The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-02-26
Dedication of the Washington Mon
ument.

IMPOSING CEREMONIEs.-ORA BY
| By HON. ROBT. C. WINTHROP AND HON.
JNO. W. DANIEL.
| On Saturday last the completion of the
! Washington monument was celebrated
with appropriate civil and military cere-
monies. Everything seems to have passed
off well, says the Baltimore Sam, and moth
! ing could have exceeded in earnestness
Of feeling and happiness of phrase the
eulogies passed upon the character of him
whose great services were recounted in
| the presence Of the shaft, shining in the
winter sun as pure and bright and as typi-
cal in the grand simplicity of it's form and
in its lofty elevation Us the life Of him
whom it commentaries. President Az
thurs dedicatory speech was brief. but in
good taste. Mr.. Corcoran was even more
happy when he spoke of the Washington
National Monument Society as sharing
with Congress the glory of the majestic
structure, and Of Congress as assuming
and directing the completion of the mon
ument on foudations laid by the people,
and thereby redeeming q sacred national
pledge and fulfilling sacred national
duty The orations were delivered at
the Capitol, and nothing could well be
finer than MI Winthrop's tribute to Vir
ginia, when, after referring to himself as
son Of Massachusetts, bound by ties of
affection to venerate the earlier and later
worthless of the Old Puritan Common
wealth, he said : But I turn reverently
to the Old Dominion to-day, and salute
her as the mother of the pre- eminent and
incompatible American, the Father of
his Country, and the foremost figure in
all merely human history" After quot
ing Lowell's noble lines, he went on to
say Virginia has had other noble sons,
whom | will not name, but whom I do not
forget. When | remember how many
there are and how great they have been,
and how much our country has owed them,
| may well eXclaim, 'Felir prole Ujr1tne.'
But as l think of her Westinghouse our
Washington, let me say-I am almost
ready to add 'Lota Deuna pn'tu. y
The Grafton of the Hon. John w. Dan
lei was principally devoted to a review of
Washington's early life in Virginia and
subsequent public career, and by his elo
quence, his picturesque presentation of it,
and his thorough mastery of his subject,
he revivilied it and SO clad the old theme
with new graces that he was frequently
interrupted by applause, and at the close
was warmly congratulated by Senators
and Congressman of both political parties.
With these orations, both excellent Of
their kind the proceedings Of the day
were brought to close, and the grand,
serenely simple but admirably proportion
ed shaft, will from this time become one
of the most famous attractions of the
national Capital, and will he spoken of in
history and in speech not only as the high
est obelisS in the world, hut, in the words
OF Senator Sherman, as 1.-The most impos-
ing, costly and appropriate monument
ever erected in honor Of one man."
The cornerstone of the monument was
laid on the Fourth Of July, 1913. The
completed pile was dedicated within a day
of the 152d anniversary of the birth of the
Chief Citizen of these United States.
whose very existence as an Independent