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virtue? and, while I pronounce them, do you not feel a thrill of indignation at your hearts? Forbear.. Time never fails to bring every éxalted reputation to a ftrict fcrutiny the world, in paffing the judgment that is never to be reverfed, will deny all partiality, even to the name of WASHINGTON. Let it be denied: for its juftice. will confer glory.

Such a life as WASHINGTON's cannot derive honor from the circumstances of birth and education, though it throws back a luftre upon both. With an inquifitive mind, that always profited by the lights of others, and was unclouded by paffions of its own, he acquired a maturity of judgment, rare in age, unparalleled in youth. Perhaps no young man had fo early laid up a life's ftock of materials for folid reflection, or fettled fo foon the principles and habits of his conduct. Grey experience liftened to his counfels with refpect, and at a time when youth is almoft privileged to be rafh, Virginia com-mitted the fafety of her frontier, and ultimately the fafety of America, not merely to his valor, for that would be fcarcely praife; but to his prudence.

It is not in Indian wars that heroes are celebrated; but it is there they are formed. No enemy can be more formidable, by the craft of his ambushes, the fuddennefs of his onfet, or the ferocity of his vengeance. The foul of WASHINGTON was thus exercifed to danger; and on the first trial, as on every other, it appeared firm in adverfity, cool in action, undaunted, felf-poffeffed. His fpirit, and ftill more his pru

dence, on the occafion of Braddock's defeat, diffufed his name throughout America, and acrofs the Atlantic. Even then his country viewed him with complacency, as her most hopeful fon.

At the peace of 1763, GreatBritain, in confequence of her victories, ftood in a position to prescribe her own terms. She chofe, perhaps, better for us than for her. felf: for by expelling the French from Canada, we no longer feared hoftile neighbors; and we foon found just caufe to be afraid of our protectors. We difcerned even then a truth, which the conduct of France has fince fo ftrongly confirmed, that there is nothing which the gratitude of weak ftates can give, that will fatisfy ftrong allies for their aid, but authority. Nations that want protectors, will have mafters. Our fettlements, no longer checked by enemies on the frontier, rapidly increased; and it was difcovered, that America was growing to a fize that could defend itself.

In this, perhaps unforeseen, but at length obvious ftate of things, the British Government conceived a jealoufy of the Colonies, of which, and of their intended meafures of precaution, they made no fecret.

Thus it happened, that their forefight of the evil aggravated its fymptoms, and accelerated its progrefs. The colonifts perceived that they could not be governed, as before, by affection; and refolved that they would not be governed by force. Nobly refolved! for had we fubmitted to the British claims of right, we fhould have had, if any, lefs than our ancient liberty; and held

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Our nation, like its great lead er, had only to take counsel from its courage. When WASHINGTON heard the voice of his country in diftrefs, his obedience was prompt; and though his fac rifices were great, they coft him no effort. Neither the object nor the limits of my plan, permit me to dilate on the military events of the revolutionary war. Our hiftory is but a tranfcript of his claims on our gratitude. Our hearts bear teftimony, that they are claims not to be fatisfied. When overmatched by numbers; a fugitive, with a little band of faithful foldiers; the States as much exhausted as difmayed; he explored his own undaunted heart, and found there refources to re trieve our affairs. We have feen him difplay as much valor as gives fame to heroes, and as confum mate prudence as infures fuccefs to valer; fearless of dangers that were perfonal to him; hefitating and cautious, when they affected his country; preferring fame before fafety or repofe; and duty,

before fame.

Rome did not owe more to Fabius, than America to WASHINGTON. Our nation fhares with him the fingular glory of having conducted a civil war with mildness, and a revolution, with order.

The event of that war feemed to crown the felicity and glory both of America and its Chief. Until that conteft, a great part of the civilized world had been furprisingly ignorant of the force and character, and almost of the exiftence, of the British Colonies.

