E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlene Taylor, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) in
commemoration of Washington's Birthday, February 22, 2005
Our American Holidays
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY
Its History, Observance, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose
and Verse, with a Selection from Washington's Speeches and Writings
Edited by
ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER
New York
Dodd, Mead and Company
PREFACE
The popular idea of Washington has recently begun to veer away from the
vision of an eighteenth century demigod in a wig,--an old-fashioned
statue in dusky bronze, stern and forbidding. We are swinging around
toward the idea of a loveable, fallible, very human personality with
humor, a hot temper, and a genuine love of pleasure.
Accordingly, in gathering material for this book the editor has passed
by those earlier writers who are mainly responsible for this distorted
view; and he has aimed to gather here the essays, orations poems,
stories, and exercises which best exhibit the modern conception of
Washington; together with a selection from his own writings and the
finest of the elder tributes to the memory of our greatest National
Hero.
NOTE
The Editor and Publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to
Houghton, Mifflin & Company; Doubleday, Page & Company; J.B. Lippincott
& Co.; Mr. David McKay, John Macy, and others who have very kindly
granted permission to reprint selections from works bearing their
copyright.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I
THE DAY
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY _Oliver Wendell Holmes_
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY _Margaret E. Sangster_
THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON _Anonymous_
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY _George Howland_
WASHINGTON AND OUR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES _Charles W. Eliot_
CROWN OUR WASHINGTON _Hezekiah Butterworth_
WASHINGTON-MONTH _Will Carleton_
II
EARLY YEARS
A GLIMPSE OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE _Grace B. Johnson_
SOMETHING OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD _Anonymous_
WASHINGTON'S TRAINING _Charles Wentworth Upham_
WASHINGTON AS HE LOOKED
III
THE GENERAL
WASHINGTON IS APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF _Sydney George Fisher_
WASHINGTON AT TRENTON _Richard Watson Gilder_
GEORGE WASHINGTON
VALLEY FORGE _Henry Armitt Brown_
WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE _Canon R.G. Sutherland_
A FRENCHMAN'S ESTIMATE OF WASHINGTON IN 1781 _Claude C. Robin_
IV
THE PRESIDENT
WASHINGTON AND THE CONSTITUTION _John M. Harlan_
WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION _Edward S. Ellis_
WASHINGTON _Mary Wingate_
WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION _Edward Everett Hale_
WASHINGTONIANA
LESSONS FROM THE WASHINGTON CENTENNIAL _George A. Gordon_
PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RECEPTIONS _William Sullivan_
THE FOREIGN POLICY OF WASHINGTON _Charles James Fox_
V
LAST DAYS
GEORGE WASHINGTON _Hamilton Wright Mabie_
WASHINGTON'S LAST DAYS _Elisabeth Eggleston Seelye_
THE MOUNT VERNON TRIBUTE
THE WORDS OF WASHINGTON _Daniel Webster_
VI
TRIBUTES
MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON _Henry B. Carrington_
FROM THE "COMMEMORATION ODE" _Harriet Monroe_
WASHINGTON'S STATUE _Henry Theodore Tuckerman_
TRIBUTES
WASHINGTON'S NAME IN THE HALL OF FAME _Margaret E. Sangster_
ESTIMATES OF WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON'S RELIGIOUS CHARACTER _William M'Kinley_
WASHINGTON _Anonymous_
VII
WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY
THE HIGHEST PEDESTAL _William E. Gladstone_
WASHINGTON IN HISTORY _Chauncey M. Depew_
TO THE SHADE OF WASHINGTON _Richard Alsop_
THE MAJESTIC EMINENCE OF WASHINGTON _Chauncey M. Depew_
FOR A LITTLE PUPIL _Anonymous_
WASHINGTON'S FAME _Asher Robbins_
WASHINGTON, THE BRIGHTEST NAME ON HISTORY'S PAGE _Eliza Cook_
WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT
VIII
THE WHOLE MAN
GEORGE WASHINGTON _John Hall Ingham_
HISTORICAL MEMORABILIA OF WASHINGTON _H.B. Carrington_
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF WASHINGTON _Henry Mitchell MacCracken_
THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON _Daniel Webster_
MOUNT VERNON, THE HOME OF WASHINGTON _William Day_
THE UNSELFISHNESS OF WASHINGTON _Robert Treat Paine_
THE GENIUS OF WASHINGTON _Edwin P. Whipple_
WASHINGTON'S SERVICE TO EDUCATION _Charles W.E. Chapin_
ADDRESS AT THE DEDICATION OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT
_John W. Daniel_
THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON _Henry Cabot Lodge_
IX
ANECDOTES AND STORIES
ANECDOTES OF WASHINGTON
THE ABUSE OF WASHINGTON _Thomas Wentworth Higginson_
PROVIDENTIAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON _Irving Allen_
CHARACTERISTICS OF WASHINGTON
GREAT GEORGE WASHINGTON _Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith_
HEADQUARTERS IN 1776 _Paul Leicester Ford_
X
SELECTIONS FROM WASHINGTON'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS
SELECTIONS FROM THE RULES OF CIVILITY
SAID BY WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON BEFORE THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND, AUGUST, 1776
FROM VARIOUS LETTERS, SPEECHES, AND ADDRESSES
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL TO THE ARMY
PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RESPONSE TO THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR ON
RECEIPT OF THE COLORS OF FRANCE, 1769
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS
XI
EXERCISES
DECORATIONS FOR WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY EXERCISES
SOME YEARS IN WASHINGTON'S LIFE _M. Lizzie Stanley_
SOMETHING BETTER _Clara J. Denton_
THE STATES CROWNING WASHINGTON _Kate Bowles Sherwood_
THE NEW GEORGE WASHINGTON _Anonymous_
IN PRAISE OF WASHINGTON
INTRODUCTION
A good deal of American history was once violently distorted by the
partisanship of the eighteenth century, frozen solid by its icy
formalism, and left thus for the edification of succeeding generations.
