THEN rouse! my generous countrymen, rouse! and, filled with the awfulness of our situation, with the glorious spirit of '76, rally around the sacred standard of your country. As good ehildren give her all your support. Respect her AUTHORITY!comply with her laws! acquiesce in her measures! -Thus cemented by love, she shall become like the precious wedge of Ophir that defies the furnace; and coming forth from the fiery trial brighter than ever, she shall shed on the cause of freedom, a dignity and lustre which it never enjoyed before; a lustre which cannot fail to have a favourable influence on the rights of man. Other nations, finding from your example, that men are capable of governing themselves, will aspire to the same honour and felicity. Great and successful struggles will be made for liberty. Free governments (the pure mothers of nations) will at length be established. Honouring all their virtuous children alike, jealousies and hatreds will cease, and cordial love prevail, inviting the industry of all, the blessing of plenty will be spread abroad, and shameless thefts be done away. And wisdom and worth (as in the choice of a free people) being called to high places, errors will be rare. Vices, ashamed, shall hide their odious heads; cruelties seem abhorrent, and wars unknown. Thus, step by step progressing in virtue, the world will ripen for glory, till the great hour of her dissolution being come, the ready archangel shall lift his trumpet, and sound her knell. The last refining flames shall then kindle on this tear-bathed, blood-stained globe, while from its ashes a new earth shall spring, far happier than the first. There, freed from all their imperfections, the spirits of good men (the only true patriots) shall dwell together, and spend their ever brightening days in loves and joys eternal. MAY the Great Founder of your holy republic keep you all under his divine protection; incline your hearts to cultivate a spirit of cheerful subordination to government; to entertain a bro• therly affection and love for one another; and finally dispose you all to do justice; to love mercy; and to demean yourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the DIVINE AUTHOR of our blessed religion; without an humble imitation of whose example, in these things, we can never hope to be a GREAT AND HAPPY NATION." CONCLUSION. WASHINGTON'S WILL. FEW great men are great in every thing. But in the last testament of this extraordinary American, we see some things altogether characteristic. WHEN Benedict Arnold came to die, he said I bequeath my soul to God." WHEN Henry Laurens, president of the first congress, came to die, he said, "My flesh is too good for worms: Igive it to the flames," which was done. BUT WASHINGTON makes no preamble about his soul or body. As to his soul, having made it his great business to re-instamp on it the image of God, he doubted not but it would be remembered, when Christ should come" to make up his jewels." AND as to his body, that admirable piece of divine mechanism, so long the honoured servant of duty to his God and his country, he trusted, that, though "sown in dishonour, it would one day be raised in glory;" so leaving it to rest in hope, he proceeds to the following distribution of his worldly goods: 1st. THOUGH an old husband of 68, yet, with the gallantry and warm affection of a young groom, he gives the whole of his estate (530,000 dollars) to his beloved wife Martha! during her life. 2d LIKE a pure republican, he orders all his slaves to beliberated, at certain ages, on his wife's death lamenting, that from obstacles insurmountable, he could not have done it earlier. 3d. He confirms his former donations, viz. 4000 dollars to a charity school, in the town of Alexandria ; 10,000 dollars to Liberty-Hall Academy, Rockbridge county, Virginia; and 20,000 dollars to a national university, to be founded in Washington; with this remark: "It has always been a source of serious regret with me, to see the youth of these United States sent to foreign countries for education, often before their minds were formed, or they had imbibed just ideas of the happiness of their own; contracting too frequently, not only habits of dissipation and extravagance, but principles unfriendly to republican government, and to the true and genuine liberties of mankind. "FOR these reasons, it has been my ardent wish to see a university in a central part of the union, to which the youth of fortune and talents, from all parts thereof, may be sent for the completion of their education in all the branches of polite and useful learning, and especially of POLITICS AND GOOD GOVERNMENT; and also that, by associating with each other, and forming friendships in early life, they may be enabled to free themselves from those local prejudices and state jealousies, which are never-failing sources of disquietude to the public mind, and pregnant with mischievous consequences to this country." 4th. HAVING no children, he bequeaths the whole of his estate, a few legacies excepted, to the children, 23 in number, of his brothers and sister; and, like a generous and affectionate relative, he gave to the children of his half brother, Augustin, equally as to those of his own brothers. And, 'tis a most pleasing fact, he gave to his wife's grand-children in like liberal measure with his own nieces and nephews! the part given to each has been computed at 20,000 dollars. FINIS |