majority. He was a nervous, eloquent, and impressive speaker; and, in this respect, had a decided advantage over his great rival, Mr. Jefferson. In their written compositions there was a marked difference; each being characteristic of the temperament, education, and habits of thought of the two. The style of Mr. Adams was vigorous, condensed, and abrupt, sacrificing elegance to strength, going straight to the point proposed, and not stopping to gather ornaments by the way; that of Mr. Jefferson was more marked by ease, gracefulness, finish, and a happy selection of words, and by a vein of philosophical reflection, which we do not see in the writings of Mr. Adams.

The eloquence of Mr. Adams has been delineated in a passage of great power and splendor by Mr. Webster. Though often quoted, it is of such uncommon merit, both in thought and style, that we have no hesitation in transcribing it.

"The eloquence of Mr. Adams resembled his general character, and formed indeed a part of it. It was bold, manly, and energetic; and such the crisis required. When public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech, farther than it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness are the qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshaled in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it,—they cannot reach it. It comes, if it comes at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country, hang on the decision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then patriotism is eloquent then self devotion is eloquent. The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object, this, this is eloquence; or rather, it is something greater and higher than eloquence,— it is action, noble, sublime, godlike action."

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The personal appearance and manners of Mr. Adams were particularly prepossessing. His face, as his portraits manifest, was intellectual and expressive, but his figure was low and ungraceful, and his manners were frequently abrupt and uncourteous. He had neither the lofty dignity of Washington, nor the engaging elegance and gracefulness, which marked the manners and address of Jefferson.

Mr. Adams was the father of four children, of whom none but the

Hon. John Quincy Adams are now living. Mr. Adams left to this son his mansion house, and many valuable papers. He gave to the town of Quincy a lot of land, to erect a church for the society, of which he was for sixty years a member. This edifice is now completed, and is one of the most beautiful churches in New-England. He also bequeathed another lot of land to the town for an Academy, and his library, of more than two thousand volumes, for the use of that Academy.

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THOMAS JEFFERSON.

THE early life of any man so distinguished as the subject of this memoir, must ever be interesting, not only to the philosopher, who delights to follow the gradually expanding mind, from the weakness of infancy, through all the stages of existence, to the full maturity of manhood, and to mark the effect of even trifling causes in ennobling or debasing the mind, and in forming the character; but also, in a degree, to all, whose interest in mankind is not lost in self. When we find a man, to whom have been intrusted the destinies of nations; who has constructed and set in motion great moral machines, whose influence and effects have been felt long after he has passed away; who has been active in promoting either the good or the evil of the human race; we naturally ask, whence he has sprung? With eager curiosity we look back, and in the sports of the child, in the pursuits and occupations of youth, we seek the origin and source of all that is noble and exalted in the man, the germ and the bud from which have burst forth the fair fruit and the beautiful flower; and we carefully treasure up each trifling incident and childish expression, in the hope to trace in them some feature of his after greatness.

Feeling that even the childhood of a man like Thomas Jefferson, and the growth of those feelings and opinions which afterwards embodied themselves in the Declaration of American Independence, would be interesting to every American, we should deem it fortunate, could we give even a short sketch of his early life. But of this, or of his family, we have few accounts; and must, therefore, content ourselves with a general outline of his after life, so full of striking events and useful labors.

THOMAS JEFFERSON, the third President of the United States, was born on the second day of April, 1743, (Old Style,) at Shadwell, an estate owned by his father, in Albermarle County, Virginia, and near to Monticello, where he afterwards resided. His family emigrated at a very early period from a part of Wales, near Mount Snowden, as is supposed, and occupied a most respectable situation in the colony. His father, Peter Jefferson, although self educated, was a man of talent and science, as would appear from the fact, that he was appointed, together with Joshua Fry, then Professor of Mathematics, in William and Mary College, to complete the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, which had been begun some time before; and also to make the first map of the State, since that made, or rather conjectured, by Captain Smith, could scarcely be called one. His father was married in 1739, to Jane, daughter of Isham Randolph, by whom he had six daughters and two sons, of whom Thomas was the elder.

At the age of five years, Thomas was sent to an English school, and at the age of nine, was placed under the care of Mr. Douglass, with whom he continued till his father's death, in August, 1757; by which event he became possessed of the estate of Shadwell, his birth-place. The two years after his father's decease were passed under the instructions of the Rev. Mr. Maury, who is represented to have been a fine classical scholar, at the termination of which period, that is, in 1760, he entered William and Mary College, where he remained two years. While at this institution, he enjoyed the instruction and conversation of Dr. Small, Professor of Mathematics; and we do not know how we can better express the benefit he received from that source, than in Jefferson's own words. "It was my great good fortune," says he, in the short memoir he has left us, "and probably fixed the destinies of my life, that Dr. William Small, of Scotland, was then Professor of Mathematics; a man profound in most of the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication, correct and gentlemanly manners, and an enlarged and liberal mind. He, most happily for me, became soon attached to me, and made me his daily companion, when not engaged in the school; and from his conversation, I got my first views of the expansion of science, and of the system of things in which we are placed. Fortunately, the philosophical chair became vacant soon after my arrival at college, and he was appointed to fill it per interim: and he was the first who ever gave, in that college, regular lectures in Ethics, Rhetoric, and Belles Lettres. He returned to Europe in 1762, having previously filled up the measure of his goodness to me, by procuring for me, from his most intimate friend, George Wythe, a reception as a student.of law, under his direction, and introduced me to the acquaintance and familiar table of Governor Fauquier, the ablest man who had ever filled that office. With him and at his table, Dr. Small and Mr. Wythe, his amici omnium horarum, and myself, formed a partie quarrée, and to the habitual conversations on these occasions, I owed much instruction.

Mr. Wythe continued to be my faithful and beloved Mentor in youth, and my most affectionate friend through life."

In 1767, Mr. Jefferson was called to the bar; and for the short time he continued in the practice of his profession, rose rapidly, and distinguished himself by his energy and acuteness as a lawyer, and by his enlarged and liberal views. But the times called for greater action; and the dull pleadings and circumscribed sphere of a colonial court were ill fitted for such a mind and for such views as Jefferson's. The policy of England, never kind and affectionate towards her colonies, whom she was disposed to treat as a froward child, had for several years past, manifested itself in more open violations of the rights of her American subjects. Her ministers seemed blinded to consequences, and wholly forgetful that the same spirit of liberty, which led the Pilgrims across the Atlantic to seek a refuge from the oppressions of a king and an archbishop, would compel them, now that the arm of the oppressor had followed them across the waters, to resist even unto blood the exactions of a Parliament. This spirit of resistance was already roused among the colonists, and was gradually spreading itself from Massachusetts Bay to