The following remarks upon the occasion of the deaths of the two late Ex-Presidents, having been originally written and delivered in the form of a sermon by one of the contributors to this Magazine, and seeing no substantial reason for preferring any other form, we insert them as they came into our hands. ers. 2 SAMUEL I. 19. How are the mighty fallen! Ed. ation that the events to which I have alluded, have awakened but one train of feeling throughout the FACTS yet fresh in your recol. lection, brethren, sufficiently explain my reasons for the choice of these words on the present occa-whole people of the United States. sion. Our two most distinguished All mourn equally, and equally fellow citizens, men whose exer- for each of the patriots who have tions have led to greater results fallen. The agitation of party for than perhaps any others of the a moment subsides, and every present age, have within a few man instinctively lays aside the days been gathered to their fath-badges of political distinction as A remarkable train of he draws near to that grave which circumstances attending these is receiving to its bosom the veneevents, has seemed to me to inti-rated remains of the fathers of his mate that God has designed by them to teach us some important and very definite lesson of instruction. This is my apology, if apology be needed, for deviating so far from my usual practice, as to devote a portion of this day to the consideration of aught which does not bear directly upon the great question of your soul's salvation. I am yet more encouraged to attempt an improvement of the present occasion, by the considerSEPT. 1826. country. It is a moment most favourable, to national reflection. The attempt to direct so universal a sensation to some profitable conclusion, cannot surely be unworthy of a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is my design this afternoon briefly to enumerate the services, and sketch the characters of the two late Presidents of the United States, and then direct your attention to such reflections as seem 34 most naturally to arise out of the tions in the councils of their native country. Each in the order JOHN ADAMS and THOMAS JEF-office in the gift of the people; of age, was called to the highest FERSON, entered upon active life each was at the head of a powerful during the most eventful period and opposing political party, and of this country's history, at the each retired from office, followed commencement of that contest by the mingled praise and reprowhich led to our national inde-bation of his fellow citizens. pendence. The intellectual su- Both lived to see the animosity of periority of each was immediately party disappear, and to receive, in discovered, and each shone with a greater share than has fallen to distinguished brilliancy in that the lot of any other man, Washconstellation of pre-eminent talentington only excepted, all the hom with which the native State of age which the world could render each was at that time illuminated. to talents and to virtue. Both took an active part in the have lived to behold the principles Both revolutionary measures adopted which they so ably advocated, by their respective Colonial Legis- and which but for them had perlatures, both were members of thehaps never prevailed, triumph in first Continental Congress, both another portion of this vast contistood in the very first rank among nent, and agitate the nations of the great men of whom that as-Europe with aspirations after libsembly was composed, and no as-erty. sembly on earth could ever boast of sun arise which ushered in the Both lived to witness that greater, both were members of the second half century after the sigcommittee for drafting the Decla- nature of the declaration of inderation of Independence: they pendence, and ere that sun had alone composed the sub-commit- descended, both had fallen asleep. tee; the one drafted it, and the He who drafted the instrument, other seconded and most eloquent- died on the hour in which it was ly supported the motion for its signed, and he who seconded the adoption; and both in veriest truth, motion for its adoption, on the putting their hands to that memo-hour in which it was first promulrable instrument, pledged to the gated. support of it, their lives, and fortunes, and their sacred honour. During the whole contest for our national independence, each in his different sphere devoted his undivided efforts to the object of securing the liberties of this country. If great action indicate great talent, then has the human race numbered but few men more talented than these. power of man, nay, I had almost If it be in the said of Providence itself, to confer distinction, then were these men Both were called to stations distinguished. If it be any glory of the utmost responsibility; and to lay the foundation of a mighty each so discharged every trust, as nation, and carry up the superto increase that confidence which structure at a crisis as appalling his fellow citizens had before re- as the world has ever seen; if it posed in him. Both were charged be any glory to impress a new and with important embassies to the a happier direction on the publick most distinguished courts of Eu-sentiment of the age, and pour rope, and conciliated the favour the gladness of a brighter hope of nations hostile to each other, upon the destinies of futurity, towards