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 and the world
for the example, of the numerous improvements displayed on the
American theatre in favor of private rights and public happiness. Had
no important step been taken by the leaders of the Revolution for
which a precedent could not be discovered; no government established
of which an exact model did not present itself,--the people of the
United States might, at this moment, have been numbered among the
melancholy victims of misguided counsels; must, at best, have been
laboring under the weight of some of those forms which have crushed
the liberties of the rest of mankind. Happily for America,--happily,
we trust, for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble
course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the
annals of human society. They reared the fabrics of government, which
have no model on the face of the globe. They formed the design of a
great Confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to
improve and perpetuate. If their works betray imperfections, we wonder
at the fewness of them. If they erred most in the structure of the
Union, this was the work most difficult to be executed; this is the
work which has been new-modelled by the act of your convention; and it
is that act on which you are now to deliberate and decide.

CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON.

("_drawn by Mr. Madison, amid the tranquil scenes of his own final
retirement; and intended . . . . for his family and friends._")

The strength of his character lay in his integrity, his love of
justice, his fortitude, the soundness of his judgment, and his
remarkable prudence; to which he joined an elevated sense of patriotic
duty, and a reliance on the enlightened and impartial world as the
tribunal by which a lasting sentence on his career would be
pronounced. Nor was he without the advantage of a stature and figure
which, however insignificant when separated from greatness of
character, do not fail, when combined with it, to aid the attraction.
What particularly distinguished him was a modest dignity, which at
once commanded the highest respect and inspired the purest attachment.

Although not idolizing public opinion, no man could be more attentive
to the means of ascertaining it. In comparing the candidates for
office, he was particularly inquisitive as to their standing with the
public, and the opinion entertained of them by men of public weight.
On the important questions to be decided by him, he spared no pains to
gain information from all quarters; freely asking from all whom he
held in esteem, and who were intimate with him, a free communication
of their sentiments; receiving with great attention the arguments and
opinions offered to him; and making up his own judgment with all the
leisure that was permitted.

FOOTNOTE:

[4] By permission of Little, Brown, & Company, Boston, as also the two
following extracts.

ST. GEORGE TUCKER.

~1752=1828.~

ST. GEORGE TUCKER was born in the Bermudas, came early in life to
Virginia, where he married in 1778 Mrs. Frances Bland Randolph, and
thus became stepfather to John Randolph of Roanoke. He was a
distinguished jurist, professor of law at William and Mary College,
president-judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals, and judge of the
United States District Court of Virginia.

WORKS.

 Poems: "Days of My Youth," and others.
 Probationary Odes of Jonathan Pindar, Esq., [Satires].
 Commentary on the Constitution.
 Dissertation on Slavery: Letters on Alien and Sedition Laws.
 Annotated Edition of Blackstone.
 Dramas, [unpublished].

In addition to his ability as a writer, he possessed fine literary
taste; and his personal character was marked by great amiability,
courtliness, and patriotism.

[Illustration: ~William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va.~]

RESIGNATION, OR DAYS OF MY YOUTH.

 I.

 Days of my youth,
 Ye have glided away;
 Hairs of my youth,
 Ye are frosted and gray:
 Eyes of my youth,
 Your keen sight is no more;
 Cheeks of my youth
 Ye are furrowed all o'er,
 Strength of my youth,
 All your vigor is gone;
 Thoughts of my youth,
 Your gay visions are flown.

 II.

 Days of my youth,
 I wish not your recall;
 Hairs of my youth,
 I'm content ye should fall;
 Eyes of my youth,
 You much evil have seen;
 Cheeks of my youth,
 Bathed in tears have you been;
 Thoughts of my youth,
 You have led me astray;
 Strength of my youth,
 Why lament your decay?

 III.

 Days of my age,
 Ye will shortly be past;
 Pains of my age,
 Yet a while ye can last;
 Joys of my age,
 In true wisdom delight;
 Eyes of my age,
 Be religion your light;
 Thoughts of my age,
 Dread ye not the cold sod;
 Hopes of my age,
 Be ye fixed on your God.

JOHN MARSHALL.

~1755=1835.~

JOHN MARSHALL, third Chief Justice of the United States, was born in
Fauquier County, Virginia. He served as a soldier in the Revolution
and then practised law in Richmond. With Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
and Elbridge Gerry, he was sent to Paris in 1797 to treat of public
affairs; and it was on this occasion that Pinckney made the famous
reply to the propositions of Talleyrand, "Millions for defence, not a
cent for tribute."

He was chief-justice of the United States for thirty-five years, being
appointed in 1800 and holding the position until his death. One of the
most celebrated cases over which he presided was the trial of Aaron
Burr, 1807, in which William Wirt led the prosecution, and Luther
Martin and Burr himself, the defence. His services on the Supreme
Bench were not only judicial but patriotic also, as his decisions on
points of constitutional law, being broad, clear, strong, and
statesman-like, have done much to settle the foundations of our
government.

He died in Philadelphia whither he had gone for medical treatment. A
handsome statue of him by Story adorns the west grounds of the Capitol
at Washington, and his is one of the six colossal bronze figures
around the Washington Monument in Richmond. See Life, by Story, and by
Magruder.

WORKS.

 Life of Washington.
 Supreme Court Decisions.
 Writings on Federal Constitution, [selections by Justice Story].

"He was supremely fitted for high judicial station--a solid judgment,
great reasoning powers, acute and penetrating mind; . . . attentive,
patient, laborious; grave on the bench, social in the intercourse of
life; simple in his tastes, and inexorably just."--Thomas Hart Benton,
in "Thirty Years' View."

POWER OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.

(_From Case of Cohen vs. State of Virginia, given in Magruder's Life
of Marshall._[5])

It is authorized to decide all cases of every description arising
under the Constitution or laws of the United States. From this general
grant of jurisdiction no exception is made of those cases in which a
State may be a party. When we consider the situation of the government
of the Union and of a State in relation to each other, the nature of
our Constitution, the subordination of the State governments to that
Constitution, the great purpose for which jurisdiction over all cases
a

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