diff options
Diffstat (limited to '37910-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/37910-h.htm | 13027 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus001.jpg | bin | 0 -> 65554 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus002.jpg | bin | 0 -> 59254 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus013.jpg | bin | 0 -> 75598 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus018.jpg | bin | 0 -> 37414 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus020.jpg | bin | 0 -> 27749 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus022.jpg | bin | 0 -> 21563 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus025.jpg | bin | 0 -> 57302 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus028.jpg | bin | 0 -> 48851 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus031.jpg | bin | 0 -> 52381 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus035.jpg | bin | 0 -> 68545 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus037a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 47818 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus037b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 90059 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus040.jpg | bin | 0 -> 89455 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus044.jpg | bin | 0 -> 73291 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus045.jpg | bin | 0 -> 88638 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus046.jpg | bin | 0 -> 91550 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus049.jpg | bin | 0 -> 69926 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus053.jpg | bin | 0 -> 50543 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus059.jpg | bin | 0 -> 99060 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus063.jpg | bin | 0 -> 85069 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus066.jpg | bin | 0 -> 98643 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus074.jpg | bin | 0 -> 65910 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus083.jpg | bin | 0 -> 42631 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus088.jpg | bin | 0 -> 61963 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus090.jpg | bin | 0 -> 57087 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus093.jpg | bin | 0 -> 82544 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus111.jpg | bin | 0 -> 58220 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus139.jpg | bin | 0 -> 84038 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus167.jpg | bin | 0 -> 64491 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus179.jpg | bin | 0 -> 59461 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus194.jpg | bin | 0 -> 55514 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus197.jpg | bin | 0 -> 73447 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus215.jpg | bin | 0 -> 55755 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus249.jpg | bin | 0 -> 41488 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus261.jpg | bin | 0 -> 55109 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus277.jpg | bin | 0 -> 57280 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus281.jpg | bin | 0 -> 57188 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus319.jpg | bin | 0 -> 86712 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus359.jpg | bin | 0 -> 67092 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus373.jpg | bin | 0 -> 61386 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus389.jpg | bin | 0 -> 103589 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus412.jpg | bin | 0 -> 73448 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus433.jpg | bin | 0 -> 55805 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus442.jpg | bin | 0 -> 46168 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus445.jpg | bin | 0 -> 56058 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus467.jpg | bin | 0 -> 54294 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/illus491.jpg | bin | 0 -> 58275 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/ames.png | bin | 0 -> 179168 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/calhoun.png | bin | 0 -> 174283 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/clay.png | bin | 0 -> 121014 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/clinton.png | bin | 0 -> 69804 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/franklin.png | bin | 0 -> 224376 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/hancock.png | bin | 0 -> 198946 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/jackson.png | bin | 0 -> 234191 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/jay.png | bin | 0 -> 201458 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/jefferson.png | bin | 0 -> 142248 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/johnadams1.png | bin | 0 -> 136612 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/jqadams2.png | bin | 0 -> 174465 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/king.png | bin | 0 -> 141975 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/madison.png | bin | 0 -> 175188 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/marshall.png | bin | 0 -> 159862 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/story.png | bin | 0 -> 175798 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/washington.png | bin | 0 -> 170504 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/webster.png | bin | 0 -> 114779 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37910-h/images/letters/wheaton.png | bin | 0 -> 166993 bytes |
66 files changed, 13027 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/37910-h/37910-h.htm b/37910-h/37910-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..49da722 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/37910-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13027 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"><head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Homes Of American Statemen, by Various Writers.</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +body { +margin-left: 10%; +margin-right: 10%; +} +h1 { text-align:center; line-height:1.5; } +.titlep { text-align:center; text-indent:0; +font-weight:bold; font-variant:small-caps; +line-height:1.4; margin-bottom:2em; } +small { font-size:80%; } +big { font-size:140%; } +body {font-size: 1em; text-align: justify; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +h2 {font-size: 140%; text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; text-align: center; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h4 {text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h5 {font-size: 120%; text-align: center; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 2em;} +h6 {font-size: 140%; text-align: center; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} +p { +margin-top: .75em; +text-align: justify; +margin-bottom: .75em; +} +hr { +width: 60%; +margin-top: 1em; +margin-bottom: 1em; +margin-left: auto; +margin-right: auto; +clear: both; +} +.full { +width: 100%; +margin-top: 2em; +margin-bottom: 2em; +} +.invisible {visibility: hidden;} +table { +margin-left: auto; +margin-right: auto; +} +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ +/* visibility: hidden; */ +position: absolute; +left: 97%; +font-size: smaller; +text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ +.linenum { +position: absolute; +top: auto; +left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ +.blockquot { +margin-left: 5%; +margin-right: 10%; +} +.sidenote { +width: 20%; +padding-bottom: .5em; +padding-top: .5em; +padding-left: .5em; +padding-right: .5em; +margin-left: 1em; +float: right; +clear: right; +margin-top: 1em; +font-size: smaller; +color: black; +background: #eeeeee; +border: dashed 1px; +} +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} +.center {text-align: center;} +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} +.u {text-decoration: underline;} +.caption {font-weight: bold; text-align: center;} +/* Images */ +.figcenter { +margin: auto; +text-align: center; +} +.figleft { +float: left; +clear: left; +margin-left: 0; +margin-bottom: 1em; +margin-top: 1em; +margin-right: 1em; +padding: 0; +text-align: center; +} +.figright { +float: right; +clear: right; +margin-left: 1em; +margin-bottom: +1em; +margin-top: 1em; +margin-right: 0; +padding: 0; +text-align: center; +} +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} +.footnote {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 5%; font-size: 0.9em;} +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} +.fnanchor { +vertical-align: super; +font-size: .8em; +text-decoration: +none; +} +/* Poetry */ +.poem { +margin-left:10%; +margin-right:10%; +text-align: left; +} +.poem br {display: none;} +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} +.poem span.i0 { +display: block; +margin-left: 0em; +padding-left: 3em; +text-indent: -3em; +} +.poem span.i2 { +display: block; +margin-left: 2em; +padding-left: 3em; +text-indent: -3em; +} +.poem span.i4 { +display: block; +margin-left: 4em; +padding-left: 3em; +text-indent: -3em; +} +.notebox {border: solid 2px; padding: 1em; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; background: #CCCCB2; font-size: 90%;} +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Homes of American Statesmen, by Various + +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: Homes of American Statesmen + With Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches + +Author: Various + +Release Date: November 2, 2011 [EBook #37910] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMES OF AMERICAN STATESMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Steven Brown and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1><big>HOMES</big><br /> +<small>OF</small><br /> +<big>AMERICAN +STATESMEN.</big></h1> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="cover_page"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 471px; height: 400px;" alt="Birthplace of Henry Clay" src="images/illus002.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Birthplace +of +Henry Clay</span></p> +<p class="center smcap"><big>HARTFORD.</big></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="frontispiece"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 678px; height: 401px;" alt="Marshfield, Residence of Daniel Webster" src="images/illus001.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Marshfield, +Residence of Daniel Webster </span></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_i"></a>[ i ]</span></p> +<h1><big>HOMES</big><br /> +<small>OF</small><br /> +<big>AMERICAN +STATESMEN</big></h1> +<p class="center"><big>WITH</big><br /> +</p> +<p style="font-style: italic;" class="center"><big>Anecdotical, +Personal, and Descriptive Sketches,</big><br /> +</p> +<p class="center smcap">BY VARIOUS WRITERS.<br /> +</p> +<p class="center smcap"> +ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, FROM DRAWINGS BY DÖPLER<br /> +AND DAGUERREOTYPES: AND FAC-SIMILES OF AUTOGRAPH LETTERS. +</p> +<p style="font-style: italic;" class="center"><big> +HARTFORD:</big><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p class="center">PUBLISHED BY O.D. CASE & CO.</p> +<p class="center">LONDON:</p> +<p class="center">SAMPSON LOW, SON & CO.</p> +<p class="center">M.DCCC.LVI.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_ii"></a>[ ii ]</span></p> +<p class="center"> +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854,</p> +<p class="center">by O.D. CASE & CO.,</p> +<p class="center">in +the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the</p> +<p class="center">District of Connecticut.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_iii"></a>[ +iii ]</span> +</p> +<h2><a name="publishers_notice" id="publishers_notice"></a>PUBLISHERS' +NOTICE.</h2> +<p>We need hardly commend to the American public this attempt to +describe and familiarize the habitual dwelling-places of some of the +more eminent of our Statesmen. In bringing together such particulars as +we could gather, of the homes of the men to whom we owe our own, we +feel that we have performed an acceptable and not unnecessary service. +The generation who were too well acquainted with these intimate +personal circumstances to think of recording them, is fast passing +away; and their successors, while acknowledging a vast debt of +gratitude, might still forget to preserve and cherish the individual +and private memories of the benefactors of our country and race. We +therefore present our contribution to the national annals with +confidence, hoping that in all respects the present volume will be +found no unworthy or unwelcome successor of the "Homes of American +Authors."<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_iv"></a>[ +iv ]</span></p> +<p>Dr. R.W. Griswold having been prevented by ill health from +contributing an original paper on Marshall, we have availed ourselves, +with his kind permission, of the sketch which he prepared for the +"Prose Writers of America." All the other papers in the present volume +have been written expressly for it: and the best acknowledgments of the +publishers are due to the several contributors for the zealous interest +and ability to which these sketches bear witness.</p> +<p>For several of the original letters which we have +copied in <i>fac-simile</i>, +we are indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Sprague of Albany.</p> +<p>The drawing of the residence of the "Washington Family," and a +few of the smaller cuts, have been copied, with some variations, from +Mr. Lossing's very valuable work, "The Field-Book of the Revolution." +Most of the other illustrations have been engraved from original +drawings, or daguerreotypes taken for the purpose.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_v"></a>[ +v ]</span></p> +<h2><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table style="width: 90%; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td style="width: 35%;"></td> +<td style="width: 35%;"></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Page.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#washington">WASHINGTON</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Mrs. C.M. Kirkland</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#washington">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#franklin">FRANKLIN</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">C.F. Briggs</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#franklin">63</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#jefferson"> +JEFFERSON</a> </td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Parke Godwin</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#jefferson">77</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_095"> +HANCOCK</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Richard Hildreth</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_095"> +95</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_123"> +JOHN ADAMS</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Clarence Cook</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_123">123</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_151"> +PATRICK HENRY</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Edward W. Johnston</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_151">151</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_179"> +MADISON</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Edward W. Johnston</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_179">179</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_197"> +JAY</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">William S. Thayer</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_197">197</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_231">HAMILTON</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">James C. Carter</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_231">231</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_261"> +MARSHALL</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">R.W. Griswold, D.D.</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_261">261</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_275"> +AMES</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">James B. Thayer</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_275">275</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_299"> +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">David Lee Child</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_299">299</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_339"> +JACKSON</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Parke Godwin</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_339">339</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_353"> +RUFUS KING</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Charles King, L.L.D.</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_353">353</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_369"> +CLAY</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Horace Greeley</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_369">369</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_395"> +CALHOUN</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Parke Godwin</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_395">395</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_413"> +CLINTON</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">T. Romeyn Beck, M.D.</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_413">413</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_425"> +STORY</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Francis Howland</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_425">425</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_447"> +WHEATON</a></td> +<td></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_447">447</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_471"> +WEBSTER</a></td> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Henry C. Deming</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#pg_471">471</a></td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_vi"></a>[ vi ]</span></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_vii"></a>[ vii ]</span></p> +<h2><a name="illustrations" id="illustrations"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> +<table style="width: 90%; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Page.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#cover_page"><span class="smcap">Birth-place +of Henry Clay</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#cover_page">Cover Page</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#frontispiece"><span class="smcap">Marshfield, +Residence of Daniel Webster</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#frontispiece">Frontispiece</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus013"><span class="smcap">Site of +Washington's Birth-place</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus013">3</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus018"><span class="smcap">Greenough's +Statue of Washington</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus018">6</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus020"><span class="smcap">Houdon's +Statue of Washington</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus020">8</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus022"><span class="smcap">Chantrey's +Statue of Washington</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus022">10</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus025"><span class="smcap">Residence +of the Washington Family</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus025">13</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap"></span><a href="#illus028"><span class="smcap">Mount +Vernon</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus028">16</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus031"><span class="smcap">Tomb of +Washington's Mother</span></a><br /> +</td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus031">19</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap"></span><a href="#illus035"><span class="smcap">Washington's +Headquarters, Cambridge</span>, +1775<span class="smcap"></span></a><br /> +</td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus035">23</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus037a"><span class="smcap"> +Washington's Headquarters, +Pearl-street, New-York</span>, 1776</a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus037a">25</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap"></span><a href="#illus037b"><span class="smcap">House +No. 1 Broadway, New-York</span></a><span class="smcap"> +</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus037b">26</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus40"><span class="smcap">Washington's +Headquarters, Morristown, +N.J.</span>, 1779</a><span class="smcap"> +</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus40">28</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus44"><span class="smcap">Washington's +Headquarters, Chad's Ford</span>, +1777</a><br /> +</td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus44">32</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap"></span><a href="#illus45"><span class="smcap">Washington's +Headquarters, White Marsh</span>, +1777</a><span class="smcap"></span><br /> +</td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus45">33</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap"></span><a href="#illus46"><span class="smcap">Washington's +Headquarters, Valley +Forge</span>, 1777</a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus46">34</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus49"><span class="smcap">Washington's +Headquarters, Tappan</span>, +1778</a><br /> +</td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus49">37</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus53"><span class="smcap">Washington's +Headquarters, Newburgh, +N.Y.</span></a><span class="smcap"> +</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus53">41</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus59"><span class="smcap"> +Washington's Headquarters, Rocky +Hill, N.J.</span>, 1783</a><span class="smcap"> +</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus59">45</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus63"><span class="smcap">Mount +Vernon, Rear View</span></a><span class="smcap"> +</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus63">49</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus66"><span class="smcap">House of +the First Presidential Levee, +Cherry-Street, New-York</span>.</a><span class="smcap"> +</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus66">52</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus74"><span class="smcap">Washington's +Tomb</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus74">60</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus83"><span class="smcap">Old South +Church, Boston</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus83">69</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus88"><span class="smcap">Grave of +Franklin, Philadelphia</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus88">74</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus90"><span class="smcap">Franklin's +Monument, Boston</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus90">76</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus93"><span class="smcap">Monticello, +Jefferson's Residence</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus93">79</a><span class="pagenum">[ viii ]</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus111"><span class="smcap">Hancock +House, Boston</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus111">97</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus139"><span class="smcap">Residence +of the Adams Family, Quincy, +Mass.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus139">125</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><span class="smcap"><a href="#illus167">Residence of +Patrick Henry, Va</a>.</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus167">153</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus179"><span class="smcap">Old Church +at Richmond, Va.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus179">164</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus194"><span class="smcap">Old Court +House, Va.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus194">178</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus197"><span class="smcap">Montpelier, +Madison's Residence</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus197">181</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus215"><span class="smcap">Jay's +Residence, Bedford, N.Y.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus215">199</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus249"><span class="smcap">Ball +Hughes' Statue of Hamilton</span>.</a><br /> +</td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus249">233</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus261"><span class="smcap">Hamilton's +Residence, Near +Manhattanville, N.Y.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus261">245</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus277"><span class="smcap">Monument +To Hamilton, Trinity +Church-yard, N.Y.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus277">259</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus281"><span class="smcap">Marshall's +House at Richmond, Va.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus281">263</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus319"><span class="smcap">Birth-place +of John Quincy Adams</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus319">301</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus359"><span class="smcap">Hermitage, +Residence of Jackson</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus359">341</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus373"><span class="smcap">Rufus +King's House, Near Jamaica, L.I.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus373">355</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus389"><span class="smcap">Ashland, +Residence of Henry Clay</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus389">371</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus412"><span class="smcap">Clay's +Birth-place</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus412">394</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus433"><span class="smcap">Clinton's +Residence, Maspeth, L.I.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus433">415</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus442"><span class="smcap">H.K. +Brown's Statue of Clinton</span></a><br /> +</td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus442">424</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus445"><span class="smcap">Story's +House at Cambridge, Mass.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus445">427</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus467"><span class="smcap">Wheaton's +Residence Near Copenhagen</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus467">449</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left" valign="middle"><a href="#illus491"><span class="smcap">Webster's +Birth-place</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#illus491">473</a></td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> +<hr class="full" /> + +<h2><a name="letters" id="letters"></a> +</h2> +<h6>Fac-similes of Letters</h6> +<table style="width: 90%; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Page.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_02"><span class="smcap">Washington.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_02">2</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_64"><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_64">64</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_78"><span class="smcap">Jefferson.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_78">78</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_96"><span class="smcap">Hancock.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_96">96</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_124"><span class="smcap">John +Adams.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_124">124</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><span class="smcap">Patrick +Henry.</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle">152</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_180"><span class="smcap">Madison.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_180">180</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"> +<a href="#letter_198"><span class="smcap">John +Jay.</span></a> +</td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_198">198</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_262"><span class="smcap">Marshall.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_262">262</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_276"><span class="smcap">Ames.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_276">276</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_300"><span class="smcap">John +Quincy Adams.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_300">300</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_340"><span class="smcap">Jackson.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_340">340</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><span class="smcap"><a href="#letter_354">Rufus +King</a>.</span></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_354">354</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_370"><span class="smcap">Henry +Clay.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_370">370</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_396"><span class="smcap">Calhoun.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_396">396</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_414"><span class="smcap">Dewitt +Clinton.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_414"> +414</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_426"><span class="smcap">Story.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_426">426</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_448"><span class="smcap">Wheaton.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_448">448</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="width: 75%;"><a href="#letter_472"><span class="smcap">Webster.</span></a></td> +<td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="#letter_472">472</a></td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_001"></a>[1]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="washington"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Washington.</span> +</h6> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_02"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 598px; height: 800px;" alt="Washington fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/washington.png" /></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_002"></a>[2]</span> +</div> +<hr /> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus013"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 508px; height: 400px;" alt="Site of Washingtons Birthplace" src="images/illus013.jpg" /></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_003"></a>[3]</span> +</div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Site +of Washingtons Birthplace</span></p> +<h2>WASHINGTON.</h2> +<h3>1732—1799.</h3> +<p>To see great men at home is often more pleasant to the visitor +than advantageous to the hero. Men's lives are two-fold, and the life +of habit and instinct is not often, on superficial view, strictly +consistent with the other—the more deliberate, intentional and +principled one, which taxes only the higher powers. Yet, perhaps, if +our rules of judgment were more humane and more sincere, we should find +less discrepancy than it has been usual to imagine, and what there is +would be more indulgently accounted for. The most common-place<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_004"></a>[4]</span> +man has +an inner and an outer life, which, if displayed separately, might never +be expected to belong to the same individual; and it would be +impossible for him to introduce his dearest friend into the sanctum, +where, as in a spiritual laboratory, his words and actions originate +and are prepared for use. Yet we could accuse him of no hypocrisy on +this ground. The thing is so because Nature says it should be so, and +we must be content with her truth and harmony, even if they be not +ours. So with regard to public and domestic life. If we pursue our hero +to his home, it should be in a home-spirit—a spirit of affection, not +of impertinent intrusion or ungenerous cavil. If we lift the purple +curtains of the tent in which our weary knight reposes, when he has +laid aside his heavy armor and put on his gown of ease, it is not as +malicious servants may pry into the privacy of their superiors, but as +friends love to penetrate the charmed circle within which disguises and +defences are not needed, and personal interest may properly take the +place of distant admiration and respect. In no other temper is it +lawful, or even decent, to follow the great actors on life's stage to +their retirement; and if they be benefactors, the greater the shame if +we coolly criticize what was never meant for any but loving eyes.</p> +<p>The private life of him who is supereminently the hero of +every true American heart, is happily sacred from disrespectful +scrutiny, but less happily closed to the devout approach of those who +would look upon it with more than filial reverence. This is less +remarkable than it may at first sight appear to us who know his merit. +The George Washington of early times was a splendid youth, but his +modesty was equal to his other great qualities, and his neighbors could +not be expected to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_005"></a>[5]</span> +foresee the noon of such a morning. And when the first stirring time +was over, and the young soldier settled himself quietly at Mount +Vernon, as a country +gentleman, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, a vigorous +farmer and tobacco planter, a churchwarden in two parishes, and a staid +married man with two step-children, to whom he was an active and +faithful guardian, no one thought of recording his life and doings, any +more than those of his brother planters on the Potomac, all landed men, +deer and fox-hunters and zealous fishermen, who visited each other in +the hospitable Southern fashion, and lived in rustic luxury, very much +within themselves. Few, indeed, compared with the longings of our +admiration, are the particulars that have come down to us of +Washington's Home—the home of his natural affections; but he had many +homes of duty, and these the annals of his country will ever keep in +grateful memory. Through these our present design is to trace his +career, succinctly and imperfectly indeed, and with the diffidence +which a character so august naturally inspires. Happily, many +deficiencies in our sketch will be supplied by the intimate knowledge +and the inborn reverence of a large proportion of our readers.</p> +<p>It seems to be a conceded point that ours is not +the age of +reverence, nor our country its home. While the masses were nothing and +individuals every thing, gods or demigods were the natural product of +every public emergency and relief. Mankind in general, ignorant, and of +course indolent, only too happy to be spared the labor of thought and +the responsibility of action, looked up to the great and the fortunate +till their eyes were dazzled, and they saw characters and exploits +through a glorious golden mist, which precluded criticism. It <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_006"></a>[6]</span>was +easy, +then, to be a hero, for a single success or a happy chance sufficed. +Altars sprang up in every bye-road, and incense fumed without stint or +question.</p> +<p>To-day the case is widely different. We give nothing for +nothing. Whatever esteem or praise we accord, must be justified, inch +by inch, by facts tangible and productive, successes undimmed by any +after failure, and qualities which owe nothing to imagination or +passion in the observer. No aureole is allowed about any head unless it +emanate from it. Our Apollo must actually have sent the shaft, and to +the mark, too, or we sneer at the attitude of triumph. If we erect a +statue, no robe is confessed to be proper drapery but the soiled and +threadbare one of every-day life and toil. No illusion—no poetry! is +the American maxim of our time. Bald, staring, naked literality for us! +He is the true philosopher who can</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem">Peep +and botanize</span></span><br /> +<span class="poem">Upon his +mother's grave</span></p> +<p>if the flowers required by science happen to grow +there.</p> +<p>All this may be very wise and knowing, yet as long as the +machine called man has something within it which is not exactly a +subject for mathematical measurement, there will remain some little +doubt of the expediency of thus stripping life of its poetry, and +bringing all that is inspiring to the test of line and plummet. Just +now, however, there is no hearing for any argument on this side.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus018"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 322px; height: 402px;" alt="Greenough's Statue of Washington" src="images/illus018.jpg" /></a> +</div> +<p style="text-align: center;"> +<span class="caption">Greenough's Statue of Washington</span><br /> +</p> +<p>What shall we think, then, of a character which, in a single +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_007"></a>[7]</span> +half century, has begun, even among us, to wear something of a mythical +splendor? What must the man have been, whom an age like this +deliberately deifies? Who but Washington has, in any age, secured for +himself such a place in the universal esteem and reverence of his +countrymen, that simple description of him is all that can be +tolerated, the public sense of his merits being such as makes praise +impertinent, and blame impious?</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Washington</span>! It +were almost enough to grace our page and our volume with this honored +and beloved name. The commentary upon it is written in every heart. It +is true the most anxious curiosity has been able to find but a small +part of what it would fain know of the first man of all the earth, yet +no doubt remains as to what he was, in every relation of life. The +minutię may not be full, but the outline, in which resides the +expression, is perfect. It were too curious to inquire how much of +Washington would have been lost had the rural life of which he was so +fond, bounded his field of action. Providence made the stage ready for +the performer, as the performer for the stage. In his public character, +he was not the man of the time, but for the time, bearing in his very +looks the seal of a grand mission, and seeming, from his surprising +dignity, to have no private domestic side. Greenough's marble statue of +him, that sits unmoved under all the vicissitudes of storm and calm, +gazing with unwinking eyes at the Capitol, is not more impassive or +immovable than the Washington of our imaginations. Yet we know there +must have been another side to this grand figure, less grand, perhaps, +but not less symmetrical, and wonderfully free from those lowering +discrepancies which bring nearer to our own level all other great, +conspicuous men.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus020"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 224px; height: 399px;" alt="Houdon's Statue of Washington." src="images/illus020.jpg" /></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_008"></a>[8]</span> +</div> +<p style="text-align: center;"> +<span class="caption">Houdon's Statue of Washington.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>We ought to know more of him; but, besides the +other reasons +we have alluded to for our dearth of intelligence, his was not a +writing age on this side the water. Doing, not describing, was the +business of the day. "Our own correspondent" was not born yet; +desperate tourists had not yet forced their way into gentlemen's +drawing-rooms, to steal portraits by pen and pencil, to inquire into +dates and antecedents, and repay enforced hospitality by holding the +most sacred personalities up to the comments of the curious. It would, +indeed, be delightful to possess this kind of knowledge; to ascertain +how George Washington of Fairfax +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_009"></a>[9]</span> +appeared to the sturdy country +gentlemen, his neighbors; what the "troublesome man" he speaks of in +one of his letters thought of the rich planter he was annoying; whether +Mr. Payne was proud or ashamed when he remembered that he had knocked +down the Father of his Country in a public court-room; what amount of +influence, not to say rule, Mrs. Martha Custis, with her large fortune, +exercised over the Commander-in-chief of the armies of the United +States. But rarer than all it would have been to see Washington himself +deal with one of those gentry, who should have called at Mount Vernon +with a view of favoring the world with such particulars. How he treated +poachers of another sort we know; he mounted his horse, and dashing +into the water, rode directly up to the muzzle of a loaded musket, +which he wrenched from the astounded intruder, and then, drawing the +canoe to land, belabored the scamp soundly with his riding whip. How he +would have faced a loaded pen, and received its owner, we can but +conjecture. We have heard an old gentleman, who had lived in the +neighborhood of Mount Vernon in his boyhood, say that when the General +found any stranger shooting in his grounds, his practice was to take +the gun without a word, and, passing the barrel through the fence, with +one effort of his powerful arm, bend it so as to render it useless, +returning it afterwards very quietly, perhaps observing that his rules +were very well known. The whole neighborhood, our old friend said, +feared the General, not because of any caprice or injustice in his +character, but only for his inflexibility, which must have had its own +trials on a Southern plantation at that early day.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus022"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 196px; height: 399px;" alt="Chantrey's Statue of Washington." src="images/illus022.jpg" /></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_010"></a>[10]</span> +</div> +<p style="text-align: center;"> +<span class="caption">Chantrey's Statue of Washington.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>Painting and sculpture have done what they could to give us an +accurate and satisfying idea of the outward appearance of the Father of +our Country, and a surpassing dignity has been the aim if not the +result, of all these efforts. The statue by Chantrey, which graces the +State House at Boston, is perhaps as successful as any in this respect, +and white marble is of all substances the most appropriate for the +purpose. From all, collectively, we derive the impression, or something +more, that in Washington we have one of the few examples on record of a +complete and splendid union and consent of personal and mental +qualifications for greatness +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_011"></a>[11]</span> +in the same individual; unsurpassed +symmetry and amplitude of mind and body for once contributing to the +efficiency of a single being, to whom, also, opportunities for +development and action proved no less propitious than nature. In the +birth, nurture and destiny of this man, so blest in all good gifts, +Providence seems to have intended the realization of Milton's ideal +type of glorious manhood:<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +A creature who, endued</span></span><br /> +<span class="poem">With sanctity of reason, might erect</span><br /> +<span class="poem">His stature, and, upright with front +serene</span><br /> +<span class="poem">Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from +thence</span><br /> +<span class="poem">Magnanimous, to correspond with Heaven;</span><br /> +<span class="poem">But, grateful to acknowledge whence his +good</span><br /> +<span class="poem">Descends, thither, with heart voice and +eyes,</span><br /> +<span class="poem">Directed in devotion, to adore</span><br /> +<span class="poem">And worship God supreme, who made him +chief</span><br /> +<span class="poem">Of all his works.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>We may the more naturally think this because Washington was so +little indebted to school learning for his mental power. Born in a +plain farm-house near the Potomac—a hallowed spot now marked only by a +memorial stone and a clump of decaying fig-trees, probably coeval with +the dwelling; none but the simplest elements of knowledge were within +his reach, for although his father was a gentleman of large landed +estate, the country was thinly settled and means of education were few. +To these he applied himself with a force and steadiness even then +remarkable, though with no view more ambitious than to prepare himself +for the agricultural pursuits to which he was destined, by a widowed +mother, eminent for common sense and high integrity. His mother, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_012"></a>[12]</span> +characteristically enough, for she was much more practical than +imaginative, always spoke of him as a docile and diligent boy, +passionately fond of athletic exercises, rather than as a brilliant or +ambitious one. In after years, when La Fayette was recounting to her, +in florid phrase, but with the generous enthusiasm which did him so +much honor, the glorious services and successes of her son, she +replied—"I am not surprised; George was always a good boy!" and this +simple phrase from a mother who never uttered a superfluous word, +throws a clear light on his early history. Then we have, besides, +remnants of his school-exercises in arithmetic and geometry, beautiful +in neatness, accuracy and method. At thirteen his mathematical turn had +begun to discover itself, and the precision and elegance of his +handwriting were already remarkable. His precocious wisdom would seem +at that early age to have cast its horoscope, for we have thirty pages +of forms for the transaction of important business, all copied out +beautifully; and joined to this direct preparation for his future +career are "Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and +Conversation," to the number of one hundred and ten, all pointing +distinctly at self-control and respect for the rights of others, rather +than at a Chesterfieldian polish or policy, and these he learned so +well that he practised them unfailingly all his life after.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus025"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 459px; height: 400px;" alt="Residence of the Washington Family." src="images/illus025.jpg" /></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_013"></a>[13]</span> +</div> +<p style="text-align: center;"> +<span class="caption">Residence of the Washington Family.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>A farm in Stafford County on the Rappahannoc, where his father +had lived for several years before his death, was his share of the +paternal estate, and on this he lived with his mother, till he had +completed his sixteenth year. He desired to enter the British Navy, as +a path to honorable distinction, and one of his half brothers, many +years older than himself, had succeeded in obtaining a warrant for him; +but the mother's reluctance to part with her eldest boy induced him to +relinquish this advantage, and to embrace instead the laborious and +trying life of a surveyor, in those rude, early days of Virginia +exposed to extraordinary hazards. Upon this he entered immediately, +accepting employment offered him by Lord Fairfax, who had come from +England to ascertain the value of an immense tract of land which he had +inherited, lying between the Potomac and Rappahannoc rivers, and +extending beyond the Alleghanies. The surveying party was accompanied +by William Fairfax, a distant relative of his lordship, but the boy of +sixteen was evidently the most important member of the party. When the +hardships of this undertaking became too exhausting, he returned to the +more settled regions, and employed himself in laying out private tracts +and farms, but he spent the greater part of three years in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_014"></a>[14]</span> +wilderness, learning the value of lands, becoming acquainted with the +habits and character of the wild Indian tribes, then so troublesome in +the forests, and fitting himself by labor, study, the endurance of +personal hardships and the exercise of vigilance and systematic effort, +for the arduous path before him.</p> +<p>At nineteen Washington had made so favorable an +impression +that he was appointed, by the government of Virginia, Adjutant-General +with the rank of Major, and charged with the duty of assembling and +exercising the militia, in preparation for expected or present +difficulties on the frontier. He had always shown a turn for military +affairs, beginning with his school-days, when his favorite play was +drilling troops of boys, he himself always taking command; and +noticeable again in his early manhood, when he studied tactics, and +learned the manual exercise and the use of the sword. It was not long +before the talent thus cultivated was called into action. Governor +Dinwiddie sent Major Washington as commissioner to confer with the +officer commanding the French forces, making the delicate inquiry by +what authority he presumed to invade the dominions of his Majesty King +George III., and what were his designs. A winter journey of seven +hundred and fifty miles, at least half of which lay through an unbroken +wilderness, haunted by wild beasts, and more formidable savages, was +the first duty of the youthful Major under this commission, and it +occupied six weeks, marked by many hardships and some adventures. The +famous one of the raft on a half-frozen river, in which Washington +narrowly escaped drowning, and the other of a malcontent Indian's +firing on him, occurred during this journey; but he reached +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_015"></a>[15]</span> +the French +post in safety, and had an amicable, though not very satisfactory +conference, with the Sieur St. Pierre, a courteous gentleman, but a +wily old soldier. Governor Dinwiddie caused Major Washington's account +of the expedition to be published, and when a little army was formed +for the protection of the frontier, Washington received a command, with +the rank of Colonel, at twenty-two years of age. Advancing at once into +the wilderness, he encountered a French detachment, which he took +prisoners, with their commander, and so proceeded during the remainder +of the season, with general success. The next year, serving as a +volunteer, it was his painful lot, when just recovering from a severe +illness, to witness Braddock's defeat, a misfortune which, it is +unanimously conceded, might have been avoided, if General Braddock had +not been too proud to take his young friend's prudent counsel. All that +an almost frantic bravery could do to retrieve the fortunes of this +disastrous day, Washington, whom we are in the habit of thinking +immovable, and who was at this time weak from the effects of fever, is +reported to have done; and the fact that he had two horses shot under +him, and his coat well riddled with rifle balls, shows how unsparingly +he exposed himself to the enemy's sharp-shooters. A spectator says—"I +saw him take hold of a brass field-piece as if it had been a stick. He +looked like a fury; he tore the sheet lead from the touch-hole; he +pulled with this and pushed with that; and wheeled it round as if it +had been nothing. The powder-monkey rushed up with the fire, and then +the cannon began to bark, and the Indians came down." Nothing but +defeat and disgrace was the result of this unhappy encounter, except to +Washington, who in that instance, as in so many <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_016"></a>[16]</span>others, +stood out, +individual and conspicuous, by qualities so much in advance of those of +all the men with whom he acted, that no misfortune or disaster ever +caused him to be confounded with them, or included in the most hasty +general censure. It is most instructive as well as interesting to +observe that his mind, never considered brilliant, was yet recognized +from the beginning as almost infallible in its judgments, a tower of +strength for the weak, a terror to the selfish and dishonest. The +uneasiness of Governor Dinwiddie under Washington's superiority is +accounted for only by the fact that that superiority was unquestionable.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus028"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 396px; height: 400px;" alt="Mount Vernon." src="images/illus028.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"> +<span class="caption">Mount Vernon.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>After Braddock's defeat, Washington retired to Mount <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_017"></a>[17]</span> +Vernon,—which had fallen to him by the will of his half-brother +Lawrence—to recoup his mind and body, after a wasting fever and the +distressing scenes he had been forced to witness. The country rang with +his praises, and even the pulpit could not withhold its tribute. The +Reverend Samuel Davies hardly deserves the reputation of a prophet for +saying, in the course of a eulogy on the bravery of the Virginian +troops,—"As a remarkable instance of this, I may point out that heroic +youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has +hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some important service to +his country."</p> +<p>When another army was to be raised for frontier +service, the +command was given to Washington, who stipulated for a voice in choosing +his officers, a better system of military regulations, more promptness +in paying the troops, and a thorough reform in the system of procuring +supplies. All these were granted, with the addition of an aid-de-camp +and secretary, to the young colonel of twenty-three. But he +nevertheless had to encounter the evils of insubordination, inactivity, +perverseness and disunion among the troops, with the further vexation +of deficient support on the part of the government, while the terrors +and real dangers and sufferings of the inhabitants of the outer +settlements wrung his heart with anguish. In one of his many +expostulatory letters to the timid and time-serving +Governor Dinwiddie, his feelings burst their usual guarded bounds: "I +am too little acquainted, sir, with pathetic language, to attempt a +description of the people's distresses; but I have a generous soul, +sensible of wrongs and swelling for redress. But what can I do? I see +their situation, know <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_018"></a>[18]</span> +their danger and participate in their sufferings, +without having it in my power to give them further relief than +uncertain promises. In short, I see inevitable destruction in so clear +a light, that unless vigorous measures are taken by the Assembly, and +speedy assistance sent from below, the poor inhabitants that are now in +forts must unavoidably fall, while the remainder are flying before a +barbarous foe. In fine, the melancholy situation of the people, the +little prospect of assistance, the gross and scandalous abuse cast upon +the officers in general, which reflects upon me in particular for +suffering misconduct of such extraordinary kinds, and the distant +prospect, if any, of gaining honor and reputation in the service, cause +me to lament the hour that gave me a commission, and would induce me, +at any other time than this of imminent danger, to resign, without one +hesitating moment, a command from which I never expect to reap either +honor or benefit; but, on the contrary, have almost an absolute +certainty of incurring displeasure below, while the murder of helpless +families may be laid to my account here. The supplicating tears of the +women and moving petitions of the men melt me into such deadly sorrow, +that I solemnly declare, if I know my own mind, I could offer myself a +willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy, provided that would +contribute to the people's ease."</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus031"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 288px; height: 403px;" alt="Tomb of Washington's Mother." src="images/illus031.jpg" /></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_019"></a>[19]</span> +</div> +<p style="text-align: center;"> +<span class="caption">Tomb of Washington's Mother.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>This extract is given as being very characteristic; +full of +that fire whose volcanic intensity was so carefully covered under the +snow of caution in after life; and also as a specimen of Washington's +style of writing, clear, earnest, commanding and business-like, but +deficient in all express graces, and valuable rather for substance than +form. We see in his general tone of expression something of that +resolute mother, who, when her son, already the first man in public +estimation, urged her to make Mount Vernon her home for the rest of her +days, tersely replied——"I thank you for your affectionate and dutiful +offers, but my wants are few in this world, and I feel perfectly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_020"></a>[20]</span> +competent to take care of myself." Directness is the leading trait in +the style of both mother and son; if either used circumlocution, it was +rather through deliberateness than for diplomacy. Indeed, the alleged +indebtedness of great sons to strong mothers, can hardly find a more +prominent support than in this case. What a Roman pair they were! If +her heart failed her a little, sometimes, as what mother's heart must +not, in view of toils, sacrifices, and dangers like his; if she argued +towards the softer side, how he answered her, appealing to her stronger +self:<br /> +</p> +<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Mount +Vernon</span>, +14th Aug., +1755. +</span></div> +<p>"<span class="smcap">Honored Madam</span>,</p> +<p>"If it is in my power to avoid going to the Ohio +again, I +shall; but if the command is passed upon me by the general voice of the +country, and offered upon such terms as cannot be objected against, it +would reflect dishonor upon me to refuse it; and that, I am sure, must, +or ought to, give you greater uneasiness than my going in an honorable +command. Upon no other terms will I accept of it. At present I have no +proposals made to me, nor have I advice of such an intention, except +from private hands.</p> +<div style="text-align: right;">"I am, &c." +</div> +<p><br /> +When the object for which he had undertaken the +campaign—viz.: +the undisturbed possession of the Ohio River—was accomplished, +Washington resigned his commission, after five years of active and +severe service, his health much broken and his private affairs not a +little disordered. The resignation took effect in December, 1758, and +in January, 1759, he was married, and, as he supposed, finally settled +at Mount Vernon—or, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_021"></a>[21]</span> +as he expresses it in his quiet way—"Fixed at this +seat, with an agreeable partner for life, I hope to find more happiness +in retirement than I ever experienced amidst the wide and bustling +world." And in liberal and elegant improvements, and the exercise of a +generous hospitality, the young couple spent the following fifteen +years; the husband attending to his duties as citizen and planter, with +ample time and inclination for fox-hunting and duck-shooting, and the +wife, a kind, comely, thrifty dame, looking well to the ways of her +household, superintending fifteen domestic spinning-wheels, and +presiding at a bountiful table, to the great satisfaction of her +husband and his numerous guests. When the spirit of the people began to +rise against the exactions of the mother country, Washington was among +the foremost to sympathize with the feeling of indignation, and the +desire to resist, peaceably, if possible, forcibly if necessary. Of +this, his letters afford ample proof. When armed resistance was +threatened, Washington was immediately thought of as the Virginia +leader. When Congress began, in earnest, preparations for defence, +Washington was chairman of all the committees on the state of the +country. When the very delicate business of appointing a +commander-in-chief of the American armies was under consideration, +Washington was the man whose name was on every tongue, and who was +unanimously chosen, and that by the direct instrumentality of a son of +Massachusetts, though that noble State, having commenced the struggle, +might well have claimed the honor of furnishing a leader for it. What +generosity of patriotism there was, in the men of those days, and how a +common indignation and a common danger seem to have raised them above +the petty jealousies and heart-burnings +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_022"></a>[22]</span> +that so disfigure public doings +in time of peace and prosperity! How the greatness of the great man +blazed forth on this new field! What an attitude he took before the +country, when he said, on accepting the position, "I beg leave to +assure the Congress that as no pecuniary consideration could have +tempted me to accept this arduous employment, at the expense of my +domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. +I will keep an exact account of my expenses. These, I doubt not they +will discharge, and that is all I desire." There was a natural, +unconscious sovereignty in thus assuming to be the judge of what it +might be proper to expend, in concerns the most momentous, extensive, +and novel, as well as in taking the entire risk, both of payment and of +public approbation,—in a direction in which he had already found the +sensitiveness of the popular mind,—that equals any boldness of +Napoleon's. We can hardly wonder that, in after times, common men +instinctively desired and expected to make him a king.</p> +<p>The battle of Bunker Hill had taken place in the +time that +intervened between Washington's consent and the receipt of his +commission, so that he set out for Cambridge, with no lingering doubt +as to the nature, meaning, or result of the service in which he had +pledged all. He writes to his brother, "I am embarked on a wide ocean, +boundless in its prospect, and in which, perhaps, no safe harbor is to +be found." His residence at Cambridge, a fine old mansion, still +stands, and in worthy occupancy. Here it was that he undertook the +intolerable duty of organizing a young army, without clothes, tents, +ammunition, or money, with a rich, bitter and disciplined enemy in +sight, and boiling blood on both sides. Here <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_023"></a>[23]</span> +it was that General Gage, +with whom he had fought, side by side, twenty years before, on the +Monongahela, so exasperated him by insolent replies to his +remonstrances against the cruel treatment of American prisoners, that +he gave directions for retaliation upon any of the enemy that might +fall into American hands. </p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus035"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 389px; height: 399px;" alt="Washington's Headquarters, Cambridge, 1775" src="images/illus035.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"> +<span class="caption">Washington's Headquarters, +Cambridge, 1775. +</span></p> +<p><br /> +He was, however, Washington still, even +though burning with a holy anger; and, ere the order could reach its +destination, it was countermanded, and a charge given to all concerned +that the prisoners should be allowed parole, and that <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_024"></a>[24]</span> +every other +proper indulgence and civility should be shown them. His letters to +General Gage are models of that kind of writing. In writing to Lord +Dartmouth afterwards, the British commander, who had been rebuked with +such cutting and deserved severity, observes with great significance, +"The trials we have had, show the rebels are not the despicable rabble +we have supposed them to be."</p> +<p>Washington was not without a stern kind of wit, on certain +occasions. When the rock was struck hard, it failed not in fire. The +jealousy of military domination was so great as to cause him terrible +solicitudes at this time, and a month's enlistments brought only five +thousand men, while murmurs were heard on all sides against poor pay +and bad living. Thinking of this, at a later day, when a member of the +Convention for forming the Constitution, desired to introduce a clause +limiting the standing army to five thousand men, Washington observed +that he should have no objection to such a clause, "if it were so +amended as to provide that no enemy should presume to invade the United +States with more than <i>three</i> thousand."</p> +<p>Amid all the discouragements of that heavy time, +the +resolution of the commander-in-chief suffered no abatement. "My +situation is so irksome to me at times," he says after enumerating his +difficulties in a few forcible words, "that if I did not consult the +public good more than my own tranquillity, I should long ere this have +put every thing on the cast of a die." But he goes on to say, in a tone +more habitual with him—"If every man was of my mind, the ministers of +Great Britain should know, in a few words, upon what issue the cause +should be put. I would not be deceived by artful declarations, nor +specious pretences, nor would I be amused by unmeaning propositions, +but, in open, undisguised and manly terms, proclaim our wrongs, and our +resolution to be redressed. I would tell them that we had borne much, +that we had long and ardently sought for reconciliation upon honorable +terms; that it had been denied us; that all our attempts after peace +had proved abortive, and had been grossly misrepresented; that we had +done every thing that could be expected from the best of subjects; that +the spirit of freedom rises too high in us to submit to slavery. This I +would tell them, not under covert, but in words as clear as the sun in +its meridian brightness."<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_025"></a>[25]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus037a"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 308px; height: 400px;" alt="Washington's Headquarters, 180 Pearl street, New-York. 1776." src="images/illus037a.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"> +<span class="caption">Washington's Headquarters, 180 Pearl +street, New-York. 1776. +</span><br /> +</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style='width: 500px;'><a class="figcenter" name="illus037b"> +<img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 493px; height: 403px;" alt="House No. 1 Broadway." src="images/illus037b.jpg" /></a> +<p style="text-align: center;"> +<span class="caption">House No. 1 Broadway. +</span></p> + +<p><small>The house No. 1 Broadway, opposite the Bowling-green, +remained unaltered until within a year or two in the shape here +presented, in which it had become familiar to all New-Yorkers. It was +built by Captain Kennedy of the Royal Navy, in April, 1765. There Lee, +Washington, and afterwards Sir Henry Clinton, Robertson, Carleton, and +other British officers were quartered, and here André wrote his letter +to Arnold.—<i>Lossing.</i> It was afterwards occupied by +Aaron Burr. Very recently, this interesting house, which in New-York +may be termed <i>ancient</i>, has been metamorphosed by +the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_026"></a>[26]</span> +addition of two or three stories, and it is now <i>reduced</i> +to be the Washington Hotel.</small></p> +</div> + +<div style="clear: both;"></div> + +<p>When the British evacuated Boston, Congress voted +Washington a +gold medal, with abundant thanks and praises; and, thus compensated for +the cruel anxieties of the winter, he proceeded with unwavering courage +to New-York, where new labors awaited him, and the mortifying defeat at +Gowanus, turned into almost triumph by the admirable retreat +Afterwards.</p> +<p>The movement from New-York city to Harlem Heights should have +been another glory, and nothing on the part of the Commander-in-Chief +was wanting to make it such, but a panic seized two brigades of +militia, who ran away, <i>sans faēon</i>, causing +Washington to lose, for a moment, some portion of the power over his +own emotions for which he is so justly celebrated. He dashed in among +the flying rout, shouting, shaming them, riding exposed within a few +yards of the enemy; and, finding this of no avail, drew his sword and +threatened to "run them through," and cocked and snapped his pistol in +their faces. But all would not do, and General Greene says, in a letter +to a friend, "He was so vexed at the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_027"></a>[27]</span> +infamous conduct of the troops, +that he sought death rather than life." Washington, the "man of +marble," would have preferred a thousand deaths to dishonor.</p> +<p>A new army was now to be raised, the term of the last +enlistment having expired; and, to form a just opinion of Washington's +character and talents, every letter of his, to Congress and others +during this period, should be studied. Such wisdom, such indignation, +such patience, such manly firmness, such disappointment! every thing +but despair; the watchfulness, the forethought, the perseverance +displayed in those letters, give a truer idea of the man than all his +battles.</p> +<p>Take a single passage from one of his letters:—"I +am wearied +almost to death with the retrograde motion of things, and I solemnly +protest, that a pecuniary reward of twenty thousand pounds a year would +not induce me to undergo what I do; and after all, perhaps, to lose my +character, as it is impossible, under such a variety of distressing +circumstances, to conduct matters agreeably to public expectation, or +even to the expectation of those who employ me, as they will not make +proper allowances for the difficulties their own errors have +occasioned."</p> +<p>And besides that which came upon him daily, in the +regular +line of duty, the yet more difficult work of bearing up the hearts of +others, whose threats of abandoning the service were the running bass +that made worse the din of war. "I am sorry to find," writes the Chief +to General Schuyler, "that both you and General Montgomery incline to +quit the service. Let me ask you, sir, what is the time for brave men +to exert themselves in the cause of liberty and their country, if this +is not? God knows there is not a difficulty that you <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_028"></a>[28]</span> +both very justly +complain of, which I have not in an eminent degree experienced, that I +am not every day experiencing. But we must bear up against them, and +make the best of mankind as they are, since we cannot have them as we +wish." In studying the career of Washington, nothing strikes one more +frequently than that no fame came to him fortuitously, not only did he +borrow none, usurp none, fall heir to none that belonged to others; he +earned every tittle that has ever been awarded to him, and evidently +contributed very much, by his secret advice and caution to officers +placed in difficult positions, to enhance the measure of praise +bestowed on his companions in arms.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus40"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 501px; height: 403px;" alt="Washington's Headquarters, Morristown, New Jersey. 1779" src="images/illus040.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Washington's +Headquarters, Morristown, New Jersey. 1779. +</span><br /> +</p> +<p>Dark as these times were, Washington's peculiar merits were +every day becoming more and more evident; indeed the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_029"></a>[29]</span> +darkest hours were +his opportunities. He might well say, after the loss of Fort +Washington, which had been held contrary to his judgment,—"No person +ever had a greater choice of difficulties to contend with than I have;" +yet he carried the war into New Jersey with all the resolution and +courage of a victor. Never without a party, too often a very large one, +ready to disparage his military skill, and throw doubts upon his energy +in the conduct of the war, he pursued his plans without swerving a +hair's breadth to court the popular gale, though a natural and +honorable love of reputation was one of the ruling passions of his +soul. It was impossible to make the people believe that a series of +daring encounters would have cost the Commander-in-chief far less than +the "Fabian policy," so scorned at the time; but Washington saw then, +in the very heat of the contest, what the result has now made evident +enough to all, that England must carry on a war on the other side of +the globe under an immense disadvantage, and that considering the +general spirit of the American people, the expense to an invading power +must be greater than even the richest nation on earth could long +sustain. That the necessity for delay was intensely mortifying to him, +we have a thousand proofs; and it was not the least bitter drop in his +cup, that in order to conceal from the enemy the deficiencies +occasioned by the delay of Congress to meet his most strenuous +requisitions, he was obliged to magnify his numbers and resources, in a +way which could not but increase the public doubts of his promptness. +No one can read his letters, incessant under these circumstances, +without an intense personal sympathy, that almost forgets the warrior +and the patriot in the man.</p> +<p>His being invested with what was in reality a military <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_030"></a>[30]</span> +dictatorship, did not help to render him more popular, although he used +his power with his accustomed moderation, conscientiousness and +judgment. In this, as in other cases, he took the whole responsibility +and odium, while he allowed others to reap the credit of particular +efforts; giving to every man at least his due, and content if the +country was served, even though he himself seemed to be doing nothing. +This we gather as much from the letters of others to him as from his +own writings.</p> +<p>The celebrated passage of the Delaware, on +Christmas-day, +1776,—so lifelike represented in Leutze's great picture,—flashed a +cheering light over the prospects of the contest, and lifted up the +hearts of the desponding, if it did not silence the cavils of the +disaffected. The intense cold was as discouraging here as the killing +heat had been at Gowanus. Two men were found frozen to death, and the +whole army suffered terribly; but the success was splendid, and the +enemy's line along the Delaware was broken. The British opened their +eyes very wide at this daring deed of the rebel chief, and sent the +veteran Cornwallis to chastise his insolence. But Washington was not +waiting for him. He had marched to Princeton, harassing the enemy, and +throwing their lines still more into confusion. New Jersey was almost +completely relieved, and the spirits of the country raised to martial +pitch before the campaign closed. Those who had hastily condemned +Washington as half a traitor to the cause, now began to call him the +Saviour of his Country. Success has wondrous power in illuminating +merit, that may yet have been transparent without it. But even now, +when he thought proper to administer to all the oath of allegiance to +the United States, granting leave to the disaffected to retire within +the enemy's lines, a new clamor was raised against him, as assuming +undue and dangerous power. It was said there were no "United States," +and the Legislature of New Jersey censured the order as interfering +with their prerogative. But Washington made no change. The dangers of +pretended neutrality had become sufficiently apparent to him; and he +chose, as he always did, to defer his personal popularity to the safety +of the great cause. And again he took occasion, though the treatment of +General Lee was in question, to argue against retaliation of the +sufferings of prisoners, in a manly letter, which would serve as a text +in similar cases for all time.</p> +<p>What a blessing was Lafayette's arrival! not only +to the +struggling States, but in particular to Washington. The spirit of the +generous young Frenchman was to the harassed chief as cold water to the +thirsty soul. No jealousies, no fault-finding, no selfish emulation; +but pure, high, uncalculating enthusiasm, and a devotion to the +character and person of Washington that melted the strong man, and +opened those springs of tenderness which cares and duties had well-nigh +choked up. It is not difficult to believe that Lafayette had even more +to do with the success of the war than we are accustomed to think. +Whatever kept up the chief's heart up-bore the army and the country; +for it is plain that, without derogation from the ability or +faithfulness of any of the heroic contributors to the final triumph, +Washington was in a peculiar manner the life and soul,—the main-spring +and the balance-wheel,—the spur and the rein, of the whole movement and +its result. Blessings, then, on Lafayette, the helper and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_032"></a>[32]</span> +consoler of +the chosen father of his heart, through so many trials! His name goes +down to posterity on the same breath that is destined for ever to +proclaim the glory of Washington.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus44"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 446px; height: 403px;" alt="Washington's Headquarters, Chad's Ford, 1777." src="images/illus044.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Washington's +Headquarters, Chad's Ford, 1777. +</span><br /> +</p> +<p>Chad's Ford, in Delaware, was the scene of another of those +disasters which it was Washington's happy fortune to turn into +benefits. The American army retreated from a much superior force, and +retreated in such disorder as could seem, even to its well-wishers, +little better than a flight. But when, after encamping at Germantown, +it was found that the General meant to give battle again, with a +barefooted army, exhausted by forced marches, in a country which +Washington himself says, was "to a man, disaffected," dismay itself +became buoyant, and the opinion spread, not only throughout America, +but even as far as France, that the leader of our armies <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_033"></a>[33]</span> +was indeed +invincible. A heavy rain and an impenetrable fog defeated our brave +troops; the attempt cost a thousand men. Washington says, solemnly, "It +was a bloody day." Yet the Count de Vergennes, on whose impressions of +America so much depended at that time, told our Commissioners in Paris +that nothing in the course of our struggle had struck him so much as +General Washington's venturing to attack the veteran army of Sir +William Howe, with troops raised within the year. The leader's glory +was never obscured for a moment, to the view of those who were so +placed as to see it in its true light. Providence seems to have +determined that the effective power of this great instrument should be +independent of the glitter of victory.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus45"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 516px; height: 403px;" alt="Washington's Headquarters, White Marsh, 1777." src="images/illus045.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Washington's +Headquarters, White Marsh, 1777.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>Encamped at Whitemarsh, fourteen miles from Philadelphia, +Washington, with his half-clad and half-fed troops, awaited an attack +from General Howe who had marched in <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_034"></a>[34]</span> +that direction with twelve +thousand effective men. But both commanders were wary—the British not +choosing to attack his adversary on his own ground, and the American +not to be decoyed from his chosen position to one less favorable. Some +severe skirmishing was therefore all that ensued, and General Howe +retreated, rather ingloriously, to Philadelphia.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus46"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 582px; height: 401px;" alt="Washington's Headquarters, Valley Forge, 1777." src="images/illus046.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Washington's +Headquarters, Valley Forge, 1777.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>This brings us to the terrible winter at Valley +Forge, the +sufferings of which can need no recapitulation for our readers. +Washington felt them with sufficient keenness, yet his invariable +respect for the rights of property extended to that of the disaffected, +and in no extremity was he willing to resort to coercive measures, to +remedy evils which distressed his very soul, and which he shared with +the meanest soldier. His testimony to the patience and fortitude of the +men is emphatic: "Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough +admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_035"></a>[35]</span> +they have not been, ere this, excited by their sufferings to a general +mutiny and dispersion." And while this evil was present, and for the +time irremediable, he writes to Congress on the subject of a suggestion +which had been made of a <i>winter campaign</i>, "I can +assure those gentlemen, that it is a much easier and less distressing +thing to draw remonstrances, in a comfortable room, by a good fireside, +than to occupy a cold bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow, +without clothes or blankets. However, although they seem to have little +feeling for the naked and distrest soldiers, I feel super-abundantly +for them, and from my soul I pity those miseries which it is neither in +my power to relieve nor prevent."</p> +<p>It was during this period of perplexity and +distress on public +accounts, that the discovery of secret cabals against himself, was +added to Washington's burthens. But whatever was personal was never +more than secondary with him. When the treachery of pretended friends +was disclosed, he showed none of the warmth which attends his statement +of the soldiers' grievances. "My enemies take an ungenerous advantage +of me," he said, "they know the delicacy of my situation, and that +motives of policy deprive me of the defence I might otherwise make +against their insidious attacks. They know I cannot combat their +insinuations, however injurious, without disclosing secrets which it is +of the utmost moment to conceal." * * * "My chief concern arises from +an apprehension of the dangerous consequences which intestine +dissensions may produce to the common cause."</p> +<p>General Howe made no attempt on the camp during the winter, +but his foraging parties were watched and often severely handled by the +Americans. When Dr. Franklin, who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_036"></a>[36]</span> +was in Paris, was told that General +Howe had taken Philadelphia, "Say rather," he replied, "that +Philadelphia has taken General Howe," and the advantage was certainly a +problematical one. Philadelphia was evacuated by the British on the +18th of June, 1776, General Clinton having superseded General Howe, who +returned to England in the spring. Washington followed in the footsteps +of the retreating army, and, contrary to the opinion of General Lee, +decided to attack them. At Monmouth occurred the scene so often cited +as proving that Washington <i>could</i> lose his temper—a +testimony to his habitual self-command which no art of praise could +enhance. Finding General Lee with his five thousand men in full retreat +when they should have been rushing on the enemy, the commander-in-chief +addressed the recreant with words of severe reproof, and a look and +manner still more cutting. Receiving in return a most insolent reply, +Washington proceeded, himself, by rapid manœuvres, to array the troops +for battle, and when intelligence arrived that the British were within +fifteen minutes march, he said to General Lee, who had followed him, +deeply mortified,—"Will you command on this ground, or not?" "It is +equal with me where I command," was the answer. "Then I expect you to +take proper measures for checking the enemy," said the General, much +incensed at the offensive manner of Lee. "Your orders shall be obeyed," +said that officer, "and I will not be the first to leave the field." +And his bravery made it evident that an uncontrolled temper was the +fault for which he afterwards suffered so severely. During the action +Washington exposed himself to every danger, animating and cheering on +the men under the burning sun; and when night came, he lay down in <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_037"></a>[37]</span> +his cloak at +the foot of a tree, hoping for a general action the next day. But in +the morning Sir Henry Clinton was gone, too far for pursuit under such +killing heat—the thermometer at 96°. Many on both sides had perished +without a wound, from fatigue and thirst.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus49"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 384px; height: 399px;" alt="Washington's Headquarters, Tappan, 1778." src="images/illus049.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Washington's +Headquarters, Tappan, 1778.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>The headquarters at Tappan will always have a sad interest +from the fact that Major André, whose fine private qualities have +almost made the world forget that he was a spy, there met his unhappy +fate. That General Washington suffered severely under the necessity +which obliged him, by the rules of war, to sanction the decision of the +court-martial in this case, we have ample testimony; and an eye-witness +still living observed, that when the windows of the town were thronged +with gazers at the stern procession as it passed, those of the +commander-in-chief were entirely closed, and his house without sign of +life except the two sentinels at the door.<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_038"></a>[38]</span></p> +<p>The revolt of a part of the Pennsylvania line, which occurred +in January, 1781, afforded a new occasion for the exercise of +Washington's pacific wisdom. He had felt the grievances of the army too +warmly to be surprised when any portion of it lost patience, and his +prudent and humane suggestions, with the good management of General +Wayne, proved effectual in averting the great danger which now +threatened. But when the troops of New Jersey, emboldened by this mild +treatment, attempted to imitate their Pennsylvania neighbors, they +found Washington prepared, and six hundred men in arms ready to crush +the revolt by force—a catastrophe prevented only by the unconditional +submission of the mutineers, who were obliged to lay down their arms, +make concessions to their officers, and promise obedience.</p> +<p>As we are not giving here a sketch of the Revolutionary War, +we pass at once to the siege and surrender at Yorktown, an event which +shook the country like that heaviest clap of thunder, herald of the +departing storm. All felt that brighter skies were preparing, and the +universal joy did not wait the sanction of a deliberate treaty of +peace. The great game of chess which had been so warily played, on one +side at least, was now in check, if not closed by a final check-mate; +and people on the winning side were fain to unknit their weary brows, +and indulge the repose they had earned. Congress and the country felt +as if the decisive blow had been struck, as if the long agony was over. +Thanks were lavished on the commanders, on the officers, on the troops. +Two stands of the enemy's colors were presented to the +Commander-in-Chief, and to Counts Rochambeau and De Grasse each a piece +of British field ordnance as a trophy. A commemorative column at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_039"></a>[39]</span> +Yorktown was decreed, to carry down to posterity the events of the +glorious 17th of October, 1781. There was, in short, a kind of wildness +in the national joy, showing how deep had been the previous +despondency. Watchmen woke the citizens of Philadelphia at one in the +morning, crying "Cornwallis is taken!" Sober, Puritan America was +almost startled from her habitual coolness; almost forgot the still +possible danger. The chief alone, on whom had fallen the heaviest +stress of the long contest, was impelled to new care and forecast by +the victory. He feared the negligence of triumph, and reminded the +government and the nation that all might yet be lost, without +vigilance. "I cannot but flatter myself," he says, "that the States, +rather than relax in their exertions, will be stimulated to the most +vigorous preparations, for another active, glorious, and decisive +campaign." And Congress responded wisely to the appeal, and called on +the States to keep up the military establishment, and to complete their +several quotas of troops at an early day. With his characteristic +modesty and courage, Washington wrote to Congress a letter of advice on +the occasion, of which one sentence may be taken as a specimen. +"Although we cannot, by the best concerted plans, absolutely command +success; although the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle +to the strong; yet, without presumptuously waiting for miracles to be +wrought in our favor, it is an indispensable duty, with the deepest +gratitude to Heaven for the past, and humble confidence in its smiles +on our future operations, to make use of all the means in our power for +our defence and security."</p> +<p>It was this man, pure, devoted, and indefatigable in the cause +of his country and her liberties, that some shortsighted <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_040"></a>[40]</span> +malcontents, judging his virtue by their own, would now have persuaded +to finish the +struggle for liberty by becoming a king. The discontent of the officers +and soldiers, with the slowness of their pay, had long been a cause of +ferment in the army, and gave to the hasty and the selfish an excuse +for desiring a change in the form of government. The king's troops had +been well fed, well clothed, and well paid, and were sure of half-pay +after the war should be finished, while the continentals, suffering +real personal destitution, were always in arrear, drawing on their +private resources, and with no provision whatever for any permanent +pecuniary recompense. As to the half-pay, Washington had long before +expressed his opinion of the justice as well as policy of such a +provision. "I am ready to declare," he says, "that I do most +religiously believe the salvation of the cause depends upon it, and +without it your officers will moulder to nothing, or be composed of low +and illiterate men, void of capacity for this or any other business. * * * +Personally, as an officer, I have no interest in the decision; +because I have declared, and I now repeat it, that I never will receive +the smallest benefit from the half-pay establishment." But the +deep-seated jealousy of the army, which haunted Congress and the +country, like a Banshee, throughout the whole course of the war, was +too powerful for even Washington's representations. All that could be +effected was an unsatisfactory compromise, and some of the officers saw +or affected to see, in the reluctance of the government to provide +properly for its defenders, a sign of fatal weakness, which but little +recommended the republican form. Under these circumstances, a well +written letter was sent to the Commander-in-Chief, proposing to him the +establishment of a "mixed government," in which the supreme position +was to be given, as of right, to the man who had been the instrument of +Providence in saving the country, in "difficulties apparently +insurmountable by human power," the dignity to be accompanied with the +title of <span class="smcap">king</span>. Of this +daring proposition a colonel of good standing was made the organ. +Washington's reply may be well known, but it will bear many repetitions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_041"></a>[41]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus53"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 360px; height: 398px;" alt="Washington's Headquarters, Newburgh, N.Y." src="images/illus053.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Washington's +Headquarters, Newburgh, N.Y.</span><br /> +</p> +<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Newburgh</span>, +22 May, 1782. +</span></div> +<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> +<p>"With a mixture of great surprise and astonishment, I have +read with attention the sentiments you submitted to my perusal. Be +assured, Sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more +painful sensations than your information, of there being such ideas +existing in the army as you have expressed, and I must view with +abhorrence, and reprehend with severity. For the present, the +communication of them will rest in my own bosom, unless some further +agitation of the matter shall make a disclosure necessary.</p> +<p>"I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct +could have given encouragement to an address, which, to me, seems big +with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my country. If I am not +deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person +to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. At the same time, in +justice to my own feelings, I must add that no man possesses a more +sincere wish to see ample justice done to the army than I do; and as +far as my powers and influence, in a constitutional way, extend, they +shall be employed to the utmost of my abilities to effect it, should +there be any occasion. Let me conjure you, then, if you have any regard +for your country, concern for yourself or <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_042"></a>[42]</span> +posterity, or respect for me, +to banish these thoughts from your mind, and never communicate, as from +yourself or any one else, a sentiment of the like nature.</p> +<div style="text-align: right;">"I am, Sir, &c.,<br /> +<span class="smcap">"George Washington."</span></div> +<p><br /> +This letter is extremely characteristic, not only because it +declines the glittering bait, for that is hardly worth noticing where +Washington is in question, but for the cool and quiet tone of rebuke, +in a case in which most other men would have been disposed to be at +least dramatically indignant. The perfectly respectful way in which he +could show a man that he despised him, is remarkable. He does not even +admit that there has been injustice done to the army, though the fact +had cost him such loads of anxious and ingenious remonstrance; but only +promises to see to it, "should there be any occasion." It would have +been easier for him, at that very moment, at the head of a victorious +army, and with the heart of the nation at his feet, to make himself a +king, than to induce Congress to do justice to the troops and their +brave officers; but identifying himself with his army, he considered +that his own private affair, and would accept no offer of partnership, +however specious. Happily the name of the "very respectable" colonel +has never been disclosed; an instance of mercy not the least noticeable +among the features of this remarkable transaction.</p> +<p>During the negotiations for peace which so soon followed the +surrender at Yorktown, the discontent of the army reached a height +which became alarming. Meetings of officers were called, for the +purpose of preparing threatening resolutions, since called "the +Newburgh addresses," to be offered to Congress. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_043"></a>[43]</span> +The alternative +proposed was a relinquishment of the service in a body, if the war +continued, or remaining under arms, in time of peace, until justice +could be obtained from Congress. Washington, having timely notice of +this danger, came forward with his usual decision, wisdom, and +kindliness, to the rescue of the public interest and peace. While he +took occasion, in a general order, to censure the disorderly and +anonymous form proposed, he himself called a meeting of officers, +taking care to converse in private beforehand with many of them, +acknowledging the justice of their complaints, but inculcating +moderation and an honorable mode of obtaining what they desired. It is +said that many of the gentlemen were in tears when they left the +presence of the Commander-in-Chief. When they assembled, he addressed +them in the most impressive manner, imploring them not to tarnish their +hard-won laurels, by selfish passion, in a case in which the vital +interests of the country were concerned. He insisted on the good faith +of Congress, and the certainty that, before the army should be +disbanded, all claims would be satisfactorily adjusted.</p> +<p>His remonstrance proved irresistible. The officers, left to +themselves,—for the General withdrew after he had given utterance to +the advice made so potent by his character and services,—passed +resolutions thanking him for his wise interference, and expressing +their love and respect for him, and their determination to abide by his +counsel. In this emergency Washington may almost have been said to have +saved his country a second time, but in his letters written at the time +he sinks all mention of his own paramount share in restoring +tranquillity, speaking merely of "measures taken to postpone the +meeting," and "the good sense of the officers" having terminated the +affair <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_044"></a>[44]</span> +"in a manner which reflects the greatest glory on themselves." +His own remonstrances with Congress were immediately renewed, setting +forth the just claims of those who "had so long, so patiently, and so +cheerfully, fought under his direction," so forcibly, that in a very +short time all was conceded, and general harmony and satisfaction +established.</p> +<p>His military labors thus finished,—for the adjudication of the +army claims by Congress was almost simultaneous with the news of the +signing of the treaty at Paris,—Washington might, without impropriety, +have given himself up to the private occupations and enjoyments so +religiously renounced for eight years,—the proclamation of peace to the +army having been made, April 19, 1783, precisely eight years from the +day of the first bloodshedding at Lexington. But the feelings of a +father were too strong within him, and his solicitudes brooded over the +land of his love with that unfailing anxiety for its best good which +had characterized him from the beginning. Yet he modestly observes, in +a letter on the subject to Col. Hamilton, "How far any further essay by +me might be productive of the wished-for end, or appear to arrogate +more than belongs to me, depends so much upon popular opinion, and the +temper and dispositions of the people, that it is not easy to decide." +He wrote a circular letter to the Governors of the several States, full +of wisdom, dignity, and kindness, dwelling principally on four great +points—an indissoluble union of the States; a sacred regard to public +justice; the adoption of a proper military peace establishment; and a +pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the States, which +should induce them to forget local prejudices, and incline them to +mutual concessions. This address is masterly in all respects, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_045"></a>[45]</span> +was felt to be particularly well-timed, the calm and honoured voice of +Washington being at that moment the only one which could hope to be +heard above the din of party, and amid the confusion natural during the +first excitement of joy and triumph.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus59"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 563px; height: 400px;" alt="Washington's Headquarters, Rocky Hill, N.J., 1783" src="images/illus059.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Washington's +Headquarters, Rocky Hill, N.J., 1783</span><br /> +</p> +<p>Congress was not too proud to ask the counsel of its brave and +faithful servant, in making arrangements for peace and settling the new +affairs of the country. Washington was invited to Princeton, where +Congress was then sitting, and introduced into the Chamber, where he +was addressed by the President, and congratulated on the success of the +war, to which he had so much contributed. Washington replied with his +usual self-respect and modesty, and retired. A house had been prepared +for him at Rocky Hill, near Princeton, where he resided for some time, +holding conference with committees and members, and giving counsel on +public affairs; and where he wrote that <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_046"></a>[46]</span> +admirable farewell to his army, +perhaps as full of his own peculiar spirit as any of his public papers. +His thanks to officers and soldiers for their devotion during the war +have no perfunctory coldness in them, but speak the full heart of a +brave and noble captain, reviewing a most trying period, and recalling +with warm gratitude the co-operation of those on whom he relied. Then, +for their future, his cautions and persuasions, the motives he urges, +and the virtues he recommends, all form a curious contrast with those +of Napoleon's addresses to his troops. "Let it be known and +remembered," he says, "that the reputation of the federal armies is +established beyond the reach of malevolence; and let a consciousness of +their achievements and fame still incite the men who composed them to +honorable actions; under the persuasion that the private virtues of +economy, prudence, and industry, will not be less amiable in civil +life, than the more splendid qualities of valor, perseverance and +enterprise were in the field." Thus consistent to the last he honored +all the virtues; showing that while those of the field were not +misplaced in the farm, those of the farm might well be counted among +the best friends of the field—his own life of planter and soldier +forming a glorious commentary on his doctrines.