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8. CROWN OUR WASHINGTON.

On the 22d day of February, 1894, was inaugurated the patriotic custom of placing the portrait of Washington in our public schools. An appropriate programme was prepared for the occasion by the "Youth's Companion," which was enthusiastically carried out in every State.

The following poem, taken, by permission, from that programme, was written for the ceremony attending the placing a crown of laurel or evergreen above the portrait of Washington. Captain J. G. B. Adams, Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, initiated this beautiful ceremony. North, South, East, and West responded with equal zeal, and the custom may well become annual and universal throughout the land.

The "Companion," as early as 1888, organized the movement of placing the American flag in, or over, every school building in the land. It also organized the National Columbian Public School Celebration. On that day the United States flag was raised over school buildings, generally, and will pass into history as a day of wide patriotic observance. (See Index, Upham.)

ARISE! 't is the day of our Washington's glory;

The garlands uplift for our liberties won.

Oh, sing in your gladness his echoing story,

Whose sword swept for freedom the fields of the sun!
Not with gold, nor with gems,

But with evergreens vernal,

And the banners of stars that the continent span,
Crown, crown we the chief of the heroes eternal,
Who lifted his sword for the birthright of man!

He gave us a nation to make it immortal;

He laid down for Freedom the sword that he drew,
And his faith leads us on through the uplifting portal
Of the glories of peace and our destinies new.
Not with gold, nor with gems,

But with evergreens vernal,

And the flags that the nations of liberty span,
Crown, crown him the chief of the heroes eternal,
Who laid down his sword for the birthright of man.

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Lead, Face of the Future, serene in thy beauty,

Till o'er the dead heroes the peace star shall gleam,
Till Right shall be Might in the counsels of duty,
And the service of man be life's glory supreme.
Not with gold, nor with gems,

But with evergreens vernal,

And the flags that the nations in brotherhood span,
Crown, crown we the chief of the heroes eternal,
Whose honor was gained by his service to man !

O Spirit of Liberty, sweet are thy numbers!

The winds to thy banners their tribute shall bring While rolls the Potomac where Washington slumbers, And his natal day comes with the angels of spring. We follow thy counsels,

O hero eternal!

To highest achievement the school leads the van,
And, crowning thy brow with the evergreen vernal,
We pledge thee our all to the service of man!

HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH.

9.

GENERAL WASHINGTON'S RESIGNA

TION.

On the 23d day of December, 1783, General Washington surrendered to Congress his commission as Commander in Chief of the Army, in the following address:

MR. PRESIDENT,The great events on which my resignation depended having at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress, and of presenting myself before them to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country.

Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with diffidence, a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task, which, however, was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the Union, and the patronage of Heaven.

The successful termination of the war has verified the most sanguine expectations; and my gratitude for the interposition of Providence, and the assistance I have received from my countrymen, increases with every review of the momentous contest. While I repeat my obligations to the Army in general, I should do injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge, in this place, the . peculiar services and distinguished merits of the gentlemen who have been attached to my person during the war. It was impossible the choice of confidential officers to compose my family should have been more fortunate. Permit me, Sir, to recommend in particular those who have continued in the service to the present moment, as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of Congress.

I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life by commending the interests of our beloved country to the protection of Almighty God; and those who have the superintendence of them, to His holy keeping.

Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action; and, bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.

G. WASHINGTON.

PART VI.

INCENTIVES TO PATRIOTISM.

1. THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS.

CASTING our eyes over the history of nations, we discern with horror the succession of numerous slaughters by which their progress has been marked. Even as

the hunter traces the wild beast to his lair by the drops of blood upon the hearth, so do we follow man, weary and staggering with wounds, through the black path of the past which he has reddened with his gore.

Oh, let it not be in future ages as in the past! Let the grandeur of man be discerned, not in bloody victories or in ravenous conquests, but in the blessings which he has secured, in the good he has accomplished, in the triumphs of justice and benevolence, in the establishment of perpetual peace.

As the ocean washes every shore and with all-embracing arm clasps every land, while on its heaving bosom it bears the products of various climes, so peace surrounds, protects, and upholds all other blessings. Without it commerce is vain, the ardor of industry is restrained, happiness is blasted, virtue slackens and dies. Peace has its peculiar victories, in comparison with which, Marathon, Bannockburn, and Bunker Hill, fields sacred in the history of human freedom, shall lose their lustre. Our own Washington rises to a truly heavenly stature, not when we

follow him over the ice in the Delaware to the capture of Trenton; not when we behold him victorious over Cornwallis at Yorktown; but when we regard him, in noble deference to justice, refusing the crown which a faithful soldiery proffered, and at a later day upholding the peaceful neutrality of the country, while he received, unmoved, the clamor of the people wickedly crying for

war.

CHARLES SUMNER.

2. THE COST OF LIBERTY.

LIBERTY has been bought with a great price. Trace it along the centuries; mark the prisons where captives for it pined; mark the graves to which victims for it went down despairing; mark the fields whereon its heroes battled; mark the seas whereon they fought; mark the exile to which they fled; mark the burned spots where men gave up the ghost in torture, to vindicate the integrity of their souls; add sufferings which have found no record, and imagine, if you can, the whole. Liberty has cost more than all these!

Consult the purchaser, if
Awaken from the prisons

Is there value for the cost? you are able to pay the cost. those who have perished in them, and from the graves those broken-hearted by oppression. Call from the field of blood those who choose death rather than bonds. Invoke from the caverns of the deep those whom the ocean swallowed, in braving the invader. Summon back from exile those who sank unseen in savage wilds. Pray for those to come once more to earth, who bore testimony to the truth in agony.

Then you will marshal a host of witnesses which no man can number. All these, aforetime, through mani

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