DEATH OF THE EX-PRESIDENTS JOHN ADAMS AND THOMAS JEFFERSON.
It comes within the scope of this View to notice the deaths and
characters of eminent public men who have died during my time,
although not my contemporaries, and who have been connected with
the founding or early working of the federal government. This gives
me a right to head a chapter with the names of Mr. John Adams
and Mr. Jefferson--two of the most eminent political men of the
revolution, who, entering public life together, died on the same
day,--July 4th, 1826,--exactly fifty years after they had both put
their hands to that Declaration of Independence which placed a new
nation upon the theatre of the world. Doubtless there was enough of
similitude in their lives and deaths to excuse the belief in the
interposition of a direct providence, and to justify the feeling of
mysterious reverence with which the news of their coincident demise
was received throughout the country. The parallel between them was
complete. Born nearly at the same time, Mr. Adams the elder, they
took the same course in life--with the same success--and ended
their earthly career at the same time, and in the same way:--in
the regular course of nature, in the repose and tranquillity of
retirement, in the bosom of their families, and on the soil which
their labors had contributed to make free.
Born, one in Massachusetts, the other in Virginia, they both
received liberal educations, embraced the same profession (that of
the law), mixed literature and science with their legal studies and
pursuits, and entered early into the ripening contest with Great
Britain--first in their counties and States, and then on the broader
field of the General Congress of the Confederated Colonies. They
were both members of the Congress which declared Independence--both
of the committee which reported the Declaration--both signed
it--were both employed in foreign missions--both became Vice
Presidents--and both became Presidents. They were both working
men; and, in the great number of efficient laborers in the cause
of Independence which the Congresses of the Revolution contained,
they were doubtless the two most efficient--and Mr. Adams the more
so of the two. He was, as Mr. Jefferson styled him, "the Colossus"
of the Congress--speaking, writing, counselling--a member of
ninety different committees, and (during his three years' service)
chairman of twenty five--chairman also of the board of war and
board of appeals: his soul on fire with the cause, left no rest to
his head, hands, or tongue. Mr. Jefferson drew the Declaration of
Independence, but Mr. Adams was "the pillar of its support, and its
ablest advocate and defender," during the forty days it was before
the Congress. In the letter which he wrote that night to Mrs. Adams
(for, after all the labors of the day, and such a day, he could
still write to her), he took a glowing view of the future, and used
those expressions, "gloom" and "glory," which his son repeated in
the paragraph of his message to Congress in relation to the deaths
of the two ex-Presidents, which I have heard criticized by those
who did not know their historical allusion, and could not feel the
force and beauty of their application. They were words of hope and
confidence when he wrote them, and of history when he died. "I
am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will
cost to maintain this Declaration, and to support and defend these
States; yet through all the _gloom_, I can see the rays of light
and _glory_!" and he lived to see it--to see the glory--with the
bodily, as well as with the mental eye. And (for the great fact
will bear endless repetition) it was he that conceived the idea of
making Washington commander-in-chief, and prepared the way for his
unanimous nomination.
In the division of parties which ensued the establishment of the
federal government, Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson differed in systems
of policy, and became heads of opposite divisions, but without
becoming either unjust or unkind to each other. Mr. Adams sided
with the party discriminated as federal; and in that character
became the subject of political attacks, from which his competitor
generously defended him, declaring that "a more perfectly honest man
never issued from the hands of his Creator;" and, though opposing
candidates for the presidency, neither would have any thing to do
with the election, which they considered a question between the
systems of policy which they represented, and not a question between
themselves. Mr. Jefferson became the head of the party then called
republican--now democratic; and in that character became the founder
of the political school which has since chiefly prevailed in the
United States. He was a statesman: that is to say, a man capable of
conceiving measures useful to the country and to mankind--able to
recommend them to adoption, and to administer them when adopted.
I have seen many politicians--a few statesmen--and, of these few,
he their pre-eminent head. He was a republican by nature and
constitution, and gave proofs of it in the legislation of his State,
as well as in the policy of the United States. He was no speaker,
but a most instructive and fascinating talker; and the Declaration
of Independence, even if it had not been sistered by innumerable
classic productions, would have placed him at the head of political
writers. I never saw him but once, when I went to visit him in his
retirement; and then I felt, for four hours, the charms of his
bewitching talk. I was then a young senator, just coming on the
stage of public life--he a patriarchal statesman just going off the
stage of natural life, and evidently desirous to impress some views
of policy upon me--a design in which he certainly did not fail. I
honor him as a patriot of the Revolution--as one of the Founders
of the Republic--as the founder of the political school to which I
belong; and for the purity of character which he possessed in common
with his compatriots, and which gives to the birth of the United
States a beauty of parentage which the genealogy of no other nation
can show.