</p> +<p>The evacuation of New-York by the British was a grand affair, +General Washington and Governor George Clinton riding in at the head of +the American troops that came from the northward to take possession, +while Sir Guy Carleton and his legions embarked at the lower end of the +city. The immense cavalcade of the victors embraced both military and +civil authorities, and was closed by a great throng of citizens. This +absolute <i>finale</i> of the war brought on the +Commander-in-Chief <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_047"></a>[47]</span> +one of those duties at once sweet and painful—taking +leave of his companions in arms; partners in toil and triumph, in +danger and victory. "I cannot come to each of you to take my leave," he +said, as he stood, trembling with emotion, "but I shall be obliged if +each of you will come and take me by the hand." General Knox, the +warm-hearted, stood forward and received the first embrace; then the +rest in succession, silently and with universal tears. Without another +word the General walked from the room, passed through lines of soldiery +to the barge which awaited him, then, turning, waved his hat, and bade +to friends and comrades a silent, heartfelt adieu, which was responded +to in the same solemn spirit. All felt that it was not the hour nor the +man for noisy cheers; the spirit of Washington presided there, as ever, +where honorable and high-minded men were concerned.</p> +<p>The journey southward was a triumphal march. Addresses, +processions, delegations from religious and civil bodies, awaited him +at every pause. When he reached Philadelphia he appeared before +Congress to resign his commission, and no royal abdication was ever so +rich in dignity. All the human life that the house would hold came +together to hear him, and the words, few and simple, wise and kind, +that fell from the lips of the revered chief, proved worthy to be +engraved on every heart. In conclusion he said:—"Having now finished +the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action; and, +bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose +orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my +leave of all the employments of public life." He said afterwards to a +friend:—"I feel now as I conceive a wearied traveller must do, who, +after treading many a step <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_048"></a>[48]</span> +with a heavy burden on his shoulders, is +eased of the latter, having reached the haven to which all the former +were directed, and from his house-top is looking back, and tracing with +an eager eye the meanders by which he escaped the quicksands and mire +which lay in his way, and into which none but the all-powerful Guide +and Dispenser of human events could have prevented his falling." And to +Lafayette, he says:—"I am not only retired from all public employments, +but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to view the solitary +walk, and tread the paths of private life with a heartfelt +satisfaction. Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased with all; +and this, my dear friend, being the order of my march, I will move +gently down the stream of life until I sleep with my fathers."</p> +<p>That the public did not anticipate for him the repose and +retirement he so much desired, we may gather from the instructions +sent, at the time he resigned his commission, by the State of +Pennsylvania, to her representatives in Congress, saying that "his +illustrious actions and virtues render his character so splendid and +venerable that it is highly probable the world may make his life in a +considerable degree public;" and that "his very services to his country +may therefore subject him to expenses, unless he permits her gratitude +to interpose." "We are perfectly acquainted," says the paper, "with the +disinterestedness and generosity of his soul. He thinks himself amply +rewarded for all his labors and cares, by the love and prosperity of +his fellow-citizens. It is true no rewards they can bestow can be equal +to his merits, but they ought not to suffer those merits to be +burdensome to him. * * * We are aware of the delicacy with which such a +subject must be treated. But, relying in the good sense of Congress, we +wish it may engage their early attention."</p> +<p>The delegates, on receipt of these instructions, very wisely +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_049"></a>[49]</span> +bethought themselves of submitting the matter to the person most +concerned before they brought it before Congress, and he, as might have +been expected, entirely declined the intended favor, and put an end to +the project altogether. If he could have been induced to accept +pecuniary compensation, there is no doubt a grateful nation would +gladly have made it ample. But Washington, born to be an example in so +many respects, had provided against all the dangers and temptations of +money, by making himself independent as to his private fortune; having +neglected no opportunity of enlarging it by honorable labor or +judicious management, while he subjected the expenses of his family to +the strictest scrutiny of economy.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus63"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 480px; height: 398px;" alt="Mount Vernon (rear view)." src="images/illus063.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Mount +Vernon (rear view).</span><br /> +</p> +<p>His first care, on arriving at Mount Vernon, was to ascertain +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_050"></a>[50]</span> +the condition of his private affairs; his next to make a tour of more +than six hundred miles through the western country, with the double +purpose of inspecting some lands of his, and of ascertaining the +practicability of a communication between the head waters of the great +rivers flowing east and west of the Alleghanies. He travelled entirely +on horseback, in military style, and kept a minute journal of each +day's observations, the result of which he communicated, on his return, +in a letter to the Governor of Virginia, which Mr. Sparks declares to +be "one of the ablest, most sagacious, and most important productions +of his pen," and "the first suggestion of the great system of internal +improvements which has since been pursued in the United States." On a +previous tour, through the northern part of the State of New-York, he +had observed the possibility of a water communication between the +Hudson and the Great Lakes, and appreciated its advantages, thus +foreshowing, at that early date, the existence of the Erie Canal. In +1784, Washington had a final visit from Lafayette, from whom he parted +at Annapolis, with manifestations of a deeper tenderness than the weak +can even know. Arrived at home, he sat down at once to say yet another +word to the beloved: "In the moment of our separation, upon the road as +I travelled, and every hour since," (mark the specification from this +man of exact truth,) "I have felt all that love, respect and attachment +for you, with which length of years, close connection, and your merits +have inspired me. I often asked myself, as our carriages separated, +whether that was the last sight I should ever have of you? And though I +wished to say No! my fears answered Yes!" He was right; they never met +again, but they loved each other always. Lafayette's letters to <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_051"></a>[51]</span> +Washington are lover-like; they are alone sufficient to show how +capable of the softest feeling was the great heart to which they were +addressed.</p> +<p>Space fails us for even the baldest enumeration of the +instances of care for the public good with which the life of Washington +abounded, when he fancied himself "in retirement," for we have +unconsciously dwelt, with the reverence of affection, upon the picture +of his character during the Revolution, and felt impelled to illustrate +it, where we could, by quotations from his own weighty words; weighty, +because, to him, words were things indeed, and we feel that he never +used one thoughtlessly or untruly. Brevity must now be our chief aim, +and we pass, at once, over all the labor and anxiety which attended the +settlement of the Constitution, to mention the election of Washington +to the Presidency of the States so newly united, by bonds which, +however willingly assumed, were as yet but ill fitted to the wearers. +The unaffected reluctance with which he accepted the trust appears in +every word and action of the time; and it is evident that, as far as +selfish feelings went, he was much more afraid of losing the honor he +had gained than of acquiring new. The heart of the nation was with him, +however, even more than he knew; and the "mind oppressed with more +anxious and painful sensations" than he had words to express at the +outset, was soon calmed, not only by the suggestions of duty, but by +the marks of unbounded love and confidence lavished on him at every +step of his way by a grateful people. The Inaugural Oath was taken, +before an immense concourse of people, on the balcony of Federal Hall, +New-York, April 30, 1789, and the President afterwards delivered his +first Address, in the Senate Chamber of the same building, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_052"></a>[52]</span> +now no longer standing, but not very satisfactorily replaced by that +magnificent Grecian temple wherein the United States Government +collects the Customs of New-York. </p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus66"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 530px; height: 398px;" alt="House of the First Presidential Levee, Cherry street." src="images/illus066.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">House +of the First Presidential Levee, Cherry street.</span></p> +<p><br /> +The house in which the first +Presidential levee was held will always be a point of interest, and the +consultations between Washington and the great officers of state about +the simple ceremonial of these public receptions, are extremely +curious, as showing the manners and ideas of the times, and the +struggle between the old-country associations natural to gentlemen of +that day, and the recognized necessity of accommodating even court +regulations to the feelings of a people to whom the least shadow of +aristocratic form was necessarily hateful. We must not condemn the +popular scrupulousness of 1789 as puerile and foolish, until we too +have perilled life and fortune in the cause of liberty and equality.</p> +<p>A dangerous illness brought Washington near the grave, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_053"></a>[53]</span> +during his first Presidential summer, and he is said never to have +regained +his full strength. In August his mother died, venerable for years and +wisdom, and always honored by her son in a spirit that would have +satisfied a Roman matron. She maintained her simple habits to the last, +and is said never to have exhibited surprise or elation, at her son's +greatest glory, or the highest honors that could be paid him. Her +remains rest under an unfinished monument, near Fredericksburgh, +Virginia.</p> +<p>Of the wife of the illustrious Chief, it is often said that +little is known, and there is felt almost a spite against her memory +because she destroyed before her death every letter of her husband to +herself, save only one, written when he accepted the post of +Commander-in-Chief. But, to our thinking, one single letter of hers, +written to Mrs. Warren, after the President's return from a tour +through the eastern States, tells the whole story of her character and +tastes, a story by no means discreditable to the choice of the wisest +of mankind. Mr. Sparks gives the letter entire, as we would gladly do +if it were admissible. We must, however, content ourselves with a few +short extracts:—</p> +<p>"You know me well enough to believe that I am fond only of +what comes from the heart. Under a conviction that the demonstrations +of respect and affection to him originate in that source, I cannot deny +that I have taken some interest and pleasure in them. The difficulties +which presented themselves to view in his first entering upon the +Presidency, seem thus to be in some measure surmounted. * * * I had +little thought, when the war was finished, that any circumstances <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_054"></a>[54]</span> +could possibly happen which would call the General into public life +again. I +had anticipated that from that moment we should be suffered to grow old +together, in solitude and tranquillity. That was the first and dearest +wish of my heart. I will not, however, contemplate with too much +regret, disappointments that were inevitable, though his feelings and +my own were in perfect unison with respect to our predilection for +private life. Yet I cannot blame him for having acted according to his +ideas of duty, in obeying the voice of his country. The consciousness +of having attempted to do all the good in his power, and the pleasure +of finding his fellow-citizens so well satisfied with the +disinterestedness of his conduct, will doubtless be some compensation +for the great sacrifice I know he has made. * * * With respect to +myself, I sometimes think the arrangement is not quite as it ought to +have been, that I, who had much rather be at home, should occupy a +place with which a great many younger and gayer women would be +extremely pleased. * * * I am still determined to be cheerful and +happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have learned from +experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on +our dispositions and not on our circumstances. We carry the seeds of +the one or the other about with us, in our minds, wherever we go." The +whole letter bespeaks the good, kind, dutiful and devoted wife, the +loving mother,—for she represents her grandchildren as her chief +joy,—and the sensible, domestic woman. What more can any man ask in the +partner of his bosom? She was the best wife possible for Washington, +and he thought her such, and loved her entirely and always. The picture +by Stuart shows her, even in the decline of life, to have been of a +delicate and sprightly beauty.</p> +<p>Another <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_055"></a>[55]</span> +eight years of public duty and public life—two +presidential terms—were bravely borne by the pair always longing for +Mount Vernon. The reluctance of Washington to the second term of office +was even stronger than that which he had expressed to the first, but he +was overborne by stress of voices. "The confidence of the whole Union," +writes Jefferson, "is centred in you. * * * There is sometimes an +eminence of character on which society have such peculiar claims, as to +control the predilection of the individual for a particular walk of +happiness, and restrain him to that alone arising from the present and +future benedictions of mankind. This seems to be your condition, and +the law imposed on you by Providence in forming your character, and +fashioning the events on which it was to operate." And Hamilton says—"I +trust, and I pray God, that you will determine to make a further +sacrifice of your tranquillity and happiness to the public good." And +such were, throughout, the sentiments of the first men of the country, +without distinction of politics. Thus urged, he yielded once more, even +after he had prepared a farewell address to the people on his +contemplated resignation.</p> +<p>It was during this second term that Fox spoke of Washington +before Parliament, concluding thus:—"It must indeed create +astonishment, that, placed in circumstances so critical, and filling +for a series of years a station so conspicuous, his character should +never once have been called in question. * * * For him it has been +reserved to run the race of glory without experiencing the smallest +interruption to the brilliancy of his career." And Mr. Erskine, writing +to Washington himself, says:—"I have taken the liberty to introduce +your august and immortal name in a short sentence which will be found +in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_056"></a>[56]</span> +book I send you.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> I +have a large acquaintance +among the most valuable and exalted classes of men; but you are the +only human being for whom I ever felt an awful reverence. I sincerely +pray God to grant a long and serene evening to a life so gloriously +devoted to the universal happiness of the world."</p> +<p>The evening was indeed serene, but it was not +destined to be +long. Two years were spent in domestic and social duty and pleasure, +the old Virginia hospitality being carried to an enormous extent at +Mount Vernon, over which General and Mrs. Washington presided, with all +that good sense, dignity, and <i>bonhommie</i> united, +which seems now to have characterized their home life. Mrs. Washington, +content with the greatness described by the wise king, looked well to +her maidens, and so managed the affairs of a large establishment that +"the heart of her husband could safely trust in her, so that he had <i>no +need of spoil</i>." Who knows how much the good management of his +household affairs had to do with Washington's superiority to the +temptations of gain? The ladies should see to it that they so regulate +their habits of expense that their husbands have "no need of spoil." +The extravagant tastes of Mrs. Arnold, amiable woman though she was, +are known to have heightened her husband's rapacity, and thus added to +the incentives which resulted in treason and just ruin. Mrs. +Washington, when she was in the highest position in the nation, wore +gowns spun under her own roof, and always took care, in her +conversation with the ladies about her, to exalt domestic employments, +and represent them as belonging to the duty of woman in any station. +She was supposed to have written a patriotic paper, published in <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_057"></a>[57]</span> +1780, called "The Sentiments of American Women," but the authorship has +not +been ascertained. The energy and consistency of her patriotic feeling +was, however, perfectly well understood, and she is said to have borne +her part in the conversation of the distinguished company at Mount +Vernon, with invariable dignity and sweetness. The General had returned +with unction to his rural and agricultural pursuits, keeping up his +life-long habit of rising before the sun, and after breakfast making +the tour of the plantation on horseback. These employments were +somewhat interrupted by the speck of war which troubled our horizon in +1798, on which occasion all eyes were turned to him, and his friends +and the President called upon him once more to give his services to the +country. His reply was consistent with the tenor of his life, "In case +of actual invasion by a formidable force, I certainly should not +intrench myself under the cover of age and retirement, if my services +should be required by my country in repelling it." Without waiting for +his reply, the Senate had appointed him to the post of +Commander-in-Chief, and the Secretary at War was despatched immediately +to Mount Vernon with the commission, which was at once accepted. This +involved Washington once more in a press of correspondence and many +anxious duties; and his letters during this time show that his mind had +lost none of its fertility or his judgment of its soundness. He +predicted at once that France would not invade the United States, and +the event justified his foresight. But another Enemy lay in wait for +him, and to this one the hero succumbed, in the same manly spirit in +which he had battled with an earthly foe. Great suffering was crowded +into the twenty-four hours' illness which served to prostrate that +vigorous form, and to still that <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_058"></a>[58]</span> +active brain; but he could look up, at +the last, and say—"I am not afraid to die."</p> +<p>December 14, 1799, was the day of his death, and the 18th of +the same month saw him laid, by a weeping multitude, in the family +vault at Mount Vernon; not the tomb in which his ashes now repose, but +the old one, which he had been planning to rebuild, saying "Let that be +done first, for perhaps I shall want it first."</p> +<p>We have thus traced the Father of our Country through all his +earthly Homes, to that quiet one by the side of the Potomac, the object +of devout pilgrimage to millions yet unborn. One more Home there is for +him, even in this changing world—that which he possesses in the hearts +of his countrymen, one which we cannot picture or describe, but from +which he can never be displaced by the superior merit of mortal man. +Other heroes may arise, will arise, as the world shall need them, +exponents of their times and incarnations of the highest spirit of the +race from which they spring; but America can have but one +Washington—one man in whom the peculiar virtues of the <i>American</i> +character found their embodiment and their triumph. In saying this we +may well be proud but not vainglorious. If the great truth it implies +be not yet known and read of all men, we should be humbled by the +thought that we are so slow to follow our immortal leader. Washington's +indomitable spirit of freedom, as evident when at nineteen he withstood +the English governor, as when in 1774 he "went to church and fasted all +day," in sympathy with the people of Boston, in their resolution +against the Port Bill; his self-control, the perfection of which made +his fierce passions the sworn servants of virtue; his humanity, which +no <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_059"></a>[59]</span> +personal suffering or fatigue could blunt, and no provocation +extinguish; his manly temper, never daunted by insolence or turned into +arrogance by triumph; the respect for the civil virtues which he +carried with him through all the temptations and trials of war; the +faith in God and man which sustained him, and was indeed the secret of +his power and his success,—what a legacy are these! All that he +accomplished is less to us than what he was. To have left an example +that will never need defence or substitution to the end of time; an +ideal that will warm the heart and point the aspiration of every true +American, when hundreds of millions shall be proud of the name; to +stand forth, for ever, as what we, happy citizens of the country in +which that great soul was cradled, and to which his heart and life were +devoted, think a <small>MAN</small> +ought to be—what a destiny for him! It is his reward. God has granted +his prayers. Nothing earthly would have satisfied him, as we know by +what he rejected. He has received that for which he labored. Who dare +imagine the complacency—only less than divine, with which the +retrospect of such a life may be fraught! Let us indulge the thought +that when in the heat of party, the lust of power, or the still +deadlier hunger for wealth, we depart from his spirit, he is permitted +to see that the dereliction is but temporary and limited; that his +country is true to him if his countrymen sometimes err; that there is +for ever imprinted, on the heart and life of the nation, the conviction +that in adherence to his precepts and imitation of his character there +is safety, happiness, glory; in departure from that standard, +deterioration and decay. It must be so, for can we conceive him blest +without this?</p> +<div class="figcenter"><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_060"></a>[60]</span><a class="figcenter" name="illus74"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 317px; height: 399px;" alt="Washington's Tomb." src="images/illus074.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Washington's +Tomb.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>As if to stamp the American ideal with all perfection, it is +remarkable that Washington stood pre-eminent in manly strength and +beauty, and that a taste for athletic exercises kept him, in spite of +illnesses brought on by toil, anxiety, and exposure, in firm health +during most of his life. His picture at sixty-two, that which he +himself thought the best likeness <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_061"></a>[61]</span> +that had been taken of him, exhibits +one of the loveliest faces that an old man ever wore. And it is +marvellous how any one that ever looked into the clear blue depths of +the eye in Stuart's unfinished picture, could be persuaded to believe +Washington stern, cold, and unfeeling. Some have even thought it added +to his dignity to represent him thus. All the historians in the world +could not prove such a contradiction to the stamp of nature. But the +picture by Pine—the old man, faded somewhat, and a little fallen in +outline, wears the face of an angel; mild, firm, modest, sensitive, +aspiring, glorious! It meets your gaze with a tenderness that dims our +eye and seems almost to dim its own. Of all the portraits of +Washington, this and the half-imaginary one made by Mr. Leutze from a +miniature taken when Washington was seventeen, are the most touchingly +beautiful, and, as we verily believe, most characteristic of the man.</p> +<p>It is proper, though scarcely necessary, to say that this +sketch of Washington's life is drawn from Mr. Sparks' history, since no +research can discover a single fact overlooked by that faithful and +just chronicler.<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_062"></a>[62]</span></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_063"></a>[63]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="franklin"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Franklin.</span> +</h6> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_64"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 784px;" alt="Franklin fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/franklin.png" /></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_064"></a>[64]</span> +</div> +<hr /> +<h2>FRANKLIN.</h2> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_065"></a>[65]</span> +An English traveller in the United States once expressed his +astonishment at nowhere finding a monument of Franklin. He regarded it +as a new proof of the ingratitude of republics. But if we have erected +no columns, nor statues, to the memory of our first great man, we have +manifested our gratitude for the services he rendered us, and the +hearty appreciation of his character, which is universal among us, in a +better, more affectionate and enduring manner. We name our towns, +counties, ships, children, and institutions after him. His name is +constantly in our mouth, and his benevolent countenance and lofty brow +are as familiar to us as the features of Washington. We have Franklin +banks, Franklin insurance companies, Franklin societies, Franklin +hotels, Franklin markets, and even Franklin theatres. One of our line +of battle ships is called the Franklin, and there will be found a Ben +Franklin, the name affectionately abbreviated, on all our western lakes +and rivers. The popular heart cherishes his memory more tenderly than +that of any of our great men. Washington's heroism and lofty virtues +set him above us, so that while we look up to him with veneration and +awe, we <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_066"></a>[66]</span> +hardly feel that he was one of us. His impossible grandeur +forbids the familiar sympathy which we feel for our own kind. But +Franklin's greatness is of that kind which makes the whole world kin. +In him we recognize the apotheosis of usefulness. He was our Good +Genius, who took us by the hand in our national infancy, and taught us +the great art of making the most of the world. He warmed our houses by +the stove which still bears his name, and protected us from the +terrifying thunderbolt by his simple rod. He showered upon us lessons +of wisdom, all calculated to increase our happiness, and his wise and +pithy apothegms have become an important part of our language. Never +before was a young nation blessed with so beneficent and generous a +counsellor and guide. The influence of Franklin upon the national +character is beyond estimate. He taught us alike by precept and +example; and, in his autobiography, he laid the corner stone of our +literature, bequeathing us a book which will always be fresh, +instructive, and charming, while our language endures, or we look to +literature for instruction and entertainment.</p> +<p>Franklin was a pure, unadulterated Englishman; he came of that +great stock whose mission it is to improve the world. Though we claim +him, and justly, as an American, he was born, and lived the better part +of his life, a subject of the English crown. There was never a more +thorough Englishman, nor one whose whole consistent life more happily +illustrated the Anglo-Saxon character, nor one who was better entitled +to be called an American, or who showed a more lively and enduring love +for his native soil.</p> +<p>Every schoolboy is familiar with the history of Franklin; his +autobiography is our national epic; it is more read than <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_067"></a>[67]</span> +Robinson Crusoe; and our great national museum, the Patent Office, has +been +filled with the results of ambitious attempts to follow in the path of +the inventor of the lightning-rod. One boy reads Robinson Crusoe and +runs off to sea, while another reads Franklin's Life and tries for a +patent, or begins to save a penny a day, that he may have three hundred +pennies at the end of the year. There are writers who have accused +Franklin of giving a sordid bias to our national character. But nothing +could be more unjust. There is nothing sordid in the teachings of our +great philosopher; while the example of his purely beneficent life has, +doubtless, been the cause of many of the magnificent acts of private +benevolence which have distinguished our countrymen.</p> +<p>Franklin says in his autobiography, in reference to his stove, +which has warmed so many generations of his countrymen, and rendered +comfortable so many American homes: "Governor Thomas was so pleased +with the construction of this stove that he offered to give me a sole +patent for the vending of them for a term of years; but I declined it +from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions, +viz., that as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, +we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by an invention of +ours: and this we should do freely and cordially." No, there was no +sordidness in the teachings of Franklin.</p> +<p>His immortal biography was commenced at the ripe age of +sixty-six, while he was in England, a time of life when most men have +lost the power to instruct or amuse with the pen; but it has the ease, +the freshness, and the vigor of youth. It was continued at Passy, in +France, and concluded in Philadelphia. He was one of the few instances +of a precocious <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_068"></a>[68]</span> +genius maintaining his powers to an advanced period of +life. There were no signs of childishness in his almost infantile +compositions, or of senility in his latest productions.</p> +<p>Every body knows that the grandfather of Doctor Franklin was +the sturdy old puritan, Peter Folger, who wrote the homely verses which +Mr. Sparks doubts the propriety of calling poetry, and who dwelt in +"Sherborn Town." The house in which he lived, and where the mother of +Franklin was born, was still in existence but a few years since, though +in a very dilapidated condition. We remember making a pilgrimage to it +in our boyish days, after reading the Life of Franklin, and wondering +in which of its little rooms the grandfather of the philosopher sat, +when he penned the lines which the grandson thought were "written with +manly freedom and a pleasing simplicity." The house stood near the +water, at the head of a little cove, or creek, and near it was a +bubbling spring, from which the mother of the philosopher must have +often drank. At that time there were no evidences of the surrounding +grounds having been cultivated, and a wretched family inhabited the +ruin. There are many descendants of Peter Folger still living, some of +whom have been eminent for their learning and talents; but, it is a +remarkable circumstance, that, though Franklin's father and grandfather +each had five sons, who grew up to man's estate, there is not one male +descendant living of that name.</p> +<p>Franklin was born on the 6th of January, old style, 1706, in a +house that stood on the corner of Milk-street, opposite the old South +Church, Boston, in which he was christened. The church is still +standing, but the house has been demolished, and, in its place, there +is a large and handsome granite warehouse, which is made to serve the +double purpose <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_069"></a>[69]</span> +of a store and a monument. On the frieze of the cornice +is the inscription in bold granitic letters, <span class="smcap">the +birth-place of Franklin</span>. </p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus83"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 271px; height: 403px;" alt="Old South Church, Boston." src="images/illus083.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Old +South Church, Boston.</span><br /> +</p> +<p>We cannot help thinking that it +is just such a monument as he would have recommended, if his wishes had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_070"></a>[70]</span> +been consulted. But the house in which our great philosopher spent his +earlier years, and to which his father removed soon after the birth of +his youngest son, is still standing, very nearly in the same condition +in which it was during his youth. It is on the corner of Hanover and +Union streets, and the wooden gilt ball of the old soap-boiler is still +suspended from an iron crane, with the inscription <span class="smcap">Josias Franklin</span>, 1698. The ball +is the original one, but it must have been many times regilt and +relettered. The building is occupied by a shoe dealer in the lower +part, but the upper rooms are in the occupancy of an industrial whose +art had no existence until near a century after the death of Franklin's +father. A daguerrean artist now takes likenesses in the rooms where the +boy-philosopher slept, and sat up late at night to read Defoe's Essay +on Projects, and Plutarch's Lives, by the glimmering light of one of +his father's own dips. It was here too that he read the Light House +Tragedy, after having cut wicks all day; and it was in the cellar of +this house, too, that he made that characteristic suggestion to his +father, of saying grace over the barrel of beef, which he saw him +packing away for the winter's use, to save the trouble of a separate +grace over each piece that should be served up for dinner. This +anecdote may not be strictly true, but it is perfectly characteristic, +and very much like one he tells of himself, when he was the +Commander-in-Chief of the military forces of Pennsylvania. The chaplain +of his regiment complained to him that the men would not attend +prayers, whereupon, says Franklin, "I said to him, 'it is perhaps below +the dignity of your profession to act as steward of the rum; but if you +were only to distribute it out after prayers you would have them all +about you.' He liked the thought, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_071"></a>[71]</span> +undertook the task, and, with the help of a few hands to measure out +the liquor, executed it to satisfaction, and never were prayers more +generally and more punctually attended."</p> +<p>This kind of humorous good sense, was one of the marked +peculiarities of his character; there was lurking wit and humor in all +his acts, and in his gravest essays, of which his epigrammatic letter +to his old friend Strahan, the king's printer, is a notable example.</p> +<p>The old house in which Franklin spent his boyhood is now a +long distance from the water, and in the midst of a wilderness of brick +and granite buildings, but he speaks of it as near the shore, and it +was close by that he built the little wharf of stolen stones, which +induced his father to impress upon him the great truth that "that which +was not honest could not be truly useful."</p> +<p>Where the young apprentice lived when he was boarded out by +his brother, and first "went in" to vegetarianism, we have not been +able to ascertain; and, on his flight from Boston, in his seventeenth +year, he does not appear to have remained long enough in New-York to +have had a home. The first place he slept in, in Philadelphia, was a +quaker meeting-house; but his first home in the city which he +afterwards rendered famous, from having resided in it, was at a public +house in Water-street, known as the Crooked Billet; not a very +significant sign to us of the present generation.</p> +<p>Wherever Franklin went, or in whatever new sphere he applied +himself to business, he immediately inspired confidence in his ability, +and gained friends, as all able men do. The runaway boy of seventeen +had hardly begun to put Bradford's printing office in order when he was +called upon by Colonel <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_072"></a>[72]</span> +French, and Sir William Keith, governor of the +province, who invited him to a tavern, offered him a bottle of Madeira, +and proposed to set him up in business; yet he was not of a glib tongue +and a prepossessing appearance.</p> +<p>At the age of eighteen he made his first voyage to London, and +lived in Little Britain with his friend Ralph at a cost of three +shillings and sixpence a week. Franklin worked in Palmer's famous +printing house in Bartholomew Close, near a year, and for the first and +only time of his life was improvident and extravagant, spending his +earnings at plays and public amusements, and neglecting to write to +Miss Read in Philadelphia, with whom he had "exchanged promises." He +worked diligently, though, and during that time wrote and published "A +Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain," This essay +gained him the friendship of an author who took him to the Horns, a +pale ale-house, introduced him to Dr. Mandeville and promised him a +sight of Newton. He afterwards removed to lodgings in Duke-street, and +occupied a room up three pairs of stairs, which he rented of a widow, +who had an only daughter, with whom he used to sup on half an anchovy, +a very small slice of bread and butter, and half a pint of ale between +them. He remained eighteen months in England, and returned to +Philadelphia with the expectation of entering into mercantile business +with his friend Denman.</p> +<p>It was during his voyage from London to Philadelphia that he +wrote out the plan for regulating his future conduct, which, he says, +he had adhered to through life. The plan has not been preserved, but we +have the life which was conformed to it, and can easily conceive what +it was.</p> +<p>Fortunately for mankind his friend Denman died soon <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_073"></a>[73]</span>after +the +return of Franklin to Philadelphia, whereby his mercantile projects +were frustrated, and he was compelled to return to his trade of +printing; he was just turned of twenty-one, and not finding employment +as a merchant's clerk, he undertook the charge of his former employer's +printing office. Here his inventive genius was taxed, for he had to +make both types and ink, as they could not be procured short of London. +He also engraved the copper plates, from his own designs, for the paper +money of New Jersey, and constructed the first copper plate press that +had been seen in the country. He could not long remain in the +employment of another, and, before the end of the year, had established +himself in business as a printer, in partnership with his friend +Meredith. His life now commenced in earnest, he was his own master, and +held his fortune in his own hands; he had already discerned "that +truth, sincerity, and integrity, were of the utmost importance to the +felicity of life;" and day by day his genius ripened and his noble +character was developed. In the year 1730, he was married to Miss Read, +and laid the foundation of the Pennsylvania Library; the first public +library that had been commenced in the country. The two succeeding +years of his life were not marked by any striking event, but they were, +perhaps, the two most important in his history, as during that time he +schooled himself to virtue by a systematic course of conduct, the +particulars of which he has given in his biography. At the end of this +period he commenced his "Poor Richard's Almanac," the publication of +which was continued by him twenty-five years. It was the first +successful attempt in authorship on this side of the Atlantic. His +first "promotion," as he calls it, meaning his first public employment, +was <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_074"></a>[74]</span> +on being chosen Clerk of the General Assembly; and the next year he +was appointed Postmaster at Philadelphia. His private business all the +time increased; he founded societies for philosophical purposes; +continued to publish his paper; wrote innumerable pamphlets; was +elected colonel of a regiment; invented his stove, and engaged in all +manner of beneficial projects; he established hospitals and academies, +made treaties with the Indians, became Postmaster General, and after +devising means for cleaning the streets of Philadelphia, turned his +attention to those of London and Westminster.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus88"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 384px; height: 402px;" alt="Grave of Franklin, Philadelphia." src="images/illus088.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Grave +of Franklin, Philadelphia.</span><br /> +</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_075"></a>[75]</span> +But, it is with the "Homes" of Franklin that our limited space +must be occupied, and not with his life and actions. Although he +occupied, at various times, almost as many different houses as there +are headquarters of Washington, yet there are few of them now left; +living always in cities, the houses he inhabited have been destroyed by +the irresistible march of improvement. In his fifty-first year, he was +sent to London by the General Assembly to present a petition to the +king, and to act as the agent of Pennsylvania in England. He sailed +from New-York and arrived in London in July, 1757, and at this point of +his life his autobiography ends. From an original letter of his in our +possession, written on the eve of his departure from Philadelphia, he +directs that letters must be sent to him in London at the Pennsylvania +Coffee House, in Birchin Lane, where he doubtless lived on his first +arrival, but his permanent home in London, during fifteen years, was at +Mrs. Stevenson's in Craven-street. He travelled much in Great Britain +and on the continent, was present at the coronation of George III., and +returned to America in 1762, having stopped awhile at Madeira on the +voyage. He went to England again in 1764, and after a brilliant and +most serviceable career abroad, returned to his native home in season +to sign his name to the Declaration of Independence, giving a greater +weight of personal character, and a more potent popular influence to +the cause than any other of the immortal participators in that glorious +act. He died in the year 1790, on the 17th of April, at 11 o'clock at +night, in his 85th year, in his house in Market-street, Philadelphia, +which he had built for his own residence. His remains lie by the side +of his wife's, in the burying ground of Christ Church, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_076"></a>[76]</span> +covered by a simple marble slab, in conformity with his directions. +There is a small granite pyramid in the Granary burying ground in +Boston, which the economical citizens make do double duty, as a +memorial of the greatest +name of which their city can boast, and a monument to his parents.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus90"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 296px; height: 403px;" alt="Franklin's Monument, Boston." src="images/illus090.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Franklin's +Monument, Boston.</span><br /> +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_077"></a>[77]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="jefferson"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Jefferson.</span> +</h6> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_78"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 768px; height: 600px;" alt="Jefferson fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/jefferson.png" /></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_078"></a>[78]</span> +</div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_079"></a>[79]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus93"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 512px; height: 403px;" alt="Monticello, Jefferson's Residence." src="images/illus093.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Monticello, +Jefferson's Residence.</a></span></p> +<h2><a class="figcenter">JEFFERSON.</a></h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Jefferson</span> would +have been a notable man in any country and any +age, because he possessed both genius and character. Without the former +he could never have succeeded, as he did, in moulding the opinions of +his contemporaries and successors, and without the latter, he would not +have been, as he was, bitterly hated by his enemies and cordially loved +by his friends. His genius, however, was not of that kind which in the +ardor of its inspiration intoxicates the judgment; nor <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_080"></a>[80]</span> +was his character, on the other hand, of the sort which moves an +admiration so +profound, unquestioning and universal, as to disarm the antagonism its +very excellence provokes. There was enough error and frailty, +therefore, mingled with his eminent qualities both of mind and heart, +to involve him in seeming contradictions, and to expose his life to +double construction and controversy. At the same time, it has happened +to him as it has often happened in human history, that the hostility +awakened by his acts during his life, has dwindled with the lapse of +time, while his fame has grown brighter and broader with every renewal +of the decisions of posterity. No man, we may now safely say, who has +figured on the theatre of events in this country, with the single +exception of Washington, occupies a larger share of the veneration of +Americans.</p> +<p>He was born at Shadwell, in Albemarle county, Virginia, in +1743. His father, dying when he was twelve years of age, left him a +large inheritance. He was educated at the College of William and Mary, +studied law under the celebrated George Wythe, began the practice of it +in 1767, and in 1769 was chosen a member of the provincial legislature, +where his first movement—an unsuccessful one—was for the emancipation +of the slaves. But a greater question soon engrossed his mind. Already +a spirit of opposition had been excited in the colonies to the +arbitrary measures of the parliament of Great Britain,—that very +legislature was dissolved by the Governor, in consequence of the +sympathy displayed by its leading members with the patriotic +proceedings of Massachusetts,—it appealed to the constituency, and was +triumphantly returned,—and then in 1773, its more active spirits +organized, in a room of a tavern <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_081"></a>[81]</span> +at Raleigh, a system of +correspondence, designed to inflame the zeal and unite the efforts of +the colonists against the encroachments of power. As a result of this +activity, a convention was called in Virginia for the purpose of +choosing delegates to a more general Congress. Jefferson was a member +of it, but not being able, on account of ill-health, to attend, drew up +a paper on the Rights of British America, which the convention did not +adopt, but which it published; "the leap he proposed," as he says, +"being too long for the mass of the citizens,"—and which Edmund Burke +in England caused to run through several editions. The pamphlet +procured him reputation, and the more honorable distinction of having +his name placed in a bill of attainder, moved in one of the houses of +Parliament. Thus early was he identified with the champions of liberty +in the new world.</p> +<p>In 1775, Jefferson took his seat for the first time in the +Continental Congress, whither he carried the same decided and liberal +tone which had marked his legislative efforts. He was soon appointed on +the most important committees, and especially on that, which, on the +motion of the delegates of Virginia, was raised to prepare a +Declaration of Independence for the colonies. It was a measure carried +only after a strenuous and hot debate, but it was finally +carried by a +large majority; and to Jefferson was assigned the task, by his +associates, of preparing the document destined to inaugurate a new era +in the history of mankind. How he executed the duty the world knows; +for this paper became the charter of freedom to a whole continent; and +annually to this day, millions of people read it with gratitude, +reverence, joy, and praise to God. For a second time, then, we behold +our Jefferson, a chosen <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_082"></a>[82]</span> +champion of liberty, linking his name, not with +a bill of attainder this time; but with the most signal event in the +destiny of his country,—and one, second to none in the political +fortunes of humanity.</p> +<p>The Declaration proclaimed, Mr. Jefferson retired from his +place in the Congress to resume his seat in the legislature of his +native State; where, an imperfect Constitution having been adopted, +during his absence, he was immediately involved in the most +indefatigable labors for its reform. In connection with Wythe, Mason, +Pendleton, and Lee, he prepared no less than 136 different acts, from +which were derived all the most liberal features of the existing laws +of the Commonwealth. They laid the foundation, in fact, of the code of +Virginia,—as a mere monument of industry, they were a most +extraordinary work, but when we consider the importance of some of the +principles of legislation which they introduced, sufficient in +themselves to have immortalized the name of any man. Among these +principles, were provisions for the abrogation of the laws of entail +and primogeniture, for the establishment of religious freedom, for a +complete amelioration of the criminal code, including the abolition of +capital punishments in all cases, except of treason and murder, for the +emancipation, at a certain age, of all slaves born after the passage of +the act, for the division of the counties into wards and towns, and the +establishment thereby of free municipal institutions, and for the +introduction of a system of popular education, providing for schools in +each town, academies in each county, and a University for the State. +The three first were carried into effect; but the others, in +consequence of his personal absence on other duties, failed. But what a +different destiny would have been that of Virginia <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_083"></a>[83]</span> +if they had not failed! How intrepid, too, the mind which could +conceive and urge such +measures at that time! Society in Virginia was then divided into three +classes, the land and slave-owners, the yeomanry, and the laboring +people. Jefferson was by birth and position of the first class, but his +chief associations had been among the second class, while his +sympathies were with the third class, or rather with all classes. Had +his suggestions been adopted, these distinctions would have been +destroyed, and Virginia raised to the first place among the free +nations of the earth. Thus, for a third time, we find Jefferson among +the foremost advocates of the liberty and advancement of the people.</p> +<p>In 1779 he was chosen the successor of Patrick Henry, as the +Governor of the State; but war having been declared, and a military +invasion being at hand, he resigned the position on account of his want +of military talents, in favor of General Nelson. He had barely time to +escape with his family before the enemy entered his house. Congress +twice solicited him to go abroad, first to negotiate a peace, and then +a treaty of alliance and commerce with France, but as "the laboring +oar," in his own language, "was at home," it was not until the year +1782, when the assurance that a general peace would be concluded, +became stronger, that he consented to quit his country. The preliminary +articles of a peace, however, were received before the time of his +departure, and the objects of his mission being thus accomplished, he +was again chosen to Congress in 1783.</p> +<p>The great question then, was the formation of a better +government for the colonies, than the weak and ill-jointed +confederation of the time had afforded. Jefferson was prepared to enter +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_084"></a>[84]</span> +into its discussion with ardor, bringing to the task that keen sagacity +and that stern republican spirit, which were among his chief +characteristics, when he was joined to Adams and Franklin in a +commission for negotiating treaties of commerce with foreign nations. +He arrived in Paris in June of 1785. His practical insight into +affairs, his vast information, and his determined will, made him a +valuable acquisition even to the distinguished abilities of his +colleagues. His labors were incessant, and yet he found time to +participate, as far as his diplomatic functions allowed, in the +stirring and brilliant scenes then going forward on the theatre of +Europe. The part that he had performed in the great battles for liberty +in America, attracted towards him the regards and the confidence of all +the prominent actors of the revolutionary drama of France. It was at +his house that the patriots most frequently met; it was in his house +that the Declaration of Rights which preceded the first French +Constitution was drafted; it was at his house that the First +Constitution was proposed; it was from him that Lafayette received many +of his best and noblest impulses, and to him that the earlier leaders +of the struggle looked for sympathy, concurrence, and direction. In +after years, in the bitter political contests of the day, it was a +topic of reproach that he was under French influence, but the truth +was, as some one has sagaciously remarked, that the French had been +brought under an American influence. He simply continued to be abroad +what he had always been at home, the pioneer and consistent friend of +popular rights,—the unflinching supporter of popular liberty.</p> +<p>It was during this interval of absence in Europe, that the +controversy in respect to a better constitution of government <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_085"></a>[85]</span> +for the +colonies, to which we have just alluded, was brought to a head. There +had always been a substantial union between them, founded upon +contiguous geographical position and their common interests, as well as +their community of origin, languages, laws and religion, which the +common danger of the Revolution had served to strengthen and cement. +But as yet their political union was inchoate and fragile. It was a +simple improvement upon the classical confederacies of history, such as +had prevailed in ancient Greece, on the plains of Etrusca, before Rome +was, among the dikes of Holland, or along the declivities of the Swiss +Alps,—and such as Montesquieu and the accepted writers praised as the +perfection of political arrangement, clear of all defects, and secure +from foreign violence and domestic weakness. Yet, in the practice of +the New World, it had not justified the praises of the theorists, for a +fatal vice, an alarming and radical weakness had been developed in its +want of due centripetal force. In other words, it was rather a +conglomerate than a united whole, and the difficulty of the new problem +which it raised consisted in the proper adjustment of the federal and +central with the State and local authority. Parties were, of course, +immediately formed on the question of the true solution of it, the one +favoring a strong central power, taking the name of Federalist; and the +other, disposed to adhere to the separate sovereignty and independence +of the States, taking the name of Anti-Federalist. In the end, the +Constitution actually adopted, a work only second in importance to the +Revolution itself, or more properly the constructive completion of it, +was a compromise between the two, although the original parties still +maintained their relative positions, as the friends and foes of a +preponderating general government.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_086"></a>[86]</span>Jefferson +inclined to the anti-federalists, but not being in +the midst of the debate, was scarcely mingled with its more exciting +quarrels. It is hard to say, what shape, or whether a different shape +at all, would have been given to the instrument of union, had he been +at home to take part in its formation. We think it probable, however, +that his immense personal influence, combined with his sharp forecast +and decentralizing tendency, would have succeeded in modifying its more +aristocratic and conservative features, especially in regard to the +absorbing power of the Executive and the irresponsible tenure of the +Judiciary. Be that as it may, the choice of him by Washington, in 1789, +for the post of the first Secretary of State, gave him an opportunity +of exercising his talents and manifesting his disposition, in the +organization of the new experiment.</p> +<p>There were two antagonisms which he found it necessary at the +outset to meet; first, the tendency to federal absorption, and second, +the reliance upon law rather than liberty, both embodied in the person +of Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, a man of genius, +of energy, of sincere convictions, and the confidant of Washington. The +two men were, therefore, speedily self-placed in strong opposition. +Hamilton had been educated in a military school, he admired the British +Constitution, and, though he was an earnest patriot, as his efficient +services in the war, and his masterly vindications of the Constitution +had proved, he cherished a secret distrust of the people. Jefferson, on +the other hand, had sympathized all his life with the multitude, +approved, or rather had anticipated, the French philosophy, which was +then in vogue, disliked the English models of government, and was +sanguine <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_087"></a>[87]</span> +of the future. It was inevitable, consequently, that the +opposition of such men, both able, both decided, both earnest in their +plans, should widen into an almost irreconcilable hostility. In 1793, +Jefferson resigned, but not until, by his reports to Congress on the +currency, the fisheries, weights and measures, and by his +correspondence with foreign ministers, he had placed his department on +a level with the Foreign Offices of the older nations. It is to him +that we are indebted for our decimal coinage, and through him, as Mr. +Webster, a competent and not too friendly judge, has confessed, our +diplomatic intercourse was raised to a dignity and strength which will +bear comparison with any that other governments can produce.</p> +<p>In 1797 Jefferson was called from his retirement to act as +Vice-President of the United States,—a place of not much practical +efficiency, but which he illustrated by compiling a manual of +Parliamentary Practice, which has ever since been the standard by which +the proceedings of legislative bodies in this country are regulated. +There was no position, indeed, which he does not appear to have been +able to turn to some advantage to his country and his fellow-men.</p> +<p>At the close of his term as Vice-President, he was chosen +President,—a choice in which a final blow was given to the doctrines of +Federalism, and the democratic republic finally inaugurated. We shall +not, however, enter into the contests of that period, nor attempt to +detail the measures of his administration. They are subjects for +history, not for an outline like this we sketch. Suffice it to say, +that the aspirations of the people were not disappointed by the results +of his action. He rescued the functions of government from the improper +direction which had been given to them, he organized strength <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_088"></a>[88]</span> +through simplicity, he almost doubled the territory of the Union, he +caused the +vast regions of the west, now the seat of populous empire, to be +explored, he gave us character abroad, and maintained tranquillity at +home,— and, last of all, against the solicitation of his friends, with +a popular prestige that would have carried him in triumph through a +third or fourth term of office, even to the close of his days, he +consecrated for ever the example of Washington, by resigning, as that +great man had done, at the end of eight years.</p> +<p>These are the simple facts of Jefferson's active career, and +they need no comment. They present a character obviously too +transparent to allow of much mistake. All his life points to a few +simple but great objects. By his sanguine temperament, his keen +insight, his quick and cherishing sympathies, his strong love of +justice, his kindly visions of the future, he was made a democrat; and, +under no circumstances could he have been any thing else. He hated +tyranny, he loved truth, and he was not afraid of man; how then could +he avoid becoming what he was, the apostle of freedom, author of the +Statutes of Virginia and the Declaration of Independence, founder of +the republican party, a name of power to future generations which have +scarcely yet come up to the greatness and breadth of his enlightened +opinions? Errors of conduct he may have committed, for who is perfect? +impracticable views he may have enunciated, for who is all-wise? but +the glory of his achievements is an imperishable remembrance of his +countrymen, illustrating their history to all nations and to all times. +"A superior and commanding intellect," it has been eloquently said, "is +not a temporary flame burning brightly for a while, and then giving +place to returning darkness. It is rather <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_089"></a>[89]</span> +a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with power to +enkindle the common mass of human +mind; so that when it glimmers in its own decay, and finally goes out +in death, no night follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on +fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit."</p> +<p>The retirement of Mr. Jefferson at Monticello was passed in +the cultivation of his estate, in the pursuit of letters, in cheerful +intercourse with friends, in the duties of a liberal hospitality, and +in advancing his favorite project of a University of Virginia. His +notes on Virginia, and his contributions to scientific periodicals, +together with his extensive correspondence, had brought him to the +acquaintance of the most distinguished scientific men of the world, and +his eminent political services had made him known to statesmen. His +house was, therefore, always thronged with visitors, who, attracted by +his fame, were charmed by his conversation, astonished by his learning, +and warmed into love by the unaffected kindliness of his deportment. A +beautiful retirement, full of grandeur, of simplicity, of dignity and +repose! A patriarch of the nation which he had helped to found, and +which he lived to see in a condition of unparalleled +advancement,—illustrious in two hemispheres,—his name connected with +events that introduced a new era in the history of his race,—surrounded +by the grateful admiration of growing millions of people; his old age +was passed in the serenest contentment, amid the blandishments of +literature and science, the interchanges of friendly offices, and in +useful labor in the library or on the farm.</p> +<p>Monticello, which is the name which Mr. Jefferson had given to +his home, was built in one of the most enchanting <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_090"></a>[90]</span> +regions of Virginia. +"It seemed designed by nature," says a writer, "as the very seat from +which, lifted above the world's turmoil, one who has exhausted what it +can bestow of eminence, might look down, withdrawn from its personal +troubles, but contemplating at leisure the distant animation of the +scene. It was a place scarcely less fit for the visionary abode of the +philosophic speculatist, than by its far-spread and shifting beauties +of landscapes to inspire a poet with perpetual delight." On a spire of +the romantic Blue Ridge, whose varying outlines stretch away from it +till they are lost to the sight, with a sylvan scene of unsurpassed +loveliness in the vale below, the quiet Rivanna meandering through rich +fields on one side, the pleasant village of Charlotteville dotting the +other, while the porticoes and domes of the University rise in the +distance behind, it overlooked a combination of natural pictures that +are rarely found in one spot.</p> +<p>"The country," says the visitor we have just quoted, "is not +flat, but a gently waving one; yet, from above and afar, its +inequalities of surface vanish into a map-like smoothness, and are +traceable only in the light and shade cast by hill and plain. The +prospect here has a diameter of near a hundred miles: its scope is +therefore such that atmospheric effects are constantly flickering over +it, even in the most cloudless days of a climate as bright if not quite +so soft as that of Italy; and thus each varying aspect of the weather +is reflected, all the while, from the features of the landscape, as the +passions are over the face of some capricious beauty, that laughs, and +frowns, and weeps almost in the same breath. Near you, perhaps, all is +smiling in the sunlight; yonder broods or bursts a storm; while, in a +third quarter, darkness and light contend <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_091"></a>[91]</span> +upon the prospect, and chase +each other. The sky itself is thus not more shifting than the scene you +may have before you. It takes a new aspect at almost every moment, and +bewitches you with a perpetual novelty."</p> +<p>The mansion of the philosopher was placed on the top of an +eminence commanding this beautiful scene. It was somewhat fantastic in +its architecture, owing to the additions and rebuildings that had been +constantly going on, to adapt it to the enlarged wants and changing +tastes of the occupant, but it was spacious, richly furnished and +commodious. The rarest treasures of literature adorned the library, and +indeed every part bore witness to the affluence and cultivated pursuits +of the venerable sage. A farm of some fourteen thousand acres lay about +among the hills, which was laboriously and carefully husbanded, and +which gave employment in various ways to a number of artificers and +mechanics, whose dwellings were distributed about the slopes. His +estate, in short, was a small and almost independent community in +itself, capable of supplying the ordinary needs and even the luxuries +of a highly civilized condition of social existence. As a proof of +this, we may state by the way, that the carriage of the proprietor, as +well as many of the tools and implements in daily use, had been +manufactured on the premises. But the wonder of the place was the +library, which was not only extensive, but extensively rich in its rare +possessions, which the master had seduously collected during his long +residence abroad from every nook and corner of Europe. Unfortunately +many of these books, afterwards presented to Congress, were burned in +the conflagration of the Capitol. Of the man himself, a guest, who was +any thing but an admirer, has left this record.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_092"></a>[92]</span>"Dressed, +within doors, as I saw him last, no longer in the +red breeches, which were once famous as his favorite and rather +conspicuous attire; but still vindicating by a sanguine waistcoat his +attachment to that Republican color; in gray shorts, small silver +kneebuckles, gray woollen stockings, black slippers, a blue body-coat, +surmounted by a gray spencer; tall, and though lithe of person and +decidedly graceful and agile of motion and carriage, yet long and +ill-limbed, Mr. Jefferson's figure was commanding and striking, though +bad, and his face most animated and agreeable, although remarkably +ugly. His legs, by no means shunned observation; yet they were scarcely +larger at the knee than in the ankle, and had never been conscious of a +calf. Still, though without strength, they had always borne him along +with vigor and suppleness. These bodily qualities and a health almost +unfailing, he preserved, in a singular degree, to the very close of his +long life. At the time I speak of, when he was in his eighty-first +year, he not only mounted his horse without assistance and rode +habitually some ten miles a day, but, dismounting at a fence +breast-high, would leap over it, by only placing his hand on the +topmost rail. He walked not only well and swiftly, but with a lightness +and springiness of tread, such as few young men even have. It was a +restless activity of mind, which informed all this unusual mobility of +body; and the two, I think, were, in him, greatly alike. For his +intellect had, like his person, more size than shape, more adroitness +than force, more suppleness than solidity, and affected its ends by +continuity of action not mass of power, by manipulation not +muscularity. You may batter to pieces with a small hammer that which a +cannon-ball would not shiver. He was never idle: nay, hardly a moment +still. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_093"></a>[93]</span> +He rose early and was up late, through his life; and was all +day, whenever not on foot or a-horse-back, at study, at work, or in +conversation. If his legs and fingers were at rest, his tongue would +sure to be a-going. Indeed, even when seated in his library in a low +Spanish chair, he held forth to his visitors in an almost endless flow +of fine discourse, his body seemed as impatient of keeping still as his +mind, it shifted its position incessantly, and so twisted itself about +that you might almost have thought he was attitudinizing. Meantime, his +face, expressive as it was ugly, was not much less busy than his limbs, +in bearing its part in the conversation, and kept up, all the while, +the most speaking by-play, an eloquence of the countenance as great as +ugly features could well have. It stood to his conversation like the +artful help of well-imagined illustrations to the text of a book: a +graphic commentary on every word, that was as convincing to the eyes as +was his discourse to the ears. The impression which it conveyed was a +strong auxiliary of all he uttered: for it begat in you an almost +unavoidable persuasion of his sincerity."</p> +<p>Jefferson's conversation is described as the most agreeable +and brilliant of his day; but was it this which gave him his personal +power? He was not in other respects a man of any pre-eminent personal +qualities; he did not possess commanding military skill; he was no +orator, having seldom spoken in public; and though a good writer, he +was not particularly distinguished in that line. His conversation, +therefore, may have helped him in acquiring a mastery of the minds of +men; but the real secret of his success consisted in two things—in his +general superiority of intellect, and in his rich, generous, noble +intuitions. He saw the truths and spoke the words, which the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_094"></a>[94]</span> +world wanted to see and hear, at the right time—a little in advance of +his +generation, but not too much in advance so as to "dwarf himself by the +distance." His sympathetic genius beat responsive to the genius of his +age. His instincts were the instincts of the men of his day; more +decided and pronounced than theirs, but still recognized as a prophecy +of what they felt the deepest and wanted the most. All the talent, all +the cunning, all the selfish calculation of the world could not have +enabled him to reach the heights which he attained by the simple and +consistent utterance of his nature. He conquered, as Emerson says in +speaking of the force of character over and above mere force of some +special faculty, because his arrival any where altered the face of +affairs. "Oh, Iole, how did you know that Hercules was a God?" +"Because," answered Iole, "I was content the moment my eyes fell upon +him. When I beheld Theseus, I desired that I might see him offer +battle, or at least guide his horses in the chariot race; but Hercules +did not wait for a contest; he conquered whether he stood or walked, or +sat, or whatever thing he did."</p> +<p>Happy in his life, Jefferson was no less happy in his death, +for he went peacefully to rest on the fiftieth anniversary of the great +day which he had done so much to make great, the Jubilee of our +national freedom,—when the shouts of the people, as they ascended from +the innumerable vales, to his receding ears, must have sounded as a +prelude to the swelling voices of posterity.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_095"></a>[95]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="hancock"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Hancock.</span> +</h6> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_96"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 780px;" alt="Hancock fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/hancock.png" /></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_096"></a>[96]</span> +</div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_097"></a>[97]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus111"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 428px; height: 403px;" alt="Hancock House, Boston." src="images/illus111.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Hancock House, Boston.</a></span></p> +<h2>HANCOCK.</h2> +<p>In the mouths of the people of New England, and indeed +throughout the United States, the name of John Hancock has become a +household word. In the State of Massachusetts, where he was born, +lived, and died, and in the affairs of which he took, for +five-and-twenty years, so very active and leading a part, he enjoyed a +degree and a permanence of popularity never yet obtained by any other +man. And yet we may observe and the same thing may be noted in other +and more recent instances—a remarkable fact that deserves to be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_098"></a>[98]</span> +pondered—that his high degree of popularity was not at all dependent +upon any peculiar embodiment or manifestation on his part of the more +prevailing and characteristic traits of the community about him. Indeed +the popular favor which Hancock enjoyed would seem to have been +determined, as the attachment of individuals so often is, and as has +happened also in other notable instances, rather by the attraction of +opposites.</p> +<p>And yet Hancock's line of descent was such as might naturally +enough have inspired the expectation of finding in him a good many more +marks of the old puritan temper and manners than he ever exhibited. +From the days of the first settlement of New England, down to the +period of the Revolution and afterwards, the "ministers" constituted a +sort of clerical nobility, enjoying a very high degree of influence and +consideration; and it is to forefathers of that order, that a large +part of the most distinguished and influential New England families may +trace their origin. The elder sons of these ministers, commonly, and +the younger ones often, were educated to the profession of their +fathers, long regarded in New England as the most certain road to +distinction, whether spiritual or temporal. But as the demand for +ministers was limited, and as their families were generally pretty +large, many of their sons found it necessary to engage in the +avocations of civil life, in which they not uncommonly attained to +wealth and high social positions. Yet, for the most part, however +zealous and successful they might be in the pursuit of temporal +objects, they still continued to exhibit pretty evident marks of their +clerical descent and breeding in a certain stiff, cold, and austere +gravity, if not, indeed, in a certain sanctimonious air <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_099"></a>[99]</span> +even in the +very act of concluding the very tightest and sharpest of bargains;—all +the attributes, in fact, comprehensively and impressively conveyed to +an inhabitant of New England by the title of <i>Deacon</i>, +which office, as if still clinging to the horns of the altar, they +often filled; thus becoming pillars and supports of that church of +which their fathers had been the candlesticks.</p> +<p>The grandfather of John Hancock, himself called John, was for +more than fifty years, as if by a sort of vaticination of the future, +minister of Lexington, near to Concord; thus associating with that of +Hancock another name, now to all American ears so familiar as the scene +of the first revolutionary bloodshed. We are told by a biographer of +this first John Hancock, that he possessed "a facetious temper," but in +the grim old portrait which still hangs on the walls of his grandson's +family mansion-house, very small traces of facetiousness appear; and so +far as physiognomy goes, we should be rather inclined to look to his +grandmother, to whose accompanying portrait the artist has given a fine +open countenance, with something of a magnificent and voluptuous style +of beauty, for the source of those social qualities and captivating +manners by which their famous grandson was distinguished. The minister +of Lexington had two sons, both also ministers, one of whom became his +father's colleague. The other, the father of our John Hancock, was +settled at Braintree, near Boston, in that part of it which now +constitutes the town of Quincy; and it was here that in the year 1737 +our John Hancock was born, only a short distance from the birth-place +of John Adams, who was some two years his senior. The old house in +which the future patriot first saw the light was destroyed by an +accidental <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_100"></a>[100]</span> +fire previous to the Revolution; and the land on which it +had stood coming subsequently into the possession of John Adams, he +presented it to the town of Quincy as a site for a future academy.</p> +<p>At the age of six or seven years, the young John Hancock was +left without a father; but in his uncle, Thomas Hancock, he found a +guardian and protector, who not only loved him, but was able to assist +him. Thomas Hancock early in life had been placed as an apprentice to a +Boston stationer, and had afterwards set up in that line of business +for himself: but subsequently extending the sphere of his operations, +he became one of the most eminent and successful merchants of New +England. As he had no children, he adopted, as his own, his young +nephew, whose affable and joyous temper had not failed to make him dear +to his uncle, as they did to so many others; and having sent him to +Harvard College, where he graduated at the early age of seventeen, he +took him afterwards into his counting-house to be initiated into the +mysteries of merchandise; and in due season admitted him as a partner. +It was, perhaps, as well on business as for pleasure, or general +improvement, that the young Hancock visited England, whither he went in +company with the returning Governor Pownall, whose taste for social +enjoyment was similar to his own, and where he saw the funeral of +George II. and the coronation of George III., little thinking at that +moment how active a part he was himself soon to take in curtailing the +limits of the British monarchy, and in snatching from the young king's +crown its brightest jewel.</p> +<p>Thomas Hancock, the uncle, died in 1764, leaving behind him a +fortune amassed by his judicious and successful mercantile <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_101"></a>[101]</span>enterprises, +of not less than $350,000, one of the largest ever acquired in Boston, +up to that time, though small in comparison with several of the present +day, when even ten times as much may be produced by combined good +fortune, tact, and perseverance. Thomas Hancock bestowed by his will +some considerable legacies for charitable purposes, among others a +thousand pounds to Harvard College to endow a professorship of oriental +languages, being thus, as the historian of the college assures us, the +first native American to endow a professorship in any literary +institution;—but the great bulk of his fortune he bequeathed to his +favorite nephew, $250,000 at once, and a reversionary interest in +$100,000 more, of which his widow was to enjoy the use during her life.</p> +<p>Thus in 1764, at the early age of twenty-seven, and just upon +the eve of the commencement of the revolutionary disputes with the +mother country, John Hancock came into possession of one of the largest +fortunes in the province.</p> +<p>Yet, though this large estate was an instrument and a +stepping-stone, without the help of which Hancock would never have +attained to that social and political distinction which he coveted and +enjoyed so much, yet without his rare personal gifts and +accomplishments it would have been wholly unavailing to that end; and +so far from qualifying him, would have disqualified him, as it did so +many other of the rich men of that time, for playing the conspicuous +part he did in political affairs. Though for some time after his +uncle's death he continued in business as a merchant, there were others +who knew much better than he how to increase estates, already in the +popular estimate—especially considering the use made of them—quite too +large. Indeed, his business operations <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_102"></a>[102]</span>do not seem to +have had mainly +or primarily in view the making of money; for though he started new +enterprises, going largely into ship-building, it was rather, at least +so Hutchinson insinuates, as a politician than as a capitalist, looking +more to the number of people he employed, and the increase thereby of +his influence and popularity, than to the enlargement of his already +plentiful fortune. There were others also who knew much better than he +how to keep what they had, at least as they thought, men who used no +less economy in spending their money than they or their fathers had +done in acquiring it. But although the rich man who keeps his capital +entire, and even increasing, is, in some sense, certainly a public +benefactor, yet the fountain that overflows, sending forth a copious +stream which the thirsty passers-by are all free to drink from, or at +least to look at, is always more joyfully seen and more pleasingly +remembered—even though it does run the risk of some time running +dry—than the deep well, whose water is hardly visible, and which, +though quite inexhaustible, yet for want of any kind of a bucket that +can be made to sink into it, or any rope long enough to draw such a +bucket up, is very little available to the parched throats of the +fainting wayfarers, who, in the spirit and with the feelings of +Tantalus, are thus rather disposed to curse than to bless it.</p> +<p>To be able to make money is, at least in New England, a very +common accomplishment, to be able to keep it not a rare one; but very +few have understood so well as Hancock did, how to make the most of it +in the way of spending it, obtaining from it, as he did, the double +gratification of satisfying his own private inclinations, at the same +time that he promoted <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_103"></a>[103]</span> +his political views by the hold that he gained on +the favor and good-will of his fellow-citizens.</p> +<p>He possessed, indeed, in a degree, those tastes which wealth +is best able to gratify, and to the gratification of which it is most +essential. In the very face and eyes of the puritanical opinions and +the staid and ultra-sober habits of New England, he delighted in +splendid furniture, fine clothes, showy equipages, rich wines, good +dinners, gay company, cards, dances, music, and all sorts of +festivities. Nothing pleased him so much as to have his house full of +guests to share with him in these enjoyments, and few were better +qualified, by winning manners, graceful and affable address, a ready +wit, a full flow of spirits, and a keen enjoyment of the whole thing, +to act the part of master of the feast. But while thus luxuriously +inclined, he had no disposition for gross debauch: and the presence of +ladies at all his entertainments, while it seemed to give to them a new +zest, banished from his house that riotous dissipation into which mere +male gatherings are so certain to sink; and which in times past, in New +England, made the idea of gross dissipation almost inseparable from +that of social enjoyment, nor even yet is the distinction between them +fully apprehended by every body.</p> +<p>Among other property which Hancock had inherited from his +uncle, was a stone mansion-house, still standing, and now in the very +centre of the city of Boston, but which then was looked upon as quite +retired and almost in the country. This house, which was built about +the year that Hancock was born, fronts eastwardly on Boston Common, +since so elaborately improved and converted into so beautiful a park, +with its gravel walks, trees, and smooth-shaven lawns, but which was +then a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_104"></a>[104]</span> +<i>common</i> in the old English sense of the word, +a common pasture for the cows of the neighbors, and a training field +for the militia, with very few improvements except a single gravel walk +and two or three rows of trees along Tremont-street. This house was +situated a little west of the central and highest summit of that triple +hill, which had early acquired for the peninsula of Boston the name of +Trimountain,—since shortened into Tremont, and preserved in the name of +the street above mentioned, which central summit was, from an early +period, known as Beacon Hill, a name preserved in that of +Beacon-street. This name was derived from the use to which this highest +central summit had been put from a very early period—materials being +always kept in readiness upon the top of it for kindling a bonfire, as +a means of alarming the country round in case of invasion or other +danger. After having been a good deal graded down, this summit is now +occupied as a site for the State House, which, with its conspicuous +dome, crowns and overlooks the whole city.</p> +<p>It was in this mansion-house of his uncle's, which seems as if +by a sort of attraction to have drawn the State House to its side, that +Hancock continued to live except when absent at Philadelphia in +attendance on the Continental Congress; and not content with its +original dimensions, to afford more room for his numerous guests, he +built at one end of it a wooden addition, since removed, containing a +dining-room, dancing-hall, and other like conveniences. It was here +Hancock, assisted by his amiable and accomplished wife, who entered +into all his tastes and feelings, and who contributed her full share to +give expression and realization to them, presided over so many social +dinner parties and gay assemblages, dressed out, both host <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_105"></a>[105]</span> +and guests, +in that rich costume which Copley, who was one of Hancock's near +neighbors, loved so well to paint, and of which his pencil has +transmitted to us so vivid an idea. Nor did he show himself abroad with +less display than he exhibited at home, his custom being to ride on +public occasions in a splendid carriage drawn by six beautiful bays, +and attended by several servants in livery.</p> +<p>While the public attention was thus drawn upon him by a +display which at once attracted and gratified the eyes of the +multitude, whose envy at that time there was less fear than now of +exciting, and by a generous and free hospitality, the more captivating +for not being either indigenous or common, the part which Hancock took +in the rising disputes with the mother country converted him into that +popular idol, which he continued to be for the remainder of his life; +and which, to one so greedy as he was of honor and applause, must have +been in the highest degree gratifying. It is indeed not uncommon to +depreciate the public services of such men as Hancock, by ascribing all +to vanity and the love of distinction; as if without the impulse of +these motives any great efforts would be made to serve the public! +Worthy indeed of all honor are those men in whom these impulses take so +honorable a direction; and happy the nation able to purchase such +services at so cheap a rate!</p> +<p>In 1766, two years after his uncle's death, Hancock was +chosen, along with James Otis, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Cushing, one of +the four representatives from Boston to the General Court. The seizure, +two years after, of his sloop Liberty, for alleged violations of the +revenue laws, in evading the payment of duties on a cargo of wine +imported from <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_106"></a>[106]</span> +Madeira, closely and personally identified him with the +resistance then making throughout the colonies to the attempt to +collect a revenue in America by parliamentary authority alone. This +seizure led to a riot which figures in all the histories of that +period, by which the commissioners of the customs were driven from the +town, and in consequence of which two or three British regiments were +ordered to Boston—the first step on the part of the mother country +towards a military enforcement of the authority which she claimed. +Hancock felt personally the consequences of this riot, in a number of +libels or criminal informations filed against him in the Court of +Admiralty, to recover penalties to the amount of three or four hundred +thousand dollars, for violations of the revenue laws. "It seemed," +writes John Adams in his Diary, and he had ample opportunity to know, +for he was retained as Hancock's counsel, "as if the officers of the +court were determined to examine the whole town as witnesses." In hopes +to fish out some evidence against him; they interrogated many of his +near relations and most intimate friends. They even threatened to +summon his aged and venerable aunt: nor did those annoyances cease till +the battle of Lexington, the siege of Boston, and the expulsion of the +British from that town shut up the Admiralty Court, and brought the +prosecution, and British authority along with it, to an end.</p> +<p>At the commencement of the disputes with the mother country, +the sentiment against the right of parliament to impose taxes on the +colonies had seemed to be almost unanimous. The only exceptions were a +few persons holding office under the crown. The rich especially, this +being a question that touched the pocket, were very loud in their +protests against any such <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_107"></a>[107]</span> +exercise of parliamentary authority. But as +the dispute grew more warm and violent, threatening to end in civil +commotions, the rich, not doubting that the mother country would +triumph in the end, and fearing the loss of their entire property in +the attempt to save a part of it, began to draw back; thus making much +more conspicuous than ever the position of Hancock as a leader of the +popular party. Indeed there was hardly a wealthy man in Boston, he and +Bowdoin excepted, both of whom had not accumulated but inherited their +property, who did not end with joining the side of the mother country. +And the same thing may be observed of Massachusetts, and indeed of New +England generally. Of all the larger and better-looking mansion-houses, +of eighty years old and upwards, still standing in the vicinity of +Boston, of which the number is considerable, there are very few that +did not originally belong to some old tory who forfeited his property +out of his very anxiety to preserve it. Hancock's acceptance of the +command of the company of cadets or governor's guard, whence the title +of colonel by which for some time he was known; his acting with that +company as an escort, at the funeral of Lieutenant-Governor Oliver, who +was very obnoxious to the patriots; his refusing to go all lengths with +Samuel Adams in the controversy with Hutchinson as to the governor's +right to call the General Court together, elsewhere than in Boston; and +the circumstance that although he had been several times before +negatived as a member of the council, Hutchinson had at length allowed +his name on the list of counsellors proposed by the General Court; +these and perhaps some other circumstances excited indeed some +suspicions that Hancock also was growing lukewarm to the popular cause. +But these he took care to dissipate by <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_108"></a>[108]</span> +declining to sit as counsellor, +by acting as orator at the Anniversary of the Boston Massacre, and by +accepting, not long after, an appointment as one of the delegates to +the Continental Congress. The oration above alluded to, delivered in +March, 1774, and which Hancock's enemies pretended was written for him +by Dr. Cooper, was pronounced by John Adams, who heard it, "an +eloquent, pathetic, and spirited performance."</p> +<p>"The composition," so he wrote in his diary, "the +pronunciation, the action, all exceeded the expectation of every body. +[These last were certainly not Cooper's.] They exceeded even mine, +which were very considerable. Many of the sentiments came with great +propriety from him. His invective, particularly against a preference of +riches to virtue, came from him with a singular dignity and grace." A +passage in this oration, which was afterwards printed, on the subject +of standing armies, gave great offence to the British officers and +soldiers by whom the town continued to be occupied, and not long after +Governor Gage dismissed Hancock from his command of the company of +cadets; whereupon they disbanded themselves, returning the standard +which the governor on his initiation into office had presented to them.</p> +<p>The sensibilities of the British officers and soldiers being +again excited by some parts of an oration delivered the next year by +Dr. Warren, on the same anniversary, a few weeks before the battle of +Lexington, a military mob beset Hancock's house and began to destroy +the fences and waste the grounds. Gage sent a military guard to put a +stop to their outrages.</p> +<p>But it was no longer safe for Hancock to remain in such close +contiguity to the British troops. He was president of the Provincial +Congress of Massachusetts, which, in <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_109"></a>[109]</span> +consequence of the act of +parliament to modify the charter of that province, had lately assumed +to themselves the power of the purse and the sword. He was also +president of the provincial committee of safety, which, under authority +of the Provincial Congress, had begun in good earnest to prepare for +taking arms for the vindication of those rights which the men of +Massachusetts claimed under the now violated and (so far as parliament +had the power) abrogated Charter of the province. Under these +circumstances, Hancock abandoned his house, which was subsequently +occupied by Lord Percy as his headquarters; and at the time of the +march of the British troops for Concord, he was living at Lexington, in +company with Samuel Adams. Indeed it was supposed that one of the +objects of this march was to seize the persons of those two patriots, +to whom Gage seemed to point as the authors of the collision at +Lexington by the issue of a proclamation, in which pardon was offered +to all who, giving over their late traitorous proceedings, would +furnish proof of their repentance and of their renewed allegiance to +their king, by submitting to the authority of his duly appointed +governor, and of the late act of parliament: but from this pardon John +Hancock and Samuel Adams were excepted, their offences being too +flagrant to be passed over without condign punishment.</p> +<p>Before the issue of this proclamation, Hancock had already +proceeded to Philadelphia, where the famous Continental Congress of +1775 was already in session, composed, to a great extent, of the same +members with its predecessor of the year before, but of which he had +been chosen a member in place of Bowdoin. He was a fluent and agreeable +speaker, one of those who, by grace of manner, seem to add a double +force and weight to all which they say; yet in that illustrious +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_110"></a>[110]</span> +assembly there were quite a number, including John Adams, from his own +State, compared with whom he could hardly have claimed rank as an +orator. There were also in that assembly several able writers; the +state papers emanating from whose pens were compared by Chatham to the +ablest productions of the republican ages of Greece and Rome; but +Hancock was not one of those. There were men of business there who +undertook, without shrinking, all the Herculean labors of organizing +the army and navy, the treasury and the foreign office of the new +confederation—but neither in this line does Hancock appear to have been +greatly distinguished. And yet it was not long before, by his +appointment as president of that body, he rose to a position in +Continental affairs, no less conspicuous than that which we have seen +him exercising in those of his own province. Circumstances led indeed +to this situation, quite apart from Hancock's personal qualifications, +and yet had he not possessed those qualifications in a high degree, he +would never have had the opportunity of immortalizing himself as he has +done by his famous signature at the head of the Declaration of +Independence,—a signature well calculated to give a strong impression +with those who judge of personal character by handwriting, of the +decided temper and whole-hearted energy of the man. Virginia, as the +most populous and wealthy of the colonies, had received the compliment +of furnishing the President of the Congress of 1774; and Peyton +Randolph—a planter and lawyer, an elderly gentleman of the old school, +formerly attorney general of that province, and in Governor Dinwiddie's +time, sent by the Assembly on a special message to England, to complain +of the governor for the fees he exacted on patents of land—had been +first selected for that <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_111"></a>[111]</span> +distinguished station. He had again been chosen +as President of the new Congress; but being also speaker of the +Virginia House of Burgesses, and that body having been called together +by Lord Dunmore, in what proved to be its last meeting, to consider +Lord North's conciliatory propositions, it became necessary for +Randolph to return home. His place in Congress was filled, in +compliance with an arrangement previously made by the House of +Burgesses, by no less distinguished a successor than Thomas Jefferson; +but in filling up the vacant seat of President of Congress, during what +was then regarded as but the temporary absence of Randolph, it was +natural enough to look to Massachusetts, the next province to Virginia +in population and wealth, no ways behind her in zeal for the cause, +and, as the result proved, far her superior in military capabilities. +Nor among the delegates present from Massachusetts, was there any one +who seemed, on the whole, so well fitted for the station, or likely to +be at all so satisfactory to the delegates from the other States, as +John Hancock. Had James Bowdoin been present, he would perhaps have +been more acceptable to the great body of the members than Hancock, as +being less identified than he was with violent measures. But though +chosen a delegate to the first Congress, the sickness of Bowdoin's wife +had prevented his attendance; and the same cause still operating to +keep him at home, John Hancock had been appointed, as we have +mentioned, in his place. Of Hancock's four colleagues, all of whom were +older men than himself, Samuel Adams certainly, if not John Adams also, +might have disputed with him the palm of zeal and activity in the +revolutionary cause; but not one of them risked so much as he did, at +least in the judgment of his fellow-members <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_112"></a>[112]</span>from the middle +and +southern provinces, who were generally men of property. He alone, of +all the New England delegates, had a fortune to lose; and while his +wealthy southern colleagues looked with some distrust upon the Adamses, +regarding them perhaps a little in the light, if we may be pardoned so +coarse an illustration, of the monkey in the fable, who wished to rake +his chestnuts out of the fire at the risk and expense of other people's +fingers, no such idea could attach to Hancock, who, in point of +fortune, had probably as much to lose as any other member, except +perhaps John Dickinson—for the wealthy Charles Carrol, of Maryland, had +not a seat in the Congress. At the same time Hancock's genial manners +and social spirit, seemed to the members from the southern and middle +provinces to make him quite one of themselves, an associate in pleasure +and social intercourse, as well as in business; while the austere +spirit and laborious industry of the Adamses threatened to inflict upon +them the double hardship of all work and no play. But while the +moderate members found, as they supposed, in the fortune which Hancock +had at stake a pledge that he would not hurry matters to any violent +extremes; the few also most disposed to press matters to a final +breach, were well satisfied to have as president, one who had shown +himself in his own province so energetic, prompt, decisive, and +thorough.</p> +<p>Yet Hancock's colleagues, and the members generally from New +England, never entirely forgave the preference which had been thus +early shown to him; and upon many of the sectional questions and +interests which soon sprung up, and by which the Continental Congress +was at times so seriously belittled and so greatly distracted, Hancock +was often accused of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_113"></a>[113]</span> +deserting the interests of New England, and of +going with the southern party. The internal and secret history of the +Continental Congress or rather of the temporary and personal motives by +which the conduct of its members, as to a variety of details, was +influenced, remains so much in obscurity that it is not easy to +ascertain the precise foundation of those charges, reiterated as they +are in letters and other memoirs of those times; but on the whole, no +reason appears to regard them otherwise than as the natural ebullition +of disappointed partisanship against a man, who, in the struggle of +contending factions and local interests, strove to hold the balance +even, and who did not believe, with Samuel Adams and some others, that +political wisdom was limited to New England alone.