J. N. M'Jilton

“ He is the statesman in the nobleness and dignity which the character should ever maintain. In his acts, which are always of general application, and for the public good, the blustering partisan is shamed into silence, and the tongue of the wily politician stilled. He speaks only when he has something to say. His words are the words of the heart, and they are full of meaning. He sees not himself, and knows nothing of his own success, but he pleads for the land that he has perilled his life to save. He labors with his might for his country’s prosperity ”

“ Palmam qui meruit ferat—Let him wear the palm who wins it. And when I say that this is a motto worthy of the American youth, I give it a place far above that which it occupied in the proudest days of Roman honor, or in the brightest days of Grecian fame. And if you ask me for the proof, I point you to the American [10] character, more brilliant in its enlightened freedom, and in its patriotic integrity, than that of Greece or Rome ever was, and to American institutions, blending republicanism, intelligence, and religion in a greater degree than they were ever blended in a nation before. ”

“ Treasure, then, as a sacred gift from Heaven, the blessings which this domestic altar affords you. And let your characters be formed in the cultivation and manly exercise of the principles it imparts. Remember that the principles you cultivate, and the character you form in youth, will be likely to be your principles and character for life. And as you would be respected and valued as members of society hereafter; as you would be useful and honored among men, use all your powers to obtain right principles, and to develope those principles into such character, as Americans, you may be proud of. ”

“ He is qualified for no profession, and plodding his way in ignorance, his associations must be low, and grovelling, and in his path through life he must be vicious and unhappy. And let me ask, for what profession is it possible that the boy can be prepared that was never instructed at home, nor at school, nor any where else? The answer is suggested to every mind by the question itself. And what is such a boy fit for? He is fit for the pursuit of vice and wretchedness; and that is the pursuit upon which he will be likely to enter. Ignorance and vice are the parents of misery. ”

“ We boast, as we have cause to do, of our position as free American citizens, and we rejoice in the powerful effect the domestic altar has upon our national character. But we are compelled to mingle reproach with our boast, and regret with our joy, that as a nation we should in any wise neglect that most important of all teaching—the teaching of character. In this we must acknowledge that we are deficient, and that the blessings of the domestic altar are not as profitable, nor as extensively diffused as they might be. What we lack is systematic effort in the formation of character. ”

“ He is as bold in the reproval of his friend’s faults to his face as he is in the defence of his character when he is absent. He is to his friend, in all things, just what he would have his friend be to him under the same circumstances. Deceit is the thing he scorns, and to treachery he is a stranger. Selfishness has no part in his character, and from meanness of every description he flies as he would from the pursuit of a serpent. Such a friend is worthy of the name, and if youth were trained for the character there would be more of them in the world than there are. ”

“ Doubtless the model which is presented in our illustrious Washington will be found to contain what is excellent and valuable in character, and worthy the emulation of the American boy. And if his ambition be excited to the pursuit of that which is high, and honorable, and virtuous, the expansion of his manly faculties may develope such character as shall render him a distinguished man,—distinguished in his deeds, as he is in the proud name he bears of American citizen. ”

“ And not only to the developement of the social qualities, is the young American indebted to the domestic altar, but he is also indebted to that altar, in a considerable degree, for the developement of his character as a patriot and a Christian. He learns patriotism and religion at the hearthstone. The fire of a country’s love is enkindled in the young heart, and the lisping infant pronounces the name of God with awe. ”

“ But it appears as if it were left for the American to combine into a perfect character all the elements of which it is composed, and to hold that character up an improvement upon the past, and as a guide and pattern for the future. And that this perfect character is not yet fully developed in a national point, is most clearly certain. When it is, the world will look upon what it has not yet seen; a nation combining in right proportions the elements which make man a social and religious being, with those which make him a patriot. Then may the man be regarded as the representative of his nation ”

“ In our own city, as they do in every American city, the public schools rise up before us like waymarks upon the path of prosperity. They are the waymarks on the road to fame, and the boy may measure his way through them until he arrives at the distinction to which they direct him. ”

“ And the principles of character which would render the man a valued brother and friend, like those which would make him a worthy and dutiful son, must be incorporated into his nature in his childhood, and in his youth. He must be the obedient son, the affectionate brother, and the firm friend in his boyhood, or the probability is that he will never be so at all. There is some truth in the adage, that friendships, to be pure, and disinterested, and lasting, must be formed in youth, and that those which are formed in more matured years are not so. ”

“ But the American youth live in a very different age, and their system of instruction, in nearly all its departments, is of a very different character. In their education, the love for eminence in the state is not neglected, and they are taught to cherish the patriotism that burned in the bosoms of the Greek and Roman youth. ”

