p alluding to the president of the
United States, General Washington, a character whose conduct has
been so different from that which has been pursued by ministers of
this country. How infinitely wiser must appear the spirit and
principles manifested in his late addresses to Congress than the
policy of modern European courts! Illustrious man! deriving honor
less from the splendor of his situation than from the dignity of
his mind; before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into
insignificance, and all the potentates of Europe (excepting the
members of our own royal family) become little and contemptible! He
has had no occasion to have recourse to any tricks of policy or
arts of alarm; his authority has been sufficiently supported by the
same means by which it was acquired, and his conduct has uniformly
been characterized by wisdom, moderation, and firmness. Feeling
gratitude to France for the assistance received from her in that
great contest which secured the independence of America, he did not
choose to give up the system of neutrality. Having once laid down
that line of conduct, which both gratitude and policy pointed out
as most proper to be pursued, not all the insults and provocations
of the French minister, Genet, could turn him from his purpose.
Intrusted with the welfare of a great people, he did not allow the
misconduct of another with respect to himself, for one moment, to
withdraw his attention from their interest. He had no fear of the
Jacobins; he felt no alarm for their principles, and considered no
precaution as necessary in order to stop their progress.

"The people over whom he presided he knew to be acquainted with
their rights and their duties. He trusted to their own good sense
to defeat the effect of those arts which might be employed to
inflame or mislead their minds; and was sensible that a government
could be in no danger while it retained the attachment and
confidence of its subjects; attachment, in this instance, not
blindly adopted--confidence not implicitly given, but arising from
the conviction of its excellence, and the experience of its
blessings. I can not, indeed, help admiring the wisdom and fortune
of this great man. By the phrase 'fortune,' I mean not in the
smallest degree to derogate from his merit. But, notwiths