DISOOURSE

‘I‘I~IIv‘. LIVES AND CHARACTERS

THOMAS JEFFERSON AND JOHN ADAMS,

‘WHO BOTII mm-:1) on’ mu; muncm 01;‘ JULY, 1826.

'§)e]ivered, at the request of the Citizens of ‘Washington, in the I-I311 of
Representatives of‘ the United States,

me" THE NIN1'JTEEN'1‘I.{ OCTOBER, 189,6.

3'!‘ WILLIAM wxrvr,

.§fl"TOIl.N]'IY GI£NJv?.RA.L 01-‘ TIII-I UN1.'.l‘IiI)'STA'l7I~3S.

WAsI~1ING'r0N :
..PI{IIN'I‘ED BY mnrzs £5’ s:I«:.a.'ro:~*-4

18936.

VVASHDTG-TON, Ociober 20, 1826.
SIR :

x I am instructed, by the ‘Committee appointed by the Citizens
of Washington to make arrangemelitsp for commemorating‘ the virtues of
the late illustrious Patriots and Sages, TI-IOMAS JEFFERSON and JOHN
ADAMS, to ask of you, for publication, 9. copy of the able, just, and elo-
quent Eulogy pronounced by you, yesterday, in the Hall of the House of
Representatives, on the characters and services of those eminent Statesman.

I have the honor to be, sir,
Very respectfully, yours,
R. C. WEIGHTMAN, Olwfirmam.

WM. VVIRT, Esq.

”\V..a.sII:n~rs'ro1~r, October 20, 1826.

IN

SIR :
In compliance with your letter of" to-day, I send yous copy of
my Obituary Notice of THOMAS J EFFERSON and JOI-IN ADAMS,

delivered in the Capitol on yesterday, and remain,

Very respectfully,
Your ob eclient servant,
WM. WIRT..

Roman C. \VJsIeu'rMA.N, ESQ.
C/zairnzcm of the Comrrzittee Qf .f27'ran,r:e972,e92I..

4

AT a meeting of the Committee of Arrangements, appointed by the
Citizens of “Washington to_ carry into effect the measures formerly‘
adopted by them to pay ' suitable honors to the memories of those
distinguished patriots, THOMAS JEFFERSON and JOHN ADAMS,
who departed this life on the Fourth of July last, being the Fiftieth Anni-
versary of‘ the Independence of the United States, to the declaration
and support of which they eminently contributed, held at the City
Hall, on Saturday, the 21st day of October, 1826, the following re-
solutions were moved by Rrcuann Burn _Lr.1'-3, Esq. and were unani-
mously adopted by the Committee, viz :
1st. That, in behalf‘ of the citizens of VVashing'ton, the thanks of this

Committee be tendered to the Hon. VVM. W1n'r, for the able, lucid, and

just exposition, in the elegant oration so impressively delivered by him at

the Capitol, on Thursday last, the 19th instant, of the talents, virtues, and
public services, of our lately deceased fellow citizens Tuomas J nrrrnson
and Joan An_iMs, both eminent statesmen and undaunted asserters, amid
appalling difliculties and dangers, of’ the freedom of their own country,
and of the rights of man wherever found ; and therefore conspicuous
benefactors not only to these United States, but to the whole human race.

2d. That, inasmuch as Mr. _’Wxn'r has politely furnished the Committee
with a copy of the Oration for publication, the copy-right of the same be
secured by the person who shall be employed to print it; and, after re-
serving one hundred copies for the Committee, to be distributed to literary
institutions and individuals in such manner as they may hereafter order,
that the residue be sold to defray the expenses of the printing and the pub-
lication, and whatever balance 1nay remain be paid into the hands of the

Chairman of this Committee, to be by him transmitted to the Trustees ap-

pointed to receive the other donations intended for the late 'l‘no2uAs Jar»

rsnsox, to be applied solely and exclusively to the use of his daughter.

Sd. That the Oration be particularly recommended to the youth of‘ our
country, as containing a most chaste and classic model of eloquence, and
at the same time furnishing the noblest examples of pure and disinterested
patriotism, and of an expanded philanthropy, embracing‘ in its beneficence
all mankind.

4th. That the Chairman of this Committee be empowered to contract
with some suitable person to carry into effect the object of the second
resolution.

51:11. That the Chairman of the Committee be requested to enclose to Mr.

'W1nr a copy of the foregoing‘ resolutions.

R. C. ’WEl.GH.TMAN, C/1112'?‘/vmrx. ..

.-‘attest-——CH. VV. GOLI)‘SBOIl0"UG!~I, iS'ec7'ez‘m;9/.

fl§.fi(«’01tt’fi€¢

THE scenes which have been lately passing inll our
eotlntry, and of which this meeting is a continuance, are
full of moral instruction. They hold up to the ‘W0l‘l£l
a lesson of wisdom by which all may profit, if Heaven
shall grant them the discretion to turn it to its use. The
spectacle, in all its parts, has» indeed, been most solemn
and impr*ess'ive; and, though the first impulse be new
"past, the time has not yet come, and never will it come,
when we can eontemphte it, Without renewed emotion.

In the structure of their eliameters; in the COllI‘SC of
their action; in the striking coincidences which max-kecl
their liigh career; in the lives and in the deaths of’ the
illustrious men, wliose vii-toes aml services we have met to
commemorate---and in that voice of acliniretion and gee»
titude which has since burst, with one accord, from the
twelve millions of freemen who people these Statesi there
is a, moral sublimity which overwlielms the mind, zmtl
Imshes all its powers into silent amazement!

6

The European, who should have heard the sound with-
out apprehending the cause, would he "apt to inquire,
“What is the meaning of all this? what had these men
-’~‘ done to elicit this unanimous and splendid acclamation ?
“Why has the whole American nation risen up, as one
“ man, to do them honor, and offer to them this enthusi-
“astic homage of the heart? Were they mighty warriors,
“and was the peal that we havedheard, the shout of vic-
“tory? lWere they great commanders, returning from

“their distant conquests, surrounded with the spoils of

“war, and was this the sound of their triumphal proces-—
“sion? ‘Were they covered with martial glory in any
“ form, and was this ‘the noisy wave of the multitude
“ rolling hack at their approach ?’ ” Nothing of all this :
No; they were peaceful and aged patriots, who, having
served their country together, through their long and
useful lives, had new sunk together to the tomb. They
had not fought battles; but they had formed and moved
the great machinery of which battles were only a small,
and, comparatively, trivial -consequence. They had not
commandezl armies; but they had commanded the master
springs of the nation, on which all its great political, as
well as military movements depended. By the wisdom
and energy of their counsels, and by the potent mastery
of their spirits, they had contributed pre-eminently to
produce a gniglity Revolution, which has changed the
aspect of the world. A Revolution which, in one-half
of that world, has already restored man to his “long lost

liberty,” and government to its only legitimate object, i
the happiness of the People: and, on the other hemi-

7’

sphere, has thrown a light so strong, that even the dark»
ness of despotism is beginning to recede. Compared
with the solid glory of an achievement like this, what
are battles, and what the pomp of war, but the poor and
fleeting pageants of a theatre? What were the selfish
and petty strides of Alexander, to conquer a little section
of a savage world, compared with this generous, this
magnificent advance towards the emancipation of the en-
tire World! i ,

And this, be it remembered, has been the fruit of intel-
lectual exertion! the triumph of mind! What a proud
testimony does it bear to the character of our nation, that
they are able to make a proper estimate of services like
these! That While, in other countries, the senseless mob
fall down, in stupid admiration, before the bloody wheels
of the conqueror--even of the conqueror by accident--
in this, our People rise, with one accord, to pay tlwir
homage! to intellect and virtue! What a cheering pledge
does it give of the stability of our institutions, that while
abroad, the yet benighted multitude are prostratin g them-
selves before the idols ‘which their own hands have fash-—
ioned into Kings, here, in this land of the free, our Pee-»
ple are every where starting up, with one impulse, to
follow with their acclamations the ascending spirits of
the great Fathers of the Republic ! This is a spectacle
of which we may be permitted to be proud. It honors
our country no less than the illustrious dead. And could
those great Patriots speak to us from the tomb, they
would tell us that they have more pleasure in the testi-
mony which these honors bear to the character of their

8

country, than in that which they bear to their individual
services. They now see as they were seen, while in the
body, and know the nature of the feeling froth which
these honors flow. It is love for love. It is the gratitude
of an enlightened nation to the noblest order of bene-
factors. It is the only glory worth the aspiration of a
generous spirit. Who would not prefer this living tomb
in the hearts of his countrymen, to the proudest rnauso-
leum that the Genius of Sculpture could erect ! a

Man has been said to be the creature of accidental
position. The cast of his character has been thought
to depend, materially, on the age, the country, and the
ci1*cumstances, in which he has lived. To a considerable
extent, the remark is, no doubt, true. Cromwell, had he
been born in a Republic, might have been “guiltless of
his country’s blood;” and, but for those civil commo-
tions which had wrought his great mind into tempest,
even Milton might have rested *4 mute and inglorious.”
The occasion is, doubtless, necessary to develop the
talent, V’Vl1fll3S}0CVOi" it may he; but the talent must exist,
in elnbryo at least, or no occasion can quicl-zen it into
life. And it must ,exist, too, under the check of strong
virtues; or the same occasion that quickens it into life,
will be extrotnely apt to urge it on to crime. The hero
who finished his career at St. Helena, extraordinary as
he was, is a far more common character in the history
of the world, than he who sleeps in our neighborhood,
einbalmed in his conntry’s tears——-or than those whom
we have now met to mourn and to honor.

9

.leff‘erson and Adams were great men by nature. Not
great and eccentric minds “ shot madly from their
spheres?’ to afi‘right the "world and scatter pestilence in
their course; but minds whose strong and steady light,
restrained within their proper orbits by the happy poise
of their characters, came to cheer and to gladden a world
that had been buried for age} in political night. They
were l1eaven~ca.lled avengers of degraded man. They
came to lift him to the station for which God had formed
him, and to put to flight those idiot superstitions with
which tyrants had contrived to inthrall his reason and
his liberty. And that Being who had sent them upon this
mission, had fitted them, pre-eminently, for his glorious
work. He filled their hearts with a love“ of country
which burned strong within them, even in death. He gave
them a power of understanding which no sopliistry could
haflie, no art elude; and a moral heroism which no dangers
could appal. Careless of themselves, reckless of all per.
sonal consequences, trampling under foot that petty amhi- 
tion of office and honor which constitutes the master»-pas-  
sion of little minds, they bent all their mighty powers to V
the task for which they had been delegated-—-—the freedom
of their beloved country, and the restoration of fallen
man. They felt that they were Apostles oi‘ lrurnum liberty;
and well did they "fulfil their high commission. They
rested not until they had accomplished their work at home,
and given such an ‘impulse to the great ocean of mind, that‘ 
they saw the waves rolling onto the Fartliest shore, before
they were called to their reward. And then left the world,

 
  
 
  

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10

hand in hand, exulting, as they rose, in the success of’ their
labors.

From this glance at the consummation of their lives, it
falls within the purpose that has drawn. us together, to
look back at the incidents by which these great men were
prepared and led on to their destiny. The field is Wide
and tempting; and, in this rich field, there is a double
harvest to be gathered. But the occasion is limited in
point of time. V’Vith all the brevity, therefore, compatible
with the subject, let us proceed to recall the more promi-
nent incidents, leaving to their biographers those which
we must reluctantly‘ omit. And let me hope that the re»-
Capitulation, however devoid of interest in itself, will he
endured, if not enjoyed, for the sake of those to whom it
relates. The review will unavoidably carry us back to

scenes of no pleasant nature, which once occurred be-

tween our country and a foreign nation with which We
nmv maintain the happiest relations of peace and amity;
towards wlaieh, at this day, we cherish no other fcelinggs
than those of the sincerest respect and good will; and
with whose national glory, indeed, as the land of our
forefathers, we feel ourselves, in a great measure, iden--
tified. If, therefore, there should be any one within the
sound of my voice, to whom the language of this retro-
spect linight‘ otherwise seem llaarslnfiii‘ I trust it will be
borne in mind that We are Americans, assembled on a
purely American occasion. and that we are speaking of
things as they were; not as they are: for, in the lan«-

‘* The British Minister was present.

