^— ^^ -^ u ^^ *'^ S.*^ '^^. o or.-j^.,> ,<.^%\ o^.c^."*". /\.^ • \/ .•:«!^'^ **..*^ .-afe'v %..^^* '>^^"--' ^- "^-d* ^^-t 'J>c,- %/ •'^*- \/ .•^"' %.** •*^'- -"- r^Q^ °- ./.'^iX cO^.;.^.> ,/\.^^^ %_->V^-> • ^^^ ... ^-^'^ 1- j^ sERivroisr: ON THE CHARACTEE AND INFLUENCE WASHINGTON DELIVERED BEFORE THE ^I't^kzio^'iz ^^a'n,€t/ne*i€€t.t6^. o-^^ c^^ttjf^aw^ ON SABBATH, FEBRU.ARY 02d, 1863, By Rev. J. C. LORD, D. D., Chaplain. B TJ F F^A. L O : A. M. CLAPP & GO'S .^TEAM PRINTING HOUSE, 1863. A. SERMOISr: ON THE CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE WASHIISrG^TOI^ DELIVERED BEFORE THE (y'tttte-'n, ^^o'Titi'ne^i'Vaid^ o€' .^jUttd^et'la^ ON SABBATH, FEBRUARY 22d, 1863, By Rev. J, C^LORD, D. D., Chaplain. B XJ F F-iA. L O = A. M. CLAPP (fc GO'S MORNING EXPRESS STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, 1863. aiiofr^Sip0tttUttfje. Buffalo, February 24, 1863. Dear Sir : — The uudcrsigned were, at the close of the parade of the Union Continentals, on the 22d inst., duly appointed a Committee to solicit from you a copy of your Sermon delivered on that occasion in commemora- tion of the Life and Character of the Father of his Country, with a view to its publication. In conibrmity therewith, we most respectfully solicit from you, at your earliest convenience, a copy prepared for the press. Trusting that you may be pleased to comply with this request, We remain yours, with due respect, &c., A. M. CLAPP, WILLIAM FISKE, GEO. V. BEOT^^N■. Eev. Jno. C. Lord, D. D., Chaplain Union Continentals. Messrs. Clapp and others, Committee of Union Continentals : The Sermon delivered by me on the 22d February, upon the character and influence of Washington, is, of course, at the disposal of the " Union Continentals," at whose request it was prepared. Respectfully, JNO. C. LORD. CHAEACTEE AHD INFLUENOE WASHINGTON. Your Fathers, where are they ? And the Prophets, do they live forever ? Zacu. I, 5. Well may we take up this Hebrew lamentation upon this anniversary of the birth of Washington, recurring as it does on a day of darkness and sorrow, of tumult and war. Falling at this time upon the holy Sabbath, it becomes us moreover to improve the birthday of the Father of his Country, by a care- ful consideration of his example, by a review of his teachings, and an exhibition of the purpose fur which God raised him up, qualified him, and sent him forth to guide our armies, to secure our independence, and to consolidate into one nationality the infant States spread over a continent. But before proceeding to a review of the character and in- fluence of Washington, I propose to consider the first settle- ment of this continent, and the providential designs which mark the history of its colonization, and progress to the time of the Revolution. The colonization of North America was of two kinds, and from two distinct nationalities, diverse in race, laws, language, religion and government ; the one of the Anglo-Germanic, the other of the Gothic-Spanish stock. But beyond the diversity of race, and perhaps more controlling in its providential re- sults, was a diversity of method and purpose in the two colon- izations. The Spanish colonists came as soldiers, under the CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. direction and with the aid of the government, the English colonists came as fugitives, under the ban of authority; the former with blast of trumpet and banners displayed, with the blessing of the national Church, and the commission of their king, embarked for the New World, the latter secretly left their native land, hiding in small merchant ships, to escape from a persecuting Church, and from the penalties imposed on non-conformists by arbitrary monarchs. The one came for gold and dominion, the other for freedom ; the one found a tropical climate and a semi-civilized population, the other a comparatively ungenial soil, and an unbroken wilderness, trav- ersed only by roaming bands of savages ; the one had quick returns of gold and the spoils of conquest, the other for a gen- eration battled with poverty, and with the cruel Indian tribes, uncertain of the issue, despondent often of their ability to maintain their ground. The one in every conquered province established the ecclesiastical and civil despotism of Spain, the other a free Church and a free State, with but a limited depend- ence upon the mother country. Striking as is the contrast between the Spanish and English colonization, the results, are still more remarkable. A number of feeble and warring States, without stability at home or respect abroad, are the result of the one enterprise, commenced in such pomp and power; a mighty nation, numbering thirty millions of souls, who, until the recent outbreak of civil war, was considered the most fortunate if not the first nation of the earth, was the divinely appointed end of the apparently feeble colonization of the rude and stormy North ; the one was like the gourd of Jonah, which grew and perished in a day, the other was like the handful of corn in the earth seen in vision by the prophet on the tops of the mountains, the fruit whereof " shall shake like Lebanon." The colonization of the North from Maine to South Caro- lina, though in some respects diverse, was yet sufficiently identical to accomplish the will of God in the settlement of this country. New England was settled by the persecuted Puritans of old England, Avho, if they had not learned entire toleration by their own afflictions in the Old World, were soon CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. compelled to learn it in the New by the force of circumstances. New York was first settled by the descendants of those noble Hollanders, who defended their civil and religious liberties against the utmost power of the bigoted and ferocious Philip II., who arrayed against the few and feeble States of Holland, whose inhabitants dwelt on a soil rescued from the sea, the resources of the mightiest monarchy of Europe. The man who led them on this desperate and apparently hopeless con- test, William of Nassau, called also William the Silent, Wil- liam the Wise, and William the Just, bears a nearer resem- blance to our own Washington than any other likeness to be found in the record of history. Pennsylvania was colonized by English Friends under Penn, and partly by the early emigration from Germany of those, who like the other colonists, desired to escape the political and religious despotisms of Europe. Among the colonists Sweden had her representatives in New Jersey and Delaware. English Catholics who had learned toleration by their own sufferings for conscience sake, founded Maryland, and have a noble record in the history of the revo- lutionary struggle. Scotland and the North of Ireland had their representatives more or less everywhere, but mainly in the Western part of Pennsylvania and in North Carolina and Georgia. France had her representatives in the early coloni- zation of South Carolina and elsewhere, scattered through the middle colonies, but these also were fugitives from the terrible despotism of Louis XIV., and sought like the others, religious and civil liberty. Virginia was peculiarly English in her colonization, and peculiarly haughty in her claims from her earliest history. This might seem strange from the fact that so large a portion of the early colonists were fugitives from justice, or persons picked up by the English police in sea- board cities like Bristol, and packed off to Virginia to be sold for their passage. It is a little remarkable that the only penal colonies, Virginia and South Carolina, the only States to whom it was permitted to send the offscourings of jails and poor- houses, should, of all others, be remarkable for pride of descent, and set up for a kind of nobility, when in truth they are the only States, who have no reason to be proud of their ancestry. j^ CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. Not that we count this of great moment, for God hath made of one blood all men. Not that we would reproach any one with his descent, however unfortunate, or say with the poet, of the population of the penal colonies, " Whose blood, Hus crept through scoundrels ever since the flood." But such haughty claims from men so descended, provoke their exposure and warrant a notice as a curious mental and moral phenomenon. We argue from the general features of Northern American Colonization, that it was the design of God to establish a homogeneous character to the population of the United States. For while various nations of different creeds were represented in the settlement of this country, yet the causes producing emigration were almost identically the same. From France, and Germany and Holland, as well as from England, Ireland and Scotland, came the Pilgrims of freedom, lovers of liberty, men escaping from the despotisms of the Old World. The desire to establish a free Church and a free State was the moving cause of the exodus from Europe, and exhibited itself with almost entire uniformity in every colonial government. The predominence of British colonization gave a substantially uniform language to the whole country from Maine to South Carolina, and never in the history of mankind were the foun- dations so manifestly laid for a homogeneous population. It is equally clear from the same facts, that it was the design of Providence to plant a model Republic in the New World, in which the old forms of Monarchial government should be rejected ; the old and uniform union of the Church with the State forever dissolved; in which every man might worship God after the dictates of his own conscience, and all hereditary claims to govern by descent and proscription be absolutely annulled by the fundamental laws. To this everything tended in the character of the colonization, and it was also manifest in the framing of the constitution of every State, as well as in the Constitution of the United States. To the end proposed in the divine wisdom, it was an abso- lute necessity that a peculiarly religious, moral and intellec- CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. tual people should colonize Northern America, and with trifling exceptions, such a population was to be found at the Revolution in all the colonies. The devout Huguenot from France, the positive and godly Presbyterian from Scotland and the North of Ireland, the English Puritan, whose first care was to erect a church, and his second to build a school house, whose hymns of praise rang through the arches of the grand old woods before an axe was lifted against them, the sturdy Hollander, who fought for civil and religious liberty against the greatest odds in which a gallant people ever struggled in war, were found from Massachusetts to Georgia. It is equally manifest that it was the design of the Divine Providence that this population so homogeneous, speaking one language, and adopting the same principles of government, should be one people, forming a single nationality. This was essentia] to their independence ; nothing but the union of the colonies could have saved them from immediate subjection by the power of the mother country. It was early adopted as a fundamen- tal maxim of the colonists, "United we stand, divided we fall." The idea of unity in respect to the whole country, is manifest in the designation of the first Congress as the Continental Congress ; the army of the Revolution was called the Conti- . nental Army, and the memory and the significance of this fact are perpetuated in the adoption of the name of " Union Conti- nentals" by the unique and distinguished military corps who are assembled here to-day. A united continent was the grand idea and the great purpose of the Revolution, and as essential to the perpetuity of the nation and its free institutions as it was to its original independence. The name we bear of " Union Continentals" is happily significant of the duties we owe to our country and our government at such a time as this, as it was happily devised to perpetuate the memory of our Revolutionary Fathers, in the terms which they themselves selected to represent their grand idea of a Continental unitv. Besides the geographical configuration of the country from the Gulf of Mexico to the great lakes or inland seas of the North, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, marks it as provi- dentially designed for the occupation of a united people, a 10 CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. single empire. Tliere are no natural boundaries such as ordi- narily separate nations. The majestic Mississippi binds the country together as with a silver chain, from the regions of perpetual frost, where the fir and the cedar begin to mark the boundaries of vegetable life, to the tropical soil where the fig tree puts forth its blossoms, and the orange ripens its golden fruit under an ever fervid sun. The mountain ranges, and the river courses, all indicate a necessity of national unity, and all attempts to put asunder what God hath joined, must ultimately fail. Well may we say as a people, with the poet, " No pent up Utica contracts our powers, But the whole boundless continent is om"s." In furtherance of these providential plans and purposes, it pleased God to give to America George Washington, whose birthday we commemorate on this holy Sabbath as one of those epochs in history which can never die out of the memory of men. The birth of Washington was one of those gifts of the Almighty, not alone to this continent, but to mankind at large, which in each return of this day must constitute through- out all generations a special occasion of gratitude, thanksgiving and praise. What an extraordinary preparation was that of the Father of his Country for the work he was divinely appointed to do. Called into the military service of the colonies while yet a minor, he endured fatigues, encountered dangers, and overcome obstacles, which marked him as a man of the old heroic type, such as God raises up for the deliverance of nations. He was early familiarized with hardship and peril, and learned in the old French war, which was the school of many of our Revolu- tionary officers, the military tactics of Europe, and all the subtleties of Indian warfare. He attained, by hard service, the rank of Colonel in the army of Virginia, at a period when most men are yet boys. Had his advice been followed, he M'ould have saved Braddock from the disastrous defeat in which this unfortunate man lost his military reputation and his life, and it was Washington who brought off a remnant of the defeated and terror-smitten army, and saved it from utter destruction. It was said bv one who knew him well in that CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. 11 early day, "I can not doubt that George Washington has been raised up to fulfill some great purpose in the Divine Providence." Of the historic connection of Gen. Washington with the war of the Revolution, it would be superfluous to speak. In every household, by every hearth, his name is a familiar sound, his life and deeds familiar recollections, and every child in the United States has learned from his earliest teachings why he is styled the Father of his Country, and why he is described as first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. I propose only to exhibit some of the characteristics of this truly great man, to point the moral of the enquiry of the text, " Our Fathers, where are they 1 And the Prophets, do they live forever?" Perfection does not belong to any of the conditions of the human family; the blessed Savior, who alone was without sin, furnished in this, one proof of his divinity ; but perhaps in no one man has a greater uniformity and perfectness