The Hawaiian gazette., 1894-02-23
THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY.
tContin I'D from page L.

IntSe contemporary tributes, many
of them drawn from the thoughtful
minds Of the nation against which
Washington had drawn his sword,
placed the great Virginian in his own
times upon the mighty pedestal TO
which posterity has raised his statue.
AS time goes on, however, the great
ness of Washington's work as states
man will be still more accurately
measured. 1t has not been so mea-
sured yet because, generations after
his death, it has not been completed.
The great Republic, with all its sue
cess and magnitude, has not yet begun
to realize its destiny. Its architects
builded better than they knew, and
better than we now know. Nor has
the world made its full response to the
political influences which Washington
set in motion. Some great chapters
in the French revolution dated from
them. When Spanish-America freed
| itself, there too was result of Wash
ington's example. Brazil, inheriting
Portuguese monarchy, caught in
time the republican enthusiasm from
the North and here today, in the
most isolated islands in all the world,
we hail the name of Washington, and
proclaim that the work he did unto
America he did likewise unto us.
Somewhere 1 have read German
legend "that on one night of all the
year the great Imperial Charles
emerges from his tomb. When the
moonbeams fall on the noble river
and fling from bank to bank a bridge
of light, upon that bridge of moon
beams the monarch walks, calling
down Il benediction on all the German
land" An idle fancy, surely; but it
brings TO mind the living figure of
Washington, luminous and august,
invoking the genius of liberty by
which all men are made free. Let us
believe that if his spirit cannot walk
abroad with benedictory hand, at least
the influence of what he did and what
he was In life will leaven all human
ity, and that some day human race
without a single king-except the
King of Kings; without throne, ex-
cept the throne of reason and of JUS
tice; without despot but the con-
science and the will without master
and without a slave, will say of Wash
ington, and say it in all tongues:
From him all statesmen had an eX-
ample, all races an inspiration; from
him the world had its heritage of free
dom, and to his memory the chaplets
of Immortality belong.
At one time during Mr.. Smiths
remarks the rain fell so heavily
that he was compelled to stop. AT
ter the band played a selection, he
resumed.
Prof. NJ. M. Scott was the next
speaker, with the subject, "Wash-
ington as Patriot" He said,
Mr.. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN
1 am profoundly thankful that in
of his Country" it should have fallen
to my lot to speak in few words of
Washington as a patriot. In any
other single side of the man, he has
equals, ay, it may be claimed without
challenge that he has had superiors.
AS a warrior, with the great captains
of either antiquity or of modern times,
we may not compare him. Likewise,
he may not stand in the very front |
rank of statesmen; and am bound to |
say that | believe we should rot place |
him in the first category of saints. |
In these things, we Americans can
talk with moderation to the men of |
other nations about Washington and |
his rivals aud superiors without |
and certainly without TAX
ing otfense, but, as patriot, he stands |
alone. The entire vocabulary of pane
gyric is scarcely overstraiued when
applied to Washington's patriotism.
To balance his character, to strike an
average in all those things, almost in
finite in variety, which enter into
that complex thing called manhood,
it will be found that he had few
equals. In unselfish and supreme love
Of,cOuntry, in steadfastness and unhag-
ging zeal in her service, never su-
premely elated by success, nor unduly
depressed by misfortune. / know of
no name in all history to compare
with his with the possible exception
Of .Themistocles, the Athenian. Ma
caulay gives fine account of this grand
patriot, standing upon the quarter
deck of his trireme, with arms folded,
with countenance grave and upper
turbed, watching the destruction of
the great Persian host, by the little
Athenian fleet, and ventures the re-
mark that Themistocles would have
stood thus, had it been his own galley
instead of that of his enemy doomed
TO destruction. So we may think of
Whether at Boston,
,aking command of his handful of I'M
irilled troops, whether at Valley
Forge in that terrible winter of I779,
Or whether at Yorktown in the flush of
success, he is ever the same,
md we know that had the fortunes of
var been otherwise than what they
we're, this unsulIied patriot would
nave stood defeat with the same euua-
limity with which he welcomed sue
:ess. II charge thee TO throw away
for from this the angels
ELL" are the words of the worlds
,reat master Of characterization. In
he sense in which Shakespeare puts
hese words into the mouth of Wool
ey, Washington, in so far as one NAV
cad from his life and actions, was alb
olutely free from the corroding faint
# selfish ambition. His only ambi-
ion was to serve his country. Wheth-
II In the field az President Or "a, |