1799

 

Year 1799

__________

 

“A people well informed on the subject of their rights, their interests, and their duties would never fall into the excesses which proved the ruin of the ancient republicks.”

 

Governor James Monroe, on support for public education

__________

Constellation vs. La Vengeance. 

 

 

THE FOLLOWING SELECTION is from Charles Coffin.

 

The war with France on the ocean went on. In 1799 Commander Truxtun, in the Constellation, fell in with the French frigate L’Insurgente. The Constellation carried 38 guns and 309 men, L’Insurgente 40 guns and 409 men. The fight lasted more than an hour. The French ship lost 70 men, and was obliged to surrender.

 

Captain Truxtun had a second battle in the night, with a ship larger than the Constellation – La Vengeance, which carried 54 guns. Twice the captain of La Vengeance struck his colors, but Commander Truxtun did not know it, and the French ship crept away in the darkness. (72/116-117)

 

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December 14: George Washington dies at Mount Vernon. Lord Byron later calls him, “The first, the last, the best, the Cincinnatus of the West.” 

Tobias Lear, his secretary, wrote of Washington’s last night and final hours. He woke up early on a Saturday, at between 2 and 3 a.m. At ten he struggled to sit up and Lear bent close to hear what he wanted. “I am just going,” he whispered. “Tis well.” 

Harry Lee, at Washington’s memorial service, coined the phrase, “First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.” (109/159)

 

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IN WASHINGTON D.C., “There was only one hotel, and the President’s house was only partly finished. Mrs. Adams, during the winter of 1799, used to hang her laundry in the great unfinished east room.”

 

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AS GOVERNOR of Virginia, a post with little power, James Monroe called for a state-supported system of education: “A people well informed on the subject of their rights, their interests, and their duties would never fall into the excesses which proved the ruin of the ancient republicks.” (24/177)