, 1899-12-15

%grandest product of American c~iviliza
ton. Another century hence, yea 6
thousand years hence, no name will pe
found above the nam of Washington
We have various kinds of Washing,
tons, a traditional, historical, myth
cal prose and poetic Washington, but
what we wish to see and honor is the
real Washington, a plain, honest farm
er, who was faulty in his grammar and
elliptical in his spelling-a humanized
Washington who was great by what he
was not as well as by what he was.
He owed nothing to birth. He was
a plain man Of the people with no bluer
blood than flowed in the veins of 10, 900
other Americans. He was not bril-
liant man; he had no great genius ex-
cept the genius of character and hon
esty. We do not regret that he was not
a brilliant man. A man Of character
Is infinitely better than a mar OF bril-
liancy. N%inety-nine times out of a
hundred he will excel. Washington
NohhV IL ilc IL a pain doHlOh III
lived a plain, honest life without sham
and pretense. His early education was
something like the education of Abra-
ham Lincoln, the only other American
who is able to stand life-size by his side
and grandly hold his own. Neither OF
these men saw the inside of a universe
ty. They were ~self-taught, living close
to nature. to truth and to God. They
are the glory of the American continent
and of the human race. they show that
democracy can produce and recognize
heroes. Rome could point with pride
to her dictators like Cincinnatus called
from the plough to the relief of the re-
public; so America can point to her
presidents and leaders who were farm
ers, tanners, railsplitters.
Washington and Lincoln were kings
of men not by accident Of birth, but by
the divine right of manhood, and merit,
the only kind of kingship the future
will recognize.
To Washington more than to any
other are we indebted Tor the glory,
the power and the permanency that
characterizes our national heritage to,
day. There were men Of his day who
were his superiors in some things, but
taken as a whole, he had no superior
and no equal. He excelled in more
things than any other nan of his day,
and this made him practically the great
est man Of that day. He conducted tho
revolutionary war to a successful close,
presided over the convention that draft
ed the constitution, was twice elected
president and his influence alone, John
Ffske says, saved the republic in the
most critical moment in all the history
of the American people-the period
which followed the revolution before
the adoption OF the constitution, when
the dangers were even greater than.
those from which we were saved in
1865. The age needed the mar and the
man anne forth to meet the wants of
the age. He made a record, the men,
DRY of which history will p%erpetuate as
long as the world stands.
Rich in saving common sense,
And as the greatest only are
In his simplicity sublime;
Who never sold the truth to serve the |
hour,
Nor paltered with eternal God for pow,
er;
Whose life was work, whose language
rife
With rugged maxims hewn from life;
Who never spoke against a foe.
Let his example stand
Colossal, seer in every land,
Till in all lands and through all human
story,
The path Of duty be the way to glory"
. In the absence of Colonel Downey,
who was to speak, J. H. Hayford gave
a short but very interesting talk on his
visit to Mt. Vernon. This Masonic pill
grimage took place about twenty years
ago, Mr.. and Mrs. Hayford being in
Washington on a visit, and together
with Major John A. Logan and wife
they visited the home and burial place |
of the great American. Mrs. Hayford's
father was an officer on the staff Of
Major Logan during the civil war. The
trip was a most pleasant as we'll as in
spring one and wa we'll described.
Judge Hayford also visited the lodge
at Alexandria of which George Wash
ington was not only a member but serv-
ed as worshipful master. This lodge
still exists, the majority Of members
being wealthy men who are quite old,