some had claimed him to be such,) he was turgid and
verbose--sometimes he was sarcastic, but only when the malignity of his
nature found vent in the bitterness of words. His private conduct has,
in every situation, been bad. He was one of the Lee and Gates faction
to displace Washington from the command of the army. He decried the
abilities of Washington. He violated the confidence of General Putnam,
when his aide, in seducing Margaret Moncrief, (whose father had
intrusted her to Putnam's care.) He violated his faith to the
Republican party, in lending himself to the Federal party to defeat the
known and expressed will of the people, and the Republican party, by
contesting the election before Congress of Mr. Jefferson. In the
Legislature of New York, his conduct was such as to draw on him the
suspicion of corruption, and universal condemnation. Contrast his
public services with his public and private vices, and see what he
is--the despised of the whole world, eking out a miserable existence in
hermitical seclusion with a woman of ill-fame.

There resided as minister of the Congregational Church, at that time,
in Litchfield, Lyman Beecher. He was a man of short stature; remarkable
dark complexion, with large and finely formed head; his features were
strong and irregular, with stern, ascetic expression. He was naturally
a man of great mind, and but for the bigoted character of his religion,
narrowing his mind to certain contemptible prejudices and opinions,
might have been a great man. Reared in the practice of Puritan
opinions, and associated from childhood with that strait-laced and
intolerant sect, his energies, (which were indomitable) and mind, more
so perverted as to become mischievous, instead of useful. He was a
propagandist in the broadest sense of the term--would have made an
admirable inquisitor--was without any of the charities of the
Christian; despised as heretical the creed of every sect save his own,
and had all of the intolerant bitterness and degrading superstitions of
the Puritans, and persecutors of Laud, in the Long Parliament. In
truth, he was an immediate descendant of the Puritans of the
seventeenth century, and was distinguished for the persecuting and
intolerant spirit of that people. He seemed ever casting about for
something in the principles or conduct of others to abuse, and
delighted to exhaust his genius in pouring out his venom upon those who
did not square their conduct and opinions by hi