For example, it was not until 1868 that Franklin's Autobiography was by
accident given to the world in the simple natural style in which he
wrote it. The book had been "edited" by Franklin's loyalist grandson,
and had been cut and tortured into the pompous, stilted periods that
were supposed to befit the dignity of so important a personage. When
John Bigelow published the original with all its naïveté and homely
turns of phrases and suppressed passages, he shed a flood of light upon
Benjamin Franklin.
But not _such_ a flood as has still more recently been shed upon our
struggle for independence, and the hero who led it.
Mr. Sydney George Fisher[1] has shown how the history of the Revolution
has been garbled by the historians into the story of a struggle between
a villainous monster on the one hand, and a virtuous fairy on the other:
He has shown how a period that is said to have changed the thought of
the world like the epochs of Socrates, of Christ, of the Reformation,
and of the French Revolution, has been described in a series of "able
rhetorical efforts, enlarged Fourth-of-July orations, or pleasing
literary essays on selected phases of the contest." These writers have
ignored the fearful struggle of the patriots with the loyalists, the
early leniency of England as expressed in the conduct of General Howe,
the Clinton-Cornwallis controversy, and many other important subjects.
In short, their design was--as Mr. Wister has happily put it, "to leave
out any facts which spoil the political picture of the Revolution they
chose to paint for our edification; a ferocious, blood-shot tyrant on
the one side, and on the other a compact band of 'Fathers,' downtrodden
and martyred, yet with impeccable linen and bland legs."
In view of this state of affairs, it is not strange that Washington
should have shared in the general misrepresentation. Like Franklin's,
his writings, too, were altered by villainous editors. In his letters,
for example, such a natural phrase as "one hundred thousand dollars will
be but a flea-bite" was changed to "one hundred thousand dollars will be
totally inadequate."
The editors were aided in their refrigerating enterprise by a throng of
partisan biographers, first among whom was the Rev. Mr. Weems, that
arch-manipulator of facts for moral purposes. They were helped also by
many of our old sculptors and painters, who were evidently more
concerned to portray a grand American hero in a wig than to give us a
real man of flesh and blood.
"By such devices," writes Owen Wister,[2] "was a frozen image of George
Washington held up for Americans to admire, rigid with congealed virtue,
ungenial, unreal, to whom from our school-days up we have been paying a
sincere and respectful regard, but a regard without interest, sympathy,
heart--or, indeed, belief. It thrills a true American to the marrow to
learn at last that this far-off figure, this George Washington, this man
of patriotic splendor, the captain and savior of our Revolution, the
self-sacrificing and devoted President, was a man also with a hearty
laugh, with a love of the theater, with a white-hot temper ... a
constant sportsman, fox-hunter, and host...."
"The unfreezing of Washington was begun by Irving, but was in that day a
venture so new and startling, that Irving, gentleman and scholar, went
at it gingerly and with many inferential deprecations. His hand,
however, first broke the ice, and to-day we can see the live and human
Washington, full length. He does not lose an inch by it, and we gain a
progenitor of flesh and blood."
Since Irving the thawing process has been carried on with growing
success by such able biographers as Lodge and Scudder, Hapgood and Ford,
Woodrow Wilson, Owen Wister, and Frederick Trevor Hill.
As yet this new idea of Washington's essential humanity has seemed too
novel and startling to make its way deep into the popular conviction. I
say "new idea." In reality it is a very old idea; only it has been
smothered by the partisan writers of history and biography. Certainly
the accounts of the first celebrations of Washington's Birthday do not
sound as though our ancestors were trying to work up their enthusiasm
over a steel-engraving hero.
"It was the most natural thing," writes Walsh,[3] "for our forefathers
to choose Washington's Birthday as a time for general thanksgiving and
rejoicing, and it is interesting to note that the observance was not
delayed until after the death of Washington. Washington had the
satisfaction of receiving the congratulations of his fellow-citizens
many times upon the return of his birthday, frequently being a guest at
the banquets given in honor of the occasion. In fact, after the
Revolution, Washington's Birthday practically took the place of the
birthday of the various crowned heads of Great Britain, which had always
been celebrated with enthusiasm during colonial times. When independence
was established, all these royal birthdays were cast aside, and the
birthday of Washington naturally became one of the most conspicuous in
the calendar of America's holidays.
"It may be interesting at this time to look back upon those early days
of the republic and see how the newly liberated citizens attested their
admiration for their great general and the first President of their
country. But the people did not wait until Washington was raised to the
highest position his country could give him before honoring his
birthday.
