ELOQUENT EULOGY ON WASHINGTON.

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manner. His address on this occasion was subsequently published at their request. In the course of his remarks, he adverted to the character of Washington, whose death had lately occurred, in these words :

"Our country has sustained an irreparable loss by the death of this greatest and best of men. To bestow on him the epithet of great, would be but common praise. His name alone expresses enough. The simple name of WASHINGTON will be remembered with veneration and respect by posterity, when all the titles of human greatness and distinction have sunk beneath the stroke of time. All our orators and poets have vied with each other to do justice to his merit, and sacred and profane history have been ransacked to find his equal. When the parallel has been drawn between him and Moses or Solomon in sacred history, or between him and the greatest characters, both ancient and modern, that profane history can boast, they appear but diminished spectres. His deserved fame eclipses every other name.

"His character in private as well as public life, is without a blemish. He seems to have possessed every accomplishment which makes a man either amiable or estimable. His sentiments of religion were noble and elevated. His regard for Christianity was evidenced by a respectful attendance on its instituted forms of worship, and by treating with equal candor and indulgence all denominations, without preferring one to the other. His gentle and amiable disposition endeared him to his private friends. His graceful manners engaged him the affections of all orders of the people. He was one of the most accomplished men of the age, and possessed all the great qualities both of body and mind, natural and acquired, which could fit him for the high station to which he attained. The affability of his address encouraged those who might be overawed by the sense of his dignity and wisdom. Though he often indulged his facetious humor, he knew how to temper it with discretion, and ever kept at a distance from all indecent familiarities with those about him. He loved and practised the virtues of domestic life, which seldom hold their residence among the great. He was chaste and temperate, enjoying without excess the social pleasures of the table. All his titles of greatness were adorned by the tender name of a faithful husband and an indulgent parent, for, though childless himself, he embraced as his own the children of his brother and sister, and the ex

pressions of his regard were extended to the most distant and obscure branches of his numerous kindred. His familiar friends were judiciously selected. He respected the good and the virtuous, who with the innocent were rewarded by his judicious liberality, while the more diffusive circle of his benevolence was circumscribed only by the limits of the human race.

"When not engaged in war, he cultivated the arts of peace. That he delighted in farming, is evident from his following the plough in his native soil, and from the great improvements he made in every branch of agriculture. That he wished to be useful in ordinary life, was evidenced by his acting as a member of assembly, a magistrate, and sitting as a common juror in a court of justice, in the county where he resided. Washington was not stimulated by avarice, fired by ambition, nor did he thirst for conquest. It should ever be remembered that he was never engaged in any offensive war. His whole military career is rendered more glorious and resplendent, when it is considered that he always fought in defence of his country. His mild disposition was ever respected by the good and virtuous, while the vigor of his character struck terror into the degenerate and guilty. No more lives were sacrificed under his command, than the fate of war rendered inevitable. Although he always considered the exercise of strict justice as the most important duty of his official life, yet the exercise of mercy was his most delightful employment. Should his enemies doubt this, I call on them to read, if they can, without emotion, his letter to Captain Asgill, containing the pleasing yet unexpected tidings of his enlargement from what he had long dreaded as a dismal confinement.

"Heaven seems to have sent him upon earth, to serve at once as an example of that perfection of which human nature is capable, and of that happiness it may enjoy in private lifeand at the same time, to have liberally endowed him with those public virtues, which sometimes raise human nature above itself. In short, nothing seems wanting to grace the perfection of his character. He sustained adversity with firmness, and prosperity with moderation. The power and sublimity of his genius transcended the fame of Cæsar, and his consummate wisdom and prudence, that of Augustus. His superiority in peace, as well as in war, has been acknowledged by all, and even his enemies have confessed, with a sigh, his great and shining accomplishments, and that he loved his country and

JUDGE HALL'S CHARACTER.

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deserved the empire of the world. Though we cannot expect to reach the transcendent height of his public honors and military glory, yet with respect to the exercise of his private and domestic virtues, we may in some measure be imitators of him. Let us, then, copy his bright example. Let us live and act as he advises, and in this way shall we more convincingly evidence our regard for his memory, than we should, were we daily to repair to his sepulchre, and bedew with tears of sincere regret, that stupendous monument of our country's salvation."

While attending the General Assembly, during their session at Montpelier, in the autumn of 1808, Judge Hall was seized with a violent catarrhal affection which assumed an incurable form, and caused his death on the 17th of May, 1809. In his "Descriptive Sketch" of Vermont, published in 1797, Dr. John A. Graham observes of Mr. Hall:-He "is one of the judges of the Supreme court, which office he fills in such a manner as to reflect honour, even on so important a station. His memory is so wonderfully tenacious, as to make him master of every subject he reads or hears, and to enable him to recapitulate them without the slightest hesitation or previous study." As a friend, Mr. Hall was constant, confiding, and generous. As a citizen, patriotic, public-spirited, and liberal. As a husband, obliging, affectionate, and gentle. He was ever ready to assist the poor in their misery, and the afflicted in their suffering. Nothing aroused more fully his resentment than the oppression of the weak by the strong.* His legal abilities were of a high order, and were well suited to the times in which, and the people among whom he lived. While on the bench, his opinions were prepared with deliberation, and his decisions were ever based in justice and right. His fund of anecdote was great, and a memory of surpassingly retentive powers enabled him to call up on any occasion, incidents illustrative of whatever topic might be under consideration. This remarkable faculty, com

