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+Project Gutenberg EBook, Biographical Sketches, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+From "Fanshawe and Other Pieces"
+#72 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
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+Title: Biographical Sketches
+      (From: "Fanshawe and Other Pieces")
+
+Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+Release Date: Nov, 2005  [EBook #9245]
+[This file was first posted on September 25, 2003]
+[Last updated on February 8, 2007]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger
+
+
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+
+
+                     FANSHAWE AND OTHER PIECES
+
+                      By Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+
+                       BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS:
+     Mrs. Hutchinson
+     Sir William Phips
+     Sir William Pepperell
+     Thomas Green Fessenden
+     Jonathan Cilley
+
+
+
+MRS. HUTCHINSON.
+
+The character of this female suggests a train of thought which will form
+as natural an Introduction to her story, as most of the Prefaces to
+Gay's Fables, or the tales of Prior; besides that, the general soundness
+of the moral may excuse any want of  present applicability.  We will not
+look for a living resemblance of Mrs. Hutchinson, though the search
+might not be altogether fruitless.  But there are portentous
+indications, changes gradually taking place in the habits and feelings
+of the gentle sex, which seem to threaten our posterity with many of
+those public women, whereof one was a burden too grievous for our
+fathers.  The  press, however, is now the medium through which feminine
+ambition chiefly manifests itself; and we will not anticipate the period
+(trusting to be gone hence ere it arrive) when fair orators shall be as
+numerous as the fair authors of our own day.  The hastiest glance may
+show  how much of the texture and body of cisatlantic literature is the
+work of those slender fingers from which only a light and fanciful
+embroidery has heretofore been required, that might sparkle upon the
+garment without enfeebling the web.  Woman's intellect should never give
+the tone to that of man; and even her morality is not exactly the
+material for masculine virtue.  A false liberality, which mistakes the
+strong division-lines of Nature for arbitrary distinctions, and a
+courtesy, which might polish criticism, but should never soften it, have
+done their best to add a girlish feebleness to the tottering infancy of
+our literature.  The evil is likely to be a growing one.  As yet, the
+great body of American women are a domestic race; but when a continuance
+of ill-judged incitements shall have turned their hearts away from the
+fireside, there are obvious circumstances which will render female pens
+more numerous and more prolific than those of men, though but equally
+encouraged; and (limited, of course, by the scanty support of the
+public, but increasing indefinitely within those limits) the ink-stained
+Amazons will expel their rivals by actual pressure, and petticoats wave
+triumphantly over all the field.  But, allowing that such forebodings
+are slightly exaggerated, is it good for woman's self that the path of
+feverish hope, of tremulous success, of bitter and ignominious
+disappointment, should be left wide open to her?  Is the prize worth her
+having, if she win it?  Fame does not increase the peculiar respect
+which men pay to female excellence, and there is a delicacy (even in
+rude bosoms, where few would think to find it) that perceives, or
+fancies, a sort of impropriety in the display of woman's natal mind to
+the gaze of the world, with indications by which its inmost secrets may
+be searched out.  In fine, criticism should examine with a stricter,
+instead of a more indulgent eye, the merits of females at its bar,
+because they are to justify themselves for an irregularity which men do
+not commit in appearing there; and woman, when she feels the impulse of
+genius like a command of Heaven within her, should be aware that she is
+relinquishing a part of the loveliness of her sex, and obey the inward
+voice with sorrowing reluctance, like the Arabian maid who bewailed the
+gift of prophecy.  Hinting thus imperfectly at sentiments which may be
+developed on a future occasion, we proceed to consider the celebrated
+subject of this sketch.
+
+Mrs. Hutchinson was a woman of extraordinary talent and strong
+imagination, whom the latter quality, following the general direction
+taken by the enthusiasm of the times, prompted to stand forth as a
+reformer in religion.  In her native country, she had shown symptoms of
+irregular and daring thought, but, chiefly by the influence of a
+favorite pastor, was restrained from open indiscretion.  On the removal
+of this clergyman, becoming dissatisfied with the ministry under which
+she lived, she was drawn in by the great tide of Puritan emigration, and
+visited Massachusetts within a few years after its first settlement.
+But she bore trouble in her own bosom, and could find no peace in this
+chosen land.  She soon began to promulgate strange and dangerous
+opinions, tending, in the peculiar situation of the colony, and from the
+principles which were its basis, and indispensable for its temporary
+support, to eat into its very existence.  We shall endeavor to give a
+more practical idea of this part of her course.
+
+It is a summer evening.  The dusk has settled heavily upon the woods,
+the waves, and the Trimountain peninsula, increasing that dismal aspect
+of the embryo town, which was said to have drawn tears of despondency
+from Mrs. Hutchinson, though she believed that her mission thither was
+divine.  The houses, straw thatched and lowly roofed, stand irregularly
+along streets that are yet roughened by the roots of the trees, as if
+the forest, departing at the approach of man, had left its reluctant
+footprints behind.  Most of the dwellings are lonely and silent: from a
+few we may hear the reading of some sacred text, or the quiet voice of
+prayer; but nearly all the sombre life of the scene is collected near
+the extremity of the village.  A crowd of hooded women, and of men in
+steeple-hats and close-cropped hair, are assembled at the door and open
+windows of a house newly built.  An earnest expression glows in every
+face; and some press inward, as if the bread of life were to be dealt
+forth, and they feared to lose their share; while others would fain hold
+them back, but enter with them, since they may not be restrained.  We,
+also, will go in, edging through the thronged doorway to an apartment
+which occupies the whole breadth of the house. At the upper end, behind
+a table, on which are placed the Scriptures and two glimmering lamps, we
+see a woman, plainly attired, as befits her ripened years: her hair,
+complexion, and eyes are dark, the latter somewhat dull and heavy, but
+kindling up with a gradual brightness.  Let us look round upon the
+hearers. At her right hand his countenance suiting well with the gloomy
+light which discovers it, stands Vane, the youthful governor, preferred
+by a hasty judgment of the people over all the wise and hoary heads that
+had preceded him to New England. In his mysterious eyes we may read a
+dark enthusiasm, akin to that of the woman whose cause he has espoused,
+combined with a shrewd worldly foresight, which tells him that her
+doctrines will be productive of change and tumult, the elements of his
+power and delight.  On her left, yet slightly drawn back, so as to
+evince a less decided support, is Cotton, no young and hot enthusiast,
+but a mild, grave man in the decline of life, deep in all the learning
+of the age, and sanctified in heart, and made venerable in feature, by
+the long exercise of his holy profession.  He, also, is deceived by the
+strange fire now laid upon the altar; and he alone among his brethren is
+excepted in the denunciation of the new apostle, as sealed and set apart
+by Heaven to the work of the ministry.  Others of the priesthood stand
+full in front of the woman, striving to beat her down with brows of
+wrinkled iron, and whispering sternly and significantly among themselves
+as she unfolds her seditious doctrines, and grows warm in their support.
+Foremost is Hugh Peters, full of holy wrath, and scarce containing
+himself from rushing forward to convict her of damnable heresies.
+There, also, is Ward, meditating a reply of empty puns, and quaint
+antitheses, and tinkling jests that puzzle us with nothing but a sound.
+The audience are variously affected; but none are indifferent.  On the
+foreheads of the aged, the mature, and strong-minded, you may generally
+read steadfast disapprobation, though here and there is one whose faith
+seems shaken in those whom lie had trusted for years.  The females, on
+the other hand, are shuddering and weeping, and at times they cast a
+desolate look of fear around them; while the young men lean forward,
+fiery and impatient, fit instruments for whatever rash deed may be
+suggested.  And what is the eloquence that gives rise to all these
+passions?  The woman tells then (and cites texts from the Holy Book to
+prove her words) that they have put their trust in unregenerated and
+uncommissioned men, and have followed them into the wilderness for
+nought.  Therefore their hearts are turning from those whom they had
+chosen to lead them to heaven; and they feel like children who have been
+enticed far from home, and see the features of their guides change all
+at once, assuming a fiendish shape in some frightful solitude.
+
+These proceedings of Mrs. Hutchinson could not long be endured by the
+provincial government.  The present was a most remarkable case, in which
+religious freedom was wholly inconsistent with public safety, and where
+the principles of an illiberal age indicated the very course which must
+have been pursued by worldly policy and enlightened wisdom.  Unity of
+faith was the star that had guided these people over the deep; and a
+diversity of sects would either have scattered them from the land to
+which they had as yet so few attachments, or, perhaps, have excited a
+diminutive civil war among those who had come so far to worship
+together.  The opposition to what may be termed the Established Church
+had now lost its chief support by the removal of Vane from office, and
+his departure for England; and Mr. Cotton began to have that light in
+regard to his errors, which will sometimes break in upon the wisest and
+most pious men, when their opinions are unhappily discordant with those
+of the powers that be.  A synod, the first in New England, was speedily
+assembled, and pronounced its condemnation of the obnoxious doctrines.
+Mrs. Hutchinson was next summoned before the supreme civil tribunal, at
+which, however, the most eminent of the clergy were present, and appear
+to have taken a very active part as witnesses and advisers.  We shall
+here resume the more picturesque style of narration.
+
+It is a place of humble aspect where the elders of the people are met,
+sitting in judgment upon the disturber of Israel.  The floor of the low
+and narrow hall is laid with planks hewn by the axe; the beams of the
+roof still wear the rugged bark with which they grew up in the forest;
+and the hearth is formed of one broad, unhammered stone, heaped with
+logs that roll their blaze and smoke up a chimney of wood and clay.  A
+sleety shower beats fitfully against the windows, driven by the November
+blast, which comes howling onward from the northern desert, the
+boisterous and unwelcome herald of a New England winter.  Rude benches
+are arranged across the apartment, and along its sides, occupied by men
+whose piety and learning might have entitled them to seats in those high
+councils of the ancient church, whence opinions were sent forth to
+confirm or supersede the gospel in the belief of the whole world and of
+posterity.  Here are collected all those blessed fathers of the land,
+who rank in our veneration next to the evangelists of Holy Writ; and
+here, also, are many, unpurified from the fiercest errors of the age,
+and ready to propagate the religion of peace by violence.  In the
+highest place sits Winthrop,--a man by whom the innocent and guilty
+might alike desire to be judged; the first confiding in his integrity
+and wisdom, the latter hoping in his mildness, Next is Endicott, who
+would stand with his drawn sword at the gate of heaven, and resist to
+the death all pilgrims thither, except they travelled his own path.  The
+infant eyes of one in this assembly beheld the fagots blazing round the
+martyrs in Bloody Mary's time: in later life he dwelt long at Leyden,
+with the first who went from England for conscience' sake; and now, in
+his weary age, it matters little where he lies down to die.  There are
+others whose hearts were smitten in the high meridian of ambitious hope,
+and whose dreams still tempt them with the pomp of the Old World and the
+din of its crowded cities, gleaming and echoing over the deep.  In the
+midst, and in the centre of all eyes, we see the woman.  She stands
+loftily before her judges with a determined brow; and, unknown to
+herself, there is a flash of carnal pride half hidden in her eye, as she
+surveys the many learned and famous men whom her doctrines have put in
+fear.  They question her; and her answers are ready and acute: she
+reasons with them shrewdly, and brings Scripture in support of every
+argument.  The deepest controversialists of that scholastic day find
+here a woman, whom all their trained and sharpened intellects are
+inadequate to foil.  But, by the excitement of the contest, her heart is
+made to rise and swell within her, and she bursts forth into eloquence.
