EXEMPLARY PUNISHMENT. Severe examples should, in my judgment, be made of those who were forgiven former offences, and are again in arms against us. 1779. RETALIATION, Retaliation is certainly just, and sometimes necessary, even where attended with the severest penalties. But, when the evils which may and must result from it, exceed those intended to be redressed, prudence and policy require, that it should be avoided. Americans have the feelings of sympathy, as well as other men. A series of injuries may exhaust their patience; and it is natural, that the sufferings of their friends in captivity should, at length, irritate them into resentment, and to acts of retaliation 15 The character of Washington is worthy of the best days of antiquity. . . . It seems as if we had recovered a lost life of some of those illustrious men, whose portraits Plutarch has so well delineated. M. FONTANES, 1800. His course he finished, in the peaceful retreat of his own election, in the arms of a dutiful and affectionate wife, and bedewed with the tears of surrounding relatives and friends, with the unspeakably superior advantage to that of a Roman general, in the hopes afforded by the Gospel of pardon and peace! THE EARL OF BUCHAN, Dryburgh Abbey, Jan. 28, 1800. By an instinct which is unerring, we call Washington, with grateful reverence, THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY. WILLIAM E. CHANNING, D. D. The most humble citizen of the United States may copy his private virtues, and the most lofty and magnanimous spirit cannot propose to itself a more noble object of ambition, than to aspire to an imitation of his public services. In contemplating such a character, our children will equally acquire a reverence for virtue, and a sacred devotion to the obligations of citizens of a free state. JAMES K. PAULDING. Without making ostentatious professions of religion, he was a sincere believer in the Christian faith, and a truly devout man, JOHN MARSHALL, Chief Justice of the United States. The virtues of our departed friend were crowned by piety. He is known to have been habitually devout. To Christian institutions he gave the countenance of his example; and no one could express, more fully, his sense of the Providence of God, and the dependence of man. REV. J. T. KIRKLAND, Dec. 29, 1799. His hopes for his country, were always founded on the righteousness of the cause, and the blessing of Heaven. His was the belief of Reason and Revelation; and that belief was illustrated and exemplified in all his actions. JAMES K. PAULDING. I take the liberty to introduce your august and immortal name in a short sentence, which will be found in the book* I send you. I have a large acquaintance among the most valuable and exalted classes of men; but you are the only human being for whom I ever felt an awful reverence. I sincerely pray God, to grant a long and serene evening to a life so gloriously devoted to the universal happiness of the world. T. ERSKINE, afterward LORD ERSKINE, Lond. 1795. *On the War with France. RELIGIOUS MAXIMS. 1. GOD. Neither in the parade of military life, nor in the cares of civil administration; neither in a state of depression, nor amidst the intoxicating sweets of power and adulation; did he forget to pay homage to the "MOST HIGH, who doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth." WILLIAM LINN, D.D., Feb. 22, 1800. THE EXISTENCE OF A SUPREME BEING. It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe, without the agency of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to govern the universe, without the aid of a Supreme Being. |