ORATION OVER ALEXANDER HAMILTON[4]

BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS


My Friends:--If on this sad, this solemn occasion, I should endeavor to
move your commiseration, it would be doing injustice to that sensibility
which has been so generally and so justly manifested. Far from
attempting to excite your emotions, I must try to repress my own; and
yet, I fear, that instead of the language of a public speaker, you will
hear only the lamentations of a wailing friend. But I will struggle with
my bursting heart, to portray that heroic spirit, which has flown to
the mansions of bliss.

Students of Columbia--he was in the ardent pursuit of knowledge in your
academic shades when the first sound of the American war called him to
the field. A young and unprotected volunteer, such was his zeal, and so
brilliant his service, that we heard his name before we knew his person.
It seemed as if God had called him suddenly into existence, that he
might assist to save a world! The penetrating eye of Washington soon
perceived the manly spirit which animated his youthful bosom. By that
excellent judge of men he was selected as an aid, and thus he became
early acquainted with, and was a principal actor in the more important
scenes of our revolution. At the siege of York he pertinaciously
insisted on, and he obtained the command of a Forlorn Hope. He stormed
the redoubt; but let it be recorded that not one single man of the enemy
perished. His gallant troops, emulating the heroism of their chief
checked the uplifted arm, and spared a foe no longer resisting. Here
closed his military career.