influenced by mischievous purposes. I well recollect, on one occasion, that he rose and stated to the house that he had received a petition of a very peculiar character, the sentiments of which he did not approve; but, on the principle upon which he universally acted, he felt it to be his duty to present it to the house. He stated that it was a petition from certain citizens whose names were signed to it, praying for a dissolution of the Union; but, for the purpose of freeing himself from the imputation of favoring such a sentiment, he, at the same time that he discharged his duty in the presentation of the petition, felt it also to be his duty to accompany it with a resolution that it be referred to a select committee, with positive instructions to report against the prayer of the petitioners. What were the proceedings upon that occasion? This annunciation was no sooner made in the House of Representatives, than the whole house seemed to be in a ferment; and in a very few moments a resolution was introduced for the purpose of expelling Mr. Adams from the house, for having dared to introduce a petition there for a dissolution of the Union, although accompanied at the same time with a positive declaration on his part that he was opposed to it, and an appeal to the house to sanction his sentiments on the subject. But what do we see now? Ten years have not elapsed since that scene took place, and since that man who for four years had discharged the duties of Chief Magistrate of this Union stood at the bar of that house, and morning after morning came to me and asked of me not to move the public business, so as to force a vote on the resolution expelling him from the house, until he had a chance to be heard. He feared that he might be expelled from that body, for doing what he deemed to be his imperative duty, in preservation of the right of petition, although he was imbued with the strongest sentiments in favor of the Union of these States. I was forced, from a feeling of sympathy and regard for him, to suffer the public business to be delayed, from day to day, for one or two weeks, in order that he might present his sentiments to the house on the subject, to convince them that, although he presented a petition for the dissolution of the Union, he did not approve of those sentiments. I doubt whether anything short of that could have saved this distinguished man from expulsion from that body."

"The patriotism of Mr. Adams," says Horace Mann, his successor in Congress, "was coëxtensive with his country; it could not be crushed and squeezed in between party lines. Though liable to err,-and

what human being is not?-yet his principles were believed by him to be in accordance with the great moral laws of the universe. They were thought out from duty and religion, and not carved out from expediency. When invested with patronage, he never dismissed a man from office because he was a political opponent, and never appointed one to office merely because he was a political friend. Hence he drew from Mr. Holmes, of South Carolina, this noble eulogium,-a eulogium, considering the part of the country from which it came, as honorable to its author as to its object, that 'he crushed no heart beneath the rude grasp of proscription; he left no heritage of widows' cries or orphans' tears.' Could all the honors which Mr. Adams ever won from offices held under the first five presidents of the United States, and from a public service which, commencing more than fifty years ago, continued to the day of his death, be concentrated in one effulgent blaze, they would be far less shining and inextinguishable than the honor of sacrificing his election for a second presidential term, because he would not, in order to obtain it, prostitute the patronage and power which the constitution had placed in his hands. I regard this as the sublimest spectacle in his long and varied career. He stood within reach of an object of ambition doubtless dearer to him than life. He could have laid his hands upon it. The still small voice said, No! Without a murmur, he saw it taken and borne away in triumph by another. Compared with this, the block of many a martyr has been an easy resting-place."

Perhaps one of the most remarkable features of his mind was the universality of its acquirements. There was hardly a subject upon which he had not thought, and few upon which he was not wise. The amount of his information was immense. He was well versed in political economy, and all matters pertaining to civil government. As a philologist, he passed much time in critical research. He was skilled in science and art. Philosophy had not been neglected, and religion was a subject of laborious study. He was thoroughly versed in general literature; was passionately fond of poetry, and the words of our great dramatic and epic poets were familiar to him as household words. The wide sweep of history seemed to lay clearly open to his mind; while he was intimate, also, with its minutest details, and could repeat names and dates as if they had been the sole subject of his thoughts. By the wonderful power of his memory, he seemed able to recall whatever he read, or saw, or heard. He repeated, without limit, passages from

books in various languages. To him, the events and characters of past history were like the occurrences of to-day. And the circumstances of his own life, back to his early childhood, seemed clothed in transparent light. Conversations he had enjoyed with persons more than a halfcentury back, he could recall at pleasure; and the varied scenes he had witnessed stood out like pictures before his view. Quick in feeling, indignant at injustice and wrong, there was at times impetuosity; and, when occasion called for it, his words were like consuming lightning, and shattered what they struck. No man could be more witheringly severe,― withering with terrific truth. But then he was also simple as a child, and naturally overflowing with genial affection. Of few could it be more aptly said:

"He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;

Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading :
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;

But to those men that sought him, sweet as summer."