 

it

guage of one of our departed fathers, “though enemies
in war, in peace we are friends.”

The hand of Heaven was kindly manifested even in
the place of birth assigned to our departed fathers.
Their lots were cast in two distant States, forming links
in the same extended chain of colonies. The one, to
borrow the language of Isaiah, was called “ from the
North” and “the rising of the sun ;” the other, from the
South, where he shews his glory in the meridian. The
colonies, though held together by their allegiance to a
common crown, had separate local governments, separate
local interests, and a striliingly contrasted cast of cha-
racter. The intercourse between them had been rare;
the sympathies consequently weak ; and these sympatlxiies
still further weakened by certain rivalries. prejmlices,
and jealcusies, the result of their mutual ignorance of
each other, which were extremely unpropitious to that
concerted action on which the success of the great work
of Independence rested. To effect this work, it was
necessary that men should arise in the different quarters
of the Continent, with a reach of mind sufliciently ex—-
tended to look over and beyond this field of prejudice,
and mark the great point in which the interest of the
whole united; and, with this reach of mind, that they
should combine a moral power of suflicient force to make
even the discordant materials around them harmoniously
subservient to the great end to be accomplished. It
pleased Heaven to give as such men, and so to plant
them on the theatre of action, as to ensure tl1.g34g.g,ionce1*t

;s._ ;‘

thatthe occasion demanded. And in that co11s'ttill‘at_ipon

'12

of the great and the ‘good, rose, the two stars of first
magnitude to which our attention is now to be confined.

Adams and Jefferson were born, the first ‘in Massa-
chusetts, on the 19th of October, 1735 ; the last in Vir-
ginia, on the ad of April, 1743. On the earliest open-
ing of their characters, it was manifest that they were
marked for distinction. They both displayed that thirst
for knowledge, that restless spirit of inquiry, that fervid
sensibility, and that hold, fearless . independence of
thought, which are among the surest prognostics of ex-
alted talent; and, fortunately for them, as well as for
their country and mankind, the Universities in their
respective neighborhoods opened to their use, all the
fountains of ancient and modern learning. With what
appetite they drank at these fountains, we need no tes-
timony ef witnesses to inform us. The living streams
which afterwards flowed from their own lips and pens,
are the best witnesses that can be called, of their youth»
ful studies. They were, indeed, of that gifted order of

niinds, to which early instruction is of little other use

than to :inform fliem oftheir own powers, and to indicate
the objects of p hmnan knmvletlge. Education was not
with them, as with minor characters, an attempt to plant
new talents and new qualities in a strange and ‘reluctant
soil. It was the development, merely, of those which
already existed. n Thus, the pure and disinterested pa-
triotism of Aristides, the firmness of Gate, and the de-
votion of Cnrtius, only awakened the principles that were

sleeping in their young hearts, and touched the respond-

ing chords with which Heaven had attuned them. The

13

statesman-like vigor of Pericles, and the spirit-stirring
energy‘ of ‘Demosthenes, only roused their own lion
powers, and informed them of their strength. Aristo-
tie, and Bacon, and Sidney, and Locke, could do little
more than to disclose to them their native capacity for
the profound investigation and ascertainlnent of truth;
and Newton‘ tauglit their power to range among the stars.
In short, every model to which they looked, and every
great master to whom they appealed, only moved into
life the scarcely dormant ericrgies with which Heaven had
endued them_; and they came forth from the discipline,
not decorated for pomp, but armed for battle.

From this first coincidence in the character of their
minds and studies, let us proceed to another. They both
turned their attention to the same profession, the profes-
sion of the law ; and they both took up the study of this

profession on the same enlarged scale which was so

conspicuous in all their other intellectual operations.
They had been taught by Hoolacr to look with reverence
upon the science of the law: for, he had told them that
“ her seat was the bosom of God, her voice the harniony
of the world.” s Pursucd in the spirit, on the extended
plan, and with the noble aim, with which they pursued it,
may it not he said, without the hazard of illihcral con-
struction, that there was no profession in this country to

which Heaven could have directed their choice, so well

fitted to prepare them for the eventful. strugg‘le which
was coming on.

Mr. Adams, we are told, commenced his legal studies,
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14;

Putnam, of "Worcester : but, the crown of preparation was
placed on his head by J ererniah Gridleyfilt Gridley was
a man of first rate learning and vigor, and as good a
judge of character as he was of law. He had been the
legal preceptor, also, some years before, of the cele-
brated James Otis; and, proud of his two pupils, he was
Wont to say of them at the bar, with playful affection,
that “he had raised two young eagles who were one
day or other to peek out his eyes.”f The two young
eagles were never known to treat their professional father
with irreverence; but how well they fulfilled his predic-
tion of their future eminence, has been already well told
by the elegant biographer of one, and remains to furnish
a rich theme for that of the other.

It was in the commencement of his legal studies, and
when he was yet but a boy, that Mr. Adams wrote that

letter from Worcester which has been recently given to

the world. Considering the age of the writer, and the
point of time at which it was written, that letter may be
pronounced, without hyperbole, a mental 1:>henomenon,
and farbetter entitled to the character of a prophecy,
than the celebrated passage from the Medea of Seneca,
which Bacon has quoted as a prophecy of the discovery
of America, , it

Before I call your attention more particularly to this
letter, it is proper to remark, that Mr. Adams lived at a
time, and among men, well fitted to evoke his youthful
powers. Massachusetts had been, from its earliest set-

“-‘ Mr. Samuel L. Knap‘p’SAclcl.1‘eSS on the Death of Adams and Jef'r‘e1'son.
-3- Mr. l{napp’s Life of Gridley. ‘

15

tlement, a theatre of almost constant political contention“,
The spirit of liberty which had prompted the pilgrims
to bid adieu to the land and tombs of their fathers, and
to brave the horrors of an exile to the wilds of America,
accompanied them to the forests which they came to sub-
due; and questions of political right and power, between
the parent country and the colony, were continually
arising, to call that spirit into action, and to keep it
bright and strong. These were a peculiar People, a
stern and hardy race, the children of the storm; inured
from the cradle to the most frightful hardships which
they came to regard as their daily pastime, their minds,
as well as their bodies, gathdrecl new strength from the
fearful elements that were warring around them, and

whatever they dared to meditate as right, that they dared

and never failed to accomplish. The robust character
of the fathers descended upon their children, and with it,
also, came the same invigorating contests. Violations

of their charters, unconstitutional restraints upon their

trade, and perpetual collisions with the royal Governors
sent over, to bend or to break them, had converted that
province into an arena, in which the strength of mind
had been tried against mind, for a center , before the tug
of the Revolution came. And these were no puerile
sports. They were the stern struggle of intellectual
force, for power on the one hand, and liberty on the other.
And from that discipline there came forth such men as
such a struggle only seems capable of generating ; rough.

and strong, and bold, and daring ; meeting their adver»

W

 
 
 

164

series, foot to foot, on the field of argument, and beating"
them ofi‘ that field by the superior vigor of their blows.
Praecipitemque Daren, ardens agit aequore toto :

Nunc dextra ingeminans ictus, nunc ille sinistra,
Nee mora, nec requies.

From this school issued those men so well formed for
the sturdy business of life, and who shine so brightly in
the annals of Massachusetts—--Mayllew, and Hawley,
and Thacher, and Otis, and Hancock, and a host of
others, of the same strong stamp of character: men
as stout of heart as of mind, and breathing around them
an atmosphere of patriotic energy, which it was impos-
sible to inhale without partaking of their spirit.

Such was the atmosphere which it was the fortune of
John Adams to breathe, even from his infancy. Such
were the high erszamples before him. From this proud
eyry it was, that this young eagie first opened his eyes
upon the sun and the ocean, and learned to plume his
own wings for the daring flight.

His letter from \Vorcester hears date on the 193th of
October, A1755. He was consequently then only in his

- twentieth year. At that time, remember, that no thought
of a separation from the parent country had ever. touched
;, these shores. T['1ciconversations to whicli he alludes,
were upon the topics of the day, and went no far ‘her
than to a discussion of the rights of the colony, consi-i
dered as a colony of the British empire. These were
the hints which set his young mind in motion, and this
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“ Woncsstrnn, October 12, 1755;

#5‘ Soon after the Reformation, a few, people came
“ over into this New World for conscience’ sake. Per»
“ haps this apparently trivial incident may transfer
~" the great seat of empire into America. It looks likely
“ to me, if we can remove the turbulent Gallicks, our
4‘ people, according to the exactest computations, will,
~" in another century, become more numerous than
“ England herself. Should this be the case, since we
4‘ have, I may say, all the naval stores of the nation
~" in our hands, it will beceasy to obtain the mastery

4-‘ of the seas; and then the united force of all Europe

4‘ will not be able to subdue us. [Here we see the first p

“ germ of the American Navy.] The only way to

~" keep us from setting up for om'sel~ves, isto disunite

44 us. 1)i~oide et impera. Keep us in distinct colonies,
“ and then some great men in each colony, desiring
4‘ the monarchy of the whole, they will destroy each
‘‘ other’sl influence, and keep the country in equilibrio.
“ Be not surprised that I am turned politician; the
4‘ whole town is immersed in politics. The interests
“of nations, and all the dim of war, make the sub-
“ject of every conversation. I sit and hear, and,

4‘ after having been led through a maze of sage ohser--

“ vations, I sometimes retire, and, by laying things’

“together, form some reflections pleasing to myself.
“ The produce of one of these rcveries youhave' tread
“ above.”

Here we mark the political dawn of the mind of

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18

this great man. His country, her resources, her in-
dependence, her glory, were the first objects of his
thoughts, as they were the last. Here, too, we see the
earliest proof of’ that hold and adventurous turn for
speculation, that sagacious flashing into futurity, and
that sanguine ant.i.cipation, which became so» conspicuous
in his after life. He calls this letter a reverie; hut,
connecting it with his ardent character and his future
career, itl1e1=e,w~is reason to believe, that it was a reverie
which produced in him all the effect of a prophetic vi»
sion, and opened to him a perspective which was never
afterwards closed. T p i ,

An incident soon occurred to give brighter tinting
and stronger consistency to this dream of his youth;
and this may be considered as among the most efficient
of these means, devised by the Wisdem of Providence,
to shape the character and point the energies of this
high-minded young man to the advancement of the great
destiny that awaited his country. The famous question
of “writs  czssistunce was argued, in his presence, in
Boston,clin‘February, 17' 61. These writs. were a kind
of general search-warrants, transferable by manual de-
livery from one low tool of power to another, and with»
out any return ; which put at the mercyof these vulgar
wretches, for an indefinite period, the domestic priva-
cy, the peace and couifort, of the most respectable in-
habitants in the colony; and even the sanctuary of
female delicacy and devotion. The authority of the
British tribunals in the province, themselves the instru-
ments of a tyrant’s will, to issue_such Writs, was the pre-

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19

cise question to be discussed. The champion in opposition
“to thepower was the great Otis. 01' the character of his
argument, and its effect upon Mr. Adams, we are not
left to conjecture: he has given it to us, himself, in his
own burning phraseology. “ Otis was a flame of fire 3

“ With a promptitude of classical allusion, a depth of  
“ research, a rapid sunnnary of historical events and 