+She tells them of the long unquietness which she had endured in England,
+perceiving the corruption of the Church, and yearning for a purer and
+more perfect light, and how, in a day of solitary prayer, that light was
+given.  She claims for herself the peculiar power of distinguishing
+between the chosen of man, and the sealed of Heaven, and affirms that
+her gifted eye can see the glory round the foreheads of saints,
+sojourning in their mortal state.  She declares herself commissioned to
+separate the true shepherds from the false, and denounces present and
+future judgments on the laud, if she be disturbed in her celestial
+errand.  Thus the accusations are proved from her own mouth.  Her judges
+hesitate; and some speak faintly in her defence; but, with a few
+dissenting voices, sentence is pronounced, bidding her go out from among
+them, and trouble the land no more.
+
+Mrs. Hutchinson's adherents throughout the colony were now disarmed; and
+she proceeded to Rhode Island, an accustomed refuge for the exiles of
+Massachusetts in all seasons of persecution.  Her enemies believed that
+the anger of Heaven was following her, of which Governor Winthrop does
+not disdain to record a notable instance, very interesting in a
+scientific point of view, but fitter for his old and homely narrative
+than for modern repetition.  In a little time, also, she lost her
+husband, who is mentioned in history only as attending her footsteps,
+and whom we may conclude to have been (like most husbands of celebrated
+women) a mere insignificant appendage of his mightier wife.  She now
+grew uneasy away frown the Rhode Island colonists, whose liberality
+towards her, at an era when liberality was not esteemed a Christian
+virtue, probably arose from a comparative insolicitude on religious
+matters, more distasteful to Mrs. Hutchinson than even the
+uncompromising narrowness of the Puritans.  Her final movement was to
+lead her family within the limits of the Dutch jurisdiction, where,
+having felled the trees of a virgin soil, she became herself the virtual
+head, civil and ecclesiastical, of a little colony.
+
+Perhaps here she found the repose hitherto so vainly sought.  Secluded
+from all whose faith she could not govern, surrounded by the dependants
+over whom she held an unlimited influence, agitated by none of the
+tumultuous billows which were left swelling behind her, we may suppose
+that, in the stillness of Nature, her heart was stilled.  But her
+impressive story was to have an awful close.  Her last scene is as
+difficult to be described as a shipwreck, where the shrieks of the
+victims die unheard, along a desolate sea, and a shapeless mass of agony
+is all that can be brought home to the imagination.  The savage foe was
+on the watch for blood.  Sixteen persons assembled at the evening
+prayer: in the deep midnight their cry rang through the forest; and
+daylight dawned upon the lifeless clay of all but one.  It was a
+circumstance not to be unnoticed by our stern ancestors, in considering
+the fate of her who had so troubled their religion, that an infant
+daughter, the sole survivor amid the terrible destruction of her
+mother's household, was bred in a barbarous faith, and never learned the
+way to the Christian's heaven.  Yet we will hope that there the mother
+and child have met.
+
+
+
+
+SIR WILLIAM PHIPS.
+
+Few of the personages of past times (except such as have gained renown
+in fireside legends as well as in written history) are anything more
+than mere names to their successors.  They seldom stand up in our
+imaginations like men.  The knowledge communicated by the historian and
+biographer is analogous to that which we acquire of a country by the
+map,--minute, perhaps, and accurate, and available for all necessary
+purposes, but cold and naked, and wholly destitute of the mimic charm
+produced by landscape-painting.  These defects are partly remediable,
+and even without an absolute violation of literal truth, although by
+methods rightfully interdicted to professors of biographical exactness.
+A license must be assumed in brightening the materials which time has
+rusted, and in tracing out half-obliterated inscriptions on the columns
+of antiquity: Fancy must throw her reviving light on the faded incidents
+that indicate character, whence a ray will be reflected, more or less
+vividly, on the person to be described.  The portrait of the ancient
+governor whose name stands at the head of this article will owe any
+interest it may possess, not to his internal self, but to certain
+peculiarities of his fortune.  These must be briefly noticed.
+
+The birth and early life of Sir William Phips were rather an
+extraordinary prelude to his subsequent distinction.  He was one of
+the twenty-six children of a gunsmith, who exercised his trade--where
+hunting and war must have given it a full encouragement--in a small
+frontier settlement near the mouth of the river Kennebec.  Within the
+boundaries of the Puritan provinces, and wherever those governments
+extended an effectual sway, no depth nor solitude of the wilderness
+could exclude youth from all the common opportunities of moral, and far
+more than common ones of religious education.  Each settlement of the
+Pilgrims was a little piece of the Old World inserted into the New.  It
+was like Gideon's fleece, unwet with dew: the desert wind that breathed
+over it left none of its wild influences there.  But the first settlers
+of Maine and New Hampshire were led thither entirely by carnal motives:
+their governments were feeble, uncertain, sometimes nominally annexed to
+their sister colonies, and sometimes asserting a troubled independence.
+Their rulers might be deemed, in more than one instance, lawless
+adventurers, who found that security in the forest which they had
+forfeited in Europe.  Their clergy (unlike that revered band who
+acquired so singular a fame elsewhere in New England) were too often
+destitute of the religious fervor which should have kept them in the
+track of virtue, unaided by the restraints of human law and the dread of
+worldly dishonor; and there are records of lamentable lapses on the part
+of those holy men, which, if we may argue the disorder of the sheep from
+the unfitness of the shepherd, tell a sad tale as to the morality of the
+eastern provinces.  In this state of society, the future governor grew
+up; and many years after, sailing with a fleet and an army to make war
+upon the French, he pointed out the very hills where he had reached the
+age of manhood, unskilled even to read and write.  The contrast between
+the commencement and close of his life was the effect of casual
+circumstances.  During a considerable time, he was a mariner, at a
+period when there was much license on the high-seas.  After attaining to
+some rank in the English navy, he heard of an ancient Spanish wreck off
+the coast of Hispaniola, of such mighty value, that, according to the
+stories of the day, the sunken gold might be seen to glisten, and the
+diamonds to flash, as the triumphant billows tossed about their spoil.
+These treasures of the deep (by the aid of certain noblemen, who claimed
+the lion's share) Sir William Phips sought for, and recovered, and was
+sufficiently enriched, even after an honest settlement with the partners
+of his adventure.  That the land might give him honor, as the sea had
+given him wealth, he received knighthood from King James.  Returning to
+New England, he professed repentance of his sins (of which, from the
+nature both of his early and more recent life, there could scarce fail
+to be some slight accumulation), was baptized, and, on the accession of
+the Prince of Orange to the throne, became the first governor under the
+second charter.  And now, having arranged these preliminaries, we shall
+attempt to picture forth a day of Sir William's life, introducing no
+very remarkable events, because history supplies us with none such
+convertible to our purpose.
+
+It is the forenoon of a day in summer, shortly after the governor's
+arrival; and he stands upon his doorsteps, preparatory to a walk through
+the metropolis.  Sir William is a stout man, an inch or two below the
+middle size, and rather beyond the middle point of life.  His dress is
+of velvet,--a dark purple, broadly embroidered; and his sword-hilt and
+the lion's head of his cane display specimens of the gold from the
+Spanish wreck.  On his head, in the fashion of the court of Louis XIV.,
+is a superb full-bottomed periwig, amid whose heap of ringlets his face
+shows like a rough pebble in the setting that befits a diamond.  Just
+emerging from the door are two footmen,--one an African slave of shining
+ebony, the other an English bond-servant, the property of the governor
+for a term of years.  As Sir William comes down the steps, he is met by
+three elderly gentlemen in black, grave and solemn as three tombstones
+on a ramble from the burying-ground.  These are ministers of the town,
+among whom we recognize Dr. Increase Mather, the late provincial agent
+at the English court, the author of the present governor's appointment,
+and the right arm of his administration.  Here follow many bows and a
+deal of angular politeness on both sides.  Sir William professes his
+anxiety to re-enter the house, and give audience to the reverend
+gentlemen: they, on the other hand, cannot think of interrupting his
+walk; and the courteous dispute is concluded by a junction of the
+parties; Sir William and Dr. Mather setting forth side by side, the two
+other clergymen forming the centre of the column, and the black and
+white footmen bringing up the rear.  The business in hand relates to the
+dealings of Satan in the town of Salem.  Upon this subject, the
+principal ministers of the province have been consulted; and these three
+eminent persons are their deputies, commissioned to express a doubtful
+opinion, implying, upon the whole, an exhortation to speedy and vigorous
+measures against the accused.  To such councils, Sir William, bred in
+the forest and on the ocean, and tinctured with the superstition of
+both, is well inclined to listen.
