The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-02-23

DelWeen blo Two SllcHCeS, IlldJ llle
and what we do with it become
strangely urgent matters. Washing
ton said in one of his letters: "Idleness
is disreputable under any circum-
stances-productive of no good even
when unaccompanied by vicious hab-
it's Like sane man, he partook of
his own advice; and the chief impress
sion left by close study of the man,
his thoughts, his acts, his writings,
his influence is that his life was a full
one-filled with healthy endeavor
wherever it pleased Providence-in
whom he believed most devoutIy-to
place him.
*m*
Another charm of his character was
that his energy was always well direct
ed. To some of us who are Over-en-
thusiastic and, perhaps, nervously
constituted, the awakening to a sense
of ''individual responsibility to AL
mighty God" as Daniel Webster ex-
pressed it, tends to the attempt to do
anything and everything that needs
doing Twenty things around us
clamor for attention. There comes
in the need for poise of character,
preventing US from first an impetu-
Gus dash in this direction and then an
ignominious retreat in another. Zone
thing l. do" not twenty things |
dabble at" One fire in a noble heart
may we'll serve to heat one iron-too
many irons will put the fire out.
Washinton was a marvel of self-pos-
session. He was not hasty in his acts
and therefore not defeated; he was
not swift as a sea-hawk in his decisions
and therefore he was never out of
sight of those who followed with him;
he was not abnormal in his intellect
and therefore not erratic; he was not
a fierce partisan and therefore not
dragged into the unseemlY squabbles
of his day. The grand old man of
England, whose full life ended so
gloriously and so recently-Gladston
said this of Washington: 81 look
upon Washington among great and
good men, as one peculiarly good and
great. He has been to me for more
than forty years a light upon the
path of life.n 1t means that great
hearts are greater than national
bounds-that he who lives right, he
who lives unselfishly, he whose words
speak out grand aspirations belong
not to nation but humanity. In
which respect Washington has no ad
vantage over the humblest of us who
have open hearts for noble impulses.
~
1t seems almost a coincidence that
our thoughts should have been direct
ed last week toward Lincoln and his
actions in relation to the slave condi-
tions of the United States. If we call
him the emancipation, Washington
should be called the great provision
ary. In 1889 he wrote: ut is among
my first wishes to see some plans ad-
ODbCu ny WIlCl III biilo SOul7
try may be abolished" Again in 1897
he wrote: II wish from my soul
that the Legislature of this State
could see the policy of gradual abo-
lition of slavery. 1t might prevent
much future mischief" Alas, the
mischief did come, the wine press of
q nations blood was trodden in right
ing wrong, and the abolition came
when even those who, benefited by it,
were agonized and daZed at the light
of liberty around them. Washing
toms great dream and comparatively
modest bequest was for an anti-sect-
ional national university. This would
have brought better understanding
where there should have been no mis-
understanding. This dream is not
too late for fulfilment, and supreme
efforts for carrying out Washington's
idea to the full should be made dur
ing this centennial year of his death.
wv
Washinton's sword was mighty