Des Arc weekly citizen., 1867-04-13


 WashiMgton's birthday. sssh l" Es Irhs, had lived laH yesterday h, would have bsenIa hundred and thirt, five years old.aF 70 .ilt9 -ani .siJust think dfihat bs,aassaw sIt qis about the age aof the oldcs' finhabitant.ls sriassa c. s'ssszs p Washington wns n great nian. ~ saHe was first An, war, first in peace and first fiji tho hearts of his country- men, and belonged t6 the first familic. of Virginia. ss'''
 He was likewise the Father uf'Kis CountrxNaI Gss@E@I
 If hc Was alive now I don't think he would feel proud of his offspring.
 Had he still continued to reside ur to this time at Mount Vernon he would not be eligible to seat in Congress,
 That Lovely patriot, Thad. Stevens, would consign him to martial law and disfranchisement.s "a M
 The soil on which he was born and on which his bones rest is no longer the land of the free, but crushed and dismembercd; Virginia wears moro galling chains than those which fell rom her fMbs Vi hen the. last foreign foe yielded at Yorktown.
 .Pcnnsylvania where. rebellion first disturbed the peaceaofthe Young Re public, has spawned forth an arch ma lignant, "a lineal descendant of the whiskey rioters whom Washington crushed, to riot fin tic degradation of the State cnnoblcd as the birthplace of Washington. ~ 'o sA'sa'
 Ofcoursc you have heard of the lit- tlc dog sand the dead lion.
 What are the glories of the past compared with the ,gloriesr of the pres cnt?
 Or the great men of the Revolution, since greater have risen who know so much more about government and the Fundamental principles of Republican ism. xa4A 8Sl If Washington lived in this genera tion, he couldn't have been q great man. One ofithe earliest traits of his char acter- was his inability to tell lie.
 That alone would have ruined his political prospects. 4s
 As a general he wouldn't have done either.
 He never expressed all intention of fighting it out all the summer on any particular line.
 2 Then we don't hear Of anybody ma king fortunes by army contracts for beef and.shotdy in his day .i z A Republican administration never could have tolcptcd such as command er-in-chief.
 Then his. farewell address would have been fatarto his reputation.
 The principles he enunciated would h we shocked the Radical pres ,and he would have been denounced as q sCop- perhead. zi sssaz
 He was open 10 suspicion of free trade proclivities because he affiliated with Boston party who refused to pay the duty on tea.
 Consequently the Tribune would have been dowa on Yhips q
 Some nien are born too soon, some too late. Washington was born about the right time.
 sb People didn't know so much in his day. os s g- Or at least they didn't send such wise men to Congress o4s er People were satisfied with the Union under the Constitution then, entertain ing a very foolish respect for the, Con- stitution without the amendments.
 There arc several anecdotes of Wash ington extant.
 One ofwhich is about . British scn- tinel who was on picket duty one night when he saw a man7--a tall man-ride by. This British sentinel, who was truly loyal to his Government, thought he would shoot the tall man. As the idea occurred to him, he raised his gun to carry it out. Just before he pulled the trigger the Bsitish sentinel altered his mind and fidu't shoot.
 The tall man 1who wasn't shot was Washington. s,,,s ssmr
 He never knew it till somebody told him of it afterward. AID ,aar
 Such was the greatness of his mind.
 There is one other anecdotc of Wash ington never before published, but was related privately to me; by his nurse, Joyce IIcth, whcnshe was in Barnum's musetim. o ,.s,s s.a
 Washington'ss father made little George 2, Christmas present of a nice little plum tree, which he had bought at n hardware store in Richmond.
 Little George, who was of an inquir- ing turn ofmind,, wanted to find out where the plums came from, so he took fayorite hatchet that the hired girl used to chop Nndling wood with, and chopped mp the tree.
 It took the edge of the hatchet and hacked it like buck saw, so that it wouldn't split fine kindling wood.
 "Who has done thissY said old Mir. Washington, looking about for a hick- ory switch to warm his oaspring,
 Father said Gcorgey, with the presence of mind of future, greatness, q am the boy who dissected that spec linen of horticulturc.v
 "confeto my arms, my son. said the old gentleman .zsss aa& sa
 There is only one parallel in Ameri- can history 10 this touching story of attach mont fa ycfstcitu