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Show H A SACKED DAY. BBBH B As long as free institutions exist the 22nd of Febru- m. ary will be a sacred day. Washington stands out a dis- H tinct and exalted figure in history. The divine rights of B kings were to pass away; the divine rights of sovereign H manhood were to be acknowledged and Washington ap- B peared the first lofty representative of the new dispensa- H tion. He was more than any history has made him. He H was more in his day than the world realized. This is B proven by the fact that those near his person, no matter B how bright or brave they were, accepted his sovereignty H over them. They yielded to him as a matter of course. H They felt as did they who met Hercules, they wanted no B proof of what he could do, or what under stress he would B do they knew it would be right. As Iole said of Her- H cules: "Hercules did not wail for a contest; he conquered K whether he stood, or walked, or sat, or whatever thing m he did." Emerson says: "Divine persons are character m born, or, to borrow a phase from Napoleon, they are m victory organized." B In the same way Washington conquered those around B him. He gave the impression of "victory organized." V. That impression extended far beyond his immediate pres- B ence. When he died, Napoleon, after years of unparal- B leled victories, had become First Consul of France, with B Europe at his feet. But when the news of the death of B Washington reached him, he ordered that his triumphant m armies should drape their standards, put on the insignia m of mourning, and in the palace of the government a solemn m memorial service was held. There are those who say he B was insincere in that, but no matter, the impression that m Washington had made upon the world had reached him H and he knew that it had reached the Frenlh people. Ih- H deed that inner self had shone out at Valley Forge and H made his naked army forget the cold, his starving army B forget their hunger. It blazed out at Trenton, at Prince- H ton, at Monmouth, at Yorktown; it empressed itself upon H congress, and upon the world; it will continue to impress H the world as long as heroism and unselfish patriotism H are reverenced by mankind. C. C. Goodwin. |