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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great,
+Volume 3 (of 14), by Elbert Hubbard, Edited by Fred Bann
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14)
+
+Author: Elbert Hubbard
+
+Release Date: October 31, 2004  [eBook #13911]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF
+THE GREAT, VOLUME 3 (OF 14)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland and the Project Gutenberg Distributed
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+
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+
+
+Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14)
+
+LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF AMERICAN STATESMEN
+
+by
+
+ELBERT HUBBARD
+
+Memorial Edition
+
+1916
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+THE LITTLE JOURNEYS CAMP
+GEORGE WASHINGTON
+BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
+THOMAS JEFFERSON
+SAMUEL ADAMS
+JOHN HANCOCK
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
+ALEXANDER HAMILTON
+DANIEL WEBSTER
+HENRY CLAY
+JOHN JAY
+WILLIAM H. SEWARD
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE JOURNEYS CAMP
+
+BERT HUBBARD
+
+    A little more patience, a little more charity for all, a little
+    more devotion, a little more love; with less bowing down to the
+    past, and a silent ignoring of pretended authority; a brave
+    looking forward to the future with more faith in our fellows, and
+    the race will be ripe for a great burst of light and life.
+    --Elbert Hubbard
+
+[Illustration: THE LITTLE JOURNEYS CAMP]
+
+
+It was not built with the idea of ever becoming a place in history: simply
+a boys' cabin in the woods.
+
+Fibe, Rich, Pie and Butch were the bunch that built it.
+
+Fibe was short for Fiber, and we gave him that name because his real name
+was Wood. Rich got his name from being a mudsock. Pie got his because he
+was a regular pieface. And they called me Butch for no reason at all
+except that perhaps my great-great-grandfather was a butcher.
+
+We were a fine gang of youngsters, all about thirteen years, wise in boys'
+deviltry. What we didn't know about killing cats, breaking window-panes in
+barns, stealing coal from freight-cars, and borrowing eggs from
+neighboring hencoops without consent of the hens, wasn't worth the
+knowing.
+
+There used to be another boy in the gang, Skinny. One day when we ran away
+to the swimming-hole after school, this other little fellow didn't come
+back with us.
+
+You see, there was the little-kids' swimmin'-hole and the big-kids'
+swimmin'-hole. The latter was over our heads. Well, Skinny swung out on
+the rope hanging from the cottonwood-tree on the bank of the big-kids'
+hole. Somehow he lost his head and fell in.
+
+None of us could swim, and he was too far out to reach. There was nothing
+to help him with, so we just had to watch him struggle till he had gone
+down three times. And there where we last saw him a lot of bubbles came
+up. The inquiry before the Justice of Peace with our fathers, which
+followed, put fright in our bones, and the sight of the old creek was a
+nightmare for months to come. After that we decided to keep to the hills
+and woods. This necessitated a hut. But we had no lumber with which to
+build it.
+
+However, there were three houses going up in town--and surely they could
+spare a few boards. So after dark we got out old Juliet and the
+spring-wagon and made several visits to the new houses. The result was
+that in about a week we had enough lumber to frame the cabin.
+
+Our site was about three miles from town, high up on the Adams Farm. After
+many evening trips with the old mare and much figuring we had the thing
+done, all but the windows, door, and shingles on the roof. Well, I knew
+where there was an old door and two window-sash taken off our
+chicken-house to let in the air during Summer. And one rainy night three
+bunches of shingles found their way from Perkins' lumber-yard to the foot
+of the hill on the Adams Farm.
+
+In another five days the place was finished. It was ten by sixteen, and
+had four bunks, two windows, a paneled front door, a back entrance and a
+porch--altogether a rather pretentious camp for a gang of young ruffians.
+
+But it was a labor of love, and we certainly had worked mighty hard. Our
+love was given particularly to the three house-builders and to Perkins,
+down in town.
+
+Of course we had to have a stove.
+
+This we got from Bowen's hardware-store for two dollars and forty cents.
+He wanted four dollars, and we argued for some time. The stove was a
+secondhand one and good only for scrap-iron anyway. Scrap was worth fifty
+cents a hundred, and this stove weighed only two hundred fifty, so we
+convinced the man our offer was big. At that we made him throw in a
+frying-pan.
+
+For dishes and cutlery, I believe each of our mothers' pantries
+contributed. Then a stock of grub was confiscated. The storeroom in the
+Phalansterie furnished Heinz beans, chutney, and a few others of the
+fifty-seven. John had run an ad in "The Philistine" for Heinz and taken
+good stuff in exchange.
+
+For four years after that, this old camp was kept stocked with eats all
+the time. We would hike out Friday after school and stay till Sunday
+night. At Christmas-time we would spend the week's vacation there.
+
+Many times had I tried to get my Father to go out and stay overnight. But
+he wouldn't go. One time, though, I did not come home when I had promised,
+so Father rode out on Garnett to find me. Instead of my coming back with
+him he just unsaddled and turned Garnett loose in the woods and stayed
+overnight.
+
+We gave him the big bunk with two red quilts, and he stuck it out. Next
+morning we had fried apples, ham and coffee for breakfast.
+
+What there was about it I did not understand, but John was a very frequent
+visitor after that.
+
+You know we called Father, John, because he said that wasn't his name.
+
+He used to come up in the evening and would bring the Red One or Sammy the
+Artist or Saint Jerome the Sculptor. Once he brought Michael Monahan and
+John Sayles the Universalist preacher.
+
+Mike didn't like it.
+
+The field-mice running on the rafters overhead at night chilled his blood.
+He called them terrible beasts.
+
+From then on we youngsters were gradually deprived of our freedom at camp.
+These visitors were too numerous for us and we had to seek other fields of
+adventure.
+
+John got to going out to the camp to get away from visitors at the Shop.
+He found the place quiet and comforting. The woods gave him freedom to
+think and write. It so developed that he would spend about four days a
+month there, writing the "Little Journey" for the next month. How many of
+his masterpieces were written at the Camp I can not say, but for several
+years it was his Retreat and he used it constantly.
+
+He reminded us boys several times when we kicked, that he had a good claim
+on it--for didn't he furnish the door and the window-frames?
+
+I never suspected he would recognize them.
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE WASHINGTON
+
+    He left as fair a reputation as ever belonged to a human
+    character.... Midst all the sorrowings that are mingled on this
+    melancholy occasion I venture to assert that none could have felt
+    his death with more regret than I, because no one had higher
+    opinions of his worth.... There is this consolation, though, to
+    be drawn, that while living no man could be more esteemed, and
+    since dead none is more lamented.
+    --Washington, on the Death of Tilghman
+
+[Illustration: GEORGE WASHINGTON]
+
+
+Dean Stanley has said that all the gods of ancient mythology were once
+men, and he traces for us the evolution of a man into a hero, the hero
+into a demigod, and the demigod into a divinity. By a slow process, the
+natural man is divested of all our common faults and frailties; he is
+clothed with superhuman attributes and declared a being separate and
+apart, and is lost to us in the clouds.
+
+When Greenough carved that statue of Washington that sits facing the
+Capitol, he unwittingly showed how a man may be transformed into a Jove.
+
+But the world has reached a point when to be human is no longer a cause
+for apology; we recognize that the human, in degree, comprehends the
+divine.
+
+Jove inspires fear, but to Washington we pay the tribute of affection.
+Beings hopelessly separated from us are not ours: a god we can not love, a
+man we may. We know Washington as well as it is possible to know any man.
+We know him better, far better, than the people who lived in the very
+household with him. We have his diary showing "how and where I spent my
+time"; we have his journal, his account-books (and no man was ever a more
+painstaking accountant); we have hundreds of his letters, and his own
+copies and first drafts of hundreds of others, the originals of which have
+been lost or destroyed.
+
+From these, with contemporary history, we are able to make up a close
+estimate of the man; and we find him human--splendidly human. By his books
+of accounts we find that he was often imposed upon, that he loaned
+thousands of dollars to people who had no expectation of paying; and in
+his last will, written with his own hand, we find him canceling these
+debts, and making bequests to scores of relatives; giving freedom to his
+slaves, and acknowledging his obligation to servants and various other
+obscure persons. He was a man in very sooth. He was a man in that he had
+in him the appetites, the ambitions, the desires of a man. Stewart, the
+artist, has said, "All of his features were indications of the strongest
+and most ungovernable passions, and had he been born in the forest, he
+would have been the fiercest man among savage tribes."
+
+But over the sleeping volcano of his temper he kept watch and ward, until
+his habit became one of gentleness, generosity, and shining, simple truth;
+and, behind all, we behold his unswerving purpose and steadfast strength.
+
+And so the object of this sketch will be, not to show the superhuman
+Washington, the Washington set apart, but to give a glimpse of the man
+Washington who aspired, feared, hoped, loved and bravely died.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first biographer of George Washington was the Reverend Mason L. Weems.
+If you have a copy of Weems' "Life of Washington," you had better wrap it
+in chamois and place it away for your heirs, for some time it will command
+a price. Fifty editions of Weems' book were printed, and in its day no
+other volume approached it in point of popularity. In American literature,
+Weems stood first. To Weems are we indebted for the hatchet tale, the
+story of the colt that was broken and killed in the process, and all those
+other fine romances of Washington's youth. Weems' literary style reveals
+the very acme of that vicious quality of untruth to be found in the
+old-time Sunday-school books. Weems mustered all the "Little Willie"
+stories he could find, and attached to them Washington's name, claiming to
+write for "the Betterment of the Young," as if in dealing with the young
+we should carefully conceal the truth. Possibly Washington could not tell
+a lie, but Weems was not thus handicapped.
+
+Under a mass of silly moralizing, he nearly buried the real Washington,
+giving us instead a priggish, punk youth, and a Madame Tussaud, full-dress
+general, with a wax-works manner and a wooden dignity.
+
+Happily, we have now come to a time when such authors as Mason L. Weems
+and John S.C. Abbott are no longer accepted as final authorities. We do
+not discard them, but, like Samuel Pepys, they are retained that they may
+contribute to the gaiety of nations.
+
+Various violent efforts have been made in days agone to show that
+Washington was of "a noble line"--as if the natural nobility of the man
+needed a reason--forgetful that we are all sons of God, and it doth not
+yet appear what we shall be. But Burke's "Peerage" lends no light, and the
+careful, unprejudiced, patient search of recent years finds only the blood
+of the common people.
+
+Washington himself said that in his opinion the history of his ancestors
+"was of small moment and a subject to which, I confess, I have paid little
+attention."
+
+He had a bookplate and he had also a coat of arms on his carriage-door.
+The Reverend Mr. Weems has described Washington's bookplate thus: "Argent,
+two bar gules in chief, three mullets of the second. Crest, a raven with
+wings, indorsed proper, issuing out of a ducal coronet, or."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mary Ball was the second wife of Augustine Washington. In his will the
+good man describes this marriage, evidently with a wink, as "my second
+Venture." And it is sad to remember that he did not live to know that his
+"Venture" made America his debtor. The success of the union seems pretty
+good argument in favor of widowers marrying. There were four children in
+the family, the oldest nearly full grown, when Mary Ball came to take
+charge of the household. She was twenty-seven, her husband ten years
+older. They were married March Sixth, Seventeen Hundred Thirty-one, and on
+February Twenty-second of the following year was born a man child and they
+named him George.
+
+The Washingtons were plain, hard-working people--land-poor. They lived in
+a small house that had three rooms downstairs and an attic, where the
+children slept, and bumped their heads against the rafters if they sat up
+quickly in bed.
+
+Washington got his sterling qualities from the Ball family, and not from
+the tribe of Washington. George was endowed by his mother with her own
+splendid health and with all the sturdy Spartan virtues of her mind. In
+features and in mental characteristics, he resembled her very closely.
+There were six children born to her in all, but the five have been nearly
+lost sight of in the splendid success of the firstborn.
+
+I have used the word "Spartan" advisedly. Upon her children, the mother
+of Washington lavished no soft sentimentality. A woman who cooked, weaved,
+spun, washed, made the clothes, and looked after a big family in pioneer
+times had her work cut out for her. The children of Mary Washington obeyed
+her, and when told to do a thing never stopped to ask why--and the same
+fact may be said of the father.
+
+The girls wore linsey-woolsey dresses, and the boys tow suits that
+consisted of two pieces, which in Winter were further added to by hat and
+boots. If the weather was very cold, the suits were simply duplicated--a
+boy wearing two or three pairs of trousers instead of one.
+
+The mother was the first one up in the morning, the last one to go to rest
+at night. If a youngster kicked off the covers in his sleep and had a
+coughing spell, she arose and looked after him. Were any sick, she not
+only ministered to them, but often watched away the long, dragging hours
+of the night.
+
+And I have noticed that these sturdy mothers in Israel, who so willingly
+give their lives that others may live, often find vent for overwrought
+feelings by scolding; and I, for one, cheerfully grant them the privilege.
+Washington's mother scolded and grumbled to the day of her death. She also
+sought solace by smoking a pipe. And this reminds me that a noted
+specialist in neurotics has recently said that if women would use the weed
+moderately, tired nerves would find repose and nervous prostration would
+be a luxury unknown. Not being much of a smoker myself, and knowing
+nothing about the subject, I give the item for what it is worth.
+
+All the sterling, classic virtues of industry, frugality and truth-telling
+were inculcated by this excellent mother, and her strong commonsense made
+its indelible impress upon the mind of her son.
+
+Mary Washington always regarded George's judgment with a little suspicion;
+she never came to think of him as a full-grown man; to her he was only a
+big boy. Hence, she would chide him and criticize his actions in a way
+that often made him very uncomfortable. During the Revolutionary War she
+followed his record closely: when he succeeded she only smiled, said
+something that sounded like "I told you so," and calmly filled her pipe;
+when he was repulsed she was never cast down. She foresaw that he would be
+made President, and thought "he would do as well as anybody."
+
+Once, she complained to him of her house in Fredericksburg; he wrote in
+answer, gently but plainly, that her habits of life were not such as would
+be acceptable at Mount Vernon. And to this she replied that she had never
+expected or intended to go to Mount Vernon, and moreover would not, no
+matter how much urged--a declination without an invitation that must have
+caused the son a grim smile. In her nature was a goodly trace of savage
+stoicism that took a satisfaction in concealing the joy she felt in her
+son's achievement; for that her life was all bound up in his we have good
+evidence.
+
+Washington looked after her wants and supplied her with everything she
+needed, and, as these things often came through third parties, it is
+pretty certain she did not know the source; at any rate she accepted
+everything quite as her due, and shows a half-comic ingratitude that is
+very fine.
+
+When Washington started for New York to be inaugurated President, he
+stopped to see her. She donned a new white cap and a clean apron in honor
+of the visit, remarking to a neighbor woman who dropped in that she
+supposed "these great folks expected something a little extra." It was the
+last meeting of mother and son. She was eighty-three at that time and "her
+boy" fifty-five. She died not long after.
+
+Samuel Washington, the brother two years younger than George, has been
+described as "small, sandy-whiskered, shrewd and glib." Samuel was married
+five times. Some of the wives he deserted and others deserted him, and two
+of them died, thus leaving him twice a sad, lorn widower, from which
+condition he quickly extricated himself. He was always in financial
+straits and often appealed to his brother George for loans. In Seventeen
+Hundred Eighty-one we find George Washington writing to his brother John,
+"In God's name! how has Samuel managed to get himself so enormously in
+debt?" The remark sounds a little like that of Samuel Johnson, who on
+hearing that Goldsmith was owing four hundred pounds exclaimed, "Was ever
+poet so trusted before?"
+
+Washington's ledger shows that he advanced his brother Samuel two thousand
+dollars, "to be paid back without interest." But Samuel's ship never came
+in, and in Washington's will we find the debt graciously and gracefully
+discharged.
+
+Thornton Washington, a son of Samuel, was given a place in the English
+army at George Washington's request; and two other sons of Samuel were
+sent to school at his expense. One of the boys once ran away and was
+followed by his uncle George, who carried a goodly birch with intent to
+"give him what he deserved"; but after catching the lad the uncle's heart
+melted, and he took the runaway back into favor. An entry in Washington's
+journal shows that the children of his brother Samuel cost him fully five
+thousand dollars.
+
+Harriot, one of the daughters of Samuel, lived in the household at Mount
+Vernon and evidently was a great cross, for we find Washington pleading as
+an excuse for her frivolity that "she was not brung up right, she has no
+disposition, and takes no care of her clothes, which are dabbed about in
+every corner, and the best are always in use. She costs me enough!"
+
+And this was about as near a complaint as the Father of his Country, and
+the father of all his poor relations, ever made. In his ledger we find
+this item: "By Miss Harriot Washington, gave her to buy wedding-clothes,
+$100.00." It supplied the great man joy to write that line, for it was the
+last of Harriot. He furnished a fine wedding for her, and all the
+servants had a holiday, and Harriot and her unknown lover were happy ever
+afterwards--so far as we know.
+
+From Seventeen Hundred Fifty to Seventeen Hundred Fifty-nine, Washington
+was a soldier on the frontier, leaving Mount Vernon and all his business
+in charge of his brother John. Between these two there was a genuine bond
+of affection. To George this brother was always, "Dear Jack," and when
+John married, George sends "respectful greetings to your Lady," and
+afterwards "love to the little ones from their Uncle." And in one of the
+dark hours of the Revolution, George writes from New Jersey to this
+brother: "God grant you health and happiness. Nothing in this world would
+add so to mine as to be near you." John died in Seventeen Hundred
+Eighty-seven, and the President of the United States writes in simple,
+undisguised grief of "the death of my beloved brother."
+
+John's eldest son, Bushrod, was Washington's favorite nephew. He took a
+lively interest in the boy's career, and taking him to Philadelphia placed
+him in the law-office of Judge James Wilson. He supplied Bushrod with
+funds, and wrote him many affectionate letters of advice, and several
+times made him a companion on journeys. The boy proved worthy of it all,
+and developed into a strong and manly man--quite the best of all
+Washington's kinsfolk. In later years, we find Washington asking his
+advice in legal matters and excusing himself for being such a
+"troublesome, non-paying client." In his will the "Honorable Bushrod
+Washington" is named as one of the executors, and to him Washington left
+his library and all his private papers, besides a share in the estate.
+Such confidence was a fitting good-by from the great and loving heart of a
+father to a son full worthy of the highest trust.
+
+Of Washington's relations with his brother Charles, we know but little.
+Charles was a plain, simple man who worked hard and raised a big family.
+In his will Washington remembers them all, and one of the sons of Charles
+we know was appointed to a position upon Lafayette's staff on Washington's
+request.
+
+The only one of Washington's family that resembled him closely was his
+sister Betty. The contour of her face was almost identical with his, and
+she was so proud of it that she often wore her hair in a queue and donned
+his hat and sword for the amusement of visitors. Betty married Fielding
+Lewis, and two of her sons acted as private secretaries to Washington
+while he was President. One of these sons--Lawrence Lewis--married Nellie
+Custis, the adopted daughter of Washington and granddaughter of Mrs.
+Washington, and the couple, by Washington's will, became part-owners of
+Mount Vernon. The man who can figure out the exact relationship of Nellie
+Custis' children to Washington deserves a medal.
+
+We do not know much of Washington's father: if he exerted any special
+influence on his children we do not know it. He died when George was
+eleven years old, and the boy then went to live at the "Hunting Creek
+Place" with his half-brother Lawrence, that he might attend school.
+Lawrence had served in the English navy under Admiral Vernon, and, in
+honor of his chief, changed the name of his home and called it Mount
+Vernon. Mount Vernon then consisted of twenty-five hundred acres, mostly a
+tangle of forest, with a small house and log stables. The tract had
+descended to Lawrence from his father, with provision that it should fall
+to George if Lawrence died without issue. Lawrence married, and when he
+died, aged thirty-two, he left a daughter, Mildred, who died two years
+later. Mount Vernon then passed to George Washington, aged twenty-one, but
+not without a protest from the widow of Lawrence, who evidently was paid
+not to take the matter into the courts. Washington owned Mount Vernon for
+forty-six years, just one-half of which time was given to the service of
+his country. It was the only place he ever called "home," and there he
+sleeps.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Washington was fourteen, his schooldays were over. Of his youth we
+know but little. He was not precocious, although physically he developed
+early; but there was no reason why the neighbors should keep tab on him
+and record anecdotes. They had boys of their own just as promising. He was
+tall and slender, long-armed, with large, bony hands and feet, very
+strong, a daring horseman, a good wrestler, and, living on the banks of a
+river, he became, as all healthy boys must, a good swimmer.
+
+His mission among the Indians in his twenty-first year was largely
+successful through the personal admiration he excited among the savages.
+In poise, he was equal to their best, and ever being a bit proud, even if
+not vain, he dressed for the occasion in full Indian regalia, minus only
+the war-paint. The Indians at once recognized his nobility, and named him
+"Conotancarius"--Plunderer of Villages--and suggested that he take to wife
+an Indian maiden, and remain with them as chief.
+
+When he returned home, he wrote to the Indian agent, announcing his safe
+arrival and sending greetings to the Indians. "Tell them," he says, "how
+happy it would make Conotancarius to see them, and take them by the hand."
+
+His wish was gratified, for the Indians took him at his word, and fifty of
+them came to him, saying, "Since you could not come and live with us, we
+have come to live with you." They camped on the green in front of the
+residence, and proceeded to inspect every room in the house, tested all
+the whisky they could find, appropriated eatables, and were only induced
+to depart after all the bedclothes had been dyed red, and a blanket or a
+quilt presented to each.
+
+Throughout his life Washington had a very tender spot in his heart for
+women. At sixteen, he writes with all a youth's solemnity of "a hurt of
+the heart uncurable." And from that time forward there is ever some "Faire
+Mayde" to be seen in the shadow. In fact, Washington got along with women
+much better than with men; with men he was often diffident and awkward,
+illy concealing his uneasiness behind a forced dignity; but he knew that
+women admired him, and with them he was at ease. When he made that first
+Western trip, carrying a message to the French, he turns aside to call on
+the Indian princess, Aliguippa. In his journal, he says, "presented her a
+Blanket and a Bottle of Rum, which latter was thought the much best
+Present of the 2."
+
+In his expense-account we find items like these: "Treating the ladys 2
+shillings." "Present for Polly 5 shillings." "My share for Music at the
+Dance 3 shillings." "Lost at Loo 5 shillings." In fact, like most
+Episcopalians, Washington danced and played cards. His favorite game seems
+to have been "Loo"; and he generally played for small stakes, and when
+playing with "the Ladys" usually lost, whether purposely or because
+otherwise absorbed, we know not.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-six, he made a horseback journey on military
+business to Boston, stopping a week going and on the way back at New York.
+He spent the time at the house of a former Virginian, Beverly Robinson,
+who had married Susannah Philipse, daughter of Frederick Philipse, one of
+the rich men of Manhattan. In the household was a young woman, Mary
+Philipse, sister of the hostess. She was older than Washington, educated,
+and had seen much more of polite life than he. The tall, young Virginian,
+fresh from the frontier, where he had had horses shot under him, excited
+the interest of Mary Philipse, and Washington, innocent but ardent,
+mistook this natural curiosity for a softer sentiment and proposed on the
+spot. As soon as the lady got her breath he was let down very gently.
+
+Two years afterwards Mary Philipse married Colonel Roger Morris, in the
+king's service, and cards were duly sent to Mount Vernon. But the
+whirligig of time equalizes all things, and, in Seventeen Hundred
+Seventy-six, General Washington, Commander of the Continental Army,
+occupied the mansion of Colonel Morris, the Colonel and his lady being
+fugitive Tories. In his diary, Washington records this significant item:
+"Dined at the house lately Colonel Roger Morris confiscated and the
+occupation of a common Farmer."
+
+Washington always attributed his defeat at the hands of Mary Philipse to
+being too precipitate and "not waiting until ye ladye was in ye mood." But
+two years later we find him being even more hasty and this time with
+success, which proves that all signs fail in dry weather, and some things
+are possible as well as others. He was on his way to Williamsburg to
+consult physicians and stopped at the residence of Mrs. Daniel Parke
+Custis to make a short call--was pressed to remain to tea, did so,
+proposed marriage, and was graciously accepted. We have a beautiful steel
+engraving that immortalizes this visit, showing Washington's horse
+impatiently waiting at the door.
+
+Mrs. Custis was a widow with two children. She was twenty-six, and the
+same age as Washington within three months. Her husband had died seven
+months before. In Washington's cash-account for May, Seventeen Hundred
+Fifty-eight, is an item, "one Engagement Ring £2.16.0."
+
+The happy couple were married eight months later, and we find Mrs.
+Washington explaining to a friend that her reason for the somewhat hasty
+union was that her estate was getting in a bad way and a man was needed to
+look after it. Our actions are usually right, but the reasons we give
+seldom are; but in this case no doubt "a man was needed," for the widow
+had much property, and we can not but congratulate Martha Custis on her
+choice of "a man." She owned fifteen thousand acres of land, many lots in
+the city of Williamsburg, two hundred negroes, and some money on bond; all
+the property being worth over one hundred thousand dollars--a very large
+amount for those days. Directly after the wedding, the couple moved to
+Mount Vernon, taking a good many of the slaves with them. Shortly after,
+arrangements were under way to rebuild the house, and the plans that
+finally developed into the present mansion were begun.
+
+Washington's letters and diary contain very few references to his wife,
+and none of the many visitors to Mount Vernon took pains to testify either
+to her wit or to her intellect. We know that the housekeeping at Mount
+Vernon proved too much for her ability, and that a woman was hired to
+oversee the household. And in this reference a complaint is found from the
+General that "housekeeper has done gone and left things in confusion." He
+had his troubles.
+
+Martha's education was not equal to writing a presentable letter, for we
+find that her husband wrote the first draft of all important missives that
+it was necessary for her to send, and she copied them even to his mistakes
+in spelling. Very patient was he about this, and even when he was
+President and harried constantly we find him stopping to acknowledge for
+her "an invitation to take some Tea," and at the bottom of the sheet
+adding a pious bit of finesse, thus: "The President requests me to send
+his compliments and only regrets that the pressure of affairs compels him
+to forego the Pleasure of seeing you."
+
+After Washington's death, his wife destroyed the letters he had written
+her--many hundred in number--an offense the world is not yet quite willing
+to forget, even though it has forgiven.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Although we have been told that when Washington was six years old he could
+not tell a lie, yet he afterwards partially overcame the disability. On
+one occasion he writes to a friend that the mosquitoes of New Jersey "can
+bite through the thickest boot," and though a contemporary clergyman,
+greatly flurried, explains that he meant "stocking," we insist that the
+statement shall stand as the Father of his Country expressed it.
+Washington also records without a blush, "I announced that I would leave
+at 8 and then immediately gave private Orders to go at 5, so to avoid the
+Throng." Another time when he discharged an overseer for incompetency he
+lessened the pain of parting by writing for the fellow "a Character."
+
+When he went to Boston and was named as Commander of the Army, his chief
+concern seemed to be how he would make peace with Martha. Ho! ye married
+men! do you understand the situation? He was to be away for a year, two,
+or possibly three, and his wife did not have an inkling of it. Now, he
+must break the news to her.
+
+As plainly shown by Cabot Lodge and other historians, there was much
+rivalry for the office, and it was only allotted to the South as a
+political deal after much bickering. Washington had been a passive but
+very willing candidate, and after a struggle his friends secured him the
+prize--and now what to do with Martha! Writing to her, among other things
+he says, "You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure you in the most
+solemn manner that so far from seeking the appointment I have done all in
+my power to avoid it." The man who will not fabricate a bit in order to
+keep peace with the wife of his bosom is not much of a man. But "Patsy's"
+objections were overcome, and beyond a few chidings and sundry
+complainings, she did nothing to block the great game of war.
+
+At Princeton, Washington ordered campfires to be built along the brow of a
+hill for a mile, and when the fires were well lighted, he withdrew his
+army, marched around to the other side, and surprised the enemy at
+daylight. At Brooklyn, he used masked batteries, and presented a fierce
+row of round, black spots painted on canvas that, from the city, looked
+like the mouths of cannon at which men seek the bauble reputation. It is
+said he also sent a note threatening to fire these sham cannon, on
+receiving which the enemy hastily moved beyond range. Perceiving
+afterwards that they had been imposed upon, the brave English sent word to
+"shoot and be damned." Evidently, Washington considered that all things
+are fair in love and war.
+
+Washington talked but little, and his usual air was one of melancholy that
+stopped just short of sadness. All this, with the firmness of his features
+and the dignity of his carriage, gave the impression of sternness and
+severity. And these things gave rise to the popular conception that he
+had small sense of humor; yet he surely was fond of a quiet smile.
+
+At one time, Congress insisted that a standing army of five thousand men
+was too large; Washington replied that if England would agree never to
+invade this country with more than three thousand men, he would be
+perfectly willing that our army should be reduced to four thousand.
+
+When the King of Spain, knowing he was a farmer, thoughtfully sent him a
+present of a jackass, Washington proposed naming the animal in honor of
+the donor; and in writing to friends about the present, draws invidious
+comparisons between the gift and the giver. Evidently, the joke pleased
+him, for he repeats it in different letters; thus showing how, when he sat
+down to clear his desk of correspondence, he economized energy by
+following a form. So, we now find letters that are almost identical, even
+to jokes, sent to persons in South Carolina and in Massachusetts.
+Doubtless the good man thought they would never be compared, for how could
+he foresee that an autograph-dealer in New York would eventually catalog
+them at twenty-two dollars fifty cents each, or that a very proper but
+half-affectionate missive of his to a Faire Ladye would be sold by her
+great-granddaughter for fifty dollars?
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Ninety-three there were on the Mount Vernon
+plantation three hundred seventy head of cattle, and Washington appends to
+the report a sad regret that, with all this number of horned beasts, he
+yet has to buy butter. There is also a fine, grim humor shown in the
+incident of a flag of truce coming in at New York, bearing a message from
+General Howe, addressed to "Mr. Washington." The General took the letter
+from the hand of the redcoat, glanced at the superscription, and said:
+"Why, this letter is not for me! It is directed to a planter in Virginia.
+I'll keep it and give it to him at the end of the war." Then, cramming the
+letter into his pocket, he ordered the flag of truce out of the lines and
+directed the gunners to stand by. In an hour, another letter came back
+addressed to "His Excellency, General Washington."
+
+It was not long after this a soldier brought to Washington a dog that had
+been found wearing a collar with the name of General Howe engraved on it.
+Washington returned the dog by a special messenger with a note reading,
+"General Washington sends his compliments to General Howe, and begs to
+return one dog that evidently belongs to him." In this instance, I am
+inclined to think that Washington acted in sober good faith, but was the
+victim of a practical joke on the part of one of his aides.
+
+Another remark that sounds like a joke, but perhaps was not one, was when,
+on taking command of the army at Boston, the General writes to his
+lifelong friend, Doctor Craik, asking what he can do for him, and adding a
+sentiment still in the air: "But these Massachusetts people suffer
+nothing to go by them that they can lay their hands on." In another letter
+he pays his compliments to Connecticut thus: "Their impecunious meanness
+surpasses belief." When Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Washington
+refused to humiliate him and his officers by accepting their swords. He
+treated Cornwallis as his guest, and even "gave a dinner in his honor." At
+this dinner, Rochambeau being asked for a toast gave "The United States."
+Washington proposed "The King of France." Cornwallis merely gave "The
+King," and Washington, putting the toast, expressed it as Cornwallis
+intended, "The King of England," and added a sentiment of his own that
+made even Cornwallis laugh--"May he stay there!" Washington's treatment of
+Cornwallis made him a lifelong friend. Many years after, when Cornwallis
+was Governor-General of India, he sent a message to his old antagonist,
+wishing him "prosperity and enjoyment," and adding, "As for myself, I am
+yet in troubled waters."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Once in a century, possibly, a being is born who possesses a transcendent
+insight, and him we call a "genius." Shakespeare, for instance, to whom
+all knowledge lay open; Joan of Arc; the artist Turner; Swedenborg, the
+mystic--these are the men who know a royal road to geometry; but we may
+safely leave them out of account when we deal with the builders of a
+State, for among statesmen there are no geniuses.
+
+Nobody knows just what a genius is or what he may do next; he boils at an
+unknown temperature, and often explodes at a touch. He is uncertain and
+therefore unsafe. His best results are conjured forth, but no man has yet
+conjured forth a Nation--it is all slow, patient, painstaking work along
+mathematical lines. Washington was a mathematician and therefore not a
+genius. We call him a great man, but his greatness was of that sort in
+which we all can share; his virtues were of a kind that, in degree, we too
+may possess. Any man who succeeds in a legitimate business works with the
+same tools that Washington used. Washington was human. We know the man; we
+understand him; we comprehend how he succeeded, for with him there were no
+tricks, no legerdemain, no secrets. He is very near to us.
+
+Washington is indeed first in the hearts of his countrymen. Washington has
+no detractors. There may come a time when another will take first place in
+the affections of the people, but that time is not yet ripe. Lincoln
+stood between men who now live and the prizes they coveted; thousands
+still tread the earth whom he benefited, and neither class can forgive,
+for they are of clay. But all those who lived when Washington lived are
+gone; not one survives; even the last body-servant, who confused memory
+with hearsay, has departed babbling to his rest.
+
+We know all of Washington we will ever know; there are no more documents
+to present, no partisan witnesses to examine, no prejudices to remove. His
+purity of purpose stands unimpeached; his steadfast earnestness and
+sterling honesty are our priceless examples.
+
+We love the man.
+
+We call him Father.
+
+
+
+
+BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
+
+    I will speak ill of no man, not even in matter of truth; but
+    rather excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon
+    proper occasion speak all the good I know of everybody.
+    --_Franklin's Journal_
+
+[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN]
+
+
+Benjamin Franklin was twelve years old. He was large and strong and fat
+and good-natured, and had a full-moon face and red cheeks that made him
+look like a country bumpkin. He was born in Boston within twenty yards of
+the church called "Old South," but the Franklins now lived at the corner
+of Congress and Hanover Streets, where to this day there swings in the
+breeze a gilded ball, and on it the legend, "Josiah Franklin,
+Soap-Boiler."
+
+Benjamin was the fifteenth child in the family; and several having grown
+to maturity and flown, there were thirteen at the table when little Ben
+first sat in the high chair. But the Franklins were not superstitious, and
+if little Ben ever prayed that another would be born, just for luck, we
+know nothing of it. His mother loved him very much and indulged him in
+many ways, for he was always her baby boy, but the father thought that
+because he was good-natured he was also lazy and should be disciplined.
+
+Once upon a time the father was packing a barrel of beef in the cellar,
+and Ben was helping him, and as the father always said grace at table, the
+boy suggested he ask a blessing, once for all, on the barrel of beef and
+thus economize breath. But economics along that line did not appeal to
+Josiah Franklin, for this was early in Seventeen Hundred Eighteen, and
+Josiah was a Presbyterian and lived in Boston.
+
+The boy was not religious, for he never "went forward," and only went to
+church because he had to, and read "Plutarch's Lives" with much more
+relish than he did "Saints' Rest." But he had great curiosity and asked
+questions until his mother would say, "Goodness gracious, go and play!"
+
+And as the boy wasn't very religious or very fond of work, his father and
+mother decided that there were only two careers open for him: the mother
+proposed that he be made a preacher, but his father said, send him to sea.
+
+To go to sea under a good strict captain would discipline him, and to send
+him off and put him under the care of the Reverend Doctor Thirdly would
+answer the same purpose--which course should be pursued? But Pallas
+Athene, who was to watch over this lad's destinies all through life,
+preserved him from either.
+
+His parents' aspirations extended even to his becoming captain of a
+schooner or pastor of the First Church at Roxbury. And no doubt he could
+have sailed the schooner around the globe in safety, or filled the pulpit
+with a degree of power that would have caused consternation to reign in
+the heart of every other preacher in town; but Fate saved him that he
+might take the Ship of State, when she threatened to strand on the rocks
+of adversity, and pilot her into peaceful waters, and to preach such
+sermons to America that their eloquence still moves us to better things.
+
+Parents think that what they say about their children goes, and once in an
+awfully long time it does, but the men who become great and learned
+usually do so in spite of their parents--which remark was first made by
+Martin Luther, but need not be discredited on that account.
+
+Ben's oldest brother was James. Now, James was nearly forty; he was tall
+and slender, stooped a little, and had sandy whiskers, and a nervous
+cough, and positive ideas on many subjects--one of which was that he was a
+printer. His apprentice, or "devil," had left him, because the devil did
+not like to be cuffed whenever the compositor shuffled his fonts. James
+needed another apprentice, and proposed to take his younger brother and
+make a man of him if the old folks were willing. The old folks were
+willing and Ben was duly bound by law to his brother, agreeing to serve
+him faithfully, as Jacob served Laban, for seven years and two years more.
+
+Science has explained many things, but it has not yet told why it
+sometimes happens that when seventeen eggs are hatched, the brood will
+consist of sixteen barnyard fowls and one eagle.
+
+James Franklin was a man of small capacity, whimsical, jealous and
+arbitrary. But if he cuffed his apprentice Benjamin when the compositor
+blundered, and when he didn't, it was his legal right; and the master who
+did not occasionally kick his apprentices was considered derelict to duty.
+The boy ran errands, cleaned the presses, swept the shop, tied up bundles,
+did the tasks that no one else would do; and incidentally "learned the
+case." Then he set type, and after a while ran a press. And in those days
+a printer ranked considerably above a common mechanic. A man who was a
+printer was a literary man, as were the master printers of London and
+Venice. A printer was a man of taste. All editors were printers, and
+usually composed the matter as they set it up in type. Thus we now have
+the expressions: a "composing-room," a "composing-stick," etc. People once
+addressed "Mr. Printer," not "Mr. Editor," and when they met "Mr. Printer"
+on the street removed their hats--but not in Philadelphia.
+
+Young Franklin felt a proper degree of pride in his work, if not vanity.
+In fact, he himself has said that vanity is a good thing, and whenever he
+saw it come flaunting down the street, always made way, knowing that there
+was virtue somewhere back of it--out of sight perhaps, but still there.
+James, being a brother, had no confidence in Ben's intellect, so when Ben
+wrote short articles on this and that, he tucked them under the door so
+that James would find them in the morning. James showed these articles to
+his friends, and they all voted them very fine, and concluded they must
+have been written by Doctor So-and-So, Ph.D., who, like Lord Bacon, was a
+very modest man and did not care to see his name in print.
+
+Yet, by and by, it came out who it was that wrote the anonymous "hot
+stuff," and then James did not think it was quite so good as he at first
+thought, and moreover, declared he knew whose it was all the time. Ben was
+eighteen and had read Montaigne, and Collins, and Shaftesbury, and Hume.
+When he wrote he expressed thoughts that then were considered very
+dreadful, but that can now be heard proclaimed even in good orthodox
+churches. But Ben had wit and to spare, and he leveled it at government
+officials and preachers, and these gentlemen did not relish the
+jokes--people seldom relish jokes at their own expense--and they sought to
+suppress the newspaper that the Franklin brothers published.
+
+The blame for all the trouble James heaped upon Benjamin, and all the
+credit for success he took to himself. James declared that Ben had the big
+head--and he probably was right; but he forgot that the big head, like
+mumps and measles and everything else in life, is self-limiting and good
+in its way. So, to teach Ben his proper place, James reminded him that he
+was only an apprentice, with three years yet to serve, and that he should
+be seen seldom and not heard all the time, and that if he ran away he
+would send a constable after him and fetch him back.
+
+Ben evidently had a mind open to suggestive influences, for the remark
+about running away prompted him to do so. He sold some of his books and
+got himself secreted on board a ship about to sail for New York.
+
+Arriving at New York, in three days he found the broad-brimmed Dutch had
+small use for printers and no special admiration for the art preservative;
+and he started for Philadelphia.
+
+Every one knows how he landed in a small boat at the foot of Market Street
+with only a few coppers in his pocket, and made his way to a bakeshop and
+asked for a threepenny loaf of bread, and being told they had no
+threepenny loaves, then asked for threepenny's worth of any kind of bread,
+and was given three loaves. Where is the man who in a strange land has not
+suffered rather than reveal his ignorance before a shopkeeper? When I was
+first in England and could not compute readily in shillings and pence, I
+would toss out a gold piece when I made a purchase and assume a 'igh and
+'aughty mien. And that Philadelphia baker probably died in blissful
+ignorance of the fact that the youth who was to be America's pride bought
+from him three loaves of bread when he wanted only one.
+
+The runaway Ben had a downy beard all over his face, and as he took his
+three loaves and walked up Market Street, with a loaf under each arm,
+munching on the third, he was smiled upon in merry mirth by the buxom
+Deborah Read, as she stood in the doorway of her father's house. Yet
+Franklin got even with her, for some months after, he went back that way
+and courted her, grew to love him, and they "exchanged promises," he says.
+After some months of work and love-making, Franklin sailed away to England
+on a wild-goose chase. He promised to return soon and make Deborah his
+wife. But he wrote only one solitary letter to the broken-hearted girl and
+did not come back for nearly two years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Time is the great avenger as well as educator; only the education is
+usually deferred until it no longer avails in this incarnation, and is
+valuable only for advice--and nobody wants advice. Deathbed repentances
+may be legal-tender for salvation in another world, but for this they are
+below par, and regeneration that is postponed until the man has no further
+capacity to sin is little better. For sin is only perverted power, and the
+man without capacity to sin neither has ability to do good--isn't that so?
+His soul is a Dead Sea that supports neither ameba nor fish, neither
+noxious bacilli nor useful life. Happy is the man who conserves his
+God-given power until wisdom and not passion shall direct it. So, the
+younger in life a man makes the resolve to turn and live, the better for
+that man and the better for the world.
+
+Once upon a time Carlyle took Milburn, the blind preacher, out on to
+Chelsea embankment and showed the sightless man where Franklin plunged
+into the Thames and swam to Blackfriars Bridge. "He might have stayed
+here," said Thomas Carlyle, "and become a swimming-teacher, but God had
+other work for him!" Franklin had many opportunities to stop and become a
+victim of arrested development, but he never embraced the occasion. He
+could have stayed in Boston and been a humdrum preacher, or a thrifty
+sea-captain, or an ordinary printer; or he could have remained in London,
+and been, like his friend Ralph, a clever writer of doggerel, and a
+supporter of the political party that would pay the most.
+
+Benjamin Franklin was twenty years old when he returned from England. The
+ship was beaten back by headwinds and blown out of her course by
+blizzards, and becalmed at times, so it took eighty-two days to make the
+voyage. A worthy old clergyman tells me this was so ordained and ordered
+that Benjamin might have time to meditate on the follies of youth and
+shape his course for the future, and I do not argue the case, for I am
+quite willing to admit that my friend, the clergyman, has the facts.
+
+Yes, we must be "converted," "born again," "regenerated," or whatever you
+may be pleased to call it. Sometimes--very often--it is love that reforms
+a man, sometimes sickness, sometimes sore bereavement.
+
+Doctor Talmage says that with Saint Paul it was a sunstroke, and this may
+be so, for surely Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus to persecute
+Christians was not in love. Love forgives to seventy times seven and
+persecutes nobody.
+
+We do not know just what it was that turned Franklin; he had tried
+folly--we know that--and he just seems to have anticipated Browning and
+concluded:
+
+    "It's wiser being good than bad;
+    It's safer being meek than fierce;
+    It's better being sane than mad."
+
+On this voyage the young printer was thrust down into the depths and made
+to wrestle with the powers of darkness; and in the remorse of soul that
+came over him he made a liturgy to be repeated night and morning, and at
+midday. There were many items in this ritual--all of which were corrected
+and amended from time to time in after-years. Here are a few paragraphs
+that represent the longings and trend of the lad's heart. His prayer was:
+
+"That I may have tenderness for the meek; that I may be kind to my
+neighbors, good-natured to my companions and hospitable to strangers. Help
+me, O God!
+
+"That I may be averse to craft and overreaching, abhor extortion and every
+kind of weakness and wickedness. Help me, O God!
+
+"That I may have constant regard to honor and probity; that I may possess
+an innocent and good conscience, and at length become truly virtuous and
+magnanimous. Help me, O God!
+
+"That I may refrain from calumny and detraction; that I may abhor deceit,
+and avoid lying, envy and fraud, flattery, hatred, malice and ingratitude.
+Help me, O God!".
+
+Then, in addition, he formed rules of conduct and wrote them out and
+committed them to memory. The maxims he adopted are old as thought, yet
+can never become antiquated, for in morals there is nothing either new or
+old, neither can there be.
+
+On that return voyage from England, he inwardly vowed that his first act
+on getting ashore would be to find Deborah Read and make peace with her
+and his conscience. And true to his vow, he found her, but she was the
+wife of another. Her mother believed that Franklin had run away simply to
+get rid of her, and the poor girl, dazed and forlorn, bereft of will, had
+been induced to marry a man by the name of Rogers, who was a potter and
+also a potterer, but who Franklin says was "a very good potter."
+
+After some months, Deborah left the potter, because she did not like to be
+reproved with a strap, and went home to her mother.
+
+Franklin was now well in the way of prosperity, aged twenty-four, with a
+little printing business, plans plus, and ambitions to spare. He had had
+his little fling in life, and had done various things of which he was
+ashamed; and the foolish things that Deborah had done were no worse than
+those of which he had been guilty. So he called on her, and they talked it
+over and made honest confessions that are good for the soul. The potter
+disappeared--no one knew where--some said he was dead, but Benjamin and
+Deborah did not wear mourning. They took rumor's word for it, and thanked
+God, and went to a church and were married.
+
+Deborah brought to the firm a very small dowry; and Benjamin contributed a
+bright baby boy, aged two years, captured no one knows just where. This
+boy was William Franklin, who grew up into a very excellent man, and the
+worst that can be said of him is that he became Governor of New Jersey. He
+loved and respected his father, and called Deborah mother, and loved her
+very much. And she was worthy of all love, and ever treated him with
+tenderness and gentlest considerate care. Possibly a blot on the
+'scutcheon may, in the working of God's providence, not always be a dire
+misfortune, for it sometimes has the effect of binding broken hearts as
+nothing else can, as a cicatrice toughens the fiber.
+
+Deborah had not much education, but she had good, sturdy commonsense,
+which is better if you are forced to make choice. She set herself to help
+her husband in every way possible, and so far as I know, never sighed for
+one of those things you call "a career." She even worked in the
+printing-office, folding, stitching, and doing up bundles.
+
+Long years afterward, when Franklin was Ambassador of the American
+Colonies in France, he told with pride that the clothes he wore were spun,
+woven, cut out, and made into garments--all by his wife's own hands.
+Franklin's love for Deborah was very steadfast. Together they became rich
+and respected, won world-wide fame, and honors came that way such as no
+American before or since has ever received.
+
+And when I say, "God bless all good women who help men do their work," I
+simply repeat the words once used by Benjamin Franklin when he had Deborah
+in mind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Franklin was forty-two, he had accumulated a fortune of seventy-five
+thousand dollars. It gave him an income of about four thousand dollars a
+year, which he said was all he wanted; so he sold out his business,
+intending to devote his entire energies to the study of science and
+languages. He had lived just one-half his days; and had he then passed
+out, his life could have been summed up as one of the most useful that
+ever has been lived. He had founded and been the life of the Junto
+Club--the most sensible and beneficent club of which I ever heard.
+
+The series of questions asked at every meeting of the Junto, so mirror the
+life and habit of thought of Franklin that we had better glance at a few
+of them:
+
+1. Have you read over these queries this morning, in order to consider
+what you might have to offer the Junto, touching any one of them?
+
+2. Have you met with anything in the author you last read, remarkable, or
+suitable to be communicated to the Junto; particularly in history,
+morality, poetry, physics, travels, mechanical arts, or other parts of
+knowledge?
+
+3. Do you know of a fellow-citizen, who has lately done a worthy action,
+deserving praise and imitation; or who has lately committed an error,
+proper for us to be warned against and avoid?
+
+4. What unhappy effects of intemperance have you lately observed or
+heard; of imprudence, of passion, or of any other vice or folly?
+
+5. What happy effects of temperance, of prudence, of moderation, or of any
+other virtue?
+
+6. Do you think of anything at present in which the members of the Junto
+may be serviceable to mankind, to their country, to their friends, or to
+themselves?
+
+7. Hath any deserving stranger arrived in town since last meeting that you
+have heard of? And what have you heard or observed of his character or
+merits? And whether, think you, it lies in the power of the Junto to
+oblige him, or encourage him as he deserves?
+
+8. Do you know of any deserving young beginner, lately set up, whom it
+lies in the power of the Junto in any way to encourage?
+
+9. Have you lately observed any defect in the laws of your country, of
+which it would be proper to move the legislature for an amendment? Or do
+you know of any beneficial law that is wanting?
+
+10. Have you lately observed any encroachment on the just liberties of the
+people?
+
+11. In what manner can the Junto, or any of its members, assist you in any
+of your honorable designs?
+
+12. Have you any weighty affair on hand in which you think the advice of
+the Junto may be of service?
+
+13. What benefits have you lately received from any man not present?
+
+14. Is there any difficulty in matters of opinion, of justice and
+injustice, which you would gladly have discussed at this time?
+
+The Junto led to the establishment, by Franklin, of the Philadelphia
+Public Library, which became the parent of all public libraries in
+America. He also organized and equipped a fire-company; paved and lighted
+the streets of Philadelphia; established a high school and an academy for
+the study of English branches; founded the Philadelphia Public Hospital;
+invented the toggle-joint printing-press, the Franklin Stove, and various
+other useful mechanical devices.
+
+After his retirement from business, Franklin enjoyed seven years of what
+he called leisure, but they were years of study and application; years of
+happiness and sweet content, but years of aspiration and an earnest
+looking into the future. His experiments with kite and key had made his
+name known in all the scientific circles of Europe, and his suggestive
+writings on the subject of electricity had caused Goethe to lay down his
+pen and go to rubbing amber for the edification of all Weimar.
+
+Franklin was in correspondence with the greatest minds of Europe, and what
+his "Poor Richard Almanac" had done for the plain people of America, his
+pamphlets were now doing for the philosophers of the Old World.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-four, he wrote a treatise showing the Colonies
+that they must be united, and this was the first public word that was to
+grow and crystallize and become the United States of America. Before
+that, the Colonies were simply single, independent, jealous and bickering
+overgrown clans. Franklin showed for the first time that they must unite
+in mutual aims.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-seven, matters were getting a little strained
+between the Province of Pennsylvania and England. "The lawmakers of
+England do not understand us--some one should go there as an authorized
+agent to plead our cause," and Franklin was at once chosen as the man of
+strongest personality and soundest sense. So Franklin went to England and
+remained there for five years as agent for the Colonies.
+
+He then returned home, but after two years the Stamp Act had stirred up
+the public temper to a degree that made revolution imminent, and Franklin
+again went to England to plead for justice. The record of the ten years he
+now spent in London is told by Bancroft in a hundred pages. Bancroft is
+very good, and! have no desire to rival him, so suffice it to say that
+Franklin did all that any man could have done to avert the coming War of
+the Revolution. Burke has said that when he appeared before Parliament to
+be examined as to the condition of things in America, it was like a lot of
+schoolboys interrogating the master.
+
+With the voice and tongue of a prophet, Franklin foretold the English
+people what the outcome of their treatment of America would be. Pitt and a
+few others knew the greatness of Franklin, and saw that he was right, but
+the rest smiled in derision.
+
+He sailed for home in Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five, and urged the
+Continental Congress to the Declaration of Independence, of which he
+became a signer. Then the war came, and had not Franklin gone to Paris and
+made an ally of France, and borrowed money, the Continental Army could not
+have been maintained in the field.
+
+He remained in France for nine years, and was the pride and pet of the
+people. His sound sense, his good humor, his distinguished personality,
+gave him the freedom of society everywhere. He had the ability to adapt
+himself to conditions, and was everywhere at home.
+
+Once, he attended a memorable banquet in Paris shortly after the close of
+the Revolutionary War. Among the speakers was the English Ambassador, who
+responded to the toast, "Great Britain." The Ambassador dwelt at length on
+England's greatness, and likened her to the sun that sheds its beneficent
+rays on all. The next toast was "America," and Franklin was called on to
+respond. He began very modestly by saying: "The Republic is too young to
+be spoken of in terms of praise; her career is yet to come, and so,
+instead of America, I will name you a man, George Washington--the Joshua
+who successfully commanded the sun to stand still." The Frenchmen at the
+board forgot the courtesy due their English guest, and laughed needlessly
+loud.
+
+Franklin was regarded in Paris as the man who had both planned the War of
+the Revolution, and fought it. They said, "He despoiled the thunderbolt of
+its danger and snatched sovereignty out of the hand of King George of
+England." No doubt that his ovation was largely owing to the fact that he
+was supposed to have plucked whole handfuls of feathers from England's
+glory, and surely they were pretty nearly right.
+
+In point of all-round development, Franklin must stand as the foremost
+American. The one intent of his mind was to purify his own spirit, to
+develop his intellect on every side, and make his body the servant of his
+soul. His passion was to acquire knowledge, and the desire of his heart
+was to communicate it.
+
+The writings of Franklin--simple, clear, concise, direct, impartial,
+brimful of commonsense--form a model which may be studied by every one
+with pleasure and profit. They should constitute a part of the curriculum
+of every college and high school that aspires to cultivate in its pupils a
+pure style and correct literary taste.
+
+We know of no man who ever lived a fuller life, a happier life, a life
+more useful to other men, than Benjamin Franklin. For forty-two years he
+gave the constant efforts of his life to his country, and during all that
+time no taint of a selfish action can be laid to his charge. Almost his
+last public act was to petition Congress to pass an act for the abolition
+of slavery. He died in Seventeen Hundred Ninety, and as you walk up Arch
+Street, Philadelphia, only a few squares from the spot where stood his
+printing-shop, you can see the place where he sleeps.
+
+The following epitaph, written by himself, not, however, appear on the
+simple monument that marks his grave:
+
+                      The Body
+                         of
+             Benjamin Franklin, Printer
+          (Like the cover of an old book,
+               Its contents torn out,
+    And stripped of its lettering and gilding,)
+             Lies here food for worms.
+       Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
+      For it will (as he believes) appear once
+                        more
+                      In a new
+             And more beautiful Edition
+               Corrected and Amended
+                         By
+                    The Author.
+
+
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+    If I could not go to Heaven but with a Party, I would not go
+    there at all.
+    --Jefferson, in a Letter to Madison
+
+[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON]
+
+
+William and Mary College was founded in Sixteen Hundred Ninety-two by the
+persons whose names it bears. The founders bestowed on it an endowment
+that would have been generous had there not been attached to it sundry
+strings in way of conditions.
+
+The intent was to make Indians Episcopalians, and white students
+clergymen; and the assumption being that between the whites and the
+aborigines there was little difference, the curriculum was an ecclesiastic
+medley.
+
+All the teachers were appointed by the Bishop of London, and the places
+were usually given to clergymen who were not needed in England.
+
+To this college, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty, came Thomas Jefferson, a
+tall, red-haired youth, aged seventeen. He had a sharp nose and a sharp
+chin; and a youth having these has a sharp intellect--mark it well.
+
+This boy had not been "sent" to college. He came of his own accord from
+his home at Shadwell, five days' horseback journey through the woods. His
+father was dead, and his mother, a rare gentle soul, was an invalid.
+
+Death is not a calamity "per se," nor is physical weakness necessarily a
+curse, for out of these seeming unkind conditions Nature often distils her
+finest products. The dying injunction of a father may impress itself upon
+a son as no example of right living ever can, and the physical disability
+of a mother may be the means that work for excellence and strength. The
+last-expressed wish of Peter Jefferson was that his son should be well
+educated, and attain to a degree of useful manliness that the father had
+never reached. And into the keeping of this fourteen-year-old youth the
+dying man, with the last flicker of his intellect, gave the mother,
+sisters and baby brother.
+
+We often hear of persons who became aged in a single night, their hair
+turning from dark to white; but I have seen death thrust responsibility
+upon a lad and make of him a man between the rising of the sun and its
+setting. When we talk of "right environment" and the "proper conditions"
+that should surround growing youth, we fan the air with words--there is no
+such thing as a universal right environment.
+
+An appreciative chapter might here be inserted concerning those beings who
+move about only in rolling chairs, who never see the winter landscape but
+through windows, and who exert their gentle sway from an invalid's couch,
+to which the entire household or neighborhood come to confession or to
+counsel. And yet I have small sympathy for the people who professionally
+enjoy poor health, and no man more than I reverences the Greek passion for
+physical perfection. But a close study of Jefferson's early life reveals
+the truth that the death of his father and the physical weakness of his
+mother and sisters were factors that developed in him a gentle sense of
+chivalry, a silken strength of will, and a habit of independent thought
+and action that served him in good stead throughout a long life.
+
+Williamsburg was then the capital of Virginia. It contained only about a
+thousand inhabitants, but when the Legislature was in session it was very
+gay.
+
+At one end of a wide avenue was the Capitol, and at the other the
+Governor's "palace"; and when the city of Washington was laid out,
+Williamsburg served as a model. On Saturdays, there were horse-races on
+the "Avenue"; everybody gambled; cockfights and dogfights were regarded as
+manly diversions; there was much carousing at taverns; and often at
+private houses there were all-night dances where the rising sun found
+everybody but the servants plain drunk.
+
+At the college, both teachers and scholars were obliged to subscribe to
+the Thirty-nine Articles and to recite the Catechism. The atmosphere was
+charged with theology.
+
+Young Jefferson had never before seen a village of even a dozen houses,
+and he looked upon this as a type of all cities. He thought about it,
+talked about it, wrote about it, and we now know that at this time his
+ideas concerning city versus country crystallized.
+
+Fifty years after, when he had come to know London and Paris, and had seen
+the chief cities of Christendom, he repeated the words he had written in
+youth, "The hope of a nation lies in its tillers of the soil!"
+
+On his mother's side he was related to the "first families," but
+aristocracy and caste had no fascination for him, and he then began
+forming those ideas of utility, simplicity and equality that time only
+strengthened.
+
+His tutors and professors served chiefly as "horrible examples," with the
+shining exception of Doctor Small. The friendship that ripened between
+this man and young Jefferson is an ideal example of what can be done
+through the personal touch. Men are great only as they excel in sympathy;
+and the difference between sympathy and imagination has not yet been shown
+us.
+
+Doctor Small encouraged the young farmer from the hills to think and to
+express himself. He did not endeavor to set him straight or explain
+everything for him, or correct all his vagaries, or demand that he should
+memorize rules. He gave his affectionate sympathy to the boy who, with a
+sort of feminine tenderness, clung to the only person who understood him.
+
+To Doctor Small, pedigree and history unknown, let us give the credit of
+being first in the list of friends that gave bent to the mind of
+Jefferson. John Burke, in his "History of Virginia," refers to Professor
+Small thus: "He was not any too orthodox in his opinions." And here we
+catch a glimpse of a formative influence in the life of Jefferson that
+caused him to turn from the letter of the law and cleave to the spirit
+that maketh alive. After school-hours the tutor and the student walked and
+talked, and on Saturdays and Sundays went on excursions through the woods;
+and to the youth there was given an impulse for a scientific knowledge of
+birds and flowers and the host of life that thronged the forest. And when
+the pair had strayed so far beyond the town that darkness gathered and the
+stars came out, they conversed of the wonders of the sky.
+
+The true scientist has no passion for killing things. He says with
+Thoreau, "To shoot a bird is to lose it." Professor Small had the gentle
+instinct that respects life, and he refused to take that which he could
+not give. To his youthful companion he imparted, in a degree, the secret
+of enjoying things without the passion for possession and the lust of
+ownership.
+
+There is a myth abroad that college towns are intellectual centers; but
+the number of people in a college town (or any other) who really think, is
+very few.
+
+Williamsburg was gay, and, this much said, it is needless to add it was
+not intellectual. But Professor Small was a thinker, and so was Governor
+Fauquier; and these two were firm friends, although very unlike in many
+ways. And to "the palace" of the courtly Fauquier, Small took his young
+friend Jefferson. Fauquier was often a master of the revels, but after his
+seasons of dissipation he turned to Small for absolution and comfort. At
+these times he seemed to Jefferson a paragon of excellence. To the grace
+of the French he added the earnestness of the English. He quoted Pope, and
+talked of Swift, Addison and Thomson. Fauquier and Jefferson became
+friends, although more than a score of years and a world of experience
+separated them. Jefferson caught a little of Fauquier's grace, love of
+books and delight in architecture. But Fauquier helped him most by
+gambling away all his ready money and getting drunk and smoking strong
+pipes with his feet on the table. And Jefferson then vowed he would never
+handle a card, nor use tobacco, nor drink intoxicating liquors. And in
+conversation with Small, he anticipated Buckle by saying, "To gain
+leisure, wealth must first be secured; but once leisure is gained, more
+people use it in the pursuit of pleasure than employ it in acquiring
+knowledge."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Had Jefferson lived in a great city he would have been an architect. His
+practical nature, his mastery of mathematics, his love of proportion, and
+his passion for music are the basic elements that make a Christopher Wren.
+But Virginia, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty-five, offered no temptation to
+ambitions along that line; log houses with a goodly "crack" were quite
+good enough, and if the domicile proved too small the plan of the first
+was simply duplicated. Yet a career of some kind young Jefferson knew
+awaited him.
+
+About this time the rollicking Patrick Henry came along. Patrick played
+the violin, and so did Thomas. These two young men had first met on a
+musical basis. Some otherwise sensible people hold that musicians are
+shallow and impractical; and I know one man who declares that truth and
+honesty and uprightness never dwelt in a professional musician's heart;
+and further, that the tribe is totally incapable of comprehending the
+difference between "meum" and "tuum." But then this same man claims that
+actors are rascals who have lost their own characters in the business of
+playing they are somebody else. And yet I'll explain for the benefit of
+the captious that, although Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry both
+fiddled, they never did and never would fiddle while Rome burned. Music
+was with them a pastime, not a profession.
+
+As soon as Patrick Henry arrived at Williamsburg, he sought out his old
+friend Thomas Jefferson, because he liked him--and to save tavern bill.
+And Patrick announced that he had come to Williamsburg to be admitted to
+the bar.
+
+"How long have you studied law?" asked Jefferson.
+
+"Oh, for six weeks last Tuesday," was the answer.
+
+Tradition has it that Jefferson advised Patrick to go home and study at
+least a fortnight more before making his application. But Patrick declared
+that the way to learn law is to practise it, and he surely was right. Most
+young lawyers are really never aware of how little law they know until
+they begin to practise.
+
+But Patrick Henry was duly admitted, although George Wythe protested. Then
+Patrick went back home to tend bar (the other kind) for Laban, his
+father-in-law, for full four years. He studied hard and practised a little
+betimes--and his is the only instance that history records of a barkeeper
+acquiring wisdom while following his calling; but for the encouragement of
+budding youth I write it down.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No doubt it was the example of Patrick Henry that caused Jefferson to
+adopt his profession. But it was the literary side of law that first
+attracted him--not the practise of it. As a speaker he was singularly
+deficient, a slight physical malformation of the throat giving him a very
+poor and uncertain voice. But he studied law, and after all it does not
+make much difference what a man studies--all knowledge is related, and the
+man who studies anything if he keeps at it will become learned.
+
+So Jefferson studied in the office of George Wythe, and absorbed all that
+Fauquier had to offer, and grew wise in the companionship of Doctor Small.
+From a red-headed, lean, lank, awkward mountaineer, he developed into a
+gracious and graceful young man who has been described as "auburn-haired."
+And the evolution from being red-headed to having red hair, and from that
+to being auburn-haired, proves he was the genuine article. Still he was
+hot handsome--that word can not be used to describe him until he was
+sixty--for he was freckled, one shoulder wets higher than the other, and
+his legs were so thin that they could not do justice to small-clothes.
+
+Yet it will not do to assume that thin men are weak, any more than to take
+it for granted that fat men are strong. Jefferson was as muscular as a
+panther and could walk or ride or run six days and nights together. He
+could lift from the floor a thousand pounds.
+
+When twenty-four, he hung out his lawyer's sign under that of George Wythe
+at Williamsburg. And clients came that way with retainers, and rich
+planters sent him business, and wealthy widows advised with him--and still
+he could not make a speech without stuttering. Many men can harangue a
+jury, and every village has its orator; but where is the wise and silent
+man who will advise you in a way that will keep you out of difficulty,
+protect your threatened interests, and conduct the affairs you may leave
+in his hands so as to return your ten talents with other talents added!
+And I hazard the statement, without heat or prejudice, that if the
+experiment should be made with a thousand lawyers in any one of our larger
+cities, four-fifths of them would be found so deficient, either mentally,
+morally or both, that if ten talents were placed in their hands, they
+would not at the close of a year be able to account for the principal, to
+say nothing of the interest. And the bar of today is made up of a better
+class than it was in Jefferson's time, even if it has not the intellectual
+fiber that it had forty years ago.
+
+But at the early age of twenty-five, Jefferson was a wise and skilful man
+in the world's affairs (and a man who is wise is also honest), and men of
+this stamp do not remain hidden in obscurity. The world needs just such
+individuals and needs them badly. Jefferson had the quiet, methodical
+industry that works without undue expenditure of nervous force; that
+intuitive talent which enables the possessor to read a whole page at a
+glance and drop at once upon the vital point; and then he had the ability
+to get his whole case on paper, marshaling his facts in a brief, pointed
+way that served to convince better than eloquence. These are the
+characteristics that make for success in practise before our Courts of
+Appeal; and Jefferson's success shows that they serve better than bluster,
+even with a backwoods bench composed of fox-hunting farmers.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight, when Jefferson was twenty-five, he went
+down to Shadwell and ran for member of the Virginia Legislature. It was
+the proper thing to do, for he was the richest man in the county, being
+heir to his father's forty thousand acres, and it was expected that he
+would represent his district. He called on every voter in the parish,
+shook hands with everybody, complimented the ladies, caressed the babies,
+treated crowds at every tavern, and kept a large punch-bowl and open house
+at home. He was elected. On the Eleventh of May, Seventeen Hundred
+Sixty-nine, the Legislature convened, with nearly a hundred members
+present, Colonel George Washington being one of the number. It took two
+days for the Assembly to elect a Speaker and get ready for business. On
+the third day, four resolutions were introduced--pushed to the front
+largely through the influence of our new member.
+
+These resolutions were:
+
+1. No taxation without representation.
+
+2. The Colonies may concur and unite in seeking redress for grievances.
+
+3. Sending accused persons away from their own country for trial is an
+inexcusable wrong.
+
+4. We will send an address on these things to the King beseeching his
+royal interposition.
+
+The resolutions were passed: they did not mean much anyway, the opposition
+said. And then another resolution was passed to this effect: "We will send
+a copy of these resolutions to every legislative body on the continent."
+That was a little stronger, but did not mean much either.
+
+It was voted upon and passed.
+
+Then the Assembly adjourned, having dispatched a copy of the resolutions
+to Lord Boutetourt, the newly appointed Governor who had just arrived from
+London.
+
+Next day, the Governor's secretary appeared when the Assembly convened,
+and repeated the following formula: "The Governor commands the House to
+attend His Excellency in the Council-Chamber." The members marched to the
+Council-Chamber and stood around the throne waiting the pleasure of His
+Lordship. He made a speech which I will quote entire. "Mr. Speaker and
+Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses: I have heard your resolves, and augur
+ill of their effect. You have made it my duty to dissolve you, and you are
+dissolved accordingly."
+
+And that was the end of Jefferson's first term in office--the reward for
+all the hand-shaking, all the caressing, all the treating!
+
+The members looked at one another, but no one said anything, because there
+was nothing to say. The secretary made an impatient gesture with his hand
+to the effect that they should disperse, and they did.
+
+Just how these legally elected representatives and now legally common
+citizens took their rebuff we do not know.
+
+Did Washington forget his usual poise and break out into one of those
+swearing fits where everybody wisely made way? And how did Richard Henry
+Lee like it, and George Wythe, and the Randolphs? Did Patrick Henry wax
+eloquent that afternoon in a barroom, and did Jefferson do more than smile
+grimly, biding his time?
+
+Massachusetts kept a complete history of her political heresies, but
+Virginia chased foxes and left the refinements of literature to
+dilettantes. But this much we know: Those country gentlemen did not go off
+peaceably and quietly to race horses or play cards. The slap in the face
+from the gloved hand of Lord Boutetourt awoke every boozy sense of
+security and gave vitality to all fanatical messages sent by Samuel Adams.
+Washington, we are told, spoke of it as a bit of upstart authority on the
+part of the new Governor; but Jefferson with true prophetic vision saw the
+end.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One of the leading lawyers at Williamsburg, against whom Jefferson was
+often pitted, was John Wayles. I need not explain that lawyers hotly
+opposed to each other in a trial are not necessarily enemies. The way in
+which Jefferson conducted his cases pleased the veteran Wayles, and he
+invited Jefferson to visit him at his fine estate, called "The Forest," a
+few miles out from Williamsburg. Now, in the family of Mr. Wayles dwelt
+his widowed daughter, the beautiful Martha Skelton, gracious and rich as
+Jefferson in worldly goods. She played the spinet with great feeling, and
+the spinet and the violin go very well together. So, together, Thomas and
+Martha played, and sometimes a bit of discord crept in, for Thomas was
+absent-minded and, in the business of watching the widow's fingers touch
+the keys, played flat.
+
+Long years before, he had liked and admired Becca, gazed fondly at Sukey,
+and finally loved Belinda. He did not tell her so, but he told John Page,
+and vowed that if he did not wed Belinda he would go through life solitary
+and alone. In a few months Belinda married that detested being--another.
+Then it was he again swore to his friend Page he would be true to her
+memory, even though she had dissembled. But now he saw that the widow
+Skelton had intellect, while Belinda had been but clever; the widow had
+soul, while Belinda had nothing but form. Jefferson's experience seems to
+settle that mooted question, "Can a man love two women at the same time?"
+Unlike Martha Custis, this Martha was won only after a protracted wooing,
+with many skirmishes and occasional misunderstandings and explanations,
+and sweet makings-up that were surely worth a quarrel.
+
+Then they were married at "The Forest," and rode away through the woods to
+Monticello. Jefferson was twenty-seven, and although it may not be proper
+to question closely as to the age of the widow, yet the bride, we have
+reason to believe, was about the age of her husband.
+
+It was a most happy mating--all their quarreling had been done before
+marriage. The fine intellect and high spirit of Jefferson found their
+mate. She was his comrade and helpmeet as well as his wife. He could read
+his favorite Ossian aloud to her, and when he tired she would read to him;
+and all his plans and ambitions and hopes were hers. In laying out the
+grounds and beautifying that home on Monticello mountain, she took much
+more than a passive interest. It was "Our Home," and to make it a home in
+very sooth for her beloved husband was her highest ambition. She knew the
+greatness of her mate, and all the dreams she had for his advancement were
+to come true. With her, ideality was to become reality. But she was to see
+it only in part.
+
+Yet she had seen her husband re-elected to the Virginia Legislature; sent
+as a member to the Colonial Congress at Philadelphia, there to write the
+best known of all American literary productions; from their mountain home
+she had seen British troops march into Charlottesville, four miles away,
+and then, with household treasure, had fled, knowing that beautiful
+Monticello would be devastated by the enemy's ruthless tread. She had
+known Washington, and had visited his lonely wife there at Mount Vernon
+when victory hung in the balance; when defeat meant that Thomas Jefferson
+and George Washington would be the first victims of a vengeful foe. She
+saw her husband War-Governor of Virginia in its most perilous hour; she
+lived to know that Washington had won; that Cornwallis was his "guest,"
+and that no man, save Washington alone, was more honored in proud Virginia
+than her beloved lord and husband. She saw a messenger on horseback
+approach bearing a packet from the Congress at Philadelphia to the effect
+that "His Excellency, the Honorable Thomas Jefferson," had been appointed
+as one of an embassy to France in the interests of the United States, with
+Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane as colleagues, and, knowing her
+husband's love for Franklin, and his respect for France, she leaned over
+his chair and with misty eyes saw him write his simple "No," and knew that
+the only reason he declined was because he would not leave his wife at a
+time when she might most need his tenderness and sympathy.
+
+And then they retired to beloved Monticello to enjoy the rest that comes
+only after work well done--to spend the long vacation of their lives in
+simple homekeeping work and studious leisure, her husband yet in manhood's
+prime, scarce thirty-seven, as men count time, and rich, passing rich, in
+goods and lands.
+
+And then she died.
+
+And Thomas Jefferson, the strong, the self-poised, the self-reliant, fell
+in a helpless swoon, and was laid on a pallet and carried out, as though
+he, too, were dead. For three weeks his dazed senses prayed for death. He
+could endure the presence of no one save his eldest daughter, a slim,
+slender girl of scarce ten years, grown a woman in a day. By her loving
+touch and tenderness he was lured back from death and reason's night into
+the world of life and light. With tottering steps, led by the child who
+had to think for both, he was taken out on the veranda of beautiful
+Monticello. He looked out on stretching miles of dark-blue hills and
+waving woods and winding river. He gazed, and as he looked it came slowly
+to him that the earth was still as when he last saw it, and realized that
+this would be so even if he were gone. Then, turning to the child, who
+stood by, stroking his locks, it came to him that even in grief there may
+be selfishness, and for the first time he responded to the tender caress,
+saying, "Yes, we will live, daughter--live in memory of her!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When two men of equal intelligence and sincerity quarrel, both are
+probably right. Hamilton and Jefferson were opposed to each other by
+temperament and disposition, in a way that caused either to look with
+distrust on any proposition made by the other. And yet, when Washington
+pressed upon Jefferson the position of Secretary of State, I can not but
+think he did it as an antidote to the growing power and vaunting ambition
+of Hamilton. Washington won his victories, as great men ever do, by wisely
+choosing his aides. Hamilton had done yeoman's service in every branch of
+the government, and while the chief sincerely admired his genius, he
+guessed his limitations. Power grows until it topples, and when it
+topples, innocent people are crushed. Washington was wise as a serpent,
+and rather than risk open ruction with Hamilton by personally setting
+bounds, he invited Jefferson into his cabinet, and the acid was
+neutralized to a degree where it could be safely handled.
+
+Jefferson had just returned from Paris with his beloved daughter, Martha.
+He was intending soon to return to France and study social science at
+close range. Already, he had seen that mob of women march out to
+Versailles and fetch the King to Paris, and had seen barricade after
+barricade erected with the stones from the leveled Bastile; he was on
+intimate and affectionate terms with Lafayette and the Republican leaders,
+and here was a pivotal point in his life. Had not Washington persuaded
+him to remain "just for the present" in America, he might have played a
+part in Carlyle's best book, that book which is not history, but more--an
+epic. So, among the many obligations that America owes to Washington, must
+be named this one of pushing Thomas Jefferson, the scholar and man of
+peace, into the political embroglio and shutting the door. Then it was
+that Hamilton's taunting temper awoke a degree of power in Jefferson that
+before he wist not of; then it was that he first fully realized that the
+"United States" with England as a sole pattern was not enough.
+
+A pivotal point! Yes, a pivotal point for Jefferson, America and the
+world; for Jefferson gave the rudder of the Ship of State such a turn to
+starboard that there was never again danger of her drifting on to
+aristocratic shoals, an easy victim to the rapacity of Great Britain.
+Hamilton's distrust of the people found no echo in Jefferson's mind.
+
+He agreed with Hamilton that a "strong government" administered by a few,
+provided the few are wise and honorable, is the best possible government.
+Nay, he went further and declared that an absolute monarchy in which the
+monarch was all-wise and all-powerful, could not be improved upon by the
+imagination of man.
+
+In his composition, there was a saving touch of humor that both Hamilton
+and Washington seemed to lack. He could smile at himself; but none ever
+dared turn a joke on Hamilton, much less on Washington. And so when
+Hamilton explained that a strong government administered by Washington,
+President; Jefferson, Secretary of State; Hamilton, Secretary of the
+Treasury; Knox, Secretary of War; and Randolph, Attorney-General, was
+pretty nearly ideal, no one smiled. But Jefferson's plain inference was
+that power is dangerous and man is fallible; that a man so good as
+Washington dies tomorrow and another man steps in, and that those who have
+the government in their present keeping should curb ambitions, limit their
+own power, and thus fix a precedent for those who are to follow.
+
+The wisdom that Jefferson as a statesman showed in working for a future
+good, and the willingness to forego the pomp of personal power, to
+sacrifice self if need be, that the day he should not see might be secure,
+ranks him as first among statesmen. For a statesman is one who builds a
+State--and not a politician who is dead, as some have said.
+
+Others, since, have followed Jefferson's example, but in the world's
+history I do not recall a man before him who, while still having power in
+his grasp, was willing to trust the people.
+
+The one mistake of Washington that borders on blunder was in refusing to
+take wages for his work. In doing this, he visited untold misery on
+others, who, not having married rich widows, tried to follow his example
+and floundered into woeful debt and disgrace; and thereby were lost to
+useful society and to the world. And there are yet many public offices
+where small men rattle about because men who can fill the place can not
+afford it. Bryce declares that no able and honest man of moderate means
+can afford to take an active part in municipal affairs in America--and
+Bryce is right.
+
+When Jefferson became President, in his messages to Congress again and
+again he advised the fixing of sufficient salaries to secure the best men
+for every branch of the service, and suggested the folly of expecting
+anything for nothing, or the hope of officials not "fixing things" if not
+properly paid.
+
+Men from the soil who gain power are usually intoxicated by it; beginning
+as democrats they evolve into aristocrats, then into tyrants, if kindly
+Fate does not interpose, and are dethroned by the people who made them.
+And it is not surprising that this man, born into a plenty that bordered
+on affluence, and who never knew from experience the necessity of economy
+(until in old age tobacco and slavery had wrecked Virginia and Monticello
+alike), should set an almost ideal example of simplicity, moderation and
+brotherly kindness.
+
+Among the chief glories that belong to him are these:
+
+1. Writing the Declaration of Independence.
+
+2. Suggesting and carrying out the present decimal monetary system.
+
+3. Inducing Virginia to deed to the States, as their common property, the
+Northwest Territory.
+
+4. Purchasing from France, for the comparatively trifling sum of fifteen
+million dollars, Louisiana and the territory running from the Gulf of
+Mexico to Puget's Sound, being at the rate of a fraction of a cent per
+acre, and giving the United States full control of the Mississippi River.
+
+But over and beyond these is the spirit of patriotism that makes each true
+American feel he is parcel and part of the very fabric of the State, and
+in his deepest heart believe that "a government of the people, by the
+people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth."
+
+
+
+
+SAMUEL ADAMS
+
+    The body of the people are now in council. Their opposition grows
+    into a system. They are united and resolute. And if the British
+    Administration and Government do not return to the principles of
+    moderation and equity, the evil, which they profess to aim at
+    preventing by their rigorous measures, will the sooner be brought
+    to pass, viz., the entire separation and independence of the
+    Colonies.
+    --Letter to Arthur Lee
+
+[Illustration: SAMUEL ADAMS]
+
+
+Samuel and John Adams were second cousins, having the same
+great-grandfather. Between them in many ways there was a marked contrast,
+but true to their New England instincts both were theologians.
+
+John was a conservative in politics, and at first had little sympathy with
+"those small-minded men who refused to pay a trivial tax on their tea; and
+who would plunge the country into war, and ruin all for a matter of
+stamps." John was born and lived at the village of Braintree. He did not
+really center his mind on politics until the British had closed all
+law-courts in Boston, thus making his profession obsolete. He was
+scholarly, shrewd, diplomatic, cautious, good-natured, fat, and took his
+religion with a wink. He was blessed with a wife who was worthy of being
+the mother of kings (or presidents); he lived comfortably, acquired
+property, and died aged ninety-two. He had been President and seen his son
+President of the United States, and that is an experience that has never
+come and probably never will come to another living man, for there seems
+to be an unwritten law that no man under fifty shall occupy the office of
+Chief Magistrate of these United States.
+
+Samuel was stern, serious and deeply in earnest. He seldom smiled and
+never laughed. He was uncompromisingly religious, conscientious and
+morally unbending. In his life there was no soft sentiment. The fact that
+he ran a brewery can be excused when we remember that the best spirit of
+the times saw nothing inconsistent in the occupation; and further than
+this we might explain in extenuation that he gave the business indifferent
+attention, and the quality of his brew was said to be very bad.
+
+In religion, he swerved not nor wavered. He was a Calvinist and clung to
+the five points with a tenacity at times seemingly quite unnecessary.
+
+When in that first Congress, Samuel Adams publicly consented to the
+opening of the meeting with religious service conducted by the Reverend
+Mr. Duche, an Episcopal clergyman, he gave a violent wrench to his
+conscience and an awful shock to his friends. But Mr. Duche met the issue
+in the true spirit, and leaving his detested "popery robe" and prayer-book
+at home uttered an extemporaneous invocation, without a trace of intoning,
+that pleased the Puritans and caused one of them to remark, "He is surely
+coming over to the Lord's side!"
+
+But in politics, Samuel Adams was a liberal of the liberals. In
+statecraft, the heresy of change had no terrors for him, and with Hamlet,
+he might have said, "Oh, reform it altogether!"
+
+The limitations set in every character seem to prevent a man from being
+generous in more than one direction; the bigot in religion is often a
+liberal in politics, and vice versa. For instance, physicians are almost
+invariably liberal in religious matters, but are prone to call a man
+"Mister" who does not belong to their school; while orthodox clergymen, I
+have noticed, usually employ a homeopathist.
+
+In that most valuable and interesting work, "The Diary of John Adams," the
+author refers repeatedly to Samuel Adams as "Adams"! This simple way of
+using the word "Adams" shows a world of appreciation for the man who
+blazed the path that others of this illustrious name might follow. And so
+with the high precedent in mind, I, too, will drop prefix and call my
+subject simply "Adams."
+
+On the authority of King George, General Gage made an offer of pardon to
+all save two who had figured in the Boston uprising.
+
+The two men thus honored were John Hancock (whose signature the King could
+read without spectacles), and the other was "one, S. Adams."
+
+Adams, however, was the real offender, and the plea might have been made
+for John Hancock that, if it had not been for accident and Adams, Hancock
+would probably have remained loyal to the mother country.
+
+Hancock was aristocratic, cultured and complacent. He was the richest man
+in New England. His personal interests were on the side of peace and the
+established order. But circumstances and the combined tact and zeal of
+Adams threw him off his guard, and in a moment of dalliance the seeds of
+sedition found lodgment in his brain. And the more he thought about it,
+the nearer he came to the conclusion that Adams was right. But let the
+fact further be stated, if truth demands, that both John Hancock and
+Samuel Adams, the first men who clearly and boldly expressed the idea of
+American Independence, were moved in the beginning by personal grievances.
+
+A single motion made before the British Parliament by we know not whom,
+and put to vote by the Speaker, bankrupted the father of Samuel Adams and
+robbed the youth of his patrimony.
+
+The boy was then seventeen; old enough to know that from plenty his father
+was reduced to penury, and this because England, three thousand miles
+away, had interfered with the business arrangements of the Colony, and
+made unlawful a private banking scheme.
+
+Then did the boy ask the question, What moral right has England to govern
+us, anyway?
+
+From thinking it over he began to formulate reasons. He discussed the
+subject at odd times and thought of it continually, and, in Seventeen
+Hundred Forty-three, when he prepared his graduation thesis at Harvard
+College he chose for his subject, "The Doctrine of the Lawfulness of
+Resistance to the Supreme Magistrate if the Commonwealth Can Not Otherwise
+be Preserved."
+
+When Massachusetts admitted that she was under subjection to the King, yet
+argued for the right to nullify the Acts of the English Parliament, she
+took exactly the same ground that South Carolina did a hundred years
+later. The logic of Samuel Adams and of Robert Hayne was one and the same.
+
+Yet we are glad that Adams carried his point; and we rejoice exceedingly
+that Hayne failed, so curious are these things we call "reasons."
+
+The royalists who heard of this youth with a logical mind denounced him
+without stint. A few newspapers upheld him and spoke of the right of free
+speech and all that, reprinting the thesis in full. And in the controversy
+that followed, young Adams was always a prominent figure. He was not an
+orator in the popular sense, but he held the pen of a ready writer, and
+through the Boston papers kept up a constant fusillade.
+
+The tricks of journalism are no new thing belonging to the fag-end of this
+century. Young Adams wrote letters over the "nom de plume" of Pro Bono
+Publico, and then replied to them over the signature of Rex Americus. He
+did not adopt as his motto, "Let not thy left hand know what thy right
+hand doeth," for he wrote with both hands and each hand was in the secret.
+
+During the years that followed his graduation from college he was a
+businessman and a poor one, for a man who looks after public affairs much
+can not attend to his own. But he managed to make shift; and when too
+closely pressed by creditors, a loan from Hancock, or John Adams,
+Hancock's attorney, relieved the pressure. In fact, when he went to
+Philadelphia "on that very important errand," he rode a horse borrowed
+from John Adams, and his Sunday coat was the gift of a thoughtful friend.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Sixty-three, it became known that the British
+Government had on foot a scheme to demand a tribute from the Colonies. On
+invitation of a committee, possibly appointed by Adams, Adams was
+requested to draw up instructions to the Representatives in the Colonial
+Legislature. Adams did so and the document is now in the archives of the
+old State House at Boston, in the plain and elegant penmanship that is so
+easily recognized. This document calls itself, "The First Public Denial of
+the Right of the British Parliament to tax the Colonies without their
+Consent, and the first Public Suggestion of a Union on the part of the
+Colonies to Protect themselves against British Aggression."
+
+The style of the paper is lucid, firm and logical; it combines in itself
+the suggestion of all there was to be said or could be said on the matter.
+Adams saw all over and around his topic--no unpleasant surprise could be
+sprung on him--twenty-five years had he studied this one theme. He had
+made himself familiar with the political history of every nation so far as
+such history could be gathered; he was past master of his subject.
+
+However, when he was forty years of age his followers were few and mostly
+men of small influence. The Calkers' Club was the home of the sedition,
+and many of the members were day-laborers. But the idea of independence
+gradually grew, and, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty-five, Adams was elected a
+member of the Massachusetts Colonial Legislature. In honor of his writing
+ability, he was chosen clerk of the Assembly, for in all public gatherings
+orators are chosen as presidents and newspapermen for secretaries. Thus
+are honors distributed, and thus, too, does the public show which talent
+it values most.
+
+On November Second, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-two, on motion of Adams, a
+committee of several hundred citizens was appointed "to state the Rights
+of the Colonies and to communicate and publish them to the World as the
+sense of the Town, with the infringements and violations thereof that have
+been or may be made from time to time; also requesting from each Town a
+free communication of their sentiments on this Subject."
+
+This was the Committee of Correspondence from which grew the union of the
+Colonies and the Congress of the United States. It is a pretty well
+attested fact that the first suggestion of the Philadelphia Congress came
+from Samuel Adams, and the chief work of bringing it about was also his.
+
+It was well known to the British Government who the chief agitator was,
+and when General Gage arrived in Boston in May, Seventeen Hundred
+Seventy-four, his first work was an attempt to buy off Samuel Adams. With
+Adams out of the way, England might have adopted a policy of conciliation
+and kept America for her very own--yes, to the point of moving the home
+government here and saving the snug little island as a colony, for both in
+wealth and in population America has now far surpassed England.
+
+But Adams was not for sale. His reply to Gage sounds like a scrap from
+Cromwell: "I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of Kings.
+No personal consideration shall induce me to abandon the Righteous Cause
+of my Country."
+
+Gage having refused to recognize the thirteen Counselors appointed by the
+people, the General Court of Massachusetts, in secret session, appointed
+five delegates to attend the Congress of Colonies at Philadelphia. Of
+course Samuel Adams was one of these delegates; and to John Adams, another
+delegate, are we indebted for a minute description of that most momentous
+meeting.
+
+A room in the State House had been offered the delegates, but with
+commendable modesty they accepted the offer of the Carpenters' Company to
+use their hall.
+
+And so there they convened on the fifth day of September, Seventeen
+Hundred Seventy-four, having met by appointment, and walked over from the
+City Tavern in a body. Forty-four men were present--not a large
+gathering, but they had come hundreds of miles, and several of them had
+been months on the journey.
+
+They were a sturdy lot; and madam! I think it would have been worth while
+to have looked in upon them. There were several coonskin caps in evidence;
+also lace and frills and velvet brought from England--but plainness to
+severity was the rule. Few of these men had ever been away from their own
+Colonies before, few had ever met any members of the Congress save their
+own colleagues. They represented civilizations of very different degrees.
+Each stood a bit in awe of all the rest. Several of the Colonies had been
+in conflict with the others.
+
+Meeting new men in those days, when even the stagecoach was a passing show
+worth going miles to see, was an event. There was awkwardness and
+nervousness on the swarthy faces; firm mouths twitched, and big, bony
+hands sought for places of concealment.
+
+The meeting had been called for September First, but was postponed for
+five days awaiting the arrival of belated delegates who had been detained
+by floods. Even then, delegates from North Carolina had not arrived, and
+Georgia not having thought it worth while to send any, eleven Colonies
+only were represented. Each delegation naturally kept together, as men
+will who have a fighting history and a pioneer ancestry.
+
+It was a serious, solemn business, and these men were not given to levity
+in any event. When they were seated, there was a moment of silence so
+tense it could be heard. Every chance movement of a foot on the uncarpeted
+floor sent an echo through the room.
+
+The stillness was first broken by Mr. Lynch, of South Carolina, who arose
+and in a low, clear voice said: "There is a gentleman present who has
+presided with great dignity over a very respectable body and greatly to
+the advantage of America. Gentlemen, I move that the Honorable Peyton
+Randolph, one of the delegates from Virginia, be appointed to preside over
+this meeting. I doubt not it will be unanimous."
+
+It was so; and a large man in powdered wig and scarlet coat arose, and,
+carrying his gold-headed cane before him like a mace, walked to the
+platform without apology.
+
+The New Englanders in homespun looked at one another with trepidation on
+their features. The red coat was not assuring, but they kept their peace
+and breathed hard, praying that the enemy had not captured the convention
+through strategy. Mr. Randolph's first suggestion was not revolutionary;
+it was that a secretary be appointed.
+
+Again Mr. Lynch arose and named Charles Thomson, "a gentleman of family,
+fortune and character." This testimonial of family and fortune was not
+assuring to the plain Massachusetts men, but they said nothing and awaited
+developments.
+
+All were cautious as woodsmen, and the motion that the Council be held
+behind closed doors was adopted. Every member then held up his right hand
+and made a solemn promise to divulge no part of the transactions; and
+Galloway, of Pennsylvania, promised with the rest, and straightway each
+night informed the enemy of every move.
+
+Little was done that first day but get acquainted by talking very
+cautiously and very politely. The next day a notable member had arrived,
+and in a front seat sat Richard Henry Lee, a man you would turn and look
+at in any company. Slender and dark, with a brilliant eye and a
+profile--and only one man in ten thousand has a profile--Lee was a
+gracious presence. His voice was gentle and flexible and luring, and there
+was a dignity and poise in his manner that made him easily the foremost
+orator of his time.
+
+Near him sat William Livingston, of New Jersey, and John Jay, his
+son-in-law, the youngest man in the Congress, with a nose that denoted
+character, and all his fame in the future.
+
+The Pennsylvanians were all together, grouped on one side. Duane, of New
+York, sat near them, "shy and squint-eyed, very sensible and very artful,"
+wrote John Adams that night in his diary.
+
+Then over there sat Christopher Gadsden, of South Carolina, who had
+preached independence for full ten years before this, and who, when he
+heard that the British soldiers had taken Boston, proposed to raise a
+troop at once and fight redcoats wherever found.
+
+"But the British will burn our seaport towns if we antagonize them," some
+timid soul explained.
+
+"Our towns are built of brick and wood; if they are burned we can rebuild
+them; but liberty once gone is gone forever," he retorted. And the saying
+sounds well, even if it will not stand analysis.
+
+Back near the wall was a man who, when the assembly stood at morning
+prayers, showed a half-head above his neighbors. His face was broad, and
+he, too, had a profile. His mouth was tightly closed, and during the first
+fourteen days of that Congress he never opened it to utter a word, and
+after his long quiet he broke the silence by saying, "Mr. President, I
+second the motion." Once, in a passionate speech, Lynch turned to him and
+pointing his finger said: "There is a man who has not spoken here, but in
+the Virginia Assembly he made the most eloquent speech I ever heard. He
+said, 'I will raise a thousand men, and arm and subsist them at my expense
+and march them to the relief of Boston.'" And then did the tall man, whose
+name was George Washington, blush like a schoolgirl.
+
+But in all that company the men most noticed were the five members from
+Massachusetts. They were Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Gushing and
+Robert Treat Paine. Massachusetts had thus far taken the lead in the
+struggle with England. A British army was encamped upon her soil, her
+chief city besieged--the port closed. Her sufferings had called this
+Congress into being, and to her delegates the members had come to listen.
+All recognized Samuel Adams as the chief man of the Convention. His hand
+wrote the invitations and earnest requests to come. Galloway, writing to
+his friends, the enemy, said: "Samuel Adams eats little, drinks little,
+sleeps little and thinks much. He is most decisive and indefatigable in
+the pursuit of his object. He is the man who, by his superior application,
+manages at once the faction in Philadelphia and the factions of New
+England."
+
+Yet Samuel Adams talked little at the Convention. He allowed John Adams to
+state the case, but sat next to him supplying memoranda, occasionally
+arising to make remarks or explanations in a purely conversational tone.
+But so earnest and impressive was his manner, so ably did he answer every
+argument and reply to every objection, that he thoroughly convinced a
+tall, angular, homely man by the name of Patrick Henry of the
+righteousness of his cause. Patrick Henry was pretty thoroughly convinced
+before, but the recital of Boston's case fired the Virginian, and he made
+the first and only real speech of the Congress. In burning words he
+pictured all the Colonies had suffered and endured, and by his matchless
+eloquence told in prophetic words of the glories yet to be. In his speech
+he paid just tribute to the genius of Samuel Adams, declaring that the
+good that was to come from this "first of an unending succession of
+Congresses" was owing to the work of Adams. And in after-years Adams
+repaid the compliment by saying that if it had not been for the cementing
+power of Patrick Henry's eloquence, that first Congress probably would
+have ended in a futile wrangle.
+
+The South regarded, in great degree, the fight in Boston as Massachusetts'
+own. To make the entire thirteen Colonies adopt the quarrel and back the
+Colonial army in the vicinity of Boston was the only way to make the issue
+a success, and to unite the factions by choosing for a leader a Virginian
+aristocrat was a crowning stroke of diplomacy.
+
+John Hancock had succeeded Randolph as president of the second Congress,
+and Virginia was inclined to be lukewarm, when John Adams in an
+impassioned speech nominated Colonel George Washington as
+Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. The nomination was seconded
+very quietly by Samuel Adams. It was a vote, and the South was committed
+to the cause of backing up Washington, and, incidentally, New England. The
+entire plan was probably the work of Samuel Adams, yet he gave the credit
+to John, while the credit of stoutly opposing it goes to John Hancock,
+who, being presiding officer, worked at a disadvantage.
+
+But Adams had a way of reducing opposition to the minimum. He kept out of
+sight and furthered his ends by pushing this man or that to the front at
+the right time to make the plea. He was a master in that fine art of
+managing men and never letting them know they are managed. By keeping
+behind the arras, he accomplished purposes that a leader never can who
+allows his personality to be in continual evidence, for personality repels
+as well as attracts, and the man too much before the public is sure to be
+undone eventually. Adams knew that the power of Pericles lay largely in
+the fact that he was never seen upon but a single street of Athens, and
+that but once a year.
+
+The complete writings of Adams have recently been collected and published.
+One marvels that such valuable material has not before been printed and
+given to the public, for the literary style and perspicuity shown are most
+inspiring, and the value of the data can not be gainsaid.
+
+No one ever accused Adams of being a muddy thinker; you grant his premises
+and you are bound to accept his conclusions. He leaves no loopholes for
+escape.
+
+The following words, used by Chatham, refer to documents in which Adams
+took a prominent part in preparing: "When your Lordships look at the
+papers transmitted us from America, when you consider their decency,
+firmness and wisdom, you can not but respect their cause and wish to make
+it your own. For myself, I must avow that, in all my reading--and I have
+read Thucydides and have studied and admired the master statesmen of the
+world--for solidity of reason, force of sagacity, and wisdom of
+conclusion under a complication of difficult circumstances, no body of men
+can stand in preference to the general Congress of Philadelphia. The
+histories of Greece and Rome give us nothing like it, and all attempts to
+impress servitude on such a mighty continental people must be in vain."
+
+In the life of Adams there was no soft sentiment nor romantic vagaries.
+"He is a Puritan in all the word implies, and the unbending fanatic of
+independence," wrote Gage, and the description fits.
+
+He was twice married. Our knowledge of his first wife is very slight, but
+his second wife, Elizabeth Wells, daughter of an English merchant, was a
+capable woman of brave good sense. She adopted her husband's political
+views and with true womanly devotion let her old kinsmen slide; and during
+the dark hours of the war bore deprivation without repining.
+
+Adams' home life was simple to the verge of hardship. All through life he
+was on the ragged edge financially, and in his latter years he was for the
+first time relieved from pressing obligations by an afflicting event--the
+death of his only son, who was a surgeon in Washington's army. The money
+paid to the son by the Government for his services gave the father the
+only financial competency he ever knew. Two daughters survived him, but
+with him died the name.
+
+John Adams survived Samuel for twenty-three years. He lived to see "the
+great American experiment," as Mr. Ruskin has been pleased to call our
+country, on a firm basis, constantly growing stronger and stronger. He
+lived to realize that the sanguine prophecies made by Samuel were working
+themselves out in very truth.
+
+The grave of Samuel Adams is viewed by more people than that of any other
+American patriot. In the old Granary Burying-Ground, in the very center of
+Boston, on Tremont Street--there where travel congests, and two living
+streams meet all day long---you look through the iron fence, so slender
+that it scarce impedes the view, and not twenty feet from the curb is a
+simple metal disk set on an iron rod driven into the ground and on it this
+inscription: "This marks the grave of Samuel Adams."
+
+For many years the grave was unmarked, and the disk that now denotes it
+was only recently placed in position by the Sons of the American
+Revolution. But the place of Samuel Adams on the pages of history is
+secure. Upon the times in which he lived he exercised a profound
+influence. And he who influences the times in which he lives has
+influenced all the times that come after; he has left his impress on
+eternity.
+
+
+
+
+JOHN HANCOCK
+
+    Boston, Sept. 30, 1765
+
+    Gent:
+
+    Since my last I have receiv'd your favour by Capt Hulme who is
+    arriv'd here with the most disagreeable Commodity (say Stamps)
+    that were imported into this Country & what if carry'd into
+    Execution will entirely Stagnate Trade here, for it is
+    universally determined here never to Submitt to it and the
+    principal merchts here will by no means carry on Business under a
+    Stamp, we are in the utmost Confusion here and shall be more so
+    after the first of November & nothing but the repeal of the act
+    will righten, the Consequence of its taking place here will be
+    bad, & attended with many troubles, & I believe may say more
+    fatal to you than us. I dread the Event.
+    --Extract From Hancock's Letter-Book
+
+[Illustration: JOHN HANCOCK]
+
+
+Long years ago when society was young, learning was centered in one man in
+each community, and that man was the priest. It was the priest who was
+sent for in every emergency of life. He taught the young, prescribed for
+the sick, advised those who were in trouble, and when human help was vain
+and man had done his all, this priest knelt at the bedside of the dying
+and invoked a Power with whom it was believed he had influence.
+
+The so-called learned professions are only another example of the Division
+of Labor. We usually say there are three learned professions: Theology,
+Medicine and Law. As to which is the greatest is a much-mooted question
+and has caused too many family feuds for me to attempt to decide it. And
+so I evade the issue and say there is a fourth profession, that is only
+allowed to be called so by grace, but which in my mind is greater than
+them all--the profession of Teacher. I can conceive of a condition of
+society so high and excellent that it has no use for either doctor, lawyer
+or preacher, but the teacher would still be needed. Ignorance and sin
+supply the three "learned professions" their excuse for being, but the
+teacher's work is to develop the germ of wisdom that is in every soul.
+
+And now each of these professions has divided up, like monads, into many
+heads. In medicine, we have as many specialists as there are organs of the
+body. The lawyer who advises you in a copyright or patent cause knows
+nothing about admiralty; and as they tell us a man who pleads his own case
+has a fool for a client, so does the insurance lawyer who is retained to
+foreclose a mortgage. In all prosperous city churches, the preacher who
+attracts the crowd in the morning allows a 'prentice to preach to the
+young folks in the evening; he does not make pastoral calls; and the
+curate who reads the service at funerals is never called upon to perform a
+marriage ceremony except in a case of charity. Likewise the teacher's
+profession has its specialists: the man who teaches Greek well can not
+write good English; the man who teaches composition is baffled and
+perplexed by long division; and the teacher who delights in trigonometry
+pooh-poohs a kindergartner.
+
+Just where this evolutionary dividing and subdividing of social cells will
+land the race no man can say; but that a specialist is a dangerous man, is
+sure. He is a buzz-saw with which wise men never monkey. A surgeon who has
+operated for appendicitis five times successfully is above all to be
+avoided. I once knew a man with lung trouble who inadvertently strayed
+into an oculist's and was looked over and sent away with an order on an
+optician. And should you through error stray into the office of a nose and
+throat specialist, and ask him to treat you for varicose veins, he would
+probably do so by nasal douche.
+
+Even now a specialist in theology will lead us, if he can, a merry
+"ignis-fatuus" chase and land us in a morass. The only thing that saved
+the priest in days agone was the fact that he had so many duties to
+perform that he exercised all his mental muscles, and thus attained a
+degree of all-roundness which is not possible to the specialist. Even then
+there were not lacking men who found time to devote to specialties: Bishop
+Georgius Ambrosius, for instance, who in the Fifteenth Century produced a
+learned work proving that women have no souls. And a like book was written
+at Nashville, Tennessee, in Eighteen Hundred Fifty-nine, by the Reverend
+Hubert Parsons of the Methodist Episcopal Church (South), showing that
+negroes were in a like predicament. But a more notable instance of the
+danger of a specialty is the Reverend Cotton Mather, who investigated the
+subject of witchcraft and issued a modest brochure incorporating his views
+on the subject. He succeeded in convincing at least one man of its verity,
+and that man was himself, and thus immortality was given to the town of
+Salem, which, otherwise, would have no claim on us for remembrance, save
+that Hawthorne was once a clerk in its custom-house.
+
+A very slight study of Colonial history will show any student that, for
+two centuries, the ministers in New England occupied very much the same
+position in society that the priest did during the Middle Ages. As the
+monks kept learning from dying off the face of the earth, so did the
+ministers of the New World preserve culture from passing into
+forgetfulness. Very seldom, indeed, were books to be found in a community
+except at the minister's. And during the Seventeenth Century, and well
+into the Eighteenth, he combined in himself the offices of doctor, lawyer,
+preacher and teacher. Mr. Lowell has said: "I can not remember when there
+was not one or more students in my father's household, and others still
+who came at regular intervals to recite. And this was the usual custom. It
+was the minister who fitted boys for college, and no youth was ever sent
+away to school until he had been drilled by the local clergyman."
+
+And it must further be noted that genealogical tables show that very
+nearly all of the eminent men of New England were sons of ministers, or of
+an ancestry where ministers' names are seen at frequent intervals. As an
+intellectual and moral force, the minister has now but a rudiment of the
+power he once exercised. The tendency to specialize all art and all
+knowledge has to a degree shorn him of his strength. And to such an extent
+is this true, that within forty years it has passed into a common proverb
+that the sons of clergymen are rascals, whereas in Colonial days the
+highest recommendation a youth could carry was that he was the son of a
+minister.
+
+The Reverend John Hancock, grandfather of John Hancock the patriot, was
+for more than half a century the minister of Lexington, Massachusetts. I
+say "the minister," because there was only one: the keen competition of
+sect that establishes half a dozen preachers in a small community is a
+very modern innovation.
+
+John Hancock, "Bishop of Lexington," was a man of pronounced personality,
+as is plainly seen in his portrait in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. They
+say he ruled the town with a rod of iron; and when the young men, who
+adorned the front steps of the meetinghouse during service, grew
+disorderly, he stopped in his prayer, and going outside soundly cuffed the
+ears of the first delinquent he could lay hands upon. In his clay there
+was a dash of facetiousness that saved him from excess, supplying a useful
+check to his zeal--for zeal uncurbed is very bad. He was a wise and
+beneficent dictator; and government under such a one can not be improved
+upon. His manner was gracious, frank and open, and such was the specific
+gravity of his nature that his words carried weight, and his wish was
+sufficient.
+
+The house where this fine old autocrat lived and reigned is standing in
+Lexington now. When you walk out through Cambridge and Arlington on your
+way to Concord, following the road the British took on their way out to
+Concord, you will pass by it. It is a good place to stop and rest. You
+will know the place by the tablet in front, on which is the legend: "Here
+John Hancock and Samuel Adams were sleeping on the night of the
+Eighteenth of April, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five, when aroused by Paul
+Revere."
+
+The Reverend Jonas Clark owned the house after the Reverend John Hancock,
+and the ministries of those two men, and their occupancy of the house,
+cover one hundred years and five years more. Here the thirteen children of
+Jonas Clark were born, and all lived to be old men and women. When you
+call there I hope you will be treated with the same gentle courtesy that I
+met. If you delay not your visit too long, you will see a fine, motherly
+woman, with white "sausage curls" and a high back-comb, wearing a check
+dress and felt slippers, and she will tell you that she is over eighty,
+and that when her mother was a little girl she once sat on Governor
+Hancock's knee and he showed her the works in his watch.
+
+And then as you go away you will think again of what the old lady has just
+told you, and as you look back for a parting glance at the house, standing
+firm and solemn in its rusty-gray dignity, you will doff your hat to it,
+and mayhap murmur: The days of man on earth--they are but as a passing
+shadow!
+
+"Here John Hancock and Samuel Adams were sleeping when aroused by Paul
+Revere!" Merchant-prince and agitator, horse and rider--where are you now?
+And is your sleep disturbed by dreams of British redcoats or hissing
+flintlocks?
+
+Phantom British warships may lie at their moorings, swinging wide on the
+unforgetting tide, lanterns may hang high in the belfry of the Old North
+Church tower, hurried knocks and calls of defiance and hoof-beats of
+fast-galloping steed may echo and echo again, borne on the night-wind of
+the dim Past, but you heed them not!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Reverend John Hancock of Lexington had two sons. John Hancock (Number
+Two) became pastor of the church of the North Precinct of the town of
+Braintree, which afterwards was to be the town of Quincy.
+
+The nearest neighbor to the village preacher was John Adams, shoemaker and
+farmer. Each Sunday in the amen corner of the Reverend John Hancock's
+meetinghouse was mustered the well washed and combed brood of Mr. and Mrs.
+Adams. Now, this John Adams had a son whom the Reverend John Hancock
+baptized, also named John, two years older than John, the son of the
+preacher. And young John Adams and John Hancock (Number Three) used to
+fish and swim together, and go nutting, and set traps for squirrels, and
+help each other in fractions. And then they would climb trees, and
+wrestle, and sometimes fight. In the fights, they say, John Hancock used
+to get the better of his antagonist, but as an exploiter of fractions John
+Adams was more than his equal.
+
+The parents of John Adams were industrious and savin'--the little farm
+prospered, for Boston supplied a goodly market, and weekly trips were made
+there in a one-horse cart, often piloted by young John, with the
+minister's boy for ballast. The Adams family had ambitions for their son
+John--he was to go to Harvard and be educated, and be a minister and
+preach at Braintree, or Weymouth, or perhaps even Boston!
+
+In the meantime the Reverend John Hancock had died, and the widowed mother
+was not able to give her boy a college education--times were hard.
+
+But the lad's uncle, Thomas Hancock, a prosperous merchant of Boston, took
+quite an interest in young John. And it occurred to him to adopt the
+fatherless boy, legally, as his own. The mother demurred, but after some
+months decided that it was best so, for when twenty-one he would be her
+boy just as much and as truly as if his uncle had not adopted him. And so
+the rich uncle took him, and rigged him out with a deal finer clothing
+than he had ever before worn, and sent him to the Latin School and
+afterward over to Cambridge, with silver jingling in his pocket.
+
+Prosperity is a severe handicap to youth; not very many grown men can
+stand it; but beyond a needless display of velvet coats and frilled
+shirts, the young man stood the test, and got through Harvard. In point of
+scholarship he did not stand so high as John Adams; and between the lads
+there grew a small but well-defined gulf, as is but natural between
+homespun and broadcloth. Still the gulf was not impassable, for over it
+friendly favors were occasionally passed.
+
+John Hancock's mother wanted him to be a preacher, but Uncle Thomas would
+not listen to it--the youth must be taught to be a merchant, so he could
+be the ready helper and then the successor of his foster-father.
+
+Graduating at the early age of seventeen, John Hancock at once went to
+work in his uncle's counting-house in Boston. He was a fine, tall fellow
+with dash and spirit, and seemed to show considerable aptitude for the
+work. The business prospered, and Uncle Thomas was very proud of his
+handsome ward, who was quite in demand at parties and balls and in a
+general social way, while the uncle could not dance a minuet to save him.
+
+Not needing the young man very badly around the store, the uncle sent him
+to Europe to complete his education by travel. He went with the retiring
+Governor Pownal, whose taste for social enjoyment was very much in accord
+with his own. In England, he attended the funeral of George the Second,
+and saw the coronation of George the Third, little thinking the while that
+he would some day make violent efforts to snatch from that crown its
+brightest jewel.
+
+When young Hancock was twenty-seven, the uncle died, and left to him his
+entire fortune of three hundred fifty thousand dollars. It made him one of
+the very richest men in the Colony--for at that time there was not a man
+in Massachusetts worth half a million dollars.
+
+The jingling silver in his pocket when sent to Harvard had severely tested
+his moral fiber, but this great fortune came near smothering all his
+native commonsense. If a man makes his money himself, he stands a certain
+chance of growing as the pile grows.
+
+There is little doubt as to the soundness of Emerson's epigram, that what
+you put into his chest you take out of the man. More than this, when a man
+gradually accumulates wealth, it attracts little attention, so the mob
+that follows the newly rich never really gets on to the scent. And besides
+that, the man who makes his own fortune always stands ready to repel
+boarders.
+
+There may be young men of twenty-seven who are men grown, and no doubt
+every man of twenty-seven is very sure that he is one of these; but the
+thought that man is mortal never occurs to either men or women until they
+are past thirty. The blood is warm, conquest lies before, and to seize the
+world by the tail and snap its head off seems both easy and desirable.
+
+The promoters, the flatterers and friends until then unknown flocked to
+Hancock and condoled with him on the death of his uncle. Some wanted small
+loans to tide over temporary emergencies, others had business ventures in
+hand whereby John Hancock could double his wealth very shortly. Still
+others spoke of wealth being a trust, and to use money to help your
+fellow-men, and thus to secure the gratitude of many, was the proper
+thing.
+
+The unselfishness of the latter suggestion appealed to Hancock. To be the
+friend of humanity, to assist others--this is the highest ambition to
+which a man can aspire! And, of course, if one is pointed out on the
+street as the good Mr. Hancock it can not be helped. It is the penalty of
+well-doing.
+
+So in order to give work to many and to promote the interests of Boston, a
+thriving city of fifteen thousand inhabitants, for all good men wish to
+build up the place in which they live, John Hancock was induced to embark
+in shipbuilding. He also owned several ships of his own which traded with
+London and the West Indies, and was part owner of others. But he publicly
+explained that he did not care to make money for himself--his desire was
+to give employment to the worthy poor and to enhance the good of Boston.
+
+The aristocratic company of militia, known as the Governor's Guard, had
+been fitted out with new uniforms and arms by the generous Hancock, and he
+had been chosen commanding officer, with rank of Colonel. He drilled with
+the crack company and studied the manual much more diligently than he ever
+had his Bible.
+
+Hancock lived in the mansion, inherited from his uncle, on Beacon Street,
+facing the Common. There was a chariot and six horses for state occasions,
+much fine furniture from over the sea, elegant clothes that the Puritans
+called "gaudy apparel," and at the dinners the wine flowed freely, and
+cards, dancing and music filled many a night.
+
+The Puritan neighbors were shocked, and held up their hands in horror to
+think that the son of a minister should so affront the staid and sober
+customs of his ancestors. Still others said, "Why, that's what a rich man
+should do--spend his money, of course; Hancock is the benefactor of his
+kind; just see how many people he employs!"
+
+The town was all agog, and Hancock was easily Boston's first citizen, but
+in his time of prosperity he did not forget his old friends. He sent for
+them to come and make merry with him; and among the first in his good
+offices was John Adams, the rising young lawyer of Braintree.
+
+John Adams had found clients scarce, and those he had, poor pay, but when
+he became the trusted legal adviser of John Hancock, things took a turn
+and prosperity came that way. The wine and cards and dinners hadn't much
+attraction for him, but still there were no conscientious scruples in the
+way. He patted John Hancock on the back, assured him that he was the
+people, looked after his interests loyally, and extracted goodly fees for
+services performed.
+
+At the home of Adams at Braintree, Hancock had met a quiet, taciturn
+individual by the name of Samuel Adams. This man he had long known in a
+casual way, but had never been able really to make his acquaintance. He
+was fifteen years older than Hancock, and by his quiet dignity and
+self-possession made quite an impression on the young man.
+
+So, now that prosperity had smiled, Hancock invited him to his house, but
+the quiet man was an ascetic and neither played cards, drank wine nor
+danced, and so declined with thanks.
+
+But not long after, he requested a small loan from the merchant-prince,
+and asked it as though it were his right, and so he got it. His manner was
+in such opposition to the flatterers and those who crawled, and whined,
+and begged, that Hancock was pleased with the man. Samuel Adams had
+declined Hancock's social favors, and yet, in asking for a loan, showed
+his friendliness.
+
+Samuel Adams was a politician, and had long taken an active part in the
+town meetings. In fact, to get a measure through, it was well to have
+Samuel Adams at your side. He was clear-headed, astute, and knew the human
+heart. Yet he talked but little, and the convivial ways of the small
+politician were far from him; but in the fine art that can manage men and
+never let them know they are managed he was a past-master. Tucked in his
+sleeve, no doubt, was a degree of pride in his power, but the stoic
+quality in his nature never allowed him to break into laughter when he
+considered how he led men by the nose.
+
+In Boston and its vicinity, Samuel Adams was not highly regarded, and
+outside of Boston, at forty years of age, he was positively unknown. The
+neighbors regarded him as a harmless fanatic, sane on most subjects, but
+possessed of a buzzing bee in his bonnet to the effect that the Colonies
+should be separated from their protector, England. Samuel Adams neglected
+his business and kept up a fusillade of articles in the newspapers, on
+various political subjects, and men who do this are regarded everywhere as
+"queer." A professional newspaper-writer never takes his calling
+seriously--it is business. He writes to please his employer, or if he owns
+the paper himself, he still writes to please his employer, that is to say,
+the public. Journalism, thy name is pander!
+
+The man who comes up the stairway furtively, with a manuscript he wants
+printed, is in dead earnest; and he has excited the ridicule, wrath or
+pity of editors for three hundred years. Such a one was Samuel Adams. His
+wife did her own work, and the grocer with bills in his hand often grew
+red in the face and knocked in vain.
+
+And yet the keen intellect of Samuel Adams was not a thing to smile at.
+Any one who stood before him, face to face, felt the power of the man, and
+acknowledged it then and there, as we always do when we stand in the
+presence of a strong individuality. And this inward acknowledgment of
+worth was instinctively made by John Hancock, the biggest man in all
+Boston town.
+
+John Hancock, through his genial, glowing personality, and his lavish
+spending of money, was very popular. He was being fed on flattery, and the
+more a man gets of flattery, once the taste is acquired, the more he
+craves. It is like the mad thirst for liquor, or the Romeike habit.
+
+John Hancock was getting attention, and he wanted more. He had been chosen
+selectman to fill the place that his uncle had occupied, and when Samuel
+Adams incidentally dropped a remark that good men were needed in the
+General Court, John Hancock agreed with him. He was named for the office
+and with Samuel Adams' help was easily elected.
+
+Not long after this, the sloop "Liberty" was seized by the government
+officials for violation of the revenue laws. The craft was owned by John
+Hancock and had surreptitiously landed a cargo of wine without paying
+duty.
+
+When the ship of Boston's chief citizen was seized by the bumptious,
+gilt-braided British officials, there was a merry uproar. All the men in
+the shipyards quit work, and the Calkers' Club, of which Samuel Adams was
+secretary, passed hot resolutions and revolutionary preambles and eulogies
+of John Hancock, who was doing so much for Boston.
+
+In fact, there was a riot, and three regiments of British troops were
+ordered to Boston.
+
+And this was the very first step on the part of England to enforce her
+authority, by arms, in America.
+
+The troops were in the town to preserve order, but the mob would not
+disperse. Upon the soldiers, they heaped every indignity and insult. They
+dared them to shoot, and with clubs and stones drove the soldiers before
+them. At last the troops made a stand and in order to save themselves from
+absolute rout fired a volley. Five men fell dead--and the mob dispersed.
+
+This was the so-called Boston massacre.
+
+Pinkerton guards would blush at bagging so small a game with a volley.
+They have done better again and again at Pittsburgh, Pottsville and
+Chicago.
+
+The riot was quelled, and out of the scrimmage various suits were
+instigated by the Crown against John Hancock, in the Court of Admiralty.
+The claims against him amounted to over three hundred thousand dollars,
+and the charge was that he had long been evading the revenue laws. John
+Adams was his attorney, with Samuel Adams as counsel, and vigorous efforts
+for prosecution and defense were being made.
+
+If the Crown were successful the suits would confiscate the entire Hancock
+estate--matters were getting in a serious way. Witnesses were summoned,
+but the trial was staved off from time to time.
+
+Hancock had refused to follow Samuel Adams' lead in the controversy with
+Governor Hutchinson as to the right to convene the General Court. The
+report was that John Hancock was growing lukewarm and siding with the
+Tories. A year had passed since the massacre had occurred, and the
+agitators proposed to commemorate the day.
+
+Colonel Hancock had appeared in many prominent parts, but never as an
+orator.
+
+"Why not show the town what you can do!" some one said.
+
+So John Hancock was invited to deliver the oration. He did so to an
+immense concourse. The address was read from the written page. It
+overflowed with wisdom and patriotism; and the earnestness and eloquence
+of the well-rounded periods was the talk of the town.
+
+The knowing ones went around corners and roared with laughter, but Samuel
+Adams said not a word. The charge was everywhere made by the captious and
+bickering that the speech was written by another, and that, moreover, John
+Hancock had not even a very firm hold on its import. It was the one speech
+of his life. Anyway, it so angered General Gage that he removed Colonel
+Hancock from his command of the cadets.
+
+An order was out for Hancock's arrest, and he and Samuel Adams were in
+hiding.
+
+The British troops marched out to Lexington to capture them, but Paul
+Revere was two hours ahead, and when the redcoats arrived the birds had
+flown.
+
+Then came the expulsion of the British, the closing of all courts, the
+Admiralty included. The merchant-prince breathed easier, and that was the
+last of the Crown versus John Hancock.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Throughout the months that had gone before, when the Hancock mansion was
+gay with floral decorations, and servants in livery stood at the door with
+silver trays, and the dancing-hall was bright with mirth and music, Samuel
+Adams had quietly been working his Bureau of Correspondence to the end
+that the thirteen Colonies of America should come together in convention.
+Chief mover of the plan, and the one man in Massachusetts who was giving
+all his time to it, he dictated whom Massachusetts should send as
+delegates. This delegation, as we know, included John Hancock, John Adams
+and Samuel Adams himself.
+
+From the danger of Lexington, Hancock and Adams made their way to
+Philadelphia to attend the Second Congress.
+
+At that time the rich men of New England were hurriedly making their way
+into the English fold. Some thought that the mother country had been
+harsh, but still, England had only acted within her right, and she was
+well able to back up this authority. She had regiment upon regiment of
+trained fighting men, warships, and money to build more. The Colonies had
+no army, no ships, no capital.
+
+Only those who have nothing to lose can afford to resist lawful
+authority--back into the fold they went, penitent and under their breath
+cursing the bull-headed men who insisted on plunging the country into red
+war.
+
+Out in the cold world stood John Hancock, alone, save for Bowdoin, among
+the aristocrats of New England. The British would confiscate his property,
+his splendid house--all would be gone!
+
+"It will all be gone, anyway," calmly suggested Samuel Adams. "You know
+those suits against you in the Admiralty Court?"
+
+"Yes, yes!"
+
+"And if we can unite these thirteen Colonies an army can be raised, and we
+can separate ourselves entire, in which case there will be glory for
+somebody."
+
+John Hancock, the rich, the ambitious, the pleasure-loving, had burned his
+bridges. He was in the hands of Samuel Adams, and his infamy was one with
+this man who was a professional agitator, and who had nothing to lose.
+
+General Gage had made an offer of pardon to all--all, save two men: Samuel
+Adams and John Hancock. Back into the fold tumbled the Tories, but against
+John Hancock the gates were barred. John Adams, Attorney of the Hancock
+estate, rubbed his chin, and decided to stand by the ship--sink or swim,
+survive or perish.
+
+Down in his heart Samuel Adams grimly smiled, but on his cold, pale face
+there was no sign.
+
+The British held Boston secure, and in the splendid mansion of Hancock
+lived the rebel, Lord Percy, England's pet. The furniture, plate and
+keeping of the place were quite to his liking.
+
+Hancock's ambitions grew as the days went by. The fight was on. His
+property was in the hands of the British, and a price was upon his head.
+He, too, now had nothing to lose. If England could be whipped he would get
+his property back, and the honors of victory would be his, beside.
+
+Ambition grew apace; he studied the Manual of Arms as never before, and
+made himself familiar with the lives of Cæsar and Alexander. At Harvard,
+he had read the Anabasis on compulsion, but now he read it with zest.
+
+The Second Congress was a Congress of action; the first had been one
+merely of conference. A presiding officer was required, and Samuel Adams
+quietly pushed his man to the front. He let it be known that Hancock was
+the richest man in New England, perhaps in America, and a power in every
+emergency.
