The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1848-07-26
MR.. WINTHROP'S ADDRESS.

h1e' w LIN IlhOI - ADDnIIOC'
On the occasion Of laying tie Corner Stone
Of The National Monument to Washington.
II X
will enter into no details of his personal
history. Washington's birthday is National
Festival. His whole life, boyhood and man
hood, has been learned by heart by us all.
Who knows not that he was self-made man t?
Who knows not that the only education which
he enjoyed was that Of the common schools
of Virginia, which at that day were of the
very commonest sort? Who remembers not
those extraordinary youthful adventures by
which he was trained up to the great work Of
his destiny? Who remembers not the labors
and exposures which he encountered as
land surveyor at the early age of sixteen
years? Who has forgotten the perils of his
Journey of forty-onc days and five hundred
and sixty miles, from Williamsburg to French
Greek, when sent, at the age of only twenty
one, as Commissioner from Gov. Dinwiddie,
to demand of the French forces their author
ity for invading the Kings dominions? Who
has not followed him, a hundred times, with
breathless anxiety, as he threads his way
through that painless wilderness, at one mo-
ment fired at by Indians at fifteen PAGES, the
next wrecked upon a raft amid snow and ice,
and subjected throughout to every danger
which treacherous elements or still more
treacherous enemies could involve? Who
has forgotten his hardly less miraculous es-
cape, few years later, on the banks of the
| Monongahela, when foremost in that fearful
fight he was the only mounted officer of the
British troops who was not either killed Or
desperately wounded?
Let me not speak of VI Washington as a mere.
ly selfmade man. There were influences
employed in moulding and making him, far,
far above his own control. Bereft of his
father at the tender age of eleven years, he
had mother left to whom the world can never
over-cstimate its debt. And higher, holicr
STILL was the guardianship so signally mani
tested in more than one event of his life
" By the all powerful tlispensations Of Provi-
dence," wrote Washington himself to his ven
Grated parent after Braddock's defeat, 81
have been protected beyond all human pro-
liability or expectation; for had four bullets
through my coat and two horses shot under
me yet escaped unhurt, although death
was leveling my companions on every side of
me-" Well did the eloquent pastor of a
neighboring parish, on his return, "point out
to the public that heroic youth, Colonel
Washington, whom [says he l cannot but
hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so
signal manner for some important service
to the country
And not less natural or less striking was
the testimony of the Indian chief who told
Washington, fifteen years afterward, I" that
at the battle of the Monongahela he had sim
cled him out as a conspicuous object, had
fired his rife at him many times, and directed
his young warriors to do the same, but that,
to his utter astonishment, none Of their balls
took effect; that he was then persuaded that
the youthful hero was under the special guar
dianship of the Great Spirit, and Immediately
ceased TO fire at him; and that he was now
come to pay homage to the man who was the
particular favoritc of Heaven, and who could
never die in battle.'
Our Revolutionary fathers had many caus-
es for adoring the invisible hand by which
they were guided and guarded in their great
struggle for Liberty; but none, none stronger
than this providential preparation and pre-
servaton Of their destined Chief Be it ours
to prolong that anthem of gratitude which
may no more be heard from their mute lips
" The grave cannot praise Thee death can
not celebrate Thee; but the living, the liv-
ing, they shall praise Thee, as we do this
day"
OF the public services of Washington to
our own country, for which he was thus pre-
pared and preserved, it is enough to say that
in the three great epochs OF our National
History he stands forth prc-eminent and peer
? less, the master-spirit Of the time:
In the War of the revolution we see hin
S the Leader of our Armies.
In the formation of the Constitution WI
see him the President of our Councils.
In the organization Of the Federal Govern
= ment we see him the Chief Magistrate Of GU:
Republic.
: Indeed, from the memorable day when, un
G der the unheard but by no means inauspiciou
salute of both British and American batter
y les, engaged in no HOLIDAY exercise on Bunke
Hill, it was unanimously resolved that Georg
Washington, having been chosen Commander
y in Chief of such forces as are or shall b
It raised for the maintenance and preservation
s of American Liberty, "this Congress dot
now declare that they will maintain and as
sist him, and adhere to him, the said Georg
Washington, with their lives and fortunes il
C the same cause )" from this ever-memorabl
q 9TH of June, 1775-a day on which Gas ha
Decn wen saiu) 1IoVlucHCe hcpO All even oal
ancc with the cause, and while it took fror
t. us Warren gave us Westinghouse tn
+, 14th day of December, 1899, when he died
we shall search the annals of our land in val
for any important scene in which he was any
thing less than the principal figure.
s. 1t is, however, the character of Washing
ton, and not the mere part which he played
which we would hold up this day to the worl
n as worthy Of endless and universal common
lie Grafton. The highest official distinctions ma
Of be enjoyed, and the most important publ
!, services rendered. by men whose lives wi
not endure examination. 1t is the glory {
Washington that the virtues of the man ou
D shone even the brilliancy of his acts, and tina
a the results which he accomplished were onl
st the legitimate exemplifcations Of the prime
1t nIes which he Drofessed and cherished