jult to you, and so honorable to themselves, to embrace

I owe to the goodness of the House of Representatives, the honor which their respective resolutions confer on my humble efforts to execute their wish.

I CAN never disobey their will, and therefore will furnish a copy of the oration delivered on the late afflicting occafion, much as I had flattered myself with a different disposition of it.

SINCERELY reciprocating the perfonal confidera

tions with which you honor me,

I am very respectfully, fir,

your friend and ob't servant

The Speaker of the House

of Representatives.

}

HENRY LEE.

Funeral Oration

ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL WASHINGTON. DELIVERED BY THE HON. MR. LEE, м. с.

IN obedience to your will, I rife your humble

organ, with the hope of executing a part of the system of public mourning which you have been pleased to adopt, commemorative of the death of the most illustrious and most beloved perfonage this country has ever produced ; and when, while it tranfmits to posterity your sense of the awful event, faithfully represents your knowledge of the confummate excellence you so cordially honor.

DESPERATE indeed is any attempt on earth to meet correspondently this dispensation of heaven; for, while with pious refignation we submit to the will of an all-gracious Providence, we can never cease lamenting in our finite view of Omnipotent wisdom, the heart-rending privation for which our nation weeps. When the civilized world shakes to its centre; when every moment gives birth to strange and nomentous changes; when our peaceful quarter of the globe, exempt as it happily has been from any share in the flaughter of the human race, may yet be compelled to abandon her pacific policy, and to rifk the doleful cafualties of war: What limit is there to the extent of our loss? - None within the reach of my words to express: none which your feelings will not difavow.

* The two Houses of Congress.

THE founder of our federal republic-our bulwark in

war, our guide in peace, is no more. Oh that this was but questionable! Hope, the comforter of the wretched, would pour into our agonized hearts its balmy dew. But alas! there is no hope for us; our WASHINGTON is removed forever. Poffeffing the stouteft frame, and purest mind, he had passed nearly to his fixty-eighth year, in the enjoyment of high health, when habituated by his care of us to neglect himself, a flight cold, difregarded, became inconvenient on Friday, oppreffive on Saturday, and defying every medical interpofition, before the morning of Sunday, put an end to the best of men. An end did I fay-His fame survives! bounded only by the limits of the earth, and by the extent of the human mind. He furvives in our hearts, in the growing knowledge of our children, in the affection of the good throughout the world; and when our monuments will be done away; when nations now exifting shall be no more; when even our young and far-spreading empire shall have perished, still will our WASHINGTON'S glory unfaded fhine, and die not, until love of virtue cease on earth, or earth itself finks into chaos.

How, my fellow-citizens, shall I fingle to your grateful hearts his pre-eminent worth! Where shall I begin in opening to your view a character throughout fublime. Shall I speak of his warlike atchievements, all springing from obedience to his country's will-all directed to his country's good?

N

WILL you go with me to the banks of the Monongahela, to see your youthful WASHINGTON, supporting in the dismal hour of Indian victory, the ill fated Braddock, and saving, by his judgement and by his valor, the remains of a defeated army, pressed by the conquering savage foe ? Or, when oppressed America, nobly resolving to risk her all in defence of her violated rights, he was elevated by the unanimous voice of Congress to the command of her armies: Will you follow him to the high grounds of Bofton, where to an undifciplined, courageous and virtuous yeomanry, his presence gave the stability of system, and infused the invincibility of love of country : Or shall I carry you to the painful scenes of Long-Island, York-Island and New-Jersey, when combating superior and gallant armies, aided by powerful fleets, and led by chiefs high in the roll of fame, he stood the bulwark of our safety; undismayed by disaster; unchanged by change of fortune.Or will you view him in the precarious fields of Trenton, where deep gloom unnerving every arm, reigned triumphant through our thinned, worn down unaided ranks: himself unmoyed. Dreadful was the night; it was about this time of winter-The storm raged-the Delaware rolling furioufly with floating ice forbad the approach of man. WASHINGTON, self collected, viewed the dreadful scene-his country called; unappalled by furrounding dangers, he paffed to the hoftile shore; he fought; he conquered. The morning fun cheered the American world. Our country rofe on the event; and her dauntless chief pursuing his blow, completed in the lawns of Princeton, what his vaft foul had conceived on the shores of Delaware.

THENCE to the strong grounds of Morris-Town he led his small but gallant band; and through an eventful winter, by the high efforts of his genius, whose matchless force was measurable only by the growth of difficulties, he held in check formidable hoftile legions, conducted by a Chief experienced in the art of war, and famed for his valor on the ever-memorable heights of Abraham, where fell Wolfe, Montcalm, and since our much lamented Montgomery; all covered with glory. In this fortunate interval, produced by his masterly conduct, our fathers, ourselves, animated by his resistless example, rallied round our country's standard, and continued to follow her beloved Chief, throughout the various and trying scenes to which the desti. nies of our union led. Who is there that has forgotten the vales of Brandywine, the fields of Germantown, or the plains of Monmouth'; every where present, wants of every kind obstructing, numerous and valliant armies encountering, himself a host, he assuaged our sufferings, limited our privations, and upheld our tottering republic. Shall I display to you the spread of the fire of his soul, by rehearfing the praites of the hero of Saratoga, and his much loved compeer of the Carolina's? No; our WASHINGTON wears not borrowed glory : To Gates to Greene, he gave without referve the applause due to their eminent merit; and long may the Chiefs of Saratoga, and of Eutaws, receive the grateful respect of a grateful people.

MOVING in his own orbit, he imparted heat and light to his most distant satellites; and combining the physical and moral force of all within his fphere, with irresistable weight