Sunday, August 25, 2024

John J. Crittenden’s Speeches during the Congressional Celebration of Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1852

Mr. Crittenden, in answer to loud calls from all parts of the hall, rose and said:

Mr. PRESIDENT,—I regret that in this company, where there are so many others more capable, I should have been selected and called upon to respond to the toast announcing the Father of his Country as its mighty theme. You have met, sir, to commemorate the anniversary of his birth. The occasion and the associations by which we are surrounded,—here, in the city which he founded, at the capital and seat of government which he established, in sight of Mount Vernon, his chosen residence and the sacred sepulchre of his remains,—the occasion and the associations make us feel as though we were almost brought into his presence; at least his name is here,—a name which can never die,—a living name, before which every head in the civilized world is bent in reverence, and to which the homage of every true American heart is due. [Loud cheers.] I almost fear to speak on such a subject. The character of Washington has ascended above the ordinary language of eulogy. A Cæsar, a Napoleon, a Cromwell may excite the noisy applause of the world, and inflame the passions of men by the story of their fields and their fame; but the name of Washington occupies a different, a serener, a calmer, a more celestial sphere. [Great applause.] There is not in his character, and there is not about his name, any of that turbulence, and excitement, and glare which constitute glory in the vulgar and worldly sense of the term. His name has sunk deep into the hearts of mankind, and more especially has it sunk deep into the mind and heart of America, and in that secret and inner temple it will reside without any of the forms of ostentatious idolatry. It resides in the inner recesses of the hearts of his countrymen; and, like an oracle, is continually whispering lessons of patriotism and of virtue. [Great cheering.] He never sought or asked for what men call glory. He sought to serve his kind and his country by his beneficence and his virtues, and he found in that service, and in the performance of his duty, that only and that richest reward which can recompense the patriot and the statesman. [Renewed and enthusiastic applause.] That was our Washington. Let all the rest of the world present anything like his parallel. The verdict of mankind has already assigned to him a preeminent and solitary grandeur. [Applause.] In him all the virtues seemed to be combined in the fairest proportions. The elements were so mixed in him, and his blood and judgment were so commingled, that all the virtues seemed to be the natural result, and to flow spontaneously from the combination, as water from the purest fountain. In him the exercise of the most exalted virtue required no exertion; it was part and parcel of his nature, and of the glorious organization "to which every god had seemed to set his seal." [Applause.] Where was there any error in him? He was a man, and, therefore, in all humility, we, who share that humanity, must acknowledge that he had his imperfections; but who, through his long and eventful life, can point to an error or to a vice committed, or a duty omitted? His character was made up and compounded of all the virtues that constitute the hero, patriot, statesman, and benefactor [cheers], and all his achievements were but the practical developments of that character and of those virtues. [Applause.] He was the same everywhere,—in the camp, in the cabinet, at Mount Vernon. No difference could be distinguished anywhere. His greatness was of that innate and majestic character that was present with him everywhere. It was that which gave him his dignity, and not the occasional situations or offices which he held under the government. He dignified office; he elevated the highest rank, military or civil, which he ever held. No rank, military or civil, ever raised him, or could come up to that majesty of character which the God of his nature had implanted in him. [Great cheering.] That was our Washington. He was a firm believer in a divine Providence, and it belonged to his elevated and majestic mind to be so, a mind that connected itself with the throne of the Deity from which it sprung. His heart was purified, and his motives were elevated by constant recurrence to that divine assistance which he thought was extended to his country, and to himself in his service of that country. Our history as a people is, to a remarkable extent, a history of providences; and among all the benignities of Providence, in a worldly point of view, I know no greater gift that she has conferred upon us than in the person of Washington himself. [Cheers.] She raised him up at the appointed time. She raised him up at a grand crisis in the affairs of mankind, when the thoughts of men were about taking a new direction; when the old things, the old despotisms, were about to pass away under the influence of a dawning public opinion which was about to reassert the long-lost rights of mankind; when you, a new-born people, for whom this mighty continent had been reserved as the most magnificent land that the Almighty ever prepared for man, had grown to an estate to feel your strength, to know your rights, and to be willing to struggle for them; Washington was raised up to become the great leader of those great popular principles of human rights, and to consecrate them, as it were, by connecting them in his own person with every personal, moral, private, and public virtue; not leaving us to mere idealism, but exhibiting and embodying, in his own venerated and beloved person, all those mighty principles which were necessary to our success and to the establishment of our liberties. He led us triumphantly through a seven years' war; and our glorious Revolution being successfully accomplished, he applied himself, with all his influence and all his wisdom, to secure, by free and permanent institutions, all the blessings that liberty and independence could confer on his country. Our present Constitution and form of government were the grand results of his patriotic efforts. A new government being thus established, he was by the unanimous voice of his country called to the presidential office, that by his wisdom and influence he might put into practice and consolidate those new and untried institutions, by which all the blessings acquired by the Revolution and contemplated by that government were to be practically secured to the people of the United States. He served till the success of the experiment was demonstrated. He retired then to his beloved Mount Vernon, and there passed in honored privacy the remainder of his life. Where can another such character be exhibited on the pages of history? Providence intended him for a model. She has made his character cover the whole space of political and of private life. [Applause.] She trained him up in the humblest walks of private life. There he knew the wants and wishes and condition of the humblest of his fellow-citizens. The confidence which he inspired everywhere spread with every step that he advanced in life. He became commander of the army. With all the military despotism that belongs to such a state, he used his power without the oppression of a human being. During a seven years' war, amid such trials and troubles as no people ever saw, in no exigency, by no extremity, was he driven to the necessity of committing a trespass or wrong upon any man or any man's property. He needed no act of amnesty afterwards, by the government, to protect him against personal responsibility, which acts of violence might have rendered necessary to others. He led you triumphantly on. He was an example to all military men. He became President. He has left us an example there, to which we look back with filial reverence, and long, long may we do so. [Great applause.]

