y to the State. [Applause and cheers for General Lee.]

I may not venture, gentlemen, upon a review of the character of
Washington, upon all that his life, and services, and influence meant to
the world. The world, in the language of another, knows that history by
heart. An hundred and fifty-seven years ago, I believe, this day, he was
born. He lived almost the full age allotted to man, but he crowded that
narrow life with deeds that would have rendered illustrious and
immortal the history of a thousand years. He gave to the world an
impetus, he impressed upon it a character and force, he gave it a
conception of new power, of solidity of judgment, of strength of
character, of unbending and unyielding integrity, of high devotion to
principle, of just conception of duty, of patriotism and heroic resolve
in the midst of temptation to wander and be subservient, of
self-abnegation, of sacrifices for the benefit of others, such as would
have adorned and rendered immortal--I repeat--the history of the lives
of ten thousand ordinary men. [Applause.] You claim him for Virginia,
but I speak the universal language when I repeat the eloquent expression
of the most eloquent Irishman--"No country can claim, no age appropriate
him; the boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, and
his residence Creation." [Applause.] Well was it that the English
subject could say (though it was the defeat of their armies and the
disgrace of their policy--even they could bless the convulsion in which
he had his origin), "for if the heavens thundered and the earth rocked
yet when the storm had passed how pure was the atmosphere it cleared,
how bright in the brow of the firmament was the planet it revealed to
earth." An hundred years have passed since Washington, crowned with the
honors of the successful chieftain, having led his country through the
turmoil of seven years of blood and strife, in these streets and under
these skies was crowned with the highest civic triumph this Republic can
bestow upon its citizen.

And to-night we come to inquire less, perhaps, of Washington's history,
of Washington's influence and character--for every child knows
that--than we do of the country of which Washington was so conspicuous a
part. It seems to me, gentlemen, that the great national holiday we
celebrate, the Fourth of July, is the most significant of all holidays
in the history of all the nations of the world. What does it typify,
sirs? What