him earnest prayers that the general's remaining days might be as happy as the past had been illustrious, and that he might finally receive a reward that this world cannot give. 30. After resigning his commission, General Washington retired to his mansion on the bank of the Potomac, rejoicing that he could again sit under his own vine and fig-tree, without fear of molestation. Here he pursued his favorite occupation, husbandry, solacing himself with tranquil enjoyments; and, as he himself expresses his feelings: "Envious of none, and determined to be pleased with all; moving down the stream of life, until I sleep with my fathers." 31. General Washington, however, was not permitted to remain long in private life. After the dangers of the war were past, the weakness of the confederation began to be manifest. There was no power in congress to raise money for paying even the interest of the national debt; commerce languished; the people were distressed with heavy debts, and public credit was prostrated. In this situation, a proposition, made first in Virginia, was adopted by the states, to appoint commissioners to frame regulations for relieving the country from its embar rassments. 32. The commissioners or delegates for this purpose, convened at Annapolis, in 1786; but the result was, that their powers were not sufficient to enable them to form a system for remedying the evils that existed. They therefore recommended to the states to appoint delegates, with more ample powers, to meet at Philadelphia, in May following. This plan was adopted; and General Washington was appointed one of the delegates of Virginia. 33. The general, at first, declined to accept the appointment; having previously resolved not to have any further concern with public affairs. But he was persuaded to accept. The convention met at Philadelphia, in May, 1787, and unanimously chose General Washington for their president. In September following, the convention closed their labors, and submitted the form of a constitution for the United States, to the people, for their adoption. This is now the constitution of the United States. 34. General Washington was selected to be the first president under this constitution, and induced to accept the appointment, notwithstanding all his resolutions to retire for ever from public business. As he proceeded towards New York, where Congress was assembled, he was treated with the highest respect and affection. The roads near the large towns were crowded with citizens, and even the children strewed the way with flowers. On his arrival at New York, he took the oath of office, and entered on its duties, April, 1789. 35. In autumn of this year, President Washington visited Boston, receiving every where the most marked attention of a grateful and affectionate people. He was escorted into Boston with great parade; thousands of citizens assembled to obtain a sight of the beloved chief of a great nation; and even the children, in immense numbers, lined the streets, to welcome the father of his country to the metropolis of New England, to the cradle of the revolution. 36. Washington, at the end of four years, was again unanimously elected president for a like term; and he again consented to serve his country. In 1796, he announced his final determination to decline a re-election; and published an address to the people of the United States, full of affectionate advice, and sound maxims of wisdom. He concluded with offering his congratulations to the people on the success of the government, and repeated his fervent supplications to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, that his providential care might be extended to the United States; that the virtue and happiness of the people might be preserved; and that the government which they had instituted for the protection of their liberties, might be perpetual. 37. General Washington retired to his estate, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. But in 1798, when the government found it necessary to defend the country from French aggressions, he was again placed at the head of the American army. He accepted his commission, but on condition that he should not be called into the field, until the army was in a situation to require his presence. But an adjustment with France rendered this unnecessary. 38. On the 13th of December, 1799, General Washington took cold, by exposure to a light rain, and was seized with an inflammatory affection of the windpipe, succeeded by difficult deglutition and laborious respiration. This complaint baffled medical skill, and within twenty-four hours from his seizure, he expired. In the immediate view of death, he retained his usual calmness and equanimity, and died confiding in the mercy of God, and resigned to his will. 39. On this melancholy occasion, the people of the United States manifested their unfeigned sorrow; and the public halls and ships were shrouded with mourning. Congress adjourned until the next day, when they adopted measures to express their regret, on account of the national loss; and resolved that a marble monument should be erected at the capitol in Washington, to commemorate the great events of his military and politi cal life. CHAPTER LXIV. EXTRACT FROM A VALEDICTORY ADDRESS ΤΟ THE The speaker having described the condition and prospects of the 1. This, young gentlemen, is the field in which you are to act. It is here described to you, that you may not be ignorant or regardless of that great whole, of which each of you is a part, and perhaps an important one. The period in which your lot is cast, is possibly the happiest in the roll of time. It is true, you will scarcely live to enjoy the summit of American glory; but you now see the foundations of that glory laid. 2. A scene like this is not unfolded in an instant. Innumerable are the events in the great system of Providence, which must advance the mighty design before it can be completed. Innumerable must be the actors in so vast a plot, and infinitely various the parts they act. Every event is necessary in the great system, and every character on the extended stage. Some part or other must belong to each of you, perhaps a capital one. 3. You should by no means consider yourselves as members of a small neighborhood, town or colony only, but as being concerned in laying the foundations of American greatness. Your wishes, your designs, your labors, are not to be confined by the narrow bounds of the present age, but are to comprehend succeeding generations, and be pointed to immortality. These 4. You are to act, not like inhabitants of a village, nor like beings of an hour, but like citizens of a world, and like candidates for a name that shall survive the conflagration. views will enlarge your minds, expand the grasp of your benevolence, ennoble all your conduct, and crown you with wreaths which cannot fade. 5. Influenced by these great, these elevated motives, you will spare no labor to furnish yourselves with the requisite accomplishments for the business you choose, nor, when you have chosen it, will you fail of attempting at least to discharge it with honor. In the still, but important scenes of private life, scenes in which all of you must be concerned, your ceaseless endeavors will be exerted to show yourselves examples of the best conduct, and in that way to improve and refine the morals of mankind. 