Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/46

22 skill and fortitude turned disaster into victory. But as the head of the civil government, Washington conferred a benefit upon his people which stands unsurpassed if not unequaled in the annals of mankind. It consists in the fact that the first President of the United States was the model President. Whenever the American people wish to remember what the Chief Magistrate and the Government of this Republic should be, and whenever a President in our or any future time wishes to make it clear to his own mind by what rules of political morality he should regulate his conduct, by what motives he should be guided and upon what principles he should act in directing the affairs or in managing the machinery of the Government, they need only look back and they will find it all perfect and complete in the first President's teachings and example. The more clearly those teachings and examples are expressed, the more faithfully they are followed, the purer, the stronger, the more glorious will this Republic become. The more they are lost sight of and departed from, the more threatening will be the danger of its decline in true strength and greatness. 



thanks to the Committee of Arrangements for doing me the honor of inviting me to take part in this meeting. It is true, not until yesterday could I see my way clear to come, and I have not been able to prepare an elaborate address, such as seems to have been expected of me. All I can offer is a few offhand remarks, more in the nature
 * —I cannot refrain from expressing my