[1796 A.D.] A three weeks' debate terminated in a call upon the president for the specified documents. He and his cabinet being alike of opinion that the house had transgressed its powers, the call was refused. After a fortnight's debate, in which Fisher Ames distinguished himself above all his colleagues in defending the treaty, a vote, by a bare majority, determined that the house would proceed to its duty (March, April, 1796). By this time the frenzy out of doors had died away.

Thus terminated the great event of Washington's administration. The proclamation of neutrality was the first decisive step; the treaty with Great Britain was the second, and, for the present, the last. The point thus gained may be called the starting-point of the infant nation in its foreign relations. But if the French party of the United States, if the minister of the United States to France, James Monroe, were indignant at the British treaty, it was but natural that France should be the same. The French government announced to Mr. Monroe that they considered their alliance with the United States to be at an end (February, 1790). To prove that they were in earnest, the authorities of France, in addition to their previous orders of capture and embargo, decreed that neutral vessels were to be treated exactly as they were treated by the British; that is, stopped, searched, and seized upon the seas (July). This was subsequently made known to the United States by a communication from the French envoy, Adet, who improved the opportunity by appealing to the people to take part with France and against Great Britain. To restore matters, as far as possible, to a better position, Washington had sent out Charles C. Pinckney as minister to France, in the place of Monroe (September).

The parties-northern and southern, federalist and republican, antiFrench and French-that racked the nation were never so much agitated. Newspapers, especially those published at Philadelphia, carried the hostile notes from congress to the nation, and echoed them back to congress. It is difficult, without having room for extracts, to convey any idea of the virulence of political writing at the time. Both the administration and its head were objects of the fiercest assault. Washington wrote with natural indignation of the abuse which he, "no party man," as he truly called himself, had received, "and that, too, in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket.' It was amidst these outrages that Washington sent forth his farewell address to the people of the United States (September 17th, 1796). Soon afterwards congress came together, and showed that many of its members were violent against the retiring president. On the proposal of an address of grateful acknowledgments from the house of representatives, a man from Washington's own state, William B. Giles, of Virginia, took exception to the more expressive passages. The same attitude was taken by a considerable number, and amongst them Andrew Jackson, of Ten

['Forged letters purporting to show Washington's desire to abandon the revolutionary struggle were published; he was accused of drawing more than his salary; hints of the propriety of a guillotine for his benefit began to appear; some spoke of him as the "stepfather of his country." The attacks embittered the close of his term of service; he declared, in a cabinet-meeting in 1793, that "he had never repented but once the having slipped the moment of resigning his office, and that was every moment since." Indeed, the most unpleasant portions of Jefferson's Ana are those in which, with an air of psychological dissection, he details the storms of passion into which the president was hurried by the newspaper attacks upon him. These attacks, however, came from a very small fraction of the politicians; the people never wavered in their devotion to the president, and his election would have been unanimous in 1796, as in 1789 and 1792, if he had been willing to serve.-ALEXANDER JOHNSTON.m]

[1797-1799 A.D.] nessee. Although he is soon to become a private citizen," wrote Washington of himself (January, 1797), "his opinions are to be knocked down, and his character reduced as low as they are capable of sinking it."

If Washington could thus excite animosity and wrong, what must it have been with ordinary men? The country seemed unwilling to be pacified, unwilling to be saved.

Washington retired. He had done even greater things at the head of the government than he had done at the head of the army. But it was beyond his power to change the character of the nation. He left it as he found it -divided and impassioned. Yet he left it as he had not found it-with a constitution in operation, with principles and with laws in action-on the road to increase and to maturity.

At the close of the century which he adorned Washington died (December 14th, 1799). His retirement, to which he had looked forward so longingly, had been disturbed. He had been greatly occupied with the organisation of the provisional army, of which he had been appointed chief-the last of his many services to his country. He had been still more harassed by the party passions of the time; himself inclined to the support of federalist principles, he had been to some degree drawn into the whirl of political movements. Perhaps it was not too soon for his peace or for his fame that he was taken away. Beside his grave his countrymen stood united for an instant, then returned to their divisions and their strifes. His memory continued to plead, and not unavailingly, for love of country and of countrymen.f

