions OF sentiment to be lost & absorbed in the
abstract feeling, and becomes too elevated or too
refined, to glow either with power in the common
datIon or the love of individual benctactors. All
this is immaterial. 1t is as if one should he 50
Schthnslasuc lover OF poetry to nothing
lot Homer or Milton; so passionatcly attached to
eloqncnce as to be indifferent TO Tully and Cha
thain or such devotce to the arts, in such an &C.
stacy with the elements of beauty, proportion and
expression, as to regard the master pieces of Ra-
phael and Michael Angelo with coldness or con-
tempt We may be assured, gentlemen, that he
who really loves the thing itself loves its finest
her friends and bcneaCtors, and thinks il no de-
gradatlon to commend and commemorate them
me voluntary out-pouring 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 s. in the villages
IN the public temples and in the family circles
among all ages and sexes, gladdened voices, to-
day, hes cak grateful hearts, and freshened reco-
lection of the virtues of the Father of his Coun-
try And it will be so, in all time to come so
long as public virtue is itself object of regard
he ingenious yosth of America will hold up to
themselves the bright model of Washington's ex-
.ampe, and study to be what they behold thew
viii contemplate his character till all it's virtues
spread out and display themselves to their delight
ed vision; as the earliest astronomers, the shep
herds on the plains of Babylon, gazed at the stars
til' thcy saw them form clusters and consultations,
oVeIpowcringtt length the eyes of the behodcrs
with the united blaze of a thousand lights
Gentlemen, we are at the 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 reometric
velocity, accomplishing more than had been done
IN tIves or tens OF centuries preceding Washing
ton stands at the commencement of 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 theatre which great part of
that change has been wrought; and Washingto on |
himself principal agent by which it has been ac |
compShed. Ills age and his country equally
Iuil OF wonders; and of both he is the chief
1t the prediction of the poet, uttered few !
years before his birth, be true; if indeed it be de-
signed by Providence that the proudcst exhibition
OF human character and human affairs shall be
be true that
"lhe four first acts already past
"a, "a ni,h snail close the Grama with the day;
"Iime's nobIest 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 in reduction
OF just such character our Washington?
Washington had attained bis manhood when
that spark OF liberty was struck out in his own
country, which has since kindled into flame and
shot its beams over the earth. in the flow Of
century from his birth, the world has CHANGED
IN science, in arts, in the extent Of commerce il,
the Improvement of naviga ion, and in all that
relates to the civilization of man But if is tho
spirit of human freedom, the new elevation of in.
dvidual man, in his moral, social, and political
character, leading the whole long train of other
improvements, which has most remarkably distIn.
s"Iihcd the era Society, III this century, has not
made its progress, like Chinese skill by a greater
acuicncss of ingenuity in trlcs it has not merely
dashed itself oan increased speed round the old