Think, then, of the eminent statesmen whose talents have illustrated
and qualities ennobled their age and country. I will not attempt to
name them; but who is there among them all who, having the wisdom
always to perceive, Lad, at the same time, the sense of duty to carry
out, the best interests of the country? Consider, if you please, how
Richelieu lived, and how Wolsey died; and tell me, then, if these
were such as Washington. I will not equal him with the Scripture
patriarchs. It would be wrong so to do. What of mere mortality could
equal the firmness of Moses, as he came down from Sinai, his face
all glowing from the presence of his God? What could equal the faith
of Abraham, as he tracked his lonely pilgrimage through the plains
of Shinar, seeking a land that he knew not of? These pictures have a
far-off, haze-enveloped, oriental background. They are drawn with the
pencil of inspiration, and colored with the hues of heaven. I could
not say that they correctly represent Washington in any phase of his
character. But I will say that, in duty and in faith, he approached
them more nearly than any other hero-statesman of whom I have any
knowledge. I would not deal in any exaggeration, but I desire to be
just.
Washington may have had ambition, but it was not of that stamp that
made the angels fall. He loved popularity, but not to gratify a vulgar
vanity. His ambition was for his country's good. He took office to
achieve a great end. When that was accomplished, he withdrew gladly to
that retirement which was ever grateful to his heart, and which, in
all circumstances and conditions in which he might be placed, always
stretched out before him, in the future, as the calm and peaceful
haven of his hopes. Had he been less a good man, he would not thus
have desired retirement, for none but a good man could so love the
calm delights of privacy and the pure joys of the domestic circle and
the family fireside. Had he been not so much a great one, he would
never have left his home.
Strange decree of fate! that in this Western world, but recently known
to civilization, and only partially reclaimed from the savages; over
which the dull oblivion of unnumbered centuries had not yet ceased to
brood; without literature, without polite arts, without settled social
organization, without position among nations--that in such a land,
almost unknown and utterly uncared for, there should have arisen a man
who was destined to equal, in the estimation of the virtuous and the
good, all ancient glory and all modern fame.
The verdict of the French philosopher, Guizot, pronounced in view of
his whole record, was, that "of all great men he was the most virtuous
and the most fortunate--in this world God has no higher favors to
bestow;" while the great English orator, jurist, and statesman, Lord
Brougham, has declared that "until time shall be no more, will a
test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue be
derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington."