who can paint him there? Who can adequately describe that fascinating suavity of temper and manners; that spirit and grace of conversation, so happily blended with the oracles of phi losophy and experience; that amiable and cultivated benevolence, ever watchful of the feelings and comfort of others, even in the minutest trifles, which together formed around the hearth of Montpelier, a group of social virtues and attractions which, however incompetent the powers of language to portray, those who have felt their influence can never forget? In speaking of these things, Mr. President, I am but too forcibly reminded of my own personal loss, in the general and national calamity which we all bewail. I was the neighbour of Mr. MADISON, sir, and enjoyed his kindness and friendship; and if in speaking of a great national bereavement, my mind recurs too fondly to the chasm his death has left in the immediate circle of his friends, something I trust will be pardoned to the feelings of the heart.

"It is my melancholy satisfaction to have received, in all probability, the last letter ever signed by his hand. It bears date only six days before his death, and furnishes, in its contents, a striking illustration of that amiable benevolence and sensibility to the kindness of others, which formed so prominent a trait in his character. In that letter, which is now before me, he spoke of his enfeebled health; and his trembling and unsteady signature, so much in contrast with the usual firmness and regularity of his writing, bore a graphic and melancholy intimation of his approaching end. Still I trusted that his light might hold out till the fourth of July, that he might be restored, on that glorious anniversary, to an immortal companionship with those great men and patriots with whom he had been intimately connected in life, and whose coincident deaths, on the birthday of the nation's freedom, had imparted to that day,

if possible, an additional and mysterious illustration. But it has been ordered otherwise. His career has been closed at an epoch which, forty-nine years ago, witnessed his most efficient labours in the illustrious assembly which laid the foundations of our present system of government, and will thus, by the remembrance of his death, as well as by the services of his life, more closely associate him with that great work which is at once the source and guarantee of his country's happiness and glory.

"What honours, Mr. President, are there, by which we can do justice to a character which history will hold up to future ages as a model of public and private virtues, not surpassed by the brightest examples in ancient or modern times? Sir, there are none. Still it is proper that, as representatives of the American people, we should show by some suitable manifestations, how sincerely and deeply we participate in the universal feeling of grief on this mournful occasion; and I move you therefore the following resolution:

"Resolved, That a committee be appointed on the part of the Senate, to join such committee as may be appointed on the part of the House, to consider and report, by what token of respect and affection, it may be proper for the Congress of the United States to express the deep sensibility of the nation to the event of the decease of Mr. MADISON, just announced by the President of the United States."

The resolution was unanimously adopted by the Senate, and a committee was appointed by the Chair consisting of the following Senators:

Messrs. RIVES of Virginia,

CLAY of Kentucky,

CALHOUN of South Carolina,

GRUNDY of Tennessee,

BUCHANAN of Pennsylvania,

LEIGH of Virginia,

and

TALLMADGE of New York.

In the House of Representatives, after the message from the President had been read, Mr. PATTON of Virginia, made the following remarks:

"Mr SPEAKER: The particular relation in which I stand, as his immediate representative and personal friend, towards the great public benefactor whose decease, 'full of years and full of honours,' has just been announced by the message of the President of the United States, has induced the Virginia delegation to devolve upon me, the mournful duty of proposing for the adoption of the House, the resolution I am about to offer, for the purpose of determining upon the course to be pursued for giving expression to the national sensibility to the great bereavement we have suffered.

"I do not, however, Mr. Speaker, feel it to be a suitable occasion on which to employ or indulge in any studied phrase of panegyric on the public or private virtues of the venerable man whose loss we deplore.

"It is true, sir, that early imbued with the sincerest veneration for the character of Mr. Madison; with the profoundest admiration of his talents, and the warmest gratitude for his eminent and varied public services; there is no language that I could employ which would exaggerate the deep emotion with which I have been impressed by the melancholy intelligence of his death. And I am sure that it would be equally impossible for me to speak of him in any terms that would depict an individual, pre-eminent in all the virtues of social and private life, or one that combined the merits of a patriot, statesman and sage, that would not find a ready and full response in the minds and hearts of all who hear me. But it is not a feeble effort of this kind, such as I could make, nor even the highest effort of human eloquence, the lofty inspiration of poetry, 'the storied urn or animated bust,' that can rear an appro

priate monument to the memory of Mr. MADISON, or erect a suitable monument to his fame.

"His appropriate and enduring eulogium is to be found inscribed in those pages of his country's history which are identified with her honour and glory. It is engraved on every pillar of that splendid fabric of constitutional liberty under which we live. It is identified with the existence of that glorious union of confederated States which he contributed so essentially to form, and the maintenance and preservation of which, with all its numerous blessings, were the constant object of his care during his long, laborious and useful public life, and of his most earnest and anxious solicitude in the shades of retirement.

"And, Mr. Speaker, another and not less decisive and more affecting evidence of his merit and title to public gratitude, will be found in the deep grief with which his loss will be deplored, by every man in the nation as a great national calamity. I offer the resolution which I now send to the chair.

'Resolved, That a committee be appointed on the part of this House, to join such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to consider and report by what token of respect and affection, it may be proper for the Congress of the United States, to express the deep sensibility of the nation. to the event of the decease of Mr. Madison, just announced by the President of the United States to this House."

The resolution having been read,

Mr. ADAMS rose and addressed the Speaker. "By the general sense of the House," he said, "it is with perfect propriety that the delegation from the commonwealth of Virginia have taken the lead, in the melancholy duty of proposing the measures suitable to be adopted, as testimonials of the veneration due

from the legislature of the Union, to the memory of the departed patriot and sage, the native of their soil, and the citizen of their community.

"It is not without some hesitation and some diffidence, that I have risen to offer, in my own behalf, and in that of my colleagues upon this floor, and of our common constituents, to join our voice at once of mourning and of exultation, at the event announced to both Houses of Congress, by the message from the President of the United States—of mourning at the bereavement which has befallen our common country, by the decease of one of her most illustrious sons; of exultation at the spectacle afforded to the observation of the civilized world, and for the emulation of aftertimes, by the close of a life of usefulness and glory, after forty years of service in trusts of the highest dignity and splendour that a confiding country could bestow, succeeded by twenty years of retirement and private life, not inferior in the estimation of the virtuous and the wise, to the honours of the highest station that ambition can ever attain.

"Of the public life of JAMES MADISON, what could I say that is not deeply impressed upon the memory and upon the heart of every one within the sound of my voice? Of his private life, what but must meet an echoing shout of applause from every voice within this hall? Is it not, in a pre-eminent degree, by emanations from his mind that we are assembled here as the representatives of the people and States of this Union? Is it not transcendantly by his exertions that we all address each other here by the endearing appellation of countrymen and fellow-citizens? Of that band of benefactors of the human race, the founders of the Constitution of the United States, JAMES MADISON is the last who has gone to his reward. Their glorious work has survived them all. They have transmitted the A*