</p> +<p>The President of Congress, in those times, was regarded as the +personal representative of that body and of the sovereignty of the +Union; and in that respect filled, to a certain degree, in the eye of +the nation and of the world, the place now occupied by the President of +the United States, though sharing, in no degree, the vast patronage and +substantial power attached to the latter office. In his capacity of +personal representative of the nation the President of Congress kept +open house and a well-spread table, to which members of Congress, +officers of the army, attachés of the diplomatic corps foreign and +domestic, distinguished strangers, every body in fact who thought +themselves to be any body—a pretty large class, at least in +America—expected invitations; whereby was imposed upon that officer +pretty laborious social duties, in addition to his public and political +ones, which were by no means trifling. All these duties of both +classes, Hancock continued to discharge with great assiduity and to +general satisfaction, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_114"></a>[114]</span> +for upwards of two years and a half, through a +period at which the power and respectability of the Continental +Congress was at its greatest height, before the downfall of the paper +money and the total exhaustion of the credit of the nation at home and +abroad had reduced the representative of the sovereignty of the nation +to a pitiful dependence on the bounty of France, and upon requisitions +on the States, to which very little attention was paid. Feeling all the +dignity of his position, Hancock took one of the largest houses in +Philadelphia, where he lived in profuse hospitality, and all upon +advances made out of his own pocket. After his day, it became necessary +for Congress to allow their president a certain annual stipend out of +the public treasury to support the expenses of his household. In +Hancock's time, this was not thought of; and it was not till near the +close of the war, after the precedent had been established in the case +of his successors, that he put in any claim for the reimbursement of +his expenses.</p> +<p>There is a story, that Hancock, when chosen President of +Congress, blushed and modestly hung back, and was drawn into the chair +only by the exertion of some gentle force on the part of the brawny +Harrison, a member from Virginia, and afterwards governor of that +State. And yet, according to John Adams, Hancock was hardly warm in his +seat when he aspired to a much more distinguished position. He expected +to have been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the American armies, and +displayed in his countenance, so Adams says in his Diary, the greatest +vexation and disappointment when Washington was named for that station. +It is certain that he had some military aspirations, for he wrote to +Washington shortly after his assumption of command, requesting that +some <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_115"></a>[115]</span> +place in the army might be kept for him, to which Washington +replied with compliments at his zeal, but with apprehension that he had +no place at his disposal worthy of Colonel Hancock's acceptance. Not +long after his return to Boston, his military ardor revived. He +procured himself to be chosen a major-general of the Massachusetts +militia, and he marched the next summer (1778) at the head of his +division to join the expedition against Newport, in which the French +fleet and troops just arrived under D'Estaing, a detachment from +Washington's army under Sullivan, Greene, and La Fayette, and the +militia from the neighboring States were to co-operate. But D'Estaing +suffered himself to be drawn out to sea by the English fleet, which had +appeared off Newport for that express purpose, and after a slight +running engagement, the fleet, while struggling for the weather gauge, +were separated by a violent storm, in which some of D'Estaing's ships +were dismasted and others greatly damaged, so that he judged it +necessary to put into Boston to refit. The American army meanwhile had +crossed to Rhode Island, and established itself before Newport, but as +Count D'Estaing could not be persuaded to return, it became necessary +to abandon the island, not without a battle to cover the retreat. With +this expedition, Hancock's military career seems to have terminated; +but on arriving at Boston, he found ample work on hand better adapted +perhaps to his talents than the business of active warfare. Sullivan, +of a hot and impetuous temper, and excessively vexed at D'Estaing's +conduct, was even imprudent enough to give expression to his feelings +in general orders. It was like touching a spark to tinder, and the +American army before New-York, which shared the general's feelings, +encouraged by his example, "broke out," so Greene wrote to Washington, +"in <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_116"></a>[116]</span> +clamorous strains." The same disappointment was bitterly felt also +at Boston; for the British occupation of Newport had long been an +eyesore to New England, occasioning great expense in keeping up militia +to watch the enemy there, and in projects for their expulsion; and the +prevailing dissatisfaction at the conduct of the French admiral soon +found expression in a serious riot between the populace of the town and +the sailors of the French fleet, threatening to revive all those +violent prejudices against the French, fostered in the colonies for +near a hundred years, and which the recent alliance with France had +glossed over indeed, but had not wholly subdued. Upon this occasion, +Hancock exerted himself with zeal and success to prevent this +ill-temper, which had broken out between the classes least accustomed +to restrain their feelings or the expression of them, from spreading +any higher. He opened his house to the French officers, who, delighted +at the opportunity of social enjoyment and female society, kept it full +from morning till night, and by his "unwearied pains," so La Fayette +wrote to Washington, did much to heal the breach which Sullivan's +imprudence had so dangerously aggravated. On this occasion, at least, +if on no other, Hancock's love of gayety, and of social pleasures, +proved very serviceable to his country.</p> +<p>During his absence at Philadelphia, his popularity at home had +undergone no diminution, and he soon resumed, as a member of the +council, on which since the breach with Gage the executive +administration had devolved, a leading influence in the State +administration; and when at last, after two trials, a constitution was +sanctioned by the people, he was chosen by general consent the first +governor under it. This was a station of vastly more consideration then +than now. Under the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_117"></a>[117]</span> +old confederation, at least after the Continental +Congress, by the exhaustion of its credit and the repudiation of its +bills, had no longer money at command, the States were sovereign in +fact as well as in words; while all that reverence which under the old +system had attached to the royal governors, had been transferred to +their first republican successors. Since that period the State +governments have sunk into mere municipalities for the administration +of local affairs, and all eyes being constantly turned towards +Washington, the executive offices of the States, even the station of +governor, are no longer regarded except as stepping-stones to something +higher.</p> +<p>Hancock discharged his office as governor to good acceptance +for five years, when he voluntarily retired, making way for James +Bowdoin, who might be regarded in some respects as his rival, the head +of a party, perhaps more intelligent, and certainly far more select, +than that great body of the population by whom Hancock was supported; +but whom, so at least his opponents said, he rather studied to follow +than aspired to lead. During Bowdoin's administration, occurred Shays' +insurrection, one of the most interesting and instructive incidents in +the history of Massachusetts, but into the particulars of which we have +not space here to enter. This insurrection, of which the great object +was the cancelling of debts, an object which the States now practically +accomplish by means of insolvent laws, was thought to involve, either +as participators more or less active, or at least as favorers and +sympathizers, not less than a third part of the population of the +State. The active measures taken at Bowdoin's suggestion for putting +down the insurgents by an armed force, and the political disabilities +and other punishments inflicted upon them after their defeat, did <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_118"></a>[118]</span>not +at all tend to increase Bowdoin's popularity with this large portion of +the people. Though Hancock's health had not allowed him to take his +seat in the Continental Congress, to which he had again been chosen a +delegate, and by which he had, in his absence, been again selected as +their president—yet, weary of retirement, he suffered himself to be +brought forward as a candidate, and to be elected as governor over +Bowdoin's head—a procedure never forgiven by what may be called the +party of property, against which the insurrection of Shays had been +aimed, whose members thenceforth did not cease, in private at least, to +stigmatize Hancock as a mere demagogue, if not indeed almost a Shaysite +himself. Nor indeed is it impossible, that the governor, with all his +property, had some personal sympathies with that party. He, like them, +was harassed with debts, which, as we have seen in the case of the +college, he was not much inclined, and probably not very able, to bring +to a settlement. He still had large possessions in lands and houses in +Boston, but at this moment his property was unsalable, and to a +considerable extent unproductive; and a stop law might have suited his +convenience not less than that of the embarrassed farmers in the +interior, who had assembled under the leadership of Shays to shut up +the courts and put a stop to suits. This scheme, however, had been +effectually put down prior to Hancock's accession to office, and it +only remained for him to moderate, by executive clemency, the penalties +inflicted on the suppressed insurgents—a policy which the state of the +times and the circumstances of the case very loudly demanded, however +little it might be to the taste of the more imperious leaders of the +party by which those penalties had been inflicted. But even this same +party might <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_119"></a>[119]</span> +acknowledge a great obligation to Hancock for the +assistance which they soon after obtained from him in securing the +ratification by Massachusetts of that federal constitution under which +we now so happily live. Still governor of the State, he was chosen a +delegate from Boston to the State convention, called to consider the +proposed constitution: and though incapacitated by sickness from taking +his seat till near the close of the session, he was named its +president. The federal constitution had been already ratified by five +States, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut. +But Virginia, New York, and North Carolina, were known to be strongly +against it, and its rejection by Massachusetts would, in all +probability, prevent its acceptance by the number of States required to +give it effect. The convention was very equally divided, and the result +hung long in doubt. At last Hancock came upon the floor and proposed +some amendments, principally in the nature of a bill of rights, agreed +to probably by concert out of doors, to be suggested for the approval +of Congress and adoption by the States under the provision for +amendments contained in the constitution, and most of which were +afterwards adopted. Thus sweetened, the constitution was fairly forced +down the reluctant throat of the convention; and unlike the typical +book of St. John, though so bitter in the mouth, it has fortunately +proved sweet enough and very nourishing in the digestion.</p> +<p>On the occasion of Washington's visit to Boston, subsequently +to his inauguration as President, a curious struggle took place between +him and Hancock, or perhaps we ought rather to say, between the +Governor of Massachusetts and the President of the United States, on a +question of etiquette. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_120"></a>[120]</span> +Hancock, as Governor of Massachusetts, insisted +upon the first call, a precedence which Washington, as President of the +United States, refused to yield. Finding himself obliged to succumb, +Hancock's gout and other complicated diseases served him for once in +good stead; for in the note which he finally sent, announcing his +intention to wait upon Washington, they answered as a convenient excuse +for not having fulfilled that duty before.</p> +<p>Some two or three years after, we find Governor Hancock, out +of deference to the puritanical opinions and laws of the State, +involved in another noticeable controversy, but one into which he could +not have entered with any great heart. Shortly after the adoption of +the federal constitution, a company of stage-players had made their +appearance in Boston, and though the laws still prohibited theatrical +exhibitions, encouraged by the countenance of the gayer part of the +population, they commenced the performance of plays, which they +advertised in the newspapers as "Moral Lectures." Some of their friends +among the townsfolks had even built a temporary theatre for their +accommodation, a trampling under foot of the laws, which seemed the +more reprehensible as the legislature, though applied to for that +purpose, had twice refused to repeal that prohibitory statute. "To the +legislature which met shortly after," we quote from the fourth volume +of Hildreth's History of the United States, "Governor Hancock gave +information that 'a number of aliens and foreigners had entered the +State, and in the metropolis of the government, under advertisements +insulting to the habits and education of the citizens, had been pleased +to invite them to, and to exhibit before such as attended, stage-plays, +interludes, and theatrical entertainments, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_121"></a>[121]</span>under the style +and +appellation of Moral Lectures.' All which, as he complained, had been +suffered to go on without any steps taken to punish a most open breach +of the laws, and a most contemptuous insult to the powers of +government. Shortly after this denunciation by the governor, suddenly +one night, in the midst of the performance of 'The School for Scandal,' +the sheriff of the county appeared on the stage, arrested the actors, +and broke up the performances. When the examination came on, having +procured able counsel (one of whom, if we mistake not, was the then +young Harrison Gray Otis), the actors were discharged on the ground +that the arrest was illegal, the warrant not having been sworn to. This +error was soon corrected, and a second arrest brought the performances +to a close. But the legislature, finding that the sentiment of the town +of Boston was strong against the law, and that a new and permanent +theatre was in the course of erection, repealed the prohibitory act a +few months after."</p> +<p>This temporary triumph over the poor players was one of the +last of Hancock's long series of successes; unless indeed we ought to +assign that station to the agency which he had in procuring the erasure +from the federal constitution of a very equitable and necessary +provision, authorizing suits in the federal courts against the States +by individuals having claims upon them. At such a suit, brought against +the State of Massachusetts, Hancock exhibited a vast deal of +indignation, calling the legislature together at a very inconvenient +season of the year, and refusing to pay the least attention to the +process served upon him. Yet the Supreme Court of the United States, +not long after, decided that such suits would lie, as indeed was +sufficiently plain from the letter of the constitution. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_122"></a>[122]</span>But +the +sovereign States, with all the insolence customary to sovereigns, +whether one-headed or many-headed, scorned to be compelled to do +justice; and the general clamor raised against this reasonable and even +necessary provision, caused it to be ultimately struck from the +constitution.</p> +<p>Before this was accomplished, Hancock's career of life was +over. Worn down by the gout and other aristocratic diseases, which the +progress of democracy seems, since his time, to have almost banished +from America, he expired at the early age of fifty-six, in the same +house in which he had presided over so many social and political +festivities, lamented by almost the entire population of the State in +whose service he had spent the best part of his life, and whose +faithful attachment to him, spite of some obvious weaknesses on his +part, had yet never flagged.</p> +<p>Had we space and inclination, many lessons might be drawn from +the history of his life. We shall confine ourselves to this one, which +every body's daily experience may confirm: that success in active life, +whether political or private, even the attainment of the very highest +positions, depends far less on any extraordinary endowments, either of +nature or fortune, than upon an active, vigorous, and indefatigable +putting to use of such gifts as a man happens to have. What a +difference, so far as name and fame are concerned, and we may add, too, +enjoyment and a good conscience, between the man who puts his talent to +use and him who hoards it up, so that even its very existence remains +unknown to every body but himself and his intimate friends.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_123"></a>[123]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="john_adams"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">John Adams.</span> +</h6> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_124"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 795px;" alt="John Adams fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/johnadams1.png" /></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_124"></a>[124]</span> +</div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_125"></a>[125]</span> +</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus139"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 519px; height: 403px;" alt="Residence of the Adams Family, Quincy, Mass." src="images/illus139.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Residence of the Adams Family, Quincy, +Mass. </a></span></p> +<h2>JOHN ADAMS.</h2> +<p>"Oh that I could have a home! But this felicity has never been +permitted me. Rolling, rolling, rolling, till I am very near rolling +into the bosom of mother earth."</p> +<p>Thus wrote the venerable John Adams to his wife, in the +sixty-fifth year of his age, and the last of his Presidency. A few +years previous he had uttered the same sigh, nor is it infrequent in +his letters. "I am weary, worn, and disgusted to death. I had rather +chop wood, dig ditches, and make fence upon my poor little farm. Alas, +poor farm! and poorer family! what have you lost that your country +might be free! <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_126"></a>[126]</span> +and that others might catch fish and hunt deer and bears +at their ease!"</p> +<p>This was written in the days when there was such a thing as +genuine patriotism; when, as in the noble Greek and Roman years, there +lived among us also noble men, who freely surrendered all that life +offered them of sweet and splendid, to work for their fellows, and to +exalt their country's state, content that old age should find them poor +in fortune and broken in health, so only that integrity remained, and a +serene conscience led them undisturbed to the end of life.</p> +<p>Among these former glories of our Republic, the name of John +Adams stands in the clearest sunlight of fame. No purer patriot ever +lived. The names which dazzle us in history become no fables when read +by his light; Plutarch tells no nobler story, records no greater +claims; Athens and Sparta smile upon him from their starry places, and +Rome holds out her great hand of fellowship to him—for there is no +virtue which has lived that may not live again, and our own day shows +that there has never been a political corruption so base as to despair +of being emulated.</p> +<p>Concerning the civil life of such a man, much might with ease +be written. The head and front of every great political movement of his +country, from his thirtieth year to the day of his death he lived no +obscure life, and was missed from no contest. "The great pillar of +support to the Declaration of Independence," as Jefferson called him, +its fearless and eloquent defender, the right hand of his country's +diplomacy, and the strength of her treaties, he is a portion of her +history and his acts are her annals. But this devotion to the great +political struggles of his time was not consistent with home delights. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_127"></a>[127]</span> +These he was to scorn and to live laborious days. Early immersed in the +stirring events of his day, he surrendered to the duty of serving, all +private claims; he gave up his profession, he separated himself from +his wife and children to go wherever he could be useful; he abandoned a +mode of life most dear to him; and leaving his little Sabine farm and +his friendly books, with no hopes of personal aggrandizement, and +small, unjoyous prospect of success in the venture he was aiding, went +out to fight. His first act of importance, a worthy beginning to such +career, was his defence of Preston, in the famous trial for the murder +of certain citizens of Boston by British soldiers, in 1770. Preston was +the captain of the British troops stationed in Boston, and under +government orders. As may easily be imagined, in the uneasy state of +public feeling, exasperated by real injuries and petty tyrannies, +suspicious, discontented and spurred on by men who circulated a +thousand injurious reports, the people and the foreign soldiery were +ready at any moment to break out into open quarrel. Finally, this did +indeed happen. The soldiery, provoked beyond endurance, resisted the +assaults of the people, and fired upon them. Captain Preston was +arrested and imprisoned; five citizens had been killed and many +wounded, and it was with difficulty that the people were restrained +from rising into furious rebellion. Preston was taken to prison to +await his trial, but it was for a time impossible to obtain counsel, so +great was the hatred of the people to the soldiery, and so strong the +feeling that no man would be safe from violence who would attempt to +defend these foreigners for the murder of his own fellow-citizens. John +Adams—then a rising lawyer in Boston, and a man who had already given +hints of coming greatness—was sent for by <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_128"></a>[128]</span>the unfortunate +captain, who +begged him to undertake his cause. "I had no hesitation in answering," +says Adams in his autobiography, "that counsel ought to be the very +last thing that an accused person should want in a free country; that +the bar ought, in my opinion, to be independent and impartial at all +times, and in every circumstance, and that persons whose lives were at +stake ought to have the counsel they preferred. But he must be sensible +this would be as important a cause as was ever tried in any court or +country in the world; and that every lawyer must hold himself +responsible, not only to his country, but to the highest and most +infallible of all tribunals, for the part he should act. He must +therefore expect from me no art or address, no sophistry or +prevarication in such a cause, nor anything more than fact, evidence, +and law would justify." And a little after he tells us what it cost him +to act up to his own standard of duty. "At this time I had more +business at the bar than any man in the province. My health was feeble. +I was throwing away as bright prospects as any man ever had before him, +and I had devoted myself to endless labor and anxiety, if not to infamy +and to death, and that for nothing, except what was and ought to be all +in all, a sense of duty. In the evening, I expressed to Mrs. Adams all +my apprehensions. That excellent lady, who has always encouraged me, +burst into a flood of tears, but said she was very sensible of all the +danger to her and to our children, as well as to me, but she thought I +had done as I ought; she was very willing to share in all that was to +come, and to place her trust in Providence."</p> +<p>Such were the politicians of that day; and though we do not +doubt that private virtue as much abounds with us as <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_129"></a>[129]</span>with +them, and +that as great private sacrifices as this was public can be instanced in +these later times, yet no one will be so hardy as to say that any +politician of this day would brave such hazards or so daringly face +peril. Politics are become a trade with us. The curse of popular +governments is this, that they make office desirable in proportion to +the ease with which it is attained, and that seeking place becomes in +time as legitimate a profession as seeking oysters. No one will so mock +at common sense, or hold the judgments of his fellow spectators in such +light esteem, as to aver that any one of our public men serves his +country for his country's sake, or for any better reason than because +it is conducive to bread and butter. Hence it is with us a jeer and a +by-word to talk about patriotism. The fact seems to be, that our +material prosperity is so great, our resources so boundless, our +outlook so glorious, our liberty so well assured—or at least the +liberty of those among us who are white—that there is no call for +sacrifice and patriotic service. The country is rich and can well +afford, if she will be served, to pay the servant; but we speak of +devotion to principle, which we believe is clean gone out from us, and +can be predicated of no public man.</p> +<p>John Adams, son of John Adams and Susannah Boylston Adams, was +born at Quincy, Massachusetts, on the 19th day of October, 1735. He +received the best education that the times afforded, graduated at +Harvard College, and afterward commenced the study of divinity with a +view to the ministry; at the same time he was occupied in teaching +school, that universal stepping-stone in New England to professional +life. Indeed, there was then hardly more than there is now any such +thing as a schoolmaster by profession; and without doubt a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_130"></a>[130]</span>sufficing +reason for the fact that our young men are so inefficiently educated, +is, that the teachers are in nine cases out of ten only one lesson in +advance of their scholars. In those days, however, the schoolmaster was +apt to be a person of some consequence. He held a position very often +next in importance to that of the parson, and ruled an autocrat over +his little flock of beardless citizens. Nowhere has he been better +described than in "Margaret," in the character of Master Elliman, whose +mingled pompousness, verbiage, and pedantry, admirably represent the +class to which he belonged. But the character gradually lost its +individuality as society advanced, until at length the great bulk of +teachers, except in the colleges, were merely young men preparing for +the learned professions.</p> +<p>The injurious effect of this state of things, which has made a +very decided mark upon our national character, we will not discuss +here, but it is well to note the differences between the manners of the +colonial times, and those of our present day—and of these differences +none is so striking as the great decrease of respect in which +professional men are held with us compared with that which was yielded +to them by our forefathers. With them the schoolmaster, the parson, the +physician, the lawyer, were considered and treated as a sort of sacred +nobility, apart from the vulgar, and wholly refusing admixture with +them; they were placed in the seats of honor, and counted among +counsellors; their company was sought by the wealthy and the educated, +their acts were chronicled, and their words were echoed from mouth to +mouth. In the streets, when the schoolmaster or minister appeared, the +children at play drew up into a hurried line, took off their caps, made +deferential <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_131"></a>[131]</span> +bows and listened with humility to the greeting or word of +advice. Nowadays, the Pope himself would be hustled in an omnibus, and +if Master Elliman were to appear in the streets and offer advice to the +children, ten to one but that they would throw dirt at him. It was in +the twilight which followed the departing day of these venerable times +and preceded the coming on of these degenerate darker hours, that John +Adams became a pedagogue. He was hardly at that age fit to be a +teacher. He was thoughtful, ambitious and lofty in his aims, but he was +also somewhat indolent and wanted persistency. It is true that his mind +was hardly made up as to what he should do for a living. We have said +that he began with studying for the ministry, but he tells us that he +at one time read much in medical books, and inclined to the study of +physic.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> +<p>Yet I imagine that his inclination to either of these +professions was never very strong. His education at Cambridge, then the +high seat of orthodoxy, and perhaps the advice of his parents, his +father holding an office in the church government of his town of some +importance at that day, may have led his mind in the direction of the +ministry, and his studies in that line were very regular and persistent +for some time. Surgery and medicine had probably merely the fleeting +fascination for <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_132"></a>[132]</span> +him which they have for multitudes of eager young men, +striving to pry into all the subtile secrets of nature, and to find out +all the mysteries which environ us. But as he says of himself, "the law +drew me more and more," and in his Diary under the date of Sunday, 22d +of August, 1756, we have the following entry:—</p> +<p>"Yesterday I completed a contract with Mr. Putnam to study the +law, under his inspection, for two years. I ought to begin with a +resolution to oblige and please him and his lady in a particular +manner; I ought to endeavor to please every body, but them in +particular. Necessity drove me to this determination, but my +inclination, I think, was to preach; however, that would not do. But I +set out with firm resolutions, I think, never to commit any meanness or +injustice in the practice of law. The study and practice of law, I am +sure, does not dissolve the obligations of morality or of religion; +and, although the reason of my quitting divinity was my opinion +concerning some disputed points, I hope I shall not give reason of +offence, to any in that profession, by imprudent warmth."</p> +<p>He now gave up his school, and somewhat changed his manner of +life. Before we leave him let us hear his quaint description of the +schoolboys of his day—not very different from the youngsters of 1853.</p> +<p>"15. Monday (1756).—I sometimes in my sprightly moments +consider myself in my great chair at school, as some dictator at the +head of a commonwealth. In this little state I can discover all the +great geniuses, all the surprising actions and revolutions of the great +world, in miniature. I have several renowned generals not three feet +high, and several deep <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_133"></a>[133]</span> +projecting politicians in petticoats. I have +others catching and dissecting flies, accumulating remarkable pebbles, +cockle-shells, &c., with as ardent curiosity as any virtuoso in +the Royal Society. Some rattle and thunder out A, B, C, with as much +fire and impetuosity as Alexander fought, and very often sit down and +cry as heartily upon being outspelt as Cęsar did, when at Alexander's +sepulchre he recollected that the Macedonian hero had conquered the +world before his age. At one table sits Mr. Insipid, foppling and +fluttering, spinning his whirligig, or playing with his fingers, as +gayly and wittily as any Frenchified coxcomb brandishes his cane or +rattles his snuff-box. At another, sits the polemical divine, plodding +and wrangling in his mind about "Adam's fall, in which we sinned all," +as his Primer has it. In short, my little school, like the great world, +is made up of kings, politicians, divines, L.L.D.'s, fops, buffoons, +fiddlers, sycophants, fools, coxcombs, chimney-sweepers, and every +other character drawn in history, or seen in the world. Is it not, +then, the highest pleasure, my friend, to preside in this little world, +to bestow the proper applause upon virtuous and generous actions, to +blame and punish every vicious and contracted trick, to wear out of the +tender mind every thing that is mean and little, and fire the new-born +soul with a noble ardor and emulation? The world affords us no greater +pleasure. Let others waste their bloom of life at the card or +billiard-table among rakes or fools, and when their minds are +sufficiently fretted with losses, and inflamed by wine, ramble through +the streets, assaulting innocent people, breaking windows, or +debauching young girls. I envy not their exalted happiness. I had +rather sit in school and consider which of my pupils will turn out in +his future life a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_134"></a>[134]</span> +hero, and which a rake, which a philosopher, and +which a parasite, than change breasts with them; though possessed of +twenty laced waistcoats and a thousand pounds a year."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> +<p>One of the most interesting features of the early part of the +"Diary" from which these extracts have been taken, is the perfect +simplicity and truthfulness with which the writer details his efforts +to attain steadfastness of purpose and diligence in study. He feels in +moments of reflection the value of his time and the sacredness of duty; +he makes the best resolutions, and concocts the wisest plans for +improvement and the most liberal schemes of study; but his animal +spirits, which flowed on in cheerfulness, even to his latest day of +life, his social nature, and his admiration for women, all played sad +pranks with his resolves, and drew out from him many a repentant sigh +over lost and wasted time. Yet this trouble ceases almost as soon as he +begins to study law and gives up his uncertain dallyings with +schoolkeeping, divinity, and medicine. Having once put his shoulder to +the wheel, he worked with vigor, and began to show what greatness of +character there was in him. Let it not be understood from what we have +said, that John Adams was ever a seeker after low or vulgar pleasures. +More than once in his "Diary" he ridicules the foolish, extravagant, +licentious amusements of the young men of his time. Card-playing, +drinking, backgammon, smoking, and swearing, he says are the +fashionable means of getting rid of time, which excited in his mind +only contempt. "I know not," he says, "how any young fellow can study +in this town. What pleasure can a young gentleman who is capable of +thinking, take in playing cards? It gratifies none of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_135"></a>[135]</span>senses, +neither sight, hearing, taste, smelling, nor feeling; it can entertain +the mind only by hushing its clamors. Cards, backgammon, &c., +are the great antidotes to reflection, to thinking, that cruel tyrant +within us! What learning or sense are we to expect from young gentlemen +in whom a fondness for cards, &c., outgrows and chokes the +desire of knowledge?"</p> +<p>Up to the time of his commencing the study of law with Mr. +Putnam, John Adams had resided in Braintree, sharing in the social +intercourses of the place, its tea-parties, clubs of young men, +visiting and receiving visitors, and all the common civilities of +country life. On one occasion, we find him taking tea and spending the +evening at Mr. Putnam's, in conversation about Christianity. This was +at the time when Adams was studying divinity, and it is evident that he +discussed religion and theological subjects with a good deal of +interest, since we find that the talk at almost all these meetings +turns in that direction. There seems to have been a decided leaning +towards speculation and doubt in the minds of many men, on the +subject +of Christianity, at that day, and we frequently find their opinion very +frankly expressed in the "Diary," and left almost without comment by +the recorder. He was very fond of chatting with his neighbors over a +social cup of tea, sometimes after a day spent in hard study, at other +times resting from the fatigues of attending to little affairs about +the farm, loading and unloading carts, splitting wood, and doing other +chores. He is apt to be a little impatient with himself. He finds it +easier to say before going to bed that he will rise at six than to get +up when the hour arrives. Several days in the "Diary" bear for sole +record—"Dreamed away <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_136"></a>[136]</span> +this day," and once when several had slipped by +without any seeming good result, he writes—"Thursday, Friday. I know +not what became of these days;" and again—"Friday, Saturday, Sunday, +Monday. All spent in absolute idleness, or which is worse, gallanting +the girls." The next day—"Tuesday. <i>Sat down and recollected +my self</i>, and read a little in Van Muyden, a little in Naval +Trade and Commerce."</p> +<p>And so the good seems always leading him on, always eluding +him, and playing sad momentary havoc with his peace of mind. But he +consents to no doubtful terms with the enemy. He determined to conquer +the foes of sloth, inattention, social indulgence, and do his whole +duty. With the responsibilities of time came the cure for youthful +follies, and his marriage in the thirtieth year of his age, dealt the +last fatal blow to all his enemies. In 1764 he thus writes:—</p> +<p>"Here it may be proper to recollect something which makes an +article of great importance in the life of every man. I was of an +amorous disposition, and, very early, from ten or eleven years of age, +was very fond of the society of females. I had my favorites among the +young women, and spent many of my evenings in their company; and this +disposition, although controlled for seven years after my entrance into +college, returned, and engaged me too much till I was married.</p> +<p>"I shall draw no characters, nor give any enumeration of my +youthful flames. It would be considered as no compliment to the dead or +the living. This I will say:—they were all modest and virtuous girls, +and always maintained their character through life. No virgin or matron +ever had cause to blush at the sight of me, or to regret her +acquaintance with me. No father, brother, son, or friend, ever had +cause of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_137"></a>[137]</span> +grief or resentment for any intercourse between me and any +daughter, sister, mother, or any relation of the female sex. These +reflections, to me consolatory beyond all expression, I am able to make +with truth and sincerity; and I presume I am indebted for this blessing +to my education.</p> +<hr /> +<p>"I passed the summer of 1764 in attending courts and pursuing +my studies, with some amusement on my little farm, to which I was +frequently making additions, until the fall, when, on the 25th of +October, I was married to Miss Smith, second daughter of the Rev. +William Smith, minister of Weymouth, granddaughter of the Hon. John +Quincy, of Braintree, a connection which has been the source of all my +felicity, although a sense of duty, which forced me away from her and +my children for so many years, produced all the griefs of my heart and +all that I esteem real afflictions in life."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> +<p>In 1758, his term of study with Mr. Putnam being expired, John +Adams left Worcester, having determined for several reasons not to +settle there, but to establish himself, if possible, in Braintree, +where his father and mother resided. They had invited him to live with +them, and he says that as there had never been a lawyer in any country +part of the county of Suffolk, he was determined to try his fortune +there. His acquaintances told him that "the town of Boston was full of +lawyers, many of them of established characters for long experience, +great abilities, and extensive fame, who might be jealous of <i>such +a novelty as a lawyer</i> in the country part of their county, +and might be induced to obstruct me. I returned, that I was not wholly +unknown to some of the most celebrated <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_138"> +</a>[138]</span>of those gentlemen; that I +believed they had too much candor and generosity to injure a young man; +and, at all events, I could try the experiment, and if I should find no +hope of success, I should then think of some other place or some other +course." The result was that he established himself in Braintree, +living at his father's house, and continuing his studies patiently and +perseveringly until clients began to appear. He gives an amusing +account of his first "<i>writ</i>," and chronicles its +failure with a nonchalant stoicism which can hardly conceal his +vexation at being laughed at by his acquaintances among the young +lawyers of the town. His residence in Braintree seems to have been a +pleasant one. He had much leisure for study and reading, and made good +use of his time. He was acquainted with all the people of consequence +in the town, and was, as we have said, fond of visiting, calling in to +take a social pipe or glass, as was the fashion of the day, to chat +with the wife or daughter of the house, to discuss with the head of the +family the last political bubble of the hour, the prospect of the +crops, the expediency of this or that proceeding in the village, or any +of the local topics of the day. Sometimes we find him with a knot of +young fellows met together of an evening, discussing with one or two +some question in morals or rhetoric, or sitting abstracted with a book +or his pipe on one side the chimney, the room filled with smoke, the +rest of the party engaged in card-playing, backgammon, or other +sedative game. At another time, though somewhat later, he speaks of +hearing "the ladies talk about ribbon, catgut, and Paris net, +riding-hoods, cloth, silk, and lace;" and again he has a pleasant +picture of taking tea at his grandfather Quincy's—"the old gentleman +inquisitive about the hearing before the governor and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_139"></a>[139]</span>council, +about +the governor's and secretary's looks and behavior, and about the final +determination of the board. The old lady as merry and chatty as ever, <i>with +her stories out of the newspapers</i>." He had through life a +serene equable mind, he took the kindness and unkindness of fortune +with even looks, and preserved his relish for a joke undiminished, in +all his circumstances. We have before us two portraits of John Adams +painted, the one when about forty years of age, the other when he was +ninety. The younger likeness is a face of remarkable beauty, the +forehead broad, serene, and intelligent, the eyebrows dark and +elegantly arched over a pair of eyes which we make no doubt did fierce +execution among the young women of the period who came under their +sparkling influence. The lips full, finely curved, and giving an +expression of great sweetness to the face, are yet firmly set, and +combine with the attitude of the head to convey an impression of +haughtiness and dignity. The chin is full, rounded, and inclined to be +double; the powdered hair and the stiff coat take away from the +youthful appearance of the picture.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The other portrait is from an +original by Gilbert Stuart, and was painted when John Adams was in his +ninetieth year. At this time he was obliged to be fed from a spoon; yet +no one, looking at this noble, vigorous head, with its fine color and +magnificent forehead, would suppose his age so great. The beauty of the +young man has grown into the fuller nobility of a face in which there +appears no trace of any evil passion, no mark of any uneasy thought, +but an undisturbed serenity that looks back on life and awaits <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_140"></a>[140]</span>death +with the happiest memories and the gladdest anticipations.</p> +<p>In 1768, Mr. Adams, by the advice of his friends, who were +urgent with him, removed to Boston, and took the house in Brattle +Square called the White House. His son, John Quincy Adams, was born the +year before—his life commenced with the most stirring period of his +country's history, and it was his good fortune to bring down to our +times so clear a memory of those events as to make a conversation with +him on the subject an era in the life of an American. Shortly after the +removal of John Adams to Boston, he was requested to accept an office +under government; but although it was offered to him without respect to +his opinions, which were well known to be hostile to the British rule +in Massachusetts, and although the office was very lucrative, yet he +insisted on refusing it, because he feared that he should sacrifice his +independence in some manner to the influences of the position. He +therefore declined any connection with the government, and continued +the practice of the law, which had now become the source of a very +handsome income, and was leading him by rapid steps into a very wide +and honorable repute.</p> +<p>Before leaving Braintree, John Adams had become accustomed to +a great deal of exercise, riding horseback to Boston, Germantown, +Weymouth, and other adjoining towns; cutting down trees, superintending +planting and harvesting, and every way taking a good share of the work +on his farm. Some of the pleasantest portions of the "Diary" are those +in which he describes this part of his life. The following extract +gives a moral picture of his habits:—</p> +<p>"October, 22. Friday. Spent last Monday in taking pleasure <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_141"></a>[141]</span>with +Mr. Wibird. * * * * *<br /> +Upon this part of the peninsula is a number of trees, which +appear very much like the lime tree<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> of Europe, which gentlemen +are so fond of planting in their gardens for their beauty. Returned to +Mr. Borland's,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +dined, and afternoon rode to Germantown, where we spent our evening. +Deacon Palmer showed us his lucerne growing in his garden, of which he +has cut, as he tells us, four crops this year. The Deacon had his +lucerne seeds of Mr. Greenleaf, of Abington, who had his of Judge +Oliver. The Deacon watered his but twice this summer, and intends to +expose it uncovered to all the weather of the winter for a fair trial, +whether it will endure our winters or not. Each of his four crops had +attained a good length. It has a rich fragrance for a grass. He showed +us a cut of it in 'Nature Displayed,' and another of St. Foin, and +another of trefoil. The cut of the lucerne was exact enough; the pod in +which the seeds are is an odd thing, a kind of ram's-horn or straw.</p> +<p>"We had a good deal of conversation upon husbandry. The Deacon +has about seventy bushels of potatoes this year on about one quarter of +an acre of ground. Trees of several sorts considered. The wild +cherry-tree bears a fruit of some value; the wood is very good for the +cabinet-maker, and is not bad to burn. It is a tree of much beauty; its +leaves and bark are handsome, and its shape. The locust; good timber, +fattening to soil by its leaves, blossoms, &c.; good wood, +quick growth, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_142"></a>[142]</span> +&c. The larch-tree; there is but one<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +in the country, that in the lieutenant-governor's yard at Milton; it +looks somewhat like an evergreen, but is not; sheds its leaves.</p> +<p>"I read in Thompson's Travels in Turkey in Asia, mention of a +turpentine called by the name of turpentine of Venice, which is not the +product of Venice, but of Dauphinč, and flows from the larch tree. It +is thick and balsamic, and used in several arts, particularly that of +enamelling.</p> +<p>"24. Sunday. Before sunrise.—My thoughts have taken a sudden +turn to husbandry. Have contracted with Jo. Field to clear my swamp, +and to build me a long string of stone wall, and with Isaac to build me +sixteen rods more, and with Jo. Field to build me six rods more. And my +thoughts are running continually from the orchard to the pasture, and +from thence to the swamp, and thence to the house and barn, and land +adjoining. Sometimes I am at the orchard ploughing up acre after acre, +planting, pruning apple-trees, mending fences, carting dung; sometimes +in the pasture, digging stones, clearing bushes, pruning trees, +building to redeem posts and rails; and sometimes removing button-trees +down to my house; sometimes I am at the old swamp burning bushes, +digging stumps and roots, cutting ditches across the meadows and +against my uncle; and am sometimes at the other end of the +town buying posts and rails to fence against my uncle, and against the +brook; and am sometimes ploughing the upland with six yoke of oxen, and +planting corn, potatoes, &c., and digging up the meadows and +sowing onions, planting cabbages, &c., &c. Sometimes I +am at the homestead, running <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_143"></a>[143]</span> +cross-fences, and planting potatoes by the +acre, and corn by the two acres, and running a ditch along the line +between me and Field, and a fence along the brook against my brother, +and another ditch in the middle from Field's line to the meadows. +Sometimes am carting gravel from the neighboring hills, and sometimes +dust from the streets upon the fresh meadows, and am sometimes +ploughing, sometimes digging those meadows to introduce clover and +other English grasses."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> +<p>Thus passed the days of his early married life in Braintree, +between the earnest study of the law, the participation in social +intercourse with friends and neighbors, and occasional Bucolical +episodes. In 1768, as we have said, he removed to Boston, and but +seldom went into the country. In 1771, however, we find him writing as +follows:</p> +<p>"The complicated cares of my legal and political engagements, +the slender diet to which I was obliged to confine myself, the air of +the town of Boston, which was not favorable to me, who had been born +and passed almost all my life in the country, but especially the +constant obligation to speak in public, almost every day, for many +hours, had exhausted my health, brought on a pain in my breast, and a +complaint in my lungs, which seriously threatened my life, and +compelled me to throw off a great part of the load of business, both +public and private, and return to my farm in the country. Early in the +Spring of 1771, I removed my family to Braintree, still holding, +however, an office in Boston. The air of my native spot, and the fine +breezes from the sea on one side, and the rocky mountains of pine and +savin on the other, together with daily rides on horseback and the +amusements of agriculture, <i>always</i> <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_144"></a>[144]</span><i>delightful +to me</i>, +soon restored my health in a considerable degree.</p> +<p>"April 16. Tuesday evening. Last Wednesday, my furniture was +all removed to Braintree. Saturday I carried up my wife and youngest +child, and spent the Sabbath there very agreeably. On the 20th or 25th +of April, 1768, I removed into Boston. In the three years I have spent +in that town, have received innumerable civilities from many of the +inhabitants; many expressions of their good will, both of a public and +private nature. Of these I have the most pleasing and grateful +remembrance. * * * * *</p> +<p>"Monday morning I returned to town, and was at my office +before nine. I find I shall spend more time in my office than ever I +did. Now my family is away, I feel no inclination at all, no +temptation, to be any where but at my office. I am in it by six in the +morning, I am in it at nine at night, and I spend but a small space of +time in running down to my brother's to breakfast, dinner, and tea. +Yesterday, I rode to town from Braintree before nine, attended my +office till near two, then dined and went over the ferry to Cambridge. +Attended the House the whole afternoon, returned and spent the whole +evening in my office alone, and I spent the time much more profitably, +as well as pleasantly, than I should have done at club. This evening is +spending the same way. In the evening, I can be alone at my office, and +nowhere else; I never could in my family.</p> +<p>"18. Thursday—Fast day. Tuesday I staid at my office in town; +yesterday went up to Cambridge, returned at night to Boston, and to +Braintree,—still, calm, happy Braintree,—at nine o'clock at night. This +morning, cast my eyes out to <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_145"></a>[145]</span> +see what my workmen had done in my absence, and rode with my wife over +to Weymouth; there we are to hear young Blake—a pretty fellow.</p> +<p>"20. Saturday. Friday morning by nine o'clock, arrived at my +office in Boston, and this afternoon returned to Braintree; arrived +just at tea-time; drank tea with my wife. Since this hour, a week ago, +I have led a life active enough; have been to Boston twice, to +Cambridge twice, to Weymouth once, and attended my office and the court +too.</p> +<p>"But I shall be no more perplexed in this manner. I shall have +no journeys to make to Cambridge, no General Court to attend; but shall +divide my time between Boston and Braintree, between law and husbandry;—<i>farewell +politics</i>."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> +<p>During Mr. Adams's residence in Boston he did not always +occupy the same house. In April, 1768, he removed, as we have said, to +the White House in Brattle Square. In the spring, 1769, he removed to +Cole Lane, to Mr. Fayerweather's house. In 1770, he removed to another +house in Brattle Square.</p> +<p>In 1772 he again removed to Boston with his family, and +finding, as he says, that "it was very troublesome to hire houses, and +to be often obliged to remove, I determined to purchase a house, and +Mr. Hunt offering me one in Queen-street, near the scene of my +business, opposite the Court House, I bought it, and inconvenient and +contracted as it was, I made it answer, both for a dwelling and an +office, till a few weeks before the 19th of April, 1775, when the war +commenced."<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_146"></a>[146]</span></p> +<p>In 1774 Mr. Adams was appointed delegate to the first +American Congress at Philadelphia, and was obliged to leave his family +in Braintree, while he himself remained with the Congress. He continued +to reside in Philadelphia, visiting his family but seldom, and then in +a very hurried manner, till the year 1776, when he was appointed +commissioner to France in the place of Silas Deane, who was recalled. +The treaty with France having been concluded by Dr. Franklin before Mr. +Adams reached Paris, he returned home after an absence of a year and a +half.</p> +<p>Hardly had he returned before he was again dispatched as +Minister to the Court of St. James. While abroad at this time he made +some stay in Paris, was afterwards at Amsterdam for the purpose of +negotiating a loan and forming a treaty of amity and commerce with +Holland, and still later, in 1785, was appointed Minister +Plenipotentiary to Great Britain. During all this time he had been +separated from his wife—a space of nearly six years—but in 1784, +finding that there was no prospect of a return, he sent for Mrs. Adams +to join him in London. On reaching London, Mrs. Adams found that her +husband was in Paris; her son, John Quincy Adams, was sent by his +father to escort his mother and sister to France. The letters of Mrs. +Adams, describing their mode of life in Paris, or rather at the little +town of Auteuil, and also those which give an account of her residence +in London, are most charmingly written, and we wish there was room for +long extracts from them, but we already trespass upon the reader's +kindness. We have space for only one pretty domestic picture.</p> +<p>The family are expecting a packet of letters from America, +which their friend Mr. Charles Storer has sent from London to <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_147"></a>[147]</span>Paris. +They had some difficulty in procuring them from the post-office.</p> +<p>"About eight in the evening, however, they were brought in and +safely delivered, to our great joy. We were all together. Mr. Adams in +his easy chair upon one side of the table, reading Plato's Laws; Mrs. +A. upon the other, reading Mr. St. John's "Letters;" Abby, sitting upon +the left hand, in a low chair, in a pensive posture;—enter J.Q.A. from +his own room, with the letters in his hand, tied and sealed up, as if +they were never to be read; for Charles had put half a dozen new covers +upon them. Mr. A. must cut and undo them leisurely, each one watching +with eagerness. Finally, the originals were discovered; 'Here is one +for you, my dear, and here is another; and here, Miss Abby, are four, +five, upon my word, six, for you, and more yet for your mamma. Well, I +fancy I shall come off but slenderly. Only one for me.' 'Are there none +for me, sir?' says Mr. J.Q.A., erecting his head, and walking away a +little mortified."</p> +<p>On his return from Europe, Mr. Adams resided—whenever +political duties permitted his absence from the seat of government—at +the mansion in Quincy, the name by which the more ancient portion of +Braintree was called.</p> +<p>The estate was purchased after the revolution. The house had +been built long before by one of the Vassall family, a well-known +republican name in England in the time of the commonwealth, some +members of which had transferred themselves to Jamaica under Cromwell's +projects of colonizing that island, and from thence had come to +Massachusetts. But time had changed them from republicans to royalists, +and when the revolution broke out they were on the side of the mother +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_148"></a>[148]</span> +country. In Quincy, however, the race had run into females, and the +house belonged to a descendant by the name of Borland, who sold it to +the agent of Mr. Adams. It was then, however, very different from what +it is now. Mr. Adams nearly doubled the size of it, and altered the +front. It has since been altered once or twice, and lately by the +present occupant, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, a grandson of the +President.</p> +<p>In this house Mr. Adams continued to reside till his death in +1826. During the time that he was in Philadelphia and Washington as +President and Vice-President, Mrs. Adams remained +at Quincy, partly on account of her health, partly to take charge of +her husband's private property, which had never been large, and which +had suffered much diminution from the expenses incident to public life.</p> +<p>Mrs. Adams's account of her residence in Washington—the +troubles which she had in procuring almost the necessaries of life in +that out of the way settlement—her description of Washington and the +White House at that early date, have been printed too often in +newspapers all over the country, to need insertion here. Not less +interesting than these letters are those which describe her life in +Philadelphia; her little sketches of society in that city, then the +seat of government, have all the charms which the unaffected letters of +an elegant woman cannot fail to display.</p> +<p>The following letter will conclude our article, showing, as it +does, the peaceful occupations of this happy aged couple, retired to +their beloved home to await the inevitable summons, to which they +looked forward with the beautiful resignation of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_149"></a>[149]</span> +minds in love with +virtue, and conscious of no offence against the laws of God or man.<br /> +</p> +<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="smcap">TO THOMAS B. ADAMS.</span></div> +<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="margin-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Quincy</span>, 12 <i>July</i>, 1801.</span></div> +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Son</span>:</p> +<p>"I am much delighted to learn that you intend making a visit +to the old mansion. I wish you could have accomplished it so as to have +been here by this time, which would have given you an opportunity of +being at Commencement, meeting many of your old acquaintances, and +visiting the seat of science, where you received your first rudiments.</p> +<p>"I shall look daily for you. You will find your father in +the fields, attending to his haymakers, and your mother busily occupied +in the domestic concerns of her family. I regret that a fortnight of +sharp drought has shorn many of the beauties we had in rich luxuriance. +The verdure of the grass has become a brown, the flowers hang their +heads, droop, and fade, whilst the vegetable world languishes; yet +still we have a pure air. The crops of hay have been abundant; upon +this spot, where eight years ago we cut scarcely six tons, we now have +thirty. 'We are here, among the vast and noble scenes of nature, where +we walk in the light and open ways of the divine bounty, and where our +senses are feasted with the clear and genuine taste of their objects.' * * * * *</p> +<p>"I am, my dear Thomas, affectionately, your mother,</p> +<div style="text-align: right;">"<span class="smcap">Abigail Adams</span>." </div> +<p>Mrs. Adams died at Quincy on the 28th of October, 1818, aged +seventy-four years.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_150"></a>[150]</span> +John Adams died at the good age of ninety-one years, on the +4th of July, 1826. We thank God, as he did, that a life spent in the +service of his country should close without pain and in perfect +tranquillity of soul, on the anniversary of the best day in her +history, and a day with which his name is for ever associated in our +gratefullest memories.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_151"></a>[151]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="patrick_henry"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Patrick Henry.</span> +<br /> +</h6> +<hr /> +<p><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_153"></a>[153]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus167"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 411px; height: 403px;" alt="Residence of Patrick Henry, Va." src="images/illus167.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Residence of Patrick Henry, Va.</a></span></p> +<h2>PATRICK HENRY.</h2> +<p>There is no "Home of an American Statesman" that may more +fitly claim the leading place in this our repository than the dwelling +of Patrick Henry—the earliest, the most eloquent, and the wisest of +those whose high counsels first swayed us as one people and drew us to +a common cause; as resolutely as ably directed that cause to its noble +event; and, in a word, performing in the civil struggle all that +Washington executed in the military, achieved for us existence as a +nation.</p> +<p>In the Heroic Age, however, such as was to us the Revolution, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_154"></a>[154]</span> +men build not monuments nor engrave commemorative inscriptions: those +of nature, identified by rude but reverential tradition, alone attest +where the founders of a race, the great-fathers of an empire, have +sprung.</p> +<p>If there be, among the many men of that brave day, one +prompter and more unfaltering than all the rest; if, among all who +moved by stirring words and decisive acts the general mind of the +country, there was one who more directly than any, or than all, set it +in a flame not to be extinguished; if amidst those lights there was +one, the day star, till whose coming there was no dawn, it was +certainly Henry. It is true that, before him, Massachusetts had her +quarrel with England, but not with the common sympathy of the colonies. +For, averse, from her very foundation, to not merely the dominion, but +the very institutions of the mother country, she had kept up with it a +continual bickering, religious as well as civil; a strife at best +local, often ill-tempered and factious; so that her too frequent +broils, commanding little regard, would have continued to come to +nothing had not an opposition to English measures sprung up in a more +loyal quarter. The southern colonies, meanwhile, had always loved the +parent land, both church and state, and naturally had been indulgently +dealt with by its legislation. Thus, until that ill-advised measure, +the Stamp Act, came, to affect all the American plantations alike, +there had been nothing to draw us together in a common cause, a common +resistance. The Stamp Act gave that cause, and Henry led that +resistance. Young, obscure, unconnected, unaided, uncounselled, and +even uncountenanced, he yet, by the sudden splendor of his eloquence, +his abilities, and his dauntless resolution, carried every thing <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_155"></a>[155]</span>before +him; animated the whole land to a determined assertion of their rights; +established for himself a boundless influence over the popular mind; +used it, whenever the occasion came, to sound the signal of an +unshrinking opposition to every encroachment; led the way, +independently of all movements elsewhere; devised and brought about +every main measure of preparation; rejected all compromise; clearly the +first to see the certain issue of the contest in European interposition +and the establishment of our Independence, pursued steadily that aim +before even he could openly avow it: and finally, when things were +ripe; assumed it for his State, instructed her deputation to propose it +to all the rest, and indeed, involved them in it beyond avoidance, by +setting up a regular and permanent Republican Constitution in Virginia; +a step that allowed no retreat, and was not less decisive than the +heroical act of Cortez, when, marching upon Mexico from his +landing-place, he burnt his vessels behind him. Henry was, in a word, +the Moses who led us forth from the house of bondage. If there had been +an opposition before his, it was not the appointed, and would have been +an ineffectual one. There had, no doubt, been Jews enough that +murmured, even before he who was to deliver them appeared. We may, +therefore, fitly apply to Henry, in regard to the bringing about of our +Independence, all that Dryden so finely said of Bacon in science:<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"Bacon, like Moses, led us forth, at last:</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +The barren wilderness he passed;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Did on the very border stand</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Of the blest promised land;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +And from the mountain-top of his exalted wit,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Saw it himself and showed us it."</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_156"></a>[156]</span> +And yet Henry, like nearly all his illustrious fellow-laborers +of freedom, sleeps in an undistinguished grave. At his death, party +spirit denied to his memory the tokens of public admiration and regret, +offered in that very legislature of which he had been the great light, +and which, indeed, he had called into being. Since that sorry +failure—for all faction should have been hushed over the body of a +citizen and a man so admirable—no further notice has been taken of him; +and he who merited a national monument, only less proud than that due +to Washington himself, slumbers beneath an humble private one at Red +Hill, the secluded residence where he died.</p> +<p>But we turn to those personal particulars of this +extraordinary man which are appropriate to the design of the present +volume. Not a few of them will be found to involve important +corrections of the received account of his early years, and a new view, +therefore, of his genius and character.</p> +<p>In that received account, his sole original biographer, Mr. +Wirt—writing without any personal knowledge of him, and neglecting to +consult the most obvious and authentic source of information, his four +surviving sisters, ladies of condition and of remarkable +intelligence—has fallen into the vulgar error, to which the peculiar +position and fortunes of Mr. Henry at first gave rise, and which he +afterwards, for warrantable political purposes, encouraged. When he +suddenly burst out from complete obscurity, an unrivalled orator, a +consummate politician, and snatched the control of legislation and of +the public mind from the veteran, the college-bred, the wealthy and +high-born leaders who had till then held it, the homeliness of dress +which befitted his narrow circumstances, the humility of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_157"></a>[157]</span>aspect +and the +simplicity of manners, which were unaffected traits of his disposition, +naturally assigned him in the eyes of both those who were of it and of +those who looked down upon it, to the plebeian class. It suited the +envy of these, it delighted the admiration of those, to regard him—that +unintelligible marvel of abilities, which had thus all at once effaced +every thing else—as a mere child of the people. The really skilful, who +understand intellectual prodigies and never refer them to ignorance or +chance, must have seen at once, through the cloud in which he stood, a +great and an enlightened understanding, too competent to a high and a +complex public question, not to be strong in knowledge as well as +faculties. The few cannot have mistaken him for that fabulous thing, an +ignorant genius; for they must have seen in his commanding and complete +eloquence the art, in his masterly measures the information, of one +thoroughly trained, though in secret, to the business of swaying men's +minds, and of conducting their counsels, though hitherto apart from +them. All but this highest class, however, of the rivals whom he at +once threw into eclipse naturally sought to depreciate him as a mere +declaimer, a tribunitian orator, voluble and vehement as he was rude, +rash, and illiterate. Could the tapers that, at Belshazzar's feast, +went out before the blaze of that marvellous handwriting on the wall, +have been afterwards permitted to give their opinion of it, they would, +of course, have talked disdainfully of its beam, as mere phosphorus or +some other low pyrotechnic trick. Such was the reputation which the +vanquished magnates in general, and their followers, endeavored to fix +upon the young subverter of their ascendency. He was not of one of the +old aristocratic families; he was a low person, therefore he had never +been <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_158"></a>[158]</span> +within the walls of a college, still less had he, like many of +them, finished, with the graces of foreign travel, a public discipline +of learning; he was, therefore, by their report, illiterate, although, +certainly, in his performances, all the best effects of education were +manifest, without its parade. While they called him ignorant, he always +proved himself to know whatever the occasion demanded, and able +victoriously to instruct foe and friend. Shunning, from his sense, all +assumption, and from his modesty, all display, he never pulled out the +purse of his acquirements to chink it merely, but only to pay; so that +no man could tell what he had left in the bottom of his pocket; and +thus, a ragged-looking Fortunatus, he always surprised men with his +unguessed resources. Strange powers, undoubtedly, he had, that must +have not a little confounded the judgment of the best observers; +unexercised in the forum, he had risen up a consummate master of the +whole art of moving in discourse the understanding or the passions; +unpractised in public affairs, he had only to appear in them, in order +to stand the first politician of his day; unversed in the business and +the strategy of deliberative assemblies, he had only to become a member +of one, in order to be its adroitest parliamentary tactician. As he was +dexterous without practice, so was he prudent without experience; for, +from the first he shone out as the wisest man in all the public +councils. He seems to have escaped all that tribute of error which +youth must almost invariably pay, as the price of eminence in public +affairs; he fell into no theory, he indulged no vision, he never once +committed a blunder; in short, ripe from the beginning, he appeared to +be by instinct and the mere gift of nature, whatever others slowly +become only by the aid of art and experience. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_159"></a>[159]</span>Bred up in +seclusion, +though (as the high cultivation of his sisters testified to all who +knew them) in a household whose very atmosphere was knowledge, he had, +beyond a good acquaintance with Latin, the rudiments of Greek, French, +mathematics, and an early familiarity with the best English +authors—those of the Elizabethan age, of the Commonwealth, and of Queen +Anne's day—received little direct instruction; none, but from his +father and books, his early companions, so that his scholastic +instruction was really slender. But he had been taught, betimes, to +love knowledge and how to work it out for himself; how, in a word, to +accomplish what best unfolds a great genius, self-education. For +schools and colleges—admirable contrivances as they are for keeping up +among mankind a common method and a common stock of information—are but +suited, as they were but designed, for the common run of men. Applying +to all the same mechanical process; bringing to the same level the +genius and the dunce, they act excellently to repair the original +inequality, sometimes so vast, with which nature deals out +understanding among the human race. In a word, they are capital +machines for bringing about an average of talent; but it is at the +expense of those bright parts which occasionally come, that they do it. +Their methods clap in the same couples him who can but creep and him +who would soar; harness in the same cart the plough-horse and the +courser. The highest genius must be its own sole method-maker, its own +entire rule. From what it has done, rules are deduced; but for its +inferiors, not for it: its whole existence is exceptional, original; +and whatever, in its disciplining, would tend to make it otherwise, +serves but to check and to diminish its development. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_160"></a>[160]</span></p> +<p>No greater error, therefore, than to suppose that a man as +extraordinary as Patrick Henry, who, mature from the first, rose up a +consummate speaker and reasoner, and, amongst men of large abilities, +knowledge, and experience, constantly showed himself, in matters the +weightiest and the most difficult, superior to them all, could have +been uneducated. In reality he had learned of the best possible master, +for such a man—himself. That he knew, that he even knew more solidly, +because more effectually and to the purpose, than all those around him, +the great subjects with which he dealt so wonderfully, is beyond all +question. Now, though the genius of Mr. Henry was prodigious, and +though there be things which genius does, as it were, intuitively and +spontaneously, there are other things which are not knowable, even by +genius itself, without study; which the utmost genius cannot +extemporize, cannot produce from nothing, cannot make without their +materials previously amassed in its mind, cannot understand without +their necessary particulars accumulated in advance; and it was in just +such things—the highest civil ability, which comes of wisdom, not +genius; the greatest eloquence which cannot be formed but by infinite +art and labor—that he stood up at all times supreme. The sagacity of +statesmanship with which he looked through the untried affairs of this +country, saw through systems and foretold consequences, has never been +surpassed; and his eloquence, judged (as we have alone the means of +judging it) by its effects, has never been equalled.</p> +<p>Such then, even upon the traditionary facts out of which his +biographer has shaped into a mere fable his sudden rise and his +anomalous abilities, is, of necessity, the rational theory <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_161"></a>[161]</span>of +Mr. +Henry's greatness. But, without any resort to induction, the simple +truth, if Mr. Wirt had sought it in the natural quarter, would have +conducted him to the same conclusions as we have just set forth.</p> +<p>At the time when Mr. Wirt collected his materials, he was yet, +though of fine natural abilities, by no means the solid man that he by +and by became. His fancy was exuberant, his taste florid, his judgment +unformed. Himself in high repute for a youthful and gaudy eloquence, +which, however, he afterwards exchanged for a style of great severity +and vigor—he had been urged to his immature and ambitious undertaking, +by admirers who conceived him to be little less than a second Henry. +His besetting idea seems to be much akin to Dr. Johnson's "who drives +fat oxen should himself be fat:" namely that the life of a great orator +should be written by a great orator; and that he was to show not only +Mr. Henry but himself eloquent. In general his book does him credit, as +merely a literary performance, although sadly deformed, in what were +intended for its best passages, by an inflation of which he must have +been afterwards greatly ashamed, as a sin against all style, but +especially that proper to his subject—the historic. Let us add—in +simple justice to a man of great virtues and elevation, as well as +gentleness of mind and feelings, whose memory has upon us, besides, the +claim of public respect and of hereditary friendship—that his +biography, wherever his own, is, in spite of party spirit, written with +the most honorable candor, and vindicates Mr. Henry with equal fairness +and ability from the aspersions cast upon his conduct in the "Alien and +Sedition" business by the Jeffersonian faction. Wherever he (Mr. Wirt) +has depended upon his own researches alone, he displays <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_162"></a>[162]</span>both +diligence +and discrimination; but unhappily, he accepted the loose popular +traditions, which are never any thing but a tissue of old women's +tales; he relied upon a mass of casual contributions, chiefly derived +from the same legendary sources or from uncertain, confused, and (as +himself lets us see) often contradictory memories; and above all, he +adopted implicitly the information supplied by a certain Thomas +Jefferson; who, besides being a person of whom the sagacious and +upright Henry cherished a very ill opinion—so that <i>he</i> +could not well be supposed a very special repository of the orator's +personal confidences—was a gentleman who had all his life driven rather +the largest and most lucrative trade in the calumny of nearly all the +best and greatest of his contemporaries, that has ever been carried on +in these United States, much as that sort of commerce has long +flourished and yet flourishes amongst us. Upon such things he had come +to a splendid political fortune while he lived, and when he died, with +a pious solicitude to provide for his posterity, he bequeathed to his +grandson all the unspent capital stock of his slanders (his Memoirs and +Ana) to carry on the old business with and keep up the greatness of the +family.</p> +<p>The effect of all this was to turn what before was strange or +obscure, in Henry's history, into little better than a fable, a sort of +popular and poetic myth of eloquence, in which the great speaker and +statesman fades away into a fiction, a mere creation of the fancy, +scarcely more real or probable than the account in old Master Tooke's +"Pantheon," of Orpheus's drawing the rocks and trees and the very wild +beasts along with him by his powers of song. Nay, in one main point, +Master Tooke's legend more consults verisimilitude: for <i>he</i>, +instead of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_163"></a>[163]</span> +shocking all probability by representing his hero to have +been without education, sends him as private pupil to the Muses +themselves, who are reputed to have kept, then as now, the best Greek +and Latin colleges a-going.</p> +<p>It is certainly true, in excuse for all this, that the mighty +men who, for their exploits and services, became the demigods of fable, +"the fair humanities of old religion," had scarcely more struck the +excited imagination of their times than had Henry. Like theirs was the +obscurity of his birth, the mystery of his education, the marvel of his +achievements. Of his many great speeches, scarcely one uncorrupted +passage can be said to survive; so that even of that which all felt and +know we have but the faintest shadow. A fragmentary thought is all of +genuine that is left us out of a whole immortal harangue; some powerful +ejaculation stands for an entire oration, and dimly suggests, not +explains its astonishing effects. To all purpose historic of his +eloquence, he might just as well have lived before alphabetic writing +was invented. At best, the oratory that entrances, agitates, +enraptures, transports every man in a whole assembly, and hurries him +totally away, thrilling and frenzied with sensations as vehement as +novel, sets all reporting, all stenography at defiance. Before it, +shorthand—at most, the dim reflection of such things; a cold copy, a +poor parody where it is not a burlesque of speech in its great +bursts—drops its pen, and forgets even to translate; which, after all (<i>haud +inexpertus loquor</i>), is the utmost it can do. But of not even +such translation did Mr. Henry, upon any occasion but two,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +receive the advantage such as it is. Every <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_164"></a>[164]</span>where in these the +single +but skilful reporter confesses, by many a summary in parenthesis, that +at certain passages he lost himself in the speaker, and could not even +attempt to render him. Thus it comes that, of his transcendent +harangues—those which made or directed the Revolution—we have only a +few scattered sentences, and the seemingly amazed descriptions which +attest their extraordinary effects. There is but one exception: a +version, to appearance tolerably entire, though still evidently but a +sketch, of his "Liberty or Death" speech, when, on the 20th March, +1775, he told the Convention of Virginia, assembled in the "Old Church" +at Richmond (St. Johns), that "they must fight," and moved to arm and +organize the militia. This, even in its existing form, is a +prodigiously noble speech, full of vigor in the argument, full of +passion in the appeals, breathing every where the utmost fire of the +warrior, orator, patriot, and sage. Fitly uttered, it is still—though +of course it must have lost greatly in the transmission—a discourse to +rouse a whole nation invincibly to arms, if their cause and their +courage were worthy of it. That speech evidently, and that speech +alone, is, in the main, the true thunder of Henry: all the others are +but the mustard-bowl.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus179"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 346px; height: 402px;" alt="Old Church Richmond, Va." src="images/illus179.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Old Church Richmond, Va.</a></span></p> +<p>But though from all these causes, he already, in Mr. Wirt's +day, stood, as seen through the fast-gathered haze of tradition, a huge +but shadowy figure, it was the business of the biographer, instead of +merely showing him to us in that popular light, to set him in a true +one. The critical historian clears up such mists, defines such shadows, +and calls them back not only to substance but proportion, color, life, +the very pressure and body of the times. What if the historic truth had +passed <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_165"></a>[165]</span> +into a poetic fable? Mr. Wirt should have dealt with it, not as +a bard, a rhapsodist, but a philosophical mythologist, who from fable +itself sifts out the unwritten facts of a day, when fable was the only +form of history.</p> +<p>Besides, however, adopting for the fundamental facts of Mr. +Henry's character all these false sources, his biographer utterly +neglected (as we have already intimated) the most obvious and the most +natural ones. He had then four surviving sisters, women not merely of +condition but intellectually remarkable.</p> +<p>To none of these did Mr. Wirt resort for any domestic +particulars of his early life, which of course none knew so well as +they. Well acquainted with them all—sprung from one of them—we have +cause to know the astonishment with which they met this written account +of his early years and his breeding up. Had Mr. Wirt personally known +these highly cultivated and very superior ladies, distinguished as they +were for the completeness and solidity of their old-fashioned +education, he must have seen at once that his own story of Henry's +youthful institution and ways is about as true as it is that Achilles +was born of a sea-goddess, had a centaur for his private tutor, and was +fed upon lion's marrow to make him valiant.</p> +<p>His very lineage was literary. His father, John Henry, a +Scottish gentleman of Aberdeen, was a man of good birth, of learned +education, and, when he migrated to Virginia, of easy fortune. He was +the nephew of Robertson, the great historian of his own country and of +ours. The name of his mother, Jane Robertson, an admirable and +accomplished person, is still preserved and transmitted among her +female descendants. His cousin, David Henry, was the associate editor +of the "Gentleman's Magazine," then a leading publication, with <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_166"></a>[166]</span>Edward +Cave, the last of the learned printers; whose brother-in-law and +successor he became. The family bred many of its members for the +church, which in Britain implies such influence as secures preferment. +John's younger brother, Patrick, thus taking orders, received a +rectorship near him, and followed him to this country. In those days of +Episcopacy, benefices drew after them not merely comfortable reverence, +but goodly emolument and even authority in civil life; so that the +parsons were a power in the State. All this Patrick, a man worthy of +it, employed. His brother already possessed it; and thus both took +their station among the gentry, though not the aristocracy, of the +land—its untitled nobility: for, in effect, such an order, sustained by +primogeniture and entails, then existed throughout lower or tide-water +Virginia.</p> +<p>John attained to the command of the regiment of his county, to +its surveyorship, and to the presiding chair of its magistracy; +stations then never conferred but upon leading men in the community. +More careless, however, of his private interests than of the public, +without exactly wasting his fortune, he gradually frittered it away; +and though he repaired it for a time, by an advantageous marriage with +the young and wealthy widow (a Winston by birth) of his most intimate +friend, Col. John Syme, of the Rocky Mills, yet before the tenth year +of Patrick, his second son (born 29th May, 1736), he found himself so +straitened as to have need to make himself an income by setting up in +his house a private classical school. Assisted to this by the +reputation of being one of the best scholars in the country, he taught +for a number of years with great approval the children of his friends +and his own; abandoning the pursuit only when one of its +inducements—the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_167"></a>[167]</span> +education of his own sons and daughters (two of the +former and five of the latter)—had ceased.</p> +<p>Under such circumstances, and especially when we repeat that +those four of his daughters whom we knew were persons greatly admired +for the masculine goodness and extent of their education, it may be +judged how likely, how possible it is that Patrick, with his boundless +aptitude—always, in after life, applied most rapidly and successfully +to whatever he had need to understand—can have grown up to manhood +almost uninstructed, ignorant, and idle. Genius, of which it is the +very essence that it has an uncontrollable affinity for the knowledge +proper to its caste, has often been seen to surmount obstacles +seemingly invincible to its information; never yet wilfully, +incorrigibly, and in spite of every influence around, to shut out the +open and easy daylight of intelligence, and darken itself into +voluntary duncedom. The thing, we repeat is a flat, a bald and a +flagrant impossibility. You might as well tell us that a young eagle, +instead of taking to the sky as soon as its pinions were grown, has, +though neither caged nor clipped, remained contented on foot and +preferred to run about the barn-yard with the dunghill fowls. No! your +"mute Miltons" and your harmless Cromwells sound very prettily to the +fancy, but in plain fact, were no Miltons unless they sang, no +Cromwells unless they conquered. Genius and Heroism—the most strenuous +of human things—were never dull, slothful, idle; never slighted +opportunity, but always make, if they do not find it.</p> +<p>Accordingly, the sisters of Mr. Henry always asserted that, +whatever their brother might appear abroad, he was a close voluntary +student at home; exploring not only his father's <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_168"></a>[168]</span>library, +which was +large and good, but whatever other books he could lay his hands upon; +dwelling, with an especial delight, upon certain great authors, of whom +he seemed to make his masters; but cultivating assiduously what was +then called "polite learning," and merited the name, along with history +at large, and that of the free states of antiquity, and of England in +particular. His great favorites were Livy and Virgil; not (as Mr. Wirt +supposes of the former) in a translation, but the original. That the +sisters were right on this point is sufficiently proved by the fact +that, a few years ago, his Latin Virgil was in existence, its margins +all filled with his manuscript notes. We need hardly say that he who +was not content with Dryden as a translator was clearly not a-going to +take up with poor old Philemon Holland, then the current +English disfigurer of the most animated and picturesque of historians. +Henry's sisters indeed, and the only one of his schoolfellows that we +have ever met, were persuaded that he read Latin almost as readily as +English. Mr. Wirt himself had learned that the great Paduan was ever in +his boyish hands; now, that single point established, he might without +hesitation have proceeded to five clear and important inferences: +first, that no boy has a favorite book but because he is fond of books +generally; secondly, that when his favorite is, though of the highest +merit, a very unusual one, he must not only have read much, but with +great discrimination: thirdly, that if his favorite was in a special +class (not a mere miscellanist) he was well read in that class, +addicted to it: fourthly, that he was enamored of such a favorite for +his matchless merits, both of matter and of style; his sensibility to +the former of which particulars implied information, to the latter a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_169"></a>[169]</span> +well-formed taste: fifthly, that no mere translation of Livy—especially +not flat, tame old Holland—nothing short of the golden original, could +have inspired such a Livian affection. But this is not all; when—coming +to be put into the possession of the scanty remaining body of Mr. +Henry's papers (ill-preserved by his not very wise progeny) and invited +to write his life more authentically—we ourselves began first to study +his speeches and his mind critically, it did not take us long to +perceive, what is indeed easily seen, that Mr. Henry's early passion +for Livy—born of course of Livy's conformity to his genius—had deeply +tinged the peculiar style of his eloquence, the peculiar character of +his politics, was, in sooth, the immediate source of both; that the +harangues in Livy had been his models of discourse; that the sentiments +of public magnanimity, which Livy every where, and we may say Livy +alone breathes, were transfused into Henry's spirit, and gave to his +ideas of a state that singular grandeur, that loftiness, that heroism, +which fills and informs them. His love of freedom even—his +republicanism—was such as Livy's; popular, yet patrician: not your +levelled liberty, too low to last, which, to keep down the naturally +great, sets up the base on high; but a freedom consistent with the +eminence and the subordination of natural orders mutually dependent; +equal under the law, but distinct in their power to serve the state, as +bringing to its aid, this rank higher counsels and obligations, that, +force and numbers; in short, not merely a tumultuary, a mob liberty, +but a social and a regulated concert of all classes, the absolute +predominance of none; a republican, not a democratic aim. Less learned +than Milton, certainly, but of a highly kindred spirit, he was very +like him in his general political system; but was <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_170"></a>[170]</span>more +practical, +better acquainted with men. The one had more of the poetical element in +him, the other more of the political. Both were deeply religious; +without which no man can be a safe politician. Each towered above all +the men of his day, except one, a warrior; and nearly such relation as +Milton held to Cromwell did Henry hold to Washington. Alike in the +antique cast of their minds, they were yet alike in being, withal, +thoroughly English in their notion of actual freedom: for Henry's mind +was just as little touched with any of the Jeffersonian fancies of +Frenchified liberty as Milton's own. Both were of the historic, not the +so-called philosophic school of politics: for history was evidently the +only treatise on government that either thought worthy of any +attention. If they had ever stooped to the systematic writers, from the +great sources (wise histories) out of which those writers can at most +draw, it can only have been to despise nearly every mother's son of +them. Finally, alike in so many things, they were not unlike in their +fate: both "fell upon evil times," and lost their public credit in the +land of which they had matchlessly vindicated the public cause: Milton +died sightless, and Henry too blind for the light of the Virginia +abstractions.</p> +<p>Every thing confutes the vulgar theory of his greatness. Had +he been ignorant at his first rise, the growth of his talent, as well +as of his knowledge, would have been traceable in his performances; but +on the contrary, he burst out, from the first, mature and finished. By +the universal consent, his very earliest speeches were quite equal to +any thing he ever after pronounced. Had these been at sixteen, it would +go far to prove that his eloquence, his ability, and even his +information came (as such things never came in any other instance) +without cultivation: but his first speech, that in "the parson's +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_171"></a>[171]</span> +cause," at Hanover Court House, in 1763, when he was twenty-nine years +old; the same period of life at which Demosthenes and Cicero shone out; +a period after which there may be large additions to artificial +knowledge, but can seldom be any to the natural splendor of the +faculties.</p> +<p>We have known many who knew Mr. Henry, in the entire unreserve +of that domestic life, in which he so much loved to unbend himself. All +such agreed that he was a man of very great and very various +information. He read every thing. At home, his interval between an +early dinner and supper-time (after which he gave himself up to +conversation with his friends, or to sport with his children, or to +music on the violin and flute, which he played) was always consecrated +to study: he withdrew from company to his office and books. His very +manner of reading was such as few attain, and marks the great and +skilful dealer with other men's thoughts: he seldom read a book +regularly on; but seemed only to glance his eye down the pages, and, as +it were, to gallop athwart the volume; and yet, when he had thus strid +through it, knew better than any body else all that was worth knowing +in it contents. A learned physician who dwelt near him, told us, in +speaking of this wide range of his knowledge, that he had, for +instance, to his surprise, found him to be a good chemist, at a time +when an acquaintance with that science was almost confined to medical +men. Except in private, however, he kept the secret of his own +attainments, content to let them appear only in their effects. This +was, originally, out of his singular modesty; but by and by when his +vanquished rivals of college-breeding sought to depreciate him as +low-born and uneducated, he from policy conformed to imputations which +heightened the wonder of his performances and therefore added to his +success.<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_172"></a>[172]</span></p> +<p>Let us add one more fact, substantive and significant. The +range of a man's mind, the very particulars of his studies may usually, +when he is not a mere book-collector or other affector of letters, be +pretty definitely ascertained from the contents of his library. In that +view, finding that a list of Mr. Henry's was embraced in the records of +the Court of Probate of his county, we examined and copied it. For that +day, his library, besides its merely professional contents, is quite a +large one—some five hundred volumes, mostly good and solid. We found it +to contain the usual series of Greek school-books, probably all he had +ever read; for the language was then slightly learnt in Virginia: a +good many of the Latin authors, and various French ones. The last +language we know, from other sources, that he understood. Now, he was +the man in the world the least likely to have got or to keep books that +he did not comprehend.</p> +<p>Such was the enigma of Patrick Henry's mind; and such is its +clear solution: a solution which, at least, must be confessed to +substitute the rational for the irrational, the possible for the +impossible, the positive of domestic evidence for the negative of +popular tradition.</p> +<p>Apart, however, from such testimony, there were other proofs +that should have suggested themselves to the anatomist of life +character, the physiologist of his genius. When we ourselves first +began minutely to consider his speeches, their effects, all that is +told of the manner in which those effects were brought about, the reach +and the diversity of his powers, their admirable adaptation to all +occasions and to all audiences—for he swayed all men alike by his +eloquence, the low and the high, the ignorant and the learned; the +unapproached <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_173"></a>[173]</span> +dramatic perfection of his voice, gesture, manner, and +whole delivery; his mastery, not only in speech, but off the tribune +and man to man, of all that can affect either men's reason or their +imagination, we could not, for our lives, help coming to the conclusion +that all this must be skill, not chance; and that instead of being the +mere child of nature, he was the most consummate artist that ever +lived. Nature bestows marvellous things, but these are not within even +her gift. She gives the gold, but she does not work it into every +beautiful form; she gives the diamond, but she does not cut it; she +bestows the marble, but did not carve the Olympian Jove nor the +Belvidere Apollo. In fine, we had, in much acquaintance with men the +ornaments of the public life of our times, been accustomed to +understand all the minute mechanism of civil abilities; and when we +came to examine closely this matchless piece of machinery, we could not +avoid believing, in spite of all assertions to the contrary, that each +particular part, however nice and small, must have been made by hand +and most painfully put together. And thus, perceiving every thing else +in this prodigious speaker to have been so masterly, we became +convinced that his style, his diction must have been, in the main, as +excellent as every thing else about him. It could not have been +otherwise. He whose thought was so high and pure, whose fancy was so +rich, and the mere outward auxiliaries of whose discourse (voice, and +action) had been so laboriously perfected, can, by no possibility, have +failed to make himself equally the master of expression. What we have +as his, is mere reporter's English; and no man is to be judged by that +slop of sentences into which he is put and melted away by their +process. In that menstruum of words, all substances are alike. It is +the true universal solvent, so long sought, that <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_174"></a>[174]</span> +acts upon every thing +and turns it into liquid babble. Mr Henry knew and often practised, not +only upon the multitude but the refined; the power of a homely dialect, +and saw how wise or brave or moving things may be made to come with a +strangely redoubled effect, in the extremest plainness of rustic +speech. His occasional resort to this, however, of course struck much +upon the common attention and got him the reputation, among other +foolish reputations, of habitually using such locutions; when, in +reality, he was master of all modes of discourse alike, and only +employed always that which best suited his purpose.</p> +<p>There is yet one more false notion, in regard to him, which +Mr. Wirt has done much to propagate: the notion, we mean, that Henry +never condescended to be less than the great orator; that, instead of +sometimes going about his business on foot, like other lawyers and +legislators, he rode for ever in a sort of triumphal car of eloquence, +dragging along a captive crowd at his conquering wheels; and, in short, +that</p> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"He could not ope</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">His mouth, but out there +flew a trope."</span> +</p> +<p>On the contrary, no man was ever less the oration-maker. He +never used his eloquence but as he used every thing else—just when it +was wanted. In the mass of public business, eloquence is out of place, +and could not be attended to. A man who was always eloquent would soon +lose all authority in a public body. Mr. Henry kept up always the very +greatest, and merited it, by taking a leading part in all important +matters and making more and better business speeches than any body else.