; and trial by juries impartially
selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has
gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and
reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have
been devoted to their attainment; they should be the creed of our
political faith; the text of civic instruction; the touchstone by which
to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them
in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and
regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety."

Jefferson had completed his sixty-sixth year when he relinquished the
presidency to his friend and pupil, James Madison, and retired to his
loved Virginia home. There he lived on for seventeen years, enjoying
the esteem and respect of the nation, and taking active interest in
his favorite schemes on behalf of education in his native state and his
helpful work in founding the college which was afterwards expanded into
the University of Virginia. His interest in national affairs, up to the
last, remained keen and fervid, as the vast collection of his published
correspondence show, as well as his many visiting contemporaries attest.
In the winter of 1825-6, his health began to fail, and in the following
spring he made his will and prepared for posterity the original draft of
his great historic achievement as a writer and patriot--the Declaration
of Independence. As the year (1826) wore on, he expressed a wish to
live until the fiftieth anniversary of the nation's independence, a wish
that, as in the case of his distinguished contemporary, John Adams, was
granted by the favor of Heaven, and he died on the 4th of July, mourned
by the whole country. In numberless quarters, funeral honors were paid
to his memory, the more memorable orations being that of Daniel Webster,
delivered in Boston. To his tomb still come annually many reverent
worshippers; while, among the historic shrines of the nation, his home
at Monticello attracts ever-increasing hosts of loving and admiring
pilgrims.

THOMAS JEFFERSON'S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS--1801.

Friends and fellow-citizens:--Called upon to undertake the duties of the
first executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of
that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled, to express my
grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look
toward me, to declare