The age-herald., 1898-02-23

liberty and Independence. Apparently with out personal ambition, spurning royal hon. ors when they were suggested to hon. he fulfilled a stlll more glorious destiny as the guiding force of a civilization freer and mightier than the history of man had ever known.
 Though Washington's exalted character and the most striking acts of his brilliant record are too familiar to be reeounted here where so many times they have re- ceived eloquent and deserved eulogy, yet often as the story is retold 1t angers our love and admiration and interest. We love to recall his noble unselfishness, his heroic purposes, the power of his magnificent per sonality, his glorious achievements for mankind and his stalwart and unflinching devotion to independence, liberty and union Those cannot be too often told or be too famiharly known.
 Freed His Slaves
 A slave-holder himself, yet he hated slavery and provided in his will for the emancipation of his slaves. Not a college graduate, he was always enthusiastically the friend of liberal education. He used one very suitable occasion to impress upon congress and the country the importance of a high standard of general education and characterized the diffusing of knowl- edge as the most essential element of strength in the system of free government. That learning should go with liberty, and that liberty is never endangered so long as 1t is in the keeping of our intelligent citi- zens, was the ideal civic code which his frequent utterances never failed to en- force.
 And how reverent always was this great man, how prompt and generous his recog hilton of the guiding hand of divine provi- dence in establishing and controlling the destinies of the colonies and the republic. Again and again-in his talks in his letters in. his state papers and formal addresses he reveals this side of his character, the force of which we still feel and trust we always will.
 At the very height of his success and re- ward as he emerged from the revolution re- ceiving by unanimous acclaim the plaudits of the people and commanding the respect and admiration of the civilized word, he did not forget that his first official act as president should be fervent supplication to the Almighty Being who rules the universe. It is He who presides in the councils of na- tions and whose providential aid can sup ply every human defect. It is His bene- diction which we most want and which can and will consecrate the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States. With His help the instruments of the citizens employed to carry out their purposes will succeed in the functions al- lotted to public life
 Spoke for the People
 But Washington on this occasion went further and spoke for the people, assuming that he but voiced the sentiment of the young nation In thus making faith in Al mighty God and reliance upon His favor and care on the strong foundations of the government then inaugurated. And pro- ceeding Washington states his reasons for his belief in language so exalted that It should be graven deep upon the mind or every patriot: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs Of man more than the people of the United States.
 "Every step by which they have ad- vanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and, in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the events resulted cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude along with an humble anticipation of the future bless ings which the same seems to presage. The reflections arising out of the present crisis have forced themselves strongly upon my mind. You will join with me, trust, in thinking that there are none un- der the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government are most y
 The senate of the United States made fit- ting response of its appreciation of this portion of the presidents inaugural ad- dress when it's members declared that "a review of the many signal instances of divine intervention In favor of the country claims our most pious gratitude, and that they were inevitably led to acknowledge and adore the great arbiter of the uni- verse, by whom empires rise and fall"
 Congress added its sanction by providing that "after the oath shall have been ad- ministered to the president, he, attended by the vice-president and the members of the senate and house of representatives, proceed to St. PaulS chapel to hear di- vine services performed by the chaplain of congress already appointed"
 Not alone upon days of thanksgiving in times of trial, should we as people remember and follow the example thus set by the fathers, but never in our future as nation should we forget the great moral and religious principles which they enunciated and defended as their most precious heritage.
 In an age of great activity of industrial and commercial strife and of perplexing problems, we should never abandon the simple faith in Almighty God, as recog nized in the name of the American people by Washington and the first congresses.
 His Farewell Address
 But if timely lesson is to be drawn from the opinions of Washington on his assuming the office of president, so also is much practical benefit to be derived from the present application of portions of his farewell address, document in which Washington laid down principles which ap- peared to him "all important to the per- manence of your felicity as a people,
 In that address Washington contends in part CD for the promotion of institu- tions of learning; O for cherishing the public credit; (3) for the observance of good faith and justice toward all na- tions.
 One hundred years ago free schools were little known in the United States; there were excellent schools for the well-to-do and charitable institutions for the in stTuctfon of boys and girls without means; but the free public school, open alike to the children of the rich and poor and SUD- ported by the state, awaited creation and development. The seed planted by the fathers soon bore fruit. Schools were the necessary supplement of free men. The wise and liberal provisions for public in- struction by the fathers, second only in effect to their struggle for the independ- ence and creation of the Union, were des- tined at no distant day to produce the