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 Washington.  The first word she lisped was his name.  Her earliest breath spoke it.  It still is her proud ejaculation; 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 assail him.  Yes; when the storm of battle blows darkest and rages highest, the memory of Washington 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.

* * * * *

WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY

BY GEORGE HOWLAND

  Welcome, thou festal morn! 
  Never be passed in scorn
    Thy rising sun,
  Thou day forever bright
  With Freedom’s holy light,
  That gave the world the sight
    Of Washington.

  Unshaken ’mid the storm,
  Behold that noble form—­
    That peerless one—­
  With his protecting hand,
  Like Freedom’s angel stand
  The guardian of our land,
   Our Washington.

  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 Washington.

  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 Washington.

  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 Washington.

  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 Washington.

  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 Washington.