It is not long since he was here in our own streets; three winter months have scantly flown: he set out for his toil--but went home to his rest. His labors are over. No man now threatens to assassinate; none to expel; none even to censure. The theatrical thunder of Congress, noisy but harmless, has ended as it ought, in honest tears. South Carolina need ask no more a halter for that one northern neck she could not bend nor break. The tears of his country are dropped upon his urn; the muse of history shall write thereon, in letters not to be effaced, THE ONE GREAT MAN SINCE WASHINGTON, WHOM AMERICA HAD NO CAUSE TO FEAR. To-day that venerable form lies in the Capitol,--the disenchanted dust. All is silent. But his undying soul, could we deem it still hovering o'er its native soil, bound to take leave yet lingering still, and loath to part, that would bid us love our country, love man, love justice, freedom, right, and above all, love God. To-morrow that venerable dust starts once more to join the dear presence of father and mother, to mingle his ashes with their ashes, as their lives once mingled, and their souls again. Let his native State communicate her last sad sacrament, and give him now, it is all she can, a little earth for charity. But what shall we say as the dust returns? "Where slavery's minions cower Before the servile power, He bore their ban; And like the aged oak, That braved the lightning's stroke, When thunders round it broke, Stood up a man. "Nay, when they stormed aloud, And round him like a cloud, Came thick and black,-- He single-handed strove, And like Olympian Jove, With his own thunder drove The phalanx back. "Not from the bloody field, Borne on his battered shield, By foes o'ercome;-- But from a sterner fight, In the defence of Right, Clothed with a conqueror's might, We hail him home. "His life in labors spent, That 'Old man eloquent' Now rests for aye;-- His dust the tomb may claim;-- His spirit's quenchless flame, His 'venerable name,'[40] Pass not away."[41] FOOTNOTES: [12] See _Social Compact_, etc. Providence, 1848, p. 31, _et al._ [13] See _Address at Washington_, 4th of July, 1821. Second Edition, Cambridge, _passim_. [14] Reference is made to his _speech in the House of Representatives_, May 8th and 9th, 1840. (Boston, 1840.) It is a little remarkable, that the false principle of the common law, on which Mr. Adams was commenting, as laid down by Blackstone, is corrected by a writer, M. Pothier, who rests on the civil law for his authority. See pp. 6-8, and 20, 21. [15] _Answer to Paine's Rights of Man_ (London, 1793), originally published in the Columbian Centinel. The London Edition bears the name of _John Adams_ on the title-page. [16] Mr. Atherton. [17] See _Oration at Quincy_, 1831, p. 12, _et seq._ (Boston, 1831.)