The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1907-02-21
Eloquent Tributes to Washington
the Father of his Country.

ment having had sight of the old
world-ipstructed according to the
modes of his time, only in the spare,
plain, but wholesome elementary
knowledge which our institutions
provide for the children of the peo-
growing up beneath and pene-
trated by the genuine influences of
American society-living from in
fancy to manhood and age amidst
orr expanding, but not luxurious
civilization-partaking in our great
destiny of labor, our long contest
with unreclaimed nature and unciv-
lied man-our agony of glory, the
War of Independence-our great
victory of peace, the formation of
the union, and the establishment of
the constitution-be is all, all our
own. Washington is ours, -"
The foregoing was written by Dan
iel Webster in regard to the Father
of his Country. "He was the first
man OF the time in which he grew, ="
wrote Rufus Choate. ellis memo
ry 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 Ii
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
matchless glory of his life which en-
abled him to create his country, and
at the same time secure an undying
love and regard from the whole
American people. Undoubtedly
there were brave and wise and good
men before his day in every colony
But the American nation as a ma
ton L do not re exon to have begun
before 1774, and the first love of
that young America was Washing
ton. The first word she lisped
was his name. Her earliest breath
spoke it. It is still her prou |
ejaculation. It will be the last
gasp of her expiring life. About
and around him we call up no dis
sentient, discordant and dissatisfied
elements, no sectional prejudice OF
bias, no party, no creed, no dogma
of politics. None of these shall as
sail him. Yes, when the storm OF
battle grows darkest and RACES high.
est, the memory of Washington
shall nerve every American arm and
cheer every American heart II
shall re-illume that Promethean fire,
that sublime flame of patriotism
that devoted love of country which
his words have commended, which
his example has consecrated."
The story Ct George Washing
tons life is an old one, Tut the sail
ent facts will bear repeating. He was
BON in Wakefield, Westmoreland
County, Virginia, Feb. %, 1892,
lived from 1875 to 1879 at what is
now Mount Vernon, and when he
was seven Years old he was taken to
an estate on the Rappahannock, al
most opposite Fredericksburg. The
father was one of the prosperous
planters of Virginia, able to give
his children what education the
times could afford. The first teach
err of George is reputed to have
been a convict, whom his father
bought for the purpose, All OF
Westinghouse schooling ended be-
fore he was sixteen His long and
brilliant career as a soldier and
statesman has given to history some
of it's most interesting pages.
"It was strange" wrote Thacke-
ray, ''that in O savage forest of
Pennsylvania a young Virginia of
fcer should fire shot and waken
up war that was to last for sixty
years, which was to cover his own
country and pass into Europe, to
cost France her American colinif s,
to sever ours from us and create the
great Western republic; to rage over
the Old World when extinguished
in the New; and of all the myriads
engaged in the vast contest, to leave
the prize of the greatest fame with
him who struck the first blow"
AS to the esteem and affection in
which the name and character of
Washington were held one cannot
do better than quote Lafayette, who
wrote from France as follows:
"Were you but such a man as
Julius Caesar, or the King of Prus-
STA, should almost be sorry for
you at the end of the great tragedy
where you are acting such part.
But, with my dear general, I re-
joice at the blessings of a peace
when our noble ends have been Sc
cured. Remember our Valley
Forge times; and, from recollec-
ton of past dangers and labors, we
shall be still more pleased at our
present comfortable situation. I
cannot but envy the happiness of
my grandchildren, when they will