erhaps
less." "So much the better; I shall not live to see the surrender of
Quebec." To the council of war he showed that in twelve hours all the
troops near at hand might be concentrated and renew the attack before
the English were intrenched. When De Ramsay, who commanded the garrison,
asked his advice about defending the city, "To your keeping," he
replied, "I commend the honor of France. As for me, I shall pass the
night with God, and prepare myself for death," Having written a letter
recommending the French prisoners to the generosity of the English, his
last hours were given to the hope of endless life, and at five the next
morning he expired.

* * * * *

From "The History of the United States."

=_132._= CHARACTER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

From the fullness of his own mind, without consulting one single book,
Jefferson drafted the declaration, he submitted it separately to
Franklin and to John Adams, accepted from each of them one or two
unimportant verbal corrections, and on the twenty-eighth of June
reported it to Congress, which now on the second of July immediately
after the resolution of independence entered upon its consideration.
During the remainder of that day and the next two, the language, the
statements, and the principles of the paper were closely scanned.

* * * * *

This immortal state paper, which for its composer was the aurora of
enduring fame, was "the genuine effusion of the soul of the country
at that time," the revelation of its mind, when, in its youth, its
enthusiasm, its sublime confronting of danger, it rose to the highest
creative powers of which man is capable. The bill of rights which it
promulgates, is of rights that are older than human institutions, and
spring from the eternal justice that is anterior to the state. Two
political theories divided the world: one founded the commonwealth
on the reason of state, the policy of expediency, the other on the
immutable principles of morals; the new republic, as it took its place
among the powers of the world, proclaimed its faith in the truth and
reality and unchangeableness of freedom, virtue, and right. The heart of
Jefferson in writing the declaration, and of Congress in adopting it,
beat for all humanity; the assertion of right was made for the entire
world of mankind, and all coming generations, without any exception
whatever; for the proposition which admi