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THE CAREER AND THE WORDS 
 
 OF WASHINGTON 
 
 Coi'tainly at a tinio liUe this, tlioush wp may hopn to say littlo. if 
 anything, new. we can. whether Ifemocrats or Kepiiblicans. wirhoiit 
 de!)ale or controversy, take couusel with ourselves as to some of the 
 I'nderlyin;;- consideraticns whicli have made our Nation wliat it is. and 
 which, it' i'dliered to. will kcop it stronji' and righteous and capable of 
 rcsolvinjr tl;e dorU)ts and surviviny; tlie dangers lil;,?ly to confront us as 
 time socs on : and to v.-hat wellsprinsr so refreshiris; and invigorating 
 can wo l;etier have reconrse than to tlie career ant! to the words of 
 Wasiiingtcn I 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. OSCAR AV. UNDERWOQ]) 
 
 DEI.n'iCItED AT THE ANNTAL BAKQUi'-T Ol' TIIIC 
 
 STATE ^'OCIETV OF THE CINCINNATI. HELD 
 
 IN FHILADELPHIA, PA., ON ^VA.SII- 
 
 INGTON'S BlUTHUAY 
 
 FEP.RUARY 22, 1912 
 
 33r.:{2— lOGT' 
 
 WASITINcnOX 
 
 11) IJ 
 
.U5Cs> 
 
 Gift 
 Author 
 
 <fWMiU 
 
 J*N 11 ;9/8 
 
A D D R ESS 
 
 OF 
 
 IIOX. OSCAR W. UNDEEWOOl). 
 
 '• Surely by no other body could this great aniii versa ry of the 
 Nation lie more apiiropiiately eelebrated than by yc^mr society 
 of siHendid traditions, for Washington not only toolv an impor- 
 tant part in its formation. l)ut. in large measure, beeame its 
 directing he.-id during the early days when its continued exist- 
 ence was tlireatened Iiy advers-e criticism. 
 
 "Those of you wiio enjoy membership in tliis society may well 
 be congratulated, for it is a privilege greater tlian memiiership 
 in any order of aristocracy or nobility of however disi ingnislied 
 ranic or ta-igin. because eligibility for it means that you can 
 trace your ancestry back to the great men who served this Na- 
 tion in an accomplishmeni which has had more to do than any 
 other single event with the shai)ing of the political progress 
 not only of this country but of the world. 
 
 IMPORT.VXCE of COilMEMOKATlVE EXEKCISKS. 
 
 "All of us. however, that have not this privilege may have a 
 share which should not yield even to you in gratitude to those 
 who wrought such monientous things. And it is on such occa- 
 sions as this, which are altogether too few, that duty and 
 interest as well should prompt us to resolve to see to it that 
 grave matters aflectiHg the public welfare shall not hereafter, 
 as often as they have lieen in the past, be subordinated to our 
 personal or iiolitical affairs. In such a way we shall make the 
 wisest use of this day. 
 
 " The place and the time are not appropriate for us to at- 
 tempt anything like an inventory of our assets as a people, for, 
 as men of different political faith, we might not be in accord as 
 to how the inventory should be taken. There are some acquisi- 
 ?.a5:'.2— 10G77 3 
 
tions we bavo made wliicli. from my rioint of view, are to be 
 regarded as niifortunate, since in securing tliem it inay be said 
 that we liave overloolced wliat concerned our national well- 
 being. All of us at times are capable of forgetting tbat things 
 in life have a relative as well as an absolute value. If, in ob- 
 taining something, we have lost something, we are not, in mak- 
 ing up the items of our resources, whether national or personal, 
 to disregard the debits; but we are to have a balance sheet so 
 that we know how it really is with u.s. The headlong rush for 
 possessions or advantage exposes us to the risk of many a 
 rough fall; and as time goes on the homely adage. 'All is not 
 gain that is got into the i)urse.' has a widening application to 
 nations as well as to men. 
 
