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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/fiveminutememoriOObeli 
 
FIVE-MINUTE 
 
 MEMORIAL ADDRESS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LIFE OF WASHINGTON 
 
 February 12-22, 1918 
 
 ^' iewed in the light of its origin, the Monroe Doc- 
 trine carries no suggestion thai we must not send our 
 troops beijond the borders of the country. Tested hij 
 its environments, it means that wherever Lihertij has 
 gained a toe-hold our peace and safetij require us, 
 and it is our policij, to keep her there. 
 
 Wasnington — Jerrerson — Mlonroe 
 
 Lincoln — Roosevelt 
 
 Wilson 
 
 
 
 Mrs. Bessie Bake 
 President 
 
 Issued by 
 
 Henry Harnaen Camp Auxiliary 
 
 Sons or V eterans, U. S. A. 
 
 Madi 
 
 w; 
 
 Miss Ella Stiehl 
 Secretary 
 
 Mrs. Meltha Clevelana 
 Vice President 
 
 Mrs, Marietta Lochner 
 Patriotic Instructor 
 

 Arthur F. Bei.itz 
 
 Judge-Advocate 
 
 Henry Ilarnden Camp Auxiliary 
 
 Sons of Veterans, U. S. A. 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LIFE OF WASHINGTON 
 
 Washington and Lincoln Memorial Meeting 
 February 12, 1918 
 
 E are assembled in the name of Washington and Lincoln. 
 Any gathering at these fountain heads of the Repubhc 
 cannot but thrill with a responsive pulse of patriotism. 
 You, my fellow-citizens, suckled at the paps of Liberty, 
 there is nothing I can say to you of Washington or Lincoln 
 that you do not know by intuition. You, the scions of a 
 glorious past, I need not admonish you to make the lives 
 
 of these great men your own. They are already ours, by sympathy; 
 
 the exponents of our heart-throbs and desires. In them we live, 
 
 as they gave us life. 
 
 What I shall say to you, therefore, is not a lecture, nor argument, 
 nor a demonstration. It is a eulogy, — an ecstasy! It is a reassertion 
 of fundamental truth: that these, the fathers of our country, chosen 
 by the just logic of democracy to give it birth and sustenance, still 
 guide in spirit the destiny of our nation. Llistory has a way of exalting 
 human agents, for the shaping of its policies. If the latter spring from 
 the grace of Providence, they are eternal. We know them by their 
 agents. Washington and Lincoln are perpetual; Bismarck looms with 
 but a fading glory. 
 
 George Washington was born at Bridges Creek, Westmoreland 
 county, Virginia, February 22, 1732. F'or three generations back, 
 his ancestors were colonists. His father died when George was 
 twelve years old, leaving him and his mother on a Rappahannock 
 farm. He received only the practical and elementary education 
 afforded in colonial Virginia. He learned something from books, but 
 a great deal more from contact with forest life and manly sports; 
 and he was bred to the habits of a Virginia gentleman, suh! His 
 schooling stopped at sixteen. He then became surveyor for Lord 
 Fairfax; and incidentally studied military tactics and the manual of 
 arms, until 1751. 
 
 He was not a military expert; but he met the problems that came 
 to him with a "common sense lifted to the level of genius." In 1752 
 he was appointed major and adjutant-general of the Virginia militia, 
 and was placed in charge of one of the four military tracts of that 
 state. From then until 1758 he distinguished himself by covering 
 the retreat of military failures; notably that of Braddock. But he 
 redeemed the confidence reposed in his prowess, turning defeat into 
 victory by the capture of Fort Duquesne, in 1758. 
 
The real key to the eharacter of Washington Hes in his devotion 
 to the great eause of freedom. From 1709 to 1776 he was aelive 
 among those hopeful spirits of liberty whose limited view had not 
 yet pierced the camouflage of British pretensions, and whose ancestral 
 bias still clung to the motherland. It required the thunder of Con- 
 cord and Lexington, and of Bunker Hill, to rouse his deep being to a 
 better vision. The appeal of the red. warm blood of his countrymen, — 
 blood of his own.--al length opened his heart and mind to the coming 
 of the new nation. Thenceforth he was American, with a new zest 
 and purpose. And thai purpose was accomplished a I Yorktown, 
 October 16, 1781. 
 
