Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-05-13
c..rxe Wasbington.


George Washington.
As the excellencies in the lie ana chsrac'e, VI
.h;s rsveres patriot and statesman, the +" Father
90 bis country" will come under review and eu-
Ioainp,. in the eloquent discourse with which our
-:s;-,s arc "a be favored this evening, We cannot
40 otherwise this morning than make allnsion to
came Of the more conspicuous traits which dis
,;rrrisbed him, particularly as contrasted with
che sad dereneracy which has characterised so
mapv Of his successors in power and influence in
the country.
As we survey the extraordinary qualities OF
storm devotion to principle and duty, which mark
ed the character of the first President OF the
Repubyic. what patriots cheek does not blush
with shame at the course of the modern race OF
American statesmen, who have since come
upon the stage of action, played their pusillani-
nous mart in the affairs of the nation and re-
ceiyed therefor the deserved cognomen OF oough-
faces and political traitors Compare Washing
ton. the model Virgnian of 1889, with PIERCE
tho New Hampshire recreant of lS56!-the one
awning his readiness and anxiety to cooperate
with others in some plan to rid the country of
slavery. and the other, in his messages, ransack-
ing the whole political vocabulary. for arguments
and apologies, in defence of slavery, and its ex-
tension, and everlasting continuance.
Surely. MIR. Everett could not possibly find
better field for the exhibition of his great literary
talents by way ofpoltraying contrasts in character
and official career, than by comparing george
Washington with Franklin Pierce or Millard
Fillmore. While these modern incumbents OF
the Presidential chair have brought the country
into insufFerable disgrace, by squandering
tens of thousands of dollars of the public treas
ury in the execution of a barbarous, inhuman,
and unconstitutional statute, to return one poor,
frendless negro into state of bondage. zone
hour of which according to Thomas Jeferson)
is fraught with more misery than ages of that
which our fathers rose in rebellion to oppose,
we on the contrary, in the case of Washington,
witness his extraordinary forbearance, and re-
fusal to allow proceedings to be instituted, in his
time, for the recovery of a fugitive who had fed
to New Hampshire, if the act was against the
public conscience of the neighborhood. What
would Pierce or Fillmore have done in that case?
Why, they would have ordered their Marshals to
pursue the fugitive, at an expense of hundreds OF
thousands of dollars, if necessary throughout
the length and breadth Of the Granite State, even
to the highest peak of Mt. Washington, and for
so doing they would have had the proud consOla-
ton of being applauded by an indefinite number
of the servile hsrde of officials and doughfaces
of the day.
Washington wrote in letter to Robert Nor
ris, "There is not man living, who wishes more
sincerely than l do, to see plan adopted for the
abolition of Slau@y; but there is only one proper
and effectual mode by which it can be accom-
plished, and that is, by the Legislative authority
and this, as faro my suffrage aoM go, shall not
be wanting" And in letter to John F. Mercer,
hessaid, 81 never mean, unless some particular
circumstance should compel me to it, to possess
another slave by purchase; 1t being among my
first aoishes to see some plan adopted, By ,chich
Slavery IN this country may be abolished By la'o "
In letter to the great and good Lafayette,
Washington wrote, Your late purchase in the
colony of Cayenne, with view of enaancipating
he SLAVES, is generous and noble proof of your
humanity. Would to God, like spirit might
diffuse itself generally in the minds Of the psonle
f.l. n. 81 seeing IL. Oome
Pet st5 We're presented to the Assembly at it:
last session, for the abolition of SLAVERY but they
could scarcely obtain hearing"
Such were the sympathies, principles and feel
ings of the immortal Washington, on the subject
of slavery; surely they stand in heaven-wlde con-
trast with the pro-slavery conduct of the leading
statesmen of this day, who show such agility in
shoulderiug their political muskets, and buck
ling on their political knapsacks, in the service
Of the slave propagandIsts.