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GeorgiaS Statesman.
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K THE
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I" likOGIUBI
lon JEFFERSON AND ADAMS,
I Delivered to the Citizens of Savannah,
I BT THE
I HON. T. u. P. CHARLTON.
I CoCSTRYMEN ! REPUBLICANS !
I Jefferson is dead ! the light which
I gleamed from the beacon of Monti-
I cello, irradiating the ways of our pa-
I {riots, is extinguished forever.
[ This mournful event, might have
I been expected among the ordinary
I accompanyments of nature’s march.
I If the alarm bad been rung some
I years ago, it would have struck more
■ painful upon our hearts than at this
Itime, because our wishes, our hopes,
lour anxieties, our calculations of the
I contingencies of human life would
I have flattered us with the hope of a
I greater longevity ; still if he angel
I cf death had executed his commis-
I sion, we could only have said, “ the
I father of the Republic has attained
I to a fullness of years, and all thanks
I and gratitude be given to the Al-
I mighty for having p rmitted him so
I long to live." We know my coun-
I try men, that death is the terminus of
I that port of destination, at which we
I must all arrive—it is the haven into
I which this barque of human exist-
I ence, no matter how tossed, shat
tered and dismantled by the tem
pests of our passions, our vices, our
crimes, must sooner or later be tow
ed, there to lie tor repairs, at the
mercy of God—or gliding tranquilly
in, with no other injuries, than time
may have inflicted, is safely and tri
umphantly moored, amid the tears,
the affection and plaudits of man
kind.
A death, thus honored, is more
glorious than all the dazzling ener
gies of active life, which fill this vain
world with their grandeur and their
tumults. We mourn not then that
Jefferson is gone. Lamentations for
that event, as an afflictive dispensa
tion of Providence, would be to ar
raign the goodness which has indulg
ed our country with an extension of
life, beyond that span usually allotted
to man.
No' Our sorrow' is erected upon
a nobler and more rational founda
tion. It is a sorrow which flows
from the recollection that He, who
stood first in the affections of our
people; that He, toward whom all
eyes were turned in perilous times
ot public liberty—that He whose re
sponses were those of an oracle with
cut its ambiguity—that He, whose
bem volent heart cherished with pa
ternal fondness first, the children of
this his own Republic, and then. x
panded its benevolence to the whole
human family—that He, who stood
alone in asperationsto heaven for li
berty and happiness to all mankind,
aud by i,is acts opened the way to
both— that He. this highly favored
and gifted mortal is gone, lerving no
cne behind imbued with a double
Portion of his spirit—no one to take
up the mantle which fell from him,
in his assent to the bosom of his Cre
ator.
We grieve not that this patriarch’s
hie has terminated. Jefferson “ liv
ed that he might die, and died that
be might live forever."
The source of our affliction is, that
"emay never look upon his like a
|ain! but even this affliction is ab
sorbed in the consolation, that the
spirit of Jeff erson still walks, and will
ever remain among us.
In days of political tribulation—in
days when faction shall have raised it s
trest to deface or pull down one pil
lar which upholds our beautiful and
magnificent cathedral—in days when
ambition, covered by the cloak of
hypocrisy, shall impiously strive to
crush with his iron heel, the sleeping,
’insuspi cting Genius of the Repub
lic—then, my countrymen, will be
seen the sabre of Washington, flash
ing its appelling coruscations—con
founding with its terrors, and menac
ing with its vengeance, the villain,
traitor, or desperate conspirator—
and when the Father of his country,
through th© influence of his heroic
-pint shall have dispelled this storm,
r ady to burst its thunders o’er your
icads, then will descend the gentle
philanthropic spirit of the Father of
the Republic, again to bring back
our misguided people to the paths
of their duty, again to utter in its own
affectionate accent, “ Ye are all
brethren, all republicans” irxthe same
pursuit of happiness, all the favorite
sons of Freedom—banish then your
discords, on which despots look with
exultation, and smile with hope—
imitate the heroism and disinterest
edness of that spirit which led your
fathers to victory, and which has just
saved you from an impending dan
ger —and, above all, cling to the in
stitutions which have sprung out of
the liberty promulgated in ’76, and
among the blessings and mercies ye
may invoke at heaven’s shrine, let
the first and most fervent be " O
God ! save the republic.”
