could render old age
happy. Not inattentive to the occurrences of the times, political cares
have not yet materially, or for any long time, disturbed his repose.
In 1820 he acted as elector of president and vice-president, and in the
same year we saw him, then at the age of eighty-five, a member of the
convention of this commonwealth called to revise the constitution. Forty
years before, he had been one of those who formed that constitution; and
he had now the pleasure of witnessing that there was little which the
people desired to change. Possessing all his faculties to the end of his
long life, with an unabated love of reading and contemplation, in
the center of interesting circles of friendship and affection, he was
blessed in his retirement with whatever of repose and felicity the
condition of man allows. He had, also, other enjoyments. He saw around
him that prosperity and general happiness which had been the object of
his public cares and labors. No man ever beheld more clearly, and for a
longer time, the great and beneficial effects of the services rendered
by himself to his country. That liberty which he so early defended, that
independence of which he was so able an advocate and supporter, he saw,
we trust, firmly and securely established. The population of the country
thickened around him faster, and extended wider, than his own sanguine
predictions had anticipated; and the wealth respectability, and power
of the nation sprang up to a magnitude which it is quite impossible he
could have expected to witness in his day. He lived also to behold those
principles of civil freedom which had been developed, established, and
practically applied in America, attract attention, command respect, and
awaken imitation, in other regions of the globe; and well might, and
well did, he exclaim, "Where will the consequences of the American
revolution end?"

If anything yet remains to fill this cup of happiness let it be added
that he lived to see a great and intelligent people bestow the highest
honor in their gift where he had bestowed his own kindest parental
affections and lodged his fondest hopes. Thus honored in life, thus
happy at death, he saw the JUBILEE, and he died; and with the last
prayers which trembled on his lips was the fervent supplication for his
country, "Independence forever!"

Mr. Jefferson, having been occupied in the years 1778 and 1779 in the
important service of revising the laws of Virginia, was elect