Part 34 (1/2)
When rolling froh a pound His venerable appearance and sightless eyes gave a tinge of pathetic eifts; in early life, before the entire failure of his sight, he had knownupon the Western circuits He had been the fellow-laborer of Cartwright, Bascom, and other eminent Methodist ministers of the early ti the Mexican War, and often a guest at the Executive Mansion when Mr Polk was President
He kneellstatesmen of that period He possessed rare conversational powers; and notwithstanding his blindness, poverty, and utter loneliness, he reentleood Chaplain, with the aid of a faithful hly advised as to the health of the senators and their fa paper, of any ill having befallen any statesman of whom he was, for the ti precursor of special and affectionateof the Senate Moreover, in the discharge of this sacred duty, his invariable habit was to designate the object of his special invocation as ”the Senior Senator” or ”Junior Senator,” carefully giving the name of his State It is within the realm of probability that since the first humble petition was breathed, there has never been an apparently more prompt answer to prayer than that now to be related
_The Morning Post_ contained an ite the accusto of the session, an earnest petition ascended for ”the Senior Senator froht ”soon be restored to his wonted health, and per and so honorably occupied”
Aended, and the Senate duly in session, the stately fored fro and so honorably occupied”
xxxIV A MEMORABLE CENTENNIAL
GEORGE WAshi+NGTON LAYING THE CORNER-STONE OF THE CAPITOL--PROGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY--NOTABLE MEN WHO WERE CONSPICUOUS AT THE NATION'S BIRTH--CONGRESS HELD AT VARIOUS PLACES BEFORE 1800--THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FORMED--NECESSITY FOR ENLARGING THE CAPITOL AT WAshi+NGTON--A DOcumENT BY WEBSTER DEPOSITED BENEATH THE CORNER-STONE OF THE ADDITIONS--HIGH DEBATES HELD IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE--PRESENT LOCATION OF THE SENATE CHAMBER--GREAT INCREASE OF POPULATION, TERRITORY, AND COMMERCE--THE TWO DIVISIONS OF CONGRESS
On the eighteenth day of Septe of the corner-stone of the national Capitol was celebrated by appropriate cereton City
President Cleveland presided, and seated upon the platform were the members of his Cabinet, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Supren Ambassadors
The oration was delivered by the Hon Williarandson of Patrick Henry The addresses which folloere bythe House; and Justice Brown, the Supreme Court I spoke as follows:
”This day and this hour mark the close of a century of our national history No ordinary event has called us together Standing in the presence of this august asseton stood, we sole of the corner-stone of the nation's Capitol
”It is well that this day has been set apart as a national holiday, that all public business has been suspended, and that the President and his Cabinet, the ress, unite with their country honor to the o, at this hour, and upon this spot, put in place the corner-stone of the Capitol of the American Republic
The century rolls back, and we stand in the presence of the grandest and ton, as Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons, clothed in the sy the apron and the sash wrought by the hands of the wife of the beloved Lafayette, ies of that Order, is laying his hands upon the corner-stone of the future and permanent Capitol of his country The soleton, not only in his office of Grand Master of Free Masons, but in his yet ust office of President of the United States assisting hi observance of these ies of Virginia and Maryland, while around him stood men whose honored names live with his in history--theindependence, and then in the yet islation, the fruits of victory Truly, the centennial of an event so fraught with interest should not pass unnoticed
”History furnishes no parallel to the century whose closeco all the centuries it stands alone With hearts filled with gratitude to the God of our fathers, it is well that we recall so Republic, since the ton laid his hands upon the foundation-stone of yonder Capitol
”The seven years of colonial struggle for liberty had terlorious victory Independence had been achieved The Articles of Confederation, binding the Colonies together in a iven place to the Constitution of the United States--that wonderful instrument, so aptly declared by Mr Gladstone to be 'the iven time by the brain and purpose ofvoice in the Electoral Colleges, Washi+ngton had been chosen President At his council-table sat Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence; Hamilton, of whom it has been said, 'He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streaushed forth He touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprung upon its feet'; Knox, the brave and trusted friend of his chief during the colonial struggle; and Edenius has been indelibly left upon the Federal Constitution Verinal thirteen--had been ad of six members, had been constituted, with the learned jurist John Jay as its Chief Justice The popular branch of the Congress consisted of but one hundred and five members Thirty members constituted the Senate, over whose deliberations presided the patriot statesman, John Adams The population of the entire country was less than four ton, the capital--and I trust for all coes the capital--contained but a few hundred inhabitants
