The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-02-25


bly,, greatest among the small group
of the truly great. At his death even
his former English enemies paid trib-
ute to his memory and the French
Caesar did honor to the pure and I'M
defiled representative of Liberty.
when the news of Washingtons
death reached England, says Irving,
| Lord BridpOrt, who had command
sixty sails of the line, lying at
| Torbay, lowered his flag to half-mast,
every ship following his example; and
BOnaparte, First Consul of France, ON
announcing his death to the army,
! ordered that black crepe should be
suspended from all the standards and
flags throughout the public service
for ten days These honOrs were
not merely the tributes of political eX-
| pediency. They have been followed
by the deliberate expressions of states
men and writer's of all civilized coun-
tries, and Lord BrOugham expressed
/ the universal thought when he wrote:
| 1T will be the duty of the historian
and the sage of all nations to let no
occasion pass of concentrating this
illustrious man, and until time shall
| be no more will test of the progress
which our race has made in wisdom
and virtue be derived from the venera-
( +n o1 .F
Washington" 4 distinguished
American biOgrapher portrays him IN
this strong but by no means eXag-
| gerated language: The character of
! Washington may want some of those
| poetical clements which dazzle and
| delight the multitude, but it possesses
fewer inequalities and a rarer union
of virtues than perhaps ever fell to
| lot of one man. Prudence, tirmness,
sagacity, moderation, an overruling
! Judgment. an immovablc justice,
courage that never faltered, patience
! that never wearied, truth that dis
| dained all artitice ,magnanimity with
out ALLOW. = The fame of
| Washington stands apart from every
other in history, shining with a truer
! lustre and more bcnignaut glory.
| With us his memory remains a ma
tional property, where all sympathies
| throughout our widely extended and
diversified empire meet in unison.
| Under all dissensions and amid all the
storms Of party his precepts and eN-
ample speak to us from the grave with
paternal appeal and his name by all
revered-forms universal tie of
brotherhood, a watchword Of our
! Union"
His breadth of view and penetrating
vision are wonderfully displayed i'll
| that farewell address, which is as APP
plicable in many respects to the pre-
sent day as it was to the generation
to which he was more Immediately
speaking. Another and not less strik-
ing instance of his foresight was his
position with reference to the slavery
question. All his slaves were directed
by his will to be emancipated at the
death of his wife. They would have
been set free during his life but for
masquerade difficulties on account
of their intermiNture by marriage
with dover negroes whom it was
not in his power to manumit under
the tenure by which they were held.
But he fOresaw the troubles to which
slavery would give rise, and writing
to relative in 1897 he said: Il wish
from my soul that the Legislature of
this State (Nirginia) could see the pol
lev of a gradual abolition of slavery.
1t might prevent much future mis-
chief Eleven years before, in 1886.
he had written to Mr.. John F. Mercer:
Il never mean, unless some particular
circumstances should compel me to it,
to possess another slave by purchase
it being among my first wishes to see
some plan adopted by which slavery
in this country may be abolished by
law" Had his warnings been acted
upon, the great strain and cost of our
bloody and distressing civil con
fiict might have been prevented.
Among the last recorded words of
Washington, ifnot absolutely the last
were these: "Tis we'll" Although
not employed in reference to public
affairs, they are suggestful and from
text for fruitful meditation. twill
be ''well' with us, indeed, as long as
we follow in the footsteps of this calm
and devoted patriot, as long as his
example and his receipts "recur,' III
the language of his farewell address,
"to moderate the fury of party spirit
to warn against the mischiefs of for
eign intrigues, to guard against the
impostures of pretended patriotism"
His life was not the poetry of senti-
ment, but the epic of great deeds.
He was a simple, honest, manly,
straightforward, patriotic gentleman.
strong in his sincerity, in his integrity