"That you may live to enjoy the fruits of a reputation founded upon your extensive usefulness to mankind; and that, after treading honorably the theater of life, when the scene shall close, and the curtain drop, you may be dismissed from the stage of action, with the unbounded plaudits of a grateful and admiring universe."
—John Quincy Adams, oration at Phi Beta Kappa Society, September 5, 1788
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