Listen, my countrymen, to the spi
rit of Jefferson, and such will ever
be its admonitions. I therefore re
peat ; “he lived to die, and died,
that he might live forever.”
Ever verdant be the wreath which
victory and liberty, with united bene
dictions placed upon the bust of
Washington—eternal be the grati
tude, which this great democracy
must manifest for the memory and
services of a hero, who in the chron
icles of the world, stands alone in
having deserved the eviable appella
tion of “ Father of his country.”—
Still it must be conceded, my coun
trymen, that the great moral cause
which afforded the means to conquer
that appellation, emanated from the
mind and heart of Jefferson.
The desideratum was, not the sim
ple, isolated independence of our na
tion.
It might have taken a separate,
distinct station among the powers of
the earth—it might have thrown oil
allegiance to the British King, and
yet have acquired no essential bene
fits by the revolution.
This species of political independ
ence was not the exclusive object of
our statesmen and patriots. Tur
key, Russia, China, Spain, Morocco,
were, and are separate and distinct
sovereignties—and yet despotism in
each, dictates the rule of obedience,
ignorance or bigotry the rule of
faith.
The population of these empires,
and monarchies, and others of a sim
milar character, enjoying the blessings
of independence, composed of slaves,
vassals, serfs, and subjects with no
other rights than those which are
gratuitously bestowed by their lords
and masters.
Without a total change then of
government, onr independence would
not have been worth a drop of blood
shed in its achievement.
The value of our independence
was derived and derived entirely
from its social or civil liberty, as
contrasted with the political or exte
rior liberty, common to every sov
ereignty, assuming the rights and
immunities of a distinct nation.
To whom then, my countrymen, are
we indebted for these lights, which
illuminating and bursting through thi
gloom which had obscured the intel
lects of the wisest of the earth, sheti
their hitherto concealed effulgence
upon this hemisphere ? To the mind
of Jefferson, who held them up in the
“ Declaration of Independence,” of
which he was the author, and to
whose inspiration the glory of that
charter is due.
For the first time in the convul
sive revolutions of the earth-*-aiid
among all the efforts of human gen
ius and benevolence to ameliorate
the condition of man, were these
written truths announced by him as
the ordinance of nature :—“ that all
men are created equal—that they are
endowed by their Cr ator with cer
tain unalienable rights; and that a
mong these are, life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.” Advert to
those regions where the sun of liber
ty first rose to warm the souls of
their people, and to fill this world
with the glory of their heroism, their
institutions, their arts and their phi
losophy ; advert to the classic re
gions of Rome and Greece, we shall
not find there, in theory or practice,
the equality, our charter has included
as a fundamental article in the code
of nature, and of nature’s God.
In the Roman system the Patrician
aristocracy, was co-evil with the re
public ; and expired only when
Imperial despotism had levelled all
or substituted higher distinctions. In
Greece, the government of Pericles,
or some other oligarch, with no bet
ter pretensions to legitimate author
ity, evinced, that perfect equality
was a solicism in their turbulent de
mocracies.
It is in vain to look into the insti
tutions of the modern world for the
great truth, that “ all men are creat
ed equal”—that the sovereign pow
er resides in the people, and that
Hz tibierunt artes, pacisque imponere morem, parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.—Virgil.
MILLEDGEVILLE, TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1826.
governors were made for them, not
they for the governors.
The annunciation of that truth by
Thomas Jefferson, laid the solid foun
dations of our form of pohty, and as
sociated with it as irresistable cor
rollaries the imprescr.ptable rights
of “ life, liberty and the pursuit of
h ppiness.”