+
+John Hancock was given the office of presiding officer, the place of
+honor.
+
+The thought never occurred to him that the man on the floor is the man who
+acts, and the individual in the chair is only a referee, an onlooker of
+the contest. When a man is chosen to preside he is safely out of the way,
+and no one knew this better than that clear-headed man, wise as a serpent,
+Samuel Adams.
+
+Hancock was intent on being chosen Commander of the Continental Army. The
+war was in Massachusetts, her principal port closed, all business at a
+standstill. Hancock was a soldier, and was, moreover, the chief citizen
+of Massachusetts--the command should go to him. Samuel Adams knew this
+could never be.
+
+To hold the Southern Colonies and give the cause a show of reason before
+the world, an aristocrat with something to lose, and without a personal
+grievance, must be chosen, and the man must be from the South. To get
+Hancock in a position where his mouth would be stopped, he was placed in
+the chair. It was a master move.
+
+Colonel George Washington was already a hero; he had fought valiantly for
+England. His hands were clean; while Hancock was openly called a smuggler.
+Washington was nominated by John Adams. The motion was seconded by Samuel
+Adams. Hancock turned first red and then deathly pale. He grasped the arms
+of his chair with both hands, and--put the question.
+
+It was unanimous.
+
+Hancock's fame seems to rest on the fact that he was presiding officer of
+the Congress that passed the Declaration of Independence, and therefore
+its first signer, and, without consideration for cost of ink and paper,
+wrote his name in poster letters. When you look upon the Declaration the
+first thing you see is the signature of John Hancock, and you recall his
+remark, "I guess King George can read that without spectacles." The whole
+action was melodramatic, and although a bold signature has ever been said
+to betoken a bold heart, it has yet to be demonstrated that boys who
+whistle going through the woods are indifferent to danger. "Conscious
+weakness takes strong attitudes," says Delsarte. The strength of Hancock's
+signature was an affectation quite in keeping with his habit of riding
+about Boston in a coach-and-six, with outriders in uniform, and servants
+in livery.
+
+When Hancock wrote to Washington asking for an appointment in the army,
+the wise and farseeing chief replied with gentle words of praise
+concerning Colonel Hancock's record, and wound up by saying that he
+regretted there was no place at his disposal worthy of Colonel Hancock's
+qualifications. Well did he know that Hancock was not quite patriot enough
+to fill a lowly rank.
+
+The part that Hancock played in the eight years of war was inconspicuous.
+However, there was little spirit of revenge in his character: he sometimes
+scolded, but he did not hate. He never allowed personal animosities to
+make him waver in his loyalty to independence. In fact, with a price upon
+his head, but one course was open for him.
+
+Just before Washington was inaugurated President, he visited Boston, and a
+curious struggle took place between him and Hancock, who was Governor. It
+was all a question of etiquette--which should make the first call. Each
+side played a waiting game, and at last Hancock's gout came in as an
+excellent excuse and the country was saved.
+
+In one of his letters, Hancock says, "The entire Genteel portion of the
+town was invited to my House, while on the sidewalk I had a cask of
+Madeira for the Common People." His repeated re-election as Governor
+proves his popularity. Through lavish expenditure, his fortune was much
+reduced, and for many years he was sorely pressed for funds, his means
+being tied up in unproductive ways.
+
+His last triumph, as Governor, was to send a special message to the
+Legislature, informing that body that "a company of Aliens and Foreigners
+have entered the State, and the Metropolis of Government, and under
+advertisements insulting to all Good Men and Ladies have been pleased to
+invite them to attend certain Stage-Plays, Interludes and Theatrical
+Entertainments under the Style and Appellation of Moral Lectures.... All
+of which must be put a stop to to once and the Rogues and Varlots
+punished."
+
+A few days after this, "the Aliens and Foreigners" gave a presentation of
+Sheridan's "School for Scandal." In the midst of the performance the
+sheriff and a posse made a rush upon the stage and bagged all the
+offenders.
+
+When their trial came on, the next day, the "varlots and vagroms" had
+secured high legal talent to defend them, one of which counsel was
+Harrison Gray Otis. The actors were discharged on the slim technicality
+that the warrants of arrest had not been properly verified.
+
+However, the theater was closed, but the "Common People" made such an
+unseemly howl about "rights" and all that, that the Legislature made haste
+to repeal the law which provided that play-actors should be flogged.
+
+Hancock defaulted in his stewardship as Treasurer of Harvard College, and
+only escaped arrest for embezzlement through the fact that he was Governor
+of the State, and no process could be served upon him. After his death his
+estate paid nine years' simple interest on his deficit, and ten years
+thereafter, the principal was paid.
+
+His widow married Captain Scott, who was long in Hancock's employ as
+master of a brig; and we find the worthy captain proudly exclaiming, "I
+have embarked on the sea of Matrimony, and am now at the helm of the
+Hancock mansion!"
+
+No biography of Governor Hancock has ever been written. The record of his
+life flutters only in newspaper paragraphs, letters, and chance mention in
+various diaries.
+
+Hancock did not live to see John Adams President. Worn by worry, and grown
+old before his time, he died at the early age of fifty-six, of a
+combination of gout and that unplebeian complaint we now term Bright's
+Disease.
+
+Thirty-three years after, hale old John Adams down at Quincy spoke of him
+as "a clever fellow, a bit spoiled by a legacy, whom I used to know in my
+younger days."
+
+He left no descendants, and his heirs were too intent on being in at the
+death to care for his memory. They neither preserved the data of his life,
+nor over his grave placed a headstone. The monument that now marks his
+resting-place was recently erected by the State of Massachusetts. He was
+buried in the Old Granary Burying-Ground, on Tremont Street, and only a
+step from his grave sleeps his friend Samuel Adams.
+
+
+
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
+
+    To the guidance of the legislative councils; to the assistance of
+    the executive and subordinate departments; to the friendly
+    co-operation of the respective State Governments; to the candid
+    and liberal support of the people, so far as it may be deserved
+    by honest industry and zeal, I shall look for whatever success
+    may attend my public service; and knowing that "except the Lord
+    keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain," with fervent
+    supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I
+    commit, with humble but fearless confidence, my own fate and the
+    future destinies of my country.
+    --_Inaugural Address_
+
+[Illustration: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS]
+
+
+Nine miles south of Boston, just a little back from the escalloped shores
+of Old Ocean, lies the village of Braintree. It is on the Plymouth
+post-road, being one of that string of settlements, built a few miles
+apart for better protection, that lined the sea, Boston being crowded, and
+Plymouth full to overflowing, the home-seekers spread out north and south.
+
+In Sixteen Hundred Twenty, when the first cabin was built at Braintree,
+land that was not in sight of the coast had actually no value. Back a
+mile, all was a howling wilderness, with trails made by wild beasts or
+savage men as wild. These paths led through tangles of fallen trees and
+tumbled rocks, beneath dark, overhanging pines where winter's snows melted
+not till midsummer, and the sun's rays were strange and alien. Men who
+sought to traverse these ways had to crouch and crawl or climb. Through
+them no horse or ox or beast of burden had carried its load.
+
+But up from the sea the ground rose gradually for a mile, and along this
+slope that faced the tide, wind and storm had partly cleared the ground,
+and on the hillsides our forefathers made their homes. The houses were
+built facing either the east or the south. This persistence to face
+either the sun or the sea shows a last, strange rudiment of paganism,
+making queer angles now that surveyors have come with Gunter's chain and
+transit, laying out streets and doing their work.
+
+A mile out, north of Braintree, on the Boston road, came, in Sixteen
+Hundred Twenty-five, one Captain Wollaston, a merry wight, and thirty boon
+companions, all of whom probably left England for England's good. They
+were in search of gold and pelf, and all were agreed on one point: they
+were quite too good to do any hard work. Their camp was called Mount
+Wollaston, or the Merry Mount. Our gallant gentlemen cultivated the
+friendship of the Indians, in the hope that they would reveal the caves
+and caverns where the gold grew lush and nuggets cumbered the way; and the
+Indians, liking the drink they offered, brought them meal and corn and
+furs.
+
+And so the thirty set up a Maypole, adorned with bucks' horns, and drank
+and feasted, and danced like fairies or furies, the livelong day or night.
+So scandalously did these exiled lords behave that good folks made a wide
+circuit 'round to avoid their camp.
+
+Preaching had been in vain, and prayers for the conversion of the wretches
+remained unanswered. So the neighbors held a convention, and decided to
+send Captain Miles Standish with a posse to teach the merry men manners.
+
+Standish appeared among the bacchanalians one morning, perfectly sober,
+and they were not. He arrested the captain, and bade the others begone.
+The leader was shipped back to England, with compliments and regrets, and
+the thirty scattered. This was the first move in that quarter in favor of
+local option.
+
+Six years later, the land thereabouts was granted and apportioned out to
+the Reverend John Wilson, William Coddington, Edward Quinsey, James
+Penniman, Moses Payne and Francis Eliot.
+
+And these men and their families built houses and founded "the North
+Precinct of the Town of Braintree."
+
+Between the North Precinct and the South Precinct there was continual
+rivalry. Boys who were caught over the dead-line, which was marked by
+Deacon Penniman's house, had to fight. Thus things continued until
+Seventeen Hundred Ninety-two, when one John Adams was Vice-President of
+the United States. Now this John Adams, lawyer, was the son of John Adams,
+honest farmer and cordwainer, who had bought the Penniman homestead, and
+whose progenitor, Henry Adams, had moved there in Sixteen Hundred
+Thirty-six. John Adams, Vice-President, afterwards President, was born
+there in the Penniman house, and was regarded as a neutral, although he
+had been thrashed by boys both from the North and from the South Precinct.
+But at the last, there is no such thing as neutrality.
+
+John Adams sided with the boys from the North Precinct, and now that he
+was in power it occurred to him, having had a little experience in the
+revolutionary line, that for the North Precinct to secede from the great
+town of Braintree would be but proper and right.
+
+The North Precinct had six stores that sold W.I. goods, and a tavern that
+sold W.E.T. goods, and it should have a post-office of its own.
+
+So John Adams suggested the matter to Richard Cranch, who was his
+brother-in-law and near neighbor. Cranch agitated the matter, and the new
+town, which was the old, was incorporated. They called it Quincy, probably
+because Abigail, John's wife, insisted upon it. She had named her eldest
+boy Quincy, in honor of her grandfather, whose father's name was Quinsey,
+and who had relatives who spelled it De Quincey, one of which tribe was an
+opium-eater.
+
+Now, when Abigail made a suggestion, John usually heeded it. For Abigail
+was as wise as she was good, and John well knew that his success in life
+had come largely from the help, counsel and inspiration vouchsafed to him
+by this splendid woman. And the man who will not let a woman have her way
+in all such small matters as naming of babies or towns is not much of a
+man.
+
+So the town was named Quincy, and brother-in-law Cranch was appointed its
+first postmaster. Shortly after, the Boston "Centinel" contained a
+sarcastic article over the signature, "Old Subscriber," concerning the
+distribution of official patronage among kinsmen, and the Eliots and the
+Everetts gossiped over their back fences.
+
+At this time Abigail lived in the cottage there on the Plymouth road,
+halfway between Braintree and Quincy, but she got her mail at Quincy.
+
+The Adams cottage is there now, and the next time you are in Boston you
+had better go out and see it, just as June and I did one bright October
+day.
+
+June has lived within an hour's ride of the Adams' home all her blessed
+thirty-two sunshiny summers; she also boasts a Mayflower ancestry, with,
+however, a slight infusion of Castle Garden, like myself, to give firmness
+of fiber--and yet she had never been to Quincy.
+
+The John and Abigail cottage was built in Seventeen Hundred Sixteen, so
+says a truthful brick found in the quaint old chimney. Deacon Penniman
+built this house for his son, and it faces the sea, although the older
+Penniman house faces the south. John Adams was born in the older house;
+but when he used to go to Weymouth every Wednesday and Saturday evening to
+see Abigail Smith, the minister's daughter, his father, the worthy
+shoemaker, told him that when he got married he could have the other house
+for himself.
+
+John was a bright young lawyer then, a graduate of Harvard, where he had
+been sent in hopes that he would become a minister, for one-half the
+students then at Harvard were embryo preachers. But John did not take to
+theology.
+
+He had witnessed ecclesiastical tennis and theological pitch and toss in
+Braintree that had nearly split the town, and he decided on the law. One
+thing sure, he could not work: he was not strong enough for
+that--everybody said so. And right here seems a good place to call
+attention to the fact that weak men, like those who are threatened, live
+long. John Adams' letters to his wife reveal a very frequent reference to
+liver complaint, lung trouble, and that tired feeling, yet he lived to be
+ninety-two.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Smith did not at first favor the idea of his daughter
+Abigail marrying John Adams. The Adams family were only farmers (and
+shoemakers when it rained), while the Smiths had aristocracy on their
+side. He said lawyers were men who got bad folks out of trouble and good
+folks in. But Abigail said that this lawyer was different; and as Mr.
+Smith saw it was a love-match, and such things being difficult to combat
+successfully, he decided he would do the next best thing--give the young
+couple his blessing. Yet the neighbors were quite scandalized to think
+that their pastor's daughter should hold converse over the gate with a
+lawyer, and they let the clergyman know it as neighbors then did, and
+sometimes do now. Then did the Reverend Mr. Smith announce that he would
+preach a sermon on the sin of meddling with other folk's business. As his
+text he took the passage from Luke, seventh chapter, thirty-third verse:
+"For John came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, he
+hath a devil."
+
+The neighbors saw the point, for a short time before, when the eldest
+daughter, Mary, had married Richard Cranch (the man who was to achieve a
+post-office), the community had entered a protest, and the Reverend Mr.
+Smith had preached from Luke, tenth chapter, forty-second verse: "And Mary
+hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her." So
+there, now!
+
+And John and Abigail were married one evening at early candlelight, in the
+church at Weymouth. The good father performed the ceremony, and nearly
+broke down during it, they say, and then he kissed both bride and groom.
+
+The neighbors had repaired to the parsonage and were eating and drinking
+and making merry when John and Abigail slipped out by the back gate, and
+made their way, hand in hand, in the starlight, down the road that ran
+through the woods to Braintree. When near the village they cut across the
+pasture-lot and reached their cottage, which for several weeks they had
+been putting in order. John unlocked the front door, and they entered over
+the big, flat stone at the entry, and over which you may enter now, all
+sunken and worn by generations of men gone. Some whose feet have pressed
+that doorstep we count as the salt of the earth, for their names are
+written large on history's page. Washington rode out there on horseback,
+and while his aide held his horse, he visited and drank mulled cider and
+ate doughnuts within. Hancock came often, and Otis, Samuel Adams and
+Loring used to enter without plying the knocker.
+
+Through the earnest work of William G. Spear, the cottage has now been
+restored and fully furnished, as near like it was then as knowledge, fancy
+and imagination can devise.
+
+When we reached Quincy we saw a benevolent-looking old Puritan, and June
+said, "Ask him!"
+
+"Can you tell me where we can find Mr. Spear, the antiquarian?" I
+inquired.
+
+"The which?" said the son of Priscilla Mullins.
+
+"Mr. Spear, the antiquarian," I repeated.
+
+"It's not Bill Spear who keeps a secondhand-shop, you want, mebbe?"
+
+"Yes; I think that is the man."
+
+And so we were directed to the "secondhand-shop," which proved to be the
+rooms of the Quincy Historical Society. And there we saw such a wondrous
+collection of secondhand stuff that, as we looked and looked, and Mr.
+Spear explained, and gave large slices of Colonial history, June, who is a
+Daughter of the American Revolution, gushed a trifle more than was meet.
+
+Nothing short of a hundred years will set the seal of value on an article
+for Mr. Spear, and one hundred fifty is more like it. On his walls are
+hats, caps, spurs, boots and accouterments used in the Revolutionary War.
+Then there are candlesticks, snuffers, spectacles, butter-molds, bonnets,
+dresses, shoes, baby-stockings, cradles, rattles, aprons, butter-tubs made
+out of a solid piece, shovels to match, andirons, pokers, skillets and
+blue china galore.
+
+"Bill Spear" himself is quite a curiosity. He traces a lineage to the
+well-known Lieutenant Seth Spear, of Revolutionary fame, and back of that
+to John Alden, who spoke for himself. The bark on the antiquarian, is
+rather rough; and I regret to say that he makes use of a few words I can
+not find in the "Century Dictionary," but as June was not shocked I
+managed to stand it. On further acquaintance I concluded that Mr. Spear's
+bruskness was assumed, and that beneath the tough husk there beats a very
+tender heart. He is one of those queer fellows who do good by stealth and
+abuse you roundly if accused of it.
+
+For twenty-five years Mr. Spear has been doing little else but studying
+Colonial history, and making love to old ladies who own clocks and
+skillets given them by their great-grandmammas. There is no doubt that
+Spear has dictated clauses in a hundred wills devising that William G.
+Spear, Custodian of the Quincy Historical Society, shall have snuffers and
+biscuit-molds.
+
+At first, Mr. Spear collected for his own amusement and benefit, but the
+trouble grew upon him until it became chronic, and one fine day he
+realized that he was not immortal, and when he should die, all his
+collection, which had taken years to accumulate, would be scattered. And
+so he founded the Quincy Historical Society, incorporated by a perpetual
+charter, with Charles Francis Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, as
+first president.
+
+Then, the next thing was to secure the cottage where John and Abigail
+Adams began housekeeping, and where John Quincy was born. This house has
+been in the Adams family all these years and been rented to the firm of
+Tom, Dick and Harry, and any of their tribe who would agree to pay ten
+dollars a month for its use and abuse. Just across the road from the
+cottage lives a fine old soul by the name of John Crane. Mr. Crane is
+somewhere between seventy and a hundred years old, but he has a young
+heart, a face like Gladstone and a memory like a copy-book. Mr. Crane was
+on very good terms with John Quincy Adams, knew him well and had often
+seen him come here to collect rent. He told me that during his
+recollection the Adams place had been occupied by full forty families. But
+now, thanks to "Bill Spear," it is no longer for rent.
+
+The house has been raised from the ground, new sills placed under it, and
+while every part--scantling, rafter, joist, crossbeam, lath and
+weatherboard--of the original house has been retained, it has been put in
+such order that it is no longer going to ruin.
+
+From the ample stores of his various antiquarian depositories Mr. Spear
+has refurnished it; and with a ripe knowledge and rare good taste and
+restraining imagination, the cottage is now shown to us as a Colonial
+farmhouse of the year Seventeen Hundred Fifty. The wonder to me is that
+Mr. Spear, being human, did not move his "secondhand-shop" down here and
+make of the place a curiosity-shop. But he has done better.
+
+As you step across the doorsill and pass from the little entry into the
+"living-room," you pause and murmur, "Excuse me." For there is a fire on
+the hearth, the tea-kettle sings softly, and on the back of a chair hangs
+a sunbonnet. And over there on the table is an open Bible, and on the open
+page is a pair of spectacles and a red, crumpled handkerchief. Yes, the
+folks are at home: they have just stepped into the next room--perhaps are
+eating dinner. And so you sit down in an old hickory chair, or in the high
+settle that stands against the wall by the fireplace, and wait, expecting
+every moment that the kitchen-door will creak on its wooden hinges, and
+Abigail, smiling and gentle, will enter to greet you. Mr. Spear
+understands, and, disappearing, leaves you to your thoughts--and June's.
+
+John and Abigail were lovers their lifetime through. Their published
+letters show a oneness of thought and sentiment that, viewed across the
+years, moves us to tears to think that such as they should at last feebly
+totter, and then turn to dust. But here they came in the joyous springtime
+of their lives; upon this floor you tread the ways their feet have trod;
+these walls have echoed to their singing voices, listened to their
+counsels, and seen love's caress.
+
+There is no surplus furniture nor display nor setting forth of useless
+things. Every article you see has its use. The little shelf of books,
+well-thumbed, displays no "Trilby" nor "Quest of the Golden Girl"--not an
+anachronism any where. Curtains, chairs, tables, and the one or two
+pictures--all ring true. In the kitchen are washtubs and butter-ladles and
+bowls; and the lantern hanging by the chimney, with a dipped candle
+inside, has a carefully scraped horn face. It is a lanthorn. In the
+cupboard across the corner are blue china and pewter spoons and steel
+knives, with just a little polished-brass stuff sent from England. Down in
+the cellar, with its dirt walls, are apples, yellow pumpkins and
+potatoes--each in its proper place, for Abigail was a rare good
+housekeeper. Then there is a barrel of cider, with a hickory spigot and an
+inviting gourd. All tells of economy, thrift, industry and the cunning of
+woman's hands.
+
+In the kitchen is a funny cradle, hooded, and cut out of a great pine log.
+The little mattress and the coverlet seem disturbed, and you would declare
+the baby had just been lifted out, and you listen for its cry. The rocker
+is worn by the feet of mothers whose hands were busy with needles or wheel
+as they rocked and sang. And from the fact that it is in the kitchen, you
+know that the servant-girl problem then had no terrors.
+
+Overhead hang ears of corn, bunches of dried catnip, pennyroyal and
+boneset, and festooned across the corner are strings of dried apples.
+
+Then you go upstairs, with conscience pricking a bit for thus visiting the
+house of honest folks when they are away, for you know how all good
+housewives dislike to have people prying about, especially in the upper
+chambers--at least June said so!
+
+The room to the right was Abigail's own. You would know it was a woman's
+room. There is a faint odor of lavender and thyme about it, and the white
+and blue draperies around the little mirror, and the little feminine
+nothings on the dresser, reveal the lady who would appear well before the
+man she loves.
+
+The bed is a high, draped four-poster, plain and solid, evidently made by
+a ship-carpenter who had ambitions. The coverlet is light blue, and
+matches the draperies of windows, dresser and mirror. On the pillow is a
+nightcap, in which even a homely woman would be beautiful.
+
+There is a clothespress in the corner, into which Mr. Spear says we may
+look. On the door is a slippery-elm button, and within, hanging on wooden
+pegs, are dainty dresses; stiff, curiously embroidered gowns they are,
+that came from across the sea, sent, perhaps, by John Adams when he went
+to France, and left Abigail here to farm and sew and weave and teach the
+children. June examined the dresses carefully, and said the embroidery was
+handmade, and must have taken months and months to complete. On a high
+shelf of the closet are bandboxes, in which are bonnets, astonishing
+bonnets, with prodigious flaring fronts. Mr. Spear insisted that June
+should try one on, and when she did we stood off and declared the effect
+was a vision of loveliness. Outside the clothespress, on a peg, hangs a
+linsey-woolsey every-day gown that shows marks of wear. The waist came
+just under June's arms, and the bottom of the dress to her shoe-tops.
+
+We asked Mr. Spear the price of it, but the custodian is not commercial.
+In a corner of the room is a cedar chest containing hand-woven linen.
+
+By the front window is a little, low desk, with a leaf that opens out for
+a writing-shelf. And here you see quill-pens, fresh nibbed, and ink in a
+curious well made from horn. Here it was that Abigail wrote those letters
+to her lover-husband when he attended those first and second Congresses in
+Philadelphia; and then when he was in France and England, those letters in
+which we see affection, loyalty, tales of babies with colic, brave,
+political good sense, and all those foolish trifles that go to fill up
+love-letters, and, at the last, are their divine essence and charm.
+
+Here, she wrote the letter telling of going with their seven-year-old boy,
+John Quincy, to Penn's Hill to watch the burning of Charlestown; and saw
+the flashing of cannons and rising smoke that marked the battle of Bunker
+Hill. Here she wrote to her husband when he was minister to England,
+"This little cottage has more comfort and satisfaction for you than the
+courts of royalty."
+
+But of all the letters written by that brave woman none reveals her true
+nobility better than the one written to her husband the day he became
+President of the United States. Here it is entire:
+
+             Quincy, 8 February, 1797
+
+    "The sun is dressed in brightest beams,
+        To give thy honors to the day."
+
+    "And may it prove an auspicious prelude to each ensuing season.
+    You have this day to declare yourself head of a Nation. And now,
+    O Lord, my God, Thou hast made Thy servant ruler over the people.
+    Give unto him an understanding heart, that he may know how to go
+    out and come in before this great people; that he may discern
+    between good and bad. For who is able to judge this Thy so great
+    a people, were the words of a royal Sovereign; and not less
+    applicable to him who is invested with the Chief Magistracy of a
+    nation, though he wear not a crown, nor the robes of royalty.
+
+    "My thoughts and my meditations are with you, though personally
+    absent; and my petitions to Heaven are that the things which make
+    for peace may not be hidden from your eyes. My feelings are not
+    those of pride or ostentation upon the occasion.
+
+    "They are solemnized by a sense of the obligations, the important
+    trusts, and numerous duties connected with it. That you may be
+    enabled to discharge them with honor to yourself, with justice
+    and impartiality to your country, and with satisfaction to this
+    great people, shall be the daily prayer of your
+
+    "A.A."
+
+It was in this room that Abigail waited while British soldiers ransacked
+the rooms below and made bullets of the best pewter spoons. Here her son
+who was to be President was born.
+
+John Quincy Adams was six years old when his father kissed him good-by and
+rode away for Philadelphia with John Hancock and Samuel Adams (who rode a
+horse loaned him by John Adams). Abigail stood in the doorway holding the
+baby, and watched them disappear in the curve of the road. This was in
+August, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four. Most of the rest of that year
+Abigail was alone with her babies on the little farm. It was the same next
+year, and in Seventeen Hundred Seventy-six, too, when John Adams wrote
+home that he had made the formal move for Independency and also nominated
+George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the army; and he hoped things
+would soon be better.
+
+Those were troublous times in which to live in the vicinity of Boston.
+There were straggling troops passing up and down the Plymouth road every
+day. Sometimes they were redcoats and sometimes buff and blue, but all
+seemed to be very hungry and extremely thirsty, and the Adams household
+received a great deal more attention than it courted. The master of the
+house was away, but all seemed to know who lived there, and the callers
+were not always courteous.
+
+In such a feverish atmosphere of unrest, children evolve quickly into men
+and women, and their faces take on the look of thought where should be
+only careless, happy, dimpled smiles. Yes, responsibility matures, and
+that is the way John Quincy Adams got cheated out of his childhood.
+
+When eight years of age, his mother called him the little man of the
+house. The next year he was a post-rider, making a daily trip to Boston
+with letter-bags across his saddlebows.
+
+When eleven years of age, his father came home to say that some one had to
+go to France to serve with Jay and Franklin in making a treaty.
+
+"Go," said Abigail, "and God be with you!" But when it was suggested that
+John Quincy go, too, the parting did not seem so easy. But it was a fine
+opportunity for the boy to see the world of men, and the mother's head
+appreciated it even if her heart did not. And yet she had the heroism that
+is willing to remain behind.
+
+So father and son sailed away; and little John Quincy added postscripts to
+his father's letters and said, "I send my loving duty to my mamma."
+
+The boy took kindly to foreign ways, as boys will, and the French language
+had no such terrors for him as it had for his father. The first stay in
+Europe was only three months, and back they came on a leaky ship.
+
+But the home-stay was even shorter than the stay abroad, and John Adams
+had again to cross the water on his country's business. Again the boy went
+with him.
+
+It was five years before the mother saw him. And then he had gone on alone
+from Paris to London to meet her. She did not know him, for he was nearly
+eighteen and a man grown. He had visited every country in Europe and been
+the helper and companion of statesmen and courtiers, and seen society in
+its various phases. He spoke several languages, and in point of polish and
+manly dignity was the peer of many of his elders. Mrs. Adams looked at him
+and then began to cry, whether for joy or for sorrow she did not know. Her
+boy had gone, escaped her, gone forever, but, instead, here was a tall
+young diplomat calling her "mother."
+
+There was a career ahead for John Quincy Adams--his father knew it, his
+mother was sure of it, and John Quincy himself was not in doubt. He could
+then have gone right on, but his father was a Harvard man, and the New
+England superstition was strong in the Adams heart that success could only
+be achieved when based on a Harvard parchment.
+
+So back to Massachusetts sailed John Quincy; and a two-year course at
+Harvard secured the much-desired diploma.
+
+From the very time he crawled over this kitchen-floor and pushed a chair,
+learning to walk, or tumbled down the stairs and then made his way bravely
+up again alone, he knew that he would arrive. Precocious, proud, firm, and
+with a coldness in his nature that was not a heritage from either his
+father or his mother, he made his way.
+
+It was a zigzag course, and the way was strewn with the flotsam and jetsam
+of wrecked parties and blighted hopes, but out of the wreckage John Quincy
+Adams always appeared, calm, poised and serene. When he opposed the
+purchase of Louisiana it looks as if he allowed his animosity for
+Jefferson to put his judgment in chancery. He made mistakes, but this was
+the only blunder of his career. The record of that life expressed in bold
+stands thus:
+
+    1767--Born May Eleventh.
+    1776--Post-rider between Boston and Quincy.
+    1778---At school in Paris.
+    1780--At school in Leyden.
+    1781--Private Secretary to Minister to Russia.
+    1787---Graduated at Harvard.
+    1794--Minister at The Hague.
+    1797--Married Louise Catherine Johnson, of Maryland.
+    1797--Minister at Berlin.
+    1802--Member of Massachusetts State Senate.
+    1803--United States Senator.
+    1806--Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard
+    1809--Minister to Russia.
+    1811--Nominated and confirmed by Senate as Judge of Supreme Court
+          of the United States; declined.
+    1814--Commissioner at Ghent to treat for peace with Great Britain.
+    1815--Minister to Great Britain.
+    1817--Secretary of State.
+    1825--Elected President of the United States.
+    1830--Elected a Member of Congress, and represented the district
+          for seventeen years.
+    1848--Stricken with paralysis February Twenty-first in the
+          Capitol, and died the second day after.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Aren't we staying in this room a good while?" said June; "you have sat
+there staring out of that window looking at nothing for just ten minutes,
+and not a word have you spoken!"
+
+Mr. Spear had disappeared into space, and so we made our way across the
+little hall to the room that belonged to Mr. Adams. It was in the disorder
+that men's rooms are apt to be. On the table were quill-pens and curious
+old papers with seals on them, and on one I saw the date, June Sixteenth,
+Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight--the whole document written out in the hand
+of John Adams, beginning very prim and careful, then moving off into a
+hurried scrawl as spirit mastered the letter. There is a little
+hair-covered trunk in the corner, studded with brass nails, and boots and
+leggings and canes and a jackknife and a bootjack, and, on the
+window-sill, a friendly snuffbox. In the clothespress were buff trousers
+and an embroidered coat, and shoes with silver buckles, and several suits
+of every-day clothes, showing wear and patches.
+
+On up to the garret we groped, and bumped our heads against the rafters.
+The light was dim, but we could make out more apples on strings, and roots
+and herbs in bunches hung from the peak. Here was a three-legged chair and
+a broken spinning-wheel, and the junk that is too valuable to throw away,
+yet not good enough to keep, but "some day may be needed."
+
+Down the narrow stairway we went, and in the little kitchen, Sammy, the
+artist, and Mr. Spear, the custodian, were busy at the fireplace preparing
+dinner. There is no stove in the house, and none is needed. The crane and
+brick oven and long-handled skillets suffice. Sammy is an expert
+camp-cook, and swears there is death in the chafing-dish, and grows
+profane if you mention one. His skill in turning flapjacks by a simple
+manipulation of the long-handled griddle means more to his true ego than
+the finest canvas.
+
+June offered to set the table, but Sammy said she could never do it alone,
+so together they brought out the blue china dishes and the pewter plates.
+Then they drew water at the stone-curbed well with the great sweep,
+carrying the leather-baled bucket between them.
+
+I was feeling quite useless and asked, "Can't I do something to help?"
+
+"There is the lye-leach--you might bring out some ashes and make some soft
+soap," said June pointing to the ancient leach and soap-kettle in the
+yard, the joys of Mr. Spear's heart.
+
+Sammy stood at the back door and pounded on the dishpan with a wooden
+spoon to announce that dinner was ready. It was quite a sumptuous meal:
+potatoes baked in the ashes, beans baked in the brick oven, coffee made on
+the hearth, fish cooked in the skillet, and pancakes made on a griddle
+with a handle three feet long.
+
+Mr. Spear had aspirations toward an apple-pie and had made violent efforts
+in that direction, but the product being dough on top and charcoal on the
+bottom we declined the nomination with thanks.
+
+June suggested that pies should be baked in an oven and not cooked on a
+pancake griddle. The custodian thought there might be something in it--a
+suggestion he would have scorned and scouted had it come from me.
+
+To change the rather painful subject, Mr. Spear began to talk about John
+and Abigail Adams, and to quote from their "Letters," a volume he seems to
+have by heart.
+
+"Do you know why their love was so very steadfast, and why they stimulated
+the mental and spiritual natures of each other so?" asked June.
+
+"No, why was it?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you: it was because they spent one-third of their married
+life apart."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, and in this way they lived in an ideal world. In all their letters
+you see they are always counting the days ere they will meet. Now, people
+who are together all the time never write that way, because they do not
+feel that way--I'll leave it to Mr. Spear!"
+
+But Mr. Spear, being a bachelor, did not know. Then the case was referred
+to Sammy, and Sammy lied and said he had never considered the subject.
+
+"And would you advise, then, that married couples live apart one-third of
+the time, in the interests of domestic peace?" I asked.
+
+"Certainly!" said June, with her Burne-Jones chin in the air. "Certainly;
+but I fear you are the man who does not understand; and anyway I am sure
+it will be much more profitable for us to cultivate the receptive spirit
+and listen to Mr. Spear--such opportunities do not come very often. I did
+not mean to interrupt you, Mr. Spear; go on, please!"
+
+And Mr. Spear filled a clay pipe with natural leaf that he crumbled in his
+hand, and deftly picking a coal from the fireplace with a shovel one
+hundred fifty years old, puffed five times silently, and began to talk.
+
+
+
+
+ALEXANDER HAMILTON
+
+    The objects to be attained are: To justify and preserve the
+    confidence of the most enlightened friends of good government; to
+    promote the increasing respectability of the American name; to
+    answer the calls of justice; to restore landed property to its
+    due value; to furnish new sources both to agriculture and to
+    commerce; to cement more closely the union of the States; to add
+    to their security against foreign attack; to establish public
+    order on the basis of an upright and liberal policy: these are
+    the great and invaluable ends to be secured by a proper and
+    adequate provision, at the present period, for the support of
+    public credit.
+    --_Report to Congress_
+
+[Illustration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON]
+
+
+We do not know the name of the mother of Alexander Hamilton: we do not
+know the given name of his father. But from letters, a diary and
+pieced-out reports, allowing fancy to bridge from fact to fact, we get a
+patchwork history of the events preceding the birth of this wonderful man.
+
+Every strong man has had a splendid mother. Hamilton's mother was a woman
+of wit, beauty and education. While very young, through the machinations
+of her elders, she had been married to a man much older than
+herself--rich, wilful and dissipated. The man's name was Lavine, but his
+first name we do not know, so hidden were the times in a maze of
+obscurity. The young wife very soon discovered the depravity of this man
+whom she had vowed to love and obey; divorce was impossible; and rather
+than endure a lifelong existence of legalized shame, she packed up her
+scanty effects and sought to hide herself from society and kinsmen by
+going to the West Indies.
+
+There she hoped to find employment as a governess in the family of one of
+the rich planters; or if this plan were not successful she would start a
+school on her own account, and thus benefit her kind and make for herself
+an honorable living. Arriving at the island of Nevis, she found that the
+natives did not especially desire education, certainly not enough to pay
+for it, and there was no family requiring a governess. But a certain
+Scotch planter by the name of Hamilton, who was consulted, thought in time
+that a school could be built up, and he offered to meet the expense of it
+until such a time as it could be put on a paying basis. Unmarried women
+who accept friendly loans from men stand in dangerous places. With all
+good women, heart-whole gratitude and a friendship that seems unselfish
+ripen easily into love. They did so here. Perhaps, in a warm, ardent
+temperament, sore grief and biting disappointment and crouching want
+obscure the judgment and give a show of reason to actions that a colder
+intellect would disapprove.
+
+On the frontiers of civilization man is greater than law--all ceremonies
+are looked upon lightly. In a few months Mrs. Lavine was called by the
+little world of Nevis, Mrs. Hamilton, and Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton regarded
+themselves as man and wife.
+
+The planter Hamilton was a hard-headed, busy individual, who was quite
+unable to sympathize with his wife's finer aspirations. Her first husband
+had been clever and dissipated; this one was worthy and dull. And thus
+deprived of congenial friendships, without books or art or that social
+home life which goes to make up a woman's world, and longing for the
+safety of close sympathy and tender love, with no one on whom her
+intellect could strike a spark, she keenly felt the bitterness of exile.
+
+In a city where society ebbs and flows, an intellectual woman married to a
+commerce-grubbing man is not especially to be pitied. She can find
+intellectual affinities that will ease the irksomeness of her situation.
+But to be cast on a desert isle with a being, no matter how good, who is
+incapable of feeling with you the eternal mystery of the encircling tides;
+who can only stare when you speak of the moaning lullaby of the restless
+sea; who knows not the glory of the sunrise, and feels no thrill when the
+breakers dash themselves into foam, or the moonlight dances on the
+phosphorescent waves--ah, that is indeed exile! Loneliness is not in being
+alone, for then ministering spirits come to soothe and bless--loneliness
+is to endure the presence of one who does not understand.
+
+And so this finely organized, receptive, aspiring woman, through the
+exercise of a will that seemed masculine in its strength, found her feet
+mired in quicksand. She struggled to free herself, and every effort only
+sank her deeper. The relentless environment only held her with firmer
+clutch.
+
+She thirsted for knowledge, for sweet music, for beauty, for sympathy, for
+attainment. She had a heart-hunger that none about her understood. She
+strove for better things. She prayed to God, but the heavens were as
+brass; she cried aloud, and the only answer was the throbbing of her
+restless heart.
+
+In this condition, a son was born to her. They called his name Alexander
+Hamilton. This child was heir to all his mother's splendid ambitions. Her
+lack of opportunity was his blessing; for the stifled aspirations of her
+soul charged his being with a strong man's desires, and all the mother's
+silken, unswerving will was woven through his nature. He was to surmount
+obstacles that she could not overcome, and to tread under his feet
+difficulties that to her were invincible.
+
+The prayer of her heart was answered, but not in the way she expected. God
+listened to her after all; for every earnest prayer has its answer, and
+not a sincere desire of the heart but somewhere will find its
+gratification.
+
+But earth's buffets were too severe for the brave young woman; the forces
+in league against her were more than she could withstand, and before her
+boy was out of baby dresses she gave up the struggle, and went to her long
+rest, soothed only by the thought that, although she had sorely blundered,
+she yet had done her work as best she could.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At his mother's death, we find Alexander Hamilton taken in charge by
+certain mystical kinsmen. Evidently he was well cared for, as he grew into
+a handsome, strong lad--small, to be sure, but finely formed. Where he
+learned to read, write and cipher we know not; he seems to have had one of
+those active, alert minds that can acquire knowledge on a barren island.
+
+When nine years old, he signed his name as witness to a deed. The
+signature is needlessly large and bold, and written with careful schoolboy
+pains, but the writing shows the same characteristics that mark the
+thousand and one dispatches which we have, signed at bottom, "G.
+Washington."
+
+At twelve years of age, he was clerk in a general store--one of those
+country stores where everything is kept, from ribbon to whisky. There were
+other helpers in the store, full grown; but when the proprietor went away
+for a few days into the interior, the dark, slim youngster took charge of
+the bookkeeping and the cash; and made such shrewd exchanges of
+merchandise for produce that when the "Old Man" returned, the lad was
+rewarded by two pats on the head and a raise in salary of one shilling a
+week.
+
+About this time, the boy was also showing signs of literary skill by
+writing sundry poems and "compositions," and one of his efforts in this
+line describing a tropical hurricane was published in a London paper.
+
+This opened the eyes of the mystical kinsmen to the fact that they had a
+genius among them, and the elder Hamilton was importuned for money to send
+the boy to Boston that he might receive a proper education and come back
+and own the store and be a magistrate and a great man. No doubt the lad
+pressed the issue, too, for his ambition had already begun to ferment, as
+we find him writing to a friend, "I'll risk my life, though not my
+character, to exalt my station."
+
+Most great things in America have to take their rise in Boston; so it
+seems meet that Alexander Hamilton, aged fifteen, a British subject,
+should first set foot on American soil at Long Wharf, Boston. He took a
+ferry over to Cambridgeport and walked through the woods three miles to
+Harvard College. Possibly he did not remain because his training in a
+bookish way had not been sufficient for him to enter, and possibly he did
+not like the Puritanic visage of the old professor who greeted him on the
+threshold of Massachusetts Hall; at any rate, he soon made his way to New
+Haven. Yale suited him no better, and he took a boat for New York.
+
+He had letters to several good clergymen in New York, and they proved wise
+and good counselors. The boy was advised to take a course at the Grammar
+School at Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
+
+There he remained a year, applying himself most vigorously, and the next
+Fall he knocked at the gate of King's College. It is called Columbia now,
+because kings in America went out of fashion, and all honors formerly
+paid to the king were turned over to Miss Columbia, Goddess of Freedom.
+
+King's College swung wide its doors for the swarthy little West Indian. He
+was allowed to choose his own course, and every advantage of the
+university was offered him. In a university, you get just all you are able
+to hold--it depends upon yourself--and at the last all men who are made at
+all are self-made.
+
+Hamilton improved each passing moment as it flew; with the help of a tutor
+he threw himself into his work, gathering up knowledge with the quick
+perception and eager alertness of one from whom the good things of earth
+have been withheld.
+
+Yet he lived well and spent his money as if there were plenty more where
+it came from; but he was never dissipated nor wasteful.
+
+This was in the year Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, and the Colonies were
+in a state of political excitement. Young Hamilton's sympathies were all
+with the mother country. He looked upon the Americans, for the most part,
+as a rude, crude and barbaric people, who should be very grateful for the
+protection of such an all-powerful country as England. At his
+boarding-house and at school, he argued the question hotly, defending
+England's right to tax her dependencies.
+
+One fine day, one of his schoolmates put the question to him flatly: "In
+case of war, on which side will you fight?" Hamilton answered, "On the
+side of England."
+
+But by the next day he had reasoned it out that if England succeeded in
+suppressing the rising insurrection she would take all credit to herself;
+and if the Colonies succeeded there would be honors for those who did the
+work. Suddenly it came over him that there was such a thing as "the divine
+right of insurrection," and that there was no reason why men living in
+America should be taxed to support a government across the sea. The wealth
+produced in America should be used to develop America.
+
+He was young, and burning with a lofty ambition. He knew, and had known
+all along, that he would some day be great and famous and powerful--here
+was the opportunity.
+
+And so, next day, he announced at the boarding-house that the eloquence
+and logic of his messmates were too powerful to resist--he believed the
+Colonies and the messmates were in the right. Then several bottles were
+brought in, and success was drunk to all men who strove for liberty.
+
+Patriotic sentiment is at the last self-interest; in fact, Herbert Spencer
+declares that there is no sane thought or rational act but has its root in
+egoism.
+
+Shortly after the young man's conversion, there was a mass-meeting held in
+"The Fields," which meant the wilds of what is now the region of
+Twenty-third Street.
+
+Young Hamilton stood in the crowd and heard the various speakers plead the
+cause of the Colonies, and urge that New York should stand firm with
+Massachusetts against the further encroachments and persecutions of
+England. There were many Tories in the crowd, for New York was with King
+George as against Massachusetts, and these Tories asked the speakers
+embarrassing questions that the speakers failed to answer. And all the
+time young Hamilton found himself nearer and nearer the platform. Finally,
+he undertook to reply to a talkative Tory, and some one shouted, "Give him
+the platform--the platform!" and in a moment this seventeen-year-old boy
+found himself facing two thousand people. There was hesitation and
+embarrassment, but the shouts of one of his college chums, "Give it to
+'em! Give it to 'em!" filled in an awkward instant, and he began to speak.
+There was logic and lucidity of expression, and as he talked the air
+became charged with reasons, and all he had to do was to reach up and
+seize them.
+
+His strong and passionate nature gave gravity to his sentences, and every
+quibbling objector found himself answered, and more than answered, and the
+speakers who were to present the case found this stripling doing the work
+so much better than they could, that they urged him on with applause and
+loud cries of "Bravo! Bravo!"
+
+Immediately at the close of Hamilton's speech, the chairman had the good
+sense to declare the meeting adjourned--thus shutting off all reply, as
+well as closing the mouths of the minnow orators who usually pop up to
+neutralize the impression that the strong man has made.
+
+Hamilton's speech was the talk of the town. The leading Whigs sought him
+out and begged that he would write down his address so that they could
+print it as a pamphlet in reply to the Tory pamphleteers who were
+vigorously circulating their wares. The pens of ready writers were scarce
+in those days: men could argue, but to present a forcible written brief
+was another thing. So young Hamilton put his reasons on paper, and their
+success surprised the boys at the boarding-house, and the college chums
+and the professors, and probably himself as well. His name was on the lips
+of all Whigdom, and the Tories sent messengers to buy him off.
+
+But Congress was willing to pay its defenders, and money came from
+somewhere--not much, but all the young man needed. College was dropped;
+the political pot boiled; and the study of history, economics and
+statecraft filled the daylight hours to the brim and often ran over into
+the night.
+
+The Winter of Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five passed away; the plot
+thickened. New York had reluctantly consented to be represented in
+Congress and agreed grumpily to join hands with the Colonies.
+
+The redcoats had marched out to Concord--and back; and the embattled
+farmers had stood and fired the shot "heard 'round the world."
+
+Hamilton was working hard to bring New York over to an understanding that
+she must stand firm against English rule. He organized meetings, gave
+addresses, wrote letters, newspaper articles and pamphlets. Then he joined
+a military company and was perfecting himself in the science of war.
+
+There were frequent outbreaks between Tory mobs and Whigs, and the
+breaking up of your opponents' meeting was looked upon as a pleasant
+pastime.
+
+Then came the British ship "Asia" and opened fire on the town. This no
+doubt made Whigs of a good many Tories. Whig sentiment was on the
+increase; gangs of men marched through the streets and the king's stores
+were broken into, and prominent Royalists found their houses being
+threatened.
+
+Doctor Cooper, President of King's College, had been very pronounced in
+his rebukes to Congress and the Colonies, and a mob made its way to his
+house. Arriving there, Hamilton and his chum Troup were found on the
+steps, determined to protect the place. Hamilton stepped forward, and in a
+strong speech urged that Doctor Cooper had merely expressed his own
+private views, which he had a right to do, and the house must not on any
+account be molested. While the parley was in progress, old Doctor Cooper
+himself appeared at one of the upper windows and excitedly cautioned the
+crowd not to listen to that blatant young rapscallion Hamilton, as he was
+a rogue and a varlet and a vagrom. The good Doctor then slammed the window
+and escaped by the back way.
+
+His remarks raised a laugh in which even young Hamilton joined, but his
+mistake was very natural in view of the fact that he only knew that
+Hamilton had deserted the college and espoused the devil's cause; and not
+having heard his remarks, but seeing him standing on his steps haranguing
+a crowd, thought surely he was endeavoring to work up mischief against his
+old preceptor, who had once plucked him in Greek.
+
+It seems to have been the intention of his guardians that the limit of
+young Hamilton's stay in America was to be two years, and by that time his
+education would be "complete," and he would return to the West Indies and
+surprise the natives.
+
+But his father, who supplied the money, and the mystical kinsmen who
+supplied advice, and the kind friends who had given him letters to the
+Presbyterian clergymen at New York and Princeton, had figured without
+their host. Young Hamilton knew all that Nevis had in store for him: he
+knew its littleness, its contumely and disgrace, and in the secret
+recesses of his own strong heart he had slipped the cable that held him to
+the past. No more remittances from home; no more solicitous advice; no
+more kind, loving letters--the past was dead.
+
+For England he once had had an almost idolatrous regard; to him she had
+once been the protector of his native land, the empress of the seas, the
+enlightener of mankind; but henceforth he was an American.
+
+He was to fight America's battles, to share in her victory, to help make
+of her a great Nation, and to weave his name into the web of her history
+so that as long as the United States of America shall be remembered, so
+long also shall be remembered the name of Alexander Hamilton.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What General Washington called his "family" usually consisted of sixteen
+men. These were his aides, and more than that, his counselors and friends.
+In Washington's frequent use of that expression, "my family," there is a
+touch of affection that we do not expect to find in the tents of war. In
+rank, the staff ran the gamut from captain to general. Each man had his
+appointed work and made a daily report to his chief. When not in actual
+action, the family dined together daily, and the affair was conducted with
+considerable ceremony. Washington sat at the head of the table, large,
+handsome and dignified. At his right hand was seated the guest of honor,
+and there were usually several invited friends. At his left sat Alexander
+Hamilton, ready with quick pen to record the orders of his chief.
+
+And methinks it would have been quite worth while to have had a place at
+that board, and looked down the table at "the strong, fine face, tinged
+with melancholy," of Washington; and the cheery, youthful faces of
+Lawrence, Tilghman, Lee, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and the others of
+that brave and handsome company. Well might they have called Washington
+father, for this he was in spirit to them all--grave, gentle, courteous
+and magnanimous, yet exacting strict and instant obedience from all; and
+well, too, may we imagine that this obedience was freely and cheerfully
+given.
+
+Hamilton became one of Washington's family on March First, Seventeen
+Hundred Seventy-seven, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was barely
+twenty years of age; Washington was forty-seven, and the average age of
+the family, omitting its head, was twenty-five. All had been selected on
+account of superior intelligence and a record of dashing courage. When
+Hamilton took his place at the board, he was the youngest member, save
+one. In point of literary talent, he stood among the very foremost in the
+country, for then there was no literature in America save the literature
+of politics; and as an officer, he had shown rare skill and bravery.
+
+And yet, such was Hamilton's ambition and confidence in himself, that he
+hesitated to accept the position, and considered it an act of sacrifice to
+do so. But having once accepted, he threw himself into the work and became
+Washington's most intimate and valued assistant. Washington's
+correspondence with his generals, with Congress, and the written decisions
+demanded daily on hundreds of minor questions, mostly devolved on
+Hamilton, for work gravitates to him who can do it best. A simple "Yes,"
+"No" or "Perhaps" from the chief must be elaborated into a diplomatic
+letter, conveying just the right shade of meaning, all with its proper
+emphasis and show of dignity and respect. Thousands of these dispatches
+can now be seen at the Capitol; and the ease, grace, directness and
+insight shown in them are remarkable. There is no muddy rhetoric or
+befuddled clauses. They were written by one with a clear understanding,
+who was intent that the person addressed should understand, too.
+
+Many of these documents were merely signed by Washington, but a few reveal
+interlined sentences and an occasional word changed in Washington's hand,
+thus showing that all was closely scrutinized and digested.
+
+As a member of Washington's staff, Hamilton did not have the independent
+command that he so much desired; but he endured that heroic Winter at
+Valley Forge, was present at all the important battles, took an active
+part in most of them, and always gained honor and distinction.
+
+As an aide to Washington, Hamilton's most important mission was when he
+was sent to General Gates to secure reinforcements for the Southern army.
+Gates had defeated Burgoyne and won a full dozen stern victories in the
+North. In the meantime, Washington had done nothing but make a few brave
+retreats. Gates' army was made up of hardy and seasoned soldiers, who had
+met the enemy and defeated him over and over again. The flush of success
+was on their banners; and Washington knew that if a few thousand of those
+rugged veterans could be secured to reinforce his own well-nigh
+discouraged troops, victory would also perch upon the banners of the
+South.
+
+As a superior officer he had the right to demand these troops; but to
+reduce the force of a general who is making an excellent success is not
+the common rule of war. The country looked upon Gates as its savior, and
+Gates was feeling a little that way himself. Gates had but to demand it,
+and the position of Commander-in-Chief would go to him. Washington
+thoroughly realized this, and therefore hesitated about issuing an order
+requesting a part of Gates' force. To secure these troops as if the
+suggestion came from Gates was a most delicate commission. Alexander
+Hamilton was dispatched to Gates' headquarters, armed, as a last resort,
+with a curt military order to the effect that he should turn over a
+portion of his army to Washington. Hamilton's orders were: "Bring the
+troops, but do not deliver this order unless you are obliged to."
+
+Hamilton brought the troops, and returned the order with seal intact.
+
+The act of his sudden breaking with Washington has been much exaggerated.
+In fact, it was not a sudden act at all, for it had been premeditated for
+some months. There was a woman in the case. Hamilton had done more than
+conquer General Gates on that Northern trip; at Albany, he had met
+Elizabeth, daughter of General Schuyler, and won her after what has been
+spoken of as "a short and sharp skirmish." Both Alexander and Elizabeth
+regarded "a clerkship" as quite too limited a career for one so gifted;
+they felt that nothing less than commander of a division would answer. How
+to break loose--that was the question.
+
+And when Washington met him at the head of the stairs of the New Windsor
+Hotel and sharply chided him for being late, the young man embraced the
+opportunity and said, "Sir, since you think I have been remiss, we part."
+
+It was the act of a boy; and the figure of this boy, five feet five inches
+high, weight one hundred twenty, aged twenty-four, talking back to his
+chief, six feet three, weight two hundred, aged fifty, has its comic side.
+Military rule demands that every one shall be on time, and Washington's
+rebuke was proper and right. Further than this, one feels that if he had
+followed up his rebuke by boxing the young man's ears for "sassing back,"
+he would still not have been outside the lines of duty.
+
+But an hour afterwards we find Washington sending for the youth and
+endeavoring to mend the break. And although Hamilton proudly repelled his
+advances, Washington forgave all and generously did all he could to
+advance the young man's interests. Washington's magnanimity was absolutely
+without flaw, but his attitude towards Hamilton has a more suggestive
+meaning when we consider that it was a testimonial of the high estimate he
+placed on Hamilton's ability.
+
+At Yorktown, Washington gave Hamilton the perilous privilege of leading
+the assault. Hamilton did his work well, rushing with fiery impetuosity
+upon the fort--carried all before him, and in ten minutes had planted the
+Stars and Stripes on the ramparts of the enemy.
+
+It was a fine and fitting close to his glorious military career.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Washington became President, the most important office to be filled
+was that of manager of the exchequer. In fact, all there was of it was the
+office--there was no treasury, no mint, no fixed revenue, no credit; but
+there were debts--foreign and domestic--and clamoring creditors by the
+thousand. The debts consisted of what was then the vast sum of eighty
+million dollars. The treasury was empty. Washington had many advisers who
+argued that the Nation could never live under such a weight of debt--the
+only way was flatly and frankly to repudiate--wipe the slate clean--and
+begin afresh.
+
+This was what the country expected would be done; and so low was the hope
+of payment that creditors could be found who were willing to compromise
+their claims for ten cents on the dollar. Robert Morris, who had managed
+the finances during the period of the Confederation, utterly refused to
+attempt the task again, but he named a man who, he said, could bring order
+out of chaos, if any living man could. That man was Alexander Hamilton.
+Washington appealed to Hamilton, offering him the position of Secretary of
+the Treasury. Hamilton, aged thirty-two, gave up his law practise, which
+was yielding him ten thousand a year, to accept this office which paid
+three thousand five hundred. Before the British cannon, Washington did not
+lose heart, but to face the angry mob of creditors waving white-paper
+claims made him quake; but with Hamilton's presence his courage came back.
+
+The first thing that Hamilton decided upon was that there should be no
+repudiation--no offer of compromise would be considered--every man should
+be paid in full. And further than this, the general government would
+assume the entire war debt of each individual State. Washington concurred
+with Hamilton on these points, but he could make neither oral nor written
+argument in a way that would convince others; so this task was left to
+Hamilton. Hamilton appeared before Congress and explained his
+plans--explained them so lucidly and with such force and precision that he
+made an indelible impression. There were grumblers and complainers, but
+these did not and could not reply to Hamilton, for he saw all over and
+around the subject, and they saw it only at an angle. Hamilton had studied
+the history of finance, and knew the financial schemes of every country.
+No question of statecraft could be asked him for which he did not have a
+reply ready. He knew the science of government as no other man in America
+then did, and recognizing this, Congress asked him to prepare reports on
+the collection of revenue, the coasting trade, the effects of a tariff,
+shipbuilding, post-office extension, and also a scheme for a judicial
+system. When in doubt they asked Hamilton.
+
+And all the time Hamilton was working at this bewildering maze of detail,
+he was evolving that financial policy, broad, comprehensive and minute,
+which endures even to this day, even to the various forms of accounts that
+are now kept at the Treasury Department at Washington.
+
+His insistence that to preserve the credit of a nation every debt must be
+paid, is an idea that no statesman now dare question. The entire aim and
+intent of his policy was high, open and frank honesty. The people should
+be made to feel an absolute security in their government, and this being
+so, all forms of industry would prosper, "and the prosperity of the people
+is the prosperity of the Nation." To such a degree of confidence did
+Hamilton raise the public credit that in a very short time the government
+found no trouble in borrowing all the money it needed at four per cent;
+and yet this was done in face of the fact that its debt had increased.
+
+Just here was where his policy invited its strongest and most bitter
+attack. For there are men today who can not comprehend that a public debt
+is a public blessing, and that all liabilities have a strict and
+undivorceable relationship to assets. Alexander Hamilton was a leader of
+men. He could do the thinking of his time and map out a policy, "arranging
+every detail for a kingdom." He has been likened to Napoleon in his
+ability to plan and execute with rapid and marvelous precision, and surely
+the similarity is striking.
+
+But he was not an adept in the difficult and delicate art of
+diplomacy--he could not wait. He demanded instant obedience, and lacked
+all of that large, patient, calm magnanimity so splendidly shown forth
+since by Abraham Lincoln. Unlike Jefferson, his great rival, he could not
+calmly and silently bide his time. But I will not quarrel with a man
+because he is not some one else.
+
+He saw things clearly at a glance; he knew because he knew; and if others
+would not follow, he had the audacity to push on alone. This recklessness
+to the opinion of the slow and plodding, this indifference to the dull,
+gradually drew upon him the hatred of a class.
+
+They said he was a monarchist at heart and "such men are dangerous." The
+country became divided into those who were with Hamilton and those who
+were against him. The very transcendent quality of his genius wove the net
+that eventually was to catch his feet and accomplish his ruin.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It has been the usual practise for nearly a hundred years to refer to
+Aaron Burr as a roue, a rogue and a thorough villain, who took the life of
+a gentle and innocent man.
+
+I have no apologies to make for Colonel Burr; the record of his life lies
+open in many books, and I would neither conceal nor explain away.
+
+If I should attempt to describe the man and liken him to another, that man
+would be Alexander Hamilton.
+
+They were the same age within ten months; they were the same height within
+an inch; their weight was the same within five pounds, and in temperament
+and disposition they resembled each other as brothers seldom do. Each was
+passionate, ambitious, proud.
+
+In the drawing-room where one of these men chanced to be, there was room
+for no one else--such was the vivacity, the wit, and the generous, glowing
+good-nature shown. With women, the manner of these men was most gentle and
+courtly; and the low, alluring voice of each was music's honeyed flattery
+set to words.
+
+Both were much under the average height, yet the carriage of each was so
+proud and imposing that everywhere they went men made way, and women
+turned and stared.
+
+Both were public speakers and lawyers of such eminence that they took
+their pick of clients and charged all the fee that policy would allow. In
+debate, there was a wilful aggressiveness, a fiery sureness, a lofty
+certainty, that moved judges and juries to do their bidding. Henry Cabot
+Lodge says that so great was Hamilton's renown as a lawyer that clients
+flocked to him because the belief was abroad that no judge dare decide
+against him. With Burr it was the same.
+
+Both made large sums, and both spent them all as fast as made.
+
+In point of classic education, Burr had the advantage. He was the grandson
+of the Reverend Jonathan Edwards. In his strong, personal magnetism, and
+keen, many-sided intellect, Aaron Burr strongly resembled the gifted
+Presbyterian divine who wrote "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." His
+father was the Reverend Aaron Burr, President of Princeton College. He was
+a graduate of Princeton, and, like Hamilton, always had the ability to
+focus his mind on the subject in hand, and wring from it its very core.
+Burr's reputation as to his susceptibility to women's charms is the
+world's common--very common--property. He was unhappily married; his wife
+died before he was thirty; he was a man of ardent nature and stalked
+through the world a conquering Don Juan. A historian, however, records
+that "his alliances were only with women who were deemed by society to be
+respectable. Married women, unhappily mated, knowing his reputation, very
+often placed themselves in his way, going to him for advice, as moths
+court the flame. Young, tender and innocent girls had no charm for him."
+
+Hamilton was happily married to a woman of aristocratic family; rich,
+educated, intellectual, gentle, and worthy of him at his best. They had a
+family of eight children. Hamilton was a favorite of women everywhere and
+was mixed up in various scandalous intrigues. He was an easy mark for a
+designing woman. In one instance, the affair was seized upon by his
+political foes, and made capital of to his sore disadvantage. Hamilton met
+the issue by writing a pamphlet, laying bare the entire shameless affair,
+to the horror of his family and friends. Copies of this pamphlet may be
+seen in the rooms of the American Historical Society at New York. Burr had
+been Attorney-General of New York State and also United States Senator.
+Each man had served on Washington's staff; each had a brilliant military
+record; each had acted as second in a duel; each recognized the honor of
+the code.
+
+Stern political differences arose, not so much through matters of opinion
+and conscience, as through ambitious rivalry. Neither was willing the
+other should rise, yet both thirsted for place and power. Burr ran for the
+Presidency, and was sternly, strongly, bitterly opposed as "a dangerous
+man" by Hamilton.
+
+At the election one more electoral vote would have given the highest
+office of the people to Aaron Burr; as it was he tied with Jefferson. The
+matter was thrown into the House of Representatives, and Jefferson was
+given the office, with Burr as Vice-President. Burr considered, and
+perhaps rightly, that were it not for Hamilton's assertive influence he
+would have been President of the United States.
+
+While still Vice-President, Burr sought to become Governor of New York,
+thinking this the surest road to receiving the nomination for the
+Presidency at the next election.
+
+Hamilton openly and bitterly opposed him, and the office went to another.
+
+Burr considered, and rightly, that were it not for Hamilton's influence he
+would have been Governor of New York.
+
+Burr, smarting under the sting of this continual opposition by a man who
+himself was shelved politically through his own too fiery ambition, sent a
+note by his friend Van Ness to Hamilton, asking whether the language he
+had used concerning him ("a dangerous man") referred to him politically or
+personally.
+
+Hamilton replied evasively, saying he could not recall all that he might
+have said during fifteen years of public life. "Especially," he said in
+his letter, "it can not be reasonably expected that I shall enter into any
+explanation upon a basis so vague as you have adopted. I trust on more
+reflection you will see the matter in the same light. If not, however, I
+only regret the circumstances, and must abide the consequences."
+
+When fighting men use fighting language they invite a challenge.
+Hamilton's excessively polite regret that "he must abide the
+consequences" simply meant fight, as his language had for a space of five
+years.
+
+A challenge was sent by the hand of Pendleton. Hamilton accepted. Being
+the challenged man (for duelists are always polite), he was given the
+choice of weapons. He chose pistols at ten paces.
+
+At seven o'clock on the morning of July Eleventh, Eighteen Hundred Four,
+the participants met on the heights of Weehawken, overlooking New York
+Bay. On a toss Hamilton won the choice of position and his second also won
+the right of giving the word to fire.
+
+Each man removed his coat and cravat; the pistols were loaded in their
+presence. As Pendleton handed his pistol to Hamilton he asked, "Shall I
+set the hair-trigger?"
+
+"Not this time," replied Hamilton. With pistols primed and cocked, the men
+were stationed facing each other, thirty feet apart.
+
+Both were pale, but free from any visible nervousness or excitement.
+Neither had partaken of stimulants. Each was asked if he had anything to
+say, or if he knew of any way by which the affair could be terminated
+there and then.
+
+Each answered quietly in the negative. Pendleton, standing fifteen feet to
+the right of his principal, said: "One--two--three--present!" and as the
+last final sounding of the letter "t" escaped his teeth, Burr fired,
+followed almost instantly by the other.
+
+Hamilton arose convulsively on his toes, reeled, and Burr, dropping his
+smoking pistol, sprang towards him to support him, a look of regret on his
+face.
+
+Van Ness raised an umbrella over the fallen man, and motioned Burr to be
+gone.
+
+The ball passed through Hamilton's body, breaking a rib, and lodging in
+the second lumbar vertebra.
+
+The bullet from Hamilton's pistol cut a twig four feet above Burr's head.
+
+While he was lying on the ground Hamilton saw his pistol near and said,
+"Look out for that pistol, it is loaded--Pendleton knows I did not intend
+to fire at him!"
+
+Hamilton died the following day, first declaring that he bore Colonel Burr
+no ill-will.
+
+Colonel Burr said he very much regretted the whole affair, but the
+language and attitude of Hamilton forced him to send a challenge or remain
+quiet and be branded as a coward. He fully realized before the meeting
+that if he killed Hamilton it would be political death for him, too.
+
+At the time of the deed Burr had no family; Hamilton had a wife and seven
+children, his oldest son having fallen in a duel fought three years before
+on the identical spot where he, too, fell.
+
+Burr fled the country.
+
+Three years afterwards, he was arrested for treason in trying to found an
+independent State within the borders of the United States. He was tried
+and found not guilty.
+
+After some years spent abroad he returned and took up the practise of law
+in New York. He was fairly successful, lived a modest, quiet life, and
+died September Fourteenth, Eighteen Hundred Thirty-six, aged eighty years.
+
+Hamilton's widow survived him just one-half a century, dying in her
+ninety-eighth year.
+
+So passeth away the glory of the world.
+
+
+
+
+DANIEL WEBSTER
+
+    Not many days ago I saw at breakfast the notablest of all your
+    notabilities, Daniel Webster. He is a magnificent specimen. You
+    might say to all the world, "This is our Yankee-Englishman; such
+    links we make in Yankeeland!" As a logic fencer, advocate or
+    Parliamentary Hercules, one would incline to back him at first
+    sight against all the extant world. The tanned complexion; the
+    amorphous, craglike face; the dull black eyes under the precipice
+    of brows, like dull anthracite furnaces needing only to be blown;
+    the mastiff mouth accurately closed; I have not traced so much of
+    silent Berserker rage that I remember of in any other man. "I
+    guess I should not like to be your nigger!"
+    --Carlyle to Emerson
+
+[Illustration: DANIEL WEBSTER]
+
+
+Those were splendid days, tinged with no trace of blue, when I attended
+the district school, wearing trousers buttoned to a calico waist. I had
+ambitions then--I was sure that some day I could spell down the school,
+propound a problem in fractions that would puzzle the teacher, and play
+checkers in a way that would cause my name to be known throughout the
+entire township.
+
+In the midst of these pleasant emotions, a cloud appeared upon the horizon
+of my happiness. What was it? A Friday Afternoon, that's all.
+
+A new teacher had been engaged--a woman, actually a young woman. It was
+prophesied that she could not keep order a single day, for the term
+before, the big boys had once arisen and put out of the building the man
+who taught them. Then there was a boy who occasionally brought a dog to
+school; and when the bell rang, the dog followed the boy into the room and
+lay under the desk pounding his tail on the floor; and everybody tittered
+and giggled until the boy had been coaxed into taking the dog home, for if
+merely left in the entry he howled and whined in a way that made study
+impossible. But one day the boy was not to be coaxed, and the teacher
+grabbed the dog by the scruff of the neck, and flung him through a window
+so forcibly that he never came back. And now a woman was to teach the
+school: she was only a little woman and yet the boys obeyed her, and I had
+come to think that a woman could teach school nearly as well as a man,
+when the awful announcement was made that thereafter every week we were to
+have a Friday Afternoon. There were to be no lessons; everybody was to
+speak a piece, and then there was to be a spelling-match--and that was
+all. But heavens! it was enough.
+
+Monday began very blue and gloomy, and the density increased as the week
+passed. My mother had drilled me well in my lines, and my big sister was
+lavish in her praise, but the awful ordeal of standing up before the whole
+school was yet to come.
+
+Thursday night I slept but little, and all Friday morning I was in a
+burning fever. At noon I could not eat my lunch, but I tried to, manfully,
+and as I munched on the tasteless morsels, salt tears rained on the
+johnnycake I held in my hand. And even when the girls brought in big
+bunches of wild flowers and cornstalks, and began to decorate the
+platform, things appeared no brighter.
+
+Finally, the teacher went to the door and rang the bell: nobody seemed to
+play, and as the scholars took their seats, some, very pale, tried to
+smile, and others whispered, "Have you got your piece?" Still others kept
+their lips working, repeating lines that struggled hard to flee.
+
+Names were called, but I did not see who went up, neither did I hear what
+was said. At last, my name was called: it came like a clap of thunder--as
+a great surprise, a shock. I clutched the desk, struggled to my feet,
+passed down the aisle, the sound of my shoes echoing through the silence
+like the strokes of a maul. The blood seemed ready to burst from my eyes,
+ears and nose.
+
+I reached the platform, missed my footing, stumbled, and nearly fell. I
+heard the giggling that followed, and knew that a red-haired boy, who had
+just spoken, and was therefore unnecessarily jubilant, had laughed aloud.
+
+I was angry. I shut my fists so that the nails cut my flesh, and glaring
+straight at his red head shot my bolt: "I know not how others may feel,
+but sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my heart and my
+hand to this vote. It is my living sentiment and by the blessing of God it
+shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and independence forever."
+
+That was all of the piece. I gave the whole thing in a mouthful, and
+started for my seat, got halfway there and remembered I had forgotten to
+bow, turned, went back to the platform, bowed with a jerk, started again
+for my seat, and hearing some one laugh, ran.
+
+Reaching the seat, I burst into tears.
+
+The teacher came over, patted my head, kissed my cheek, and told me I had
+done first-rate, and after hearing several others speak I calmed down and
+quite agreed with her.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was Daniel Webster who caused the Friday Afternoon to become an
+institution in the schools of America. His early struggles were dwelt upon
+and rehearsed by parents and pedagogues until every boy was looked upon as
+a possible Demosthenes holding senates in thrall.
+
+If physical imperfections were noticeable, the fond mother would explain
+that Demosthenes was a sickly, ill-formed youth, who only overcame a lisp
+by orating to the sea with his mouth full of pebbles; and every one knew
+that Webster was educated only because he was too weak to work. Oratory
+was in the air; elocution was rampant; and to declaim in orotund, and
+gesticulate in curves, was regarded as the chief end of man. One-tenth of
+the time in all public schools was given over to speaking, and on Saturday
+evenings the schoolhouse was sacred to the Debating Society.
+
+Then came the Lyceum, and the orators of the land made pilgrimages,
+stopping one day in a place, putting themselves on exhibition, and giving
+the people a taste of their quality at fifty cents per head. Recently,
+there has been a relapse of the oratorical fever. Every city from
+Leadville to Boston has its College of Oratory, or School of Expression,
+wherein a newly discovered "Natural Method" is divulged for a
+consideration. Some of these "Colleges" have done much good; one in
+particular I know, that fosters a fine spirit of sympathy, and a trace of
+mysticism that is well in these hurrying, scurrying days.
+
+But all combined have never produced an orator; no, dearie, they never
+have, and never can. You might as well have a school for poets, or a
+college for saints, or give medals for proficiency in the gentle art of
+wooing, as to expect to make an orator by telling how.
+
+Once upon a day, Sir Walter Besant was to give a lecture upon "The Art of
+the Novelist." He had just adjusted his necktie for the last time, slipped
+a lozenge into his mouth, and was about to appear upon the platform, when
+he felt a tug at the tail of his dress-coat. On looking around, he saw the
+anxious face of his friend, James Payn. "For God's sake, Walter,"
+whispered Payn, "you are not going to explain to 'em how you do it, are
+you?" But Walter did not explain how to write fiction, because he could
+not, and Payn's quizzing question happily relieved the lecture of the
+bumptiousness it might otherwise have contained.
+
+The first culture for which a people reach out is oratory. The Indian is
+an orator with "the natural method"; he takes the stump on small
+provocation, and under the spell of the faces that look up to him, is
+often moved to strange eloquence. I have heard negro preachers who could
+neither read nor write, move vast congregations to profoundest emotion by
+the magic of their words and presence. And further, they proved to me that
+the ability to read and write is a cheap accomplishment, and that a man
+can be a very strong character, and not know how to do either.
+
+For the most part, people who live in cities are not moved by oratory;
+they are unsocial, unimaginative, unemotional. They see so much and hear
+so much that they cease to be impressed. When they come together in
+assemblages they are so apathetic that they fail to generate
+magnetism--there is no common soul to which the speaker can address
+himself. They are so cold that the orator never welds them into a mass. He
+may amuse them, but in a single hour to change the opinions of a lifetime
+is no longer possible in America. There are so many people, and so much
+business to transact, that emotional life plays only upon the surface--in
+it there is no depth. To possess depth you must commune with the Silences.
+No more do you find men and women coming for fifty miles, in wagons, to
+hear speakers discuss political issues; no more do you find campmeetings
+where the preacher strikes conviction home until thousands are on their
+knees crying to God for mercy.
+
+Intelligence has increased; spirituality has declined, and as a people the
+warm emotions of our hearts are gone forever.
+
+Oratory is a rustic product. The great orators have always been
+country-bred, and their appeal has been made to rural people. Those who
+live in a big place think they are bigger on that account. They acquire
+glibness of speech and polish of manner; but they purchase these things at
+a price. They lack the power to weigh mighty questions, the courage to
+formulate them, and the sturdy vitality to stand up and declare them in
+the face of opposition. Revolutions are fought by farmers and
+rail-splitters; these are the embattled men who fire the shots heard
+'round the world.
+
+When Daniel Webster's father took up his residence in New Hampshire, his
+log cabin was the most northern one of the Colonies. Between him and
+Montreal lay an unbroken forest inhabited only by prowling Indians.
+Ebenezer Webster's long rifle had sent cold lead into many a redskin; and
+the same rifle had done good service in fighting the British. Once, its
+owner stood guard before Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, and
+Washington came out and said, "Captain Webster, I can trust you!"
+
+Ebenezer Webster would leave his home to carry a bag of corn on his back
+through the woods to the mill ten miles away to have it ground into meal,
+and his wife would be left alone with the children. On such occasions,
+Indians who never saw settlers' cabins without having an itch to burn
+them, used sometimes to call, and the housewife would have to parley with
+these savages, "impressing them concerning the rights of property."
+
+So here was born Daniel Webster, in Seventeen Hundred Eighty-two, the
+second child of his mother. His father was then forty-three, and had
+already raised one brood, but his mother was only in her twenties. It
+seems that biting poverty and sore deprivation are about as good prenatal
+influences as a soul can well ask, provided there abides with the mother a
+noble discontent and a brave unrest.
+
+However, it came near being overdone in Daniel Webster's case, for the
+Mrs. Gamp who presided at his birth declared he could not live, and if he
+did, would "allus be a no-'count."
+
+But he made a brave fight for breath, and his crossness and peevishness
+through the first years of his life were proof of vitality. He must have
+been a queer toddler when he wore dresses, with his immense head and
+deep-set black eyes and serious ways.
+
+Being sickly, he was allowed to rule, and the big girls, his half-sisters,
+humored him, and his mother did the same. They taught him his letters when
+he was only a baby, and he himself said that he could not remember a time
+when he could not read the Bible.
+
+When he grew older he did not have to bring in wood and do the chores--he
+was not strong enough, they said. Little Dan was of a like belief, and
+encouraged the idea on every occasion. He roamed the woods, fished,
+hunted, and read every scrap of print that came his way.
+
+Being able to read any kind of print, and not being strong enough to work,
+it very early was decided that he should have an education. It is rather a
+humbling confession to make, but our worthy forefathers chiefly prized an
+education for the fact that it caused the fortunate possessor to be exempt
+from manual labor.
+
+When Daniel was fourteen, a member of Congress came to see Ebenezer
+Webster, to secure his influence at election. As the great man rode away,
+Ebenezer said to his son: "Daniel, look there! he is educated and gets six
+dollars a day in Congress for doing nothing; while I toil on this rocky
+hillside and hardly see six dollars in a year. Daniel, get an education!"
+
+"I'll do it," said Daniel, and throwing his arms around his father's neck,
+burst into tears.
+
+The village of Salisbury, where Webster was born, is fifteen miles north
+of Concord. You leave the train at Boscowan, and there is a rickety old
+stage, with a loquacious driver, that will take you to Salisbury, five
+miles, for twenty-five cents. The country is one vast outcrop of granite;
+and one can not but be filled with admiration, mingled with pity, for the
+dwellers thereabouts who call these piles of rock "farms."
+
+As we wound slowly around the hills, the church-spire of the village came
+in sight; and soon we entered the one street of this sleepy, forgotten
+place. I shook hands with the old stage-driver as he let me down in front
+of the tavern; and as I went in search of the landlord, I thought of the
+remark of the Chicago woman who, in riding from Warwick over to Stratford,
+said, "Goodness me! why should a man like Shakespeare ever take it in his
+head to live so far off!"
+
+Salisbury has four hundred people. You can rent a house there for fifty
+dollars a year, or should you prefer not to keep house, but board, you
+can be accommodated at the tavern for three dollars a week. There are
+various abandoned farms round about, and they are abandoned so thoroughly
+that even Kate Sanborn would not have the courage to their adoption try.
+
+The landlord of the hotel told me that were it not for the "Harvest
+Dance," the dance on the Fourth of July, and the party at Christmas, he
+could not keep the house open at all. Of course, all the inhabitants know
+that Webster was born at Salisbury, but there is not so much local pride
+in the matter as there is at East Aurora over the fact that one of her
+former citizens is a performer in Barnum and Bailey's Circus.
+
+The number of old men in one of these New England villages impresses folks
+from the West as being curious. There are a full dozen men at Salisbury
+between seventy-five and ninety, and all have positive ideas as to just
+why Daniel Webster missed the Presidency. I found opinion curiously
+divided as to Webster's ability; but all seemed to argue that when he left
+New Hampshire and became a citizen of Massachusetts, he made a fatal
+mistake.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sacrifices that the mother and the father of Daniel Webster made, in
+order that he might go to school, were very great. Every one in the family
+had to do without things, that this one might thrive. The boy accepted it
+all, quite as a matter of course, for from babyhood he had been protected
+and petted. At the last we must admit that the man who towers above his
+fellows is the one who has the power to make others work for him; a great
+success is not possible in any other way.
+
+Throughout his life Webster utilized the labor of others, and took it in a
+high and imperious manner, as though it were his due. No doubt the way in
+which his family lavished their gifts upon him fixed in his mind that
+immoral slant of disregard for his financial obligations which clung to
+him all through life.
+
+There is a story told of his going to a county fair with his brother
+Ezekiel, which shows the characters of these brothers better than a
+chapter. The father had given each lad a dollar to spend. When the boys
+got home Daniel was in gay spirits and Ezekiel was depressed. "Well, Dan,"
+said the father, "did you spend your money?"
+
+"Of course I did," replied Daniel.
+
+"And, Zeke, what did you do with your dollar?"
+
+"Loaned it to Dan," replied Ezekiel.
+
+But there was a fine bond of affection between these two. Ezekiel was two
+years older and, unfortunately for himself, was strong and well. He was
+very early set to work, and I can not find that the thought of giving him
+an education ever occurred to his parents, until after Daniel had
+graduated at Dartmouth, and Dan and Zeke themselves then forced the issue.
+
+In stature they were the same size: both were tall, finely formed, and in
+youth slender. As they grew older they grew stouter, and the personal
+presence of each was very imposing. Ezekiel was of light complexion and
+ruddy; Daniel was very dark and sallow. I have met several men who knew
+them both, and the best opinion is that Ezekiel was the stronger of the
+two, mentally and morally.
+
+Daniel was not a student, while Ezekiel was; and as a counselor Ezekiel
+was the safer man. Up to the very week of Ezekiel's death Daniel advised
+with him on all his important affairs. When Ezekiel fell dead in the
+courtroom at Concord and the news was carried to his brother, it was a
+blow that affected him more than the loss of wife or child. His friend and
+counselor, the one man in life upon whom he leaned, was gone, and over his
+own great, craglike face came that look of sorrow which death only
+removed. But care and grief became this giant, as they do all who are
+great enough to bear them.
+
+It was two years after his brother's death that he made the speech which
+is his masterpiece. And while the applause was ringing in his ears he
+turned to Judge Story and said, "Oh, if Zeke were only here!" Who is
+there who can not sympathize with that groan? We work for others; and to
+win the applause of senates or nations, and not be able to know that Some
+One is glad, takes all the sweetness out of victory.
+
+"When I sing well, I want you to meet me in the wings of the stage, and
+taking me in your aims, kiss my cheek, and whisper it was all right." When
+Patti wrote this to her lover she voiced the universal need of a some one
+who understands, to share the triumph of good work well done. The
+nostalgia of life never seems so bitter as after moments of success; then
+comes creeping in the thought that he who would have gloried in
+this--knowing all the years of struggle and deprivations that made it
+possible--is sleeping his long sleep.
+
+In that speech of January Twenty-sixth, Eighteen Hundred Thirty, Webster
+reached high-water mark. On that performance, more than any other, rests
+his fame. He was forty-eight years old then. All the years of his career
+he had been getting ready for that address. It was on the one theme that
+he loved; on the theme he had studied most; on the only theme upon which
+he ever spoke well--the greatness, the grandeur and the possibilities of
+America. He spoke for four hours, and in his works the speech occupies
+seventy close pages. He was at the zenith of his physical and intellectual
+power, and that is as good a place as any to stop and view the man.
+
+On account of his proud carriage, and the fine poise of his massive head,
+he gave the impression of being a very large man; but he was just five
+feet ten, and weighed a little less than two hundred. His manner was
+grave, deliberate and dignified; and his sturdy face, furrowed with lines
+of sorrow, made a profound impression upon all before he had spoken a
+word. He had arrived at an age when the hot desire to succeed had passed.
+For no man can attain the highest success until he has reached a point
+where he does not care for it. In oratory the personal desire for victory
+must be obliterated or the hearer will never award the palm.
+
+Hayne was a very bright and able speaker. He had argued the right of a
+State to dissent from, or nullify, a law passed by the House of
+Representatives and Senate, making such law inoperative within its
+borders. His claim was that the framers of the Constitution did not expect
+or intend that a law could be passed that was binding on a State when the
+people of that State did not wish it so. Mr. Hayne had the best end of the
+argument, and the opinion is now general among jurists that his logic was
+right and just, and that those who thought otherwise were wrong. New
+England had practically nullified United States law in Eighteen Hundred
+Twelve, the Hartford Convention of Eighteen Hundred Fourteen had declared
+the right; Josiah Quincy had advocated the privilege of any State to
+nullify an obnoxious law, quite as a matter of course.
+
+The framers of the Constitution had merely said that we "had better" hang
+together, not that we "must." But with the years had come a feeling that
+the Nation's life was unsafe if any State should pull away.
+
+Once, on the plains of Colorado, I was with a party when there was danger
+of an attack from Indians. Two of the party wished to go back; but the
+leader drew his revolver and threatened to shoot the first man who tried
+to seek safety. "We must hang together or hang separately." Logically,
+each man had the right to secede, and go off on his own account, but
+expediency made a law and we declared that any man who tried to leave did
+so at his peril.
+
+To Webster was given the task of putting a new construction on the
+Constitution, and to make of the Constitution a Law instead of a mere
+compact. Webster's speech was not an argument; it was a plea. And so
+mightily did he point out the dangers of separation; review the splendid
+past; and prophesy the greatness of the future--a future that could only
+be ours through absolute union and loyalty to the good of the whole--that
+he won his cause.
+
+After that speech, if Calhoun had allowed South Carolina to nullify a
+United States law, President Jackson would have made good his threat and
+hanged both him and Hayne on one tree, and the people would have approved
+the act. But Webster did not get the case quashed: he got only a
+postponement. In Eighteen Hundred Sixty, South Carolina moved the case
+again; she opened the argument in another way this time, and a million
+lives were required, and millions upon millions in treasure expended to
+put a construction on the Constitution that the framers did not intend;
+but which was necessary in order that the Nation might exist.
+
+In the battle of Bull Run, almost the first battle of the war, fell
+Colonel Fletcher Webster, the only surviving son of Daniel Webster, and
+with him died the name and race.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The cunning of Webster's intellect was not creative. In his argument there
+is little ingenuity; but he had the power of taking an old truth and
+presenting it in a way that moved men to tears. When aroused, all he knew
+was within his reach; he had the faculty of getting all his goods in the
+front window. And he himself confessed that he often pushed out a masked
+battery, when behind there was not a single gun.
+
+Under the spell of the orator an audience becomes of one mind: the dullest
+intellect is more alert than usual and the most discerning a little less
+so. Cheap wit will then often pass for brilliancy, and platitude for
+wisdom. We roar over the jokes we have known since childhood, and cry
+"Hear, hear!" when the great man with upraised hands and fire in his
+glance declares that twice two is four.
+
+Oratory is hypnotism practised on a large scale. Through oratory ideas are
+acquired by induction.
+
+Webster was a lawyer; and he was not above resorting to any trick or
+device that could move the emotions or passions of judge and jury to a
+prejudice favorable to his side. This was very clearly brought out when he
+undertook to break the will of Stephen Girard.
+
+Girard was a freethinker, and in leaving money to found a college devised
+that no preacher or priest should have anything to do with its management.
+The question at issue was, "Is a bequest for founding a college a
+charitable bequest?" If so, then the will must stand. But if the bequest
+were merely a scheme to deprive the legal heirs of their rights--diverting
+the funds from them for whimsical and personal reasons--then the will
+should be broken. Mr. Webster made the plea that there was only one kind
+of charity, namely, Christian charity. Girard was not a Christian, for he
+had publicly affronted the Christian religion by providing that no
+minister should teach in his school. Mr. Webster spoke for three hours
+with many fine bursts of tearful eloquence in support of the Christian
+faith, reviewing its triumphs and denouncing its foes.
+
+The argument was carried outside of the realm of law into the domain of
+passion and prejudice.
+
+The court took time for the tumult to subside, and then very quietly
+decided against Webster, sustaining the will. The college building was
+erected and stands today, the finest specimen of purely Greek architecture
+in America; and the good that Girard College has done and is now doing is
+the priceless heritage of our entire country.
+
+One of Webster's first greatest speeches was before the United States
+Supreme Court in the Dartmouth College case. Here he defended the cause of
+education with that grave and wonderful weight of argument of which he was
+master. In the Girard College case, eighteen years after, he reversed his
+logic, and touched with rare skill on the dangers of a too-liberal
+education.
+
+No man now is quite so daring as to claim that Webster was a Christian.
+Neither was he a freethinker. He inherited his religious views from his
+parents, and never considered them enough to change. He simply viewed
+religion as a part of the fabric of government, giving sturdiness and
+safety to established order. His own spiritual acreage was left absolutely
+untilled. His services were for sale; and so plastic were his convictions
+that once having espoused a cause he was sure it was right. Doubtless it
+is self-interest, as Herbert Spencer says, that makes the world go round.
+And thus does sincerity of belief resolve itself into which side will pay
+most. This question being settled, reasons are as plentiful as
+blackberries, and are supplied in quantities proportionate in size to the
+retainer.
+
+John Randolph once touched the quick by saying, "If Daniel Webster was
+employed on a case and he had partially lost faith in it, his belief in
+his client's rights could always be refreshed and his zeal renewed by a
+check."
+
+Webster had every possible qualification that is required to make the
+great orator. All those who heard him speak, when telling of it, begin by
+relating how he looked. He worked the dignity and impressiveness of his
+Jovelike presence to its furthest limit, and when once thoroughly awake
+was in possession of his entire armament.
+
+No other American has been able to speak with a like degree of
+effectiveness; and his name deserves to rank, and will rank, with the
+names of Burke, Chatham, Sheridan and Pitt. The case has been tried, the
+verdict is in and recorded on the pages of history. There can be no
+retrial, for Webster is dead, and his power died thirty years before his
+form was laid to rest at Marshfield by the side of his children and the
+wife of his youth.
+
+Oratory is the lowest of the sublime arts. The extent of its influence
+will ever be a vexed question. Its result depends on the mood and
+temperament of the hearer. But there are men who are not ripe for treason
+and conspiracy, to whom even music makes small appeal. Yet music can be
+recorded, entrusted to an interpreter yet unborn, and lodge its appeal
+with posterity. Literature never dies: it dedicates itself to Time. For
+the printed page is reproduced ten thousand times ten thousand times, and
+besides, lives as did the Homeric poems, passed on from generation to
+generation by word of mouth. Were every book containing Shakespeare's
+plays burned this night, tomorrow they could be rewritten by those who
+know their every word.
+
+With the passing years the painter's colors fade; time rots his canvas;
+the marble is dragged from its pedestal and exists in fragments from which
+we resurrect a nation's life; but oratory dies on the air and exists only
+as a memory in the minds of those who can not translate, and then as
+hearsay. So much for the art itself; but the influence of that art is
+another thing.
+
+He who influences the beliefs and opinions of men influences all other men
+that live after. For influence, like matter, can not be destroyed.
+
+In many ways, Webster lacked the inward steadfastness that his face and
+frame betokened; but on one theme he was sound to the inmost core. He
+believed in America's greatness and the grandeur of America's mission.
+Into the minds of countless men he infused his own splendid patriotism.
+From his first speech at Hanover when eighteen years old, to his last when
+nearly seventy, he fired the hearts of men with the love of native land.
+And how much the growing greatness of our country is due to the magic of
+his words and the eloquence of his inspired presence no man can compute.
+
+The passion of Webster's life is well mirrored in that burning passage:
+
+"When mine eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in
+heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments
+of a once glorious Union: on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent:
+on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal
+blood. Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the
+gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the
+earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their
+original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, or a single star
+obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What
+is all this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, 'Liberty
+first and Union afterwards'; but everywhere, spread all over in characters
+of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the
+sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that
+other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, 'Liberty and Union,
+now and forever, one and inseparable.'"
+
+
+
+
+HENRY CLAY
+
+    If there be any description of rights, which, more than any
+    other, should unite all parties in all quarters of the Union, it
+    is unquestionably the rights of the person. No matter what his
+    vocation, whether he seeks subsistence amid the dangers of the
+    sea, or draws it from the bowels of the earth, or from the
+    humblest occupations of mechanical life--wherever the sacred
+    rights of an American freeman are assailed, all hearts ought to
+    unite and every arm be braced to vindicate his cause.
+    --Henry Clay
+
+[Illustration: HENRY CLAY]
+
+
+There is a story told of an Irishman and an Englishman who were immigrants
+aboard a ship that was coming up New York Harbor. It chanced to be the
+fourth day of July, and as a consequence there was a needless waste of
+gunpowder going on, and many of the ships were decorated with bunting that
+in color was red, white and blue.
+
+"What can all this fuss be about?" asked the Englishman.
+
+"What's it about?" answered Pat. "Why, this is the day we run you out!"
+
+And the moral of the story is that as soon as an Irishman reaches the
+Narrows he says "we Americans," while an Englishman will sometimes
+continue to say "you Americans" for five years and a day. More than this,
+an Irish-American citizen regards an English-American citizen with
+suspicion and refers to him as a foreigner, even unto the third and fourth
+generation.
+
+No man ever hated England more cordially than did Henry Clay.
+
+The genealogists have put forth heroic efforts to secure for Clay a noble
+English ancestry, but with a degree of success that only makes the
+unthinking laugh and the judicious grieve.
+
+Had these zealous pedigree-hunters studied the parish registers of County
+Derry, Ireland, as lovingly as they have Burke's Peerage, they might have
+traced the Clays of America back to the Cleighs, honest farmers
+(indifferent honest), of Londonderry.
+
+The character of Henry Clay had in it various traits that were peculiarly
+Irish. The Irishman knows because he knows, and that's all there is about
+it. He is dramatic, emotional, impulsive, humorous without suspecting it,
+and will fight friend or foe on small provocation. Then he is much given
+to dealing in that peculiar article known as palaver. The farewell address
+of Henry Clay to the Senate, and his return thereto a few years later,
+comprise one of the most Irishlike proceedings to be found in history.
+
+There is no finer man on earth than your "thrue Irish gintleman," and
+Henry Clay had not only all the highest and most excellent traits of the
+"gintleman," but a few also of his worst. Clay made friends as no other
+American statesman ever did. "To come within reach of the snare of his
+speech was to love him," wrote one man. People loved him because he was
+affectionate, for love only goes out to love. And the Irish heart is a
+heart of love. Henry Clay called himself a Christian, and yet at times he
+was picturesquely profane. We have this on the authority of the "Diary" of
+John Quincy Adams, which of course we must believe, for even that other
+fighting Irishman, Andrew Jackson, said, "Adams' Diary is probably
+correct--damn it!"
+
+Clay was convivial in all the word implies; his losses at cards often put
+him in severe financial straits; he stood ready to back his opinion
+concerning a Presidential election, a horse-race or a dog-fight, and with
+it all he held himself "personally responsible"--having fought two duels
+and engaged in various minor "misunderstandings."
+
+And yet he was a great statesman--one of the greatest this country has
+produced, and as a patriot no man was ever more loyal. It was America with
+him first and always. His reputation, his fortune, his life, his all,
+belonged to America.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The city of Lexington contains about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. In
+Lexington two distinct forms of civilization meet.
+
+One is the civilization of the F.F.V., converted into that peculiar form
+of noblesse known the round world over as the Blue-Grass Aristocracy.
+Blue-Grass Society represents leisure and luxury and the generous
+hospitality of friendships generations old; it means broad acres, noble
+mansions reached by roadways that stray under wide-spreading oaks and elms
+where squirrels chatter and mild-eyed cows look at you curiously; it means
+apple-orchards, gardens lined with boxwood, capacious stables and long
+lines of whitewashed cottages, around which swarm a dark cloud of
+dependents who dance and sing and laugh--and work when they have to.
+
+Over against these there are to be seen trolley-cars, electric lights,
+smart rows of new brick houses on lots thirty by one hundred, negro
+policemen in uniforms patterned after those worn by the Broadway Squad,
+streets torn up by sewers and conduits, steam-rollers with an unsavory
+smell of tar and asphalt, push-buttons and a Hello-Exchange.
+
+As to which form of civilization is the more desirable is a question that
+is usually answered by taste and temperament. One thing sure, and that is,
+that a pride which swings to t'other side and becomes vanity is often an
+element in both. Each could learn something of the other. Lots that you
+can jump across, rented to families of ten, with land a mile away that can
+be bought for fifty dollars an acre, are not an ideal condition.
+
+On the other hand, inside the city limits of Lexington are mansions
+surrounded by an even hundred acres. But at some of these, gates are off
+their hinges, pickets have been borrowed for kindling, creeping vines and
+long grass o'ertop the walls of empty stables, and a forest of weeds
+insolently invades the spot where once nestled milady's flower-garden.
+
+Slowly but surely the Blue-Grass Aristocracy is giving way to purslane or
+asphalt, moving into flats, and allowing the boomer to plat its fair
+acres--running excursion-trains to attend auction-sales where all the lots
+are corner lots and are to be bought on the installment plan, which plan
+is said by a cynic to give the bicycle face.
+
+Just across from Ashland is a beautiful estate, recently sold at a
+sacrifice to a man from Massachusetts, by the name of Douglas, who I am
+told is bald through lack of hair and makes three-dollar shoes. The
+stately old mansion mourns its former masters--all are gone--and a thrifty
+German is plowing up the lawn, that the cows of the Douglas (tender and
+true) may eat early clover.
+
+But Ashland is there today in all the beauty and loveliness that Henry
+Clay knew when he wrote to Benton: "I love old Ashland, and all these
+acres with their trees and flowers and growing grain lure me in a way
+that ambition never can. No, I remain at Ashland."
+
+The rambling old house is embowered in climbing vines and clambering
+rosebushes and is set thick about with cedars, so that you can scarcely
+see the chimney-tops above the mass of green. A lane running through
+locust-trees planted by Henry Clay's own hands leads you to the
+hospitable, wide-open door, where a colored man, whose black face is set
+in a frame of wool, smiles a welcome. He relieves you of your baggage and
+leads the way to your room.
+
+The summer breeze blows lazily in through the open window, and the only
+sound of life and activity about seems to center in two noisy robins which
+are making a nest in the eaves, right within reach of your hand. The
+colored man apologizes for them, anathematizes them mildly, and proposes
+to drive them away, but you restrain him. After the man has gone you
+bethink you that the suggestion of driving the birds away was only the
+white lie of society (for even black folks tell white lies), and the old
+man probably had no more intent of driving the birds away than of going
+himself.
+
+On the dresser is a pitcher of freshly clipped roses, the morning dew
+still upon them, and you only cease to admire as you espy your mail that
+lies there awaiting your hand. News from home and loved ones greets you
+before these new-found friends do! You have not seen the good folks who
+live here, only the old colored man who pretended that he was going to
+kill cock-robin, and didn't. The hospitality is not gushing or
+effusive--the place is yours, that's all, and you lean out of the window
+and look down at the flowerbeds, and wonder at the silence and the quiet
+and peace, and feel sorry for the folks who live in Cincinnati and
+Chicago. The soughing of the wind through the pines comes to you like the
+murmur of the sea, and breaking in on the stillness you hear the sharp
+sound of an ax--some Gladstone chopping, miles and miles away.
+
+Your dreams are broken by a gentle tap at the door and your host has come
+to call on you. You know him at once, even though you have never before
+met, for men who think alike and feel alike do not have to "get
+acquainted." Heart speaks to heart.
+
+He only wishes to say that your coming is a pleasure to all the family at
+Ashland, the library is yours as well as the whole place, lunch is at one
+o'clock, and George will get you anything you wish. And back in the shadow
+of the hallway you catch sight of the old colored man and see him bow low
+when his name is mentioned.
+
+Ashland is probably in better condition today than when Henry Clay worked
+and planned, and superintended its fair acres. The place has seen
+vicissitudes since the body of the man who gave it immortality lay in
+state here in July, Eighteen Hundred Fifty-two. But Major McDowell's wife
+is the granddaughter of Henry Clay, and it seems meet that the descendants
+of the great man should possess Ashland. Major McDowell has means and
+taste and the fine pride that would preserve all the traditions of the
+former master. The six hundred acres are in a high state of cultivation,
+and the cattle and horses are of the kinds that would have gladdened the
+heart of Clay.
+
+In the library, halls and dining-room are various portraits of the great
+man, and at the turn of the stairs is a fine heroic bust, in bronze, of
+that lean face and form. Hundreds of his books are to be seen on the
+shelves, all marked and dog-eared and scribbled on, thus disproving much
+of that old cry that "Clay was not a student." Some men are students only
+in youth, but Clay's best reading was done when he was past fifty. The
+book habit grew upon him with the years.
+
+Here are his pistols, spurs, saddle and memorandum-books. Here are
+letters, faded and yellow, dusted with black powder on ink that has been
+dry a hundred years, asking for office, or words of gracious thanks in
+token of benefits not forgot.
+
+Off to the south stretches away a great forest of walnut, oak and chestnut
+trees--reminders of the vast forest that Daniel Boone knew. Many of these
+trees were here then, and here let them remain, said Henry Clay. And so
+today at Ashland, as at Hawarden, no tree is felled until it has been duly
+tried by the entire family and all has been said for and against the
+sentence of death. I heard Miss McDowell make an eloquent plea for an old
+oak that had been rather recklessly harboring mistletoe and many
+squirrels, until it was thought probable that, like our first parents, it
+might have a fall. It was a plea more eloquent than "O Woodman, spare that
+tree." A reprieve for a year was granted; and I thought, as I cast my vote
+on the side of mercy, that the jury that could not be won by such a young
+woman as that was hopelessly dead at the top and more hollow at the heart
+than the old oak under whose boughs we sat.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ashland is just a mile south of the courthouse. When Henry Clay used to
+ride horseback between the town and his farm there were scarce a dozen
+houses to pass on the way, but now the street is all built up, and is
+smartly paved, and the trolley-line booms a noisy car to the sacred gates
+every ten minutes.
+
+Lexington was laid out in the year Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, and the
+intention was to name it in honor of Colonel Patterson, the founder, or of
+Daniel Boone. But while the surveyors were doing their work, word came of
+the battle of some British and certain embattled farmers, and the spirit
+of freedom promptly declared that the town should be called Lexington.
+
+Three years after the laying-out of Lexington, Henry Clay was born. He was
+the son of a poor and obscure Baptist preacher who lived at "The Slashes,"
+in Virginia. The boy never had any vivid recollection of his father, who
+passed away when Henry was a mere child.
+
+The mother had a hard time of it with her family of seven children, and if
+kind neighbors had not aided, there would have been actual want. And
+surely one can not blame the widow for "marrying for a home" when
+opportunity offered. Only one out of that first family ever achieved
+eminence, and the second brood is actually lost to us in oblivion.
+
+Henry Clay was a graduate of the University of Hard Knocks; he also took
+several post-graduate courses at the same institution. Very early in life
+we see that he possessed the fine, eager, receptive spirit that absorbs
+knowledge through the finger-tips; and the ability to think and to absorb
+is all that even college can ever do for a man. I doubt whether college
+would have helped Clay, and it might have dimmed the diamond luster of his
+mind, and diluted that fine audacity which carried him on his way. In this
+capacity to comprehend in the mass, Clay's character was essentially
+feminine. We have Thoreau for authority that the intuition and the
+sympathy found always in the saviors of the world are purely feminine
+attributes--the legacy bequeathed from a mother who thirsted for better
+things.
+
+From a clerk in a country store to a bookkeeper, then a copyist for a
+lawyer, a writer of letters for the neighborhood, a reader of law, and
+next a lawyer, were easy and natural steps for this ambitious boy.
+
+Virginia with its older settlements offered small opportunities, and so we
+find young Clay going West, and landing at Lexington when twenty years
+old. He requested a license to practise law, but the Bar Association,
+which consisted of about a dozen members, decided that no more lawyers
+were needed at Lexington. Clay demanded that he should be examined as to
+fitness, and the blackberry-bush Blackstones sat upon him, as a coroner
+would say, with intent to give him so stiff an examination that he would
+be glad to get work as a farmhand.
+
+A dozen questions had been asked, and an attempt had been made to confuse
+and browbeat the youth, when the Nestor of the Lexington Bar expectorated
+at a fly ten feet away, and remarked, "Oh, the devil! there is no need of
+tryin' to keep a boy like this down--he's as fit as we, or fitter!"
+
+And so he was admitted.
+
+From the very first he was a success; he toned up the mental qualities of
+the Fayette County Bar, and made the older, easy-going members feel to see
+whether their laurel wreaths were in place.
+
+When he was thirty years of age he was chosen by the Legislature of
+Kentucky as United States Senator. When his term expired he chose to go to
+Congress, probably because it afforded better opportunity for oratory and
+leadership. As soon as he appeared upon the floor he was chosen Speaker by
+acclamation. So thoroughly American was he, that one of his very first
+suggestions was to the effect that every member should clothe himself
+wholly in fabrics made in the United States. Humphrey Marshall ridiculed
+the proposition and called Clay a demagogue, for which he got himself
+straightway challenged. Clay shot a bullet through his English-made
+broadcloth coat, and then they shook hands.
+
+When his term as Congressman expired, he again went to the Senate, and
+served two years. Then he went back to the House, and through his
+influence, and his alone, did we challenge Great Britain, just as he had
+challenged Marshall.
+
+England accepted the challenge, and we call it the War of Eighteen Hundred
+Twelve.
+
+Very often, indeed, do we hear the rural statesmen at Fourth of July
+celebrations exclaim, "We have whipped England twice, and we can do it
+again!"
+
+We whipped England once, and it is possible we could do it again, but she
+got the best of us in the War of Eighteen Hundred Twelve. Henry Clay
+plunged the country into war to redress certain grievances, and as a peace
+commissioner he backed out of that war without having a single one of
+those grievances indemnified or redressed.
+
+After the treaty of peace had been declared and "the war was over," that
+fighting Irishman, Andrew Jackson, Irishlike, gave the British a black eye
+at New Orleans, just for luck, and this is the only thing in that whole
+misunderstanding of which we should not as a nation be ashamed.
+
+If England had not had Napoleon on her hands at that particular time,
+Wellington would probably have made a visit to America, and might have
+brought along for us a Waterloo. And these things are fully explained in
+the textbooks on history used in the schools of Great Britain, on whose
+possessions the sun never sets.
+
+But as Henry Clay had gotten us into war, his diplomacy helped to get us
+out, and as it was a peace without dishonor, Clay's reputation did not
+materially suffer. In fact, the terms of peace were so ambiguous that
+Congress gave out to the world that it was a victory, and the exact facts
+were quite lost in the smoke of Jackson's muskets that hovered over the
+cotton bales.
+
+Later, when Clay ran against Jackson for the Presidency he found that a
+peace-hero has no such place in the hearts of men as a war-hero. Jackson
+had not a tithe of Clay's ability, and yet Clay's defeat was overwhelming.
+"Peace hath her victories"--yes, but the average voter does not know it.
+The only men who have received overwhelming majorities for President have
+been war-heroes. Obscure men have crept in several times, but popular
+diplomats--never. The fate of such popular men as Clay, Seward and Blaine
+is one. And when one considers how strong is this tendency to glorify the
+hero of action, and ignore the hero of thought, he wonders how it really
+happened that Paul Revere was not made the second President of the United
+States instead of John Adams.
+
+Clay was a most eloquent pleader. The grace of his manner, the beauty of
+his speech, and the intense earnestness of his nature often convinced men
+against their wills.
+
+There was sometimes, however, a suspicion in the air that his best
+quotations were inspirations, and that the statistics to which he appealed
+were evolved from his inner consciousness. But the man had power and
+personality plus. He was a natural leader, and unlike other statesmen we
+might name, he always carried his town and district by overwhelming
+majorities. And it is well to remember that the first breath of popular
+disfavor directed against Henry Clay was because he proposed the abolition
+of slavery.
+
+Those who knew him best loved him most, and this was true from the time he
+began to practise law in Lexington, when scarcely twenty-one years old, to
+his seventy-fifth year, when his worn-out body was brought home to rest.
+
+On that occasion all business in Lexington, and in most of Kentucky,
+ceased. Even the farmers quit work, and very many private residences were
+draped in mourning. Memorial services were held in hundreds of churches,
+the day was given over to mourning, and everywhere men said, "We shall
+never look upon his like again."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Before I visited Lexington, my cousin, Little Emily, duly wrote me that on
+no account, when I was in Kentucky, must I offer any criticisms on the
+character of Henry Clay; for if I grew reckless and compared him with
+another to his slightest disadvantage, I should have to fight.
+
+That he was absolutely the greatest statesman America has produced is, to
+all Kentuckians, a fact so sure that they doubt the honesty or the sanity
+of any one who hints otherwise. He is their ideal, the perfect man, the
+model for all youths to imitate, and the standard by which all other
+statesmen are gauged. Clay to Kentucky scores one hundred. And as he was
+at the last defeated for the highest office, which they say was his
+God-given right, there is a flavor of martyrdom in his history that is the
+needed crown for every hero.
+
+Complete success alienates man from his fellows, but suffering makes
+kinsmen of us all. So the South loves Henry Clay.
+
+He is so well loved that he is apotheosized, and thus the real man to many
+is lost in the clouds. With his name, song and legend have worked their
+miracles, and to very many Southern people he is a being separate and
+apart, like Hector or Achilles.
+
+With my cousin, Little Emily, I am always very frank--and you can be
+honest and frank with so few in this world of expediency, you know! We are
+so frank in expression that we usually quarrel very shortly. And so I
+explained to Emily just what I have written here, as to the real Henry
+Clay being lost.
+
+She contradicted me flatly and said, "To love a person is not to lose
+him--you never lose except through indifference or hate!" I started to
+explain and had gotten as far as, "It is just like this," when the
+conversation was interrupted by the arrival of General Bellicose, who had
+come to take us riding behind a spanking pair of geldings, that I was
+assured were standard bred.
+
+In Lexington you never use the general term "horse." You speak of a mare,
+a gelding, a horse, a four-year-old, a weanling or a sucker. To refer to a
+trotter as a thoroughbred is to suffer social ostracism, and to obfuscate
+a side-wheeler with a single-footer is proof of degeneracy. This applies
+equally to the ethics of the ballroom or the livery-stable. In Kentucky
+they read Richard's famous lines thus: "A saddler! a saddler! my kingdom
+for a saddler!" So when I complimented General Bellicose on his geldings
+and noted that they went square without boots or weights, and that he used
+no blinders, it thawed the social ice, and we were as brothers. Then I led
+the way cautiously to Henry Clay, and the General assured me that in his
+opinion the Henry Clays were even better than the George Wilkes. To be
+sure, Wilkes had more in the 'thirty list, but the Clays had brains, and
+were cheerful; they neither lugged nor hung back, whereas you always had
+to lay whip to a Wilkes in order to get along a bit, or else use a gag
+and overcheck.
+
+I pressed Little Emily's hand under the lap-robe and asked her if all
+Kentuckians were believers in metempsychosis. "Colonel Littlejourneys is
+making fun of you, General," said Little Emily; "the Colonel is talking
+about the man, and you are discussing trotters!"
+
+And then I apologized, but the General said it was he who should make the
+apology, and raising the carriage-seat brought out a box of genuine Henry
+Clay Havanas, in proof of amity.
+
+It's a very foolish thing to smile at a man who rides a hobby. Once there
+was a man who rode a hobby all his life, to the great amusement of his
+enemies and the mortification of his wife; and when the man was dead they
+found it was a real live horse and had carried the man many long miles.
+
+General Bellicose loves a horse; so does Little Emily and so do I. But
+Little Emily and the General know history and have sounded politics in a
+way that puts me in the kindergarten; and I found before the day was over
+that what one did not know about the political history of America the
+other did. And mixed up in it all we discussed the merits of the fox-trot
+versus the single-foot.
+
+We saw the famous Clay monument, built by the State at a cost of nearly a
+hundred thousand dollars, and with uncovered heads gazed through the
+gratings into the crypt where lies the dust of the great man. Then we saw
+the statue of John C. Breckinridge in the public square, and visited
+various old ebb-tide mansions where the "quarters" had fallen into decay,
+and the erstwhile inhabitants had moved to the long row of tenements down
+by the cotton-mill. My train whistled and we were half a mile from the
+station, but the General said we would get there in time--and we did. I
+bade my friends good-by and quite forgot to thank them for all their
+kindness, although down in my heart I felt that it had been a time rare as
+a day in June. I believe they felt my gratitude, too, for where there is
+such a feast of wit and flow of soul, such kindness, such generosity, the
+spirit understands.
+
+When I arrived home I found a box awaiting me, bearing the express mark of
+Lexington, Kentucky. On opening the case I found six quart-bottles of
+"Henry Clay--1881"; and a card with the compliments of Little Emily and
+General Bellicose. On the outside of the case was neatly stenciled the
+legend, "Thackeray, Full sett, 14 vol., half Levant." I do not know why
+the box was so marked, but I suppose it was in honor of my literary
+proclivities. I went out and blew four merry blasts on a ram's horn, and
+the Philistines assembled.
+
+
+
+
+JOHN JAY
+
+    Calm repose and the sweets of undisturbed retirement appear more
+    distant than a peace with Britain.
+
+    It gives me pleasure, however, to reflect that the period is
+    approaching when we shall be citizens of a better ordered State,
+    and the spending of a few troublesome years of our eternity in
+    doing good to this and future generations is not to be avoided
+    nor regretted. Things will come right, and these States will yet
+    be great and flourishing.
+    --Letter to Washington
+
+[Illustration: JOHN JAY]
+
+
+America should feel especially charitable towards Louis the Great, called
+by Carlyle, Louis the Little, for banishing the Huguenots from France.
+What France lost America gained. Tyranny and intolerance always drive from
+their homes the best: those who have ability to think, courage to act, and
+a pride that can not be coerced.
+
+The merits possessed by the Huguenots are exactly those which every man
+and nation needs. And these are simple virtues, too, whose cultivation
+stands within the reach of all. These are the virtues of the farmers and
+peasants and plain people who do the work of the world, and give good
+government its bone and sinew. To a great degree, so-called society is
+made up of parasites who fasten and feed upon the industrious and
+methodical.
+
+If you have read history you know that the men who go quietly about their
+business have been cajoled, threatened, driven, and often, when they have
+been guilty of doing a little independent thinking on their own account,
+banished. And further than this, when you read the story of nations dead
+and gone you will see that their decline began when the parasites got too
+numerous and flauntingly asserted their supposed power. That contempt for
+the farmer, and indifference to the rights of the man with tin pail and
+overalls, which one often sees in America, are portents that mark
+disintegrating social bacilli. If the Republic of the United States ever
+becomes but a memory, like Carthage, Athens and Rome, drifting off into
+senile decay like Italy and Spain or France, where a man may yet be tried
+and sentenced without the right of counsel or defense, it will be because
+we forgot--we forgot!
+
+In moral fiber and general characteristics the Huguenots and the Puritans
+were one. The Huguenots had, however, the added virtue of a dash of the
+Frenchman's love of beauty. By their excellent habits and loyalty to
+truth, as they saw it, they added a vast share to the prosperity and
+culture of the United States.
+
+Of seven men who acted as presiding officer over the deliberations of
+Congress during the Revolutionary Period, three were of Huguenot
+parentage: Laurens, Boudinot and Jay. John Jay was a typical Huguenot,
+just as Samuel Adams was a typical Puritan. In his life there was no
+glamour of romance. Stern, studious and inflexibly honest, he made his way
+straight to the highest positions of trust and honor. Good men who are
+capable are always needed. The world wants them now more than ever. We
+have an overplus of clever individuals; but for the faithful men who are
+loyal to a trust there is a crying demand.
+
+The life of Jay quite disproves the oft-found myth that a dash of Mephisto
+in a young man is a valuable adjunct. John Jay was neither precocious nor
+bad. It is further a refreshing fact to find that he was no prig, simply a
+good, healthy youngster who took to his books kindly and gained
+ground--made head upon the whole by grubbing.
+
+His father was a hard-headed, prosperous merchant, who did business in New
+York, and moved his big family up to the little village of Rye because
+life in the country was simple and cheap. Thus did Peter Jay prove his
+commonsense.
+
+Peter Jay copied every letter he wrote, and we now have these copy-books,
+revealing what sort of man he was. Religious he was, and scrupulously
+exact in all things. We see that he ordered Bibles from England, "and also
+six groce of Church Wardens," which I am told is a long clay pipe, "that
+hath a goodly flavor and doth not bite the tongue." He also at one time
+ordered a chest of tea, and then countermanded the order, having taken the
+resolve to "use no tea in my family while that rascally Tax is on--having
+a spring of good, pure water near my house." Which shows that a man can be
+very much in earnest and still joke.
+
+John was the baby, scarcely a year old, when the Jay family moved up to
+Rye. He was the eighth child, and as he grew up he was taught by the older
+ones. He took part in all the fun and hardships of farm life--going to
+school in Winter, working in Summer, and on Sundays hearing long sermons
+at church.
+
+We find by Peter Jay's letter-book that: "Johnny is about our brightest
+child. We have great hopes of him, and believe it will be wise to educate
+him for a preacher." In order to educate boys then, they were sent to live
+in the family of some man of learning. And so we find "Johnny" at twelve
+years of age installed in the parsonage at New Rochelle, the Huguenot
+settlement. The pastor was a Huguenot, and as only French was spoken in
+the household, the boy acquired the language, which afterwards stood him
+in good stead.
+
+The pastor reported favorably, and when fifteen, young Jay was sent to
+King's College, which is now Columbia University, kings not being popular
+in America.
+
+Doctor Samuel Johnson, who nowise resembled Ursa Major, was the president
+of the College at that time. He was also the faculty, for there were just
+thirty students and he did all the teaching himself. Doctor Johnson, true
+to his name, dearly loved a good book, and when teaching mathematics would
+often forget the topic and recite Ossian by the page, instead. Jay caught
+it, for the book craze is contagious and not sporadic. We take it by being
+exposed.
+
+And thus it was while under the tutelage of Doctor Johnson that Jay began
+to acquire the ability to turn a terse sentence; and this gained him
+admittance into the world of New York letters, whose special guardians
+were Dickinson and William Livingston.
+
+Livingston invited the boy to his house, and very soon we find the young
+man calling without special invitation, for Livingston had a beautiful
+daughter about John's age, who was fond of Ossian, too, or said she was.
+
+And as this is not a serial love-story, there is no need of keeping the
+gentle reader in suspense, so I will explain that some years later John
+married the girl, and the mating was a very happy one.
+
+After John had been to King's College two years we find in the faded and
+yellow old letter-book an item written by the father to the effect that:
+"Our Johnny is doing well at College. He seems sedate and intent on
+gaining knowledge; but rather inclines to Law instead of the Ministry."
+
+Doctor Johnson was succeeded by Doctor Myles Cooper, a Fellow of Oxford,
+who used to wear his mortarboard cap and scholar's gown up Broadway. In
+young Jay's veins there was not a drop of British blood. Of his eight
+great-grandparents, five were French and three Dutch, a fact he once
+intimated in the Oxonian's presence. And then it was explained to the
+youth that if such were the truth it would be as well to conceal it.
+
+Alexander Hamilton got along very well with Doctor Cooper, but John Jay
+found himself rusticated shortly before graduation. Some years after this
+Doctor Cooper hastily climbed the back fence, leaving a sample of his gown
+on a picket, while Alexander Hamilton held the Whig mob at bay at the
+front door.
+
+Cooper sailed very soon for England, anathematizing "the blarsted country"
+in classic Latin as the ship passed out of the Narrows.
+
+"England is a good place for him," said the laconic John Jay.
+
+So John Jay was to be a lawyer. And the only way to be a lawyer in those
+days was to work in a lawyer's office. A goodly source of income to all
+established lawyers was the sums they derived for taking embryo
+Blackstones into their keeping. The greater a man's reputation as a
+lawyer, the higher he placed his fee for taking a boy in.
+
+In those days there were no printed blanks, and a simple lease was often a
+day's work to write out; so it was not difficult to keep the boys busy.
+Besides that, they took care of the great man's horse, blacked his boots,
+swept the office, and ran errands. During the third year of
+apprenticeship, if all went well, the young man was duly admitted to the
+Bar. A stiff examination kept out the rank outsiders, but the nomination
+by a reputable attorney was equivalent to admittance, for all members knew
+that if you opposed an attorney today, tomorrow he might oppose you.
+
+To such an extent was this system of taking students carried that, in
+Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight, we find New York lawyers alarmed "by the
+awful influx of young Barristers upon this Province." So steps were taken
+to make all attorneys agree not to have more than two apprentices in their
+office at one time. About the same time the Boston newspaper, called the
+"Centinel," shows there was a similar state of overproduction in Boston.
+Only the trouble there was principally with the doctors, for doctors were
+then turned loose in the same way, carrying a diploma from the old
+physician with whom they had matriculated and duly graduated.
+
+Law schools and medical colleges, be it known, are comparatively modern
+institutions--not quite so new, however, as business colleges, but pretty
+nearly so. And now in Chicago there is a "Barbers' University," which
+issues diplomas to men who can manipulate a razor and shears, whereas,
+until yesterday, boys learned to be barbers by working in a barber's shop.
+The good old way was to pass a profession along from man to man.
+
+And it is so yet in a degree, for no man is allowed to practise either
+medicine or law until he has spent some time in the office of a
+practitioner in good standing.
+
+In the Catholic Church, and also in the Episcopal, the novitiate is
+expected to serve for a time under an older clergyman; but all the other
+denominations have broken away, and now spring the fledgling on the world
+straight from the factory.
+
+Several other of his children having sorely disappointed him, Peter Jay
+seemed to center his ambitions on his boy John. So we find him paying
+Benjamin Kissam, the eminent lawyer, two hundred pounds in good coin of
+the Colony to take John Jay as a 'prentice for five years. John went at it
+and began copying those endless, wordy documents in which the old-time
+attorney used to delight. John sat at one end of a table, and at the other
+was seated one Lindley Murray, at the mention of whose name terror used to
+seize my soul.
+
+Murray has written some good, presentable English to the effect that young
+Jay, even at that time, had the inclination and ability to focus his mind
+upon the subject in hand. "He used to work just as steadily when his
+employer was away as when he was in the office," a fact which the
+grammarian seemed to regard as rather strange.
+
+In a year we find that when Mr. Kissam went away he left the keys of the
+safe in John Jay's hands, with orders what to do in case of emergencies.
+Thus does responsibility gravitate to him who can shoulder it, and trust
+to the man who deserves it.
+
+It was in Kissam's office that Jay acquired that habit of reticence and
+serene poise which, becoming fixed in character, made his words carry such
+weight in later years. He never gave snapshot opinions, or talked at
+random, or voiced any sentiment for which he could not give a reason.
+
+His companions were usually men much older than he. At the "Moot Club" he
+took part with James Duane, who was to be New York's first continental
+mayor; Gouverneur Morris, who had not at that time acquired the wooden
+leg which he once snatched off and brandished with happy effect before a
+Paris mob; and Samuel Jones, who was to take as 'prentice and drill that
+strong man, De Witt Clinton.
+
+Before his years of apprenticeship were over, John Jay, the quiet, the
+modest, the reticent, was known as a safe and competent lawyer--Kissam
+having pushed him forward as associate counsel in various difficult cases.
+
+Meantime, certain chests of tea had been dumped into Boston Harbor, and
+the example had been followed by the "Mohawks" in New York. British
+oppression had made many Tories lukewarm, and then English rapacity had
+transformed these Tories into Whigs. Jay was one of these; and in
+newspapers and pamphlets, and from the platform, he had pleaded the cause
+of the Colonies. Opposition crystallized his reasons, and threats only
+served to make him reaffirm the truths he had stated.
+
+So prominent had his utterances made his name, that one fine day he was
+nominated to attend the first Congress of the Colonies to be held in
+Philadelphia.
+
+In August, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, we find him leaving his office
+in New York in charge of a clerk, and riding horseback over to the town of
+Elizabeth, there joining his father-in-law, and the two starting for
+Philadelphia. On the road they fell in with John Adams, who kept a diary.
