light that I have done (which every person must admit is a pro per one) and consider for one minute his situation, and you will willingly conclude with me, that this would have been the case. Then, admitting this, we must be indebted to him for all we have, possess and enjoy.

RETREATING with 1,500 men, before a pursuing army of 30,000, he crosses the Delaware, takes a position, from which he reconnoiters a detached part of them at Trenton. Finding every thing favorable, and agreeable to his plan, he collects his small but determined band of patriots, in a dark, dreary, cold, dismal night of winter, when the falling tempest seized with chilling numbness upon their almost naked bodies, wearing only the tattered remnants of what once was the uniform of better times ; recrosses the river, contending with mountains of float*ing ice, formidable and dangerous from the impetuosity of the current, the precipitancy of the snow, hurled and driven by an eastern wind. They silently approach their intended Thermopylæ, obscured under the cover of the storm, attack the enemy, who make but a feeble resistance, and surrender-1000 of Germania's forces, together with him who fought on the plains of Saxony, submit to the superior prowess. of Washington!

How noble did he appear when combating with the elements and man at the same time! How grand when waving his sword in the fleecy air, and pointing out the road to victory, fame, and freedom! This event leads to another equally as great, that contributed to give the grand turn to American affairs, and taught enemies to respect the name of him, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen"-it is the battle of Princeton. Horrid and dreadful is the fight! Heros upon heros fall. He is first in rank, and first in danger. The plain of the muses becomes the field of action upon which Americans contend for their just and lawful property. The enemy is vanquished, and retires before the sword of pursuing vengeance.. Mercer and Hazelet, great in war, now sleep in death, so nobly earned. Here where science reared her towering head, and held converse with her votaries, now laid the bodies of those who had fallen victims at the altar of liberty.

Here, where oft

the student walked in all his glory, now laid the great in death. In that solemn temple, dedicated to wisdom and piety, where oft the sons of science sent up the mattin and evening song, to the throne of heaven, were no more heard the profane revilings and lascivious songs of an abandoned foe. Washington having acquired victory, retires with heavy and distressed heart from the field, destitute of his favorites, his brothers in a trying, glorious cause. These successes heightened the brilliancy of his fame, gained us the alliance of a great and powerful monarch, brought foreigners of military knowledge and integrity to join us in arms, elevated the soldier drooping under his burthen of duties and misfortunes, recruited his army, and stopped his country in her rapid passage to that vortex of ruin to which she had been long verging.

WE can trace him from the heights of Morris-town to the siege of York, and we shall find him invariably the same, whether in prosperity or adversity, conquest or defeat, studying the interest and welfare of America. At the latter place, where he and La Fayette, the adopted son of Columbia, wrested the victorious palm and war-worn laurel from the aged brow of him who since the conquest of India gained, he terminates his career, having secured the liberty and freedom of half the world, and acquired the name of father and deliverer of his country. Brutus rescued from Tarquin a small state-Washington from a George the third half the globe. Xerxes marched to battle with one million of soldiers, and was conquered-Washington with fifteen hundred, and gained a victory: the one fought to enslave, the other to free. Timoleon was first in CorinthWashington in America. We had a Demosthenes in an Adams, a Lycurgus in a Franklin.

FATHER and deliverer of his country! what sweetness dwells in this name a name sounded by million-tongued fame, through her golden trump, into distant worlds. The sooty African, that traverses Niger's sandy waste-the Algerine, desperate in fight -the half-lived Laplander-the Arabian, swift as the windthe Scythian-the inoffensive Bramins,-have all heard it, and when mentioned revere it.

