CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON[32]
America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if
our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have
entitled them to the respect of mankind. Washington! "First in war,
first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen!" Washington
is all our own! The enthusiastic veneration and regard in which the
people of the United States hold him, prove them to be worthy of such a
countryman; while his reputation abroad reflects the highest honor on
his country. I would cheerfully put the question to-day to the
intelligence of Europe and the world, what character of the century,
upon the whole, stands out in the relief of history, most pure, most
respectable, most sublime; and I doubt not, that, by a suffrage
approaching to unanimity, the answer would be Washington!
The structure now standing before us, by its uprightness, its solidity,
its durability, is no unfit emblem of his character. His public virtues
and public principles were as firm as the earth on which it stands; his
personal motives, as pure as the serene heaven in which its summit is
lost.
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