330 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/QI 



and full oi honors, hath he submitted to the inexorable call, and pro- 

 ceeded on his fated journey.* From west to east, by land and on the 

 wide ocean, to the utmost extent of the civilized globe, the tale hath 

 been told — that the venerable sage of Pennsylvania, the patriot and 

 patriarch of America, is no more. . . . 



It seldom happens that they who are first called to give celebrity to 

 the actions of great men, are placed in that exact situation, either in 

 respect to time or point of view, which may enable them to delineate a 

 whole character, in all its proportions and beauty. This is a work, of 

 all others, the most difficult in the performance ; nor is the difficulty les- 

 sened by the acknowledged lustre and eminence of the character in view. 

 And from hence it hath happened, perhaps, that in eulogy and panegy- 

 ric, but few of the moderns, and not many of the ancients have been 

 successful. While they have been striving to weave the garlands of 

 others, their own laurels have withered and dropped from their brow. 



Yet, neither the risk of character, nor the difficulties of the subject, 

 ought to deter us from attempting, at least, to pay the honors due to 

 transcendent merit. . . . 



The desire of fame and posthumous glory, "grasping at ages to 

 come," as it bespeaks the native dignity of the soul of man, and anti- 

 cipates his existence in another world, is also the most powerful incen- 

 tive to moral excellence in this world. It is for the interest of mankind 

 that so divine a passion should be cultivated, rewarded, and held up for 

 imitation. The neglect of it would have an unfriendly influence on vir- 

 tue and public spirit. The wisest and most renowned nations have not 

 only voted thanks and triumphs to their illustrious citizens while living, 

 but have celebrated them in eulogies when dead, and have erected altars 

 of virtue and monuments of honor to perpetuate their names to suc- 

 ceeding ages and generations. . . . 



And circumstanced as the people of these United States now are, and 

 as our posterity, for ages to come, must be in building up and com- 

 pleting the glorious fabric of American empire and happiness, it might 

 be a wise institution if we should make at least an annual pause, and 

 consecrate a day to the review of past events, the commemoration of 

 illustrious characters who have borne a share in the foundation and 

 establishment of our renown, and particularly those of whom we may 

 have been bereft during each preceding year. 



In that view, how many patriots, statesmen and philosophers would 

 now pass before us? A Livingston, a Bowdoin, a Franklin ! . . . 



In the earliest stages of life, he had conceived the mighty idea of 

 American empire and glory ; but like Hercules in the cradle, he was 

 ignorant of his own strength, and had not conceived the achievements 

 and labors which awaited him. He had not conceived that he was, one 



* He died April 17, 1790. 



