Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/235

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FORTY YEARS SINCE.
223

incited him to this enterprise. His sole motive was patriotism; yet he sleeps without a stone, almost without a record. How different was his treatment, so disgraceful to humanity, from the tender attentions bestowed on André by Washington! How different the barbarity of his murder from the poignant regret with which Washington signed the warrant for the execution of André!"

"It can never be necessary," said the Lady, "to add bitterness to the severity of the law. Justice, and cruelty have no affinity; it is the depravity of man which blends them. In the character of Washington, sympathies and energies are finely mingled. We are always glad to find that a hero does not forfeit the sensibilities of a man."

"It is easy," said Colonel ———, "to pass encomiums on the virtues of Washington, for it is always safe to do so. But we, who saw him without restraint, who knew the secret trials which he endured, are most sensible how far beneath his merits is the meed of fame. While to a distant observer he might seem the most fortunate of men, hidden darts were piercing him. His disinterested labours were not always correctly estimated. Congress sometimes blamed, often opposed his wisest measures. It concealed within its bosom a faction, anxious to supplant him. Instigated by the malicious calumniator, Conway, and the vindictive, and unprincipled Charles Lee, their object was to supersede him, and elevate Gates upon the ruin of his reputation. His perplexities were greatly increased, by the brief, and inadequate periods of the enlistment of his