7. "But we shall not avail ourselves of an alibi, but af mit of the existence of a cook maid; now, my Lord, we fhall take it upon a new ground, and beg a new trial; for as they have curtailed our name, from plain Mary into Moll, I hope the court will not allow of this; for if they were to allow of mistakes, what would the law do? for when the law don't find mistakes, it is the business of the law to make them." Therefore. the court allowed them the lib. erty of a new trial; for the law is our liberty, and it is happy for us we have the liberty to go to law. CHAPTER XXXVII. EXTRACT FROM THE ANSWER OF THE SENATE TO THE 1. SPEECH OF THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF MASSA CHUSETTS. SCA CARCE had the tear, which had bedewed the cheek of patriotifm upon the death of our much honoured Chief Magiftrate, been dried away; his paffing knell was but juft expiring in our ears, when our feelings were again agonized with the afflictive intelligence of the lofs of our country's Father, Protector, and its firft, best, human friend. The eloquence of unaffected grief is filence; and were we to indulge the feelings of our hearts, we fhould mourn in forcible but dumb expreffion. But to the prejudices and ufages of mankind, we owe fome refpect, and, therefore, in language as brief, as it is incompetent, we will fpeak his Eulogy. 2. To call WASHINGTON a Hero, would be a debase. ment of him; for heroifm has hitherto been two often allied with crime. To call him merely a great foldier, would be injuftice; for HE fought not to defroy, but to preserve. To denominate him fimply a great fatesman, would be inadequate; for his politics were not like thofe of most Statesmen, fubfervient to ambition. In war he united the coo'nefs of FABIUS with the spirit of CESAR, and the hu mility of CINCINATUS. In peace, he blended the virtues of TRAJAN with the wifdom of SOLON, and the fublime, proplietic ken of CHATHAM. 3. Uniform and consistent in his political conduct, with equal feverity he frowned on the intrigues of domeftic fac tion and the infidious wiles of foreign artifice. Equally ready to draw his word in his ripened manhood, to eftab lifh the Independence of his country, and in his declining years, to fnatch it from its fleeping scabbard to avenge its infulted honour and violated rights. The watchful Father and illuftrious Founder of a great empire, he did not ftrive to invest him.felf with the infignia of Nobility, the ordinary ambition of vulgar greatness; but by his talents and virtues he has ennobled his country. 4. The mortal part of WASHINGTON is configned to the filent cemetry, but he hath bequeathed to his beloved fel low citizens a glorious Legacy, in his example, his chara&er and his virtues, which ought to render them pure and virtuous in their morals, devout in their religion, fervent in their patriotism, juft in the cabinet, and invincible in the field. Four million of freemen, with melancholy hearts, are living flatues to thy memory, thou fainted patriot! unfading laurels, fair as thy virtues, and imperishable as thy Fame, shall bloom around thy monument, and protect, from unhallowed touch, thy confecrated Urn! 1. CHAPTER XXXVIII. XTRACT FROM JUDGE MINOT'S EULOGY ON GENERAL UR duty, my fellow townsmen, on this diftreffing occafion, is dictated by the dignity and resplendent virtue of the beloved man whofe death we deplore. We assemble to pay a debt to departed merit, a debt, which we can only pay by the fincerity of our grief, and the refpectful effufions of gratitude; for the highest Eulogy left us to bestow upon our lamented WASHINGTON, is the ftrict narration of the truth, and the loftiest character which we can align to him, is the very display of himself. When ambition allies itself to guilt, when power tramples upon right, when vicary triumphs in blood, when piety fits clouded in fuperftition, when bumility is affected by cunning, when patriotism is founded on felfishness; then let adulation fpread her proftituted mantle, to fcreen the disgraces of her patrons, and amufe with the falfehoods of her imagination. But to our political Father, the faithful page of history is panegyric, and the happiness of bis country is the monument of his fome. 2 Come, then, Warriors! Statesmen! Philosophers! Citizens affemble round the tomb of this favourite son of Virtue! with all the luxury of sorrow recolle& the important events of his life; and partake of the greatest legacy which a mortal could bequeath you, in the contemplation of his example. Your anniversaries have long cele brated the birthday of our illustrious hief, and the parish of his own name in Westmoreland county, in Virgin. ia, boasts itself the place of his nativity. But to souls like his, local restrictions are not attached. Where Liberty was, there would be his country; happy for us, the Genius of Liberty, refponfive to his affections, refolved that where WASHINGTON was, there alfo thould be her abode. 3. Educated by private inftruction, his virtue grew with his knowledge, and the ufeful tranches of literature occu pied the whole powers of his mind. Exemplary for folid. ity of thought, and chastity of morals, he was honoured by the government of Virginia, with an important niiffion, at an age when the levities of the human character feldom yield to the earliest operation of reason, 4. To trace this Protector of our Liberties, through his unrivalled career, from his gloomy retreat through the Jerfies, to his feveral victories and his splended triumph at Yorkton, would be to narrate the varying history of our revolution. To him, public labour was amusement, suffering in the cause of freedom was a luxury, and every bour as it flew carried an offering to his country. 