conséquences more permanently beneficial in our political system, that the revenue from impost, more easily collected and more productive than any other in time of peace, must necessarily fail, almost entirely, in war with a nation of superior maritime force. Our admirable system of settlement and disposal of the public lands had been long established, but was at that time and for many years since little known by its fruits. It is doubtful whether until the last year the proceeds of the sales have been sufficient to defray the cost of the purchase, and the expenses of management. The prices at which they are sold have been reduced, while the wages of labor have risen, till the purchaser for settlement receives them upon terms nearly gratuitous. They are now an inestimable source of a copious revenue, and if honestly and carefully managed for the people to whom they belong, may hereafter alleviate the burden of taxation in all its forms. But when the war with Great Britain was declared in 1812, the population of this Union was less than one half its numbers at the present day. It increases now at the average rate of half a million of souls every year. For this state of unexampled prosperity a tribute of gratitude and applause is due to the administration of Madison, for the wise and conciliatory policy upon which it was conducted from the close of the war, until the end of his second Presidential term, in March 1817, when he voluntarily retired from public life.

From that day, for a period advancing upon its

twentieth year, he lived in a happy retirement; in the bosom of a family, and with a partner for life alike adapted to the repose and comfort of domestic privacy, as she had been to adorn and dignify the highest of public stations. Between the occupations of agriculture, the amusements of literature, and the exercise of beneficence, the cultivation of the soil, of the mind and of the heart, the leisure of his latter days was divided. In 1829, a Convention was held in Virginia for the revisal of the Constitution of the Commonwealth, in which transaction the people of the State again enjoyed the benefit of his long experience and his calm and conciliatory counsels. The unanimous sense of that body would have deferred to him the honor of presiding over their deliberations, but the infirmities of age had already so far encroached upon the vigor of his constitution, that he declined in the most delicate manner the nomination, by proposing himself the election of his friend and successor to the Chief Magistracy of the Union, James Monroe. He was accordingly chosen without any other nomination, but was afterwards himself so severely indisposed, that he was compelled to resign both the Presidency and his seat in the Convention before they had concluded their labors.

On one occasion of deep interest to the people of the State, on the question of the ratio of representation in the two branches of the Legislature, Mr. Madison took an active part, and made a speech the substance of which has been preserved.

"Such in those moments as in all the past."

This speech is so perfectly characteristic of the man, that it might itself be considered as an epitome of his life. Though delivered upon a question, which in a discussion upon a Constitution of this Commonwealth could not even be raised, it was upon a subject which probed to the deepest foundations the institution of civil society. It was upon the condition of the colored population of the Commonwealth, and upon their relations as persons and as property to the State. Every part of the speech is full of the spirit which animated him through life. Nor can I resist the temptation to repeat a few short passages from it, which may serve as samples of the whole.

"It is sufficiently obvious, said Mr. Madison, that persons and property are the two great objects on which Governments are to act; that the rights of persons and the rights of property are the objects for the protection of which Government was instituted. These rights cannot well be separated. The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right."

"It is due to justice; due to humanity; due to truth; to the sympathies of our nature in fine, to our character as a people, both abroad and at home; that the colored part of our population should be considered, as much as possible, in the light of human beings, and not as mere property. As such, they are acted upon by our laws, and have an interest in our laws."

"In framing a Constitution, great difficulties are necessarily to be overcome; and nothing can ever overcome them but a spirit of compromise. Other nations are surprised at nothing so much as our having been able to form constitutions in the manner which has been exemplified in this country. Even the union of so many States, is, in the eyes of the world, a wonder; the harmonious establishment of a common Government over them all, a miracle. I cannot but flatter myself that without a miracle, we shall be able to arrange all difficulties. I never have despaired, notwithstanding all the threatening appearances we have passed through. I have now more than a hope -a consoling confidence-that we shall at last find that our labors have not been in vain."

Mr. Madison was associated with his friend Jefferson in the institution of the University of Virginia, and after his decease was placed at its head, under the modest and unassuming title of Rector. He was also the President of an Agricultural Society in the county of his residence, and in that capacity delivered an address, which the practical farmer and the classical scholar may read with equal profit and delight.

In the midst of these occupations the declining days of the Philosopher, the Statesman, and the Patriot were past, until the 28th day of June last, the anniversary of the day on which the ratification of the Convention of Virginia in 1788 had affixed the seal of James Madison as the father of the Constitution of the United States, when his earthly part sunk without

a struggle into the grave, and a spirit bright as the seraphim that surround the throne of omnipotence, ascended to the bosom of his God.

This Constitution, my countrymen, is the great result of the North American revolution. This is the giant stride in the improvement of the condition of the human race, consummated in a period of less than one hundred years. Of the signers of the address to George the Third in the Congress of 1774-of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776— of the signers of the Articles of Confederation in 1781, and of the signers of the federal and national Constitution of Government under which we live, with enjoyments never before allotted to man, not one remains in the land of the living. The last survivor of them all was he to honor whose memory we are here assembled at once with mourning and with joy. We reverse the order of sentiment and reflection of the ancient Persian king-we look back on the century gone by-we look around with anxious and eager eye for one of that illustrious host of Patriots and heroes, under whose guidance the revolution of American Independence was begun, and continued and completed. We look around in vain. To them this crowded theatre, full of human life, in all its stages of existence, full of the glowing exultation of youth, of the steady maturity of manhood, the sparkling eyes of beauty, and the grey hairs of reverend age all this to them is as the solitude of the sepulchre. We think of this and say, how short is