AN 
 
 ORATION, 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE 22d OF FEBRUARY, 1815, 
 
 WASHINGTON HALL, 
 
 IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 BEFORE, 
 
 
 THE HAMILTON SOCIETY, 
 
 BY DAVID RAYMOND. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY A. T. GOODRICH, NO. 124, BROADWAY. 
 
 J. Seymour, printer. 
 
 1813. 
 
"HARMONY-HALL, March 2, 1813. 
 " Resolved, 7 /m t/te thanks of the Society be pre 
 sented to Mr, David Raymond, for his excellent Ora-, 
 tion, delivered at their request, on the anniversary of 
 our beloved Washington, and that Messrs. Hunting- 
 ton, Batlard, and Halsey, be appointed a Committee 
 to carry this resolution into effect, and to request a copy 
 for the press." 
 
 (Extract from the Minutes.) 
 
 JL HOLDEN, Secy. 
 
ORATION, 
 
 Sp. 
 
 THIS is the evening of Washington s birth-day; a 
 day dear to every American bosom. May it never 
 pass by, without a tribute to his memory! We have 
 this day heard his character depicted with a warmth 
 of feeling", and a force of language, inferior only to 
 the virtues and talents on which they dwelt*. To 
 attempt the same subject, would only be to diminish 
 your impressions. I have therefore taken a different 
 course, and shall venture to address you on general 
 topics. 
 
 The objects for which the Hamilton Society was 
 formed, are not such as we would wish to conceal. - 
 They are equally honourable and useful. It was not 
 estaolished as a political engine. It was intended to 
 have no direct bearing on the government of our 
 country. Its objects were, to spread the principles of 
 Washington and Hamilton among the young men of 
 our city ; and, by exciting an emulation of their vir 
 tues, to raise up others who would be worthy to fill 
 their places. Noble are the objects we have in view ! 
 High is the excellence we have selected for imita 
 tion ! As bearing on one of those objects, and as 
 calculated, I would hope, to promote it, I have select- 
 
 * Alluding to the Oration delivered in the morning, before 
 the Washington Society, 
 
 ;6 
 
ed. for the subject of the present address, v the pursuits, 
 character, and fortunes of the States! --M-I. To treat 
 the subject as it deserves, would require a volume : 
 I shall be able, only to take a passing- glance, and 
 make a few cur >ry observations. 
 
 It was the juaxim of Nouiantia, that her only bul- 
 Vi yrk was ii>6- leasts of her citizens. At a time when 
 , . all .cities -were wailed, she had no walls around her, 
 etrid never was any city more ably defended. What 
 was true in Numantia, is true in every country in the 
 world : there is no effectual defence for any country, 
 save the breasts of its citizens. But courage in the 
 day of battle, is only part of the great apparatus of 
 means necessary to preserve the liberty of a country. 
 The heads of our statesmen are of as much greater 
 consequence than the hearts of our soldiers, as the 
 hand which sets a machine in motion, is of more ac 
 count than the machine which it moves. 
 
 The political virtues and talents which rise to dis 
 tinction in the effort by which a people breaks its own 
 chains, and redeems itself from bondage, are the life 
 and soul of the liberty which such a people procures. 
 The Greeks, after a long winter of oppression and 
 slavery, were declared a free people, by the Emperor 
 Adrian he made them a present 01 their liberty ; but 
 the world looked in vain, to see them awake from the 
 slumber of three centuries to rival their forefathers, to 
 act over again the pass of Thermopylae, the battle of 
 Marathon, and the orations of Demosthenes. The 
 Lycurguses and Solons, who in a successful contest for 
 liberty, would have reached an ascendant, and acquir 
 ed an influence, such as might perhaps have enabled 
 them to revive the constitutions, the laws, and the 
 
manners of other times, remained in obscurity. Had 
 the American States, like the Greeks, received their 
 liberty as a voluntary boon ; had they obtained it with 
 out a struggle, it might have been not worth receiv 
 ing. It might have been like a watch in the hand of 
 a savage, precious indeed, but useless to one who is 
 unable to wind up its springs. Where would have 
 been the commanding talents which have formed us a 
 government, which have decided between jarring in 
 terests, and appeased factious commotions ; and where 
 the weight of character, which was the last stake to 
 play in favour of unpopular but essential measures? 
 The war which procured us our liberty, made it valu 
 able to us, by calling forth virtues and talents which 
 were capable of controlling and directing us when free. 
 
