Part 25 (1/2)

Washi+ngton, therefore, could regard, and did regard, nothing as of pararity of the Union itself

With a united govern to fear; and without it, nothing to hope The sentiment is just, and its momentous truth should soleard our country as personated in the spirit of Washi+ngton, if weher, in her past renown, her present prosperity, and her future career, and as in that character de of us all to account for our conduct, as political men or as private citizens, how should he answer him who has ventured to talk of disunion and dismemberment? Or how should he answer him ells perpetually on local interests, and fans every kindling flame of local prejudice? How should he answer hiainst interest, and party against party, careless of the continuance of that _unity of government which constitutes us one people_?

The political prosperity which this country has attained, and which it now enjoys, has been acquired overn to still higher degrees of prosperity exists also We have, while this lasts, a political life capable of beneficial exertion, with power to resist or overcoainst the ordinary accidents of human affairs, and to promote, by active efforts, every public interest But dis which preserves these faculties It would lay its rude and ruthless hand on this great agent itself It would sweep away, not only e possess, but all power of regaining lost, or acquiring new possessions It would leave the country, not only bereft of its prosperity and happiness, but without lians, or faculties, by which to exert itself hereafter in the pursuit of that prosperity and happiness

Other misfortunes may be borne, or their effects overcome If disastrous war should sweep our coeneration may renew it; if it exhaust our treasury, future industry may replenish it; if it desolate and lay waste our fields, still, under a new cultivation, they will grow green again, and ripen to future harvests It were but a trifle even if the walls of yonder Capitol were to crueous decorations be all covered by the dust of the valley All these ht be rebuilt But who shall reconstruct the fabric of deain the well-proportioned coluether the skilful architecture which unites national sovereignty with State rights, individual security, and public prosperity? No, if these coluain Like the Coliseum and the Parthenon, they will be destined to a mournful, a melancholy immortality Bitterer tears, however, will flow over them, than were ever shed over the monuments of Rolorious edifice than Greece or Rome ever saw, the edifice of constitutional As Let us trust in that gracious Being who has hitherto held our country as in the hollow of his hand Let us trust to the virtue and the intelligence of the people, and to the efficacy of religious obligation Let us trust to the influence of Washi+ngton's example Let us hope that that fear of Heaven which expels all other fear, and that regard to duty which transcends all other regard, may influence public men and private citizens, and lead our country still onward in her happy career Full of these gratifying anticipations and hopes, let us look forward to the end of that century which is now coton will celebrate his birth, with no less of sincere admiration thancommemorate it When they shall meet, asmeet, to do themselves and him that honor, so surely as they shall see the blue summits of his native mountains rise in the horizon, so surely as they shall behold the river on whose banks he lived, and on whose banks he rests, still flowing on toward the sea, so surelyon the top of the Capitol; and then, as now, may the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!

Gentlemen, I propose--”THE MEMORY OF GEORGE WAshi+NGTON”

Froentle occasion, we cannot refrain froh a little out of place, the appropriate, just, and classic re retired, Mr Cha in the chair, called upon Mr Robbins of Rhode Island; when Mr Senator ROBBINS of that State addressed the co leave to offer a sentience, will offer a few remarks, not inappropriate, I hope, to the occasion

”It is the peculiar good fortune of this country to have given birth to a citizen, whose naard for his country itself In other countries, whenever or wherever this is spoken of to be praised, and with the highest praise, it is called the country of Washi+ngton I believe there is no people, civilized or savage, in any place, however reton has not been heard, and where it is not repeated with the fondest admiration We are told, that the Arab of the desert talks of Washi+ngton in his tent, and that his na Scythian He seeht of human kind, as their beau ideal of human nature 'Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes'

”No Aard for hiton, as his fellow-countryman; and who has not felt a pride, and had occasion to exult, in the fortunate connection?

”Half a century and e, and his fame first broke upon the world; for it broke like the blaze of day froly as universal The eventful period since that era has teereat men, who have crossed the scene and passed off Soreat; still Washi+ngton retains his preeminent place in the minds of men, still his peerless naht as in the lory

”History will keep her record of his faions where history is not read, where letters are unknown, it lives, and will go down froe, in all future tie this fame, the common inheritance of our country, for the fame of any individual which any country of any time can boast?

I would not; with my sentiments, I could not

”I recollect the first titon: indeed, it is iet it, or recollect it without the liveliest emotion I was then a child at school The school was diston was expected in town that day, on his way to Cae, to take command of the Ale with the people, who had assembled in mass to see him I did see him; I riveted my eyes upon him; I could noere I master of the pencil, delineate with exact truth his form and features, and every particular of his costuet the feelings his sublime presence inspired How often, afterwards, when I came, in my studies, to learn the, these lines,--

”Quem sese ore ferens! quam forti pectore et arenus esse Deorum”

He did seenorant enthusiasnorant, it was not false; it was enthusiasnized as just; it was but the anticipated senti leave to offer this sentiton to his countrymen,--a code of politics by which, and by which alone, as he believed, their union and their liberties can be made immortal”

FOOTNOTES

[94] A Speech delivered at a Public Dinner in Honor of the Centennial Birthday of Washi+ngton, on the 22d of February, 1832

[95] See Works of Fisher Ames, pp 122, 123

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONVENTION AT WORCESTER[96]