R

This

AFTER the elapse of this event, we see him in a truly great and admirable way, improving his glory, and dissipating the suspicions of sordid, selfish envy, by disbanding his army when the country is evacuated by the enemy, and going forward with a conscious dignity that arises from having done well, to that power which had called him into service, resigning that commission which they had delegated to his care, and which he had faithfully discharged. Then we beheld American gratitude. Not an eye on that occasion was dry-not a heart that was not overflowing with love and affection for the victorious veteran. Then he lived in the hearts of his countrymen. Then every bosom was a monument, a faithful recorder of his merit. conduct allayed the suspicions of those who supposed him an aspiring Cæsar, an ambitious Cromwell. It convinced them that he fought not for monopoly, for empire despotic, for fame; but for man's rights and justice. He retires once more to his favorite abode, entitled the enterprizing, the intelligent, the great general, the prudent, the virtuous man. How much more eligible is fame of this kind, untarnished, unsullied by the blood of the innocent, and not a trait of it tinged by an act of oppression on the unhappy poor of our own country, than that acquired by an Alexander of Macedon, and those generals of the Roman government, who swam through seas of human blood, waded through destruction and devastation, to worship at the shrine of fame. His retirement affords its usual delights and amusements, and opens to his enquiring mind new measures salutary to the infirm state of the country, and essential to the perpetuation of its freedom. The different states, as to their connections and views, were frequently clashing, and sometimes, a prospect of all being destroyed that had been with so much difficulty obtained. The union he considered as a remedy that would effect the wished-for end, and consolidate the interests of the whole into one general body. With this view he hastens it. He calls upon his fellow-citizens to join in grand convention, and accomplish it at once, as a sure means of preserving what they had just acquired. He is obeyed. Internal discord, the worst of fiends, just raising her serpent head, retires at his command, and all is peace. He joins the convention, as a father to guard his family, and watch their behavior; as such he is

:

adored and respected, and as their chief personage and head, places his name and signature to that constitution, which afterwards, under his own administration, produced those consequences he had so long anticipated. Having secured the union. of a great people having taught that their individual interests should be the interests of the whole-having enjoined his colleagues to abide by their respective resolutions, to consider the constitution as the palladium of national security and liberty, as the indissoluble bond of union, as the master-piece of mental architecture, as a great good that they had derived from many evils, as a memento of the precious blood that had been spilled as the price of it-he withdraws with heartfelt satisfaction, and if possible more great and valuable than ever in the minds of the people. The constitution now formed, and commencing its operations, let future ages, when perusing the page of history, (that faithful record of the events of time) be astonished, when it says, that he was twice called to fill the chief executive department under it-unanimously chosen by three millions of freemen!

LET the love his country possessed for him-the faith and confidence they placed in him-the obedience he passively commanded, strike dumb the tyrant who sits enthroned on the destroyed privileges and liberties of his subjects. Let him reflect that Washidgton effected by a word, what he must by an army. Let him reflect that Washington's nightly slumbers were never disturbed by the noise of a surrounding guard, or the screams of an affrighted conscience. Let him be told that United America was his centinel, and that heavenly visions, floating on the dreams of fancy, soothed his mind in rest, after the honest labors of the day.

In this station he discovers the statesman, the sound politi eian, and impartial ruler. He governs the people, subject to the constitution-forms alliances-his generals subdue a savage enemy-he extends the circulation of commerce-encourages beneficial institutions-lends a parental hand to every thing that embraces the country's good-contends with the intrigues and artful machinations of the emissaries of an insidious, faithless. mation-cements the union by his advice and counsel. The sa

tisfaction that accrued therefrom, must be known to you all. Almost worn out in the service of his country, he wishes to spend the remainder of an ebbing life in that retirement he had so often left to gratify his fellow-citizens, and not his own ambition. Finding her in the meridian of greatness and prosperity, he presses his solicitation, and it is granted. He commits the care of the national ship, and the guiding of its helm, to his experienced and wise fellow-mariner, by whose assistance he had navigated her through a revolutionary storm, and brought her to the destined port of peace and tranquillity. He again retires to Vernon's pleasing charms, to feast on luxuries and dainties that oft have been the theme of the enraptured poet, and such as man partook of in the golden age.

But his career is not ended-he has not yet ran his race of glory-he has not reached the jail. When a prospect of danger is seen from that power which has deluged Europe in blood, which has spread misery and woe to every corner of the habitable globe, his country once more looks up to him for protection. So long accustomed to obey, he forgets how to deny, and once more becomes our shield, our buckler, and rampart of safety, against which the artillery of conquest must play in vain. We are safe, we are secure, we are inaccessible; we repose ourselves in quietness and case, and drink deep of the cup of self-satisfaction. But, alas! how short-lived are these enjoyments. This much-valued fortress has been assailed, and levelled by the armies of death, who of all enemies alone is invincible; and against whom man, powerful in strength, and great in his own mightiness, cannot stand. With his breath he sweeps thousands into eternity, and at his command nations fall, and monarchs resign their sceptres. O, man! where is thy boasted power, that oppresseth the poor, and bindeth down the pitiless child of sorrow? Where is thy fame, honors and glories, raised upon thy slaughtered thousands and tens of thousands? In a few years all will be forgotten, and decayed with thee in the dust!

IN contemplating this man in his public character, the mind of the aspiring wretch is brought to its true level, and a sense