The venerable JOHN ADAMS, late President of the United States, one of the
ablest and most efficient advocates and supporters of the Revolution, an
original signer of the Declaration of Independence, a patriot and statesman,
whose career was full of honor, whose life, services, talents, and virtues,
were the pride and glory of the nation, expired at his residence in Quincy,
Mass. on the 4th day of July, at the advanced age of 92. His death on the
Jubilee Anniversary of that Independence, which, FIFTY YEARS
before, nearly at the same moment of time that his spirit left its
earthly tenement, he pledged his fortune, honor and life, to support, is
one of the most remarkable coincidences in the history of man.
Had he been permitted by the BEING to whom he owed his
existence, who endowed him with great talents, and kept him in that course
of irreproacable virtue and honor which has rendered his memory immortal,
to select the time when his disembodied spirit should take its flight, he
would probably have chosen the very moment when a whole nation were
employed in celebrating the glorious result of patriotism, when his name, and
those of his compatriots, was upon the lips of ten millions of people, and
the voice of gratitude and joy was resounding throughout the
whole of the American Republic.
BOSTON COURIER OFFICE, Wednesday, July 5 -- one o'clock.
DIED, at his residence in Quincy, at 6 o'clock in the
afternoon of the 4th of July, the Hon. JOHN ADAMS -- in the 92d year of
his age.
Annexed will be found the proceedings adopted by the authorities of
Massachusetts on learning the death of JOHN ADAMS.
-- The few particulars that marked this last scene are given in the Boston
papers : the most remarkable one is, that having been for some days failing,
-- "On the Jubilee of Independence, his declining faculties were roused by
the rejoicings in the metropolis. He inquired the cause of the salutes, and
was told it was the fourth of July. He anwered, 'it is a great and glorious
day.' He never spake more. Thus his last thoughts and his latest words were
like those of his whole life, thoughts and words which evinced a soul replete
with love of country and interest in her welfare.
[From
page 1 of Argus & City Gazette (Albany, N.Y.), July 10, 1826]
No common event has clothed our columns in the habiliments of
mourning. Two of the great and gifted of our countrymen, the venerated
fathers of our Republic, THOMAS JEFFERSON and JOHN ADAMS, are no more!
It is not amongst the least of the events so wisely ordered in the progress
of this country, that the Author of the Declaration of its Liberties, and his
eminent associate in that duty should be permitted not only to live, and
to witness the prosperous experiment of half a century, but that on that
day fifty years on which they signed and issued their Declaration to the
world, they should be called, both together, from amongst a people so
signally blessed by their labours.
They were glorious in their lives, and in their deaths they were not
divided. They have enjoyed in their life-time equal and the highest honours
within the gift of a grateful country. In their deaths, the measure
of their fame is full. Their memories are hallowed.
Mr. Adams was in the 92d year of his age. Mr. Jefferson was aged 83 years 3
months and 2 days.
