His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I
have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship
or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every
sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man. His temper was
naturally irritable and high-toned; but reflection and resolution had
obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy over it. If ever, however, it
broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath. In his expenses he
was honorable, but exact; liberal in contributions to whatever promised
utility; but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects, and all
unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its affections;
but he exactly calculated every man's value, and gave him a solid esteem
proportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly
what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect, and noble; the best
horseman of his age, and the most, graceful figure that could be seen
on horseback. Although in the circle of his friends, where he might
be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation,
his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither
copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of words. In public, when called on
for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed. Yet he
wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This
he had acquired by conversation with the world, for his education
was merely reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to which he added
surveying at a later day.
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