and more
memorable, as blending in a single character, and at an early age, those
uncommon qualities which separately make the reputation of a great
advocate, of a great civilian, and of a great master of the Laws of
Nations; and, more memorable still, when, his high position attained,
and able to add thousands upon thousands to his wealth, he, with noble
self-denial, put another enticing cup away from his lips, and withdrew
with a moderate competence only to the bosom of his family and to the
peaceful pursuits of agriculture, leaving, as an example worthy of all
imitation, a broad margin which Plutus might have condemned, but which
Socrates, Cato, and Cicero would have extolled, between the bar of man
and that supreme tribunal before which we must all appear; how, when in
the retirement which he so much loved, his country called for his
services, he promptly and generously rendered them, serving a long term
of years, speaking, accustomed as he was to speak, rarely, but
effectively and conclusively, so that nothing was to be said after him,
and winning laurels for himself in the high places of the land, and from
the foremost spirits of the age--laurels whose only worth in his eyes
was that he might lay them at the feet of that blessed mother of us all,
our beloved Virginia; how, when he had performed long and distinguished
service abroad, which Virginia and the whole country were anxious to
reward, he again sought retirement, relinquishing without a sigh to
others those personal honors which so fascinate the votaries of
ambition, but which had no charm for him; how, when he had formed with
the utmost deliberation his political creed, he adhered most closely and
conscientiously, and in the face of great temptations, to its cardinal
doctrines throughout his entire course; yet, throning country above
party in the empire of his affections, he did not hesitate to oppose as
readily and as fearlessly his political friends when he deemed them
wrong as he sustained them when he believed them to be right; how,
though a stern upholder of the public honor, he ever sought to avoid
war, when it was consistent with the public interests to defer it, and,
in 1807, when a false step on his part would have brought on an instant
rupture with Great Britain, he, with consummate tact and courage, poured
oil upon the troubled waters, and averted a war which, under the
circumstances, would have been worse than a civil war--_bellum plus quam
civ