views, and his example been disregarded within these thirty years!

As successive events, and new agents, arise in our national progress, and means of comparison are lost in the lapse of time, we are in great danger, by taking those which are most recent, of descending by steps, to the end of republican freedom. The state of our country now, freed as it is from debt, disentangled as it is from European alliances, fearless as it is from Indian aggressions, presents an humiliating contrast with its condition at the close of the last century. On the disheartening difficulties of that day, time has rolled its tide. Not one in a thousand of those who were then minors, or born since, has given a serious thought to them, with a view to know, as to all that is now doing, what is right or wrong. These real difficulties are gone; and what have succeeded to them? Those of domestic creation; the jealousies and enmities fomented among the members of the same family; the cravings for power and distinction; the reign of selfishness, and of passion. By these the strength of the government is to be tried, as its founders predicted; and not by the combined strength of all Europe, while we are united among ourselves.

LETTER XXIII.

APRIL 5, 1833.

It is time to relieve this narration of political events by some description of public men, at the close of the last century. It must be remembered, that there are friends and descendants of these men, now living, whose feelings are to be respected; and also, that the remarks to be made are those of one individual who narrates from memory, and his own notice of men and things, and who may not have seen and observed, as others did. The inducement to make any remarks of this nature, is, that the time is at hand, when all power to speak of men who were busy at the close of the last century, from personal knowledge, will cease. Who and what they were, who were Washington's military

and political associates, friends or foes, must be interesting especially as they lived when European governments were shaken to the centre by the force of revolution, sufficiently powerful to be felt and dreaded, in this far western world; and also, that they lived and acted at a time, when fear of, or devotion to, revolutionary notions, brought all minds, strong or feeble, into incessant action. Reason and good sense were then, as now, impotent agents, against that popular excitement which makes law for itself.

Mr. Jefferson mentions in his writings," the Essex Junto" with much reproach. What persons he meant by this party distinction, he did not know himself. It seems to have been his practice to throw out defamatory remarks, to fix as they might. It is well remembered, that there were intelligent men in the county of Essex, who were steadfast friends of the Washington administration, and who supported that of Mr. Adams, though without unqualified approbation. These men had intimate friends and associates in Boston, who thought as they did. They were, unitedly, sincere and uncompromising opponents of Jeffersonism, in all its forms. Their political merits and demerits may depend on this. If the administrations of Washington and Adams were right, they were right. If devotion to France, merely because it was France, and hatred of England, merely because it was England, regardless of duty or interest, as to their own country, was wrong, they were right, as subsequent events most clearly proved. They were men, and like other men, might feel and express indignation at the abuse and perversion of power to mere party purposes; and might have desired to see power properly restrained, and rightly applied; and may have expressed more decidedly, than some others did, their own opinions. But Mr. Jefferson was the real cause of these opinions. If he was a wise and honest statesman, and deserved the confidence and gratitude of his countrymen, the Essex Junto were wrong. If he was practically the enemy of the national constitution, and merely the chief of a party, and not the President of the United States, they were right.

Among the distinguished men, at the close of the last century, was Benjamin Lincoln; a revolutionary officer, Secretary at War, the General in the Massachusetts insur

rection, and first Collector of the port of Boston. In 1794, he was about sixty years of age. He had received only an inferior education, but had done much to compensate for its defects. Before the war, he had been town officer, member of the legislature, and militia colonel. He was about five feet nine inches in stature, and of so uncommonly broad person, as to seem to be of less stature than he was. His gray hair was combed back from his forehead, unpowdered, and gathered in a long queue. His face was round and full, his eyes blue, and his complexion light. He was usually dressed in a blue coat, and light under clothes, and wore a cocked hat. He always appeared in boots, in consequence of the deformity of his left leg, occasioned by a wound received at the capture of Burgoyne. His speech was with apparent difficulty, as though he were too full. The expression of his countenance was exceedingly kind and amiable. His manner was very gracious; like those of all the high officers of the revolution, his deportment was dignified and courteous. He wrote essays on several subjects, commercial, agricultural, and philosophical, some of which were published. He employed some one to read these essays, and assigned for a reason, that being entirely ignorant of the grammatical construction of language, he could judge only by the sound, of its correctness.

