Bu nis eventful and useful life was now drawing to a close. On Monday, the 21st of February, 1848, while at his post in the House of Representatives, and rising to address the Speaker, he was struck with paralysis, fainted, and fell into the arms of the member who was next to him, Mr. Fisher of Ohio. Every thing was immediately done for him that could be by anxious friends, kindred, and skilful physicians; but all was of no avail. He lingered till the evening of the 23d, when he expired, leaving behind him the enviable reputation of being one of the ablest Presidents of the United States, and the most learned and eloquent champion of freedom in the House of Representatives.1 THE GOSPEL, A GOSPEL OF LIBERTY AND PEACE. Friends and fellow-citizens !-I speak to you with the voice as of one risen from the dead. Were I now, as I shortly must be, cold in my grave, and could the sepulchre unbar its gates, and open to me a passage to this desk, devoted to the worship of Almighty God, I would repeat the question with which this discourse was introduced: "Why are you assembled in this place?" And one of you would answer me for all: Because the Declaration of Independence, with the voice of an angel from heaven, "put to his mouth the sounding alchemy," and proclaimed universal emancipation upon earth! It is not the separation of your forefathers from their kindred race beyond the Atlantic tide. It is not the union of thirteen British Colonies into one people, and the entrance of that people upon the theatre where kingdoms, and empires, and nations are the persons of the drama. It is not that "In the history of American statesmen, none lived a life so long in the public service; none had trusts so numerous confided to their care; none died a death so glorious. Beneath the dome of the nation's capitol; in the midst of the field of his highest usefulness, where he had won fadeless laurels of renown; equipped with the armor in which he had fought so many battles for truth and freedom, he fell beneath the shaft of the king of terrors. And how bright, how enviable, the reputation he left behind! As a man, pure, upright, benevolent, religious-bis hand unstained by a drop of human blood; uncharged, unsuspected, of crime, of premeditated wrong, of an immoral act, of an unchaste word,-as a statesman, lofty and patriotic in all his purposes; devoted to the interests of the people; sacredly exercising all power intrusted to his keeping for the good of the public alone, unmindful of personal interest and aggrandizement; an enthusiastic lover of liberty; a faithful, fearless defender of the rights of man! The sun of his life, in its lengthened course through the political heavens, was unobscured by a spot, undimmed by a cloud; and when, at the close of the long day, it sank beneath the horizon, the whole firmament glowed with the brilliancy of its reflected glories! Rulers, statesmen, legislators! study and emulate such a life; seek after a character so beloved, a death so honorable, a fame so immortal.”—Seward's Life, page 337. Since the first edition of this work was put to press, there has been published a "Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adains, by Josiah Quincy, LL.D.;" and a more interesting and valuable piece of biography has not, in my estimation, appeared in our country. This life, and the "Life of Amos Lawrence," should be read by every young man who, in entering upon manhood, desires the best examples to aid and cheer him in life's great duties. this is the birthday of the North American Union, the last and noblest offspring of time. It is that the first words uttered by the genius of our country, in announcing his existence to the world of mankind, was-Freedom to the slave! Liberty to the captives! Redemption! redemption forever to the race of man from the yoke of oppression! It is not the work of a day; it is not the labor of an age; it is not the consummation of a century, that we are assembled to commemorate. It is the emancipation of our race. It is the emancipation of man from the thraldom of man! And is this the language of enthusiasm? The dream of a distempered fancy? Is it not rather the voice of inspiration? The language of Holy Writ? Why is it that the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Covenant, teach you upon every page to look forward to the time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid? Why is it that, six hundred years before the birth of the Redeemer, the sublimest of prophets, with lips touched by the hallowed fire from the hand of God, spake and said :-"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound"? And why is it that, at the first dawn of the fulfilment of this prophecy,-at the birthday of the Saviour in the lowest condition of human existence, the angel of the Lord came in a flood of supernatural light upon the shepherds, witnesses of the scene, and said :-"Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people"? Why is it that there was suddenly with that angel a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" ?2 What are the good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people? The prophet had told you, six hundred years before: -"Liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound." The multitude of the heavenly host pronounced the conclusion, to be shouted hereafter by the universal choir of all intelligent created beings:-"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.' Fellow-citizens! fellow-Christians! fellow-men! Am I speaking to believers in the gospel of peace? To others, I am aware that the capacities of man for self or social improvement are subjects of distrust or of derision. The sincere believer receives the rapturous promises of the future improvement of his kind with humble hope and cheering confidence of their final fulfilment. He receives them, too, with the admonition of God to his con 1 Isaiah lxi. 1. 