“ And in scarcely any thing is this social character, which is developed in these elements of domestic life, more distinctly seen, and more admired, than in the estimate which the man places upon the female character and female society. The youth who has rightly improved by this domestic training, and in whom the social character is properly developed, is the champion of female virtue. The female character, in its spotless purity, is that which he admires, and loves, and venerates. He sees a mother and a sister in every respectable female ”

“ Look out upon the mighty ocean, and see the ships that sail from port to port, their white sails swelling in the breeze, and moving like things of life over the billows! And cast your eyes upon those ocean steamers, the cities of the deep, that swim the waves in their dignity and power, and that, in regard to time, bring distant nations nearer to each other. ”

“ Provision is made by the state governments for the education of the young, so that their characters, as social beings, and as patriots, and Christians, may be properly developed; and that they may be prepared to sustain the free institutions in which their honor is reflected, and which will sustain them as free American citizens. And in the arrangements which are made for the universal diffusion of the blessings of education, provision is made for all, so that no man is too poor to have his child educated. ”

“ And the American boy should study, as a most important part of his education, the broad principles of the Christian faith, and the creed of the Christian church. And he should learn to hold his religious views in respect to God and to his church, and not in any wise in respect to the opinions of men. And how important is the place of the parent and the teacher in its view of this duty? The infidel is utterly unqualified for the employment. An infidel mother is unfit for the training of an American boy. ”

“ And so manly is his character, and so decided his attainments, that when he is but [39] nineteen years of age, in addition to his office of public surveyor, he is made the commissioned head of the militia of his district to guard it against the depredations of the Indians. And he is yet devoted to his mother, and ready to obey her in all that she commands. Washington the man is like Washington the boy, the dutiful and obedient son. He loves his mother tenderly and devotedly, and his mother, in return, loves him with all the ardor of a mother’s deep and abiding affection. ”

“ You desire that I shall present you the man combining the elements of character in their proper proportions, qualifying him for life in its different departments. Such a man I would state to be one who is prepared to take his place in the domestic circle; who can act his part in the various departments of professional life; and who is educated for the honor and service of his God. ”

“ Every child is a patriot. Every boy is both a statesman and a soldier. And what is required in his teaching, in such matters, is the right sort of training. And badly will his patriotic character be brought forth if he be left to himself in its developement; to make the boy a pure and exalted patriot, true patriotism must be presented to him from the model. And it is to be shown him in its principle, and in its operation. ”

“ In the time of peace he is a man of peace. He is just the man that you might expect the boy Washington to make. A talented, active, industrious citizen. His occupation is that of a surveyor, and so eminent is he in his profession, rendered so by study and industrious application—so eminent is he, that he attracts public attention and receives the appointment of public surveyor at the age of but little more than seventeen years. ”

“ If there is any thing innate in the human bosom, it would seem to be this feeling of patriotism. And it is fanned into a flame, it is excited and fevered by the unnumbered incidents of patriotic history that crowd upon the expanding and improving mind, and by the appeals of daily occurrences which tend to warm and animate the heart. ”

“ He is the lofty spirit that deals in mighty works, and when there are no more mighty works for him to do, he retires to be mighty still in the circles of private life. He fights while there is a gun to be fired, or a foe to be subdued, and he is the last to leave the field. ”

“ He must be taught what he must be in private life, that he may do honor to his domestic relations. He must be taught his duty as a citizen, that, in the performance of that duty, he may become eminent, and that society and the state may be the better for his having lived in them. ”

“ And even in this privilege of voting, their sovereignty is sufficiently operative for evil. And were these miserable apologies for the freemen of America to triumph over the enlightened and the virtuous, what would the name of America be but the stamp of infamy? ”

“ When there are no more toils for him to undergo, he lays the honors of office at the feet of those who conferred them, and from his distinguished seat, at the head of the government, he comes down to the place of a private citizen. ”

“ If in such analysis, the model of American character were held up before the American youth, it could not fail to be imitated. And to render the work effectual, the holding up of the model should be attended with the communication of such instruction, and in such manner, as might encourage the youth to embrace the character in its simple elements, and to emulate it in the model which the combination of these elements may furnish. ”

“ To the ignorant and the vile, the base and the profligate, our government extends the right of suffrage. It recognises all as politically free. But can such characters aspire to the place of office which the enlightened alone can fill? ”

“ It tells of triumphs which the mind, in its improvement, has achieved, and of the trophies reared by hands of educated skill. There is no department of life in which the American boy may enter but will afford him honor and honorable success, if he seeks it in a manner that is becoming in the American character. ”