Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1889 — THE FIRST CENTURY. [ARTICLE]

THE FIRST CENTURY.

The ceremonies of Congress in commemoration of tue centennial of tue inauguration of George Washington were held Wednesday, in the had of the House of itepresentatives. The hall had been especially arranged for tue occasion, its usual seating capacity being Creeled by the introduction of additional chairs. The galleries were tilled with iamiliesj>£Gougressinen and Caoiuet officers anu Government officials, and presented u brilliant spectacle. Chief J dstice Fuller delivered the oration, and closed as follows: “And so the new century may be entered upon in tue spirit of optimism, the natural result, pernaps, of a self-couddeuce wnich has lost uouuug in trie suostance by ex perieuce, inougn it has gained in the moderation of its impetuosity; yetan optimism essential to the accomplishment of great ends; not blind to penis, but bold in the fearlessness of faith, whose every coiiscioasness of the limitations of the present asserts the attainability of the untrave'ed world of a still grander future. Mo ehip can sail forever over summer seas. The storms it has weathered test and demonstrate its ability to survive the storms to come, storms there must ue until there snail be no more sea. But as amid the tempests in which our ship of state was launched and in the times succeeding. so in the times to come. With every exigency constellations of illustrious meu will rise upon tue augry skies to control tue wuirlwmd and dispel the ciouds by tneir potent iuliueuees, while from thd “clear upper sky”, the steady light of ths great planet marks out the course the vessei must pursue and sit* shining on th* ails a* it comes grandly into haves wiare it would bo.”