"The first recorded mention of the celebration is said to be the one in
_The Virginia Gazette_ or _The American Advertiser_ of Richmond:
'Tuesday last being the birthday of his Excellency, General Washington,
our illustrious Commander-in-Chief, the same was commemorated here with
the utmost demonstrations of joy.' The day thus celebrated was February
11, 1782, the Old Style in the calendar not having then been everywhere
and for every purpose abandoned. Indeed, the stone placed as late as in
1815 on the site of his birthplace in Westmoreland County, Virginia, had
the following inscription: 'Here, the 11th of February, 1732, George
Washington was born.'
"Twelve months later the 11th was commemorated at Talbot Court-House in
Maryland. On the same day a number of gentlemen met in a tavern in New
York. One had written an ode. Another brought a list of toasts. All,
before they went reeling and singing home, agreed to assemble in future
on the same anniversary and make merry over the birth of Washington.
"Next year they had an ampler opportunity. In the previous October the
British troops had evacuated New York City, which was gradually
recovering from the distresses of the long war. The demonstrations were
not very elaborate, but they were intensely patriotic. In a newspaper of
February 17, 1784, we find an interesting account of this first public
celebration in New York:
"'Wednesday last being the birthday of his Excellency, General
Washington, the same was celebrated here by all the true friends of
American Independence and Constitutional Liberty with that hilarity and
manly decorum ever attendant on the Sons of Freedom. In the evening an
entertainment was given on board the East India ship in this harbor to a
very brilliant and respectable company, and a discharge of thirteen
cannon was fired on this joyful occasion.'
"A club called a 'Select Club of Whigs' assembled in New York on the
evening of February 11, and a brief account of the proceedings at its
meeting was sent to the _New York Gazette_, with an amusing song,
written, it was stated, especially for this occasion. The following
stanzas will serve as a sample of this effusion of poetical patriotism:
Americans, rejoice;
While songs employ the voice,
Let trumpets sound.
The thirteen stripes display
In flags and streamers gay,
'Tis Washington's Birthday,
Let joy abound.
Long may he live to see
This land of liberty
Flourish in peace;
Long may he live to prove
A grateful people's love
And late to heaven remove,
Where joys ne'er cease.
Fill the glass to the brink,
Washington's health we'll drink,
'Tis his birthday.
Glorious deeds he has done,
By him our cause is won,
Long live great Washington!
Huzza! Huzza!
"The following is also an interesting example of newspaper editorial
patriotism which appeared in the _New York Gazette_ at the same time:
'After the Almighty Author of our existence and happiness, to whom, as a
people, are we under the greatest obligations? I know you will answer
"To Washington." That great, that gloriously disinterested man has,
without the idea of pecuniary reward, on the contrary, much to his
private danger, borne the greatest and most distinguished part in our
political salvation. He is now retired from public service, with, I
trust, the approbation of God, his country, and his own heart. But shall
we forget him? No; rather let our hearts cease to beat than an
ungrateful forgetfulness shall sully the part any of us have taken in
the redemption of our country. On this day, the hero enters into the
fifty-third year of his age. Shall such a day pass unnoticed? No; let a
temperate manifestation of joy express the sense we have of the
blessings that arose upon America on that day which gave birth to
Washington. Let us call our children around us and tell them the many
blessings they owe to him and to those illustrious characters who have
assisted him in the great work of the emancipation of our country, and
urge them by such examples to transmit the delights of freedom and
independence to their posterity.'
"It is also interesting to know that New York City was not the only
place in the country remembering Washington's Birthday in this year
1784. The residents of Richmond, Virginia, were not forgetful of the
day, and in the evening an elegant entertainment and ball were given in
the Capitol Building, which, we are informed, were largely attended. So
late as 1796, Kentucky and Virginia persisted in preserving the Old
Style date. But we have documentary evidence that in 1790 the Tammany
Society of New York celebrated the day on February 22. The society had
been organized less than a year, and it is interesting to see that it
did not allow the first Washington's Birthday in its history to pass by
without fitting expressions of regard for the man who was then living in
the city as President of the United States. Washington, at that time,
lived in the lower part of Broadway, a few doors below Trinity Church.
Congress was in session in the old City Hall, on the corner of Wall and
Nassau Streets, now occupied by the Sub-Treasury. New York was the
capital of the country, but it was the last year that it enjoyed that
distinction, for before the close of 1790 the seat of government was
removed to Philadelphia, where it remained until 1800, when permanent
governmental quarters were taken up at Washington. It may be of interest
to know how the founders of this famous political organization
commemorated Washington's Birthday. Fortunately, the complete account of
this first Tammany celebration has been preserved. It was published in
a New York newspaper, a day or two after the event, as follows:
"'At a meeting of the Society of St. Tammany, at their wigwam in this
city, on Monday evening last, after finishing the ordinary business of
the evening, it was unanimously resolved: That the 22d day of February
be, from this day and ever after, commemorated by this society as the
birthday of the Illustrious George Washington, President of the United
States of America. The society then proceeded to the commemoration of
the auspicious day which gave birth to the distinguished chief, and the
following toasts were drank in porter, the produce of the United States,
accompanied with universal acclamations of applause:
1. May the auspicious birthday of our great Grand Sachem, George
Washington, ever be commemorated by all the real sons of St.