Before his retirement from office, he made to the people of the United States that "Farewell Address" so familiar to the thoughts of us all. It contains, as he himself said, the advice of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. It was the gathered wisdom of all his life and of all his experience. What a legacy! We rejoice in riches that no nation ever knew before. What are the mines of California with their perishing gold to this? You have a legacy left you in the wisdom of that man that is above all price. The Romans shouted, the Romans exulted, when Mark Antony told them that Cæsar had left them a few denarii, and the privilege of walking in his gardens. That was the imperial bequest. How ignoble, how trifling, does the Roman seem to you, my countrymen, who exult to-day in the legacy which was left you in the Farewell Address of Washington! [Great applause.] That is imperishable. So long as we remember it, it will render our government and our liberties imperishable; and when we forget it, it will survive in the memory, I trust in God, of some other people more worthy of it, even if it be to shame this degenerate republic. [Enthusiastic applause.] That Farewell Address contains wisdom enough, if we but attend to it; contains lessons enough to guide us in all our duties as citizens, and in all our public affairs. [Applause.] There are two subjects which recent occurrences have turned our attention to with particular interest, and which I may be allowed on this occasion to advert to, in no spirit of controversy or of unkindness towards any one, but in that spirit which induces me to desire to see every lesson of Washington daily, and constantly, and freshly brought to the mind of every citizen of the United States. To my children they were brought as their first lessons. There is none too old to profit by them, and they cannot be learned too early. You are familiar with that address, gentlemen, and I will therefore only ask you to allow me to allude to the two subjects upon which he has been peculiarly emphatic in his advice. The one is to preserve the union of the States [loud cheers]; that, he says, is the main pillar of the edifice of our independence and of our liberties; frown down every attempt to bring it into question, much less to subvert it; when it is gone all is gone. Let us heed this lesson, and be careful. I trust in God we have no grounds to apprehend such a degree of oppression as will compel us to raise our suicidal arms for the destruction of this great government, and of this Union which makes us brethren. [Great applause.] I do not allow my mind to look forward to such a disaster. I will look upon this Union as indissoluble, and as firmly rooted as the mountains of our native land. I will hope so; I will believe so. I will so act; and nothing but a necessity, invincible and overwhelming, can drive me to disunion. This is the sentiment, as I understand it, which Washington inculcates. Thank God, we have every hope of the restoration of every kind feeling now which made us, in times past, a united band of brothers from one end of this land to the other. [Loud cheers.] But there are external dangers, also, against which Washington warns us; and that is the second subject to which I desire to ask your attention. Beware, he says, of the introduction or exercise of a foreign influence among you. [Loud and prolonged cheering.] We are Americans. Washington has taught us, and we have learned to govern ourselves. [Cheers.] If the rest of the world have not yet learned that great lesson, how shall they teach us? Shall they undertake to expound to us the Farewell Address of our Washington, or to influence us to depart from the policy recommended by him? [Great cheering.] We are the teachers, and they have not, or they will not, learn; and yet they come to teach us. [Here the whole company rose, and gave three tremendous cheers.] Be jealous, he said, of all foreign influence, and enter into entangling alliances with none. Cherish no particular partiality or prejudice for or against any people. [Cheers.] Be just to all,—impartial to all. It is folly to expect disinterested favors from any nation. [Great cheering.] That is not the relation or character of nations. Favor is a basis too uncertain upon which to place any steadfast or permanent relations. Justice and the interests of the parties is the only sound and substantial basis for national relations. So said General Washington,—so he teaches. He asks, "Why quit our own, to stand on foreign ground?" [Cheers.] Go not abroad to mingle yourselves in the quarrels or wars of other nations. Take care to do them no wrong, but avoid the romantic notion of righting the wrongs of all the world, and resisting by arms the oppression of all. [Great cheering.]

