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diff --git a/37910.txt b/37910.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed9c7a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/37910.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12256 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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 + + + + + + + + + + HOMES + OF + AMERICAN STATESMEN. + + + [Illustration: Birth-place of Henry Clay] + + + HARTFORD. + + + + + [Illustration: Marshfield, Residence of Daniel Webster] + + + + + HOMES + OF + AMERICAN STATESMEN: + + WITH + + Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches, + + + BY VARIOUS WRITERS. + + + ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, FROM DRAWINGS BY DOePLER + AND DAGUERREOTYPES: AND FAC-SIMILES OF AUTOGRAPH LETTERS. + + + HARTFORD: + PUBLISHED BY O.D. CASE & CO. + + LONDON: + SAMPSON LOW, SON & CO. + + M.DCCC.LVI. + + + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by O.D. CASE & + CO., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, + for the District of Connecticut. + + + + +PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. + + +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." + +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. + +For several of the original letters which we have copied in +_fac-simile_, we are indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Sprague +of Albany. + +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. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + WASHINGTON MRS. C.M. KIRKLAND 1 + FRANKLIN C.F. BRIGGS 64 + JEFFERSON PARKE GODWIN 77 + HANCOCK RICHARD HILDRETH 95 + JOHN ADAMS CLARENCE COOK 123 + PATRICK HENRY EDWARD W. JOHNSTON 151 + MADISON EDWARD W. JOHNSTON 179 + JAY WILLIAM S. THAYER 197 + HAMILTON JAMES C. CARTER 231 + MARSHALL R.W. GRISWOLD, D.D. 261 + AMES JAMES B. THAYER 276 + JOHN QUINCY ADAMS DAVID LEE CHILD 299 + JACKSON PARKE GODWIN 339 + RUFUS KING CHARLES KING, L.L.D. 353 + CLAY HORACE GREELEY 369 + CALHOUN PARKE GODWIN 396 + CLINTON T. ROMEYN BECK, M.D. 413 + STORY FRANCIS HOWLAND 425 + WHEATON 447 + WEBSTER HENRY C. DEMING 471 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + MARSHFIELD, RESIDENCE OF DANIEL WEBSTER Frontispiece + BIRTH-PLACE OF HENRY CLAY Cover page + SITE OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTH-PLACE 3 + GREENOUGH'S STATUE OF WASHINGTON 6 + HOUDON'S STATUE OF WASHINGTON 8 + CHANTREY'S STATUE OF WASHINGTON 10 + RESIDENCE OF THE WASHINGTON FAMILY 13 + MOUNT VERNON 16 + TOMB OF WASHINGTON'S MOTHER 19 + WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, CAMBRIDGE, 1775 23 + WASHINGTON'S PEARL-STREET, NEW-YORK, 1776. 25 + HOUSE NO. 1 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK 26 + WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, MORRISTOWN, N.J., 1779 28 + WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, CHAD'S FORD, 1777 32 + WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, WHITE MARSH, 1777 33 + WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, VALLEY FORGE, 1777 34 + WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, TAPPAN, 1778 37 + WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, NEWBURGH, N.Y. 41 + WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, ROCKY HILL, N.J., 1783 45 + MOUNT VERNON, REAR VIEW 49 + HOUSE OF THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL LEVEE, CHERRY-STREET, NEW-YORK 52 + WASHINGTON'S TOMB 60 + OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON 69 + GRAVE OF FRANKLIN, PHILADELPHIA 74 + FRANKLIN'S MONUMENT, BOSTON 76 + MONTICELLO, JEFFERSON'S RESIDENCE 79 + HANCOCK HOUSE, BOSTON, 97 + RESIDENCE OF THE ADAMS FAMILY, QUINCY, MASS. 125 + RESIDENCE OF PATRICK HENRY, VA. 153 + OLD CHURCH AT RICHMOND, VA. 164 + OLD COURT HOUSE, VA. 178 + MONTPELIER, MADISON'S RESIDENCE 181 + JAY'S RESIDENCE, BEDFORD, N.Y. 199 + BALL HUGHES' STATUE OF HAMILTON 233 + HAMILTON'S RESIDENCE, NEAR MANHATTANVILLE, N.Y. 243 + MONUMENT TO HAMILTON, TRINITY CHURCH-YARD, N.Y. 259 + MARSHALL'S HOUSE AT RICHMOND, VA. 263 + BIRTH-PLACE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 301 + HERMITAGE, RESIDENCE OF JACKSON 341 + RUFUS KING'S HOUSE, NEAR JAMAICA, L.I. 355 + ASHLAND, RESIDENCE OF HENRY CLAY 371 + CLAY'S BIRTH-PLACE 394 + CLINTON'S RESIDENCE, MASPETH, L.I. 415 + H.K. BROWN'S STATUE OF CLINTON 424 + STORY'S HOUSE AT CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 427 + WHEATON'S RESIDENCE NEAR COPENHAGEN 449 + WEBSTER'S BIRTHPLACE 473 + + +=Fac-similes of Letters.= + + WASHINGTON. 2 + FRANKLIN. 65 + JEFFERSON. 78 + HANCOCK. 96 + JOHN ADAMS. 124 + PATRICK HENRY. + MADISON. 180 + JOHN JAY. 198 + MARSHALL. 262 + AMES. 277 + JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 300 + JACKSON. 340 + RUFUS KING. 354 + HENRY CLAY 370 + CALHOUN. 397 + DEWITT CLINTON. 414 + STORY. 426 + WHEATON. 448 + WEBSTER. 472 + + + + +=Washington.= + +[Illustration: Washington fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Site of Washington's Birth-place] + +WASHINGTON. + +1732--1799. + + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 + + Peep and botanize + Upon his mother's grave + +if the flowers required by science happen to grow there. + +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. + +[Illustration: Greenough's Statue of Washington] + +What shall we think, then, of a character which, in a single 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? + +WASHINGTON! 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 +minutiae 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. + +[Illustration: Houdon's Statue of Washington.] + +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 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. + +[Illustration: Chantrey's Statue of Washington] + +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 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: + + A creature who, endued + With sanctity of reason, might erect + His stature, and, upright, with front serene, + Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence, + Magnanimous, to correspond with Heaven; + But, grateful to acknowledge whence his good + Descends, thither, with heart and voice and eyes, + Directed in devotion, to adore + And worship God supreme, who made him chief + Of all his works. + +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, +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. + +[Illustration: Residence of the Washington Family.] + +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 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. + +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 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 +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. + +[Illustration: Mount Vernon] + +After Braddock's defeat, Washington retired to Mount 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." + +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 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." + +[Illustration: Tomb of Washington's Mother.] + +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 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: + + MOUNT VERNON, 14th Aug., 1755. + + "HONORED MADAM, + +"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. + + "I am, &c." + +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, +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 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. + +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 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. 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 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." + +[Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, Cambridge 1775.] + +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 +_three_ thousand." + +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." + +[Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, 180 Pearl street, New-York +1776.] + +[Illustration: House No. 1 Broadway + + 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 Andre wrote + his letter to Arnold.--_Lossing._ It was afterwards occupied by + Aaron Burr. Very recently, this interesting house, which in + New-York may be termed _ancient_, has been metamorphosed by the + addition of two or three stories, and it is now _reduced_ to be + the Washington Hotel.] + +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. + +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, _sans facon_, 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 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. + +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. + +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." + +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 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. + +[Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, Morristown, New Jersey. 