AMEEICAISr AND EUROPEAN SWOEDS 155 



senting them continually to the eyes of men, they serve to inspire the same 

 feelings which have produced such achievements. 



Sir, judging from my own feelings, no statue nor mausoleum can produce 

 so great an effect as the smallest relic which is intimately associated with 

 the person of the benefactor of his country. These are, indeed, small and 

 inconsiderable relics ; but who are the persons, and what are the names, 

 with which they stand associated? 



Washington ! — when this name is mentioned, who shall be presumptuous 

 enough to conceive that eulogy can add anything to the feelings which the 

 mere sound of it produces? Washington ! — of whom one of the most eminent 

 men living in the present day, and himself the subject of a monarchy, has 

 said, and said truly, that among uninspired men, that was the greatest name 

 of all. And it is, Mr. President ; for I must be permitted to say, if it were 

 possible tliat a man as heroic and as virtuous as Washington should be per- 

 mitted by a beneficient Providence to be placed in authority now, he could not 

 by possibility be as great a man as Washington was. And why? Because 

 circumstances must in every case form one of the elements of greatness. Be- 

 cause no living man can again be placed in circumstances where he can sig- 

 nalize himself as our glorious Washington has done. 



Sir, we may have many founders of liberty in every country and in every 

 clime ; but never can there be another founder of the liberties of a whole race ; 

 and though we should prove recreant to his memory, and treacherously refuse 

 to preserve the mementoes of his fame, this is the character which Washington 

 will receive in all aftertimes, from all races of men. Yes, sir, it is receiving 

 General Washington in a light altogether too confined to claim his benefactions 

 as our exclusive benefactions, and his fame as our fame. 



Sir, the thousands of generations which are to spring up in aftertime upon 

 the face of the earth, under the shadow of that glorious germe of liberty 

 which has been planted upon this continent, when it shall have extended its 

 luxuriant branches and brought forth its fruit in full maturity, will all of 

 them claim Washington, as we now are entitled to claim him — as their ben- 

 efactor, and the author of their liberties, as he has been of ours ! 



And Franklin ! — names associated in this country's history as the greatest 

 benefactors of the human race — Feanklin, scarcely less illustrious for his im- 

 portant discoveries in science. Names now associated by the seemingly for- 

 tuitous gift of a mere cane! — inconsiderable, indeed, in itself, but of immense 

 value, as having belonged to him. 



Sir, the discoveries of Franklin, as a philosopher, (for I mean now only to 

 pay a passing tribute to him in that view) will hereafter be considered as most 

 extraordinary benefactions to the cause of science — greater than those of any 

 m;;n that has lived in any age of the world. 



Such ai-e the names which are here associated by these trifling gifts ! And 

 what is it that the Senate is now called upon to do by this resolution? To pay 

 a passing tribute of homage or admiration? No; that is not the word to be 

 employed in speaking of either of these men ; it is not homage — it is not admi- 

 ration ; there is but a single word in our language that will express it — the 

 tribute of our veneration. 



Sir, it was the simplicity of the style of our venerated Franklin, which dis- 

 tinguished him as much as his eminent virtues, and his profound knowledge, 

 and his glorious contributions to the cause of liberty as well as science. He 

 said of General Washington — the friend of liberty and the friend of mankind — 

 that he deserved a sceptre. Sir, that great man not only merited, but he gained 

 a sceptre. It was thought, at the period of his demise, not too great praise to 