Not for Independence alone then,
did Washington and his heros march
to battle—for that abstractedly con
sidered, would have been too dearly
bought with the blood and treasures
of our fathers. The contest was for
that civil liberty, which enters into
all the relations of our lives, political,
legal, religious and domestic—that
liberty which is no respector of per
sons, but opening the high places of
the republic to every one, who can
reach there by his virtue, his talents,
or his patriotism—destroys the pre
tensions of birth—which laughs to
scorn the gewgaws, the distinctions
and the honors of an hereditary
King, and an hereditary nobility—
which tramples under its feet the
pride and tyranny of ecclesiastical
hierarchy, which imposing burthens
npon all, in proportion to their re
spective means, equalizes the tribute
which each has to pay in support of
a government conferring upon each
an efficient agency, and which lastly
considering all men as equal, admin
isters with inexorable impartiallity to
the rich and to the poor.
This is the civil, in contradistinc
tion to mere political liberty, an
nounced by the illustrious dead, in
his “ Declaration of Ind pendence,”
this liberty is the result of the war
of the revolution, has since been in
corporated into our constitution and
jurisprudence—has placed this na
tion upon that height upon which
the Eternal himself must look with
complacency—despots with fear and
trembling; the oppressed and en
lightened of the world, with joy and
idmiration.
With this view of a system, the el
ments of which originated in, and
sprung from the mind of Jefferson,
was matured by the wisdom of his
compeers, and achieved by the sword
of Washington, is there an American
citizen, native or adopted, that does
not feel that he is not only the freest
but the most dignified man upon
earth 1 Who is there upon the face
of the earth, who in a contrast with
his condition, can quell his pride in
the comparrison ?
Take the King upon his throne,
surrounded by the pageantry of roy
alty, encompassed by the blaze of
military explots, towards whom ob
sequious courtiers and multitudes ea
gerlay advance to how the knee or
kiss the hand of majesty, who traces
his genealogy back to a long train of
ancestors ofhis dynasty, equally dis
tinguished in deeds of blood, con
quests and worldly splendor. A
inidst this supposed consumation of
human greatness and happiness, the
genius of our republic, stations an
American citizen, standing erect, the
true image of his Creator, he feels
no degradation in the presence of the
monarch.—He feels that he sees be
fore him only a man, and contemns
the adoration that man expects as a
God. He views with blended emo
tions of pity, disgust and abhorance,
the prostration of those noble and
inherent attributes of character,
given with the impartiality of divine
justice to every individual of the hu
man race, here groveling in the dust,
chained, fettered, and subjugated by
the debasing moral caus sos mon
archical institutions and its privileg
ed orders.
Animated by the tutelary geniue
beside him, he looks upon the scens
with as composed an air, and a lofty
deportment as th sovereign himself.
Attracting attention, he is called to
the presence and these enquiries ad
dressed to him—Upon what authori
ty do you assume this bearing ? What
is your rank ? Upon what pretensions
is your audacity founded ? I am a
man, sir, the countryman of Wash-,
ington, and Jefferson. My rank is
one of the sovereign people, and as
an apology for my alleged audacity,
know that I have been brought hith
er to witness the contrast which ex
ists between the equality of freemen
and the immcasurahledistance. which
separates you and your nobility from
the millions of your more virtuous
subjects, and at the same time to
communicate to you and all others
wearing crowns, that the revolution
of my country has replaced the writing
on the wall, which the omnipotent
disposer of events will, in his due
season fulfil, end that as preparatory
to that millenium, know also, there
is added to the warning “ REBEL
LION AGAINST TYRANTS, IS
THE LAW OF GOD.”
The genius snatches our country
men from this Pandemonium and con
veys him to the permanent residence
of Liberty, on the highest peak of
our Alleghany. She there, laying
her hand upon his head, proclaims
him one of natures kings and noble
men, and as the patent of his high
descent, delivers him the “ Declara
tion of Independence.”
Take this as an allegory my country
men, yet truth lies at its foundation,
and the American citizen is as this pre
sentation exhibits him. How im
mense then is the debt wc owe to
the man thus elevating his fellow
citizens above the people of other
climes and to the compatriot* states
man, who infused the soul of his in
spiration into the body of our social
compact.
