dote and rich reflection, acquired by their long experience in the greatest affairs of modern times, and their familiarity with polished learning. To them the scholar, panting after literary excellence, went for his dearest praise; to them the politician, aspiring to future usefulness, looked as the guiding light of his path. Seldom, during the declining period of their lives, did obtrusive remembrances of party rancor arise in the minds of their fellow citizens, to dim the lustre and tarnish the purity of their consecrated reputation. And they themselves, as if in preparation for a future world, mutually extended to each other the feelings of esteem and friendship, which unhappy differences has suspended for a season.

But whilst, having each ascended the pinnacle of political rank, they dedicated the remainder of their days to repose, they were not wholly abstracted from the attention of the public as a nation. Not merely that they marked the progress of passing events with interest; nor that they frequently charmed their country with the productions of their pens; but too high for additional honor, they felt themselves not too old for additional services in the advancement of their country's weal.

When a convention was called for altering the constitution of Massachusetts, Adams was summoned from the seclusion of Montezillo to aid in amending the charter, of which, in less peaceful times, he was the principal framer. Elected president of that body by acclamation, a distinction which the infirmities of age induced him to decline, he received, in the spontaneous homage of his best fellow citizens, a conspicuous testimony of respect, unextorted by station, and yielded only to the majesty of the man. The vigor of mind, which, even at that advanced period of his life, he still manifested, and the memorable expressions of applause bestowed on him, almost simultaneously, by two of his most distinguished associates, and men of political sentiments not accordant with his, fixed upon him the eyes of the whole community. He seemed to be, not an earthly being, like ourselves, but one of the

creating and guardian spirits of the constitution, descended among us to watch over the preservation of its integrity.This was his latest public exertion. But the brilliant career of his son augmented the interest which his character irresistibly attracted. Men, who were envious of the rise of the younger Adams, sought to impede his progress, and embitter the days of his venerable parent, by resuscitating the buried calumnies, which the lapse of twenty years had consigned to deserved oblivion. But their endeavors were as

fruitless as their motives were unworthy. The accomplished statesman, the profound scholar, he whose virtues 'plead like angels trumpet tongued' for his elevation, stands in the post of merited honor;—and, as the garland encircled the bare temples of the great Julius, the aged head of the sire was protected from the shafts of detraction by the laurel wreath of victory and glory.

The declining age of Jefferson has been peculiarly distinguished by a course of useful exertions for the promotion of éducation. His active mind was unceasingly busy to the hour of his death in the establishment, organization, and success of a noble university in his native state. May the illumination of genuine philosophy descend upon it, and make it a seminary of science worthy of the cause of letters, worthy of Jefferson, and of Virginia!

With but a single cloud to shadow his setting, his last years have elapsed in sunshine and peace, in all his public relations. True it is, that some anonymous miscreant, too base to disclose his name, falsely accused him of a petty peculation,-him, who devoted a princely fortune to the cause of his country, and who, after having

Sounded all the depths and shoals of honor,

and spent a life in the national service, saw himself reduced to poverty in old age. But the triumphant vindication of his own purity, which the indignant patriot condescended to publish, and the scorn of all honorable men for the slanderer, crushed the calumny forever, and gave added lustre to the

fame of Jefferson. It was not this, which planted a thorn in his pillow. Had he luxuriated in hoards of ill gotten opulence, of riches gained by rapacity in office, he might have died dishonored and despised, instead of filling a whole people with affliction by his decease; but he would have been saved the pang of appealing to his countrymen to preserve him from absolute penury. But his departed spirit has outstripped the tardy generosity of his nation; and he is rescued from the sorrowful necessity of accusing the republic of ingratitude.