 But able and virtuous statesmen are not less neces 
 sary now, and will not be less necessary hereafter, 
 than they were at the eventful close of our revolution. 
 No political contrivance is a perpetual motion ; the 
 same powers are required to keep it in operation, 
 which were required to give the first impulse. I can 
 imagine the Genius of the United States crowning 
 with his hand those who have deserved well of their 
 country, but his eye is directed to the rising genera 
 tion. 
 
 The government under which we live is an experi 
 ment in politics ; and it has been thought a spectacle 
 interesting to the world, to see how a people perfectly 
 free would manage their affairs. Li relation to a go 
 vernment so popular as ours, we may be allowed to 
 ask, with an anxiety bordering oi< fear, where are 
 we to look for that vast amount of political talents and 
 legislative wisdom, of the power of persuasion and the 
 
. 6 
 
 authority of character, which will be necessary to its 
 energetic and beneficial administration? 
 
 The public affairs of a popular, are immeasurably 
 more complicated in their nature aiid difficult in their 
 management, than those of a despotic, government. 
 This arises from the different principles on which they 
 are founded. It is the maxim of the one, that the peo 
 ple are made for the benefit of the government ; of the 
 other, that the government is established for the benefit 
 of the people. In a government like ours, what a bo 
 dy of civil rights to be preserved, what a variety of 
 interests, growing out of the commercial enterprise of 
 a free people, to be watched over and proiect ed ! 
 But what, on the other hand, are civil rights in a despo 
 tism P Search for them in the code of French con 
 scriptions. What is the patronage afforded to com 
 merce ? Ask the modern Attila, who has resolved to 
 annihilate this Mother of wealth, because she nurses 
 a spirit of liberty dangerous to tyrants. 
 
 In despotic governments, also, the will of the sove 
 reign is law, and his minister has nothing to do but 
 obey. In popular governments, the exigencies of the 
 state are not only to be provided for, but the very sove 
 reign is to be controlled : and those who have made the 
 experiment, are best able to tell, how difficult it is " to 
 rule the wilderness of free minds." In such a go 
 vernment no man is born a Statesman. However 
 great his powers may be by nature, those powers 
 must be enlarged, adorned, and perfected by art. It 
 has been said of the orator, nascitur Poeta, Orator Jit, 
 and the remark may be applied to the statesman, who 
 in fact is only a more accomplished orator. 
 
 Political science is a science by itself. It is not 
 embraced in the studies which fit us tor ordinary pur- 
 
suits. Considered in its broadest sense, it compre 
 hends history, or the experience of past ag % es, legisla 
 tion* finance, the causes of internal prosperity, the 
 mewis of external defence, public law, and foreign 
 relations. Those who wish to learn what stores of 
 knowledge are necessary to expand and supply the 
 mind of the statesman, may satisfy their curiosity by 
 examining the writings and speeches of Burke and the 
 Pitts, of Hamilton and Ames. To become master of a 
 science so extensive, requires time, labour, and study : 
 it affords scope for the exertions of all the powers of 
 the most powerful minds. 
 
 There is a class of men in England who are states 
 men by profession, and who devote their lives to po- 
 Htical studies and public affairs. The profession of 
 law may be considered as better calculated to form a 
 statesman than any other profession or business, on ac 
 count of the studies which belong to it, and the habits 
 of public speaking to which it accustoms its members; 
 but the English will not acknowledge that a lawyer, 
 or that any man who does not make political studies 
 and pursuits the business of life, is qualified for a 
 statesman. Erskine, though oi,e of the profoundest 
 lawyers and greatest forensic orators who ever aston 
 ished and charmed the world, was never allowed by 
 the English, as a parliamentary speaker or a statesman, 
 to hold rank with their professional politicians. 
 