General Lincoln was one of the few persons who are afflicted with somnolency. This was not occasioned by age, but was constitutional. In the midst of conversation, at table, and when driving himself in a chaise, he would fall into a sound sleep. While he commanded the troops against the Massachusetts insurgents, he dictated despatches and slept between the sentences. His sleep did not appear to disturb his perception of circumstances that were passing around him. He considered this an infirmity, and his friends never ventured to speak to him of it. He was a man of exemplary morals, and of sincere piety, carrying fully into practical life, the ethics of the religion which he professed. He enjoyed the high respect and confidence of Washington, and the affectionate regard of his fellow officers. He performed his various trusts with ability, and incorruptible integrity. He was a member of the American Academy, and President of the Cincinnati.

He died in 1810, at an advanced age. He was one of the very few whom Mr. Jefferson did not turn out of office. But so many persons were placed in the collectorship, of the new order of public officers, that it was disagreeable to him to remain in office. From this cause, as well as increasing years, he retired.

LETTER XXIV.

APRIL 10, 1833.

HENRY KNOX was a bookseller, and bookbinder, at Boston, when the war began, at which time he was about twentyfive years old. He had been captain of a grenadier company; and was a volunteer at Bunker Hill battle. He met Washington at Cambridge, in 1776; and was immediately made chief of artillery, in which relation he continued during the war, and always near head-quarters. He served throughout the war, and left the service with the rank of Major General. When he resigned the office of Secretary, at the close of 1794, he removed to Boston, and for some years afterwards resided there. He was a large, full man, above middle stature; his lower limbs inclined a very little outward, as though they had taken a form from the long continued use of the saddle. His hair was short in front, standing up and powdered, and queued. His forehead was low, his face large and full below; his eyes rather small, gray and brilliant. The expression of his face altogether, was a very fine one.

When moving along the street, he had an air of grandeur, and self-complacency, but it wounded no man's self-love. He carried large cane, not to aid his steps, but usually under his arm; and sometimes, when he happened to stop and engage in conversation with his accustomed ardor, his cane was used to flourish with, in aid of his eloquence. He was usually dressed in black. In the summer he commonly carried his light silk hat in his hand, when walking in the shade. His left hand had been mutilated, and a part of it was gone. He wore a black silk handkerchief wrapt around it, from which the thumb and forefinger appeared.

When engaged in conversation he used to unwind and replace this handkerchief, but not so as to show his disfigured hand.

When thinking, he looked like one of his own heavy pieces, which would surely do execution when discharged; when speaking, his face had a noble expression, and was capable of displaying the most benignant feeling. This was the true character of his heart. His voice was strong, and no one could hear it without feeling that it had been accustomed to command. The mind of Knox was powerful, rapid, and decisive; and he could employ it continuously, and effectively. His natural propensity was highly social, and no man better enjoyed a hearty laugh. He said that he had, through life, left his bed at the dawn, and had been always a cheerful, happy man.

He had a brilliant imagination, and not less brilliant modes of expression. His conceptions of the power and glory of the Creator of the universe, were of an exalted character. That he might give scope to this sentiment, he chose the region of Blue Hill, that he might there witness the great solar eclipse of June the 16th, 1806. His expressions, at the decline of the light, in the moment of almost total darkness, and on the effulgence of the returning beams of the sun, were worthy of the occasion, and of his own glorious mind. The immortality of the soul was not with him a matter of induction, but a sentiment, or fact, no more to be questioned, than his own earthly existence.

His noble hospitality, and exuberant generosity, and too confident a calculation on the productiveness of sales of extensive tracts of land in Maine, led him into some embarrassments, towards the close of his life. His life ended at the splendid mansion which he erected at Thomaston, in Maine, in the year 1806, from an unfortunate accident,* in the 56th year of his age.

When President Adams concluded to form an army in 1798, Washington accepted the chief command with the right of naming his chiefs. He named Hamilton Inspector General, and first in command under him, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, second, and Knox, third. Knox was ex

* He swallowed a piece of chicken bone, which produced a fatal mortification.