Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

1

have been employed in personal ambition and aggrandizement; or, what is wore, for the aggrandize ment of absolute monarchs, whose precarious smiles were preferred to the steady and dignified regards of true glory. A Charles of Sweden sacrifices his people to animosity, pride, and revenge. A Richelieu lays his countrymen in chains at

the feet of their haughty sovereign. The moral philosopher exclaims, on a review of the great qualities of Julius Caesar,

'Curse on his virtues! they've undone his country.'

The great and good qualities of general Washington were displayed in a great and good cause: the

would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in the courts of justice? And let us with caution indalge the supposition, that national morality can subsist without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education, on minds of a peculiar structure, reason, and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail, in exclusion of religious principles."

The legislature and patriot proceeded to warn his countrymen against inveterate antipathies against particular nations. On this subject he makes these remarkable observations, of which many will, no doubt, make, at this present moment, particular applications. "The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts, through passion, what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes, perhaps, the li berty of nations, has been the victims." On this point, of an equal and just regard for all nations; and, on the other hand, on the insidious wiles of foreign influence, general Washington descants at a greater length than on any of the other topics on which he touches; and, if possible, with greater carnestness. It is not difficult, from hence, to conjecture, what was, at the time, the principal object of his solicitude-foreign influence, particularly that of the French republic.

The world has had many political testaments; some real, some counterfeit : none that breathes such pure morality, such sublime and sound policy, as the address and the example of general Washington. The style of his paternal letters and speeches, exhorting his countrymen to preserve union among themselves, and peace, good faith, and sincere good-will towards all nations, as well as the sentiments, shining forth with mild radiance, not in fiery flame, were contrasted with certain passionate persuasives to war. How much to be preferred is sound sense, simplicity, and sincerity of intention, self-command and moderation of temper, to the most shining talents and accomplishments without them! Yet, though we cannot rank general Washington in the first class of literary geniuses, he was not deficient, but greatly above par, in the most useful kinds of knowlodge, and also in the art of writing. His thoughts are clearly arranged; he manages with great skill the march of his hearer's or reader's sentiments and spirits; his language is perfectly grammatical and pure, and altogether free from any provincial slang, and cockney or metropolitan barbarisms, which, issuing from the house of commons and newspapers, has adulterated the English tongue, and threatens, in its progress, to render it to future ages unintelligible. A like observation may be extended to the writings of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, and other American writers.

cause

cause of his country, and of the human race. He pursued the noblest ends by the noblest means: the dignity and happiness of mankind, by sublime genius and heroic courage. The most distinguished characters, in many instances, have been found to have derived the enthusiasm that prompted them to undertake and persevere in the execution of great designs from an admiration of other illustrious cha racters, which inspired a desire of imitation. Achilles emulated Bacchus: Alexander, Achilles: Julius Cæsar, Alexander; and Frederick II. of Prussia, with other heroes, Julius Cæsar. So too, Charles XII. of Sweden had Quintus Curtius, in his earliest youth, always in his hands, and had learned his stories of Alexander by heart. In like manner Gustavus III. the late king of Sweden, was inflamed with a love of glory, by contemplating the actions of both his paternal and maternal ancestors; particularly of Gustavus Vasa and Gustavus Adolphus, and of the renowned Prussian monarch, who was his uncle. If general Washington was roused to any grandeur of design, or, in his public conduct, political and military, had

any model of imitation, it seems to have been king William III. prince of Orange, and king of England. The ground on which we hazard this conjecture is, his admiration frequently expressed of that great prince, both in his letters and in private conversation, compared with the tenor of his own actions. The causes and circumstances in which they were both engaged were similar their conduct also similar. The prince maintained the independence of his countrymen, in opposition to the

