LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 217 clothing, arms, and ammunition; and an opinion. ¡f his achievements should be formed in view of these inadequate means. The first years of his civil administration were attended with the extraordinary fact, that while a great proportion of his countrymen did not approve his measures, they universally venerated his character, and relied implicitly on his integrity. Although his opponents eventually deemed it expedient to vilify his character, that they might diminish his political influence; yet the moment that he retired from publick life. they returned to their expressions of veneration and esteem; and after his death, used every endeavour to secure to their party the influence of his name. He was as eminent for piety as for patriotism. His publick and private conduct evince, that he impressively felt a sense of the superintendence of God and of the dependence of man. In his addresses, while at the head of the army, and of the national government, he gratefully noticed the signal blessings of Providence, and fervently commended his country to divine bene diction. In private, he was known to have been ha bitually devout. In principle and practice he was a Christian. The support of an Episcopal church, in the vicinity of Mount Vernon, rested principally upon him, and here. when on his estate, he with constancy attended publick worship. In his address to the American people. at the close of the war, mentioning the favourable period of the world at which the independence of his country was established, and enumerating the causes which unitedly had ameliorated the condition of human society, he, above science, philosophy, commerce, and all other considerations, ranked “the pure and benign light of Revelation." Supplicating Heaven that his fellow citizens might cultivate the disposition, and practise the virtues, which exalt a community, he presented the following petition to his God That he Vo II. 19 218 LIFE OF WASHINGTON. would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacifick temper of mind, which were the characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed religion; without a humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation." During the war, he not unfrequently rode ten or twelve miles from camp to attend publick worship; and he never omitted this attendance, when opportunity presented. In the establishment of his presidential household, he reserved to himself the Sabbath, free from the interruptions of private visits, or publick business; and throughout the eight years of his civil administration, e gave to the institutions of christianity the influence of his example. He was as fortunate as great and good. Under his auspices, a civil war was conducted with mildness, and a revolution with order. Raised himself above the influence of popular passions, he happily directed these passions to the most useful purposes. Uniting the talents of the soldier with the qualifications of the statesman, and pursuing, uninoved by difficulties, the noblest end by the purest means, he had the supreme satisfaction of beholding the complate success of his great military and civil services, in the independence and happiness of his country END OF VOLUME II. |