 The less complicated nature of public affairs in our 
 own country, renders such an exclusive devotion to 
 political studies and pursuits, perhaps unnecessary, 
 We must admit, however, that be his business or pro 
 fession what it may, the man who begins his political 
 labours early in life, starts with the fairest prospects 
 
8 
 
 of usefulness and fame. Parliamentary eloquence 
 differs from that of the bar, and he who has long been 
 formed to the one, will seldom reach the highest ex 
 cellence in the other. The man who wishes to excel 
 in that kind of public speaking, which has most 
 weight in deliberative assemblies, should enter the 
 great school where it is best learned, in the ardour of 
 youth, and before his habits are formed. The great 
 orators who have figured in the English parliament, 
 have begun their political life thus early. We may 
 all of us remember the charge of Mr. Walpole against 
 the tirst William Pitt, of being a young man, and the 
 young orator s reply. The second William Pitt, and 
 Charles Fox, were but boys when they entered parlia 
 ment. 
 
 The character, also, which is acquired by a long ac 
 quaintance with the public, is of as much value to the 
 Statesman, as the talents on which it is founded. The 
 character of the illustrious Washington, was the great 
 barrier which resisted the inundation of French prin 
 ciples and French policy, during his administration. 
 It is curious to observe, in looking into our history, 
 how carefully our patriots managed that character, 
 how anxious they were, never to hazard its influence 
 \vhere any other stake would answer, and to reserve 
 it for the dernier resource. So commanding was the 
 character of Lord Chatham, that his word ran like an 
 electric shock through the British empire. Such a 
 character is not the acquisition of a day. It is difficult 
 to acquire it by going late into public life, or by oc 
 casionally entering and retiring from it. Seldom is 
 it acquired but by a long course oi public labours, or 
 the devotion of a whole life. 
 
But are not political talents dangerous in a repub 
 lic ? They are apt to be ambitious, and ambition has 
 made Caesars. 
 
 Talents are power, and power may be abused. 
 Hence it is impossible to look upon great talents, even 
 in the abstract, without something like terror. We 
 are ready to say, what would be the consequence, 
 should the possessor of this mighty mind, like the 
 strong man of the Scriptures, grasp with an evil hand, 
 the pillars of the state? But a moment s reflection 
 \vill teach us, that there is little danger to liberty, from 
 the talents which are able, and the ambition which as 
 pires, to serve the public in a civil capacity. Statesmen, 
 have ever been the friends of liberty. They were 
 Generals, the leaders of an overgrown military pow 
 er, who have been its oppressors. It was the States 
 men of Rome, who preserved her free constitution for 
 so many centuries ; it was he who conquered at Phar- 
 salia, that trampled it in the dust. 
 
 Ambition, as usually applied to the statesman, is a 
 word which appears to signify much, but defines no 
 thing. It is a convenient term of reproach, which im 
 becility or malice may throw out with impunity, to 
 sully the lustre of the brightest talents, or vilify the 
 motives of the purest patriotism. But are not states 
 men necessary to the prosperity and liberty of a coun 
 try ? Why then should service in the cabinet be deem 
 ed less honourable and meritorious, than on the ocean, 
 or in the field P 
 
 The public service, in a civil capacity, ought ever 
 to be honourable ; it ought to be honourable to seek it 
 to press into it, Should the employments of the States 
 man, on the contrary, ever become disreputable 
 
16 
 
 should men of talents and character, endeavour rather 
 to avoid than to obtain them mark the event as 
 an omen that the time is at hand, when our coun 
 trymen, like the modern Greeks, will point to the mo 
 numents of former greatness, and say we once were 
 free ! 
 
 But the worst and most dangerous shape in which 
 great talents can appear in republics, is in the violence 
 of party struggles ; and those struggles occupy too 
 much of the time of their Statesmen, and form too 
 great a part of their political history, to be passed over 
 in silence. "W here the aspirations of talents and am 
 bition are left free as air, many will step forward emu 
 lous of distinction. Opinions pertinaciously adhered 
 to, and violently opposed, will be the result. 
 