VARIOUS ESTIMATES OF WASHINGTON

It has been our custom to give varying characterisations of great historical characters. Among these Washington stands in the front rank as patriot, soldier, statesman, and man. In none of these qualities is he exceeded in history; in the purity of his lifelong patriotism he is perhaps unequalled. On these points, aside from certain contemporary attacks of faction, there is no divergence of opinion among authorities of any country or creed. The only point of dispute is his rank as a general. His soldiership is not questioned nor his abilities as a tactician and man of resource and courage in action. It is as a strategist that he has been criticised-and also eulogised. We have previously quoted some animadversions on his battle plans. We can only emphasise the fact that, after all, he kept his force together, that he would not accept defeat, and that he won what he fought for, and left it as his monument. He was undoubtedly no epoch-making general, but as a man of honour, a lover and benefactor of his kind, a man whose works live after him in increasing glory, he makes such self-maniacs as Alexander, Cæsar, and Napoleon dwindle into insignificance or loom up only as monstrosities. Alexander left an empire of chaos; Cæsar, assassinated by his own friends, marked the end of a republic; Napoleon left France smaller than he found it. Indeed, the very republic which give birth to Napoleon and which he overthrew only for a few years-that very republic was largely the result of Washington's successes and his ideals.

We shall give only foreign estimates: British, German, and French. The American opinion need not be quoted; it amounts perhaps to as near an approach to the apotheosis of deification as a nation can ever make, and it finds its summing-up in the phrase, "The Father of his Country." He is the standard by which all other statesmen and patriots are tested-and found wanting.a

[1799 A.D.]

Lord Brougham

The relief which the friend of mankind, the lover of virtue, experiences when, turning from the contemplation of such a character [Napoleon I], his eye rests upon the greatest man of our own or of any age! It will be the duty of the historian and the sage in all ages to omit no occasion of commemorating this illustrious man; and until time shall be no more will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington.ff

The Earl of Stanhope

In the mind of Washington punctuality and precision did not, as we often find them, turn in any degree to selfishness. Nor yet was his constant regularity of habits attended by undue formality of manner. In one of his most private letters there appears given incidentally, and as it were by chance, a golden rule upon that subject: "As to the gentlemen you mention, I cannot charge myself with incivility, or what in my opinion is tantamount-ceremonious civility." In figure Washington was strongly built and tall (above six feet high), in countenance grave, unimpassioned, and benign. An inborn worth, an unaffected dignity, beamed forth in every look as in every word and deed. No man, whether friend or enemy, ever viewed without respect the noble simplicity of his demeanour, the utter absence in him of every artifice and every affectation.

Mark how brightly the first forbearance of Washington combines with his subsequent determination; how he who had been slow to come forward was magnanimous in persevering. When defeat had overtaken the American army, when subjugation by the British rose in view, when not a few of the earliest declaimers against England were, more or less privately, seeking to make terms for themselves, and fitting their own necks to the yoke, the high spirit of Washington never for a moment quailed; he repeatedly declared that if the colonies were finally overpowered he was resolved to quit them forever, and, assembling as many people as would follow, go and establish an independent state in the West, on the rivers Mississippi and Missouri. There is a lofty saying which the Spaniards of old were wont to engrave on their Toledo blades, and which with truth and aptness might have adorned the sword of Washington: "Never draw me without reason; never sheath me without honour!"

Nor was Washington in any measure open to the same reproach as the ancient Romans, or some of his own countrymen at present-that while eager for freedom themselves they would rivet the chains of their slave. To him at least could never be applied Doctor Johnson's taunting words: "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?" The views of Washington on this great question are best shown at the close of the Revolutionary War, and at a period of calm deliberation, in one of his letters to La Fayette: "Your late purchase of an estate in Cayenne with a view of emancipating the slaves on it is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit might diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country!"

There was certainly no period in his career when he would not have joyfully exchanged-had his high sense of duty allowed him-the cares of public for the ease of private life. And this wish for retirement, strong and sincere as it was in Washington, seems the more remarkable since it was not

[1799 A.D.]

with him, as with so many other great men, prompted in any degree by the love of literature. He was not like Cicero, when shrinking in affright from the storms which rent the commonwealth, and reverting with fond regret to the well-stored library of Atticus, and to his own favourite little seat beneath the bust of Aristotle; he was not like Clarendon at Montpellier, when he turned from an ungrateful age, not worthy of his virtue, and indited for all time to come his immortal history. Neither reading nor writing as such had any charms for Washington. But he was zealously devoted to the earliest and most needful of all the toils of man-he loved to be a feeder of flocks and a tiller of the ground.

