he
eloquent tribute of Daniel Webster: "He smote the rock of the national
resources, and abundant streams of revenues burst forth. He touched the
dead corpse of public credit, and it sprung upon its feet."

As Washington's second term drew to a close, a universal demand was made
that he should serve again. Despite the fact that the two great
political parties were fairly organized, and each contained many able
men, no one would have had the temerity to offer himself as a
competitor; but he was growing old, his strength had been worn out in
the service of his country, and the rest he yearned for could no longer
be denied him. He, therefore, issued his immortal Farewell Address to
his countrymen and withdrew to Mount Vernon, where he peacefully passed
away December 14, 1799, mourned by the whole country and revered by the
civilized world.

The Farewell Address contains counsel that can never lose its value to
America. After thanking his fellow-countrymen for the confidence they
had always shown in him, and the support he had received from them, he
said that the love of liberty was so interwoven with every ligament of
their hearts that no recommendation of his was necessary to fortify that
attachment. The unity of government, by which they were made one people,
had also become very dear to them.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S BEDROOM, MT. VERNON, IN WHICH HE DIED.]

"It is justly so," he said, "for it is a main pillar in the edifice of
your real independence--the support of your tranquillity at home, your
peace abroad; of your safety, of your prosperity; of that very liberty
which you so highly prize. But, as it is easy to foresee that, from
different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken,
many artifices be employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of
this truth--as this is the point in your political fortress against
which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most
constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously)
directed--it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the
immense value of your national union to your collective and individual
happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable
attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the
palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its
preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest
even a suspicion that it ca