He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death!' How, indeed, is the mighty fallen, and the head of the wise laid low! All flesh is grass--all the glory of man as the flower of the field.
And shall this vast congregation soon be brought to the grave--that house appointed for all the living?
Hear, then, the great announcement of the Son of God: 'I am the resurrection and the life, and whosoever believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.' Is it strange that he who communed so much with the future as the great statesman to whose virtues and memory we now pay this sad, final, solemn tribute of honor and affection, should, in the last conversation I ever had with him, have expressed both regret and astonishment at the indifference among too many of our public men to the truths and ordinances of our holy religion?
Is it to affect our hearts that he has been permitted to fall in the midst of us, to arouse us from this insensibility, and cause us to press towards the gates of the eternal city of God?
Let us bless God for another great example to shine upon us, that another star (we humbly trust) is planted amid the heavenly constellations to guide us to eternity!" At the conclusion of the exercises in the capitol, a vast procession, escorted by military companies, conveyed the remains to the Congressional burying ground, where they were to rest until preparations for their removal to Quincy should be completed.
"Sad was the pomp that yesterday beheld, As with the mourner's heart the anthem swelled; The rich-plumed canopy, the gorgeous pall, The sacred march, and sable vested wall!-- These were not rites of inexpressive show, But hallowed as the types of real woe! Illustrious deceased! a NATION'S sighs, A NATION'S HEART, went with thine obsequies!" The following letter of thanks from Mrs.Adams, addressed to the Speaker, was laid before the House of Representatives:-- "Washington, February 29, 1848.
"SIR: The resolutions in honor of my dear deceased husband, passed by the illustrious assembly over which you preside, and of which he at the moment of his death was a member, have been duly communicated to me.
"Penetrated with grief at this distressing event of my life, mourning the loss of one who has been at once my example and my support through the trials of half a century, permit me nevertheless to express through you my deepest gratitude for the signal manner in which the public regard has been voluntarily manifested by your honorable body, and the consolation derived to me and mine from the reflection that the unwearied efforts of an old public servant have not even in this world proved without their reward in the generous appreciation of them by his country.
"With great respect, I remain, sir, your obedient servant, "LOUISA CATHARINE ADAMS." On the following week, the Committee of one from each State and Territory in the Union, appointed by the House of Representatives to take charge of the remains of the deceased ex-President, and convey them to Quincy for final interment, commenced their journey.

It was a new, yet inexpressibly thrilling and imposing spectacle.

The dead body of "the Old Man Eloquent," surrounded and guarded by a son of each of the States and Territories of that Union which he had so largely assisted in consolidating and sustaining, leaves the capitol of the nation, where for more than thirty years he had acted the most conspicuous part among the fathers of the land, to rest in the tomb of its ancestors, amid the venerable shades of Quincy.

How solemn the progress of such a procession.

It was indeed, "the Funeral March of the Dead!" Wherever it passed, the people rose up and paid the utmost marks of respect to the remains of one who had occupied so large a space in the history of his country.