these new Republics of then were the lives glorious of the the West. Both returned home two late Presidents of the United to fill yet more distinguished sta-States of America. The talents of these illustrious one, was the greater lawyer, the men, though of the highest order, other, the more original philosowere, in many respects, dissimi- pher. Both were enthusiastic lar. Each was peculiarly formed admirers of ancient classics, and by Divine Providence for that sta- specially of the ancient orators; tion which he was called to fill, but whilst the one occupied his and for the temperament of that leisure in the study of their people whom he was designed to ethics, the other surrendered himinfluence. If the almost meta-self at will, to the magic of their physical acuteness of the one, was poetry. better fitted for the calculating As to their patriotism, it is imhabits of the North, the glowing possible to institute a comparison. imagination of the other, was bet-Patriotism is a disposition of mind ter adapted to the kindling impetu- of which the differences can only osity of the South. The power of be measured by a greater and the one, was more visible in the less. But the patriotism of these firmness, that of the other, in the illustrious men admitted of no elasticity of his intellectual move- such distinction. Each consecrament. The one, was distinguish-ted his entire self to the publick ed for logical conclusion, the good. There was no sacrifice other, for intuitive perception. which one would and the other The one, convinced by unanswer- would not have made for his counable argument, the other, by self-try; for either of them, for that evident illustration. In the one, the powers of the understanding were more exclusive, in the other, they were more combined with those of the imagination. The natural bias of the one, was probably towards ethics, and that of the other, towards philosophy. The papers of Mr. Adams, signed Novangalus, and published at the commencement of the Revolution, for legal erudition, for manly vigour, for subtle discrimination, and political shrewdness, are surpass ed by nothing that I have ever seen in the English Language The philosophical works, and the diplomatic correspondence of Mr.ments. Jefferson, have taken the rank of acknowledged models in those species of composition. Both were thoroughly learned, but their learning was of a different character. The researches of the one, were more confined within the limits of his original profession; those of the other, were more expanded over the wide field of human investigation. The one, was more remarkable for the depth, the other, for the extent of his acquisitions. The country would have sacrificed all. Both at the commencement of the revolution relinquished the most flattering prospects when he embarked in the cause of liberty; both stood unmoved and immoveable in the most fearful hour of his country's trial; each afterwards pursued measures which he knew to be unpopular, because he believed them to be wise; and after lives devoted exclusively to the publick service, and in situations of confidential trust, the one died in possession of a bare competence, and the other, under many and distressing embarrass As statesmen, they had different views of the means by which the prosperity of this country might be most successfully advanced. The one looked with more favour upon commercial, the other, upon agricultural enterprise. The bias of the one, was towards a more efficient, and that of the other, towards a more popular form of civil constitution. It is somewhat remarkable, that the notions of the one, though he lost his popularity, obtained, while those of In manners, both were emphatically simple and unostentatious, and in the various relations of pri the other, though he retained his [ out of several which might be preinfluence, have been abandoned. sented, would have accomplished No one at the present day will almost equal advantages from deny that they differed from hon- either. est and patriotic conviction. That powerful arguments may be urged in favour of both of these courses of national policy, no re-vate life both are represented to flecting man can doubt; but which have been amiable and exemplary. is the true policy for this country, Each left his family and his own nothing but the experience of a immediate neighbourhood, the seat century can decide. It must de- of sincere and deepfelt lamentapend upon events which no being tion. Each, since his retirement but Omniscience can foresee. from publick life, has devoted himAnd even after this shall have self to the benefit of the rising been decided, it will perhaps be generation. The one has been equally impossible to declare for several years assiduously enwhich was endued with the far-gaged in organizing an university thest and most clear sighted fore- for his native State; the other, cast; for the attachment of each to from his own limited finances, has the one or other system, may very endowed an academy in his native fairly be attributed to the different town. place and the dissimilar associations of their early education. They differed, perhaps, more as politicians than in any other aspect of character. The one, moved with inconceivable power the more visible; the other, touched with incomparable address, the more occult springs of human action. The one, felt