Tammany.
2. The birthday of those chiefs who lighted the great Council Fire
in 1775.
3. The glorious Fourth of July, 1776, the birth of American
Independence.
4. The perpetual memory of those Sachems and warriors who have been
called by the Kitchi Manitou to the Wigwam above since the
Revolution.
5. The births of the Sachems and warriors who have presided at the
different council fires of the thirteen tribes since 1776.
6. Our Chief Sachem, who presides over the council fire of our
tribe.
7. The 12th of May, which is the birthday of our titular saint and
patron.
8. The birth of Columbus, our secondary patron.
9. The memory of the great Odagh 'Segte, first Grand Sachem of the
Oneida Nation, and all his successors.
10. The friends and patrons of virtue and freedom from Tammany to
Washington.
11. The birth of the present National Constitution, 17th of
September, 1787.
12. The Sachems and warriors who composed that council.
13. May the guardian genius of freedom pronounce at the birth of
all her sons--Where Liberty dwells, there is his country.
"'After mutual reciprocations of friendship on the joyous occasion, the
society adjourned with their usual order and harmony.'
"In Washington ever since the first President was inaugurated it had
been the practice of the House to adjourn for half an hour to
congratulate him on the happy return of his natal day. But this
observance was dropped in 1796, on account of the animosities excited by
the Jay Treaty.
"The Philadelphians, always patriotic, never allowed Washington's
Birthday to go by without the celebration. In 1793 a number of old
Revolutionary officers belonging to the First Brigade of Pennsylvania
Militia had a 'very splendid entertainment at Mr. Hill's tavern in
Second Street, near Race Street.' According to a Philadelphia newspaper
account, the company was numerous and truly respectable, and among the
guests on that occasion were the Governor of Pennsylvania, Thomas
Mifflin, and Mr. Muhlenberg, Speaker of the House of Representatives. At
all these patriotic banquets it was customary to give as many toasts as
there were States in the Union, so that during the early years we
invariably find that thirteen toasts was the rule. As new States were
added, however, extra toasts were added to the list. Just when this
custom died out can perhaps not be definitely determined, but probably
the rapid increase of the States may have had something to do with it,
as the diners probably saw that it was taxing their drinking abilities
too heavily with the addition of each new State. However, at this
Philadelphia celebration the toasts were fifteen, as two new States had
recently been added, and among some of the most interesting are the
following:
The people of the United States--May their dignity and happiness be
perpetual, and may the gratitude of the Nation be ever commensurate
with their privileges.
The President of the United States--May the evening of his life be
attended with felicity equal to the utility and glory of its
meridian.
The Fair Daughters of America--May the purity, the rectitude, and
the virtues of their mind ever continue equal to their beauty and
external accomplishments.
The Republic of France--Wisdom and stability to her councils,
success to her armies and navies, and may her enemies be
compensated for their defeats by the speedy and general diffusion
of that liberty which they are vainly attempting to suppress.
May Columbia be ever able to boast a Jefferson in council, a
Hamilton in finance, and, when necessary, a Washington to lead her
armies to conquest and glory.
The Day--May such auspicious periods not cease to recur till every
day in the year shall have smiled on Columbia with the birth of a
Washington.
Our Unfortunate Friend the Marquis de Lafayette--May America
become shortly his asylum from indignity and wrong, and may the
noon and evening of his life be yet honorable and happy in the
bosom of that country where its morning shone with such unclouded
splendor.
"In conclusion, the newspaper account of this celebration states that
'the afternoon and evening were agreeably spent in social pleasures and
convivial mirth, and the conduct of the whole company was marked by that
politeness, harmony, and friendship which ought ever to characterize the
intercourse of fellow-citizens and gentlemen.'
"Balls and banquets, it will be seen, were the chief methods employed in
celebrating the day, and there was hardly a town so small that it could
not manage to have at least one of these functions in honor of George
Washington. The early newspapers for a month, and often longer, after
the 22d of February, were filled with brief accounts of these
celebrations from different localities. Many of them are very
interesting, showing, as they do, the patriotism of the people, as well
as their customs and habits in their social entertainments. For
instance, when Washington's Birthday was celebrated in Alexandria,
Virginia, in 1791, the _Baltimore Advertiser_ gives us the following
amusing account of a ball held at Wise's tavern:
"'The meeting was numerous and brilliant. Joy beamed in every
countenance. Sparkling eyes, dimpled cheeks dressed in smiles, prompted
by the occasion, with all the various graces of female beauty,
contributed to heighten the pleasure of the scene. At an interesting
moment a portrait of the President, a striking likeness, was suddenly
exhibited. The illustrious original had been often seen in the same room
in the mild character of a friend, a pleased and pleasing guest. The
song of "God Bless Great Washington, Long Live Great Washington,"
succeeded. In this prayer many voices and all hearts united. May it not
be breathed in vain.'"
In course of time Washington's Birthday was made a legal holiday in one
State after another, until to-day it is legally recognized in every
State but Alabama.
