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Art. XXXI.

An Oration upon the Death of General
George Washington; delivered in
the State-House, at Trenton, on the

14th January, 1800. By the Rev.
Samuel Stanhope Smith, D. D.
President of the College of New-
Jersey: and published at the desire
of the Committee of the Citizens,
&c. of Trenton, at whose request it
was pronounced. Trenton. Craft.
8vo. pp. 45. 1800.

“GREAT God! we adore
thy sovereign providence,
which hath smitten the father of his
country, and left a nation in tears!”
Such is the exordium of this oration,
which pursues to the end, though
with somewhat diminished vehe-
mence, the same strain of glowing
eloquence.

Washington is here delineated
from the dawn to the evening of life.
His education and exercises are
briefly related. His conduct in
youth, as negociator and soldier,
his generalship during the revolu-
tionary contest, and his transactions
as legislator and magistrate, are dis-
played to view, and embellished
with all the colours of rhetoric.

In the summary narrative which
is given of his military exploits, we
must see the peculiar propriety of
dwelling, most circumstantially,
upon those events which took place
at Princeton and Trenton, and, in
general, in the native State of the
orator and his auditors.

The private life of Washington
is thus described:

“In private life, he was as amia-
ble as virtuous, and as great as he
appeared sublime on the public
theatre of the world. How many
conquerors, renowned in history,
have been great only while they
acted a conspicuous part under the
observation of mankind! The
soul, in such a situation, perceives
an artificial elevation—it assumes
the sentiments of virtue corres-
ponding to the grandeur of the ob-
jects that surround it. In private,
it subsides into itself; and, in the
ordinary details of life and con-

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duct, the men, who seemed to be
raised above others by the splendour
of some rare occasions, now sink
below them; they are degraded by
their passions; those who were able
to command armies, have lost the
power of self-command; and, when
they are not heroes, they are nothing.
Washington was always equal to
himself. There was a dignity in
the manner in which he performed
the smallest things. A majesty sur-
rounded him that seemed to humble
those who approached him, at the
same time that there was a benig-
nity in his manners that invited
their confidence and esteem. His
virtues, always elevated and splen-
did, shone only with a milder light
by being placed in the vale of re-
tirement. He was sincere, modest,
upright, humane; a friend of reli-
gion; the idol of his neighbours as
well as of his country; magnificent
in his hospitality, but plain in his
manners, and simple in his equipage.
And the motives of these virtues
we are not to seek in a vain affecta-
tion of popularity, which has often
enabled the cunning and the artful
to make great sacrifices to public
opinion, but in the native impulse
and goodness of his heart. His
emotions, naturally strong and ar-
dent, as they are, perhaps, in all
great men, he had completely sub-
jected to the controul of reason, and
placed under the guard of such a
vigilant prudence, that he never
suffered himself to be surprised by
them. Philosophy and religion in
his breast had obtained a noble tri-
umph: and his first title to com-
mand over others, was his perfect
command of himself. Such a
sublime idea had he formed of man,
that, in him, you never detected
any of the littlenesses of the passions.
His consummate prudence, which
was one of his most characteristic
qualities, and which never forsook

him for a moment, contributed to
fix the affections and the confidence
of his fellow-citizens, which he had
acquired by his talents. Eminently
distinguished for his conjugal and
domestic virtues, the perfect purity
of his private morals added not a
little to that dignity of character in
which he was superior to all men.
There is a majesty in virtue which
commands the respect even of those
who do not love it, and which
gives to great talents their highest
lustre. Ah! if the ambitious knew,
or were willing to estimate its influ-
ence on reputation, and its power-
ful command over the minds of
men, they would study to be virtu-
ous from self-interest.”

The close is as follows:

“Finally, every thing serves to
remind us of our departed and be-
loved chief, and to renew con-
tinually in our breasts, the most
grateful, along with the most afflict-
ing recollections. If the husband-
man tills his lands, and calls them
his own, have they not been gained
by his wisdom and valour? Do
we enjoy our hearths and our altars
in peace? Have they not been
purchased by his toils and his
dangers? There is not a village,
not a field, not a stream which he
has not stained with the blood of
our enemies,* or where he has not
inscribed on the earth with his
sword, the characters of American
liberty. Ah! by how many dear
and tender ties does he hold posses-
sion of our hearts! Wives and
mothers think they have lost him
who preserved to them their hus-
bands and their infants; the young
think they have lost in him a father;
fathers that they have lost more than
their children; the republic that
she has lost her founder and her
saviour; every citizen fears lest the
peace, the union, the glory of Ame-
rica is entombed with him. No, my

  * This is almost literally true of all the middle counties of New-Jersey.

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fellow-citizens! This fear shall not
be realized. Washington, though
dead, is not lost. His ashes shall
defend the republic that contains
them; the capitol, that rests upon
his remains, shall be immortal; his
example shall live to instruct pos-
terity; his virtues shall descend as a
precious in heritance to future ages;
the future lawgivers and rulers of
America shall come to his tomb to
reanimate their own virtues; and,
if it be true that the wise and good,
amidst the supreme felicities of their
celestial existence, are still occupied
with the cares, and sometimes made
the guardians of that which was the
dearest to them upon earth, O spirit
of Washington! will not thy be-
loved country still be thy care?”

After these specimens, it would
be useless to comment upon the
style of this oration. The reader
will judge for himself, and will
doubtless perceive many things
worthy of applause, not only in the
selection and arrangement of senti-
ments and facts, but in the mode
of composition. The language is
always flowing, animated, and un-
commonly correct.

There is no absolute criterion of
eloquence. All its merit and de-
merit is comparative. Our standard
is drawn from the highest excel-
lence which we have witnessed, and
orators are censured or applauded
in proportion as they fall below or
reach this actual standard; as they
are better or worse than their neigh-
bours.

Truth is, in no respect, the mea-
sure of their claims. The fidelity
to nature of the portrait drawn by a
professed eulogist, is a foreign con-
sideration. We are only to consi-
der its lustre, brilliancy, and grace-
fulness. The contest between dealers
in encomium, is which shall praise
with most ardour. They do not
vie with each other in the accuracy
with which they copy the face or
character intrusted to them, but in

the perfection of their picture,
considered merely as a picture.
The question to be asked is, merely,
in whose portrait are most virtues
assembled? On whose canvass has
abstract excellence been exhibited
with most completeness and most
skill?

Eulogies, therefore, reflect little
light upon the character of him who
is the subject of them. They are
chiefly specimens of the genius of
the orator. They display the rich-
ness of his fancy, the fertility of his
conception, the luxuriance of his
style, and his mode of estimating
moral duty and intellectual excel-
lence.

Considered in this light, Dr. S.
will surely stand high in the cata-
logue of eulogists. There are few
who have commented with equal
copiousness and energy upon the
following text: “His character is a
constellation of all the great qualities
that dignify and adorn human na-
ture. The virtues and the talents
which, in other instances, are di-
vided among many, are combined
in him.”