 Much speculation has been employed on party spirit 
 Hamilton and Ames did not think it a subject beneath 
 them. It is indeed a subject vitally interesting to a 
 free people. Some have contended, that party spirit 
 was not only inevitable, but useful in a republic : others, 
 that it was the destroying angel of free constitutions, 
 and that its dreadful energies were sufficiently develop 
 ed, in the little republics of Greece, and the greater re 
 public of Rome. That difference of opinion in free 
 governments is inevitable, will not be denied ; and it 
 is vain to conjecture the consequences of a state of 
 things which cannot exist. It is peopling Plato s Re 
 public or Moore s Utopia. The only question can be ? 
 whether we ought to throw a loose reia on the neck 
 of this wild passion, and leave it to the fury of its own 
 phrenzied career, or to endeavour to check its fierce 
 ness and allay its fire ? 
 
 It is true, that free discussion and difference of 
 
opinion, render a people vigilant and attentive to their 
 rights, and raise up a class of men who have perspi 
 cacity to see, and boldness to repel, any attempt to in 
 vade them. Like natural fire, if party spirit be watch 
 ed over and controlled, there can be little doubt of its 
 utility. But the flame which burns so mildly on the 
 hearth, may burst forth into a conflagration, and 
 spreading its sheeted brightness on the darkness of 
 night, become the beacon of terror. If. we could 
 confine the strife of party within the limits of fair ar 
 gument ; if we could lay down laws which it would 
 not dare to transgress, what is the worst of masters, 
 might become a useful servant. The contest of par 
 ties would then resemble, not so much the fights of 
 gladiators, as the logical disputes of the schools ; and 
 the champions skilled in all the thrusts and parries of 
 the forum, would cause neither anxiety nor alarm. 
 Other contests have their laws. There are certain 
 things which it is considered disgraceful to do in war, 
 and which are therefore never done. Even the rude 
 and plundering clans, who formerly lived in a state 
 of constant hostility on the borders of England and 
 Scotland, had their laws of honour, which, if we may 
 believe the poet, they faithfully observed : 
 
 " His buckler scarce in breadth a span, 
 
 No larger fence had he ; 
 He never counted him a man 
 
 Would strike below the knee." 
 
 Dueling too has its laws ; but the age of chivalry is 
 over, and he who shall succeed in framing a code, that 
 shall be acknowledged by parties, may next attempt 
 the hopeful task of quieting the motion of the tide. 
 But though we cannot give laws to party spirit, it 
 
12 
 
 is the duty of every friend of his country, to endea 
 vour to check its violence, and restrain its extrava 
 gance ; to endeavour to keep it within the fair bounds 
 of controversial argument. The attack of private 
 character should be discountenanced ; the slanderer, of 
 whatever party, should be pointed out to be avoided ; 
 the exulting delight with which, like the Indian, he 
 tortures his victim, should have its true name the ma 
 lice of a Daemon. The most improbable and wicked 
 motives should not be ascribed to actions which can 
 be grounded on any other hypothesis; the opponents, 
 while they question the soundness of each other s 
 heads, should have charity for each other s hearts ; nor, 
 however great the object to be accomplished, should 
 means of doubtful morality or an intemperate charac 
 ter ever be resorted to. It is a maxim in private life, 
 it cannot fail in public do your duty, and leave the 
 consequences to God. So thought the patriots of the 
 old school such are federal principles. And we, 
 my young friends, who are soon to take our part, 
 perhaps a humble, perhaps an important one, in this 
 all-pervading struggle, let us resolve, by the country 
 which we love, by the name of Washington, whose 
 last precepts we revere, that as we would never poison 
 our enemy s springs, or treacherously assassinate his 
 person in war; so, in civil contentions, we will use no 
 other weapon than fair and honourable argument. 
 
 If there are any who doubt the dreadful effects of 
 unrestrained and licentious party spirit, let them read 
 over again the legacy of Washington ; let them also 
 cast a glance over the page of history, and pause a 
 moment on the parties which have torn and distract 
 ed other countries, in different ages of the world. 
 
13 
 
 Passing over a long list which might well be adduced, 
 let me point them to the struggles of the Patricians 
 and Plebeans at Rome, especially to the factions of 
 the Gracchi ; and in England, to the contests of the Red 
 Rose and the White, the Parliament and Charles the 
 1st. These examples, it may be said, are not applica 
 ble to our situation, and the circumstances of the 
 times ; but they will all combine to teach us, what cala 
 mities impend, especially in popular governments, 
 when parties resolve to accomplish their purposes at all 
 events, and prudential maxims are disregarded ; when 
 difference becomes hatred, and opposition turns to 
 hostility. 
 
