Forgive me, shade of the accomplished Hamilton[25], while all that is lovely in virtue, all that is honourable in valour, and all that is admirable in talent, conspire to lament the early setting of that western star; and to deck the tomb of worth and genius with wreaths of immortal bloom. “Thee Columbia long shall weep; Ne’er again thy likeness see?” fain would I add, “Long her strains in sorrows steep, Strains of immortality.”—_Gray._ but alas! “They have no poet, and they die.”—_Pope._ His character was a bright exception; yet, after all, an exception that only confirms the rule. What must be the state of that country where worth, talent, and the disinterested exercise of every faculty of a vigorous and exalted mind, were in vain devoted to the public good; where, indeed, they only marked out their possessor for a victim to the shrine of faction? Alas! that a compliance with the laws of false honour, (the only blemish of a stainless life,) should be so dearly expiated! Footnote 25: General Hamilton, killed in a duel, into which he was forced by Aaron Burr, Vice-President of Congress, at New-York, in 1806. Yet the deep sense expressed by all parties of this general loss, seems to promise a happier day at some future period, when this chaos of jarring elements shall be reduced by some pervading and governing mind into a settled form. But much must be done, and suffered, before this change can take place. There never can be much improvement till there are union and subordination; till those strong local attachments are formed, which are the basis of patriotism, and the bonds of social attachment. But, while such a wide field is open to the spirit of adventure; and, while the facility of removal encourages that restless and ungovernable spirit, there is little hope of any material change. There is in America a double principle of fermentation, which continues to impede the growth of the arts and sciences, and of those gentler virtues of social life, which were blasted by the breath of popular fury. On the sea-side there was a perpetual importation of lawless and restless persons, who have no other path to the notoriety they covet, but that which leads through party violence; and of the want of that local attachment, I have been speaking of, there can be no stronger proof, than the passion for emigration so frequent in America. Among those who are neither beloved in the vicinity of their place of abode, nor kept stationary by any gainful pursuit, it is incredible how light a matter will afford a pretext for a removal.