They had not retained what they knew, nor felt curiofity to know the state of thirteen wretched fettlements, which vaft woods inclosed, and still vaster woods divided from each other. They did not view the colonists fo much a people, as a race of fugitives, whom want, and folitude, and intermixture with the favages, had made barbarians, Great-Britain, they faw, was elate with her victories: Europe ftood in awe of her power: her arms made the thrones of the most powerful un steady, and disturbed the tran. quillity of their States, with an agitation more extensive than an earthquake. As the giant Enceladus is fabled to lie under Etna, and to fhake the mountain when he turns his limbs, her hoftility was felt to the extremities of the world. It reached to both the Indies; in the wilds of Africa, it obftructed the commerce in flaves; the whales, finding, in time of war, a refpite from their purfuers, could venture to sport between the tropics, and did not flee, as in peace, to hide beneath the icefields of the polar circle.

At this time, while Great-Britain wielded a force not inferior to that of the Roman empire under Trajan, fuddenly, aftonished Europe beheld a feeble people, till then unknown, stand forth, and defy this giant to the combat. It was fo unequal, all expected it would be fhort. The events of that war were so many miracles, that attracted, as much perhaps as any war ever did, the wonder of mankind. Our final fuccefs exalted their admiration to its highest point they allowed to “ WASHINGTON all that is due

to

to transcendent virtue, and to the Americans more than is due to human nature. They confidered us as a race of WASHINGTONS, and admitted that nature in America was fruitful only in prodigies. Their books and their travellers, exaggerating and distorting all their reprefentations, affifted to establish the opinion, that this is a new world, with a new order of men and things adapted to it; that here we practise industry, amidst the abundance that requires none; that we have morals fo refined, that we do not need laws; and though we have them, yet we ought to confider their execution as an infult and a wrong; that we have virtue without weakneffes, fentiment without paffions, and liberty without factions. Thefe illufions, in fpite of their abfurdity, and, perhaps, because they are abfurd enough to have dominion over the imagination only, have been received by many of the malecontents against the govern ments of Europe, and induced them to emigrate. Such illufions are too foothing to vanity, to be entirely checked in their currency among Americans.

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They have been pernicious, as they cherish falfe ideas of the rights of men and the duties of rulers. They have led the citizens to look for liberty where it is not ; and to confider the government, which is its castle, as its prifon.

WASHINGTON retired to Mount Vernon, and the eyes of the world followed him. He left his countrymen to their fimplicity and their paffions, and their glory foon departed. Europe began to be undeceived, and it feemed for a time, as if, by the acquifition of

independence, our citizens were disappointed. The Confederation was then the only compact made "to form a perfect union of the States, to establish justice, to infure the tranquillity, and provide for the fecurity, of the nation;" and accordingly, union was a name that still commanded rever~ ence, though not obedience. The fyftem called juftice was, in fome of the States, iniquity reduced to elementary principles; and the public tranquillity was fuch a portentous calm, as rings in deep caverns before the explosion of an earthquake. Moft of the States then were in fact, though not in form, unbalanced democracies. Reafon, it is true, fpoke audibly in their conftitutions; pafon and prejudice louder in their laws. It is to the honor of Maffachusetts, that it is chargeable with little deviation from principles. Its adherence to them was one of the causes of a dangerous rebellion. It was fcarcely poffible that fuck governments fhould not be agitats ed by parties, and that prevailing parties fhould not be vindictive and unjuft. Accordingly, in fome of the States, creditors were treated as outlaws; bankrupts were armed with legal authority to be perfecutors; and, by the fhock of all confidence and faith, fociety was fhaken to its foundations. Liberty we had; but we dreaded its abufe almoft as much as its lofs; and the wife, who deplored the one, clearly forefaw the other.

The States were also becoming formidable to each other. Tribute, under the name of impoft, was for years levied by fome of the commercial States upon their neighbors. Meafures of retalia

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tion were reforted to, and mutual recriminations had begun to whet the refentments, whofe never failing progrefs among ftates is more injuftice, vengeance, and war.

The peace of America hung by a thread, and factions were already fharpening their weapons to

cut it.

The project of three fep erate empires in America was beginning to be broached, and the progrefs of licentioufnefs would have foon rendered her citizens unfit for liberty in either of them. An age of blood and mifery would have punished our difunion: But these were not the confiderations to deter ambition from its purpose, while there were fo many circumftances in our political fituation to favor it.

At this awful crifis, which all the wife fo much dreaded at the time, yet which appears, on a retrofpect, fo much more dreadful than their fears; fome man was wanting, who poffeffed a commanding power over the popular paffions, but over whom thofe paffions had no power. That man was WASHINGTON.