 These examples will also teach us a lesson of 
 charity. In all these parties, and on every side, 
 amidst a great deal of vice and folly, there was also 
 a great deal of virtue and talent engaged, much 
 of genuine patriotism exhibited, and instances of 
 magnanimity and true greatness, which the world will 
 never cease to admire. How must we lament that 
 human virtue should be so much exposed to err by its 
 own generous enthusiasm ! 
 
 A review of parties will also teach us another les 
 son ; to dare to think for ourselves, to dare to question 
 even the measures of our own party ; and if we ti nd 
 that party going wrong, to stand apart like Abcliel 
 from the rebelling angels. 
 
 It will be asked, perhaps, whether I wish to render 
 the statesman wavering, and to shake his confluence 
 in his owu opinion, by representations like these; that 
 other men think differently, that there is positive proof 
 on neither side, and that they have as good a claim to 
 be right as himsejf ? I readily reply, that no man is 
 
14 
 
 tit for a Statesman, \vlio has not great decision of cha 
 racter; bul if he has the milder virtues, and the inte 
 grity, together with the decision and even enthusiasm 
 of Hamilton, we need apprehend no danger. The 
 field of fair argument is open, let him enter it. Far 
 be it from me to wish that mind unsettled, whose de 
 terminations, in the words of Foster, take rank with 
 the great laws of nature. Without such minds and 
 such decision, there would nothing great or good be 
 accomplished on earth. The majestic river which 
 rolls by our city, and bears on its bosom the commerce 
 of a hundred villages, does not change its bed as eve 
 ry ingenious speculator can prove would be best. It 
 rolls on with an irresistible current, and sets human 
 power at defiance. Thus may it roll! It is use 
 ful, because its course continues the same from age to 
 age. 
 
 The history of politics in a free country, is the his 
 tory of the human mind. I do not mean a chronolo 
 gical table of measures, but the machinery by which 
 those measures are brought about. There we see ex^ 
 erted all the passions and energies of the soul, all 
 the enthusiasm of patriotic feeling, all the ingenuity 
 of contrivance, the exultation of success, and the rage 
 of disappointment. 
 
 In England, whose politics so much resemble our 
 own, the contemplation of this contest of talents is 
 the more grand, as the measures of that country con 
 cern objects and designs of the highest possible mag 
 nitude. Her navy, her wars, her foreign possessions, 
 (holding in her hands the destinies of more than fifty 
 millions of people, besides her own subjects,) her debt 
 and her taxes, afford scope for the most extensive 
 
Ie3 
 
 views, the greatest difference of opinion, the highest 
 exertions of intellect, and the boldest flights of elo 
 quence. But in that country, as in this, there have 
 been times when politics have called the energies of 
 the human mind into unusual action. Such was the 
 time immortalized by the letters of Junius ; such was 
 the time when Burke opposed the contagion of French 
 principles; and, in our own country, such was the fa 
 mous sera of the British treaty. From such a state 
 of convulsive energy, the political, like the human bo 
 dy, sinks to relaxation and rest. 
 
 Let me now call your attention to the remaining 
 part of my subject to some of the most striking fea 
 tures in the character and fortunes of the statesman, 
 In attempting to delineate them, I shall have in view, 
 not a man who may sometimes go into congress, and 
 whose political career may be considered a deviation* 
 from his ordinary course, but one who devotes the 
 whole or the greater part of life to the public. Not a 
 man who intends to sail with the stream, but one 
 who resolves to pursue the welfare of his country, right 
 on, against odds, opposition, and peril. Not a man 
 of ordinary abilities, or whose greatest effort is his 
 vote ; but one of such commanding talents, that like a 
 comet, whatever course he may take, he will shed lus 
 tre on his path. 
 