</p> +<p>A long preliminary this; but we trust not uninteresting. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_175"></a>[175]</span> +It was, at any event, necessary that we should first, in the Bentonian +phrase, "vindicate the truth of history," and set a great character in +its proper public light, before passing to those humble particulars of +private life to which we now proceed.</p> +<p>In person, he was tall and rather spare, but of limbs round +enough for either vigor or grace. He had, however, a slight stoop, such +as very thoughtful people are apt to contract. In public, his aspect +was remarkable for quiet gravity. It seems to have been a rule with him +never to laugh and hardly to smile, before the vulgar. In their +presence he wore an air always fit to excite at once their sympathy and +their reverence; modest, even to humility; and yet most imposing. In +all this he played no assumed, though he could not have played a more +skilful part: for the occasion and the presence appear always to have +so duly and so strongly affected him, as at once to transform him into +what was, at each instant, fittest. Thus his art, of which we have +already spoken, might well be consummate; for he was all that, for mere +purposes of effect, he should have seemed to be, the very impersonation +of the cause and the feelings proper to the hour. Great wisdom, indeed, +an unshrinking courage, and yet an equal prudence, a patriotism the +most fervent, a profound sensibility, a rare love of justice, yet a +spirit of the greatest gentleness and humanity, and in a word, the +highest virtues, public and private, crowned with a disinterestedness, +an absence of all ambition most singular in a democracy (which above +all things breeds the contrary) made him—if Cicero be right—the +greatest of orators, because the most virtuous of men that ever +possessed that natural gift. No man ever knew men better, singly or in +the mass; none ever better knew how to sway them; but none ever less +abused that power, for he seems ever to have felt, in <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_176"></a>[176]</span>a +religious +force, the solemnity of all those public functions, which so few now +regard. It was probably the weight of this feeling, along with his +singular modesty, that made him shun official honors as earnestly as +others seek them. It is evident that no power, nor dignity, nor even +fame could dazzle him. It was only at the public command that he +accepted trusts from his State; and he always laid them down as soon as +duty permitted. All offers of Federal dignities,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> +up to the highest, he rejected. He had served his State only in +perilous times, when (as the Devil says in Milton) to be highest was +only to be exposed foremost to the bolts of the dreaded enemy; or at +some conjuncture of civil danger; but when peace and ease had come and +ambition was the only lure to office, he would not have it.</p> +<p>If, however, he was thus grave, on what he considered the +solemn stage of public life, he made himself ample amends in all that +can give cheerfulness to the calm of retirement in the country. When at +last permitted to attend to his private fortune, he speedily secured an +ample one. It was enjoyed, whenever business allowed him to be at home, +in a profuse and general, but solid and old-fashioned hospitality, of +which the +stout and semi-baronial supplies were abundantly drawn from his own +large and well-managed domain. His house was usually filled with +friends, its dependencies with their retinue <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_177"></a>[177]</span>and horses. But +crowds, +besides, came and went; all were received and entertained with +cordiality. The country all about thronged to see the beloved and +venerated man, as soon as it went abroad that he was come back. Some +came merely to see him; the rest to get his advice on law and all other +matters. To the poor, it was gratuitous; to even the rich without a +fee, except where he thought the case made it necessary to go to law. +All took his counsel as if it had been an oracle's, for nobody thought +there was any measure to "Old Patrick's" sense, integrity, or good +nature. This concourse began rather betimes, for those who lived near +often came to breakfast, where all were welcomed and made full. The +larder seemed never to get lean. Breakfast over, creature-comforts, +such as might console the belated for its loss, were presently set +forth on side-tables in the wide entrance hall. Of these—the solid, not +the liquid parts of a rural morning's meal—breakfast without its slops, +and such as, if need were, might well stand for a dinner, all further +comers helped themselves as the day or their appetites advanced. +Meanwhile, the master saw and welcomed all with the kindliest +attention, asked of their household, listened to their affairs, gave +them his view, contented all. These audiences seldom ceased before noon +or the early dinner. To this a remaining party of from twenty to thirty +often sat down. It was always, according to the wont of such houses in +that well-fed land, a meal beneath which the tables groaned, and whose +massive old Saxon dishes would have made a Frenchman sweat. Every thing +is excellent at these lavish feasts; but they have no luxuries save +such as are home-grown. They are, however, for all that is substantial +and plain, the very summit of good cheer. At Governor Henry's, they +never failed to be, besides, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_178"></a>[178]</span>seasoned with his +conversation, which at +table always grew gay and even gamesome. The dinner ended, he betook +himself, as already told, to his studies until supper, after which he +again gave himself up to enjoyment. In this manner came, with the +kindliest and most cheerful approach, the close of his days; upon which +there rested not a stain nor (such had been through life his personal +benignity) a hostility. Except tyrants and other public enemies, he had +lived at peace with man and God, achieving most surprising and +illustrious things, and content, save the sight of his liberated +country, with little reward beyond that which he bore in his own +approving bosom.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus194"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 326px; height: 401px;" alt="Old Court House, Va." src="images/illus194.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Old Court House, Va.</a></span></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_179"></a>[179]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="madison"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Madison.</span> +</h6> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_180"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 785px;" alt="Madison fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/madison.png" /></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_180"></a>[180]</span> +</div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_181"></a>[181]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus197"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 454px; height: 403px;" alt="Montpelier, Madison's Residence." src="images/illus197.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Montpelier, Madison's Residence.</a></span></p> +<h2>MADISON.</h2> +<p>Science has had, and perhaps will ever have, its fancies; and +fancy has often aspired to become science; for between the two—wide +apart as they are said to lie—stretches an uncertain domain, which they +seem alternately to occupy by incursion, and of which, when thus seized +upon, each appears, oddly enough, often to take possession in the rival +name of the other. Thus Astronomy, growing visionary, has pretended to +trace from the aspects of the heavenly bodies, not merely their laws +and motions, but the vicissitudes of human fate; and chemistry has had +its poetic visions of an elixir of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_182"></a>[182]</span> +life and of the philosopher's stone; +while, on the other hand, mere imagination has quite as often attempted +to erect, out of the airiest things, a philosophic realm of her own, +and to deduce into positive sciences the bumps upon the human skull, +the freaks of Nature in the conformation of the features, and even the +whimsical diversities of people's handwriting. From all these have been +set up grave methods of arriving at a knowledge of men's faculties and +characters.</p> +<p>It is surprising that, among these fantastic systems of +physiognomy, that easy and natural one should never have been set on +foot, which might connect the structural efforts of individuals with +the cast of their minds and feelings. To do this would be especially +easy in new countries, where nearly every one is compelled to build his +own abode, and where, for the most part, there is so little of +architectural solidity that habitations seldom last for above a +generation, and even he who inherits a house inherits but a ruin. Thus +the simplicity of Patrick Henry's habits and tastes might be inferred +from the primitiveness of his dwelling. You might have guessed his +unambitiousness from the absence about his home of any thing that +betrayed a longing for grandeur. All was plain, substantial, good; +nothing ostentatious or effeminate. The master's personal desires +coveted nothing beyond rural abundance and comforts—such blessings as +are quite enough to make private life happy and preserve it uncorrupt. +In all this you might discern the public man who cherished, as a +politician, no visions, no novelties; sought, of course, to build up +for his fellow-citizens no other nor better happiness than such as +crowned all his own wishes; believed little in pomp and greatness; +loved our old hereditary laws, manners, liberties, victuals; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_183"></a>[183]</span> +dreaded French principles and dishes as alike contaminating and +destructive.</p> +<p>Man, as we have already intimated, is a constructive animal. +He alone is properly such. For the inferior creatures that build do so +upon a single, instinctive, invariable method, always using the same +material; he, rationally and inventively, as outward circumstances may +require, or as, when these constrain him little, his individual fancy, +desires, or judgment may prompt. In the nomadic state a tent of skins, +a lodge of bark, are the sole structures for shelter that fit his +wandering life; and the rudeness of these invites to no decoration, +while convenience itself forbids all diversity of contrivance for him, +who, paying no ground-rent, may decamp to-morrow; and, bound by no +leasehold, may carry his tenement with him, like that travelling +landlord, Master Snail, or abandon it like that lodger by the season, +Dame Bird. In short, he comes not under the terms of zoological or +botanical description, as having a <i>habitat</i>; under +the line he lives, as did father Adam and mother Eve (whose +housekeeping in Eden, Milton so well relates), in a bower of rose and +myrtle; at the pole, he burrows beneath the snow or makes his masonry +of ice; in Idumea, he dwells, like its lions, in a cavern; on the +Maranon, he perches his house in a tree-top, and his young +ones—plumeless bipeds though they be—nestle among the feathered +denizens of the mid-air; in certain mining regions, he is born and dies +hundreds of fathoms under ground, and perhaps never sees the light of +day; in Naples, he lives, as do the dogs and cats of Constantinople, in +the streets. Thus, whatever idea, whatever purpose, whatever need, +whatever fancy, predominates in him when he builds, it takes shape, it +finds expression, it embodies <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_184"></a>[184]</span> +itself, forthwith, in fitting material, +fittingly contrived, and is, according to his habitative wish, his +taste in a tabernacle, possibly a pig-sty, possibly a palace; for his +range of invention stretches over every thing that lies between the two.</p> +<p>The founders of the great commonwealths of antiquity—the +Grecian statesmen and warriors, the Roman consuls—lived at home, during +the most glorious period of their several states, in an extreme +simplicity; content with a truly noble penury, while they built up the +grandeur of their country. The constructive propensity of the Athenian +instead of a private direction towards his personal gratification, took +the generous form of a passion for public monuments; that of the Roman +turned itself, until the decline of the Republic began, upon the +rearing of trophies and triumphal arches, rather than of lordly +mansions; and dictators sometimes, consuls often, were called from the +cot and the plough to the supreme trusts of war and peace. But this was +all in the spirit of ages and institutions, when the citizen lived in +the state and sought his private, in the public greatness and +happiness. Modern times present few individual instances of the like. +In those ancient politics, the state leaned on the citizen; in our +modern, the citizen leans on the state. Then, public life was much, +private life was little; now, it is reversed, the citizen wants not to +help the state, but wants the state to help him. Now, over-civilization +has so multiplied the conveniences of life, and habit has rendered its +indulgences so necessary, that he who, being great, can live without +and above them, has need to be of a rare elevation, an inherent +grandeur of soul.</p> +<p>The statesman whose mansion and whose habits in retreat we are +about to describe, without being altogether of that <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_185"></a>[185]</span>heroical +cast of +mind which graced the character of a Washington, a Henry, or a Clay, +had yet much of that elevated simplicity which marks the highest strain +of greatness. Mr. Madison, when he laid down what he had so worthily +and wisely worn as to have disarmed all previous reproach and +hostility—the supreme dignity of the Union—returned quietly to his +hereditary abode, resumed the unaffected citizen, and seemed to be as +glad to forget his past greatness as to escape from the anxieties and +envy that attend power as shadows do the sun. He went back, after his +stormy but successful presidency of eight years, to his father's seat, +Montpelier, where, but for the accident—the same which befell a hero of +Irish song, Denis Brulgruddery—of his mother's being on a visit to her +mamma at the time, he would certainly have been born. There, like a +sensible man, and a good fellow to boot (as he was), he sat down on a +fine plantation, in a good old-fashioned house, with a fine old cellar +of old-fashioned wines under it, and the best old Virginian servants in +it, to spend the rest of his days upon that wise plan which King +Pyrrhus proposed to himself, but, postponing too long, did not live to +execute. He (that is, Mr. Madison, not Pyrrhus) sat down like an actor +who has played out his part with applause, calmly to look at the rest +of the piece, no further concerned in its business, but not affecting +(as others have done) the uninterested spectator of the performance. He +did not assume the philosophic sage; he did not bury himself in a +monastic gloom like Charles V.; nor, like the same discrowned prince +and Mr. Jefferson, betake himself to mending watches; nor, like +Dioclesian, to cultivating cabbages; but in the bosom of that pleasant +retreat, which had witnessed his youthful preparation for public toils, +sought the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_186"></a>[186]</span> +repose from them which he had fairly earned; and sweetening +it with all that could give it zest, in the companionship of the +amiable wife who had shared with him and adorned public honors, and in +the society of the many personal friends that his virtues and talents +drew about him, passed the evening of his days in gentlemanly and +genial ease and hospitality.</p> +<p>Montpelier, the residence to which, as an only child, he had +succeeded at his father's death, is a plain but ample, and rather +handsome habitation of brick, around which spreads out, in such +undulations of gently-waving swells and irregular plains as pleasantly +diversify the view, a fertile domain of some two thousand six hundred +acres; a part of it well cultivated, but a still larger part yet in all +the wildness of nature. The region is one where she has shed, in great +beauty, the softest picturesque of hill and dale, forest and glade. At +hand, in the rear, rises, as if to adorn the prospect with bolder +contrasts, the gracefully wavering chain of the southwest mountain, to +fence on one side the vale of Orange and Albemarle, on whose +southeastern edge of nodding woods and green fields Montpelier lies +embosomed and embowered; while on the other side, in the airy distance +beyond that vale, tower in fantastic line the blue peaks of the long +Appalachian ridge, breaking the horizon, as if to form another and a +more fanciful one. The wide scene, caught in glimpses through the +mantling trees, or opening out in the larger vista of farm beyond farm, +or shining in loftier prospect above the tree-tops and the low hills, +offers to the ranging eye, many a charming view,—sweet spots of +pastoral beauty; jutting capes and copses, or nodding old groves of +woodlands; the rich and regular cultivation of spreading plantations, +amidst which glisten now a stately <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_187"></a>[187]</span> +mansion, and now a snug farm-house, +each decorated with its peculiar growth of trees for shade or fruit; +and far away, mountain regions, whose heights, and whose rude and massy +but undefined forms, suggest to the fancy the savage grandeur of that +remoter landscape which the eye knows to be there, though it mocks the +sight with what is so different. All these are, at frequent points, the +aspects of that fine country from Orange court-house up to +Charlottesville; they are nowhere seen in greater perfection or +abundance than just around Montpelier. At almost every turn, one +discovers a new pleasure of the landscape; at nearly every step, there +is a surprise. It looks like a realm of pictures; you would almost +think that not nature had placed it there, but that the happiest skill +of the painter had collected and disposed the scenes.</p> +<p>The house, we have said, is plain and large. Its size and +finish bespeak gentlemanly but unpretending ease and fortune. It has no +air of assumed lordliness or upstart pretension. No foreign models seem +to have been consulted in its design, no proportions of art studied; +yet it wants not symmetry as well-planned convenience, comfort, and +fitness lend, as if without intention. A tall, and rather handsome +columned portico, in front, is the only thing decorative about it; but +is not enough so to be at all out of keeping. It is of the whole height +of the central building, of two stories, and covers about half its +length of some forty-five feet. Broad steps, five in number, support +and give access along its entire front. Its depth is about one-third +its width. The main building itself is a parallelogram, near half as +deep as it is long. At each flank, a little receding, is a +single-storied wing of about twenty feet, its flat roof surmounted by a +balustrade. The house stands on a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_188"></a>[188]</span> +gently-rising eminence. A wide lawn, +broken only here and there by clumps of trees, stretches before it. On +either side are irregular masses of these, of different shapes and +foliage, evergreen and deciduous, which thicken at places into a grove, +and half screen those dependencies of a handsome establishment—stables, +dairies and the like—which, left openly in sight, look very ill, and +can be made to look no otherwise, even by the trying to make them look +genteel: for they are disagreeable objects, that call up (attire them +as you will) ideas not dainty. As, therefore, the eye should not miss +them altogether—for their absence would imply great discomfort and +inconvenience—the best way is to half-veil them, as is done at +Montpelier.</p> +<p>In the rear of the house lies a large and well-tended garden. +This was, of course, mainly the mistress's care; while the master's +was, as far as his bodily feebleness permitted, directed towards his +agricultural operations. In the Virginia economy of the household, +where so much must be ordered with a view to entertaining guests all +the while, the garden plays an important part. Without ample supplies +from it, there would be no possibility of maintaining that exuberant +good cheer with which the tables continually groan, in all those +wealthier habitations where the old custom of a boundless hospitality +is still reverently observed. In such—and there are yet many, although +the Jeffersonian "Law of Descents," and the diffusion of the trading +spirit are thinning them out every day, as rum and smallpox are +dispeopling our Indian tribes—there is little pause of repletion. Every +guest must be feasted: if a stranger, because strangers ought to be +made to pass their time as agreeably as possible; if a friend, because +nothing can be too good for one's friends. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_189"></a>[189]</span> +Where such social maxims and +such a domestic policy prevail, there will seldom, according to Adam +Smith's principle of "Demand and Supply," be any very serious lack of +guests. Indeed, the condition is one hard to avoid, and so pleasant, +withal, that we have known persons of wit and breeding to adopt it as +their sole profession, and benevolently pass their lives in guarding +their friends, one after another, from the distresses of a guestless +mansion. But, to return to the garden of Montpelier; there were few +houses in Virginia that gave a larger welcome, or made it more +agreeable, than that over which Queen Dolly—the most gracious and +beloved of all our female sovereigns—reigned; and, wielding as +skilfully the domestic, as she had done worthily and popularly the +public, sceptre, every thing that came beneath her immediate personal +sway—the care and the entertainment of visitors, the government of the +menials, the whole policy of the interior—was admirably managed, with +an equal grace and efficiency. Wherefore, as we have said, the +important department of the garden was excellently well administered, +both for profit and pleasure, and made to pour forth in profusion, from +its wide and variously-tended extent, the esculents and the blooms, +herb, fruit, flower, or root, of every season. Nor was the merely +beautiful neglected for the useful only; her truly feminine tastes +delighted in all the many tinted children of the parterre, native and +exotic; and flowers sprang up beneath her hand, as well as their more +substantial sisters, the vegetables. In a word, her garden was rich in +all that makes one delightful; and so of all the other less sightly but +needful departments of her large and well-ordered establishment.</p> +<p>We should, however, slight one of its most pleasing <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_190"></a>[190]</span>features, +were we to omit mentioning the peculiar purpose to which was +consecrated one of those low wings of the building which we have +briefly described. There dwelt, under the most sacred guard of filial +affection, yet served in her own little separate household by servants +set apart to her use, the very aged and infirm mother of Mr. Madison; a +most venerable lady, who, after the death of her husband, thus lived +under the tender guardianship of her son and of her daughter-in-law, +down to near her hundredth year, enjoying whatever of the sweets of +life the most affectionate and ingenious solicitude can bestow upon +extreme decrepitude. Here she possessed without the trouble of +providing them, all the comforts and freedom of an independent +establishment; and tended by her own gray-haired domestics, and +surrounded at her will by such younger relatives as it gratified her to +have about her, she passed her quiet but never lonely days, a reverent +and a gentle image of the good and indeed elevated simplicity of elder +times, manners, and tastes. All the appointments of her dwelling +bespoke the olden day; dark and cumbrous old carved furniture, carpets +of which the modern loom has forgotten the patterns; implements that +looked as if Tubal Cain had designed them; upholstery quaintly, if not +queerly venerable. In short, all the objects about her were in keeping +with her person and attire. You would have said that they and she had +sat to Sir Godfrey Kneller for a family picture; or that you yourself +had been suddenly transported back to Addison's time, and were peeping +by privilege into the most secluded part of Sir Roger de Coverley's +mansion. Indeed, to confirm the illusion, you would probably find her +reading the Spectator in the large imprint and rich binding of its own +period, or thumbing—as <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_191"></a>[191]</span> +our degenerate misses do a novel of the Dickens +or Sue school—the leaves of Pope, Swift, Steele, or some other of those +whom criticism alone (for the common people and the crowd, of what is +now styled literature, know them not) still recalls as "the wits of +Queen Anne's day." These were the learning of our great-grandmothers; +need we wonder if they were nobler dames than the frivolous things of +the fancy boarding-school, half-taught in every thing they should not +study, made at much pains and expense to know really nothing, and just +proficient enough of foreign tongues to be ignorant of their own? The +authors we have mentioned, their good contemporaries, and their yet +greater predecessors, who gave to our language a literature, and are +still all that holds it from sinking into fustian and slipslop, a +tag-rag learning and a tatterdemalion English, were those that lay +around this ancient lady, and beguiled her old age as they had formed +and delighted the youth of her mind and heart. If you made her refer to +them, as the favourite employment of her infirmity-compelled leisure, +it was pleasant to hear her (as in that other instance which we have +given of Patrick Henry's sisters) talk of them as if they had been dear +and familiar personal friends. Perhaps, however, authors were then +better loved and more respected by their readers than they are +nowadays; and possibly this was because they deserved to be so; or +indeed there may be a double decline, and readers as much worse than +the writers. Not that either of these is the fact, or even a conjecture +which we ourselves entertain. We merely mention it <i>en passant</i>, +as a bare possibility. The opinion would be unpopular, and should not +be admitted in a democracy; of which it is the very genius to have no +opinions but such as are popular; and therefore <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_192"></a>[192]</span>to +think no thoughts +that might betray one into an opinion not that of the majority.</p> +<p>Such books then, and, when her old eyes grew weary, the almost +equally antiquated occupation of knitting, habitually filled up the +hours of this old-time lady; the hours, we mean, which pain or +feebleness remitted her for occupation. As to those sadder moments of +suffering, or of that sinking of the bodily powers which presses at +times upon far-advanced age, she bore them with the cheerfullest +patience, and even treated them as almost compensated by the constant +delight of the affections which the pious care of her children gave her +all the while. Nothing could exceed their watchfulness to serve her, +soothe her, minister to her such enjoyments as may be made by +lovingness to linger around even the last decline of a kindly and +well-spent life. In all such offices, her son bore as much part as his +own frail health and the lesser aptitude of men for tending the sick +permitted; but no daughter ever exceeded in the tender and assiduous +arts of alleviation, the attentions which Mrs. Madison gave to her +husband's infirm parent. Reversing the order of nature, she became to +her (as the venerable sufferer herself was accustomed fondly to say) +the mother of her second childhood. Mistress as she was of all that +makes greatness pleasing and sheds a shining grace upon power, Mrs. +Madison never appeared in any light so worthy or so winning, as in this +secret one of filial affection towards her adopted mother.</p> +<p>It was a part, however, of her system of happiness for the +ancient lady, at once to shut out from her (what she could ill sustain) +the bustle of that large establishment, and the gayeties of the more +miscellaneous guests that often thronged it, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_193"></a>[193]</span>yet +to bring to her, +in special favor towards them, such visitors as could give her pleasure +and break the monotony of her general seclusion. These were sometimes +old and valued friends; sometimes their hopeful offspring; and +occasionally personages of such note as made her curious to see them. +All such she received, according to what they were, with that antique +cordiality or amenity which belonged to the fine old days of +good-breeding, of which she was a genuine specimen. To the old, her +person, dress, manners, conversation, recalled, in their most pleasing +forms, the usages, the spirit, the social tone of an order of things +that had vanished; an elevated simplicity that had now given way to +more affected courtesies, more artificial elegancies. To the young, she +and her miniature household were a still more singular spectacle. They +had looked upon their host and hostess as fine old samples of the past, +and the outer, the exoteric Montpelier, with its cumbrous furniture and +rich but little modish appointments, as a sort of museum of domestic +antiquities; but here, hidden within its secret recesses, were a +personage, ways, objects, fashions, that carried them back to the yet +more superannuated elegance of days when what now struck them as +obsolete must have been regarded as the frivolous innovations of an +impertinent young generation.</p> +<p>We have already described the house, and glanced at its +appointments, but may add that the former seemed designed for an +opulent and an easy hospitality, and that the latter, while rich, was +plainly and solidly so. No expedients, no tricks of show met the eye; +but all was well set forth with a sort of nobleness, yet nothing of +pomp. The apartments were of ample size; the furniture neither scanty +nor (as now seems <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_194"></a>[194]</span> +the mode) huddled together, as if the master were a +salesman. Nothing seemed wanting, nothing too much. A finished urbanity +and yet a thorough cordiality reigned in every thing: all the ways, all +the persons, all the objects of the place were agreeable and even +interesting. You soon grew at your ease, if at arriving you had been +otherwise: for here was, in its perfection, that happiest part and +surest test of good-breeding—the power of at once putting every one at +ease. The attentions were not over-assiduous, not slack; but kept, to +great degree, out of sight, by making a body of thoroughly-trained and +most mannerly servants their ministrants, so that the hosts performed +in person little but the higher rites of hospitality, and thus seemed +to have no trouble and much pleasure in entertaining you. Accordingly, +there has seldom, even in the hilarious land of old Virginia, been a +house kept—especially by elderly people—at which it was pleasanter to +be a sojourner. They always made you glad to have come, and sorry that +you must go.</p> +<p>Such was the main interior life of Montpelier. Its business +seemed but the giving pleasure to its guests, of whom a perpetual +succession came and went. Little was seen of the working machinery of +the fine, and on the whole, well-managed estate, that poured forth its +copious supplies to render possible all this lavish entertainment, this +perennial flow of feasting. For here, be it observed, as elsewhere in +the rural hospitalities of Virginia, it was not single visitors that +were to be accommodated, but families and parties. Nor did these arrive +unattended, for each brought with it a retinue of servants, a stud of +horses, and all were to be provided for. Meantime, the master was seen +little to direct in person the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_195"></a>[195]</span> +husbandry of his domain; and indeed, he +was known to be too feeble to do so. Nevertheless, the tillage of +Montpelier was productive and its soil held in a state of progressive +improvement. Indeed, capable of every thing he had engaged in, except +arms (in which the Jeffersonian dynasty, except Monroe, must be +confessed not to have excelled)—wise, attentive, and systematic, he had +established his farming operations upon a method so good and regular, +that they went on well, with only his occasional inspection, and the +nightly reports of his head men of the blacks. The mildest and humanest +of masters, he had brought about among his slaves, by a gentle +exactness, and the care to keep them happy while well-governed, great +devotion to him and their duties, and a far more than usual +intelligence. Every night he received an account of the day's results, +and consulted freely with his managers, on the morrow's business. All +was examined and discussed as with persons who had and who deserved his +confidence. Thus encouraged to think, the inert and unreflecting +African learnt forecast, skill, self-respect, and zeal to do his duty +towards the master and mistress who were so good to him. We do not say +that the like could be done to the same extent every where. Montpelier +was cultivated merely to support itself, and not for profit; which is +necessarily the ruling end on the plantations generally, and perhaps +compels more enforced methods; which, indeed, can scarcely be expected +to cease, as long as fanatical interference from without, between the +master and the slave, shall only serve to breed discontent on the one +part and distrust on the other, and driving the threatened master to +attend to the present security of his property, instead of occupying +himself with its future amelioration. Men of any sense <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_196"></a>[196]</span>abroad +should +surely have perceived, by this time, that the method of driving the +Southern States into Emancipation does not answer; but, on the +contrary, is, so far as the temper of that region is concerned, only +postponing it, and meanwhile aggravating the condition of both classes.</p> +<p>Thus gentle, genial, kindly, liberal, good and happy, passed +the life of Montpelier. Public veneration shed all its honors; private +friendship and communion all their delights upon it. Even those +dignities which, in this country of party spirit, beget for the +successful more of reproach than fame, had left the name of Madison +without a serious stain. His Presidency past, the wise and blameless +spirit of his official administration came speedily to be acknowledged +on all sides, and envy and detraction, left without an aim, turned to +eulogy. An ample fortune, the greatest domestic happiness, and a life +prolonged, in spite of the original feebleness of his body, to the +unusual age of eighty-five, gave him in their full measure, those +singular blessings which the goodness of God deservedly dealt to him +and the admirable partner of his existence. A philosophic, and yet not +a visionary ruler, he should stand among ours as next to Washington, +though separated from him by a great interval. The Jeffersons and the +Jacksons come far after him, for<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 15em;"><span class="poem"> +"He was more</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Than a mere Alexander; and, unstained</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +With household blood and wine, serenely wore</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +His sovereign virtues: still we Trajan's name adore."</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_197"></a>[197]</span></p> +<h6><a name="jay"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Jay.</span> +</h6> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_198"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 574px; height: 800px;" alt="Jay fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/jay.png" /></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_198"></a>[198]</span> +</div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_199"></a>[199]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus215"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 350px; height: 401px;" alt="Jay's Residence, Bedford, N.Y." src="images/illus215.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Jay's Residence, Bedford, N.Y.</a></span></p> +<h2>JAY.</h2> +<p>Although the City of New-York claims the honor of being the +birth-place of John Jay, it cannot properly be regarded as the home of +his early years. Not far from the time of his birth, on the 12th of +December, 1745, his father, Peter Jay, who, by honorable assiduity in +the mercantile vocation, had accumulated a handsome fortune, purchased +an estate in Rye, about twenty-five miles from the city, with the +intention of making it his future residence. This town, situated on the +southeastern corner of Westchester County, ranks <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_200"></a>[200]</span>among +the most +delightful summer resorts that adorn the northern shores of Long Island +Sound. The village proper stands about a mile and a half from the +Sound, on the turn-pike road between New-York and Boston. From the +hills extending along its northern limits, the Mockquams (Blind Brook) +a perennial stream, flows southwardly through it, adding much to the +beauty of its scenery. On the outskirts are many elegant villas, the +favorite haunts of those who rejoice to exchange the cares of business +and the dust and heat of the neighboring metropolis for its grateful +seclusion and the refreshing breezes that visit it from the ocean.</p> +<p>For the description of the Jay estate at Rye, in the absence +of personal knowledge, we shall, in the main, rely upon the account +furnished by Bolton, in his excellent History of Westchester County, +adhering principally to his own language.</p> +<p>The situation of the estate is very fine, embracing some of +the most graceful undulations of a hilly district, highly diversified +with rocks, woods, and river scenery. Contiguous to the southern +portion of it and bordering the Sound is Marle's Neck and the +neighboring islands of Pine and Hen-hawk. The curious phenomenon of the +Mirage is frequently witnessed from these shores, when the land on the +opposite coast of Long Island appears to rise above the waters of the +Sound, the intermediate spaces seeming to be sunk beneath the waves.</p> +<p>The family residence is situated near the post-road leading to +Rye, at a short distance from the river. The building is a handsome +structure of wood, having a lofty portico on the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_201"></a>[201]</span>north. +The south point +commands a beautiful and charming view of the Sound and Long Island. +Some highly interesting family portraits adorn the walls of the hall +and dining-room, among which are the following: Augustus Jay, who +emigrated to this country in 1686, a copy from the original by Waldo; +Anna Maria Bayard, wife of Augustus Jay, by Waldo; Peter Augustus Jay, +as a boy, artist unknown; an old painting upon oak panel, supposed to +represent Catherine, wife of the Hon. Stephen Van Cortlandt, of +Cortlandt, South Holland. This lady appears habited in a plain black +dress, wearing a high neck-ruffle, and, in her hand, holds a clasped +Bible. In one corner of the picture is inscribed "ętat. 64, 1630." In +the library is the valuable cabinet of shells, amounting to several +thousands, of which the collector, John C. Jay, M.D., has published a +descriptive catalogue. Noticeable among the family relics is the gold +snuff-box, presented by the Corporation of New-York with the freedom of +the city to "his Excellency, John Jay," on the 4th of October, 1784, +not long after his return from diplomatic service in Spain and at +Paris. An old French Bible contains the following memoranda: "Auguste +Jay, est né a la Rochelle dans la Royaume de France le 23/13 Mars, +1665. Laus Deo. N. York, July ye 10th, 1773, this day at 4 o'clock in +ye morning dyed Eva Van Cortlandt, was buried ye next day ye 12 en ye +voute at Mr. Stuyvesant's about six and seven o'clock."</p> +<p>In the opening of a wood on the southeast of the mansion is +the family cemetery, where are interred the remains of the ancestors of +the Jays. Over the grave of the Chief Justice is the following +inscription, written by his son, Peter Augustus Jay:<br /> +</p> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_202"></a>[202]</span> +<span class="smcap">in memory of</span><br /> +JOHN JAY,<br /> +<span class="smcap">eminent among those who asserted the +liberty<br /> +and established the independence<br /> +of his country,<br /> +which he long served in the most<br /> +important offices,<br /> +legislative, executive, judicial, and diplomatic,<br /> +and distinguished in them all by his<br /> +ability, firmness, patriotism, and integrity,<br /> +he was in his life, and in his death,<br /> +an example of the virtues,<br /> +the faith and the hopes<br /> +of a christian.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Born</span>, <i>Dec.</i> +12, 1745,<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Died</span>, <i>May</i> +17, 1829. +</p> +<p>According to his expressed desire, the body of Mr. Jay was not +deposited in the family vault, but committed to the bosom of the earth. +He always strenuously protested against what he considered the +heathenish attempt to rescue the worthless relics of mortality from +that dissolution, which seems to be their natural and appropriate +destination. Within the same cemetery are also memorials to Sir James +Jay, Peter Jay Munroe, Peter Jay, Goldsborough Banyar, Harriet Van +Cortlandt, and other members of the family.</p> +<p>Pierre Jay, to whom the Jays of this country trace their +origin, was one of those noble and inflexible Huguenots who were driven +from France by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, a measure which +deprived that kingdom of more than one-fourth of the most industrious +and desirable class of its <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_203"></a>[203]</span> +population. His descendants, settling in +this country, retained the characteristics which had distinguished +their forefathers, and became among its most respectable and prosperous +inhabitants. Peter Jay, the grandson of Pierre Jay, and, like him, +engaged in mercantile pursuits, was married in the year 1728 to Mary, +the daughter of Jacobus Van Cortlandt, and was the father of ten +children, of whom John was the eighth. Seldom has a son been more +fortunate in his parents. "Both father and mother," we are told by the +biographer, "were actuated by sincere and fervent piety; both had warm +hearts and cheerful tempers, and both possessed, under varied and +severe trials, a remarkable degree of equanimity. But in other respects +they differed widely. He possessed strong and masculine sense, was a +shrewd observer and accurate judge of men, resolute, persevering and +prudent, an affectionate father, a kind master, but governing all under +his control with mild but absolute sway. She had a cultivated mind and +a fine imagination. Mild and affectionate in her temper and manners, +she took delight in the duties as well as in the pleasures of domestic +life; while a cheerful resignation to the will of Providence during +many years of sickness and suffering bore witness to the strength of +her religious faith."</p> +<p>Under the tutelage of such a mother was John Jay educated till +his eighth year, and from her he learned the rudiments of English and +Latin grammar. Even at this tender age, the gravity of his disposition, +his discretion and his fondness for books were subjects of common +remark. When eight years old, he was committed to the care of Mr. +Stoope, a French clergyman and keeper of a grammar-school at New +Rochelle, with whom he remained for about three years. This <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_204"></a>[204]</span>gentleman +being unfitted by reason of his oddities and improvidence for the +efficient supervision of the establishment, left the young pupils, for +the most part, to the tender mercies of his wife, a woman of extremely +penurious habits; by whom, we are told, they were "treated with little +food and much scolding." Every thing about the house under the +management of this ill-assorted pair went to ruin, and the young +student was often obliged, in order to protect his bed from the +drifting snow, to close up the broken panes with bits of wood. Various +other inconveniences fell to the lot of young Jay, but it is probable +that the rigid discipline of Mrs. Stoope was not without its +advantages. It had the effect of throwing its subject on his own +resources, and taught him to disregard those thousand petty annoyances +which, after all, are the chief causes of human misery, and which often +disturb the tranquillity of the strongest minds.</p> +<p>From Mr. Stoope he was transferred to a private tutor, and in +his fifteenth year entered King's, now Columbia College, at that time +in its infancy. Here, as might have been supposed, his conduct, +exemplary character and scholarship won him the esteem and respect of +all. Beside the improvement and expansion of his intellect, and the +opportunity of measuring himself with companions of the same age and +the same studies, he received other advantages from these four years of +college training. His attention being called to certain deficiencies +which might impede his future success, he at once set himself at work +to remedy them. An indistinct articulation and a faulty pronunciation +of the letter L, he was able by the constant study and practice of the +rules of elocution entirely to remove. Special attention was also paid +to <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_205"></a>[205]</span> +English composition, by which he attained that admirable style, +which in purity and classical finish was afterwards not surpassed by +that of any other contemporary statesman, a style polished but not +emasculate, and of such flexibility as to adapt itself equally well to +the vehemence of patriotic appeal, the guarded precision of diplomatic +correspondence, or to the grave and authoritative judgments of the +bench. He also adopted Pope's plan of keeping by his bedside a table +supplied with writing materials, in order to record at the moment of +its suggestion any idea which might occur to him in waking.</p> +<p>During his senior year, the young student had occasion to +display that decision and firmness which at a later period shone so +conspicuously in affairs of greater moment. Certain mischief-making +classmates, perhaps to avenge themselves on the steward, undertook to +break the table in the college hall. The noise produced by this +operation reaching the ears of Dr. Cooper, the President, that +arbitrary personage suddenly pounced upon them without leaving them a +chance of escape. The young men were at once formed in a line and two +questions—"Did you break the table? Do you know who did?"—were each +answered by an emphatic "No," until they were put to Jay, the last but +one in the line, who had indeed been present at the disturbance but +took no part in it; to the first question he replied in the negative, +to the second his answer was "Yes, sir," and to the further +inquiry—"Who was it?"—he promptly said, "I do not choose to tell you, +sir." The remaining student followed Jay's example. The two young men, +after resisting the expostulations of the President, were summoned +before the Faculty for trial, where Jay appeared for the defence. To +the allegation that they had been guilty of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_206"></a>[206]</span>violating their +written +promise, on their admission, of obedience to the college statutes, Jay +responded that they were not required by those statutes to inform +against their companions, and that therefore his refusal to do so was +not an act of disobedience. Reasonable as this defence might appear, +it, of course, failed to satisfy judges, clothed with executive powers, +and anxious to punish the least disregard of their own authority, and +the two delinquents were at once rusticated. At the termination of his +sentence Jay returned to college, where his reception by the +instructors proved that he had suffered no loss of their esteem. On the +15th of May, 1764, he was graduated with the highest collegiate honors.</p> +<p>On leaving college, Jay entered the office of Benjamin Kissam, +in the city of New-York, as a student at law. Between this gentleman +and himself a degree of familiarity and mutual respect existed, quite +remarkable considering their relative positions and their disparity of +years. For two years in the office of Mr. Kissam, he was the fellow +student of the celebrated grammarian, Lindley Murray, with whom he +formed an enduring friendship, and who, in a posthumous memoir of +himself, thus alludes to his companion: "His talents and virtues gave, +at that period, pleasing indications of future eminence; he was +remarkable for strong reasoning powers, comprehensive views, +indefatigable application, and uncommon firmness of mind. With these +qualifications added to a just taste in literature, and ample stores of +learning and knowledge, he was happily prepared to enter on that career +of public virtue by which he was afterward so honorably distinguished, +and made instrumental in promoting the good of his country." Murray was +a tall, handsome man, the son of Robert Murray, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_207"></a>[207]</span>a +venerable quaker of +New-York, the location of whose farm at the lower part of the city is +still pointed out by the antiquarian. Mr. Jay was admitted to the bar +in 1768, and in the pursuit of his profession so extended his +reputation that he was soon after appointed secretary of the commission +named by the king to determine the disputed boundary between the States +of New-York and New Jersey. In 1774 he was married to Sarah, the +youngest daughter of William Livingston, an eminent supporter of the +American cause during the Revolution, and afterwards for many years +governor of New Jersey.</p> +<p>The limits to which we are confined allow us to take but a +brief notice of Mr. Jay's numerous and most valuable public services, +extending over a period of twenty-eight years, and terminating with his +retirement in 1801 from the office of governor of his native State. In +no one of the colonies had the cause of resistance to the mother +country less encouragement than in New-York, and in no other could +Great Britain number so many influential allies, yet, on the receipt of +the news of the enforcement of the Boston Port Bill, Mr. Jay took a +decided stand on the side of the patriots. At a meeting of the citizens +of New-York, May 16, 1774, we find him on a committee of fifty +appointed "to correspond with the sister colonies on all matters of +moment." Young as he was, he was required to draft the response to the +proposal of the Boston committee for a Congress of deputies from "the +colonies in general." In the first Congress in the same year, he was a +member of some of the most important committees. The "Address to the +People of Great Britain," the distinguishing act of that Congress, was +drafted by Mr. Jay. This eloquent document was pronounced by Jefferson, +then ignorant of its <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_208"></a>[208]</span> +author, to be "the production certainly of the +finest pen in America," and Mr. Webster considered it as standing "at +the head of the incomparable productions of that body [the first +Congress], productions which called forth the decisive commendation of +Lord Chatham, in which he pronounced them not inferior to the finest +productions of the master minds of the world."</p> +<p>In the interim between the close of the first, and the opening +in May 1775 of the second Congress, Jay was incessantly engaged in the +service of his country; and when the delegates had reassembled, his pen +was again employed in the preparation of the two addresses to the +inhabitants of Jamaica and of Ireland. Some reluctance being shown on +the part of wealthy and influential citizens to serve in a military +capacity, he, without hesitation, sought and accepted a commission as +colonel of a regiment of the new militia; but his legislative ability +and eloquence were too highly valued to allow of his absence from +Congress, and he never actually joined his company. A second address of +Congress to the king having been treated with insult, and all hope of +accommodation being abandoned, he became one of the foremost advocates +of warlike measures; and, while on a committee for that purpose, +devised a series of plans for crippling the resources of England, which +were adopted by Congress in March 1776, nearly three months previous to +the formal act of severance in the Declaration of Independence. At the +adoption of this measure, in consequence of his election to the +Provincial Congress of New-York in April of that year, Jay was unable +to affix his signature to that instrument, but, as chairman of the +committee to whom the subject had been referred, he reported a +resolution, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_209"></a>[209]</span> +pledging that State to its support. Shortly after came the +most gloomy period of the revolutionary cause in New-York; a hostile +army was invading the State from the north, inspired by the defeat of +the American forces on Long Island, the city was in possession of the +enemy, and what was worse, treachery and despair existed among the +people themselves. A committee of public safety was appointed by the +Provincial Congress, clothed with dictatorial powers, of which Jay +acted as chairman. At this juncture also, Mr. Jay, by appointment, put +forth the thrilling address of the convention to their constituents, an +appeal written in the most exalted strain of patriotic eloquence, in +which he rebukes the defection and stimulates the flagging hopes of the +people with the zeal and indignant energy of an ancient prophet.</p> +<p>In 1777, Jay, from a committee appointed the year before, +drafted a State Constitution, which received the sanction of the +legislature. There were certain provisions which he desired to +introduce in that instrument, and which he thought more likely to be +adopted when proposed in the form of amendments than if they should be +incorporated into the first draft; but a summons to the side of his +dying mother prevented the realization of his wishes. One of the +amendments which he intended to urge, was a provision for the gradual +abolition of slavery within the limits of the State. Under the new +constitution, having been appointed to the office of Chief Justice, he +was ineligible by that instrument to any other post, except on a +"special occasion," but, in consequence of a difficulty arising between +his own, and the neighboring State of Vermont, the legislature took +advantage of the exception, and elected him delegate to <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_210"></a>[210]</span>Congress. +Without vacating, therefore, his judicial seat, he complied with their +appointment, and soon after his entrance in Congress became its +presiding officer. The impossibility, however, of doing full justice to +both his judicial and legislative duties, induced him to resign his +seat on the bench. Congress now employed his pen in writing the +circular letter to the States, urging them to furnish additional funds +for the war. This statesmanlike exposition of the government's +financial condition closes with a noble appeal to the national honor.</p> +<p>"Rouse, therefore, strive who shall do most for his country; +rekindle that flame of patriotism, which, at the mention of disgrace +and slavery, blazed throughout America and animated all her citizens. +Determine to finish the contest as you began it, honestly and +gloriously. Let it never be said that America had no sooner become +independent than she became insolvent, or that her infant glories and +growing fame were obscured and tarnished by broken contracts and +violated faith, in the very hour when all the nations of the earth were +admiring and almost adoring the splendor of her rising."</p> +<p>In 1779, accompanied by his wife, he sailed for Spain, as +minister plenipotentiary, in order to secure the concurrence of that +kingdom in the treaty with France, recognizing the independence of the +United States; and though his diplomatic negotiations were conducted in +the most honorable spirit, and with consummate prudence and ability, +the object of his mission was finally frustrated by the selfish policy +of the Spanish government, in requiring America to surrender the right +of navigating on the Mississippi. It was during his residence at the +Spanish court, that the desperate financial embarrassments of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_211"></a>[211]</span>Congress +prompted a measure equally unjust to their representative abroad and +hazardous to the national credit. Presuming upon the success of his +mission, they had empowered their treasurer to draw on Mr. Jay bills +payable at six months, for half a million of dollars. As these bills +came in, the minister was placed in a situation of extreme perplexity, +but his regard for his country's reputation overcame all private +considerations; he adopted the patriotic but desperate expedient of +making himself personally responsible for their payment, and his +acceptances had exceeded one hundred thousand dollars before any relief +came to hand. Mr. Jay's residence in Spain also subjected him to other +trials, only less severe than the one just mentioned; the vexatious +obstacles placed in way of his negotiations by the Spanish government; +the insufficiency of his salary at the most expensive court in Europe; +the frequent removal of the court from place to place, at the royal +pleasure, involving the absence of his wife, whom, for pecuniary +reasons, he was unable to take with him; the death of his young child, +and his anxiety for the family whom he had left at home, exposed to the +dangers of war, and from whom, for more than a year, not a line had +been received, might well have harassed a less sensitive nature than +his. The fortitude with which he sustained these annoyances may be seen +in a letter written by him about this time to his friend, Egbert +Benson, of New-York. It commences thus:<br /> +</p> +<p> +"<span class="smcap">Dear Benson</span>: +</p> +<p>"When shall we again, by a cheerful fire, or under a shady +tree, recapitulate our juvenile pursuits or pleasures, or look back on +the extensive field of politics we once have trodden? <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_212"></a>[212]</span>Our +plans of life +have, within these few years past, been strangely changed. Our country, +I hope, will be the better for the alterations. How far we individually +may be benefited is more questionable. Personal considerations, +however, must give way to public ones, and the consciousness of having +done our duty to our country and posterity, must recompense us for all +the evils we experience in their cause."<br /> +</p> +<p>From Spain, by order of Congress, Jay proceeded to Paris to +arrange, in conjunction with Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Laurens, +the Definitive Treaty of Peace with England,—the most important +diplomatic act of the eighteenth century; and we have the testimony of +Mr. Fitzherbert, then the English minister resident in Paris, that "it +was not only chiefly but <span class="smcap">solely</span> +through his means that the negotiations of that period between England +and the United States were brought to a successful conclusion." Mr. +Oswald had arrived in Paris with a commission, in which the United +States were mentioned under the designation of "colonies," but Jay, +although his associates did not participate in his scruples, refused to +begin negotiations without a preliminary recognition on the part of +England of the Independence of the United States; and owing to his +firmness a new commission was obtained from the king, in which that +most essential point (as the sequel proved) was gained. Declining the +appointment now tendered him by Congress of commissioner to negotiate a +commercial treaty with England, Jay returned to his country. On +arriving at New-York he was welcomed by a most enthusiastic public +reception, and was presented by the corporation of New-York with the +freedom of the city in a gold box. The office <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_213"></a>[213]</span> of Secretary for +foreign +affairs, which, for the want of a suitable incumbent, had been vacant +for two years, was at this time urged by Congress upon his acceptance, +and he did not feel at liberty to refuse his services. He was now +virtually at the head of public affairs. The whole foreign +correspondence of the government, the proposal of plans of treaties, +instructions to ministers abroad, and the submission of reports on all +matters to which Congress might call his attention, came within the +scope of his new duties.</p> +<p>Mr. Jay was among the first of our statesmen to perceive the +defects of the confederation, and to urge the necessity of a new and +more efficient system of government. Besides his contributions to the +Federalist, he wrote an address to the people of New-York, then the +very citadel of the opposition to the proposed Constitution, which had +no unimportant effect in securing its adoption. In the State +Convention, which had assembled with only eleven out of fifty-seven +members in its favor, Jay took a most influential part, and mainly +owing to his exertions was it finally ratified. At the commencement of +the administration of Washington, he was invited by that great man to +select his own post in the newly-formed government. He was accordingly +appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and well did he justify, +in his new capacity, the glowing eulogium of Webster, that "when the +spotless ermine of the judicial robe fell on John Jay it touched +nothing less spotless than itself." In the performance of his duties as +the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, much was accomplished by +him in organizing the business of the court, expounding the principles +of its decisions, and in commending them to a confederacy of sovereign +States, already sufficiently jealous of its <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_214"></a>[214]</span> +extensive but beneficent +jurisdiction. His decision in the novel case of a suit instituted +against the State of Georgia by a citizen of another State, is a +memorable instance of his firmness and judicial ability.</p> +<p>The year 1794 opened with every prospect of a disastrous war +between Great Britain and the United States. The Revolution did not +terminate without leaving in the minds of Americans a strong and +perhaps an unreasonable antipathy to the mother country, which was +stimulated by the unwise interference of Genet, the French minister, in +our politics, and by the exertions of a large class of British +refugees, who had escaped to our country still smarting under the +oppressions which they had experienced at home, and who were extremely +desirous of plunging the American government into the contest which was +then raging between France and England. There were also certain +substantial grievances universally admitted by our citizens, which +would give some countenance to such a measure on the part of America. +Among these were enumerated the detention in violation of the treaty of +the posts on our western frontier by British garrisons, thereby +excluding the navigation by Americans of the great lakes, the refusal +to make compensation for the negroes carried away during the war by the +British fleet, the exclusion and capture of American vessels carrying +supplies to French ports, and the seizure of our ships in the exercise +of the pretended right of search. These, and other outrages, were +justified by Great Britain, on the ground of certain equivalent +infractions of the treaty by the American nation. Washington however +could not be induced to consent to hazard the national interests, by +transgressing that neutrality so necessary to a young republic only +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_215"></a>[215]</span> +just recovering from the severe experience of a seven years' war, and +he saw no other honorable means of averting the impending danger than +the appointment of a special envoy, empowered to adjust the matters in +dispute. For this purpose, on his nomination, Mr. Jay was confirmed on +the 20th of April, 1794, by the Senate, as Minister to England, at +which country he arrived in June of that year. The treaty was signed in +November following, and the negotiations of the two ministers, Lord +Grenville and Mr. Jay, were greatly facilitated by their mutual esteem +and the good understanding existing between them; and their +correspondence, which was characterized by signal ability on both +sides, affords an instance of diplomatic straightforwardness and candor +almost without a parallel in history. It as not consistent with the +plan of our sketch to speak of the provisions of the treaty thus +secured: it was not, in all respects, what Jay, or the country desired; +but in view of the immense advantages to our commerce obtained by it, +the complicated and delicate questions adjusted, and the disasters +which would have befallen the nation had it been defeated, it will +challenge comparison with any subsequent international arrangement to +which the United States have been a party. Yet, incredible as would +seem, the abuse and scurrility with which both it and its author were +loaded, discloses one of the most disgraceful chapters in the records +of political fanaticism. By an eminent member of the opposing party, he +was declared to have perpetrated "an infamous act," an act "stamped +with avarice and corruption." He himself was termed "a damned +arch-traitor," "sold to Great Britain," and the treaty burned before +his door. Enjoying the confidence of the illustrious Washington, and of +the wisest and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_216"></a>[216]</span> +best men of his country, in his course, and above all, +the inward assurance of his unswerving rectitude, Jay might well +forgive these ebullitions of party spleen and await the sanction which +has been conferred on his actions by the impartial voice of posterity.</p> +<p>But no statesman of that time had, on the whole, less reason +to complain of popular ingratitude than Jay; before he reached his +native shore, a large majority of the people of New-York had expressed +their approbation of his conduct by electing him to the office of +Governor. While in this office, the appropriate close of his public +career, besides suggesting many useful measures in regard to education +and internal improvements, the benefits of which are experienced to +this day, he had the happiness of promoting and witnessing the passage +by the Legislature of the act for the gradual abolition of slavery in +his native State. Of this measure he was one of the earliest advocates, +having served as the first President of the Society of Manumission, +which had been organized in 1786 by a number of the most respectable +gentlemen in New-York, and to whose disinterested exertions the success +of the anti-slavery cause was mainly due. On accepting the seat +tendered to him in the Supreme Court, Jay, fearing that the presidency +of the society might prove an embarrassment in the decision of some +questions which might come before him, resigned the office and was +succeeded by Hamilton, who continued to discharge its duties till the +year 1793.</p> +<p>At the expiration of his second gubernatorial term in 1801, +Jay, contrary to the importunities of his friends, retired from public +life, having, for twenty-seven years, faithfully served his country in +every department of legislative, diplomatic, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_217"></a>[217]</span>judicial +trust. +Declining the office of Chief Justice, which was again pressed by the +President upon his acceptance, he prepared to enjoy that congenial +seclusion under the shade of his patrimonial trees, which, through all +the varied and agitating scenes of political life, had been the object +of his most ardent desires. In accordance with this design, he had +built a substantial house at Bedford, about forty-four miles from +New-York, on an estate embracing some eight hundred acres, which had +come to him by inheritance. Here, in one of the most delightful +localities in the fertile county of Westchester, in the care of his +family and estates, in the society of his friends and his books, in the +discharge of the duties of neighborly benevolence, and in the +preparation for those immortal scenes which he had reason to suppose +would soon open upon him, he passed the tranquil remainder of his days. +But his enjoyments were not destined to exempt him from those bitter +but universal visitations, which, at times, overthrow the happiness and +frustrate the most pleasing anticipations of our race. In less than +twelve months after his retirement, the partner of his joys and +sorrows, who, by her accomplishments, her unobtrusive virtues and +solicitous affection, had been at once his delight and support, was +taken from him. At the final hour, Jay, as the biographer tells us, +stood by the bedside "calm and collected," and when the spirit had +taken its departure, led his children to an adjoining room, and with "a +firm voice but glistening eye" read that inspiring and wonderful +chapter in which Paul has discussed the mystery of our future +resurrection.</p> +<p>Considering its natural advantages and its connection by +railway with the great metropolis, Bedford, the ancient half <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_218"></a>[218]</span>shire +town +of Westchester County, can hardly be praised on the score of its +"progressive" tendencies. At the time of Jay's residence there, the +mail-coach from New-York, employing two long days in the journey, +visited the town once a week, and even now the locomotive which +thunders through it perhaps a dozen times a day, hardly disturbs its +rural quietude. It may, however, claim considerable distinction in the +annals of Indian warfare, for, within its limits, on the southern side +of Aspetong Mountain, is still pointed out the scene of a bloody +conflict between the savages and the redoubtable band of Captain +Underhill, in which the latter coming suddenly at night on a village of +their foes, slaughtered them without mercy to the number of five +hundred; "the Lord," as the record goes, "having collected the most of +our enemies there, to celebrate some festival." Bedford was formerly +under the jurisdiction of Connecticut, and the apparent thrift and +independent bearing of its farming population are decided indications +of their New England descent. Its situation is uncommonly pleasant and +healthful, and although the surface of the country is somewhat rocky +and uneven, the soil is excellently adapted for agricultural purposes. +The higher grounds display an abundant growth of all varieties of oak, +elm, ash, linden, chestnut, walnut, locust, and tulip trees, while its +fertile valleys and its sunny hillside exposures furnish ample spaces +for pasturage or cultivation. A number of beautiful streams water the +meadows, of which the two largest, the Cisco or Beaver Dam, and Cross +River, after flowing for a long distance separately, just before +leaving the town, wisely conclude to unite their forces and bear a +generous tribute to the waters of the Croton. The Beaver Dam derives +its name from having <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_219"></a>[219]</span> +once been the favorite haunt of the beavers, who +in former times found a plentiful sustenance in the bark of the +willows, maples and birches which still linger on its banks.</p> +<p>The traveller who wishes to survey the mansion of "the good +old governor," as Mr. Jay is still called by those villagers who +remember his liberality and benevolent interest in their welfare, +leaves the Harlem railroad at Katona, the northwest portion of the +town, so called from the name of the Indian chief, who formerly claimed +dominion of this part of the country, and proceeds in a southeasterly +direction along a road somewhat winding and hilly, tiresome enough +certainly to the pedestrian, but occasionally relieving him with +exhilarating prospects on either side of farmhouses with well-stored +and ample barns, wooded hills with green intervales, waving fields of +grain, and pastures of well-fed, contemplative cattle, who shake their +heads as if their meditations were a little disturbed by his presence. +Every thing about the farms has the aspect of good order and thrift, +and nothing mars the general impression except the occasional sight of +some happy family of swine, who appear to exercise a sort of right of +eminent domain among the weeds and roots on the roadside. A snow-white +sow with thirty snow-white young, according to an ancient poet, was the +immediate inducement to Ęneas in selecting the site of his future city; +whether such an attraction would prove equally potent in our own times, +is more questionable. As one approaches the estate of Jay, the marks of +superior taste and cultivation are apparent; the stone walls are more +neatly and compactly built, and the traveller is refreshed by the +grateful shade of the long rows of maples and elms which were planted +along the road by Jay and his descendants, some of whom still <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_220"></a>[220]</span>make +their summer residence in Bedford. After proceeding for two or three +miles from the railroad station, we turn up a shaded avenue on the +left, which winds round the southern slope of the hill, at the top of +which stands the modest mansion of John Jay. This is a dark brown +wooden two-storied building, facing the southwest, with an addition of +one story at each end, the main building having a front of forty-five +feet, along which is extended a porch of ample dimensions. Passing +through the hall we find in the rear a background of magnificent woods, +principally oak and chestnut, though nearer the house are a number of +gigantic willows still flourishing in the strength and verdure of +youth. Concealed in the foliage of these woods, a little to the west, +is the small school-house of stone erected by Jay for his children, and +on the other side of the mansion, towards the northeast, are the barns, +carriage-house, and the farm-house, occupied by a tenant, who has +supervision of the estate. These tenements are almost screened from +view by a grove of locust trees, for which Jay showed a special +partiality, and whose snow-white robe of blossoms in the latter part of +spring affords a pleasing contrast with the light green of the +tasselled chestnuts, and the dark and glossy shade of the oak and +walnut foliage behind. In front of the barn, on the eastern side of the +house, is the garden, which, though not making any pretension to +superiority in its extent or its cultivation, displays an excellent +variety of fruits and flowers, for the most part, such as thrive easily +in that soil, and are most useful and appropriate to the wants of an +American household. Jay, though for his period uncommonly versed in +horticultural matters, did not, in his old-fashioned simplicity, choose +to waste much time in <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_221"></a>[221]</span> +transplanting those contumacious productions of +foreign countries which "never will in other climates grow." Ascending +the hill a short distance, we come again to the house, immediately in +front of which, without obstructing the view, stands a row of four +handsome lindens. Before the dwelling, which is nearly half a mile from +the main road, stretches the green lawn irregularly diversified with +groups of trees, and beyond is seen the sightly ridge of "Deer's +Delight," once the resort of the beautiful animal from which it takes +its designation; and certainly the choice of such a delectable locality +would have done credit to creatures far more reasonable. This spot is +crowned with the elegant country-seat of Mr. John Jay, a grandson of +the Chief Justice, who, in taking advantage of its natural beauties, +and adapting it to the purposes of his residence, has shown a degree of +taste which has rarely been surpassed. On the western slope, which is +somewhat more abrupt than the others, is the orchard, and from a +thatched arbor on the brink of the descent, the eye surveys a large +part of that circle of hills in which Bedford appears to be almost +inclosed. A most enchanting rural landscape is here spread out, +embracing a wide extent of country dotted with thriving farms and +villages, graceful declivities wandered over by numerous herds of +cattle, valleys and pellucid streams, glimmering at intervals from +thick and overshadowing foliage. Further towards the west is the long +line of hills just shutting off the view of the Hudson, and overlooked +by the still loftier range of the highlands on the other side of the +river, conspicuous among which towers the Dunderberg or bread-tray +mountain. From this spot the magnificent variations of sunset are seen +to great advantage. No man endowed with the least susceptibility to the +charm of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_222"></a>[222]</span> +outward nature, can contemplate without enthusiasm the broad +suffusion of crimson blazing along those western hills, gradually +passing into orange and purple; and finally closing with a deep glowing +brown, while the clear brilliant sky above pales and darkens at the +almost imperceptible coming on of night.</p> +<p>The interior arrangements of the house have not been +essentially varied since the lifetime of its first illustrious +occupant. They all bear marks of that republican simplicity and +unerring good taste which were among his distinguishing +characteristics. The furniture, though of the best materials, was +obviously chosen more for use than ornament, and is noticeable chiefly +for an air of antique respectability and comfort, which, in spite of +the perpetually changing fancies in such matters, can never go out of +fashion. On the right of the hall, as one enters, is the dining-room, +an apartment of perhaps some twenty feet square; in this and in the +parlor opposite, which has about the same dimensions, are several +interesting family portraits, the works mostly of Stewart and Trumbull, +among which are those of Egbert Benson, Judge Hobart, Peter Jay, John +Jay, and Augustus Jay, the first American ancestor of the family, the +artist of which is unknown. Passing through the parlor, we enter the +small room at the west end of the house, occupied as a library, and +containing a well-assorted but not extensive supply of books. Here were +the weighty folios of Grotius, Puffendorf, Vattel, and other masters of +the science of international law, besides a number of standard +theological and miscellaneous works, with the classic authors of +antiquity, among whom Cicero appears to have been his special favorite. +In the library hangs a portrait of Governor Livingston, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_223"></a>[223]</span> +father-in-law of Jay; a vigorous manly boy, the characteristics of +whose youthful features have been retained with singular distinctness +in those of his descendants. He is represented as dressed in the +full-sleeved coat and elaborate costume of his time, and with a sword +hanging at his side, an outfit hardly in accordance with so tender an +age. The oaken press and strong-bound chest of cherry wood are also in +this room, the latter the receptacle perhaps of Jay's important +papers;—these ancient heirlooms are presumed to have crossed the ocean +more than a century and a half ago.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding the infirmities of the last twenty years of +his life, Jay enjoyed an old age of remarkable tranquillity and +happiness. He set an example of undeviating punctuality; the hour and +the man always came together, and in his habits he was extremely +regular. In order to assist him in rising early, an aperture, shaped +like the crescent moon, was made in the solid oaken shutter of his +apartment, by which a glimpse might be caught of the first rays of the +uprising dawn. The reading of prayers was succeeded by breakfast, after +which the greater part of the day was commonly spent in attending to +the affairs of his extensive farm. Most of the time when thus engaged, +he rode on the back of a favorite sorrel mare, of the famous +Narraganset breed, now extinct. This faithful creature died in 1819, +after a service of twenty-three years. Two of the same stock belonging +to Mr. Jay had died in succession previously, the grandam having been +given by his father in 1765. It was probably of the latter animal that +he wrote from Europe in 1783, under the apprehension that she might +have fallen into the hands of the enemy.</p> +<p>"If my old mare is alive, I must beg of you and my <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_224"></a>[224]</span>brother +to +take good care of her. I mean that she should be well fed and live +idle, unless my brother Peter should choose to use her. If it should be +necessary to advance money to recover her, I am content you should do +it even to the amount of double her value."</p> +<p>At half-past one came the dinner hour, after which he was wont +to indulge moderately in smoking. A few of his long clay pipes are +still preserved. They were imported for him from abroad, and were +considered in their time an unusually select and valuable article. His +evenings were devoted to reading and the company of his family and +neighbors. Once or twice a year, Judge Benson, Peter Jay, Monroe, or +some other old friend, would take a journey to his hospitable home to +pass a week in living over, in conversation, their long and varied +experience, and occasionally some stranger from foreign lands, +attracted by his wide-spread reputation, would receive at his hands a +cordial yet unostentatious welcome. Though possessed of a large landed +property from which he enjoyed a respectable income, his family +expenses and the management of his estate were regulated by a judicious +and liberal economy. Remarkably affectionate in his disposition and +solicitous for the welfare of his children, his demeanor towards them +was marked with unvarying equability and decision. An extract from a +letter to Mrs. Jay, dated London, 5th Dec., 1794, illustrates his views +on this head:</p> +<p>"I hope N—— will amuse herself sometimes with her +spinning-wheel. God only knows what may one day be her situation. +Polite accomplishments merit attention, useful knowledge should not be +neglected. Let us do the best we can with, and for our children, and +commit them to the protection and guidance of Providence."</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_225"></a>[225]</span> +By his servants, his poorer neighbors, and all who were in any +way dependent on him, he was reverenced and loved. He promptly and +liberally responded to all movements calculated to promote the general +good. In one instance of this kind, he showed an adroitness in his +beneficence which is somewhat amusing. The townspeople were about to +erect a school-house, and it was apprehended that from mistaken +considerations of economy, the building would be less substantial in +its construction than was desirable. When, therefore, the subscription +list was presented to Jay, he put down a liberal sum against his name +"if of wood, if of stone, <i>double</i>." Another example +occurs in his dealings with his less fortunate neighbors, evincing the +union of austere and inflexible regard for public justice with the most +sensitive sympathy with individual suffering, which is cited in +Professor McVicar's appreciative and eloquent sketch of Jay's life. The +case referred to is that of "a poor blacksmith in his neighborhood, who +had encroached with his building on the public highway, and refused to +recede; Jay prosecuted him to the extreme rigor of the law, and having +duly punished the <i>offender</i>, proceeded to make it up +tenfold to the <i>poor man</i> by deeding to him an acre +or two of ground from his own farm, in order that his necessities might +be no plea for any further breach of the law."</p> +<p>A pleasing reminiscence of Jay has been told by the son of the +recipient of his bounty, a poor widow, whose utmost exertions were +barely sufficient for the support of her family. Some time after the +Governor's death, she received a note from Mr. William Jay, the +occupant of the old mansion, requesting her to visit him as he had some +pleasant news for her. In great perplexity as to the nature of the +promised <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_226"></a>[226]</span> +communication, the good woman complied, and on arriving at the +house, was thus addressed by that gentleman: "My father, before he +died, requested to be buried in the plainest manner; 'by so doing,' +said he, 'there will be a saving of about two hundred dollars which I +wish you to give to some poor widow whom you and your sister may +consider most worthy, and I wish you to get the silver money and count +it out now,' and," continued Mr. Jay, "my sister and I have selected +you and here is the money." The gratitude of the widow found no answer +but in tears as she bore away the treasure to her dwelling. The +recollection of deeds like these is the imperishable inheritance which +Jay has left to his descendants, and it is a distinction besides which +mere heraldic honors fade into insignificance, that, from the beginning +to this day, the great name of Jay has been inseparably linked with the +cause of the neglected and oppressed against the encroachments of +unscrupulous power.</p> +<p>The personal appearance of Jay, at the age of forty-four, is +thus described by Mr. Sullivan: "He was a little less than five feet in +height, his person rather thin but well formed. His complexion was +without color, his eyes black and penetrating, his nose aquiline, and +his chin pointed. His hair came over his forehead, was tied behind and +lightly powdered. His dress black. When standing, he was a little +inclined forward, as is not uncommon with students long accustomed to +bend over a table." With the exception of the mistake as to the color +of his eyes, which were blue and not black, this is probably an +accurate picture. But it gives no idea of the blended dignity and +courtesy which were apparent in his features and his habitual bearing, +to a degree, says a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_227"></a>[227]</span> +venerable informant, never witnessed in any other +man of that time. His general appearance of reserve was sometimes +misconstrued by those who were little acquainted with him into +haughtiness. This was undoubtedly native, in some measure, to his +character, but much, we have reason to suppose, existed more in +appearance than in reality, and was the unavoidable expression of one +long and intensely engaged in affairs of great moment,<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"Deep on whose front engraved</span></span><br /> +<span class="poem">Deliberation sat, and public cares."</span> +<br /> +</p> +<p>Not without a keen sense of the ludicrous, he rarely indulged +in jocose remarks; yet he is said, at times, when much importuned for +certain information or opinions which he did not care to reveal, to +have shown a peculiarly shrewd humor in his replies, which baffled +without irritating the inquirer. Perhaps a delicate piece of advice was +never given in more skilfully worded and unexceptionable phraseology +than in his answer to a confidential letter from Lord Grenville, +inquiring as to the expediency of removing Mr. Hammond, the British +Minister at Washington, who, for some reason or other, had become +extremely distasteful to the government there. As Mr. Hammond was a +personal friend to Jay, the inquiry was naturally embarrassing, but he +still deemed it his duty to advise the minister's recall. Accordingly, +in his reply, after first declaring his friendship for Mr. Hammond and +his entire confidence in that gentleman's ability and integrity, he +refers to the unhappy diplomatic difficulties of that gentleman, and +concludes by saying, "Hence I cannot forbear wishing that Mr. Hammond <i>had +a better place</i>, and that a person well <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_228"></a>[228]</span>adapted +to the +existing state of things was sent to succeed him."</p> +<p>As William Penn said of George Fox, Mr. Jay was "civil beyond +all forms of breeding;" the natural refinement and purity of his +disposition were expressed in his appearance and manners, and perhaps +we might apply with propriety the remainder of Penn's description:—"He +was a man whom God endowed with a clear and wonderful depth,—a +discoverer of other men's spirits and very much the master of his own. +The reverence and solemnity of his demeanor and the fewness and fulness +of his words often struck strangers with admiration." In his character, +the qualities of wisdom, decision, truthfulness, and justice held a +supreme and unquestioned sway. Under their direction, he was often led +into measures which seemed at first to hazard his own interests, as +when at Paris he violated his congressional instructions for the +benefit of his country; but these measures were adopted with such +deliberation, and pursued with so unhesitating perseverance that their +results invariably justified the course he had taken. The three most +important concessions ever gained by America from foreign countries, +the concessions which now our country most values and would be least +willing to surrender, namely, the Navigation of the Mississippi, the +Participation in the British Fisheries and the Trade with the West +Indies, are due almost solely to the foresight, the diplomatic ability +and the firmness of John Jay. When we consider the comparative +insensibility of Congress at that time, and the country at large, to +the incalculable value of these rights, we may feel assured that had +America sent abroad an agent of different character, the wily +diplomatists of Europe would have found little difficulty <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_229"></a>[229]</span>in +wresting +them from us. Jay was moreover a man of deep and fervent piety—not that +merely occasional ecstasy of devotional feeling, which, although +perfectly sincere, is compatible with an habitual violation of all laws +human and divine, but a constant sense of responsibility to a Supreme +Being for every action of his life, under which he labored</p> +<p><span class="poem">"As ever in the Great +Taskmaster's eye."</span> +</p> +<p>It was this combination of attributes, "inviting confidence, +yet inspiring respect," setting him apart from other men, yet drawing +the multitude after him, that accounts for the constantly recurring +demands upon his public services. The people felt that they could trust +a man whose patriotism was not a temporary passion, but a well-defined +and immovable principle, and they were never disappointed. In the +complete harmony of his moral and intellectual qualities, so wholly +free from the disturbing influence of painful and dangerous +eccentricities and the considerations of self, he approached nearer +than any other statesman of his age to the majestic character of +Washington, and on no one of his illustrious coadjutors did that great +man place so uniform and so unhesitating a reliance.</p> +<p>Jay had already exceeded the longest period allotted by the +psalmist to the life of man, in the enjoyment of all those +satisfactions which comfortable outward circumstances, the affection of +friends and kindred, and the honor and reverence of a country whose +vast and still enlarging prosperity were so much due to his exertions, +can supply, when he received the unmistakable premonitions of his end. +On the 17th of May, 1828, having previously summoned the numerous +members <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_230"></a>[230]</span> +of the family to his bedside, and having bestowed on each his parting +advice and benediction, he resigned his soul to the care of its Maker; +and now, in the quiet grave-yard at Rye, near the spot where he passed +the early years of his life, repose the august remains of John Jay.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_231"></a>[231]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="hamilton"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Hamilton.</span> +</h6> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_233"></a>[233]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus249"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 219px; height: 403px;" alt="Ball Hughes' Statue of Hamilton." src="images/illus249.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Ball Hughes' Statue of Hamilton.</a></span></p> +<h2>HAMILTON.</h2> +<p>We have not the means of presenting a sketch of Hamilton's +birth-place, or of the incidents of his early life before he became a +resident in this country; and so much of his subsequent life was spent +in the camp and in the service of his country, wherever that service +required him to be, that he can hardly be said to have had a "Home" +until a few years before his splendid career was so suddenly and +mournfully closed.</p> +<p>He was born in the year 1756, in the Island of St. Nevis, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_234"></a>[234]</span>one +of the British West Indian possessions, whither his father, a native of +Scotland, had gone with the purpose of engaging in mercantile pursuits; +and he was himself at the early age of twelve, placed in the +counting-house of an opulent merchant, in one of the neighboring +islands. But such a situation was ill suited to his disposition; and +his ambition, even at that early period of his life, strongly +developed, could not find in those narrow colonies a sufficient field +for its exercise. The wishes of his friends favored his own +inclinations, and he was sent to New-York, that he might avail himself +of the more ample facilities for acquiring an education which that +place and its vicinity afforded.</p> +<p>He went through with the studies preparatory to entering +college at a school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, which was under the +patronage of Governor Livingston and Mr. Boudinot, in the former of +whose families he resided. He soon qualified himself for admission to +King's (now Columbia) College, and was then permitted to pursue a +course of study which he had marked out for himself, without becoming a +member of any particular class. At this early period he evinced those +traits of character which afterwards conducted him to such high +distinction, and which marked his career throughout. He brought to his +tasks not only that diligence which is often exhibited by more ordinary +minds, but that enthusiastic devotion of the soul, which was perhaps +the most marked trait of his character.</p> +<p>It was while he was yet in college, that the disputes between +the colonies and the mother country, just preliminary to the breaking +out of hostilities, arose; but they even then engaged his earnest +attention. It is probable that the tendency <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_235"></a>[235]</span>of his mind at +that time, +as in the later period of his life, was towards conservative views; and +indeed he has himself said "that he had, at first, entertained strong +prejudices on the ministerial side." But a mind so investigating and a +spirit so generous as his would not be likely to entertain such +prejudices long; and having made a visit to Boston and become excited +by the tone of public feeling in that city, he directed his attention +to the real merits of the controversy, and this, aided perhaps by the +natural order of his temperament, produced in him a thorough conviction +of the justice of the American cause. With his characteristic +earnestness, he threw himself at once into the contest, and while but +eighteen years of age he addressed a public meeting upon the subject of +the wrongs inflicted by the mother country, and acquitted himself in a +manner which amazed and delighted his hearers, and drew to him the +public attention.</p> +<p>A meeting of the citizens of New-York had been called to +consider upon the choice of delegates to the first Congress. A large +concourse of people assembled, and the occasion was long remembered as +"the great meeting in the fields." Hamilton was then, of course, +comparatively unknown, but some of his neighbors having occasion to +remark his contemplative habits and the vigor and maturity of his +thoughts, urged him to address the multitude, and after some hesitation +he consented.</p> +<p>"The novelty of the attempt, his slender and diminutive form, +awakened curiosity and arrested attention. Overawed by the scene before +him, he at first hesitated and faltered, but as he proceeded almost +unconsciously to utter his accustomed reflections, his mind warmed with +the theme, his energies <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_236"></a>[236]</span> +were recovered; and after a discussion, clear, +cogent, and novel, of the great principles involved in the controversy, +he depicted in glowing colors the long continued and long endured +oppressions of the mother country. He insisted on the duty of +resistance, pointed out the means and certainty of success, and +described the waves of rebellion sparkling with fire and washing back +upon the shores of England the wrecks of her power, her wealth, and her +glory. The breathless silence ceased as he closed, and the whispered +murmur—'it is a collegian, it is a collegian,' was lost in expressions +of wonder and applause at the extraordinary eloquence of the young +stranger."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> +<p>About the same time he published anonymously two pamphlets in +reply to publications emanating from the ministerial party, and in +vindication of the measures of the American Congress. The powerful and +eloquent manner in which the topics in controversy were discussed, +excited great attention. The authorship of the pamphlets was attributed +by some to Governor Livingston and by others to John Jay, and these +contributed to give to those gentlemen, already distinguished, an +increased celebrity; and when it was ascertained that the youthful +Hamilton was the author of them, the public could scarcely credit the +fact.</p> +<p>Upon the actual breaking out of hostilities, Hamilton +immediately applied himself to the study of military science, and +obtained from the State of New-York a commission as captain of a +company of artillery. His conduct at once attracted the observing eye +of Washington, who soon invited him to become one of his staff with the +commission of Lieutenant Colonel.<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_237"></a>[237]</span></p> +<p>Hamilton accepted the offer, and for the space of four years +remained in the family of Washington, enjoying his unlimited +confidence, carrying on a large portion of his correspondence, and +aiding him in the conduct of the most important affairs. A hasty word +from the latter led to a rupture of this connection, and Hamilton left +the staff and resumed his place as an officer in the line; but +Washington's confidence in him was not in the least impaired, and their +friendship continued warm and sincere until the death of the latter.</p> +<p>In thus separating himself from the family of the +Commander-in-Chief, Hamilton was influenced by other motives than +displeasure at the conduct of Washington. He knew that great man too +well, and loved him too well, to allow a hasty word of rebuke to break +up an attachment which had begun at the breaking out of the war, and +which a familiar intercourse of four years, an ardent love of the +cause, and a devotion to it common to them both had deepened and +confirmed. But the duties of a secretary and adviser, important as they +then were, were not adequate to call forth all his various powers, and +the performance of them, however skilful, was not sufficient to satisfy +that love of glory which he so fondly cherished. He was born to act in +whatever situation he might be placed a first rate part. He longed to +distinguish himself in the battles as well as in the councils of the +war. He felt that his country had need of his arm as well as of his +pen; and thus the dictates of patriotism, which he never in the course +of his life allowed to stand separate from the promptings of his high +ambition, pointed out to him the course he took. He would not, of his +own motion, leave the immediate services of Washington; but when the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_238"></a>[238]</span> +opportunity was presented by the latter, he at once embraced it, and +would not be persuaded by any considerations to return to his former +place.</p> +<p>A short time previous to his leaving the family of Washington +he had formed an engagement with the second daughter of Gen. Philip +Schuyler, of New-York, to whom he was married on the 14th of December, +1780, at the residence of her father at Albany, and thus became +permanently established in New-York. His union with this lady was one +of unbroken happiness, and at a venerable age she still survives him.</p> +<p>His rank in the army was soon after advanced, and an +opportunity for exhibiting his military skill and prowess, which he had +so ardently wished for, was shortly presented. The falling fortunes of +the British army in the south, under Lord Cornwallis, invited an attack +in that quarter. The combined French and American forces were fast +closing up every avenue of retreat, and the British commander finding +that to avoid a general engagement was impossible, at last intrenched +himself at Yorktown with the determination of making a final stand +against the victorious progress of the American arms. In the decisive +battle which succeeded, Hamilton signalized himself by a most brilliant +achievement. Two redoubts in the fortifications of the enemy were to be +carried in face of a most destructive fire. The attack upon one of them +was assigned to a detachment of the French troops, and that upon the +other to a division of the American forces. The command of the latter, +at his earnest request, was given to Hamilton. At the appointed signal +he "gave the order to advance at the point of the bayonet, pushed +forward, and before the rest of the corps had ascended the abatis, +mounted over it, stood for a moment on the parapet with three of his +soldiers, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_239"></a>[239]</span> +encouraging the others to follow, and sprung into the ditch. +The American infantry, animated by the address and example of their +leader, pressed on with muskets unloaded and fixed bayonets. They soon +reached the counterscarp under a heavy and constant fire from the +redoubt, and, surmounting the abatis, ditch, and palisades, mounted the +parapet and leaped into the work. Hamilton, who had pressed forward, +followed by the rear-guard under Mansfield, was for a time lost sight +of, and it was feared he had fallen; but he soon reappeared, formed the +troops in the redoubt, and as soon as it surrendered gave the command +to Major Fish.