 The diamond sparkles best against a darkened background. The 
 adamant sublimity of Washington shines forth the brightest in his 
 most crucial hour. Considering the issue at stake, perhaps no 
 greater calamity was ever inflicted upon a decent people than the 
 winter at Valley Forge. It was the Vale of Despair, the low ebb of 
 human aspiration, the direful strait that caused many a weak soul 
 to abandon hope. But we should be ever grateful for Valley Forge^ 
 because of its compensation, — it gave us Washington. Washington, 
 despoiled of the sinews of power which a strong government owes to 
 its military chief; Washington, hampered and ham-strung by the 
 wrangling of jealous States and an adverse Congress; Washington, 
 waning in popularity, and menaced by the foul treachery of Gates 
 and his cohorts, who conspired to displace him. it gave us Wash- 
 ington, the man. stripped of everything except that great reserve of 
 man-faith and soul-power which raised him above all mankind, yet 
 made him brother of all men. 
 
 Such a man can never be entirely deserted. In a democracy of" 
 free thought and frank discussion, patriotic zeal and stress may run 
 awry at times; but mutual dependence and forbearance soon correct 
 the error. Our national ideals and solidarity will not brook the segre- 
 gation of the American people by the mark of lineal descent. If a 
 large portion of our citizenship have found their lineage presently 
 assailed, there is comfort in the knowledge that the evil is but tem- 
 porary. Their interest is the interest of the people; their heritage, the 
 heritage held by the people; their government, the government estab- 
 lished for the people. They cannot be denied their birthright, and 
 they will protect it. Their record in the building (;f the nation stands,. 
 impregnal)le and permanent; and its eflicient germ dates back at least 
 to Valley Forge. Adversity might shrink the loyalty of General Wash- 
 ington's supporters; but there were still a few men and women, who, 
 when the Congress failed to make adequate provision for his tattered 
 troops, came forward with right good will, and with right good gold, to 
 clothe and feed them. On December 31, 1777, the Continental Con- 
 gress framed ils protest to the (".ouncil of Massachusetls-Bay concern- 
 ing the "extortionate views and demands" of the contractors in that 
 state and "the depravity of morals in so many of the citizens of these 
 states," which must "uncjueslionably issue, at no very distant period, 
 in the destruction of the liberties of this continent." It was a call to 
 patriotic devotion; a test of loyalty. Over against that challenge, the 
 names of Robert Morris and Ilaiman Salomon, of (ieneral Mifflin and 
 Christoph Ludwig, of Michael ilillegas the continental treasurer, of 
 Margretha (}reider, of Molly Pitcher, and others on the roll of 
 
sacrifice and honor, stand out in bold relief. These surely were 
 American; among them, notably, Americans of German parentage. 
 
 The life of man has but little interest except as it affects his fellow- 
 men. Virtue, truth, love, — these can have no growth or purpose if 
 limited to self-perfection; they bloom only when devoted to the 
 service of our neighbors. The life of Washington is interesting, be- 
 cause of its effect upon the human race. The virtue, truth, and love 
 of Washington bore fruit, because he brought them to the altar of 
 his fellowmen. No author, no statesman, no clergyman, no poet and 
 no orator has ever yet been able to exhaust that reservoir of bene- 
 diction. We can but draw from it according to the time and the 
 occasion. Our business now is war! In the present crisis, Washing- 
 ton, with all other living men or dead, must answer to the acid test: 
 What is his position in the world-war? 
 
 We need have no misgivings as to where George Washington 
 stands; he stands with .Jefferson and with Monroe, with Lincoln, 
 with Roosevelt, and with Wilson. Some have said that we are nosing 
 into entangling alliances, in violation of the pohcies of Washington 
 and the Monroe Doctrine. But they have not searched or found the 
 life and motive of those policies. For their enlightenment, there 
 should be placed at the front entrance of each state capitol, in connec- 
 tion with the Hoover food signs, these words of Washington: 
 
 A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of 
 evils. . . . Such an attachment of a small or weak toward a great and 
 ])owerful nation dooms the former to be a satellite of the latter. . . . 
 Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealuosy of a free people 
 ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that 
 foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of repul)lican government. 
 
 Along with that, on the sacred banner that leads our "Sammies" 
 into the front-line trenches, should be emblazoned Ihese further words 
 from the Farewell Address: 
 
 f f we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not 
 far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we 
 may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time 
 resolve upon to be srru]nilously respected; when belligerent nations, under 
 the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the 
 giving us provocation: when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, 
 guided by justice, shall connsel. 
 
