St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-02-23

| i cannon Wholly IOrScL lUdb TIT
venerable ex president, John Quincy Adams
at whose death-bed, in my official chamber
beneath this roof, was privileged watcher
thirty-seven years ago this very day-hac
been originally designated to pronounce
the cornerstone Grafton, as one who
had received his first commission, In the
long aud brilliant career at home and abroad
which awaited him, from the hands of Wash
ington himself Tn that enviable distinction
certainly have no share; but may be par
doncd for remem bering that, in calling upon
me to supply the place Of Mr.. Adams, it was
borne in mind that had but lately taken the
oath OF speaker at bis hands and from his
lips, and that thus, as was suggested at the
time, the electric chain, though lepgthep ed
| by single link, was still unbroken. Let me
hope that the magnetism of that chain may
not even vet be entirely exhaus ID, and
that may still catch something of its vivify-
ing anu quickening power, while | attem ut
To bring to the m ,mory of Washington the
remnants of voice which is falling and of
| ViSor which | AM conscious Is ebbing away.
After giving minute history of the monu-
/ ment from its first inc ption To its compile
ton, and the great difficulties encountered,
all OF which We're in turn successfully sur
mounted, Mr.. Winthrop said:
| Fi'iiS coronlu oDa$. The com pletiou crowns
the work. To-day that work speaks for itself.
| anu needs 10 other orator. Mute and lifeess
as 1t seems, it has living aud audible voice
Tor all VINO behold it, and no one can mis-
interpret its language. Nor will anv one,
think, longer cavi about its design. That
design, let me add, originally prepared by
the Washington architect, Robert Mills of
South Carolina, and adopted long before l
had any relations to this association, was
commended to public favor by such illus
trious names as Andrew jackson, John
| Quincy Adams, Albert Gallatn, Henry Clay
and Daniel Webster. A colonnadc encir-
cling its base, and intended as
sort OF pantheon, was soon dis
carded from the plan. Its main
feature, from the first, was an obrlisk
after the example of that which had then
been recently agreed upon for Bunker Hill
And so it stands to-day, simple, sublime
obelisk OF pure white marble, its proportions,
In spite OF It's immense height conforming
exactly TO those OF the most elaborate ODE
lisks of antiquity, as my accomplished and
lamented friend, our late minister to Italy,
50 happily pointed out to US. 1t is not, in
deed, as were those ancient obeliSks, u mon
oith, single stone cut wholly from the
possible for anything SO colossal. Nor could
we have been expected to attempt the i'm pos
sible iu Difference to Egyptian methods OF
construction. We might almost as we'll be
called on to adopt as the emblems of Amer
lean progress the bronze Crabs which were
found at the base OF Cieopatra's needlei
America is certainly at liberty to present
new models in art as well as in
government, or 10 improve upon old ones:
and, as l ventured TO suggest some years
ago, our monument to Washington will be
ali the more significant and sym bolic in en-
oodylng, as 1t does, tine idea of our cherished
national motto, Z PLCRIBCs UNUd. That
compact, consolidated structure, with its
countless blocks, inside and outside, held
firmly in position by their own weight and
pressure, will ever be an instructive type of
the national strength and grandeur which
can only be secured by the union of ''many
into one"
But oh, my friends, let US no longer forget,
or seem to forget, that We are here to com
menlorate, not the monument but the man
That stupendous pile mas not been reared for
any vain purpose of challenging admiration
for itself. 1t is not, / need Lot say it is not,
as q specimen Of advanced art, for it makes
no pretention 10 that; lit is not as signal
illustration Of engineering skill
and science, though that may
confidently be claimel for it, it
is not, certainly it is not, as the talest ex-
isting structure in the world Tor we do not
measure the greatness Of men by the height
Of their monuments, and We know that this
distinction NAV be done away with, here or
elsewhere, in future years but it is as Il
memorial of the pre-emnent figure in
modern or in ancient history, the world over
of the man who has left the loftiest exam
pie OF public and private virtues, and whose
exalted character challenge the admiration
and the homage of mankind--it is this ex-
ample and this charactcr-it is the man. aud
not the monument-thatw we are here to COM
memoratei
=
Nor can any one who hears me REQUIRE TO
be reminded of that last scene OF all, when.
in his eight-and-siXteth year, having been
oyertaken by shower OF sleet and snow, in
the midst of those agricultural pursuits in
which he so much delighted, at Mount
Vernon, he laid himself calmly down 10 die
-''pOt afraid to 90, as be whispered to his
physician--and left his whole country In
tears such as had never flowed before.
''Mark the perfect man and behold the up
right, for the end Of that man is peace,'
Eighty-fvc years ago tomorrow, his sixty
eighth birthday, was solemnlg assigned 10y
congress for general manifestation Of that
rwhelming national sorrow, and for the
commemoration, by culOgies, addresses. SER
mons, and religious rites, OF the great life
which had thus been closed. But long be-
fore that anniversary arrived, and one dav
only after tne sad tidings had reached the
seat OF government in Philadelphia. Presi--
dent Joun Adams, in reply TO a message Of
tue house Of Representatives, had autiei-
pated all OanegyrCs by a declaration. as true
to-day as it was then, that he Was 'the most
instriUus and beloved parsonage which
this country ever pruduced;" while Henry
Lee OF Virginia, through the lips Of John
Marshall, he'd summed up and condensed all
that was felt, and all taat could be or ever
can be said, in those impershable words
which will go ringing down the centuries. in
every CLINE. in every tongue, till time shall
be no more: First in war, first in peace,
and first in the hearts OF his countrymen ~
A celebrated philosopher of antiquity, who
WAS nearly contemporary with Christ, but
who could have known nothing Of what was
going on in Judca, and VINO, alas. did not
always "reck his own rede, wrote thus TO
younger friend, rs a precrpt for a worthy
life: Some good man must ne singled out
and Kept ever before our eyes, that We may
live as If be were looking on, and do every
thing as il he could see it,
Let me borrow the spirit, II not the exact
letter OF that precept, and address it 10 the
Young men Of my country: keep ever in
your mind. and before your min Is eye, the
lOfiiest standard Of character. You have it.
| need not say, supremely and uusppr0ach-
ably, in Him who spake as never man spake,
and lived as never man lived. aud WHO
died for the sins Of the world.
Tat char cter stands apart and
aOne. But y. merely mortal man tue mon