 Such a man will usually possess no ordinary " mea 
 sure of passion" in the constitution of his mind. 
 There have been statesmen of a cold temperament., 
 and there may be again, but those w r ho have been most 
 distinguished in popular governments, have possessed 
 an ardour of mind and a zeal of pursuit, which may 
 justly be called enthusiasm. They hare entered with 
 
their whole soul into public affairs, and put forth the 
 utmost of their powers for the accomplishment of their 
 object, whatever at any particular juncture it might be. 
 At the same time they viewed that object, not perhaps 
 like other men, but through a medium which, by show 
 ing its relations and dependencies, magnified all its di 
 mensions. Thus seen, it justified, and iu their opin 
 ion demanded, a perseverance no less than indefatiga 
 ble, and exertions almost super-human. An ordinary 
 man might regard them with wonder. He does not 
 perceive the extreme importance of a particular mea 
 sure, and he will say perhaps, with a sneer, should 
 this boasted measure fail to be adopted, for aught that 
 I can discover, things will go on in their ordinary 
 course, and the earth continue its diurnal motion. 
 
 1 should say of such a man as I am attempting to 
 describe, on seeing him just entering into public life, 
 there is one pain which I am sure he will encounter 
 the pain of disappointment. He will probably pos* 
 sess a self-confiding mind, and a full persuasion of the 
 adequacy of his powers to the accomplishment of his 
 designs. Mankind, he says, are reasonable beings ; 
 and I can render the policy of the measures I propose 
 so demonstrably evident, that they cannot fail to be 
 adopted. Let him go on! He will find, ere long, 
 that mankind, though they intend in the main to do 
 right, are blinded by passion, and misled by ignorance. 
 Melancthon thought as he does; but he soon found 
 that " old Adam was too strong for young Melanc 
 thon." Let him go on ! Were he fully persuaded, at 
 his setting out, of all the obstacles he has to encoun 
 ter, and all the chances there are against his final suc 
 cess, he would probably never make a single gene- 
 
17 
 
 rous effort. If we take but a passing glance at the his 
 tory of politics, we shall not be at a loss for instances 
 of the greatest talents labouring in a good cause, and 
 labouring in vain. The history of our own country, 
 for the last twelve years, would afford them in abun 
 dance. When Lord Chatham, with the prophetic eye 
 of a statesman, saw all the evils of the unjust war wa 
 ged by Great-Britain against her American colonies, 
 how must he have wondered at the bigoted blindness 
 of his opponents! 
 
 The statesman may also expect to be poor. This 
 honourable distinction is not confined to Poets ; and 
 the causes which lead to it in the statesman, are nei 
 ther remote nor doubtful. It is not in human na 
 ture to give a divided mind to objects capable of 
 possessing and filling the whole ; and the man who is 
 accustomed to contemplate things on a grand scale, 
 and is labouring to accomplish grand designs, will 
 feel little interest in ordinary pursuits, and the care of 
 his private fortune. How shall he, who proposes to 
 himself the magnificent idea of making a nation hap 
 py ; who busies his thoughts not with acres, but with 
 states ; not with a ship, but with navies ; not with a 
 warehouse, but with cities leave his grand contempla 
 tions, forsake the heaven of his own thoughts, and join, 
 in the crowd, and follow the trifles of those little be 
 ings, over \\hom he seemed to himself to preside as a 
 guardian Genius? For such a man to retire from his 
 public contemplations to the care of his private proper 
 ty, is like looking for the farm of Alcibiades on the map 
 of Greece. W e cannot wonder then that Burke, in his 
 old age, should have needed a pension that William 
 Pitt should have died insolvent, nor that our own 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 Hamilton, whose thoughts were his country s, from 
 his early youth to his grave, should have left a widow 
 to ask the half-pay, which he had over-generously re^ 
 fused. 
 
 Date obolum Belisario, has often come from a man 
 in the evening of life, whose strength, and whose best 
 days, were spent in the service of his country ; whose 
 voice senates have listened to catch, or armies have, 
 heard and obeyed, 
 
