Washington's Birthday eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 265 pages of information about Washington's Birthday.

Washington's Birthday eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 265 pages of information about Washington's Birthday.

  We all will honor Washington,
  The first in war when wrong was done. 
  The first in peace when freedom came
  To crown him with immortal fame,
  The first in all our hearts to-day,
  To bind us all as one for aye,
  While battle and freedom lead us on
  We all will honor Washington.

(Issued under the auspices of the George Washington Memorial Association.  Used by permission of the New England Publishing Co.)

* * * * *

THE NEW GEORGE WASHINGTON

ANONYMOUS

To Be Recited by a Small Boy

  I am six years old,
    And like play and fun. 
  I mean to grow up
    Like George Washington.

  So, when mother said,
    “Who ate all the pie?”
  I, spoke like a man,
    And said, “It was I.”

  But she didn’t say
    She’d rather lose the pie,
  And know that her boy
    Would not tell a lie.

  She just shut me up
    Where I couldn’t see,
  Then sent me to bed
    Without any tea.

* * * * *

IN PRAISE OF WASHINGTON

For Nine Pupils

FIRST PUPIL.—­To the historian few characters appear so little to have shared the common frailties and imperfections of human nature as that of Washington. William Smyth.

SECOND PUPIL.—­No matter what may have been the immediate birthplace of such a man as Washington!  No clime can claim, no country can appropriate him; the boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, his residence creation. Charles Phillips.

THIRD PUPIL.—­As a ruler of mankind, he may be proposed as a model.  Deeply impressed with the original rights of human nature, he never forgot that the end, and meaning, and aim of all just government was the happiness of the people. William Smyth.

FOURTH PUPIL.—­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. Charles Phillips.

FIFTH PUPIL.—­Immortal man!  He took from the battle its crime, and from the conquest its chains; he left the victorious the glory of his self-denial, and turned upon the vanquished only the retribution of his mercy.  Happy, proud America!  The lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy!  The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism! Charles Phillips.

SIXTH PUPIL.—­It is the happy combination of rare talents and qualities, the harmonious union of the intellectual and moral powers, rather than the dazzling splendor of any one trait which constitutes the grandeur of his character. Jared Sparks.

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Project Gutenberg
Washington's Birthday from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.