A few weeks subsequent to the death of ex-President Monroe, Mr. Adams delivered an interesting and able eulogy on his life and character, before the public authorities of the city of Boston, in Faneuil Hall.  In drawing to a conclusion, he used the following language:—­

“Our country, by the bountiful dispensations of a gracious Heaven, is, and for a series of years has been, blessed with profound peace.  But when the first father of our race had exhibited before him, by the archangel sent to announce his doom, and to console him in his fall, the fortunes and misfortunes of his descendants, he saw that the deepest of their miseries would befall them while favored with all the blessings of peace; and in the bitterness of his anguish he exclaimed:—­

’Now I see
Peace to corrupt, no less than war to waste.’

“It is the very fervor of the noonday sun, in the cloudless atmosphere, of a summer sky, which breeds

’the sweeping whirlwind’s sway,
That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey.’

“You have insured the gallant ship which ploughs the waves, freighted with your lives and your children’s fortunes, from the fury of the tempest above, and from the treachery of the wave beneath.  Beware of the danger against which you can alone insure your-selves—­the latent defect of the gallant ship itself.  Pass but a few short days, and forty years will have elapsed since the voice of him who addresses you, speaking to your fathers from this hallowed spot, gave for you, in the face of Heaven, the solemn pledge, that if, in the course of your career on earth, emergencies should arise, calling for the exercise of those energies and virtues which, in times of tranquillity and peace remain by the will of Heaven dormant in the human bosom, you would prove yourselves not unworthy the sires who had toiled, and fought, and bled, for the independence of the country.  Nor has that pledge been unredeemed.  You have maintained through times of trial and danger the inheritance of freedom, of union, of independence bequeathed you by your forefathers.  It remains for you only to transmit the same peerless legacy, unimpaired, to your children of the next succeeding age.  To this end, let us join in humble supplication to the Founder of empires and the Creator of all worlds, that he would continue to your posterity the smiles which his favor has bestowed upon you; and, since ‘it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,’ that he would enlighten and lead the advancing generation in the way they should go.  That in all the perils, and all the mischances which may threaten or befall our United Republic, in after times, he would raise up from among your sons deliverers to enlighten her councils, to defend her freedom, and if need be, to lead her armies to victory.  And should the gloom of the year of independence ever again overspread the sky, or the metropolis of your empire be once more destined to smart under the scourge of an invader’s hand,[Footnote:  Alluding to the burning of the city of Washington in the war of 1812.] that there never may be found wanting among the children of your country, a warrior to bleed, a statesman to counsel, a chief to direct and govern, inspired with all the virtues, and endowed with all the faculties which have been so signally displayed in the life of James Monroe.”