Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1903-02-19
TRIBUTES TO WASHINGTON.
Esteem and a Election 2ho wn the Father
of His Country.

of His Country.
Born upon our soil-of parents also
born upon it-never for moment hav-
ing had sight of the old world-instru,t-
ed according to the modes of his time,
only In the spare, plain, but wholesome
elementary knowledge which our insti-
tutions provide for the children of the
people-growing up beneath and pene-
trated by the genuine influences of
American sOciety-living from infancy
to manhood and age amidst our expand
Ing, but not luxurious civiliZation--par-
taking in our great destiny of labor, our
long contest with unreclaimed nature and
uncivilized man-our agony of glory, the
war of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. great victory
of peace, the formation of the Union,
and the establishment of the constitu-
tion-he Is all, all our own. Washington
Is ours"
The foregoing was written by Daniel
Webster In regard to the Father of His
Country, the anniversary of whose birth
Is an occasion that is ever freshly remem-
bered by American hearts. He was the
first man of the time in which he grew"
wrote Rufus Choate. His memory Is
first and most sacred In our love; and
ever, hereafter, till the last drop Of
blood shall freeze in the last American
heart, his name shall be a spell of power
and might. There Is one personal, one
vast felicity which no man can share
with him. 1t was the daily beauty and
towering and matchess glory Of his life
which enabled him to create his country,
and at the same time secure an undying
love and regard from the whole Ameri
can people. Undoubtedly there were
brave and wise and good men before his
day in every colony But the American
nation, as a nation, l do not reckon to
have begun before 1774 and the first love
of that young America was Washington.
The first word she lisped was his name.
Her earliest bresth spoke 1t. 1t is still
her proud ejaculation. 1t will be the
last gasp of her expiring life. About
and around him we call up no dissentent,
discordant and dissatisfied elements, no
sectional prejudice or bias no party, no
creed, no dogma of politics. None of
these shall assail him. Yes, when the
storm of battle grows darkest and RACES
highest, the memory of Washington shall
nerve every American arm and cheer
every American heart. 1t shall rel-
lume that Promethean fire, that sublime
flame of patriotism, that devoted love of
country WHICH Ills WbTuS nave cOHl-
mended, which his example has conse-
Grated"
The story of George Washington's
life is an old one. but the salient facts
will bear repeating. He was born at
Wakefield. Westmoreland County, Nir-
glnia, Feb. %, 1882, lived from 1875 to
1889 at what is now Mount Vernon, and
when he was years old he was taken
to an estate on the Rappahannock, al
most opposite fredericksburg The fath-
err was one Of the prosperous planters of
Virginia, able to give his children what
education the times could afford. The
first teacher of George is reputed to have
been convict, whom his father bought
for the purpose. All Of Washngton's
schooling ended before he was 16 His
long and brilliant career AZ a soldier and
statesman has given to history some Of
Its most interesting pages.
ut was strange" wrote Thackeray,
that in a savage forest Of Pennsylva-
MIA q young Virginia officer should FIRE 4