+
+As the dignitaries of Church and State make their way beneath the
+overhanging houses, the lattices are thrust ajar, and you may discern,
+just in the boundaries of light and shade, the prim faces of the little
+Puritan damsels, eying the magnificent governor, and envious of the
+bolder curiosity of the men.  Another object of almost equal interest
+now appears in the middle of the way.  It is a man clad in a hunting-
+shirt and Indian stockings, and armed with a long gun.  His feet have
+been wet with the waters of many an inland lake and stream; and the
+leaves and twigs of the tangled wilderness are intertwined with his
+garments: on his head he wears a trophy which we would not venture to
+record without good evidence of the fact,--a wig made of the long and
+straight black hair of his slain savage enemies.  This grim old heathen
+stands bewildered in the midst of King Street.  The governor regards him
+attentively, and, recognizing a playmate of his youth, accosts him with
+a gracious smile, inquires as to the prosperity of their birthplace, and
+the life or death of their ancient neighbors, and makes appropriate
+remarks on the different stations allotted by fortune to two individuals
+born and bred beside the same wild river.  Finally he puts into his
+hand, at parting, a shilling of the Massachusetts coinage, stamped with
+the figure of a stubbed pine-tree, mistaken by King Charles for the
+oak which saved his royal life.  Then all the people praise the humility
+and bountifulness of the good governor, who struts onward flourishing
+his gold-headed cane; while the gentleman in the straight black wig is
+left with a pretty accurate idea of the distance between himself and his
+old companion. Meantime, Sir William steers his course towards the town
+dock.  A gallant figure is seen approaching on the opposite side of the
+street, in a naval uniform profusely laced, and with a cutlass swinging
+by his side.  This is Captain Short, the commander of a frigate in the
+service of the English king, now lying in the harbor.  Sir William
+bristles up at sight of him, and crosses the street with a lowering
+front, unmindful of the hints of Dr. Mather, who is aware of an
+unsettled dispute between the captain and the governor, relative to the
+authority of the latter over a king's ship on the provincial station.
+Into this thorny subject, Sir William plunges headlong.  The captain
+makes answer with less deference than the dignity of the potentate
+requires: the affair grows hot; and the clergymen endeavor to interfere
+in the blessed capacity of peacemakers.  The governor lifts his cane;
+and the captain lays his hand upon his sword, but is prevented from
+drawing by the zealous exertions of Dr. Mather.  There is a furious
+stamping of feet, and a mighty uproar from every mouth, in the midst of
+which his Excellency inflicts several very sufficient whacks on the head
+of the unhappy Short.  Having thus avenged himself by manual force, as
+befits a woodman and a mariner, he vindicates the insulted majesty of
+the governor by committing his antagonist to prison.  This done, Sir
+William removes his periwig, wipes away the sweat of the encounter, and
+gradually composes himself, giving vent, to a few oaths, like the
+subsiding ebullitions of a pot that has boiled over.
+
+It being now near twelve o'clock, the three ministers are bidden to
+dinner at the governor's table, where the party is completed by a few
+Old Charter senators,--men reared at the feet of the Pilgrims, and who
+remember the days when Cromwell was a nursing-father to New England.
+Sir William presides with commendable decorum till grace is said, and
+the cloth removed.  Then, as the grape-juice glides warm into the
+ventricles of his heart, it produces a change, like that of a running
+stream upon enchanted shapes; and the rude man of the sea and wilderness
+appears in the very chair where the stately governor sat down.  He
+overflows with jovial tales of the forecastle and of his father's hut,
+and stares to see the gravity of his guests become more and more
+portentous in exact proportion as his own merriment increases.  A noise
+of drum and fife fortunately breaks up the session.
+
+The governor and his guests go forth, like men bound upon some grave
+business, to inspect the trainbands of the town.  A great crowd of
+people is collected on the common, composed of whole families, from the
+hoary grandsire to the child of three years.  All ages and both sexes
+look with interest on the array of their defenders; and here and there
+stand a few dark Indians in their blankets, dull spectators of the
+strength that has swept away their race.  The soldiers wear a proud and
+martial mien, conscious that beauty will reward them with her approving
+glances; not to mention that there are a few less influential motives to
+contribute to keep up an heroic spirit, such as the dread of being made
+to "ride the wooden horse" (a very disagreeable mode of equestrian
+exercise,--hard riding, in the strictest sense), or of being "laid neck
+and heels," in a position of more compendiousness than comfort.  Sir
+William perceives some error in their tactics, and places himself with
+drawn sword at their head.  After a variety of weary evolutions, evening
+begins to fall, like the veil of gray and misty years that have rolled
+betwixt that warlike band and us.  They are drawn into a hollow square,
+the officers in the centre; and the governor (for John Dunton's
+authority will bear us out in this particular) leans his hands upon his
+sword-hilt, and closes the exercises of the day with a prayer.
+
+
+
+
+
+SIR WILLIAM PEPPERELL.
+
+The mighty man of Kittery has a double claim  to remembrance.  He was a
+famous general,  the most prominent military character in our ante-
+Revolutionary annals; and he may be taken as the  representative of a
+class of warriors peculiar to their age and country,--true citizen-
+soldiers, who diversified a life of commerce or agriculture by the
+episode of a city  sacked, or a battle won, and, having stamped their
+names  on the page of history, went back to the routine of peaceful
+occupation.  Sir William Pepperell's letters, written  at the most
+critical period of his career, and his conduct  then and at other times,
+indicate a man of plain good sense, with a large share of quiet
+resolution, and but little of an enterprising spirit, unless aroused by
+external  circumstances.  The Methodistic principles, with which  he was
+slightly tinctured, instead of impelling him to extravagance,
+assimilated themselves to his orderly habits of thought and action. Thus
+respectably endowed, we find him, when near the age of fifty, a merchant
+of weight in foreign and domestic trade, a provincial counsellor, and
+colonel of the York County militia, filling a large space in the eyes of
+his generation, but likely to gain no other posthumous memorial than the
+letters on his tombstone, because undistinguished from the many
+worshipful gentlemen who had lived prosperously and died peacefully
+before him.  But in the year 1745, an expedition was projected against
+Louisburg, a walled city of the French in the island of Cape Breton.
+The idea of reducing this strong fortress was conceived by William
+Vaughan, a bold, energetic, and imaginative adventurer, and adopted by
+Governor Shirley, the most bustling, though not the wisest ruler, that
+ever presided over Massachusetts.  His influence at its utmost stretch
+carried the measure by a majority of only one vote in the legislature:
+the other New England provinces consented to lend their assistance; and
+the next point was to select a commander from among the gentlemen of the
+country, none of whom had the least particle of scientific soldiership,
+although some were experienced in the irregular warfare of the
+frontiers.  In the absence of the usual qualifications for military
+rank, the choice was guided by other motives, and fell upon Colonel
+Pepperell, who, as a landed proprietor in three provinces, and popular
+with all classes of people, might draw the greatest number of recruits
+to his banner.  When this doubtful speculation was proposed to the
+prudent merchant, he sought advice from the celebrated Whitefield, then
+an itinerant preacher in the country, and an object of vast antipathy to
+many of the settled ministers.  The response of the apostle of
+Methodism, though dark as those of the Oracle of Delphos, intimating
+that the blood of the slain would be laid to Colonel Pepperell's charge,
+in case of failure, and that the envy of the living would persecute him,
+if victorious, decided him to gird on his armor.  That the French might
+be taken unawares, the legislature had been laid under an oath of
+secrecy while their deliberations should continue; this precaution,
+however, was nullified by the pious perjury of a country member of the
+lower house, who, in the performance of domestic worship at his
+lodgings, broke into a fervent and involuntary petition for the success
+of the enterprise against Louisburg.  We of the present generation,
+whose hearts have never been heated and amalgamated by one universal
+passion, and who are, perhaps, less excitable in the mass than our
+fathers, cannot easily conceive the enthusiasm with which the people
+seized upon the project.  A desire to prove in the eyes of England the
+courage of her provinces; the real necessity for the destruction of this
+Dunkirk of America; the hope of private advantage; a remnant of the old
+Puritan detestation of Papist idolatry; a strong hereditary hatred of
+the French, who, for half a hundred years, had shed the blood of the
+English settlers in concert with the savages; the natural proneness of
+the New-Englanders to engage in temporary undertakings, even though
+doubtful and hazardous, such were some of the motives which soon drew
+together a host, comprehending nearly all the effective force of the
+country.  The officers were grave deacons, justices of the peace, and
+other similar dignitaries; and in the ranks were many warm householders,
+sons of rich farmers, mechanics in thriving business, husbands weary of
+their wives, and bachelors disconsolate for want of them.  The disciples
+of Whitefield also turned their excited imaginations in this direction,
+and increased the resemblance borne by the provincial army to the motley
+assemblages of the first crusaders.  A part of the peculiarities of the
+affair may be grouped in one picture, by selecting the moment of General
+Pepperell's embarkation.
+
+It is a bright and breezy day of March; and about twenty small white
+clouds are scudding seaward before the wind, airy forerunners of the
+fleet of privateers and transports that spread their sails to the
+sunshine in the harbor.  The tide is at its height; and the gunwale of a
+barge alternately rises above the wharf, and then sinks from view, as it
+lies rocking on the waves in readiness to convey the general and his
+suite on board the Shirley galley.  In the background, the dark wooden
+dwellings of the town have poured forth their inhabitants; and this way
+rolls an earnest throng, with the great man of the day walking in the
+midst.  Before him struts a guard of honor, selected from the yeomanry
+of his own neighborhood, and stout young rustics in their Sunday
+clothes; next appear six figures who demand our more minute attention.
+He in the centre is the general, a well-proportioned man with a slight
+hoar-frost of age just visible upon him; he views the fleet in which lie
+is about to embark, with no stronger expression than a calm anxiety, as
+if he were sending a freight of his own merchandise to Europe.  A
+scarlet British uniform, made of the best of broadcloth, because
+imported by himself, adorns his person; and in the left pocket of a
+large buff waistcoat, near the pommel of his sword, we see the square
+protuberance of a small Bible, which certainly may benefit his pious
+soul, and, perchance, may keep a bullet from his body.  The middle-aged
+gentleman at his right hand, to whom he pays such grave attention, in
+silk, gold, and velvet, and with a pair of spectacles thrust above his
+forehead, is Governor Shirley.  The quick motion of his small eyes in
+their puckered sockets, his grasp on one of the general's bright
+military buttons, the gesticulation of his forefinger, keeping time with
+the earnest rapidity of his words, have all something characteristic.
