only abundance ever found within the camp was that of zealous, strong, and brave men,-that we can form to ourselves any just conception of the comprehensiveness of that ability for war which enabled Washington, under all these disadvantages, to baffle the finest armies and the ablest generals England could send out, skillfully retreating from them when he could not fight, and fighting well whenever he could find a favourable chance; to take our best commanders by surprise in the very moments of their premature triumph; and finally to teach our rulers, by the bitter lesson of two armies surrendering without a blow, the uselessness of any further efforts to subdue the nation which they had provoked into resistance by oppression and misrule. But more valuable even than this military genius was that unyielding spirit which animated Washington himself, and with which he inspired both the Congress and the people. The great practical truth which a modern dramatist teaches from the lips of the younger of the Gracchi, that was never better instanced than in this illustrious example. His calm, invincible reliance on the ultimate success of the confederate States never waned or wavered in the darkest fortunes they were doomed to undergo. In the worst emergencies which he experienced, his communications with Congress-however urgent in their tone of recommendation, or remonstrance, or appeal—still breathed a hopefulness which the governing body caught from him, and which they responded to, in spite of factious efforts which were not wanting even there, with constant confidence and love. The same animating influence seems to have fallen like a refreshing dew, upon those whom business drew about him. The people themselves looked to him with a steady trust which lent alacrity to their exertions, and made the hardest measures of privation more endurable when he was known to sanction or advise them. This was the unavoidable result of his unimpeachable, but yet commanding, character; and if he had done nothing more than thisif he had merely kept alive the sturdy resolution which first shewed itself at Lexington and Bunker's Hill-if, after teaching Congress what the sacrifices were that America was bound to make, and training the Americans to make them, he had left it to some other benefactor to command the armies he had called into the field, and to lead them on to victory and independence—the enduring gratitude of his countrymen would still have been his due. But when it is remembered that these distinct services of encouragement, and counsel, and defence were conferred by one man; and that he with a virtue hardly ever paralleled amongst the great generals who have had at their command the means of ruling nations they have freed, permitted no personal ambition to grow up out of his labours, and sought from them no advantages that were not common to him with the meanest citizen of the States; we are tempted to exclaim with the poet, "How shall we rank thee upon glory's page! Far less, than all thou hast forborne to be!" GEORGE TUCKER. 1857. In less than a fortnight after the meeting of Congress, it received the distressing intelligence of Washington's death, after a short illness, brought on by exposure to a cold rain. He died on the fourteenth of December (1799). Both Houses adjourned when the intelligence was first received; and the next day General Marshall, after a brief, but comprehensive eulogy on Washington, offered three resolutions: That the House wait upon the President to condole with him on the occasion; that its members and officers wear mourning the remainder of the session: and that a joint committee of both Houses be appointed to pay due honors to the memory of the man who was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen;" and, lastly, that the House adjourn to the succeeding Monday: which were unanimously adopted. General Henry Lee, one of the members from Virginia, was appointed to deliver an oration to the Houses; and by another resolution it was recommended to the people, on the next birth-day of Washington, the twenty-second of February, to testify their grief, and to commemorate his virtues and services by eulogies, addresses, and public prayers. These resolutions were passed unanimously, and the House adjourned from Thursday till the succeeding Monday: and though he had, for a year or two before his death, lost much of his former popularity with the more violent of the Republican party, yet those feelings were now all hushed in the grave, and nothing was recollected but his eminent services in the Revolution, his purity, firmness, and disinterestedness in all situations. The honors he received abroad are such as have no parallel. Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, ordered an oration to his honor; and the whole British fleet lowered their colors halfmast. These unwonted honors were not paid to the elevated station Washington had occupied, as commanding the armies of his country, of presiding in her councils, nor to the unequalled services he had rendered that country in those characters, nor to his singular fortune in having prospered in all his undertakings, and in having obtained an unanimous vote of a free people in every office to which he had been nominated-but to his spotless virtues, which ever sought the noblest ends by the most unexceptionable means, and in whom the virtues of justice and fortitude, prudence and temperance, were so harmoniously blended, that it would be difficult to say which had the predominance. He was regarded not so much as an American, as a man whom all mankind took pleasure in honoring, and who was an honor to the human race. GEORGE TUCKER was born in Bermuda, 1775, emigrated to Virginia in 1787, and died at Charlotteville, Va., April 10, 1861. He was a member of Congress in 1819-25, and in 1825-45 was professor of moral philosophy, and political economy in the University of Virginia. His "History of the United States from their colonization to the end of the twentysixth Congress in 1841,” was published at Philadelphia in 1857. 4 vols., 8vo. Our quotation is from page 104 of Vol. II, in another part of which Mr. Tucker says, "The purity, disinterestedness, and scrupulous regard to justice and propriety of Washington present to us a model which, admired by all, is mistaken by none, and often turns the balance in a mind vacillating between right and wrong, and infuses new life and energy into the virtuous and patriotic." THEODORE PARKER. 1858. GEORGE WASHINGTON was descended from the common class of Virginia farmers. No ruler of the Anglo-Saxon stock has obtained so great a reputation for the higher qualities of human virtue. For more than one thousand years no statesman or soldier has left a name so much to be coveted. None ever became so dear to the thoughtful of mankind. In the long line of generals, kings, and emperors, from the first monarch to the last president or pope, none ranks so high for the prime excellence of heroic virtue. His name is a watchword of liberty. His example and character are held up as the model for all men in authority. * * The highest moral quality is Integrity, faithfulness to conviction and to all delegated trust. This was his crowning virtue. He had it in the heroic degree. It appears in all his life-from the boy of thirteen, diligently copying his tasks, to the famous man, well nigh threescore and ten. Here I know not who was his superior. I cannot put my finger on a deliberate act of his public or private life which would detract from this high praise. He had no subtility of character, no cunning; he hated duplicity, lying, and liars. He withdrew his confidence from Jefferson when he found him fraudulent; from his secretary, Reed, when he was found false in a small particular. He would not appoint Aaron Burr to any office, because |