Young Men of America!

THE early years of Washington, will teach you lessons of temperance, of industry, and of virtuous ambition.

Ar an age, when other youth scarcely begin to think of their future deststination, he had acquired those solid endowments of mind, and those active habits of body, which were one day to point him out, and qualify him to be, the leader of her armies, and the protector of his counry.

HE despised the lethargy of indolence, and the allurements of pleasure; nor suffered himself to be enervated, by the soft voluptuousness, and not always guiltles dissipations, of thoughtless minority.

He was, from his youth, fond of that fame which follows merit-He sought for that honorable promotion; and waited, with modest expectation, for advancement to stations of higher rank, and more extensive usefulness.

He was in arms before he gained his twentieth year: and when not yet twenty-two, performed, with equal judgment and intrepidity, a difficult and dangerous mission intrusted to him by the councils of his native state.

He was not twentty-four, when he rescued from the rage of savage conquerors, the remnant of Braddock's devoted army; and gave those signal proofs of gallantry and prudence, which, in his general, had led to safety and honor.

THE fatigues of a frontier war, and the progress of a pulmonary disease, forced him, at twenty-seven, to resign the rank of a colonel, which he then held in the provincial army.

FROM that time, until he year 1775, when he accepted the command of the American forces, he was occupied in domestic duties, in agricultural improvements, and in executing the offices of a magistrate, a judge and a member of the legislature.

It was during this period of his life, a space of about sixteen years, in which he investigated the principles, and matured his opinions, on the subject of government; and obtained that extensve acquaintance with the rights of his country, and the just liberties of his fellow-men; which to assert, defend and establish, became his arduous, but successful employment.

LET it not be said, that he owed his first elevation, or future greatness, to opulent patrimony, extensive patronage, or academic favors.

He began without fortune; and thought it no degradation. to turn his knowledge of geometry, to the purposes of an honest independence. He was an orphan at ten years old—and that patronage was far from powerful, which had designated him to an inferior naval appointment:And in scholastic honors, often useless as they are undeserved, he commenced his important life, with no degrees but those, which virtuous resolutions confer on private diligence and useful study. How consoling should it be to the ingenuous bosom, which, in seeming obscurity, is panting for merited distinction, to perceive, that the most splendid hero, and accomplished legislator of the age, owed no share of his great reputation, to the accidental circumstances of birth and patronage-but raised his imperishable fame upon the basis of a disinterested patriotism, and the native virtues of an uncorrupted heart.

BE animated then, ye generous youth, to follow his great example :-Emulation must not be extinguished by despair; nor effort remitted from hopeless competition.

BE encouraged by the persuasion, that his usefulness and felicity, were founded on those qualities of the heart, which are of no uncommon growth; and those properties of the mind which are of no difficult acquirement.

BE diligent in your studies; be temperate in your pleasures; be active and fearless, in the pursuit of duty; aspire to honor through the paths of virtue; seek for public favors by public

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benefits :-And, if Washington, has left you no empire to save, and no government to establish; yet your country still has room, for the display of all your talents-occasions for the exercise of all your virtues-and rewards for your most distinguished services.

Defenders of your Country!

IF foreign aggression, or civil discord shall call you to the scene of war, let the image of Washington remind you of all which can dignify the soldier, or sanction the triumphs of a

conqueror.

REMEMBER, that he considered war, not as a trade, which was to enrich him with spoils, or wreath his temple with laurels, but as a necessary effort to wrest his country from oppression, and to crown her with peace and liberty.

THE history, and the eulogy, of the crowd of warriors, which fame, or rather, which infamy, has perpetuated-what are theybut a register of crimes against heaven and virtue-against innocence and the rights of mankind?

THESE, were like those lawless stars, which, with reddening glare approach our orbit, shooting terror into the hearts of men, and threatening the world with deluge and conflagration.

NOT so, the Patriotic Chief of America!-He was the sun, which cheered and animated every heart, and spread around him, the effulgence of his own pure fires :-And if, sometimes, clouds obscured his ascent, his country never despaired-always confiding in that constancy, which knew no change-and that vigor, which was never exhausted.

IN the history of those eight memorable campaigns, which spread over the face of America desolation and blood, you will learn the energies of his persevering fortitude-the resourses of his exhaustless genius--and the triumphs of his undaunted va lor.

AND whilst you are fired with emulation of his actions, let his motives and his moderation, direct and limit your ambition. Prosperity could never swell him into insolence; nor disaster sink him to despondence :-By the command of his passions, in the hour of success, he triumphed over victory herself; and he rose from defeat, only to inspire new confidence, and seize on glorious reparation.

In his official dispatches, his veracity and his modesty, were equally conspicuous:He thought it both vain and immoral to overrate his good fortune; and even his losses he would not

extenuate.

HE softened the horrors of war, by offices of humanity-by the respect which he shewed to civil authority-to personal immunities and to private property. He repressed the spirit of popular fury-and shielded from its intemperance, those of his countrymen, who from sincere, but misguided opinions, persisted in a harmless neutrality.

WHILE he exacted discipline, he was incapable of cruelty; and, of his followers in arms, he demanded no pledge but fideliity, and exposed them to no hardships, in which he did not himself participate.

He was ever unwilling to fling away the lives of his brave, but humble companions, in rash adventure, or unequal conflict— always preferring their safety and the hopes of his country, to his own renown.-] -He was content, rather to enjoy the bloodless triumphs of a Fabius, than by bold and sanguinary enterprise, to grasp at the false and fatal glory of a Varro.

AND when, at length, the liberties of America were confirmed, and no longer required an armed protector, he retired from the embraces of his faithful veterans, and amidst the acclamations of a grateful people, to the retreat from whence his country had drawn him-there to possess the rank of a free citizen, the only title he aspired to; and the love of his fellow-men, the only, and to him the sweetest reward, for all his services.

Legislators of America!

In the conduct and opinions of this great statesman, you possess an institute of national policy, recommended by all the force of experience, and all the demonstration of success.

IN that high office, which for eight years he filled with such dignity and ability, he exerted his extensive influence, and his legitimate powers, to consolidate the confederacy, and give un ty to the general government; firmly convinced, however social interests might suffer temporary loss, and the pride of petty sovereignty revolt at 'imaginary humiliation, that the duration of the American empire, and the real happiness of her people, must depend on the constitutional pursuit, and extension of this cardinal policy.

IN that memorable address to his couutrymen, on his retirement from office, he enforces this sentiment with repeated and emphatic expressions of its importance :-" This unity (says he) "is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence; the

support of your tranquility at home; of your peace abroad; "of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty, "which you so highly prize."

THE preservation of "public fatb," he presses upon you, by every motive of interest and honor-and as the source of public wealth, and a guarantee of the republic itself.

WITH that spirit of moderation, and rectitude, which ever governed his own conduct, he invites you to the obfervation of good faith and justice to all nations; to avoid inveterate antipathies, and passionate resentments; and cautions you, against the weakness of confiding in foreign protestations of national fraternity." It is a folly," he says, "for one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; it is an illusion, which experience must cure, and which a just pride ought to discard."

AGAINST the arts of foreign intrigue, he warns you in the language of one who had encountered it in all its forms, and