5798. NECKER (Jacques), Ambition of.—
It is a tremendous cloud, indeed, which
hovers over this nation, and he at the helm has
neither the courage nor the skill necessary to
weather it. Eloquence in a high degree, knowledge
in matters of account and order, are distinguishing
traits in his character. Ambition is
his first passion, virtue his second. He has
not discovered that sublime truth, that a bold,
unequivocal virtue is the best handmaid even
to ambition, and would carry him further, in the
end, than the temporizing, wavering policy he
pursues. His judgment is not of the first order,
scarcely even of the second; his resolution
frail; and upon the whole, it is rare to meet
an instance of a person so much below the reputation
he has obtained.—
To John Jay. Washington ed. iii, 52.
(P.
1789)
