UNITED STATES REPUBLIC.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 71, 23 February 1932, Page 7

UNITED STATES REPUBLIC.

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S INSPIRATION. WASHINGTON, Feb. 22. President Hoover, addressing a joint session of Congress on the occasion of the bi-centennial anniversary of the birth of George Washington, said that he had little patience with those who undertook , the • irrational humanising of Washington, the man. The President expressed his objection to recent historical studies picturing Washington as a more or less ordinary‘country squire, and launched this eulogy: “What we have need of to-day in this celebration is the power to renew in our people the inspiration that comes from George Washington as the founder of human liberty, as the father of our system of Government, apd as the builder of our system of national life.

“Proudly we report to our forefathers that the Republic is more secure, more constant, more powerful, and more truly great than at any other time in its history. “It is of primary importance that we of to-day shall renew that spark of immortal purpose which burned within him, and that we shall know of (he resolution and steadfastness which carried him forward to the establishment of the nation.”

• George Washington was born in 1732 and died in 1799. He was of English descent, and was living on his estate at Mount Vernon when war broke out between Britain and the Colony. He became one of the leaders of the opposition in his district, and was elected to tho first Congress at Philadelphia. In 1775 ho becamo Command-er-in-Chief of the American Army, and, on the founding of the Republic, became its first President in 1789. He served a second term #>f office from 1793 onward,, and refused election a third time.