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 grate ful 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 ac quire 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. IIe 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. Ilis 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. r 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. It is impossible to reason, without arriving at a Supreme Being./ Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist, without the other. A reasoning being would lose his reason, in attempting to account for the great phenomena of nature, had he not a Supreme Being to refer to; and well has it been said, that if there had been no God, mankind would have been obliged to imagine one./ THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. That great and glorious Being is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be./ THE SOURCE OF ALL BLESSINGS. The sentiments we have mutually expressed, of profound gratitude to the source of those numerous blessings, the Author of all good, are pledges of our obligations, to unite our sincere and zealous endeavors, as the instruments of Divine Providence, to preserve and perpetuate them. 1795. |