There, too, is the name of that other proscribed
patriot, Samuel Adams, a man who hungered and thirsted for the
independence of his country, who thought the declaration halted and
lingered, being himself not only ready, but eager, for it, long before
it was proposed: a man of the deepest sagacity, the clearest foresight,
and the profoundest judgment in men. And there is Gerry, himself among
the earliest and the foremost of the patriots, found, when the battle of
Lexington summoned them to common counsels, by the side of Warren, a
man who lived to serve his country at home and abroad, and to die in
the second place in the government. There, too, is the inflexible, the
upright, the Spartan character, Robert Treat Paine. He also lived to
serve his country through the struggle, and then withdrew from her
councils, only that he might give his labors and his life to his native
state, in another relation. These names, fellow-citizens, are the
treasures of the commonwealth: and they are treasures which grow
brighter by time.
It is now necessary to resume and to finish with great brevity the
notice of the lives of those whose virtues and services we have met to
commemorate.
Mr. Adams remained in congress from its first meeting till November,
1777, when he was appointed minister to France.
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