Nor are the sons of the companions of Washington alone in doing justice to his memory. Our sisters, wives and mothers compete with us in discharging this debt of national gratitude. With a delicacy that none but woman could exhibit, and with a devotion that none but a daughter could feel, they are now busy in executing the noble scheme of purchasing his tomb, in order for endless generations to stand sentinel over his remains. Take them! take them to your hearts, oh! ye daughters of America; enfold them closer to your bosom than your first-born offspring; build around them a mausoleum that neither time nor change can overthrow; for within them germinates the seeds of liberty for the benefit of millions yet unborn. Wherever tyranny shall lift its Medusan head, wherever treason shall plot its hellish schemes, wherever disunion shall unfurl its tattered ensign, there, oh there, sow them in the hearts of patriots and republicans! For from these pale ashes there shall spring, as from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus of old on the plains of Heber, vast armies of invincible heroes, sworn upon the altar and tomb at Mount Vernon, to live as freemen, or as such to die! [Decoration] XXI. _MASONRY._ Oh, sacred spirit of Masonic love, Offspring of Heaven, the angels' bond above, Guardian of peace and every social tie, How deep the sources of thy fountains lie! How wide the realms that 'neath thy wings expand, Embracing every clime, encircling every land! Beneath the aurora of the Polar skies, Where Greenland's everlasting glaciers rise, The Lodge mysterious lifts its snow-built dome, And points the brother to a sunnier home; Where Nilus slays the sacrificial kid, Beneath the shadow of her pyramid, Where magian suns unclasp the gaping ground, And far Australia's golden sands abound; Where breakers thunder on the coral strand, To guard the gates of Kamehameha's land; Wherever man, in lambskin garb arrayed, Strikes in defense of innocence betrayed; Lifts the broad shield of charity to all, And bends in anguish o'er a brother's fall; Where the bright symbol of Masonic truth, Alike for high and low, for age or youth, Flames like yon sun at tropic midday's call, And opes the universal eye on all! What though in secret all your alms be done, Your foes all vanquished and your trophies won? What though a veil be o'er your Lodges thrown, And brother only be to brother known?