ical 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 p