General Washington to Congress on accepting his Commission...... 256 General Washington to his Troops, previous to the Battle of Long General Washington to his Troops, previous to the Battle of Trenton 258 General Washington's Circular Letter to the Governors of the Several Chief Justice Marshall on Announcing the Death of Washington..... 297 General Lee's Funeral Oration on the Death of Washington.. Inaugural Message of John Adams-March 4, 1797..... Inaugural Message of Thomas Jefferson-March 4, 1801.. Inaugural Message of James Madison-March 4, 1809... Webster on the Lives of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson... THE BOOK OF ORATORY. FOX'S EULOGY ON GENERAL WASHINGTON, IN THE How infinitely superior must appear the spirit and principles of General Washington, in his late address to Congress, compared with the policy of modern European courts! Illustrious man! deriving honor less from the splendor of his situation than from the dignity of his mind; before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into insignificance, and all the princes and potentates of Europe (excepting the members of our own family) become little and contemptible! He has had no occasion to have recourse to any tricks of policy or arts of alarm; his authority has been sufficiently sup ported by the same means by which it was acquired, and his conduct has uniformly been characterized by wisdom, moderation, and firmness. He, feeling gratitude to France for the assistance received from her in that great contest which secured the independence of America, did not choose to give up the system of neutrality in favor of this country. Having once laid down that line of conduct, which both gratitude and policy pointed out as most proper to be pursued, not all the insults or provocation of the French minister Genet could at all put him out of his way, or bend him from his purpose. Entrusted with the care of the welfare of a great people, he did not allow the misconduct of another, with respect to himself, for one moment to interrupt the duty which he owed to them, or withdraw his attention from their interests. He had no fear of the Jacobins; he felt no alarm from their principles, and considered no precaution as necessary in order to stop their progress. The people over whom he presided, he knew to be acquainted with their rights and their duties. He trusted to their own good sense to defeat the effect of those arts which might be employed to inflame or mislead their minds; and was sensible that a government could be in no danger, while it retained the attachment and confidence of its subjects-attachment, in this instance, not blindly adopted, confidence not implicitly given, but arising from the conviction of its excellence, and the experience of its blessings. I cannot indeed help admiring the wisdom and the fortune of this great man; not that by the phrase fortune I mean in the smallest degree to derogate from his merit. But, notwithstanding his extraordinary talents and exalted integrity, it must be considered as singularly fortunate, that he should have experienced a lot, which so seldom falls to the portion of humanity, and have passed through such a variety of scenes, without stain and without reproach. It must indeed create astonishment, that placed in circumstances so critical, and filling for a series of time, a station so conspicuous, his character should never once have been called in question; that he should in no one instance have been accused either of improper insolence, or of mean submission, in his transactions with foreign nations. It has been reserved for him to run the race of glory, without experiencing the smallest interruption to the brilliancy of his career. The breath of censure has not dared to impeach the purity of his conduct, nor the eye of envy to raise its malignant glance to the elevation of his virtues. Such has been the transcendent merit and the unparalleled fate of this illustrious man! But if the maxims now held forth were adopted, he who now ranks as the assertor of his country's freedom, and the guardian of its interests and honor, would be deemed to have disregarded and betrayed that country, and to have entailed upon himself indelible reproach. How did he act when insulted by Genet? Did he consider it as necessary to avenge himself for the misconduct or madness of an individual, by involving a whole continent in the horrors of war? No; he contented himself with procuring satisfaction for the insult, by causing Genet to be recalled and thus at once consulted his own dignity and the |