After such services, which consecrate your name to all posterity, with what home-felt satisfaction must your future days be blest! Heaven crown them with every favor! May you live long, my dear General, and long have the joy to see the increasing splendor and prosperity of a rising nation, aided by your counsels, and defended by your sword! Indulge me the pleasure to believe, that I have a place in your recollections, and still honor and make me happy in your friendship. JOHN HANCOCK, Oct. 15, 1783. You have wisely retired from public employments, and calmly view, from the temple of Fame, the various exertions of that sovereignty and independence, which Providence has enabled you to be so greatly and gloriously instrumental in securing to your country. Yet, I am persuaded, that you cannot view them with the eye of an unconcerned spectator. JOHN JAY, 1786. He was one of those virtuous citizens, to whom the world refuses the credit of genius, because they are not beset with a destructive restlessness, nor devoured with the ambition of domineering over mankind; but who really deserve the name of GREAT, better than many others, because their number is rare. FELIX BODIN. SOCIAL MAXIMS. I. FRIENDSHIP. In mourning the loss of the Man of the Age, I equally mourn that of the longtried patron, the kind a d unchanging friend. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, Dec. 1799. Every mark of friendship I receive from you, adds to my happiness, is I love you with all the sincerity and warmth of my heart; and the sentiment I feel for you goes to the very extent of my affections. LAFAYETTE, May, 1781. LOVE AND GRATITUDE OF A FRIEND. Your forward zeal in the cause of liberty; your singular attachment to this infant world; your ardent and persevering efforts, not only in America, but since your return to France, to serve the United States; your polite attentions to Americans, and your strict and * The Marquis de Lafayette. uniform friendship for me, have ripened the first impressions of esteem and attachment which I imbibed for you, into such perfect love and gratitude, as neither time nor absence can impair. 1779. PARTING EMOTIONS. In the moment of our separation, upon the road as I travelled, and every hour since, I have felt all that love, respect, and attachment for you, with which length of years, close connection, and your merits have inspired me. I often asked myself, as our carriages separated, whether that was the last sight I should ever have of you. And though I wished to say No, my fears answered Yes. I called to mind the days of my youth, and found they had long since fled, to return no more; that I was now descending the hill I had been fifty-two years climbing; and that, though I was blessed with a good constitution, I was of a short-lived family, and might soon expect to be entombed in the mansion of my fathers. These thoughts darkened the shades, and gave a gloom to the picture, and consequently to my prospect of seeing you again. But I will not repine; I have had my day. 1784. * Lafayette. PERPETUITY OF FRIENDSHIP. It is my wish, that the mutual friendship and esteem, which have been planted and fostered in the tumult of public life, may not wither and die in the serenity of retirement. We should amuse our evening hours of life, in cultivating the tender plants, and bringing them to perfection, before they are transplanted to a happier clime. FRIENDLY ADVICE. The opinion and advice of friends I receive, at all times, as a proof of their friendship, and am thankful when they are offered. NATURE OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity, before it is entitled to the appellation. |