The Monitor-register., 1897-04-16

VI unaI nOur are aust, u the grand
master of that occasion long ago put
down the square and the level and the
plumb with which for the last time he
pronounced a cornerstone well laid,
But what most interests Inc now is
that inside that cornerstone, in a glass
jar, Theoretically sealed, is a document
of national import, though in poor pen
manship. 1t is the penmanship of Dan
iel Webster, which almost ruined the
penmanship of this country for many
years, because many thought if they
had Daniel Webster's poor penmanship
it might indicate they had Webster's
genius. The document reads as follows:
eff it shall hereafter be the will of
God that this structure shall fall from
its base, that its foundation be upturn-
ed and this deposit be brought to the
eyes of men, be it then known that on
this day the nation of the United States
of America stands firm that their con-
s%titution still exists unimpaired and
with all its original usefulness and
glory, growing every day stronger and
stronger in the affection of the great
body of the American people and at.
tracing more and more the admiration
of the world, and all here assembled,
whether belonging to public life or to
private life, with hearts devoutly thank
full to Almighty God for the preserya-
ton OF the liberty and the happiness of
the country, unite i'll sincere and fer
vent prayers that this deposit and the
walls and arches, the domes and tow
ers, the columns and entablatures now
to be erected over it may endure forev-
or. God save the United States of Amer
lea! Daniel Webster, secretary of state
of the United States"
Laying the Cornerstone.
That was beautiful and appropriate
at the laying of the cornerstone of the
extension of the capitol 5S wears after
the cornerstone of the old capitol had
been laid. Yet the cornerstone of our
republic was first laid in I776 and at
the re-establishment of our national
government was laid again in 1865.
But are we not ready for the laying of
the cornerstone of a broader and higher
national life? We have as a nation re-
ceiyed so much from God. Do we not
owe new conservation? Are we not
ready to become a better Sabbath keep
ing, peace loving, virtue honoring, God
worshiping nation? Are we not ready
for such a cornerstone laying? Why not
now let it take place? With long pro-
cession of prayers, moving from the
north and the south, the east and the
west, let the scene be made august be-
yond comparison.
The God of nations, who hath dealt
with us as with Il 10 other people, will
preside at the solemnization. By the
square and the level and the plumb of
the everlasting right let the corner
stone be adjusted. Let that cornerstone
be the masoning together of the two
granite tables on which the law was
written when Sinai shook with the
earthquake, and inside that cornerstone
put the sermon on the mount and a
scroll containing the names of all the
men and women who have fought and
prayed and toiled for the good of this
nation, from the first martyr of the
American Revolution down to the last
woman who bound up a soldiers
wounds in the field hospital. And let
some II worthy to do so strike the
stone three times with the gospel ham,
mel in the name of God the Father,
God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.
Then let the building rise, one wall
laved by the Pacific ocean and the other
washed of the Atlantic, until its cap
stone shall be laid amid the shouting of
all nations, by that time as free as our
OWL divinely founded, divinely con-
structed and divinely protected repub-
lie, the last throne of oppression hay
ing fallen fiat into the dust and the last
shackle of tyranny been hung up in mu-
scum as a relic of barbaric ages.
The prayer that the great expounder
wrote to be put in the cornerstone at
the extension of the capitol I calculate
as u own supplication, "God save the
United States of America" only add
ing the words with which Robert South
was apt to close his sermons, whether
delivered before the court at Christ
Church chapel Or in Westminster abbey,
at anniversary of restoration of Oliver
Cromwell amid the worst tempest that
ever swept over England: "To God be
rendered and ascribed, as is most due,
all praise, might, majesty and domin-
ion, both now and forever. Amen