5 As obedience to the voice of his oppreffed fellowcitizens drew his fword on the approach of war, fo at the declaration of peace, by the same respected voice he restored it to its scabbard. He left them his bleffing and their liberties. O human Nature, how hast thou been traduced! With thee, has it been faid, is effentially connected that luft of power which is infatiable; which restores not voluntarily what has been committed to its charge; which devours all rights, and refolves all laws into its own authority; which labours not for others, but feizes the fruits of their Jabours for itself; which breaks down all barriers of relig ion, fociety, and nature, that obstruct its courfe; now_art thou vindicated! Here we behold thee allied to virtue, worn in the fervice of mankind, fuperior to the meanness of compenfation, bumbly hoping for the thanks of thy country alone, faithfully furrendering the fword, with which thou waft entrusted, and yielding up power with a promptness and facility equalled only by the diffidence and reluctance with which thou received'ft it. 6. Now, will the future inquirer fay, this Hero has finished the task affigned him, the measure of his glory is full. A world is admitted to freedom-a nation is born. Favoured beyond the leader of Ifrael, not only with the profped, but with the fruition of the promised bleffing, he has retired, like that prince of meeknefs, to the Mount, aubence he is to afcend, unfeen by a weeping people, to the reward of all his labours. No, he is to live another life upon this globe; he is to reap a double harvest in the field of perennial honour. The people whom he has faved from external tyranny, fuffer from the agitations of their own unsettled powers The tree of Liberty which he has planted, and fo carefully guarded from the storms, now flourishes beyond its strength; its lofty excrefcences. threaten to tear its lefs extended roots from the earth, and to proftrate it fruitless on the plain. But, he comes! In convention he prefides over counfels, as in war he had led the battle. The CONSTITUTION, like the rainbow af ter the flood, appears to us now just emerging from an overwhelming commotion; and we know the truth of the pledge from the fanƐli ́n of his name. 7. The production was worthy of its authors, and of the magnanimous people whom it was intended to e8tablish. You adopt it, you cherish it, and you refolve to tranfmit it, with the name of WASHINGTON, to the lateft generation, who fhall prove their just claim to fuch an illuftrious defcent. 8. Who was fo worthy, as our great legiflator, to dr rect the operations of government which his counsels and bis fword had laboured to erect? By an unamimous fuff. rage he was invited to the exalted station of President of the United States. The call was too facred to admit of doubt; it fuperfeded the happiness of retirement, the de mands of private intereft, the fweet attractions of domestic fociety, and the hazard (forgive it, WASHINGTON ! for thou waft mortal) the hazard of public reputation. Be H hold the man on this occafion fo mighty in the eyes of all the world, so humble in his own. 9. Did the occafion admit of it, how pleasing would be the review of his administration, as our Supreme Executive Magifirate! His talents and his virtues increased with his cares. His foul feemed not to bear the limits of office, a moment after the obligations of duty and patrictifm withdrew their restraints from his univerfal love. When the mifguided favages of the wilderness, after feeling his chaftifement, had fued for peace, he feemed to labour for their happiness as the common reprefentative of mankind. Iufurrection was fo ftruck at his counte nance, that it fled from the shock of his arm. Intrigue attemp ed to entangle him in her poisonous web, but he bur it with gigantic ftrength, and crushed her labours. Anarchy looked out from her cavern, and was dashed into oblivion, as we trust, forever. The nations of Europe faw the wisdom of our laws, the vigor of our measures, the juftice of our policy, the firmness of our government, and acquiefced in the neutrality of our ftation. 10. The dangers of the Commonwealth having fubfid. ed at the clofe of his second administration, he felt himself juftified, after dedicating forty five years of his valuable life to her fervice, in withdrawing, to receive with refig nation the great change of nature, which his age and his toils demonftrated to be near. When he declined your future fuffrages he left you a Legacy. What! Like Cæfar's to the Romans, money for your fpots? Like Attalus's a kingdom for your tyranny? No; he left you not such baubles, nor for fuch purposes. He left you the RECORDS of wisdom for your government; a MIRROR for the faithful reprefentation to your own view, of yourselves, your weakness, your advantages, your dangers; a MAGNET which points at the fecret mines and windings of party Spirit. faction, foreign influence; a PILLAR to the unity of your republic; a BAND to enclofe, conciliate and strengthen the whole of your wonderful and almoft boundless communities: Read, preferve the facred depofit; and left pofterity fhould forget the truth of its maxims, engrave them on his tomb, that they may read them when they weep before it. |