The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-11-08
WASHINGTON.

We find the following portrait oil our extra
ordinary countryman in the CONCLUSION OF the
Olaf cbap,er Of Allison's g History OF Eu-
rope" The writer, ii will be recoiiec'ed' IS
an inveterate tory, and a principal contribu-
tor TO BIackwood's Magazine. No man DINO
dern times has proved himself more pesever-
ing enemy TO all progress or reform, more
decided bigot in all his notions, religious or
political, more partial or one-sided historian,
ora greater foe to human rights and human
freedom. In the last respect he might, with
iustce, take his stand along side of the late Duke
of Wellington, whom it is at present fasLiona
Bile, even in this country, TO extol, as the very
model Of every thing great, liberal and magma
pimous, though when he died he had been fight
ing against the right Of the people to govern
themselves for sixty years, in the field, in the
House of Lords, FOR in the Cabinet.
The virtues Of Washington have wrung
praise even from the narrow minded bigot who
wrote the history (such history ~ of Eu-
rope from 1889 to 1885, If he could have
found any thing to say against him, he would
no doubt have said it but the fortress ofWash
ington's qualities was too strong for his puny
arm. fle might have broken his own reputa.
ton into a thousand fragments in the encoun-
ter but he could have made nothing out of
Washington. He could malgn Bonaparte,
because it is always safe TO trample on the fall
len. He could fatter Wellington, because it
is profitable TO fawn on the great. But of
La Ea
world would not suffer him to insult the me-
naory of its hero, for Washington is the hero OF
humanity. In one paragraph he showers his
filthy adula.on upon that most detestable OF
oil historical characters, Catherine of Russia,
who had just gone to pay, in another world,
the penalty of list of crimes, so long and
black, that Nero himself would shudder to con.
template it. The next he deyotes to Wash.
ington. who had just retired to private life, af.
ter having held the first office in the gift of his
eounrymen for eight years. /, is evident that
this sketch is extorted by the general senti-
nent; for no man who is an apoloeist for the
murderer Of her own husband the despoIer of
Poland, the author Of countless murders, can
really admire Washington.
The end of the same year witnessed the re-
signation of rhe presidency of the United
States of America by General Washington.
and his voluntary retirement into private life.
Modern history has not so spotless charac-
Ter to commemorate. Invincble in resolution.
firm in conduct, incorruptible in integrity, he
brought to the helm of a victorious renublic
the simplicity and innocence of rural life he
was forced into greatness by circumstances
rather than led into it by inclination, and pre-
vailed over his enemies rather by the isdom
OF his designs and the perseverance of his cha
ter, than any extraordinary genius for the art
of war. A soldier from necessity and patriot
ism rather than disposition, he was the first to
recommend a return to pacific councils when
the independence Of his country was secured,
and beQueathed to his conntrvmen an address,
on leaving their government, to which there is
no composition OF uninspired wisdom which
can bear comparison. He was modest with
out diffidence; sensible to the voice of fame
without vanity; independent and dignfed with
out either asperity or pride. He was a friend
TO liberty, but not RIGHTEOUSNESS; not to the
dreams of enthusiasts, bat to those practical
ideas which America had inherited from her
English descent, and which were opposed to
nothing SO much as the extravagant love of
power in the French Democracy. According
ly, having signalised his life by successful re-
sistance to English oppression, he closed it bv
the warmest advice to cultivate the friendship
of Great Britain; and by his casting vote.
shortly before his resignation, ratified treaty
offriendly and commercial intercourse between
the mother country and lis enancipated off:
spring. He was Cromwell without his am
bition; Syla without his crimes: and, after
having raised his country, by his exerlions, to
the rank of an Independent state, closed his
career by a voluntary REIMBURSEMENT of the
power which grateful people had bestowed.
II is the highest glory Of England to have given
birth, even amid transatlantic wilds, to such a
man; and if she cannot number him among
those who have extended her provinces or aug
mented her dominions, she NAV at least feel a
legitimate pride in the victories which he
achieved, and the great qualities which he ex-
hlbited in the contest with herself and indulge
with satisfaction in the reflection that that vast
empire, which neither the ambition of Louis
XIV. nor the power of Napoleon could dismem.
Der, received Its first rude shock from the cour-
age which she had communicated to her own
offspring; and that, amid the commissions and re,
volutions OF other States, real liberty has ari-
sen in that country alone, which inherited in
Its veins the genuine principle of British free
dom.