Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/102

THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS tion, which, without the imputation of any bad intention or design, ventures to allege that he has violated the Constitution and laws. His constitution and official infallibility must not be questioned. To controvert it is an act of in- justice, inhumanity, and calumny. He is treated as a criminal, and, without summons, he is prejudged, condemned, and sentenced. Is the president scrupulously careful of the memory of the dead, or the feelings of the living, in re- spect to violations of the Constitution? If a violation by him implies criminal guilt, a viola- tion by them can not be innocent and guiltless. And how has the president treated the memory of the immortal Father of his Country? — that great man, who, for purity of purpose and char- acter, wisdom and moderation, unsullied virtue and unsurpassed patriotism, is without compe- tition in past history or among living men, and whose equal we scarcely dare hope will ever be again presented as a blessing to mankind. How has he been treated by the president? Has he not again and again pronounced that, by ap- proving the bill chartering the first Bank of the United States, Washington violated the Constitu- tion of his country? That violation, according to the president, included volition and design, was prompted by improper motives, and was committed with an unlawful intent. It was the more inexcusable in Washington, because he assisted and presided in the convention which formed the Constitution. If it be unjust to 92