every thing dear around home's hearth, and set their faces toward a common altar, journeying up thither with the determination to consecrate everything to the public weal? It is certain that they were capable of properly appreciating the perils that encompassed them, as well as the benefits which might flow from the efforts they designed to make. Never was there a popular assembly of politicians that comprised a greater proportion of highly educated members. Nearly one-half were graduates of colleges at home or abroad. Some were selfeducated, in the best school, and to the highest degree. The ancient poets taught that Astræa, the goddess of Justice, had her last residence among unsophisticated husbandmen before she quitted the earth. The Genius of Liberty found a rural home in our land ere she was throned by general acclamation at Carpenter's Hall, in the central colony of America. Twenty-five of the fifty-six immortal men had trod the soil and studied in the institutions of Great Britain. Among those who had not received university laurels, were philosophers like Franklin and jurists like Roger Sherman.

In this connection, we should not forget the stripling surveyor, born on the banks of the Potomac, beneath a farmer's roof, and early left an orphan. No academy aided his youthful aspirations, no college crowned him with its honors. But industry and integrity provided for the best education of his great natural powers. "Himself his own cook, having no spit but a forked stick, no plate but a large chip," at sixteen years of age, he is found roaming over the Alleghanies and along the Shenandoah, training himself under the eye of Heaven, one

day to be the hope and leader of a nation in arms. Most truly might he have said:

"To rear me was the task of power divine,

Supremest wisdom and primeval love."

In the language of Sparks, "Happy was it for America, happy for the world, that a great name, a guardian genius, presided over destinies in war, combining more than the virtues of the Roman Fabius, and the Theban Epaminondas, and compared with whom, the conquerors of the world, the Alexanders and Cæsars, are but pageants crimsoned with blood and decked with the trophies of slaughter, objects equally of the wonder and the execration of mankind. The hero of America was the conqueror only of his country's foes, and the hearts of his countrymen. To the one he was a terror, and in the other he gained an ascendancy, supreme, unrivalled, the tribute of admiring gratitude, the reward of a nation's love-our WASHINGTON !"

The congress of '76 has assembled, and solemn prayer has just been offered for the divine blessing on the country and in behalf of the patriotic cause. Let us enter the hall and contemplate the august assemblage. The first thing that strikes us is, the wonderful diversity of character present, constituting a perfect whole. The quality that is deficient in one, in another superabounds; where one is wise to construct a theory, another is equally skilful to demonstrate its practicability. Whether we desire severe logical deduction, or gorgeous rhetorical expression; whether it be necessary to convince the judgment or inflame the passions; no models can in

the world be found superior to those here congregated.

In the President's chair sits Hancock, crowned with a demeanor graceful and splendid, like "blazing Hyperion on his orbed throne." Prominent in the heroic band, and oldest of their number, is he who at the same time snatched the lightnings from the skies and the sceptre from the oppressor's hand. There, too, is Morris, the financier of the Revolution, whose generous aid, advanced on his own credit, paved the way for the victories at Trenton and Princeton, and in the gloomiest hour caused the American eagle to soar aloft toward Heaven. More retired, but not less interested, is that old Puritan, Samuel Adams, "on his front, engraven thought and public care." He was among the very first to excite popular rebellion against wrong, and he is here to aid its progress and pay for its consummation. Of few words, but abounding in great and beneficent deeds, he sits in council grave and taciturn, like "gray-haired Saturn quiet as a stone," his soul firm as granite and unbending before the storm. His more oratorical namesake, John Adams, with watchful eye and ear is scanning the proceedings; while every look and motion betrays his readiness to exemplify his favorite maxim, "I would rather be in the wrong with Plato than in the right with Epicurus." Lee, with inimitable suavity and elaborate grace, moves in chivalrous majesty on the scene. Witherspoon, the divine, "visibly written blessed in his looks," is there, with the meekness of a minister of Jesus Christ, but with a firmness that never quailed in the presence of his country's foe. In the alternative between the sacrifice

of freedom or the loss of life, like the Spartan mother, he would rather have seen his son brought home a corpse upon his shield, than dishonored by its loss. And Rutledge, the youngest of the patriots, comes forward to illustrate in his own person the ancient apologue of the youthful Hercules, in the pride and strength of beauty, surrendering his entire soul to the worship of exalted virtue. But it is needless any further to specify; all, as one man, are ready to exclaim, our mother is America, our battle is for freedom, purity of purpose is our breastplate, and the favor of Heaven is our shield.

In the momentous proceedings of July 4th, 1776, we miss the persons of several of the most famous men in our colonial and revolutionary history. Their absence strikingly indicates the care of Providence in all great events. Bold and daring patriots, with the most intrepid zeal, had long since roused the colonies and stung them into indignation against tyrannic wrongs. Those pioneers of national prosperity had urged on the fearful crisis, and at length the period had arrived when everything was at stake. But when counsel was needed most, and the action of sublime statesmanship commenced, the men of passion declined, their mission being gloriously fulfilled. He who rules over all withdrew them from the scene. Otis, disabled by a brutal attack made on him by a British emissary, lay secluded from public life. Henry was indeed sent up to Congress, with one effort of almost divine eloquence to break the spell that at first bound the assembly in awful silence; then he withdrew, and was little heard of more. The successors of these primitive patriots were not less

resolute, but more discreet. A consciousness of the fearful responsibility devolved upon them by their position, seems to have rendered them solemnly reflective and sublimely self-possessed. To describe their eloquence will be the purpose of subsequent chapters; at present, we will look only at one grand event and its associations-the Declaration of Independence.

One whom we have not yet named, but in some respects the most renowned of men, Jefferson, appears before Congress, bearing in his hand that noblest of all documents not the result of inspired wisdom. "Whether we regard it as a specimen of strong and fervid eloquence, of manly remonstrance, or of deep and solemn appeal, it is every way sustained and wonderful. The writer speaks as if he felt himself to be the voice of a great and outraged people, giving indignant utterance to its many wrongs and oppressions, and in face of Heaven, and the whole earth for witnesses, declaring that they shall be endured no longer."

The question was on the adoption of the Declaration. We should consider the character of that document, and the circumstances under which it was reported. It has been called the Chart of American Freedom; but it was vastly more elevated than the famous Magna Charta wrung from King John at Runnymede. There is some resemblance in the original of the two documents, but their spirit is very little alike. John Lackland, as he was called, levied heavy contributions on the barons, and seized at his pleasure their beasts of burden and agricultural implements. This touched the selfish interests of the owners of the serfs and soil. It is a singu