hat bright arch
of Union and Liberty which spans the continent from Washington to
California!

VI

TRIBUTES

MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON[19]

BY HENRY B. CARRINGTON

Modern history, oratory, and poetry are so replete with tributes to the
memory of Washington, that the entire progress of the civilized world
for more than a century has been shaped by the influence of his life and
precepts. The memorial shaft at the national capital, which is the
loftiest of human structures, and is inner-faced by typical expressions
of honor from nearly all nations, is a fit type of his surmounting
merit. The ceremonies which attended the cornerstone consecration and
signalized its completion are no less an honor to the distinguished
historian and statesman who voiced the acclamations of the American
people than a perpetual testimonial worthy of the subject honored by the
occasion and by the monument. When the world pays willing tribute, and
the most ambitious monarch on earth would covet no higher plaudit than
that he served his people as faithfully as Washington served America, it
is difficult to fathom the depths of memorial sentiment and place in
public view those which are the most worthy of study and appreciative
respect. The national life itself throbs through his transmitted life,
and the aroma of his grace is as consciously breathed by statesmen and
citizens to-day as the invisible atmosphere which secures physical
vitality and force. Senator Vance of North Carolina, thus earnestly
commends to the youth of America the brightness and beauty of the great
example:

Greater soldiers, more intellectual statesmen, and profounder sages
have doubtless existed in the history of the English race, perhaps
in our own country, but not one who to great excellence in the
threefold composition of man, the physical, intellectual, and
moral, has added such exalted integrity, such unaffected piety,
such unsullied purity of soul, and such wondrous control of his own
spirit. He illustrated and adorned the civilization of
Christianity, and furnished an example of the wisdom and perfection
of its teachings which the subtlest arguments of its enemies cannot
impeach. That one grand, rounded life, full-orbed with intellectual
and moral glory, is worth, as the product of Christianity, more
than all the dogmas of all the teachers. The youth of America who
aspire to promote their o