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palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favoured few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. There are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day for ever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."

He concludes with a complimentary notice to his former neighbours of the city of Washington, with whom he had passed so many years of pleasing social intercourse.

The indisposition of which he speaks in the preceding letter, was that which terminated his earthly existence. He had a few days before, been seized with a dysentery then prevalent in that district of country, and had intimated a wish to see Dr. Dunglison; but Moore's creek, which is forded in passing from the university to Monticello, being rendered impassable by heavy rains, his visit was delayed a day or two. On the 24th, the day that the letter to General Waithman was written, the writer of these pages accompanied Dr. Dunglison to Monticello; and when he entered the drawing-room from his bed-chamber, his tottering gait and altered appearance shewed us that the attack had been a serious one. We remained but a short time, and Dr. Dunglison, in returning, intimated his opinion that the attack would prove fatal. He continued to decline, and on the first or second day of July, it was manifest to himself, as well as those around him, that he could not survive. He talked freely and calmly of his approaching end, and communicated with his grandson, concerning his affairs, with great clearness of mind and self-possession. He still manifested his usual interest in the university, knowing its dependence on the legislature, and more than once remarked, that he felt confident, after they had gone so far, and done so much for it, they would not now abandon it. He, at the same time, expressed his belief in Mr. Madison's efforts in its behalf.

However his thoughts were occupied in his last illness, it does not appear that his conversation turned at all upon religion. He had long formed his creed, after much inquiry and reflection; in forming it his opinions had not been inflamed by controversy; and whether right or otherwise, it was too well settled to give him anxiety then. He not only showed no wish to commune with others on the subject of religion, but was evidently unwilling, as he generally had been, to converse on the topic to any but his most intimate friends; and this feeling is manifested by the following anecdote, for the truth of which I can vouch. During his last illness, the arrival of some visiter was announced, whose name reached him indistinctly, and he thought it was Mr. Hatch, an Episcopal clergyman, of Charlottesville, who had called to make him a visit: "Is that Mr. Hatch," he said, he is a very good man, and I am glad to see him as a neighbour, but❞—, and here he stopped either from weakness, or unwillingness to be more explicit. The impression upon the by-standers was, that he did not wish to avail himself of Mr. Hatch's clerical functions.

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On the 3rd of July, his strength was exhausted, and he lay in an apparent stupor, occasionally uttering a few words. In the course of the night he asked the hour, and on being told it was one o'clock, expressed some signs of satisfaction, showing that he wished his life to be prolonged to the anniversary of that day which, for fifty years, had been in his eyes the most memorable in the calendar, and which was closely and permanently associated with his name. Life, like a flittering taper, was prolonged according to his wishes, and sent forth its last feeble spark amidst the joyous exultations of millions unconscious of the fate of two of their oldest and truest benefactors; for the same singular and happy death awaited his venerable friend. John Adams, who, like him, had been one of the committee appointed to prepare

the manfesto of the nation, and who had, like him, been by the free suffrages of his countrymen, rewarded with the highest office in their gift.

While the news ran through one half the United States that the author of the Declaration of Independence had died on the 4th of July, the other received the intelligence that Mr. Adams, one of the committee which reported it, had died on the same day; and if these facts, singly, excited the liveliest interest, that interest increased to wonder and astonishment when the death of both was made known. The veneration and respect which their revolutionary services, the high stations they had occupied, and their public virtues would at any time have excited, was also greatly heightened by these strange coincidences, which, so much out of the range of probability, seemed to indicate the immediate agency of Heaven. Public meetings were immediately called in all the cities to do honour to their memories, and some of the most accomplished orators and writers of the nation,* were called upon to deliver public addresses on the occasion. The collisions of one portion of their life were forgotten, party strife for a moment was suspended, and men looked upon them only as bold and enlightened patriots, who saw the interests and the glory of their country sometimes in different aspects, sometimes the same, but who honestly and ardently devoted themselves, body and mind, to the furtherance of those interests and the advancement of that glory.

Mr. Jefferson's funeral was modest and unpretending, as he had directed. It took place on the afternoon of the 5th. The day was rainy, and many from distant parts of the country, who might have been disposed to pay this last tri

* Among them we may mention Mr. Webster and Mr. Everett, of Massachusetts, Mr. Sprague of Maine, Mr. Biddle of Pennsylvania, Mr. Wirt of Maryland, Mr. Samuel Harrison Smith of Washington, and Mr. Tyler of Virginia.

bute of respect, were thereby prevented. The number, however, who did attend, was considerable. His body was deposited in a small burying place on the side of the mountain, near the road which winds round it to Monticello. It has a slight inclosure, and is surrounded by the native wood. In it lie the remains of other members of the family, some two or three of whom have tablets of marble. On his own grave his executor has erected a granite obelisk, eight feet high, and on a piece of marble inserted on its southern face are inscribed the three acts for which he thought he best deserved to be remembered by posterity. This inscription was found among his papers after his death, in his own hand-writing, and is in these words:

HERE LIES BURIED

THOMAS JEFFERSON,

AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,

OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM,

AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

556

CHAPTER XXII.

Failure of the Lottery. Liberality of South Carolina and Louisiana. Mr. Jefferson's will-property and debts. His descendants. His

character.

1826.

THE subscription, which had been begun with so much liberality in New York, cheered the last moments of Mr. Jefferson's existence, not merely as promising relief for his difficulties without compelling him to part with his home, which he had been sixty years in improving and embellishing, but as indicating the kindly sentiments felt for him by his fellow-citizens, even in distant parts of the Union. He happily did not live to see, as he certainly would have seen, that this gleam of sunshine was as transient as it was cheering. Even before his death there were strong symptoms that this mode of relieving his estate would not prove effectual, and after his death the fountain seemed to be dried up altogether. The lottery was then relied on, and the executor, not able to make sale of the whole scheme to some who would at first have purchased it, in consequence of certain prohibitory laws passed in the interval, attempted himself to dispose of the tickets through agents. But as the scheme held out smaller chances of profit than other lotteries, its prizes being land valued at a high price instead of money, no tickets were purchased except by those who felt anxious to befriend the family. A small proportion of the whole number being thus

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