daily more apparent, but these discoveries diminished not his zeal, though they somewhat appalled his courage. In a letter to his father, written during his probation, and after a short visit to his family, he says, "When I was in New-York, I saw more clearly than I had ever yet seen, the road of preferment which I have forsaken. I saw more clearly than ever, that worldly friendship and favour follow the footsteps of pomp and ambition. I hope, however, never to have cause to regret the choice I have made. I hope to see more and more the little worth of earthly things, and the infinite importance of those which are eternal. As I have no treasures on earth, may I lay up treasures in heaven.

"The disgust which I contracted for the law might perhaps chiefly arise from a sickly and over delicate taste. The pages of Coke and Blackstone contained, to my apprehension, nothing but horrid jargon. The language of the science was discord, and its methods the perfection of confusion to me; and this, whether a fault in me or not, I cannot tell, but certain I am it was past remedy. But my aversion to the bar had something else in it than the mere loathing of taste. I could not bear its tricks and artifices; the enlisting of all one's wit and wisdom in the service of any one that could pay for them.

"My mind, which has been for a long time restless and uneasy, and continually on the wing, feels already, in this state of comparative solitude, that sober and quiet peace, to which it has been long a stranger. I regret not the gay objects of New-York, which I have exchanged for the now dreary scenes of Schenectady. The pleasures of my former life were often the pleasures of an hour, leaving behind them the anxieties of days and of years. A very few excepted, I regret not those friends of my early youth, from whom I have removed. Friendship is in most cases only a weathercock, shifting with the lightest gale, and scarcely stable long enough to be viewed. The applause of men I no longer prize, and self-approbation becomes every day of greater value."

In this retreat he pursued his studies assiduously. How he employed his leisure, what books he read, what society he enjoyed, and what particular advances he made in knowledge or in virtue, in the government of himself or his acquaintance with the world, it is not in the power of the present narrator to communicate. It appears, however, that he indulged himself in some poetical effu

sions, and wrote occasionally some essays in prose, which were published in a newspaper of that place. Though not unworthy of praise from so young a man, their intrinsic merit does not entitle them to preservation.

He obtained a license to preach from the classis of Albany, in the year 1798, having just entered his twenty-second year. Having now an opportunity of displaying his qualifications of taste, knowledge and piety, the world soon became acquainted with his character. His merits in the pulpit were enhanced by his youth; a circumstance, which, while it afforded an apology for some exuberances of style and sentiment, imparted lively expectations of future excellence. He received calls from the presbyterian church at Elizabethtown, New-Jersey, and from the first presbyterian church at Philadelphia, than which there were no religious congregations in America, whose choice could be more honourable to the object of it.

He finally decided, though not without much hesitation and reluctance, in favour of the latter situation. In this he was influenced by many motives besides those, which, in such a case, would naturally operate upon a young mind, eager for distinction. The principal of these originated in diffidence of his own powers, which he justly imagined would be subjected to less arduous trials, as an assistant minister, or co-pastor, than where the sole charge should devolve upon himself. Under the auspices of so illustrious a colleague as the late Dr. Ewing, he hoped to enter on his important office with fewer disadvantages than most young men are subjected to. The errors of youth and inexperience would be less fatal, and would be more easily prevented and corrected, than in a different situation. The paternal treatment he always received from Dr. Ewing fulfilled these hopes, and his decision in their favour was fully justified by the veneration and affection of his people. He was ordained, and installed in his office, in June, 1799.

He had very early bestowed his affections on Miss Hester Bailey, a young lady of beauty and merit, daughter of Col. John Bailey, a respectable inhabitant of Poughkeepsie, in the state of New-York. On his settlement at Philadelphia, he married this lady. The fruits of this alliance, which was interrupted by death at the end of five years, were three sons, the two youngest of whom survived their father.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF THOMAS TRUXTUN, ESQ.

Late Commander of an American Squadron.

Illi robur et aes triplex

Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci
Commisit pelago ratem

Primus, nec timuit praecipitem Africum
Decertantem Aquilonibus,

Nec tristes Hyadas, nec rabiem Noti.

Quem mortis timuit gradum,

Qui siccis oculis monstra natantia,

Qui vidit mare turgidum, et

Infames scopulos Acroceraunia?

HOR. Lib. I. Car. iii.

Of that ardent spirit of enterprise, which, for the most important purposes, Nature has implanted in the heart of man, where shall we find stronger instances than in the biography of seamen? Inured to toil, and familiar with danger, it is in difficulty and pe ril that they are seen to advantage. In vain does the ocean roll its stormy billows to confine them to any part of this globe:

Nequicquam Deus abscidit

Prudens Oceano dissociabili
Terras.

Forsaking the earth, that heritage of the children of Adam, they win another element:

Their march is on the mountain wave,

Their home is on the deep.

In the languor and calms of peace, to them are we indebted for most of the delights and luxuries which surround us; in the tumult of war, they are the buckler of our safety. And though their country, unmindful of their services, may have treated them with coldness and neglect, yet generous to excess, and brave to temerity, should the tempest of war lower upon her coast, in them, regardless of the bickerings of party, would she again behold the most zealous of her defenders.

presentation

qesentation of the Medal presented by the United States to

THOMAS TRUXTUN ESQUIRE, and a copy of the Resolution

Congress. The lower circle is the Obverse side of the Medal.

PATRES

PATRIE

ited States Frigate Constellation of 38 Guns pursues attacks

the French Ship La Vengeance of 54 Guns 1.Feb.1800.

Resolved by the senate and house of Representatives, of the United States of America, in Congress assembled. That the President of the United States, Be requested to present to Captain Thomas Trustun, a Golden Medal, blematical of the late action between the United States Frigate Constellation of thirty eight Guns, and French Ship of war La Vengeance of fifty four Guns. In testimony or the high sense entertained by Congress of his Gallantry and good conduct in the above engagement, wherein an example was exhibied by the Captain omers, sailors and Marines, honourable to the American name and instructive to the rising Navy.

And it is further Resolved, that the conduct of James Jarvis a Midshipman in said Frigate, who Gloriously prefered certain death to an abandonment of his post, is deserving of the highest praise, and that the loss of so promising an Officer is a subject of national regret.

Theodore Sedgwick,

Speaker of the house of Representatives.

Thomas Jefferson,

Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate