The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-05-25


which this day is the one hundredtt
sponsibilities which century SO event.
full has laid upon us.
And we are here of all places, first o.
all with pre-eminent appropriateness.
| know not how it may be with those
TO whom all sacred things and places
are matters of equal Indifference, but
to those of us with whom it ia other
wise it cannot be without profound
and pathetic import that when the first
president of the republic had taken
upon him, by virtue of his solemn
oath, pronounced III the presence OF
the people, the heavy buruen of its
chief magistracy, he turned straight
way to these walls, and kneelng in
yOnder pew. asked God for strength to
keep his promise to the nation and his
oath to Him. This was no unwOnted
home to him, nor to large proportion
OF those eminent men who, with him,
were associated in framing the consti-
tuition of these United States. Chill
dren of the same spiritual Mother and
nurtured in tue same Spiritual faitli
and order, they were wont to carry
with them into their public delib-
eratiOns something of the same rev.
erent and conservative spirit which
they had learned witlain these walls
and of which The youthful and i'll reg.
ulated fervOrs of the new borp republic
often betrayed its need. And be, their
leader and chief, while singularly with
out cant, or Journalism, Or pretence in
his religious habits, was penetrated,
as we know well, by profound sense
of the dependence of the republic upon
d guidance other than that of man, and
of his own need of strength and
courage and wisdom greater than he
had i'll himself.
AN ENDURING MODEL.
And SO, with inexpressible tender
ness and reverence, we find ourselves
thinking of him here, kneeling tc ask
such gifts, and then rising to 60 forth
10 his great tasks with mien 80 august
and majestic that Fisher Ames. who
sat beside him in this chapel, wrote ::
al was present in the pew with the
president, and must assure you that,
after making all deductions for the de-
luslons OF our fancy in regard to char
acters, still think of him with more
veneratiOn than for any other person.
So we think of him, l say and indeed
it is impossible to think otherwise.
The modern student of history has en-
deavored to tell US how it was that the
service in this chapel which we are
striving to reproduce came about,
The record Is not without obscurity.
but of one thing we may be sure-that
to him who OF that goodly company
who a hundred years ago gathered
within these walls, was chief, it was no
empty form, no decorous affectation
Events had been too momentous, the
hand OF Heavenly Providence had
been too plain for him and the men
grouped about him then TO misread
the one or mistake the other. The easy
levity with which their children's chill
dren debate the facts of God and duty
and eternal destiny were as impossible
to them as faith and reverence seem to
be, or to be in danger of becoming, to
many of us. And 80 we may be very
sure that when they gathered here the
air was hushed and hearts as we'll as
heads were bent In honest supplication.
For, after all, their great experiment
was then, in truth, just beginning.
The memorable days and deeds which
had preceded 1.-THE struggle for indie
pendence, the delicate and, in many re
spects, more difficult struggle for un-
ion. the harmoniZing of the various
and often conflicting interests of rival
and remote states and sections, the for.
mulating and adopting of the national
constitution, all these were, after all
~
the great experiment itself 1t has
been suggested that we may wisely see
in the event which we celebrate to- day
an illustration of those great principles
upon Which all governments rest, of
the continuity of the chief magistracy,
of the corporate life of the nation as
embodied in its executive, of the trans
mission, by due succession, of author
ity and the like; OF all of which, doubt
less, in the history of the last 100 years
we have an interesting and, on the
whole, inspiring example.
But it is a somewhat significant fact
that it is not along lines such as these
that that enthusiasm which has famed
out during these recent days and weeks,
as this anniversary has approached, has
seemed to move. The one thing that
has, l imagine amazed a good many
cynical and pessimistlc people among
US is the way in which the ardor of a
great peoples love and homage and
gratitude has kindled, not before the
image of mechanism, but of man.
1t has been felt with an unerring in
tuition which, mas once and again and
again in human history, been the at
tribute of the people rs distinguished
from the doctrinaires, the theorists, the
system makers, that that which makes
it worth while to commemorate the
Inauguration of George Washington is
not merely the consummation of the
nations struggle towards organic life,
not merely that by the initiation of it's
chief executive it set in operation that
constitution which Mr.. Gladstone has
declared "the most perfect instrument
which the wit of man has devised;"
but that it celebrates the beginning
OF an administration which by its lofty
and stainless integrity, by its absolute
superiority to selfish or secondary mo-
tives, by the rectilude of its daily con-
duct in the face of whatsoever threats,
Establishments or combinations, rather
.hsh w 'hO ootOhtotiouS puoi is0Clstu Vi
its professions, has taught this nation
and the world forever what the Chris
tian ruler of a Christian people ought
to be.
THE SHIP OF STATE.
yield to no man In my veiferatiou
for the men who framed the compact
under which these states are bound to-
gether. No one can easily exaggerate
their services or the value of that
which they wrought out. But, after
all, we may not forget to-day. that
the thing which they made was dead
and not living thing. II had no
power to interpret itself, to apply it.
self, to execute itself. Splendid as il
was in its complex and torecastine
mechanism, instinct as it was, in one
sense, with noble wisdom, with a
large-visiOned craftsmanship, with a
matchless adaptability TO untried emer-
gencies, it was, nevertheless, no differ
ent In another aspect from one of those
splendid specimens OF naval architect
ure which throng our wharves to-day
and which, with every best contrivance
of human art and skill, with capacities
of progress which newly amaze us
every day, are but as impotent, dead
matter, save as the brain and hand of
man shall summon aud command them.
"The ship of state," we say. Yes; but
it is the cool and competent mastery at
the helm of that, as of every other