 Suii.iECT Stated. 
 "Yet certainly at a time like this, though we may hope to 
 say little, if anything, new, we can, whether Democrats or Re- 
 publicans, without debate or controver.sy. take counsel with our- 
 selves as to some of the underlying considerations which have 
 made our Nation what it is, and which, if adhered to, will keep 
 it strong and righteous and capable of resolving the doubts and 
 surviving the dangers likely to confront us as time goes on; 
 and to what wellspring so refreshing and invigorating can we 
 better have recourse than to the career and to the words of 
 Washington! Some of us have no great respect for the so- 
 called referendum; but we all ought to approve of a referendum 
 of what politically is new and untried and uncertain and of 
 doubtful worth to his counsel, from which proceciled always light 
 and judgment. 
 
 Honor IIoll of the Founders. 
 
 " It is an inspiration to the loyal American citizen merely to 
 call the roll of the men in wliose brain and heart was born the 
 concei)tion of the Ilepublic. who laid its foundations so deep and 
 lasting that there is no height to which we might not build, 
 whereon to keep burning a great light for our guidance and for 
 the guidance of all people ; who drew a Declaration of Independ- 
 ence which voiced, as it has never been voiced before, the long- 
 ing of men for political liberty; who carried the Colonies 
 through a well-nigh hopeless struggle; who devised the Articles 
 33.532— 10G77 
 
of CoafeLleratimi — that ' finii league of frifiulshiii ' — a? a. 
 niodns vivtMidi for a people mulor anus, and then supplemented 
 it with a Constitution that welded together into an indissoluble 
 Union the interests to which war liad liiven only temporary co- 
 hesion — a Constitution whieh. under the interpretation of John 
 Marshall, was to be, as he said, a docunsent not of delinitlon but 
 of enumeration, and therefore of increasing and broadening sij:;- 
 nificance such as perhaps no other siuiilar wrilini;' before has 
 ever had. 
 
 '■'There were giants in the earth in those days." In no other 
 period in our history, ov perhaps of the history of tlie world, 
 were there gathered together so many gifted men. each with his 
 special capacity for contribution to the success of a natioifs 
 cause, as Washington. JelTerson. Franklin, ^Madison, Patrick 
 Henry, the Adamses, Edmund Randolph. liobert Morris. Charles 
 Carroll, of Carrollton, and James Wilson, too. so intiniat(>ly iden- 
 tified with this Commonwealth of Peunsylvan.ia, and all the other 
 heroes of disci)utent, of war, of reconstruction, or of the estab- 
 lishment of the Tnion. 
 
 '"To sliine at all in such a galaxy was to shed a great light; 
 but the calm and steady light of "Washington was, l)y conunon 
 consent, the brightest in glory there. In peculiar c(piipment 
 for each class of work required to be done, he may have been 
 outshone. The protest against English misrule may have come 
 from better-disciiilined minds than his; even more brilliant mili- 
 tarj- resourcefulness llian he posse.ssed tliere may have been; in 
 constructive statesmansiiip he perhaps had lils superiors; in 
 knowledge of the political [iroblems to be worked out by tlio 
 American Colonies through a constitiUloual form of governn)eut, 
 his insight was not always the clearest. 
 
 Ci:mt!!ai, Ficip.K OF Tin-: TiMiis. 
 
 "Nevertheless, it can be confidently said that Wa.shinglon 
 combined in himself, more than did anyone else, a greater 
 number of those unique (jualities esscntird to u;ake what might 
 easily have been a crude experiment of revolt a success upon 
 which the world still looks witli increasing admiration. In tlie 
 prosecution of Mie war v.-ith unrivaled p;itieufe under disheart- 
 ening conditions and numberless privations and cruel disap- 
 3a.j:'.2— 10077 
 
6 
 
 poiiiliiK'nls: ill liis conU-i))uli(!n to llie steps Icadius up ^"^ ll'e 
 Coiistitutioim] Convention, during all the time from the first 
 meeting of the Virginia and Maryland commissioners down to 
 the calling and holding of the convention; in his advice to that 
 convention and in his lu'csiding over it; in his administration 
 of the Presidency, where he pnt aside the petty things of iiolitics; 
 in his relinquishiiient of otiice when, for the aslcing, it was 
 within Ills possession during all the years of his life, Washing- 
 ton, in intinence and wisdom and judgment, is the central figure 
 of those times, and in just fame stands alone. And should we 
 ask ourselves to-night which of these men could have been 
 spared in the work tliat was accomplished, we coirld not, with 
 all our ;idmiratiou for any other man. conceive the outcome 
 iis it was witliout the cnnunanding presence of AVashington. 
 