The many remarkable coincidences in the respective fortunes of Adams and Jefferson, would have placed them constantly in contrast, even if their Maker had not called them to himself on the same day, and thus rendered their funeral obsequies inseparable. Previous to the revolution each was a leading politician in his own colony; they met together in the same congress; they were both of the committee to prepare the Declaration of Independence, and one of them. wrote what the other proposed and defended; afterwards each of them was temporarily devoted to the establishment of law in his native state; they next filled the highest foreign missions of their country, until both became members of the first constitutional administration; they were rival leaders of the two great parties which divided the nation ; and one succeeded the other, first as Vice President, and next as President of the United States; and after many years of seclusion, worthy of themselves, they both died upon the Fiftieth Anniversary of our Independence. Surely the finger of Providence is visibly stretched forth, in this long series of singular and unparalleled combinations of destiny.

The history and characters of the deceased patriarchs have now been traced, not with the energy and fullness which the occasion deserved, but with such imperfect fidelity as circumstances would permit. Should the contemplation of their departed excellence have communicated too warm a coloring to the language of panegyric, let the cause apolo

gize for the consequence. They have nothing to gain by exaggerated eulogium, nor any thing to lose by the insidiousness of faint praise. Posterity will weigh their merits and their defects in the balance of strict and impartial justice.But cold is the heart, and poor is the soul, that now, in the greenness of our untented sorrow at the catastrophe of their death, would stifle the manifestations of respect for their worth, which rise irrepressibly to the lips of enthusiasm.

Death is above, below, around us. The very vital air we inhale may be loaded with its fatal influences. In the midst of health as in sickness, in the gay moment of confident hope, as in the darkness of despair, he may cut short the frail thread of life, and blast its fairest prospects with a breath. We awake to the splendors of a summer's dawning; but the brightness of our sky may soon be overclouded.We embark upon the smiling ocean of life, and favoring breezes waft us lightly across its waters; but the slumbering billow may rouse instantaneously to overwhelm us in the deep. A few years, months, days, hours, and the speaking eye may be quenched in the shadows of the grave; the lips, that now utter the warning words of grief, may be sealed with the signet of everlasting silence; and the frame instinct with motion, where the pulses of life are warmly beating, may be consigned, an unseemly corse, to lie buried in cold obstruction's apathy.' There is no age exempt from the inevitable doom, which falls, undistinguishing, upon the early bloom of beauty, and the brow blanched by the snows of seventy winters; no condition too lowly to be overlooked by the angel of death, nor too lofty for his unerring shafts to reach.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Descend into its noiseless and gloomy chambers, and you behold the prince and the peasant, the proud and the humble, the wise and the weak, reposing side by side, their hopes, ambition, love, hate, all the wild passions, which animated their living breasts, rebuked and abased before the mighty

king of terrors. There the lips of the eloquent are speechless, the voice of patriot fervor is dumb. There is the banner of a thousand victories furled forever; the hero has fought his latest battle, and his purple robe of triumph is exchanged for the pall of death, and the vanquished conqueror is companion of the worm. And there lie the benefactors of their nation and their race, the statesmen, whose noble spirits stemmed the torrent of oppression when it rolled against their country, whose ardor nerved the arm of the warriors that defended her in the stricken field, and whose genius and wisdom championed and upheld her sacred cause. For mortality is the common lot of man.

The friends of the human family, the fathers of our Independence, are taken from us by Him, in whose grasp are the issues of life. We repine not at the privation. We inherit their fame; we possess their example; our civil privileges are a legacy from them; their memory is embalmed in our hearts; their names are eternally identified with our free in-stitutions; and having accomplished the duty assigned them on earth, they have received the boon of immortality in heaven. Peace be to their manes ! We offer them the humble oblation of our profound reverence, our heart-felt grati

tude.

Fellow citizens, I have done; but ere I go hence, ere the voice of the speaker has ceased to fall upon your ears, let us all unite, on this momentous and affecting occasion, in aspirations to the just God, who holds kingdoms and states, principalities and powers, in the hollow of his hand, that he would cause his choicest blessings to descend upon our beloved country.

The nations have fallen, and we still are young;
Our sun is but rising, when others are set.

May he give our rulers wisdom to discern and firmness to pursue the measures, which are best calculated to promote the good of the land. May he inspire us all with emotions of gratitude for that we have the enjoyment of civil and reli