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This grand and imposing assemblage is, at this moment, graced and honored with the presence of the Royal Arch apron, owned, and worn by General Joseph Warren, who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill, the first heroic martyr of high rank, who poured out his blood in the cause of American liberty.
General Warren was Grand Master of Freemasons in America. The apron, to which I have alluded, is now in the possession of a worthy brother of the craft,[1] who has journeyed from Boston to this city to join in these ceremonies, and has brought with him that sacred relic of the past, that the name of Warren, immortalized by his patriotism, his valor, and his early but glorious death, might be associated here, in the never-to-be-forgotten ceremonies of this day, with the name of Washington! Wreathe them together in your memories, my brethren, in an unfading chaplet, and wear them in your hearts!
Our most worthy brother, from whose eloquent address on the Masonic character of Washington, I have before quoted, after alluding to his retirement and death, pours out, as it were, from his soul, the following tribute to his memory, which will not be out of place here:
"He has gone indeed, but the brilliant track of his pathway shall know no darkness. The zodiac through which he took his course shall be bright in the lustre of his greatness; and star after star may go out in every constellation of the political heavens, but where he went the brightness shall be eternal; and the upturned faces of admiring mortals shall catch a reflection of that lustre from the very power of appreciating its purity.
No more Washingtons shall come in our time. Mount Vernon shall not give back its sacred deposit to bless a nation, and that human form has not yet been shaped to receive the ethereal fire to make it another Washington. But his virtues are stamped on the heart of mankind. He who is great in the battle field looks upward to the generalship of Washington. He who grows wise in counsel feels that he is imitating a Washington. He who can resign power against the wishes of a people, has in his eye the bright example of Washington. The husbandman, toiling in his field, is proud in the thought that Washington too was a farmer. The mason, in the midst of his labors, remembers with pride that Washington was a mason; and the man, struck down by misfortune, solitary and unaided, who has no special claim of association with that great one, warms his heart, and strengthens his resolution in the recollection that Washington, too, was a man."
True virtue and true valor never go unrewarded by a virtuous and patriotic people.
- ↑ Capt. Josiah Sturgiss, U. S. Revenue Marine.
