Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-02-22
WaEhInrton,a Rirlh1nv.

IRRBhIngton's BirIhday.
Another year with its chances and
changes has brought US another anniver-
sary of the birthday of good man. One
hundred aud thirty years ago this day, in
an old fashioned mansion house on the
banks of Pope's Creek, in WestmUrelaud
county, in this State, George Washing
ton drst saw the light of this world
sixty-seyen years aftsrward, alter life
well spent in the service of his peo-
plea life eyentsul, dutiful and Iaborious,
and crowned with the proudest success
aud most perfect fruition, George WASH
ington laid aside the babilimeuts of NOR
tally to join the great caravan that moves
onward to eternity. Since then his works
have followed after him, and have become
the common heritage of mankind, as he
himself WAS their common benef4qtor Will Q
living; and what his old companion in
arms said of him in the National Congress,
sixty-tWo years ago, is what We all say of
him to-day: That he was first in war, first
In peace, and first IN the hearts of his
eountrymen, The phrase is a welI-worn
one, but so fitly chosen that it only gets
the brighter by tue wear. We never could
say it of any ono else, but of Washington,
alwNys-not SO much for what he did as
for what he was.
For moro than sixty years this people
has testified its reverence for tho memory
of Washington ON each recurring auniyer-
sary of the day on which he was born
aud the 22nd of February has come and
goue amid civic and military display
with banners and devices, toasts and ora
tionS, and all tho other festivities we have
been able TO invent in the last half century.
And to-day we doubt not that in every
town and city in the loyal part of the land,
benedlctious are ascending, and the deep
mouthed cannon are booming, in honor of
the illustrious dead. Yet the day itself is
like all other dnys-no better and no
worse. To-day is but a drop in the bucket
OF our lives. We taste it aud it is gone
But it marks an event in the history of
American independence and prosperity, Ms
the milestone marks the progress on the
highway, or rather as the marble marks the
resting place of the dead. And as we
:. adorn the one with sweetest flowers and
water them with tears, SO let us cherish
this day for the remembrauces it brings of
AmerieA's best and truest citizen.
Since that bleak night in December,
1899, when the great soul of Washington
went out with the dying year aud the clos
ing centpry, there has been no period in
our history when the fOrmalities d respect
and reverence for the memory of the Father
of his country, were more becoming than
now. To-day this anniversary comes TO
Us will moro than ordinary solemnity.-
The principles which Washington devoted
his life to illustrate aud establish, are me-
naeed by the sword and dagger of treason /;
andit is peculiarly fitting that 10 such a
time, surrounded as We are by storms and
copYulsiOus, that We should recur to his
milder teachings. To-day finds US Wit
Messing parallel to the age in which
Washington lived and achieved. We are
in the midst of the second American Revo-
luton. Badmen are striving to tear down
what Washington and his compatrlots built
up. Now as then the land is darkened
With the tempests of revolution, aud the
nation has suufed the blast of war. But
how unlike that revolution is this. The
one to establish the rights of man. The
Other to overthrow them. The one "a
reashing upward aud forward after lfber-
3 the other "a reaching backward and
downward to despotism."
We want another Washington to lead
the nation out of present peril-and We
shall have one. Great events and great
necessities make great meu-and there
win bssome one who will lead US out Of
this danger, as the children of Israel were
led out Of the Wilderness-and who will
be to posterity what Moses Was TO them
and Washington is to US. Already the
storm breaks away, and through the rent
clouds Of the Southwest, the bright future
Of peace aud prosperity throws ITS slant
lug bars and ours IL is, each and all, to
aid ip5,ths noble task so we'll begun
The task that confronts the American
people to-day is q glorious Ons-no less
50 than that Of their Revolutionary sire,.
Il was theirs to achieve aud establish
II is ours to perpetuate. Theirs to raise
the banner Of freedom and progress to the
masthead, It is ours to nail ii fast, once,
for all, aud for ever.
Then green be the memory of Washing
ton to-day 10 all our hearts And let u,
believe, if We may, that his spirit is how
lng IN the clouds and directing the armies
OF the Union to the achievement of GER
tain victory and lasting peace, with tho
unity Of the nation restored, and The
temple of liberty updesecrated.