of character ever been found in the recoi'ds of our race than in Washington. His judgment was always sound, his temper was almost always under the command of his reason ; none of the weaknesses or blemishes so commonly found in the heroes and statesmen of the world, seem to have marred his character or beclouded his intellect. He was of a majestic person, inspiring awe in all who approached him, always courteous, though grave and dignified : he was able to keep his own counsel, a rare attain- ment, and hence was never betrayed; no man ever really doubted the inflexible integrity which was stamped on his countenance, and exemplified in every act of his life. His constancy was admirable ; in the darkest hour he never doubted, and as defeat and disappointment did not discourage him, so victory did not elate him or render him presumptuous. The capture of Burgotne ruined Gen. Gates ; a thousand such victories would never have disturbed the unparalelled equani- mity of Washington, or rendered him like Gates, fool-hardy or vain glorious. Washington was equal to either or any fortune, and in the darkest scenes of our Revolutionary war, by his calmness, courage and caution, reanimated the hearts of his countrymen. Though, as a General his policy was necessa- J 2 CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. rily a Fabian one, cautious and defensive, yet the crossing of the Delaware and capture of the Hessians, was as daring and brilliant an achievement, if on a smaller scale, than any accom- plished by Napoleon or Wellington, and had he commanded armies such as were led into the field by these greatest of modern generals, I believe he would have shown qualities equal, if not superior to them, for he had an undoubted genius for war, and a penetrating and almost perfect judgment, which would have prevented the mistakes sometimes made by these masters of military science. Washington would never have led a half a million of men into the heart of Russia. But how does the character of Washington tower above that of any of the conquerors and heroes of ancient or modern times ! What rare and grand simplicity and integrity, what unselfish devotion to the cause of his country and of freedom! What a lofty patriotism, rising above all personal and political interests, limited by no colonial prejudices or boundaries, as earnest in and for Massachusetts as in and for Virginia ; a patriotism before which faction was silent, and local and State rivalries shamed out of their petty discords. What a breadth in the intellectual powers of a man who could seize, as by intuition, upon the necessities of his country and provide for them, and predict like a prophet the precise danger to which time has shown the United States to be exposed, and which might have been escaped had the counsels of his farewell address to his countrymen been followed. Alas for us, in such a day as this, and in view of the slighted counsels of Washington, we may well lift up the lamentation of the text, " Our Fathers, where are they? And the Prophets, do they live forever?" It is impossible to exaggerate such a character as that of W^ashington ; it stands in the history of heroes and conquerors like some majestic peak among the Andes, towering sublimely among its fellows and thrusting its snowy summit far out of sight among the stars. Though little more than half a century has passed since his death, his genius and his virtues have made his name a household word in every continent and on every island of the sea. The poets, historians and philosophers of Europe, have found no terms too laudatory to represent their CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. 13 admiration of the hero and statesman of America. The innumerable hordes of Asia who know little of the New World have heard of Washington, and his name and fame are to them the greatest, if not the only facts connected with the newly found continent. The Tartar in his tent in the vast steppes of Thibet or in the huts of Siberia, knows something of Washington, though he may not have heard of Columbus or the great Republic of the West. So wonderfully does the fragrance of a great name diffuse itself throughout the world, so almighty is goodness when allied to greatness, to stamp itself upon the memory and embalm itself in the love of mankind. But one characteristic of Washington should be particularly noticed upon this sacred day devoted to the worship of God and the cure of the soul. He was a christian, not merely in name or by profession, but in fiict and deed. Like William the Silent, the hero of Holland, he was a man of prayer. The proof of this is found in all the record of his life, and particu- larly in the secret devotions of this great man, which were especially observed in the dark hours of our early history. The duties of his office, the constant demand upon his time and attention, did not prevent him from supplicating the mercy of God at times of stated private devotion. We would not withdraw the vail from the sacred hours of intercourse between such a man as Washington and the great Ruler of nations, who had raised him up, and qualified him and sent him forth for the deliverance of a continent. We may well imagine with what earnest supplication