The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-05-08
The Constitution and Washington.

No people had ever worthier reason
for pride in great occasion and its
representative than Americans in the
Constitution and in Washington. The
consciousness of this truth is shown by
the profound interest which the pros
pect of commemoration has produced in
the public mind, and the extraordinary
preparations for its due and prolonged
observance. A nation in its high hour
of imperial power and prosperity looks
back "A hundred years to its obscure
and doubtful beginning, and by a
striking coincidence at the very mo-
ment of the commemoration the amaz-
ing miracle of its growth and develop
ment is illustrated by the vast swarm of
people which upon designated day
overspreads vast territory far to the
Southwest, which was an unknown and
painless wilderness a hundred years
ago, and within few days peacefully
imprOvise state, with its population
and its political and industrial organiza-
ton, adapting themselves to familiar
conditions, and becoming presently an
integral part of the national Union.
The occupation of Oklahoma is an cpl
tome of the occupation of the continent
which the century has witnessed. The
shivering and doubtful group of COM
munities which skirted the Atlantic
coast in 1889 with a scant four millions
of people, united by crumbling tie,
jarring group despised by Europe and
secretly distrustful of its own indie
pendent continuance, is succeeded by
the continental republic of to-day, a
fT,. - no, I'll
man for man, and with all doubts and
Attachments conceded, the average of
intelligence and well-being is higher
than in any other historical community.
The spell that has wrought this marvel
is the American character and ability
which made the Constitution, and which
committed to Washington the organiza-
ton of the government. 1t was, as he
said at the time, and as was generally
said until the civil war, an experiment.
Washington calls it so in his inaugural
address, and Webster in his speech on
Washington's centennial birthday; and
it was Washington's character and sa-
gacity combined which gave it the i'm
pulse of success. He had the true
genius of a great administrator. He
chose his agents with singular wisdom,
and he presided over the whole admin
istration of affairs with supreme iudg-
ment, clear perception and unquaiing
courage. An admirable illustration of
this power, as Mr.. Charles Francis
Adams pointed out some years ago
in public address, was his course in
regard to neutrality in the beginning
of the Napoleonic wars. No man
in the country was more fitted than
Mr.. Adams to treat the subject, for as
minister in England during the civil
war he had the most vital reasons for
making himself thoroughly master of
the question. But the signal illustra-
ton of this sagacity of Washington in
undertaking the greatest task of his life
and, upon the whole, the greatest task
of craftsmanship that history records
was his selection of the chief officers
of the government who were TO be his
own counsellors. With unerring in.
stinct, at time when only the indica,
tons of party difference were manifest
he included in his council the two chief
representatives of the diverging views