+His mind is calculated to fill up the wild conceptions of other men with
+its own minute ingenuities; and he seeks, as it were, to climb up to the
+moon by piling pebble-stones, one upon another.  He is now impressing on
+the general's recollection the voluminous details of a plan for
+surprising Louisburg in the depth of midnight, and thus to finish the
+campaign within twelve hours after the arrival of the troops.  On the
+left, forming a striking contrast with the unruffled deportment of
+Pepperell, and the fidgety vehemence of Shirley, is the martial figure
+of Vaughan: with one hand he has seized the general's arm; and he points
+the other to the sails of the vessel fluttering in the breeze, while the
+fire of his inward enthusiasm glows through his dark complexion, and
+flashes in tips of flame from his eyes.  Another pale and emaciated
+person, in neglected and scarcely decent attire, and distinguished by
+the abstracted fervor of his manner, presses through the crowd, and
+attempts to lay hold of Pepperell's skirt.  He has spent years in wild
+and shadowy studies, and has searched the crucible of the alchemist for
+gold, and wasted the life allotted him, in a weary effort to render it
+immortal.  The din of warlike preparation has broken in upon his
+solitude; and he comes forth with a fancy of his half-maddened brain,--
+the model of a flying bridge,--by which the army is to be transported
+into the heart of the hostile fortress with the celerity of magic.  But
+who is this, of the mild and venerable countenance shaded by locks of a
+hallowed whiteness, looking like Peace with its gentle thoughts in the
+midst of uproar and stern designs?  It is the minister of an inland
+parish, who, after much prayer and fasting, advised by the elders of the
+church and the wife of his bosom, has taken his staff, and journeyed
+townward.  The benevolent old man would fair solicit the general's
+attention to a method of avoiding danger from the explosion of mines,
+and of overcoming the city without bloodshed of friend or enemy.  We
+start as we turn from this picture of Christian love to the dark
+enthusiast close beside him,--a preacher of the new sect, in every
+wrinkled line of whose visage we can read the stormy passions that have
+chosen religion for their outlet.  Woe to the wretch that shall seek
+mercy there!  At his back is slung an axe, wherewith he goes to hew down
+the carved altars and idolatrous images in the Popish churches; and over
+his head he rears a banner, which, as the wind unfolds it, displays the
+motto given by Whitefield,--Christo Duce,--in letters red as blood.  But
+the tide is now ebbing; and the general makes his adieus to the
+governor, and enters the boat: it bounds swiftly over the waves, the
+holy banner fluttering in the bows: a huzza from the fleet comes
+riotously to the shore; and the people thunder hack their many-voiced
+reply.
+
+When the expedition sailed, the projectors could not reasonably rely on
+assistance from the mother-country.  At Canso, however, the fleet was
+strengthened by a squadron of British ships-of-the-lice and frigates,
+under Commodore Warren; and this circumstance undoubtedly prevented a
+discomfiture, although the active business, and all the dangers of the
+siege, fell to the share of the provincials.  If we had any confidence
+that it could be done with half so much pleasure to the reader as to
+ourself, we would present, a whole gallery of pictures from these rich
+and fresh historic scenes.  Never, certainly, since man first indulged
+his instinctive appetite for war, did a queerer and less manageable host
+sit down before a hostile city.  The officers, drawn from the same.
+class of citizens with the rank and file, had neither the power to
+institute an awful discipline, nor enough of the trained soldier's
+spirit to attempt it.  Of headlong valor, when occasion offered, there
+was no lack, nor of a readiness to encounter severe fatigue; but, with
+few intermissions, the provincial army made the siege one long day of
+frolic and disorder.  Conscious that no military virtues of their own
+deserved the prosperous result which followed, they insisted that Heaven
+had fought as manifestly on their side as ever on that of Israel in the
+battles of the Old Testament.  We, however, if we consider the events of
+after-years, and confine our view to a period short of the Revolution,
+might doubt whether the victory was granted to our fathers as a blessing
+or as a judgment.  Most of the young men who had left their paternal
+firesides, sound in constitution, and pure in morals, if they returned
+at all, returned with ruined health, and with minds so broken up by the
+interval of riot, that they never after could resume the habits of good
+citizenship.  A lust for military glory was also awakened in the
+country; and France and England gratified it with enough of slaughter;
+the former seeking to recover what she had lost, the latter to complete
+the conquest which the colonists had begun.  There was a brief season of
+repose, and then a fiercer contest, raging almost from end to end of
+North America.  Some went forth, and met the red men of the wilderness;
+and when years had rolled, and the settler came in peace where they had
+come in war, there he found their unburied bones among the fallen boughs
+and withered leaves of many autumns.  Others were foremost in the
+battles of the Canadas, till, in the day that saw the downfall of the
+French dominion, they poured their blood with Wolfe on the Heights of
+Abraham.  Through all this troubled time, the flower of the youth were
+cut down by the sword, or died of physical diseases, or became
+unprofitable citizens by moral ones contracted in the camp and field.
+Dr. Douglass, a shrewd Scotch physician of the last century, who died
+before war had gathered in half its harvest, computes that many thousand
+blooming damsels, capable and well inclined to serve the state as wives
+and mothers, were compelled to lead lives of barren celibacy by the
+consequences of the successful siege of Louisburg.  But we will not
+sadden ourselves with these doleful thoughts, when we are to witness the
+triumphal entry of the victors into the surrendered town.
+
+The thundering of drums, irregularly beaten, grows more and more
+distinct, and the shattered strength of the western wall of Louisburg
+stretches out before the eye, forty feet in height, and far overtopped
+by a rock built citadel.  In yonder breach the broken timber, fractured
+stones, and crumbling earth prove the effect of the provincial cannon.
+The drawbridge is down over the wide moat; the gate is open; and the
+general and British commodore are received by the French authorities
+beneath the dark and lofty portal arch.  Through the massive gloom of
+this deep avenue there is a vista of the main street, bordered by high
+peaked houses, in the fashion of old France; the view is terminated by
+the centre square of the city, in the midst of which rises a stone
+cross; and shaven monks, and women with their children, are kneeling at
+its foot.  A confused sobbing and half-stifled shrieks are heard, as the
+tumultuous advance of the conquering army becomes audible to those
+within the walls.  By the light which falls through the archway, we
+perceive that a few months have somewhat changed the general's mien,
+giving it the freedom of one acquainted with peril, and accustomed to
+command; nor, amid hopes of more solid reward, does he appear insensible
+to the thought that posterity will remember his name among those
+renowned in arms.  Sir Peter Warren, who receives with him the enemy's
+submission, is a rough and haughty English seaman, greedy of fame, but
+despising those who have won it for him.  Pressing forward to the
+portal, sword in hand, comes a comical figure in a brown suit, and blue
+yarn stockings, with a huge frill sticking forth from his bosom, to
+which the whole man seems an appendage this is that famous worthy of
+Plymouth County, who went to the war with two plain shirts and a ruffled
+one, and is now about to solicit the post of governor in Louisburg.  In
+close vicinity stands Vaughan, worn down with toil and exposure, the
+effect of which has fallen upon him at once in the moment of
+accomplished hope.  The group is filled up by several British officers,
+who fold their arms, and look with scornful merriment at the provincial
+army, as it stretches far behind in garments of every hue, resembling an
+immense strip of patchwork carpeting thrown down over the uneven ground.
+In the nearer ranks we may discern the variety of ingredients that
+compose the mass.  Here advance a row of stern, unmitigable-fanatics,
+each of whom clinches his teeth, and grasps his weapon with a fist of
+iron, at sight of the temples of the ancient faith, with the sunlight
+glittering on their cross-crowned spires.  Others examine the
+surrounding country, and send scrutinizing glances through the gateway,
+anxious to select a spot, whither the good woman and her little ones in
+the Bay Province may be advantageously transported.  Some, who drag
+their diseased limbs forward in weariness and pain, have made the
+wretched exchange of health or life for what share of fleeting glory may
+fall to them among four thousand men.  But these are all exceptions, and
+the exulting feelings of the general host combine in an expression like
+that of a broad laugh on an honest countenance.  They roll onward
+riotously, flourishing their muskets above their heads, shuffling their
+heavy heels into an instinctive dance, and roaring out some holy verse
+from the New England Psalmody, or those harsh old warlike stanzas which
+tell the story of "Lovell's Fight."  Thus they pour along, till the
+battered town and the rabble of its conquerors, and the shouts, the
+drums, the singing, and the laughter, grow dim, and die away from
+Fancy's eye and ear.
+
+The arms of Great Britain were not crowned by a more brilliant
+achievement during that unprosperous war; and, in adjusting the terms of
+a subsequent peace, Louisburg was an equivalent for many losses nearer
+home.  The English, with very pardonable vanity, attributed the conquest
+chiefly to the valor of the naval force.  On the continent of Europe,
+our fathers met with greater justice, and Voltaire has ranked this
+enterprise of the husbandmen of New England among the most remarkable
+events in the reign of Louis XV.  The ostensible leaders did not fail of
+reward.  Shirley, originally a lawyer, was commissioned in the regular
+army, and rose to the supreme military command in America.  Warren,
+also, received honors and professional rank, and arrogated to himself,
+without scruple, the whole crop of laurels gathered at Louisburg.
+Pepperell was placed at the head of a royal regiment, and, first of his
+countrymen, was distinguished by the title of baronet.  Vaughan alone,
+who had been soul of the deed from its adventurous conception till the
+triumphant close, and in every danger and every hardship had exhibited a
+rare union of ardor and perseverance,--Vaughan was entirely neglected,
+and died in London, whither he had gone to make known his claims.  After
+the great era of his life, Sir William Pepperell did not distinguish
+himself either as a warrior or a statesman.  He spent the remainder of
+his days in all the pomp of a colonial grandee, and laid down his
+aristocratic head among the humbler ashes of his fathers, just before
+the commencement of the earliest troubles between England and America.
+
+
+
+
+
+THOMAS GREEN FESSENDEN.
+
+Thomas Green Fessenden was the eldest of nine children of the Rev.
+Thomas Fessenden.  He was born on the 22d of April, 1771, at Walpole, in
+New Hampshire, where his father, a man of learning and talent, was long
+settled in the ministry.  On the maternal side, likewise, he was of
+clerical extraction; his mother, whose piety and amiable qualities are
+remembered by her descendants, being the daughter of the Rev. Samuel
+Kendal of New Salem.  The early education of Thomas Green was chiefly at
+the common school of his native place, under the tuition of students
+from the college at Hanover; and such was his progress, that he became
+himself the instructor of a school in New Salem at the age of sixteen.
+He spent most of his youthful days, however, in bodily labor upon the
+farm, thus contributing to the support of a numerous family; and the
+practical knowledge of agriculture which he then obtained was long
+afterwards applied to the service of the public.  Opportunities for
+cultivating his mind were afforded him, not only in his father's
+library, but by the more miscellaneous contents of a large bookstore.
+He had passed the age of twenty-one when his inclination for mental
+pursuits determined him to become a student at Dartmouth College.  His
+father being able to give but little assistance, his chief resources at,
+college consisted in his wages as teacher of a village school during the
+vacations.  At times, also, he gave instruction to an evening class in
+psalmody.
+
+From his childhood upward, Mr. Fessenden had shown symptoms of that
+humorous turn which afterwards so strongly marked his writings; but his
+first effort in verse, as he himself told me, was made during his
+residence at college.  The themes, or exercises, of his fellow students
+in English composition, whether prose or rhyme, were well characterized
+by the lack of native thought and feeling, the cold pedantry, the
+mimicry of classic models, common to all such productions.  Mr.
