The record-union., 1898-02-23

His remarks We're Interrupted at ire
quent intervals with applause The
phrase that Washington and his COM
patriots had founded the financial OPP
erations of the Government upon prin-
ciples that the national credit was ma
tional honor met with especially en-
thusiastic probation.
President Mckinley spoke as follows:
Mr.. Provost, officers and students
of the University of Pennsylvania, Ia
dies and gentlemen: We celebrate here,
as IN every part of our country, the
birthday of a great patriot, who as
sured the beginning of a great nation.
This day belongs to patriotism and tie
people. But in certain sense the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania has a special
reason for honoring the 22d of FeDru-
airy. For over half a century, with ever
increasing popularity and public recog-
milton, you have observed the occasion,
either as a holiday or with patriotic
exercises, participated in by faculty and
students.
No other American institution of
learning has a prouder title to the ven
Grafton of Washington's memory than
this, whose foundation was laid in CO
lonial days. nearly fifty years before
Pennsylvania became a State; whose
progress was largely due to the activ
ity of Franklin and other jealous and
far-s seeing patriots, and whose Trustees
were on terms of sufficient intimacy
with Washington to congratulate him
upon his election to the Presidency, ana
to receive from him notable reply
which has passed into the history of
the times.
Washington, too, belonged to the
brotherhood of the alumni of this in
stitution, having accepted the degree of
doctor of laws conferred upon him IN
11S3-an honor doubtless the more ap-
preciated when he recalled the events
which gave him closer peculiar attach
ment to the city of Philadelphia.
No wonder that your great univer
sity has made the 221 of February its
most impressive ceremonial, and de-
voted its annual exercises to special
tributes to the memory of the first
Presi lent of the United States and the
patriotic themes which cluster thickly
about his life and work. l rejoice with
you in the day. i rejoice, also, that
throughout this broad land the birth
day of the patriotic leader is faithfully
observed and celebrated with an en-
thusiasm and earnestness which testify
to the virtue and gratitude of tire
American people.
1T would not be possible in the COM
paratively short time to which these
exercises must to-day be limited to fol-
low Washington in his long and distin-
guiShed services at the head of the
army and as Chief Executive of the
Government. My purpose is simply TO
call 20 your attention few points IN
Washington's career which have sin
gularly impressed me, and refer TO some
passages in his writings that seem pc
culiarly appropriate for the guidance
of the people, who, under our form of
government, have in their keeping the
well-being of the country.
In its entirety, Washingtons public
life is as familiar to the American STU
dent as the history of the United
States. They are associated in holy and
indissoluble bonds The one is jncom
plete without the other. Washington's
character and achievements have been
a part of the school books of the nation
for more than a century, and have
moved American youth and American
manhood to aspire to the highest IDEALS
Of responsible citizenship. With endur-
ing fame as a great soldier, the world
has recognized his equal accomplish
ments in the paths of statesmanship.
AS a soldier he was peerless in the time
in which he lived, and as a statesman
his rank is fixed with the most illus
trious in any country or in any
age
Without any pride in Washington,
we not infrequently fail to give him
credit for his marvellous genius as a
constructive statesman. We are con-
stantly in danger of losing sight of the
sweep and clearness of his comprehen-
sion, which accurately grasped the
problems of the remote future, and
knew how TO formulate the best means
for their solution.
1T was committed to Washington to
launch our ship of state. He had
neither precedent or predecessor to help
him; he welded the scattered and at
times antagonistic colonies into an in
destructible union, and inculcated the
lessons of mutual forbearance and fra
ternity which have cemented the
States into still closer bonds of interest
and sympathy
From the hour when Washington de-
clared in his Virginia home that he
would raise a thousand men and equip
them at his own expense to march to
the defense Of Boston, he became the
masterful spirit of the Continental
Army, and the mightiest single factor
in the continents struggle for libetry
and independence. Apparently with
out personal ambition, spurning royal
honors when they were suggested 10
him. he fulfilled a still more glorious
destiny as the guiding force Of civil
ization freer and mightier than the
history of man had ever known.
Though Washington's exalted char
acter and the most striking acts of his
brilliant records are too familiar TO be
recounted here, where so many times
they have received eloquent and de-
served eulogy, yet often as the story
is told, it engages our love and ad
miration and interest. We love to re-
call his noble unselfishness, his heroic
purposes. the powers of his magnificent
personality, his glorious achievements
for mankind, and his stalwart and un-
ninching devotion to independence, lib
erty and union. Those cannot be too
often told or be too familiarly known.
"A Shareholder himself, he yet hated
slavery. and provided in his will for
the emancipation of his slaves. Not a
college graduate, be was always enthu-
siastically the friend of liberal educa-
ton He used on every suitable occa-
sion to impress upon Congress and the
country the Importance of a high stan
dard of general education. and char
aTfe,.ized the diffuSion of knowledge rs