On the close of this session, which was the last under the auspices of the Washington administration, Mr Ames, having previously declined standing a candidate, returned to the walks of private life. But it was his body alone that sought repose from public toils. His love of country continuing, as before, his predominant passion, and his mind still delighting to mingle in exercises where the eminent contend, he threw even now a large portion of light into the councils of the nation. Through the me dium of the public prints, under various signatures, and in a style rich and fascinating, in an eminent degree, he imparted to his fellow citizens, from his private resi dence, as exquisite lessons of political wisdom, as had issued from his lips in the house of representatives. For several years his productions through this channel were multifarious and abundant. Although generally written with great rapidity—frequently amidst the interruptions of a court-house, or the noise of a public inn, where he only rested for the night, they were always delightful and instructive, breathing the purest sentiments of pa triotism, and hallowed by a spirit of enlightened philan thropy.
Among his compositions, during the period of his retirement, should be particularly noticed his eulogy on Washington, to the delivery of which he was appointed by the legislature of Massachusetts, and his masterly sketch of the character of Hamilton. He lived long enough to weep over the ashes, and to celebrate the praises, of these two wonderful statesmen and heroes ; and, perhaps, of all men of the age, he was most worthy of so exalted an honour, because most competent to the task it imposed. His affection for the latter, and his sorrow and regret for his untimely fall, he pours forth in a style of sensibility and pathos, which nothing can exceed.
" The tears," says he, " that flow on this fond recital, will never dry up. My heart, penetrated with the re membrance of the man, grows liquid as I write, and I could pour it. out like water. I could weep, too, for my country, which, mournful as it is, does not know the half of its loss. It deeply laments, when it turns its eyes back, and secs what Hamilton was ; but my soul stiffens with despair, when I think what Hamilton would have been.
" His social affections and his private virtues are not, however, so properly the object of public attention, as the conspicuous and commanding qualities that gave him his fame and influence in the world. It is not as Apollo, enchanting the shepherds with his lyre, that we deplore him ; it is as Hercules, treacherously slain in the midst of his unfinished labours, leaving the world overrun with monsters."
In the year 1804, Mr Ames was chosen president of Harvard college. To the infinite regret, however, of the institution, the broken and precarious state of his health, conjoined with other considerations, which had no influence on any one but himself, prevented his ac ceptance of so responsible an office. The proper edu cation of youth was a subject which always lay near to his heart. He considered it not merely as the princi pal ornament of the edifice, but as the only durable ce ment to hold the fabric of a representative government, not to say the very structure of society, together. Con trary, however, to the sentiments of others, he did not think his habits altogether such as were calculated to fit him for the chief of a college.
In relation to the closing years of the life of Mr Ames, we find that we cannot do better than to copy the lan guage of his biographer of Boston, who, as formerly stated, appears to have been in the number of his per sonal friends.
" From 1795," says this interesting writer, " his health continued to decline, with partial and flattering inter missions, till his death. Ile was a striking example of magnanimity and patience under suffering. Retaining always the vigour and serenity of his mind, he appeared to make those reflections which became his situation." When speaking of his first attack, he observes, " I trust I realize the value of those habits of thinking, which I have cherished for some time. Sickness is not wholly useless to me. It has increased the warmth of my affec tion to my friends. It has taught me to make haste in forming the plan of my life, if it should be spared, more for private duties and social enjoyments, and less for the splendid emptiness of puolie. station, than yet 1 have done.• "At length," continues his biographer. " after an ex treme debility for two years, the frame which had se long tottered, was about to fall. With composure and dignity he saw the approach of his dissolution. Ile hart many reasons lbr wishing to live. The summons to demand of his noon of lift: the residue of a day which had been bright and lair; of his love of fame, the relie• quishment of all that respect and honour, which the world solicited him to receive ; of his patriotism, the termination of all his cares and labours for a country • which he loved with inextinguishable ardour ; conjugal affection, a separation from au object inexpres sibly dear; of his parental tenderness, the surrender of his children to the chances and vicissitudes of life with out his counsel and care.