Library of the Worlds Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Volume 4 | Page 4

infinite West and South. He crowded into a few hours
actions that would have given lustre to length of life; and, filling his
day with greatness, completed it before its noon.
Copyrighted by D. Appleton and Company, New York.

LEXINGTON
From 'History of the United States'
Day came in all the beauty of an early spring. The trees were budding;
the grass growing rankly a full month before its time; the bluebird and
the robin gladdening the genial season, and calling forth the beams of
the sun which on that morning shone with the warmth of summer; but
distress and horror gathered over the inhabitants of the peaceful town.
There on the green lay in death the gray-haired and the young; the
grassy field was red "with the innocent blood of their brethren slain,"
crying unto God for vengeance from the ground.
Seven of the men of Lexington were killed, nine wounded; a quarter
part of all who stood in arms on the green. These are the village heroes,
who were more than of noble blood, proving by their spirit that they
were of a race divine. They gave their lives in testimony to the rights of
mankind, bequeathing to their country an assurance of success in the
mighty struggle which they began. Their names are held in grateful
remembrance, and the expanding millions of their countrymen renew
and multiply their praise from generation to generation. They fulfilled
their duty not from the accidental impulse of the moment; their action
was the slowly ripened fruit of Providence and of time. The light that
led them on was combined of rays from the whole history of the race;
from the traditions of the Hebrews in the gray of the world's morning;
from the heroes and sages of republican Greece and Rome; from the
example of Him who died on the cross for the life of humanity; from
the religious creed which proclaimed the divine presence in man, and
on this truth, as in a life-boat, floated the liberties of nations over the
dark flood of the Middle Ages; from the customs of the Germans
transmitted out of their forests to the councils of Saxon England; from
the burning faith and courage of Martin Luther; from trust in the
inevitable universality of God's sovereignty as taught by Paul of Tarsus
and Augustine, through Calvin and the divines of New England; from
the avenging fierceness of the Puritans, who dashed the mitre on the
ruins of the throne; from the bold dissent and creative self-assertion of
the earliest emigrants to Massachusetts; from the statesmen who made,

and the philosophers who expounded, the revolution of England; from
the liberal spirit and analyzing inquisitiveness of the eighteenth century;
from the cloud of witnesses of all the ages to the reality and the
rightfulness of human freedom. All the centuries bowed themselves
from the recesses of the past to cheer in their sacrifice the lowly men
who proved themselves worthy of their forerunners, and whose
children rise up and call them blessed.
Heedless of his own danger, Samuel Adams, with the voice of a
prophet, exclaimed: "Oh, what a glorious morning is this!" for he saw
his country's independence hastening on, and, like Columbus in the
tempest, knew that the storm did but bear him the more swiftly toward
the undiscovered world.
Copyrighted by D. Appleton and Company, New York.
WASHINGTON
From 'History of the United States'
Then, on the fifteenth of June, it was voted to appoint a general.
Thomas Johnson, of Maryland, nominated George Washington; and as
he had been brought forward "at the particular request of the people of
New England," he was elected by ballot unanimously.
Washington was then forty-three years of age. In stature he a little
exceeded six feet; his limbs were sinewy and well-proportioned; his
chest broad; his figure stately, blending dignity of presence with ease.
His robust constitution had been tried and invigorated by his early life
in the wilderness, the habit of occupation out of doors, and rigid
temperance; so that few equaled him in strength of arm, or power of
endurance, or noble horsemanship. His complexion was florid; his hair
dark brown; his head in its shape perfectly round. His broad nostrils
seemed formed to give expression and escape to scornful anger. His
eyebrows were rayed and finely arched. His dark-blue eyes, which
were deeply set, had an expression of resignation, and an earnestness
that was almost pensiveness. His forehead was sometimes marked with
thought, but never with inquietude; his countenance was mild and

pleasing and full of benignity.
At eleven years old left an orphan to the care of an excellent but
unlettered mother, he grew up without learning. Of arithmetic and
geometry he acquired just knowledge enough to be able to practice
measuring land; but all his