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speculate, but it is for us to feel. Yet, in proportion to the severity of the stroke, ought to be our thankfulness that it was not inflicted sooner. Through a long series of years has God preserved our Washington a public blessing; and now, that he has removed him forever, shall we presume to say, "What doest thou?" Never did the tomb' preach more powerfully the dependence of all things on the Most High. The greatest of mortals crumble into dust the moment He commands, Return, ye children of men. Washington was but the instrument of a benignant God. He sickens, he dies, that we may learn not to trust in men, nor to make flesh our arm. But though Washington is dead, Jehovah lives.

God of our fathers! be our God and the God of our children! Thou art our refuge and our hope; the pillar of our strength; the wall of our defense, and our unfading glory.

4. Americans! this God who raised up Washington, and gave you liberty, exacts from you the duty of cherishing it with a zeal according to knowledge. Never sully, by apathy or by outrage, your fair inheritance. Risk not, for one moment, on visionary theories, the solid blessings of your lot. To you particularly, O youth of America! applies the solemn charge. In all the perils of your country, remember Washington. The freedom of reason and of right has been handed down to you on the point of the hero's sword. Guard with veneration the sacred deposit. The curse of ages will rest upon you, O youth of America! if ever you surrender to foreign ambition or domestic lawlessness the precious liberties for which Washington fought and your fathers bled.

5. I cannot part with you, fellow-citizens, without urging the long remembrance of our present assembly. This day we wipe away the reproach of republics, that they know not how to be grateful. In your treatment of living patriots, recall your love and your respect of Washington. Let not future inconsistency charge this day with hypocrisy. Happy America, if she gives an instance of universal principle in her sorrows for the man "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen!"

Character of Washington.-Marshall.

1. GENERAL WASHINGTON was rather above the common size. His frame was robust, and his constitution vigorous. His figure created in the beholder the idea of strength united with manly gracefulness. His manners were rather reserved than free; though on all proper occasions he could relax sufficiently to show how highly he was gratified by the charms of conversation, and the pleasures of society. His person and whole deportment exhibited an unaffected and indescribable dignity, unmingled with haughtiness, of which all who approached him were sensible; and the attachment of those who possessed his friendship and enjoyed his intimacy, though ardent, was always respectful.

to correct.

2. His temper was humane, benevolent, and conciliatory; but there was a quickness in his sensibility to anything apparently offensive, which experience had taught him to watch and In the management of his private affairs, he exhibited an exact yet liberal economy. His funds were not wasted on capricious and ill-examined schemes, nor refused to beneficial, though costly improvements. They remained, therefore, competent to that expensive establishment which his reputation, added to a hospitable temper, had, in some measure, imposed upon him; and to those donations which real distress had a right to claim from opulence.

3. He had no pretensions to that vivacity which fascinates, or to that wit which dazzles and frequently imposes on the understanding. More solid than brilliant, judgment rather than genius constituted the prominent feature of his character. Without making ostentatious professions of religion, he was a sincere believer in the Christian faith, and a truly devout man.

4. As a soldier he was brave, enterprising, and cautious. That malignity which has sought to strip him of the higher qualities of a general, has conceded to him personal courage, and a firmness of resolution which danger could not appal nor difficulties shake. But candor must allow him greater and higher endowments. If his military course does not abound

with splendid achievements, it exhibits a series of judicious measures adapted to circumstances, which probably saved his country.

5. Placed, without having studied the theory or being taught in the school of experience the practice of war, at the head of an undisciplined, ill-organized multitude, which was impatient of the restraints, and unacquainted with the ordinary duties, of a camp, without the aid of officers possessing those lights which the commander-in-chief was yet to acquire, it would have been a miracle, indeed, had his conduct been absolutely faultless. But, possessing an energetic and distinguished mind, on which the lessons of experience were never lost, his errors, if he committed any, were quickly repaired; and those measures which the state of things rendered advisable were seldom, if ever, neglected.

