1133. CAPITOL (United States), Burning of.—
The Vandalism of our enemy has triumphed at Washington over science as well
as the arts, by the destruction of the public
library with the noble edifice in which it was
deposited. Of this transaction, as of that of
Copenhagen, the world will entertain but one
sentiment. They will see a nation suddenly
withdrawn from a great war, full armed and
full handed, taking advantage of another
whom they had recently forced into it, unarmed,
and unprepared, to indulge themselves
in acts of barbarism which do not belong to a
civilized age. When Van Ghent destroyed
their shipping at Chatham, and De Ruyter
rode triumphantly up the Thames, he might
in like manner, by the acknowledgment of
their own historians, have forced all their
ships up to London Bridge, and there have
burned them, the Tower, and city, had these
examples been then set. London, when thus
menaced, was near a thousand years old,
Washington is but in its teens.—
To S. H. Smith. Washington ed. vi, 383.
Ford ed., ix, 485.
(M.
Sep. 1814)