«'6 dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic
*‘ glance of his eyes into futurity, and a’ rapid torrent
‘_“ of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before
4‘ him. .£1mcrz'ccm Imlcpcnclence was then aml there
“ born.” And he adds-—--“ Every man of an immense
'-" crowded audience appeared to me to go away, as I
4‘ did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance.”
The “immense crowded audience,” it is probable,
left the hall with no impressions beyond the particular
subject of debate. They were ready to take arms against
writs of assistance. N ot -so with lyll". Adams. In him
the “ splendid confiagration of Otis” had set fire to a

mined whose action it was not easy to restrain within

«narrow limits ; a mind already looking out on the wide
expanse of the future, and apparently waiting only for
the occasion, to hold up to his countrymen the great re-
volving light of Independence, above the darkness of
the coming storm. In him American Independence was
then and there born ‘: and, appealing to his own bosom,
he was justified in saying, as hehas done, on another
occasion, in the most solemn terms, “that James Otis,
“ then and there, first breathed into this nation the
4.“ breath of life.” i i

  
  

efficient actor.
 country, that powerful work “ The Dissertation on the

20
The flame thus given to his enthusiasm was never
permitted to subside. The fbreach between the two
countries grew wider and wider, until, from being an
excited spectator, he soon became a vigorous and most
In his thirtieth year, he gave to his

Canon and Feudal Law.” It is but to read those ex-

rytracts from this work which have been recently diffused

among us from ‘the North, to see that it was not limit-
ed in its purpose to the specific questions which had

then arisen. The discussion travels far beyond these i

questions, and hears all the marks of a profound and
comprehensive design, to prepare the country for a se-
paration from . Great Britain. It is a review of the
Whole system of the British institutions, and a most
powerful assault upon those heresies, civil and religious,

which constituted the outposts of that system. Besides

the solid instruction which it conveys on the true theory

of government, and the deep and impressive exhortation
witli which it urges the necessity of correct information
to the People, it seems to have been the leading object
of the work“ to disenchant his countrymen of that reve-
rence fer the institutions of the parent country which
still lingered around their hearts, and to teach them to
look upon these institutions, not only with indifierence,
but with aversion and contempt. Hence those burning
sarcasms which he flings into every story of the citadel,
until the Whole edifice is wrapped in flames. It is, in»
deed, a work eminently fitted for the speedy regeneration
of the country. The whole tone of the essay is so

their cry for the vengeance of law.

21
raised and hold, that it sounds like a trumpet-call to

arms. And the haughty defiance which he hurls into the
face oftthe oppressors of his country, is so brave and

nncmnprmnising, as to leave no doubt that, whatever

might be the temper of the rest of the connnunity, the
author had already laid his hand upon the altar, and
sworn that his country should be free.

All this fire, however, was tempered with judgment,
and guided by the keenest and most discrisninating; sa-
gacity ; and if his character was marked with the stub-
born firmness of the Pilgrim, it was because he was
supported by the Pilggrinns’ conscious ll'll3t‘gl"lt_'Y. Ano-
ther incident soon occurred to place these qualities in
high relief. a In the progress of the quarrel, Great Brim
tain had quartered an army in Boston, to supply the

place of argument, and enforce that submission which a’

she could not command. The immediate consequence
was collision and am-ay bctxween the soldicry and the
citizens; and, in one of those affrays, on the 5th of
November. 1770, the British captain, Preston, gave the
fatal order to fire ! Several were killed, and many more
were wounded. It is easy to imagine the storm that

instantly arose. The infuriated populace were, with
men of the
spot. Dis-

appointctl of this, they were loud, and even frantic. in

great diflicnlty, restrained by the leading
town, from eating their vengeance upon the

Yet there was no
murder in the case : for, in this instance it had happened
that they were themselves the assailants.
arrested for trial : and Mr. Adams then standing in the

Preston was

,3

 

22

van of the profession, as well as that of the patriots,
was called upon to undertake his defence. How was
he to act? It is easy to know how a little, time-serving
politician, or even a man of ordinary firmness, would

p have acted: the one would have thrown himself on the

popular current, and the other would have been swept
along by it, and joined in the public cry for the victim.
But Aclams belonged to a higher order of character. He
was formed not only to impel and guide the torrent; but
to head that torrent too, when it had taken a Wrong di-
rection, and “ to roll it back upon its source.” He was
determined that the world should distinguish between
a petty commotion of angry spirits, and the noble stand
made by an enlightened nation in a just and noble cause.
He was resolved that that pure and elevated cause should
not be soiled and debased by an act of individual in-
justice. He undertook the defence, supported by his
younger, but distinguished associate, Josiah Quincy;
and, far from flattering the angry passions around him,
he called upon the jury, in their presence, “to be (leaf,
“ deaf as aclders, to the clannors of the populace ;” and
they were so. To their lmnor, a jury drawn from the
excited people of Boston, acquitted the prisoner: and
to their equal honor, that very populace, instead of re-
senting the language and conduct of his advocate,
loaded him immediately with additional proofs of their
confidence. These were the people, who, according to
some European notions, are incapable of any agency
in their own government. By their systems, delibe-
rately planned for the purpose, they first degrade and

?:.’w.-3'

hlmtaiize their people, and then desezmt on their militnese
for self l"ui(.‘., The man of Annexe:-i(.:zi. it seenis, is the
only man fit for reimhliczm g‘0\’(?,i‘I!BE!0}’Bti But man is
every where the same, zmd requii:'es; only to he enliglntm
ened, to assert the native dignity of hiss cha.rz1<tte1'.

Mr. Adams was now‘ m1'1ong,' the l1”M.)Si3 Conspicuous.
champions of the colonial cause in I‘»Ia’1ss:1ei11ns;etts. In
the sanne year to which we heme jasst '€iV’Cl‘El).¢i, 1770,
he had been elected a member of the P1-ovincial Legis-
loture: and he thence{‘or1;l1 ‘tools: a high and eomm:«.md—-
ing part in every public: mea.~f<uz'e: displaying, on every
occasion, the some consistent Cil£ll'1l{.‘i'.Cl"_; the some szxgm
city to pie1*c.o the night of the ‘future; the some hold
and datlnth;-so i'rm1,; the amine nerve of the Nemezm
lion.

The 1;i.me had now come for ()0‘HC<{}-l‘i'C‘(i notion mnong
the Colonies: and, aceooi-(iingiiy, on the 5th Septoxnhexn.
1774, the first Continental C»ongI'-ess met at Li.7’hii-.1de1-
phia. ‘With what emotions Mr. A(hu'i‘:.':; \\'it1ies:;sm.i this
great movement of the nation, it  cans}/* for tlaosse who
know his ardent eh:;u'a(:ter to imogrine. Nor, are we
left to our ii}121g‘ilHU.'i€f)ilS aione. He had heen ei<:(.'uh;r»z.7i e
1neinbe1' of that body: mu! il‘i}l1“l0(ii{lii(‘,iy' on his (_-i.eeti(;m,
an incident occurred which 1-elievess us; from the neces-—
sify of con_jeetm*ing;; the state of his ei’e(e{ii:ags. iiifiis friemi
Sewall, the Attorney‘ Gexiei-oi. item-ing of his election,
sent for him, and he c:m‘"ze: when Scwxali. with all the
soiicitude and ill1pU1"i;lHIiiy of flfriemlship, ssought to di-
vert him from hgis p1n'po.~:e of taking his soot in C»on—

f;;1‘ess: he represexoiteti to him that Great Britain wax»:

24

determined on her purpose: that her power was irre-
sistible, and would be destructive to him and all who
should persevere in opposition to her designs. “I
“ know,” replied the dauntless and lnigli-sollletl patriot,
“tliat Great Britain has determined on her system;
“ and that very determination, determines me on mine.
*4‘ You know that I have been constant and uniform
“ in opposition to her (lesigns. The die is new cast.
“ I have passed the Rubicon. Sink or swim, live or
“ die, survive orperish with my countr , is my unal-
“terable He accordingly took his
seat: and with what activity and effect lieicliseliargedv
its duties, the journals of the day, sufiiciently attest.

determination. ”

Of that august and venerable body, the old Con—‘

tinental Congress, what can be said that would not fall
below the occasion? What that would not sound like
a puerile and tumid effort, to exaggerate the praise of
a body which was above all praise ? Let me turn from
any attempt at description to your own hearts, where
that body lies entomhed with all you hold most sacred.
To that Congress, let future statesmen look, and learn
what it is to be a patriot. There was no self. No
No despicable faction for
individual honors. None of thoseifeuds, the fruit of an

petty intrigue for power.

unhaliowed ambition, which converted the Revolution
of France into a more contest for the command of the
guillotine; and which have, now, nearly disarmed un-
happy Greece, in the sacred war she is waging for the
N o: of our Great Fathers
we may say with truth, What was said of the Romans

tombs of her illustrious dead.

I

25

in their golden age; “ with them the Republic was
“ all in all; ‘for that alone they consulted: the only
“ faction they formed was against the common enemy:
“ their minds, their bodies were exerted, sincerely, and
“ greatly and nobly exerted, not for personal power,
H but for the liberties, the honor, the glory of their
*5‘ country.” May the time never come, when an al-
lusion to their virtues can give any other feelings than
those of pleasure and pride to their descendants.
I-Iaving, in this iI111)G1‘f0{3t manner, fellow citizens,
touched rather than traced the incidents by which Mr.
Adams was prepared and conducted into the scenes of
the Revolution, let us turn to the great luminary of
the South. . %
Virginia, as you know, had been settled by other

teauses than those which had peopled Massachusetts;

and the Colonists themselves were of a different cha~—
raster. The first attempts at settlement in that quar»
ter of the world had been conducted, as you remem-
ber, under the auspices ‘of the _g;allant Raleigh, that
‘‘ manof wit and man of the sword,” as Sir Edward
Coke taunttingly called him, and certainly one of the
tbrighttest flowers in the Courts of Elizabeth and James.
He did not live to make a permanent establishment in
Virginia ,; but, his genius seems, nevertheless, to have
presided over the State, and to have stamped his own
character on her distinguished sons. a Virginia. had ex‘-
perienced none of those early and long continued con»-
flicts which had conti-ibuted to form the robust charac-

ter of the North; on the contrary, during; the century
4.

236

that Massachusetts had been but’f’etting with the sto1'1n,-
Virginia, resting on a halcyon sea, had been cultivat-
ing the graces of science, and literature, and the genial
elegancies of social life. But, her moral and intellec-
tual character was not less‘ firm and vigorous than that
of her Northern sister: for the invader came, and Athens
as well as Sparta, was foundl ready to do her duty,
and to do it too, bravely. ably, heroically.

At the time of Mr. J efi"erson"s appearance, the so-~
ciety of Virginia was much diversified, and reflected,
pretty distinctly, an image of that of England. There
-was, first, the landed aristocracy, shadowing forth the
order of English nobility: then, the sturdy yeomanry,
common to them both; and last, a fézecztluntii/of beings,
as they were called by Mr. Jeiterson, corresponding
with the mass of the English. plebeians.

Mr. Jeii'erson,- by birth, belonged to the aristocracy:
but, the idle and voluptuous life which marked that or-
der had no charms for a mind like his. He relished
better the strong, unsophisticated, and racy character of
the yeomanry, and attached himself, of choice, to that
body. Born to an inheritance, then deemed immense,
and with a decided taste for literature and science, it
would not have been surprising if he had devoted hint»
self‘, exclusively, to the luxury of his studies, and left:
the toils and the hazards of public action to others,
But, he was naturally ardent, and fond of action, and
of action too, on a great scale; and, so readily did he
kindle in the feelings that were playing around him,
that he could no more have stood, still while his couna

A

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..,l‘ l"*1;.

5237

try was agitated, than the wan horse can sleep under
the sound of the trumpet.
He was a republican and a philantliropist from the

earliest dawn of his cl1a1'acter.. He read with a SON; \

of poetic illusion, which identified him with every scene
that his author spread before him. Enrapturod with
the brighter ages of republican Greece and Rome, he
hadfoliowed, with an aching hoax"-t, the march of his-
tory which had told him of the desolation of those
fairest portions of the earth; and had seen, with dis-
may and indignation, that swarm of nnonarchies, the
]_n*o,geny of the Scandinavian hive, under which genius
and liberty were now, every ‘where crushed. He loved
his own country with a passion not less intense, deep,
and holy, than that of his great eon]-patriot : and with
this love, he combined an expanded 1)i'-liit111i;il1"0]T)_Y which
encircled the globe. t Fmni the working of the stroxig
eneragies within him, there arose an early vision, too,
which cheered his youth and accompanied him through.
life---the vision of emancipated man throughout the
world. Nor was this a d1'eaxn of the nlorning that
passed away and was forgotten. On the contiary, like
the Heaven-descended banner of Constantine, he hailed
it as an omen of certain victory, and girded his loins

for the onset, with the omnipotence of truth.

