duct and personal relations. Personal or private courage is totally distinct from that higher and nobler courage which prompts the patriot to offer himself a voluntary săcrifice to his country's good. 4. Apprehensions of the imputation of the want of firmness sometimes impel us to perform rash and inconsiderate acts. It is the greatest coŭrage to be able to bear the imputation of the want of courage. But pride, vanity, egotism, so unamiable and offensive in private life, are vices which partake of the character of crimes, in the conduct of public affairs. The unfortunate victim of these passions can not see beyond the little, petty, contemptible circle of his own personal interests. All his thoughts are withdrawn from his country, and concentrated on his consistency, his firmness, himself. 5. The high, the exalted, the sublime emotions of a patriotism, which, soaring toward heaven, rises far above all mean, low, or selfish things, and is absorbed by one soul-transporting thought of the good and the glory of one's country, are never felt in his impenetrable bosom. That patriotism, which, cătching its inspirations from the immortal God, and leaving at an immeasurable distance below all lesser, groveling, personal interests and feelings, animates and prompts to deeds of self-sacrifice, of valor, of devotion, and of death itself,—that is public virtue; that is the noblèst, the sublimest, of all public virtues. II. CLAY. HENRY CLAY, a distinguished statesman of the United States, was born at the Slashes, Hanover County, Virginia, on the 12th of April, 1777. His father, a clergyman, died in 1781, and Henry acquired the rudiments of an education at a log school-house. At an early age ho became clerk of the Court of Chancery in Richmond. He commenced the study of law at the age of nineteen, was admitted to the bar at the close of one year, and removed to Lexington, Ky., where he practiced his profession with great success. In 1803 he was elected to the legislature of his State, and in 1806 and 1809, was appointed to fill vacancies in the national senate. In 1811 he was chosen a member of the House of Representatives, and was at once elected speaker, which office he retained until his appointment, in January, 1814, as one of the commissioners to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent. On his return he was reelected to Congress; and, in 1823, was again elected speaker of the House. During the presidency of John Quincy Adams he was secretary of state. In 1831 he was elected United States senator from Kentucky, and was soon after nominated a candidate for the presidency, but was defeated. In 1836 he was reelected to the United States Senate, and served until 1842. In 1844 he was again nominated to the presidency, and again defeated. He was returned to the U. S. Senate in 1849, and died on the 29th of June, 1852. He was ever an advocate of "protection to American industry" by a sufficient tariff, and of "internal improvements." He was in favor of the war of 1812, of the recognition of the South American republics, and of the independence of Greece. Some of his noblest oratorical efforts were delivered in support of these measures. His speeches are sincere, impassioned, and distinguished for their eminent practicalness. Full, flowing, sensuous, his style of oratory was modulated by a voice of sustained sweetness and power, and a heart of chivalrous courtesy. His Life and Speeches, complied and edited by Mallory, in two volumes, 8vo., appeared in 1843; and his “Life and Times," and entire works, by Calvin Colton, have since been published in New York. VI. 111. WASHINGTON'S SWORD AND FRANKLIN'S STAFF T HE sword of Washington! The staff of Franklin! Oh, Sir, what associations are linked in adamant with these names! Washington, whose sword was never drawn but in the cause of his country, and never sheathed when wielded in his country's cause! Franklin, the philosopher of the thunderbolt, the printing-press, and the plowshare! What names are these in the scanty catalogue of the benefactors of human kind! Washington and Franklin! What other two men, whose lives belong to the eighteenth century of Christendom, have left a deeper impression of themselves upon the age in which they lived, and upon all after-time? 2. Washington, the warrior and the legislator! In war, contending, by the wager of battle, for the independence of his country, and for the freedom of the human race,—ever manifesting, amidst its horrors, by precept and by example, his reverence for the laws of peace, and for the tenderèst sympathies of humanity; in peace, soothing the ferocious spirit of discord, among his own countrymen, into harmony and union, and giving to that věry sword, now presented to his country, a charm more potent than that attributed, in ancient times, to the lyre of Orpheus. 3. Franklin! The mechanic of his own fortune; teaching, in early youth, under the shackles of indigence, the way to wealth, and, in the shade of obscurity, the path to greatness; in the maturity of manhood, disarming the thunder of its terrors, the light 1 From an address in the U. S. H. R., on the reception of these memorials by Congress. 