The world has ratified the profound remark of Fisher Ames, that “he changed mankind’s ideas of political greatness.”  It has approved the opinion of Edward Everett, that he was “the greatest of good men, and the best of great men.”  It has felt for him, with Erskine, “an awful reverence.”  It has attested the declaration of Brougham that he was “the greatest man of his own or of any age."...

Conquerors who have stretched your scepter over boundless territories; founders of empires who have held your dominions in the reign of law; reformers who have cried aloud in the wilderness of oppression; teachers who have striven to cast down false doctrines, heresy, and schism; statesmen whose brains have throbbed with mighty plans for the amelioration of human society; scar-crowned vikings of the sea, illustrious heroes of the land, who have borne the standards of siege and battle, come forth in bright array from your glorious fanes, and would ye be measured by the measure of his stature?  Behold you not in him a more illustrious and more venerable presence?  Statesman, soldier, patriot, sage, reformer of creeds; teacher of truth and justice, achiever and preserver of liberty, the first of men, founder and saviour of his country, father of his people—­this is he, solitary and unapproachable in his grandeur!

Oh, felicitous Providence that gave to America our Washington!

High soars into the sky to-day, higher than the pyramid or the dome of St. Paul’s or St. Peter’s—­the loftiest and most imposing structure that man has ever reared—­high soars into the sky to where—­“Earth highest yearns to meet a star” the monument which “We the people of the United States” have uplifted to his memory.  It is a fitting monument, more fitting than any statue.  For his image could only display him in some one phase of his varied character.  So art has fitly typified his exalted life in yon plain, lofty shaft.  Such is his greatness, that only by a symbol could it be represented.  As Justice must be blind in order to be whole in contemplation, so History must be silent that by this mighty sign she may disclose the amplitude of her story.

No sum could now be made of Washington’s character that did not exhaust language of its tributes and repeat virtue by all her names.  No sum could be made of his achievements that did not unfold the history of his country and its institutions—­the history of his age and its progress—­the history of man and his destiny to be free.  But, whether character or achievement be regarded, the riches before us only expose the poverty of praise.  So clear was he in his great office that no ideal of the leader or ruler can be formed that does not shrink by the side of the reality.  And so has he impressed himself upon the minds of men, that no man can justly aspire to be the chief of a great, free people, who does not adopt his principles and emulate his example.  We look with amazement on such eccentric characters as Alexander, Caesar, Cromwell, Frederick, and Napoleon, but when Washington’s face rises before us, instinctively mankind exclaims:  “This is the man for nations to trust and reverence, and for rulers to follow.”