A Difcourfe OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON, Delivered December 29, 1799. BY JOHN THORNTON KIRKLAND, JOB XXIX. 25. I CHOSE OUT THEIR WAY, AND SAT CHIEF, AND DWELT THE great destroyer has now obtained a full triumph. WASHINGTON, the delight of mankind, the boast of his countrymen, fleeps in duft: a conqueror, yet vanquished by the laft enemy: a fage, yet unfkilled to avert the ftroke of death. Is then the curtain drawn between us, and the earthly fcene to him closed forever? Is he covered with the darkness of the grave, no more to share our fortunes, to receive our prayers? Is that heart cold which used to beat high for our welfare; and that ear closed, which met our daily benedictions? Where is the unmoved countenance, the unmoistened eye? Whofe bofom has not heaved its fighs? whose heart not felt a wound? The wife has loft the companion of her early and declining years; the orphan, a vigilant protector; the fervant, a beloved mafter; the private affociate, an affectionate friend and kind neighbour. Domestic connexions! we allow your tide of affection to flow; and we share your affliction. But there is a wide fea of public forrow, which drowns the streams of individual grief. Americans have loft a father; mankind a friend. The mourners are not a family or neighbourhood, a town or ftate; they are a nation, a world. Well may perfons of every age and condition manifeft emotion; the old man faulter out his forrow, and youth chastise its gaiety; the gentle fex pay their foft tribute of affection, and the hardy veteran wipe his ftern eye at the remembrance of his General. America, without WASHINGTON, resembles the earth without the light of day. Affociated as he was with all we loved and valued in our country-poffeffions, purfuits, and pleasures, for a time, fink in our esteem. We exulted in our country, because it gave him birth; we thought better of our nature, because it produced fuch a man. The sense of this gift of Heaven increafed the fervour of our devotions; and our national felicity feemed to be crowned in WASHINGTON. Time has been, when, indeed, his services were more immediately neceffary; and the political falvation of his country seemed to depend on the continuance of his life. But if his departure at this time has a lefs unpropitious afpect upon the public profperity, yet it cannot be thought unimportant to the momentous interefts of the empire; whilft it arrefts our melancholy feelings, and wounds our fond attachments to his name. His fun approached the horizon; yet, with delighted eyes, we gazed on its parting splendour, believing, that, if clouds fhould thicken to a tempeft in our political fky, it would fhine out in all its meridian brightness, and chase them away. Though he had left the drama to distinguished actors, yet he might again be called out to fupport a part in fome master scene, to which no other man might be found fuited: Nay, he was already prepared, if the catastrophe fhould require it, to step upon the stage, and be the hero of the eventful tragedy, into which his country feemed to be haftening. Was the nation to be roufed from dangerous fleep? his name was founded in their ears. Was faction to be driven from the light? it was pointed to his awful frown. Was a foreign foe to be deterred from inva、 fion? it was fhown his hand upon his fword. With him its patron, the federal administration would not defpair of final fupport; with him their leader, the armies of America would be ineffectually held up to odium, would be created with facility, and, in every conflict, would feel invincible. In the prefent dubious afpect of our national interefts, every thing was hoped, in aid of the present fyftem, from the part which he would take, in case of civil diffenfion, or increased danger from foreign arts or arms. Whilft the life of this perfonage was fo interesting to the public welfare, it was not lefs fubfervient to the private virtues of the man, the citizen, and the Chrif tian. With him its patron and model, no moral virtue wanted a living eulogy; no laudable facrifice an animating incentive. We ftrengthened our defence of the gofpel, by fhowing the infidel that WASHINGTON was a Christian; and we put to filence the selfish traducer of patriotism, by reminding him of the patriot WASHINGΤΟΝ. Men were animated to be juft and fincere, dif interested and humane, diligent and frugal, modest and brave, not only because it was right and wife, but because it was to follow WASHINGTON. Is there a good man in the civilized world, is there a good man in our country, who will forbid us to weep over this departed worth? who will refufe to mingle his tears with ours? Is there a bad man who is not obliged to refpect, if too infenfible to partake, our forrow? Think not thou ever lovedft thy race or country, if this event does not make thee folemn. Dream not of loving thy God, if the benefactors he has lent are refigned without reluctant forrow; nor let any untouched heart claim that SAVIOUR, who wept at the tomb of his friend. Let there be no wonder nor derifion in the moft thoughtless, because a grateful people are penetrated with grief, and exclaim with anguish, "How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished! He who chose out our way, and fat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners," is turned to duft. Is it nothing to you, all ye who pafs by? Behold and fee, if any nation has bemoaned a man like this man! Suffer us, ye most unmoved fpectators, to drefs our altars and perfons in the habiliments of grief; nor deem our feelings extravagant, if nature itself appears to fympathize, and wear a general face of mourning; if the luminary of day feems to shed a faddened beam, and the darkness of evening to thicken around us with a deepened gloom. But let not our melancholy fenfations be unaccompanied by that thoughtfulness and resignation, which reafon and religion require. Does no ray of confolation break through the cloud, which this event has spread upon our land? Our Chief is dead; but our GoD lives; the GOD, who made him great and good, and demands our praise; who shakes the props of human truft, and exacts our fubmiffion; who, extinguishing one light, enkindles others, and encourages our confidence, Our leader in peace and war is dead; but his counfels and his example will never die. His body is lodged in the dark recefs of the tomb; but faith follows his immortal spirit into the region of eternal day! Whilft then you feel, fubmit; whilft you mourn, be wife. Is it all we owe to the Author of events, to lament over affliction? Is it all we owe to the subject of our prefent grief, to pay him funeral honours? With pious awe and gratitude, let us regard the conduct of Divine Providence, in his commanding talents and virtues, his great and beneficent actions, and his profperous fortune. Let us be inftructed by his counfels, guided and animated by his example, and let us rejoice in the hope of his reward in heaven. In the plan of Providence, a few are made difpenfers of bleffings to many; and when great events are defigned, great men are furnished to conduct them to their iffue. America was to pafs through the tumult 1 of war, and the revolution of empire, to national independence; and, having fecured independence, was to erect an efficient frame of government upon the ruins of her former establishments. In fulfilling this awful, though glorious deftiny, amid the convulfive movements of a mighty ftruggle, the ferment of the popular mind, the disorder attendant on the proftration of old inftitutions and cuftoms, amid the trials and hazards of a war with power abroad and anarchy at home, how fhould the escape fubjugation or fubverfion, without not only many fages and many heroes, but without fome confpicuous leading character, to be a rallying point for difcordant parties, "to choose out her way, to fit chief, to dwell as a king in the army," as a comforter of the feeble and defpondent! This guardian angel kind Heaven beftowed in WASHINGTON. In him, the bloffoms of the spring had promised the future harvest. At the early period of twenty-two, in a difficult embaffy, and in the blood-stained field, he had displayed the prudence of age united to the ardour of youth; and already it was predicted that the heroic Colonel WASHINGTON would render fome eminent fervice to his country. When, at the commencement of our late revolution, the American armies required a chief; a unanimous choice felected him for the perilous distinction. He held this command till he had conducted us through the darkness, perplexities, and suffering of our pilgrimage into the promised land of independence and peace, and then laid down his cumbrous honours. When the ill-jointed fabric of our union was falling to the ground, he prefided in that affembly which projected an edifice more compact and ftrong, adapted to afford a fhelter from the storms always gathering in our troubled sky. When the new government was to begin its course, pledging his dear-bought fame, he took the helm, and again embarked on the ocean of events. Being twice elected head of the nation, with his characteristic moderation he avoided the diftinction which he was |