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Ames, Fisher
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Aler's History of Martinsburg and Berkeley County, West Virginia
by F. Vernon Aler, 1888
Printed for the Author by 
The Mail Publishing Company, Hagerstown, MD.

CHAPTER VIII.
Historical Pen Sketches of the Early Residents of Berkeley County
by the late Hon. Chas. James Faulkner.

Pages 113-114, FISHER AMES. 

This distinguished orator and statesman, at the close of the
session of Congress of 1796, being then in feeble health, paid a
visit to the warm springs in the County of Berkeley, in the hopes
of obtaining some relief from his increasing debility. He thought
he derived much benefit from drinking the water; also from our pure
and fresh mountain air, and relaxation from the unremitting cares
of public life. In this visit he was the object of the most
friendly and respectful attention, individual and public. Contrary
to his expectations, he found many friends of the Washington
administration during this visit, not. withstanding the lead taken
by the Representatives of Virginia in opposition to that policy. In
one of his letters from Berkeley he observes "Virginia has been
misrepresented to us, as much as the measures of government have
been to them; and many good men are here to be found friendly to
the federal cause."

From his visit to Berkeley in 1796 his health continued to decline,
with partial and flattering intermissions until death. He was a
striking example of magnanimity and patience under suffering.
Retaining always the vigor and serenity of his mind, he appeared to
make those reflections which became his situation. When speaking of
his illness, he observed, "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
affection for my friends. It has taught me to make haste in forming
the plan of any life, if it should be spared, more for private
duties and social enjoyments, and less for the splendid emptiness
of public station, than yet I have done."

After an extreme debility of two years, the frame which had so long
tottered was about 10 fall. With composure and dignity he met the
approach of his dissolution.

Fisher Ames will ever rank among the great statesmen of this
country. Excepting Daniel Webster, I know of no public man of the
North whose fame rests upon a more indisputable basis of genius and
merit. His speech in the House of Representatives on the British
Treaty of 1790 has been regarded as one of the finest specimens of
Congressional eloquence ever uttered in that body — and many
passages of it of surpassing brilliancy are remembered and quoted
to this day, although near a century has elapsed since they were
delivered.

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