sustain, amidst difficulties which to others would appear insurmountable, nor could any man have more at command the veneration and regard of the officers and soldiers of our army, even after defeat and misfortune. This is the illustrious chief, whom a kind Providence has decreed as the instrument to conduct our country to peace and to independence.

His Excellency, made a visit to our hospital; his arrival was scarcely announced, before he presented himself at our doors. Dr. Williams and myself had the honor to wait on this great and truly good man, through the different wards, and to reply to his inquiries relative to the condition of our patients. He appeared to take a deep interest in the situation of the sick and wounded soldiers, and inquired particularly as to their treatment and comfortable accommodations.

JAMES THACHER, M.D., was born at Barnstable, Mass., February 14th, 1754, and died at Plymouth, May 24th, 1844. He joined the Revolutionary army at Cambridge in June, 1775, as surgeon's mate under Dr. John Warren, was promoted to surgeon and served through the war, being present at many of the principal battles. Dr. Thacher kept a diary of the war, which was published at Boston in 1823, with the title: "A Military Journal during the American Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783," 8vo., a work of considerable historical value. The extract above given, is his entry on the occasion of Washington's visit to the military hospital at Robinson's house, near West Point, in October, 1778, and as a description of his personal appearance, very properly serves as an introduction to the "Character Portraits of Washington."

JOHN BELL.

1779.

GENERAL WASHINGTON having never been in Europe, could not possibly have seen much military service when the armies of Britain were sent to subdue us; yet still, for a variety of reasons, he was by much the most proper man on this continent, and probably any where else, to be placed at the head of an American army. The very high estimation he stood in for integrity and honour, his engaging in the cause of his country from sentiment and a conviction of her wrongs, his moderation in politics, his extensive property, and his approved abilities as a commander, were motives which necessarily obliged the choice of America to fall upon him. That nature has given him extraordinary military talents will hardly be controverted by his most bitter enemies; and having been early actuated with a warm passion to serve his country in the military line, he has greatly improved them by unwearied industry, and a close application to the best writers upon tactics, and by a more than common method and exactness: and, in reality, when it comes to be considered that at first he only headed a body of men intirely unacquainted with military discipline or operations, somewhat ungovernable in temper, and who at best could only be stiled an alert and good militia, acting under very short enlistments, uncloathed, unaccoutred, and at all times very ill supplied with ammunition and artillery; and that with such an army he withstood the ra

vages and progress of near forty thousand veteran troops, plentifully provided with every necessary article, commanded by the bravest officers in Europe, and supported by a very powerful navy, which effectually prevented all movements by water; when, I say, all this comes to be impartially considered, I think I may venture to pronounce, that general Washington will be regarded by mankind as one of the greatest military ornaments of the present age, and that his name will command the veneration of the latest posterity.

I would not mention to you the person of this excellent man, were I not convinced that it bears great analogy to the qualifications of his mind. General Washington is now in the forty-seventh year of his age; he is a tall well-made man, rather large boned, and has a tolerably genteel address: his features are manly and bold, his eyes of a bluish cast and very lively; his hair a deep brown, his face rather long and marked with the small pox; his complexion sun-burnt and without much colour, and his countenance sensible, composed, and thoughtful; there is a remarkable air of dignity about him, with a striking degree of gracefulness: he has an excellent understanding without much quickness; is strictly just, vigilant, and generous; an affectionate husband, a faithful friend, a father to the deserving soldier; gentle in his manners, in temper rather reserved; a total stranger to religious prejudices, which have so often excited Christians of one denomination to cut the throats of those of another; in his morals irreproachable; he was never known to exceed the bounds of the most rigid temperance: in a word, all his friends and acquaintance universally allow, that no man ever united in his own person a more perfect alliance of the virtues of a philosopher with the talents of a general.

Candour, sincerity, affability, and simplicity, seem to be the striking features of his character, till an occasion offers of displaying the most determined bravery and independence of spirit.

Such, my good friend, is the man, to whom America has intrusted her important cause. Hitherto she has had every reason to be satisfied with her choice; and most ungrateful would she be to the great Disposer of human events, were she not to render him unremitting thanks for having provided her with such a citizen at such a crisis. Most nations have been favoured with some patriotic deliverer: the Israelites had their Moses; Rome had her Camillus; Greece her Leonidas; Sweden her Gustavus; and England her Hambdens, her Russels, and her Sydneys: but these illustrious heroes, though successful in preserving and defending, did not, like Washington, form or establish empires, which will be the refuge or asylum of Liberty banished from Europe by luxury and corruption. Must not, therefore, your heart beat with conscious pride at the prospect of your friend's being ranked among (if not above) those illustrious patriots? at the enchanting thought, that He, whom you know and love, shall be acknowledged by present and future generations as their great deliverer, and the chief instrument in the hands of the Almighty for laying the foundation of that freedom and happiness, which, I trust, await the future myriads of this vast continent?

THE "Sketch of General Washington's Life and Character," from which we make the foregoing extract, is contained in a letter from "a gentleman of Maryland," to a friend in Europe, dated May 3, 1779, and published in London the following year, annexed to "A poetical epistle to his Excellency George Washington, Esq., Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States of America, from an inhabitant of the State of Maryland." The

author of the Epistle, was Charles Henry Wharton, D.D., at the time a resident of Worcester, England, and the publication, was "for the charitable purpose of raising a few guineas to relieve, in a small measure, the distresses of some hundreds of American prisoners, now suffering confinement in the gaols of England." The sketch which is probably the first attempt at a Biography of Washington, made in America, was also printed in the London Chronicle, July 22, 1780, and a portion of it in the Westminster Magazine, for the following month. In this country it was reprinted in the Massachusetts Magazine, March 1791, where the name of the author, JOHN BELL, ESQ., of Maryland, first appears, of whom, however, we have no information other than the statement in the preface to the Epistle to Washington, that he was “connected and intimate in the family of that great man."