shut up every avenue to foreign influence; contract rather than extend national connexion; rely on yourfelves only be American in thought and deed. Thus will you give immortality to that union, which was the conftant object of my terrestrial labours: thus will you preserve undisturbed to the latest pofterity, the felicity of a people to me most dear; and thus will you fupply (if my happiness is now aught to you) the only vacancy in the round of pure blifs high Heaven beftows."

An Eulogy

ON GEORGE WASHINGTON, LATE COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Delivered before the Inhabitants of the Town of BOSTON, at the Request of their Committee, Jan. 9, 1800.

BY GEORGE RICHARDS MINOT, A.M. A.A.S.

OUR duty, my Fellow-Townfmen, on this diftreffing occafion, is dictated by the dignity and refplendent virtue of the beloved Man whofe death we deplore. We affemble to pay a debt to departed merit; a debt which we can only pay by the fincerity of our grief, and the respectful effufions of gratitude : for the highest eulogy left us to bestow upon our lamented WASHINGTON, is the strict narration of the truth, and the loftiest character which we can affign to him, is the very difplay of himself. When ambition allies itself to guilt; when power tramples upon right; when victory triumphs in blood; when piety fits clouded in fuperftition; when humility is affected by cunning; when patriotism is founded on selfishness: then let adulation fpread her prostituted mantle, to fcreen the difgraces of her patrons, and amuse with the falfehoods of her imagination. But to our political Father, the faithful page of history is panegyric, and the happiness of his country is the monument of his fame.

Come, then, Warriors! Statesmen! Philofophers! Citizens affemble round the tomb of this favourite fon of virtue; with all the luxury of forrow recollect the important events of his life, and partake of the greatest legacy which a mortal could bequeath you, in the contemplation of his example. Whilft we folemnize this act, his difembodied fpirit, if it be permitted

to retrace the scenes of its terrestrial existence, will fmile with approbation on the instructive rite.

Your anniversaries have long honoured the eleventh of February, one thoufand feven hundred and thirtytwo, as the birth-day of our illuftrious Chief; and the parish of his own name in Weftmoreland county, in Virginia, boasts itself the place of his nativity. But to fouls 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 fhould be her abode.

Educated by private inftruction, his virtue grew with his knowledge, and the ufeful branches of literature occupied the whole powers of his mind. Exemplary for folidity of thought and chastity of morals, he was honoured by the government of Virginia with an important miffion, at an age when the levities of the human character feldom yield to the earlieft operation of reafon.

At the opening of the great war of encroachments upon our western frontiers, he was the bearer of the remonftrance to the French. Such was the addrefs, fidelity and perfeverance with which he executed this important truft, that he was honoured at twenty-two years of age with the command of a regiment raised by his province. His military talents were foon called. to the test. At Redstone, Victory perched upon his ftandard; but, with that volatility by which the tries the powers of her favourite heroes, fhe in a few months afterwards left him, by his own exertions to fave the honours of war for his little band, in an unequal, but well fupported battle. In Braddock's flaughtered army, he was a witnefs to fcenes of horror, which his caution, had it been adopted, would have prevented, and which his fteady courage affifted much to retrieve, During the remainder of this war, he was employed in fortifying his native province, in arranging and perfecting its militia, and in checking the incurfions of the

enemy, until the crisis of the conteft had paffed in this country, when he refigned his command.

Retirement to him was only a different mode of action; and his repofe partook not of indolence. Amidst the honourable purfuits of agriculture, he discharged various civil offices, until we find him rifing amongst the patriots of our country, as a delegate from Virginia, in the first American Congrefs.

We shall ever remember the fifteenth day of June, one thousand seven hundred and feventy-five, when Providence directed to his appointment as the Com mander in Chief of our revolutionary army. In this neighbourhood he first drew his fword. Many of you, my fellow-townfmen, were then languishing under the fetters of tyranny, or were imprisoned within the joy lefs confines of your own habitations. Your hope was fixed on him. His command, independent of the re fources of his own mind, afforded no ground for the fupport of your feelings. He had an army brave in deed, but with little difcipline; naked at the approach of winter, and almost fubject to diffolution from temporary enlistments; a pay-mafter without money; a commiffary ftruggling on the utmoft ftretch of credit. A veteran army lay under his eye, ftrongly fortified, regularly paid, warmly clothed, and boafting its fupe riority to militia. Yet did his victorious fword relieve you, and fave your city. Juftly have you afcribed 66 your reinftatement to his wife arrangements, which compelled your invaders to adopt a lefs deftructive pol icy than that which on other occafions they fo wantonly practised." Could our gratitude forget it, the heights around us bear the triumphant evidence of his conqueft.

To trace this protector of our liberties through his unrivalled career, from his gloomy retreat through the Jerfies to his several victories and his fplendid triumph at Yorktown, would be to narrate the varying history of our revolution. To him, public labour was amusement; fuffering in the caufe of freedom was a luxury;

and every hour, as it flew, carried an offering to his country.

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 fame refpected voice he restored it to its fcabbard. He left them his blessing and their liberties. O Human Nature, how haft 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 labours for itself; which breaks down all barriers of religion, fociety and nature, that obftruct its courfe! Now art thou vindicated! Here we behold thee allied to virtue, worn in the fervice of mankind, fuperior to the meannefs of compenfation, humbly hoping for the thanks of thy country alone, faithfully furrendering the fword with which thou waft intrufted, and yielding up power with a promptness and facility equalled only by the dif, fidence and reluctance with which thou receivedst it.

Now, will the future inquirer fay, this Hero has finifhed 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 profpect, but with the fruition of the promised bleffing, he has retired, like that prince of meeknefs, to the Mount, whence he is to ascend, unseen 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 he has faved from external tyranny, fuffer from the agitations of their own unfettled powers. The tree of liberty, which he has planted and fo carefully guarded from the ftorms, now flourishes beyond its ftrength its lofty excrefcences threaten to tear its less extended roots from the earth, and to prof trate it fruitlefs on the plain. But, he comes! In