6. Your ceaseless endeavors will be exerted to diffuse happiness all around you, to blunt the stings of pain, to sooth the 3 languor of sickness; to charm the pangs of grief, to double the ecstasy of joy, and to light up a smile in the clouded face of melancholy. You cannot fail to reverence the hoary head, to bridle the excursions of youth, to dry the tears of the orphan, to spare the blushes of needy merit, and to open your ears and seal your bosoms upon the secret concerns of a friend. 7. That impious profaneness which scoffs at the institutions of heaven; that swinish grossness which delights to wound the ear of delicacy; that ingratitude which forgets the benefactor, while it is rioting on the benefit; that slander, which like the sythe of death mows down every thing in its way, and with a satanic smile exults over the characters it has ruined; you will fly, sooner than the envenomed path of the adder, or the drawn knife of the midnight ruffian. 8. Inspired by these glorious views, in the medical character you will apply yourselves with unremitted ardor to anatomical and philosophical knowledge, to extend the science of healing, to contract the dominion of disease, to annihilate the power of pain, to restore and to preserve the health and happiness of mankind. You will shudder to imbrue your hands in the blood of your countrymen, whether the work is to be done by the naked knife, or through the surer as well as safer medium of empiricism. 9. We shall not have the pain of seeing you, after six months consumed in study or idleness, with a physician, rush forth into the world, and under the thick covering of long, unintelligible terms, a frozen, hypocritical phiz, a blustering advertisement of cures you never performed, and a front like the shield of Ajax, with -Seven thick folds o'ercast, Of tough bull-hide, of solid brass the last, delude the ignorance, empty the purses, and end the lives, of your fellow-creatures. 10. Your minds will not be narrow enough to form nostrums of your own, nor weak enough to venture hastily upon the hidden poison of those which have been formed by others. If accident, your ingenuity, or the course of your practice, shall have given you the knowledge of any method, by which the ravages of sickness may be prevented, the return of health expedited, and the crimson glow more speedily restored to the pallid face; love to mankind, duty to your MAKER, and a generous scorn of that narrowness which limits blessings to one's self, will prompt you to an immediate communication of it to mankind; and the same spirit in your countrymen, will as readily retribute the merited reward. 11. To promote this interesting design, no valuable treatise will be unturned by you, no rational expedient neglected. The science of botany will engage a particular share of your attention. Need I remind you that it is a peculiar mark of the millennial period, that human life shall be lengthened, and that the child shall die a hundred years old? As all events are effected by secondary causes, it is in a high degree probable, that this length of days will be the consequence of an increase of botanical knowledge. The innumerable multitude of plants, for which we know no use, and which nevertheless were not created in vain, add great strength to this conjecture. How happy might you justly esteem yourselves, if, by your industry, you could contribute to the accomplishment of this glorious event! 12. With the same views, in the legal profession you will exert all your abilities to punish guilt, to exculpate innocence, and enlarge the dominion of justice. That meanness, that infernal knavery, which multiplies needless litigations, which retards the operation of justice, which, from court to court, upon the most trifling pretenses, postpones trial, to glean the last emptyings of a client's pocket, for unjust fees of everlasting attendance, which artfully twists the meaning of law to the side we espouse, which seizes unwarrantable advantages from the prepossessions, ignorance, interests and prejudices of a jury, you will shun, rather than death or infamy. 13. Your reasonings will be ever fair and open, your constructions of law candid, your endeavors to procure equitable decisions unremitted. The practice of law in this, and the other American states, within the last twenty years, has been greatly amended; but those eminent characters to whom we are indebted for this amendment, have met with almost insurmountable obstructions to the generous design. They have been obliged to combat interest and prejudice, powerfully exerted to retard the reformation: especially that immovable bias, a fondness for the customs of our fathers. Much therefere remains to be done, before the system can be completed. This is a copious field for the employment of your faculties. May your honest and disinterested labors, for the promotion of so great and valuable a purpose, meet with the success, the reward, and the glory, due to the benefactors of mankind. 14. But there is no scene in which these extensive views will be more necessary, or in which their influence will produce nobler effects, than in the kindred science of legislation and civil government. Should the voice of your countrymen call you to this employment, let it not be said, let it not be thought, that you received an office for which you were unqualified. It is indispensably necessary that the person who acts in this character, should be thoroughly master of the laws, manners, cus |