'Orphe ǎs, a mythical personage, was regarded by the Greeks as the most celebrated of the early poets who lived before the time of Homer. Presented with the lyre of Apollo, and instructed by the Muses in its use, he enchanted with its music not only the wild beasts, but the trees and rocks upon Olympus, so that they moved from their places to fcllow the sound of his golden harp. ning of its fatal blast; and wresting from the tyrant's hand the still more afflictive scepter of oppression: while descending into the vale of years, traversing the Atlantic Ocean, braving, in the dead of winter, the battle and the breeze, bearing in his hand the charter of Independence, which he had contributed to form, and tendering, from the self-created Nation to the mightiëst monarchs of Europe, the olive-branch of peace, the mercurial wand of commerce, and the amulet of protection and safety to the man of peace, on the pathless ocean, from the inex'orable cruelty and merciless rapacity of war. 4. And, finally, in the last stage of life, with fōurscōre winters upon his head, under the torture of an incurable disease, returning to his native land, closing his days as the chief magistrate of his adopted commonwealth, after contributing by his counsels, under the presidency of Washington, and recording his name, under the sanction of devout prayer, invoked by him to God, to that Constitution under the authority of which we are here assembled, as the Representatives of the North American People, to receive, in their name and for them, these venerable relics of the wise, the valiant, and the good founders of our great confederated Republic-these sacred symbols of our golden age. 5. May they be deposited among the archives' of our governmènt! And may every American, who shall hereafter behold them, ejaculate a mingled offering of praise to that Supreme Ruler of the Universe, by whose tender mercies our Union has been hitherto preserved, through all the vicissitudes and revolutions of this turbulent world; and of prayer for the continuance of these blessings, by the dispensations of Providence, to our bcloved country, from age to age, till time shall be no more! ADAMS. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, a distinguished American statesman and scholar, son of John Adams, the second president of the United States, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, on the 11th of July, 1767. He was cradled in the Revolution, and when but nine years old heard the first reading of the Declaration of Independence from the old State House in Boston. His early education devolved principally on his noble and accomplished mother. In 1778, in his eleventh year, he accompanied his father on his mission to France; and during that and the following year he was at school in Paris. In 1780 he entered the public school of Amsterdam, and subsequently the University of Leyden. In 1781 he was made private secretary to the Hon. Francis Dana, Minister to Russia. He 1 Archives, (år ́ kivz), public records and papers which are preserved as evidence of facts. joined his father in Holland in 1783, and returned home in 1785. He entered an advanced class at Harvard, and took his degree in 1787, the year after his admission. In 1790 he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of law at Boston, which he continued, varying his occupation by communications for the "Centinel," signed Publicola and Marcellus, until his appointment as Minister to the Hague, in 1794, by Washington. He was elected to the State Senate in 1801, and in 1803 a member of the Senate of the United States, and sat until 1808. He had previously, in 1806, been appointed professor of rhetoric in Harvard, and continued the discharge of his duties until his resignation, in 1809, to accept the mission to Russia, offered him by Madison. He published his college lectures, in two octavo volumes, in 1810. He was called from his brilliant Russian diplomatic carcer in 1815, to aid in negotiating the treaty of peace with England at Ghent, and was appointed minister to that country in the same year. In 1817 he returned home, was appointed secretary of state by Monroe, and remained in that office eight years, when he was himself chosen to the presidency. He remained in office one term, and was immediately after elected a member of the House of Representatives from his native State, a position which he retained till his death. In the sixty-fifth year of active public service, he died in the capitol at Washington-in the scene of his chief triumphs-suddenly, on the 23d of February, 1848. His last words were, "THIS IS THE END OF EARTH-I AM CONThrough his long and active political career, Mr. Adams retained a fondness for literature. He was, altogether, one of the most remarkable men of this century. His various and voluminous works exhibit a marked nationality, and a wisdom which astonishes by its universality and profoundness. TENT." 1 SECTION XX. I. 112. PROCRASTINATION. E wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer; BE Next day the fatal prec'edent' will plead; 2. Of man's miraculous mistakes this bears The palm, 1 Prěc'e dent, something done or said that may serve as an example to authorize an after act of the like kind; authoritative example All pay themselves the compliment to think And scarce in human wisdom to do more. 3. All promise is poor dilatory' man, And that through every stage. When young indeed, As duteous sons, our fathers were more wise. Resolves, and re-resolves; then dies the same. The parted wave no furrow from the keel, YOUNG. So dies in human hearts the thought of death; E'en with the tender tear which nature sheds O'er those we love, we drop it in their gravë. EDWARD YOUNG, author of the "Night Thoughts," was born at his father's parsonage, in Hampshire, England, in 1681. He was educated at Winchester School, and at All Souls College, Oxford. In 1712 he commenced public life as a courtier and poet, and continued both characters till he was past eighty. Re version, a right to future possession or enjoyment; benefit to be received from some future event. Vails, avails: unexpected gains * Can't,(kånt). * Dil' a to ry, inclined to defer or put off what ought to be done at once; delaying. |