Presidents Day Hawaii: The National Monument at Washington (1849)

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This month will mark the annual observance of Presidents Day. Throughout the month of February we'll provide our readers with historical reflections on the presidents taken from Hawaii-based sources.

Today we share with our readers a story from a newspaper called The Polynesian, the official voice of the Hawaiian government in the mid-19th century. The story we feature here, The National Monument at Washington, has been transcribed in full from The Polynesian's February 17, 1849 edition:

We find in our American exchanges an account of the laying the corner stone of the National Monument to be erected in commemoration of the name of Washington. Mr. Winthrop of Massachusetts was the orator of the day, and we find in the ‘New York Herald’ an outline report of his speech, from which we make the following elegant extracts:

Other monuments to this illustrious person have long ago been erected by not a few of the great States of our Union, and by not a few of the great cities of our States; but there remains to be reared a monument here, which shall bespeak the gratitude –not of the States nor of the Government- not of separate communities nor of official bodies- but of the people, the whole people, of the nation –a national monument erected by the citizens of America (applause). Of such a monument we have come to lay the corner stone here and now –on this day, on this spot, in this presence, and at this precise epoch of the history of our country and the world- we have come to commence this crowning act of commemoration. The day, the place, the witnesses, the precise period in ourn own history, and the world’s history, all are full of the most felicitous appropriateness to the occasion. On this day, the fourth of July we come to acknowledge a public debt to our first benefactor.

The witnesses are such as befit the occasion. The President of the United States is here, and he feels, I am assured, that the official distinction which he brings to the occasion has no higher personal charm than that is was possessed and realized by a most illustrious predecessor. We have the Vice President of the United States, the municipal authorities, the Congress, and the army, navy, and the marine corps, from many a field of earlier and later fame. The people are here. Nor have I mentioned all. Hamilton and Madison, the joint framers of the constitution, are visibly present –present in the venerated persons of those whom they held dear in life. (Referring to Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs. Madison.)

We behold on the continent of Europe the influence of our institutions; we see spontaneous germination of seeds which were wafted over the ocean from our liberty tree (tremendous applause).

In the history of the world it is doubted whether one can be found who had more influence over men’s minds and events than George Washington. It was not in consequence of his vast learning and varied acquirements. He made no pretensions to scholarship; he had not sharp wit and glowing rhetoric. It was not the power of personal fascination. That august person rather inspired awe than affection, and his friends were bound rather by ties of respect than love. His life was tinged by no romance, nor by the reckless spirit of daring adventure. On one decision he remarked, “If ever I said that there was charm for me in the whistling bullet, it was when I was young.” He sought not

‘The bubble reputation at the cannon’s mouth.’

When Patrick Henry returned from the first Continental Congress, he was asked who was there the greatest. “If you speak of eloquence,” replied he, Rutledge, of South Carolina. If you speak of judgment and sound information, Col. Washington –he was the greatest man on the floor.” (applause.)

It was his great moral power, his incorruptibility, his reliance upon God, his purity of life, his disinterestedness of all parties, his solid information and sound judgment, that made a character for the world, and challenges an equal for an example.

Recently, on the other side of the Atlantic, Lamartine, in replying to the Indians, said, “Erase the name of Michiavel and substitute that of Washington. We want not a conqueror or a politician, but a man of the people. The great wants of the age is a European Washington (applause). Though we fear to receive disastrous intelligence through the magic wires –telling of his downfall- we say to Lamartine, Go on in your high career; your high character is appreciated; still oppose the upraised banner of blood, and the reign of terror; still aim, by willing words, to gain willing hearts, and make persuasion do the work of fear.

While commending Washington to others, do not fail to imitate his virtues. I will not disturb this assembly by one word of political allusion; but I must say that there has never been a moment when two great leading principles of his should be more especially cherished and remembered than at this time. The first is the more complete, cordial, and indissoluble union of the States; the second, the separation and disentanglement of our own country from other countries. Let the column about to rise be at once a pledge and emblem of the perpetuation of the Union! (applause.) Let the foundation be laid; let the superstructure be reared; let every stone be raise in support of the union. Let us seize this occasion to renew our vows to the constitution, and let us contemplate the power that holds the stars of our confederacy in a glorious constellation forever! (applause, long continued). Proceed to the noble work for which you have assembled. Build the monument to the skies. You cannot overreach the loftiness of his principles; found it on the massive and eternal rock, you cannot make it more enduring than is his fame; construct it of Parian marble, you cannot make it purer and more spotless than was his life; exhaust on it the principles of ancient and modern art, you cannot make it more proportionate than was his character.