with which the ground should be broken.
"There are moments," said Mr. Mercer, "in the progress of time, which are the counters of whole ages. There are events, the monuments of which, surviving every other memorial of human existence, eternize the nation to whose history they belong, after all other vestiges of its glory have disappeared from the globe. At such a moment have we now arrived. Such a monument we are now to found." At this point Mr. Mercer handed the spade to President Adams who, in turn, delivered the address of the day. In the course of his oration the speaker said: "To subdue the earth is pre-eminently the purpose of the undertaking, to the accomplishment of which the first stroke of the spade is now to be struck. That it is to be struck by this hand, I invite you to witness." At this point the President attempted to sink the spade into the ground; but it struck a root. "Not deterred by trifling obstacles," wrote an eye-witness, "from doing what he had deliberately resolved to perform, Mr. Adams tried it again, with no better success. Thus foiled, he threw
