The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-12-13

ers of history, and of great autho"
the Continent, to the primacv
Washington among manki
name likely 20 be thou
for parallel or comr
! whose glory we a
title to share
! sandth annive,
| about to be eel,
| whose throne his
a Fn;
! "This whole city hse
Washington monum, better
that that great name 20 OBLIVION
and be forgotten unless walls OF this
| building where we are assembled. dedt-
l.cated to legislation and to justice, also
| bear honorable witness to the character
and influence of him who laid its corner
| stone Here for hundred years free
| people have enacted greaE history, with
! its great achievements and its greater
| seIf-restraints. Here have been enacted
! the laws under which thirteen States
! have become forty-five States. and the
| country, which at first covered little
( space by the side of the Atlantic, nas
F., spread until it covers n continent and It's
! portals are upon both the seas. Here mas
/ been witnessed the sublimest spectacle
that can exist on earth-a great ana Tree
people governing itself by law higner
I than its own desire. A country where ev-
cry man has his equal voice must, in its
! legislation sometimes exhibit the infirm-
| ity common to humanity.
But. in the main, faith and honor and
duty have triumphed in these halls over
| selfishness and passion and ambition.
, Here the interests Of capital have been
protected by the votes OF labor; here debt
ors have fixed in good faith the value CT
their payments to their creditors; here
people under no constraint but their own
sense Of duty, determined. in spite OF
fearful temptation, to continue to bear
the weight of a vast debt; here the policy
of dealing with the conquered was decided
at the end of long war by the votes OF
the conquerors, among whom every other
family was in mourning for its dead, ana
not drop of blood was shed and not q
punishment exacted. Here finance and
currency. with their subtleties SURPRISING
the subtieties of metaphysics, have been
dealt with by the plain sense OF plain
men, Here great public ways connecting
distant oceans have been provided for.
Here the manufacturing independence CT
America has been achieved. Here the
great measures have been framed and EN-
acted under which millions OF men have
been raised from slavery to citizenship
and millions more welcomed from foreign
power has been peacefully settled under
circumstances that would have drenched
any other land with blood. And all this
has been accomplished under the re-
straints of written Constitution.
Here, also in yonder silent chamber
have been pronounced the Judgments
under which the powers OF nation ana
State have been kept each in its appoint
ed sphere, as the planets are kept in their
-.4I, nd
This has been the record of single
century. 1t has been the record OF the
achievement of earliest youth. The men
who have wrought this history knew well
what they were doing. There has been
no drifting into empire. They have but
seen what they foresaw. The man who
is to write this story. as Bancroft might
have written it, as Macaulay might have
written it, as he who gave US the best
portraiture of Washington in literature
before Massachusetts, called him to an
other service-called him from writing
history to making it might have written
it. has not yet begun his stask. But 1t
will yet be written. It will be written to
be read of all men. as the one best story,
so far, of constitutional liberty. protected
and indicated by law, according to the
will of free people.
Men That Have Passed.
Literature and art and science came
later. They always come later. Art has
provided for literature in yonder Library
it's noble and fitting homo american eei
ence, also has here it's noble and fitting
home. The Smithsonian Institution,
founded, as we delight to remember, by
the generosity of an Englishman, sub
ject of that gracious sovereign from whose
we bax Iaa rpa 90 of a W al
and science and literature and liberty, to
whom We are glad to send our salutation
on this our Centennial Day. While we re-
member with gratitude this great bene-
faction of our English kinsman. we are
happy to recall also that 1t has been at
least in some degree recompensed by the
bounty to the city of London of George
Peabody. an American, citizen of the
North by birth, a Southern man by adop-
ton. an admirable example of the best
traits of both sections blended into. the
highest character and type of American
citizenship. Here, also, universities des-
tined to take a high rank among the great
institutions of the world have already laid
their foundations and are raising their
towers to the sky.
1.-The men who wrought this great work
are gone-most of them: John Adams and
his illustrious son. Jefferson, and Madi-
sen and Jackson and Lincoln and Grant
and Webster and Clay and Calhoun and
Seward and Benton and Sumner and Will
son and Morton and Chandler and Stevens
and Fessenden and Justin Morrill, and La
mar and Harris and Bayard-I have begun
n catalogue I cannot complete. But no
list of the illustrious statesmen or Of the
illustrous benefactors of this metropolis
in the last century must omit the name of
him whom the fatal arrow smote, in the
hour which was alike the end and the be-
ginning OF great career-your predeces-
sor and friend, Mr.. President, James A.
Garfield. A few of their companions and
coadiutors survive to behold the dawn of
the new century and give their counsel to
the people who are to carry on its work,
as few of the companions of Washington
beheld the beginning of this, and inaugu-
rated it's great accomplishment on the
principles of the Revolution. Their work
also is about done. They seem to sur
vive for brief period only that the new
century may clasp hands with the old, and
that they may bring to the future the
benediction of the past"