It has been justly remarked that of General Washington there are fewer anecdotes to tell than perhaps of any other great man on record. There were none of those checkered hues, none of those warring emotions, in which biography delights. There was no contrast of lights and shades, no flickering of the flame; it was a mild light that seldom dazzled, but that ever cheered and warmed. His contemporaries or his close observers, as Jefferson and Gallatin, assert that he had naturally strong passions, but had attained complete mastery over them. In self-control, indeed, he has never been surpassed. If sometimes on rare occasions, and on strong provocation, there was wrung from him a burst of anger, it was almost instantly quelled by the dominion of his will. He decided surely, though he deliberated slowly; nor could any urgency or peril_move him from his serene composure, his calm, clear-headed good sense. Integrity and truth were also ever present in his mind.

Not a single instance, as I believe, can be found in his whole career when he was impelled by any but an upright motive, or endeavoured to attain an object by any but worthy means. Such are some of the high qualities which have justly earned for General Washington the admiration even of the country he opposed, and not merely the admiration but the gratitude and affection of his own. Such was the pure and upright spirit to which, when its toils were over and its earthly course had been run, was offered the unanimous homage of the assembled congress, all clad in deep mourning for their common loss, as to "the man first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow citizens." At this day in the United States the reverence for his character is, as it should be, deep and universal, and not confined, as with nearly all English statesmen, to one party, one province, or one creed. Such reverence for Washington is felt even by those who wander farthest from the paths in which he trod. Thus may it be said of this most virtuous man what in days of old was said of Virtue herself, that even those who depart most widely from her precepts still keep holy and bow down to her name.P

John Richard Green

No nobler figure ever stood in the forefront of a nation's life. His silence and the serene calmness of his temper spoke of a perfect self-mastery; but there was little in his outer bearing to reveal the grandeur of soul which lifts his figure, with all the simple majesty of an ancient statue, out of the smaller passions, the meaner impulses of the world around him. It was only as the weary fight went on that the colonists learned little by little the greatness of their leader, his clear judgment, his heroic endurance, his silence under difficulties, his calmness in the hour of danger or defeat, the patience with which he waited, the quickness and hardness with which he struck, the lofty

[1799 A.D.]

and serene sense of duty that never swerved from its task through resentment or jealousy, that never through war or peace felt the touch of a meaner ambition, that knew no aim save that of guarding the freedom of his fellow countrymen, and no personal longing save that of returning to his own fireside when their freedom was secured. It was almost unconsciously that men learned to cling to Washington with a trust and faith such as few other men have won, and to regard him with a reverence which still hushes us in presence of his memory.9

Sir Archibald Alison

Modern history has not a more spotless character to commemorate. Invincible in resolution, firm in conduct, incorruptible in integrity, he brought to the helm of a victorious republic the simplicity and innocence of rural life; he was forced into greatness by circumstances rather than led into it by inclination, and prevailed over his enemies rather by the wisdom of his designs and the perseverance of his character than by any extraordinary genius for the art of war. A soldier from necessity and patriotism rather than disposition, he was the first to recommend a return to pacific counsels when the independence of his country was secured; and bequeathed to his countrymen an address on leaving their government, to which there are few compositions of uninspired wisdom which can bear a comparison. He was modest, without diffidence; sensible to the voice of fame, without vanity; independent and dignified, without either asperity or pride. He was a friend to liberty, but not to licentiousness-not to the dreams of enthusiasts, but to those practical ideas which America had inherited from her British descent. Accordingly, after having signalised his life by successful resistance to English oppression, he closed it by the warmest advice to cultivate the friendship of Great Britain, and exerted his whole influence, shortly before his resignation, to effect the conclusion of a treaty of friendly and commercial intercourse between the mother country and its emancipated offspring. He was a Cromwell without his ambition; a Sulla without his crimes; and, after having raised his country, by his exertions, to the rank of an independent state, he closed his career by a voluntary relinquishment of the power which a grateful people had bestowed.

If it is the highest glory of England to have given birth, even amidst transatlantic wilds, to such a man, and if she cannot number him among those who have extended her provinces or augmented her dominions, she may at least feel a legitimate pride in the victories which he achieved, and the great qualities which he exhibited, in the contest with herself, and indulge with satisfaction in the reflection that that vast empire which neither the ambition of Louis XIV nor the power of Napoleon could dismember received its first shock from the courage which she had communicated to her own offspring, and that, amidst the convulsions and revolutions of other states, real liberty has arisen in that nation alone which inherited in its veins the genuine principles of British freedom.r

Henri Martin

The Declaration of Independence was the birth-act of a society the most untrammelled and soon to be the vastest that the world has ever known. In the union of Protestant Christianity with eighteenth-century philosophy lay the germ of this gigantic progeny. Two men of the first order were to be its defenders and its guides during its early years, and each was the particular