thorities, and the course to be pursued, and set about it without delay. It was to make them acquainted with us; to develope our resources and capacities, if we were successful; to explain the extent of our country; the nature of the soil and its productions; the hardihood, enterprise and industry of the people; their frugal habits, their simplicity and purity of manners, and the rapid increase of population. All these were to be made clear before the vaults of the bank could be opened. That we had no money at that time, was nothing to them, for their mercantile and financial sagacity had established some new axioms in political economy. Nations had been considered rich in proportion to the sums in the treasury; they thought a nation wealthy when the people had industrious habits and ready means of business, and could pursue it without shackles. Mr. Adams spared no pains to give them correct information. The Dutch were convinced, and the loan effected. A courtier with flexible principles and polished manners, with sufficient means for display, and for less honest purposes, may gain fame as a negociator, at an easy price; but to leave a country almost unknown to the great mass of Europeans, and in a state of revolutionary war, and under these circumstances to ask for money--the worst of all matters of negociation—and to obtain it by intelligence, and energy of character, has no parallel in the history of diplomacy.

Mr. Adams was one of the commissioners who signed the treaty of peace in 1783. His share in that great business will hereafter be more fully known, but it is not improper to say at this time, that to him we are indebted for the preservation of the fisheries.

As our first minister to England, he conducted with so much judgment, dignity, and courtesy, as to exalt himself and his country, and to conciliate the feelings and to gain the respect and confidence of the one he was nigh.

As Vice President of the United States, he presided over the senate with impartiality, readiness, dignity and intelligence; never yielding his rights to obstreperous contumely,

for party purposes, or ever infringing the rights of others, by petulent assumptions of prerogative.

Of him as President we shall say nothing, for fear of bringing up, in the minds of some, an allusion to politics, which are banished from these consecrated walls on this day; but it can give no pain to any one to hear it said, that in his administration, Truxton, Preble, Shaw, and others, ushered in the dawn of our naval fame.

He

Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia, on the second day of April, 1743. He was educated at William and Mary College, and on leaving this seminary he went into the office of Chancellor Wythe, a gentleman of great celebrity in his day. Mr. Jefferson commenced practice quite young, and soon acquired distinction in his profession. In 1769 he was found in the legislature of Virginia, as an active member. took an enlarged view of the principles of a free government, and expressed them with great boldness. In 1774 he wrote and published his "summary view of the rights of British America," which gave him no small share of fame, which was still greatly increased by his reply, prepared as one of the committee of the assembly, to the propositions of the British Minister to the Governor of Virginia. In 1775 he took his seat as a member of the general congress, at Philadelphia. Virginia had then felt but little of the encroachment of arbitrary power, but Mr. Jefferson saw that yielding principles would invite aggressions. In this august body he soon became conspicuous. The fame he had acquired in his native state followed him to Philadelphia, and his exertions there were well calculated to secure and enhance it. It was his good fortune while in this body to draft the Declaration of Independence. The subject had been privately discussed and settled, and the remaining question then was, on the form in which it should come before the world in justification of the procedure.

In 1779 Mr. Jefferson was made Governor of Virginia; and during his administration, that "traitor-fiend," Bene