this christian hero besought God for Christ's sake to appear in behalf of his beloved country, staggering and bleeding under the assaults of her formidable enemy; with what profound humility he entreated the guidance of the divine wisdom and the conso- lation of the holy spirit in his difficult and trying position. When we consider that at the commencement of our Revolu- tion, the doctrines of the Encyclopedists had made their way to this continent, and that many of our public men were infected by the infidelity which prevailed in Fi'ance, we cannot but admire the consistent piety and faith of Washington, from 14 CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. which all the darts of this insinuating and subtle scepticism glanced as from an armor of proof We may well offer to-day our humble and hearty thanks to God for the christian example of Washington, and that among all his heroic qualities, and with all his great powers, which made him the foremost man of his own and perhaps of any age, be added piety toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Did time permit, it might be shown at length that piety is an essential element to that lofty development of character, to that pure and elevated patriotism which gives to such men as Washington and Wil- liam of Orange, that pre-eminence of fame which marks them in the congregation of the world's giants, a head and shoulders above their fellows. That is still true which the Apostle Paul declared concerning the heroes and martyrs of the ancient days, " who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought right- eousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." The crowning work of Washington was not the establish- ment of the independence of his country ; great as was this result, it was second to the realization of the unity of the nation under the sanctions of a constitution. We have already seen how the identity of the people was providentially secured by the nature of their colonization and the similarity of their colonial forms of government. The first actual realiza- tion of the idea of unity was found in the Continental Con- gress, acting for the whole country and representing all its sections. But it was soon found that such a confederacy of independent States was but a mere rope of sand, when the immediate exigency of the war had passed away and local jealousy, and State and individual parsimony, were left to operate in a time of peace. To George Washington more than any other man we owe a national constitution, binding not upon States as aggregated, but upon the people of the United States, a constitution which expressly took away the sovereignty of the States for any national purpose, and made the government of the United States paramount in its authority CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. 15 over both States and people. The jurisdiction of the general government was indeed limited to matters of national concern- ment, but it was made as absolute within its sphere as the government of each State had been before the constitution was adopted. The main design of the constitution was, in point of fact, to take away from each State its sovereignty so far as it gave them the right to interfere with the legislation of the general government, or left them the privilege of adjudicating upon its acts or seceding from its jurisdiction. It took away absolutely, the power of review and control by any State government, and confined this ultimate power to review, control or annul the acts of the general government, to the Supreme Court of the United States. It was designed to meet the precise case which has occurred in the great rebellion, and to make the attempt of secession the crime of treason. The proof of this is found in the causes which led to the framing and adoption of the constitution, and in all the arguments pro and con in the venerable and patriotic convention which adopted it, and in all the addresses on either side to the people of the different States in regard to its ratification. Whatever else may be doubtful in the history of this great event this part is patent and unquestionable. To this national unity so essential, and which was apparently secured by so many providential arrangements, and which seemed to be perfected in the adoption of the constitution there was one obstacle, the existence of domestic servitude, forced originally upon the unwilling colonists by the mother country, whose greed of gain could not at that time be over- come by any motives of humanity, or by any protest of her subjects in North America. The incongruity of slavery with a republican form of government, and the antagonistic tenden- cies of two utterly diverse systems of labor and forms of social life, did not escape the notice of the fathers of the republic and the framers of its constitution. The great if not the only mistake they made was in not limiting its existence by the terms of the constitution, instead of leaving it to the operation of national causes, which it was believed at that time would surely if not speedily effect its overthrow. IQ CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. It is extremely difficult to speak on the subject of American slavery