On his early studies we have aheady touched. "I‘he
study of the law he pursued midcr George Wythe j; a
man of Roman stamp, in Rorne’s host ago. Here he
acquired that unrivalled neatness, system, and method
in business, which, through all his future life, and in

28

every ofiice that he filled, gave him, in effect, the liunw»
dred hands of B1-iareus; here, too, following the giant
steps of his master, he travelled the whole round of
the civil and common law. From the same example,

' he caught that untiring spirit of investigation which

never left a subject till he had searched it to the bot-
tom, and of which we have so noble a specimen in his
correspondence with Mr. I-Iammond, on the subject of
British ilehtsfl In short, Mr. Wytlie perlbrmed for
him, what Jeremiah Gridley had done for Mr. Adams;
he placed on his head the crown of legal preparation:
and well did it become him. Permit me, here, to cor-—
treat an error which seems to have prevailed. It has
been thought that Mr. Jefferson made no figure at the
bar: but the case was far otherwise. There are still
extant, in his own fair and neat hand, in the manner
of his master, a number of arguments which were de-
livered by him at the bar, upon someof the most in-
tricate questions of the lav: Which, if they shall ever
see the light, will vindicate his claim to the first ho»
nors of the profession. It is true he was not distin-

guished in popular debate; why he was not so, has

often been matter of surprise to those who have seen
his eloquence on paper, and heard it in conversation.
He had all the attributes of the mind, and the heart,
and the ‘soul, which are essential to eloquence of the
highest order. The only defect was a physical one:
he wanted volume and compass of voice for a large
deliberative assembly; and his voice, from the excess
of his sensibility, instead of on rising with his feelings

 

,. ., 4‘

~ ~‘ t .r ,. , .5? -- M’ v’
we M ,.. - M n v .~ . . , . V , 'r,,
1’ V» v"‘.y- AV G, I‘ n’ H “ ‘ :3 J: ‘ZN y .., pm” | ‘, :_,_,.“ M Q “ ., , u my T . I“,

29

and conceptions, sunk; under their pressure, and beealne
guttural and inarticulate. The consciousness of this in-
firmity repressed any ‘attempt in a large body, in
which he knew he must fail. But his voice was all
sufficient for the purposes of judicial debate; and there
is no reason -to doubt that, if the serviceiof his country
had not called him away so soon from his profession,
his fame as a lawyer would now have stood upon the
same distinguished ground which he confessedly occu»
pies as a statesman, an author, and a scholar.

It was not until 1764, when the Pa‘!‘lltl.l'l1t‘,lf'll3 of Great
Britain passed its resolutions preparatory to the stzunli

act, that Virginia seems to have been thoroughly start- i

led from her repose. Her Legislature was then in
session; and her patriots, talgingg the alarm, remonstrat-
ed promptly and firmly agztiiist this assumed power.
The remonstranee, however, was, as usual, disre-y
gar-ded, and the stamp act came. But it came to meet,
on the floor of the House, an unlooked-for champion,
Whom Heaven had just raised up for the good of his
country and of Inankind. I speak of that untutored
child of nature, Patrick I:'lenry, who had now, for the
first time, left his native forests to show the metal of
which he was made, and 6‘ give the world assurance
of a man.” i

The Assembly met in the city of Williamsburg, where
Mr. Jefi"erson was still pursuing the study of the law.
Mr. Hen1'y’s celebrated resolutions against’ the stamp
act were introduced in May, 1765. How‘ they were
resisted, and how maintained, has been already stated

to the world, in terms that have been pronounced e3;«
travagant, by those who modestly consider themselves
as furnishing a fair standard of Revolutionary excel-
lence. The coldest glow-worm in the hedge, is about as
fair a stamlarcl of the power of the sun. To the pre-
sent purpose, it is only necessary to remark, that Mr.
Jefferson was present at this debate, and has left us an
account of it, in his own words. He was then, he says,
but a student, and stood in the door of communication
between the liiouse and the lobby, where he heard the
whole of this magnificent debate. The opposition to
the lastresolotion was most vehement; the debate upon
it, to use his own strong language, “most bloody :”

but, he adds, torrents of sublime eloquence from Heat‘-y,

a hacked by the solid reasoning, of Jolmson, prevailed;

and the resolution was carried by a single vote. I «xrell
remember, he continues, the cry of "5 treason,” by the
Speaker, echoed from every part of the House, against
Mr. Henry: I well remember his pause, and the ad-
mirable a(l(lI'eSS_Wltl1 which he recovered himself‘, and
baffled the cliarge thus vociferated.

He here alludes, as you must perceive, to that memo-

, rahle exclamation of Mr, Henr , now become almnsttoo

flanoiliar for quotation : “' Cresar had his Bmttis, Charles
W the First his Cromwell, and George the ‘Third----
if‘ Treason l” cried the Speaker. “ Treason! trea-
“ son !” echoed the House ;;)--—may profit by their ex-»
“ ample. If tllishe treason, make the most of it.” *

‘While I are presenting to you this picture of Mr.
.iefi'erso11 in his youth, A listening to the almost super-hn-«

31

man eloquence of Henry on the great subject which form-»
ed the hinge of the Americzm Revolution, are you not

forcibly reminded of the parallel scene which had passeci

only fouryearsibefe1'e, in the Hall of Justice in Boston 2
Mr. Adams catching from Otis, “ the breath of life?”
How close the pen-zillel, and how‘ interesting the inci-
dent! Who can think of these two young men, (lestined
themselves to make so great 3. figure in the future history
of their country, thus lighting the fires of their own ge-
nius at the altars of Henry and of Otis, without being
reminded of another picture, which has been exhibited to
us by an historian of Rome: The younger Scipio Afri-
canus, then in his military noviciete, standing a. youthful
spectator on a hill near Chi-tlxage, and looking down
upon the battle-field on which those veteran generals,
.I-Iarnilcar and Massanissa, were driving, with so much
glor , the car of war! r Whether Otis or Henry first
breathed into this nation the breath of life, (a question
merely for curious and friendly speculation,) it is very
certain that they breatlixed into their two young hearers,
tll£il1l)I'C3.llll which has made them both iznmortel.

From this day forth, Mr. J eii'erson, yoiing as he was,
stood forward as a champion for his country. it was
now, in the fire of his youth, that he adopted those
mottoes for his seals, so well remembered in Virginia:
“Ab eo libeites, a. quo spiritus,” and ‘V-' Resistance to-
tyrants is obedience to God.” He joined the hand of
the bxxave who were for the holdest Incaeuresz and by
the light, the Coiitagioiis spirit and vigor of his con»
reimtien, as well as by his enclimitinge; and powexfizi

32

pen, he contributed eminently to lift Virginia to that
height which placed her by the side of her Northern
sister. It is an historical fact well known to us all, that

' these two great States, then by far the most populous and

powerful in the Union, led off‘, as it was natural and fit
that they should do, all the strong measures that ended
in the Declaration ‘ of Independence. Together, and
stroke for stroke, they breasted the angry surge, and
threw it aside “witlif hearts of controversy,” untilithey
reached that shore from which we now look back. with so
much pride and triumph- ' A

It was in his thirtieth year, as you remember, that
Mr. Adams gave to the world his first great work, the
Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law; and it was,
about the same period of his life, that Mr. J etferson pro-
duced his first great political work, “A Summary View
of the Rights of British America.” The history of this
Work. is somewhat curious and interesting, and I give it
to you on the authority of Mr. Jeiihrson himself‘. He
had been elected a member of that State Convention of
Virginia which, in August, 1774, appointed the first De-
iegates to the Contin-ezital Congress. Arrested by sick-
ness on his way to Williamsburg, he sent forward, to be
laid on the table, a draught of instructions to the Delor-
gates whom Virginia should send. This was read by
the members, and they published it, under the title of
“A Summary View of the Rights of British America.”
A copy of this work ilflVll’lg found its way to England,
it received from the pen of the celebrated Burke such
alterations as adapted it to the purposes of the opposition

333

there, and it there re—appear-ed in anew edition; an ho.
znor which, as Mr. .lefi‘erson al‘terwards learned, occa-
sioned the insertion of his name ina hill of attainder,
which, however, never saw the light. So far Mr. J eli"erson..
Let me add, that the old inha‘bitants of Viiilliaxnsbtlrg, a.
few years back, well remexnhereil the e'fi'ec.t of that WOI'l{
on Lord Dunmore, then the royal Governor of the State.
His fury hreke out in the most indecent and umnitigated
language. Mr. Jefi‘erson’s name was marked high on
his list -of prescription, and the Victim was only reprieveti
nntil the rebellion should be crushed; but that rebellion
hecame revolution, and the high priest of the rneditated
sacrifice was sent to howl his disappeintmeiit to the hills
and wincls of his native Seotlantfl.

In the next year, 17' 75, Mr. Jefferson, young as he
Was, was singled out by the Virginia Legislature, to
answer Lord Nerth-’s famous “conciliatory proposition,”
ealled, in the language of the day, his -“olive branch.”
But it was an olive branch that hid the gnileful serpent,
er, in the langsage of Mr. Adznns, “ it was an  in in
basket of flowers.” T‘l1e answer stands upon the records
of the country. Cool, calm, close, full of compressed
energy and keen Sagacity; while, at the same time it
preserves the most perfect deoorwin, it is one of the most
nervous and manly productions even of that age of men.

The second Congress met on the 1-Oth of May, 1775.
Mr. Adams was, of course, agaixi, a member. Mr. Jeffer-
A-son having been deputed, contingently, (to supply the
placeof Peyton l?tando1ph,) did not take his seat at the
eoniinenceinent of the session. Of the apolitical, 3;\‘Q1‘.l§$

5

34.-

et’ this Congress, as well as of the 111‘6C66di173‘a lilleil”
petitions, memorials, remonstrances, to the Throne, te
the Parliament, to the People of England, of Ireland,
and of Canada, I have forhorne to speak, because they
are familiar toyou all. Let it suflice to say, “that, in
the estimation of so great a judge as Lord Chatham,
they were such as had never been surpassed even in the
master States of the World, in ancient Greece and Rome ;;
and, although they produced no good effect on the unhap-~
py monarch of Britain; though Pharaoh’s heart was
hardened so that they moved not him, they -moved all
heaven and all earth besides, and opened a passage for
our fathers through the great deep. .

The plot of the awful drama now began to thicken.
The sword had been drawn. The battles of Lexington
and Concord had been fought; and Warren, the rose
of American chivalry, had been cut down, in his bloom,
on that hill which his death has hallowed. The blood
which had been shed in Massachusetts cried from the

. ground, in every quarter of the Union. Congress heard

that cry, and resolved on war. Troops were ordered tot
he raised. A Commander-in-Chief’ came to be appointed,
and General Ward of Massachusetts was
nation.

put in nomi-
Here we have an incident in the life of Mr.
Adams most strikingly characteristic of the man. Git-'~
ing to thewinds all local prepossessions, and looking
only to the cause that filled his soul, the cause of his
com-1tr*, he prompted and sustained the 11ozni11atioi1’mh3‘:’
that patriot hero whom the Almighty, in hi

s goodness,
had formed for the occasion.

"Washington was elected.

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85

and the choice was ratified in Heaven. He accepted his
commission on the very day on which the soul of Warren
winged its fiiglit from Bunker Hill, and well did he
avenge the death of that youthful hero.

Five days after General Wasliington’s appointment,
Mr. J efl"erson, for the first time, took his seat as a mem-
ber of Congress; and here, for the first time, met the
‘two illustrious men whom we are endeavoring to com»
memorate. They met, and at once became friends»--to
part no more, but for a short season, and then to be re-
united, both for time and eternity.

