negotiated a treaty with the Republic of Holland, and by obtaining a loan, rendered his country essential service; for it was at a crisis when their resources had been drained by a long and expensive war, their paper currency become useless, and no foundation laid for public credit. He was shortly after this negotiation directed by Congress to repair to Paris and assist in concluding a peace between Great Britain and her revolted Colonies, then standing on the equal ground of Independent States. In '34 he was united with Mr. Jefferson and Dr. Franklin in a commission to treat with nearly all the powers of Europe. In '85 he was sent as an ambassador to Great Britain.

On the adoption of our constitution he was elected VicePresident, and received the full confidence of General Washington, then President. In '97 he succeeded the Father of his country as President. It was a stormy season. The public mind, throughout the civilized world, was in a state of high excitement. A fermentation was at work among the political elements, which set calculation at defiance. Whatever difference of opinion may exist with regard to the measures of his administration; the uniform tenor of his conduct in those times, when patriotism was no cheap commodity, shew at this day beyond a doubt that he was at all times the ardent friend of liberty. At the close of the term for which he was elected, Mr. Jefferson by a small majority was preferred to him. In 1801 he retired to the ancient residence of his fathers at Quincy, from which he did not permit politics to call him, except for a short time in two instances. Having been the principle author of the constitution of this state, when the convention was called to revise it in 1820, he was elected a member and unanimously chosen its president. On his declining this latter honor from the infirmities of age, resolutions were unanimously passed by this great assembly, expressing their deep sense of his merits and public services. He was also the same year an elector of President and Vice President.

In private life his character was pure. He was a steadfast believer in the religion of Christ. He scrupulously performed all the duties of private and domestic life; and no stain can attach to his memory, as a man and christain. To his paternal instructions we are chiefly indebted for the services of that illustrious statesman, who is now at the head of our nation. The weaker traits of his character were such as are seldom separated from an open, bold, confiding, and independent spirit. In his advanced age his mind was vigorous. He was serene and tranquil to the last.

About four weeks before his death, his native town invited him, as usual, to join them in the observance of the late anniversary. The following was his reply. "June 7th.— The present feeble state of my health will not permit me to indulge the hope of participating, with more than by my best wishes, in the joys and festivities and the solemn services of that day, on which will be completed the 50th year from its birth, the Independence of the United States. A remarkable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be shaped by the human mind.”

Mr. Adams was the author of an interesting and able work in defence of the American constitutions, published a short time before the adoption of our present form of government. THOMAS JEFFERSON was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 2d of April, O. S. 1743. He received the highest honors at the College of William and Mary in his native state, and was bred to the bar. By the age of twentyfive, he was a distinguished member of the Virginia legislature. Being a devoted friend to equal rights, he labored, and with success, to give to the laws of his state a more republican character. A law forbidding the further importation of slaves, a law for the abolition of entails, which broke in upon the hereditary aristocracy of the state, also a law to abolish the principle of primogeniture, a law giving equal inheritance

to sons and daughters, and a law for the security of religious freedom, were all prepared by him, and carried chiefly by his efforts. In '75 he was sent to the general Congress at Philadelphia. Although he put in no claim to the palm of eloquence, he was distinguished for the firmness of his sentiments, and the felicity and vigor of his compositions. Of the committee appointed to draw up the Declaration of Independence, he was elected by a higher vote than any other member. It has already been said, while speaking of his illustrious associate, that he was the author of the imperishable document which declared us "free, sovereign and independent states." In '79 and '80 he was governor of Virginia. His "Notes on Virginia," which were written in '81, are an able specimen of his talents for composition, and evince the correctness of his political opinions. In '84 he was appointed minister to France. In October '89 he obtained leave to return home. While on his passage, he was nominated by President Washington, Secretary of Foreign Affairs. His correspondence with the French and English ministers while in this station, is a proud monument of his genius. This office he resigned on the last day of '93. In '97 he was made Vice President, and four years after, President. In 1803 a treaty under his instruction was negotiated with France, by which the extensive territory of Louisana was annexed with the United States. Whatever may be thought of some measures of his policy, the acquisition of a territory equal in extent to the former United States, and which alone could secure to us the undisturbed navigation of a river, whose branches are spread through a fertile country equal to the half of Europe-this acquisition by peaceful means, had he no other claim on posterity, would render his name memorable, so long as our Republic shall endure. He retired from office in March, 1809. Since that time he has been engaged in a work, on which, in his declining days, he reflected with peculiar satisfaction. "My whole labors," to repeat his own words, "have now for many years been devoted to the

University of Virginia. I claim some share

in this great follow it up, This venera

work of regeneration, and I stand pledged to through the remnant of life remaining to me." ble statesman and philosopher, who had helped to lay the foundation of a mighty nation, thought the work but half accomplished, till the best means of education were made accessible to his countrymen. Let it bring home to our minds the obvious truth, that only an enlightened people can be free,

On the 24th of June, a few days before his death, he returned an answer to an invitation from the City of Washington to unite with them in celebrating the 50th anniversary of American Independence. It is proper on this occasion to repeat an extract from it, not only because it is one of the last paragraphs he ever penned, but because it shews the vigor of his mind at that late hour, and is replete with such sentiments as republicans should ever cherish. "It adds sensibly," he writes, "to the sufferings of sickness to be deprived by it of a personal participation in the rejoicings of that day: but acquiesence is a duty under circumstances not placed among those we are permitted to control. I should indeed with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged their congratulations, personally, with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission and the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact that our fellow-citizens after half a century of experience and prosperity, contiuue to approve the choice we made. May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessing and security of selfgovernment. The form which we have substituted restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened or opening to the rights of

man.

The general spread of the lights of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few, booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others; for ourselves let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and undiminished devotion to them."

These venerable men, of whose public course I have now attempted to sketch an outline, died as they had lived; their country to the last, dear to their hearts, and its Independence the darling theme which lingered on their quivering lips. They have gone. But the remembrance of their glorious deeds will never die. Poor is the pittance of renown which the world's conqueror receives, empty as the idle wind, transient as the shooting star, compared with that gratitude which embalms in the hearts of the free, the patriot's never-dying name. Their days were lengthened out far beyond the common age of man ; for Heaven had destined them to behold during half a century, the success of that cause in which they had spent the prime of their days; the progress of that work which has beat down principalities and powers, going on conquering and to conquer, and which will one day efface every vestige of usurping power from an emancipated world. Heaven has already set its seal to their revolutionary services. When was the hand of Providence more clearly seen than in the close of their eventful lives? But on a subject which has filled, and will continue to fill, all hearts with devout wonder and amazement, I need not enlarge. When centuries shall have rolled away, and the mists of time shall have shed around our revolutionary conflict the guise of a romantic age—when the fancies of the poet shall have mingled with the truths of history, scarcely will the world refrain from classing this act of Heaven with the prodigies and marvels of a fabled

era.

To what distinguished period of eighty or ninety years can we be referred, fellow citizens, which can bear any compar