Washington's Birthday Part 2

'Tis splendid to have a record, So white and free from stain That, held to the light, it shows no blot, Though tested and tried amain; That age to age forever Repeats its story of love, And your birthday lives in a nation's heart, All other days above.

And this is Was.h.i.+ngton's glory, A steadfast soul and true, Who stood for his country's honor When his country's days were few.

And now when its days are many, And its flag of stars is flung To the breeze in defiant challenge, His name is on every tongue.

Yes, it's splendid to live so bravely, To be so great and strong, That your memory is ever a tocsin To rally the foes of the wrong; To live so proudly and purely That your people pause in their way, And year by year, with banner and drum, Keep the thought of your natal day.

THE BIRTHDAY OF WAs.h.i.+NGTON

ANONYMOUS

The birthday of the "Father of his Country!" May it ever be freshly remembered by American hearts! May it ever reawaken in them a filial veneration for his memory; ever rekindle the fires of patriotic regard for the country which he loved so well, to which he gave his youthful vigor and his youthful energy; to which he devoted his life in the maturity of his powers, in the field; to which again he offered the counsels of his wisdom and his experience as president of the convention that framed our Const.i.tution; which he guided and directed while in the chair of state, and for which the last prayer of his earthly supplication was offered up, when it came the moment for him so well, and so grandly, and so calmly, to die. He was the first man of the time in which he grew. His memory is first and most sacred in our love, and ever hereafter, till the last drop of blood shall freeze in the last American heart, his name shall be a spell of power and of might.

Yes, gentlemen, there is one personal, one vast felicity, which no man can share with him. It was the daily beauty and towering and matchless glory of his life which enabled him to create his country, and at the same time secure an undying love and regard from the whole American people. "The first in the hearts of his countrymen!" Yes, first! He has our first and most fervent love. Undoubtedly there were brave and wise and good men before his day, in every colony. But the American nation, as a nation, I do not reckon to have begun before 1774, and the first love of that young America was Was.h.i.+ngton. The first word she lisped was his name. Her earliest breath spoke it. It still is her proud e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n; and it will be the last gasp of her expiring life! Yes; others of our great men have been appreciated--many admired by all--but him we love; him we all love. About and around him we call up no dissentient, discordant, and dissatisfied elements--no sectional prejudice nor bias--no party, no creed, no dogma of politics. None of these shall a.s.sail him. Yes; when the storm of battle blows darkest and rages highest, the memory of Was.h.i.+ngton shall nerve every American arm and cheer every American heart. It shall relume that Promethean fire, that sublime flame of patriotism, that devoted love of country, which his words have commended, which his example has consecrated.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S BIRTHDAY

BY GEORGE HOWLAND

Welcome, thou festal morn!

Never be pa.s.sed in scorn Thy rising sun, Thou day forever bright With Freedom's holy light, That gave the world the sight Of Was.h.i.+ngton.

Unshaken 'mid the storm, Behold that n.o.ble form-- That peerless one-- With his protecting hand, Like Freedom's angel stand The guardian of our land, Our Was.h.i.+ngton.

Then with each coming year, Whenever shall appear That natal sun, Will we attest the worth, Of one true man to earth, And celebrate the birth Of Was.h.i.+ngton.

Traced there in lines of light, Where all pure rays unite, Obscured by none; Brightest on history's page, Of any clime or age, As chieftain, man, and sage, Stands Was.h.i.+ngton.

Name at which tyrants pale, And their proud legions quail, Their boasting done; While Freedom lifts her head, No longer filled with dread, Her sons to victory led By Was.h.i.+ngton.

Now the true patriot see, The foremost of the free, The victory won.

In Freedom's presence bow, While sweetly smiling now, She wreaths the smiling brow Of Was.h.i.+ngton.

Then with each coming year, Whenever shall appear That natal sun, Shall we attest the worth Of one true man to earth, And celebrate the birth Of Was.h.i.+ngton.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON AND OUR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

BY CHARLES W. ELIOT

The brief phrase--the schools and colleges of the United States--is a formal and familiar one; but what imagination can grasp the infinitude of human affections, powers, and wills which it really comprises? But let us forget the outward things called schools and colleges, and summon up the human beings. Imagine the eight million children actually in attendance at the elementary schools of the country brought before your view. Each unit in this ma.s.s speaks of a glad birth, a brightened home, a mother's pondering heart, a father's careful joy. In all that mult.i.tude, every little heart bounds and every eye s.h.i.+nes at the name of Was.h.i.+ngton.

