Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-02-21

nit; yet may have been very often mistaken
I'm my judgment of the means, aud may, in
many Instances, deserve the imputation OF En-
ror.' And when, at last he was contemplating
final refinement from the Presidency, and, In
one Of the drafts of his Farewell Address, had
written that he withdrew with "A pure heart
and undefiied hands," words 10 that effect
he suppressed the passage and all other smila.
expressions lest, as he suggested, he should
seem 10 claim for himself "A measure OF perfec
ton which all The world now unites in accord
ing To him. For L hazard little in ASSERTING
that all the world does now accord to Washing
ton a tribute, which has the Endorsement OF the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, that, 'of all men that
have ever lived, he was the greatest of good
men, and the best OF great men" Or, let me
borrow the same idea from great English poet,
who gave his young life and brilliant genius 10
the cause of Liberty in modern Greece.
where wrote Byron,-
Where may the wearied eye repose
" heu gazing on the great,
Nor dcslicahe state e'
les, 0ne-the first, the last, the best,
The Cincinnatus of the West,
Whom envy dared not hate
BequeaileSl the name of Washington,
To make men blush there was but One,r
To what other name have such tributes ever
been paid by great and good men, abroad as
well a. al home? You have not forgotten the
Language OF Lord Erskine, In his inscription OF
You are the only being for whom have an
awful reverence" You have not forgotten the
language OF Charles James Fox, i'm the House of
Commons: Illustrious Man, before whom all
borrowed greatness sinks into iusgnificapce"
You have not forgotten the language Of Lord
Brougham, twice uttered. at long Intervals, and
with a purpose, as Brougham himself once told
me, toimpress and enforce those emphatic words
as his liked and final1udgment: Until time shall
be no more will test OF the progress which our
race has made in Wisdom and Virtue be de-
rived from the yeneration paid TO the immortal
name OF Washington"
Nor can l fail To welcome the browning trib-
ute, perhaps, from our mother land,-reaching
me, as IL has, at the last moment of revising
what had prepared for this occasion,-in a
published letter from Gladstone, her great
Prime Minister, who after saving i'm casual
Washington q ntlrS
figure in history, writes deliberately, THAT II,
among all the pedestas supplied by history for
public characters of extraordinary nobility and
purity, saw one higher than all the rest and ID
Were required, AT moments notice. TO name
the tittest occupant for IL, think my choice at
any time during the last forty-five years would
naNe lighted and it would now light, upon
Washington
But If any one would get a full impression OF
the affection and veneration in which WASH
! lngton was held by his contemporaries, let him
| turn almost at random TO the letters which
were addressed TO him, or which were written
about him, by the eminent men, military or
| civil, American or European, who We're privil.
| eyed to correspond with him, who ever SO
casually found occasion TO allude to his career
| and character. And let him by no means for.
| get, as he reads them, that those letters were
written hundred years ago, when language
was more measured, If not more sincere, than
now, and before the indiscrfminate use OF the
superatiye, and the Congregations and adula-
lions OF II atterers and parasites, sending great
and small alike down TO posterity as patterns
OF every virtue under Heaven, had tended TO
| render such tributes as suspicious as they often
| are worthless
What, for instance, said plain-speaking old
Benjamin Franklin? "My fine crab-tree walk
| ing stick, with "A gold head curiously wrought
In the form Of the ,, cap of Liberty, are
| the words of his Will, in 1851 give TO my
| friend and the friend of mankind, George
Washington. IL il were sceptre, he has
| merited ii, and would become it,
Happy, happy, America" wrote Gouverneur
Morris from Paris, I'm 1893, when the French
Revolution s was making such terrific progres
by law, by the man whom she loves, whom she
almost adores! 1t is the pride of my life to con.
| 20 be IGNORED with that title"
II have always admired, )" wrote TO him Count
for thirty years over the Ministry OF Foreign
| Affairs, under Frederick the Great,-'I have
always admired your great virtues and quail.