The sword and the bayonet have been useful in defending the rights and liberties of those who used them, but in what other hands have they ever contributed to promote the cause of freedom or of human rights? [Cheers.] The heart must be prepared for liberty. The understanding must know what it is, and how to value it. Then, if you put proper arms into the hands of the nation so imbued, I'll warrant you they will obtain and sustain their freedom. [Applause.] We have given the world an example of that success. But three millions, scattered over a vast territory, opposed to the most powerful enemy on earth, we went triumphantly through our Revolution and established our liberties. [Cheers.] But it is said that we have a right to interfere in the affairs of other nations, and in the quarrels of other nations. Why, certainly we have, certainly we have. Any man has the right, if he pleases, to busy himself in the affairs and quarrels of all his neighbors; but he will not be likely to profit by it, and would be called a busybody for his pains. [Laughter and applause.] We, as a nation, have a right to decide—and it is always a question of expediency whether we will or will not interfere in the affairs of other nations. There are cases so connected with our own interests, and with the cause of humanity, that interference would be proper. But still, it is a question for the sound discretion of this people, a question always of expediency,—whether you will or will not interfere; and it is just because it is a question of that character, and because our passions and sympathies may often tempt us to err upon it, that Washington has made it the subject of this emphatic admonition. [Applause.] It is not because we have not the right to interfere, but it is because we have the right, and because we are surrounded by temptations, by the temptations of generous hearts and noble principles,— to transcend the limits of prudence and of policy, and to interfere in the affairs of our neighbors, that he has admonished us. [Applause.] Washington, with that forecast and that prophetic spirit which constituted a part of his character, saw through all this. He knew the warm and generous natures of his countrymen. He knew their susceptibility, and he knew where the danger of error was; and it is there that his wisdom has erected, as far as his advice can do it, a bulwark for our protection. [Applause.] He tells you, "Stand upon your own ground." [Renewed applause.] That is the ground to stand upon.

What can you do by interference? Argument is unnecessary. The name of Washington ought to be authority,—prophetic, oracular authority for us. Is our mission in this world to interfere by arms? It is but little now, comparatively, of good that the bayonet and the sword can do. The plowshare does a thousand times more than either. [Great cheering.] The time was when arms were powerful instruments of oppression; but they cannot do much now, unless they are aided by the mercenary and degenerate spirit of the people over whom they are brandished. What could we do by armed interference in European politics? So mighty at home, what could we do abroad? How would our eagles pine and die if carried abroad, without the auspices of Washington, and against his advice, to engage in foreign wars of intervention, in distant regions of despotism, where we could no longer feed them from the plenteous tables of our liberty! [Enthusiastic applause.] We can do nothing there. We can do nothing in that way. I am not one of those who shrink from this thing simply because blood is to be shed. I have seen war. I have voted for maintaining it. I have contributed to maintain it. I pretend to no exquisite sensibility upon the subject of shedding blood where our public interest or our public glory call upon my fellow-citizens to lay down their lives and shed their blood. [Applause.] But I do not wish to see them depart from those great and sure principles of policy which I am certain will lead my country to a greatness which will give to her word a power beyond that of armies in distant parts of the world. [Cheers.]

