wishes of an affectionate people from adding a third unanimous testimonial of their unabated confidence in the man so long enthroned in their hearts. When, before, was affection like this exhibited on earth? Turn over the records of Greece-review the annals of mighty Rome - examine the volumes of modern Europe-you search in vain. America and her Washington only affords the dignified exemplification.

The illustrious personage, called by the national voice in succession to the arduous office of guiding a free people, had no difficulties to encounter. The amicable effort of settling our difficulties with France, begun by Washington and pursued by his successor in virtue as in station, proving abortive, America took measures of self-defence. No sooner was the public mind roused by a prospect of danger than every eye was turned to the friend of all, though secluded from public view and gray in public service. The virtuous veteran, following his plough,* received the unexpected summons with mingled emotions of indignation at the unmerited ill-treatment of his country, and of a determination once more to risk his all in her defence.

The annunciation of these feelings in his affecting letter to the president, accepting the command of the army, concludes his official conduct.

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting.

To his equals he was condescending; to his inferiors, kind; and to the dear object of his affections, exemplarily tender; correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand; the purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues.

His last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life. Although in extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan escaped him;

* General Washington, though opulent, gave much of his time and attention to practical agriculture.

and with undisturbed serenity he closed his well-spent life. Such was the man America has lost-such was the man for whom our

nation mourns.

Methinks I see his august image, and hear falling from his venerable lips these deep-sinking words :—

"Cease, sons of America, lamenting our separation. Go on and confirm, by your wisdom, the fruits of our joint councils, joint efforts, and common dangers; reverence religion; diffuse knowledge throughout your lands; patronize the arts and sciences; let liberty and order be inseparable companions. Control party spirit, the bane of free government; observe good faith to, and cultivate peace with, all nations; shut up every avenue to foreign influence; contract rather than extend national connections; rely on yourselves only; be Americans in thought, word, and deed. Thus will you give immortality to that union which was the constant object of my terrestrial labors; thus will you preserve undisturbed, to the latest posterity, the felicity of a people to me most dear; and thus will you supply (if my happiness is now ought to you) the only vacancy in the round of pure bliss high Heaven bestows."

NOTE VII.-PAGE 516.

ORIGINAL PORTRAITS OF WASHINGTON.

As Mr. Custis, in his chapter on the Portraits of Washington, has omitted several originals, it is proposed, in as brief space as possible in the following article, to notice all that are well authenticated, and in the order in which they were painted.

I. Charles Willson Peale painted the first portrait of Washington, in May, 1772. It was done at Mount Vernon; and, at the same time, he painted portraits in miniature of all the rest of the family. The original study of Washington was made of small size. The finished picture, full size, now at Arlington House, is a copy of it. It is a three-quarter length, and represents Washington in the costume of a Virginia colonel. The study was afterward arranged in the continental costume, and is now in possession of Charles S. Ogden, Esq. of Philadelphia.

II. Peale painted a half-length portrait of General and Mrs. Washington, in the summer of 1776, for John Hancock; also a miniature of Mrs. Washington.

III. In December, 1777, Peale completed a miniature of the general for Mrs. Washington. It was begun at the close of October. While sitting for it, in a farm-house near Skippack Creek, in Pennsylvania, the general (who occupied the side of a bed, and the artist the only chair in the room) received despatches, advising him of the capture of Burgoyne. He glanced at them, and then remained, apparently unconcerned, until the sitting was finished. That miniature is published in Irving's Life of Washington, under the erroneous impression that it is

a portrait of Washington at the age of twenty-five years. Of this picture, Peale made several copies.

IV. Peale painted a whole-length miniature of Washington, in 1778, for Lafayette; also,

V. A whole length, full size, for the state of Maryland; also,

VI. A whole length, full size for the state of Pennsylvania. A copy of the one painted for Maryland, is in the patent-office at Washington city.

VII. In 1782, Peale painted a full-size head of Washington, and,

VIII. At Rocky Hill, near Princeton, in New Jersey, in the autumn of 1783, he painted a full length for the College of New Jersey, to occupy a frame that had contained a portrait of George the Second. The picture of the king was destroyed by an American cannon-ball that passed through one of the college buildings in which the portrait hung, during the battle of Princeton, in 1777. That portrait of Washington yet occupies the frame that surrounded the king's portrait. It is in Nassau Hall at Princeton.

IX. Joseph Wright, a young painter, made a half-length portrait of Washington at Rocky Hill, in the autumn of 1783. He carried a letter of introduction to the commander-in-chief, from Doctor Franklin. That portrait is in the possession of the Powell family, near Philadelphia. It was presented to Mrs. Elizabeth Powell, by General Washington, she being his particular friend. Wright also painted,

X. A portrait of Washington for the Count de Solms. It was finished in 1784.

XI. William Dunlap also painted a portrait of Washington in the autumn of 1783, at Rocky Hill. He had only one sitting. It was a failure. That picture is in the possession of Doctor Ellis, of New York city.

XII. Robert Edge Pine, an English artist, painted Washington at Mount Vernon, in 1785. That picture is in the possession of J. Carson Brevoort, Esq., of Bedford, Long Island.

XIII. In the autumn of the same year, Houdon, a celebrated portrait sculptor, from France, modelled a bust of Washington in clay, at Mount Vernon, and afterward executed a full-length statue of him, for the state capitol, at Richmond, Virginia, by order of the legislature of that commonwealth.

XIV. In 1786, Peale painted a head of Washington, from life, for his own gallery. His brother, James, copied it on a larger canvass, and added the figure in military costume, and an attendant and horse in the background. It is in the possession of James Lennox, Esq., of New York city.

XV. On the first of October, 1789, Washington gave John Ramage, an Irish artist, a sitting of two hours. Ramage made a portrait of him in miniature for Mrs. Washington.

XVI. Three days afterward, he gave one sitting to the Marchioness de Brienne, sister of the Count de Moustier, the French minister, to complete a miniature profile of him," which," he says, in his diary," she had begun from memory, and had made exceedingly like the original." This was afterward engraved in Paris. She also painted a miniature profile of Washington and Lafayette, together, in medallion form, on copper, and presented the picture to Washington. It is now at Arlington House.

XVII. On the third of November, 1789, while on his eastern tour, Washington sat two hours to Mr. Gulligher, a Boston painter, who had a commission from Mr. Samuel Breck, of that city. Washington was then at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Gulligher had followed him, and first made a sketch of him by stealth, while the general was in the chapel of Mr. Buckminster. He then obtained a sitting, and destroyed his stolen sketch. That portrait is in the possession of Edward Belknap, Esq., of New York.

XVIII. On the twenty first of December, 1789, Washington sat three hours to Edward Savage, an English painter, who had been commissioned to execute a portrait of him, for Harvard college, at Cambridge, in Massachusetts. Savage was then a resident of New York. On the twenty-eighth, Washington recorded in his diary," Sat all the forenoon for Mr. Savage, who was