heavy snow and the obscurity of the night soon rendered the danger more imminent, and the management of the boat, which filled with water, became increasingly difficult. We coasted the rocks which lined the right bank of the Hudson, between West Point and New Windsor, at the foot of which it is impossible to land. General Washington, perceiving that the master of the boat was very much alarmed, took the helm, saying, "courage, my friends; I am going to conduct you, since it is my duty to hold the helm." After having with much difficulty made our way against the stream and the ice, we landed, and had to walk a league before we reached the head-quarters.

MATHIEU, COUNT DUMAS, was born at Montpelier, France, November 23, 1753, and died at Paris, October 16, 1837. He entered the army in 1773, and served as aid-de-camp to Rochambeau, in America, 1780, '81. His "Memoirs," written in 1836, were translated and published at London, in 1839, and reprinted at Philadelphia, the same year, 2 vols., 12m0. from Vol. I. of which, our extracts are made. The first paragraph as quoted, evidently refers to Washington's visit of March 6, 1781, to Rochambeau, at Newport, R. I., but errs in stating that he was accompanied by the Marquis de la Fayette, that officer being in Virginia at the time, having left headquarters on February 20th. The remainder of the quotation points to a period somewhere between January 1st, 1781, the date of the mutiny of the Pennsylvania troops, and Feb. 20th; the error and chronological discrepancy, may be accounted, for, by the lapse of time between the occurrences and the writing of the "Memoirs,"-fifty-five years. The visit to Newport is also recorded by CLAUDE BLANCHARD, Commissary of the French army, in his Journal (entry of March 5, (?) 1781), as follows, “This day General Washington, who was expected, arrived about two o'clock. He first went to the Duc de Bourgogne (the flag-ship), where all the generals were. He then landed; all the troops were under arms; I was presented to him. His face is handsome, noble and mild. He is tall (at least, five feet, eight inches). In the evening, I was at supper with him. I mark, as a fortunate day, that in which I have been able to behold a man so truly great." COUNT DE FERSEN, one of the aids-de-camp to Rochambeau, and who came to America with the Count Dumas in the same vessel, Le Jason, attended the French Commander on his first interview with Washington at Hartford, Conn. Sept. 22, 1780; referring to it in a letter to his father, dated Newport,

16th Octo. 1780, (Magazine of American History, May 1879), he says, “I was about fifteen days ago at Hartford, forty leagues distant from here, with M. de Rochambeau. We were only six, the Admiral, his chief of Engineers, his son, the Vicomte de Rochambeau, and two aids-de-camp, of whom I was one. He had an interview there with General Washington. M. de Rochambeau sent me in advance to announce his arrival, and I had time to see this man, illustrious, if not unique in our century. His handsome and majestic, while at the same time mild and open countenance perfectly reflects his moral qualities; he looks the hero; he is very cold; speaks little, but is courteous and frank. A shade of sadness overshadows his countenance, which is not unbecoming, and gives him an interesting air."

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

1839.

THE first element of its longevity (the Constitution of the United States), was undoubtedly to be found in itself-but we may, without superstition or fanaticism, believe that a superintending Providence had adapted to the character and principles of this institution, those of the man by whom it was to be first administered. To fill a throne was neither his ambition nor his vocation. He had no descendants to whom a throne could have been transmitted, had it existed. He was placed by the unanimous voice of his country, at the head of that government which they had substituted for a throne, and his eye looking to futurity, was intent upon securing to after ages, not a throne for a seat to his own descendants, but an immovable seat upon which the descendants of his country might sit in peace, and freedom, and happiness, if so it please Heaven, to the end of time.

That to the accomplishment of this task he looked forward with a searching eye, and even an over-anxious heart, will not be surprising to any who understands his character, or is capable of comprehending the magnitude and difficulty of the ask itself.

There are incidental to the character of man two qualities, both developed by his intercourse with his fellow-creatures, and both belonging to the immortal part of his nature; of elements apparently so opposed and inconsistent with each other, as to be irreconcilable to

gether; but yet indispensable in their union to constitute the highest excellence of the human character. They are the spirit of command, and the spirit of meekness. They have been exemplified in the purity of ideal perfection, once only in the history of mankind, and that was in the mortal life of the Saviour of the world. It would seem to have been exhibited on earth by his supernatural character, as a model to teach mortal man to what sublime elevation his nature is capable of ascending. They had been displayed, though not in the same perfection by the preceding legislator of the children of Israel;—

"That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed

In the beginning, how the heavens and earth

Rose out of Chaos;"

but so little were they known, or conceived of in the antiquity of profane history, that in the poems of Homer, that unrivalled delineator of human character in the heroic ages, there is no attempt to introduce them in the person of any one of his performers, human or divine. In the poem of his Roman imitator and rival, a feeble exemplification of them is shadowed forth in the inconsistent composition of the pious Æneas; but history, ancient or modern, had never exhibited in the real life of man, an example in which those two properties were so happily blended together, as they were in the person of George Washington. These properties belong rather to the moral than to the intellectual nature of man. They are not unfrequently found in minds little cultivated by science, but they require for the exercise of that mutual control which guards them from degenerating into arrogance or weakness, the guidance of a sound judgment, and the regulation of a profound sense of responsibility to a higher Power. It was this

adaptation of the character of Washington to that of the institution over the composition of which he had presided, as he was now called to preside over its administration, which constituted one of the most favorable omens of its eventual stability and success.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Sixth President of the United States, (1825-9) and son of President John Adams, was born at Braintree, now Quincy, Mass., July 11th, 1767, and died in the Capitol, Washington, D. C., February 23d, 1848. Our extract is from "The Jubilee of the Constitution, a Discourse delivered at the request of The New York Historical Society, in the City of New York, on Tuesday, the 30th of April, 1839; being the Fiftieth Anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington as President of the United States, on Thursday, the 30th of April, 1789. By John Quincy Adams." 8vo, pp. 120. New York: 1839. On a subsequent occasion, the presentation of the sword carried by Washington during the Revolutionary war, to the people of the United States, by Samuel T. Washington, a grandnephew-House of Representatives, Feb. 7, 1843-Mr. Adams said: Washington, the warrior and the legislator! In War, contending by the wager of battle for the independence of his country, and for the freedom of the human race; ever manifesting, amidst its horrors, by precept and example, his reverence for the laws of Peace, and for the tenderest sympathies of humanity: in Peace, soothing the ferocious spirit of discord, among his own countrymen, into harmony and union, and giving to that very sword now presented to his country a charm more potent than that attributed in ancient times to the lyre of Orpheus."