that resolution secured them the victory. When did Athens appear the greatest and most formidable? It was when, giving up their houses and possessions to the flames of the. enemy, and having transferred their wives, their children, their aged parents and the symbols of their religion on board of their fleet, they resolved to consider themselves as the republic, and their ships as their country. It was then they struck that terrible blow, under which the greatness of Persia sunk and expired.

These means, Sir, and many others, are in our power: let us resolve to use them, and act so as to convince France that we have taken the resolution, and there will be nothing to fear. The conviction will be to us instead of fleets and armies, and even more effectual. Seeing us thus prepared, she will not attack us. Then will she listen to our peaceable proposals; then will she accept the concessions we mean to offer. But should this offer not be thus supported, should it be attended by any circumstances from which she can discover weakness, distrust or division, then will she reject it with derision and scorn. And let it be remembered that when we give this vote, we vote not only on the peace of our country, but on what is far more important-its rights and its honor.

Ex. CII.-INJUSTICE OF THE ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS.

Election Speech, delivered March, 1799.

JOHN RANDOLPH.*

AND what is the subject of alarm? What are the laws we have dared to pronounce upon as unconstitutional and tyrannical? The first is a law authorizing the President of the United States to order any alien he may judge dangerous, any unfortunate refugee that may happen to fall under his royal suspicion, forthwith to quit the country. It is true that the law says he must have reasonable grounds to sus

*The biographer of Mr. Randolph does not profess to give here a literal transcript of his speech, but reports it from tradition; these were, however, the sentiments expressed by him on this occasion. As a result of this address Mr. Randolph obtained his first_election to Congress, in which body he held a place for nearly thirty years. He was noted for his brilliant rhetoric and great powers of sarcasm, and was one of the warmest supporters of the Southern doctrine of "State Rights."

INJUSTICE OF THE ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS. 165

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pect. Who is to judge of that reason but himself? can look into his breast and say what motives have dominion there? It is a mockery to give one man absolute power over the liberty of another, and then ask him, when the power is gone and can not be recalled, to exercise it reasonably! Power knows no other check but power.

Let the poor patriot who may have fallen under the frowns of Government because he dared assert the rights of his countrymen, seek refuge on our shores of boasted liberty; the moment he touches the soil of freedom, hoping here to find a period to all his persecutions, he is greeted, not with the smile of welcome, or the cheerful voice of freemen, but the stern demands of an officer of the law-the executor of a tyrant's will-who summons him to depart. What crime has he perpetrated? Vain inquiry! He is a suspected person. He is judged dangerous to the peace of the country; rebellious at home, he may be alike factious and seditious here. What remedy? What hope? He who condemns is judge; there is no appeal from his arbitrary will.

And what is that other law which so fully meets the approbation of my venerable friend? It is a law that makes it an act of sedition, punishable by fine and imprisonment, to utter or write a sentiment that any prejudiced judge or juror may think proper to construe into disrespect of the President of the United States. Is the man dreaming! do you exclaim? Is this a fancy picture he has drawn for our amusement? I am no fancy man, people of Virginia! I speak the truth. I deal only in stern realities! There is such a law on your Statute Book, in spite of your Constitution-in open contempt of those solemn guarantees that insure freedom of speech and of the press to every American citizen.

And yet the gentleman tells you we must wait until some infringement is made on our rights! Your Constitution broken, your citizens dragged to prison for daring to exercise the freedom of speech, armies levied, and yourselves threatened with immediate invasion for your audacious interference with the business of the Federal government-and you are told to wait for some infringement of your rights! How long are we to wait? Till the chains are fastened on us, and we can no longer help ourselves? But, the gentleman says, your course may lead to civil war, and where are your resources? I answer him in his own words, handed down by the tradition of the past generation, and engraven on the hearts of his grateful countrymen, "Shall we gather strength

by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope until our enemies have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means the God of nature hath placed in our power. The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave."

Ex. CIII.-EULOGY ON WASHINGTON.

Delivered February 8, 1800.

FISHER AMES.

Ir is natural that the gratitude of mankind should be drawn to their benefactors. A number of these have successively arisen, who were no less distinguished for the elevation of their virtues than the lustre of their talents. Of these, however, who were born, and who acted through life as if they were born, not for themselves, but for their country and the whole human race, how few, alas, are recorded in the long annals of ages, and how wide the intervals of time and space that divide them! In all this dreary length of way, they appear like five or six light-houses on many thousand miles of coast; they gleam upon the surrounding darkness with an inextinguishable splendor, like stars seen through a mist; but they are seen like stars, to cheer, to guide and to save. Washington is now added to that small number. Already he attracts curiosity, like a newly discovered star, whose benignant light will travel on to the world's and time's farthest bounds. Already his name is hung up by history as conspicuously as if it sparkled in one of the constellations of the sky.