But as it gradually became legalized, so it also became formalized
little by little, until, in some parts of America, the very phrase, "a
Washington's Birthday celebration," came to mean a sort of exercise in
hypocrisy,--a half-hearted attempt to galvanize a dead emotion into
life.
This attitude toward Washington as a man was due largely to the
misrepresentations of the early literature. Three distinct eras in our
regard for him as a public character have been pointed out by Bradley T.
Johnson:[4]
The generation which fought the Revolution, framed and adopted the
Constitution, and established the United States were impressed with
the most profound veneration, the most devoted affection, the most
absolute idolatry for the hero, sage, statesman. In the reaction
that came in the next generation against "the old soldiers," who
for thirty years had assumed all the honors and enjoyed all the
fruits of the victory that they had won, accelerated by the
division in American sentiment for or against the French
Revolution, it came to be felt, as the younger generation always
will feel, that the achievements of the veterans had been greatly
overrated and their demigod enormously exaggerated. They thought,
as English Harry did at Agincourt, that "Old men forget: yet all
shall be forgot, but they'll remember with advantages what feats
they did that day."
The fierce attacks of the Jeffersonian Democracy on Washington, his
principles, his life, and his habits, exercised a potent influence
in diminishing the general respect for his abilities felt by the
preceding generation; and Washington came to be regarded as a
worthy, honest, well-meaning gentleman, but with no capacity for
military and only mediocre ability in civil affairs. This estimate
continued from the beginning of Jefferson's administration to the
first of Grant's. Neither Marshall nor Irving did much during that
period to place him in a proper historical light....
But in the last twenty-five years there has been a steady drift
toward giving Washington his proper place in history and his
appropriate appreciation as soldier and statesman. The general who
never won a battle is now understood to have been the Revolution
itself, and one of the great generals of history. The statesman who
never made a motion, nor devised a measure, nor constructed a
proposition in the convention of which he was president, is
appreciated as the spirit, the energy, the force, the wisdom which
initiated, organized, and directed the formation of the
Constitution of the United States and the Union by, through, and
under it; and therefore it seems now possible to present him as the
Virginian soldier, gentleman, and planter, as a man, the evolution
of the society of which he formed a part, representative of his
epoch, and his surroundings, developed by circumstances into the
greatest character of all time--the first and most illustrious of
Americans.
Henry Cabot Lodge,[5] writing in 1899, was one of the first to discover
"the new Washington." "The real man," he wrote, "has been so overlaid
with myths and traditions, and so distorted by misleading criticisms,
that ... he has been wellnigh lost. We have the religious and statuesque
myth, we have the Weems myth (which turns Washington into a faultless
prig), and the ludicrous myth of the writer of paragraphs. We have the
stately hero of Sparks, and Everett, and Marshall, and Irving, with all
his great deeds as general and President duly recorded and set down in
polished and eloquent sentences; and we know him to be very great and
wise and pure, and, be it said with bated breath, very dry and cold....
In death as in life, there is something about Washington, call it
greatness, dignity, majesty, what you will, which seems to hold men
aloof and keep them from knowing him. In truth he was a difficult man to
know....
"Behind the popular myths, behind the statuesque figure of the orator
and the preacher, behind the general and the President of the historian,
there was a strong, vigorous man, in whose veins ran warm, red blood, in
whose heart were stormy passions and deep sympathy for humanity, in
whose brain were far-reaching thoughts, and who was informed throughout
his being with a resistless will."
It is a shameful thing that there should ever have been any doubt in
American minds of the true significance of Washington either as man or
soldier or statesman. But the writers of our day have decided that--if
they can help it--the sins of the fathers are not going to be visited
upon "the third and fourth generation." The call has gone out for modern
champions of our ancient champion; and literature has responded with a
will.
It takes long, however, to straighten out a national misconception. The
new literature has not yet had time to take hold of the popular
imagination. But when it does, and when we cease to regard the Father of
our Country as a demigod, and begin to love him as a man, then
Washington's Birthdays everywhere will lose their stiff, perfunctory,
bloodless character, and recover the inspiring, emotional quality of the
early celebrations.
R.H.S.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In "The True History of the American Revolution" and "The Struggle
for American Independence."
[2] "The Seven Ages of Washington."
[3] In "Curiosities of Popular Customs."
[4] "General Washington."
[5] Introduction to "George Washington."
I
THE DAY
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY[6]
BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Welcome to the day returning,
Dearer still as ages flow,
While the torch of Faith is burning,
Long as Freedom's altars glow!
See the hero whom it gave us
Slumbering on a mother's breast;
For the arm he stretched to save us
Be its morn forever blest!
Vain is empire's mad temptation!
Not for him an earthly crown!
He whose sword has freed a nation
Strikes the offered scepter down.
See the throneless conqueror seated,
Ruler by a people's choice;
See the patriot's task completed;
Hear the Father's dying voice:
"By the name that you inherit,
By the sufferings you recall,
Cherish the fraternal spirit;
Love your country first of all!
Listen not to idle questions
If its bands may be untied;
Doubt the patriot whose suggestions
Strive a nation to divide."
