s no treasure, deception, or charm,
which can seduce me from the consolation of being in a state of good
will towards all mankind; and I should not be mortified to ask pardon of
any man with whom I have been at variance, for any injury which I may
have done him. If I could now present myself before your venerated
uncle, it would be my pride to confess my contrition, that I suffered my
irritation, let the cause be what it might, to use some of those
expressions respecting him, which, at this moment of my indifference to
the ideas of the world, I wish to recall, as being inconsistent with my
subsequent conviction."[85]

It was thus with all the assaults ever made upon the character of
Washington. They always failed to injure it in the slightest degree; and
the sharpest and best-tempered shafts of malignity fell blunted and
harmless from the invulnerable shield of his spotless integrity.

FOOTNOTES:

[79] At a civic feast in Philadelphia, on the first of May, which was
attended by a great number of American citizens, to celebrate the recent
victories of France, the subjoined toasts were given. The managers of
the feast sent the following invitation to President Washington:--

"SIR: The subscribers, a committee in behalf of a number of
American, French, and Dutch citizens, request the honor of your
company to a civic festival, to be given on Friday, the seventeenth
of April, appointed to celebrate the late victories of the French
republic, and the emancipation of Holland." The feast was postponed
until the first of May. Washington did not attend; but the occasion
was honored by the presence of the French minister and consul, and
the consul of Holland. The following are the toasts:--

"1. The republic of France, whose triumphs have made this day a
jubilee; may she destroy the race of kings, and may their broken
sceptres and crowns, like the bones and teeth of the mammoth, be
the only evidence that such monsters ever infested the earth.

"2. The republic of France; may the shores of Great Britain soon
hail the tri-colored standard, and the people rend the air with
shouts of 'Long live the republic!'

"3. The republic of France; may her navy clear the ocean of
pirates, that the common high way of nations may no longer, like
the highways of Great Britain, be a receptacle for robbers.

"4. The republic of France; may all free