r, lo! in the very moment of our festivities,
his freed spirit ascended to God who gave it! Human aid and human solace
terminate at the grave; or we would gladly have borne him upward, on a
nation's outspread hands; we would have accompanied him, and with the
blessings of millions and the prayers of millions, commended him to the
Divine favor.

While still indulging our thoughts, on the coincidence of the death of
this venerable man with the anniversary of independence, we learn
that Jefferson, too, has fallen, and that these aged patriots, these
illustrious fellow-laborers, have left our world together. May not
such events raise the suggestion that they are not undesigned, and
that Heaven does so order things, as sometimes to attract strongly the
attention and excite the thoughts of men? The occurrence has added new
interest to our anniversary, and will be remembered in all time to come.

The occasion, fellow-citizens, requires some account of the lives and
services of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. This duty must necessarily
be performed with great brevity, and in the discharge of it I shall be
obliged to confine myself, principally, to those parts of their history
and character which belonged to them as public men.

John Adams was born at Quincy, then part of the ancient town of
Braintree, on the 19th of October, (old style,) 1735. He was a
descendant of the Puritans, his ancestors having early emigrated from
England, and settled in Massachusetts. Discovering early a strong love
of reading and of knowledge, together with the marks of great strength
and activity of mind, proper care was taken by his worthy father to
provide for his education. He pursued his youthful studies in Braintree,
under Mr. Marsh, a teacher whose fortune it was that Josiah Quincy, Jr.,
as well as the subject of these remarks, should receive from him his
instruction in the rudiments of classical literature. Having been
admitted, in 1751, a member of Harvard College, Mr. Adams was graduated,
in course, in 1755; and on the catalogue of that institution, his name,
at the time of his death, was second among the living alumni, being
preceded only by that of the venerable Holyoke. With what degree of
reputation he left the university is not now precisely known. We know
only that he was a distinguished in a class which numbered Locke and
Hemmenway among its members. Choosing the law for his profession, he
commenced and prosecuted its studies at Wor