Sixty one years, a term which few
of us exceeded in this probationary
state, Mr. J fferson was occupied in
public duties, and during all the tri
als of that p rilous and tempestuous
period, no one accredited imputation
has sullied the fair and unspotted re
putation acquired nqf only in his own
country but throughout the civilized
and enlightened communities of the
world. He is emphatically called the
philanthropist, the friend of mankind,
the friend of the people. The details
ofhis official life are the property of
history, and will abundantly shew,
the legitimate claims he has to the
appellations bestowed upon him
His administration in 1801, to the
termination ofhis presidency was a
practical illustration of the principles
of “ 76” and “ per se (< standing alone,
would not only challenge this testi
mony of respect, from the whole of
the present generation, but hallow it
in the opinion of posterity.
It is as foreign from my duty, as it
is from my intention to awaken feel
ings which ought to slumber on this
occasion. The voice of eulogy is
only raised to descant upon the vir
tu sos the dead, not to enumerate
imperfections over which these vir
tues have thrown a mantle of oblivion
Know nas a disciple of the Jefferon
school, from the tenets of which the
allurements of no temptations have,
or will ever induce me to aberate, 1
w ould on any other occasion throw
off restraints upon feelings which
have advised me through life, never
to compromise between my delicacy
and my principles. But lam now
speaking, and shall presently renew',
the theme of the dead, and the man
date I hear from the tomb is, ob
serve, “charity, humility forbear
ance.” I have endeavored to obey
it, and shall continue to do so; in the
remaining part of the duty I have to
discharge. Fellow-Citizens! Before
I take leave of Mr. Jefferson (as un
connected with another father of the
republic whose spirit has also taken
its flight"to the “ ancient of days.”)
I must repel an objection aimed once
in bitter hostility against his charac
ter and principles, and unfortunately
for a time made a deep impression
upon the minds ofhis pious country
men. It is said, Mr. Jefferson was
an infidel, that he rejected the Chris
tian religion, and reposed his hopes
of salvation and mercy upon the ab
stractions of his philosophy. Political
opponents—bigots out raged by his
act for establishing religious freedom,
gave currency to a calumny, as un
founded as it was cruel and ungener
ous. In the preamble of that act he
reverently speaks of “ the holy au
thor of our Religion, the Lord both
of body and mind” and in his notes
on Virginia we have the following
pious apostrophe: “Can the liberties
of a nation be thought secure, when
we have removed their only firm ba
sis, a conviction in the minds of the
people that these liberties ar of the
gift of God.” Can these references of
Mr. J fferson be other than to the
Christian dispensation? The whole
tenor ofhis meek and benevolent and
useful life evinced the purity of his
faith and the honesty of its convic
tions. The great mind of Jefferson
endowed as it was from above, and
translated, as if by express permis
sion to his Lord, “both of body and
mind” at that very hour a Nation’s
Jubilee had concentrated the honors
of his earthly career—did not, could
not have rejected the internal eviden
ces of the Gospel.
In the history of Christianity, my
countrymen, (here I must acknowl
edge some obligations to a foreign ec
clesiastic*) nations commence and
end, they pass with their customs
their laws, their opinions, their scien
ces, only one doctrine remains always
believed, notwithstanding the inter
est which the passions have not to
believe it, always immoveable amidst
this rapid and perpctusl movement,
always attacked, and always justified,
always sheltered from the charg s
which centuries bring upon tho most
solid institutions, the most accredit
ed systems always the more astonish
ing, and the more admired in propor
tion as it is the more examined, the
consolation of the poor and the sweet
est hope of the rich, the Jh.f*is ofthe
people, and the restraint of despots ;
the rule of the power which it mude
♦AHi Mtnnuu.
rates, and obedience which it sancti
fies, the great charter of humanity,
where eternal justice not willing that
even crime should be without hope
and without protection, stipulates for
mercy in favor of repentance ; a doc
trnie as simple as it is profound, as
humble as it is high and magniificcnt,
a doctrine which snbjugates the
most powerful genius by its sublimity
and proportions itself by the clear
ness of its light to the most feeble in
tellect : in fine, an indestructible doc
trine which resists every thing, tri
umphs over every thing, over vio
lence and contempt, over sophisms
and scaffolds, and powerful in its an
tiquity, its victorious evidences and
its benefits seems to reign over the
human mind by right of birth, of con
quest and of love.
