Staunton vindicator and general advertiser. (Staunton, Augusta County, Va.) 1858-1860, 1858-07-17

leon for the occasion, has reached us from
America, which he liberated 1t belongs
to France TO yield the first.resronsc to the
lamentatien which will be echoed by every
great soul these augastarchcs lave been
swell chosen fer the apetheesis of here"
How often, f;nfthesc wild scenes Of her
revolution, -whon 1.-THE best blood Of France
was shed by the remorscless and ephemcral
-tyrants who chased each other, dagger in
Band. across that dismal stage of crime and
woe, during the reign of tcrror-how often
did the thoughts Of Lafayette aud his COM
psnions-in arms, who haaFfought the bat
tics Of constitutional liberty in America,
call up the Image Of the pure, the Just, the
humane, the InaRbitious Washington =
How different would have been the fate Of
France, if her victorious chicftain, when he
reached the giddy heights of power, had
he initiated the great example which he en-
logizedI lie raight have saved his country
from being crushed by the lcagued hosts Of
Europe; be might have prevented the names
Of Moscow and Waterloo from being writ
ten in Blood on the pages of history he
might have escaped himself from the sad
signi6cancy Of those memorable words OF
Fontanes on the occasion to which I have
alluded, when, in the presence Of Napoleon,
he spoke Of Washington as G man who, by
a destiny seldom shared by those who
change the fate Of empires, died in peace,
as private citizen, in his native land,
where he held the first rank, and which he
had himself made free
How different would have been the fate
of Spain, Of Naples, Of Greece, Of Germa-
nv, of Mexico, and the South American
Republics, had their recent revolutions been
conducted by men like Washington and his
patriotic associates, whose prudence, patri-
otism, probity and disinterestedness con-
Quoted our revolution to an suspicious and
honorable result!
But it is of course at heme that we must
look for an adequate appreciation of our
Washington's name and worth. lie is the
friend of other countries; he is the father of
his own own, Mr.. Mayor, that it has
been TO me source Of indispensable salts
faction to find, amidst all the bitter dissen-
sions Of the day, that this one great senti-
snent-veneratio for the name Of Wash
ington--is planted down in the very depth
Of tle American heart. It has been my
privilege, within the last two years, to hold
it up TO the rcverent contemplation Of my
countrymcn, from The parks of the Pcnob-
scot to the banks Of the Savannah, from N.
York to St. Louis, from Chesapeake Bay to
lake Michigan, and the same sentiments,
expressed in the same words, have every
where touched the same sympathetic chord
in the American heart
To that central attraction ] have been
delighted to fnd the thoughts, the affoc-
ITEMS, the memories Of the people, in what
ever part Of the country from the ocean to
the prairics Of the West; from the land of
granite and ice to the land of the palmetto
and the magnolia instinctively turn -
4'hey have sectional loves and hatreds, but
before the dear name Of Washington they
are absorbed and forgotten In whatever
region Of the country, the heart Of patriot
ism warns to hins-asin the starry heavens
with the eircling of the seasons, the point
ers GO round the sphere, but their direction
is ever towards the pole. ''They may point
from the East, they may point from the
West, but they will point to the Northern
star" tits not the brightest star in the
heavens, as men account brightness, but it
is always in its place The meteor, kin
died into momentary blaze from the rank
yapors of the lower sky, is brighter. The
comet is brighter that streams across the
armament,
ftAnd from this horrd hair,
Shake pcstilence and war"
But the meteor cxplodes the comet rush
es back to the depths of the heaven; while
the load star shines steady at the pole, alike
in summcr and in winter, in seed time and
in harvest, at the equinox and the solstic G.
1t shonc for Columbus at the discovery Of
America; it shone for tie pioneers of set
Element, the pilgrims of faith and hope, at
Jamestown. and Plymouth; it will shine
for the mariner who shall enter your hasbor
to night; it will shine for thc navics which
shall bear the sleeping thundcrs of your
power while the flag Of the Union shall
brave the battle and the brccz,. So, too.
the character, the counscls, the example Of
our Washington, Of which you bid me speak
he guided our fathers through the storms Of
the revolution he will guide US through
the doubt and difficulties that beset us; he
will guide our children and our childrcn's
children in the paths Of prosperity and
peace, while America shall hold her place