because it never was disputed, but because the possession of it, as being one of the most common of military attributes, is not so much the praise of a soldier, as the want of it is his infamy. But be it remembered with pride, that he was as humane as he was brave. He knew how to storm an enemy's intrenchments, but not how to sacrifice a suppliant. His gentleness assuaged martial rigor; nor was his sword polluted by a drop of blood wantonly or carelessly shed.

The capture of Lord Cornwallis having secured our independence, there was nothing to protract the war, but a few measures proper to save appearances, and to prepare for acceding, with decorum, to preliminaries of peace. It became, of course, a subject of solicitude to reflecting young men who had no profession but that of arms, how they should procure an honorable subsistence, and be useful to the community, when that profession should be superseded. Among these was HAMILEncumbered with a family, destitute of funds, and having no inducement to continue in the army, he sheathed his sword, and at the age of twenty-five, applied to the study of the law.

TON.

To most men, sudden alterations of habit are seldom advantageous, often ruinous. HAMILTON they did but introduce to an acquaintance with his own inexhaustible mind. Hardly had he exchanged the camp for the bar, when he burst forth

in the lustre of a civilian; and gave a promise which he more than fulfilled, of excelling in jurisprudence, as he had excelled in war.

But it was not for HAMILTON to detach his private pursuits from the public welfare. Scenes were about to open in which it would need his resource and his energy. The war of independence had terminated gloriously; the states had risen to their natural position; their career of prosperity had commenced, but their struggles were not over. Resentments, jealousies, and the farce of an advising government, kept them in jeopardy. That foresight, moderation, and firmness; that comprehension of the public interest, and of the means of promoting it; that zeal, and vigilance, and integrity, which were indispensable to our safety, the inspiration of God had assembled in the soul of HAMILTON. To many who now hear me it is familiar, that after the conclusion of peace, some of our citizens, impelled by their temper, their cupidity, or both, were meditating violence against the property and persons of all who had remained in this city during the war. The generous HAMILTON revolted. No consideration of private friendship or hazard, could prevail with him to connive at faithlessness and revenge. He remonstrated against a scheme of which the policy was as false as the spirit was malignant. His voice was authority, for it was honor and truth.

The public listened, and the infatuation was at an end.*

To these agitations succeeded a more perplexing difficulty. The confederation, framed under the pressure of common danger, proved unequal to its object whenever that pressure was removed. Thirteen republics, with an internal organization which commanded their whole moral and physical force; connected by a fictitious tie under a head without a single effective power, afforded a spectacle of which it is hard to say, whether it was more ludicrous or melancholy. Such a condition of things could not last. The very first occurrence which should put the will of congress at issue with the will of one of the larger states, would have dissolved the phantom; and shown America to be, what the discerning at home and abroad already perceived her to be in theory, a nation; in fact, a number of rival and hostile sovereignties. The evils to be apprehended from such a conflict were alarming; and they were approaching with no less certainty, than it is certain that the principles of human action are not to be altered, nor suspended by compact. The failure of a request from Congress for permission to levy a small duty upon

* On this subject it would be less a compliment to mention, than an injury to omit, the name of his excellency George Clinton, Esq., then governor of the state; whose honorable, independent, and successful exertions to restrain our citizens, cannot be remembered but with respect and veneration.

imports, was hastening a crisis which the mighty mind of HAMILTON proposed to avert. With the express intention of making an effort to retrieve our affairs by establishing an efficient general government, did he consent to be nominated as a candidate for the legislature of this state. The design was magnanimous. It embraced the only expedient to prevent our ruin; but it was confided to a few chosen friends. For such was the national inexperience, and the popular jealousy, that the least suspicion of his purpose would have blasted his reputation as an enemy to freedom. Oh, HAMILTON! equally pure and disinterested were all thy plans, though often misunderstood and calumniated! And now, when there is no more room for suspicion, let his country, in judging of them, not forget, that the very measure which, at first she would bitterly have execrated, has been her salvation. Yes, it is indubitable, that the original germ out of which has grown up her unexampled prosperity, was in the bosom of HAMILTON. From the abortive attempt of Congress already mentioned, proceeded a commercial convention; and to the report of that body, which, as he foresaw, was unable to extricate the nation, do we owe the federal convention. Here, Americans, was the constellation of your heroes and your statesmen. Here Here your WASHINGTON presided, and your HAMILTON Shone. What weight the first of

these names added to everything which received. its sanction, and what a conciliating charm it diffused through the states, you need not to be informed. But you ought not to be ignorant, that the benefit arising from the signature of WASHINGTON Substantiates a claim on your gratitude to HAMILTON; as it was the advice of the latter previously consulted, which persuaded the former to accept a seat in the convention. A prudent secresy covers the transactions of that august assembly. But could the veil be drawn aside, you would hear the youth of thirty, fascinating with his eloquence, the collective wisdom of the states, and instructing the hoary patriot in the recondite science of government. You would observe all the emotions of his manly heart, occupying, in turn, his expressive features; and see, through the window in his breast, every anxiety, every impulse, every thought, directed to your happiness. The result is in your hands; it is in your national existence. Not such indeed, as HAMILTON wished, but such as he could obtain, and as the states would ratify, is the federal constitution. His ideas of a government which should elevate the character, preserve the unity and perpetuate the liberties of America, went beyond the provisions of that instrument. Accustomed to view men as they are; and to judge of what they will be, from what they ever have been, he distrusted any political order which admits the