His name, at the head of fuch a lift of worthies as would reflect honor on any country, had its proper weight with all the enlightened, and with almost all the welldifpofed among the lefs informed citizens, and, bleffed be God! the Conftitution was adopted. Yes, to the eternal honour of America among the nations of the earth, it was adopted, in fpite of the obftacles which, in any other country, and perhaps in any other age of this, would have been infurmountable; in fpite of the doubts and fears, which well meaning prejudice creates for it

felf, and which party fo artfully inflames into stubbornnefs; in spite of the vice, which it has fubjected to restraint, and which is therefore its immortal and implacable foe; in fpite of the oligarchies in fome of the States, from whom it fnatched dominion; it was adopted, and our country enjoys one more invaluable chance for its union and happiness invaluable! if the retrofpect of the dangers we have escaped, fhall fufficiently inculcate the principles we have fo tardily established. Perhaps multitudes are not to be taught by their fears only, with out fuffering much to deepen the impreffion : for experience brandifhes in her fchool a whip of fcorpions, and teaches nations her fummary leffons of wisdom by the fcars and wounds of their adverfity.

The amendments which have been projected in fome of the States fhew, that in them at least, thefe leffons are not well remembered. In a confederacy of States, fome powerful, others weak, the weaknefs of the federal union will, fooner or later, encourage, and will not reftrain, the ambition and injuftice of the members. The weak can no otherwife be ftrong or fafe, but in the energy of the national government. It is this defect, which the blind jealoufy of the weak States not unfrequently contributes to prolong, that has proved fatal to all the confederations that ever exifted.

Although it was impoffible that fuch merit as WASHINGTON's fhould not produce envy, it was fcarcely poffible that, with fuch a tranfcendent reputation, he should have rivals. Accordingly, he

was

was unanimoufly chofen Prefident of the United States.

As a general and a patriot, the measure of his glory was already full there was no fame left for him to excel but his own; and even that talk, the mightiest of all his labours, his civil magiftracy has accomplished.

No fooner did the new govern ment begin its aufpicious courfe, than order feemed to arise out of confufion. The governments of Europe had feen the old Confederation finking, fqualid and pale, into the tomb, when they beheld the new American Republic rife fuddenly from the ground, and, throwing off its grave clothes, exhibiting the ftature and proportions of a young giant, refreshed with fleep. Commerce and industry awoke, and were cheerful at their labours; for credit and confidence awoke with them. Every where was the appearance of profperity; and the only fear was, that its progrefs was too rapid, to confift with the purity and fimplicity of ancient manners. The cares and labours of the Prefident were inceffant his exhortations, example, and authority, were employed to excite zeal and activity for the public fervice: able officers were felected, only for their merits; and fome of them remarkably diftinguished themselves by their fuccessful management of the public bufinefs. Government was administered with fuch integrity, without myftery, and in fo profperous a courfe, that it feem ed to be wholly employed in acts of beneficence. Though it has made many thoufand malecontents, it has never, by its rigor or injuftice, made one man wretched. U

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Such was the state of public affairs and did it not feem perfectly to enfure uninterrupted harmo ny to the citizens? did they not, in refpect to their government and its adminiftration, poffefs their whole heart's delire? They had feen and fuffered long the want of an efficient conftitution they had freely ratified it; they faw WASHINGTON, their tried friend, the father of his country, invefted with its powers. They knew that he could not exceed or betray them, without forfeiting his own reputation. Confider, for a moment, what a reputation it was: Such as no man ever before poffeffed by fo clear a title, and in fo high a degree. His fame feemed in its purity to exceed even its brightness: office took honour from his acceptance, but conferred none. Ambition ftood awed and darkened by his fhadow. For where, through the wide earth, was the man fo vain as to difpute precedence with him; or what were the honors that could make the poffeffor WASHINGTON's fuperior? Refined and complex as the ideas of virtue are, even the grofs could difcern in his life the infinite fuperiority of her rewards. Mankind perceived fome change in their ideas of greatnefs: the fplendor of power, and even of the name of conqueror, had grown dim in their eyes. They did not know that WASHINGTON could augment his fame; but they knew and felt, that the world's wealth, and its empire too, would be a bribe far beneath his acceptance.

This is not exaggeration: never was confidence in a man and a chief magiftrate more widely

diffused,

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