It is manifest from the recorded
opinions of Mr Jefferson, that he as
sented to this doctrine. His opposi
tion was not to Christianity, but as
he has expressed in perhaps the last
production of his pen, to ‘ monkish
ignorance and superstition.” He ad
vocated the freedom of the mind, the
worship of the Deity after every
man’s own conscience, and in that
consists, Ai icricaiis, the religious lib
erty, without which your civil liberty
would soon become the submissive
ally of clerical domination, and then
farewell to our equality, farewell to
all the present and anticipated bles
sings of representative democracy.
Fellow Citizens, I must now di
rect the current of your feelings to
another Father of the Republic,
whose spirit has also taken its flight
to that house “not made with hands
eternal in the heavens-’’John Adams,
is dead! If your hearts, my country
men, are fired with revolutionary
recollections—if you value, as you
do your lives and sacred honor the
civil liberty I have feebly delineated
—if your reverence the patriot, the
members of that Amphyctionic coun
cil of ”76, who fearlessly and trusting
only to the Lord of Hosts and the
virtue and courage of our people,
threw down the gauntlet to the Brit
ish Monarch, and declared this Re
public free sovereign and independ
ent, then honor and cherishthe mem
ory of this enthusiast of the revolu
tion this intrepid spirit, who una
paled by the terrors of Treason and
looking tyranny in the face, shouted “
Rebellion and Liberty,”
His fervent soul did not satisfy
itself with one manifestation of its
overflowing zeal.—He was one of
the Committee appointed by Con
gress, to draft a Declaration of Inde-
endence, and He, in a strain of Ro
man eloquence called upon Congress
no longer to delay, but to let that
happy moment gitae birth to the A
merican Republic, Mr. Adams se
conded the motion, signed the immor
tal manifesto, thus exhausting every
proof of sincere devotedness to the
cause he lisd advocated.
Regardless of consequences, he
gave the full weight ofhis civic cour
age and personal disinterestedness,
to the scale of our liberty and inde
pendence, and with unabated ardor
and consistency, down to the period
which developed in the constitution
of the United States the sacred prin
ciples for which he had contended,
and our warriors bled, he did w hat
few had done before him — he encom
passed the head of the civilian, with
the laurels of the hero.
The principles emanating from
the mighty intellect of Jefferson,
Adams put into operation, and look
ing down the vista of time, his ener
getic inind, warmed by the nascent
freedom ofhis country saw' and pre
dicted the future grandeur and glory
of the Republic. Wrapt in the vis
ion his patriotism had created, he at
once gave an unrestrained flow to the
sentiments it had inspired The
Fourth of July will be, ought to be an
anniversary for ever. On every re
currence of it, bend the knee in
thankfulness to Almighty God. Let
your joy be manifested in the roar of
artillery, the ringing of bells, by bon
fires, games, illuminations, ye cannot
exceed in these indications, the hon
ors due to the merited triumphs of
the day. Thus the Patriot poured
forth his enthusiasm over the new
born emancipation which he hoped
was to last forever. The details of
his administration as chief magistrate
of these United States, are also the
property ofthe historian. At that
period in the day spring oflife, em
erging from collegiate discipline, fill
ed with the sentiments of the Roman
and Grecian schools, and the princi
ples of our Revolution, I was not a
rnong those who chuuutcd hosannas,
to this once great Apostle of Liberty,
but in common w ith the considerate
and magnanimous of my political per
suasions, I have never ceased to
venerate and admire Mr. Adams in
in his retirement. Leaving his meas
ures at the disposal ofthe public opin
on, he there abandoned all individu
al solicitude about them. He there
[OR $4 IF NOT PAID IN SIX MONTHS.
