dismissal of Edmund Randolph, the same year, Pinckney was requested to become secretary of state. From private considerations, these offers were declined; but the subject of this notice expressed a willingness to perform any public duty, to which such considerations ought to yield. This occasion soon arrived. In 1796, our relations with France being still unsettled, Mr. Pinckney was appointed, by general Washington, to succeed Mr. Monroe, as minister to France.

The French directory, thinking to treat us still as a dependent nation, refused to receive Mr. Pinckney; until the grievances, demanded of the American government by the French republic were redressed.

He

At the same time, Mr. Pinckney was informed, that there was law forbidding foreigners to remain in Paris, without permission from the directory, and that he would probably receive a notice on that subject from the minister of police. determined, however, not to be placed upon that footing; but, being accredited as the minister of an independent power, and relying upon the protection of the law of nations, remained at his post until the middle of February, 1797, in the momentary expectation of receiving instructions.

After the great and unexpected success of Napoleon, in Italy, was heard at Paris, the directory feeling emboldened by the news, sent, the next day, an official notice to our ambassador, to quit the French territories. With this order Mr. Pinckney complied, and retired to Amsterdam; and all diplomatic intercourse between the two countries was suspended. Mr. Adams, however, was desirous to remove the

misunderstanding existing between the two countries, and, as a fresh evidence of the amicable feeling of the American government, John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry were united with Mr. Pinckney, as commissioners, for the purpose of terminating all differences between the United States and France. They arrived at Paris in October, 1797, and immediately requested an interview with the minister of foreign affairs. They were informed, that, for the present, they could not have a public audience with the directory, but cards of hospitality were sent to them.

Attempts were then made to engage them in a negotiation with informal agents of the French government; and it was intimated to them, that a subsidy, in the shape of a loan, would be expected by the government from the United States, as an equivalent for the aid which was demanded from the American government under the treaty.

To this humiliating proposition, Pinckney indignantly made the celebrated reply, which has been adopted by the American people, as a national sentiment, “Millions for defence, not a cent for tribute."

Finally, the French government commenced a negotiation with the commissioners; but finding the commissioners well acquainted with the rights of the United States, and resolved to maintain them, its minister (Mr. Talleyrand) intimated a desire to continue a negotiation with Mr. Gerry alone, as the one "whose opinions were presumed to be more impartial, and promised more of that reciprocal confidence which was deemed indispen sable." A dignified and suitable re

Before Mr. Pinckney arrived, the relations between the United States and France, rendered it necessary to make preparations for the defence of the country; and an army being authorised, Washington was appointed commander-in-chief, with power to nominate the other officers.

Pinckney was, on this occasion, nominated a major-general; but with inferior rank to Hamilton, who had been his junior in the revolutionary army.

This preference, however, only gave him an opportunity to manifest the magnanimity of his temper.

Upon being urged, by a man of influence, to refuse the appointment, and thus resent the injustice of the preference, as well as the injury done to his military character : he replied, “I am confident, that general Washington had sufficient reasons for this preference. Let us first dispose of our enemies, we shall then have leisure to settle the question of rank."

This war being soon brought to a satisfactory conclusion, general Pinckney retired to the quiet of private life. In 1800, he was held up, with Mr. Adams, to the suffrages of the people, as vice-president; and it was well understood, that had he consented to unite his name with Mr. Jefferson, he might have obtained the unanimous vote of South Carolina, as vice-president. To this, however, he would not consent. His political principles were decidedly federal, and to

of their correctness, would have been repugnant to the frankness of his nature. The scheme of union was accordingly dropped, and Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr were accordingly elected president and vice president of the United States.

In the repose and quiet of private life, general Pinckney continued from the time of his retirement, until his death.

Feeling the advantages of education himself, he was indefatigable in his exertions to promote the cause of science and learning.

The South Carolina college, at Columbia, owes its erection, in a measure, to his influence and efforts in the legislature. In his intercourse with society, there was a frankness in his manner, that at once attracted confidence.

