The Portland daily press., 1889-12-12
IN THE CITY BEARING HIS NAME.
Eloquent Words Spoken In Praise of
George Washington.
The Houses Of Congress Meet In
Centennial Commemoration.
Extracts from the Impressive Ad-
dress of the Chief Justice.

WASHINGTON, December lin pursu-
ance of resolution adopted by Congress in
February last, the two houses met in the
Hall of Representatives today to hold CEN
tennial exercises in commemoration Of the
Inauguration Of the first President. An
Grafton was delivered iby Chief Justice Full
Ter.
The address of the Chief Justice was
most scholarly effort. denoting careful study
and long familiarity with the subject. Many
passages are brilliant and eloquent, and the
summing up of the characteristics of the
greatest American was mastery. No sum-
mary would give to the reader any clear
conception of the address. The following
are few extracts:
Washington had never permitted his pub
lie action to be influenced by personal affec-
tion or personal hostility, and in urging the
avoidance Of political connections or pers0-
nal alliances with any portion OF the foreign
world, he Enthusiastically condemned in
diligence In an inveterate antipatby towards
particular nations and passionate attach
ment for others, while observing good faith
and justice towards all. No reason existed
for becoming implicated in the ordinary vi.
cissitudes of the politics of Europe, or the
ordinary combinations and collisions of her
friendships or enmities. Intervention meant
war, not arbitration; the assumption of OBJ
legation meant force, not words. No field
was to be opened here for foreign intrigue.
and no necessity created here for standing
armies and the domination of the civil by
the military authority. So scrupulous was
Washington's abstinence from the slightest
appearance OF interference, that notwith-
standing his tender friendship for Lafayette
he would not make official application for his
release from Olmutz. So absolute was his
conviction that this country must not be-
come make-weight in Europe's balances of
power, that he sternly held 1t to neutrality
under circumstances which would have rem
dered it impossible for any other man to do
so. Such has been the policy unchangeabiy
pursued, but 1t has not required the conceal
ment of our sympathy with all who have
wished to put American institutional ideas
into practical operation, or our confidence
rule prevented the republic from the decla-
ration that 1t should take its own course in
case of the interference by other nations
with the primary interests of America.
What Washington wanted, as Lodges fine
biography makes entirely clear, was that the
people should become saturated with the
principles. Of national unity and love of
country, should possess an American char
acter." should never forget that they are
Americans. Hence he opposed education
abroad, lest our youth might contract princi-
Piles unfriendly to republican government;
and discouraged immigration, except of
those who, "by an intermixture with our
people," could themselves, or their descend
ants, ''get assimilated to our customs, meas
ures and laws" in word. soon become one
people
To be an American was to be part and par
Gel of American ideas, institutions, prosper
ity and progress. 1t was to be like-minded
with the illustrious men who have served
the cause of their native or adopted land,
from Washington to Lincoln. 1t was to be
convinced of the virtues of republican gov
ernment as the bulwark Of ''the true and
genuine liberties of mankind" which would
ultimately transmute suffering through igno-
rance into happiness through light.
Who would not glory In the name Ameri-
can, when it carries with it such nlustrious
tyyes as Washington, and Franklin, and
Samuel Adams, and Jefferson, and such
type as Lincoln, whose very faults were
American. as were the virtues of his sad
and heroic soul?
His sagacious mind perceived the danger
arising from the social and economic condi-
tion produced By an institution with which
the trainers of the Constitution had found
themselves unable to deal, and he deprecat-
ed an appeal to the last reason of Kings in
preservation of one government over our
whole domain.
Yet that appeal was fortunately so long
delayed that when 1t came the civil war de-
termined the perpetuity and indissolubility
Of the Union, without the loss of distinct
and individual existence, or of the right of
self government by the States.
This conflict demonstrated that no part of
the country was destitute of that old fighting
spirit which rouses at the invocation of force
through arms, and which long years of pros
perity could not weaken or destry, aud at
the same time, that gigantic armies drawn
from the ranks of citizen soldiery, how
ever skilled they may become In the arts of
war, on the cessation Of hostilites at once
resume the normal cultivation Of the arts Of
peace.
And, from an apparent invasion of the
carefully constructed scheme to secure popu-
lar government, popular government has OBJ
tanned wider scope and renewed power,
and from an apparent Industrial overthrow
has come an unexampled industrial develop
ment. "Out of the eater came forth meat,
and out of the strong came forth sweet