</p> +<p>"The impetuosity of the attack carried all before it, and +within nine minutes from the time the abatis was passed the work was +gained."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> +This brilliant exploit received the decisive commendation of +Washington. "Few cases," said he, "have exhibited greater proofs of +intrepidity, coolness, and firmness than were shown on this occasion."</p> +<p>The battle of Yorktown decided the event of the war of the +Revolution. The profession of a soldier could no longer give sufficient +scope to the restless activity of Hamilton; although then occupying a +distinguished place among the most illustrious of his countrymen, and +yielding, though not without regret, his arms for the <i>toga</i>, +he selected for his future employment the profession of the law—a +pursuit for which his general studies and the character of his mind, as +well as his inclination, eminently fitted him.</p> +<p>From the period of his admission to the bar until the +assembling of the convention which framed the constitution <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_240"></a>[240]</span>under +which +we now live, his time and labors were divided between the practice of +his profession and the service of the public in various capacities. Of +the convention he was chosen a member, and he brought to the +performance of his duties in that body the purest patriotism, and +abilities unsurpassed, if indeed equalled, in that assembly of +illustrious men. He took from the outset a most conspicuous part in its +deliberations, throwing upon every important subject which was +discussed, the blended lights of his genius, experience, and learning. +As the sessions of the convention were held in secret, we have but an +imperfect knowledge of its proceedings; and the meagre and fragmentary +reports which we possess of the speeches which were delivered in it +give us a very inadequate notion of the masterly efforts of Hamilton. +But the testimony of his associates in the convention, and the +imperfect records we have of its deliberations, join in ascribing to +him a foremost place; and an impartial student of our constitution and +history, himself a profound statesman and philosopher, M. Guizot, has +said that there is in our political system scarcely an element of order +and durability for which we are not in a great measure indebted to the +genius of Hamilton. Indeed he was the very first to point out the +radical defects in the old confederation, and the absolute necessity of +a government based upon a different foundation, and invested with more +ample powers. The restoration of the public credit, the creation of a +currency, the promotion of commerce, the preservation of the public +faith with foreign countries, the general tranquillity—these were +topics which he had discussed in all their relations long before the +meeting of the convention, and he had early arrived at the conclusion +that these great ends were to be reached in <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_241"></a>[241]</span>no other way than +by the +establishment of a <span class="smcap">National Government</span>, +emanating directly from the people at large, sovereign in its own +sphere, and responsible to the people alone for the manner in which its +powers were executed. In the Constitution, when it was presented for +adoption, Hamilton saw some objectionable features. These he had +opposed in the convention; but finding that such opposition was likely +to throw obstacles in the way of any final agreement, and reorganizing +in the instrument proposed to be adopted the essential features of his +own plan, and wisely regarding it as the best scheme that could unite +the varying opinions of men, he patriotically withdrew his opposition +and gave it his hearty assent.</p> +<p>Hamilton was chosen a member of the convention which met at +Poughkeepsie to consider the question of ratifying it, and he urged the +adoption of it in a series of masterly speeches, which powerfully +contributed to its final ratification. At the same time, in conjunction +with Madison and Jay, he was engaged in the composition of those +immortal papers, which, under the name of the "Federalist," exercised +at the time such a potent influence, and which have even since been +received as authoritative commentaries upon the instrument, the wisdom +and expediency of which they so eloquently and successfully vindicated. +In view of the extraordinary exertions of Hamilton in behalf of the +Constitution, both with his tongue and pen, and of the fact that if +New-York had rejected it, it would probably have failed to receive the +sanction of a sufficient number of States, we think that it may without +injustice to others be said, that for the ratification of our +Constitution we are <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_242"></a>[242]</span> +more indebted to the labors of Hamilton than to +those of any other single man.</p> +<p>When the new government went into operation with Washington at +its head, Hamilton was called to fill what was then the most important +place in the cabinet, that of Secretary of the Treasury. He then +addressed himself to the task of carrying out the great purpose for +which the Constitution was adopted—a task, the successful +accomplishment of which rested more in the skilful administration of +the Treasury department than that of any office under government; for +upon this hung the great issues of the currency and the public credit. +With what ability he executed his great trust in the face of a powerful +and most virulent opposition, the event has fully shown. The system of +finance which he concocted and applied has been adhered to without +substantial change throughout the subsequent history of the government, +and well justifies the magnificent eulogy which Webster has bestowed +upon its author. "He smote the rock of the national resources, and +abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of +the Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. The fabled birth of +Minerva from the brain of Jove was hardly more sudden or more perfect +than the financial system of the United States, as it burst forth from +the conceptions of <span class="smcap">Alexander Hamilton</span>."<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> +<p>From the Treasury department he returned to the practice of +his profession, and the calmer walks of private life; but his love for +his country and the anxiety he felt for her welfare would not permit +him to relinquish the prominent place <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_243"></a>[243]</span>he held as the +leader of the +Federal party. He regarded with great distrust and apprehension the +principles and the practices of the rapidly increasing Democratic +party. Many of its leaders he believed to be destitute of principle, +and he spared no exertions in opposing them, and in endeavoring to stay +the progress of radical opinions, and to infuse a spirit of moderation +and wisdom into the politics of the nation.</p> +<p>He was now in the prime of life. A practice in his profession +at that time without parallel in extent and importance, afforded him an +abundant income, and held out a prospect of a competent fortune. He +therefore retired from the city, purchased a beautiful spot in the +upper part of the island of New-York, and there built the tasteful +residence of which an engraving is prefixed to this sketch, and which +of the many places where he resided may most appropriately be called +his "Home." It is, we believe, the only house in New-York, in which he +lived, that is now standing. Of the one in the island of St. Nevis, in +which he was born, we have never seen any representation or +description. During a small portion of his college life, he resided +with Mr. Hercules Mulligan in Water-street; but the house was long +since torn down.</p> +<p>After the close of the war, and during the first years of his +practice at the bar, Hamilton occupied a house in Wall-street, nearly +opposite the "Federal Hall," the site of the present Custom House. It +was on the outer balcony of Federal Hall that Washington took the oath +of inauguration upon his first election, and Hamilton, with a party of +his friends, witnessed that imposing ceremony from the balcony of his +own house. This building has, with most others of its time, been taken +down, and a new one erected in its place to accommodate <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_244"></a>[244]</span>that +mighty +march of commercial enterprise which is fast sweeping away the last +vestiges which mark the dwelling-places of the last generation.</p> +<p>The spot which Hamilton selected for his "Home," and to which +he gave the name of "Grange," from that of the residence of his +grandfather in Ayrshire, Scotland, was chosen with taste and judgment, +both on account of its natural beauty, and the interesting and +inspiring recollections which its vicinity suggested. It was, at that +time, completely in the country, without an object to remind one of the +neighborhood of the town; and even now the population of the city, so +prodigiously expanded, has not much encroached upon its original +limits. It is situated upon the old King's Bridge road, about eight +miles from the heart of the city, and something less than a mile above +the ancient village of Manhattan, and is about midway between the +Hudson River on the one side and the Harlem on the other. The west +side, which lies on the King's Bridge road, is adorned by a fine growth +of large shade trees. From these it extends with gentle undulations to +a declivity, at the base of which lie the Harlem commons. The grounds +are simply but tastefully laid out, chiefly with a view to take +advantage of and display the natural features of the place. The house +is situated nearly in the centre of the grounds, and is reached by a +gently-winding carriage-way. The stable is placed in the rear of the +house and at a distance from it, and is concealed by a thick growth of +trees. A gravelled walk winds among the shade trees along the road, and +thence across the grounds and along the other side. The space in front +and on the left of the house is laid out in a fine lawn, in which the +uneven surface of the ground is preserved, dotted <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_245"></a>[245]</span>here +and there with +fine trees, the natural growth of the spot. Near the house and on the +left are thirteen flourishing gum trees, said to have been left by +Hamilton himself when clearing the spot, as an emblem of the thirteen +original States.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus261"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 289px; height: 403px;" alt="Residence of Alexander Hamilton, near Manhattanville, N.Y." src="images/illus261.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Residence of Alexander Hamilton, +near Manhattanville, N.Y. </a></span></p> +<p>The house itself is in form nearly square, of moderate size +and well proportioned. The front is on the southern side; it is two +stories in height, exclusive of the basement, and would have been at +the time it was built a handsome and expensive one. The basement is +used for culinary purposes, and the first story, which contains the +parlors, is reached by a short flight of steps. You enter a commodious +hall of a pentagonal form. On either side is a small apartment, of +which the one on the right was the study, and contained the library of +Hamilton. At the end of the hall are the doors, one on the right and +the other on the left, which open into the parlors. These are of +moderate size and connected by doors, by opening which they are thrown +into one large room. The one on the right as you enter the house, is +now, and probably was when Hamilton occupied it, used as a dining-room. +The other parlor is furnished for the drawing-room. It is an octagon in +form, of which three sides are occupied by doors, leading to the hall +in front, the dining-room, and to a hall in the rear. In two of the +opposite sides are windows reaching to the floor, and opening upon the +lawn on the easterly side of the house. The three doors before +mentioned are faced with mirrors, and being directly opposite the +windows, they throw back the delightful landscape which appears through +the latter with a pleasing effect. The story above is commodious, and +divided into the usual apartments. On the north the prospect is +interrupted by higher ground, and on the south by trees. On <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_246"></a>[246]</span>the +west a +view is caught of the beautiful shore of New Jersey, on the opposite +side of the Hudson. From the eastern side, and especially from the +balcony which extends in front of the windows of the drawing-room, a +magnificent prospect is presented. The elevation being some two hundred +feet above the surrounding waters, a complete view of the lower lands +and of the country in the distance is commanded. Harlem with its river, +the East River and Long Island Sound now dotted with a thousand sails, +the fertile county of Westchester, and Long Island stretching away to +the horizon, with its lovely and diversified scenery, are all in full +view.</p> +<p>This spot has, and probably had for Hamilton, its attractions +in another respect. In its immediate neighbourhood were the scenes of +some of the memorable and interesting events of the Revolution. He had +passed directly over it with the American army in its retreat from +New-York, after the disastrous battle of Long Island. Within a short +distance from it are the Harlem Heights, where by his bravery and +address, while yet but a boy, he had attracted the eye of Washington, +and enjoyed his first interview with him. A little further towards the +north is Fort Washington, in which the continental army made its last +stand upon the island, and the loss of which sealed the fate of +New-York for the war. It was this fort which, in the ardor of his +youthful enthusiasm and burning with chagrin at its capture, he +promised Washington he would retake, if he would place a small and +select detachment under his command—an enterprise which the +Commander-in-Chief thought too hazardous. Just across the river on the +Jersey side is Fort Lee, which fell into the hands of the enemy soon +after the capture of Fort Washington; <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_247"></a>[247]</span> +and a short distance above, in the King's Bridge road, is +the house which after the death of Hamilton became the residence of his +bitter and fatal antagonist, Aaron Burr.</p> +<p>When he had fixed his residence in this beautiful and +attractive spot he was in the prime of life, in excellent health, and +in prosperous circumstances. He had been most fortunate in his domestic +relations, and had around him a happy family to which he was fondly +devoted. His unrivalled natural powers had been exercised and improved +by a training of thirty years in the camp, the forum, the senate and +the cabinet. He was almost worshipped by his friends and his party, and +regarded by all as one of the very pillars of the State. Every thing in +his situation and circumstances seemed auspicious of a still long +career of happiness and honor to himself, of usefulness and honor to +his country. But in the midst of all this, he was suddenly cut off by +the melancholy and fatal duel with Col. Burr.</p> +<p>The public and private character of Burr, Hamilton had long +known and despised. He regarded him as a dangerous man, and one wholly +unfit to fill any office of trust or emolument. And this opinion, +although avoiding open controversy with Burr himself, he had not +scrupled to express privately to his own political friends, for the +purpose of dissuading them from giving any support to one so little to +be depended on. He recognized himself no other claim to political +distinction than honesty of purpose, the ability and the will to serve +the country, united with what he deemed to be sound political +principles, neither of which recommendations could he discover in Aaron +Burr.</p> +<p>Burr had, on the other hand, few ends in life save his own +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_248"></a>[248]</span> +advancement, and he scrupled at no means by which this object might be +compassed; but in his most deeply laid schemes, he saw that the +vigilant eye of Hamilton was upon him, and after his defeat in 1804 as +a candidate for governor of the State of New-York, stung with +mortification at his overthrow, and justly deeming the influence of +Hamilton as one of the most potent causes of it, he resolved to fix a +quarrel upon him. Seizing upon an expression which was contained in a +letter, published during the recent political contest, but which had +been forgotten by every one save himself, he dragged it before +Hamilton's attention, tortured it into an imputation upon his personal +honor, demanded of Hamilton an explanation which it was impossible for +him to give, and made his refusal the pretext for a peremptory +challenge.</p> +<p>In accepting the challenge of Burr, Hamilton was but little +under the influence of those motives which are commonly uppermost in +such contests. To the practice of duelling he was sincerely and upon +principle opposed, and had frequently borne his testimony against it. +His reputation for personal courage had been too often tried, and too +signally proved to be again put at risk. His passions, though strong, +were under his control, and that sensitiveness on the score of personal +honor, which a man of spirit naturally cherishes, and which the habits +of a military life rendered prompt and delicate, was in him satisfied +by a conscious integrity of purpose. His disposition was forgiving and +gentle to a fault, and made it impossible for him to feel any personal +ill will even towards such a man as Burr. The manifold obligations +which as an honest and conscientious man he was bound to regard—his +duties to a loved and dependent family, and his country, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_249"></a>[249]</span>which +held +almost an equal place in his affections, united to dissuade him from +meeting his adversary. And yet these latter, viewed in connection with +his peculiar position, with popular prejudices, and the circumstances +of the times, were what impelled him to his fatal resolution. His +theoretic doubts respecting a republican form of government, while they +did not in the least diminish his preference for our political system, +yet made him painfully anxious in regard to its success. He thought +that every thing depended upon keeping the popular mind free from the +corruption of false principles, and the offices of trust and honor out +of the hands of bad men. To these ends he had been, and still was, +employing all his energy and influence. He could not bear the thought +of losing or weakening by any step, however justifiable in itself, that +influence which he had reason to think was not exerted in vain. These +were the large and unselfish considerations which governed him; and +though a cool observer removed from the excitement and perplexities of +the time may pronounce them mistaken, still if impartial he must regard +them as sincere. They were what Hamilton himself, in full view of the +solemnity of the step he was about to take, and of the possible event +of it, declared to be his motive. "The ability," said he in the last +paper he ever wrote, "to be in future useful, whether in resisting +mischief or effecting good in those crises of our public affairs which +seem likely to happen, would probably be inseparable from a conformity +with prejudice in this particular."</p> +<p>After some fruitless endeavors on the part of Hamilton to +convince Burr of the unreasonableness of the request which the latter +had made, all explanations were closed, and the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_250"></a>[250]</span> +preliminaries for the +meeting were arranged. Hamilton having no wish to take the life of +Burr, had come to the determination to throw away his first shot,—a +course too which approved itself to his feelings for other reasons.</p> +<p>The grounds of Weehawk, on the Jersey shore opposite New-York, +were at that time the usual field of these single combats, then chiefly +by the inflamed state of political feeling of frequent occurrence, and +very seldom ending without bloodshed. The day having been fixed, and +the hour appointed at seven o'clock in the morning, the parties met, +accompanied only by their servants. The bargemen, as well as Dr. +Hosack, the surgeon mutually agreed upon, remained as usual at a +distance, in order, if any fatal result should occur, not to be +witnesses. The parties having exchanged salutations, the seconds +measured the distance of ten paces, loaded the pistols, made the other +preliminary arrangements, and placed the combatants. At the appointed +signal, Burr took deliberate aim and fired. The ball entered Hamilton's +side, and as he fell, his pistol too was unconsciously discharged. Burr +approached him, apparently somewhat moved, but on the suggestion of his +second, the surgeon and bargemen already approaching, he turned and +hastened away, Van Ness coolly covering him from their sight by opening +an umbrella. The surgeon found Hamilton half lying, half sitting on the +ground, supported in the arms of his second. The pallor of death was on +his face. "Doctor," he said, "this is a mortal wound;" and, as if +overcome by the effort of speaking, he swooned quite away. As he was +carried across the river the fresh breeze revived him. His own house +being in the country, he was conveyed at once to the house of a friend, +where he lingered for twenty-four <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_251"></a>[251]</span> +hours in great agony, but preserving +his composure and self-command to the last.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> +<p>The melancholy event of the duel affected the whole country, +and New-York in particular, with the deepest indignation and grief. The +avenues to the house where Hamilton was carried before he expired, were +thronged with anxious citizens. His funeral was celebrated by a +mournful pageant, and an oration in Trinity Church by Governeur Morris, +which stirred up the people like the speech of Antony over the corpse +of Caesar, to a "sudden flood of mutiny." Burr, with an indictment for +murder hanging over him, fled secretly from the city to the South, +where he remained until the excitement had in a measure subsided. His +wretched end, and the place which history has assigned to him, leave +room at present for no other emotions save those of regret and pity. In +the deep gloom which the death of Hamilton occasioned, his political +opponents almost equally shared. In contemplating his character they +seemed to catch some portion of his own magnanimity, and the +animosities of which he had been so conspicuous an object, were +swallowed up in the conviction that a great and irreparable loss had +fallen equally upon all.</p> +<p>There was not, we think, at that time, a life which might not +have been better spared than that of Hamilton. Certainly no man +represented so well as he, the character and the principles of +Washington; and no man was gifted with an array of qualities which +better fitted him either as a magistrate or a man to control aright the +opinions and the actions of a people like that of the United States. He +was a man "built up on every side." He had received from nature a most +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_252"></a>[252]</span> +capacious and admirable intellect, which had been exercised and +developed by deep study and large experience in the practical conduct +of affairs. His education was like that which Milton describes as +"fitting to a man to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously, all +the offices, both public and private, of peace and war." His opinions +were definite and fixed; were held with the confidence which is the +result of complete conviction; and came from him recommended by a +powerful eloquence, and a persuasive fairness and magnanimity. The +strength of his passions gave him an almost unbounded influence over +the minds of others, which he never perverted to selfish purposes or +unworthy ends.</p> +<p>A lofty integrity was one of the most prominent traits of his +character. It was not, as in his great contemporary Jay, clothed with +the appearance of austerity, nor did it, perhaps, so much as in the +latter spring from a constant and habitual sense of responsibility to a +Supreme Being; but it was rather a rare and noble elevation of soul, +the spontaneous development of a nature which could not harbor a base +or unworthy motive, cherished indeed and fortified by a firm faith and +a strong religious temperament. It was this which enabled him to spend +so long a period of his life in the public service in the exercise of +the most important public trusts—among them that of the Treasury +department, with the whole financial arrangements of the country under +his control, and come from it all without a stain or a suspicion. His +character for uprightness might be presented as an example in +illustration of the fine precept of Horace:</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +——Hic murus aheneus esto</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa.</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_253"></a>[253]</span> +Political hostility and private malice explored every corner +of his life with the hope of fixing a stain upon his official +integrity; but these miserable attempts had no other effect than to +bring defeat and disgrace on the authors of them. His honesty was as +conspicuous in his private as in his public career, and was indeed +sometimes carried to an extent which we fear might seem in our times +like an absurd refinement. When about to enter upon his duties as +Secretary of the Treasury, he was applied to by some friends engaged in +monetary transactions for information with respect to the policy which +he proposed to pursue, the disclosure of which would perhaps promote +their interests, and not injure those of the public. But this he +utterly refused to give, holding it as inconsistent with his duty as a +public servant, to make his office even the indirect means of +contributing to the emolument of friends by imparting to them +information which was not open to all alike. While at the bar, and +practising only as counsellor, he was associated with the Messrs. +Ogden, who were then leading members of the profession in New-York +city, and he received only the retaining and trial fees, though his +reputation brought to the office a large proportion of all the +important suits which arose. It was proposed to him to form a +connection with other attorneys, by which engagement he might receive a +portion of the attorney's fees in addition; but this offer he at once +rejected, saying that he could not consent to receive any compensation +for services not his own, or for the character of which he was not +responsible.</p> +<p>In his disposition he was one of the most amiable and +attractive of men; and though capable of strong indignation, which made +him always respected and sometimes feared by his <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_254"></a>[254]</span>adversaries, +he was +yet of such a mild and placable temper that no man could be long and +sincerely his enemy. In person he was rather below the average height, +his form was well proportioned, and his manner dignified and +conciliating. The lower features of his countenance were regular and +handsome, and beaming with the warm affections and generous sentiments +of his heart. His brow and forehead were of a massive cast, expressive +of the commanding intellect which lay behind. He was fond of society, +full of the most lively and various conversation, which made him the +delight and ornament of every circle he entered. During his time the +Supreme Court used to hold its terms at New-York and Albany +alternately, and the bar was then obliged to follow it back and forth +between those cities, the journey occupying at that time three or four +days. Of course this was a season of hilarity, and upon such occasions +Hamilton was the life of the party, sometimes charming the whole +company by his ingenious and eloquent discussions of the various +subjects of conversation, and at others calling forth shouts of +laughter by his pointed and genial wit. An anecdote has been related to +us by one who was present on the occasion, which well illustrates the +power which lay in his fascinating manner and conversation. During the +hostilities between France and England, which succeeded the revolution +in the former country, a French man of war having on board Jerome +Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon, and afterwards king of Westphalia, +was chased into the harbor of New-York by two English frigates. It was +during the visit which Jerome was thus compelled to make to this +country, that he became acquainted with and married the beautiful Miss +Patterson, of Baltimore. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_255"></a>[255]</span> +genius and the fortunes of Napoleon were +then for the first time astonishing the world, and caused Jerome to be +received with the most extraordinary marks of attention in the +different cities of the United States. While he was in New-York +Hamilton made a dinner party for him, to which a number of the chief +personages of the time were invited. He was then living at "Grange," +and, as it happened, upon the very day of the party was engaged in the +argument of an important cause in the city, which detained him there +until after the hour for which his guests were invited. A long delay +ensued after the company had assembled, and the embarrassment of Mrs. +Hamilton may be imagined. There was evidently a feeling of uneasiness +and discontent springing up in the minds of the guests, and especially +was this the case with the distinguished brother of the First Consul. +He was affected with the usual sensitiveness of a <i>novus homo</i> +upon the point of etiquette, and it seemed to pass his comprehension +how a man of Hamilton's private and official eminence should be engaged +in any of the ordinary pursuits of life, and especially that such +concerns, or any concerns whatever, should be allowed to detain him a +single moment from the society of his guests, one of whom had the honor +to be no less a person than Jerome Bonaparte. At a late hour, after the +quality of the dinner and the temper of the guests had become about +equally impaired, Hamilton arrived. He was met by his desponding wife, +and informed of the distressing predicament which his delay had +occasioned. After making a hasty toilet, he entered the drawing-room, +and found that the affair indeed wore a most perilous aspect. The +appearance of the distinguished Frenchman was especially unpromising. +But Hamilton was quite <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_256"></a>[256]</span> +equal to the emergency. Gracefully apologizing +for his tardiness, he at once entered into a most animated and eloquent +conversation, drew out his different guests with admirable dexterity, +and enlisted them with one another, and especially recommended himself +to the late Miss Patterson by a lively chat in French, of which +language he was a master. The discontented features of the Bonaparte +began to relax, and it soon became evident that he was in the most +amiable mood, and one of the most gratified of the party. The dinner +passed off admirably, and it seemed to be generally conceded that the +delay in the beginning was amply atoned for by the delightful +entertainment which followed.</p> +<p>We should do injustice to one of the most amiable traits of +Hamilton's character if we omitted particularly to notice the strength +and tenderness of his friendships. Incapable of treachery, free from +all disguise, and imbued with the largest sympathies, he drew to +himself the esteem and affection of all who knew him; and such was his +admiration for noble and generous qualities, that he could not see them +displayed without clasping their possessors to his heart. He was a +general favorite in the army, and between some of the choicest spirits +in it and himself, there was an almost romantic affection. Those that +knew him best loved him most. The family of Washington were as dear to +him as if they were kindred by blood. Meade, McHenry, Tilghman, the +"Old Secretary," Harrison, and the generous and high-souled Laurens, +were in every change of fortune his cherished and bosom friends. The +following extract from a letter to Laurens, shows the nature of +Hamilton's attachment. "Cold in my professions, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_257"></a>[257]</span>warm +in my friendships, +I wish my dear Laurens it were in my power, by actions rather than by +words, to convince you that I love you. I shall only tell you that till +you bid us adieu, I hardly knew the value you had taught my heart to +set upon you. Indeed, my friend, it were not well done. You know the +opinion I entertain of mankind; and how much it is my desire to +preserve myself free from particular attachments, and to keep my +happiness free from the caprices of others. You should not have taken +advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections, without my +consent." The openness of his heart and the flexibility of his manners +made him a great favorite with the French officers. Lafayette loved him +as a brother, and in one of his letters to him thus writes: "I know the +General's (Washington's) friendship and gratitude for you, my dear +Hamilton; both are greater than you perhaps imagine. I am sure he needs +only to be told that something will suit you, and when he thinks he can +do it, he certainly will. Before this campaign I was your friend, and +very intimate friend, agreeably to the ideas of the world; since my +second voyage, my sentiment has increased to such a point the world +knows nothing about. To show <i>both</i>, from want and +from scorn of expression, I shall only tell you, adieu." Talleyrand, +the celebrated minister of Napoleon, whatever may be said of the +character of his diplomacy, had a heart that was capable of friendship, +and while in this country conceived a particular fondness for Hamilton, +and on his departure for France he took from the house of the latter, +without permission, a miniature belonging to Mrs. Hamilton of her +husband. When fairly out of reach he addressed a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_258"></a>[258]</span>note +to Mrs. Hamilton +confessing the larceny, and excusing it on the ground that he wanted a +copy of it, but knew that she would not let him take the original away +to be copied if he had made the request. He had an excellent copy of +the miniature taken upon Sevres china, which he always kept in a +conspicuous place in his apartment until late in life, when he +presented it with a lock of his hair to a son of Hamilton, James A. +Hamilton Esq., of Dobb's Ferry, N.Y., who still retains it. The +indignation of Talleyrand at the conduct of Burr in bringing about the +melancholy duel was unbounded; and when Burr, subsequently to that +event, was on a visit to France, he wrote a note to Talleyrand, +requesting the privilege of paying him a visit. Of course the French +minister could not refuse this favor to a man who had been +Vice-President of the United States, and in other respects so eminent a +person; but his answer was something like this: "The Minister of +Foreign Affairs would be happy to see Col. Burr at—(naming the hour); +but M. Talleyrand thinks it due to Col. Burr to state, that he always +has the miniature of General Hamilton hanging over his mantel-piece."</p> +<p>In contemplating the life of Hamilton, it is of course +impossible not to feel the deepest regret that so much genius, so much +usefulness, and so much promise, should have been so prematurely cut +off. Great as was his actual performance, it is natural and reasonable +to suppose that the results of his youth and early manhood would have +been far eclipsed by those of his splendid maturity. But as it is, "he +lived long enough for glory." The influence of his presence and +manners, the excitements in which he mingled when alive—every <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_259"></a>[259]</span>thing +which tends to give a fictitious importance to present greatness, have +passed away. But his reputation, which some have thought to rest upon +these very circumstances, stands unaffected by their decay,—a fact +which sufficiently attests the enduring nature of his fame.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus277"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 336px; height: 403px;" alt="Monument To Hamilton, Trinity Church-yard, N.Y." src="images/illus277.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Monument To Hamilton, Trinity Church-yard, +N.Y.</a></span></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_261"></a>[261]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="marshall"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Marshall.</span> +</h6> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_262"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 763px;" alt="Marshall fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/marshall.png" /></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_262"></a>[262]</span> +</div> +<hr /> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus281"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 317px; height: 399px;" alt="Marshall's House at Richmond, Va." src="images/illus281.jpg" /></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_263"></a>[263]</span> +</div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption">Marshall's +House at Richmond, Va.</span></p> +<h2>MARSHALL.</h2> +<p>John Marshall, son of Colonel Thomas Marshall, a planter of +moderate fortune, was born in Germantown, Fauquier County, Virginia, on +the twenty-fourth of September, 1755. When twenty-one years of age, he +was commissioned as a lieutenant in the continental service, and +marching with his regiment to the north, was appointed captain in the +spring of 1777, and in that capacity served in the battles of +Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth; was at Valley <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_264"></a>[264]</span>Forge +during the +winter of 1778, and was one of the covering party at the assault of +Stoney Point, in June, 1779. Having returned to his native State at the +expiration of the enlistment of the Virginia troops, in 1780 he +received a license for the practice of the law, and rapidly rose to +distinction in that profession. In 1782 he was chosen a representative +to the legislature, and afterward a member of the executive council In +January, 1783, he married Mary Willis Ambler, of York, in Virginia, +with whom he lived for fifty years in the tenderest affection. He was a +delegate to the convention of Virginia which met on the second of June, +1788, to take into consideration the new constitution, and in +conjunction with his friend, Mr. Madison, mainly contributed to its +adoption, in opposition to the ardent efforts of Henry, Grayson, and +Mason. His name first became generally known throughout the nation by +his vindication, in the legislature of the State, of the ratification +of Jay's treaty by President Washington. No report of that speech +remains, but the evidence of its ability survives in the effects which +it produced on the legislature and the country. He continued in the +practice of the law, having declined successively the offices of +Attorney General of the United States and Minister to France, until +1797, when with General Pinkney and Mr. Gerry, he was sent on a special +mission to the French republic. The manner in which the dignity of the +American character was maintained against the corruption of the +Directory and its ministers is well known. The letters of the +seventeenth of January and third of April, 1798, to Talleyrand, the +Minister of Foreign Relations, have always been attributed to Marshall, +and they rank among the ablest and most effective of diplomatic +communications. Mr. Marshall <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_265"></a>[265]</span> +arrived in New-York on the seventeenth of +June, 1798, and on the nineteenth entered Philadelphia. At the +intelligence of his approach the whole city poured out toward Frankford +to receive him, and escorted him to his lodgings with all the honors of +a triumph. In after years, when he visited Philadelphia, he often spoke +of the feelings with which, as he came near the city on that occasion, +with some doubts as to the reception which he might meet with in the +existing state of parties, he beheld the multitude rushing forth to +crowd about him with every demonstration of respect and approbation, as +having been the most interesting and gratifying of his life.</p> +<p>On his return to Virginia, at the special request of General +Washington, he became a candidate for the House of Representatives, and +was elected in the spring of 1799. His greatest effort in Congress was +his speech in opposition to the resolutions of Edward Livingston +relative to Thomas Nash, alias Jonathan Robbins. Fortunately we possess +an accurate report of it, revised by himself. The case was, that Thomas +Nash, having committed a murder on board the British frigate Hermione, +navigating the high seas under a commission from the British king, had +sought an asylum within the United States, and his delivery had been +demanded by the British minister under the twenty-seventh article of +the treaty of amity between the two nations. Mr. Marshall's argument +first established that the crime was within the jurisdiction of Great +Britain, on the general principles of public law, and then +demonstrated, that under the constitution the case was subject to the +disposal of the executive, and not the judiciary. He distinguished +these departments from one another with an acuteness of discrimination +and a force of logic which frustrated <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_266"></a>[266]</span> +the attempt to carry the +judiciary out of its orbit, and settled the political question, then +and for ever. It is said that Mr. Gallatin, whose part it was to reply +to Mr. Marshall, at the close of the speech turned to some of his +friends and said, "<i>You</i> may answer that if you +choose; <i>I</i> cannot." The argument deserves to rank +among the most dignified displays of human intellect. At the close of +the session, Mr. Marshall was appointed Secretary of War, and soon +after Secretary of State. During his continuance in that department our +relations with England were in a very interesting condition, and his +correspondence with Mr. King exhibits his abilities and spirit in the +most dignified point of view. "His despatch of the twentieth of +September, 1800," says Mr. Binney, "is a noble specimen of the first +order of state papers, and shows the most finished adaptation of parts +for the station of an American Secretary of State." On the thirty-first +of January, 1801, he was appointed Chief Justice of the United States, +in which office he continued until his death. In 1804 he published the +Biography of Washington, which for candor, accuracy, and comprehension, +will for ever be the most authentic history of the Revolution. He died +in Philadelphia on the sixth of July, 1835.</p> +<p>Mr. Marshall's career as Chief Justice extended through a +period of more than thirty-four years, which is the longest judicial +tenure recorded in history. To one who cannot follow his great +judgments, in which, at the same time, the depths of legal wisdom are +disclosed and the limits of human reason measured, the language of just +eulogy must wear an appearance of extravagance. In his own profession +he stands for the reverence of the wise rather than for the enthusiasm +of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_267"></a>[267]</span> +many. The proportion of the figure was so perfect, that the +sense of its vastness was lost. Above the difficulties of common minds, +he was in some degree above their sympathy. Saved from popularity by +the very rarity of his qualities, he astonished the most where he was +best understood. The questions upon which his judgment was detained, +and the considerations by which his decision was at last determined, +were such as ordinary understandings, not merely could not resolve, but +were often inadequate even to appreciate or apprehend. It was his +manner to deal directly with the results of thought and learning, and +the length and labor of the processes by which these results were +suggested and verified might elude the consciousness of those who had +not themselves attempted to perform them. From the position in which he +stood of evident superiority to his subject, it was obviously so easy +for him to describe its character and define its relations, that we +sometimes forgot to wonder by what faculties or what efforts he had +attained to that eminence. We were so much accustomed to see his mind +move only in the light, that there was a danger of our not observing +that the illumination by which it was surrounded was the beam of its +own presence, and not the natural atmosphere of the scene.</p> +<p>The true character and measure of Marshall's greatness are +missed by those who conceive of him as limited within the sphere of the +justices of England, and who describe him merely as the first of +lawyers. To have been "the most consummate judge that ever sat in +judgment," was the highest possibility of Eldon's merit, but was only a +segment of Marshall's fame. It was in a distinct department, of more +dignified functions, almost of an opposite kind, that he displayed +those abilities <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_268"></a>[268]</span> +that advance his name to the highest renown, and shed +around it the glories of a statesman and legislator. The powers of the +Supreme Court of the United States are such as were never before +confided to a judicial tribunal by any people. As determining, without +appeal, its own jurisdiction, and that of the legislature and +executive, that court is not merely the highest estate in the country, +but it settles and continually moulds the constitution of the +government. Of the great work of constructing a nation, but a small +part, practically, had been performed when the written document had +been signed by the convention: a vicious theory of interpretation might +defeat the grandeur and unity of the organization, and a want of +comprehension and foresight might fatally perplex the harmony of the +combination. The administration of a system of polity is the larger +part of its establishment. What the constitution was to be, depended on +the principles on which the federal instrument was to be construed, and +they were not to be found in the maxims and modes of reasoning by which +the law determines upon social contracts between man and man, but were +to be sought anew in the elements of political philosophy and the +general suggestions of legislative wisdom. To these august duties Judge +Marshall brought a greatness of conception that was commensurate with +their difficulty; he came to them in the spirit and with the strength +of one who would minister to the development of a nation; and it was +the essential sagacity of his guiding mind that saved us from +illustrating the sarcasms of Mr. Burke about paper constitutions. He +saw the futility of attempting to control society by a metaphysical +theory; he apprehended the just relation between opinion and life, +between the forms of speculation and the force of things. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_269"></a>[269]</span>Knowing +that +we are wise in respect to nature, only as we give back to it faithfully +what we have learned from it obediently, he sought to fix the wisdom of +the real and to resolve it into principles. He made the nation explain +its constitution, and compelled the actual to define the possible. +Experience was the dialectic by which he deduced from substantial +premises a practical conclusion. The might of reason by which +convenience and right were thus moulded into union, was amazing. But +while he knew the folly of endeavoring to be wiser than time, his +matchless resources of good sense contributed to the orderly +development of the inherent elements of the constitution, by a vigor +and dexterity as eminent in their kind as they were rare in their +combination. The vessel of state was launched by the patriotism of +many: the chart of her course was designed chiefly by Hamilton: but +when the voyage was begun, the eye that observed, and the head that +reckoned, and the hand that compelled the ship to keep her course amid +tempests without, and threats of mutiny within, were those of the great +Chief Justice. Posterity will give him reverence as one of the founders +of the nation; and of that group of statesmen who may one day perhaps +be regarded as above the nature, as they certainly were beyond the +dimensions of men, no figure, save ONE alone, will rise upon the eye in +grandeur more towering than that of John Marshall.</p> +<p>The authority of the Supreme Court, however, is not confined +to cases of constitutional law; it embraces the whole range of judicial +action, as it is distributed in England, into legal, equitable, and +maritime jurisdictions. The equity system of this court was too little +developed to enable us to say what Marshall would have been as a +chancellor. It is difficult <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_270"></a>[270]</span> +to admit that he would have been inferior +to Lord Eldon: it is impossible to conceive that he could at all have +resembled Lord Eldon. But undoubtedly the native region and proper +interest of a mind so analytical and so sound, so piercing and so +practical, was the common law; that vigorous system of manly reason and +essential right, that splendid scheme of morality expanded by logic and +informed by prudence. Perhaps the highest range of English intelligence +is illustrated in the law; yet where, in the whole line of that august +succession, will be found a character which fills the measure of +judicial greatness so completely as Chief Justice Marshall? Where, in +English history, is the judge, whose mind was at once so enlarged and +so systematic, who so thoroughly had reduced professional science to +general reason, in whose disciplined intellect technical learning had +so completely passed into native sense? Vast as the reach of the law +is, it is not an exaggeration to say that Marshall's understanding was +greater, and embraced the forms of legal sagacity within it, as a part +of its own spontaneous wisdom. He discriminated with instinctive +accuracy between those technicalities which have sprung from the +narrowness of inferior minds, and those which are set by the law for +the defence of some vital element of justice or reason. The former he +brushed away like cobwebs, while he yielded to the latter with a +respect which sometimes seemed to those "whose eyes were" not "opened," +a species of superstition. In his judicial office the method of +Marshall appeared to be, first to bow his understanding reverently to +the law, and calmly and patiently to receive its instructions as those +of an oracle of which he was the minister; then to prove these dictates +by the most searching processes of reason, and to deliver them <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_271"></a>[271]</span>to +others, not as decrees to be obeyed, but as logical manifestations of +moral truth. Undoubtedly he made much use of adjudged cases; but he +used them to give light and certainty to his own judgment, and not for +the vindication or support of the law. He would have deemed it a +reproach alike to his abilities and his station, if he should have +determined upon precedent what could have been demonstrated by reason, +or had referred to authority what belonged to principle. With singular +capacity, he united systematic reason with a perception of particular +equity: too scrupulous a regard for the latter led Lord Eldon, in most +instances, to adjudicate nothing but the case before him; but Marshall +remembered that while he owed to the suitors the decision of the case, +he owed to society the establishment of the principle. His mind +naturally tended, not to suggestion and speculation, but to the +determination of opinion and the closing of doubts. On the bench, he +always recollected that he was not merely a lawyer, and much less a +legal essayist; he was conscious of an official duty and an official +authority; and considered that questions might be discussed elsewhere, +but came to be settled by him. The dignity with which these duties were +discharged was not the least admirable part of the display. It was +wisdom on the seat of power, pronouncing the decrees of justice.</p> +<p>Political and legal sense are so distinct from one another as +almost to +be irreconcilable in the same mind. The latter is a mere course of +deduction from premises; the other calls into exercise the highest +order of perceptive faculties, and that quick felicity of intuition +which flashes to its conclusions by a species of mental sympathy rather +than by any conscious process of argumentation. The one requires that +the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_272"></a>[272]</span> +susceptibility of the judgment should be kept exquisitely alive to +every suggestion of the practical, so as to catch and follow the +insensible reasonings of life, rather than to reason itself: the other +demands the exclusion of every thing not rigorously exact, and the +concentration of the whole consciousness of the mind in kindling +implicit truth into formal principles. The wonder, in Judge Marshall's +case, was to see these two almost inconsistent faculties, in quality so +matchless, and in development so magnificent, harmonized and united in +his marvellous intelligence. We beheld him pass from one to the other +department without confusing their nature, and without perplexing his +own understanding. When he approached a question of constitutional +jurisprudence, we saw the lawyer expand into the legislator; and in +returning to a narrower sphere, pause from the creative glow of +statesmanship, and descend from intercourse with the great conceptions +and great feelings by which nations are guided and society is advanced, +to submit his faculties with docility to the yoke of legal forms, and +with impassible calmness to thread the tangled intricacies of forensic +technicalities.</p> +<p>There was in this extraordinary man an unusual combination of +the capacity of apprehending truth, with the ability to demonstrate and +make it palpable to others. They often exist together in unequal +degrees. Lord Mansfield's power of luminous explication was so +surpassing that one might almost say that he made others perceive what +he did not understand himself; but the numerous instances in which his +decisions have been directly overthrown by his successors, and the +still greater number of cases in which his opinions have been silently +departed from, compel a belief that his judgment was not of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_273"></a>[273]</span>the +truest +kind. Lord Eldon's judicial sagacity was a species of inspiration; but +he seemed to be unable not only to convince others; but even to certify +himself of the correctness of his own greatest and wisest +determinations. But Judge Marshall's sense appeared to be at once both +instinctive and analytical: his logic extended as far as his +perception: he had no propositions in his thoughts which he could not +resolve into their axioms. Truth came to him as a revelation, and from +him as a demonstration. His mind was more than the faculty of vision; +it was a body of light, which irradiated the subject to which it was +directed, and rendered it as distinct to every other eye as it was to +its own.</p> +<p>The mental integrity of this illustrious man was not the least +important element of his greatness. Those qualities of vanity, fondness +for display, the love of effect, the solicitation of applause, +sensibility to opinions, which are the immoralities of intellect, never +attached to that stainless essence of pure reason. He seemed to men to +be a passionless intelligence; susceptible to no feeling but the +constant love of right; subject to no affection but a polarity toward +truth.</p> +<p>As has already been stated, the great chief justice was +married when twenty-eight years of age, to Miss Ambler, of York, in +Virginia; there have been few such unions in every respect more +fortunate and delightful; the wife died but a short time before the +husband, who, not more than two days previous to his own decease, +directed that his body should be laid with hers, and that the plain +stone to indicate the place of their rest should have only this simple +inscription:</p> +<p class="blockquot">"John Marshall, +son of +Thomas and Mary Marshall, was born on +the 24th of September, 1755, intermarried with Mary Willis Ambler on +the 3d of January, 1783, and departed this life the —— day of —— 18—."</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_274"></a>[274]</span> +With no other alteration than the filling of the blanks, this +is engraved on the modest white marble which is over their remains in +the beautiful cemetery on Shoccoe Hill, of Richmond.</p> +<p>The chief justice always lived in a style of singular +simplicity; when Secretary of State at Washington, he resided in a +brick building hardly larger than most of the kitchens now in use, and +his house in Richmond, to which he soon after removed, was +characteristically unostentatious. From Richmond he frequently walked +out three or four miles to his farm in the county of Henrico; and once +a year he made a protracted visit to his other farm, near his +birth-place, in Fauquier.</p> +<p>No man had a keener relish for social and convivial +enjoyments, and numerous anecdotes are told in illustration of this +trait in his character. Nearly all the period of his residence in +Richmond, he was a member of a club which met near the city once a +fortnight to pitch quoits, and mingle in relaxing conversation; there +was no one more punctual in his attendance at its meetings, or who +contributed more to their pleasantness; and such was his skill in the +manly game he practised, that he would hurl his iron ring, weighing two +pounds, with rarely erring aim, fifty-five or sixty feet, and when he +or his partner made any specially successful exhibition of skill, he +would leap up and clap his hands with the light-hearted enthusiasm of +boyhood.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_275"></a>[275]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="ames"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Ames.</span> +</h6> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_276"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 599px; height: 800px;" alt="Ames fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/ames.png" /> +</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_276"></a>[276]</span> +</div> +<hr /> +<h2>AMES.</h2> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_277"></a>[277]</span> +The house in which <span class="smcap">Fisher +Ames</span> was born was pulled down somewhere about 1818. It +used to stand on the main street of Dedham, a little to the northeast, +and over the way from where the court-house now stands. It was a roomy, +two-story, peaked-roofed old building, with its end to the street; the +oldest part having an addition of more modern construction on the +front, or what, with reference to the street, was the end. The rooms +were low, the windows small, and the lower floor was sunken a little +below the ground. A large buttonwood overshadowed it in front, and from +behind an elm, the latter still standing. There was no fence between +the house and the street, and the intervening space was covered with +grass of that thick and stubbed growth peculiar to such localities. +Behind was a large barn, while on both sides, and back for fifty or +sixty rods, to the Charles River, stretched a broad field of irregular +surface. Just across the street was the "Front Lot," a piece of +unoccupied land, including that on which the court-house now stands, +and extending east nearly as far as the post-office. On the corner of +this lot, directly in front of the house stood, subsequently,—that is, +to the year 1776, when it was erected,—a stone pillar supporting a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_278"></a>[278]</span> +column, surmounted by a wooden head of Pitt, the same having been set +up by the "Sons of Liberty," a brother of Fisher Ames among the number, +on the repeal of the Stamp Act. This structure, after testifying to +America's gratitude for a number of years, and furnishing to the corner +on which it stood, the name of "Pitt's Head," was eventually +overthrown. The stone pillar with its glowing inscription, after lying +awhile by the roadside, and offering a seat to chatting children, and a +place, in the spaces of the letters, for cracking nuts, was at length +set up in its old place, on the erection of the court-house some +twenty-five years since, where it still stands. But of the fate of the +column and the head we have no account. This wooden head, intended by +its enthusiastic raisers, without a doubt, to be "ęre perennius," lay +kicking about the street; and perhaps found refuge at last from the +vicissitudes of the weather and the wasting jack-knife of the +schoolboy, in the wood-box or the garret of some hospitable patriot.</p> +<p>The old house was long kept as an inn, both by Dr. Nathaniel +Ames, the father of Fisher, and, after his death, by his wife. +Innkeeping in those days was not so engrossing an occupation as at +present, and Dr. Ames, by no means mainly a Boniface, found time for +the care of his farm, for the practice of his profession, for the study +of mathematics, astronomy, and kindred subjects; and for the +application of the knowledge thus acquired, in the making of almanacs; +a business which he carried on for forty years. In their veracious +pages, besides indicating the doings and intentions of the heavenly +bodies, and predicting storms with all the accuracy of which the case +was susceptible, Dr. Ames used to portray the exciting events of the +time in verse, more patriotic and vivid, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_279"></a>[279]</span>perhaps, than +poetic. He was, +in truth, a man of no small consideration in Dedham, of much natural +ability, of wit and spirit.</p> +<p>He showed these last qualities once on a time, when the +colonial judges decided some law case against him. He thought they had +disregarded the law, and their Reverences were soon seen, sketched on a +sign-board in front of the tavern, in full bottomed wigs, tippling, +with their <i>backs</i> to the volume labelled "The +Province Law." The authorities at Boston taking umbrage at this, +dispatched some officers to Dedham to remove the sign. But Dr. Ames was +too quick for them; and the baffled tipstaves on reaching the house +found nothing hanging but a board, on which was inscribed, "A wicked +and adulterous generation seeketh for a sign, but no sign shall be +given them."</p> +<p>Dr. Ames died in 1764, when his son Fisher, the youngest +child, was six years old; having besides him, a son of his own name and +profession, who was afterwards a violent democrat and opponent of +Fisher Ames, two other sons and a daughter. Of these, Fisher was the +only one who left descendants. Mrs. Ames continued to keep the inn, and +married again. She was a very shrewd and sensible woman, of a strong +and singular cast of mind. She took a hearty interest in politics, and +hated the Jacobins devoutly. Innkeeping was a favorite occupation with +her, and she carried matters with a high hand. We have heard her +compared to Meg Dods, the landlady in St. Ronan's Well. She outlived +her son Fisher some ten years or more.</p> +<p>Fisher Ames was a delicate child, and the pet of his mother, +whose maiden name he bore. He had such an extravagant <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_280"></a>[280]</span>fondness +for +books, devouring all that fell within his reach, and showed, in other +ways, to the fond perception of his parent, such unmistakable signs of +genius, that she early determined to make a lawyer of him, and put him +to the study of Latin at six. The little fellow worked bravely at his +lessons for six years, reciting sometimes to the school-teacher, when +that functionary happened to be more than usually learned, sometimes to +old Mr. Haven the minister, with whom he early made friends, and to +various other persons. In 1770, twelve years old, he was admitted to +Harvard College. Here he spent four years with credit and success, +acquiring greater distinction in the study of the languages and in +oratory, than in the abstract sciences. He was conspicuous, even at +this early age, as a speaker, being one of the leading members of a +society for improvement in eloquence, then newly established. This +society, under the style of "The Institute of 1770," is still +flourishing at Cambridge, and turns out annually as many orators, +perhaps, as any similar body in our country. The writer of this +remembers to have heard there, in his own college days, a great deal of +sublime elocution. Fisher Ames's name occurs on the records a number of +times, as a speaker, and a critic, and once as follows: "June, 1, +1773.—Voted, that Ames, Clarke, and Eliot, be fined 4 pence for +tardiness." Young Ames passed through college with unblemished morals. +"Happily," in the elegant phrase of his biographer, "he did not need +the smart of guilt to make him virtuous, nor the regret of folly to +make him wise."</p> +<p>In the summer of 1774, he returned to his mother's house. +Notwithstanding her predilection for law, he had some idea of studying +medicine or divinity. But, the year of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_281"></a>[281]</span>Boston Port Bill +was no good +time for deciding upon a course of life, or beginning it when +determined on. Besides, Fisher Ames was but sixteen, and his mother was +poor. For a short time, therefore, he engaged in teaching school; and, +after a few years spent in desultory but unceasing study and reading, +he began law in the office of Wm. Tudor, of Boston.</p> +<p>During this time the contest was going on in which his +country's liberties were involved, and young Ames was a watchful and +anxious observer of its progress. It was at his mother's house that the +good men of Dedham used to meet, to see what they and the country were +to do. Only a month or two after his return from college, a convention +from all the towns of Suffolk county, of which Dedham was then a part, +met here to deliberate. We can imagine the heart of our boy of sixteen +burning within him, and his eye flashing as he heard the outraged +citizens of Boston tell their grievances, and as he longed to be a man, +that he might take a part with those determined patriots in their +resolution to try the issue with Great Britain, if need be, at the +point of the sword. Dedham sent some brave soldiers to the service, and +Fisher Ames, young as he was, went out in one or two short expeditions.</p> +<p>In 1781 we find him entered upon the practice of law at +Dedham, where +he soon became distinguished as an advocate. In those days the manners +of the bench were very rough. The road to eminence in law seemed often +to lie between rows of semi-barbarous judges, who hurled at aspiring +barristers every missile of abuse. There is always much, it is true, in +the deportment of young lawyers to vex the temper of a judge, and +perhaps in those days of callow independence there may have been more +than common. There appears to be something <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_282"></a>[282]</span> +about that great science to +which, in the language of Hooker, "all things in heaven and earth do +homage, the least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted +from her bounty," that breathes unusual dignity into its servants, +especially its young ones. In its various duties, the giving of +counsel, the questioning of witnesses, and the frequent display of +capacity before courts and juries, the seeds of vanity find propitious +soil and start into rank growth. From this or whatever cause, the +judges of old times were crusty and abusive; and old Judge Paine, +besides being all this, was moreover deaf, and used to berate counsel +roundly at times for what was no fault of theirs. "I tell you what," +said Fisher Ames, as he came out of court one day, "a man, when he +enters that court-room, ought to go armed with a speaking trumpet in +one hand and a club in the other." At another time, Ames expressed a +rather derogatory opinion of the intelligence of the court. He was +arguing a case before a number of county justices, and having finished, +turned to leave the room. "Ain't you going to say any thing more, Mr. +Ames?" anxiously whispered his client. "No," rejoined Ames; "you might +as well argue a case to a row of skim-milk cheeses!" Perhaps his +dislike to these dignitaries may have been an inheritance. May not the +old Doctor, in his indignation about the Province Law matter, like +another Hamilcar, have made his son, a youthful Hannibal, swear eternal +hatred to his foes?</p> +<p>Mr. Ames was now a rapidly rising man. Various essays on +political subjects from his pen appeared in the newspapers, and +contributed to draw public attention to him. When quite young, he was +sent to a convention held at Concord, to consider the depreciated state +of the currency, where he made <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_283"></a>[283]</span> +an eloquent speech. In 1788, he was a +member of the convention for ratifying the federal constitution. Here +he added much to his fame by a number of excellent speeches. One on the +biennial election of representatives was considered the best, and is +the only one given in his works. It is lucid, statesmanlike, and +eloquent. The occasion of it was an inquiry by Samuel Adams, why +representatives were not made elective annually. To this Ames alludes +in the closing paragraph: "As it has been demanded why annual elections +were not preferred to biennial, permit me to retort the question, and +to inquire, in my turn, what reason can be given why, if annual +elections are good, biennial elections are not better?" Adams professed +himself entirely satisfied. This same year Ames represented Dedham in +the legislature.</p> +<p>In 1789, Suffolk county sent him as her first representative +to Congress, in opposition to Samuel Adams. He was in Congress eight +years, during the whole of Washington's administration, and was one of +the most prominent leaders of the federal party, giving to the +President uniform and important support. In this period, he acquired a +reputation for candor, integrity, ability, and eloquence, second to +that of no man in Congress. At times, particularly towards the end of +his term, ill-health compelled his absence; yet he examined with care +every important question that presented itself, and spoke upon almost +every one. But of his numerous efforts in Congress, only two are +printed among his works, one on certain resolutions of Madison's for +imposing additional duties on foreign goods, delivered in 1794, and the +speech on Jay's treaty, two years later, his most brilliant effort, "an +era," says his biographer, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_284"></a>[284]</span> +"in his political life." This speech was +written out from memory by Judge Smith and Samuel Dexter, receiving a +revision from Ames. It is thus alluded to by Hildreth: "He (Ames) had +been detained from the House during the early part of the session, by +an access of that disorder which made all the latter part of his life +one long disease. Rising from his seat, pale, feeble, hardly able to +stand or to speak, but warming with the subject, he delivered a speech +which, for comprehensive knowledge of human nature and of the springs +of political action, for caustic ridicule, keen argument, and pathetic +eloquence, even in the imperfect shape in which we possess it, has very +seldom been equalled on that or any other floor." The question was to +have been taken that same day, but one of the opposition moved that it +be postponed till the next, that they should not act under the +influence of an excitement of which their calm judgment might not +approve.</p> +<p>After reducing the question to one of breaking the public +faith, the speaker adds: "This, sir, is a cause that would be +dishonored and betrayed, if I contented myself with appealing only to +the understanding. It is too cold, and its processes are too slow for +the occasion. I desire to thank God that, since he has given me an +intellect so fallible, he has impressed upon me an instinct that is +sure. On a question of shame and dishonor, reasoning is sometimes +useless, and worse. I feel the decision in my pulse; if it throws no +light upon the brain, it kindles a fire at the heart." It is the spirit +that breathes in this splendid burst that stirred the minds of the +hearers, wearied and disgusted with a discussion of nearly two months, +so that, in the blunt language of John Adams—<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_285"></a>[285]</span> +"there wasn't a dry eye in the House, except some of the jackasses that +occasioned the necessity +of the oratory."</p> +<p>Ames's speeches show great clearness of mind and power of +reasoning, and have about them an air of candor that induces +conviction. He brought to every subject on which he was to speak, that +thorough understanding of it, in which, if we may believe Socrates, +lies the secret of all eloquence. It appears to have been customary +with him to wait till a question had undergone some discussion, that he +might the better appreciate the arguments on both sides. He would then +rise, and disperse, as with the wand of Prospero, the mists of +prejudice and sophistry that had gathered over the question in the +course of debate, while he placed the subject before the House with +convincing eloquence and precision. His well-stored mind poured forth +illustrations at every step, and his imagination illuminated each point +on which he touched. Now and then it would light up into a pure and +steady blaze as he dwelt on some topic that stirred his deepest +emotions, and transfigured it in apt and nervous language. In this +union of imagination and feeling, making every period glow with life, +with logical power, Ames resembled Chatham.</p> +<p>He was not in the habit of trusting to notes, but used to +think out a sketch of what he was to say, and trust for the rest to the +inspiration of the occasion. At first his manner was slow and +hesitating, like one in reflection; but as he went on, his thoughts and +his language flowed fast, and his face beamed with expression. We have +heard his manner characterized by one who had frequent opportunities of +hearing him, in the words of Antenor's description of Ulysses: +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_286"></a>[286]</span> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem">"But +when Ulyssus rose, in thought profound,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +His modest eyes he fixed upon the ground,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +As one unskilled, or drunk, he seemed to stand,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Nor raised his head nor stretched his sceptred hand;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +But when he speaks, what elocution flows!</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Soft as the fleeces of descending snows,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +The copious accents fall, with easy art;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Melting they fall and sink into the heart!"</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>His voice is described as rich and melodious. His personal +appearance is thus given by Wm. Sullivan: "He was above middle stature, +and well-formed. His features were not strongly marked. His forehead +was neither high nor expansive. His eyes blue, and of middling size; +his mouth handsome; his hair was black, and short on the forehead, and +in his latter years unpowdered. He was very erect, and when speaking he +raised his head; or rather his chin was the most projected part of his +face." Before a jury he was very effective. There was nothing bitter or +sarcastic in his manner; but mild, cool, and candid, it made a jury, as +we heard it expressed, "want to give him the case, if they could." He +is contrasted with his friend Samuel Dexter, as preferring to +illustrate by a picture, while Dexter would explain by a diagram.</p> +<p>Mr. Ames was the author of the "Address of the House of +Representatives to Washington," on his signifying his intention to +withdraw from office. His own health had been, and was still so feeble, +that he could not stand for re-election. Accordingly, he retired to +Dedham in March, 1797, intending to devote himself, as far as possible, +to the practice of his profession and the enjoyment of domestic +happiness.</p> +<p>In July 1792, Mr. Ames had married Miss Worthington, of +Springfield. This marriage was an exceedingly happy one. Mrs. Ames was +much beloved and respected by her neighbors, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_287"></a>[287]</span>and, in her +sphere, was +considered as remarkable as her husband. She was a woman of gentle and +retiring disposition, devoted to her family, kind, motherly and +sensible. Mr. Ames seems to have found in her a companion who called +forth and appreciated all those amiable qualities which were a part of +his character. She took a good deal of interest in public affairs, and +was a woman of cultivated mind. She survived her husband, and died some +sixteen years since, at the age of seventy-four. They had seven +children, six sons and a daughter. The daughter died young and +unmarried, of consumption. Three of the sons are now living, one in +Dedham, one in Cambridge, and another somewhere at the West. All the +children however survived their father.</p> +<p>Previous to his marriage Mr. Ames had lived with his mother. +After that event he moved to Boston and took a house on Beacon Street, +next to Governor Bowdoin's. He appears to have lived here about two +years, when he returned to Dedham, and began the building of a new +house. This house was finished and occupied by the winter of 1795; +during the interval Mr. Ames lived in a house opposite the old mansion +now occupied by the Dedham Gazette. This new house of Ames's is still +standing in Dedham, externally much the same as of old; a large +square-built, two-story house, flat-roofed, simple and substantial. +Internally, however, together with the ground about it, it has +undergone many alterations. Formerly it had not the piazza now in front +of it, and the various chimneys were then represented by one fat, +old-fashioned, solid structure in the middle. It passed out of the +hands of the family about 1835, and is at present owned by Mr. John +Gardiner.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_288"></a>[288]</span> +Mr. Ames seems to have inherited most of the old homestead, to +the extent of twenty-five acres, on which he built his house, facing +the south, a little to the east, and back of his mother's. He employed +himself a good deal henceforth in the cultivation of his farm. The +"Front Lot" was surrounded with a rail fence and a row of Lombardy +poplars, and was used at different times as a mowing lot, a cornfield, +and a pasture for the cows. On the east side of the house, extending in +length from the street to the river, and in width from directly under +the windows, far enough to include a street and a row of small houses, +since constructed, was a pasture and orchard including seven or eight +acres, and stocked with the best fruit. Directly back of the house was +the garden, a long and rather barren strip of land, of peculiar +surface. Two straight walks went from the house the whole length of it. +At the farther end of it was a low oval space, with a walk running +around it, and a pond in the middle. All this part of the garden was +low, and surrounded at the sides and end with a bank, in the form of an +amphitheatre. Three or four terraces lay between it and the higher +ground. These and the oval space with its walk, still remain, but the +fence between the garden and the orchard has been removed, and the two +straight walks somewhat changed, to suit the modern appetite for grace. +The place is still full of the fruit-trees that Fisher Ames planted, +some crossgrained pear-trees, and venerable cherries being the chief. +The boys used to look over in this orchard and garden, at the big +pears, weighing down the trees and covering the ground, as if it were +the very garden of the Hesperides, and the dragon were asleep. Once in +a while the gates would be thrown open to these hungry longers, and +they <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_289"></a>[289]</span> +helped themselves; when winter came too the pond afforded them a +capital skating place. A large shed ran out from the back of the house, +on the west end, used, among other purposes, as a granary. To the west +and back of this, was the barn of the old house, and a large new one +built by Mr. Ames, and behind the latter, the ice-house, in those days +quite a novelty. Back of this was an open field. On the west side of +the house, a flight of steps led from one of the lower windows down the +bank, with an old pear-tree growing through it.</p> +<p>The house stood about two rods from the street; a +semi-elliptical walk led up to the door, and two horse-chestnuts grew +in the yard. There were but few trees near the house, for Mr. Ames +liked the light and the fresh air. He planted a great many shade trees +however on the street, and some of the fine old elms about the common +were set out with his own hands. The front door opened into a large +room, which took up the whole southwestern end, used as a hall, and on +occasion of those large dinner parties so common among men of Mr. +Ames's class, in those days, as a dining-room. At such times this was +thrown into one with the adjoining front room, a large apartment, with +a big fireplace, commonly used as a parlor. Back of this was the +library overlooking the garden. The southeastern end was Mr. Ames's +favorite one. His chamber, that in which he died, was here, on the +second story. Below stairs, was a cellar kitchen, and a dairy; this +last quite a magnificent matter, with marble flagging, and ice bestowed +around in summer, for coolness.</p> +<p>From the bank at the end of the garden, Mr. Ames's land +covered with fruit-trees, sloped gracefully to the water. Charles River +is here only twenty or thirty feet wide, and winds <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_290"></a>[290]</span>with +a tranquil +current through a narrow meadow; not as broad, but brighter and clearer +than where at Cambridge it calls forth the admiring apostrophe of the +poet. It is only a short way below this where Mother Brook issues from +the Charles, flowing towards the east, and joining it with the +Neponset, and making an island of all the intervening region, which +embraces Boston, Roxbury, and Dorchester. This singular stream, though +its banks are wooded with venerable trees, and it is in all respects +like one of nature's own, is nevertheless an artificial course of +water. And what is very remarkable, it was constructed by the Puritan +settlers, only three years after their arrival in 1639, when there +could not have been a hundred men in the place. They were in want of a +flow of water for mill purposes, and accordingly dug a canal a mile in +length, from the Charles eastwardly. Here the land descended, and the +water, left to its own course, wound in graceful curves to the +Neponset. There are still a number of mills on this stream. This +achievement of Young America, considering his extreme youth at the +time, amounting in fact to infancy, was not unworthy of his subsequent +exploits.</p> +<p>After returning from Congress, Mr. Ames passed a life of +almost unbroken retirement. In 1798 he was appointed commissioner to +the Cherokees, an office he was obliged to refuse. In 1800 he was a +member of the Governor's Council, and in the same year delivered a +eulogy on Washington, before the Legislature. He was chosen in 1805, +President of Harvard College, but ill health, and a disinclination to +change his habits of life, led him to decline the honor.</p> +<p>He had also resumed the practice of his profession with ardor, +but the state of his health compelled him gradually to <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_291"></a>[291]</span>drop +it; and +towards the close of his life, he was glad to throw it aside +altogether. Mr. Ames was not much of a traveller, though getting back +and forth between Dedham and Philadelphia, which he used to do in his +own conveyance, was no small matter in those days. He visited among his +acquaintances in the neighborhood, at Christopher Gore's in Waltham, at +George Cabot's in Brookline, and at Salem, where Timothy Pickering and +others of his friends resided. He was also in the habit of driving to +Boston in his gig two or three times a week, when his health permitted, +and passing the day. But he took few long journeys. We hear of him at +Newport in 1795, in Virginia visiting the mineral springs for his +health, in the following year, and in Connecticut in 1800; and he +speaks in one of his letters of "jingling his bells as far as +Springfield" as a matter of common occurrence. His wife's relations +lived there, among others the husband of her sister, Mr. Thomas Dwight, +at whose house Mr. Ames was a frequent guest.</p> +<p>Ames, like so many of the best statesmen of that time, and of +all time, appears to have always had a relish for farming. In a letter +written at Philadelphia in 1796, while groaning over his ill health, +which makes him "the survivor of himself, or rather the troubled ghost +of a politician compelled to haunt the field of battle where he fell," +he says, "I almost wish Adams was here, and I at home sorting squash +and pumpkin seeds for planting." The latter part of the wish was soon +to be realized, but not till this survivor of himself had outdone all +the efforts of his former life, and risen like a Phœnix in his splendid +speech on the Treaty. He frequently wrote essays on agricultural +subjects, and into many <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_292"></a>[292]</span> +of his political articles similes and +illustrations found their way, smelling of the farm. He had an especial +fondness for raising fruit trees, and for breeding calves and pigs. All +the best kinds of fruit were found in his orchard, experiments were +tried on new kinds of grass, and improvements undertaken in the +cultivation of crops. A piggery was attached to the barn, conducted on +scientific principles, and furnished with the best stock. New breeds of +cattle were introduced, and cows were kept with a view both to the sale +of milk, and to the sale of their young. The produce of the farm used +to be sent to Boston in a market wagon. For the carrying on of this +establishment, Mr. Ames kept some half a dozen men. He himself was able +to do but little active service. His disease was called by the +physicians marasmus, a wasting away of the vital powers, a sort of +consumption, not merely of the lungs, but of the stomach and every +thing else. This, while it produced fits of languor and depression, and +had something to do probably with his excessive anxiety on political +subjects, never seemed to take from the cheerfulness of his manners. He +was obliged to practise a rigid system of temperance, and to take a +good deal of exercise, in horseback riding and other ways. Besides the +society of his family, a constant source of happiness, he used to +solace himself with the company of his friends, with writing letters, +and with reading his favorite authors. History and poetry he was +especially fond of. Shakspeare, Milton, and Pope's Homer he read +throughout his life, and during his last year, re-read Virgil, Tacitus +and Livy, in the original, with much delight.</p> +<p>His friends were frequently invited out to partake of his +"farmer's fare," and rare occasions those must have been, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_293"></a>[293]</span>when +such men +as Theophilus Parsons, and Pickering, and Gore, and Samuel Dexter, and +George Cabot were met together, with now and then one from a greater +distance. Hamilton or Gouverneur Morris, or Sedgwick, or Judge Smith; +while at the head of the table sat Fisher Ames himself, delighting +every one by his humor, and his unrivalled powers of conversation. In +conversation, he surpassed all the men of his time; even Morris, who +was celebrated as a talker, used to be struck quite dumb at his side. +His quick fancy and exuberant humor, his brilliant power of expression, +his acquaintance with literature and affairs, and his genial and sunny +disposition, used to show themselves on such occasions to perfection. +His conversation, like his letters, was mainly upon political topics, +though now and then, agriculture or literature, or the common news of +the day was introduced. When dining once with some Southern gentlemen +in Boston, General Pinckney among the number, after an animated +conversation at the table, just as Ames was leaving the room, somebody +asked him a question. Ames walked on until he reached the door, when, +turning round and resting his elbow on the sideboard, he replied in a +strain of such eloquence and beauty that the company confessed they had +no idea of his powers before. Judge Smith, his room-mate in +Philadelphia, stated, that when he was so sick as to be confined to his +bed, he would sometimes get up and converse with friends who came to +see him, by the hour, and then go back to his bed completely exhausted. +His friends in Boston used to seize upon him when he drove in town, and +"tire him down," as he expressed it, so that when he got back to +Dedham, he wanted to roll like a tired horse.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_294"></a>[294]</span> +Ames wrote a good many newspaper essays. This was a habit +which he always kept up, particularly after his retirement. About 1800, +on the election of Jefferson, he was very active in starting a Federal +paper in Boston, the Palladium, and wrote for it constantly. He had +great fears for his country from the predominance of French influence, +and deemed it the duty of a patriot to enlighten his countrymen on the +character and tendency of political measures. His biographer informs us +that these essays were the first drafts, and they appear as such. The +language is appropriate and often very felicitous, but they are diffuse +and not always systematic. There is considerable argument in them, but +more of explanation, appeal and ornament. He wrote to set facts before +the people, and to urge them to vigilance and activity; and his essays +are in fact so many written addresses. They cost him no labor in their +composition, being on subjects that he was constantly revolving in his +mind. They used to be written whenever he found a spare moment and a +scrap of paper, while stopping at a tavern, at the printing office in +Boston, or while waiting for his horse; and are apparently expressed +just as they would have been if he were speaking impromptu. We have +heard him characterized by one of his old friends as essentially a +poet; but it would be more correct to say, that he was altogether an +orator. He had indeed the characteristics of an orator in a rare +degree, and these show themselves in every thing he does. While his +mind was clear and his powers of reasoning were exceedingly good, +imagination, the instinctive perception of analogies, and feeling +predominated. His writings do not justify his fame; yet viewed as what +they really are, the unlabored transcripts of his thoughts, they are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_295"></a>[295]</span> +remarkable. The flow of language, the wit, the wealth and aptness of +illustration, the clearness of thought, show an informed and superior +mind. They have here and there profound observations, that show an +acquaintance with the principles of government and with the human +heart, and are full of testimonials to the purity of the author's +patriotism, and the goodness of his heart.</p> +<p>Besides the essays that are published among his works, he +wrote many others perhaps equally good, as well as numerous short, keen +paragraphs, adapted to the time, but not suitable for republication. He +also wrote verses occasionally, among others "an Ode by Jefferson" to +the ship that was to bring Tom Paine from France, in imitation of +Horace's to the vessel that was to bear Virgil from Athens.</p> +<p>He wrote a great many letters, and it is in these that we are +presented with the finest view of his character. They are full of +sensible remarks on contemporary news and events, and sparkle with wit +of that slipshod and easy sort, most delightful in letters, while in +grace of style they surpass most of the correspondence of that period. +The public has already been informed that the correspondence of Fisher +Ames, together with other writings, and some notice of his life, is in +course of publication by one of his sons, Mr. Seth Ames of Cambridge. +But few of his letters were published in his works, as issued in 1809; +a few more appeared in Judge Smith's life, and some twenty in Gibbs's +"Administration of Washington and Adams," but these bear but a very +small proportion to his whole correspondence. Within a short time as +many as one hundred and fifty letters have been found in Springfield, +written to Mr. Dwight, of various dates from 1790 to 1807. A <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_296"></a>[296]</span>large +number are said to have disappeared, that were in the hands of George +Cabot, and some were burned among the papers of President Kirkland. For +a delightful specimen of Mr. Ames' familiar letters, the reader is +referred to page 89 of that capital biography, the "Life of Judge +Smith."</p> +<p>Mr. Ames was a man of great urbanity among his neighbors. It +was his custom to converse a good deal with ignorant persons and those +remote from civil affairs. He was desirous to see how such persons +looked at political questions, and often found means in this way of +correcting his own views. He was a great favorite among the servants, +and used to sit down in the kitchen sometimes and talk with them.</p> +<p>He attended the Congregational church at Dedham, and took a +good deal of interest in its affairs. On one occasion he invited out a +number of friends to attend an installation. But about 1797, on the +minister's insisting upon certain high Calvinistic doctrines, Mr. Ames +left, and always went, after that, to the Episcopal church. A certain +good old orthodox lady remarked to him one day, after he left their +church, that she supposed, if they had a nice new meeting-house, he +would come back. "No, madam," rejoined Ames, "if you had a church of +silver, and were to line it with gold, and give me the best seat in it, +I should go to the Episcopal." Though a man of strong religious +feelings, he was nothing of a sectarian, and did not fully agree with +the Episcopal views. He was a friend of Dr. Channing, who visited him +in his last illness, and he ought probably to be reckoned in the same +class of Christians with that eminent clergyman. He was very fond of +the Psalms, and used to repeat the beautiful hymn of Watts, "Up to the +hills I lift mine eyes." The Christmas of 1807, the year <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_297"></a>[297]</span>before +his +death, he had his house decked with green, a favourite custom with him.</p> +<p>He died at the age of fifty, on the fourth of July 1808, at +five o'clock in the morning, leaving to his family a comfortable +property. The news of his death was carried at once to Boston, and +Andrew Ritchie, the city orator for that day, alluded to it in this +extempore burst: "But, alas! the immortal Ames, who, like Ithuriel, was +commissioned to discover the insidious foe, has, like Ithuriel, +accomplished his embassy, and on this morning of our independence has +ascended to Heaven. Spirit of Demosthenes, couldst thou have been a +silent and invisible auditor, how wouldst thou have been delighted to +hear from his lips, those strains of eloquence which once from thine, +enchanted the assemblies of Greece!" Ames' friends in Boston requested +his body for the celebration of funeral rites. It was attended by a +large procession from the house of Christopher Gore to King's Chapel, +where an oration was pronounced by Samuel Dexter. It was afterwards +deposited in the family tomb at Dedham, whence it was removed a few +years since, and buried by the side of his wife and children. A plain +white monument marks the spot, in the old Dedham grave-yard, behind the +Episcopal church, with the simple inscription "<span class="smcap">Fisher +Ames</span>."</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_299"></a>[299]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="jqadams2"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">John Quincy Adams.</span> +</h6> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_300"></a>[300]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_300"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 635px;" alt="John Quincy Adams fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/jqadams2.png" /></a> +</div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_301"></a>[301]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus319"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 563px; height: 402px;" alt="Birth-place of John Quincy Adams." src="images/illus319.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Birth-place of John Quincy Adams.</a></span></p> +<h2>JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.</h2> +<p>John Quincy Adams was fortunate in the home of his birth and +childhood. It was a New England farm, descended from ancestors who were +never so poor as to be dependent upon others, nor so rich as to be +exempted from dependence upon themselves. It was situated in the town +of Quincy, then the first parish of the town of Braintree, and the +oldest permanent settlement of Massachusetts proper.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> +The first parish became a town by its present name, twenty-five years +after the birth <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_302"></a>[302]</span> +of Mr. Adams, viz. in 1792. It was named in honor of +John Quincy, Mr. Adams's maternal great-grandfather, an eminent man. +His death, and the transmission of his name to his great-grandson, are +thus commemorated by the latter:</p> +<p>"He was dying when I was baptized, and his daughter, my +grandmother, present at my birth, requested that I should receive his +name. The fact, recorded by my father at the time, has connected with +that portion of my name a charm of mingled sensibility and devotion. It +was filial tenderness that gave the name. It was the name of one +passing from earth to immortality. It has been to me a perpetual +admonition to do nothing unworthy of it."</p> +<p>The farm-house stands at the foot of an eminence called Penn's +Hill, about a mile south of Quincy village. It is an old-fashioned +dwelling, having a two-story front, and sloping far away to a single +one in the rear. This style is peculiar to the early descendants of the +Puritan fathers of America. Specimens are becoming rarer every year; +and being invariably built of wood, must soon pass away, but not +without "the tribute of a sigh" from those, who associate with them +memories of the wide old fireplaces, huge glowing backlogs, and +hospitable cheer.</p> +<p>With this modest material environment of the child, was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_303"></a>[303]</span> +coupled an intellectual and moral, which was golden. His father, the +illustrious John Adams, was bred, and in his youth labored, on the +farm. At the birth of his son, he was still a young man, being just +turned of thirty, but ripe both in general and professional knowledge, +and already recognized as one of the ablest counsellors and most +powerful pleaders at the bar of the province.</p> +<p>The mother of John Quincy Adams was worthy to be the companion +and counsellor of the statesman just described. By reason of slender +health she never attended a school. As to the general education allowed +to girls at that day, she tells us that it was limited "in the best +families to writing, arithmetic, and, in rare instances, music and +dancing;" and that "it was fashionable to ridicule female learning." +From her father, a clergyman, from her mother, a daughter of John +Quincy, and above all from her grandmother, his wife, she derived +liberal lessons and salutary examples. Thus her education was entirely +domestic and social. Perhaps it was the better for the absence of that +absorbing passion of the schools, which for the most part rests as well +satisfied with negative elevation by the failure of another, as with +positive elevation by the improvement of one's self. The excellent and +pleasant volume of her letters, which has gone through several +editions, indicates much historical, scriptural, and especially +poetical and ethical culture. In propriety, ease, vivacity and grace, +they compare not unfavorably with the best epistolary collections; and +in constant good sense, and occasional depth and eloquence, no +letter-writer can be named as her superior. To her only daughter, +mother of the late Mrs. De Wint, she wrote concerning the influence of +her grandmother as follows:</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_304"></a>[304]</span> +"I have not forgotten the excellent lessons which I received +from my grandmother, at a very early period of life. I frequently think +they made a more durable impression upon my mind than those which I +received from my own parents. Whether it was owing to a happy method of +mixing instruction and amusement together, or from an inflexible +adherence to certain principles, which I could not but see and approve +when a child, I know not; but maturer years have made them oracles of +wisdom to me. Her lively, cheerful disposition animated all around her, +whilst she edified all by her unaffected piety. I cherish her memory +with a holy veneration, whose maxims I have treasured, whose virtues +live in my remembrance—happy if I could say they have been transplanted +into my life."