on broad historic grounds, or to deal with it as a theological or moral question, or exhibit its providential aspects, from the extreme sensitiveness of many in regard to the question, and for the reason that the ultra men on the one side cannot see any recognition of slavery in the constitution, or seeing it would reject that noble instrument altogether, while another class equally fanatical, can see nothing else in the charter of our unity but a recognition of slavery, and no grander design or greater interest in it than to conserve and perpetuate domestic despotism to the end of time. These extremists in their mutual hatred and mutual abuse do not perceive how much alike they are, and that <' Negro-mania" is the disease under which they both labor and by which they are on both sides blinded to the great interests of freedom and humanity which it is the main design of the constitution to secure, nor how they are being led, imperceptibly perhaps, into an antagonistic j)osition to the war which is now being waged for the unity of the nation and the life of the republic. It is Satan reproving sin when these extreme men reproach each other for a want of loyalty to the constitution, neither of them perceive the great issue for the nation and the world of the present contest ; they both belittle the constitution, and would narrow the grand charter of liberty to the little anti-slavery or •pro-slavery plank, which is all they see or seek to save out of the noble vessel tossing now upon the stormy sea of civil war. If these men could understand how utterly powerless they are either to save or destroy the system of domestic despotism, if they could be made to apprehend that the first gun fired against Fort Sumter was the signal of a proclamation of freedom to the slave from the Almighty Ruler of nations, and that when the South announced secession. Providence proclaimed abolition as an inevitable sequence, they would cease to wrangle over a ques- tion which long since passed out of their hands, and concerning which they cannot make one hair white or black. In my judg- ment the war has already made the disappearance of slavery on this continent only a question of time, and those who have any tears to shed over its decease may prepare to shed them now. CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. J7 What the course of Gen. Washington would be were he now in life and at the call of his country, is manifest from all his acts and recorded opinions. He would announce to the country the preservation of its unity as an absolute necessity. He would regard all other considerations as of little compara- tive importance. He would not suffer any interest of African slavery to stand a moment in the way of any blow that could be aimed at the detestable treason which seeks to overthrow all that was gained in the Revolution, and reduce the nation to a state of anarchy. Virginia would be nothing more to him than any other section of the country, and he would treat its insurrectionary inhabitants as he treated the tories in the Revolutionary war. He would never suffer his country- men to be discouraged by any reverses ; with the calm re- ligious confidence which carried him and the country through the Revolutionary war he would animate his countrymen to renewed efforts, and persuade them to abandon all local issues, all past political prejudices, all mere party interests, and unite heart and soul in the salvation of the Republic. He would hold no terms with traitors, and would drive the whole popu- lation of the South white and black into the Gulf of Mexico rather than yield to their secession, for the reason that the concession of this anarchial and treasonable claim would make the whole continent a hunting field for the dogs of war through- out all time, involve all future generations in a ruin whose only remedy would be a military despotism, and darken forever the hopes of freedom throughout the world. Could the Father of his Country speak from his grave to-day he would again warn his countrymen against suffering any separa- tion. He would admonish them that their liberties were bound up in their nationality, and that to allow the Republic to fall into fragments would be to commit national suicide and render the American name a perpetual scoff in all the future ages. He would remind his countrymen of that eternal Providence that watched over the infancy of the nation and delivered the feeble colonies from the most formidable power in Europe, and in this second baptism of blood he would exhort us to send the last man and expend the last dollar in Jg CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. defence of our national life, lifting up to the Heavens all the time the inspired prayer, "Through thee. Oh God, will we push down our enemies, through thee will we tread them under who rise up against us. