ROBERT C. WINTHROP.

1848.

Ir is, however, the character of Washington, and not the mere part which he played, which I would hold up this day to the world as worthy of endless and universal commemoration. The highest official distinctions may be enjoyed, and the most important public services rendered, by men whose lives will not endure examination. It is the glory of Washington, that the virtues of the man outshone even the brilliancy of his acts, and that the results which he accomplished were only the legitimate exemplifications of the principles which he professed and cherished.

In the whole history of the world it may be doubted whether any man can be found, who has exerted a more controlling influence over men and over events than George Washington. To what did he owe that influence? How did he win, how did he wield, that magic power, that majestic authority, over the minds and hearts of his countrymen and of mankind? In what did the power of Washington consist?

It was not the power of vast learning or varied acquirements. He made no pretensions to scholarship, and had no opportunity for extensive reading.

It was not the power of sparkling wit or glowing rhetoric. Though long associated with deliberative bodies, he never made a set speech in his life, nor ever mingled in a stormy debate.

It was not the power of personal fascination. There was little about him of that gracious affability which sometimes lends such resistless attraction to men of commanding position. His august presence inspired more of awe than of affection, and his friends, numerous and devoted as they were, were bound to him rather by ties of respect than of love.

It was not the power of a daring and desperate spirit of heroic adventure. "If I ever said so," replied Washington, when asked whether he had said that there was something charming in the sound of a whistling bullet; "if I ever said so, it was when I was young." He had no passion for mere exploits. He sought no bubble reputation in the cannon's mouth. With a courage never questioned, and equal to every exigency, he had yet "a wisdom which did guide his valor to act in safety."

In what, then, did the power of Washington consist? When Patrick Henry returned home from the first Continental Congress, and was asked who was the greatest man in that body, he replied: "If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, is the greatest orator; but if you speak of solid information and sound judgment, Colonel Washington is by far the greatest man on that floor."

When, fifteen years earlier, Washington, at the close of the French war, took his seat, for the first time, in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, and a vote of thanks was presented to him for his military services to the Colony, his hesitation and embarrassment were relieved by the Speaker, who said, "Sit down, Mr. Washington; your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language that I possess."

But it was not solid information, or sound judgment, or even that rare combination of surpassing modesty and valor, great as these qualities are, which gave Washington such a hold on the regard, respect, and confidence of the American people. I hazard nothing in saying that it was the high moral element of his character, which imparted to it its preponderating force. His incorruptible honesty, his uncompromising truth, his devout reliance on God, the purity of his life, the scrupulousness of his conscience, the disinterestedness of his purposes, his humanity, generosity, and justice, these were the ingredients which, blending harmoniously with solid information and sound judgment and a valor only equalled by his modesty, made up a character to which the world may be fearlessly challenged for a parallel.

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, conscience," was one of a series of maxims which Washington framed or copied for his own use when a boy. His rigid adherence to principle; his steadfast discharge of duty; his utter abandonment of self; his unreserved devotion to whatever interests were committed to his care,-attest the more than vestal vigilance with which he observed that maxim. He kept alive that spark. He made it shine before men. He kindled it into a flame which illumined his whole life. No occasion was so momentous, no circumstances so minute, as to absolve him from following its guiding ray. * * *

The Republic may perish; the wide arch of our ranged Union may fall; star by star its glories may expire; stone after stone its columns and its capitol may moulder and crumble; all other names which adorn its annals may be forgotten; but as long as human hearts shall anywhere pant, or human tongues shall any where plead, for a

true, rational, constitutional liberty, those hearts shall enshrine the memory, and those tongues prolong the fame, of GEORGE WASHINGTON!

EXTRACT from "An oration pronounced by the Honorable Robert C. Winthrop, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, on the Fourth of July, 1848, on the occasion of laying the corner-stone of the National Monument to the Memory of Washington." 8vo, pp. 36. Washington: 1848. By a joint resolution of Congress approved May 13, 1884, the delivery of the oration on the completion of the Monument, was also assigned to Mr. Winthrop, and although far advanced in his seventy-sixth year, he had substantially prepared what he proposed to say, but falling dangerously ill of pneumonia, two months before the appointed time, his recovery was too slow to admit of the delivery of his oration in person. It was however read for him by the Hon. John Davis Long, late Governor of Massachusetts, and a member of the House of Representatives of the United States. The time fixed by the resolution of Congress for the ceremonies, was the twenty-second of February, 1885, but that day occurring on Sunday, they were held on Saturday the twenty-first. The cap-stone of the monument was set December 6, 1884. Extracts from this oration will be found at the end of the volume.

RICHARD HILDRETH.

1851.

THE sudden death of Washington almost entirely swept away, at least for the moment, those feelings of suspicion with which a portion of the Republican party, especially of the leaders, had begun to regard him-now that he was dead, all zealously united to do him honor.

Rare man indeed he was among actors on the military and political stage, possessing in the highest degree the most imposing qualities of a great leader-deliberate and cautious wisdom in judging, promptitude and energy in acting, a steady, firm, indomitable spirit, such as men love to cling to and rely upon; more than all, an unsullied integrity, and a sincere and disinterested devotion to his country's cause, such, indeed, as many public men, or their followers for them, pretend to, but the credit of which very few get and still fewer deserve. History records many names that dazzle the imagination with a greater brilliancy, but few, indeed, that shine with a light so pure, steady, permanent, penetrating, and serene. Washington's character and reputation, as contrasted with those of many other famous men, seem to resemble in effect the Doric architecture as compared with the Gothic and Oriental styles. Those styles often excite, especially in minds peculiarly liable to vivid impressions, the most enthusiastic pitch of admiration, appealing, as they do, not alone or chiefly to the sentiment of the beautiful, but to the powerful emotions, also, of