The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-02-23

man Is alone In history"
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 Washington's work as a 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. It's 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 a 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 / have read a 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 bridge
of light, upon that bridge of moon
beams the monarch walks, calling
down a 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
King of Kings; without throne, eX-
cept the throne of reason and of JUS
tice; without a despot but the con-
science and the will without a master
and without 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 selection, he
resumed.
Prof. NJ. M. Scott was the next
speaker, with the subject, "Wash-
ington as Patriot" He said,
Nm ru,ax..N.yD nrNrr r1rrN
1 am profoundly thankful that in
these characterizations OF the "Father
of his Country" it should have fallen
to my lot to speak in a few words of
Washington as q 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 cot 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 and superiors without
warmth, and certainly without TAX
ing offense, but, as patriot, he stands
alone. The entire vocabulary Of pane
gyric is scarcely overstrained 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
ofcountry, in steadfastness and unfiag-
ging zeal in her service, never SUI
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 a 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
Washington. Whether at Boston,
taking command of his handful of I'M
drilled troops, whether at Valley
Forge in that terrible winter of 1879,
or whether at Yorktown in the flush of
victorious success, he is ever the same,
and we know that had the fortunes of
war been otherwise than what they
were, this unsullied patriot would
have stood defeat with the same equa-
nimity with which he welcomed sue
cess. "I charge thee TO throw away
ambition, for from this the angels
fell" are the words of the worlds
great master of Characterization. In
the sense in which Shakespeare puts
these words into the mouth of Wool
sey, Washington, in so far as one may
read from his life and actions, was alb
solutely free from the corroding faint
of selfish ambition. His only ambi-
ton was to serve his country. Wheth-
er IN the field, as President, or in
council, no thought of self ever en-
tered his patriotic mind. No more
elevated act of patriotic devotion to
duty than that of surrendering his