freedom! Washington, whose sword, as my friend' has said, was never drawn but in the cause of his country, and never sheathed when wielded in his country's cause! Franklin, the philosopher of the thunderbolt, the printing press, and the plowshare! What names are these in the scanty catalogue of the benefactors of human kind! Washington and Franklin! What other two men, whose lives belong to the eighteenth century of Christendom, have left a deeper impression of themselves upon the age in which they lived, and upon all after time!

Washington! the warrior and the legislator; in war, contending by the wager of battle for the independence of his country and for the freedom of the human race; ever manifesting, amidst its horrors, by precept and example, his reverence for the laws of peace, and for the tenderest sympathies of humanity; in peace, soothing the ferocious spirit of discord among his own countrymen into harmony and union, and giving to that very sword now presented to his country a charm more potent than that attributed in ancient times to the lyre of Orpheus.2

Franklin the mechanic of his own fortune, teaching, in early youth, under the shackles of indigence, the way to wealth, and in the shade of obscurity, the path to greatness; in the maturity of manhood, disarming

1 Early in the same session of Congress Henry Lee delivered his famous speech, in which he spoke of Washington as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

2 Orpheus was the Greek culture hero of music. He is fabled to have almost succeeded in recovering his wife from the realms of Hades by charming the god of the lower regions with his music. (Cf. Milton's "L'Allegro.")

2

the thunder of its terror, the lightning of its fatal blast,1 and wresting from the tyrant's hand the still more afflictive scepter of oppression; while descending into the vale of years, traversing the Atlantic ocean, braving in the dead of winter the battle and the breeze, bearing in his hand the charter of independence, which he had contributed to form, and tendering, from the selfcreated nation to the mightiest monarchs of Europe, the olive branch of peace, the mercurial wand of commerce, and the amulet of protection and safety to the man of peace on the pathless ocean from the inexorable cruelty and merciless rapacity of war.

And finally, in the last stage of life, with fourscore winters upon his head, under the torture of an incurable disease, returning to his native land, closing his days as the chief magistrate of his adopted commonwealth,1 after contributing by his counsels, under the presidency of Washington, and recording his name, under the sanction of devout prayer invoked by him to God, to that Constitution under the authority of which we are here assembled, as the representatives of the North American people, to receive in their name, and for them, these venerable relics of the wise, the valiant, and the good founder of our great confederated republic these sacred symbols of our golden age.

May they be deposited among the archives of our government; and may every American who shall hereafter behold them ejaculate a mingled offering of praise to that Supreme Ruler of the universe by whose tender mercies our Union has been hitherto preserved

1 By the lightning rod. 2 George III.

3 Referring to his French mission, ♦ Pennsylvania,

through all the vicissitudes and revolutions of this turbulent world, and of prayer for the continuance of the blessings, by the dispensations of His providence, to our beloved country, from age to age, till time shall be no more.

THE TYRANT AND THE PATRIOT1

WILLIAM H. SEWARD
(1848)

WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD (1801-1872), statesman, was born at Florida, Orange County, New York. He was educated at Union College, Schenectady, and began the practice of law in Auburn, New York. He was twice elected governor of New York, and twice United States senator. He was Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Lincoln, and later in President Johnson's Cabinet.

He concluded, by treaty with Russia, an arrangement for the purchase of Alaska by the United States. Some of his famous speeches are: "Eulogy on Lafayette," "Eulogy on Daniel O'Connell," "The Higher Law," and "The Destiny of America."

Only two years after the birth of John Quincy Adams 2 there appeared on an island in the Mediterranean

Sea, a human spirit,3 newly born, en

dowed with equal genius, without the regulating qualities of justice and benevolence which Adams possessed

1 From an address delivered before the New York legislature in 1848.

2 See biographical note, page 103.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), emperor of the French. His life is sufficiently outlined in the selection.

in so eminent a degree. A like career opened to both. Born, like Adams, a subject of a king- the child of more genial skies, like him, became, in early life, a patriot and a citizen of a new and great republic. Like Adams, he lent his service to the State in precocious youth and in its hour of need and won its confidence. But, unlike Adams, he could not wait the dull delays of slow and laborious, but sure, advancement. He sought power by the hasty road that leads through fields of carnage, and he became, like Adams, a supreme magistrate, a consul.

But there were other consuls. He was not content. He thrust them aside and was consul alone. Consular power was too short. He fought new battles, and was consul for life. But power, confessedly derived from the people, must be exercised in obedience to their will, and must be resigned to them again, at least in death. He was not content. He desolated Europe afresh, subverted the republic, imprisoned the patriarch who presided over Rome's comprehensive see,' and obliged him to pour on his head the sacred oil that made the persons of kings divine and their right to reign indefeasible. He was an emperor.

But he saw around him a mother, brothers, and sisters, not ennobled, whose humble state reminded him and the world that he was born a plebeian, and he had no heir to wait impatient for the imperial crown. He scourged the earth again, and again fortune smiled on him, even in his wild extravagance. He bestowed kingdoms and principalities on his kindred, put away the devoted wife of his youthful days, and another, 1 The Pope.

a daughter of Hapsburg's imperial house, joyfully accepted his proud alliance.1 Offspring gladdened his anxious sight; a diadem was placed on its infant brow, and it received the homage of princes, even in its cradle. Now he was indeed a monarch, a legitimate monarch-a monarch by divine appointment, the first of an endless succession of monarchs. But there were other monarchs who held sway on the earth. He was not content. He would reign with his kindred alone.

2

He gathered new and greater armies from his own land — from subjugated lands. He called forth the young and brave one from every household - from the Pyrenees to the Zuyder Zee from Jura 4 to the ocean. He marshaled them into long and majestic columns, and went forth to seize that universal dominion which seemed almost within his grasp.

But ambition had tempted fortune too far. The nations of the earth resisted, repelled, pursued, surrounded him. The pageant was ended. The crown fell from his presumptuous head. The wife who had wedded him in his pride forsook him in the hour when fear came upon him. His child was ravished from his sight. His kinsmen were degraded to their first estate, and he no longer was emperor, nor consul, nor general, nor even a citizen, but an exile and

1 Napoleon married, in 1810, Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor of Austria. The Austrian throne is held by the Hapsburg family.

2 The mountains which form the boundary between France and Spain.

3 An arm of the North Sea in Holland.

4 The Jura Mountains on the eastern boundary of France.