</p> +<p>The concluding aspiration was more than realized, because Mrs. +Adams lived more than the fortunate subject of her eulogy, and more +than any American woman of her time. She was cheerful, pious, +compassionate, discriminating, just and courageous up to the demand of +the times. She was a calm adviser, a zealous assistant, and a never +failing consolation of her partner, in all his labors and anxieties, +public and private. That the laborers might be spared for the army, she +was willing to work in the field. Diligent, frugal, industrious and +indefatigable in the arrangement and details of the household and the +farm, the entire management of which devolved upon her for a series of +years, she preserved for him amidst general depreciation and loss of +property, an independence, upon which he could always count and at last +retire. At the same time she responded to the numerous calls of +humanity, irrespective of opinions and parties. If there was a patriot +of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_305"></a>[305]</span> +Revolution who merited the title of <i>Washington of women</i>, +she was the one.</p> +<p>It is gratifying to know that this rare combination of virtue +and endowments met with a just appreciation from her great husband. In +his autobiography, written at a late period of life, he records this +touching testimony, that "his connection with her had been the source +of all his felicity," and his unavoidable separations from her, "of all +the griefs of his heart, and all that he esteemed real afflictions in +his life." Throughout the two volumes of letters to her, embracing a +period of twenty-seven years, the lover is more conspicuous than the +statesman; and she on her part regarded him with an affection +unchangeable and ever fresh during more than half a century of married +life. On one of the anniversaries of her wedding she wrote from +Braintree to him in Europe:</p> +<p>"Look at this date and tell me what are the thoughts which +arise in your mind. Do you not recollect that eighteen years have run +their circuit, since we pledged our mutual faith, and the hymeneal +torch was lighted at the altar of love? Yet, yet it burns with +unabating fervor. Old ocean cannot quench it; old Time cannot smother +it in this bosom. It cheers me in the lonely hour."</p> +<p>The homely place at Penn's Hill was thrice ennobled, twice as +the birth-place of two noble men—noble before they were Presidents; and +thirdly as the successful rival of the palaces inhabited by its +proprietors at the most splendid courts of Europe, which never for a +moment supplanted it in their affections. Mrs. Adams wrote often from +Paris and London in this strain: "My humble cottage at the foot of the +hill has more charms for me than the drawing-room of St. James;" and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_306"></a>[306]</span> +John Adams still oftener thus: "I had rather build wall on Penn's Hill +than be the first prince of Europe, or the first general or first +senator of America."</p> +<p>Such were the hearts that unfolded the childhood of John +Quincy Adams.</p> +<p>Of all the things which grace or deform the early home, the +principles, aims and efforts of the parents in conducting the education +of the child are the most important to both. The mutual letters of the +parents, in the present case, contain such wise and patriotic precepts, +such sagacious methods, such earnest and tender persuasions to the +acquisition of all virtue, knowledge, arts and accomplishments, that +can purify and exalt the human character, that they would form a +valuable manual for the training of true men and purer patriots.</p> +<p>Although the spot which has been mentioned was John Quincy +Adams's principal home until he was nearly eleven, yet he resided at +two different intervals, within that time, four or five years in +Boston; his father's professional business at one time, and his failing +health at another, rendering the alternation necessary. The first +Boston residence was the White House, so called, in Brattle-street. In +front of this a British regiment was exercised every morning by Major +Small, during the fall and winter of 1768, to the no little annoyance +of the tenant. But says he, "in the evening, I was soothed by the sweet +songs, violins and flutes of the serenading Sons of Liberty." The +family returned to Braintree in the spring of 1771. In November, 1772, +they again removed to Boston, and occupied a house which John Adams had +purchased in Queen (now Court) street, in which he also kept his +office. From this issued state papers and appeals, which did not a +little to fix the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_307"></a>[307]</span> +destiny of the country. The ground of that house has +descended to Charles Francis Adams, his grandson. In 1774 Penn's Hill +became the permanent home of the family, although John Adams continued +his office in Boston, attended by students at law, until it was broken +up by the event of April 19th, 1775.</p> +<p>Soon after the final return to Quincy, we begin to have a +personal acquaintance with the boy, now seven years old. Mrs. Adams +writes to her husband, then attending the Congress in Philadelphia:</p> +<p>"I have taken a very great fondness for reading Rollin's +Ancient History since you left me. I am determined to go through with +it, if possible, in these my days of solitude. I find great pleasure +and entertainment from it, and I have persuaded Johnny to read me a +page or two every day, and hope he will, from a desire to oblige me, +entertain a fondness for it."</p> +<p>In the same year the first mention is made of his regular +attendance upon a teacher. The person selected in that capacity was a +young man named Thaxter, a student at law, transferred from the office +in Boston, to the family in Quincy. The boy seems to have been very +much attached to him. Mrs. Adams assigned the following reasons for +preferring this arrangement to the public town school.</p> +<p>"I am certain that if he does not get so much good, he gets +less harm; and I have always thought it of very great importance that +children should be unaccustomed to such examples as would tend to +corrupt the purity of their words and actions, that they may chill with +horror at the sound of an oath, and blush with indignation at an +obscene expression."</p> +<p>This furnishes a pleasing coincidence with a precept of +ancient prudence:— +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_308"></a>[308]</span> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem">Let +nothing foul in speech or act intrude,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem">Where +reverend childhood is.</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>There is no disapprobation of public schools to be inferred +from this. These are indispensable for the general good; but if from +this narrative a hint should be taken for making them more and more +pure, and worthy of their saving mission, such an incident will be +welcome.</p> +<p>Of the next memorable year we have a reminiscence from +himself. It was related in a speech at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in +1843.</p> +<p>"In 1775 the minute men, from a hundred towns in the +Provinces, were marching to the scenes of the opening war. Many of them +called at our house, and received the hospitality of John Adams. All +were lodged in the house whom the house would contain, others in the +barns, and wherever they could find a place. There were then in my +father's house some dozen or two of pewter spoons; and I well recollect +seeing some of the men engaged in running those spoons into bullets. Do +you wonder that a boy of seven years of age, who witnessed these +scenes, should be a patriot?"</p> +<p>He saw from Penn's Hill the flames of Charlestown, and heard +the guns of Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights.</p> +<p>In one of her letters from France, Mrs. Adams remarks that he +was generally taken to be older than his sister (about two years older +than he), because he usually conversed with persons older than +himself—a remarkable proof of a constant aim at improvement, of a wise +discernment of the means, and of the maturity of acquisitions already +made. Edward Everett remarks in his eulogy, that such a stage as +boyhood seems not to have been in the life of John Quincy Adams. While +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_309"></a>[309]</span> +he was under ten, he wrote to his father the earliest production of his +pen which has been given to the public. It is found in Governor +Seward's Memoir of his life, and was addressed to his father. <br /> +</p> +<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Braintree</span>, +June 2d, 1777. +</span></div> +<p>Dear Sir:—I love to receive letters very well, much better +than I love to write them. I make but a poor figure at composition. My +head is much too fickle. My mind is running after bird's eggs, play and +trifles, till I get vexed with myself. Mamma has a troublesome task to +keep me a studying. I own I am ashamed of myself. I have but just +entered the third volume of Rollin's History, but I designed to have +got half thro' it by this time. I am determined this week to be more +diligent. Mr. Thaxter is absent at Court. I have set myself a stent +this week to read the third volume half out. If I can keep my +resolution, I may again, at the end of a week, give a better account of +myself. I wish, sir, you would give me in writing some instructions in +regard to the use of my time, and advise me how to proportion my +studies and play, and I will keep them by me, and endeavor to follow +them.</p> +<p>With the present determination of growing better, I am, dear +sir, your son, </p> +<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.</span></div> +<p>P.S. Sir, if you will be so good as to favor me with a +blank-book, I will transcribe the most remarkable passages I meet with +in my reading, which will serve to fix them on my mind.<br /> +</p> +<p>Soon after the evacuation of Boston by Lord Howe, Mrs. Adams +announces that "Johnny has become post-rider from Boston to Braintree." +The distance was nine miles, and he <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_310"></a>[310]</span> +was nine years old. In this hardy +enterprise, and in the foregoing letter, we may mark the strong hold +which the favourite maxims of the parents had taken of their child's +mind. Among those maxims were these:</p> +<p>To begin composition very early by writing descriptions of +natural objects, as a storm, a country residence; or narrative of +events, as a walk, ride, or the transactions of a day.</p> +<p>To transcribe the best passages from the best writers in the +course of reading, as a means of forming the style as well as storing +the memory.</p> +<p>To cultivate spirit and hardihood, activity and power of +endurance.</p> +<p>Soon after this, the lad ceased to have a home except in the +bosom of affection, and that was a divided one. On the 13th of +February, 1778, he embarked for France with his father, who had been +appointed a commissioner, jointly with Dr. Franklin and Arthur Lee, to +negotiate treaties of alliance and commerce with that country. From the +place of embarcation his father wrote: "Johnny sends his duty to his +mamma, and love to his sister and brothers. <i>He behaves like a +man.</i>"</p> +<p>When they arrived in France, after escaping extraordinary +perils at sea, they found the treaty of alliance already concluded. The +son was put to school in Paris, and gave his father "great +satisfaction, both by his assiduity to his books and his discreet +behavior," all which the father lovingly attributes to the lessons of +the mother. He calls the boy "the joy of his heart."</p> +<p>He was permitted to tarry but three months, when he was +commissioned to negotiate treaties of independence, peace, and commerce +with Great Britain. He embarked for France in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_311"></a>[311]</span>month +of November, +accompanied by Francis Dana as secretary of legation, and by his two +oldest sons, John and Charles.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> The vessel sprung a leak and +was compelled to put into the nearest port, which proved to be Ferrol, +where they landed safe December seventh. One of the first things was to +buy a,dictionary and grammar for the boys, who "went to learning +Spanish as fast as possible." Over high mountains, by rough and miry +roads, a-muleback, and in the depth of winter, they wound their +toilsome way, much of the time on foot, from Ferrol to Paris, a journey +of a thousand miles, arriving about the middle of February, 1780. On +this occasion, it is to be presumed, Master Johnny must have derived no +small benefit from the service he had seen as "post-rider."</p> +<p>At Paris he immediately entered an academy, but in the autumn +accompanied his father to Holland, who had received superadded +commissions to negotiate private loans, and public treaties there. For +a few months the son was sent to a common school in Amsterdam, but in +December he was removed to Leyden, to learn Latin and Greek under the +distinguished teachers there, and to attend the lectures of celebrated +professors in the University. The reasons of this transfer are worth +repeating, as they mark the strong and habitual aversion which John +Adams felt and inculcated, to every species of littleness and meanness.</p> +<p>"I should not wish to have children educated in the common +schools of this country, where a littleness of soul is notorious. The +masters are mean-spirited wretches, pinching, kicking and boxing the +children upon every turn. There is a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_312"></a>[312]</span> +general littleness, arising from +the incessant contemplation of stivers and doits. Frugality and +industry, are virtues every where, but avarice and stinginess are not +frugality."</p> +<p>In July, 1781, the son accompanied to St. Petersburgh Mr. +Francis Dana, who had been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the +court of Russia. The original purpose was study, observation, and +general improvement, under the guidance of a trusty and accomplished +friend. The youth was not, as has been stated, appointed secretary of +the Minister at the time they started; but by his readiness and +capability he came to be employed by Mr. Dana as interpreter and +secretary, difficult and delicate trusts, probably never before +confided to a boy of thirteen.</p> +<p>In October, 1782, the youth left St. Petersburgh, and paying +passing visits to Sweden, Denmark, Hamburg, and Bremen, reached the +Hague in April, 1783, and there resumed his studies. Meantime his +father, having received assurances that Great Britain was prepared to +treat for peace on the basis of independence, had repaired to Paris to +open the negotiation. He found that Dr. Franklin and Mr. Jay, two of +his colleagues on the same commission, had commenced the business first +with informal agents, and afterwards with a commissioner of his +majesty, George the Third. The Definitive Treaty was signed September +the third, 1783, at which act John Quincy Adams was summoned by his +father to be present, and to assume the duties of secretary. In that +capacity he made one of the copies of the treaty. The father on this +occasion wrote: "Congress are at such grievous expense that I shall +have no other secretary but my son. He, however, is a very good one. He +writes a good hand very fast, and is steady at his pen and books."</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_313"></a>[313]</span> +In this autumn the two made a trip to London, partly for the +health of the elder, which had been seriously impaired by incessant +labor, and partly for the benefit of the younger, as it was expected +then that both would bid adieu to Europe and embark for America in the +ensuing spring. John Adams had the satisfaction of hearing the King +announce to the Parliament and people from the throne, that he had +concluded a Treaty of Peace with the United States of America.</p> +<p>In January, 1784, the father and son proceeded to Holland to +negotiate a new loan for the purpose of meeting the interest on the +former one. There they remained until the latter part of July, when a +letter came communicating the arrival of Mrs. Adams and her daughter in +London. John Adams despatched his son to meet them, and wrote to his +wife:</p> +<p>"Your letter of the twenty-third has made me the happiest man +upon earth. I am twenty years younger than I was yesterday. It is a +cruel mortification to me that I cannot go to meet you in London; but +there are a variety of reasons decisively against it, which I will +communicate to you here. Meantime I send you a son, who is one of the +greatest travellers of his age, and without partiality, I think as +promising and manly a youth, as is in the whole world. He will purchase +a coach, in which we four must travel to Paris; let it be large and +strong. After spending a week or two here you will have to set out with +me for France, but there are no seas between; a good road, a fine +season, and we will make moderate journeys, and see the curiosities of +several cities in our way,—Utrecht, Breda, Antwerp, Brussels, +&c. &c. It is the first time in Europe that I looked +forward to a journey with pleasure. Now I expect a great deal. I think +myself made for this world."</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_314"></a>[314]</span> +John Quincy Adams reached London the thirtieth of July. "When +he entered," says Mrs. Adams, "we had so many strangers that I drew +back, not really believing my eyes, till he cried out, 'O my mamma, and +my dear sister!' Nothing but the eyes appeared what he once was. His +appearance is that of a man, and in his countenance the most perfect +good-humor. His conversation by no means denies his station. I think +you do not approve the word <i>feelings</i>. I know not +what to substitute in lieu, nor how to describe mine." The son was then +seventeen, and the separation had continued nearly five years.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding that the husband's letter had forbidden hope +of his participating in this re-union, he did so after all, practising +a surprise charmingly delicate and gallant. It was a blissful meeting +not only of happy friends, but of merit and reward, a beautiful and +honorable consummation of mutual sacrifices and toils. Seldom does the +cup of joy so effervesce.</p> +<p>Independence predicted in youth, moved and sustained with +unrivalled eloquence in manhood, at home—confirmed and consolidated by +loans, alliances, ships, and troops—obtained, in part or all, by him, +abroad—Washington nominated Chief of the army—the American Navy +created—peace negotiated—this, this (if civic virtues and achievments +were honored only equally with martial) would have been the circle of +Golden Medals, which John Adams might have laid at the feet of his +admirable wife!</p> +<p>Five months after this, as if too full for earlier utterance, +she wrote to her sister: "You will chide me, perhaps, for not relating +to you an event which took place in London, that of unexpectedly +meeting my long absent friend; for from his <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_315"></a>[315]</span> +letters by my son, I had no +idea that he would come. But you know, my dear sister, that poets and +painters wisely draw a veil over scenes which surpass the pen of the +one and the pencil of the other."</p> +<p>The family reached Paris in the latter part of August, and +established their residence at Auteuil, four miles from the city. The +son pursued his studies, his mother, by his particular desire, writing +her charming letters to American friends by his fireside. Sometimes he +copied them in his plain and beautiful hand, always equal to print, and +made her think, as she gayly remarks, that they were really worth +something. The circle of familiar visitors included Franklin, Jefferson +and his daughter, La Fayette and his wife; of formal, all the ministers +domestic and foreign, and as many of the elite of fashion and of fame +as they chose. But Mrs. Adams was always a modest and retiring woman. +Of Franklin she wrote: "His character, from my infancy, I had been +taught to venerate. I found him social, not talkative; and when he +spoke, something useful dropped from, his tongue."</p> +<p>Of Jefferson, "I shall really regret to leave Mr. Jefferson. +He is one of the choice ones of the earth. On Thursday I dine with him +at his house. On Sunday he is to dine with us. On Monday we all dine +with the Marquis."</p> +<p>In the spring of 1785 John Adams received the appointment of +Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, the first from the United +States of America. A new separation ensued. He, his wife and daughter +departed for London, but not the son, as has been stated. He departed +for Harvard University, where, in the following March, he entered the +Junior Class, and graduated with distinguished honor in 1787. He +studied law <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_316"></a>[316]</span> +at Newburyport in the office of Theophilus Parsons, +afterwards the eminent Chief Justice. He entered upon the practice of +the law in Boston in 1790, and boarded in the family of Dr. Thomas +Welsh. He continued thus four years, gradually enlarging the circle of +his business and the amount of his income. Meantime, great and exciting +public questions arose, and in discussing them he obtained a sudden and +wide distinction. A tract from his pen in answer to a portion of +Paine's Rights of Man, and expressing doubts of the ultimate success of +the French Revolution, appeared in 1791, was republished in England and +attributed to John Adams. This was at a time when the enthusiasm for +the great French movement was at its height in this country. Events too +soon showed that the writer had inherited his father's sagacity.</p> +<p>Another publication of his, which appeared in 1793, maintained +the right, duty and policy of our assuming a neutral attitude towards +the respective combatants in the wars arising from the French +Revolution. This publication preceded Washington's Proclamation of +Neutrality. In the same year Mr. Adams reviewed the course of Genet, +applying to it and the condition of the country the principles of +public law.</p> +<p>These writings attracted the attention of Washington, and he +is supposed to have derived essential aid from them in some of the most +difficult conjunctures of his administration. Upon the recommendation +of Jefferson, made as he was about to retire from the office of +Secretary of State, Washington determined to appoint John Quincy Adams +Minister Resident in Holland. An intimation from Washington to the +Vice-President, in order that he might give his wife timely notice to +prepare for the departure of her son, was the first knowledge <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_317"></a>[317]</span>that +any +member of the family had, that such an appointment was thought of. Mr. +Adams repaired to his post, and remained there till near the close of +Washington's administration, with the exception of an additional +mission to London in 1795, to exchange ratifications of Jay's treaty, +and agree upon certain arrangements for its execution.</p> +<p>On this occasion he met, at the house of her father, the +American consul in London, Miss <span class="smcap">Louisa +Catherine Johnson</span>, who afterwards became his wife. In +consequence of a rumor of his intending to resign, Washington wrote to +the Vice-President:</p> +<p>"Your son must not think of retiring from the path he is in. +His prospects, if he pursues it, are fair; and I shall be much +surprised, if, in as short a time as can well be expected, he is not at +the head of the Diplomatic Corps, be the government administered by +whomsoever it may."</p> +<p>Subsequently Washington expressed himself still more strongly, +aiming to overcome the scruples of President Adams about continuing his +son in office under his own administration. Just before his retirement, +Washington appointed him Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal. This +destination was changed by his father to Berlin. Before assuming the +station, he was married in London to Miss Johnson.</p> +<p>While in Prussia he negotiated an important commercial treaty, +and wrote letters from Silesia, which were published in the portfolio, +and passed through some editions and translations in Europe. In 1801 he +was recalled by his father, to save, as it is said, Mr. Jefferson from +the awkwardness of turning out the son of his old friend, whose +appointment he had recommended. If such was the motive of the recall, +it was a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_318"></a>[318]</span> +miscalculation, for Jefferson did not hesitate to remove him +from the small office of commissioner of bankruptcy, to which he had +been appointed by the district judge of Massachusetts upon his return +from abroad. Mr. Jefferson defended himself from censure for this +little act, by alleging that he did not know when he made the removal, +nor who the incumbent of the office was; an excuse more inexcusable +than the act itself.</p> +<p>Mr. Adams re-established himself with his family in Boston. He +occupied a house in Hanover-street, not now standing, and another which +he purchased at the corner of Tremont and Boylston streets, now used +for stores, and owned by his only surviving son.</p> +<p>In 1802 he was elected to the Senate of Massachusetts from +Suffolk county.</p> +<p>In 1803, to the Senate of the United States.</p> +<p>In 1806, Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in Harvard +University, but in subordination to his duties in Congress.</p> +<p>In 1808 he resigned his seat in the Senate, the Legislature of +his State having instructed him to oppose the restrictive measures of +Jefferson, and he having given a zealous support to the embargo.</p> +<p>In 1809 he was appointed by Madison Minister Plenipotentiary +to Russia; and resigned his professorship in the University.</p> +<p>In 1811 he was nominated by Madison and unanimously confirmed +by the Senate, as judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. +Adams having declined this office, Judge Story was appointed.</p> +<p>In 1814 he was appointed first commissioner at Ghent to treat +with Great Britain for peace.</p> +<p>In 1815, Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_319"></a>[319]</span> +In 1817, Secretary of State.</p> +<p>In 1825, elected President of the United States.</p> +<p>Mr. Adams, released from the toils of thirty-five years of +unintermitted public service, now sought a home which remains to be +described.</p> +<p>John Adams, while yet minister in England, purchased a seat in +Quincy of Mr. Borland, an old friend and neighbor, descended from the +Vassals, a considerable family in the town and province: this was in +1786. On his return from Europe in 1788, the purchaser took possession +with his family; and with the exception of two terms as Vice-President, +and one as President of the United States, he never left it until his +death on the fourth of July, 1826. This estate descended to his son, as +did also that at Penn's Hill.</p> +<p>It is situated about half a mile north of Quincy village, on +the old Boston road, where massive mile-stones, erected before the +birth of John Adams, may still be seen. The farm consists of one +hundred acres, now productive, though in a rude state when acquired. +Mrs. John Adams described her husband in 1801 as "busy among his +haymakers, and getting thirty tons on the spot, which eight years +before yielded only six."</p> +<p>The house is supposed to be a hundred and fifty years old. It +is built of wood, quite unpretending, yet from association or other +cause, it has a distinguished and venerable aspect. Approached from the +north or city side, it presents a sharp gable in the old English style +of architecture. The opposite end is very different, and has a hipped +or gambrel gable. The length may be some seventy feet, the height +thirty, consisting of two stories, and a suit of attic chambers, with +large <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_320"></a>[320]</span> +luthern windows. A piazza runs along the centre of the basement +in front. The south or gambrel-roofed section of the edifice, was built +by John Adams. The principal entrance is at the junction of this +section with the main building. It opens into a spacious entry with a +staircase on the right, and busts of Washington and John Quincy Adams +on the left. At the foot of the stairs is the door of the principal +apartment, called the Long Room. It is plainly finished, and about +seven feet in height. It contains portraits of John Adams and his wife +by Stewart, John Quincy Adams and his wife by the same; Thomas +Jefferson in French costume, taken in France by Browne. He appears much +handsomer than in most of his portraits. Over the fireplace is a very +old and curious picture of a child, supposed by John Quincy Adams to be +his great-grandfather, John Quincy. There are several other portraits +of less note. The chairs are of plain mahogany, with stuffed seats and +backs, and hair-cloth coverings. They belonged to Mrs. Adams. Opposite +to the door of this room, on the left side of the entry, is the door of +the dining-room, called the Middle Room. This is within the original +building. It contains a number of portraits; the most conspicuous is +that of Washington in his uniform. It was painted by Savage, and was +purchased by the elder Adams. It has a more solemn and concentrated +look than Stewart's Washington—more expressive, but not so symmetrical. +It resembles Peale's Pater Patrię. John Quincy Adams considered it a +better likeness than the popular portraits. It is said to have been +taken when Washington had lost his teeth, and had not substituted +artificial ones. The lips appear much compressed, the visage elongated +and thinner than in Stewart's picture. By <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_321"></a>[321]</span> +its side is Mrs. Washington, +painted by the same artist. There is a fine engraving of Copley's +picture of the Death of Chatham. It is a proof copy, presented by the +painter to John Adams. Passing from the Middle Room through another but +small front entry, we reach the north basement room, called the Keeping +Room. This is finished with considerable luxury for a provincial parlor +of its time. It is panelled from floor to ceiling with mahogany. The +effect is somewhat heavy, to obviate which the elder Mrs. Adams, a +votary of all cheerfulness, had it painted white. It has now been +restored, and presents an antique and rich appearance. Nearly all the +furniture of this as well as the Middle Room, including the Turkey +carpet of the latter, still bright and substantial, was John Adams's. +All these apartments are connected by a longitudinal passage in the +rear, which communicates with the kitchen.</p> +<p>The Library is in the second story over the Long Room. This +chamber was constantly occupied by the Elder President, both for a +sitting and sleeping room during his latter years. Here the writer saw +him at the age of nearly ninety, delighted with hearing Scott's novels, +or Dupuis' Origine de tous les Cultes, or the simplest story-book, +which he could get his grandchildren to read to him. He seemed very +cheerful, and ready to depart, remarking that "he had eat his cake." +When his son came home from Washington, he converted this room into a +library. Of course his books are very miscellaneous both as to subjects +and languages; but they are not all here. Some are arranged on the +sides of passage-ways and in other parts. A portion of them compose in +part a library at his son's town residence. John Adams in his lifetime +gave his <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_322"></a>[322]</span> +library—a very valuable one—to the town of Quincy, together +with several tracts of land for the erection of an academy or classical +school, to which his library is ultimately to attach. The entire +library of John Quincy Adams comprises twelve thousand volumes. To this +must be added a chest full of manuscripts, original and translated, in +prose and poetry. They show unbounded industry. From his boyhood to the +age of fifty, when he took the Department of State, he was an intense +student. In this chest are many of the earlier fruits, such as complete +versions of a large number of the classics, of German and other foreign +works.</p> +<p>The garden lies on the north, contiguous to the house, and +connects with a lawn, narrow in front of the house, but widening +considerably south of it. The whole is inclosed on the roadside by a +solid wall of Quincy granite, some six feet high, except the section +immediately before the house, which is a low stone wall, surmounted by +a light wooden fence of an obsolete fashion, with two gates in the same +style, leading to the two front doors. The whole extent does not much +exceed an acre. It embraces an ornamental and kitchen garden, the +former occupying the side near the road, and the latter extending by +the side and beyond the kitchen and offices to an open meadow and +orchard. The principal walk is through the ornamental portion of the +garden, parallel with the road, and terminates at a border of thrifty +forest trees, disposed, as they should be, without any regard to order. +From the walk above-mentioned another strikes out at a right angle, and +skirts the border of trees, till it disappears in the expanse of +meadow. Most of the trees were raised by John Quincy Adams from the +seeds, which he was in the habit of picking up in his wanderings. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_323"></a>[323]</span>The +most particular interest attaches to a shagbark, which he planted more +than fifty years ago. It stands near the angle of the two alleys. In +this tree he took a particular satisfaction, but he was an enthusiast +in regard to all the trees of the forest, differing in this respect +from his father, who, as an agriculturist of the Cato stamp, was more +inclined to lay the axe to them than to propagate them. From this +plantation Charles Francis Adams was supplied with a great number and +variety of trees to embellish a residence, which he built in his +father's lifetime on the summit of a high hill, west of the old +mansion. This is called President's Hill. It affords one of the finest +sea landscapes which can be found. John Adams used to say that he had +never seen, in any part of the world, so fine a view. It comprises a +wide range of bays, islands and channels seaward, with seats and +villages on the intervening land. This prospect lies eastward, and +includes Mount Wollaston, situated near the seashore, and remarkable as +the first spot settled in the town and State, and as giving its name +for many of the first years to the entire settlement. This belonged to +the great-grandfather, John Quincy, and is now a part of the Adams +estate.</p> +<p>The meeting-house is half a mile south of the old mansion. The +material is granite, a donation of John Adams. It has a handsome +portico, supported by beautiful and massive Doric pillars, not an unfit +emblem of the donor. Beneath the porch, his son constructed, in the +most durable manner, a crypt, in which he piously deposited the remains +of his parents; and in the body of the church, on the right of the +pulpit, he erected to their sacred memories a marble monument +surmounted by a bust of John Adams, and inscribed with an affecting and +noble epitaph.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_324"></a>[324]</span> +After leading "a wandering life about the world," as he +himself calls it—a life of many changes and many labors, John Quincy +Adams, at sixty-two, sought the quiet and seclusion of his father's +house. He was yet, for his years, a model of physical vigor and +activity; for, though by nature convivial as his father was, and +capable, on an occasion, of some extra glasses, he was by habit +moderate in meat and drink, never eating more than was first served on +his plate, and consequently never mixing a variety of dishes. He used +himself to attribute much of the high health he enjoyed to his walks +and his baths. Early every morning, when the season admitted, he sought +a place where he could take a plunge and swim at large. A creek, with a +wharf or pier projecting into it, called Black's Wharf, about a quarter +of a mile from his house, served these purposes in Quincy. At +Washington he resorted to the broad Potomac. There, leaving his apparel +in charge of an attendant, (for it is said that it was once purloined!) +he used to buffet the waves before sunrise. He was an easy and expert +swimmer, and delighted so much in the element, that he would swim and +float from one to two or three hours at a time. An absurd story +obtained currency, that he used this exercise in winter, breaking the +ice, if necessary, to get the indispensable plunge! This was fiction. +He did not bathe at all in winter, nor at other times from theory, but +for pleasure.</p> +<p>He bore abstinence and irregularity in his meals with singular +indifference. Whether he breakfasted at seven or ten, whether he dined +at two, or not at all, appeared to be questions with which he did not +concern himself. It is related that having sat in the House of +Representatives from eight o'clock in the morning till after midnight, +a friend accosted <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_325"></a>[325]</span> +him, and expressed the hope that he had taken +refreshment in all that time; he replied that he had not left his seat, +and held up a <i>bit of hard bread</i>. His entertainments +of his friends were distinguished for abundance, order, elegance, and +the utmost perfection in every particular, but not for extravagance and +luxury of table furniture. His accomplished lady, of course, had much +to do with this. He rose very early, lighting the fire and his lamp in +his library, while the surrounding world was yet buried in slumber. +This was his time for writing. Washington and Hamilton had the same +habit.</p> +<p>He was unostentatious and almost always walked, whether for +visiting, business or exercise. At Quincy he used to go up President's +Hill to meet the sun from the sea, and sometimes walked to the +residence of his son in Boston before breakfast. Regularly, before the +hour of the daily sessions of Congress, he was seen wending his quiet +way towards the Capitol, seldom or never using, in the worst of +weather, a carriage. He stayed one night to a late hour, listening to a +debate in the Senate on the expunging resolution. As he was starting +for home in the face of a fierce snow-storm, and in snow a foot deep, a +gentleman proposed to conduct him to his house. "I thank you, sir, for +your kindness," said he, "but I do not need the service of any one. I +am somewhat advanced in life, but not yet, by the blessing of God, +infirm, or what Dr. Johnson would call 'superfluous;' and you may +recollect what old Adam says in 'As you Like it'—<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"'For in my youth I never did apply +</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.'"</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>While he was President, the writer was once sitting in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_326"></a>[326]</span> +drawing-room of a highbred lady in Boston. A hat not very new glanced +under the window sill. The owner rung at the door; and not finding the +gentleman at home, continued his walk. A servant entered and presented +the card of <span class="smcap">John Quincy Adams</span>. +"I do wonder," exclaimed the lady, "that the President of the United +States will go about in such a manner!"</p> +<p>His apparel was always plain, scrupulously neat, and +reasonably well worn. It was made for the comfort of the wearer, who +asked not of the fashions.</p> +<p>When he retired from the Presidency, he resolved to pass the +remainder of his days under the paternal roof and the beloved shades. +He anticipated and desired nothing but quiet, animated by the +excitements of intellectual and rural occupations. He had before him +the congenial task, to which he had long aspired, of dispensing the +treasures of wisdom contained in the unwritten life and unpublished +writings of his father. He was ready to impart of his own inexhaustible +wealth of experience, observation and erudition, to any one capable of +receiving. It takes much to reconcile a thoughtful mind to the loss of +what would have been gained by the proposed employment of his leisure. +And we had much.</p> +<p>Had the record of his public life, ample and honorable as it +was, been now closed, those pages on which patriots, philanthropists +and poets will for ever dwell with gratitude and delight, would have +been wanting. Hitherto he had done remarkably well what many others, +with a knowledge of precedents and of routine and with habits of +industry, might have done, if not as well, yet acceptably. He was now +called to do what no other man in the Republic had strength and heart +to attempt.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_327"></a>[327]</span> +He was endowed with a memory uncommonly retentive. He could +remember and quote with precision, works which he had not looked at for +forty years. Add to this his untiring diligence and perseverance, and +the advantages of his position and employment at various capitals in +the old world, and the story of his vast acquisitions is told. His love +lay in history, literature, moral philosophy and public law. With the +Greek, Latin, French, German, and Italian languages and principal +writers he was familiar. His favorite English poet was Shakspeare, whom +he commented upon and recited with discrimination and force, +surpassing, it is said, in justness of conception, the great +personators of his principal characters. Among the classics, he +especially loved Ovid, unquestionably the Shakspeare of the Romans. +Cicero was greatly beloved, and most diligently studied, translated, +and commented upon. For many of his latter years he never read +continuously. He would fall asleep over his book. But to elucidate any +subject he had in hand, he wielded his library with wakefulness and +execution lively enough.</p> +<p>He was fond of art in all its departments, but most in the +pictorial. In his "Residence at the Court of London," Mr. Rush has +drawn an attractive sketch of him at home.</p> +<p>"His tastes were all refined. Literature and art were familiar +and dear to him. At his hospitable board I have listened to +disquisitions from his lips, on poetry, especially the dramas of +Shakspeare, music, painting and sculpture, of rare excellence and +untiring interest. A critical scholar in the dead languages, in French, +German and Italian, he could draw at will from the wealth of these +tongues to illustrate any particular topic. There was no fine painting +or statue, of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_328"></a>[328]</span> +which he did not know the details and the history. There +was not even an opera, or a celebrated composer, of which or of whom he +could not point out the distinguishing merits and the chief +compositions. Yet he was a hard-working and assiduous man of business; +and a more regular, punctual, and comprehensive diplomatic +correspondence than his, no country can probably boast."</p> +<p>Mr. Adams was generally regarded as cold and austere. The +testimony of persons who enjoyed an intimacy with him is the reverse of +this. Mr. Rush says that "under an exterior of at times repulsive +coldness, dwelt a heart as warm, sympathies as quick, and affections as +overflowing as ever animated any bosom." And Mr. Everett, that "in real +kindness and tenderness of feeling, no man surpassed him." There is an +abundance of like evidence on this head.</p> +<p>He was taciturn rather than talkative, preferring to think and +to muse. At times his nature craved converse, and delighted in the play +of familiar chat. Occasionally he threw out a lure to debate. If great +principles were seriously called in question, he would pour out a rapid +and uninterrupted torrent.</p> +<p>The poets had been the delight of his youth. He read them in +the intervals of retirement at Quincy with a youthful enthusiasm, and +tears and laughter came by turns, as their sad and bright visions +passed before him. Pope was a favorite, "and the intonations of his +voice in repeating the 'Messiah,'" says an inmate of the family, "will +never cease to vibrate on the ear of memory." He was a deeply religious +man, and though not taking the most unprejudiced views of divinity, +what he received as spiritual truths were to him most evident and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_329"></a>[329]</span> +momentous realities, and he derived from them a purifying and +invigorating power. "The dying Christian's Address to his Soul" was +replete with pathos and beauty for him. He is remembered to have +repeated it one evening with an intense expression of religious faith +and joy; adding the Latin lines of Adrian, which Pope imitated. He was +thought by some to have a tendency to Calvinistic theology, and to +regard Unitarianism as too abstract and frigid. Thus he used sometimes +to talk, but it was supposed to be for the purpose of putting +Unitarians upon a defence of their faith, rather than with a serious +design to impair it.</p> +<p>On one occasion he conversed on the subject of popular +applause and admiration. Its caprice, said he, is equalled only by its +worthlessness, and the misery of that being who lives on its breath. +There is one stanza of Thomson's Castle of Indolence, that is worth +whole volumes of modern poetry; though it is the fashion to speak +contemptuously of Thomson. He then repeated with startling force of +manner and energy of enunciation, the third stanza, second canto, of +that poem.<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"I care not, fortune, what you me deny;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +You cannot rob me of free nature's grace,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +You cannot shut the windows of the sky,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Through which Aurora shows her brightening face;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +You cannot bar my constant feet to trace</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +The woods and lawns by living streams at eve:</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +And I their toys to the great children leave;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +Of Fancy, Reason, Virtue, nought can me bereave."</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>He did not much admire the poetry of Byron. One objection +which he is recollected to have made to the poet was <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_330"></a>[330]</span>the +use of the +word "rot." There is some peculiarity in Byron in this respect; thus in +Childe Harold:—<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"The Bucentaur lies <i>rotting</i> unrestored,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Where meaner relics must not dare to <i>rot</i>."</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>This, if a sound objection, which it is not, was narrow for so +great a man. The cause of this distaste lay deeper. Mr. Adams, though a +dear lover of Shakspeare, was of the Johnsonian school of writers. His +diction is elaborate, stately, and in his earlier writings verbose, but +always polished, harmonious, and sustained. He liked unconsciously +Latin English better than Anglo-Saxon. Byron, in common with a large +and increasing class of moderns, loved to borrow the force of familiar +and every-day language, and to lend to it the dignity and beauty of +deep thought and high poetic fancy. Not improbably, the moral +obliquities of the poet had their influence in qualifying the opinion +formed of his writings, by a man of such strict rectitude as Mr. Adams.</p> +<p>He was fond of Watts's Psalms and Hymns, and repeated them +often, sometimes rising from his seat in the exaltation of his +feelings. Among favorite stanzas was this one:<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +Sweet fields, beyond the swelling flood,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Stand dressed in living green;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +So to the Jews old Canaan stood,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +While Jordan rolled between.</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>Until his private letters shall be published, no adequate +conception can be formed of the devotion he paid to his mother. This +may give an inkling of it. A young friend inquired of him, when he was +once at Hingham on their annual fishing party in his honor, in which of +his poems a certain line was to be found, viz.— +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_331"></a>[331]</span> +<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"Hull—but that name's redeemed upon the wave,"</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>referring to the surrender of General Hull, so soon followed +(only three days after, August 16-19, 1812) by the capture of the +Guerriere by Captain Hull. "I do not," he replied, "but I have been +often struck by the coincidence. I think, however, the line occurs in a +poem <i>addressed to my mother</i>."</p> +<p>The best saying of Mr. Adams was in reply to the inquiry, What +are the recognized principles of politics?</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Adams.</span> +There are none. There are recognized precepts, but they are bad, and so +not <span class="smcap">principles</span>.</p> +<p>But is not this a sound one, "The greatest good of the +greatest number?"</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Adams.</span> No, +that is the worst of all, for it looks specious, while it is ruinous; +for what is to become of the minority? This is the only principle—<span class="smcap">The greatest good of all</span>.</p> +<p>It must be admitted that much tyranny lurks in this favorite +democratic tenet, not half as democratic, however, as Mr. Adams's +amendment. Wrongs and outrages the most unmerciful, have been committed +by majorities. It may even happen where the forms of law are +maintained; but what shall be said when the majority resolves itself +into a mob? When rivers of innocent blood may (as they have) run from +city gates. The tyranny of majorities is irresponsible, without +redress, and without punishment, except in the ultimate iron grasp of +"the higher law."</p> +<p>Mr. Adams's view, so much larger than the common one, may, +with a strong probability, be traced to the mother. In her letters to +him, she insists again and again upon the duty of universal kindness +and benevolence. Patriot as she was, she pitied the Refugees. She said +to him,</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_332"></a>[332]</span> +"Man is bound to the performance of certain duties, all which +tend to the happiness and welfare of society, and are comprised in one +short sentence expressive of universal benevolence: 'Thou shalt love +thy neighbor as thyself.'<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"Remember more, the Universal Cause</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Acts not by partial, but by general laws;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +And makes what happiness we justly call,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Subsist, not in the good of one, but <small>ALL</small>.'" +</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>In other letters she illustrated observations in the same +spirit by these quotations:<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +"Shall I determine where his frowns shall fall,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +And fence my grotto from the lot of <small>ALL</small>?"</span></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><span class="poem"> +"Prompt at every call,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +Can watch and weep and pray and feel for <small>ALL</small>.</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>One evening, at his house in F street in Washington, he spoke +of Judge Parsons, of his depth and subtlety, and the conciseness of his +language. "Soon after I entered his office he said to us students—'Lord +Bacon observes that "reading makes a full man, conversation a ready +man, writing a correct man." Young gentlemen, my advice to you is, that +you study to be full, ready and correct.' I thought," said Mr. Adams, +"that I never heard good advice so well conveyed."</p> +<p>He was asked by the writer whether he had ever received any +acknowledgment of his services, any mark of gratitude from the colored +people of the District? "None," said he—"except that I now and then +hear, <i>in a low tone</i>, a hearty <span class="smcap">God bless you</span>! That is enough."</p> +<p>It was enough; enough for recompense and for justification, +since we are in the sad pass that justification is needed—since +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_333"></a>[333]</span> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem">"Virtue +itself of Vice must pardon beg,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +And pray for leave to do him good."</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>So then, in this Republic there are millions of human hearts, +which are not permitted to love a benefactor, and dare not utter for +him an invocation, kindred to their devotion to God, except "in a low +tone!"</p> +<p>When in 1846 Mr. Adams was struck the first time with palsy, +he was visited by Charles Sumner, who sat much by his bedside. As he +became better, he said one day to his visitor: "You will enter public +life; you do not want it, but you will be drawn into the current, in +spite of yourself. Now I have a word of advice to give you. <i>Never +accept a present.</i> While I was in Russia, the Minister of the +Interior, an old man, whose conscience became more active as his bodily +powers failed, grew uneasy on account of the presents he had received. +He calculated the value of them, and paid it all over to the Imperial +treasury. This put me to thinking upon the subject, and I then made a +resolution never to accept a present while I remained in the public +service; and I never have, unless it was some trifling token, as a hat +or cane."</p> +<p>A neighboring clergyman, to whom this conversation was +related, exclaimed—"A hat! That cannot be, for he never had any but an +old one." It was a tradition in Cambridge that Mr. Adams, while +Professor in the University, was noted for indifference to personal +appearance, and his well-worn hat was particularly remembered.</p> +<p>In the relation of husband Mr. Adams showed the same fidelity +and devotedness which characterized him in every other. He was united +to a woman whose virtues and accomplishments blessed and adorned his +home. In a letter written shortly <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_334"></a>[334]</span> +after his noble vindication of the +character of woman, and the propriety and utility of their intervention +in public affairs, he said:</p> +<p>"Had I not, by the dispensation of Providence, been blessed +beyond the ordinary lot of humanity in all the domestic relations of +life, as a son, a brother, and a husband, I should still have thought +myself bound to vindicate the social rights and the personal honor of +the petitioners, who had confided to me the honorable trust of +presenting the expression of their wishes to the legislative councils +of the nation. But that this sense of imperious duty was quickened +within my bosom by the affectionate estimate of the female character +impressed upon my heart and mind by the virtues of the individual +woman, with whom it has been my lot to pass in these intimate relations +my days upon earth, I have no doubt."</p> +<p>In 1840 he had a severe fall, striking his head against the +corner of an iron rail, which inflicted a heavy contusion on his +forehead, and rendered him for some time insensible. His left shoulder +was likewise dislocated. This occurred at the House of Representatives +after adjournment. Fortunately several members were within call, and +gave him the most tender and assiduous assistance. He was carried to +the lodgings of one of them, and a physician called. With the united +strength of four men, it took more than an hour to reduce the +dislocation. "Still," says a witness of the scene, "Mr. Adams uttered +not a murmur, though the great drops of sweat which rolled down his +furrowed cheeks, or stood upon his brow, told but too well the agony he +suffered." At his request he was immediately conveyed to his house; and +the next morning, to the astonishment of every one, he was found in his +seat as <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_335"></a>[335]</span> +usual. He was accustomed to be the first to enter the House and +the last to leave it. Mr. Everett tells us that he had his seat by the +side of the veteran, and that he should not have been more surprised to +miss one of the marble pillars from the hall than Mr. Adams.</p> +<p>That this painful accident did not impair the vigor of his +mind is evident from the fact that he subsequently argued the Amistad +case, and sustained the fierce contest of three days on the expulsion +resolution in the House. It was three years later also that he made the +journey for the benefit of his health, which turned out an improvised +and continuous ovation. He had designed merely to visit Lebanon +Springs. He was so much pleased with his journey thus far into the +State of New-York, that he concluded to prolong it to Quebec, Montreal, +and Niagara Falls, and return to Massachusetts through the length of +the empire State. This return was signalized by attentions and homage +on the part of the people so spontaneous and unanimous, that nothing +which has occurred since the progress of La Fayette, has equalled it. +"Public greetings, processions, celebrations, met and accompanied every +step of his journey." Addresses by eminent men, and acclamations of +men, women, and children, who thronged the way, bore witness of the +deep hold which the man, without accessories of office and pageantry of +state, had of their hearts. Of this excursion he said himself towards +the close of it, "I have not come alone, the whole people of the State +of New-York have been my companions." In the autumn of the same year he +went to Cincinnati to assist in laying the foundation of an +observatory. This journey was attended by similar demonstrations. At a +cordial greeting given him at <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_336"></a>[336]</span> +Maysville, Kentucky, after an emphatic +testimony to the integrity of Mr. Clay, he made that renewed and solemn +denial of the charges of "bargain and corruption."</p> +<p>He suffered a stroke of paralysis in November, 1846, but +recovered, and took his seat at the ensuing session of Congress. He +regarded this as equivalent to a final summons, and made no subsequent +entry in his faithful diary except under the title of "posthumous." +After this he spoke little in the House.</p> +<p>In November, 1847, he left his home in Quincy for the last +time. On the twentieth of February he passed his last evening at his +house in Washington. He retired to his library at nine o'clock, where +his wife read to him a sermon by Bishop Wilberforce on Time. The next +morning he rose early and occupied himself with his pen as he was wont. +With more than usual spryness and alacrity he ascended the stairs of +the Capitol. In the House a resolution for awarding thanks and gold +medals to several officers concerned in the Mexican war was taken up. +Mr. Adams uttered his emphatic <i>No!</i> on two or three +preliminary questions. When the final question was about to be put, and +while he was in the act of rising, as it was supposed, to address the +House, he sunk down. He was borne to the speaker's room. He revived so +far as to inquire for his wife, who was present. He seemed desirous of +uttering thanks. The only distinct words he articulated were, "This is +the end of earth. I am content." He lingered until the evening of the +twenty-third, and then expired.</p> +<p>Thus he fell at his post in the eighty-first year of his age, +the age of Plato. With the exception of Phocion there is no active +public life continued on the great arena, with equal vigor and +usefulness, to so advanced an age. Lord <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_337"></a>[337]</span>Mansfield retired +at +eighty-three; but the quiet routine of a judicial station is not as +trying as the varied and boisterous contentions of a political and +legislative assembly. Ripe as he was for heaven; he was still greatly +needed upon earth. His services would have been of inestimable +importance in disposing of the perilous questions, not yet definitively +settled, which arose out of unhallowed war and conquest.</p> +<p>There is not much satisfaction in dwelling upon the general +effusions of eloquence, or the pageantry which ensued. A single glance +of guileless love from the men, women and children, who came forth from +their smiling villages to greet the virtuous old statesman in his +unpretending journeys, was worth the whole of it. The hearty tribute of +Mr. Benton, so long a denouncer, has an exceptional value, the greater +because he had made honorable amends to the departed during his life. +That he was sincerely and deeply mourned by the nation, it would be a +libel on the nation to doubt. His remains rested appropriately in +Independence and Faneuil Halls on the way to their final resting place, +the tomb he had made for those of his venerated parents. There he was +laid by his neighbors and townsmen, sorrowing for the friend and the <small>MAN</small>. His monument is to stand on +the other side of the pulpit.</p> +<p>Happy place which hallows such memories, and holds +up such <small>EXAMPLES</small>.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_339"></a>[339]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="jackson"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Jackson.</span> +</h6> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_340"></a>[340]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_340"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 771px;" alt="Jackson fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/jackson.png" /></a> +</div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_341"></a>[341]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus359"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 350px; height: 402px;" alt="Hermitage, Residence of Jackson." src="images/illus359.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Hermitage, Residence of Jackson.</a></span></p> +<h2>JACKSON.</h2> +<p>The events of Jackson's life, even in their chronological +order, dispose themselves into a number of combinations, which a +skilful pen, guided by the hand of a poet, might easily work up into a +series of impressive and contrasted pictures. We have not the ability, +had we the space here, to undertake this labor, but we see no reason +why we should not present some outlines of it, for the benefit of +future more competent artists.</p> +<p>In such a series, we should first see the flaxen-haired, +blue-eyed son of Irish emigrants, driven from their home by a sense of +British oppression, opening his young eyes in South Carolina, amid the +stormy scenes of our Revolution. Around him, his <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_342"></a>[342]</span> +friends and neighbors +are training for the battle, and preparing to defend their homes from +an invading foe; his eldest brother Hugh, is brought back dead from the +fatigues of active service; the old Waxhaw meeting-house, a temporary +hospital, through which he wanders, is crowded with the wounded and +dying, whose condition moves him to tears, and fills him with +melancholy impressions of the horrors of war, coupled with a deepening +sense of English cruelty and oppression, of which he had before heard +in the tales of his mother and her kindred about the old country from +which they had fled; while, finally, he himself, but little more than +thirteen years of age, in company with a brother Robert, takes up arms, +is made a prisoner, suffers severely from wounds and the smallpox of +the jail, loses first his brother by that disease, and then his mother +by a fever caught on board a prison-ship, whither she had gone to nurse +some captive friends, and is thus left alone in the world, the only one +of all his family spared by the enemy.</p> +<p>We should next see the friendless, portionless orphan wending +his solitary way through the immense forests of the Far West, (now the +State of Tennessee), where the settlements were hundreds of miles from +each other, while every tree and rock sheltered an enemy in the shape +of some grisly animal, or the person of a more savage Indian. But he +succeeds in crossing the mountains, he reaches the infant villages on +the Cumberland River, he studies and practises the rude law of those +distant regions, takes part in all the wild vicissitudes of frontier +life, repels the red man, fights duels with the white, encounters in +deadly feuds the turbulent spirits of a half-barbarous society, +administers justice in almost extemporized courts, helps to frame a +regular State constitution, marries a wife as chivalric, noble, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_343"></a>[343]</span> +fearless as himself, and at last, when society is reduced to some +order, is chosen a representative of the backwoods in the Congress at +Washington.</p> +<p>Arrived at the seat of government, a tall, thin, uncouth +figure, with no words to express himself in, and apparently without +ambition,—he yet shows himself, with all his wild western coarseness, a +man of insight and decision. He made no speeches, he drew up no +reports, he created no sensation in the committee-room, or the +lobbies,—he was not at all known, as a leader or a prominent +individual, but he was one of the twelve democrats of the House, who +dared to oppose returning an answer to Washington's last address, when +the fame and the personal influence of that exalted man were almost +omnipotent. He doubtless estimated the services and the character of +Washington as highly as any member, but the measures of the +administration his judgment did not approve, and he voted as he +thought—a silent uncultivated representative,—odd in his dress and +look, but with grit in him, not appalled even by the stupendous +greatness of Washington! On the other hand, he saw in Jefferson a man +for the times; became his friend, voted for him, and helped his State +to vote for him as the second President.</p> +<p>In the next phases of his life we discover Jackson, as the +dignified and impartial judge, asserting the law in the face of a +powerful combination of interested opponents; as the retired and +prosperous planter, gathering together a large estate, which he +surrounds with the comforts and luxuries of a refined existence, but +sells at once when a friend's misfortunes involves him in debt, and +retires to a primitive log cabin to commence his fortunes once more; as +an Indian fighter achieving amid <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_344"></a>[344]</span> +hardships of all kinds—the want of +funds, the inclemency of the season, the ravages of disease, the +unskilfulness of superiors, the insubordination of troops—a series of +brilliant victories that made his name a terror to the Creeks and all +their confederates. His campaign in the Floridas broke the power of the +Indians, secretly in league with the British, forced them into a +treaty, and wrested Pensacola from the possession of the Spanish +governor, who had basely violated his neutrality, and who, when he +wished to negotiate, was answered by Jackson, "My diplomacy is in the +mouths of my cannon."</p> +<p>But a different foe and a wider theatre awaited the display of +his military genius at New Orleans. Worn down with sickness and +exhaustion, with raw and undisciplined troops—many of them the mere +rabble of the wharves, and some of them buccaneers from neighboring +islands—scantily supplied with arms and ammunition, in the midst of a +mixed population of different tongues, where attachment to his cause +was doubtful, continually agitated by gloomy forebodings of the result, +though outwardly serene, he was surrounded by the flower of the British +army, led by its most brave and accomplished generals. The attack +commenced: from his breastwork of cotton bales his unerring rifles +poured a continuous flame of fire. The enemy quailed: its leaders were +killed or wounded; and the greatest victory of the war crowned the +exertions of Jackson as the greatest military genius of his time. A +universal glow of joy and gratitude spread from the liberated city over +the whole land; <i>Te deums</i> were sung in the churches; +children robed in white strewed his way with flowers; the nation +jubilantly uttered its admiration and gratitude. It was thus the +desolated orphan of the Carolinas avenged the wrongs of his <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_345"></a>[345]</span>family, +and +asserted the rights of his country, to the lasting dishonor of Great +Britain.</p> +<p>Years pass on, and we see the successful General the President +of the People, engaged once more in a fearful struggle; this time not +against a foreign foe, but with an internal enemy of vast power and +tremendous means of mischief. He is fighting the monster bank—another +St. George gallantly charging another dragon—and, as usual, comes out +of the contest victorious. The innumerable army of money-changers, +wielding a power as formidable, though unseen, as that of an absolute +monarch, is routed amid a horrible clangor of metal and rancorous +hisses. The great true man, sustained by an honest people, was greater +than the power of money. He wrought the salvation of his country from a +hideous corruption—from bankruptcy, disgrace, and long years of +political subjection. His near posterity has recognized the service, +and placed him among the most illustrious of statesmen.</p> +<p>Finally, we see the patriot soldier and civilian, a bowed and +white-haired old man, in his secluded Hermitage, which is situated near +the scenes of his earliest labors and triumphs. The companion of his +love, who had shared in his struggles, but was not permitted to share +in his latest glory, is with him no more; children they had none; and +he moves tranquilly towards his grave alone. No! not alone: for +travellers from all lands visit his retreat, to gaze upon his venerable +form; his countrymen throng his doors, to gather wisdom from his +sayings,—his friends and neighbors almost worship him, and an adopted +family bask in the benignant goodness of his noble heart—his great +mind, too, "beaming in mildest mellow splendor, beaming if also +trembling, like a great sun on the verge of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_346"></a>[346]</span>the horizon, near +now to +its long farewell." Thus, the orphan, the emigrant, the Indian fighter, +the conquering General, the popular President, the venerated Patriarch, +goes to the repose of the humble Christian.</p> +<p>What were the sources of Jackson's pre-eminent greatness, of +his invariable success, of his resistless personal influence, of his +deep hold upon the minds of his fellows? He was no orator, he was no +writer, he had in fact no faculty of expression, he was unsustained by +wealth, he never courted the multitude, he relied upon no external +assistances. What he did, he achieved for himself, without aid, +directly, and by the mere force of his own nature. Neither education, +nor family, nor the accidents of fortune, nor the friendship of the +powerful, helped to raise him aloft, and push him forward in his +career. The secret of his elevation, then, was this,—that he saw the +Right and loved it, and was never afraid to pursue it, against all the +allurements of personal ambition, and all the hostility of the banded +sons of error. There have been many men of a larger reach and compass +of mind, and some of a keener insight and sagacity, but none, of a more +stern, inflexible, self-sacrificing devotion to what they esteemed to +be true. He carried his life in his hand, ready to be thrown away at +the call of honor or patriotism, and it was this unswerving integrity, +which commended him so strongly to the affections of the masses. +Whatever men may be in themselves, their hearts are always prone to do +homage to honesty. They love those whom they can trust, or only hate +them, because their justice and truth stands in the way of some +cherished, selfish object.</p> +<p>Jackson's will was imperious; the report does not follow the +flash more rapidly than his execution of a deed followed <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_347"></a>[347]</span>the +conception +of it; or rather his thought and his act were an instinctive, +instantaneous, inseparable unity. Like a good marksman, as soon as he +saw his object he fired, and generally with effect. This impulsive +decision gave rise to some over-hasty and precipitate movements, but, +in the main, was correct. What politicians, therefore, could only +accomplish if at all by a slow and cunning process of intrigue, what +diplomatists reached by long-winded negotiations, he marched to, +without indirection, with his eye always on the point, and his whole +body following the lead of the eye. We do not mean that he was utterly +without subtlety,—for some subtlety is necessary to the most ordinary +prudence, and is particularly necessary to the forecast of +generalship,—but simply that he never dissimulated, never assumed +disguise, never carried water on both shoulders, as the homely phrase +has it, and never went around an obstacle, when he could level it, or +push it out of the way. The foxy or feline element was small in a +nature, into which so much magnanimity, supposed to be lionlike, +entered.</p> +<p>The popular opinion of Jackson was, that he was an exceedingly +irascible person, his mislikers even painting him as liable to fits of +roaring and raving anger, when he flung about him like a maniac; but +his intimate friends, who occupied the same house with him for years, +inform us that they never experienced any of these strong gusts; that, +though sensitive to opposition, impatient of restraint, quick to resent +injuries, and impetuous in his advance towards his ends, he was yet +gentle, kindly, placable, faithful to friends and forgiving to foes, a +lover of children and women, only unrelenting when his quarry happened +to be meanness, fraud or tyranny. His affections were particularly +tender and strong; he could scarcely be made to <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_348"></a>[348]</span> +believe any thing to +the disadvantage of those he had once liked, while his reconciliations +with those he had disliked, once effected, were frank, cordial and +sincere. Colonel Benton, who was once an enemy, but afterwards a friend +of many years, gives us this sketch of some of his leading +characteristics:</p> +<p>"He was a careful farmer, overlooking every thing himself, +seeing that the fields and fences were in good order, the stock well +attended, and the slaves comfortably provided for. His house was the +seat of hospitality, the resort of friends and acquaintances, and of +all strangers visiting the State—and the more agreeable to all from the +perfect conformity of Mrs. Jackson's disposition to his own. But he +needed some excitement beyond that which a farming life could afford, +and found it for some years in the animating sports of the turf. He +loved fine horses—racers of speed and bottom—owned several—and +contested the four mile heats with the best that could be bred, or +bought, or brought to the State, and for large sums. That is the +nearest to gaming that I ever knew him to come. Cards and the cock-pit +have been imputed to him, but most erroneously. I never saw him engaged +in either. Duels were usual in that time, and he had his share of them, +with their unpleasant concomitants; but they passed away with all their +animosities, and he has often been seen zealously pressing the +advancement of those, against whom he had but lately been arrayed in +deadly hostility. His temper was placable, as well as irascible, and +his reconciliations were cordial and sincere. Of that, my own case was +a signal instance. There was a deep-seated vein of piety in him, +unaffectedly showing itself in his reverence for divine worship, +respect for the ministers of the Gospel, their hospitable reception in +his house, and constant <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_349"></a>[349]</span> +encouragement of all the pious tendencies of +Mrs. Jackson. And when they both afterwards became members of a church, +it was the natural and regular result of their early and cherished +feelings. He was gentle in his house, and alive to the tenderest +emotions; and of this I can give an instance, greatly in contrast with +his supposed character, and worth more than a long discourse in showing +what that character really was. I arrived at his house one wet, chilly +evening in February, and came upon him in the twilight, sitting alone +before the fire, a lamb and a child between his knees. He started a +little, called a servant to remove the two innocents to another room, +and explained to me how it was. The child had cried because the lamb +was out in the cold, and begged him to bring it in—which he had done to +please the child, his adopted son, then not two years old. The +ferocious man does not do that! and though Jackson had his passions and +his violences, they were for men and enemies—those who stood up against +him—and not for women and children, or the weak and helpless, for all +of whom his feelings were those of protection and support. His +hospitality was active as well as cordial, embracing the worthy in +every walk of life, and seeking out deserving objects to receive it, no +matter how obscure. Of this I learned a characteristic instance, in +relation to the son of the famous Daniel Boone. The young man had come +to Nashville on his father's business, to be detained some weeks, and +had his lodgings at a small tavern, towards the lower part of the town. +General Jackson heard of it—sought him out—found him, took him home to +remain as long as his business detained him in the country, saying, +'Your father's dog should not stay in a tavern while <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_350"></a>[350]</span>I +have a house.' +This was heart! and I had it from the young man himself, long after, +when he was a State Senator of the General Assembly of Missouri, and as +such nominated me for the United States Senate at my first election in +1820—his name was Benton Boone, and so named after my father. +Abhorrence of debt, public and private, dislike of banks and love of +hard money—love of justice, and love of country, were ruling passions +with Jackson; and of these he gave constant evidences in all the +situations of his life."</p> +<p>The same distinguished authority has drawn a picture of +Jackson's retirement from the Presidency, with which we close our +remarks:</p> +<p>"The second and last term of General Jackson's presidency +expired on the 3d of March, 1837. The next day at twelve he appeared +with his successor, Mr. Van Buren, on the elevated and spacious eastern +portico of the capitol, as one of the citizens who came to witness the +inauguration of the new President, and no way distinguished from them, +except by his place on the left hand of the President-elect. The day +was beautiful: clear sky, balmy vernal sun, tranquil atmosphere; and +the assemblage immense. On foot, in the large area in front of the +steps, orderly without troops, and closely wedged together, their faces +turned to the portico—presenting to the beholders from all the eastern +windows the appearance of a field paved with human faces—this vast +crowd remained riveted to their places, and profoundly silent, until +the ceremony of inauguration was over. It was the stillness and silence +of reverence and affection, and there was no room for mistake as to +whom this mute and impressive homage was rendered. For <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_351"></a>[351]</span>once +the rising +was eclipsed by the setting sun. Though disrobed of power, and retiring +to the shades of private life, it was evident that the great +ex-President was the absorbing object of this intense regard. At the +moment that he began to descend the broad steps of the portico to take +his seat in the open carriage that was to bear him away, the deep, +repressed feeling of the dense mass broke forth, acclamations and +cheers bursting from the heart and filling the air, such as power never +commanded, nor man in power ever received. It was the affection, +gratitude, and admiration of the living age, saluting for the last time +a great man. It was the acclaim of posterity breaking from the bosoms +of contemporaries. It was the anticipation of futurity—unpurchasable +homage to the hero-patriot who, all his life, and in all the +circumstances of his life—in peace and in war, and glorious in each—had +been the friend of his country, devoted to her, regardless of self. +Uncovered and bowing, with a look of unaffected humility and +thankfulness, he acknowledged in mute signs his deep sensibility to +this affecting overflow of popular feeling. I was looking down from a +side window, and felt an emotion which had never passed through me +before. I had seen the inauguration of many presidents, and their going +away, and their days of state, vested with power, and surrounded by the +splendors of the first magistracy of a great republic; but they all +appeared to me as pageants, brief to the view, unreal to the touch, and +soon to vanish. But here there seemed to be a reality—a real scene—a +man and the people: he, laying down power and withdrawing through the +portals of everlasting fame; they, sounding in his ears the everlasting +plaudits of unborn <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_352"></a>[352]</span> +generations. Two days after I saw the patriot +ex-President in the car which bore him off to his desired seclusion: I +saw him depart with that look of quiet enjoyment which bespoke the +inward satisfaction of the soul at exchanging the cares of office for +the repose of home.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_353"></a>[353]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="rufus_king"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">King.</span> +</h6> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_354"></a>[354]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_354"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 571px; height: 800px;" alt="King fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/king.png" /></a></div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_355"></a>[355]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus373"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 424px; height: 403px;" alt="Rufus King's House, Near Jamaica, L.I." src="images/illus373.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Rufus King's House, Near Jamaica, L.I.</a></span></p> +<h2>RUFUS KING.</h2> +<p>When in the year 1803, after having served his native country +with distinguished ability for more than seven years as Minister +Plenipotentiary of the United States at the Court of St. James, Rufus +King returned to New-York, the city of his adoption, he found his +political friends in a hopeless minority, and the rule of party +absolute, exclusive, and even vindictive. Mr. King had trained himself +from early life to the duties of a Statesman, and to that end neglected +no study, and above all, no self-discipline that might qualify him for +the career he desired to pursue. After serving several years as a +Delegate <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_356"></a>[356]</span> +from Massachusetts in the Continental Congress (from 1785 to +1789), and having, as a member of the Convention called for the +purpose, been actively instrumental in forming the Constitution of the +United States, Mr. King became in 1788 a resident of the city of +New-York, where he had married two years before, <span class="smcap">Mary</span>, +the only child of <span class="smcap">John Alsop</span>, +a retired merchant of that city. Mr. King was much known in New-York, +for the Continental Congress during his term of service held its +sessions there; and the character he had established for himself on the +score of talent and capacity, may be estimated by the fact, that he, +with General Schuyler for a colleague, was selected as one of the first +Senators of the United States from the State of New-York, under the new +constitution.</p> +<p>His services proved so acceptable, that on the expiration of +his first term, in 1795, he was re-elected, and it was in the second +year of his second term—in 1796, that he was appointed by Washington +Minister to England.</p> +<p>In that post Mr. King continued throughout the residue of +General Washington's administration, through the whole of that of John +Adams, and, at the request of President Jefferson, through two years of +his administration, when, having accomplished the negotiations he had +in hand, Mr. King asked to be, and was, recalled.</p> +<p>During this long residence abroad, remote from the scene of +the angry partisan politics which disturbed the close of Washington's +term, and the whole of that of Mr. Adams, and which resulted, in 1800, +in the entire overthrow of the old Federal party, and the success of +Mr. Jefferson and the Republican party—Mr. King had devoted his labors, +his time and his talents, to the service of his whole country, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_357"></a>[357]</span>was +little prepared, therefore, either by taste or temper, for +participation in the angry broils which, on his return home, he found +prevailing throughout the Union. Adhering, as he did to the end, to the +political principles of his early life, he never doubted, nor saw +occasion to change the faith which had made him a Federalist, when the +name included the Telfairs and Habershams of Georgia, the Pinkneys and +Rutledges of South Carolina, the Davieses and the Sitgreaves of North +Carolina, the Washingtons and the Marshalls of Virginia, the Carrolls +and the Hindmans of Maryland, the Bayards and the Kearnys of Delaware, +the Tilghmans and the Binghams of Pennsylvania, the Patersons and the +Stocktons of New Jersey, the Jays and Hamiltons of New-York, the +Woolcots and the Johnsons of Connecticut, the Ellerys and Howells of +Rhode Island, the Adamses and Otises of Massachusetts, the Smiths and +Gilmans of New Hampshire, the Tichenors and Chittendens of Vermont. But +that faith was now in "dim eclipse." The popular air was in another +direction, and Mr. King was of too lofty a character to trim his bark +to the veering breeze. Having acquired, or rather confirmed by his +residence in England (where country life is better understood and more +thoroughly enjoyed, probably, than any where else) a decided taste for +the country Mr. King soon determined to abandon the city, where—having +no professional pursuits nor stated occupation—he found few +attractions, and make his permanent abode in the country. After looking +at many points on the Hudson River and on the Sound, he finally +established himself at the village of Jamaica, in Queens county, Long +Island, distant about twelve miles from the city of New-York. In +comparison with some of the places which he had examined on the waters +of the Sound and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_358"></a>[358]</span> +the North River, Jamaica offered few inducements of +scenery or landscape. But it did offer what to him, and especially to +his wife, were all-important considerations—proverbial healthiness, and +ready access to church, schools and physicians. Mrs. King's health was +already drooping, and from the quiet, regular life of the country, its +pure air, and the outdoor exercise to which it leads, and of which she +was so fond, the hope was indulged that she might be completely +restored. The property purchased by Mr. King, consisting of a +well-built, comfortable and roomy house, with about ninety acres of +land, is situated a little to the west of the village, on the great +high road of the Island from west to east. It is a dead level, of a +warm and quick soil, readily fertilized, the ridge or back-bone of Long +Island bounding it on the north. He removed his family thither in the +spring of 1806, and at once commenced those alterations and +improvements which have made it what it now is—a very pretty and +attractive residence for any one who finds delight in fine trees, +varied shrubbery, a well cultivated soil, and the comforts of a large +house, every part of which is meant for use, and none of it for show.</p> +<p>When Mr. King took possession of his purchase, the house, +grounds and fences were after the uniform pattern, then almost +universal in the region. He soon changed and greatly improved all. The +house, fronting south, was in a bare field, about one hundred yards +back from the road, and separated from it by a white picket fence. A +narrow gravel path led in a straight line from a little gate, down to +the door of the house, while further to the east was the gate, through +which, on another straight line, running down by the side of the house, +was the entrance for carriages and horses. Two horse-chestnut <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_359"></a>[359]</span>trees, +one east and the other west of the house, and about thirty feet from +it, were, with the exception of some old apple trees, the only trees on +the place; and the blazing sun of summer, and the abundant dust of the +high road at all seasons, had unobstructed sweep over the house and +lawn, or what was to become a lawn. Not a shrub or bush was interposed +between the house and the fence, to secure any thing like privacy to +the abode. On the contrary, it seemed to be the taste of the day to +leave every thing open to the gaze of the wayfarers, and in turn to +expose those wayfarers, their equipages, and their doings, to the +inspection of the inmates of all roadside houses. Mr. King, who had +cultivated the study of Botany, and was a genuine admirer of trees, +soon went to work in embellishing the place which was to be his future +home, and in this he was warmly seconded by the taste of Mrs. King. The +first step was, to change the approach to the house, from a straight to +a circular walk, broad and well rolled; then to plant out the high +road. Accordingly, a belt of from twenty to thirty feet in width along +the whole front of the ground, was prepared by proper digging and +manuring, for the reception of shrubs and trees; and time and money +were liberally applied, but with wise discrimination as to the +adaptedness to the soil and climate, of the plants to be introduced. +From the State of New Hampshire, through the careful agency of his +friend, Mr. Sheaffe of Portsmouth, who was vigilant to have them +properly procured, packed, and expedited to Jamaica, Mr. King received +the pines and firs which, now very large trees, adorn the grounds. They +were, it is believed, among the first, if not the first trees of this +kind introduced into this part of Long Island, and none of the sort +were then to be found in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_360"></a>[360]</span> +nurseries at Flushing. Some acorns planted +near the house in 1810, are now large trees. Mr. King indeed planted, +as the Romans builded—"for posterity and the immortal gods," for to his +eldest son, now occupying the residence of his father, he said, in +putting into the ground an acorn of the red oak—"If you live to be as +old as I am, you will see here a large tree;" and, in fact, a noble, +lofty, well-proportioned red oak now flourishes there, to delight with +its wide-branching beauty, its grateful shade, and more grateful +associations, not the children only, but the grandchildren and +great-grandchildren of him who planted the acorn. Mr. King possessed, +in a remarkable degree, all the tastes that fit one for the enjoyment +of country life. He had a large and well selected library, particularly +rich in its books relating to the Americas, and this library remains +unbroken. With these true, tried, unwavering and unwearying friends—and +such good books are—Mr. King spent much time; varying, however, his +studious labors with outdoor exercise on horseback, to which he was +much addicted; and in judgment of the qualities, as well as in the +graceful management of a horse, he was rarely excelled. He loved, too, +his gun and dog; was rather a keen sportsman, and good shot; though +often, when the pointer was hot upon the game, his master's attention +would be diverted by some rare or beautiful shrub or flower upon which +his eye happened to light, and of which—if not the proper season for +transplanting it into his border—he would carefully mark the place and +make a memorandum thereof, so as to be enabled to return at the fitting +time, and secure his prize. In this way he had collected in his +shrubberies all the pretty flowering shrubs and plants indigenous to +the neighborhood, adding thereto such strangers as <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_361"></a>[361]</span>he +could naturalize; +so that during a visit made to him many years after he began his +plantation, by the <i>Abbé Corréa</i>, then Minister from +Portugal to this Government, but even more distinguished as a man of +letters, and particularly as a botanist—the learned Abbé said he could +almost study the <i>Flowers</i> and the <i>Trees</i> +of the central and eastern portion of the United States in these +grounds. Mr. King loved, too, the song of birds—and his taste was +rewarded by the number of them which took shelter in this secure and +shady plantation, where no guns were ever allowed to be fired, nor trap +nor snare to be set. The garden and the farm also came in for their +share of interest and attention; and nowhere did care judiciously +bestowed, and expenditure wisely ordered, produce more sure or +gratifying results.</p> +<p>About the year 1817 Mr. King turned his attention to the +importation of some cattle of the North Devon breed. In the preceding +year he received as a token of a friendship contracted during his +residence in England, from Mr. Coke of Holkham (the great English +Commoner, and warm friend of America in the revolutionary contest, and +always interested in whatever might promote the welfare of the people +in whose early struggle for their rights he had sympathized), two +beautiful cows of the North Devon breed, as being particularly adapted, +as Mr. Coke supposed, to the light, level soil of the southern slope of +Long Island,—similar in these qualities to that of his own magnificent +domain at Holkham, in Norfolk. Mr. King was so much pleased with these +animals, so beautiful in themselves, of a uniform mahogany color, with +no white marks, finely limbed almost as deer, with regularly curved and +tapering horns, of extreme docility, and easily kept, that in <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_362"></a>[362]</span>1817 +he +imported several more, and was thus enabled to preserve the race in +purity, and measurably to supply the demand for the pure stock, which +is now widely scattered throughout the country.</p> +<p>While thus enjoying with the real zest of a cultivated mind, +and of a disposition keenly alive to the aspect, the voices and the +beauties of nature, the pleasures of a country life; Mr. King was not +unmindful of, nor indifferent to the great and interesting +contemporaneous drama of politics, which, although mainly played out in +Europe, swept our republic too at last into its vortex. His early +training, early instruction, and early and eminent successes in public +life, made it alike unsuitable and impossible for him to withdraw +himself wholly from the scene. And accordingly, although never in the +whole course of his life seeking office, or putting himself forward, +Mr. King was frequently appealed to, in his retirement, by political +friends, sometimes consulted by political opponents,—while he was in +the habit of receiving with elegant and cordial hospitality at Jamaica, +distinguished visitors, both of his own country, and from abroad. Among +such visitors was the Abbé Corréa, as already stated, about the period +when, as Secretary of State to President Monroe, John Quincy Adams was +asserting in his correspondence with the English Minister the right of +the United States to the free navigation of the St. Lawrence. After +discussing with Mr King in the library, the points of international law +brought up by this claim,—in the course of which, somewhat to the +surprise of the Abbé, Mr. King evinced entire familiarity with the +analogous points brought up and settled, as regards European rivers, in +the then recently held Congress of Vienna; and maintained the position, +that <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_363"></a>[363]</span> +what was law between states in Europe conterminous to great +navigable streams, must be law here; and that what Great Britain had +assented to, and had joined in requiring others to assent to, in +respect to the Rhine, she must assent to in respect to the St. +Lawrence,—the Abbé proposed a walk in the grounds, and once there, +laying aside politics, diplomacy, and international law, the two +statesmen were soon very deep in botany and the system of Linnęus, and +agriculture, and in all the cognate questions of climate, soils, +manures, &c., and seemed quite as eager in these pursuits, as +in those grave and more solemn questions of state policy, which occupy, +but do not, in the same degree, innocently and surely reward the +attention and interest of public men. It was on occasion of this visit, +that the Abbé Corréa expressed his gratification at finding in the +plantation of Mr. King so large a collection of the plants and shrubs +indigenous to that part of our country,—a gratification enhanced, as he +added, by the previous discussions in the library, in the course of +which he had such demonstration of Mr. King's varied and comprehensive, +yet minute knowledge of the great public questions which had agitated +Europe, and of the more recent, as well as more ancient expositions of +international law applicable thereto.</p> +<p>Previously to this period, however, Mr. King had been recalled +to public life. At the commencement of the war of 1812 with Great +Britain, Mr. King, though disapproving both of the time of declaring, +and of the inefficiency in conducting, the war, and reposing little +confidence either in the motives or the abilities of the +administration, did nevertheless feel it his duty, the sword being +drawn, to sustain, as best he might, the cause of his country. Among +the first, and for a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_364"></a>[364]</span> +time most discouraging results of the war, was the +stoppage of specie payments by all the banks south of New England. The +panic in New-York unavoidably was very great; and very much depended +upon the course to be taken by its banks and its citizens, as to the +effect to be produced upon the national cause and the national arm, by +the suspension of payments. In this emergency, appealed to by his +former fellow-citizens, Mr. King went to the city, and at the Tontine +Coffee House, at a general meeting called to deliberate on the course +to be taken by the community in regard to the banks, and in general in +regard to the rights and duties alike, of creditors and debtors under +the circumstances, he made a speech to the assembled multitude, in +which, after deploring the circumstances which had forced upon the +banks the necessity of suspension, he went on to show that it was a +common cause, in which all had a part, and where all had duties. That +the extreme right of the bill-holder, if enforced to the uttermost +against the banks, would aggravate the evil to the public, although +possibly it might benefit a few individuals; while, on the other hand, +good to all, and strength and confidence to the general cause, would +result from a generous forbearance, and mutual understanding that, if +the banks on their part would restrict themselves within the limits as +to issues and credits recognized as safe previous to the suspension, +the community at large on their part, might, and possibly would +continue to receive and pass the bills of the banks as before, and as +though redeemable in coin. He urged with great power and earnestness +the duty of fellow-citizens to stand shoulder to shoulder in such an +emergency,—when a foreign enemy was pressing upon them, and when, +without entering into the motives or causes which <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_365"></a>[365]</span>led +to the war, about +which men differ,—all Americans should feel it as their first and +foremost obligation to stand by their country. The particular province +of those he addressed was not so much to enlist in the armed service of +the country, as to uphold its credit, and thus cherish the resources +which would raise and reward armies; and if New-York should on this +occasion be true to her duty—which also he plainly showed to be her +highest interest—the clouds of the present would pass away, and her +honor and her prosperity, with those of the nation of which she formed +part and parcel, would be maintained and advanced. The effect of this +address was decisive, and to an extent quite unprecedented in any +commercial community under such circumstances; confidence was restored, +and the course of business went on almost unruffled and undisturbed.</p> +<p>In 1813, Mr. King, after a lapse of seventeen years from his +former service as a Senator of the United States, was again chosen by +the Legislature of the State of New-York, as one of its Senators in +Congress; and from the moment he resumed his seat in the Senate, he +took leave, for the remainder of his life, of the undisturbed +enjoyments of his rural abode; for a large portion of his time was +necessarily spent at Washington, it being part of his notion of duty, +never to be remiss in attendance upon, or in the discharge of, any +trust committed to him. Still, his heart was among his plantations and +his gardens, and even when absent, he kept up a constant correspondence +with his son and his gardener, and always returned with fond zest to +this quiet home.