1779.] + +Dark as these times were, Washington's peculiar merits were every day +becoming more and more evident; indeed the 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. + +His being invested with what was in reality a military 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. + +The celebrated passage of the Delaware, on Christmas-day, 1776,--so +life-like 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, Chad's Ford, 1777.] + +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 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. + +[Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, White Marsh, 1777.] + +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 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. + +[Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, Valley Forge, 1777.] + +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 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 _winter campaign_, "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." + +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." + +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 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 _could_ 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 manoeuvres, 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 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 deg.. Many on both sides had perished +without a wound, from fatigue and thirst. + +[Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, Tappan, 1778.] + +The headquarters at Tappan will always have a sad interest from the +fact that Major Andre, 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +It was this man, pure, devoted, and indefatigable in the cause of his +country and her liberties, that some shortsighted 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 KING. 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. + +[Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, Newburgh, N.Y.] + + NEWBURGH, 22 May, 1782. + + "SIR, + +"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. + +"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 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. + + "I am, Sir, &c., + "GEORGE WASHINGTON." + +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. + +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. 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. + +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 "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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, Rocky Hill, N.J., 1783] + +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 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. + +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 +_finale_ of the war brought on the Commander-in-Chief 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. + +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 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." + +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." + +The delegates, on receipt of these instructions, very wisely 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. + +[Illustration: Mount Vernon (rear view).] + +His first care, on arriving at Mount Vernon, was to ascertain 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 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. + +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, 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. 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. + +[Illustration: House of the First Presidential Levee, Cherry street] + +A dangerous illness brought Washington near the grave, 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. + +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:-- + +"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 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. + +Another 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. + +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 book I send you.[1] 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." + +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 _bonhommie_ 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 _no need of spoil_." +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 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 active brain; but he could look up, at +the last, and say--"I am not afraid to die." + +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." + +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 _American_ +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 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 MAN 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? + +[Illustration: Washington's Tomb.] + +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 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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] On the causes and consequences of the war with France. + + + + +=Franklin.= + +[Illustration: Franklin fac-simile of letter] + + + + +FRANKLIN. + + +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 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. + +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. + +Every schoolboy is familiar with the history of Franklin; his +autobiography is our national epic; it is more read than 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: Old South Church, Boston.] + +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 of +a store and a monument. On the frieze of the cornice is the inscription +in bold granitic letters, THE BIRTH-PLACE OF FRANKLIN. We cannot help +thinking that it is just such a monument as he would have recommended, +if his wishes had 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 +JOSIAS FRANKLIN, 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, 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." + +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. + +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." + +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. 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +Fortunately for mankind his friend Denman died soon 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 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. + +[Illustration Grave of Franklin, Philadelphia] + +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, 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. + +[Illustration: Franklin's Monument, Boston] + + + + +=Jefferson.= + +[Illustration: Jefferson fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Monticello, Jefferson's Residence] + +JEFFERSON. + + +Jefferson 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +It was during this interval of absence in Europe, that the controversy +in respect to a better constitution of government 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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." + +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. + +Monticello, which is the name which Mr. Jefferson had given to his home, +was built in one of the most enchanting 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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +"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. 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." + +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 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." + +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. + + + + +=Hancock.= + +[Illustration: Hancock fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Hancock House, Boston] + +HANCOCK. + + +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 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. + +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 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 _Deacon_, 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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +Thomas Hancock, the uncle, died in 1764, leaving behind him a fortune +amassed by his judicious and successful mercantile 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 his political views by the hold that he gained on the favor and +good-will of his fellow-citizens. + +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. + +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 +_common_ 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. + +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 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. + +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! + +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 +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. + +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 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 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." + +"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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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 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. + +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 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. + +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, attaches 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, +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. + +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 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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. 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. + +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, 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." + +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. 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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +=John Adams.