2 Luke ii. 9, 10, 13, 14. sclence, to contribute himself, by all the aspirations of his heart and all the faculties of his soul, to their accomplishment. Tell not him of impossibilities when human improvement is the theme. Nothing can be impossible which may be effected by human will. See what has been effected! An attentive reader of the history of mankind, whether in the words of inspiration, or in the records of antiquity, or in the memory of his own experience, must perceive that the gradual improvement of his own condition upon earth is the inextinguishable mark of distinction between the animal man and every other animated being, with the innumerable multitudes of which every element of this sublunary globe is peopled. And yet, from the earliest records of time, this animal is the only one in the visible creation who preys upon his kind. The savage man destroys and devours his captive foe. The partially civilized man spares his life, but makes him his slave. In the progress of civilization, both the life and liberty of the enemy vanquished or disarmed are spared; ransoms for prisoners are given and received. Progressing still in the paths to perpetual peace, exchanges are established, and restore the prisoner of war to his country and to the enjoyment of all his rights of property and of person. A custom, first introduced by mutual special couvention, grows into a settled rule of the laws of nations, that persons occupied exclusively upon the arts of peace shall, with their property, remain wholly unmolested in the conflicts of nations by arms. We ourselves have been bound by solemn engagements with one of the most warlike nations of Europe, to observe this rule, even in the utmost extremes of war; and in one of the most merciless periods of modern times, I have seen, towards the close of the last century, three members of the Society of Friends, with Barclay's Apology and Penn's Maxims in their hands, pass, peaceful travellers, through the embattled hosts of France and Britain, unharmed and unmolested, as the three children of Israel in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. War, then, by the common consent and mere will of civilized man, has not only been divested of its most atrocious cruelties, but for multitudes, growing multitudes of individuals, has already been and is abolished. Why should it not be abolished for all? Let it be impressed upon the heart of every one of you, impress it upon the minds of your children, that this total abolition of war upon earth is an improvement in the condition of man entirely dependent on his own will. He cannot repeal or change the laws of physical nature. He cannot redeem himself from the ills that flesh is heir to; but the ills of war and slavery are all of his own creation. He has but to will, and he effects the cessation of them altogether. Oration at Newburyport, July 4, 1837. The following is a portion of a letter addressed by this illustrious statesman to a literary society of young men in Baltimore, who had written to him for advice as to a course of general reading. It is dated June 22, 1838, and it thus bears its eloquent testimony to THE VALUE OF THE BIBLE. The first, and almost the only book, deserving universal recommendation, is the BIBLE; and, in recommending that, I fear that some of you will think I am performing a superfluous, and others a very unnecessary, office; yet such is my deliberate opinion. The Bible is the book, of all others, to be read at all ages and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice through, and then to be laid aside, but to be read in small portions of one or two chapters every day, and never to be intermitted unless by some overruling necessity. This attentive and repeated reading of the Bible, in small portions every day, leads the mind to habitual meditation upon subjects of the highest interest to the welfare of the individual in this world, as well as to prepare him for that hereafter to which we are all destined. It furnishes rules of conduct for our conduct towards others in our social relations. In the commandments delivered from Sinai, in the inimitable sublimity of the Psalms and of the Prophets, in the profound and concentrated observations upon human life and manners embodied in the Proverbs of Solomon, in the philosophical allegory so beautifully set forth in the narrative of facts, whether real or imaginary, of the Book of Job, an active mind cannot peruse a single chapter and lay the book aside to think, and take it up again to-morrow, without finding in it advice for our own conduct, which we may turn to useful account in the progress of our daily pilgrimage upon earth; and when we pass from the Old Testament to the New, we meet at once a system of universal morality founded upon one precept of universal application, pointing us to peace and good-will towards the whole race of man for this life, and to peace with God and an everblessed existence hereafter. I speak as a man of the world to men of the world, and I say to you, Search the Scriptures! If ever you tire of them in seeking for a rule of faith and a standard of morals, search them as records of history. General and compendious history is one of the fountains of human knowledge to which you should all resort with steady and persevering pursuit; and the Bible contains the only authentic introduction to the history of the world. Acquaint yourselves also with the chronology and geography of the Bible; that will lead you to a general knowledge of chronology and of geography, ancient and modern, and these will open to you an in exhaustible fountain of knowledge respecting the globe which you inkabit, and respecting the race of men (its inhabitants) to which you yourselves belong. You may pursue these inquiries just so far as your time and inclination will permit. Give one hour of mental application, (for you must not read without thinking, or you will read to little purpose,) give an hour of joint reading and thought to the chronology and one to the geography of the Bible, and if it introduces you to too hard a study, stop there. Even for those two hours you will ever after read the Bible, and any other history, with more fruit, more intelligence, more satisfaction. It is a book which neither the most ignorant and weakest, nor the most learned and intelligent mind, can read without improvement. Mr. Adams devoted his leisure moments to literature, and occasionally courted the Muses. Dermot M'Morrogh and Poems of Religion and Society were some of the fruits of his versatile mind. From the latter I select THE HOUR-GLASS. Alas! how swift the moments fly! The burden of a song. See childhood, youth, and manhood pass, Time was,-Time shall be,-drain the glass,- |