come up to our delusive criterion. But, reduce human nature in general to the sad, yet true proportions of its qualities, and there are few, indeed, whose many virtues and slight counterbalancing frailties will leave them so far above the level, as he whose loss we now so sincerely deplore.

For the mind of the President was capable of the highest conception of what constitutes the common good, and his heart included in its broad embrace every object of the most enlarged benevolence. His fervent and devoted patriotism, bounded by no barrier of education or prejudice, was ready to undergo the extremest sacrifice for the public welfare. He exhibited a firm reliance, in the darkest hour, upon the tried resources of his own resolution and judgment, an unshaken constancy of purpose, a superiority to evil fortune, and serene moderation under the more dangerous advances of the best-a true and exact integrity within every public and private relation—and to unblemished purity of life he joined the most unassuming simplicity of demeanor, and that dignified humility, which is a jewel of untold price upon the brow of the ruler of the people. A long and prosperous course of existence, so spent in the service of his country as to conduct him, eventually, without solicitation, and against his well-known desires, to be the leader and chief magistrate of more than twenty millions of freemen, ended in an administration of

affairs, which, meeting and conquering many scruples and prejudices, has won for him the affection and veneration of the people, until now, that they weep no simulated tears, as his gray and honored head is laid in the common dust. And if qualities, and purposes, and successes, such as these, do not constitute the highest claims to human greatness, I am at a loss where to look for them in the history of mankind.

The Roman poet, in an age full at least of the memory of heroic qualities and characters, has set forth his model of a great ruler as

"Justum et tenacem propositi virum;"

and claiming this noble and admirable description, we can yet embellish its very justice in its application, when we proclaim that General Taylor was eminently a true man,―true to himself-true to all mankind; that he never did intentional wrong to any human being; but devoted his whole life, with all its most honorable purposes and energies, to the welfare of others and the promotion of the common cause.

That great biographer of the wonderful men of antiquity, whose pages he loved to study and contemplate, would have nobly depicted him; would have dwelt with fondness upon his excellent qualities and characteristics, and all that distinguished him, in an age by no means prodigal of heroic virtues or extraordinary qualities of mind and heart; and would have

assigned him no mean position amidst that illustrious company. And, under the influence of whatever motives his cotemporaries may be induced to regard him, it needs no prophetic vision to anticipate the fiat of posterity.

But since he is now so far removed from the effects of human censure or applause, it becomes us to consider how the republic may best derive benefit from his lamented death. His life is ours. But his death may avail us even more than his life, if we receive it as an admonition of the providence of God. If we are indeed a Christian people, we will not believe that the Supreme Ruler of the universe, without whom "not a sparrow falleth to the ground," has taken away the head and hope of the nation, at its hour of extremest need, without the design to impress some forgotten lesson upon our hearts. If it tend to lead us to more entire dependence upon Him; to repress the narrow and unworthy passions which agitate us; to soften the bitterness of party strife; to subdue the rancor of public and private animosities; to induce us to yield our partial views to considerations of the general welfare; to control and conquer sectional differences; to enhance in our eyes the value of sacred institutions, and to bind us more closely to our common country; could such be the result, neither the glorious recollections of his life, nor the sad memorials of his untimely death will

have proved altogether in vain. And he, could he live to-day, would count his valued life but a willing sacrifice, to secure such blessings to the land he so loved and served.

And, with this imperfect tribute to the memory of a great and good man, I respectfully move that this Circuit Court of the United States do now adjourn.

LIFE AND WORKS OF FISHER AMES.*

[From the Monthly Law Reporter.]

THE written lives of great men are truly invaluable. If fairly and properly presented, there is no class of writing so useful, and it certainly loses nothing in this respect, by being usually entertaining as well as instructive. And we suppose, that nothing tends so much to keep up society, and to check that downward tendency, to which, by the law of nature, all human things are subject, as the example and instruction afforded by biographies of the illustrious departed. We are the more disposed to offer this consideration to the attention of our readers, because in our day a great deal has been said in derogation of what some have denominated "hero-worship; " especially by those who are willing to forget that the elements of great character, after all, must be great qualities; and who can, necessarily, offer us, as a substitute, only qualities, scarcely to be accounted so

* Works of Fisher Ames. With a Selection from his Speeches and Correspondence. Edited by his Son, Seth Ames. Boston: Little, Brown & Company. 1854.