The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1809-11-24
tUNus



! If, your retreat from office, you had gone
| INTO actual retirement, should not now have the
| cruelty to disturb YOU would respect the shei
l er which misfortune reserves for the lowest o
| her victims, and leave YOU in that privacy which
equally suited to the moderation of your talent.
and your virtues.
! Your royal highness will be convinced that
'm not to be easily impr ssad by common opini
bon, when " II admit that your existence has no,
/ zen altogether useless to country. To es
tablsh any valuable truth, one example is better
tnan thousand lectures tive have a natural
suspicion of theory, and we might have fingered
through ages Of scepticism before we could have
found so strong an example as that supplied by
YOUR Royal Highness-that no degradation ~,
d'squalify man for the service of his country
! that the most vulgar vice can give a lesson of
morality and the mesnest thirst of 20 scr a tri.
| umPh to the Constitution
know that, to your delicacy Of feeling. no.
thng IS likely to be more unexpected, or per.
haps, more painful. than public charge of the
cardinal virtues. The double accusation of y,iety
and patriotismis is. it must be owned, rather op-
pressive for the blushing humility of man WHO
mas hitherto succeeded in concealing his virtues
from the suspicion of even his most intimate
friends But, Sir, If | am not mis-, AIKEN, you were
oorn for public example Other men may rest
= ms on he graft -. de eve "
reward from he justice, of the county," Sc.
p."dnt c.rtuten qu.eyimu,, and it is a duty
winch dare not tie inc, to draw your buried me
rits up to light, and demand Tor them the honor
which is their due
L must be permitted to pause in your panegv-
ric AN old mans imagination sinks before the
task OF following you tn rugh your course of plo
~ ana, IN an age when every thing seems full
OF alteration, it is no slight qualification tn have
discovered SO striking AN example of total def
ance OF change, mind steadily pursuing its uri
g"ai impulse turning neither to the right ror
to the LETT neither to be awed by the chilling for
mainly OF reason, nor ashamed by the sneering i'm.
pertnence of ridicue.
But to have encm,es is the natural fate of mer
IT. Your enemies may endeavor to represent
your course as easy and scarcely requiring any
'hing more than due contempt of those restrjc-
mons winch vulgar minds may hold sacred. {" Fac
| cd" deseensus hVerni" Yet l ,lefy their bite
cs' nsice to give another instance OF a r.,.n who
as devoted such opportunities and such in,ivstr,
20 ms purpose, or whose progress has been at
nhce SO regular and so precipitate--so rapid and
SO undeyis,bg
Other candidates for fashionab Die fame have ex.
ercised 'her faculties upon parts of the system
your r"y a hghn SIS may nave a few eriors at
toe 8 ming table, ar the Four in Hand Club thu,
rsce-cothse, the siew-but, for the range Of the
| UNIVERSAL science, you are without compautor !
You surpass them as lar as the rapidity of in
stinct outstrips the tardness of instruction-and
lor each and all, from the penning of love. letter
to the capitulation OF an army, YOU are uneouaI
led, unimitated, inim,tabie.
can easily conceive that patriotism like YOUR,
"ou'a feel some what restless IN retirement; a
consciousness OF superior abilities naturally urI
yes to their exertion 1t is reported that Won
condescend still to direct the arrangements oftbe
commander IN chiefs office and, as if i, we-e
your determination to dazzle us with blaze of
mingled virtues, add a splendid self.denial to A
Prmceiy patriotism, contenting yourself with tn &
pay ana patronage OF the command, and leav
ing to another the undivided honor of the respon-
sibihty.
But IT is absurd to estm tie YOU by the roncen
tons OF common men. You have, PROBABLY SOM
secret instinct, some dark and prophetic consc;
BUSINESS that you have not yet fulfilled the end of
your beiag ,.aad paid your debt to your country
some meditatlons on your past services to the EN-
pure may nave convinced you, that you have been
MARKED out Tor memorable duty; that. like
nc ttyoShe slave of the ancient tyrants. vour
assistance is necessary to the last hour of her
re"own and that no other hand can so ef
tectusiy shorten the pam of her final st,Y,g.
gle.
Report has even gone Sc far as to say, that Tn.
appointment OF Lord Chatham to the command of
tis expo dition IS nothing more than an ingenious
contrivance Tor your royal highncss's Immr5iate
s'id public resumption ofauthority. As friend
to- The feelings Of an injured patriot, l would not
aiVise you to trust too much to this intripunr
tApeiiient. You still have to feel the prelude e
IL which merit like yours must always be ex.
posed! You nave already escaped its violence +;
a hecond plunge might not be equally Fortunate.
re tideot public opinion still runs strong against
YOU Your robes of office may have hitherto kent
~ on the surface, but they have been too much
drenched not to- have lost their buoyancy They
would be too heavy for your feebi. aess. Yos
would DC swept away at once by an irresistible
torrent, and your Country wonld ha, to Ian n,
ae obscure waste ola life whose las, moments
h'uld have been given to her interests, conse-
Grated by the sOiemniiies of national Justice and
devoted to the ends of national example
Beware warn you, beware 0ftakinp on Won
the command OF the army ID will be your ruin
But you must earn your fate by some buinbIer
crime lfyou are to suffer, let justice take it's
course but the soiled and tramp,ed lauiAl. of
our army must not Dc the cath that binds the
victim.
Stay, sir, If you would not have every parent in
The iand raising GU ses ON your head. Stay in YOUR
retirement 1t IS httest for YOU. You m " there
best exhbIt and indulge all those qualities which
natures like yours feel the first privileges of
rank and opulcnce. You may be I'berius at
Caprea, or Domitian at his villa, and alternate
ly enjoy the pure festivities of the one and the
pbilosophlc solitude of the other
beware OF intrudmg yourself into command {;
the last army of the empire must not be again
trusted with you before an enemy I dread to
look upon the consequence. You have made me
teei more than thought many years had Lett
to M You have reused an old m an from the Dor
ders 1fthe = ave have not med5led with pub
lic affairs for many years. l thought that. in
turning the public eye on the Graftons and Mans
heidS OF my day, had done my Measure Of SER
vice to my country but cap serve her vet I
hSvR the hest frt,, g ~. r