The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-02-28
THE SOUTHERN PRESS.


WAsHINGT0N, Feb 2Oth, 1901. -
Gentlemen: 1t is a source OF deep regret
TO me that my public duties absolutely pro-
hibit me faom having the pleasure Of ac-
oepting yoHr invitation, ia behalf Of the
Union Safety Committee, TO attend public
dinner on the twenty-sscond, in honor Of
that suspicious day. Auspicious indeed (!
All good influences, all omens of independ-
ence, liberty, flee government, the creation
of nation, prosperity, happiness and glory,
hung over the hour when the eyes of Wash
ington first opened to the light. Applause.
You say, truly, gentlemen, that the pres
ent moment admonishes us to rally in sup
port Of his principes--to express anew our
admiration Of his character and our gratitude
for his parting lesson of patriotism and wis
dom.
You say truly, gentlemen, that the great
duty devolving on us is that Of regarding the
Union as the foundation OF our peace and
happiness, and the Constitution as the cc-
ment of that Union, So Washington re-
garded them SO he conjured his fellow
citizens, in all generations, to regard them !;
and whenever his Farewell Address to his
country, shall be forgotten, and its adnoni-
tons rejected by the people of America,
from that time it will become the Farewell
Address to all the bright hopes Of human
liberty on earth. Great cheering
Gentlemen, the character of Washington
is among the most cherished CONCENTRATIONS
of my life. 1t s fixed star in the frma-
ment ofgreat names, shining without wink
ling or observation, with clear, steady, bene-
ficent light 1t is associated and blended
with all our reflections Of those things which
are near and dear to us. If we think of the
independence Of our country, we think Of
him whose efforts were so prominent in
achieving it; if we think Of the Constitution
which is over us, we think Of him who did
so much to establish it, and whose admins
tration Of its power is acknowledged to be a
model for his successors
If we think of glory in the field, Of wisdom
in the cabinet, of the purest patriotism, Of
the highest integrity, public and private, Of
morals without stain, of religious feelings
without intolerance and without extrava-
gance, the august figure of Washington pre-
sents itself as the personification Of all these
ideas. Applause. You do well, gentle
men, as this interesting Eour, to invoke his
example, to spread over the land know
ledge Of his principles among the rising gen.
Grafton, and fervently to pray heaven that
the spirit which was in him may also be in
When Washington in behalf ofthe conven-
ton presented to the old Congress and to the
country that Constitution which was the pro
duction of their patriotic and assiduous labors
he made this most important declaration -
Gin all our deliberations upon this subjec
we kept steadily in our view that which ap
pears to us the interests Of every true Amer
lean, the consolidation of our Union, in whic
is involved our posterity, felicity, safety, pei
haps our national existence. This lmportan
consideration, seriously and deeply impresse
on our minds, led each State in the conven
ton be less rigid on points of inferior magni
tude, tina tmight have been otherwise expect
ed: and thus the Constitution, which w
now present is the result OF spirit Of amity
and Of that mutual Difference and concession
which the popularity of our political stua-
ton rendered indispensable" applause
And when his peculiar career was drawing
to close, he left to his country, as his last
best gift, his most earnest and afe ctionate
exhortation to uphold that Union as the main
pillar of independence, and to frown indig-
nantly upon the first dawning Of any attempt
to dissolve it. applause.
This advice is needed now and will be
needed hereafter. But, nevertheless, there
are some among US on whom it is no injus-
tice that those lrowns Of Indignation should
fall. Cheers There are those who are
altogether for abandoning the Union, and
alternating one portion of the country from
the rest. They avow their wishes, they DIS
close their purposes. They open their hearts,
and in their hearts there is found no pulsi-
ton for that Union which makes all Amer-
cans one people All is but the ebbng and
flowing of the dark, unwhoesome, troubled
current Of secession, schism, and separation.
Notwithstanding all that we see and hear,
gentlemen, and all that we have seen and
heard for the last twelve months, some per-
sons affect to believe that the Union is not,
aud has not been, in any danger They
treat your efforts made for its preservation
with Indifference, and often with derision.
1t appears to me that the temper of these
persons is very much like that of those who,
when the fountains of the great deep had
been broken up, the windows of Heaven
opened, and rain had fallen upon the earth
forty days aud forty nights, until everything
but the Peak Of Ararat was already under
water, did not still "believe that there would
be much Of a shower" (Great applause
We have seen propositions for secession
formally brought forward, and solemnly dis.
cussed, in the legislatures and conventions o
several of the States. Other conventions
are soon to be hol1en under regular legisla-
tive provisions to consider the same subject
in one important State, recent elections SHOW
that there prevails among the people almos
an entire unanimity OF sentiment in favor o
breaking up the Union; and this dissolution
of the Union, it is supposed, may not TAX
place without conflict in arms. Ministers O
war are therefore provided, schools of in