/ titles, your dlsiDterested patriotism, your un.
shaken courage and simplicity of manners-
qualifications by which you surpass men even
| the most celebrated of antiquity"
Il am sorry" wrote Patrick Henry, then Gov.
ernor of Virginia, in allusion to the accusations
| of one of the notorious faction of 1777,-"I ann
sorry there should be one man who counts hima
| sells my friend, who is not yours"
| Thomas Jefferson, who, we all know, sometimes
Clnered from him, took pains, at q later period
of his life, to say OF i'm in record for posterity:
Ills integrity was most pure; his Justice the
most infieXible nave ever known; no motives
OF interest or consanguinity, Of friendship OF
hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was
| indeed, In every sense of the word, q wise, Q
III could now present myself" wrote Ed,
| mund Randolph, who had made injurious ims
putations on Wash: ngton before and after hil
dismissal from .he Cabinet in 1195,-'if could
| now present myself before your venerated
| uncle" he wrote most touchingly to Judg(
Bushrod Washington in 1910, lit would be my
pride TO confess my contrition, that I suffered
my irritation, let the cause be what 1t might tt
use some OF those expressions respecting him,
| which, at this moment OF indifference TO the
world, wish to recall, as being inconsistent
with my subsequent conviction. My life win,
/ OF my sincere opinion of his virtues and merit
| In style which is not the result OF q mind
merely debilitated by misfortune. but OF that
| Christian Philosophy on which alone depend
| for inward tranquility"
And far more touching and more telling still
| Is the TACT, that even Thomas Conway, the
leader of that despicable cabal al Valley forge
but who lived TO redeem his name IN othei
lands, II not ia our own,Iwhen believing him'
and '.just able, as he said, ito hold the pen for
a few minutes,"-employed those few minutes
| cere grief for having done, written, or said any
| thing disagreeable" TO him, adding these memo
and good man Nav nns yes t me
venefation, and esteem OF these states, whose
liberties you have asserted by your virtues!'
From his ff1ustrious friend, Alexander Ham
| ilton, need not cite a word. His whole lie
bore testimony, mvre impressive than words,
| to an admiration and affection for his great
| chief, which could not be exceeded, and which
no momentary misunderstanding could shake.
Lafayette, writing TO Washington from Cadis In
1888. when the glad tidings of the Treaty Of
Peace had just reached him: "Were you but
such q man as Julius Caesar, or the King of
Prussia, should almost be sorry for you at the
end of the great tragedy where you are acting
such part But, with my dear General, i re-
| joice at the blessings of Peace in which our
noble ends have been secured. . As for
you who truly can say you have done all this,
what must your vtrtuous and good heart feel In
the happy moment when the Revolution you
| have made is now firmly establishedr Rightly
and truly did Lafayette say that his beloved
General was OF another spirit and OF different
mould from Caesar and Frederick. Washington
had little, or nothing, in common with the
great military heroes OF his own or any othef
age,-oonquering for the sake of conquest
'wading through slaughter to q throne,'-and
overunning the world, at q countless cost oil
blood and treasure, to gratffy their own Nmbii
ton, or TO realize some mad dream OF universal
empire. No ancient Plutarch has furnished
any just parallel for him In this respect No
modern Plutarch will ind one. In all history,
ancient and modern alike, be stands In this 70.
spect as individual and unique as yonder ma
jestic Needle.
In his Eulogy on Washington before the Legis.
lature Of Massachusetts, the eloquent Fisher
Ames, my earliest predecessor In Congress from
the Boston district, said, eighty-nve years ego,
that, Ia contemplating his career and charsc-
ter, Mankind perceived some change In their
power, and even the name Of Congueror. had
grown dim in their eyes, They knew
and felt that the worlds wealth, and its empire
too would be q bride far beneath his accept-
ance." Yes, th6g all saw that he bore ever In