Father! we, whose ears have tingled
With the discord notes of shame;
We, whose sires their blood have mingled
In the battle's thunder-flame,--
Gathering, while this holy morning
Lights the land from sea to sea,
Hear thy counsel, heed thy warning;
Trust us while we honor thee.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] _By permission of the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin & Co_.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY
BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER
'Tis splendid to live so grandly
That long after you are gone,
The things you did are remembered,
And recounted under the sun;
To live so bravely and purely,
That a nation stops on its way,
And once a year, with banner and drum,
Keeps its thought of your natal day.
'Tis splendid to have a record,
So white and free from stain
That, held to the light, it shows no blot,
Though tested and tried amain;
That age to age forever
Repeats its story of love,
And your birthday lives in a nation's heart,
All other days above.
And this is Washington's glory,
A steadfast soul and true,
Who stood for his country's honor
When his country's days were few.
And now when its days are many,
And its flag of stars is flung
To the breeze in defiant challenge,
His name is on every tongue.
Yes, it's splendid to live so bravely,
To be so great and strong,
That your memory is ever a tocsin
To rally the foes of the wrong;
To live so proudly and purely
That your people pause in their way,
And year by year, with banner and drum,
Keep the thought of your natal day.
* * * * *
THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON
ANONYMOUS
The birthday of the "Father of his Country!" May it ever be freshly
remembered by American hearts! May it ever reawaken in them a filial
veneration for his memory; ever rekindle the fires of patriotic regard
for the country which he loved so well, to which he gave his youthful
vigor and his youthful energy; to which he devoted his life in the
maturity of his powers, in the field; to which again he offered the
counsels of his wisdom and his experience as president of the convention
that framed our Constitution; which he guided and directed while in the
chair of state, and for which the last prayer of his earthly
supplication was offered up, when it came the moment for him so well,
and so grandly, and so calmly, to die. He was the first man of the time
in which he grew. His memory is first and most sacred in our love, and
ever hereafter, till the last drop of blood shall freeze in the last
American heart, his name shall be a spell of power and of might.
Yes, gentlemen, there is one personal, one vast felicity, which no man
can share with him. It was the daily beauty and towering and matchless
glory of his life which enabled him to create his country, and at the
same time secure an undying love and regard from the whole American
people. "The first in the hearts of his countrymen!" Yes, first! He has
our first and most fervent love. Undoubtedly there were brave and wise
and good men before his day, in every colony. But the American nation,
as a nation, I do not reckon to have begun before 1774, and the first
love of that young America was Washington. The first word she lisped was
his name. Her earliest breath spoke it. It still is her proud
ejaculation; and it will be the last gasp of her expiring life! Yes;
others of our great men have been appreciated--many admired by all--but
him we love; him we all love. About and around him we call up no
dissentient, discordant, and dissatisfied elements--no sectional
prejudice nor bias--no party, no creed, no dogma of politics. None of
these shall assail him. Yes; when the storm of battle blows darkest and
rages highest, the memory of Washington shall nerve every American arm
and cheer every American heart. It shall relume that Promethean fire,
that sublime flame of patriotism, that devoted love of country, which
his words have commended, which his example has consecrated.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY
BY GEORGE HOWLAND
Welcome, thou festal morn!
Never be passed in scorn
Thy rising sun,
Thou day forever bright
With Freedom's holy light,
That gave the world the sight
Of Washington.
Unshaken 'mid the storm,
Behold that noble form--
That peerless one--
With his protecting hand,
Like Freedom's angel stand
The guardian of our land,
Our Washington.
Then with each coming year,
Whenever shall appear
That natal sun,
Will we attest the worth,
Of one true man to earth,
And celebrate the birth
Of Washington.
Traced there in lines of light,
Where all pure rays unite,
Obscured by none;
Brightest on history's page,
Of any clime or age,
As chieftain, man, and sage,
Stands Washington.
Name at which tyrants pale,
And their proud legions quail,
Their boasting done;
While Freedom lifts her head,
No longer filled with dread,
Her sons to victory led
By Washington.
Now the true patriot see,
The foremost of the free,
The victory won.
In Freedom's presence bow,
While sweetly smiling now,
She wreaths the smiling brow
Of Washington.
Then with each coming year,
Whenever shall appear
That natal sun,
Shall we attest the worth
Of one true man to earth,
And celebrate the birth
Of Washington.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON AND OUR SCHOOLS AND
COLLEGES
BY CHARLES W. ELIOT
The brief phrase--the schools and colleges of the United States--is a
formal and familiar one; but what imagination can grasp the infinitude
of human affections, powers, and wills which it really comprises? But
let us forget the outward things called schools and colleges, and summon
up the human beings. Imagine the eight million children actually in
attendance at the elementary schools of the country brought before your
view. Each unit in this mass speaks of a glad birth, a brightened home,
a mother's pondering heart, a father's careful joy. In all that
multitude, every little heart bounds and every eye shines at the name
of Washington.
The two hundred and fifty thousand boys and girls in the secondary
schools are getting a fuller view of this incomparable character than
the younger children can reach. They are old enough to understand his
civil as well as his military achievements. They learn of his great part
in that immortal Federal convention of 1787, of his inestimable services
in organizing and conducting through two Presidential terms the new
Government,--services of which he alone was capable,--and of his firm
resistance to misguided popular clamor. They see him ultimately
victorious in war and successful in peace, but only through much
adversity and many obstacles.
