The Life of George Washington: Studied Anew

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G.P. Putnam's sons, 1887 - 392 pages

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Page 257 - Can you consent to wade through the vile mire of dependency, and owe the miserable remnant of that life to charity, which has hitherto been spent in honor ? If you can, go, and carry with you the jest of tories and the scorn of whigs ; the ridicule, and, what is worse, the pity, of the world ! Go, starve, and be forgotten...
Page 257 - My God ! what can this writer have in view by recommending such measures ? Can he be a friend to the army ? Can he be a friend to this country ? Rather, is he not an insidious foe ; some emissary, perhaps, from New York, plotting the ruin of both, by sowing the seeds of discord and separation between the civil and p 2 military powers of the continent...
Page 279 - The Western States (I speak now from my own observation) stand as it were upon a pivot. The touch of a feather would turn them any way.
Page 325 - Welcome, mighty chief, once more, Welcome to this grateful shore: Now no mercenary foe Aims again the fatal blow, Aims at thee the fatal blow. Virgins fair, and matrons grave, These thy conquering arm did save, Build for thee triumphal bowers; Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers, Strew your Hero's way with flowers.
Page 339 - To make and sell a little flour annually, to repair houses ' going fast to ruin, to build one for the security of my papers of a public nature, and to amuse myself in agricultural and rural pursuits, will constitute employment for the few years I have to remain on this terrestrial globe.
Page 138 - As to the Stamp Act, regarded in a single view, one and the first bad consequence attending it, is, that our courts of judicature must inevitably be shut up; for it is impossible, or next to impossible, under our present circumstances, that the act of Parliament can be complied with, were we ever so willing to enforce its execution. And, not to say (which alone would be sufficient) that we have not money to pay for the stamps, there are many other cogent reasons, which prove that it would be ineffectual.
Page 31 - In the presence of others, sing not to yourself with a humming noise, nor drum with your fingers or feet.
Page 144 - I for ever to abide by it, that I will be content to be declared infamous, if I do not, to the last hour of my life, at all times, in all places, and upon all occasions, exert every power with which I either am, or ever shall be legally invested, in order to" obtain and maintain for the continent of America that satisfaction which I have been authorized to promise this day by the confidential servants of our gracious sovereign, who to my certain knowledge rates his honour so high, that, he would...
Page 263 - At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac; and under the shadow of my own vine and my own fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp, and the busy scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil enjoyments, of which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame, the statesman, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the ruin of other countries...
Page 33 - Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

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