* An instance of his readiness to espouse the cause of the oppressed was seen in the attempt which he made-at a meeting of the "church of Christ" in Westminster, held on the 27th of May, 1795-to defend Mrs. Bethiah Holton, a mem. ber of that church, against whom he thought an undue severity was being exercised, on account of her avowal of the belief "that all mankind will finally be restored to the Divine favor through the sufferings, death, and atonement of Christ." An account of the proceedings on this occasion, and a report of Judge Hall's remarks, were published in the "Farmer's Weekly Museum," on the 2d of June, and the 7th of July, 1795, and in the "Rural Magazine: or Vermont Repository," for June, 1795.

bined with an extensive experience of men and things, and an affable disposition, rendered his conversation not only agreeable but instructive. Though dying in the fifty-third year of his age, his life was an active one, and his personal and political influence was felt and acknowledged in the community in which he resided.*

THOMAS JOHNSON.

In the year 1762, Thomas Johnson, then in the twenty-first year of his age, removed from Hampstead, New Hampshire, to Newbury on the New Hampshire Grants. In the service of Col. Jacob Bayley he was entrusted with the care of that gentleman's lands, which were situated on the west side of the Connecticut, and were subsequently comprised within the limits of Newbury. The charter of Newbury was granted by Benning Wentworth, on the 18th of March, 1763, and in the same year Mr. Johnson became a resident of the town, and there purchased lands. At this time there was no road in any direction leading from Newbury, and bread-stuffs and all articles of furniture, agriculture, and consumption, were brought on horseback from the head waters of the Merrimac, or in boats from Charlestown, eighty miles below. The new settlement rapidly increased in population, and its rich acres were soon converted into well-cultivated farms. In the summer of 1775, Mr. Johnson, who then owned large tracts of land, and had become a successful merchant, built for the accommodation of himself and family, a large house, which is still standing, and which even at this day, is one of the best and most spacious dwellings in the town.

At the commencement of the Revolution, the inhabitants of Newbury, who were nearly all Whigs, held a town meeting,

* Journals Am. Cong., ed. 1823, i. 119, 238, 240. Sparks's Writings of Washington, iii. 270. Almon's Remembrancer, ii. 353: iii. 130: iv. 264, 317. House Documents of 26th Cong., 1st session, No. 58. Deming's Cat. of Vt. Officers, passim. Thomas's (Mass.) Spy, Dec. 13th, 1792, No. 1028. Farmers' Weekly Museum, or New Hampshire and Vermont Journal, Walpole, N.H., Sept. 3d, 1798. Farmers' Museum, or Literary Gazette, Walpole, N. H., August 18th and 25th, 1800. Graham's Vt., p. 111. Beckley's Hist. Vt., p. 124. Acts and Laws Vt. 1800, pp. 36-40. Ante, p. 453.

SERVICES OF THOMAS JOHNSON.

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and in the most deliberate manner declared themselves independent of Great Britain, and entered the declaration in the records of the town. During the latter part of March and the early part of April, 1776, Mr. Johnson traced out on foot, through an unbroken wilderness and the melting snows of spring, a path for a military road from Newbury to St. John's. His journal of the survey was sent to General Washington. The object of this examination was to ascertain a practicable and short route for the invasion of Canada. Several other explorations of a similar character were made at this period, but circumstances never afterwards favored an expedition which was so strongly desired, so long contemplated, and once actually organized under La Fayette. In the year 1777, Mr. Johnson at that time holding a captain's commission, raised and took the command of a company, which served under General Lincoln, whose head-quarters were at Manchester. With this distinguished officer, Captain Johnson was for some time connected as aid-de-camp. In September of the same year, General Lincoln sent five hundred men, of whom Captain Johnson's company formed a part, to reconnoitre Ticonderoga and Mount Independence. The former post was taken, and the latter was besieged for several days.

In a letter to his wife, dated the 12th of September, 1777, in camp, near Mount Independence, Captain Johnson observed:"I have had little sleep these three nights, for the roaring of cannon and the cracking of guns are continually in our ears. I must say that I felt ugly when I first heard the firing. I have had but few chances of firing my gun at the enemy. When I fired the first time, they gave me three for one. The cannonballs and the grape-shot rattle like hail-stones, but they don't kill men. I don't feel any more concerned here, than I did at home in my business." Of the prisoners taken at Crown Point during this expedition, one hundred were placed in the charge of Captain Johnson, who conducted them to Charlestown, New Hampshire, where he delivered them to a continental officer, who led them into country quarters. Captain Johnson then returned to Newbury, where he was actively employed for the next four years in improving his estate. During this period he was honored by the Assembly of New York with a lieutenant-colonel's commission in the militia. On account of his participation in the transactions at Ticonderoga, Colonel Johnson was narrowly watched by the British, who sought to take him.