Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-02-21
cause Of liberty in modern Greece. Where"
wrote Byron

wv here may the Weerlcu eye rcpOsc |
When gazing the great,
Where neither guilty glory sows,
Nor despicable state!
Yes one-the first, the last, the best,
The Cincinnatus oil the West.
whom envy dared not hate
Bequesthed the name Of Washington,
To make men blush there was but One"
To what other name nave such tributes
yer been paid by great and good men,
abroad as at well as home? You have not for
gotten the language OF Lord Eskine, in his
inscription OF one OF his productions to Wash
ingtou himself: "You are the only being for
whom have an awful reverence" You
have not forgotten the language Of Charles
James Fox, in the House OF Commons: all
lustrious man, before whom all borrowed
greatness sinks into significance" You have
not forgotten the language OF Lord Brough-
am. twice uttered, at long intervals, and
with purpose, as Brougham once told me,
to impress and enforce those emphatic words
as his fixed and fnal judgment: Until time
shall b, no more will test of the progress
which our race has made in wisdom and vir-
tue be derived from ,the veneration paid TO |
the immortal name of Washington"
Nor can fail to welcome the crowniRg tri- |
butte, perhaps, from our mother lund-reach- |
ing me at the last moment OF revising what ! |
had prepared for this occasion--in pub |
lshed letter from Gladstone, her great Prime
Minister, who, after saying, in casual CONVEX
sation, that Washington was ''the purest
figure in history" writes deliberately, "that if,
among all the pedestals supplied by history
TOR 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 TOR ii,
think my choice, at any time during the last
torty-yesrs, would have lighted, aud would
now light, upon Washington
Blu; if any one would get a full impression
of the affection and veneration IN which
Washington vas 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, mill
tary or civil, American or European, who
were privileged TO correspond with him, or
who ever so casually found occasion to allude
to his career aud character And let him by
no means forget, as he reads them, that those
letters were written a hundred years ago,
when language was more measured, if not
more sincere, than now, and before the indis-
criminate use OF the superative, and the ex-
aggerations and adulations of hatterers 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 are worthless.
What, for instance, said plain-speaking old
BENJAMIN franklin my fine crsb-tree walk
ing-stick, with gold head curiously wrought
| in the form OF the cap of Liberty are
words OF his will, in l7s9-"l give to my
/ friend and the friend of mankind,
George Washington. Ii it were . scep-
ter, he has merited it, and would become it"
Happy, happy America" wro.e Govern
eur Morris from Paris. in 1898, when the
French Revolution was making such terrific
progre.s-"happy, happy America, governed
by reason, by law, by the maa whom she
loves, whom she almost adores! Ii is the
pride Of my life to consider that man as nv
friend, and | hope long to be honored with
that title"
IL have always admired" wrote to him
Count Herzburg, from Berlin, where be had
presided for 30 years over the Ministry OF
Foreign Affairs, under Frederick the Great
Il have always admired your great virtues
and qualities, your disinterested patriotism,
your upshaken courage and simplicity OF
mauners-qualifcaticn BY which you sur
pass men even the most celebrated OF an
uquity."
81 am s,rry," wrote Patrick Henry, then
Governor OF Virginia, lin allusion to the ac-
cusatious of one of the Notorious factions OF
l777-"I am sorry there should be one man
who counts himself my friend, who is moi
yours"
Thomas Jefferson, who, We all know
sometimes differed from him, took pains. at 6
later period of his lite, to say OF him IN a rec
ord for pos,eri,y: "His integrity was mos
| pure; his Justice the most infleXible have
ever known; no motives of Interest or c..n
sanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being abl,
to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every
sense OF the word, . wise, q good and grea
man.
at could now present myself" wrote
Edmund Randolph, who had made ipjuriou;
imputations on Washington before and after
his dismissal from the cabinet In l795-"it
conld now present myself before your vener-
ated uncle" he wrote most touchingly tc
Judge Bushrod Washington in 1870 81,
would be my pride to confess my contrition
that suffered nv irritation, let the cause be
what it might, to use some of those EXPIRE
sious respecting him, which, at this moment
or indifference to the world. wish to recall
as being inconsistent with my subsequent
conviction. Ny lite will. hope be suffi.
GENTLY extended for the recording OF my sin.
cere opinion OF his virtues and merit, in &
style which Is not the resdlt of a mind merely
ebiIitated by misfortune, but of that Chris.
,ian philosophy on which alone ] depend for
inward tranquility"
Aud lar more touching and more telling
still is the fact, that even Thomas Conway
the leader of that despicable cabal at Valley
Forge. but who lived to redeem his name il
other lands, if not in our own-when be-
ieying himself to be mortally wounded in
duel, in 1873, and '.just able" as he said, .'tc
hold the pen for . few minutes'-employeC
those few minutes in writing to Washington
to express his .sincere grief for having done
written, or said anything disagreeable" t
him, adding these memorable words: "Yor
are, in my eyes, the great and good man
May you long enjoy the love, veneration, anG
esteem of those states, whose liberties yoI
have asserted by your virtues!'
From his illustrious friend, Alexander
Hamilton, need not cite a word. His Who'll,
life bore testimony. more impressive thar
words. TO an admiration aud affection for hi
great chief, which could not be exceeded ,sanC
which no momentary misunderstanding coulc
shake.
But listen once more, and only once NOR,
to Lafayette, writing to Washington IRON
Cadiz in 1888, when the glad tidings of the
treaty of peace had just reached him: "Were
you but such man as julius Caesar. or the
King Of Prussia, should almost be sorry fol
you at the end Of the great tragedy where
you are acting such part. But with my
dear General, rejoice at the blessings of q
peace 10 which our NOBLE ends have been Sc.
cured. As for you, who truly
can say you have done all this, what mus,
your virtuous and good heart feel in the
happy moment when the revolution you have
made is now firmly established" Rightly
and truly did Lafayette say that his beloved
General was OF another spirit and OF differ.
ent mould from Caesar and Frederick. Wash.
ington had little, or nothing, in common with
the great military heroes Of his own or any
other Accompanying a. for the sake of con.
| uuest-sWsdiug through Slaughter to 4