 " He did not I'luesee all the perplexing problems with which 
 .we have to dc il to-day in our tariff or in our great corporations, 
 in our currency, in our foreign possessions, or in a reconcilia- 
 tion of the rights of lal)or and capital; he did not fores(>e the 
 vast task we all have, whether native or foreign born, of taking 
 the new material constaidly coming to our shores aiul assimilat- 
 ing it into our growth and molding it into a loyal and intelli- 
 gent support of our institutions; he did not foresee the menace 
 of destructive socialism nor the extent to which, unfortunately, 
 we were to go in substituting parly interest for iioliticid principle, 
 tliough as to this he g;ive us paternal warning. Nevertheless ho 
 did foresee suliicient of our problems to be able to commend to 
 us a course the lu'iuciples of which, if steadily adhered to, 
 should bring us safely through all the perils to which we may be 
 exposed. While he did not outline the by-laws, so to speak, 
 that nuist, from time to time, he framed and adopted for the 
 detailed life of this country, he <lid understand as no one else 
 understood the organic principles upon which were to rest the 
 security and the welfare of our national life. And subject al- 
 ways to his urgent advice against permanent alliances with 
 foreign powers, like a high- priest among men he preached the 
 gospel of tolerance, of benevolence, of peace, of reasonableness, 
 and of righteousness tow;;rd all peoples. 
 S35o:i — 10G77 
 
*' Ndl wiiliout faults. I'.o!: willitml liiiiitalioiis of iutt^'Iligt'iice 
 or of tlioso qualities which so to make un tlu' porfoct uuui, 
 Washiiij,'toii niaiiifcsted in word and doed the best that has gone 
 to dignify and make great and honored Anserican manhood. 
 When there is tak(>n into consideration what he did for us and 
 for the iieoiiles of the earth tha^ have followed or are ready to 
 adopt our example by transferring so nuieli of his eoneentions 
 and aceonipllshment as may be made to take root and grow in 
 their soils; what he did toward establishing the principle that 
 men ha.ve the eapaeity to govern themselves, ;iud that those 
 cho.'^'en to represent the people are (o be their s(>rv;!iits and not 
 their rulers, and tliat publie officials are engr.ged iu the admiu- 
 i.siration of a trust; whi'n we eonsid(>r that bid for his Iriuni- 
 pl'.aut leadership this Kepublie would never, perhaps, have been 
 born, and that but for the example of his suecessful adnuidstra- 
 tion of the I'resldeney the experiment of self-govenimenl udght 
 have eollaiised or retrograded into a kingdom, we must all agree 
 tiiat Washington performed a service for us and ojir p;;sterily 
 and for all the nations of the earth greater tl'.an any like 
 service ever performed by the nobiiiiy or the genius or the Siierl- 
 fice of any other one man. 
 
 F.\I!l:wi;ll Ai)i!i;!:.si-;. 
 
 "To app.reciate the bold outlines of his personality and at 
 the same time the patriarchal attitude he was entitled to as- 
 sume toward the Republic which was s^o much of his own mak- 
 ing, we have only to read liis Farewell Address — that Vionderful 
 product of affection and intelligence and insight. We can not 
 think of it as written liy any one of his contemporaries. The 
 tone of it forbids this. Not one of them could have made use, 
 of its language without being open to ihe charge of affeclatiou 
 or arrogance. The words of dignity and iu.junction and warn- 
 ing came naturally from him, for they were tlie words of the 
 guardian to the Nation as his ward. or. as he said, of an old and 
 affectionate friend. He v\as the (Gamaliel at whose feet tlio 
 people sought wisdom. He was. in truth, the Father of his 
 Comitry. as he enjoined upon us all those virtues and i)racl!ces 
 which can keep iis strong and just and prosperous at home and 
 respected in the councils of the world. 
 
