356 
Jation. The exercife of mercy confoled 
his mind for the neceffity of having re- 
courfe to arms. Never was there a revolt 
quelled with fo litle blood. Scarcely ever 
was the bafeft daftard fo tender of his own 
life, as this virtuous man was of the lives 
of his fellow-citizens. The value of his 
clemency is enhanced by recolle&ting, that 
he was neither without provocations to 
feverity, nor withcut pretexts for it. His 
charaéter and his office had been reviled 
in a manner almoft unexampled among ci- 
vilized nations. —His authority had been 
infulted.—His fafety had been threatened. 
Of his perfonal and political enemies fome 
might, perhaps, have been fufpeéted of hav- 
ing inftigated the infurreétion; a greater 
nuinber were thought to with weil to it; 
and very few fhewed much zeal to fupprefs 
it. Is habitus animorum fuit, ut peffimum 
facinus audevent pauci, plures vellent, 
omnes paterentur. But neither refentment, 
nor fear, nor even policyiitfelf, could extin- 
guith the humanity of Wafhington. This 
feems to have been the only facrifice which 
he was incapable of -making to the intereft 
of his country. , 
Throughout the whole courfe -of his 
fecond prefidency, the danger of America 
was great and imminent almoft beyond 
example. The fpirit of change indeed, 
at that period, fhook all nations. But in 
other countries, it had to encounter an- 
cient and folidly eftablifhed power. It had 
to tear up by the roots long habits of at- 
tachment in fome nations for their govern- 
ment, of awe in others, of acquiefcence 
and fubmiffion in all. But in America 
the government was new and weak. The 
people had f{carce time to recover from the 
ideas and feelings of a recent civil war. 
In other countries tle volcanic-force mu 
be of power.to blow up the mountains, 
and to convulfe the continents that held it 
down, before it could efcape from the deep 
caverns in which it was imprifoned :—in 
America it was covered only by the afhes 
of a late convulfion, or at moft by a 
little thin foil, the produce of a few years” 
uiet. 
_ To thefe difficulties were added others, 
which, if duly weighed, will perhaps 
Gifpofe us to confider the prefervation of 
America from confufion under the govern- 
ment of Wafhington, by means fo mild, 
and apparently fo inadequate, as either one 
of the greateft mafter pieces of civil pru- 
Jence that ever diftinguifhed an adminif- 
tration, or one of the moft fortunate acci- 
dents that ever befel a ftate. To thofe 
whe may reprefent it as mere good for- 
Memirs of George Wafhington. 
[May 1, 
tune, we may anfwer with FONTENELLE, 
who, when fomebody congratulated him on 
the good fortune of his friend Lamotte, in 
the fuccefs of his tragedy of ** Inez de 
Caftro,”” anfwered—** Our; mais Ceff une 
FORTUNE qui arreve jamais aux fats.” 
—The names of liberty and republic were 
fo naturally and juftly dear to the Ameri- 
cans, that, far from its being’ dificult to 
range them under any banners on which 
thefe words were infcribed, it was very 
far indeed from being eafy to*perfuade 
them, that fach. founds could reprefent any 
thing but jufiice, benevolence, and hap- 
pinefs. The government. of America had 
none of thofe prejudices to employ, which 
in-every other country were ufed with fuc- 
cefs to exflame the people againft the French 
revolution. ‘They had,.on the contrary, 
to contend with the prejudices of their 
people in the moft moderate precautions 
againit internal confufion, in the moft mea 
fured and guarded refiflance to the un- 
paralleled infults and enormous encroach- — 
ments of France. Without zealous fup- 
port from the people, thé American 
government was impotent. It required 
a conhderable time, and it coft an arduous 
and dubious ftruggle, to direst the popular 
fpirit againft a fifter'republic, eftablithed 
among a people to whofe aid the Ameri- 
cans afcribed the eftablifhment of their in- 
dependence. It is probable, indeed, that 
no policy could have produced this effect, 
unlets itfhed been powerfully aided b 
the crimes of the French pee 
which have proved the ftrongeft allies of 
all eftablifhed governments ; which have 
produced fuch a general difpofition to ftrb- 
mit to any vow tyranny, rather than 
rufh into all the unknown and undefinable 
evils of civil confufion, with the horriblé 
train of new and monftrous iprannies of 
which it is ufually the forerunner. But 
with what juftice foever fome governments 
may be. accufed of having engrafted fer- 
vility on the rational and generous horror 
of their fubjeéts againft the atrocities of 
the French revolution, moft certain it is, — 
that the adminiftration of Wathington 
cannot be charged with having fo perverted 
fuch a juft and noble fentiment. “He em- 
ployed it for the moft honeft and praife- 
worthy purpofes ; ‘to préferve the internal 
quiet of his country ; to affert the dignity, 
and to maintain the rights, of the common- 
wealth which he governed, againft foreign 
enemies.» He avoided war without in- 
curring the imputation of pufillanimity. 
He cherifhed the deteftation of, Americans 
for anarchy, without weakening the fpirit of 
liberty j 
