202 Dedaralion of Independence. 



both duties and dangers, and on a principled determination to 

 combat the one and to fulfil the other. 



This moral effect has been produced in the fullest and finest 

 manner by this great painter ; and no true American can con- 

 template this picture without gratitude to the men who, under 

 God, asserted his liberties, and to the artist who has commemo- 

 rated the event, and transmitted the very features and persona 

 of the actors to posterity. Such efforts of the pencU tend 

 powerfully also to invigorate patriotism, and to prompt the 

 rising generation to emulate such glorious examples. 



The composition and execiition in this picture are in a mas- 

 terly style. The grouping of so many full length portraits, in 

 a scene in which there could scarcely be any action, and in 

 such a manner as to dispose of them without monotony, was an 

 attainment of no small difficulty. The painter could not even 

 avail himself of the adventitious relief of splendid costume and. 

 furniture, and of magnificence or rich decorations in architec- 

 ture ; for on this occasion both were characterized by an ele- 

 gant simplicity only, such however as became the actors and 

 the crisis. 



The composition has all the variety of which it is suscepti- 

 ble ; and there is also enough of it in the style of dress and of 

 features to relieve the eye from any danger of satiety. 



It is believed, that in this picture, the United States possess 

 a treasure to which there is no parallel in the world. In no 

 instance, within our knowledge, is there an exhibition to an 

 equal extent, of the actual portraits of an illustrious assembly, 

 concerned in so momentous a transaction. 



It was a great thing to assert, in principle, thg liberties of 

 this country ; but it was also a great thing to vindicate them 

 by arms ; and we rejoice that Colonel Trumbull is still to pro- 

 ceed, under the sanction of government, to delineate other 

 scenes, in which Washington and his illustrious American 

 coadjutors, and the flower of French chivalry, were the actors. 

 In the maturity of his experience, skill, and fame — possessed, 

 as he is, of the portraits of most of the great men of that 

 period, taken principally from the life, and having been him- 