</p> +<p>In 1819, Mrs. King, whose health had been long declining, +died, and was buried with all simplicity in the yard of the village +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_366"></a>[366]</span> +church; where together they long had worshipped, and which stood on +ground originally forming part of Mr. King's property. At the time of +her death, all the children had left the paternal roof, and settled in +life with their own families around them; and solitude, therefore, +embittered the loss to Mr. King of such a companion. And she was +eminently fitted by similarity of tastes and acquirements, to share +with her husband the cares and the pleasures of life, as well as its +weightier duties. She was in an especial manner a lover of the country, +and had cultivated the knowledge which lends additional charms to the +beauties and the wonders of the vegetable creation. Over all these +beauties, her death cast a pall; and although he repined not, it was +easy to see how deep a sorrow overshadowed his remaining years. Yet he +nerved himself to the discharge of his public duties with unabated zeal +and fidelity; and when re-elected in 1820 to the Senate, was punctual +as always at his post, and earnest as ever in fulfilling all its +requirements. His own health, however, before so unshaken, began to +fail; and at the closing session of 1825, Mr. King, in taking leave of +the Senate, announced his purpose of retiring from public life; having +then reached the age of seventy years, of which more than one half had +been spent in the service of his country, from the period when he +entered the Continental Congress in 1784, to that in which he left the +Senate of the United States in 1825. But John Q. Adams, who had become +President, pressed upon Mr. King the embassy to England. His enfeebled +health and advanced age induced him at once to decline, but Mr. Adams +urged him to refrain from any immediate decision, and to take the +subject into consideration after he should return home, and then +determine. Recalling with <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_367"></a>[367]</span> +lively and pleasant recollection the years of +his former embassy to England, and hoping assuredly to be able—if +finding there the same fair and friendly reception before extended to +him—to benefit his country by the adjustment of some outstanding and +long-standing points of controversy between the two nations; influenced +too, in a great degree, by the opinion, of eminent physicians, that for +maladies partaking of weakness, such as he was laboring under, a +sea-voyage could hardly fail to be beneficial, Mr. King, rather in +opposition to the wishes of his family, determined to accept the +mission,—first stipulating, however, that his eldest son, John A. King, +should accompany him as Secretary of Legation. It is proof of the +strong desire of the then administration to avail of Mr. King's talents +and character, and of the hope of good from his employment in this +mission, that an immediate compliance with this request was made; and +the gentleman who had been previously nominated to, and confirmed by, +the Senate, as Secretary of Legation, having been commissioned +elsewhere, Mr. John A. King was appointed Secretary of Legation to his +father.</p> +<p>The voyage, unhappily, aggravated rather than relieved the +malady of Mr. King; his health, after he reached England, continued to +decline, and he therefore, after a few months' residence in London, +asked leave to resign his post and come home. He returned accordingly, +but only to die. He languished for some weeks, and finally, having been +removed from Jamaica to the city for greater convenience of attendance +and care, he died in New-York, on the 29th of April, 1827.</p> +<p>As with Mrs. King, so with him—in conformity with the +unaffected simplicity of their whole lives—were the funeral rites at +his death. Borne to Jamaica, which for more than twenty <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_368"></a>[368]</span>years +had been +his home, the body was carried to the grave by the neighbors among whom +he had so long lived,—laid in the earth by the side of her who had gone +before him, to be no more separated for ever; and a simple stone at the +head of his grave, records—and the loftiest monument of art could do no +more—that a great and a good man, having finished his course in faith, +there awaits the great Judgment. Children, and grandchildren, have +since been +gathered in death around these graves, which lie almost beneath the +shadow of trees planted by Mr. King, and within sight of the house in +which he lived.</p> +<p>It was desired, if possible, to introduce a glimpse of the +pretty village church into the engraving, but the space was wanting.</p> +<p>Mr. John A. King, the eldest son of Rufus King, now occupies +the residence of his father, and keeps up, with filial reverence and +inherited taste, its fine library, and its fine plantations. The +engraving presents very accurately the appearance of the house; the +closely shaven lawn in its front, and the noble trees which surround +it, could find no adequate representation in any picture.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_369"></a>[369]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="clay"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Clay.</span> +</h6> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_370"></a>[370]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_370"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 640px; height: 600px;" alt="Clay fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/clay.png" /></a></div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_371"></a>[371]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus389"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 493px; height: 403px;" alt="Ashland, Residence of Henry Clay" src="images/illus389.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Ashland, Residence of Henry Clay</a></span></p> +<h2>CLAY.</h2> +<p>The Dryads are plainly no American divinities. A reverence for +trees and groves, for woods and forests, is not an American passion. As +our fathers and many of ourselves have spent the best of our strength +in wrestling with, prostrating, using up the leaf-crowned monarchs, +gray with the moss of age ere Columbus set foot on Cat Island, to +expect us to love and honor their quiet majesty, their stately grace, +were like asking Natty Bumpo or Leather-stocking to bow down to and +worship Pontiac or Brandt, as the highest ideal of Manhood. An uncouth +backwoodsman lately stated our difficulty with immediate reference to +another case, but the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_372"></a>[372]</span> +principle is identical: "When I was a boy," said +he, plaintively, "it was the rule to love rum, and hate niggers; now +they want us to hate rum, and love niggers: For my part, I stick to the +old discipline." And so it were unreasonable to expect the mass of +Americans now living, to go into heroics over the prospect of a comely +and comfortable mansion, surrounded by a spacious lawn or "opening" of +luxuriant grass, embracing the roots and lightly shaded by the foliage +of thrifty and shapely trees.</p> +<p>Why is it, then, that the American's pulse beats quicker, and +his heart throbs more proudly as, walking slowly and thoughtfully up a +noble avenue that leads easterly from Lexington,—once the capital and +still the most important inland town in Kentucky,—he finds the road +terminating abruptly in front of a modest, spacious, agreeable mansion, +only two stories in height, and of no great architectural pretensions, +and remembers who caused its erection, and was for many years its owner +and master?</p> +<p>That house, that lawn, with the ample and fertile farm +stretching a mile or more in the distance behind them, are hallowed to +the hearts of his countrymen by the fact, that here lived and loved, +enjoyed and suffered, aspired and endured, the Orator, the Patriot, the +Statesman, the illustrious, the gifted, the fiercely slandered, the +fondly idolized Henry Clay.</p> +<p>A friend who visited Ashland as a stranger in May, 1845, thus +writes of the place and its master:</p> +<p>"I have at last realized one of my dearest wishes, that of +seeing Mr. Clay at Ashland. I called on him with a friend this morning, +but he was absent on his farm, and Charles, his freed slave, told us he +would not be at home till afternoon; so <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_373"></a>[373]</span> +we returned to Lexington, and, at five <small>P.M.</small>, +we retraced our steps to Ashland. Mr. Clay had returned; and meeting us at +the door, took hold of our hands before I could even present a letter +of introduction, and made us welcome to his home. His manners +completely overcame all the ceremonies of speech I had prepared. We +were soon perfectly at home, as every one must be with Henry Clay, and +in half an hour's time we had talked about the various sections of the +country I had visited the past year, Mr. Clay occasionally giving us +incidents and recollections of his own life; and I felt as though I had +known him personally for years.</p> +<p>"Mr. Clay has lived at Ashland forty years. The place bore the +name when he came to it, as he says, probably on account of the ash +timber, with which it abounds; and he has made it the most delightful +retreat in all the West. The estate is about six hundred acres large, +all under the highest cultivation, except some two hundred acres of +park, which is entirely cleared of underbrush and small trees, and is, +to use the words of Lord Morpeth, who staid at Ashland nearly a week, +the nearest approach to an English park of any in this country. It +serves for a noble pasture, and here I saw some of Mr. Clay's fine +horses and Durham cattle. He is said to have some of the finest in +America; and if I am able to judge I confirm that report. The larger +part of his farm is devoted to wheat, rye, hemp, &c., and his +crops look most splendidly. He has also paid great attention to +ornamenting his land with beautiful shade trees, shrubs, flowers, and +fruit orchards. From the road which passes his place on the northwest +side, a carriage-road leads up to the house, lined with locust, +cypress, cedar, and other rare trees, and the rose, jasmine, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_374"></a>[374]</span>ivy, +were clambering about them, and peeping through the grass and the +boughs, like so many twinkling fairies, as we drove up. Mr Clay's +mansion is nearly hidden from the road by the trees surrounding it, and +is as quiet and secluded, save to the throng of pilgrims continually +pouring up there to greet its more than royal possessor, as though it +were in the wilderness."</p> +<p>Here let the house, the lawn, the wood, the farm, pass, if +they will, from the mind. They are all well in their way, and were +doubtless well adapted in his time to smooth the care-worn brow, and +soothe the care-fraught breast of the lofty, gallant, frank, winning +statesman, who gave and still gives them all their interest. Be our +thoughts concentrated on him who still lives, and speaks, and sways, +though the clay which enrobed him has been hid from our sight for ever, +rather than on the physical accessories which, but for him, though +living to the corporal sense, are dead to the informing soul.</p> +<p>For it was not here, in this comfortable mansion, beneath +those graceful, hospitable, swaying trees, that <span class="smcap">The +Great Commoner</span> was born and reared; but in a rude, homely +farm-house,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> +which had any man given five hundred dollars for, he would have been +enormously swindled, unless he paid in Continental money,—in a +primitive, rural, thinly peopled section of Hanover County (near +Richmond), Virginia; where his father, Rev. John Clay, a poor Baptist +preacher, lived, and struggled, and finally died, leaving a widow and +seven young children, with no reliance but the mother's energies and +the benignant care of the widow's and orphan's God. This was in 1782, +near the close of the Revolutionary War, when so much of the country as +had not been ravaged by the enemy's <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_375"></a>[375]</span> +forces, had been nearly exhausted +by our own, and by the incessant exactions of a protracted, harassing, +desolating, industry-paralyzing civil war. The fifth of these seven +children was Henry, born on the 12th of April, 1777, who remained in +that humble home until fourteen years of age, when his mother, who had +married a second time, being about to remove to Kentucky, placed him in +a store at Richmond, under the eye of his oldest brother, then nearly +or quite of age, but who died very soon afterwards, leaving Henry an +orphan indeed. He was thus thrown completely on his own exertions, when +still but a child, and without having enjoyed any other educational +advantages than such as were fitfully afforded by occasional private +schools, in operation perhaps two or three months in a year, and kept +by teachers somewhat ruder than the log tenement which circumscribed +their labors. Such was all the "schooling" ever enjoyed by the ragged +urchin, whose bright summer days were necessarily given to ploughing +and hoeing in the corn-fields, barefoot, bareheaded, and clad in coarse +trowsers and shirt, and whose daily tasks were diversified by frequent +rides of two or three miles to the nearest grist-mill, on a sorry cob, +bestrode with no other saddle than the grain-bag; whence many of his +childhood's neighbors, contrasting, long afterward, the figure he cut +in Congress, at Ghent, in Paris or London, with that which they had +seen so often pass in scanty garb, but jocund spirits, on these family +errands, recalled him to mind in his primitive occupation as <i>The +Mill-Boy of the Slashes</i>, by which <i>sobriquet</i> +he was fondly hailed by thousands in the pride of his ripened renown.</p> +<p>Forty-five years after his childish farewell to it, Henry Clay +stood once more (in 1840), and for the last time, in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_376"></a>[376]</span>humble +home of +his fathers, and was rejoiced to find the house where he was born and +reared, still essentially unchanged. Venerable grandames, who were +blooming matrons in his infancy, had long since indicated to their sons +and daughters the room wherein he was born; and the spring whence the +family had drawn their supplies of water wore a familiar aspect, though +the hickory which formerly shaded it, and was noted for the excellence +of its nuts, had passed away. Over the graves of his father and +grandparents the plough had passed and repassed for years, and he only +fixed their position by the decaying stump of a pear-tree, which had +flourished in his childhood, and often ministered to his gratification. +Beyond these, nothing answered to the picture in his memory, and he +would not have recognized the spot, had he awoke there unconscious of +the preceding journey. Familiar groves and orchards had passed away, +while pines which he left shrubs, just dotting with perennial green the +surface of the exhausted "old fields," unhappily too common throughout +the Southern States, had grown up into dense and towering forests, +which waved him a stately adieu, as he turned back refreshed and +calmed, to the heated and dusty highway of public life.</p> +<p>The boy Henry, spent five years in Richmond,—only the first in +the store where his mother had placed him; three of the others in the +office of Mr. Clerk-in-Chancery Peter Tinsley; the last in that of +Attorney-General Brooke. From Mr. Tinsley, he learned to write a +remarkably plain, neat, and elegant hand,—more like a schoolmistress's +best, than a great lawyer and politician, and this characteristic it +retained to the last. From Mr. Tinsley, Mr. Brooke, and perhaps still +more from the illustrious Chancellor Wythe, who employed him as his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_377"></a>[377]</span> +amanuensis, and repaid him with his friendship and counsel, young Clay +derived his knowledge of the principles of Common Law, whereof he was, +all his life, a devoted champion. At length, in November, 1797, when +still lacking some months of his legal majority, he left Richmond and +Virginia, for the location he had chosen—namely, the thriving village +of Lexington, in the then rapidly growing Territory of Kentucky—the +home of his eventful adult life of more than half a century. How he +here was early recognized and honored as a Man of the People, and +rapidly chosen (1803) member of the Legislature, once (1806) appointed +to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, and soon after (1809) +elected out of, and by the legislature, to fill another and longer +vacancy in that same dignified body; chosen in 1811 a Member of the +more popular branch of Congress, and, immediately on his appearance on +its floor, elected its Speaker—probably the highest compliment ever +paid to a public man in this country—appointed thence (1814) a +Plenipotentiary to Göttingen (afterwards changed to Ghent), to +negotiate a Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, which was signed near +the close of that year; re-elected, immediately on his return, to a +seat in the House, and to the Speakership, which he retained +thenceforth (except during a temporary retirement from public life, +rendered necessary by heavy pecuniary losses as an indorser), down to +March 3d, 1825, when he finally retired from the House on being +appointed Secretary of State by President John Q. Adams; quitting this +station for private life on the Inauguration of President Jackson in +1829, returning to the Senate in 1831, and continuing one of its most +eminent and influential members till 1842, when he retired, as he +supposed for ever; but <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_378"></a>[378]</span> +was returned, by an unanimous vote of the +Legislature, in 1849, and dying a Senator in Washington on the 29th of +June, 1852, aged more than seventy-five years, of which more than half +had been spent in the public service, and nearly all, since his +majority, in active, ardent, anxious familiarity with public men and +public measures,—this is no place to set forth in detail. The merest +glance is all we can give to the public, official career of Henry Clay.</p> +<p>For our business is not here with Tariffs, Banks, Vetoes, and +Presidential contests or aspirations. Our theme is the <i>man</i> +Henry Clay,—what he was intrinsically, and in his daily dealings with, +and deportment toward, his fellow-beings. If there be a better mode of +developing his character than Plutarch's, we have not now time to +ascertain and employ it, so we must e'en be content with that.</p> +<p>A tall, plain, poor, friendless youth, was young Henry, when +he set up his Ebenezer in Lexington, and, after a few months' +preliminary study, announced himself a candidate for practice as an +attorney. He had not even the means of paying his weekly board. "I +remember," he observed in his Lexington speech of 1842, "how +comfortable I thought I should be, if I could make £100 Virginia money, +per year; and with what delight I received my first fifteen shilling +fee. My hopes were more than realized. I immediately rushed into a +lucrative practice."</p> +<p>Local tradition affirms that the Bar of Lexington, being +unusually strong when Mr. Clay first appeared thereat, an understanding +had grown up among the seniors, that they would systematically +discountenance the advent of any new aspirants, so as to keep the +business remunerating, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_379"></a>[379]</span> +preserve each other from the peril of being +starved out. It was some time, therefore, before young Clay obtained a +case to manage in Court; and when he did appear there, the old heads +greeted the outset of his argument with winks, and nods, and meaning +smiles, and titters, intended to disconcert and embarrass him. So they +did for a few minutes; but they soon exasperated and roused him. His +eyes flashed, and sentence after sentence came pouring rapidly out, +replete with the fire of eloquence and genius. At length, one of the +old heads leaned across the table and whispered to another, "<i>I +think we must let this young man pass.</i>" Of course they +must!—the case was as plain as the portliest of noses on the most +rubicund of faces. Henry Clay passed, <i>nem. con.</i>, +and his position and success at that Bar were never more disputed nor +doubted.</p> +<p>General Cass, in his remarks in the Senate on the occasion of +Mr. Clay's death, has the following interesting reminiscence:</p> +<p>"It is almost half a century since he passed through +Chilicothe, then the seat of government of Ohio, where I was a member +of the Legislature, on his way to take his place in this very body, +which is now listening to this reminiscence, and to a feeble tribute of +regard from one who then saw him for the first time, but who can never +forget the impression he produced by the charms of his conversation, +the frankness of his manner, and the high qualities with which he was +endowed."</p> +<p>That an untaught, portionless rustic, reared not only in one +of the rudest localities, but in the most troublous and critical era of +our country, when the general poverty and insecurity rendered any +attention to personal culture difficult, almost impossible, and +graduating from a log school-house, should have been celebrated for the +union in his manners, of grace with <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_380"></a>[380]</span> +frankness, ease with fascination, +is not unworthy of remark. Of the fact, those who never knew Mr. Clay +personally, may have abundant attestations, which none others will need.</p> +<p>While in Europe as a negotiator for Peace with Great Britain, +Mr. Clay was brought into immediate and familiar contact, not only with +his associates, the urbane and cultivated John Quincy Adams, whose life +had been divided between seminaries and courts; the philosophic +Gallatin and the chivalric Bayard, but also with the noble and +aristocratic Commissioners of Great Britain, and with many others of +like breeding and position, to whom the importance of their mission, +its protracted labors and its successful result, commended our +Plenipotentiaries. A single anecdote will illustrate the impression he +every where produced. An octogenarian British Earl, who had retired +from public life because of his years, but who still cherished a +natural interest in public men and measures, being struck by the +impression made in the aristocratic circles of London by the American +Commissioners, then on their way home from Ghent, requested a friend to +bring them to see him at his house, to which his growing infirmities +confined him. The visit was promptly and cheerfully paid, and the +obliging friend afterwards inquired of the old Lord as to the +impression the Americans had made upon him. "Ah!" said the veteran, +with the "light of other days" gleaming from his eyes, "I liked them +all, but <i>I liked the Kentucky man best</i>." It was so +every where.</p> +<p>One specimen has been preserved of Mr. Clay's felicity of +repartee and charm of conversation, as exhibited while in Paris, +immediately after the conclusion of Peace at Ghent. He was there +introduced to the famous Madame de Stael, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_381"></a>[381]</span> +who cordially addressed him +with—"Ah, Mr. Clay! I have been in England, and have been battling your +cause for you there." "I know it, madame; we heard of your powerful +interposition, and are grateful and thankful for it." "They were much +enraged against you," said she: "so much so, that they at one time +thought seriously of sending the Duke of Wellington to command their +armies against you!" "I am very sorry, madame," replied Mr. Clay, "that +they did not send his Grace." "Why?" asked she, surprised. "Because, +madame, if he had beaten us, we should have been in the condition of +Europe, without disgrace. But, if we had been so fortunate as to defeat +him, we should have greatly added to the renown of our arms."</p> +<p>At his next meeting with "Corinne," at her own house, Mr. Clay +was introduced by her to the conqueror at Waterloo, when she related +the above conversation. The Duke promptly responded that, had it been +his fortune to serve against the Americans, and to triumph over them, +he should indeed have regarded that triumph as the proudest of his +achievements.</p> +<p>Mr. Clay was in London when the tidings of Waterloo arrived, +and set the British frantic with exultation. He was dining one day at +Lord Castlereagh's, while Bonaparte's position was still uncertain, as +he had disappeared from Paris, and fled none knew whither. The most +probable conjecture was that he had embarked at some little port for +the United States, and would probably make his way thither, as he was +always lucky on water. "If he reaches your shores, Mr. Clay," gravely +inquired Lord Liverpool (one of the Ministers), "will he not give you a +great deal of trouble?" "Not the least," was the prompt reply of the +Kentuckian; "we shall <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_382"></a>[382]</span> +be very glad to receive him; to treat him with +all hospitality, and very soon make him a good democrat." A general +laugh here restored the hilarity of the party.</p> +<p>The magnetism of Mr. Clay's manner and conversation have +perhaps received no stronger testimony than that of Gen. Glascock, a +political antagonist, who came into Congress from Georgia, during the +fierce struggle which followed the removal of the Deposits. "Gen. +Glascock," said a mutual friend, at a party one evening, "shall I make +you acquainted with Mr. Clay?" "No, Sir!" was the prompt and stern +response; "I choose not to be fascinated and moulded by him, as friend +and foe appear to be, and I shall therefore decline his acquaintance."</p> +<p>Mr. Clay had a natural repugnance to caucuses, conventions, +and the kindred contrivances whereby great men are elaborated out of +very small materials, and was uniformly a candidate for Congress "on +his own hook," with no fence between him and his constituents. Only +once in the course of his long Representative career was he obliged to +canvass for his election, and he was never defeated, nor ever could be, +before a public that he could personally meet and address. The one +searching ordeal to which he was subjected, followed the passage of the +"Compensation Act" of 1816, whereby Congress substituted for its own +per diem a fixed salary of $1,500 to each Member. This act raised a +storm throughout the country, which prostrated most of its supporters. +The hostility excited was especially strong in the West, then very +poor, especially in money: $1,500 then, being equal to $4000 at +present. John Pope (afterward Gen. Jackson's Governor of Arkansas), one +of the ablest men in Kentucky, a federalist <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_383"></a>[383]</span>of the old school, +and a +personal antagonist of Mr. Clay, took the stump as his competitor for +the seat, and gave him enough to do through the canvass. They met in +discussion at several local assemblages, and finally in a pitched +battle at Higbie; a place central to the three counties composing the +district, where the whole people collected to hear them. Pope had the +district with him in his denunciation of the Compensation Bill, while +Clay retorted with effect, by pressing home on his antagonist the +embittered and not very consistent hostility of the latter to the war +with Great Britain, recently concluded, which uniformly had been very +popular in Kentucky. The result was decisive: Mr. Clay was re-elected +by about six hundred majority.</p> +<p>That excited canvass was fruitful of characteristic incidents +like the following:</p> +<p>While traversing the district, Mr. Clay encountered an old +hunter, who had always before been his warm friend, but was now opposed +to his re-election on account of the Compensation Bill. "Have you a +good rifle, my friend?" asked Mr. Clay. "Yes." "Did it ever flash?" +"Once only," he replied. "What did you do with it—throw it away?" "No, +I picked the flint, tried it again, and brought down the game." "Have <i>I</i> +ever flashed but upon the Compensation Bill?" "No!" "Will you throw me +away?" "No, no!" exclaimed the hunter with enthusiasm, nearly +overpowered by his feelings; "I will pick the flint, and try you +again!" He was afterward a warm supporter of Mr. Clay.</p> +<p>An Irish barber in Lexington, Jerry Murphy by name, who had +always before been a zealous admirer and active supporter of Mr. Clay, +was observed during this canvass to <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_384"></a>[384]</span> +maintain a studied silence. That +silence was ominous, especially as he was known to be under personal +obligation to Mr. Clay for legal assistance to rescue him from various +difficulties in which his hasty temper had involved him. At length, an +active and prominent partisan of the speaker called on the barber, with +whom he had great influence, and pressed him to dispel the doubt that +hung over his intentions by a frank declaration in favor of his old +favorite. Looking his canvasser in the eye, with equal earnestness and +shrewdness, Murphy responded; "I tell you what, docthur; I mane to vote +for the man <i>that can put but one hand into the Treasury</i>." +(Mr. Pope had lost one of his arms in early life, and the humor of +Pat's allusion to this circumstance, in connection with Mr. Clay's +support of the Compensation Bill, was inimitable.)</p> +<p>Mr. Clay was confessedly the best presiding officer that any +deliberative body in America has ever known, and none was ever more +severely tried. The intensity and bitterness of party feeling during +the earlier portion of his Speakership cannot now be realized except by +the few who remember those days. It was common at that time in New +England town-meetings, for the rival parties to take opposite sides of +the broad aisle in the meeting-house, and thus remain, hardly speaking +across the line separation, from morning till night. Hon. Josiah +Quincy, the Representative of Boston, was distinguished in Congress for +the ferocity of his assaults on the policy of Jefferson and Madison; +and between him and Mr. Clay there were frequent and sharp encounters, +barely kept within the limits prescribed by parliamentary decorum. At a +later period, the eccentric and distinguished John Randolph, the master +of satire and invective; and who, though not <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_385"></a>[385]</span>avowedly a +Federalist, +opposed nearly every act of the Democrat Administrations of 1801-16, +and was the unfailing antagonist of every measure proposed or supported +by Mr. Clay, was a thorn in the side of the Speaker for years. Many +were the passages between them in which blows were given and taken, +whereof the gloves of parliamentary etiquette could not break the +force: the War, the Tariff, the early recognition of Greek and South +American Independence, the Missouri Compromise, &c. +&c., being strenuously advocated by Mr. Clay and opposed by Mr. +Randolph. But of these this is no place to speak. Innumerable appeals +from Mr. Clay's decisions, as Speaker, were made by the orator of +Roanoke, but no one of them was ever sustained by the House. At length, +after Mr. Clay had left Congress, and Mr. Randolph been transferred to +the Senate, a bloodless duel between them grew out of the Virginian's +unmeasured abuse of the Kentuckian's agency in electing J.Q. Adams to +the Presidency; a duel which seems to have had the effect of softening, +if not dissipating Randolph's rancor against Mr. Clay. Though evermore +a political antagonist, his personal antipathy was no longer +manifested; and one of the last visits of Randolph to the Capitol, when +dying of consumption, was made for the avowed purpose of hearing in the +Senate the well-known voice of the eloquent Sage of Ashland.</p> +<p>On the floor of the House, Mr. Clay was often impetuous in +discussion, and delighted to relieve the tedium of debate, and modify +the sternness of antagonism by a sportive jest or lively repartee. On +one occasion, Gen. Alexander Smythe of Virginia, who often afflicted +the House by the verbosity of his harangues and the multiplicity of his +dry citations, had paused <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_386"></a>[386]</span> +in the middle of a speech which seemed likely +to endure for ever, to send to the library for a book from which he +wished to note a passage. Fixing his eye on Mr. Clay, who sat near him, +he observed the Kentuckian writhing in his seat as if his patience had +already been exhausted. "You, sir," remarked Smythe addressing the +Speaker, "speak for the present generation; but I speak for posterity." +"Yes," said Mr. Clay, "and you seem resolved to speak until the arrival +of <i>your</i> auditory."</p> +<p>Revolutionary pensions were a source of frequent passages +between eastern and western members; the greater portion of those +pensions being payable to eastern survivors of the struggle. On one +occasion when a Pension Bill was under discussion, Hon. Enoch Lincoln +(afterwards Governor of Maine) was dilating on the services and +sufferings of these veterans, and closed with the patriotic adjuration, +"Soldiers of the Revolution! live for ever!" Mr. Clay followed, +counselling moderation in the grant of pensions, that the country might +not be overloaded and rendered restive by their burden, and turning to +Mr. Lincoln with a smile, observed—"I hope my worthy friend will not +insist on the very great duration of these pensions which he has +suggested. Will he not consent, by way of a compromise, to a term of +nine hundred and ninety-nine years instead of eternity?"</p> +<p>A few sentences culled from the remarks in Congress elicited +by his death, will fitly close this hasty daguerreotype of the man +Henry Clay.</p> +<p>Mr. Underwood (his colleague) observed in Senate that "his +physical and mental organization eminently qualified him to become a +great and impressive orator. His person was tall, slender and +commanding. His temperament, ardent, fearless, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_387"></a>[387]</span> +and full of hope. His +countenance, clear, expressive, and variable—indicating the emotion +which predominated at the moment with exact similitude. His voice, +cultivated and modulated in harmony with the sentiment he desired to +express, fell upon the ear with the melody of enrapturing music. His +eye beaming with intelligence and flashing with coruscations of genius. +His gestures and attitudes graceful and natural. These personal +advantages won the prepossessions of an audience even before his +intellectual powers began to move his hearers; and when his strong +common sense, his profound reasoning, his clear conceptions of his +subject in all its bearings, and his striking and beautiful +illustrations, united with such personal qualities, were brought to the +discussion of any question, his audience was enraptured, convinced and +led by the orator as if enchanted by the lyre of Orpheus.</p> +<p>"No man was ever blessed by his Creator with faculties of a +higher order than Mr. Clay. In the quickness of his perceptions, and +the rapidity with which his conclusions were formed, he had few equals +and no superiors. He was eminently endowed with a nice discriminating +taste for order, symmetry, and beauty. He detected in a moment every +thing out of place or deficient in his room, upon his farm, in his own +or the dress of others. He was a skilful judge of the form and +qualities of his domestic animals, which he delighted to raise on his +farm. I could give you instances of the quickness and minuteness of his +keen faculty of observation, which never overlooked any thing. A want +of neatness and order was offensive to him. He was particular and neat +in his handwriting and his apparel. A slovenly blot or negligence of +any <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_388"></a>[388]</span> +sort met his condemnation; while he was so organized that he +attended to, and arranged little things to please and gratify his +natural love for neatness, order, and beauty, his great intellectual +faculties grasped all the subjects of jurisprudence and politics with a +facility amounting almost to intuition. As a lawyer, he stood at the +head of his profession. As a statesman, his stand at the head of the +Republican Whig party for nearly half a century, establishes his title +to pre-eminence among his illustrious associates.</p> +<p>"Mr. Clay was deeply versed in all the springs of human +action. He had read and studied biography and history. Shortly after I +left college, I had occasion to call on him in Frankfort, where he was +attending court, and well I remember to have found him with Plutarch's +Lives in his hands. No one better than he knew how to avail himself of +human motives, and all the circumstances which surrounded a subject, or +could present themselves with more force and skill to accomplish the +object of an argument.</p> +<p>"Bold and determined as Mr. Clay was in all his actions, he +was, nevertheless, conciliating. He did not obstinately adhere to +things impracticable. If he could not accomplish the best, he contented +himself with the nighest approach to it. He has been the great +compromiser of those political agitations and opposing opinions which +have, in the belief of thousands, at different times, endangered the +perpetuity of our Federal Government and Union.</p> +<p>"Mr. Clay was no less remarkable for his admirable social +qualities, than for his intellectual abilities. As a companion, he was +the delight of his friends; and no man ever had better <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_389"></a>[389]</span>or +truer. No +guest ever thence departed, without feeling happier for his visit."</p> +<p>Mr. Hunter of Virginia (a political antagonist) following, +observed: "It may be truly said of Mr. Clay, that he was no +exaggerator. He looked at events through neither end of the telescope, +but surveyed them with the natural and the naked eye. He had the +capacity of seeing things as the people saw them, and of feeling things +as the people felt them. He had, sir, beyond any other man whom I have +ever seen, the true mesmeric touch of the orator,—the rare art of +transferring his impulses to others. Thoughts, feelings, emotions, came +from the ready mould of his genius, radiant and glowing, and +communicated their own warmth to every heart which received them. His, +too, was the power of wielding the higher and intenser forms of +passion, with a majesty and an ease, which none but the great masters +of the human heart can ever employ."</p> +<p>Mr. Seward of New-York, said: "He was indeed eloquent—all the +world knows that. He held the key to the hearts of his countrymen, and +he turned the wards within them with a skill attained by no other +master.</p> +<p>"But eloquence was nevertheless only an instrument, and one of +many, that he used. His conversation, his gestures, his very look, were +magisterial, persuasive, seductive, irresistible. And his appliance of +all these was courteous, patient, and indefatigable. Defeat only +inspired him with new resolution. He divided opposition by the +assiduity of address, while he rallied and strengthened his own bands +of supporters by the confidence of success, which, feeling himself, he +easily inspired <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_390"></a>[390]</span> +among his followers. His affections were high, and +pure, and generous; and the chiefest among them was that one which the +great Italian poet designated as the charity of native land. In him, +that charity was an enduring and overpowering enthusiasm, and it +influenced all his sentiments and conduct, rendering him more impartial +between conflicting interests and sections, than any other statesman +who has lived since the Revolution. Thus, with great versatility of +talent, and the most catholic equality of favor, he identified every +question, whether of domestic administration or foreign policy, with +his own great name, and so became a perpetual Tribune of the People. He +needed only to pronounce in favor of a measure or against it, here, and +immediately popular enthusiasm, excited as by a magic wand, was felt, +overcoming and dissolving all opposition in the Senate Chamber."</p> +<p>In the House, about the same time, Mr. Breckenridge of +Kentucky (democrat), spoke as follows:</p> +<p>"The life of Mr. Clay, sir, is a striking example of the +abiding fame which surely awaits the direct and candid statesman. The +entire absence of equivocation or disguise in all his acts, was his +master-key to the popular heart; for while the people will forgive the +errors of a bold and open nature, he sins past forgiveness who +deliberately deceives them. Hence Mr. Clay, though often defeated in +his measures of policy, always secured the respect of his opponents +without losing the confidence of his friends. He never paltered in a +double sense. The country never was in doubt as to his opinions or his +purposes. In all the contests of his time, his position on great public +questions was as clear as the sun in the cloudless sky. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_391"></a>[391]</span>Sir, +standing +by the grave of this great man, and considering these things, how +contemptible does appear the mere legerdemain of politics! What a +reproach is his life on that false policy which would trifle with a +great and upright people! If I were to write his epitaph, I would +inscribe as the highest eulogy, on the stone which shall mark his +resting-place, 'Here lies a man who was in the public service for fifty +years, and never attempted to deceive his countrymen.'"</p> +<p>Let me close this too hasty and superficial sketch, with a +brief citation from Rev. C.M. Butler, Chaplain of the Senate, who, in +his funeral discourse in the Senate Chamber, said:</p> +<p>"A great mind, a great heart, a great orator, a great career, +have been consigned to history. She will record his rare gifts of deep +insight, keen discrimination, clear statement, rapid combination, +plain, direct, and convincing logic. She will love to dwell on that +large, generous, magnanimous, open, forgiving heart. She will linger +with fond delight on the recorded or traditional stories of an +eloquence that was so masterful and stirring, because it was but +himself struggling to come forth on the living words—because, though +the words were brave and strong, and beautiful and melodious, it was +felt that, behind them, there was a soul braver, stronger, more +beautiful, and more melodious, than language could express."</p> +<p>Such was the master of Ashland, the man Henry Clay!</p> +<hr /> +<p>After this article was in type, we received from a Western +paper the following notice of the sale of the Ashland estate.</p> +<p>"We are glad to learn that Ashland, the home of Henry Clay, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_392"></a>[392]</span> +which was sold September 20th, at public auction, was purchased by +James B. Clay, eldest son of the deceased statesman. The Ashland +homestead contained about 337 acres. It lies just without the limits of +the city of Lexington. The country immediately surrounding it, is +justly regarded as the garden spot of the West, and Ashland, above all +others, as the most beautiful place in the world. The associations +about it are of the most interesting character. When Kentucky was, in +fact, the 'dark and bloody ground,' the country around Lexington was +the only oasis—every where else, the tomahawk and the rifle were more +potent than laws. How many incidents of these terrible days are +garnered in the minds of the descendants of the old families of +Kentucky! In those thrilling days, Ashland belonged to Daniel Boone, +whose name is connected with many of the daring tragedies enacted in +the then Far West. It passed from his hands into those of Nathaniel +Hart, who fell, gloriously fighting, in the battle at the River Raisin, +where so many Kentuckians offered up their lives in defence of their +country. Henry Clay married Lucretia Hart, to whom the demesne of +Ashland descended.</p> +<p>"There is so much of the Arab in the habits of the +Americans,—there is so much migratoriness, and so little love for old +homesteads,—we were afraid the children of Henry Clay would allow +classic Ashland to pass into other and alien hands. But our fears are +to gladness changed; and Ashland is still the dwelling-place of the +Clays.</p> +<p>"Mr. Clay was thoroughly versed in agricultural matters, and +was never better contented (as the editor of the Ohio Journal truly +remarks), than when surrounded by his neighbors, many <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_393"></a>[393]</span>of +whom knew and +loved him when he was quite young and obscure, and afterwards rejoiced +at his fame, and followed his fortunes through every phase of a long +and eventful career. The residence does not present any imposing +appearance, but is of a plain, neat, and rather antique architectural +character, and the grounds immediately surrounding it are beautifully +adorned, and traversed by walks; not in accordance with the foolish and +fastidious taste of the present day, for this, in every thing connected +with the place has been neglected, and the only end seems to have been +to represent Nature in its proudest and most imposing grandeur. Many of +the walks are retired, and are of a serpentine character, with here and +there, in some secluded spot along their windings, a rude and +unpolished bench upon which to recline. The trees are mostly pines of a +large growth, and stand close together, casting a deep and sombre shade +on every surrounding object. The reflections of one on visiting Ashland +are of the most interesting character. Every object seems invested with +an interest, and although the spirit with whose memory they are +associated, has fled, one cannot repel the conviction, that while +reposing under its silent and sequestered shades, he is still +surrounded by something sublime and great. Old memories of the past +come back upon him, and a thousand scenes connected with the life and +history of Henry Clay, will force themselves upon you. The great +monarchs of the forest that now stretch their limbs aloft in proud and +peerless majesty, have all, or nearly all been planted by his hand, and +are now not unfit emblems of the towering greatness of him who planted +them.</p> +<p>"The walks, the flowers, the garden and the groves, all, all +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_394"></a>[394]</span> +are consecrated, and have all been witnesses of his presence and his +care. In the groves through which you wander, were nursed the mighty +schemes of Statesmanship, which have astonished the world and terrified +the tyrant, beat back the evil counsels for his country's ruin, and +bound and fettered his countrymen in one common and indissoluble bond +of <span class="smcap">Union</span>."<br /> +</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus412"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 475px; height: 403px;" alt="Clay's Birth-place" src="images/illus412.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Clay's Birth-place</a></span></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_395"></a>[395]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="calhoun"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Calhoun.</span> +</h6> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_396"></a>[396]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_396"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 565px; height: 800px;" alt="Calhoun fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/calhoun.png" /></a></div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_397"></a>[397]</span></p> +<h2>CALHOUN.</h2> +<p>In writing the lives of our American Statesmen, we might say +of almost any of them, "that he was born in such a year, that he was +sent to the common school or to college, that he studied law, that he +was chosen, first a member of the State Legislature, and then of the +National Congress, that he became successively, a Senator, a foreign +Ambassador, a Secretary of State, or a President, and that finally he +retired to his paternal acres, to pass a venerable old age, amid the +general respect and admiration of the whole country." This would be a +true outline in the main, of the practical workings and doings of nine +out of ten of them: but in filling in the details of the sketch, in +clothing the dry skeleton of facts with the flesh and blood of the +living reality, it would be found that this apparent similarity of +development had given rise to the utmost diversity and individuality of +character, and that scarcely any two of our distinguished men, though +born and bred under the same influence, bore even a family resemblance. +It is said by the foreign writers, by De Tocqueville especially, that +very little originality and independence of mind can be expected in a +democracy, where the force of the majority crushes all opinions and +characters into a dead and leaden <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_398"></a>[398]</span> +uniformity. But the study of our +actual history rather tends to the opposite conclusion, and leads us to +believe that the land of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Patrick +Henry, the Adamses, Clay, Webster and Calhoun, is favorable to the +production of distinct, peculiar, and decided natures. At least we may +be sure, that our annals are no more wanting than those of other +nations, in original, self-formed, and self-dependent men.</p> +<p>Among these, there was no one more peculiar or more unlike any +prototype, than John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. In the structure of +his mind, in the singular tenacity of his purposes, in the rare dignity +and elevation of his character, and in the remarkable political system +to which he adhered, he was wholly <i>sui generis</i>, +standing out from the number of his forerunners and contemporaries in +bold, positive and angular relief. He could only have been what he was, +in the country, and during the times, in which he flourished: he was a +natural growth of our American society and institutions: had formed +himself by no models ancient or modern; and the great leading +principles of his thought faithfully rendered in all his conduct, were +as much an individual possession as the figure of his body or the +features of his face. In seeing him, in hearing him speak, or in +reading his books, no one was ever likely to confound him with any +second person.</p> +<p>Mr. Calhoun was born in the Abbeville District of South +Carolina, on the 18th of March, 1782. His parents on both sides were of +Irish extraction, who had first settled in Pennsylvania, and then in +Virginia, whence they were driven by the Indians, at the time of +Braddock's defeat, to South Carolina. The father appears to have been a +man of the most <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_399"></a>[399]</span> +resolute and energetic character, equally ready to +defend his home against the incursions of the savages, and his rights +as a citizen against legislative encroachments. On one occasion, he and +his neighbors went down to within thirty miles of Charleston, armed, to +assert a right of suffrage which was then disputed; and he always +steadily opposed the Federal Constitution, because it allowed other +people than those of South Carolina to tax the people of South +Carolina. "We have heard his son say," writes a friend of the latter, +"that among his earliest recollections was one of a conversation when +he was nine years of age, in which his father maintained that +government to be best, which allowed the largest amount of individual +liberty compatible with social order and tranquillity, and insisted +that the improvements in political science would be found to consist in +throwing off many of the restraints then imposed by law, and deemed +necessary to an organized society. It may well be supposed that his son +John was an attentive and eager auditor, and such lessons as these must +doubtless have served to encourage that free spirit of inquiry, and +that intrepid zeal for truth, for which he has been since so +distinguished. The mode of thinking which was thus encouraged may, +perhaps, have compensated in some degree the want of those early +advantages which are generally deemed indispensable to great +intellectual progress. Of these he had comparatively few. But this was +compensated by those natural gifts which give great minds the mastery +over difficulties which the timid regard as insuperable. Indeed, we +have here another of those rare instances in which the hardiness of +natural genius is seen to defy all obstacles, and developes its flower +and matures its fruit under circumstances apparently the most +unpropitious.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_400"></a>[400]</span> +"The region of the country in which his family resided was +then newly settled, and in a rude frontier State. There was not an +academy in all the upper part of the State, and none within fifty +miles, except one at about that distance in Columbia county, Georgia, +which was kept by his brother-in-law, Mr. Waddell, a Presbyterian +clergyman. There were but a few scattered schools in the whole of that +region, and these were such as are usually found on the frontier, in +which reading, writing and arithmetic were imperfectly taught. At the +age of thirteen he was placed under the charge of his brother-in-law to +receive his education. Shortly after, his father died; this was +followed by the death of his sister, Mrs. Waddell, within a few weeks, +and the academy was then discontinued, which suspended his education +before it had fairly commenced. His brother-in-law, with whom he was +still left, was absent the greater part of the time, attending to his +clerical duties, and his pupil thus found himself on a secluded +plantation, without any white companion during the greater portion of +the time. A situation apparently so unfavorable to improvement turned +out, in his case, to be the reverse. Fortunately for him, there was a +small circulating library in the house, of which his brother-in-law was +librarian, and, in the absence of all company and amusements, that +attracted his attention. His taste, although undirected, led him to +history, to the neglect of novels and other lighter reading; and so +deeply was he interested, that in a short time he read the whole of the +small stock of historical works, contained in the library, consisting +of Rollin's Ancient History, Robertson's Charles V., his South America, +and Voltaire's Charles XII. After dispatching these, he turned with +like eagerness to Cook's Voyages (the large edition), a small volume of +essays by Brown, and Locke <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_401"></a>[401]</span> +on the Understanding, which he read as far +as the chapter on Infinity. All this was the work of but fourteen +weeks. So intense was his application that his eyes became seriously +affected, his countenance pallid, and his frame emaciated. His mother, +alarmed at the intelligence of his health, sent for him home, where +exercise and amusement soon restored his strength, and he acquired a +fondness for hunting, fishing, and other country sports. Four years +passed away in these pursuits, and in attention to the business of the +farm while his elder brothers were absent, to the entire neglect of his +education. But the time was not lost. Exercise and rural sports +invigorated his frame, while his labors on the farm gave him a taste +for agriculture, which he always retained, and in the pursuit of which +he finds delightful occupation for his intervals of leisure from public +duties."</p> +<p>It is not our purpose, however, to enter into any detail of +the life of Mr Calhoun. Suffice it to say that he was educated, under +Dr. Dwight, at Yale College, that he studied law at Litchfield in +Connecticut, that he was for two sessions a member of the Legislature, +that from 1811 to 1817 during the war with Great Britain, and the most +trying times that followed it, he was a member of the lower House of +Congress. That he was then appointed Secretary of War, under Madison, +when he gave a new, thorough, and complete organization to his +department. That he was chosen Vice-President in 1825, and subsequently +served his country as Senator of the United States, and Secretary of +State, until the year 1850, when he died. During the whole of this long +period his exertions were constant, and he took a leading part in all +the movements of parties. Acting for the most of the time with the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_402"></a>[402]</span> +Democratic party, he was still never the slave of party, never guilty +of the low arts or petty cunning of the mere politician, always +fearless in the discharge of his duties, and though ambitious, ever +sacrificing his ambition to his clearly discerned and openly expressed +principles. Mr. Webster, who, during nearly the whole of his +legislative career, and on nearly all questions of public concern, had +been an active opponent, in an obituary address to the Senate, bore +this testimony to his genius and his greatness.</p> +<p>"Differing widely on many great questions respecting our +institutions and the government of the country, those differences never +interrupted our personal and social intercourse. I have been present at +most of the distinguished instances of the exhibition of his talents in +debate. I have always heard him with pleasure, often with much +instruction, not unfrequently with the highest degree of admiration.</p> +<p>"Mr. Calhoun was calculated to be a leader in whatsoever +association of political friends he was thrown. He was a man of +undoubted genius and of commanding talents. All the country and all the +world admit that. His mind was both perceptive and vigorous. It was +clear, quick, and strong.</p> +<p>"Sir, the eloquence of Mr. Calhoun, or the manner in which he +exhibited his sentiments in public bodies, was part of his intellectual +character. It grew out of the qualities of his mind. It was plain, +strong, terse, condensed, concise: sometimes impassioned, still always +severe. Rejecting ornament, not often seeking far for illustration, his +power consisted in the plainness of his propositions, in the closeness +of his logic, and in the earnestness and energy of his manner. These +are the qualities, as I think, which have enabled him through such a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_403"></a>[403]</span> +long course of years to speak often, and yet command attention. His +demeanor as a Senator is known to us all, is appreciated, venerated, by +us all. No man was more respectful to others; no man carried himself +with greater decorum, no man with superior dignity. I think there is +not one of us, when he last addressed us from his seat in the Senate, +his form still erect, with a voice by no means indicating such a degree +of physical weakness as did in fact possess him, with clear tones, and +an impressive, and, I may say, an imposing manner, who did not feel +that he might imagine that we saw before us a Senator of Rome, while +Rome survived.</p> +<p>"Sir, I have not, in public, nor in private life, known a more +assiduous person in the discharge of his appropriate duties. I have +known no man who wasted less of life in what is called recreation, or +employed less of it in any pursuits not connected with the immediate +discharge of his duty. He seemed to have no recreation but the pleasure +of conversation with his friends. Out of the chambers of Congress, he +was either devoting himself to the acquisition of knowledge pertaining +to the immediate subject of the duty before him, or else he was +indulging in those social interviews in which he so much delighted.</p> +<p>"My honorable friend from Kentucky<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> +has spoken in just terms of his colloquial talents. They certainly were +singular and eminent. There was a charm in his conversation not often +equalled. He delighted especially in conversation and intercourse with +young men. I suppose that there has been no man among us who had more +winning manners, in such an intercourse and such conversation, with men +comparatively <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_404"></a>[404]</span> +young, than Mr. Calhoun. I believe one great power of his character, in +general, was his conversational talent. I believe it is that, as well +as a consciousness of his high integrity, and the greatest reverence +for his talents and ability, that has made him so endeared an object to +the people of the State to which he belonged.</p> +<p>"Mr. President, he had the basis, the indispensable basis of +all high character; and that was, unspotted integrity and unimpeached +honor. If he had aspirations, they were high, and honorable, and noble. +There was nothing grovelling, or low, or meanly selfish, that came near +the head or the heart of Mr. Calhoun. Firm in his purpose, perfectly +patriotic and honest, as I am sure he was, in the principles that he +espoused, and in the measures which he defended, aside from that large +regard for the species of distinction that conducted him to eminent +stations for the benefit of the republic, I do not believe he had a +selfish motive or selfish feeling. However he may have differed from +others of us in his political opinions or his political principles, +those principles and those opinions will now descend to posterity under +the sanction of a great name. He has lived long enough, he has done +enough, and he has done it so well, so successfully, so honorably, as +to connect himself for all time with the records of his country. He is +now an historical character. Those of us who have known him here, will +find that he has left upon our minds and our hearts a strong and +lasting impression of his person, his character, and his public +performances, which, while we live, will never be obliterated. We shall +hereafter, I am sure, indulge in it as a grateful recollection, that we +have lived in his age, that we have been his contemporaries, that we +have seen him, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_405"></a>[405]</span> +and heard him, and known him. We shall delight to speak +of him to those who are rising up to fill our places. And, when the +time shall come that we ourselves must go, one after another, to our +graves, we shall carry with us a deep sense of his genius and +character, his honor and integrity, his amiable deportment in private +life, and the purity of his exalted patriotism."</p> +<p>The event in Mr. Calhoun's political life which will give him +the greatest distinction in our history, was the bold and perilous +course he took on the subject of nullification. It brought him and his +native State directly in conflict with the powers of the Federal +government, and but for the compromise of the Tariff question, out of +which the controversy grew, would have ended in civil war. We shall not +undertake to narrate the origin or the purpose of this most fearful +crisis, referring our readers to the regular memoirs of Mr. Calhoun for +the details, but we cannot refrain from expressing our high admiration +of the gallant bearing of the great South Carolinian during the whole +of the protracted and embarrassing dispute. The energy with which he +pursued his ends, the originality with which he defended them, the +boldness of his position, the devotion to his friends, the formidable +objects that he had to encounter, the calm, earnest self-reliance with +which he encountered them, and, in the end, the graceful concessions on +both sides, by which the difficulties of the juncture were avoided, are +brilliant illustrations both of the lofty energies of his spirit, and +of the happy, peaceful working of our national institutions. In any +other country, and under any other government, if it had been possible +for such a conflict to arise, it could only have terminated in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_406"></a>[406]</span> +bloodshed or war. Either the reigning authority would have been +overturned, or the chief agent in the insurrection would have been +executed as a traitor. Under the benign and conciliatory genius of our +constitution, by that pacific legislation, which knows how to temper +the rigid and inflexible exercise of law by the spirit of concession, +the struggle ended in compromise.</p> +<p>It was in his domestic life that Mr. Calhoun won the warmest +homage of the heart. Miss Bates, who was for many years a governess in +his family, and who enjoyed the finest opportunities for observing him, +has given us the following record of his private virtues and +peculiarities.</p> +<p>"In Mr. Calhoun were united the simple habits of the Spartan +lawgiver, the inflexible principles of the Roman senator, the courteous +bearing and indulgent kindness of the American host, husband, and +father. This was indeed a rare union. Life with him was solemn and +earnest, and yet all about him was cheerful. I never heard him utter a +jest; there was an unvarying dignity and gravity in his manner; and yet +the playful child regarded him fearlessly and lovingly. Few men indulge +their families in as free, confidential, and familiar intercourse as +did this great statesman. Indeed, to those who had an opportunity of +observing him in his own house, it was evident that his cheerful and +happy home had attractions for him superior to those which any other +place could offer. Here was a retreat from the cares, the observation, +and the homage of the world. In few homes could the transient visitor +feel more at ease than did the guest at Fort Hill. Those who knew Mr. +Calhoun only by his senatorial speeches, may suppose that his heart and +mind were all engrossed in the nation's councils; but there were +moments when his courtesy, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_407"></a>[407]</span> +his minute kindnesses, made you forget the +statesman. The choicest fruits were selected for his guest; and I +remember seeing him at his daughter's wedding take the ornaments from a +cake and send them to a little child. Many such graceful attentions, +offered in an unostentatious manner to all about him, illustrated the +kindness and noble simplicity of his nature. His family could not but +exult in his intellectual greatness, his rare endowments, and his lofty +career, yet they seemed to lose sight of all these in their love for +him. I had once the pleasure of travelling with his eldest son, who +related to me many interesting facts and traits of his life. He said he +had never heard him speak impatiently to any member of his family. He +mentioned, that as he was leaving that morning for his home in Alabama, +a younger brother said, 'Come soon again, and see us, brother A—, for +do you not see that father is growing old? and is not father the +dearest, best old man in the world!'</p> +<p>"Like Cincinnatus, he enjoyed rural life and occupation. It +was his habit, when at home, to go over his grounds every day. I +remember his returning one morning from a walk about his plantation, +delighted with the fine specimens of corn and rice which he brought in +for us to admire. That morning—the trifling incident shows his +consideration and kindness of feeling, as well as his tact and power of +adaptation—seeing an article of needlework in the hands of sister A—, +who was then a stranger there, he examined it, spoke of the beauty of +the coloring, the variety of the shade, and by thus showing an interest +in her, at once made her at ease in his presence.</p> +<p>"His eldest daughter always accompanied him to Washington, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_408"></a>[408]</span>and +in the absence of his wife, who was often detained by family cares at +Fort Hill, this daughter was his solace amid arduous duties, and his +confidant in perplexing cases. Like the gifted De Staėl, she loved her +father with enthusiastic devotion. Richly endowed by nature, improved +by constant companionship with the great man, her mind was in harmony +with his, and he took pleasure in counselling with her. She said, 'Of +course, I do not understand as he does, for I am comparatively a +stranger to the world, yet he likes my unsophisticated opinion, and I +frankly tell him my views on any subject about which he inquires of me.'</p> +<p>"Between himself and his younger daughter there was a peculiar +and most tender union. As by the state of her health she was deprived +of many enjoyments, her indulgent parents endeavored to compensate for +every loss by their affection and devotion. As reading was her favorite +occupation, she was allowed to go to the letter-bag when it came from +the office, and select the papers she preferred. On one occasion, she +had taken two papers, containing news of importance which her father +was anxious to see, but he would allow no one to disturb her until she +had finished their perusal.</p> +<p>"In his social as well as in his domestic relations he was +irreproachable. No shadow rested on his pure fame, no blot on his +escutcheon. In his business transactions he was punctual and +scrupulously exact. He was honorable as well as honest. Young men who +were reared in his vicinity, with their eyes ever on him, say that in +all respects, in small as well as in great things, his conduct was so +exemplary that he might well be esteemed a model.</p> +<p>"His profound love for his own family, his cordial interest <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_409"></a>[409]</span>in +his friends, his kindness and justice in every transaction, were not +small virtues in such a personage.</p> +<p>"He was anti-Byronic. I never heard him ridicule or satirize a +human being. Indeed he might have been thought deficient in a sense of +the ludicrous, had he not by the unvarying propriety of his own conduct +proved his exquisite perception of its opposites. When he differed in +opinion from those with whom he conversed, he seemed to endeavor by a +respectful manner, to compensate for the disagreement. He employed +reason, rather than contradiction; and so earnestly would he urge an +opinion and so fully present an argument, that his opponent could not +avoid feeling complimented rather than mortified. He paid a tribute to +the understandings of others by the force of his own reasoning, and by +his readiness to admit every argument which he could, although advanced +in opposition to one he himself had just expressed.</p> +<p>"On one occasion I declined taking a glass of wine at his +table. He kindly said, 'I think you carry that a little too far. It is +well to give up every thing intoxicating, but not these light wines.' I +replied, that wine was renounced by many for the sake of consistency, +and for the benefit of those who could not afford wine. He acknowledged +the correctness of the principle, adding, 'I do not know how temperance +societies can take any other ground,' and then defined his views of +temperance, entered on a course of interesting arguments, and stated +facts and statistics. Of course, were all men like Mr. Calhoun +temperance societies would be superfluous. Perhaps he could not be +aware of the temptations that assail many men—he was so purely +intellectual, so free from self-indulgence. Materiality with him was +held subject to his <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_410"></a>[410]</span> +higher nature. He did not even indulge himself in a +cigar. Few spent as little time, and exhausted as little energy in mere +amusements. Domestic and social enjoyments were his pleasures—kind and +benevolent acts were his recreations.</p> +<p>"He always seemed willing to converse on any subject which was +interesting to those about him. Returning one day from Fort Hill, I +remarked to a friend, 'I have never been more convinced of Mr. +Calhoun's genius than to-day, while he talked to us of a flower.' His +versatile conversation evinced his universal knowledge, his quick +perception, and his faculty of adaptation. A shower one day compelled +him to take shelter in the shed of a blacksmith, who was charmed by his +familiar conversation, and the knowledge he exhibited of the mechanic +arts. A naval officer was once asked, after a visit to Fort Hill, how +he liked Mr. Calhoun. 'Not at all,' said he—'I never like a man who +knows more about my profession than I do myself.' A clergyman wished to +converse with him on subjects of a religious nature, and after the +interview remarked, that he was astonished to find him better informed +than himself on those very points wherein he had expected to give him +information. I had understood that Mr. Calhoun avoided an expression of +opinion with regard to different sects and creeds, or what is called +religious controversy; and once, when urged to give his views in +relation to a disputed point, he replied, 'That is a subject to which I +have never given my attention.'</p> +<p>"Mr. Calhoun was unostentatious, and ever averse to display. +He did not appear to talk for the sake of exhibition, but from the +overflowing of his earnest nature. Whether in the Senate or in +conversation with a single listener, his <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_411"></a>[411]</span> +language was choice, his style +fervid, his manner impressive. Never can I forget his gentle +earnestness when endeavoring to express his views on some controverted +subject, and observing that my mind could hardly keep pace with his +rapid reasoning, he would occasionally pause and say, in his kind +manner, 'Do you see?'</p> +<p>"He did not seek to know the opinion of others with regard to +himself. Anonymous letters he never read, and his daughters and nieces +often snatched from the flames letters of adulation as well as censure, +which he had not read. Although he respected the opinions of his +fellow-men, he did not seek office or worldly honor. A few years since, +one to whom he ever spoke freely, remarked to him that some believed he +was making efforts to obtain the presidency. At that moment he had +taken off his glasses, and was wiping them, and thus he replied: 'M——, +I think when a man is too old to see clearly through his glasses, he is +too old to think of the presidency.' And recently he said to her, 'They +may impute what motives they please to me, but I do not seek office.' +So much did he respect his country, that he might have been gratified +by the free gift of the people; so much did he love his country, that +he might have rejoiced at an opportunity to serve it; but would he have +swerved one iota from his convictions to secure a kingdom? Who, that +knew him, believes it?"</p> +<p>Mr. Calhoun was an author as well as a statesman, and in the +dissertations on the constitution and on government published since his +death, has bequeathed us the ripened fruits of his life-long study. +They are works of the rarest penetration and sagacity, of subtle logic, +of earnest conviction, of profound observation of men and things, and +of unquestionable genius. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_412"></a>[412]</span> +The particular conclusions at which the +writer arrives, as to the nature and limits of government, and as to +the amendments that ought to be made in the constitution of the United +States, will not be adopted by large classes of readers; but none of +them will arise from a perusal of his pages, without an additional +admiration of the keenness and force of his intellect, the ardor of his +patriotism, and the purity of his character.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_413"></a>[413]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="clinton"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Clinton.</span> +</h6> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_414"></a>[414]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_414"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 601px;" alt="Clinton fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/clinton.png" /></a></div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_415"></a>[415]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus433"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 336px; height: 404px;" alt="Clinton's Residence, Maspeth, L.I." src="images/illus433.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Clinton's Residence, Maspeth, L.I.</a></span></p> +<h2>CLINTON.</h2> +<p>The Academy of Sciences at Dijon recently asked of their +municipality, that all houses in the commune which deserved to be +historical, might be marked by commemorative inscriptions. The Council, +we are told, readily acceded to the request, and among the birth-places +and residences thus designated are those of Buffon, Crebillon, Guyton +De Morveau, and the Marshal Tavennes.</p> +<p>We in this country, whether fortunately or unfortunately, live +in too progressive an age to allow us to ask for similar remembrances. +Unless a statesman happens to be reared in <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_416"></a>[416]</span>a rural district, +the house +of his birth seldom survives his youth, possibly his manhood. New +structures arise, and the succeeding generation know little or nothing +of what preceded.</p> +<p>In the instance of <span class="smcap">DeWitt +Clinton</span>, the difficulty is increased by the diversity of +statements that are made relative to his birth-place. He was the son of +James Clinton, a gallant soldier in both of the now classic wars of +this country. Commissioned as an ensign in the war of 1756, Mr. Clinton +served during most of its campaigns. The Continental Congress, in 1775, +appointed him colonel of one of the New-York regiments; and after +particularly distinguishing himself at Fort Montgomery and Yorktown, he +retired from the army of the Revolution with the rank of major-general.</p> +<p>It was after the close of the French War that Mr. Clinton was +married to Mary DeWitt. She is represented as having been beautiful in +her youth—an only sister, with nine brothers. To them four sons were +born, of whom DeWitt was the second. The date of his birth is well +settled—being the year 1769;—not so the place. Many of his biographers +unite in stating that this was Little Britain, in Orange County, where +his father resided. Some assert that he was born at New Windsor, in the +same county, in a house still standing, and which can be seen from the +river; while others relate the tradition that his parents were on a +visit to the fort at Minisink, then under the command of Colonel +DeWitt, a brother of Mrs. Clinton; that a severe and long-continued +snow-storm occurred, and that the mother was there confined.</p> +<p>On his education it is scarcely necessary to dwell, farther +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_417"></a>[417]</span> +than to trace its influence on his subsequent career. His parents +bestowed on him that inestimable gift—the best education that the State +could afford—first at Kingston Academy, and subsequently at Columbia +College. The professors' chairs were filled by eminent men, who appear +to have appreciated the talents of their pupil. He was the first +graduate after the Revolution.</p> +<p>At the age of seventeen he commenced the study of the law with +the elder Samuel Jones, whose eminence as an advocate, and honesty as a +high state officer, still linger amongst our earliest reminiscences.</p> +<p>Thus prepared, as well by preliminary instruction as by +earnest self-improvement, he was about entering on the profession of +the law, with elders and contemporaries equal to any bar in the Union, +when his destiny was at once and permanently changed. He was the nephew +of George Clinton, the governor of the young State of New-York; +distinguished by his civil and military talents; admirably qualified to +guide the rising republic through its forming stages, although possibly +too tenacious of his peculiar opinions, and, unfortunately, too long +opposed to the adoption of the Constitution.</p> +<p>The parties that from time to time controlled the destinies of +the country were now in active collision. In the State of New-York, Jay +and Hamilton were the leaders and guides of the Federalists, and +Governor Clinton needed all the intellectual aid that could be brought +to bear on the contest. He selected his nephew as his private +secretary, and the sagacity, at least, of the choice has never been +disputed. Several papers on subjects of public and permanent interest, +known to have emanated from the pen of DeWitt Clinton, are still +preserved.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_418"></a>[418]</span> +We are told that he remained in this station until 795—the +close of the long administration (continued by re-elections) of his +uncle.</p> +<p>In 1797, he was elected a member of the Assembly from the city +of New-York, and the next year, of the Senate. The tenure of the first +of these was annual, and of the last for four years. From the above +date to the hour of his death, with short intervals, he continued to be +chosen in succession to the Senate, and as lieutenant-governor and +governor. He was for the space of two years a member of the United +States Senate. From 1803 to 1807, and from 1808 to 1815, he served as +mayor of the city of New-York. This is a brief outline of the +situations he held, and it is only necessary to fill up the sketch with +notices of what he proposed and accomplished, to complete the picture.</p> +<p>His "homes," with the brief exception of two winters at +Washington, were, of course, mainly in New-York and Albany.</p> +<p>In the former, his town residence was at the lower end of +Broadway—then the fashionable part of the city, and where wealthy +bankers, and merchants, and distinguished professional men loved to fix +their dwellings. At a short distance from the Bowling-green and the +Battery, the breezes from the ocean occasionally found their way and +shed their influences. Commerce has commanded the removal of most of +these private residences, and she has been rigidly obeyed. The +merchandise of the Old and of the New World needs still increasing +depositories.</p> +<p>While remaining in New-York, he owned a country-seat at +Maspeth, on Long Island, to which he frequently resorted, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_419"></a>[419]</span>and +where he +indulged in his favorite pursuits of angling and hunting. He was +greatly attached to these, until in after life an unfortunate accident +rendered active exercise too laborious.</p> +<p>Of Albany, the place in which a large portion of his mature +life was spent, we feel some constraint in giving, what we consider, a +just account. By many, even intelligent travellers, it is only known as +a place of transfer from steamboats and railroads—as excessively hot in +summer, and as the capital of the State, where the Legislature holds +its sessions during the winter.</p> +<p>But its antiquities—if antiquities are to be spoken of in this +country—are of some interest. Here an American Congress once assembled, +of which Franklin was a member. Whenever England and France contended +for mastery on this continent, many of the officers and troops of the +former halted here for a while, or passed on for the finally +accomplished object of the conquest of Canada. Here for a time were +Howe and Abercrombie, Amherst and Sir William Johnson; while, to the +French, it seems to have been the limit, which, though they burnt +Schenectady and ravaged the western part of the State, they seemed +scarcely able to reach.</p> +<p>Passing over intermediate occurrences, during the war of 1812 +there was here concentrated a large portion of the military force of +the United States, which went forth in all the pomp and circumstance of +war to its mingled career of defeat and success.</p> +<p>Two dwellings still remain in Albany dear to Revolutionary +memory—the residences of General Philip Schuyler and General Abraham +Ten Broeck. The latter was distinguished as <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_420"></a>[420]</span> +a brave and capable militia +officer. The services and talents of the former are not as yet +sufficiently appreciated. The wise man—the trusted of Washington—the +able statesman—who early pointed out the way to internal improvement in +the State of New-York, only needs an impartial and well-instructed +biographer to be duly known.</p> +<p>It is a matter of satisfaction that both of these +residences—crowning heights north and south of the city—are in +excellent preservation, owned by wealthy persons, and destined, we may +hope, to a long existence.</p> +<p>Governor Clinton occupied during his residence in Albany (part +of the time he was out of office) two different houses, which possess +an interest only inferior to those we have just mentioned. One of them, +formerly almost a country residence,—built by Peter W. Yates, an +eminent counsellor at law, and now owned by another of the same +name,—was, for a series of years, the dwelling-place of governors of +the State of New-York. Here Tompkins dispensed his hospitality, while +he wielded, in a manner but partially understood, the destinies of the +nation during the war of 1812; and from this beautiful seat he +departed, in an evil hour to himself, to be Vice-President of the +United States. Clinton succeeded. In this house he met with a severe +accident,—a fracture of the knee-pan from a fall; after a slow recovery +he was enabled to use the limb with but slight indication of the +injury. Still it prevented him from taking exercise on horseback, to +which he had been much accustomed, and it probably led to an increased +fulness of habit, in the later years of his life.</p> +<p>Subsequently to this he occupied a house (it was that in which +he died) in Pearl-street, built by Goldsboro Banyer, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_421"></a>[421]</span>one +of the last +deputy Secretaries of State of the Colony of New-York. It was +bequeathed to his son's widow, a daughter of Governor Jay, and on her +removal to New-York, was taken as a governor's residence.</p> +<p>It would scarcely be proper to conclude these sketches, +without briefly enumerating the services of DeWitt Clinton to his State +and country. Most of these were thought of, developed and produced +ready for adoption, within the sacred precincts of his "home."</p> +<p>As mayor of New-York, he was at that time head of the judicial +department of the city. Subsequently that officer has been relieved of +these duties, and several local courts have been found necessary, to +dispose of the cases which the tangled relations of commerce are +constantly bringing forth. Some records of his ability both as a civil +and a criminal judge still remain. A Catholic priest had been called +upon to disclose what had been communicated to him at the confessional. +In his opinion, Mr. Clinton sustained the sacred nature of the secret +thus imparted, and subsequent legislation, doubtless founded on this +case, extended the exemption not only to the clergyman, but also to the +physician. He also aided with great energy in putting down and +punishing riots, caused by excited political feelings. Nor should we +omit to say, that before him was tried the peculiar case of Whistelo, +in which the wit of Counsellor Sampson, and the peculiarities of Dr. +Samuel Latham Mitchill were equally conspicuous.</p> +<p>As a member of the Senate of New-York, he became <i>ex +officio</i> also a member of the highest court in the State—the +court for the trial of impeachments, and the correction of errors in +the inferior courts. Several of his decisions are to be <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_422"></a>[422]</span>found +in the +volumes of New-York State Reports. He grappled with the subjects of +insurance law, of libel, the power of committing for contempt, the +construction of the Habeas Corpus Act, and the effect of foreign +admiralty decisions. "Some of these," says Chancellor Kent, "are models +of judicial and parliamentary eloquence, and they all relate to +important questions, affecting constitutional rights and personal +liberty. They partake more of the character of a statesman's +discussions, than that of a dry technical lawyer, and are therefore +more interesting to the general scholar."</p> +<p>As a legislator, it is quite sufficient to refer to the long +list of laws drawn up and supported by him, as it is given in the +eighth chapter of Professor Renwick's life, to appreciate the high +class of subjects to which he applied his best efforts. We select only +a portion. An act respecting a digest of the public laws of the State. +An act to enlarge the powers of and to endow the Orphan Asylum +society,—to amend the insolvent laws, to prevent the inhuman treatment +of slaves, for the support of the quarantine establishment, to revise +and amend the militia law, to incorporate the society for the relief of +poor widows with small children, for promoting medical science, for the +further encouragement of free schools, for securing +to mechanics and others, payment for their labor and materials in the +city of New-York. It has been urged that others by their efforts, or +their votes, have been as useful as was Mr. Clinton, in procuring the +passage of these and similar laws. Be it so. It is not even attempted +to deny this. It would be treason to the great interests of humanity to +claim exclusive honor for a single man. But he knows little of +practical legislation, who is not perfectly aware how efficient <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_423"></a>[423]</span>and +important it is to have one individual, eminent in talents, high in +power, who is willing to initiate useful measures—propose their +adoption, and support them with his best abilities.</p> +<p>In the matter of the Canals of New-York, this is his high +honor; this his crowning glory. Even during life, he gave due credit to +all who suggested or supported the work; but his pre-eminent merit is, +that he adopted the canal policy as his own party policy. It has been +said, in words which cannot be bettered, that "in the great work of +internal improvement, he persevered through good report and through +evil report, with a steadiness of purpose that no obstacle could +divert; and when all the elements were in commotion around him, and +even his chosen associates were appalled, he alone, like Columbus, on +the wide waste of waters, in his frail bark with a dis-heartened and +unbelieving crew, remained firm, self-poised and unshaken."</p> +<p>Heaven in its goodness allowed life till the great work was +completed.</p> +<p>Of Governor Clinton's devotion to science and to literature, +of his patronage and support of societies and institutions, for their +diffusion, all are knowing; but it is not sufficiently understood, that +these were amateur pursuits, followed during hours that he could +scarcely spare from his legitimate duties. Whatever of imperfection or +of crudeness may therefore be found in them, should be charitably +considered.</p> +<p>His domestic habits were simple and unobtrusive. He was +industrious through life—the earliest riser in the house—frequently, if +not generally, making his office fire in the winter, and dispatching +most of his voluminous correspondence before the breakfast hour.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_424"></a>[424]</span> +In his family, he was every thing that became a man—a kind and +faithful husband; an affectionate, indeed indulgent father; a warm, +devoted, and often self-sacrificing friend. What wonder is it, that his +memory should continue to be cherished with sincere love and ever +increasing esteem.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus442"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 251px; height: 403px;" alt="H.K. Brown's Statue of Clinton." src="images/illus442.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">H.K. Brown's Statue of Clinton.</a></span></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_425"></a>[425]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="story"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Story.</span> +</h6> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_426"></a>[426]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_426"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 786px;" alt="Story's fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/story.png" /></a></div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_427"></a>[427]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus445"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 341px; height: 402px;" alt="Story's House at Cambridge, Mass." src="images/illus445.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Story's House at Cambridge, Mass.</a></span></p> +<h2>STORY.</h2> +<p>It is a common saying among lawyers, that in proportion to the +labor which their profession exacts, and the degree of distinction +which success confers upon them during their lifetime, their fate is a +hard one in the struggle for immortality. They are accustomed to say in +a tone of half complaint, that the zeal and ability which would earn +for them a cheap celebrity in some other pursuit, is expended upon the +establishing of some nice distinction, or the solving of some intricate +problem which no one but themselves can appreciate, and in which no one +but themselves (and their clients) take any interest. There is some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_428"></a>[428]</span> +truth in all this. The whole community stands ready to read the last +production of the literary man, so only that he make it worth reading, +and often without requiring even so much; whereas, the neatest point +that a lawyer could take is constitutionally repulsive to one-half of +creation, and dry and unmeaning to the greater part of the remainder. +Even those whose names are on the lips of men, owe their good fortune +often to something other than their law. If Blackstone were not among +the most classical writers of the English language, we should not have +lived to see twenty-one English editions of his Commentaries. He was +probably a less profound lawyer than several sergeants who practised +before him in the Court of Common Pleas, whose names would escape an +insertion in the most Universal Biographical Dictionary. So the +successful lawyer must content himself with his worldly prosperity,—if +in his lifetime he receives his good things, that must be his comfort, +and in truth it is no small one.</p> +<p>But the nature of a lawyer's employment, even if he combine +with it the kindred one of politics and legislation, is not apt to +invest his home with that attraction to the stranger which the home of +the literary man possesses. We are at once interested to know who the +author is, who has charmed us by the quaintness of his conceits, or the +freshness and purity of his style. We want to see the house and the +room, where those intricate plots are matured, or those lifelike +characters are first conceived. But Coke upon Littleton, seems pretty +much the same, whether read upon the green slope of a country hill, or +in the third story of an office down town. Besides, the author is at +liberty to seek the most secluded spots, and dwell amongst the most +romantic scenery, and surround himself with all that <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_429"></a>[429]</span>makes +life +beautiful to contemplate; and it is for his interest to do this, in +order that his mind may be kept open to impressions, his spirits +elevated and serene, and his whole life calm and happy. The lawyer on +the other hand, must seek communion, not with nature, but with men; he +must dwell among large communities, and rail even there where merchants +most do congregate.</p> +<p>The home of the distinguished lawyer and statesman whose name +is placed at the head of these lines, is an exception from the homes of +others of his peers; if it be true that it is the fate of a lawyer's +home to be an object of interest to its inmates alone. There was +something in his frank, enthusiastic and generous nature, which made +him always susceptible to the influences of home, and always fitted to +awake and to wield those enchantments with which a home is invested. +The secluded peninsula of Marblehead, with its long firm beach upon one +side, and its rocky precipitous shore upon the other, begirt on three +sides by the ever-changing Atlantic, is considered by his biographer to +have had its effect in moulding the character of the boy; and in the +quiet, tame inland beauty of Cambridge, with its academical +proprieties, and its level streets, and its spacious marshes, through +which the winding Charles "slips seaward silently;" many remain outside +of the family circle, to testify to the magical attraction which once +hung about the narrow brick house where he lived, and the cordial +greeting which the visitor received at the hands of its former occupant.</p> +<p>Judge Story was born in the antiquated, primeval fishing town +of Marblehead; a town presenting such a rocky and barren surface, that +when Whitfield entered it for the first time, he was fain to inquire, +"Pray, where do they bury their dead?" <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_430"></a>[430]</span> +Story himself speaks of his +birth-place as "a secluded fishing town, having no general connection +with other towns, and, not being a thoroughfare, without that +intercourse which brings strangers to visit it, or to form an +acquaintance with its inhabitants." In fact it could not well be a +thoroughfare, since it leads only from Salem to the sea, and the +inhabitants of the latter town have a sufficiently ready access of +their own. But though Marblehead with its scanty soil, and its isolated +position, is neither an Eden nor a thoroughfare, it is at least a stout +old place where men are grown; where an entire regiment was furnished +for the cause of American Independence, completely officered and manned +by brave men, to whom the dangers of war were but a continuation of +previous lives of peril, and who supplied besides more privateers than +history has recorded, to harass the enemy upon an element with which +they were more familiar.</p> +<p>The town of Marblehead is supported by the fishery business. A +large portion of its inhabitants are simple fishermen, whose manhood is +passed in voyages to the Great Banks, and voyages back; a constant +succession of those perils which are incident to the sea, with long +winter evenings of sailors' yarns and ghost stories, in one monotonous +round, till they finally depart<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"On that drear voyage from whose night</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +The ominous shadows never lift."</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>It was among a population of this kind, and at a time when a +long and disastrous war had crippled their resources, that the youthful +Story began with his accustomed enthusiasm to acquire that education +whose root is bitter when grown in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_431"></a>[431]</span> +most favorable soil. Without +advantages of good schooling, or a plentiful supply of books, he did +what thousands of others, great and small, have done and are doing; +that is, he acquired an education without the modern improvements on +which our boys rely, and whose value their parents and teachers are so +apt to over-estimate. In the shop of the Marblehead barber, the village +great men assembled to hear the news, and to hold forth upon the +condition and prospects of the young republic, as well as to have their +ambrosial locks powdered and their beards removed. Here, in place of +the modern lecture room, our young hero resorted, and listened +reverently to oracular utterances from wise mouths in the intervals of +the shaving brush and the razor. The village barber himself, endowed +with an easy garrulity, more natural and professional than the stately +reserve of his metropolitan brother, could, at his leisure, retail the +wisdom of his many councillors, diluted to the point where it admitted +of the mental digestion of a child.</p> +<p>This, together with the usual toils and discouragements of the +classics, and the hopes and fears which a college examination inspires, +made up a boy's life in Marblehead before this century began. The old +Judge, late in life recalling these early Marblehead times, speaks of +other influences, some of whose effect is, we imagine, derived from the +fact that he is viewing them in his maturity, as they then appear, +softened as seen down the long vista of nearly forty years. "My +delight," he says, "was to roam over the narrow and rude territory of +my native town; to traverse its secluded beaches and its shallow +inlets; to gaze upon the sleepless ocean; to lay myself down on the +sunny rocks, and listen to the deep tones of the rising and the falling +tides; to look abroad when the foaming waves <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_432"></a>[432]</span>were driven with +terrific +force and uproar against the barren cliffs or the rocky promontories, +which every where opposed their immovable fronts to resist them; to +seek, in the midst of the tremendous majesty of an eastern storm, some +elevated spot, where, in security, I could mark the mountain billow +break upon the distant shore, or dash its broken waters over the lofty +rocks which here and there stood along the coast, naked and +weather-beaten. But still more was I pleased in a calm, summer day, to +lay myself down alone on one of the beautiful heights which overlook +the harbor of Salem, and to listen to the broken sounds of the hammers +in the distant ship-yards, or to the soft dash of the oar of some +swift-moving boat, or to the soft ripple of the murmuring wave; or to +gaze on the swelling sail, or the flying bird, or the scarcely moving +smoke, in a revery of delicious indolence."</p> +<p>When Story left Marblehead and entered Harvard College in +1795, he was brought in contact with somewhat different circumstances +and different temptations from those which there await the youthful +student in these days. Coming from a small and tolerably illiterate +fishing town, into the midst of such literary shades, being in daily +converse with young men at an age when the mind is lively, and full of +the easy self-confidence which the mutual flattery of a College begets, +his enthusiasm was quickened anew, and his generous nature attacked on +its weakest side. "I seemed," he says, "to breathe a higher atmosphere, +and to look abroad with a wider vision and more comprehensive powers. +Instead of the narrow group of a village, I was suddenly brought into a +large circle of young men engaged in literary pursuits, and warmed and +cheered by the hopes of future eminence." There is, perhaps, no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_433"></a>[433]</span> +impropriety in saying, that at fifteen, we look abroad with a wider +vision and more comprehensive powers than we do at twelve, and such +young men as Channing, his friendly rival in College, and Tuckerman, +his chum, might well be warmed and cheered by the hopes of future +eminence. The students in those days enjoyed as much seclusion as now, +with perhaps a little less general culture and a little more +dissipation. But, as we have intimated, in some respects the changes +were greater. The anti-republican system of "fagging" had not then +become quite obsolete and forgotten, but existed at least in oral +tradition, whereas now, its less rigorous substitute has recently +fallen into disuse. In those days there was not even an unsuccessful +attempt, to render the intercourse between the Professors and the +students in any sense parental, but the formal and unconfiding manners +of the old school were preached, as well as practised. The line of +division between the College and the town was sharply drawn and +unhesitatingly maintained on the part of the former, and the +opportunities for social intercourse with Boston were comparatively +limited, when omnibuses were unknown, and the bridge regarded as a +somewhat hazardous speculation. Now the students are to be seen in +Washington street on Saturdays, and there is scarce an evening's +entertainment in Boston, without young representatives from Cambridge. +And the old town itself has added so many new houses to its former +number, that a great change is coming over the face of Cambridge +society. The term "the season" is beginning to have its proper +significance, the winter months being pretty well filled with the +customary social observances. It is true that the College is still the +controlling element. Festivities are mostly suspended during the first +two months of the year, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_434"></a>[434]</span> +which is the time of the winter vacation, and +revive again with the return of the spring and the students. But from +faint symptoms which may be detected by the anxious observer, there is +reason to fear that it may not be long before the great body of the +students will have cause on their part, to complain of that +exclusiveness which they have exercised as their prerogative for more +than two centuries.