= + +[Illustration: John Adams fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Residence of the Adams Family, Quincy, Mass.] + +JOHN ADAMS + + +"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." + +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! and that others +might catch fish and hunt deer and bears at their ease!" + +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. + +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. + +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. +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 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." + +Such were the politicians of that day; and though we do not doubt that +private virtue as much abounds with us as 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. + +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 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. + +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 +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.[2] + +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 +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:-- + +"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." + +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. + +"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 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 Caesar 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 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.[3]" + +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 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?" + +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 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. _Sat down and recollected my self_, and read a little in +Van Muyden, a little in Naval Trade and Commerce." + +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:-- + +"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. + +"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 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. + + * * * * * + +"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."[4] + +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 _such a novelty +as a lawyer_ 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 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 "_writ_," 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 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, _with her stories out of the +newspapers_." 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.[5] 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 death with +the happiest memories and the gladdest anticipations. + +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. + +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:-- + +"October, 22. Friday. Spent last Monday in taking pleasure with Mr. +Wibird. * * * * * * * * + +Upon this part of the peninsula is a number of trees, which appear very +much like the lime tree[6] of Europe, which gentlemen are so fond of +planting in their gardens for their beauty. Returned to Mr. +Borland's,[7] 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. + +"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, &c. The larch-tree; +there is but one[8] in the country, that in the lieutenant-governor's +yard at Milton; it looks somewhat like an evergreen, but is not; sheds +its leaves. + +"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 Dauphine, and flows from the larch tree. It is thick and +balsamic, and used in several arts, particularly that of enamelling. + +"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 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."[9] + +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: + +"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, _always +delightful to me_, soon restored my health in a considerable degree. + +"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. * * * * * + +"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. + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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;--_farewell politics_."[10] + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +The family are expecting a packet of letters from America, which their +friend Mr. Charles Storer has sent from London to Paris. They had some +difficulty in procuring them from the post-office. + +"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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 minds in love with virtue, and conscious of +no offence against the laws of God or man. + + TO THOMAS B. ADAMS. + + QUINCY, _12 July, 1801_. + + "MY DEAR SON: + +"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. + +"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.' * * * * * + +"I am, my dear Thomas, affectionately, your mother, + + "ABIGAIL ADAMS." + +Mrs. Adams died at Quincy on the 28th of October, 1818, aged seventy-four +years. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] "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."--_The +Works of JOHN ADAMS, edited by CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS_--Vol. II., p. 7. + +[3] The Works of John Adams--Vol. II., page 9. + +[4] The Works of John Adams--Vol. II., p. 145. + +[5] 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. + +[6] "The American nettle-tree. One of these is still to be seen growing +out of the top of the rock at this place."--_Ed. The Life and Works._ + +[7] "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.--_Ib._ + +[8] This tree still remains in fine condition on Milton Hill.--_Ed. +The Life and Works._ + +[9] The Life and Works--Vol. II., p. 136-138. + +[10] The Life and Works--Vol. II., p. 255. + + + + +=Patrick Henry.= + +[Illustration: Patrick Henry fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Residence of Patrick Henry, Va.] + +PATRICK HENRY. + + +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. + +In the Heroic Age, however, such as was to us the Revolution, 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. + +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 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: + + "Bacon, like Moses, led us forth, at last: + The barren wilderness he passed; + Did on the very border stand + Of the blest promised land; + And from the mountain-top of his exalted wit, + Saw it himself and showed us it." + +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. + +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. + +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 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 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. 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _he_ 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. + +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 _he_, instead of 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. + +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 (_haud inexpertus loquor_), +is the utmost it can do. But of not even such translation did Mr. Henry, +upon any occasion but two,[11] receive the advantage such as it is. +Every 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. + +[Illustration: Old Church Richmond, Va.] + +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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 education of his own sons and +daughters (two of the former and five of the latter)--had ceased. + +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. + +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 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 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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 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. + +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 + + "He could not ope + His mouth, but out there flew a trope." + +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. + +A long preliminary this; but we trust not uninteresting. 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. + +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 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,[12] 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. + +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 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, 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. + +[Illustration: Old Court House, Va.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] The debates in the Virginia Convention on the Federal Constitution, +and his forensic argument against the recovery of the forfeited British +debts. + +[12] He is said (_Wirt_, 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. + + + + +=Madison.= + +[Illustration: Madison fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Montpelier, Madison's Residence] + +MADISON. + + +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 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. + +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 dreaded French +principles and dishes as alike contaminating and destructive. + +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 +_habitat_; 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 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. + +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. + +The statesman whose mansion and whose habits in retreat we are about to +describe, without being altogether of that 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 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. + +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 +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. + +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 +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. + +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. 