The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-22
TN HONOR OF WASHINGTON.
Concluded from First Page,


staff entered, amid loud clapping of hands, and
their brilliant uniforms tended to lend an air of
gayety to the scene The President and Cabinet
next appeared, and the large assemblage rose
and heartily applauded as the chief executive
and his advisers passed down the main
aisle, and were assigned seats in the space
directly in front of the Speakers desk.
The Supreme Court. the judiciary of the District,
and the diplomatic corps followed and fanked
the presidential party, and at 230 the Senate,
preceded by its officers, escorted to the space
reserved for it. It's presiding officer, Mr.. Ed
munds, proceeded to the Speakers desk, where
the gavel was courteously handed him by
Speaker Carlisle. In calling the assemblage to
order Mr.. EdmundS said:
Gentlemen. you are assembled. pursuant to
concurrent order of the two houses, to celebrate
a memorable occasion, the completion of the
monument to the memory OF the first President
of the United States 1t is not only memorial,
but an inspiration that shall live through all
generations of our posterity, as we may hope,
and which we this day inaugurate and celebrate
by the ceremonies which have been ordered by
the two houses"
Prayer was then offered by Rev. S. A. Wallis,
of Pohick Church. near Mt. Vernon, Va. The
prayer being ended, the Marine Band stationed
in the members lobby. played Hail Columbia"
and then Mr. Edmunds, expressing his regret that
Mr.. Winthrop was necessarily absent. intro
duced Representative John d. Long, of Massa-
chusetts who, having been loudly applauded,
proceeded to read
MR. wINTHRoPs GRAFTON.
The speech begins by expressing his regret
that some ADLER speaker than himself had not
been selected Nothing less imperative than
your call could have brought me before you for
such effort. Nearly seven and thirty years have
passed away since it was my privilege to per-
form a similar service at the laying of the cor
ner-stone of that monument. In the prime of
manhood. and in the pride of official station. it
was not difficult for me to speak to assembled
thousands, in the open air, without notes, under
the scorching rays of midsummer sun. But
what was easy for me then is impossible for me
now. | am here to-day, as l need not tell
you, in far other condition for the service
you have assigned Unchanged, changed in al
most everything, except an lnextinguishable
love for my country and its union, and an I'M
dying reverence for the memory of Washington
He then reviewed at length the history of the
association which, in 1888, was formed for the
purpose of erecting the monument now COM
pleted. 1t was not, however, until fifteen years
later that the work was begun and on July 4,
1843, the cornerstone was laid Mr.. Winthrop,
then as now, delivering the principal address
In a few years work was suspended. and soon
after the civil war put an end to it. Had rebel
lion succeeded in its purpose, it would have been
we'll to have left the unfinished monument as it
was, to be torn down. and scattered, or worn
away by the inroads of the elements. But with
the Union treasured this monument shall hence
forth be lovingly associated, not only with the
memory of him in whose honor it has been
erected. but with an of assured peace, unity
and concord, which would have been dearer to
his heart than the costiest personal me-
mortal which the toll and treasure of
his countrymen could have constructed
The Union is itself the all-suficent
and the only sufficient monument to Washing
ton. The Union was nearest and dearest to his
great heart. 1.-THE Union in any event. were
IF
we'll address Nothing less than the Union
would ever have been accepted or recognized by
him as monument commensurate with his serv-
ices and his fame Nothing less ought to
be accepted or recognized as such by u.s. or by
those who shall rise up, generation after genera
tion to do homage to his memory.
Can we not all read upon the four sides of that
monument already, as if craven by some invisi-
BILE finger or inscribed with some sympathetic
ink,-which it requires no learning Of scholars,
no lore of Egypt nothing but love of our own
land, to draw out and make legible,-those mas
terly words of his letter to the Governors of the
States in 1888
There are four things which, humbIy con-
ceive, are essential to the well being-I may
even venture to say, to the exstence-of the
United States as an independent power:
First, an indissoluble Union of the
States under one federal head second,
sacred regard to public justice; third,
the adoption of proper peace establishment;
and fourth. the prevalence of that pacific and
friendly disposition among the people of the
United States which will induce them to forget
their local prejudices and policies to make those
mutual concessions which are requisite to the
general prosperity, and, in some instances to
sacrifice their individual advantages to the inter
est of the community. These are the pillars on
which the glorious fabric of our independency
and national character must be supported
But what are all the noble words which Wash
ington wrote or uttered, what are all the Incl
dents of his birth and DEATH what are all the de-
tails Of his marvellous career from its commence
ment to its close. in comparison with his own
allied character as mans Rarely was Webs r
more impressive than when, on the completion
of the monument at Bunker Hill, in describ-
ing what our country has accomplished for
the welfare of mankind, he gave utterance, with
his characteristic terSeness and in his inuita-
BILE tones, to the simple assertion. "America has
furnished the character of Washington And
we'll did he add that, IF our American institu-
tons had done nothing else, that alone would
have entitled them to the respect of mankind"
Nor can / fail to welcome the browning trib-
ute, perhaps, from our mother land-reaching
me, as it has, at the last moment of revising
what had prepared for this occasion-in a pub
lished letter from Gladstone, her great Prime
Minister, who, after saying, in casual converse
ton, that WASH" gton was ''the purest figure in
history" writes deliberately, that if among all
the pede stalls supplied by history for public
characters of extraordinary nobility and purity,
l saw one higher than all the rest, and if were
required at a moments notice, to name the
fittest occupant for it, think my choice at any
time during the last forty five years, would have
lighted, and it would now light upon Washing
tonm
Our matchless obeiisk stands proudly before
US to-day, and we hail it with the Civilizations of
a united and glorious nation. 1t may or may
not be proof against the cavils of critics, but
nothing CT human construction is against the
casualties of time. The storms of winter must
blow and beat upon it. The action of the ele-
ments must soil and dscoor it. The lightnings
of heaven may scar and backen it. An earth
quake may shake its foundations. Some mighty
tornado, or resistless cyclone, may rend its mas
sive blocks asunder and hurl huge fragments to
the ground. But the character which it com
memorates and illustrates is secure. It will re-
main unchanged and Interchangeable in all its con-
summate purity and splendor, and will more and
more command the homage of succeeding ages
in all regions of the earth.
Mr. Long spoke from the clerks desk in an i'm
pressiye manner and in a voice which though