Our mission, so far as it concerns our distant brethren, is not a mission of arms. We are here to do what Washington advised us to do,—take care of our Union, have a proper respect for the Constitution and laws of our country, cultivate peace and commerce with all nations, do equal justice to all nations, and thereby set an example to them, and show forth in ourselves the blessings of self-government to all the world. [Applause.] Thus you will best convince mankind. Seeing you prosper, they will follow your example, and do likewise. It is by that power of opinion, by that power of reformation, that you can render the mightiest and greatest service that is in your power towards the spread of liberty all over the world. Adopt the policy of interference, and what is its consequence? War, endless war. If one interferes, another will interfere, and another, and another, and so this doctrine for the protection of republican liberty and human rights results in a perpetual, widespread, and wider-spreading war, until all mankind, overcome by slaughter and ruin, shall fall down bleeding and exhausted. [Applause.] I can see no other end, or good in it, unless you suppose that nations will consent that one alone shall erect itself into the arbiter and judge of the conduct of all the other nations, and that it alone shall interfere to execute what it alone determines to be national law. That alone can prevent widespread devastation from the adoption of this principle of intervention.

I beg pardon for the time I have occupied, but I hope that I may be excused for saying that I feel safer, I feel that my country is safer, while pursuing the policy of Washington, than in making any new experiments in politics, upon any new expositions of Washington's_legacy and advice to the American people. [Great cheering.] I want to stand super antiquas vias,— upon the old road that Washington traveled, and that every President, from Washington to Fillmore, has traveled. [Great cheering.] This policy of non-intervention in the affairs of other countries has been maintained and sanctified by all our great magistrates. [Renewed cheering.] I may be defective in what is called "the spirit of the age," for aught I know; but I acknowledge that I feel safer in this ancient and well-tried policy than in the novelties of the present day.

And now, in conclusion, I hope I may be excused for saying that it has been the effort, and the honest effort, of the present administration-I ask no compliment for it-to follow in the

track that Washington marked out, and, with whatever unequal steps, it has endeavored to follow after him. That has been the model upon which Mr. Fillmore has endeavored, as it regarded all foreign countries, to fashion the course of policy of his administration. [Great applause.]

 

(Close of the Congressional Banquet given in memory of General Washington, 22d of February, 1852, in Washington City.)

Mr. Crittenden rose and said: This is the anniversary of the battle of Buena Vista. We commemorate it as the birthday of our Washington. I have said that Washington is a name that cannot die; it is a living name, and it will be a living name until we as a people are dead. It fought with us at the battle of Buena Vista. The name passed from soldier to soldier when those fearful odds of battle were counted: twenty-five thousand to four or five thousand raw militia! and the frequent exclamation heard among our ranks that "This is Washington's birthday” gave strength to every arm and fortified the courage of every heart. The name and spirit of Washington enabled us to conquer that day.

An honored and venerable gentleman (Mr. Curtis) has said “that the grave claims its due." Well, let the old usurer have it. What is it at last that is his due? The poor corporeal remnants of this poor humanity.

The spirit lives after it. The spirit of Washington is immortal, and still moves and acts upon the hearts of his countrymen. His form—his visible bodily form—has passed away from us, that majestic form “where every god had set his seal to give the world assurance of a man." [Cheers.] That is buried! gone beyond our sight! But his great spirit remains with us that potent, mighty spirit; mighty to save, mighty to inspire, mighty to do battle for his countrymen, for whom he lived—for whom he died. That spirit did inspire us at Buena Vista, and to its influence we owe that memorable victory. It lives everywhere,—lives, sir, in us. The judge upon the bench partakes it. Presidents and generals acknowledge its power, and seek to emulate and follow the example of Washington. I know from intimate and long acquaintance that that old soldier (pointing to General Scott) who has so victoriously commanded our armies and led them to battle and to victory, has felt and cultivated the influence of that spirit, that his great ambition has been to fashion himself after that model man, General Washington.

But, Mr. President, we cannot well celebrate the 22d of February without having our hearts turned, also, to some memory of the victory of Buena Vista,—occurring on the same day, and seeming to have emanated from the nativity of our Washington to shed, like a bright star, new lustre upon it.

We cannot think of Buena Vista without a grateful remembrance of that famous old soldier and leader to whom, under Providence, we were indebted for that victory—a victory almost without a parallel in history. The battles of his life are all over, and he sleeps with the mighty dead.

Allow me to offer you the illustrious name of that brave, good, and patriotic man, the hero of Buena Vista, General Taylor, the late President of the United States.

This toast was drunk standing and in silence.

SOURCE: Ann Mary Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 2, p. 28-36

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