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throughout a distance of more than 4000 miles.

These were not the momentary triumphs of a conqueror, fresh from the field of carnage, with blood-stained armor, and the echoing air of the stirring drum-beat; but the spontaneous outpouring of the hearts of other generations, who rise up to bless the patriot hero and benefactor of their country, who took their fathers by the hand, and was ready to lay down his life for their sake, and when he had given them an exalted rank among the nations of the earth, laid his laurels at their feet, and left them to the enjoyments of freedom, happiness and honor.

More than 3000 miles of the western tour of Lafayette was a pathless wilderness at the close of the revolution; now they can boast of nearly a dozen states, dotted all over with a free, virtuous, and intelligent population.

The sublime realities of this whole scene, when taken collectively, surpass the powers of pen or pencil. Altogether, it combines to make the history of Lafayette the most remarkable, save that of Washington, on record.

Time cannot dim the recollection of, or the

vast obligation to which we are under to, the great patriot, Lafayette.

After the general had made a complete tour through the United States, being received everywhere with the highest marks of gratitude which a free people could bestow, he sailed again for his native country, on the 7th of September, 1825, in a ship fitted out by government for that purpose, and called the Brandywine, in honor of his bravery in that memorable battle. He had a pleasant voyage, and arrived again in safety, the following month, in his own dear France; when he retired to the sweet fields of La Grange, where, during the agricultural months, he spent his time in directing the labors of his farm.

Lafayette passed the winters in Paris, and, during his stay there, in 1834, in riding for. exercise, he exposed himself too much to the sudden changes of atmosphere, by which he took a sudden cold, and through which disease gave strong battle with the aged hero. Doctor Giron, with other eminent physicians, did all that the profession could do, but the aged general had not constitution enough to bear him through. He lingered along a few weeks, without much apparent suffering,

when his eyes turned upwards from a world for which he had done so much, to the gates of that heavenly heritage, the glory and enjoyments of which we trust he is in full participation.

Thus set the sun of one of the most remarkable heroes of modern times.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 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; and that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government,

laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be sub

mitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

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