New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1844-03-05


rnonstrated by the fact that ct this moment his
name need not be uttered In ail this assembly
here Is not heart that does no: thrill with CRATE
full and enthusiastic impressions OF that name
And not here sione-not merely where our Ian.
euage Is spoken-not merely IN those countries
and places with which We have frequent and
! familiar lntercourse-but IN other lands, that
| name
Ii still : Waschwort TO the Earth
IL Greece you reed but speak OF our Revolu.
tionary time, and they VIII anticipate your utter.
snce by murmurng that name in accents so
strange that you will hardly recognize it IN the
perverted sounds into which it has been trans.
formed TO suit ii TO the language OF Leonidas,
Arstides, Phocion and Philoptamon. And in the
far Southern regions of this continent, IN the val
leys of the Orinoco and the Paraguay-on the
llanas OF the Andes, and among the torest-over-
grown ruins OF vast primeya Empires that left no
record and no name-from California to Patago-
nia-there are many IN every country and in eve
~ city who will long repeat that name, in tones
of sorrow that they had not known, at least in
that their day." one Ike him-mouEning that he
only
Bequea;hsd he name of Washington,
To make man blush there WAS but ONE
Il is instructive to look at the relations OF
Washington to his time. He was so placed and
he 50 acted in his place, as to become the exemp-
lar OF the nation,-the concentration and person.
fication of all the distinctive virtues of the age
Ifyou anayze and coldly criticize his character
without reference to his connexions with the pur-
poses Of his time, you may find cause to wonder
at his reputation and perhaps doubt his title to
that singular and undisputed glory which is now
his everywhere and will be his forever. He was
not brilliant man, nor was he learned and eo.
ouent. His moral sense, moral dignity. ludg-
ment and sagacitv were prominent but in many
of the traits which we might hastily deem lmpor
tant to the completeness OF a great character, he
was decidedly inferior to many secondary men
who surrounded him through his whole career,
contributing each part to that greatness which
shone through hisactions. He was perfect gen.
eral, yet you never rank with him such men as
Green and others, who never showed themselves
his interiors in that respect-howevcr tried. a
more valiant warrior never led host to battle !;
you never think of comparing HIM with Prescott,
Wayne Marion, Paul Jones, or the infamous Ar
mold who all showed themselves unsurpassed II
desperate military courage. No single act OF
Washington's life was, for mere personal selfsa-
crihce, equal to the martyr-deaths of Warren,
Mercer, Montgomery, Wooster or that more than
heroic youth, Nathan Hale. He was not great
writer. He found men inferior to himself who
could write for him. He was not a philosopher
like franklin, nor a jurist like Jay, nor an orator
like Richard Henry Lee or John Adams
constitutional commentator like Madison or Ham
iton; and yet he was truly greater than each and
all of them, though he might avail himself of each
of them and profit by their gifts. LIZ was the
man OF the age. He was the centre, the repre-
sentative the Director the genius of that mighty
scheme of which they, with all their several ex-
cellences, were bu; incidental parts
The genius OF that age, the good genius of our
country was not personal herolsm or chlvalry,-
not mere military skill and rcnown,-not mere
science or rhetorical power, but the moral dignity
Of law and order, the supremacy OF UNIFORM and
stable legislation over moblsh caprice, and OF
steady judicial mlnlstration over wild, imPulslve,
natural MISREPRESENTATION to the necessary con-
cessionS and conditions OF well ordered society,"
system, selfreStaint self-renunclatlon and self
government and all these were embodied IN
Washington, bound up IN his being, displayed IN
every act and moment of his public liie and
were stamped by him upon the aye, the nation
and the government.
In him the people saw exemp!lhed all the great
virtues that best became the character OF the Ma
ton. In him they saw the majesty and the beau
ty of Law and Order-of patriotic faith and labo-
rious discharge of duty, OF dlslnterested renunc-
alton of all tonots when they ceased to be asso-
ciated with duty: they saw, till they admired,
revered, loved, initiated and adopted the public
virtue which they saw thus embodied. Thus
the character of Washington was the character
of the age AS he seemed to absorb and concen-
trate all gifts, excelences and glories from each
be tn
again through the great mass-unnl he became
the heart of the Nation, the mind of the age the
soul of the time For he was given not only" to
be a leader and commander to the people," but
"a ,oitness to the people," In his own person he
formed the model of the American citizen-the
patriotic, Iaw-oving, orderly freeman
Having finished the work which was given
him to do, Washington departed; and with him,
the purposes of that time being accomplished,
the age departed. The unity OF that great drama
was complete and the curtain falls-to rise
upon another and greater scene.
In the Revolutionary age, If what is DOW his
tory had then been prophecy, and if one had
been commissioned to select the man who should
in the next generation come forth to be the
leader of the nation in the development OF Its
purpose,-whither would he have gone to seek
him destined to be the man of the people and the
man of the age
Perhaps to the halls of some school, college or
university, where the favored few were acquiring
in studious seclusion the wisdom of antiquity and
arming themselves with the weapons OF science
and literature for the coming contests of their
time. Perhaps among those who by association
with other nations, by familiarity with foreign
countries, were learning the world and thus aP-
precating, by comparison, the peculiar excel
ience OF our goodly heritage, and the peculiar
glories of our opening destiny. No; not there
shall he fad THE NAN though among these there
are some who shall bear their part and stand Ii
their lot In the end of the days" Shall we seek
him then here, growing up amid the refine