4. Of such a monument we have come to lay the cornerstone, here and now. On this day, on this spot, in this presence, and at this precise epoch in the history of our country and of the world, we are about to commence this crowning work of commemoration'.

5. Yes, to-day, fellow-citizens, at this very moment when the extension of our boundaries and the multiplication of our territories are producing, directly and indirectly, among the different members of our political system, so many marked and mourned centrifugal' tendencies, - let us seize the 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 the fame of Washington, and in our common veneration for his example and his advice, the all-sufficient centripetal3 power, which shall hold the thick clustering stars of our confederacy in one glorious constellation forever!

6. Let the column which 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 may the earliest ray 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.

7. 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: you cannot make it more enduring than

*There was a statue at Thebes said to utter at sunrise a sound like the twanging of a harp string or of a metallic wire.

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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 of modern art: you cannot make it more proportionate than his character! 8. 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, are its appointed, its privileged guardians. The wide-spread 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 testify our veneration for him; this, this alone can adequately illustrate his services to mankind.

9. 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 capital may moulder and crumble; all other names which adorn its annals may be forgotten; but as long as human hearts shall any where pant, or human tongues shall any where plead, for a true, rational, constitutional' liberty, those hearts shall enshrine the memory, and those tongues prolong the fame, of GEORGE WASHINGTON!

1 COM-MĚM-O-RA'TION. A calling to 15 PÃ'RI-AN MÄR'BLE. A fine white remembrance by some public act. CEN-TRIF'U-GAL. Tending to fly from the centre.

marble from the Island of Paros, much used by ancient sculptors.

• HŎM'AGE. Reverence; respect; def.

[James Montgomery was born in Scotland, in 1771, and died in 1854. He wrote numerous poems, which are distinguished for their religious tone, purity of feeling, and gentle, sympathetic spirit. Many of his shorter pieces are alike beautiful in sentiment and style. The incident narrated in the following poem occurred in the battle of Sempach, in which the Swiss, fighting for their independence, totally defeated the Austrians, in the fourteenth century.]

1. "MAKE way for Liberty!" he cried,
Made way for Liberty, and died!

In arms the Austrian phalanx' stood,
A living wall, a human wood!-
A wall, where every conscious stone
Seemed to its kindred thousands grown;
A rampart all assaults to bear,

Till time to dust their frames should wear.
So still, so dense the Austrians stood,
A living wall, a human wood!
Impregnable their front appears,

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All horrent with projected spears,

Whose polished points before them shine,
From flank to flank, one brilliant line,
Bright as the breakers' splendors run
Along the billows, to the sun.

2. Opposed to these a hovering band
Contended for their father-land;

Peasants, whose new-found strength had broke
From manly necks the ignoble3 yoke,

And beat their fetters into swords,
On equal terms to fight their lords;
And what insurgent rage had gained,
In
many a mortal fray maintained:

Marshalled, once more, at Freedom's call,
They came to conquer or to fall, —
When he who conquered, he who fell,
Was deemed a dead or living Tell!

3. Such virtue had that patriot breathed,
So to the soil his soul bequeathed,
That wheresoe'er his arrows flew,
Heroes in his own likeness grew,
And warriors sprang from every sod
Which his awakening footstep trod.

4. And now the work of life and death
Hung on the passing of a breath:
The fire of conflict burned within, -
The battle trembled to begin.

Yet, while the Austrians held their ground,
Point for attack was nowhere found;
Where'er the impatient Switzers gazed,
The unbroken line of lances blazed;
The line 'twere suicide to meet,
And perish at their tyrants' feet;-
How could they rest within their graves,
And leave their homes, the haunts of slaves?
Would they not feel their children tread,
With clanging chains above their head?

this day, this hour,

Annihilates the invader's power.

All Switzerland is in the field;
She will not fly, she cannot yield,

She must not fall: her better fate

Here gives her an immortal date.

Few were the numbers she could boast;
Yet
every freeman was a host,

And felt, as 'twere, a secret known,

That one should turn the scale alone,
While each unto himself was he
On whose sole arm hung victory.

6. It did depend on one, indeed;

Behold him,

Arnold Winkelried!

There sounds not to the trump of fame
The echo of a nobler name.

Unmarked he stood amid the throng,
In rumination deep and long,

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Till you might see with sudden grace,
The very thought come o'er his face,
And by the motion of his form
Anticipate the bursting storm;
And by the uplifting of his brow

Tell where the bolt would strike, and how.

7. But 'twas no sooner thought than done,
The field was in a moment won;
"Make way for Liberty!" he cried,
Then ran with arms extended wide,
As if his dearest friend to clasp;
Ten spears he swept within his grasp:
"Make way for Liberty!" he cried:

Their keen points crossed from side to side;
He bowed amidst them like a tree,
And thus made way for Liberty.

8. Swift to the breach his comrades fly:
"Make way for Liberty!" they cry,
And through the Austrian phalanx dart,
As rushed the spears through Arnold's heart;
While, instantaneous as his fall,

Rout, ruin, panic seized them all:-
An earthquake could not overthrow
A city with a surer blow.