secretaryship of the treasury, for I can recommend to you a far cleverer fellow than I am for your minister of finance, in the person of your former aid-de-camp, Colonel Hamilton." The president was amazed, and continued, "I always knew Colonel Hamilton to be a man of superior talents, but never supposed that he had any knowledge of finance." To which Morris replied, "He knows everything, sir; to a mind like his nothing comes amiss." Robert Morris, indeed, had had ample proofs of Hamil ton's talents in financial matters, the financier having received from the soldier many and important suggestions, plans, and estimates touching the organization and establishment of the bank of North America, in 1780.*

Thus did Alexander Hamilton, from amid the stirring duties of a camp, devote the vast and varied powers of his mind to the organization of a system of finance, as connected with banking operations, that proved of inestimable service to the cause of the Revolution.

Washington hesitated not a moment in making the appointment of secretary of the treasury agreeably to the recommendation of Morris; for assuredly there was

* In May, 1781, Mr. Morris submitted to Congress a plan for a national bank, with a capital of four hundred thousand dollars. Congress approved of the plan, offered to incorporate the subscribers by the name of the President and Directors of tho Bank of North America, and decreed that the bills should be receivable in payment of all taxes, duties, and debts due the United States. This bank, the first in the United States, went into successful operation in December, 1781. It greatly assisted in the restoration of the credit of the government, and was of efficient service in the financial affairs of the country during the remainder of the war. To secure the public confidence for the bank, there was a subscription among the citizens in the form of bonds obliging them to pay, if it should become necessary, in gold and silver, the amounts annexed to their names, to fulfil the engagements of the bank As we have elsewhere observed, Mr. Morris headed the list with fifty thousand dollars. There were ninety-six subscribers who gave their bonds. Their names may be seen in the Pennsylvania Packet, June, 1781.

none, no, not one of the many worthies of the Revolution who stood higher in the esteem, or approached nearer to the heart of the chief than Robert Morris, the noble and generous benefactor of America in the darkest hours of her destiny.

On the very day of the interesting event we have just related, Mr. Dallas met Hamilton in the street and addressed him with, "Well, colonel, can you tell me who will be the members of the cabinet?"-"Really, my dear sir, replied the colonel, "I can not tell you who will, but I can very readily tell you of one who will not be of the number, and that one is your humble servant." He had not, at that moment, the remotest idea that Washington had again in peace, as in war, "marked him for his own."

The very best eulogium that can be pronounced upon the fiscal department of the United States, as organized by Alexander Hamilton, is in the remarks of the Hon. Albert Gallatin, a political rival, and the most distinguished financier of the successors of the first secretary of the treasury. Mr. Gallatin has magnanimously declared that all secretaries of the treasury of the United States, since the first, enjoyed a sinecure, the genius and labors of Hamilton having created and arranged everything that was requisite and necessary for the successful operation of the department.*

In January, 1795, Hamilton resigned his seat in the

* Mr. Gallatin was a native of Geneva, Switzerland, and came to America in 1780, at the age of eighteen years. He was a relative of M. Necker, the celebrated French minister of finance. He entered the continental army, and at the close, settled in Pennsylvania. He was chosen a member of Congress in 1793, and in 1801 Mr. Jefferson called him to his cabinet as secretary of the treasury. He remained in that office until 1813, when he became a special envoy to negotiate for peace with Great Britain. He represented our government in France from 1816 until 1823. He died in 1849 at the age of more than eighty-eight years.

cabinet and retired to private life. It was our good fortune to be almost domesticated in the family of this great man, and to see and know much of him in the olden time. Among the many and imposing recollections of the great age of the Republic that are graven upon our memory, and, mellowed by time, cheer by their venerable and benign influences our evening of life, we call up with peculiar pleasure a reminiscence of the days of the first presidency embracing the resignation of Hamilton.

