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XIV.

begun to think that he ought also to permit himself to CHAPTER be raised a third time to the presidency, in order to still once more the contests of party, and to save the country 1799. from the internal dangers that threatened it.

All such thoughts were now vain. Nothing remained but to testify, by due honors, the feeling of his worth. Immediately, on the first report of his death, both houses Dec. 19. adjourned. The next day Marshall announced the confirmation of this afflicting intelligence, and after giving a brief but comprehensive sketch of Washington's public life and services, he moved that the House wait upon the president in condolence; that its members and officers go into mourning; and that the House proceed toward the appointment of a joint committee to consider of some suitable honors to the memory of the man "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

The Senate addressed a letter of condolence to the president, and concurred in the appointment of the joint committee; upon whose report both houses resolved upon Dec. 23. a funeral ceremony, an oration to be pronounced before the two houses by a member of Congress, the sympathies of Congress to be conveyed to the widow, the president to be requested to recommend to the people of the United States to wear badges of mourning for thirty days; and that a suitable monument be erected by the United States in the Capitol at the new Federal city, designed to commemorate the great events of Washington's military and political life, the permission of his family be asked to deposit his remains beneath it.

The oration before Congress was pronounced by Hen- Dec. 20. ry Lee, who had enjoyed the intimate personal friendship of Washington. Another resolution was shortly aft

er adopted, recommending that the people generally as- Dec. 30.

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rene.

CHAPTER ed devotion to his country's cause, such, indeed, as many public men, or their followers for them, pretend to, but 1799. the credit of which very few get and still fewer deserve. History records many names that dazzle the imagination with a greater brilliancy, but few, indeed, that shine with a light so pure, steady, permanent, penetrating, and seWashington's character and reputation, as contrasted with those of many other famous men, seem to resemble in effect the Doric in architecture as compared with the Gothic and Oriental styles. Those styles often excite, especially in minds peculiarly liable to vivid impressions, the most enthusiastic pitch of admiration, appealing, as they do, not alone nor chiefly to the sentiment of the beautiful, but to the powerful emotions, also, of surprise and wonder, growing out of novelty, variety, complication, and vastness. But these are emotions, especially if we take into account the mass of men and succeeding generations, liable to great fluctuations, often subsiding into indifference, sometimes sinking into contempt; while the serener sentiments, always and every where inspired by majesty, order, proportion, grace, and fitness, are not less steady, universal, and enduring than the perceptions from which they spring.

The loss of this great man, especially at this critical moment, was a terrible blow to the Federal party, of which he had always been the main pillar and support. The confidence so almost universally reposed in his vir tue and his wisdom had been a tower of strength against which the furious waves of the opposition had dashed harmless; and in the present unhappy divisions among the Federal leaders, many eyes had begun to turn again toward him, as called upon for further labors and sacrifices. As he had consented again to gird on his sword to repel the foreign enemies of his country, many had

DEATH OF WASHINGTON.

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begun to think that he ought also to permit himself to CHAPTER
be raised a third time to the presidency, in order to still.
once more the contests of party, and to save the country 1799.
from the internal dangers that threatened it.

All such thoughts were now vain. Nothing remained
but to testify, by due honors, the feeling of his worth.
Immediately, on the first report of his death, both houses Dec. 19.
adjourned. The next day Marshall announced the con-
firmation of this afflicting intelligence, and after giving
a brief but comprehensive sketch of Washington's pub-
lic life and services, he moved that the House wait upon
the president in condolence; that its members and offi-
cers go into mourning; and that the House proceed to-
ward the appointment of a joint committee to consider
of some suitable honors to the memory of the man "first
in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his coun-
trymen."

The Senate addressed a letter of condolence to the president, and concurred in the appointment of the joint committee; upon whose report both houses resolved upon Dec. 23. a funeral ceremony, an oration to be pronounced before the two houses by a member of Congress, the sympathies of Congress to be conveyed to the widow, the president to be requested to recommend to the people of the United States to wear badges of mourning for thirty days; and that a suitable monument be erected by the United States in the Capitol at the new Federal city, designed to commemorate the great events of Washington's military and political life, the permission of his family be asked to deposit his remains beneath it.

The oration before Congress was pronounced by Hen- Dec. 26. ry Lee, who had enjoyed the intimate personal friendship of Washington. Another resolution was shortly aft

er adopted, recommending that the people generally as- Dec. 30.

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CHAPTER semble on the approaching anniversary of Washington's birth publicly to testify their grief for his death "by 1800. suitable eulogies, orations, and discourses, or by public Feb. 22. prayers." That day was accordingly solemnly observed throughout a great part of the Union; Hamilton, Ames, and many orators of less fame standing forth as spokesmen of the people's grief. Nowhere was that grief more deep than in New England, where Washington's lofty virtue and practical good sense had struck a more responsive chord than even in his native state. To New England, indeed, he had ever looked, and never in vain, for his steadiest support, whether in war or in peace, whether as general or as president.

Jan. 2.

On

Nor was it in America alone that Washington's virtues were acknowledged and his death lamented. hearing the sad news, the great British fleet of sixty ships of the line, employed to guard the English Channel, then lying in Torbay under the command of Lord Bridport, lowered their flags to half mast. Bonaparte, by this time first consul of France, paid also a tribute to Washington's memory in an order of the day to the French army; after which a funeral oration was pronounced before the first consul and the civil and military authorities.

Yet, in the midst of this universal mourning, scoffers and malcontents were not wanting. Some of those newspapers which had slandered Washington while alive, Callender's among the number, complained, in the very spirit of Judas Iscariot, that the honors bestowed upon his memory were idolatrous-and too expensive. Why was not this spikenard sold and the proceeds given to the poor?

Scarcely was the business of Congress resumed, when the equanimity of the Southern members was not a little

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disturbed by a petition from certain free colored inhabit- CHAPTER ants of the city and county of Philadelphia, presented by Waln, the city representative, setting forth that the slave 1800. trade to the coast of Guinea, for the supply of foreign nations, was clandestinely carried on from various ports of the United States; that colored freemen were seized, fettered, and sold as slaves in various parts of the country; and that the Fugitive Law of 1793 was attended in its execution by many hard and distressing circumstances. The petitioners, knowing the limits to the authority of the general government, did not ask for the immediate emancipation of all those held in bondage; yet they begged Congress to exert every means in its power to undo the heavy burdens, and to prepare the way for the oppressed to go free. Attention had recently been drawn to slavery and the slave trade, not only by alleged violations of the act forbidding American vessels to assist in the supply of foreign slave-markets, but much more forcibly by a recent conspiracy, or alleged conspiracy, in Virginia, which had produced a great alarm, resulting in the execution of several slaves charged as having been concerned in it. A great clamor was excited by Waln's motion to refer this petition to a committee already raised on the subject of the slave trade; a reference vehemently opposed, not only by Rutledge, Harper, Lee, Randolph, and other Southern members, on the ground that the petition intermeddled with matters over which Congress had no control, but also by Otis of Boston, and Brown of Rhode Island, whose vehemence was even greater, if pos sible, than that of the members from the South. Waln, Thatcher, Smilie, Dana, and Gallatin argued, on the other hand, that, as parts of the petition were certainly within the jurisdiction of Congress, it ought to be received and acted upon. The particulars of this debate

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