+Fessenden had the good taste to disapprove of these vapid and spiritless
+performances, and resolved to strike out a new course for himself.  On
+one occasion, when his classmates had gone through with their customary
+round of verbiage and threadbare sentiment, he electrified them and
+their instructor, President Wheelock, by reading "_Jonathan's
+Courtship_."  There has never, to this day, been produced by any of our
+countrymen a more original and truly Yankee effusion.  He had caught the
+rare art of sketching familiar manners, and of throwing into verse the
+very spirit of society as it existed around him; and he had imbued each
+line with a peculiar yet perfectly natural and homely humor.  This
+excellent ballad compels me to regret, that, instead of becoming a
+satirist in politics and science, and wasting his strength on temporary
+and evanescent topics, he had not continued to be a rural poet.  A
+volume of such sketches as "Jonathan's Courtship," describing various
+aspects of life among the yeomanry of New England, could not have failed
+to gain a permanent place in American literature.  The effort in
+question met with unexampled success: it ran through the newspapers of
+the day, reappeared on the other side of the Atlantic, and was warmly
+applauded by the English critics; nor has it yet lost its popularity.
+New editions may be found every year at the ballad-stalls; and I saw
+last summer, on the veteran author's table, a broadside copy of his
+maiden poem, which he had himself bought in the street.
+
+Mr. Fessenden passed through college with a fair reputation for
+scholarship, and took his degree in 1796.  It had been his father's wish
+that he should imitate the example of sonic of his ancestors on both
+sides, by devoting himself to the ministry.  He, however, preferred the
+law, and commenced the study of that profession at Rutland, in Vermont,
+with Nathaniel Chipman, then the most eminent practitioner in the State.
+After his admission to the bar, Mr. Chipman received him into
+partnership.  But Mr. Fessenden was ill qualified to succeed in the
+profession of law, by his simplicity of character, and his utter
+inability to acquire an ordinary share of shrewdness and worldly wisdom.
+Moreover, the success of "_Jonathan's Courtship_," and other poetical
+effusions, had turned his thoughts from law to literature, and had
+procured him the acquaintance of several literary luminaries of those
+days; none of whose names, probably, have survived to our own
+generation, save that of Joseph Dennie, once esteemed the finest writer
+in America.  His intercourse with these people tempted Mr. Fessenden to
+spend much time in writing for newspapers and periodicals.  A taste for
+scientific pursuits still further diverted him from his legal studies,
+and soon engaged him in an affair which influenced the complexion of all
+his after-life.
+
+A Mr. Langdon had brought forward a newly invented hydraulic machine,
+which was supposed to possess the power of raising water to a greater
+height than had hitherto been considered possible.  A company of
+mechanics and others became interested in this machine, and appointed
+Mr. Fessenden their agent for the purpose of obtaining a patent in
+London.  He was, likewise, a member of the company.  Mr. Fessenden was
+urged to hasten his departure, in consequence of a report that certain
+persons had acquired the secret of the invention, and were determined to
+anticipate the proprietors in securing a patent.  Scarcely time was
+allowed for testing the efficacy of the machine by a few hasty
+experiments, which, however, appeared satisfactory.  Taking passage
+immediately, Mr. Fessenden arrived in London on the 4th of July, 1801,
+and waited on Mr. King, then our minister, by whom he was introduced to
+Mr. Nicholson, a gentleman of eminent scientific reputation.  After
+thoroughly examining the invention, Mr. Nicholson gave an opinion
+unfavorable to its merits; and the question was soon settled by a letter
+from one of the Vermont proprietors to Mr. Fessenden, informing him that
+the apparent advantages of the machine had been found altogether
+deceptive.  In short, Mr. Fessenden had been lured from his profession
+and country by as empty a bubble as that of the perpetual motion.  Yet
+it is creditable both to his ability and energy, that, laying hold of
+what was really valuable in Langdon's contrivance; he constructed the
+model of a machine for raising water from coal-mines, and other great
+depths, by means of what he termed the "renovated pressure of the
+atmosphere."  On communicating this invention to Mr. Nicholson and other
+eminent mechanicians, they acknowledged its originality and ingenuity,
+and thought that, in some situations, it might be useful.  But the
+expenses of a patent in England, the difficulty of obtaining patronage
+for such a project, and the uncertainty of the result, were obstacles
+too weighty to be overcome.  Mr. Fessenden threw aside the scheme, and,
+after a two months' residence in London, was preparing to return home,
+when a new and characteristic adventure arrested him.
+
+He received a visit, at his lodging in the Strand, from a person whom he
+had never before seen, but who introduced himself to his good-will as
+being likewise an American.  His business was of a nature well
+calculated to excite Mr. Fessenden's interest.  He produced the model of
+an ingenious contrivance for grinding corn.  A patent had already been
+obtained; and a company, with the lord-mayor of London at its head, was
+associated for the construction of mills upon this new principle.  The
+inventor, according to his own story, had disposed of one-fourth part of
+his patent for five hundred pounds, and was willing to accommodate his
+countryman with another fourth.  After some inquiry into the stranger's
+character and the accuracy of his statements, Mr. Fessenden became a
+purchaser of the share that was offered him; on what terms is not
+stated, but probably such as to involve his whole property in the
+adventure.  The result was disastrous.  The lord-mayor soon withdrew his
+countenance from the project.  It ultimately appeared that Mr. Fessenden
+was the only real purchaser of any part of the patent; and, as the
+original patentee shortly afterwards quitted the concern, the former was
+left to manage the business as he best could.  With a perseverance not
+less characteristic than his credulity, he associated himself with four
+partners, and undertook to superintend the construction of one of these
+patent-mills upon the Thanes.  But his associates, who were men of no
+respectability, thwarted his plans; and after much toil of body, as well
+as distress of mind, he found himself utterly ruined, friendless and
+penniless, in the midst of London.  No other event could have been
+anticipated, when a man so devoid of guile was thrown among a set of
+crafty adventurers.
+
+Being now in the situation in which many a literary man before him had
+been, he remembered the success of his fugitive poems, and betook
+himself to the pen as his most natural resource.  A subject was offered
+him, in which no other poet would have found a theme for the Muse.
+It seemed to be his fatality to form connections with schemers of all
+sorts; and he had become acquainted with Benjamin Douglas Perkins, the
+patentee of the famous metallic tractors.  These implements were then in
+great vogue for the cure of inflammatory diseases, by removing the
+superfluous electricity.  Perkinism, as the doctrine of metallic
+tractors was styled, had some converts among scientific men, and many
+among the people but was violently opposed by the regular corps of
+physicians and surgeons.  Mr. Fessenden, as might be expected, was a
+believer in the efficacy of the tractors, and, at the request of
+Perkins, consented to make them the subject of a poem in Hudibrastic
+verse, the satire of which was to be levelled against their opponents.
+"Terrible Tractoration" was the result.  It professes to be a poetical
+petition from Dr. Christopher Caustic, a medical gentleman who has been
+ruined by the success of the metallic tractors, and who applies to the
+Royal College of Physicians for relief and redress.  The wits of the
+poor doctor have been somewhat shattered by his misfortunes; and, with
+crazy ingenuity, he contrives to heap ridicule on his medical brethren,
+under pretence of railing against Perkinism.  The poem is in four
+cantos, the first of which is the best, and the most characteristic of
+the author.  It is occupied with Dr. Caustic's description of his
+mechanical and scientific contrivances, embracing all sorts of possible
+and impossible projects; every one of which, however, has a ridiculous
+plausibility.  The inexhaustible variety in which they flow forth proves
+the author's invention unrivalled in its way.  It shows what had been
+the nature of Mr. Fessenden's mental toil during his residence in
+London, continually brooding over the miracles of mechanism and science,
+his enthusiasm for which had cost him so dear.  Long afterwards,
+speaking of the first conception of this poem, the author told me that
+he had shaped it out during a solitary day's ramble in the outskirts of
+London; and the character of Dr. Caustic so strongly impressed itself on
+his mind, that, as he walked homeward through the crowded streets, he
+burst into frequent fits of laughter.
+
+The truth is, that, in the sketch of this wild projector, Mr. Fessenden
+had caricatured some of his own features; and, when he laughed so
+heartily, it was at the perception of the resemblance.
+
+"Terrible Tractoration" is a work of strange and grotesque ideas aptly
+expressed: its rhymes are of a most singular character, yet fitting each
+to each as accurately as echoes.  As in all Mr. Fessenden's productions,
+there is great exactness in the language; the author's thoughts being
+thrown off as distinctly as impressions from a type.  In regard to the
+pleasure to be derived from reading this poem, there is room for
+diversity of taste; but, that it is all original and remarkable work, no
+person competent to pass judgment on a literary question will deny.  It
+was first published early in the year 1803, in an octavo pamphlet of
+above fifty pages.  Being highly applauded by the principal reviews, and
+eagerly purchased by the public, a new edition appeared at the end of
+two months, in a volume of nearly two hundred pages, illustrated with
+engravings.  It received the praise of Gifford, the severest of English
+critics.  Its continued success encouraged the author to publish a
+volume of "Original Poems," consisting chiefly of his fugitive pieces
+from the American newspapers.  This, also, was favorably received.  He
+was now, what so few of his countrymen have ever been, a popular author
+in London; and, in the midst of his triumphs, he bethought himself of
+his native land.
+
+Mr. Fessenden returned to America in 1804.  He came back poorer than he
+went, but with an honorable reputation, and with unstained integrity,
+although his evil fortune had connected him with men far unlike himself.
+His fame had preceded him across the Atlantic.  Shortly before his
+arrival, an edition of "Terrible Tractoration" had been published at
+Philadelphia, with a prefatory memoir of the author, the tone of which
+proves that the American people felt themselves honored in the literary
+success of their countryman.  Another edition appeared in New York, in
+1806, considerably enlarged, with a new satire on the topics of the day.
+It is symptomatic of the course which the author had now adopted, that
+much of this new satire was directed against Democratic principles and
+the prominent upholders of them.  This was soon followed by "Democracy
+Unveiled," a more elaborate attack on the same political party.
