The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911, 1908-11-18

Quincy, Mass, and lived quietly fol-
some years. So bitter was he that he
that he drove away from the capital al
o'clock on the morning of March 4
! . few hours before the time was set fol
Jeferson's arrival, leaving the author
Of the Declaration of Independence to
90 through with that simple formality
Is best he might. But Adams lived a
long quarter century after his retire.
ment. His anger and modification
wore away in time and he came into
especial note again in 1920, when he
was q delegate to the Massachusetts,
constitutional convention. Adams
threw the final years of his life into a
worthy effort to secure religious and
political equality in Massachusetts, for
others than Puritans and Christians.
He lived to see the elimination of his
work.
Adams died July 3, 1920, . few
hours after Jefferson breathed his life
away, with . final exclamation which
showed how completely time had heal
ed the old wound:
"Thank God, Jefferson still lives"
And Jefferson, though he is gener-
ally cited rs one of the men who re-
tired into digni6ed obscurity after the
lapse of his last term, is, in fact, q
better example Of the other school.
It is true, he did go back to his loved
Monticello and live for a number of
years in the humblest circumstances.
The embargo on tobacco had reduced
him to such penury that his creditors
made his departure from the capital
uncomfortable. The acquisecense of
Jefferson in the very measure which
ruined him stands even still q one of
the most unselfsh acts of the Presi.
dents. But, in the declining years of
his life, Jefferson came into vast pro.
minence again when he began the
agitation for free public schools in
Virginia and the entire nation. Pos
sibly of all the acts of Jefferson least is
known Of this last and browning work
of his life, . work whose final import
ance and bearing on the destiny of the
nation can be accounted second not
even to the purchase of the Louisiana
territory.
Jefferson died before the common
school portion of his great plan had
been realized but he did manage to
found the University Of Virginia, as
you many read on his monument.
Madison went back to the day and
ideal of Washington. He spent the
remaing twenty years Of his life with
his books and his dreams OF Montpe-
lier. his Virginia estate.
Monroe lived only seven years after
his retirement and he spent all of that
time at home. It was when asked to
become an elector that he declined
with the famous declaration that an ex.
President should never become party
leader.
The next President is without doubt
the most widely recognized example of
chief magistrate who later held a low
er Office in the government. Twoyears
after his retirement in 1929, John
Quincy Adams was offered q. seat in
the lower branch of Congress and read.
lily accepted. Then, for seventeen
consecutive years, he served his coun-
try as brilliantly and we'll as ever he
might have in the White house. Few
of the official acts of the second Adams
while in the Presidential seat have
withstood the mutation of time in the |
popular knowledge Of American his
tory, but at least one of his acts in Con.
gress will always be unforgettable.
Toward the end of Adams service in |
The House, the slave question became
, decidedly livid issue in Congress, and
as attempt was made by the slave sym.
patnizers, then in powerful majority, |
10 abolish the reading of the petitions |