the one hand, nor disregarding it on the other, I joined
myself to the first assertors of the American cause, because I thought
it my duty; and because I considered caution and neutrality, however
secure, as being no less wrong than dishonorable.' As he had espoused
the cause deliberately, he served it conscientiously, and met the
difficulties in the way of organizing the Federal Government with
philosophical candor: 'It was a thing,' he observes, in his first
contribution to the 'Federalist,' 'hardly to be expected that in a
popular revolution, the minds of men should stop at the happy mean which
marks the boundary between power and privilege, and combines the energy
of government with the security of private right.'

An aesthetical student and delineator of character remarks that 'where we
recognize in any one an image of moral elevation, which seems to us, at
the first glance, unique and transcendent, I believe that, on careful
examination, we shall find that among his coevals, or in the very nature
of the times, those qualities which furnish their archetype in him were
rife and prevalent.'[16] The highest class of American statesmen and
patriots, and especially those grouped around the peerless central
figure of Washington, afford striking evidence of the truth of this
observation. A certain spirit of disinterested integrity and devotion,
an elevated and consistent tone of feeling and method of action alike
distinguished them; and nothing can be imagined more violently in
contrast therewith than the inadequate standard of judgment and scope of
criticism adopted by those who, actuated by partisan zeal and guided by
narrow motives, apply to such characters the limited gauge of their own
insight and estimation--endeavoring to atone by microscopic accuracy for
imbecility in fundamental principles.' Hence the foreign publicist of
large research and precise historical knowledge, the scholar of broad
and earnest sympathies, the patriot of generous and tenacious
principles, find in these exemplars of civic virtue objects of permanent
admiration; while many of their self-appointed commentators, entrenched
in pedantic or political dogmas, and devoid of comprehensive ideas and
true magnanimity, fail to recognize and delight in depreciating
qualities with which they have no affinity, and whose legitimate
functions they ignore or pervert--for 'Folly loves the martyrdom of
Fame.' With all due allowance for honest differences of op