+
+In "Democracy Unveiled," our friend Dr. Caustic appears as a citizen of
+the United States, and pours out six cantos of vituperative verse, with
+copious notes of the same tenor, on the heads of President Jefferson and
+his supporters.  Much of the satire is unpardonably coarse.  The
+literary merits of the work are inferior to those of "Terrible
+Tractoration "; but it is no less original and peculiar.  Even where the
+matter is a mere versification of newspaper slander, Dr. Caustic's
+manner gives it an individuality not to be mistaken.  The book passed
+through three editions in the course of a few months.  Its most pungent
+portions were copied into all the opposition prints; its strange, jog-
+trot stanzas were familiar to every ear; and Mr. Fessenden may fairly be
+allowed the credit of having given expression to the feelings of the
+great Federal party.
+
+On the 30th of August, 1806, Mr. Fessenden commenced the publication, at
+New York, of "_The Weekly Inspector_," a paper at first of eight, and
+afterwards of sixteen, octavo pages.  It appeared every Saturday.  The
+character of this journal was mainly political; but there are also a few
+flowers and sweet-scented twigs of literature intermixed among the
+nettles and burs, which alone flourish in the arena of party strife.
+Its columns are profusely enriched with scraps of satirical verse in
+which Dr. Caustic, in his capacity of ballad-maker to the Federal
+faction, spared not to celebrate every man or measure of government that
+was anywise susceptible of ridicule.  Many of his prose articles are
+carefully and ably written, attacking not men so much as principles and
+measures; and his deeply felt anxiety for the welfare of his country
+sometimes gives an impressive dignity to his thoughts and style.  The
+dread of French domination seems to have haunted him like a nightmare.
+But, in spite of the editor's satirical reputation, "_The Weekly
+Inspector_" was too conscientious a paper, too sparingly spiced with the
+red pepper of personal abuse, to succeed in those outrageous times.  The
+publication continued but for a single year, at the end of which we find
+Mr. Fessenden's valedictory to his leaders.  Its tone is despondent both
+as to the prospects of the country and his own private fortunes.  The
+next token of his labors that has come under my notice is a small volume
+of verse, published at Philadelphia in 1809, and alliteratively entitled
+"Pills, Poetical, Political, and Philosophical; prescribed for the
+Purpose of purging the Public of Piddling Philosophers, Penny
+Poetasters, of Paltry Politicians, and Petty Partisans.  By Peter
+Pepper-Box, Poet and Physician."  This satire had been written during
+the embargo, but, not making its appearance till after the repeal of
+that measure, met with less success than "Democracy Unveiled."
+
+Everybody who has known Mr. Fessenden must have wondered how the kindest
+hearted man in all the world could have likewise been the most noted
+satirist of his day.  For my part, I have tried in vain to form a
+conception of my venerable and peaceful friend as a champion in the
+stormy strife of party, flinging mud full in the faces of his foes, and
+shouting forth the bitter laughter that rang from border to border of
+the land; and I can hardly believe, though well assured of it, that his
+antagonists should ever have meditated personal violence against the
+gentlest of human creatures.  I am sure, at least, that Nature never
+meant him for a satirist.  On careful examination of his works, I do not
+find in any of them the ferocity of the true bloodhound of literature,--
+such as Swift, or Churchill, or Cobbett,--which fastens upon the throat
+of its victim, and would fain drink his lifeblood.  In my opinion, Mr.
+Fessenden never felt the slightest personal ill-will against the objects
+of his satire, except, indeed, they had endeavored to detract from his
+literary reputation,--an offence which he resented with a poet's
+sensibility, and seldom failed to punish.  With such exceptions, his
+works are not properly satirical, but the offspring of a mind
+inexhaustibly fertile in ludicrous ideas, which it appended to any topic
+in hand.  At times, doubtless, the all-pervading frenzy of the times
+inspired him with a bitterness not his own.  But, in the least
+defensible of his writings, he was influenced by an honest zeal for
+the public good.  There was nothing mercenary in his connection with
+politics.  To an antagonist who had taunted him with being poor, he
+calmly replied, that he "need not have been accused of the crime of
+poverty, could he have prostituted his principles to party purposes, and
+become the hireling assassin of the dominant faction."  Nor can there be
+a doubt that the administration would gladly have purchased the pen of
+so popular a writer.
+
+I have gained hardly any information of Mr. Fessenden's life between the
+years 1807 and 1812; at which latter period, and probably some time
+previous, he was settled at the village of Bellows Falls, on Connecticut
+River, in the practice of the law.  In May of that year, he had the good
+fortune to become acquainted with Miss Lydia Tuttle, daughter of Mr.
+John Tuttle, an independent and intelligent farmer at Littleton, Mass.
+She was then on a visit in Vermont.  After her return home, a
+correspondence ensued between this lady and Mr. Fessenden, and was
+continued till their marriage, in September, 1813.  She was considerably
+younger than himself, but endowed with the qualities most desirable in
+the wife of such a man; and it would not be easy to overestimate how
+much his prosperity and happiness were increased by this union.  Mrs.
+Fessenden could appreciate what was excellent in her husband, and supply
+what was deficient.  In her affectionate good sense he found a
+substitute for the worldly sagacity which he did not possess, and
+could not learn.  To her he intrusted the pecuniary cares, always so
+burdensome to a literary man.  Her influence restrained him from such
+imprudent enterprises as had caused the misfortunes of his earlier
+years.  She smoothed his path of life, and made it pleasant to him, and
+lengthened it; for, as he once told me (I believe it was while advising
+me to take, betimes, a similar treasure to myself), he would have been
+in his grave long ago, but for her care.
+
+Mr. Fessenden continued to practise law at Bellows Falls till 1815, when
+he removed to Brattleborough, and assumed the editorship of "The
+Brattleborough Reporter," a political newspaper.  The following year, in
+compliance with a pressing invitation from the inhabitants, he returned
+to Bellows Falls, and edited, with much success, a literary and
+political paper, called "_The Intelligencer_."  He held this employment
+till the year 1822, at the same time practising law, and composing a
+volume of poetry, "_The Ladies' Monitor_," besides compiling several
+works in law, the arts, and agriculture.  During this part of his life,
+he usually spent sixteen hours of the twenty-four in study.  In 1822 he
+came to Boston as editor of "_The New England Farmer_," a weekly
+journal, the first established, and devoted principally to the diffusion
+of agricultural knowledge.
+
+His management of the Farmer met unreserved approbation.  Having been
+bred upon a farm, and passed much of his later life in the country, and
+being thoroughly conversant with the writers on rural economy, he was
+admirably qualified to conduct such a journal.  It was extensively
+circulated throughout New England, and may be said to have fertilized
+the soil like rain from heaven.  Numerous papers on the same plan sprung
+up in various parts of the country; but none attained the standard of
+their prototype.  Besides his editorial labors, Mr. Fessenden published,
+from time to time, various compilations on agricultural subjects, or
+adaptations of English treatises to the use of the American husbandman.
+Verse he no longer wrote, except, now and then, an ode or song for some
+agricultural festivity.  His poems, being connected with topics of
+temporary interest, ceased to be read, now that the metallic tractors
+were thrown aside, and that the blending and merging of parties had
+created an entire change of political aspects, since the days of
+"Democracy Unveiled."  The poetic laurel withered among his gray hairs,
+and dropped away, leaf by leaf.  His name, once the most familiar, was
+forgotten in the list of American bards.  I know not that this oblivion
+was to be regretted.  Mr. Fessenden, if my observation of his
+temperament be correct, was peculiarly sensitive and nervous in regard
+to the trials of authorship: a little censure did him more harm than
+much praise could do him good; and methinks the repose of total neglect
+was better for him than a feverish notoriety.  Were it worth while to
+imagine any other course for the latter part of his life, which he made
+so useful and so honorable, it might be wished that he could have
+devoted himself entirely to scientific research.  He had a strong taste
+for studies of that kind, and sometimes used to lament that his daily
+drudgery afforded him no leisure to compose a work on caloric, which
+subject he had thoroughly investigated.
+
+In January, 1836, I became, and continued for a few months, an inmate of
+Mr. Fessenden's family.  It was my first acquaintance with him.  His
+image is before my mind's eye at this moment; slowly approaching me with
+a lamp in his hand, his hair gray, his face solemn and pale, his tall
+and portly figure bent with heavier infirmity than befitted his years.
+His dress, though he had improved in this particular since middle life,
+was marked by a truly scholastic negligence.  He greeted me kindly, and
+with plain, old-fashioned courtesy; though I fancied that he somewhat
+regretted the interruption of his evening studies.  After a few moments'
+talk, he invited me to accompany him to his study, and give my opinion
+on some passages of satirical verse, which were to be inserted in a new
+edition of "Terrible Tractoration."  Years before, I had lighted on an
+illustrated copy of this poem, bestrewn with venerable dust, in a corner
+of a college library; and it seemed strange and whimsical that I should
+find it still in progress of composition, and be consulted about it by
+Dr. Caustic himself.  While Mr. Fessenden read, I had leisure to glance
+around at his study, which was very characteristic of the man and his
+occupations.  The table, and great part of the floor, were covered with
+books and pamphlets on agricultural subjects, newspapers from all
+quarters, manuscript articles for "_The New England Farmer_," and
+manuscript stanzas for "Terrible Tractoration."  There was such a litter
+as always gathers around a literary man.  It bespoke, at once, Mr.
+Fessenden's amiable temper and his abstracted habits, that several
+members of the family, old and young, were sitting in the room, and
+engaged in conversation, apparently without giving him the least
+disturbance.  A specimen of Dr. Caustic's inventive genius was seen in
+the "Patent Steam and Hot-Water Stove," which heated the apartment, and
+kept up a pleasant singing sound, like that of a teakettle, thereby
+making the fireside more cheerful.  It appears to me, that, having no
+children of flesh and blood, Mr. Fessenden had contracted a fatherly
+fondness for this stove, as being his mental progeny; and it must be
+owned that the stove well deserved his affection, and repaid it with
+much warmth.
+
+The new edition of "Tractoration" came out not long afterwards.  It was
+noticed with great kindness by the press, but was not warmly received by
+the public.  Mr. Fessenden imputed the failure, in part, to the
+illiberality of the "trade," and avenged himself by a little poem, in
+his best style, entitled "Wooden Booksellers"; so that the last blow of
+his satirical scourge was given in the good old cause of authors against
+publishers.
+
+Notwithstanding a wide difference of age, and many more points of
+dissimilarity than of resemblance, Mr. Fessenden and myself soon became
+friends.  His partiality seemed not to be the result of any nice
+discrimination of my good and evil qualities (for he had no acuteness in
+that way), but to be given instinctively, like the affection of a child.
