unworthy of the general regard. Among his own countrymen it will
unquestionably excite the deepest interest.

As if the chosen instrument of Heaven, selected for the purpose of
effecting the great designs of Providence respecting this our western
hemisphere, it was the peculiar lot of this distinguished man, at
every epoch when the destinies of his country seemed dependent on the
measures adopted, to be called by the united voice of his fellow
citizens to those high stations on which the success of those measures
principally depended. It was his peculiar lot to be equally useful in
obtaining the independence, and consolidating the civil institutions,
of his country. We perceive him at the head of her armies, during a
most arduous and perilous war on the events of which her national
existence was staked, supporting with invincible fortitude the unequal
conflict. That war being happily terminated, and the political
revolutions of America requiring that he should once more relinquish
his beloved retirement, we find him guiding her councils with the same
firmness, wisdom, and virtue, which had, long and successfully, been
displayed in the field. We behold him her chief magistrate at a time
when her happiness, her liberty, perhaps her preservation depended on
so administering the affairs of the Union, that a government standing
entirely on the public favour, which had with infinite difficulty been
adopted, and against which the most inveterate prejudices had been
excited, should conciliate public opinion, and acquire a firmness and
stability that would enable it to resist the rude shocks it was
destined to sustain. It was too his peculiar fortune to afford the
brightest examples of moderation and patriotism, by voluntarily
divesting himself of the highest military and civil honours when the
public interests no longer demanded that he should retain them. We
find him retiring from the head of a victorious and discontented army