The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 3, February, 1836Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 3, February, 1836
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
letter did not contain a word of reference to the enclosure.
In the course of the day I went to his lodgings, and found that he
had, an hour or two previously, departed for Princeton, where Congress
then sat, having been in some measure driven from Philadelphia, by a
mutiny {204} among the soldiers, who were clamorous for their pay, and
had kept them in a state of siege for three hours in the State House.
I wrote to him to New York, whither, I understood, he had gone from
Princeton, expressive of my gratitude in the strongest terms, and
received a very kind and friendly answer.
I cannot pass over this noble trait in the character of the
illustrious Marquess, without urging it strongly on the overgrown
wealthy of our country, as an example worthy of imitation. Here was a
foreign nobleman, who had devoted years of the prime of his life, and
greatly impaired his fortune, in the service of a country, separated
by thousands of miles distance from his native land. After these
mighty sacrifices, he meets, by an extraordinary accident, with a poor
persecuted young man, destitute of friends and protectors--his heart
expands towards him--he freely gives him means of making a living
without the most remote expectation of return, or of ever again seeing
the object of his bounty. He withdraws from the city to avoid the
expression of the gratitude of the beneficiary. I have more than once
assumed, and I now repeat, that I doubt whether in the whole life of
this (I had almost said) unparalleled man, there is to be found any
thing, which, all the circumstances of the case considered, more
highly elevates his character.[1]
[Footnote 1: It is due to myself to state, that though this was in
every sense of the word a gift, I regarded it as a loan, payable to
the Marquess's countrymen, according to the exalted sentiment of Dr.
Franklin, who, when he presented a bill for ten pounds to the Rev. Mr.
Nixon, an Irish Clergyman, (who was in distress in Paris, and wanted
to migrate to America,) told him to pay the sum to any Americans whom
he might find in distress, and thus "_let good offices go round_." I
fully paid the debt to Frenchmen in distress--consigned one or two
hogsheads of tobacco to the Marquess, (I believe it was two, but am
uncertain,) and, moreover, when in 1824, he reached this country, with
shattered fortunes, sent him to New York, a check for the full sum of
four hundred dollars, which he retained till he reached Philadelphia,
and was very reluctant to use, and finally consented only at my
earnest instance.]
The annexed little anecdote, which Mr. Carey justly considers an
instance of the truest pathos, we must be pardoned for inserting as an
appropriate _pendant_ to the above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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