mighty power of France: the general maintained the independence of his countrymen, in opposition to that of England: both were remarkable for coolness and caution; but remarkable also for firmness and intrepidity, under every circumstance of danger, and every critical moment of action. They never shunned a decisive engagement from any other motive than that of prudence: nor were they wiser in council than brave in the field; though their final success was more owing to judicious retreat,and renewed preparations for actions, than to daring impetuosity. The character given to the pretender, in 1745, and applied to general Washington in his familiar letters to general Mercer, may, with equal propriety, be ap plied both to king William and to himself. They were the most cautiqus men in the world, not to be cowards: and the bravest, not to be rash. It may be added, that their fortitude, in the eye of true moral criticism, shone forth with greater splendour, when veiled in the garb of caution, than when confessed to the eyes of all, and covered with dust and blood in the field of battle.

There is an active fortitude, and there is a passive fortitude: the latter not certainly less, but in some respects superior to the former. In the conflict and agitation of danger, quickly to be over, or quickly to spend its utmost fury, the mind of the patriot and hero is awakened by an excitement of his spirits, and the attention and sympathy of all around him. In the calms of torpid silence, nay, and under the chilling blasts of reproach, whilst he still retains his unshaken purpose, the eclat of his virtue is less, but the proof of its constancy greater: greater in

the

the inverse ratio of the magnitude of the difficulties and dangers to be overcome, to the indifference with which they are regarded. It is the firmness of both the heroes that forms the subject of this brief parallel, after their retreats under innumerable disadvantages and hardships, that, in the whole of their character, is the just object of the greatest admiration.

There was also a striking coincidence, not only between the circumstances and situation and the public conduct of these great men, political and military, but also, in some points, between their natural tempers and dispositions; particularly in an habitual taciturnity and reserve. A degree of taciturnity is, indeed, inseparable from a mind intent on great and complicated designs. Minds deeply occupied in the contemplation of great ends, and the means necessary for their accomplishment, have as little leisure as inclination either to entertain others with their conversation, or to be entertained by them. Most great men, when profoundly engaged in important affairs, are remarkably silent. Buonaparte, though naturally affable,in the midst of those circumstances of unprecedented novelty, complication, and alarm, in which it has been his destiny to be placed, is, on the whole, reserved and silent. Henry IV. of France, though naturally affable, humourous, and facetious, became thought ful and silent, when he found himself involved in projects of great difficulty as well as importance.

It is not by a multiplicity of words and common-place compliments that men attain an ascendancy over the minds of other men; but by the weight of their character and the

soundness of their judgment, which readily discerns certain common interests and passions, that tend to unite men in common sympathies and common pursuits. It was a common and striking trait in the characters of both king William III. and general Washington, that they both possessed the happy art of reconciling and uniting various discordant parties in the prosecution of common objects.

But every parallel is soon terminated, by the wonderful diversity which characterizes every individual of the human race. Washington had no favourites, but was warm in his affections to his own family and near relatives: William was not a little addicted to favouritism; but cold and indifferent to the sincere attachment and devotion of his queen: a princess, by whose right he was raised to a throne, and a partner worthy any sovereign prince, for every accomplishment of mind and person.

The calm, deliberate, and solid character of general Washington did not exclude a turn to contrivance and invention. He was judicious, not dull; ingenious, not chimerical. In this respect, his talents and turn, like his virtues, were carried to the line beyond which they would have ceased to be talents and virtues, and no farther. He knew how to distinguish difficulties from impossibilities, and what was within the bounds of human power, in given situations, from the extravagancies of a heated and bold imagination. He was neither terrified by danger, nor seduced by repose, from embracing the proper moment for action. He was modest, without diffidence; sensible to the voice of fame, without vanity; independent

independent and dignified, without pride. He was a friend to liberty, not licentiousness: not to the abstractions of philosophers, but to those ideas of well-regulated free dom, which the ancestors of the Americans had carried with them from England, and confirmed by the revolution towards the end of the eighteenth century. On those prin ciples he fought and conquered; conquered-but not for himself. He was a Hannibal, as well as a Fabius; a Cromwell, without his ambition; a Sylla, without his crimes.