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. + +We should, however, slight one of its most pleasing 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 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 _en passant_, 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 +to think no thoughts that might betray one into an opinion not that of +the majority. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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 + + "He was more + Than a mere Alexander; and, unstained + With household blood and wine, serenely wore + His sovereign virtues: still we Trajan's name adore." + + + + +=Jay.= + +[Illustration: Jay fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Jay's Residence, Bedford, N.Y.] + +JAY. + + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 "aetat. 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 ne 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." + +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: + + IN MEMORY OF + + JOHN JAY, + + EMINENT AMONG THOSE WHO ASSERTED THE LIBERTY + AND ESTABLISHED THE INDEPENDENCE + OF HIS COUNTRY, + WHICH HE LONG SERVED IN THE MOST + IMPORTANT OFFICES, + LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE, JUDICIAL, AND DIPLOMATIC, + AND DISTINGUISHED IN THEM ALL BY HIS + ABILITY, FIRMNESS, PATRIOTISM, AND INTEGRITY, + HE WAS IN HIS LIFE, AND IN HIS DEATH, + AN EXAMPLE OF THE VIRTUES, + THE FAITH AND THE HOPES + OF A CHRISTIAN. + + BORN, _Dec._ 12, 1745, + + DIED, _May_ 17, 1829. + +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. + +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 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." + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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, 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. + +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 +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." + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +"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." + +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 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: + + "DEAR BENSON: + +"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? 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." + +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 SOLELY 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +Considering its natural advantages and its connection by railway with +the great metropolis, Bedford, the ancient half 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 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. + +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 AEneas 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 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 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 +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +"If my old mare is alive, I must beg of you and my 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." + +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: + +"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." + +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, _double_." 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 _offender_, +proceeded to make it up tenfold to the _poor man_ 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." + +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 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. + +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 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, + + "Deep on whose front engraved + Deliberation sat, and public cares." + +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 _had a better place_, and that a person well +adapted to the existing state of things was sent to succeed him." + +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 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 + + "As ever in the Great Taskmaster's eye." + +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. + +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 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. + + + + +=Hamilton.= + +[Illustration: Ball Hughes' Statue of Hamilton] + + + + +HAMILTON. + + +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. + +He was born in the year 1756, in the Island of St. Nevis, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +"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 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."[13] + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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, +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. + +"The impetuosity of the attack carried all before it, and within nine +minutes from the time the abatis was passed the work was gained."[14] +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." + +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 _toga_, 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. + +From the period of his admission to the bar until the assembling of the +convention which framed the constitution 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 no +other way than by the establishment of a NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, 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. + +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 +more indebted to the labors of Hamilton than to those of any other +single man. + +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 +ALEXANDER HAMILTON."[15] + +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 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. + +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. + +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 that mighty march of +commercial enterprise which is fast sweeping away the last vestiges +which mark the dwelling-places of the last generation. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: Residence of Alexander Hamilton, near +Manhattanville, N.Y.] + +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 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. + +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; 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. + +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. + +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. + +Burr had, on the other hand, few ends in life save his own 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. + +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, 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." + +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 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. + +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 +hours in great agony, but preserving his composure and self-command to +the last.[16] + +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. + +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 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. + +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: + + ---- Hic murus aheneus esto + Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa. + +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. + +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 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 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 +_novus homo_ 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 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. + +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, 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 _both_, 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 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." + +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 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. + +[Illustration: Monument To Hamilton, Trinity Church-yard, N.Y.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13] Life of Hamilton, by his son, John C. Hamilton, Vol. I. p. 22. + +[14] Life of Hamilton, Vol. I. p. 382. + +[15] Works of Daniel Webster, Vol. I, p. 200. + +[16] Hildreth's History of the United States. New Series, vol. ii. +p. 524. + + + + +=Marshall.= + +[Illustration: Marshall fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Marshall's House at Richmond, Va.] + +MARSHALL. + + +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 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 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. + +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 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, "_You_ may answer +that if you choose; _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. + +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 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. + +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 +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. 