There was new open war between Great Britain and
her colonies. Yet the latter looked no farther than re-
sistance to the specific power of the parent country to
tax them at pleasure. A dissolution of the union had
not yet been contemplated, either by Congress or the
nation; and many of those who had voted for the war,
would have voted, and did al‘terwards vote, against that
dissolution.

Such was the state of tliings under which the Cong'1*ess
of 17'7'6 assembled, when Adams and Jefferson again
met. It was, as you know, in this Congress, that the
question of American Independence came, for the first
time, to be discussed; and never, certainly, has a more
momentous question been discussed in any age or in any
country ; for, it was fraught, not only with the destiniesof
this wide extended continent, but, as the event has

,shown, a and is still sliowing, with the destinies of man,

all over the world.

ti

How t’eai?i’ui that question then was, no one ear: tei-nlibut
those who forgetting all that has since past. can trans»
port themse}ves% back to the time, and pifslit their feet on
the ground which those patriots then occupied. “Sha-
dows, clouds, and darkness,-""’ then covered all the future,
and the present was full only of danger and terror. A.
more tmequal coetest. never was proposed. It Was, inn
deed, as it was then said to be, the shepherd boy of Is-
rael going. forth to battle against the giant of V Gath ; and
there were yet among us, enough to ti"-embie when they
heard that giant‘ say, “ Come to me, and I wiil give thy
flesh to the fowis of the air and the beasts of the field.”
But, there were those who never tr=embled——--who lmew
that there was a God in Israel, and who were Willing!‘ to
commit their cause “to his even-iianeled justice,” am}
his almighty pow 3!’. That their great trnst was in Him,
is 1nan~i,f‘est from the i*emar]-as that were contimzaliy
hreaking from the lips of the patriots. Thus, the pa-
triot Hawley, when pressed upon the inequality of the
contest, could only answer, “'We must put to sea---.Provi-»
dence will bring us into port?’ and Patrick Henry,
when iirged upon the same topic, exclaimed, ‘~‘T1'ue, true ;
butthere is a God above, who rules and oveir-rules the
destinies of na;tioi1s.”

Amid this appailing; array that surionnded‘ them, the
first to enter, the breach, sword in hand, was John
Adams--»-the vision of his youth at his heart, and his
Country in every nerve. On the si:~:th of May, he oti"er«-
ed, in committee of thewhoie, the significant resolution,
that the colonies, should form gove-1'*mnents independent

37

of the crown. This was the harbinger of more impor1";-

ant measures, and seems to have been put forward to feel
the pulse of the House. The resolution, after a bloody

struggle, was adopted on the 15th day of May following.

On the 7th of J one, by previous concert, Riehardflenry
Lee moved the great resolution of Independence, and was
seconded by John Adams; and “then came the tug of
War.” The debate upon it was continued from the 7th
to the 10th, when the further consideration of it was
postponed to the 1st of July, and at the same time a
corninittee of five was appointed to prepare, provision.-
ally, a clrauyhttoi‘ a Declaration of Independence. At the
head of this important committee, which was then ap-
pointed by vote of the House, although he was probably
the youngest member, and one of the youngest men in
the House, (for he had served only part of the former
session, and wastbut thirty-two years of age,) stands the
name of Thomas Je1°f‘erson--—Mr. Adams stands next.

And these two gentlemen having been deputed a. sub-
committee to prepare the draught, that draught, at Mr.

Adams’ earnest importunity, was prepared by his more
youthful friend. ,. Of this transaction Mr. Adams is
himself the historian, and the authorship of the Declara-
tion, though once disputed, is thus placed forever beyond
the reach of question. ‘

The final debate on the resolution was postponed, as
we have seen, for nearly a nionth. In the mean time, all
who are conversant with the course of action of all do-
liberative bodies, know how much is done by conver-
sation ainong; the members. It is not often, indeed, that

38

proselytes are made on great questions by public debate.
On such questions, opinions are far more frequently
formed in private, and so formed that debate is seldonf
known to change them. Hence the value of the out-oil
rdoor talent of chamber consultation, where objections
candidly stated are candidly, calmly, and mildly dis»
cussed; Where neither pride, nor shame, nor anger take
part in the discussion, nor stand in the Way of a correct
conclusion ; but where everything being‘ conducted frank-
ly, delicately, respectfully, and kindly, the better cause and
the better reasoner are almost always sure of success. In
this kind of service, as well as in all that depended on the
power of coinposition, Mr. J efierson Was as much a mas-
tetumagician, as his eloquent friend Adams was in debate;
They Were, in truth, hemispheres of the same golden
globe, and required only to be brought and put together,
to prove that they were parts of the same heaven-formed
“whole.

On the present occasion, however, much still remained
to be effected by debate. The first of J uly came, and the
great debate on the resolution for independence was re-
sinned, with fresh spirit. The discussion was again pro-
tracted for two days, which, in addition to the former
three, were sufficient, in that age, to call out all the
speaking talent of the House. Betta, the Italian histo-
rian of our Revolution, has made Mr. Dickinson and 
Lee the principal speakers on the opposite sides of this
question ; and ava'i'ling; himself of that dramatic license of
ancient historians, which the fidelity of modern history
has exploded, he has drawn, from his own fancy, two era-

39

tions, which he has put into the mouths of those distin’-» A

guished men. With no disposition to touch, with a hos-
tile han(l,,one leaf of the well-earned laurels of Mr. Lee,
(which every American would feel far more pleasure in.
contributing to brighten and to cherish,) and with no
feelings but those of reverence and gratitude for the me»
mory of the other great patriots who assisted in that (lo-
bate, lrnay We not say, and are we not bound in justice
to say, that Betta is mistaken in the relative promincncy
of one, at least, of his prolocutors? Mr. Jefierson has
told us that “ the Colossus of that Congress---~thei great
“pillar of support to the Declaration of Indepemlence,
4‘ and its ablest advocate and champion on the floor of
“the House, was John Adams.” How he supported it,
can now be only matter of imagination : for, the debate
was conducted with closed doors, and there was no re-
porter on the floor to catch the strains living as they rose.
I will not attempt what Mr. Adams himself, if he were
alive, could not accomplish. He might recall the topics
of argument : but with regard to those flashes of inspira»
tion, those bursts of passion, which grew out of the awful
feelings of the moment, they are gone for ever, with the
reality of the occasion : and the happiest effort of fancy to

supply their place, (by me, at least,) would hear no better i
resemblance to the original, than the petty crepitations of"

an artificial volcano, to the sublime ercplosions of thun-
dering ]Etna. ‘Waiting, therefore, the example of Betta,
let it suflfice for us to know that in that moment of clark--
ness, of terror, and of consternation, when the election was
to be made between an attempt at liberty and inilepend-»

40

ence on the one hand, and defeat, subjugation, and death,
on the other, the courage of Adams, in the true spirit oi‘
heroism, rose in proportion to the dangers that pressed
around him ; and that he poured forth that only genuine
eloquence, the eloquence of the soul, Which, in the lan-
guage of Mr. Jefferson, “ moved his hearers from their
seats.” The objections of his adversarieswere seen no
longer but in a state of wreck ; floating, in broken frag-
ments, on the billows of the storm : and over rocks, over
hreakers, and amid ingzalpliing; Whirlpools, that every
where surrounded him, he brought the gallant ship of the

nation safe into port.

It Wason the evening of the day on which this great,
victory was achieved, (before which, in moral grandeur,
the trophiesiof Mareiigo and the Nile fade away,) and
while his mind was yet rolling with the agitation of the
recent tempest, that he wrote that letter to the venerable
partner of his bosom, which has now become matter of
history ; in which, after amiouncing; the adoption of the
resolution, he foretells the future glories of his country,
and the honors with which the returning anniversary of
her Declaration of Independence would he hailed, till time
should be no more. That which strikes us on the first pe-
rusal of this letter, is, the prophetic charact.er with which
it is stamped, and the ‘exactness with which its pi-edic—‘
tions have been fulfilled. But, his biographer will re-
mark in it another character: the deep political calcu-
lation of results, through which the mind of the writer,
according to its habit, had flashed; and the firm and
nmlotiliting confidence with Whicli, in spite of those ap-

%1

pearances that alarmed and misled weaker minds, he
looked to the triumphant close of the struggle.

The resolution having been carried, the draught of the
Declaration came to be examined in detail; and, so
faultlessphad it issued from the hands of its author, that
it was adopted as he had prepared it, pruned only of a
few of its brightest inherent beauties, through a prudent
deference to some of the States. It was adopted about
noon of the Fourth, and proclaimed to an exulting na-
tion, on the evening of the same day.

That brave and animated band who signed it--Where
are they now 2’ What heart does not sink at the ques-
tion? One onlysurvives: CHARLES CARROLL, of Car-
rollton--»-ainoble specimen of the age that has gone by,
and now the single object of that age, on whom the
Veneration and prayers of his country are concentrated.
The rest have bequeathed to us the immortal record of

heir virtue and patriotism, and have ascended to a
brighter reward than man can confer.

, Of that instrument to which you listen with reverence
on every returning anniversary of its adoption, “ which
forms the ornament of our halls, and the first political

lesson of our children,” «it is needless to speak. You

know that in its origin and object, it was a statement of
the causes which had compelled our Fathers to separate
themselves from Great Britain, and to declare these
States free and independent. It was the voice of the
American Nation addressing herself to the other Na-
tions of the Earth: and the address is, in all respects,

worthy of this noble personification. It is the great
6;

4:2

argument of America in vindication of her course: and
as Mr. Adams had been the Colossus of the cause on
the floor of Congress, his illustrious friend, the author
of this instrument, may well be pronounced to have
been its Colossus on the theatre of the World.

The decisive step which fixed the destiny of the nation
had now been taken: and that step was irrevocable.
“ The die was now, indeed, cast. The Rubicon had
been crossed,” effectually, finally, for over. There was
no return but to chains, to slavery, and death. No
such backward step was meditated by the firm hearts
thatled on the march of the nation: but, confiding

in the justice of Heaven, and the final triumph of

truth, they moved forward in solid phalanx, and with
martial step, regardless of the tempest that was breal;-—
ing around them.

Their confidence in the favor and protection of Hea-
ven, however, strong and unshaken as it was, did not
dispose them to relax their own exertions, nor to ne-
glect the earthly means of securing their triumph.
They were not of the number of those who call upon

Hercules, and put nottheir own shoulders to the ‘wheel. ‘

Our adversary was one of the most powerful nations
on earth. Our whole strength consisted of a few stout
hearts and a good cause. But, we were wofully defi-
cientin all the sinews of war: we wanted men, we
wanted arms, we wanted money; and these could be
procured only from abroad. But, the intervening ocean
was covered with the fleets of the enemy; and the
patriot Laurens, one of their captives, was already a

48

prisonerin the Tower of London. Who was there to
undertake this perilous service 2 He who was ever ready
to peril any service in the cause of his country : John
Adams. Congress knew their man, and did not hesi-
tate on the choice. Appointed a Minister to France,
he promptly obeyed the sacred call, and, with a brave
and fearless heart, he ran the gauntlet through the
hostile fleet, and arrived in safety. Passing from Court
to Court, he pleaded the cause of his country with all
the resistless energy of truth; and availing hiinself,
adroitly, of the selfish passions and interests of those
Courts, he ceased not to ply his eiihrts, with match-
less dexterity, until the objects of his mission were
completely attained. With the exception of one short
interval of a return home, in ’7"9, when he aided in

“giving form to the Constitution of his native‘ State,

he remained abroad, in France, in I~Iolland-—wherever
he could be most useful--—-in the strenuous, faithful, and

a successful service of his country, receiving repeated

votes of thanks from Congress, till the storm was over,
and peace and liberty came to crown his felicity, and
realizeithe cherished vision of his youth.