 33532—10077 
 
Lessons of His Life — Ciiaractesistics. 
 " So iiiany are tlie lessons we can gather from bis life and his 
 work that one is jnstifledin saying that on an occasion like this 
 (lie time is too limited even to enumerate them. Yet there are 
 one or two things which we may well recall at a time when so 
 many of ns are disposed to seize upon the first expedient which 
 seems to make for popularity or progress and when old-fash- 
 ioned truths give way to strange doctrine ; for, unlike many of 
 us, he did not, in conduct or In speech, seem of the view that a 
 tiling fs neeessariiy valuable because it is new. Courageous, but 
 regardful of the value of precedent, certainly with Truth it can 
 be said tjiat he had what a distinguished foreign diplomat re- 
 cently declared we as a people have — the tenacity of tradition 
 and the audacity of progress. 
 
 " The lines of calm serenity and determination along which 
 Washington worked out his life were rarely varied. I'ersistent 
 of purpose, he was never obstinate or unreasonable in judgment 
 nor without the realization that the means to be selected must 
 have reference to the end to be attained; he did not make of 
 consistency a fetich, but change of plan with him was a matter 
 of deliberation and conviction; he accommodated the plans of 
 liis official life, as he did his plans as a general, to the need of 
 the hour, making use of all the resources he could command for 
 the purpose of influencing men l)y conversion to a course of 
 action believed by him to favor the successful outcome of worthy 
 effort. Not without a shrewdness far beyond that which we are 
 accustomed to attiibute to him, he never resorted to measui'es 
 or methods that were cheap or beneath his dignity. Seeing groat 
 .visions, he was no mere dreamer of dreams; and what he ac- 
 complished for political liberty in association with the develop- 
 ment of our national prosperity is an object lesson to us all 
 that the ideal may go hand in hand with the practical for the 
 realization of its highest ambition. He v,-as patient and for- 
 bearing under unjust censure and coarse libel, and displayed, 
 charity toward friends and enemies as each class had the need 
 for it ; he could be what so many of us find it impossible to be — 
 temperate in speech and conduct and considerate of the opinions 
 of others; but wl'.en the occasion forbade it he made no sur- 
 33.532— 10G77 
 
render to cciuproniise. , The choice of no party for elevation to 
 otiice and the foe of undue partisan 2a?al, he recoguized the lilieii- 
 liood that i^arty lines must be reckonetl with : he adhered always 
 to the fiindaiueutal things upon which the character of nations 
 must be built if they are to be enduring: and above all he has 
 never been weighed in the balance by posterity and been found 
 wanting in that sincerity which, in the end, is the convincing 
 argumeui, the best strategy, and the surest way to keep our self- 
 respect. 
 
 DiSTiXGrisHiXG CoMMOX Sexse and Pka<tic-al TtBX OF Mi>-D. 
 •' His distinguishing common sense and practical turn of mind 
 served him well in the admiuigtration of his high office. Few, 
 if any, mere generalities or quixotic schemes for action were 
 su^ested by him ; but, on the contrary, he seemed to be master 
 of the underlying principles of the business needs of the coun- 
 try as he had been of the plans of his campaigns. At a time 
 when so many of us are disposed to put upon the statute book 
 nostrums for relief from our industrial and financial and eco- 
 nomic evils, it will be well for us to call to mind the striking 
 contrast between the moderate volume and temiierate character 
 of laws enacted during his Presidency and so much of our 
 present-day legislation of the exi)erimeutal sort, reflecting often 
 merely a view of to-day that is likely to be the heresy of to- 
 morrow, and attempting to deal with the oltjectionable tendency 
 before it is seen that it will not be arrested of itself, or before 
 we have sufficient understanding of it to be in a position to 
 know or apply the appropriate remedy. Accordingly the rec- 
 ommendations and the legislation of Vrashiugton's administra- 
 tion were not along guesswork lines: but the elements of sober- 
 ness, patience, aud wisdom which he so invariably manifested 
 were typical of the plans he favored and adopted to bring order 
 out of financial and industrial chaos, promote industry among 
 the people, and restore their energies by opening up new sources 
 of revenue and prosperity, and by asstiring men that they 
 should gather and be seciure in the possession of the harvest 
 of their labor. In all this he held true to the promise of his 
 messages to Congress and to all his utterances and acts, and 
 justified the expectation of the Nation — that he was to be as 
 33.532—10077 
 
10 
 
 fiiilbful and intelligent a sorvaut in (ho work of [H>ace a;-; h3 
 had been amid tlie slrnggle for indeijeiidence. 
 
