"home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the

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right of election by the people; a mild and safe "corrective of abuses, which are lopped by the "sword of revolution, where peaceable remedies " are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the "decisions of the majority, the vital principle of · Republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia-our best "reliance in peace, and for the first moments of "war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; œconomy in the public expence, that labour may be lightly burthened; the honest payment "of our debts, and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses " at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of the person, under protection of the habeascorpus and trial by juries impartially selectThese principles form the bright constel"lation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reforma"tion. The wisdom of all our sages, and blood "of our heroes, have been devoted to their at"tainment: they should be the creed of our

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"ed.

political faith, the text of civic instruction, the "touchstone by which to try the services of those "whom we trust; and, should we wander from

"them in moments of error or of alarm, let us "hasten to retrace our steps, and regain the road "which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.

“I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you "have assigned me. With experience enough

"in subordinate offices to have seen the difficul"ties of this, the greatest of all, I have learned "to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man, to retire from this station with the "reputation and the favour which bring him "into it. Without pretensions to that high con"fidence you reposed in your first and great revo

lutionary character, whose pre-eminent services "had entitled him to the first place in his country's "love, and destined for him the fairest page in the "volume of faithful history, I ask so much con"fidence only, as may give firmness and effect "to the legal administration of your affairs. I "shall often go wrong through defect of judg"ment: when right, I shall often be thought "wrong by those whose positions will not com"mand a view of the whole ground. I ask

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your

indulgence for my own errors, which will never "be intentional; and your support against the " errors of others, who may condemn what they "would not if seen in all its parts. The appro"bation implied by your suffrage, is a great con"solation to me for the past; and my future soli"citude will be to retain the good opinion of "those who have bestowed it in advance; to "conciliate that of others, by doing them all the

good in my power; and to be instrumental to "the freedom and happiness of ali.

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Relying, then, on the patronage of your good-will, I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you be"come sensible how many better choices it is in

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your power to make; and may that infinite "Power, which rules the destinies of the Universe, "lead our councils to what is best, and give them "a favourable issue for your peace and prosperity."

CHAP. VII.

Return to New-York-Literary Pursuits-Magnificent Promises from a great Man-The Horizon of Life brightens. I no longer feed on the Vapours of a School, but depart for the City of Washington, with a Heart dancing to the Song of Expectation-I mingle at Philadelphia with the Votaries of Taste; and am elbowed by Poets and Prose-Writers, Critics and PhilosophersI proceed to Washington-Interview with the Secretary of the Treasury-All my Hopes blasted-I travel into Virginia, by the Way of Alexandria-A Quaker opens his Door to receive me, and I exchange with him lasting Knowledge for perishable Coin.

WHEN I had heard the speech of Mr. Jefferson, there was nothing more to detain me among the scattered buildings of the desert. On my return

to New-York, I became seriously busied in directing the tastes, and cultivating the imaginations of the three sons of Mr. Ludlow. The mother had already polished their manners into elegance, and they never entered the room without respectively making me a low bow; not the shuffling bow of a plough-boy, but a bow taught them by a dancing-master, and softened into ease by an intercourse with good company. This put me upon bowing myself, and I reciprocated bows with them till Ferdinand, who agonized under the slightest invasion of his sensibility, discovered my bow was ironical, and expressed his hope that I would not make a jest of him. But not so the youngest. Edward, who had been just trussed out in pantaloons and boots, would writhe his jolly form, and kick about his legs, till both his brothers were speechless with laughter.

Indolence is more painful than labour to a mind that delights in employment; and there was no abatement of my vigour in my literary vocation. The first impression of the Farmer of New Jersey was nearly exhausted; a second edition was in the press; and, animated by its success, Caritat* published my poems in a small volume, which I

* I would place the bust of Caritat among those of the Sosii of Horace, and the Centryphon of Quintillian. He was my only friend at New-York, when the energies of my mind were depressed by the chilling prospect of poverty. His talents were not meanly cultivated by letters; he could tell a good

dedicated to my friend Mr. Burr, who had been recently elected Vice-President of the United States.

My book, however small, did not escape the Mohawk Reviewers. The criticism is the production of an Attorney, named Beckman; he writes the Christmas Carols, and furnishes the news-carriers with addresses to their subscribers. "Those who are sometimes disposed to amuse "their idle moments with trifles light as air,' may find some entertainment in this little "volume of poems. Their chief qualities are harmony of numbers, and vivacity of expres"sion. Not laden with a weight of sentiment, "the verses move easily and lightly along; and "though too short to be tedious, their brevity "is not the vehicle of wit.

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"The Author appears to possess a capacity for poetical composition, and we should be pleased

book from a bad one, which few modern Librarians can do. But place aux dames was his maxim, and all the ladies of New-York declared that the Library of Mr. Caritat was charming. Its shelves could scarcely sustain the weight of Female Frailty, the Posthumous Daughter, and the Cavern of Woe; they required the aid of the carpenter to support the burden of the Cottage-on-the-Moor, the House of Tynian, and the Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne; or they groaned under the multiplied editions of the Devil in Love, More Ghosts, and Rinaldo Rinaldini. Novels were called for by the young and the old; from the tender virgin of thirteen, whose little heart went pit-a-pat at the approach of a beau; to the experienced matron of three core, who could not read without spectacles.