6. Inferior to his adversary in the numbers, the equipment, and in the discipline of his troops, it is evidence of real merit that no decisive advantages were ever obtained over him, and that the opportunity to strike an important blow never passed away unused. He has been termed the American Fabius; but those who compare his actions with his means, will perceive as much of Marcellus as of Fabius in his character.

7. In his civil administration as in his military career, ample and repeated proofs were exhibited of that practical good sense and of that sound judgment, which is perhaps the most rare, and is certainly the most valuable quality of the human mind. Devoting himself to the duties of his station, and pursuing no object distinct from the public good, he was accustomed to contemplate at a distance those situations in which the United States might probably be placed; and to digest, before the occasion required action, the line of conduct which it would be proper to observe.

8. Taught to distrust first impressions, he sought all the information which was attainable, and heard, without prejudice, all the reasons which could be urged for or against particular measures. His judgment was suspended until it became necessary to determine; and his decisions, thus ma

turely made, were seldom, if ever, to be shaken. His conduct, therefore, was systematic, and the great objects of his adminis tration were readily pursued.

9. Respecting, as the first in a free government must ever do, the real and deliberate sentiments of the people, their gusts of passion passed over without ruffling the smooth surface of his mind. Trusting to the reflecting good sense of the nation, he had the magnanimity to pursue its real interests in opposition to its temporary prejudices; and, in more instances than one, we find him committing his whole popularity to hazard, and pursuing steadily the course dictated by a sense of duty, in opposition to a torrent which would have overwhelmed a man of ordinary firmness.

10. In speculation, he was a real republican, devoted to the constitution of his country, and to that system of equal political rights on which it is founded. But, between a balanced republic and democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos. Real liberty, he thought, was to be preserved only by upholding the authority of the laws, and maintaining the energy of government. Scarcely did society present two characters, which, in his opinion, less resembled each other than a patriot and a demagogue.

11. No man has ever appeared upon the theatre of human action whose integrity was more incorruptible, or whose principles were more perfectly free from the contamination of those selfish and unworthy passions which find their nourishment in the conflicts of party. His ends were always upright, and his means always pure. He exhibits the rare example of a politician to whom wiles were absolutely unknown. In him was fully exemplified the real distinction between wisdom and cunning, and the truth of the maxim that "honesty is the best policy."

12. Neither the extraordinary partiality of the American people, the extravagant praises which were bestowed upon him, nor the inveterate opposition and malignant calumnies which he encountered, had any visible influence on his conduct. The cause is to be looked for in the texture of his mind. In him,

that innate and unassuming modesty which adulation would have offended, which the voluntary plaudits of millions could not betray into indiscretion, and which never obtruded upon others his claims to superior consideration, was happily blended with a high and correct sense of personal dignity, and with a just consciousness of that respect which is due to station. Without exertion, he could maintain the happy medium between that arrogance which wounds, and that facility which allows the office to be degraded in the person who fills it.

13. It is impossible to contemplate the great events which have occurred in the United States, under the auspices of Washington, without ascribing them, in some measure, to him. If we ask the causes of the prosperous issue of a war, against the successful termination of which there were so many probabilities, of the good which was produced, and the ill which was avoided, during an administration fated to contend with the strongest prejudices that a combination of circumstances and of passions could produce,—of the constant favor of the great mass of his fellow-citizens, and of the confidence which to the last moment of his life they reposed in him,-the answer will furnish a lesson well meriting the attention of those who are candidates for political fame.

14. Endowed by nature with a sound judgment, and an accurate, discriminating mind, he feared not that laborious attention which made him perfectly master of those subjects on which he was to decide; and this essential quality was guided by an unvarying sense of moral right, which would tolerate the employment of those means only that would bear the most rigid examination; by a fairness of intention which neither sought nor required disguise; and by a purity of virtue which was not only untainted, but unsuspected.-Life of Washington.

Removal of the Capitol, etc.- Few events of interest occurred during the remainder of Adams's administration. During the summer of 1800, the national Capitol was removed from Philadelphia to Washington, a location selected, it is said, by Washington himself. The District of Columbia—a tract ten miles square-had been ceded to the United States by Maryland and Virginia in 1790; and the city was laid out the next year. The building of the Capitol was

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