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grandsons and several great-grandchildren, comprise the number now living.

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The tale is quickly told, the history soon written of such a life as was Mrs. Monroe's. Little of interest or variety is there connected with one whose identity was so completely merged in her husband's existence. She has passed on, leaving only here and there a link to form a chain of events, by which to weave the barest outlines.

At this short remove from her day, we are discouraged in every effort to obtain facts and incidents. She lived in the bosom of her small famlly, serenely happy in her retirement, and the memory of so quiet an existence is swallowed up in the ever-varying changes of time.

MRS. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

It was the happy fortune of Mrs. Adams to be the occupant of the "White House" when Lafayette visited the United States, and at the request of the President he spent the last weeks of his stay at the Executive Mansion, and from there on the 7th of September, 1825, bade an affecting farewell to the land of his adoption. As the last sentence of the farewell address was pronounced, Lafayette advanced and took President Adams in his arms, while tears poured down his venerable cheeks. Returning a few paces, he was overcome by his feelings, and again returned and falling on the neck of Mr. Adams, exclaimed in broken accents, "God bless you." The sighs and tears of the many assembled, bore testimony to the affecting solemnity of the scene. Having recovered his self-possession, the General stretched out his hands, and was in a moment surrounded by the greetings of the whole assembly, who pressed upon him, each eager to seize, perhaps for the last time, that beloved hand which was opened so freely for our aid when aid was so precious, and which grasped with firm and undeviating hold the steel which so bravely helped to achieve our deliverance. The expression which now beamed from the face of this exalted man was of the finest and most touching kind. The hero was lost in the father and the friend. Dignity melted into subdued affection, and

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THE NEW YORK DLIC LIBRARY

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the friend of Washington seemed to linger with a mournful delight among the sons of his adopted country.

A considerable period was then occupied in conversing with various individuals, while refreshments were presented to the company. The moment of departure at length arrived; and having once more pressed the hand of Mr. Adams, he entered the ba rouche, accompanied by the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, and of the Navy, and passed from the capital of the Union.

The whole scene-the peals of artillery, the sounds of numerous military bands, the presence of the vast concourse of people, and the occasion that assembled them, produced emotions not easily described, but which every American heart can readily conceive.

Mrs. Adams was the sixth in the succession of occupants of the Executive Mansion, and with her closed the list of the ladies of the Revolution. A new generation had sprung up in the forty-nine years of Independence, and after her retirement, younger aspirants claimed the honors. Born in the city of London on the 12th of February, 1775, she received advantages superior to those enjoyed by most of the ladies of America. Her father, Mr. Johnson of Maryland, although living at the outbreak of the war, in England, was ever a patriotic American, and soon after hostilities commenced, removed with his family to Nantes, in France. "There he received from the Federal Congress an appointment as Commissioner to examine the accounts of all the American functionaries then entrust

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