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. + +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 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 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. + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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: + + "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--." + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +=Ames.= + +[Illustration: Ames fac-simile of letter] + + + + +AMES. + + +The house in which FISHER AMES 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 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 "aere 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. + +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, perhaps, +than poetic. He was, in truth, a man of no small consideration in +Dedham, of much natural ability, of wit and spirit. + +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 _backs_ +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." + +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. + +Fisher Ames was a delicate child, and the pet of his mother, whose +maiden name he bore. He had such an extravagant 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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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? + +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 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. + +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, +"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. + +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--"there wasn't a dry eye in the House, +except some of the jackasses that occasioned the necessity of the +oratory." + +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. + +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: + + "But when Ulyssus rose, in thought profound, + His modest eyes he fixed upon the ground, + As one unskilled, or drunk, he seemed to stand, + Nor raised his head nor stretched his sceptred hand; + But when he speaks, what elocution flows! + Soft as the fleeces of descending snows, + The copious accents fall, with easy art; + Melting they fall and sink into the heart!" + +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +He had also resumed the practice of his profession with ardor, but the +state of his health compelled him gradually to 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. + +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 Phoenix in his splendid +speech on the Treaty. He frequently wrote essays on agricultural +subjects, and into many 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. + +His friends were frequently invited out to partake of his "farmer's +fare," and rare occasions those must have been, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 before his death, he had his house decked +with green, a favourite custom with him. + +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 "FISHER AMES." + + + + +=John Quincy Adams.= + +[Illustration: Quincy Adams fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Birth-place of John Quincy Adams] + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. + + +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.[17] The first parish became a town +by its present name, twenty-five years after the birth 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: + +"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." + +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. + +With this modest material environment of the child, was 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. + +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: + +"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." + +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 +Revolution who merited the title of _Washington of women_, she was the +one. + +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: + +"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." + +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 +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." + +Such were the hearts that unfolded the childhood of John Quincy Adams. + +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. + +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 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. + +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: + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +This furnishes a pleasing coincidence with a precept of ancient +prudence:-- + + Let nothing foul in speech or act intrude, + Where reverend childhood is. + +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. + +Of the next memorable year we have a reminiscence from himself. It was +related in a speech at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1843. + +"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?" + +He saw from Penn's Hill the flames of Charlestown, and heard the guns of +Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights. + +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 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. + + BRAINTREE, June 2d, 1777. + +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. + +With the present determination of growing better, I am, dear sir, your +son, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. + +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. + +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 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: + +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. + +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. + +To cultivate spirit and hardihood, activity and power of endurance. + +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. _He behaves like a man._" + +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." + +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 month of November, accompanied by +Francis Dana as secretary of legation, and by his two oldest sons, John +and Charles.[18] 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." + +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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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: + +"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." + +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 _feelings_. 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. + +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. + +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! + +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 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." + +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." + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +On this occasion he met, at the house of her father, the American consul +in London, Miss LOUISA CATHERINE JOHNSON, who afterwards became his +wife. In consequence of a rumor of his intending to resign, Washington +wrote to the Vice-President: + +"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." + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +In 1802 he was elected to the Senate of Massachusetts from Suffolk +county. + +In 1803, to the Senate of the United States. + +In 1806, Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in Harvard University, but in +subordination to his duties in Congress. + +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. + +In 1809 he was appointed by Madison Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia; +and resigned his professorship in the University. + +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. + +In 1814 he was appointed first commissioner at Ghent to treat with Great +Britain for peace. + +In 1815, Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain. + +In 1817, Secretary of State. + +In 1825, elected President of the United States. + +Mr. Adams, released from the toils of thirty-five years of unintermitted +public service, now sought a home which remains to be described. + +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. + +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." + +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 +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 Patriae. 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 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. + +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 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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 _bit of hard bread_. 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. + +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'-- + + "'For in my youth I never did apply + Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.'" + +While he was President, the writer was once sitting in the 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 +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. "I do wonder," exclaimed the lady, "that the +President of the United States will go about in such a manner!