Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-21
THREE GREATEST MEN
OF MODERN HISTORY
Special Correspondence of The Star.
LONDON. March 1

LONDON. March 10. 1909.
active body of women the
American Circle Of the Lyceum
Club, got one of the greatest liv-
ing masters of English Fred
erick Harrison. to celebrate
Washington's birthday for them with an
address which has not appeared in print
none Of the London newspapers Delhg
represented. The address was OF such
interest that your correspondent obtained
the original manuscript from Mr.. Harrl-
son and presents it herewith
Three of the greatest men in all mod
ern history said Mr.. Harrison. were
! contemporaries together In the middle or
the eighteenth century, and each OF them
| was the founder or the creator OF his own
eountry-countries which are now the
most powerful of modern states
| "These three men OF creative genius
| and commanding character lowered above
| all their contemporaries and exercised IN
their prime truly imperial autnoIty.
They were all associated with each other
! in joint efforts and in personal admlra-
| ton. All three were heroes. patriots ana
martyrs to duty in the service of hui
mainly and civilization. All were great
in war. but never SO great as amid ae-
| feat, disaster and abandonment Yet
| great in war as all were, they were great
est of all in their efforts to bring war
to "A close and to found durable peace
Frederick the Great created the kinsoom
| of Prussia His ally in that work was
William Pitt Lord Chatham, who created
tn. British empire. George Washington
was the father of the great American
common wealth., the early struggles Oh
which against tyranny were heartily sup
ported by Chatham.
| Chatham was in sense the INK De
tween Frederick and Washington, VINO
had no direct relations with each other
The connection of Chatham and Wash
neton was continuous and real The re-
lation of Chatham to the American COM
monwealth is indeed twofold. He gave
the American continent to our Saxon
race. and not to the Latin tongue or
name, and he nobiy strove to free the
United States from her tyranny of the
British king. Today is the anniversary
Of Washing ton, and so 1t is meet to
couple the name of the father of the
United States with that Of the great Eng
lishman who drove French and Spaniard
from that continent and fought most reso-
lutely to rescue our transatlantic 1ellOW-
citizens from the prejudices and the fol-
lies of a besotted sovereign and his mis-
guided ministers.
THE work of Pitt in respect to Amer
lea Is twofold, and l shall seek to keep
them quite distinct and to treat them in
due order In the first place. as William
Pitt and as war minister of George II
he was acting entirely against foreign
nations, in concert with the kings colonial
fellow subjects, before any idea of rebel
lion or separat ton had entered the mind
of any coionist George Washington in
deed was serving in the very campaign
which Pitt had planned and organized,
and the great city or Pittsburg bears
witness today to the magnificent strategy
by which the English statesman drove
out the French and planted our race and.
language over che continent from the
great lakes to the mouth of the Missis-
sippi: ,,eeo.n.
No longer William Pitt, but Earl Of Chat
ham: no longer the dominant minister OF
| a victorious government and king; no
| longer in office or in power: no longer in
health Of body or in peace Of mind, with
out followers. or hope. or fortune. the
wreck Of a great man himself and the
mark of hostility and scorn to his SOW
ereign and his peers. Chatham. in his
decrepit old age. fought on alone in pro-
phetic passion against the crimes of his
tyrant master, in defense of the just
rights Of his countrymen in America. In
denouncipg il as civil war. as the curse
| and ruin of his country. And in defense
! Of an oppressed and illuminated people
of three nations he died at last in the
midst of the disasters he had foreseen.
| And yet to me, and l think to you, this
second career Of his-utter failure as 1t
seemed to be to those who heard him and
saw him carried out to die--is truly the
grandeSt, the pureSt, tne most heroic 10
me, and | think to you. Chatham. with
his racked limbs swathed in flannel. stag
| gering through a speech in support OF
Franklin and Washington and the pa
trots of their time, is a grander man than
| Pitt, the organizer of victory, the terrible
war minister, who announced new tri-
umph in each dispatch. before whom
Spain and France trembled. whose return
to power foreign statesmen prayed heaven
| to avert.
IT proceed to deal with the first parts.
and to show how Pitt gave the North
American continent to our race and
| tongue.
For whole generation before the &C.
cesson of Pitt to power a fierce but in
termittent struggle had been carried on
| between the three great maritime powers
of Britain, France and Spain for the do
minion of the vast North American con-
tinent. Commerce in those days of ex-
elusive trade under the national flag
meant the possession of colonies, and the
three western powers of Europe held the
! American soil in an equal proportion,
France on the north and extreme west.
England on the Atlantic seaboard as far
as the Allegheny mountains and Spain in
Florida and the West India Islands on
the south. OF the three France held the
| great strategical advantage of encircling
! The British colonies by her possession Of