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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.
B

How are the mighty fallen!

Ed.

FACTS yet fresh in your recol ation that the events to which I lection, brethren, sufficiently ex- have alluded, have awakened but plain my reasons for the choice of one train of feeling throughout the 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

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most naturally to arise out of the || tions in the councils of their nacircumstances of their lives and tive country. Each in the order their deaths. of age, was called to the highest JOHN ADAMS and THOMAS JEF-office in the gift of the people; 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 talent ington only excepted, all the homwith which the native State of age which the world could render each was at that time illuminated. to talents and to virtue. Both Both took an active part in the have lived to behold the principles revolutionary measures adopted which they so ably advocated, by their respective Colonial Legis- and which but for them had perlatures, both were members of the haps 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. Both lived to witness that sembly on earth could ever boast f sun arise which ushered in the 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.

If great action indicate great talent, then has the human race During the whole contest for numbered but few men more talour national independence, each ented than these. If it be in the in his different sphere devoted his power of man, nay, I had almost undivided efforts to the object of said of Providence itself, to confer securing the liberties of this coun- distinction, then were these men try. 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, country would have sacrificed all. the powers of the understanding Both at the commencement of the were more exclusive, in the other, revolution relinquished the most. they were more combined with flattering prospects when he em those of the imagination. The barked in the cause of liberty; natural bias of the one, was prob- both stood unmoved and immoveably towards ethics, and that of able in the most fearful hour of the other, towards philosophy. his country's trial; each afterwards The papers of Mr. Adams, signed pursued measures which he knew Novangalus, and published at the to be unpopular, because he becommencement of the Revolution, lieved them to be wise; and for legal erudition, for manly vig-after lives devoted exclusively to our, for subtle discrimination, and the publick service, and in situpolitical shrewdness, are surpassations of confidential trust, the ed by nothing that I have ever one died in possession of a bare seen in the English Language competence, and the other, under The philosophical works, and the many and distressing embarrassdiplomatic correspondence of Mr.ments. Jefferson, have taken the rank of acknowledged models in those species of composition.

As statesmen, they had different views of the means by which the prosperity of this country Both were thoroughly learned, might be most successfully advancbut their learning was of a differ- ed. The one looked with more ent character. The researches of favour upon commercial, the other, the one, were more confined with- upon agricultural enterprise. The in the limits of his original pro- bias of the one, was towards a more fession; those of the other, were efficient, and that of the other, more expanded over the wide towards a more popular form of field of human investigation. The civil constitution. It is someone, was more remarkable for what remarkable, that the notions the depth, the other, for the ex- of the one, though he lost his poptent of his acquisitions. The | ularity, obtained, while those of

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. In manners, both were emphatiThat powerful arguments may be cally simple and unostentatious, urged in favour of both of these and in the various relations of pricourses of national policy, no re-vate life both are represented to flecting man can doubt; but which is the true policy for this country, nothing but the experience of a century can decide. It must depend upon events which no being but Omniscience can foresee. And even after this shall have been decided, it will perhaps be 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

have been amiable and exemplary. Each left his family and his own immediate neighbourhood, the seat of sincere and deepfelt lamentation. Each, since his retirement from publick life, has devoted himself to the benefit of the rising generation. The one has been

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

politics. It seemed as though the intellectual and moral vision of our citizens was distorted, and nothing within the whole compass of knowledge could be seen but in its relation to the interests of party.

abuse. The success of the one over the other was celebrated with the intoxicated joy of a national deliverance, or deplored with the bitter lamentation of a national calamity. And when the parties which each had respectively 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 in versation 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 And now what has become of ignorant and vicious. Our cities all this mighty clamour? Passed were disgraced with mobs, and in away, and we devoutly hope forsome cases polluted with blood. ever. 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. 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 undissemno 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.

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