Indeed, gentlemen, I dare to say that I yield to nobody in the world, in reverence and respect to the immortal memory of Washington.  His life and his principles were the guiding star of my life; to that star I looked up for inspiration and advice, during the vicissitudes of my stormy life.  Hence I drew that devotion to my country and to the cause of national freedom, which you, gentlemen, and millions of your fellow-citizens and your national government, are so kind as to honour by unexampled distinction, though you meet it not brightened by success, but meet it in the gloomy night of my existence, in that helpless condition of a homeless wanderer, in which I must patiently bear the title of an “imported rebel” and of a “beggar” in the very land of Washington, for having dared to do what Washington did; for having dared to do it with less skill and with less success, but, Heaven knows, not with less honesty and devotion than he did.

Well, it is useless to remark that Washington would probably have ended with equal failure, had his country not met that foreign aid for which they honourably begged.  It is useless to remark that he would undoubtedly have failed, if after the glorious battle of Yorktown he had met a fresh enemy of more than two hundred thousand men, such as we met, and had been forsaken in that new struggle by all the world.  It is useless to remark that success should not be the only test of virtue on earth, and fortune should not change the devotion of a patriot into an outrage and a crime; and particularly not, when success is only torn out of the hands of patriotism by foreign violence, and by the most sacrilegious infraction of the common laws of all humanity.  All this is useless to say.  I must bear many things—­must bear even malignity—­but can bear it more easily, because against the insult of some who plead the cause of despots in your republic, I have for consolation the tranquillity of my conscience, the love of my countrymen, the approbation of generous friends, and the sympathy of millions in that very land where I meet the title of an “imported rebel.”

I was saying, sir, that I yield to no man on earth in reverence to the memory of the immortal WASHINGTON!  Indeed, I consider it not inconsistent with this reverence to say:  Never let past ages bind the life of future;—­let no man’s wisdom be Koran to you, dooming progress to stagnation, and judgment to the meagre task of a mere rehearsing memory.

Thus I would speak, should even that which I advocate, be contrary to what Washington taught—­even then I would appeal from the thoughts of a man, to the spirit of advanced mankind, and from the eighteenth century to the present age.

But fortunately I am not in that necessity; what I advocate is not only not in contradiction, but in strict harmony with Washington’s principles, so much so that I have nothing else to wish than that Washington’s doctrine should be quoted fairly as a system, and not by picking out single words, and concealing that which gives the interpretation to these words.