Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-22
THE Day.

There have been, there are now, and
probably there will continue to be timid
souls, sincerely devoted to free govern
ment, who look upon the scheme of the
republic with fear that it will fail Others
are tinctured with that degree of pessimism
that impresses them with the belief
that republican institutions have already
entered the era of deeadenee. In the We
nality of officials, the corruption of poll
ticians, the influx of foreign elements not
inspired with love for the system of the
republic, and in the apparent Indifference
with which the anniversary of the birth of
Washington is observed, they discover evil
denees of the decline of the patriotic spirit.
But it is not essential that a people
should be constantly enthusiastic concern
ing their political and social blessings in
order to keep the patriotic fires burning.
The national heart at its normal beat may
be as true as in the hour OF trial. Mere
professional pageantry and pyrotechnic
spectacle do not testify to sincere devotion
to the patriotic principle, nor their absence
to decay of love for country. These APP
peal as much to ignoble as to lofty senti-
ments; they are cheap devices that are
employed for the most ordinary of occa-
sions.
There is to the impartial student of
American character no evidence that
the regard for the heroism and self-sacrifice
of George Washington and the band of
patriots who upheld his arms has grown
weak, or that his memory has faded in the
American heart. On the contrary, as the
era of that lofty character recedes, its SYM
metry is more disclosed, and its exquisite
proportions become clearer to the vision.
AS the ages pass, his name will be cher
ished with even more loving regard, and
the events in which his was chief actor
viii be more deeply craven upon the tab
lets of history.
1t will be the fate of his name and
character to stand forward among men for
all time as a type of the-loftiest effort
made by man to attain the uttermost lin
its of the possibilities of liberty, tempered
by that wise restraint which is born of the
voluntary surrender of rights by the gov
erned, to the end that greater security and
broader privileges and more gracious i'm
munites may be enjoyed by all.
The tide of foreign ideas, the encroach-
ment of the anti-republican sentiment,
the waves of socialistic isms and the as
saults of anarchical foes, have in no wise
so advanced upon US as to cause anxiety TO
the national heart. Since national gov
eminent is a fallible institution, and like
all the works of man, imperfect, it is posi-
bic that for the time to come when the
nations of the Old World, in the smoke of
our downfall, will witness the failure of
self-government. But the hour will never
strike, when the estimate of the character
of Washington, as the representative of
lofty idea, viii decline.
Should in a future century the Amer
lean people fall apart and the fabric Of the
Republic be broken up from the founda-
tions, the calamity will serve to lift Wash
ington to the level of prophets-since no
such deplorable occurrence can come
about except through disregard of his in
spired warnings. Towards the preserva-
ton of your government and the perma-
nency of your present happy state said
the devoted patriot to the people of the
newborn Republic, lit is requisite, not
only that you steadily discOuntenance If
regular opposition to its acknowledged
authority, but also that you resist with care
the spirit of innovation upon its prin-
ciples, however specious the pretexts.
There being constant danger
of excess [of party spirit the effort ought