The two hundred and fifty thousand boys and girls in the secondary schools are getting a fuller view of this incomparable character than the younger children can reach. They are old enough to understand his civil as well as his military achievements. They learn of his great part in that immortal Federal convention of 1787, of his inestimable services in organizing and conducting through two Presidential terms the new Government,--services of which he alone was capable,--and of his firm resistance to misguided popular clamor. They see him ultimately victorious in war and successful in peace, but only through much adversity and many obstacles.

Next, picture to yourselves the sixty thousand students in colleges and universities--selected youth of keen intelligence, wide reading, and high ambition. They are able to compare Was.h.i.+ngton with the greatest men of other times and countries, and to appreciate the unique quality of his renown. They can set him beside the heroes of romance and history--beside David, Alexander, Pericles, Caesar, Saladin, Charlemagne, Gustavus Adolphus, John Hampden, William the Silent, Peter of Russia, and Frederick the Great, only to find him a n.o.bler human type than any one of them, more complete in his nature, more happy in his cause, and more fortunate in the issues of his career. They are taught to see in him a soldier whose sword wrought only mercy and justice for mankind; a statesman who steadied a remarkable generation of public men by his mental poise and exalted them by his singleness of heart; and a ruler whose exercise of power established for the time on earth a righteous government by all and for all.

And what shall I say on behalf of the three hundred and sixty thousand teachers of the United States? None of them are rich or famous; most of them are poor, retiring, and unnoticed; but it is they who are building a perennial monument to Was.h.i.+ngton. It is they who give him a million-tongued fame. They make him live again in the young hearts of successive generations, and fix his image there as the American ideal of a public servant. It is through the schools and colleges and the national literature that the heroes of any people win lasting renown; and it is through these same agencies that a nation is molded into the likeness of its heroes.

The commemoration of any one great event in the life of Was.h.i.+ngton and of the United States is well, but it is nothing compared with the incessant memorial of him which the schools and colleges of the country maintain from generation to generation. What a reward is Was.h.i.+ngton's!

What an influence is his and will be! One mind and will transfused by sympathetic instruction into millions; one life pattern for all public men, teaching what greatness is and what the pathway to undying fame!

CROWN OUR WAs.h.i.+NGTON

BY HEZEKIAH b.u.t.tERWORTH

Arise! 'tis the day of our Was.h.i.+ngton's glory; The garlands uplift for our liberties won.

Oh sing in your gladness his echoing story, Whose sword swept for freedom the fields of the sun!

Not with gold, nor with gems, But with evergreens vernal, And the banners of stars that the continent span, Crown, crown we the chief of the heroes eternal, Who lifted his sword for the birthright of man!

He gave us a nation to make it immortal; He laid down for Freedom the sword that he drew, And his faith leads us on through the uplifting portal Of the glories of peace and our destinies new.

Not with gold, nor with gems, But with evergreens vernal, And the flags that the nations of liberty span, Crown, crown him the chief of the heroes eternal, Who laid down his sword for the birthright of man!

Lead, Face of the Future, serene in thy beauty, Till o'er the dead heroes the peace star shall gleam, Till Right shall be Might in the counsels of duty, And the service of man be life's glory supreme.

Not with gold, nor with gems, But with evergreens vernal, And the flags that the nations in brotherhood span, Crown, crown we the chief of the heroes eternal, Whose honor was gained by his service to man!

O Spirit of Liberty, sweet are thy numbers!

The winds to thy banners their tribute shall bring While rolls the Potomac where Was.h.i.+ngton slumbers, And his natal day comes with the angels of spring.

We follow thy counsels, O hero eternal!

To highest achievement thy school leads the van, And, crowning thy brow with the evergreen vernal, We pledge thee our all to the service of man!

WAs.h.i.+NGTON-MONTH[7]

BY WILL CARLETON

February--February-- How your moods and actions vary Or to seek or shun!

Now a smile of sunlight lifting, Now in chilly snowflakes drifting; Now with icy shuttles creeping Silver webs are spun.

Now, with leaden torrents leaping, Oceanward you run, Now with bells you blithely sing, 'Neath the stars or sun; Now a blade of burdock bring To the suffering one; February--you are very Dear, when all is done: Many blessings rest above you, You one day (and so we love you) Gave us Was.h.i.+ngton.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] _By permission of the author_.

II

EARLY YEARS