Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/412

semble on the following 22d of February, in such manner as should be convenient, to testify publicly by eulogies, orations, and discourses, or by public prayers, their grief for the death of George Wash- ington. In conformity with this recommendation, eulogies or sermons were delivered, or exercises of some sort held, in almost every city, town, village, or hamlet throughout the land. Such was the first observance of Washington's birthday ; — thence- forth to be a national holiday. But not in our own land only was his death commemorated. Na- poleon Bonaparte, then first consul, announced it to the army of Prance, and ordered all the stand- ards and flags throughout the republic to be bound with crape for ten days, during which a funeral oration was pronounced in presence of the first consul and all the civil and military authorities, in what is now the Hotel des Invalides. More strik- ing still is the fact, mentioned by Jared Sparks, that the British fleet, consisting of nearly sixty ships of the line, which was lying at Torbay, Eng- land, under the command of Lord Bridport, low- ered their flags half-mast on hearing the intelli- gence of Washington's death.

In later years the tributes to the memory of Washington have been such as no other man of modern or even of ancient history has command- ed. He has sometimes been compared, after the manner of Plutarch, with Epaminondas, or Timo- leon, or Alfred the Great of England. But an eminent living English historian has recently and justly said that the place of Washington in the his- tory of mankind " is well-nigh without a fellow." Indeed, the general judg- ment of the world has given ready as- sent to the careful- ly weighed, twice re- peated declaration of Lord Brougham : "It will be the duty of the historian and sage in all ages to let no occasion pass of commemorat- ing this illustrious man ; and, until time shall be no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and vir- tue be derived from

the veneration paid

to the immortal name of Washington ! " Modest, disinterested, generous, just, of clean hands and a pure heart, self-denying and self-sacrificing, seek- ing nothing for himself, declining all remuneration beyond the reimbursement of his outlays, scrupu- lous to a farthing in keeping his accounts, of spot- less integrity, scorning gifts, charitable to the needy, forgiving injuries and injustice, fearless, heroic, with a prudence ever governing his impulses and a wisdom ever guiding his valor, true to his friends, true to his whole country, true to himself, fearing God, believing in Christ, no stranger to private de- votion or public worship, or to the holiest offices of the church to which he belonged, but ever grate- fully recognizing a divine aid and direction in all that he attempted and in all that he accomplished — what epithet, what attribute, could be added to that consummate character to commend it as an example above all other characters in merel v human history ? Washington's most important original papers were bequeathed to his favorite nephew, Bush rod Washington, and were committed by him to Chief- Justice John Marshall, by whom an elaborate life, in five volumes, was published in 1804. Abridged editions of this great work have been published more recently. "The Writings of Washington," with a life, were published by Jared Sparks (12 vols., Boston, 1834-'7). A new edition of Washing- ton's complete works in 14 vols., edited by Worth- ington C. Ford, containing many letters and papers now published for the first time, is in course of publication (vol. i., New York, November, 1888). Biographies have also been published by Mason L. Weems, David Ramsay, James K. Paulding, Charles W. Upham, Joel T. Headley, Caroline M. Kirkland, and others. Benson J. Lossing made an interest- ing and important contribution to the illustration of the same theme by his " Mount Vernon and its Associations" in 1859. Meanwhile the genius of Washington Irving has illuminated the whole story of Washington's life, public and private, and thrown around it the charms of exquisite style and lucid narrative (5 vols., New York, 1855-'9). An abridg- ment and revision of Irving's work, by John Fiske (New York, 1888), and a " Life of George Washing- ton," by Edward E. Hale (1887), have recently ap- peared. A sketch was prepared by Edward Everett, at the request of Lord Macaulay, for the eighth edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " (1853— 1860), which was afterward published in a separate volume. To Edward Everett, too, belongs the prin- cipal credit of having saved Mount Vernon from the auctioneer's hammer, and secured its preserva- tion, under the auspices of the Ladies' Mount Ver- non association, as a place of pilgrimage. He wrote 52 articles for the New York " Ledger," and deliv- ered his lecture on Washington many times, con- tributing the proceeds to the Mount Vernon fund.

The marble statue in the capitol at Richmond, Va. (for bust of this, see page 379), by the French sculptor Houdon, from life, must be named first among the standard likenesses of Washington. Excellent portraits of him by John Trumbull, by both the Peales, and by Gilbert Stuart, are to be seen in many public galleries. Stuart's head leaves nothing to be desired in the way of dignity and grandeur. Among the numerous monuments that have been erected to his memory may be mentioned the noble column in Baltimore; the colossal statue in the Capitol grounds at Washington, by Horatio Greenough ; the splendid group in Richmond, surmounted by an equestrian statue, by Thomas Crawford : the marble statue in the Massachusetts state-house, by Sir Francis Chantrey; the equestrian statue in the Boston public garden, by Thomas Ball ; the equestrian statue in Union square. New York, by Henry K. Brown ; and. lastly, the matchless obelisk at Washington, of which the corner-stone was laid in 1848, upon which the capstone was placed, at the height of 555 feet, in 1884, and which was dedicated by congress on 21 Feb., 1885, as Washington's birthday that year fell on Sunday. See vignette, and also illustrations of his birthplace by Charles C. Perkins; a drawing of the locality by Gen. William T. Sherman, the church at Pohick (page 376), the Newburg headquarters (page 378), Mount Vernon (page 383), Washington's tomb, a portrait of him in youth (page 374) ; also the pictures by Trumbull (page 377), Wertmuller (page 380), and Du Simitiere (page 381). The steel engraving, which appears as a frontispiece to this volume, is from Stuart's original in the Boston athoim'iim. The vignette of Mrs. Washington is from the portrait by the same artist. — His wife,