Homes of American Statesmen; With Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive SketchesVarious
History
Homes of American Statesmen; With Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches
Various
Historic buildings -- United States; Statesmen -- United States; United States -- Biography
Years pass on, and we see the successful General the President of the
People, engaged once more in a fearful struggle; this time not against a
foreign foe, but with an internal enemy of vast power and tremendous
means of mischief. He is fighting the monster bank--another St. George
gallantly charging another dragon--and, as usual, comes out of the
contest victorious. The innumerable army of money-changers, wielding a
power as formidable, though unseen, as that of an absolute monarch, is
routed amid a horrible clangor of metal and rancorous hisses. The great
true man, sustained by an honest people, was greater than the power of
money. He wrought the salvation of his country from a hideous
corruption--from bankruptcy, disgrace, and long years of political
subjection. His near posterity has recognized the service, and placed
him among the most illustrious of statesmen.
Finally, we see the patriot soldier and civilian, a bowed and
white-haired old man, in his secluded Hermitage, which is situated near
the scenes of his earliest labors and triumphs. The companion of his
love, who had shared in his struggles, but was not permitted to share in
his latest glory, is with him no more; children they had none; and he
moves tranquilly towards his grave alone. No! not alone: for travellers
from all lands visit his retreat, to gaze upon his venerable form; his
countrymen throng his doors, to gather wisdom from his sayings,--his
friends and neighbors almost worship him, and an adopted family bask in
the benignant goodness of his noble heart--his great mind, too, "beaming
in mildest mellow splendor, beaming if also trembling, like a great sun
on the verge of the horizon, near now to its long farewell." Thus, the
orphan, the emigrant, the Indian fighter, the conquering General, the
popular President, the venerated Patriarch, goes to the repose of the
humble Christian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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