+That night at the tavern where they stopped, the sharp-eyed Yankee
+recorded the fact of meeting these new friends and added, "Mr. Jay is a
+young gentleman of the law ... and Mr. Scott says a hard student and a
+very good speaker."
+
+And so they journeyed on across the State to Trenton and down the Delaware
+River to Philadelphia, visiting, and cautiously discussing great issues as
+they went. Samuel Adams, too, was in the party, as reticent as Jay. Jay
+was twenty-nine and Samuel Adams fifty-two years old, but they became good
+friends, and Samuel once quietly said to John Adams, "That man Jay is
+young in years, but he has an old head."
+
+Jay was the youngest man of the Convention, save one.
+
+When the Second Congress met, Jay was again a delegate. He served on
+several important committees, and drew up a statement that was addressed
+to the people of England; but he was recalled to New York before the
+supreme issue was reached, and thus, through accident, the Declaration of
+Independence does not contain the signature of John Jay.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Seventy-eight, Jay was chosen president of the
+Continental Congress to succeed that other patriotic Huguenot, Laurens.
+The following year he was selected as the man to go to Spain, to secure
+from that country certain friendly favors.
+
+His reception there was exceedingly frosty, and the mention of his two
+years on the ragged edge of court life at Madrid, in later years brought
+to his face a grim smile.
+
+Spain's diplomatic policy was smooth hypocrisy and rank untruth, and all
+her promises, it seems, were made but to be broken. Jay's negotiations
+were only partially successful, but he came to know the language, the
+country and the people in a way that made his knowledge very valuable to
+America.
+
+By Seventeen Hundred Eighty-one, England had begun to see that to compel
+the absolute submission of the Colonies was more of a job than she had
+anticipated. News of victories was duly sent to the "mother country" at
+regular intervals, but with these glad tidings were requests for more
+troops, and requisitions for ships and arms.
+
+The American army was a very hard thing to find. It would fight one day,
+to retreat the next, and had a way of making midnight attacks and flank
+movements that, to say the least, were very confusing. Then it would
+separate, to come together--Lord knows where! This made Lord Cornwallis
+once write to the Home Secretary: "I could easily defeat the enemy, if I
+could find him and engage him in a fair fight." He seemed to think it was
+"no fair," forgetting the old proverb which has something to say about
+love and war.
+
+Finally, Cornwallis got the thing his soul desired--a fair fight. He was
+then acting on the defensive. The fight was short and sharp; and Colonel
+Alexander Hamilton, who led the charge, in ten minutes planted the Stars
+and Stripes on his ramparts.
+
+That night Cornwallis was the "guest" of Washington, and the next day a
+dinner was given in his honor.
+
+He was then obliged to write to the Home Secretary, "We have met the
+enemy, and we are theirs"--but of course he did not express it just
+exactly that way. Then it was that King George, for the first time, showed
+a disposition to negotiate for peace.
+
+As peace commissioners, America named Franklin, John Adams, Laurens, Jay
+and Jefferson.
+
+Jefferson refused to leave his wife, who was in delicate health. Adams was
+at The Hague, just closing up a very necessary loan. Laurens had been sent
+to Holland on a diplomatic mission, and his ship having been overhauled by
+a British man-of-war, he was safely in that historic spot, the Tower of
+London.
+
+So Jay and Franklin alone met the English commissioners, and Jay stated to
+them the conditions of peace.
+
+In a few weeks Adams arrived, still keeping a diary. In that diary is
+found this item: "The French call me 'Le Washington de la Negociation': a
+very flattering compliment indeed, to which I have no right, but sincerely
+think it belongs to Mr. Jay."
+
+Jay quitted Paris in May, Seventeen Hundred Eighty-four, having been gone
+from his native land eight years. When he reached New York there was a
+great demonstration in his honor. Triumphal arches were erected across
+Broadway, houses and stores were decorated with bunting, cannons boomed,
+and bells rang. The freedom of the city was presented to him in a gold
+box, with an exceedingly complimentary address, engrossed on parchment,
+and signed by one hundred of the leading citizens.
+
+Jay spent just one day in New York, and then rode on horseback up to the
+old farm at Rye, Westchester County, to see his father. That evening there
+was a service of thanksgiving at the village church, after which the
+citizens repaired to the Jay mansion, one story high and eighty feet long,
+where a barrel of cider was tapped, and "a groce of Church Wardens" passed
+around, with free tobacco for all.
+
+John Jay stood on the front porch and made a modest speech just five
+minutes long, among other things saying he had come home to be a neighbor
+to them, having quit public life for good. But he refused to talk about
+his own experiences in Europe. His reticence, however, was made up for by
+good old Peter Jay, who assured the people that John Jay was America's
+foremost citizen; and in this statement he was backed up by the village
+preacher, with not a dissenting voice from the assembled citizens.
+
+It is rather curious (or it isn't, I'm not sure which) how most statesmen
+have quit public life several times during their careers, like the prima
+donnas who make farewell tours. The ingratitude of republics is
+proverbial, but to limit ingratitude to republics shows a lack of
+experience. The progeny of the men who tired of hearing Aristides called
+The Just are very numerous. Of course it is easy to say that he who
+expects gratitude does not deserve it; but the fact remains that the men
+who know it are yet stung by calumny when it comes their way.
+
+That fine demonstration in Jay's honor was in great part to overwhelm and
+stamp out the undertone of growl and snarl that filled the air. Many said
+that peace had been gained at awful cost, that Jay had deferred to royalty
+and trifled with the wishes of the people in making terms.
+
+And now Jay had got home, back to his family and farm, back to quiet and
+rest. The long, hard fight had been won and America was free. For eight
+years had he toiled and striven and planned: much had been
+accomplished--not all he hoped, but much.
+
+He had done his best for his country, his own affairs were in bad shape,
+Congress had paid him meagerly, and now he would turn public life over to
+others and live his own life.
+
+All through life men reach these places where they say, "Here will we
+build three tabernacles"; but out of the silence comes the imperative
+Voice, "Arise, and get thee hence, for this is not thy rest."
+
+And now the war was over, peace was concluded; but war leaves a country in
+chaos. The long, slow work of reconstruction and of binding up a nation's
+wounds must follow. America was independent, but she had yet to win from
+the civilized world the recognition that she must have in order to endure.
+
+Jay was importuned by Washington to take the position of Secretary of
+Foreign Affairs, one of the most important offices to be filled.
+
+He accepted, and discharged the exacting duties of the place for five
+years.
+
+Then came the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and the election of
+Washington as President of the United States.
+
+Washington wrote to Jay: "There must be a Court, perpetual and Supreme, to
+which all questions of internal dispute between States or people be
+referred. This Court must be greater than the Executive, greater than any
+individual State, separated and apart from any political party. You must
+be the first official head of the Executive."
+
+And Jay, as every schoolboy knows, was the first Chief Justice of the
+Supreme Court of the United States. By his sagacity, his dignity, his
+knowledge of men, and love of order and uprightness, he gave it that high
+place which it yet holds, and which it must hold; for when the decisions
+of the Supreme Court are questioned by a State or people, the fabric of
+our government is but a spider's web through which anarchy and unreason
+will stalk.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Ninety-four, came serious complications with Great
+Britain, growing out of the construction of terms of peace made in Paris
+eleven years before.
+
+Some one must go to Great Britain and make a new treaty in order to
+preserve our honor and save us from another war.
+
+Franklin was dead; Adams as Vice-President could not be spared; Hamilton's
+fiery temper was dangerous--no one could accomplish the delicate mission
+so well as Jay.
+
+Jay, self-centered and calm, said little; but in compliance with
+Washington's wish resigned his office, and set sail with full powers to
+use his own judgment in everything, and the assurance that any treaty he
+made would be ratified.
+
+Arriving in England, he at once opened negotiations with Lord Grenville,
+and in five months the new treaty was signed.
+
+It provided for the payment to American citizens for losses of private
+shipping during the war; and over ten million dollars were paid to
+citizens of the United States under this agreement.
+
+It fixed the boundary-line between the State of Maine and Canada; provided
+for the surrender of British posts in the Far West; that neither nation
+was to allow enlistments within its territory by a third nation at war
+with another; arranged for the surrender of fugitives charged with murder
+or forgery; and made definite terms as to various minor, but none the less
+important, questions.
+
+A storm of opposition greeted the treaty when its terms were made known in
+America. Jay was accused of bartering away the rights of America, and
+indignation meetings were held, because Jay had not insisted on apologies,
+and set sums of indemnity on this, that and the other.
+
+Nevertheless, Washington ratified the treaty; and when Jay arrived in
+America there was a greeting fully as cordial and generous as that on the
+occasion of his other homecoming.
+
+In fact, while he was absent, his friends had put him in nomination as
+Governor of New York. His election to that office occurred just two days
+before he arrived, and when he landed his senses were mystified by hearing
+loud hurrahs for "Governor Jay."
+
+When his term of office expired he was re-elected, so he served as
+Governor, in all, six years. The most important measure carried out during
+that time was the abolition of slavery in the State of New York, an act
+he had strenuously insisted on for twenty years, but which was not made
+possible until he had the power of Governor, and crowded the measure upon
+the Legislature.
+
+Over a quarter of a century had passed since John Adams and John Jay had
+met on horseback out there on the New Jersey turnpike. Their intimacy had
+been continuous and their labors as important as ever engrossed the minds
+of men, but in it all there was neither jealousy nor bickering. They were
+friends.
+
+At the close of Jay's gubernatorial term, President Adams nominated him
+for the office of Chief Justice, made vacant by the resignation of Oliver
+Ellsworth. The Senate unanimously confirmed the nomination, but Jay
+refused to accept the place.
+
+For twenty-eight years he had served his country--served it in its most
+trying hours. He was not an old man in years, but the severity and anxiety
+of his labors had told on his health, and the elasticity of youth had gone
+from his brain forever. He knew this, and feared the danger of continued
+exertion. "My best work is done," he said; "if I continue I may undo the
+good I have accomplished. I have earned a rest."
+
+He retired to the ancestral farm at Bedford, Westchester County, to enjoy
+his vacation. In a year his wife died, and the shock told on his already
+shattered nerves.
+
+"The habit of reticence grew upon him," says one writer, "until he could
+not be tricked into giving an opinion even about the weather."
+
+And so he lived out his days as a partial recluse, deep in problems of
+"raising watermelons, and sheep that would not jump fences." He worked
+with his hands, wore blue jeans, voted at every town election, but to a
+great degree lived only in the past. The problems of church and village
+politics and farm life filled his declining days.
+
+To a great degree his physical health came back, but the problems of
+statecraft he left to other heads and hands.
+
+His religious nature manifested itself in various philanthropic schemes,
+and the Bible Society he founded endures even unto this day. These things
+afforded a healthful exercise for that tireless brain which refused to run
+down.
+
+His daughters made his home ideal, their love and gentleness soothing his
+declining years.
+
+Death to him was kindly, gathering him as Autumn, the messenger of Winter,
+reaps the leaves.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No one has ever made the claim that Jay possessed genius. He had something
+which is better, though, for most of the affairs of life, and that is
+commonsense. In his intellect there was not the flash of Hamilton, nor the
+creative quality possessed by Jefferson, nor the large all-roundness of
+Franklin.
+
+He was the average man who has trained and educated and made the best use
+of every faculty and every opportunity. He was genuine; he was honest; and
+if he never surprised his friends by his brilliancy, he surely never
+disappointed them through duplicity.
+
+He made no promises that he could not keep; he held out no vain hopes.
+
+As a diplomat he seems nearly the ideal. We have been taught that the line
+of demarcation between diplomacy and untruth is very shadowy. But truth is
+very good policy and in the main answers the purpose much better than the
+other thing. I am quite willing to leave the matter to those who have
+tried both.
+
+We can not say that Jay was "magnetic," for magnetic men win the rabble;
+but Jay did better: he won the confidence and admiration of the strong and
+discerning. His manner was gentle and pleasing; his words few, and as a
+listener he set a pace that all novitiates in the school of diplomacy
+would do well to follow.
+
+To talk well is a talent, but to listen is a fine art. If I really wished
+to win the love of a man I'd practise the art of listening. Even dull
+people often talk well when there is some one near who cultivates the
+receptive mood; and to please a man you must give him an opportunity to be
+both wise and witty. Men are pleased with their friends when they are
+pleased with themselves, and no man is ever so pleased with himself as
+when he has expressed himself well.
+
+The sympathetic listener at a lecture or sermon is the only one who gets
+his money's worth. If you would get good, lend your sympathy to a speaker,
+and if, accidentally, you imbibe heresy, you can easily throw it overboard
+when you get home.
+
+John Jay was quiet and undemonstrative in speech, cultivating a fine
+reserve. In debate he never fired all his guns, and his best battles were
+won with the powder that was never exploded. "You had always better keep a
+small balance to your credit," he once advised a young attorney.
+
+When the first Congress met, Jay was not in favor of complete independence
+from England. He asked only for simple justice, and said, "The middle
+course is best." He listened to John Adams and Patrick Henry and quietly
+discussed the matter with Samuel Adams; but it was some time before he saw
+that the density of King George was hopeless, and that the work of
+complete separation was being forced upon the Colonies by the blindness
+and stupidity of the British Parliament.
+
+He then accepted the issue.
+
+During those first days of the Revolution, New York did not stand firm,
+as did Boston, for the cause of independence. "The foes at home are the
+only ones I really fear," once wrote Hamilton.
+
+First to pacify and placate, then to win and hold those worse than
+neutrals, was the work of John Jay. While Washington was in the field,
+Jay, with tireless pen, upheld the cause, and by his speech and presence
+kept anarchy at bay.
+
+As president of the Committee of Safety he showed he could do something
+more than talk and write. When Tories refused to take the oath of
+allegiance he quietly wrote the order to imprison or banish; and with
+friend, foe or kinsman there was neither dalliance nor turning aside. His
+heart was in the cause--his property, his life. The time for argument had
+passed.
+
+In the gloom that followed the defeat of Washington at Brooklyn, Jay
+issued an address to the people that is a classic in its fine, stern
+spirit of hope and strength. Congress had the address reprinted and sent
+broadcast, and also translated and printed in German.
+
+His work divides itself by a strange coincidence into three equal parts.
+Twenty-eight years were passed in youth and education; twenty-eight years
+in continuous public work; and twenty-eight years in retirement and rest.
+
+As one of that immortal ten, mentioned by a great English statesman, who
+gave order, dignity, stability and direction to the cause of American
+Independence, the name of John Jay is secure.
+
+
+
+
+WILLIAM H. SEWARD
+
+    I avow my adherence to the Union, with my friends, with my party,
+    with my State; or without either, as they may determine; in every
+    event of peace or war, with every consequence of honor or
+    dishonor, of life or death.
+    --Speech in the United States Senate, 1860
+
+[Illustration: WILLIAM H. SEWARD]
+
+
+When I was a freshman at the Little Red Schoolhouse, the last exercise in
+the afternoon was spelling. The larger pupils stood in a line that ran
+down one aisle and curled clear around the stove. Well do I remember one
+Winter when the biggest boy in the school stood at the tail-end of the
+class most of the time, while at the head of the line, or always very near
+it, was a freckled, check-aproned girl, who once at a spellin'-bee had
+defeated even the teacher. This girl was ten years older than myself, and
+I was then too small to spell with this first grade, but I watched the
+daily fight of wrestling with such big words as "un-in-ten-tion-al-ly" and
+"mis-un-der-stand-ing," and longed for a day when I, too, should take part
+and possibly stand next to this fine, smart girl, who often smiled at me
+approvingly. And I planned how I would hold her hand as we would stand
+there in line and mentally dare the master to come on with his dictionary.
+We two would be the smartest scholars of the school and always help each
+other in our "sums."
+
+Yet when time had pushed me into the line, she of the check apron was not
+there, and even if she had been I should not have dared to hold her hand.
+
+But I must not digress--the particular thing I wish to explain is that one
+day at recess the best scholar was in tears, and I went to her and asked
+what was the matter, and she told me that some of the big girls had openly
+declared that she--my fine, freckled girl, the check-aproned, the
+invincible--held her place at the head of the school only through
+favoritism.
+
+I burned with rage and resentment and proposed fight; then I burst out
+crying and together we mingled our tears.
+
+All this was long ago. Since then I have been in many climes, and met many
+men, and read history a bit--I hope not without profit. And this I have
+learned: that the person who stands at the head of his class (be he
+country lad or presidential candidate) is always the target for calumny
+and the unkindness of contemporaries who can neither appreciate nor
+understand.
+
+Not long ago I spent several days at Auburn, New York, so named by some
+pioneer who, when the Nineteenth Century was very young, journeyed
+thitherward with a copy of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village" in his pack.
+
+Auburn is a flourishing city of thirty thousand inhabitants. It has
+beautiful wide streets, lined with elms that in places form an archway.
+There are churches to spare and schools galore and handsome residences.
+Then there are electric cars and electric lights and dynamos, with which
+men electricute other men in the wink of an eye. I saw the
+"fin-de-siecle" guillotine and sat in the chair, and the jubilant patentee
+told me that it was the quickest scheme for extinguishing life ever
+invented--patented Anno Christi Eighteen Hundred Ninety-five. Verily we
+live in the age of the Push-Button! And as I sat there I heard a laugh
+that was a quaver, and the sound of a stout cane emphasizing a jest struck
+against the stone floor.
+
+"We didn't have such things when I was a boy!" came the tremulous voice.
+
+And then the newcomer explained to me that he was eighty-seven years old
+last May, and that he well remembered a time when a plain oaken gallows
+and a strong rope were good enough for Auburn--"provided Bill Seward
+didn't get the fellow free," added my new-found friend.
+
+Then the old man explained that he used to be a guard on the walls, and
+now he had a grandson who occupied the same office, and in answer to my
+question said he knew Seward as though he were a brother. "Bill, he was
+the luckiest man ever in Auburn--he married rich and tumbled over bags of
+money if he just walked on the street. He believed in neither God nor
+devil and had a pompous way o' makin' folks think he knew all about
+everything. To make folks think you know is just as well as to know, I
+s'pose!" and the old man laughed and struck his cane on the echoing floor
+of the cell.
+
+The sound and the place and the company gave me a creepy feeling, and I
+excused myself and made my way out past armed guards, through doorways
+where iron bars clicked and snapped, and steel bolts that held in a
+thousand men shot back to let me out, out into a freer air and a better
+atmosphere. And as I passed through the last overhanging arch where a
+one-armed guard wearing a G.A.R. badge turned a needlessly big key, there
+came unbeckoned across my inward sight a vision of a check-aproned girl in
+tears, sobbing with head on desk. And I said to myself: "Yes, yes! country
+girl or statesman, you shall drink the bitter potion that is the penalty
+of success--drink it to the very dregs. If you would escape moral and
+physical assassination, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing--court
+obscurity, for only in oblivion does safety lie."
+
+All mud sticks, but no mud is immortal, and that senile fling at the name
+of Seward is the last flickering, dying word of detraction that can be
+heard in the town that was his home for full half a century, or in the
+land he served so well. And yet it was in Auburn that mob spirit once
+found a voice; and when Seward was Lincoln's most helpful adviser, and his
+sons were at the front serving the country's cause, cries of "Burn his
+house! Burn his house!" came to the distracted ears of wife and daughter.
+
+But all that has gone now. In fact, denial that calumny was ever offered
+to the name of Seward springs quickly to the lips of Auburn men, as they
+point with pride to that beautiful old home where he lived, and where now
+his son resides; and then they lead you, with a reverence that nearly
+uncovers, to the stately bronze standing on the spot that was once his
+garden--now a park belonging to the people.
+
+Time marks wondrous changes; and the city where William Lloyd Garrison
+lived in "a rat-hole," as reported by Boston's Mayor, now honors
+Commonwealth Avenue with his statue. And so the sons of Seward's enemies
+have devoted willing dollars to preserving "that classic face and
+spindling form" in deathless bronze.
+
+And they do well, for Seward's name and fame are Auburn's glory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that all the worry of the world is
+quite useless. And on no subject affecting mortals is there so much worry
+as on that of (no, not love!) parents' ambitions for their children. When
+the dimpled darling toddles and lisps and chatters, the satisfaction he
+gives is unalloyed; for he is so small and insignificant, his demands so
+imperious, that the entire household dance attendance on the wee tyrant,
+and count it joy. But by and by the things at which we used to laugh
+become presumptuous, and that which was once funny is now perverse. And
+the more practical a man is, the larger his stock of Connecticut
+commonsense, the greater his disillusionment as his children grow to
+manhood. When he beholds dawdling inanity and dowdy vanity growing lush as
+jimson, where yesterday, with strained prophetic vision, he saw budding
+excellence and worth, his soul is wrung by a worry that knows no peace.
+The matter is so poignantly personal that he dare not share it with
+another in confessional, and so he hugs his grief to his heart, and tries
+to hide it even from himself.
+
+And thus does many a mother scrub the kitchen-floor on her knees, rather
+than face the irony of maternity and ask the assistance of the
+seventeen-year-old pert chit with bangs, who strums a mandolin in the
+little front parlor, gay with its paper flowers, six plush-covered chairs
+and a "company" sofa.
+
+The late Commodore Vanderbilt is reported to have said, "I have over a
+dozen sons, and not one is worth a damn." I fear me that every father with
+sons grown to manhood has at some time voiced the same sentiment,
+curtailed, possibly, only as to numbers, and softened by another
+expletive, which does not mitigate the anguish of his cry, as he sees the
+dreams he had for his baby boys fade away into a mist of agonizing tears.
+
+And is all this worry the penalty that Nature exacts for dreaming dreams
+that can not in their very nature come true? Jean Jacques Rousseau, who
+wrote so beautifully on child-study, avoided the risk of failure by
+putting his children into an asylum; several "Communities" since have set
+apart certain women to be mothers to all, and bring up and care for the
+young, and strangely, with no apparent loss to the children; and Bellamy
+prophesies a day when the worries of parenthood will all be transferred to
+a "committee."
+
+But the worry is futile and senseless, being born often of a blindness
+that will not wait. Man has not only "Seven Ages," but many more, and he
+must pass through this one before the next arrives. The Commodore
+certainly possessed what is called horse-sense, and if his conceptions of
+character had been clearer, he might have realized that in more ways than
+one the abilities of his sons were going to be greater than his own. His
+eldest son was, nevertheless, banished to a Long Island farm on a pension,
+"because he could not be trusted to do business." The same son once
+modestly asked the Commodore if he would allow him to have the compost
+that had been for a year accumulating outside the Fifth Avenue barns.
+"Just one load, and no more," said pater. William thereupon took twenty
+teams and as many men, and transferred the entire pile to a barge moored
+in the river. It was a barge-load. And when pater saw what had been done,
+he said, "The boy is not so big a fool as I thought." The boy was
+forty-five ere death put him in possession of the gold that the father no
+longer had use for, there being no pockets in a shroud, and he then showed
+that as a financier he could have given his father points, for in a few
+years he doubled the millions and drove horses faster without a break than
+his father had ever ridden.
+
+Seward's father was a doctor, justice of the peace, merchant, and the
+general first citizen of the village of Florida, Orange County, New York.
+And he had no more confidence in his boy William than Vanderbilt had in
+his. He educated him only because the lad was not strong enough to work,
+and it seems to have been the firm belief that the boy would come to no
+good end. In order to discipline him, the father put the youngster in
+college on such a scanty allowance that the lad was obliged to run away
+and go to teaching school in order to be free from financial humiliation.
+Here was the best possible proof that the young man had the germs of
+excellence in him; but the father took it as a proof of depravity, and
+sent warning letters to the young school-teacher's friends threatening
+them "not to harbor the scapegrace."
+
+The years went by and the parental distrust slackened very little. The boy
+was slim and slender and his hair was tow-colored and his head too big for
+his body. He had gotten a goodly smattering of education some way and was
+intent on being a lawyer. He seemed to know that if he was to succeed he
+must get well away from the parent nest, and out of the reach of daily
+advice.
+
+His desire was to go "Out West," and the particular objective point was
+Auburn, New York.
+
+The father gave him fifty dollars as a starter, with the final word, "I
+expect you'll be back all too soon."
+
+And so young Seward started away, with high hopes and a firm determination
+that he would agreeably disappoint his parents by not going back.
+
+He reached Albany by steamboat, and embarked on a sumptuous canal packet
+that bore a waving banner on which were the words woven in gold, "Westward
+Ho!"
+
+And he has slyly told us how, as he stepped aboard that "inland palace,"
+he bethought him of having written a thesis, three years before, proving
+that De Witt Clinton's chimera of joining the Hudson and Lake Erie was an
+idea both fictile and fibrous. But the inland palace carried him safely
+and surely. He reached Auburn, and instead of writing home for more money,
+returned that which he had borrowed. The father, who was a pretty good
+man in every way, quite beyond the average in intellect, lived to see his
+son in the United States Senate.
+
+And the moral for parents is: Don't worry about your children. You were
+young once, even if you have forgotten the fact. Boys will be boys and
+girls will be girls--but not forever. Have patience, and remember that
+this present brood is not the first generation that has been brought
+forth. There have been others, and each has been very much like the one
+that passed before. The sentiment of "Pippa Passes" holds: "God's in His
+Heaven, all's right with the world."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Eighteen Hundred Thirty-four, Seward was the Whig candidate for
+Governor of New York. He was defeated by W.L. Marcy. Four years later he
+was again a candidate against Marcy and defeated him by ten thousand
+majority.
+
+Seward was then thirty-six years of age, and was counted one of the very
+first among the lawyers of the State, and in accepting the office of
+Governor he made decided financial sacrifices.
+
+Seward was a man of positive ideas, and, although not arbitrary in manner,
+yet had a silken strength of will that made great rents in the mesh of
+other men's desires. Before a court, his quiet but firm persistence along
+a certain line often dictated the verdict. The faculty of grasping a point
+firmly and securely was his in a marked measure. And any man who can
+quietly override the wishes and ambitions of other men is first well
+feared, and then thoroughly hated.
+
+One of Seward's first efforts on becoming Governor was to insure a
+common-school education among the children of every class, and especially
+among the foreign population of large cities. To this end he advocated a
+distribution of public funds among all schools established with that
+object; and if he were alive today it is quite needless to say he would
+not belong to the A.P.A. nor to any other secret society. He knew too much
+of all religions to have complete faith in any, yet his appreciation of
+the fact that the Catholics minister to the needs of a class that no
+other denomination reaches or can control was outspoken and plain. This,
+with his connection with the Anti-Masonic Party, brought upon his name a
+stigma that was at last to defeat him for the Presidency. Seward's clear
+insight into practical things, backed by the quiet working energy of his
+nature, brought about many changes, and the changes he effected and the
+reforms he inaugurated must ever rank his name high among statesmen.
+
+By his influence the law's delay in the courts of chancery was curtailed,
+and this prepared the way for radical changes in the Constitution. He
+inaugurated the geological survey that led to making "Potsdam outcrop"
+classic, and "Medina sandstone" a product that is so known wherever a man
+goes forth in the fields of earth carrying a geologist's hammer.
+
+Largely through his efforts, a safe and general banking system was brought
+about; and the establishment of a lunatic asylum was one of the best items
+to his credit during that first term as Governor. But there was one
+philological change that proved too great even for his generalship. The
+word "lunacy," as we know, comes from "luna," the belief in the good old
+days being that the moon exercised a profound influence on the wits of
+sundry people. I'm told that the idea still holds good in certain
+quarters, and that if the wind is east and the moon shows a horn on which
+you can hang a flatiron, certain persons are looked upon askance and the
+children cautioned to avoid them.
+
+Seward said that insane people were simply those who were mentally ill,
+and that "Hospital" was the proper term. But the classicists retorted,
+"Nay, nay, William Henry, you have had your way in many things and here we
+will now have ours." It has taken us full a century officially to make the
+change, and the plain folks from the hills still refuse to ratify it, and
+will for many a lustrum.
+
+It was during Seward's administration that the "debtors' prison" was done
+away with, and it was, too, through his earnest recommendation that the
+last trace of law for slaveholding was wiped from the statute-books of the
+State of New York.
+
+The question of slavery was taken up most exhaustively in what was known
+as the "Virginia Controversy." This interesting correspondence can be seen
+in a stout volume in most public libraries. It is a series of letters that
+passed between Governor Seward of New York and the Governor of Virginia,
+as to the requisition of two persons in New York charged by the Governor
+of Virginia with abducting slaves. Seward made the patent point, and
+backed it up with a forest of reasons in politest English, that the
+accused persons being charged with abducting slaves, and there being no
+such thing as slaves known in New York, no person in New York could be
+apprehended for stealing slaves--for slaves were things that had no
+existence.
+
+Then did the Governor of Virginia admit that slaves could not be abducted
+in New York; but he proceeded to explain in lusty tomes that slavery
+legally existed in Virginia, and that if slaves were abducted in Virginia,
+the criminal nature of the act could not be shaken off because the accused
+changed his geographical base. Seward was a prince of logicians: the
+subtleties of reasoning and the smoke of rhetoric were to his fancy, and
+although there is not a visible smile in the whole "Virginia Controversy,"
+I can not but think that his sleeves were puffed with laughter as he
+searched the universe for reasons to satisfy the haughty First Families of
+Virginia. And all the while, please note that he held the alleged
+abductors safe and secure 'gainst harm's way.
+
+In this correspondence he placed himself on record as an Abolitionist of
+the Abolitionists; and the name of Seward became listed then and there for
+vengeance--or immortality. The subject had been forced upon him, and he
+then expressed the sentiment that he continued to voice until Eighteen
+Hundred Sixty-five, that America could not exist half-free and half-slave.
+It must be a land of slaveholders and slaves, or a land of free-men--he
+was fully and irrevocably committed to the cause.
+
+In Eighteen Hundred Forty, he was re-elected Governor. The second
+administration was marked, as was the first, by a vigorous policy of
+pushing forward public improvements.
+
+At the close of his second term Seward found his personal affairs in
+rather an unsettled condition, the expenses of official position having
+exceeded his income. He had had a goodly taste of the ingratitude of
+republics, and philosopher though he was, he was yet too young to know
+that his experience in well-doing was not unique, a fact he came to
+comprehend full well, in later years. And so he did that very human
+thing--declared his intention of retiring permanently from public life.
+
+Once back at Auburn, clients flocked to him, and he took his pick of
+business. And yet we find that public affairs were in his mind. Vexed
+questions of State policy were brought to him to decide, and journeys were
+made to Ohio and Michigan in the interests of men charged with
+slave-stealing. There was little money in such practise and small honors,
+but his heart was in the work.
+
+In Eighteen Hundred Forty-four, Seward entered with much zest into the
+canvass in behalf of Henry Clay for President, as he thought Clay's
+election would surely lead the way to general emancipation.
+
+In Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight, he supported General Taylor with equal
+energy. When Taylor was elected, there proved to be a great deal of
+opposition to him among the members from the South, in both the Senate and
+the House of Representatives. The administration felt the need of being
+backed by strong men in the Senate--men who could think on their feet, and
+carry a point when necessary against the opposition that sought to
+confuse and embarrass the friends of the administration with tireless
+windmill elocution.
+
+From Washington came the urgent request that Seward should be sent to the
+United States Senate. In Eighteen Hundred Forty-nine, he was chosen
+senator and from the first became the trusted leader of the administration
+party.
+
+The year after Seward's election to the Senate, President Taylor died and
+Vice-President Fillmore (who had the happiness to live in the village of
+East Aurora, New York) succeeded to the office, but Seward still remained
+leader of the Anti-Slavery Party.
+
+Seward's second term as United States Senator closed in Eighteen Hundred
+Sixty-one. In Eighteen Hundred Fifty-five, when his first term expired,
+there was a very strenuous effort made against his re-election. His strong
+and continued anti-slavery position had caused him to be thoroughly hated
+both North and South. He was spoken of as "a seditious agitator and a
+dangerous man."
+
+But in spite of opposition he was again sent back to Washington. Small,
+slim, gentle, modest and low-voiced, he was pointed out in Pennsylvania
+Avenue as "one who reads much and sees quite through the deeds of men."
+
+Men who are well traduced and hotly denounced are usually pretty good
+quality. No better encomium is needed than the detraction of some people.
+And men who are well hated also have friends who love them well. Thus
+does the law of compensation ever live.
+
+In Eighteen Hundred Fifty-six, there was a goodly little demonstration in
+favor of Seward for President, but the idea of running such a radical for
+the chief office of the people was quickly downed; and Seward himself knew
+the temper of the times too well to take the matter very seriously.
+
+But the years between Eighteen Hundred Fifty-six and Eighteen Hundred
+Sixty were years of agitation and earnest thought, and the idea that
+slavery was merely a local question was getting both depolarized and
+dehorned. The non-slaveholding North was rubbing its sleepy eyes, and
+asking, Who is this man Seward, anyway? The belief was growing that
+Seward, Garrison, Sumner and Phillips were something more than
+self-seeking agitators, and many declared them true patriots. In every
+town and city, in every Northern State, political clubs sprang into being
+and their battle-cry was "Seward!" It seemed to be a foregone conclusion
+that Seward would be the next President. When the convention met, the
+first ballot showed one hundred seventy-three votes for Seward and one
+hundred two for Lincoln, the rest, scattering. But Seward's friends had
+marshaled their entire strength--all the rest was opposition--while
+Lincoln was an unknown quantity.
+
+When the news went forth that Lincoln was nominated, Seward received the
+tidings in his library at Auburn; and the myth-makers have told us that
+he cried aloud, and that the carved lions on his gateposts shed salty
+tears. But Seward knew the opposition to his name, and was of too stern a
+moral fiber to fix his heart upon the result of a wire-pulling convention.
+The motto of his life had been: Be prepared for the unexpected. It may be
+that the lions on the gateposts shed tears, and it is possible there was
+weeping in the Seward household--but not by Seward.
+
+He entered upon a hearty and vigorous campaign in support of
+Lincoln--making a tour through the West and being greeted everywhere with
+an enthusiasm that rivaled that shown for the candidate.
+
+Seward said to his wife, when the news came that Lincoln was nominated:
+"He will be elected, but he will have to face the greatest difficulties
+and carry the greatest burdens that ever a man has been called to bear. He
+will need me, but look you, my dear, I will not serve under him. I must be
+at the head or nowhere."
+
+Lincoln knew Seward, and Seward didn't knew Lincoln. And so after the
+Convention Lincoln journeyed down East. It took two days to go from
+Chicago to Buffalo, and there were no sleeping-cars; and then Lincoln went
+on from Buffalo to Auburn--another day's journey. Lincoln wore his
+habitual duster and the tall hat, a little the worse for wear. He
+telegraphed Seward he was coming, and, of course, Seward met him at the
+station in Auburn. Lincoln got off the car alone, unattended, carrying his
+carpetbag, homemade, with the initials "A.L." embroidered on the side by
+the fair hands of Fannie Anna Rebecca Todd.
+
+Seward and his two sons--William and Frederick--met the coming President,
+and the boys laughed at the dusty, uncouth, sad and awkward individual,
+six feet five, who disembarked.
+
+The carriage was waiting, but Lincoln refused to ride, saying, "Boys,
+let's walk," and so they walked up the hill, in through past the stone
+gateposts where the lions stood that shed tears. Seward ran ahead into the
+house and said to his wife: "Look you, my dear, we have misjudged this
+man. Do not laugh. He is the greatest man in the world!"
+
+Three months later, Seward met Lincoln by appointment in Chicago; and from
+that time on, to the day of Lincoln's death, Seward served his chief with
+hands and feet, with eyes and ears, and with brain and soul. When Lincoln
+was elected, his wisdom was at once manifest in securing Seward as
+Secretary of State. The record of those troublous times and the masterly
+way in which Seward served his country are too vivid in the minds of men
+to need reviewing here, but the regard of Lincoln for this man, who so
+well complemented his own needs, is worthy of our remembrance. Seward was
+the only member of Lincoln's first Cabinet who stood by him straight
+through and entered the second.
+
+Early in April, Eighteen Hundred Sixty-five, Seward met with a serious
+accident by being thrown from his carriage and dashed against the
+curbstone. One arm and both jaws were fractured, and besides he was badly
+bruised in other parts of his body. On April Thirteenth, Lincoln returned
+from his trip to Richmond, where he had had an interview with Grant. That
+evening he walked over from the White House to Seward's residence. The
+stricken man was totally unable to converse, but Lincoln, sitting on the
+edge of the bed and holding the old man's thin hands, told in solemn,
+serious monotone of the ending of the war; of what he had seen and heard;
+of the plans he had made for sending soldiers home and providing for an
+army whipped and vanquished, and of what was best to do to bind up a
+nation's wounds.
+
+Five years before, these men had stood before the world as rivals. Then
+they joined hands as friends, and during the four years of strife and
+blood had met each day and advised and counseled concerning every great
+detail. Their opinions often differed widely, but there was always frank
+expression and, in the main, their fears and doubts and hopes had all been
+one.
+
+But now at last the smoke had cleared away, and they had won. The victory
+had been too dearly bought for proud boast or vain exultation, but victory
+still it was.
+
+And as the strong and homely Lincoln told the tale the stricken man could
+answer back only by pressure of a hand.
+
+At last the presence of the nurse told Lincoln it was time to go; in grave
+jest he half-apologized for his long stay, and told of a man in Sangamon
+County who used to say there is no medicine like good news. And rumor has
+it that he then stooped and kissed the sick man's cheek. And then he went
+his way.
+
+The next night at the same hour a man entered the Seward home, saying that
+he had been sent with messages by the doctor. Being refused admittance to
+the sick-chamber, he drew a pistol and endeavored to shoot Seward's son
+who guarded the door; but being foiled in this he crushed the young man's
+skull with the heavy weapon, and springing over his body dashed at the
+emaciated figure of Seward with uplifted dagger. A dozen times he struck
+at the face and throat and breast of the almost dying man, and then
+thinking he had done his work made rapidly away.
+
+At the same time, linked by Fate in a sort of poetic justice, with the
+thought that if one deserved death so did the other, Hate had with surer
+aim sent an assassin's bullet home--and Lincoln died.
+
+Weeks passed and the strong vitality that had served Seward in such good
+stead did not forsake him. Men of his stamp are hard to kill.
+
+On a beautiful May-day, Seward, so reduced that a woman carried him, was
+taken out on the veranda of his house and watched that solid mass of
+glittering steel and faded blue that moved through Pennsylvania Avenue in
+triumphal march. Sherman with head uncovered rode down to Seward's home,
+saluted, and then back to join his goodly company, and many others of
+lesser note did the same.
+
+Health and strength came slowly back, and happy was the day when he was
+carried to the office of Secretary of State and, propped in his chair,
+again began his work. Another President had come, but meet it was that the
+Secretary of State should still hold his place.
+
+Seward lived full eleven years after that, seemingly dragging with
+unquenched spirit that slashed and broken form. But the glint did not fade
+from his eye, nor did the proud head lose its poise.
+
+He died in his office among his books and papers, sane and sensible up to
+the very moment when his spirit took its flight.
+
+
+
+
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+    The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here,
+    but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the
+    living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which
+    they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is
+    rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
+    before us, that from these honored dead we take increased
+    devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure
+    of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
+    not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a
+    new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the
+    people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
+    --Speech at Gettysburg
+
+[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN]
+
+
+No, dearie, I do not think my childhood differed much from that of other
+good healthy country youngsters. I've heard folks say that childhood has
+its sorrows and all that, but the sorrows of country children do not last
+long. The young rustic goes out and tells his troubles to the birds and
+flowers, and the flowers nod in recognition, and the robin that sings from
+the top of a tall poplar-tree when the sun goes down says plainly it has
+sorrows of its own--and understands.
+
+I feel a pity for all those folks who were born in a big city, and thus
+got cheated out of their childhood. Zealous ash-box inspectors in gilt
+braid, prying policemen with clubs, and signs reading, "Keep Off the
+Grass," are woeful things to greet the gaze of little souls fresh from
+God.
+
+Last Summer six "Fresh Airs" were sent out to my farm, from the Eighth
+Ward. Half an hour after their arrival, one of them, a little girl five
+years old, who had constituted herself mother of the party, came rushing
+into the house exclaiming, "Say, Mister, Jimmy Driscoll he's walkin' on de
+grass!"
+
+I well remember the first Keep-Off-the-Grass sign I ever saw. It was in a
+printed book; it wasn't exactly a sign, only a picture of a sign, and the
+single excuse I could think of for such a notice was that the field was
+full of bumblebee-nests, and the owner, being a good man and kind, did not
+want barefoot boys to add bee-stings to stone-bruises. And I never now see
+one of those signs but that I glance at my feet to make sure that I have
+shoes on.
+
+Given the liberty of the country, the child is very near to Nature's
+heart; he is brother to the tree and calls all the dumb, growing things by
+name. He is sublimely superstitious. His imagination, as yet untouched by
+disillusion, makes good all that earth lacks, and habited in a healthy
+body the soul sings and soars.
+
+In childhood, magic and mystery lie close around us. The world in which we
+live is a panorama of constantly unfolding delights, our faith in the
+Unknown is limitless, and the words of Job, uttered in mankind's early
+morning, fit our wondering mood: "He stretcheth out the north over empty
+space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing."
+
+I am old, dearie, very old. In my childhood much of the State of Illinois
+was a prairie, where wild grass waved and bowed before the breeze, like
+the tide of a summer sea. I remember when "relatives" rode miles and miles
+in springless farm-wagons to visit cousins, taking the whole family and
+staying two nights and a day; when books were things to be read; when the
+beaver and the buffalo were not extinct; when wild pigeons came in clouds
+that shadowed the sun; when steamboats ran on the Sangamon; when Bishop
+Simpson preached; when Hell was a place, not a theory, and Heaven a
+locality whose fortunate inhabitants had no work to do; when Chicago
+newspapers were ten cents each; when cotton cloth was fifty cents a yard,
+and my shirt was made from a flour-sack, with the legend, "Extra XXX,"
+across my proud bosom, and just below the words in flaming red, "Warranted
+Fifty Pounds!"
+
+The mornings usually opened with smothered protests against getting up,
+for country folks then were extremists in the matter of "early to bed,
+early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." We hadn't much
+wealth, nor were we very wise, but we had health to burn. But aside from
+the unpleasantness of early morning, the day was full of possibilities of
+curious things to be found in the barn and under spreading
+gooseberry-bushes, or if it rained, the garret was an Alsatia unexplored.
+
+The evolution of the individual mirrors the evolution of the race. In the
+morning of the world man was innocent and free; but when
+self-consciousness crept in and he possessed himself of that disturbing
+motto, "Know Thyself," he took a fall.
+
+Yet knowledge usually comes to us with a shock, just as the mixture
+crystallizes when the chemist gives the jar a tap. We grow by throes.
+
+I well remember the day when I was put out of my Eden.
+
+My father and mother had gone away in the one-horse wagon, taking the baby
+with them, leaving me in care of my elder sister. It was a stormy day and
+the air was full of fog and mist. It did not rain very much, only in
+gusts, but great leaden clouds chased each other angrily across the sky.
+It was very quiet there in the little house on the prairie, except when
+the wind came and shook the windows and rattled at the doors. The morning
+seemed to drag and wouldn't pass, just out of contrariness; and I wanted
+it to go fast because in the afternoon my sister was to take me somewhere,
+but where I did not know, but that we should go somewhere was promised
+again and again.
+
+As the day wore on we went up into the little garret and strained our eyes
+across the stretching prairie to see if some one was coming. There had
+been much rain, for on the prairie there was always too much rain or else
+too little. It was either drought or flood. Dark swarms of wild ducks were
+in all the ponds; V-shaped flocks of geese and brants screamed overhead,
+and down in the slough cranes danced a solemn minuet.
+
+Again and again we looked for the coming something, and I began to cry,
+fearing we had been left there, forgotten of Fate.
+
+At last we went out by the barn and, with much boosting, I climbed to the
+top of the haystack and my sister followed. And still we watched.
+
+"There they come!" exclaimed my sister.
+
+"There they come!" I echoed, and clapped two red, chapped hands for joy.
+
+Away across the prairie, miles and miles away, was a winding string of
+wagons, a dozen perhaps, one right behind another. We watched until we
+could make out our own white horse, Bob, and then we slid down the hickory
+pole that leaned against the stack, and made our way across the spongy sod
+to the burying-ground that stood on a knoll half a mile away.
+
+We got there before the procession, and saw a great hole, with square
+corners, dug in the ground. It was half-full of water, and a man in bare
+feet, with trousers rolled to his knees, was working industriously to bail
+it out.
+
+The wagons drove up and stopped. And out of one of them four men lifted a
+long box and set it down beside the hole where the man still bailed and
+dipped. The box was opened and in it was Si Johnson. Si lay very still,
+and his face was very blue, and his clothes were very black, save for his
+shirt, which was very white, and his hands were folded across his breast,
+just so, and held awkwardly in the stiff fingers was a little New
+Testament. We all looked at the blue face, and the women cried softly. The
+men took off their hats while the preacher prayed, and then we sang,
+"There'll be no more parting there."
+
+The lid of the box was nailed down, lines were taken from the harness of
+one of the teams standing by and were placed around the long box, and it
+was lowered with a splash into the hole. Then several men seized spades
+and the clods fell with clatter and echo. The men shoveled very hard,
+filling up the hole, and when it was full and heaped up, they patted it
+all over with the backs of their spades.
+
+Everybody remained until this was done, and then we got into the wagons
+and drove away.
+
+Nearly a dozen of the folks came over to our house for dinner, including
+the preacher, and they all talked of the man who was dead and how he came
+to die.
+
+Only two days before, this man, Si Johnson, stood in the doorway of his
+house and looked out at the falling rain. It had rained for three days, so
+that they could not plow, and Si was angry. Besides this, his two brothers
+had enlisted and gone away to the War and left him all the work to do. He
+did not go to War because he was a "Copperhead"; and as he stood there in
+the doorway looking at the rain, he took a chew of tobacco, and then he
+swore a terrible oath.
+
+And ere the swear-words had escaped from his lips, there came a blinding
+flash of lightning, and the man fell all in a heap like a sack of oats.
+
+And he was dead.
+
+Whether he died because he was a Copperhead, or because he took a chew of
+tobacco, or because he swore, I could not exactly understand. I waited for
+a convenient lull in the conversation and asked the preacher why the man
+died, and he patted me on the head and told me it was "the vengeance of
+God," and that he hoped I would grow up and be a good man and never chew
+tobacco nor swear.
+
+The preacher is alive now. He is an old, old man with long, white
+whiskers, and I never see him but that I am tempted to ask for the exact
+truth as to why Si Johnson was struck by lightning.
+
+Yet I suppose it was because he was a Copperhead: all Copperheads chewed
+tobacco and swore, and that his fate was merited no one but the living
+Copperheads in that community doubted.
+
+That was an eventful day to me. Like men whose hair turns from black to
+gray in a night, I had left babyhood behind at a bound, and the problems
+of the world were upon me, clamoring for solution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was war in the land. When it began I did not know, but that it was
+something terrible I could guess. I thought of it all the rest of the day
+and dreamed of it at night. Many men had gone away; and every day men in
+blue straggled by, all going south, forever south.
+
+And all the men straggling along that road stopped to get a drink at our
+well, drawing the water with the sweep, and drinking out of the bucket,
+and squirting a mouthful of water over each other. They looked at my
+father's creaking doctor's sign, and sang, "Old Mother Hubbard, she went
+to the cupboard."
+
+They all sang that. They were very jolly, just as though they were going
+to a picnic. Some of them came back that way a few years later and they
+were not so jolly. And some there were who never came back at all.
+
+Freight-trains passed southward, blue with men in the cars, and on top of
+the cars, and in the caboose, and on the cowcatcher, always going south
+and never north. For "Down South" were many Rebels, and all along the way
+south were Copperheads, and they all wanted to come north and kill us, so
+soldiers had to go down there and fight them.
+
+And I marveled much that if God hated Copperheads, as our preacher said He
+did, why He didn't send lightning and kill them, just in a second, as He
+had Si Johnson. And then all that would have to be done would be to send
+for a doctor to see that they were surely dead, and a preacher to pray,
+and the neighbors would dress them in their best Sunday suits of black,
+folding their hands very carefully across their breasts, then we would
+bury them deep, filling in the dirt and heaping it up, patting it all down
+very carefully with the back of a spade, and then go away and leave them
+until Judgment-Day.
+
+Copperheads were simply men who hated Lincoln. The name came from
+copperhead-snakes, which are worse than rattlers, for rattlers rattle and
+give warning. A rattler is an open enemy, but you never know that a
+copperhead is around until he strikes. He lies low in the swale and
+watches his chance. "He is the worstest snake that am."
+
+It was Abe Lincoln of Springfield who was fighting the Rebels that were
+trying to wreck the country and spread red ruin. The Copperheads were
+wicked folks at the North who sided with the Rebels. Society was divided
+into two classes: those who favored Abe Lincoln, and those who told lies
+about him. All the people I knew and loved, loved Abe Lincoln.
+
+I was born at Bloomington, Illinois, through no choosing of my own, and
+Bloomington is further famous as being the birthplace of the Republican
+party. When a year old I persuaded my parents to move seven miles north to
+the village of Hudson, that then had five houses, a church, a store and a
+blacksmith-shop. Many of the people I knew, knew Lincoln, for he used to
+come to Bloomington several times a year "on the circuit" to try cases,
+and at various times made speeches there. When he came he would tell
+stories at the Ashley House, and when he was gone these stories would be
+repeated by everybody. Some of these stories must have been peculiar, for
+I once heard my mother caution my father not to tell any more "Lincoln
+stories" at the dinner-table when we had company.
+
+And once Lincoln gave a lecture at the Presbyterian Church on the
+"Progress of Man," when no one was there but the preacher, my Aunt Hannah
+and the sexton.
+
+My Uncle Elihu and Aunt Hannah knew Abe Lincoln well. So did Jesse Fell,
+James C. Conklin, Judge Davis, General Orme, Leonard Swett, Dick Yates and
+lots of others I knew. They never called him "Mister Lincoln," but it was
+always Abe, or Old Abe, or just plain Abe Lincoln. In that newly settled
+country you always called folks by their first names, especially when you
+liked them. And when they spoke the name, "Abe Lincoln," there was
+something in the voice that told of confidence, respect and affection.
+
+Once when I was at my Aunt Hannah's, Judge Davis was there and I sat on
+his lap. Years afterward I boasted to Robert Ingersoll that when I wore
+trousers buttoned to a calico waist I used to sit on the lap of David
+Davis, and Colonel Ingersoll laughed and said, "Now I know you are a liar,
+for David Davis didn't have any lap." The only thing about the interview
+I remember was that the Judge really didn't have any lap to speak of.
+
+After Judge Davis had gone, Aunt Hannah said, "You must always remember
+Judge Davis, for he is the man who made Abe Lincoln!"
+
+And when I said, "Why, I thought God made Lincoln," they all laughed.
+
+After a little pause my inquiring mind caused me to ask, "Who made Judge
+Davis?" And Uncle Elihu answered, "Abe Lincoln."
+
+Then they all laughed more than ever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Many volunteers were being called for. Neighbors and neighbors' boys were
+enlisting--going to the support of Abe Lincoln.
+
+Then one day my father went away, too. Many of the neighbors went with us
+to the station when he took the four-o'clock train, and we all cried,
+except mother--she didn't cry until she got home. My father had gone to
+Springfield to enlist as a surgeon. In three days he came back and told us
+he had enlisted, and was to be assigned his regiment in a week, and go at
+once to the front. He was always a kind man, but during that week when he
+was waiting to be told where to go, he was very gentle and more kind than
+ever. He told me I must be the man of the house while he was away, and
+take care of my mother and sisters, and not forget to feed the chickens
+every morning; and I promised.
+
+At the end of the week a big envelope came from Springfield marked in the
+corner, "Official."
+
+My mother would not open it, and so it lay on the table until the doctor's
+return. We all looked at it curiously, and my eldest sister gazed on it
+long with lack-luster eye and then rushed from the room with her check
+apron over her head.
+
+When my father rode up on horseback I ran to tell him that the envelope
+had come.
+
+We all stood breathless and watched him break the seals. He took out the
+letter and read it silently and passed it to my mother.
+
+I have the letter before me now, and it says: "The Department is still of
+the opinion that it does not care to accept men having varicose veins,
+which make the wearing of bandages necessary. Your name, however, has been
+filed and should we be able to use your services, will advise."
+
+Then we were all very glad about the varicose veins, and I am afraid I
+went out and boasted to my play-fellows about our family possessions.
+
+It was not so very long after, that there was a Big Meeting in the
+"timber." People came from all over the county to attend it. The chief
+speaker was a man by the name of Ingersoll, a colonel in the army, who was
+back home for just a day or two on furlough. Folks said he was the
+greatest orator in Peoria County.
+
+Early in the morning the wagons began to go by our house, and all along
+the four roads that led to the grove we could see great clouds of dust
+that stretched away for miles and miles and told that the people were
+gathering by the thousands. They came in wagons and on horseback, carrying
+babies; two boys on one horse were common sights; and there were various
+four-horse teams with wagons filled with girls all dressed in white,
+carrying flags.
+
+All our folks went. My mother fastened the back door of our house with a
+bolt on the inside, and then locked the front door with a key, and hid the
+key under the doormat.
+
+At the grove there was much hand-shaking and visiting and asking after the
+folks and for the news. Several soldiers were present, among them a man
+who lived near us, called "Little Ramsey." Three one-armed men were there,
+and a man named Al Sweetser, who had only one leg. These men wore blue,
+and were seated on the big platform that was all draped with flags. Plank
+seats were arranged, and every plank held its quota. Just outside the
+seats hundred of men stood, and beyond these were wagons filled with
+people. Every tree in the woods seemed to have a horse tied to it, and the
+trees over the speakers' platform were black with men and boys. I never
+knew before that there were so many horses and people in the world.
+
+When the speaking began, the people cheered, and then they became very
+quiet, and only the occasional squealing and stamping of the horses could
+be heard. Our preacher spoke first, and then the lawyer from Bloomington,
+and then came the great man from Peoria. The people cheered more than ever
+when he stood up, and kept hurrahing so long I thought they were not going
+to let him speak at all.
+
+At last they quieted down, and the speaker began. His first sentence
+contained a reference to Abe Lincoln. The people applauded, and some one
+proposed three cheers for "Honest Old Abe." Everybody stood up and
+cheered, and I, perched on my father's shoulder, cheered too. And beneath
+the legend, "Warranted Fifty Pounds," my heart beat proudly. Silence came
+at last--a silence filled only by the neighing and stamping of horses and
+the rapping of a woodpecker in a tall tree. Every ear was strained to
+catch the orator's first words.
+
+The speaker was just about to begin. He raised one hand, but ere his lips
+moved, a hoarse, guttural shout echoed through the woods, "Hurrah'h'h for
+Jeff Davis!!!"
+
+"Kill that man!" rang a sharp, clear voice in instant answer.
+
+A rumble like an awful groan came from the vast crowd. My father was
+standing on a seat, and I had climbed to his shoulder. The crowd surged
+like a monster animal toward a tall man standing alone in a wagon. He
+swung a blacksnake whip around him, and the lash fell savagely on two gray
+horses. At a lunge, the horses, the wagon and the tall man had cleared the
+crowd, knocking down several people in their flight. One man clung to the
+tailboard. The whip wound with a hiss and a crack across his face, and he
+fell stunned in the roadway.
+
+A clear space of full three hundred feet now separated the man in the
+wagon from the great throng, which with ten thousand hands seemed ready to
+tear him limb from limb. Revolver shots rang out, women screamed, and
+trampled children cried for help. Above it all was the roar of the mob.
+The orator, in vain pantomime, implored order.
+
+I saw Little Ramsey drop off the limb of a tree astride of a horse that
+was tied beneath, then lean over, and with one stroke of a knife sever the
+halter.
+
+At the same time fifty other men seemed to have done the same thing, for
+flying horses shot out from different parts of the woods, all on the
+instant. The man in the wagon was half a mile away now, still standing
+erect. The gray horses were running low, with noses and tails
+outstretched.
+
+The spread-out riders closed in a mass and followed at terrific speed. The
+crowd behind seemed to grow silent. We heard the patter-patter of barefoot
+horses ascending the long, low hill. One rider on a sorrel horse fell
+behind. He drew his horse to one side, and sitting over with one foot in
+the long stirrup, plied the sorrel across the flank with a big, white-felt
+hat. The horse responded, and crept around to the front of the flying
+mass.
+
+The wagon had disappeared over a gentle rise of ground, and then we lost
+the horsemen, too. Still we watched, and two miles across the prairie we
+got a glimpse of running horses in a cloud of dust, and into another
+valley they settled, and then we lost them for good.
+
+The speaking began again and went on amid applause and tears, with
+laughter set between.
+
+I do not remember what was said, but after the speaking, as we made our
+way homeward, we met Little Ramsey and the young man who rode the sorrel
+horse.
+
+They told us that they had caught the Copperhead after a ten-mile chase,
+and that he was badly hurt, for the wagon had upset and the fellow was
+beneath it. Ramsey asked my father to go at once to see what could be done
+for him.
+
+The man, however, was quite dead when my father reached him. There was a
+purple mark around his neck: and the opinion seemed to be that he had got
+tangled up in the harness or something.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The war-time months went dragging by, and the burden of gloom in the air
+seemed to lift; for when the Chicago "Tribune" was read each evening in
+the post-office it told of victories on land and sea. Yet it was a joy not
+untinged with black; for in the church across from our house, funerals had
+been held for farmer boys who had died in prison-pens and been buried in
+Georgia trenches.
+
+One youth there was, I remember, who had stopped to get a drink at our
+pump, and squirted a mouthful of water over me because I was handy.
+
+One night the postmaster was reading aloud the names of the killed at
+Gettysburg, and he ran right on to the name of this boy. The boy's father
+sat there on a nail-keg, chewing a straw. The postmaster tried to shuffle
+over the name and on to the next.
+
+"Hi! Wha--what's that you said?"
+
+"Killed in honorable battle--Snyder, Hiram," said the postmaster with a
+forced calmness.
+
+The boy's father stood up with a jerk. Then he sat down. Then he stood up
+again and staggered his way to the door and fumbled for the latch like a
+blind man.
+
+"God help him! he's gone to tell the old woman," said the postmaster as he
+blew his nose on a red handkerchief.
+
+The preacher preached a funeral sermon for the boy, and on the little
+pyramid that marked the family lot in the burying-ground they carved the
+words: "Killed in honorable battle, Hiram Snyder, aged nineteen." Not
+long after, strange, yellow, bearded men in faded blue began to arrive.
+Great welcomes were given them; and at the regular Wednesday evening
+prayer-meeting thanksgivings were poured out for their safe return, with
+names of company and regiment duly mentioned for the Lord's better
+identification. Bees were held for some of these returned farmers, where
+twenty teams and fifty men, old and young, did a season's farm-work in a
+day, and split enough wood for a year. At such times the women would bring
+big baskets of provisions, and long tables would be set, and there were
+very jolly times, with cracking of many jokes that were veterans, and the
+day would end with pitching horseshoes, and at last with singing "Auld
+Lang Syne."
+
+It was at one such gathering that a ghost appeared--a lank, saffron ghost,
+ragged as a scarecrow--wearing a foolish smile and the cape of a
+cavalryman's overcoat with no coat beneath it. The apparition was a youth
+of about twenty, with a downy beard all over his face, and countenance
+well mellowed with coal-soot, as though he had ridden several days on top
+of a freight-car that was near the engine.
+
+This ghost was Hiram Snyder.
+
+All forgave him the shock of surprise he caused us--all except the
+minister who had preached his funeral sermon. Years after I heard this
+minister remark in a solemn, grieved tone: "Hiram Snyder is a man who can
+not be relied on."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the years pass, the miracle of the seasons means less to us. But what
+country boy can forget the turning of the leaves from green to gold, and
+the watchings and waitings for the first hard frost that ushers in the
+nutting season! And then the first fall of snow, with its promise of
+skates and sleds and tracks of rabbits, and mayhap bears, and strange
+animals that only come out at night, and that no human eye has ever seen!
+
+Beautiful are the seasons; and glad I am that I have not yet quite lost my
+love for each. But now they parade past with a curious swiftness! They
+look at me out of wistful eyes, and sometimes one calls to me as she goes
+by and asks, "Why have you done so little since I saw you last?" And I can
+only answer, "I was thinking of you."
+
+I do not need another incarnation to live my life over again. I can do
+that now, and the resurrection of the past, through memory, that sees
+through closed eyes, is just as satisfactory as the thing itself.
+
+Were we talking of the seasons? Very well, dearie, the seasons it shall
+be. They are all charming, but if I were to wed any it would be Spring.
+How well I remember the gentle perfume of her comings, and her warm,
+languid breath!
+
+There was a time when I would go out of the house some morning, and the
+snow would be melting, and Spring would kiss my cheek, and then I would be
+all aglow with joy and would burst into the house, and cry: "Spring is
+here! Spring is here!" For you know we always have to divide our joy with
+some one. One can bear grief, but it takes two to be glad.
+
+And then my mother would smile and say, "Yes, my son, but do not wake the
+baby!"
+
+Then I would go out and watch the snow turn to water, and run down the
+road in little rivulets to the creek, that would swell until it became a
+regular Mississippi, so that when we waded the horse across, the water
+would come to the saddlegirth.
+
+Then once, I remember, the bridge was washed away, and all the teams had
+to go around and through the water, and some used to get stuck in the mud
+on the other bank. It was great fun!
+
+The first "Spring beauties" bloomed very early in that year; violets came
+out on the south side of rotting logs, and cowslips blossomed in the
+slough as they never had done before. Over on the knoll, prairie-chickens
+strutted pompously and proudly drummed. The war was over! Lincoln had won,
+and the country was safe!
+
+The jubilee was infectious, and the neighbors who used to come and visit
+us would tell of the men and boys who would soon be back. The war was
+over!
+
+My father and mother talked of it across the table, and the men talked of
+it at the store, and earth, sky and water called to each other in glad
+relief, "The war is over!"
+
+But there came a morning when my father walked up from the
+railroad-station very fast, and looking very serious. He pushed right past
+me as I sat in the doorway. I followed him into the kitchen where my
+mother was washing dishes, and heard him say, "They have killed Lincoln!"
+and then he burst into tears. I had never before seen my father shed
+tears--in fact, I had never seen a man cry. There is something terrible in
+the grief of a man.
+
+Soon the church-bell across the road began to toll. It tolled all that
+day. Three men--I can give you their names--rang the bell all day long,
+tolling, slowly tolling, tolling until night came and the stars came out.
+I thought it a little curious that the stars should come out, for Lincoln
+was dead; but they did, for I saw them as I trotted by my father's side
+down to the post-office.
+
+There was a great crowd of men there. At the long line of peeled-hickory
+hitching-poles were dozens of saddle-horses. The farmers had come for
+miles to get details of the news.
+
+On the long counters that ran down each side of the store men were seated,
+swinging their feet, and listening intently to some one who was reading
+aloud from a newspaper. We worked our way past the men who were standing
+about, and with several of these my father shook hands solemnly.
+
+Leaning against the wall near the window was a big, red-faced man, whom I
+knew as a Copperhead. He had been drinking, evidently, for he was making
+boozy efforts to stand very straight. There were only heard a subdued buzz
+of whispers and the monotonous voice of the reader, as he stood there in
+the center, his newspaper in one hand and a lighted candle in the other.
+
+The red-faced man lurched two steps forward, and in a loud voice said,
+"L--L--Lincoln is dead--an' I'm damn glad of it!"
+
+Across the room I saw two men struggling with Little Ramsey. Why they
+should struggle with him I could not imagine, but ere I could think the
+matter out, I saw him shake himself loose from the strong hands that
+sought to hold him. He sprang upon the counter, and in one hand I saw he
+held a scale-weight. Just an instant he stood there, and then the weight
+shot straight at the red-faced man. The missile glanced on his shoulder
+and shot through the window. In another second the red-faced man plunged
+through the window, taking the entire sash with him.
+
+"You'll have to pay for that window!" called the alarmed postmaster out
+into the night.
+
+The store was quickly emptied, and on following outside no trace of the
+red man could be found. The earth had swallowed both the man and the
+five-pound scale-weight.
+
+After some minutes had passed in a vain search for the weight and the
+Copperhead, we went back into the store and the reading was continued.
+
+But the interruption had relieved the tension, and for the first time that
+day men in that post-office joked and laughed. It even lifted from my
+heart the gloom that threatened to smother me, and I went home and told
+the story to my mother and sisters, and they too smiled, so closely akin
+are tears and smiles.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The story of Lincoln's life had been ingrained into me long before I ever
+read a book. For the people who knew Lincoln, and the people who knew the
+people that Lincoln knew, were the people I knew. I visited at their
+houses and heard them tell what Lincoln had said when he sat at table
+where I then sat. I listened long to Lincoln stories, and "and that
+reminds me" was often on the lips of those I loved. All the tales told by
+the faithful Herndon and the needlessly loyal Nicolay and Hay were current
+coin, and the rehearsal of the Lincoln-Douglas debate was commonplace.
+
+When our own poverty was mentioned, we compared it with the poverty that
+Lincoln had endured, and felt rich. I slept in a garret where the winter's
+snow used to sift merrily through the slab shingles, but then I was
+covered with warm buffalo-robes, and a loving mother tucked me in and on
+my forehead imprinted a goodnight kiss. But Lincoln at the same age had no
+mother and lived in a hut that had neither windows, doors nor floor, and a
+pile of leaves and straw in the corner was his bed. Our house had two
+rooms, but one Winter the Lincoln home was only a shed enclosed on three
+sides.
+
+I knew of his being a clerk in a country store at the age of twenty, and
+that up to that time he had read but four books; of his running a
+flatboat, splitting rails, and poring at night over a dog-eared law-book;
+of his asking to sleep in the law-office of Joshua Speed, and of Speed's
+giving him permission to move in. And of his going away after his "worldly
+goods" and coming back in ten minutes carrying an old pair of saddlebags,
+which he threw into a corner saying, "Speed, I've moved!".
+
+I knew of his twenty years of country law-practise, when he was considered
+just about as good and no better than a dozen others on that circuit, and
+of his making a bare living during that time. Then I knew of his gradually
+awakening to the wrong of slavery, of the expansion of his mind, so that
+he began to incur the jealousy of rivals and the hatred of enemies, and of
+the prophetic feeling in that slow but sure moving mind that "a house
+divided against itself can not stand. I believe this Government can not
+endure permanently half-slave and half-free."
+
+I knew of the debates with Douglas and the national attention they
+attracted, and of Judge Davis' remark, "Lincoln has more commonsense than
+any other man in America"; and then, chiefly through Judge Davis'
+influence, of his being nominated for President at the Chicago Convention.
+I knew of his election, and the coming of the war, and the long, hard
+fight, when friends and foes beset, and none but he had the patience and
+the courage that could wait. And then I knew of his death, that death
+which then seemed a calamity--terrible in its awful blackness.
+
+But now the years have passed, and I comprehend somewhat of the paradox
+of things, and I know that this death was just what he might have prayed
+for. It was a fitting close for a life that had done a supreme and mighty
+work. His face foretold the end.
+
+Lincoln had no home ties. In that plain, frame house, without embellished
+yard or ornament, where I have been so often, there was no love that held
+him fast. In that house there was no library, but in the parlor, where six
+haircloth chairs and a slippery sofa to match stood guard, was a marble
+table on which were various giftbooks in blue and gilt. He only turned to
+that home when there was no other place to go. Politics, with its
+attendant travel and excitement, allowed him to forget the
+what-might-have-beens. Foolish bickering, silly pride, and stupid
+misunderstanding pushed him out upon the streets and he sought to lose
+himself among the people. And to the people at length he gave his time,
+his talents, his love, his life. Fate took from him his home that the
+country might call him savior. Dire tragedy was a fitting end; for only
+the souls who have suffered are well-loved.
+
+Jealousy, disparagement, calumny, have all made way, and North and South
+alike revere his name.
+
+The memory of his gentleness, his patience, his firm faith, and his great
+and loving heart are the priceless heritage of a united land. He had
+charity for all and malice toward none; he gave affection, and affection
+is his reward.
+
+Honor and love are his.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SO HERE ENDETH "LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF AMERICAN STATESMEN," BEING
+VOLUME THREE OF THE SERIES, AS WRITTEN BY ELBERT HUBBARD: EDITED AND
+ARRANGED BY FRED BANN; MCMXXII
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF THE
+GREAT, VOLUME 3 (OF 14)***
+
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great,
+Volume 3 (of 14), by Elbert Hubbard, Edited by Fred Bann</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14)</p>
+<p>Author: Elbert Hubbard</p>
+<p>Release Date: October 31, 2004  [eBook #13911]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF THE GREAT, VOLUME 3 (OF 14)***</p>
+<h3><br /><br />E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland<br />
+                and the Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+                at https://www.pgdp.net<br /><br /></h3>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><br /><br /><br /><a name="III_Page_iv"></a></p>
+
+<h3>Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3</h3>
+
+<h1>Little Journeys To The Homes Of American Statesmen</h1>
+
+<h2>Elbert Hubbard</h2>
+
+<h3>Memorial Edition</h3>
+
+<h3>1916</h3>
+
+
+<p><a name="III_Page_v"></a></p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<p> <a href="#THE_LITTLE_JOURNEYS_CAMP"><b>THE LITTLE JOURNEYS CAMP</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#GEORGE_WASHINGTON"><b>GEORGE WASHINGTON</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#BENJAMIN_FRANKLIN"><b>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#THOMAS_JEFFERSON"><b>THOMAS JEFFERSON</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#SAMUEL_ADAMS"><b>SAMUEL ADAMS</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#JOHN_HANCOCK"><b>JOHN HANCOCK</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#JOHN_QUINCY_ADAMS"><b>JOHN QUINCY ADAMS</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#ALEXANDER_HAMILTON"><b>ALEXANDER HAMILTON</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#DANIEL_WEBSTER"><b>DANIEL WEBSTER</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#HENRY_CLAY"><b>HENRY CLAY</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#JOHN_JAY"><b>JOHN JAY</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#WILLIAM_H_SEWARD"><b>WILLIAM H. SEWARD</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#ABRAHAM_LINCOLN"><b>ABRAHAM LINCOLN</b></a><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="III_Page_vii"></a></p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="THE_LITTLE_JOURNEYS_CAMP"></a></p><h2>THE LITTLE JOURNEYS CAMP</h2>
+
+<h3>BERT HUBBARD</h3>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>A little more patience, a little more charity for all, a
+little more devotion, a little more love; with less bowing
+down to the past, and a silent ignoring of pretended
+authority; a brave looking forward to the future with
+more faith in our fellows, and the race will be ripe for
+a great burst of light and life.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 20em;'>&mdash;<i>Elbert Hubbard</i></span>
+</p></div><p><a name="III_Page_viii"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-1.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-1_th.jpg" alt="THE LITTLE JOURNEYS CAMP" /></a></p><p class="ctr">THE LITTLE JOURNEYS CAMP</p>
+<p><a name="III_Page_ix"></a></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>It was not built with the idea of ever
+becoming a place in history: simply
+a boys' cabin in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>Fibe, Rich, Pie and Butch were the
+bunch that built it.</p>
+
+<p>Fibe was short for Fiber, and we
+gave him that name because his real
+name was Wood. Rich got his name
+from being a mudsock. Pie got his because he was a
+regular pieface. And they called me Butch for no reason
+at all except that perhaps my great-great-grandfather
+was a butcher.</p>
+
+<p>We were a fine gang of youngsters, all about thirteen
+years, wise in boys' deviltry. What we didn't know
+about killing cats, breaking window-panes in barns,
+stealing coal from freight-cars, and borrowing eggs
+from neighboring hencoops without consent of the
+hens, wasn't worth the knowing.</p>
+
+<p>There used to be another boy in the gang, Skinny. One
+day when we ran away to the swimming-hole after
+school, this other little fellow didn't come back with us.</p>
+
+<p>You see, there was the little-kids' swimmin'-hole and
+the big-kids' swimmin'-hole. The latter was over our
+heads. Well, Skinny swung out on the rope hanging
+from the cottonwood-tree on the bank of the big-kids'
+hole. Somehow he lost his head and fell in.<a name="III_Page_x"></a></p>
+
+<p>None of us could swim, and he was too far out to reach.
+There was nothing to help him with, so we just had to
+watch him struggle till he had gone down three times.
+And there where we last saw him a lot of bubbles came
+up. The inquiry before the Justice of Peace with our
+fathers, which followed, put fright in our bones, and the
+sight of the old creek was a nightmare for months to
+come. After that we decided to keep to the hills and
+woods. This necessitated a hut. But we had no lumber
+with which to build it.</p>
+
+<p>However, there were three houses going up in town&mdash;and
+surely they could spare a few boards. So after dark
+we got out old Juliet and the spring-wagon and made
+several visits to the new houses. The result was that in
+about a week we had enough lumber to frame the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Our site was about three miles from town, high up
+on the Adams Farm. After many evening trips with the
+old mare and much figuring we had the thing done, all
+but the windows, door, and shingles on the roof. Well,
+I knew where there was an old door and two window-sash
+taken off our chicken-house to let in the air during
+Summer. And one rainy night three bunches of shingles
+found their way from Perkins' lumber-yard to the foot
+of the hill on the Adams Farm.</p>
+
+<p>In another five days the place was finished. It was ten
+by sixteen, and had four bunks, two windows, a paneled
+front door, a back entrance and a porch&mdash;altogether a
+rather pretentious camp for a gang of young ruffians.<a name="III_Page_xi"></a></p>
+
+<p>But it was a labor of love, and we certainly had worked
+mighty hard. Our love was given particularly to the
+three house-builders and to Perkins, down in town.</p>
+
+<p>Of course we had to have a stove.</p>
+
+<p>This we got from Bowen's hardware-store for two dollars
+and forty cents. He wanted four dollars, and we
+argued for some time. The stove was a secondhand one
+and good only for scrap-iron anyway. Scrap was worth
+fifty cents a hundred, and this stove weighed only two
+hundred fifty, so we convinced the man our offer was
+big. At that we made him throw in a frying-pan.</p>
+
+<p>For dishes and cutlery, I believe each of our mothers'
+pantries contributed. Then a stock of grub was confiscated.
+The storeroom in the Phalansterie furnished
+Heinz beans, chutney, and a few others of the fifty-seven.
+John had run an ad in &quot;The Philistine&quot; for
+Heinz and taken good stuff in exchange.</p>
+
+<p>For four years after that, this old camp was kept stocked
+with eats all the time. We would hike out Friday after
+school and stay till Sunday night. At Christmas-time
+we would spend the week's vacation there.</p>
+
+<p>Many times had I tried to get my Father to go out and
+stay overnight. But he wouldn't go. One time, though,
+I did not come home when I had promised, so Father
+rode out on Garnett to find me. Instead of my coming
+back with him he just unsaddled and turned Garnett
+loose in the woods and stayed overnight.</p>
+
+<p>We gave him the big bunk with two red quilts, and he
+<a name="III_Page_xii"></a>stuck it out. Next morning we had fried apples, ham
+and coffee for breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>What there was about it I did not understand, but John
+was a very frequent visitor after that.</p>
+
+<p>You know we called Father, John, because he said that
+wasn't his name.</p>
+
+<p>He used to come up in the evening and would bring
+the Red One or Sammy the Artist or Saint Jerome the
+Sculptor. Once he brought Michael Monahan and John
+Sayles the Universalist preacher.</p>
+
+<p>Mike didn't like it.</p>
+
+<p>The field-mice running on the rafters overhead at night
+chilled his blood. He called them terrible beasts.</p>
+
+<p>From then on we youngsters were gradually deprived of
+our freedom at camp. These visitors were too numerous
+for us and we had to seek other fields of adventure.</p>
+
+<p>John got to going out to the camp to get away from
+visitors at the Shop. He found the place quiet and
+comforting. The woods gave him freedom to think and
+write. It so developed that he would spend about four
+days a month there, writing the &quot;Little Journey&quot; for
+the next month. How many of his masterpieces were
+written at the Camp I can not say, but for several years
+it was his Retreat and he used it constantly.</p>
+
+<p>He reminded us boys several times when we kicked,
+that he had a good claim on it&mdash;for didn't he furnish
+the door and the window-frames?</p>
+
+<p>I never suspected he would recognize them.</p><p><a name="III_Page_1"></a><a name="III_Page_2"></a><a name="III_Page_3"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="GEORGE_WASHINGTON"></a></p><h2>GEORGE WASHINGTON</h2>
+<p><a name="III_Page_4"></a></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>He left as fair a reputation as ever belonged to a
+human character.... Midst all the sorrowings
+that are mingled on this melancholy occasion I venture
+to assert that none could have felt his death with more
+regret than I, because no one had higher opinions of
+his worth.... There is this consolation, though,
+to be drawn, that while living no man could be more
+esteemed, and since dead none is more lamented.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Washington, on the Death of Tilghman</i></span>
+</p></div>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-2.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-2_th.jpg" alt="GEORGE WASHINGTON" /></a></p><p class="ctr">GEORGE WASHINGTON</p>
+<p><a name="III_Page_5"></a></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>Dean Stanley has said that all
+the gods of ancient mythology were
+once men, and he traces for us the
+evolution of a man into a hero, the
+hero into a demigod, and the demigod
+into a divinity. By a slow process,
+the natural man is divested
+of all our common faults and frailties;
+he is clothed with superhuman attributes and
+declared a being separate and apart, and is lost to us
+in the clouds.</p>
+
+<p>When Greenough carved that statue of Washington
+that sits facing the Capitol, he unwittingly showed how
+a man may be transformed into a Jove.</p>
+
+<p>But the world has reached a point when to be human
+is no longer a cause for apology; we recognize that the
+human, in degree, comprehends the divine.</p>
+
+<p>Jove inspires fear, but to Washington we pay the tribute
+of affection. Beings hopelessly separated from us are
+not ours: a god we can not love, a man we may. We
+know Washington as well as it is possible to know any
+man. We know him better, far better, than the people
+who lived in the very household with him. We have his
+diary showing &quot;how and where I spent my time&quot;; we
+have his journal, his account-books (and no man was
+ever a more painstaking accountant); we have hundreds
+<a name="III_Page_6"></a>of his letters, and his own copies and first drafts of
+hundreds of others, the originals of which have been
+lost or destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>From these, with contemporary
+history, we are able to make up a close estimate of the
+man; and we find him human&mdash;splendidly human. By
+his books of accounts we find that he was often imposed
+upon, that he loaned thousands of dollars to people
+who had no expectation of paying; and in his last will,
+written with his own hand, we find him canceling these
+debts, and making bequests to scores of relatives;
+giving freedom to his slaves, and acknowledging his
+obligation to servants and various other obscure persons.
+He was a man in very sooth. He was a man in
+that he had in him the appetites, the ambitions, the
+desires of a man. Stewart, the artist, has said, &quot;All of
+his features were indications of the strongest and most
+ungovernable passions, and had he been born in the
+forest, he would have been the fiercest man among
+savage tribes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But over the sleeping volcano of his temper he kept
+watch and ward, until his habit became one of gentleness,
+generosity, and shining, simple truth; and, behind
+all, we behold his unswerving purpose and steadfast
+strength.</p>
+
+<p>And so the object of this sketch will be, not to show the
+superhuman Washington, the Washington set apart,
+but to give a glimpse of the man Washington who
+aspired, feared, hoped, loved and bravely died.</p>
+<p><a name="III_Page_7"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>The first biographer of George Washington
+was the Reverend Mason L. Weems. If you
+have a copy of Weems' &quot;Life of Washington,&quot;
+you had better wrap it in chamois and
+place it away for your heirs, for some time it will command
+a price. Fifty editions of Weems' book were
+printed, and in its day no other volume approached it
+in point of popularity. In American literature, Weems
+stood first. To Weems are we indebted for the hatchet
+tale, the story of the colt that was broken and killed
+in the process, and all those other fine romances of
+Washington's youth. Weems' literary style reveals the
+very acme of that vicious quality of untruth to be
+found in the old-time Sunday-school books. Weems
+mustered all the &quot;Little Willie&quot; stories he could find,
+and attached to them Washington's name, claiming to
+write for &quot;the Betterment of the Young,&quot; as if in
+dealing with the young we should carefully conceal the
+truth. Possibly Washington could not tell a lie, but
+Weems was not thus handicapped.</p>
+
+<p>Under a mass of silly moralizing, he nearly buried the
+real Washington, giving us instead a priggish, punk
+youth, and a Madame Tussaud, full-dress general, with
+a wax-works manner and a wooden dignity.</p>
+
+<p>Happily, we have now come to a time when such
+authors as Mason L. Weems and John S.C. Abbott are
+no longer accepted as final authorities. We do not discard
+them, but, like Samuel Pepys, they are retained
+<a name="III_Page_8"></a>that they may contribute to the gaiety of nations.</p>
+
+<p>Various violent efforts have been made in days agone
+to show that Washington was of &quot;a noble line&quot;&mdash;as if
+the natural nobility of the man needed a reason&mdash;forgetful
+that we are all sons of God, and it doth not yet
+appear what we shall be. But Burke's &quot;Peerage&quot; lends
+no light, and the careful, unprejudiced, patient search
+of recent years finds only the blood of the common
+people.</p>
+
+<p>Washington himself said that in his opinion the history
+of his ancestors &quot;was of small moment and a subject
+to which, I confess, I have paid little attention.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had a bookplate and he had also a coat of arms
+on his carriage-door. The Reverend Mr. Weems has
+described Washington's bookplate thus: &quot;Argent, two
+bar gules in chief, three mullets of the second. Crest,
+a raven with wings, indorsed proper, issuing out of a
+ducal coronet, or.&quot;</p><p><a name="III_Page_9"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Mary Ball was the second wife of Augustine
+Washington. In his will the good man
+describes this marriage, evidently with a
+wink, as &quot;my second Venture.&quot; And it is
+sad to remember that he did not live to know that his
+&quot;Venture&quot; made America his debtor. The success of
+the union seems pretty good argument in favor of
+widowers marrying. There were four children in the
+family, the oldest nearly full grown, when Mary Ball
+came to take charge of the household. She was twenty-seven,
+her husband ten years older. They were married
+March Sixth, Seventeen Hundred Thirty-one, and on
+February Twenty-second of the following year was
+born a man child and they named him George.</p>
+
+<p>The Washingtons were plain, hard-working people&mdash;land-poor.
+They lived in a small house that had three
+rooms downstairs and an attic, where the children slept,
+and bumped their heads against the rafters if they sat
+up quickly in bed.</p>
+
+<p>Washington got his sterling qualities from the Ball
+family, and not from the tribe of Washington. George
+was endowed by his mother with her own splendid
+health and with all the sturdy Spartan virtues of her
+mind. In features and in mental characteristics, he
+resembled her very closely. There were six children born
+to her in all, but the five have been nearly lost sight of
+in the splendid success of the firstborn.</p>
+
+<p>I have used the word &quot;Spartan&quot; advisedly. Upon her
+<a name="III_Page_10"></a>children, the mother of Washington lavished no soft
+sentimentality. A woman who cooked, weaved, spun,
+washed, made the clothes, and looked after a big family
+in pioneer times had her work cut out for her. The
+children of Mary Washington obeyed her, and when
+told to do a thing never stopped to ask why&mdash;and the
+same fact may be said of the father.</p>
+
+<p>The girls wore linsey-woolsey dresses, and the boys
+tow suits that consisted of two pieces, which in Winter
+were further added to by hat and boots. If the weather
+was very cold, the suits were simply duplicated&mdash;a boy
+wearing two or three pairs of trousers instead of one.</p>
+
+<p>The mother was the first one up in the morning, the
+last one to go to rest at night. If a youngster kicked off
+the covers in his sleep and had a coughing spell, she
+arose and looked after him. Were any sick, she not only
+ministered to them, but often watched away the long,
+dragging hours of the night.</p>
+
+<p>And I have noticed that these sturdy mothers in Israel,
+who so willingly give their lives that others may live,
+often find vent for overwrought feelings by scolding;
+and I, for one, cheerfully grant them the privilege.
+Washington's mother scolded and grumbled to the day
+of her death. She also sought solace by smoking a pipe.
+And this reminds me that a noted specialist in neurotics
+has recently said that if women would use the weed
+moderately, tired nerves would find repose and nervous
+prostration would be a luxury unknown. Not being
+<a name="III_Page_11"></a>much of a smoker myself, and knowing nothing about
+the subject, I give the item for what it is worth.</p>
+
+<p>All the sterling, classic virtues of industry, frugality and
+truth-telling were inculcated by this excellent mother,
+and her strong commonsense made its indelible impress
+upon the mind of her son.</p>
+
+<p>Mary Washington always regarded George's judgment
+with a little suspicion; she never came to think of him
+as a full-grown man; to her he was only a big boy.
+Hence, she would chide him and criticize his actions
+in a way that often made him very uncomfortable.
+During the Revolutionary War she followed his record
+closely: when he succeeded she only smiled, said something
+that sounded like &quot;I told you so,&quot; and calmly
+filled her pipe; when he was repulsed she was never
+cast down. She foresaw that he would be made President,
+and thought &quot;he would do as well as anybody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once, she complained to him of her house in Fredericksburg;
+he wrote in answer, gently but plainly, that
+her habits of life were not such as would be acceptable
+at Mount Vernon. And to this she replied that she had
+never expected or intended to go to Mount Vernon,
+and moreover would not, no matter how much urged&mdash;a
+declination without an invitation that must have caused
+the son a grim smile. In her nature was a goodly trace
+of savage stoicism that took a satisfaction in concealing
+the joy she felt in her son's achievement; for that her
+life was all bound up in his we have good evidence.</p>
+
+<p><a name="III_Page_12"></a>Washington looked after her wants and supplied her
+with everything she needed, and, as these things often
+came through third parties, it is pretty certain she did
+not know the source; at any rate she accepted everything
+quite as her due, and shows a half-comic ingratitude
+that is very fine.</p>
+
+<p>When Washington started for New York to be inaugurated
+President, he stopped to see her. She donned a
+new white cap and a clean apron in honor of the visit,
+remarking to a neighbor woman who dropped in that
+she supposed &quot;these great folks expected something a
+little extra.&quot; It was the last meeting of mother and son.
+She was eighty-three at that time and &quot;her boy&quot;
+fifty-five. She died not long after.</p>
+
+<p>Samuel Washington, the brother two years younger
+than George, has been described as &quot;small, sandy-whiskered,
+shrewd and glib.&quot; Samuel was married five
+times. Some of the wives he deserted and others deserted
+him, and two of them died, thus leaving him twice a
+sad, lorn widower, from which condition he quickly
+extricated himself. He was always in financial straits
+and often appealed to his brother George for loans. In
+Seventeen Hundred Eighty-one we find George Washington
+writing to his brother John, &quot;In God's name!
+how has Samuel managed to get himself so enormously
+in debt?&quot; The remark sounds a little like that of
+Samuel Johnson, who on hearing that Goldsmith was
+owing four hundred pounds exclaimed, &quot;Was ever poet
+<a name="III_Page_13"></a>so trusted before?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Washington's ledger shows that
+he advanced his brother Samuel two thousand dollars,
+&quot;to be paid back without interest.&quot; But Samuel's ship
+never came in, and in Washington's will we find the
+debt graciously and gracefully discharged.</p>
+
+<p>Thornton Washington, a son of Samuel, was given a
+place in the English army at George Washington's
+request; and two other sons of Samuel were sent to
+school at his expense. One of the boys once ran away
+and was followed by his uncle George, who carried a
+goodly birch with intent to &quot;give him what he deserved&quot;;
+but after catching the lad the uncle's heart melted, and
+he took the runaway back into favor. An entry in
+Washington's journal shows that the children of his
+brother Samuel cost him fully five thousand dollars.</p>
+
+<p>Harriot, one of the daughters of Samuel, lived in the
+household at Mount Vernon and evidently was a great
+cross, for we find Washington pleading as an excuse for
+her frivolity that &quot;she was not brung up right, she has
+no disposition, and takes no care of her clothes, which
+are dabbed about in every corner, and the best are
+always in use. She costs me enough!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And this was about as near a complaint as the Father
+of his Country, and the father of all his poor relations,
+ever made. In his ledger we find this item: &quot;By Miss
+Harriot Washington, gave her to buy wedding-clothes,
+$100.00.&quot; It supplied the great man joy to write that
+line, for it was the last of Harriot. He furnished a fine
+<a name="III_Page_14"></a>wedding for her, and all the servants had a holiday, and
+Harriot and her unknown lover were happy ever afterwards&mdash;so
+far as we know.</p>
+
+<p>From Seventeen Hundred Fifty to Seventeen Hundred
+Fifty-nine, Washington was a soldier on the frontier,
+leaving Mount Vernon and all his business in charge of
+his brother John. Between these two there was a
+genuine bond of affection. To George this brother was
+always, &quot;Dear Jack,&quot; and when John married, George
+sends &quot;respectful greetings to your Lady,&quot; and afterwards
+&quot;love to the little ones from their Uncle.&quot; And
+in one of the dark hours of the Revolution, George
+writes from New Jersey to this brother: &quot;God grant
+you health and happiness. Nothing in this world would
+add so to mine as to be near you.&quot; John died in Seventeen
+Hundred Eighty-seven, and the President of the
+United States writes in simple, undisguised grief of
+&quot;the death of my beloved brother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John's eldest son, Bushrod, was Washington's favorite
+nephew. He took a lively interest in the boy's career,
+and taking him to Philadelphia placed him in the law-office
+of Judge James Wilson. He supplied Bushrod with
+funds, and wrote him many affectionate letters of
+advice, and several times made him a companion on
+journeys. The boy proved worthy of it all, and developed
+into a strong and manly man&mdash;quite the best of all
+Washington's kinsfolk. In later years, we find Washington
+asking his advice in legal matters and excusing
+<a name="III_Page_15"></a>himself for being such a &quot;troublesome, non-paying
+client.&quot; In his will the &quot;Honorable Bushrod Washington&quot;
+is named as one of the executors, and to him
+Washington left his library and all his private papers,
+besides a share in the estate. Such confidence was a
+fitting good-by from the great and loving heart of a
+father to a son full worthy of the highest trust.</p>
+
+<p>Of Washington's relations with his brother Charles,
+we know but little. Charles was a plain, simple man
+who worked hard and raised a big family. In his will
+Washington remembers them all, and one of the sons
+of Charles we know was appointed to a position upon
+Lafayette's staff on Washington's request.</p>
+
+<p>The only one of Washington's family that resembled
+him closely was his sister Betty. The contour of her
+face was almost identical with his, and she was so proud
+of it that she often wore her hair in a queue and donned
+his hat and sword for the amusement of visitors. Betty
+married Fielding Lewis, and two of her sons acted as
+private secretaries to Washington while he was President.
+One of these sons&mdash;Lawrence Lewis&mdash;married
+Nellie Custis, the adopted daughter of Washington and
+granddaughter of Mrs. Washington, and the couple, by
+Washington's will, became part-owners of Mount
+Vernon. The man who can figure out the exact relationship
+of Nellie Custis' children to Washington deserves a
+medal.</p>
+
+<p>We do not know much of Washington's father: if he
+<a name="III_Page_16"></a>exerted any special influence on his children we do not
+know it. He died when George was eleven years old,
+and the boy then went to live at the &quot;Hunting Creek
+Place&quot; with his half-brother Lawrence, that he might
+attend school. Lawrence had served in the English navy
+under Admiral Vernon, and, in honor of his chief,
+changed the name of his home and called it Mount
+Vernon. Mount Vernon then consisted of twenty-five
+hundred acres, mostly a tangle of forest, with a small
+house and log stables. The tract had descended to
+Lawrence from his father, with provision that it should
+fall to George if Lawrence died without issue. Lawrence
+married, and when he died, aged thirty-two, he left a
+daughter, Mildred, who died two years later. Mount
+Vernon then passed to George Washington, aged
+twenty-one, but not without a protest from the widow
+of Lawrence, who evidently was paid not to take the
+matter into the courts. Washington owned Mount
+Vernon for forty-six years, just one-half of which time
+was given to the service of his country. It was the
+only place he ever called &quot;home,&quot; and there he sleeps.<a name="III_Page_17"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>When Washington was fourteen, his schooldays
+were over. Of his youth we know but
+little. He was not precocious, although physically
+he developed early; but there was no
+reason why the neighbors should keep tab on him and
+record anecdotes. They had boys of their own just as
+promising. He was tall and slender, long-armed, with
+large, bony hands and feet, very strong, a daring horseman,
+a good wrestler, and, living on the banks of a
+river, he became, as all healthy boys must, a good
+swimmer.</p>
+
+<p>His mission among the Indians in his twenty-first year
+was largely successful through the personal admiration
+he excited among the savages. In poise, he was equal
+to their best, and ever being a bit proud, even if not
+vain, he dressed for the occasion in full Indian regalia,
+minus only the war-paint. The Indians at once recognized
+his nobility, and named him &quot;Conotancarius&quot;&mdash;Plunderer
+of Villages&mdash;and suggested that he take to
+wife an Indian maiden, and remain with them as chief.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned home, he wrote to the Indian
+agent, announcing his safe arrival and sending greetings
+to the Indians. &quot;Tell them,&quot; he says, &quot;how happy it
+would make Conotancarius to see them, and take
+them by the hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His wish was gratified, for the Indians took him at his
+word, and fifty of them came to him, saying, &quot;Since
+you could not come and live with us, we have come to
+<a name="III_Page_18"></a>live with you.&quot; They camped on the green in front of
+the residence, and proceeded to inspect every room in
+the house, tested all the whisky they could find, appropriated
+eatables, and were only induced to depart after
+all the bedclothes had been dyed red, and a blanket or
+a quilt presented to each.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout his life Washington had a very tender
+spot in his heart for women. At sixteen, he writes with
+all a youth's solemnity of &quot;a hurt of the heart uncurable.&quot;
+And from that time forward there is ever some
+&quot;Faire Mayde&quot; to be seen in the shadow. In fact,
+Washington got along with women much better than
+with men; with men he was often diffident and awkward,
+illy concealing his uneasiness behind a forced
+dignity; but he knew that women admired him, and
+with them he was at ease. When he made that first
+Western trip, carrying a message to the French, he
+turns aside to call on the Indian princess, Aliguippa.
+In his journal, he says, &quot;presented her a Blanket and
+a Bottle of Rum, which latter was thought the much
+best Present of the 2.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In his expense-account we find items like these: &quot;Treating
+the ladys 2 shillings.&quot; &quot;Present for Polly 5 shillings.&quot;
+&quot;My share for Music at the Dance 3 shillings.&quot;
+&quot;Lost at Loo 5 shillings.&quot; In fact, like most Episcopalians,
+Washington danced and played cards. His favorite
+game seems to have been &quot;Loo&quot;; and he generally
+played for small stakes, and when playing with &quot;the<a name="III_Page_19"></a>
+Ladys&quot; usually lost, whether purposely or because
+otherwise absorbed, we know not.</p>
+
+<p>In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-six, he made a horseback
+journey on military business to Boston, stopping a
+week going and on the way back at New York. He
+spent the time at the house of a former Virginian,
+Beverly Robinson, who had married Susannah Philipse,
+daughter of Frederick Philipse, one of the rich men of
+Manhattan. In the household was a young woman,
+Mary Philipse, sister of the hostess. She was older than
+Washington, educated, and had seen much more of
+polite life than he. The tall, young Virginian, fresh
+from the frontier, where he had had horses shot under
+him, excited the interest of Mary Philipse, and Washington,
+innocent but ardent, mistook this natural
+curiosity for a softer sentiment and proposed on the
+spot. As soon as the lady got her breath he was let
+down very gently.</p>
+
+<p>Two years afterwards Mary Philipse married Colonel
+Roger Morris, in the king's service, and cards were
+duly sent to Mount Vernon. But the whirligig of time
+equalizes all things, and, in Seventeen Hundred Seventy-six,
+General Washington, Commander of the Continental
+Army, occupied the mansion of Colonel Morris,
+the Colonel and his lady being fugitive Tories. In his
+diary, Washington records this significant item: &quot;Dined
+at the house lately Colonel Roger Morris confiscated
+and the occupation of a common Farmer.&quot;<a name="III_Page_20"></a></p>
+
+<p>Washington always attributed his defeat at the hands
+of Mary Philipse to being too precipitate and &quot;not
+waiting until ye ladye was in ye mood.&quot; But two years
+later we find him being even more hasty and this time
+with success, which proves that all signs fail in dry
+weather, and some things are possible as well as others.
+He was on his way to Williamsburg to consult physicians
+and stopped at the residence of Mrs. Daniel Parke Custis
+to make a short call&mdash;was pressed to remain to tea, did
+so, proposed marriage, and was graciously accepted.
+We have a beautiful steel engraving that immortalizes
+this visit, showing Washington's horse impatiently
+waiting at the door.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Custis was a widow with two children. She was
+twenty-six, and the same age as Washington within
+three months. Her husband had died seven months
+before. In Washington's cash-account for May, Seventeen
+Hundred Fifty-eight, is an item, &quot;one Engagement
+Ring &pound;2.16.0.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The happy couple were married eight months later,
+and we find Mrs. Washington explaining to a friend
+that her reason for the somewhat hasty union was that
+her estate was getting in a bad way and a man was
+needed to look after it. Our actions are usually right,
+but the reasons we give seldom are; but in this case no
+doubt &quot;a man was needed,&quot; for the widow had much
+property, and we can not but congratulate Martha
+Custis on her choice of &quot;a man.&quot; She owned fifteen
+<a name="III_Page_21"></a>thousand acres of land, many lots in the city of Williamsburg,
+two hundred negroes, and some money on
+bond; all the property being worth over one hundred
+thousand dollars&mdash;a very large amount for those days.
+Directly after the wedding, the couple moved to Mount
+Vernon, taking a good many of the slaves with them.
+Shortly after, arrangements were under way to rebuild
+the house, and the plans that finally developed into
+the present mansion were begun.</p>
+
+<p>Washington's letters and diary contain very few references
+to his wife, and none of the many visitors to
+Mount Vernon took pains to testify either to her wit
+or to her intellect. We know that the housekeeping
+at Mount Vernon proved too much for her ability,
+and that a woman was hired to oversee the household.
+And in this reference a complaint is found from the
+General that &quot;housekeeper has done gone and left
+things in confusion.&quot; He had his troubles.</p>
+
+<p>Martha's education was not equal to writing a presentable
+letter, for we find that her husband wrote the first
+draft of all important missives that it was necessary
+for her to send, and she copied them even to his mistakes
+in spelling. Very patient was he about this, and
+even when he was President and harried constantly
+we find him stopping to acknowledge for her &quot;an
+invitation to take some Tea,&quot; and at the bottom of the
+sheet adding a pious bit of finesse, thus: &quot;The President
+requests me to send his compliments and only regrets
+<a name="III_Page_22"></a>that the pressure of affairs compels him to forego the
+Pleasure of seeing you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After Washington's death, his wife destroyed the
+letters he had written her&mdash;many hundred in number&mdash;an
+offense the world is not yet quite willing to forget,
+even though it has forgiven.<a name="III_Page_23"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Although we have been told that when
+Washington was six years old he could not
+tell a lie, yet he afterwards partially overcame
+the disability. On one occasion he
+writes to a friend that the mosquitoes of New Jersey
+&quot;can bite through the thickest boot,&quot; and though a
+contemporary clergyman, greatly flurried, explains
+that he meant &quot;stocking,&quot; we insist that the statement
+shall stand as the Father of his Country expressed it.
+Washington also records without a blush, &quot;I announced
+that I would leave at 8 and then immediately gave
+private Orders to go at 5, so to avoid the Throng.&quot;
+Another time when he discharged an overseer for incompetency
+he lessened the pain of parting by writing
+for the fellow &quot;a Character.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When he went to Boston and was named as Commander
+of the Army, his chief concern seemed to be how he
+would make peace with Martha. Ho! ye married men!
+do you understand the situation? He was to be away
+for a year, two, or possibly three, and his wife did not
+have an inkling of it. Now, he must break the news to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>As plainly shown by Cabot Lodge and other historians,
+there was much rivalry for the office, and it was only
+allotted to the South as a political deal after much
+bickering. Washington had been a passive but very
+willing candidate, and after a struggle his friends
+secured him the prize&mdash;and now what to do with<a name="III_Page_24"></a>
+Martha! Writing to her, among other things he says,
+&quot;You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure
+you in the most solemn manner that so far from seeking
+the appointment I have done all in my power to avoid
+it.&quot; The man who will not fabricate a bit in order to
+keep peace with the wife of his bosom is not much of a
+man. But &quot;Patsy's&quot; objections were overcome, and
+beyond a few chidings and sundry complainings, she
+did nothing to block the great game of war.</p>
+
+<p>At Princeton, Washington ordered campfires to be
+built along the brow of a hill for a mile, and when the
+fires were well lighted, he withdrew his army, marched
+around to the other side, and surprised the enemy at
+daylight. At Brooklyn, he used masked batteries, and
+presented a fierce row of round, black spots painted on
+canvas that, from the city, looked like the mouths of
+cannon at which men seek the bauble reputation. It is
+said he also sent a note threatening to fire these sham
+cannon, on receiving which the enemy hastily moved
+beyond range. Perceiving afterwards that they had
+been imposed upon, the brave English sent word to
+&quot;shoot and be damned.&quot; Evidently, Washington considered
+that all things are fair in love and war.</p>
+
+<p>Washington talked but little, and his usual air was one
+of melancholy that stopped just short of sadness. All
+this, with the firmness of his features and the dignity
+of his carriage, gave the impression of sternness and
+severity. And these things gave rise to the popular
+<a name="III_Page_25"></a>conception that he had small sense of humor; yet he
+surely was fond of a quiet smile.</p>
+
+<p>At one time, Congress insisted that a standing army
+of five thousand men was too large; Washington replied
+that if England would agree never to invade this
+country with more than three thousand men, he would
+be perfectly willing that our army should be reduced
+to four thousand.</p>
+
+<p>When the King of Spain, knowing he was a farmer,
+thoughtfully sent him a present of a jackass, Washington
+proposed naming the animal in honor of the donor;
+and in writing to friends about the present, draws
+invidious comparisons between the gift and the giver.
+Evidently, the joke pleased him, for he repeats it in
+different letters; thus showing how, when he sat down
+to clear his desk of correspondence, he economized
+energy by following a form. So, we now find letters
+that are almost identical, even to jokes, sent to persons
+in South Carolina and in Massachusetts. Doubtless
+the good man thought they would never be compared,
+for how could he foresee that an autograph-dealer in
+New York would eventually catalog them at twenty-two
+dollars fifty cents each, or that a very proper but
+half-affectionate missive of his to a Faire Ladye would
+be sold by her great-granddaughter for fifty dollars?</p>
+
+<p>In Seventeen Hundred Ninety-three there were on
+the Mount Vernon plantation three hundred seventy
+head of cattle, and Washington appends to the report
+<a name="III_Page_26"></a>a sad regret that, with all this number of horned beasts,
+he yet has to buy butter. There is also a fine, grim
+humor shown in the incident of a flag of truce coming
+in at New York, bearing a message from General
+Howe, addressed to &quot;Mr. Washington.&quot; The General
+took the letter from the hand of the redcoat, glanced
+at the superscription, and said: &quot;Why, this letter is
+not for me! It is directed to a planter in Virginia. I'll
+keep it and give it to him at the end of the war.&quot; Then,
+cramming the letter into his pocket, he ordered the
+flag of truce out of the lines and directed the gunners
+to stand by. In an hour, another letter came back
+addressed to &quot;His Excellency, General Washington.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was not long after this a soldier brought to Washington
+a dog that had been found wearing a collar
+with the name of General Howe engraved on it. Washington
+returned the dog by a special messenger with a
+note reading, &quot;General Washington sends his compliments
+to General Howe, and begs to return one dog
+that evidently belongs to him.&quot; In this instance, I am
+inclined to think that Washington acted in sober good
+faith, but was the victim of a practical joke on the part
+of one of his aides.</p>
+
+<p>Another remark that sounds like a joke, but perhaps
+was not one, was when, on taking command of the
+army at Boston, the General writes to his lifelong
+friend, Doctor Craik, asking what he can do for him,
+and adding a sentiment still in the air: &quot;But these<a name="III_Page_27"></a>
+Massachusetts people suffer nothing to go by them
+that they can lay their hands on.&quot; In another letter
+he pays his compliments to Connecticut thus: &quot;Their
+impecunious meanness surpasses belief.&quot; When Cornwallis
+surrendered at Yorktown, Washington refused
+to humiliate him and his officers by accepting their
+swords. He treated Cornwallis as his guest, and even
+&quot;gave a dinner in his honor.&quot; At this dinner, Rochambeau
+being asked for a toast gave &quot;The United States.&quot;
+Washington proposed &quot;The King of France.&quot; Cornwallis
+merely gave &quot;The King,&quot; and Washington,
+putting the toast, expressed it as Cornwallis intended,
+&quot;The King of England,&quot; and added a sentiment of
+his own that made even Cornwallis laugh&mdash;&quot;May he
+stay there!&quot; Washington's treatment of Cornwallis
+made him a lifelong friend. Many years after, when
+Cornwallis was Governor-General of India, he sent a
+message to his old antagonist, wishing him &quot;prosperity
+and enjoyment,&quot; and adding, &quot;As for myself, I am yet
+in troubled waters.&quot;<a name="III_Page_28"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Once in a century, possibly, a being is born
+who possesses a transcendent insight, and
+him we call a &quot;genius.&quot; Shakespeare, for
+instance, to whom all knowledge lay open;
+Joan of Arc; the artist Turner; Swedenborg, the mystic&mdash;these
+are the men who know a royal road to geometry;
+but we may safely leave them out of account when we
+deal with the builders of a State, for among statesmen
+there are no geniuses.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody knows just what a genius is or what he may
+do next; he boils at an unknown temperature, and
+often explodes at a touch. He is uncertain and therefore
+unsafe. His best results are conjured forth, but
+no man has yet conjured forth a Nation&mdash;it is all slow,
+patient, painstaking work along mathematical lines.
+Washington was a mathematician and therefore not a
+genius. We call him a great man, but his greatness was
+of that sort in which we all can share; his virtues were
+of a kind that, in degree, we too may possess. Any man
+who succeeds in a legitimate business works with the
+same tools that Washington used. Washington was
+human. We know the man; we understand him; we
+comprehend how he succeeded, for with him there
+were no tricks, no legerdemain, no secrets. He is very
+near to us.</p>
+
+<p>Washington is indeed first in the hearts of his countrymen.
+Washington has no detractors. There may come
+a time when another will take first place in the affections
+<a name="III_Page_29"></a>of the people, but that time is not yet ripe. Lincoln
+stood between men who now live and the prizes they
+coveted; thousands still tread the earth whom he benefited,
+and neither class can forgive, for they are of clay.
+But all those who lived when Washington lived are
+gone; not one survives; even the last body-servant,
+who confused memory with hearsay, has departed
+babbling to his rest.</p>
+
+<p>We know all of Washington we will ever know; there
+are no more documents to present, no partisan witnesses
+to examine, no prejudices to remove. His purity
+of purpose stands unimpeached; his steadfast earnestness
+and sterling honesty are our priceless examples.</p>
+
+<p>We love the man.</p>
+
+<p>We call him Father.</p><p><a name="III_Page_30"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="BENJAMIN_FRANKLIN"></a></p><h2>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</h2>
+<p><a name="III_Page_31"></a></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>I will speak ill of no man, not even in matter of truth;
+but rather excuse the faults I hear charged upon
+others, and upon proper occasion speak all the good I
+know of everybody.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Franklin's Journal</i></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_32"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-3.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-3_th.jpg" alt="BENJAMIN FRANKLIN" /></a></p><p class="ctr">BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</p><p><a name="III_Page_33"></a></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>Benjamin Franklin was twelve
+years old. He was large and strong
+and fat and good-natured, and
+had a full-moon face and red cheeks
+that made him look like a country
+bumpkin. He was born in Boston
+within twenty yards of the church
+called &quot;Old South,&quot; but the Franklins
+now lived at the corner of Congress and Hanover
+Streets, where to this day there swings in the breeze a
+gilded ball, and on it the legend, &quot;Josiah Franklin,
+Soap-Boiler.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Benjamin was the fifteenth child in the family; and
+several having grown to maturity and flown, there
+were thirteen at the table when little Ben first sat in
+the high chair. But the Franklins were not superstitious,
+and if little Ben ever prayed that another would be
+born, just for luck, we know nothing of it. His mother
+loved him very much and indulged him in many ways,
+for he was always her baby boy, but the father thought
+that because he was good-natured he was also lazy and
+should be disciplined.</p>
+
+<p>Once upon a time the father was packing a barrel of
+beef in the cellar, and Ben was helping him, and as the
+father always said grace at table, the boy suggested he
+ask a blessing, once for all, on the barrel of beef and
+<a name="III_Page_34"></a>thus economize breath. But economics along that line
+did not appeal to Josiah Franklin, for this was early
+in Seventeen Hundred Eighteen, and Josiah was a
+Presbyterian and lived in Boston.</p>
+
+<p>The boy was not
+religious, for he never &quot;went forward,&quot; and only went
+to church because he had to, and read &quot;Plutarch's Lives&quot;
+with much more relish than he did &quot;Saints' Rest.&quot; But
+he had great curiosity and asked questions until his
+mother would say, &quot;Goodness gracious, go and play!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And as the boy wasn't very religious or very fond
+of work, his father and mother decided that there were
+only two careers open for him: the mother proposed
+that he be made a preacher, but his father said, send
+him to sea.</p>
+
+<p>To go to sea under a good strict captain
+would discipline him, and to send him off and put
+him under the care of the Reverend Doctor Thirdly
+would answer the same purpose&mdash;which course should
+be pursued? But Pallas Athene, who was to watch over
+this lad's destinies all through life, preserved him from
+either.</p>
+
+<p>His parents' aspirations extended even to his becoming
+captain of a schooner or pastor of the First Church at
+Roxbury. And no doubt he could have sailed the
+schooner around the globe in safety, or filled the pulpit
+with a degree of power that would have caused consternation
+to reign in the heart of every other preacher in
+town; but Fate saved him that he might take the Ship
+of State, when she threatened to strand on the rocks
+<a name="III_Page_35"></a>of adversity, and pilot her into peaceful waters, and to
+preach such sermons to America that their eloquence
+still moves us to better things.</p>
+
+<p>Parents think that what they say about their children
+goes, and once in an awfully long time it does, but the
+men who become great and learned usually do so in
+spite of their parents&mdash;which remark was first made by
+Martin Luther, but need not be discredited on that
+account.</p>
+
+<p>Ben's oldest brother was James. Now, James was nearly
+forty; he was tall and slender, stooped a little, and had
+sandy whiskers, and a nervous cough, and positive
+ideas on many subjects&mdash;one of which was that he was
+a printer. His apprentice, or &quot;devil,&quot; had left him,
+because the devil did not like to be cuffed whenever
+the compositor shuffled his fonts. James needed another
+apprentice, and proposed to take his younger brother
+and make a man of him if the old folks were willing.
+The old folks were willing and Ben was duly bound by
+law to his brother, agreeing to serve him faithfully, as
+Jacob served Laban, for seven years and two years
+more.</p>
+
+<p>Science has explained many things, but it has not yet
+told why it sometimes happens that when seventeen
+eggs are hatched, the brood will consist of sixteen barnyard
+fowls and one eagle.</p>
+
+<p>James Franklin was a man of small capacity, whimsical,
+jealous and arbitrary. But if he cuffed his apprentice<a name="III_Page_36"></a>
+Benjamin when the compositor blundered, and when
+he didn't, it was his legal right; and the master who
+did not occasionally kick his apprentices was considered
+derelict to duty. The boy ran errands, cleaned the
+presses, swept the shop, tied up bundles, did the tasks
+that no one else would do; and incidentally &quot;learned
+the case.&quot; Then he set type, and after a while ran a
+press. And in those days a printer ranked considerably
+above a common mechanic. A man who was a printer
+was a literary man, as were the master printers of London
+and Venice. A printer was a man of taste. All editors
+were printers, and usually composed the matter as
+they set it up in type. Thus we now have the expressions:
+a &quot;composing-room,&quot; a &quot;composing-stick,&quot; etc.
+People once addressed &quot;Mr. Printer,&quot; not &quot;Mr. Editor,&quot;
+and when they met &quot;Mr. Printer&quot; on the street
+removed their hats&mdash;but not in Philadelphia.</p>
+
+<p>Young Franklin felt a proper degree of pride in his work,
+if not vanity. In fact, he himself has said that vanity is
+a good thing, and whenever he saw it come flaunting
+down the street, always made way, knowing that there
+was virtue somewhere back of it&mdash;out of sight perhaps,
+but still there. James, being a brother, had no confidence
+in Ben's intellect, so when Ben wrote short
+articles on this and that, he tucked them under the door
+so that James would find them in the morning. James
+showed these articles to his friends, and they all voted
+them very fine, and concluded they must have been
+<a name="III_Page_37"></a>written by Doctor So-and-So, Ph.D., who, like Lord
+Bacon, was a very modest man and did not care to see
+his name in print.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, by and by, it came out who it was that wrote the
+anonymous &quot;hot stuff,&quot; and then James did not think
+it was quite so good as he at first thought, and moreover,
+declared he knew whose it was all the time. Ben was
+eighteen and had read Montaigne, and Collins, and
+Shaftesbury, and Hume. When he wrote he expressed
+thoughts that then were considered very dreadful, but
+that can now be heard proclaimed even in good orthodox
+churches. But Ben had wit and to spare, and he
+leveled it at government officials and preachers, and
+these gentlemen did not relish the jokes&mdash;people seldom
+relish jokes at their own expense&mdash;and they sought to
+suppress the newspaper that the Franklin brothers
+published.</p>
+
+<p>The blame for all the trouble James heaped upon Benjamin,
+and all the credit for success he took to himself.
+James declared that Ben had the big head&mdash;and he
+probably was right; but he forgot that the big head, like
+mumps and measles and everything else in life, is self-limiting
+and good in its way. So, to teach Ben his proper
+place, James reminded him that he was only an apprentice,
+with three years yet to serve, and that he should
+be seen seldom and not heard all the time, and that if
+he ran away he would send a constable after him and
+fetch him back.<a name="III_Page_38"></a></p>
+
+<p>Ben evidently had a mind open to suggestive influences,
+for the remark about running away prompted him to
+do so. He sold some of his books and got himself
+secreted on board a ship about to sail for New York.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at New York, in three days he found the
+broad-brimmed Dutch had small use for printers and
+no special admiration for the art preservative; and he
+started for Philadelphia.</p>
+
+<p>Every one knows how he landed in a small boat at the
+foot of Market Street with only a few coppers in his
+pocket, and made his way to a bakeshop and asked for
+a threepenny loaf of bread, and being told they had no
+threepenny loaves, then asked for threepenny's worth of
+any kind of bread, and was given three loaves. Where is
+the man who in a strange land has not suffered rather
+than reveal his ignorance before a shopkeeper? When I
+was first in England and could not compute readily in
+shillings and pence, I would toss out a gold piece when
+I made a purchase and assume a 'igh and 'aughty mien.
+And that Philadelphia baker probably died in blissful
+ignorance of the fact that the youth who was to be
+America's pride bought from him three loaves of bread
+when he wanted only one.</p>
+
+<p>The runaway Ben had a downy beard all over his face,
+and as he took his three loaves and walked up Market
+Street, with a loaf under each arm, munching on the
+third, he was smiled upon in merry mirth by the buxom
+Deborah Read, as she stood in the doorway of her
+<a name="III_Page_39"></a>father's house. Yet Franklin got even with her, for
+some months after, he went back that way and courted
+her, grew to love him, and they &quot;exchanged
+promises,&quot; he says. After some months of work and
+love-making, Franklin sailed away to England on a
+wild-goose chase. He promised to return soon and
+make Deborah his wife. But he wrote only one solitary
+letter to the broken-hearted girl and did not come back
+for nearly two years.<a name="III_Page_40"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Time is the great avenger as well as educator;
+only the education is usually deferred until it
+no longer avails in this incarnation, and is
+valuable only for advice&mdash;and nobody wants
+advice. Deathbed repentances may be legal-tender for
+salvation in another world, but for this they are below
+par, and regeneration that is postponed until the man
+has no further capacity to sin is little better. For sin
+is only perverted power, and the man without capacity
+to sin neither has ability to do good&mdash;isn't that so?
+His soul is a Dead Sea that supports neither ameba
+nor fish, neither noxious bacilli nor useful life. Happy is
+the man who conserves his God-given power until
+wisdom and not passion shall direct it. So, the younger
+in life a man makes the resolve to turn and live, the
+better for that man and the better for the world.</p>
+
+<p>Once upon a time Carlyle took Milburn, the blind
+preacher, out on to Chelsea embankment and showed
+the sightless man where Franklin plunged into the
+Thames and swam to Blackfriars Bridge. &quot;He might
+have stayed here,&quot; said Thomas Carlyle, &quot;and become
+a swimming-teacher, but God had other work for him!&quot;
+Franklin had many opportunities to stop and become
+a victim of arrested development, but he never embraced
+the occasion. He could have stayed in Boston
+and been a humdrum preacher, or a thrifty sea-captain,
+or an ordinary printer; or he could have remained in
+London, and been, like his friend Ralph, a clever writer
+<a name="III_Page_41"></a>of doggerel, and a supporter of the political party that
+would pay the most.</p>
+
+<p>Benjamin Franklin was twenty years old when he
+returned from England. The ship was beaten back by
+headwinds and blown out of her course by blizzards,
+and becalmed at times, so it took eighty-two days to
+make the voyage. A worthy old clergyman tells me this
+was so ordained and ordered that Benjamin might have
+time to meditate on the follies of youth and shape his
+course for the future, and I do not argue the case,
+for I am quite willing to admit that my friend, the
+clergyman, has the facts.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, we must be &quot;converted,&quot; &quot;born again,&quot; &quot;regenerated,&quot;
+or whatever you may be pleased to call it.
+Sometimes&mdash;very often&mdash;it is love that reforms a man,
+sometimes sickness, sometimes sore bereavement.</p>
+
+<p>Doctor Talmage says that with Saint Paul it was a
+sunstroke, and this may be so, for surely Saul of Tarsus
+on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians was not
+in love. Love forgives to seventy times seven and
+persecutes nobody.</p>
+
+<p>We do not know just what it was that turned Franklin;
+he had tried folly&mdash;we know that&mdash;and he just seems
+to have anticipated Browning and concluded:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;It's wiser being good than bad;<br /></span>
+<span>It's safer being meek than fierce;<br /></span>
+<span>It's better being sane than mad.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div><p><a name="III_Page_42"></a></p>
+
+<p>On this voyage the young printer was thrust down into
+the depths and made to wrestle with the powers of
+darkness; and in the remorse of soul that came over
+him he made a liturgy to be repeated night and morning,
+and at midday. There were many items in this
+ritual&mdash;all of which were corrected and amended from
+time to time in after-years. Here are a few paragraphs
+that represent the longings and trend of the lad's heart.
+His prayer was:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I may have tenderness for the meek; that I may
+be kind to my neighbors, good-natured to my companions
+and hospitable to strangers. Help me, O God!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I may be averse to craft and overreaching, abhor
+extortion and every kind of weakness and wickedness.
+Help me, O God!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I may have constant regard to honor and
+probity; that I may possess an innocent and good
+conscience, and at length become truly virtuous and
+magnanimous. Help me, O God!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I may refrain from calumny and detraction; that
+I may abhor deceit, and avoid lying, envy and fraud,
+flattery, hatred, malice and ingratitude. Help me, O
+God!&quot;.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in addition, he formed rules of conduct and wrote
+them out and committed them to memory. The maxims
+he adopted are old as thought, yet can never become
+antiquated, for in morals there is nothing either new
+or old, neither can there be.<a name="III_Page_43"></a></p>
+
+<p>On that return voyage from England, he inwardly
+vowed that his first act on getting ashore would be to
+find Deborah Read and make peace with her and his
+conscience. And true to his vow, he found her, but she
+was the wife of another. Her mother believed that
+Franklin had run away simply to get rid of her, and the
+poor girl, dazed and forlorn, bereft of will, had been
+induced to marry a man by the name of Rogers, who
+was a potter and also a potterer, but who Franklin
+says was &quot;a very good potter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After some months,
+Deborah left the potter, because she did not like to be
+reproved with a strap, and went home to her mother.</p>
+
+<p>Franklin was now well in the way of prosperity, aged
+twenty-four, with a little printing business, plans plus,
+and ambitions to spare. He had had his little fling in
+life, and had done various things of which he was
+ashamed; and the foolish things that Deborah had done
+were no worse than those of which he had been guilty.
+So he called on her, and they talked it over and made
+honest confessions that are good for the soul. The
+potter disappeared&mdash;no one knew where&mdash;some said he
+was dead, but Benjamin and Deborah did not wear
+mourning. They took rumor's word for it, and thanked
+God, and went to a church and were married.</p>
+
+<p>Deborah brought to the firm a very small dowry; and
+Benjamin contributed a bright baby boy, aged two
+years, captured no one knows just where. This boy was
+William Franklin, who grew up into a very excellent
+<a name="III_Page_44"></a>man, and the worst that can be said of him is that he
+became Governor of New Jersey. He loved and respected
+his father, and called Deborah mother, and loved her
+very much. And she was worthy of all love, and ever
+treated him with tenderness and gentlest considerate
+care. Possibly a blot on the 'scutcheon may, in the working
+of God's providence, not always be a dire misfortune,
+for it sometimes has the effect of binding broken
+hearts as nothing else can, as a cicatrice toughens the
+fiber.</p>
+
+<p>Deborah had not much education, but she had good,
+sturdy commonsense, which is better if you are forced
+to make choice. She set herself to help her husband in
+every way possible, and so far as I know, never sighed
+for one of those things you call &quot;a career.&quot; She even
+worked in the printing-office, folding, stitching, and
+doing up bundles.</p>
+
+<p>Long years afterward, when Franklin was Ambassador
+of the American Colonies in France, he told with pride
+that the clothes he wore were spun, woven, cut out, and
+made into garments&mdash;all by his wife's own hands.
+Franklin's love for Deborah was very steadfast.
