turned to New York in 1790, which was, at that period, the seat of the Public Government. Here he filled the office of Secretary of State, until the commencement of January, 1794, after which, at his own request, he, for a while, retired to his favourite mansion in Virginia, enjoying the consolations of domestic intercourse, devising plans for the general good, and prosecuting those philosophical studies with which his ample mind was ever entertained.

In 1797, he was elected Vice-President of the Union, and in 1801, was elected to the highest Chair of Magistracy, to which his country could conduct him, and from which, in 1809, he retired. Omitting a thousand circumstances, which future eloquence will record, there is one, which, on a solemnity like the present, we cannot neglect to mention. Mr. JEFFERSON was a decided enemy to religious intolerance -a champion for the inviolable rights of conscience. His correct feelings on this subject, revolted at the idea of the incorporation of Religion with Civil Government. The practice of ancient heathen affords no argument, in favour of a system which reduces their Mythology to the ground, and lays it low in the dust. Christianity is spiritual. She has sanctions infinitely more rational and more effective than any which human establishments can adduce. Her voice is-Render to Cæsar, the things that are Ca

sar's, and to God, the things that are God's.

The

views of this Master-Legislator cannot be more fully expressed, than in his own words.

"The attack on

the establishment of a dominant religion was first made by myself. It could be carried, at first, only by a suspension of salaries for one year; by battling it again, at the next session, or another year, and so from year to year, until the public mind was ripened for the bill, for establishing religious freedom, which I had prepared for the Revised Code also. This was at length established permanently, and by the efforts chiefly of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe, at the time that work was brought forward.” The last years of the life of Mr. JEFFERSON were filled with projecting a grand State University, which he hoped might minister blessings to the whole Union. This most promising establishment he had the honour of seeing brought into full operation. At length, on the fourth of July last, on the venerable tree, which had afforded shade and fruit to thousands, descended a gentle breeze of Heaven-its age and weakness needed no more-and it has fallen.

Braintree, in Massachusetts, so early as the 19th of October, 1735, gave birth to Mr. JOHN ADAMS. His ancestry is traced to one of the earliest and most respectable families, by which, in the year 1630, the Colony of Massachusetts Bay was founded. When

his classical education at Cambridge was completed, his attention was directed to the study of the law. In this, by the purity of his principles, the profoundness of his information, and the suavity and force of his elocution, he excelled. But his comprehensive mind was not to be restricted with the circle of a court of judicature. He searched deeply into the principles of the administration of public affairs-accurately compared one system with another, and thus became, in a manner, self-educated for the great services which Providence had destined him to fulfil. Mr. ADAMS' mind was constitutionally intrepid. To what conscience dictated as duty, without deviation, he adhered. Of this we have a striking example, in his manly and successful vindication of Capt. Preston, on account of conduct alleged to be sanguinary. He conducted the cause with that wisdom and discretion, which, in a young man of thirty-five, could scarcely have been expected. In 1774, he was elected a member of the first Congress. In 1776, himself and Mr. JEFFERSON Constituted the sub-committee to prepare that immortal instrument to which we have already referred. The great design of the separation of the Colonies from Great Britain, appears to have been projected by himself. Other public agents, at his instance, brought the motion forward, but Mr. ADAMS was its grand sustainer. He was in

Congress, the same as was Washington in the field, the soul that animated every adventure. The likeness of a statesman is rarely drawn in its full proportions, while he is yet living. The artist stands too near the pedestal. Another Jubilee will present Mr. ADAMS with all that imposing correctness which his immense services in our Revolution demand. Passions more sincerely mingled with the love of country, could find a place in no human bosom. When almost every heart was appalled, he could say, in language almost prophetic, "Through all the gloom, I can see a ray of light and glory." On the proclamation of peace, he paid successive visits to Europe, vested with power to assist at conferences, to negotiate loans, and in any other way to exercise a plenipotentiary capacity for advancing the interests of his beloved country. During the whole period of the Presidency of Washington, ADAMS was VicePresident; and, when the Father of our Union resigned his office, he was, in the year 1796, chosen his successor. At the close of the period of his administration, he retired to his paternal estate at Quincy, where, amid the friendships of the virtuous, the consolations of domestic amiableness, the consciousness of the best endeavours to serve his generation, and the high approbation of encircling citizens, he passed his hours in joyous tranquillity. But, it is the

destiny of nature to decline. He had lived to see a beloved son raised to a seat of honour, which himself had antecedently occupied, and he asked no more. The venerable tower had for more than ninety years endured, with much firmness, the decaying power of time; but the roar of the thunders of our Jubilee were too much for it to resist-it shook-it fell.

From a general view of the events we are contemplating, let us, this day offer up to the Everlasting God, the God of the nations of the whole earth, our loftiest, our most solemn, our most grateful hymns of praise! Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and he shall reign for ever and ever! Have there been a Periclean age, an Augustan age, the age of the Medici, the age of Anne and Elizabeth, in which men, profound in science, vigorous in genius, and delicate in taste, have poured forth on society the rich streams of their high invention? Have there been periods in which prophets and apostles, emperors and reformers, have been raised up for chasing away the ignorance, subduing the transgressions, and exciting the consolations of man, by the pure exhibition of the character of the Lord Jesus, and of the path to immortality through his sacred name? There have been seasons, too, in which he has visited his