Washington (state)

“ Washington celebrated the year 1939 as its Golden Jubilee, the fiftieth anniversary of its statehood, and 30 years after its World's Fair of 1909, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. To the north, a new empire is building in Alaska, and Washington, its nearest home port, will inevitably share in its upbuilding. To the west, although strife in the Orient at present has dislocated transoceanic trade, Washington, as the closest American port, possesses great natural advantages for commerce with the Orient. ”

“ With a population now reaching up toward a million and a half, and with all the forces that make for industrial, commercial and agricultural supremacy in full swing, and gathering new momentum yearly, Washington is moving onward and upward toward a position among the very elect of our great sisterhood of states. ”

“ On the other hand, despite its local peculiarities, Washington's labor history follows the general pattern of that of the country as a whole and consistently reflects national influence and events. Washington's growth was part of the westward expansion of the Nation, and of its railroads, industries, and finance, following the Civil War. The beginning of modern development in the Territory was marked by a great influx of settlers from the industrial East and Middle West. Population increased from 23,955 to 357,232 between 1870 and 1890. ”

“ Washington is so unique in its origin and in its use for housing and localizing the sovereignty of the Nation that the people who live here must regard its peculiar character and must be content to subject themselves to the control of a body selected by all the people of the Nation. ”

“ So they rode on together to the house and had a chat, to which we must recur further on.
There is no contemporary narrative of which I am aware that shows Washington to us more clearly than this little adventure with Bernard, for it is in the common affairs of daily life that men come nearest to each other, and the same rule holds good in history. We know Washington much better from these few lines of description left by a chance acquaintance on the road than we do from volumes of state papers. ”

“ Physical Features.—The western half of Washington lies in the Pacific Mountains province, consisting of the Coast range and the Cascade range, separated by a broad basin known as the Sound Valley. The eastern half of the state is occupied in the north by a westward extension of the Rocky Mountains, and in the centre and south by the north-western portion of the Columbia Plateau province. ”

“ While all this is true, nevertheless the fact that Washington is governed by Congress, and that the citizens are not responsible and have no direct control through popular election in District matters, properly subjects the government to inquiry and criticism by its citizens, manifested through the public press and otherwise; such criticism should command the careful attention of Congress. Washington is the capital of the nation and its maintenance as a great and beautiful city under national control, every lover of his country has much at heart ”

“ The simple mode of life above described did not save Washington from public censure by those who are always ready to carp at the doings of distinguished men, however unexceptionable their conduct may be. Free levees were said to savor of an affectation of royal state. ”

“ Men there are all engaged in active and profitable employments. Washington will have two millions of people in fifteen years, and the few hundred thousand who are there now have all they can do to prepare for the coming flood. Unlike California in 1849, this grand State is drawing from a population of seventy millions, and the railroads are already opened for the human freight. It took California forty years to become an Empire State; it will take Washington about fifteen years from 1890. ”

“ They brought immediately to the cause all the soldiers and officers of the army, and they aroused and convinced the strongest and ablest men in every State. Washington's personal influence was very great, something we of this generation, with a vast territory and seventy millions of people, cannot readily understand. ”

“ Without an unprejudiced coolness the welfare of the Government may be hazarded; without harmony as far as consists with freedom of sentiment its dignity may be lost. But as the legislative proceedings of the United States will never, I trust, be reproached for the want of temper or of candor, so shall not the public happiness languish from the want of my strenuous and warmest cooperation. ”

“ The more homogenous our citizens can be made in these particulars the greater will be our prospect of permanent union; and a primary object of such a national institution should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic what species of knowledge can be equally important and what duty more pressing on its legislature than to patronize a plan for communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country? ”

“ But I promise you this - I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change. ”

“ As President, I’m committed to making Washington work better, and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here. ”

“ Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the measures of Government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the Community as in ours, it is proportionably essential. To the security of a free Constitution it contributes in various ways: By convincing those, who are entrusted with the public administration, that every valuable end of Government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people: And by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights ”

“ For though I shall always think it a sacred duty to exercise with firmness and energy the constitutional powers with which I am vested, yet it appears to me no less consistent with the public good than it is with my personal feelings to mingle in the operations of Government every degree of moderation and tenderness which the national justice, dignity, and safety may permit. ”

“ It should be kept in mind that in the study of the National Capital we are studying the seat of government of the greatest nation in the world, a city that was laid on a broad, firm foundation, and although neglected for decades during the last century, the twentieth century has seen Washington transformed into a city in keeping with the dignity, power, and wealth of this great Nation. ”

“ In distant lands, people who have hardly heard of the United States know the name of Washington. Nothing could better show the regard of the world for this great giver of liberty to the people than the way in which contributions came from all nations to his monument in Washington. ”

“ Every part of the Union displays indications of rapid and various improvement; and with burthens so light as scarcely to be perceived, with resources fully adequate to our present exigencies, with governments founded on the genuine principles of rational liberty, and with mild and wholesome laws, is it too much to say that our country exhibits a spectacle of national happiness never surpassed, if ever before equaled? ”

