thy life, like the day of thy
death, shall not fail from the remembrance of men.

It would be unjust, fellow-citizens, on this occasion while we express
our veneration for him who is the immediate subject of these remarks,
were we to omit a most respectful, affectionate, and grateful mention of
those other great men, his colleagues, who stood with him, and with
the same spirit, the same devotion, took part in the interesting
transaction. Hancock, the proscribed Hancock, exiled from his home by
a military governor, cut off by proclamation from the mercy of the
crown--Heaven reserved for him the distinguished honor of putting this
great question to the vote, and of writing his own name first, and most
conspicuously, on that parchment which spoke defiance to the power of
the crown of England. There, too, is the name of that other proscribed
patriot, Samuel Adams, a man who hungered and thirsted for the
independence of his country, who thought the declaration halted and
lingered, being himself not only ready, but eager, for it, long before
it was proposed: a man of the deepest sagacity, the clearest foresight,
and the profoundest judgment in men. And there is Gerry, himself among
the earliest and the foremost of the patriots, found, when the battle of
Lexington summoned them to common counsels, by the side of Warren, a
man who lived to serve his country at home and abroad, and to die in
the second place in the government. There, too, is the inflexible, the
upright, the Spartan character, Robert Treat Paine. He also lived to
serve his country through the struggle, and then withdrew from her
councils, only that he might give his labors and his life to his native
state, in another relation. These names, fellow-citizens, are the
treasures of the commonwealth: and they are treasures which grow
brighter by time.

It is now necessary to resume and to finish with great brevity the
notice of the lives of those whose virtues and services we have met to
commemorate.

Mr. Adams remained in congress from its first meeting till November,
1777, when he was appointed minister to France. He proceeded on that
service in the February following, embarking in the Boston frigate on
the shore of his native town at the foot of Mount Wollaston. The year
following, he was appointed commissioner to treat of peace with England.
Returning to the United States, he was a delegate from Braintree in the
convention for framing the constitution of this co