the measure was, that the gratitude and veneration of the people were the appropriate morumert of the publick services of the American Patriot.

General WASHINGTON never had any children. By his will he left Mrs. Washington the use of all his property during her life. At her decease he liberated his slaves, and disposed of property among his and her relations, amounting by his own estimate, to five hundred and thirty thousand dollars. This amount of property does not include the Mansion House on Mount Vernon, nor the domain connected with it, which was under the personal management of General WASHINgton.

CONCLUSION.

GENERAL WASHINGTON was exactly six feet in height, he appeared taller, as his shoulders rose a little higher than the true proportion. His eyes were of a gray, and his hair of a brown colour. His limbs were well formed, and indicated strength. His complexion was light, and his countenance serene and though.ful

His manners were graceful, manly, and dignified. His general appearance never failed to engage the respect and esteem of all who approached him.

Possessing strong natural passions, and having the nicest feelings of honour, he was in early life prone keenly to resent practices which carried the intention of abuse or insult; but the reflections of maturer age gave him the most perfect government of himself. He possessed a faculty above all other men to hide the weaknesses inseparable from human nature; and he bore with meekness and equanimity his distinguished

honours.

Reserved, but not haughty, in his disposition, he was accessible to all in concerns of business, but he

opened himself only to his confidential friends; and no art or address could draw from him an opinion, which he thought prudent to conceal.

He was not so much distinguished for brilliancy of genius as for solidity of judgment, and consummate prudence of conduct. He was not so eminent for any one quality of greatness and worth, as for the union of those great, amiable, and good qualities, which are very rarely cor..bined in the same character.

His maxims were formed upon the result of mature reflection, or extensive experience; they were the invariable rules of his practice; and on all important instances, he seemed to have an intuitive view of what the occasion rendered fit and proper. He pursued his purposes with a resolution, which, one solitary mo. ment excepted, never failed him.*

Alive to social pleasures, he delighted to enter into familiar conversation with his acquaintance, and was sometimes sportive in his letters to his friends; but he never lost sight of the dignity of his character, no? deviated from the decorous and appropriate behavicu? becoming his station in society.

He commanded from all the most respectful atten tion, and no man in his company ever fell into light or lewd conversation. His style of living corresponded with his wealth; but his extensive establishment was managed with the strictest economy, and he ever reserved ample funds liberally to promote schemes of private benevolence, and works of publick utility. Punctual himself to every engagement, he exacted from others a strict fulfilment of contracts, but to the necessitous he was diffusive in his charities, and he greatly assisted the poorer classes of people in his vicinity, by furnishing them with means successfully to prosecute plans of industry.

In domestick and private life, he blended the autho *On York Island, in 1776.-See Vol. I. page 87

rity of the inaster with the care and kindness of the guardian and friend. Solicitous for the welfare of his slaves, while at mount Vernon, he every morning rode round his estates to examine their condition; for the sick, physicians were provided, and to the weak and infirm every necessary comfort was administered. The servitude of the negroes lay with weight upon is mind; he often made it the subject of conversation, and resolved several plans for their general emancipation; but could devise none, which promised success, in consistency with humanity to them, and safety to the state.

The address presented to him at Alexandria, on the commencement of his presidency, fully shows how much he was endeared to his neighbours, and the affection and esteem, in which his friends held his private character.

His industry was unremitted, and his method so exact, that all the complicated business of his military command, and civil administration, was managed without confusion, and without hurry.

Not feeling the lust of power, and ambitious only for honourable fame, he devoted himself to his country upon the most disinterested principles; and his actions wore not the semblance but the reality of virtue: the purity of his motives was accredited, and absolute sonfidence placed in his patriotism.

While filling a publick station, the performance of his duty took the place of pleasure, emolument, and every private consideration. During the more critical years of the war, a smile was scarcely seen upon his countenance, he gave himself no moments of relaxation; but his whole mind was engrossed to execute successfully his trust.

As a military commander, he struggled with innu. merable embarrassments, arising from the short enlist. ment of his men, and from the want of provisions.

A

LIFE OF WASHINGTON.

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clothing, arms, and ammunition; and an opinion af his achievements should be formed in view of these inadequate means.

The first years of his civil administration were attended with the extraordinary fact, that while a great proportion of his countrymen did not approve his measures, they universally venerated his character, and relied implicitly on his integrity. Although his opponents eventually deemed it expedient to vilify his character, that they might diminish his political influence; yet the moment that he retired from publick life. they returned to their expressions of veneration and esteem; and after his death, used every endeavour to secure to their party the influence of his name.

He was as eminent for piety as for patriotism. His rublick and private conduct evince, that he impressively felt a sense of the superintendence of God and of the dependence of man. In his addresses, while at the head of the army, and of the rational government, he gratefully noticed the signal blessings of Providence, and fervently commended his country to divine bene diction. In private, he was known to have been ha bitually devout.

In principle and practice he was a Christian. The support of an Episcopal church, in the vicinity of Mount Vernon, rested principally upon him, and here. when on his estate, he with constancy attended publick worship. In his address to the American people, at the close of the war, mentioning the favourable period of the world at which the independence of his country was established, and enumerating the causes which unitedly had ameliorated the condition of human society, he, above science, philosophy, commerce, and all other considerations, ranked "the pure and benign light of Revelation." Supplicating Heaven that his fellow citizens might cultivate the disposition, and practise the virtues, which exalt a community, he pre sented the following petition to his God That he Vo II

19

would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacifick temper of mind, which were the characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed religion; without a humble imitation of whoso example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation."

During the war, he not unfrequently rode ton or twelve miles from camp to attend publick worship; and he never omitted this attendance, when opportunity presented.

In the establishment of his presidential household, he reserved to himself the Sabbath, free from the interruptions of private visits, or publick business; and throughout the cight years of his civil administration, Le gave to the institutions of christianity the influence of his example.

He was as fortunate as great and good.

Under his auspices, a civil war was conducted with mildness, and a revolution with order. Raised himself above the influence of popular passions, he happily directed these passions to the most useful purposes. Uniting the talents of the soldier with the qualifications of the statesman, and pursuing, uninoved by difficulties, the noblest end by the purest means, he had the supreme satisfaction of beholding the complete success of his great military and civil services, in the independence and happiness of his country

END OF VOLUME II.