Next, picture to yourselves the sixty thousand students in colleges and
universities--selected youth of keen intelligence, wide reading, and
high ambition. They are able to compare Washington with the greatest men
of other times and countries, and to appreciate the unique quality of
his renown. They can set him beside the heroes of romance and
history--beside David, Alexander, Pericles, Cæsar, Saladin,
Charlemagne, Gustavus Adolphus, John Hampden, William the Silent, Peter
of Russia, and Frederick the Great, only to find him a nobler human type
than any one of them, more complete in his nature, more happy in his
cause, and more fortunate in the issues of his career. They are taught
to see in him a soldier whose sword wrought only mercy and justice for
mankind; a statesman who steadied a remarkable generation of public men
by his mental poise and exalted them by his singleness of heart; and a
ruler whose exercise of power established for the time on earth a
righteous government by all and for all.
And what shall I say on behalf of the three hundred and sixty thousand
teachers of the United States? None of them are rich or famous; most of
them are poor, retiring, and unnoticed; but it is they who are building
a perennial monument to Washington. It is they who give him a
million-tongued fame. They make him live again in the young hearts of
successive generations, and fix his image there as the American ideal of
a public servant. It is through the schools and colleges and the
national literature that the heroes of any people win lasting renown;
and it is through these same agencies that a nation is molded into the
likeness of its heroes.
The commemoration of any one great event in the life of Washington and
of the United States is well, but it is nothing compared with the
incessant memorial of him which the schools and colleges of the country
maintain from generation to generation. What a reward is Washington's!
What an influence is his and will be! One mind and will transfused by
sympathetic instruction into millions; one life pattern for all public
men, teaching what greatness is and what the pathway to undying fame!
* * * * *
CROWN OUR WASHINGTON
BY HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH
Arise! 'tis the day of our Washington's glory;
The garlands uplift for our liberties won.
Oh sing in your gladness his echoing story,
Whose sword swept for freedom the fields of the sun!
Not with gold, nor with gems,
But with evergreens vernal,
And the banners of stars that the continent span,
Crown, crown we the chief of the heroes eternal,
Who lifted his sword for the birthright of man!
He gave us a nation to make it immortal;
He laid down for Freedom the sword that he drew,
And his faith leads us on through the uplifting portal
Of the glories of peace and our destinies new.
Not with gold, nor with gems,
But with evergreens vernal,
And the flags that the nations of liberty span,
Crown, crown him the chief of the heroes eternal,
Who laid down his sword for the birthright of man!
Lead, Face of the Future, serene in thy beauty,
Till o'er the dead heroes the peace star shall gleam,
Till Right shall be Might in the counsels of duty,
And the service of man be life's glory supreme.
Not with gold, nor with gems,
But with evergreens vernal,
And the flags that the nations in brotherhood span,
Crown, crown we the chief of the heroes eternal,
Whose honor was gained by his service to man!
O Spirit of Liberty, sweet are thy numbers!
The winds to thy banners their tribute shall bring
While rolls the Potomac where Washington slumbers,
And his natal day comes with the angels of spring.
We follow thy counsels,
O hero eternal!
To highest achievement thy school leads the van,
And, crowning thy brow with the evergreen vernal,
We pledge thee our all to the service of man!
* * * * *
WASHINGTON-MONTH[7]
BY WILL CARLETON
February--February--
How your moods and actions vary
Or to seek or shun!
Now a smile of sunlight lifting,
Now in chilly snowflakes drifting;
Now with icy shuttles creeping
Silver webs are spun.
Now, with leaden torrents leaping,
Oceanward you run,
Now with bells you blithely sing,
'Neath the stars or sun;
Now a blade of burdock bring
To the suffering one;
February--you are very
Dear, when all is done:
Many blessings rest above you,
You one day (and so we love you)
Gave us Washington.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] _By permission of the author_.
II
EARLY YEARS
A GLIMPSE OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE
BY GRACE B. JOHNSON
From _The Christian Endeavor World_
Seldom visited and almost unknown is the Wakefield Farm in Virginia, the
birthplace of our first President. Recent attempts have been made to
popularize the place, but there is little to attract the ordinary
traveler; and its distance from a city makes excursions impracticable.
Lying on the Potomac River, about seventy miles below the city of
Washington, one edge of the estate reaches down a steep, wooded bank to
dip into the water, while, stretching back, it rambles on in grassy
meadows and old stubble-fields to the corn-lands and orchards of the
adjoining plantations. Skirting the land on one side is Pope's Creek,
formerly Bridges' Creek, which in Washington's time was used as the main
approach to the estate. On this side there is an easy, undulating slope;
but this entrance has been abandoned. Only at high tide can small boats
enter the creek, and another way had to be adopted. An iron pier nearly
two miles away has been built, and is the landing-place for large and
small craft.
All is quiet here now. There is only the rustle of the leaves, the
drowsy hum of insects, and the interrupted discourse of the
preacher-bird in the clump of trees near which stood the first home of
Washington, to break the stillness on a summer day. No one lives here.
Indeed, no one has lived here since the fire which destroyed the house
and negro cabins, in Washington's boyhood. But here the baby life was
spent, in the homestead founded by his great-grandfather, John
Washington, who came from England in 1657.
