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WITH a mind expanded by the most liberal pursuits, a heart enamored with the charms of honor, devotion to his country was his first, his ruling passion. From an early military career, he retired with a blooming reputation to the best, well-earned enjoyment of life. With easy dignity he looses the soldier in the citizen, and graces the arts of peace as well as war. Born for the universe, a province is too small a theatre for the display of his talents; and the situation of our country soon opened the mightier field of his destiny.

WITH Conscious pride he gloried in the prosperity of his king and country; but for colonial degradation and subserviency he had not drawn his ready, his victorious sword. American patience had been put to the intolerable test; the plain of Lexington had drank the blood of its peaceful cultivators; when from that illustrious band of patriots, where first concentred the wounded sensibilities of our country-is Washington com. missioned to marshal and direct the rising energies of freedom.

It is a needless, as it would be a painful task, to dwell on facts all know too well; or to resuscitate the feelings that are better at rest suffice it to remind you, that yonder hills almost in sight first received the American hero to the toils of fame: retaining still the vestiges of war, they will lecture succeeding generations, and teach them to guard their native soil from every insidious, selfish friend, or haughty foe their wounded fronts will frown on degeneracy, if every hill in America does not rise, like the heights of Dorchester, to expel invasion from our indignant shores.

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In the presence of Washington, resistance assumed a formidable attitude, confidence looked cheerful, and valor renerved the arm still bleeding from the carnage where Warren fell: but the two transient duration of patriotic fervor,—the genius of our valiant thousands too unfriendly to the restraints of discipline, the poverty and unpreparedness of the colonies to meet the incalculable extent of their object, created anxieties and embarrassments which very few were permitted to share; which no one perhaps who does not, like him, combine in his character

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the talents and the feelings of the statesman, the patriot and soldier, can duly appreciate.

THE hero's mind rose with the magnitude of his task. Opposition and defeat itself served only to confirm his resolution, and call forth the resources of an exhaustless mind.-Independence was declared: and in the blackest hours of disaster Washington never dispaired of his country.

ONCE only (forgive him freemen) ere his army had become inured to the well directed vollies of discipline, the yielding ranks of his retreating soldiery displayed the frightful impressions of a veteran enemy :-for one painful moment he thought all was lost; that Americans were unworthy the freedom, for which they too feebly contended; and shocked to desperation, wished by a fortunate, honorable death to free himself from the intolerable spectable of his country enslaved.

WHEN terror spread her darkest clouds over our land; when an unfed, unclothed army, marked the ice and the snow with the blood of their retreating footsteps; when the sword of destruction seemed suspended only by a hair; while rumor with her hundred mouths, if possible, magnified our distresses; and tortured, languishing hope almost breathed her last ;-the brilliant achievement at Princeton turned aside the current of fate; the accomplished but too sanguine Burgoyne is overwhelmed in the rising tide of our fortune ;-the close invested standards of Yorktown droop submission to the allied arms;-deluded despotism soon gave up the fruitless toils of subjugation, the shattered remnants of baffled invasion are withdrawn, and independence is confirmed.

THE patriot army now felt the too scanty, delusive recompense for their heroic toils ;-seven years with joyful obedience had they heard the orders of their chief thunder along the embattled line the wounds of injured bravery bled afresh ;-they recoiled at the idea of dissolution. Then might ambition have seen his time and smiled; then would have trembled the liberties

of America had Washington aspired to any other crown than her happiness. In language ardent as his heroism, tender as his affection, he appeals to their untarnished honor; they revered him as a father; the appeal was resistless. They saw the conflicting emotions of his breast; those eyes, which had long witnessed their toils, which had often smiled at their glory, and wept at their sufferings, with keen anxiety now pierced their souls; they forget themselves; a pearly tear steals down every cheek; the latent evil spark is quenched; their patriotism reflames; with one heart and voice they resolve to confide in the justice of the country they had left all to serve, and give the world the illustrious, rare example of an army victorious over its enemies, victorious over itself,'

His farewell interview with these his dear-loved companions can now be faintly imagined: how he stood, how he looked, .when each advanced to take the last friendly, impassioned embrace; when with a glass in his hand and tears glistening in his eyes he wished to each his future life might be happy, as his past had been honorable ;-let those speak who have witnessed, let those attempt to describe who feel themselves equal to the melting scene.