+Together they became rich and respected, won world-wide
+fame, and honors came that way such as no
+American before or since has ever received.</p>
+
+<p>And when I say, &quot;God bless all good women who help
+men do their work,&quot; I simply repeat the words once used
+by Benjamin Franklin when he had Deborah in mind.<a name="III_Page_45"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>When Franklin was forty-two, he had accumulated
+a fortune of seventy-five thousand
+dollars. It gave him an income of about four
+thousand dollars a year, which he said was
+all he wanted; so he sold out his business, intending to
+devote his entire energies to the study of science and
+languages. He had lived just one-half his days; and had
+he then passed out, his life could have been summed up
+as one of the most useful that ever has been lived. He
+had founded and been the life of the Junto Club&mdash;the
+most sensible and beneficent club of which I ever
+heard.</p>
+
+<p>The series of questions asked at every meeting of the
+Junto, so mirror the life and habit of thought of Franklin
+that we had better glance at a few of them:</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li>Have you read over these queries this morning, in
+order to consider what you might have to offer the
+Junto, touching any one of them?</li>
+
+<li>Have you met with anything in the author you last
+read, remarkable, or suitable to be communicated to
+the Junto; particularly in history, morality, poetry,
+physics, travels, mechanical arts, or other parts of
+knowledge?</li>
+
+<li>Do you know of a fellow-citizen, who has lately done
+a worthy action, deserving praise and imitation; or
+who has lately committed an error, proper for us to be
+warned against and avoid?</li>
+
+<li>What unhappy effects of intemperance have you
+<a name="III_Page_46"></a>lately observed or heard; of imprudence, of passion, or
+of any other vice or folly?</li>
+
+<li>What happy effects of temperance, of prudence, of
+moderation, or of any other virtue?</li>
+
+<li>Do you think of anything at present in which the
+members of the Junto may be serviceable to mankind,
+to their country, to their friends, or to themselves?</li>
+
+<li>Hath any deserving stranger arrived in town since
+last meeting that you have heard of? And what have
+you heard or observed of his character or merits? And
+whether, think you, it lies in the power of the Junto to
+oblige him, or encourage him as he deserves?</li>
+
+<li>Do you know of any deserving young beginner, lately
+set up, whom it lies in the power of the Junto in any
+way to encourage?</li>
+
+<li>Have you lately observed any defect in the laws of
+your country, of which it would be proper to move the
+legislature for an amendment? Or do you know of any
+beneficial law that is wanting?</li>
+
+<li>Have you lately observed any encroachment on the
+just liberties of the people?</li>
+
+<li>In what manner can the Junto, or any of its members,
+assist you in any of your honorable designs?</li>
+
+<li>Have you any weighty affair on hand in which you
+think the advice of the Junto may be of service?</li>
+
+<li>What benefits have you lately received from any
+man not present?</li>
+
+<li>Is there any difficulty in matters of opinion, of
+<a name="III_Page_47"></a>justice and injustice, which you would gladly have
+discussed at this time?</li>
+</ol>
+
+
+<p>The Junto led to the establishment, by Franklin, of the
+Philadelphia Public Library, which became the parent
+of all public libraries in America. He also organized and
+equipped a fire-company; paved and lighted the streets
+of Philadelphia; established a high school and an
+academy for the study of English branches; founded the
+Philadelphia Public Hospital; invented the toggle-joint
+printing-press, the Franklin Stove, and various other
+useful mechanical devices.</p>
+
+<p>After his retirement from business, Franklin enjoyed
+seven years of what he called leisure, but they were
+years of study and application; years of happiness and
+sweet content, but years of aspiration and an earnest
+looking into the future. His experiments with kite and
+key had made his name known in all the scientific
+circles of Europe, and his suggestive writings on the
+subject of electricity had caused Goethe to lay down his
+pen and go to rubbing amber for the edification of all
+Weimar.</p>
+
+<p>Franklin was in correspondence with the
+greatest minds of Europe, and what his &quot;Poor Richard
+Almanac&quot; had done for the plain people of America,
+his pamphlets were now doing for the philosophers of
+the Old World.</p>
+
+<p>In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-four, he wrote a treatise
+showing the Colonies that they must be united, and this
+was the first public word that was to grow and crystallize
+<a name="III_Page_48"></a>and become the United States of America. Before that,
+the Colonies were simply single, independent, jealous
+and bickering overgrown clans. Franklin showed for the
+first time that they must unite in mutual aims.</p>
+
+<p>In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-seven, matters were
+getting a little strained between the Province of
+Pennsylvania and England. &quot;The lawmakers of England
+do not understand us&mdash;some one should go there
+as an authorized agent to plead our cause,&quot; and Franklin
+was at once chosen as the man of strongest personality
+and soundest sense. So Franklin went to England and
+remained there for five years as agent for the Colonies.</p>
+
+<p>He then returned home, but after two years the
+Stamp Act had stirred up the public temper to a degree
+that made revolution imminent, and Franklin again
+went to England to plead for justice. The record of the
+ten years he now spent in London is told by Bancroft
+in a hundred pages. Bancroft is very good, and! have
+no desire to rival him, so suffice it to say that Franklin
+did all that any man could have done to avert the
+coming War of the Revolution. Burke has said that
+when he appeared before Parliament to be examined
+as to the condition of things in America, it was like a
+lot of schoolboys interrogating the master.</p>
+
+<p>With the voice and tongue of a prophet, Franklin
+foretold the English people what the outcome of their
+treatment of America would be. Pitt and a few others
+knew the greatness of Franklin, and saw that he was
+<a name="III_Page_49"></a>right, but the rest smiled in derision.</p>
+
+<p>He sailed for
+home in Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five, and urged
+the Continental Congress to the Declaration of
+Independence, of which he became a signer. Then the
+war came, and had not Franklin gone to Paris and made
+an ally of France, and borrowed money, the Continental
+Army could not have been maintained in the field.</p>
+
+<p>He remained in France for nine years, and was the pride
+and pet of the people. His sound sense, his good humor,
+his distinguished personality, gave him the freedom of
+society everywhere. He had the ability to adapt himself
+to conditions, and was everywhere at home.</p>
+
+<p>Once, he attended a memorable banquet in Paris
+shortly after the close of the Revolutionary War.
+Among the speakers was the English Ambassador, who
+responded to the toast, &quot;Great Britain.&quot; The Ambassador
+dwelt at length on England's greatness, and
+likened her to the sun that sheds its beneficent rays on
+all. The next toast was &quot;America,&quot; and Franklin was
+called on to respond. He began very modestly by saying:
+&quot;The Republic is too young to be spoken of in terms
+of praise; her career is yet to come, and so, instead of
+America, I will name you a man, George Washington&mdash;the
+Joshua who successfully commanded the sun to
+stand still.&quot; The Frenchmen at the board forgot the
+courtesy due their English guest, and laughed needlessly
+loud.</p>
+
+<p>Franklin was regarded in Paris as the man who had both
+<a name="III_Page_50"></a>planned the War of the Revolution, and fought it.
+They said, &quot;He despoiled the thunderbolt of its danger
+and snatched sovereignty out of the hand of King
+George of England.&quot; No doubt that his ovation was
+largely owing to the fact that he was supposed to have
+plucked whole handfuls of feathers from England's
+glory, and surely they were pretty nearly right.</p>
+
+<p>In point of all-round development, Franklin must stand
+as the foremost American. The one intent of his mind
+was to purify his own spirit, to develop his intellect
+on every side, and make his body the servant of his
+soul. His passion was to acquire knowledge, and the
+desire of his heart was to communicate it.</p>
+
+<p>The writings of Franklin&mdash;simple, clear, concise, direct,
+impartial, brimful of commonsense&mdash;form a model
+which may be studied by every one with pleasure and
+profit. They should constitute a part of the curriculum
+of every college and high school that aspires to cultivate
+in its pupils a pure style and correct literary taste.</p>
+
+<p>We know of no man who ever lived a fuller life, a
+happier life, a life more useful to other men, than
+Benjamin Franklin. For forty-two years he gave the
+constant efforts of his life to his country, and during all
+that time no taint of a selfish action can be laid to his
+charge. Almost his last public act was to petition
+Congress to pass an act for the abolition of slavery.
+He died in Seventeen Hundred Ninety, and as you walk
+up Arch Street, Philadelphia, only a few squares from
+<a name="III_Page_51"></a>the spot where stood his printing-shop, you can see the
+place where he sleeps.</p>
+
+<p>The following epitaph, written by himself, not,
+however, appear on the simple monument that marks
+his grave:</p>
+
+
+<p class="ctr">                      The Body<br />
+                         of<br />
+             Benjamin Franklin, Printer<br />
+          (Like the cover of an old book,<br />
+               Its contents torn out,<br />
+    And stripped of its lettering and gilding,)<br />
+             Lies here food for worms.<br />
+       Yet the work itself shall not be lost,<br />
+      For it will (as he believes) appear once<br />
+                        more<br />
+                      In a new<br />
+             And more beautiful Edition<br />
+               Corrected and Amended<br />
+                         By<br />
+                    The Author.</p>
+
+<p><a name="III_Page_52"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="THOMAS_JEFFERSON"></a></p><h2>THOMAS JEFFERSON</h2>
+<p><a name="III_Page_53"></a></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>If I could not go to Heaven but with a Party, I would
+not go there at all.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Jefferson, in a Letter to Madison</i></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_54"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-4.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-4_th.jpg" alt="THOMAS JEFFERSON" /></a></p><p class="ctr">THOMAS JEFFERSON</p>
+<p><a name="III_Page_55"></a></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>William and Mary College
+was founded in Sixteen Hundred
+Ninety-two by the persons whose
+names it bears. The founders bestowed
+on it an endowment that
+would have been generous had there
+not been attached to it sundry strings
+in way of conditions.</p>
+
+<p>The intent
+was to make Indians Episcopalians, and white students
+clergymen; and the assumption being that between the
+whites and the aborigines there was little difference,
+the curriculum was an ecclesiastic medley.</p>
+
+<p>All the teachers were appointed by the Bishop of London,
+and the places were usually given to clergymen
+who were not needed in England.</p>
+
+<p>To this college, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty, came
+Thomas Jefferson, a tall, red-haired youth, aged seventeen.
+He had a sharp nose and a sharp chin; and a
+youth having these has a sharp intellect&mdash;mark it well.</p>
+
+<p>This boy had not been &quot;sent&quot; to college. He came
+of his own accord from his home at Shadwell, five days'
+horseback journey through the woods. His father was
+dead, and his mother, a rare gentle soul, was an invalid.</p>
+
+<p>Death is not a calamity &quot;per se,&quot; nor is physical
+weakness necessarily a curse, for out of these seeming
+unkind conditions Nature often distils her finest
+<a name="III_Page_56"></a>products. The dying injunction of a father may impress
+itself upon a son as no example of right living ever can,
+and the physical disability of a mother may be the
+means that work for excellence and strength. The last-expressed
+wish of Peter Jefferson was that his son
+should be well educated, and attain to a degree of
+useful manliness that the father had never reached.
+And into the keeping of this fourteen-year-old youth
+the dying man, with the last flicker of his intellect,
+gave the mother, sisters and baby brother.</p>
+
+<p>We often hear of persons who became aged in a single
+night, their hair turning from dark to white; but I have
+seen death thrust responsibility upon a lad and make
+of him a man between the rising of the sun and its
+setting. When we talk of &quot;right environment&quot; and
+the &quot;proper conditions&quot; that should surround growing
+youth, we fan the air with words&mdash;there is no such
+thing as a universal right environment.</p>
+
+<p>An appreciative chapter might here be inserted concerning
+those beings who move about only in rolling
+chairs, who never see the winter landscape but through
+windows, and who exert their gentle sway from an
+invalid's couch, to which the entire household or neighborhood
+come to confession or to counsel. And yet I
+have small sympathy for the people who professionally
+enjoy poor health, and no man more than I reverences
+the Greek passion for physical perfection. But a close
+study of Jefferson's early life reveals the truth that the
+<a name="III_Page_57"></a>death of his father and the physical weakness of his
+mother and sisters were factors that developed in him
+a gentle sense of chivalry, a silken strength of will, and
+a habit of independent thought and action that served
+him in good stead throughout a long life.</p>
+
+<p>Williamsburg was then the capital of Virginia. It contained
+only about a thousand inhabitants, but when
+the Legislature was in session it was very gay.</p>
+
+<p>At one end of a wide avenue was the Capitol, and at
+the other the Governor's &quot;palace&quot;; and when the city
+of Washington was laid out, Williamsburg served as a
+model. On Saturdays, there were horse-races on the
+&quot;Avenue&quot;; everybody gambled; cockfights and dogfights
+were regarded as manly diversions; there was
+much carousing at taverns; and often at private houses
+there were all-night dances where the rising sun found
+everybody but the servants plain drunk.</p>
+
+<p>At the college, both teachers and scholars were obliged
+to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles and to recite
+the Catechism. The atmosphere was charged with
+theology.</p>
+
+<p>Young Jefferson had never before seen a village of even
+a dozen houses, and he looked upon this as a type of all
+cities. He thought about it, talked about it, wrote about
+it, and we now know that at this time his ideas concerning
+city versus country crystallized.</p>
+
+<p>Fifty years after, when he had come to know London
+and Paris, and had seen the chief cities of Christendom,
+<a name="III_Page_58"></a>he repeated the words he had written in youth, &quot;The
+hope of a nation lies in its tillers of the soil!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>On his mother's side he was related to the &quot;first
+families,&quot; but aristocracy and caste had no fascination
+for him, and he then began forming those ideas of
+utility, simplicity and equality that time only strengthened.</p>
+
+<p>His tutors and professors served chiefly as &quot;horrible
+examples,&quot; with the shining exception of Doctor Small.
+The friendship that ripened between this man and
+young Jefferson is an ideal example of what can be
+done through the personal touch. Men are great only
+as they excel in sympathy; and the difference between
+sympathy and imagination has not yet been shown us.</p>
+
+<p>Doctor Small encouraged the young farmer from the
+hills to think and to express himself. He did not endeavor
+to set him straight or explain everything for
+him, or correct all his vagaries, or demand that he
+should memorize rules. He gave his affectionate sympathy
+to the boy who, with a sort of feminine tenderness,
+clung to the only person who understood him.</p>
+
+<p>To Doctor Small, pedigree and history unknown, let
+us give the credit of being first in the list of friends that
+gave bent to the mind of Jefferson. John Burke, in his
+&quot;History of Virginia,&quot; refers to Professor Small thus:
+&quot;He was not any too orthodox in his opinions.&quot; And
+here we catch a glimpse of a formative influence in the
+life of Jefferson that caused him to turn from the letter
+<a name="III_Page_59"></a>of the law and cleave to the spirit that maketh alive.
+After school-hours the tutor and the student walked
+and talked, and on Saturdays and Sundays went on
+excursions through the woods; and to the youth there
+was given an impulse for a scientific knowledge of birds
+and flowers and the host of life that thronged the forest.
+And when the pair had strayed so far beyond the town
+that darkness gathered and the stars came out, they
+conversed of the wonders of the sky.</p>
+
+<p>The true scientist has no passion for killing things. He
+says with Thoreau, &quot;To shoot a bird is to lose it.&quot;
+Professor Small had the gentle instinct that respects
+life, and he refused to take that which he could not
+give. To his youthful companion he imparted, in a
+degree, the secret of enjoying things without the passion
+for possession and the lust of ownership.</p>
+
+<p>There is a myth abroad that college towns are intellectual
+centers; but the number of people in a college
+town (or any other) who really think, is very few.</p>
+
+<p>Williamsburg was gay, and, this much said, it is needless
+to add it was not intellectual. But Professor Small
+was a thinker, and so was Governor Fauquier; and these
+two were firm friends, although very unlike in many
+ways. And to &quot;the palace&quot; of the courtly Fauquier,
+Small took his young friend Jefferson. Fauquier was
+often a master of the revels, but after his seasons of
+dissipation he turned to Small for absolution and comfort.
+At these times he seemed to Jefferson a paragon
+<a name="III_Page_60"></a>of excellence. To the grace of the French he added the
+earnestness of the English. He quoted Pope, and talked
+of Swift, Addison and Thomson. Fauquier and Jefferson
+became friends, although more than a score of years
+and a world of experience separated them. Jefferson
+caught a little of Fauquier's grace, love of books and
+delight in architecture. But Fauquier helped him most
+by gambling away all his ready money and getting
+drunk and smoking strong pipes with his feet on the
+table. And Jefferson then vowed he would never handle
+a card, nor use tobacco, nor drink intoxicating liquors.
+And in conversation with Small, he anticipated Buckle
+by saying, &quot;To gain leisure, wealth must first be secured;
+but once leisure is gained, more people use it in
+the pursuit of pleasure than employ it in acquiring
+knowledge.&quot;<a name="III_Page_61"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Had Jefferson lived in a great city he would
+have been an architect. His practical nature,
+his mastery of mathematics, his love of
+proportion, and his passion for music are the
+basic elements that make a Christopher Wren. But
+Virginia, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty-five, offered no
+temptation to ambitions along that line; log houses with
+a goodly &quot;crack&quot; were quite good enough, and if the
+domicile proved too small the plan of the first was
+simply duplicated. Yet a career of some kind young
+Jefferson knew awaited him.</p>
+
+<p>About this time the rollicking Patrick Henry came
+along. Patrick played the violin, and so did Thomas.
+These two young men had first met on a musical basis.
+Some otherwise sensible people hold that musicians are
+shallow and impractical; and I know one man who
+declares that truth and honesty and uprightness never
+dwelt in a professional musician's heart; and further,
+that the tribe is totally incapable of comprehending the
+difference between &quot;meum&quot; and &quot;tuum.&quot; But then
+this same man claims that actors are rascals who have
+lost their own characters in the business of playing they
+are somebody else. And yet I'll explain for the benefit
+of the captious that, although Thomas Jefferson and
+Patrick Henry both fiddled, they never did and never
+would fiddle while Rome burned. Music was with them
+a pastime, not a profession.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Patrick Henry arrived at Williamsburg, he
+<a name="III_Page_62"></a>sought out his old friend Thomas Jefferson, because he
+liked him&mdash;and to save tavern bill. And Patrick
+announced that he had come to Williamsburg to be
+admitted to the bar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How long have you studied law?&quot; asked Jefferson.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, for six weeks last Tuesday,&quot; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>Tradition has it that Jefferson advised Patrick to go
+home and study at least a fortnight more before making
+his application. But Patrick declared that the way to
+learn law is to practise it, and he surely was right.
+Most young lawyers are really never aware of how little
+law they know until they begin to practise.</p>
+
+<p>But Patrick Henry was duly admitted, although George
+Wythe protested. Then Patrick went back home to
+tend bar (the other kind) for Laban, his father-in-law,
+for full four years. He studied hard and practised a
+little betimes&mdash;and his is the only instance that history
+records of a barkeeper acquiring wisdom while following
+his calling; but for the encouragement of budding youth
+I write it down.<a name="III_Page_63"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>No doubt it was the example of Patrick Henry
+that caused Jefferson to adopt his profession.
+But it was the literary side of law that first
+attracted him&mdash;not the practise of it. As a
+speaker he was singularly deficient, a slight physical
+malformation of the throat giving him a very poor and
+uncertain voice. But he studied law, and after all it
+does not make much difference what a man studies&mdash;all
+knowledge is related, and the man who studies anything
+if he keeps at it will become learned.</p>
+
+<p>So Jefferson studied in the office of George Wythe, and
+absorbed all that Fauquier had to offer, and grew wise
+in the companionship of Doctor Small. From a red-headed,
+lean, lank, awkward mountaineer, he developed
+into a gracious and graceful young man who has been
+described as &quot;auburn-haired.&quot; And the evolution from
+being red-headed to having red hair, and from that to
+being auburn-haired, proves he was the genuine article.
+Still he was hot handsome&mdash;that word can not be used
+to describe him until he was sixty&mdash;for he was freckled,
+one shoulder wets higher than the other, and his legs
+were so thin that they could not do justice to small-clothes.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it will not do to assume that thin men are weak,
+any more than to take it for granted that fat men are
+strong. Jefferson was as muscular as a panther and could
+walk or ride or run six days and nights together. He
+could lift from the floor a thousand pounds.<a name="III_Page_64"></a></p>
+
+<p>When twenty-four, he hung out his lawyer's sign under
+that of George Wythe at Williamsburg. And clients
+came that way with retainers, and rich planters sent
+him business, and wealthy widows advised with him&mdash;and
+still he could not make a speech without stuttering.
+Many men can harangue a jury, and every village has
+its orator; but where is the wise and silent man who will
+advise you in a way that will keep you out of difficulty,
+protect your threatened interests, and conduct the
+affairs you may leave in his hands so as to return your
+ten talents with other talents added! And I hazard
+the statement, without heat or prejudice, that if the
+experiment should be made with a thousand lawyers
+in any one of our larger cities, four-fifths of them would
+be found so deficient, either mentally, morally or both,
+that if ten talents were placed in their hands, they
+would not at the close of a year be able to account for
+the principal, to say nothing of the interest. And the
+bar of today is made up of a better class than it was in
+Jefferson's time, even if it has not the intellectual fiber
+that it had forty years ago.</p>
+
+<p>But at the early age of twenty-five, Jefferson was a wise
+and skilful man in the world's affairs (and a man who is
+wise is also honest), and men of this stamp do not
+remain hidden in obscurity. The world needs just such
+individuals and needs them badly. Jefferson had the
+quiet, methodical industry that works without undue expenditure
+of nervous force; that intuitive talent which
+<a name="III_Page_65"></a>enables the possessor to read a whole page at a glance
+and drop at once upon the vital point; and then he had
+the ability to get his whole case on paper, marshaling
+his facts in a brief, pointed way that served to convince
+better than eloquence. These are the characteristics
+that make for success in practise before our Courts of
+Appeal; and Jefferson's success shows that they serve
+better than bluster, even with a backwoods bench
+composed of fox-hunting farmers.</p>
+
+<p>In Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight, when Jefferson was
+twenty-five, he went down to Shadwell and ran for
+member of the Virginia Legislature. It was the proper
+thing to do, for he was the richest man in the county,
+being heir to his father's forty thousand acres, and it
+was expected that he would represent his district. He
+called on every voter in the parish, shook hands with
+everybody, complimented the ladies, caressed the
+babies, treated crowds at every tavern, and kept a large
+punch-bowl and open house at home. He was elected.
+On the Eleventh of May, Seventeen Hundred Sixty-nine,
+the Legislature convened, with nearly a hundred
+members present, Colonel George Washington being
+one of the number. It took two days for the Assembly to
+elect a Speaker and get ready for business. On the third
+day, four resolutions were introduced&mdash;pushed to the
+front largely through the influence of our new member.</p>
+
+<p>These resolutions were:</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li>No taxation without representation.<a name="III_Page_66"></a></li>
+
+<li>The Colonies may concur and unite in seeking redress
+for grievances.</li>
+
+<li>Sending accused persons away from their own
+country for trial is an inexcusable wrong.</li>
+
+<li>We will send an address on these things to the King
+beseeching his royal interposition.</li>
+</ol>
+
+
+<p>The resolutions were passed: they did not mean much
+anyway, the opposition said. And then another resolution
+was passed to this effect: &quot;We will send a copy
+of these resolutions to every legislative body on the
+continent.&quot; That was a little stronger, but did not
+mean much either.</p>
+
+<p>It was voted upon and passed.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Assembly adjourned, having dispatched a
+copy of the resolutions to Lord Boutetourt, the newly
+appointed Governor who had just arrived from London.</p>
+
+<p>Next day, the Governor's secretary appeared when
+the Assembly convened, and repeated the following
+formula: &quot;The Governor commands the House to
+attend His Excellency in the Council-Chamber.&quot; The
+members marched to the Council-Chamber and stood
+around the throne waiting the pleasure of His Lordship.
+He made a speech which I will quote entire. &quot;Mr.
+Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses: I
+have heard your resolves, and augur ill of their effect.
+You have made it my duty to dissolve you, and you are
+dissolved accordingly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And that was the end of Jefferson's first term in office&mdash;<a name="III_Page_67"></a>the
+reward for all the hand-shaking, all the caressing,
+all the treating!</p>
+
+<p>The members looked at one another, but no one said
+anything, because there was nothing to say. The
+secretary made an impatient gesture with his hand to
+the effect that they should disperse, and they did.</p>
+
+<p>Just how these legally elected representatives and now
+legally common citizens took their rebuff we do not
+know.</p>
+
+<p>Did Washington forget his usual poise and break out
+into one of those swearing fits where everybody wisely
+made way? And how did Richard Henry Lee like it, and
+George Wythe, and the Randolphs? Did Patrick Henry
+wax eloquent that afternoon in a barroom, and did
+Jefferson do more than smile grimly, biding his time?</p>
+
+<p>Massachusetts kept a complete history of her political
+heresies, but Virginia chased foxes and left the refinements
+of literature to dilettantes. But this much we
+know: Those country gentlemen did not go off peaceably
+and quietly to race horses or play cards. The slap
+in the face from the gloved hand of Lord Boutetourt
+awoke every boozy sense of security and gave vitality
+to all fanatical messages sent by Samuel Adams.
+Washington, we are told, spoke of it as a bit of upstart
+authority on the part of the new Governor; but Jefferson
+with true prophetic vision saw the end.<a name="III_Page_68"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>One of the leading lawyers at Williamsburg,
+against whom Jefferson was often pitted, was
+John Wayles. I need not explain that lawyers
+hotly opposed to each other in a trial are not
+necessarily enemies. The way in which Jefferson conducted
+his cases pleased the veteran Wayles, and he
+invited Jefferson to visit him at his fine estate, called
+&quot;The Forest,&quot; a few miles out from Williamsburg.
+Now, in the family of Mr. Wayles dwelt his widowed
+daughter, the beautiful Martha Skelton, gracious and
+rich as Jefferson in worldly goods. She played the spinet
+with great feeling, and the spinet and the violin go very
+well together. So, together, Thomas and Martha played,
+and sometimes a bit of discord crept in, for Thomas was
+absent-minded and, in the business of watching the
+widow's fingers touch the keys, played flat.</p>
+
+<p>Long years before, he had liked and admired Becca,
+gazed fondly at Sukey, and finally loved Belinda. He
+did not tell her so, but he told John Page, and vowed
+that if he did not wed Belinda he would go through
+life solitary and alone. In a few months Belinda married
+that detested being&mdash;another. Then it was he again
+swore to his friend Page he would be true to her memory,
+even though she had dissembled. But now he saw
+that the widow Skelton had intellect, while Belinda
+had been but clever; the widow had soul, while Belinda
+had nothing but form. Jefferson's experience seems to
+settle that mooted question, &quot;Can a man love two
+<a name="III_Page_69"></a>women at the same time?&quot; Unlike Martha Custis,
+this Martha was won only after a protracted wooing,
+with many skirmishes and occasional misunderstandings
+and explanations, and sweet makings-up that were
+surely worth a quarrel.</p>
+
+<p>Then they were married at &quot;The Forest,&quot; and rode
+away through the woods to Monticello. Jefferson was
+twenty-seven, and although it may not be proper to
+question closely as to the age of the widow, yet the
+bride, we have reason to believe, was about the age of
+her husband.</p>
+
+<p>It was a most happy mating&mdash;all their quarreling had
+been done before marriage. The fine intellect and high
+spirit of Jefferson found their mate. She was his comrade
+and helpmeet as well as his wife. He could read his
+favorite Ossian aloud to her, and when he tired she
+would read to him; and all his plans and ambitions and
+hopes were hers. In laying out the grounds and beautifying
+that home on Monticello mountain, she took
+much more than a passive interest. It was &quot;Our Home,&quot;
+and to make it a home in very sooth for her beloved
+husband was her highest ambition. She knew the greatness
+of her mate, and all the dreams she had for his
+advancement were to come true. With her, ideality
+was to become reality. But she was to see it only in
+part.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she had seen her husband re-elected to the Virginia
+Legislature; sent as a member to the Colonial Congress
+<a name="III_Page_70"></a>at Philadelphia, there to write the best known of all
+American literary productions; from their mountain
+home she had seen British troops march into Charlottesville,
+four miles away, and then, with household treasure,
+had fled, knowing that beautiful Monticello would
+be devastated by the enemy's ruthless tread. She had
+known Washington, and had visited his lonely wife
+there at Mount Vernon when victory hung in the balance;
+when defeat meant that Thomas Jefferson and
+George Washington would be the first victims of a
+vengeful foe. She saw her husband War-Governor of
+Virginia in its most perilous hour; she lived to know
+that Washington had won; that Cornwallis was his
+&quot;guest,&quot; and that no man, save Washington alone, was
+more honored in proud Virginia than her beloved lord
+and husband. She saw a messenger on horseback approach
+bearing a packet from the Congress at Philadelphia
+to the effect that &quot;His Excellency, the Honorable
+Thomas Jefferson,&quot; had been appointed as one of an
+embassy to France in the interests of the United States,
+with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane as colleagues,
+and, knowing her husband's love for Franklin, and his
+respect for France, she leaned over his chair and with
+misty eyes saw him write his simple &quot;No,&quot; and knew
+that the only reason he declined was because he would
+not leave his wife at a time when she might most need
+his tenderness and sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>And then they retired to beloved Monticello to enjoy
+<a name="III_Page_71"></a>the rest that comes only after work well done&mdash;to spend
+the long vacation of their lives in simple homekeeping
+work and studious leisure, her husband yet in manhood's
+prime, scarce thirty-seven, as men count time,
+and rich, passing rich, in goods and lands.</p>
+
+<p>And then she died.</p>
+
+<p>And Thomas Jefferson, the strong, the self-poised, the
+self-reliant, fell in a helpless swoon, and was laid on a
+pallet and carried out, as though he, too, were dead.
+For three weeks his dazed senses prayed for death. He
+could endure the presence of no one save his eldest
+daughter, a slim, slender girl of scarce ten years, grown
+a woman in a day. By her loving touch and tenderness
+he was lured back from death and reason's night into
+the world of life and light. With tottering steps, led by
+the child who had to think for both, he was taken out
+on the veranda of beautiful Monticello. He looked out
+on stretching miles of dark-blue hills and waving woods
+and winding river. He gazed, and as he looked it came
+slowly to him that the earth was still as when he last
+saw it, and realized that this would be so even if he
+were gone. Then, turning to the child, who stood by,
+stroking his locks, it came to him that even in grief
+there may be selfishness, and for the first time he responded
+to the tender caress, saying, &quot;Yes, we will
+live, daughter&mdash;live in memory of her!&quot;<a name="III_Page_72"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>When two men of equal intelligence and sincerity
+quarrel, both are probably right. Hamilton
+and Jefferson were opposed to each other
+by temperament and disposition, in a way that
+caused either to look with distrust on any proposition
+made by the other. And yet, when Washington pressed
+upon Jefferson the position of Secretary of State, I can
+not but think he did it as an antidote to the growing
+power and vaunting ambition of Hamilton. Washington
+won his victories, as great men ever do, by wisely
+choosing his aides. Hamilton had done yeoman's service
+in every branch of the government, and while the
+chief sincerely admired his genius, he guessed his limitations.
+Power grows until it topples, and when it topples,
+innocent people are crushed. Washington was wise as a
+serpent, and rather than risk open ruction with Hamilton
+by personally setting bounds, he invited Jefferson
+into his cabinet, and the acid was neutralized to a degree
+where it could be safely handled.</p>
+
+<p>Jefferson had just returned from Paris with his beloved
+daughter, Martha. He was intending soon to return to
+France and study social science at close range. Already,
+he had seen that mob of women march out to Versailles
+and fetch the King to Paris, and had seen barricade after
+barricade erected with the stones from the leveled
+Bastile; he was on intimate and affectionate terms with
+Lafayette and the Republican leaders, and here was a
+pivotal point in his life. Had not Washington persuaded
+<a name="III_Page_73"></a>him to remain &quot;just for the present&quot; in America, he
+might have played a part in Carlyle's best book, that
+book which is not history, but more&mdash;an epic. So,
+among the many obligations that America owes to
+Washington, must be named this one of pushing
+Thomas Jefferson, the scholar and man of peace, into
+the political embroglio and shutting the door. Then it
+was that Hamilton's taunting temper awoke a degree
+of power in Jefferson that before he wist not of; then
+it was that he first fully realized that the &quot;United
+States&quot; with England as a sole pattern was not enough.</p>
+
+<p>A pivotal point! Yes, a pivotal point for Jefferson,
+America and the world; for Jefferson gave the rudder
+of the Ship of State such a turn to starboard that there
+was never again danger of her drifting on to aristocratic
+shoals, an easy victim to the rapacity of Great
+Britain. Hamilton's distrust of the people found no
+echo in Jefferson's mind.</p>
+
+<p>He agreed with Hamilton that a &quot;strong government&quot;
+administered by a few, provided the few are wise and
+honorable, is the best possible government. Nay, he
+went further and declared that an absolute monarchy
+in which the monarch was all-wise and all-powerful,
+could not be improved upon by the imagination of man.</p>
+
+<p>In his composition, there was a saving touch of humor
+that both Hamilton and Washington seemed to lack.
+He could smile at himself; but none ever dared turn a
+joke on Hamilton, much less on Washington. And so
+<a name="III_Page_74"></a>when Hamilton explained that a strong government
+administered by Washington, President; Jefferson,
+Secretary of State; Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury;
+Knox, Secretary of War; and Randolph, Attorney-General,
+was pretty nearly ideal, no one smiled. But
+Jefferson's plain inference was that power is dangerous
+and man is fallible; that a man so good as Washington
+dies tomorrow and another man steps in, and that
+those who have the government in their present keeping
+should curb ambitions, limit their own power, and
+thus fix a precedent for those who are to follow.</p>
+
+<p>The wisdom that Jefferson as a statesman showed in
+working for a future good, and the willingness to forego
+the pomp of personal power, to sacrifice self if need be,
+that the day he should not see might be secure, ranks
+him as first among statesmen. For a statesman is one
+who builds a State&mdash;and not a politician who is dead,
+as some have said.</p>
+
+<p>Others, since, have followed Jefferson's example, but
+in the world's history I do not recall a man before him
+who, while still having power in his grasp, was willing
+to trust the people.</p>
+
+<p>The one mistake of Washington that borders on blunder
+was in refusing to take wages for his work. In doing
+this, he visited untold misery on others, who, not having
+married rich widows, tried to follow his example
+and floundered into woeful debt and disgrace; and
+thereby were lost to useful society and to the world.<a name="III_Page_75"></a>
+And there are yet many public offices where small men
+rattle about because men who can fill the place can not
+afford it. Bryce declares that no able and honest man
+of moderate means can afford to take an active part in
+municipal affairs in America&mdash;and Bryce is right.</p>
+
+<p>When Jefferson became President, in his messages to
+Congress again and again he advised the fixing of
+sufficient salaries to secure the best men for every
+branch of the service, and suggested the folly of expecting
+anything for nothing, or the hope of officials not
+&quot;fixing things&quot; if not properly paid.</p>
+
+<p>Men from the soil who gain power are usually intoxicated
+by it; beginning as democrats they evolve into
+aristocrats, then into tyrants, if kindly Fate does not
+interpose, and are dethroned by the people who made
+them. And it is not surprising that this man, born into
+a plenty that bordered on affluence, and who never
+knew from experience the necessity of economy (until
+in old age tobacco and slavery had wrecked Virginia
+and Monticello alike), should set an almost ideal
+example of simplicity, moderation and brotherly kindness.</p>
+
+<p>Among the chief glories that belong to him are these:</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li>Writing the Declaration of Independence.</li>
+
+<li>Suggesting and carrying out the present decimal
+monetary system.</li>
+
+<li>Inducing Virginia to deed to the States, as their
+common property, the Northwest Territory.<a name="III_Page_76"></a></li>
+
+<li>Purchasing from France, for the comparatively
+trifling sum of fifteen million dollars, Louisiana and
+the territory running from the Gulf of Mexico to Puget's
+Sound, being at the rate of a fraction of a cent per acre,
+and giving the United States full control of the Mississippi
+River.</li></ol>
+
+<p>But over and beyond these is the spirit of patriotism
+that makes each true American feel he is parcel and
+part of the very fabric of the State, and in his deepest
+heart believe that &quot;a government of the people, by
+the people, and for the people shall not perish from the
+earth.&quot;</p><p><a name="III_Page_77"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="SAMUEL_ADAMS"></a></p><h2>SAMUEL ADAMS</h2>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>The body of the people are now in council. Their opposition
+grows into a system. They are united and resolute.
+And if the British Administration and Government do
+not return to the principles of moderation and equity,
+the evil, which they profess to aim at preventing by
+their rigorous measures, will the sooner be brought to
+pass, viz., the entire separation and independence of the
+Colonies.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Letter to Arthur Lee</i></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_78"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-5.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-5_th.jpg" alt="SAMUEL ADAMS" /></a></p><p class="ctr">SAMUEL ADAMS</p>
+<p><a name="III_Page_79"></a></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>Samuel and John Adams were
+second cousins, having the same
+great-grandfather. Between them in
+many ways there was a marked
+contrast, but true to their New
+England instincts both were theologians.</p>
+
+<p>John was a conservative in politics,
+and at first had little sympathy with &quot;those small-minded
+men who refused to pay a trivial tax on their
+tea; and who would plunge the country into war, and
+ruin all for a matter of stamps.&quot; John was born and
+lived at the village of Braintree. He did not really center
+his mind on politics until the British had closed all law-courts
+in Boston, thus making his profession obsolete.
+He was scholarly, shrewd, diplomatic, cautious, good-natured,
+fat, and took his religion with a wink. He was
+blessed with a wife who was worthy of being the mother
+of kings (or presidents); he lived comfortably, acquired
+property, and died aged ninety-two. He had been
+President and seen his son President of the United
+States, and that is an experience that has never come
+and probably never will come to another living man,
+for there seems to be an unwritten law that no man
+under fifty shall occupy the office of Chief Magistrate
+of these United States.<a name="III_Page_80"></a></p>
+
+<p>Samuel was stern, serious and deeply in earnest. He
+seldom smiled and never laughed. He was uncompromisingly
+religious, conscientious and morally unbending.
+In his life there was no soft sentiment. The fact that he
+ran a brewery can be excused when we remember that
+the best spirit of the times saw nothing inconsistent
+in the occupation; and further than this we might
+explain in extenuation that he gave the business indifferent
+attention, and the quality of his brew was said
+to be very bad.</p>
+
+<p>In religion, he swerved not nor wavered. He was a
+Calvinist and clung to the five points with a tenacity at
+times seemingly quite unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>When in that first Congress, Samuel Adams publicly consented
+to the opening of the meeting with religious service
+conducted by the Reverend Mr. Duche, an Episcopal
+clergyman, he gave a violent wrench to his conscience
+and an awful shock to his friends. But Mr. Duche met
+the issue in the true spirit, and leaving his detested
+&quot;popery robe&quot; and prayer-book at home uttered an
+extemporaneous invocation, without a trace of intoning,
+that pleased the Puritans and caused one of them to
+remark, &quot;He is surely coming over to the Lord's side!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But in politics, Samuel Adams was a liberal of the
+liberals. In statecraft, the heresy of change had no
+terrors for him, and with Hamlet, he might have said,
+&quot;Oh, reform it altogether!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The limitations set in every character seem to prevent a
+<a name="III_Page_81"></a>man from being generous in more than one direction;
+the bigot in religion is often a liberal in politics, and vice
+versa. For instance, physicians are almost invariably
+liberal in religious matters, but are prone to call a man
+&quot;Mister&quot; who does not belong to their school; while
+orthodox clergymen, I have noticed, usually employ a
+homeopathist.</p>
+
+<p>In that most valuable and interesting work, &quot;The
+Diary of John Adams,&quot; the author refers repeatedly to
+Samuel Adams as &quot;Adams&quot;! This simple way of using
+the word &quot;Adams&quot; shows a world of appreciation for
+the man who blazed the path that others of this
+illustrious name might follow. And so with the high
+precedent in mind, I, too, will drop prefix and call my
+subject simply &quot;Adams.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>On the authority of King George, General Gage made
+an offer of pardon to all save two who had figured in
+the Boston uprising.</p>
+
+<p>The two men thus honored were John Hancock (whose
+signature the King could read without spectacles), and
+the other was &quot;one, S. Adams.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Adams, however, was the real offender, and the plea
+might have been made for John Hancock that, if it had
+not been for accident and Adams, Hancock would
+probably have remained loyal to the mother country.</p>
+
+<p>Hancock was aristocratic, cultured and complacent.
+He was the richest man in New England. His personal
+interests were on the side of peace and the established
+<a name="III_Page_82"></a>order. But circumstances and the combined tact and
+zeal of Adams threw him off his guard, and in a moment
+of dalliance the seeds of sedition found lodgment in his
+brain. And the more he thought about it, the nearer he
+came to the conclusion that Adams was right. But let
+the fact further be stated, if truth demands, that both
+John Hancock and Samuel Adams, the first men who
+clearly and boldly expressed the idea of American
+Independence, were moved in the beginning by personal
+grievances.</p>
+
+<p>A single motion made before the British Parliament by
+we know not whom, and put to vote by the Speaker,
+bankrupted the father of Samuel Adams and robbed
+the youth of his patrimony.</p>
+
+<p>The boy was then seventeen; old enough to know that
+from plenty his father was reduced to penury, and this
+because England, three thousand miles away, had
+interfered with the business arrangements of the
+Colony, and made unlawful a private banking scheme.</p>
+
+<p>Then did the boy ask the question, What moral right
+has England to govern us, anyway?</p>
+
+<p>From thinking it over he began to formulate reasons.
+He discussed the subject at odd times and thought of
+it continually, and, in Seventeen Hundred Forty-three,
+when he prepared his graduation thesis at Harvard
+College he chose for his subject, &quot;The Doctrine of the
+Lawfulness of Resistance to the Supreme Magistrate if
+the Commonwealth Can Not Otherwise be Preserved.&quot;<a name="III_Page_83"></a></p>
+
+<p>When Massachusetts admitted that she was under
+subjection to the King, yet argued for the right to
+nullify the Acts of the English Parliament, she took
+exactly the same ground that South Carolina did a
+hundred years later. The logic of Samuel Adams and
+of Robert Hayne was one and the same.</p>
+
+<p>Yet we are
+glad that Adams carried his point; and we rejoice exceedingly
+that Hayne failed, so curious are these things
+we call &quot;reasons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The royalists who heard of this youth with a logical
+mind denounced him without stint. A few newspapers
+upheld him and spoke of the right of free speech and
+all that, reprinting the thesis in full. And in the controversy
+that followed, young Adams was always a prominent
+figure. He was not an orator in the popular sense,
+but he held the pen of a ready writer, and through the
+Boston papers kept up a constant fusillade.</p>
+
+<p>The tricks of journalism are no new thing belonging to
+the fag-end of this century. Young Adams wrote letters
+over the &quot;nom de plume&quot; of Pro Bono Publico, and
+then replied to them over the signature of Rex Americus.
+He did not adopt as his motto, &quot;Let not thy left hand
+know what thy right hand doeth,&quot; for he wrote with
+both hands and each hand was in the secret.</p>
+
+<p>During the years that followed his graduation from
+college he was a businessman and a poor one, for a man
+who looks after public affairs much can not attend to
+his own. But he managed to make shift; and when too
+<a name="III_Page_84"></a>closely pressed by creditors, a loan from Hancock, or
+John Adams, Hancock's attorney, relieved the pressure.
+In fact, when he went to Philadelphia &quot;on that very
+important errand,&quot; he rode a horse borrowed from John
+Adams, and his Sunday coat was the gift of a thoughtful
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>In Seventeen Hundred Sixty-three, it became known
+that the British Government had on foot a scheme to
+demand a tribute from the Colonies. On invitation of a
+committee, possibly appointed by Adams, Adams was
+requested to draw up instructions to the Representatives
+in the Colonial Legislature. Adams did so and the
+document is now in the archives of the old State House
+at Boston, in the plain and elegant penmanship that is
+so easily recognized. This document calls itself, &quot;The
+First Public Denial of the Right of the British Parliament
+to tax the Colonies without their Consent, and
+the first Public Suggestion of a Union on the part of the
+Colonies to Protect themselves against British Aggression.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The style of the paper is lucid, firm and logical; it
+combines in itself the suggestion of all there was to be
+said or could be said on the matter. Adams saw all over
+and around his topic&mdash;no unpleasant surprise could be
+sprung on him&mdash;twenty-five years had he studied this
+one theme. He had made himself familiar with the
+political history of every nation so far as such history
+could be gathered; he was past master of his subject.<a name="III_Page_85"></a></p>
+
+<p>However, when he was forty years of age his followers
+were few and mostly men of small influence. The Calkers'
+Club was the home of the sedition, and many of the
+members were day-laborers. But the idea of independence
+gradually grew, and, in Seventeen Hundred
+Sixty-five, Adams was elected a member of the Massachusetts
+Colonial Legislature. In honor of his writing
+ability, he was chosen clerk of the Assembly, for in all
+public gatherings orators are chosen as presidents and
+newspapermen for secretaries. Thus are honors distributed,
+and thus, too, does the public show which
+talent it values most.</p>
+
+<p>On November Second, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-two,
+on motion of Adams, a committee of several
+hundred citizens was appointed &quot;to state the Rights of
+the Colonies and to communicate and publish them to
+the World as the sense of the Town, with the infringements
+and violations thereof that have been or may be
+made from time to time; also requesting from each
+Town a free communication of their sentiments on this
+Subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was the Committee of Correspondence from which
+grew the union of the Colonies and the Congress of the
+United States. It is a pretty well attested fact that the
+first suggestion of the Philadelphia Congress came from
+Samuel Adams, and the chief work of bringing it about
+was also his.</p>
+
+<p>It was well known to the British Government who the
+<a name="III_Page_86"></a>chief agitator was, and when General Gage arrived in
+Boston in May, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, his
+first work was an attempt to buy off Samuel Adams.
+With Adams out of the way, England might have
+adopted a policy of conciliation and kept America for
+her very own&mdash;yes, to the point of moving the home
+government here and saving the snug little island as a
+colony, for both in wealth and in population America
+has now far surpassed England.</p>
+
+<p>But Adams was not for sale. His reply to Gage sounds
+like a scrap from Cromwell: &quot;I trust I have long since
+made my peace with the King of Kings. No personal
+consideration shall induce me to abandon the Righteous
+Cause of my Country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gage having refused to recognize the thirteen Counselors
+appointed by the people, the General Court of
+Massachusetts, in secret session, appointed five delegates
+to attend the Congress of Colonies at Philadelphia.
+Of course Samuel Adams was one of these delegates;
+and to John Adams, another delegate, are we indebted
+for a minute description of that most momentous
+meeting.</p>
+
+<p>A room in the State House had been offered the delegates,
+but with commendable modesty they accepted
+the offer of the Carpenters' Company to use their hall.</p>
+
+<p>And so there they convened on the fifth day of September,
+Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, having met
+by appointment, and walked over from the City Tavern
+<a name="III_Page_87"></a>in a body. Forty-four men were present&mdash;not a large
+gathering, but they had come hundreds of miles, and
+several of them had been months on the journey.</p>
+
+<p>They were a sturdy lot; and madam! I think it would
+have been worth while to have looked in upon them.
+There were several coonskin caps in evidence; also lace
+and frills and velvet brought from England&mdash;but
+plainness to severity was the rule. Few of these men
+had ever been away from their own Colonies before,
+few had ever met any members of the Congress save
+their own colleagues. They represented civilizations of
+very different degrees. Each stood a bit in awe of all the
+rest. Several of the Colonies had been in conflict with
+the others.</p>
+
+<p>Meeting new men in those days, when even the stagecoach
+was a passing show worth going miles to see, was
+an event. There was awkwardness and nervousness on
+the swarthy faces; firm mouths twitched, and big, bony
+hands sought for places of concealment.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting had been called for September First, but
+was postponed for five days awaiting the arrival of
+belated delegates who had been detained by floods.
+Even then, delegates from North Carolina had not
+arrived, and Georgia not having thought it worth while
+to send any, eleven Colonies only were represented.
+Each delegation naturally kept together, as men will
+who have a fighting history and a pioneer ancestry.</p>
+
+<p>It was a serious, solemn business, and these men were
+<a name="III_Page_88"></a>not given to levity in any event. When they were
+seated, there was a moment of silence so tense it could
+be heard. Every chance movement of a foot on the
+uncarpeted floor sent an echo through the room.</p>
+
+<p>The stillness was first broken by Mr. Lynch, of South
+Carolina, who arose and in a low, clear voice said:
+&quot;There is a gentleman present who has presided with
+great dignity over a very respectable body and greatly
+to the advantage of America. Gentlemen, I move that
+the Honorable Peyton Randolph, one of the delegates
+from Virginia, be appointed to preside over this meeting.
+I doubt not it will be unanimous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was so; and a large man in powdered wig and scarlet
+coat arose, and, carrying his gold-headed cane before
+him like a mace, walked to the platform without
+apology.</p>
+
+<p>The New Englanders in homespun looked at one
+another with trepidation on their features. The red coat
+was not assuring, but they kept their peace and
+breathed hard, praying that the enemy had not captured
+the convention through strategy. Mr. Randolph's
+first suggestion was not revolutionary; it was that a
+secretary be appointed.</p>
+
+<p>Again Mr. Lynch arose and named Charles Thomson,
+&quot;a gentleman of family, fortune and character.&quot; This
+testimonial of family and fortune was not assuring to
+the plain Massachusetts men, but they said nothing
+and awaited developments.<a name="III_Page_89"></a></p>
+
+<p>All were cautious as woodsmen, and the motion that
+the Council be held behind closed doors was adopted.
+Every member then held up his right hand and made
+a solemn promise to divulge no part of the transactions;
+and Galloway, of Pennsylvania, promised with the rest,
+and straightway each night informed the enemy of
+every move.</p>
+
+<p>Little was done that first day but get acquainted by
+talking very cautiously and very politely. The next day
+a notable member had arrived, and in a front seat sat
+Richard Henry Lee, a man you would turn and look at
+in any company. Slender and dark, with a brilliant eye
+and a profile&mdash;and only one man in ten thousand has a
+profile&mdash;Lee was a gracious presence. His voice was
+gentle and flexible and luring, and there was a dignity
+and poise in his manner that made him easily the foremost
+orator of his time.</p>
+
+<p>Near him sat William Livingston, of New Jersey, and
+John Jay, his son-in-law, the youngest man in the
+Congress, with a nose that denoted character, and all
+his fame in the future.</p>
+
+<p>The Pennsylvanians were all together, grouped on one
+side. Duane, of New York, sat near them, &quot;shy and
+squint-eyed, very sensible and very artful,&quot; wrote John
+Adams that night in his diary.</p>
+
+<p>Then over there sat Christopher Gadsden, of South
+Carolina, who had preached independence for full ten
+years before this, and who, when he heard that the<a name="III_Page_90"></a>
+British soldiers had taken Boston, proposed to raise a
+troop at once and fight redcoats wherever found.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the British will burn our seaport towns if we
+antagonize them,&quot; some timid soul explained.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our towns are built of brick and wood; if they are
+burned we can rebuild them; but liberty once gone is
+gone forever,&quot; he retorted. And the saying sounds well,
+even if it will not stand analysis.</p>
+
+<p>Back near the wall was a man who, when the assembly
+stood at morning prayers, showed a half-head above
+his neighbors. His face was broad, and he, too, had a
+profile. His mouth was tightly closed, and during the
+first fourteen days of that Congress he never opened it
+to utter a word, and after his long quiet he broke the
+silence by saying, &quot;Mr. President, I second the motion.&quot;
+Once, in a passionate speech, Lynch turned to him and
+pointing his finger said: &quot;There is a man who has not
+spoken here, but in the Virginia Assembly he made the
+most eloquent speech I ever heard. He said, 'I will
+raise a thousand men, and arm and subsist them at my
+expense and march them to the relief of Boston.'&quot; And
+then did the tall man, whose name was George Washington,
+blush like a schoolgirl.</p>
+
+<p>But in all that company the men most noticed were the
+five members from Massachusetts. They were Bowdoin,
+Samuel Adams, John Adams, Gushing and Robert
+Treat Paine. Massachusetts had thus far taken the
+lead in the struggle with England. A British army was
+<a name="III_Page_91"></a>encamped upon her soil, her chief city besieged&mdash;the
+port closed. Her sufferings had called this Congress into
+being, and to her delegates the members had come to
+listen. All recognized Samuel Adams as the chief man of
+the Convention. His hand wrote the invitations and
+earnest requests to come. Galloway, writing to his
+friends, the enemy, said: &quot;Samuel Adams eats little,
+drinks little, sleeps little and thinks much. He is most
+decisive and indefatigable in the pursuit of his object.
+He is the man who, by his superior application, manages
+at once the faction in Philadelphia and the factions of
+New England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Yet Samuel Adams talked little at the Convention. He
+allowed John Adams to state the case, but sat next to
+him supplying memoranda, occasionally arising to make
+remarks or explanations in a purely conversational tone.
+But so earnest and impressive was his manner, so ably
+did he answer every argument and reply to every objection,
+that he thoroughly convinced a tall, angular,
+homely man by the name of Patrick Henry of the
+righteousness of his cause. Patrick Henry was pretty
+thoroughly convinced before, but the recital of Boston's
+case fired the Virginian, and he made the first and only
+real speech of the Congress. In burning words he
+pictured all the Colonies had suffered and endured, and
+by his matchless eloquence told in prophetic words of
+the glories yet to be. In his speech he paid just tribute
+to the genius of Samuel Adams, declaring that the good
+<a name="III_Page_92"></a>that was to come from this &quot;first of an unending succession
+of Congresses&quot; was owing to the work of Adams.
+And in after-years Adams repaid the compliment by
+saying that if it had not been for the cementing power
+of Patrick Henry's eloquence, that first Congress probably
+would have ended in a futile wrangle.</p>
+
+<p>The South regarded, in great degree, the fight in Boston
+as Massachusetts' own. To make the entire thirteen
+Colonies adopt the quarrel and back the Colonial army
+in the vicinity of Boston was the only way to make the
+issue a success, and to unite the factions by choosing
+for a leader a Virginian aristocrat was a crowning stroke
+of diplomacy.</p>
+
+<p>John Hancock had succeeded Randolph as president of
+the second Congress, and Virginia was inclined to be
+lukewarm, when John Adams in an impassioned speech
+nominated Colonel George Washington as Commander-in-Chief
+of the Continental Army. The nomination was
+seconded very quietly by Samuel Adams. It was a vote,
+and the South was committed to the cause of backing
+up Washington, and, incidentally, New England. The
+entire plan was probably the work of Samuel Adams,
+yet he gave the credit to John, while the credit of stoutly
+opposing it goes to John Hancock, who, being presiding
+officer, worked at a disadvantage.</p>
+
+<p>But Adams had a way of reducing opposition to the
+minimum. He kept out of sight and furthered his ends
+by pushing this man or that to the front at the right
+<a name="III_Page_93"></a>time to make the plea. He was a master in that fine art
+of managing men and never letting them know they are
+managed. By keeping behind the arras, he accomplished
+purposes that a leader never can who allows his personality
+to be in continual evidence, for personality repels
+as well as attracts, and the man too much before the
+public is sure to be undone eventually. Adams knew
+that the power of Pericles lay largely in the fact that he
+was never seen upon but a single street of Athens, and
+that but once a year.</p>
+
+<p>The complete writings of Adams have recently been
+collected and published. One marvels that such valuable
+material has not before been printed and given to the
+public, for the literary style and perspicuity shown
+are most inspiring, and the value of the data can not
+be gainsaid.</p>
+
+<p>No one ever accused Adams of being a muddy thinker;
+you grant his premises and you are bound to accept his
+conclusions. He leaves no loopholes for escape.</p>
+
+<p>The following words, used by Chatham, refer to documents
+in which Adams took a prominent part in preparing:
+&quot;When your Lordships look at the papers transmitted
+us from America, when you consider their
+decency, firmness and wisdom, you can not but respect
+their cause and wish to make it your own. For myself,
+I must avow that, in all my reading&mdash;and I have read
+Thucydides and have studied and admired the master
+statesmen of the world&mdash;for solidity of reason, force of
+<a name="III_Page_94"></a>sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion under a complication
+of difficult circumstances, no body of men can stand
+in preference to the general Congress of Philadelphia.
+The histories of Greece and Rome give us nothing like
+it, and all attempts to impress servitude on such a
+mighty continental people must be in vain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the life of Adams there was no soft sentiment nor
+romantic vagaries. &quot;He is a Puritan in all the word
+implies, and the unbending fanatic of independence,&quot;
+wrote Gage, and the description fits.</p>
+
+<p>He was twice married. Our knowledge of his first wife
+is very slight, but his second wife, Elizabeth Wells,
+daughter of an English merchant, was a capable woman
+of brave good sense. She adopted her husband's political
+views and with true womanly devotion let her old kinsmen
+slide; and during the dark hours of the war bore
+deprivation without repining.</p>
+
+<p>Adams' home life was simple to the verge of hardship.
+All through life he was on the ragged edge financially,
+and in his latter years he was for the first time relieved
+from pressing obligations by an afflicting event&mdash;the
+death of his only son, who was a surgeon in Washington's
+army. The money paid to the son by the Government
+for his services gave the father the only financial
+competency he ever knew. Two daughters survived
+him, but with him died the name.</p>
+
+<p>John Adams survived Samuel for twenty-three years.
+He lived to see &quot;the great American experiment,&quot; as<a name="III_Page_95"></a>
+Mr. Ruskin has been pleased to call our country, on a
+firm basis, constantly growing stronger and stronger.
+He lived to realize that the sanguine prophecies made
+by Samuel were working themselves out in very truth.</p>
+
+<p>The grave of Samuel Adams is viewed by more people
+than that of any other American patriot. In the old
+Granary Burying-Ground, in the very center of Boston,
+on Tremont Street&mdash;there where travel congests, and
+two living streams meet all day long&mdash;-you look through
+the iron fence, so slender that it scarce impedes the view,
+and not twenty feet from the curb is a simple metal
+disk set on an iron rod driven into the ground and on
+it this inscription: &quot;This marks the grave of Samuel
+Adams.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For many years the grave was unmarked, and the disk
+that now denotes it was only recently placed in position
+by the Sons of the American Revolution. But the place
+of Samuel Adams on the pages of history is secure.
+Upon the times in which he lived he exercised a profound
+influence. And he who influences the times in
+which he lives has influenced all the times that come
+after; he has left his impress on eternity.</p>
+<p><a name="III_Page_96"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="JOHN_HANCOCK"></a></p><h2>JOHN HANCOCK</h2>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+<p><a name="III_Page_97"></a></p>
+
+<p><span style='margin-left: 25em;'>Boston, Sept. 30, 1765</span></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>Gent: <br />
+Since my last I have receiv'd your favour by Capt
+Hulme who is arriv'd here with the most disagreeable
+Commodity (say Stamps) that were imported into this
+Country &amp; what if carry'd into Execution will entirely
+Stagnate Trade here, for it is universally determined
+here never to Submitt to it and the principal merchts
+here will by no means carry on Business under a Stamp,
+we are in the utmost Confusion here and shall be more
+so after the first of November &amp; nothing but the repeal
+of the act will righten, the Consequence of its taking
+place here will be bad, &amp; attended with many troubles,
+&amp; I believe may say more fatal to you than us. I dread
+the Event.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Extract From Hancock's Letter-Book</i></span></p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_98"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-6.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-6_th.jpg" alt="JOHN HANCOCK" /></a></p><p class="ctr">JOHN HANCOCK</p>
+<p><a name="III_Page_99"></a></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>Long years ago when society was
+young, learning was centered in one
+man in each community, and that
+man was the priest. It was the priest
+who was sent for in every emergency
+of life. He taught the young, prescribed
+for the sick, advised those
+who were in trouble, and when
+human help was vain and man had done his all, this
+priest knelt at the bedside of the dying and invoked a
+Power with whom it was believed he had influence.</p>
+
+<p>The so-called learned professions are only another
+example of the Division of Labor. We usually say there
+are three learned professions: Theology, Medicine and
+Law. As to which is the greatest is a much-mooted
+question and has caused too many family feuds for me
+to attempt to decide it. And so I evade the issue and
+say there is a fourth profession, that is only allowed to
+be called so by grace, but which in my mind is greater
+than them all&mdash;the profession of Teacher. I can conceive
+of a condition of society so high and excellent that it
+has no use for either doctor, lawyer or preacher, but
+the teacher would still be needed. Ignorance and sin
+supply the three &quot;learned professions&quot; their excuse for
+being, but the teacher's work is to develop the germ of
+wisdom that is in every soul.<a name="III_Page_100"></a></p>
+
+<p>And now each of these professions has divided up, like
+monads, into many heads. In medicine, we have as
+many specialists as there are organs of the body. The
+lawyer who advises you in a copyright or patent cause
+knows nothing about admiralty; and as they tell us a
+man who pleads his own case has a fool for a client, so
+does the insurance lawyer who is retained to foreclose a
+mortgage. In all prosperous city churches, the preacher
+who attracts the crowd in the morning allows a 'prentice
+to preach to the young folks in the evening; he does not
+make pastoral calls; and the curate who reads the
+service at funerals is never called upon to perform a
+marriage ceremony except in a case of charity. Likewise
+the teacher's profession has its specialists: the man who
+teaches Greek well can not write good English; the
+man who teaches composition is baffled and perplexed
+by long division; and the teacher who delights in
+trigonometry pooh-poohs a kindergartner.</p>
+
+<p>Just where this evolutionary dividing and subdividing
+of social cells will land the race no man can say; but
+that a specialist is a dangerous man, is sure. He is a
+buzz-saw with which wise men never monkey. A surgeon
+who has operated for appendicitis five times successfully
+is above all to be avoided. I once knew a man with
+lung trouble who inadvertently strayed into an oculist's
+and was looked over and sent away with an order on an
+optician. And should you through error stray into the
+office of a nose and throat specialist, and ask him to
+<a name="III_Page_101"></a>treat you for varicose veins, he would probably do so
+by nasal douche.</p>
+
+<p>Even now a specialist in theology will lead us, if he can,
+a merry &quot;ignis-fatuus&quot; chase and land us in a morass.
+The only thing that saved the priest in days agone was
+the fact that he had so many duties to perform that he
+exercised all his mental muscles, and thus attained a
+degree of all-roundness which is not possible to the
+specialist. Even then there were not lacking men who
+found time to devote to specialties: Bishop Georgius
+Ambrosius, for instance, who in the Fifteenth Century
+produced a learned work proving that women have no
+souls. And a like book was written at Nashville,
+Tennessee, in Eighteen Hundred Fifty-nine, by the
+Reverend Hubert Parsons of the Methodist Episcopal
+Church (South), showing that negroes were in a like
+predicament. But a more notable instance of the danger
+of a specialty is the Reverend Cotton Mather, who
+investigated the subject of witchcraft and issued a
+modest brochure incorporating his views on the subject.
+He succeeded in convincing at least one man of its
+verity, and that man was himself, and thus immortality
+was given to the town of Salem, which, otherwise,
+would have no claim on us for remembrance, save that
+Hawthorne was once a clerk in its custom-house.</p>
+
+<p>A very slight study of Colonial history will show any
+student that, for two centuries, the ministers in New
+England occupied very much the same position in
+<a name="III_Page_102"></a>society that the priest did during the Middle Ages. As
+the monks kept learning from dying off the face of the
+earth, so did the ministers of the New World preserve
+culture from passing into forgetfulness. Very seldom,
+indeed, were books to be found in a community except
+at the minister's. And during the Seventeenth Century,
+and well into the Eighteenth, he combined in himself
+the offices of doctor, lawyer, preacher and teacher.
+Mr. Lowell has said: &quot;I can not remember when there
+was not one or more students in my father's household,
+and others still who came at regular intervals to recite.
+And this was the usual custom. It was the minister who
+fitted boys for college, and no youth was ever sent away
+to school until he had been drilled by the local clergyman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And it must further be noted that genealogical tables
+show that very nearly all of the eminent men of New
+England were sons of ministers, or of an ancestry
+where ministers' names are seen at frequent intervals.
+As an intellectual and moral force, the minister has now
+but a rudiment of the power he once exercised. The
+tendency to specialize all art and all knowledge has to a
+degree shorn him of his strength. And to such an extent
+is this true, that within forty years it has passed into a
+common proverb that the sons of clergymen are rascals,
+whereas in Colonial days the highest recommendation a
+youth could carry was that he was the son of a minister.</p>
+
+<p>The Reverend John Hancock, grandfather of John<a name="III_Page_103"></a>
+Hancock the patriot, was for more than half a century
+the minister of Lexington, Massachusetts. I say &quot;the
+minister,&quot; because there was only one: the keen competition
+of sect that establishes half a dozen preachers in
+a small community is a very modern innovation.</p>
+
+<p>John Hancock, &quot;Bishop of Lexington,&quot; was a man of
+pronounced personality, as is plainly seen in his portrait
+in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. They say he ruled
+the town with a rod of iron; and when the young men,
+who adorned the front steps of the meetinghouse during
+service, grew disorderly, he stopped in his prayer, and
+going outside soundly cuffed the ears of the first delinquent
+he could lay hands upon. In his clay there was a
+dash of facetiousness that saved him from excess,
+supplying a useful check to his zeal&mdash;for zeal uncurbed
+is very bad. He was a wise and beneficent dictator; and
+government under such a one can not be improved upon.
+His manner was gracious, frank and open, and such was
+the specific gravity of his nature that his words carried
+weight, and his wish was sufficient.</p>
+
+<p>The house where this fine old autocrat lived and reigned
+is standing in Lexington now. When you walk out
+through Cambridge and Arlington on your way to
+Concord, following the road the British took on their
+way out to Concord, you will pass by it. It is a good
+place to stop and rest. You will know the place by the
+tablet in front, on which is the legend: &quot;Here John
+Hancock and Samuel Adams were sleeping on the night
+<a name="III_Page_104"></a>of the Eighteenth of April, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five,
+when aroused by Paul Revere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Reverend Jonas Clark owned the house after the
+Reverend John Hancock, and the ministries of those
+two men, and their occupancy of the house, cover one
+hundred years and five years more. Here the thirteen
+children of Jonas Clark were born, and all lived to be
+old men and women. When you call there I hope you
+will be treated with the same gentle courtesy that I
+met. If you delay not your visit too long, you will see a
+fine, motherly woman, with white &quot;sausage curls&quot;
+and a high back-comb, wearing a check dress and felt
+slippers, and she will tell you that she is over eighty,
+and that when her mother was a little girl she once sat
+on Governor Hancock's knee and he showed her the
+works in his watch.</p>
+
+<p>And then as you go away you will think again of what
+the old lady has just told you, and as you look back for a
+parting glance at the house, standing firm and solemn
+in its rusty-gray dignity, you will doff your hat to it,
+and mayhap murmur: The days of man on earth&mdash;they
+are but as a passing shadow!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here John Hancock and Samuel Adams were sleeping
+when aroused by Paul Revere!&quot; Merchant-prince
+and agitator, horse and rider&mdash;where are you now?
+And is your sleep disturbed by dreams of British redcoats
+or hissing flintlocks?</p>
+
+<p>Phantom British warships
+may lie at their moorings, swinging wide on the
+<a name="III_Page_105"></a>unforgetting tide, lanterns may hang high in the belfry
+of the Old North Church tower, hurried knocks and
+calls of defiance and hoof-beats of fast-galloping steed
+may echo and echo again, borne on the night-wind of
+the dim Past, but you heed them not!<a name="III_Page_106"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>The Reverend John Hancock of Lexington had
+two sons. John Hancock (Number Two)
+became pastor of the church of the North
+Precinct of the town of Braintree, which
+afterwards was to be the town of Quincy.</p>
+
+<p>The nearest neighbor to the village preacher was John
+Adams, shoemaker and farmer. Each Sunday in the
+amen corner of the Reverend John Hancock's meetinghouse
+was mustered the well washed and combed brood
+of Mr. and Mrs. Adams. Now, this John Adams had a
+son whom the Reverend John Hancock baptized, also
+named John, two years older than John, the son of the
+preacher. And young John Adams and John Hancock
+(Number Three) used to fish and swim together, and
+go nutting, and set traps for squirrels, and help each
+other in fractions. And then they would climb trees, and
+wrestle, and sometimes fight. In the fights, they say,
+John Hancock used to get the better of his antagonist,
+but as an exploiter of fractions John Adams was more
+than his equal.</p>
+
+<p>The parents of John Adams were industrious and savin'&mdash;the
+little farm prospered, for Boston supplied a
+goodly market, and weekly trips were made there in a
+one-horse cart, often piloted by young John, with the
+minister's boy for ballast. The Adams family had ambitions
+for their son John&mdash;he was to go to Harvard and
+be educated, and be a minister and preach at Braintree,
+or Weymouth, or perhaps even Boston!<a name="III_Page_107"></a></p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the Reverend John Hancock had died,
+and the widowed mother was not able to give her boy a
+college education&mdash;times were hard.</p>
+
+<p>But the lad's uncle, Thomas Hancock, a prosperous
+merchant of Boston, took quite an interest in young
+John. And it occurred to him to adopt the fatherless
+boy, legally, as his own. The mother demurred, but
+after some months decided that it was best so, for when
+twenty-one he would be her boy just as much and as
+truly as if his uncle had not adopted him. And so the
+rich uncle took him, and rigged him out with a deal
+finer clothing than he had ever before worn, and sent
+him to the Latin School and afterward over to Cambridge,
+with silver jingling in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>Prosperity is a severe handicap to youth; not very many
+grown men can stand it; but beyond a needless display
+of velvet coats and frilled shirts, the young man stood
+the test, and got through Harvard. In point of scholarship
+he did not stand so high as John Adams; and
+between the lads there grew a small but well-defined
+gulf, as is but natural between homespun and broadcloth.
+Still the gulf was not impassable, for over it
+friendly favors were occasionally passed.</p>
+
+<p>John Hancock's mother wanted him to be a preacher,
+but Uncle Thomas would not listen to it&mdash;the youth
+must be taught to be a merchant, so he could be the
+ready helper and then the successor of his foster-father.</p>
+
+<p>Graduating at the early age of seventeen, John<a name="III_Page_108"></a>
+Hancock at once went to work in his uncle's counting-house
+in Boston. He was a fine, tall fellow with dash
+and spirit, and seemed to show considerable aptitude
+for the work. The business prospered, and Uncle
+Thomas was very proud of his handsome ward, who was
+quite in demand at parties and balls and in a general
+social way, while the uncle could not dance a minuet to
+save him.</p>
+
+<p>Not needing the young man very badly around the
+store, the uncle sent him to Europe to complete his
+education by travel. He went with the retiring Governor
+Pownal, whose taste for social enjoyment was very much
+in accord with his own. In England, he attended the
+funeral of George the Second, and saw the coronation of
+George the Third, little thinking the while that he
+would some day make violent efforts to snatch from
+that crown its brightest jewel.</p>
+
+<p>When young Hancock was twenty-seven, the uncle
+died, and left to him his entire fortune of three hundred
+fifty thousand dollars. It made him one of the very richest
+men in the Colony&mdash;for at that time there was not
+a man in Massachusetts worth half a million dollars.</p>
+
+<p>The jingling silver in his pocket when sent to Harvard
+had severely tested his moral fiber, but this great fortune
+came near smothering all his native commonsense.
+If a man makes his money himself, he stands a certain
+chance of growing as the pile grows.</p>
+
+<p>There is little
+doubt as to the soundness of Emerson's epigram, that
+<a name="III_Page_109"></a>what you put into his chest you take out of the man.
+More than this, when a man gradually accumulates
+wealth, it attracts little attention, so the mob that
+follows the newly rich never really gets on to the scent.
+And besides that, the man who makes his own fortune
+always stands ready to repel boarders.</p>
+
+<p>There may be young men of twenty-seven who are men
+grown, and no doubt every man of twenty-seven is
+very sure that he is one of these; but the thought that
+man is mortal never occurs to either men or women until
+they are past thirty. The blood is warm, conquest lies
+before, and to seize the world by the tail and snap its
+head off seems both easy and desirable.</p>
+
+<p>The promoters, the flatterers and friends until then
+unknown flocked to Hancock and condoled with him
+on the death of his uncle. Some wanted small loans to
+tide over temporary emergencies, others had business
+ventures in hand whereby John Hancock could double
+his wealth very shortly. Still others spoke of wealth
+being a trust, and to use money to help your fellow-men,
+and thus to secure the gratitude of many, was the
+proper thing.</p>
+
+<p>The unselfishness of the latter suggestion appealed to
+Hancock. To be the friend of humanity, to assist others&mdash;this
+is the highest ambition to which a man can aspire!
+And, of course, if one is pointed out on the street as the
+good Mr. Hancock it can not be helped. It is the
+penalty of well-doing.<a name="III_Page_110"></a></p>
+
+<p>So in order to give work to many and to promote the
+interests of Boston, a thriving city of fifteen thousand
+inhabitants, for all good men wish to build up the place
+in which they live, John Hancock was induced to
+embark in shipbuilding. He also owned several ships
+of his own which traded with London and the West
+Indies, and was part owner of others. But he publicly
+explained that he did not care to make money for
+himself&mdash;his desire was to give employment to the
+worthy poor and to enhance the good of Boston.</p>
+
+<p>The aristocratic company of militia, known as the
+Governor's Guard, had been fitted out with new uniforms
+and arms by the generous Hancock, and he had
+been chosen commanding officer, with rank of Colonel.
+He drilled with the crack company and studied the
+manual much more diligently than he ever had his
+Bible.</p>
+
+<p>Hancock lived in the mansion, inherited from his uncle,
+on Beacon Street, facing the Common. There was a
+chariot and six horses for state occasions, much fine
+furniture from over the sea, elegant clothes that the
+Puritans called &quot;gaudy apparel,&quot; and at the dinners
+the wine flowed freely, and cards, dancing and music
+filled many a night.</p>
+
+<p>The Puritan neighbors were shocked, and held up their
+hands in horror to think that the son of a minister
+should so affront the staid and sober customs of his
+ancestors. Still others said, &quot;Why, that's what a rich
+<a name="III_Page_111"></a>man should do&mdash;spend his money, of course; Hancock
+is the benefactor of his kind; just see how many people
+he employs!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The town was all agog, and Hancock was easily Boston's
+first citizen, but in his time of prosperity he did not
+forget his old friends. He sent for them to come and
+make merry with him; and among the first in his good
+offices was John Adams, the rising young lawyer of
+Braintree.</p>
+
+<p>John Adams had found clients scarce, and those he had,
+poor pay, but when he became the trusted legal adviser
+of John Hancock, things took a turn and prosperity
+came that way. The wine and cards and dinners hadn't
+much attraction for him, but still there were no conscientious
+scruples in the way. He patted John Hancock
+on the back, assured him that he was the people, looked
+after his interests loyally, and extracted goodly fees for
+services performed.</p>
+
+<p>At the home of Adams at Braintree, Hancock had met
+a quiet, taciturn individual by the name of Samuel
+Adams. This man he had long known in a casual way,
+but had never been able really to make his acquaintance.
+He was fifteen years older than Hancock, and by his
+quiet dignity and self-possession made quite an impression
+on the young man.</p>
+
+<p>So, now that prosperity had smiled, Hancock invited
+him to his house, but the quiet man was an ascetic and
+neither played cards, drank wine nor danced, and so
+<a name="III_Page_112"></a>declined with thanks.</p>
+
+<p>But not long after, he requested
+a small loan from the merchant-prince, and asked it as
+though it were his right, and so he got it. His manner
+was in such opposition to the flatterers and those who
+crawled, and whined, and begged, that Hancock was
+pleased with the man. Samuel Adams had declined
+Hancock's social favors, and yet, in asking for a loan,
+showed his friendliness.</p>
+
+<p>Samuel Adams was a politician, and had long taken an
+active part in the town meetings. In fact, to get a
+measure through, it was well to have Samuel Adams at
+your side. He was clear-headed, astute, and knew the
+human heart. Yet he talked but little, and the convivial
+ways of the small politician were far from him;
+but in the fine art that can manage men and never let
+them know they are managed he was a past-master.
+Tucked in his sleeve, no doubt, was a degree of pride
+in his power, but the stoic quality in his nature never
+allowed him to break into laughter when he considered
+how he led men by the nose.</p>
+
+<p>In Boston and its vicinity, Samuel Adams was not
+highly regarded, and outside of Boston, at forty years
+of age, he was positively unknown. The neighbors
+regarded him as a harmless fanatic, sane on most
+subjects, but possessed of a buzzing bee in his bonnet
+to the effect that the Colonies should be separated from
+their protector, England. Samuel Adams neglected his
+business and kept up a fusillade of articles in the
+<a name="III_Page_113"></a>newspapers, on various political subjects, and men who
+do this are regarded everywhere as &quot;queer.&quot; A professional
+newspaper-writer never takes his calling seriously&mdash;it
+is business. He writes to please his employer, or if
+he owns the paper himself, he still writes to please his
+employer, that is to say, the public. Journalism, thy
+name is pander!</p>
+
+<p>The man who comes up the stairway furtively, with a
+manuscript he wants printed, is in dead earnest; and he
+has excited the ridicule, wrath or pity of editors for
+three hundred years. Such a one was Samuel Adams.
+His wife did her own work, and the grocer with bills in
+his hand often grew red in the face and knocked in vain.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the keen intellect of Samuel Adams was not
+a thing to smile at. Any one who stood before him, face
+to face, felt the power of the man, and acknowledged it
+then and there, as we always do when we stand in the
+presence of a strong individuality. And this inward
+acknowledgment of worth was instinctively made by
+John Hancock, the biggest man in all Boston town.</p>
+
+<p>John Hancock, through his genial, glowing personality,
+and his lavish spending of money, was very popular. He
+was being fed on flattery, and the more a man gets of
+flattery, once the taste is acquired, the more he craves.
+It is like the mad thirst for liquor, or the Romeike habit.</p>
+
+<p>John Hancock was getting attention, and he wanted
+more. He had been chosen selectman to fill the place
+that his uncle had occupied, and when Samuel Adams
+<a name="III_Page_114"></a>incidentally dropped a remark that good men were
+needed in the General Court, John Hancock agreed with
+him. He was named for the office and with Samuel
+Adams' help was easily elected.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after this, the sloop &quot;Liberty&quot; was seized by
+the government officials for violation of the revenue
+laws. The craft was owned by John Hancock and had
+surreptitiously landed a cargo of wine without paying
+duty.</p>
+
+<p>When the ship of Boston's chief citizen was seized by the
+bumptious, gilt-braided British officials, there was a
+merry uproar. All the men in the shipyards quit work,
+and the Calkers' Club, of which Samuel Adams was
+secretary, passed hot resolutions and revolutionary
+preambles and eulogies of John Hancock, who was doing
+so much for Boston.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, there was a riot, and three regiments of British
+troops were ordered to Boston.</p>
+
+<p>And this was the very first step on the part of England
+to enforce her authority, by arms, in America.</p>
+
+<p>The troops were in the town to preserve order, but the
+mob would not disperse. Upon the soldiers, they heaped
+every indignity and insult. They dared them to shoot,
+and with clubs and stones drove the soldiers before
+them. At last the troops made a stand and in order to
+save themselves from absolute rout fired a volley. Five
+men fell dead&mdash;and the mob dispersed.</p>
+
+<p>This was the so-called Boston massacre.<a name="III_Page_115"></a></p>
+
+<p>Pinkerton guards would blush at bagging so small a
+game with a volley. They have done better again and
+again at Pittsburgh, Pottsville and Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>The riot was quelled, and out of the scrimmage various
+suits were instigated by the Crown against John Hancock,
+in the Court of Admiralty. The claims against him
+amounted to over three hundred thousand dollars, and
+the charge was that he had long been evading the
+revenue laws. John Adams was his attorney, with
+Samuel Adams as counsel, and vigorous efforts for
+prosecution and defense were being made.</p>
+
+<p>If the Crown were successful the suits would confiscate
+the entire Hancock estate&mdash;matters were getting in a
+serious way. Witnesses were summoned, but the trial
+was staved off from time to time.</p>
+
+<p>Hancock had refused to follow Samuel Adams' lead in
+the controversy with Governor Hutchinson as to the
+right to convene the General Court. The report was
+that John Hancock was growing lukewarm and siding
+with the Tories. A year had passed since the massacre
+had occurred, and the agitators proposed to commemorate
+the day.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Hancock had appeared in many prominent
+parts, but never as an orator.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not show the town what you can do!&quot; some
+one said.</p>
+
+<p>So John Hancock was invited to deliver the oration.
+He did so to an immense concourse. The address was
+<a name="III_Page_116"></a>read from the written page. It overflowed with wisdom
+and patriotism; and the earnestness and eloquence of
+the well-rounded periods was the talk of the town.</p>
+
+<p>The knowing ones went around corners and roared with
+laughter, but Samuel Adams said not a word. The
+charge was everywhere made by the captious and
+bickering that the speech was written by another, and
+that, moreover, John Hancock had not even a very firm
+hold on its import. It was the one speech of his life.
+Anyway, it so angered General Gage that he removed
+Colonel Hancock from his command of the cadets.</p>
+
+<p>An order was out for Hancock's arrest, and he and
+Samuel Adams were in hiding.</p>
+
+<p>The British troops marched out to Lexington to capture
+them, but Paul Revere was two hours ahead, and when
+the redcoats arrived the birds had flown.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the expulsion of the British, the closing of
+all courts, the Admiralty included. The merchant-prince
+breathed easier, and that was the last of the
+Crown versus John Hancock.<a name="III_Page_117"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Throughout the months that had gone
+before, when the Hancock mansion was gay
+with floral decorations, and servants in livery
+stood at the door with silver trays, and the
+dancing-hall was bright with mirth and music, Samuel
+Adams had quietly been working his Bureau of Correspondence
+to the end that the thirteen Colonies of
+America should come together in convention. Chief
+mover of the plan, and the one man in Massachusetts
+who was giving all his time to it, he dictated whom
+Massachusetts should send as delegates. This delegation,
+as we know, included John Hancock, John Adams
+and Samuel Adams himself.</p>
+
+<p>From the danger of Lexington, Hancock and Adams
+made their way to Philadelphia to attend the Second
+Congress.</p>
+
+<p>At that time the rich men of New England were
+hurriedly making their way into the English fold. Some
+thought that the mother country had been harsh, but
+still, England had only acted within her right, and she
+was well able to back up this authority. She had regiment
+upon regiment of trained fighting men, warships,
+and money to build more. The Colonies had no army,
+no ships, no capital.</p>
+
+<p>Only those who have nothing to lose can afford to resist
+lawful authority&mdash;back into the fold they went, penitent
+and under their breath cursing the bull-headed men
+who insisted on plunging the country into red war.<a name="III_Page_118"></a></p>
+
+<p>Out in the cold world stood John Hancock, alone, save
+for Bowdoin, among the aristocrats of New England.
+The British would confiscate his property, his splendid
+house&mdash;all would be gone!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will all be gone, anyway,&quot; calmly suggested Samuel
+Adams. &quot;You know those suits against you in the
+Admiralty Court?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if we can unite these thirteen Colonies an army
+can be raised, and we can separate ourselves entire, in
+which case there will be glory for somebody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John Hancock, the rich, the ambitious, the pleasure-loving,
+had burned his bridges. He was in the hands of
+Samuel Adams, and his infamy was one with this man
+who was a professional agitator, and who had nothing
+to lose.</p>
+
+<p>General Gage had made an offer of pardon to all&mdash;all,
+save two men: Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
+Back into the fold tumbled the Tories, but against John
+Hancock the gates were barred. John Adams, Attorney
+of the Hancock estate, rubbed his chin, and decided to
+stand by the ship&mdash;sink or swim, survive or perish.</p>
+
+<p>Down in his heart Samuel Adams grimly smiled, but
+on his cold, pale face there was no sign.</p>
+
+<p>The British held Boston secure, and in the splendid
+mansion of Hancock lived the rebel, Lord Percy,
+England's pet. The furniture, plate and keeping of the
+place were quite to his liking.<a name="III_Page_119"></a></p>
+
+<p>Hancock's ambitions grew as the days went by. The
+fight was on. His property was in the hands of the
+British, and a price was upon his head. He, too, now
+had nothing to lose. If England could be whipped he
+would get his property back, and the honors of victory
+would be his, beside.</p>
+
+<p>Ambition grew apace; he studied the Manual of Arms
+as never before, and made himself familiar with the lives
+of C&aelig;sar and Alexander. At Harvard, he had read the
+Anabasis on compulsion, but now he read it with zest.</p>
+
+<p>The Second Congress was a Congress of action; the
+first had been one merely of conference. A presiding
+officer was required, and Samuel Adams quietly pushed
+his man to the front. He let it be known that Hancock
+was the richest man in New England, perhaps in
+America, and a power in every emergency.</p>
+
+<p>John Hancock was given the office of presiding officer,
+the place of honor.</p>
+
+<p>The thought never occurred to him that the man on the
+floor is the man who acts, and the individual in the chair
+is only a referee, an onlooker of the contest. When a
+man is chosen to preside he is safely out of the way, and
+no one knew this better than that clear-headed man,
+wise as a serpent, Samuel Adams.</p>
+
+<p>Hancock was intent on being chosen Commander of
+the Continental Army. The war was in Massachusetts,
+her principal port closed, all business at a standstill.
+Hancock was a soldier, and was, moreover, the chief
+<a name="III_Page_120"></a>citizen of Massachusetts&mdash;the command should go to
+him. Samuel Adams knew this could never be.</p>
+
+<p>To hold the Southern Colonies and give the cause a
+show of reason before the world, an aristocrat with
+something to lose, and without a personal grievance,
+must be chosen, and the man must be from the South.
+To get Hancock in a position where his mouth would be
+stopped, he was placed in the chair. It was a master
+move.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel George Washington was already a hero; he had
+fought valiantly for England. His hands were clean;
+while Hancock was openly called a smuggler. Washington
+was nominated by John Adams. The motion was
+seconded by Samuel Adams. Hancock turned first red
+and then deathly pale. He grasped the arms of his chair
+with both hands, and&mdash;put the question.</p>
+
+<p>It was unanimous.</p>
+
+<p>Hancock's fame seems to rest on the fact that he was
+presiding officer of the Congress that passed the
+Declaration of Independence, and therefore its first
+signer, and, without consideration for cost of ink and
+paper, wrote his name in poster letters. When you look
+upon the Declaration the first thing you see is the
+signature of John Hancock, and you recall his remark,
+&quot;I guess King George can read that without spectacles.&quot;
+The whole action was melodramatic, and although a
+bold signature has ever been said to betoken a bold heart,
+it has yet to be demonstrated that boys who whistle
+<a name="III_Page_121"></a>going through the woods are indifferent to danger.
+&quot;Conscious weakness takes strong attitudes,&quot; says
+Delsarte. The strength of Hancock's signature was an
+affectation quite in keeping with his habit of riding
+about Boston in a coach-and-six, with outriders in
+uniform, and servants in livery.</p>
+
+<p>When Hancock wrote to Washington asking for an
+appointment in the army, the wise and farseeing chief
+replied with gentle words of praise concerning Colonel
+Hancock's record, and wound up by saying that he
+regretted there was no place at his disposal worthy of
+Colonel Hancock's qualifications. Well did he know that
+Hancock was not quite patriot enough to fill a lowly
+rank.</p>
+
+<p>The part that Hancock played in the eight years of war
+was inconspicuous. However, there was little spirit of
+revenge in his character: he sometimes scolded, but he
+did not hate. He never allowed personal animosities to
+make him waver in his loyalty to independence. In
+fact, with a price upon his head, but one course was
+open for him.</p>
+
+<p>Just before Washington was inaugurated President, he
+visited Boston, and a curious struggle took place
+between him and Hancock, who was Governor. It was
+all a question of etiquette&mdash;which should make the first
+call. Each side played a waiting game, and at last
+Hancock's gout came in as an excellent excuse and the
+country was saved.<a name="III_Page_122"></a></p>
+
+<p>In one of his letters, Hancock says, &quot;The entire Genteel
+portion of the town was invited to my House, while on
+the sidewalk I had a cask of Madeira for the Common
+People.&quot; His repeated re-election as Governor proves
+his popularity. Through lavish expenditure, his fortune
+was much reduced, and for many years he was sorely
+pressed for funds, his means being tied up in unproductive
+ways.</p>
+
+<p>His last triumph, as Governor, was to send a special
+message to the Legislature, informing that body that
+&quot;a company of Aliens and Foreigners have entered the
+State, and the Metropolis of Government, and under
+advertisements insulting to all Good Men and Ladies
+have been pleased to invite them to attend certain
+Stage-Plays, Interludes and Theatrical Entertainments
+under the Style and Appellation of Moral Lectures.... All
+of which must be put a stop to to once and the
+Rogues and Varlots punished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A few days after this, &quot;the Aliens and Foreigners&quot;
+gave a presentation of Sheridan's &quot;School for Scandal.&quot;
+In the midst of the performance the sheriff and a posse
+made a rush upon the stage and bagged all the offenders.</p>
+
+<p>When their trial came on, the next day, the &quot;varlots
+and vagroms&quot; had secured high legal talent to defend
+them, one of which counsel was Harrison Gray Otis. The
+actors were discharged on the slim technicality that the
+warrants of arrest had not been properly verified.</p>
+
+<p>However, the theater was closed, but the &quot;Common<a name="III_Page_123"></a>
+People&quot; made such an unseemly howl about &quot;rights&quot;
+and all that, that the Legislature made haste to repeal
+the law which provided that play-actors should be
+flogged.</p>
+
+<p>Hancock defaulted in his stewardship as Treasurer of
+Harvard College, and only escaped arrest for embezzlement
+through the fact that he was Governor of the
+State, and no process could be served upon him. After
+his death his estate paid nine years' simple interest on
+his deficit, and ten years thereafter, the principal was
+paid.</p>
+
+<p>His widow married Captain Scott, who was long in
+Hancock's employ as master of a brig; and we find the
+worthy captain proudly exclaiming, &quot;I have embarked
+on the sea of Matrimony, and am now at the helm of
+the Hancock mansion!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No biography of Governor Hancock has ever been
+written. The record of his life flutters only in newspaper
+paragraphs, letters, and chance mention in various
+diaries.</p>
+
+<p>Hancock did not live to see John Adams President.
+Worn by worry, and grown old before his time, he died
+at the early age of fifty-six, of a combination of gout
+and that unplebeian complaint we now term Bright's
+Disease.</p>
+
+<p>Thirty-three years after, hale old John Adams down at
+Quincy spoke of him as &quot;a clever fellow, a bit spoiled
+by a legacy, whom I used to know in my younger days.&quot;<a name="III_Page_124"></a></p>
+
+<p>He left no descendants, and his heirs were too intent on
+being in at the death to care for his memory. They
+neither preserved the data of his life, nor over his grave
+placed a headstone. The monument that now marks his
+resting-place was recently erected by the State of
+Massachusetts. He was buried in the Old Granary
+Burying-Ground, on Tremont Street, and only a step
+from his grave sleeps his friend Samuel Adams.</p><p><a name="III_Page_125"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="JOHN_QUINCY_ADAMS"></a></p><h2>JOHN QUINCY ADAMS</h2>
+<p><a name="III_Page_126"></a></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>To the guidance of the legislative councils; to the assistance
+of the executive and subordinate departments;
+to the friendly co-operation of the respective State
+Governments; to the candid and liberal support of the
+people, so far as it may be deserved by honest industry
+and zeal, I shall look for whatever success may attend
+my public service; and knowing that &quot;except the Lord
+keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain,&quot; with
+fervent supplications for His favor, to His overruling
+providence I commit, with humble but fearless confidence,
+my own fate and the future destinies of my
+country.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 15em;'>&mdash;<i>Inaugural Address</i></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_127"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-7.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-7_th.jpg" alt="JOHN QUINCY ADAMS" /></a></p><p class="ctr">JOHN QUINCY ADAMS</p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>Nine miles south of Boston, just a
+little back from the escalloped
+shores of Old Ocean, lies the village
+of Braintree. It is on the Plymouth
+post-road, being one of that string
+of settlements, built a few miles
+apart for better protection, that
+lined the sea, Boston being crowded,
+and Plymouth full to overflowing, the home-seekers
+spread out north and south.</p>
+
+<p>In Sixteen Hundred
+Twenty, when the first cabin was built at Braintree,
+land that was not in sight of the coast had actually no
+value. Back a mile, all was a howling wilderness, with
+trails made by wild beasts or savage men as wild. These
+paths led through tangles of fallen trees and tumbled
+rocks, beneath dark, overhanging pines where winter's
+snows melted not till midsummer, and the sun's rays
+were strange and alien. Men who sought to traverse
+these ways had to crouch and crawl or climb. Through
+them no horse or ox or beast of burden had carried its
+load.</p>
+
+<p>But up from the sea the ground rose gradually for a
+mile, and along this slope that faced the tide, wind and
+storm had partly cleared the ground, and on the hillsides
+our forefathers made their homes. The houses
+were built facing either the east or the south. This
+<a name="III_Page_128"></a>persistence to face either the sun or the sea shows a
+last, strange rudiment of paganism, making queer
+angles now that surveyors have come with Gunter's
+chain and transit, laying out streets and doing their
+work.</p>
+
+<p>A mile out, north of Braintree, on the Boston road,
+came, in Sixteen Hundred Twenty-five, one Captain
+Wollaston, a merry wight, and thirty boon companions,
+all of whom probably left England for England's good.
+They were in search of gold and pelf, and all were
+agreed on one point: they were quite too good to do
+any hard work. Their camp was called Mount Wollaston,
+or the Merry Mount. Our gallant gentlemen cultivated
+the friendship of the Indians, in the hope that
+they would reveal the caves and caverns where the
+gold grew lush and nuggets cumbered the way; and the
+Indians, liking the drink they offered, brought them
+meal and corn and furs.</p>
+
+<p>And so the thirty set up a Maypole, adorned with
+bucks' horns, and drank and feasted, and danced like
+fairies or furies, the livelong day or night. So scandalously
+did these exiled lords behave that good folks
+made a wide circuit 'round to avoid their camp.</p>
+
+<p>Preaching had been in vain, and prayers for the conversion
+of the wretches remained unanswered. So the
+neighbors held a convention, and decided to send Captain
+Miles Standish with a posse to teach the merry
+men manners.<a name="III_Page_129"></a></p>
+
+<p>Standish appeared among the bacchanalians one morning,
+perfectly sober, and they were not. He arrested the
+captain, and bade the others begone. The leader was
+shipped back to England, with compliments and regrets,
+and the thirty scattered. This was the first move in
+that quarter in favor of local option.</p>
+
+<p>Six years later, the land thereabouts was granted and
+apportioned out to the Reverend John Wilson, William
+Coddington, Edward Quinsey, James Penniman, Moses
+Payne and Francis Eliot.</p>
+
+<p>And these men and their families built houses and
+founded &quot;the North Precinct of the Town of Braintree.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Between the North Precinct and the South Precinct
+there was continual rivalry. Boys who were caught
+over the dead-line, which was marked by Deacon Penniman's
+house, had to fight. Thus things continued until
+Seventeen Hundred Ninety-two, when one John Adams
+was Vice-President of the United States. Now this
+John Adams, lawyer, was the son of John Adams,
+honest farmer and cordwainer, who had bought the
+Penniman homestead, and whose progenitor, Henry
+Adams, had moved there in Sixteen Hundred Thirty-six.
+John Adams, Vice-President, afterwards President,
+was born there in the Penniman house, and was regarded
+as a neutral, although he had been thrashed by
+boys both from the North and from the South Precinct.
+But at the last, there is no such thing as neutrality.<a name="III_Page_130"></a></p>
+
+<p>John Adams sided with the boys from the North
+Precinct, and now that he was in power it occurred to
+him, having had a little experience in the revolutionary
+line, that for the North Precinct to secede from the
+great town of Braintree would be but proper and right.</p>
+
+<p>The North Precinct had six stores that sold W.I.
+goods, and a tavern that sold W.E.T. goods, and it
+should have a post-office of its own.</p>
+
+<p>So John Adams suggested the matter to Richard
+Cranch, who was his brother-in-law and near neighbor.
+Cranch agitated the matter, and the new town, which
+was the old, was incorporated. They called it Quincy,
+probably because Abigail, John's wife, insisted upon
+it. She had named her eldest boy Quincy, in honor of
+her grandfather, whose father's name was Quinsey,
+and who had relatives who spelled it De Quincey, one
+of which tribe was an opium-eater.</p>
+
+<p>Now, when Abigail made a suggestion, John usually
+heeded it. For Abigail was as wise as she was good, and
+John well knew that his success in life had come largely
+from the help, counsel and inspiration vouchsafed to
+him by this splendid woman. And the man who will
+not let a woman have her way in all such small matters
+as naming of babies or towns is not much of a man.</p>
+
+<p>So the town was named Quincy, and brother-in-law
+Cranch was appointed its first postmaster. Shortly
+after, the Boston &quot;Centinel&quot; contained a sarcastic article
+over the signature, &quot;Old Subscriber,&quot; concerning
+<a name="III_Page_131"></a>the distribution of official patronage among kinsmen,
+and the Eliots and the Everetts gossiped over their
+back fences.</p>
+
+<p>At this time Abigail lived in the cottage
+there on the Plymouth road, halfway between Braintree
+and Quincy, but she got her mail at Quincy.</p>
+
+<p>The Adams cottage is there now, and the next time
+you are in Boston you had better go out and see it,
+just as June and I did one bright October day.</p>
+
+<p>June has lived within an hour's ride of the Adams'
+home all her blessed thirty-two sunshiny summers;
+she also boasts a Mayflower ancestry, with, however,
+a slight infusion of Castle Garden, like myself, to give
+firmness of fiber&mdash;and yet she had never been to Quincy.</p>
+
+<p>The John and Abigail cottage was built in Seventeen
+Hundred Sixteen, so says a truthful brick found in the
+quaint old chimney. Deacon Penniman built this house
+for his son, and it faces the sea, although the older
+Penniman house faces the south. John Adams was
+born in the older house; but when he used to go to
+Weymouth every Wednesday and Saturday evening
+to see Abigail Smith, the minister's daughter, his
+father, the worthy shoemaker, told him that when he
+got married he could have the other house for himself.</p>
+
+<p>John was a bright young lawyer then, a graduate of
+Harvard, where he had been sent in hopes that he
+would become a minister, for one-half the students
+then at Harvard were embryo preachers. But John
+did not take to theology.<a name="III_Page_132"></a></p>
+
+<p>He had witnessed ecclesiastical tennis and theological
+pitch and toss in Braintree that had nearly split the
+town, and he decided on the law. One thing sure, he
+could not work: he was not strong enough for that&mdash;everybody
+said so. And right here seems a good place
+to call attention to the fact that weak men, like those
+who are threatened, live long. John Adams' letters to
+his wife reveal a very frequent reference to liver complaint,
+lung trouble, and that tired feeling, yet he lived
+to be ninety-two.</p>
+
+<p>The Reverend Mr. Smith did not at first favor the idea
+of his daughter Abigail marrying John Adams. The
+Adams family were only farmers (and shoemakers
+when it rained), while the Smiths had aristocracy on
+their side. He said lawyers were men who got bad folks
+out of trouble and good folks in. But Abigail said that
+this lawyer was different; and as Mr. Smith saw it was
+a love-match, and such things being difficult to combat
+successfully, he decided he would do the next best
+thing&mdash;give the young couple his blessing. Yet the
+neighbors were quite scandalized to think that their
+pastor's daughter should hold converse over the gate
+with a lawyer, and they let the clergyman know it as
+neighbors then did, and sometimes do now. Then did
+the Reverend Mr. Smith announce that he would
+preach a sermon on the sin of meddling with other
+folk's business. As his text he took the passage from
+Luke, seventh chapter, thirty-third verse: &quot;For John
+<a name="III_Page_133"></a>came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye
+say, he hath a devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The neighbors saw the point, for a short time before,
+when the eldest daughter, Mary, had married Richard
+Cranch (the man who was to achieve a post-office), the
+community had entered a protest, and the Reverend
+Mr. Smith had preached from Luke, tenth chapter,
+forty-second verse: &quot;And Mary hath chosen that good
+part which shall not be taken away from her.&quot; So there,
+now!</p>
+
+<p>And John and Abigail were married one evening at
+early candlelight, in the church at Weymouth. The
+good father performed the ceremony, and nearly broke
+down during it, they say, and then he kissed both bride
+and groom.</p>
+
+<p>The neighbors had repaired to the parsonage and were
+eating and drinking and making merry when John and
+Abigail slipped out by the back gate, and made their
+way, hand in hand, in the starlight, down the road that
+ran through the woods to Braintree. When near the
+village they cut across the pasture-lot and reached
+their cottage, which for several weeks they had been
+putting in order. John unlocked the front door, and
+they entered over the big, flat stone at the entry, and
+over which you may enter now, all sunken and worn by
+generations of men gone. Some whose feet have pressed
+that doorstep we count as the salt of the earth, for their
+names are written large on history's page. Washington
+<a name="III_Page_134"></a>rode out there on horseback, and while his aide held
+his horse, he visited and drank mulled cider and ate
+doughnuts within. Hancock came often, and Otis,
+Samuel Adams and Loring used to enter without plying
+the knocker.</p>
+
+<p>Through the earnest work of William G. Spear, the
+cottage has now been restored and fully furnished, as
+near like it was then as knowledge, fancy and imagination
+can devise.</p>
+
+<p>When we reached Quincy we saw a benevolent-looking
+old Puritan, and June said, &quot;Ask him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you tell me where we can find Mr. Spear, the
+antiquarian?&quot; I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The which?&quot; said the son of Priscilla Mullins.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Spear, the antiquarian,&quot; I repeated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's not Bill Spear who keeps a secondhand-shop,
+you want, mebbe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes; I think that is the man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so we were directed to the &quot;secondhand-shop,&quot;
+which proved to be the rooms of the Quincy Historical
+Society. And there we saw such a wondrous collection of
+secondhand stuff that, as we looked and looked, and Mr.
+Spear explained, and gave large slices of Colonial history,
+June, who is a Daughter of the American Revolution,
+gushed a trifle more than was meet.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing short of a hundred years will set the seal of
+value on an article for Mr. Spear, and one hundred
+fifty is more like it. On his walls are hats, caps, spurs,
+<a name="III_Page_135"></a>boots and accouterments used in the Revolutionary
+War. Then there are candlesticks, snuffers, spectacles,
+butter-molds, bonnets, dresses, shoes, baby-stockings,
+cradles, rattles, aprons, butter-tubs made out of a
+solid piece, shovels to match, andirons, pokers, skillets
+and blue china galore.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bill Spear&quot; himself is quite a curiosity. He traces a
+lineage to the well-known Lieutenant Seth Spear, of
+Revolutionary fame, and back of that to John Alden,
+who spoke for himself. The bark on the antiquarian, is
+rather rough; and I regret to say that he makes use of a
+few words I can not find in the &quot;Century Dictionary,&quot;
+but as June was not shocked I managed to stand it. On
+further acquaintance I concluded that Mr. Spear's
+bruskness was assumed, and that beneath the tough
+husk there beats a very tender heart. He is one of those
+queer fellows who do good by stealth and abuse you
+roundly if accused of it.</p>
+
+<p>For twenty-five years Mr. Spear has been doing little
+else but studying Colonial history, and making love to
+old ladies who own clocks and skillets given them by
+their great-grandmammas. There is no doubt that Spear
+has dictated clauses in a hundred wills devising that
+William G. Spear, Custodian of the Quincy Historical
+Society, shall have snuffers and biscuit-molds.</p>
+
+<p>At first, Mr. Spear collected for his own amusement and
+benefit, but the trouble grew upon him until it became
+chronic, and one fine day he realized that he was not
+<a name="III_Page_136"></a>immortal, and when he should die, all his collection,
+which had taken years to accumulate, would be
+scattered. And so he founded the Quincy Historical
+Society, incorporated by a perpetual charter, with
+Charles Francis Adams, grandson of John Quincy
+Adams, as first president.</p>
+
+<p>Then, the next thing was to secure the cottage where
+John and Abigail Adams began housekeeping, and
+where John Quincy was born. This house has been in
+the Adams family all these years and been rented to the
+firm of Tom, Dick and Harry, and any of their tribe
+who would agree to pay ten dollars a month for its use
+and abuse. Just across the road from the cottage lives a
+fine old soul by the name of John Crane. Mr. Crane is
+somewhere between seventy and a hundred years old,
+but he has a young heart, a face like Gladstone and a
+memory like a copy-book. Mr. Crane was on very good
+terms with John Quincy Adams, knew him well and had
+often seen him come here to collect rent. He told me
+that during his recollection the Adams place had been
+occupied by full forty families. But now, thanks to
+&quot;Bill Spear,&quot; it is no longer for rent.</p>
+
+<p>The house has been raised from the ground, new sills
+placed under it, and while every part&mdash;scantling, rafter,
+joist, crossbeam, lath and weatherboard&mdash;of the original
+house has been retained, it has been put in such order
+that it is no longer going to ruin.</p>
+
+<p>From the ample stores of his various antiquarian
+<a name="III_Page_137"></a>depositories Mr. Spear has refurnished it; and with a
+ripe knowledge and rare good taste and restraining
+imagination, the cottage is now shown to us as a Colonial
+farmhouse of the year Seventeen Hundred Fifty. The
+wonder to me is that Mr. Spear, being human, did not
+move his &quot;secondhand-shop&quot; down here and make of
+the place a curiosity-shop. But he has done better.</p>
+
+<p>As you step across the doorsill and pass from the little
+entry into the &quot;living-room,&quot; you pause and murmur,
+&quot;Excuse me.&quot; For there is a fire on the hearth, the tea-kettle
+sings softly, and on the back of a chair hangs a
+sunbonnet. And over there on the table is an open
+Bible, and on the open page is a pair of spectacles and a
+red, crumpled handkerchief. Yes, the folks are at home:
+they have just stepped into the next room&mdash;perhaps are
+eating dinner. And so you sit down in an old hickory
+chair, or in the high settle that stands against the wall
+by the fireplace, and wait, expecting every moment that
+the kitchen-door will creak on its wooden hinges, and
+Abigail, smiling and gentle, will enter to greet you.
+Mr. Spear understands, and, disappearing, leaves you
+to your thoughts&mdash;and June's.</p>
+
+<p>John and Abigail were lovers their lifetime through.
+Their published letters show a oneness of thought and
+sentiment that, viewed across the years, moves us to
+tears to think that such as they should at last feebly
+totter, and then turn to dust. But here they came in the
+joyous springtime of their lives; upon this floor you
+<a name="III_Page_138"></a>tread the ways their feet have trod; these walls have
+echoed to their singing voices, listened to their counsels,
+and seen love's caress.</p>
+
+<p>There is no surplus furniture
+nor display nor setting forth of useless things. Every
+article you see has its use. The little shelf of books, well-thumbed,
+displays no &quot;Trilby&quot; nor &quot;Quest of the
+Golden Girl&quot;&mdash;not an anachronism any where. Curtains,
+chairs, tables, and the one or two pictures&mdash;all ring
+true. In the kitchen are washtubs and butter-ladles and
+bowls; and the lantern hanging by the chimney, with a
+dipped candle inside, has a carefully scraped horn face.
+It is a lanthorn. In the cupboard across the corner are
+blue china and pewter spoons and steel knives, with just
+a little polished-brass stuff sent from England. Down
+in the cellar, with its dirt walls, are apples, yellow
+pumpkins and potatoes&mdash;each in its proper place, for
+Abigail was a rare good housekeeper. Then there is a
+barrel of cider, with a hickory spigot and an inviting
+gourd. All tells of economy, thrift, industry and the
+cunning of woman's hands.</p>
+
+<p>In the kitchen is a funny cradle, hooded, and cut out of
+a great pine log. The little mattress and the coverlet
+seem disturbed, and you would declare the baby had
+just been lifted out, and you listen for its cry. The
+rocker is worn by the feet of mothers whose hands were
+busy with needles or wheel as they rocked and sang.
+And from the fact that it is in the kitchen, you know
+that the servant-girl problem then had no terrors.<a name="III_Page_139"></a></p>
+
+<p>Overhead hang ears of corn, bunches of dried catnip,
+pennyroyal and boneset, and festooned across the
+corner are strings of dried apples.</p>
+
+<p>Then you go upstairs,
+with conscience pricking a bit for thus visiting
+the house of honest folks when they are away, for you
+know how all good housewives dislike to have people
+prying about, especially in the upper chambers&mdash;at
+least June said so!</p>
+
+<p>The room to the right was Abigail's own. You would
+know it was a woman's room. There is a faint odor of
+lavender and thyme about it, and the white and blue
+draperies around the little mirror, and the little feminine
+nothings on the dresser, reveal the lady who would
+appear well before the man she loves.</p>
+
+<p>The bed is a high, draped four-poster, plain and solid,
+evidently made by a ship-carpenter who had ambitions.
+The coverlet is light blue, and matches the draperies of
+windows, dresser and mirror. On the pillow is a nightcap,
+in which even a homely woman would be beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>There is a clothespress in the corner, into which
+Mr. Spear says we may look. On the door is a slippery-elm
+button, and within, hanging on wooden pegs, are
+dainty dresses; stiff, curiously embroidered gowns they
+are, that came from across the sea, sent, perhaps, by
+John Adams when he went to France, and left Abigail
+here to farm and sew and weave and teach the children.
+June examined the dresses carefully, and said the
+embroidery was handmade, and must have taken
+<a name="III_Page_140"></a>months and months to complete. On a high shelf of the
+closet are bandboxes, in which are bonnets, astonishing
+bonnets, with prodigious flaring fronts. Mr. Spear insisted
+that June should try one on, and when she did
+we stood off and declared the effect was a vision of
+loveliness. Outside the clothespress, on a peg, hangs a
+linsey-woolsey every-day gown that shows marks of
+wear. The waist came just under June's arms, and the
+bottom of the dress to her shoe-tops.</p>
+
+<p>We asked
+Mr. Spear the price of it, but the custodian is not
+commercial. In a corner of the room is a cedar chest
+containing hand-woven linen.</p>
+
+<p>By the front window is a little, low desk, with a leaf
+that opens out for a writing-shelf. And here you see
+quill-pens, fresh nibbed, and ink in a curious well made
+from horn. Here it was that Abigail wrote those letters
+to her lover-husband when he attended those first and
+second Congresses in Philadelphia; and then when he
+was in France and England, those letters in which we
+see affection, loyalty, tales of babies with colic, brave,
+political good sense, and all those foolish trifles that
+go to fill up love-letters, and, at the last, are their divine
+essence and charm.</p>
+
+<p>Here, she wrote the letter telling of going with their
+seven-year-old boy, John Quincy, to Penn's Hill to
+watch the burning of Charlestown; and saw the flashing
+of cannons and rising smoke that marked the battle of
+Bunker Hill. Here she wrote to her husband when he
+<a name="III_Page_141"></a>was minister to England, &quot;This little cottage has more
+comfort and satisfaction for you than the courts of
+royalty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But of all the letters written by that brave
+woman none reveals her true nobility better than the
+one written to her husband the day he became President
+of the United States. Here it is entire:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i15">Quincy, 8 February, 1797</span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">&quot;The sun is dressed in brightest beams,<br /></span>
+<span class="i10">To give thy honors to the day.&quot;</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>&quot;And may it prove an auspicious prelude to each ensuing
+season. You have this day to declare yourself
+head of a Nation. And now, O Lord, my God, Thou
+hast made Thy servant ruler over the people. Give unto
+him an understanding heart, that he may know how
+to go out and come in before this great people; that he
+may discern between good and bad. For who is able to
+judge this Thy so great a people, were the words of a
+royal Sovereign; and not less applicable to him who is
+invested with the Chief Magistracy of a nation, though
+he wear not a crown, nor the robes of royalty.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My thoughts and my meditations are with you,
+though personally absent; and my petitions to Heaven
+are that the things which make for peace may not be
+hidden from your eyes. My feelings are not those of
+pride or ostentation upon the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are
+solemnized by a sense of the obligations, the important
+trusts, and numerous duties connected with it. That
+you may be enabled to discharge them with honor to
+<a name="III_Page_142"></a>yourself, with justice and impartiality to your country,
+and with satisfaction to this great people, shall be the
+daily prayer of your</p></div>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">&quot;A.A.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It was in this room that Abigail waited while British
+soldiers ransacked the rooms below and made bullets
+of the best pewter spoons. Here her son who was to be
+President was born.</p>
+
+<p>John Quincy Adams was six years old when his father
+kissed him good-by and rode away for Philadelphia
+with John Hancock and Samuel Adams (who rode a
+horse loaned him by John Adams). Abigail stood in the
+doorway holding the baby, and watched them disappear
+in the curve of the road. This was in August, Seventeen
+Hundred Seventy-four. Most of the rest of that year
+Abigail was alone with her babies on the little farm. It
+was the same next year, and in Seventeen Hundred
+Seventy-six, too, when John Adams wrote home that
+he had made the formal move for Independency and
+also nominated George Washington as Commander-in-Chief
+of the army; and he hoped things would soon be
+better.</p>
+
+<p>Those were troublous times in which to live in the
+vicinity of Boston. There were straggling troops passing
+up and down the Plymouth road every day. Sometimes
+they were redcoats and sometimes buff and blue, but
+all seemed to be very hungry and extremely thirsty,
+and the Adams household received a great deal more
+<a name="III_Page_143"></a>attention than it courted. The master of the house was
+away, but all seemed to know who lived there, and the
+callers were not always courteous.</p>
+
+<p>In such a feverish atmosphere of unrest, children evolve
+quickly into men and women, and their faces take on
+the look of thought where should be only careless,
+happy, dimpled smiles. Yes, responsibility matures,
+and that is the way John Quincy Adams got cheated
+out of his childhood.</p>
+
+<p>When eight years of age, his mother called him the
+little man of the house. The next year he was a post-rider,
+making a daily trip to Boston with letter-bags
+across his saddlebows.</p>
+
+<p>When eleven years of age, his father came home to say
+that some one had to go to France to serve with Jay
+and Franklin in making a treaty.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go,&quot; said Abigail, &quot;and God be with you!&quot; But
+when it was suggested that John Quincy go, too, the
+parting did not seem so easy. But it was a fine opportunity
+for the boy to see the world of men, and the
+mother's head appreciated it even if her heart did not.
+And yet she had the heroism that is willing to remain
+behind.</p>
+
+<p>So father and son sailed away; and little John Quincy
+added postscripts to his father's letters and said, &quot;I
+send my loving duty to my mamma.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The boy took kindly to foreign ways, as boys will, and
+the French language had no such terrors for him as it
+<a name="III_Page_144"></a>had for his father. The first stay in Europe was only
+three months, and back they came on a leaky ship.</p>
+
+<p>But the home-stay was even shorter than the stay
+abroad, and John Adams had again to cross the water
+on his country's business. Again the boy went with him.</p>
+
+<p>It was five years before the mother saw him. And
+then he had gone on alone from Paris to London to
+meet her. She did not know him, for he was nearly
+eighteen and a man grown. He had visited every
+country in Europe and been the helper and companion
+of statesmen and courtiers, and seen society in its
+various phases. He spoke several languages, and in
+point of polish and manly dignity was the peer of many
+of his elders. Mrs. Adams looked at him and then began
+to cry, whether for joy or for sorrow she did not know.
+Her boy had gone, escaped her, gone forever, but, instead,
+here was a tall young diplomat calling her
+&quot;mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a career ahead for John Quincy Adams&mdash;his
+father knew it, his mother was sure of it, and John
+Quincy himself was not in doubt. He could then have
+gone right on, but his father was a Harvard man, and
+the New England superstition was strong in the Adams
+heart that success could only be achieved when based
+on a Harvard parchment.</p>
+
+<p>So back to Massachusetts sailed John Quincy; and a
+two-year course at Harvard secured the much-desired
+diploma.<a name="III_Page_145"></a></p>
+
+<p>From the very time he crawled over this kitchen-floor
+and pushed a chair, learning to walk, or tumbled down
+the stairs and then made his way bravely up again
+alone, he knew that he would arrive. Precocious, proud,
+firm, and with a coldness in his nature that was not a
+heritage from either his father or his mother, he made
+his way.</p>
+
+<p>It was a zigzag course, and the way was strewn with
+the flotsam and jetsam of wrecked parties and blighted
+hopes, but out of the wreckage John Quincy Adams
+always appeared, calm, poised and serene. When he
+opposed the purchase of Louisiana it looks as if he
+allowed his animosity for Jefferson to put his judgment
+in chancery. He made mistakes, but this was the only
+blunder of his career. The record of that life expressed
+in bold stands thus:</p>
+
+
+<ul><li>1767&mdash;Born May Eleventh.</li>
+<li>1776&mdash;Post-rider between Boston and Quincy.</li>
+<li>1778&mdash;-At school in Paris.</li>
+<li>1780&mdash;At school in Leyden.</li>
+<li>1781&mdash;Private Secretary to Minister to Russia.</li>
+<li>1787&mdash;-Graduated at Harvard.</li>
+<li>1794&mdash;Minister at The Hague.</li>
+<li>1797&mdash;Married Louise Catherine Johnson, of Maryland.</li>
+<li>1797&mdash;Minister at Berlin.</li>
+<li>1802&mdash;Member of Massachusetts State Senate.</li>
+<li>1803&mdash;United States Senator.<a name="III_Page_146"></a></li>
+<li>1806&mdash;Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard</li>
+<li>1809&mdash;Minister to Russia.</li>
+<li>1811&mdash;Nominated and confirmed by Senate as Judge of Supreme Court of the United States; declined.</li>
+<li>1814&mdash;Commissioner at Ghent to treat for peace with Great Britain.</li>
+<li>1815&mdash;Minister to Great Britain.</li>
+<li>1817&mdash;Secretary of State.</li>
+<li>1825&mdash;Elected President of the United States.</li>
+<li>1830&mdash;Elected a Member of Congress, and represented the district for seventeen years.</li>
+<li>1848&mdash;Stricken with paralysis February Twenty-first in the Capitol, and died the second day after.</li>
+</ul><p><a name="III_Page_147"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>&quot;Aren't we staying in this room a good
+while?&quot; said June; &quot;you have sat there
+staring out of that window looking at nothing
+for just ten minutes, and not a word have
+you spoken!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Spear had disappeared into space, and so we made
+our way across the little hall to the room that belonged
+to Mr. Adams. It was in the disorder that men's rooms
+are apt to be. On the table were quill-pens and curious
+old papers with seals on them, and on one I saw the
+date, June Sixteenth, Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight&mdash;the
+whole document written out in the hand of John
+Adams, beginning very prim and careful, then moving
+off into a hurried scrawl as spirit mastered the letter.
+There is a little hair-covered trunk in the corner,
+studded with brass nails, and boots and leggings and
+canes and a jackknife and a bootjack, and, on the window-sill,
+a friendly snuffbox. In the clothespress were
+buff trousers and an embroidered coat, and shoes with
+silver buckles, and several suits of every-day clothes,
+showing wear and patches.</p>
+
+<p>On up to the garret we groped, and bumped our heads
+against the rafters. The light was dim, but we could
+make out more apples on strings, and roots and herbs
+in bunches hung from the peak. Here was a three-legged
+chair and a broken spinning-wheel, and the junk that
+is too valuable to throw away, yet not good enough
+to keep, but &quot;some day may be needed.&quot;<a name="III_Page_148"></a></p>
+
+<p>Down the narrow stairway we went, and in the little
+kitchen, Sammy, the artist, and Mr. Spear, the custodian,
+were busy at the fireplace preparing dinner. There
+is no stove in the house, and none is needed. The crane
+and brick oven and long-handled skillets suffice. Sammy
+is an expert camp-cook, and swears there is death in
+the chafing-dish, and grows profane if you mention
+one. His skill in turning flapjacks by a simple manipulation
+of the long-handled griddle means more to his
+true ego than the finest canvas.</p>
+
+<p>June offered to set the table, but Sammy said she could
+never do it alone, so together they brought out the blue
+china dishes and the pewter plates. Then they drew
+water at the stone-curbed well with the great sweep,
+carrying the leather-baled bucket between them.</p>
+
+<p>I was feeling quite useless and asked, &quot;Can't I do
+something to help?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is the lye-leach&mdash;you might bring out some
+ashes and make some soft soap,&quot; said June pointing to
+the ancient leach and soap-kettle in the yard, the joys
+of Mr. Spear's heart.</p>
+
+<p>Sammy stood at the back door and pounded on the
+dishpan with a wooden spoon to announce that dinner
+was ready. It was quite a sumptuous meal: potatoes
+baked in the ashes, beans baked in the brick oven,
+coffee made on the hearth, fish cooked in the skillet,
+and pancakes made on a griddle with a handle three
+feet long.<a name="III_Page_149"></a></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Spear had aspirations toward an apple-pie and
+had made violent efforts in that direction, but the product
+being dough on top and charcoal on the bottom
+we declined the nomination with thanks.</p>
+
+<p>June suggested that pies should be baked in an oven
+and not cooked on a pancake griddle. The custodian
+thought there might be something in it&mdash;a suggestion
+he would have scorned and scouted had it come from
+me.</p>
+
+<p>To change the rather painful subject, Mr. Spear began
+to talk about John and Abigail Adams, and to quote
+from their &quot;Letters,&quot; a volume he seems to have by
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know why their love was so very steadfast,
+and why they stimulated the mental and spiritual
+natures of each other so?&quot; asked June.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, why was it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I'll tell you: it was because they spent one-third
+of their married life apart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indeed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, and in this way they lived in an ideal world. In
+all their letters you see they are always counting the
+days ere they will meet. Now, people who are together
+all the time never write that way, because they do not
+feel that way&mdash;I'll leave it to Mr. Spear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Spear, being a bachelor, did not know. Then
+the case was referred to Sammy, and Sammy lied and
+said he had never considered the subject.<a name="III_Page_150"></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;And would you advise, then, that married couples
+live apart one-third of the time, in the interests of
+domestic peace?&quot; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly!&quot; said June, with her Burne-Jones chin in
+the air. &quot;Certainly; but I fear you are the man who
+does not understand; and anyway I am sure it will be
+much more profitable for us to cultivate the receptive
+spirit and listen to Mr. Spear&mdash;such opportunities do
+not come very often. I did not mean to interrupt you,
+Mr. Spear; go on, please!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Spear filled a clay pipe with natural leaf that
+he crumbled in his hand, and deftly picking a coal from
+the fireplace with a shovel one hundred fifty years old,
+puffed five times silently, and began to talk.</p><p><a name="III_Page_151"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="ALEXANDER_HAMILTON"></a></p><h2>ALEXANDER HAMILTON</h2>
+<p><a name="III_Page_152"></a></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>The objects to be attained are: To justify and preserve
+the confidence of the most enlightened friends of good
+government; to promote the increasing respectability of
+the American name; to answer the calls of justice; to
+restore landed property to its due value; to furnish new
+sources both to agriculture and to commerce; to cement
+more closely the union of the States; to add to their
+security against foreign attack; to establish public order
+on the basis of an upright and liberal policy: these are
+the great and invaluable ends to be secured by a proper
+and adequate provision, at the present period, for the
+support of public credit.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Report to Congress</i></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_153"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-8.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-8_th.jpg" alt="ALEXANDER HAMILTON" /></a></p><p class="ctr">ALEXANDER HAMILTON</p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>We do not know the name of the
+mother of Alexander Hamilton: we
+do not know the given name of his
+father. But from letters, a diary and
+pieced-out reports, allowing fancy
+to bridge from fact to fact, we get
+a patchwork history of the events
+preceding the birth of this wonderful
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Every strong man has had a splendid mother.
