of one and some in favor of the other: the great foreign interests, that lent ardor to the struggle have happily lost their hold on the American people; and the politics of the country now turn on questions not agitated in their days. Meantime, I know not whether, if we had it in our power to choose between the recollection of these revered men, as they were, and what they would have been without their great struggle, we could wish them to have been other than they were, even in this respect. Twenty years of friendship succeeding ten of rivalry, appear to me a more amiable and certainly a more instructive spectacle, even than a life of unbroken concert. As a friend to both their respected memories, I would not willingly spare the attestation, which they were pleased to render to each other's characters. We are taught, in the valedictory lessons of our Washington that the spirit of of party is the worst enemy of a popular government;' shall we not rejoice that we are taught, in the lives of our Adams and our Jefferson, that the most embittered contentions, which as yet have divided us, furnish no ground for lasting disunion. In their lives did I say? Oh, not in their lives alone, but in, that mysterious and lovely union which has called them together to the grave. The declining period of their lives presents their own characters, in the most delightful aspect, and furnishes the happiest illustration of the perfection of our political system. We behold a new spectacle of moral sublimity; the peaceful old age of the retired chiefs of the republic; an evening of learned, useful, and honored leisure following upon a youth of hazard, a manhood of service, a whole life of alternate trial and success. We behold them indeed active and untiring, even to the last. At the advanced age of eighty-five years, our venerable fellow citizen and neighbor is still competent to take a part in the convention for revising the state constitution, to whose original formation, forty years before, he so essentially contributed; and Mr Jefferson, at the same protracted term of life, was able to project and carry on to their completion, the extensive establishments of the University of Virginia. But it is the great and closing scene, which appears, by higher allotment, to crown their long and exalted career, with a consummation almost miraculous. Having done so much and so happily for themselves, so much and so beneficially for their country; at that last moment, when man can no more do any thing for his country or for himself, it pleased a kind Providence to take their existence into his hands, and to do that for both of them, which, to the end of time, will cause them to be deemed, not more happy in the renown of their lives than in the opportunity of their death.* I could give neither force nor interest to the account of these sublime and touching scenes, by any thing beyond the simple recital of the facts, already familiar to the public. The veil of eternity was first lifted up, from before the eyes of Mr Jefferson. For several weeks his strength had been gradually failing, though the vigor of his mind remained unimpaired. As he drew nearer to the last, and no expectation remained that his term could be much protracted, he expressed no other wish, than that he might live to breathe the air of the fiftieth anniversary of independence. This he was graciously permitted to do. But it was evident, on the morning of the fourth, that Providence intended that this day, consecrated by his deed, should be solemnized by his death. On some momentary revival of his wasting strength, the friends around would have soothed him with the hope of continuing; but he answered their kind encouragements only by saying, he did not fear to die. Once, as he drew nearer to his close, he lifted up his languid head and murmured with a smile, it is the fourth of July ;' while his repeated exclamation, on the last great day was, Nunc dimittis, Domine, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.' He departed in peace, a little before one o'clock of this memorable day; unconscious that his co-patriot, who fifty years before had shared its efforts and perils, was now the partner of its glory. Mr Adams' mind had also wandered back, over the long line of great things, with which his life was filled, and found rest on the thought of Independence. When the discharges of artillery proclaimed the triumphant anniversary, he pronounced it ‘a Great and a Good day.' The thrilling word of Independence, which, fifty years before, in the ardor of his manly strength he had sounded out to the nations, from the hall of the revolutionary Congress, was * Tacit. J. Agricol. Vit. c. XLV. now among the last that dwelt on his quivering lips; and when, toward the hour of noon, he felt his noble heart growing cold within him, the last emotion which warmed it was, that Jefferson still survives.' But he survives not; he is gone: They are gone together! Friends, fellow-citizens, free, prosperous, happy Americans! The men who did so much to make you so, are no more. The men who gave nothing to pleasure in youth, nothing to repose in age, but all to that country, whose beloved name filled their hearts as it does ours, with joy, can now do no more for us; nor we for them. But their memory remains, we will cherish it; their bright example remains, we will strive to imitate it; the fruit of their wise counsels and noble acts remains, we will gratefully enjoy it. They have gone to the companions of their cares, of their dangers, and their toils. It is well with them. The treasures of America are now in heaven. How long the list of our good, and wise, and brave, assembled there! how few remain with us! There is our Washington; and those, who followed him in their country's confidence, are now met together with him, and all that illustrious company. The faithful marble may preserve their image; the engraven brass may proclaim their worth; but the humblest sod of Independent America, with nothing but the dew-drops of the morning to gild it, is a prouder mausoleum than kings or conquerors can boast. The country is their monument. Its independence is their epitaph. But not to their country is their praise limited. The whole earth is the monument of illustrious men. Wherever an agonizing people shall perish, in a generous convulsion, for want of a valiant arm and a fearless heart, they will cry, in the last accents of despair, Oh, for a Washington, an Adams, a Jefferson. Wherever a regenerated nation, starting up in its might, shall burst the links of steel that enchain it, the praise of our venerated Fathers shall be the prelude of their triumphal song! The contemporary and successive generations of men will disappear. In the long lapse of ages, the Tribes of America, like those of Greece, and Rome, may pass away. The fabric of American Freedom, like all things human, however firm and fair, may crumble into dust. But the cause in which these our Fathers shone is immortal. They did that, to which no age, no people of reasoning men, can be indifferent. Their eulogy will be uttered in other languages, when those we speak, like us who speak them, shall be all forgotten. And when the great account of humanity shall be closed, in the bright list of those who have best adorned and served it, shall be found the names of our Adams and our Jefferson! ORATION DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF CHARLESTOWN, 4TH OF JULY, 1828. ON THE FELLOW CITIZENS, THE event, which we commemorate, is all-important, not merely in our own annals, but in those of the world. The sententious English poet has declared, that the proper study of mankind is man ;' and of all inquiries, which have for their object the temporal concerns of our nature, the history of our fellow beings is unquestionably among the most interesting. But not all the chapters of human history are alike important. The annals of our race have been filled up with incidents, which concern not, or at least ought not to concern the great company of mankind. History, as it has often been written, is the genealogy of princes,-the field-book of conquerors,and the fortunes of our fellow men have been treated, only so far as they have been affected by the influence of the great masters and destroyers of our race. Such history is, I will not say a worthless study, for it is necessary for us to know the dark side, as well as the bright side of our condition. But it is a melancholy and heartless study, which fills the bosom of the philanthropist and the friend of liberty with sorrow. But the History of Liberty,the history of men struggling to be free,-the history of men who have acquired, and are exercising their freedom,-the history of those great movements in the world, by which liberty has been established, diffused, and perpetuated, form a subject, which we cannot contemplate too closely, to which we cannot cling too fondly. This is the real |