DELIVERD IN THE CAPITOL OF THE UNITED STATES; ON LORD'S DAY, JULY 16, 1826; AT THE REQUEST OF THE CITIZENS OF WASHINGTON, ON THE DEATH OF Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Adams. BY WILLIAM STAUGHTON, D. D. LATE CHAPLAIN OF THE SENATE. How are the mighty fallen! WASHINGTON: PUBLISHED AT THE COLUMBIAN OFFICE, NORTH E STREET. SIR, The Committee appointed at the late Town-meetings, have, by an unanimous vote, requested me to ask of you, for publication, a copy of the eloquent and impressive Funeral Sermon, delivered by you in the Capitol. yesterday, in honour of the memories of the deceased Patriots and Statesmen, THOMAS JEFFERSON and JOHN ADAMS. I have the honour to be, Sir, R. C. WEIGHTMAN, Chairman of the Committee. WASHINGTON, July 18th, 1826. SIR, I have received your communication, as Chairman of the Committee, appointed at the late Town-meetings in Washington. I thank, Sir, yourself and the Committee, for your condescending regard to the Sermon which I delivered at the Capitol, the last Sabbath morning, a copy of which, is wholly at their service. I beg of you to tender to the Committee, assurances of my most respectful consideration, and to be persuaded, that, with the highest esteem for your character and talents, I am your obedient servant, WILLIAM STAUGHTON. 2 SAMUEL i. 23. LOVELY AND PLEASANT were they IN THEIR LIVES—IN THEIR DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED; THEY WERE SWIFTER THAN EAGLES, THEY WERE STRONGER THAN LIONS. TOLL the knell-still louder toll it. Convey, ye winds, the funereal sound, from the forests of Maine, to the Savannahs of Florida; from the Western Ocean to the Eastern. JEFFERSON and ADAMS are no more! No ordinary circumstances have induced us to assemble in our Capitol this morning. Death may glory in the spoils, which on the fourth of the present month he acquired; but, there is a political as well as an evangelic import in the triumph. "Death is swallowed up in victory." Twelve millions of our citizens have received, or are receiving, the intelligence that two of the greatest Statesmen, the world ever knew, died both "on the same day" and that was the day, on which the trumpet of our Jubilee was sounding. This interesting fact will become incorporated with the history of our Union and excite the astonishment of future ages. It would seem, by this unparalleled Providence, as if Jehovah were saying to the American, as to the Hebrew nation, "Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year." To recommend the virtues, and propose the examples, of the illustrious dead, was the constant practice of the ancient Egyptians, of the Greeks, and of the Romans. The primitive fathers of the Christian Church adopted the measure, and it appears, at an early period, to have been in use among the pious Jews. The passage we have read, as the basis of our morning's meditations, is selected from the first formal elegy which the volume of revelation contains. The occasion was exceedingly calamitous. "The 66 Philistines," the hereditary and inexorable enemies of Israel, fought against" them. "The men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchishua, Saul's sons." Wounded sorely by the archers, Saul requested his armour-bearer to slay him, but he would not, on which "Saul took a sword and fell upon it." His faithful amour-bearer imitated the melancholy example of his master, for "he fell likewise upon his sword and died with him." On receiving the intelligence, in a strain of peculiar beauty, which no translation can fully convey, David requests that the melancholy disclosure should |