Mr. Jefferson, meanwhile, was not less strenuously
and successfully eiigagetl at home, in forwarding and
confirming the great objects of the Revolution, and
niaking it a. revolution of mind, as well as of govern-
ment. Marking, with that sagacity which distinguish-
ed him, the series of inventions by which tyranny had
contrived to tutor the mind to subjection, and educate
it in habits of servile subordination, he proceeded, in Vir-

4:4:

ginia, with the aid of Pendleton and Wythe," to break
ofi' the manacles, one by one, and deliver the imprisoned
intellect from this debasing sorcery. The law of en»
tails, that feudal contrivance to foster and nourish a
vicious aristocracy at the expense of the community,
had, at a previous period, been broken up, on their
suggestion; and property was left to circulate freely,
and impart health and vigor to the operations of so-
ciety. The law of primogeniture, that other feudal
contrivanceto create and keep up an artificialinequa-
lity among men whom their Creator had made equal,
was now repealed, and the parent and his children were
restored to their natural relation. And, above all, that
daring usurpation on the rights of the Creator, as well
as the creature, which presumes to dictate to man what

he shall believe, and in what form he shall offer the ’
worship of his heart, and this, too, for the vile purpose H

of strengthening the hands of a temporal tyrant, by
feeding and pampering the tools of his power, was in-
dignantly demolished, and the soul was restored to its
free communion with the God who gave it.

The preamble to the bill establishing religious free-

dom in Virginia, is one of the most morally sublime,

of human productions. By its great author it was al-
ways esteemed as one of his happiest efforts, and the
measure itself one of his best services, as the short and
modest epitaph left by him attests. Higher praise can-
not and need not be given to it, than to say, it is in all

respects worthy of the pen which Wrote the Declaration

of Independence: that it breathes the same lofty and

4,5

noble spirit; and is a fit companion for that .immorta‘l
instrument. A

The legislative enactments that have been mentioned,
form a small part, only, of an entire revision of the laws
of Virginia. The collection of bills passed by these
great men, gone hundred and twenty-six: in number,) pre-
sents a system of jurisprudence, so colnprehensive, pro-
found, and beautiful, so perfectly, so happily adapted
to the new state of things, that, if its authors had ne-
ver done any thing else, impartial history would have
assigned them a place by the side of Solon and Ly-
curgus.

In 17 7 9, Mr. Jefferson was called to assume the helm
of government in Virginia, in succession to Pat1*ick
Henry. He took that helm, at the moment when war,
for the first time, had entered the limits of the Com-
monwealth. ‘With what strength, fidelity and ability
he held it, under the most trying circumstances, the
highest testimonials now stand on the journals of Con-
gress, as well as those of Virginia. It is true that a
poor attempt was made, in after times, to wound the
honor of his administration. But he bore a charmed
character; and this, like every other blow that has
ever been aimed at it, only recoiled to crush his ac-
cuser, and to leave him the brighter and stronger _for
the assault.

In 1781, his alert and active mind, which watched the
rising character of his new.-born country, with all the
jealous vigilance of an anxious father, found a new occa-
sion to call him into the intellectual field. Our country

<16

was yet but imperfectly known in Europe. Its face, its
soil, its physical capacities, its animals, and even the men
who inhabited it, were so little known, as to have fur-
nished to philosophers abroad a theme of unfounded and

i degrading speculation. Those visionaries, dreaming over
theories which they wanted the means or the inclina-n

tion to confront with facts, had advanced, among others,
the fantastic notion that even man degenerated by trans-
plantation to America. To refute this insolent position,
and to place his country before Europe and the world on
the elevated ground she was entitled to hold, the Notes

on Virginia were prepared and published. He there

pointedtto tWashington_. to Franklin, and to Rittenhouse,
as being alone suflicient to exterminate this heresy; and
we may now point to Jefferson and to Adams, as sufIi-
cient to annihilate it. This pure and proud offering on
the altar of his country, “ The Notes on Virginia,”
honored its author abroad not less than at home; and
when, shortly afterwards, the public service called him
to Europe, it gave him a prompt and distinguished pass-
port into the highest circles of science and literature.

Thus actively and usefully employed iniguarding the
fame, and advancing the honor and happiness of his
country, the War of the Revolution came to its close;
and, on the 19th of October, ‘1781, of which this day
is the anniversary, Great Britain bowed to the ascen-
dency of our cause. Her last effective army struck
her standard on the heights of York, and peace and in-
dependence came to bless our land.

4.17

Mr. Adams was still abroad when this great consu1n-

mation of his early hopes took. place: and, although

the War was over, a diflicult task still remained to be
performed. The terms of peace were yet to be ar-
ranged, and to be arranged under circumstances of the
most complicated embarrassment. That the acknow-
ledgment of our independence was to be its first and in-
dispensable condition, was well understood; and Mr.
Adams, then at the Hague, with that decision which
always marked his character, refused to leave his post
and take part in the negotiation at Paris, until the
powers of the British commissioner should be so en-
larged as to authorize him to make that acknowledgment
unequivocally. I will not detain you by a rehearsal of
what you so well know, the difliculties and intricacies
by which this negotiation was protracted. Suflice it
to say, that the firmness and skill of the American Com-
missioners triumphed on every point. The treaty of
peace was executed; and the last seal was thus put to
the independence of‘ these States.

Thus closed the great drama of the American Revs.-
lution. And here for a moment let us pause. If the
services of our departed fathers had closed at this point,

as it did with many of their compatriots»-—-witl1 too,

many, if the wishes and prayers of their country could
have averted it»-—--what obligations, what honors, should!

we not owe to their memories! What would not the-
world owe to them! ,But,. as if‘ they had not all-eadyr,

done enough, as if, indeed, they had’ done nothing,

while any thing yet remained to be done, they were

48

ready, with renovated youth and elastic step, to take a
new start in the career of their emancipated country.

The Federal Constitution was adopted, and a new
ieaf was turned in the history of man. ‘With what cha-
racters the page should be inscribed—-whether it
should open a great aera of permanent good to the hu-
man family, or pass away lilie a portent of direful evil,
was now to depend on the wisdom and virtue of Ame-
rica. At this time our two great patriots were both
abroad in the public servicei Mr. Adams in England,
where, in 1787’, he refuted, by his great work “ The
Defence of the American Constitutions,” the wild theo-
ries of ’1‘urgot, De Mably, and Price ;A and Mr. J effer-.-
son in France, where he was presenting in his own
person a living and splendid refutation of the notion

of degeneracy in the American man. On the adoption

of the Federal Constitution, they were both called home,
to lend the weight of their character and talents to
this new and momentous experiment on the capacity of
man for self-government. Mr. Adams was called to
fill the second oflice under the new Government, the
first having been justly conferred by the rule 4‘ deter
fort’io1'i:” and Mr. Jefferson, to take the direction
of the highest Executive Department. The ofiice of
Vice President afforded, as you are aware, no scope
for the public display of talent. But the leisure which
it allowed, enabled Mr. Adams to pour out, from his full-
fraught mind, another great political work, his Dis-
courses on Davila; and, while he presided over the Se-
-nate with uuexceptionable dignity and propriety, Presi-

429

dent Washington always found in him an able and

honest adviser, in whom his confidence was implicit and
unbounded.    i
Mr. Jefferson had a theatre that called for action.
‘The Department of State was now, for the first time,
to be organized. Its operations were all to be moulded
into system, and an intellectual character was to be given to
it, as well as the Gr~overnn1ent to which it belonged, before
this nation and before the World. The frequent calls
made by Congress for reports on the most abstruse
questions of science connected with Government. and
on those vast and novel and inultil'arious subjects of po-
litical economy, peculiar to this wide extended and di-
v.ersified continent: discussions with the ministers of
foreign Grovernments, more especially with those of
France and England and Spain, on thosegreat and agi-
tating questions of international law, which were then
continually arising; and instructions to our own Minis-
ters abroad, residentat the Courts of the great bellige-
rent ‘Powers, and who had consequently the most deli-
cate and discordant interests to manage; presented a
series of labors for the mind, which few, very few
men in this or any other country could have sustained-
with reputation. How Mr. Jefferson acquitted himself,
you all know. It is one of the peculiarities of his cha-
racter to have discharged the duties of every oilice to
which he was called, with such exact, appropriate, and
felicitous ability, that-he seemed, for the time, to have
heen born for that alone. As an evidence of the unanimous

admiration of the matehless skill and talent with which '

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50

he discharged the duties of this ollice, I hope it may
he mentioned, without awaking any asperity of feeling,
that when, at a subsequent period, he was put in nomi—
nation by his friends for the oflice of President, his ad-
versaries publicly, objected---‘~‘ that N ature had made
him only for a Secietary of State.”

President Washington having set the great example,

which has engrafted on the Constitution as firinly as if it V

had f'ormed one of its express provisions‘, the principle of
retiring from the office of President at the end of eight,
years, Mr. Adams succeeded him, and Mr. Jefferson
followed Mr. Adams in the oilice of Vice Pl"BSl(lBl1‘l3.

 Adams came into the office of President at a
time of great cmnmotion, produced chiefly by the pro»
gress of the revolution in France, and those strong
sympathies which it naturally generated here. The

spirit of party was high, and in the feverish excite-p

ment of the day much was said and done, on both sides,

which the voice of impartial history. if it shall descend

to such details, will unquestionably condemn, and which
the candid and the good on both sides lived, themselves,
to regret. One incident I will mention, because it is
equally honorable to both the great men whom We are‘

, uniting in these ohsequies. In Virginia, 'WlflL‘~l‘(3 the

opposition ran high, the younger politicians of the day,
taking their tone from the public Journals, have, on
more occasions than one, in the presence of Mr. Jefi‘er=-
son, imputedto Mr. Adams a concealed design to sap
the foundations of the Republic, and to supply its place
with a Monarchy, on the British m.od.el. The uniform

,;‘'.'?1

answer of Mr. Jeiierson to this charge will never be
'?forgotten by those who have heard it, and of whom {as
I liarelrecently had occasion to prove) there, are many
still living, besides the humble individual who is now
saddressing you. Itlwas this: “Gentlemen, you do
“not know that man: there is not upon this earth a
6‘ more perfectly honest manthan John Adams, Con...
“cealment is no part of his character; of that he is
1“11tte1*lyiii1ca1)ahle: it is not in his nature to meditate
“:.-my thing that he would not publish to the world.
*4‘ The measures of the General Government are a fair
‘-4 subject for difi‘erence of opinion. But do not found
4*‘ your opinions on the notion, that there is the smallest
4‘ spice of dishonesty, moral or political, in the cl1arao-
-“ter of John Adams: for, I know him well, and I
“repeat it, that a man more perfectly honest never
“issued from the hands of his Creator.” And such
is now, and has, long been, the unanimous opinion of
his countrymen.