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By commemorating his death, we are called this day to yield the homage that is due to virtue; to confess the common debt of mankind, as well as our own; and to pronounce for posterity, now dumb, that eulogium which they will delight to echo ten ages hence, when we are dumb.

I consider myself not merely in the midst of the citizens of this town, nor even of the State. In idea I gather around me the nation. In the vast and venerable congregation of the

*Patrick Henry.

EULOGY ON WASHINGTON.

167

patriots of all countries, and of all enlightened men, I would, if I could, raise my voice, and speak to mankind in a strain worthy of my audience, and as elevated as my subject. But you have assigned me a task that is impossible.

Oh, if I could perform it, if I could illustrate his principles in my discourse as he displayed them in his life; if I could paint his virtues as he practised them; if I could convert the fervid enthusiasm of my heart into the talent to transmit his fame as it ought to pass to posterity,-I should be the successful organ of your will, the minister of his virtues, and, may I dare to say, the humble partaker of his immortal glory. These are ambitious, deceiving hopes, and I reject them; for it is, perhaps, almost as difficult at once with judgment and feeling to praise great actions, as to perform them. A lavish and undistinguishing eulogium is not praise; and to discriminate such excellent qualities as were characteristic and peculiar to him, would be to raise a name, as he raised it, above envy, above parallel, perhaps, for that very reason, above emulation.

How great he appeared while he administered the government, how much greater when he retired from it; how he accepted the chief military command under his wise and upright successor; how his life was unspotted like his fame, and how his death was worthy of his life, are so many distinct subjects of instruction, and each of them singly more than enough for a eulogium. I leave the task, however, to history and to posterity; they will be faithful to it.

There has scarcely appeared a really great man whose character has been more admired in his life-time, or less correctly understood by his admirers. When it is comprehended, it is no easy task to delineate its excellences in such a manner as to give the portrait both interest and resemblance; for it requires thought and study to understand the true ground of his superiority over many others, whom he resembled in the principles of action, and even in the manner of acting. But perhaps he excels all the great men that ever lived in the steadiness of his adherence to his maxims of life, and in the uniformity of his conduct to the same maxims. These maxims, though wise, were yet not so remarkable for their wisdom as for their authority over his life; for if there were any errors in his judgment (and he discovered as few as any man), we know of no blemishes in his virtue.

He was the patriot without reproach; he loved his country well enough to hold his success in serving it an ample

recompense. Thus far self-love and love of country coincided; but when his country needed sacrifices few could, or perhaps would be willing to make, he did not even hesitate. This was virtue in its most exalted character. More than once he put his fame at hazard, when he had reason to think it would be sacrificed, at least in this age. Two instances can not be denied; when the army was disbanded, and again when he stood, like Leonidas at the pass of Thermopyla, to defend our independence against France.

Epaminondas is perhaps the brightest name of all antiquity. Our Washington resembled him in the purity and ardor of his patriotism; and, like him, he first exalted the glory of his country. There it is to be hoped the comparison ends; for Thebes fell with Epaminondas. But such comparisons cannot be pursued far, without departing from the similitude. For we shall find it as difficult to compare great men as great rivers; some we admire for the length and rapidity of their current, and the grandeur of their cataracts; others for the majestic silence and fulness of their streams; we can not bring them together to measure the difference of their waters. The unambitious life of Washington, declining fame, yet courted by it, seemed, like the Ohio, to choose its long way through solitudes, diffusing fertility; or, like his own Potomac, widening and deepening his channel as he approached the sea, and displaying most the usefulness and serenity of his greatness towards the end of his course. Such a citizen would do honor to any country. The constant veneration and affection of his country will show that it was worthy of such a citizen.

Ex. CIV.-WASHINGTON A MODEL FOR THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER.

WILLIAM WIRT.

LET your ambition, gentlemen, be to enroll your names among those over whose histories our hearts swell and our eyes overflow with admiration, delight, and sympathy, from infancy to old age; and the story of whose virtues, exploits and sufferings, will continue to produce the same effect throughout the world, at whatever distance of time they may be read. It is needless, and it would be endless, to name