3369. GENERALS, Discovering.—[continued].
It is unfortunate that
heaven has not set its stamp on the foreheads
of those whom it has qualified for
military achievement; that it has left us to
draw for them in a lottery of so many blanks
to a prize, and where the blank is to be manifested
only by the public misfortunes. If
nature had planted the fœnum in cornu on
the front of treachery, of cowardice, of imbecility,
the unfortunate dèbut we have made
on the theatre of war would not have sunk
our spirits at home, and our character
abroad.—
To General John Armstrong. Washington ed. vi, 103.
(M.
Feb. 1813)
