A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 2: John Quincy Adams
History
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 2: John Quincy Adams
Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848; Presidents -- United States; United States -- History -- Sources; United States -- Politics and government
A coincidence of circumstances so wonderful gives confidence to the
belief that the patriotic efforts of these illustrious men were Heaven
directed, and furnishes a new seal to the hope that the prosperity of
these States is under the special protection of a kind Providence.
The Secretary of War directs that the same funeral honors be paid by the
Army to the memory of the deceased as by the order of the 7th (11th?)
instant were directed to be paid to Thomas Jefferson, and the same token
of mourning be worn.
Major-General Brown is charged with the execution of this order.
J. Barbour.
* * * * *
Never has it fallen to the lot of any commander to announce to an army
such an event as now calls forth the mingled grief and astonishment of
this Republic; never since history first wrote the record of time has
one day thus mingled every triumphant with every tender emotion, and
consecrated a nation's joy by blending it with the most sacred of
sorrows. Yes, soldiers, in one day, almost in the same hour, have two of
the Founders of the Republic, the Patriarchs of Liberty, closed their
services to social man, after beholding them crowned with the richest
and most unlimited success. United in their end as they had been in
their highest aim, their toils completed, their hopes surpassed, their
honors full, and the dearest wish of their bosoms gratified in death,
they closed their eyes in patriot ecstasy, amidst the gratulations and
thanksgivings of a people on all, on every individual, of whom they had
conferred the best of all earthly benefits.
Such men heed no trophies; they ask no splendid mausolea. We are their
monuments; their mausolea is their country, and her growing prosperity
the amaranthine wreath that Time shall place over their dust. Well may
the Genius of the Republic mourn. If she turns her eyes in one
direction, she beholds the hall where Jefferson wrote the charter of her
rights; if in another, she sees the city where Adams kindled the fires
of the Revolution. To no period of our history, to no department of our
affairs, can she direct her views and not meet the multiplied memorials
of her loss and of their glory.
At the grave of such men envy dies, and party animosity blushes while
she quenches her fires. If Science and Philosophy lament their
enthusiastic votary in the halls of Monticello, Philanthropy and
Eloquence weep with no less reason in the retirement of Quincy. And when
hereafter the stranger performing his pilgrimage to the land of freedom
shall ask for the monument of Jefferson, his inquiring eye may be
directed to the dome of that temple of learning, the university of his
native State--- the last labor of his untiring mind, the latest and the
favorite gift of a patriot to his country.
Bereaved yet happy America! Mourning yet highly favored country! Too
happy if every son whose loss shall demand thy tears can thus soothe thy
sorrow by a legacy of fame.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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