"'"Nil desperandum, Teucro duce, et auspice Teucro." {11} The impression was still the same; I had the same overpowering sense of standing in the presence of some superior being.
"'It is indeed remarkable, and I believe unique, in the history of men, that Washington made the same impression upon all minds, at all places, and at once. When his fame first broke upon the world, it spread at once over the whole world. By the consent of mankind, by the universal sentiment, he was placed at the head of the human species; above all envy, because above all emulation; for no one then pretended, or has pretended to be—at least who has been allowed to be—the co-rival of Washington in fame.
"'When the great Frederick of Prussia sent his portrait to Washington, with this inscription upon it—"From the oldest general in Europe to the greatest general in the world," he did but echo the sentiment of all the chivalry of Europe. Nor was the sentiment confined to Europe, nor to the bounds of civilization; for the Arab of the desert talked of Washington in his tent; his name wandered with the wandering Scythian, and was cherished by him as a household word in all his migrations. No clime was so barbarous as to be a stranger to the name, but everywhere, and by all men, that name was placed at the same point of elevation, and above compare. As it was in the beginning, so it is now; of the future we cannot speak with certainty. Some future age, in the endless revolutions of time, may produce another Washington, but the greater probability is, that he is destined to remain forever, as he now is, the Phoenix of human kind.
"'What a possession to his country is such a fame! Such a "Clarum et venerabile nomen gentibus?" {12}
"'To all his countrymen it gives, and forever will give, a passport to respect wherever they go, to whatever part of the globe, for his country is in every other identified with that fame.
"'What, then, is incumbent upon us, his countrymen? Why, to be such a people as shall be worthy of such a fame—a people of whom it shall be said, "No wonder such a people have produced such a man as Washington." I give you, therefore, this sentiment:
"'The memory of Washington: May his countrymen prove themselves a people worthy of his fame.'"
1. Footnote: Memoir of Martha Washington in Longacre's Gallery.
2. Footnote: Mrs. Ellet, "Women of the Revolution"
3. Footnote: One of the first topics of debate in Congress was the title by which the President should be addressed. Such title as "His Highness," "His Mightiness," etc., having been discussed, it was finally and very properly determined that the title of "President of the United States" should be used; and it was accordingly used in the answers to the inaugural address. No title could be more dignified.