+Hamilton's mother was a woman of wit, beauty and
+education. While very young, through the machinations
+of her elders, she had been married to a man much older
+than herself&mdash;rich, wilful and dissipated. The man's
+name was Lavine, but his first name we do not know, so
+hidden were the times in a maze of obscurity. The young
+wife very soon discovered the depravity of this man
+whom she had vowed to love and obey; divorce was
+impossible; and rather than endure a lifelong existence
+of legalized shame, she packed up her scanty effects
+and sought to hide herself from society and kinsmen by
+going to the West Indies.</p>
+
+<p>There she hoped to find employment as a governess in
+the family of one of the rich planters; or if this plan
+were not successful she would start a school on her own
+account, and thus benefit her kind and make for herself
+an honorable living. Arriving at the island of Nevis,
+<a name="III_Page_154"></a>she found that the natives did not especially desire
+education, certainly not enough to pay for it, and there
+was no family requiring a governess. But a certain
+Scotch planter by the name of Hamilton, who was
+consulted, thought in time that a school could be built
+up, and he offered to meet the expense of it until such a
+time as it could be put on a paying basis. Unmarried
+women who accept friendly loans from men stand in
+dangerous places. With all good women, heart-whole
+gratitude and a friendship that seems unselfish ripen
+easily into love. They did so here. Perhaps, in a warm,
+ardent temperament, sore grief and biting disappointment
+and crouching want obscure the judgment and
+give a show of reason to actions that a colder intellect
+would disapprove.</p>
+
+<p>On the frontiers of civilization man is greater than law&mdash;all
+ceremonies are looked upon lightly. In a few months
+Mrs. Lavine was called by the little world of Nevis,
+Mrs. Hamilton, and Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton regarded
+themselves as man and wife.</p>
+
+<p>The planter Hamilton was a hard-headed, busy individual,
+who was quite unable to sympathize with his
+wife's finer aspirations. Her first husband had been
+clever and dissipated; this one was worthy and dull.
+And thus deprived of congenial friendships, without
+books or art or that social home life which goes to make
+up a woman's world, and longing for the safety of close
+sympathy and tender love, with no one on whom her
+<a name="III_Page_155"></a>intellect could strike a spark, she keenly felt the bitterness
+of exile.</p>
+
+<p>In a city where society ebbs and flows, an intellectual
+woman married to a commerce-grubbing man is not
+especially to be pitied. She can find intellectual affinities
+that will ease the irksomeness of her situation. But to
+be cast on a desert isle with a being, no matter how good,
+who is incapable of feeling with you the eternal mystery
+of the encircling tides; who can only stare when you
+speak of the moaning lullaby of the restless sea; who
+knows not the glory of the sunrise, and feels no thrill
+when the breakers dash themselves into foam, or the
+moonlight dances on the phosphorescent waves&mdash;ah,
+that is indeed exile! Loneliness is not in being alone, for
+then ministering spirits come to soothe and bless&mdash;loneliness
+is to endure the presence of one who does not
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>And so this finely organized, receptive, aspiring woman,
+through the exercise of a will that seemed masculine in
+its strength, found her feet mired in quicksand. She
+struggled to free herself, and every effort only sank her
+deeper. The relentless environment only held her with
+firmer clutch.</p>
+
+<p>She thirsted for knowledge, for sweet music, for beauty,
+for sympathy, for attainment. She had a heart-hunger
+that none about her understood. She strove for better
+things. She prayed to God, but the heavens were as
+brass; she cried aloud, and the only answer was the
+<a name="III_Page_156"></a>throbbing of her restless heart.</p>
+
+<p>In this condition, a
+son was born to her. They called his name Alexander
+Hamilton. This child was heir to all his mother's
+splendid ambitions. Her lack of opportunity was his
+blessing; for the stifled aspirations of her soul charged
+his being with a strong man's desires, and all the
+mother's silken, unswerving will was woven through his
+nature. He was to surmount obstacles that she could
+not overcome, and to tread under his feet difficulties
+that to her were invincible.</p>
+
+<p>The prayer of her heart was answered, but not in the
+way she expected. God listened to her after all; for every
+earnest prayer has its answer, and not a sincere desire
+of the heart but somewhere will find its gratification.</p>
+
+<p>But earth's buffets were too severe for the brave young
+woman; the forces in league against her were more than
+she could withstand, and before her boy was out of baby
+dresses she gave up the struggle, and went to her long
+rest, soothed only by the thought that, although she
+had sorely blundered, she yet had done her work as
+best she could.<a name="III_Page_157"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>At his mother's death, we find Alexander
+Hamilton taken in charge by certain mystical
+kinsmen. Evidently he was well cared for, as
+he grew into a handsome, strong lad&mdash;small,
+to be sure, but finely formed. Where he learned to read,
+write and cipher we know not; he seems to have had
+one of those active, alert minds that can acquire knowledge
+on a barren island.</p>
+
+<p>When nine years old, he signed his name as witness to a
+deed. The signature is needlessly large and bold, and
+written with careful schoolboy pains, but the writing
+shows the same characteristics that mark the thousand
+and one dispatches which we have, signed at bottom,
+&quot;G. Washington.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At twelve years of age, he was clerk in a general store&mdash;one
+of those country stores where everything is kept,
+from ribbon to whisky. There were other helpers in the
+store, full grown; but when the proprietor went away
+for a few days into the interior, the dark, slim youngster
+took charge of the bookkeeping and the cash; and made
+such shrewd exchanges of merchandise for produce that
+when the &quot;Old Man&quot; returned, the lad was rewarded
+by two pats on the head and a raise in salary of one
+shilling a week.</p>
+
+<p>About this time, the boy was also showing signs of
+literary skill by writing sundry poems and &quot;compositions,&quot;
+and one of his efforts in this line describing a
+tropical hurricane was published in a London paper.<a name="III_Page_158"></a></p>
+
+<p>This opened the eyes of the mystical kinsmen to the
+fact that they had a genius among them, and the elder
+Hamilton was importuned for money to send the boy
+to Boston that he might receive a proper education and
+come back and own the store and be a magistrate and a
+great man. No doubt the lad pressed the issue, too, for
+his ambition had already begun to ferment, as we find
+him writing to a friend, &quot;I'll risk my life, though not
+my character, to exalt my station.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Most great things in America have to take their rise in
+Boston; so it seems meet that Alexander Hamilton, aged
+fifteen, a British subject, should first set foot on American
+soil at Long Wharf, Boston. He took a ferry over
+to Cambridgeport and walked through the woods three
+miles to Harvard College. Possibly he did not remain
+because his training in a bookish way had not been
+sufficient for him to enter, and possibly he did not like
+the Puritanic visage of the old professor who greeted
+him on the threshold of Massachusetts Hall; at any
+rate, he soon made his way to New Haven. Yale suited
+him no better, and he took a boat for New York.</p>
+
+<p>He had letters to several good clergymen in New York,
+and they proved wise and good counselors. The boy
+was advised to take a course at the Grammar School
+at Elizabethtown, New Jersey.</p>
+
+<p>There he remained a year, applying himself most
+vigorously, and the next Fall he knocked at the gate of
+King's College. It is called Columbia now, because kings
+<a name="III_Page_159"></a>in America went out of fashion, and all honors formerly
+paid to the king were turned over to Miss Columbia,
+Goddess of Freedom.</p>
+
+<p>King's College swung wide its doors for the swarthy
+little West Indian. He was allowed to choose his own
+course, and every advantage of the university was
+offered him. In a university, you get just all you are
+able to hold&mdash;it depends upon yourself&mdash;and at the last
+all men who are made at all are self-made.</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton improved each passing moment as it flew;
+with the help of a tutor he threw himself into his work,
+gathering up knowledge with the quick perception and
+eager alertness of one from whom the good things of
+earth have been withheld.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he lived well and spent his money as if there were
+plenty more where it came from; but he was never dissipated
+nor wasteful.</p>
+
+<p>This was in the year Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four,
+and the Colonies were in a state of political excitement.
+Young Hamilton's sympathies were all with the mother
+country. He looked upon the Americans, for the most
+part, as a rude, crude and barbaric people, who should
+be very grateful for the protection of such an all-powerful
+country as England. At his boarding-house
+and at school, he argued the question hotly, defending
+England's right to tax her dependencies.</p>
+
+<p>One fine day, one of his schoolmates put the question
+to him flatly: &quot;In case of war, on which side will you
+<a name="III_Page_160"></a>fight?&quot; Hamilton answered, &quot;On the side of England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But by the next day he had reasoned it out that if
+England succeeded in suppressing the rising insurrection
+she would take all credit to herself; and if the
+Colonies succeeded there would be honors for those
+who did the work. Suddenly it came over him that
+there was such a thing as &quot;the divine right of insurrection,&quot;
+and that there was no reason why men living
+in America should be taxed to support a government
+across the sea. The wealth produced in America should
+be used to develop America.</p>
+
+<p>He was young, and burning with a lofty ambition. He
+knew, and had known all along, that he would some
+day be great and famous and powerful&mdash;here was the
+opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>And so, next day, he announced at the boarding-house
+that the eloquence and logic of his messmates were too
+powerful to resist&mdash;he believed the Colonies and the
+messmates were in the right. Then several bottles were
+brought in, and success was drunk to all men who strove
+for liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Patriotic sentiment is at the last self-interest; in fact,
+Herbert Spencer declares that there is no sane thought
+or rational act but has its root in egoism.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the young man's conversion, there was a
+mass-meeting held in &quot;The Fields,&quot; which meant the
+wilds of what is now the region of Twenty-third Street.<a name="III_Page_161"></a></p>
+
+<p>Young Hamilton stood in the crowd and heard the
+various speakers plead the cause of the Colonies, and
+urge that New York should stand firm with Massachusetts
+against the further encroachments and persecutions
+of England. There were many Tories in the crowd,
+for New York was with King George as against Massachusetts,
+and these Tories asked the speakers embarrassing
+questions that the speakers failed to answer.
+And all the time young Hamilton found himself nearer
+and nearer the platform. Finally, he undertook to reply
+to a talkative Tory, and some one shouted, &quot;Give
+him the platform&mdash;the platform!&quot; and in a moment
+this seventeen-year-old boy found himself facing two
+thousand people. There was hesitation and embarrassment,
+but the shouts of one of his college chums, &quot;Give
+it to 'em! Give it to 'em!&quot; filled in an awkward instant,
+and he began to speak. There was logic and lucidity of
+expression, and as he talked the air became charged
+with reasons, and all he had to do was to reach up and
+seize them.</p>
+
+<p>His strong and passionate nature gave gravity to his
+sentences, and every quibbling objector found himself
+answered, and more than answered, and the speakers
+who were to present the case found this stripling doing
+the work so much better than they could, that they
+urged him on with applause and loud cries of &quot;Bravo!
+Bravo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Immediately at the close of Hamilton's speech, the
+<a name="III_Page_162"></a>chairman had the good sense to declare the meeting
+adjourned&mdash;thus shutting off all reply, as well as closing
+the mouths of the minnow orators who usually pop up
+to neutralize the impression that the strong man has
+made.</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton's speech was the talk of the town. The leading
+Whigs sought him out and begged that he would
+write down his address so that they could print it as a
+pamphlet in reply to the Tory pamphleteers who were
+vigorously circulating their wares. The pens of ready
+writers were scarce in those days: men could argue, but
+to present a forcible written brief was another thing.
+So young Hamilton put his reasons on paper, and their
+success surprised the boys at the boarding-house, and
+the college chums and the professors, and probably
+himself as well. His name was on the lips of all Whigdom,
+and the Tories sent messengers to buy him off.</p>
+
+<p>But Congress was willing to pay its defenders, and
+money came from somewhere&mdash;not much, but all the
+young man needed. College was dropped; the political
+pot boiled; and the study of history, economics and
+statecraft filled the daylight hours to the brim and
+often ran over into the night.</p>
+
+<p>The Winter of Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five passed
+away; the plot thickened. New York had reluctantly
+consented to be represented in Congress and agreed
+grumpily to join hands with the Colonies.</p>
+
+<p>The redcoats
+had marched out to Concord&mdash;and back; and the
+<a name="III_Page_163"></a>embattled farmers had stood and fired the shot &quot;heard
+'round the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton was working hard to bring New York over
+to an understanding that she must stand firm against
+English rule. He organized meetings, gave addresses,
+wrote letters, newspaper articles and pamphlets. Then
+he joined a military company and was perfecting himself
+in the science of war.</p>
+
+<p>There were frequent outbreaks between Tory mobs
+and Whigs, and the breaking up of your opponents'
+meeting was looked upon as a pleasant pastime.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the British ship &quot;Asia&quot; and opened fire
+on the town. This no doubt made Whigs of a good
+many Tories. Whig sentiment was on the increase;
+gangs of men marched through the streets and the
+king's stores were broken into, and prominent Royalists
+found their houses being threatened.</p>
+
+<p>Doctor Cooper, President of King's College, had been
+very pronounced in his rebukes to Congress and the
+Colonies, and a mob made its way to his house. Arriving
+there, Hamilton and his chum Troup were found on
+the steps, determined to protect the place. Hamilton
+stepped forward, and in a strong speech urged that
+Doctor Cooper had merely expressed his own private
+views, which he had a right to do, and the house must
+not on any account be molested. While the parley was
+in progress, old Doctor Cooper himself appeared at one
+of the upper windows and excitedly cautioned the
+<a name="III_Page_164"></a>crowd not to listen to that blatant young rapscallion
+Hamilton, as he was a rogue and a varlet and a vagrom.
+The good Doctor then slammed the window and escaped
+by the back way.</p>
+
+<p>His remarks raised a laugh in which even young Hamilton
+joined, but his mistake was very natural in view
+of the fact that he only knew that Hamilton had deserted
+the college and espoused the devil's cause; and
+not having heard his remarks, but seeing him standing
+on his steps haranguing a crowd, thought surely he was
+endeavoring to work up mischief against his old preceptor,
+who had once plucked him in Greek.</p>
+
+<p>It seems to have been the intention of his guardians
+that the limit of young Hamilton's stay in America was
+to be two years, and by that time his education would
+be &quot;complete,&quot; and he would return to the West Indies
+and surprise the natives.</p>
+
+<p>But his father, who supplied the money, and the mystical
+kinsmen who supplied advice, and the kind friends
+who had given him letters to the Presbyterian clergymen
+at New York and Princeton, had figured without
+their host. Young Hamilton knew all that Nevis had
+in store for him: he knew its littleness, its contumely
+and disgrace, and in the secret recesses of his own
+strong heart he had slipped the cable that held him to
+the past. No more remittances from home; no more
+solicitous advice; no more kind, loving letters&mdash;the past
+was dead.</p>
+
+<p>For England he once had had an almost
+<a name="III_Page_165"></a>idolatrous regard; to him she had once been the protector
+of his native land, the empress of the seas, the
+enlightener of mankind; but henceforth he was an
+American.</p>
+
+<p>He was to fight America's battles, to share in her
+victory, to help make of her a great Nation, and to
+weave his name into the web of her history so that as
+long as the United States of America shall be remembered,
+so long also shall be remembered the name of
+Alexander Hamilton.<a name="III_Page_166"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>What General Washington called his &quot;family&quot;
+usually consisted of sixteen men. These were
+his aides, and more than that, his counselors
+and friends. In Washington's frequent use
+of that expression, &quot;my family,&quot; there is a touch of
+affection that we do not expect to find in the tents of
+war. In rank, the staff ran the gamut from captain to
+general. Each man had his appointed work and made
+a daily report to his chief. When not in actual action,
+the family dined together daily, and the affair was
+conducted with considerable ceremony. Washington
+sat at the head of the table, large, handsome and dignified.
+At his right hand was seated the guest of honor,
+and there were usually several invited friends. At his
+left sat Alexander Hamilton, ready with quick pen to
+record the orders of his chief.</p>
+
+<p>And methinks it would have been quite worth while to
+have had a place at that board, and looked down the
+table at &quot;the strong, fine face, tinged with melancholy,&quot;
+of Washington; and the cheery, youthful faces of Lawrence,
+Tilghman, Lee, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton
+and the others of that brave and handsome company.
+Well might they have called Washington father, for
+this he was in spirit to them all&mdash;grave, gentle, courteous
+and magnanimous, yet exacting strict and instant
+obedience from all; and well, too, may we imagine that
+this obedience was freely and cheerfully given.</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton became one of Washington's family on March<a name="III_Page_167"></a>
+First, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-seven, with the
+rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was barely twenty years
+of age; Washington was forty-seven, and the average
+age of the family, omitting its head, was twenty-five.
+All had been selected on account of superior intelligence
+and a record of dashing courage. When Hamilton took
+his place at the board, he was the youngest member,
+save one. In point of literary talent, he stood among
+the very foremost in the country, for then there was no
+literature in America save the literature of politics;
+and as an officer, he had shown rare skill and bravery.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, such was Hamilton's ambition and confidence
+in himself, that he hesitated to accept the position,
+and considered it an act of sacrifice to do so. But having
+once accepted, he threw himself into the work and
+became Washington's most intimate and valued assistant.
+Washington's correspondence with his generals,
+with Congress, and the written decisions demanded
+daily on hundreds of minor questions, mostly devolved
+on Hamilton, for work gravitates to him who can do it
+best. A simple &quot;Yes,&quot; &quot;No&quot; or &quot;Perhaps&quot; from the
+chief must be elaborated into a diplomatic letter, conveying
+just the right shade of meaning, all with its
+proper emphasis and show of dignity and respect. Thousands
+of these dispatches can now be seen at the Capitol;
+and the ease, grace, directness and insight shown in
+them are remarkable. There is no muddy rhetoric or
+befuddled clauses. They were written by one with a
+<a name="III_Page_168"></a>clear understanding, who was intent that the person
+addressed should understand, too.</p>
+
+<p>Many of these
+documents were merely signed by Washington, but a
+few reveal interlined sentences and an occasional word
+changed in Washington's hand, thus showing that all
+was closely scrutinized and digested.</p>
+
+<p>As a member of Washington's staff, Hamilton did not
+have the independent command that he so much
+desired; but he endured that heroic Winter at Valley
+Forge, was present at all the important battles, took
+an active part in most of them, and always gained
+honor and distinction.</p>
+
+<p>As an aide to Washington, Hamilton's most important
+mission was when he was sent to General Gates to
+secure reinforcements for the Southern army. Gates
+had defeated Burgoyne and won a full dozen stern
+victories in the North. In the meantime, Washington
+had done nothing but make a few brave retreats.
+Gates' army was made up of hardy and seasoned soldiers,
+who had met the enemy and defeated him over
+and over again. The flush of success was on their banners;
+and Washington knew that if a few thousand of
+those rugged veterans could be secured to reinforce his
+own well-nigh discouraged troops, victory would also
+perch upon the banners of the South.</p>
+
+<p>As a superior officer he had the right to demand these
+troops; but to reduce the force of a general who is
+making an excellent success is not the common rule of
+<a name="III_Page_169"></a>war. The country looked upon Gates as its savior, and
+Gates was feeling a little that way himself. Gates had
+but to demand it, and the position of Commander-in-Chief
+would go to him. Washington thoroughly realized
+this, and therefore hesitated about issuing an order
+requesting a part of Gates' force. To secure these troops
+as if the suggestion came from Gates was a most delicate
+commission. Alexander Hamilton was dispatched to
+Gates' headquarters, armed, as a last resort, with a
+curt military order to the effect that he should turn
+over a portion of his army to Washington. Hamilton's
+orders were: &quot;Bring the troops, but do not deliver this
+order unless you are obliged to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton brought
+the troops, and returned the order with seal intact.</p>
+
+<p>The act of his sudden breaking with Washington has
+been much exaggerated. In fact, it was not a sudden
+act at all, for it had been premeditated for some months.
+There was a woman in the case. Hamilton had done
+more than conquer General Gates on that Northern
+trip; at Albany, he had met Elizabeth, daughter of
+General Schuyler, and won her after what has been
+spoken of as &quot;a short and sharp skirmish.&quot; Both Alexander
+and Elizabeth regarded &quot;a clerkship&quot; as quite
+too limited a career for one so gifted; they felt that
+nothing less than commander of a division would
+answer. How to break loose&mdash;that was the question.</p>
+
+<p>And when Washington met him at the head of the
+stairs of the New Windsor Hotel and sharply chided
+<a name="III_Page_170"></a>him for being late, the young man embraced the opportunity
+and said, &quot;Sir, since you think I have been remiss,
+we part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was the act of a boy; and the figure of this boy, five
+feet five inches high, weight one hundred twenty, aged
+twenty-four, talking back to his chief, six feet three,
+weight two hundred, aged fifty, has its comic side.
+Military rule demands that every one shall be on time,
+and Washington's rebuke was proper and right. Further
+than this, one feels that if he had followed up his rebuke
+by boxing the young man's ears for &quot;sassing back,&quot; he
+would still not have been outside the lines of duty.</p>
+
+<p>But an hour afterwards we find Washington sending
+for the youth and endeavoring to mend the break. And
+although Hamilton proudly repelled his advances,
+Washington forgave all and generously did all he could
+to advance the young man's interests. Washington's
+magnanimity was absolutely without flaw, but his
+attitude towards Hamilton has a more suggestive
+meaning when we consider that it was a testimonial of
+the high estimate he placed on Hamilton's ability.</p>
+
+<p>At Yorktown, Washington gave Hamilton the perilous
+privilege of leading the assault. Hamilton did his work
+well, rushing with fiery impetuosity upon the fort&mdash;carried
+all before him, and in ten minutes had planted
+the Stars and Stripes on the ramparts of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fine and fitting close to his glorious military
+career.<a name="III_Page_171"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>When Washington became President, the
+most important office to be filled was that of
+manager of the exchequer. In fact, all there
+was of it was the office&mdash;there was no treasury,
+no mint, no fixed revenue, no credit; but there
+were debts&mdash;foreign and domestic&mdash;and clamoring
+creditors by the thousand. The debts consisted of what
+was then the vast sum of eighty million dollars. The
+treasury was empty. Washington had many advisers
+who argued that the Nation could never live under
+such a weight of debt&mdash;the only way was flatly and
+frankly to repudiate&mdash;wipe the slate clean&mdash;and begin
+afresh.</p>
+
+<p>This was what the country expected would be done;
+and so low was the hope of payment that creditors
+could be found who were willing to compromise their
+claims for ten cents on the dollar. Robert Morris, who
+had managed the finances during the period of the
+Confederation, utterly refused to attempt the task
+again, but he named a man who, he said, could bring
+order out of chaos, if any living man could. That man
+was Alexander Hamilton. Washington appealed to
+Hamilton, offering him the position of Secretary of
+the Treasury. Hamilton, aged thirty-two, gave up his
+law practise, which was yielding him ten thousand a
+year, to accept this office which paid three thousand
+five hundred. Before the British cannon, Washington
+did not lose heart, but to face the angry mob of creditors
+<a name="III_Page_172"></a>waving white-paper claims made him quake; but with
+Hamilton's presence his courage came back.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing that Hamilton decided upon was that
+there should be no repudiation&mdash;no offer of compromise
+would be considered&mdash;every man should be paid in full.
+And further than this, the general government would
+assume the entire war debt of each individual State.
+Washington concurred with Hamilton on these points,
+but he could make neither oral nor written argument
+in a way that would convince others; so this task was
+left to Hamilton. Hamilton appeared before Congress
+and explained his plans&mdash;explained them so lucidly
+and with such force and precision that he made an
+indelible impression. There were grumblers and complainers,
+but these did not and could not reply to Hamilton,
+for he saw all over and around the subject, and
+they saw it only at an angle. Hamilton had studied the
+history of finance, and knew the financial schemes of
+every country. No question of statecraft could be asked
+him for which he did not have a reply ready. He knew
+the science of government as no other man in America
+then did, and recognizing this, Congress asked him to
+prepare reports on the collection of revenue, the coasting
+trade, the effects of a tariff, shipbuilding, post-office
+extension, and also a scheme for a judicial system.
+When in doubt they asked Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>And all the time Hamilton was working at this bewildering
+maze of detail, he was evolving that financial
+<a name="III_Page_173"></a>policy, broad, comprehensive and minute, which endures
+even to this day, even to the various forms of
+accounts that are now kept at the Treasury Department
+at Washington.</p>
+
+<p>His insistence that to preserve the credit of a nation
+every debt must be paid, is an idea that no statesman
+now dare question. The entire aim and intent of his
+policy was high, open and frank honesty. The people
+should be made to feel an absolute security in their
+government, and this being so, all forms of industry
+would prosper, &quot;and the prosperity of the people is
+the prosperity of the Nation.&quot; To such a degree of
+confidence did Hamilton raise the public credit that
+in a very short time the government found no trouble
+in borrowing all the money it needed at four per cent;
+and yet this was done in face of the fact that its debt
+had increased.</p>
+
+<p>Just here was where his policy invited its strongest and
+most bitter attack. For there are men today who can
+not comprehend that a public debt is a public blessing,
+and that all liabilities have a strict and undivorceable
+relationship to assets. Alexander Hamilton was a
+leader of men. He could do the thinking of his time and
+map out a policy, &quot;arranging every detail for a kingdom.&quot;
+He has been likened to Napoleon in his ability
+to plan and execute with rapid and marvelous precision,
+and surely the similarity is striking.</p>
+
+<p>But he was not an adept in the difficult and delicate
+<a name="III_Page_174"></a>art of diplomacy&mdash;he could not wait. He demanded
+instant obedience, and lacked all of that large, patient,
+calm magnanimity so splendidly shown forth since by
+Abraham Lincoln. Unlike Jefferson, his great rival, he
+could not calmly and silently bide his time. But I will
+not quarrel with a man because he is not some one else.</p>
+
+<p>He saw things clearly at a glance; he knew because
+he knew; and if others would not follow, he had the
+audacity to push on alone. This recklessness to the
+opinion of the slow and plodding, this indifference to
+the dull, gradually drew upon him the hatred of a class.</p>
+
+<p>They said he was a monarchist at heart and &quot;such
+men are dangerous.&quot; The country became divided into
+those who were with Hamilton and those who were
+against him. The very transcendent quality of his
+genius wove the net that eventually was to catch his
+feet and accomplish his ruin.<a name="III_Page_175"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>It has been the usual practise for nearly a
+hundred years to refer to Aaron Burr as a
+roue, a rogue and a thorough villain, who took
+the life of a gentle and innocent man.</p>
+
+<p>I have no apologies to make for Colonel Burr; the record
+of his life lies open in many books, and I would neither
+conceal nor explain away.</p>
+
+<p>If I should attempt to describe the man and liken him
+to another, that man would be Alexander Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>They were the same age within ten months; they
+were the same height within an inch; their weight was
+the same within five pounds, and in temperament and
+disposition they resembled each other as brothers seldom
+do. Each was passionate, ambitious, proud.</p>
+
+<p>In the drawing-room where one of these men chanced
+to be, there was room for no one else&mdash;such was the
+vivacity, the wit, and the generous, glowing good-nature
+shown. With women, the manner of these men
+was most gentle and courtly; and the low, alluring
+voice of each was music's honeyed flattery set to words.</p>
+
+<p>Both were much under the average height, yet the
+carriage of each was so proud and imposing that everywhere
+they went men made way, and women turned
+and stared.</p>
+
+<p>Both were public speakers and lawyers of such eminence
+that they took their pick of clients and charged all the
+fee that policy would allow. In debate, there was a
+wilful aggressiveness, a fiery sureness, a lofty certainty,
+<a name="III_Page_176"></a>that moved judges and juries to do their bidding.
+Henry Cabot Lodge says that so great was Hamilton's
+renown as a lawyer that clients flocked to him because
+the belief was abroad that no judge dare decide against
+him. With Burr it was the same.</p>
+
+<p>Both made large sums, and both spent them all as fast
+as made.</p>
+
+<p>In point of classic education, Burr had the advantage.
+He was the grandson of the Reverend Jonathan Edwards.
+In his strong, personal magnetism, and keen,
+many-sided intellect, Aaron Burr strongly resembled
+the gifted Presbyterian divine who wrote &quot;Sinners in
+the Hands of an Angry God.&quot; His father was the
+Reverend Aaron Burr, President of Princeton College.
+He was a graduate of Princeton, and, like Hamilton,
+always had the ability to focus his mind on the subject
+in hand, and wring from it its very core. Burr's reputation
+as to his susceptibility to women's charms is the
+world's common&mdash;very common&mdash;property. He was
+unhappily married; his wife died before he was thirty;
+he was a man of ardent nature and stalked through the
+world a conquering Don Juan. A historian, however,
+records that &quot;his alliances were only with women who
+were deemed by society to be respectable. Married
+women, unhappily mated, knowing his reputation, very
+often placed themselves in his way, going to him for
+advice, as moths court the flame. Young, tender and
+innocent girls had no charm for him.&quot;<a name="III_Page_177"></a></p>
+
+<p>Hamilton was happily married to a woman of aristocratic
+family; rich, educated, intellectual, gentle, and
+worthy of him at his best. They had a family of eight
+children. Hamilton was a favorite of women everywhere
+and was mixed up in various scandalous intrigues. He
+was an easy mark for a designing woman. In one
+instance, the affair was seized upon by his political foes,
+and made capital of to his sore disadvantage. Hamilton
+met the issue by writing a pamphlet, laying bare the
+entire shameless affair, to the horror of his family and
+friends. Copies of this pamphlet may be seen in the
+rooms of the American Historical Society at New York.
+Burr had been Attorney-General of New York State
+and also United States Senator. Each man had served
+on Washington's staff; each had a brilliant military
+record; each had acted as second in a duel; each
+recognized the honor of the code.</p>
+
+<p>Stern political differences arose, not so much through
+matters of opinion and conscience, as through ambitious
+rivalry. Neither was willing the other should rise, yet
+both thirsted for place and power. Burr ran for the
+Presidency, and was sternly, strongly, bitterly opposed
+as &quot;a dangerous man&quot; by Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>At the election one more electoral vote would have
+given the highest office of the people to Aaron Burr; as
+it was he tied with Jefferson. The matter was thrown
+into the House of Representatives, and Jefferson was
+given the office, with Burr as Vice-President. Burr
+<a name="III_Page_178"></a>considered, and perhaps rightly, that were it not for
+Hamilton's assertive influence he would have been
+President of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>While still Vice-President, Burr sought to become
+Governor of New York, thinking this the surest road to
+receiving the nomination for the Presidency at the next
+election.</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton openly and bitterly opposed him, and the
+office went to another.</p>
+
+<p>Burr considered, and rightly, that were it not for
+Hamilton's influence he would have been Governor of
+New York.</p>
+
+<p>Burr, smarting under the sting of this continual
+opposition by a man who himself was shelved politically
+through his own too fiery ambition, sent a note by his
+friend Van Ness to Hamilton, asking whether the
+language he had used concerning him (&quot;a dangerous
+man&quot;) referred to him politically or personally.</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton replied evasively, saying he could not recall
+all that he might have said during fifteen years of
+public life. &quot;Especially,&quot; he said in his letter, &quot;it can
+not be reasonably expected that I shall enter into any
+explanation upon a basis so vague as you have adopted.
+I trust on more reflection you will see the matter in the
+same light. If not, however, I only regret the circumstances,
+and must abide the consequences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When fighting men use fighting language they invite a
+challenge. Hamilton's excessively polite regret that &quot;he
+<a name="III_Page_179"></a>must abide the consequences&quot; simply meant fight, as
+his language had for a space of five years.</p>
+
+<p>A challenge was sent by the hand of Pendleton. Hamilton
+accepted. Being the challenged man (for duelists are
+always polite), he was given the choice of weapons. He
+chose pistols at ten paces.</p>
+
+<p>At seven o'clock on the morning of July Eleventh,
+Eighteen Hundred Four, the participants met on the
+heights of Weehawken, overlooking New York Bay.
+On a toss Hamilton won the choice of position and his
+second also won the right of giving the word to fire.</p>
+
+<p>Each man removed his coat and cravat; the pistols were
+loaded in their presence. As Pendleton handed his pistol
+to Hamilton he asked, &quot;Shall I set the hair-trigger?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not this time,&quot; replied Hamilton. With pistols
+primed and cocked, the men were stationed facing
+each other, thirty feet apart.</p>
+
+<p>Both were pale, but free from any visible nervousness
+or excitement. Neither had partaken of stimulants.
+Each was asked if he had anything to say, or if he knew
+of any way by which the affair could be terminated
+there and then.</p>
+
+<p>Each answered quietly in the negative. Pendleton,
+standing fifteen feet to the right of his principal, said:
+&quot;One&mdash;two&mdash;three&mdash;present!&quot; and as the last final
+sounding of the letter &quot;t&quot; escaped his teeth, Burr
+fired, followed almost instantly by the other.</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton arose convulsively on his toes, reeled, and<a name="III_Page_180"></a>
+Burr, dropping his smoking pistol, sprang towards him
+to support him, a look of regret on his face.</p>
+
+<p>Van Ness raised an umbrella over the fallen man, and
+motioned Burr to be gone.</p>
+
+<p>The ball passed through Hamilton's body, breaking a
+rib, and lodging in the second lumbar vertebra.</p>
+
+<p>The bullet from Hamilton's pistol cut a twig four feet
+above Burr's head.</p>
+
+<p>While he was lying on the ground Hamilton saw his
+pistol near and said, &quot;Look out for that pistol, it is
+loaded&mdash;Pendleton knows I did not intend to fire at
+him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton died the following day, first declaring that he
+bore Colonel Burr no ill-will.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Burr said he very much regretted the whole
+affair, but the language and attitude of Hamilton forced
+him to send a challenge or remain quiet and be branded
+as a coward. He fully realized before the meeting that if
+he killed Hamilton it would be political death for him,
+too.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of the deed Burr had no family; Hamilton
+had a wife and seven children, his oldest son having
+fallen in a duel fought three years before on the
+identical spot where he, too, fell.</p>
+
+<p>Burr fled the country.</p>
+
+<p>Three years afterwards, he was arrested for treason in
+trying to found an independent State within the borders
+of the United States. He was tried and found not guilty.<a name="III_Page_181"></a></p>
+
+<p>After some years spent abroad he returned and took
+up the practise of law in New York. He was fairly
+successful, lived a modest, quiet life, and died September
+Fourteenth, Eighteen Hundred Thirty-six, aged
+eighty years.</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton's widow survived him just one-half a century,
+dying in her ninety-eighth year.</p>
+
+<p>So passeth away the glory of the world.</p><p><a name="III_Page_182"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="DANIEL_WEBSTER"></a></p><h2>DANIEL WEBSTER</h2>
+<p><a name="III_Page_183"></a></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>Not many days ago I saw at breakfast the notablest
+of all your notabilities, Daniel Webster. He is a magnificent
+specimen. You might say to all the world, &quot;This
+is our Yankee-Englishman; such links we make in
+Yankeeland!&quot; As a logic fencer, advocate or Parliamentary
+Hercules, one would incline to back him at
+first sight against all the extant world. The tanned
+complexion; the amorphous, craglike face; the dull
+black eyes under the precipice of brows, like dull
+anthracite furnaces needing only to be blown; the
+mastiff mouth accurately closed; I have not traced so
+much of silent Berserker rage that I remember of in
+any other man. &quot;I guess I should not like to be your
+nigger!&quot;<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Carlyle to Emerson</i></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_184"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-9.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-9_th.jpg" alt="DANIEL WEBSTER" /></a></p><p class="ctr">DANIEL WEBSTER</p>
+<p><a name="III_Page_185"></a></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>Those were splendid days, tinged
+with no trace of blue, when I attended
+the district school, wearing
+trousers buttoned to a calico waist.
+I had ambitions then&mdash;I was sure
+that some day I could spell down
+the school, propound a problem in
+fractions that would puzzle the
+teacher, and play checkers in a way that would cause
+my name to be known throughout the entire township.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these pleasant emotions, a cloud
+appeared upon the horizon of my happiness. What
+was it? A Friday Afternoon, that's all.</p>
+
+<p>A new teacher had been engaged&mdash;a woman, actually
+a young woman. It was prophesied that she could not
+keep order a single day, for the term before, the big
+boys had once arisen and put out of the building the
+man who taught them. Then there was a boy who
+occasionally brought a dog to school; and when the
+bell rang, the dog followed the boy into the room and
+lay under the desk pounding his tail on the floor; and
+everybody tittered and giggled until the boy had been
+coaxed into taking the dog home, for if merely left in
+the entry he howled and whined in a way that made
+study impossible. But one day the boy was not to be
+coaxed, and the teacher grabbed the dog by the scruff
+<a name="III_Page_186"></a>of the neck, and flung him through a window so forcibly
+that he never came back. And now a woman was to
+teach the school: she was only a little woman and yet
+the boys obeyed her, and I had come to think that a
+woman could teach school nearly as well as a man,
+when the awful announcement was made that thereafter
+every week we were to have a Friday Afternoon.
+There were to be no lessons; everybody was to speak a
+piece, and then there was to be a spelling-match&mdash;and
+that was all. But heavens! it was enough.</p>
+
+<p>Monday began very blue and gloomy, and the density
+increased as the week passed. My mother had drilled
+me well in my lines, and my big sister was lavish in her
+praise, but the awful ordeal of standing up before the
+whole school was yet to come.</p>
+
+<p>Thursday night I slept but little, and all Friday morning
+I was in a burning fever. At noon I could not eat
+my lunch, but I tried to, manfully, and as I munched
+on the tasteless morsels, salt tears rained on the johnnycake
+I held in my hand. And even when the girls
+brought in big bunches of wild flowers and cornstalks,
+and began to decorate the platform, things appeared
+no brighter.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the teacher went to the door and
+rang the bell: nobody seemed to play, and as the scholars
+took their seats, some, very pale, tried to smile, and
+others whispered, &quot;Have you got your piece?&quot; Still
+others kept their lips working, repeating lines that
+struggled hard to flee.<a name="III_Page_187"></a></p>
+
+<p>Names were called, but I did not see who went up,
+neither did I hear what was said. At last, my name was
+called: it came like a clap of thunder&mdash;as a great surprise,
+a shock. I clutched the desk, struggled to my
+feet, passed down the aisle, the sound of my shoes
+echoing through the silence like the strokes of a maul.
+The blood seemed ready to burst from my eyes, ears
+and nose.</p>
+
+<p>I reached the platform, missed my footing, stumbled,
+and nearly fell. I heard the giggling that followed, and
+knew that a red-haired boy, who had just spoken, and
+was therefore unnecessarily jubilant, had laughed aloud.</p>
+
+<p>I was angry. I shut my fists so that the nails cut my
+flesh, and glaring straight at his red head shot my bolt:
+&quot;I know not how others may feel, but sink or swim,
+live or die, survive or perish, I give my heart and my
+hand to this vote. It is my living sentiment and by the
+blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence
+now, and independence forever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>That was all of the piece. I gave the whole thing in a
+mouthful, and started for my seat, got halfway there
+and remembered I had forgotten to bow, turned, went
+back to the platform, bowed with a jerk, started again
+for my seat, and hearing some one laugh, ran.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the seat, I burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>The teacher
+came over, patted my head, kissed my cheek, and told
+me I had done first-rate, and after hearing several
+others speak I calmed down and quite agreed with her.<a name="III_Page_188"></a></p>
+
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>It was Daniel Webster who caused the Friday
+Afternoon to become an institution in the
+schools of America. His early struggles were
+dwelt upon and rehearsed by parents and
+pedagogues until every boy was looked upon as a
+possible Demosthenes holding senates in thrall.</p>
+
+<p>If physical imperfections were noticeable, the fond
+mother would explain that Demosthenes was a sickly,
+ill-formed youth, who only overcame a lisp by orating
+to the sea with his mouth full of pebbles; and every one
+knew that Webster was educated only because he was
+too weak to work. Oratory was in the air; elocution
+was rampant; and to declaim in orotund, and gesticulate
+in curves, was regarded as the chief end of man.
+One-tenth of the time in all public schools was given
+over to speaking, and on Saturday evenings the schoolhouse
+was sacred to the Debating Society.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the Lyceum, and the orators of the land
+made pilgrimages, stopping one day in a place, putting
+themselves on exhibition, and giving the people a taste
+of their quality at fifty cents per head. Recently, there
+has been a relapse of the oratorical fever. Every city
+from Leadville to Boston has its College of Oratory, or
+School of Expression, wherein a newly discovered
+&quot;Natural Method&quot; is divulged for a consideration.
+Some of these &quot;Colleges&quot; have done much good; one
+in particular I know, that fosters a fine spirit of sympathy,
+and a trace of mysticism that is well in these
+<a name="III_Page_189"></a>hurrying, scurrying days.</p>
+
+<p>But all combined have
+never produced an orator; no, dearie, they never have,
+and never can. You might as well have a school for
+poets, or a college for saints, or give medals for proficiency<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">in the gentle art of wooing, as to expect to</span><br />
+make an orator by telling how.</p>
+
+<p>Once upon a day, Sir Walter Besant was to give a lecture
+upon &quot;The Art of the Novelist.&quot; He had just adjusted
+his necktie for the last time, slipped a lozenge
+into his mouth, and was about to appear upon the
+platform, when he felt a tug at the tail of his dress-coat.
+On looking around, he saw the anxious face of his
+friend, James Payn. &quot;For God's sake, Walter,&quot; whispered
+Payn, &quot;you are not going to explain to 'em how
+you do it, are you?&quot; But Walter did not explain how
+to write fiction, because he could not, and Payn's quizzing
+question happily relieved the lecture of the bumptiousness
+it might otherwise have contained.</p>
+
+<p>The first culture for which a people reach out is oratory.
+The Indian is an orator with &quot;the natural method&quot;;
+he takes the stump on small provocation, and under
+the spell of the faces that look up to him, is often moved
+to strange eloquence. I have heard negro preachers
+who could neither read nor write, move vast congregations
+to profoundest emotion by the magic of their
+words and presence. And further, they proved to me
+that the ability to read and write is a cheap accomplishment,
+and that a man can be a very strong character,
+<a name="III_Page_190"></a>and not know how to do either.</p>
+
+<p>For the most part,
+people who live in cities are not moved by oratory;
+they are unsocial, unimaginative, unemotional. They
+see so much and hear so much that they cease to be
+impressed. When they come together in assemblages
+they are so apathetic that they fail to generate magnetism&mdash;there
+is no common soul to which the speaker can
+address himself. They are so cold that the orator never
+welds them into a mass. He may amuse them, but in a
+single hour to change the opinions of a lifetime is no
+longer possible in America. There are so many people,
+and so much business to transact, that emotional life
+plays only upon the surface&mdash;in it there is no depth.
+To possess depth you must commune with the Silences.
+No more do you find men and women coming for fifty
+miles, in wagons, to hear speakers discuss political
+issues; no more do you find campmeetings where the
+preacher strikes conviction home until thousands are
+on their knees crying to God for mercy.</p>
+
+<p>Intelligence has increased; spirituality has declined,
+and as a people the warm emotions of our hearts are
+gone forever.</p>
+
+<p>Oratory is a rustic product. The great orators have
+always been country-bred, and their appeal has been
+made to rural people. Those who live in a big place
+think they are bigger on that account. They acquire
+glibness of speech and polish of manner; but they purchase
+these things at a price. They lack the power to
+<a name="III_Page_191"></a>weigh mighty questions, the courage to formulate
+them, and the sturdy vitality to stand up and declare
+them in the face of opposition. Revolutions are fought
+by farmers and rail-splitters; these are the embattled
+men who fire the shots heard 'round the world.</p>
+
+<p>When Daniel Webster's father took up his residence in
+New Hampshire, his log cabin was the most northern
+one of the Colonies. Between him and Montreal lay an
+unbroken forest inhabited only by prowling Indians.
+Ebenezer Webster's long rifle had sent cold lead into
+many a redskin; and the same rifle had done good
+service in fighting the British. Once, its owner stood
+guard before Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh,
+and Washington came out and said, &quot;Captain Webster,
+I can trust you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ebenezer Webster would leave his home to carry a bag
+of corn on his back through the woods to the mill ten
+miles away to have it ground into meal, and his wife
+would be left alone with the children. On such occasions,
+Indians who never saw settlers' cabins without having
+an itch to burn them, used sometimes to call, and the
+housewife would have to parley with these savages,
+&quot;impressing them concerning the rights of property.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So here was born Daniel Webster, in Seventeen
+Hundred Eighty-two, the second child of his mother.
+His father was then forty-three, and had already raised
+one brood, but his mother was only in her twenties. It
+seems that biting poverty and sore deprivation are
+<a name="III_Page_192"></a>about as good prenatal influences as a soul can well
+ask, provided there abides with the mother a noble
+discontent and a brave unrest.</p>
+
+<p>However, it came
+near being overdone in Daniel Webster's case, for the
+Mrs. Gamp who presided at his birth declared he could
+not live, and if he did, would &quot;allus be a no-'count.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But he made a brave fight for breath, and his crossness
+and peevishness through the first years of his life were
+proof of vitality. He must have been a queer toddler
+when he wore dresses, with his immense head and deep-set
+black eyes and serious ways.</p>
+
+<p>Being sickly, he was allowed to rule, and the big girls,
+his half-sisters, humored him, and his mother did the
+same. They taught him his letters when he was only
+a baby, and he himself said that he could not remember
+a time when he could not read the Bible.</p>
+
+<p>When he grew older he did not have to bring in wood
+and do the chores&mdash;he was not strong enough, they
+said. Little Dan was of a like belief, and encouraged
+the idea on every occasion. He roamed the woods,
+fished, hunted, and read every scrap of print that came
+his way.</p>
+
+<p>Being able to read any kind of print, and not being
+strong enough to work, it very early was decided that
+he should have an education. It is rather a humbling
+confession to make, but our worthy forefathers chiefly
+prized an education for the fact that it caused the
+fortunate possessor to be exempt from manual labor.<a name="III_Page_193"></a></p>
+
+<p>When Daniel was fourteen, a member of Congress came
+to see Ebenezer Webster, to secure his influence at
+election. As the great man rode away, Ebenezer said
+to his son: &quot;Daniel, look there! he is educated and gets
+six dollars a day in Congress for doing nothing; while
+I toil on this rocky hillside and hardly see six dollars
+in a year. Daniel, get an education!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll do it,&quot; said Daniel, and throwing his arms around
+his father's neck, burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>The village of Salisbury, where Webster was born, is
+fifteen miles north of Concord. You leave the train at
+Boscowan, and there is a rickety old stage, with a
+loquacious driver, that will take you to Salisbury, five
+miles, for twenty-five cents. The country is one vast
+outcrop of granite; and one can not but be filled with
+admiration, mingled with pity, for the dwellers thereabouts
+who call these piles of rock &quot;farms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As we wound slowly around the hills, the church-spire
+of the village came in sight; and soon we entered the
+one street of this sleepy, forgotten place. I shook hands
+with the old stage-driver as he let me down in front
+of the tavern; and as I went in search of the landlord,
+I thought of the remark of the Chicago woman who,
+in riding from Warwick over to Stratford, said, &quot;Goodness
+me! why should a man like Shakespeare ever take
+it in his head to live so far off!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Salisbury has four hundred people. You can rent a
+house there for fifty dollars a year, or should you prefer
+<a name="III_Page_194"></a>not to keep house, but board, you can be accommodated
+at the tavern for three dollars a week. There are various
+abandoned farms round about, and they are abandoned
+so thoroughly that even Kate Sanborn would not have
+the courage to their adoption try.</p>
+
+<p>The landlord of the hotel told me that were it not for
+the &quot;Harvest Dance,&quot; the dance on the Fourth of
+July, and the party at Christmas, he could not keep
+the house open at all. Of course, all the inhabitants
+know that Webster was born at Salisbury, but there
+is not so much local pride in the matter as there is at
+East Aurora over the fact that one of her former citizens
+is a performer in Barnum and Bailey's Circus.</p>
+
+<p>The number of old men in one of these New England
+villages impresses folks from the West as being curious.
+There are a full dozen men at Salisbury between seventy-five
+and ninety, and all have positive ideas as to
+just why Daniel Webster missed the Presidency. I
+found opinion curiously divided as to Webster's ability;
+but all seemed to argue that when he left New
+Hampshire and became a citizen of Massachusetts, he
+made a fatal mistake.<a name="III_Page_195"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>The sacrifices that the mother and the father
+of Daniel Webster made, in order that he
+might go to school, were very great. Every
+one in the family had to do without things,
+that this one might thrive. The boy accepted it all,
+quite as a matter of course, for from babyhood he had
+been protected and petted. At the last we must admit
+that the man who towers above his fellows is the one
+who has the power to make others work for him; a
+great success is not possible in any other way.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout his life Webster utilized the labor of others,
+and took it in a high and imperious manner, as though
+it were his due. No doubt the way in which his family
+lavished their gifts upon him fixed in his mind that
+immoral slant of disregard for his financial obligations
+which clung to him all through life.</p>
+
+<p>There is a story told of his going to a county fair with
+his brother Ezekiel, which shows the characters of
+these brothers better than a chapter. The father had
+given each lad a dollar to spend. When the boys got
+home Daniel was in gay spirits and Ezekiel was depressed.
+&quot;Well, Dan,&quot; said the father, &quot;did you spend
+your money?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I did,&quot; replied Daniel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And, Zeke, what did you do with your dollar?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Loaned it to Dan,&quot; replied Ezekiel.</p>
+
+<p>But there was a fine bond of affection between these
+two. Ezekiel was two years older and, unfortunately
+<a name="III_Page_196"></a>for himself, was strong and well. He was very early set
+to work, and I can not find that the thought of giving
+him an education ever occurred to his parents, until
+after Daniel had graduated at Dartmouth, and Dan
+and Zeke themselves then forced the issue.</p>
+
+<p>In stature they were the same size: both were tall, finely
+formed, and in youth slender. As they grew older they
+grew stouter, and the personal presence of each was
+very imposing. Ezekiel was of light complexion and
+ruddy; Daniel was very dark and sallow. I have met
+several men who knew them both, and the best opinion
+is that Ezekiel was the stronger of the two, mentally
+and morally.</p>
+
+<p>Daniel was not a student, while Ezekiel was; and as a
+counselor Ezekiel was the safer man. Up to the very
+week of Ezekiel's death Daniel advised with him on
+all his important affairs. When Ezekiel fell dead in the
+courtroom at Concord and the news was carried to his
+brother, it was a blow that affected him more than the
+loss of wife or child. His friend and counselor, the one
+man in life upon whom he leaned, was gone, and over
+his own great, craglike face came that look of sorrow
+which death only removed. But care and grief became
+this giant, as they do all who are great enough to bear
+them.</p>
+
+<p>It was two years after his brother's death that he made
+the speech which is his masterpiece. And while the
+applause was ringing in his ears he turned to Judge<a name="III_Page_197"></a>
+Story and said, &quot;Oh, if Zeke were only here!&quot; Who
+is there who can not sympathize with that groan? We
+work for others; and to win the applause of senates or
+nations, and not be able to know that Some One is
+glad, takes all the sweetness out of victory.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I sing well, I want you to meet me in the wings
+of the stage, and taking me in your aims, kiss my cheek,
+and whisper it was all right.&quot; When Patti wrote this
+to her lover she voiced the universal need of a some one
+who understands, to share the triumph of good work
+well done. The nostalgia of life never seems so bitter
+as after moments of success; then comes creeping in the
+thought that he who would have gloried in this&mdash;knowing<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">all the years of struggle and deprivations that made</span><br />
+it possible&mdash;is sleeping his long sleep.</p>
+
+<p>In that speech of January Twenty-sixth, Eighteen
+Hundred Thirty, Webster reached high-water mark.
+On that performance, more than any other, rests his
+fame. He was forty-eight years old then. All the years
+of his career he had been getting ready for that address.
+It was on the one theme that he loved; on the theme he
+had studied most; on the only theme upon which he
+ever spoke well&mdash;the greatness, the grandeur and the
+possibilities of America. He spoke for four hours, and
+in his works the speech occupies seventy close pages.
+He was at the zenith of his physical and intellectual
+power, and that is as good a place as any to stop and
+view the man.<a name="III_Page_198"></a></p>
+
+<p>On account of his proud carriage, and the fine poise of
+his massive head, he gave the impression of being a
+very large man; but he was just five feet ten, and
+weighed a little less than two hundred. His manner
+was grave, deliberate and dignified; and his sturdy
+face, furrowed with lines of sorrow, made a profound
+impression upon all before he had spoken a word. He
+had arrived at an age when the hot desire to succeed
+had passed. For no man can attain the highest success
+until he has reached a point where he does not care
+for it. In oratory the personal desire for victory must
+be obliterated or the hearer will never award the palm.</p>
+
+<p>Hayne was a very bright and able speaker. He had
+argued the right of a State to dissent from, or nullify,
+a law passed by the House of Representatives and
+Senate, making such law inoperative within its borders.
+His claim was that the framers of the Constitution did
+not expect or intend that a law could be passed that
+was binding on a State when the people of that State
+did not wish it so. Mr. Hayne had the best end of the
+argument, and the opinion is now general among jurists
+that his logic was right and just, and that those who
+thought otherwise were wrong. New England had
+practically nullified United States law in Eighteen
+Hundred Twelve, the Hartford Convention of Eighteen
+Hundred Fourteen had declared the right; Josiah
+Quincy had advocated the privilege of any State to
+nullify an obnoxious law, quite as a matter of course.<a name="III_Page_199"></a></p>
+
+<p>The framers of the Constitution had merely said that
+we &quot;had better&quot; hang together, not that we &quot;must.&quot;
+But with the years had come a feeling that the Nation's
+life was unsafe if any State should pull away.</p>
+
+<p>Once, on the plains of Colorado, I was with a party
+when there was danger of an attack from Indians. Two
+of the party wished to go back; but the leader drew his
+revolver and threatened to shoot the first man who
+tried to seek safety. &quot;We must hang together or hang
+separately.&quot; Logically, each man had the right to
+secede, and go off on his own account, but expediency
+made a law and we declared that any man who tried to
+leave did so at his peril.</p>
+
+<p>To Webster was given the task of putting a new construction
+on the Constitution, and to make of the Constitution
+a Law instead of a mere compact. Webster's
+speech was not an argument; it was a plea. And so
+mightily did he point out the dangers of separation;
+review the splendid past; and prophesy the greatness
+of the future&mdash;a future that could only be ours through
+absolute union and loyalty to the good of the whole&mdash;that
+he won his cause.</p>
+
+<p>After that speech, if Calhoun had allowed South
+Carolina to nullify a United States law, President
+Jackson would have made good his threat and hanged
+both him and Hayne on one tree, and the people would
+have approved the act. But Webster did not get the
+case quashed: he got only a postponement. In Eighteen<a name="III_Page_200"></a>
+Hundred Sixty, South Carolina moved the case again;
+she opened the argument in another way this time, and
+a million lives were required, and millions upon millions
+in treasure expended to put a construction on the Constitution
+that the framers did not intend; but which
+was necessary in order that the Nation might exist.</p>
+
+<p>In the battle of Bull Run, almost the first battle of the
+war, fell Colonel Fletcher Webster, the only surviving
+son of Daniel Webster, and with him died the name
+and race.<a name="III_Page_201"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>The cunning of Webster's intellect was not
+creative. In his argument there is little
+ingenuity; but he had the power of taking
+an old truth and presenting it in a way that
+moved men to tears. When aroused, all he knew was
+within his reach; he had the faculty of getting all his
+goods in the front window. And he himself confessed
+that he often pushed out a masked battery, when behind
+there was not a single gun.</p>
+
+<p>Under the spell of the orator an audience becomes of
+one mind: the dullest intellect is more alert than usual
+and the most discerning a little less so. Cheap wit will
+then often pass for brilliancy, and platitude for wisdom.
+We roar over the jokes we have known since childhood,
+and cry &quot;Hear, hear!&quot; when the great man with upraised
+hands and fire in his glance declares that twice
+two is four.</p>
+
+<p>Oratory is hypnotism practised on a large scale.
+Through oratory ideas are acquired by induction.</p>
+
+<p>Webster was a lawyer; and he was not above resorting
+to any trick or device that could move the emotions or
+passions of judge and jury to a prejudice favorable to
+his side. This was very clearly brought out when he
+undertook to break the will of Stephen Girard.</p>
+
+<p>Girard was a freethinker, and in leaving money to
+found a college devised that no preacher or priest should
+have anything to do with its management. The question
+at issue was, &quot;Is a bequest for founding a college a
+<a name="III_Page_202"></a>charitable bequest?&quot; If so, then the will must stand.
+But if the bequest were merely a scheme to deprive
+the legal heirs of their rights&mdash;diverting the funds
+from them for whimsical and personal reasons&mdash;then
+the will should be broken. Mr. Webster made the plea
+that there was only one kind of charity, namely, Christian
+charity. Girard was not a Christian, for he had
+publicly affronted the Christian religion by providing
+that no minister should teach in his school. Mr. Webster
+spoke for three hours with many fine bursts of tearful
+eloquence in support of the Christian faith, reviewing
+its triumphs and denouncing its foes.</p>
+
+<p>The argument
+was carried outside of the realm of law into the domain
+of passion and prejudice.</p>
+
+<p>The court took time for the tumult to subside, and
+then very quietly decided against Webster, sustaining
+the will. The college building was erected and stands
+today, the finest specimen of purely Greek architecture
+in America; and the good that Girard College has
+done and is now doing is the priceless heritage of our
+entire country.</p>
+
+<p>One of Webster's first greatest speeches was before the
+United States Supreme Court in the Dartmouth College
+case. Here he defended the cause of education with
+that grave and wonderful weight of argument of which
+he was master. In the Girard College case, eighteen
+years after, he reversed his logic, and touched with
+rare skill on the dangers of a too-liberal education.<a name="III_Page_203"></a></p>
+
+<p>No man now is quite so daring as to claim that Webster
+was a Christian. Neither was he a freethinker. He
+inherited his religious views from his parents, and
+never considered them enough to change. He simply
+viewed religion as a part of the fabric of government,
+giving sturdiness and safety to established order. His
+own spiritual acreage was left absolutely untilled.
+His services were for sale; and so plastic were his
+convictions that once having espoused a cause he was
+sure it was right. Doubtless it is self-interest, as Herbert
+Spencer says, that makes the world go round. And thus
+does sincerity of belief resolve itself into which side
+will pay most. This question being settled, reasons
+are as plentiful as blackberries, and are supplied in
+quantities proportionate in size to the retainer.</p>
+
+<p>John Randolph once touched the quick by saying, &quot;If
+Daniel Webster was employed on a case and he had
+partially lost faith in it, his belief in his client's rights
+could always be refreshed and his zeal renewed by a
+check.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Webster had every possible qualification that is required
+to make the great orator. All those who heard him
+speak, when telling of it, begin by relating how he
+looked. He worked the dignity and impressiveness of
+his Jovelike presence to its furthest limit, and when
+once thoroughly awake was in possession of his entire
+armament.</p>
+
+<p>No other American has been able to speak with a like
+<a name="III_Page_204"></a>degree of effectiveness; and his name deserves to rank,
+and will rank, with the names of Burke, Chatham,
+Sheridan and Pitt. The case has been tried, the verdict
+is in and recorded on the pages of history. There can
+be no retrial, for Webster is dead, and his power died
+thirty years before his form was laid to rest at Marshfield
+by the side of his children and the wife of his youth.</p>
+
+<p>Oratory is the lowest of the sublime arts. The extent
+of its influence will ever be a vexed question. Its result
+depends on the mood and temperament of the hearer.
+But there are men who are not ripe for treason and
+conspiracy, to whom even music makes small appeal.
+Yet music can be recorded, entrusted to an interpreter
+yet unborn, and lodge its appeal with posterity. Literature
+never dies: it dedicates itself to Time. For the
+printed page is reproduced ten thousand times ten
+thousand times, and besides, lives as did the Homeric
+poems, passed on from generation to generation by
+word of mouth. Were every book containing Shakespeare's
+plays burned this night, tomorrow they could
+be rewritten by those who know their every word.</p>
+
+<p>With the passing years the painter's colors fade;
+time rots his canvas; the marble is dragged from its
+pedestal and exists in fragments from which we resurrect
+a nation's life; but oratory dies on the air and exists
+only as a memory in the minds of those who can not
+translate, and then as hearsay. So much for the art
+itself; but the influence of that art is another thing.<a name="III_Page_205"></a></p>
+
+<p>He who influences the beliefs and opinions of men
+influences all other men that live after. For influence,
+like matter, can not be destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>In many ways, Webster lacked the inward steadfastness
+that his face and frame betokened; but on one theme
+he was sound to the inmost core. He believed in America's
+greatness and the grandeur of America's mission.
+Into the minds of countless men he infused his own
+splendid patriotism. From his first speech at Hanover
+when eighteen years old, to his last when nearly seventy,
+he fired the hearts of men with the love of native land.
+And how much the growing greatness of our country
+is due to the magic of his words and the eloquence of
+his inspired presence no man can compute.</p>
+
+<p>The passion of Webster's life is well mirrored in that
+burning passage:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When mine eyes shall be turned to behold for the
+last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining
+on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once
+glorious Union: on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent:
+on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched,
+it may be, in fraternal blood. Let their last feeble and
+lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of
+the Republic, now known and honored throughout the
+earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies
+streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased
+or polluted, or a single star obscured, bearing for its
+motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What is all
+<a name="III_Page_206"></a>this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and
+folly, 'Liberty first and Union afterwards'; but everywhere,
+spread all over in characters of living light,
+blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea
+and over the land, and in every wind under the whole
+heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true
+American heart, 'Liberty and Union, now and forever,
+one and inseparable.'&quot;</p><p><a name="III_Page_207"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="HENRY_CLAY"></a></p><h2>HENRY CLAY</h2>
+<p><a name="III_Page_208"></a></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>If there be any description of rights, which, more than
+any other, should unite all parties in all quarters of
+the Union, it is unquestionably the rights of the person.
+No matter what his vocation, whether he seeks subsistence
+amid the dangers of the sea, or draws it from
+the bowels of the earth, or from the humblest occupations
+of mechanical life&mdash;wherever the sacred rights
+of an American freeman are assailed, all hearts ought to
+unite and every arm be braced to vindicate his cause.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Henry Clay</i></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_209"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-10.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-10_th.jpg" alt="HENRY CLAY" /></a></p><p class="ctr">HENRY CLAY</p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>There is a story told of an Irishman
+and an Englishman who were immigrants
+aboard a ship that was coming
+up New York Harbor. It chanced
+to be the fourth day of July, and as
+a consequence there was a needless
+waste of gunpowder going on, and
+many of the ships were decorated
+with bunting that in color was red, white and blue.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What can all this fuss be about?&quot; asked the Englishman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's it about?&quot; answered Pat. &quot;Why, this is
+the day we run you out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And the moral of the story is that as soon as an Irishman
+reaches the Narrows he says &quot;we Americans,&quot; while
+an Englishman will sometimes continue to say &quot;you
+Americans&quot; for five years and a day. More than this,
+an Irish-American citizen regards an English-American
+citizen with suspicion and refers to him as a foreigner,
+even unto the third and fourth generation.</p>
+
+<p>No man ever hated England more cordially than did
+Henry Clay.</p>
+
+<p>The genealogists have put forth heroic efforts to secure
+for Clay a noble English ancestry, but with a degree
+of success that only makes the unthinking laugh and
+the judicious grieve.</p>
+
+<p>Had these zealous pedigree-<a name="III_Page_210"></a>hunters
+studied the parish registers of County Derry,
+Ireland, as lovingly as they have Burke's Peerage, they
+might have traced the Clays of America back to the
+Cleighs, honest farmers (indifferent honest), of Londonderry.</p>
+
+<p>The character of Henry Clay had in it various
+traits that were peculiarly Irish. The Irishman knows
+because he knows, and that's all there is about it. He
+is dramatic, emotional, impulsive, humorous without
+suspecting it, and will fight friend or foe on small provocation.
+Then he is much given to dealing in that
+peculiar article known as palaver. The farewell address
+of Henry Clay to the Senate, and his return thereto a
+few years later, comprise one of the most Irishlike
+proceedings to be found in history.</p>
+
+<p>There is no finer man on earth than your &quot;thrue Irish
+gintleman,&quot; and Henry Clay had not only all the highest
+and most excellent traits of the &quot;gintleman,&quot; but a
+few also of his worst. Clay made friends as no other
+American statesman ever did. &quot;To come within reach
+of the snare of his speech was to love him,&quot; wrote one
+man. People loved him because he was affectionate, for
+love only goes out to love. And the Irish heart is a heart
+of love. Henry Clay called himself a Christian, and yet
+at times he was picturesquely profane. We have this
+on the authority of the &quot;Diary&quot; of John Quincy Adams,
+which of course we must believe, for even that other
+fighting Irishman, Andrew Jackson, said, &quot;Adams'
+Diary is probably correct&mdash;damn it!&quot;<a name="III_Page_211"></a></p>
+
+<p>Clay was convivial in all the word implies; his losses
+at cards often put him in severe financial straits; he
+stood ready to back his opinion concerning a Presidential
+election, a horse-race or a dog-fight, and with it all he
+held himself &quot;personally responsible&quot;&mdash;having fought
+two duels and engaged in various minor &quot;misunderstandings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And yet he was a great statesman&mdash;one of the greatest
+this country has produced, and as a patriot no man
+was ever more loyal. It was America with him first and
+always. His reputation, his fortune, his life, his all,
+belonged to America.<a name="III_Page_212"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>The city of Lexington contains about twenty-five
+thousand inhabitants. In Lexington two
+distinct forms of civilization meet.</p>
+
+<p>One is the civilization of the F.F.V., converted
+into that peculiar form of noblesse known the round
+world over as the Blue-Grass Aristocracy. Blue-Grass
+Society represents leisure and luxury and the generous
+hospitality of friendships generations old; it means
+broad acres, noble mansions reached by roadways that
+stray under wide-spreading oaks and elms where
+squirrels chatter and mild-eyed cows look at you
+curiously; it means apple-orchards, gardens lined with
+boxwood, capacious stables and long lines of whitewashed
+cottages, around which swarm a dark cloud of
+dependents who dance and sing and laugh&mdash;and work
+when they have to.</p>
+
+<p>Over against these there are to be seen trolley-cars,
+electric lights, smart rows of new brick houses on lots
+thirty by one hundred, negro policemen in uniforms
+patterned after those worn by the Broadway Squad,
+streets torn up by sewers and conduits, steam-rollers
+with an unsavory smell of tar and asphalt, push-buttons
+and a Hello-Exchange.</p>
+
+<p>As to which form of civilization is the more desirable
+is a question that is usually answered by taste and
+temperament. One thing sure, and that is, that a pride
+which swings to t'other side and becomes vanity is
+often an element in both. Each could learn something
+<a name="III_Page_213"></a>of the other. Lots that you can jump across, rented to
+families of ten, with land a mile away that can be
+bought for fifty dollars an acre, are not an ideal condition.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, inside the city limits of Lexington
+are mansions surrounded by an even hundred acres.
+But at some of these, gates are off their hinges, pickets
+have been borrowed for kindling, creeping vines and
+long grass o'ertop the walls of empty stables, and a
+forest of weeds insolently invades the spot where once
+nestled milady's flower-garden.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly but surely the Blue-Grass Aristocracy is giving
+way to purslane or asphalt, moving into flats, and
+allowing the boomer to plat its fair acres&mdash;running
+excursion-trains to attend auction-sales where all the
+lots are corner lots and are to be bought on the installment
+plan, which plan is said by a cynic to give the
+bicycle face.</p>
+
+<p>Just across from Ashland is a beautiful estate, recently
+sold at a sacrifice to a man from Massachusetts, by
+the name of Douglas, who I am told is bald through
+lack of hair and makes three-dollar shoes. The stately
+old mansion mourns its former masters&mdash;all are gone&mdash;and
+a thrifty German is plowing up the lawn, that the
+cows of the Douglas (tender and true) may eat early
+clover.</p>
+
+<p>But Ashland is there today in all the beauty and
+loveliness that Henry Clay knew when he wrote to
+Benton: &quot;I love old Ashland, and all these acres with
+<a name="III_Page_214"></a>their trees and flowers and growing grain lure me in a
+way that ambition never can. No, I remain at Ashland.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The rambling old house is embowered in climbing
+vines and clambering rosebushes and is set thick about
+with cedars, so that you can scarcely see the chimney-tops
+above the mass of green. A lane running through
+locust-trees planted by Henry Clay's own hands leads
+you to the hospitable, wide-open door, where a colored
+man, whose black face is set in a frame of wool, smiles
+a welcome. He relieves you of your baggage and leads
+the way to your room.</p>
+
+<p>The summer breeze blows lazily in through the open
+window, and the only sound of life and activity about
+seems to center in two noisy robins which are making
+a nest in the eaves, right within reach of your hand.
+The colored man apologizes for them, anathematizes
+them mildly, and proposes to drive them away, but
+you restrain him. After the man has gone you bethink
+you that the suggestion of driving the birds away was
+only the white lie of society (for even black folks tell
+white lies), and the old man probably had no more
+intent of driving the birds away than of going himself.</p>
+
+<p>On the dresser is a pitcher of freshly clipped roses,
+the morning dew still upon them, and you only cease
+to admire as you espy your mail that lies there awaiting
+your hand. News from home and loved ones greets
+you before these new-found friends do! You have not
+seen the good folks who live here, only the old colored
+<a name="III_Page_215"></a>man who pretended that he was going to kill cock-robin,
+and didn't. The hospitality is not gushing or
+effusive&mdash;the place is yours, that's all, and you lean
+out of the window and look down at the flowerbeds,
+and wonder at the silence and the quiet and peace,
+and feel sorry for the folks who live in Cincinnati and
+Chicago. The soughing of the wind through the pines
+comes to you like the murmur of the sea, and breaking
+in on the stillness you hear the sharp sound of an ax&mdash;some
+Gladstone chopping, miles and miles away.</p>
+
+<p>Your dreams are broken by a gentle tap at the door
+and your host has come to call on you. You know him
+at once, even though you have never before met, for
+men who think alike and feel alike do not have to &quot;get
+acquainted.&quot; Heart speaks to heart.</p>
+
+<p>He only wishes to say that your coming is a pleasure
+to all the family at Ashland, the library is yours as well
+as the whole place, lunch is at one o'clock, and George
+will get you anything you wish. And back in the shadow
+of the hallway you catch sight of the old colored man
+and see him bow low when his name is mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Ashland is probably in better condition today than
+when Henry Clay worked and planned, and superintended
+its fair acres. The place has seen vicissitudes
+since the body of the man who gave it immortality
+lay in state here in July, Eighteen Hundred Fifty-two.
+But Major McDowell's wife is the granddaughter of
+Henry Clay, and it seems meet that the descendants
+<a name="III_Page_216"></a>of the great man should possess Ashland. Major
+McDowell has means and taste and the fine pride that
+would preserve all the traditions of the former master.
+The six hundred acres are in a high state of cultivation,
+and the cattle and horses are of the kinds that would
+have gladdened the heart of Clay.</p>
+
+<p>In the library, halls and dining-room are various portraits
+of the great man, and at the turn of the stairs
+is a fine heroic bust, in bronze, of that lean face and
+form. Hundreds of his books are to be seen on the shelves,
+all marked and dog-eared and scribbled on, thus disproving<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">much of that old cry that &quot;Clay was not a</span><br />
+student.&quot; Some men are students only in youth, but
+Clay's best reading was done when he was past fifty.
+The book habit grew upon him with the years.</p>
+
+<p>Here are his pistols, spurs, saddle and memorandum-books.
+Here are letters, faded and yellow, dusted with
+black powder on ink that has been dry a hundred years,
+asking for office, or words of gracious thanks in token
+of benefits not forgot.</p>
+
+<p>Off to the south stretches away a great forest of walnut,
+oak and chestnut trees&mdash;reminders of the vast forest
+that Daniel Boone knew. Many of these trees were
+here then, and here let them remain, said Henry Clay.
+And so today at Ashland, as at Hawarden, no tree is
+felled until it has been duly tried by the entire family
+and all has been said for and against the sentence of
+death. I heard Miss McDowell make an eloquent plea
+<a name="III_Page_217"></a>for an old oak that had been rather recklessly harboring
+mistletoe and many squirrels, until it was thought
+probable that, like our first parents, it might have a
+fall. It was a plea more eloquent than &quot;O Woodman,
+spare that tree.&quot; A reprieve for a year was granted;
+and I thought, as I cast my vote on the side of mercy,
+that the jury that could not be won by such a young
+woman as that was hopelessly dead at the top and more
+hollow at the heart than the old oak under whose
+boughs we sat.<a name="III_Page_218"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Ashland is just a mile south of the courthouse.
+When Henry Clay used to ride horseback
+between the town and his farm there
+were scarce a dozen houses to pass on the way,
+but now the street is all built up, and is smartly paved,
+and the trolley-line booms a noisy car to the sacred
+gates every ten minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Lexington was laid out in the year Seventeen Hundred
+Seventy-four, and the intention was to name it in
+honor of Colonel Patterson, the founder, or of Daniel
+Boone. But while the surveyors were doing their work,
+word came of the battle of some British and certain
+embattled farmers, and the spirit of freedom promptly
+declared that the town should be called Lexington.</p>
+
+<p>Three years after the laying-out of Lexington, Henry
+Clay was born. He was the son of a poor and obscure
+Baptist preacher who lived at &quot;The Slashes,&quot; in
+Virginia. The boy never had any vivid recollection of
+his father, who passed away when Henry was a mere
+child.</p>
+
+<p>The mother had a hard time of it with her family of
+seven children, and if kind neighbors had not aided,
+there would have been actual want. And surely one
+can not blame the widow for &quot;marrying for a home&quot;
+when opportunity offered. Only one out of that first
+family ever achieved eminence, and the second brood
+is actually lost to us in oblivion.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Clay was a graduate of the University of Hard<a name="III_Page_219"></a>
+Knocks; he also took several post-graduate courses
+at the same institution. Very early in life we see that
+he possessed the fine, eager, receptive spirit that absorbs
+knowledge through the finger-tips; and the ability to
+think and to absorb is all that even college can ever
+do for a man. I doubt whether college would have
+helped Clay, and it might have dimmed the diamond
+luster of his mind, and diluted that fine audacity which
+carried him on his way. In this capacity to comprehend
+in the mass, Clay's character was essentially feminine.
+We have Thoreau for authority that the intuition and
+the sympathy found always in the saviors of the world
+are purely feminine attributes&mdash;the legacy bequeathed
+from a mother who thirsted for better things.</p>
+
+<p>From a clerk in a country store to a bookkeeper, then
+a copyist for a lawyer, a writer of letters for the neighborhood,
+a reader of law, and next a lawyer, were easy
+and natural steps for this ambitious boy.</p>
+
+<p>Virginia with its older settlements offered small opportunities,
+and so we find young Clay going West, and
+landing at Lexington when twenty years old. He
+requested a license to practise law, but the Bar Association,
+which consisted of about a dozen members,
+decided that no more lawyers were needed at Lexington.
+Clay demanded that he should be examined as to fitness,
+and the blackberry-bush Blackstones sat upon him,
+as a coroner would say, with intent to give him so stiff
+an examination that he would be glad to get work as
+<a name="III_Page_220"></a>a farmhand.</p>
+
+<p>A dozen questions had been asked,
+and an attempt had been made to confuse and browbeat
+the youth, when the Nestor of the Lexington Bar
+expectorated at a fly ten feet away, and remarked,
+&quot;Oh, the devil! there is no need of tryin' to keep a boy
+like this down&mdash;he's as fit as we, or fitter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so he was admitted.</p>
+
+<p>From the very first he was a success; he toned up the
+mental qualities of the Fayette County Bar, and made
+the older, easy-going members feel to see whether their
+laurel wreaths were in place.</p>
+
+<p>When he was thirty years of age he was chosen by the
+Legislature of Kentucky as United States Senator.
+When his term expired he chose to go to Congress,
+probably because it afforded better opportunity for
+oratory and leadership. As soon as he appeared upon
+the floor he was chosen Speaker by acclamation. So
+thoroughly American was he, that one of his very first
+suggestions was to the effect that every member should
+clothe himself wholly in fabrics made in the United
+States. Humphrey Marshall ridiculed the proposition
+and called Clay a demagogue, for which he got himself
+straightway challenged. Clay shot a bullet through his
+English-made broadcloth coat, and then they shook
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>When his term as Congressman expired, he again went
+to the Senate, and served two years. Then he went
+back to the House, and through his influence, and his
+<a name="III_Page_221"></a>alone, did we challenge Great Britain, just as he had
+challenged Marshall.</p>
+
+<p>England accepted the challenge, and we call it the War
+of Eighteen Hundred Twelve.</p>
+
+<p>Very often, indeed, do we hear the rural statesmen at
+Fourth of July celebrations exclaim, &quot;We have whipped
+England twice, and we can do it again!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>We whipped England once, and it is possible we could
+do it again, but she got the best of us in the War of
+Eighteen Hundred Twelve. Henry Clay plunged the
+country into war to redress certain grievances, and as
+a peace commissioner he backed out of that war without
+having a single one of those grievances indemnified or
+redressed.</p>
+
+<p>After the treaty of peace had been declared and &quot;the
+war was over,&quot; that fighting Irishman, Andrew Jackson,
+Irishlike, gave the British a black eye at New Orleans,
+just for luck, and this is the only thing in that whole
+misunderstanding of which we should not as a nation
+be ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>If England had not had Napoleon on her hands at that
+particular time, Wellington would probably have made
+a visit to America, and might have brought along for
+us a Waterloo. And these things are fully explained
+in the textbooks on history used in the schools of Great
+Britain, on whose possessions the sun never sets.</p>
+
+<p>But as Henry Clay had gotten us into war, his diplomacy
+helped to get us out, and as it was a peace without
+<a name="III_Page_222"></a>dishonor, Clay's reputation did not materially suffer.
+In fact, the terms of peace were so ambiguous that
+Congress gave out to the world that it was a victory,
+and the exact facts were quite lost in the smoke of
+Jackson's muskets that hovered over the cotton bales.</p>
+
+<p>Later, when Clay ran against Jackson for the Presidency
+he found that a peace-hero has no such place in
+the hearts of men as a war-hero. Jackson had not a
+tithe of Clay's ability, and yet Clay's defeat was overwhelming.
+&quot;Peace hath her victories&quot;&mdash;yes, but the
+average voter does not know it. The only men who have
+received overwhelming majorities for President have
+been war-heroes. Obscure men have crept in several
+times, but popular diplomats&mdash;never. The fate of such
+popular men as Clay, Seward and Blaine is one. And
+when one considers how strong is this tendency to
+glorify the hero of action, and ignore the hero of thought,
+he wonders how it really happened that Paul Revere
+was not made the second President of the United States
+instead of John Adams.</p>
+
+<p>Clay was a most eloquent pleader. The grace of his
+manner, the beauty of his speech, and the intense
+earnestness of his nature often convinced men against
+their wills.</p>
+
+<p>There was sometimes, however, a suspicion in the air
+that his best quotations were inspirations, and that
+the statistics to which he appealed were evolved from
+his inner consciousness. But the man had power and
+<a name="III_Page_223"></a>personality plus. He was a natural leader, and unlike
+other statesmen we might name, he always carried his
+town and district by overwhelming majorities. And it
+is well to remember that the first breath of popular
+disfavor directed against Henry Clay was because he
+proposed the abolition of slavery.</p>
+
+<p>Those who knew him best loved him most, and this
+was true from the time he began to practise law in
+Lexington, when scarcely twenty-one years old, to his
+seventy-fifth year, when his worn-out body was brought
+home to rest.</p>
+
+<p>On that occasion all business in Lexington, and in
+most of Kentucky, ceased. Even the farmers quit work,
+and very many private residences were draped in
+mourning. Memorial services were held in hundreds of
+churches, the day was given over to mourning, and
+everywhere men said, &quot;We shall never look upon his
+like again.&quot;<a name="III_Page_224"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Before I visited Lexington, my cousin,
+Little Emily, duly wrote me that on no
+account, when I was in Kentucky, must I
+offer any criticisms on the character of Henry
+Clay; for if I grew reckless and compared him with
+another to his slightest disadvantage, I should have to
+fight.</p>
+
+<p>That he was absolutely the greatest statesman America
+has produced is, to all Kentuckians, a fact so sure that
+they doubt the honesty or the sanity of any one who
+hints otherwise. He is their ideal, the perfect man, the
+model for all youths to imitate, and the standard by
+which all other statesmen are gauged. Clay to Kentucky
+scores one hundred. And as he was at the last
+defeated for the highest office, which they say was his
+God-given right, there is a flavor of martyrdom in his
+history that is the needed crown for every hero.</p>
+
+<p>Complete success alienates man from his fellows, but
+suffering makes kinsmen of us all. So the South loves
+Henry Clay.</p>
+
+<p>He is so well loved that he is apotheosized, and thus
+the real man to many is lost in the clouds. With his
+name, song and legend have worked their miracles, and
+to very many Southern people he is a being separate
+and apart, like Hector or Achilles.</p>
+
+<p>With my cousin, Little Emily, I am always very frank&mdash;and
+you can be honest and frank with so few in this
+world of expediency, you know! We are so frank in
+<a name="III_Page_225"></a>expression that we usually quarrel very shortly. And
+so I explained to Emily just what I have written here,
+as to the real Henry Clay being lost.</p>
+
+<p>She contradicted me flatly and said, &quot;To love a person
+is not to lose him&mdash;you never lose except through indifference
+or hate!&quot; I started to explain and had gotten
+as far as, &quot;It is just like this,&quot; when the conversation
+was interrupted by the arrival of General Bellicose,
+who had come to take us riding behind a spanking pair
+of geldings, that I was assured were standard bred.</p>
+
+<p>In Lexington you never use the general term &quot;horse.&quot;
+You speak of a mare, a gelding, a horse, a four-year-old,
+a weanling or a sucker. To refer to a trotter as a thoroughbred
+is to suffer social ostracism, and to obfuscate
+a side-wheeler with a single-footer is proof of degeneracy.
+This applies equally to the ethics of the ballroom
+or the livery-stable. In Kentucky they read Richard's
+famous lines thus: &quot;A saddler! a saddler! my kingdom
+for a saddler!&quot; So when I complimented General
+Bellicose on his geldings and noted that they went
+square without boots or weights, and that he used no
+blinders, it thawed the social ice, and we were as
+brothers. Then I led the way cautiously to Henry
+Clay, and the General assured me that in his opinion
+the Henry Clays were even better than the George
+Wilkes. To be sure, Wilkes had more in the 'thirty list,
+but the Clays had brains, and were cheerful; they
+neither lugged nor hung back, whereas you always had
+<a name="III_Page_226"></a>to lay whip to a Wilkes in order to get along a bit, or
+else use a gag and overcheck.</p>
+
+<p>I pressed Little Emily's hand under the lap-robe and
+asked her if all Kentuckians were believers in metempsychosis.
+&quot;Colonel Littlejourneys is making fun of
+you, General,&quot; said Little Emily; &quot;the Colonel is
+talking about the man, and you are discussing trotters!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And then I apologized, but the General said it was he
+who should make the apology, and raising the carriage-seat
+brought out a box of genuine Henry Clay Havanas,
+in proof of amity.</p>
+
+<p>It's a very foolish thing to smile at a man who rides a
+hobby. Once there was a man who rode a hobby all his
+life, to the great amusement of his enemies and the
+mortification of his wife; and when the man was dead
+they found it was a real live horse and had carried the
+man many long miles.</p>
+
+<p>General Bellicose loves a horse; so does Little Emily
+and so do I. But Little Emily and the General know
+history and have sounded politics in a way that puts
+me in the kindergarten; and I found before the day was
+over that what one did not know about the political
+history of America the other did. And mixed up in it
+all we discussed the merits of the fox-trot versus the
+single-foot.</p>
+
+<p>We saw the famous Clay monument, built by the State
+at a cost of nearly a hundred thousand dollars, and
+with uncovered heads gazed through the gratings into
+<a name="III_Page_227"></a>the crypt where lies the dust of the great man. Then
+we saw the statue of John C. Breckinridge in the public
+square, and visited various old ebb-tide mansions
+where the &quot;quarters&quot; had fallen into decay, and the
+erstwhile inhabitants had moved to the long row of
+tenements down by the cotton-mill. My train whistled
+and we were half a mile from the station, but the
+General said we would get there in time&mdash;and we did.
+I bade my friends good-by and quite forgot to thank
+them for all their kindness, although down in my heart
+I felt that it had been a time rare as a day in June. I
+believe they felt my gratitude, too, for where there is
+such a feast of wit and flow of soul, such kindness, such
+generosity, the spirit understands.</p>
+
+<p>When I arrived home I found a box awaiting me, bearing
+the express mark of Lexington, Kentucky. On opening
+the case I found six quart-bottles of &quot;Henry Clay&mdash;1881&quot;;
+and a card with the compliments of Little
+Emily and General Bellicose. On the outside of the
+case was neatly stenciled the legend, &quot;Thackeray, Full
+sett, 14 vol., half Levant.&quot; I do not know why the box
+was so marked, but I suppose it was in honor of my
+literary proclivities. I went out and blew four merry
+blasts on a ram's horn, and the Philistines assembled.</p><p><a name="III_Page_228"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="JOHN_JAY"></a></p><h2>JOHN JAY</h2>
+<p><a name="III_Page_229"></a></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>Calm repose and the sweets of undisturbed retirement
+appear more distant than a peace with Britain.</p>
+
+<p>It
+gives me pleasure, however, to reflect that the period
+is approaching when we shall be citizens of a better
+ordered State, and the spending of a few troublesome
+years of our eternity in doing good to this and future
+generations is not to be avoided nor regretted. Things
+will come right, and these States will yet be great and
+flourishing.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Letter to Washington</i></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_230"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-11.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-11_th.jpg" alt="JOHN JAY" /></a></p><p class="ctr">JOHN JAY</p>
+<p><a name="III_Page_231"></a></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>America should feel especially
+charitable towards Louis the Great,
+called by Carlyle, Louis the Little,
+for banishing the Huguenots from
+France. What France lost America
+gained. Tyranny and intolerance
+always drive from their homes the
+best: those who have ability to
+think, courage to act, and a pride that can not be
+coerced.</p>
+
+<p>The merits possessed by the Huguenots are exactly
+those which every man and nation needs. And these
+are simple virtues, too, whose cultivation stands within
+the reach of all. These are the virtues of the farmers
+and peasants and plain people who do the work of the
+world, and give good government its bone and sinew.
+To a great degree, so-called society is made up of
+parasites who fasten and feed upon the industrious
+and methodical.</p>
+
+<p>If you have read history you know that the men who
+go quietly about their business have been cajoled,
+threatened, driven, and often, when they have been
+guilty of doing a little independent thinking on their
+own account, banished. And further than this, when
+you read the story of nations dead and gone you will
+see that their decline began when the parasites got
+<a name="III_Page_232"></a>too numerous and flauntingly asserted their supposed
+power. That contempt for the farmer, and indifference
+to the rights of the man with tin pail and overalls,
+which one often sees in America, are portents that
+mark disintegrating social bacilli. If the Republic of
+the United States ever becomes but a memory, like
+Carthage, Athens and Rome, drifting off into senile
+decay like Italy and Spain or France, where a man may
+yet be tried and sentenced without the right of counsel
+or defense, it will be because we forgot&mdash;we forgot!</p>
+
+<p>In moral fiber and general characteristics the Huguenots
+and the Puritans were one. The Huguenots had,
+however, the added virtue of a dash of the Frenchman's
+love of beauty. By their excellent habits and
+loyalty to truth, as they saw it, they added a vast
+share to the prosperity and culture of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Of seven men who acted as presiding officer over the
+deliberations of Congress during the Revolutionary
+Period, three were of Huguenot parentage: Laurens,
+Boudinot and Jay. John Jay was a typical Huguenot,
+just as Samuel Adams was a typical Puritan. In his life
+there was no glamour of romance. Stern, studious and
+inflexibly honest, he made his way straight to the highest
+positions of trust and honor. Good men who are
+capable are always needed. The world wants them now
+more than ever. We have an overplus of clever individuals;
+but for the faithful men who are loyal to a trust
+there is a crying demand.<a name="III_Page_233"></a></p>
+
+<p>The life of Jay quite disproves the oft-found myth that
+a dash of Mephisto in a young man is a valuable adjunct.
+John Jay was neither precocious nor bad. It is
+further a refreshing fact to find that he was no prig,
+simply a good, healthy youngster who took to his books
+kindly and gained ground&mdash;made head upon the whole
+by grubbing.</p>
+
+<p>His father was a hard-headed, prosperous merchant,
+who did business in New York, and moved his big
+family up to the little village of Rye because life in the
+country was simple and cheap. Thus did Peter Jay
+prove his commonsense.</p>
+
+<p>Peter Jay copied every letter he wrote, and we now
+have these copy-books, revealing what sort of man he
+was. Religious he was, and scrupulously exact in all
+things. We see that he ordered Bibles from England,
+&quot;and also six groce of Church Wardens,&quot; which I am
+told is a long clay pipe, &quot;that hath a goodly flavor and
+doth not bite the tongue.&quot; He also at one time ordered
+a chest of tea, and then countermanded the order,
+having taken the resolve to &quot;use no tea in my family
+while that rascally Tax is on&mdash;having a spring of good,
+pure water near my house.&quot; Which shows that a man
+can be very much in earnest and still joke.</p>
+
+<p>John was the baby, scarcely a year old, when the Jay
+family moved up to Rye. He was the eighth child, and
+as he grew up he was taught by the older ones. He took
+part in all the fun and hardships of farm life&mdash;going
+<a name="III_Page_234"></a>to school in Winter, working in Summer, and on Sundays
+hearing long sermons at church.</p>
+
+<p>We find by Peter Jay's letter-book that: &quot;Johnny is
+about our brightest child. We have great hopes of him,
+and believe it will be wise to educate him for a preacher.&quot;
+In order to educate boys then, they were sent to
+live in the family of some man of learning. And so we
+find &quot;Johnny&quot; at twelve years of age installed in the
+parsonage at New Rochelle, the Huguenot settlement.
+The pastor was a Huguenot, and as only French was
+spoken in the household, the boy acquired the language,
+which afterwards stood him in good stead.</p>
+
+<p>The pastor reported favorably, and when fifteen, young
+Jay was sent to King's College, which is now Columbia
+University, kings not being popular in America.</p>
+
+<p>Doctor Samuel Johnson, who nowise resembled Ursa
+Major, was the president of the College at that time.
+He was also the faculty, for there were just thirty
+students and he did all the teaching himself. Doctor
+Johnson, true to his name, dearly loved a good book,
+and when teaching mathematics would often forget
+the topic and recite Ossian by the page, instead. Jay
+caught it, for the book craze is contagious and not
+sporadic. We take it by being exposed.</p>
+
+<p>And thus it was while under the tutelage of Doctor
+Johnson that Jay began to acquire the ability to turn
+a terse sentence; and this gained him admittance into
+the world of New York letters, whose special guardians
+<a name="III_Page_235"></a>were Dickinson and William Livingston.</p>
+
+<p>Livingston invited the boy to his house, and very soon we find the
+young man calling without special invitation, for
+Livingston had a beautiful daughter about John's age,
+who was fond of Ossian, too, or said she was.</p>
+
+<p>And as this is not a serial love-story, there is no need
+of keeping the gentle reader in suspense, so I will explain
+that some years later John married the girl, and the
+mating was a very happy one.</p>
+
+<p>After John had been to King's College two years we
+find in the faded and yellow old letter-book an item
+written by the father to the effect that: &quot;Our Johnny
+is doing well at College. He seems sedate and intent
+on gaining knowledge; but rather inclines to Law instead
+of the Ministry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Doctor Johnson was succeeded by Doctor Myles Cooper,
+a Fellow of Oxford, who used to wear his mortarboard
+cap and scholar's gown up Broadway. In young
+Jay's veins there was not a drop of British blood. Of his
+eight great-grandparents, five were French and three
+Dutch, a fact he once intimated in the Oxonian's presence.
+And then it was explained to the youth that if
+such were the truth it would be as well to conceal it.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander Hamilton got along very well with Doctor
+Cooper, but John Jay found himself rusticated shortly
+before graduation. Some years after this Doctor Cooper
+hastily climbed the back fence, leaving a sample of his
+gown on a picket, while Alexander Hamilton held the<a name="III_Page_236"></a>
+Whig mob at bay at the front door.</p>
+
+<p>Cooper sailed very soon for England, anathematizing &quot;the blarsted
+country&quot; in classic Latin as the ship passed out of
+the Narrows.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;England is a good place for him,&quot; said the laconic
+John Jay.</p>
+
+<p>So John Jay was to be a lawyer. And the only way to be
+a lawyer in those days was to work in a lawyer's office.
+A goodly source of income to all established lawyers
+was the sums they derived for taking embryo Blackstones
+into their keeping. The greater a man's reputation
+as a lawyer, the higher he placed his fee for taking
+a boy in.</p>
+
+<p>In those days there were no printed blanks, and a
+simple lease was often a day's work to write out; so it
+was not difficult to keep the boys busy. Besides that,
+they took care of the great man's horse, blacked his
+boots, swept the office, and ran errands. During the
+third year of apprenticeship, if all went well, the young
+man was duly admitted to the Bar. A stiff examination
+kept out the rank outsiders, but the nomination by a
+reputable attorney was equivalent to admittance, for
+all members knew that if you opposed an attorney
+today, tomorrow he might oppose you.</p>
+
+<p>To such an extent was this system of taking students
+carried that, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight, we
+find New York lawyers alarmed &quot;by the awful influx
+of young Barristers upon this Province.&quot; So steps were
+<a name="III_Page_237"></a>taken to make all attorneys agree not to have more than
+two apprentices in their office at one time. About the
+same time the Boston newspaper, called the &quot;Centinel,&quot;
+shows there was a similar state of overproduction
+in Boston. Only the trouble there was principally with
+the doctors, for doctors were then turned loose in the
+same way, carrying a diploma from the old physician
+with whom they had matriculated and duly graduated.</p>
+
+<p>Law schools and medical colleges, be it known, are
+comparatively modern institutions&mdash;not quite so new,
+however, as business colleges, but pretty nearly so.
+And now in Chicago there is a &quot;Barbers' University,&quot;
+which issues diplomas to men who can manipulate a
+razor and shears, whereas, until yesterday, boys learned
+to be barbers by working in a barber's shop. The good
+old way was to pass a profession along from man to
+man.</p>
+
+<p>And it is so yet in a degree, for no man is allowed to
+practise either medicine or law until he has spent some
+time in the office of a practitioner in good standing.</p>
+
+<p>In the Catholic Church, and also in the Episcopal, the
+novitiate is expected to serve for a time under an older
+clergyman; but all the other denominations have broken
+away, and now spring the fledgling on the world straight
+from the factory.</p>
+
+<p>Several other of his children having sorely disappointed
+him, Peter Jay seemed to center his ambitions on his
+boy John. So we find him paying Benjamin Kissam, the
+<a name="III_Page_238"></a>eminent lawyer, two hundred pounds in good coin of
+the Colony to take John Jay as a 'prentice for five years.
+John went at it and began copying those endless, wordy
+documents in which the old-time attorney used to
+delight. John sat at one end of a table, and at the other
+was seated one Lindley Murray, at the mention of
+whose name terror used to seize my soul.</p>
+
+<p>Murray has written some good, presentable English to
+the effect that young Jay, even at that time, had the
+inclination and ability to focus his mind upon the subject
+in hand. &quot;He used to work just as steadily when
+his employer was away as when he was in the office,&quot;
+a fact which the grammarian seemed to regard as rather
+strange.</p>
+
+<p>In a year we find that when Mr. Kissam went away he
+left the keys of the safe in John Jay's hands, with orders
+what to do in case of emergencies. Thus does responsibility
+gravitate to him who can shoulder it, and trust
+to the man who deserves it.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Kissam's office that Jay acquired that habit
+of reticence and serene poise which, becoming fixed in
+character, made his words carry such weight in later
+years. He never gave snapshot opinions, or talked at
+random, or voiced any sentiment for which he could
+not give a reason.</p>
+
+<p>His companions were usually men much older than he.
+At the &quot;Moot Club&quot; he took part with James Duane,
+who was to be New York's first continental mayor;<a name="III_Page_239"></a>
+Gouverneur Morris, who had not at that time acquired
+the wooden leg which he once snatched off and brandished
+with happy effect before a Paris mob; and Samuel
+Jones, who was to take as 'prentice and drill that strong
+man, De Witt Clinton.</p>
+
+<p>Before his years of apprenticeship were over, John Jay,
+the quiet, the modest, the reticent, was known as a safe
+and competent lawyer&mdash;Kissam having pushed him
+forward as associate counsel in various difficult cases.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, certain chests of tea had been dumped
+into Boston Harbor, and the example had been followed
+by the &quot;Mohawks&quot; in New York. British oppression
+had made many Tories lukewarm, and then
+English rapacity had transformed these Tories into
+Whigs. Jay was one of these; and in newspapers and
+pamphlets, and from the platform, he had pleaded the
+cause of the Colonies. Opposition crystallized his
+reasons, and threats only served to make him reaffirm
+the truths he had stated.</p>
+
+<p>So prominent had his utterances made his name, that
+one fine day he was nominated to attend the first Congress
+of the Colonies to be held in Philadelphia.</p>
+
+<p>In August, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, we find
+him leaving his office in New York in charge of a clerk,
+and riding horseback over to the town of Elizabeth,
+there joining his father-in-law, and the two starting
+for Philadelphia. On the road they fell in with John
+Adams, who kept a diary. That night at the tavern
+<a name="III_Page_240"></a>where they stopped, the sharp-eyed Yankee recorded
+the fact of meeting these new friends and added, &quot;Mr.
+Jay is a young gentleman of the law ... and
+Mr. Scott says a hard student and a very good speaker.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so they journeyed on across the State to Trenton
+and down the Delaware River to Philadelphia,
+visiting, and cautiously discussing great issues as they
+went. Samuel Adams, too, was in the party, as reticent
+as Jay. Jay was twenty-nine and Samuel Adams fifty-two
+years old, but they became good friends, and
+Samuel once quietly said to John Adams, &quot;That man
+Jay is young in years, but he has an old head.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jay was the youngest man of the Convention, save one.</p>
+
+<p>When the Second Congress met, Jay was again a
+delegate. He served on several important committees,
+and drew up a statement that was addressed to the
+people of England; but he was recalled to New York
+before the supreme issue was reached, and thus,
+through accident, the Declaration of Independence
+does not contain the signature of John Jay.<a name="III_Page_241"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>In Seventeen Hundred Seventy-eight, Jay
+was chosen president of the Continental
+Congress to succeed that other patriotic
+Huguenot, Laurens. The following year he
+was selected as the man to go to Spain, to secure from
+that country certain friendly favors.</p>
+
+<p>His reception there was exceedingly frosty, and the
+mention of his two years on the ragged edge of court
+life at Madrid, in later years brought to his face a grim
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>Spain's diplomatic policy was smooth hypocrisy and
+rank untruth, and all her promises, it seems, were
+made but to be broken. Jay's negotiations were only
+partially successful, but he came to know the language,
+the country and the people in a way that made his
+knowledge very valuable to America.</p>
+
+<p>By Seventeen Hundred Eighty-one, England had begun
+to see that to compel the absolute submission of the
+Colonies was more of a job than she had anticipated.
+News of victories was duly sent to the &quot;mother country&quot;
+at regular intervals, but with these glad tidings
+were requests for more troops, and requisitions for
+ships and arms.</p>
+
+<p>The American army was a very hard thing to find. It
+would fight one day, to retreat the next, and had a way
+of making midnight attacks and flank movements that,
+to say the least, were very confusing. Then it would
+separate, to come together&mdash;Lord knows where! This
+<a name="III_Page_242"></a>made Lord Cornwallis once write to the Home Secretary:
+&quot;I could easily defeat the enemy, if I could find
+him and engage him in a fair fight.&quot; He seemed to
+think it was &quot;no fair,&quot; forgetting the old proverb
+which has something to say about love and war.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, Cornwallis got the thing his soul desired&mdash;a
+fair fight. He was then acting on the defensive. The
+fight was short and sharp; and Colonel Alexander
+Hamilton, who led the charge, in ten minutes planted
+the Stars and Stripes on his ramparts.</p>
+
+<p>That night Cornwallis was the &quot;guest&quot; of Washington,
+and the next day a dinner was given in his honor.</p>
+
+<p>He was then obliged to write to the Home Secretary,
+&quot;We have met the enemy, and we are theirs&quot;&mdash;but
+of course he did not express it just exactly that way.
+Then it was that King George, for the first time, showed
+a disposition to negotiate for peace.</p>
+
+<p>As peace commissioners, America named Franklin,
+John Adams, Laurens, Jay and Jefferson.</p>
+
+<p>Jefferson refused to leave his wife, who was in delicate
+health. Adams was at The Hague, just closing up a
+very necessary loan. Laurens had been sent to Holland
+on a diplomatic mission, and his ship having been
+overhauled by a British man-of-war, he was safely in
+that historic spot, the Tower of London.</p>
+
+<p>So Jay and Franklin alone met the English commissioners,
+and Jay stated to them the conditions of peace.</p>
+
+<p>In a few weeks Adams arrived, still keeping a diary.<a name="III_Page_243"></a>
+In that diary is found this item: &quot;The French call me
+'Le Washington de la Negociation': a very flattering
+compliment indeed, to which I have no right, but sincerely
+think it belongs to Mr. Jay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jay quitted Paris in May, Seventeen Hundred Eighty-four,
+having been gone from his native land eight years.
+When he reached New York there was a great demonstration
+in his honor. Triumphal arches were erected
+across Broadway, houses and stores were decorated
+with bunting, cannons boomed, and bells rang. The
+freedom of the city was presented to him in a gold box,
+with an exceedingly complimentary address, engrossed
+on parchment, and signed by one hundred of the leading
+citizens.</p>
+
+<p>Jay spent just one day in New York, and then rode on
+horseback up to the old farm at Rye, Westchester
+County, to see his father. That evening there was a
+service of thanksgiving at the village church, after
+which the citizens repaired to the Jay mansion, one
+story high and eighty feet long, where a barrel of cider
+was tapped, and &quot;a groce of Church Wardens&quot; passed
+around, with free tobacco for all.</p>
+
+<p>John Jay stood on the front porch and made a modest
+speech just five minutes long, among other things saying
+he had come home to be a neighbor to them, having
+quit public life for good. But he refused to talk about
+his own experiences in Europe. His reticence, however,
+was made up for by good old Peter Jay, who assured
+<a name="III_Page_244"></a>the people that John Jay was America's foremost
+citizen; and in this statement he was backed up by the
+village preacher, with not a dissenting voice from the
+assembled citizens.</p>
+
+<p>It is rather curious (or it isn't, I'm not sure which)
+how most statesmen have quit public life several times
+during their careers, like the prima donnas who make
+farewell tours. The ingratitude of republics is proverbial,
+but to limit ingratitude to republics shows a lack of
+experience. The progeny of the men who tired of hearing
+Aristides called The Just are very numerous. Of course
+it is easy to say that he who expects gratitude does not
+deserve it; but the fact remains that the men who
+know it are yet stung by calumny when it comes their
+way.</p>
+
+<p>That fine demonstration in Jay's honor was in great
+part to overwhelm and stamp out the undertone of
+growl and snarl that filled the air. Many said that peace
+had been gained at awful cost, that Jay had deferred
+to royalty and trifled with the wishes of the people in
+making terms.</p>
+
+<p>And now Jay had got home, back to his family and
+farm, back to quiet and rest. The long, hard fight had
+been won and America was free. For eight years had he
+toiled and striven and planned: much had been accomplished&mdash;not
+all he hoped, but much.</p>
+
+<p>He had done his best for his country, his own affairs
+were in bad shape, Congress had paid him meagerly,
+<a name="III_Page_245"></a>and now he would turn public life over to others and
+live his own life.</p>
+
+<p>All through life men reach these places where they say,
+&quot;Here will we build three tabernacles&quot;; but out of the
+silence comes the imperative Voice, &quot;Arise, and get
+thee hence, for this is not thy rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And now the war was over, peace was concluded; but
+war leaves a country in chaos. The long, slow work of
+reconstruction and of binding up a nation's wounds
+must follow. America was independent, but she had
+yet to win from the civilized world the recognition that
+she must have in order to endure.</p>
+
+<p>Jay was importuned by Washington to take the position
+of Secretary of Foreign Affairs, one of the most important
+offices to be filled.</p>
+
+<p>He accepted, and discharged the exacting duties of the
+place for five years.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the adoption of the Federal Constitution,
+and the election of Washington as President of the
+United States.</p>
+
+<p>Washington wrote to Jay: &quot;There must be a Court,
+perpetual and Supreme, to which all questions of
+internal dispute between States or people be referred.
+This Court must be greater than the Executive, greater
+than any individual State, separated and apart from
+any political party. You must be the first official head
+of the Executive.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Jay, as every schoolboy knows, was the first Chief<a name="III_Page_246"></a>
+Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. By
+his sagacity, his dignity, his knowledge of men, and
+love of order and uprightness, he gave it that high
+place which it yet holds, and which it must hold; for
+when the decisions of the Supreme Court are questioned
+by a State or people, the fabric of our government is
+but a spider's web through which anarchy and unreason
+will stalk.</p>
+
+<p>In Seventeen Hundred Ninety-four, came serious complications
+with Great Britain, growing out of the construction
+of terms of peace made in Paris eleven years
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Some one must go to Great Britain and make a new
+treaty in order to preserve our honor and save us from
+another war.</p>
+
+<p>Franklin was dead; Adams as Vice-President could not
+be spared; Hamilton's fiery temper was dangerous&mdash;no
+one could accomplish the delicate mission so well as Jay.</p>
+
+<p>Jay, self-centered and calm, said little; but in compliance
+with Washington's wish resigned his office, and
+set sail with full powers to use his own judgment in
+everything, and the assurance that any treaty he made
+would be ratified.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving in England, he at once opened negotiations
+with Lord Grenville, and in five months the new treaty
+was signed.</p>
+
+<p>It provided for the payment to American citizens for
+losses of private shipping during the war; and over ten
+<a name="III_Page_247"></a>million dollars were paid to citizens of the United States
+under this agreement.</p>
+
+<p>It fixed the boundary-line
+between the State of Maine and Canada; provided for
+the surrender of British posts in the Far West; that
+neither nation was to allow enlistments within its
+territory by a third nation at war with another; arranged
+for the surrender of fugitives charged with murder or
+forgery; and made definite terms as to various minor,
+but none the less important, questions.</p>
+
+<p>A storm of opposition greeted the treaty when its terms
+were made known in America. Jay was accused of
+bartering away the rights of America, and indignation
+meetings were held, because Jay had not insisted on
+apologies, and set sums of indemnity on this, that and
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, Washington ratified the treaty; and when
+Jay arrived in America there was a greeting fully as
+cordial and generous as that on the occasion of his other
+homecoming.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, while he was absent, his friends had put him in
+nomination as Governor of New York. His election to
+that office occurred just two days before he arrived, and
+when he landed his senses were mystified by hearing
+loud hurrahs for &quot;Governor Jay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When his term of office expired he was re-elected, so he
+served as Governor, in all, six years. The most important
+measure carried out during that time was the
+abolition of slavery in the State of New York, an act
+<a name="III_Page_248"></a>he had strenuously insisted on for twenty years, but
+which was not made possible until he had the power of
+Governor, and crowded the measure upon the Legislature.</p>
+
+<p>Over a quarter of a century had passed since John
+Adams and John Jay had met on horseback out there
+on the New Jersey turnpike. Their intimacy had been
+continuous and their labors as important as ever
+engrossed the minds of men, but in it all there was
+neither jealousy nor bickering. They were friends.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of Jay's gubernatorial term, President
+Adams nominated him for the office of Chief Justice,
+made vacant by the resignation of Oliver Ellsworth.
+The Senate unanimously confirmed the nomination, but
+Jay refused to accept the place.</p>
+
+<p>For twenty-eight years he had served his country&mdash;served
+it in its most trying hours. He was not an old
+man in years, but the severity and anxiety of his labors
+had told on his health, and the elasticity of youth had
+gone from his brain forever. He knew this, and feared
+the danger of continued exertion. &quot;My best work is
+done,&quot; he said; &quot;if I continue I may undo the good I
+have accomplished. I have earned a rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He retired to the ancestral farm at Bedford, Westchester
+County, to enjoy his vacation. In a year his
+wife died, and the shock told on his already shattered
+nerves.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The habit of reticence grew upon him,&quot; says one
+<a name="III_Page_249"></a>writer, &quot;until he could not be tricked into giving an
+opinion even about the weather.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so he lived out his days as a partial recluse, deep
+in problems of &quot;raising watermelons, and sheep that
+would not jump fences.&quot; He worked with his hands,
+wore blue jeans, voted at every town election, but to a
+great degree lived only in the past. The problems of
+church and village politics and farm life filled his
+declining days.</p>
+
+<p>To a great degree his physical health came back, but
+the problems of statecraft he left to other heads and
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>His religious nature manifested itself in various philanthropic
+schemes, and the Bible Society he founded
+endures even unto this day. These things afforded a
+healthful exercise for that tireless brain which refused
+to run down.</p>
+
+<p>His daughters made his home ideal, their love and
+gentleness soothing his declining years.</p>
+
+<p>Death to him was kindly, gathering him as Autumn,
+the messenger of Winter, reaps the leaves.<a name="III_Page_250"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>No one has ever made the claim that Jay possessed
+genius. He had something which is
+better, though, for most of the affairs of life,
+and that is commonsense. In his intellect
+there was not the flash of Hamilton, nor the creative
+quality possessed by Jefferson, nor the large all-roundness
+of Franklin.</p>
+
+<p>He was the average man who has
+trained and educated and made the best use of every
+faculty and every opportunity. He was genuine; he was
+honest; and if he never surprised his friends by his
+brilliancy, he surely never disappointed them through
+duplicity.</p>
+
+<p>He made no promises that he could not
+keep; he held out no vain hopes.</p>
+
+<p>As a diplomat he seems nearly the ideal. We have been
+taught that the line of demarcation between diplomacy
+and untruth is very shadowy. But truth is very good
+policy and in the main answers the purpose much
+better than the other thing. I am quite willing to leave
+the matter to those who have tried both.</p>
+
+<p>We can not say that Jay was &quot;magnetic,&quot; for magnetic
+men win the rabble; but Jay did better: he won the
+confidence and admiration of the strong and discerning.
+His manner was gentle and pleasing; his words few,
+and as a listener he set a pace that all novitiates in the
+school of diplomacy would do well to follow.</p>
+
+<p>To talk well is a talent, but to listen is a fine art. If I
+really wished to win the love of a man I'd practise the
+art of listening. Even dull people often talk well when
+<a name="III_Page_251"></a>there is some one near who cultivates the receptive
+mood; and to please a man you must give him an
+opportunity to be both wise and witty. Men are pleased
+with their friends when they are pleased with themselves,
+and no man is ever so pleased with himself as
+when he has expressed himself well.</p>
+
+<p>The sympathetic listener at a lecture or sermon is the
+only one who gets his money's worth. If you would get
+good, lend your sympathy to a speaker, and if, accidentally,
+you imbibe heresy, you can easily throw it
+overboard when you get home.</p>
+
+<p>John Jay was quiet and undemonstrative in speech,
+cultivating a fine reserve. In debate he never fired all
+his guns, and his best battles were won with the powder
+that was never exploded. &quot;You had always better keep
+a small balance to your credit,&quot; he once advised a
+young attorney.</p>
+
+<p>When the first Congress met, Jay was not in favor of
+complete independence from England. He asked only
+for simple justice, and said, &quot;The middle course is
+best.&quot; He listened to John Adams and Patrick Henry
+and quietly discussed the matter with Samuel Adams;
+but it was some time before he saw that the density of
+King George was hopeless, and that the work of complete
+separation was being forced upon the Colonies
+by the blindness and stupidity of the British Parliament.</p>
+
+<p>He then accepted the issue.</p>
+
+<p>During those first days of the Revolution, New York
+<a name="III_Page_252"></a>did not stand firm, as did Boston, for the cause of
+independence. &quot;The foes at home are the only ones
+I really fear,&quot; once wrote Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>First to pacify and placate, then to win and hold those
+worse than neutrals, was the work of John Jay. While
+Washington was in the field, Jay, with tireless pen,
+upheld the cause, and by his speech and presence kept
+anarchy at bay.</p>
+
+<p>As president of the Committee of Safety he showed he
+could do something more than talk and write. When
+Tories refused to take the oath of allegiance he quietly
+wrote the order to imprison or banish; and with friend,
+foe or kinsman there was neither dalliance nor turning
+aside. His heart was in the cause&mdash;his property, his
+life. The time for argument had passed.</p>
+
+<p>In the gloom that followed the defeat of Washington
+at Brooklyn, Jay issued an address to the people that
+is a classic in its fine, stern spirit of hope and strength.
+Congress had the address reprinted and sent broadcast,
+and also translated and printed in German.</p>
+
+<p>His work divides itself by a strange coincidence into
+three equal parts. Twenty-eight years were passed in
+youth and education; twenty-eight years in continuous
+public work; and twenty-eight years in retirement and
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>As one of that immortal ten, mentioned by a
+great English statesman, who gave order, dignity,
+stability and direction to the cause of American
+Independence, the name of John Jay is secure.</p><p><a name="III_Page_253"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="WILLIAM_H_SEWARD"></a></p><h2>WILLIAM H. SEWARD</h2>
+<p><a name="III_Page_254"></a></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>I avow my adherence to the Union, with my friends,
+with my party, with my State; or without either, as
+they may determine; in every event of peace or war,
+with every consequence of honor or dishonor, of life
+or death.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Speech in the United States Senate, 1860</i></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_255"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-12.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-12_th.jpg" alt="WILLIAM H. SEWARD" /></a></p><p class="ctr">WILLIAM H. SEWARD</p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>When I was a freshman at the Little
+Red Schoolhouse, the last exercise
+in the afternoon was spelling. The
+larger pupils stood in a line that
+ran down one aisle and curled clear
+around the stove. Well do I remember
+one Winter when the biggest
+boy in the school stood at the tail-end
+of the class most of the time, while at the head of
+the line, or always very near it, was a freckled, check-aproned
+girl, who once at a spellin'-bee had defeated
+even the teacher. This girl was ten years older than
+myself, and I was then too small to spell with this first
+grade, but I watched the daily fight of wrestling with
+such big words as &quot;un-in-ten-tion-al-ly&quot; and &quot;mis-un-der-stand-ing,&quot;
+and longed for a day when I, too,
+should take part and possibly stand next to this fine,
+smart girl, who often smiled at me approvingly. And
+I planned how I would hold her hand as we would
+stand there in line and mentally dare the master to
+come on with his dictionary. We two would be the
+smartest scholars of the school and always help each
+other in our &quot;sums.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Yet when time had pushed me into the line, she of the
+check apron was not there, and even if she had been
+I should not have dared to hold her hand.<a name="III_Page_256"></a></p>
+
+<p>But I must not digress&mdash;the particular thing I wish to
+explain is that one day at recess the best scholar was
+in tears, and I went to her and asked what was the
+matter, and she told me that some of the big girls had
+openly declared that she&mdash;my fine, freckled girl, the
+check-aproned, the invincible&mdash;held her place at the
+head of the school only through favoritism.</p>
+
+<p>I burned with rage and resentment and proposed fight;
+then I burst out crying and together we mingled our
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>All this was long ago. Since then I have been in many
+climes, and met many men, and read history a bit&mdash;I
+hope not without profit. And this I have learned: that
+the person who stands at the head of his class (be he
+country lad or presidential candidate) is always the
+target for calumny and the unkindness of contemporaries
+who can neither appreciate nor understand.</p>
+
+<p>Not long ago I spent several days at Auburn, New
+York, so named by some pioneer who, when the Nineteenth
+Century was very young, journeyed thitherward
+with a copy of Goldsmith's &quot;Deserted Village&quot;
+in his pack.</p>
+
+<p>Auburn is a flourishing city of thirty thousand inhabitants.
+It has beautiful wide streets, lined with elms
+that in places form an archway. There are churches
+to spare and schools galore and handsome residences.
+Then there are electric cars and electric lights and
+dynamos, with which men electricute other men in
+<a name="III_Page_257"></a>the wink of an eye. I saw the &quot;fin-de-siecle&quot; guillotine
+and sat in the chair, and the jubilant patentee told me
+that it was the quickest scheme for extinguishing life
+ever invented&mdash;patented Anno Christi Eighteen Hundred
+Ninety-five. Verily we live in the age of the Push-Button!
+And as I sat there I heard a laugh that was a
+quaver, and the sound of a stout cane emphasizing a
+jest struck against the stone floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We didn't have such things when I was a boy!&quot;
+came the tremulous voice.</p>
+
+<p>And then the newcomer explained to me that he was
+eighty-seven years old last May, and that he well
+remembered a time when a plain oaken gallows and
+a strong rope were good enough for Auburn&mdash;&quot;provided
+Bill Seward didn't get the fellow free,&quot; added my new-found
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>Then the old man explained that he used to be a guard
+on the walls, and now he had a grandson who occupied
+the same office, and in answer to my question said he
+knew Seward as though he were a brother. &quot;Bill, he
+was the luckiest man ever in Auburn&mdash;he married rich
+and tumbled over bags of money if he just walked on
+the street. He believed in neither God nor devil and
+had a pompous way o' makin' folks think he knew all
+about everything. To make folks think you know is
+just as well as to know, I s'pose!&quot; and the old man
+laughed and struck his cane on the echoing floor of
+the cell.<a name="III_Page_258"></a></p>
+
+<p>The sound and the place and the company gave me a
+creepy feeling, and I excused myself and made my
+way out past armed guards, through doorways where
+iron bars clicked and snapped, and steel bolts that held
+in a thousand men shot back to let me out, out into a
+freer air and a better atmosphere. And as I passed
+through the last overhanging arch where a one-armed
+guard wearing a G.A.R. badge turned a needlessly
+big key, there came unbeckoned across my inward sight
+a vision of a check-aproned girl in tears, sobbing with
+head on desk. And I said to myself: &quot;Yes, yes! country
+girl or statesman, you shall drink the bitter potion that
+is the penalty of success&mdash;drink it to the very dregs.
+If you would escape moral and physical assassination,
+do nothing, say nothing, be nothing&mdash;court obscurity,
+for only in oblivion does safety lie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>All mud sticks, but no mud is immortal, and that senile
+fling at the name of Seward is the last flickering, dying
+word of detraction that can be heard in the town that
+was his home for full half a century, or in the land he
+served so well. And yet it was in Auburn that mob spirit
+once found a voice; and when Seward was Lincoln's
+most helpful adviser, and his sons were at the front
+serving the country's cause, cries of &quot;Burn his house!
+Burn his house!&quot; came to the distracted ears of wife
+and daughter.</p>
+
+<p>But all that has gone now. In fact, denial that calumny
+was ever offered to the name of Seward springs quickly
+<a name="III_Page_259"></a>to the lips of Auburn men, as they point with pride
+to that beautiful old home where he lived, and where
+now his son resides; and then they lead you, with a
+reverence that nearly uncovers, to the stately bronze
+standing on the spot that was once his garden&mdash;now
+a park belonging to the people.</p>
+
+<p>Time marks wondrous changes; and the city where
+William Lloyd Garrison lived in &quot;a rat-hole,&quot; as reported
+by Boston's Mayor, now honors Commonwealth
+Avenue with his statue. And so the sons of Seward's
+enemies have devoted willing dollars to preserving
+&quot;that classic face and spindling form&quot; in deathless
+bronze.</p>
+
+<p>And they do well, for Seward's name and fame are
+Auburn's glory.<a name="III_Page_260"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that
+all the worry of the world is quite useless.
+And on no subject affecting mortals is there
+so much worry as on that of (no, not love!)
+parents' ambitions for their children. When the dimpled
+darling toddles and lisps and chatters, the satisfaction
+he gives is unalloyed; for he is so small and insignificant,
+his demands so imperious, that the entire household
+dance attendance on the wee tyrant, and count it joy.
+But by and by the things at which we used to laugh
+become presumptuous, and that which was once funny
+is now perverse. And the more practical a man is, the
+larger his stock of Connecticut commonsense, the
+greater his disillusionment as his children grow to manhood.