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + "I care not, fortune, what you me deny; + You cannot rob me of free nature's grace, + You cannot shut the windows of the sky, + Through which Aurora shows her brightening face; + You cannot bar my constant feet to trace + The woods and lawns by living streams at eve: + Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace, + And I their toys to the great children leave; + Of Fancy, Reason, Virtue, nought can me bereave." + +He did not much admire the poetry of Byron. One objection which he is +recollected to have made to the poet was the use of the word "rot." +There is some peculiarity in Byron in this respect; thus in Childe +Harold:-- + + "The Bucentaur lies _rotting_ unrestored, + Where meaner relics must not dare to _rot_." + +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. + +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: + + Sweet fields, beyond the swelling flood, + Stand dressed in living green; + So to the Jews old Canaan stood, + While Jordan rolled between. + +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.-- + + "Hull--but that name's redeemed upon the wave," + +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 _addressed +to my mother_." + +The best saying of Mr. Adams was in reply to the inquiry, What are the +recognized principles of politics? + +MR. ADAMS. There are none. There are recognized precepts, but they are +bad, and so not PRINCIPLES. + +But is not this a sound one, "The greatest good of the greatest number?" + +MR. ADAMS. 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--THE GREATEST GOOD OF ALL. + +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." + +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, + +"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.' + + "Remember more, the Universal Cause + Acts not by partial, but by general laws; + And makes what happiness we justly call, + Subsist, not in the good of one, but ALL.'" + +In other letters she illustrated observations in the same spirit by +these quotations: + + "Shall I determine where his frowns shall fall, + And fence my grotto from the lot of ALL?" + + "Prompt at every call, + Can watch and weep and pray and feel for ALL." + +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." + +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, _in a low tone_, a hearty GOD BLESS YOU! That is enough." + +It was enough; enough for recompense and for justification, since we are +in the sad pass that justification is needed--since + + "Virtue itself of Vice must pardon beg, + And pray for leave to do him good." + +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!" + +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. _Never accept a +present._ 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." + +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. + +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 after his noble vindication of the character of +woman, and the propriety and utility of their intervention in public +affairs, he said: + +"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." + +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 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. + +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 +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." + +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. + +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 _No!_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 MAN. His +monument is to stand on the other side of the pulpit. + +Happy place which hallows such memories, and holds up such EXAMPLES. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] 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 _mos_ or mous, and hill _wetuset_. Thus the great +Sachem's home was called _Moswetuset_ or Arrow-head Hill, his subjects +the Moswetusets, and lastly the Province Massachusetts, but frequently +in the primitive days "the Massachusetts." + +[18] Died early in the city of New-York, soon after entering upon the +practice of law. + + + + +=Jackson.= + +[Illustration: Jackson fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Hermitage, Residence of Jackson] + +JACKSON. + + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +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." + +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; +_Te deums_ 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 family, and asserted the rights of his country, to the +lasting dishonor of Great Britain. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Jackson's will was imperious; the report does not follow the flash more +rapidly than his execution of a deed followed 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. + +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 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: + +"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 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 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." + +The same distinguished authority has drawn a picture of Jackson's +retirement from the Presidency, with which we close our remarks: + +"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 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 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. + + + + +=King.= + +[Illustration: King fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Rufus King's House, Near Jamaica, L.I.] + +RUFUS KING. + + +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 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, MARY, the only child of JOHN +ALSOP, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 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. + +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 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 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 he could naturalize; so that during a visit made to him many years +after he began his plantation, by the _Abbe Correa_, then Minister from +Portugal to this Government, but even more distinguished as a man of +letters, and particularly as a botanist--the learned Abbe said he could +almost study the _Flowers_ and the _Trees_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 Abbe Correa, 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 +Abbe, 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 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 Abbe 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 Linnaeus, 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 Abbe Correa 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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +In 1819, Mrs. King, whose health had been long declining, died, and was +buried with all simplicity in the yard of the village 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +It was desired, if possible, to introduce a glimpse of the pretty +village church into the engraving, but the space was wanting. + +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. + + + + +=Clay.= + +[Illustration: Clay fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Ashland, Residence of Henry Clay] + +CLAY. + + +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 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. + +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? + +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. + +A friend who visited Ashland as a stranger in May, 1845, thus writes of +the place and its master: + +"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 we returned to Lexington, and, at five +P.M., 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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +For it was not here, in this comfortable mansion, beneath those +graceful, hospitable, swaying trees, that THE GREAT COMMONER was born +and reared; but in a rude, homely farm-house,[19] 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 +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 _The Mill-Boy of the Slashes_, by which +_sobriquet_ he was fondly hailed by thousands in the pride of his +ripened renown. + +Forty-five years after his childish farewell to it, Henry Clay stood +once more (in 1840), and for the last time, in the 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. + +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 +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 Goettingen +(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 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. + +For our business is not here with Tariffs, Banks, Vetoes, and +Presidential contests or aspirations. Our theme is the _man_ 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. + +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 L100 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." + +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 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 think we must let this young man pass._" Of +course they must!