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. Blessed be the Lord my strength, who teacheth my hand to war and my fingers to fight." While in view of the life and character of Washington and his compeers of the Eevolutionary war, we may well adopt the words of the text, " Our Fathers, where are they ? And the Prophets, do they live forever?" — we may yet render our humble and hearty thanks to Almighty God that the memory of such a man has been bequeathed to us, that such an example is left to animate us, to revive our courage, and lead us with faith and confidence in such a time as this to the throne of the Divine grace, in behalf of the nationality which he was the main instrument in establishing, and of the liberties, to secure which he freely hazarded his life and his fortunes. It is no slight indication of the purpose of God to j)reserve this nation, whatever dangers may threaten it, that he should have given the old thirteen colonies such a leader in their war for independence, and that he should have honored the constitu- tion, which is the symbol and the guarantee of our unity, with such an author, and that Washington should have been placed at the helm of the infant government during the tremendous crisis of the first French Revolution, which not only shook every throne in Europe, but threatened for a time the first principles of religion and law. Washington himself was reviled and threatened for refusing to intermeddle in the afTairs of Europe, and for his firm opposition to the inundation of the country with French Jacobinism and French Atheismr. But this great man was as regardless of the clamors of f;iction as he had before been of the blandishments of royalty and the temp- tation of ambition ; with a firm grasp upon the reins of government he guided the nation under the new constitution for the first eight years of its existence, and then like Cincin- NATus returned to the plough. The farewell address of Wash- ington to his countrymen reads to-day like a prophecy, and CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. JQ clearly indicates that he foresaw the dangers which have now come upon us, though he did not foresee the gigantic propor- tions which the system of American slavery was to attain under the stimulus of the invention of the cotton gin, or that it was destined to put forth as the corner stone of its rebellion against the government, the arrogant and unchristian claim of constituting the highest form of christian civilization. Could the Fathers of our government have foreseen this ; had Washington and Jefferson, and their compeers North and South, had the least anticipation of such a result, they would have placed barriers to slavery in the constitution itself, and provided lor a scheme of gradual emancipation such as has been suggested by President Lincoln. The man who doubts this may easily satisfy himself of its truth by a careful exami- nation of the recorded opinions and testimentary acts of Washington and Jefferson, the latter of whom openly and uniformly expressed opinions on this subject which many of his professed followers at this day would pronounce to be the political heresy of abolitionism. What we need at the present time is an abandonment of all inferior issues, all past prejudices, all mere party questions, for the salvation of our common country. To put down the rebellion at any cost, to regard the unity of the nation as an absolute necessity, to hold as an enemy to his country and his race all who openly or secretly fixvor the dismemberment of the Republic, is what the present crisis demands. It may be thought a strange declaration to make, yet 1 will venture upon the assertion that the conquest of the North and its uncondi- tional subjugation to the South, deplorable and shameful to us as this might be, would not be an evil so great as the disrup- tion of our nationality. Disastrous as the result might be of subjugation to Southern rule and the dictatorship of Davis, yet a remedy might be found in the fact of a continued union of territory, and the probability that time and a changed public sentiment might restore us to a tolerable condition. But if the chrystal vase of national unity be shivered it can never be restored ; no power could prevent the progress of disintegration, no treaties would bind the warring and con- 3 20 CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. temptible sovereignties, whose eternal warfare would make a chaos of the continent, and final and irretrievable ruin mark the extinction of all hopes of political freedom, and consign us first to anarchy, and in the end to a military despotism the worst and bloodiest the world ever saw. Above all we should avoid a feeling of despondency and discouragement. We are an impatient people, ever looking for immediate results, ever, if 1 may be allowed the expression, hurrying up Providence, ever casting blame upon our servants and agents because they do not and cannot perform impossi- bilities. The providence of God in the august march of events along the years and centuries of time moves slowly yet surely to its end. " Festi7ia lente^'' make haste slowly, was a maxim of the wise men of antiquity. We have accomplished more and suffered less than we either realize or acknowledge ; neither is the end of this wicked rebellion so far oflf as we imagine. For myself, I have never wavered in my confidence in the result, and have never for a moment doubted that all the pain and loss, the travail and bloodshed of the present civil strife would result in the end in the glory of God, and in establish- ing upon immutable foundations, the