+When he beholds dawdling inanity and dowdy
+vanity growing lush as jimson, where yesterday, with
+strained prophetic vision, he saw budding excellence
+and worth, his soul is wrung by a worry that knows
+no peace. The matter is so poignantly personal that he
+dare not share it with another in confessional, and so
+he hugs his grief to his heart, and tries to hide it even
+from himself.</p>
+
+<p>And thus does many a mother scrub the kitchen-floor
+on her knees, rather than face the irony of maternity
+and ask the assistance of the seventeen-year-old pert
+chit with bangs, who strums a mandolin in the little
+front parlor, gay with its paper flowers, six plush-covered
+chairs and a &quot;company&quot; sofa.<a name="III_Page_261"></a></p>
+
+<p>The late Commodore Vanderbilt is reported to have
+said, &quot;I have over a dozen sons, and not one is worth
+a damn.&quot; I fear me that every father with sons grown
+to manhood has at some time voiced the same sentiment,
+curtailed, possibly, only as to numbers, and
+softened by another expletive, which does not mitigate
+the anguish of his cry, as he sees the dreams he had for
+his baby boys fade away into a mist of agonizing tears.</p>
+
+<p>And is all this worry the penalty that Nature exacts
+for dreaming dreams that can not in their very nature
+come true? Jean Jacques Rousseau, who wrote so beautifully
+on child-study, avoided the risk of failure by
+putting his children into an asylum; several &quot;Communities&quot;
+since have set apart certain women to be
+mothers to all, and bring up and care for the young,
+and strangely, with no apparent loss to the children;
+and Bellamy prophesies a day when the worries of
+parenthood will all be transferred to a &quot;committee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the worry is futile and senseless, being born often
+of a blindness that will not wait. Man has not only
+&quot;Seven Ages,&quot; but many more, and he must pass
+through this one before the next arrives. The Commodore
+certainly possessed what is called horse-sense,
+and if his conceptions of character had been clearer, he
+might have realized that in more ways than one the
+abilities of his sons were going to be greater than his
+own. His eldest son was, nevertheless, banished to a
+Long Island farm on a pension, &quot;because he could not be
+<a name="III_Page_262"></a>trusted to do business.&quot; The same son once modestly
+asked the Commodore if he would allow him to have
+the compost that had been for a year accumulating
+outside the Fifth Avenue barns. &quot;Just one load, and
+no more,&quot; said pater. William thereupon took twenty
+teams and as many men, and transferred the entire
+pile to a barge moored in the river. It was a barge-load.
+And when pater saw what had been done, he said, &quot;The
+boy is not so big a fool as I thought.&quot; The boy was
+forty-five ere death put him in possession of the gold
+that the father no longer had use for, there being no
+pockets in a shroud, and he then showed that as a
+financier he could have given his father points, for in
+a few years he doubled the millions and drove horses
+faster without a break than his father had ever ridden.</p>
+
+<p>Seward's father was a doctor, justice of the peace,
+merchant, and the general first citizen of the village of
+Florida, Orange County, New York. And he had no
+more confidence in his boy William than Vanderbilt
+had in his. He educated him only because the lad was
+not strong enough to work, and it seems to have been
+the firm belief that the boy would come to no good end.
+In order to discipline him, the father put the youngster
+in college on such a scanty allowance that the lad was
+obliged to run away and go to teaching school in order
+to be free from financial humiliation. Here was the best
+possible proof that the young man had the germs of
+excellence in him; but the father took it as a proof of
+<a name="III_Page_263"></a>depravity, and sent warning letters to the young school-teacher's
+friends threatening them &quot;not to harbor the
+scapegrace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The years went by and the parental distrust slackened
+very little. The boy was slim and slender and his hair
+was tow-colored and his head too big for his body. He
+had gotten a goodly smattering of education some way
+and was intent on being a lawyer. He seemed to know
+that if he was to succeed he must get well away from
+the parent nest, and out of the reach of daily advice.</p>
+
+<p>His desire was to go &quot;Out West,&quot; and the particular
+objective point was Auburn, New York.</p>
+
+<p>The father gave him fifty dollars as a starter, with the
+final word, &quot;I expect you'll be back all too soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so young Seward started away, with high hopes
+and a firm determination that he would agreeably disappoint
+his parents by not going back.</p>
+
+<p>He reached Albany by steamboat, and embarked on a
+sumptuous canal packet that bore a waving banner on
+which were the words woven in gold, &quot;Westward Ho!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he has slyly told us how, as he stepped aboard
+that &quot;inland palace,&quot; he bethought him of having
+written a thesis, three years before, proving that De Witt
+Clinton's chimera of joining the Hudson and Lake Erie
+was an idea both fictile and fibrous. But the inland
+palace carried him safely and surely. He reached
+Auburn, and instead of writing home for more money,
+returned that which he had borrowed. The father, who
+<a name="III_Page_264"></a>was a pretty good man in every way, quite beyond the
+average in intellect, lived to see his son in the United
+States Senate.</p>
+
+<p>And the moral for parents is: Don't worry about your
+children. You were young once, even if you have forgotten
+the fact. Boys will be boys and girls will be girls&mdash;but
+not forever. Have patience, and remember that this
+present brood is not the first generation that has been
+brought forth. There have been others, and each has
+been very much like the one that passed before. The
+sentiment of &quot;Pippa Passes&quot; holds: &quot;God's in His
+Heaven, all's right with the world.&quot;<a name="III_Page_265"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>In Eighteen Hundred Thirty-four, Seward was
+the Whig candidate for Governor of New
+York. He was defeated by W.L. Marcy. Four
+years later he was again a candidate against
+Marcy and defeated him by ten thousand majority.</p>
+
+<p>Seward was then thirty-six years of age, and was
+counted one of the very first among the lawyers of the
+State, and in accepting the office of Governor he made
+decided financial sacrifices.</p>
+
+<p>Seward was a man of positive ideas, and, although not
+arbitrary in manner, yet had a silken strength of will
+that made great rents in the mesh of other men's
+desires. Before a court, his quiet but firm persistence
+along a certain line often dictated the verdict. The
+faculty of grasping a point firmly and securely was his
+in a marked measure. And any man who can quietly
+override the wishes and ambitions of other men is first
+well feared, and then thoroughly hated.</p>
+
+<p>One of Seward's first efforts on becoming Governor was
+to insure a common-school education among the children
+of every class, and especially among the foreign
+population of large cities. To this end he advocated a
+distribution of public funds among all schools established
+with that object; and if he were alive today it is quite
+needless to say he would not belong to the A.P.A. nor
+to any other secret society. He knew too much of all
+religions to have complete faith in any, yet his appreciation
+of the fact that the Catholics minister to the needs
+<a name="III_Page_266"></a>of a class that no other denomination reaches or can
+control was outspoken and plain. This, with his connection
+with the Anti-Masonic Party, brought upon his
+name a stigma that was at last to defeat him for the
+Presidency. Seward's clear insight into practical things,
+backed by the quiet working energy of his nature,
+brought about many changes, and the changes he
+effected and the reforms he inaugurated must ever
+rank his name high among statesmen.</p>
+
+<p>By his influence the law's delay in the courts of chancery
+was curtailed, and this prepared the way for radical
+changes in the Constitution. He inaugurated the
+geological survey that led to making &quot;Potsdam outcrop&quot;
+classic, and &quot;Medina sandstone&quot; a product that is
+so known wherever a man goes forth in the fields of
+earth carrying a geologist's hammer.</p>
+
+<p>Largely through his efforts, a safe and general banking
+system was brought about; and the establishment of a
+lunatic asylum was one of the best items to his credit
+during that first term as Governor. But there was one
+philological change that proved too great even for his
+generalship. The word &quot;lunacy,&quot; as we know, comes
+from &quot;luna,&quot; the belief in the good old days being that
+the moon exercised a profound influence on the wits of
+sundry people. I'm told that the idea still holds good
+in certain quarters, and that if the wind is east and the
+moon shows a horn on which you can hang a flatiron,
+certain persons are looked upon askance and the
+<a name="III_Page_267"></a>children cautioned to avoid them.</p>
+
+<p>Seward said that
+insane people were simply those who were mentally ill,
+and that &quot;Hospital&quot; was the proper term. But the
+classicists retorted, &quot;Nay, nay, William Henry, you
+have had your way in many things and here we will now
+have ours.&quot; It has taken us full a century officially to
+make the change, and the plain folks from the hills still
+refuse to ratify it, and will for many a lustrum.</p>
+
+<p>It was during Seward's administration that the &quot;debtors'
+prison&quot; was done away with, and it was, too,
+through his earnest recommendation that the last trace
+of law for slaveholding was wiped from the statute-books
+of the State of New York.</p>
+
+<p>The question of slavery was taken up most exhaustively
+in what was known as the &quot;Virginia Controversy.&quot; This
+interesting correspondence can be seen in a stout volume
+in most public libraries. It is a series of letters that
+passed between Governor Seward of New York and the
+Governor of Virginia, as to the requisition of two
+persons in New York charged by the Governor of
+Virginia with abducting slaves. Seward made the patent
+point, and backed it up with a forest of reasons in
+politest English, that the accused persons being charged
+with abducting slaves, and there being no such thing
+as slaves known in New York, no person in New York
+could be apprehended for stealing slaves&mdash;for slaves
+were things that had no existence.</p>
+
+<p>Then did the Governor of Virginia admit that slaves
+<a name="III_Page_268"></a>could not be abducted in New York; but he proceeded
+to explain in lusty tomes that slavery legally existed in
+Virginia, and that if slaves were abducted in Virginia,
+the criminal nature of the act could not be shaken off
+because the accused changed his geographical base.
+Seward was a prince of logicians: the subtleties of
+reasoning and the smoke of rhetoric were to his fancy,
+and although there is not a visible smile in the whole
+&quot;Virginia Controversy,&quot; I can not but think that his
+sleeves were puffed with laughter as he searched the
+universe for reasons to satisfy the haughty First
+Families of Virginia. And all the while, please note that
+he held the alleged abductors safe and secure 'gainst
+harm's way.</p>
+
+<p>In this correspondence he placed himself on record as
+an Abolitionist of the Abolitionists; and the name of
+Seward became listed then and there for vengeance&mdash;or
+immortality. The subject had been forced upon him,
+and he then expressed the sentiment that he continued
+to voice until Eighteen Hundred Sixty-five, that
+America could not exist half-free and half-slave. It must
+be a land of slaveholders and slaves, or a land of free-men&mdash;he
+was fully and irrevocably committed to the
+cause.</p>
+
+<p>In Eighteen Hundred Forty, he was re-elected Governor.
+The second administration was marked, as was
+the first, by a vigorous policy of pushing forward public
+improvements.<a name="III_Page_269"></a></p>
+
+<p>At the close of his second term Seward found his
+personal affairs in rather an unsettled condition, the
+expenses of official position having exceeded his income.
+He had had a goodly taste of the ingratitude of republics,
+and philosopher though he was, he was yet too young
+to know that his experience in well-doing was not
+unique, a fact he came to comprehend full well, in later
+years. And so he did that very human thing&mdash;declared
+his intention of retiring permanently from public life.</p>
+
+<p>Once back at Auburn, clients flocked to him, and he
+took his pick of business. And yet we find that public
+affairs were in his mind. Vexed questions of State policy
+were brought to him to decide, and journeys were made
+to Ohio and Michigan in the interests of men charged
+with slave-stealing. There was little money in such
+practise and small honors, but his heart was in the work.</p>
+
+<p>In Eighteen Hundred Forty-four, Seward entered
+with much zest into the canvass in behalf of Henry Clay
+for President, as he thought Clay's election would
+surely lead the way to general emancipation.</p>
+
+<p>In Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight, he supported General
+Taylor with equal energy. When Taylor was elected,
+there proved to be a great deal of opposition to him
+among the members from the South, in both the Senate
+and the House of Representatives. The administration
+felt the need of being backed by strong men in the
+Senate&mdash;men who could think on their feet, and carry a
+point when necessary against the opposition that sought
+<a name="III_Page_270"></a>to confuse and embarrass the friends of the administration
+with tireless windmill elocution.</p>
+
+<p>From Washington came the urgent request that Seward
+should be sent to the United States Senate. In Eighteen
+Hundred Forty-nine, he was chosen senator and from
+the first became the trusted leader of the administration
+party.</p>
+
+<p>The year after Seward's election to the Senate, President
+Taylor died and Vice-President Fillmore (who had
+the happiness to live in the village of East Aurora,
+New York) succeeded to the office, but Seward still
+remained leader of the Anti-Slavery Party.</p>
+
+<p>Seward's second term as United States Senator closed in
+Eighteen Hundred Sixty-one. In Eighteen Hundred
+Fifty-five, when his first term expired, there was a very
+strenuous effort made against his re-election. His strong
+and continued anti-slavery position had caused him to
+be thoroughly hated both North and South. He was
+spoken of as &quot;a seditious agitator and a dangerous
+man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But in spite of opposition he was again sent back to
+Washington. Small, slim, gentle, modest and low-voiced,
+he was pointed out in Pennsylvania Avenue as &quot;one
+who reads much and sees quite through the deeds of
+men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Men who are well traduced and hotly denounced are
+usually pretty good quality. No better encomium is
+needed than the detraction of some people. And men
+<a name="III_Page_271"></a>who are well hated also have friends who love them well.
+Thus does the law of compensation ever live.</p>
+
+<p>In Eighteen Hundred Fifty-six, there was a goodly little
+demonstration in favor of Seward for President, but the
+idea of running such a radical for the chief office of the
+people was quickly downed; and Seward himself knew
+the temper of the times too well to take the matter very
+seriously.</p>
+
+<p>But the years between Eighteen Hundred Fifty-six and
+Eighteen Hundred Sixty were years of agitation and
+earnest thought, and the idea that slavery was merely
+a local question was getting both depolarized and
+dehorned. The non-slaveholding North was rubbing its
+sleepy eyes, and asking, Who is this man Seward, anyway?
+The belief was growing that Seward, Garrison,
+Sumner and Phillips were something more than self-seeking
+agitators, and many declared them true patriots.
+In every town and city, in every Northern State,
+political clubs sprang into being and their battle-cry
+was &quot;Seward!&quot; It seemed to be a foregone conclusion
+that Seward would be the next President. When the
+convention met, the first ballot showed one hundred
+seventy-three votes for Seward and one hundred two
+for Lincoln, the rest, scattering. But Seward's friends
+had marshaled their entire strength&mdash;all the rest was
+opposition&mdash;while Lincoln was an unknown quantity.</p>
+
+<p>When the news went forth that Lincoln was nominated,
+Seward received the tidings in his library at Auburn;
+<a name="III_Page_272"></a>and the myth-makers have told us that he cried aloud,
+and that the carved lions on his gateposts shed salty
+tears. But Seward knew the opposition to his name, and
+was of too stern a moral fiber to fix his heart upon the
+result of a wire-pulling convention. The motto of his
+life had been: Be prepared for the unexpected. It may
+be that the lions on the gateposts shed tears, and it is
+possible there was weeping in the Seward household&mdash;but
+not by Seward.</p>
+
+<p>He entered upon a hearty and vigorous campaign in
+support of Lincoln&mdash;making a tour through the West
+and being greeted everywhere with an enthusiasm that
+rivaled that shown for the candidate.</p>
+
+<p>Seward said to his wife, when the news came that
+Lincoln was nominated: &quot;He will be elected, but he
+will have to face the greatest difficulties and carry the
+greatest burdens that ever a man has been called to
+bear. He will need me, but look you, my dear, I will
+not serve under him. I must be at the head or nowhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lincoln knew Seward, and Seward didn't knew Lincoln.
+And so after the Convention Lincoln journeyed
+down East. It took two days to go from Chicago to
+Buffalo, and there were no sleeping-cars; and then
+Lincoln went on from Buffalo to Auburn&mdash;another
+day's journey. Lincoln wore his habitual duster and
+the tall hat, a little the worse for wear. He telegraphed
+Seward he was coming, and, of course, Seward met
+<a name="III_Page_273"></a>him at the station in Auburn. Lincoln got off the car
+alone, unattended, carrying his carpetbag, homemade,
+with the initials &quot;A.L.&quot; embroidered on the side by
+the fair hands of Fannie Anna Rebecca Todd.</p>
+
+<p>Seward and his two sons&mdash;William and Frederick&mdash;met
+the coming President, and the boys laughed at the
+dusty, uncouth, sad and awkward individual, six feet
+five, who disembarked.</p>
+
+<p>The carriage was waiting, but Lincoln refused to ride,
+saying, &quot;Boys, let's walk,&quot; and so they walked up the
+hill, in through past the stone gateposts where the lions
+stood that shed tears. Seward ran ahead into the house
+and said to his wife: &quot;Look you, my dear, we have
+misjudged this man. Do not laugh. He is the greatest
+man in the world!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Three months later, Seward met Lincoln by appointment
+in Chicago; and from that time on, to the day of
+Lincoln's death, Seward served his chief with hands
+and feet, with eyes and ears, and with brain and soul.
+When Lincoln was elected, his wisdom was at once
+manifest in securing Seward as Secretary of State. The
+record of those troublous times and the masterly way
+in which Seward served his country are too vivid in the
+minds of men to need reviewing here, but the regard of
+Lincoln for this man, who so well complemented his
+own needs, is worthy of our remembrance. Seward was
+the only member of Lincoln's first Cabinet who stood
+by him straight through and entered the second.<a name="III_Page_274"></a></p>
+
+<p>Early in April, Eighteen Hundred Sixty-five, Seward
+met with a serious accident by being thrown from his
+carriage and dashed against the curbstone. One arm and
+both jaws were fractured, and besides he was badly
+bruised in other parts of his body. On April Thirteenth,
+Lincoln returned from his trip to Richmond, where he
+had had an interview with Grant. That evening he
+walked over from the White House to Seward's residence.
+The stricken man was totally unable to converse,
+but Lincoln, sitting on the edge of the bed and holding
+the old man's thin hands, told in solemn, serious monotone
+of the ending of the war; of what he had seen and
+heard; of the plans he had made for sending soldiers
+home and providing for an army whipped and vanquished,
+and of what was best to do to bind up a nation's
+wounds.</p>
+
+<p>Five years before, these men had stood before
+the world as rivals. Then they joined hands as friends,
+and during the four years of strife and blood had met
+each day and advised and counseled concerning every
+great detail. Their opinions often differed widely, but
+there was always frank expression and, in the main, their
+fears and doubts and hopes had all been one.</p>
+
+<p>But now at last the smoke had cleared away, and they
+had won. The victory had been too dearly bought for
+proud boast or vain exultation, but victory still it was.</p>
+
+<p>And as the strong and homely Lincoln told the tale
+the stricken man could answer back only by pressure
+of a hand.<a name="III_Page_275"></a></p>
+
+<p>At last the presence of the nurse told Lincoln it was
+time to go; in grave jest he half-apologized for his long
+stay, and told of a man in Sangamon County who used
+to say there is no medicine like good news. And rumor
+has it that he then stooped and kissed the sick man's
+cheek. And then he went his way.</p>
+
+<p>The next night at
+the same hour a man entered the Seward home, saying
+that he had been sent with messages by the doctor.
+Being refused admittance to the sick-chamber, he drew
+a pistol and endeavored to shoot Seward's son who
+guarded the door; but being foiled in this he crushed
+the young man's skull with the heavy weapon, and
+springing over his body dashed at the emaciated figure
+of Seward with uplifted dagger. A dozen times he struck
+at the face and throat and breast of the almost dying
+man, and then thinking he had done his work made
+rapidly away.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, linked by Fate in a sort of poetic
+justice, with the thought that if one deserved death so
+did the other, Hate had with surer aim sent an assassin's
+bullet home&mdash;and Lincoln died.</p>
+
+<p>Weeks passed and the strong vitality that had served
+Seward in such good stead did not forsake him. Men of
+his stamp are hard to kill.</p>
+
+<p>On a beautiful May-day, Seward, so reduced that a
+woman carried him, was taken out on the veranda of his
+house and watched that solid mass of glittering steel
+and faded blue that moved through Pennsylvania<a name="III_Page_276"></a>
+Avenue in triumphal march. Sherman with head
+uncovered rode down to Seward's home, saluted, and
+then back to join his goodly company, and many
+others of lesser note did the same.</p>
+
+<p>Health and strength came slowly back, and happy was
+the day when he was carried to the office of Secretary of
+State and, propped in his chair, again began his work.
+Another President had come, but meet it was that the
+Secretary of State should still hold his place.</p>
+
+<p>Seward lived full eleven years after that, seemingly
+dragging with unquenched spirit that slashed and
+broken form. But the glint did not fade from his eye,
+nor did the proud head lose its poise.</p>
+
+<p>He died in his office among his books and papers, sane
+and sensible up to the very moment when his spirit
+took its flight.</p><p><a name="III_Page_277"></a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p><a name="ABRAHAM_LINCOLN"></a></p><h2>ABRAHAM LINCOLN</h2>
+<p><a name="III_Page_278"></a></p>
+<div class="blkquot"><p>The world will little note, nor long remember, what
+we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
+It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the
+unfinished work which they who fought here have thus
+far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
+dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that
+from these honored dead we take increased devotion
+to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of
+devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead
+shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God,
+shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government
+of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall
+not perish from the earth.<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>&mdash;<i>Speech at Gettysburg</i></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><a name="III_Page_279"></a></p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/ljv3-13.jpg"><img src="./images/ljv3-13_th.jpg" alt="ABRAHAM LINCOLN" /></a></p><p class="ctr">ABRAHAM LINCOLN</p>
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>No, dearie, I do not think my childhood
+differed much from that of
+other good healthy country youngsters.
+I've heard folks say that
+childhood has its sorrows and all
+that, but the sorrows of country
+children do not last long. The young
+rustic goes out and tells his troubles
+to the birds and flowers, and the flowers nod in recognition,
+and the robin that sings from the top of a tall
+poplar-tree when the sun goes down says plainly it has
+sorrows of its own&mdash;and understands.</p>
+
+<p>I feel a pity for all those folks who were born in a big
+city, and thus got cheated out of their childhood.
+Zealous ash-box inspectors in gilt braid, prying policemen
+with clubs, and signs reading, &quot;Keep Off the
+Grass,&quot; are woeful things to greet the gaze of little
+souls fresh from God.</p>
+
+<p>Last Summer six &quot;Fresh Airs&quot; were sent out to my
+farm, from the Eighth Ward. Half an hour after their
+arrival, one of them, a little girl five years old, who had
+constituted herself mother of the party, came rushing
+into the house exclaiming, &quot;Say, Mister, Jimmy Driscoll
+he's walkin' on de grass!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I well remember the first Keep-Off-the-Grass sign I ever
+saw. It was in a printed book; it wasn't exactly a sign,
+<a name="III_Page_280"></a>only a picture of a sign, and the single excuse I could
+think of for such a notice was that the field was full of
+bumblebee-nests, and the owner, being a good man and
+kind, did not want barefoot boys to add bee-stings to
+stone-bruises. And I never now see one of those signs
+but that I glance at my feet to make sure that I have
+shoes on.</p>
+
+<p>Given the liberty of the country, the child is very near
+to Nature's heart; he is brother to the tree and calls all
+the dumb, growing things by name. He is sublimely
+superstitious. His imagination, as yet untouched by
+disillusion, makes good all that earth lacks, and habited
+in a healthy body the soul sings and soars.</p>
+
+<p>In childhood, magic and mystery lie close around us.
+The world in which we live is a panorama of constantly
+unfolding delights, our faith in the Unknown is limitless,
+and the words of Job, uttered in mankind's early morning,
+fit our wondering mood: &quot;He stretcheth out the
+north over empty space, and hangeth the earth upon
+nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I am old, dearie, very old. In my childhood much of the
+State of Illinois was a prairie, where wild grass waved
+and bowed before the breeze, like the tide of a summer
+sea. I remember when &quot;relatives&quot; rode miles and miles
+in springless farm-wagons to visit cousins, taking the
+whole family and staying two nights and a day; when
+books were things to be read; when the beaver and the
+buffalo were not extinct; when wild pigeons came in
+<a name="III_Page_281"></a>clouds that shadowed the sun; when steamboats ran on
+the Sangamon; when Bishop Simpson preached; when
+Hell was a place, not a theory, and Heaven a locality
+whose fortunate inhabitants had no work to do; when
+Chicago newspapers were ten cents each; when cotton
+cloth was fifty cents a yard, and my shirt was made
+from a flour-sack, with the legend, &quot;Extra XXX,&quot;
+across my proud bosom, and just below the words in
+flaming red, &quot;Warranted Fifty Pounds!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The mornings usually opened with smothered protests
+against getting up, for country folks then were extremists
+in the matter of &quot;early to bed, early to rise, makes
+a man healthy, wealthy and wise.&quot; We hadn't much
+wealth, nor were we very wise, but we had health to
+burn. But aside from the unpleasantness of early
+morning, the day was full of possibilities of curious
+things to be found in the barn and under spreading
+gooseberry-bushes, or if it rained, the garret was an
+Alsatia unexplored.</p>
+
+<p>The evolution of the individual mirrors the evolution of
+the race. In the morning of the world man was innocent
+and free; but when self-consciousness crept in and he
+possessed himself of that disturbing motto, &quot;Know
+Thyself,&quot; he took a fall.</p>
+
+<p>Yet knowledge usually comes to us with a shock, just
+as the mixture crystallizes when the chemist gives the
+jar a tap. We grow by throes.</p>
+
+<p>I well remember the day when I was put out of my<a name="III_Page_282"></a>
+Eden.</p>
+
+<p>My father and mother had gone away in the
+one-horse wagon, taking the baby with them, leaving
+me in care of my elder sister. It was a stormy day and
+the air was full of fog and mist. It did not rain very
+much, only in gusts, but great leaden clouds chased
+each other angrily across the sky. It was very quiet
+there in the little house on the prairie, except when the
+wind came and shook the windows and rattled at the
+doors. The morning seemed to drag and wouldn't pass,
+just out of contrariness; and I wanted it to go fast
+because in the afternoon my sister was to take me somewhere,
+but where I did not know, but that we should
+go somewhere was promised again and again.</p>
+
+<p>As the day wore on we went up into the little garret
+and strained our eyes across the stretching prairie to see
+if some one was coming. There had been much rain, for
+on the prairie there was always too much rain or else
+too little. It was either drought or flood. Dark swarms of
+wild ducks were in all the ponds; V-shaped flocks of
+geese and brants screamed overhead, and down in the
+slough cranes danced a solemn minuet.</p>
+
+<p>Again and again we looked for the coming something,
+and I began to cry, fearing we had been left there,
+forgotten of Fate.</p>
+
+<p>At last we went out by the barn and, with much
+boosting, I climbed to the top of the haystack and my
+sister followed. And still we watched.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There they come!&quot; exclaimed my sister.<a name="III_Page_283"></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;There they come!&quot; I echoed, and clapped two red,
+chapped hands for joy.</p>
+
+<p>Away across the prairie, miles and miles away, was a
+winding string of wagons, a dozen perhaps, one right
+behind another. We watched until we could make out
+our own white horse, Bob, and then we slid down the
+hickory pole that leaned against the stack, and made
+our way across the spongy sod to the burying-ground
+that stood on a knoll half a mile away.</p>
+
+<p>We got there before the procession, and saw a great
+hole, with square corners, dug in the ground. It was
+half-full of water, and a man in bare feet, with trousers
+rolled to his knees, was working industriously to bail
+it out.</p>
+
+<p>The wagons drove up and stopped. And out of one of
+them four men lifted a long box and set it down beside
+the hole where the man still bailed and dipped. The box
+was opened and in it was Si Johnson. Si lay very still,
+and his face was very blue, and his clothes were very
+black, save for his shirt, which was very white, and his
+hands were folded across his breast, just so, and held
+awkwardly in the stiff fingers was a little New Testament.
+We all looked at the blue face, and the women
+cried softly. The men took off their hats while the
+preacher prayed, and then we sang, &quot;There'll be no
+more parting there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lid of the box was nailed down, lines were taken
+from the harness of one of the teams standing by and
+<a name="III_Page_284"></a>were placed around the long box, and it was lowered
+with a splash into the hole. Then several men seized
+spades and the clods fell with clatter and echo. The men
+shoveled very hard, filling up the hole, and when it was
+full and heaped up, they patted it all over with the
+backs of their spades.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody remained until this was done, and then we
+got into the wagons and drove away.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly a dozen of the folks came over to our house for
+dinner, including the preacher, and they all talked of
+the man who was dead and how he came to die.</p>
+
+<p>Only two days before, this man, Si Johnson, stood in the
+doorway of his house and looked out at the falling rain.
+It had rained for three days, so that they could not
+plow, and Si was angry. Besides this, his two brothers
+had enlisted and gone away to the War and left him all
+the work to do. He did not go to War because he was a
+&quot;Copperhead&quot;; and as he stood there in the doorway
+looking at the rain, he took a chew of tobacco, and then
+he swore a terrible oath.</p>
+
+<p>And ere the swear-words had escaped from his lips,
+there came a blinding flash of lightning, and the man
+fell all in a heap like a sack of oats.</p>
+
+<p>And he was dead.</p>
+
+<p>Whether he died because he was a Copperhead, or
+because he took a chew of tobacco, or because he swore,
+I could not exactly understand. I waited for a convenient
+lull in the conversation and asked the preacher
+<a name="III_Page_285"></a>why the man died, and he patted me on the head and
+told me it was &quot;the vengeance of God,&quot; and that he
+hoped I would grow up and be a good man and never
+chew tobacco nor swear.</p>
+
+<p>The preacher is alive now. He is an old, old man with
+long, white whiskers, and I never see him but that I am
+tempted to ask for the exact truth as to why Si Johnson
+was struck by lightning.</p>
+
+<p>Yet I suppose it was because he was a Copperhead: all
+Copperheads chewed tobacco and swore, and that his
+fate was merited no one but the living Copperheads in
+that community doubted.</p>
+
+<p>That was an eventful day to me. Like men whose hair
+turns from black to gray in a night, I had left babyhood
+behind at a bound, and the problems of the world were
+upon me, clamoring for solution.<a name="III_Page_286"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>There was war in the land. When it began I
+did not know, but that it was something
+terrible I could guess. I thought of it all the
+rest of the day and dreamed of it at night.
+Many men had gone away; and every day men in blue
+straggled by, all going south, forever south.</p>
+
+<p>And all the men straggling along that road stopped to
+get a drink at our well, drawing the water with the
+sweep, and drinking out of the bucket, and squirting a
+mouthful of water over each other. They looked at my
+father's creaking doctor's sign, and sang, &quot;Old Mother
+Hubbard, she went to the cupboard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They all sang that. They were very jolly, just as though
+they were going to a picnic. Some of them came back
+that way a few years later and they were not so jolly.
+And some there were who never came back at all.</p>
+
+<p>Freight-trains passed southward, blue with men in the
+cars, and on top of the cars, and in the caboose, and on
+the cowcatcher, always going south and never north.
+For &quot;Down South&quot; were many Rebels, and all along
+the way south were Copperheads, and they all wanted
+to come north and kill us, so soldiers had to go down
+there and fight them.</p>
+
+<p>And I marveled much that if God hated Copperheads,
+as our preacher said He did, why He didn't send lightning
+and kill them, just in a second, as He had Si
+Johnson. And then all that would have to be done would
+be to send for a doctor to see that they were surely
+<a name="III_Page_287"></a>dead, and a preacher to pray, and the neighbors would
+dress them in their best Sunday suits of black, folding
+their hands very carefully across their breasts, then we
+would bury them deep, filling in the dirt and heaping it
+up, patting it all down very carefully with the back of a
+spade, and then go away and leave them until Judgment-Day.</p>
+
+<p>Copperheads were simply men who hated Lincoln. The
+name came from copperhead-snakes, which are worse
+than rattlers, for rattlers rattle and give warning. A
+rattler is an open enemy, but you never know that a
+copperhead is around until he strikes. He lies low in the
+swale and watches his chance. &quot;He is the worstest
+snake that am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was Abe Lincoln of Springfield who was fighting the
+Rebels that were trying to wreck the country and
+spread red ruin. The Copperheads were wicked folks
+at the North who sided with the Rebels. Society was
+divided into two classes: those who favored Abe Lincoln,
+and those who told lies about him. All the people I
+knew and loved, loved Abe Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p>I was born at Bloomington, Illinois, through no choosing
+of my own, and Bloomington is further famous as being
+the birthplace of the Republican party. When a year old
+I persuaded my parents to move seven miles north to
+the village of Hudson, that then had five houses, a
+church, a store and a blacksmith-shop. Many of the
+people I knew, knew Lincoln, for he used to come to<a name="III_Page_288"></a>
+Bloomington several times a year &quot;on the circuit&quot; to
+try cases, and at various times made speeches there.
+When he came he would tell stories at the Ashley House,
+and when he was gone these stories would be repeated
+by everybody. Some of these stories must have been
+peculiar, for I once heard my mother caution my
+father not to tell any more &quot;Lincoln stories&quot; at the
+dinner-table when we had company.</p>
+
+<p>And once Lincoln gave a lecture at the Presbyterian
+Church on the &quot;Progress of Man,&quot; when no one was
+there but the preacher, my Aunt Hannah and the
+sexton.</p>
+
+<p>My Uncle Elihu and Aunt Hannah knew Abe Lincoln
+well. So did Jesse Fell, James C. Conklin, Judge Davis,
+General Orme, Leonard Swett, Dick Yates and lots of
+others I knew. They never called him &quot;Mister Lincoln,&quot;
+but it was always Abe, or Old Abe, or just plain Abe
+Lincoln. In that newly settled country you always
+called folks by their first names, especially when you
+liked them. And when they spoke the name, &quot;Abe
+Lincoln,&quot; there was something in the voice that told of
+confidence, respect and affection.</p>
+
+<p>Once when I was at my Aunt Hannah's, Judge Davis
+was there and I sat on his lap. Years afterward I
+boasted to Robert Ingersoll that when I wore trousers
+buttoned to a calico waist I used to sit on the lap of
+David Davis, and Colonel Ingersoll laughed and said,
+&quot;Now I know you are a liar, for David Davis didn't
+<a name="III_Page_289"></a>have any lap.&quot; The only thing about the interview I
+remember was that the Judge really didn't have any
+lap to speak of.</p>
+
+<p>After Judge Davis had gone, Aunt Hannah said, &quot;You
+must always remember Judge Davis, for he is the man
+who made Abe Lincoln!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And when I said, &quot;Why, I thought God made Lincoln,&quot;
+they all laughed.</p>
+
+<p>After a little pause my inquiring mind caused me to
+ask, &quot;Who made Judge Davis?&quot; And Uncle Elihu
+answered, &quot;Abe Lincoln.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then they all laughed more than ever.<a name="III_Page_290"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Many volunteers were being called for. Neighbors
+and neighbors' boys were enlisting&mdash;going
+to the support of Abe Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p>Then one day my father went away, too.
+Many of the neighbors went with us to the station when
+he took the four-o'clock train, and we all cried, except
+mother&mdash;she didn't cry until she got home. My father
+had gone to Springfield to enlist as a surgeon. In three
+days he came back and told us he had enlisted, and was
+to be assigned his regiment in a week, and go at once
+to the front. He was always a kind man, but during that
+week when he was waiting to be told where to go, he
+was very gentle and more kind than ever. He told me
+I must be the man of the house while he was away, and
+take care of my mother and sisters, and not forget to
+feed the chickens every morning; and I promised.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the week a big envelope came from Springfield
+marked in the corner, &quot;Official.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>My mother would not open it, and so it lay on the table
+until the doctor's return. We all looked at it curiously,
+and my eldest sister gazed on it long with lack-luster
+eye and then rushed from the room with her check
+apron over her head.</p>
+
+<p>When my father rode up on horseback I ran to tell him
+that the envelope had come.</p>
+
+<p>We all stood breathless and watched him break the
+seals. He took out the letter and read it silently and
+passed it to my mother.<a name="III_Page_291"></a></p>
+
+<p>I have the letter before me now, and it says: &quot;The
+Department is still of the opinion that it does not care
+to accept men having varicose veins, which make the
+wearing of bandages necessary. Your name, however,
+has been filed and should we be able to use your
+services, will advise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then we were all very glad about the varicose veins,
+and I am afraid I went out and boasted to my play-fellows
+about our family possessions.</p>
+
+<p>It was not so very long after, that there was a Big
+Meeting in the &quot;timber.&quot; People came from all over
+the county to attend it. The chief speaker was a man
+by the name of Ingersoll, a colonel in the army, who was
+back home for just a day or two on furlough. Folks
+said he was the greatest orator in Peoria County.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning the wagons began to go by our
+house, and all along the four roads that led to the grove
+we could see great clouds of dust that stretched away
+for miles and miles and told that the people were
+gathering by the thousands. They came in wagons and
+on horseback, carrying babies; two boys on one horse
+were common sights; and there were various four-horse
+teams with wagons filled with girls all dressed in white,
+carrying flags.</p>
+
+<p>All our folks went. My mother fastened the back door
+of our house with a bolt on the inside, and then locked
+the front door with a key, and hid the key under the
+doormat.<a name="III_Page_292"></a></p>
+
+<p>At the grove there was much hand-shaking and visiting
+and asking after the folks and for the news. Several
+soldiers were present, among them a man who lived
+near us, called &quot;Little Ramsey.&quot; Three one-armed men
+were there, and a man named Al Sweetser, who had
+only one leg. These men wore blue, and were seated on
+the big platform that was all draped with flags. Plank
+seats were arranged, and every plank held its quota.
+Just outside the seats hundred of men stood, and beyond
+these were wagons filled with people. Every tree in the
+woods seemed to have a horse tied to it, and the trees
+over the speakers' platform were black with men and
+boys. I never knew before that there were so many
+horses and people in the world.</p>
+
+<p>When the speaking began, the people cheered, and then
+they became very quiet, and only the occasional squealing
+and stamping of the horses could be heard. Our
+preacher spoke first, and then the lawyer from Bloomington,
+and then came the great man from Peoria. The
+people cheered more than ever when he stood up, and
+kept hurrahing so long I thought they were not going
+to let him speak at all.</p>
+
+<p>At last they quieted down, and the speaker began. His
+first sentence contained a reference to Abe Lincoln.
+The people applauded, and some one proposed three
+cheers for &quot;Honest Old Abe.&quot; Everybody stood up and
+cheered, and I, perched on my father's shoulder, cheered
+too. And beneath the legend, &quot;Warranted Fifty<a name="III_Page_293"></a>
+Pounds,&quot; my heart beat proudly. Silence came at last&mdash;a
+silence filled only by the neighing and stamping of
+horses and the rapping of a woodpecker in a tall tree.
+Every ear was strained to catch the orator's first words.</p>
+
+<p>The speaker was just about to begin. He raised one
+hand, but ere his lips moved, a hoarse, guttural shout
+echoed through the woods, &quot;Hurrah'h'h for Jeff
+Davis!!!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kill that man!&quot; rang a sharp, clear voice in instant
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>A rumble like an awful groan came from the vast crowd.
+My father was standing on a seat, and I had climbed to
+his shoulder. The crowd surged like a monster animal
+toward a tall man standing alone in a wagon. He swung
+a blacksnake whip around him, and the lash fell savagely
+on two gray horses. At a lunge, the horses, the wagon
+and the tall man had cleared the crowd, knocking down
+several people in their flight. One man clung to the
+tailboard. The whip wound with a hiss and a crack
+across his face, and he fell stunned in the roadway.</p>
+
+<p>A clear space of full three hundred feet now separated
+the man in the wagon from the great throng, which with
+ten thousand hands seemed ready to tear him limb from
+limb. Revolver shots rang out, women screamed, and
+trampled children cried for help. Above it all was the
+roar of the mob. The orator, in vain pantomime,
+implored order.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Little Ramsey drop off the limb of a tree astride
+<a name="III_Page_294"></a>of a horse that was tied beneath, then lean over, and
+with one stroke of a knife sever the halter.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time fifty other men seemed to have done
+the same thing, for flying horses shot out from different
+parts of the woods, all on the instant. The man in the
+wagon was half a mile away now, still standing erect.
+The gray horses were running low, with noses and tails
+outstretched.</p>
+
+<p>The spread-out riders closed in a mass and followed at
+terrific speed. The crowd behind seemed to grow
+silent. We heard the patter-patter of barefoot horses
+ascending the long, low hill. One rider on a sorrel horse
+fell behind. He drew his horse to one side, and sitting
+over with one foot in the long stirrup, plied the sorrel
+across the flank with a big, white-felt hat. The horse
+responded, and crept around to the front of the flying
+mass.</p>
+
+<p>The wagon had disappeared over a gentle rise of
+ground, and then we lost the horsemen, too. Still we
+watched, and two miles across the prairie we got a
+glimpse of running horses in a cloud of dust, and into
+another valley they settled, and then we lost them for
+good.</p>
+
+<p>The speaking began again and went on amid applause
+and tears, with laughter set between.</p>
+
+<p>I do not remember what was said, but after the speaking,
+as we made our way homeward, we met Little
+Ramsey and the young man who rode the sorrel horse.<a name="III_Page_295"></a></p>
+
+<p>They told us that they had caught the Copperhead
+after a ten-mile chase, and that he was badly hurt,
+for the wagon had upset and the fellow was beneath it.
+Ramsey asked my father to go at once to see what
+could be done for him.</p>
+
+<p>The man, however, was quite
+dead when my father reached him. There was a purple
+mark around his neck: and the opinion seemed to
+be that he had got tangled up in the harness or
+something.<a name="III_Page_296"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>The war-time months went dragging by, and
+the burden of gloom in the air seemed to
+lift; for when the Chicago &quot;Tribune&quot; was
+read each evening in the post-office it told
+of victories on land and sea. Yet it was a joy not untinged
+with black; for in the church across from our
+house, funerals had been held for farmer boys who had
+died in prison-pens and been buried in Georgia trenches.</p>
+
+<p>One youth there was, I remember, who had stopped
+to get a drink at our pump, and squirted a mouthful
+of water over me because I was handy.</p>
+
+<p>One night the postmaster was reading aloud the names
+of the killed at Gettysburg, and he ran right on to the
+name of this boy. The boy's father sat there on a nail-keg,
+chewing a straw. The postmaster tried to shuffle
+over the name and on to the next.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hi! Wha&mdash;what's that you said?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Killed in honorable battle&mdash;Snyder, Hiram,&quot; said
+the postmaster with a forced calmness.</p>
+
+<p>The boy's father stood up with a jerk. Then he sat
+down. Then he stood up again and staggered his way
+to the door and fumbled for the latch like a blind man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God help him! he's gone to tell the old woman,&quot;
+said the postmaster as he blew his nose on a red handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>The preacher preached a funeral sermon for the boy,
+and on the little pyramid that marked the family lot
+in the burying-ground they carved the words: &quot;Killed
+<a name="III_Page_297"></a>in honorable battle, Hiram Snyder, aged nineteen.&quot;
+Not long after, strange, yellow, bearded men in faded
+blue began to arrive. Great welcomes were given them;
+and at the regular Wednesday evening prayer-meeting
+thanksgivings were poured out for their safe return,
+with names of company and regiment duly mentioned
+for the Lord's better identification. Bees were held for
+some of these returned farmers, where twenty teams
+and fifty men, old and young, did a season's farm-work
+in a day, and split enough wood for a year. At such
+times the women would bring big baskets of provisions,
+and long tables would be set, and there were very jolly
+times, with cracking of many jokes that were veterans,
+and the day would end with pitching horseshoes, and
+at last with singing &quot;Auld Lang Syne.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was at one such gathering that a ghost appeared&mdash;a
+lank, saffron ghost, ragged as a scarecrow&mdash;wearing
+a foolish smile and the cape of a cavalryman's overcoat
+with no coat beneath it. The apparition was a youth of
+about twenty, with a downy beard all over his face, and
+countenance well mellowed with coal-soot, as though he
+had ridden several days on top of a freight-car that
+was near the engine.</p>
+
+<p>This ghost was Hiram Snyder.</p>
+
+<p>All forgave him the shock of surprise he caused us&mdash;all
+except the minister who had preached his funeral
+sermon. Years after I heard this minister remark in a
+solemn, grieved tone: &quot;Hiram Snyder is a man who can
+not be relied on.&quot;<a name="III_Page_298"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>As the years pass, the miracle of the seasons
+means less to us. But what country boy can
+forget the turning of the leaves from green
+to gold, and the watchings and waitings for
+the first hard frost that ushers in the nutting season!
+And then the first fall of snow, with its promise of
+skates and sleds and tracks of rabbits, and mayhap
+bears, and strange animals that only come out at night,
+and that no human eye has ever seen!</p>
+
+<p>Beautiful are the seasons; and glad I am that I have
+not yet quite lost my love for each. But now they parade
+past with a curious swiftness! They look at me out of
+wistful eyes, and sometimes one calls to me as she goes
+by and asks, &quot;Why have you done so little since I saw
+you last?&quot; And I can only answer, &quot;I was thinking of
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I do not need another incarnation to live my life over
+again. I can do that now, and the resurrection of the
+past, through memory, that sees through closed eyes,
+is just as satisfactory as the thing itself.</p>
+
+<p>Were we talking of the seasons? Very well, dearie, the
+seasons it shall be. They are all charming, but if I were
+to wed any it would be Spring. How well I remember the
+gentle perfume of her comings, and her warm, languid
+breath!</p>
+
+<p>There was a time when I would go out of the house
+some morning, and the snow would be melting, and
+Spring would kiss my cheek, and then I would be all
+<a name="III_Page_299"></a>aglow with joy and would burst into the house, and
+cry: &quot;Spring is here! Spring is here!&quot; For you know
+we always have to divide our joy with some one. One
+can bear grief, but it takes two to be glad.</p>
+
+<p>And then my mother would smile and say, &quot;Yes, my
+son, but do not wake the baby!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then I would go out and watch the snow turn to water,
+and run down the road in little rivulets to the creek,
+that would swell until it became a regular Mississippi,
+so that when we waded the horse across, the water
+would come to the saddlegirth.</p>
+
+<p>Then once, I remember, the bridge was washed away,
+and all the teams had to go around and through the
+water, and some used to get stuck in the mud on the
+other bank. It was great fun!</p>
+
+<p>The first &quot;Spring beauties&quot; bloomed very early in
+that year; violets came out on the south side of rotting
+logs, and cowslips blossomed in the slough as they never
+had done before. Over on the knoll, prairie-chickens
+strutted pompously and proudly drummed. The war
+was over! Lincoln had won, and the country was safe!</p>
+
+<p>The jubilee was infectious, and the neighbors who used
+to come and visit us would tell of the men and boys
+who would soon be back. The war was over!</p>
+
+<p>My father and mother talked of it across the table, and
+the men talked of it at the store, and earth, sky and
+water called to each other in glad relief, &quot;The war is
+over!&quot;<a name="III_Page_300"></a></p>
+
+<p>But there came a morning when my father walked up
+from the railroad-station very fast, and looking very
+serious. He pushed right past me as I sat in the doorway.
+I followed him into the kitchen where my mother
+was washing dishes, and heard him say, &quot;They have
+killed Lincoln!&quot; and then he burst into tears. I had
+never before seen my father shed tears&mdash;in fact, I had
+never seen a man cry. There is something terrible in the
+grief of a man.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the church-bell across the road began to toll. It
+tolled all that day. Three men&mdash;I can give you their
+names&mdash;rang the bell all day long, tolling, slowly tolling,
+tolling until night came and the stars came out. I
+thought it a little curious that the stars should come
+out, for Lincoln was dead; but they did, for I saw them
+as I trotted by my father's side down to the post-office.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great crowd of men there. At the long
+line of peeled-hickory hitching-poles were dozens of
+saddle-horses. The farmers had come for miles to get
+details of the news.</p>
+
+<p>On the long counters that ran down each side of the
+store men were seated, swinging their feet, and listening
+intently to some one who was reading aloud from
+a newspaper. We worked our way past the men who
+were standing about, and with several of these my
+father shook hands solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning against the wall near the window was a big,
+red-faced man, whom I knew as a Copperhead. He had
+<a name="III_Page_301"></a>been drinking, evidently, for he was making boozy
+efforts to stand very straight. There were only heard
+a subdued buzz of whispers and the monotonous voice
+of the reader, as he stood there in the center, his newspaper
+in one hand and a lighted candle in the other.</p>
+
+<p>The red-faced man lurched two steps forward, and in a
+loud voice said, &quot;L&mdash;L&mdash;Lincoln is dead&mdash;an' I'm
+damn glad of it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Across the room I saw two men struggling with Little
+Ramsey. Why they should struggle with him I could
+not imagine, but ere I could think the matter out, I saw
+him shake himself loose from the strong hands that
+sought to hold him. He sprang upon the counter, and
+in one hand I saw he held a scale-weight. Just an instant
+he stood there, and then the weight shot straight at the
+red-faced man. The missile glanced on his shoulder and
+shot through the window. In another second the red-faced
+man plunged through the window, taking the
+entire sash with him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll have to pay for that window!&quot; called the
+alarmed postmaster out into the night.</p>
+
+<p>The store was quickly emptied, and on following outside
+no trace of the red man could be found. The earth
+had swallowed both the man and the five-pound scale-weight.</p>
+
+<p>After some minutes had passed in a vain search for the
+weight and the Copperhead, we went back into the
+store and the reading was continued.<a name="III_Page_302"></a></p>
+
+<p>But the interruption had relieved the tension, and for
+the first time that day men in that post-office joked and
+laughed. It even lifted from my heart the gloom that
+threatened to smother me, and I went home and told
+the story to my mother and sisters, and they too smiled,
+so closely akin are tears and smiles.<a name="III_Page_303"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>The story of Lincoln's life had been ingrained
+into me long before I ever read a book. For
+the people who knew Lincoln, and the people
+who knew the people that Lincoln knew,
+were the people I knew. I visited at their houses and
+heard them tell what Lincoln had said when he sat at
+table where I then sat. I listened long to Lincoln stories,
+and &quot;and that reminds me&quot; was often on the lips of
+those I loved. All the tales told by the faithful
+Herndon and the needlessly loyal Nicolay and Hay
+were current coin, and the rehearsal of the Lincoln-Douglas
+debate was commonplace.</p>
+
+<p>When our own poverty was mentioned, we compared
+it with the poverty that Lincoln had endured, and felt
+rich. I slept in a garret where the winter's snow used
+to sift merrily through the slab shingles, but then I was
+covered with warm buffalo-robes, and a loving mother
+tucked me in and on my forehead imprinted a goodnight
+kiss. But Lincoln at the same age had no mother
+and lived in a hut that had neither windows, doors nor
+floor, and a pile of leaves and straw in the corner was
+his bed. Our house had two rooms, but one Winter the
+Lincoln home was only a shed enclosed on three sides.</p>
+
+<p>I knew of his being a clerk in a country store at the
+age of twenty, and that up to that time he had read
+but four books; of his running a flatboat, splitting rails,
+and poring at night over a dog-eared law-book; of his
+asking to sleep in the law-office of Joshua Speed, and of<a name="III_Page_304"></a>
+Speed's giving him permission to move in. And of his
+going away after his &quot;worldly goods&quot; and coming
+back in ten minutes carrying an old pair of saddlebags,
+which he threw into a corner saying, &quot;Speed, I've
+moved!&quot;.</p>
+
+<p>I knew of his twenty years of country law-practise,
+when he was considered just about as good and no
+better than a dozen others on that circuit, and of his
+making a bare living during that time. Then I knew
+of his gradually awakening to the wrong of slavery, of
+the expansion of his mind, so that he began to incur
+the jealousy of rivals and the hatred of enemies, and
+of the prophetic feeling in that slow but sure moving
+mind that &quot;a house divided against itself can not stand.
+I believe this Government can not endure permanently
+half-slave and half-free.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I knew of the debates with Douglas and the national
+attention they attracted, and of Judge Davis' remark,
+&quot;Lincoln has more commonsense than any other man
+in America&quot;; and then, chiefly through Judge Davis'
+influence, of his being nominated for President at the
+Chicago Convention. I knew of his election, and the
+coming of the war, and the long, hard fight, when friends
+and foes beset, and none but he had the patience and
+the courage that could wait. And then I knew of his
+death, that death which then seemed a calamity&mdash;terrible
+in its awful blackness.</p>
+
+<p>But now the years have passed, and I comprehend
+<a name="III_Page_305"></a>somewhat of the paradox of things, and I know that
+this death was just what he might have prayed for. It
+was a fitting close for a life that had done a supreme
+and mighty work. His face foretold the end.</p>
+
+<p>Lincoln had no home ties. In that plain, frame house,
+without embellished yard or ornament, where I have
+been so often, there was no love that held him fast. In
+that house there was no library, but in the parlor, where
+six haircloth chairs and a slippery sofa to match stood
+guard, was a marble table on which were various giftbooks
+in blue and gilt. He only turned to that home
+when there was no other place to go. Politics, with its
+attendant travel and excitement, allowed him to forget
+the what-might-have-beens. Foolish bickering, silly
+pride, and stupid misunderstanding pushed him out
+upon the streets and he sought to lose himself among
+the people. And to the people at length he gave his
+time, his talents, his love, his life. Fate took from him
+his home that the country might call him savior. Dire
+tragedy was a fitting end; for only the souls who have
+suffered are well-loved.</p>
+
+<p>Jealousy, disparagement, calumny, have all made way,
+and North and South alike revere his name.</p>
+
+<p>The memory of his gentleness, his patience, his firm
+faith, and his great and loving heart are the priceless
+heritage of a united land. He had charity for all and
+malice toward none; he gave affection, and affection is
+his reward.</p>
+
+<p>Honor and love are his.<a name="III_Page_306"></a></p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>SO HERE ENDETH &quot;LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES
+OF AMERICAN STATESMEN,&quot; BEING VOLUME THREE OF
+THE SERIES, AS WRITTEN BY ELBERT HUBBARD:
+EDITED AND ARRANGED BY FRED BANN; BORDERS AND
+INITIALS BY ROYCROFT ARTISTS, MCMXXII<br /><br /><br /></p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF THE GREAT, VOLUME 3 (OF 14)***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 13911-h.txt or 13911-h.zip *******</p>
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@@ -0,0 +1,7253 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great,
+Volume 3 (of 14), by Elbert Hubbard, Edited by Fred Bann
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14)
+
+Author: Elbert Hubbard
+
+Release Date: October 31, 2004  [eBook #13911]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF
+THE GREAT, VOLUME 3 (OF 14)***
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+Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14)
+
+LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF AMERICAN STATESMEN
+
+by
+
+ELBERT HUBBARD
+
+Memorial Edition
+
+1916
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+THE LITTLE JOURNEYS CAMP
+GEORGE WASHINGTON
+BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
+THOMAS JEFFERSON
+SAMUEL ADAMS
+JOHN HANCOCK
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
+ALEXANDER HAMILTON
+DANIEL WEBSTER
+HENRY CLAY
+JOHN JAY
+WILLIAM H. SEWARD
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE JOURNEYS CAMP
+
+BERT HUBBARD
+
+    A little more patience, a little more charity for all, a little
+    more devotion, a little more love; with less bowing down to the
+    past, and a silent ignoring of pretended authority; a brave
+    looking forward to the future with more faith in our fellows, and
+    the race will be ripe for a great burst of light and life.
+    --Elbert Hubbard
+
+[Illustration: THE LITTLE JOURNEYS CAMP]
+
+
+It was not built with the idea of ever becoming a place in history: simply
+a boys' cabin in the woods.
+
+Fibe, Rich, Pie and Butch were the bunch that built it.
+
+Fibe was short for Fiber, and we gave him that name because his real name
+was Wood. Rich got his name from being a mudsock. Pie got his because he
+was a regular pieface. And they called me Butch for no reason at all
+except that perhaps my great-great-grandfather was a butcher.
+
+We were a fine gang of youngsters, all about thirteen years, wise in boys'
+deviltry. What we didn't know about killing cats, breaking window-panes in
+barns, stealing coal from freight-cars, and borrowing eggs from
+neighboring hencoops without consent of the hens, wasn't worth the
+knowing.
+
+There used to be another boy in the gang, Skinny. One day when we ran away
+to the swimming-hole after school, this other little fellow didn't come
+back with us.
+
+You see, there was the little-kids' swimmin'-hole and the big-kids'
+swimmin'-hole. The latter was over our heads. Well, Skinny swung out on
+the rope hanging from the cottonwood-tree on the bank of the big-kids'
+hole. Somehow he lost his head and fell in.
+
+None of us could swim, and he was too far out to reach. There was nothing
+to help him with, so we just had to watch him struggle till he had gone
+down three times. And there where we last saw him a lot of bubbles came
+up. The inquiry before the Justice of Peace with our fathers, which
+followed, put fright in our bones, and the sight of the old creek was a
+nightmare for months to come. After that we decided to keep to the hills
+and woods. This necessitated a hut. But we had no lumber with which to
+build it.
+
+However, there were three houses going up in town--and surely they could
+spare a few boards. So after dark we got out old Juliet and the
+spring-wagon and made several visits to the new houses. The result was
+that in about a week we had enough lumber to frame the cabin.
+
+Our site was about three miles from town, high up on the Adams Farm. After
+many evening trips with the old mare and much figuring we had the thing
+done, all but the windows, door, and shingles on the roof. Well, I knew
+where there was an old door and two window-sash taken off our
+chicken-house to let in the air during Summer. And one rainy night three
+bunches of shingles found their way from Perkins' lumber-yard to the foot
+of the hill on the Adams Farm.
+
+In another five days the place was finished. It was ten by sixteen, and
+had four bunks, two windows, a paneled front door, a back entrance and a
+porch--altogether a rather pretentious camp for a gang of young ruffians.
+
+But it was a labor of love, and we certainly had worked mighty hard. Our
+love was given particularly to the three house-builders and to Perkins,
+down in town.
+
+Of course we had to have a stove.
+
+This we got from Bowen's hardware-store for two dollars and forty cents.
+He wanted four dollars, and we argued for some time. The stove was a
+secondhand one and good only for scrap-iron anyway. Scrap was worth fifty
+cents a hundred, and this stove weighed only two hundred fifty, so we
+convinced the man our offer was big. At that we made him throw in a
+frying-pan.
+
+For dishes and cutlery, I believe each of our mothers' pantries
+contributed. Then a stock of grub was confiscated. The storeroom in the
+Phalansterie furnished Heinz beans, chutney, and a few others of the
+fifty-seven. John had run an ad in "The Philistine" for Heinz and taken
+good stuff in exchange.
+
+For four years after that, this old camp was kept stocked with eats all
+the time. We would hike out Friday after school and stay till Sunday
+night. At Christmas-time we would spend the week's vacation there.
+
+Many times had I tried to get my Father to go out and stay overnight. But
+he wouldn't go. One time, though, I did not come home when I had promised,
+so Father rode out on Garnett to find me. Instead of my coming back with
+him he just unsaddled and turned Garnett loose in the woods and stayed
+overnight.
+
+We gave him the big bunk with two red quilts, and he stuck it out. Next
+morning we had fried apples, ham and coffee for breakfast.
+
+What there was about it I did not understand, but John was a very frequent
+visitor after that.
+
+You know we called Father, John, because he said that wasn't his name.
+
+He used to come up in the evening and would bring the Red One or Sammy the
+Artist or Saint Jerome the Sculptor. Once he brought Michael Monahan and
+John Sayles the Universalist preacher.
+
+Mike didn't like it.
+
+The field-mice running on the rafters overhead at night chilled his blood.
+He called them terrible beasts.
+
+From then on we youngsters were gradually deprived of our freedom at camp.
+These visitors were too numerous for us and we had to seek other fields of
+adventure.
+
+John got to going out to the camp to get away from visitors at the Shop.
+He found the place quiet and comforting. The woods gave him freedom to
+think and write. It so developed that he would spend about four days a
+month there, writing the "Little Journey" for the next month. How many of
+his masterpieces were written at the Camp I can not say, but for several
+years it was his Retreat and he used it constantly.
+
+He reminded us boys several times when we kicked, that he had a good claim
+on it--for didn't he furnish the door and the window-frames?
+
+I never suspected he would recognize them.
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE WASHINGTON
+
+    He left as fair a reputation as ever belonged to a human
+    character.... Midst all the sorrowings that are mingled on this
+    melancholy occasion I venture to assert that none could have felt
+    his death with more regret than I, because no one had higher
+    opinions of his worth.... There is this consolation, though, to
+    be drawn, that while living no man could be more esteemed, and
+    since dead none is more lamented.
+    --Washington, on the Death of Tilghman
+
+[Illustration: GEORGE WASHINGTON]
+
+
+Dean Stanley has said that all the gods of ancient mythology were once
+men, and he traces for us the evolution of a man into a hero, the hero
+into a demigod, and the demigod into a divinity. By a slow process, the
+natural man is divested of all our common faults and frailties; he is
+clothed with superhuman attributes and declared a being separate and
+apart, and is lost to us in the clouds.
+
+When Greenough carved that statue of Washington that sits facing the
+Capitol, he unwittingly showed how a man may be transformed into a Jove.
+
+But the world has reached a point when to be human is no longer a cause
+for apology; we recognize that the human, in degree, comprehends the
+divine.
+
+Jove inspires fear, but to Washington we pay the tribute of affection.
+Beings hopelessly separated from us are not ours: a god we can not love, a
+man we may. We know Washington as well as it is possible to know any man.
+We know him better, far better, than the people who lived in the very
+household with him. We have his diary showing "how and where I spent my
+time"; we have his journal, his account-books (and no man was ever a more
+painstaking accountant); we have hundreds of his letters, and his own
+copies and first drafts of hundreds of others, the originals of which have
+been lost or destroyed.
+
+From these, with contemporary history, we are able to make up a close
+estimate of the man; and we find him human--splendidly human. By his books
+of accounts we find that he was often imposed upon, that he loaned
+thousands of dollars to people who had no expectation of paying; and in
+his last will, written with his own hand, we find him canceling these
+debts, and making bequests to scores of relatives; giving freedom to his
+slaves, and acknowledging his obligation to servants and various other
+obscure persons. He was a man in very sooth. He was a man in that he had
+in him the appetites, the ambitions, the desires of a man. Stewart, the
+artist, has said, "All of his features were indications of the strongest
+and most ungovernable passions, and had he been born in the forest, he
+would have been the fiercest man among savage tribes."
+
+But over the sleeping volcano of his temper he kept watch and ward, until
+his habit became one of gentleness, generosity, and shining, simple truth;
+and, behind all, we behold his unswerving purpose and steadfast strength.
+
+And so the object of this sketch will be, not to show the superhuman
+Washington, the Washington set apart, but to give a glimpse of the man
+Washington who aspired, feared, hoped, loved and bravely died.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first biographer of George Washington was the Reverend Mason L. Weems.
+If you have a copy of Weems' "Life of Washington," you had better wrap it
+in chamois and place it away for your heirs, for some time it will command
+a price. Fifty editions of Weems' book were printed, and in its day no
+other volume approached it in point of popularity. In American literature,
+Weems stood first. To Weems are we indebted for the hatchet tale, the
+story of the colt that was broken and killed in the process, and all those
+other fine romances of Washington's youth. Weems' literary style reveals
+the very acme of that vicious quality of untruth to be found in the
+old-time Sunday-school books. Weems mustered all the "Little Willie"
+stories he could find, and attached to them Washington's name, claiming to
+write for "the Betterment of the Young," as if in dealing with the young
+we should carefully conceal the truth. Possibly Washington could not tell
+a lie, but Weems was not thus handicapped.
+
+Under a mass of silly moralizing, he nearly buried the real Washington,
+giving us instead a priggish, punk youth, and a Madame Tussaud, full-dress
+general, with a wax-works manner and a wooden dignity.
+
+Happily, we have now come to a time when such authors as Mason L. Weems
+and John S.C. Abbott are no longer accepted as final authorities. We do
+not discard them, but, like Samuel Pepys, they are retained that they may
+contribute to the gaiety of nations.
+
+Various violent efforts have been made in days agone to show that
+Washington was of "a noble line"--as if the natural nobility of the man
+needed a reason--forgetful that we are all sons of God, and it doth not
+yet appear what we shall be. But Burke's "Peerage" lends no light, and the
+careful, unprejudiced, patient search of recent years finds only the blood
+of the common people.
+
+Washington himself said that in his opinion the history of his ancestors
+"was of small moment and a subject to which, I confess, I have paid little
+attention."
+
+He had a bookplate and he had also a coat of arms on his carriage-door.
+The Reverend Mr. Weems has described Washington's bookplate thus: "Argent,
+two bar gules in chief, three mullets of the second. Crest, a raven with
+wings, indorsed proper, issuing out of a ducal coronet, or."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mary Ball was the second wife of Augustine Washington. In his will the
+good man describes this marriage, evidently with a wink, as "my second
+Venture." And it is sad to remember that he did not live to know that his
+"Venture" made America his debtor. The success of the union seems pretty
+good argument in favor of widowers marrying. There were four children in
+the family, the oldest nearly full grown, when Mary Ball came to take
+charge of the household. She was twenty-seven, her husband ten years
+older. They were married March Sixth, Seventeen Hundred Thirty-one, and on
+February Twenty-second of the following year was born a man child and they
+named him George.
+
+The Washingtons were plain, hard-working people--land-poor. They lived in
+a small house that had three rooms downstairs and an attic, where the
+children slept, and bumped their heads against the rafters if they sat up
+quickly in bed.
+
+Washington got his sterling qualities from the Ball family, and not from
+the tribe of Washington. George was endowed by his mother with her own
+splendid health and with all the sturdy Spartan virtues of her mind. In
+features and in mental characteristics, he resembled her very closely.
+There were six children born to her in all, but the five have been nearly
+lost sight of in the splendid success of the firstborn.
+
+I have used the word "Spartan" advisedly. Upon her children, the mother
+of Washington lavished no soft sentimentality. A woman who cooked, weaved,
+spun, washed, made the clothes, and looked after a big family in pioneer
+times had her work cut out for her. The children of Mary Washington obeyed
+her, and when told to do a thing never stopped to ask why--and the same
+fact may be said of the father.
+
+The girls wore linsey-woolsey dresses, and the boys tow suits that
+consisted of two pieces, which in Winter were further added to by hat and
+boots. If the weather was very cold, the suits were simply duplicated--a
+boy wearing two or three pairs of trousers instead of one.
+
+The mother was the first one up in the morning, the last one to go to rest
+at night. If a youngster kicked off the covers in his sleep and had a
+coughing spell, she arose and looked after him. Were any sick, she not
+only ministered to them, but often watched away the long, dragging hours
+of the night.
+
+And I have noticed that these sturdy mothers in Israel, who so willingly
+give their lives that others may live, often find vent for overwrought
+feelings by scolding; and I, for one, cheerfully grant them the privilege.
+Washington's mother scolded and grumbled to the day of her death. She also
+sought solace by smoking a pipe. And this reminds me that a noted
+specialist in neurotics has recently said that if women would use the weed
+moderately, tired nerves would find repose and nervous prostration would
+be a luxury unknown. Not being much of a smoker myself, and knowing
+nothing about the subject, I give the item for what it is worth.
+
+All the sterling, classic virtues of industry, frugality and truth-telling
+were inculcated by this excellent mother, and her strong commonsense made
+its indelible impress upon the mind of her son.
+
+Mary Washington always regarded George's judgment with a little suspicion;
+she never came to think of him as a full-grown man; to her he was only a
+big boy. Hence, she would chide him and criticize his actions in a way
+that often made him very uncomfortable. During the Revolutionary War she
+followed his record closely: when he succeeded she only smiled, said
+something that sounded like "I told you so," and calmly filled her pipe;
+when he was repulsed she was never cast down. She foresaw that he would be
+made President, and thought "he would do as well as anybody."
+
+Once, she complained to him of her house in Fredericksburg; he wrote in
+answer, gently but plainly, that her habits of life were not such as would
+be acceptable at Mount Vernon. And to this she replied that she had never
+expected or intended to go to Mount Vernon, and moreover would not, no
+matter how much urged--a declination without an invitation that must have
+caused the son a grim smile. In her nature was a goodly trace of savage
+stoicism that took a satisfaction in concealing the joy she felt in her
+son's achievement; for that her life was all bound up in his we have good
+evidence.
+
+Washington looked after her wants and supplied her with everything she
+needed, and, as these things often came through third parties, it is
+pretty certain she did not know the source; at any rate she accepted
+everything quite as her due, and shows a half-comic ingratitude that is
+very fine.
+
+When Washington started for New York to be inaugurated President, he
+stopped to see her. She donned a new white cap and a clean apron in honor
+of the visit, remarking to a neighbor woman who dropped in that she
+supposed "these great folks expected something a little extra." It was the
+last meeting of mother and son. She was eighty-three at that time and "her
+boy" fifty-five. She died not long after.
+
+Samuel Washington, the brother two years younger than George, has been
+described as "small, sandy-whiskered, shrewd and glib." Samuel was married
+five times. Some of the wives he deserted and others deserted him, and two
+of them died, thus leaving him twice a sad, lorn widower, from which
+condition he quickly extricated himself. He was always in financial
+straits and often appealed to his brother George for loans. In Seventeen
+Hundred Eighty-one we find George Washington writing to his brother John,
+"In God's name! how has Samuel managed to get himself so enormously in
+debt?" The remark sounds a little like that of Samuel Johnson, who on
+hearing that Goldsmith was owing four hundred pounds exclaimed, "Was ever
+poet so trusted before?"
+
+Washington's ledger shows that he advanced his brother Samuel two thousand
+dollars, "to be paid back without interest." But Samuel's ship never came
+in, and in Washington's will we find the debt graciously and gracefully
+discharged.
+
+Thornton Washington, a son of Samuel, was given a place in the English
+army at George Washington's request; and two other sons of Samuel were
+sent to school at his expense. One of the boys once ran away and was
+followed by his uncle George, who carried a goodly birch with intent to
+"give him what he deserved"; but after catching the lad the uncle's heart
+melted, and he took the runaway back into favor. An entry in Washington's
+journal shows that the children of his brother Samuel cost him fully five
+thousand dollars.
+
+Harriot, one of the daughters of Samuel, lived in the household at Mount
+Vernon and evidently was a great cross, for we find Washington pleading as
+an excuse for her frivolity that "she was not brung up right, she has no
+disposition, and takes no care of her clothes, which are dabbed about in
+every corner, and the best are always in use. She costs me enough!"
+
+And this was about as near a complaint as the Father of his Country, and
+the father of all his poor relations, ever made. In his ledger we find
+this item: "By Miss Harriot Washington, gave her to buy wedding-clothes,
+$100.00." It supplied the great man joy to write that line, for it was the
+last of Harriot. He furnished a fine wedding for her, and all the
+servants had a holiday, and Harriot and her unknown lover were happy ever
+afterwards--so far as we know.
+
+From Seventeen Hundred Fifty to Seventeen Hundred Fifty-nine, Washington
+was a soldier on the frontier, leaving Mount Vernon and all his business
+in charge of his brother John. Between these two there was a genuine bond
+of affection. To George this brother was always, "Dear Jack," and when
+John married, George sends "respectful greetings to your Lady," and
+afterwards "love to the little ones from their Uncle." And in one of the
+dark hours of the Revolution, George writes from New Jersey to this
+brother: "God grant you health and happiness. Nothing in this world would
+add so to mine as to be near you." John died in Seventeen Hundred
+Eighty-seven, and the President of the United States writes in simple,
+undisguised grief of "the death of my beloved brother."
+
+John's eldest son, Bushrod, was Washington's favorite nephew. He took a
+lively interest in the boy's career, and taking him to Philadelphia placed
+him in the law-office of Judge James Wilson. He supplied Bushrod with
+funds, and wrote him many affectionate letters of advice, and several
+times made him a companion on journeys. The boy proved worthy of it all,
+and developed into a strong and manly man--quite the best of all
+Washington's kinsfolk. In later years, we find Washington asking his
+advice in legal matters and excusing himself for being such a
+"troublesome, non-paying client." In his will the "Honorable Bushrod
+Washington" is named as one of the executors, and to him Washington left
+his library and all his private papers, besides a share in the estate.
+Such confidence was a fitting good-by from the great and loving heart of a
+father to a son full worthy of the highest trust.
+
+Of Washington's relations with his brother Charles, we know but little.
+Charles was a plain, simple man who worked hard and raised a big family.
+In his will Washington remembers them all, and one of the sons of Charles
+we know was appointed to a position upon Lafayette's staff on Washington's
+request.
+
+The only one of Washington's family that resembled him closely was his
+sister Betty. The contour of her face was almost identical with his, and
+she was so proud of it that she often wore her hair in a queue and donned
+his hat and sword for the amusement of visitors. Betty married Fielding
+Lewis, and two of her sons acted as private secretaries to Washington
+while he was President. One of these sons--Lawrence Lewis--married Nellie
+Custis, the adopted daughter of Washington and granddaughter of Mrs.
+Washington, and the couple, by Washington's will, became part-owners of
+Mount Vernon. The man who can figure out the exact relationship of Nellie
+Custis' children to Washington deserves a medal.
+
+We do not know much of Washington's father: if he exerted any special
+influence on his children we do not know it. He died when George was
+eleven years old, and the boy then went to live at the "Hunting Creek
+Place" with his half-brother Lawrence, that he might attend school.
+Lawrence had served in the English navy under Admiral Vernon, and, in
+honor of his chief, changed the name of his home and called it Mount
+Vernon. Mount Vernon then consisted of twenty-five hundred acres, mostly a
+tangle of forest, with a small house and log stables. The tract had
+descended to Lawrence from his father, with provision that it should fall
+to George if Lawrence died without issue. Lawrence married, and when he
+died, aged thirty-two, he left a daughter, Mildred, who died two years
+later. Mount Vernon then passed to George Washington, aged twenty-one, but
+not without a protest from the widow of Lawrence, who evidently was paid
+not to take the matter into the courts. Washington owned Mount Vernon for
+forty-six years, just one-half of which time was given to the service of
+his country. It was the only place he ever called "home," and there he
+sleeps.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Washington was fourteen, his schooldays were over. Of his youth we
+know but little. He was not precocious, although physically he developed
+early; but there was no reason why the neighbors should keep tab on him
+and record anecdotes. They had boys of their own just as promising. He was
+tall and slender, long-armed, with large, bony hands and feet, very
+strong, a daring horseman, a good wrestler, and, living on the banks of a
+river, he became, as all healthy boys must, a good swimmer.
+
+His mission among the Indians in his twenty-first year was largely
+successful through the personal admiration he excited among the savages.
+In poise, he was equal to their best, and ever being a bit proud, even if
+not vain, he dressed for the occasion in full Indian regalia, minus only
+the war-paint. The Indians at once recognized his nobility, and named him
+"Conotancarius"--Plunderer of Villages--and suggested that he take to wife
+an Indian maiden, and remain with them as chief.
+
+When he returned home, he wrote to the Indian agent, announcing his safe
+arrival and sending greetings to the Indians. "Tell them," he says, "how
+happy it would make Conotancarius to see them, and take them by the hand."
+
+His wish was gratified, for the Indians took him at his word, and fifty of
+them came to him, saying, "Since you could not come and live with us, we
+have come to live with you." They camped on the green in front of the
+residence, and proceeded to inspect every room in the house, tested all
+the whisky they could find, appropriated eatables, and were only induced
+to depart after all the bedclothes had been dyed red, and a blanket or a
+quilt presented to each.
+
+Throughout his life Washington had a very tender spot in his heart for
+women. At sixteen, he writes with all a youth's solemnity of "a hurt of
+the heart uncurable." And from that time forward there is ever some "Faire
+Mayde" to be seen in the shadow. In fact, Washington got along with women
+much better than with men; with men he was often diffident and awkward,
+illy concealing his uneasiness behind a forced dignity; but he knew that
+women admired him, and with them he was at ease. When he made that first
+Western trip, carrying a message to the French, he turns aside to call on
+the Indian princess, Aliguippa. In his journal, he says, "presented her a
+Blanket and a Bottle of Rum, which latter was thought the much best
+Present of the 2."
+
+In his expense-account we find items like these: "Treating the ladys 2
+shillings." "Present for Polly 5 shillings." "My share for Music at the
+Dance 3 shillings." "Lost at Loo 5 shillings." In fact, like most
+Episcopalians, Washington danced and played cards. His favorite game seems
+to have been "Loo"; and he generally played for small stakes, and when
+playing with "the Ladys" usually lost, whether purposely or because
+otherwise absorbed, we know not.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-six, he made a horseback journey on military
+business to Boston, stopping a week going and on the way back at New York.
+He spent the time at the house of a former Virginian, Beverly Robinson,
+who had married Susannah Philipse, daughter of Frederick Philipse, one of
+the rich men of Manhattan. In the household was a young woman, Mary
+Philipse, sister of the hostess. She was older than Washington, educated,
+and had seen much more of polite life than he. The tall, young Virginian,
+fresh from the frontier, where he had had horses shot under him, excited
+the interest of Mary Philipse, and Washington, innocent but ardent,
+mistook this natural curiosity for a softer sentiment and proposed on the
+spot. As soon as the lady got her breath he was let down very gently.
+
+Two years afterwards Mary Philipse married Colonel Roger Morris, in the
+king's service, and cards were duly sent to Mount Vernon. But the
+whirligig of time equalizes all things, and, in Seventeen Hundred
+Seventy-six, General Washington, Commander of the Continental Army,
+occupied the mansion of Colonel Morris, the Colonel and his lady being
+fugitive Tories. In his diary, Washington records this significant item:
+"Dined at the house lately Colonel Roger Morris confiscated and the
+occupation of a common Farmer."
+
+Washington always attributed his defeat at the hands of Mary Philipse to
+being too precipitate and "not waiting until ye ladye was in ye mood." But
+two years later we find him being even more hasty and this time with
+success, which proves that all signs fail in dry weather, and some things
+are possible as well as others. He was on his way to Williamsburg to
+consult physicians and stopped at the residence of Mrs. Daniel Parke
+Custis to make a short call--was pressed to remain to tea, did so,
+proposed marriage, and was graciously accepted. We have a beautiful steel
+engraving that immortalizes this visit, showing Washington's horse
+impatiently waiting at the door.
+
+Mrs. Custis was a widow with two children. She was twenty-six, and the
+same age as Washington within three months. Her husband had died seven
+months before. In Washington's cash-account for May, Seventeen Hundred
+Fifty-eight, is an item, "one Engagement Ring L2.16.0."
+
+The happy couple were married eight months later, and we find Mrs.
+Washington explaining to a friend that her reason for the somewhat hasty
+union was that her estate was getting in a bad way and a man was needed to
+look after it. Our actions are usually right, but the reasons we give
+seldom are; but in this case no doubt "a man was needed," for the widow
+had much property, and we can not but congratulate Martha Custis on her
+choice of "a man." She owned fifteen thousand acres of land, many lots in
+the city of Williamsburg, two hundred negroes, and some money on bond; all
+the property being worth over one hundred thousand dollars--a very large
+amount for those days. Directly after the wedding, the couple moved to
+Mount Vernon, taking a good many of the slaves with them. Shortly after,
+arrangements were under way to rebuild the house, and the plans that
+finally developed into the present mansion were begun.
+
+Washington's letters and diary contain very few references to his wife,
+and none of the many visitors to Mount Vernon took pains to testify either
+to her wit or to her intellect. We know that the housekeeping at Mount
+Vernon proved too much for her ability, and that a woman was hired to
+oversee the household. And in this reference a complaint is found from the
+General that "housekeeper has done gone and left things in confusion." He
+had his troubles.
+
+Martha's education was not equal to writing a presentable letter, for we
+find that her husband wrote the first draft of all important missives that
+it was necessary for her to send, and she copied them even to his mistakes
+in spelling. Very patient was he about this, and even when he was
+President and harried constantly we find him stopping to acknowledge for
+her "an invitation to take some Tea," and at the bottom of the sheet
+adding a pious bit of finesse, thus: "The President requests me to send
+his compliments and only regrets that the pressure of affairs compels him
+to forego the Pleasure of seeing you."
+
+After Washington's death, his wife destroyed the letters he had written
+her--many hundred in number--an offense the world is not yet quite willing
+to forget, even though it has forgiven.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Although we have been told that when Washington was six years old he could
+not tell a lie, yet he afterwards partially overcame the disability. On
+one occasion he writes to a friend that the mosquitoes of New Jersey "can
+bite through the thickest boot," and though a contemporary clergyman,
+greatly flurried, explains that he meant "stocking," we insist that the
+statement shall stand as the Father of his Country expressed it.
+Washington also records without a blush, "I announced that I would leave
+at 8 and then immediately gave private Orders to go at 5, so to avoid the
+Throng." Another time when he discharged an overseer for incompetency he
+lessened the pain of parting by writing for the fellow "a Character."
+
+When he went to Boston and was named as Commander of the Army, his chief
+concern seemed to be how he would make peace with Martha. Ho! ye married
+men! do you understand the situation? He was to be away for a year, two,
+or possibly three, and his wife did not have an inkling of it. Now, he
+must break the news to her.
+
+As plainly shown by Cabot Lodge and other historians, there was much
+rivalry for the office, and it was only allotted to the South as a
+political deal after much bickering. Washington had been a passive but
+very willing candidate, and after a struggle his friends secured him the
+prize--and now what to do with Martha! Writing to her, among other things
+he says, "You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure you in the most
+solemn manner that so far from seeking the appointment I have done all in
+my power to avoid it." The man who will not fabricate a bit in order to
+keep peace with the wife of his bosom is not much of a man. But "Patsy's"
+objections were overcome, and beyond a few chidings and sundry
+complainings, she did nothing to block the great game of war.
+
+At Princeton, Washington ordered campfires to be built along the brow of a
+hill for a mile, and when the fires were well lighted, he withdrew his
+army, marched around to the other side, and surprised the enemy at
+daylight. At Brooklyn, he used masked batteries, and presented a fierce
+row of round, black spots painted on canvas that, from the city, looked
+like the mouths of cannon at which men seek the bauble reputation. It is
+said he also sent a note threatening to fire these sham cannon, on
+receiving which the enemy hastily moved beyond range. Perceiving
+afterwards that they had been imposed upon, the brave English sent word to
+"shoot and be damned." Evidently, Washington considered that all things
+are fair in love and war.
+
+Washington talked but little, and his usual air was one of melancholy that
+stopped just short of sadness. All this, with the firmness of his features
+and the dignity of his carriage, gave the impression of sternness and
+severity. And these things gave rise to the popular conception that he
+had small sense of humor; yet he surely was fond of a quiet smile.
+
+At one time, Congress insisted that a standing army of five thousand men
+was too large; Washington replied that if England would agree never to
+invade this country with more than three thousand men, he would be
+perfectly willing that our army should be reduced to four thousand.
+
+When the King of Spain, knowing he was a farmer, thoughtfully sent him a
+present of a jackass, Washington proposed naming the animal in honor of
+the donor; and in writing to friends about the present, draws invidious
+comparisons between the gift and the giver. Evidently, the joke pleased
+him, for he repeats it in different letters; thus showing how, when he sat
+down to clear his desk of correspondence, he economized energy by
+following a form. So, we now find letters that are almost identical, even
+to jokes, sent to persons in South Carolina and in Massachusetts.
+Doubtless the good man thought they would never be compared, for how could
+he foresee that an autograph-dealer in New York would eventually catalog
+them at twenty-two dollars fifty cents each, or that a very proper but
+half-affectionate missive of his to a Faire Ladye would be sold by her
+great-granddaughter for fifty dollars?
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Ninety-three there were on the Mount Vernon
+plantation three hundred seventy head of cattle, and Washington appends to
+the report a sad regret that, with all this number of horned beasts, he
+yet has to buy butter. There is also a fine, grim humor shown in the
+incident of a flag of truce coming in at New York, bearing a message from
+General Howe, addressed to "Mr. Washington." The General took the letter
+from the hand of the redcoat, glanced at the superscription, and said:
+"Why, this letter is not for me! It is directed to a planter in Virginia.
+I'll keep it and give it to him at the end of the war." Then, cramming the
+letter into his pocket, he ordered the flag of truce out of the lines and
+directed the gunners to stand by. In an hour, another letter came back
+addressed to "His Excellency, General Washington."
+
+It was not long after this a soldier brought to Washington a dog that had
+been found wearing a collar with the name of General Howe engraved on it.
+Washington returned the dog by a special messenger with a note reading,
+"General Washington sends his compliments to General Howe, and begs to
+return one dog that evidently belongs to him." In this instance, I am
+inclined to think that Washington acted in sober good faith, but was the
+victim of a practical joke on the part of one of his aides.
+
+Another remark that sounds like a joke, but perhaps was not one, was when,
+on taking command of the army at Boston, the General writes to his
+lifelong friend, Doctor Craik, asking what he can do for him, and adding a
+sentiment still in the air: "But these Massachusetts people suffer
+nothing to go by them that they can lay their hands on." In another letter
+he pays his compliments to Connecticut thus: "Their impecunious meanness
+surpasses belief." When Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Washington
+refused to humiliate him and his officers by accepting their swords. He
+treated Cornwallis as his guest, and even "gave a dinner in his honor." At
+this dinner, Rochambeau being asked for a toast gave "The United States."
+Washington proposed "The King of France." Cornwallis merely gave "The
+King," and Washington, putting the toast, expressed it as Cornwallis
+intended, "The King of England," and added a sentiment of his own that
+made even Cornwallis laugh--"May he stay there!" Washington's treatment of
+Cornwallis made him a lifelong friend. Many years after, when Cornwallis
+was Governor-General of India, he sent a message to his old antagonist,
+wishing him "prosperity and enjoyment," and adding, "As for myself, I am
+yet in troubled waters."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Once in a century, possibly, a being is born who possesses a transcendent
+insight, and him we call a "genius." Shakespeare, for instance, to whom
+all knowledge lay open; Joan of Arc; the artist Turner; Swedenborg, the
+mystic--these are the men who know a royal road to geometry; but we may
+safely leave them out of account when we deal with the builders of a
+State, for among statesmen there are no geniuses.
+
+Nobody knows just what a genius is or what he may do next; he boils at an
+unknown temperature, and often explodes at a touch. He is uncertain and
+therefore unsafe. His best results are conjured forth, but no man has yet
+conjured forth a Nation--it is all slow, patient, painstaking work along
+mathematical lines. Washington was a mathematician and therefore not a
+genius. We call him a great man, but his greatness was of that sort in
+which we all can share; his virtues were of a kind that, in degree, we too
+may possess. Any man who succeeds in a legitimate business works with the
+same tools that Washington used. Washington was human. We know the man; we
+understand him; we comprehend how he succeeded, for with him there were no
+tricks, no legerdemain, no secrets. He is very near to us.
+
+Washington is indeed first in the hearts of his countrymen. Washington has
+no detractors. There may come a time when another will take first place in
+the affections of the people, but that time is not yet ripe. Lincoln
+stood between men who now live and the prizes they coveted; thousands
+still tread the earth whom he benefited, and neither class can forgive,
+for they are of clay. But all those who lived when Washington lived are
+gone; not one survives; even the last body-servant, who confused memory
+with hearsay, has departed babbling to his rest.
+
+We know all of Washington we will ever know; there are no more documents
+to present, no partisan witnesses to examine, no prejudices to remove. His
+purity of purpose stands unimpeached; his steadfast earnestness and
+sterling honesty are our priceless examples.
+
+We love the man.
+
+We call him Father.
+
+
+
+
+BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
+
+    I will speak ill of no man, not even in matter of truth; but
+    rather excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon
+    proper occasion speak all the good I know of everybody.
+    --_Franklin's Journal_
+
+[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN]
+
+
+Benjamin Franklin was twelve years old. He was large and strong and fat
+and good-natured, and had a full-moon face and red cheeks that made him
+look like a country bumpkin. He was born in Boston within twenty yards of
+the church called "Old South," but the Franklins now lived at the corner
+of Congress and Hanover Streets, where to this day there swings in the
+breeze a gilded ball, and on it the legend, "Josiah Franklin,
+Soap-Boiler."
+
+Benjamin was the fifteenth child in the family; and several having grown
+to maturity and flown, there were thirteen at the table when little Ben
+first sat in the high chair. But the Franklins were not superstitious, and
+if little Ben ever prayed that another would be born, just for luck, we
+know nothing of it. His mother loved him very much and indulged him in
+many ways, for he was always her baby boy, but the father thought that
+because he was good-natured he was also lazy and should be disciplined.
+
+Once upon a time the father was packing a barrel of beef in the cellar,
+and Ben was helping him, and as the father always said grace at table, the
+boy suggested he ask a blessing, once for all, on the barrel of beef and
+thus economize breath. But economics along that line did not appeal to
+Josiah Franklin, for this was early in Seventeen Hundred Eighteen, and
+Josiah was a Presbyterian and lived in Boston.
+
+The boy was not religious, for he never "went forward," and only went to
+church because he had to, and read "Plutarch's Lives" with much more
+relish than he did "Saints' Rest." But he had great curiosity and asked
+questions until his mother would say, "Goodness gracious, go and play!"
+
+And as the boy wasn't very religious or very fond of work, his father and
+mother decided that there were only two careers open for him: the mother
+proposed that he be made a preacher, but his father said, send him to sea.
+
+To go to sea under a good strict captain would discipline him, and to send
+him off and put him under the care of the Reverend Doctor Thirdly would
+answer the same purpose--which course should be pursued? But Pallas
+Athene, who was to watch over this lad's destinies all through life,
+preserved him from either.
+
+His parents' aspirations extended even to his becoming captain of a
+schooner or pastor of the First Church at Roxbury. And no doubt he could
+have sailed the schooner around the globe in safety, or filled the pulpit
+with a degree of power that would have caused consternation to reign in
+the heart of every other preacher in town; but Fate saved him that he
+might take the Ship of State, when she threatened to strand on the rocks
+of adversity, and pilot her into peaceful waters, and to preach such
+sermons to America that their eloquence still moves us to better things.
+
+Parents think that what they say about their children goes, and once in an
+awfully long time it does, but the men who become great and learned
+usually do so in spite of their parents--which remark was first made by
+Martin Luther, but need not be discredited on that account.
+
+Ben's oldest brother was James. Now, James was nearly forty; he was tall
+and slender, stooped a little, and had sandy whiskers, and a nervous
+cough, and positive ideas on many subjects--one of which was that he was a
+printer. His apprentice, or "devil," had left him, because the devil did
+not like to be cuffed whenever the compositor shuffled his fonts. James
+needed another apprentice, and proposed to take his younger brother and
+make a man of him if the old folks were willing. The old folks were
+willing and Ben was duly bound by law to his brother, agreeing to serve
+him faithfully, as Jacob served Laban, for seven years and two years more.
+
+Science has explained many things, but it has not yet told why it
+sometimes happens that when seventeen eggs are hatched, the brood will
+consist of sixteen barnyard fowls and one eagle.
+
+James Franklin was a man of small capacity, whimsical, jealous and
+arbitrary. But if he cuffed his apprentice Benjamin when the compositor
+blundered, and when he didn't, it was his legal right; and the master who
+did not occasionally kick his apprentices was considered derelict to duty.
+The boy ran errands, cleaned the presses, swept the shop, tied up bundles,
+did the tasks that no one else would do; and incidentally "learned the
+case." Then he set type, and after a while ran a press. And in those days
+a printer ranked considerably above a common mechanic. A man who was a
+printer was a literary man, as were the master printers of London and
+Venice. A printer was a man of taste. All editors were printers, and
+usually composed the matter as they set it up in type. Thus we now have
+the expressions: a "composing-room," a "composing-stick," etc. People once
+addressed "Mr. Printer," not "Mr. Editor," and when they met "Mr. Printer"
+on the street removed their hats--but not in Philadelphia.
+
+Young Franklin felt a proper degree of pride in his work, if not vanity.
+In fact, he himself has said that vanity is a good thing, and whenever he
+saw it come flaunting down the street, always made way, knowing that there
+was virtue somewhere back of it--out of sight perhaps, but still there.
+James, being a brother, had no confidence in Ben's intellect, so when Ben
+wrote short articles on this and that, he tucked them under the door so
+that James would find them in the morning. James showed these articles to
+his friends, and they all voted them very fine, and concluded they must
+have been written by Doctor So-and-So, Ph.D., who, like Lord Bacon, was a
+very modest man and did not care to see his name in print.
+
+Yet, by and by, it came out who it was that wrote the anonymous "hot
+stuff," and then James did not think it was quite so good as he at first
+thought, and moreover, declared he knew whose it was all the time. Ben was
+eighteen and had read Montaigne, and Collins, and Shaftesbury, and Hume.
+When he wrote he expressed thoughts that then were considered very
+dreadful, but that can now be heard proclaimed even in good orthodox
+churches. But Ben had wit and to spare, and he leveled it at government
+officials and preachers, and these gentlemen did not relish the
+jokes--people seldom relish jokes at their own expense--and they sought to
+suppress the newspaper that the Franklin brothers published.
+
+The blame for all the trouble James heaped upon Benjamin, and all the
+credit for success he took to himself. James declared that Ben had the big
+head--and he probably was right; but he forgot that the big head, like
+mumps and measles and everything else in life, is self-limiting and good
+in its way. So, to teach Ben his proper place, James reminded him that he
+was only an apprentice, with three years yet to serve, and that he should
+be seen seldom and not heard all the time, and that if he ran away he
+would send a constable after him and fetch him back.
+
+Ben evidently had a mind open to suggestive influences, for the remark
+about running away prompted him to do so. He sold some of his books and
+got himself secreted on board a ship about to sail for New York.
+
+Arriving at New York, in three days he found the broad-brimmed Dutch had
+small use for printers and no special admiration for the art preservative;
+and he started for Philadelphia.
+
+Every one knows how he landed in a small boat at the foot of Market Street
+with only a few coppers in his pocket, and made his way to a bakeshop and
+asked for a threepenny loaf of bread, and being told they had no
+threepenny loaves, then asked for threepenny's worth of any kind of bread,
+and was given three loaves. Where is the man who in a strange land has not
+suffered rather than reveal his ignorance before a shopkeeper? When I was
+first in England and could not compute readily in shillings and pence, I
+would toss out a gold piece when I made a purchase and assume a 'igh and
+'aughty mien. And that Philadelphia baker probably died in blissful
+ignorance of the fact that the youth who was to be America's pride bought
+from him three loaves of bread when he wanted only one.
+
+The runaway Ben had a downy beard all over his face, and as he took his
+three loaves and walked up Market Street, with a loaf under each arm,
+munching on the third, he was smiled upon in merry mirth by the buxom
+Deborah Read, as she stood in the doorway of her father's house. Yet
+Franklin got even with her, for some months after, he went back that way
+and courted her, grew to love him, and they "exchanged promises," he says.
+After some months of work and love-making, Franklin sailed away to England
+on a wild-goose chase. He promised to return soon and make Deborah his
+wife. But he wrote only one solitary letter to the broken-hearted girl and
+did not come back for nearly two years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Time is the great avenger as well as educator; only the education is
+usually deferred until it no longer avails in this incarnation, and is
+valuable only for advice--and nobody wants advice. Deathbed repentances
+may be legal-tender for salvation in another world, but for this they are
+below par, and regeneration that is postponed until the man has no further
+capacity to sin is little better. For sin is only perverted power, and the
+man without capacity to sin neither has ability to do good--isn't that so?
+His soul is a Dead Sea that supports neither ameba nor fish, neither
+noxious bacilli nor useful life. Happy is the man who conserves his
+God-given power until wisdom and not passion shall direct it. So, the
+younger in life a man makes the resolve to turn and live, the better for
+that man and the better for the world.
+
+Once upon a time Carlyle took Milburn, the blind preacher, out on to
+Chelsea embankment and showed the sightless man where Franklin plunged
+into the Thames and swam to Blackfriars Bridge. "He might have stayed
+here," said Thomas Carlyle, "and become a swimming-teacher, but God had
+other work for him!" Franklin had many opportunities to stop and become a
+victim of arrested development, but he never embraced the occasion. He
+could have stayed in Boston and been a humdrum preacher, or a thrifty
+sea-captain, or an ordinary printer; or he could have remained in London,
+and been, like his friend Ralph, a clever writer of doggerel, and a
+supporter of the political party that would pay the most.
+
+Benjamin Franklin was twenty years old when he returned from England. The
+ship was beaten back by headwinds and blown out of her course by
+blizzards, and becalmed at times, so it took eighty-two days to make the
+voyage. A worthy old clergyman tells me this was so ordained and ordered
+that Benjamin might have time to meditate on the follies of youth and
+shape his course for the future, and I do not argue the case, for I am
+quite willing to admit that my friend, the clergyman, has the facts.
+
+Yes, we must be "converted," "born again," "regenerated," or whatever you
+may be pleased to call it. Sometimes--very often--it is love that reforms
+a man, sometimes sickness, sometimes sore bereavement.
+
+Doctor Talmage says that with Saint Paul it was a sunstroke, and this may
+be so, for surely Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus to persecute
+Christians was not in love. Love forgives to seventy times seven and
+persecutes nobody.
+
+We do not know just what it was that turned Franklin; he had tried
+folly--we know that--and he just seems to have anticipated Browning and
+concluded:
+
+    "It's wiser being good than bad;
+    It's safer being meek than fierce;
+    It's better being sane than mad."
+
+On this voyage the young printer was thrust down into the depths and made
+to wrestle with the powers of darkness; and in the remorse of soul that
+came over him he made a liturgy to be repeated night and morning, and at
+midday. There were many items in this ritual--all of which were corrected
+and amended from time to time in after-years. Here are a few paragraphs
+that represent the longings and trend of the lad's heart. His prayer was:
+
+"That I may have tenderness for the meek; that I may be kind to my
+neighbors, good-natured to my companions and hospitable to strangers. Help
+me, O God!
+
+"That I may be averse to craft and overreaching, abhor extortion and every
+kind of weakness and wickedness. Help me, O God!
+
+"That I may have constant regard to honor and probity; that I may possess
+an innocent and good conscience, and at length become truly virtuous and
+magnanimous. Help me, O God!
+
+"That I may refrain from calumny and detraction; that I may abhor deceit,
+and avoid lying, envy and fraud, flattery, hatred, malice and ingratitude.
+Help me, O God!".
+
+Then, in addition, he formed rules of conduct and wrote them out and
+committed them to memory. The maxims he adopted are old as thought, yet
+can never become antiquated, for in morals there is nothing either new or
+old, neither can there be.
+
+On that return voyage from England, he inwardly vowed that his first act
+on getting ashore would be to find Deborah Read and make peace with her
+and his conscience. And true to his vow, he found her, but she was the
+wife of another. Her mother believed that Franklin had run away simply to
+get rid of her, and the poor girl, dazed and forlorn, bereft of will, had
+been induced to marry a man by the name of Rogers, who was a potter and
+also a potterer, but who Franklin says was "a very good potter."
+
+After some months, Deborah left the potter, because she did not like to be
+reproved with a strap, and went home to her mother.
+
+Franklin was now well in the way of prosperity, aged twenty-four, with a
+little printing business, plans plus, and ambitions to spare. He had had
+his little fling in life, and had done various things of which he was
+ashamed; and the foolish things that Deborah had done were no worse than
+those of which he had been guilty. So he called on her, and they talked it
+over and made honest confessions that are good for the soul. The potter
+disappeared--no one knew where--some said he was dead, but Benjamin and
+Deborah did not wear mourning. They took rumor's word for it, and thanked
+God, and went to a church and were married.
+
+Deborah brought to the firm a very small dowry; and Benjamin contributed a
+bright baby boy, aged two years, captured no one knows just where. This
+boy was William Franklin, who grew up into a very excellent man, and the
+worst that can be said of him is that he became Governor of New Jersey. He
+loved and respected his father, and called Deborah mother, and loved her
+very much. And she was worthy of all love, and ever treated him with
+tenderness and gentlest considerate care. Possibly a blot on the
+'scutcheon may, in the working of God's providence, not always be a dire
+misfortune, for it sometimes has the effect of binding broken hearts as
+nothing else can, as a cicatrice toughens the fiber.
+
+Deborah had not much education, but she had good, sturdy commonsense,
+which is better if you are forced to make choice. She set herself to help
+her husband in every way possible, and so far as I know, never sighed for
+one of those things you call "a career." She even worked in the
+printing-office, folding, stitching, and doing up bundles.
+
+Long years afterward, when Franklin was Ambassador of the American
+Colonies in France, he told with pride that the clothes he wore were spun,
+woven, cut out, and made into garments--all by his wife's own hands.
+Franklin's love for Deborah was very steadfast. Together they became rich
+and respected, won world-wide fame, and honors came that way such as no
+American before or since has ever received.
+
+And when I say, "God bless all good women who help men do their work," I
+simply repeat the words once used by Benjamin Franklin when he had Deborah
+in mind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Franklin was forty-two, he had accumulated a fortune of seventy-five
+thousand dollars. It gave him an income of about four thousand dollars a
+year, which he said was all he wanted; so he sold out his business,
+intending to devote his entire energies to the study of science and
+languages. He had lived just one-half his days; and had he then passed
+out, his life could have been summed up as one of the most useful that
+ever has been lived. He had founded and been the life of the Junto
+Club--the most sensible and beneficent club of which I ever heard.
+
+The series of questions asked at every meeting of the Junto, so mirror the
+life and habit of thought of Franklin that we had better glance at a few
+of them:
+
+1. Have you read over these queries this morning, in order to consider
+what you might have to offer the Junto, touching any one of them?
+
+2. Have you met with anything in the author you last read, remarkable, or
+suitable to be communicated to the Junto; particularly in history,
+morality, poetry, physics, travels, mechanical arts, or other parts of
+knowledge?
+
+3. Do you know of a fellow-citizen, who has lately done a worthy action,
+deserving praise and imitation; or who has lately committed an error,
+proper for us to be warned against and avoid?
+
+4. What unhappy effects of intemperance have you lately observed or
+heard; of imprudence, of passion, or of any other vice or folly?
+
+5. What happy effects of temperance, of prudence, of moderation, or of any
+other virtue?
+
+6. Do you think of anything at present in which the members of the Junto
+may be serviceable to mankind, to their country, to their friends, or to
+themselves?
+
+7. Hath any deserving stranger arrived in town since last meeting that you
+have heard of? And what have you heard or observed of his character or
+merits? And whether, think you, it lies in the power of the Junto to
+oblige him, or encourage him as he deserves?
+
+8. Do you know of any deserving young beginner, lately set up, whom it
+lies in the power of the Junto in any way to encourage?
+
+9. Have you lately observed any defect in the laws of your country, of
+which it would be proper to move the legislature for an amendment? Or do
+you know of any beneficial law that is wanting?
+
+10. Have you lately observed any encroachment on the just liberties of the
+people?
+
+11. In what manner can the Junto, or any of its members, assist you in any
+of your honorable designs?
+
+12. Have you any weighty affair on hand in which you think the advice of
+the Junto may be of service?
+
+13. What benefits have you lately received from any man not present?
+
+14. Is there any difficulty in matters of opinion, of justice and
+injustice, which you would gladly have discussed at this time?
+
+The Junto led to the establishment, by Franklin, of the Philadelphia
+Public Library, which became the parent of all public libraries in
+America. He also organized and equipped a fire-company; paved and lighted
+the streets of Philadelphia; established a high school and an academy for
+the study of English branches; founded the Philadelphia Public Hospital;
+invented the toggle-joint printing-press, the Franklin Stove, and various
+other useful mechanical devices.
+
+After his retirement from business, Franklin enjoyed seven years of what
+he called leisure, but they were years of study and application; years of
+happiness and sweet content, but years of aspiration and an earnest
+looking into the future. His experiments with kite and key had made his
+name known in all the scientific circles of Europe, and his suggestive
+writings on the subject of electricity had caused Goethe to lay down his
+pen and go to rubbing amber for the edification of all Weimar.
+
+Franklin was in correspondence with the greatest minds of Europe, and what
+his "Poor Richard Almanac" had done for the plain people of America, his
+pamphlets were now doing for the philosophers of the Old World.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-four, he wrote a treatise showing the Colonies
+that they must be united, and this was the first public word that was to
+grow and crystallize and become the United States of America. Before
+that, the Colonies were simply single, independent, jealous and bickering
+overgrown clans. Franklin showed for the first time that they must unite
+in mutual aims.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-seven, matters were getting a little strained
+between the Province of Pennsylvania and England. "The lawmakers of
+England do not understand us--some one should go there as an authorized
+agent to plead our cause," and Franklin was at once chosen as the man of
+strongest personality and soundest sense. So Franklin went to England and
+remained there for five years as agent for the Colonies.
+
+He then returned home, but after two years the Stamp Act had stirred up
+the public temper to a degree that made revolution imminent, and Franklin
+again went to England to plead for justice. The record of the ten years he
+now spent in London is told by Bancroft in a hundred pages. Bancroft is
+very good, and! have no desire to rival him, so suffice it to say that
+Franklin did all that any man could have done to avert the coming War of
+the Revolution. Burke has said that when he appeared before Parliament to
+be examined as to the condition of things in America, it was like a lot of
+schoolboys interrogating the master.
+
+With the voice and tongue of a prophet, Franklin foretold the English
+people what the outcome of their treatment of America would be. Pitt and a
+few others knew the greatness of Franklin, and saw that he was right, but
+the rest smiled in derision.
+
+He sailed for home in Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five, and urged the
+Continental Congress to the Declaration of Independence, of which he
+became a signer. Then the war came, and had not Franklin gone to Paris and
+made an ally of France, and borrowed money, the Continental Army could not
+have been maintained in the field.
+
+He remained in France for nine years, and was the pride and pet of the
+people. His sound sense, his good humor, his distinguished personality,
+gave him the freedom of society everywhere. He had the ability to adapt
+himself to conditions, and was everywhere at home.
+
+Once, he attended a memorable banquet in Paris shortly after the close of
+the Revolutionary War. Among the speakers was the English Ambassador, who
+responded to the toast, "Great Britain." The Ambassador dwelt at length on
+England's greatness, and likened her to the sun that sheds its beneficent
+rays on all. The next toast was "America," and Franklin was called on to
+respond. He began very modestly by saying: "The Republic is too young to
+be spoken of in terms of praise; her career is yet to come, and so,
+instead of America, I will name you a man, George Washington--the Joshua
+who successfully commanded the sun to stand still." The Frenchmen at the
+board forgot the courtesy due their English guest, and laughed needlessly
+loud.
+
+Franklin was regarded in Paris as the man who had both planned the War of
+the Revolution, and fought it. They said, "He despoiled the thunderbolt of
+its danger and snatched sovereignty out of the hand of King George of
+England." No doubt that his ovation was largely owing to the fact that he
+was supposed to have plucked whole handfuls of feathers from England's
+glory, and surely they were pretty nearly right.
+
+In point of all-round development, Franklin must stand as the foremost
+American. The one intent of his mind was to purify his own spirit, to
+develop his intellect on every side, and make his body the servant of his
+soul. His passion was to acquire knowledge, and the desire of his heart
+was to communicate it.
+
+The writings of Franklin--simple, clear, concise, direct, impartial,
+brimful of commonsense--form a model which may be studied by every one
+with pleasure and profit. They should constitute a part of the curriculum
+of every college and high school that aspires to cultivate in its pupils a
+pure style and correct literary taste.
+
+We know of no man who ever lived a fuller life, a happier life, a life
+more useful to other men, than Benjamin Franklin. For forty-two years he
+gave the constant efforts of his life to his country, and during all that
+time no taint of a selfish action can be laid to his charge. Almost his
+last public act was to petition Congress to pass an act for the abolition
+of slavery. He died in Seventeen Hundred Ninety, and as you walk up Arch
+Street, Philadelphia, only a few squares from the spot where stood his
+printing-shop, you can see the place where he sleeps.
+
+The following epitaph, written by himself, not, however, appear on the
+simple monument that marks his grave:
+
+                      The Body
+                         of
+             Benjamin Franklin, Printer
+          (Like the cover of an old book,
+               Its contents torn out,
+    And stripped of its lettering and gilding,)
+             Lies here food for worms.
+       Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
+      For it will (as he believes) appear once
+                        more
+                      In a new
+             And more beautiful Edition
+               Corrected and Amended
+                         By
+                    The Author.
+
+
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+    If I could not go to Heaven but with a Party, I would not go
+    there at all.
+    --Jefferson, in a Letter to Madison
+
+[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON]
+
+
+William and Mary College was founded in Sixteen Hundred Ninety-two by the
+persons whose names it bears. The founders bestowed on it an endowment
+that would have been generous had there not been attached to it sundry
+strings in way of conditions.
+
+The intent was to make Indians Episcopalians, and white students
+clergymen; and the assumption being that between the whites and the
+aborigines there was little difference, the curriculum was an ecclesiastic
+medley.
+
+All the teachers were appointed by the Bishop of London, and the places
+were usually given to clergymen who were not needed in England.
+
+To this college, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty, came Thomas Jefferson, a
+tall, red-haired youth, aged seventeen. He had a sharp nose and a sharp
+chin; and a youth having these has a sharp intellect--mark it well.
+
+This boy had not been "sent" to college. He came of his own accord from
+his home at Shadwell, five days' horseback journey through the woods. His
+father was dead, and his mother, a rare gentle soul, was an invalid.
+
+Death is not a calamity "per se," nor is physical weakness necessarily a
+curse, for out of these seeming unkind conditions Nature often distils her
+finest products. The dying injunction of a father may impress itself upon
+a son as no example of right living ever can, and the physical disability
+of a mother may be the means that work for excellence and strength. The
+last-expressed wish of Peter Jefferson was that his son should be well
+educated, and attain to a degree of useful manliness that the father had
+never reached. And into the keeping of this fourteen-year-old youth the
+dying man, with the last flicker of his intellect, gave the mother,
+sisters and baby brother.
+
+We often hear of persons who became aged in a single night, their hair
+turning from dark to white; but I have seen death thrust responsibility
+upon a lad and make of him a man between the rising of the sun and its
+setting. When we talk of "right environment" and the "proper conditions"
+that should surround growing youth, we fan the air with words--there is no
+such thing as a universal right environment.
+
+An appreciative chapter might here be inserted concerning those beings who
+move about only in rolling chairs, who never see the winter landscape but
+through windows, and who exert their gentle sway from an invalid's couch,
+to which the entire household or neighborhood come to confession or to
+counsel. And yet I have small sympathy for the people who professionally
+enjoy poor health, and no man more than I reverences the Greek passion for
+physical perfection. But a close study of Jefferson's early life reveals
+the truth that the death of his father and the physical weakness of his
+mother and sisters were factors that developed in him a gentle sense of
+chivalry, a silken strength of will, and a habit of independent thought
+and action that served him in good stead throughout a long life.
+
+Williamsburg was then the capital of Virginia. It contained only about a
+thousand inhabitants, but when the Legislature was in session it was very
+gay.
+
+At one end of a wide avenue was the Capitol, and at the other the
+Governor's "palace"; and when the city of Washington was laid out,
+Williamsburg served as a model. On Saturdays, there were horse-races on
+the "Avenue"; everybody gambled; cockfights and dogfights were regarded as
+manly diversions; there was much carousing at taverns; and often at
+private houses there were all-night dances where the rising sun found
+everybody but the servants plain drunk.
+
+At the college, both teachers and scholars were obliged to subscribe to
+the Thirty-nine Articles and to recite the Catechism. The atmosphere was
+charged with theology.
+
+Young Jefferson had never before seen a village of even a dozen houses,
+and he looked upon this as a type of all cities. He thought about it,
+talked about it, wrote about it, and we now know that at this time his
+ideas concerning city versus country crystallized.
+
+Fifty years after, when he had come to know London and Paris, and had seen
+the chief cities of Christendom, he repeated the words he had written in
+youth, "The hope of a nation lies in its tillers of the soil!"
+
+On his mother's side he was related to the "first families," but
+aristocracy and caste had no fascination for him, and he then began
+forming those ideas of utility, simplicity and equality that time only
+strengthened.
+
+His tutors and professors served chiefly as "horrible examples," with the
+shining exception of Doctor Small. The friendship that ripened between
+this man and young Jefferson is an ideal example of what can be done
+through the personal touch. Men are great only as they excel in sympathy;
+and the difference between sympathy and imagination has not yet been shown
+us.
+
+Doctor Small encouraged the young farmer from the hills to think and to
+express himself. He did not endeavor to set him straight or explain
+everything for him, or correct all his vagaries, or demand that he should
+memorize rules. He gave his affectionate sympathy to the boy who, with a
+sort of feminine tenderness, clung to the only person who understood him.
+
+To Doctor Small, pedigree and history unknown, let us give the credit of
+being first in the list of friends that gave bent to the mind of
+Jefferson. John Burke, in his "History of Virginia," refers to Professor
+Small thus: "He was not any too orthodox in his opinions." And here we
+catch a glimpse of a formative influence in the life of Jefferson that
+caused him to turn from the letter of the law and cleave to the spirit
+that maketh alive. After school-hours the tutor and the student walked and
+talked, and on Saturdays and Sundays went on excursions through the woods;
+and to the youth there was given an impulse for a scientific knowledge of
+birds and flowers and the host of life that thronged the forest. And when
+the pair had strayed so far beyond the town that darkness gathered and the
+stars came out, they conversed of the wonders of the sky.
+
+The true scientist has no passion for killing things. He says with
+Thoreau, "To shoot a bird is to lose it." Professor Small had the gentle
+instinct that respects life, and he refused to take that which he could
+not give. To his youthful companion he imparted, in a degree, the secret
+of enjoying things without the passion for possession and the lust of
+ownership.
+
+There is a myth abroad that college towns are intellectual centers; but
+the number of people in a college town (or any other) who really think, is
+very few.
+
+Williamsburg was gay, and, this much said, it is needless to add it was
+not intellectual. But Professor Small was a thinker, and so was Governor
+Fauquier; and these two were firm friends, although very unlike in many
+ways. And to "the palace" of the courtly Fauquier, Small took his young
+friend Jefferson. Fauquier was often a master of the revels, but after his
+seasons of dissipation he turned to Small for absolution and comfort. At
+these times he seemed to Jefferson a paragon of excellence. To the grace
+of the French he added the earnestness of the English. He quoted Pope, and
+talked of Swift, Addison and Thomson. Fauquier and Jefferson became
+friends, although more than a score of years and a world of experience
+separated them. Jefferson caught a little of Fauquier's grace, love of
+books and delight in architecture. But Fauquier helped him most by
+gambling away all his ready money and getting drunk and smoking strong
+pipes with his feet on the table. And Jefferson then vowed he would never
+handle a card, nor use tobacco, nor drink intoxicating liquors. And in
+conversation with Small, he anticipated Buckle by saying, "To gain
+leisure, wealth must first be secured; but once leisure is gained, more
+people use it in the pursuit of pleasure than employ it in acquiring
+knowledge."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Had Jefferson lived in a great city he would have been an architect. His
+practical nature, his mastery of mathematics, his love of proportion, and
+his passion for music are the basic elements that make a Christopher Wren.
+But Virginia, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty-five, offered no temptation to
+ambitions along that line; log houses with a goodly "crack" were quite
+good enough, and if the domicile proved too small the plan of the first
+was simply duplicated. Yet a career of some kind young Jefferson knew
+awaited him.
+
+About this time the rollicking Patrick Henry came along. Patrick played
+the violin, and so did Thomas. These two young men had first met on a
+musical basis. Some otherwise sensible people hold that musicians are
+shallow and impractical; and I know one man who declares that truth and
+honesty and uprightness never dwelt in a professional musician's heart;
+and further, that the tribe is totally incapable of comprehending the
+difference between "meum" and "tuum." But then this same man claims that
+actors are rascals who have lost their own characters in the business of
+playing they are somebody else. And yet I'll explain for the benefit of
+the captious that, although Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry both
+fiddled, they never did and never would fiddle while Rome burned. Music
+was with them a pastime, not a profession.
+
+As soon as Patrick Henry arrived at Williamsburg, he sought out his old
+friend Thomas Jefferson, because he liked him--and to save tavern bill.
+And Patrick announced that he had come to Williamsburg to be admitted to
+the bar.
+
+"How long have you studied law?" asked Jefferson.
+
+"Oh, for six weeks last Tuesday," was the answer.
+
+Tradition has it that Jefferson advised Patrick to go home and study at
+least a fortnight more before making his application. But Patrick declared
+that the way to learn law is to practise it, and he surely was right. Most
+young lawyers are really never aware of how little law they know until
+they begin to practise.
+
+But Patrick Henry was duly admitted, although George Wythe protested. Then
+Patrick went back home to tend bar (the other kind) for Laban, his
+father-in-law, for full four years. He studied hard and practised a little
+betimes--and his is the only instance that history records of a barkeeper
+acquiring wisdom while following his calling; but for the encouragement of
+budding youth I write it down.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No doubt it was the example of Patrick Henry that caused Jefferson to
+adopt his profession. But it was the literary side of law that first
+attracted him--not the practise of it. As a speaker he was singularly
+deficient, a slight physical malformation of the throat giving him a very
+poor and uncertain voice. But he studied law, and after all it does not
+make much difference what a man studies--all knowledge is related, and the
+man who studies anything if he keeps at it will become learned.
+
+So Jefferson studied in the office of George Wythe, and absorbed all that
+Fauquier had to offer, and grew wise in the companionship of Doctor Small.
+From a red-headed, lean, lank, awkward mountaineer, he developed into a
+gracious and graceful young man who has been described as "auburn-haired."
+And the evolution from being red-headed to having red hair, and from that
+to being auburn-haired, proves he was the genuine article. Still he was
+hot handsome--that word can not be used to describe him until he was
+sixty--for he was freckled, one shoulder wets higher than the other, and
+his legs were so thin that they could not do justice to small-clothes.
+
+Yet it will not do to assume that thin men are weak, any more than to take
+it for granted that fat men are strong. Jefferson was as muscular as a
+panther and could walk or ride or run six days and nights together. He
+could lift from the floor a thousand pounds.
+
+When twenty-four, he hung out his lawyer's sign under that of George Wythe
+at Williamsburg. And clients came that way with retainers, and rich
+planters sent him business, and wealthy widows advised with him--and still
+he could not make a speech without stuttering. Many men can harangue a
+jury, and every village has its orator; but where is the wise and silent
+man who will advise you in a way that will keep you out of difficulty,
+protect your threatened interests, and conduct the affairs you may leave
+in his hands so as to return your ten talents with other talents added!
+And I hazard the statement, without heat or prejudice, that if the
+experiment should be made with a thousand lawyers in any one of our larger
+cities, four-fifths of them would be found so deficient, either mentally,
+morally or both, that if ten talents were placed in their hands, they
+would not at the close of a year be able to account for the principal, to
+say nothing of the interest. And the bar of today is made up of a better
+class than it was in Jefferson's time, even if it has not the intellectual
+fiber that it had forty years ago.
+
+But at the early age of twenty-five, Jefferson was a wise and skilful man
+in the world's affairs (and a man who is wise is also honest), and men of
+this stamp do not remain hidden in obscurity. The world needs just such
+individuals and needs them badly. Jefferson had the quiet, methodical
+industry that works without undue expenditure of nervous force; that
+intuitive talent which enables the possessor to read a whole page at a
+glance and drop at once upon the vital point; and then he had the ability
+to get his whole case on paper, marshaling his facts in a brief, pointed
+way that served to convince better than eloquence. These are the
+characteristics that make for success in practise before our Courts of
+Appeal; and Jefferson's success shows that they serve better than bluster,
+even with a backwoods bench composed of fox-hunting farmers.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight, when Jefferson was twenty-five, he went
+down to Shadwell and ran for member of the Virginia Legislature. It was
+the proper thing to do, for he was the richest man in the county, being
+heir to his father's forty thousand acres, and it was expected that he
+would represent his district. He called on every voter in the parish,
+shook hands with everybody, complimented the ladies, caressed the babies,
+treated crowds at every tavern, and kept a large punch-bowl and open house
+at home. He was elected. On the Eleventh of May, Seventeen Hundred
+Sixty-nine, the Legislature convened, with nearly a hundred members
+present, Colonel George Washington being one of the number. It took two
+days for the Assembly to elect a Speaker and get ready for business. On
+the third day, four resolutions were introduced--pushed to the front
+largely through the influence of our new member.
+
+These resolutions were:
+
+1. No taxation without representation.
+
+2. The Colonies may concur and unite in seeking redress for grievances.
+
+3. Sending accused persons away from their own country for trial is an
+inexcusable wrong.
+
+4. We will send an address on these things to the King beseeching his
+royal interposition.
+
+The resolutions were passed: they did not mean much anyway, the opposition
+said. And then another resolution was passed to this effect: "We will send
+a copy of these resolutions to every legislative body on the continent."
+That was a little stronger, but did not mean much either.
+
+It was voted upon and passed.
+
+Then the Assembly adjourned, having dispatched a copy of the resolutions
+to Lord Boutetourt, the newly appointed Governor who had just arrived from
+London.
+
+Next day, the Governor's secretary appeared when the Assembly convened,
+and repeated the following formula: "The Governor commands the House to
+attend His Excellency in the Council-Chamber." The members marched to the
+Council-Chamber and stood around the throne waiting the pleasure of His
+Lordship. He made a speech which I will quote entire. "Mr. Speaker and
+Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses: I have heard your resolves, and augur
+ill of their effect. You have made it my duty to dissolve you, and you are
+dissolved accordingly."
+
+And that was the end of Jefferson's first term in office--the reward for
+all the hand-shaking, all the caressing, all the treating!
+
+The members looked at one another, but no one said anything, because there
+was nothing to say. The secretary made an impatient gesture with his hand
+to the effect that they should disperse, and they did.
+
+Just how these legally elected representatives and now legally common
+citizens took their rebuff we do not know.
+
+Did Washington forget his usual poise and break out into one of those
+swearing fits where everybody wisely made way? And how did Richard Henry
+Lee like it, and George Wythe, and the Randolphs? Did Patrick Henry wax
+eloquent that afternoon in a barroom, and did Jefferson do more than smile
+grimly, biding his time?
+
+Massachusetts kept a complete history of her political heresies, but
+Virginia chased foxes and left the refinements of literature to
+dilettantes. But this much we know: Those country gentlemen did not go off
+peaceably and quietly to race horses or play cards. The slap in the face
+from the gloved hand of Lord Boutetourt awoke every boozy sense of
+security and gave vitality to all fanatical messages sent by Samuel Adams.
