Extract From An Oration

(hl the Dtath of John Qvinr.y Adams Delivirtd btfort tlit Lt - islalure of tht statcof iVe York, at Albany,on the 6th day of April, 1848. The distinguishing characteristics ofhis life were beneficent labor and personal contentrnent. He never sotight vvealth, but devoted himself to tlie service of mankind. Yet, by the practice of frugality and method, he secured the enjoyment of dealing forth continually no stinted chandes, and died in affluence. - He never solicited place of preferraent, and had no partisan combinations or even connections ; yet he received honors whicli eluded the covetious grasp of those who formed parties, rewarded friends.and proscribed enemiee; and he filled a longer penod of varied and distinguished service than ever feil to the lot of any other citizen. In every stage of this progress he was content. He was contented to be President, Minister, liepresentative, or Citizen. Stncken in the rnidst of this service, n the very act of rising to debate, he feil into the arms of the Conscript Fathers of the Republic. A long lethargy supervened and oppressed his senses. Nature rallied the wasting powers. on the verge of' the grave, for a brief period. But it was long enough for him. The rekindled eye showed that the re-collected mind was clear, calm, and vigorous. His weeping 'amily, and his sorrowing compeers, were there. He surveyed the scène, and knew at once, its fatal import. He had left no duty unperfoimed ; he had no wish unsatisfied, no ambition unattained; no regret, no sorrow, no 'car no remorse. He could not shake off the dews of death that gathered on his brow. - Se could not pierce the thick shades that rose up before him. But he knew that Eternity ay clos by the shores of Time. He knew hat his Redeemer lived. Eloquence, even in hat hour, inspired him with his ancient subïmity ofutterance. " This," said the dying man, " This is the end ef earth." He paused br a moment, and then added, "I am content." Angels miglit well draw aside the curtain of' he skies, to look down on such a scène - a scène that approximated even to that scène of unapproachable sublimity, not to be recalled without reverence, when, in mortal agony, Dne who spake as man never epeaks, said, ' It is fimshed." Only two years after tho birth of John Quincy Adams, there'appeared on an Island in the Mediterranean Sea a Human Spirit, newly born, endowed with equal genius, without the regulating qualities of' Justice and benevolencc which Adams possessen in such an eminent degree. A hke career opened to both - Born liko Adams, a subject of a King - the child of more genial skies, hke him, became in early lif'e a patriot and a citizen of a. new and great Republic. Like Adams he lent his service to the State in precocious youth, and in its hour of need, and won its confidence. But unlike Adams he could not wait tho dull delays of slow and laborious, but sure advancement - He sought power by the hasty road that leads througli the fields of carnage, and he became ïke Adams, Supreme Magistrate, a Consul. - iut there was other consuls - He was not conent. He thrust them aside, and was consul alone. Consular power was to short. He bught new battles and was Consul for life. - 3ut power, confessedly derived from the peole, must be exercised in obedience to their will, and must be resigned to them again, at east in death. He was not content. He esolated Europejafrcsh, subverted the Repubc, imprisoned the Patriach who presided oer Rome's comprehensiva See, and obliged lim to pour on his head the sacred oil that made the persons of Kings divine, and their ight to reign indefeasible. He was an Einleror. But he saw around him a mother, jrothers and sisters, not enobied ; whose liura)le state reminded him, and the world, tliathe was born a Plebeian ; and he had no holr to vait irnpatient for the Imperial Crown. He jestowed Kingdoms and Principalities on his tindrod - put away the devoted wife of his routhful days, and another, a daughter of the [apsburgh's Imperia! house, joyfully acceptd his proud alliance. OfFsprlng gladdened his anxions sight ; a diadem was placedon its infant brow, and it received the homage of princes, even in its eradle. Now he was indeed a monarch - a legitimate Monarch by Divine ajipointment - the first of an endlesi succession of Mooarchs. But there were othar Monarchs who held sway in theearth. He was not content. He would reign with his kindred alone. He gathered new and greater armies, from lus ovvn land - from subjugated lands. He called forth the young and brave - ons from every household - from the Pyrenees to the Zuyder Zee - from Jura to the Ocean. He marshalled them nto long and majestic columns, and went forth to seize that universal Dominion, which seemed almost within this grasp. But Ambition had tempted Fortune too far. The nations of the Earth resisted, repelled, pursued, surrounded him. - The pageant was ended. The Crown feil from his presumptious head. The wife who had WHííed hirri in lus pridc, forsook Jiirn in tli hour when fear came upon him. His cbüd was ravished from his sight. His kinsmen were degraded to their first Estáte, and lie was no longer Emperor, nor Consul, nor General, nor even a citizen but an Exile and a Prisoner, on a lonely Island, in the midst of the wild Atlantic. Discontent attended him there. The wayward man fretted out a few long years of' his yet unbroken manhood, looking ofF at the earliest dawn and in evening's txvilight, towards that distant world that had only just eluded his grasp. His heart corroded. Death came, not unlooked for, though it came even then unwelcomo. He was stretched on his bed witlnn the fort which constituted his prison. A few fast and faithful frinds stood around, with the guards who rejoiced that the hour of relief from long and wearisome watching was at hand. As his strength wasted away, delirium stirred up the brain from its long and inglorious inaotivity. The Pageant of Ambition returned. He was again a Lieutenant, a General, a. Consul, an Emperor of France. He filled again the throne of Charlemagne. His kindred pressed around, him again reinvested with the pompous pageantry of Royality. The Daughter of' the long line of Kings again stood proudly by his side, and the sunny face of his child shone out from beneath the diadern that encircled its flowing locks. The Marshals of the Emperor awnited his command. The legions of the Old Guard were in the field, their scarred faces rejuvenated, and their ranks thinned in many battles, replenished, Russia, Prussia, Austria, Denmark and England, gathered their mightv hosts to givc him battle. Once more he mounted his impalient charger, and rushed forth to conquest. He waved his sword alofl and cried "Tete d'Armee." The fsverish visión borke - the rnockery was ended. The silver chord was loosod. and the warrior feil back upon his bed a lifeless copse. This was the End of Earth. The Corsican was not CONTENT.