NO. 36.. ..V0L. I.
encouraged no movement of faction
evinced no inclination for prosleytism
—put forth no public sentiments of
obstruction or animadversion on the
conduct or measures ofhis success
ors, but satisfied as it would seem,
with retrospection of those services
which contributed to bestow liberty
and happiness upon his country, he
wished only to be known as the Sage
of Quincy,—sufficiently honored and
graified with the passing compli
ments of the stranger, or the gratula
tions of his neighbors and fellow citi
zens : —sufficiently honored and gra
tified with their comment, “ their
lives a patriot of ’ 76 ; a signer of th©
Declaration of Independedce.”
This my countrymen is true great
ness, this is philosophy, this is Chris
tianity, this is patriotism- It is tha
stern republicanism of Fabricius, as
sociated with the unassuming virtue
of Cincinnatus.
Need I add more to his eulogy,
ought I, can I utter another senti
ment auxiliary to the tribut your
hearts are now paying to those nobler
spirits of the Revolution? It is un
necessary, for a concurrence of ©vents:
as wonderful as they appear to have
been directed by an order from on
high has tilled up every measure oi ho
norevenifthese ceremonies had been
omitted i had my lips been closed.
On the 50th anniversary of Inde
pendence the so ils of these illustri
ous men, are called to their Maker.
It has been said, and I repeat it, “ if
chariots of fire had descended their
translation could not have been more
glorious.” The wish of Jefferson
was that he might live to breath the
air of the Jubilee.—On the morning
of that day, the patriarch of Quincy
hearing the thunder of artillery and
the merry peels of bells, enquired
the cause of the rejoicing and being
informed it was the 4th of July, ex
claimed with his ’76 animation “ it is
a glorious day. God bless it ! God
bless you all ! Independence for
ever!” Thus carrying tin ruling
passion of each into the last moments
of this world’s existence.
The Almighty interposes his spe
cial mercy and goodness when he
sees fit to do so ; and it would ap
pear to our blind and imperfect con
jectures, that these illustrious men;
had by the special permission of his
providence lived to that very hour,
when ni the midst of the acclama
tion of a people they had made free,
great and happy ; their spirits should
wing their way together to the ever
lasting mansion prepard for them, to
that God, under whose guidance and
protection they had built upon a rock,
the temple of our Liber'y.
This being the almost obvious
manifestation ofhis will, are we not
justified in the belief that these vir
tuous dead wore among his elect—
that if in the collisions of human er
rors and opinions one of these spirits
had for a few years in a protracted
life, wandered, in the opinions of u
majority of his countrymen, from the
principles consecrated by the strug
gles of the revolution, and that if
such transgressions had been en
registerd inthe chancery of Heaven,
the recording Angels had then been
commanded “ to drop a tear upon
and cancel them forever,”
Fellow Citize.ms ! The conclu
sion to which I was arriving, is post
poned by a messenger now descen
ding to bless you, and to honor the
dead. If not seen by you, the vision
is present to my mind’s eye, in all its
beauty and loveliness ; and perhaps
lam thus favored from som senti
ment I may have unconscously utter
ed operating as an invocation.
Lacies ! fair Countrywomen !
it is a female and such should be the
personification of every virtue upon
which is suspended the happiness of
man.
Ye are stars of the night, ye are gems of
the morn ;
Ye are dew drops ; whose lustre illumine
th« thorn ;
And rayless that night is, that morning un
blest
When no beam from your eye, light up
peace in the breast.
I will attempt to describ her cos
tume —For more than twenty three
hundred years it has received no
change amidst all the mutations and
revolutions of fashion, and though it
may not be graceful in your eyes, yet
to the taste of the patriot, though all
ages, it has appeared ever splendid
ever becoming.
The form of this being expanded
by nature in all her beautiful sym
metry and proportions, is enveloped
by a robe of snowy whiteness. Her
cestus is the emeralds hue, clasped
by a diamond, brilliant as a fixed
star. From her left shoulder floats
an-azure mantle gently agitated by
the zephyrs. Her auburn tresses,
clustering and luxuriant are encir
cled by the “ bonnet rouge.” Her
feet and arms are bare, scarcely dis
tinguishable in whiteness from her
robe of scovr llcr dark bluo eye.