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of the whole, that would have been worthy the reputation of the oldest commanders; and finally, executes an arduous commission in a manner that deserved and obtained universal applause. At an age when other youth are pursuing only pleasures, and softening their minds and bodies by indulgence, he is already hardening himself for the toils and dangers of warhe is practically studying mankind-and applying the science of Euclid and Vauban, to the defence of his country.

THE war, which then menaced these infant settlements, soon began to rage. The brave but impetuous Braddock was com missioned to defend, in America, the honor, and the interests, of Britain. In all the pride of European discipline, and British valor, he despised an enemy who fought by stealth, and scorned the admonitions of Washington, who was only a youth, but who was a warrior by intuition, and who perceived, in a moment, every change which that formidable art ought to assume from new circumstances. Surrounded in the forest by an enemy invisible, but dreadful, his ranks cut down by a hidden fire, his principal officers slain, and himself mortally wounded, amidst carnage and death, where valor was useless, and discipline only offered surer marks to the destructive aim of the foe ; terror and despair overwhelmed every heart. Then our hero, all calm and intrepid, and now left to pursue his own ideas, was seen on the spot, to change the whole order of battle. With his brave Virginians, he protected the astonished battalions of Britain, covered them under the buckler of America, and in the name of his country, saved those armies, whom in her defence, he was one day to conquer. They shouted him their deliverer; and the shores of Europe and America re-echoed the applauses of the camp.

BUT it was when America called him to the head of her ar mies, in the long and bloody war which she was obliged to maintain, in defence of her rights, and her existence, against that nanion, become haughty and unjust, that he displayed the full extent, and variety, of his genius. Britain had cherished her colonies in the new world, merely as instruments of commerce, till their growing prosperity rendered them at length an ob

ject, both of avarice and of ambition.

Flushed with her tri

umphs, under the auspices of the great Chatham, and rejecting, after profiting by, the counsels of that sublime statesman, she had already, in imagination, swallowed our treasures-divided our provinces among her princes-our cities and fields among her nobles and destined our husbandmen to be tenants and laborers for her. America, roused to defend rights that were dearer to her than her existence, but unprepared to meet an attack which she had not expected from a parent nation, had nothing to oppose to this formidable invasion, but her unconquerable love of liberty, her virtue and Washington.

How unequal was the conflict between a young country, in the very infancy of her improvements-possessing, as yet, only a few husbandmen scattered over an unwieldly territory-nursed in habits of veneration and obedience to her invader-without an organized government to conduct the necessary operations of her defence-destitute of clothing, of ammunition, and almost of arms, for her few soldiers-and rendered still more impotent by an injudicious system of finance bottomed upon no funds—and, on the other hand, a mighty nation in the midst of her glorygrown old in victories-whose numerous and veteran armies had just humbled the first power in Europe-whose fleets covered and ruled the ocean-and who commanded, by her commerce, half the wealth of the world! If we counted only the resources of America, and the number of her troops, would we not pronounce that she was already vanquished? But the talents of her leader were in the room of armies, and of treasures; and his success undeniably ranks him among the greatest generals in the universe. He had to compensate, by address, the defect of energy in the government-to make personal influence supply the want of money, and of almost every necessary for a camp-to manage with skill the caprices of liberty itself, which are so often. ruinous to its own interests-to conciliate to the service, men irritated by disappointment, and the injustice, though, perhaps, the necessary injustice, of their country-and to raise the cou rage of those who were already subdued by want. You see him, at one time, patiently preparing the train of events for some great effect-at another, anticipating them by a bold and deci

sive stroke. Sometimes he stoops upon victory like an eagle, and sometimes he renders it sure by a prudent delay. He always rises from defeat like a conqueror, and, in the end, obliges the enemy to abandon the post which they had seized.In all changes of fortune, he is serene, collected and sublime. Success cannot elate him. No reverse can sink his courage, or shake his firmnes. And you behold him with equal admiration, when compelled to retire, with the broken remains of his army, across the Jersies, as when he entered in triumph over the demolished fortifications of York, and, by one splendid action, put a period to the war.