 It was indeed a "small and weak nation" upon which fell the 
 solemn duty of guarding the new-found liberty; and well might its 
 author, in the face of a world of wolves, warn his free people to be 
 constantly awake against its baneful foes. But there breathes 
 throughout his message a prophesy of the day when belligerent 
 nations would not lightly hazard giving provocation. That was the 
 underlying motive of it, as construed by his contemporaries; and that 
 construction led up to the Alonroe Doctrine. 
 
 Viewed in the light of its origin, that doctrine carries no suggestion 
 that we must not send our troops beyond the borders of the country. 
 On the contrary, tested by its environments, it means that wherever 
 Liberty has gained a toe-hold our peace and safety require us, and 
 it is our policy, to keep her there. We went beyond our borders, we 
 meddled in the affairs of other nations, when the Holy Alliance sought 
 
to restore her lost colonies lo Spain. And il was justified by Jefferson. 
 Iwin-soul of Washiniilon's conception of American liberty, in these 
 words: 
 
 Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entantjle ourselves 
 in the broils of Europe. Our second, nevrr In siijjer Europe to inicrmeddk 
 wilh Cis-Allanlir a (fairs. 
 
 That Jefferson was thinking chiefly of the second duty, is apparent 
 from this further thought in his counsel to Monroe, added as the 
 bed-rock reason for it, applicable today as then: 
 
 While Europe is lal)or!ntj lo i)eronie the domicile of despolism, our 
 endeavors should surely i)e lo make our hemisphere that of freedom. 
 
 Thereupon Monroe, red-hot on the trail of Washington and 
 
 Jefferson, issued his famous manifesto: 
 
 \^■e owe it, therefore, to candor and lo the amicable relations existing 
 between the United States and those I^owers to declare that we should 
 consider any attemj)! on their part to extend their system to any i)()rlion 
 of this hem!si)here as dangerous to our peace and safety. . 
 
 Nor was Lincoln slow to take the cue. as testified by the words of 
 
 Seward : 
 
 The presence and operations of the Erench army in Mexico and its 
 maintenance of authority there is a cause of serious concern to the I'nited 
 Slates. . . . That authority is in direct antagonism to the policy of this 
 government ond the principles on which it is founded. 
 
 Roosevelt, likewise, was alive and poppin' to the "wiles of foreign 
 influence" in the Venezuela mi\-up. Bismarck might cry out against 
 the Monroe Doctrine as an "international impertinence;" but the 
 German navy sailed away from Columbia's troubled waters. 
 
 Through it all we see the hand and heart of Washington. Back of 
 him stands his progeny,^that magnificent array of pep and faith, — 
 ten million volunteers at the registration polls, whose only grievance 
 is that they are forced to state exemption claims; behind them fifteen 
 millions more in the reserves. All of them ready to make good these 
 words of the Farewell Address, which should be read in parallel with 
 Wilson's messages, because the import is the same: 
 
 It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a great 
 nation to give lo mankind the magnanimous and loo novel example of a 
 j)eople always gu'ded l)y an exalled juslice and benevolence. 
 
 In line wilh that. Ihe following from the letter to Sir lulward 
 
 Newenham : 
 
 It is not in the i)o\ver of llie proudest and most ])ol:le people on earth lo 
 prevent us from heconvng a great, a respectable, and a commercial nalion, 
 if we shall continue united and faithful lo ourselves. 
 
 Ah, yes, George Washington is wilh us in the present war. luirope 
 is no longer the "domicile of despolism"; freedom has found a foot- 
 hold there. The "wiles of foreign influence" are as menacing today 
 as they were then. The policies of Bismarck are in a clash with the 
 policies of Washington. Pan-(iermanism cannot withstand the 
 impact of the Monroe Doctrine; nor shall Britannia rule the waves. 
 Our peace and safely cry again for liberty, liberty to all the peoples 
 of the earth! That is the meaning of the life of Washington. 
 
HE life of man has Init little interest 
 except as it affects his fellownien. Virtue, 
 truth, love, — these can have no growth 
 or purpose if limited to self-perfection; 
 they bloom only when devoted to the 
 service of our neighbors. The life of 
 Washington is interesting, because of its effect 
 upon the human race. The virtue, truth, and 
 love of Washington bore fruit, because he brought 
 them to the altar of his fellowmen. 
 
 84 
 
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