and from the East to the West, proves this sentiment to be both just and natural.

In the cities and in the villages, in the public temples and in the family circles, among all ages and sexes, gladdened voices bespeak grateful hearts, and a freshened recollection of the virtues of the Father of his Country. And it will be so, in all time to come, so long as public virtue is itself an object of regard. The ingenuous youth of America will hold up to themselves the bright model of Washington's example, and study to be what they behold; they will contemplate his character till all its virtues spread out and display themselves to their delighted vision, as the earliest astronomers, the shepherds on the plains of Babylon, gazed at the stars, till they saw them form into clusters and constellations, overpowering at length the eyes of the beholders with the united blaze of a thousand lights.

WASHINGTON AND THE UNION.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

THERE was in the breast of Washington one sen timent 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. In that first letter, he tells them that to him and his brethren of the convention, union appears to be the greatest interest of every true American; and in that last paper, he conjures them to regard

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that unity of government which constitutes them one people, as the very palladium of their prosperity and safety, and the security of liberty itself. He regarded the Union of these States less as one of our blessings, than as the great treasure-house which contained them all. Here, in his judgment, was the great magazine 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 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 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. Of all the presumptions indulged by presumptuous man, that is one of the rashest which looks for repeated and favorable opportunities for the deliberate establishment of a united government over distinct and widely extended communities. Such a thing has happened once in human affairs, and but once. The event stands out as a prominent exception to all ordinary history; and unless we suppose ourselves running into an age of miracles, we may not expect its repetition.

Washington, therefore, could regard, and did regard nothing as of paramount 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? 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, careless of the continuance of that unity of government which constitutes us one people?

WASHINGTON MONUMENT.

ROBERT C. WINTHROP.

FELLOW-CITIZENS, let us seize this occasion to renew to each other our vows of allegiance and devotion to the American Union, and let us recognize in our common title to the name and fame of Washington, and in our veneration for his example and advice, the all-sufficient centripetal power which shall hold the thick-clustering stars of our confederacy in one glorious constellation forever. Let the column we are about to construct be at once a pledge and an emblem of perpetual union. Let the foundations be laid, let the superstructure be built up and cemented, let each stone be raised and riveted, in a spirit of national brotherhood. And

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may the earliest rays of the rising sun, till that sun shall set to rise no more, draw forth from it daily, as from the fabled statue of antiquity, a strain of national harmony which shall strike a responsive chord in every heart throughout the Republic.

Proceed, then, fellow-citizens, with the work for which you have assembled. Lay the corner-stone of a monument which shall adequately bespeak the gratitude of the whole American people to the illustrious Father of his Country. Build it to the skies, — you cannot outreach the loftiness of his principles. Found it upon the massive and eternal rock, cannot make it more enduring than his fame. Construct it of the peerless Parian marble, you cannot make it purer than his life. Exhaust upon it the rules and principles of ancient and modern art, -you cannot make it more proportionate than his character.

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But let not your homage to his memory end here. Think not to transfer to a tablet or a column the tribute which is due from yourselves. Just honor to Washington can only be rendered by observing his precepts and imitating his example. He has built his own monument. We, and those who come after us in successive generations, are its appointed, its privileged guardians.

The widespread Republic is the true monument to Washington. Maintain its independence; uphold its constitution; preserve its union; defend its liberty. Let it stand before the world in all its original strength and beauty, securing peace, order, equality, and freedom to all within its boundaries, and shedding light and hope and joy upon the pathway of human liberty throughout the world, and Washington needs no other monument. Other structures may fitly test our veneration for him; this,

this alone can adequately illustrate his services to mankind. Nor does he need even this. The Republic may perish, the wide arch of our ranged Union may fall, star by star its glories may expire, stone by stone its columns and its capital may crumble, all other names which adorn its annals may be forgotten, but, as long as human hearts shall anywhere pant, or human tongues shall anywhere plead for a true, rational, constitutional liberty, those hearts shall enshrine the memory, and those tongues prolong the fame of George Washington.

THE MEMORY OF WASHINGTON.

EDWARD EVERETT.

To us, citizens of America, it belongs above all others to show respect to the memory of Washington, by the deference we pay to those maxims of public policy which he has left us in his Farewell Address. Of all the exhortations which it contains, I scarce need say to you that none are so anxiously repeated as those which enjoin the preservation of the Union of these States.

On this it depends, in the judgment of Washington, whether the people of America shall follow the Old World example and be broken into a group of independent military powers, wasted by eternal border wars, a custom-house on the bank of every river, a fortress on every frontier hill, a pirate lurk ing in the recesses of every bay; or, whether they shall continue to constitute a federal Republic, the most extensive, the most powerful, the most prosperous, in the long line of ages.