The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1899-12-20
Address
Delivered by the Hon. Chas.
F. Buck on
Tuesday, l4th Inst, in the
Opera House.
ON the "Lite and Character
# irorg Washington -

This day,-.he hrmdreth anni'
versary Of that solemn one-when
tho @Father of EiS Country'-was
laid to his eternal rest,-amid the
halIowed peacf of Mount Vernon,
our blpthefn from all the con
fines of Ethq Republic, c,-pilgrimed
to the foofof the simple impress
siye tonibfto offer their incense of
alteration and love to the memory
of their patriot brother.
And throughout the county,
thousands more,-as we dO-un-
able to kneel at the foot OF his
grave, in fact,-join hearts and
spirits, in sympathy with their de
v0tiOn.
What is the redeeming, the god
like inspiration Of human effort!
II is the consciousness that the
good and the right must prevail,
and the hope, that makes the heart
indOmitable in its faith for some
thing always higher and better.
Mankind has struggled and toll
ed; suffered and enjoyed; gone for
ward and acknowledgement i'll
ambition and aim, back again to
degradation: but through all the
trials, the human thought that the
better must come, the uphOlding
faith that the divine is part of us
and must preva ii has, survived.
1t lives through the decay of mat
ter: it calmS the violence of pas
sion. and incarnateS the immortal
ity of hope. Through failure and
success alike, the mightier hope
survives, lifting perpetually up
ward the banner of human pro
gress inlaid with the promise of
the universal good.
This enOblrng sentiment illu-
mines the actions Of man it is
present in the student and the
warrior; the philosopher and the
moralist; the subject and the ruler.
1t is the one imperishable, the one
immortal thing.-Blot out the re
cord of battles; of nations come
and gone; Of cities lost in the dust
of ages: generations mouldered to
ashes and to sightlcSs bones; the
work of the soul remaines and we
know that we have risen closer to
our Maker; that we are rightly
moving towards the one true end,
the millennium of the souls per
fectness and the body'S eternal
rest.
What an evolution from AleXan-
der to Washington. Alexander
conceived the mighty thought OF a
universal empire: all the nations
Of the earth underone power united
in one ambition. Had he lived he
might have accomplished the full
filment of his dream. But what
then. The bond of his union was
might; the loyalty of the subject,
the obedience of the slave. Could
that have lasted! Never. His
empire such as it was was struc-
fure made with hands held by the
sword: and by hands and the
sword it fell to pieces ere barely
The breath of the great dictator
had passed away.
And Washington. The empire
OF universal truth, the temple
bullded on the hope of the human
heart and consecrated to the at
tamment of highest destiny.
We as Americans know what
thls means:-for it requires no fur
Tier elaboration. | will not yield
TO the temptation to flourish the
declaration of independence. It's
Haths are part of our being; they
I'VE IN our blood by inheritance
ana conviction: the freedom and
equality of man is the fact of mod
tri philosophy. The might of this
tact and not the power of man will
oulid the empires of the future.
lhe American idea is the world
nea; the Gospel of our political
'a'th Is lifting the hopes of the
people of the earth: it holds the