unity of the nation and the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness, of all who shall ever dwell under the shadow of the great Republic in all the coming ages of time. Let us remember that God lives and reigns, that He sitteth in the congregation of the mighty and judgeth among the Gods; that He is the unchangeable friend of truth and righteousness, of order, law and liberty, and that the mission of his son into our world was to break every yoke of despotism and let every captive go free, and will he suffer the last, the grandest, the most promising of all experiments and examples of civil and religious freedom, to expire in the darkness and be smothered in the stench of a pro- slavery revolt, which would turn back the progress of ages, and bury the reforms of a thousand years under a pyramid of shackles fashioned for human limbs? Fellow citizens and fellow soldiers, who assemble in a body here to-day to do honor to the memory of the Father of his Country, your chosen designation of " Union Continentals" is CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. 21 not only a memorial of the ancient times which tried men's souls, but is a public affirmation of your recognition of the fundamental idea of American unity. Whatever political differences may divide you as they divide other associations, whatever diversities of views in regard to men or measures may exist, in one thing we agree, that the defence of our national unity, at whatever sacrifice of life or treasure, is the first duty of every American citizen. You represent and embody in your organization the immortal declaration of Gen. Jackson, the motto of his monument defaced by traitors in Tennessee, "the Union, it must and shall be preserved." More than this, your chosen title is significant of another American doctrine next in importance to that of the national unity, to wit: the non-interference of the European powers with the affairs of this continent, the shutting out of all foreign intermeddling, not only as it regards ourselves, but m respect to the neighboring Republics. I do not think the meaning of the raid by the French Emperor upon Mexico is fully comprehended by the people of the United States. It really means the dismemberment of our Republic ; it is a flank attack upon the Union ; it is not so much intended for the benefit of the insurgents as to take advantage of our troubles to plant, if possible, a great French American Empire, to include at least Texas and Louisiana, and aa much more as may be possible. Every battle lost in Mexico by Louis Napolkon, every decimation of the French army by the pestilence, is a victory for us, and shows that though we are not at this moment in circumstances to enforce the Monroe doctrine of non-intervention, yet the Almighty is enforcing it for us, and teaching the ambitious and grasping ruler of France that the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, and furnishing another proof of His purpose to preserve this Republic from all foes without, no less than from all foes within. " Union Continentals ! " Significant name ! The idea involved in it lies at the foundation of our liberties, it is the word of power which shall scatter this rebellion as chaff before the tempest. The union of the continent is a platform upon which all true patriots may unite whatever diversity of opinion 22 CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF WASHINGTON. may exist in regard to other things. " One People, one Republic, one Constitution," One front to foreign nations, one system of laws, securing to all men their inalienable rights, one law for all refugees from the tyrannies of the Old World, and that the law of hospitality and fraternity, and last though not least, one God and Saviour, to be worshipped freely by all men of all denominations, after the dictates of their own conscience, with none to molest them or make them afraid. Let us never despair of the Republic, let us never doubt the firmness of the foundations which Washington established, let us never yield to despondency, as though God would destroy the work of his own hands and give up to ruin the Republic, to plant which He sifted Europe for centuries of its most precious seed for the handful of corn in the tops of the moun- tains, whose fruit is destined to fill the earth. Let us watch and pray, hope on and hope ever, until the day of our deliver- ance come, as come it will, when the nation redeemed, regen- erated and disenthralled, shall take up the ancient anthem of praise, from the hills to the valleys and from the mountains to the sea. " Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion ; on the sides of the North, the city of the Great King, God is known in his palaces for a refuge, for lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together, they saw it and so they marvelled, they were troubled and hasted away, fear took hold upon them, and pain as of a woman in travail. Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round about her, tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, God will establish her forever, for this God is our God forever and ever. Amen." 1@4 A '> ^(-^ \, '->' r . 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