He neither spoke to deceive, nor flattered to betray. The convictions of his mind were uttered unostentatiously, and with such propriety and delicacy, that although they might fail to convince, they never gave offence. His surviving brethren of the revolution, testified the estimation in which they held his chivalric character, by electing him the president of the Cincinnati society of the United States; and the following sketch drawn of him,

by a committee of his fellow citizens, shows, that he was best beloved where he was best known:"Endowed by nature with a social judgment, an extensive capacity, and a vigorous mind, he prepared himself for the public and private duties of life, by a careful, enlarged, and generous education. He was thus, by nature and art, fitted for various functions and of fices at the bar, in the army, in the senate, and in diplomacy, he was always found adequate to the trust confided to him. As a lawyer, he was learned, acute, and diligent, zealous, though candid, and entirely free from artifice. He always spoke with judgment and logic, often forcibly and eloquently. In the army, he carried a clear carriage, a masculine understanding, and a vehement spirit. By his intelligence, firmness, and practical ability in the state legislature, and in the conventions for forming constitutions, he greatly contributed to the enaction of wise laws, and of the admirable instruments, which, in America, give law to the laws. As an ambassador, he united the highest sense of national honor, with the greatest prudence; and, if he did not succeed in his negotiations in obtaining justice for his country, he kept alive that spirit which enabled her to enforce it. In politics, he was at the head of a party, without being a party man, uniting with his friends from an agreement in measures, but keeping himself from all selfish and vindictive passions.

"Religious and moral principles presided over all his faculties and pursuits, and gave a dignity, a constancy, and a sincerity to his character. In private life, he had the virtues, without the vices, of pro

sperity. He was munificent without ostentation, liberal without prodigality, and dignified without pride. The openness, and even freedom of his manners, inspired confidence and affection; and never diminished respect. His mind appears, through life, to have been happily balanced by enterprise and penitence, by vigor, steadiness, by the love of honor, and the most inflexible honesty. He, therefore, passed prosperously through various trying and troubled scenes, without shaking the confidence of his friends, or losing the kindness of his fellow citizens. An ardent youth and a vigorous manhood, were succeeded by a secure and cheerful old age, and the reverence and love of the whole city attended him to the tomb."

ALEXANDER OF RUSSIA.

November 19, 1825. At Taganrok, aged 48, his imperial majesty, Alexander, autocrat of all the Russias.

His imperial majesty was the eldest son of Paul I. by his second wife, Sophia-Dorothea-Augusta Maria-Fodorowna of Wurtemberg Studgard. He was born December 22, 1777, and the care of his education was committed to M. de la Harpe, a Swiss colonel, who neglected nothing to fit his pupil for the high station he was destined to fill.

As soon as Alexander could walk, an Englishman, Mr. Parland, was appointed his diadka, a term which may be translated runafter, but which has by some been interpreted by the expression mannurse. This gentleman is now living at Petersburg, after having experienced the imperial bounty in many ways; and is placed, not on

ly in comfortable, but affluent circumstances. At the age of fifteen Alexander was a very imposing youth, and had become a universal favorite among all classes of society. He was early placed under the guardianship of count Soltikoff, an enlightened man, who was well fitted for the duties of that high and important station; and the future sovereign, no doubt, benefitted much by his sage counsels and his exemplary conduct. That the emperor was highly pleased with his guardian, was proved by the veneration in which he held the count during life, and by his condescension in following his corpse to the grave in the year 1816, on foot, and bare-headed, along with the other chief mourners.

These facts, as well as many others, which need not be mentioned, show that gratitude was no stranger to the breast of the autocrat of all the Russias. Under able tutors, appointed with the consent of count Soltikoff, the then grand duke was taught Russian, French, German, Italian, Latin, Greek, and also a little English; besides the principles of the Greek religion, geography, history, political economy, military tactics, the duties of a sovereign, and some of the sciences. He was reared at the Russian court, under great care of, and subordinate to, his talented grandmother, Catharine II. ; under much filial respect for his tender and careful mother; and in absolute dread of his father, the late emperor Paul.

