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the reputation of his country by satisfying her creditors; and to combine with the government such a monied interest, as might facilitate its operations.

He remained but a short time afterwards in office. As his property had been wasted in the public service, the care of a rising family made it his duty to retire, that by renewed exertions in his profession, he might provide for their support. He accordingly resigned his office on the last of January,

1795.

When the provisional army was raised in 1798, Washington qualified his acceptance of the command of it, with the condition that Hamilton should be his associate and the second in command. This arrangement was accordingly made.

Invested with the rank of inspector general, Hamilton repaired immediately to his post, and commenced the organization and discipline of his army. These he carried in a short time to high perfection, the materials of his command being excellent in quality. His hours of leisure he devoted, with his usual industry, to the study of chemistry, mathematics, and the art of war. In the two latter his attainments became great. To render him conspicuous among the ablest captains of the world, nothing was now wanting but experience in the field.

After the adjustment of our dispute with the French Republic, and the discharge of the army, he returned again to his profession in the city of New York.

In June, 1804, colonel Burr, vice-president of the United States, addressed a letter to general Hamilton, requiring his acknowledgment or denial of the use of any expression derogatory to the honour of the former. This demand was deemed inadmissible, and a duel was the consequence. After the close of the circuit court, the parties met at Hoboken, on the morning of Wednesday, July the 11th, and Hamilton fell on the same spot, where his son a few years before had fallen, in obedience to the same principle of honour, and in the same violation of the laws of God, and of man. He was carried into the city, and being desirous of receiving the sacrament of the Lord's supper, he immediately sent for the reverend Dr. Mason. As the principles of his church prohibited him from administering the ordinance in private, this minister of the gospel informed general Hamilton, that the sacrament was an exhibition and pledge of the mercies, which the Son of God has purchased, and that the absence of the sign did not exclude from the mercies signified, which were accessible to him by faith in their gracious Author. He replied, “I am aware of that. It is only a sign that I wanted it." In the conversation which ensued, he disavowed all intention of tak

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ing the life of colonel Burr, and declared his abhorrence of the whole transaction. When the sin, of which he had been guilty, was intimated to him, he assented with strong emotion; and when the infinite merit of the Redeemer, as the propitiation for sin, the sole ground of our acceptance with God, was suggested, he said with emphasis, "I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ." The reverend bishop Moore was afterwards sent for, and after making suitable inquiries of the penitence and faith of general Hamilton, and receiving his assurance that he would never again, if restored to health, be engaged in a similar transaction, but would employ all his influence in society to discountenance the barbarous custom, administered to him the communion. After this, his mind was composed. He expired about two o'clock on Thursday, July 12, 1804, aged about forty-seven years.

Throughout the United States his premature fall excited emotions of sorrow that were inferior only to those that had resulted from the death of Washington. For a time, political distinctions were swallowed up in his loss; and, with a magnanimity in a high degree honourable to them, those who had been hitherto opposed to him in public measures, united with his friends in doing homage to his memory, and lamenting his death as a national calamity.

Such honours Ilium to her Hero paid,

And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade.

General Hamilton possessed very uncommon powers of mind. To whatever subject he directed his attention, he was able to grasp it; and in whatever he engaged, in that he excelled. So stupendous were his talents, and so patient was his industry, that no investigation presented difficulties which he could not conquer. In the class of men of intellect, he held the first rank. His eloquence was of the most interesting kind, and when new exertions were required, he rose in new strength, and touching at his pleasure every string of pity or of terror, of indignation or grief, he bent the passions of others to his purpose. At the bar he gained the first emi

nence.

Although in person below the middle stature, and somewhat deficient in elegance of figure, general Hamilton possessed a very striking and manly appearance. By the most superficial observer he could never be regarded as a common individual. His head, which was large, was formed on the finest model, resembling somewhat the Grecian antique. His forehead was spacious and elevated, his nose projecting, but inclining to the aquiline, his eyes grey, keen at all times, and,

when animated by debate, intolerably piercing, and his mouth and chin well proportioned and handsome. These two latter, although not his strongest, were his most pleasing features: yet the form of his mouth was expressive of eloquence; more especially of persuasion. He was remarkable for a deep depression between his nose and forehead, and a contraction of his brows, which gave to the upper part of his countenance an air of sternness. The lower part was the emblem of mildness and benignity.

In his dress he was plain, in his disposition social, in his manners easy and affable, in his affections warm, in his friendships steady, in his feelings ardent, and in his general deportment a well bred gentleman.

The versatility of his powers was as wonderful as their strength. To the transactions of all matters that were ever submitted to him, he showed himself competent; on every point of difficulty and moment, he was qualified to become great. What others learnt by experience, he saw by intuition; what they achieved by persevering labour, he could accomplish by a single exertion. Hence the diversified eminence of his attainments, and the surprising rapidity with which he rendered himself master, not only of new and intri cate points, but even of entire branches of science.

