THE PATRIOT, AT HOME. Every day, the increasing weight of years* ad monishes me, more and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome Satisfied, that, if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 1796. To have finished my public career to the satisfaction of my fellow-citizens, will, to my latest moments, be a matter of pleasing reflection. And to find an evidence of this approbation among my neighbors and friends, (some of whom have been the companions of my juvenile years,) will contribute not a little to heighten this enjoyment. * He was now sixty-four years of age; and he wrote these words three years before his death. If virtue can secure happiness in another world, he is happy. In this, the seal is now put upon his glory. It is no longer in jeopardy from the fickleness of fortune. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, Jan. 2d, 1800. No American who has not been in England, can have a just idea of the admiration, expressed among all parties, of General WashingRUFUS KING, Feb. 6th, 1797. ton. His example: that let us endeavor, by delineating, to impart to mankind. Virtue will place it in her temple, Wisdom in her treasury. FISHER AMES, Feb. 8th, 1800. I find myself just able to hold the pen during a few minutes, and take this opportunity of expressing my sincere grief, for having done, written, or said, any thing disagreeable to your Excellency. My career will soon be over; therefore justice and truth prompt me to declare my last sentiments. You are, in my eyes, the GREAT AND GOOD MAN. May you long enjoy the love, veneration, and esteem of those States, whose liberties you have asserted by your virtues. GENERAL THOMAS CONWAY. NOTE. He was a brigadier-general under Washington, but a wicked calumniator. Gen. Cadwallader challenged him, and dangerously wounded him. Supposing himBelf to be mortally wounded, he wrote these words to Washington. MORAL MAXIMS. I. VIRTUE AND VICE. Vice shuddered at his presence, and Virtue always felt his fostering hand. General HENRY LEE, Dec. 26, 1799. Opinions, subject to the caprice of the world and to time; opinions, weak and changeable, the inheritance of humanity, vanish in the tomb; but glory and virtue live for ever. M. FONTANES, 1800. Soldiers, magistrates, people, all love and admire him; all speak of him in terms of tenderness and veneration. Does there, then, exist a virtue capable of restraining the injustice of mankind; or are glory and happiness too recently established in America, for Envy to have deigned to pass over the seas? The Marquis DE CHASTELLUX. VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS. There is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists, in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity. HUMAN HAPPINESS AND MORAL DUTY. The consideration, that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected, will always continue to prompt me to promote the progress of the former by inculcating the practice of the latter. MORALITY AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. TALENTS, WITHOUT VIRTUE. Without virtue, and without integrity, the finest talents and the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect, and conciliate the esteem, of the truly valuable part of mankind. 1787. IGNORANCE AND WICKEDNESS. There is more of wickedness than ignorance mixed in our Councils. Ignorance and design are difficult to combat. Out of these proceed illiberal sentiments, improper jealousies, and a train of evils, which oftentimes, in republican governments, must be sorely felt, before they can be removed. |