It was at the presidential mansion that the ex-secretary of the treasury came into the room where Mr. Lear,* Major Jackson,† and the other gentlemen of the president's family were sitting. With the usual smile upon his countenance he observed: "Congratulate me, my good friends, for I am no longer a public man; the president has at length consented to accept my resignation, and I am once more a private citizen." The gentlemen replied that they could perceive no cause for rejoicing in an event that would deprive the government and the country of the late secretary's valuable services. Hamilton continued: "I am not worth exceeding five hundred dollars in the world; my slender fortune and the best years of my life have been devoted to the service of my adopted country; a rising family hath its claims." Glancing his eye upon a small book that lay on the table, he took it up and observed: "Ah, this is the constitution. Now, mark my words: So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instrument will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness; but when we become old and corrupt it will bind us no longer."

*Tobias Lear, Washington's private secretary.

† Major William Jackson, one of the president's military aids.

Such were the prophetic words of Alexander Hamilton, uttered half a century ago, and in the very dawn of our existence as a nation. Let the Americans write them in their books and treasure them in their hearts. Another half century, and they may be regarded as truths.*

What a spectacle does this touching reminiscence present to the Americans and their posterity! A great man of the Revolution, the native of a foreign isle, who had employed his pen and drawn his sword in the cause of liberty before a beard had grown upon his chin; renowned alike in senates and in the field, in the halls of legislation and the "ranks of death," proudly acknowledging his honorable poverty, the result of his many and glorious services, and resigning one of the highest and most dignified offices in the government, to retire as a private citizen to labor for the support of a rising family.

Of a truth, upon the Roman model, aye, and that of the purest and palmiest days of the mistress of the ancient world, were formed the patriots, statesmen, and warriors of the American Revolution. Worthy, indeed, are they to be ranked with the purest and noblest models of ancient virtue and heroism, whom generations yet unborn will hail as the fathers of liberty and founders of an empire.

With these reminiscences, endeared to us by many venerable associations of our other days, and which we offer as an humble tribute to the fame and memory of him who was a master-spirit among the great and renowned that adorned the age of Washington, we close our brief memoir.

*This was first published in the National Intelligencer, on the twenty fourth of February, 1845.

CHAPTER XVI.

HENRY LEE.

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WASHINGTON'S SAGACITY IN HIS SELECTION OF OFFICERS - HIS FAVORITES BIRTH OF LEEANECDOTE OF LEE AT PRINCETON-HIS PERSON-HE JOINS THE ARMY- HIS EXPLOIT AT PAULUS' HOOK - COMMANDER OF A PARTISAN CORPS-HIS QUALIFICATIONS HIS CORPSHIS OFFICERS HIS SERVICES UNDER GREENE-RETIREMENT FROM THE ARMY-HIS MARRIAGE HIS CIVIL CAREER- THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION- - PINCKNEY'S REMARKS - LEE'S ORATION ON THE DEATH OF WASHINGTON HIS SPECULATIONS AND LOSSES HIS DEATH HIS ELOQUENCE IN SPEECH AND READINESS AS A WRITER.

THAT Washington was eminently fortunate, and showed his rare and penetrating judgment of mankind, in his selections of officers, as well for important commands, as for members of his military family, we may learn from the history of our olden times. Among many senior worthies, the illustrious names of Greene, Wayne, and Morgan, claim prominent rank, while of the young aspirants in arms, whom the chief may be said to have ushered to fame, were Lafayette, Hamilton, Pinckney, Laurens, and Lee. To these, how many more might be added, on whom the merit-discerning eye of the chief was wellknown to have beamed with peculiar esteem and favor; as William Washington*-a namesake, but more related

* William Washington was called "the modern Marcellus," "the sword of his country," and other names indicative of his soldierly qualities. He was a son of Bailey Washington, of Stafford county, Virginia, where he was born, on the twentyeighth of February, 1752. He was educated for the church, but was led into the field of politics at the beginning of the Revolution. He entered the army as captain under Colonel (afterward General) Hugh Mercer, and was first in battle on Long Island. He distinguished himself at Trenton, and was with Mercer when he fell at