Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-26
Chief Justice Fuller Reviews the Char
acter of Washington in the
Light House.
Mastery Grafton of the Distinguished
JuFist in the Presence of a
Notable Assemblage.
The President and Representatives of
the Various Branches of the
Government ATTEND.

4 DICsldCllb VI OllC On1lCn OIdD6S. Ddfllg
been fixed at l o'clock Wednesday, the ap-
unusual one.
At 10 all were seated and the vice,
president called the vast assembly to order.
After prayer by the Rev. J. G. Butler,
chaplain Of the senate, during which the
multitude stood In r%everential attitude,
the Marine band, stationed IN the south
lobby, broke into the national air of Hail
Columbia" As the strain ended the
desk by Senator Hiscock and Representa-
tive Bayne, the chairman Of the commit
tees In charge of the arrangements
Chief Justice Fuller read his grafton in a
resonant tone and with a clear enunciation.
He was listened to with the greatest at
tention. He said In part:
by the terms Of that section of the act
of congress under which we have assembl-
ed in further commemoration of the his
tOric event of the Inauguration of the first
president of the United States, George
Washington, the Both of April, A. D..
1889, was declared a national holiday, and
IN the noble city where that event took
place, It's centennial anniversary has been
celebrated with a magniticence of speech
and song, a m~ultitudinous assembly. and
of naval, military, and civic display, ac-
companied by every manifestation of deep
love of country, of profound devotion to its
institutions, and of intense apprehension
of the virtues and services of that illust-
riOus man, whose assumption of the chief
maglstracy gave assurance of the
successful setting in motion of the new
! government. Nothing on the occasion
of that celebration could be more full of
encouragement and hope than the testi-
mony so overwhelmingly given that Wash
mgton still remains first in the hearts of
his countrymen, and that the example af-
forded by his career was still cherished as
furnishing that guide of public conduct
which had kept and would keep the nation
upon The path Of glory for itself and of
happiness for its people. The majestic
story of that life-whether toldin the pages
of Marshall or Sparks, of Irving or Ban
croft, of Everett or Winthrop, or the
matchlcss poetry os Lowell or the verse of
Byron-never grows old. We love to hear
again what the great Frederick and Napo-
leon, what Erskine, and Fox, and Broug-
ham and Talleyrand, and Fontanes, and
GuizOt said Of him, and how Grape en-
shrouded the standards of France, and the
flags upon the victorious ships of England
fell auttering to half-mast at the tidings
of his death. The passage of the century
has not in the slightest degree impaired the
irresistible charm, and, whatever doubts
or fears assail us in the turmoil of our Wig
orous national life, that story comes to
console and strengthen like the shadow of
a great rock in a weary land.
Washington had become first in war,
not so much by reason of victories over the
enemy, though he had won such, or of
success In strategy, though that had been
his, as of the triumphs of a constancy
which no reverse, no hardship, 10 inoom-
potency, no tretchery could shake or over
come. And because the people comprehend
the greatness Oftheir leader and recognized
IN him an entire absence of personal am
bltlon, an absolute obedience to convic-
lions OF duty, an absolute love of country,
OF themselves and of mankind, he had be-
come first In the hearts of his countrymen.
Because thus first he was to become first in
peace by bringing to the charge of the
practical working of the system he had
participated IN creating on behalf of the
people whose independence he had achiev-
ed, the same serene Judgment, the same
sagaclty, the same patience, the same
sense of duty the same far-sighted COM
prehension of the endto be attained that
had marked his career from its beginning.
From the time he assumed command he
had given up all idea of accommodation,
and believed that there was o middle
ground between %subjugatiN complete
independence, and that independence the
independence of a nation.
The promotion of human happiness
was the keynote of the century
within which Washington's life was COM
prised. 1t was the century of Franklin
and Turget; of Montesquieu, and Vol
taire. and Rosseau; of Frederick the Great
and Joseph the Second; of Pitt, and Fox.
and Burke, and Graham; of Burns, and
Cowper, and Gray; of Goethe and Kant;
of Priestly, and Hume, and Adam Smith;
of Wesley, and Whitfield, and Howard,
as well as of the long line of statesmen
and soldiers, and voyagers over every sea:
poets and e~ssayists, and encyclopedias,
and romancers which adorned it. It was
the century of men like Condorcet, who.
cutlawed and condemned by a revolution
airy tribunal, the outcome of popular ex-
cesseS. calmly sat down IN hiding, to COM
pose his work upon the progress of the
human mind. 1t was a century, instinct
with the recognition of the human soul
IN every human being. and alive with as
plratlons for universal brotherhood. With
this general longing for the elevation of
mankind Washington sympathized. and
in expressing a hearty desire for the root
ing out of slavery, considers this not only
essential to the perpetuation of the union.
but desirable ION the score of human Dig
nifty" Nevertheless, with the calm rea-
son In reference to government. of the race
from which he sprang, he regarded the
promotion of human happiness as to be
best secured by a reasonable compact in
civil society and that established by the
federal constitution as the last great ex-
pertinent of that end.
Washington and his colleagues were
familiar with prior forms of government
and their operation, and with the s~pecula-
tions of the writers upon that subject.
They were converSant with the course of
the revolution of 1858, the then triumph of
public opinion and the literature of that
period. They accepted the thesis of Locke
that as the true end of government is the
mutual preservation of the lives, liberties.
and estates of the people a government
which invades these rights is guilty of a
breach of trust and can lawfully be set
aside; and they were persuaded of the
soundness of the views of Montesouieu
that the distribution of power is necessary
to political liberty, which can only exist
when power is not abused, and in order
so distributed that power shall check
power. 1t is only necessary to consult the
pages of the F~ederalist. that uncomfortable
work on the principles of free government,
to understand the acquaintance of Amer
/ n E4a4nzD,a- III