Of the measures adopted during‘ his administration
you do noteszpect me to speak. I should offend against
your own sense of propriety, werel to attempt it. ‘We
are here, to mingle together over the grave of the do-
parted patriot,, our feelings of reverence and gratitude
tfor services whose merit wenll acknowlerlge: and cold
must he the ‘heart which does not see and feel, in his life,
genouggh to atlniirel and to love,» without striking one
string that could produce one unhailowed note. i History
and biography will do ample justice to every part of
Ms Clgafagtert, 35;uh1i.c and private; and irnpa-rtial pros»-

5'2

terity will correct whatever errors of opinion . may have
been committed to his prejiidiee by his cotemporaries.
Let it suflice for us, at this time, to lmow, that he ad-
ministered the Government with a pure, and honest,
and upright heart; and that whatever he ad vised, flowed
from the master passion of his breast, a holy and all-
absorbing love for the happiness and honor of this
country.    
Mr. Jefferson, holding the Vice Presideucy,p did not
leaveeven that negative ofliee, as, indeed, he never left
any other, without inarhing his occupancy with some

i ‘useful and permanent vestiige. For,..it wzisitliiriirigitliis

term, that he difrested and compiled that able manual
which now gives the law of proceeding, not only-to the
two Houses of Congress, but to all the Legislatures
of the States throughout the Union.

lOn Mr. Adams’ retirement, pursuing the destiny
which seems to have tied them together, Mr. Jefferson
again followed him in the ofiice which he had vacated,
the Presidency of A, the United States: and he had
the good fortune to find, or to make, a smoother sea.
The violence of the party storm gradually abated,and
he was soon able to pursue his peaceful course with-
out any material interruption. Having foi‘-borne, for
the obvious reasons which have been stzggested, to
touchithe particulars of Mr. Adams’ administration,
the same forbearance, for the same reasons, must be
exercised with regard to Mr. Jefferson. But, forhear-4
ing details, it will be no departure from this rule to
state in general the facts: that Mr. J eflerson contain»

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53

used at the helm for eight years, the term which the
example of‘ Washington had consecrated; that he so
administered the Government as to meet the admira-
tion and applause of a great major’-ity of his country«~

i men, as the overwhelming sufi'rage at his second elec-

tion attests; that by that majority he was thought to

have presented a perfect model of a republican adminis-

tration, on the true basis, and in the true spirit of the
Constitution; and that, by them the measures of i all
the succeeding administrations have been continually
brought to the standard of Mr. J efi"erson’s, as to an
established and unquestionable test, and approved or
condemned in proportion to their accordance with that
standard. These are facts which are known to you
all. Another fact I will mention, because it rcdounds
so highly to the honor of his magnauimous and patri-

otic rival. It is this : that that part of Mr. .lefi"erson’s

administration, and of his successor treading in this

steps, which was most violently opposed, the policy
pursued towards the British Govermnent subsequent
to 1806, received the open, public, and powerful sup-
port of the pen, as well as the tongue, of the great
sage of Qinixicyfia The banished Aristides never gave
a nobler proof of pure and disinterested patriotism.
It was a genuine emanation from the altar of the Revo-
lution, and in perfect accordance with the whole tenor
of the life of our illustrious patriot sage. i
VVaving all comment. on Mr. Jeffex-son’s public meaé
sures, there is yet a minor subject, which," standing
where we do, there seems to be a peculiar propriety

  

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54:

in noticing; for, small as it is, it is strikingly char-~
acteristic of the man, and we have an immediate inter-
est in the subject. It is this: the great objects of

national concern, and the great measures which he

was continually projecting and executing for the public
good, on a new and Vast scheme of policy wholly his
own, and stamped with all the vigor and grandeur
of his Olympic mind, although they were such as
would not only have engrossed but overwhelmed al-
most any other man, did not even give full employ-

ment to him; but with that versatile and restless.

activity which was prone to busy itself usefully and
eflicaciously with all around him, he found time to
amuse himself and to gratify his natural taste for
the beautiful, by directing and overlooking in person,
(as many of you can witness) the improvements and
ornaments of this city of the nation: and it is to his
taste and industry that we owe, among other things
which it were needless to emnnerate, this beautiful
avenue,=?~" which he left in such order as to excite the
admiration of all who approached us.

Having closed his administration, he was followed
hy the applause, the gratitude, and blessings of his
country, into that retirement which no man, was ever
better fitted to grace and enjoy, And from this re-
tirement, together with his precursor, the venerable
patriarch of Quincy, could enjoy that supreme of ali
earthly happiness, the retrospect of a life well and
greatly spent in the service of his country and man--

*1-"’en11syl,va11ial Avenue. i

55

"kind. The successful warrior, who has desolated
Whole empires for his own aggrandizement, the suc.
eessful usurper of his country’s rights and liberties,
may have their hours of swelling; pride, in which they
may look back with a barbarous joy upon the tri-
umph of their talents, and feast upon the adulation of
the sycophants that surround them: but, night anclisi-«
lence come; and conscience takes her turn. The
bloody field rises upon the startled imagination. The
shades of the slauglitered innocent stalk, in terrific
procession before the couch. The agonizing cry of
countless widows and orphans invades the ear. The
bloody dagger of the assassinplays, in airy terror,
before the vision. Violated liberty lifts her avenging
lance: and a down-trodden nation rises, before them,
in all the majesty of its wrath. What, what are the
hours of a splendid wretch like this, compared with
those that shed their poppies and their roses upon the
pillows of our peaceful and virtuous patriots I Every
night bringing to them the balm and health of re»-
pose, and every morning offering to them “their his»-
tory in a nation’s eyes 3” ‘his, this it is to be
gweatly virtuous: and be this the only ambition that
shall ever touch an American bosom!

Still unexhausted by such a life of service in the

cause of his countr ’, Mr. Jefferson found yet another

and most appropriate employment for his old age: the

erection of a seat of science in his nativeState.p The

University of Virginia is his work. His, the first con-
eeption : his, the whole. impulse and direction; his, the

56

varied and beautiful architecture, and the entire siipmu
intendence of its erection: the whole scheme of its
studies, its organization, and government, are his. 110
is, therefore, indeed the father of the University of
Virginia. Thatit may fulfil to the full ersztent, the
great and patriotic purposes and hopes of its founder,
cannot fail to be the wish of every American bosom.
This was the last and crowning labor of Mr. J efi‘er~
son’s life: a crown so poetically appropriate, that fancy
might well suppose. it to have been Wreathed and
placed on his brow by the hand of the epic muse
herself.

It is the remark of one of the most elegant writers
of antiquity, in the beautiful essay which he has left
us ‘Fon Old Age,” that “ to those who have not within
themselves the resources of living well and happily,
every age is oppressive; but that to those who have,
nothing is an evil which the necessity of nature brings
along with it.” How rich our two patriots were in
these internal resources, you all know. How lightly
they bore the burthen of’ increasing years was appa-
rent from the cliecrfulness and vigor with which, after
having survived the age to ‘which they properly be-
longed, they continued to live among their posterity.
How happy they were in their domestic relations, how
beloved by their neighbors and friends, how revered
and honored by their country and by the friends of

liberty in every quarter of the world, is a matter of

open and public. notoriety. Their houses were the
constant and thronged resort of the votaries of virtue.

57’

and science, and genius, and patriotisin, from every
portion of the civilized globe; and no one ever left
them without confessing that his highest expectationis
had been realized, and even su1'passed, in the interview.

Of “ the chief of the Ai°gonauts,”' as Mr. Jiefihrson
so classically and so happily styled his illustt°ious friend
of the North, it is my inisiiwtune to be able to speak
only by report. But every representation concurs, in
drawing the same pleasing and affectiiig picture of the
Roman simplicity in which that Father of his Country
lived; of the i'rank, Warm, cordial, and elegant recep-
tion that he gave to all who approached him; of the
interesting kindness with which be disbursed the golden
treasul-est of his experience, and shed around him the
rays of his descending sun. Itiis conversation Wasrich
in anecdote and chat-acte1"s of tlie; tiniest that were
past ; rich in political and moral instruction; full
of that best of wisdom, which is learnt from reallife,
and flowing froin his heart with that warm and honest.
frankness, that fervor of feeling and force of diction,
which so strikingly distinguished him in the meridian
of his life. Many of as heard that simple and touch-
ing account given of a pa1'ting scene with him, by
one of our eloquent divine-s : When he rose up from that
iittle conch behind the door, on which he was wont
to rest his aged and weary limbs, and with his silver
iocks hanging on each side of his honest face, stretch-
ed forth that pure hand, wliicli was never soiled even
by a suspiciiomand gave his kind and parting benedicu
tion. Such was the blissful and honored 1*eti1'e1nent

8 V

58%

of the sage of Quincy. Happy the life, which, verging:
upon at centnr , had met with but one serious politicai-
disappointment 1' and even for that, he had lived to re»-
ceive a golden atonement, “ even in that quarter in
which he had garnered up his heart.”

Let us now turn for a moment to the patriot of the
South. , The Roman moralist, in that great wo1'i;
‘which he has left for the government of man in all the
offices of life, has descended even to prescribe the
kind of habitation in which an honored and distin-—
guished man. should dwell. It should not, he says, be
small, and mean, and sordid: nor, on the other hand,

aextended with profuse and wanton extravagance. It ,

should be large enough to receive and accommodate
the visiters which such a man never fails to attract,
and suited in its ornaments, as Well as its dimensions,
to the character and fortune of the individual. _Mon-
ticello has now lost its great charm. Those of you

a who have not already visited it, will not be very apt

to visit it, hereafter: and, from the feelings which you
cherish for its departed owner, I persuade myself that
you will not be displeased with a brief, and rapid sketch
of that abode of domestic bliss, that temple of science.
Nor is it, indeed, foreign to the express purpose of
this meeting, which, in looking to “his life and cha-
racter,” naturally embraces his home and his domestic
habits. Can any thing be indifferent to us, which was
so dear to him, and which was a subject of such just
admiration to the hundreds and th«ous,and;s that were
continually resorting to it, as to an object of pious
pilgrimage ?

59

V The Mansion House at Monticello was built and
ilirnished in the days of his prosperity. In its dimem
siens,   its architecture, its arrangements, and orna.
intents, it is such a one as became the character and for-
tune of the man. It stands upon an elliptic plain, form-
ed by cutting down the apex of a mountain ; and, on
the West, stretching away to the Norlliand the South,
it commands a View of the Blue Ridge for a hundred
and fiftymiles, and brings under the eye one of the
boldest and most beautiful horizons in the world:
while, on the East, it. presents an extent of prospect,
hounded only by the spherical form of the earth, in
which nature seems to sleep in eternal repose, as if to
ibrni one of her finest contrasts with the rude and roll-
ing grandeur on the West. In the wide prospect, and
scattered to the North and South, are several detached
mountains, which contribute to animate and diversify
this enchanting landscape; and among them, to the
South,   Williss’ Mountain, which is so interestingly
depicted in his Notes, From this summit, the Philo-
sopher was wont to enjoy that spectacle, among the
sublimest of Nature’s operations, the looming of the
distant mountains; and to watch the motions of the
planets, and the greater revolution of the celestial
sphere. From this summit, too, the patriot could look
down, witli uninterrupted vision, upon the wide ex-
panse, of the World around, for which he considered
himself horn; and upward, to the open andgvaulted

Ileavens which he seemed to approach, as if to keep‘

him continually in mind of his high responsibility. It

60

is intleecl st prospect in which you see and feel, at
once, that nothing mean or little could live. h It is a,
scene ‘fit to nourish those ;great and l)igl1—souled prin-
ciples which for-med the elements of his character, and
was a most noble and appropriate post, for such a son»
time], over the rights and liberties of man;

Approaching the house on the East, the visitor in»
stinctively paused, to cos-tarotmd one tl1rilling' glance
at this magnificent pmmrama: zmd then passed to the
‘vestibule. where, if he lxatl not been previjously in»
-fo1l'me<.l,Al1e would immecliately per-eeive that he was
enter-ing the house of no common man. In the SP3."
eious and lofty hall which opens before him, he xnerhs
no tawdry rmcl unmeening <)x'n2m’le11ts: but before, on»
the right, on the left, all around, the eye is stmcl<;
and gratifietl with ohjeczts of science and taste, so class-
ed and amengotl as to produce their 'fincst~eff‘ect.” On
one side, specimens of sculpture set out, in such order,
as to exhibit at a. coup d’o3il, the liistex-lee! progress of
that art; from the fit-st rude atltezttpts of the ahol-i~
gines of our cotmtry, up to that exquisite and finished
bust of the great patriot himself, from the masters
hand” of Cemcci. On the Aether side, the visitor secs
displayed so vast collection of specimens of Indian art,
their paintings, xtreeprwttts, cmmments, and menufactu1*es;
on zmother, an aawty of the fossil p1'otluc:tioos of our
comttry, mineral and animal; the polished 1”*en1aios of
those colossa1’mouste1*s that once trod our forests. and
are no more; eaml a variegated display of the ln-2meh-
ing honors of those ‘4 monarclls of the xx=:Lste,?’ tlzat still
people the wilds of the Atnericatl Continent.