As the children of men, in youth or the vigour of manhood, are more healthful and vigorous than those in the decline of life, so general Washington, descended and formed, by the spirit of England, in the purest and most flourishing period of English freedom, possessed a juster and higher spirit of liberty than what might, probably, have been bred by an emigration in the present times. When we reflect on the contest between monarchial power, on the one hand, and the spirit of insubordination, on the other, which, at the present moment, divide Europe, we shall find reason to congratulate mankind, that the example of a happy medium between both has been set, and is likely to be more and more enforced, by the growing prosperity of America. In this view, general Washington appears in the light of another Noah; the pilot, who, sailing in the middle, between the dangers of Sylla and Charybdis, guided the ark that saved the human race from ruin.

The French agents, Adet, Fauchet, Genet, and Dupont, had been sent out, to the Americau states, in the

character of envoys; but, in reality, as firebrands of discord and sedition. The grand object of their mission was, that the French republic should acquire such an influence and ascendancy in North America, as she already possessed in Venice, Genoa, and the Swiss cantons: to divide the North Americans into two great political parties, or rather governments; to play the northern states, where the French interest preponderated; against the southern; to weaken, and so to obtain an influence and authority over the whole. As the patriotism, prudence, and firmness of general Washington had contributed so largely to snatch his country from the grasp of the British legislature, so now they contributed equally to save it from a connection and subordination, still more to be dreaded, with the French republic.

The magnitude of the danger, from which general Washington, before his resignation of the presidency, saved his country, will sufficiently appear from the mention of one circumstance, that Mr. John Adams, the vice-president of the congress, the intimate and confidential friend of general Washington, and, in every respect, worthy of so great an honour, was chosen his successor, by a majority of only three votes above the number that appeared for Mr. Jefferson, who was at the head of the French party: which passed on the 8th of February, 1797. It may also be observed, to the same end, that the treaty for an amicable and commercial intercourse between Great Britain and North America was ratified only by the president's casting vote.

CHRONICLE.

CHRONICLE.

4th.

JANUARY.

Dublin. L

AST night the house of Caleb Harman, esq. the county of Longford, was attacked by a numerous party of Defenders, who demanded a surrender of all the arms in the house; but, on Mr. Harman's refusing to comply with this demand, they determined to carry their purpose by assault, and with some difficulty forced open the doors. Mr. Har. man, at the head of his domestics, endeavouring to repel the assailants, was fired upon, and received the contents of a blunderbuss loaded with slugs in his abdomen, and in consequence of his wounds, died this morning. Several of the domestics were also severely wound ed; and the defenders having effectually succeeded in obtaining all the arms in the house, retreated in triumph. Eleven out of the twelve ruffians who assassinated Mr. Harman have been taken, and are in Longford gaol; in the number is the person who was wounded by Mr. Harman's pistol.

6th. Leith. His royal highness the count d'Artois, with his suite, landed here from on board his majesty's frigate Jason: on the frigate's Coming to anchor in the roads, his VOL. XXXVIII.

royal highness was saluted with 21 guns from Leith battery, and with the like number on his landing at Leith, where he was received from the boat by lord Adam Gordon and a part of his suite, and conducted in his lordship's carriage to an apart ment in his majesty's palace of Holyrood-house, fitted up in haste for his reception; and, as he entered the palace, his royal highness was saluted with 21 guns from Edinburgh Castle. The Windsor Foresters and Hopetoun Fencibles were in readiness to line the approach to the palace, but, his royal highness chusing to land in a private manner, and with as little ceremony as pos sible, that was dispensed with. The noblemen in his royal highness's suite followed in carriages provided for that purpose, and were conducted from the outer gate of the palace, by the commander in chief, to their apartments. His royal highness and.suite, consisting of a number of French noblemen and gentlemen, dined with lord Adam Gordon.

[blocks in formation]
« ZurückWeiter »