r in the
voice of John Adams, when he moved the appointment of George Washington
as Commander-in-Chief of all the forces raised or to be raised, the
creation and appointment of God.

So, in his election and re-election to the office of President, Hamilton
set forth the clearness and urgency of the call in the remark that
circumstances left Washington no option. That wonderful triumphal
procession from Mount Vernon to New York, through Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and Trenton, is in response to the appeal and command not
only of earth, but of Heaven. As the nation's first President was called
of God, so is the nation itself called. The divine ideal is before it as
it was before him. God had work for Washington; he had work for his
nation; he had work for every one of his fellow-citizens. An ideal good
is before every man, and divine power behind him. Let him consent to the
control of the power.

The nation's life and each individual life within it is founded on the
sense of obligation. We have in the model of Washington a definition of
duty in the special sense of the term, in the saying, "I most heartily
wish the choice may not fall upon me. The wish of my soul is to spend
the evening of my days as a private citizen on my farm." There is the
power of inclination, the pleading of personal ease and comfort, the
assertion of individual good. In all this there is nothing wrong, until
it comes into conflict with the national call, with the universal good.
Then came the fight between the special and the general, the private and
the public, the individual and the universal good.

The hope of a nation is in the choice of office of its best men. The
historic peril of the republic lies in the choice of unfit men for
eminent official position. This is our peril. It is well we are becoming
more and more alive to it. Nevertheless it is well to remember that
there have been times in our history when the voice of electors has been
the voice of God. When Washington was elected, the fittest man was
chosen. His was the rule of the wisest and best man. There are few
living who will not confess that Abraham Lincoln was another example of
the choice by the people of the best man. We turn in hope to the great
future. After he had taken the oath, Washington bowed his head, kissed
the Bible, and, with the deepest feeling, uttered the words, "So help me
God." There was his hope. There is the hope of every man. There is the
hope of the nation.