61

From this hall he was ushered into a noble saloon,
from which the glorious landscape of the West again
bursts upon his view; and which, within, is hung thick
around with the finest productions of the pencil---his.
torical paintings of the most striking subjects from all
countries, and all ages; the portraits of distinguished
men and patriots, both of Europe and America, and
medallions and engravings in endlessprofusion.

‘While the visiter was yet lost in the contemplation
of these treasures of the arts and sciences, he was
startled by the approach of a strong and sprightly
step, and turning with instinctive reverence to’ thedoor
of entrance, he was met by the tall, and animated, and
stately ligure of the patriot himself’-—-—his countenance
lieaming with intelligence and benignity, and his out-

stretched hand, with its sti-ong and cordial pressure, .

confirmi.ng the courteous welcome of his lips. And then
came that charm of manner and conversation thatpasses
all description-—-—so cheerful---so unassuming--—-so free,
and easy, and franlt, and kind, and gay—-—that even the
young, and overawed, and emba1'raslsed visiter at once
fol-got his fears, and felt himself by the side of an old
and familiar friend. There was no effort, no ainhition
in the conversation of the philoseplier. It was as simple

and lunpretending as nature itself. And while in this

easy manner he was pouring out insti*uctien,. like liglit
from an inexhaustible solar fountain, he seemed continu-
ally to be asliing; insteadof giving information. Tlie
visiter felt himself‘ liflzed by he contact, into a new and

nobler region of thought, and became surprised at his ~

62

own buoyancy and vigor. He could not, indeed, help
‘being astounded, new and then, at those transcendant
leaps of the mind, which he saw made without the
slightest exertion, and the ease with which this won-u
derful man played with subjects which he had been in
the habit of considering among the argmnenta~crucis of the
intellect. And then thereseemed to be no end to his

knowledge. He was a thorough master of every sub-it

ject that was touched.“ From the details of the humblest
mechanic art, up‘ to the highest summit of science, he was
perfectly at his case, and every where at home. There
seemed to be no longer any term incognito of tl1e”hu-

nman understanding: for, it what the visitor had thought

so, he now found reduced to a familiar garden wal ';
and all this carried off‘ so lightly, so playfully, so grace-
fully, so engagingly, that he Won every heart that ap-
proached him, as certainly as he astonished every mind.
Mr. Jefferson was wont to remark, that he never left
the conversation of Dr. Franklin without carrying away
”‘i"v'ltl1l1lllf1 something new and useful. How soften, and
how truly, has the same Felnark been made of him. Nor

is this wonilerful, when we reflect, that, that mind of

matchless vigor and versatility had been, all his life, in-
tensely engaged in conversing with the illustrious dead,
or following the march of science in every land, or hear-
ing away. on its own steady and powerful wing, into new
and unexplored regions of thought.

Shall I follow him to the table of his elegant hospita-
lity, and show him to you in the bosom of his enchanting
family? Alas! those attic days are gone; that sparl;.-

63

ling eye is quenched; that voice of pure and delicate
affection, which ran with such brilliancy and effect
through the whole compass of colloquial music, now‘
hriglit with wit, now melting with tenderness, is hushed
ibrever in the grave! But let me leave a theme on
“which friendship and gratitude have, I fear, already
been tempted to linger too Iona‘.

There was one solace of the declining years of both
these great men, which must not he passed. It is that
correspondence which arose between them, after theirre-
tirement from public life. That correspondence, it is to
be hoped, will be given to the world. If it ever shall,
I speak from knowledge when I say, it will be found to
be one of the Inostinteresting and alfecting that the worlil
has ever seen. That “ cold cloud” which had hung for

r a time over their friendship, passed away with the con-

iiict out of Wlllcll it had grown, and the attachment of

fltheir early life returned in all its force. They had both

now bidadieu, a final adieu, to all public ernployments,
and were done with all the agitating passions of life.
They were dead to the ambitious world; and this cor-
respondence resembles, more than any thing else, one of
those conversations in the Elysium of the ancients, which
the shades of the departed great were supposed by then}
to hold, with 1=egar(l to the afi"airs of the world they had
left. There are the same playful allusions to the points
of difierence that had divided their parties; the same
mutual, and light, and unimpassioned raillery on their own
past misconceptions and mistakes; the same mutual and
just admiration and respect for their many virtues and

6%

services tolnankind. i That correspondence was. to them

both, one of the most genial employments of their old
age; and it reads a lesson of wisdom on the bitterness of
party spirit, by which the wise and the good will not fail
to profit. i p
Besides this afi‘ectionate intercourse between them, you
are aware of the extensive correspondence which they
maintained with others, and of which some idea may be
formed by those letters which, since their death, have
already broken upon us throng;l1 the press, from quarters
so entirely unexpected. 'I‘hey were considered as the
living historians of the Revolution, and of the past age,
as well as oracles of wisdom to all who consulted them.
Their habit in this particular seems to have been the
same; never to omit answering any respectful letter they
received, no matter how obscure the individual, or how
insignificant the subject. With hlr. Jefi’erson this was
a sacred law, and as he always wrote at a polygraphic
desk, copies have been preserved of everyletter. His
correspondence travelled far beyond his own country, and
embraced within its circle many of the most £llSiZiI}gtiiSll€(l
men of his age in Europe. What a feast for the mind
may we not expect from the published letters of these ex-
cellent men! They were both masters in this way,
though somewhat contrasted. Mr. Adams, plain, ner-
vous, and emphatic, the thought couched in the fewest and
strongest words, and striking with a kind of epigrainina-
tic force. Mr. Jefferson, flowing with easy and careless
melody, the larngilage at the same time pruned of every
redundant sword, and giving; the tlioixglit with the happiest

65

precision, the aptest words dropping unbidden and un.

sought into their places, as if they had fallen friomtphet g

skies; and so beautiful, so felicitous, as to fill the mind
with a succession of deliglitful surprises,‘ While the judg-
ment is, at the same time, made captive by the closely
compacted energy of the ‘argument. Mr. J efi"erson’s
style is so easy and harmonious, as to have led superfi-9
cial readers to remark, that he was deficient in strength;
as if ruggedness and ahruptness were essential to
strength. Mr. J efi'erson’s strength was inherent in the
thoughts and conceptions‘, though hidden by the light

and graceful vestments which he threw over them. The L

internal divinity existed and was felt, though concealed
under the finely harmonized form of a man; and if he
did not exhibit himself in his compositions with the in»
sig-zzia of Hercules-, the shaggy lion’s skin and the knot-
ted cluh ; he bore the full quiver and the silver bow of
Apollo; and every polished shaft that he loosened from
the string, told withunerring and fatal precision :

Asml 33 ;c?va¢.r'y'2>2 r;/ever’ ::icpFJp§o1o (31070.

These two great men, so eminently distinguished
.a'rnong the patriots oi‘ the Revolution, and so illustrious:
hy their subsequent services, became still more so, by
having so long survived all that were most highly con»
spicuous among their coevals. All the stars of first
magnitude, in the equatorial and tropical regions, had
long since gone down, and still they remained. Still,

they stood full in view, like those two resplendent con-»
9

66

stellations near the opposite poles, which never set to
the inhabitants of the neighboring zones.  
g But, they too were doomed"   at length to set: and
such was their setting as no American bosom can ever
forget! a   r
In the midst of their fast decaying strength, and when
it was seen that the approach of death was certain,
their country and its glory still occupied their thoughts,
and circulated with the last blood that was ebbing to
their hearts. Those who surrounded the death-bed of
Mr. Jefierson report, that in the few short intervals of
delirium that occurred, his mind manifestly relapsed to

g the age of the Revolution. He talked, in broken sem

tences, of the Committees of Safety, and the rest of
that great machinery which be imagined to be still in
action. One of his exclamations was ‘-' Warn the Com»
5‘ mittee to be on their guard 5” and he instantly rose
in his bed, With the help of his ‘attendants, and went
through the act of writing. a hurried note. But, these
intervals were few and short. His reason was almost
constantly upon her throne, and the only aspiration he
was heard to breathe, was the prayer, that he might
live to see the fourth of July. "When that day came,
all that he was heard to whisper, was the repeated
ejaculation---“ Wimc Domino ‘ (li’mxittas,” _ Now, Lord,
let thy servant depart in peace! And. the prayer of
the patriot was heard and answered. i

The Patriarch of Quincy, too, with the same certain»
ty of death before him, prayed only for the protraction
of his life to the same day. His prayer was also

67'

heard: and when a messenger from the ‘neighboring
festivities, unapprized of his danger, was deputedi ta ask
him for the honor of a toast, he showed the object on
which his dying eyes were fixed, and exclaimed with
energy, “Independence for ever!” His country film,
his country last, his country always !

“ O save my country---—I~Ieaven! he saicl—--—and died 1"

Hitherto, fellow citizens, the Fourth of July had been
celebrated among us, only as the anniversary of our in-
dependence, and its votaries had been merely human
beings. But at its last recurrence----the great Jubilee
of the nation-—--the anniversar , it may well be termed,
of the liberty of 1nan—---Heaven, itself, mingled visibly
in the celebration, and hallowed the day anew by a
double apotheosis. Is there one among us to whom
this language seems too strong? Let him recall his
own feelings, and the objection will vanish. Wlien the
report tfirst reached us, of the death of the great man
whose residence was nearest, who among us was not
struckdwith the circumstance that he should have been
removed on the day of his own highest glory ?l And.
who, after the first shock of the intelligence had pass-
ed, did not feel a thrill of mournful delight at the cha-
racteristic beauty of the close of such a life. But

tvhile our Nbosoms were yet swelling with admiration

at this singularly beautiful coincidence, when the second
report i immediately followed, of the death of the great
sage of Quincy, on. the some (lay---I appeal to your-

68

selves--is there a voice that was not hushed, is there
a heart that did not quail, at this close Inanifestation of
the hand of Heaven in our affairs ! Philosophy, reco-
vered of her surprise, may affect to treat the coinci-
dence as fortuitous. But Philosophy herself was mute,
at the moment, under the pressure of the feeling that
these illustrious men had rather been translated, than
had died. It is in vain to tell us that men die by
thousands every day in the year, all over the world,
The wonder is not that two men have died on the same

,day, but that two such men, after having, performed

so many and such splendid services in the cause of
liberty-—-after the multitude of other coincidences which
seem to have linked their destinies together---after
having lived so long together, the objects of their Conn-A

ytr-y’s joint vene-ration----after having been spared to wit-

ness thegreat triumph of their toils at home-—and looked
together from Pisgah’s top, on the sublime effect of that

grand impulse which they had given to the same glo-

rious cause throughout thoworld, should, on this lif—

'tieth anniversary of the day on which they had ushered.

that cause into light, be both caught up to Heaven,
together, in the midst of their raptures I d Is there a
being, of heart so ohdurate and sceptical, as not to feel

..the hand and hear the voice of Heaven in this wonder-

 

ful dispensation! And may we not, with reverence.
interpret its language? Is it not this? “ These are
“ my beloved servants, in whom I am well pleased.
5‘ They have finished the work for which I sent them

69

«'4 into the World: and are now called to their reward.
6“ Go ye, and do likewise.’’’
One circumstance, alone, remains to be noticed. In

a prz‘vate memorandum found among some other obi-

tuary papers and relics of Mr. Jefferson, is a sugges--

tion, in case a memorial over him should ever be thought
of‘, that a granite obelisk, of small dimensions, should
be erected, with the following inscription:

Imus mes swamp
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
Autlior of the Declaration of Inclepenclence,
Of‘ the Statutes of Virginia, for religious freedom,
And Father of’ the University of Virginia. 

All the long catalogue of his great, and splendid,
and glorious services, reduced to this brief and modest
summary !

Thus lived and thus died our saiutecl Patriots I May
their spirits still continue to hover over their coun-
trymen, inspire all their counsels, and guide them in
the same virtuous and noble path I And may that God,
in whose hands are the issues of all things, confirm
and perpetuate, to us, the inestimahle boon which, through
their agency, he has bestowed ; and make our Colum-
bia, the bright exemplar, for all the striiggling “sons of
liberty around the globe!

   

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