</p> +<p>The four short years of Story's undergraduate existence were +passed free, alike from this species of social pleasure and social +anxiety. He was naturally fond of company, and had a healthy, youthful +taste for conviviality; but he shrank instinctively from excesses, and +was, fortunately, also ambitious to win a high rank for scholarship. +His companions were of his own age, and those divinities who people the +inner chambers of a young man's fancy at the age of nineteen, were not +upon the spot to distract overmuch his attention from his studies. He +left his home within the College walls before he had arrived at +manhood, and returned again some thirty years after in the maturity of +his powers, to repay to his foster mother the debt which he owed for +his education, by imparting to her younger children the results of his +experience. Cambridge is to be considered as his home; it was there +that he won his greatest fame, it was there that he fondly turned to +refresh himself after his labors on the full bench and the circuit; +this was the home of his affections and his interests, and there his +earnest and active life was brought to its calm and peaceful close.</p> +<p>In Brattle-street, a little distance on the road from the +Colleges to Mount Auburn, there stands a narrow brick house, with its +gable end to the street, facing the east, and a long <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_435"></a>[435]</span>piazza +on its +southern side. It is situated just at the head of Appian Way—not the +Queen of Ways, leading from Rome to Brundusium, over which Horace +journeyed in company with Virgil, and Paul's brethren came to meet him +as far as Appii Forum and The Three Taverns, but a short lane, boasting +not many more yards than its namesake miles; leading from Cambridge +Common to Brattle-street, journeyed over by hurrying students with +Horace and Virgil under their arms, without a single tavern in it, and +hardly long enough to accommodate three. The external appearance of the +house would hardly attract or reward the attention of the passer by. It +stands by itself, looking as much too high for its width as an ordinary +city residence in New-York, that has sprung up in advance of the rest +of its block. The street in which it stands is flat and shady, but +wonderfully dusty nevertheless, for Cambridge is a town<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"Where dust and mud the equal year divide."</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>The old inhabitants may be supposed to be reconciled to that +dust, of which they are made, and to which they naturally expect in a +few years to return. Thus Lowell finds it in his heart to sing the +praises of Cambridge soil,<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +"Dear native town! whose choking elms each year</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +With eddying dust before their time turn gray, </span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +Pining for rain,—to me thy dust is dear;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +It glorifies the eve of Summer day." </span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>But, however native Cantabs may feel, the temporary resident +hails the friendly watering-cart, which appears at intervals in the +streets, since the old town has changed itself into a city.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_436"></a>[436]</span> +A flower-garden on the south side, separates Judge Story's +house from the village blacksmith, who has had the rare happiness of +being celebrated in the verses of his two fellow-townsmen, the poets +Longfellow and Lowell;<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +"Under a spreading chestnut tree,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +The village smithy stands;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +The smith, a mighty man is he,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +With large and sinewy hands,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +And the muscles of his brawny arm</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Are strong as iron bands.</span></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +"His hair is crisp, and black, and long,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +His face is like the tan,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +His brow is wet with honest sweat,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +He earns whatever he can,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +And looks the whole world in the face</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +For he owes not any man.</span></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +"Week in, week out, from morn to night,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +You can hear his bellows blow;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +With measured beat and slow,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +Like a sexton ringing the village bell</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +When the evening sun is low.</span></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +"And children coming home from school</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Look in at the open door;</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +They love to see the flaming forge,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +And hear the bellows roar,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +And catch the burning sparks that fly</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Like chaff from a threshing floor."</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>Among the children who thus looked in upon the old smith in +former days, was Lowell himself, who has embodied this juvenile +reminiscence in a few lines, which may be appropriately inserted here, +and the curious reader may contrast the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_437"></a>[437]</span> +image they contain, with the +parallel one in the concluding lines from Longfellow, quoted above.<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"How many times prouder than King on throne,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +Loosed from the village school-dame's A's and B's,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Panting have I the creaky bellows blown,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +And watched the pent volcano's red increase,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +Then paused to see the ponderous sledge brought down</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +By that hard arm voluminous and brown,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="poem"> +From the white iron swarm its golden vanishing bees."</span></span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>The village blacksmith is dead now; the fires which he lighted +in the forge have gone out, and an unknown successor wields the sledge, +which may still be heard as ever, from the piazza of his neighbor's +house, and down the road on the other side, as far as the row of +lindens which overshadow a mansion once inhabited by the worthy old +Tory, Brattle, who has given his name to the street.</p> +<p>The external appearance of Judge Story's house does not add +much to the poetry of its surroundings. It runs back in an irregular +way, a long distance from the street, and at its furthermost end, in +the second story, is, or used to be, the library, commanding the same +view which constituted such a recommendation to Dick Swiveller's house, +namely, the opposite side of the way. There is not, therefore, an +opportunity for much romance to cluster about it, nor is its +attractiveness increased, when the reader is reminded that the story +beneath answered the purposes of a woodshed. But the house which +witnessed the daily labors of such a man, need not covet or pretend to +those outside attractions which it unquestionably lacks.</p> +<p>Judge Story removed to Cambridge, for the purpose of taking +charge of the Law-school connected with the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_438"></a>[438]</span> +University. This +institution had just received an endowment from Nathan Dane, which, +together with the labors and reputation of the new Professor, were the +prime causes of its establishment upon such a durable foundation, that +the number of its students was increased five fold. From this period, +his time was divided among Washington, during the sitting of the +Supreme Court, the first circuit in the New-England States, and +Cambridge, which henceforward was his home. The Law-school he regarded +as his favorite and most important field of labor, and always recurred +to his connection with it, with pleasure and pride; and a word +concerning this Institution may, with propriety, be coupled with a +description of his personal habits, so that both together will furnish, +better than any thing else, a correct picture of the daily life of the +man.</p> +<p>At the time that Story accepted the Dane Professorship in the +Law-school in Cambridge he had already achieved the labor of a +lifetime. A lucrative business at the bar, was quitted for a seat upon +the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. He began his +political life as a democrat and stanch supporter of Jefferson, when +there were not many such in Massachusetts; but in later life he became +a whig. The natural effect of a judicial station upon a mind like his, +was to make him cautious and conservative; and he finally seemed a +little distrustful of even the party with which he was associated. In +the convention of 1820, which formed the existing constitution of +Massachusetts, he took an active part with such men as Webster, Parker, +Quincy and Prescott, and many of our important mercantile +statutes and bankrupt laws were drawn by him, nearly, or quite in the +form in which they were finally passed by Congress. He had been for +about eighteen <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_439"></a>[439]</span> +years an associate Justice of the Supreme Court, when, +without resigning that position, he assumed the almost equally onerous +duties of a Professor of Law. This new field of activity was entered +upon with earnestness and zeal, and it is not necessary to state the +success with which his efforts were attended. Towards the students his +manner was familiar and affectionate. He was fond of designating them +as "my boys," and without assuming any superiority, or exacting any +formal respect, he participated so far as he was able in their success +and failure; and extended beyond the narrow period of the school, far +into active life, that interest in their behalf which he had contracted +as their teacher. His lectures upon what are commonly considered the +dry topics of the law, were delivered with enthusiasm, and illustrated +with copious anecdotes from the store-house of his memory and his +experience, and filled with episodes which were suggested to his active +mind at almost every step. Indeed, if one were disposed to point out +his prominent fault as a legal writer, he would probably select that +diffuseness of style and copiousness of illustration, which, though it +contributes somewhat to fulness and perspicuity, does it nevertheless +at the cost of convenient brevity; which can more easily be dispensed +with in a poem than in a law-book. But that characteristic which might +perhaps be considered as a blemish in his legal treatises, only +rendered him better, qualified for a successful oral lecturer. A +printed volume admits of the last degree of condensation, because +repeated perusals of one page will effect every thing which could be +expected from a prolonged discussion over many; and to text-books of +law, the student or the practitioner resort principally for a statement +of results, with the addition of only so much general reasoning as may +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_440"></a>[440]</span> +render the results intelligible. In an oral lecture on the other hand, +as the attention cannot be arrested; or time taken to overcome +difficulties, repetition and reiteration, so far from being a blemish, +is a merit. To these qualifications Story added engaging manners, and a +personal presence, which gave him extraordinary influence over the +young men who crowded to receive the benefit of his instructions. His +zeal was contagious, and awakened similar feelings in his hearers, and +the enthusiasm of the speaker and the audience acted and reacted upon +each other. Many anecdotes are related to show the interest in the +study of the law, which, under his magical influence, was awakened, not +only among the few who are naturally studious, but among the whole body +of the students almost without exception.</p> +<p>Saturday is a day of rest in Cambridge by immemorial usage. To +force upon the undergraduates a recitation on Saturday afternoon, would +outrage their feelings to such an extent, as to justify in their +opinion a resort to the last appeal, namely, a rebellion. Yet under +Story's ministrations the law-students were eager to violate the +sacredness of Saturday, to which the Judge assented, animated by a zeal +superior to their own. So that the whole week was devoted to lectures, +and the conducting in moot courts of prepared cases. "I have given," +says the Judge in a letter to a friend, "nearly the whole of last term, +when not on judicial duty, two lectures every day, and even broke in +upon the sanctity of the <i>dies non juridicus</i>, +Saturday. It was carried by acclamation in the school; so that you see +we are alive." One of the pupils describes a similar incident; a case +was to be adjourned, and Saturday seemed the most convenient time, "the +counsel were <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_441"></a>[441]</span> +anxious to argue it; but unwilling to resort to that +extreme measure. Judge Story said—Gentlemen, the only time we can hear +this case, is Saturday afternoon. This is <i>dies non</i>, +and no one is obliged or expected to attend. I am to hold Court in +Boston until two o'clock. I will ride directly out, take a hasty +dinner, and be here by half-past three o'clock, and hear the case, if +you are willing. He looked round the school for a reply. We felt +ashamed, in our own business in which we were alone interested, to be +outdone in zeal and labor by this aged and distinguished man, to whom +the case was but child's play, a tale twice told and who was himself +pressed down by almost incredible labors. The proposal was unanimously +accepted." The same interesting communication describes the scene which +took place when the Judge returned to Cambridge in the winter from +Washington. "The school was the first place he visited after his own +fireside. His return, always looked for, and known, filled the library. +His reception was that of a returned father. He shook all by the hand, +even the most obscure and indifferent; and an hour or two was spent in +the most exciting, instructive, and entertaining descriptions and +anecdotes of the events of the term. Inquiries were put by the students +from different States, as to leading counsel, or interesting causes +from their section of the country; and he told us as one would have +described to a company of squires and pages, a tournament of monarchs +and nobles on fields of cloth of gold:—how Webster spoke in this case, +Legaré or Clay, or Crittenden, General Jones, Choate or Spencer, in +that; with anecdotes of the cases and points, and all the currents of +the heady fight."</p> +<p>Judge Story's gracious and dignified demeanor upon the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_442"></a>[442]</span>bench +is too well known, and not closely enough connected with an account of +his home life, to justify a description here. All who have spoken upon +the subject, have borne witness to the kindness and courtesy with which +he treated the bar, particularly the younger members, who most need, +and best appreciate such consideration. No lawyer was provoked by +captious remarks, or mortified by inattention or indifference, or that +offensive assumption of superiority which places the counsel at such +disadvantage with the judge, and lowers his credit with his clients and +the spectators. With novices at the bar his manner was patient and +encouraging, with the leaders whose position was nearly level with his +own, attentive, cordial, at times even familiar, but always dignified. +Among the prominent lawyers upon the Maine circuit, was his classmate +in college, and intimate friend, Hon. Stephen Longfellow, the father of +the poet, of whom the following story is told. When any objection or +qualification was started by the Court, to a point which he was +pressing upon its attention, too courteous to question or oppose the +opinion of the Judge, he would escape under this formula, "But there is +this <i>distinction</i>, may it please your honor;" which +distinction, when it came to be stated, was often so exceedingly thin, +that its existence could be discerned only by the learned gentleman +himself. This little mannerism was known and observed among his friends +in the profession, one of whom now living composed and passed round the +bar this epitaph: "Here lies Stephen Longfellow, LL. D. Born +&c. Died &c. With this <i>Distinction</i>. +That such a man can never die." This epitaph reached the bench; and Mr. +Longfellow himself, who not long afterwards on an argument, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_443"></a>[443]</span>was +met by +a question from the Judge. "But, may it please your honor, there is +this dis——" "Out with it, brother Longfellow," said Judge Story with a +good-humored smile. But it would not come. The epitaph records the +death of the distinction.</p> +<p>The interest which Judge Story felt in the prosperity of his +University, was not wholly confined to the Law-school, with which he +was immediately connected. He was one of the overseers of the College, +and entered warmly and prominently into every question affecting the +welfare of the Institution; from an elaborate and recondite argument +upon the meaning of the word "Fellows," in the charter of the +college,—the doubt being, whether none but resident instructors were +eligible as Fellows, or whether the word is merely synonymous with <i>socius</i> +or associate,—down to a reform in the social observances of the +students upon the occasion of what is called Class Day. The old custom +had been for the students on the last day of their meeting, before +Commencement, to partake together of an undefined quantity of punch +from a large reservoir of that beverage previously prepared. In more +modern times, this habit came to be justly considered as subversive of +sobriety and good order, and it was proposed to recast entirely the +order of exercises. Of this reform Judge Story was an advocate; he was +present at the first celebration under the new order of things, and was +much gratified and elated at the change. Class Day is now the +culminating point of the student's life—the exercises are an oration +and poem in the morning, and a ball and reception in the afternoon and +evening. More ladies visit the College on that day, than on any other, +and the students have <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_444"></a>[444]</span> +in lieu of their punch the less intoxicating +recreation of a polka.</p> +<p>Judge Story was about five feet eight inches tall, not above +the middle height, with a compact and solid figure; and active and +rapid in his movements. He seldom, if ever, loitered along; his +customary gait was hasty and hurried, and he had a habit of casting +quick eager glances about him as he moved. The expression of his face +was animated and changing, his eyes were blue, his mouth large, his +voice clear and flexible, and his laugh hearty and exhilarating. Late +in life he was bald upon the top of his head, and his white hair below, +and the benign expression of his countenance, gave him a dignified and +venerable appearance, particularly when seated upon the bench. His +personal habits were regular and systematic in the extreme. He never +rose before seven, and was always in bed by half-past ten. His +constitution required eight good hours of sleep, and he did not +hesitate to gratify it in that particular. It was never intended that +all men should rise at the same hour, and it is no great exercise of +virtue on the part of those who do not enjoy sleep, to get up early. +After breakfasting he read a newspaper for a half hour, and then worked +faithfully, till called off to attend the lecture room or the court. +After dinner he resumed his labors so long as daylight lasted, and the +evening was devoted until bedtime to light reading, or social +recreation in the midst of his family. He could pass easily from one +species of employment to another without loss of time, and by working +steadily when he did work, he was enabled to go through a very great +amount of labor without any excessive fatigue or exhaustion. In this +way his life was <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_445"></a>[445]</span> +prolonged, and he retained to the last, undisturbed +possession of all his faculties. He died in September 1845, at the age +of sixty-six, having been for thirty-four years a Judge of the Supreme +Court of the United States, and for sixteen years a Professor of law in +the school at Cambridge.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_447"></a>[447]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="wheaton"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Wheaton.</span> +</h6> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_448"></a>[448]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_448"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 780px;" alt="Wheaton fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/wheaton.png" /></a></div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_449"></a>[449]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus467"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 365px; height: 403px;" alt="Wheaton's Residence Near Copenhagen." src="images/illus467.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Wheaton's Residence Near Copenhagen.</a></span></p> +<h2>WHEATON.</h2> +<p>Among the persons whom religious persecution compelled to +leave England during the reign of Charles I., and seek an asylum in the +new world, was Robert Wheaton, a Baptist clergyman. He first +established himself in Salem, but when the intolerance of that +community led those of his persuasion to remove elsewhere, he joined +Roger Williams, and assisted him in founding the now flourishing State +of Rhode Island.</p> +<p>From him Henry Wheaton was descended. He was born in +Providence, 1786, and entered Rhode Island College at the age of +thirteen. He was already remarkable for his love of <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_450"></a>[450]</span>reading, +particularly in the branches of history and literature, and appears to +have studied more from the pleasure he had in the acquisition of +knowledge, than from any love of distinction. He graduated at the age +of seventeen, and immediately after entered upon the study of the law, +in compliance with his father's wishes rather than from personal +inclination; for at that period he is said not to have entertained any +particular leaning towards the legal profession. In 1806 he went abroad +to complete his education. He passed some time at Poitiers, where he +learned to speak and write French fluently, and had an opportunity of +studying French law, and especially the Code Napoleon, which had then +but recently been promulgated. He also attended the courts of justice, +and heard some of the most distinguished lawyers of the time, of whose +eloquence he often spoke in his letters to his family. He always +recurred with pleasure in later years to the time he passed at +Poitiers. The kindness he experienced from the family in which he +lived, the graceful politeness and cheerfulness of the French +character, gave him ever after a predilection in favor of France. After +spending a few weeks in Paris, he went to England, where he applied +himself to the study of English law. He was often at the house of Mr. +Monroe, then our Minister in London, who seems to have taken some pains +to converse with him on the political and social state of Europe. +Perhaps these conversations contributed to form his taste for +diplomatic life, in which he was destined to play so distinguished a +part, and also to lead him in its course to show that willingness to +impart information of a similar kind, to the young men by whom he was +himself surrounded, which was so pleasing a trait in his character.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_451"></a>[451]</span> +Soon after his return from Europe he was admitted to the bar +in his native State, where he continued to practise till 1813. At that +period, feeling the want of a wider field in which to exercise his +talents, he determined, having previously married his cousin, the +daughter of Dr. Wheaton of Providence, to remove to New-York with his +wife. We must not omit to mention, that before leaving Providence he +pronounced a Fourth of July Oration, in which he spoke with generous +indignation of the bloody wars which then distracted Europe, and the +disastrous consequences of which his residence in France had given him +an opportunity to observe. But although thus warmly opposed to wars of +conquest, there were cases in which he deemed resistance a sacred duty; +he therefore zealously devoted his pen to encouraging his +fellow-countrymen in resisting the unjust encroachments of England. +During two years he edited the National Advocate, and the spirit as +well as the fairness with which its leading articles were written, +insured the success of the paper, and established his reputation in +New-York. At the same time he held the office of Justice of the Marine +Court, and for a few months that also of Army Judge Advocate. In 1815 +he returned to the practice of his profession, and published in the +same year a Treatise on the Law of Maritime Captures and Prizes, which +Mr. Reddie of Edinburgh has since pronounced to have been the best work +then published on the subject; no small praise, if we consider that Mr. +Wheaton was only thirty years of age at the time it was written. In +1816 he was named Reporter of the Supreme Court at Washington, and +continued to hold this place until 1827. The Reports, of which he +published a volume yearly, and which were highly esteemed by American +lawyers, were <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_452"></a>[452]</span> +abridged without his consent soon after he went abroad. +The publication of this abridgment occasioned a lawsuit, which ended +only with his life. The following letter, for which we are indebted to +the kindness of Professor Parsons, of the Law-school in Cambridge, +will, we think, be read with interest. We must only remark, that it is +an error to suppose that Mr. Wheaton shunned general society after he +went to Europe; he joined in it, on the contrary, more than is usual to +men of his age in our country.</p> +<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cambridge, May 22, 1853. +</span></div> +<p>"I am very glad to offer even a slight contribution to this +memorial, of one so worthy of all respect as the late Mr. Wheaton. And +you must permit me to express the hope that the sketch you now propose +to make, will hereafter be expanded into that history of his life and +exhibition of his character, which should be given to the world, in +justice to him and to the very many to whom it would be most +acceptable. I can speak of him from personal acquaintance, only after a +long interval, when even recollections so pleasant as those of my +intercourse with him have become somewhat dim.</p> +<p>"It was at the very close of the year 1821, that I went to +Washington, to pass some months there. The commissioners to distribute +the money due to American citizens under the then recent treaty with +Spain, began their sessions that winter. Mr. Webster was employed by +most of the large claimants in New England, and I went with him to +assist him generally, and also charged by some of those claimants with +the especial care of their interests. In New-York I became acquainted +with Mr. Wheaton; and he was with us during a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_453"></a>[453]</span> +part of the journey to +Washington. As fellow-travellers, we became intimate, and during the +whole of my stay in Washington,—nearly three months,—this intimacy was +kept up. From many parts of the country, eminent lawyers were at +Washington, in attendance upon the Supreme Court, or charged with the +care of cases before the commissioners under the Spanish treaty, and I +was meeting them continually in society; and I had the good fortune +also to, become acquainted with many of the most distinguished members +of government and of Congress, and visited freely in the whole +range—then less broad than now—of society in Washington.</p> +<p>"Wherever I went I met Mr. Wheaton. Every where he was upon +the footing, not of a received, but of a welcomed guest; and he seemed +to be most intimate in the best houses. It was easy to see the cause of +this. His important position as Reporter of the decisions of the +Supreme Court of the United States—which office he had then held for +six years—brought him into immediate contact not only with the judges +of the court, but with all who practised in it; and it might be +supposed that with them he would be on terms of intimacy and +friendship. But there was something in the character of that +friendship, that no mere position explained; and he inspired an equally +warm regard in many who never met him in his official duties. Among all +his friends, if I were to name any persons, I think it would be Mr. +Webster himself, who treated him as he might a brother; Sir Stratford +Canning, Minister from England, and M. de Neuville, the French +Minister, who appeared to give tone and character to Washington society +so far as any persons can influence elements so diversified and +refractory, and in whose houses he stood on the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_454"></a>[454]</span>footing +of a +confidential friend; Mr Lowndes of South Carolina, a most wise and +excellent man; and lastly and most of all, Chief Justice Marshall. Let +me pause a moment to say one word of this great and good man, to whose +greatness and whose goodness, equally, this country is, and while its +prosperity endures, will be indebted; for his greatness rested upon his +goodness as its foundation. Even his wide and accurate learning, his +clear and close reasoning, his profound insight into the true merits +and exact character and bearing of every question, and the unerring +sagacity which enabled him to see the future in the present; all these +together, and whatever more there might have been of merely +intellectual power, would not have enabled him to lay the foundations +of our national and constitutional jurisprudence with the depth, +breadth, and firmness, which all attacks upon them have, as yet, only +made more apparent, if it had not been for his moral character. Here +lay the inmost secret of his power. Men felt, and the nation felt, his +incorruptibility; meaning by this, not merely the absence of that baser +and more obvious selfishness, which most men of decent self-respect +overcome or suppress; but his perfect and manifest freedom from all +motives and all influences whatever, which could tend to cloud or warp +his understanding, or qualify the utterance of his wisdom. He did not +stand before us a man of living ice, perfectly safe because perfectly +cold; for he was affectionate and gentle as a child; excitable even to +enthusiasm, when that kind heart was touched; listening, not only with +an equal strength to the strongest, but with a perfect sympathy to the +eloquent, and with a charming courtesy to all. There he stood, and no +one ever saw him and heard him, and did not know that his one <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_455"></a>[455]</span>wish +was +to do his great duty; and that his admirable intellect came to its +daily tasks, and did them, wholly free from all possible distortion or +disturbance, not because he was strong enough to repel all the +influences of party, or passion, or prejudice, or interest, or personal +favor, but because none of these things could come near enough to him +to be repelled. By the happy constitution of his nature, there was no +flaw in him to give entrance to any thing which, could draw him one +hair's breadth aside from the straight course of truth and justice, and +of the law, which in his mind was but their embodiment and voice. Of +this good and great man there is as yet no adequate memorial; and it +would require a strong hand, and if not an equal, at least a +sympathizing mind and heart, to construct one which shall indeed be +adequate. But I indulge the hope that it will be given to us before the +generation which knew him shall pass wholly away. And you, I am sure, +will pardon me for using this opportunity to render to his cherished +memory this slight and evanescent tribute. I do but indulge myself in +saying a part of what I have frequent occasion to say to the many +students to whom it is my official duty to teach the law of their +country as well as I can, and therefore to speak often of Marshall.</p> +<p>"The Chief Justice treated Mr. Wheaton with the fondest +regard, and this example would have had its influence had it been +necessary; but in fact the best men then in Washington were on the most +intimate and confidential terms with him. The simple truth is, that +universal respect was rendered to him because he deserved it. He was a +gentleman: and therefore the same gentleman to all and under all +circumstances; yes, he was indeed and emphatically a gentleman, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_456"></a>[456]</span> +combined—with no base admixture—all the elements which go to compose +what we mean, or should mean, by that word, as thoroughly as any one +that I have ever known.</p> +<p>"I did not meet him after leaving Washington until a short +time before his death, and then not often. I saw very little change in +his manner, for he appeared to be as glad as I was to revive the +pleasant recollections of that distant winter. But I have been told +that after he went abroad, he was considered somewhat silent, and even +disposed to avoid rather than seek general society. I cannot say how +this was during those later years; but when I knew him in Washington, +no one more enjoyed society, and few sought it more, or were more +sought by it. He was,—not perhaps gay,—but eminently cheerful; and his +manner was characterized by that forgetfulness of self, which, as in +great things, it forms the foundation for the highest excellence, so in +the lesser matters of social intercourse it imparts a perpetual charm, +and constitutes almost of itself, the essence of all true politeness.</p> +<p>There was with Mr. Wheaton, no watching of opportunity for +display; no indifference and want of interest when the topics of +conversation, or the parties, or other circumstances, made it +impossible for him to occupy the foreground; no skilful diversion of +the conversation into paths which led to his strongholds, where he +might come forth with peculiar advantage. Still less did he—as in this +country so many do—play out in society the game of life, by using it +only as a means of promoting his personal or professional objects. +Certainly, one may sometimes help himself importantly in this way. Very +useful acquaintances may thus be made and cultivated, who might be +rather shy if directly approached. Facts may be <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_457"></a>[457]</span>learned, +and +opportunities for advancement early discovered, or effectually laid +hold of, by one who circulates widely in a society like that in +Washington, or indeed any where. Nor perhaps should it be a ground of +reproach to any one, that in a reasonable way and to a reasonable +extent, he seeks and cultivates society for this purpose. But, whatever +may be the moral aspect of this matter, or whatever the degree in which +conduct of this kind is or is not justifiable, there was in Mr. +Wheaton's demeanor nothing of this; nothing of it in appearance, +because nothing of it in fact; for one who is mainly, or in any +considerable degree governed by a purpose of this kind, must be cunning +indeed, to hide it effectually; and cunning of any sort, was a quality +of which he had none whatever. Every body felt and knew this: and +therefore every body met him with a sense of confidence and repose, +which of itself would go far in making any person more acceptable as a +friend or as a mere companion, in a society of which the very surface +constantly exhibited the many whirling under currents of Washington +life. In one word, there was in him nothing of <i>trick</i>; +but that constant and perfect suavity which is the spontaneous +expression of universal kindness; and an excellent understanding, well +and widely cultivated, and always ready to bring forth all its +resources, not to help himself, but to help or gratify others, and all +others with whom he came into contact, and all this, with no appearance +of purpose or design of any kind; for it was but the natural outpouring +of mind and heart, of one who was open to the widest sympathy, and +whose interest in all persons and things about him was most real and +honest, because he loved nothing so well as to do all the good he +could, by word or deed, or little or much, to one, or few, or many. <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_458"></a>[458]</span>He +was therefore most popular in society. But when we speak of Mr. +Wheaton's social <i>popularity</i>, we must be careful to +use this word in a higher than its common sense; and if I have made +myself at all intelligible, I think you will understand both the cause +and the character of that popularity.</p> +<p>"And more than this I cannot say. Time has effaced from my +memory details and especial circumstances; nor can I therefore, by +their help, illustrate this slight sketch of Mr. Wheaton's character +and position, during those pleasant months which he helped so much to +make pleasant. Of these particulars, my recollection is dim enough. But +no lapse of time will efface from my mind the clear and distinct +recollection of the high excellence of his character, or the charms of +his conversation and manners; nor shall I ever lose any portion of the +affection and respect with which I regard his memory.</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="poem"> +"I am, very sincerely,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><span class="poem"> +"Your friend and obedient servant,</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><span class="poem"> +"<span class="smcap">Theophilus Parsons.</span>"</span></span><br /> +</p> +<p> <span class="smcap">Cambridge</span>, May +23, 1853.<br /> +</p> +<p>In 1821, Mr. Wheaton was elected a member of theConvention +for revising the Constitution of the State of New-York, which having +been formed amid the tumults and perils of war, seemed defective and +insufficient to the wants of a richer, more enlightened, and more +numerous society. In his sittings he turned his attention more +particularly to the organization of the tribunals. In 1824, he was +appointed by the New-York Legislature a member of the commission +appointed to draw up the civil and criminal code of the State, a work +in which he continued to be engaged until 1827. It has been remarked +that this <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_459"></a>[459]</span> +was the first effort made by any State possessing the common +law, to reduce its disconnected and diffusive legislation to the unity +of a code; so that his name is thus connected with one of the most +important landmarks in the history of American law.</p> +<p>It may easily be imagined, that a person of so serious and +thoughtful a disposition could not have failed at some period of his +life, to turn his attention to the important subject of religion. While +in college, and during the ensuing years, he had studied deeply the +works of the great English theologians, and when the Unitarian Church +was established in New-York, he united himself with it.</p> +<p>His other occupations did not prevent him from entering into +literary pursuits. In 1820 he pronounced a discourse before the +Historical Society of New-York, and in 1824, one at the opening of the +New-York Athenęum, both of which are considered to have unusual merit; +he was in the habit of contributing to the North American Review, and +also translated the Code Napoleon. Unfortunately, this manuscript and +some other interesting papers were soon after destroyed by fire. In +1826 he published the life of William Pinkney, whom he had known in +Washington, and for whom he had the highest regard and admiration. This +he afterwards abridged for Sparks's American Biography. His familiarity +with the French language, laws, and customs, led to an intimacy with +most of the exiles whom the downfall of Napoleon brought to this +country. Count Réal, the minister of police under the empire, Count +Regnault, the most brilliant orator of that time, General Bernard and +Prince Achille Murat, all considered him as a friend, and retained as +long as they lived a warm recollection of the kind welcome they had +found at his house.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_460"></a>[460]</span> +In 1827 he was appointed by President Adams, Chargč d'Affaires +to Denmark, and charged with negotiations the object of which was to +obtain an indemnity for the American vessels seized during the last war +between France and England. He embarked in July for England, where he +had the satisfaction of again seeing the friends whose kindness had +made his first visit to that country so pleasant, and also of meeting +some of the most distinguished literary and legal characters of the +day. Among the former, was Dr. Bowring, with whom he afterwards became +intimate, and who was indeed one of the warmest friends he had in +Europe.</p> +<p>Although the first few months passed in Copenhagen were not +without the trials attendant on a removal to a foreign home, and in +this instance were still more overshadowed by the news of his father's +death, and by the illness and death of his wife's brother, who had gone +with them, Mr. Wheaton soon became acclimated, formed pleasant +acquaintances among his colleagues and among the Danes, who are +remarkably kind and hospitable to foreigners, and availed himself of +the resources the country offered to one of his tastes. The letter to +Judge Story, of which we give a <i>fac-simile</i>, will +show his first impressions of Copenhagen.</p> +<p>The climate of Denmark is damp like that of England, and its +verdure quite as beautiful. Copenhagen is prettily situated, and +contains as many objects of interest as any city of the size in Europe. +It has fine palaces, a military and a naval academy, admirable +hospitals, an extensive public library, a valuable collection of +Northern antiquities, a good gallery of pictures, and fine public +walks. The vicinity of the capital, although level, is highly +cultivated, and affords a number of charming <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_461"></a>[461]</span>residences. The +most +pleasant of these are situated on the Strandvei, a road which runs +along the shore of the Baltic to the Dyr-Hange, a fine park well +stocked with deer, which is a favorite place of resort during the +summer season to the Danes, who enjoy out-of-door life as much as the +inhabitants of a Southern clime. Many of the houses which stand at +intervals along the pleasant Strandvei are rented by their proprietors +to foreigners. Of one of those occupied by Mr. Wheaton and his family, +we engrave a cut, from a view painted by an artist of the country. It +stood, and still stands, at some distance from the road, with a green +lawn before it, and surrounded by lilacs, laburnums and beech-trees, +whose white bark and light green leaves give a peculiar character to +the scenery of Denmark. From the windows of the house the blue waves of +the Baltic, studded with every variety of sail, may be seen, and in +clear weather the opposite coast of Sweden is discernible. The road is +enlivened by the brilliant equipages of the Royal family and nobility, +by the Holstein-wagen, long open carriages which contain ten persons, +two only being seated abreast, and much used for parties of pleasure, +and by the women from the neighboring fishing villages, with their +green petticoats and red boddices, carrying large baskets of fish to +the city.</p> +<p>At the time of Mr. Wheaton's arrival in Denmark, Count +Schimmelmann occupied the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. This +nobleman was possessed of great talents and worth, and for nearly +thirty years was employed in the service of his government. Although a +great part of his income was derived from his estates in the Danish +West Indies, it was chiefly by his influence that the emancipation of +the negroes was effected. He was a generous patron of art and science, +and one of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_462"></a>[462]</span> +earliest friends of Niebuhr. By such a man Mr. Wheaton +could not fail to be appreciated; and although the business transacted +between them was of a delicate, and to the Danish government, which had +been greatly impoverished by the war, of a trying nature, these +meetings were always pleasant to both. The negotiations were terminated +in 1831, by the signature of a convention, by which the American +government obtained nearly all it had demanded.</p> +<p>While thus engaged, Mr. Wheaton had not neglected the literary +pursuits to which, in moments of leisure, he always turned with +pleasure. He prepared himself by the study of the languages, +literature, and history of Northern Europe, for writing a work which +was published in London, in 1831, under the title of History of the +Northmen. At that period, Scandinavia was a new, and almost untrodden +field, but although much has since been added to the information we +then possessed respecting its history and antiquities, this work is +still considered very valuable by those who take an interest in the +subject to which it relates. It was translated into French in 1842, and +a new edition of it being desired in this country, Mr. Wheaton +undertook the task of preparing it, but did not live to complete it.</p> +<p>In the course of these studies he became acquainted with the +most distinguished literary characters of Denmark, such as Bask, Rafn, +Finn-Magnusen, the poet Ohlenschläger, Münter, Bishop of Zealand, and +others. We must not omit to add Madame Frederika Brun, the sister of +Münter, and herself a poetess of celebrity, whose splendid mansion in +Copenhagen and charming country-seat of Fredericksdal, were for many +years the resort of the most distinguished persons in Denmark.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_463"></a>[463]</span> +It was in 1835 that he bade adieu to the country where nine +pleasant years had been passed, and where his amiable disposition, high +integrity and talents, had won him many friends. For more than a +quarter of a century, our country had had no representative in Prussia; +but our increased trade with Germany rendering it important that we +should renew our relations with that country, he was appointed by +President Jackson, Minister Resident to the court of Prussia. On his +arrival in Berlin, his new colleagues took pleasure in pointing out to +him the house which had been the residence of his predecessor, John +Quincy Adams, so long before.</p> +<p>Mr. Ancillon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was the +descendant of a Huguenot family, who, after the revocation of the Edict +of Nantes, sought an asylum in Germany, and is even better known as a +philosophical writer and historian, than as a statesman. To him Mr. +Wheaton presented his credentials, and as the King, Frederick William +III., and his ministers, soon after left Berlin, according to custom, +for the summer months, he devoted the interval to visiting the Rhenish +provinces, in order to examine their resources and report to Government +concerning them. During the ensuing summers he made excursions into +different parts of Germany with the same object. In his private +letters, he speaks with delight of the beauty and fertility of the +country, to which historical associations gave additional charm in his +eyes. In a dispatch, he says: "Having diligently explored every state +and every province, comprehended in the Customs-Association, with the +view of studying their economical resources, I have been forcibly +struck with the vast variety and rich productions with which Heaven has +endowed this beautiful and highly favored land. Its fields teem <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_464"></a>[464]</span>with +luxuriant harvests of grain and fruit, the hillsides are clad with +vineyards yielding the most exquisite wines, the mountains contain +inexhaustible treasures of useful minerals, whilst the valleys are +filled with health-giving fountains of salubrious waters. When we add +to these productions of nature and of agricultural labor, the vast +variety of useful and ornamental fabrics, furnished by the persevering +and patient industry of the German people, and their extensive +consumption of the peculiar staple productions of the New World, we +must be convinced of the great and increasing importance of the +constituent elements of German commerce, of the valuable exchange it +offers to the trade of other countries, and of the benefits which may +be derived to our own country, from cultivating and extending the +commercial relations between the United States and Germany."</p> +<p>In 1837, Mr. Wheaton was raised by President Van Buren to the +rank of Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary; and we cannot +forbear remarking, that after the opposition which—although never a +violent party man—he had in previous years shown Mr. Van Buren, it is +most honorable to the latter, that no feeling of rancor or pique, +withheld him from making a nomination which he felt the public services +of his former opponent to deserve.</p> +<p>In 1836, he published, in England and in the United States, +his "Elements of International Law," and in 1846 republished it in this +country with numerous additions. In 1841 he wrote in French, "Histoire +du Progrčs du Droit des Gens depuis la paix de Westphalie," which +obtained a <i>mention honorable</i> from the French +Institute. This work was published in French at Leipsic, 1844, and +afterwards in New-York, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_465"></a>[465]</span> +under the title of "History of the Law of +Nations." Competent judges have spoken of it as the best work of the +kind ever written; Mr. Reddie and Mr. Manning in Great Britain, Baron +Gagern in Germany, and the enlightened and accomplished Minister of the +King of Sardinia, Marquis d'Azeglio, have all awarded high praise to +it. By diplomatists, it is considered an invaluable book of reference; +by British statesmen, it has several times been quoted in Parliament, +and there can be no exaggeration in saying, that it has entitled the +author to a lasting reputation in the Old World.</p> +<p>In 1840, Mr. Wheaton had the misfortune to lose his eldest +son, a lad of great promise, who died after a few days' illness in +Paris, where he was at school. From that moment, all the father's hopes +centred in Robert, his only remaining son. Of the latter, this is not +the place to speak fully; but we cannot forbear to say, that he lived +long enough to realize the fondest anticipations of his parents, and +that his early death, at the age of twenty-five years, will ever be a +source of regret to all who knew him. He died on the 9th of October, +1851, only three years after his father.</p> +<p>In 1843, he was made a corresponding member of the French +Institute, in the section of Moral and Political Sciences. This +nomination increased the pleasure he felt in visiting Paris, which he +did, whenever his official duties would permit. In the literary and +political circles of that great capital, he found the stimulus which +every mind like his requires, and of which, he felt the want in Berlin, +where men of letters and <i>savans</i> do not mix in the +court-circles, which his official position compelled him frequently to +attend. He knew most of the eminent statesmen and politicians of +France; he was particularly well <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_466"></a>[466]</span> +acquainted with M. Guizot, for whose +character and talents he entertained the highest respect, and with M. +Thiers, the charm of whose conversation he admired no less than his +works, He also enjoyed the opportunity he had in Paris of meeting his +countrymen, of whom comparatively few visited Berlin. Nor did he +neglect when there, to transmit to Government such information +respecting the general state of Europe, as his long residence abroad, +and his relations with the leading men in several of its countries, +enabled him to collect. In the ten years during which his mission to +Berlin lasted, scarcely a week elapsed without his addressing a +dispatch to Government. These dispatches are extremely interesting, +both from the variety and extent of information they contain concerning +the political and commercial state of Prussia, and the picture they +present of Europe and of European governments, and, if ever published, +will form a valuable addition to the history of American and European +diplomacy.</p> +<p>In many respects, Mr. Wheaton was peculiarly well qualified +for diplomatic life. His knowledge of international law, the soundness +of his judgment, the calmness and impartiality with which he could look +at the different sides of a question, his gentle and forbearing +disposition, his amiable and conciliating manners, were all in his +favor. To these advantages, he added the purest integrity, and the +highest sense of the duties and responsibilities attached to the +profession he so long followed. In the speech made at the public dinner +offered him in New-York, on his return to his native country after an +absence of twenty years, he said, and this was the true expression of +his feelings on the subject: "You will excuse me for remarking that the +mission of a diplomatic agent is, or ought to be, a <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_467"></a>[467]</span>mission +of peace +and conciliation; and that nothing can be further removed from its true +nature and dignity, than intrigue, craft, and duplicity; qualities too +often, but in my opinion, erroneously, attributed to the diplomatic +character. At least, it may I believe be confidently asserted, that the +ablest public ministers, and those who have most effectually advanced +the honor and interest of their country, have been those who were +distinguished for frankness, directness, and a strict regard to truth."</p> +<p>The amount of business which devolved on him during his +mission to Berlin, independent of the negotiations for a commercial +treaty with the German Customs-Union or Zollverein, can hardly be +estimated by reading his dispatches only. Not a week elapsed without +his receiving letters from different parts of Germany and the United +States, asking for advice with regard to emigration, or to the +disposition of property left by friends in America or in Germany, and +all requiring immediate attention. But notwithstanding these demands +upon his time, he did not neglect the pursuits of literature. In 1838 +he published, jointly with Dr. Crichton, the volumes entitled +"Scandinavia," which form a portion of the Edinburgh Family Library; +and in 1842, and the succeeding years, wrote a number of interesting +letters addressed to the National Institute at Washington, which were +published in the columns of the National Intelligencer.</p> +<p>In 1844, he was named Member of the Academy of Sciences at +Berlin, and we must not omit to mention, that he was the only foreign +diplomat to whom the honor had then been awarded. With Raumer and +Ranke, with Ritter, the celebrated geographer, Encke, the astronomer, +he was of course acquainted; Savigny, Gans, and Eichorn, he knew well; +and with <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_468"></a>[468]</span> +Alexander von Humboldt he was on the most friendly and +familiar terms. Count Raczynski, whose work on "Modern Art," has made +his name known in this country, and whose fine gallery is to amateurs +of painting one of the chief objects of interest in Berlin, was also +his intimate friend. With Bunsen, one of the most agreeable as well as +intellectual men in Germany, whose diplomatic duties kept him absent +from Berlin, he passed many delightful hours in Switzerland, and in +London. All his colleagues in Berlin met him on the most friendly +terms; but the Russian, French and English ministers were those whose +company he most enjoyed, and who perhaps entertained for him the most +cordial friendship. The two latter gave him their entire confidence, +often showing him their dispatches, and freely discussing with him the +interests of their respective governments.</p> +<p>It was in the spring of 1844, that the negotiations with the +Zollverein, with which Mr. Wheaton had been charged, and which the +various interests of the nineteen different states which it then +included, had protracted, drew to a close. On the 25th of March he +signed a convention with Baron Bulow, the Prussian Minister of Foreign +Affairs, of whose enlightened and liberal views he always spoke in high +terms. This treaty, to the accomplishment of which he had devoted all +his energies during several years, and which he fondly hoped would +prove satisfactory to Government and the country, was rejected by the +Senate. It is hardly necessary to say, that he felt this disappointment +deeply.</p> +<p>In 1846, he was recalled by President Polk, and on the 22d +July had his farewell audience of the King of Prussia, by whom he had +always been treated with marked distinction <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_469"></a>[469]</span>and courtesy. He +went to +Paris to pass the ensuing winter, during which he read to the Academy +of Sciences a paper on the Schleswig-Holstein question, which is still +unpublished. In May, 1847, he returned to his native land. A public +dinner, to which we have already alluded, was given him in New-York, +where so much of his early life had been spent, and where he had first +distinguished himself; a dinner was also offered him in Philadelphia, +but this, circumstances compelled him to decline. The city of +Providence requested him to sit for his portrait, to be placed in the +hall of the City Council, "as a memorial of one who shed so much honor +on the place of his nativity." It is interesting to mark the contrast +between this portrait, which was painted by Healy, and one painted by +Jarvis nearly thirty years before. Though the countenance has lost +something of the animation of youth, and the eyes have no longer the +fire which flashes from the portrait of Jarvis, the head has gained in +intellectual expression, and the brow wears that air of thoughtful +repose, the mouth that pleasant smile, familiar to those who knew him +in his later years.</p> +<p>In September, 1847, he delivered an address in Providence, +before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the subject of which was the +Progress and Prospects of Germany. This was the last public occasion on +which his voice was heard. The chair of International Law at Harvard +University, to which he had been called, on his return home, he never +lived to fill. His health gradually failed, and on the 11th of March, +1848, he breathed his last.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_471"></a>[471]</span></p> +<h1></h1> +<h6><a name="webster"></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Webster.</span> +</h6> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_472"></a>[472]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="letter_472"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 504px; height: 800px;" alt="Webster fac-simile of letter" src="images/letters/webster.png" /></a></div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_473"></a>[473]</span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><a class="figcenter" name="illus491"><img style="border: 0px solid ; width: 409px; height: 403px;" alt="Webster's Birth-place." src="images/illus491.jpg" /></a></div> +<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><a class="figcenter">Webster's Birth-place.</a></span></p> +<h2>WEBSTER.</h2> +<p>What justice can be done "in an half-hour of words, to fifty +years of great deeds on high places." The most meagre epitome of Daniel +Webster's career, can not be compressed into the few pages allotted him +in this book. Foremost, in the highest spheres of intellectual +exertion, as a lawyer, orator and statesman—great in all these, yet +greater as a man—how can his character, even in outline, be sketched by +an unskilled pencil, on so small a canvas? High as were his stations, +and severe as were his labors, they were not high nor severe enough, to +exhaust his force, or exhibit his full <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_474"></a>[474]</span> +proportions, but while meeting +and mastering all, it was still manifest, that he had powers in +reserve, superior to greater tasks than were ever imposed. At the bar, +the puzzles of jurisprudence yielded too readily to his analysis. In +Congress, but one question only ever wrung his withers or strained his +strength. He shook off the perplexities of diplomacy, like dew-drops +from his mane; too great for party, too great for sycophancy, too great +to be truly appreciated, the exalted position to which he aspired, +would have added no new lustre to his name, no additional guarantee of +its immortality. There was no niche in our temple, vast enough for his +colossal image.</p> +<p>Consider too, the extent and profundity of his opinions, +during the half-century of his public life. On all questions of our +foreign and domestic policy, on all the important epochs of our +history, on everything respecting the origin, growth, commerce, peace +and prosperity of this union of states, "everywhere the philosophical +and patriotic statesman and thinker, will find that he has been before +him, lighting the way, sounding the abyss. His weighty language, his +sagacious warnings, his great maxims of empire, will be raised to view +and live to be deciphered, when the final catastrophe shall lift the +granite foundation in fragments from its bed." Merely to review the +record of these opinions, his public speeches, historical discourses, +and state papers would be to write the civil and constitutional history +of the country since the war of 1812.</p> +<p>Assaying none of these ambitious flights, and bearing in mind +the title of this book, we shall confine ourselves to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_475"></a>[475]</span>humble +task +of collating from the fragmentary reminiscences of personal friends, +and from his own autobiographical allusions, a brief account of the +homes and home life of Webster.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> +<p>There is a "vulgar error," which needs no Sir Thomas Browne to +refute, that the possession of great intellectual endowments, is +incompatible with the growth and development of the affections. During +his entire career Mr. Webster suffered from this misconception. When he +refused to adopt any of the arts of popular adulation; when he +manifested his real respect for the people, by addressing their +understandings, rather than by cajoling their weaknesses; when, rapt in +his own meditations, he forgot to bow, to smile, to flatter, and bandy +unmeaning compliment; when the mean stood abashed before his nobleness, +and the weak before his strength, disappointed self-conceit, invariably +turned from his presence, with the sneering remark, "Webster has no +soul."</p> +<p>Death strips off all disguises. Calumny is silent over the +graves of the great. It was not, until he was removed beyond the reach +of party warfare and interested depreciation, it was not, until the +veil that hid his true lineaments, was drawn aside, that Mr. Webster's +inner life, and social relations, were revealed to his countrymen, and +they began to discover, that underneath the giant's brain, there was a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_476"></a>[476]</span> +giant heart. The disclosures of those who enjoyed his familiarity and +confidence, have now placed it beyond all controversy, that home, home +affections, home pursuits, home enjoyments, were more congenial to Mr. +Webster's nature, than the dizzy heights of office, or the stormy forum.</p> +<p>He saw not merely in <small>HOME</small>, +the walls that protected him, from Boreas and the dog-star, the spot of +earth appropriated to himself, the place that ministered to his +material enjoyments, but while the sense of comfort and the sense of +property entered into its complex idea, his sentiments and affections +gave to it a higher and holier meaning. The word <span class="smcap">Home</span> +carried him back to his infancy, and forward to his age. It connected +itself with all his affections, filial, fraternal, parental, with those +grand and solemn epochs of humanity, birth, marriage and death. To his +lofty imagination, the roof-tree was consecrated with ceremonies, more +imposing than those of our Saxon ancestors. It symbolized the family +tie, the domestic virtues, the Lares and Penates of classic mythology. +Home was his retreat from the world of action, to the world of +contemplation. Here he was to <i>live</i>. These walls +would witness those experiences, sweet, bitter, mournful; those +communings with God, with friends, kindred and himself; those +aspirations, dreams, disappointments—that are embraced in that word of +infinite significance, <i>Life</i>. Here his wife was to +administer love and consolation; here children were to be born, +hostages to fortune, heritors of name and fame, idols upon whom can be +lavished the inexhaustible treasures of love. Here the pilgrimage was +to end, here he was to die.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_477"></a>[477]</span> +On the bleak and rugged soil of Salisbury, New Hampshire, in a +green nook, hardly sheltered from the wintry blasts, he was born. Under +an aged elm, whose branches reach across the highway, stands this +ancient habitation. It is in the shadow of lofty mountains, while a +broad and rapid river winds through the meadows spread out before the +door. "Looking out at the east window," says he, in one of his letters, +from this hallowed spot, "my eye sweeps along a level field of one +hundred acres. At the end of it, a third of a mile off, I see plain +marble grave-stones, designating the places where repose my father and +mother, brother and sisters. The fair field is before me. I could see a +lamb on any part of it. I have ploughed it, and raked it, but never +mowed it; somehow, I could never learn to hang a scythe."</p> +<p>As Webster advances, in years and distinction, he seems only +to have been drawing a lengthened chain from his first home. With what +constancy does he carry its features in his mind, Kearsarge, the +Merrimack and Punch Brook! He spares no expense to cultivate the old +acres and keep, the old house in repair. With what regularity does he +revisit it and explore all his boyish haunts, the orchard, the mill, +the meeting-house, the well, the hillside and the trout stream! With +what a swelling heart, and moistened eye, does he sit beneath the +ancestral elms that stretch their arms, in benediction, over the old +homestead, while busy fancy repeoples these familiar scenes with the +absent and the dead, the mother that bore him, the father on whose +shoulder he wept, the much beloved brother, whose education he earned, +"with weary fingers by the midnight lamp?" How from the great <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_478"></a>[478]</span>popular +gathering, from the "sea of upturned faces," and even from the +important issues that hung on his eloquence, does his mind impulsively +wander to this cherished home—"Raised amid the snow-drifts of New +Hampshire, at a period so early that, when the smoke first rose from +its rude chimney, and curled over the frozen hills, there was no +similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the +settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I make to +it an annual visit. I carry my children to it to teach them the +hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I +love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early +affections, and the touching narratives and incidents, which mingle +with all I know of this primitive family abode. I weep to think that +none of those who inhabited it are now among the living; and if ever I +am ashamed of it, or if I ever fail in affectionate veneration for HIM +who reared and defended it against savage violence and destruction, +cherished all the domestic virtues beneath its roof, and, through the +fire and blood of seven years' revolutionary war, shrunk from no +danger, no toil, no sacrifice to serve his country, and to raise his +children to a condition better than his own, may my name and the name +of my posterity be blotted forever from the memory of mankind."</p> +<p>"Take care," says he, in one of the last letters which he +wrote to John Taylor, "take care to keep my mother's garden in good +order, even if it cost you the wages of a man to take care of it." One +of Mr. Webster's most cherished relics, which he sometimes carried in +his vest pocket, and exhibited to his friends, was an antique +tea-spoon, covered with rust, <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_479"></a>[479]</span> +which John Taylor found in this very +garden of his mother. In the library at Marshfield, the eye turns from +Healey's splendid portraits, to a small and unpretending silhouette, +with the inscription, "my excellent mother," in the handwriting of her +immortal son.</p> +<p>When he selected as the home of his manhood, the old mansion +by the far-resounding sea, how completely was every want of his nature +represented in the grand and impressive features of the place. <span class="smcap">Marshfield</span> lies within the limits +of the Pilgrims' earliest colony, and on Mr. Webster's farm stands the +house to which Edward Winslow carried his household gods, from aboard +the tempest-tost Mayflower, and the house to which a company of British +soldiers bade final adieu, when they marched from it to storm the +redoubts on Bunker Hill. It thus connects two chapters of that colonial +history, which Mr. Webster loved to study and paint, and two +imperishable monuments to his own renown. It is surrounded by vast and +fertile fields, meadows and pastures green, dotted here and there with +groves and orchards, for one who worshiped, as in a sanctuary, beneath +the over-hanging branches of trees, and dotted also with great herds of +red and black oxen, for one who "was glad when his cattle lifted up +their large-eyed, contemplative faces, and recognized their master by a +look." Its border, landward, is hedged with nothing less than a vast +forest of pines, and within a few hours' ride, lies a fresh wilderness, +unbroken, as when the Pilgrims first saw it from the Mayflower's +mast-head, where the wild eagle still soars, and the timid deer +"glances through the glade." His eye, far as its glance <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_480"></a>[480]</span>could +penetrate, rested on the most sublime of all nature's attractions, on +thee—<br /> +</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="poem"> +"glorious mirror where the Almighty's form</span></span><br /> +<span class="poem">Glasses itself in tempests; in all time,</span><br /> +<span class="poem">Calm or convulsed—in breeze, or gale, +or storm,</span><br /> +<span class="poem">Icing the pole, or in the torrid zone</span><br /> +<span class="poem">Dark heaving; boundless, endless, and +sublime,</span><br /> +<span class="poem">The image of eternity, the throne</span><br /> +<span class="poem">Of the Invisible."</span><br /> +<br /> +</p> +<p>Scattered over its far-reaching expanse, he could always see +the white sails of that commerce he loved to defend, and occasionally, +one of those "oak leviathans," bearing the glorious flag of the +union—"not a stripe erased, or polluted, not a single star obscured;" +memorials at once of the nation's glory, and of his own proudest +triumph.</p> +<p>As deep answereth unto deep, none of the majestic harmonies of +the domain, but found a full and equal response in the bosom of its +lord. Old ocean never rolled its waves, at the feet of one who could +better grasp their immeasurable extent, unfathomable depth. When, with +these surroundings, he stood on that autumn eve, beneath that +magnificent elm that grows by his door-side, the sea's eternal anthem +in his ear, and in his eye, the infinite vault of the starry heavens, +he could find in recorded language but this one utterance: "When I +consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, +which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him? and +the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little +lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor."</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_481"></a>[481]</span> +While his tastes were thus attuned to the grandest aspects of +nature, all the rural sights and rural sounds of this chosen spot, +ministered to the delight of his acute sensibilities. "The smell of +new-mown hay," says Mr. Hillard, "and of the freshly turned furrows of +spring, was cordial to his spirit. The whetting of the mower's scythe, +the beat of the thresher's flail, the heavy groan of loaded wagons, +were music to his ear!" The rich verdure of clover, the waving of the +golden grain, the shriek of the sea-mew and the softest song of the +nightingale; all the varying aspects of sky and field and sea, +furnished him with a distinct and peculiar enjoyment. The shrinking +quail whistled in his garden shrubbery, and fed, unscared, in his +carriage-way.</p> +<p>The observer can not fail to notice characteristics of Webster +in all the features of this favorite abode. His door-yard is a broad +field of twenty acres, unbroken by fence or hedge. Around it, sweep in +concentric circles, of vast diameter, great belts of forest-trees, +planted with his own hands, offering secluded recesses and shady walks, +where "musing solitude might love to roam." Gotham Hill, once a +sand-bank, piled up by the ocean, and long defeating, by its +barrenness, the ingenuity of his culture, he at length clothed with a +green garment of beautiful clover. Cherry Hill was converted from a +lean and parched mole, into a cool and inviting grove, within a rod of +his door, almost an alcove to the library. Everything in and about the +house were as thoroughly systemized and adapted to each other, as the +points of one of his briefs. The appurtenances of the mansion, the main +barn, the sheep barn, the piggery, are all <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_482"></a>[482]</span> +where the necessities of the +farm and the comeliness of the homestead require them to be placed. In +the interior, the parlors, the library filled with the lore of all +ages, the ample hospitality of the dining-room, the breakfast-room, +opening toward that morning light he loved so dearly, the dairy cooled +by its proximity to the ice-house, the gun-room furnished with every +appliance for field sports, the decorations and the furniture; +everything in his mansion as in his arguments, bespeaks the mind of +Webster.</p> +<p>Within a stone's throw of this parlor-window, observe those +two young English elms; they are called "the Brother and Sister," and +were thus named and thus planted, by the bereaved father, when Julia +and Edward were torn from his heart. "I hope the <i>trees</i> +will live," said he, with touching pathos of tone, as he completed this +labor of love. There is no more pathetic expression of parental sorrow, +to be found in our language, than the dedication of the sixth volume of +his works, to the same departed twain. "With the warmest parental +affection, mingled with afflicted feelings, I dedicate this, the last +volume of my works, to the memory of my deceased children, Julia +Webster Appleton, beloved in all the relations of daughter, wife, +mother, sister and friend; and Major Edward Webster, who died in +Mexico, in the military service of the United States, with unblemished +honor and reputation, and who entered the service solely from a desire +to be useful to his country, and do honor to the state in which he was +born.<br /> +</p> +<p><span class="poem">"Go, gentle spirits, to your +destined +rest;</span><br /> +<span class="poem">While I—reversed our nature's kindlier +doom—</span><br /> +<span class="poem">Pour forth a father's sorrow on your +tomb."<br /> +<br /> +</span></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_483"></a>[483]</span> +And yet Mr. Webster was "cold as marble; all intellect."</p> +<p>But let us pass into the library; the <span class="smcap">Library</span>! +Here Vulcan forged those infrangible chains, that impenetrable +armor—the shield of Achilles and the sword of Hector. Here you feel +nearer to Webster than even when you enter his tomb; much that is in +this room his immortal spirit carried with it in its upward flight. It +is not that lifelike portrait, by Healey, that introduces you, as it +were, into the visible presence of the great statesman. It is the +inspiration of the place, these scattered tools, just as they were +dropped by the master-workman, that well-worn manual, thumbed by his +own hand; that turned leaf, indicating the last page of human lore upon +which his eye ever gazed; that arm-chair, his favorite seat. He seems +just to have left it, and you will now find him, in one of those shady +lanes, that lead to Cherry Hill, walking slowly, as he welds together +the facts and principles he has gleaned from yonder opened folio. Here +then, with these surroundings, with that beautiful landscape in his +eye, <span class="smcap">Daniel Webster</span> +studied, pondered, and communed with these old tomes as with familiar +faces. How often has he turned from the living world, to find kindred +here in Bacon, Chatham, Fox and Burke! How often has his eye run over +that complete set of parliamentary debates! How often has he conned +those volumes of Hansard, and these of McCullough! How often has he +resorted to that full alcove of dictionaries, to learn the precise and +exact meaning of some important word; and to you, Shakspeare, Milton +and Gray, how often has he fled for refreshment and consolation! How +often, harassed by cares, and stung by ingratitude, has he <span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_484"></a>[484]</span>murmured, +in +this air, the music of his favorite Cicero, "Hęc studia adolescentiam +alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac +solatium prębent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant +nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur."</p> +<p>Let us now ascend this staircase, (adorned with no costly +paintings, but with some choice engravings, interesting from the +associations they recall, or as mementos from friends, or tributes from +artists,) and approach this darkened chamber, looking toward the +setting sun; tread softly and slowly! Within these walls, on that plain +bedstead, beneath that window commanding an ocean prospect, Webster +died. Here occurred that grand and affecting leave-taking, with +kindred, friends and the world; here, "the curfew tolled the knell of +parting day;" here occurred a death-scene, which can find no parallel +in human history, but in the death of Socrates; here, with the assured +consciousness, that his own contributions to the fund of human wisdom +were imperishable, and that the "next ages" could not fail to do +justice to his patriotic labors, he faintly murmured, as his spirit +took its flight, and his eye closed forever, "I still live."</p> +<p>On an eminence overlooking the sea, by the side of the +burial-place of the first Pilgrims, is Webster's last home. A mound of +earth and marble slab, mark the spot where sleeps all that is mortal of +the great American.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h3>Footnotes</h3> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +On the causes and consequences of the war with France.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +"Three months after this (during the second quarter), the Selectmen +procured lodgings for me at Dr. Nahum Willard's. This physician had a +large practice, a good reputation for skill, and a pretty library. Here +were Dr. Cheyne's works, Sydenham, and others, and Van Swieten's +Commentaries on Boerhaave. I read a good deal in these books, and +entertained many thoughts of becoming a physician and surgeon."—<i>The +Works +of <span class="smcap">John Adams</span>, edited by +<span class="smcap">Charles Francis Adams</span></i>—Vol. +II., p. 7.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +The Works of John Adams—Vol. II., page 9.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +The Works of John Adams—Vol. II., p. 145.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> +This picture is engraved in the "The Life and Works," Vol. II., +Frontispiece. We are obliged to guess at the age when it was taken, +since we find no hint concerning it—indeed no reference to the picture +any where in the book.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> +"The American nettle-tree. One of these is still to be seen growing out +of the top of the rock at this place."—<i>Ed. The Life and Works.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> +"This is the mansion afterwards purchased by the writer, in which he +lived from the date of his last return from Europe until his death in +1826.—<i>Ib.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> +This tree still remains in fine condition on Milton Hill.—<i>Ed. +The Life and +Works.</i></p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> +The Life and Works—Vol. II., p. 136-138.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> +The Life and Works—Vol. II., p. 255.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> +The debates in the Virginia Convention on the Federal Constitution, and +his forensic argument against the recovery of the forfeited British +debts.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> +He is said (<i>Wirt</i>, p. 404) to have been offered +by Washington the Secretaryship of State and the embassy to Spain. He +certainly was, by him, also offered the War Department, and by Mr. +Adams the embassy to France. These are known. When the papers of +Alexander Hamilton come to be published down to those of 1796, it will +be seen that he was then offered, by the heads of the Federal party, +through John Marshall, the nomination for the Presidency, as +Washington's successor, but declined it.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> +Life of Hamilton, by his son, John C. Hamilton, Vol. I. p. 22.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> +Life of Hamilton, Vol. I. p. 382.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> +Works of Daniel Webster, Vol. I, p. 200.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> +Hildreth's History of the United States. New Series, vol. ii. p. 524.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> +It is supposed that the State derives its name from a hill in the north +part of the town, situated near the peninsula called Squantum, likewise +a part of the town. Squantum was a favorite residence of the Indians; +and the Sachem, who ruled over the district "extending round the +harbors of Boston and Charlestown, through Malden, Chelsea, Nantasket, +Hingham, Weymouth and Dorchester," had his seat on the neighboring +hill, which was shaped like an arrow-head. Arrow-head in the Indian +language was <i>mos</i> or mous, and hill <i>wetuset</i>. +Thus the great Sachem's home was called <i>Moswetuset</i> +or Arrow-head Hill, his subjects the Moswetusets, and lastly the +Province Massachusetts, but frequently in the primitive days "the +Massachusetts."</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> +Died early in the city of New-York, soon after entering upon the +practice of law.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> +See vignette title-page to this volume.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> +Mr. Clay.</p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> +We have consulted principally the "Memorials of Daniel Webster," +published by the Appletons, containing the letters of Gen. Lyman, and +the eulogies of Everett, Choate and Hildreth, all enjoying the precious +favor of his personal intimacy. The reminiscences of Mr. Lanman, his +private secretary, and Everett's life prefixed to the complete edition +of his works, are our authority for many of the following details.</p> +</div> +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="notebox"> +<h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3> +<p>Spelling has been made consistent throughout but kept to the +author's original format except where noted.</p> +<p>Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the +closest paragraph break. "Washington's" added to caption for Headquarters on +pages 23, 25, 28, 32, 33, 34, 37, and 45.</p> +<p>Footnotes have been moved to the end of the text in this HTML version. Also, +"The" has been added to "Works of John Adams" (footnotes 2-3) and "Life and Works" (footnotes 5-6 and 8-10) for consistency.</p> +<p><b>Page v-viii:</b> Some of the page entries have been corrected in the tables +to match the actual page numbers in the text.</p> +<p><b>Page viii:</b> Page numbers added to "Fac-similes of Letters". Henry Clay is added to the list, whereas Patrick Henry's copy is not +available.</p> +<p><b>Page 8:</b> "Hudson's Statue" changed to "Houdon's Statue"</p> +<p><b>Page 17:</b> "to recruit in mind and body" changed to "to recoup his mind and body"</p> +<p><b>Page 50:</b> "great Lakes" changed to "Great Lakes"</p> +<p><b>Page 68:</b> "old style, 1706, on a house" changed to "old style, 1706, in a house"</p> +<p><b>Page 141:</b> Hyphen removed "much like the-lime tree of Europe"</p> +<p><b>Page 146:</b> " removed from beginning of "In 1774 Mr. Adams was appointed"</p> +<p><b>Page 159:</b> ? changed to , in "early companions? so that his"</p> +<p><b>Page 186:</b> "Apalachian" changed to "Appalachian"</p> +<p><b>Page 387:</b> , replaces ; in "His countenance, clear, expressive; and"</p> +<p><b>Page 397:</b> Typo "then" corrected in "Legislature, and thne of"</p> +<p><b>Page 429:</b> , replaces ; in "the other; begirt"</p> +<p><b>Page 438:</b> "Webster, Parker, Quincy and Prescott," replaces "Webster and Parker, and Quincy; and Prescott,"</p> +<p><b>Page 441:</b> ; removed from "a tale twice told and; who was"</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Homes of American Statesmen, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMES OF AMERICAN STATESMEN *** + +***** This file should be named 37910-h.htm or 37910-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/9/1/37910/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Steven Brown and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus001.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e26f32 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus001.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus002.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..241416c --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus002.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus013.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus013.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a980cd --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus013.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus018.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus018.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..01e77a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus018.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus020.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus020.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf26bb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus020.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus022.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus022.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0a65e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus022.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus025.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus025.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..032c9a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus025.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus028.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus028.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c45ef0 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus028.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus031.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus031.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e517d00 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus031.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus035.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus035.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..64f230b --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus035.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus037a.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus037a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8603e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus037a.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus037b.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus037b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c737dab --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus037b.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus040.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus040.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..49362fc --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus040.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus044.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus044.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa69a2a --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus044.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus045.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus045.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c90f5d --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus045.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus046.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus046.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..04605e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus046.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus049.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus049.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a31e4f --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus049.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus053.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus053.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c4b8c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus053.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus059.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus059.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9c7b77 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus059.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus063.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus063.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6fc5d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus063.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus066.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus066.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6d2c41 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus066.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus074.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus074.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf5ea14 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus074.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus083.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus083.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a31f126 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus083.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus088.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus088.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8abc67c --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus088.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus090.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus090.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ba92ca --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus090.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus093.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus093.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..539c257 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus093.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus111.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus111.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4802ae5 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus111.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus139.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus139.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f48244 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus139.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus167.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus167.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..326deab --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus167.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus179.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus179.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ac7c92 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus179.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus194.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus194.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f275022 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus194.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus197.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus197.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9076d58 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus197.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus215.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus215.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0f4c78 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus215.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus249.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus249.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..afedbc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus249.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus261.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus261.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9516a01 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus261.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus277.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus277.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d72433 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus277.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus281.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus281.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ec1512 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus281.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus319.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus319.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0527b73 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus319.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus359.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus359.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5bc34f --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus359.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus373.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus373.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c59d1b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus373.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus389.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus389.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..95cbaf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus389.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus412.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus412.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6a57b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus412.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus433.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus433.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..40eb51a --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus433.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus442.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus442.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..946bbc9 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus442.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus445.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus445.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d77b52 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus445.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus467.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus467.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb69eb1 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus467.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/illus491.jpg b/37910-h/images/illus491.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f3e6ad --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/illus491.jpg diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/ames.png b/37910-h/images/letters/ames.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a139cee --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/ames.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/calhoun.png b/37910-h/images/letters/calhoun.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b007446 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/calhoun.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/clay.png b/37910-h/images/letters/clay.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..289e871 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/clay.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/clinton.png b/37910-h/images/letters/clinton.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..26f0e18 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/clinton.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/franklin.png b/37910-h/images/letters/franklin.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2592531 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/franklin.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/hancock.png b/37910-h/images/letters/hancock.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..24a5536 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/hancock.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/jackson.png b/37910-h/images/letters/jackson.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..104d409 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/jackson.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/jay.png b/37910-h/images/letters/jay.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..279b335 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/jay.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/jefferson.png b/37910-h/images/letters/jefferson.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4fb3589 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/jefferson.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/johnadams1.png b/37910-h/images/letters/johnadams1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..648952c --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/johnadams1.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/jqadams2.png b/37910-h/images/letters/jqadams2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c84c9e --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/jqadams2.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/king.png b/37910-h/images/letters/king.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4d9130 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/king.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/madison.png b/37910-h/images/letters/madison.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..de46af1 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/madison.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/marshall.png b/37910-h/images/letters/marshall.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..87998e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/marshall.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/story.png b/37910-h/images/letters/story.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f40aed --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/story.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/washington.png b/37910-h/images/letters/washington.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..840956a --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/washington.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/webster.png b/37910-h/images/letters/webster.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e16f515 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/webster.png diff --git a/37910-h/images/letters/wheaton.png b/37910-h/images/letters/wheaton.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a78f530 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910-h/images/letters/wheaton.png |
