Reading Made Easy for Foreigners Third Reader by John L. Huelshof

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LESSON LXV

GEORGE WASHINGTON

_PART II_

The boundary war between France and the British possessions in America
had been the cause of the war from 1753 to 1759 in which Washington and
thousands of his countrymen did gallant services. It ended with the
surrender of Quebec, by which France lost her foothold in the Ohio
valley and all the territory east of the Mississippi.

Ten years later, the whole aspect had changed. The same country, for
which our forefathers in the colonies had sacrificed some of their
noblest sons, was now beginning to oppress these very colonies. By
unjust taxation, England tried to replenish her treasury, which a
protracted war across the seas had made empty. But though the war
against the French in the interest of England had cost the colonies in
America some of its best blood, it had not been without its salutary
lesson. America had learned its own strength as well as the weakness
of the British soldiers and her public officials. Washington, above
all, knew these facts too well. He was, however, no agitator, and for
many reasons was deeply attached to old England. He, therefore,
cautioned reserve and forbearance without sacrificing his patriotism.

In the meantime the Revolution came to an outbreak. Washington was
called upon by his compatriots to lead them on to liberty. After
careful examination and due consideration he consented, and Washington
took command of the colonial troops in the war against England. "It is
my intention," said he, "if needs be, to sacrifice my life, my liberty
and all my possessions in this holy cause."

Thus, we see him leading the army, animated with the noblest
sentiments. General Washington was now forty-three years of age and in
the full power of manhood. His personality was distinguished and his
bearing serene. He electrified the whole army.

The Colonial troops, however, were not at all times equal to the
well-drilled English soldiers, and General Washington had a difficult
task before him. But what the Americans lacked in military tactics,
they doubly possessed in enthusiasm and courage.

From Lexington and Boston, Bunker Hill and Concord, through
Connecticut, New York, Philadelphia, Valley Forge, and from Princeton
to Morristown was a wearisome march. Want of provisions for the army
under his command, as well as many other disappointments, might well
have discouraged any but the stoutest heart. General Washington was a
hero, and he trusted in God and the ultimate success of the country's
just cause. When at last the American army was in sorest distress,
there came unexpected help from many quarters.

Such noble and self-sacrificing men as Lafayette, Steuben, Kosciusko,
De Kalb and De Grasse arrived to aid our new republic, and after an
unrelenting war of six long years, British rule was forever banished
from the land.

On the 4th of December, 1782, General Washington took leave of the
continental army. His memorable speech on that occasion is a
masterpiece of unselfish patriotism.

He retired to his home at Mount Vernon, followed by the heartfelt
blessings of a grateful people. His private life was one of regularity
in all his doings. His hospitality was renowned, and Mount Vernon soon
became a much frequented, much beloved place of reunion for many
distinguished visitors.

Not a great many years was Washington permitted to enjoy his
well-merited repose in his country home. The same country of which he
had been the successful liberator, now called upon him to lead and
guide this newly established government. Washington was chosen the
First President of the United States of America in 1789.

It was at this time that he wrote in his diary: "To-day I take leave of
private life and domestic happiness with feelings of regret, and am
preparing to enter upon my official career. I hope I shall be able to
realize the expectations my country has placed in me."

His journey from Mount Vernon to New York became one of triumph. He
was met with the greatest enthusiasm throughout the country wherever he
passed. He took his oath of office in New York City where the
sub-treasury now stands.

Washington was elected a second time for the presidency. His
presidential career was characteristic of the man and the hero.

An equitable and conservative government was administered by him, and
the young republic was prosperous and progressive during his two terms
of office.

Having returned once more to his beloved Virginia home, Washington now
spent his declining years in much needed rest and quiet recreation.

In the fall of the year 1799 Washington was seized with a malignant
fever. The best medical aid proved unavailing, and the Father of our
Country died on the 14th day of December. His last words were: "Let me
die in peace; I am not afraid to die, it is a debt we all must pay."

The exemplary life and the many noble achievements of this truly great
man stand almost unique in the history of nations.

LESSON LXVI

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Benjamin Franklin was born poor, but nothing could keep him ignorant.
His genius and strong will were wealth enough for any man. At the age
of twelve he was apprenticed to his brother James, who was a printer.
At the same time--perhaps a little later--he used to sell his own
ballads in the streets of Boston.

At twenty-one years of age he was a master printer in Philadelphia, in
his shop on Market Street. He had been at school in Boston for two
years, but after the age of ten he had been obliged to teach himself:
he was too poor to spend even those early years in a schoolhouse. Yet
he learned without such helps as schools and schoolmasters afford. He
studied Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, and German, and lived to hear
two continents call him the greatest philosopher of his time.

He discovered that lightning and electricity are the same, and taught
men how to guard their houses against the thunder-bolt. To his great
mind it seemed that all things came alike: no invention was too simple,
and no idea too lofty. Whatever had to be done was worth doing in the
best and simplest way: that was the ruling principle of Benjamin
Franklin's life.

He was an earnest and fearless patriot, always on the side of the
people and their rights. His strong will, his cool manner, and his
bold spirit made him an enemy not to be scorned by England. "What used
to be the pride of the Americans?" asked a member of the English
Parliament in 1776. And Franklin, then pleading the cause of the
colonies before the House of Commons, replied, "To indulge in the
fashions and wear the manufactures of Great Britain."

The Englishman, sure that Franklin would be less ready to answer,
continued: "What is now their pride?" And in a flash the old
philosopher of threescore and ten said, "To wear their old clothes over
again till they can make new ones." Years had not broken the strong
will or dulled the sharp wit.

His efforts to secure for the Americans the aid of France can never be
forgotten by the American people. Burgoyne's surrender made the French
believe that the patriots' cause was worthy of assistance, but it is
quite certain that the eloquence of Dr. Franklin, as the French people
called the Great American, had opened the way for all that followed.

