Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-02-19
The 22d of Washing
IONS Birthday.

Next Sabbath is the ed of February,
and the 125th anniversary of the birth
of GEORGE WASHINGTON. Wherever
there is a heart pulsating for human
liberty and human happiness, it will
swell with pride in remembering the
associations connected with that day,
and with hope, as it recalls the history
of that brighter period ~inaugurated in
the Western World by the great man
whose name endears the day. Born at
Ia time when the Colonies numbered
scarcely more than three quarters of a
million inhabitants, and his native Vir-
ginia was harrassed by a savage foe and
menaccd with the aggrcssions of France,
whose agents and officers had firmly es-
tablished themselves at the head-waters
of the Ohio, and were extending the
power of their royal master toward the
Mississippi by 4 chain of fortified posts
that hedged in and threatened to stife,
or in time subdue, the young States of
the East, the gallant youth of Washing
ton was so highly distinguished by eve
ry manly and soldierly attribute, hat at
the age of nineteen he was intrusted
by Gov. Dinwiddie with a mission of the
most delicate and important nature. 1t
was bravely and faithfully discharged,
although it bore him into the power of
the enemy and through the unnumber-
ed dangers of the wilderness; and from
that time forward his career was one of
glory, no difference in what manner We
behold him. But it is while we trace
his actions in the hour of adversely that
our hearts are filed with enthusiasm
In 1776, when with an ill-disciplined,
dispirited, numerically inferior and al
most starving, naked and perishing ar
my, he was driven from point to point
away from Long Island by the over-
whelming forces of Lord Howe, and af-
ter the route of Hips Bay, the tears
rolled down his cheeks as he sat, spy
glass in hand, upon the Palisadc rocks,
and beheld the American ensign sink
from the paracts of Fort Washington;
and again, when the vile enmities which
ever beset the path of the good and
great were doing their utmost in secret
against him, and his soidierly, utterly
disheartencd by their wretched condi-
ton and constant defeat, were deserving
on every side, while the yoomany of the
country, dceming all lost, were hasten
ing to the British camp to make sub
mission; do we find that mighty spirit
sinking beneath accumulated difficulties
that would have crushed any other man
on earth. No, it remained calm and
undismaycd, and while the clamor
raised by his foes, was at its hight, and
in spite of ice and snow and sleet, he
crosses the Delaware, and falling like a
thunderbolt upon the enemy at Trenton,
and hen at Princeton, in the very ex-
u~ltation and certainty Of their triumph.
sweeps away their boosted strength and
prowess, and frees his country, almost
at a blow. Butthese are incidents prom
inent in the life of Washington, and SO
familiar to every school-boy, that we
need not rehearse them. Living, he
united in his person every attribute Of
genuine greatness. In youth he was
true and warm; in age wise, cautious
and c%onsideratc; in prosperity his early
friends were not forgotten nor the poor
turned from his door; in adversely man
ly and christian fortitude conquered the
ills of fate. Victory was only priced
because it served his country, and then
was tempered by benign lenity to the
prisoner and regret for the fallen. In
the hour of her agony his Country
found in him a deliverer; in the noon
day of her triumph, she found in him a
devoted servant. He rejected a crown
to wear an immortal wreath. He be-
came not a king, but will forever be
called the Founder of the Republic-the
Father of his Country"