Within the sphere of our own knowledge, or in the records of society, it is usual to find individuals who are highly distinguished in particular walks in the forum, the senate, the cabinet, or the field; but a single character pre-eminent in them all, constitutes a prodigy of human greatness. Yet such a character was the personage we are considering. He combined within himself qualities that would have communicated lustre to many. At the bar, his ability and eloquence were at once the delight and astonishment of his country; as a statesman, his powers were transcendant and his resources inexhaustible; as a financier, he was acknowledged to be without a rival; in his talents for war, he was believed to be inferior to Washington alone. To these we may add, that in his qualifications as a writer he was eminently great. Endowments so brilliant, with attainments so wide, multifarious and lofty, have but rarely fallen to the portion of a mortal.

Yet with these he had none of the eccentricities, irregularities, or vices, that oftentimes follow in the train of greatness. His mind and his habits were in a high degree orderly, temperate and methodical. To his powers alone, stupendous as they were, he never committed the performance of his duty, on any occasion of interest and importance. Preparatory to acting, he bestowed on his subject all the attention that would have been requisite in a man of common abilities. He studied it

patiently till he thoroughly comprehended it. Hence, even in the minutest details, he was never found deficient when he was expected to be prepared. To his moral habits, therefore, no less than to his physical powers, he owed it, in part, that he was consummately great.

With all his pre-eminence of talents, and amiable as he was in private life, general Hamilton is yet a melancholy proof of the influence, which intercourse with a depraved world has in perverting the judgment. In principle he was opposed to duelling, his conscience was not hardened, and he was not indifferent to the happiness of his wife and children; but no consideration was strong enough to prevent him from exposing his life in single combat. His own views of usefulness were followed in contrariety to the injuctions of his Maker and Judge. He had been for some time convinced of the truth of Christianity, and it was his intention, if his life had been spared, to have written a work upon its evidences.

General Hamilton possessed many friends, and he was endeared to them, for he was gentle, tender and benevolent.While he was great in the eyes of the world, familiarity with him only increased the regard in which he was held. He married a daughter of general Schuyler, and left an afflicted widow and a number of children to mourn his loss.

"Such was Hamilton; the soldier of the revolution; the confidant of Washington; the founder of the American system of finance; the enlightened statesman; the great counsellor; the eloquent orator; and the man of probity, tried and spotless. He retired poor from an office, which, without peculation or any act that would have amounted to a breach of public trust, might have rendered him as distinguished for wealth, as he was for the higher riches of his mind. His faults; for being human he had faults; are lost amidst his virtues, excused or forgotten."

HANCOCK, JOHN, a distinguished patriot and friend of his country, was born in the year 1737, in the province of Massachusetts. The habitation of his father, which is represented as the precise place of his nativity, was situated near the village of Quincey, and by the ordinary transitions of property in America, is now annexed to the patrimony of John Adams, former president of the United States. In this neighborhood were born and died, for many generations, the ancestors of the illustrious Samuel Adams. Mr. Hancock graduated at Harvard college, in 1754. On the death of his uncle, Thomas Hancock, Esquire, he received a very considerable fortune, and soon became an eminent merchant. He was, for several years, selectman of the town: and in 1766, he was chosen a member of the house of representatives for Boston.

He there blazed a whig of the first magnitude. Otis, Cushing, and Samuel Adams, were the other three, who represented the capital, men of name in the revolution of their country. Being fond of public notice, he was flattered by the approbation of the people, with their marks of confidence, and the distinction he had in the general court. The political sagacity of Adams, the public spirit and patriotic zeal of Hancock, gave a lustre to the Boston seat. Of these two popular leaders, the manners and appearance were in direct opposition, notwithstanding the conformity of their political principles, and their equal devotion to the liberties and independence of their country; and this dissimilarity tended, no doubt, to aggravate the passions and animosities of their adherents. Mr. Adams was poor, and in his dress and manners, simple and unadorned. Hancock, on the other hand, was numbered with the richest individuals of his country. His equipage was splendid and magnificent; and such as at present is unknown in America. His apparel was sumptuously embroidered with gold and silver lace, and all the other decorations fashionable amongst men of fortune of that day; he rode, especially upon public occasions, with six beautiful bays, and with servants in livery. He was graceful and prepossessing in manners, and very passionately addicted to what are called the elegant pleasures of life; to dancing, music, concerts, routs, assemblies, card parties, rich wines, social dinners and festivities; all which the stern republican virtues of Mr. Adams regarded with indifference, if not with contempt.

On the evening of the 5th of March, 1770, a small party of the British soldiers paraded, and being assailed by a tumultory assemblage of the people, with balls of snow and other weapons, fired upon them by the order of the officer, to disperse them. Upon which occasion, several of the crowd were wounded, and a few were killed. This affray is usually termed "the massacre of Boston."

It was in commemoration of this event. Mr. Hancock delivered an oration, in 1774, from which we extract the following:

"I have always, from my earliest youth, rejoiced in the felicity of my fellow-men, and have ever considered it as the indispensable duty of every member of society to promote, as far as in him lies, the prosperity of every individual, but more especially of the community to which he belongs; and also, as a faithful subject of the state, to use his utmost endeavours to detect, and having detected, strenuously to oppose every traitorous plot which its enemies may devise for its destruction. Security to the persons and properties of the governed, is so obviously the design and end of civil govern

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