AN ESSAY ON THE LIFE OF THE HONOURABLE MAJOR-GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. ADDRESSED TO THE STATE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI IN CONNECTICUT, AND PUBLISHED BY THEIR ORDER. TO THE HON. COL. JEREMIAH WADSWORTH, President of the State Society of the Cincinnati MY DEAR SIR, UNAVOIDABLE absence will prevent me from performing the grateful task assigned me by the State Society of the Cincin nati on the fourth day of July next. Though I cannot personally address them, I wish to demonstrate, by some token of affectionate remembrance, the sense I entertain of the honour they have more than once conferred upon me by their suffrages. Meditating in what manner to accomplish this object, it oc curred to me, that an attempt to preserve the actions of General Putnam, in the archives of our State Society, would be acceptable to its members, as they had all served with great satisfaction under his immediate orders. An essay on the life of a person so elevated in military rank, and so conversant in extraordinary scenes, could not be destitute of amusement and instruction, and would possess the advantage of presenting for imitation a respectable model of public and private virtues. General Putnam is universally acknowledged to have been as brave and as honest a man as ever America produced; but the distinguishing features of his character, and the particular transactions of his life, are but imperfectly known. He seems to have been formed on purpose for the age in which he lived His native courage, unshaken integrity, and established reputation as a soldier, were necessary in the early stages of our opposition to the designs of Great-Britain, and gave unbounded confidence to our troops in their first conflicts in the field of battle. The enclosed manuscript justly claims indulgence for its venial errors, as it is the first effort in Biography that has been made on this continent. The attempt, I am conscious, is laudable, what ever may be the failure in point of execution. 4 I am happy to find the Society of the Cincinnati is now gene. rally regarded in a favourable manner. Mankind, with few exceptions, are disposed to do justice to the motives on which it was founded. For ourselves, we can never recall to mind the occasion, without feeling the most tender emotions of friendship and sensibility. At the dissolution of the army, when we retired to separate walks of life, from the toils of a successful war, in which we had been associated during a very important part of our lives, the pleasing idea, and the fond hope of meeting once a year, which gave birth to our fraternal institution, were necessary consolations to sooth the pangs that tore our bosoms at the melancholy hour of parting. When our hands touched, perhaps for the last time, and our tongues refused to perform their office in bidding farewell, heaven witnessed and approved the purity of our intentions in the ardour of our affections. May we persevere in the union of our friendship, and the exertion of our benevolence; regardless of the censures of jealous suspicion, which charges our designs with selfishness, and ascribes our actions to improper motives; while we realize sentiments of a nobler nature in our anniversary festivities, and our hearts dilate with an honest joy, in opening the hand of beneficence to the indigent widow and unprotected orphan of our departed friends. I pray you, my dear Sir, to present my most respectful compliments to the members of the Society, and to assure them, on my part, that whensoever it shall be in my power, I shall esteem it the felicity of my life to attend their anniversaries. I have the honour to be, With sentiments of the highest consideration and esteem, Mount-Vernon, in Virginia, June 4, 1788. D. HUMPHREYS, AN ESSAY ON THE LIFE OF GENERAL PUTNAM. To treat of recent transactions and persons still living, is always a delicate, and frequently a thankless office. Yet, while the partiality of friends, or the malignity of enemies, decides with rashness on every delineation of character, or recital of circumstances, a consolation remains, that distant nations, and remoter ages, free from the influence of prejudice or passion, will judge with impartiality, and appreciate with justice. We have fallen upon an æra singularly prolific in extraordinary personages, and dignified by splendid events. Much is expected from the selections of the judicious biographer, as well as from the labours of the faithful historian. Whatever prudential reasons may now occur to postpone the portrait of our own times, the difficulties which oppose themselves to the execution, instead of being diminished, will increase with the lapse of years. Every day will extinguish some life that was dear to fame, and obliterate the memorial of some deed which would have constituted the delight and admiration of the world. So transient and indistinguishable are the traits of character, so various and inexplicable the springs of action, so obscure and perishable the remembrance of human affairs, that, unless attempts are made to sketch the picture, while the present generation is living, the likeness will be for ever lost, or only preserved by a vague recollection; disguised, perhaps, by the whimsical colourings of a creative imagination. It will, doubtless, hereafter be an object of regret, that those who, having themselves been conspicuous actors on the theatre of public life, and who, in conjunction with a knowledge of facts, possess abilities to paint those characters, and describe those events which, during the progress of the American Revolution, interested and astonished mankind, should feel an insuperable reluctance to assume the task a task which, if executed with fidelity, must, from the dignity of its subject, become grateful to the patriots of all nations, and profitable in example to the remotest posterity. Equally severe will be the mortification of contemplating the reveries and fictions which have been substituted by hacknied writers |