”After peace had been concluded with Great Britain, and while ere yet under the Articles of Confederation, the sessions of the Congress were held successively at Princeton, Annapolis, Trenton, and New York In the presence of both houses of Congress, on the thirtieth day of April, 1789, in the city of New York, Washi+ngton had been inaugurated President Fro of our Governress was held in New York, until 1790, then in Philadelphia until 1800, when, on Noveton The necessity of selecting a suitable and central place for the pered the thoughtful consideration of our fathers It cannot be supposed that the question reached a final deterreat embarrassment, earnest discussion, and the manifestation of sectional jealousies But, as has been well said, the good genius of our system finally prevailed, 'and a district of territory on the River Potomac, at some place between the ue,' was, by Act of Congress of June 28, 1790, 'accepted for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States' From the seventeenth day of November, 1800, this city has been the capital When that day carave, John Ada officer of the Senate It may be well to recall that upon the occasion of the asseress in the Capitol, President Adams appeared before the Senate and the House, in joint session, and said:
”'It would be unbeco the representatives of this nation to asse up to the Supre
You will consider it as the capital of a great nation, advancing with unexampled rapidity in arts, in co within itself those resources which, if not throay or la course of prosperity and self-government'
”To this address of President Adams the Senate made reply:
”'We islature, in the city which is honored by the naton, with sensations and emotions which exceed our power of description'
”Fro of the Capitol by the British, in 1814, in the roo, were held the sessions of the Senate
That now al of Senators who, at an earlier period of our history, had been the associates of Washi+ngton and Franklin, and had thereat organic law, the deathless principles of the Declaration of Independence Froainst Great Britain; and here, before the Senate as a court of ined a Justice of the Supreed high cri years and the rapid growth of the Republic, ca its Capitol The debates upon this subject culress of Septe for the erection of the north and south wings of the Capitol Thomas U Walter was the architect to whose hand was coreat work Yonder noble structure will stand for ages the silent witness of the fidelity hich the ied
”The corner-stone of the additions was laid by President Fillmore, on the fourth day of July, 1851 In honor of that event, and by request of the President, Mr Webster pronounced an oration, and while we have a country and a language his words will touch a responsive chord in patriotic hearts Beneath the corner-stone was then deposited a paper, in the handwriting of Mr Webster, containing the folloords:
”'If it shall be, hereafter, the will of God, that this structure shall fall from its base, that its foundation be upturned and this deposit brought to the eyes of men, be it then known that on this day the Union of the United States of America stands firm, that their Constitution still exists uni every day stronger and stronger in the affections of the great body of the A more and more the attention of the world And all here asse to public life or to private life, with hearts devoutly thankful to Alhty God for the preservation of the liberty and happiness of the country, unite in sincere and fervent prayers that this deposit, and the walls and arches, the domes and towers, the columns and entablatures now to be erected over it, may endure forever'
”From the sixth day of December, 1819, until January 4, 1859, a period of thirty-nine years, the sessions of the Senate were held in the present Supreh debate When, in any age, or in any country, has there been gathered, within so sest the great questions here discussed and determined, would be to write a history of that eventful period It was, indeed, the coeneration of American statesmen Here were Macon and Crawford, Benton, Randolph, Cass, Bell, Houston, Preston, Buchanan, Seward, Chase, Crittenden, Sulas, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and others scarcely less illustrious