CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON. City of the West, Built up in a minute, Everybody in it: On a race with time, 149 CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON.-DANIEL WEBSTER. AMERICA has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind. Washington "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen !"-Washington is all our own! The enthusiastic veneration and regard in which the people of the Uniteh States hold him, prove them to be worthy of such a countryman; while his reputation abroad reflects the highest honor on his country and its institutions. I would cheerfully put the question to-day to the intelligence of Europe and the world, what character of the century, upon the whole, stands out in the relief of history, most pure, most respectable, most sublime; and I doubt not, that, by a suffrage approaching to unanimity, the answer would be, Washington! I claim him for America. In all the perils, in every darkened moment of the state, in the nidst of the reproaches of enemies and the misgiving of friends—I turn to that transcendent name for courage and for consolation. To him who denies, or doubts, whether our fervid liberty can be combined with law, with order, with the security of property, with the pursuit and advancement of happiness-to him who denies that our institutions are capable of producing exaltation of soul, and the passion of true glory— to him who denies that we have contributed any thing to the stock of great lessons and great examples-to all these I reply by pointing to Washington! CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON.-PHILLIPS. SIR, it matters very little what immediate spot may be the birthplace of such a man as Washington. No people can claim, no country can appropriate him: the boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, and his residence creation. Though it was the defeat of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion, in which he had his origin. If the heavens thundered, and the earth rocked, yet, when the storm passed, how pure was the climate that it cleared; how bright, in the brow of the firmament, was the planet which it revealed to us! In the production of Washington, it does really appear as if Nature was endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. Individual instances, no doubt, there were-splendid exemplifications of some single qualification: Cæsar was merciful; Scipio was continent; Hannibal was patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all in one, and, like the lovely masterpiece of the Grecian artist, to exhibit, in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of every master. As a general, he marshaled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline the absence of experience; as a statesman, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his counsels, that to the soldier and the statesman, he almost added the character of the sage! A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood; a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason; for aggression commenced the contest, and his country called him to the command. Liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stained, victory returned it. If he had paused here, history might have doubted what station to assign him: whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers-her heroes or her patriots. But the last glorious act crowns his career, and banishes all hesitation. Who, like Washington, after having emancipated a hemisphere, resigned its crown, and preferred the retirement of domestic life to the adoration of a land be might be almost said to have created? AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 151 AMERICAN INDUSTRY.-A. L. STONE. WHEN We seek to fill out the inventory of the country's wealth, we are accustomed to rehearse our continental breadth of territory, our double shore-line inviting the tribute of two oceans, the far reaches of our interior navigable waters, the number and magnitude of our internal improvements, the grandeur of our forests, the inexhaustible treasures of our mines, the concrete wealth of our cities, fortresses and navies; but there is one item beside, more seldom named, less magnificent to the ear when we speak of it, but of richer promise and larger copiousness than all-the industry of the people. We are a nation of workers. We have no idlers here. It is our industry, with all its brawny arms, with its manifold arts and inventions-with its mechanic skill and endless train of machinery; with its ten thousand iron nerves subsidizing and economizing labor-with its untiring and ever multiplying enginery, busy in every field of toil, manufacturing every fabric for the comfort and use of man, and keeping the land ajar day and night with its perpetual play-that keeps us so strong in all material wealth. It is this that enabled us, in the stern exigency of war, to keep two million of men under arms, to compensate the loss of their labor, to equip them for war's great ministry, to clothe them and feed them, and transport them by land and by sea, and endure all the waste of war's thriftless husbandry, to pour forth the deep and broad streams of a noble charity, such as the valleys of a continent never ran before, and at the same time to furnish supplies of bread for the granaries of all the world. This is the wonder of the age, the marvel of history. Under so tremendous a draught we are a self-sustaining nation. This achievement of our home-bred industry draws upon us, from abroad, more eager and curious eyes than any other feature or fact of our national life. All labor of the old world looks to us for instruction. Invention, the world over, turns hither to study our models, to copy our art, and to learn the secrets of such a vast productiveness. All the sons of toil stretch forth their brown hands to lay hold upon our implements for turning the curse of labor into a blessing and a recreation. Al our swarthy workers were ready-made soldiers. They had only to hear the call-"Fall in for country, and liberty and human ity!" and lo! a great army, which for numbers, discipline, endurance and heroic valor the world had never seen in all its historic fields! The step that tracked a straight furrow through the acres of tillage could move as straight to the deadly charge. The eye that was so sure and true amid the mazes of mechanic skill could glance as keen and cool along a rifle barrel. The invention that produced its triumphs in mouse-traps and baby-rockers, in sewing machines and mowers and reapers, and all the enginery of work, could cast cannon and build Monitors, and revolutionize the whole art of war. GROWTH OF CALIFORNIA.-F. P. TRACY, 1858. A LITTLE more than ten years ago, California lay in the indolence and silence of that summer noonday in which she had been basking for ages. A few idle villages slept by the shores of her bays; a few squalid ranches dotted the interior with patches of wretched cultivation. There were herds of cattle in her valleys, but they were almost valueless for the want of a market. There were churches, but their chiming bells woke only the echoes of a vast solitude. The sun ripened only the harvest of wild oats on the hills, and the beasts of prey made their lairs in security close by the abodes of men. Seldom did a merchant ship spread her white wings in the offing; seldom did the vaquero in his solitary rounds hear the dip of the oar upon our rivers. Silence, deep and everlasting, brooded over all the land, and the lone oaks on the hills appeared like sentinels keeping guard around the sleeping camp of nature. The cession of the country to the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the discovery of gold in the early part of the year 1848, changed the whole scene as if by the power of magic. As in the Naumachia of old time, the dry arena was instantly converted into a great lake on which contending navies struggled for the mastery; so, instantly on the discovery of gold, GROWTH OF CALIFORNIA. 153 California was filled with people as if they had risen from the earth. The port of San Francisco was crowded with vessels. The rivers were alive with the multitudes that made them their highway, and the din of commerce broke forever the silence of centuries. It seemed as if the people had stolen the lamp of Aladdin and wished for the creation, not of palaces merely, but of royal cities, and an empire of which these should be the chief places; and at their wish, the cities of our State arose, not by slow, toilsome growth, but complete and princely at their very birth. The rattle of the shovel and the pick was heard in every mountain gorge, and a wide stream of gold flowed from the sierra to the sea. The plains, rejoicing in their marriage to industry, bore fruitfully their yellow harvests. Villages, hamlets, farmhouses, schools, and churches sprung up everywhere; wharves were built, roads were opened; stage-coaches and steamers crowded all profitable routes; lands, houses aud labor, rose to an enormous value; and plenty, with her blessings, crowned the rolling year. SUPPOSED SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS IN SUPPORT OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.-DANIEL WEBSTER. SINK or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning, we aimed not at Independence. But there's a Divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till Independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the Declaration? Is any man so weak as now to hope for a reconciliation with England? Do we mean to submit to the measures of Parliament, Boston port-bill and all? I know we do not mean to submit. We never shall submit. Sir, the Declaration will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, for chartered immunities, held |