60 NATURAL AND CIVIL. 



his own! honor and glory, ordered to his body a 

 funeral suited to the rank and office which he 

 had borne. The Americaa Congress wishing to 

 do the same, appointed a day to commemo- 

 rate his virtues, and celebrate his funeral ob- 

 sequies ; and ordered a monument to be erect- 

 ed to his memory. And what was highly to 

 his honor, his most bitter enemies in their 

 speeches in the British parliament, could not 

 avoid celebrating his virtues. 



*' Stat sui cuique dies, 



sed famara extendere factis. 



Hoc virtutis opus." 



Civil wars and contests, though they gen* 

 erally occasion the greatest of all human evils 

 and miseries, do also generally aiford occasions 

 for the display of the greatest abilities and vir- 

 tues. The minds of the Americans had been 

 more or lesSiag:itBt£d by political contests for 

 ten J ears before the war began. When hostili- 

 ties com.meuced, they broke out with such cir- 

 cumstances of aggression and insolence on the 

 part of Britain, tliiit they left no room for the 

 Americans to deliberate what course of conduct 

 it was best for them to pursue. One choice 

 alone remained ; they must either submit to the 

 British minister, or thcv must defend their 

 country by force of arms. Such was the public 

 virtue and sentiment, that the man's character 

 would have been wholly lest in Am.crica, that 

 did not chuse and avow the latter. The men 

 of firmness, activity, military taste, character, 

 and enterprise, saw that the time was arrived 

 for all the exertions, that virtue, courage, love 

 of their country, fame, ambition, or glory, could 



