Different stations of command may call for different modifications of
this fortitude, but the character ought to be the same in all. And
never, in the most "palmy state" of our martial renown, did it shine
with brighter lustre than in the present sanguinary and ferocious
hostilities, wherever the British arms have been carried. But in this
most arduous and momentous conflict, which from its nature should have
roused us to new and unexampled efforts, I know not how it has been that
we have never put forth half the strength which we have exerted in
ordinary wars. In the fatal battles which have drenched the Continent
with blood and shaken the system of Europe to pieces, we have never had
any considerable army, of a magnitude to be compared to the least of
those by which in former times we so gloriously asserted our place as
protectors, not oppressors, at the head of the great commonwealth of
Europe. We have never manfully met the danger in front; and when the
enemy, resigning to us our natural dominion of the ocean, and abandoning
the defence of his distant possessions to the infernal energy of the
destroying principles which he had planted there for the subversion of
the neighboring colonies, drove forth, by one sweeping law of
unprecedented despotism, his armed multitudes on every side, to
overwhelm the countries and states which had for centuries stood the
firm barriers against the ambition of France, we drew back the arm of
our military force, which had never been more than half raised to oppose
him.
Pages:
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500