THE details of his exploits I leave to the historian. They will instruct the remotest ages. They are still recent in your memory. The children of America repeat them with enthusi asın. His first act was to expel the enemy from Boston, and to restore to the nation that important capital. Afterwards, when in the face of a thousand ships, and an immense army, he was obliged to retire before superior numbers from the open and defenceless city of New-York, if, for a moment, ignorance and impatience impeached his courage, or his skill, the returning reflection of his fellow-citizens approved his prudence, and applauded his firmness. Conscious of doing what a patriotic gen eral ought to do, he felt all the humiliation of unfounded censure; but he was willing to bear the folly, and the injustice of his countrymen, for the salvation of his country. He was not among those frantic heroes, who, to gain the vain reputation of a thoughtless bravery, will hazard the safety of their country itself. Though he loved glory, the interests of America were dearer to him than his own fame. Her circumstances, at that moment, imperiously forbade him to risk the existence of his small army. His lofty soul was incapable of fear he even seemed to acquire new energies at the approach of danger; but a cool and comprehensive wisdom tempered the ardent impulses of his courage; and he now resolved, like a great general, to expose nothing to hazard which he could defend by prudence, and not to force fortune where he was sure of gaining her by a wise delay. He retired before the enemy, always commanding their respect by his well chosen positions, till, having gained the farther

shore of the Delaware, he there arrested their progress, and there triumphantly turned the tide of the war. The place on which I stand is consecrated by his triumphs-your streets have flowed with hostile blood-here victory first returned to his standard, which, for a moment, she had abandoned. Trenton! and Princeton ! names rendered dear to your country by exploits that will be forever combined with them in history, on your plains hope was first rekindled in the bosom of America.

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DESPONDENCY had begun to seize the public mind.. It was necessary to restore its vigor by some brilliant action; and Washington, who, at one time, so prudently retired from danger, was now determined to put all to hazard-he had been willing to survive misfortune only to retrieve it-he was now prepared to die, or resolved to conquer.I see him, in the depth of winter, with an army, scarcely half clothed, and small in number, his mind laboring with some vast, and almost desperate purpose, struggling with the ice, and with the torrent, forcing his way across the Delaware. Supported by a few militia, brave but undisciplined, his circumstances were infinitely critical. An impassable river was now behind him, a superior enemy in front, separated from him only by a small ravine. The evening closed under a tremendous cannonade. Both armies, lighting their fires, and setting their guards, were waiting, in anxious suspense, the approach of the morning. The fate of America seemed to be staked on the event of one great and decisive battle. Then the military talents of the American hero shone forth with new splendor, and revived, and fixed, the wavering confidence of his country. By one of those happy strokes of genius that distinguish only great generals, he broke all the plans of his foes, and rolled the waves of misfortune back upon themselves. In the night he passed unperceived the army in his front, attacked an important post in their rear, carried it sword in hand, and awakened them to a sense of all their danger, and their shame, by the sound of victory from Princeton.Princeton thy fields rendered sacred by the blood of Mercer, and illustrious by the actions of Washington, shall be

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forever connected in history with his glory-thy sons shall hereafter vie with one another in eloquence and song, to celebrate his fame, and pointing to the spot where Washington triumphed, shall perceive their genius kindled with new fires, and from him derive, while they confer, immortality.

THE plan of the general was to hasten to Brunswick, and seize the enemy's arsenal, stores, and military chests, deposited there; but his troops, harrassed and exhausted with incessant labors, marches and conflicts, were unable to accomplish the grandeur of his views. The British commander, in the utmost consternation, flew to their protection. The American, with a wisdom worthy the celebrated dictator who saved Rome, immediately occupied the hills that overlooked the 'strong position of the enemy, on the summits of which he hung like some dark and terrible cloud impregnated with thunder, and continually threatening to burst upon them.* He straitens their quartershe drives in their posts-he cuts off their parties-he reanimates the courage of the militia of New-Jersey; and, by practising them in daily combats, renders them at length, under the conduct of a few gallant officers, worthy to fight by the side of veterans he expels the enemy from a state which they had so cruelly ravaged.

By the aid of their navy, they were enabled rapidly to transport themselves to the greatest distances; and the American general was obliged to be ready to meet them at every point. He met them on the Brandywine, where the timidity, or the treachery of the men employed to bring him intelligence of their movements, defeated one of the wisest and most brilliant plans of the war, which would probably have put in his possession their artillery, their baggage, and their whole camp. But

The image which Hannibal applied to Fabius.

The intention of the general was, to permit the enemy to cross the Brandywine above him, and, while they imagined they were taking him in flank, to puch forward his main body, and surprise their camp on the other side of the river, which would

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