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by which his own opinions were unalterably fixed, and he was prepared so ably to maintain and enforce them. Then, too, were doubtless accumulated the materials of the celebrated work subsequently published on the American constitutions. Thus in the dead watches of the night, was he faithfully engaged, whilst others slept, in arranging and burnishing his weapons for the contest which he well knew the dawn would bring with it.

In 1770 he represented the city of Boston in the legislature of Massachusetts; and about this time his professional eminence obtained him a tender of the office of chief justice of the colony; but it is not unlikely that his prophetic spirit foreseeing the advance of great political events in which he was decided to stand forth, determined him to decline as he did, this compliment from his native state.

Advancing in the confidence of the people, in the year 1771 he was chosen by them a member of the Council; but, at this time, the two great parties having become distinctly marked, and his opinions being open as day, Governor Gage, holding a negative upon the choice of the people, erased his name, with twelve others, from the return. Thus was he early marked by ministerial proscription, as the adversary of oppression and the friend of the aggrieved.

This imperious exercise of authority neither subdues him nor lessens him in the estimation of his constituents. When an annual congress was decided upon, he was selected to represent Massachusetts in that body, and commissioned, "to "deliberate and determine upon wise and proper measures "to be by them recommended to all the colonies, for the recovery and establishment of their just rights and liberties, "civil and religious."

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This delicate, and then most dangerous trust, brings Mr. Adams, upon the first day of its session, immediately into the view of the colonies as a member of the first annual Congress.

We will return and follow Mr. Jefferson in his early years until he also becomes an illustrious member of the continen

tal congress.

Chesterfield county in Virginia has the honour of being the birth place of this renowned man.-Nearly eight years younger than his great associate, he was born on the 2d of April 1643, and, like him too, descended from ancestors of high reputation who were among the earliest emigrants to that state which justly claims their descendant as one of her brightest sons.

At the college of William and Mary he displayed those early talents which he employed at maturity with so much success for the happiness of man, and bore away the first honors of the Institution. He subsequently studied, and practiced the law with signal success and with the most elevated sense of honour.

As soon as his years would allow it, he was put in the commission of the peace for his native county, and at this early age he became a member of the state legislature, and soon rendered himself conspicuous by his participation in the early and decisive measures of resistance of this colony. He continued, annually, to be constituted a member of the house of delegates, and to exert in every way his wonderful and versatile talents on the side of free principles. On the 27th of March 1775, then approaching his 32d year, he received a peculiar mark of distinction in being elected to congress as the successor of Peyton Randolph.

Turn to almost any period in the biography of the two illustrious men whose recent loss we deplore and how strangely do they assimilate !-Jefferson, just past the age of manhood is found in his native state, resisting the domination of England and predicting the future freedom and greatness of his country. And Adams, in his native state, just approaching the year of manhood and upwards of twenty years before the day of our Independence, appears as disclosed by a prophetic letter of his, to open the book of the future destines of his

country, and to point to the very page in which it is written. that, "the great seat of empire will be transferred into America❞—that nothing can prevent us " from setting up for ourselves" but "disunion”—that "in another century our "people will become more numerous than England her"self"" the mastery of the sea" shall be ours, and "all "Europe shall not subdue us."

In the first congress of '74, they were not colleagues; but although personally separated, there is still to be marked that happy coincidence of conduct which accompanied them through so many eventful years.

In this congress, whilst Mr. Adams, as a colonial delegate, was joining in a "declaration of rights," in "the association of non-importation, and for encouraging domestic manufactures," in a petition to the King, in addresses to the people of England, of Ireland, and the Colonies, and encourageing and inviting union, Mr. Jefferson, in the Virginia assembly, with equal energy and with the same great objects in view, was found enforcing, in person and through the press, "the rights of British America." And it is a well ascertained fact, too, that they both at this early period, were among the few determined spirits who meant never to stop short of the point of Independence, whatever conciliatory expressions it might be thought politic, at times to throw out. The congress of '74, having continued its session for fifty-three days, adjourned to the 10th of May '75.

Upon returning to his home after the close of this session, and again mingling with his fellow-citizens, Mr. Adams received a highly complimentary vote of thanks from his state, and was re-elected to the next congress.

This congress of '75, not to be driven from its mighty purpose, and undismayed by the unnatural and bloody commencement of hostilities at Lexington on the 19th of the preceding month, punctual to their appointment, met in Philadelphia on the 10th May. Upon that day Mr. Adams took his seat, and was joined by Mr. Jefferson on the 21st of the

following month. And here, as they had before been united in feelings and principles, they now become more closely connected in personal intimacy and confidence.

Mr. Jefferson's fame for talents, literary acquirements and love of country, had preceded him, and placed him at once high in the confidence of his associates. He was immediately added to the committee appointed to draw up a declaration to be published by General Washington upon his arrival at the Camp before Boston, and was also, with Mr. Adams, placed upon the committee to consider and report upon Lord North's famous resolution of the 20th of February '75, claiming the right in the ministry to appropriate all money raised by the colonies. His powerful and eloquent reply to this measure, acquired him new honour, and proved to those around him, that he was admirably adapted to convince or to confound the adversaries of his country, and to give the most efficient aid in the formation of a new republic.

This venerable congress (with the exception of a recess from the 1st of August to the 5th of September,) continued its labours without intermission; and whilst our two lamented patriots were in their seats and actively employed, and when all the zeal and talents of the country were demanded by the decisive and momentous questions then under deliberation, they were re-elected again and again. The Journals bear on every page the most honourable testimony to their incessant activity, to the many and important duties which their zeal, industry and talents cast upon them, both jointly and separately.

One fact, occurring six days before Mr. Jefferson took his seat, and distinguishing the 15th day of June, '75, is worthy of especial commemoration. At this time the sword had not only been drawn, but the blood of our unoffending countrymen had been shed. A hostile army was on the land, and a hostile fleet on our waters. War was inevitable-and that war, it was seen, must be a war for independence. The country was determined, but its military means were known

to consist of mere groups of undisciplined recruits, drafted men and volunteers; of husbandmen who had hastily rushed from their ploughs on hearing the alarm of murder at Lexington. These patriotic bands were without a leader.Congress had resolved to appoint a Commander-in-Chief. One deeply interested in the good cause, of nerve and martial prowess suited for the mighty crisis, was wanting-Who shall be chosen? It was an awful and momentous question. -Every bosom throbs with the most intense anxiety—a solemn suspense hangs over the hall of congress. At this moment, upon the 15th of June, '75, John Adams rises in his place, his penetrating and prophetic eye glancing upon every man of the nation, rests upon the first man of all nations: and the deep and solemn suspense is broken by his nomination of GEORGE WASHINGTON! Hurried by his unaffected delicacy, the object of this motion has scarcely time to escape from the hall, until an unanimous ballot sanctions the happy nomination.

mer.

It may not be uninteresting to pause, for a moment, after naming this most exalted and beloved personage, in order to ask what were the indications of character which led to his selection.-Washington, at this time was a plain Virginia farHe had led no armies to victory-he had not passed even his early years at any foreign school of military science. Why, then, was attention turned on him? For those qualities which, when possessed in an extraordinary degree, may be manifested in every sphere of life, and in almost every variety of situation. He was cool and sedate, and brave and sagacious. Yes, my friends, these qualities had been manifested-conspicuously manifested-almost within the range of our vision from this spot!

At the age of twenty-one, when youth is ordinarily prone to luxurious and enervating excess, Washington, as if in anticipation of what awaited him, had, by unremitted and strenuous occupation-by a life of the most rigid temperance—pre

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