dict Arnold, made an incursion into Virginia, with a formidable force, and the Governor had no troops to oppose him.Some of the Hotspurs of the day thought he might have done something to have checked the progress of the enemy, but time has settled the question in favor of the course Mr. Jefferson pursued, as wise and correct. In 1781, when we had hardly seen an American book upon statistics, Mr. Jefferson wrote his Notes on Virginia, to answer and refute the assertion, "that man was belittled in America," as had been stated by some prejudiced travellers from Europe. In 1782 he was appointed to join our envoys in France, but before he could get ready to sail, a treaty of peace had been signed; and on hearing of this news, he considered his voyage unnecessary. In 1784 he was a commissioner with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, to attend to our national affairs in Europe, with full powers to make treaties with such nations as should be thought advisable. A treaty was at this time made with Prussia. When Dr. Franklin returned to America, Mr. Jefferson was appointed his successor in France. The political feuds in that country, at that time, prevented any further negociations with the government, and gave the American Minister an opportunity to enjoy the society of the learned men who then figured at Paris. In 1789 he returned to his native country, and instantly on his arrival was appointed Secretary of State under President Washington, which office he resigned in 1794. In 1797, he was elected Vice President of the United States, and in 1801, President, in which office he continued eight years, and then retired to private life. He lived in a period, as his cotemporary did, of difficulty and trial, with friends and enemies, calmly pursuing his own When his advocates and his opposers are gone, the furture historian will discuss the merits of his administration. Since his retirement from the duties of office, he has been constantly engaged in some plan for the good of mankind.— Being one of the early converts to the efficacy of vaccination, as a preventative of that awful scourge of mankind, the small

course.

pox, he not only labored to extend the blessing throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, but also to the aborigines of our western wilds, to whom this pestilence was even more dreadful than to civilized society. The medical skill of the natives of the forest did not reach even an assuagent of this malady. They opposed flight or moral courage to the dread of an attack of this disease. Whole tribes were swept away at once. This philanthropist exerted himself to bring the Indians to a belief in this preventative; and coming from so great and kind a father as Mr. Jefferson, they thought that it must have been sent him from the Great Spirit, and they yielded to the process of inoculation without opposition.

The first continental congress, of which Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson were members, was an assemblage of truly great men. In times of danger, all eyes rest on the most able and worthy. It is only in times of party and animosity, that we trust our dearest interests with those, who, forgetting their own dignity, will act only on narrow principles, for selfish purposes. It was a band of men who wore no concealed dagger for their enemies, but which spoke a thousand, in their calm, cautious, and manly proceedings. The fate of unborn millions was in their charge. With them every talent found its appropriate use. Danger and responsibility seemed to purge their mental vision with euphrasy, to ken the peculiar traits of character each possessed. The martial air, the spotless integrity, and the well tried ability and courage of Washington, pointed him out for a leader of the armies to be raised in support of the measures which had been, or were about to be adopted. They wisely acted in conclave on all important questions, that the world at large, nor even their own friends around them, should witness any disagreement among the members of that body. Franklin, that great reader of the characters of men, and of the disposition of nations, was early sent abroad to conciliate, to examine, to report, and to act, when it should be thought wise and expedient so to do. Lau

rens and Lee were sometimes with him, before Adams was sent to join him-men of fashion and honor, and who represented an important portion of our country. To show the wisdom of that body, from those who first assembled at Philadelphia to those who acted at the close of the war, we need only examine their journals, manifestos, and other state papers. They contain no boastings, no furious denunciations of those stung to madness, whose fury increases their weakness; no overwhelming joy at success; but those calm remonstrances, those dignified upbraidings, those cautious expressions of self respect, which carried with them the soul of high resolve and unyielding purpose. The gaze of the world was upon them. The friends of freedom were wishing them success, and the advocates for powers, dominions, and thrones, loading them with imprecations, and denouncing them as rebels. Such, amidst all these things, was the firmness of their step, and the rapidity of their march, that their friends increased and their enemies were diminished. The great nations of Europe were directly engaged in the struggle, and hope grew fresher every hour, as the conflict proceeded. The little fluctuations of hope and fear, at home, were carefully concealed from those at a distance. At length success crowned their labors, and peace came with some of its blessings and many of its dangers. It required as much talent, or more, to form a government suited to our wants, capacities and interests; one which would contain principles sufficiently expansive for present purposes and for our future growth, as it did to resist oppression and to direct the means to the ends in obtaining freedom. All was achieved, and the leading men in every part of our country who exerted themselves in this second Herculean labor, ought to be remembered as well as those who performed the first. In truth, they were nearly all the same persons, a few only had grown up to assist them.

It is common in the history of man, to find those who for years had been rivals for power and fame when living, become co-heirs of glory when dead. Ancient and modern times are