The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-03-09
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY.
Speech of DIR. w. C. Brown before
the Anderson Democratic Club.

Mfr. President Ladies and Gentlemen:
rise tonight to thank you for your
presence, and to return my most sincere
thanks to the members of the Democratic
Club of Anderson Court House for the
unmerited compliment which they have
thought fit to confer on me by selecting
me to address you on this the one hun
dred and forty-fourth anniversary of the
birthday of the great George Washington
the father of his country. This night
one hundred and forty-four years ago the
winds that swept over Westmoreland
county, Virginia, sang lullabys to his in
FAINT greatness, whilst the cataracts, which
thundered from the steep gorges of the
snow-clad SUBMITS of the Allegheny
mountains, whose peaks lowered up in
the distance amid the clouds, fastened to
swell the waters of the beautiful Potomac,
which rushed its meandering banks, acr
companied by the howl of the wolf and
the whoop of the savage, to join in the
common melody.
His parents, no doubt, rejoiced over
his birth, never dreaming of his future
glory and greatness. Little did his
mother think that she was cherishing a
prince, who, in after times, should WELD
a power too mighty for the throne upon
which the King of England then sat, and
against which he would hurl the thun-
derbolt of his future vengeance.
Little did she think that he was to
break the chains and burst asunder the
bands which the tyrants of the mother
country were then forging; but such was
the fact. He soon grew up to be a
mighty conqueror. Not like an Alexan-
der, who conquered the world and wept
that there was not another one to conquer,
but whose brilliant and youthful sun was
suddenly obscured by sslf-indulgence,
dissipation and crime; not like Hanni-
bal, who led in triumph his victorious
army over the lofty and rugged SUBMITS
of the Alps, which slumber in eternal
snow, and upon which the footprint of
man had never before been made, and
penetrated the very heart of Rome, and
made even the city of Rome, the then
mistress of the world, tremble at his iron
tread but whose brilliant career and con-
sumate generalship was obscured and
darkened by luxury and crime; not like
the great Napoleon Bonaparte, who
sported with empires and kingdoms as q
child sports with its playthings, and at
whose very name every king of Europe
trembled upon his throne, but who de-
luged all Europe with sorrow, bloodshcd
end crime, but who, like the brilliant
meteor which flashes across the heavens,
sunk down and died in obscure and lone
ly exile.
But like unto whom? Like unto a
Washington. For there is none to whom
1 can compare him, as he has had no su-
perior. In moral point of view he
stands forth in his pyramidal greatness,
shining with all the brilliancy of a sun,
whose radiant beams of light have never
been obscurcd by mists, vapors or clouds.
In martial point of view he still retains
his monumental greatness, notwlthstand-
ing difficulties arose mountain high be-
fore him. Having a small and undis.
ciplined army, badly armed, scarcely fed
and so poorly clad that their course could
be traced over the snow and ice during
the cold and drcary winter by the blood
which issued from the bare feet of that
noble band of patriots; but, notwith-
standing all this, he carried the American
flag, and waved it in triumph over many
hardly contested and blood-stained bat
tlefelds of the old revolutionary war,
until the young American eagle Topped
her golden wings in glorious triumph
over the roaring lion of Great Britain,
and forced him to lie an humble supple
ant at her feet. The threats and gold of
kings, the clash of the bayonet, the roar
of small arms and the thunder of cannons,
combined with groans and shrieks of the
wounded and dying, could not turn him
from the path of duty and right. He
was as steady as the needle to the pole.
He made for himsclfa name which has
been chantcd by tongues of admiring
millions in all countries, and which will
live and be cherished when earthly mon-
umcnts aud pyramids shall have crum.