“ Among these men whose union in purpose and action made the strength and stability of the republic, Washington was first, not only in the largeness of his nature, the loftiness of his desires, and the vigor of his will, but also in that representative quality which makes a man able to stand as the true hero of a great people. He had an instinctive power to divine, amid the confusions of rival interests and the cries of factional strife, the new aims and hopes, the vital needs and aspirations, which were the common inspiration of the people's cause and the creative forces of the American nation. ”

“ From the aristocratic tables and home comforts of Mount Vernon and Belvoir, the youthful Washington began roughing it in the forests and along the streams of the Shenandoah. He had begun to adapt himself to the primitive conditions of his country and to share the coarse fare of the commoners that composed the civilization of the new world. ”

“ It does seem as though Providence called our Washington into being, and educated him in the western world just at the time when a great leader was wanted to direct a revolution, and to found on this continent a new and a free, English-speaking nation. Every factor, whether of lineage or culture, in the admirably balanced character of Washington, as well as every aspiration of his heart, from his cradle to his grave, is of high interest to the world. ”

“ Then if the father of his country can look down from any star upon the city of his love he will behold in the new Washington that which even he did not foresee in his earthly life—one of the most magnificent cities of the whole earth. ”

“ Washington, indeed, is a far more perfect character. Washington stands alone and unapproachable, like a snow-peak rising above its fellows into the clear air of morning, with a dignity, constancy, and purity which have made him the ideal type of civic virtue to succeeding generations. No greater benefit could have befallen the republic than to have such a type set from the first before the eye and mind of the people. ”

“ If there are any circumstances in the law which consistently with its main design may be so varied as to remove any well-intentioned objections that may happen to exist, it will consist with a wise moderation to make the proper variations. It is desirable on all occasions to unite with a steady and firm adherence to constitutional and necessary acts of Government the fullest evidence of a disposition as far as may be practicable to consult the wishes of every part of the community and to lay the foundations of the public administration in the affections of the people. ”

“ There never was half the unanimity among the people before, nor a tithe of the zeal upon any subject, that is now manifested to take Washington. From the mountain tops and valleys to the shores of the sea, there is one wild shout of fierce resolve to capture Washington City at all and every human hazard. ”

“ Let us unite without distinction, French, Americans, all civilized nations. Washington is too great to belong to one nation only. He has served his country well, but he also served humanity. Humanity claims him, and just as you faithfully bring up your children to respect his French companions, Lafayette and Rochambeau, so we, also, teach ourselves, that the life of Washington is the most beautiful of which a good citizen can dream. ”

“ Eminent for industry, frugality and all the virtues of private life, Washington had, more than any other man of his time, taken note of the things that made men strong, useful and successful, and clearly saw that while the new constitution and government was a necessity to bind the people together and found a nation, yet it was the virtues of the in- dividual man that must bring happiness and prosperity to all the people. ”

“ In like manner, as several of the courts have doubted, under particular circumstances, their power to liberate the vessels of a nation at peace, and even of a citizen of the United States, although seized under a false color of being hostile property, and have denied their power to liberate certain captures within the protection of our territory, it would seem proper to regulate their jurisdiction in these points. ”

“ Encompassed by the inviolate seas, stands to-day the American Republic, which he founded—a freer Greater Britain—uplifted above the powers and principalities of the earth, even as his monument is uplifted over roof and dome and spire of the multitudinous city.
Long live the Republic of Washington! Respected by mankind, beloved of all its sons, long may it be the asylum of the poor and oppressed of all lands and religions—long may it be the citadel of that Liberty which writes beneath the eagle's folded wings, "We will sell to no man, we will deny to no man, right and justice." ”

“ Few centres of great energy lived in illusion more complete or archaic than Washington with its simple-minded standards of the field and farm, its southern and western habits of life and manners, its assumptions of ethics and history; but even in Washington, society was uneasy enough to need no further fretting. ”

“ The fame of Washington stands apart from every other in history, shining with a truer luster and a more benignant glory. With us his memory remains a national property, where all sympathies, throughout our widely extended and diversified empire meet in unison. Under all dissensions and amid all the storms of party, his precepts and example speak to us from the grave with a paternal appeal; and his name—by all revered—forms a universal brotherhood, a watchword of our Union. ”

“ It will not be doubted that with reference either to individual or national welfare agriculture is of primary importance. In proportion as nations advance in population and other circumstances of maturity this truth becomes more apparent, and renders the cultivation of the soil more and more an object of public patronage. ”

“ If we compare him with the great men who were his contemporaries throughout the nation; in an age of extraordinary personages, Washington was unquestionably the first man of the time in ability. Review the correspondence of General Washington—that sublime monument of intelligence and integrity—scrutinize the public history and the public men of that era, and you will find that in all the wisdom that was accomplished was attempted, Washington was before every man in his suggestions of the plan, and beyond every one in the extent to which he contributed to its adoption. ”