Only a heap of broken bits grown over with catnip showed the place of
the great brick chimney the first time I visited the farm; and the
second time these, too, were gone. Now a plain, graceful shaft, bearing
the simple inscription, "Washington's Birthplace," and below, "Erected
by the United States, A.D. 1895," marks the place.
From the monument through the trees, can be seen the gleaming river,
rippling its way silently to the bay, and over all rests the same
brooding sense of peace and quietness which one feels at Mt. Vernon or
at Arlington, the city of our nation's dead.
* * * * *
SOMETHING OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S
BOYHOOD
ANONYMOUS
From _The Evangelist_
George Washington was born at a time when savagery had just departed
from the country, leaving freshness and vigor behind. The Indian had
scarcely left the woods, and the pirate the shore near his home. His
grandfather had seen his neighbor lying tomahawked at his door-sill, and
his father had helped to chase beyond the mountains the whooping savages
that carried the scalps of his friends at their girdle. The year his
brother was born, John Maynard's ship had sailed up the James River with
the bloody head of Blackbeard hanging to the bowsprit.
He had only one uncle, a brother Lawrence, and a cousin Augustine, all
older than he, but the youngest of his older brothers was twelve years
of age when George was born, while his cousin Augustine was only four
years older, and his cousin Lawrence six years older than himself. When
he was seven years old his sister Betty was a little lass of six. Two
brothers, Samuel and John, were nearing their fourth and fifth
birthdays. Charles, his baby brother, was still in his nurse's arms.
Early the shadow of death crossed his boyish path, for his baby sister,
Mildred, born soon after he was seven, died before he was nine.
The first playmate Washington had, out of his own immediate family, was
another Lawrence Washington, a very distant cousin, who lived at Chotauk
on the Potomac, and who, with his brother, Robert Washington, early won
Washington's regard, and kept it through life. When Washington made his
will he remembered them, writing, "to the acquaintances and friends of
my juvenile years, Lawrence Washington and Robert Washington, I give my
other two gold-headed canes having my arms engraved on them."
It was at Chotauk, with Lal and Bob Washington, that George Washington
first met with traffic between the old world and the new. There was no
money used except tobacco notes, which passed among merchants in London
and Amsterdam as cash. Foreign ships brought across the ocean goods that
the Virginians needed, and the captains sold the goods for these tobacco
notes. Much of Washington's time was spent with these boys, and when he
grew old he recalled the young eyes of the Chotauk lads, as they, with
him, had stood on the river-bank vainly trying to see clearly some
object beyond vision, and in memory of the time he wrote in his will,
"To each I leave one of my spy-glasses which constituted part of my
equipage during the late war."
Of Washington's first school there is no record or tradition other than
that gathered by Parson Weems. He says: "The first place of education to
which George was ever sent was a little old field school kept by one of
his father's tenants, named Hobby, an honest, poor old man, who acted
in the double capacity of sexton and schoolmaster. Of his skill as a
gravedigger tradition is silent; but for a teacher of youth his
qualifications were certainly of the humbler sort, making what is
generally called an A, B, C schoolmaster. While at school under Mr.
Hobby he used to divide his playmates into parties and armies. One of
them was called the French and the other American. A big boy named
William Bustle commanded the former; George commanded the latter, and
every day with cornstalks for muskets and calabashes [gourds] for drums,
the two armies would turn out and march and fight."
* * * * *
WASHINGTON'S TRAINING
BY CHARLES WENTWORTH UPHAM
Among the mountain passes of the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, a youth
is seen employed in the manly and invigorating occupation of a surveyor,
and awakening the admiration of the backwoodsmen and savage chieftains
by the strength and endurance of his frame and the resolution and energy
of his character. In his stature and conformation he is a noble specimen
of a man. In the various exercises of muscular power, on foot, or in the
saddle, he excels all competitors. His admirable physical traits are in
perfect accordance with the properties of his mind and heart; and over
all, crowning all, is a beautiful, and, in one so strong, a strange
dignity of manner, and of mien--a calm seriousness, a sublime
self-control, which at once compels the veneration, attracts the
confidence, and secures the favor of all who behold him. That youth is
the Leader whom Heaven is preparing to conduct America through her
approaching trial.
As we see him voluntarily relinquishing the enjoyments, luxuries, and
ease of the opulent refinement in which he was born and bred, and
choosing the perils and hardships of the wilderness; as we follow him
fording swollen streams, climbing rugged mountains, breasting the forest
storms, wading through snowdrifts, sleeping in the open air, living upon
the coarse food of hunters and of Indians, we trace with devout
admiration the divinely appointed education he was receiving to enable
him to meet and endure the fatigues, exposures, and privations of the
War of Independence.
Soon he was called to a more public sphere of action; and we again,
follow him in his romantic adventures as he travels the far-off
wilderness, a special messenger to the French commander on the Ohio, and
afterwards, when he led forth the troops of Virginia in the same
direction, or accompanied the ill-starred Braddock to the blood-stained
banks of the Monongahela. Everywhere we see the hand of God conducting
him into danger, that he might extract from it the wisdom of an
experience not otherwise to be obtained, and develop those heroic
qualities by which alone danger and difficulty can be surmounted; but
all the while covering him with a shield.