with accuracy the vehement pulsation of publick sentiment; the other, observed with unerring tact, its finer pulsation. The talents of the one, bold, vehement, and yet wary, would have been more fully developed as the leader of an opposition; while those of the other, equally bold, but collected and foresighted, would have shone with more distinction at the head of an administration. The one, was liable to err from inflexibility of purpose; the other, to be led astray by the brilliancy of a first conception. The first, unbending in purpose, would have wrought out the greatest possible amount of result from any measure which he could have carried; the other, inexhaustible in expedient, if he could not carry one measure would have carried another, and With the circumstances attending the last moments of these illustrious men, you are already well acquainted. I shall not, therefore, attempt to awaken your sympathies by their recital. The occasion does not demand it. Every instance of mortality conveys its own appropriate lesson; and though that lesson be always solemn, it is not always, nor is it in the present case, particularly mournful. By a remarkable train of coincidences in the present instance, Divine Providence seems to have designed to direct our attention to some lesson of peculiar instruction. Let us rather, then, endeavour to improve the present dispensation by deriving from it those admonitions which it is so evidently intended to convey. 1. The lives of these two distinguished men, teach us then, in the first place, the evanescent nature of party excitement. Many of you will very well remember, when these two men, whose memory we all so deeply and universally revere, were the leaders of violent and opposing parties, and when each reaped his full share of political adulation and political And now what has become of all this mighty clamour? Passed away, and we devoutly hope forever. abuse. The success of the one politics. It seemed as though the over the other was celebrated with intellectual and moral vision of the intoxicated joy of a national our citizens was distorted, and deliverance, or deplored with nothing within the whole compass the bitter lamentation of a nation- of knowledge could be seen but al calamity. And when the par-in its relation to the interests of ties which each had respectively party. An universal mania had led passed into other hands, the seized upon the whole commuwarfare was continued with una-nity. The ordinary topics of con bated fury. Each was made inversation were tame, and the orhis retirement the object of un- dinary occupations of life uninterqualified abuse. The spirit of esting, nay, the salvation of the party pervaded all ranks of so-soul itself seemed unimportant in ciety, and mingled its bitter waters comparison with the all absorbing with all the relations of civil question, which of these two politand domestic life. It kindled ical parties should be uppermost. into a flame the baser passions of the ignorant and vicious. Our cities were disgraced with mobs, and in some cases polluted with blood. Where are the causes for A line of distant, but decided sep- this wide spread commotion which aration was drawn between the threatened to shake our union to more intelligent adherents to the its centre? I do not believe there two conflicting interests. A man is one of you who can now rememmight expect that his bosom friend ber them. You are surprised to would look coldly upon him if he find that you could have imagined were bold enough to allow either so broad distinctions where there purity of motive, or wisdom of was so little difference, and deciconduct, to the measures of his ded so promptly when there was opponents. The most intimate so much reason to hesitate. The ties of relationship were sundered. most zealous partizan among you The father was arrayed against is most ashamed of those actions the son, and the son against the in which he then most publickly father, a man's foes became those exulted. And how changed is of his own household. And yet the feeling of all of us towards more, I am ashamed to say, this the two illustrious leaders whose same spirit of party infused its death we deplore! Separated, hateful influences into the services though for a while they were in and devotions of the sanctuary of life, in their deaths they cannot God. You would hear a congre- be divided. The eulogy of the gation of immortal beings, nay, one, is by the Providence of God. you would hear pious men, asking of necessity, as well as of choice, concerning a minister of the gos- the eulogy of the other. Throughpel, not, Is he devout, but what out this whole continent their forare his politics? The very sine mer adherents and their former qua non of his acceptability, was opponents bend over their comhis supporting their candidate, ap- mon grave without one discordant proving their measures; and it was feeling in the weeds of undissem no serious disqualification if he bled sorrow, and render their were prepared, when the occasion homage of heartfelt admiration presented, to anathematize their equally to each. The man would opponents. And thus the pulpit not now be tolerated in any aswas desecrated by political philip-sembly of this country, who pics and personal abuse. Nothing should attempt to eulogize one could be heard or talked of but at the expense of the other. So |