But he bade us hope that "the
sound of a nation's joy, rushing from our cities, ringing from our
valleys, echoing from our hills, might yet break the silence of his aged
ear; that the rising blessings of grateful millions might yet visit
with glad light his decaying vision." Alas! that vision was then closing
forever. Alas! the silence which was then settling on that aged ear was
an everlasting silence! For, lo! in the very moment of our festivities,
his freed spirit ascended to God who gave it! Human aid and human solace
terminate at the grave; or we would gladly have borne him upward, on a
nation's outspread hands; we would have accompanied him, and with the
blessings of millions and the prayers of millions, commended him to the
Divine favor.
While still indulging our thoughts, on the coincidence of the death of
this venerable man with the anniversary of independence, we learn
that Jefferson, too, has fallen, and that these aged patriots, these
illustrious fellow-laborers, have left our world together. May not
such events raise the suggestion that they are not undesigned, and
that Heaven does so order things, as sometimes to attract strongly the
attention and excite the thoughts of men? The occurrence has added new
interest to our anniversary, and will be remembered in all time to come.
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