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would be sacrificed, at least in this age. Two instances cannot be denied. When the army was disbanded; and again, when he stood, like Leonidas, at the pass of Thermopyla, to defend our independence against France.

It is indeed almost as difficult to draw his character as the portrait of virtue. The reasons are similar. Our ideas of moral excellence are obscure, because they are complex, and we are obliged to resort to illustrations. Washington's example is the happiest to shew what virtue is; and to delineate his character, we naturally expatiate on the beauty of virtue, much must be felt, and much imagined. His preeminence is not so much to be seen in the display of any one virtue, as in the possession of them all, and in the practice of the most difficult. Hereafter, therefore, his character must be studied before it will be striking; and then it will be admitted as a model; a precious one to a free republic.

It is no less difficult to speak of his talents. They were adapted to lead, without dazzling mankind; and to draw forth and employ the talents of others, without being misled by them. In this he was certainly superior, that he neither mistook nor misapplied his own. His great modesty and reserve would have concealed them, if great occasions had not called them forth; and then, as he never spoke from the affectation to shine, nor acted from any sinister motives, it is from their effects only that we are to judge of their greatness and extent. In public trusts, where men, acting conspicuously, are cautious, and in those private concerns, where few conceal or resist their weaknesses, Washington was uniformly great; pursuing right conduct from right maxims. His talents were such as assist a sound judgment, and

ripen with it. His prudence was consummate, and seemed to take the direction of his powers and passions; for, as a soldier he was more solicitous to avoid mistakes that might be fatal, than to perform exploits that are brilliant; and, as a statesman, to adhere to just principles, however old, than to pursue novelties; and therefore in both characters, his qualities were singularly adapted to the interest, and were tried in the greatest perils of the country. His habits of enquiry were so far remarkable, that he was never satisfied with investigating, nor desisted from it, so long as he had less than all the light that he could obtain upon a subject; and then he made his decision without bias.

This command over the partialities that so generally stop men short, or turn them aside in their pursuit of truth, is one of the chief causes of his unvaried course of right conduct in so many difficult scenes, where every human actor must be presumed to err.

If he had strong passions, he had learned to subdue them, and to be moderate and mild. If he had weaknesses, he concealed them, which is rare, and excluded them from the government of his temper and conduct, which is still more rare. If he loved fame, he never made improper compliances for what is called popularity. The fame he enjoyed is of the kind that will last forever; yet it was rather the effect, than the motive, of his conduct.

Some future Plutarch will search for a parallel to his character. Epaminondas is perhaps the brightest name of all antiquity. Our Washington resembled him in the purity and ardor of his patriotism; and, like him, he first exalted the glory of his country. There, it is to be hoped, the parallel ends: for, Thebes fell with Epaminondas. But such comparisons cannot be pursued far, without departing from the similitude. For we shall find it as difficult

to compare great men as great rivers.

Some we admire for the length

We can

and rapidity of their current, and the grandeur of their cataracts; others, for the majestic silence and fullness of their streams. not bring them together to measure the difference of their waters. The unambitious life of Washington, declining fame, yet courted by it, seemed like the Ohio, to choose its long way through solitudes, diffusing fertility; or like his own Potomac, widening and deepening his channel, as he approaches the sea, and displaying most the usefulness and serenity of his greatness towards the end of his course. Such a citizen would do honor to any country. The constant veneration and affection of his country will show, that it was worthy of such a citizen.

However his military fame may excite the wonder of mankind, it is chiefly by his civil magistracy that his example will instruct them. Great generals have arisen in all ages of the world, and perhaps most in those of despotism and darkness. In times of violence and convulsion, they rise by the force of the whirlwind, high enough to ride in it and direct the storm. Like meteors, they glare on the black clouds with a splendor, that, while it dazzles and terrifies, makes nothing visible but the darkness. The fame of heroes is indeed growing vulgar: they multiply in every long war: they stand in history, and thicken in their ranks, almost as undistinguished as their own soldiers.

But such a Chief Magistrate as Washington appears like the pole star in a clear sky, to direct the skilful statesman. His presidency will form an epoch, and be distinguished as the age of Washington. Already it assumes its high place in the political region. Like the milky way, it whitens along its allotted portion of the hemisphere. The latest generations of men will survey, through the telescope of history,

the space where so many virtues lend their rays, and delight to separate them into groups and distinct virtues. As the best illustration of them, the living monument, to which the first of patriots would have chosen to consign his fame, it is my earnest prayer to Heaven, that our country may subsist, even to that late day, in the plenitude of its liberty and happiness, and mingle its mild glory with Washington's.

FISHER AMES, a leading statesman and orator of his time, was born at Dedham, Mass., April 9th, 1758, and died there July 4th, 1808. He entered college (Harvard), at the early age of twelve, and graduated in 1774; but the poverty of his widowed mother compelled him to teach school for a livelihood until 1781, when he began to practice law, and soon displayed brilliant oratorical powers. He was elected to Congress in 1788, and continued in that body during the whole of Washington's administration, of which he was a zealous defender. He was acknowledged to be the most eloquent debater in the house, and was the author of the address of that body to Washington, on his retirement from the Presidency. Our extract from "An oration on the sublime virtues of General George Washington, pronounced at the Old South Meeting House in Boston, before his honor the lieutenant governor, the council, and the two branches of the legislature of Massachusetts, at their request, on the 8th of Feb. ruary, 1800, by Fisher Ames." 8vo, pp. 31, Boston, 1800; 8vo, pp. 51, Philadelphia, 1800. Reprinted in the Memory of Washington, Newport, R. I., 1800; Washingtoniana, Lancaster, 1802; and Washingtoniana, Roxbury, Mass., 1865.

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BRITISH REGISTER.

1800.

ON December 15, at his seat in Virginia, in the 68th year of his age, George Washington, late President of the United States of America; a man superior to all the titles which arrogance or servility have invented for the decoration of hereditary rank. He was one who seemed to have been expressly formed by Providence for the mighty work of establishing the independence of a people, which may one day delight the philanthropist with the view of as great an assemblage of freemen, as Europe now contains of slaves. His firm hand adapted to all circumstances of fortune, equally inaccessible to the flatteries of hope and the suggestions of despair, was kept steady by the grand principles of pure love to his country, and a religious attachment to moral duty. He was one of those truly great men, who can be cool without phlegm, dispassionate without indifference-who, constantly intent upon an important end, are little moved by the vicissitudes and fluctuations in the means which lead to it. In him, even fame, glory, reputation, were subordinate considerations to the successful performance of the high task assigned him; and he could without impatience wait for that reward of public applause and gratitude, which was all he desired for services beyond the power of estimate. In his character were renewed all the qualities we most admire in the noblest names of antiquity. Timoleon, Aristides, Camillus, Fabius, did not

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