+Washington, we are told, spoke of it as a bit of upstart authority on the
+part of the new Governor; but Jefferson with true prophetic vision saw the
+end.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One of the leading lawyers at Williamsburg, against whom Jefferson was
+often pitted, was John Wayles. I need not explain that lawyers hotly
+opposed to each other in a trial are not necessarily enemies. The way in
+which Jefferson conducted his cases pleased the veteran Wayles, and he
+invited Jefferson to visit him at his fine estate, called "The Forest," a
+few miles out from Williamsburg. Now, in the family of Mr. Wayles dwelt
+his widowed daughter, the beautiful Martha Skelton, gracious and rich as
+Jefferson in worldly goods. She played the spinet with great feeling, and
+the spinet and the violin go very well together. So, together, Thomas and
+Martha played, and sometimes a bit of discord crept in, for Thomas was
+absent-minded and, in the business of watching the widow's fingers touch
+the keys, played flat.
+
+Long years before, he had liked and admired Becca, gazed fondly at Sukey,
+and finally loved Belinda. He did not tell her so, but he told John Page,
+and vowed that if he did not wed Belinda he would go through life solitary
+and alone. In a few months Belinda married that detested being--another.
+Then it was he again swore to his friend Page he would be true to her
+memory, even though she had dissembled. But now he saw that the widow
+Skelton had intellect, while Belinda had been but clever; the widow had
+soul, while Belinda had nothing but form. Jefferson's experience seems to
+settle that mooted question, "Can a man love two women at the same time?"
+Unlike Martha Custis, this Martha was won only after a protracted wooing,
+with many skirmishes and occasional misunderstandings and explanations,
+and sweet makings-up that were surely worth a quarrel.
+
+Then they were married at "The Forest," and rode away through the woods to
+Monticello. Jefferson was twenty-seven, and although it may not be proper
+to question closely as to the age of the widow, yet the bride, we have
+reason to believe, was about the age of her husband.
+
+It was a most happy mating--all their quarreling had been done before
+marriage. The fine intellect and high spirit of Jefferson found their
+mate. She was his comrade and helpmeet as well as his wife. He could read
+his favorite Ossian aloud to her, and when he tired she would read to him;
+and all his plans and ambitions and hopes were hers. In laying out the
+grounds and beautifying that home on Monticello mountain, she took much
+more than a passive interest. It was "Our Home," and to make it a home in
+very sooth for her beloved husband was her highest ambition. She knew the
+greatness of her mate, and all the dreams she had for his advancement were
+to come true. With her, ideality was to become reality. But she was to see
+it only in part.
+
+Yet she had seen her husband re-elected to the Virginia Legislature; sent
+as a member to the Colonial Congress at Philadelphia, there to write the
+best known of all American literary productions; from their mountain home
+she had seen British troops march into Charlottesville, four miles away,
+and then, with household treasure, had fled, knowing that beautiful
+Monticello would be devastated by the enemy's ruthless tread. She had
+known Washington, and had visited his lonely wife there at Mount Vernon
+when victory hung in the balance; when defeat meant that Thomas Jefferson
+and George Washington would be the first victims of a vengeful foe. She
+saw her husband War-Governor of Virginia in its most perilous hour; she
+lived to know that Washington had won; that Cornwallis was his "guest,"
+and that no man, save Washington alone, was more honored in proud Virginia
+than her beloved lord and husband. She saw a messenger on horseback
+approach bearing a packet from the Congress at Philadelphia to the effect
+that "His Excellency, the Honorable Thomas Jefferson," had been appointed
+as one of an embassy to France in the interests of the United States, with
+Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane as colleagues, and, knowing her
+husband's love for Franklin, and his respect for France, she leaned over
+his chair and with misty eyes saw him write his simple "No," and knew that
+the only reason he declined was because he would not leave his wife at a
+time when she might most need his tenderness and sympathy.
+
+And then they retired to beloved Monticello to enjoy the rest that comes
+only after work well done--to spend the long vacation of their lives in
+simple homekeeping work and studious leisure, her husband yet in manhood's
+prime, scarce thirty-seven, as men count time, and rich, passing rich, in
+goods and lands.
+
+And then she died.
+
+And Thomas Jefferson, the strong, the self-poised, the self-reliant, fell
+in a helpless swoon, and was laid on a pallet and carried out, as though
+he, too, were dead. For three weeks his dazed senses prayed for death. He
+could endure the presence of no one save his eldest daughter, a slim,
+slender girl of scarce ten years, grown a woman in a day. By her loving
+touch and tenderness he was lured back from death and reason's night into
+the world of life and light. With tottering steps, led by the child who
+had to think for both, he was taken out on the veranda of beautiful
+Monticello. He looked out on stretching miles of dark-blue hills and
+waving woods and winding river. He gazed, and as he looked it came slowly
+to him that the earth was still as when he last saw it, and realized that
+this would be so even if he were gone. Then, turning to the child, who
+stood by, stroking his locks, it came to him that even in grief there may
+be selfishness, and for the first time he responded to the tender caress,
+saying, "Yes, we will live, daughter--live in memory of her!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When two men of equal intelligence and sincerity quarrel, both are
+probably right. Hamilton and Jefferson were opposed to each other by
+temperament and disposition, in a way that caused either to look with
+distrust on any proposition made by the other. And yet, when Washington
+pressed upon Jefferson the position of Secretary of State, I can not but
+think he did it as an antidote to the growing power and vaunting ambition
+of Hamilton. Washington won his victories, as great men ever do, by wisely
+choosing his aides. Hamilton had done yeoman's service in every branch of
+the government, and while the chief sincerely admired his genius, he
+guessed his limitations. Power grows until it topples, and when it
+topples, innocent people are crushed. Washington was wise as a serpent,
+and rather than risk open ruction with Hamilton by personally setting
+bounds, he invited Jefferson into his cabinet, and the acid was
+neutralized to a degree where it could be safely handled.
+
+Jefferson had just returned from Paris with his beloved daughter, Martha.
+He was intending soon to return to France and study social science at
+close range. Already, he had seen that mob of women march out to
+Versailles and fetch the King to Paris, and had seen barricade after
+barricade erected with the stones from the leveled Bastile; he was on
+intimate and affectionate terms with Lafayette and the Republican leaders,
+and here was a pivotal point in his life. Had not Washington persuaded
+him to remain "just for the present" in America, he might have played a
+part in Carlyle's best book, that book which is not history, but more--an
+epic. So, among the many obligations that America owes to Washington, must
+be named this one of pushing Thomas Jefferson, the scholar and man of
+peace, into the political embroglio and shutting the door. Then it was
+that Hamilton's taunting temper awoke a degree of power in Jefferson that
+before he wist not of; then it was that he first fully realized that the
+"United States" with England as a sole pattern was not enough.
+
+A pivotal point! Yes, a pivotal point for Jefferson, America and the
+world; for Jefferson gave the rudder of the Ship of State such a turn to
+starboard that there was never again danger of her drifting on to
+aristocratic shoals, an easy victim to the rapacity of Great Britain.
+Hamilton's distrust of the people found no echo in Jefferson's mind.
+
+He agreed with Hamilton that a "strong government" administered by a few,
+provided the few are wise and honorable, is the best possible government.
+Nay, he went further and declared that an absolute monarchy in which the
+monarch was all-wise and all-powerful, could not be improved upon by the
+imagination of man.
+
+In his composition, there was a saving touch of humor that both Hamilton
+and Washington seemed to lack. He could smile at himself; but none ever
+dared turn a joke on Hamilton, much less on Washington. And so when
+Hamilton explained that a strong government administered by Washington,
+President; Jefferson, Secretary of State; Hamilton, Secretary of the
+Treasury; Knox, Secretary of War; and Randolph, Attorney-General, was
+pretty nearly ideal, no one smiled. But Jefferson's plain inference was
+that power is dangerous and man is fallible; that a man so good as
+Washington dies tomorrow and another man steps in, and that those who have
+the government in their present keeping should curb ambitions, limit their
+own power, and thus fix a precedent for those who are to follow.
+
+The wisdom that Jefferson as a statesman showed in working for a future
+good, and the willingness to forego the pomp of personal power, to
+sacrifice self if need be, that the day he should not see might be secure,
+ranks him as first among statesmen. For a statesman is one who builds a
+State--and not a politician who is dead, as some have said.
+
+Others, since, have followed Jefferson's example, but in the world's
+history I do not recall a man before him who, while still having power in
+his grasp, was willing to trust the people.
+
+The one mistake of Washington that borders on blunder was in refusing to
+take wages for his work. In doing this, he visited untold misery on
+others, who, not having married rich widows, tried to follow his example
+and floundered into woeful debt and disgrace; and thereby were lost to
+useful society and to the world. And there are yet many public offices
+where small men rattle about because men who can fill the place can not
+afford it. Bryce declares that no able and honest man of moderate means
+can afford to take an active part in municipal affairs in America--and
+Bryce is right.
+
+When Jefferson became President, in his messages to Congress again and
+again he advised the fixing of sufficient salaries to secure the best men
+for every branch of the service, and suggested the folly of expecting
+anything for nothing, or the hope of officials not "fixing things" if not
+properly paid.
+
+Men from the soil who gain power are usually intoxicated by it; beginning
+as democrats they evolve into aristocrats, then into tyrants, if kindly
+Fate does not interpose, and are dethroned by the people who made them.
+And it is not surprising that this man, born into a plenty that bordered
+on affluence, and who never knew from experience the necessity of economy
+(until in old age tobacco and slavery had wrecked Virginia and Monticello
+alike), should set an almost ideal example of simplicity, moderation and
+brotherly kindness.
+
+Among the chief glories that belong to him are these:
+
+1. Writing the Declaration of Independence.
+
+2. Suggesting and carrying out the present decimal monetary system.
+
+3. Inducing Virginia to deed to the States, as their common property, the
+Northwest Territory.
+
+4. Purchasing from France, for the comparatively trifling sum of fifteen
+million dollars, Louisiana and the territory running from the Gulf of
+Mexico to Puget's Sound, being at the rate of a fraction of a cent per
+acre, and giving the United States full control of the Mississippi River.
+
+But over and beyond these is the spirit of patriotism that makes each true
+American feel he is parcel and part of the very fabric of the State, and
+in his deepest heart believe that "a government of the people, by the
+people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth."
+
+
+
+
+SAMUEL ADAMS
+
+    The body of the people are now in council. Their opposition grows
+    into a system. They are united and resolute. And if the British
+    Administration and Government do not return to the principles of
+    moderation and equity, the evil, which they profess to aim at
+    preventing by their rigorous measures, will the sooner be brought
+    to pass, viz., the entire separation and independence of the
+    Colonies.
+    --Letter to Arthur Lee
+
+[Illustration: SAMUEL ADAMS]
+
+
+Samuel and John Adams were second cousins, having the same
+great-grandfather. Between them in many ways there was a marked contrast,
+but true to their New England instincts both were theologians.
+
+John was a conservative in politics, and at first had little sympathy with
+"those small-minded men who refused to pay a trivial tax on their tea; and
+who would plunge the country into war, and ruin all for a matter of
+stamps." John was born and lived at the village of Braintree. He did not
+really center his mind on politics until the British had closed all
+law-courts in Boston, thus making his profession obsolete. He was
+scholarly, shrewd, diplomatic, cautious, good-natured, fat, and took his
+religion with a wink. He was blessed with a wife who was worthy of being
+the mother of kings (or presidents); he lived comfortably, acquired
+property, and died aged ninety-two. He had been President and seen his son
+President of the United States, and that is an experience that has never
+come and probably never will come to another living man, for there seems
+to be an unwritten law that no man under fifty shall occupy the office of
+Chief Magistrate of these United States.
+
+Samuel was stern, serious and deeply in earnest. He seldom smiled and
+never laughed. He was uncompromisingly religious, conscientious and
+morally unbending. In his life there was no soft sentiment. The fact that
+he ran a brewery can be excused when we remember that the best spirit of
+the times saw nothing inconsistent in the occupation; and further than
+this we might explain in extenuation that he gave the business indifferent
+attention, and the quality of his brew was said to be very bad.
+
+In religion, he swerved not nor wavered. He was a Calvinist and clung to
+the five points with a tenacity at times seemingly quite unnecessary.
+
+When in that first Congress, Samuel Adams publicly consented to the
+opening of the meeting with religious service conducted by the Reverend
+Mr. Duche, an Episcopal clergyman, he gave a violent wrench to his
+conscience and an awful shock to his friends. But Mr. Duche met the issue
+in the true spirit, and leaving his detested "popery robe" and prayer-book
+at home uttered an extemporaneous invocation, without a trace of intoning,
+that pleased the Puritans and caused one of them to remark, "He is surely
+coming over to the Lord's side!"
+
+But in politics, Samuel Adams was a liberal of the liberals. In
+statecraft, the heresy of change had no terrors for him, and with Hamlet,
+he might have said, "Oh, reform it altogether!"
+
+The limitations set in every character seem to prevent a man from being
+generous in more than one direction; the bigot in religion is often a
+liberal in politics, and vice versa. For instance, physicians are almost
+invariably liberal in religious matters, but are prone to call a man
+"Mister" who does not belong to their school; while orthodox clergymen, I
+have noticed, usually employ a homeopathist.
+
+In that most valuable and interesting work, "The Diary of John Adams," the
+author refers repeatedly to Samuel Adams as "Adams"! This simple way of
+using the word "Adams" shows a world of appreciation for the man who
+blazed the path that others of this illustrious name might follow. And so
+with the high precedent in mind, I, too, will drop prefix and call my
+subject simply "Adams."
+
+On the authority of King George, General Gage made an offer of pardon to
+all save two who had figured in the Boston uprising.
+
+The two men thus honored were John Hancock (whose signature the King could
+read without spectacles), and the other was "one, S. Adams."
+
+Adams, however, was the real offender, and the plea might have been made
+for John Hancock that, if it had not been for accident and Adams, Hancock
+would probably have remained loyal to the mother country.
+
+Hancock was aristocratic, cultured and complacent. He was the richest man
+in New England. His personal interests were on the side of peace and the
+established order. But circumstances and the combined tact and zeal of
+Adams threw him off his guard, and in a moment of dalliance the seeds of
+sedition found lodgment in his brain. And the more he thought about it,
+the nearer he came to the conclusion that Adams was right. But let the
+fact further be stated, if truth demands, that both John Hancock and
+Samuel Adams, the first men who clearly and boldly expressed the idea of
+American Independence, were moved in the beginning by personal grievances.
+
+A single motion made before the British Parliament by we know not whom,
+and put to vote by the Speaker, bankrupted the father of Samuel Adams and
+robbed the youth of his patrimony.
+
+The boy was then seventeen; old enough to know that from plenty his father
+was reduced to penury, and this because England, three thousand miles
+away, had interfered with the business arrangements of the Colony, and
+made unlawful a private banking scheme.
+
+Then did the boy ask the question, What moral right has England to govern
+us, anyway?
+
+From thinking it over he began to formulate reasons. He discussed the
+subject at odd times and thought of it continually, and, in Seventeen
+Hundred Forty-three, when he prepared his graduation thesis at Harvard
+College he chose for his subject, "The Doctrine of the Lawfulness of
+Resistance to the Supreme Magistrate if the Commonwealth Can Not Otherwise
+be Preserved."
+
+When Massachusetts admitted that she was under subjection to the King, yet
+argued for the right to nullify the Acts of the English Parliament, she
+took exactly the same ground that South Carolina did a hundred years
+later. The logic of Samuel Adams and of Robert Hayne was one and the same.
+
+Yet we are glad that Adams carried his point; and we rejoice exceedingly
+that Hayne failed, so curious are these things we call "reasons."
+
+The royalists who heard of this youth with a logical mind denounced him
+without stint. A few newspapers upheld him and spoke of the right of free
+speech and all that, reprinting the thesis in full. And in the controversy
+that followed, young Adams was always a prominent figure. He was not an
+orator in the popular sense, but he held the pen of a ready writer, and
+through the Boston papers kept up a constant fusillade.
+
+The tricks of journalism are no new thing belonging to the fag-end of this
+century. Young Adams wrote letters over the "nom de plume" of Pro Bono
+Publico, and then replied to them over the signature of Rex Americus. He
+did not adopt as his motto, "Let not thy left hand know what thy right
+hand doeth," for he wrote with both hands and each hand was in the secret.
+
+During the years that followed his graduation from college he was a
+businessman and a poor one, for a man who looks after public affairs much
+can not attend to his own. But he managed to make shift; and when too
+closely pressed by creditors, a loan from Hancock, or John Adams,
+Hancock's attorney, relieved the pressure. In fact, when he went to
+Philadelphia "on that very important errand," he rode a horse borrowed
+from John Adams, and his Sunday coat was the gift of a thoughtful friend.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Sixty-three, it became known that the British
+Government had on foot a scheme to demand a tribute from the Colonies. On
+invitation of a committee, possibly appointed by Adams, Adams was
+requested to draw up instructions to the Representatives in the Colonial
+Legislature. Adams did so and the document is now in the archives of the
+old State House at Boston, in the plain and elegant penmanship that is so
+easily recognized. This document calls itself, "The First Public Denial of
+the Right of the British Parliament to tax the Colonies without their
+Consent, and the first Public Suggestion of a Union on the part of the
+Colonies to Protect themselves against British Aggression."
+
+The style of the paper is lucid, firm and logical; it combines in itself
+the suggestion of all there was to be said or could be said on the matter.
+Adams saw all over and around his topic--no unpleasant surprise could be
+sprung on him--twenty-five years had he studied this one theme. He had
+made himself familiar with the political history of every nation so far as
+such history could be gathered; he was past master of his subject.
+
+However, when he was forty years of age his followers were few and mostly
+men of small influence. The Calkers' Club was the home of the sedition,
+and many of the members were day-laborers. But the idea of independence
+gradually grew, and, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty-five, Adams was elected a
+member of the Massachusetts Colonial Legislature. In honor of his writing
+ability, he was chosen clerk of the Assembly, for in all public gatherings
+orators are chosen as presidents and newspapermen for secretaries. Thus
+are honors distributed, and thus, too, does the public show which talent
+it values most.
+
+On November Second, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-two, on motion of Adams, a
+committee of several hundred citizens was appointed "to state the Rights
+of the Colonies and to communicate and publish them to the World as the
+sense of the Town, with the infringements and violations thereof that have
+been or may be made from time to time; also requesting from each Town a
+free communication of their sentiments on this Subject."
+
+This was the Committee of Correspondence from which grew the union of the
+Colonies and the Congress of the United States. It is a pretty well
+attested fact that the first suggestion of the Philadelphia Congress came
+from Samuel Adams, and the chief work of bringing it about was also his.
+
+It was well known to the British Government who the chief agitator was,
+and when General Gage arrived in Boston in May, Seventeen Hundred
+Seventy-four, his first work was an attempt to buy off Samuel Adams. With
+Adams out of the way, England might have adopted a policy of conciliation
+and kept America for her very own--yes, to the point of moving the home
+government here and saving the snug little island as a colony, for both in
+wealth and in population America has now far surpassed England.
+
+But Adams was not for sale. His reply to Gage sounds like a scrap from
+Cromwell: "I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of Kings.
+No personal consideration shall induce me to abandon the Righteous Cause
+of my Country."
+
+Gage having refused to recognize the thirteen Counselors appointed by the
+people, the General Court of Massachusetts, in secret session, appointed
+five delegates to attend the Congress of Colonies at Philadelphia. Of
+course Samuel Adams was one of these delegates; and to John Adams, another
+delegate, are we indebted for a minute description of that most momentous
+meeting.
+
+A room in the State House had been offered the delegates, but with
+commendable modesty they accepted the offer of the Carpenters' Company to
+use their hall.
+
+And so there they convened on the fifth day of September, Seventeen
+Hundred Seventy-four, having met by appointment, and walked over from the
+City Tavern in a body. Forty-four men were present--not a large
+gathering, but they had come hundreds of miles, and several of them had
+been months on the journey.
+
+They were a sturdy lot; and madam! I think it would have been worth while
+to have looked in upon them. There were several coonskin caps in evidence;
+also lace and frills and velvet brought from England--but plainness to
+severity was the rule. Few of these men had ever been away from their own
+Colonies before, few had ever met any members of the Congress save their
+own colleagues. They represented civilizations of very different degrees.
+Each stood a bit in awe of all the rest. Several of the Colonies had been
+in conflict with the others.
+
+Meeting new men in those days, when even the stagecoach was a passing show
+worth going miles to see, was an event. There was awkwardness and
+nervousness on the swarthy faces; firm mouths twitched, and big, bony
+hands sought for places of concealment.
+
+The meeting had been called for September First, but was postponed for
+five days awaiting the arrival of belated delegates who had been detained
+by floods. Even then, delegates from North Carolina had not arrived, and
+Georgia not having thought it worth while to send any, eleven Colonies
+only were represented. Each delegation naturally kept together, as men
+will who have a fighting history and a pioneer ancestry.
+
+It was a serious, solemn business, and these men were not given to levity
+in any event. When they were seated, there was a moment of silence so
+tense it could be heard. Every chance movement of a foot on the uncarpeted
+floor sent an echo through the room.
+
+The stillness was first broken by Mr. Lynch, of South Carolina, who arose
+and in a low, clear voice said: "There is a gentleman present who has
+presided with great dignity over a very respectable body and greatly to
+the advantage of America. Gentlemen, I move that the Honorable Peyton
+Randolph, one of the delegates from Virginia, be appointed to preside over
+this meeting. I doubt not it will be unanimous."
+
+It was so; and a large man in powdered wig and scarlet coat arose, and,
+carrying his gold-headed cane before him like a mace, walked to the
+platform without apology.
+
+The New Englanders in homespun looked at one another with trepidation on
+their features. The red coat was not assuring, but they kept their peace
+and breathed hard, praying that the enemy had not captured the convention
+through strategy. Mr. Randolph's first suggestion was not revolutionary;
+it was that a secretary be appointed.
+
+Again Mr. Lynch arose and named Charles Thomson, "a gentleman of family,
+fortune and character." This testimonial of family and fortune was not
+assuring to the plain Massachusetts men, but they said nothing and awaited
+developments.
+
+All were cautious as woodsmen, and the motion that the Council be held
+behind closed doors was adopted. Every member then held up his right hand
+and made a solemn promise to divulge no part of the transactions; and
+Galloway, of Pennsylvania, promised with the rest, and straightway each
+night informed the enemy of every move.
+
+Little was done that first day but get acquainted by talking very
+cautiously and very politely. The next day a notable member had arrived,
+and in a front seat sat Richard Henry Lee, a man you would turn and look
+at in any company. Slender and dark, with a brilliant eye and a
+profile--and only one man in ten thousand has a profile--Lee was a
+gracious presence. His voice was gentle and flexible and luring, and there
+was a dignity and poise in his manner that made him easily the foremost
+orator of his time.
+
+Near him sat William Livingston, of New Jersey, and John Jay, his
+son-in-law, the youngest man in the Congress, with a nose that denoted
+character, and all his fame in the future.
+
+The Pennsylvanians were all together, grouped on one side. Duane, of New
+York, sat near them, "shy and squint-eyed, very sensible and very artful,"
+wrote John Adams that night in his diary.
+
+Then over there sat Christopher Gadsden, of South Carolina, who had
+preached independence for full ten years before this, and who, when he
+heard that the British soldiers had taken Boston, proposed to raise a
+troop at once and fight redcoats wherever found.
+
+"But the British will burn our seaport towns if we antagonize them," some
+timid soul explained.
+
+"Our towns are built of brick and wood; if they are burned we can rebuild
+them; but liberty once gone is gone forever," he retorted. And the saying
+sounds well, even if it will not stand analysis.
+
+Back near the wall was a man who, when the assembly stood at morning
+prayers, showed a half-head above his neighbors. His face was broad, and
+he, too, had a profile. His mouth was tightly closed, and during the first
+fourteen days of that Congress he never opened it to utter a word, and
+after his long quiet he broke the silence by saying, "Mr. President, I
+second the motion." Once, in a passionate speech, Lynch turned to him and
+pointing his finger said: "There is a man who has not spoken here, but in
+the Virginia Assembly he made the most eloquent speech I ever heard. He
+said, 'I will raise a thousand men, and arm and subsist them at my expense
+and march them to the relief of Boston.'" And then did the tall man, whose
+name was George Washington, blush like a schoolgirl.
+
+But in all that company the men most noticed were the five members from
+Massachusetts. They were Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Gushing and
+Robert Treat Paine. Massachusetts had thus far taken the lead in the
+struggle with England. A British army was encamped upon her soil, her
+chief city besieged--the port closed. Her sufferings had called this
+Congress into being, and to her delegates the members had come to listen.
+All recognized Samuel Adams as the chief man of the Convention. His hand
+wrote the invitations and earnest requests to come. Galloway, writing to
+his friends, the enemy, said: "Samuel Adams eats little, drinks little,
+sleeps little and thinks much. He is most decisive and indefatigable in
+the pursuit of his object. He is the man who, by his superior application,
+manages at once the faction in Philadelphia and the factions of New
+England."
+
+Yet Samuel Adams talked little at the Convention. He allowed John Adams to
+state the case, but sat next to him supplying memoranda, occasionally
+arising to make remarks or explanations in a purely conversational tone.
+But so earnest and impressive was his manner, so ably did he answer every
+argument and reply to every objection, that he thoroughly convinced a
+tall, angular, homely man by the name of Patrick Henry of the
+righteousness of his cause. Patrick Henry was pretty thoroughly convinced
+before, but the recital of Boston's case fired the Virginian, and he made
+the first and only real speech of the Congress. In burning words he
+pictured all the Colonies had suffered and endured, and by his matchless
+eloquence told in prophetic words of the glories yet to be. In his speech
+he paid just tribute to the genius of Samuel Adams, declaring that the
+good that was to come from this "first of an unending succession of
+Congresses" was owing to the work of Adams. And in after-years Adams
+repaid the compliment by saying that if it had not been for the cementing
+power of Patrick Henry's eloquence, that first Congress probably would
+have ended in a futile wrangle.
+
+The South regarded, in great degree, the fight in Boston as Massachusetts'
+own. To make the entire thirteen Colonies adopt the quarrel and back the
+Colonial army in the vicinity of Boston was the only way to make the issue
+a success, and to unite the factions by choosing for a leader a Virginian
+aristocrat was a crowning stroke of diplomacy.
+
+John Hancock had succeeded Randolph as president of the second Congress,
+and Virginia was inclined to be lukewarm, when John Adams in an
+impassioned speech nominated Colonel George Washington as
+Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. The nomination was seconded
+very quietly by Samuel Adams. It was a vote, and the South was committed
+to the cause of backing up Washington, and, incidentally, New England. The
+entire plan was probably the work of Samuel Adams, yet he gave the credit
+to John, while the credit of stoutly opposing it goes to John Hancock,
+who, being presiding officer, worked at a disadvantage.
+
+But Adams had a way of reducing opposition to the minimum. He kept out of
+sight and furthered his ends by pushing this man or that to the front at
+the right time to make the plea. He was a master in that fine art of
+managing men and never letting them know they are managed. By keeping
+behind the arras, he accomplished purposes that a leader never can who
+allows his personality to be in continual evidence, for personality repels
+as well as attracts, and the man too much before the public is sure to be
+undone eventually. Adams knew that the power of Pericles lay largely in
+the fact that he was never seen upon but a single street of Athens, and
+that but once a year.
+
+The complete writings of Adams have recently been collected and published.
+One marvels that such valuable material has not before been printed and
+given to the public, for the literary style and perspicuity shown are most
+inspiring, and the value of the data can not be gainsaid.
+
+No one ever accused Adams of being a muddy thinker; you grant his premises
+and you are bound to accept his conclusions. He leaves no loopholes for
+escape.
+
+The following words, used by Chatham, refer to documents in which Adams
+took a prominent part in preparing: "When your Lordships look at the
+papers transmitted us from America, when you consider their decency,
+firmness and wisdom, you can not but respect their cause and wish to make
+it your own. For myself, I must avow that, in all my reading--and I have
+read Thucydides and have studied and admired the master statesmen of the
+world--for solidity of reason, force of sagacity, and wisdom of
+conclusion under a complication of difficult circumstances, no body of men
+can stand in preference to the general Congress of Philadelphia. The
+histories of Greece and Rome give us nothing like it, and all attempts to
+impress servitude on such a mighty continental people must be in vain."
+
+In the life of Adams there was no soft sentiment nor romantic vagaries.
+"He is a Puritan in all the word implies, and the unbending fanatic of
+independence," wrote Gage, and the description fits.
+
+He was twice married. Our knowledge of his first wife is very slight, but
+his second wife, Elizabeth Wells, daughter of an English merchant, was a
+capable woman of brave good sense. She adopted her husband's political
+views and with true womanly devotion let her old kinsmen slide; and during
+the dark hours of the war bore deprivation without repining.
+
+Adams' home life was simple to the verge of hardship. All through life he
+was on the ragged edge financially, and in his latter years he was for the
+first time relieved from pressing obligations by an afflicting event--the
+death of his only son, who was a surgeon in Washington's army. The money
+paid to the son by the Government for his services gave the father the
+only financial competency he ever knew. Two daughters survived him, but
+with him died the name.
+
+John Adams survived Samuel for twenty-three years. He lived to see "the
+great American experiment," as Mr. Ruskin has been pleased to call our
+country, on a firm basis, constantly growing stronger and stronger. He
+lived to realize that the sanguine prophecies made by Samuel were working
+themselves out in very truth.
+
+The grave of Samuel Adams is viewed by more people than that of any other
+American patriot. In the old Granary Burying-Ground, in the very center of
+Boston, on Tremont Street--there where travel congests, and two living
+streams meet all day long---you look through the iron fence, so slender
+that it scarce impedes the view, and not twenty feet from the curb is a
+simple metal disk set on an iron rod driven into the ground and on it this
+inscription: "This marks the grave of Samuel Adams."
+
+For many years the grave was unmarked, and the disk that now denotes it
+was only recently placed in position by the Sons of the American
+Revolution. But the place of Samuel Adams on the pages of history is
+secure. Upon the times in which he lived he exercised a profound
+influence. And he who influences the times in which he lives has
+influenced all the times that come after; he has left his impress on
+eternity.
+
+
+
+
+JOHN HANCOCK
+
+    Boston, Sept. 30, 1765
+
+    Gent:
+
+    Since my last I have receiv'd your favour by Capt Hulme who is
+    arriv'd here with the most disagreeable Commodity (say Stamps)
+    that were imported into this Country & what if carry'd into
+    Execution will entirely Stagnate Trade here, for it is
+    universally determined here never to Submitt to it and the
+    principal merchts here will by no means carry on Business under a
+    Stamp, we are in the utmost Confusion here and shall be more so
+    after the first of November & nothing but the repeal of the act
+    will righten, the Consequence of its taking place here will be
+    bad, & attended with many troubles, & I believe may say more
+    fatal to you than us. I dread the Event.
+    --Extract From Hancock's Letter-Book
+
+[Illustration: JOHN HANCOCK]
+
+
+Long years ago when society was young, learning was centered in one man in
+each community, and that man was the priest. It was the priest who was
+sent for in every emergency of life. He taught the young, prescribed for
+the sick, advised those who were in trouble, and when human help was vain
+and man had done his all, this priest knelt at the bedside of the dying
+and invoked a Power with whom it was believed he had influence.
+
+The so-called learned professions are only another example of the Division
+of Labor. We usually say there are three learned professions: Theology,
+Medicine and Law. As to which is the greatest is a much-mooted question
+and has caused too many family feuds for me to attempt to decide it. And
+so I evade the issue and say there is a fourth profession, that is only
+allowed to be called so by grace, but which in my mind is greater than
+them all--the profession of Teacher. I can conceive of a condition of
+society so high and excellent that it has no use for either doctor, lawyer
+or preacher, but the teacher would still be needed. Ignorance and sin
+supply the three "learned professions" their excuse for being, but the
+teacher's work is to develop the germ of wisdom that is in every soul.
+
+And now each of these professions has divided up, like monads, into many
+heads. In medicine, we have as many specialists as there are organs of the
+body. The lawyer who advises you in a copyright or patent cause knows
+nothing about admiralty; and as they tell us a man who pleads his own case
+has a fool for a client, so does the insurance lawyer who is retained to
+foreclose a mortgage. In all prosperous city churches, the preacher who
+attracts the crowd in the morning allows a 'prentice to preach to the
+young folks in the evening; he does not make pastoral calls; and the
+curate who reads the service at funerals is never called upon to perform a
+marriage ceremony except in a case of charity. Likewise the teacher's
+profession has its specialists: the man who teaches Greek well can not
+write good English; the man who teaches composition is baffled and
+perplexed by long division; and the teacher who delights in trigonometry
+pooh-poohs a kindergartner.
+
+Just where this evolutionary dividing and subdividing of social cells will
+land the race no man can say; but that a specialist is a dangerous man, is
+sure. He is a buzz-saw with which wise men never monkey. A surgeon who has
+operated for appendicitis five times successfully is above all to be
+avoided. I once knew a man with lung trouble who inadvertently strayed
+into an oculist's and was looked over and sent away with an order on an
+optician. And should you through error stray into the office of a nose and
+throat specialist, and ask him to treat you for varicose veins, he would
+probably do so by nasal douche.
+
+Even now a specialist in theology will lead us, if he can, a merry
+"ignis-fatuus" chase and land us in a morass. The only thing that saved
+the priest in days agone was the fact that he had so many duties to
+perform that he exercised all his mental muscles, and thus attained a
+degree of all-roundness which is not possible to the specialist. Even then
+there were not lacking men who found time to devote to specialties: Bishop
+Georgius Ambrosius, for instance, who in the Fifteenth Century produced a
+learned work proving that women have no souls. And a like book was written
+at Nashville, Tennessee, in Eighteen Hundred Fifty-nine, by the Reverend
+Hubert Parsons of the Methodist Episcopal Church (South), showing that
+negroes were in a like predicament. But a more notable instance of the
+danger of a specialty is the Reverend Cotton Mather, who investigated the
+subject of witchcraft and issued a modest brochure incorporating his views
+on the subject. He succeeded in convincing at least one man of its verity,
+and that man was himself, and thus immortality was given to the town of
+Salem, which, otherwise, would have no claim on us for remembrance, save
+that Hawthorne was once a clerk in its custom-house.
+
+A very slight study of Colonial history will show any student that, for
+two centuries, the ministers in New England occupied very much the same
+position in society that the priest did during the Middle Ages. As the
+monks kept learning from dying off the face of the earth, so did the
+ministers of the New World preserve culture from passing into
+forgetfulness. Very seldom, indeed, were books to be found in a community
+except at the minister's. And during the Seventeenth Century, and well
+into the Eighteenth, he combined in himself the offices of doctor, lawyer,
+preacher and teacher. Mr. Lowell has said: "I can not remember when there
+was not one or more students in my father's household, and others still
+who came at regular intervals to recite. And this was the usual custom. It
+was the minister who fitted boys for college, and no youth was ever sent
+away to school until he had been drilled by the local clergyman."
+
+And it must further be noted that genealogical tables show that very
+nearly all of the eminent men of New England were sons of ministers, or of
+an ancestry where ministers' names are seen at frequent intervals. As an
+intellectual and moral force, the minister has now but a rudiment of the
+power he once exercised. The tendency to specialize all art and all
+knowledge has to a degree shorn him of his strength. And to such an extent
+is this true, that within forty years it has passed into a common proverb
+that the sons of clergymen are rascals, whereas in Colonial days the
+highest recommendation a youth could carry was that he was the son of a
+minister.
+
+The Reverend John Hancock, grandfather of John Hancock the patriot, was
+for more than half a century the minister of Lexington, Massachusetts. I
+say "the minister," because there was only one: the keen competition of
+sect that establishes half a dozen preachers in a small community is a
+very modern innovation.
+
+John Hancock, "Bishop of Lexington," was a man of pronounced personality,
+as is plainly seen in his portrait in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. They
+say he ruled the town with a rod of iron; and when the young men, who
+adorned the front steps of the meetinghouse during service, grew
+disorderly, he stopped in his prayer, and going outside soundly cuffed the
+ears of the first delinquent he could lay hands upon. In his clay there
+was a dash of facetiousness that saved him from excess, supplying a useful
+check to his zeal--for zeal uncurbed is very bad. He was a wise and
+beneficent dictator; and government under such a one can not be improved
+upon. His manner was gracious, frank and open, and such was the specific
+gravity of his nature that his words carried weight, and his wish was
+sufficient.
+
+The house where this fine old autocrat lived and reigned is standing in
+Lexington now. When you walk out through Cambridge and Arlington on your
+way to Concord, following the road the British took on their way out to
+Concord, you will pass by it. It is a good place to stop and rest. You
+will know the place by the tablet in front, on which is the legend: "Here
+John Hancock and Samuel Adams were sleeping on the night of the
+Eighteenth of April, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five, when aroused by Paul
+Revere."
+
+The Reverend Jonas Clark owned the house after the Reverend John Hancock,
+and the ministries of those two men, and their occupancy of the house,
+cover one hundred years and five years more. Here the thirteen children of
+Jonas Clark were born, and all lived to be old men and women. When you
+call there I hope you will be treated with the same gentle courtesy that I
+met. If you delay not your visit too long, you will see a fine, motherly
+woman, with white "sausage curls" and a high back-comb, wearing a check
+dress and felt slippers, and she will tell you that she is over eighty,
+and that when her mother was a little girl she once sat on Governor
+Hancock's knee and he showed her the works in his watch.
+
+And then as you go away you will think again of what the old lady has just
+told you, and as you look back for a parting glance at the house, standing
+firm and solemn in its rusty-gray dignity, you will doff your hat to it,
+and mayhap murmur: The days of man on earth--they are but as a passing
+shadow!
+
+"Here John Hancock and Samuel Adams were sleeping when aroused by Paul
+Revere!" Merchant-prince and agitator, horse and rider--where are you now?
+And is your sleep disturbed by dreams of British redcoats or hissing
+flintlocks?
+
+Phantom British warships may lie at their moorings, swinging wide on the
+unforgetting tide, lanterns may hang high in the belfry of the Old North
+Church tower, hurried knocks and calls of defiance and hoof-beats of
+fast-galloping steed may echo and echo again, borne on the night-wind of
+the dim Past, but you heed them not!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Reverend John Hancock of Lexington had two sons. John Hancock (Number
+Two) became pastor of the church of the North Precinct of the town of
+Braintree, which afterwards was to be the town of Quincy.
+
+The nearest neighbor to the village preacher was John Adams, shoemaker and
+farmer. Each Sunday in the amen corner of the Reverend John Hancock's
+meetinghouse was mustered the well washed and combed brood of Mr. and Mrs.
+Adams. Now, this John Adams had a son whom the Reverend John Hancock
+baptized, also named John, two years older than John, the son of the
+preacher. And young John Adams and John Hancock (Number Three) used to
+fish and swim together, and go nutting, and set traps for squirrels, and
+help each other in fractions. And then they would climb trees, and
+wrestle, and sometimes fight. In the fights, they say, John Hancock used
+to get the better of his antagonist, but as an exploiter of fractions John
+Adams was more than his equal.
+
+The parents of John Adams were industrious and savin'--the little farm
+prospered, for Boston supplied a goodly market, and weekly trips were made
+there in a one-horse cart, often piloted by young John, with the
+minister's boy for ballast. The Adams family had ambitions for their son
+John--he was to go to Harvard and be educated, and be a minister and
+preach at Braintree, or Weymouth, or perhaps even Boston!
+
+In the meantime the Reverend John Hancock had died, and the widowed mother
+was not able to give her boy a college education--times were hard.
+
+But the lad's uncle, Thomas Hancock, a prosperous merchant of Boston, took
+quite an interest in young John. And it occurred to him to adopt the
+fatherless boy, legally, as his own. The mother demurred, but after some
+months decided that it was best so, for when twenty-one he would be her
+boy just as much and as truly as if his uncle had not adopted him. And so
+the rich uncle took him, and rigged him out with a deal finer clothing
+than he had ever before worn, and sent him to the Latin School and
+afterward over to Cambridge, with silver jingling in his pocket.
+
+Prosperity is a severe handicap to youth; not very many grown men can
+stand it; but beyond a needless display of velvet coats and frilled
+shirts, the young man stood the test, and got through Harvard. In point of
+scholarship he did not stand so high as John Adams; and between the lads
+there grew a small but well-defined gulf, as is but natural between
+homespun and broadcloth. Still the gulf was not impassable, for over it
+friendly favors were occasionally passed.
+
+John Hancock's mother wanted him to be a preacher, but Uncle Thomas would
+not listen to it--the youth must be taught to be a merchant, so he could
+be the ready helper and then the successor of his foster-father.
+
+Graduating at the early age of seventeen, John Hancock at once went to
+work in his uncle's counting-house in Boston. He was a fine, tall fellow
+with dash and spirit, and seemed to show considerable aptitude for the
+work. The business prospered, and Uncle Thomas was very proud of his
+handsome ward, who was quite in demand at parties and balls and in a
+general social way, while the uncle could not dance a minuet to save him.
+
+Not needing the young man very badly around the store, the uncle sent him
+to Europe to complete his education by travel. He went with the retiring
+Governor Pownal, whose taste for social enjoyment was very much in accord
+with his own. In England, he attended the funeral of George the Second,
+and saw the coronation of George the Third, little thinking the while that
+he would some day make violent efforts to snatch from that crown its
+brightest jewel.
+
+When young Hancock was twenty-seven, the uncle died, and left to him his
+entire fortune of three hundred fifty thousand dollars. It made him one of
+the very richest men in the Colony--for at that time there was not a man
+in Massachusetts worth half a million dollars.
+
+The jingling silver in his pocket when sent to Harvard had severely tested
+his moral fiber, but this great fortune came near smothering all his
+native commonsense. If a man makes his money himself, he stands a certain
+chance of growing as the pile grows.
+
+There is little doubt as to the soundness of Emerson's epigram, that what
+you put into his chest you take out of the man. More than this, when a man
+gradually accumulates wealth, it attracts little attention, so the mob
+that follows the newly rich never really gets on to the scent. And besides
+that, the man who makes his own fortune always stands ready to repel
+boarders.
+
+There may be young men of twenty-seven who are men grown, and no doubt
+every man of twenty-seven is very sure that he is one of these; but the
+thought that man is mortal never occurs to either men or women until they
+are past thirty. The blood is warm, conquest lies before, and to seize the
+world by the tail and snap its head off seems both easy and desirable.
+
+The promoters, the flatterers and friends until then unknown flocked to
+Hancock and condoled with him on the death of his uncle. Some wanted small
+loans to tide over temporary emergencies, others had business ventures in
+hand whereby John Hancock could double his wealth very shortly. Still
+others spoke of wealth being a trust, and to use money to help your
+fellow-men, and thus to secure the gratitude of many, was the proper
+thing.
+
+The unselfishness of the latter suggestion appealed to Hancock. To be the
+friend of humanity, to assist others--this is the highest ambition to
+which a man can aspire! And, of course, if one is pointed out on the
+street as the good Mr. Hancock it can not be helped. It is the penalty of
+well-doing.
+
+So in order to give work to many and to promote the interests of Boston, a
+thriving city of fifteen thousand inhabitants, for all good men wish to
+build up the place in which they live, John Hancock was induced to embark
+in shipbuilding. He also owned several ships of his own which traded with
+London and the West Indies, and was part owner of others. But he publicly
+explained that he did not care to make money for himself--his desire was
+to give employment to the worthy poor and to enhance the good of Boston.
+
+The aristocratic company of militia, known as the Governor's Guard, had
+been fitted out with new uniforms and arms by the generous Hancock, and he
+had been chosen commanding officer, with rank of Colonel. He drilled with
+the crack company and studied the manual much more diligently than he ever
+had his Bible.
+
+Hancock lived in the mansion, inherited from his uncle, on Beacon Street,
+facing the Common. There was a chariot and six horses for state occasions,
+much fine furniture from over the sea, elegant clothes that the Puritans
+called "gaudy apparel," and at the dinners the wine flowed freely, and
+cards, dancing and music filled many a night.
+
+The Puritan neighbors were shocked, and held up their hands in horror to
+think that the son of a minister should so affront the staid and sober
+customs of his ancestors. Still others said, "Why, that's what a rich man
+should do--spend his money, of course; Hancock is the benefactor of his
+kind; just see how many people he employs!"
+
+The town was all agog, and Hancock was easily Boston's first citizen, but
+in his time of prosperity he did not forget his old friends. He sent for
+them to come and make merry with him; and among the first in his good
+offices was John Adams, the rising young lawyer of Braintree.
+
+John Adams had found clients scarce, and those he had, poor pay, but when
+he became the trusted legal adviser of John Hancock, things took a turn
+and prosperity came that way. The wine and cards and dinners hadn't much
+attraction for him, but still there were no conscientious scruples in the
+way. He patted John Hancock on the back, assured him that he was the
+people, looked after his interests loyally, and extracted goodly fees for
+services performed.
+
+At the home of Adams at Braintree, Hancock had met a quiet, taciturn
+individual by the name of Samuel Adams. This man he had long known in a
+casual way, but had never been able really to make his acquaintance. He
+was fifteen years older than Hancock, and by his quiet dignity and
+self-possession made quite an impression on the young man.
+
+So, now that prosperity had smiled, Hancock invited him to his house, but
+the quiet man was an ascetic and neither played cards, drank wine nor
+danced, and so declined with thanks.
+
+But not long after, he requested a small loan from the merchant-prince,
+and asked it as though it were his right, and so he got it. His manner was
+in such opposition to the flatterers and those who crawled, and whined,
+and begged, that Hancock was pleased with the man. Samuel Adams had
+declined Hancock's social favors, and yet, in asking for a loan, showed
+his friendliness.
+
+Samuel Adams was a politician, and had long taken an active part in the
+town meetings. In fact, to get a measure through, it was well to have
+Samuel Adams at your side. He was clear-headed, astute, and knew the human
+heart. Yet he talked but little, and the convivial ways of the small
+politician were far from him; but in the fine art that can manage men and
+never let them know they are managed he was a past-master. Tucked in his
+sleeve, no doubt, was a degree of pride in his power, but the stoic
+quality in his nature never allowed him to break into laughter when he
+considered how he led men by the nose.
+
+In Boston and its vicinity, Samuel Adams was not highly regarded, and
+outside of Boston, at forty years of age, he was positively unknown. The
+neighbors regarded him as a harmless fanatic, sane on most subjects, but
+possessed of a buzzing bee in his bonnet to the effect that the Colonies
+should be separated from their protector, England. Samuel Adams neglected
+his business and kept up a fusillade of articles in the newspapers, on
+various political subjects, and men who do this are regarded everywhere as
+"queer." A professional newspaper-writer never takes his calling
+seriously--it is business. He writes to please his employer, or if he owns
+the paper himself, he still writes to please his employer, that is to say,
+the public. Journalism, thy name is pander!
+
+The man who comes up the stairway furtively, with a manuscript he wants
+printed, is in dead earnest; and he has excited the ridicule, wrath or
+pity of editors for three hundred years. Such a one was Samuel Adams. His
+wife did her own work, and the grocer with bills in his hand often grew
+red in the face and knocked in vain.
+
+And yet the keen intellect of Samuel Adams was not a thing to smile at.
+Any one who stood before him, face to face, felt the power of the man, and
+acknowledged it then and there, as we always do when we stand in the
+presence of a strong individuality. And this inward acknowledgment of
+worth was instinctively made by John Hancock, the biggest man in all
+Boston town.
+
+John Hancock, through his genial, glowing personality, and his lavish
+spending of money, was very popular. He was being fed on flattery, and the
+more a man gets of flattery, once the taste is acquired, the more he
+craves. It is like the mad thirst for liquor, or the Romeike habit.
+
+John Hancock was getting attention, and he wanted more. He had been chosen
+selectman to fill the place that his uncle had occupied, and when Samuel
+Adams incidentally dropped a remark that good men were needed in the
+General Court, John Hancock agreed with him. He was named for the office
+and with Samuel Adams' help was easily elected.
+
+Not long after this, the sloop "Liberty" was seized by the government
+officials for violation of the revenue laws. The craft was owned by John
+Hancock and had surreptitiously landed a cargo of wine without paying
+duty.
+
+When the ship of Boston's chief citizen was seized by the bumptious,
+gilt-braided British officials, there was a merry uproar. All the men in
+the shipyards quit work, and the Calkers' Club, of which Samuel Adams was
+secretary, passed hot resolutions and revolutionary preambles and eulogies
+of John Hancock, who was doing so much for Boston.
+
+In fact, there was a riot, and three regiments of British troops were
+ordered to Boston.
+
+And this was the very first step on the part of England to enforce her
+authority, by arms, in America.
+
+The troops were in the town to preserve order, but the mob would not
+disperse. Upon the soldiers, they heaped every indignity and insult. They
+dared them to shoot, and with clubs and stones drove the soldiers before
+them. At last the troops made a stand and in order to save themselves from
+absolute rout fired a volley. Five men fell dead--and the mob dispersed.
+
+This was the so-called Boston massacre.
+
+Pinkerton guards would blush at bagging so small a game with a volley.
+They have done better again and again at Pittsburgh, Pottsville and
+Chicago.
+
+The riot was quelled, and out of the scrimmage various suits were
+instigated by the Crown against John Hancock, in the Court of Admiralty.
+The claims against him amounted to over three hundred thousand dollars,
+and the charge was that he had long been evading the revenue laws. John
+Adams was his attorney, with Samuel Adams as counsel, and vigorous efforts
+for prosecution and defense were being made.
+
+If the Crown were successful the suits would confiscate the entire Hancock
+estate--matters were getting in a serious way. Witnesses were summoned,
+but the trial was staved off from time to time.
+
+Hancock had refused to follow Samuel Adams' lead in the controversy with
+Governor Hutchinson as to the right to convene the General Court. The
+report was that John Hancock was growing lukewarm and siding with the
+Tories. A year had passed since the massacre had occurred, and the
+agitators proposed to commemorate the day.
+
+Colonel Hancock had appeared in many prominent parts, but never as an
+orator.
+
+"Why not show the town what you can do!" some one said.
+
+So John Hancock was invited to deliver the oration. He did so to an
+immense concourse. The address was read from the written page. It
+overflowed with wisdom and patriotism; and the earnestness and eloquence
+of the well-rounded periods was the talk of the town.
+
+The knowing ones went around corners and roared with laughter, but Samuel
+Adams said not a word. The charge was everywhere made by the captious and
+bickering that the speech was written by another, and that, moreover, John
+Hancock had not even a very firm hold on its import. It was the one speech
+of his life. Anyway, it so angered General Gage that he removed Colonel
+Hancock from his command of the cadets.
+
+An order was out for Hancock's arrest, and he and Samuel Adams were in
+hiding.
+
+The British troops marched out to Lexington to capture them, but Paul
+Revere was two hours ahead, and when the redcoats arrived the birds had
+flown.
+
+Then came the expulsion of the British, the closing of all courts, the
+Admiralty included. The merchant-prince breathed easier, and that was the
+last of the Crown versus John Hancock.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Throughout the months that had gone before, when the Hancock mansion was
+gay with floral decorations, and servants in livery stood at the door with
+silver trays, and the dancing-hall was bright with mirth and music, Samuel
+Adams had quietly been working his Bureau of Correspondence to the end
+that the thirteen Colonies of America should come together in convention.
+Chief mover of the plan, and the one man in Massachusetts who was giving
+all his time to it, he dictated whom Massachusetts should send as
+delegates. This delegation, as we know, included John Hancock, John Adams
+and Samuel Adams himself.
+
+From the danger of Lexington, Hancock and Adams made their way to
+Philadelphia to attend the Second Congress.
+
+At that time the rich men of New England were hurriedly making their way
+into the English fold. Some thought that the mother country had been
+harsh, but still, England had only acted within her right, and she was
+well able to back up this authority. She had regiment upon regiment of
+trained fighting men, warships, and money to build more. The Colonies had
+no army, no ships, no capital.
+
+Only those who have nothing to lose can afford to resist lawful
+authority--back into the fold they went, penitent and under their breath
+cursing the bull-headed men who insisted on plunging the country into red
+war.
+
+Out in the cold world stood John Hancock, alone, save for Bowdoin, among
+the aristocrats of New England. The British would confiscate his property,
+his splendid house--all would be gone!
+
+"It will all be gone, anyway," calmly suggested Samuel Adams. "You know
+those suits against you in the Admiralty Court?"
+
+"Yes, yes!"
+
+"And if we can unite these thirteen Colonies an army can be raised, and we
+can separate ourselves entire, in which case there will be glory for
+somebody."
+
+John Hancock, the rich, the ambitious, the pleasure-loving, had burned his
+bridges. He was in the hands of Samuel Adams, and his infamy was one with
+this man who was a professional agitator, and who had nothing to lose.
+
+General Gage had made an offer of pardon to all--all, save two men: Samuel
+Adams and John Hancock. Back into the fold tumbled the Tories, but against
+John Hancock the gates were barred. John Adams, Attorney of the Hancock
+estate, rubbed his chin, and decided to stand by the ship--sink or swim,
+survive or perish.
+
+Down in his heart Samuel Adams grimly smiled, but on his cold, pale face
+there was no sign.
+
+The British held Boston secure, and in the splendid mansion of Hancock
+lived the rebel, Lord Percy, England's pet. The furniture, plate and
+keeping of the place were quite to his liking.
+
+Hancock's ambitions grew as the days went by. The fight was on. His
+property was in the hands of the British, and a price was upon his head.
+He, too, now had nothing to lose. If England could be whipped he would get
+his property back, and the honors of victory would be his, beside.
+
+Ambition grew apace; he studied the Manual of Arms as never before, and
+made himself familiar with the lives of Caesar and Alexander. At Harvard,
+he had read the Anabasis on compulsion, but now he read it with zest.
+
+The Second Congress was a Congress of action; the first had been one
+merely of conference. A presiding officer was required, and Samuel Adams
+quietly pushed his man to the front. He let it be known that Hancock was
+the richest man in New England, perhaps in America, and a power in every
+emergency.
+
+John Hancock was given the office of presiding officer, the place of
+honor.
+
+The thought never occurred to him that the man on the floor is the man who
+acts, and the individual in the chair is only a referee, an onlooker of
+the contest. When a man is chosen to preside he is safely out of the way,
+and no one knew this better than that clear-headed man, wise as a serpent,
+Samuel Adams.
+
+Hancock was intent on being chosen Commander of the Continental Army. The
+war was in Massachusetts, her principal port closed, all business at a
+standstill. Hancock was a soldier, and was, moreover, the chief citizen
+of Massachusetts--the command should go to him. Samuel Adams knew this
+could never be.
+
+To hold the Southern Colonies and give the cause a show of reason before
+the world, an aristocrat with something to lose, and without a personal
+grievance, must be chosen, and the man must be from the South. To get
+Hancock in a position where his mouth would be stopped, he was placed in
+the chair. It was a master move.
+
+Colonel George Washington was already a hero; he had fought valiantly for
+England. His hands were clean; while Hancock was openly called a smuggler.
+Washington was nominated by John Adams. The motion was seconded by Samuel
+Adams. Hancock turned first red and then deathly pale. He grasped the arms
+of his chair with both hands, and--put the question.
+
+It was unanimous.
+
+Hancock's fame seems to rest on the fact that he was presiding officer of
+the Congress that passed the Declaration of Independence, and therefore
+its first signer, and, without consideration for cost of ink and paper,
+wrote his name in poster letters. When you look upon the Declaration the
+first thing you see is the signature of John Hancock, and you recall his
+remark, "I guess King George can read that without spectacles." The whole
+action was melodramatic, and although a bold signature has ever been said
+to betoken a bold heart, it has yet to be demonstrated that boys who
+whistle going through the woods are indifferent to danger. "Conscious
+weakness takes strong attitudes," says Delsarte. The strength of Hancock's
+signature was an affectation quite in keeping with his habit of riding
+about Boston in a coach-and-six, with outriders in uniform, and servants
+in livery.
+
+When Hancock wrote to Washington asking for an appointment in the army,
+the wise and farseeing chief replied with gentle words of praise
+concerning Colonel Hancock's record, and wound up by saying that he
+regretted there was no place at his disposal worthy of Colonel Hancock's
+qualifications. Well did he know that Hancock was not quite patriot enough
+to fill a lowly rank.
+
+The part that Hancock played in the eight years of war was inconspicuous.
+However, there was little spirit of revenge in his character: he sometimes
+scolded, but he did not hate. He never allowed personal animosities to
+make him waver in his loyalty to independence. In fact, with a price upon
+his head, but one course was open for him.
+
+Just before Washington was inaugurated President, he visited Boston, and a
+curious struggle took place between him and Hancock, who was Governor. It
+was all a question of etiquette--which should make the first call. Each
+side played a waiting game, and at last Hancock's gout came in as an
+excellent excuse and the country was saved.
+
+In one of his letters, Hancock says, "The entire Genteel portion of the
+town was invited to my House, while on the sidewalk I had a cask of
+Madeira for the Common People." His repeated re-election as Governor
+proves his popularity. Through lavish expenditure, his fortune was much
+reduced, and for many years he was sorely pressed for funds, his means
+being tied up in unproductive ways.
+
+His last triumph, as Governor, was to send a special message to the
+Legislature, informing that body that "a company of Aliens and Foreigners
+have entered the State, and the Metropolis of Government, and under
+advertisements insulting to all Good Men and Ladies have been pleased to
+invite them to attend certain Stage-Plays, Interludes and Theatrical
+Entertainments under the Style and Appellation of Moral Lectures.... All
+of which must be put a stop to to once and the Rogues and Varlots
+punished."
+
+A few days after this, "the Aliens and Foreigners" gave a presentation of
+Sheridan's "School for Scandal." In the midst of the performance the
+sheriff and a posse made a rush upon the stage and bagged all the
+offenders.
+
+When their trial came on, the next day, the "varlots and vagroms" had
+secured high legal talent to defend them, one of which counsel was
+Harrison Gray Otis. The actors were discharged on the slim technicality
+that the warrants of arrest had not been properly verified.
+
+However, the theater was closed, but the "Common People" made such an
+unseemly howl about "rights" and all that, that the Legislature made haste
+to repeal the law which provided that play-actors should be flogged.
+
+Hancock defaulted in his stewardship as Treasurer of Harvard College, and
+only escaped arrest for embezzlement through the fact that he was Governor
+of the State, and no process could be served upon him. After his death his
+estate paid nine years' simple interest on his deficit, and ten years
+thereafter, the principal was paid.
+
+His widow married Captain Scott, who was long in Hancock's employ as
+master of a brig; and we find the worthy captain proudly exclaiming, "I
+have embarked on the sea of Matrimony, and am now at the helm of the
+Hancock mansion!"
+
+No biography of Governor Hancock has ever been written. The record of his
+life flutters only in newspaper paragraphs, letters, and chance mention in
+various diaries.
+
+Hancock did not live to see John Adams President. Worn by worry, and grown
+old before his time, he died at the early age of fifty-six, of a
+combination of gout and that unplebeian complaint we now term Bright's
+Disease.
+
+Thirty-three years after, hale old John Adams down at Quincy spoke of him
+as "a clever fellow, a bit spoiled by a legacy, whom I used to know in my
+younger days."
+
+He left no descendants, and his heirs were too intent on being in at the
+death to care for his memory. They neither preserved the data of his life,
+nor over his grave placed a headstone. The monument that now marks his
+resting-place was recently erected by the State of Massachusetts. He was
+buried in the Old Granary Burying-Ground, on Tremont Street, and only a
+step from his grave sleeps his friend Samuel Adams.
+
+
+
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
+
+    To the guidance of the legislative councils; to the assistance of
+    the executive and subordinate departments; to the friendly
+    co-operation of the respective State Governments; to the candid
+    and liberal support of the people, so far as it may be deserved
+    by honest industry and zeal, I shall look for whatever success
+    may attend my public service; and knowing that "except the Lord
+    keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain," with fervent
+    supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I
+    commit, with humble but fearless confidence, my own fate and the
+    future destinies of my country.
+    --_Inaugural Address_
+
+[Illustration: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS]
+
+
+Nine miles south of Boston, just a little back from the escalloped shores
+of Old Ocean, lies the village of Braintree. It is on the Plymouth
+post-road, being one of that string of settlements, built a few miles
+apart for better protection, that lined the sea, Boston being crowded, and
+Plymouth full to overflowing, the home-seekers spread out north and south.
+
+In Sixteen Hundred Twenty, when the first cabin was built at Braintree,
+land that was not in sight of the coast had actually no value. Back a
+mile, all was a howling wilderness, with trails made by wild beasts or
+savage men as wild. These paths led through tangles of fallen trees and
+tumbled rocks, beneath dark, overhanging pines where winter's snows melted
+not till midsummer, and the sun's rays were strange and alien. Men who
+sought to traverse these ways had to crouch and crawl or climb. Through
+them no horse or ox or beast of burden had carried its load.
+
+But up from the sea the ground rose gradually for a mile, and along this
+slope that faced the tide, wind and storm had partly cleared the ground,
+and on the hillsides our forefathers made their homes. The houses were
+built facing either the east or the south. This persistence to face
+either the sun or the sea shows a last, strange rudiment of paganism,
+making queer angles now that surveyors have come with Gunter's chain and
+transit, laying out streets and doing their work.
+
+A mile out, north of Braintree, on the Boston road, came, in Sixteen
+Hundred Twenty-five, one Captain Wollaston, a merry wight, and thirty boon
+companions, all of whom probably left England for England's good. They
+were in search of gold and pelf, and all were agreed on one point: they
+were quite too good to do any hard work. Their camp was called Mount
+Wollaston, or the Merry Mount. Our gallant gentlemen cultivated the
+friendship of the Indians, in the hope that they would reveal the caves
+and caverns where the gold grew lush and nuggets cumbered the way; and the
+Indians, liking the drink they offered, brought them meal and corn and
+furs.
+
+And so the thirty set up a Maypole, adorned with bucks' horns, and drank
+and feasted, and danced like fairies or furies, the livelong day or night.
+So scandalously did these exiled lords behave that good folks made a wide
+circuit 'round to avoid their camp.
+
+Preaching had been in vain, and prayers for the conversion of the wretches
+remained unanswered. So the neighbors held a convention, and decided to
+send Captain Miles Standish with a posse to teach the merry men manners.
+
+Standish appeared among the bacchanalians one morning, perfectly sober,
+and they were not. He arrested the captain, and bade the others begone.
+The leader was shipped back to England, with compliments and regrets, and
+the thirty scattered. This was the first move in that quarter in favor of
+local option.
+
+Six years later, the land thereabouts was granted and apportioned out to
+the Reverend John Wilson, William Coddington, Edward Quinsey, James
+Penniman, Moses Payne and Francis Eliot.
+
+And these men and their families built houses and founded "the North
+Precinct of the Town of Braintree."
+
+Between the North Precinct and the South Precinct there was continual
+rivalry. Boys who were caught over the dead-line, which was marked by
+Deacon Penniman's house, had to fight. Thus things continued until
+Seventeen Hundred Ninety-two, when one John Adams was Vice-President of
+the United States. Now this John Adams, lawyer, was the son of John Adams,
+honest farmer and cordwainer, who had bought the Penniman homestead, and
+whose progenitor, Henry Adams, had moved there in Sixteen Hundred
+Thirty-six. John Adams, Vice-President, afterwards President, was born
+there in the Penniman house, and was regarded as a neutral, although he
+had been thrashed by boys both from the North and from the South Precinct.
+But at the last, there is no such thing as neutrality.
+
+John Adams sided with the boys from the North Precinct, and now that he
+was in power it occurred to him, having had a little experience in the
+revolutionary line, that for the North Precinct to secede from the great
+town of Braintree would be but proper and right.
+
+The North Precinct had six stores that sold W.I. goods, and a tavern that
+sold W.E.T. goods, and it should have a post-office of its own.
+
+So John Adams suggested the matter to Richard Cranch, who was his
+brother-in-law and near neighbor. Cranch agitated the matter, and the new
+town, which was the old, was incorporated. They called it Quincy, probably
+because Abigail, John's wife, insisted upon it. She had named her eldest
+boy Quincy, in honor of her grandfather, whose father's name was Quinsey,
+and who had relatives who spelled it De Quincey, one of which tribe was an
+opium-eater.
+
+Now, when Abigail made a suggestion, John usually heeded it. For Abigail
+was as wise as she was good, and John well knew that his success in life
+had come largely from the help, counsel and inspiration vouchsafed to him
+by this splendid woman. And the man who will not let a woman have her way
+in all such small matters as naming of babies or towns is not much of a
+man.
+
+So the town was named Quincy, and brother-in-law Cranch was appointed its
+first postmaster. Shortly after, the Boston "Centinel" contained a
+sarcastic article over the signature, "Old Subscriber," concerning the
+distribution of official patronage among kinsmen, and the Eliots and the
+Everetts gossiped over their back fences.
+
+At this time Abigail lived in the cottage there on the Plymouth road,
+halfway between Braintree and Quincy, but she got her mail at Quincy.
+
+The Adams cottage is there now, and the next time you are in Boston you
+had better go out and see it, just as June and I did one bright October
+day.
+
+June has lived within an hour's ride of the Adams' home all her blessed
+thirty-two sunshiny summers; she also boasts a Mayflower ancestry, with,
+however, a slight infusion of Castle Garden, like myself, to give firmness
+of fiber--and yet she had never been to Quincy.
+
+The John and Abigail cottage was built in Seventeen Hundred Sixteen, so
+says a truthful brick found in the quaint old chimney. Deacon Penniman
+built this house for his son, and it faces the sea, although the older
+Penniman house faces the south. John Adams was born in the older house;
+but when he used to go to Weymouth every Wednesday and Saturday evening to
+see Abigail Smith, the minister's daughter, his father, the worthy
+shoemaker, told him that when he got married he could have the other house
+for himself.
+
+John was a bright young lawyer then, a graduate of Harvard, where he had
+been sent in hopes that he would become a minister, for one-half the
+students then at Harvard were embryo preachers. But John did not take to
+theology.
+
+He had witnessed ecclesiastical tennis and theological pitch and toss in
+Braintree that had nearly split the town, and he decided on the law. One
+thing sure, he could not work: he was not strong enough for
+that--everybody said so. And right here seems a good place to call
+attention to the fact that weak men, like those who are threatened, live
+long. John Adams' letters to his wife reveal a very frequent reference to
+liver complaint, lung trouble, and that tired feeling, yet he lived to be
+ninety-two.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Smith did not at first favor the idea of his daughter
+Abigail marrying John Adams. The Adams family were only farmers (and
+shoemakers when it rained), while the Smiths had aristocracy on their
+side. He said lawyers were men who got bad folks out of trouble and good
+folks in. But Abigail said that this lawyer was different; and as Mr.
+Smith saw it was a love-match, and such things being difficult to combat
+successfully, he decided he would do the next best thing--give the young
+couple his blessing. Yet the neighbors were quite scandalized to think
+that their pastor's daughter should hold converse over the gate with a
+lawyer, and they let the clergyman know it as neighbors then did, and
+sometimes do now. Then did the Reverend Mr. Smith announce that he would
+preach a sermon on the sin of meddling with other folk's business. As his
+text he took the passage from Luke, seventh chapter, thirty-third verse:
+"For John came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, he
+hath a devil."
+
+The neighbors saw the point, for a short time before, when the eldest
+daughter, Mary, had married Richard Cranch (the man who was to achieve a
+post-office), the community had entered a protest, and the Reverend Mr.
+Smith had preached from Luke, tenth chapter, forty-second verse: "And Mary
+hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her." So
+there, now!
+
+And John and Abigail were married one evening at early candlelight, in the
+church at Weymouth. The good father performed the ceremony, and nearly
+broke down during it, they say, and then he kissed both bride and groom.
+
+The neighbors had repaired to the parsonage and were eating and drinking
+and making merry when John and Abigail slipped out by the back gate, and
+made their way, hand in hand, in the starlight, down the road that ran
+through the woods to Braintree. When near the village they cut across the
+pasture-lot and reached their cottage, which for several weeks they had
+been putting in order. John unlocked the front door, and they entered over
+the big, flat stone at the entry, and over which you may enter now, all
+sunken and worn by generations of men gone. Some whose feet have pressed
+that doorstep we count as the salt of the earth, for their names are
+written large on history's page. Washington rode out there on horseback,
+and while his aide held his horse, he visited and drank mulled cider and
+ate doughnuts within. Hancock came often, and Otis, Samuel Adams and
+Loring used to enter without plying the knocker.
+
+Through the earnest work of William G. Spear, the cottage has now been
+restored and fully furnished, as near like it was then as knowledge, fancy
+and imagination can devise.
+
+When we reached Quincy we saw a benevolent-looking old Puritan, and June
+said, "Ask him!"
+
+"Can you tell me where we can find Mr. Spear, the antiquarian?" I
+inquired.
+
+"The which?" said the son of Priscilla Mullins.
+
+"Mr. Spear, the antiquarian," I repeated.
+
+"It's not Bill Spear who keeps a secondhand-shop, you want, mebbe?"
+
+"Yes; I think that is the man."
+
+And so we were directed to the "secondhand-shop," which proved to be the
+rooms of the Quincy Historical Society. And there we saw such a wondrous
+collection of secondhand stuff that, as we looked and looked, and Mr.
+Spear explained, and gave large slices of Colonial history, June, who is a
+Daughter of the American Revolution, gushed a trifle more than was meet.
+
+Nothing short of a hundred years will set the seal of value on an article
+for Mr. Spear, and one hundred fifty is more like it. On his walls are
+hats, caps, spurs, boots and accouterments used in the Revolutionary War.
+Then there are candlesticks, snuffers, spectacles, butter-molds, bonnets,
+dresses, shoes, baby-stockings, cradles, rattles, aprons, butter-tubs made
+out of a solid piece, shovels to match, andirons, pokers, skillets and
+blue china galore.
+
+"Bill Spear" himself is quite a curiosity. He traces a lineage to the
+well-known Lieutenant Seth Spear, of Revolutionary fame, and back of that
+to John Alden, who spoke for himself. The bark on the antiquarian, is
+rather rough; and I regret to say that he makes use of a few words I can
+not find in the "Century Dictionary," but as June was not shocked I
+managed to stand it. On further acquaintance I concluded that Mr. Spear's
+bruskness was assumed, and that beneath the tough husk there beats a very
+tender heart. He is one of those queer fellows who do good by stealth and
+abuse you roundly if accused of it.
+
+For twenty-five years Mr. Spear has been doing little else but studying
+Colonial history, and making love to old ladies who own clocks and
+skillets given them by their great-grandmammas. There is no doubt that
+Spear has dictated clauses in a hundred wills devising that William G.
+Spear, Custodian of the Quincy Historical Society, shall have snuffers and
+biscuit-molds.
+
+At first, Mr. Spear collected for his own amusement and benefit, but the
+trouble grew upon him until it became chronic, and one fine day he
+realized that he was not immortal, and when he should die, all his
+collection, which had taken years to accumulate, would be scattered. And
+so he founded the Quincy Historical Society, incorporated by a perpetual
+charter, with Charles Francis Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, as
+first president.
+
+Then, the next thing was to secure the cottage where John and Abigail
+Adams began housekeeping, and where John Quincy was born. This house has
+been in the Adams family all these years and been rented to the firm of
+Tom, Dick and Harry, and any of their tribe who would agree to pay ten
+dollars a month for its use and abuse. Just across the road from the
+cottage lives a fine old soul by the name of John Crane. Mr. Crane is
+somewhere between seventy and a hundred years old, but he has a young
+heart, a face like Gladstone and a memory like a copy-book. Mr. Crane was
+on very good terms with John Quincy Adams, knew him well and had often
+seen him come here to collect rent. He told me that during his
+recollection the Adams place had been occupied by full forty families. But
+now, thanks to "Bill Spear," it is no longer for rent.
+
+The house has been raised from the ground, new sills placed under it, and
+while every part--scantling, rafter, joist, crossbeam, lath and
+weatherboard--of the original house has been retained, it has been put in
+such order that it is no longer going to ruin.
+
+From the ample stores of his various antiquarian depositories Mr. Spear
+has refurnished it; and with a ripe knowledge and rare good taste and
+restraining imagination, the cottage is now shown to us as a Colonial
+farmhouse of the year Seventeen Hundred Fifty. The wonder to me is that
+Mr. Spear, being human, did not move his "secondhand-shop" down here and
+make of the place a curiosity-shop. But he has done better.
+
+As you step across the doorsill and pass from the little entry into the
+"living-room," you pause and murmur, "Excuse me." For there is a fire on
+the hearth, the tea-kettle sings softly, and on the back of a chair hangs
+a sunbonnet. And over there on the table is an open Bible, and on the open
+page is a pair of spectacles and a red, crumpled handkerchief. Yes, the
+folks are at home: they have just stepped into the next room--perhaps are
+eating dinner. And so you sit down in an old hickory chair, or in the high
+settle that stands against the wall by the fireplace, and wait, expecting
+every moment that the kitchen-door will creak on its wooden hinges, and
+Abigail, smiling and gentle, will enter to greet you. Mr. Spear
+understands, and, disappearing, leaves you to your thoughts--and June's.
+
+John and Abigail were lovers their lifetime through. Their published
+letters show a oneness of thought and sentiment that, viewed across the
+years, moves us to tears to think that such as they should at last feebly
+totter, and then turn to dust. But here they came in the joyous springtime
+of their lives; upon this floor you tread the ways their feet have trod;
+these walls have echoed to their singing voices, listened to their
+counsels, and seen love's caress.
+
+There is no surplus furniture nor display nor setting forth of useless
+things. Every article you see has its use. The little shelf of books,
+well-thumbed, displays no "Trilby" nor "Quest of the Golden Girl"--not an
+anachronism any where. Curtains, chairs, tables, and the one or two
+pictures--all ring true. In the kitchen are washtubs and butter-ladles and
+bowls; and the lantern hanging by the chimney, with a dipped candle
+inside, has a carefully scraped horn face. It is a lanthorn. In the
+cupboard across the corner are blue china and pewter spoons and steel
+knives, with just a little polished-brass stuff sent from England. Down in
+the cellar, with its dirt walls, are apples, yellow pumpkins and
+potatoes--each in its proper place, for Abigail was a rare good
+housekeeper. Then there is a barrel of cider, with a hickory spigot and an
+inviting gourd. All tells of economy, thrift, industry and the cunning of
+woman's hands.
+
+In the kitchen is a funny cradle, hooded, and cut out of a great pine log.
+The little mattress and the coverlet seem disturbed, and you would declare
+the baby had just been lifted out, and you listen for its cry. The rocker
+is worn by the feet of mothers whose hands were busy with needles or wheel
+as they rocked and sang. And from the fact that it is in the kitchen, you
+know that the servant-girl problem then had no terrors.
+
+Overhead hang ears of corn, bunches of dried catnip, pennyroyal and
+boneset, and festooned across the corner are strings of dried apples.
+
+Then you go upstairs, with conscience pricking a bit for thus visiting the
+house of honest folks when they are away, for you know how all good
+housewives dislike to have people prying about, especially in the upper
+chambers--at least June said so!
+
+The room to the right was Abigail's own. You would know it was a woman's
+room. There is a faint odor of lavender and thyme about it, and the white
+and blue draperies around the little mirror, and the little feminine
+nothings on the dresser, reveal the lady who would appear well before the
+man she loves.
+
+The bed is a high, draped four-poster, plain and solid, evidently made by
+a ship-carpenter who had ambitions. The coverlet is light blue, and
+matches the draperies of windows, dresser and mirror. On the pillow is a
+nightcap, in which even a homely woman would be beautiful.
+
+There is a clothespress in the corner, into which Mr. Spear says we may
+look. On the door is a slippery-elm button, and within, hanging on wooden
+pegs, are dainty dresses; stiff, curiously embroidered gowns they are,
+that came from across the sea, sent, perhaps, by John Adams when he went
+to France, and left Abigail here to farm and sew and weave and teach the
+children. June examined the dresses carefully, and said the embroidery was
+handmade, and must have taken months and months to complete. On a high
+shelf of the closet are bandboxes, in which are bonnets, astonishing
+bonnets, with prodigious flaring fronts. Mr. Spear insisted that June
+should try one on, and when she did we stood off and declared the effect
+was a vision of loveliness. Outside the clothespress, on a peg, hangs a
+linsey-woolsey every-day gown that shows marks of wear. The waist came
+just under June's arms, and the bottom of the dress to her shoe-tops.
+
+We asked Mr. Spear the price of it, but the custodian is not commercial.
+In a corner of the room is a cedar chest containing hand-woven linen.
+
+By the front window is a little, low desk, with a leaf that opens out for
+a writing-shelf. And here you see quill-pens, fresh nibbed, and ink in a
+curious well made from horn. Here it was that Abigail wrote those letters
+to her lover-husband when he attended those first and second Congresses in
+Philadelphia; and then when he was in France and England, those letters in
+which we see affection, loyalty, tales of babies with colic, brave,
+political good sense, and all those foolish trifles that go to fill up
+love-letters, and, at the last, are their divine essence and charm.
+
+Here, she wrote the letter telling of going with their seven-year-old boy,
+John Quincy, to Penn's Hill to watch the burning of Charlestown; and saw
+the flashing of cannons and rising smoke that marked the battle of Bunker
+Hill. Here she wrote to her husband when he was minister to England,
+"This little cottage has more comfort and satisfaction for you than the
+courts of royalty."
+
+But of all the letters written by that brave woman none reveals her true
+nobility better than the one written to her husband the day he became
+President of the United States. Here it is entire:
+
+             Quincy, 8 February, 1797
+
+    "The sun is dressed in brightest beams,
+        To give thy honors to the day."
+
+    "And may it prove an auspicious prelude to each ensuing season.
+    You have this day to declare yourself head of a Nation. And now,
+    O Lord, my God, Thou hast made Thy servant ruler over the people.
+    Give unto him an understanding heart, that he may know how to go
+    out and come in before this great people; that he may discern
+    between good and bad. For who is able to judge this Thy so great
+    a people, were the words of a royal Sovereign; and not less
+    applicable to him who is invested with the Chief Magistracy of a
+    nation, though he wear not a crown, nor the robes of royalty.
+
+    "My thoughts and my meditations are with you, though personally
+    absent; and my petitions to Heaven are that the things which make
+    for peace may not be hidden from your eyes. My feelings are not
+    those of pride or ostentation upon the occasion.
+
+    "They are solemnized by a sense of the obligations, the important
+    trusts, and numerous duties connected with it. That you may be
+    enabled to discharge them with honor to yourself, with justice
+    and impartiality to your country, and with satisfaction to this
+    great people, shall be the daily prayer of your
+
+    "A.A."
+
+It was in this room that Abigail waited while British soldiers ransacked
+the rooms below and made bullets of the best pewter spoons. Here her son
+who was to be President was born.
+
+John Quincy Adams was six years old when his father kissed him good-by and
+rode away for Philadelphia with John Hancock and Samuel Adams (who rode a
+horse loaned him by John Adams). Abigail stood in the doorway holding the
+baby, and watched them disappear in the curve of the road. This was in
+August, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four. Most of the rest of that year
+Abigail was alone with her babies on the little farm. It was the same next
+year, and in Seventeen Hundred Seventy-six, too, when John Adams wrote
+home that he had made the formal move for Independency and also nominated
+George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the army; and he hoped things
+would soon be better.
+
+Those were troublous times in which to live in the vicinity of Boston.
+There were straggling troops passing up and down the Plymouth road every
+day. Sometimes they were redcoats and sometimes buff and blue, but all
+seemed to be very hungry and extremely thirsty, and the Adams household
+received a great deal more attention than it courted. The master of the
+house was away, but all seemed to know who lived there, and the callers
+were not always courteous.
+
+In such a feverish atmosphere of unrest, children evolve quickly into men
+and women, and their faces take on the look of thought where should be
+only careless, happy, dimpled smiles. Yes, responsibility matures, and
+that is the way John Quincy Adams got cheated out of his childhood.
+
+When eight years of age, his mother called him the little man of the
+house. The next year he was a post-rider, making a daily trip to Boston
+with letter-bags across his saddlebows.
+
+When eleven years of age, his father came home to say that some one had to
+go to France to serve with Jay and Franklin in making a treaty.
+
+"Go," said Abigail, "and God be with you!" But when it was suggested that
+John Quincy go, too, the parting did not seem so easy. But it was a fine
+opportunity for the boy to see the world of men, and the mother's head
+appreciated it even if her heart did not. And yet she had the heroism that
+is willing to remain behind.
+
+So father and son sailed away; and little John Quincy added postscripts to
+his father's letters and said, "I send my loving duty to my mamma."
+
+The boy took kindly to foreign ways, as boys will, and the French language
+had no such terrors for him as it had for his father. The first stay in
+Europe was only three months, and back they came on a leaky ship.
+
+But the home-stay was even shorter than the stay abroad, and John Adams
+had again to cross the water on his country's business. Again the boy went
+with him.
+
+It was five years before the mother saw him. And then he had gone on alone
+from Paris to London to meet her. She did not know him, for he was nearly
+eighteen and a man grown. He had visited every country in Europe and been
+the helper and companion of statesmen and courtiers, and seen society in
+its various phases. He spoke several languages, and in point of polish and
+manly dignity was the peer of many of his elders. Mrs. Adams looked at him
+and then began to cry, whether for joy or for sorrow she did not know. Her
+boy had gone, escaped her, gone forever, but, instead, here was a tall
+young diplomat calling her "mother."
+
+There was a career ahead for John Quincy Adams--his father knew it, his
+mother was sure of it, and John Quincy himself was not in doubt. He could
+then have gone right on, but his father was a Harvard man, and the New
+England superstition was strong in the Adams heart that success could only
+be achieved when based on a Harvard parchment.
+
+So back to Massachusetts sailed John Quincy; and a two-year course at
+Harvard secured the much-desired diploma.
+
+From the very time he crawled over this kitchen-floor and pushed a chair,
+learning to walk, or tumbled down the stairs and then made his way bravely
+up again alone, he knew that he would arrive. Precocious, proud, firm, and
+with a coldness in his nature that was not a heritage from either his
+father or his mother, he made his way.
+
+It was a zigzag course, and the way was strewn with the flotsam and jetsam
+of wrecked parties and blighted hopes, but out of the wreckage John Quincy
+Adams always appeared, calm, poised and serene. When he opposed the
+purchase of Louisiana it looks as if he allowed his animosity for
+Jefferson to put his judgment in chancery. He made mistakes, but this was
+the only blunder of his career. The record of that life expressed in bold
+stands thus:
+
+    1767--Born May Eleventh.
+    1776--Post-rider between Boston and Quincy.
+    1778---At school in Paris.
+    1780--At school in Leyden.
+    1781--Private Secretary to Minister to Russia.
+    1787---Graduated at Harvard.
+    1794--Minister at The Hague.
+    1797--Married Louise Catherine Johnson, of Maryland.
+    1797--Minister at Berlin.
+    1802--Member of Massachusetts State Senate.
+    1803--United States Senator.
+    1806--Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard
+    1809--Minister to Russia.
+    1811--Nominated and confirmed by Senate as Judge of Supreme Court
+          of the United States; declined.
+    1814--Commissioner at Ghent to treat for peace with Great Britain.
+    1815--Minister to Great Britain.
+    1817--Secretary of State.
+    1825--Elected President of the United States.
+    1830--Elected a Member of Congress, and represented the district
+          for seventeen years.
+    1848--Stricken with paralysis February Twenty-first in the
+          Capitol, and died the second day after.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Aren't we staying in this room a good while?" said June; "you have sat
+there staring out of that window looking at nothing for just ten minutes,
+and not a word have you spoken!"
+
+Mr. Spear had disappeared into space, and so we made our way across the
+little hall to the room that belonged to Mr. Adams. It was in the disorder
+that men's rooms are apt to be. On the table were quill-pens and curious
+old papers with seals on them, and on one I saw the date, June Sixteenth,
+Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight--the whole document written out in the hand
+of John Adams, beginning very prim and careful, then moving off into a
+hurried scrawl as spirit mastered the letter. There is a little
+hair-covered trunk in the corner, studded with brass nails, and boots and
+leggings and canes and a jackknife and a bootjack, and, on the
+window-sill, a friendly snuffbox. In the clothespress were buff trousers
+and an embroidered coat, and shoes with silver buckles, and several suits
+of every-day clothes, showing wear and patches.
+
+On up to the garret we groped, and bumped our heads against the rafters.
+The light was dim, but we could make out more apples on strings, and roots
+and herbs in bunches hung from the peak. Here was a three-legged chair and
+a broken spinning-wheel, and the junk that is too valuable to throw away,
+yet not good enough to keep, but "some day may be needed."
+
+Down the narrow stairway we went, and in the little kitchen, Sammy, the
+artist, and Mr. Spear, the custodian, were busy at the fireplace preparing
+dinner. There is no stove in the house, and none is needed. The crane and
+brick oven and long-handled skillets suffice. Sammy is an expert
+camp-cook, and swears there is death in the chafing-dish, and grows
+profane if you mention one. His skill in turning flapjacks by a simple
+manipulation of the long-handled griddle means more to his true ego than
+the finest canvas.
+
+June offered to set the table, but Sammy said she could never do it alone,
+so together they brought out the blue china dishes and the pewter plates.
+Then they drew water at the stone-curbed well with the great sweep,
+carrying the leather-baled bucket between them.
+
+I was feeling quite useless and asked, "Can't I do something to help?"
+
+"There is the lye-leach--you might bring out some ashes and make some soft
+soap," said June pointing to the ancient leach and soap-kettle in the
+yard, the joys of Mr. Spear's heart.
+
+Sammy stood at the back door and pounded on the dishpan with a wooden
+spoon to announce that dinner was ready. It was quite a sumptuous meal:
+potatoes baked in the ashes, beans baked in the brick oven, coffee made on
+the hearth, fish cooked in the skillet, and pancakes made on a griddle
+with a handle three feet long.
+
+Mr. Spear had aspirations toward an apple-pie and had made violent efforts
+in that direction, but the product being dough on top and charcoal on the
+bottom we declined the nomination with thanks.
+
+June suggested that pies should be baked in an oven and not cooked on a
+pancake griddle. The custodian thought there might be something in it--a
+suggestion he would have scorned and scouted had it come from me.
+
+To change the rather painful subject, Mr. Spear began to talk about John
+and Abigail Adams, and to quote from their "Letters," a volume he seems to
+have by heart.
+
+"Do you know why their love was so very steadfast, and why they stimulated
+the mental and spiritual natures of each other so?" asked June.
+
+"No, why was it?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you: it was because they spent one-third of their married
+life apart."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, and in this way they lived in an ideal world. In all their letters
+you see they are always counting the days ere they will meet. Now, people
+who are together all the time never write that way, because they do not
+feel that way--I'll leave it to Mr. Spear!"
+
+But Mr. Spear, being a bachelor, did not know. Then the case was referred
+to Sammy, and Sammy lied and said he had never considered the subject.
+
+"And would you advise, then, that married couples live apart one-third of
+the time, in the interests of domestic peace?" I asked.
+
+"Certainly!" said June, with her Burne-Jones chin in the air. "Certainly;
+but I fear you are the man who does not understand; and anyway I am sure
+it will be much more profitable for us to cultivate the receptive spirit
+and listen to Mr. Spear--such opportunities do not come very often. I did
+not mean to interrupt you, Mr. Spear; go on, please!"
+
+And Mr. Spear filled a clay pipe with natural leaf that he crumbled in his
+hand, and deftly picking a coal from the fireplace with a shovel one
+hundred fifty years old, puffed five times silently, and began to talk.
+
+
+
+
+ALEXANDER HAMILTON
+
+    The objects to be attained are: To justify and preserve the
+    confidence of the most enlightened friends of good government; to
+    promote the increasing respectability of the American name; to
+    answer the calls of justice; to restore landed property to its
+    due value; to furnish new sources both to agriculture and to
+    commerce; to cement more closely the union of the States; to add
+    to their security against foreign attack; to establish public
+    order on the basis of an upright and liberal policy: these are
+    the great and invaluable ends to be secured by a proper and
+    adequate provision, at the present period, for the support of
+    public credit.
+    --_Report to Congress_
+
+[Illustration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON]
+
+
+We do not know the name of the mother of Alexander Hamilton: we do not
+know the given name of his father. But from letters, a diary and
+pieced-out reports, allowing fancy to bridge from fact to fact, we get a
+patchwork history of the events preceding the birth of this wonderful man.
+
+Every strong man has had a splendid mother. Hamilton's mother was a woman
+of wit, beauty and education. While very young, through the machinations
+of her elders, she had been married to a man much older than
+herself--rich, wilful and dissipated. The man's name was Lavine, but his
+first name we do not know, so hidden were the times in a maze of
+obscurity. The young wife very soon discovered the depravity of this man
+whom she had vowed to love and obey; divorce was impossible; and rather
+than endure a lifelong existence of legalized shame, she packed up her
+scanty effects and sought to hide herself from society and kinsmen by
+going to the West Indies.
+
+There she hoped to find employment as a governess in the family of one of
+the rich planters; or if this plan were not successful she would start a
+school on her own account, and thus benefit her kind and make for herself
+an honorable living. Arriving at the island of Nevis, she found that the
+natives did not especially desire education, certainly not enough to pay
+for it, and there was no family requiring a governess. But a certain
+Scotch planter by the name of Hamilton, who was consulted, thought in time
+that a school could be built up, and he offered to meet the expense of it
+until such a time as it could be put on a paying basis. Unmarried women
+who accept friendly loans from men stand in dangerous places. With all
+good women, heart-whole gratitude and a friendship that seems unselfish
+ripen easily into love. They did so here. Perhaps, in a warm, ardent
+temperament, sore grief and biting disappointment and crouching want
+obscure the judgment and give a show of reason to actions that a colder
+intellect would disapprove.
+
+On the frontiers of civilization man is greater than law--all ceremonies
+are looked upon lightly. In a few months Mrs. Lavine was called by the
+little world of Nevis, Mrs. Hamilton, and Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton regarded
+themselves as man and wife.
+
+The planter Hamilton was a hard-headed, busy individual, who was quite
+unable to sympathize with his wife's finer aspirations. Her first husband
+had been clever and dissipated; this one was worthy and dull. And thus
+deprived of congenial friendships, without books or art or that social
+home life which goes to make up a woman's world, and longing for the
+safety of close sympathy and tender love, with no one on whom her
+intellect could strike a spark, she keenly felt the bitterness of exile.
+
+In a city where society ebbs and flows, an intellectual woman married to a
+commerce-grubbing man is not especially to be pitied. She can find
+intellectual affinities that will ease the irksomeness of her situation.
+But to be cast on a desert isle with a being, no matter how good, who is
+incapable of feeling with you the eternal mystery of the encircling tides;
+who can only stare when you speak of the moaning lullaby of the restless
+sea; who knows not the glory of the sunrise, and feels no thrill when the
+breakers dash themselves into foam, or the moonlight dances on the
+phosphorescent waves--ah, that is indeed exile! Loneliness is not in being
+alone, for then ministering spirits come to soothe and bless--loneliness
+is to endure the presence of one who does not understand.
+
+And so this finely organized, receptive, aspiring woman, through the
+exercise of a will that seemed masculine in its strength, found her feet
+mired in quicksand. She struggled to free herself, and every effort only
+sank her deeper. The relentless environment only held her with firmer
+clutch.
+
+She thirsted for knowledge, for sweet music, for beauty, for sympathy, for
+attainment. She had a heart-hunger that none about her understood. She
+strove for better things. She prayed to God, but the heavens were as
+brass; she cried aloud, and the only answer was the throbbing of her
+restless heart.
+
+In this condition, a son was born to her. They called his name Alexander
+Hamilton. This child was heir to all his mother's splendid ambitions. Her
+lack of opportunity was his blessing; for the stifled aspirations of her
+soul charged his being with a strong man's desires, and all the mother's
+silken, unswerving will was woven through his nature. He was to surmount
+obstacles that she could not overcome, and to tread under his feet
+difficulties that to her were invincible.
+
+The prayer of her heart was answered, but not in the way she expected. God
+listened to her after all; for every earnest prayer has its answer, and
+not a sincere desire of the heart but somewhere will find its
+gratification.
+
+But earth's buffets were too severe for the brave young woman; the forces
+in league against her were more than she could withstand, and before her
+boy was out of baby dresses she gave up the struggle, and went to her long
+rest, soothed only by the thought that, although she had sorely blundered,
+she yet had done her work as best she could.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At his mother's death, we find Alexander Hamilton taken in charge by
+certain mystical kinsmen. Evidently he was well cared for, as he grew into
+a handsome, strong lad--small, to be sure, but finely formed. Where he
+learned to read, write and cipher we know not; he seems to have had one of
+those active, alert minds that can acquire knowledge on a barren island.
+
+When nine years old, he signed his name as witness to a deed. The
+signature is needlessly large and bold, and written with careful schoolboy
+pains, but the writing shows the same characteristics that mark the
+thousand and one dispatches which we have, signed at bottom, "G.
+Washington."
+
+At twelve years of age, he was clerk in a general store--one of those
+country stores where everything is kept, from ribbon to whisky. There were
+other helpers in the store, full grown; but when the proprietor went away
+for a few days into the interior, the dark, slim youngster took charge of
+the bookkeeping and the cash; and made such shrewd exchanges of
+merchandise for produce that when the "Old Man" returned, the lad was
+rewarded by two pats on the head and a raise in salary of one shilling a
+week.
+
+About this time, the boy was also showing signs of literary skill by
+writing sundry poems and "compositions," and one of his efforts in this
+line describing a tropical hurricane was published in a London paper.
+
+This opened the eyes of the mystical kinsmen to the fact that they had a
+genius among them, and the elder Hamilton was importuned for money to send
+the boy to Boston that he might receive a proper education and come back
+and own the store and be a magistrate and a great man. No doubt the lad
+pressed the issue, too, for his ambition had already begun to ferment, as
+we find him writing to a friend, "I'll risk my life, though not my
+character, to exalt my station."
+
+Most great things in America have to take their rise in Boston; so it
+seems meet that Alexander Hamilton, aged fifteen, a British subject,
+should first set foot on American soil at Long Wharf, Boston. He took a
+ferry over to Cambridgeport and walked through the woods three miles to
+Harvard College. Possibly he did not remain because his training in a
+bookish way had not been sufficient for him to enter, and possibly he did
+not like the Puritanic visage of the old professor who greeted him on the
+threshold of Massachusetts Hall; at any rate, he soon made his way to New
+Haven. Yale suited him no better, and he took a boat for New York.
+
+He had letters to several good clergymen in New York, and they proved wise
+and good counselors. The boy was advised to take a course at the Grammar
+School at Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
+
+There he remained a year, applying himself most vigorously, and the next
+Fall he knocked at the gate of King's College. It is called Columbia now,
+because kings in America went out of fashion, and all honors formerly
+paid to the king were turned over to Miss Columbia, Goddess of Freedom.
+
+King's College swung wide its doors for the swarthy little West Indian. He
+was allowed to choose his own course, and every advantage of the
+university was offered him. In a university, you get just all you are able
+to hold--it depends upon yourself--and at the last all men who are made at
+all are self-made.
+
+Hamilton improved each passing moment as it flew; with the help of a tutor
+he threw himself into his work, gathering up knowledge with the quick
+perception and eager alertness of one from whom the good things of earth
+have been withheld.
+
+Yet he lived well and spent his money as if there were plenty more where
+it came from; but he was never dissipated nor wasteful.
+
+This was in the year Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, and the Colonies were
+in a state of political excitement. Young Hamilton's sympathies were all
+with the mother country. He looked upon the Americans, for the most part,
+as a rude, crude and barbaric people, who should be very grateful for the
+protection of such an all-powerful country as England. At his
+boarding-house and at school, he argued the question hotly, defending
+England's right to tax her dependencies.
+
+One fine day, one of his schoolmates put the question to him flatly: "In
+case of war, on which side will you fight?" Hamilton answered, "On the
+side of England."
+
+But by the next day he had reasoned it out that if England succeeded in
+suppressing the rising insurrection she would take all credit to herself;
+and if the Colonies succeeded there would be honors for those who did the
+work. Suddenly it came over him that there was such a thing as "the divine
+right of insurrection," and that there was no reason why men living in
+America should be taxed to support a government across the sea. The wealth
+produced in America should be used to develop America.
+
+He was young, and burning with a lofty ambition. He knew, and had known
+all along, that he would some day be great and famous and powerful--here
+was the opportunity.
+
+And so, next day, he announced at the boarding-house that the eloquence
+and logic of his messmates were too powerful to resist--he believed the
+Colonies and the messmates were in the right. Then several bottles were
+brought in, and success was drunk to all men who strove for liberty.
+
+Patriotic sentiment is at the last self-interest; in fact, Herbert Spencer
+declares that there is no sane thought or rational act but has its root in
+egoism.
+
+Shortly after the young man's conversion, there was a mass-meeting held in
+"The Fields," which meant the wilds of what is now the region of
+Twenty-third Street.
+
+Young Hamilton stood in the crowd and heard the various speakers plead the
+cause of the Colonies, and urge that New York should stand firm with
+Massachusetts against the further encroachments and persecutions of
+England. There were many Tories in the crowd, for New York was with King
+George as against Massachusetts, and these Tories asked the speakers
+embarrassing questions that the speakers failed to answer. And all the
+time young Hamilton found himself nearer and nearer the platform. Finally,
+he undertook to reply to a talkative Tory, and some one shouted, "Give him
+the platform--the platform!" and in a moment this seventeen-year-old boy
+found himself facing two thousand people. There was hesitation and
+embarrassment, but the shouts of one of his college chums, "Give it to
+'em! Give it to 'em!" filled in an awkward instant, and he began to speak.
+There was logic and lucidity of expression, and as he talked the air
+became charged with reasons, and all he had to do was to reach up and
+seize them.
+
+His strong and passionate nature gave gravity to his sentences, and every
+quibbling objector found himself answered, and more than answered, and the
+speakers who were to present the case found this stripling doing the work
+so much better than they could, that they urged him on with applause and
+loud cries of "Bravo! Bravo!"
+
+Immediately at the close of Hamilton's speech, the chairman had the good
+sense to declare the meeting adjourned--thus shutting off all reply, as
+well as closing the mouths of the minnow orators who usually pop up to
+neutralize the impression that the strong man has made.
+
+Hamilton's speech was the talk of the town. The leading Whigs sought him
+out and begged that he would write down his address so that they could
+print it as a pamphlet in reply to the Tory pamphleteers who were
+vigorously circulating their wares. The pens of ready writers were scarce
+in those days: men could argue, but to present a forcible written brief
+was another thing. So young Hamilton put his reasons on paper, and their
+success surprised the boys at the boarding-house, and the college chums
+and the professors, and probably himself as well. His name was on the lips
+of all Whigdom, and the Tories sent messengers to buy him off.
+
+But Congress was willing to pay its defenders, and money came from
+somewhere--not much, but all the young man needed. College was dropped;
+the political pot boiled; and the study of history, economics and
+statecraft filled the daylight hours to the brim and often ran over into
+the night.
+
+The Winter of Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five passed away; the plot
+thickened. New York had reluctantly consented to be represented in
+Congress and agreed grumpily to join hands with the Colonies.
+
+The redcoats had marched out to Concord--and back; and the embattled
+farmers had stood and fired the shot "heard 'round the world."
+
+Hamilton was working hard to bring New York over to an understanding that
+she must stand firm against English rule. He organized meetings, gave
+addresses, wrote letters, newspaper articles and pamphlets. Then he joined
+a military company and was perfecting himself in the science of war.
+
+There were frequent outbreaks between Tory mobs and Whigs, and the
+breaking up of your opponents' meeting was looked upon as a pleasant
+pastime.
+
+Then came the British ship "Asia" and opened fire on the town. This no
+doubt made Whigs of a good many Tories. Whig sentiment was on the
+increase; gangs of men marched through the streets and the king's stores
+were broken into, and prominent Royalists found their houses being
+threatened.
+
+Doctor Cooper, President of King's College, had been very pronounced in
+his rebukes to Congress and the Colonies, and a mob made its way to his
+house. Arriving there, Hamilton and his chum Troup were found on the
+steps, determined to protect the place. Hamilton stepped forward, and in a
+strong speech urged that Doctor Cooper had merely expressed his own
+private views, which he had a right to do, and the house must not on any
+account be molested. While the parley was in progress, old Doctor Cooper
+himself appeared at one of the upper windows and excitedly cautioned the
+crowd not to listen to that blatant young rapscallion Hamilton, as he was
+a rogue and a varlet and a vagrom. The good Doctor then slammed the window
+and escaped by the back way.
+
+His remarks raised a laugh in which even young Hamilton joined, but his
+mistake was very natural in view of the fact that he only knew that
+Hamilton had deserted the college and espoused the devil's cause; and not
+having heard his remarks, but seeing him standing on his steps haranguing
+a crowd, thought surely he was endeavoring to work up mischief against his
+old preceptor, who had once plucked him in Greek.
+
+It seems to have been the intention of his guardians that the limit of
+young Hamilton's stay in America was to be two years, and by that time his
+education would be "complete," and he would return to the West Indies and
+surprise the natives.
+
+But his father, who supplied the money, and the mystical kinsmen who
+supplied advice, and the kind friends who had given him letters to the
+Presbyterian clergymen at New York and Princeton, had figured without
+their host. Young Hamilton knew all that Nevis had in store for him: he
+knew its littleness, its contumely and disgrace, and in the secret
+recesses of his own strong heart he had slipped the cable that held him to
+the past. No more remittances from home; no more solicitous advice; no
+more kind, loving letters--the past was dead.
+
+For England he once had had an almost idolatrous regard; to him she had
+once been the protector of his native land, the empress of the seas, the
+enlightener of mankind; but henceforth he was an American.
+
+He was to fight America's battles, to share in her victory, to help make
+of her a great Nation, and to weave his name into the web of her history
+so that as long as the United States of America shall be remembered, so
+long also shall be remembered the name of Alexander Hamilton.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What General Washington called his "family" usually consisted of sixteen
+men. These were his aides, and more than that, his counselors and friends.
+In Washington's frequent use of that expression, "my family," there is a
+touch of affection that we do not expect to find in the tents of war. In
+rank, the staff ran the gamut from captain to general. Each man had his
+appointed work and made a daily report to his chief. When not in actual
+action, the family dined together daily, and the affair was conducted with
+considerable ceremony. Washington sat at the head of the table, large,
+handsome and dignified. At his right hand was seated the guest of honor,
+and there were usually several invited friends. At his left sat Alexander
+Hamilton, ready with quick pen to record the orders of his chief.
+
+And methinks it would have been quite worth while to have had a place at
+that board, and looked down the table at "the strong, fine face, tinged
+with melancholy," of Washington; and the cheery, youthful faces of
+Lawrence, Tilghman, Lee, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and the others of
+that brave and handsome company. Well might they have called Washington
+father, for this he was in spirit to them all--grave, gentle, courteous
+and magnanimous, yet exacting strict and instant obedience from all; and
+well, too, may we imagine that this obedience was freely and cheerfully
+given.
+
+Hamilton became one of Washington's family on March First, Seventeen
+Hundred Seventy-seven, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was barely
+twenty years of age; Washington was forty-seven, and the average age of
+the family, omitting its head, was twenty-five. All had been selected on
+account of superior intelligence and a record of dashing courage. When
+Hamilton took his place at the board, he was the youngest member, save
+one. In point of literary talent, he stood among the very foremost in the
+country, for then there was no literature in America save the literature
+of politics; and as an officer, he had shown rare skill and bravery.
+
+And yet, such was Hamilton's ambition and confidence in himself, that he
+hesitated to accept the position, and considered it an act of sacrifice to
+do so. But having once accepted, he threw himself into the work and became
+Washington's most intimate and valued assistant. Washington's
+correspondence with his generals, with Congress, and the written decisions
+demanded daily on hundreds of minor questions, mostly devolved on
+Hamilton, for work gravitates to him who can do it best. A simple "Yes,"
+"No" or "Perhaps" from the chief must be elaborated into a diplomatic
+letter, conveying just the right shade of meaning, all with its proper
+emphasis and show of dignity and respect. Thousands of these dispatches
+can now be seen at the Capitol; and the ease, grace, directness and
+insight shown in them are remarkable. There is no muddy rhetoric or
+befuddled clauses. They were written by one with a clear understanding,
+who was intent that the person addressed should understand, too.
+
+Many of these documents were merely signed by Washington, but a few reveal
+interlined sentences and an occasional word changed in Washington's hand,
+thus showing that all was closely scrutinized and digested.
+
+As a member of Washington's staff, Hamilton did not have the independent
+command that he so much desired; but he endured that heroic Winter at
+Valley Forge, was present at all the important battles, took an active
+part in most of them, and always gained honor and distinction.
+
+As an aide to Washington, Hamilton's most important mission was when he
+was sent to General Gates to secure reinforcements for the Southern army.
+Gates had defeated Burgoyne and won a full dozen stern victories in the
+North. In the meantime, Washington had done nothing but make a few brave
+retreats. Gates' army was made up of hardy and seasoned soldiers, who had
+met the enemy and defeated him over and over again. The flush of success
+was on their banners; and Washington knew that if a few thousand of those
+rugged veterans could be secured to reinforce his own well-nigh
+discouraged troops, victory would also perch upon the banners of the
+South.
+
+As a superior officer he had the right to demand these troops; but to
+reduce the force of a general who is making an excellent success is not
+the common rule of war. The country looked upon Gates as its savior, and
+Gates was feeling a little that way himself. Gates had but to demand it,
+and the position of Commander-in-Chief would go to him. Washington
+thoroughly realized this, and therefore hesitated about issuing an order
+requesting a part of Gates' force. To secure these troops as if the
+suggestion came from Gates was a most delicate commission. Alexander
+Hamilton was dispatched to Gates' headquarters, armed, as a last resort,
+with a curt military order to the effect that he should turn over a
+portion of his army to Washington. Hamilton's orders were: "Bring the
+troops, but do not deliver this order unless you are obliged to."
+
+Hamilton brought the troops, and returned the order with seal intact.
+
+The act of his sudden breaking with Washington has been much exaggerated.
+In fact, it was not a sudden act at all, for it had been premeditated for
+some months. There was a woman in the case. Hamilton had done more than
+conquer General Gates on that Northern trip; at Albany, he had met
+Elizabeth, daughter of General Schuyler, and won her after what has been
+spoken of as "a short and sharp skirmish." Both Alexander and Elizabeth
+regarded "a clerkship" as quite too limited a career for one so gifted;
+they felt that nothing less than commander of a division would answer. How
+to break loose--that was the question.
+
+And when Washington met him at the head of the stairs of the New Windsor
+Hotel and sharply chided him for being late, the young man embraced the
+opportunity and said, "Sir, since you think I have been remiss, we part."
+
+It was the act of a boy; and the figure of this boy, five feet five inches
+high, weight one hundred twenty, aged twenty-four, talking back to his
+chief, six feet three, weight two hundred, aged fifty, has its comic side.
+Military rule demands that every one shall be on time, and Washington's
+rebuke was proper and right. Further than this, one feels that if he had
+followed up his rebuke by boxing the young man's ears for "sassing back,"
+he would still not have been outside the lines of duty.
+
+But an hour afterwards we find Washington sending for the youth and
+endeavoring to mend the break. And although Hamilton proudly repelled his
+advances, Washington forgave all and generously did all he could to
+advance the young man's interests. Washington's magnanimity was absolutely
+without flaw, but his attitude towards Hamilton has a more suggestive
+meaning when we consider that it was a testimonial of the high estimate he
+placed on Hamilton's ability.
+
+At Yorktown, Washington gave Hamilton the perilous privilege of leading
+the assault. Hamilton did his work well, rushing with fiery impetuosity
+upon the fort--carried all before him, and in ten minutes had planted the
+Stars and Stripes on the ramparts of the enemy.
+
+It was a fine and fitting close to his glorious military career.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Washington became President, the most important office to be filled
+was that of manager of the exchequer. In fact, all there was of it was the
+office--there was no treasury, no mint, no fixed revenue, no credit; but
+there were debts--foreign and domestic--and clamoring creditors by the
+thousand. The debts consisted of what was then the vast sum of eighty
+million dollars. The treasury was empty. Washington had many advisers who
+argued that the Nation could never live under such a weight of debt--the
+only way was flatly and frankly to repudiate--wipe the slate clean--and
+begin afresh.
+
+This was what the country expected would be done; and so low was the hope
+of payment that creditors could be found who were willing to compromise
+their claims for ten cents on the dollar. Robert Morris, who had managed
+the finances during the period of the Confederation, utterly refused to
+attempt the task again, but he named a man who, he said, could bring order
+out of chaos, if any living man could. That man was Alexander Hamilton.
+Washington appealed to Hamilton, offering him the position of Secretary of
+the Treasury. Hamilton, aged thirty-two, gave up his law practise, which
+was yielding him ten thousand a year, to accept this office which paid
+three thousand five hundred. Before the British cannon, Washington did not
+lose heart, but to face the angry mob of creditors waving white-paper
+claims made him quake; but with Hamilton's presence his courage came back.
+
+The first thing that Hamilton decided upon was that there should be no
+repudiation--no offer of compromise would be considered--every man should
+be paid in full. And further than this, the general government would
+assume the entire war debt of each individual State. Washington concurred
+with Hamilton on these points, but he could make neither oral nor written
+argument in a way that would convince others; so this task was left to
+Hamilton. Hamilton appeared before Congress and explained his
+plans--explained them so lucidly and with such force and precision that he
+made an indelible impression. There were grumblers and complainers, but
+these did not and could not reply to Hamilton, for he saw all over and
+around the subject, and they saw it only at an angle. Hamilton had studied
+the history of finance, and knew the financial schemes of every country.
+No question of statecraft could be asked him for which he did not have a
+reply ready. He knew the science of government as no other man in America
+then did, and recognizing this, Congress asked him to prepare reports on
+the collection of revenue, the coasting trade, the effects of a tariff,
+shipbuilding, post-office extension, and also a scheme for a judicial
+system. When in doubt they asked Hamilton.
+
+And all the time Hamilton was working at this bewildering maze of detail,
+he was evolving that financial policy, broad, comprehensive and minute,
+which endures even to this day, even to the various forms of accounts that
+are now kept at the Treasury Department at Washington.
+
+His insistence that to preserve the credit of a nation every debt must be
+paid, is an idea that no statesman now dare question. The entire aim and
+intent of his policy was high, open and frank honesty. The people should
+be made to feel an absolute security in their government, and this being
+so, all forms of industry would prosper, "and the prosperity of the people
+is the prosperity of the Nation." To such a degree of confidence did
+Hamilton raise the public credit that in a very short time the government
+found no trouble in borrowing all the money it needed at four per cent;
+and yet this was done in face of the fact that its debt had increased.
+
+Just here was where his policy invited its strongest and most bitter
+attack. For there are men today who can not comprehend that a public debt
+is a public blessing, and that all liabilities have a strict and
+undivorceable relationship to assets. Alexander Hamilton was a leader of
+men. He could do the thinking of his time and map out a policy, "arranging
+every detail for a kingdom." He has been likened to Napoleon in his
+ability to plan and execute with rapid and marvelous precision, and surely
+the similarity is striking.
+
+But he was not an adept in the difficult and delicate art of
+diplomacy--he could not wait. He demanded instant obedience, and lacked
+all of that large, patient, calm magnanimity so splendidly shown forth
+since by Abraham Lincoln. Unlike Jefferson, his great rival, he could not
+calmly and silently bide his time. But I will not quarrel with a man
+because he is not some one else.
+
+He saw things clearly at a glance; he knew because he knew; and if others
+would not follow, he had the audacity to push on alone. This recklessness
+to the opinion of the slow and plodding, this indifference to the dull,
+gradually drew upon him the hatred of a class.
+
+They said he was a monarchist at heart and "such men are dangerous." The
+country became divided into those who were with Hamilton and those who
+were against him. The very transcendent quality of his genius wove the net
+that eventually was to catch his feet and accomplish his ruin.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It has been the usual practise for nearly a hundred years to refer to
+Aaron Burr as a roue, a rogue and a thorough villain, who took the life of
+a gentle and innocent man.
+
+I have no apologies to make for Colonel Burr; the record of his life lies
+open in many books, and I would neither conceal nor explain away.
+
+If I should attempt to describe the man and liken him to another, that man
+would be Alexander Hamilton.
+
+They were the same age within ten months; they were the same height within
+an inch; their weight was the same within five pounds, and in temperament
+and disposition they resembled each other as brothers seldom do. Each was
+passionate, ambitious, proud.
+
+In the drawing-room where one of these men chanced to be, there was room
+for no one else--such was the vivacity, the wit, and the generous, glowing
+good-nature shown. With women, the manner of these men was most gentle and
+courtly; and the low, alluring voice of each was music's honeyed flattery
+set to words.
+
+Both were much under the average height, yet the carriage of each was so
+proud and imposing that everywhere they went men made way, and women
+turned and stared.
+
+Both were public speakers and lawyers of such eminence that they took
+their pick of clients and charged all the fee that policy would allow. In
+debate, there was a wilful aggressiveness, a fiery sureness, a lofty
+certainty, that moved judges and juries to do their bidding. Henry Cabot
+Lodge says that so great was Hamilton's renown as a lawyer that clients
+flocked to him because the belief was abroad that no judge dare decide
+against him. With Burr it was the same.
+
+Both made large sums, and both spent them all as fast as made.
+
+In point of classic education, Burr had the advantage. He was the grandson
+of the Reverend Jonathan Edwards. In his strong, personal magnetism, and
+keen, many-sided intellect, Aaron Burr strongly resembled the gifted
+Presbyterian divine who wrote "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." His
+father was the Reverend Aaron Burr, President of Princeton College. He was
+a graduate of Princeton, and, like Hamilton, always had the ability to
+focus his mind on the subject in hand, and wring from it its very core.
+Burr's reputation as to his susceptibility to women's charms is the
+world's common--very common--property. He was unhappily married; his wife
+died before he was thirty; he was a man of ardent nature and stalked
+through the world a conquering Don Juan. A historian, however, records
+that "his alliances were only with women who were deemed by society to be
+respectable. Married women, unhappily mated, knowing his reputation, very
+often placed themselves in his way, going to him for advice, as moths
+court the flame. Young, tender and innocent girls had no charm for him."
+
+Hamilton was happily married to a woman of aristocratic family; rich,
+educated, intellectual, gentle, and worthy of him at his best. They had a
+family of eight children. Hamilton was a favorite of women everywhere and
+was mixed up in various scandalous intrigues. He was an easy mark for a
+designing woman. In one instance, the affair was seized upon by his
+political foes, and made capital of to his sore disadvantage. Hamilton met
+the issue by writing a pamphlet, laying bare the entire shameless affair,
+to the horror of his family and friends. Copies of this pamphlet may be
+seen in the rooms of the American Historical Society at New York. Burr had
+been Attorney-General of New York State and also United States Senator.
+Each man had served on Washington's staff; each had a brilliant military
+record; each had acted as second in a duel; each recognized the honor of
+the code.
+
+Stern political differences arose, not so much through matters of opinion
+and conscience, as through ambitious rivalry. Neither was willing the
+other should rise, yet both thirsted for place and power. Burr ran for the
+Presidency, and was sternly, strongly, bitterly opposed as "a dangerous
+man" by Hamilton.
+
+At the election one more electoral vote would have given the highest
+office of the people to Aaron Burr; as it was he tied with Jefferson. The
+matter was thrown into the House of Representatives, and Jefferson was
+given the office, with Burr as Vice-President. Burr considered, and
+perhaps rightly, that were it not for Hamilton's assertive influence he
+would have been President of the United States.
+
+While still Vice-President, Burr sought to become Governor of New York,
+thinking this the surest road to receiving the nomination for the
+Presidency at the next election.
+
+Hamilton openly and bitterly opposed him, and the office went to another.
+
+Burr considered, and rightly, that were it not for Hamilton's influence he
+would have been Governor of New York.
+
+Burr, smarting under the sting of this continual opposition by a man who
+himself was shelved politically through his own too fiery ambition, sent a
+note by his friend Van Ness to Hamilton, asking whether the language he
+had used concerning him ("a dangerous man") referred to him politically or
+personally.
+
+Hamilton replied evasively, saying he could not recall all that he might
+have said during fifteen years of public life. "Especially," he said in
+his letter, "it can not be reasonably expected that I shall enter into any
+explanation upon a basis so vague as you have adopted. I trust on more
+reflection you will see the matter in the same light. If not, however, I
+only regret the circumstances, and must abide the consequences."
+
+When fighting men use fighting language they invite a challenge.
+Hamilton's excessively polite regret that "he must abide the
+consequences" simply meant fight, as his language had for a space of five
+years.
+
+A challenge was sent by the hand of Pendleton. Hamilton accepted. Being
+the challenged man (for duelists are always polite), he was given the
+choice of weapons. He chose pistols at ten paces.
+
+At seven o'clock on the morning of July Eleventh, Eighteen Hundred Four,
+the participants met on the heights of Weehawken, overlooking New York
+Bay. On a toss Hamilton won the choice of position and his second also won
+the right of giving the word to fire.
+
+Each man removed his coat and cravat; the pistols were loaded in their
+presence. As Pendleton handed his pistol to Hamilton he asked, "Shall I
+set the hair-trigger?"
+
+"Not this time," replied Hamilton. With pistols primed and cocked, the men
+were stationed facing each other, thirty feet apart.
+
+Both were pale, but free from any visible nervousness or excitement.
+Neither had partaken of stimulants. Each was asked if he had anything to
+say, or if he knew of any way by which the affair could be terminated
+there and then.
+
+Each answered quietly in the negative. Pendleton, standing fifteen feet to
+the right of his principal, said: "One--two--three--present!" and as the
+last final sounding of the letter "t" escaped his teeth, Burr fired,
+followed almost instantly by the other.
+
+Hamilton arose convulsively on his toes, reeled, and Burr, dropping his
+smoking pistol, sprang towards him to support him, a look of regret on his
+face.
+
+Van Ness raised an umbrella over the fallen man, and motioned Burr to be
+gone.
+
+The ball passed through Hamilton's body, breaking a rib, and lodging in
+the second lumbar vertebra.
+
+The bullet from Hamilton's pistol cut a twig four feet above Burr's head.
+
+While he was lying on the ground Hamilton saw his pistol near and said,
+"Look out for that pistol, it is loaded--Pendleton knows I did not intend
+to fire at him!"
+
+Hamilton died the following day, first declaring that he bore Colonel Burr
+no ill-will.
+
+Colonel Burr said he very much regretted the whole affair, but the
+language and attitude of Hamilton forced him to send a challenge or remain
+quiet and be branded as a coward. He fully realized before the meeting
+that if he killed Hamilton it would be political death for him, too.
+
+At the time of the deed Burr had no family; Hamilton had a wife and seven
+children, his oldest son having fallen in a duel fought three years before
+on the identical spot where he, too, fell.
+
+Burr fled the country.
+
+Three years afterwards, he was arrested for treason in trying to found an
+independent State within the borders of the United States. He was tried
+and found not guilty.
+
+After some years spent abroad he returned and took up the practise of law
+in New York. He was fairly successful, lived a modest, quiet life, and
+died September Fourteenth, Eighteen Hundred Thirty-six, aged eighty years.
+
+Hamilton's widow survived him just one-half a century, dying in her
+ninety-eighth year.
+
+So passeth away the glory of the world.
+
+
+
+
+DANIEL WEBSTER
+
+    Not many days ago I saw at breakfast the notablest of all your
+    notabilities, Daniel Webster. He is a magnificent specimen. You
+    might say to all the world, "This is our Yankee-Englishman; such
+    links we make in Yankeeland!" As a logic fencer, advocate or
+    Parliamentary Hercules, one would incline to back him at first
+    sight against all the extant world. The tanned complexion; the
+    amorphous, craglike face; the dull black eyes under the precipice
+    of brows, like dull anthracite furnaces needing only to be blown;
+    the mastiff mouth accurately closed; I have not traced so much of
+    silent Berserker rage that I remember of in any other man. "I
+    guess I should not like to be your nigger!"
+    --Carlyle to Emerson
+
+[Illustration: DANIEL WEBSTER]
+
+
+Those were splendid days, tinged with no trace of blue, when I attended
+the district school, wearing trousers buttoned to a calico waist. I had
+ambitions then--I was sure that some day I could spell down the school,
+propound a problem in fractions that would puzzle the teacher, and play
+checkers in a way that would cause my name to be known throughout the
+entire township.
+
+In the midst of these pleasant emotions, a cloud appeared upon the horizon
+of my happiness. What was it? A Friday Afternoon, that's all.
+
+A new teacher had been engaged--a woman, actually a young woman. It was
+prophesied that she could not keep order a single day, for the term
+before, the big boys had once arisen and put out of the building the man
+who taught them. Then there was a boy who occasionally brought a dog to
+school; and when the bell rang, the dog followed the boy into the room and
+lay under the desk pounding his tail on the floor; and everybody tittered
+and giggled until the boy had been coaxed into taking the dog home, for if
+merely left in the entry he howled and whined in a way that made study
+impossible. But one day the boy was not to be coaxed, and the teacher
+grabbed the dog by the scruff of the neck, and flung him through a window
+so forcibly that he never came back. And now a woman was to teach the
+school: she was only a little woman and yet the boys obeyed her, and I had
+come to think that a woman could teach school nearly as well as a man,
+when the awful announcement was made that thereafter every week we were to
+have a Friday Afternoon. There were to be no lessons; everybody was to
+speak a piece, and then there was to be a spelling-match--and that was
+all. But heavens! it was enough.
+
+Monday began very blue and gloomy, and the density increased as the week
+passed. My mother had drilled me well in my lines, and my big sister was
+lavish in her praise, but the awful ordeal of standing up before the whole
+school was yet to come.
+
+Thursday night I slept but little, and all Friday morning I was in a
+burning fever. At noon I could not eat my lunch, but I tried to, manfully,
+and as I munched on the tasteless morsels, salt tears rained on the
+johnnycake I held in my hand. And even when the girls brought in big
+bunches of wild flowers and cornstalks, and began to decorate the
+platform, things appeared no brighter.
