distinguished for variety of important public service as that of John Quincy Adams.

Only ten years the junior of Hamilton, he

lived until 1848.

Under Washington he was Minister to The Hague, to Portugal, and to Prussia. Later he was State Senator and United States Senator. After an eventful mission abroad as Minister to Russia, and as one of the commissioners in the negotiations which led to the Treaty of Ghent, he became Secretary of State under President Monroe, whom he succeeded as Chief Magistrate. Retiring at the age of sixty-two, he subsequently entered upon the most important part of his career as Member of Congress, serving for about sixteen years, until he received the death stroke on the floor of the House.

To Mr. Adams must be attributed the first suggestions of what has come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. In 1823 he informed the Russian Minister "that we should contest the rights of Russia to any territorial establishments on this continent, and that we should assume distinctly the principle that the American continents are no longer subjects for any new European colonial establishments." This was the precursor of the famous declaration in President Monroe's message.

Ever characterized by independence and devotion to what he believed to be the right, his old age was devoted in no small part to the contest against slavery. With an indomitable spirit and extraordinary power in debate, strong in his absolute conviction of the righteousness of his cause, he was willing to stand alone, unterrified and unconquerable. His chief title to fame rests not upon official honors nor upon his holding the highest office in the Nation's gift, but upon his service as the well-equipped and dauntless champion of human rights in our national assembly.

On an occasion like this we are vividly impressed with the fact that monuments may perpetuate names and form imperishable records, but they cannot confer fame or make enduring the respect of mankind. To serve their appropriate purpose they must record what is already written in the hearts of the people and stand as tribute to the continued esteem which alone they are powerless to perpetuate. In the review of our Nation's history, short as it is, the petty schemes of political manipulators, the unconsequential victories in conflicts for the spoils of office, and ignoble efforts of selfishness appear in their true proportions. The Nation is a sound critic and it

pays its final homage to those who with inflexible purpose and fidelity to conscience have devoted their talents unreservedly to the service of the people. The trickster, the intriguer, and those who seek to win by strategy what public confidence will not bestow, quickly pass out of the notoriety which they may temporarily achieve, unless by reason of exceptional ability they may live to point a contrast. The Nation is jealous of its ideals, and it never has been more insistent upon the straightforward conduct of public affairs than it is to-day. It demands of its representatives single-minded devotion to public duty and a knightly sense of honor in the administration of public office. We should lose no opportunity to enforce the lessons which may be drawn from the lives of those illustrious Americans by whom we as a people have been so richly served. And from their labors, of which these exercises are a fitting recognition, we may draw inspiration which will enable us to go forward undismayed to meet the problems thrust upon us by our rapidly extending activities.

V.

Address at the Jamestown Exposition on Jefferson Memorial Day, July 5, 1907, in Connection with the Reunion of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."-Declaration of Independence.

The immortal words of the preamble of the Declaration of Independence recorded more than a protest against exactions of the British crown. They were more than an assertion of the right of the Colonies to be independent States. They passed beyond the necessities of the moment and transcended perhaps in their broad import the sentiment of many who, exasperated by tyrannical demands, were ready

to renounce their former allegiance. They have the perennial value of a political creed voicing in terms of conviction the aspirations of humanity. They suggest to us the long struggle against the usurpations of power and the impositions of avarice and cunning. They have been ridiculed as fallacious; they have sustained the assault of those who, descanting upon obvious physical, mental, and moral inequalities, have sought to obscure the profound truth of equality before the law and the inalienable rights of manhood, To-day, as always, they present to us the standard by which we may judge the successful working of our institutions. And gathered upon this historic spot in the Commonwealth which nurtured him, we may fittingly pay our tribute to the author of these words, in the language of Lincoln:

"All honor to Jefferson-to the man who in the concrete pressure of a national struggle for independence by a single people had the coolness, forecast, and sagacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth applicable to all men and all time, and so embalmed it there that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression."

The attitude of men toward government by the people is not determined by party lines.