 We are apt to consider the affection which some 
 men have felt for their country, as a strange pheno 
 menon; and there are instances of individual patriotism 
 which almost surpass belief. But the causes of this 
 affection, as far as they are to be sought for beyond an 
 innate greatness of soul, are not, I should apprehend, 
 deeply hidden in our nature. Let the mother seek for 
 them in the affection which she feels for her child ; let, 
 the man of business seek for them in the attachment 
 which he feels to an amount of property, far beyond the 
 gratification of his wants and wishes. The Statesman 
 loves his country, because he has watched over it be 
 cause he has laboured for it. Those who have taken no 
 part in public life, who have not thought and laboured 
 for their country, may thus, in a measure, appreciate 
 the feelings of such patriots as Washington and Ha 
 milton, and almost realize how much better they loved 
 their country, than they loved themselves. William, 
 JPitt, the late minister of Great-Britain, whose name is 
 worthy to be enrolled with theirs, seemed to have lost 
 his own identity in his devolion to the public; even in 
 the moment of death, he thought not of himself, andi 
 spent his last breath in exclaiming, " O my country ! * 
 " O save my country !" was the dying ejaculation of 
 Ames. 
 
19 
 
 Members of the Hamilton Society ! Possessing as 
 you do, all the ingenuous ardour of youth, you will re 
 gard the patriotism which I have just been describing, 
 only with feelings of the highest admiration. Yon 
 will perhaps carry back your thoughts to the Repub 
 lics of other times, among whom children were con 
 sidered the property of their country, and whose poets 
 sung, 
 
 Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. 
 
 If, while you admire, you should resolve to imitate* 
 do it without expecting to be rewarded. It is virtue 
 -which is seldom rewarded, except by the sublimity of 
 its own feeling. Few great men, like Washington* 
 have had the full merit of their actions acknowledged 
 while they were alive. The actions of patriots and 
 statesmen, like the productions of genius, require time 
 to test their worth, and establish their character* 
 Aristides* who was banished, and Socrates, who was 
 put to death, are but single instances, among thou 
 sands, of the patriot and philanthropist, who have 
 been persecuted when living, and almost canonized 
 when dead. The statesman who devotes his life to 
 the service of his country, must expect that his motives 
 will be misrepresented, and his conduct misunder 
 stood; that his character will labour under the foulest 
 reproaches, and that his virtues will never be generally 
 acknowledged, till posterity writes them on his monu 
 ment. 
 
 In ordinary times, the life of the Statesman will not 
 be in danger ; but there are times when lie must " set 
 honour in one eye, and death in the other." Such 
 -was the time when our own Statesmen proclaimed to 
 
20 
 
 the world, " we are free and independent;" such was 
 the time when Hampden withstood the arbitrary mea 
 sures of Charles the 1st ; and such the time when 
 Russel fell the martyr of his attachment to the reli 
 gion and constitution of his country times which so 
 often occur in the history of England, that we be 
 come callous to the suffering s of the great, and have 
 not a tear to give to every illustrious victim of the 
 block. 
 
 But danger ennobles and exalts human actions. To 
 despise it, is magnanimity and heroism. Hull, Deca- 
 tur, Jones, and Bainbridge, who have waved our flag 
 in triumph on the ocean, and bid the world admire the 
 symbol of our union and glory, would have been be 
 held by us as common men, had they not stood in the 
 fore-front of danger. Hence it is that those who 
 stood forth to assert their country s rights, in " times 
 that tried men s souls," are regarded by us as almost a 
 superior order of beings. The Statesman, who looks 
 forward to a lasting fame, should not consider the 
 .hazard of his life a misfortune. 
 
 I shall be accused, perhaps, of having taken a de 
 sultory range, and imagined extreme cases ; but it is 
 useful to those who expect hereafter to become States 
 men, (if there are any such who hear me,) to be 
 taught all the possible dangers of the way, that they 
 may arm themselves against them, that they may pos 
 sess, their minds with the magnanimity of the great 
 Pompey, who said, when embarking on a sea not 
 more tempestuous, " it is my duty to go it is not my 
 duty to live." 
 
 But there are pleasures, as well as privations and 
 sufferings, incident to the life of the Statesman; and 
 
21 
 
 some of these are the most sublime which we can sup 
 pose a human being capable of enjoying. They 
 arise, not from any selfish considerations from no 
 private advantage. These he gives up, when like 
 Hercules, he starts on his labours. His pleasures 
 must have a nobler source the public happiness. He 
 must find them reflected in the general prosperity. It 
 is the happy lot of few Statesmen, to see the manifest 
 effects of their own individual labours. Every breath 
 stirs the surface of the ocean ; but it must be a tem 
 pest indeed, which moves the whole of that vast col 
 lection of waters. But there are peculiar junctures, 
 there are fortunate opportunities, when the Statesmaa 
 may feel that he is the author of a benefit which comes 
 home to the bosoms of the public at large. 
 