+On my part, I loved the old man because his heart was as transparent as
+a fountain; and I could see nothing in it but integrity and purity, and
+simple faith in his fellow-men, and good-will towards all the world.
+His character was so open, that I did not need to correct my original
+conception of it.  He never seemed to me like a new acquaintance, but as
+one with whom I had been familiar from my infancy.  Yet he was a rare
+man, such as few meet with in the course of a lifetime.  It is
+remarkable, that, with such kindly affections, Mr. Fessenden was so
+deeply absorbed in thought and study as scarcely to allow himself time
+for domestic and social enjoyment.  During the winter when I first knew
+him, his mental drudgery was almost continual.  Besides "_The New
+England Farmer_," lie had the editorial charge of two other journals,--
+"_The Horticultural Register_," and "_The Silk Manual_"; in addition to
+which employment, he was a member of the State legislature, and took
+some share in the debates.  The new matter of "Terrible Tractoration"
+likewise cost him intense thought.  Sometimes I used to meet him in the
+street, making his way onward apparently by a sort of instinct; while
+his eyes took note of nothing, and would, perhaps, pass over my face
+without sign of recognition.  He confessed to me that he was apt to go
+astray when intent on rhyme.  With so much to abstract him from outward
+life, he could hardly be said to live in the world that was bustling
+around him.  Almost the only relaxation that he allowed himself was an
+occasional performance on a bass-viol which stood in the corner of his
+study, and from which he loved to elicit some old-fashioned tune of
+soothing potency.  At meal-times, however, dragged down and harassed as
+his spirits were, he brightened up, and generally gladdened the whole
+table with a flash of Dr. Caustic's honor.
+
+Had I anticipated being Mr. Fessenden's biographer, I might have drawn
+from him many details that would have been well worth remembering.  But
+he had not the tendency of most men in advanced life, to be copious in
+personal reminiscences; nor did he often speak of the noted writers and
+politicians with whom the chances of earlier years had associated him.
+Indeed, lacking a turn for observation of character, his former
+companions had passed before him like images in a mirror, giving him
+little knowledge of their inner nature.  Moreover, till his latest day,
+he was more inclined to form prospects for the future than to dwell upon
+the past.  I remember the last time, save one, that we ever met--I found
+him on the bed, suffering with a dizziness of the brain.  He roused
+himself, however, and grew very cheerful; talking, with a youthful glow
+of fancy, about emigrating to Illinois, where he possessed a farm, and
+picturing a new life for both of us in that Western region.  It has
+since come to my memory, that, while he spoke, there was a purple flush
+across his brow,--the harbinger of death.
+
+I saw him but once more alive.  On the thirteenth day of November last,
+while on my way to Boston, expecting shortly to take him by the hand, a
+letter met me with an invitation to his funeral--he had been struck with
+apoplexy on Friday evening, three days before, and had lain insensible
+till Saturday night, when he expired.  The burial took place at Mount
+Auburn on the ensuing Tuesday.  It was a gloomy day; for the first
+snowstorm of the season had been drifting through the air since morning;
+and the "Garden of Graves" looked the dreariest spot on earth.  The snow
+came down so fast, that it covered the coffin in its passage from the
+hearse to the sepulchre.  The few male friends who had followed to the
+cemetery descended into the tomb; and it was there that I took my last
+glance at the features of a man who will hold a place in my remembrance
+apart from other men.  He was like no other.  In his long pathway
+through life, from his cradle to the place where we had now laid him, he
+had come, a man indeed in intellect and achievement, but, in guileless
+simplicity, a child.  Dark would have been the hour, if, when we closed
+the door of the tomb upon his perishing mortality, we had believed that
+our friend was there.
+
+It is contemplated to erect a monument, by subscription, to Mr.
+Fessenden's memory.  It is right that he should be thus honored.  Mount
+Auburn will long remain a desert, barren of consecrated marbles, if
+worth like his be yielded to oblivion.  Let his grave be marked out,
+that the yeomen of New England may know where he sleeps; for he was
+their familiar friend, and has visited them at all their firesides.  He
+has toiled for them at seed-time and harvest: he has scattered the good
+grain in every field; and they have garnered the increase.  Mark out his
+grave as that of one worthy to be remembered both in the literary and
+political annals of our country, and let the laurel be carved on his
+memorial stone; for it will cover the ashes of a man of genius.
+
+
+
+
+JONATHAN CILLEY.
+
+The subject of this brief memorial had barely begun to be an actor in
+the great scenes where his part could not have failed to be a prominent
+one.  The nation did not have time to recognize him.  His death, aside
+from the shock with which the manner of it has thrilled every bosom, is
+looked upon merely as causing a vacancy in the delegation of his State,
+which a new member may fill as creditably as the departed.  It will,
+perhaps, be deemed praise enough to say of Cilley, that he would have
+proved himself an active and efficient partisan.  But those who knew him
+longest and most intimately, conscious of his high talents and rare
+qualities, his energy of mind and force of character, must claim much
+more than such a meed for their lost friend.  They feel that not merely
+a party nor a section, but our collective country, has lost a man who
+had the heart and the ability to serve her well.  It would be doing
+injustice to the hopes which lie withered upon his untimely grave, if,
+in paying a farewell tribute to his memory, we were to ask a narrower
+sympathy than that of the people at large.  May no bitterness of party
+prejudices influence him who writes, nor those, of whatever political
+opinions, who may read!
+
+Jonathan Cilley was born at Nottingham, N. H., on the 2d of July, 1802.
+His grandfather, Colonel Joseph Cilley, commanded a New Hampshire
+regiment during the Revolutionary War, and established a character for
+energy and intrepidity, of which more than one of his descendants have
+proved themselves the inheritors.  Greenleaf Cilley, son of the
+preceding, died in 1808, leaving a family of four sons and three
+daughters.  The aged mother of this family, and the three daughters, are
+still living.  Of the sons, the only survivor is Joseph Cilley, who was
+an officer in the late war, and served with great distinction on the
+Canadian frontier.  Jonathan, being desirous of a liberal education,
+commenced his studies at Atkinson Academy, at about the age of
+seventeen, and became a member of the freshman class of Bowdoin College,
+Brunswick, Me., in 1821.  Inheriting but little property from his
+father, he adopted the usual expedient of a young New-Englander in
+similar circumstances, and gained a small income by teaching a country
+school during the winter months both before and, after his entrance at
+college.
+
+Cilley's character and standing at college afforded high promise of
+usefulness and distinction in after-life.  Though not the foremost
+scholar of his class, he stood in the front rank, and probably derived
+all the real benefit from the prescribed course of study that it could
+bestow on so practical a mind.  His true education consisted in the
+exercise of those faculties which fitted him to be a popular leader.
+His influence among his fellow-students was probably greater than that
+of any other individual; and he had already made himself powerful in
+that limited sphere, by a free and natural eloquence, a flow of
+pertinent ideas in language of unstudied appropriateness, which seemed
+always to accomplish precisely the result on which he had calculated.
+This gift was sometimes displayed in class meetings, when measures
+important to those concerned were under discussion; sometimes in mock
+trials at law, when judge, jury, lawyers, prisoner, and witnesses were
+personated by the students, and Cilley played the part of a fervid and
+successful advocate; and, besides these exhibitions of power, he
+regularly trained himself in the forensic debates of a literary society,
+of which he afterwards became president.  Nothing could be less
+artificial than his style of oratory.  After filling his mind with the
+necessary information, he trusted everything else to his mental warmth
+and the inspiration of the moment, and poured himself out with an
+earnest and irresistible simplicity.  There was a singular contrast
+between the flow of thought from his lips, and the coldness and
+restraint with which he wrote; and though, in maturer life, he acquired
+a considerable facility in exercising the pen, he always felt the tongue
+to be his peculiar instrument.
+
+In private intercourse, Cilley possessed a remarkable fascination.  It
+was impossible not to regard him with the kindliest feelings, because
+his companions were intuitively certain of a like kindliness on his
+part.  He had a power of sympathy which enabled him to understand every
+character, and hold communion with human nature in all its varieties.
+He never shrank from the intercourse of man with man; and it was to his
+freedom in this particular that he owed much of his subsequent
+popularity among a people who are accustomed to take a personal interest
+in the men whom they elevate to office.  In few words, let us
+characterize him at the outset of life as a young man of quick and
+powerful intellect, endowed with sagacity and tact, yet frank and free
+in his mode of action, ambitious of good influence, earnest, active, and
+persevering, with an elasticity and cheerful strength of mind which made
+difficulties easy, and the struggle with them a pleasure.  Mingled with
+the amiable qualities that were like sunshine to his friends, there were
+harsher and sterner traits, which fitted him to make head against an
+adverse world; but it was only at the moment of need that the iron
+framework of his character became perceptible.
+
+Immediately on quitting college, Mr. Cilley took up his residence in
+Thomaston, and began the study of law in the office of John Ruggles,
+Esq., now a senator in Congress.  Mr. Ruggles being then a prominent
+member of the Democratic party, it was natural that the pupil should
+lend his aid to promote the political views of his instructor,
+especially as he would thus uphold the principles which he had cherished
+from boyhood.  From year to year, the election of Mr. Ruggles to the
+State legislature was strongly opposed.  Cilley's services in overcoming
+this opposition were too valuable to be dispensed with; and thus, at a
+period when most young men still stand aloof from the world, he had
+already taken his post as a leading politician.  He afterwards found
+cause to regret that so much time had been abstracted from his
+professional studies; nor did the absorbing and exciting nature of his
+political career afford him any subsequent opportunity to supply the
+defects of his legal education.  He was admitted an attorney-at-law in
+1829, and in April of the same year was married to Miss Deborah Prince,
+daughter of Hon. Hezekiah Prince of Thomaston, where Mr. Cilley
+continued to reside, and entered upon the practice of his profession.
+
+In 1831, Mr. Ruggles having been appointed a judge of the court of
+common pleas, it became necessary to send a new representative from
+Thomaston to the legislature of the State.  Mr. Cilley was brought
+forward as the Democratic candidate, obtained his election, and took his
+seat in January, 1832.  But in the course of this year the friendly
+relations between Judge Ruggles and Mr. Cilley were broken off.  Time
+former gentleman, it appears, had imbibed the idea that his political
+aspirations (which were then directed towards a seat in the Senate of
+the United States) did not receive all the aid which he was disposed to
+claim from the influence of his late pupil.  When, therefore, Mr. Cilley
+was held up as a candidate for re-election to the legislature, the whole
+strength of Judge Ruggles and his adherents was exerted against him.