Whatever favor he met with in society, whatever honor he received,
whatever fame he acquired at home or abroad, he turned all to account
for the good of his country.

SELECTION XXII

GIVE ME THE PEOPLE

Some love the glow of outward show,
The shine of wealth, and try to win it:
The house to me may lowly be,
If I but like the people in it.

What's all the gold that glitters cold,
When linked to hard and haughty feeling?
Whate'er we're told, the noblest gold
Is truth of heart and honest dealing.

A humble roof may give us proof
That simple flowers are often fairest;
And trees whose bark is hard and dark
May yield us fruit, and bloom the rarest.

There's worth as sure among the poor
As e'er adorned the highest station;
And minds as just as theirs, we trust,
Whose claim is but of rank's creation.

Then let them seek, whose minds are weak,
Mere fashion's smile, and try to win it:
The house to me may lowly be,
If I but like the people in it.

_Charles Swain_.

LESSON LXVII

NOBILITY REWARDED

A rich man, feeling himself growing old, called his three sons around
him and said: "I am resolved to divide my goods equally among you. You
shall each have your full share, but there is one thing which I have
not included in the share of any one of you. It is this costly diamond
which you see in my hand. I will give it to that one of you who shall
earn it by the noblest deed. Go, therefore, and travel for three
months; at the end of that time we will meet here again, and you shall
tell me what you have done."

The sons departed accordingly, and traveled three months, each in a
different direction. At the end of that time they returned; and all
came together to their father to give an account of their journey.

The eldest son spoke first. He said: "On my journey a stranger
entrusted to me a great number of valuable jewels, without taking any
account of them. Indeed, I was well aware that he did not know how
many the parcel contained. One or two of them would never have been
missed, and I might easily have enriched myself without fear of
detection. But I did no such thing; I gave back the parcel exactly as
I had received it. Was not this a noble deed?"

"My son," said the father, "simple honesty cannot be called noble. You
did what was right, and nothing more. If you had acted otherwise, you
would have been dishonest, and your deed would have shamed you. You
have done well, but not nobly."

The second son now spoke. He said: "As I was traveling on my journey
one day, I saw a poor child playing by the edge of a lake; and, just as
I rode by, it fell into the water, and was in danger of being drowned.
I immediately dismounted from my horse, and, wading into the water,
brought it safe to land. All the people of the village where this
occurred can bear witness of the deed. Was it not a noble action?"

"My son," replied the old man, "you did only what was your duty, and
you could hardly have left the innocent child to die without making an
effort to save it. You, too, have acted well, but not nobly."

Then the third son came forward to tell his tale. He said: "I had an
enemy, who for years has done me much harm and sought to take my life.
One evening, during my late journey, I was passing along a dangerous
road which ran beside the summit of a steep cliff. As I rode
cautiously along, my horse started at sight of something lying in the
road. I dismounted to see what it was, and found my enemy lying fast
asleep on the very edge of the cliff. The least movement in his sleep,
and he must have rolled over, and would have been dashed to pieces on
the rocks below. His life was in my hands. I drew him away from the
edge, and then woke him, and told him to go on his way in peace."

Then the old man cried out, in a transport of joy: "Dear son, the
diamond is thine; for it is a noble and godlike thing to help the
enemy, and to reward evil with good."

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--1776.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.

_The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America_.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than
to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and
such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having
in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these
States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend
to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his
measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with
manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions to cause others
to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of
Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise;
the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing
to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the
conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent
to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of
Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the
Consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to
the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to
their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed men among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world;

For imposing taxes on us without our Consent;

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury;

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging
its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument
for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and
altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments;

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government, here, by declaring us out of his
Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to
compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with
circumstances of Cruelty, and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas
to bear arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their
friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian
Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction
of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in
the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only
by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every
act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free
People.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have
warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of
the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations,
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in
War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in
General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by
Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and
declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free
and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to
the British Crown and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved: and
that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War,
conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and do all
other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And
for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
Protection of Divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other our
Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.[1]

THE PREAMBLE.

"We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the
common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America."

ARTICLE I.

THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

Section I.--The Congress in General.

"All legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in a Congress
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of
Representatives."

Section II.--The House of Representatives.

1. "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen
every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors
in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of
the most numerous branch of the State Legislature."

2. "No person shall be a Representative, who shall not have attained to
the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of
that State in which he shall be chosen."

3. "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the
several States which may be included within this Union, according to
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a
term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all
other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years
after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and
within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall
by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for
every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one
Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of
New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight,
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York
six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six,
Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia
three."[2]

4. "When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the
executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such
vacancies."

5. "The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other
officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment."

Section III.--The Senate.

1. "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators
from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years, and
each Senator shall have one vote."

2. "Immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence of the
first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be, into three
classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated
at the expiration of the second year; of the second class, at the
expiration of the fourth year; and of the third class, at the
expiration of the sixth year; so that one-third may be chosen every
second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise,
during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the executive
thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the
Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies."

3. "No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age
of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States,
and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for
which he shall be chosen."

4. "The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided."

5. "The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President
_pro tempore_, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall
exercise the office of President of the United States."

6. "The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When
sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When
the President of the United States is tried, the Chief-Justice shall
preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of
two-thirds of the members present."

7. "Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office
of honor, trust, or profit, under the United States; but the party
convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment,
trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law."

Section IV.--Both Houses.

1. "The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and
Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature
thereof; but the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such
regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators."

2. "The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by
law appoint a different day."

Section V.--The Houses Separately.

1. "Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and
qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall
constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn
from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of
absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties, as each House
may provide."

2. "Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its
members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of
two-thirds, expel a member."

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