+
+Finally, the teacher went to the door and rang the bell: nobody seemed to
+play, and as the scholars took their seats, some, very pale, tried to
+smile, and others whispered, "Have you got your piece?" Still others kept
+their lips working, repeating lines that struggled hard to flee.
+
+Names were called, but I did not see who went up, neither did I hear what
+was said. At last, my name was called: it came like a clap of thunder--as
+a great surprise, a shock. I clutched the desk, struggled to my feet,
+passed down the aisle, the sound of my shoes echoing through the silence
+like the strokes of a maul. The blood seemed ready to burst from my eyes,
+ears and nose.
+
+I reached the platform, missed my footing, stumbled, and nearly fell. I
+heard the giggling that followed, and knew that a red-haired boy, who had
+just spoken, and was therefore unnecessarily jubilant, had laughed aloud.
+
+I was angry. I shut my fists so that the nails cut my flesh, and glaring
+straight at his red head shot my bolt: "I know not how others may feel,
+but sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my heart and my
+hand to this vote. It is my living sentiment and by the blessing of God it
+shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and independence forever."
+
+That was all of the piece. I gave the whole thing in a mouthful, and
+started for my seat, got halfway there and remembered I had forgotten to
+bow, turned, went back to the platform, bowed with a jerk, started again
+for my seat, and hearing some one laugh, ran.
+
+Reaching the seat, I burst into tears.
+
+The teacher came over, patted my head, kissed my cheek, and told me I had
+done first-rate, and after hearing several others speak I calmed down and
+quite agreed with her.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was Daniel Webster who caused the Friday Afternoon to become an
+institution in the schools of America. His early struggles were dwelt upon
+and rehearsed by parents and pedagogues until every boy was looked upon as
+a possible Demosthenes holding senates in thrall.
+
+If physical imperfections were noticeable, the fond mother would explain
+that Demosthenes was a sickly, ill-formed youth, who only overcame a lisp
+by orating to the sea with his mouth full of pebbles; and every one knew
+that Webster was educated only because he was too weak to work. Oratory
+was in the air; elocution was rampant; and to declaim in orotund, and
+gesticulate in curves, was regarded as the chief end of man. One-tenth of
+the time in all public schools was given over to speaking, and on Saturday
+evenings the schoolhouse was sacred to the Debating Society.
+
+Then came the Lyceum, and the orators of the land made pilgrimages,
+stopping one day in a place, putting themselves on exhibition, and giving
+the people a taste of their quality at fifty cents per head. Recently,
+there has been a relapse of the oratorical fever. Every city from
+Leadville to Boston has its College of Oratory, or School of Expression,
+wherein a newly discovered "Natural Method" is divulged for a
+consideration. Some of these "Colleges" have done much good; one in
+particular I know, that fosters a fine spirit of sympathy, and a trace of
+mysticism that is well in these hurrying, scurrying days.
+
+But all combined have never produced an orator; no, dearie, they never
+have, and never can. You might as well have a school for poets, or a
+college for saints, or give medals for proficiency in the gentle art of
+wooing, as to expect to make an orator by telling how.
+
+Once upon a day, Sir Walter Besant was to give a lecture upon "The Art of
+the Novelist." He had just adjusted his necktie for the last time, slipped
+a lozenge into his mouth, and was about to appear upon the platform, when
+he felt a tug at the tail of his dress-coat. On looking around, he saw the
+anxious face of his friend, James Payn. "For God's sake, Walter,"
+whispered Payn, "you are not going to explain to 'em how you do it, are
+you?" But Walter did not explain how to write fiction, because he could
+not, and Payn's quizzing question happily relieved the lecture of the
+bumptiousness it might otherwise have contained.
+
+The first culture for which a people reach out is oratory. The Indian is
+an orator with "the natural method"; he takes the stump on small
+provocation, and under the spell of the faces that look up to him, is
+often moved to strange eloquence. I have heard negro preachers who could
+neither read nor write, move vast congregations to profoundest emotion by
+the magic of their words and presence. And further, they proved to me that
+the ability to read and write is a cheap accomplishment, and that a man
+can be a very strong character, and not know how to do either.
+
+For the most part, people who live in cities are not moved by oratory;
+they are unsocial, unimaginative, unemotional. They see so much and hear
+so much that they cease to be impressed. When they come together in
+assemblages they are so apathetic that they fail to generate
+magnetism--there is no common soul to which the speaker can address
+himself. They are so cold that the orator never welds them into a mass. He
+may amuse them, but in a single hour to change the opinions of a lifetime
+is no longer possible in America. There are so many people, and so much
+business to transact, that emotional life plays only upon the surface--in
+it there is no depth. To possess depth you must commune with the Silences.
+No more do you find men and women coming for fifty miles, in wagons, to
+hear speakers discuss political issues; no more do you find campmeetings
+where the preacher strikes conviction home until thousands are on their
+knees crying to God for mercy.
+
+Intelligence has increased; spirituality has declined, and as a people the
+warm emotions of our hearts are gone forever.
+
+Oratory is a rustic product. The great orators have always been
+country-bred, and their appeal has been made to rural people. Those who
+live in a big place think they are bigger on that account. They acquire
+glibness of speech and polish of manner; but they purchase these things at
+a price. They lack the power to weigh mighty questions, the courage to
+formulate them, and the sturdy vitality to stand up and declare them in
+the face of opposition. Revolutions are fought by farmers and
+rail-splitters; these are the embattled men who fire the shots heard
+'round the world.
+
+When Daniel Webster's father took up his residence in New Hampshire, his
+log cabin was the most northern one of the Colonies. Between him and
+Montreal lay an unbroken forest inhabited only by prowling Indians.
+Ebenezer Webster's long rifle had sent cold lead into many a redskin; and
+the same rifle had done good service in fighting the British. Once, its
+owner stood guard before Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, and
+Washington came out and said, "Captain Webster, I can trust you!"
+
+Ebenezer Webster would leave his home to carry a bag of corn on his back
+through the woods to the mill ten miles away to have it ground into meal,
+and his wife would be left alone with the children. On such occasions,
+Indians who never saw settlers' cabins without having an itch to burn
+them, used sometimes to call, and the housewife would have to parley with
+these savages, "impressing them concerning the rights of property."
+
+So here was born Daniel Webster, in Seventeen Hundred Eighty-two, the
+second child of his mother. His father was then forty-three, and had
+already raised one brood, but his mother was only in her twenties. It
+seems that biting poverty and sore deprivation are about as good prenatal
+influences as a soul can well ask, provided there abides with the mother a
+noble discontent and a brave unrest.
+
+However, it came near being overdone in Daniel Webster's case, for the
+Mrs. Gamp who presided at his birth declared he could not live, and if he
+did, would "allus be a no-'count."
+
+But he made a brave fight for breath, and his crossness and peevishness
+through the first years of his life were proof of vitality. He must have
+been a queer toddler when he wore dresses, with his immense head and
+deep-set black eyes and serious ways.
+
+Being sickly, he was allowed to rule, and the big girls, his half-sisters,
+humored him, and his mother did the same. They taught him his letters when
+he was only a baby, and he himself said that he could not remember a time
+when he could not read the Bible.
+
+When he grew older he did not have to bring in wood and do the chores--he
+was not strong enough, they said. Little Dan was of a like belief, and
+encouraged the idea on every occasion. He roamed the woods, fished,
+hunted, and read every scrap of print that came his way.
+
+Being able to read any kind of print, and not being strong enough to work,
+it very early was decided that he should have an education. It is rather a
+humbling confession to make, but our worthy forefathers chiefly prized an
+education for the fact that it caused the fortunate possessor to be exempt
+from manual labor.
+
+When Daniel was fourteen, a member of Congress came to see Ebenezer
+Webster, to secure his influence at election. As the great man rode away,
+Ebenezer said to his son: "Daniel, look there! he is educated and gets six
+dollars a day in Congress for doing nothing; while I toil on this rocky
+hillside and hardly see six dollars in a year. Daniel, get an education!"
+
+"I'll do it," said Daniel, and throwing his arms around his father's neck,
+burst into tears.
+
+The village of Salisbury, where Webster was born, is fifteen miles north
+of Concord. You leave the train at Boscowan, and there is a rickety old
+stage, with a loquacious driver, that will take you to Salisbury, five
+miles, for twenty-five cents. The country is one vast outcrop of granite;
+and one can not but be filled with admiration, mingled with pity, for the
+dwellers thereabouts who call these piles of rock "farms."
+
+As we wound slowly around the hills, the church-spire of the village came
+in sight; and soon we entered the one street of this sleepy, forgotten
+place. I shook hands with the old stage-driver as he let me down in front
+of the tavern; and as I went in search of the landlord, I thought of the
+remark of the Chicago woman who, in riding from Warwick over to Stratford,
+said, "Goodness me! why should a man like Shakespeare ever take it in his
+head to live so far off!"
+
+Salisbury has four hundred people. You can rent a house there for fifty
+dollars a year, or should you prefer not to keep house, but board, you
+can be accommodated at the tavern for three dollars a week. There are
+various abandoned farms round about, and they are abandoned so thoroughly
+that even Kate Sanborn would not have the courage to their adoption try.
+
+The landlord of the hotel told me that were it not for the "Harvest
+Dance," the dance on the Fourth of July, and the party at Christmas, he
+could not keep the house open at all. Of course, all the inhabitants know
+that Webster was born at Salisbury, but there is not so much local pride
+in the matter as there is at East Aurora over the fact that one of her
+former citizens is a performer in Barnum and Bailey's Circus.
+
+The number of old men in one of these New England villages impresses folks
+from the West as being curious. There are a full dozen men at Salisbury
+between seventy-five and ninety, and all have positive ideas as to just
+why Daniel Webster missed the Presidency. I found opinion curiously
+divided as to Webster's ability; but all seemed to argue that when he left
+New Hampshire and became a citizen of Massachusetts, he made a fatal
+mistake.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sacrifices that the mother and the father of Daniel Webster made, in
+order that he might go to school, were very great. Every one in the family
+had to do without things, that this one might thrive. The boy accepted it
+all, quite as a matter of course, for from babyhood he had been protected
+and petted. At the last we must admit that the man who towers above his
+fellows is the one who has the power to make others work for him; a great
+success is not possible in any other way.
+
+Throughout his life Webster utilized the labor of others, and took it in a
+high and imperious manner, as though it were his due. No doubt the way in
+which his family lavished their gifts upon him fixed in his mind that
+immoral slant of disregard for his financial obligations which clung to
+him all through life.
+
+There is a story told of his going to a county fair with his brother
+Ezekiel, which shows the characters of these brothers better than a
+chapter. The father had given each lad a dollar to spend. When the boys
+got home Daniel was in gay spirits and Ezekiel was depressed. "Well, Dan,"
+said the father, "did you spend your money?"
+
+"Of course I did," replied Daniel.
+
+"And, Zeke, what did you do with your dollar?"
+
+"Loaned it to Dan," replied Ezekiel.
+
+But there was a fine bond of affection between these two. Ezekiel was two
+years older and, unfortunately for himself, was strong and well. He was
+very early set to work, and I can not find that the thought of giving him
+an education ever occurred to his parents, until after Daniel had
+graduated at Dartmouth, and Dan and Zeke themselves then forced the issue.
+
+In stature they were the same size: both were tall, finely formed, and in
+youth slender. As they grew older they grew stouter, and the personal
+presence of each was very imposing. Ezekiel was of light complexion and
+ruddy; Daniel was very dark and sallow. I have met several men who knew
+them both, and the best opinion is that Ezekiel was the stronger of the
+two, mentally and morally.
+
+Daniel was not a student, while Ezekiel was; and as a counselor Ezekiel
+was the safer man. Up to the very week of Ezekiel's death Daniel advised
+with him on all his important affairs. When Ezekiel fell dead in the
+courtroom at Concord and the news was carried to his brother, it was a
+blow that affected him more than the loss of wife or child. His friend and
+counselor, the one man in life upon whom he leaned, was gone, and over his
+own great, craglike face came that look of sorrow which death only
+removed. But care and grief became this giant, as they do all who are
+great enough to bear them.
+
+It was two years after his brother's death that he made the speech which
+is his masterpiece. And while the applause was ringing in his ears he
+turned to Judge Story and said, "Oh, if Zeke were only here!" Who is
+there who can not sympathize with that groan? We work for others; and to
+win the applause of senates or nations, and not be able to know that Some
+One is glad, takes all the sweetness out of victory.
+
+"When I sing well, I want you to meet me in the wings of the stage, and
+taking me in your aims, kiss my cheek, and whisper it was all right." When
+Patti wrote this to her lover she voiced the universal need of a some one
+who understands, to share the triumph of good work well done. The
+nostalgia of life never seems so bitter as after moments of success; then
+comes creeping in the thought that he who would have gloried in
+this--knowing all the years of struggle and deprivations that made it
+possible--is sleeping his long sleep.
+
+In that speech of January Twenty-sixth, Eighteen Hundred Thirty, Webster
+reached high-water mark. On that performance, more than any other, rests
+his fame. He was forty-eight years old then. All the years of his career
+he had been getting ready for that address. It was on the one theme that
+he loved; on the theme he had studied most; on the only theme upon which
+he ever spoke well--the greatness, the grandeur and the possibilities of
+America. He spoke for four hours, and in his works the speech occupies
+seventy close pages. He was at the zenith of his physical and intellectual
+power, and that is as good a place as any to stop and view the man.
+
+On account of his proud carriage, and the fine poise of his massive head,
+he gave the impression of being a very large man; but he was just five
+feet ten, and weighed a little less than two hundred. His manner was
+grave, deliberate and dignified; and his sturdy face, furrowed with lines
+of sorrow, made a profound impression upon all before he had spoken a
+word. He had arrived at an age when the hot desire to succeed had passed.
+For no man can attain the highest success until he has reached a point
+where he does not care for it. In oratory the personal desire for victory
+must be obliterated or the hearer will never award the palm.
+
+Hayne was a very bright and able speaker. He had argued the right of a
+State to dissent from, or nullify, a law passed by the House of
+Representatives and Senate, making such law inoperative within its
+borders. His claim was that the framers of the Constitution did not expect
+or intend that a law could be passed that was binding on a State when the
+people of that State did not wish it so. Mr. Hayne had the best end of the
+argument, and the opinion is now general among jurists that his logic was
+right and just, and that those who thought otherwise were wrong. New
+England had practically nullified United States law in Eighteen Hundred
+Twelve, the Hartford Convention of Eighteen Hundred Fourteen had declared
+the right; Josiah Quincy had advocated the privilege of any State to
+nullify an obnoxious law, quite as a matter of course.
+
+The framers of the Constitution had merely said that we "had better" hang
+together, not that we "must." But with the years had come a feeling that
+the Nation's life was unsafe if any State should pull away.
+
+Once, on the plains of Colorado, I was with a party when there was danger
+of an attack from Indians. Two of the party wished to go back; but the
+leader drew his revolver and threatened to shoot the first man who tried
+to seek safety. "We must hang together or hang separately." Logically,
+each man had the right to secede, and go off on his own account, but
+expediency made a law and we declared that any man who tried to leave did
+so at his peril.
+
+To Webster was given the task of putting a new construction on the
+Constitution, and to make of the Constitution a Law instead of a mere
+compact. Webster's speech was not an argument; it was a plea. And so
+mightily did he point out the dangers of separation; review the splendid
+past; and prophesy the greatness of the future--a future that could only
+be ours through absolute union and loyalty to the good of the whole--that
+he won his cause.
+
+After that speech, if Calhoun had allowed South Carolina to nullify a
+United States law, President Jackson would have made good his threat and
+hanged both him and Hayne on one tree, and the people would have approved
+the act. But Webster did not get the case quashed: he got only a
+postponement. In Eighteen Hundred Sixty, South Carolina moved the case
+again; she opened the argument in another way this time, and a million
+lives were required, and millions upon millions in treasure expended to
+put a construction on the Constitution that the framers did not intend;
+but which was necessary in order that the Nation might exist.
+
+In the battle of Bull Run, almost the first battle of the war, fell
+Colonel Fletcher Webster, the only surviving son of Daniel Webster, and
+with him died the name and race.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The cunning of Webster's intellect was not creative. In his argument there
+is little ingenuity; but he had the power of taking an old truth and
+presenting it in a way that moved men to tears. When aroused, all he knew
+was within his reach; he had the faculty of getting all his goods in the
+front window. And he himself confessed that he often pushed out a masked
+battery, when behind there was not a single gun.
+
+Under the spell of the orator an audience becomes of one mind: the dullest
+intellect is more alert than usual and the most discerning a little less
+so. Cheap wit will then often pass for brilliancy, and platitude for
+wisdom. We roar over the jokes we have known since childhood, and cry
+"Hear, hear!" when the great man with upraised hands and fire in his
+glance declares that twice two is four.
+
+Oratory is hypnotism practised on a large scale. Through oratory ideas are
+acquired by induction.
+
+Webster was a lawyer; and he was not above resorting to any trick or
+device that could move the emotions or passions of judge and jury to a
+prejudice favorable to his side. This was very clearly brought out when he
+undertook to break the will of Stephen Girard.
+
+Girard was a freethinker, and in leaving money to found a college devised
+that no preacher or priest should have anything to do with its management.
+The question at issue was, "Is a bequest for founding a college a
+charitable bequest?" If so, then the will must stand. But if the bequest
+were merely a scheme to deprive the legal heirs of their rights--diverting
+the funds from them for whimsical and personal reasons--then the will
+should be broken. Mr. Webster made the plea that there was only one kind
+of charity, namely, Christian charity. Girard was not a Christian, for he
+had publicly affronted the Christian religion by providing that no
+minister should teach in his school. Mr. Webster spoke for three hours
+with many fine bursts of tearful eloquence in support of the Christian
+faith, reviewing its triumphs and denouncing its foes.
+
+The argument was carried outside of the realm of law into the domain of
+passion and prejudice.
+
+The court took time for the tumult to subside, and then very quietly
+decided against Webster, sustaining the will. The college building was
+erected and stands today, the finest specimen of purely Greek architecture
+in America; and the good that Girard College has done and is now doing is
+the priceless heritage of our entire country.
+
+One of Webster's first greatest speeches was before the United States
+Supreme Court in the Dartmouth College case. Here he defended the cause of
+education with that grave and wonderful weight of argument of which he was
+master. In the Girard College case, eighteen years after, he reversed his
+logic, and touched with rare skill on the dangers of a too-liberal
+education.
+
+No man now is quite so daring as to claim that Webster was a Christian.
+Neither was he a freethinker. He inherited his religious views from his
+parents, and never considered them enough to change. He simply viewed
+religion as a part of the fabric of government, giving sturdiness and
+safety to established order. His own spiritual acreage was left absolutely
+untilled. His services were for sale; and so plastic were his convictions
+that once having espoused a cause he was sure it was right. Doubtless it
+is self-interest, as Herbert Spencer says, that makes the world go round.
+And thus does sincerity of belief resolve itself into which side will pay
+most. This question being settled, reasons are as plentiful as
+blackberries, and are supplied in quantities proportionate in size to the
+retainer.
+
+John Randolph once touched the quick by saying, "If Daniel Webster was
+employed on a case and he had partially lost faith in it, his belief in
+his client's rights could always be refreshed and his zeal renewed by a
+check."
+
+Webster had every possible qualification that is required to make the
+great orator. All those who heard him speak, when telling of it, begin by
+relating how he looked. He worked the dignity and impressiveness of his
+Jovelike presence to its furthest limit, and when once thoroughly awake
+was in possession of his entire armament.
+
+No other American has been able to speak with a like degree of
+effectiveness; and his name deserves to rank, and will rank, with the
+names of Burke, Chatham, Sheridan and Pitt. The case has been tried, the
+verdict is in and recorded on the pages of history. There can be no
+retrial, for Webster is dead, and his power died thirty years before his
+form was laid to rest at Marshfield by the side of his children and the
+wife of his youth.
+
+Oratory is the lowest of the sublime arts. The extent of its influence
+will ever be a vexed question. Its result depends on the mood and
+temperament of the hearer. But there are men who are not ripe for treason
+and conspiracy, to whom even music makes small appeal. Yet music can be
+recorded, entrusted to an interpreter yet unborn, and lodge its appeal
+with posterity. Literature never dies: it dedicates itself to Time. For
+the printed page is reproduced ten thousand times ten thousand times, and
+besides, lives as did the Homeric poems, passed on from generation to
+generation by word of mouth. Were every book containing Shakespeare's
+plays burned this night, tomorrow they could be rewritten by those who
+know their every word.
+
+With the passing years the painter's colors fade; time rots his canvas;
+the marble is dragged from its pedestal and exists in fragments from which
+we resurrect a nation's life; but oratory dies on the air and exists only
+as a memory in the minds of those who can not translate, and then as
+hearsay. So much for the art itself; but the influence of that art is
+another thing.
+
+He who influences the beliefs and opinions of men influences all other men
+that live after. For influence, like matter, can not be destroyed.
+
+In many ways, Webster lacked the inward steadfastness that his face and
+frame betokened; but on one theme he was sound to the inmost core. He
+believed in America's greatness and the grandeur of America's mission.
+Into the minds of countless men he infused his own splendid patriotism.
+From his first speech at Hanover when eighteen years old, to his last when
+nearly seventy, he fired the hearts of men with the love of native land.
+And how much the growing greatness of our country is due to the magic of
+his words and the eloquence of his inspired presence no man can compute.
+
+The passion of Webster's life is well mirrored in that burning passage:
+
+"When mine eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in
+heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments
+of a once glorious Union: on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent:
+on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal
+blood. Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the
+gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the
+earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their
+original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, or a single star
+obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What
+is all this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, 'Liberty
+first and Union afterwards'; but everywhere, spread all over in characters
+of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the
+sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that
+other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, 'Liberty and Union,
+now and forever, one and inseparable.'"
+
+
+
+
+HENRY CLAY
+
+    If there be any description of rights, which, more than any
+    other, should unite all parties in all quarters of the Union, it
+    is unquestionably the rights of the person. No matter what his
+    vocation, whether he seeks subsistence amid the dangers of the
+    sea, or draws it from the bowels of the earth, or from the
+    humblest occupations of mechanical life--wherever the sacred
+    rights of an American freeman are assailed, all hearts ought to
+    unite and every arm be braced to vindicate his cause.
+    --Henry Clay
+
+[Illustration: HENRY CLAY]
+
+
+There is a story told of an Irishman and an Englishman who were immigrants
+aboard a ship that was coming up New York Harbor. It chanced to be the
+fourth day of July, and as a consequence there was a needless waste of
+gunpowder going on, and many of the ships were decorated with bunting that
+in color was red, white and blue.
+
+"What can all this fuss be about?" asked the Englishman.
+
+"What's it about?" answered Pat. "Why, this is the day we run you out!"
+
+And the moral of the story is that as soon as an Irishman reaches the
+Narrows he says "we Americans," while an Englishman will sometimes
+continue to say "you Americans" for five years and a day. More than this,
+an Irish-American citizen regards an English-American citizen with
+suspicion and refers to him as a foreigner, even unto the third and fourth
+generation.
+
+No man ever hated England more cordially than did Henry Clay.
+
+The genealogists have put forth heroic efforts to secure for Clay a noble
+English ancestry, but with a degree of success that only makes the
+unthinking laugh and the judicious grieve.
+
+Had these zealous pedigree-hunters studied the parish registers of County
+Derry, Ireland, as lovingly as they have Burke's Peerage, they might have
+traced the Clays of America back to the Cleighs, honest farmers
+(indifferent honest), of Londonderry.
+
+The character of Henry Clay had in it various traits that were peculiarly
+Irish. The Irishman knows because he knows, and that's all there is about
+it. He is dramatic, emotional, impulsive, humorous without suspecting it,
+and will fight friend or foe on small provocation. Then he is much given
+to dealing in that peculiar article known as palaver. The farewell address
+of Henry Clay to the Senate, and his return thereto a few years later,
+comprise one of the most Irishlike proceedings to be found in history.
+
+There is no finer man on earth than your "thrue Irish gintleman," and
+Henry Clay had not only all the highest and most excellent traits of the
+"gintleman," but a few also of his worst. Clay made friends as no other
+American statesman ever did. "To come within reach of the snare of his
+speech was to love him," wrote one man. People loved him because he was
+affectionate, for love only goes out to love. And the Irish heart is a
+heart of love. Henry Clay called himself a Christian, and yet at times he
+was picturesquely profane. We have this on the authority of the "Diary" of
+John Quincy Adams, which of course we must believe, for even that other
+fighting Irishman, Andrew Jackson, said, "Adams' Diary is probably
+correct--damn it!"
+
+Clay was convivial in all the word implies; his losses at cards often put
+him in severe financial straits; he stood ready to back his opinion
+concerning a Presidential election, a horse-race or a dog-fight, and with
+it all he held himself "personally responsible"--having fought two duels
+and engaged in various minor "misunderstandings."
+
+And yet he was a great statesman--one of the greatest this country has
+produced, and as a patriot no man was ever more loyal. It was America with
+him first and always. His reputation, his fortune, his life, his all,
+belonged to America.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The city of Lexington contains about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. In
+Lexington two distinct forms of civilization meet.
+
+One is the civilization of the F.F.V., converted into that peculiar form
+of noblesse known the round world over as the Blue-Grass Aristocracy.
+Blue-Grass Society represents leisure and luxury and the generous
+hospitality of friendships generations old; it means broad acres, noble
+mansions reached by roadways that stray under wide-spreading oaks and elms
+where squirrels chatter and mild-eyed cows look at you curiously; it means
+apple-orchards, gardens lined with boxwood, capacious stables and long
+lines of whitewashed cottages, around which swarm a dark cloud of
+dependents who dance and sing and laugh--and work when they have to.
+
+Over against these there are to be seen trolley-cars, electric lights,
+smart rows of new brick houses on lots thirty by one hundred, negro
+policemen in uniforms patterned after those worn by the Broadway Squad,
+streets torn up by sewers and conduits, steam-rollers with an unsavory
+smell of tar and asphalt, push-buttons and a Hello-Exchange.
+
+As to which form of civilization is the more desirable is a question that
+is usually answered by taste and temperament. One thing sure, and that is,
+that a pride which swings to t'other side and becomes vanity is often an
+element in both. Each could learn something of the other. Lots that you
+can jump across, rented to families of ten, with land a mile away that can
+be bought for fifty dollars an acre, are not an ideal condition.
+
+On the other hand, inside the city limits of Lexington are mansions
+surrounded by an even hundred acres. But at some of these, gates are off
+their hinges, pickets have been borrowed for kindling, creeping vines and
+long grass o'ertop the walls of empty stables, and a forest of weeds
+insolently invades the spot where once nestled milady's flower-garden.
+
+Slowly but surely the Blue-Grass Aristocracy is giving way to purslane or
+asphalt, moving into flats, and allowing the boomer to plat its fair
+acres--running excursion-trains to attend auction-sales where all the lots
+are corner lots and are to be bought on the installment plan, which plan
+is said by a cynic to give the bicycle face.
+
+Just across from Ashland is a beautiful estate, recently sold at a
+sacrifice to a man from Massachusetts, by the name of Douglas, who I am
+told is bald through lack of hair and makes three-dollar shoes. The
+stately old mansion mourns its former masters--all are gone--and a thrifty
+German is plowing up the lawn, that the cows of the Douglas (tender and
+true) may eat early clover.
+
+But Ashland is there today in all the beauty and loveliness that Henry
+Clay knew when he wrote to Benton: "I love old Ashland, and all these
+acres with their trees and flowers and growing grain lure me in a way
+that ambition never can. No, I remain at Ashland."
+
+The rambling old house is embowered in climbing vines and clambering
+rosebushes and is set thick about with cedars, so that you can scarcely
+see the chimney-tops above the mass of green. A lane running through
+locust-trees planted by Henry Clay's own hands leads you to the
+hospitable, wide-open door, where a colored man, whose black face is set
+in a frame of wool, smiles a welcome. He relieves you of your baggage and
+leads the way to your room.
+
+The summer breeze blows lazily in through the open window, and the only
+sound of life and activity about seems to center in two noisy robins which
+are making a nest in the eaves, right within reach of your hand. The
+colored man apologizes for them, anathematizes them mildly, and proposes
+to drive them away, but you restrain him. After the man has gone you
+bethink you that the suggestion of driving the birds away was only the
+white lie of society (for even black folks tell white lies), and the old
+man probably had no more intent of driving the birds away than of going
+himself.
+
+On the dresser is a pitcher of freshly clipped roses, the morning dew
+still upon them, and you only cease to admire as you espy your mail that
+lies there awaiting your hand. News from home and loved ones greets you
+before these new-found friends do! You have not seen the good folks who
+live here, only the old colored man who pretended that he was going to
+kill cock-robin, and didn't. The hospitality is not gushing or
+effusive--the place is yours, that's all, and you lean out of the window
+and look down at the flowerbeds, and wonder at the silence and the quiet
+and peace, and feel sorry for the folks who live in Cincinnati and
+Chicago. The soughing of the wind through the pines comes to you like the
+murmur of the sea, and breaking in on the stillness you hear the sharp
+sound of an ax--some Gladstone chopping, miles and miles away.
+
+Your dreams are broken by a gentle tap at the door and your host has come
+to call on you. You know him at once, even though you have never before
+met, for men who think alike and feel alike do not have to "get
+acquainted." Heart speaks to heart.
+
+He only wishes to say that your coming is a pleasure to all the family at
+Ashland, the library is yours as well as the whole place, lunch is at one
+o'clock, and George will get you anything you wish. And back in the shadow
+of the hallway you catch sight of the old colored man and see him bow low
+when his name is mentioned.
+
+Ashland is probably in better condition today than when Henry Clay worked
+and planned, and superintended its fair acres. The place has seen
+vicissitudes since the body of the man who gave it immortality lay in
+state here in July, Eighteen Hundred Fifty-two. But Major McDowell's wife
+is the granddaughter of Henry Clay, and it seems meet that the descendants
+of the great man should possess Ashland. Major McDowell has means and
+taste and the fine pride that would preserve all the traditions of the
+former master. The six hundred acres are in a high state of cultivation,
+and the cattle and horses are of the kinds that would have gladdened the
+heart of Clay.
+
+In the library, halls and dining-room are various portraits of the great
+man, and at the turn of the stairs is a fine heroic bust, in bronze, of
+that lean face and form. Hundreds of his books are to be seen on the
+shelves, all marked and dog-eared and scribbled on, thus disproving much
+of that old cry that "Clay was not a student." Some men are students only
+in youth, but Clay's best reading was done when he was past fifty. The
+book habit grew upon him with the years.
+
+Here are his pistols, spurs, saddle and memorandum-books. Here are
+letters, faded and yellow, dusted with black powder on ink that has been
+dry a hundred years, asking for office, or words of gracious thanks in
+token of benefits not forgot.
+
+Off to the south stretches away a great forest of walnut, oak and chestnut
+trees--reminders of the vast forest that Daniel Boone knew. Many of these
+trees were here then, and here let them remain, said Henry Clay. And so
+today at Ashland, as at Hawarden, no tree is felled until it has been duly
+tried by the entire family and all has been said for and against the
+sentence of death. I heard Miss McDowell make an eloquent plea for an old
+oak that had been rather recklessly harboring mistletoe and many
+squirrels, until it was thought probable that, like our first parents, it
+might have a fall. It was a plea more eloquent than "O Woodman, spare that
+tree." A reprieve for a year was granted; and I thought, as I cast my vote
+on the side of mercy, that the jury that could not be won by such a young
+woman as that was hopelessly dead at the top and more hollow at the heart
+than the old oak under whose boughs we sat.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ashland is just a mile south of the courthouse. When Henry Clay used to
+ride horseback between the town and his farm there were scarce a dozen
+houses to pass on the way, but now the street is all built up, and is
+smartly paved, and the trolley-line booms a noisy car to the sacred gates
+every ten minutes.
+
+Lexington was laid out in the year Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, and the
+intention was to name it in honor of Colonel Patterson, the founder, or of
+Daniel Boone. But while the surveyors were doing their work, word came of
+the battle of some British and certain embattled farmers, and the spirit
+of freedom promptly declared that the town should be called Lexington.
+
+Three years after the laying-out of Lexington, Henry Clay was born. He was
+the son of a poor and obscure Baptist preacher who lived at "The Slashes,"
+in Virginia. The boy never had any vivid recollection of his father, who
+passed away when Henry was a mere child.
+
+The mother had a hard time of it with her family of seven children, and if
+kind neighbors had not aided, there would have been actual want. And
+surely one can not blame the widow for "marrying for a home" when
+opportunity offered. Only one out of that first family ever achieved
+eminence, and the second brood is actually lost to us in oblivion.
+
+Henry Clay was a graduate of the University of Hard Knocks; he also took
+several post-graduate courses at the same institution. Very early in life
+we see that he possessed the fine, eager, receptive spirit that absorbs
+knowledge through the finger-tips; and the ability to think and to absorb
+is all that even college can ever do for a man. I doubt whether college
+would have helped Clay, and it might have dimmed the diamond luster of his
+mind, and diluted that fine audacity which carried him on his way. In this
+capacity to comprehend in the mass, Clay's character was essentially
+feminine. We have Thoreau for authority that the intuition and the
+sympathy found always in the saviors of the world are purely feminine
+attributes--the legacy bequeathed from a mother who thirsted for better
+things.
+
+From a clerk in a country store to a bookkeeper, then a copyist for a
+lawyer, a writer of letters for the neighborhood, a reader of law, and
+next a lawyer, were easy and natural steps for this ambitious boy.
+
+Virginia with its older settlements offered small opportunities, and so we
+find young Clay going West, and landing at Lexington when twenty years
+old. He requested a license to practise law, but the Bar Association,
+which consisted of about a dozen members, decided that no more lawyers
+were needed at Lexington. Clay demanded that he should be examined as to
+fitness, and the blackberry-bush Blackstones sat upon him, as a coroner
+would say, with intent to give him so stiff an examination that he would
+be glad to get work as a farmhand.
+
+A dozen questions had been asked, and an attempt had been made to confuse
+and browbeat the youth, when the Nestor of the Lexington Bar expectorated
+at a fly ten feet away, and remarked, "Oh, the devil! there is no need of
+tryin' to keep a boy like this down--he's as fit as we, or fitter!"
+
+And so he was admitted.
+
+From the very first he was a success; he toned up the mental qualities of
+the Fayette County Bar, and made the older, easy-going members feel to see
+whether their laurel wreaths were in place.
+
+When he was thirty years of age he was chosen by the Legislature of
+Kentucky as United States Senator. When his term expired he chose to go to
+Congress, probably because it afforded better opportunity for oratory and
+leadership. As soon as he appeared upon the floor he was chosen Speaker by
+acclamation. So thoroughly American was he, that one of his very first
+suggestions was to the effect that every member should clothe himself
+wholly in fabrics made in the United States. Humphrey Marshall ridiculed
+the proposition and called Clay a demagogue, for which he got himself
+straightway challenged. Clay shot a bullet through his English-made
+broadcloth coat, and then they shook hands.
+
+When his term as Congressman expired, he again went to the Senate, and
+served two years. Then he went back to the House, and through his
+influence, and his alone, did we challenge Great Britain, just as he had
+challenged Marshall.
+
+England accepted the challenge, and we call it the War of Eighteen Hundred
+Twelve.
+
+Very often, indeed, do we hear the rural statesmen at Fourth of July
+celebrations exclaim, "We have whipped England twice, and we can do it
+again!"
+
+We whipped England once, and it is possible we could do it again, but she
+got the best of us in the War of Eighteen Hundred Twelve. Henry Clay
+plunged the country into war to redress certain grievances, and as a peace
+commissioner he backed out of that war without having a single one of
+those grievances indemnified or redressed.
+
+After the treaty of peace had been declared and "the war was over," that
+fighting Irishman, Andrew Jackson, Irishlike, gave the British a black eye
+at New Orleans, just for luck, and this is the only thing in that whole
+misunderstanding of which we should not as a nation be ashamed.
+
+If England had not had Napoleon on her hands at that particular time,
+Wellington would probably have made a visit to America, and might have
+brought along for us a Waterloo. And these things are fully explained in
+the textbooks on history used in the schools of Great Britain, on whose
+possessions the sun never sets.
+
+But as Henry Clay had gotten us into war, his diplomacy helped to get us
+out, and as it was a peace without dishonor, Clay's reputation did not
+materially suffer. In fact, the terms of peace were so ambiguous that
+Congress gave out to the world that it was a victory, and the exact facts
+were quite lost in the smoke of Jackson's muskets that hovered over the
+cotton bales.
+
+Later, when Clay ran against Jackson for the Presidency he found that a
+peace-hero has no such place in the hearts of men as a war-hero. Jackson
+had not a tithe of Clay's ability, and yet Clay's defeat was overwhelming.
+"Peace hath her victories"--yes, but the average voter does not know it.
+The only men who have received overwhelming majorities for President have
+been war-heroes. Obscure men have crept in several times, but popular
+diplomats--never. The fate of such popular men as Clay, Seward and Blaine
+is one. And when one considers how strong is this tendency to glorify the
+hero of action, and ignore the hero of thought, he wonders how it really
+happened that Paul Revere was not made the second President of the United
+States instead of John Adams.
+
+Clay was a most eloquent pleader. The grace of his manner, the beauty of
+his speech, and the intense earnestness of his nature often convinced men
+against their wills.
+
+There was sometimes, however, a suspicion in the air that his best
+quotations were inspirations, and that the statistics to which he appealed
+were evolved from his inner consciousness. But the man had power and
+personality plus. He was a natural leader, and unlike other statesmen we
+might name, he always carried his town and district by overwhelming
+majorities. And it is well to remember that the first breath of popular
+disfavor directed against Henry Clay was because he proposed the abolition
+of slavery.
+
+Those who knew him best loved him most, and this was true from the time he
+began to practise law in Lexington, when scarcely twenty-one years old, to
+his seventy-fifth year, when his worn-out body was brought home to rest.
+
+On that occasion all business in Lexington, and in most of Kentucky,
+ceased. Even the farmers quit work, and very many private residences were
+draped in mourning. Memorial services were held in hundreds of churches,
+the day was given over to mourning, and everywhere men said, "We shall
+never look upon his like again."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Before I visited Lexington, my cousin, Little Emily, duly wrote me that on
+no account, when I was in Kentucky, must I offer any criticisms on the
+character of Henry Clay; for if I grew reckless and compared him with
+another to his slightest disadvantage, I should have to fight.
+
+That he was absolutely the greatest statesman America has produced is, to
+all Kentuckians, a fact so sure that they doubt the honesty or the sanity
+of any one who hints otherwise. He is their ideal, the perfect man, the
+model for all youths to imitate, and the standard by which all other
+statesmen are gauged. Clay to Kentucky scores one hundred. And as he was
+at the last defeated for the highest office, which they say was his
+God-given right, there is a flavor of martyrdom in his history that is the
+needed crown for every hero.
+
+Complete success alienates man from his fellows, but suffering makes
+kinsmen of us all. So the South loves Henry Clay.
+
+He is so well loved that he is apotheosized, and thus the real man to many
+is lost in the clouds. With his name, song and legend have worked their
+miracles, and to very many Southern people he is a being separate and
+apart, like Hector or Achilles.
+
+With my cousin, Little Emily, I am always very frank--and you can be
+honest and frank with so few in this world of expediency, you know! We are
+so frank in expression that we usually quarrel very shortly. And so I
+explained to Emily just what I have written here, as to the real Henry
+Clay being lost.
+
+She contradicted me flatly and said, "To love a person is not to lose
+him--you never lose except through indifference or hate!" I started to
+explain and had gotten as far as, "It is just like this," when the
+conversation was interrupted by the arrival of General Bellicose, who had
+come to take us riding behind a spanking pair of geldings, that I was
+assured were standard bred.
+
+In Lexington you never use the general term "horse." You speak of a mare,
+a gelding, a horse, a four-year-old, a weanling or a sucker. To refer to a
+trotter as a thoroughbred is to suffer social ostracism, and to obfuscate
+a side-wheeler with a single-footer is proof of degeneracy. This applies
+equally to the ethics of the ballroom or the livery-stable. In Kentucky
+they read Richard's famous lines thus: "A saddler! a saddler! my kingdom
+for a saddler!" So when I complimented General Bellicose on his geldings
+and noted that they went square without boots or weights, and that he used
+no blinders, it thawed the social ice, and we were as brothers. Then I led
+the way cautiously to Henry Clay, and the General assured me that in his
+opinion the Henry Clays were even better than the George Wilkes. To be
+sure, Wilkes had more in the 'thirty list, but the Clays had brains, and
+were cheerful; they neither lugged nor hung back, whereas you always had
+to lay whip to a Wilkes in order to get along a bit, or else use a gag
+and overcheck.
+
+I pressed Little Emily's hand under the lap-robe and asked her if all
+Kentuckians were believers in metempsychosis. "Colonel Littlejourneys is
+making fun of you, General," said Little Emily; "the Colonel is talking
+about the man, and you are discussing trotters!"
+
+And then I apologized, but the General said it was he who should make the
+apology, and raising the carriage-seat brought out a box of genuine Henry
+Clay Havanas, in proof of amity.
+
+It's a very foolish thing to smile at a man who rides a hobby. Once there
+was a man who rode a hobby all his life, to the great amusement of his
+enemies and the mortification of his wife; and when the man was dead they
+found it was a real live horse and had carried the man many long miles.
+
+General Bellicose loves a horse; so does Little Emily and so do I. But
+Little Emily and the General know history and have sounded politics in a
+way that puts me in the kindergarten; and I found before the day was over
+that what one did not know about the political history of America the
+other did. And mixed up in it all we discussed the merits of the fox-trot
+versus the single-foot.
+
+We saw the famous Clay monument, built by the State at a cost of nearly a
+hundred thousand dollars, and with uncovered heads gazed through the
+gratings into the crypt where lies the dust of the great man. Then we saw
+the statue of John C. Breckinridge in the public square, and visited
+various old ebb-tide mansions where the "quarters" had fallen into decay,
+and the erstwhile inhabitants had moved to the long row of tenements down
+by the cotton-mill. My train whistled and we were half a mile from the
+station, but the General said we would get there in time--and we did. I
+bade my friends good-by and quite forgot to thank them for all their
+kindness, although down in my heart I felt that it had been a time rare as
+a day in June. I believe they felt my gratitude, too, for where there is
+such a feast of wit and flow of soul, such kindness, such generosity, the
+spirit understands.
+
+When I arrived home I found a box awaiting me, bearing the express mark of
+Lexington, Kentucky. On opening the case I found six quart-bottles of
+"Henry Clay--1881"; and a card with the compliments of Little Emily and
+General Bellicose. On the outside of the case was neatly stenciled the
+legend, "Thackeray, Full sett, 14 vol., half Levant." I do not know why
+the box was so marked, but I suppose it was in honor of my literary
+proclivities. I went out and blew four merry blasts on a ram's horn, and
+the Philistines assembled.
+
+
+
+
+JOHN JAY
+
+    Calm repose and the sweets of undisturbed retirement appear more
+    distant than a peace with Britain.
+
+    It gives me pleasure, however, to reflect that the period is
+    approaching when we shall be citizens of a better ordered State,
+    and the spending of a few troublesome years of our eternity in
+    doing good to this and future generations is not to be avoided
+    nor regretted. Things will come right, and these States will yet
+    be great and flourishing.
+    --Letter to Washington
+
+[Illustration: JOHN JAY]
+
+
+America should feel especially charitable towards Louis the Great, called
+by Carlyle, Louis the Little, for banishing the Huguenots from France.
+What France lost America gained. Tyranny and intolerance always drive from
+their homes the best: those who have ability to think, courage to act, and
+a pride that can not be coerced.
+
+The merits possessed by the Huguenots are exactly those which every man
+and nation needs. And these are simple virtues, too, whose cultivation
+stands within the reach of all. These are the virtues of the farmers and
+peasants and plain people who do the work of the world, and give good
+government its bone and sinew. To a great degree, so-called society is
+made up of parasites who fasten and feed upon the industrious and
+methodical.
+
+If you have read history you know that the men who go quietly about their
+business have been cajoled, threatened, driven, and often, when they have
+been guilty of doing a little independent thinking on their own account,
+banished. And further than this, when you read the story of nations dead
+and gone you will see that their decline began when the parasites got too
+numerous and flauntingly asserted their supposed power. That contempt for
+the farmer, and indifference to the rights of the man with tin pail and
+overalls, which one often sees in America, are portents that mark
+disintegrating social bacilli. If the Republic of the United States ever
+becomes but a memory, like Carthage, Athens and Rome, drifting off into
+senile decay like Italy and Spain or France, where a man may yet be tried
+and sentenced without the right of counsel or defense, it will be because
+we forgot--we forgot!
+
+In moral fiber and general characteristics the Huguenots and the Puritans
+were one. The Huguenots had, however, the added virtue of a dash of the
+Frenchman's love of beauty. By their excellent habits and loyalty to
+truth, as they saw it, they added a vast share to the prosperity and
+culture of the United States.
+
+Of seven men who acted as presiding officer over the deliberations of
+Congress during the Revolutionary Period, three were of Huguenot
+parentage: Laurens, Boudinot and Jay. John Jay was a typical Huguenot,
+just as Samuel Adams was a typical Puritan. In his life there was no
+glamour of romance. Stern, studious and inflexibly honest, he made his way
+straight to the highest positions of trust and honor. Good men who are
+capable are always needed. The world wants them now more than ever. We
+have an overplus of clever individuals; but for the faithful men who are
+loyal to a trust there is a crying demand.
+
+The life of Jay quite disproves the oft-found myth that a dash of Mephisto
+in a young man is a valuable adjunct. John Jay was neither precocious nor
+bad. It is further a refreshing fact to find that he was no prig, simply a
+good, healthy youngster who took to his books kindly and gained
+ground--made head upon the whole by grubbing.
+
+His father was a hard-headed, prosperous merchant, who did business in New
+York, and moved his big family up to the little village of Rye because
+life in the country was simple and cheap. Thus did Peter Jay prove his
+commonsense.
+
+Peter Jay copied every letter he wrote, and we now have these copy-books,
+revealing what sort of man he was. Religious he was, and scrupulously
+exact in all things. We see that he ordered Bibles from England, "and also
+six groce of Church Wardens," which I am told is a long clay pipe, "that
+hath a goodly flavor and doth not bite the tongue." He also at one time
+ordered a chest of tea, and then countermanded the order, having taken the
+resolve to "use no tea in my family while that rascally Tax is on--having
+a spring of good, pure water near my house." Which shows that a man can be
+very much in earnest and still joke.
+
+John was the baby, scarcely a year old, when the Jay family moved up to
+Rye. He was the eighth child, and as he grew up he was taught by the older
+ones. He took part in all the fun and hardships of farm life--going to
+school in Winter, working in Summer, and on Sundays hearing long sermons
+at church.
+
+We find by Peter Jay's letter-book that: "Johnny is about our brightest
+child. We have great hopes of him, and believe it will be wise to educate
+him for a preacher." In order to educate boys then, they were sent to live
+in the family of some man of learning. And so we find "Johnny" at twelve
+years of age installed in the parsonage at New Rochelle, the Huguenot
+settlement. The pastor was a Huguenot, and as only French was spoken in
+the household, the boy acquired the language, which afterwards stood him
+in good stead.
+
+The pastor reported favorably, and when fifteen, young Jay was sent to
+King's College, which is now Columbia University, kings not being popular
+in America.
+
+Doctor Samuel Johnson, who nowise resembled Ursa Major, was the president
+of the College at that time. He was also the faculty, for there were just
+thirty students and he did all the teaching himself. Doctor Johnson, true
+to his name, dearly loved a good book, and when teaching mathematics would
+often forget the topic and recite Ossian by the page, instead. Jay caught
+it, for the book craze is contagious and not sporadic. We take it by being
+exposed.
+
+And thus it was while under the tutelage of Doctor Johnson that Jay began
+to acquire the ability to turn a terse sentence; and this gained him
+admittance into the world of New York letters, whose special guardians
+were Dickinson and William Livingston.
+
+Livingston invited the boy to his house, and very soon we find the young
+man calling without special invitation, for Livingston had a beautiful
+daughter about John's age, who was fond of Ossian, too, or said she was.
+
+And as this is not a serial love-story, there is no need of keeping the
+gentle reader in suspense, so I will explain that some years later John
+married the girl, and the mating was a very happy one.
+
+After John had been to King's College two years we find in the faded and
+yellow old letter-book an item written by the father to the effect that:
+"Our Johnny is doing well at College. He seems sedate and intent on
+gaining knowledge; but rather inclines to Law instead of the Ministry."
+
+Doctor Johnson was succeeded by Doctor Myles Cooper, a Fellow of Oxford,
+who used to wear his mortarboard cap and scholar's gown up Broadway. In
+young Jay's veins there was not a drop of British blood. Of his eight
+great-grandparents, five were French and three Dutch, a fact he once
+intimated in the Oxonian's presence. And then it was explained to the
+youth that if such were the truth it would be as well to conceal it.
+
+Alexander Hamilton got along very well with Doctor Cooper, but John Jay
+found himself rusticated shortly before graduation. Some years after this
+Doctor Cooper hastily climbed the back fence, leaving a sample of his gown
+on a picket, while Alexander Hamilton held the Whig mob at bay at the
+front door.
+
+Cooper sailed very soon for England, anathematizing "the blarsted country"
+in classic Latin as the ship passed out of the Narrows.
+
+"England is a good place for him," said the laconic John Jay.
+
+So John Jay was to be a lawyer. And the only way to be a lawyer in those
+days was to work in a lawyer's office. A goodly source of income to all
+established lawyers was the sums they derived for taking embryo
+Blackstones into their keeping. The greater a man's reputation as a
+lawyer, the higher he placed his fee for taking a boy in.
+
+In those days there were no printed blanks, and a simple lease was often a
+day's work to write out; so it was not difficult to keep the boys busy.
+Besides that, they took care of the great man's horse, blacked his boots,
+swept the office, and ran errands. During the third year of
+apprenticeship, if all went well, the young man was duly admitted to the
+Bar. A stiff examination kept out the rank outsiders, but the nomination
+by a reputable attorney was equivalent to admittance, for all members knew
+that if you opposed an attorney today, tomorrow he might oppose you.
+
+To such an extent was this system of taking students carried that, in
+Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight, we find New York lawyers alarmed "by the
+awful influx of young Barristers upon this Province." So steps were taken
+to make all attorneys agree not to have more than two apprentices in their
+office at one time. About the same time the Boston newspaper, called the
+"Centinel," shows there was a similar state of overproduction in Boston.
+Only the trouble there was principally with the doctors, for doctors were
+then turned loose in the same way, carrying a diploma from the old
+physician with whom they had matriculated and duly graduated.
+
+Law schools and medical colleges, be it known, are comparatively modern
+institutions--not quite so new, however, as business colleges, but pretty
+nearly so. And now in Chicago there is a "Barbers' University," which
+issues diplomas to men who can manipulate a razor and shears, whereas,
+until yesterday, boys learned to be barbers by working in a barber's shop.
+The good old way was to pass a profession along from man to man.
+
+And it is so yet in a degree, for no man is allowed to practise either
+medicine or law until he has spent some time in the office of a
+practitioner in good standing.
+
+In the Catholic Church, and also in the Episcopal, the novitiate is
+expected to serve for a time under an older clergyman; but all the other
+denominations have broken away, and now spring the fledgling on the world
+straight from the factory.
+
+Several other of his children having sorely disappointed him, Peter Jay
+seemed to center his ambitions on his boy John. So we find him paying
+Benjamin Kissam, the eminent lawyer, two hundred pounds in good coin of
+the Colony to take John Jay as a 'prentice for five years. John went at it
+and began copying those endless, wordy documents in which the old-time
+attorney used to delight. John sat at one end of a table, and at the other
+was seated one Lindley Murray, at the mention of whose name terror used to
+seize my soul.
+
+Murray has written some good, presentable English to the effect that young
+Jay, even at that time, had the inclination and ability to focus his mind
+upon the subject in hand. "He used to work just as steadily when his
+employer was away as when he was in the office," a fact which the
+grammarian seemed to regard as rather strange.
+
+In a year we find that when Mr. Kissam went away he left the keys of the
+safe in John Jay's hands, with orders what to do in case of emergencies.
+Thus does responsibility gravitate to him who can shoulder it, and trust
+to the man who deserves it.
+
+It was in Kissam's office that Jay acquired that habit of reticence and
+serene poise which, becoming fixed in character, made his words carry such
+weight in later years. He never gave snapshot opinions, or talked at
+random, or voiced any sentiment for which he could not give a reason.
+
+His companions were usually men much older than he. At the "Moot Club" he
+took part with James Duane, who was to be New York's first continental
+mayor; Gouverneur Morris, who had not at that time acquired the wooden
+leg which he once snatched off and brandished with happy effect before a
+Paris mob; and Samuel Jones, who was to take as 'prentice and drill that
+strong man, De Witt Clinton.
+
+Before his years of apprenticeship were over, John Jay, the quiet, the
+modest, the reticent, was known as a safe and competent lawyer--Kissam
+having pushed him forward as associate counsel in various difficult cases.
+
+Meantime, certain chests of tea had been dumped into Boston Harbor, and
+the example had been followed by the "Mohawks" in New York. British
+oppression had made many Tories lukewarm, and then English rapacity had
+transformed these Tories into Whigs. Jay was one of these; and in
+newspapers and pamphlets, and from the platform, he had pleaded the cause
+of the Colonies. Opposition crystallized his reasons, and threats only
+served to make him reaffirm the truths he had stated.
+
+So prominent had his utterances made his name, that one fine day he was
+nominated to attend the first Congress of the Colonies to be held in
+Philadelphia.
+
+In August, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, we find him leaving his office
+in New York in charge of a clerk, and riding horseback over to the town of
+Elizabeth, there joining his father-in-law, and the two starting for
+Philadelphia. On the road they fell in with John Adams, who kept a diary.
+That night at the tavern where they stopped, the sharp-eyed Yankee
+recorded the fact of meeting these new friends and added, "Mr. Jay is a
+young gentleman of the law ... and Mr. Scott says a hard student and a
+very good speaker."
+
+And so they journeyed on across the State to Trenton and down the Delaware
+River to Philadelphia, visiting, and cautiously discussing great issues as
+they went. Samuel Adams, too, was in the party, as reticent as Jay. Jay
+was twenty-nine and Samuel Adams fifty-two years old, but they became good
+friends, and Samuel once quietly said to John Adams, "That man Jay is
+young in years, but he has an old head."
+
+Jay was the youngest man of the Convention, save one.
+
+When the Second Congress met, Jay was again a delegate. He served on
+several important committees, and drew up a statement that was addressed
+to the people of England; but he was recalled to New York before the
+supreme issue was reached, and thus, through accident, the Declaration of
+Independence does not contain the signature of John Jay.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Seventy-eight, Jay was chosen president of the
+Continental Congress to succeed that other patriotic Huguenot, Laurens.
+The following year he was selected as the man to go to Spain, to secure
+from that country certain friendly favors.
+
+His reception there was exceedingly frosty, and the mention of his two
+years on the ragged edge of court life at Madrid, in later years brought
+to his face a grim smile.
+
+Spain's diplomatic policy was smooth hypocrisy and rank untruth, and all
+her promises, it seems, were made but to be broken. Jay's negotiations
+were only partially successful, but he came to know the language, the
+country and the people in a way that made his knowledge very valuable to
+America.
+
+By Seventeen Hundred Eighty-one, England had begun to see that to compel
+the absolute submission of the Colonies was more of a job than she had
+anticipated. News of victories was duly sent to the "mother country" at
+regular intervals, but with these glad tidings were requests for more
+troops, and requisitions for ships and arms.
+
+The American army was a very hard thing to find. It would fight one day,
+to retreat the next, and had a way of making midnight attacks and flank
+movements that, to say the least, were very confusing. Then it would
+separate, to come together--Lord knows where! This made Lord Cornwallis
+once write to the Home Secretary: "I could easily defeat the enemy, if I
+could find him and engage him in a fair fight." He seemed to think it was
+"no fair," forgetting the old proverb which has something to say about
+love and war.
+
+Finally, Cornwallis got the thing his soul desired--a fair fight. He was
+then acting on the defensive. The fight was short and sharp; and Colonel
+Alexander Hamilton, who led the charge, in ten minutes planted the Stars
+and Stripes on his ramparts.
+
+That night Cornwallis was the "guest" of Washington, and the next day a
+dinner was given in his honor.
+
+He was then obliged to write to the Home Secretary, "We have met the
+enemy, and we are theirs"--but of course he did not express it just
+exactly that way. Then it was that King George, for the first time, showed
+a disposition to negotiate for peace.
+
+As peace commissioners, America named Franklin, John Adams, Laurens, Jay
+and Jefferson.
+
+Jefferson refused to leave his wife, who was in delicate health. Adams was
+at The Hague, just closing up a very necessary loan. Laurens had been sent
+to Holland on a diplomatic mission, and his ship having been overhauled by
+a British man-of-war, he was safely in that historic spot, the Tower of
+London.
+
+So Jay and Franklin alone met the English commissioners, and Jay stated to
+them the conditions of peace.
+
+In a few weeks Adams arrived, still keeping a diary. In that diary is
+found this item: "The French call me 'Le Washington de la Negociation': a
+very flattering compliment indeed, to which I have no right, but sincerely
+think it belongs to Mr. Jay."
+
+Jay quitted Paris in May, Seventeen Hundred Eighty-four, having been gone
+from his native land eight years. When he reached New York there was a
+great demonstration in his honor. Triumphal arches were erected across
+Broadway, houses and stores were decorated with bunting, cannons boomed,
+and bells rang. The freedom of the city was presented to him in a gold
+box, with an exceedingly complimentary address, engrossed on parchment,
+and signed by one hundred of the leading citizens.
+
+Jay spent just one day in New York, and then rode on horseback up to the
+old farm at Rye, Westchester County, to see his father. That evening there
+was a service of thanksgiving at the village church, after which the
+citizens repaired to the Jay mansion, one story high and eighty feet long,
+where a barrel of cider was tapped, and "a groce of Church Wardens" passed
+around, with free tobacco for all.
+
+John Jay stood on the front porch and made a modest speech just five
+minutes long, among other things saying he had come home to be a neighbor
+to them, having quit public life for good. But he refused to talk about
+his own experiences in Europe. His reticence, however, was made up for by
+good old Peter Jay, who assured the people that John Jay was America's
+foremost citizen; and in this statement he was backed up by the village
+preacher, with not a dissenting voice from the assembled citizens.
+
+It is rather curious (or it isn't, I'm not sure which) how most statesmen
+have quit public life several times during their careers, like the prima
+donnas who make farewell tours. The ingratitude of republics is
+proverbial, but to limit ingratitude to republics shows a lack of
+experience. The progeny of the men who tired of hearing Aristides called
+The Just are very numerous. Of course it is easy to say that he who
+expects gratitude does not deserve it; but the fact remains that the men
+who know it are yet stung by calumny when it comes their way.
+
+That fine demonstration in Jay's honor was in great part to overwhelm and
+stamp out the undertone of growl and snarl that filled the air. Many said
+that peace had been gained at awful cost, that Jay had deferred to royalty
+and trifled with the wishes of the people in making terms.
+
+And now Jay had got home, back to his family and farm, back to quiet and
+rest. The long, hard fight had been won and America was free. For eight
+years had he toiled and striven and planned: much had been
+accomplished--not all he hoped, but much.
+
+He had done his best for his country, his own affairs were in bad shape,
+Congress had paid him meagerly, and now he would turn public life over to
+others and live his own life.
+
+All through life men reach these places where they say, "Here will we
+build three tabernacles"; but out of the silence comes the imperative
+Voice, "Arise, and get thee hence, for this is not thy rest."
+
+And now the war was over, peace was concluded; but war leaves a country in
+chaos. The long, slow work of reconstruction and of binding up a nation's
+wounds must follow. America was independent, but she had yet to win from
+the civilized world the recognition that she must have in order to endure.
+
+Jay was importuned by Washington to take the position of Secretary of
+Foreign Affairs, one of the most important offices to be filled.
+
+He accepted, and discharged the exacting duties of the place for five
+years.
+
+Then came the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and the election of
+Washington as President of the United States.
+
+Washington wrote to Jay: "There must be a Court, perpetual and Supreme, to
+which all questions of internal dispute between States or people be
+referred. This Court must be greater than the Executive, greater than any
+individual State, separated and apart from any political party. You must
+be the first official head of the Executive."
+
+And Jay, as every schoolboy knows, was the first Chief Justice of the
+Supreme Court of the United States. By his sagacity, his dignity, his
+knowledge of men, and love of order and uprightness, he gave it that high
+place which it yet holds, and which it must hold; for when the decisions
+of the Supreme Court are questioned by a State or people, the fabric of
+our government is but a spider's web through which anarchy and unreason
+will stalk.
+
+In Seventeen Hundred Ninety-four, came serious complications with Great
+Britain, growing out of the construction of terms of peace made in Paris
+eleven years before.
+
+Some one must go to Great Britain and make a new treaty in order to
+preserve our honor and save us from another war.
+
+Franklin was dead; Adams as Vice-President could not be spared; Hamilton's
+fiery temper was dangerous--no one could accomplish the delicate mission
+so well as Jay.
+
+Jay, self-centered and calm, said little; but in compliance with
+Washington's wish resigned his office, and set sail with full powers to
+use his own judgment in everything, and the assurance that any treaty he
+made would be ratified.
+
+Arriving in England, he at once opened negotiations with Lord Grenville,
+and in five months the new treaty was signed.
+
+It provided for the payment to American citizens for losses of private
+shipping during the war; and over ten million dollars were paid to
+citizens of the United States under this agreement.
+
+It fixed the boundary-line between the State of Maine and Canada; provided
+for the surrender of British posts in the Far West; that neither nation
+was to allow enlistments within its territory by a third nation at war
+with another; arranged for the surrender of fugitives charged with murder
+or forgery; and made definite terms as to various minor, but none the less
+important, questions.
+
+A storm of opposition greeted the treaty when its terms were made known in
+America. Jay was accused of bartering away the rights of America, and
+indignation meetings were held, because Jay had not insisted on apologies,
+and set sums of indemnity on this, that and the other.
+
+Nevertheless, Washington ratified the treaty; and when Jay arrived in
+America there was a greeting fully as cordial and generous as that on the
+occasion of his other homecoming.
+
+In fact, while he was absent, his friends had put him in nomination as
+Governor of New York. His election to that office occurred just two days
+before he arrived, and when he landed his senses were mystified by hearing
+loud hurrahs for "Governor Jay."
+
+When his term of office expired he was re-elected, so he served as
+Governor, in all, six years. The most important measure carried out during
+that time was the abolition of slavery in the State of New York, an act
+he had strenuously insisted on for twenty years, but which was not made
+possible until he had the power of Governor, and crowded the measure upon
+the Legislature.
+
+Over a quarter of a century had passed since John Adams and John Jay had
+met on horseback out there on the New Jersey turnpike. Their intimacy had
+been continuous and their labors as important as ever engrossed the minds
+of men, but in it all there was neither jealousy nor bickering. They were
+friends.
+
+At the close of Jay's gubernatorial term, President Adams nominated him
+for the office of Chief Justice, made vacant by the resignation of Oliver
+Ellsworth. The Senate unanimously confirmed the nomination, but Jay
+refused to accept the place.
+
+For twenty-eight years he had served his country--served it in its most
+trying hours. He was not an old man in years, but the severity and anxiety
+of his labors had told on his health, and the elasticity of youth had gone
+from his brain forever. He knew this, and feared the danger of continued
+exertion. "My best work is done," he said; "if I continue I may undo the
+good I have accomplished. I have earned a rest."
+
+He retired to the ancestral farm at Bedford, Westchester County, to enjoy
+his vacation. In a year his wife died, and the shock told on his already
+shattered nerves.
+
+"The habit of reticence grew upon him," says one writer, "until he could
+not be tricked into giving an opinion even about the weather."
+
+And so he lived out his days as a partial recluse, deep in problems of
+"raising watermelons, and sheep that would not jump fences." He worked
+with his hands, wore blue jeans, voted at every town election, but to a
+great degree lived only in the past. The problems of church and village
+politics and farm life filled his declining days.
+
+To a great degree his physical health came back, but the problems of
+statecraft he left to other heads and hands.
+
+His religious nature manifested itself in various philanthropic schemes,
+and the Bible Society he founded endures even unto this day. These things
+afforded a healthful exercise for that tireless brain which refused to run
+down.
+
+His daughters made his home ideal, their love and gentleness soothing his
+declining years.
+
+Death to him was kindly, gathering him as Autumn, the messenger of Winter,
+reaps the leaves.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No one has ever made the claim that Jay possessed genius. He had something
+which is better, though, for most of the affairs of life, and that is
+commonsense. In his intellect there was not the flash of Hamilton, nor the
+creative quality possessed by Jefferson, nor the large all-roundness of
+Franklin.
+
+He was the average man who has trained and educated and made the best use
+of every faculty and every opportunity. He was genuine; he was honest; and
+if he never surprised his friends by his brilliancy, he surely never
+disappointed them through duplicity.
+
+He made no promises that he could not keep; he held out no vain hopes.
+
+As a diplomat he seems nearly the ideal. We have been taught that the line
+of demarcation between diplomacy and untruth is very shadowy. But truth is
+very good policy and in the main answers the purpose much better than the
+other thing. I am quite willing to leave the matter to those who have
+tried both.
+
+We can not say that Jay was "magnetic," for magnetic men win the rabble;
+but Jay did better: he won the confidence and admiration of the strong and
+discerning. His manner was gentle and pleasing; his words few, and as a
+listener he set a pace that all novitiates in the school of diplomacy
+would do well to follow.
+
+To talk well is a talent, but to listen is a fine art. If I really wished
+to win the love of a man I'd practise the art of listening. Even dull
+people often talk well when there is some one near who cultivates the
+receptive mood; and to please a man you must give him an opportunity to be
+both wise and witty. Men are pleased with their friends when they are
+pleased with themselves, and no man is ever so pleased with himself as
+when he has expressed himself well.
+
+The sympathetic listener at a lecture or sermon is the only one who gets
+his money's worth. If you would get good, lend your sympathy to a speaker,
+and if, accidentally, you imbibe heresy, you can easily throw it overboard
+when you get home.
+
+John Jay was quiet and undemonstrative in speech, cultivating a fine
+reserve. In debate he never fired all his guns, and his best battles were
+won with the powder that was never exploded. "You had always better keep a
+small balance to your credit," he once advised a young attorney.
+
+When the first Congress met, Jay was not in favor of complete independence
+from England. He asked only for simple justice, and said, "The middle
+course is best." He listened to John Adams and Patrick Henry and quietly
+discussed the matter with Samuel Adams; but it was some time before he saw
+that the density of King George was hopeless, and that the work of
+complete separation was being forced upon the Colonies by the blindness
+and stupidity of the British Parliament.
+
+He then accepted the issue.
+
+During those first days of the Revolution, New York did not stand firm,
+as did Boston, for the cause of independence. "The foes at home are the
+only ones I really fear," once wrote Hamilton.
+
+First to pacify and placate, then to win and hold those worse than
+neutrals, was the work of John Jay. While Washington was in the field,
+Jay, with tireless pen, upheld the cause, and by his speech and presence
+kept anarchy at bay.
+
+As president of the Committee of Safety he showed he could do something
+more than talk and write. When Tories refused to take the oath of
+allegiance he quietly wrote the order to imprison or banish; and with
+friend, foe or kinsman there was neither dalliance nor turning aside. His
+heart was in the cause--his property, his life. The time for argument had
+passed.
+
+In the gloom that followed the defeat of Washington at Brooklyn, Jay
+issued an address to the people that is a classic in its fine, stern
+spirit of hope and strength. Congress had the address reprinted and sent
+broadcast, and also translated and printed in German.
+
+His work divides itself by a strange coincidence into three equal parts.
+Twenty-eight years were passed in youth and education; twenty-eight years
+in continuous public work; and twenty-eight years in retirement and rest.
+
+As one of that immortal ten, mentioned by a great English statesman, who
+gave order, dignity, stability and direction to the cause of American
+Independence, the name of John Jay is secure.
+
+
+
+
+WILLIAM H. SEWARD
+
+    I avow my adherence to the Union, with my friends, with my party,
+    with my State; or without either, as they may determine; in every
+    event of peace or war, with every consequence of honor or
+    dishonor, of life or death.
+    --Speech in the United States Senate, 1860
+
+[Illustration: WILLIAM H. SEWARD]
+
+
+When I was a freshman at the Little Red Schoolhouse, the last exercise in
+the afternoon was spelling. The larger pupils stood in a line that ran
+down one aisle and curled clear around the stove. Well do I remember one
+Winter when the biggest boy in the school stood at the tail-end of the
+class most of the time, while at the head of the line, or always very near
+it, was a freckled, check-aproned girl, who once at a spellin'-bee had
+defeated even the teacher. This girl was ten years older than myself, and
+I was then too small to spell with this first grade, but I watched the
+daily fight of wrestling with such big words as "un-in-ten-tion-al-ly" and
+"mis-un-der-stand-ing," and longed for a day when I, too, should take part
+and possibly stand next to this fine, smart girl, who often smiled at me
+approvingly. And I planned how I would hold her hand as we would stand
+there in line and mentally dare the master to come on with his dictionary.
+We two would be the smartest scholars of the school and always help each
+other in our "sums."
+
+Yet when time had pushed me into the line, she of the check apron was not
+there, and even if she had been I should not have dared to hold her hand.
+
+But I must not digress--the particular thing I wish to explain is that one
+day at recess the best scholar was in tears, and I went to her and asked
+what was the matter, and she told me that some of the big girls had openly
+declared that she--my fine, freckled girl, the check-aproned, the
+invincible--held her place at the head of the school only through
+favoritism.
+
+I burned with rage and resentment and proposed fight; then I burst out
+crying and together we mingled our tears.
+
+All this was long ago. Since then I have been in many climes, and met many
+men, and read history a bit--I hope not without profit. And this I have
+learned: that the person who stands at the head of his class (be he
+country lad or presidential candidate) is always the target for calumny
+and the unkindness of contemporaries who can neither appreciate nor
+understand.
+
+Not long ago I spent several days at Auburn, New York, so named by some
+pioneer who, when the Nineteenth Century was very young, journeyed
+thitherward with a copy of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village" in his pack.
+
+Auburn is a flourishing city of thirty thousand inhabitants. It has
+beautiful wide streets, lined with elms that in places form an archway.
+There are churches to spare and schools galore and handsome residences.
+Then there are electric cars and electric lights and dynamos, with which
+men electricute other men in the wink of an eye. I saw the
+"fin-de-siecle" guillotine and sat in the chair, and the jubilant patentee
+told me that it was the quickest scheme for extinguishing life ever
+invented--patented Anno Christi Eighteen Hundred Ninety-five. Verily we
+live in the age of the Push-Button! And as I sat there I heard a laugh
+that was a quaver, and the sound of a stout cane emphasizing a jest struck
+against the stone floor.
+
+"We didn't have such things when I was a boy!" came the tremulous voice.
+
+And then the newcomer explained to me that he was eighty-seven years old
+last May, and that he well remembered a time when a plain oaken gallows
+and a strong rope were good enough for Auburn--"provided Bill Seward
+didn't get the fellow free," added my new-found friend.
+
+Then the old man explained that he used to be a guard on the walls, and
+now he had a grandson who occupied the same office, and in answer to my
+question said he knew Seward as though he were a brother. "Bill, he was
+the luckiest man ever in Auburn--he married rich and tumbled over bags of
+money if he just walked on the street. He believed in neither God nor
+devil and had a pompous way o' makin' folks think he knew all about
+everything. To make folks think you know is just as well as to know, I
+s'pose!" and the old man laughed and struck his cane on the echoing floor
+of the cell.
+
+The sound and the place and the company gave me a creepy feeling, and I
+excused myself and made my way out past armed guards, through doorways
+where iron bars clicked and snapped, and steel bolts that held in a
+thousand men shot back to let me out, out into a freer air and a better
+atmosphere. And as I passed through the last overhanging arch where a
+one-armed guard wearing a G.A.R. badge turned a needlessly big key, there
+came unbeckoned across my inward sight a vision of a check-aproned girl in
+tears, sobbing with head on desk. And I said to myself: "Yes, yes! country
+girl or statesman, you shall drink the bitter potion that is the penalty
+of success--drink it to the very dregs. If you would escape moral and
+physical assassination, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing--court
+obscurity, for only in oblivion does safety lie."
+
+All mud sticks, but no mud is immortal, and that senile fling at the name
+of Seward is the last flickering, dying word of detraction that can be
+heard in the town that was his home for full half a century, or in the
+land he served so well. And yet it was in Auburn that mob spirit once
+found a voice; and when Seward was Lincoln's most helpful adviser, and his
+sons were at the front serving the country's cause, cries of "Burn his
+house! Burn his house!" came to the distracted ears of wife and daughter.
+
+But all that has gone now. In fact, denial that calumny was ever offered
+to the name of Seward springs quickly to the lips of Auburn men, as they
+point with pride to that beautiful old home where he lived, and where now
+his son resides; and then they lead you, with a reverence that nearly
+uncovers, to the stately bronze standing on the spot that was once his
+garden--now a park belonging to the people.
+
+Time marks wondrous changes; and the city where William Lloyd Garrison
+lived in "a rat-hole," as reported by Boston's Mayor, now honors
+Commonwealth Avenue with his statue. And so the sons of Seward's enemies
+have devoted willing dollars to preserving "that classic face and
+spindling form" in deathless bronze.
+
+And they do well, for Seward's name and fame are Auburn's glory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that all the worry of the world is
+quite useless. And on no subject affecting mortals is there so much worry
+as on that of (no, not love!) parents' ambitions for their children. When
+the dimpled darling toddles and lisps and chatters, the satisfaction he
+gives is unalloyed; for he is so small and insignificant, his demands so
+imperious, that the entire household dance attendance on the wee tyrant,
+and count it joy. But by and by the things at which we used to laugh
+become presumptuous, and that which was once funny is now perverse. And
+the more practical a man is, the larger his stock of Connecticut
+commonsense, the greater his disillusionment as his children grow to
+manhood. When he beholds dawdling inanity and dowdy vanity growing lush as
+jimson, where yesterday, with strained prophetic vision, he saw budding
+excellence and worth, his soul is wrung by a worry that knows no peace.
+The matter is so poignantly personal that he dare not share it with
+another in confessional, and so he hugs his grief to his heart, and tries
+to hide it even from himself.
+
+And thus does many a mother scrub the kitchen-floor on her knees, rather
+than face the irony of maternity and ask the assistance of the
+seventeen-year-old pert chit with bangs, who strums a mandolin in the
+little front parlor, gay with its paper flowers, six plush-covered chairs
+and a "company" sofa.
+
+The late Commodore Vanderbilt is reported to have said, "I have over a
+dozen sons, and not one is worth a damn." I fear me that every father with
+sons grown to manhood has at some time voiced the same sentiment,
+curtailed, possibly, only as to numbers, and softened by another
+expletive, which does not mitigate the anguish of his cry, as he sees the
+dreams he had for his baby boys fade away into a mist of agonizing tears.
+
+And is all this worry the penalty that Nature exacts for dreaming dreams
+that can not in their very nature come true? Jean Jacques Rousseau, who
+wrote so beautifully on child-study, avoided the risk of failure by
+putting his children into an asylum; several "Communities" since have set
+apart certain women to be mothers to all, and bring up and care for the
+young, and strangely, with no apparent loss to the children; and Bellamy
+prophesies a day when the worries of parenthood will all be transferred to
+a "committee."
+
+But the worry is futile and senseless, being born often of a blindness
+that will not wait. Man has not only "Seven Ages," but many more, and he
+must pass through this one before the next arrives. The Commodore
+certainly possessed what is called horse-sense, and if his conceptions of
+character had been clearer, he might have realized that in more ways than
+one the abilities of his sons were going to be greater than his own. His
+eldest son was, nevertheless, banished to a Long Island farm on a pension,
+"because he could not be trusted to do business." The same son once
+modestly asked the Commodore if he would allow him to have the compost
+that had been for a year accumulating outside the Fifth Avenue barns.
+"Just one load, and no more," said pater. William thereupon took twenty
+teams and as many men, and transferred the entire pile to a barge moored
+in the river. It was a barge-load. And when pater saw what had been done,
+he said, "The boy is not so big a fool as I thought." The boy was
+forty-five ere death put him in possession of the gold that the father no
+longer had use for, there being no pockets in a shroud, and he then showed
+that as a financier he could have given his father points, for in a few
+years he doubled the millions and drove horses faster without a break than
+his father had ever ridden.
+
+Seward's father was a doctor, justice of the peace, merchant, and the
+general first citizen of the village of Florida, Orange County, New York.
+And he had no more confidence in his boy William than Vanderbilt had in
+his. He educated him only because the lad was not strong enough to work,
+and it seems to have been the firm belief that the boy would come to no
+good end. In order to discipline him, the father put the youngster in
+college on such a scanty allowance that the lad was obliged to run away
+and go to teaching school in order to be free from financial humiliation.
+Here was the best possible proof that the young man had the germs of
+excellence in him; but the father took it as a proof of depravity, and
+sent warning letters to the young school-teacher's friends threatening
+them "not to harbor the scapegrace."
+
+The years went by and the parental distrust slackened very little. The boy
+was slim and slender and his hair was tow-colored and his head too big for
+his body. He had gotten a goodly smattering of education some way and was
+intent on being a lawyer. He seemed to know that if he was to succeed he
+must get well away from the parent nest, and out of the reach of daily
+advice.
+
+His desire was to go "Out West," and the particular objective point was
+Auburn, New York.
+
+The father gave him fifty dollars as a starter, with the final word, "I
+expect you'll be back all too soon."
+
+And so young Seward started away, with high hopes and a firm determination
+that he would agreeably disappoint his parents by not going back.
+
+He reached Albany by steamboat, and embarked on a sumptuous canal packet
+that bore a waving banner on which were the words woven in gold, "Westward
+Ho!"
+
+And he has slyly told us how, as he stepped aboard that "inland palace,"
+he bethought him of having written a thesis, three years before, proving
+that De Witt Clinton's chimera of joining the Hudson and Lake Erie was an
+idea both fictile and fibrous. But the inland palace carried him safely
+and surely. He reached Auburn, and instead of writing home for more money,
+returned that which he had borrowed. The father, who was a pretty good
+man in every way, quite beyond the average in intellect, lived to see his
+son in the United States Senate.
+
+And the moral for parents is: Don't worry about your children. You were
+young once, even if you have forgotten the fact. Boys will be boys and
+girls will be girls--but not forever. Have patience, and remember that
+this present brood is not the first generation that has been brought
+forth. There have been others, and each has been very much like the one
+that passed before. The sentiment of "Pippa Passes" holds: "God's in His
+Heaven, all's right with the world."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Eighteen Hundred Thirty-four, Seward was the Whig candidate for
+Governor of New York. He was defeated by W.L. Marcy. Four years later he
+was again a candidate against Marcy and defeated him by ten thousand
+majority.
+
+Seward was then thirty-six years of age, and was counted one of the very
+first among the lawyers of the State, and in accepting the office of
+Governor he made decided financial sacrifices.
+
+Seward was a man of positive ideas, and, although not arbitrary in manner,
+yet had a silken strength of will that made great rents in the mesh of
+other men's desires. Before a court, his quiet but firm persistence along
+a certain line often dictated the verdict. The faculty of grasping a point
+firmly and securely was his in a marked measure. And any man who can
+quietly override the wishes and ambitions of other men is first well
+feared, and then thoroughly hated.
+
+One of Seward's first efforts on becoming Governor was to insure a
+common-school education among the children of every class, and especially
+among the foreign population of large cities. To this end he advocated a
+distribution of public funds among all schools established with that
+object; and if he were alive today it is quite needless to say he would
+not belong to the A.P.A. nor to any other secret society. He knew too much
+of all religions to have complete faith in any, yet his appreciation of
+the fact that the Catholics minister to the needs of a class that no
+other denomination reaches or can control was outspoken and plain. This,
+with his connection with the Anti-Masonic Party, brought upon his name a
+stigma that was at last to defeat him for the Presidency. Seward's clear
+insight into practical things, backed by the quiet working energy of his
+nature, brought about many changes, and the changes he effected and the
+reforms he inaugurated must ever rank his name high among statesmen.
+
+By his influence the law's delay in the courts of chancery was curtailed,
+and this prepared the way for radical changes in the Constitution. He
+inaugurated the geological survey that led to making "Potsdam outcrop"
+classic, and "Medina sandstone" a product that is so known wherever a man
+goes forth in the fields of earth carrying a geologist's hammer.
+
+Largely through his efforts, a safe and general banking system was brought
+about; and the establishment of a lunatic asylum was one of the best items
+to his credit during that first term as Governor. But there was one
+philological change that proved too great even for his generalship. The
+word "lunacy," as we know, comes from "luna," the belief in the good old
+days being that the moon exercised a profound influence on the wits of
+sundry people. I'm told that the idea still holds good in certain
+quarters, and that if the wind is east and the moon shows a horn on which
+you can hang a flatiron, certain persons are looked upon askance and the
+children cautioned to avoid them.
+
+Seward said that insane people were simply those who were mentally ill,
+and that "Hospital" was the proper term. But the classicists retorted,
+"Nay, nay, William Henry, you have had your way in many things and here we
+will now have ours." It has taken us full a century officially to make the
+change, and the plain folks from the hills still refuse to ratify it, and
+will for many a lustrum.
+
+It was during Seward's administration that the "debtors' prison" was done
+away with, and it was, too, through his earnest recommendation that the
+last trace of law for slaveholding was wiped from the statute-books of the
+State of New York.
+
+The question of slavery was taken up most exhaustively in what was known
+as the "Virginia Controversy." This interesting correspondence can be seen
+in a stout volume in most public libraries. It is a series of letters that
+passed between Governor Seward of New York and the Governor of Virginia,
+as to the requisition of two persons in New York charged by the Governor
+of Virginia with abducting slaves. Seward made the patent point, and
+backed it up with a forest of reasons in politest English, that the
+accused persons being charged with abducting slaves, and there being no
+such thing as slaves known in New York, no person in New York could be
+apprehended for stealing slaves--for slaves were things that had no
+existence.
+
+Then did the Governor of Virginia admit that slaves could not be abducted
+in New York; but he proceeded to explain in lusty tomes that slavery
+legally existed in Virginia, and that if slaves were abducted in Virginia,
+the criminal nature of the act could not be shaken off because the accused
+changed his geographical base. Seward was a prince of logicians: the
+subtleties of reasoning and the smoke of rhetoric were to his fancy, and
+although there is not a visible smile in the whole "Virginia Controversy,"
+I can not but think that his sleeves were puffed with laughter as he
+searched the universe for reasons to satisfy the haughty First Families of
+Virginia. And all the while, please note that he held the alleged
+abductors safe and secure 'gainst harm's way.
+
+In this correspondence he placed himself on record as an Abolitionist of
+the Abolitionists; and the name of Seward became listed then and there for
+vengeance--or immortality. The subject had been forced upon him, and he
+then expressed the sentiment that he continued to voice until Eighteen
+Hundred Sixty-five, that America could not exist half-free and half-slave.
+It must be a land of slaveholders and slaves, or a land of free-men--he
+was fully and irrevocably committed to the cause.
+
+In Eighteen Hundred Forty, he was re-elected Governor. The second
+administration was marked, as was the first, by a vigorous policy of
+pushing forward public improvements.
+
+At the close of his second term Seward found his personal affairs in
+rather an unsettled condition, the expenses of official position having
+exceeded his income. He had had a goodly taste of the ingratitude of
+republics, and philosopher though he was, he was yet too young to know
+that his experience in well-doing was not unique, a fact he came to
+comprehend full well, in later years. And so he did that very human
+thing--declared his intention of retiring permanently from public life.
+
+Once back at Auburn, clients flocked to him, and he took his pick of
+business. And yet we find that public affairs were in his mind. Vexed
+questions of State policy were brought to him to decide, and journeys were
+made to Ohio and Michigan in the interests of men charged with
+slave-stealing. There was little money in such practise and small honors,
+but his heart was in the work.
+
+In Eighteen Hundred Forty-four, Seward entered with much zest into the
+canvass in behalf of Henry Clay for President, as he thought Clay's
+election would surely lead the way to general emancipation.
+
+In Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight, he supported General Taylor with equal
+energy. When Taylor was elected, there proved to be a great deal of
+opposition to him among the members from the South, in both the Senate and
+the House of Representatives. The administration felt the need of being
+backed by strong men in the Senate--men who could think on their feet, and
+carry a point when necessary against the opposition that sought to
+confuse and embarrass the friends of the administration with tireless
+windmill elocution.
+
+From Washington came the urgent request that Seward should be sent to the
+United States Senate. In Eighteen Hundred Forty-nine, he was chosen
+senator and from the first became the trusted leader of the administration
+party.
+
+The year after Seward's election to the Senate, President Taylor died and
+Vice-President Fillmore (who had the happiness to live in the village of
+East Aurora, New York) succeeded to the office, but Seward still remained
+leader of the Anti-Slavery Party.
+
+Seward's second term as United States Senator closed in Eighteen Hundred
+Sixty-one. In Eighteen Hundred Fifty-five, when his first term expired,
+there was a very strenuous effort made against his re-election. His strong
+and continued anti-slavery position had caused him to be thoroughly hated
+both North and South. He was spoken of as "a seditious agitator and a
+dangerous man."
+
+But in spite of opposition he was again sent back to Washington. Small,
+slim, gentle, modest and low-voiced, he was pointed out in Pennsylvania
+Avenue as "one who reads much and sees quite through the deeds of men."
+
+Men who are well traduced and hotly denounced are usually pretty good
+quality. No better encomium is needed than the detraction of some people.
+And men who are well hated also have friends who love them well. Thus
+does the law of compensation ever live.
+
+In Eighteen Hundred Fifty-six, there was a goodly little demonstration in
+favor of Seward for President, but the idea of running such a radical for
+the chief office of the people was quickly downed; and Seward himself knew
+the temper of the times too well to take the matter very seriously.
+
+But the years between Eighteen Hundred Fifty-six and Eighteen Hundred
+Sixty were years of agitation and earnest thought, and the idea that
+slavery was merely a local question was getting both depolarized and
+dehorned. The non-slaveholding North was rubbing its sleepy eyes, and
+asking, Who is this man Seward, anyway? The belief was growing that
+Seward, Garrison, Sumner and Phillips were something more than
+self-seeking agitators, and many declared them true patriots. In every
+town and city, in every Northern State, political clubs sprang into being
+and their battle-cry was "Seward!" It seemed to be a foregone conclusion
+that Seward would be the next President. When the convention met, the
+first ballot showed one hundred seventy-three votes for Seward and one
+hundred two for Lincoln, the rest, scattering. But Seward's friends had
+marshaled their entire strength--all the rest was opposition--while
+Lincoln was an unknown quantity.
+
+When the news went forth that Lincoln was nominated, Seward received the
+tidings in his library at Auburn; and the myth-makers have told us that
+he cried aloud, and that the carved lions on his gateposts shed salty
+tears. But Seward knew the opposition to his name, and was of too stern a
+moral fiber to fix his heart upon the result of a wire-pulling convention.
+The motto of his life had been: Be prepared for the unexpected. It may be
+that the lions on the gateposts shed tears, and it is possible there was
+weeping in the Seward household--but not by Seward.
+
+He entered upon a hearty and vigorous campaign in support of
+Lincoln--making a tour through the West and being greeted everywhere with
+an enthusiasm that rivaled that shown for the candidate.
+
+Seward said to his wife, when the news came that Lincoln was nominated:
+"He will be elected, but he will have to face the greatest difficulties
+and carry the greatest burdens that ever a man has been called to bear. He
+will need me, but look you, my dear, I will not serve under him. I must be
+at the head or nowhere."
+
+Lincoln knew Seward, and Seward didn't knew Lincoln. And so after the
+Convention Lincoln journeyed down East. It took two days to go from
+Chicago to Buffalo, and there were no sleeping-cars; and then Lincoln went
+on from Buffalo to Auburn--another day's journey. Lincoln wore his
+habitual duster and the tall hat, a little the worse for wear. He
+telegraphed Seward he was coming, and, of course, Seward met him at the
+station in Auburn. Lincoln got off the car alone, unattended, carrying his
+carpetbag, homemade, with the initials "A.L." embroidered on the side by
+the fair hands of Fannie Anna Rebecca Todd.
+
+Seward and his two sons--William and Frederick--met the coming President,
+and the boys laughed at the dusty, uncouth, sad and awkward individual,
+six feet five, who disembarked.
+
+The carriage was waiting, but Lincoln refused to ride, saying, "Boys,
+let's walk," and so they walked up the hill, in through past the stone
+gateposts where the lions stood that shed tears. Seward ran ahead into the
+house and said to his wife: "Look you, my dear, we have misjudged this
+man. Do not laugh. He is the greatest man in the world!"
+
+Three months later, Seward met Lincoln by appointment in Chicago; and from
+that time on, to the day of Lincoln's death, Seward served his chief with
+hands and feet, with eyes and ears, and with brain and soul. When Lincoln
+was elected, his wisdom was at once manifest in securing Seward as
+Secretary of State. The record of those troublous times and the masterly
+way in which Seward served his country are too vivid in the minds of men
+to need reviewing here, but the regard of Lincoln for this man, who so
+well complemented his own needs, is worthy of our remembrance. Seward was
+the only member of Lincoln's first Cabinet who stood by him straight
+through and entered the second.
+
+Early in April, Eighteen Hundred Sixty-five, Seward met with a serious
+accident by being thrown from his carriage and dashed against the
+curbstone. One arm and both jaws were fractured, and besides he was badly
+bruised in other parts of his body. On April Thirteenth, Lincoln returned
+from his trip to Richmond, where he had had an interview with Grant. That
+evening he walked over from the White House to Seward's residence. The
+stricken man was totally unable to converse, but Lincoln, sitting on the
+edge of the bed and holding the old man's thin hands, told in solemn,
+serious monotone of the ending of the war; of what he had seen and heard;
+of the plans he had made for sending soldiers home and providing for an
+army whipped and vanquished, and of what was best to do to bind up a
+nation's wounds.
+
+Five years before, these men had stood before the world as rivals. Then
+they joined hands as friends, and during the four years of strife and
+blood had met each day and advised and counseled concerning every great
+detail. Their opinions often differed widely, but there was always frank
+expression and, in the main, their fears and doubts and hopes had all been
+one.
+
+But now at last the smoke had cleared away, and they had won. The victory
+had been too dearly bought for proud boast or vain exultation, but victory
+still it was.
+
+And as the strong and homely Lincoln told the tale the stricken man could
+answer back only by pressure of a hand.
+
+At last the presence of the nurse told Lincoln it was time to go; in grave
+jest he half-apologized for his long stay, and told of a man in Sangamon
+County who used to say there is no medicine like good news. And rumor has
+it that he then stooped and kissed the sick man's cheek. And then he went
+his way.
+
+The next night at the same hour a man entered the Seward home, saying that
+he had been sent with messages by the doctor. Being refused admittance to
+the sick-chamber, he drew a pistol and endeavored to shoot Seward's son
+who guarded the door; but being foiled in this he crushed the young man's
+skull with the heavy weapon, and springing over his body dashed at the
+emaciated figure of Seward with uplifted dagger. A dozen times he struck
+at the face and throat and breast of the almost dying man, and then
+thinking he had done his work made rapidly away.
+
+At the same time, linked by Fate in a sort of poetic justice, with the
+thought that if one deserved death so did the other, Hate had with surer
+aim sent an assassin's bullet home--and Lincoln died.
+
+Weeks passed and the strong vitality that had served Seward in such good
+stead did not forsake him. Men of his stamp are hard to kill.
+
+On a beautiful May-day, Seward, so reduced that a woman carried him, was
+taken out on the veranda of his house and watched that solid mass of
+glittering steel and faded blue that moved through Pennsylvania Avenue in
+triumphal march. Sherman with head uncovered rode down to Seward's home,
+saluted, and then back to join his goodly company, and many others of
+lesser note did the same.
+
+Health and strength came slowly back, and happy was the day when he was
+carried to the office of Secretary of State and, propped in his chair,
+again began his work. Another President had come, but meet it was that the
+Secretary of State should still hold his place.
+
+Seward lived full eleven years after that, seemingly dragging with
+unquenched spirit that slashed and broken form. But the glint did not fade
+from his eye, nor did the proud head lose its poise.
+
+He died in his office among his books and papers, sane and sensible up to
+the very moment when his spirit took its flight.
+
+
+
+
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+    The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here,
+    but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the
+    living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which
+    they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is
+    rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
+    before us, that from these honored dead we take increased
+    devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure
+    of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
+    not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a
+    new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the
+    people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
+    --Speech at Gettysburg
+
+[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN]
+
+
+No, dearie, I do not think my childhood differed much from that of other
+good healthy country youngsters. I've heard folks say that childhood has
+its sorrows and all that, but the sorrows of country children do not last
+long. The young rustic goes out and tells his troubles to the birds and
+flowers, and the flowers nod in recognition, and the robin that sings from
+the top of a tall poplar-tree when the sun goes down says plainly it has
+sorrows of its own--and understands.
+
+I feel a pity for all those folks who were born in a big city, and thus
+got cheated out of their childhood. Zealous ash-box inspectors in gilt
+braid, prying policemen with clubs, and signs reading, "Keep Off the
+Grass," are woeful things to greet the gaze of little souls fresh from
+God.
+
+Last Summer six "Fresh Airs" were sent out to my farm, from the Eighth
+Ward. Half an hour after their arrival, one of them, a little girl five
+years old, who had constituted herself mother of the party, came rushing
+into the house exclaiming, "Say, Mister, Jimmy Driscoll he's walkin' on de
+grass!"
+
+I well remember the first Keep-Off-the-Grass sign I ever saw. It was in a
+printed book; it wasn't exactly a sign, only a picture of a sign, and the
+single excuse I could think of for such a notice was that the field was
+full of bumblebee-nests, and the owner, being a good man and kind, did not
+want barefoot boys to add bee-stings to stone-bruises. And I never now see
+one of those signs but that I glance at my feet to make sure that I have
+shoes on.
+
+Given the liberty of the country, the child is very near to Nature's
+heart; he is brother to the tree and calls all the dumb, growing things by
+name. He is sublimely superstitious. His imagination, as yet untouched by
+disillusion, makes good all that earth lacks, and habited in a healthy
+body the soul sings and soars.
+
+In childhood, magic and mystery lie close around us. The world in which we
+live is a panorama of constantly unfolding delights, our faith in the
+Unknown is limitless, and the words of Job, uttered in mankind's early
+morning, fit our wondering mood: "He stretcheth out the north over empty
+space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing."
+
+I am old, dearie, very old. In my childhood much of the State of Illinois
+was a prairie, where wild grass waved and bowed before the breeze, like
+the tide of a summer sea. I remember when "relatives" rode miles and miles
+in springless farm-wagons to visit cousins, taking the whole family and
+staying two nights and a day; when books were things to be read; when the
+beaver and the buffalo were not extinct; when wild pigeons came in clouds
+that shadowed the sun; when steamboats ran on the Sangamon; when Bishop
+Simpson preached; when Hell was a place, not a theory, and Heaven a
+locality whose fortunate inhabitants had no work to do; when Chicago
+newspapers were ten cents each; when cotton cloth was fifty cents a yard,
+and my shirt was made from a flour-sack, with the legend, "Extra XXX,"
+across my proud bosom, and just below the words in flaming red, "Warranted
+Fifty Pounds!"
+
+The mornings usually opened with smothered protests against getting up,
+for country folks then were extremists in the matter of "early to bed,
+early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." We hadn't much
+wealth, nor were we very wise, but we had health to burn. But aside from
+the unpleasantness of early morning, the day was full of possibilities of
+curious things to be found in the barn and under spreading
+gooseberry-bushes, or if it rained, the garret was an Alsatia unexplored.
+
+The evolution of the individual mirrors the evolution of the race. In the
+morning of the world man was innocent and free; but when
+self-consciousness crept in and he possessed himself of that disturbing
+motto, "Know Thyself," he took a fall.
+
+Yet knowledge usually comes to us with a shock, just as the mixture
+crystallizes when the chemist gives the jar a tap. We grow by throes.
+
+I well remember the day when I was put out of my Eden.
+
+My father and mother had gone away in the one-horse wagon, taking the baby
+with them, leaving me in care of my elder sister. It was a stormy day and
+the air was full of fog and mist. It did not rain very much, only in
+gusts, but great leaden clouds chased each other angrily across the sky.
+It was very quiet there in the little house on the prairie, except when
+the wind came and shook the windows and rattled at the doors. The morning
+seemed to drag and wouldn't pass, just out of contrariness; and I wanted
+it to go fast because in the afternoon my sister was to take me somewhere,
+but where I did not know, but that we should go somewhere was promised
+again and again.
+
+As the day wore on we went up into the little garret and strained our eyes
+across the stretching prairie to see if some one was coming. There had
+been much rain, for on the prairie there was always too much rain or else
+too little. It was either drought or flood. Dark swarms of wild ducks were
+in all the ponds; V-shaped flocks of geese and brants screamed overhead,
+and down in the slough cranes danced a solemn minuet.
+
+Again and again we looked for the coming something, and I began to cry,
+fearing we had been left there, forgotten of Fate.
+
+At last we went out by the barn and, with much boosting, I climbed to the
+top of the haystack and my sister followed. And still we watched.
+
+"There they come!" exclaimed my sister.
+
+"There they come!" I echoed, and clapped two red, chapped hands for joy.
+
+Away across the prairie, miles and miles away, was a winding string of
+wagons, a dozen perhaps, one right behind another. We watched until we
+could make out our own white horse, Bob, and then we slid down the hickory
+pole that leaned against the stack, and made our way across the spongy sod
+to the burying-ground that stood on a knoll half a mile away.
+
+We got there before the procession, and saw a great hole, with square
+corners, dug in the ground. It was half-full of water, and a man in bare
+feet, with trousers rolled to his knees, was working industriously to bail
+it out.
+
+The wagons drove up and stopped. And out of one of them four men lifted a
+long box and set it down beside the hole where the man still bailed and
+dipped. The box was opened and in it was Si Johnson. Si lay very still,
+and his face was very blue, and his clothes were very black, save for his
+shirt, which was very white, and his hands were folded across his breast,
+just so, and held awkwardly in the stiff fingers was a little New
+Testament. We all looked at the blue face, and the women cried softly. The
+men took off their hats while the preacher prayed, and then we sang,
+"There'll be no more parting there."
+
+The lid of the box was nailed down, lines were taken from the harness of
+one of the teams standing by and were placed around the long box, and it
+was lowered with a splash into the hole. Then several men seized spades
+and the clods fell with clatter and echo. The men shoveled very hard,
+filling up the hole, and when it was full and heaped up, they patted it
+all over with the backs of their spades.
+
+Everybody remained until this was done, and then we got into the wagons
+and drove away.
+
+Nearly a dozen of the folks came over to our house for dinner, including
+the preacher, and they all talked of the man who was dead and how he came
+to die.
+
+Only two days before, this man, Si Johnson, stood in the doorway of his
+house and looked out at the falling rain. It had rained for three days, so
+that they could not plow, and Si was angry. Besides this, his two brothers
+had enlisted and gone away to the War and left him all the work to do. He
+did not go to War because he was a "Copperhead"; and as he stood there in
+the doorway looking at the rain, he took a chew of tobacco, and then he
+swore a terrible oath.
+
+And ere the swear-words had escaped from his lips, there came a blinding
+flash of lightning, and the man fell all in a heap like a sack of oats.
+
+And he was dead.
+
+Whether he died because he was a Copperhead, or because he took a chew of
+tobacco, or because he swore, I could not exactly understand. I waited for
+a convenient lull in the conversation and asked the preacher why the man
+died, and he patted me on the head and told me it was "the vengeance of
+God," and that he hoped I would grow up and be a good man and never chew
+tobacco nor swear.
+
+The preacher is alive now. He is an old, old man with long, white
+whiskers, and I never see him but that I am tempted to ask for the exact
+truth as to why Si Johnson was struck by lightning.
+
+Yet I suppose it was because he was a Copperhead: all Copperheads chewed
+tobacco and swore, and that his fate was merited no one but the living
+Copperheads in that community doubted.
+
+That was an eventful day to me. Like men whose hair turns from black to
+gray in a night, I had left babyhood behind at a bound, and the problems
+of the world were upon me, clamoring for solution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was war in the land. When it began I did not know, but that it was
+something terrible I could guess. I thought of it all the rest of the day
+and dreamed of it at night. Many men had gone away; and every day men in
+blue straggled by, all going south, forever south.
+
+And all the men straggling along that road stopped to get a drink at our
+well, drawing the water with the sweep, and drinking out of the bucket,
+and squirting a mouthful of water over each other. They looked at my
+father's creaking doctor's sign, and sang, "Old Mother Hubbard, she went
+to the cupboard."
+
+They all sang that. They were very jolly, just as though they were going
+to a picnic. Some of them came back that way a few years later and they
+were not so jolly. And some there were who never came back at all.
+
+Freight-trains passed southward, blue with men in the cars, and on top of
+the cars, and in the caboose, and on the cowcatcher, always going south
+and never north. For "Down South" were many Rebels, and all along the way
+south were Copperheads, and they all wanted to come north and kill us, so
+soldiers had to go down there and fight them.
+
+And I marveled much that if God hated Copperheads, as our preacher said He
+did, why He didn't send lightning and kill them, just in a second, as He
+had Si Johnson. And then all that would have to be done would be to send
+for a doctor to see that they were surely dead, and a preacher to pray,
+and the neighbors would dress them in their best Sunday suits of black,
+folding their hands very carefully across their breasts, then we would
+bury them deep, filling in the dirt and heaping it up, patting it all down
+very carefully with the back of a spade, and then go away and leave them
+until Judgment-Day.
+
+Copperheads were simply men who hated Lincoln. The name came from
+copperhead-snakes, which are worse than rattlers, for rattlers rattle and
+give warning. A rattler is an open enemy, but you never know that a
+copperhead is around until he strikes. He lies low in the swale and
+watches his chance. "He is the worstest snake that am."
+
+It was Abe Lincoln of Springfield who was fighting the Rebels that were
+trying to wreck the country and spread red ruin. The Copperheads were
+wicked folks at the North who sided with the Rebels. Society was divided
+into two classes: those who favored Abe Lincoln, and those who told lies
+about him. All the people I knew and loved, loved Abe Lincoln.
+
+I was born at Bloomington, Illinois, through no choosing of my own, and
+Bloomington is further famous as being the birthplace of the Republican
+party. When a year old I persuaded my parents to move seven miles north to
+the village of Hudson, that then had five houses, a church, a store and a
+blacksmith-shop. Many of the people I knew, knew Lincoln, for he used to
+come to Bloomington several times a year "on the circuit" to try cases,
+and at various times made speeches there. When he came he would tell
+stories at the Ashley House, and when he was gone these stories would be
+repeated by everybody. Some of these stories must have been peculiar, for
+I once heard my mother caution my father not to tell any more "Lincoln
+stories" at the dinner-table when we had company.
+
+And once Lincoln gave a lecture at the Presbyterian Church on the
+"Progress of Man," when no one was there but the preacher, my Aunt Hannah
+and the sexton.
+
+My Uncle Elihu and Aunt Hannah knew Abe Lincoln well. So did Jesse Fell,
+James C. Conklin, Judge Davis, General Orme, Leonard Swett, Dick Yates and
+lots of others I knew. They never called him "Mister Lincoln," but it was
+always Abe, or Old Abe, or just plain Abe Lincoln. In that newly settled
+country you always called folks by their first names, especially when you
+liked them. And when they spoke the name, "Abe Lincoln," there was
+something in the voice that told of confidence, respect and affection.
+
+Once when I was at my Aunt Hannah's, Judge Davis was there and I sat on
+his lap. Years afterward I boasted to Robert Ingersoll that when I wore
+trousers buttoned to a calico waist I used to sit on the lap of David
+Davis, and Colonel Ingersoll laughed and said, "Now I know you are a liar,
+for David Davis didn't have any lap." The only thing about the interview
+I remember was that the Judge really didn't have any lap to speak of.
+
+After Judge Davis had gone, Aunt Hannah said, "You must always remember
+Judge Davis, for he is the man who made Abe Lincoln!"
+
+And when I said, "Why, I thought God made Lincoln," they all laughed.
+
+After a little pause my inquiring mind caused me to ask, "Who made Judge
+Davis?" And Uncle Elihu answered, "Abe Lincoln."
+
+Then they all laughed more than ever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Many volunteers were being called for. Neighbors and neighbors' boys were
+enlisting--going to the support of Abe Lincoln.
+
+Then one day my father went away, too. Many of the neighbors went with us
+to the station when he took the four-o'clock train, and we all cried,
+except mother--she didn't cry until she got home. My father had gone to
+Springfield to enlist as a surgeon. In three days he came back and told us
+he had enlisted, and was to be assigned his regiment in a week, and go at
+once to the front. He was always a kind man, but during that week when he
+was waiting to be told where to go, he was very gentle and more kind than
+ever. He told me I must be the man of the house while he was away, and
+take care of my mother and sisters, and not forget to feed the chickens
+every morning; and I promised.
+
+At the end of the week a big envelope came from Springfield marked in the
+corner, "Official."
+
+My mother would not open it, and so it lay on the table until the doctor's
+return. We all looked at it curiously, and my eldest sister gazed on it
+long with lack-luster eye and then rushed from the room with her check
+apron over her head.
+
+When my father rode up on horseback I ran to tell him that the envelope
+had come.
+
+We all stood breathless and watched him break the seals. He took out the
+letter and read it silently and passed it to my mother.
+
+I have the letter before me now, and it says: "The Department is still of
+the opinion that it does not care to accept men having varicose veins,
+which make the wearing of bandages necessary. Your name, however, has been
+filed and should we be able to use your services, will advise."
+
+Then we were all very glad about the varicose veins, and I am afraid I
+went out and boasted to my play-fellows about our family possessions.
+
+It was not so very long after, that there was a Big Meeting in the
+"timber." People came from all over the county to attend it. The chief
+speaker was a man by the name of Ingersoll, a colonel in the army, who was
+back home for just a day or two on furlough. Folks said he was the
+greatest orator in Peoria County.
+
+Early in the morning the wagons began to go by our house, and all along
+the four roads that led to the grove we could see great clouds of dust
+that stretched away for miles and miles and told that the people were
+gathering by the thousands. They came in wagons and on horseback, carrying
+babies; two boys on one horse were common sights; and there were various
+four-horse teams with wagons filled with girls all dressed in white,
+carrying flags.
+
+All our folks went. My mother fastened the back door of our house with a
+bolt on the inside, and then locked the front door with a key, and hid the
+key under the doormat.
+
+At the grove there was much hand-shaking and visiting and asking after the
+folks and for the news. Several soldiers were present, among them a man
+who lived near us, called "Little Ramsey." Three one-armed men were there,
+and a man named Al Sweetser, who had only one leg. These men wore blue,
+and were seated on the big platform that was all draped with flags. Plank
+seats were arranged, and every plank held its quota. Just outside the
+seats hundred of men stood, and beyond these were wagons filled with
+people. Every tree in the woods seemed to have a horse tied to it, and the
+trees over the speakers' platform were black with men and boys. I never
+knew before that there were so many horses and people in the world.
+
+When the speaking began, the people cheered, and then they became very
+quiet, and only the occasional squealing and stamping of the horses could
+be heard. Our preacher spoke first, and then the lawyer from Bloomington,
+and then came the great man from Peoria. The people cheered more than ever
+when he stood up, and kept hurrahing so long I thought they were not going
+to let him speak at all.
+
+At last they quieted down, and the speaker began. His first sentence
+contained a reference to Abe Lincoln. The people applauded, and some one
+proposed three cheers for "Honest Old Abe." Everybody stood up and
+cheered, and I, perched on my father's shoulder, cheered too. And beneath
+the legend, "Warranted Fifty Pounds," my heart beat proudly. Silence came
+at last--a silence filled only by the neighing and stamping of horses and
+the rapping of a woodpecker in a tall tree. Every ear was strained to
+catch the orator's first words.
+
+The speaker was just about to begin. He raised one hand, but ere his lips
+moved, a hoarse, guttural shout echoed through the woods, "Hurrah'h'h for
+Jeff Davis!!!"
+
+"Kill that man!" rang a sharp, clear voice in instant answer.
+
+A rumble like an awful groan came from the vast crowd. My father was
+standing on a seat, and I had climbed to his shoulder. The crowd surged
+like a monster animal toward a tall man standing alone in a wagon. He
+swung a blacksnake whip around him, and the lash fell savagely on two gray
+horses. At a lunge, the horses, the wagon and the tall man had cleared the
+crowd, knocking down several people in their flight. One man clung to the
+tailboard. The whip wound with a hiss and a crack across his face, and he
+fell stunned in the roadway.
+
+A clear space of full three hundred feet now separated the man in the
+wagon from the great throng, which with ten thousand hands seemed ready to
+tear him limb from limb. Revolver shots rang out, women screamed, and
+trampled children cried for help. Above it all was the roar of the mob.
+The orator, in vain pantomime, implored order.
+
+I saw Little Ramsey drop off the limb of a tree astride of a horse that
+was tied beneath, then lean over, and with one stroke of a knife sever the
+halter.
+
+At the same time fifty other men seemed to have done the same thing, for
+flying horses shot out from different parts of the woods, all on the
+instant. The man in the wagon was half a mile away now, still standing
+erect. The gray horses were running low, with noses and tails
+outstretched.
+
+The spread-out riders closed in a mass and followed at terrific speed. The
+crowd behind seemed to grow silent. We heard the patter-patter of barefoot
+horses ascending the long, low hill. One rider on a sorrel horse fell
+behind. He drew his horse to one side, and sitting over with one foot in
+the long stirrup, plied the sorrel across the flank with a big, white-felt
+hat. The horse responded, and crept around to the front of the flying
+mass.
+
+The wagon had disappeared over a gentle rise of ground, and then we lost
+the horsemen, too. Still we watched, and two miles across the prairie we
+got a glimpse of running horses in a cloud of dust, and into another
+valley they settled, and then we lost them for good.
+
+The speaking began again and went on amid applause and tears, with
+laughter set between.
+
+I do not remember what was said, but after the speaking, as we made our
+way homeward, we met Little Ramsey and the young man who rode the sorrel
+horse.
+
+They told us that they had caught the Copperhead after a ten-mile chase,
+and that he was badly hurt, for the wagon had upset and the fellow was
+beneath it. Ramsey asked my father to go at once to see what could be done
+for him.
+
+The man, however, was quite dead when my father reached him. There was a
+purple mark around his neck: and the opinion seemed to be that he had got
+tangled up in the harness or something.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The war-time months went dragging by, and the burden of gloom in the air
+seemed to lift; for when the Chicago "Tribune" was read each evening in
+the post-office it told of victories on land and sea. Yet it was a joy not
+untinged with black; for in the church across from our house, funerals had
+been held for farmer boys who had died in prison-pens and been buried in
+Georgia trenches.
+
+One youth there was, I remember, who had stopped to get a drink at our
+pump, and squirted a mouthful of water over me because I was handy.
+
+One night the postmaster was reading aloud the names of the killed at
+Gettysburg, and he ran right on to the name of this boy. The boy's father
+sat there on a nail-keg, chewing a straw. The postmaster tried to shuffle
+over the name and on to the next.
+
+"Hi! Wha--what's that you said?"
+
+"Killed in honorable battle--Snyder, Hiram," said the postmaster with a
+forced calmness.
+
+The boy's father stood up with a jerk. Then he sat down. Then he stood up
+again and staggered his way to the door and fumbled for the latch like a
+blind man.
+
+"God help him! he's gone to tell the old woman," said the postmaster as he
+blew his nose on a red handkerchief.
+
+The preacher preached a funeral sermon for the boy, and on the little
+pyramid that marked the family lot in the burying-ground they carved the
+words: "Killed in honorable battle, Hiram Snyder, aged nineteen." Not
+long after, strange, yellow, bearded men in faded blue began to arrive.
+Great welcomes were given them; and at the regular Wednesday evening
+prayer-meeting thanksgivings were poured out for their safe return, with
+names of company and regiment duly mentioned for the Lord's better
+identification. Bees were held for some of these returned farmers, where
+twenty teams and fifty men, old and young, did a season's farm-work in a
+day, and split enough wood for a year. At such times the women would bring
+big baskets of provisions, and long tables would be set, and there were
+very jolly times, with cracking of many jokes that were veterans, and the
+day would end with pitching horseshoes, and at last with singing "Auld
+Lang Syne."
+
+It was at one such gathering that a ghost appeared--a lank, saffron ghost,
+ragged as a scarecrow--wearing a foolish smile and the cape of a
+cavalryman's overcoat with no coat beneath it. The apparition was a youth
+of about twenty, with a downy beard all over his face, and countenance
+well mellowed with coal-soot, as though he had ridden several days on top
+of a freight-car that was near the engine.
+
+This ghost was Hiram Snyder.
+
+All forgave him the shock of surprise he caused us--all except the
+minister who had preached his funeral sermon. Years after I heard this
+minister remark in a solemn, grieved tone: "Hiram Snyder is a man who can
+not be relied on."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the years pass, the miracle of the seasons means less to us. But what
+country boy can forget the turning of the leaves from green to gold, and
+the watchings and waitings for the first hard frost that ushers in the
+nutting season! And then the first fall of snow, with its promise of
+skates and sleds and tracks of rabbits, and mayhap bears, and strange
+animals that only come out at night, and that no human eye has ever seen!
+
+Beautiful are the seasons; and glad I am that I have not yet quite lost my
+love for each. But now they parade past with a curious swiftness! They
+look at me out of wistful eyes, and sometimes one calls to me as she goes
+by and asks, "Why have you done so little since I saw you last?" And I can
+only answer, "I was thinking of you."
+
+I do not need another incarnation to live my life over again. I can do
+that now, and the resurrection of the past, through memory, that sees
+through closed eyes, is just as satisfactory as the thing itself.
+
+Were we talking of the seasons? Very well, dearie, the seasons it shall
+be. They are all charming, but if I were to wed any it would be Spring.
+How well I remember the gentle perfume of her comings, and her warm,
+languid breath!
+
+There was a time when I would go out of the house some morning, and the
+snow would be melting, and Spring would kiss my cheek, and then I would be
+all aglow with joy and would burst into the house, and cry: "Spring is
+here! Spring is here!" For you know we always have to divide our joy with
+some one. One can bear grief, but it takes two to be glad.
+
+And then my mother would smile and say, "Yes, my son, but do not wake the
+baby!"
+
+Then I would go out and watch the snow turn to water, and run down the
+road in little rivulets to the creek, that would swell until it became a
+regular Mississippi, so that when we waded the horse across, the water
+would come to the saddlegirth.
+
+Then once, I remember, the bridge was washed away, and all the teams had
+to go around and through the water, and some used to get stuck in the mud
+on the other bank. It was great fun!
+
+The first "Spring beauties" bloomed very early in that year; violets came
+out on the south side of rotting logs, and cowslips blossomed in the
+slough as they never had done before. Over on the knoll, prairie-chickens
+strutted pompously and proudly drummed. The war was over! Lincoln had won,
+and the country was safe!
+
+The jubilee was infectious, and the neighbors who used to come and visit
+us would tell of the men and boys who would soon be back. The war was
+over!
+
+My father and mother talked of it across the table, and the men talked of
+it at the store, and earth, sky and water called to each other in glad
+relief, "The war is over!"
+
+But there came a morning when my father walked up from the
+railroad-station very fast, and looking very serious. He pushed right past
+me as I sat in the doorway. I followed him into the kitchen where my
+mother was washing dishes, and heard him say, "They have killed Lincoln!"
+and then he burst into tears. I had never before seen my father shed
+tears--in fact, I had never seen a man cry. There is something terrible in
+the grief of a man.
+
+Soon the church-bell across the road began to toll. It tolled all that
+day. Three men--I can give you their names--rang the bell all day long,
+tolling, slowly tolling, tolling until night came and the stars came out.
+I thought it a little curious that the stars should come out, for Lincoln
+was dead; but they did, for I saw them as I trotted by my father's side
+down to the post-office.
+
+There was a great crowd of men there. At the long line of peeled-hickory
+hitching-poles were dozens of saddle-horses. The farmers had come for
+miles to get details of the news.
+
+On the long counters that ran down each side of the store men were seated,
+swinging their feet, and listening intently to some one who was reading
+aloud from a newspaper. We worked our way past the men who were standing
+about, and with several of these my father shook hands solemnly.
+
+Leaning against the wall near the window was a big, red-faced man, whom I
+knew as a Copperhead. He had been drinking, evidently, for he was making
+boozy efforts to stand very straight. There were only heard a subdued buzz
+of whispers and the monotonous voice of the reader, as he stood there in
+the center, his newspaper in one hand and a lighted candle in the other.
+
+The red-faced man lurched two steps forward, and in a loud voice said,
+"L--L--Lincoln is dead--an' I'm damn glad of it!"
+
+Across the room I saw two men struggling with Little Ramsey. Why they
+should struggle with him I could not imagine, but ere I could think the
+matter out, I saw him shake himself loose from the strong hands that
+sought to hold him. He sprang upon the counter, and in one hand I saw he
+held a scale-weight. Just an instant he stood there, and then the weight
+shot straight at the red-faced man. The missile glanced on his shoulder
+and shot through the window. In another second the red-faced man plunged
+through the window, taking the entire sash with him.
+
+"You'll have to pay for that window!" called the alarmed postmaster out
+into the night.
+
+The store was quickly emptied, and on following outside no trace of the
+red man could be found. The earth had swallowed both the man and the
+five-pound scale-weight.
+
+After some minutes had passed in a vain search for the weight and the
+Copperhead, we went back into the store and the reading was continued.
+
+But the interruption had relieved the tension, and for the first time that
+day men in that post-office joked and laughed. It even lifted from my
+heart the gloom that threatened to smother me, and I went home and told
+the story to my mother and sisters, and they too smiled, so closely akin
+are tears and smiles.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The story of Lincoln's life had been ingrained into me long before I ever
+read a book. For the people who knew Lincoln, and the people who knew the
+people that Lincoln knew, were the people I knew. I visited at their
+houses and heard them tell what Lincoln had said when he sat at table
+where I then sat. I listened long to Lincoln stories, and "and that
+reminds me" was often on the lips of those I loved. All the tales told by
+the faithful Herndon and the needlessly loyal Nicolay and Hay were current
+coin, and the rehearsal of the Lincoln-Douglas debate was commonplace.
+
+When our own poverty was mentioned, we compared it with the poverty that
+Lincoln had endured, and felt rich. I slept in a garret where the winter's
+snow used to sift merrily through the slab shingles, but then I was
+covered with warm buffalo-robes, and a loving mother tucked me in and on
+my forehead imprinted a goodnight kiss. But Lincoln at the same age had no
+mother and lived in a hut that had neither windows, doors nor floor, and a
+pile of leaves and straw in the corner was his bed. Our house had two
+rooms, but one Winter the Lincoln home was only a shed enclosed on three
+sides.
+
+I knew of his being a clerk in a country store at the age of twenty, and
+that up to that time he had read but four books; of his running a
+flatboat, splitting rails, and poring at night over a dog-eared law-book;
+of his asking to sleep in the law-office of Joshua Speed, and of Speed's
+giving him permission to move in. And of his going away after his "worldly
+goods" and coming back in ten minutes carrying an old pair of saddlebags,
+which he threw into a corner saying, "Speed, I've moved!".
+
+I knew of his twenty years of country law-practise, when he was considered
+just about as good and no better than a dozen others on that circuit, and
+of his making a bare living during that time. Then I knew of his gradually
+awakening to the wrong of slavery, of the expansion of his mind, so that
+he began to incur the jealousy of rivals and the hatred of enemies, and of
+the prophetic feeling in that slow but sure moving mind that "a house
+divided against itself can not stand. I believe this Government can not
+endure permanently half-slave and half-free."
+
+I knew of the debates with Douglas and the national attention they
+attracted, and of Judge Davis' remark, "Lincoln has more commonsense than
+any other man in America"; and then, chiefly through Judge Davis'
+influence, of his being nominated for President at the Chicago Convention.
+I knew of his election, and the coming of the war, and the long, hard
+fight, when friends and foes beset, and none but he had the patience and
+the courage that could wait. And then I knew of his death, that death
+which then seemed a calamity--terrible in its awful blackness.
+
+But now the years have passed, and I comprehend somewhat of the paradox
+of things, and I know that this death was just what he might have prayed
+for. It was a fitting close for a life that had done a supreme and mighty
+work. His face foretold the end.
+
+Lincoln had no home ties. In that plain, frame house, without embellished
+yard or ornament, where I have been so often, there was no love that held
+him fast. In that house there was no library, but in the parlor, where six
+haircloth chairs and a slippery sofa to match stood guard, was a marble
+table on which were various giftbooks in blue and gilt. He only turned to
+that home when there was no other place to go. Politics, with its
+attendant travel and excitement, allowed him to forget the
+what-might-have-beens. Foolish bickering, silly pride, and stupid
+misunderstanding pushed him out upon the streets and he sought to lose
+himself among the people. And to the people at length he gave his time,
+his talents, his love, his life. Fate took from him his home that the
+country might call him savior. Dire tragedy was a fitting end; for only
+the souls who have suffered are well-loved.
+
+Jealousy, disparagement, calumny, have all made way, and North and South
+alike revere his name.
+
+The memory of his gentleness, his patience, his firm faith, and his great
+and loving heart are the priceless heritage of a united land. He had
+charity for all and malice toward none; he gave affection, and affection
+is his reward.
+
+Honor and love are his.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SO HERE ENDETH "LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF AMERICAN STATESMEN," BEING
+VOLUME THREE OF THE SERIES, AS WRITTEN BY ELBERT HUBBARD: EDITED AND
+ARRANGED BY FRED BANN; MCMXXII
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF THE
+GREAT, VOLUME 3 (OF 14)***
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