--the case was as plain as the portliest of noses on +the most rubicund of faces. Henry Clay passed, _nem. con._, and his +position and success at that Bar were never more disputed nor doubted. + +General Cass, in his remarks in the Senate on the occasion of Mr. Clay's +death, has the following interesting reminiscence: + +"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." + +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 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. + +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 liked the Kentucky man best_." It was so every +where. + +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, 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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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." + +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 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. + +That excited canvass was fruitful of characteristic incidents like the +following: + +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_ 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. + +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 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 _that +can put but one hand into the Treasury_." (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.) + +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 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. + +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 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 _your_ +auditory." + +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?" + +A few sentences culled from the remarks in Congress elicited by his +death, will fitly close this hasty daguerreotype of the man Henry Clay. + +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, 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. + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 or truer. No guest ever +thence departed, without feeling happier for his visit." + +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." + +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. + +"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 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." + +In the House, about the same time, Mr. Breckenridge of Kentucky +(democrat), spoke as follows: + +"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. 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.'" + +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: + +"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." + +Such was the master of Ashland, the man Henry Clay! + + * * * * * + +After this article was in type, we received from a Western paper the +following notice of the sale of the Ashland estate. + +"We are glad to learn that Ashland, the home of Henry Clay, 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. + +"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. + +"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 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. + +"The walks, the flowers, the garden and the groves, all, all 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 +UNION." + +[Illustration: Clay's Birth-place] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] See vignette title-page to this volume. + + + + +=Calhoun.= + +[Illustration: Calhoun fac-simile of letter] + + + + +CALHOUN. + + +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 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. + +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 _sui generis_, 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. + +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 +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. + +"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 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." + +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 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"My honorable friend from Kentucky[20] 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 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. + +"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, +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +"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, 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!' + +"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. + +"His eldest daughter always accompanied him to Washington, 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 Stael, 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.' + +"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. + +"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. + +"His profound love for his own family, his cordial interest in his +friends, his kindness and justice in every transaction, were not small +virtues in such a personage. + +"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. + +"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 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. + +"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.' + +"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 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?' + +"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?" + +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. 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] Mr. Clay. + + + + +=Clinton.= + +[Illustration: Clinton fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Clinton's Residence, Maspeth, L.I.] + +CLINTON. + + +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. + +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 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. + +In the instance of DEWITT CLINTON, 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. + +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. + +On his education it is scarcely necessary to dwell, farther 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +We are told that he remained in this station until 1795--the close of the +long administration (continued by re-elections) of his uncle. + +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. + +His "homes," with the brief exception of two winters at Washington, +were, of course, mainly in New-York and Albany. + +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. + +While remaining in New-York, he owned a country-seat at Maspeth, on Long +Island, to which he frequently resorted, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +Subsequently to this he occupied a house (it was that in which he died) +in Pearl-street, built by Goldsboro Banyer, 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. + +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." + +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. + +As a member of the Senate of New-York, he became _ex officio_ 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 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." + +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 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. + +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." + +Heaven in its goodness allowed life till the great work was completed. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: H.K. Brown's Statue of Clinton] + + + + +=Story.= + +[Illustration: Story fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Story's House at Cambridge, Mass.] + +STORY. + + +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 +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. + +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 life-like 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 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. + +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. + +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?" 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. + +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 + + "On that drear voyage from whose night + The ominous shadows never lift." + +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 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. + +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 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." + +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 +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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 + + "Where dust and mud the equal year divide." + +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, + + "Dear native town! whose choking elms each year + With eddying dust before their time turn gray, + Pining for rain,--to me thy dust is dear; + It glorifies the eve of Summer day." + +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. + +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; + + "Under a spreading chestnut tree, + The village smithy stands; + The smith, a mighty man is he, + With large and sinewy hands, + And the muscles of his brawny arm + Are strong as iron bands. + + "His hair is crisp, and black, and long, + His face is like the tan, + His brow is wet with honest sweat, + He earns whatever he can, + And looks the whole world in the face + For he owes not any man. + + "Week in, week out, from morn to night, + You can hear his bellows blow; + You can hear him swing his heavy sledge, + With measured beat and slow, + Like a sexton ringing the village bell, + When the evening sun is low. + + "And children coming home from school + Look in at the open door; + They love to see the flaming forge, + And hear the bellows roar, + And catch the burning sparks that fly + Like chaff from a threshing floor." + +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 image they contain, with the parallel one in the +concluding lines from Longfellow, quoted above. + + "How many times prouder than