In the days of youthful and impetuous passion, in the midst of a voluptuous court, surrounded by almost all the beauty and fashion of Russia, unawed by examples of chastity and private virtue in the

highest individuals of the realm, seduced by the temptations and facilities of gratification, it is not to be wondered that the young and blooming Alexander should have had numerous love intrigues at an early period of his life. On the contrary, it may seem surprising, that the young prince, placed in the midst of so much evil example, so much depravity, and so great a deficiency of moral principle, should have wandered so little as he did from the path of virtue.

The

The above circumstances being taken into view, it might naturally enough be supposed that an early marriage was recommended; and accordingly he was married when 16 years of age, October 9th, 1793, to the princes Louisa of Baden Durlach, two years younger than himself, and still the reigning empress. The princess, on becoming of the Greek religion, assumed the name of Elizabeth Alexiena. marriage was a political scheme of Catherine II., and though the young bride was handsome, beautiful, and interesting, there was a coolness in her manner that ill accorded with the warmth of Alexander's passion, and which rendered her not exactly the object of his choice. By her majesty the autocrat had two children, both of whom died in infancy. Since their death, to the regret of the imperial couple, and of the Russian nation, "God has given" no additional offspring.

Whether Alexander was aware of the intended murder of his father, or whether he knew of the time fixed for its perpetration, admits of discussion; but it is certain that at an early hour of the morning of the 12th of March, his friends and his counsellors rallied

round him; that the death of Paul, and the accession of Alexander, were announced to the capital at seven o'clock, and that by eight the principal nobility had paid their homage to the grand duke, under his new character, in the chapel of the winter palace. The great officers of state being assembled there, Alexander was declared emperor of all the Russias.

It seems almost an anomaly in history, that the murderers of Peter III. became the avowed favorites, or the protegées, of Catherine II.; and it is scarcely less remarkable, that the mercy of Alexander was extended to the assassins of his father. Zubof, the chief conspirator, and the most active of the murderers' band, was ordered not to approach the imperial residence; and count Panin, the former governor of that city, was transferred to Riga. The other conspirators were treated as if no blame attached to their characters. It is impossible to conceive why Alexander withheld that vengeance which justice seemed to demand, from the heads of his father's assassins. It has been attributed by one of his panegyrists, to a forlorn and melancholy conviction, that the murderers had been prompted to commit the bloody deed, solely by regard to the salvation of the empire. Such a conviction might have induced the young monarch to diminish the weight of that punishment which piety and justice called on him to inflict, but can scarcely account for his total forbearance.

In the twenty-fourth year of his age, Alexander ascended the throne of his ancestors, having previously been the favorite of his father's subjects. His mild deportment, his suavity of manners, his amiable

Al

disposition, and his goodness of heart, had gained him the love and respect of all classes of the popalation of the empire. The Telemachus of the north was not then inebriated with power, but, instructed in his duties by a mentor, endowed with intelligence and virtue, exercised the authority of a despotic sovereign to establish philanthropy as the basis of his throne. His first measures, proclamations, and imperial orders, tended to confirm the good opinion and the confidence of the people He sincerely promised to tread in the footsteps of Catherine II.; and his first acts of kindness were experienced by the Petersburgers, whose lives had become quite miserable under the whimsical reign of Paul. exander gave orders that every one should be allowed to dress according to his own taste. He exhonerated the inhabitants from the trouble and degradation of alighting from their carriages at the approach of the imperial family, and doing homage as they passed, which Paul had exacted, even in the coldest and most disagreeable weather. He dismissed the court advocate, who had become an object of universal detestation; and besides, he made numerous changes and regulations, all tending to the comfort, pleasure and advantage of the inhabitants of the metropolis. The goodness of his heart, the activity of his mind, the excellence of his principles, and his anxious wish for the improvement of his subjects and his country, all enabled him at once to perceive the necessity of great changes and improvements throughout the empire.

He was proclaimed emperor, March 24, 1801; and his coronation in the ancient capital, the 27th