The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

2ET. 46.] LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 303
to Lafayette, who had communicated the particulars,
he lamented it as a misfortune, which might end in a
serious injury to the public interest; and he endeavoured
to assuage the rising animosity of the parties by counsels equally creditable to his feelings as a man and to
his patriotism.
"I feel every thing," said he, "that hurts the sensibility of a gentleman, and consequently upon the
present occasion I feel for you and for our good and
great allies the French. I feel myself hurt, also, at
every illiberal and unthinking reflection, which may
have been cast upon the Count d'Estaing, or the conduct of the fleet under his command; and lastly, I feel
for my country. Let me entreat you, therefore, my
dear Marquis, to take no exception at unmeaning expressions, uttered perhaps without consideration, and
in the first transport of disappointed hope. Everybody, Sir, who reasons, will acknowledge the advantages which we have derived from the French fleet,
and the zeal of the commander of it; but, in a free
and republican government, you cannot restrain the
voice of the multitude. Every man will speak as he
thinks, or, more properly, without thinking, and consequently will judge of effects without attending to the
causes. The censures, which have been levelled at
the officers of the French fleet, would more than probably have fallen in a much higher degree upon a fleet
of our own, if we had one in the same situation. It is
the nature of man to be displeased with every thing,
that disappoints a favorite hope or flattering project;
and it is the folly of too many of them to condemn
without investigating circumstances.
"Let me beseech you therefore, my good Sir, to
afford a healing hand to the wound, that unintentionally
has been made. America esteems your virtues and