 •■ While believing that free intercourse v.ith nations wonld, 
 to u^e his own words, promote i)o!iey. harmon.y, and i'.iterest, he 
 did not part company with statesmansliip, for he added : 
 
 " There can be no grenter error llian to expect or calculate upon real 
 favors from nation to ration; it is an illusion v.'hicli experience must 
 cure and which a just pride ought to discard. 
 
 CO-OKDINATE BeANC'HES OF THE GOVERNMENT TO Be IIelD tN 
 TlIEiR llESI'ECilVE P.OUNDAIUE.S. 
 
 "There is a grefit need. too. for ns in this day when cnnslilr.- 
 tional restraint has become irlvsome to many, never to turn a 
 deaf ear to the stirring appeal of Washington to his iieojilc — 
 that the departments into wliich onr Government is constitn- 
 tionally dividcil shall bo kept witli deternrined hand vritiiin tlicir 
 re.speetive boundaries. Speaking here not as a i;arty man but 
 as a citizen of the Iiopublic, my observation and rellection have 
 shown me how treaclieronsly easy is tlie transition,' from cen.trali- 
 Kation of government — which those of the Itepublican Party set 
 so much store by and whicl) a good many of us Democrats are 
 inclined to acquiesce in — to a iiersonalization of govei'nnient r.nd 
 then to usurpation of government. 'Washington in all his career 
 uttered no greater truth than when he declared that a constitu- 
 tional government, under such circumstances, becomes almost, as 
 a matter of course, a despotism. For a long time, fortunately, 
 this was the view of the American people; and when they liave 
 departed from it a long and onniious step has besn taken, not 
 only ui the commission of error but toward establishing evil 
 precedent. 
 
 "►Said he in his stately l.anguage: 
 
 " It is important, lil-icwise. that the l!al)its of thinking in a fi'ee 
 .country should inspire caution in ihose intrusted v>fith it., administra- 
 tion, to confine themselves within their rcrspective constitutional spheres, 
 avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach 
 upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the 
 powers of all the departments in one. and thus to create, whatever Ihf 
 form of government, a real despotism. A .just estimate of that love of 
 power and proneness to abuse it, Vviiich prednmiuatos in the human 
 heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The neces- 
 sity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing 
 and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the 
 guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been 
 evinced by experiments ancient and modern ; some of them in cnr coun- 
 335.32 — 10G77 
 
11 
 
 try and nnilrr our own eye-:. To pro^rvo t'lom must Uo as noiessary as 
 to instifiitP them. If. in tlio opinion of tlio people, tbe (li.stribiitlon or 
 modification of tlie constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let 
 it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution 
 designates. But let tlicre l)e no change by usurpation : for though this, 
 iu one instance, may be ttie instrument of good, it i.s the customary 
 weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must 
 always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient 
 beneflt which the use can at any time yield. 
 
 " Yoar.s aftei'\A-ards Daniel Wel)!<ter moroly luit into the 
 
 nuitcliloss oloynence of his paraphrase this tlioii.tilit when he 
 
 directed his protest at apparently so .sliu;ht a departure l'ro]n 
 
 this principle as the projiosal of the President to take from tlie 
 
 jiroper Cahinet oflicer the right to determine upon the depository 
 
 of the fu'nds of the T'nited States: 
 
 " It was strongly and forcibly urged yesterday Iiy the honorable 
 IVtember from Soutli Carolina that the true and only mode of preserv- 
 ing any -balance of power in mixed governments is to keep an exact 
 l)alance. This is vAy true, and to this end encroachments must be 
 resisted at tlie first step. The question is, therefore, whellier, upon the 
 true principles of the Constitution, this exercise of power liy the Presi- 
 dent can be justified. Whether tlie consequences be prejudicial or not, 
 if there be an illegal exercise of power it is to be resisted iu the proper 
 manner. Even if no harm or inconvenience results from transgressinr;; 
 the boundary, the intrusion is not to be suffered to pass unnoticed. 
 Every encroachment, great or small, is important enough to awaken 
 the attention of those who are intrusted with the preservation of a 
 constitutional government. We are not to wait till great public mis- 
 chiefs come, till the Gover-imeut is overthrown, or liberty itself put into 
 extreme jeopnrdy. We should not be worthy sons of our fathers were 
 we so to regard great questions affecting the general feeling. ■ Those 
 fathers accomplislied the Uevolution on a strict question of principle. 
 The Parliament of Great Britain asserted a right to tax the Colonies iu 
 all cases whatsoever; and it was precisely on this question that they 
 made the Revolution turn. The amount of taxation was triUiug. but 
 the claim itself was inconsistent with liberty ; and that was. in their 
 eyes, enough. It was against the recital of an act of Parliament, 
 rather than against any suffering under its enactments, that they toolt 
 up arras. They went to war against a preamble. They fought seven 
 years against a declaration. They poured out their treasures and their 
 blood like water in a contest against an assertion which those less 
 sagacious and not so well schooled in the principles of civil liberty 
 would have regarded as barren phraseology or mere parade of words. 
 They saw in the claim of the British I'arliament a seminal attitu<lo of 
 mischief, the germ of unjust power ; they detected it, dragged it forth 
 from underneath its plausil)le disguises, struck at it ; nor did it elude 
 either their steady eye or their well-directed blow till thoy had extir- 
 pated it and destroyed it to tbe smallest fiber. On this question of 
 principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off, they raised their flag 
 against the power to which, for purposes of foreign contest and sul> 
 rogation, Rome, in the height of her glor.\-, is not to be comjiared ; a 
 power which is dotted over the siu-face of the whole globe with her 
 possessions and military posts, whose morning drum beat, following the 
 
 33532— 10G77 
 
12 
 
 sun aud koepins company with the hours, circles the earth witli 0119 
 contiuuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England. 
 
 " The necessity of holding strictly to the principles upon which free 
 governments are constructed, and to those precise lines which tix the 
 partitions of power between different branches, is as plain, if not as 
 cogent, as that of I'esisting. as our fathers did, the strides of the parent 
 country against the rights of the Colonies ; because, whether the power 
 wliich exceeds its just limits be foreign or domestic, whether it bo the 
 oucroachment of all branches on the rights of the people, or that of 
 one branch on the rights of others, in either case the balanced and well- 
 adjusted machinery of free government i.s disturbed, and, if the derange- 
 ment go on, the whole system must fall. 
 
 Character of Washington. 
 
 "At all times and amitl all coiitlitioiis Washington rang irue 
 to the note of a si)leudid manhood. Hypocrisy and a trallifking 
 in expedients for popular applause no more match with his lifi' 
 than the crime of murder. He had little of the captivating style 
 of speech or manner; but regard for the nobility of his charac- 
 ter, rather than any rhetorical art or chailn of personal ad- 
 dress on his part, kept wavering lines from retreat in battle and 
 from mutiny amid privations aud suffering to which our neglect 
 had ex[iosed the soldiers of tlie Ifevolution. The men in the 
 ranks and above the ranks were zealots, ready to be shot to 
 death or starved to d^ath or frozen, to d?ath for the sake of 
 such an inspiring leader, even when the Colonies had forgotten 
 to clothe and to feed them after they had carried victorious 
 arms in this unequal contest with tlie greatest military power 
 in the world. He suppressed tlie dissensions of tlie men he 
 gathered about him for the administration of his high ofiice, 
 and lessened their antagonism; and, as a man of affairs and 
 the possessor of v>eaUh, he had so mastered essential business 
 jirinciples tliat lie knew how, l>y encouraging manufacture and 
 thrift and enterprise, to bind up the wounds of a people wasted 
 and impoverished liy the exhaustion of prolonged war. What a 
 priceless possession to his conntryiiieii is tlie splendid record of 
 the achievements of such a many-sided, well-balanced, noble 
 man. 
 
 " So all discus-sion of Washington ends — whether it be in tlie 
 brief address or in the ptages of the biographer or historian— 
 Willi panegyric, and without the opportunity of tlie most exact- 
 ing criticism to point to any conspicuous act of his which we 
 to-day would wish to have otherwise, either for his fame or 
 for the example of liis life. 
 33532 — 10G77 
 
13 
 
 " No wuiider that Wi^bstev sakl— 
 
 ••America has furnished to tho world tlie character of Washington. 
 And if our American institutions had done nothin;; else, that alone 
 would have entitled them to the respect of mankind. 
 
