As a Civilian and Statesman, during the brief period in which he has been permitted to enjoy the transcendent honors which a grateful country had awarded him, he has given proof of a devotion to duty, of an attachment to the Constitution and the Union, of a patriotic determination to maintain the peace of our country, which no trials or temptations could shake. He has borne his faculties meekly, but firmly. He has been "clear in his great office." He has known no local partialities or prejudices, but has proved himself capable of embracing his whole country, in the comprehensive affections and regards of a large and generous heart.

But he has fallen almost at the threshold of his civil career, and at a moment when some of us were looking to him to render services to the country, which we had thought no other man could perform. Certainly, Sir, he has died too soon for every body but himself. We can hardly find it in our hearts to repine that the good old man has gone to his rest. We would not disturb the repose in which the brave old soldier sleeps. His part in life had been long and faithfully performed. In his own last words, "he had always done his duty, and he was not afraid to die." But our regrets for ourselves and for our country are deep, strong, and unfeigned. "He should have died hereafter."

Sir, it was a fit and beautiful circumstance in the close of such a career, that his last official appearance was at the celebration of the birthday of our National Independence, and more especially, that his last public act was an act of homage to the memory of him, whose example he had ever revered and followed, and who, as he himself so well said, "was, by so many titles, the Father of his Country."

And now, Mr. Speaker, let us hope that this event may teach us all how vain is our reliance upon any arm of flesh. Let us hope that it may impress us with a solemn sense of our national as well as individual dependence on a higher than human Power. Let us remember that "the Lord is king, be the people never so impatient; that He sitteth between the cherubim, be the earth never so unquiet." Let us, in language which is now hallowed to us all, as having been the closing and crowning sentiment of the brief but admirable Inaugural Address with which this illus

trious Patriot opened his Presidential term, and which it is my privilege to read at this moment from the very copy from which it was originally read by himself to the American people, on the 4th day of March, 1849,-"Let us," in language in which "he, being dead, yet speaketh"-"let us invoke a continuance of the same Protecting Care which has led us from small beginnings to the eminence we this day occupy; and let us seek to deserve that continuance by prudence and moderation in our councils; by well-directed attempts to assuage the bitterness which too often marks unavoidable differences of opinion; by the promulgation and practice of just and liberal principles; and by an enlarged patriotism, which shall acknowledge no limits but those of our own wide-spread Republic."

THE DEATH OF DANIEL P. KING.

REMARKS MADE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OF THE UNITED

STATES, ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DEATH OF MR. KING, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM MASSACHUSETTS, JULY 27, 1850.

IF mere custom had prevailed on this occasion, Mr. Speaker, it would have fallen to me, as the senior member of the Massachusetts Delegation in this Hall, to perform the sad duty, which has been so faithfully and feelingly discharged by my friend and colleague, (Hon. Julius Rockwell,) who has just taken his seat. I trust, therefore, that I may be allowed to say, that, in yielding, as I readily have done, to the claims of a more intimate association and immediate companionship with the excellent person whose death has been announced to us, I have not been wanting in the deepest regret for his loss, or in the most sincere respect for his memory.

It has been my good fortune to be connected with Mr. King for many years in the Legislature of our own Commonwealth, as well as to be with him here, during the whole period of his seven years' service as a member of this House; and I can truly say, that I have seldom met with a more just and worthy man, or with one more scrupulously faithful to every obligation to his neighbor, his country, and his God.

His devotion as a public servant, his integrity as a private citizen, and the high moral and religious character which he sustained in all the relations of life, had endeared him not merely to his immediate constituents, but to the whole people of Massachusetts; and there is no one who was more likely to have received at their hands, at no distant day, the reward of an honorable ambition, in the highest honors of his native State.

Though he had enjoyed the advantage of an education, which would have fitted him for entering upon either of what are commonly called the learned professions, his tastes had led him to agricultural pursuits. He prided himself, as any one may well pride himself, on being a good farmer; and the farmers of his neighborhood were justly proud of him, as one of the most intelligent, observing, and scientific of their number.

We may well count it, Sir, among the consolations of this hour, that he was permitted by a kind Providence, after so long a detention amid these scenes of strife, to revisit his native fields, to die under his own roof, surrounded by his family and friends, and to lie down at last beneath the soil which he had adorned with his hand, and which was so dear to his heart.

In the beautiful village in which he lived, and which is now the scene of so much unaffected sorrow for his loss, I venture to say that no sod will be kept greener than that which covers his ashes, and that his name will long be sadly but fondly associated with the "Flower of Essex."

TO THE PEOPLE OF BOSTON.

LETTER OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO THE PEOPLE OF BOSTON ON RETIRING FROM THEIR SERVICE, JULY 30, 1850.

Having this day accepted the commission, with which I have been honored by the Executive of the Commonwealth, to supply the vacancy in the Senate of the United States, created by the appointment of the Honorable Daniel Webster to the office of Secretary of State, my relations to you, as your immediate Representative in Congress, are dissolved.

I cannot allow the occasion to pass, without expressing to you all, the deep sense which I entertain of the kindness and confidence which you have manifested towards me, during the whole period of my public career.

It is nearly sixteen years since I entered your service as one of your representatives in the State Legislature, and nearly ten years have now elapsed, since I was transferred as your sole representative to the National Councils.

I should be ungrateful indeed, were I to return no word of acknowledgment for the generous continuance of your favor and regard, which I have experienced during so long a service.

The appointment with which the Governor and Council of Massachusetts have now honored me above my deserts, has only anticipated by a few months the time when our relations were to end, as my intention to retire from the House of Representatives had been openly declared, and was unalterably fixed.

Indeed, it was my earnest wish, as many of you are aware, to withdraw my name from the candidacy, at the close of the last Congressional term. Having then already represented the Bos