ration, they had done for this distinguished person; and
interest, respect, and admiration, are but feeble terms to express the
feelings with which the members of this House and the people of the
country have long regarded him.

"After a life of eighty years, devoted from its earliest maturity to the
public service, he has at length gone to his rest. He has been privileged
to die at his post; to fall while in the discharge of his duties; to
expire beneath the roof of the capitol; and to have his last scene
associated forever, in history, with the birthday of that illustrious
patriot, whose just discernment brought him first into the service of his
country.

"The close of such a life, under such circumstances, is not an event for
unmingled emotions. We cannot find it in our hearts to regret, that he has
died as he has died. He himself could have desired no other end. 'This is
the end of earth,' were his last words, uttered on the day on which he
fell. But we might also hear him exclaiming, as he left us--in a language
hardly less familiar to him than his native tongue--'Hoc est, nimirum,
magis feliciter de vita migrare, quam mori.'

"It is for others to suggest what honors shall be paid to his memory. No
acts of ours are necessary to his fame. But it may be due to ourselves and
to the country, that the national sense of his character and services
should be fitly commemorated."

Mr. Holmes of South Carolina arose and addressed the House in most
eloquent strains. The following are extracts from his eulogy:--

"The mingled tones of sorrow, like the voice of many waters, have come
unto us from a sister State--Massachusetts weeping for her honored son.
The State I have the honor in part to represent once endured, with yours,
a common suffering, battled for a common cause, and rejoiced in a common
triumph. Surely, then, it is meet that in this, the day of your
affliction, we should mingle our griefs.

"When a great man falls, the nation mourns; when a patriarch is removed,
the people weep. Ours, my associates, is no common bereavement. The chain
which linked our hearts with the gifted spirits of former times, has been
rudely snapped. The lips from which flowed those living and glorious
truths that our fathers uttered, are closed in death! Yes, my friends,
Death has been among us! He has not entered the humble cottage of some
unknown, ignoble peasant; he has knocked audibly at the palace of a
nation! His footstep has been