+This was the first act and declaration of a political hostility, which
+was too warm and earnest not to become, in some degree, personal, and
+which rendered Mr. Cilley's subsequent career a continual struggle with
+those to whom he might naturally have looked for friendship and support.
+It sets his abilities and force of character in the strongest light, to
+view him, at the very outset of public life, without the aid of powerful
+connections, an isolated young man, forced into a position of hostility,
+not merely with the enemies of his party, but likewise with a large body
+of its adherents, even accused of treachery to its principles, yet
+gaining triumph after triumph, and making his way steadily onward.
+Surely his was a mental and moral energy which death alone could have
+laid prostrate.
+
+We have the testimony of those who knew Mr. Cilley well, that his own
+feelings were never so embittered by those conflicts as to prevent him
+from interchanging the courtesies of society with his most violent
+opponents.  While their resentments rendered his very presence
+intolerable to them, he could address them with as much ease and
+composure as if their mutual relations had been those of perfect
+harmony.  There was no affectation in this: it was the good-natured
+consciousness of his own strength that enabled him to keep his temper:
+it was the same chivalrous sentiment which impels hostile warriors to
+shake hands in the intervals of battle.  Mr. Cilley was slow to withdraw
+his confidence from any man whom he deemed a friend; and it has been
+mentioned as almost his only weak point, that he was too apt to suffer
+himself to be betrayed before he would condescend to suspect.  His
+prejudices, however, when once adopted, partook of the depth and
+strength of his character, and could not be readily overcome.  He loved
+to subdue his foes; but no man could use a triumph more generously than
+he.
+
+Let us resume our narrative.  In spite of the opposition of Judge
+Ruggles and his friends, combined with that of the Whigs, Mr. Cilley was
+re-elected to the legislature of 1833, and was equally successful in
+each of the succeeding years, until his election to Congress.  He was
+five successive years the representative of Thomaston.  In 1834, when
+Mr. Dunlap was nominated as the Democratic candidate for governor, Mr.
+Cilley gave his support to Governor Smith, in the belief that the
+substitution of a new candidate had been unfairly effected.  He
+considered it a stratagem intended to promote the election of Judge
+Ruggles to the Senate of the United States.  Early in the legislative
+session of the same year, the Ruggles party obtained a temporary triumph
+over Mr. Cilley, effected his expulsion from the Democratic caucuses,
+and attempted to stigmatize him as a traitor to his political friends.
+But Mr. Cilley's high and honorable course was erelong understood and
+appreciated by his party and the people.  He told them, openly and
+boldly, that they might undertake to expel him from their caucuses; but
+they could not expel him from the Democratic party: they might
+stigmatize him with any appellation they might choose; but they could
+not reach the height on which he stood, nor shake his position with the
+people.  But a few weeks had elapsed, and Mr. Cilley was the
+acknowledged head and leader of that party in the legislature.  During
+the same session, Mr. Speaker Clifford (one of the friends of Judge
+Ruggles) being appointed attorney-general, the Ruggles party were
+desirous of securing the election of another of their adherents to the
+chair; but, as it was obvious that Mr. Cilley's popularity would gain
+him the place, the incumbent was induced to delay his resignation till
+the end of the term.  At the session of 1835, Messrs. Cilley, Davee, and
+McCrote being candidates for the chair, Mr. Cilley withdrew in favor of
+Mr. Davee.  That gentleman was accordingly elected; but, being soon
+afterwards appointed sheriff of Somerset County, Mr. Cilley succeeded
+him as speaker, and filled the same office during the session of 1836.
+All parties awarded him the praise of being the best presiding officer
+that the house ever had.
+
+In 1836, he was nominated by a large portion of the Democratic electors
+of the Lincoln Congressional District as their candidate for Congress.
+That district has recently shown itself to possess a decided Whig
+majority; and this would have been equally the case in 1836, had any
+other man than Mr. Cilley appeared on the Democratic side.  He had
+likewise to contend, as in all the former scenes of his political life,
+with that portion of his own party which adhered to Mr. Ruggles.  There
+was still another formidable obstacle, in the high character of Judge
+Bailey, who then represented the district, and was a candidate for
+re-election.  All these difficulties, however, served only to protract
+the contest, but could not snatch the victory from Mr. Cilley, who
+obtained a majority of votes at the third trial.  It was a fatal
+triumph.
+
+In the summer of 1837, a few months after his election to Congress, I
+met Mr. Cilley for the first time since early youth, when he had been to
+me almost as an elder brother.  The two or three days which I spent in
+his neighborhood enabled us to renew our former intimacy.  In his person
+there was very little change, and that little was for the better.  He
+had an impending brow, deep-set eyes, and a thin and thoughtful
+countenance, which, in his abstracted moments, seemed almost stern; but,
+in the intercourse of society, it was brightened with a kindly smile,
+that will live in the recollection of all who knew him.  His manners had
+not a fastidious polish, but were characterized by the simplicity of one
+who had dwelt remote from cities, holding free companionship with the
+yeomen of the land.  I thought him as true a representative of the
+people as ever theory could portray.  His earlier and later habits of
+life, his feelings, partialities, and prejudices, were those of the
+people: the strong and shrewd sense which constituted so marked a
+feature of his mind was but a higher degree of the popular intellect.
+He loved the people and respected them, and was prouder of nothing than
+of his brotherhood with those who had intrusted their public interests
+to his care.  His continual struggles in the political arena had
+strengthened his bones and sinews: opposition had kept him ardent;
+while success had cherished the generous warmth of his nature, and
+assisted the growth both of his powers and sympathies.  Disappointment
+might have soured and contracted him; but it appeared to me that his
+triumphant warfare had been no less beneficial to his heart than to his
+mind.  I was aware, indeed, that his harsher traits had grown apace with
+his milder ones; that he possessed iron resolution, indomitable
+perseverance, and an almost terrible energy; but these features had
+imparted no hardness to his character in private intercourse.  In the
+hour of public need, these strong qualities would have shown themselves
+the most prominent ones, and would have encouraged his countrymen to
+rally round him as one of their natural leaders.
+
+In his private and domestic relations, Mr. Cilley was most exemplary;
+and he enjoyed no less happiness than he conferred.  He had been the
+father of four children, two of whom were in the grave, leaving, I
+thought, a more abiding impression of tenderness and regret than the
+death of infants usually makes on the masculine mind.  Two boys--the
+elder, seven or eight years of age; and the younger, two--still remained
+to him; and the fondness of these children for their father, their
+evident enjoyment of his society, was proof enough of his gentle and
+amiable character within the precincts of his family.  In that bereaved
+household, there is now another child, whom the father never saw.  Mr.
+Cilley's domestic habits were simple and primitive to a degree unusual,
+in most parts of our country, among men of so eminent a station as he
+had attained.  It made me smile, though with anything but scorn, in
+contrast to the aristocratic stateliness which I have witnessed
+elsewhere, to see him driving home his own cow after a long search for
+her through the village.  That trait alone would have marked him as a
+man whose greatness lay within himself.  He appeared to take much
+interest in the cultivation of his garden, and was very fond of flowers.
+He kept bees, and told me that he loved to sit for whole hours by the
+hives, watching the labors of the insects, and soothed by the hum with
+which they filled the air.  I glance at these minute particulars of his
+daily life, because they form so strange a contrast with the
+circumstances of his death.  Who could have believed, that, with his
+thoroughly New England character, in so short a time after I had seen
+him in that peaceful and happy home, among those simple occupations and
+pure enjoyments, he would be stretched in his own blood, slain for an
+almost impalpable punctilio!
+
+It is not my purpose to dwell upon Mr. Cilley's brief career in
+Congress.  Brief as it was, his character and talents had more than
+begun to be felt, and would soon have linked his name with the history
+of every important measure, and have borne it onward with the progress
+of the principles which he supported.  He was not eager to seize
+opportunities of thrusting himself into notice; but, when time and the
+occasion summoned him, he came forward, and poured forth his ready and
+natural eloquence with as much effect in the councils of the nation as
+he had done in those of his own State.  With every effort that he made,
+the hopes of his party rested more decidedly upon him, as one who would
+hereafter be found in the vanguard of many a Democratic victory.  Let me
+spare myself the details of the awful catastrophe by which all those
+proud hopes perished; for I write with a blunted pen and a head
+benumbed, and am the less able to express my feelings as they lie deep
+at heart, and inexhaustible.
+
+On the 23d of February last, Mr. Cilley received a challenge from Mr.
+Graves of Kentucky, through the hands of Mr. Wise of Virginia.  This
+measure, as is declared in the challenge itself, was grounded on Mr.
+Cilley's refusal to receive a message, of which Mr. Graves had been the
+bearer, from a person of disputed respectability; although no exception
+to that person's character had been expressed by Mr. Cilley; nor need
+such inference have been drawn, unless Mr. Graves were conscious that
+public opinion held his friend in a doubtful light.  The challenge was
+accepted, and the parties met on the following day.  They exchanged two
+shots with rifles.  After each shot, a conference was held between the
+friends of both parties, and the most generous avowals of respect and
+kindly feeling were made on the part of Cilley towards his antagonist,
+but without avail.  A third shot was exchanged; and Mr. Cilley fell dead
+into the arms of one of his friends.  While I write, a Committee of
+Investigation is sitting upon this affair: but the public has not waited
+for its award; and the writer, in accordance with the public, has formed
+his opinion on the official statement of Messrs.  Wise and Jones.  A
+challenge was never given on a more shadowy pretext; a duel was never
+pressed to a fatal close in the face of such open kindness as was
+expressed by Mr. Cilley: and the conclusion is inevitable, that Mr.
+Graves and his principal second, Mr. Wise, have gone further than their
+own dreadful code will warrant them, and overstepped the imaginary
+distinction, which, on their own principles, separates manslaughter from
+murder.
+
+Alas that over the grave of a dear friend, my sorrow for the bereavement
+must be mingled with another grief,--that he threw away such a life in
+so miserable a cause!  Why, as he was true to the Northern character in
+all things else, did be swerve from his Northern principles in this
+final scene?  But his error was a generous one, since he fought for what
+he deemed the honor of New England; and, now that death has paid the
+forfeit, the most rigid may forgive him.  If that dark pitfall--that
+bloody grave--had not lain in the midst of his path, whither, whither
+might it not have led him!  It has ended there: yet so strong was my
+conception of his energies, so like destiny did it appear that he should
+achieve everything at which he aimed, that even now my fancy will not
+dwell upon his grave, but pictures him still amid the struggles and
+triumphs of the present and the future.
+
+1838.
+
+
+
+
+
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