Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1851-02-22
WASHINGTON.
- Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and
inseparable."
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY %, 1851.
THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON.

WASHINGTON has not been always marked by any
particular ceremony, even in this city, which
has the honor to bear his name, was planted
here under his presiding genius, and laid out
under his immediate direction. The day has never
passed wholly unobserved, however; and on at
least one occasion (the Centenary Anniversary was
celebrated by Public Festival, partaken of by the
adherents to his principles, gathered together in
this city from every part of the country, in man.
ner worthy of his great name and character.
The recurrence of the Anniversary, this day,
cannot but excite, in every direction, more than
usual interest," in connexion with the circumstances
Of the country during the last year and over, within
which time the precepts Of WASHINGTON have been
more generally appealed to, and the great lesson of
his life more frequently cited than during any equal
period since the day of his death. Nor have these
appeals and citations been without very sensi-
BILE influence the minds of the body of intelli-
gent and thinking men all over our country. 1t is
hardly extravagant to say that, had not been for
the commanding authority of that honored name,
and its historical associations, in favor Of National
and Conservative principles, this Confederacy, the
fruit of the counsels of WASHINGTON, and in part
the work of his hands, might before this time have
been broken up in the violence of the conflict which
has been raging between men of obstinate preju-
dices and extreme opinions, upon questions of
purely internal administration. To the name of
the reverence for his virtues and the
of his ilIustrious deeds, we do most sim
cerely believe, more than to any other single inu.
ence is it owing that the good sense and patriotic
instinct Of the body of the People of the United
States have been enabled to triumph, as they have tr
umphed over the combined assault Of these extreme
parties, furious in enmity to each other, uniting
only in higher enmity to the Union, which
for moment threatened, between the upper and
the neither mi-stones, to crush this Government to
atoms. If that danger be now happily passing
away, we are in great degree indebted for our
escape from it to the moral well the political
Of the memory Of WASHINGTON.
It's a remark Of his Biographer, that the History
of Gen. WASHINGTON, from the time of his APP
pontment to the command of the American armies,
is the History of his Country. With truth, he
might have added that the story of his life, from
his birth up to his appointment to the command Of
the army Of the Revolution, exhibits equally the
of the Provincial era which imme-
diately preceded that Revolution and that neither
in ancient nor in modern History can any charac-
ter be produced which, in all its aspects, is SO well
worthy of study by the present and succeeding
generations of the American People as that of the
Father of his Countrymen, at every period of his
life, from his infancy to his latest breath. To
which we may add, that his character, as study,
has this advantage that of nearly all the per-
and sages of the old world that it is not only
of too recent date to be falsed but that it is too
deeply impressed on the Institutions Of the Country
and on the general mind, to be in any danger either
of being depressed by calumny, or exalted by fiat
terry, below or above its due proportion.
Ithas. been objected to ancient history that in all
nations it is ds6gured by fable; that existing
ceremonies, facts, and monuments, have been es-
tabshed but to give color to the absurdest fctons
and that monuments prove facts only when those
facts have been transmitted to US by enlightened
But when, in ages yet unborn,
Posterity shall contemplate the Monument to
the memory of WASHINGTON now rising to the
Heavens within immediate view of the Capitol,
there be no danger so long letters live that
the virtues, the great actions, and greater mind
which it is to commemorate, can ever be under
valued. Year after year. through rolling centuries
the name of WASHINGTON will ever stand out in
radiant relief on the roll of Heroes, Sages, and
Benefactors of their race.
1t is not for u.s. however, to add any thing to what
has flowed from the minds and the tongues of those in
our country who really able to do justice to SO
great theme as the name and the fame Of WASH
INGToN. Our object, in abiding to it, was only to
note the passing day with such marks of sincere
respect from us it has at every year seemed TO
us more and more TO deserve.
We shall not quit the subject without giving to
our readers something far more worth reading than
any common-places of ours. We have turned to
our files for the Address, in honor of the day, deli
vered at the Festival on the centenary anniversary
to which we have alluded, by Mr.. WEBSTER, our
present Secretary Of State, who presided on that
great occasion. Would that we could here republish
the whole Of that brilliant Discourse! AT some
future day we may do so. For the present, we
invite our readers TO the two following brief ex-
tracts from it, distinguished less by sparkling eo-
quence than by sound and wholesome truth:
"a true friend Of his country loves her friends and bene-
factors, and thinks it degradation commend and COM
nemorate them. The voluntary outpouripg Of the public
Io,r a. n @ r.