The times., 1899-12-15

calamity from the young and baked
nation.
On the centennial anniversary of his
death. it is well that we refresh the mem
ory of what he was, and Of what we, as a
people, owe to him. In a hundred ways.
though dead he yet speaks to US in en-
ccuragement and sometimes in warning.
There have been good people in generations
after him. who have seen nothing but
gloom and disaster before the country, and
have despaired of the Republic, He could
contemplate all the dark and bloody clouds
that hung over that terrible winter at
Valley Forge, and not despair He could
look uDon an empty Treasury and the
menaces Of secession. rebellion, and for
eign war all combined, and still put his
trust in God and the American people.
And what he could do in l777 and in 1884.
his countrymen Of this day should not
find impossible.
Although George Washington lived at a
time when modern science had hardly yet
lifted its head; though steam and electric
ity had not yet been harnessed to the char
lot Of human progress. his prophetic soul
saw the coming Of the mighty events which
the century. upon whose threshold. almost,
he fell, should bring forth. He realized
the power Of national expansion locked up
in the adventurous. fearless American
character He knew that the day would
come when the continent would be re
deemed and developed by American arms
and arts. He was the first man in the
whole country to. recognize the early neces-
sity Of canal communication between the
Great Lakes and the sea. and spent years of
his life in trying to solve that problem.
Whatever was for the good and glory Of
his country and people he favored heart
and soul. Whatever he thought dangerous
he warned them against His refusal of a
third Presidential term was dictated by the
highest and purest motives of patriotism
and unselfshness. He saw clearly enough
that a practically unlimited tenure Of the
Chief Magisracy in the hands of a man
ambitious Of personal power might be fatal
TO the liberties Of the nation. And so, in
declining a third nomination and election,
he established a precedent which has be-
come an unwritten but binding law. never
broken as yet, and never to be violated
while the instinct OF popular liberty re-
mains TO the American masses.
With equal wisdom, in his Farewell Ad-
dress, he warned the statesmen of his time,
not against any and all foreign alliances, as
it is common among provincial politicians
to assert, but against permanent alliances;
for the obvious reason that they could tie
the hands Of the Government, as had hap
pened in connection with our early alliance
with France. an arrangement which it had
been necessary but difficult to abandon. But
that Washington il our present circum-
stances would not have approved of any
understanding with friendly States, con-
ducive TO our trade or safety. no one who
has read his history and writings will un-
dertake to say
As the world rolls on and on to its old
age and unknown doom, many Of its great
ones will be forgotten and their fame and
deeds become as lost as the drop of water
when it falls into the ocean. But while the
Caucasian race shall live the name and
grandeur Of George Washington will live
and flourish, green as the noble trees that
spread their branches and leaves over his
tomb at Mount Vernon today.