Evening star., 1946-04-07
Capital Sidelights
By Will P. Kennedy.

September 10 next will be the sesqui-
centennial of Washington's Farewell
Address to the People of the United
States" and various efforts are being
made, looking toward a dignifed, edu-
cational commemoration of that ami
versary by Congress and throughout the
entire Nation. Among those most active
for such an observance is Chairman
Sol Bloom Of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, who was director general of
the Washington bicentennial celebra-
tion, and who now has a resolution
pending before the House Rules Com
mittee which he has been pressing for
early approval. Maj. Elizur Yale Smith,
historian and executive secretary of the
Bill of Rights Commemorative Society,
has been conducting an extensive cam
paign for fitting public recognition of
the Importance Of that sacredly pre-
served paper as an American gospel
and rule of national life. Maj. Smith
calls it mot only marvel of political
sagacity and craftsmanship but also
classic in American patriotic literature"
The address" never was delivered
personally by Washington. He selected
Claypools Daily Advertiser as the chan
mel of communication to the people, and
almost every newspaper in the country
promptly reprinted it. After it had been
set in type, Claypeol waited upon Wash
ington with the original, and expressed
my regret at parting with it, and how
much would be gratified by being
permitted to retain it; upon which, in
the most obliging manner, he handed
it back to me, saying that if wished
for it, I might keep it. and then I took
my leave
The original manuscript, after Clay
pools death, was put up at auction, but
Congress refused to make an appropria-
ton for its purchase. James Lenox of
New York paid $4,000 for 1t, and it now
is in the Lenox collection of the New
York Public Library. DR.. Victor Hugo
Paltsits, formerly State historian and
for many years connected with the New
York Public Library. published a book
There has been persistent controversy
as to who wrote the Address" Partisan
biographers of James Madison claimed
credit for him, so also did friends of
Alexander Hamilton. Both Congressman
Bloom and Maj. Smith emphatically
are agreed that this document was
primarily Washingtons own-"the basic
ideas, the wisdom, foresight and flavor
were distinctly Washington's'-alth
he doubtless consulted with Madison,
Hamilton and Jefferson, accepting or
rejecting their suggestions as he saw fit.
The final manuscript is in his own
handwriting, probably the rarest of the
Washington holographs.
Jared Sparks, in his Writings of
Washington" gave it the date Septem-
Der II, but the recently published Writ
ings of George Washington in 81
volumes, issued by authority of Con-
gress at the Government Printing Office,
dates it as of September 10.
An eminent British historian wrote
that it was "unequaled by any compost
ton of uninspired wisdom" A great
American historian defined it as "a
political legacy which the in
habitants of the civilized world ought to
value as one of the most precious gifts
ever bestowed by man upon his race.
1t is permeated with the immortal spirit
of true man, true patriot, and a
true Christian"
At a banquet in Washington, February
o., 1882. when leaders gathered from
every State in the Union to COM
memorate the centennial of Washing
tons birth, Daniel Webster, orator of
the occasion, said:
"Washington's Farewell Address is full
OF truths important at all times. and
particularly deserving consideration at
the present. With sagacity which
brought the future before him and made
1t like the present, he saw and pointed
out the dangers that even at this mo-
ment most imminently threaten us. ]
hardly know how greater service could
now be done to the community, than
by renewed and wide diffusion of that
admirable paper, and an earnest invita-
ton to every man in the country to re-
peruse and consider it. It's political
maxims are invaluable; its exhortatior
to love of country and to brotherly af.
fection among citizens, touching, anc
the solemrity with which it urges the
observance Of moral duties. and i'm.
presses the power of religious obligation
| gives to it the highest character of truly
| diSinterested. sincere and naternal ad.