Washington's Birthday : $b its history, observance, spirit, and significance as related in prose and verse, with a selection from Washington's speeches and writings
History
Washington's Birthday : $b its history, observance, spirit, and significance as related in prose and verse, with a selection from Washington's speeches and writings
Washington, George, 1732-1799 -- Anniversaries, etc.
SECOND PUPIL.--No matter what may have been the immediate birthplace of
such a man as Washington! No clime can claim, no country can appropriate
him; the boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, his
residence creation.
_Charles Phillips_.
THIRD PUPIL.--As a ruler of mankind, he may be proposed as a model.
Deeply impressed with the original rights of human nature, he never
forgot that the end, and meaning, and aim of all just government was the
happiness of the people.
_William Smyth_.
FOURTH PUPIL.--As a general, he marshaled the peasant into a veteran,
and supplied by discipline the absence of experience. As a statesman, he
enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of
general advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views and the
philosophy of his counsels that to the soldier and the statesman he
almost added the character of the sage.
_Charles Phillips_.
FIFTH PUPIL.--Immortal man! He took from the battle its crime, and from
the conquest its chains; he left the victorious the glory of his
self-denial, and turned upon the vanquished only the retribution of his
mercy. Happy, proud America! The lightnings of heaven yielded to your
philosophy! The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism!
_Charles Phillips_.
SIXTH PUPIL.--It is the happy combination of rare talents and qualities,
the harmonious union of the intellectual and moral powers, rather than
the dazzling splendor of any one trait which constitutes the grandeur of
his character.
_Jared Sparks_.
SEVENTH PUPIL.--Washington did the two greatest things which, in
politics, man can have the privilege of attempting. He maintained, by
peace, that independence of his country which he had acquired by war. He
founded a free government, in the name of the principles of order, and
by re-establishing their sway.
_Guizot_.
EIGHTH PUPIL.--Greater soldiers, more intellectual statesmen, and
profounder sages have doubtless existed in the history of the English
race, perhaps in our own country, but not one who to great excellence in
the threefold composition of man--the physical, intellectual, and
moral--has added such exalted integrity, such unaffected piety, such
unsullied purity of soul, and such wondrous control of his own spirit.
He illustrated and adorned the civilization of Christianity, and
furnished an example of the wisdom and perfection of its teachings which
the subtlest arguments of its enemies cannot impeach.
_Vance_.
NINTH PUPIL.--
He fought, but not with love of strife; he struck but to defend;
And, ere he turned a people's foe, he sought to be a friend.
He strove to keep his country's right by Reason's gentle word
And sighed when fell injustice threw the challenge sword to sword.
He stood, the firm, the calm, the wise, the patriot and sage;
He showed no deep, avenging hate, no burst of despot rage;
He stood for liberty and truth, and dauntlessly led on,
Till shouts of victory gave forth the name of Washington.
_Eliza Cook_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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