King on throne, + Loosed from the village school-dame's A's and B's, + Panting have I the creaky bellows blown, + And watched the pent volcano's red increase, + Then paused to see the ponderous sledge brought down + By that hard arm voluminous and brown, + From the white iron swarm its golden vanishing bees." + +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. + +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. + +Judge Story removed to Cambridge, for the purpose of taking charge of +the Law-school connected with the 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. + +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 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 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. + +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 _dies non juridicus_, 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 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 _dies non_, 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, Legare 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." + +Judge Story's gracious and dignified demeanor upon the 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 +_distinction_, 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 +_Distinction_. That such a man can never die." This epitaph reached the +bench; and Mr. Longfellow himself, who not long afterwards on an +argument, 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. + +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 _socius_ 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 in lieu of +their punch the less intoxicating recreation of a polka. + +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 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. + + + + +=Wheaton.= + +[Illustration: Wheaton fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Wheaton's Residence Near Copenhagen] + +WHEATON. + + +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. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + + Cambridge, May 22, 1853. + +"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. + +"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 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. + +"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 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 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. + +"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 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. + +"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. + +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 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 _trick_; 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. He was therefore most popular +in society. But when we speak of Mr. Wheaton's social _popularity_, 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. + +"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. + + "I am, very sincerely, + "Your friend and obedient servant, + "THEOPHILUS PARSONS." + + CAMBRIDGE, May 23, 1853. + +In 1821, Mr. Wheaton was elected a member of the Convention 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 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. + +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. + +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 +Athenaeum, 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 Real, 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. + +In 1827 he was appointed by President Adams, Charge 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. + +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 +_fac-simile_, will show his first impressions of Copenhagen. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 Ohlenschlaeger, Muenter, Bishop of Zealand, and +others. We must not omit to add Madame Frederika Brun, the sister of +Muenter, 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. + +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 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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 Progres du Droit des Gens depuis la paix de Westphalie," which +obtained a _mention honorable_ from the French Institute. This work was +published in French at Leipsic, 1844, and afterwards in New-York, 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. + +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. + +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 _savans_ 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 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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + + + +=Webster.= + +[Illustration: Webster fac-simile of letter] + + + + +[Illustration: Webster's Birth-place] + +WEBSTER. + + +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 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. + +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. + +Assaying none of these ambitious flights, and bearing in mind the title +of this book, we shall confine ourselves to the 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.[21] + +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." + +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 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. + +He saw not merely in HOME, 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 HOME +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 _live_. 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, _Life_. 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. + +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." + +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 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." + +"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, 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. + +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. +MARSHFIELD 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 +could penetrate, rested on the most sublime of all nature's attractions, +on thee-- + + "glorious mirror where the Almighty's form + Glasses itself in tempests; in all time, + Calm or convulsed--in breeze, or gale, or storm, + Icing the pole, or in the torrid zone + Dark heaving; boundless, endless, and sublime, + The image of eternity, the throne + Of the Invisible." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _trees_ 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. + + "Go, gentle spirits, to your destined rest; + While I--reversed our nature's kindlier doom-- + Pour forth a father's sorrow on your tomb." + +And yet Mr. Webster was "cold as marble; all intellect." + +But let us pass into the library; the LIBRARY! 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 life-like 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, DANIEL WEBSTER 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 murmured, in this air, the music of his favorite +Cicero, "Haec studia adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas +res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solatium praebent, delectant domi, non +impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur." + +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." + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] 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. + + + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES | + | | + | Spelling has been made consistent throughout but kept to | + | authors' original format except where noted. | + | | + | Small Caps has been capitalized in this text version. | + | | + | Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the | + | closest paragraph break. "Washington's" has been added to | + | captions for Headquarters on pages 23, 25, 28, 32, 33, 34, | + | 37, and 45. | + | | + | Footnotes have been moved to the end of the chapters. Also, | + | "The" has been added to "Works of John Adams" (for footnotes | + | 2-3) and "Life and Works" (for footnotes 5-6 and 8-10) for | + | consistency. | + | | + | Page viii: Page numbers added to "Fac-similes of Letters". | + | Henry Clay is added to the list, whereas Patrick Henry's | + | copy is not available. | + | | + | Page 8: (Hudson's Statue) changed to (Houdon's Statue) | + | | + | Page 17: (to recruit in mind and body) changed to (to | + | recoup his mind and body) | + | | + | Page 50: (great Lakes) changed to (Great Lakes) | + | | + | Page 68: (old style, 1706, on a house) changed to | + | (old style, 1706, in a house) | + | | + | Page 141: Hyphen removed (much like the-lime tree of Europe) | + | | + | Page 146: " removed from ("In 1774 Mr. Adams was appointed) | + | | + | Page 159: ? changed to , (early companions? so that his) | + | | + | Page 186: (Apalachian) changed to (Appalachian) | + | | + | Page 387: , replaces ; in (His countenance, clear, | + | expressive; and) | + | | + | Page 397: Typo "then" corrected in (Legislature, and thne) | + | | + | Page 429: , replaces ; in (the other; begirt) | + | | + | Page 438: (Webster, Parker, Quincy and Prescott,) replaces | + | (Webster and Parker, and Quincy; and Prescott,) | + | | + | Page 441: ; removed from (a tale twice told and; who was) | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + + +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.txt or 37910.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. 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