 " He Stands amoug tho great men of this country and among 
 the great men of all countries, not only on the many pedestals 
 of our handiwork, but on the eminence of our admiration and 
 gratitude, as a splendid, commanding, heroic figure, the embodi- 
 ment of those traits which go to malve up true manliood and 
 true greatness in the world. What Tennyson not unfairly said 
 of Wellington can even more justly be said of Washington — • 
 that he both saved and served the State; that for him the 
 path of duty was the way to glory, and that there should be 
 eternal honor to his name. 
 
 I'kesent-Day Proelems or the Republic. 
 
 "And let us and all -loyal Americans resolve that the spirit 
 of Washington, so manifestly in the midst of us on such occa- 
 sions as this, shall go with us, as with gratitude and hope re- 
 newed and loins girded about we face the future. That future 
 will not open for us always a pleasant prospect. AVe shall not 
 always be blessed witli prosperous times. Corresponding to 
 those lemporary setbacks to our health wherein Nature gives 
 her warnings whenever we are making too great a draft upon 
 mind or body, we shall have our periodical depressions when 
 we are imiirudent in the affairs of our liusiness life. The.se 
 need not unduly concern us, for, as we come to have a stable 
 currency and a better understanding of the economic workings 
 of the laws of supply and demand and do not overlook some 
 considerations which are not always in accord with tho strife 
 for mere money return, these depressions should be appreciably 
 less and less in number and importance. 
 
 "We have, however, problems of a more serious nature con- 
 fronting us for solution, and doubtless they will increase a.s 
 time goes on. We, as a people, have tolerated the doing of 
 things which must be undone or made right an«l not condoned ; 
 we have at times set too much st(jre by mere material success 
 and judged as of minor consequence things which broaden and 
 elevate and ennoble a nation; we have made compromise with 
 33.532— 10G77 
 
14 
 
 things of evil iinpori. "We liave at times been unmiiulful of tlie 
 rlglits of others as \Ye have hurried on to the realization of 
 ambitious plans, and in our indifference to the demands of good 
 eitizenship we have been guilty of or acquiesced in a course of 
 conduct tliat has given rise to sullen expressions of an unrest 
 to which we can not afford to bo unconcerned listeneis, for un- 
 checked unrest is likely to breed discontent and discontent, in 
 its turn, disorder. And unless we frankly recogu_ize this we 
 shall liave no reasonable hope of correcting the conditions 
 v.hich arouse, if they do not altogether justify, those expres- 
 sions, and wliich are a menace not only to our continuing pros- 
 perity but to our self-respect and our repute in the world. 
 Again and again, as time goes on. in obedience to [lopular 
 clamor, we shall ])e tempted to enact statutes unjust to labor 
 or capital and not reiiresenting reflection and conviction, or 
 statutes which are fairly certain to be iiicapable of enforcement 
 and to bring the administration of the law into contenu.it. We 
 sliall be tempted to hesit«ite and temporize concerning things 
 demanding prompt and courageous action for the ]>ul)lic wel- 
 fare. Again and again we sliall stand perplexed in wbich 
 direction to go when we slnill liavo come to the crossroads of 
 public duty and mere iiavty expediency or even self-interest. 
 CUir way will l)o so sliut in by doubt that we sh.al! liesitale even 
 as to a single step forward and upward. But tliere is one tlnng 
 above all things to v.hich we may cling with a certain faith, 
 tliat so long as we keep with ourselves a covenant to return to 
 and abide l)y the principles of Washington's Farewell Address, 
 so long as his character shall be remembered and revered l)y us, 
 so long as we shall set his life aiMt his devotion before us as the 
 best type and example of American citizenship to admire a.nd 
 emulate, tins country can not falter in true progress nor in the 
 end come short of its higli mission in the world. For then, 
 during all time to come, we shall have for oiu- political guid- 
 ance as a people the inspiration of his presence, which will !*e 
 to us wliat for tlie moral guidance of men the Word of the I ord 
 was to the psahnist of old — a lamp unto the feet and a light 
 undo the path."" 
 
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