The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-12-18

splendors of the sky. Could it be given to a
man to choose the hour and moment of his exit
most glorious to his name and most in harmony
with his life, none within the wide range OF
mortal experience can be imagined more to be
desired than this.
ct, strange as 1t may seem, another incident
was coming In, to give second and still more
remarkable association with the occasion. 1t
is stated of Mr.. Adams, that the last words he
ever uttered, as far as they could be gathered
from his failing articulation, were these:
Thomas Jefferson still survives" Long as the
two had been travelling in parallel lines to the
common goal, ever observant of their relative
position, such an idea might naturally occur,to
MIR. Adams, especially at a moment which
brought them so freshly together in the minds
of all other men. But he was mistaken. The
fact was not as he supposed. Thomas Jeffer-
son did not survive. He too had reached the
anniversary, and he too had been summoned,
but at an earlier hour, to Immortality. Mar
vellous as 1T may seem-perhaps exceeding, in
respect of its strange condolences, many O
wonder transmitted from q NEUROLOGICAL age
yet the event was to be indelbly stamped on
the memory of America, that John Adams and
Thomas Jefferson, who had inaugurated the
independence of the nation on the 4th of July,
l776, exactly fifty years afterwards-years not
unmarked with other condolences quite extra
ordinary, if this closing one had not thrown
them all in the shade-were almost stimuli
taneously translated, in the midst of the &C.
carnations of millions Of their race, to the iudg-
ment of their God. No greater sublunary
blessing could have remained in store for them
for if the opinion ascribed to Scion be Just,
when asked by Crosus, the rich Lydian monarch,
whether he had ever seen q man more blessed
than he, that he named two brothers-Cleobis
and Bion-who once put themselves to the
wagon, and drew their mother to Juno's temple,
and then, after sacrificing and feasting, went
to rest, and died together in the height Of their
reputation of filial piety, how much more
deserving to be called blessed is the life of
those two, who drew their nursing mother,
against strong resistance, to the temple of Lib
erty, and who, after long period of services
and labors devoted TO her welfare, went to the
same rest, under auspices thousand.fold more
sublime The moral Of the story of Cleobis
and Bion has, in the incidents which attended
both the lives and the deaths of the two great
men Of America, an application by so much the
wider, as it expands the beautiful idea of COM
pleted duty, from the narrow circle of a single
household to the ever-unfolding area Of na.
TONS home.
AS the news of this singular coincidence
spread over the land, it raised everywhere q
thrill Of emotion such as has never been caused
by any other public event. 1t was not the wall
of grief, such as is drawn forth by the sense of
privation by the loss Of valuable lives. The adj
vanced age of these persons, if nothing else, neu
tralized that. 1t was the offspring of q mixture
of feelings, the chief Of which were surprise at
the strangeness Of the occurrence, veneration
l e. al, II
splendor which it would forever reflect upon
page of the national annals. Certainly the
fabulous passing away Of the first Roman King,
nearly on the same anniversary in the midst
of elementary chaos, does not compare with it
in grandeur. Men loved to meet each other,
and to dwell on the most minute particulars,
rs they were sedulously laid before the public
by the newspapers, and to read the comments,
raised to unusual clcquence by the tone of the
general mind. The first feelings were followed
by enthusiastic demonstrations Of respect to
the memory Of the dead. The most distinguish
ed orators and statesmen were summoned to
prepare eulogies or memoirs, which were de-
livered at times set apart for the performance
Of appropriate services.
In this way, large number of orations and
addresses were produced, which are not with
out their value as permanent contribution to
VIC illeta1uie anu history VI the Onlteu states.
! Among them it is not inappropriate to make
particular mention of that delivered by Daniel
Webster, on account of the facility with which
he succeeded in weaving into the form of a
speech in favor of independence energetic pas
sages scattered in Mr.. Adams's writings, and
in animating the whole with somewhat of the
ardor of the person he sought to personate. SO
successful has this attempt been regarded By
some that to this day, the belief is entertained
that the speech is indeed that which Mr.. Adams
actually made. Other addresses are valuable
for authentic particulars and curious anecdotes,
carefully collected at the time, which have
thus been rescued from the oblivion which COM
monty overvheims the personal "reminiscences
of contemporaries. As time goes on, it is by no
means unlikely that these various productions
will be regarded with ever-growing interest, not
simply for the facts, more or less correctly
given, in which they abound but also as mark
ing an epoch in American history, the close Of
its heroic age.