THE war-worn veteran whose feelings have not rusted with his sword, will relate the story to his listening son ;-smile to see his warm heart susceptive to the touch of glory-and fondly destine him for that profession of which no dalliance in the lap of ease has obliterated the charms, no reverse of fortune allayed his admiration,

AMERICANS, what a vast weight of your revolution did this mighty man sustain! Taxes were indeed great, were burden. some; but think how often your army was obliged to evade a decisive blow; think of the complicated hardships they endured (the relation of which might make you shudder)—because the flame of public spirit too soon died away, and the resources of the country had become inaccessible. What must Washington have often felt! Every eye in America,-in wondering, doubtful Europe, was fixt on him. He was a man of humanity;-not a

centinel felt a grievance he did not painfully commiserate; he was a man of consummate bravery ;-and to add to the full measure of his calamity, the country, whose fate was hourly in his hand, began to murmur, to reproach him with delay :delicate situation! unconquerable greatness of soul! His reputation, dearer to a soldier than life, he sacrificed to your good.

AMERICANS, the hostile cannon has ceased to shake your houses and your hills; the falling shell no more with horrid glare swells the terrors of the night;-think one moment in peace of the untold distresses that might, that would have been your portion, had not your toils for freedom been crowned with success. The Rubicon was passed; the hour of compromise elapsed. Washington! the heart recoils at his fate; and resigns it to your own imaginations: As for you-you might have received his majesty's most gracious pardon-might have reposed in the tranquil despair of subjugated India-or been blest with the liberty, under which distracted, bleeeding Ireland now groans; Cornwallis might here, instead of there, have been governing the provinces his myrmidons had ravished; which his presumptious imagination had fondly marked out as an empire for himself! Happy countrymen retire to your homes, however humble; enjoy your peace, your competence and your love! kiss the children that throng around your knee, teach them to bless God, that they are not born to the inheritance of slavery, nor doomed to the horrors of mutual destruction!

SURRENDERING his commission and bidding adieu to public life, Washington, amid the gratulations of thousands, through ways strewed with flowers, retired to those peaceful shades, of which long absence and mighty cares had heightened the enjoy

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He retired, but he did not retire within himself. His mind was intent to bless his fellow-men. Unprotected worth found in him a warm patron and friend: Poverty repressed her sigh, forgot injustice and smiled complacent on the bounty of his soul. The public welfare was still the darling object of his heart, and whatever could promote it, it was his chief happiness to pursue,

THE picture which our common country presented on the attainment of peace is fresh on every mind. Her victory had secured her freedom: but such a freedom as secured too few of the blessings of social life, and threatened to be of short duration. The states breathed hard from their struggle, and exhausted with the burden and heat of the revolutionary day, were divesting themselves of the bands of a too feeble confederation; and fast dissolving into imbecility and disgrace. Faith was worn out; credit had been swolen till it had burst; justice not only blind, but deaf and dumb, with scales reversed and blunted sword, could neither help her votaries, nor protect her. self; the defenders of their country almost addressed themselves to her compassion; the poor soldier begged his bread through the land he had saved; and the fair but trembling fabric of society almost threatened ruin to those it scarcely sheltered.

THE prescient sage of Mount Vernon had foreseen these approaching evils; and early recommended to the several states the adoption of such general measures as could alone give permanence to the national felecity, that independence put within their reach.

THE body politic still survived, healthful and strong in the feelings, manners and principles, which immemorial virtuous habit had incorporated into her nature. The hectic of internal faction had scarcely enfeebled her vitals, nor had foreign intrigue assumed the hardihood to seduce her from herself, and tear her limb from limb.

AT length" in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty" the federal constitution of the United States, the result of his presiding wisdom, was adopted, as it was formed in a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession, which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensible.' God grant that in this spirit it be long preserv ed, that so it may preserve those for whose boon it is designed!

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