 Such was the opportunity which the formation of 
 our present system of government afforded when 
 Hamilton stript himself like an Athlete to the com 
 bat, and stood forth the champion of the New Consti 
 tution. He wrote, he extemporized, he laboured.-*- 
 But when the constitution was adopted, when his la 
 bours were accomplished, those who can measure the 
 mind of Hamilton, may conceive the rapture he felt, 
 as he looked forward to the happiness of millions^ 
 which he believed that that constitution would se 
 cure. 
 
 Another such opportunity, was that possessed by 
 Jay in the formation of the British Treaty, when he 
 opened all the avenues of commerce to the expecting 
 enterprise of his countrymen. What must have been 
 his feelings, as he returned with that treaty in his 
 hand, forming as it does an sera in our prosperity 
 what must have been his feelings, as he looked through 
 
successive years, had he not been met by the curse of 
 ingratitude on the shore ! 
 
 But, Washing-ton! What language can describe 
 him what mind can rise to the sublimity of his sensa 
 tions when, after all his dangers in the field, and his 
 labours in the cabinet, he finished his administration ; 
 when he bade his country adieu, and left that country 
 happy ! 
 
 To stand at the head of affairs during a defensive, 
 or justifiable and necessary war, to direct all its ope 
 rations, and conduct it to a happy termination, may 
 be considered among the brightest fortunes of the 
 Statesman. Such was the fortune of Lord Chatham 
 in the war between England and France, memorable, 
 by the fall of Wolfe on the heights of Abraham. He 
 had none with whom to divide the glory of success. 
 Amidst all who surrounded him, he stood pre-eminent 
 ly great, and his was a greatness which the world may 
 continue long without witnessing again. In the 
 words of his eulogist, " France sunk beneath him ; 
 with one hand he smote the house of Bourbon, and 
 wielded in the other the democracy of England. * 
 
 But what shall we say of the Statesman who pre 
 cipitates his country into an unnecessary and invasive 
 war ? Who will envy him his victories, should he 
 chance to acquire them ? The waste of human hap 
 piness and comfort, the destruction of the laboured 
 products of human industry and genius, the burning 
 of cities, the desolation of a cultivated interior, and 
 the sacrifice of thousands of human beings, who ne 
 ver injured him or his country, who never knew him 
 but by the terror of his name -without necessity to 
 cause such evils, and to enjoy victories thus purchased, 
 
23 
 
 does not belong to feelings merely human. Such was 
 the enjoyment which the Enemy of all good experi 
 enced, when he retired from the garden of Eden, 
 after having achieved the ruin of mankind. 
 
 A country safe from foreign attack, every hand 
 busy, and every eye lighted with pleasure, rich in ci 
 ties and the fruits of cultivation such is the picture 
 which the benevolent Statesman will ever keep in his 
 view. It makes no figure on the page of history ; but 
 history is written to record the miseries, not the hap 
 piness, of mankind, 
 
 But there are occasions when the Statesman may be 
 more than a patriot when he may stand forth the 
 friend and champion of the human race. I cannot 
 pass over in silence the struggle in favour of oppress 
 ed humanity, which has been carried pn for a great 
 length of time in England, against numbers, wealth, 
 and influence. I refer to the abolition of the Slave 
 Trade. The great Statesmen of that country, how 
 ever much they might differ on other subjects, were 
 united, to a man, on this; and if .active philanthropy 
 affords the highest of human pleasures " they have 
 their reward." 
 
 To conquer rival States, has been considered the 
 summit of human greatness, and those who have 
 achieved it, have received the praises of poets, and 
 the honours of nations. They have been called Pa 
 triots and Heroes ; but let us ever remember, that to 
 destroy the happiness of mankind, is but execrable dis 
 tinction ; and that there is nothing truly great and god 
 like on earth, but to do good. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 . , 
 
T 
 
 

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