The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-02-23


"Whcn your lord-hiuf look at the
papers transmitted u. from America
when sou consider their dcccucy, Hrm-
ness aud wisdom, You cannot but re-
spcct their cuIsc and wish 10 make it
| your own. For nay part, must declare
and ayoW that i'm all my reading aud OBJ
| scrvutlOu, history has been my uvUrte
study. | have read ThuCydidcs and
! have studied and admired the master
spirits Of the world and ! say that lor
| solidity of reasoning, force OF sagacity
and wisdom of conclusion under such
| complication Of difficult circumstances,
no nation or body OF men can stand in
/ preference to the general Congress ut
! Philadelphia ! trust it is obvious to
| your lordships that all attempts to inn
/ pose scrvitude upon such mcn-to es-
| tablish despotism over such mighty
continental nation must he vain; it
must be fatal. We shall be forced uti-
mately to retract. Let us retraCt while
we can, not when We must"
! II is true, | say, that Washington was
surrounded by such an assembly but he
was easily its chief To him that band
of statesmen turned for wisest counsel
and to the observance of that counsel in
the first Congress. in the field. in the
! first Constitutional Convention, in the
/ Presidency aud in the farewell address,
America owes much of its safety and its
greatness.
1t is an unusual circumstance that the
estimate of Washington's craftsmanship
by his contemporaries and by those
living close to the times in whlch ne
had moved. left very little to be added
in the form of praise by posterity.
1t is the cynic's sneer that IA statesman
is successful politician-who is dead.
Often this is true. especially in our own
| time; but Washington was statesman
without being a politician, and he did
not have to wait upon posterity for
1 the acknowledgment of that fact. What
Frederick. Napoleon and Lord Chatham.
the elder Pitt. said of him you have
heard hut there are other chaplets
! for his living brow. Lord Erskine, in
writing to Washington from London,
said II have taken the liberty to in
troduce your august and immortal name
in short sentence, which is to be found
in book | send to you. | have large
acquaintance among the most valuable
and exalted classes of men. but you are
the only human being for whom | have
ever felt an awful reverence. ! sincerely
pray God to grant you "A long and serene
evening to a life so gloriously devoted
to the universal happiness of the world"
Said Charles James Fox, Premier of
Great Britain: "How infinitely wiser
must appear the spirit and principles
manifested in his late address to Con-
gress than the policy of modern European
courts. lllustrious man! deriving
honor less from the splendor of his
situation than from the dignity of his
mind; before whom all borrowed
greatness sinks into insignificance and
all the potentates OF Europe became
little and contemplate. | cannot, in
deed help admiring the wisdom and
fortune OF this great man. A character
OF virtues so happily tempered by one
another and SO wholly unalloyed by any
vices, is hardly to be found on the
pages OF history. For him it has been
reserved to run the race of glory without
experiencing he smallest interruption
to the brilllancy OF his career" Years
afterwards Lord Byron wrote: "Where
shall the eye rest weary OF gazing ON
the great: where find glory that is not
criminal, pomp that is not contemp-
tible. Yes, there is man the first, the
last, the best of all, the Cincinnatus of
the west, whom envy itself does not
hate. The name OF Washington is be-
Iqueathed to us to make humanity blush
These 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 Westinghouse work as a states
man will be still more accurately
measured. 1t has not been so measured
: yet because, generations after his death,
, it has not been completed The great
Republic, with all its success and mag
nitude, has not yet begun to realize its
destiny. Its architects huilded better
than they knew, and better than we
| now know. Nor has the world made
e its full response to the political infu-
= encts which Washington set IN motion.
$ Some great chapters in the French revo-
= luton dated from them. When Spanish
t America freed itself there too was a re-
a suit of Washington's example. Brazil,
( inheritng Portuguese monarchy
= caught in time the republican enthusi-
= asm from the North: and here to-day, in
! the most isolated islands in ali the
/ world. we hail the name of w shington
y and proclaim that the work he did unto
{ America he did likewise unto us.
t Somewhere | have read a German
4 legend THAT on one night of all the veal
4 the great Imperi9 Charles emergcs from
: his tomb. When the moOnbeamS !all on
r the noble river and fling from bank tc
$ bank "a bridge of light. upon thai bridge
of moonbeams the monarch walks, call
ing down beHediction ON all the Ger
l man land" An idle. fancy, surely: but
/ 1t brings to mind the living figure OF
Washington, luminous and august, in
n voking the genius of liberty by which
S all men are made free. Let us believ,
: that if his spirit cannot walk abroad
r with benedictory hand, at least the in
n fiuence of what he did and what he wa
d in life will leaven all humanity, anC
t that some day human race without /;
l. single king-except the King of Kings
d without throne, except the throne o
e reason and of JUSTICE without despO
6 but the conscience and the will; withou
:, a master and without slave-will IA,
n of Washington, and say it in all tongues
e From him all statesmen had an eX
n ample, all races an inspiration: iron
q him the world had it's heritage of free
: dom, and to his memory the chaplets o
If Immortality belong.
J. The next and concluding address wa
Z by Prof. NJ. NJ. Scott, who addresse
d himself in scholarly words to the virtue
rs OF Washington as a patriot. He said:
70 Mr.. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: / an
le profoundly thankful that in thes
ne characterizations OF the Father OF hi
ID Country" it should have fallen to m
Ie lot to speak in few words OF Washing
re ton as patriot. In any other sing
Of side OF the man, he has equals, ay,
e. may be claimed without challenge thu
ar he has had superiors. As warrio
IN with the great captains OF either al
as tiquity or OF modern times We may NJ
2 compare him. Likewise, he may n,
e. stand in the very front rank OF state