not left doubtful. They are to be found in the Constitution itself, in the great measures recommended and approved by him, in his speeches to Congress, and in that most interesting paper, his Farewell Address to the people of the United States. The success of the government under his administration is the highest proof of the soundness of these principles. And, after an experience of thirty-five years, what is there which an enemy could condemn? What is there which either his friends, or the friends of the country, could wish to have been otherwise? I speak, of course, of great measures and leading principles.

All his measures were right in their intent. He stated the whole basis of his own great character, when he told the country, in the homely phrase of the proverb, that honesty is the best policy. One of the most striking things ever said of him is, "that he changed mankind's ideas of political greatness." To commanding talents, and to success, the common elements of such greatness, he added a disregard of self, a spotlessness of motive, a steady submission to every public and private duty, which threw far into the shade the whole crowd of vulgar great.2 The object of his regard was the whole country. No part of it was enough to fill his enlarged patriotism. His love of glory, so far as that may be supposed to have influenced him at all, spurned every thing short of general approbation. It would have been nothing to him, that his partisans or his favorites outnumbered or outvoted or outmanaged or

1 thirty-five years. How many years now?

2 vulgar great. Explain this striking phrase.

outclamored1 those of other leaders. He had no favorites; he rejected all partisanship; and, acting honestly for the universal good, he deserved, what he has so richly enjoyed, the universal love.

3

His principle it was2 to act right, and to trust the people for support; his principle it was not to follow the lead of sinister and selfish ends, or to rely on the little arts of party delusion to obtain public sanction for such a course. Born for his country and for the world, he did not give up to party what was meant for mankind. The consequence is, that his fame is as durable as his principles, as lasting as truth and virtue themselves. While the hundreds whom party excitement and temporary circumstances and casual combinations have raised into transient notoriety, sink again, like thin bubbles,5 bursting and dissolving into the great ocean, Washington's fame is like the rock which bounds that ocean, and at whose feet its billows are destined to break harmlessly for ever.

Gentlemen, Washington's Farewell Address is full of truths important at all times, and particularly deserv

1 outclamored, a word not in | poem Goldsmith speaks of our the dictionary, but with an obvi- good Edmund" (that is, Burke) as ous meaning.

2 His principle it was. Note the rhetorical use of the double subject, noun (“principle") and representative pronoun (“it”).

8 sinister. See Webster.

4 Born ... mankind. This is an allusion to Goldsmith's famous characterization of Burke, in the poem entitled Retaliation. In this

one

ing consideration at the present.1 With a sagacity which brought the future before him, and made it like the present, he saw and pointed out the dangers that even at this moment most imminently threaten us.2 I hardly know how a greater service of that kind could now be done to the community, than by a renewed and wide diffusion of that admirable paper, and an earnest invitation to every man in the country to re-peruse 3 and consider it. Its political maxims are invaluable; its exhortation to love of country and to brotherly affection among citizens, touching; and the solemnity with which it urges the observance of moral duties, and impresses the power of religious obligation, gives to it the highest character of truly disinterested, sincere, parental advice.

4

Among other admonitions, Washington has left us, in his last communication to his country, an exhortation against the excesses of party spirit. A fire not to be quenched, he yet conjures us not to fan and feed the flame.5 Undoubtedly, gentlemen, it is the greatest danger of our system and of our time. Undoubtedly, if that system should be overthrown, it will be the work of excessive party spirit, acting on the government, which is dangerous enough, or acting in the government, which is a thousand times more dangerous; for

1 at the present. When was this speech made? What circumstances made Washington's Farewell Address "particularly deserving consideration" then?

2 With a sagacity... us. Period, or loose sentence?

3

re-peruse. What is the force of the prefix re?

4 maxims. See Webster.

5 A fire, etc. What is the figure of speech?

...

6 on the government . . . in the government. Explain.

government then becomes nothing but organized party, and, in the strange vicissitudes of human affairs, it may come at last, perhaps, to exhibit the singular paradox1 of government itself being in opposition to its own powers, at war with the very elements of its own existence. Such cases are hopeless. As men may be protected against murder, but can not be guarded against suicide, so government may be shielded from the assaults of external foes, but nothing can save it when it chooses to lay violent hands on itself.

There was in the breast of Washington one sentiment so deeply felt, so constantly uppermost, that no proper occasion escaped without its utterance. From the letter which he signed in behalf of the Convention when the Constitution was sent out to the people, to the moment when he put his hand to that last paper in which he addressed his countrymen, the Union - the Union was the great object of his thoughts.2 Here, in his judgment, was the great magazine3 of all our means of prosperity; here, as he thought, and as every American still thinks, are deposited all our animating prospects, all our solid hopes for future greatness. He has taught us to maintain this Union, not by seeking to enlarge the powers of the government, on the one hand, nor by surrendering them, on the other; but by an administration of them at once firm and moderate, pursuing objects truly national, and carried on in a spirit of justice and equity. The extreme solicitude

1 paradox. See Glossary.

2 the Union... thoughts. And so it was with Webster.

3 magazine, storehouse.

4 prospects... hopes. What is the distinction?

1

for the preservation of the Union, at all times manifested by him, shows not only the opinion he entertained of its importance, but his clear perception of those causes 1 which were likely to spring up to endanger it, and which, if once they should overthrow the present system, would leave little hope of any future beneficial reunion.

Washington could regard, and did regard, nothing as of paramount 2 political interest but the integrity of the Union itself. With a united government, well administered, he saw we had nothing to fear; and without it, nothing to hope. The sentiment is just, and its momentous truth should solemnly impress the whole country. If we might regard our country as personated in the spirit of Washington; if we might consider him as representing her in her past renown, her present prosperity, and her future career, and as in that character demanding 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?5 Or how should he answer him who dwells perpetually on local interests, and fans every kindling flame of local prejudice? How should he answer him who would array State against State, interest against interest, and party against party, care

1 those causes: that is, sectional differences.

2 paramount. See Webster.

3 nothing to fear. . . nothing to hope. What is the figure of speech?

ber+ment, the condition when the members (States) are put asunder (dis) each from each.

6 local interests. Explain this

4 personated, represented, sym-expression. bolized.

7 array. Give a synonym,