nothing by the change, for he never heard such a speech in public in his life. "All agree that, taken altogether, it was the sublimest thing ever exhibited in America." Such was the peaceful and auspicious beginning of the stormy administration of John Adams. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. IN the autumn of the year 1833, at the town of Winchester, in Illinois, there was to be a great auction sale of property, which drew to the place a large concourse of people from the neighboring country. When the sale was about to begin, the auctioneer was still unprovided with a clerk to enter the goods as they were sold, and he looked about for a person to perform that indispensable labor. At that moment he noticed on the outskirts of the crowd a pale, short, sickly-looking young man, with his coat upon his arm, apparently about nineteen, a stranger in the vicinity, who looked as though he might be able to write and keep accounts well enough for the purpose. He hailed him and offered him the place of clerk, at two dollars a day. It so happened that this young man was in very pressing need of employment, for he had recently arrived in the State, and having walked into Winchester that morning with all his worldly effects upon his person, including a few cents in his pocket, and but a few, he was anxious how he should get through the week. He had not a friend within a thousand miles of the spot, and his entire property would not have brought under the hammer five dollars. He accepted the clerkship, and mounted to his place near the auctioneer. As the sale went on, he exhibited an aptitude for the duties he had undertaken. His entries were made with promptitude and correctness, and in his intercourse with the buyers and with the crowd he showed that mixture of urbanity and familiarity which the western people like. His repartees were ready, if a little rough, and he kept everybody in good humor. The sale lasted three days, and when it was over he had six dollars in his pocket, and had gained the warm good-will of |