Had Washington never lived, what would have been the result of our
revolutionary struggle? Had he died immediately after the close of the
war, what would have been the fate of our governmental experiment?
These are speculations which it will never be allowed us, in this
life, to solve. As, in the one case, we can not say that the struggle
would not ultimately have ended triumphantly, so, in the other, we
do not know that our present form of government would not have been
successfully established. For myself, I doubt the latter proposition
fully as much as the former. Under another man, as first President,
the fury of party strife would have been far greater, and sectional
discord much stronger. Insurrectionary movements would have been more
numerous and difficult of suppression, and foreign jealousy more bold
and effective.
Though the ship of state may have ultimately made the port, it is
certain that she would have encountered more adverse currents, and
been tossed upon more tempestuous seas. The political tempest which
was passing over the country at the time of his death, gives some
faint idea of what might have been expected, without him, in the
earlier and more unsettled state of our institutions. The immortal
legacy which, in his "_Farewell Address_," he gave to the country
on his final retirement, has already exhausted eulogy. The patriot
heart has often kindled over it in the past, and will do so forever
in the future. It will go down to the remotest posterity which shall
inhabit this land of liberty, as an inestimable compend of whatever is
true in wisdom, holy in patriotism, and far-seeing in statesmanship.
Would that its doctrines were not only infused into every mind, but
engraved upon every heart! Would that its lesson of "_equal laws_"
involving equal burdens and equal benefits, equal duties and equal
protection, and of strict regard for constitutional limitation in all
cases, was made the basis of all our political action! Then, indeed,
would party feuds and sectional animosities be allayed. A spirit of
mutual respect and fraternal concord would fill the land with the
fruits of peace, prosperity, and happiness. With all our fertile soil,
salubrious climate, skillful industry, and enriching trade, this only
is needed to usher in, amid shouts of triumph and songs of rejoicing,
the political millennium of our land.
Now, though withdrawn from public position, his controlling sense
of duty made Washington still anxious for his country, and ready to
render any service which might appear incumbent on him. So, when it
seemed that a war with France was inevitable, old man as he was,
enshrined as he was in the hearts of his countrymen, with nothing more
of fame to attain, and nothing more of glory to covet, from a pure
sense of duty, he agreed to take charge of the armies of the nation,
and to imperil life, reputation, every thing, for his country's good.
The occasion for his services did not arise; but the certainty that it
would not was scarcely manifest, when death came to summon him to the
"mansions of eternal rest."
It is allowed to few men to carry on a revolution, and to see it
successfully terminated in the independence of a nation. Fewer still,
perhaps, are permitted to inaugurate a new government, and witness its
firm establishment in the freedom of the people. Washington had the
singular good fortune to do both, and to die at last at home and in
the bosom of his family.
Hero! Patriot! Sage! If there be one title more pure, more lofty, more
noble than all others, by that title I would name him. To whom shall
we liken him, or with whom shall he be compared? There is the long
list of military heroes, in ancient and modern times. Let them pass
in solemn procession across the stage, each bearing the light of his
past life, like the solemn procession of torch-bearers in the sacred
mysteries of Eleusis. Gaze on them as they pass! Great, illustrious,
resplendent! There are Alexander and Hannibal, Scylla and Cæsar,
Charlemagne and Marlborough, Bonaparte and Wellington. Which one of
them all that has not a record marked by some weakness, or marred by
some crime? Love of glory, lust of dominion, or greed of gain, is
written by the pen of history upon the escutcheon of all.