A few years before his decease, Mr. Adams was invited, by the school-committee of the town of Quincy, to accompany them in their round of visits to the several district schools in the town. He complied very readily; gave his attention, during a session of three hours in the forenoon and three in the afternoon of each day, to the lessons of the pupils; and entered into the humble work before him with as much animation of manner as he would have evinced in political discussions, or in managing the affairs of a nation. Lord Bacon has said that "he who cannot contract the sight of his mind, as well as disperse and dilate it, wanteth a great quality." This mark of true greatness was not wanting in President Adams.

On the first day of the indisposition of Mr. Adams, he gave his signature to the effusion herewith, laid aside in his desk in the hall of Congress, addressed to the Muse of History, perched on her rookwheeled and winged car over the front door of the House of Representatives at Washington:

"Muse! quit thy car, come down upon the floor,
And with thee bring that volume in thy hand;
Rap with thy marble knuckles at the door,

And take at a reporter's desk thy stand.
Send round thy album, and collect a store

Of autographs from rulers of the land;
Invite each Solon to inscribe his name,
A self-recorded candidate for fame."

Mr. Adams, on the 21st of February, 1848, entered the hall of the House of Representatives apparently in his usual health and spirits. When the house had been in session about an hour, the yeas and nays being ordered on the question of a vote of the thanks of Congress, and awarding gold medals, to Generals Twiggs, Worth, Pillow, Shields, Quitman, and others, for their services in the Mexican war, Mr. Adams responded in the negative in a voice unusually clear, and with more than ordinary emphasis. After the speaker had risen to put another question to the house, a sudden cry was heard on the left of the chair, "Mr. Adams is dying!" Turning their eyes to the spot, the members beheld the venerable man in the act of falling over the left arm of his chair, while his right arm was extended, grasping his desk for support. He would have dropped upon the floor, had he not been caught in the arms of the member sitting next to him. A great sensation was created in the house; members from all quarters rushing from their seats, and gathering round the fallen statesman, who was immediately lifted into the area in front of the clerk's table. The speaker instantly suggested that some gentleman move an adjournment, which being promptly done, the house adjourned. A sofa was brought, and Mr. Adams, in a state of perfect helplessness, though not of entire insensibility, was gently laid upon it. The sofa was then taken up and borne out of the hall into the rotunda, where it was set down; and the members of both houses, and strangers who were fast crowding around, were with some difficulty repressed, and an open space cleared in its immediate vicinity; but a medical gentleman, a member of the house, advised that he be removed to the door of the rotunda, opening on the east portico, where a fresh wind was blowing. This was done; but, the air being chilly and loaded with vapor, the sofa was, at the suggestion of Mr. Winthrop, once more taken up and removed to the speaker's apartment, the doors of which were forthwith closed to all but professional gentlemen and particular friends. While lying in this apartment, Mr. Adams partially recovered the use of his speech, and observed, in faltering accents, "This is the end of earth;" but quickly added, "I am composed." Members had by this time reached Mr. Adams' abode with the melancholy intelligence, and soon after, Mrs. Adams and his nephew and niece arrived, and made their way to the appalling scene. Mrs. Adams was deeply affected, and for some moments quite prostrated, by the sight of her husband, now insensible, the pallor of death upon his countenance, and those sad pre

monitories fast making their appearance which fall with such a chill upon the heart.

Mr. Adams, after having been removed to the apartment of Speaker Winthrop, sank into a state of apparent insensibility, and expired at a quarter past seven o'clock, on the evening of Feb. 23, 1848.

JOHN PHILLIPS.

JULY 4, 1794. FOR THE TOWN AUTHORITIES.

THIS production bears the finest marks of intellectual vigor and correct principles; and so well was it received, that extracts from it were for a long time going the rounds in the newspapers of the day, and some of these passages have a permanent place in our school-books, as models for our youth. We will glean a passage: We will glean a passage: "The effects of the event we this day commemorate were not confined to our own country, but soon extended across the Atlantic. The prospect of humbling a powerful rival induced an arbitrary prince to aid the American cause with numerous armies and powerful fleets, exhibiting the paradoxical appearance of slavery fighting the battles of freedom. The subjects of despotism soon imbibed the principles they were employed to defend, and caught the ardor which flamed in the American bosom. Surrounding circumstances led to reflections highly unfavorable to their own situation. They perceived the tree of liberty profusely watered with their blood; its foliage spreading, yet yielding them no shelter; its fruit blooming and mellowing in luxuriance, yet denied the delicious taste, it excited no passion but despair. When the mandate of their sovereign summoned them to their native shores, a deeper horror seemed to shade the darkness of despotism. They beheld, with mingled grief and indignation, a people in the most fertile country of Europe, amid the profusion of the bounties of nature, obliged to live on the gleanings of their own industry. The scanty pittance, saved from the exactions of arbitrary power, yielded by ignorance and superstition, to satisfy the boundless demands of a rapacious clergy. A kingdom converted to a Bastile, in which the mind was imprisoned by a triple impenetrable wall of ignorance, superstition, and despotism. The fervid spirit which glowed within them soon per